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diff --git a/35042-h/35042-h.htm b/35042-h/35042-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c050c2a --- /dev/null +++ b/35042-h/35042-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8211 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Winter Fun, by William O. Stoddard. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Winter Fun, by William O. Stoddard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Winter Fun + +Author: William O. Stoddard + +Release Date: January 23, 2011 [EBook #35042] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINTER FUN *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>WINTER FUN</h1> + +<h2>BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD</h2> + + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "DAB KINZER," "THE QUARTET," "SALTILLO BOYS," ETC.</h3> + +<h3>NEW YORK<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +1885</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1885, by</span><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.</h3> + +<h3>ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED<br /> +BY RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,<br /> +BOSTON.</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">All around a Fireplace</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">Right Out into the Woods</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">The Rabbit-hunt</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">Winter Comfort</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">A Winter Picnic-party</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">The Donation-party</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">The Word-battle at Cobbleville</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">An Old-fashioned Snow</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Grand Coasting</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">The Deer-hunt on the Crust</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">On the Ice</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. A<span class="smcap"> Very Exciting Winter Evening</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">A Fireside Story</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">The Bear-trap</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">The New Chessmen</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">Winter Flowers and the Party</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">The Snow-fort</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">The Sugar-bush and the Bear</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">The Flood and the End</span></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#SCRIBNERS_BOOKS_FOR_THE_YOUNG">SCRIBNER'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.</a><br /> +<a href="#FRANK_R_STOCKTONS_POPULAR_STORIES">FRANK R. STOCKTON'S POPULAR STORIES.</a><br /> +<a href="#WILLIAM_O_STODDARDS_CAPITAL_STORIES_FOR_BOYS">WILLIAM O. STODDARD'S CAPITAL STORIES FOR BOYS.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WINTER FUN.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>ALL AROUND A FIREPLACE.</h3> + + +<p>The gate that opened from the yard into the lane leading back to the +barn was directly opposite the side-door of the house. The door was +shut, but the gate was open; and in it stood a gray-haired dame with a +sharp nose and silver-rimmed spectacles. The house behind her was a +small one, white-painted, without blinds to its windows, but with an air +of snug comfort all over it. Just beyond the gate and the woman stood a +tall, vigorous-looking young fellow of not more than eighteen; and his +left hand was on the nose of a nice-looking horse; and behind the horse +was a neat, bright, very red cutter. The boy's face was also somewhat +rosy; and so, for that frosty moment, was the tip of his mother's nose.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer, that there cutter's all you've got to show for about as +hard a month's work as ever you put in; but I won't say that the deacon +drew a hard bargain with ye."</p> + +<p>"Well, mother, just look at it."</p> + +<p>"I'm a-lookin' at it, and it isn't the cutter it was. You've had it +painted red, and varnished, and you've put on a new goose-neck in place +of the broken one, and there's room in it for two if neither one on 'em +was too heavy."</p> + +<p>"That's so, mother; and all you've got to do is just to try it. I'll +take you to meeting in it next Sunday. You ought to see how the colt +gets over the snow with only that cutter behind him."</p> + +<p>"I ain't a bit sorry you've got somethin' for him to do. You've been +a-raisin' on him since before he was a yearlin', and he hasn't earned +his keep."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins had made her first look at her son's new cutter a severe +and searching one, and she told him very fully all her thoughts about it +and about the sorrel colt. She was a faithful mother; but there was +pride in her eye, and more red on the tip of her nose, when she turned +to go into the house. He did not hear her say to herself,—</p> + +<p>"He's the smartest boy in all Benton Valley, and now he's got the nicest +horse and cutter,—that is, for his age, considerin',—and I ain't one +bit afraid it'll spile him."</p> + +<p>He was now leading his sorrel pet, with the jaunty cutter following, out +through the lane to the barn. It was a grand thing, and out of the +common range of human events, for a country-boy of his age to have such +an outfit all his own. Such things can always be accounted for, when you +find them happening. If he were not just a little "spiled," it was no +fault of his mother. She was a widow, and he was her only son; and she +had talked to him and about him pretty steadily from the day he was +born. He looked older than he really was now, and she often said so; but +she sometimes added that he knew enough for a man of forty. She had +named him "Le Voyageur," after a great French traveller whose name she +had seen in a book when she was a girl; but the Valley boys had +massacred all the beauty of it, and shortened it into "Vosh." No other +fellow in all that country had so very remarkable a nickname.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jeff," he said, as he cast the sorrel loose from the cutter, +"maybe there's a chance a-coming that you'll have a better-looking load +to haul next time you're hitched in. I'll want ye to show your oats if +you do."</p> + +<p>That remark could hardly have referred to Mrs. Stebbins and her next +Sunday's ride to the meeting-house; but Jeff whinnied gently in reply, +as if to express his willingness for any improvement, and Vosh led him +into the stable.</p> + +<p>"City folks know some things," he remarked to Jeff, while he poured some +oats in the manger; "but they don't know what good sleighing is. We'll +show 'em, soon as we get some bells; and the deacon's got more buffaloes +than he knows what to do with."</p> + +<p>That was a good half-hour before supper, and he seemed in no hurry to +get into the house; but it was odd that his mother, at the very same +time, should have been talking to herself, in default of any other +hearer, about "city folks" and their ways and by-ways and shortcomings. +She seemed to know a great deal about them, and particularly about their +general ignorance concerning snow, ice, cold weather, and all the really +good things of genuine winter. Both she and her son evidently had kindly +and liberal feelings towards the hardest kind of frost, and were free to +say as much, but were in doubt as to whether city people could live and +be comfortable in such weather as had already come. Beyond a doubt, they +were waiting for somebody. There is nothing else in the wide world that +will keep people talking as that will; and Mrs. Stebbins said some +things that sounded as if she were asking questions of the teakettle.</p> + +<p>Down the road a little distance, and on the other side of it, a very +different pair of people were even more interested in city folk, and not +in their shortcomings so much as in the fact that certain of them seemed +to be too long a-coming. They were away back in the great old-fashioned +kitchen of a farmhouse, as large as three of the one in which Mrs. +Stebbins was getting supper for Vosh.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith, I hear 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Now, Pen, my child!"</p> + +<p>The response came from the milk-room, and was followed by the clatter of +an empty tin milk-pan falling on the floor.</p> + +<p>"It sounded like bells."</p> + +<p>"It's the wind, Pen. Sakes alive! but they ought to be here by this +time."</p> + +<p>"There, aunt Judith!"</p> + +<p>Pen suddenly darted out of the kitchen, leaving the long hind-legs of a +big pair of waffle-irons sticking helplessly out from the open door of +the stove.</p> + +<p>"Pen! Penelope!—I declare, she's gone. There, I've dropped another pan. +What's got into me to-night? I just do want to see those children. Poor +things, how froze they will be!"</p> + +<p>Penelope was pressing her eager, excited little face close to the +frost-flowers on the sitting-room window. It was of no use, cold as it +made the tip of her nose, to strain her blue eyes across the snowy +fields, or up the white, glistening reaches of the road. There was +nothing like a sleigh in sight, nor did her sharpest listening bring her +any sound of coming sleigh-bells.</p> + +<p>"Pen! Penelope Farnham! What's that a-burnin'? Sakes alive! if she +hasn't gone and stuck them waffle-irons in the fire! She's put a waffle +in 'em too."</p> + +<p>Yes, and the smoke of the lost waffle was carrying tales into the +milk-room.</p> + +<p>"O aunt Judith! I forgot. I just wanted to try one."</p> + +<p>"Jest like you, Penelope Farnham. You're always a-tryin' somethin'. If +you ain't a trial to me, I wouldn't say so. Now, don't you tetch them +waffles once again, on no account."</p> + +<p>"It's all burned as black"—</p> + +<p>"Course it is,—black as a coal. I'd ha' thought you'd ha' known +better'n that. Why, when I was ten years old I could ha' cooked for a +fam'ly."</p> + +<p>"Guess I could do that," said Pen resolutely; but aunt Judith was +shaking out the smoking remains of the spoiled waffle into the +"pig-pail," and curtly responded,—</p> + +<p>"That looks like it. You'll burn up the irons yet."</p> + +<p>Half a minute of silence followed, and then she again spoke from the +milk-room:—</p> + +<p>"Penelope, look at the sittin'-room fire, and see if it wants any more +wood on it. They'll be chilled clean through when they git here."</p> + +<p>Pen obeyed; but it only needed one glance into the great roaring +fireplace to make sure that no kind of chill could keep its hold on +anybody in the vicinity of that blaze.</p> + +<p>A stove was handier to cook by, and therefore Mr. Farnham had put aside +his old-fashioned notions, to the extent of having one set up in the +kitchen. The parlor too, he said, belonged to his wife more than it did +to him, and therefore he had yielded again, and there was a stove there +also. It was hard at work now. He had insisted, however, that the wide, +low-ceilinged, comfortable sitting-room should remain a good deal as his +father had left it to him; and there the fireplace held its +wood-devouring own. That was one reason why it was the pleasantest room +in the house, especially on a winter evening.</p> + +<p>Penelope had known that fireplace a long while. She had even played +"hide-and-coop" in it in warm weather, when it was bright and clean. But +she thought she had never before seen it so full. "Such a big back-log!" +she exclaimed aloud. But aunt Judith had followed her in to make sure of +the condition of things, and it was her voice that added,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, and the fore-stick's a foot through. Your father heaped it up just +before he set out for the village. He might a'most as well have piled +the whole tree in."</p> + +<p>"Father likes fire: so do I."</p> + +<p>"He's an awful wasteful man with his wood, though. Pen, just you put +down that poker. Do you want to have them there top logs a-rollin' +across the floor?"</p> + +<p>"That one lies crooked."</p> + +<p>"My child! let it be. I daresn't leave you alone one minute. You'll burn +the house down over our heads, one of these days."</p> + +<p>Pen obeyed. She slowly lowered the long, heavy iron rod, and laid it +down on the hearth; but such a fire as that was a terrible temptation. +Almost any man in the world might have been glad to have a good poke at +it, if only to see the showers of sparks go up from the glowing hickory +logs.</p> + +<p>"There they come!"</p> + +<p>Pen turned away from the fire very suddenly; and aunt Judith put her +hand to her ear, and took off her spectacles, so she could listen +better.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder."</p> + +<p>"That's the sleigh-bells! It's our sleigh, I know it is. Shall I begin +to make the waffles?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you tetch 'em. Pen, get out that chiny thing your mother got to +put the maple-sirup in."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I forgot that."</p> + +<p>She brought it out like a flash now; and it must have been the only +thing she had forgotten when she set the table, for she had walked +anxiously around it twenty times, at least, since she put the last plate +in its place.</p> + +<p>Faint and far, from away down the road, beyond the turn, the winter wind +brought up the merry jingle of bells. By the time Pen had brought the +china pitcher for the sirup from its shelf in the closet, and once more +darted to the window, she could see her father's black team—blacker +than ever against the snow—trotting towards the house magnificently.</p> + +<p>"Don't I wish I'd gone with 'em! But it was Corry's turn. I guess Susie +isn't used to waffles, but she can't help liking 'em."</p> + +<p>That was quite possible, but it might also be of some importance whether +Penelope or aunt Judith should have the care of the waffle-irons.</p> + +<p>Jingle-jangle-jingle, louder and louder, came the merry bells, till they +stopped at the great gate, and a tall boy sprang out of the sleigh to +open it. The front-door of the house swung open quicker than did the +gate, and Pen was on the stoop, shouting anxiously,—</p> + +<p>"Did they come, Corry? Did you get 'em?"</p> + +<p>A deep voice from the sleigh responded with a chuckle,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, Pen, we caught 'em both. They're right here, and they can't get +away now."</p> + +<p>"I see 'em! There's cousin Susie!"</p> + +<p>At that moment she remembered to turn and shout back into the house,—</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith, here they are! They've got 'em both!"</p> + +<p>But there was her aunt already in the doorway, with the steaming +waffle-irons in one hand.</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive, child! You'll freeze the whole house. Poor things! and +they ain't used to cold weather."</p> + +<p>Aunt Judith must have had an idea that it was generally summer in the +city.</p> + +<p>The sleigh jangled right up to the bottom step of the stoop now. Mr. +Farnham got out first, and was followed by his wife. They were followed +by a very much wrapped-up young lady, into whose arms Pen fairly jumped, +exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"Susie! Susie Hudson!"</p> + +<p>There were no signs of frost-bite on Susie's rosy cheeks, and she hugged +Penelope vigorously. Just behind her, a little more dignifiedly, there +descended from the sleigh a boy who may have been two years younger, say +fourteen or fifteen, who evidently felt that the occasion called upon +him for his self-possession.</p> + +<p>"Pen," said her mother, "don't you mean to kiss cousin Porter?"</p> + +<p>Pen was ready. Her little hands went out, and her bright, welcoming face +was lifted for the kiss; but, if Porter Hudson had been a waffle, he +would not have been burned by it at all. It was not altogether because +he was a boy, and a big one, but that he was more a stranger. Susie had +paid her country-cousins a long summer visit only the year before, while +Porter had not been seen by any of them since he was four years old. +Both he and they had forgotten that he had ever been so small as that.</p> + +<p>Mr. Farnham started for the barn, to put away his team, bidding Corry go +on into the house with his cousins. Aunt Judith was at last able to +close the door behind them, and keep any more of the winter from coming +in.</p> + +<p>It took but half a minute to help Susie and Porter Hudson get their +things off, and then aunt Judith all but forced them into the chairs she +had set for them in front of the great fireplace.</p> + +<p>"What a splendid fire!"</p> + +<p>It was Susie said that, with the glow of it making her very pretty face +look brighter and prettier, and very happy. She had already won aunt +Judith's heart over again by being so glad to see her, and she kept +right on winning it, needlessly; for every thing about that room had to +be looked at twice, and admired, and told how nice it was.</p> + +<p>"It is indeed a remarkably fine fire," said Porter with emphasis, at the +end of a full minute.</p> + +<p>"And we're going to have waffles and maple-sugar for supper," said Pen. +"Don't you like waffles?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Porter: "they're very nice, no doubt."</p> + +<p>"And after such a sleigh-ride," chimed in Susie. "The sleighing is +splendid, beautiful!"</p> + +<p>"More snow here than you have in the city?" suggested Corry to Porter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, a little; but then, we have to have ours removed as fast as it +comes down,—get it out of the way, you know."</p> + +<p>"It isn't in the way here. We'd have a high time of it if we tried to +get rid of our snow."</p> + +<p>"I should say you would. And then it does very well where the people +make use of sleighs."</p> + +<p>"Don't you have 'em in the city?"</p> + +<p>Pen was looking at her cousins with eyes that were full of pity, but at +that moment aunt Judith called to her from the kitchen,—</p> + +<p>"Penelope, come and watch the waffle-irons while I make the tea."</p> + +<p>"Waffles!" exclaimed Susie. "I never saw any made."</p> + +<p>"Come with me, then. I'll show you; that is, if you're warm enough."</p> + +<p>"Warm! Why, I wasn't cold one bit. I'm warm as toast."</p> + +<p>Out they went; and there were so many errands on the hands of aunt +Judith and Mrs. Farnham just then, that the girls had the kitchen stove +to themselves for a few moments. Pen may have been six years younger, +but she was conscious of a feeling of immense superiority in her +capacity of cook. She kept it until, as she was going over, for Susie's +benefit, a list of her neighbors, and telling what had become of them +since the summer visit, Mr. Farnham came in at the kitchen-door, and +almost instantly exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Mind your waffles, Pen. You're burning 'em."</p> + +<p>"Why, so I did,—that one, just a little. I was telling Susie"—</p> + +<p>"A little, my child!" interrupted aunt Judith. "I'd as lief eat burnt +leather. Oh, dear! give me those irons."</p> + +<p>"Now, aunt Judith, please fill 'em up for Susie to try. I want to show +her how."</p> + +<p>The look on Susie's face was quite enough to keep aunt Judith from +making a breath of objection, and the rich creamy batter was poured into +the smoking moulds.</p> + +<p>"Don't you let it burn, Susie," said Pen. "They want to come out when +they're just a good brown. I'll show you."</p> + +<p>Susie set out to watch the fate of that waffle most diligently; but she +had not at all counted on what might come in the mean time,—a visitor, +for instance.</p> + +<p>Susie had already asked about the Stebbinses, and Pen had answered,—</p> + +<p>"They know you're coming. Vosh was here this very morning, and I told +him; and he said he'd be glad to have you call and see him."</p> + +<p>"Call and see him? Well."</p> + +<p>No more remarks had room to be made in just then; for, only a few +minutes before aunt Judith poured out that waffle, Mrs. Stebbins had +said to her son,—</p> + +<p>"I heered the deacon's sleigh come up the road, Lavawjer. Jest you take +a teacup, and go over and borry a drawin' of tea of Miss Farnham. Don't +you miss nothin'. City ways'll spile most anybody; and that there Hudson +gal—Susie, her name was—is likely gettin' stuck up enough by this +time."</p> + +<p>She told him a great deal more than that before he got out of the door +with his teacup, and it looked as if he were likely to have questions to +answer when he should come back.</p> + +<p>He escaped a little unceremoniously, right in the middle of a long +sentence. And so, just when Susie was most deeply absorbed in her +experiment, there came a loud rap at the kitchen-door; then, without +waiting for any one to come and open it, the door swung back, and in +walked Vosh, as large as life, with the teacup in his hand.</p> + +<p>He did look large; but no amount of frost or fire could have made him +color so red as he did when Susie Hudson let go of the irons, and +stepped right forward to shake hands with him.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do, Vosh? How is your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well, thank you. How do you do? Mother's first-rate, but she's +wrong this time. I don't see as you're stuck up a bit. You're just like +you was last summer, only prettier."</p> + +<p>The one great weakness in the character of Vosh Stebbins was that he +could not help telling the truth, to save his life. It was very bad for +him sometimes; and now, before Susie could smother her laugh, and make +up her mind what to answer him, he held out his teacup to aunt Judith.</p> + +<p>"Miss Farnham, mother told me to borrow a drawing of tea. We ain't out +of tea, by a long ways; but she heard the deacon's sleigh a-coming, and +she wanted to know if the folks from the city'd got here."</p> + +<p>"They've come," said aunt Judith shortly, "Susie and her brother. You +tell your mother I wish she'd send me over a dozen of eggs. The skunks +have stolen ours as fast as the hens have laid 'em."</p> + +<p>"We've got some," said Vosh. "I'll fetch 'em over.—Susie, where's your +brother?"</p> + +<p>"He's in the sitting-room."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Vosh," said Pen, "he's there. Walk right in. Corry's there too, +and mother, and—O Susie! Dear me! our waffle's burned again."</p> + +<p>"Why! so it is."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Susie," said aunt Judith with the most hospitable +recklessness, as she shook out the proceeds of that careless cookery +upon a plate. "It's only spiled on one side. There's always some of 'em +get burned. Some folks like 'em better when they're kind o' crisp. I'll +fill ye up another."</p> + +<p>Vosh looked as if he would willingly stay and see how the next trial +succeeded; but politeness required him to walk on into the sitting-room, +and be introduced to Porter Hudson.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Corry, "he's never been in the country in winter before in +all his life, and he's come to stay ever so long. So's Susie."</p> + +<p>"That's good," began Vosh; but he was interrupted by an invitation from +Mrs. Farnham to stay to supper, and eat some waffles, and he very +promptly replied,—</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I don't care if I do. I threw our waffle-irons at Bill +Hinks's dog one day last fall. It most killed him, but it busted the +irons, and we've been 'tending to have 'em mended ever sence. We haven't +done it yet, though, and so we haven't had any waffles."</p> + +<p>Aunt Judith had now taken hold of the business at the kitchen stove; for +Susie had made one triumphant success, and she might not do as well next +time. All the rest were summoned to the supper-table.</p> + +<p>The room was all one glow of light and warmth. The maple-sugar had been +melted to the exact degree of richness required. The waffles were coming +in rapidly and in perfect condition. Everybody had been hungry, and felt +more so now; and even Porter Hudson was compelled to confess that the +first supper of his winter visit in the country was at least equal to +any he could remember eating anywhere.</p> + +<p>"City folks," remarked Penelope, "don't know how to cook waffles, but +I'll teach Susie. Then she can make 'em for you when you go back, only +you can't do it without milk and eggs."</p> + +<p>"We can buy 'em."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can; but we lay our own eggs, only they get stole. You'll +have to send up here for your maple-sugar."</p> + +<p>"We can buy that too, I guess."</p> + +<p>"But we get it right out of the woods. You just ought to be here in +sugar-time."</p> + +<p>"Pen," said her father, "we're going to keep 'em both till then, and +make them ever so sweet before we let 'em go home."</p> + +<p>He was at that moment glancing rapidly from one to another of those four +fresh young faces. He did not tell them so, but he was tracing that very +curious and shadowy thing which we call "a family resemblance." It was +there, widely as the faces varied otherwise; and all their years had not +taken it out of the older faces. Perhaps the city cousins, with especial +help from Susie rather than Porter, had somewhat the advantage in good +looks. They had it in dress also; but when it came to names—well, aunt +Judith herself had had the naming of her brother's children, and she had +done her best by them. Penelope and Coriolanus were every way larger +names than Porter and Susan; and Vosh could have told them that there is +a great deal in a name, if you can get it well boiled down for every-day +use.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>RIGHT OUT INTO THE WOODS.</h3> + + +<p>Vosh Stebbins hurried away from Deacon Farnham's pretty soon after +supper, but he had made no sort of mistake in staying that long. He had +understood his duty to his mother precisely, and he had done it to her +entire satisfaction. Almost her first words, after his return home, +were,—</p> + +<p>"Made ye stay to tea, did they? Well, I wouldn't have had ye not to +stay, for any thing. Susie's fetched along her brother with her, has +she? Now, jest you sit right down, and tell me; and I won't say one word +till you git through, and I want to know."</p> + +<p>"Miss Farnham wants a dozen of eggs."</p> + +<p>"You don't say! Well, you jest take 'em right over, but don't you wait a +minute. They won't want ye 'round the first evening. Tell her our +poultry's doin' first-rate, and I don't see why she doesn't ever have +any kind of luck with winter layin'. She doesn't manage right, somehow. +Tell her it's all in feedin' of 'em. No kind of hens'll do well onless +they git somethin' to eat."</p> + +<p>Vosh was counting his eggs into a basket, thirteen to the dozen; and he +was out of the door with them before his mother had said half she wished +to say about the best method for making hens prosper in cold weather. He +obeyed his orders excellently, however, and came back at once to make +his report to his mother as to the results of his first visit; that is, +he returned to sit still, and put in a few words here and there, while +she told him all he had done and said, and a good deal more than he had +said or done, at Deacon Farnham's tea-table.</p> + +<p>It looked at last as if Mrs. Stebbins could almost have gone right on +with an account of what was yet doing and saying around the great fire +in the sitting-room. Vosh loved his mother dearly; but he was all the +while thinking of that other fireplace, and wishing he were there—not +in it, of course, but sitting in front of it.</p> + +<p>There was indeed a great deal of merry talk going on there, but Mrs. +Farnham was a considerate woman. She insisted upon it that her niece and +nephew must be tired with their long journey, and that they should go to +bed in good season. It was of little use for them to assert the +contrary, and Susie knew more about country hours than her brother did. +The sitting-room had to be given up, fire and all, in favor of sleep.</p> + +<p>The last words Porter Hudson heard anybody say that night came from the +lips of Penelope:—</p> + +<p>"You needn't wait for me to ring the second bell in the morning. You'd a +good deal better come right down into the sitting-room, where it's +warm."</p> + +<p>It had taken three generations of hard-working and well-to-do Farnhams +to build all there was of that great, queer, rambling, comfortable old +farmhouse. Each owner had added something on one side or the other, or +in the rear; so that there was now room enough in it for the largest +kind of a family. Porter Hudson now had a good-sized chamber all to +himself; but he remarked of it, shortly after he got in,—</p> + +<p>"No furnace heaters in this house; of course not: they don't have such +things in the country."</p> + +<p>No: nor was there any gas, nor hot and cold water; and the furniture was +only just as much as was really needed. He had never before slept in a +feather-bed; but he was not at all sorry to burrow into one that night, +out of the pitilessly frosty air of that chamber.</p> + +<p>"How a fellow does go down!" he said to himself; "and it fits all around +him. I'll be warm in a minute." And so he was, and with the warmth came +the soundest kind of slumber. The Farnhams had kept any number of geese, +year after year, in earlier days, and all their feather-beds were +uncommonly deep and liberal.</p> + +<p>Susie had Pen for a chum, and that was a good reason why neither of them +fell asleep right away. It is always a wonder how much talking there is +to be done. It is a good thing, too, that so many enterprising people, +old and young, are always ready to take up the task of talking it, even +if they have to lie awake for a while.</p> + +<p>Silence came at last, creeping from room to room; and there is hardly +anywhere else such perfect silence to be obtained as can be had in and +about a farmhouse away up country, in the dead of winter and the dead of +night. It is so still that you can almost hear the starlight crackle on +the snow, if there is no wind blowing.</p> + +<p>Winter mornings do not anywhere get up as early as men and women are +compelled to, but it is more completely so on a farm than in the city. +The chamber Porter Hudson slept in was as dark as a pocket when he heard +the clang of Penelope's first bell that next morning after his arrival. +He sprang out of bed at once, and found his candle, and lighted it to +dress by. One glance through the frosty windows told him how little was +to be seen at that time of the year and of the day.</p> + +<p>In another instant all his thoughts went down stairs ahead of him, and +centred themselves upon the great fireplace in the sitting-room. He +dressed himself with remarkable quickness, and followed them. He thought +that he had never in his life seen a finer-looking fire, the moment he +was able to spread his hands in front of it.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham was there too, setting the breakfast-table, and smiling on +him; and Porter's next idea was, that his aunt was the rosiest, +pleasantest, and most comfortable of women.</p> + +<p>"It would take a good deal of cold weather to freeze her," he said to +himself; and he was right.</p> + +<p>He could hear aunt Judith out in the kitchen, complaining to Susie and +Pen that every thing in the milk-room had frozen. When Corry and his +father came in from feeding the stock, however, they both declared that +it was a "splendid, frosty, nipping kind of a morning." They looked as +if it might be, and Porter hitched his chair a little nearer the fire; +but Corry added,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Port, we're in for some fun."</p> + +<p>"All right. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"We're going to the woods after breakfast. You and I'll take our guns +with us, and see if we can't knock over some rabbits."</p> + +<p>"Shoot some rabbits!"</p> + +<p>"I'll take father's gun, and you can take mine."</p> + +<p>Just then Pen's voice sounded from the kitchen excitedly,—</p> + +<p>"Do you hear that, Susie? They're going to the woods. Let's go!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! if they'll let us."</p> + +<p>"Course they will."</p> + +<p>"Pen! Penelope Farnham! Look out for those cakes."</p> + +<p>"I'm turning 'em, aunt Judith. I'm doing 'em splendidly.—Susie, some of +your sausages are a'most done. Let me take 'em out for you."</p> + +<p>"No, Pen: I want to cook them all myself. You 'tend to your cakes."</p> + +<p>Buckwheat-cakes and home-made sausages,—what a breakfast that was for a +frosty morning!</p> + +<p>Susie Hudson was puzzled to say which she enjoyed most,—the cooking or +the eating; and she certainly did her share of both very well for a +young lady of sixteen from the great city.</p> + +<p>"Port, can you shoot?" asked Corry a little suddenly at table.</p> + +<p>"Shoot! I should say so. Do you ever get any thing bigger than rabbits +out here?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know? Why, right back from where we're going this morning +are the mountains. Not a farm till you get away out into the St. +Lawrence-river country."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all that."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes the deer come right down, specially in winter. Last winter +there was a bear came down and stole one of our hogs, but we got him."</p> + +<p>"Got the hog back? Wasn't he hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Hurt! Guess he was. The bear killed him. But we followed the bear, and +we got him,—Vosh Stebbins and father and me."</p> + +<p>Porter tried hard to look as if he were quite accustomed to following +and killing all the bears that meddled with his hogs; but Pen +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Susie, you needn't be scared a bit. There won't be a single +bear—not where you're going."</p> + +<p>"Won't there?" said Susie almost regretfully. "How I'd like to see one!"</p> + +<p>There was a great deal more to be said about bears and other wild +creatures; and, just as breakfast was over, there came a great noise of +rattling and creaking and shouting in front of the sitting-room windows.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" said Corry.</p> + +<p>Susie and her brother hurried to look; and there was Vosh Stebbins with +Deacon Farnham's great wood-sleigh, drawn by two pairs of strong, +long-horned, placid-looking oxen.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't one pair draw it?" asked Porter of Corry.</p> + +<p>"Guess they could, but two's easier; and, besides, they've nothing else +to do. We'll heap it up too. You just wait and see."</p> + +<p>There was not long to wait, for the excitement rose fast in the +sitting-room, and Susie and Pen were in that sleigh a little in advance +of everybody else. Its driver stood by the heads of his first yoke of +oxen, and Susie at once exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Good—morning, Vosh. What a tremendous whip!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Susie," said Pen, "that isn't a whip, it's an ox-gad."</p> + +<p>"That's it, Pen," said Vosh; but he seemed disposed to talk to his oxen +rather than to anybody else. The yoke next the sleigh stood on either +side of a long, heavy "tongue;" but the foremost pair were fastened to +the end of that by a chain which passed between them to a hook in their +yoke. These latter two animals, as Vosh explained to Susie, "were only +about half educated, and they took more than their share of driving."</p> + +<p>He began to do it for them now, and it was half a wonder to see how +accurately the huge beasts kept the right track down through the gate +and out into the road. It seemed easier then, for all they had to do was +to go straight ahead.</p> + +<p>"Let me take the whip, do, please," said Susie; and Vosh only remarked, +as he handed it to her,—</p> + +<p>"Guess you'll find it heavy."</p> + +<p>She lifted it with both hands; and he smiled all over his broad, ruddy +face, as she made a desperate effort to swing the lash over the oxen.</p> + +<p>"Go 'long now! Git ap! Cluck-cluck."</p> + +<p>She chirruped to those oxen with all her might, while Vosh put his +handkerchief over his mouth, and had a violent fit of coughing.</p> + +<p>"You'll do!" shouted her uncle from behind the sleigh. "That's +first-rate. I'll hire you to team it for me all the rest of the +winter.—Boys, you'd better put down your guns. Lay them flat, and don't +step on 'em."</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson had stuck to his gun manfully from the moment it was +handed him. He had carried it over his shoulder, slanting it a little +across towards the other shoulder. He had seen whole regiments of city +soldiers do that, and so he knew it was the correct way to carry a gun. +He was now quite willing, however, to imitate Corry, and put his weapon +down flat on the bottom of the sleigh. The gun would be safe there; and, +besides, he had been watching Vosh Stebbins, and listening, and he had +an idea it was time he should show what he knew about oxen. They were +plodding along very well, and Susie was letting them alone at the +moment.</p> + +<p>"Susie," he said, "give me that gad."</p> + +<p>Vosh looked somewhat doubtful as she surrendered the whip. They were +going up a little ascent, and right beyond them the fences on either +side of the road seemed to stop. Beyond that, all was forest, and the +road had a crooked look as it went in among the trees.</p> + +<p>Porter had stronger arms than his sister, and he could do more with an +ox-gad. The first swing he gave the long hickory stock, the heavy, +far-reaching lash at the end of it came around with a "swish," and +knocked the coon-skin cap from the head of Vosh. Then the whip came +down—stock, lash, and all—along the broad backs of the oxen.</p> + +<p>"Gee! Haw! G'lang! Get up! G'lang now! Haw! Gee!"</p> + +<p>Porter felt that his reputation was at stake. He raised the gad again, +and he shouted vigorously. The tongue-yoke of oxen right under his nose +did not seem to mind it much, and plodded right along as if they had not +heard any one say a word to them; but their younger and more skittish +helpers in front shook their heads a little uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Gee! Haw! G'lang!"</p> + +<p>Porter was quite proud of the way the lash came down that time, and the +cracker of it caught the near ox of the forward team smartly on the left +ear. It was a complete success, undoubtedly; but, to Porter's +astonishment, that bewildered yoke of steers forward whirled suddenly to +the right. The next moment they were floundering in a snow-drift, as if +they were trying to turn around and look at him.</p> + +<p>Perhaps they were; but Vosh at that moment snatched the gad from Porter, +and sprang out of the sleigh, saying something, as he went, about "not +wanting to have the gals upset." Corry was dancing a sort of double +shuffle, and shouting,—</p> + +<p>"That's it! First time I ever saw an ox-team gee and haw together. +Hurrah for you, Port!"</p> + +<p>"Pen," said Susie, "what does he mean?"</p> + +<p>"Mean? Don't you know? Why, it's 'gee' to turn 'em this way, and it's +'haw' to turn 'em that way. They can't turn both ways at once."</p> + +<p>That double team had set out to do it quite obediently, but Vosh got +matters straightened very quickly. Then he stuck to his whip and did his +own driving, until the sleigh was pulled out of the road, half a mile +farther, into a sort of open space in the forest. There was not much +depth of snow on the ground, and there were stumps of trees sticking up +through it in all directions. Vosh drove right on until he halted his +team by a great pile of logs that were already cut for hauling.</p> + +<p>"Are they not too big for the fireplace?" asked Susie of Pen.</p> + +<p>"Of course they are," said Pen; but Corry added,—</p> + +<p>"We can cut up all we want for the stoves after we get 'em to the house. +The big ones'll cut in two for back-logs."</p> + +<p>He had been telling Porter, all the way, about the fun there was in +felling big trees, and that young gentleman had frankly proposed to cut +down a few before they set out after any rabbits or bears.</p> + +<p>"Just see father swing that axe!" said Pen proudly, as the stalwart old +farmer walked up to a tall hickory, and began to make the chips fly.</p> + +<p>"It's splendid!" said Susie.</p> + +<p>Vosh Stebbins had his axe out of the sleigh now, and seemed determined +to show what he could do.</p> + +<p>It looked like the easiest thing in the world. He and the deacon merely +swung their axes up, and let them go down exactly in the right place; +and the glittering edges went in, in, with a hollow thud, and at every +other cut a great chip would spring away across the snow.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't take either of them a great while to bring a tree down," +said Corry. "You fetch along that other axe, and we'll try one. They've +all got to come down: so it doesn't make any difference what we cut +into."</p> + +<p>The girls were contented to stay in the sleigh and look on, and the oxen +stood as still as if they intended never to move again.</p> + +<p>"Susie!" exclaimed Pen, "here comes Ponto. Nobody knew where he was when +we started."</p> + +<p>There he was now, however,—the great shaggy, long-legged +house-dog,—coming up the road with a succession of short, sharp barks, +as if he were protesting against being left out of such a picnic-party +as that.</p> + +<p>"Pen! he's coming right into the sleigh."</p> + +<p>"No, he ain't. You'll see. He'll go after Corry. He's only smelling to +see if the guns are here. He knows what they mean."</p> + +<p>"Will he hunt?"</p> + +<p>"I guess he will. When father or Corry or Vosh won't go, he goes off and +hunts by himself, only he doesn't bring home any game."</p> + +<p>He seemed just now to be stirred to a sort of frenzy of delighted +barking by what his nose told him, but at the end of it he sat down on +the snow near the sleigh. No dog of good common sense would follow a boy +with an axe away from the place where the guns were.</p> + +<p>Meantime, Corry had picked out a maple-tree of medium size, and had cut +a few chips from it. It was easy to see that he knew how to handle an +axe, if he could not bury one as deeply in the wood of a tree as could +his father or Vosh. He also knew enough too, somehow, to get well out of +the way when he handed the axe to Porter Hudson, remarking,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Port, cut it right down. Maybe it's a bee-tree."</p> + +<p>"Bee-tree! Are there any in winter? Do you ever find any?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not all the while; but there are bee-trees, and the bees must be +in 'em, just the same, in any kind of weather."</p> + +<p>That was so, no doubt; but if there had been a dozen hives of bees +hidden away in the solid wood of that vigorous maple-tree, they would +have been safe there until spring, for all the chopping of Porter +Hudson. He managed to make the edge of the axe hit squarely the first +time it struck, but it did not more than go through the bark. No scratch +like that would get a chip ready. Porter colored with vexation; and he +gave his next cut a little hastily, but he gave it with all his might. +The edge of the axe hit several inches from the first scratch, and it +seemed to take a quick twist on its own account just as it struck. It +glanced from the tree, and away it went into the snow, jerking its +handle rudely out of Porter's hands.</p> + +<p>"I declare!"</p> + +<p>"I say, Port, don't let's cut down any more trees. Let's get our guns, +and go down into the swamp for some rabbits. There's Ponto. He'll stir +'em up for us."</p> + +<p>Porter was fishing for his axe with a pretty red face, and he replied,—</p> + +<p>"I guess we'd better. I'm not much used to chopping."</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"We burn coal in the city."</p> + +<p>"No chopping to do. I know how it is. Got your axe? Come on."</p> + +<p>All that was very polite; but Corry had less trouble now, in keeping up +a feeling of equality with his city cousin. They were nearly of an age; +but a city boy of fourteen has seen a great many things that one of the +same years, brought up among the northern lakes and mountains, knows +nothing about, and Corry had been a little in awe of Porter.</p> + +<p>They had tucked their trousers into their boots when they left the +house; and now they got their guns out of the sleigh, slung their +powder-flasks and shot-pouches over their shoulders, and marched away +through the woods.</p> + +<p>The two girls looked after them as if they also were hungry for a +rabbit-hunt. As for Ponto, that very shaggy and snowy dog was plainly +intending to run between every two trees, and through each and every +clump of bushes, as if in a desperate state of dread lest he might miss +the tracks of some game or other. Sniff, sniff, sniff, everywhere! and +twice he actually began to paw the snow before he and his two sportsmen +were out of sight from the sleigh.</p> + +<p>"Boys can have more fun in the woods than girls," began Susie half +regretfully.</p> + +<p>"No, they can't, Susie. Just you watch that tree. It'll come down pretty +quickly. It'll make the splendidest kind of a crash."</p> + +<p>It was good fun to watch that chopping, and see the chips fly. Susie +found herself becoming more and more deeply interested, as the wide +notches sank farther and farther into the massive trunks of the two +trees her uncle and Vosh Stebbins were working on. Vosh chopped for dear +life; but, in spite of all he could do, the deacon had his tree down +first. It was a tall, noble-looking tree. There were no branches near +the ground, but there was a fine broad crown of them away up there where +the sun could get at them in summer. It seemed almost a pity to destroy +a forest-king like that, but at last it began to totter and lean.</p> + +<p>"O Pen! it's coming."</p> + +<p>"Don't shut your eyes, Susie: keep 'em open, and see it come."</p> + +<p>Susie did try; but when that tall, majestic trunk seemed to throw out +its great arms, and give the matter up, she could not look any longer, +and she put her head down. Then she heard a tremendous dull, crashing +sound, and her eyes came open to see a cloud of light snow rising from +the spot on which the forest-king had fallen.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it splendid!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Pen, it's wonderful."</p> + +<p>"Vosh's tree is almost ready. There! it's going to go."</p> + +<p>Vosh had not been as careful as Deacon Farnham in aiming the fall of his +tree, for it went down into the arms of a smaller one, crashing and +breaking through them; and the sharp, snapping sound of the crushed +branches went far and wide through the silence of the snowy forest.</p> + +<p>Pen said nothing, and Susie was conscious of a sort of still feeling, as +if she had no further remarks to make just then.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE RABBIT-HUNT.</h3> + + +<p>Deacon Farnham was fond of chopping down trees; but he had not brought a +big sleigh into the woods that morning, with two yoke of oxen, merely to +have them stand still in the snow while he did some chopping. Such fires +as he kept up at the farmhouse called for liberal supplies; and so Susie +was to have an opportunity to see a load of logs put on.</p> + +<p>She and Pen had to get out of the sleigh, and then she expressed her +wonder if her uncle and Vosh would be strong enough to lift those huge +"back-log" pieces into it:—</p> + +<p>"They never can do it, Pen, not in all the world."</p> + +<p>"Lift 'em! Of course they won't. I'll show you how they do it: it's +dreadful easy, soon as you know how."</p> + +<p>It would hardly have been as easy for Pen and Susie as it seemed to be +for Vosh and the deacon.</p> + +<p>They took all the side-stakes out of the sleigh, on the side towards the +wood-pile; and they put down, with one end of each on the sleigh, and +the other end in the snow, a pair of long, strong pieces of wood that +Vosh called "skids:" that made an inclined plane, and it was nothing but +good hard work to roll the logs up, and into their places on the sleigh. +They made a tier all over the sleigh-bottom, and then the lighter logs +were piled on them in regular order, till the load was finished off on +top with a heap of bark and brushwood.</p> + +<p>"That'll crackle good when it burns," said Vosh. "I like brush on a +fire: don't you?"</p> + +<p>Susie said she did; and she probably told the truth, for she was +beginning to think she liked every thing in the country, even in winter.</p> + +<p>"Now, Pen," said Vosh, "if you and Susie'll climb up, we'll set out for +home with this load."</p> + +<p>"Isn't your father coming, Pen?"</p> + +<p>"No, Susie, I guess he won't."</p> + +<p>"Will he stay here and chop trees all alone?"</p> + +<p>"He says he likes it, and he isn't a bit afraid of being alone. There's +a man at the house to help Vosh when we get there. Now, Susie, we must +climb."</p> + +<p>There was fun in that, but Pen was up first.</p> + +<p>"Is your dress caught, Susie?—Vosh, help Susie: she's caught on a +splinter."</p> + +<p>"I'll help her."</p> + +<p>"No, you needn't. There, it isn't torn much.—Now, Pen, do you think the +oxen can pull such a load as this?"</p> + +<p>"Of course they can."</p> + +<p>In a minute or so more, Susie began to have new ideas about the +management of oxen, and how strong they were, and how wonderfully +willing. They seemed to know exactly what to do, with a little help from +Vosh and his long whip. When all was ready, and they bowed their horns, +and strained against their yokes with their powerful necks, it seemed as +if they could have moved any thing in the world.</p> + +<p>One long strain, a creaking sound, and then a sudden giving-way and +starting, and the snow began to crunch, crunch, beneath the wide, smooth +runners of the sleigh. Vosh walked beside his team, and drove it away +around in a semicircle, carefully avoiding trees and stumps, until he +and his load were once more in the road, and on their way home.</p> + +<p>"Hark!" exclaimed Susie just then. "Was that the report of a gun, or was +it the sound of another tree falling?"</p> + +<p>"Guess it was a gun," said Vosh. "It's one of the boys shooting at +something. Plenty of game, if they can hit it."</p> + +<p>If they had been listening with any kind of attention, they might have +heard a similar sound before, although the place where the boys were was +at some distance from what Vosh called "the clearing."</p> + +<p>Corry and Porter had pushed on after Ponto as best they could; but he +had not stirred up for them any game in the thick, gloomy forest.</p> + +<p>"No rabbits here," said Porter.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes there are a few," said Corry; "but this isn't the place. +We're most there now: we'd better load up."</p> + +<p>"The guns,—aren't they loaded?"</p> + +<p>"No. We never leave a charge in. Father says a gun's always safe when +it's empty."</p> + +<p>Corry put the butt of his gun on the ground while he spoke, and Porter +watched him narrowly.</p> + +<p>"That's his powder-flask," he said to himself. "I might have known that +much. The powder goes in first: of course it does."</p> + +<p>He had never loaded a gun in all his life, and his experience with the +axe had made him feel a little cautious. Still he tried to make quick +work of it; and, when Corry began to push down a wad of paper after the +powder, his city cousin did the same thing, only he was a little +behindhand, and he put in a much bigger wad of paper.</p> + +<p>"How he does ram it! So will I," Porter remarked.</p> + +<p>"Don't put too many shot into that gun. I'll measure 'em for you. You'll +know next time. It scatters too much if you overcharge it."</p> + +<p>Porter was wondering at that very moment how many shot he had better put +in, or whether he should try the big shot from one side of his +shot-pouch, or the smaller shot from the other.</p> + +<p>"What are the big ones for?" he asked, when he saw Corry choose the +smaller size.</p> + +<p>"Buckshot? Oh! you can kill almost any thing with buckshot,—deer, or +even bear."</p> + +<p>"Can you? I never used 'em. Thought they were big for rabbits."</p> + +<p>He was glad to know his gun was correctly loaded, however; and he +imitated Corry in putting on the caps for both barrels, as if he had +served a long apprenticeship at that very business.</p> + +<p>"We haven't reached the swamp yet, have we?"</p> + +<p>"No, but we have a'most. It's a great place for rabbits, when you get +there. Halloo! Ponto's started one! Come on, Port!"</p> + +<p>They did not really need to stir a foot, for the swift little animal the +dog had disturbed from his seat among the bushes was running his best +right toward them.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" shouted Porter.</p> + +<p>"Try him, Port."</p> + +<p>"No, you try him."</p> + +<p>Corry's gun was at his shoulder, and in another second the bright flash +leaped from the muzzle.</p> + +<p>"Did you hit him? He didn't stop running: he kept right on."</p> + +<p>"Missed him, I guess. Too many trees, and it was a pretty long shot."</p> + +<p>"Why, it didn't seem far."</p> + +<p>"Didn't it? That's 'cause it was over the snow: it was more'n ten rods. +Hark! hear Ponto!"</p> + +<p>The old dog was barking as if for dear life, and the boys ran as fast as +the snow would let them. They had not far to go before they could see +Ponto dancing around the foot of a huge beech-tree.</p> + +<p>"If he hasn't treed him!"</p> + +<p>"Treed a rabbit! Why, do you mean they can climb?"</p> + +<p>"Climb! Rabbits climb! I guess not. But that tree's hollow. See that +hole at the bottom? The rabbit's in there, sure."</p> + +<p>"Can we get him?"</p> + +<p>"We'll try, but it won't pay if it takes too long,—just one rabbit."</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson had a feeling that it would be worth almost any thing in +the world to catch that rabbit. He hardly knew how to go to work for it; +but he felt very warm indeed while his cousin stooped down and poked his +arm deeper and deeper into the hole in the tree. It did not go down, but +up; and it was a pretty big one at its outer opening.</p> + +<p>"Is it a hollow tree, Corry?"</p> + +<p>"Guess not, only a little way up."</p> + +<p>"Can you feel him?"</p> + +<p>"Arm isn't long enough."</p> + +<p>Ponto whimpered, very much as if he understood what his master was +saying. That was probably not the first runaway game which had +disappointed him by getting into a den of safety of one kind or another.</p> + +<p>"Hey, Port! Here he comes!"</p> + +<p>"Got him, have you?"</p> + +<p>"There he is."</p> + +<p>Corry withdrew his arm as he spoke, and held up in triumph a very large, +fat, white rabbit.</p> + +<p>"You did reach him."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't. Some of my shot had hit him, and he came down the hole of +his own weight. Don't you see? They didn't strike him in the right place +to tumble him right over: he could run."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" said Porter: "he won't run any more now."</p> + +<p>It was of small use to pity that rabbit, when the one thought uppermost +in his mind was that he could not go home happy unless he could carry +with him another of the same sort, and of his own shooting.</p> + +<p>Corry loaded his gun again, and on they went; but pretty soon he +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"We're in the swamp now, Port."</p> + +<p>"I don't see any swamp: it's all trees and bushes and snow."</p> + +<p>"That's so, but there's ice under the snow in some places. You can't get +through here at all in the spring, and hardly in summer. It's a great +place for rabbits."</p> + +<p>Ponto was doubtless aware of that fact, for he was dashing to and fro +most industriously.</p> + +<p>There were plenty of little tracks on the snow, as the boys could now +plainly see; but they crossed each other in all directions, after a +manner that puzzled Porter Hudson exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"How will he find out which one of them he'd better follow up?"</p> + +<p>"Wait, Port: you'll see."</p> + +<p>Porter was taking his first lesson as a sportsman, and was peering +anxiously behind trees and in among the nearest bushes. Suddenly he saw +something, or thought he saw it, which made him hold his breath and +tremblingly lift his gun.</p> + +<p>"Can that be a real rabbit," he thought, "sitting there so still?"</p> + +<p>He did not utter a loud word; and the first Corry heard about it was +from both barrels of his cousin's gun, fired in quick succession. Bang, +bang! they went.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Port?"</p> + +<p>"I've got him! I've got him!"</p> + +<p>He was bounding away across the snow, and disappeared among some thick +hazel-bushes. A moment more, and he was out again, with a rabbit in his +hand every ounce as big as the one Corry had killed.</p> + +<p>"First-rate, Port! Was he running?"</p> + +<p>"No, he was sitting still, and listening for something."</p> + +<p>Corry was too polite to say that no regular sportsman fired at a rabbit +unless it was running. It would have been a pity to have dampened Porter +Hudson's tremulous exultation over his first game.</p> + +<p>He held that rabbit up, and looked at it, until he grew red in the face.</p> + +<p>He had no time to talk then; for he had his gun to load, and he was in +no small anxiety as to whether he should succeed in getting the charge +in rightly. Besides, there was Ponto racing across the farther side of +the swamp, with a big rabbit just ahead of him. He was a capital jumper, +that rabbit, and he was gaining on his barking pursuer when he ran out +within range of Corry Farnham's gun.</p> + +<p>Only one barrel was fired, but Ponto's master was ahead again.</p> + +<p>"Two to my one," said Porter.</p> + +<p>"You'll have chances enough. Don't you let off both barrels every time, +though, or you may lose some of 'em. Fill your rabbits all full of shot, +too, like that one."</p> + +<p>Port's idea had been that both barrels of his gun were there for the +purpose of being fired off, but he was quite ready to take a hint. He +had more and more serious doubts, however, about his ability to hit a +rabbit on the run. The first time he actually tried to do it, he doubted +more than ever. His chance and his disappointment came to him a little +after Corry's gun was loaded, and while they were crossing the swamp.</p> + +<p>"I must have hit him," he said, as he lowered his gun, and looked after +the rabbit he had fired at, and which was still clearing the snow with +long, vigorous jumps.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you did," said Corry, "he hasn't found it out yet."</p> + +<p>"Your first one didn't find out he was hit till he got into the tree."</p> + +<p>"That's so. But I never knew it to happen just so before. Ponto's after +that one again! He's turned him around those sumach-bushes. He's coming +this way. Give him your other barrel. Shoot ahead of him."</p> + +<p>Porter was positive, in his own mind, that he could not hit that rabbit, +and he felt himself blushing as he raised his gun; but he tried to see +the rabbit somewhere beyond the end of it, and then he blazed away.</p> + +<p>"I declare! you've done it! A good long distance too."</p> + +<p>It was so very long, that the shot had scattered a great deal, and one +of the little leaden pellets had strayed in the direction of that +rabbit,—just one, but it was as good as a dozen, for it had struck in a +vital spot; and Porter was as proud as if the skin of his game had been +filled with shot-holes.</p> + +<p>"I'm even with you now."</p> + +<p>"That's so. If you only had practice, you'd shoot well enough."</p> + +<p>Almost two hours went by, after that, and they tramped all over the +swamp. Porter killed another sitting rabbit; but Corry was again one +ahead of him, and was feeling half sorry for it, when he suddenly +stopped marching, and lifted his hand, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"Hear Ponto! Hark! Away yonder!"</p> + +<p>"Started another rabbit."</p> + +<p>"No, he hasn't. It isn't any rabbit this time."</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Hear that jumping? Hear Ponto's yelp? It's a deer."</p> + +<p>"Deer! Did you say it was a deer? Can you tell?"</p> + +<p>"Hark! Listen!"</p> + +<p>Ponto was no deer-hound. He was somewhat too heavily built for that kind +of sport; but any deer of good common sense would get away from his +neighborhood, all the same. The certainty that the dog could not catch +him would not interfere with his running.</p> + +<p>Ponto's discovery was a really splendid buck, and he was in a terrible +hurry when his long, easy bounds brought him out from among the +forest-trees into the more open ground in the edge of the swamp. Porter +thought he had never before seen any thing half so exciting, but the +buck went by like a flash.</p> + +<p>Just half a minute later, Corry turned ruefully to his cousin, and asked +him,—</p> + +<p>"Port, what did you and I fire both barrels of our guns for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to hit the deer."</p> + +<p>"At that distance? And with small shot too? If they'd reached him, +they'd hardly have stung him. Let's go home."</p> + +<p>Porter was ready enough; and it was not long before even Ponto gave up +following the buck, and came panting along at the heels of his master. +He looked a little crestfallen, as if he were nearly prepared to +remark,—</p> + +<p>"No use to drive deer for boys. I did my duty. No dog of my size and +weight can do more."</p> + +<p>They had a tramp before them. Not that they were so far from home, but +then it was one long wade through the snow until they reached the road; +and Porter Hudson knew much more about the weight of rabbits by the time +he laid his game down at the kitchen-door of the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>They had been growing heavier and heavier all the way, until he almost +wished he had not killed more than one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>WINTER COMFORT.</h3> + + +<p>Susie and Pen had a grand ride to the farmhouse on the wood-sleigh.</p> + +<p>Perched away up there on top of the brushwood, they could get the full +effect of every swing and lurch of the load under them. Vosh Stebbins +had to chuckle again and again, in spite of his resolute politeness; for +the girls would scream a little, and laugh a great deal, when the sleigh +sank suddenly on one side in a snowy hollow, or slid too rapidly after +the oxen down a steeper slope than common. It was great fun; and, when +they reached the house, Susie Hudson almost had to quarrel with aunt +Judith to prevent being wrapped in a blanket, and shoved up in a big +rocking-chair into the very face of the sitting-room fireplace.</p> + +<p>"Do let her alone, Judith," said aunt Farnham. "I don't believe she's +been frost-bitten."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a bit cold."</p> + +<p>"I'm real glad o' that," said aunt Judith; "but ain't you hungry?—Pen, +you jest fetch up some krullers."</p> + +<p>Susie admitted that she could eat a kruller, and Pen had no need to be +told twice.</p> + +<p>When Vosh came back from the woods with his second load, it was +dinner-time; and Deacon Farnham came with him. Only a few minutes later, +there was a great shouting at the kitchen-door, and there were the two +boys. The whole family rushed out to see what they had brought home, and +Susie thought she had never seen her brother look quite so tall.</p> + +<p>"Corry beat ye, did he?" said Vosh as he turned the rabbits over. +Something in the tone of that remark seemed to add, "Of course he did;" +and Port replied to it,—</p> + +<p>"Well, he's used to it. I never fired a gun before in all my life."</p> + +<p>That was a frank confession, and a very good one to make; for the deacon +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"You never did! I declare! then you've done tip-top. You'll make a +marksman one of these days."</p> + +<p>"I hit two of my rabbits on the full run, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"How about the deer?" said Vosh with a sly look. "Did you hit him on the +run?"</p> + +<p>"When you meet him," said Corry, "you can just ask him. He's the only +fellow that knows: I don't."</p> + +<p>"Like as not he doesn't either."</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Mrs. Farnham, "tell your mother to come over with you after +tea, and spend the evening."</p> + +<p>"She'll come: I know she will. I'll finish my chores early."</p> + +<p>He swung his axe to his shoulder, and marched away, very straight, with +a curious feeling that some city people were looking at him.</p> + +<p>The boys and the girls and the older people were all remarkably ready +for that dinner as soon as it was on the table.</p> + +<p>"Pen," said Susie, "I didn't know chopping down trees would make me so +hungry."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Deacon Farnham, "it's as bad as killing deer. Port and Corry +are suffering from that. You did your chopping, as they did their +deer-killing, at a safe distance."</p> + +<p>After dinner it was a puzzle to everybody where the time went, it got +away so fast. Pen took Susie all over the house, and showed her every +thing in it, from the apples in the cellar to the spinning-wheel that +had been carried up stairs the day before, and would have to come down +again to-morrow.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith's got a pile of wool, Susie. You ought to see it. She's +going to spin enough yarn to last her all next summer."</p> + +<p>"I'll get her to teach me to spin."</p> + +<p>"Can you knit? If you can't, I'll teach you how. It's awful easy, as +soon as you know."</p> + +<p>Susie told Pen about her tidies and crochet-work and some other things, +and was getting a little the best of it, until Pen asked very +doubtfully,—</p> + +<p>"Can you heel a stocking? It's worse, a good deal, than just to narrow +'em in at the toes. Aunt Judith says there ain't many women nowadays +that can heel a stocking."</p> + +<p>"I'll make her show me how. Dear me, Pen! did you know how late it is? +Where can all the time have gone to?"</p> + +<p>Corry and Porter knew where a part of theirs had gone, after they got +back from the barns, and delivered to Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith the +eggs they had found. Corry got out his checker-board, and laid it on the +table in the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>"It's a big one," said Porter. "Where are your men?"</p> + +<p>"Hanging up there in that bag. The wooden men got lost. We take +horse-chestnuts for black men, and walnuts for white ones."</p> + +<p>"S'pose you make a king?"</p> + +<p>"That's a butternut, if it's black. If it's white, you put on one of +those chunks of wood."</p> + +<p>There was no danger of their getting out of checker-men; but Corry +Farnham had a lesson to learn.</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson knew a great deal more about checkers than he did about +tree-chopping or rabbits.</p> + +<p>Game after game was played, and it seemed to Corry as if his cousin "hit +some of them on a full run." He got up from the last one they played, +feeling a very fair degree of respect for Port; and the latter was +pretty well restored to his own good opinion of himself.</p> + +<p>That was something, for all his morning's experiences had been a little +the other way; and he was not half sure he could again hit a running +rabbit, if he should have a chance to try.</p> + +<p>Susie and Pen had watched them for a while, but both boys had been very +obstinate in not making any of the good moves Pen pointed out to them.</p> + +<p>There were chores to do both before and after tea; and Porter went out +with Corry, determined on undertaking his share of them.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever milk cows, Port?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no, I never did; but I guess I could if I tried."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess you'd best not try to-night, but you can learn before you +go home. Some of our cows are skittish in cold weather."</p> + +<p>Port was quite contented, after getting into the cowyard, to let the +milking be done by some one who knew how; and he had the satisfaction of +seeing Corry kicked over into the snow—pail, milk, and all—by a +brindled heifer who had no need of any kind of weather to bring out her +natural skittishness.</p> + +<p>There were pigs and cattle and horses to feed, and supper to be eaten; +and when, at last, the boys had finished their duties, the rest of the +family was already gathered in the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith had their knitting; and the deacon had a +newspaper in his lap, with his spectacles lying in the middle of it. It +seemed, however, the most natural thing in the world, that they should +all be sitting in a great semicircle in front of the fireplace. The +night promised to be a cold one, and the fire had been built for it in +the most liberal manner.</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Porter, "what are all those flat-irons and hammers for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to crack nuts. I'm going down cellar to bring 'em up,—butternuts +and hickory-nuts. There was a big crop of 'em last fall."</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you."</p> + +<p>"So will I," said Pen. "Come, Susie, and we'll bring up the apples and +pears and some cider."</p> + +<p>"Now, Pen," said aunt Judith, "look out you don't leave the cider +runnin', like you did once. You may fetch up a cake of maple-sugar, if +anybody wants any. And don't you tetch them hard russets. They won't be +fit to eat till spring."</p> + +<p>Aunt Judith's instructions continued almost without cessation, till the +young folk were all at the bottom of the cellar-stairs. Corry and Pen +carried candles; but the light of these only served to make that cellar +look ten times larger and darker and more mysterious. It seemed as if it +had neither sides nor ends; but the heavy black beams overhead were not +so wonderfully far away. Pen showed Susie bin after bin of carefully +selected winter apples and pears, and there were half a dozen barrels of +cider ranged against the wall.</p> + +<p>"It's all pretty sweet now, but it'll be hard enough some time. Then +some of it'll make vinegar."</p> + +<p>"What's in the little barrel?"</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith's currant-wine. She says it'll be the best wine in the +world when it's old enough. Whenever anybody in the Valley gets sick, +she takes a bottle of it, and goes there."</p> + +<p>"She's real good."</p> + +<p>"Susie, look at all the mince-pies on the swing-shelf."</p> + +<p>"Ever so many!"</p> + +<p>Scores of them, for the swing-shelf ran the whole length of the cellar +right down the middle, and it held double rows of pies all ready to be +carried up and warmed for use. Susie would have been willing to stay a +few minutes, and look at the treasures in that cellar; but Corry +suddenly exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Port, let's hurry. They've come. Don't you hear Mrs. Stebbins?"</p> + +<p>Just a little before that, aunt Judith up stairs had turned to the +deacon with the remark,—</p> + +<p>"Joshaway, I knew she'd come with Vosh. You can always hear her before +she gets to the gate; leastwise, on a quiet night like this. I remember +one night it was a-stormin', and the wind blew so hard she got right up +to the door, and I hadn't heard a sound till she had her hand on the +latch."</p> + +<p>They could hear her now.</p> + +<p>"And, Lavawjer, you must just mind one thing: you mustn't talk too much. +Let them do their own talkin', specially Susie. I can't begin to tell +what kind of a gal she's growin' up to be, onless I can hear her talk."</p> + +<p>"Then Vosh'll have to keep a-givin' his mother somethin' to eat," +snapped aunt Judith: "she never stops talkin' any other time."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham herself, while the young people were down stairs, had +thoughtfully walked out into the storeroom adjoining the kitchen, and +returned with a long-handled wire corn-popper, and a bag of what she +called "'tucket corn." It was corn with small, round, blue-black +kernels, that can pop out larger and whiter, for its size, than any +other kind that grows. There is a legend that the seed of it came +originally from the island of Nantucket; but it has short "nubbin" ears, +and even the island Indians must have found it a poor crop for any thing +but popping.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins was at the door now; and she never dreamed of knocking, +and waiting out there in the cold until somebody should come to let her +in. She was hardly over the threshold, before she said, as she loosened +her shawl,—</p> + +<p>"Judith, where is Susie and her brother, and Corry and Pen? They haven't +gone away somewhere the very first night, have they? Vosh he told me +they'd be at home, and I just thought I'd come over."</p> + +<p>"They're down cellar. They'll be right up in a minute. Now, Angeline, +you jest take off your hood and sit down.—Vosh, there's a chair. Hadn't +you better take that popper and set to work?"</p> + +<p>"Vosh tells me," continued his mother, "the boys got half a dozen of +rabbits to-day. I don't care much for rabbits, but their hind-legs'll do +to brile. And they seen a deer too. I'd ha' thought they might ha' shot +it, if it was nigh enough. But then, deer isn't anyways like as easy to +kill as they was when I was a gal. And they was only a couple of boys. I +do say, now, here they come, and they're makin' racket enough for +twenty."</p> + +<p>They were coming indeed, streaming up out of the cellar, with every pair +of hands full and a little more; and Mrs. Stebbins did not stop for an +instant.</p> + +<p>"Susie, is that you? Well, now, I must kiss you right away. Vosh said +you was lookin' real pretty, and so you be; but he ain't always a good +jedge. I knowed your mother when she wasn't no older'n you be now. She +was Joshaway Farnham's sister. And so she's gone South for her health, +and your father's gone with her, and you've come to put in the rest of +your winter up here?—I do declare, Lavawjer, ef you ain't kerful, +you'll burn up every kernel of that corn. Don't you stop to talk, and +gawk around. Jest you tend to your corn-poppin'."</p> + +<p>She had managed to get up from her chair and kiss Susie without +interrupting the steady clack of her tongue; but she was a little out of +breath for a moment, and sat still and watched them while they deposited +upon the table the tall brown pitcher of cider, the pans of fruit, and +the maple-sugar. The young folks had a chance to say a word to Vosh, and +Corry and Porter each picked up a flat-iron and a hammer. There were +plenty of nuts ready for them; and the sound of the cracking, and of the +rattling, bursting corn in the popper, mingled oddly with Susie's +efforts to answer the rapid inquiries poured upon her by Mrs. Stebbins.</p> + +<p>"Now, Susie, I'm glad you've come. You're right from the city, and +you're a well-grown gal now, and you know all about the fashions. We +don't hear a word about 'em up here away till they've all come and gone, +and somethin' else is in fashion. Got to wearin' short dresses, hev +they? Think of me, or Judith, or your aunt Sarah Farnham, in short +dresses! Wearin' panners too. I do say! What won't they put on next! +Last thing they got up was them little skimp skirts for hard times, that +came so nigh bein' the ruin of the dry-goods men. Didn't take no cloth +at all.—Lavawjer, you're a-talkin' again. You just tend to your +pop-corn."</p> + +<p>"Now, Angeline," said Mrs. Farnham, "do take an apple, or a pear."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Angeline," said aunt Judith, "and here's a plate of popped corn, +and some nuts.—Joshaway, pour her out a mug of cider.—Pen, go to the +cupboard and fetch a plate of krullers. It's the coldest kind of a +night."</p> + +<p>"So it is," began Mrs. Stebbins, "but the winters ain't what they used +to be. No more the butternuts aren't, somehow; but I must say, you make +out to have good fruit, though how you do it in these times beats me. +Our trees die out."</p> + +<p>Likely as not they did; but the attack had fairly begun, and poor Mrs. +Stebbins found herself out-numbered. The deacon pressed her with the +cider, and Mrs. Farnham with the krullers. There was the heaped-up plate +of snowy white popped corn, and beside it was the tempting little hill +of cracked hickory-nuts and butternuts. Susie broke off for her a noble +piece of maple-sugar; and aunt Judith herself took a candle, and went +down cellar for a couple of the best mince-pies. It was all too much for +conversation of the kind Mrs. Stebbins delighted in.</p> + +<p>"O Vosh!" suddenly exclaimed Susie. "Corry told us this morning about +the bear you killed last winter."</p> + +<p>It was cruel to mention such a thing just as Mrs. Stebbins had lifted a +kruller, and she began to say,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, about that bear. Lavawjer's father"—But she had to pause a +moment, and Vosh took it up with,—</p> + +<p>"No, Susie, I didn't kill him: I guess it was all three of us. He was +chockfull of lead when he rolled over. We weren't twenty feet from him. +Deacon Farnham he fired first, and then I did, and Corry; and we all had +double-barrelled guns, and we didn't one of us miss. But it was a big +bear"—</p> + +<p>"Biggest kind," said Corry, "or he never could ha' lifted a fat hog +clean out of the pen the way he did."</p> + +<p>"I knowed a bear," began Mrs. Stebbins; but aunt Judith interrupted her +with,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Angeline, do take a slice of mince-pie. It's cold, but sometimes +it's better cold than it is when it's warm."</p> + +<p>The pie was too much for the memory of that other bear.</p> + +<p>The sound of popping corn and cracking nuts had been almost incessant, +and the young people had now succeeded in breaking all the ice the fire +had left in that sitting-room. They were old acquaintances all around, +and were chatting away merrily among themselves, with less and less +reference to what might be going forward among the old folk by the +table.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith seemed to keep right along with their +knitting, whatever else they might be doing. It seemed to do itself, a +great deal like their breathing. Even the deacon managed to look into +the corners of his newspaper while he pared an apple, or talked to Mrs. +Stebbins. The light of the great astral-lamp on the table mingled with +that from the fireplace in a sort of reddish-golden glow, that flickered +over the walls and faces in a way to make every thing and every body +wear a warm, contented, cosey look, that was just the right thing for a +frosty winter evening.</p> + +<p>By and by there came almost a full half-minute of silence, and at the +end of it Vosh burst out as if an idea had taken him by surprise.</p> + +<p>"I do declare! I never saw any thing jollier'n this is, in all my born +days."</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Corry, "Port can beat you at checkers. You ought to have +seen the way he beat me to-day. You just try him a game."</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer," said his mother from beyond the table, "you kin play +well enough for way up here, but you can't think of comin' up to sech a +young feller as Porter Hudson. He'll beat ye, sure."</p> + +<p>At all events, he needed no more than that to make him try to do it; and +Penelope brought out the great square board, and the bag of home-made +checkers.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed, that, after his triumphant experience with Corry, +Porter Hudson imagined himself to have quite taken the measure of +up-country skill and science at that game. He sat down to his new trial, +therefore, with a proud assurance of a victory to come. It would have +been kind of Corry to have given his cousin the least bit of a warning, +but that young gentleman had been himself too roughly handled to feel +very merciful. Besides, he had some very small and lingering doubt as to +the result, and was willing to wait for it.</p> + +<p>He need not have had any doubt, since there was really no room for any. +Vosh was a born checker-player, and it is never easy to beat a fellow of +that sort. Nobody ever knows exactly how they do it, and they themselves +cannot tell. Their spare men get to the king-row, and their calculations +come out right; and if you are Porter Hudson, and are playing against +them, you get beaten very badly, and there's no help for you.</p> + +<p>Corry watched that game with a suppressed chuckle, but it was a dreadful +puzzle to Port. Even Pen did not venture to suggest a single good move, +and the older people talked very quietly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins was a proud woman when Susie exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Vosh has won it!"</p> + +<p>It was of no use for aunt Judith to say,—</p> + +<p>"Won't you have another slice of pie, Angeline, and some more cider?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins responded,—</p> + +<p>"I don't keer if I do. Only I'm afeard it'll make me dream and talk in +my sleep. Lavawjer always did play checkers mighty spry, but he ain't +the player his father was when he was a young man. He didn't have no +time to play checkers after he got to runnin' a farm of his own. Pie? +Yes, Judith, you've got jest the right knack of makin' mince-pies." And +while she went on to tell of the various good and bad pies she had seen +or tasted, all the rest agreed with her about those they were eating. In +fact, the good things of all sorts went far to reconcile even Porter +Hudson to his defeat, and Vosh was truly polite about that. In less than +two minutes he managed to get the other boys, and even the girls, +talking about hunting, skating, coasting, sleigh-riding, and catching +fish through the ice.</p> + +<p>The evening seemed to melt away, it went so fast; and no one was willing +to believe how late it was when Mrs. Stebbins began to put on her hood. +They all saw her and Vosh to the door, and did not close that until the +gate shut behind the last words the good woman succeeded in sending back +to them.</p> + +<p>It was something about boiled cider in mince-pies, but they failed to +get it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>A WINTER PICNIC-PARTY.</h3> + + +<p>The Stebbins farm was not a large one, and neither its house nor barns +compared well with Deacon Farnham's; but there was a great deal to be +done in and around them, even in winter. Vosh was a busy boy, therefore, +the next morning, and his mother was a busy woman; and it was not until +an hour after breakfast that she said to him,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer, you jest hitch up that there new red cutter of yourn, +and fetch it around. I want you to drive me to Benton Village, and, if I +can't find what I want there, I'm goin' right on to Cobbleville."</p> + +<p>Vosh had been thinking up a series of excuses for going over to the +deacon's, but he made no mention of them; and it was a credit to him +that his new turnout was so soon standing, all ready, by the front gate.</p> + +<p>It was not a bad idea, that his first long drive in it should be with +his mother; but he had a string of surprises before him that day.</p> + +<p>The first came in the fact that his mother was unaccountably silent, and +that, whenever she did open her lips, she had something to say about +economy. Then she talked a little of the wickedness and vanity of buying +or wearing any thing "just for show." City people, she freely declared, +were doing that very thing all the while, and she was glad enough no one +alive could accuse her of it.</p> + +<p>Vosh was quite sure she was right; but he could not help, when they +drove by Deacon Farnham's, and he saw the girls at the window, being a +little glad that his cutter was of so bright a red, and so remarkably +well varnished.</p> + +<p>Benton Village was right down there in the valley, and the sorrel colt +pulled them there in so short a time that it was no sleigh-ride at all.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins said as much, after she had bought some tea and sugar at +one store, and some raisins and some coffee at another.</p> + +<p>"They haven't got what I want, Lavawjer. You kin drive right along to +Cobbleville. There never was better sleighin', not even when I was a +gal."</p> + +<p>That was a great deal for her to admit, and Vosh put the colt to his +very best speed along the well-travelled road to Cobbleville. That was +several long miles, but they were strangely silent ones.</p> + +<p>"Where shall I pull up, mother?" asked Vosh as they drove into the one +long street of the village.</p> + +<p>"You kin make your first stop right there, at old Gillis's harness-shop. +I want to look at some o' them things in his front winder."</p> + +<p>Something or other must have winked at Vosh; for he was out of that +cutter, and had his colt hitched in front of Gillis's, in about half his +usual time.</p> + +<p>"Lavawjer," she said to him as she paused on the sidewalk, "don't you +ever buy a thing just for show. You mustn't ever let your vanity get the +best of you."</p> + +<p>Two minutes later she was holding in her right hand a very useful string +of sleigh-bells, and saying to him,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer, if you're ever drivin' along after dark, you won't be +run into. Anybody'll know you're there, by the jingle. I'll kinder feel +safer about ye."</p> + +<p>Vosh thought he had not often seen less vanity in any thing than there +was in those bells, and he was thinking of going right out to put them +on the sorrel, when his mother exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"There! that's what I've been a-lookin' for,—that there red +hoss-blanket, with the blue border and the fringe. Jest tell me what the +price of it is."</p> + +<p>It was only a very little, the best blanket in the shop; and she said to +her son,—</p> + +<p>"I don't know but it's kinder showy. You can't exactly help that. But it +won't do for you to let that colt of yourn git warm, drivin' him sharp, +and then let him catch cold when you hitch him. You must take keer of +him, and see't he has his blanket on. You'll find it mighty useful."</p> + +<p>"Guess I will!" said Vosh, with a queer feeling that he ought to say +something grateful, and didn't know how. He was thinking about it, when +his mother said to him,—</p> + +<p>"That there headstall of yourn is gettin' cracked, and the check-rein +might break some day. The rest of your harness'll do for a while. It's +always safe to have your leather in good condition."</p> + +<p>No doubt; and the sorrel colt was a different-looking animal when Vosh +exchanged the head-gear he had worn coming, for the new rig the careful +Mrs. Stebbins bought for him.</p> + +<p>"Now, Vosh, there isn't any thing else I want in Cobbleville, but you +may drive through the main street, and we'll take a look at the town."</p> + +<p>He unhitched the colt, and sprang in after her. The new headstall, +check-rein, and the bells were already in their places. The brilliant +blanket was spread across their laps as they sat in the cutter. Vosh +touched up the sorrel, and all the Cobbleville people who saw that +turnout dash up the street for half a mile and back again were compelled +to admit that it was decidedly a neat one.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer," said his mother, "don't you never do nothin' jest for +show. If you want to take Judith Farnham or her sister, or Penelope, or +Susie Hudson, out a-sleighin', they won't need to turn up their noses at +the rig you come after 'em in."</p> + +<p>They had all been talking of Vosh and his mother that morning at Deacon +Farnham's, and it was plain that the good qualities of the Stebbins +family were fully understood by their next-door neighbors. The boys +hoped Vosh would come over in the course of the day, but he did not. The +next day was Saturday, and still he did not come. He was at work in his +own barn, shelling corn for dear life, to let his mother know how fully +he appreciated her generosity. He felt that it would take an immense +deal of hard work to express all he felt about the bells and the +blanket, not to speak of the bright bits of new harness.</p> + +<p>The next day was Sunday, and Deacon Farnham's entire household went to +meeting down at Benton Village. Almost all they saw of Vosh was when +they turned around to look at the choir. Susie only did that once, for +she somehow connected her catching his eye with the fact that he just +then started on the wrong stanza of the hymn they were singing, and so +got himself looked at by the choir-leader.</p> + +<p>The next day, just after tea, Vosh came over "to have a word with Deacon +Farnham," and he had an errand of some importance this time. Corry and +Porter stood by, with their mouths wide open, while he delivered it. He +was just inside the kitchen-door; and Susie and Pen were sitting on the +other side of the stove, paring apples.</p> + +<p>"There was a man came by to-day from one of the lumber camps way up +among the mountains. He was on his way to town for supplies and things. +He says the road to Mink Lake's good enough for a sleigh."</p> + +<p>"All the way?" asked the deacon somewhat doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Every inch of it: I asked him. Now, why couldn't we go in for a mess of +pickerel?"</p> + +<p>"And a grand sleigh-ride!" exclaimed Corry.</p> + +<p>"And an old-fashioned winter picnic!" added aunt Sarah Farnham. "How +would you like that, Susie?"</p> + +<p>"A winter picnic! I never heard of such a thing. How do you do it? Seems +to me it would be splendid, if you could."</p> + +<p>"A picnic, a picnic!" shouted Pen. "Fishing through the ice, Susie, +and—and—there's ever so many other things.—Mother, can we go?"</p> + +<p>Vosh Stebbins had spoken only about the pickerel, but the larger +enterprise was what had really been upon his mind. Before he went home +it had been thoroughly discussed, and pretty well arranged for.</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Port after Vosh went away, "what sort of a place is Mink +Lake?"</p> + +<p>"It's the prettiest kind of a lake. It's a great place to go to in +summer,—just crowded with fish."</p> + +<p>"Is it far?"</p> + +<p>"About eight or nine miles, right through the woods and around among the +mountains. Crookedest road you ever saw. It's apt to be snowed up in +winter; but we haven't had any deep snow yet, and it hasn't drifted +much, somehow."</p> + +<p>"What kind of fish,—trout?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there's trout, but there's more bass and pickerel and perch. +You're apt to be awfully bothered with pumpkin-seeds in summer."</p> + +<p>Port was silent. He wanted to ask about the pumpkins, and how the seeds +could bother a fellow when he was fishing for trout. After a minute or +so, he uttered one word,—</p> + +<p>"Pumpkin-seeds?"</p> + +<p>"Crowds of 'em. They're the meanest kind of fish. Bite, bite, bite, and +you keep pulling 'em in, all the while you want something bigger."</p> + +<p>"Can't you eat 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, they're good to fry, but they're full of bones. Not enough of +'em."</p> + +<p>"They won't bite in winter, will they?"</p> + +<p>"Hope not. Tell you what, Port, we're in for the biggest kind of a +time."</p> + +<p>That was an exciting evening. Nobody seemed to want to go to bed, and +the semicircle around the fireplace talked of hardly any thing else but +fishing and hunting. Deacon Farnham himself came out with some stories +aunt Judith said she hadn't heard him tell for more than a year. Porter +and Susie had no stories to tell, but they could listen. The former went +to bed at last, with a vague feeling that he would rather go to Mink +Lake. It was a good while before he got to sleep, and even then he had a +wonderful dream. He dreamed he was trying to pull a fish as large as a +small whale through a sort of auger-hole in some ice. He pulled so hard, +he woke himself up; but he could roll over and go to sleep soundly, now +the fish was gone.</p> + +<p>The house was early astir in the morning; and Deacon Farnham's long, low +box-sleigh, drawn by his two big black horses, was at the door by the +time they were through breakfast. Mrs. Farnham had decided not to go, +because, as she said,—</p> + +<p>"It's Judith's turn. Somebody's got to stay and keep house."</p> + +<p>It had required some argument to persuade aunt Judith that it was her +duty to go, but she had taken hold of the preparations with a will. It +was wonderful what an amount of wrapping-up she deemed necessary for +herself and all the rest.</p> + +<p>"Why, Judith," said the deacon, "it's a good deal warmer in the woods +than it is out here."</p> + +<p>"I've heerd tell so, and mebbe it's true, but I don't put any trust in +it. I've no notion of bein' frost-bit before I get back."</p> + +<p>There was little to be feared from the frost, with all the buffalo-robes +and blankets and shawls and cloaks that were piled into that sleigh.</p> + +<p>When its passengers were in, they made quite a party. There was the +deacon (who insisted on driving), and aunt Judith, and Mrs. Stebbins and +Vosh, and Corry, and Susie Hudson and Porter, and Penelope, in the +sleigh, with Ponto all around outside of it; besides all the baskets of +luncheon, the fishing-tackle, axes, and guns.</p> + +<p>"You can't shoot fish," said Susie.</p> + +<p>"May shoot something else," said Vosh. "There's no such thing as +telling. It's a wild place."</p> + +<p>"Susie!" exclaimed Pen, "didn't you know there were deer up at Mink +Lake,—real deer?"</p> + +<p>"Corry," whispered Port, "let's get one before we come home."</p> + +<p>"Father's got his gun by him, all ready, but he won't let us get ours +out till we reach the lake. He may get a shot at something as he drives +along."</p> + +<p>There was a sharp lookout for all kinds of wild animals, after the way +began to wind among the piny woods, and through the desolate-looking +"clearings" left by the choppers. The road was found even better than +Vosh's news had reported it, and the black team pulled their merry load +along quite easily.</p> + +<p>The young folk soon got over the solemn feeling which came upon them +when they found themselves actually in the great forest.</p> + +<p>It was delightful to shout, and listen for echoes; and to sing, and know +there was not a living pair of ears to hear, except those in the sleigh, +and Ponto's.</p> + +<p>It was about two hours after they left the farmhouse, and Port had just +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Seems to me we've been going up hill all the time," when Corry suddenly +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"There it is! That's Mink Lake. It'll be down hill all the way going +home. See it!"</p> + +<p>"Lake!" said Port. "I don't see any lake. Oh, yes, I do! It's all ice +and snow,—frozen clean over."</p> + +<p>"And we haven't seen a single deer yet," said Susie sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>"You can see some now, then," replied Vosh as he eagerly pointed +forward. "See 'em, Susie? See 'em? Way down yonder on the ice."</p> + +<p>"I see them!" shouted Pen. "One, two, three, <i>four</i> of 'em."</p> + +<p>"Those black specks?" said Susie.</p> + +<p>There they were indeed, and they were beginning to move rapidly across +the ice; but they were too far away for any thing more than just to make +out what they were.</p> + +<p>Even Ponto continued to plod along soberly behind the sleigh. He was too +old a dog to excite himself over any such distant and impossible game as +that.</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham seemed to know exactly what he was about; for he drove +right on where nobody else could see any road, until he stopped in front +of a very small and very rudely made kind of house.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith," asked Susie, "did anybody ever live here?"</p> + +<p>"Live here, child? Why, that there's a choppers' shanty. It's for +anybody that wants it, now they've done with it."</p> + +<p>That was so, but it was not for the mere human beings of that +picnic-party. The deacon took his horses from the sleigh, and led them +in through the rickety door.</p> + +<p>"They're a little warm," he said, "but they won't catch cold in there. +I'll give 'em a good feed, Vosh, while you're starting a fire.—Get the +guns and tackle out, Corry."</p> + +<p>Vosh had had a hard struggle with himself that morning to leave his own +horse and cutter at home; but his mother had settled it for him. She +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"I'd ruther be in the big sleigh with the folks, so I can hear what's +goin' on. So would Susie Hudson, or aunt Judith Farnham. You'd be kind +o' lonely. Besides, that little thing of yourn 'd be upsettin' twenty +times, over them mountain roads."</p> + +<p>He was ready with his axe now; and Porter Hudson opened his eyes at the +rapidity with which a great fire was blazing on the snow, a little +distance from the shanty.</p> + +<p>"What are we to get into?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"We won't need any shelter," said aunt Judith. "When it's time for +dinner, we can eat it in the sleigh."</p> + +<p>They were not yet thinking of eating. The first business on hand was a +trip to the lake. Vosh Stebbins took his axe with him, and he and the +deacon each carried a long, wide board. Port managed not to ask what +these were for, and he had not a great while to wait before he knew.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said the deacon, "the ice must be pretty thick. Hope we sha'n't +have to chop a hole."</p> + +<p>"There's one air-hole, away yonder. It doesn't look too wide."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder if it'd do."</p> + +<p>"Susie," said Pen, "don't you know? That's where all the fish come up to +the top to get a breath of fresh air."</p> + +<p>There was some truth in Pen's explanation, in spite of the laugh she got +from Mrs. Stebbins. Susie said nothing, for she was all eyes at that +moment. She thought she had never seen any thing stranger or more +beautiful than that little lake, all frozen, with the hills around it, +and the mountains beyond them. The broken slopes of the hills and +mountains were covered with white snow, green pines, spruces, hemlocks, +and with the brownish gray of the other trees whose leaves had fallen +from them. It was very wonderful and new to a young lady from the city.</p> + +<p>"Most half the lake," said Vosh, "is smooth enough to skate on. If I'd +ha' thought of that, I'd ha' brought along my skates."</p> + +<p>It would have been worth while. Mink Lake was what some people call a +"pond," and was hardly a mile wide by an irregular mile and a half long. +There was an immense skating-rink there now, in spite of the snow which +covered a large part of it.</p> + +<p>Susie was just about to ask some more questions, when her uncle +shouted,—</p> + +<p>"This'll do, Vosh! Bring along your slide."</p> + +<p>That was the board he was carrying, and its use was plain now. The +air-hole was an opening in the ice, not more than two feet across, but +the ice was thin at the edges of it. A heavy man, or a busy one, might +break through, and let himself into a cold bath; but when those two +"slides" were slipped along on either side of the hole, any one could +walk right out, and drop in a hook and line safely enough.</p> + +<p>"There, Susie," said Pen, "now we can keep our feet dry while we catch +our fish."</p> + +<p>"Now, folks!" exclaimed the deacon. "Two at a time. We'll take turns."</p> + +<p>"Your turn's good till you've hooked a fish," said Vosh to Porter, as he +handed him a line. "You and the deacon try it first."</p> + +<p>It seemed very easy,—nothing to do but to stand on a dry board, and +drop a line with a baited hook at the end of it through a two-foot hole +in the ice. There was no long waiting to be done either.</p> + +<p>"Father, father!" shouted Pen in a few moments. "You've got him!" There +was a sort of electric shock went through the entire picnic; but the +deacon jerked out a very good-looking fish with an unthankful look on +his face.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but a perch. He's a pound and a quarter, though.—Here, Mrs. +Stebbins, take that other line, and see what you can do."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins had talked quite industriously all the way, and even after +they got upon the ice; but she stopped short the moment she took hold of +that line. She had hardly dropped it in, before Porter Hudson +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Corry, Corry!"</p> + +<p>"Pull, Port! Pull! You've got a big one."</p> + +<p>"So have I," screamed Mrs. Stebbins. "Deacon!—Vosh! It's awful! Come +help me!"</p> + +<p>"Pen," said Susie, "could it pull her through the hole?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Susie!"</p> + +<p>Pen's eyes and mouth were wide open; for both her cousin and Mrs. +Stebbins were leaning back, and it seemed as if something down below +were jerking at them.</p> + +<p>"Wind it round your wrist, Port," said Corry. "Hang on!"</p> + +<p>"Now, mother," said Vosh as he took hold of her line, "I declare, you +<i>have</i> hooked a good one. I guess I'll pull him in for you."</p> + +<p>It hardly seemed to cost him an effort to bring a great three-pound +pickerel through the hole, and sling him out upon the ice.</p> + +<p>"That's better than perch, deacon."</p> + +<p>"Shall I help you, Port?" asked Corry.</p> + +<p>"No, sir-e-e-e! I'll bring in my own fish."</p> + +<p>"Hand over hand! Don't let him get away from you."</p> + +<p>Port's blood was up, now he had seen that other pickerel landed, and he +pulled with all his might.</p> + +<p>"Now lift," said Vosh. "Don't let him rub his nose against the ice, or +he'll break loose. Don't lean over too far. That's it."</p> + +<p>It was splendidly exciting; and Port followed the directions given him, +although his heart was beating quickly, and he thought he had never +lifted any thing else quite so heavy as that fish.</p> + +<p>"Out he comes!" he shouted.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Port!" said aunt Judith. "It's the biggest one yet."</p> + +<p>So it was; and a proud boy was Porter Hudson when Deacon Farnham +declared that the great fish he had fought so hard with was a +seven-pound pickerel.</p> + +<p>"Now, aunt Judith, it's your turn next."</p> + +<p>"Me, Corry? Me? What could I do with a cretur like that?"</p> + +<p>"I'll help you if you get a big one. Here's your line: you must try."</p> + +<p>She had to be coaxed a little more, but she consented, and Susie herself +took the other line. The fish were biting hungrily; for in less than a +minute aunt Judith gave a little scream and a jerk, and began to pull in +her line; then another little scream and another jerk, and then,—</p> + +<p>"Perch!" she exclaimed. "Ain't I glad it wasn't a pickerel!—Penelope, +you can ketch the rest of my fish for me. I'll just look on."</p> + +<p>Susie's face grew almost pale, as she stood there with her line in her +hand, waiting for something to pull on it.</p> + +<p>"Do they nibble first, Vosh?"</p> + +<p>Hardly were the words out of her mouth, before her line was suddenly +jerked away from her. Vosh had just time to catch hold of the piece of +wood the rest of it was wound upon.</p> + +<p>"I've lost him, I've lost him!"</p> + +<p>"No, you haven't, but he's running pretty well. Guess I'd better snub +him. He'd have cut your fingers with the line if you'd ha' tried."</p> + +<p>Susie's soft white hands were hardly suited to work of that sort, and +they were already getting a little cold. She was quite willing to pick +up her muff, and slip them into it while Vosh pulled in her pickerel for +her. It was a right good one too, only a little less weighty than +Porter's.</p> + +<p>Pen had now taken the line from aunt Judith, and she dropped her hook in +very confidently.</p> + +<p>"There isn't a scrap of bait on it," said Corry.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there? I forgot that. Just wait a minute, and then I'll let you +put some on."</p> + +<p>Corry and the rest began to laugh, but Pen shouted again,—</p> + +<p>"He's nibbling! Now he's biting! Oh, he's bit!"</p> + +<p>So he had, bait or no bait; and she was quite strong enough to pull up a +very handsome perch without help from anybody.</p> + +<p>After that, Deacon Farnham and the boys had the fishing all to +themselves. It was well there was enough of it to make it exciting; for +it was wet, cold, chilly work. The fish were of several sorts and all +sizes; and some of them rubbed themselves free against the icy edges of +the hole, in spite of all that could be done. Before noon there was a +considerable pile of them lying on the ice, and the fun of catching them +had lost a little of its power to keep the cold away.</p> + +<p>Long before the fishermen decided that they had caught enough, Mrs. +Stebbins and aunt Judith and the girls got tired of looking on, and set +out across the ice towards the sleigh and the very attractive-looking +fire. The latter had been well heaped up at first, and was now blazing +vigorously.</p> + +<p>"We must have a good dinner ready for 'em," said aunt Judith when she +turned away,—"all the fish they can eat."</p> + +<p>"You carry one," said Mrs. Stebbins: "I'll take a couple more. The girls +can help. We'll brile 'em, and we'll fry 'em, and we'll roast 'em in the +ashes."</p> + +<p>She tried to think of some other way, but she could not. She and aunt +Judith were excellent cooks, and knew just what to do with fresh fish +and such a fire. It was by no means their first picnic either, and the +right things to cook with had not been left at home. Susie and Pen +entered into the spirit of it with a vast deal of enthusiasm, but they +were quite contented to let the more experienced cooks clean the fish.</p> + +<p>"We're having the splendidest kind of a time, ain't we?" said Pen.</p> + +<p>"Splendid! It's the first winter picnic I ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"I never had one before, but I've heard mother tell of 'em."</p> + +<p>There was plenty to do; and when at last the fishermen gave up dropping +lines through the air-hole, and came plodding slowly back across the +ice, there was all the dinner they could reasonably ask for, hot and +smoking, and ready for them.</p> + +<p>Such noble strings of fish they were dragging after them, and such +hearty appetites they brought to that tempting "spread"!</p> + +<p>There was hot coffee to be drank out of tin cups, fish in several styles +of cookery, crisp fried pork, roasted potatoes, bread and butter, and +last of all was some cold meat that nobody seemed to care for.</p> + +<p>"Will there be any dessert?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith's got some mince-pies warming on the log by the fire."</p> + +<p>"What a dinner for the woods!"</p> + +<p>"Woods! Why, the choppers have fresh fish and potatoes and coffee all +the while, and sometimes they have venison."</p> + +<p>"Game," said Port, "but no pie."</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Susie, "what has become of all your deer?"</p> + +<p>Just at that moment they heard old Ponto barking away at a great rate in +the woods near by; and Vosh sprang up, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"He's treed something!"</p> + +<p>"Guess he has," said the deacon. "Get your guns, boys. Load with +buckshot."</p> + +<p>"Mine's loaded," said Vosh.</p> + +<p>"Mine'll be ready in a minute," said Corry. "Quick now, Port!"</p> + +<p>"Hold on," said the deacon. "We must all have a share in the fun, if +there is any."</p> + +<p>It seemed to Susie and Pen that they could hardly wait for those two +guns to be loaded; and Mrs. Stebbins exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Judith, I do hate a gun; but I'm a-goin' with 'em. Ain't you?"</p> + +<p>"Course I am. Just hark to that there dog!"</p> + +<p>He must have shared in the general impatience, to judge by the noise he +was making; and now there came another and a very curious kind of sound +from that direction.</p> + +<p>"It's a baby crying," said Pen.</p> + +<p>"Or a cat," began Port.</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive!" exclaimed Mrs. Stebbins. "I do believe the critter's gone +and treed a wildcat."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's it," said the deacon.</p> + +<p>It was indeed that precisely.</p> + +<p>They all kept together, as they waded through the snow to a spot about +twenty rods into the woods, from which they could see old Ponto bounding +hither and thither around the trunk of a tall maple-tree that stood by +itself in the middle of an open space in the forest.</p> + +<p>"No other tree handy for him to jump into," said Vosh. "There he is!"</p> + +<p>"Where?" asked aunt Judith.</p> + +<p>"See him? Up there on that big lower limb!"</p> + +<p>"It's a good forty feet from the ground," said the deacon. "Come on, +boys.—All the rest stay here."</p> + +<p>"O Pen!" said Susie, "I do believe I'm afraid. Will he jump?"</p> + +<p>"They'll shoot him down, and then Ponto'll grab him."</p> + +<p>"He'd make short work of one dog, if he once got at him," said Corry. +"Too much for Ponto."</p> + +<p>There was little doubt of that, for it was a wildcat of the very largest +size; not so dangerous an animal as a panther, but a terribly hard +scratcher, and apt to require a great deal of killing.</p> + +<p>He seemed even larger than he really was, as he drew himself up on the +long, bare limb of the tree, and looked down so savagely upon his +barking enemy.</p> + +<p>It may be that the smell of the cookery, particularly of the fish, had +tempted him so near the picnic. Then Ponto had scented him in turn, and +had chased him into that solitary tree.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys," said Deacon Farnham, "all around the tree! Fire as soon as +you can after I do, but keep your second barrels. We may have to give +him more lead, even if we knock him down."</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson knew he was not one bit scared, and wondered why he should +shake so when he tried to lift his gun and take aim. He was sure he +could not shoot straight, and hoped the shot would scatter well.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys!" Bang! went the deacon's gun; and the other three followed, +aim or no aim. The wildcat replied with an angry scream, and began to +tear the bark of the limb with his sharp, strong claws. How they would +have gone through any kind of flesh!</p> + +<p>That was only for a second or so; and then he suddenly gathered himself +for a spring at the spot nearly under him, where Ponto was furiously +barking.</p> + +<p>Alas for the great cat of the woods! Too many buckshot had struck him, +and he fell short of his mark in the snow.</p> + +<p>Vosh had been watching, and he was nearest. Hardly did the wounded +animal reach the snow, before Susie saw Vosh spring forward, and fire +the second barrel of his gun.</p> + +<p>"He's a real brave fellow."</p> + +<p>"So he is," said Pen and aunt Judith; but Mrs. Stebbins was too proud of +her boy to say a word.</p> + +<p>That was very nearly enough. Corry ran forward, and Porter after him, +and the deacon followed; but Ponto was ahead of them all, and it would +not do to fire at any risk of shooting the brave old dog.</p> + +<p>There was no fight left in the wildcat when Ponto's teeth were buried in +his neck; and he therefore had all the fun and glory of a great shaking +and growling and worrying, without any danger of being scratched.</p> + +<p>"Drop him, Ponto, drop him!" said the deacon. "I don't want that skin +spoiled: it's a fine one. We didn't put as many shot into him as I +thought we would."</p> + +<p>He was killed now, surely enough, however, and Vosh could carry him to +the sleigh; and they could all go back, and eat more pie, and talk about +bears and wolves and panthers, till the two girls felt like looking +around at the woods to see if any of that sort of people were coming.</p> + +<p>"We don't need any more fish," said aunt Judith: "we've more'n enough +for the whole neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"No, we don't," said the deacon. "What's more, it looks some like a +snow-storm. We'd best be packing up for home."</p> + +<p>Even that was grand fun; but it seemed almost a pity to leave so good a +fire behind them to burn itself out all alone there in the snow, with +nobody to sit around it, and cook, and tell stories.</p> + +<p>"It's a waste of wood," remarked aunt Judith regretfully.</p> + +<p>If the road had been "all up hill" coming to the lake, it was just as +much all down hill going home again; and that sleigh-ride was about as +good as any other part of the picnic.</p> + +<p>They all thought so until they reached the farmhouse, and found what a +splendid supper Mrs. Farnham had prepared for them. It was very nearly a +wonder to all of them, afterwards, how it was possible they should have +been so very ravenously hungry twice in the selfsame day.</p> + +<p>"I guess it's the picnic," said Pen.</p> + +<p>"No," said Corry, "that wouldn't be enough: it's the wildcat."</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham and the boys spent a great deal of time that evening over +the skin of the wildcat. There was some talk of having it stuffed; but, +on mature deliberation, that idea was given up. One reason was that +nobody in that neighborhood knew how. Aunt Judith doubted if that fine +specimen of wild fur would ever be of any mortal use, but Susie came to +the rescue with an old new idea.</p> + +<p>"Why, aunt Judith," she said, "when it's all finished, there can be a +fringe put on all around, and some strong canvas on the under side, and +it would make a lamp-mat for a centre-table. I saw one once."</p> + +<p>"In the city too? What won't they do next! And I suppose they paid a +high price for it.—Joshaway, you cure the skin, and Sarah and I'll make +a table-rug of it."</p> + +<p>Fresh fish will keep a long time in cold weather, and a good part of the +day's finny harvest was packed away for home consumption in both houses. +Still, after supper, and tired as he was, poor Vosh had to pay one +penalty of so much good luck. He had to hitch up the sorrel, and drive +to the houses of half a dozen neighbors with presents of bass and +pickerel and perch from Mink Lake. That was the very neighborly end of +the grand winter picnic.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>THE DONATION-PARTY.</h3> + + +<p>One of the first things learned by Susie and Porter Hudson, on their +arrival at the farmhouse, had been that the reason why Corry and Pen +were not attending school was that the teacher was sick.</p> + +<p>"Soon as she's well again," said Pen, "we'll have to go. It's too bad, +but she always gets well right away."</p> + +<p>Hard as it was, the very next morning after the picnic, word came to the +farmhouses all over the valley that school was open.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said his mother, "I can't have ye miss a day, not till you know +more'n that there teacher does; and you ort to ketch up with her before +the winter's out."</p> + +<p>Some little plans of Vosh's, in which his horse and cutter had a part, +were upset completely by the teacher's recovery; but the consequences +were even more severe at Deacon Farnham's.</p> + +<p>Corry and Pen were compelled to leave their cousins to take care of +themselves every day till after school-hours. It was not so bad for +Susie, with her two aunts to care for her. There was the milk-room and +the spinning-wheel and the kitchen, and a dozen kinds of knitting to +learn, and there were many good books in the house. It looked a little +blue to Porter at first, but he faced it manfully. He determined not to +spend an hour in the house that he could find a use for out of doors. He +went with the deacon to the cattle-yard and the stables, and he learned +more about horses and cows and oxen than he had supposed there was to +learn.</p> + +<p>The sheep, too, were very interesting; especially one old ram that took +a dislike to him, and was strongly disposed to drive him out of the +sheepfold every time he came in.</p> + +<p>Porter discovered, too, that hens, ducks, turkeys, had to live and be +cared for in winter as well as in summer; and Susie took a share with +him in that part of his work and learning.</p> + +<p>All that, and a great deal more, was close around the house; and it was +a positive treat to make a trip, after a couple of days, to the forest +with his uncle. There was likely to be more snow, the latter said, and +he wanted to do all the chopping and hauling he could before the roads +should be blocked. Port wondered if it would be possible to burn, before +spring, as much wood as there was already in the woodshed; but it just +suited him to go for more.</p> + +<p>The deacon could do the chopping on that and other days, and Port could +be on hand to help him load the sleigh. The rest of the time, he could +be helping Ponto look for game around among the trees and bushes.</p> + +<p>Between them they bagged some more rabbits, and once Port actually fired +both barrels of his gun into a covey of partridges.</p> + +<p>"Three of 'em?" said his uncle when he brought them in. "You'll be a +sportsman yet, if you keep on in this way."</p> + +<p>That was only three days after the Mink-lake picnic, and a proud boy was +Port when Corry and Vosh came home. They were not even to have Saturday +to themselves, for there was lost time to make up over their books.</p> + +<p>Aunt Judith said she had never heard of such a thing when she was young; +and Vosh Stebbins went out to the barn, and sat in his cutter for two +hours, while he worked at his back lessons.</p> + +<p>That Sunday they all went to meeting at Benton Village; and it seemed to +Susie Hudson that all she heard about, except while the minister was +preaching, was "the donation." She was not at all sure but what some of +the ladies were thinking of it during the sermon, from the way they +talked about it afterwards.</p> + +<p>"Pen," she said in the sleigh on their way home, "tell me just what it +is. I've heard about a donation often enough, but I never saw one."</p> + +<p>"Why, don't you know?" exclaimed Pen in great surprise. "Why, a +donation—it's a donation: that's all. It's a kind of a picnic at the +minister's house. Everybody comes, and they all bring something. Only +aunt Judith says some of 'em eat more'n they bring."</p> + +<p>"Shall we all go?"</p> + +<p>"Of course we will. You'll see. It's the nicest kind of a time."</p> + +<p>Susie learned a great deal more during the next two days. Mrs. Farnham +and aunt Judith seemed to be cooking for that "donation" as if there +were likely to be a famine there, especially in the matter of +mince-pies.</p> + +<p>"Elder Evans is a real good man," remarked aunt Judith, "but he ain't +any kind of a pervider. No, nor his wife ain't either. It won't do to +let things go, and have 'em eaten out of house and home."</p> + +<p>They were not likely to be, if the rest of the good people in Benton +Valley sent over such stores of "goodies" as went to the minister's +house, before the day appointed, from Deacon Farnham's.</p> + +<p>"I've done my best," said Mrs. Stebbins to Vosh while she was putting +her contribution into his cutter for transportation, "but Sarah Farnham +and Judith can beat me. Their oven'll hold three times what mine will."</p> + +<p>She went over early in the afternoon, to help Mrs. Evans; and she said +to Vosh, "You needn't mind about my gittin' home. I'll come with Judith +Farnham."</p> + +<p>Perhaps that was why Vosh felt free to say to Susie Hudson, as she stood +at the gate, telling him how nice his horse and cutter looked,—</p> + +<p>"You'll have to go in the deacon's big sleigh with the rest, but you and +I'll have this all to ourselves coming home."</p> + +<p>That was kind of Vosh; and, if there was any thing Susie was fast +learning to like, it was sleighing.</p> + +<p>An old-fashioned, up-country donation-party cannot be altogether an +evening affair. Some of the good people have far to come and go, and +some of them have heavy loads to bring: so they generally begin to +assemble before the middle of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>Susie had seen the minister's house several times. It stood in the edge +of the village, with an immense barn behind it; and it looked, for all +the world, like another large barn, painted very white, with ever so +many windows.</p> + +<p>"Room," she thought, "for all the company that will come." And it was a +good thing for them that she was so nearly right. That crowd would have +been very uncomfortable in a small house.</p> + +<p>When the sleigh-load from Deacon Farnham's got there, there was already +a long line of teams hitched at the roadside in front of the house, +beside all that had found shed and stable accommodations here and there.</p> + +<p>As for Elder Evans's own barn, hay, straw, and all that sort of thing, +formed a regular part of his annual donation. Load after load had come +in and been stowed away, after a fashion that spoke well for either the +elder's popularity or the goodness of the hay-crop.</p> + +<p>There was no intention of letting the good man freeze to death, either, +in a country where wood was to be had almost for the chopping. His +wood-pile was a sight to see, a good hour before supper, and everybody +knew there was more to come.</p> + +<p>Corry explained it all to Porter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he can't eat hay and wood. You say he doesn't get much money."</p> + +<p>That was a little after they entered the house, and while Mrs. Farnham +and Susie were talking with the elder's kind-faced little wife.</p> + +<p>"Eat!" said Corry. "You come right out here with me."</p> + +<p>The sitting-room, back of the parlor, was a large one; but it was nearly +half full of tables of all sorts and sizes, and these were covered with +a feast of such liberal abundance that Porter gave it up at once.</p> + +<p>"Even this crowd can't finish all that in one evening, Corry. Will Elder +Evans's folks live on what's left, for the rest of the year?"</p> + +<p>"Come right along. Vosh is out here. He's one of the receiving +committee."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>Corry led his cousin into the kitchen, and a funny-looking place it was. +Something like a dozen busy ladies were trying to get at the cook-stove +all at the same time; and half as many more were helping Vosh Stebbins +"keep track of things," as they were handed in at the side-door, and +stowed around in all directions.</p> + +<p>"That makes four bushels of onions," Port heard him say, as he and Corry +entered the room. "They're a healthy feed—but then!"</p> + +<p>"One barrel of flour!" said a tall woman standing near him; "but then, +there's ten bushels of wheat."</p> + +<p>"Three bags of meal, and twenty sacks of corn; fifteen bushels of +turnips, twenty of potatoes; one dressed pig; a side of beef; two dozen +chickens."</p> + +<p>"Sam Jones has just driven in with another load of wood."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Beans, the miller at Cobbleville, has sent more buckwheat +flour'n they can use if they settle down to livin' on flapjacks."</p> + +<p>"Five muskrat-skins."</p> + +<p>"Two kags of butter."</p> + +<p>"Hold on," said Vosh, "till I get down the groceries. Jemimy! What'll he +do with so many tallow-dips? and there's more dried apples and +doughnuts."</p> + +<p>It was indeed a remarkable collection, and Porter began to understand +how a "way up country" minister gets his supplies.</p> + +<p>"Port," said Corry a little while after that, "let's go for our supper. +We want to be ready for the fun."</p> + +<p>"What'll that be?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll see."</p> + +<p>Susie had been making a dreadful mistake at that very moment; for she +had asked old Mrs. Jordan, the minister's mother-in-law, if they ever +had any dancing at donation-parties. She told Port afterwards that the +old lady looked pretty nearly scared to death, and that all she said +was,—</p> + +<p>"Dancing, child! Sakes alive!"</p> + +<p>The house was swarming with young people as well as old, and it was of +no manner of use for the leader of the Benton church choir to try and +get them all to singing. A hymn or two went off well enough, and then +they all listened pretty attentively while a quartet sang some glees. By +that time, however, Vosh Stebbins had returned from the kitchen with his +list all made up, and ready for the minister; and he said something to +another young man, older than himself, but no taller, about "those +charades." The music went to the wall, or somewhere else, in about a +minute and a half.</p> + +<p>Susie Hudson had never heard of one-half the games that followed after +the charades. Some of these had been pretty good; but they were hardly +noisy enough for the country boys and girls, and in due time were set +aside like the music. There were forfeits of several kinds, anagrams, +"kiss in the ring," and, after several other things had been proposed +and tried, the parlor was given up to a royal game of blind-man's-buff.</p> + +<p>It was grand fun for the young people; but, while it went on, there +seemed to be every bit as hungry a crowd as ever around the tables in +the sitting-room. As fast as any one came out, somebody else went in.</p> + +<p>"Deacon Farnham," said Vosh in an undertone, "I've seen that oldest Bean +girl eat three suppers already."</p> + +<p>"It's a good thing there's plenty."</p> + +<p>"Biggest kind of a donation. Sile Hathaway's just got here with two +whole deer. Killed 'em on the mountains yesterday."</p> + +<p>The deacon brightened up a little as he responded, "Deer, eh? Well, the +elder won't starve, anyway."</p> + +<p>Susie enjoyed herself exceedingly, but Pen told her,—</p> + +<p>"It's real good of you to laugh right out the way you do. They ain't +half so much afraid of you now as they were when you got here."</p> + +<p>"Afraid of me, Pen?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes: you're a city girl. They ain't a bit afraid of me."</p> + +<p>Vosh overheard that, and he added with a broad grin,—</p> + +<p>"Fact, Susie. Half these fellows'd rather face a wildcat, any day, than +a girl like you, right from the city."</p> + +<p>Susie blushed and laughed, but it was a sort of explanation to her of +some things she had noticed during the evening.</p> + +<p>"Port," said Corry, "let's go out and take a look at Sile Hathaway's +deer. One's a buck, and one's a doe, and they're prime."</p> + +<p>"Is he a hunter?"</p> + +<p>"Guess he is. He'd rather hunt than earn a living, any day. But he's +about the best rifle-shot there is anywhere around here."</p> + +<p>Port felt that such a man had a great claim to public respect, but he +walked on without a word more until they were outside of the +kitchen-door.</p> + +<p>There on the snow lay the fat doe and the antlered buck, and it made +Porter Hudson's very fingers tingle to look on them.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you get 'em, Sile?" asked Corry.</p> + +<p>"Not more'n a mile up this way from Mink Lake; jest whar the split comes +in from towards the old loggin'-camp."</p> + +<p>"How'd you get 'em to the village?"</p> + +<p>"Well, of course I had my pony along. Allers do. Made a pole-drag right +thar. I had two more deer to fetch in, and they wasn't more'n jest a +good load for a drag."</p> + +<p>He was a long, lanky, grizzled sort of man, with keen gray eyes, and a +stoop in his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"What's a pole-drag?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"Why," replied Corry, "all he does is to cut down two saplings, and make +a kind of sled of 'em. It won't last long, but it'll do to haul deer +home. I'll show you one to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Port would have stood and looked at the deer longer if the weather out +there had been warmer, but he half made up his mind to be a hunter while +he was feeling of that buck's antlers. There was something magnetic +about them that sent a hunting-fever all over him.</p> + +<p>At last the pleasant gathering at the minister's house began to break +up. Some sleigh-loads of those who had far to go had already set out for +their homes, and it was well understood that not even the village people +and near neighbors would stay later than ten o'clock. Very likely Elder +Evans and his family would be tired enough to be pleased at once more +having their home to themselves.</p> + +<p>There came at the end a trifle of a surprise to Susie Hudson. The +country-boys grew bolder as breaking-up time drew near; and she was +compelled to inform no less than three of them in succession, when they +offered her a ride home in their own cutters, that she was already +supplied with company.</p> + +<p>She did not happen to see Vosh Stebbins's triumphant grin at one of +these young men when he was turning away to hunt for another girl, but +she better understood why her thoughtful young neighbor had spoken to +her beforehand.</p> + +<p>She learned yet one thing more before she arrived at her uncle's house. +That was, that there were two roads to it, and the one selected by Vosh +for the return drive was several times longer than that by which Deacon +Farnham had driven his big sleigh. The snowy track was everywhere in +fine condition; the sorrel colt was in the best of spirits; the bells +rang out clearly in a ceaseless jingle as the gay little turnout dashed +along: it was altogether a capital winding-up for an evening of genuine +"winter fun" in the country.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of merry talk in the larger sleigh all the way +home. The older people, Mrs. Stebbins included, were in a good state of +mind over the success of the party, and Pen had something to say about +everybody she had seen.</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Port as he nestled down among the buffalo-robes, "is there +any thing up this way that pays better than a donation?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Tell you what, though: they say we're to have a big +spelling-match in about two weeks."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's this way: the Benton school-district takes in all the young +folks around here. The Cobbleville school-district joins ours, only it's +bigger, and there's more of 'em. We're to spell against 'em. It's +tip-top fun; but I'm awfully afraid they'll spell us down. They did last +year, and the year before."</p> + +<p>"Can Susie and I go?"</p> + +<p>"Of course you can. We've a right to count in anybody that's living in +our district."</p> + +<p>"I'm in, then. I live here."</p> + +<p>"Will Susie come? She ought to be a good speller. The day isn't set yet. +They were talking it over to-night. We'll have to go to Cobbleville: +they've got the biggest meeting-house."</p> + +<p>"Meeting-house? What for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to hold the match in. It'll be jam full, too, galleries and all. +Everybody comes out to a spelling-match. You'll see."</p> + +<p>Port had no end of questions to ask; but he felt that he was becoming a +country-boy very fast, and that he already had a strong interest in +upholding the honor of the Benton school-district.</p> + +<p>"Susie?" he said. "Why, of course she'll go. She can spell any thing."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE WORD-BATTLE AT COBBLEVILLE.</h3> + + +<p>Penelope was in bed and asleep when Susie returned from the donation. So +long a road home as Vosh Stebbins had selected, had required time to +travel over it; and Mrs. Farnham had vetoed Pen's proposal to sit up. +When they all reached the breakfast-table in the morning, there was a +great deal to talk about, but it was not long before the spelling-match +came up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! Susie," said Pen, "I was going to tell you all about it. You +know how to spell."</p> + +<p>"They say we can be counted in among the Benton spellers," began Port; +but there was a very serious look on Susie's face as she said to him,—</p> + +<p>"I promised to go; but then, to think of being spelled down!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Susie!" exclaimed Pen, "where did you hear of it?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't she at the donation?" asked Corry. "Didn't she ride home with +Vosh Stebbins? Guess she's heard as much as anybody."</p> + +<p>That was not a bad guess; but it soon appeared that Susie was as much in +earnest over the results of the match as if she were a regular +Benton-valley settler, instead of a mere visitor.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of enthusiasm warming up, but Deacon Farnham seemed +inclined to throw cold water on their hope of victory. He reminded them +of the disastrous manner in which their district champions had already +been defeated twice in succession.</p> + +<p>"They've had a pretty good teacher, too, all winter," he said.</p> + +<p>"So've we," said Corry; "and some of us have been putting in on our +spelling more'n any thing else."</p> + +<p>"That's good. Maybe they have too. I shouldn't wonder if Vosh was the +best man you've got."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he is, and perhaps he isn't. Anyhow, we're going to have fair +play this time. Their teacher isn't going to put out the words. There'll +be a committee."</p> + +<p>"That's better; but I'm afraid there won't be any prize brought back to +this valley."</p> + +<p>"It's a splendid prize!" exclaimed Pen,—"a great big dixinary."</p> + +<p>"A dictionary, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Port; "and all the words spelled are to be given out from +it."</p> + +<p>"Any kind of words?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly. They must be just such words as people use, but they can +be as long as they can find in the book."</p> + +<p>"That won't hurt one side more'n it will the other," said Mrs. Farnham.</p> + +<p>"Besides," said Pen, "more of us had to sit down on short words than +long ones last year."</p> + +<p>"Sit down?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"When they missed. You'll see when you get there," replied Corry. "It's +awful to sit down on a mistake, with a whole meeting-house full of +people looking at you and laughing."</p> + +<p>"I should say it was."</p> + +<p>There were four pairs of eyes in that one house, right away after +breakfast, busy over the long rows of words in some spelling-books, and +wondering if there were any there they had forgotten.</p> + +<p>"I knew 'em all once," said Pen; "but they always look different when +you're told 'em from the pulpit."</p> + +<p>Over at the Stebbins homestead it was very much the same.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said his mother, "you was a dreadful long time at the barn."</p> + +<p>"Well, mother, I staid till I'd spelled over every thing I could see. +There's a good many names to things around a stable, and I spelled every +one of 'em."</p> + +<p>"Did you git 'em right, Vosh?"</p> + +<p>"Guess I did."</p> + +<p>"Would it do ye any good to have some other kind of spellin'-book, so +you'd know more words?"</p> + +<p>"That isn't the trouble, mother. It kind o' seems to me I know so many +now, I can't remember half of 'em."</p> + +<p>"Don't you git spelled down, now, Vosh. You won't, will ye, not with +Susie Hudson and her brother a-lookin' on?"</p> + +<p>Vosh's face put on a pretty sober expression as he muttered,—</p> + +<p>"Guess I wouldn't like that."</p> + +<p>The quiet winter days went by rapidly, and nothing came in them to +interrupt in any way the steadily growing excitement over the great +spelling-match.</p> + +<p>All the arrangements for it were discussed over and over, until at last +there was nothing more to be settled, and the set day came.</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Port, when the sleigh drove to the door after supper, and +they were hurrying on their overcoats, "seems to me I couldn't spell the +shortest word I ever heard."</p> + +<p>"If you get scared, you'll miss, sure's you live. Now, Port, we've just +got to beat 'em."</p> + +<p>Vosh and his cutter came up at that moment, and Mrs. Stebbins stepped +out with the remark,—</p> + +<p>"Deacon, you must make room for me. I'll swop with Susie. I want a talk +with Judith and Sarah."</p> + +<p>"Come, Susie," said Vosh. "I've been teaching my colt to spell."</p> + +<p>There was no spare room in the big sleigh, for the farmhouse was left in +charge of Ponto and the hired man.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith would not for any thing have missed hearing +for themselves how Penelope and Coriolanus, and Susie and Porter, +managed their long words at Cobbleville.</p> + +<p>The red cutter was jingling away down the road before the black span was +in motion, but somehow the two sets of passengers reached Cobbleville at +about the same time. Eight miles of excellent sleighing does not last +long before fast horses, and there was to be no such thing as being +late.</p> + +<p>"This is Cobbleville, Susie."</p> + +<p>"It's not so much bigger than Benton. I don't believe we shall be +beaten."</p> + +<p>Something like that same suggestion cheered up Porter Hudson a little, +as the deacon drove into the village; but the faces of Pen and Corry +were very serious. There was a great trial before them, and they knew +it,—a very great trial; for the tall-steepled, white-painted +meeting-house in the middle of the village-green was hardly large enough +to hold the crowd which was now pouring into it. The people had come +from miles and miles all over the country; and those of the Cobbleville +district were not only the more numerous, but seemed to be in a sort of +exultation over a victory they were sure to win.</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham and his party managed to secure seats, and then they +could look around them. Up on the platform, behind the pulpit-desk, were +several very dignified gentlemen; and it did the Benton people good to +see Elder Evans among them.</p> + +<p>"He's come to see fair play," whispered Corry. "He won't let 'em put out +any words they ought not to. Our chance is good."</p> + +<p>That was encouraging; and at that very moment Elder Evans arose, and +came forward to say to his own parishioners,—</p> + +<p>"Some of our friends of the Cobbleville district have visitors among +their young people, and the committee have consented to their taking +part in the exercises."</p> + +<p>"That fixes you and Susie all right," said Corry. "They can't object to +you now."</p> + +<p>Of course not; and the other final arrangements were speedily completed.</p> + +<p>It was simple enough, or would have been if there had not been so many +boys and girls who had not learned to stand still. The pews and the +galleries, all but a few of the very forward pews, were given up to the +general public.</p> + +<p>The young folk from the Benton district were made to stand in the +right-hand aisle, in a line that reached from the platform to the door. +The other aisle belonged to Cobbleville, and its line of spellers came +near being a double one.</p> + +<p>"Two to our one, Port," said Corry; "but they'll thin out fast enough +after we begin to spell."</p> + +<p>There was no such thing as selecting places at first. The spelling began +at the head of each line, alternating from one to the other. If the +speller missed, he or she sat down wherever a seat could be found; but, +as fast as words were spelled rightly, their happy victors were entitled +to march to the heads of their lines, and so these were kept continually +in motion. It was a proud thing to walk up the whole length of that +meeting-house again and again, but it was not so proud to walk down the +aisle hunting for a seat.</p> + +<p>"I see how it is," said Port.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's great fun; and the last one up gets the dictionary."</p> + +<p>It had been agreed that neither of the school-teachers should give out +the words, and Elder Evans had modestly insisted that the pastor of the +Cobbleville church should perform that duty.</p> + +<p>"Won't he kill 'em off, though!" exclaimed Corry dolefully.</p> + +<p>"Won't he play fair?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, he'll be honest enough, I s'pose. But then he pronounces so! +Wait till you hear him."</p> + +<p>It was about time to begin, and the two boys and Pen found themselves +quite a little distance down the line below Vosh and Susie.</p> + +<p>"That's Elder Keyser. Oh, but isn't that a big dictionary! Hush! he's +giving out a word."</p> + +<p>Nobody needed to be told that, for it was given in a deep, very heavy +voice, that was heard all over the house; but Port at once understood +all about Elder Keyser's pronunciation.</p> + +<p>The poor word was in a manner tumbled neck and heels out of the good +man's mouth, with a sort of vocal kick to hurry it; and there were +chances of serious injury to any syllable that should happen to stumble.</p> + +<p>"Hypocrite!" shouted the elder to the curly-headed youngster at the head +of the Cobbleville line.</p> + +<p>"H-i-p"—</p> + +<p>"That'll do. Give an example, and take your seat."</p> + +<p>"Example," piped the boy, "puttin' a bad cent in the contribution-box."</p> + +<p>"Next. Hypocrite."</p> + +<p>The bright little girl at the head of the Benton aisle spelled it +correctly, and Elder Evans raised his head high to smile on her.</p> + +<p>The words were now given out with something like rapidity; and there was +a constant stream of boys and girls walking up the aisles, and of others +coming in the opposite directions. Every one of the latter seemed to be +muttering,—</p> + +<p>"I knew that word just as well!"</p> + +<p>It was well that the front pews had been kept for unlucky spellers; but +a seat in one of them was hardly looked upon as a prize.</p> + +<p>"Port," said Corry gleefully, "they're thinning out fast. Think of a +girl and two boys going down on such a word as 'rotation'!"</p> + +<p>"Was that it? I thought he said 'rundition;' and I'd never seen it +anywhere. He'll stumble me, sure's you live."</p> + +<p>It was nearly their turn; and they one after the other felt a ton or so +lighter when they were able to march to the front, instead of going to +find seats.</p> + +<p>Before that, however, Elder Keyser had thrown as hard a word as he could +find at the head of Vosh Stebbins.</p> + +<p>"Glad he had to say it slow," thought Vosh. "Guess he never tried it +before. I can do it."</p> + +<p>He was safe for the time, and the next Cobbleville boy went down on an +easy word that then came across to Susie. She was conscious of a great +deal of red in her face; but she spelled it clearly and correctly, and +that sent her to the head, and next to Vosh again.</p> + +<p>Twice more around, and the lines of young people in the aisles were not +nearly so long as at first.</p> + +<p>There had been, moreover, an almost continual roar of laughter over the +examples of use given by the unfortunates.</p> + +<p>Hardly were Port and Corry safe on the second round, before Elder Keyser +blurted out to the next boy a word that sounded like—</p> + +<p>"Ber'l."</p> + +<p>"Bar'l, b-a-r-r"—</p> + +<p>"That'll do. Example?"</p> + +<p>"A bar'l of flour."</p> + +<p>"Next. Ber'l."</p> + +<p>"Ber'l, b-e-r-y-l."</p> + +<p>"Down. Wrong. Example?"</p> + +<p>"Beryl, a precious stone;" and the blushing damsel sorrowfully slipped +aside into one of the front pews.</p> + +<p>"Next. Ber'l."</p> + +<p>"Berril, b-u-r-r-i-a-l."</p> + +<p>"Wrong. Down. Example?"</p> + +<p>"Berril, the berril of Surgeon Moore. I've heerd 'em sing it."</p> + +<p>That boy sat down; but the young lady opposite spelled "burial" +correctly, even if she pronounced it "burriel."</p> + +<p>Once more round; and now Cobbleville could show barely twenty, and the +Benton district hardly a baker's dozen.</p> + +<p>"We're getting 'em," chuckled Corry. "They've lost some of their best +spellers on old Keyser's pronunciation."</p> + +<p>Alas for Corry! His turn came to him next upon a word the sound of which +he was sure he caught.</p> + +<p>"Stood, s-t-oo-d."</p> + +<p>"Wrong. Down. Example?"</p> + +<p>"Stewed, then!" roared Corry in undisguised vexation. "Example: 'The boy +stewed on the burning deck.'"</p> + +<p>"Next." The word sounded a little shorter this time; and the Cobbleville +champion, whose turn it was, began,—</p> + +<p>"Stud, s-t-u-d."</p> + +<p>"Wrong. Down. Example?"</p> + +<p>"One of my shirt-studs;" and down he went in a great roar of laughter, +while Porter Hudson took the hint Corry's "example" had given him, and +went to the head again on "stewed."</p> + +<p>The rounds went by rapidly now; and each one sent down somebody in +disgrace, while the excitement of the audience was visibly increasing.</p> + +<p>"Susie," whispered Vosh, "we've got as many left standing as they have. +Keyser's killing 'em off fast, though."</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm afraid of."</p> + +<p>"Don't spell a word till you know what it is, even if you have to ask +him."</p> + +<p>"I'd never dare do that."</p> + +<p>"I would, then."</p> + +<p>She was just above him, and in another moment her trial came. Vosh saw +the puzzled, troubled expression on her face, and he came to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Elder Keyser," he sang out, "was that word 'mystery,' or 'mastery,' or +'monastery,' or was it 'mercy'? There's a difference in the spelling of +'em."</p> + +<p>"Silence!"</p> + +<p>"Silence, s-i-l-e-n-c-e," gravely spelled Susie, while the whole +meeting-house rang with the applause that greeted her.</p> + +<p>"Next. Spell 'misery,'" sharply exclaimed Elder Keyser; and a very +pretty young lady of Cobbleville was so far disconcerted by the +suddenness of it, that she actually began,—</p> + +<p>"Misery, m-i-z"—</p> + +<p>"Wrong. Down. Example?"</p> + +<p>"Misery—ah! nothing to eat."</p> + +<p>Susie was safe for that round; and in the next Elder Keyser was almost +spitefully slow and correct in uttering the word he gave her.</p> + +<p>During all that time, the older people from the farmhouse had been +watching the course of events with no small degree of exultation over +the success of their young representatives.</p> + +<p>Corry had joined them, and about his first remark was,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, but won't old Keyser be a popular man in Cobbleville after +to-night! He'd better go in for a donation. Half the boys in the +village'd like to snowball him on his way home."</p> + +<p>The game grew closer. Barely six on a side, when Corry exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"That cross-eyed girl's down! She was the best speller they had last +year. Too bad, too. She spelled 'bunch,' when what old Keyser said was +'bench.' It's a good deal too much to have to guess at what's in his +mouth, and then spell it."</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" exclaimed aunt Judith a moment later. "Here comes Pen."</p> + +<p>"Such luck she's had!" said Corry. "Nothing harder than 'melon' since +she began. Now it's Port's turn. Here he comes."</p> + +<p>"Port," said Mrs. Farnham, "what was that word?"</p> + +<p>"'Baratry,' and I thought he said 'battery;' and that long-necked +Cobbleville boy said 'bartery,' and gave 'swopping jackknives' for an +example."</p> + +<p>It could not last much longer now.</p> + +<p>"There!" exclaimed Mrs. Stebbins, "if my Vosh ain't all alone on our +side! O Lavawjer!"</p> + +<p>"O Susie!" groaned Port, "to think of her spelling 'elopement' without +any middle 'e'!"</p> + +<p>She had done it by a slip of the tongue, and, when asked for an example, +stammered out,—</p> + +<p>"Elopement, a runaway," and left Vosh to fight what there was left of +Cobbleville. There would have been three against him, if a bright boy +had not forgotten how many "l's" there should be in "traveller," and +then given himself for an example as he shot away down the aisle.</p> + +<p>Vosh knew how to spell "traveller;" and the next word went across the +house to be spelled as "porringer," when all the elder wanted was +"porridge."</p> + +<p>"Two left," said Mrs. Stebbins,—"that there dumpy gal and my Vosh."</p> + +<p>"She's one of the smartest girls in all Cobbleville," said Corry.</p> + +<p>"She ain't as smart as my Vosh."</p> + +<p>Opinions might vary on a point like that; and every time the +healthy-looking young lady whom Mrs. Stebbins so unkindly described as +"dumpy" spelled a word correctly, her conduct was approved by +Cobbleville in a rousing round of applause. All that Vosh's friends +could do for him was as nothing to it, but he had his revenge. On the +fourth word, after they were left alone, the applause began too soon.</p> + +<p>The healthy young lady remembered too well the nature of Susie Hudson's +blunder, and she rashly inserted an unnecessary "e" in "fusibility."</p> + +<p>"Wrong. Down. Example?"</p> + +<p>"Fusibility—example!"—a long, confused hesitation—"butter, sir."</p> + +<p>And the hasty multitude of Cobbleville had been loudly cheering the +unlucky "e" which the triumphant Vosh the next moment very carefully +omitted.</p> + +<p>Didn't Benton cheer then!</p> + +<p>"Vosh has got the dictionary!" all but shouted his happy mother. "I +declare, I'll read it through."</p> + +<p>"If she does," whispered Corry to Port, "she'll never stop talking again +as long as she lives."</p> + +<p>"She'd have all the words she'd need to keep her a-going."</p> + +<p>The ceremony of presenting the prize was gracefully turned over to Elder +Evans by his reverend friend and the committee. The good man seemed to +take a special pleasure in delivering so very large a book to "a young +member of his own flock," as he expressed it. It must be confessed that +Vosh looked more than a little "sheepish" when he walked forward, and +held out his hands for the prize.</p> + +<p>The great spelling-match was over, and the crowd of old and young +spectators began to disperse.</p> + +<p>Before the Cobbleville boys could make up their minds clearly whether it +was their duty to snowball Elder Keyser or the Benton-district folk, the +latter were mostly on their way home.</p> + +<p>"Susie," said Vosh, as he stowed the dictionary carefully away in the +red cutter, "I wish you'd won it."</p> + +<p>"I'm real glad I didn't, then. Our side beat, and that's quite enough +for me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>AN OLD-FASHIONED SNOW.</h3> + + +<p>There had been several light and fleecy falls of snow since the arrival +of the "city cousins" at the farmhouse, but they had been only about +enough to keep the sleighing in good order. The weather was bracingly +cold; but, for all that, aunt Judith more than once felt called upon to +remark,—</p> + +<p>"The winters nowadays ain't nothin' at all to what they used to be."</p> + +<p>"We'll have more snow yet," said the deacon. "Don't you be afraid."</p> + +<p>"Snow, Joshaway! Well, if you've forgotten, I haven't. I've seen this +place of ourn jest snowed in for days and days, so't you couldn't git to +the village at all till the roads was broke."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins had had a great deal more to say about it, all in the same +strain; and the only consolation seemed to be, in the language of Deacon +Farnham,—</p> + +<p>"It's the best kind of a winter for the lumbermen. The choppers haven't +had to lose a day of time, and the haulin's the best you ever heard tell +of."</p> + +<p>Just snow enough, and no more. That sort of thing was not to be securely +counted on, however, as they were all about to learn. The very Saturday +after the spelling-match, the morning opened with a sort of haze +creeping over the north-eastern sky.</p> + +<p>It seemed to drift down from somewhere among the mountains, and by noon +the snow began to fall.</p> + +<p>"Boys," said the deacon, "it's going to be a big one this time, real +old-fashioned sort. We must get out the shovels, and keep the paths +open."</p> + +<p>It hardly seemed necessary to do any shovelling yet; but the white +flakes fell faster and faster, hour after hour, and night came on +earlier than usual.</p> + +<p>"Now, Port," said Corry, "if you and I know what's good for ourselves, +we'll lay in all the wood we'll need for to-morrow and next day. Every +thing'll be snowed clean under."</p> + +<p>"That's so, but I wouldn't ha' missed seeing it come."</p> + +<p>Neither would Susie; and she and Pen watched it from the sitting-room +windows, while even aunt Judith came and stood beside them, and +declared,—</p> + +<p>"There, now, that's something like;" and Mrs. Farnham remarked in a tone +of exultation,—</p> + +<p>"You never saw any thing like that in the city, Susie."</p> + +<p>"Never, aunt Sarah. It's splendid. It's the grandest snow-storm I ever +heard of."</p> + +<p>There was very little wind as yet, and the fluttering flakes lay still +where they fell.</p> + +<p>"All the snow that couldn't get down before is coming now," said Pen. +"There's ever so much of it. I like snow."</p> + +<p>More and more of it; and the men and boys came in from the barns after +supper as white as so many polar bears, to stamp and laugh and be +brushed till the color of their clothes could be seen.</p> + +<p>Then the wind began to rise, and the whole family felt like gathering +closely around the fireplace; and the flames poured up the wide chimney +as if they were ready to fight that storm.</p> + +<p>The boys cracked nuts, and popped corn, and played checkers. The deacon +read his newspaper. Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith plied their knitting. +Susie showed Pen how to crochet a tidy. It was very cosey and +comfortable; but all the while they could hear blast after blast, as +they came howling around the house, and hurled the snow fiercely against +the windows.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it grand?" said Port at last. "But we'll have some shovelling to +do in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Guess we will!"</p> + +<p>"And you'll have a good time getting to school."</p> + +<p>"School! If this keeps on all night, there won't be any going to meeting +to-morrow, let alone school on Monday."</p> + +<p>It did keep on all night; and the blinding drifts were whirling before +the wind with a gustier sweep than ever, when the farmhouse people +peered out at them next morning.</p> + +<p>Every shovel they could furnish a pair of hands for had to be at work +good and early, and the task before them had a kind of impossible look +about it.</p> + +<p>The cattle and sheep and horses had all been carefully sheltered. Even +the poultry had received special attention from their human protectors. +They were all sure to be found safe and warm, but the difficulty now was +in finding them at all.</p> + +<p>There was a drift nearly ten feet high between the house and the pigpen, +and a worse one was piled up over the gate leading into the barnyard.</p> + +<p>How those pigs did squeal, while they impatiently waited for the +breakfast which was so very long in coming!</p> + +<p>"They're nearest, father," said Corry. "Hadn't we better stop that +noise, first thing we do?"</p> + +<p>"You and Port go for them."</p> + +<p>They dug away manfully at that drift, or, rather, at the hole they meant +to make through it, while the grown-up shovellers toiled in the +direction of the barnyard-gate.</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Port, "don't you think this is pretty hard work for Sunday +morning?"</p> + +<p>"Those pigs don't know any thing about Sunday. The cows don't either. +They get hungry, just the same."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose it's all right."</p> + +<p>"Right! You trust father for that. He says the Lord made Sunday, and the +Lord sent the snow, and we needn't worry about it. The Lord wants all +his cattle fed regularly."</p> + +<p>"Did your father say that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard him saying it to aunt Judith."</p> + +<p>"It's all right, then. But don't you think it's pretty hard work for any +kind of day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it's fun. Hear those pigs! They know we're coming."</p> + +<p>It sounded a great deal as if the hungry quadrupeds in the pen were +explaining their condition to all the outside world, or trying to, and +cared very little how much work it might cost to bring them their +breakfast.</p> + +<p>Their neighbors in the stables and barn made less fuss about the matter, +but they had even longer to wait. Before the great drift at the gate +could be conquered, it was breakfast-time for human beings, and there +was never a morning when coffee and hot cakes seemed more perfectly +appropriate.</p> + +<p>While the human workers were busy at the breakfast-table, the snow and +wind did not take any resting spell, but kept right on, doing their best +to restore the damaged drifts.</p> + +<p>"Susie," said Port, "doesn't this make you think of Lapland?"</p> + +<p>"Or Greenland, or Siberia?"</p> + +<p>"Tell you what," said Corry, "I don't believe the Russians get any thing +much better than this."</p> + +<p>"If they do," said aunt Judith, "I don't want to live there. There won't +be any going to meeting to-day."</p> + +<p>"Meeting!" exclaimed the deacon. "There'll be a dozen big drifts between +this and the village. All hands'll have to turn out to breaking roads, +soon as the storm lets up."</p> + +<p>No end of it was reached that day; but the barn was reached, and all the +quadrupeds and bipeds were found, safe and hungry, and were carefully +attended to.</p> + +<p>"We sha'n't get into the woods again right away," said Corry; and he was +right about that, but there was a thoughtful look on Susie's face as she +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"I wonder how Mrs. Stebbins is getting along. There's nobody there but +Vosh."</p> + +<p>"He's a worker," said the deacon. "He's very strong for his +age,—likeliest youngster in the whole valley. We can't get over there +to-day, but we will to-morrow."</p> + +<p>That had indeed been a busy time for Vosh, hard and late as he had +worked the night before; and his mother came out to help him.</p> + +<p>"It ain't no time to talk, Lavawjer," she said to him; "but I do wish I +knowed how the deacon's folks was a-gettin' on. They must be pretty nigh +snowed under."</p> + +<p>"Guess they're all right, but it'll give Susie and Port some notion of +what snow can do in the country."</p> + +<p>Away on into the night the great northern gusts worked steadily; but +towards morning it seemed as if the storm decided that it had done +enough, and it began to subside. Now and then it again took hold as if +it had still a drift or so to finish; but by sunrise every thing was +still and calm and wonderfully white.</p> + +<p>"This'll be a working-day, I guess," said the deacon; "but all the paths +we make'll stay made."</p> + +<p>There was some comfort in that; for all they had made on Sunday had to +be shovelled out again, and the pigs were as noisy as ever.</p> + +<p>The deacon insisted on digging out every gate so it would swing wide +open; and all the paths were made wide and clear, walled high on either +side with tremendous banks of snow. It was after dinner, and the workers +were getting a little weary of it, before they could open the +front-gate.</p> + +<p>Susie was watching them from the windows, and Pen was in the front-yard, +vigorously punching a snow-bank with a small shovel, when aunt Judith +suddenly exclaimed right over Susie's shoulder,—</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive! There's somethin' a-stirrin' in the road. What can it +be?—Sarah, call to Joshaway! There's a human critter out there in the +snow."</p> + +<p>Susie almost held her breath, for there was surely a commotion in the +great drift a few rods beyond the gate. The boys saw it too, and they +and the deacon and the hired man began to shout, as if shouting would +help a fellow in a deep snow.</p> + +<p>"Father," said Corry, "shall we go and see who it is?"</p> + +<p>"Not as long as he can thrash around like that. He'll get through."</p> + +<p>"He's gone away under," said Port. "There he comes—no, he's under +again. It's awful deep."</p> + +<p>"He'll be smothered."</p> + +<p>Susie was watching that commotion in the snow as she had never watched +any thing before, and just then a fleecy head came out on this side of +the high drift.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith!—Aunt Sarah!—It's Vosh Stebbins!"</p> + +<p>"They're all snowed under, and he's come through to tell us. Oh, dear!"</p> + +<p>"Hurrah, boys!"</p> + +<p>There was nothing at all doleful in the ringing shout Vosh sent towards +the house the moment he got the snow out of his mouth.</p> + +<p>"Have you got any snow at your house? There's more'n we want up our way. +Let ye have loads of it, and not charge a cent."</p> + +<p>"Come on, Vosh," said the deacon. "How'd you find the roads?"</p> + +<p>"Sleighin' enough to last all summer, if you don't waste it. More like +swimming than walking."</p> + +<p>"I'd say it was. Come on in and warm yourself."</p> + +<p>Both the boys were brushing the snow from him as soon as he got to the +gate, and all the women-folk were out on the stoop to welcome him. Aunt +Judith talked as fast as his own mother could have done, and insisted on +his sitting down before the fireplace while she brought him a cup of +coffee, and a glass of currant-wine, and a piece of pie, and then she +said she would make him some pepper-tea.</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Farnham," said Vosh, "I ain't hurt a bit."</p> + +<p>"And your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Never was better; but she was worried about you folks, and I said I'd +come over and see.—Susie, did you know it'd been snowing a little out +of doors?"</p> + +<p>"How did you ever get through?"</p> + +<p>"I just burrowed most of the way, like a wood-chuck."</p> + +<p>"You can't go back by the same hole," chuckled Corry.</p> + +<p>"I could if it was there. Guess I won't stay long, though: mother'll be +afraid I'm lost in the drift."</p> + +<p>He was right about that; and, after a few minutes of merry talk, they +all gathered at the front-gate to see him plunge in again.</p> + +<p>"He'll get through," said the deacon. "There's the makin' of a man in +Vosh. He goes right straight ahead into any thing."</p> + +<p>The last thing he had said before starting was,—</p> + +<p>"All Benton Valley'll be out a-breakin' roads to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"That's so," said the deacon; but, after Vosh had gone, he added, "and +snow-ploughs won't be of any kind of use."</p> + +<p>"How'll we work it?" said Corry.</p> + +<p>"Teams and sleds. It'll be a tough job, and the roads'll be pretty rough +for a while."</p> + +<p>"Corry," said Port, "how'll they do it,—cart the snow away?"</p> + +<p>"Where'd they cart it to? You just wait and see."</p> + +<p>They were all tired enough to go to bed early, but the first rays of +daylight next morning saw them all rushing out again. Port felt a little +stiff and sore, but he determined to do his part at road-breaking.</p> + +<p>The snow lay pretty level in the roads, for the greater part; and you +could see the top rails of the fences here and there, enough to go by.</p> + +<p>A little after breakfast the wide gate was swung open, and then the +deacon's hired man came down the lane, driving the black team at a sharp +trot, with the wood-sleigh behind them.</p> + +<p>Faster, faster, through the gate, and out into the snow, with a chorus +of shouts to urge them on.</p> + +<p>The spirited, powerful fellows reared and plunged and snorted; but +before long they seemed almost disposed to call it fun, and enjoy it.</p> + +<p>"Up the road first!" shouted the deacon. "We'll break that way till we +get beyond Stebbins's."</p> + +<p>There was work for men and boys, as well as horses; and the snow-shovels +were plied rapidly behind the plunging team. Porter Hudson quickly +understood that a great deal of road could be opened in such a way as +that, if all the farmers turned out to do it. They were likely to; for +none of them could afford to be blocked in, and public opinion would +have gone pretty sharply against any man who dodged his share of such +important work as that.</p> + +<p>It was hardest on the horses, willingly as they went at it; and at the +end of an hour or so the deacon brought out his second team, a pair of +strong brown plough-horses. When they were tired, out came the best yoke +of oxen; and it was fun enough to see the great, clumsy creatures, all +but buried in a deep drift, slowly but strongly shouldering their way +forward, and every now and then trying to turn around and get out of the +scrape.</p> + +<p>"A skittish yoke wouldn't do," said Corry. "They wouldn't move any way +but backwards."</p> + +<p>Long before that, the road had been opened "beyond Stebbins's," and Vosh +had joined them with his snow-shovel. His paths were all in a condition +that spoke well for his industry, and the deacon told him so. Mrs. +Stebbins was at the gate, and she remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Tell ye what, deacon, if you think my Vosh can't do any thing but spell +for dixinaries, you're mistaken. He's a worker, he is."</p> + +<p>"That's so."</p> + +<p>But there was no need of his saying much more, for there in the road +behind him were Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith, and Susie and Pen; and you +could have heard every voice among them, till the front-door shut behind +the last one.</p> + +<p>That was Pen, and her last word had been a shout to Vosh in the road:—</p> + +<p>"We've got more snow in our front-yard than you have, anyhow."</p> + +<p>They were now pushing their work towards the village, and could already +catch glimpses of other "gangs," as Vosh called them, here and there +down the road. In some places, where the snow was not so deep, they made +"turnouts" wide enough for loaded sleighs to pass each other.</p> + +<p>"If we didn't," said Vosh, "one team'd have to lie down and let the +other drive over it."</p> + +<p>He could not tell Port that he had ever seen that done, but he added, +"I've had to burrow through a drift, team and all, when there wasn't any +turnout made."</p> + +<p>That was very much like what they had been doing all day, and they kept +it up through all the next; but, when Tuesday night came, it was pretty +clear that "the roads were open." A sleigh came up from Benton with a +man in it who had business with the deacon, and who had some remarkable +yarns to tell about the depth of the drifts on the other side of the +valley.</p> + +<p>"Deacon Paulding's house was just drifted clean under, barns and all. He +had to make a kind of a tunnel to his stable, before he could fodder his +critters."</p> + +<p>"You don't say!" exclaimed aunt Judith. "Snowed under! I've known that +to happen any number of times when I was a girl. Good big houses too; +not little hencoops of things, like that there house of old Deacon +Paulding's. He's a small specimen too. He'd need a tunnel to git through +most any thin'. I must say, though, this 'ere's a right good +old-fashioned snow, to come in these days."</p> + +<p>It was new-fashioned enough to Porter and Susie, and the former +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, but won't there be some water when all this begins to melt!"</p> + +<p>Others were thinking of that very thing, for the sun had been very +bright all day. It was brighter still on the day that followed; and +towards night a dull, leaden fog arose in the west, for the sun to go +down in.</p> + +<p>"Father," said Mrs. Farnham, "do you think there's more snow coming?"</p> + +<p>"Guess not, Sarah. It looks more like a rain and a thaw."</p> + +<p>"There's most always a thaw in February, but it 'pears as if it was a +little early in the month."</p> + +<p>So it was, and the weather made a sort of failure for once. To be sure, +there were several hours next day when the winter seemed to have let go +its hold, and while a dull, slow, cold rain came pouring down upon the +snow-drifts. They settled under it a little sullenly, and then the wind +shifted to the north-east, and it grew cold enough for anybody.</p> + +<p>"I've known it to do that very thing when I was a girl," said aunt +Judith. "There'll be the awfullest kind of a crust."</p> + +<p>"Glad we had all our breaking done before this came," said her brother. +"It'd be heavy work to do now."</p> + +<p>The hard frost of that night was followed by a crisp and bracing +morning, and aunt Judith's prophecy was fulfilled. The crust over the +great snow-fall was strong enough to bear the weight of a man almost +anywhere.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" shouted Corry, as he climbed a drift, and walked away towards +the open field beyond. "We'll have some fun now."</p> + +<p>"What kind of fun?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"What kind? Well, all kinds,—sliding down hill, snow-shoeing in the +woods, all sorts of things."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for all that!"</p> + +<p>"Boys!" shouted Vosh from the front-gate, "the mill-pond was flooded +yesterday, and it's frozen hard now. There's acres and acres of the best +skating you ever heard of, glary as a pane of glass."</p> + +<p>There was a shout then that brought aunt Judith and Susie to the window, +and Porter was saying to himself,—</p> + +<p>"Well, I am glad we brought along our skates, after all. There'll be a +chance to use 'em."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>GRAND COASTING.</h3> + + +<p>Vosh Stebbins got home from school very early Friday afternoon, and his +chores were attended to in a great hurry.</p> + +<p>After that, his mother's mind was stirred to the curiosity point by an +unusual amount of hammering out in the barn. He was a good deal of a +mechanical genius, or, as she expressed it, "he had a nateral turn for +tools;" and he had more than once astonished her by the results of his +hammering. When, however, she asked him what he was up to, all she could +get from him was,—</p> + +<p>"I tell you what, mother, I'm going to show 'em a new wrinkle. Wait till +morning. 'Tisn't quite ready yet."</p> + +<p>"You'd ort to tell me, Vosh. Mebbe I could give you some idees."</p> + +<p>He was very close-mouthed for once, however, and it may be he had some +doubts about his own "idees."</p> + +<p>The Benton boys and girls had not learned to say "coasting:" they all +called it "sliding down hill." But the country they lived in had been +planned expressly for it. The hills around the valley were steeper in +some places than in others, but the roads generally had to wind more or +less in climbing them. There was not enough of travelling on any of them +to interfere seriously with the free use of sleds, and you could almost +always see whether or not the track was clear. Just now, however, the +very depth of the snow was in the way, for the heavy sleighs had cut +down into it so as to leave great ridges in the middle. That was enough +to spoil the running of any thing narrow. The great storm, therefore, +would have been a bad thing in that connection, but for the thaw and +freeze, and the splendid, thick, icy crust.</p> + +<p>Not more than a mile east of Deacon Farnham's, the land sloped down +almost gently for more than a mile, to the very edge of the village; and +there were roads from that on, to the borders of the little river and +the mill-pond. Of course all that slope was not in one field; but all +the low and broken fences were now snowed under, and it was easy to take +the top rails from the two or three high ones, so as to leave wide gaps. +With very little trouble, therefore, the boys prepared for their fun a +clear, slippery descent, almost level in some places, that would have +been hard to beat anywhere. The hollows were all drifted full, and there +was a good road on one side to go up hill by. All that had been duly +explained to Susie and Port by Corry, and their great affliction seemed +to be that they only had one sled among them.</p> + +<p>"It'll hold you and me, Port, if we stick on hard; besides, we can take +turns."</p> + +<p>"And I'll slide Susie," said Pen.</p> + +<p>Susie had very little to say about it during the evening; but the idea +grew upon her all the time, and she went out to look at Corry's sled in +the morning, after breakfast. Aunt Judith stood in the doorway, and +heard her say,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, it must be splendid!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Susie Hudson! That sort of rompin', tom-boy business ain't for +grown-up young ladies."</p> + +<p>"I'm not grown-up, aunt Judith: I'm only sixteen."</p> + +<p>"Goin' on seventeen, and you're from the city too; and that there mite +of a sled—well, it's good enough for boys."</p> + +<p>Just then Corry sang out,—</p> + +<p>"Halloo, Vosh! Going to slide down hill in a cutter?"</p> + +<p>There he was at the gate, sorrel colt, red blanket, bells, and all.</p> + +<p>"Cutter! No; but you wouldn't have the girls walk up hill after every +slide, would you?"</p> + +<p>"The girls!" exclaimed aunt Judith. "They ain't a-goin'. I won't hear to +any sech thing."</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Farnham, you come out here and look at my sled. They've got +one like it over in Cobbleville, only mine's bigger. If you'll come +along with us"—</p> + +<p>"Me come! Sakes alive! But what have you been a-doin'?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Vosh," said Corry, "it's your little old pair of bobs, and you've +rigged a box on the hind one. What's that in front?"</p> + +<p>"That's my rudder."</p> + +<p>"Rudder! You can't steer with it: a rudder ought to be behind."</p> + +<p>"Ought it, now? Don't you see? The front bob turns on a pin in the +middle, that comes up through the centre plank. I've greased it, so it +turns easy. See how I've rigged that yoke to the front bob? See the two +arms a-standing up? You pull on one of those arms, and you pull around +the head of the bob. That steers 'em. The hind bob follows the front +one: can't help it, if it tries."</p> + +<p>Aunt Judith walked all around it: she even gave one arm of that yoke a +hard push to see if it would really turn the "bob" sled it was geared +to.</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive! It'll do it!"</p> + +<p>Susie had hardly waited to say good-morning to Vosh; and there she was +now, with her hood on, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"Pen, Pen! why don't you go and get your things on? We mustn't keep Vosh +waiting."</p> + +<p>Pen was off like a flash, and Corry remarked to Vosh,—</p> + +<p>"That'll be just great, if it'll work."</p> + +<p>"Work! It's sure to work. It's as good as the Cobbleville 'ripper.' +That's what they call it. All it wants is somebody strong in the arms to +steer."</p> + +<p>"I'd never trust myself," said aunt Judith with a deep sigh of anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Tell you what, Corry," said Port, "we'll make Vosh haul us up hill. +Won't have to walk."</p> + +<p>"That's the checker. First time I ever had a horse and a man to help me +slide down hill."</p> + +<p>They discovered afterwards how important a part of the sport that was; +but just then they all had to join in begging permission for Susie and +Pen to go. Even Mrs. Farnham had her objections, and the deacon himself +was studying the matter; when down the road came Mrs. Stebbins, and the +case was won for the young people.</p> + +<p>"Judith," she asked, "wasn't you and Sarah ever no younger'n you be now? +It does seem to me as if some folks forgot they was ever gals and boys, +and slid down hill, and had a good time, and wasn't a mite the worse for +it. Vosh, he's been a-hammerin' away at that thing till he jest knows +it'll work, and so do I.—Susie, you and Pen git right into the cutter, +and I'll explain how them bobs'll steer. You see"—</p> + +<p>"Get in, Pen," said the deacon. "Get in, Susie.—Don't you try too heavy +a load, Vosh."</p> + +<p>"Joshaway, they'll break all their precious necks."</p> + +<p>"No, they won't. I'll risk it."</p> + +<p>"Judith," went on Mrs. Stebbins, "I'll tell ye all about it;" and that +was what she was yet doing, after the cutter turned the corner of the +road below the house, with the ripper behind it, and Port and Corry on +their sled, dragging joyously astern of the new invention.</p> + +<p>The whole country was icy, and glittered beautifully white, in the +clear, frosty sunshine. When they reached the coasting-ground, it looked +absolutely perfect; and a score of sleds, with twice as many boys, were +already at work upon it. The sliding-down that slope was something to +wonder at; but the climbing back again was another thing altogether. It +was easy enough for Vosh, however, to make a bargain with one of his +boy-friends to do his extra driving for him, and have the cutter ready +for use every time, with, of course, just a little waiting.</p> + +<p>"How often they do slip down!" exclaimed Susie, after a long look at the +climbers in the road.</p> + +<p>"Some of 'em'll be good and lame to-morrow," said Corry. "I don't +believe you girls'd ever get up the hill again, once you got down."</p> + +<p>It had been thoughtful of Vosh to look out for that; but he had had some +experience on that slope in other winters, and knew what he was about.</p> + +<p>They were on the very upper level now. Vosh helped the girls out of the +cutter, and at once started it off, telling the driver,—</p> + +<p>"Go right on into Benton: that's where we're coming."</p> + +<p>The "pair of bobs" had been the running-gear of a small wood-sleigh +built for one horse to pull around among the woods. It was light but +strong, and the box on the rear half of it was well supplied with +blankets. When the girls were in it, and the gay red spread from the +cutter was thrown in front of them, the ripper put on quite a holiday +appearance.</p> + +<p>"Susie," said Pen, "it's awful. We're going to go."</p> + +<p>Susie made no reply; but she was conscious of a great flutter of +excitement, as she nestled back upon her seat, and looked out upon the +great glittering expanse of white that spread out below and beyond, +until it seemed to break in pieces among the streets and houses of +Benton.</p> + +<p>There was one moment a little before starting when she almost felt like +backing out.</p> + +<p>"Port," she said, "hadn't you better come in here with us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Port," said Vosh, "get in. There's plenty of room. We'll be all +the better for more weight."</p> + +<p>Port was glad enough to accept, and he knew every other boy in sight was +envying him. There had been no end of comments on "Vosh Stebbins's +ripper."</p> + +<p>It was curious, but hardly any fellow who had a sled of his own had, at +the same time, any faith that "them bobs'll steer."</p> + +<p>Away went Corry the next instant, on his swift little hand-sled, darting +down over the slippery crust like a sort of—well, like a flash of boy.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go through the village?" asked Susie, with a half-shuddering +idea that when they were once a-going they would never stop.</p> + +<p>"See about it," said Vosh. "We'll make the longest trip ever was run +down this hill."</p> + +<p>"We're going, Susie!" exclaimed Pen. "Hold your breath. We're going."</p> + +<p>They were starting, sure enough, and Susie felt that she was turning a +little pale; but they moved slowly at first, for the slope was very +gentle there.</p> + +<p>"Vosh, does it steer?" said Pen.</p> + +<p>That was the very thing he was experimenting on; and the other boys did +not guess why the new contrivance made so many curves and turns as it +did, until he was able to shout,—</p> + +<p>"She works! See? I can twist her in any direction."</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad!" exclaimed Susie.</p> + +<p>"Now, girls!"</p> + +<p>The ripper made a sudden dash forward, down a steeper incline, faster, +faster. And there was no need to tell the young-lady passengers to hold +their breaths: that seemed the most natural thing in all the world to +do.</p> + +<p>There never was a more slippery crust, and the ripper almost seemed to +know it.</p> + +<p>Faster, faster, shooting down the steep slopes, and spinning across the +level reaches; and all the while there was Vosh Stebbins bracing himself +firmly, as he clung to the long arms of his rudder.</p> + +<p>It was well he could guide so perfectly, for the gaps in the fences were +none too wide, after all; and if he and his cargo should happen to miss +one of these, and be dashed against a fence—It was altogether too +dreadful to think of, and there was no time to think of it.</p> + +<p>The cargo had great confidence in their "engineer and pilot," as Port +had called him before starting, and they had more after they shot +through the first gap.</p> + +<p>The wind whistled by their ears. The country on either side was but a +streak of white. Nobody could guess how fast they were going now.</p> + +<p>"There's the village!" gasped Port.</p> + +<p>"The river!" whispered Pen.</p> + +<p>"O Vosh!" began Susie, as they shot into what she saw was a road lined +with streaks of houses and fences.</p> + +<p>Before she could think of another word, they were out on the ice of the +little stream, and a skilful twist of the rudder sent them down it +instead of across. In a moment more they were slipping smoothly along +over the wind-swept surface of the frozen mill-pond; and the ripper had +lost so much of its impetus, that there was no difficulty in bringing it +to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"There!" said Vosh, as he held out his hand to help Susie alight, +"that's the longest slide down hill anybody ever took in Benton Valley. +Nobody'll beat that in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"I don't think they will," she said; and Pen added inquiringly,—</p> + +<p>"We ain't scared a bit, Vosh. We'd just as lief have another."</p> + +<p>That was what the sorrel colt was coming down the road for; and they +were speedily on their way up, more envied than ever.</p> + +<p>"Don't I wish aunt Judith was here now!" exclaimed Pen.</p> + +<p>"She'd never ride down hill in this thing," said Vosh. "I'm glad she +didn't see us come."</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of work before the sorrel colt that morning, and +knot after knot of curious spectators came out of the village "to see +how Vosh Stebbins had gone to work and beaten that there Cobbleville +ripper."</p> + +<p>"He's a cute one."</p> + +<p>"Regular built genius."</p> + +<p>"There ain't such another feller in Cobbleville. He beat 'em all at +spellin', too."</p> + +<p>Vosh had won fame as well as fun, and all Benton was proud of him. For +all that, he was tired enough by dinner-time, and was glad to drive his +passengers back to the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Judith," said Susie, "it was splendid! You never saw any thing +like it! Wonderful!"</p> + +<p>There was a great deal more to be told, and it was all true; but it was +not easy for aunt Judith and Mrs. Farnham to believe it.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me that that thing didn't stop till you were out in +the middle of the mill-pond?" asked aunt Judith; and four young people +with one voice told her it was nearer the upper end than the middle.</p> + +<p>"Well," said she, "I s'pose it must have been so, but there was never +any such sliding down hill before up this way. I'd like to see it done +just once; that is, if it didn't just happen, and can't be done again, +nohow."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE DEER-HUNT ON THE CRUST.</h3> + + +<p>That Saturday afternoon was a quiet one at the farmhouse. It really +seemed as if there had been excitement enough for one day. Still, as +aunt Judith was in the habit of remarking,—</p> + +<p>"Sometimes you can't always tell for sure what's a-coming."</p> + +<p>Vosh Stebbins came over after supper, and he met Deacon Farnham at the +gate. There was nothing unaccountable in that; but the boys heard him +say, just as he was following the deacon in,—</p> + +<p>"No, we won't need any snow-shoes. I'll take mine along."</p> + +<p>"I'll take mine too, but the crust's strong enough without 'em."</p> + +<p>"It'll be weak in spots in the woods: Sile Hathaway says it is."</p> + +<p>Those were great words for two boys to hear,—"woods" and "Sile +Hathaway."</p> + +<p>"Port," said Corry, "something's coming."</p> + +<p>"Hark!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, deacon, Sile says the deer break right through, every here and +there. There's droves of 'em, and the storm's kind o' driven 'em down +this way."</p> + +<p>"I've known it happen so more'n once."</p> + +<p>"Port," whispered Corry, as if it were an awful secret, "I know now: +it's a deer-hunt on the crust."</p> + +<p>"Oh-h!" was all the answer; and in half a minute more Vosh was on the +stoop with them. Then he was in the house. Then the whole affair burst +out like a sudden storm.</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham did not say much; but there was a flush on his face, and +a light in his eyes, that made him look ten years younger. Mrs. Farnham +told him so. But Pen interrupted Vosh halfway in the explanation he was +giving Susie, by exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"O mother! may I go?"</p> + +<p>"My child"—</p> + +<p>"I never saw a live deer killed on the snow. If Susie goes, may I +go?—Are you going?"</p> + +<p>Susie could hardly help saying,—</p> + +<p>"I know I can't go, but I'd like to."</p> + +<p>"Port!" exclaimed Corry, "let's get out the guns, and clean 'em. It +won't do to have 'em miss fire."</p> + +<p>"That's a good idea," said his father. "Vosh and I'll want to set out +early Monday morning. You won't have time to clean 'em before you go to +school."</p> + +<p>"School! Monday!"</p> + +<p>"Now, Joshaway," exclaimed aunt Judith, "don't tease the boy that way. +He won't miss just one day's schoolin', and the crust ain't going to +last forever. If Mrs. Stebbins can spare Vosh"—</p> + +<p>"My mother? Why, she'd go herself if she could."</p> + +<p>"Well, Corry," said his father, "if you and Port'll agree not to kill +too many deer, you may go."</p> + +<p>Port was still wrestling with the painful idea of a gun missing fire +after it was actually pointed at large game. There was something +dreadful and incredible about it; and, when the weapons were brought +out, he cleaned away at them almost painfully.</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham attended to his own rifle. Then he took a ladle, and +melted some lead at the kitchen fire, and moulded a score or so of +bullets.</p> + +<p>"Will that be enough?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"With those in my pouch? I'd say they would. If I get a chance to use +half a dozen, I'll be satisfied. You boys'd better take plenty of +buckshot, though. You'll be sowing the woods with 'em."</p> + +<p>Susie did not exactly care to handle those "shooting-irons," as Vosh +called them; but there was a strange fascination about them, after all. +She could understand why, when they were all laid down on the table, +aunt Judith put on her spectacles, and came and peered at them all over, +and said,—</p> + +<p>"They ain't much like the guns we had when I was a girl. They used to +kill heaps o' game, too."</p> + +<p>"What is the difference, aunt Judith?" asked Susie.</p> + +<p>"Well, 'pears like these ain't much more'n half as big and heavy. Double +bar'ls, too, and all our'n was single. We had flint locks, and didn't +know what percussion-caps was. 'Pears to me, if I was goin' a-huntin', +I'd ruther have one of the old kind."</p> + +<p>Pen counted her father's bullets over and over, till she could hardly +tell whether he had two dozen or four; and Corry had to stop her nicking +them with the scissors.</p> + +<p>"That's to show they're counted."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but they won't go straight with nicks in 'em. You'll make father +miss his deer."</p> + +<p>Vosh went home early; but it was all arranged before he left the house, +and it was safe to say that nobody he left behind him would go to sleep +right away.</p> + +<p>It was very hard indeed, all day Sunday, for the youngsters to keep +good, and not to say more than once an hour,—</p> + +<p>"It's good and cold. The crust'll be all right to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The Monday morning breakfast was eaten before daylight, and it was +hardly over before they heard Vosh and Mrs. Stebbins at the door.</p> + +<p>They came right in, of course; and the first words were from her,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Judith, you and Sarah ain't goin', are ye? I'd go in a minute, if +I had a gun, and was sure it wouldn't go off.—Susie, are you and Pen +goin'? I do hope there'll be deer enough for all four on 'em, and they +won't come back and have to say they left 'em in the woods."</p> + +<p>There was not much time to talk, so ready was every thing and every +body; but it did seem to Port as if Vosh Stebbins's hand-sled, long as +it was, was a small provision for bringing home all the deer they were +to kill.</p> + +<p>"The lunch-basket and the snow-shoes half fill it now."</p> + +<p>"It'll do," said Vosh. "You'll see."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you put on your snow-shoes?"</p> + +<p>"The ice-pegs I've put in all your boot-heels'll be worth a good deal +more, if the crust's what it's likely to be."</p> + +<p>It was not a great while before they all discovered what good things to +prevent slipping were a few iron peg-heads sticking out of the heels of +your boots. As for the snow-shoes, nobody ever wants to wear such clumsy +affairs unless it is necessary.</p> + +<p>Old Ponto had been in a fever ever since the boys began to clean the +guns Saturday evening; but Vosh had secured for that day's work the +services of a very different kind of dog,—one, moreover, that seemed to +know him, and to be disposed to obey his orders, but that paid small +attention to the advances of any other person.</p> + +<p>"Is Jack a deer-hound?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"Not quite," said Vosh. "He's only a half-breed; but he's run down a +good many deer, knows all about it."</p> + +<p>He was a tall, strong, long-legged animal, with lop-ears and a sulky +face; but there was much more "hunter" in his appearance than in that of +old Ponto. His conduct was also more business-like; for it was not until +Ponto had slid all the way to the bottom of several deep hollows, that +he learned the wisdom of plodding along with the rest, instead of +searching the woods for rabbits.</p> + +<p>"Rabbits!" The very mention of those little animals made the boys look +at each other as if asking,—</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hunt any thing as small as a rabbit?"</p> + +<p>The snow in the woods was deep, but it was not drifted much; and the +crust was hard, except close to the trunks of the trees, and under the +heavier pines and hemlocks. Walking was easy, and they pushed right on +through the forest.</p> + +<p>"How'll we ever find our way back again?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"Follow our own tracks," said Corry. "Besides, father and Vosh'd never +dream of getting lost around here. Guess I wouldn't, either."</p> + +<p>Port looked back at the trail they had made. He thought he could follow +that. Still he would have been more sure of himself in the streets of a +city, with names and numbers on all the lamp-posts at the corners.</p> + +<p>"Keep your tempers, boys. It's hunter's luck, you know. We may not get a +single shot."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly out of the deacon's mouth, before Jack sprang +suddenly forward, anxiously followed by Ponto.</p> + +<p>"He's scented!" exclaimed Vosh. "There isn't much wind; but it's blowing +this way, what there is."</p> + +<p>"Hark! Hear him?"</p> + +<p>That was music. It seemed as if a thrill went over every nerve among +them, at the cry of the excited hound, as he fully caught the scent, and +"opened on it."</p> + +<p>"There'll be a run now, Vosh."</p> + +<p>"Not up the mountain."</p> + +<p>"No, we won't follow yet. If they turn him, he'll come this way."</p> + +<p>"Or down the hollow."</p> + +<p>"No lake for him now."</p> + +<p>"He can run on this crust."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he can't pick his own course with the dogs behind him."</p> + +<p>Comments followed thick and fast, as the eager sportsmen pushed onward. +It seemed to the boys a good time to do some running, if they could but +know in what direction to go; but Vosh and the deacon were carefully +studying what they called "the lay of the land."</p> + +<p>Ahead of them, they knew, was a bold, steep mountain, such as no deer +would climb. Half a mile to the right was the road to Mink Lake; and to +the left and behind them the woods were open, with a fair amount of +"running-room."</p> + +<p>"If they turn him," said Vosh, "he'll have to pass in sight. You may get +a shot, deacon. It'll be a long one, but I'd be ready if I was you."</p> + +<p>It turned out that way in less than five minutes; for a fine doe came +springing across the snow, well ahead of the dogs, and out of "shot-gun +range."</p> + +<p>"Try her, deacon! There, she's broken through! Try her!"</p> + +<p>The deacon's rifle was already at his shoulder, and, just as the +beautiful animal scrambled out upon the crust, the sharp "crack" rang +through the forest.</p> + +<p>"Struck!" shouted Vosh as the doe gave a great spring; but she dashed +right onward, followed by the dogs.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys, you run while I load."</p> + +<p>Port and Corry hardly needed orders; and the main wonder was, that they +did not break their necks in the desperate burst they made after that +wounded deer. Even Jack could not do his best running over that icy +crust, except when travelling in a straight line. He could not turn +quickly without slipping; and the doe must have known it, to judge by +the manner in which she dodged among the trees.</p> + +<p>"Here she comes, right past us!"</p> + +<p>Bang! went one barrel of Vosh Stebbins's gun.</p> + +<p>"Missed, I declare! Must be I've got the buck-ague."</p> + +<p>Bang! from Corry, and he seemed to have done no better; but just then +the deer broke through at the foot of a hemlock, and Porter Hudson had +what was almost as sure as a "sitting shot."</p> + +<p>He made the best of it by letting drive with right and left. It was a +long range, and the shot scattered, of course; but they afterwards found +the marks of nine of them in the skin of that doe.</p> + +<p>In twenty seconds Jack had her by the throat; and Ponto tried to imitate +him, but concluded that he had better lie down and pant a little.</p> + +<p>Vosh was on hand now, to take off Jack, and to finish the work with his +long, sharp hunting-knife. He knew exactly what to do; and, when Deacon +Farnham came up, they hung their game to the lower limb of a tree.</p> + +<p>"No wolves around," said Vosh; "but it'll be safe from any kind of +varmint."</p> + +<p>"What does he mean, Corry?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the wolves are pretty well killed off; but there are wildcats, and +some other things, I hardly know what. All the bears are treed. We'll +stop for our game on our way home."</p> + +<p>They were now barely two miles from the farmhouse, and they went fully +another before they saw any more game. Off, then, went the dogs; and the +boys were taken a little by surprise when the deacon said,—</p> + +<p>"Vosh, you and the boys sit right down here.—No, Corry, you and Port +walk off to the right there, about thirty or forty rods. I'll strike to +the left as far as the edge of the big ravine. If they've really started +a deer, he may come along there."</p> + +<p>Away he went, and away went the boys. Porter Hudson had hardly been able +to speak ever since he fired at the doe. It was true that his uncle had +hit it first; but then, he had killed it, and he was thinking what a +thing that would be to tell his city friends after he should get home. +He did not know a boy among them who had ever fired a gun at a deer. Now +he himself was to be that very boy, and it was almost too much. He was +beginning to half dream about it, when he heard the warning cry of Jack, +coming nearer and nearer, ahead of him.</p> + +<p>Almost at the same moment he heard the crack of his uncle's rifle. He +saw Corry spring to his feet, and stand still, while Vosh Stebbins +darted away to the left, as if he thought he might be needed there.</p> + +<p>"What can it be? I don't see a single thing. No—yes—there he goes, +straight for Corry! Why doesn't Vosh stop?"</p> + +<p>The deer in sight was a fine buck, with antlers which afterward proved +him to be three years old; and it was easier for Corry to hit him "on +the run" than to hit a white rabbit. He fired both barrels too, and he +shouted to Port; but there was no more glory for the city boy this time. +Corry had aimed too well, and the buck had been too near; and it was +hardly necessary for the dogs to pull down their game.</p> + +<p>"Corry, hear that? It's Vosh's gun. What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"There goes his second barrel. Run: your gun's loaded."</p> + +<p>It was all in a minute; and Port darted away with a strong impression +that something strange had happened.</p> + +<p>Corry must have thought so too, for he loaded his gun like lightning.</p> + +<p>Something strange had indeed happened.</p> + +<p>Deacon Farnham had walked on rapidly towards the deep ravine, after +leaving the boys. He had known that forest ever since he was a boy, and +had killed more than one deer in that vicinity. He did not go any great +distance, keeping his eyes sharply about him, when he suddenly stopped +short, and raised his rifle.</p> + +<p>It looked as if he were aiming at a clump of sumach-bushes; and Port, or +even Corry, would probably have said they saw nothing there. Vosh, +perhaps, or any hunter of more experience, would have said,—</p> + +<p>"See his antlers, just above the thick bush? See 'em move? He's gazing +now. He'll be off in a jiffy."</p> + +<p>If left alone, but not so fast after the deacon had fired; for, after he +had seen those antlers, he could guess pretty well at the body below +them. He could not correctly guess its exact position, however; and so, +instead of hitting the deer in the chest or side, the bullet grazed his +shoulder, and struck his right hip. There was no more "run" after that +in that magnificent buck, but there was plenty of fight. There was +danger, too, in his sharp and branching horns, as Deacon Farnham +discovered when he so rashly plunged in among those bushes.</p> + +<p>Danger from a deer!</p> + +<p>Exactly. Danger of being gored by those natural weapons of his.</p> + +<p>Instead of being able to use his hunting-knife, the deacon found himself +dodging actively behind trees, and fending off with his empty rifle the +furious charges of his desperate assailant, until Vosh came to his +assistance.</p> + +<p>It was a very good thing that Vosh came when he did, and that his gun +was loaded. Two charges of buckshot were fired at very short range; and +the deacon was safe, but he was pretty nearly out of breath.</p> + +<p>"You were just in time, Vosh."</p> + +<p>"Glad I was. Isn't he a whopper? Sile Hathaway was right. The deer +haven't run as well, down this way, since I remember."</p> + +<p>Port came running up just then; and he was all eyes and ears, although +his help was not needed.</p> + +<p>"He's a grand one! We've got another."</p> + +<p>"Have you?" panted his uncle. "Vosh, you go and 'tend to it. I'll 'tend +to this one soon as I get my breath. Guess we've got all the game we +want for one day."</p> + +<p>"Why, uncle, it isn't much after noon: we might kill some more."</p> + +<p>"Well, we might, but it'll be late enough when we get home. We've work +before us, Port. Time we had some lunch, anyway."</p> + +<p>They were all ready enough for that; but the boys began to discover soon +afterwards that deer-hunting was not all play. It was easy enough to cut +down branches of trees, and lay them on the sled, and fasten them +together. Then it was not a terrible lift for all four of them to raise +a dead deer, and lay him on the branches.</p> + +<p>The tug of war came afterwards, as they hauled that sled homeward over +the crust. Several times it broke through; and then there was no end of +floundering in the snow, and tugging and lifting, before they again got +it a-going. Then once it got away from them, and slid away down a deep, +steep hollow, landing its cargo all in a heap at the bottom. There was +no use for the snow-shoes, but they had to be fished for in the snow +when the sled broke through.</p> + +<p>It was a long pull, but they all worked at it until at last they hauled +the sled out into the half-made road to Mink Lake. After that, they got +on better; but they were a weary lot of hunters when they reached the +farmhouse, and the day was about gone.</p> + +<p>There were eager faces at the windows, that of Mrs. Stebbins among them. +There were shrill shouts from Pen on the front stoop. Then there was an +excited little gathering at the kitchen-door, when the sled was drawn in +front of it, and the deacon exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"There! Look at 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Three of 'em!" exclaimed aunt Judith. "All real good ones, too. Now, +when I was a girl, I've known the men folks go out and bring in six of a +morning, and they didn't have to go more'n a mile from the house."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Farnham was equally well satisfied, and Pen clapped her little +hands in a gale of excitement.</p> + +<p>"Poor things!" said Susie.</p> + +<p>She could hardly help feeling a little sorry for those three beautiful +creatures on the sled; but Mrs. Stebbins curtly remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my dear: they was made to be killed and eaten.—Deacon, did +you and the boys kill any on 'em?"</p> + +<p>She had a vague idea that the glory of that hunt must somehow have been +won by "my Vosh;" but Susie had just time to say,—</p> + +<p>"They look so innocent, so helpless!" when her uncle exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Innocent! Helpless! That big buck was within an inch of making an end +of me when Vosh came up and shot him.—He's your game, Mrs. Stebbins."</p> + +<p>He forgot to mention that the fight with the buck was all his own fault, +for he began it; but the story helped Susie out of her bit of +soft-heartedness, and it made Mrs. Stebbins hold her head up amazingly.</p> + +<p>"O father!" said Pen. "Did he hurt you? He's a dreadful deer."</p> + +<p>"I think, Pen," said her father, "I'll let you eat some of him for +supper."</p> + +<p>There was venison-steak in abundance at table, and Corry was nearly +justified in declaring,—</p> + +<p>"It's good fun to hunt deer, but I'd rather eat 'em than drag 'em home."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>ON THE ICE.</h3> + + +<p>Both Vosh Stebbins and Corry Farnham had a great deal to do in their +hours before and after school. The former, particularly, had chores upon +his hands which would have been a great burden to a less thoroughly +efficient and industrious young fellow. He had his sorrel colt, instead +of the two teams and the oxen of the other farm, and he also had cows +and pigs. As to these and the poultry, Mrs. Stebbins relieved him of +much, for she said of herself,—</p> + +<p>"I'm as spry as a gal, and I don't show no signs of failin'. I don't +intend to hev that boy choked off from havin' his sheer of all the +goin's-on he can reach out to."</p> + +<p>She was a notable housekeeper and manager, and was free to say so. As +for Corry, not a little of the work put upon him was what his father +wisely called "farm-schooling;" but he had it to do, just the same.</p> + +<p>One consequence was, that the splendid skating prepared by the thaw and +rain and freeze on the mill-pond had not received the attention it so +well deserved. Some of the village boys had done what they could for it; +and it lay there waiting for the rest, just as good as ever. Porter +Hudson had looked at it longingly more than once; and it was only the +day after the grand deer-hunt on the crust that he said to Susie,—</p> + +<p>"Now, don't you say a word about it to any one. Put your skates under +your shawl, and walk on down to the village with me. I'll wrap up mine +in a bundle."</p> + +<p>"What if anybody should see us? Who cares? I don't."</p> + +<p>"Why, Susie, don't you see? We'll be out with all the rest before long. +We haven't been on our skates since we were at the rink last winter. I +don't feel more'n half sure I could stand up on mine."</p> + +<p>"No, nor I: that's a fact. We must have some practice first, or they'll +think we're just learning."</p> + +<p>They felt very wise about it, but they had no notion whatever that +precisely such an idea had occurred to Vosh Stebbins. His mother had not +minded his getting home pretty late on the two or three evenings when +she knew he was educating his feet and ankles before showing Susie +Hudson and her brother what a country boy could do on good ice.</p> + +<p>"Your father," she said to him, "was the best skater in the valley, and +you ort to be. Get your skates filed, Lavawjer." And she told him a +great deal about ice and skating before she felt satisfied that he knew +what might some day be required of him as being her son and the smartest +boy in Benton Valley.</p> + +<p>So it came to pass, the day after the hunt, while Penelope and her +brother and Vosh and all the other boys and girls were safely shut up in +the village school-house, the boy and girl from the city were out upon +the ice. They even took pains to keep at the upper end of the pond and +on the river above it, so that not one critical pair of eyes should +discover what they were about. It was a complete success, as far as +secrecy was concerned, and nearly so in other respects. The first trial +could not be too long, but it compelled Port to remark when they set out +for home,—</p> + +<p>"How stiff and lame I am!"</p> + +<p>"Port," replied Susie, "I can't but just walk."</p> + +<p>"We must try it again right off," said Port, "or it won't do. If we can +manage it to get down there two or three times more"—</p> + +<p>"Without any one seeing us"—</p> + +<p>"We can skate as well as we ever could: shouldn't wonder if it surprised +'em."</p> + +<p>Vosh had had a sort of surprise in his own mind, and he had worked it up +among the other boys. It came out only a few evenings later, when aunt +Judith was compelled to exclaim at the supper-table,—</p> + +<p>"Skating-party on the ice! Who ever heard tell of such a thing! After +dark too!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Corry gravely: "the skating's to be done on the +ice,—all over it. There'll be the biggest bonfires you ever saw, and +there'll be good moonlight too."</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive!—Susie, would you like to go and look on for a while?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I would! Now, aunt Judith, you and aunt Sarah both go, and take +Pen and me."</p> + +<p>There was a little discussion of the matter, of course; but the deacon +settled it.</p> + +<p>"I used to think there wasn't any thing much better'n a skate by +moonlight. It won't pay to hitch up a team, but I'll walk over with you. +Let's all go."</p> + +<p>The first whisper Port gave to Susie after supper was,—</p> + +<p>"Hide your skates. I'll let 'em see mine: they don't know I can stand on +'em."</p> + +<p>Corry was right about the moon, and the evening was wonderfully clear +and bright.</p> + +<p>"Plenty of light to skate by," said the deacon when they started; but +even he had to admit that the village boys had done themselves credit, +when he reached the pond, and saw the bonfires.</p> + +<p>There must have been nearly a dozen of them strung along from the dam to +the mouth of the little river on both shores; and one big one flared up +right in the middle of the pond.</p> + +<p>"It'll melt through," said Pen.</p> + +<p>"Guess not," replied her brother. "The ice is awful thick."</p> + +<p>There were a good many merry skaters already at work; and there were +groups of spectators here and there, for the fires made the scene well +worth coming to look at.</p> + +<p>"Susie," said Vosh, "how I do wish you knew how to skate!"</p> + +<p>"Let me see how you can do it. I'll look on a little while."</p> + +<p>She felt almost conscience-smitten about her intended fun; but she kept +her secret until all the boys had strapped on their skates, and she +heard Vosh say to Port,—</p> + +<p>"Can you get up alone? Shall I help you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I guess not. Can you cut a figure 8, this way? Come on, Vosh, catch +me if you can!"</p> + +<p>"Corry!" exclaimed Pen, "Port can skate. See him go!"</p> + +<p>"I declare!" remarked the deacon, "so he can."</p> + +<p>"So can Vosh," said Mrs. Stebbins. "There ain't any city boy going to +beat him right away."</p> + +<p>Vosh's effort to find out if that were true had already carried him so +far away, that, the moment Corry followed him, Susie felt safe to say,—</p> + +<p>"Now, uncle Joshua, if you will help me buckle my skates"—</p> + +<p>She was in such a fever to get them on, that she hardly heard the storm +of remarks from Mrs. Stebbins and aunt Judith; but the deacon seemed to +take an understanding interest in the matter, and he was right down on +his knees on the ice, hurrying to fasten those skates for her.</p> + +<p>"Can you really skate, Susie?"</p> + +<p>"I'll show you in a minute. Please do hurry, before either of them +suspect any thing."</p> + +<p>"O Susie!" said Pen mournfully, "I do wish I could."</p> + +<p>"You must learn some day."</p> + +<p>"Susie!" exclaimed aunt Judith, "wait for somebody to go with ye: you +might tumble down."</p> + +<p>"Start, now, Susie," said her uncle. "Off with you!"</p> + +<p>She was really a very graceful skater; and her aunts looked on with +admiration, as well as a vast deal of astonishment, while she made a few +whirls near by, to make sure her skates were on rightly. Then away she +glided over the ice; and the first thing Vosh Stebbins knew of it was +when the form of a young lady fluttered swiftly past him, between him +and the glare of the great central bonfire. Her face was turned the +other way, and his first exclamation was,—</p> + +<p>"What a splendid skater! Who can she be?"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Port Hudson, close at hand, and waiting for his share of +the joke. "She's a girl from the city, and she's spending the winter +with some relatives of mine. Come on: I'm going after her. Think you can +keep up? Come on, Vosh."</p> + +<p>Away went Porter, just as his friend felt a great hot flush come into +his face, and dashed after them, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"If I ain't stupid! Why, it's Susie Hudson herself!"</p> + +<p>He felt as if his honor were at stake, and he had never skated so in all +his life before. The fires on the bank seemed to flit by him as he +followed that solitary girl-skater around the glittering icy reaches of +the mill-pond. It looked so like a race, that almost everybody else +paused to watch, and some even cheered. Deacon Farnham himself +shouted,—</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Susie!" and Pen danced up and down.</p> + +<p>"It's jest wonderful," said aunt Judith, "to see her go off that way the +very first time."</p> + +<p>"Guess it isn't quite the first skatin' she ever did," said Mrs. +Stebbins; "but Vosh'll ketch her, now, you see'f he don't."</p> + +<p>Susie had somehow got it into her head that she did not mean to be +caught, and her practice was all in her favor; but just as she reached +the head of the pond, and made a quick turn into the winding channel of +the river, Vosh came swinging along at her side, and for a little +distance he did not speak a word to her.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," she said, after trying very hard to think of something else to +say, "I wish you'd teach me to skate."</p> + +<p>A ringing laugh was all his answer for a moment, and then he remarked +innocently,—</p> + +<p>"The ice is smoother up this way, but I mustn't let you get too far from +the folks. Tire you all out skating back again."</p> + +<p>On they went, while all the people they had left behind them, except +their own, were inquiring of each other who the young lady could be that +had so astonished them.</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, the Benton girls had omitted skating from their list of +accomplishments, by a kind of common consent; and Susie's bit of fun had +a surprise in it for others besides Vosh and her aunts. It was quite +likely she would have imitators thereafter, but she had made an +unexpected sensation that evening.</p> + +<p>Even Port had surprised Corry and the Benton boys, although some of them +were every way his equals on the ice.</p> + +<p>"Now, Vosh," remarked Susie at the end of nearly a mile of that crooked +ice-path, "we'd better go back. Are you tired?"</p> + +<p>"Tired! I could skate all night. We'd better go, though, or aunt +Judith'll borrow a pair, and come skating along after us."</p> + +<p>Down the river they went again, and across the pond; and by that time a +score of busy tongues were circulating the discovery.</p> + +<p>"It's that there city cousin of the Farnhams. She learned how to skate +when she was travellin' in Russia."</p> + +<p>Part of that news may have had some help from Corry; but Susie's aunts +were glad to get her back again, and Mrs. Stebbins said to her,—</p> + +<p>"You never did look prettier nor nicer. I do jest like to see any gal +nowadays that ain't afraid of her shadder."</p> + +<p>"Guess Susie isn't much afraid of any thing," said Pen; "but I'm awful +glad there wasn't any holes in the ice."</p> + +<p>"No air-holes are needed on a mill-pond," said Mr. Farnham; "but, if I'm +not mistaken, there'll be some lame young people to-morrow. Nobody feels +very well the day after such a race as that."</p> + +<p>He was not altogether wrong. Susie felt pretty well the next day, but in +spite of her practising beforehand, her race with Vosh Stebbins had been +a severe one; and, to tell the full truth, he himself was willing to get +over the effects of it before volunteering to try another.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>A VERY EXCITING WINTER EVENING.</h3> + + +<p>The people of Benton valley and village had not been ignorant of the +fact that Deacon Joshua Farnham's family had some city cousins spending +the winter with them. Some had said at first that they were there for +their health, and some that they were orphans and had come to stay; but +the facts of the case got around after a while.</p> + +<p>Susie and Port had made some acquaintances at the donation, and some at +the spelling-match, and some at the meeting-house; but people had not +exactly made up their minds what to do about them. Now came the +altogether sensational affair of the moonlight skating-race on the +mill-pond, and something had got to be done.</p> + +<p>Away over on the other side of the valley, and just in the outer edge of +the village, stood a great white, square box of a house, larger than any +other house within ten miles of it. Squire King was by all odds the +richest man in that circumference, and he had built his house large +accordingly. Mrs. King was not exactly proud, although she knew she was +rich, and that she had been to Europe once, and to a number of notable +places in the United States. Neither she, nor any other woman in or +about Benton, was in a position to look down upon the Farnhams. She +liked them, as did everybody else, and was a little in awe of aunt +Judith; but she had not felt any social duty in the matter of their +visitors until she was told of the skating. It had really been pretty +well done on the ice, but it was tenfold more wonderful when it was +described in Mrs. King's dining-room. Even Squire King himself dropped +his newspaper, and listened, and asked, "What's the world coming to?" +And Mrs. King's three lady neighbors who were telling her about it were +unable to answer him. They all said, however, that it was time some +special attention should be paid, and that such a young lady must be +worth getting acquainted with. So had said every girl in the valley who +felt old enough to skate; and quite a number of well-grown boys decided +to learn new "curly q's" on the ice. Every boy of them had a bump on the +back of his head within three days, and the pond was less like a +looking-glass than formerly; but Mrs. Squire King had made up her own +mind in less time than that, without any headache. There should be a +young people's party at her house; and her husband agreed with her, that +the nearer they could fill it up, and leave standing-room, the better.</p> + +<p>"Do it right away, Addie," said he. "Do it right up to the handle. Kind +of startle folks. Nobody's a-looking for any such thing to come."</p> + +<p>It was to be all sorts of a surprise; and the whole valley went about +its affairs, just the same as if Mrs. Squire King were not manufacturing +so much frosted cake, and boiling tongues and hams for sandwiches. Some +other tongues would have been hot enough if they had known a word about +it before the invitations were written and sent out.</p> + +<p>Up at Deacon Farnham's it was a little quieter than it was anywhere else +the day after the skating, until he himself came in from the village at +noon. He had come for his dinner, but there was a look in his face as if +he had brought something. Pen had seen it there before; and she asked +him what it was to be, precisely as if he had spoken about it.</p> + +<p>"What have I got? How do you know I've got any thing?"</p> + +<p>"Is it something for me?"</p> + +<p>"No, not this time, Pen; but I've something for Port and Susie."</p> + +<p>"Letters, uncle!" exclaimed Susie; and Mrs. Farnham added,—</p> + +<p>"I do hope so. She's been fairly mourning for some, day after day."</p> + +<p>"It's all a mistake or neglect of somebody in your father's office in +the city, Susie. There's three for you, and one is a fat one. Where's +Port? There's as many for him."</p> + +<p>Port was out at the barn; but Pen found him, and brought him in, as if +his life depended upon getting those letters at once.</p> + +<p>"Mother! Father!" said Susie, with a face that changed fast from red to +pale, and back again, as she dropped into aunt Judith's big +rocking-chair, and began to read those letters.</p> + +<p>"Is it all good news?" asked Mrs. Farnham in a minute or so.</p> + +<p>"All perfect, aunt Sarah. Mother seems to be doing very well."</p> + +<p>She read on and on; and Port had now come in, and was doing the same; +and it was as if with one voice they suddenly exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"How strange it seems!"</p> + +<p>"What is so strange?" asked aunt Judith in almost a tone of alarm. "Did +any thing happen to either of 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Happen! No, indeed, but it's warm weather there. Father complains of +the heat. Green grass and trees, and flowers and birds, and no sign of +winter! Seems as if it couldn't be in the same world."</p> + +<p>"I don't half believe I'd like that kind of winter weather, anyhow," +said aunt Judith with emphasis. "When it's time for snow, I want snow, +and plenty of it. 'Pears like to me, it would be kind of unnatural +without sleighin'. Now, this here winter's been the most satisfactory +we've had for four years past. It's been a real genuine, old-fashioned, +right down cold and snowy winter."</p> + +<p>"And it's getting colder now," said Deacon Farnham. "There's no telling +where the thermometer'll go to, if it keeps on trying."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless there was a curiously pleasant feeling to be had in +listening to those accounts of the different condition of things in +Florida; and Port was justified in remarking,—</p> + +<p>"I'd like a little of that balmy air for a while in the morning, but I +wouldn't care so much for it after I once got well a-going."</p> + +<p>"I would," said Pen. "I could go a-sleighing, and keep my feet warm all +the while."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder if people down there would like a little of our ice at +this very time," said her father; while Susie herself declared, that, +except for seeing her mother and father, she did not wish to exchange +winters with them.</p> + +<p>When Corry came home in the afternoon, the first thing he said was, that +he was glad Pen had returned at the midday "letting-out."</p> + +<p>"The wind blows down the hill with an edge like a knife, and they say +it's away below zero."</p> + +<p>"It's coldest at the foot of the hill," said Pen confidently; and then, +while Corry was warming himself, Susie and Port read to him tantalizing +things about orange-groves and magnolia-trees and sunshine, and +boat-rides on the St. John's River, away down in the sunny South.</p> + +<p>"That's where De Soto hunted for the Fountain of Youth," said Corry; +"and I guess Eden must have been around there somewhere. It wasn't down +in Benton Valley, anyhow you can fix it."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said aunt Judith. "You'd get sick of any kind of Eden that +didn't need a fireplace for six months in the year."</p> + +<p>Corry's ears were beginning to feel better, and his opinion of the +weather he was accustomed to improved as the tingling subsided. Still he +was quite willing to discuss a little more fully the wonder of tropical +and semi-tropical lands. Even after chores were attended to, and supper +was eaten, and the whole family gathered in the sitting-room, they all +seemed to feel more like talking than any thing else. Of course the +knitting went on as usual, and Pen asserted that her next undertaking in +yarn was to be a pair of stockings for Porter Hudson. It seemed as if +they had just got fairly settled, before the front-gate opened with a +great frosty creak, as if it pained the hinges to be swung upon in such +cold weather, and the sound of a well-known voice came faintly to the +door.</p> + +<p>"If it isn't Mrs. Stebbins!" exclaimed Pen; and her mother said,—</p> + +<p>"Glad she's come. It isn't far, but it's neighborly for her to look in +on such a night as this."</p> + +<p>"Hope Vosh is with her," said Corry as he stepped towards the door; and +so he was. But they both had come upon something more than a mere +neighborly call. Hardly was Mrs. Stebbins inside of the door, before she +exclaimed sharply,—</p> + +<p>"Joshaway Farnham, it's a wolf, I know it is! I heard it twice; and, if +I don't know a wolf when he howls, it's because the whole country wasn't +full on 'em when I was a gal. I've known a man that a'most made his +livin' off the bounty they sot on wolf-skelps, till they found out that +he was raisin' of 'em at a place he had away back under Sawbuck +Mountain; and they paid as much for pups' ears as they did for growed-up +wolves, and"—</p> + +<p>"Angeline Stebbins!" almost shouted aunt Judith, "what do you mean? +There hasn't been a wolf down so far as this, these three years and +more; and then they never came nigh any house except Josiah Rogers's +hog-pen."</p> + +<p>"Fact, though, now, I guess," said Vosh. "I listened hard, and I believe +I heard one howl."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder at all," said Mr. Farnham; "what between the deep +snow, and the hard, cold snap. It isn't so much because they can't run +down the deer so well, I believe, as because they somehow get bolder, +and sort of crazy, in bitter frost. Did you hear more than one, Vosh?"</p> + +<p>"Can't say, unless the same one howled several times. I heard it first +when I was out at the barn, and it sounded just in the edge of the +woods."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe one could get at your stock very easily, or at mine. +You don't feel like a tramp out after wolves on such a night as this?"</p> + +<p>"My gun's leaning against the door outside," said Vosh, "if you care to +come along. Mother said she'd rather stay here till I got back."</p> + +<p>"No more chance of killing one than there is of flying," remarked Mrs. +Farnham; "but if Joshaway wants to go"—</p> + +<p>The deacon's pleasant blue eyes had been kindling a little under their +shaggy brows; and he was now slowly rising from his chair, and buttoning +up his coat.</p> + +<p>"I'll go as far as the woods with you, Vosh, and see what's the +matter.—We won't be gone a great while, Sarah. I'll only take my +double-barrel: a rifle's of no use by moonlight. Where are Port and +Corry?"</p> + +<p>Nobody had seen them slip away; but their chairs had been empty from the +moment when they heard the word "wolf," and saw Vosh Stebbins's +shot-pouch slung over his shoulder. The deacon had hardly picked up his +overcoat, before they were in the room again, loaded with guns and +shot-pouches.</p> + +<p>"Going for wolves, are you?" said the deacon. "You won't kill any. Not +one has been killed this side of Sawbuck Mountain for years and years. +Come along. Wrap your ears up, and put an extra slug into each barrel on +top of the buckshot."</p> + +<p>Rifle-bullets answered capitally well for slugs, and even Pen and Susie +felt a tingling all over when they saw those guns loaded. Ponto was +called in from the kitchen; and he too seemed to be all tingle, as soon +as he saw the hunt-like look of matters.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't whip a wolf," said Corry, "but he might be of some kind of +use."</p> + +<p>"My father had a dog once," began Mrs. Stebbins; but she was interrupted +by aunt Judith with,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Angeline, you sit right down, and we'll have up some krullers and +some cider; and they'll all be frosted back again in time to eat their +share of 'em."</p> + +<p>Ponto was doomed to disappointment that time; for Mr. Farnham, on second +thought, fastened him up in the kitchen again, remarking,—</p> + +<p>"He'd only spoil any other chance we might have.—Come on, boys. Judith +is pretty nearly correct about the weather, and I guess I'm right about +the wolves."</p> + +<p>"I heard 'em," said Mrs. Stebbins; "but they didn't say they'd sit down +under a tree and wait till you came along."</p> + +<p>They were hurrying out of the door as she said that, and there was no +danger of their walking slowly. They had not reached the gate, before +Mr. Farnham straightened up, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"I declare! Hark!"</p> + +<p>It was neither so faint nor so far away that they could not hear it; and +it might have been the howl of a lost dog, for all that Porter Hudson +would have known. There was a hurrying up the road, after that; and the +frost was all but forgotten in the excitement of getting to the woods as +soon as possible. There was hardly any talking done; and the snow of the +road broke with a brittle, cracking sound under their feet.</p> + +<p>"There it is again!" said Vosh at last, as they drew near the shadows of +the forest; "and it sounds as if it were nearer."</p> + +<p>"Nearer it is," said the deacon, "and so is something else. I'd like to +know, now, just how many miles they've been chasing that deer. Hear him +jump?"</p> + +<p>His ears were better trained than those of his young companions, for he +had all his life been a keen sportsman; but, on listening attentively, +they all declared, one after another, that they could hear something. +Again they heard the voices that were coming nearer, but they were more +like yelps than howls this time; and Mr. Farnham at once asserted,—</p> + +<p>"They are gaining on him. He has turned again, and is coming this way: +shouldn't wonder if they'd been after him all day. Hold still, boys: +better chance out in the open."</p> + +<p>Yelp, yelp, jump, jump! and the hunters were shivering with cold and +excitement, for they knew not how many or how few minutes more; and +then, out through the frosty trees, in his last desperate race for life, +dashed an all but tired-out buck. He had run well and far, but he had +reached the limit of his strength. He hardly noticed the four hunters, +in his fear of the enemies behind him. Not one of them thought of +lifting a gun at him; but, just as a staggering leap carried him down +from a snow-drift into the road, he slipped and fell. A few seconds +earlier, Vosh had hoarsely whispered,—</p> + +<p>"There they come,—pair of 'em!" And two long, dark forms, that seemed +to glide on in a series of silent undulations, were only a few rods +behind the buck.</p> + +<p>"They'll get him," said Port, with a keen sense that his blood was +warming suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Father!" exclaimed Corry, "you say when."</p> + +<p>Before the buck could regain his feet, his fierce pursuers were upon him +with savage snarls, and his race for life was over. There was a vivid +picture of forest-life for one tremendous moment, there in the middle of +the road; but within thirty yards were the four sportsmen, and their +guns were at their shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Keep your second barrels for a moment," said the deacon. "Be sure of +your aim. Now!"</p> + +<p>The four reports followed one another in swift succession, and a storm +of slugs and buckshot was hurled into the struggling group in the road. +The buck was down already, but he rolled clean over now. One wolf lay +kicking on the snow beside him, while the other gave a bound and a yelp +that told of a shot reaching him.</p> + +<p>"Take that one, all of you! the other's done for. Quick!"</p> + +<p>The deacon fired as he spoke, and the rest followed so fast that nobody +could even so much as guess who killed that wolf.</p> + +<p>Down he went, and the sudden hunt was all over. Two wolves had run down +a deer, only to deliver their own peltry with it to the astonished +sportsmen they had summoned by their ill-advised howling.</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson could hardly believe his ears and eyes. He had heard of +wonderful hunting, and now he had actually done some on his own account. +There were the forest savages dead in the road; and there was Deacon +Farnham finishing up the deer, and saying,—</p> + +<p>"We couldn't have done that if Ponto had been here: he'd have rushed +forward, and been in the way of our shooting. We'd have lost both of +them."</p> + +<p>"We've got 'em now," said Vosh.</p> + +<p>"One skin's yours, and half of the buck," said the deacon; "and now we'd +better go for your colt and a sled, and haul 'em home."</p> + +<p>That was bitter cold work, but nobody seemed to care where zero was just +then. The sled was brought and loaded, and then it was drawn to the very +kitchen-door of the Farnham farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Ponto's nose had told him something, and he was barking furiously at the +other side of that door. Lights were hurrying into the kitchen, and the +door sprang nervously open.</p> + +<p>"Joshaway, what's this? Was anybody hurt? We heard the firing," gasped +Mrs. Farnham in a tone of intense anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's awful!" began Pen, but aunt Judith was calmer.</p> + +<p>"Got a buck, did ye? It wasn't that that did the howling."</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive!" shouted Mrs. Stebbins. "That's a wolf! I knew Vosh would +kill something. Two on 'em? Two wolves and a deer? And you wasn't gone +no time at all; but Sarah and Judith, they said it seemed as if you was +going to stay all night.—Pen, don't you tetch 'em.—Susie, what do you +think of that?—Joshaway Farnham, don't you ever tell me again that I +don't know the kind of howl a wolf makes."</p> + +<p>There she paused for a moment, and the hunters had a chance to tell how +that very remarkable affair had actually come to pass.</p> + +<p>"Just so," said aunt Judith. "It was the buck tolled 'em down for ye. +They'd never have dreamed of coming, frost or no frost, if they hadn't +been a-follerin' of that deer."</p> + +<p>She was entirely correct, but it was pretty late that night before all +was quiet in either of those two farmhouses. The game was slung up to +the rafters of the woodshed, to be more thoroughly attended to in the +morning. The excitement could not be slung up anywhere, and Susie Hudson +was aware of a grisly feeling that the country was hardly as safe a +place as she had been in the habit of thinking. She was very glad, +however, that there were guns in the house, and she all but wished that +she knew how to load and fire one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>A FIRESIDE STORY.</h3> + + +<p>Porter Hudson had a great deal upon his hands the forenoon following the +coming of those wolves. He had to see his uncle take off their skins and +that of the buck; and he had a great many questions to ask about wild +animals in general, and wolves in particular. Pen had informed him, +before she went to school, that the two wolf-skins were to be turned +into buffalo-robes for Vosh's cutter and her father's big sleigh. She +may also have been correct when she added, "They're the best kind of +blankets you can get." Susie herself took an interest in that, for she +was already crocheting the most fanciful red border she could think of +for the rich fur of the wildcat they had brought home from Mink Lake. It +promised to be an uncommonly brilliant lamp-mat.</p> + +<p>As for Vosh and Corry and Pen, they were even eager to get to school +early. The people of Benton Valley would know nothing about the wolves +until the story should be set a-going. All three of them told it well, +not only after they reached the school-house, but to some acquaintances +whom they met on the way. If Pen's version was hardly as correct as the +other two, there was certainly more of it; but her improvements were as +nothing to those it received afterwards. Every boy and girl that heard +it carried it home in a different shape. As many as could do so at noon +were especially happy on that account; and such as lived too far away, +and had brought luncheons with them, got along as well as they could, +holding in, and hoping that they would still be the first to tell it to +their folks.</p> + +<p>Some were sure to be disappointed, for such news travels fast. One +farmer who was in the village with a load of oats never waited to dicker +about the price he sold them at, but got away at once, and stopped at +six houses before he reached his own. By supper-time there were elderly +ladies in the village who felt like bracing their front-gates with +boards, and wondered if the wolves were really going to pester the +village all winter. Perhaps the best and most vivid account of the fight +was given by one small boy to Elder Keyser and his wife to carry home to +Cobbleville. His description was very good, of how the buck led the +wolves into Deacon Farnham's kitchen; and how Mrs. Farnham and aunt +Judith and Mrs. Stebbins, and Susie Hudson and Pen, were there all +alone, eating apples, till the men came in from hunting, and helped +them. The elder had a meeting to go to that evening, or he would have +driven over at once to inquire into the matter, and see if any of the +family were really very badly bitten by those ferocious wild beasts. He +took "Wolves in sheep's clothing" as a text for his next sermon, and it +was most attentively listened to. Elder Evans and his wife got out their +horse and cutter at once, and went in a hurry: so did Mrs. Squire King, +only she took her big double sleigh, with the longest gilded goose-necks +in that whole region. There were six ladies in it by the time she +reached the foot of the hill below the Farnham homestead; for she was a +good neighbor, and loved company. Somebody was out looking at the +wolf-skins until nearly tea-time; but not one soul would stay to tea, +after obtaining all the facts of that affair to go home with.</p> + +<p>All that Mrs. Squire King saw of Susie Hudson made her feel more in +earnest about the party; but she resolutely sealed her lips over it, +except in a small bit of confidential talk with aunt Judith and Mrs. +Farnham, and the five ladies who went with her in her own sleigh to see +about the wolves.</p> + +<p>It was a very busy tea-table, for ever so many people had to be talked +about, and what they said had to be repeated; and Pen broke down +entirely in trying to rehearse a wolf-story the teacher had told the +scholars who staid in at noon. It turned out to have been a tiger-story +with an elephant in it, and Pen had added the snow on her own +responsibility.</p> + +<p>After tea a little while, Vosh came over with a sled to get his +wolf-skin and his share of the buck; and it would have been a small +miracle if his mother had not come with him. The weather was every bit +as cold as it had been the night before, and she said so as she entered +the house.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Angeline," said aunt Judith. "Sit right down, and take off +your things, and there won't be any howling done to-night."</p> + +<p>"I jest do hope not, Judith Farnham, for I waked up nine times afore +mornin' last night, and each time I was kind o' dreaming that I heard +something; and it kep' me every now and then, all day, a-remembering +that story of old Mrs. Lucas and Alvin Lucas, and that was ever so long +ago. And it always did seem to me one of the queerest things; and you +can't account for it, nohow."</p> + +<p>"What was it, Mrs. Stebbins?" asked Susie. "Couldn't you tell us the +story?"</p> + +<p>They were all sitting around the fireplace; and Susie was gazing at a +flickering blaze on the top log, or she might have noticed that her +uncle and aunts had not said a word.</p> + +<p>"Tell it? Well, I s'pose I can; but it isn't much of a story, after all. +They do say that story-tellin's a good thing of a winter evening, when +it's as cold as this; but I wasn't ever much of a hand at it, and it's +got to be an old story now, what there is of it."</p> + +<p>Vosh had no doubt heard the story, and knew what was coming; but both +Corry and Pen joined with Port and Susie to urge Mrs. Stebbins a little. +The deacon was still silent, and aunt Judith and Mrs. Farnham seemed to +be knitting more rapidly than usual. Mrs. Stebbins hemmed twice to clear +her throat, and drank some cider, and said it was a good thing to know +how to keep it sweet all winter by putting in a chunk of lime while it +was a-fermenting; and then she told her story.</p> + +<p>"There's a wolf in it," said Pen to Porter Hudson; but it went right +along, just the same.</p> + +<p>"The Lucases they owned the farm we live on now; and it's a right good +one, as soon as Vosh is old enough to handle it himself. That was away +back when your uncle Joshaway was a young man, and he and Alvin Lucas +were the closest kind of friends; and there wasn't a likelier young man +around here than Alvin was, unless it was Vosh's father or your uncle +Joshaway. It was before either one of 'em was married; and the war broke +out the spring before, and it seemed as if all the young men was half +crazy before harvestin' was over. There was eighteen of the very best +and pick went right out from Benton Valley, and twice as many more from +over Cobbleville way, first thing, as soon as the grain was in, and some +of the after-ploughin' was done. It was queer, but somehow, when they +came together, they elected Alvin Lucas captain of that company; and a +young fellow from Cobbleville was next; and Levi Stebbins was only a +corporal at first; and your uncle Joshaway was a private, but he got to +be a major before the war was over; and Vosh's father he came home a +captain, with a big scar on his right arm, and he'd lost one of his +front teeth in a scrimmage. But I must go right on to the wolf part."</p> + +<p>"O Mrs. Stebbins!" exclaimed Pen with a long breath, "I'd forgot all +about the war."</p> + +<p>"So has most people," said Mrs. Stebbins; "and it's well they have, for +it's only a root of bitterness now, and it ort not to be dug up for ever +and ever. But that first winter after the war begun was an awful cold +one, up hereaway. Leastwise, there kem a bitter snap, like the one we're +having now; and somehow it seemed as if we never missed all those young +men so much, not even in the fall work, as we did after winter sot in. +There was a good many fire-places like this all over the country, where +the folks missed the best face they had, for the one that isn't there +always kind o' seems to be the best; and old Mrs. Lucas she counted on +Alvin, most likely, a good deal as I do on Vosh. He was away down on the +Potomac with his company, and there hadn't been a man of 'em hurt up to +the time of that cold snap, and they sent letters home as reg'lar as +clock-work; and people thought the war wasn't sech a dreadful thing, +after all, so long as nobody got killed from Benton Valley and +Cobbleville. Your folks lived right here, and mine away over on the +other hill, nigh the dividing-line into the Sanders school-district; and +your grandfather and grandmother Farnham were alive, and Susie Farnham +she hadn't married Reuben Hudson and gone to the city, and Judith she +was a young woman; and those two gals was at home with the old folks one +evening"—</p> + +<p>Just then Deacon Farnham got up from his chair, and sat down again; and +aunt Judith rubbed her spectacles very hard indeed, and Mrs. Farnham +looked at her, sidling, as if to see if she were interested in the +story; and Pen looked around at every one, for she knew that Mrs. +Stebbins must be getting pretty near the wolf now.</p> + +<p>"It was one bitter cold night, and all the Lucases were at home, except, +of course, Alvin; and there were four younger than he was; but he was +the likeliest, as well as the oldest, and his next brother didn't go +into the war till the second year. Old Mrs. Lucas wasn't nervous +generally, but that night there seemed to be something the matter with +her; and it was as dark as a pocket, as well as being so cold you could +hardly keep the hens from freezing. She kept a-going to the window; and +her husband, I heard him tell my mother about it, how she seemed to be +listening for something, and all of a sudden she broke out, 'John, it's +a wolf! Hear him! He's out there in the road! Something's happened to +Alvin!' Now, I ain't a mite superstitious, and she wasn't, and John +Lucas wasn't; but there was a charge of buckshot in his gun, and he took +it up, and went right out"—</p> + +<p>"Was the wolf there?" asked Pen with widely open eyes; for Mrs. Stebbins +paused a moment, as if for breath, and aunt Judith's knitting had +dropped into her lap, and she was staring hard at the fire.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Pen," went on Mrs. Stebbins, "and he was nigher the house, and he +howled again; and he sot still, and held his head up to howl, till John +Lucas and his next son—Roger, his name was—got within shot of him; for +he was crazed with the frost, jest as wolves will get in sech times."</p> + +<p>"Did they kill him?" asked Corry.</p> + +<p>"Dead as a mackerel," said Mrs. Stebbins. "And he was the biggest kind; +but it didn't seem to comfort Mrs. Lucas a mite, and it was the +strangest kind of a thing, after all. There isn't any superstition in +me: but, when the next letters kem from the war, there'd been a +scrimmage on the Potomac that very night; and Capt. Alvin Lucas, and +four men from Benton Valley, and twice as many from Cobbleville, had +been killed in it."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe the wolf knew a word about the skirmish," said Port. +"He couldn't, you know."</p> + +<p>"Besides," said Pen, "they shot him; and he couldn't go all around the +valley, and over to Cobbleville, and howl for the other folks."</p> + +<p>Susie was just going to say something to aunt Sarah about it; but she +and aunt Judith had suddenly arisen, and were walking out into the +kitchen. Mrs. Stebbins looked down at her knitting, just the same, and +finished her story as she toed out the last half-inch of that stocking.</p> + +<p>"It kem awful hard on John Lucas, and he sold out his farm that next +spring, and went West; and Levi Stebbins bought it as soon as his army +time was ended, and he could come home again; and Joshaway he staid in +till it was all over. Old Mrs. Lucas, it took her awful; but she was a +good woman, for she said she couldn't get her mind right about losing +Alvin till she could feel to sympathize with the mothers of men that was +killed on the other side. I never had no trouble about that, for Levi he +always spoke well of the Southern soldiers, and so did your uncle +Joshaway; and mothers are mothers, no matter where you find 'em."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins was quiet for a moment, and then remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Lavawjer, it's time we was a-going home."</p> + +<p>"I guess it is, mother."</p> + +<p>It was while she was getting on her things that Deacon Farnham beckoned +Susie Hudson away into the parlor entry for a moment, and whispered to +her,—</p> + +<p>"You are old enough to know some things, Susie. Don't say any thing more +about that story. Speak to Port, and I will to Corry. Your aunt Sarah's +elder brother was the first man killed in that skirmish: that was what +came to her."</p> + +<p>"And aunt Judith?"</p> + +<p>"Capt. Lucas. They were engaged."</p> + +<p>"O uncle Joshua!"</p> + +<p>"That is what the war meant to both sides, my dear."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad it was ever so long ago, and we don't know any thing about +it," said Susie; and that was about what Port said when they spoke to +him. It was not much of a wolf-story, after all, but it had helped away +a winter evening, and perhaps it had done something more; for the boys +and girls of one generation should not be ignorant, altogether, of the +sufferings and sacrifices of those who have lived and died before they +came to take their turn at it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE BEAR-TRAP.</h3> + + +<p>When the family came down to breakfast the next morning, it looked as if +every thing but the venison-steaks and johnnycake and hot coffee had +been forgotten. The steaks were capital; and as for the johnnycake, +nobody in all Benton Valley could beat aunt Judith at that sort of +thing. She was proud of her skill, and liked to see its products eaten; +but even as Porter Hudson was helping himself to his third slice, she +said to him,—</p> + +<p>"Once, when I was a girl, I remember being out of bread for a whole +week."</p> + +<p>"O aunt Judith!" exclaimed Pen, "didn't you eat any thing?"</p> + +<p>"We had plenty of milk and pork and eggs and poultry, and we didn't +starve. We pounded corn in a mortar and made samp, and we hulled some +corn and made hominy, and ate it, and did capitally well."</p> + +<p>"I think I could live a while on such starvation as that," remarked +Susie, "especially if I had maple-sugar to melt down, and pour on the +samp."</p> + +<p>"We had some," said aunt Judith; "but we were just about out of flour +and meal, when there came a thaw and a freshet; and the mill-dams all +gave way, as if they'd agreed to go down together; and we had to wait +till the mills got to running again. It wasn't easy to get a grist +ground, even then; but we didn't suffer any. Folks sent ever so far for +flour; but there wasn't any railroad then, and the roads were awful for +a few weeks. There used to be great freshets in those days."</p> + +<p>"That's a thing that might come any time after the bears turn over," +said Mr. Farnham; and Port instantly asked him,—</p> + +<p>"After the bears turn over! What have they to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know that? Well, well! You're a city boy, and don't have any +bears at home. Every bear hunts up a hollow tree as soon as it's too +cold for him to get around in the woods comfortably, and sits down +before it till there's a heavy snow. Then he creeps in, and gets the +hole snowed up, and goes to sleep. He never dreams of waking up till +spring; but, as soon as the sun is hot enough to warm the tree on one +side, it makes him comfortable on that side of him, and he turns over in +his sleep to warm the other. It's a sure sign of a thaw; and the snow +melts pretty fast after that, till it's time for him to creep out and +get something to eat."</p> + +<p>"How hungry he must be!" said Pen.</p> + +<p>"When is the best time to hunt for bears?" asked Port, with a dim idea +that he would like to boast of having killed a few.</p> + +<p>"Along in the fall, when the nuts are coming down. They're fattest then. +They trap 'em every year all through the mountain country north."</p> + +<p>"Trap 'em! Is there any trap big enough to catch a bear in?" asked Port.</p> + +<p>"Big enough! I'd say so. And sometimes it's a wolf, or a wildcat, or a +panther, instead of a bear; and I know of a man getting caught in one +once."</p> + +<p>"Did he get out?" asked Pen.</p> + +<p>"I won't tell you about it now; but when we get into the sitting-room +this evening, I'll let you know just how one man made a bear of himself +away up on Sawbuck Mountain."</p> + +<p>That was something to look forward to; but not long after Corry and Pen +had gone to school, Porter Hudson took his gun, and marched away to the +woods, all alone by himself. The crust was still as firm as ever, and +there had been no snow worth mentioning since the great storm.</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly what I'm going to kill," he said to himself; "but +I'm ready for any thing that comes."</p> + +<p>His first call for Ponto had been obeyed somewhat fatly and sluggishly; +but, the moment the old dog saw the gun, he was another and a more +willing animal. He led the way, head and tail up, until he came to the +spot in the road where the wolves had pulled down the buck. The new +snow, thin as it was, covered all traces of that adventure. But Ponto's +memory, or nose, made him precisely accurate. Port was quite willing to +stop a moment, and recall how that spot had looked in the moonlight, and +how uncommonly loud and sharp had seemed to be the reports of the guns. +All the hills had echoed them; and it occurred to him, that, if he +should now meet a pack of wolves, he would have but two loads of +buckshot, instead of eight.</p> + +<p>"And no slugs," he added. "I should have brought some along. I don't +care, though. I could climb a small tree, and fire away."</p> + +<p>He afterwards noted quite a number of small trees well adapted to such +business. So were some lower limbs of several larger trees, and he stood +for a few minutes under one of these. He imagined himself sitting on +that great projecting branch, climbing out to where it was ten feet +above the snow, with a large pack of very ferocious and hungry wolves +raging around below him, while he loaded and fired until the last of +them had keeled over.</p> + +<p>"Wolves can't climb," he remarked to himself; and he felt that such an +affair would be grand to tell of when he should get back to the city. It +would make a sort of hero of him, and the wolves could be skinned right +there. He enjoyed it mentally; but that particular pack of wild beasts, +killed off, in his imagination, under that tree, were all the game, of +any kind, that he obtained that day. Ponto did better, for he discovered +innumerable tracks in the snow, and they seemed to answer his purposes +admirably. He could sniff and bark, and run and come back again, and +look up into Port's face as if he were saying, "There, I've had another +hunt."</p> + +<p>Port had one. In fact, he hunted until he was sick of it, and decided +that it was altogether too cold to hunt any longer. It seemed to him +that he had been gone from the house a very long time indeed; and he was +all but astonished, on his return, to discover that he was quite in +season for dinner.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you see any thing whatever?" asked Susie. She had felt a little +anxiety about him, considering what dreadful things the forest was known +to contain, and was even relieved to have him reply,—</p> + +<p>"Not so much as one rabbit. You never heard any thing so still as the +woods are."</p> + +<p>"Didn't know but what you might bring home a few deer," said Deacon +Farnham, "or find a bear-tree."</p> + +<p>"I'm good and hungry, anyhow," said Port; "and it's the hardest kind of +work, looking all around for nothing."</p> + +<p>He had not done that. No city boy can spend a morning in the winter +forest, with a gun and a dog, without learning something. It is an +experience he will not forget so long as he lives.</p> + +<p>Those had been great days for Vosh Stebbins. He felt that he had new +duties on his hands ever since his new neighbors came, and was more and +more inclined to hurry home from school in the afternoon, and get his +chores done early. His mother remarked more than once that she had +hardly one moment to say a word to him, and that he could split more +wood in half an hour than any other boy in Benton Valley. Nevertheless +it was at their own supper-table that evening that she said to him,—</p> + +<p>"We'd best not go over to the other house to-night, Lavawjer. We've been +there a good deal lately, and I like to be neighborly, and it's a good +idee to help 'em with their city cousins, and I never seen any that I +took to more'n I do to Port and Susie Hudson; but there's reason in all +things, and we mustn't be runnin' in too often."</p> + +<p>Vosh buttered another hot biscuit, and did not make any reply, because +he could not think of the right one to make. It was made for him just a +little after tea, when he told his mother that every thing he had to do +was done. She had cleared away the tea things, and had taken her +knitting, and both of them were sitting by their own fireplace.</p> + +<p>"Our sittin'-room," she said, "isn't as big as Joshaway Farnham's, and +it doesn't call for more'n half so much fire; but it's a nice one, and I +wish we had more folks into it. We must ask 'em all to come over some +evening, and I'll see if I can't make 'em feel comfortable. I'll make +some cake, and we've got a'most every thing else on hand. And that makes +me think: I want Judith Farnham's new recipe for makin' the kind of cake +she had Christmas and New-Year's; and you can put on your overcoat and +come right over with me, and we won't stay one minute, and you mustn't +let them get ye to talkin' about any thing." And Vosh was beginning to +get ready before she reached that point. She put away her knitting at +once, and said there was plenty of wood on the fire, for they were +coming right back; and so Vosh piled on two more large logs, and they +started. He may have had ideas of his own as to how much wood might burn +while he and his mother were walking to Deacon Farnham's and returning. +Some short walks are long ones, if the people who walk them are not +careful.</p> + +<p>"I'm real glad they've come," said Mrs. Farnham the moment she heard her +neighbors at the gate. "They're good company, too, and it must sometimes +be kind of lonely for 'em,—only two in the house, and no young people."</p> + +<p>Her fireside had no lonely look, and it was all the brighter for those +who now came in. It was of no manner of use for Mrs. Stebbins to speak +about cake, and say she had not come to stay. Vosh settled himself at +once with a hammer and a flat-iron and some hickory-nuts; and aunt +Judith pulled up a rocking-chair, remarking,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Angeline, don't let us have any nonsense. Sit right down here and +be comfortable. I'll make a copy of the receipt for you to-morrow, and I +always put in more eggs than it calls for."</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Pen, "you mustn't make too much noise. Father's going to +tell a story. It's of a man that got lost in the woods, and made a bear +of himself."</p> + +<p>"I've known fellows do that, and not go far into the woods either," said +Vosh; and Susie thought a moment before she added,—</p> + +<p>"So have I. But then, some men can be bears, and not half try."</p> + +<p>The deacon laughed, and put down the apple he was paring.</p> + +<p>"I don't know if it's much of a story," said he; "but it has one +advantage over some other stories, for it's a true one.—Take an apple, +Mrs. Stebbins.—Corry, pass them to Vosh.—Pen, well, keep the cat in +your lap if you want her."</p> + +<p>"Now," said aunt Judith, "I guess everybody's ready."</p> + +<p>"I won't go home till after the story, nohow," said Mrs. Stebbins; "but +speaking of bears"—</p> + +<p>"Mother," interrupted Vosh, "you've dropped your yarn. Here it is."</p> + +<p>"Hem!" said the deacon. "There were more bears all around the country +once than there are now, and they did more mischief. It was really worth +while to take a hunt for 'em now and then; and there's always a good +market for bear-skins, if you cure 'em well. The way my story came about +was this:—</p> + +<p>"There was one November when the woods were just full of deer, and some +young fellows from Benton Valley made up their minds they'd have a good +hunt before the real cold weather came. There hadn't been just such an +Indian summer for years and years, and camping out in the mountains was +no kind of hardship. The nights were cold, but the days were warm; and +all four of them were strapping young men, used to taking care of +themselves, and brimful of fun.</p> + +<p>"They went up beyond Mink Lake, and it looked as if the deer kept away +from them all that first day. They'd have gone to bed hungry, if it +hadn't been for some fish they caught; and the next morning they made up +their minds they'd go out singly, in different directions, and see which +of them would do best. What was curious, they didn't have but one dog +along, and his owner counted on having the most game, as a matter of +course."</p> + +<p>"He was the man that got beared," whispered Pen to the cat in her lap; +but her father went right on,—</p> + +<p>"The man that owned the dog started out from camp right along the slope +of Sawbuck Mountain, northerly; and there are little lakes every mile or +so, and they're just swarming with fish. He was following an old path +that was pretty well marked. Maybe it was an old Indian trail; but white +men had followed it in winter, for the trees were blazed, so you could +follow it if there was snow on the ground to hide it."</p> + +<p>The deacon paused a moment, as if thinking how to go on; and Porter +Hudson asked him eagerly,—</p> + +<p>"Did he have the kind of luck I had yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly," replied his uncle. "Before it was ten o'clock by +his watch, he had killed and hung up three deer. Real fat ones they +were, too, and one of them was a seven-year-old buck with horns that +were worth having."</p> + +<p>"'Pears to me," remarked Mrs. Stebbins, "the deer nowadays don't have +the horns they did when I was a gal;" but the deacon went right on,—</p> + +<p>"He didn't know just how many miles he might be from camp; and he knew +he'd need help in carrying in those deer, unless he should cut up the +meat and set out to smoke it right there."</p> + +<p>"And good smoked deer-meat is something worth having," said his wife.</p> + +<p>"But he walked on for half a mile or so, just as if there was any use in +going for another deer that day, till he came out into a sort of open. +The land sloped down to the shore of a little lake as regularly and +smoothly as if it had been cleared for a deer-pasture. There wasn't a +deer on it just then; but right in the edge of the opening the hunter +found something that set him a-thinking. It was the best bear-trap he +had ever seen. There was a little ledge of rocks; and about the middle +of it was a break that made a square place the size of a small bedroom, +only it wasn't much more than six feet high by ten feet deep. The +fellows that made the trap had built up the front with heavy upright +logs to hang their gate on, and covered the top with logs."</p> + +<p>"Please, uncle Joshua," said Susie, "what is the gate for?"</p> + +<p>"To let the bears in. Did you ever see a figure 4 rat-trap? That's it. +The gate lifts up, with a strong sapling for a hinge, and the ends of +the sapling (that's the roller) are fitted into the logs at the sides. +There's a long pole fitted into the gate to lift it by, and, when that's +pulled down flat on top of the trap, the gate is up about level. There +was a wooden catch geared through the roof of that trap so nicely, that, +when the pole was in the notch of it, the trap was set to spring at any +kind of pull on the bait. The lower end of that catch hung away back by +the rock, and the whole machine was in prime order."</p> + +<p>"It was somebody else's trap," remarked Corry doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he could see that nobody had been there that year. The timber was +all seasoned, and there was grass growing against the gate. There was a +good stiff latch, made with a deep notch in the logs to hold that gate +after it came down; and, if a bear once shut himself in, there was no +possibility of his getting out. The hunter looked it all over, and made +up his mind he'd set the trap, and go back to the last deer he'd killed, +and get some fresh meat for bait, and see if something could be done +with it. It was some time before he could get at the pole so as to bring +it down; but he worked it with a grape-vine for a rope, and it came into +place perfectly. Then he went to his deer, and got his bait, and hurried +back, as if he were afraid some beast or other would get caught before +the bait was there to account for it. You use it just as you use toasted +cheese in a rat-trap, only you tie it on, so it'll take a hard pull to +get it off. A bear is sure to pull, and that springs the trap; a panther +isn't so apt to be stupid about it; and a wolf won't, unless he's +hungry. They're more cunning than a bear is, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"He didn't toast the whole deer, and put him on?" said Pen.</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't toast any thing; but he was hard at work, tying all he +had taken from the inside of that deer to the catch of the trap, when +something happened that he hadn't been looking for."</p> + +<p>"Was it a bear?" said Pen.</p> + +<p>"Worse than that. He had pulled too hard on the catch, and it had +slipped the pole free, and down came the gate with a bang, and he had +trapped himself completely. The gate just missed the dog when it fell, +but it left him outside. The first thing the hunter did was to laugh. +Then he said he would finish tying the meat on, and go up and set the +trap over again. He tied it on carefully, and set out to get ready for +bears; but, when he tried to lift that gate, it wouldn't lift. It was +made heavy purposely; and it was caught in the notch below, just exactly +right, for the man that made that trap knew how. There was nothing about +it to laugh at, and the hunter sat down and thought it over: so did the +dog, looking at him through the cracks of the logs, and whimpering. It +doesn't take a good dog long to understand when things are going badly."</p> + +<p>"He could have chopped his way out," said Port.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the deacon, "but he had no axe, and a jack-knife is a poor +tool to work with on seasoned timber. He tried it for a while; but it +seemed as if he might whittle away for a week, or till he starved to +death, before he could make a hole to get out by. He couldn't dig under, +for limestone rock is hard digging. He worked a little at the roof, but +that had been weighted with heavy stones, so that a bear could not have +stirred a log of it. On the whole, it was a pretty tight place to be in; +and it was dinner-time, and he was tremendously hungry. He had not a +mouthful to eat or drink, and he knew his friends would not be uneasy +about him before night, and not much even then. He was uneasy already, +and so was the dog. The poor fellow came and pawed at the logs, and +whined and whined; then he went back, and stood and barked like mad at +the whole concern."</p> + +<p>"What a pity he didn't have an axe to chop himself out!" said Pen. "Then +he wouldn't have staid there and starved to death."</p> + +<p>"He didn't do that exactly," said the deacon. "He sat down and thought +about it, and studied that gate, until by and by an idea came to him. It +was the middle of the afternoon before it came, but it was a good one. +There were splinters of wood around the floor of the trap, and he had +whittled a heap of shavings from the log he had worked on. He gathered +them all, and began to crowd them into the chinks of the logs, away up +in both corners of the gate, just under the roller that it swung on. +Soon as he'd got them well packed in, he took out his match-box, and set +them on fire. There isn't any trouble about getting dry wood to burn; +and it was plain enough, that, if the ends of that roller were burned +away, the gate would have to go down."</p> + +<p>Everybody around that fireplace felt sure about the burning qualities of +seasoned wood, for they all had to pull away a little, and the story +went on.</p> + +<p>"The fire kindled well on both corners. The fact was, it kindled a +little too well, and it spread, and the smoke began to come back into +the trap. Just before the hunter took out his match-box, he had looked +around for his dog, and the fellow wasn't anywhere to be seen. There was +time now to wonder what had become of him, but no amount of whistling +brought him. Then the smoke grew too thick to whistle in, and the hunter +lay down to get some fresher air at the bottom of the gate. The fire +spread to the logs of the roof, and began to climb down the gate, and +the trap became the hottest kind of a place. It took a long time for all +that; but there was plenty of excitement in watching it, and in +wondering whether or not he was going to roast himself to death instead +of getting out. It grew hotter and hotter, until it could hardly be +endured, and the smoke was stifling. At last the hunter sprang up, and +gave a shove at the gate with all his might. If he had done it before, +it might have let him out sooner. The gate went over upon the ground +with a crash, and one jump carried the man out of the trap. He had left +his rifle outside, leaning against a tree; and there it was yet, but +there was not a sign of the dog.</p> + +<p>"He had left a big piece of deer-meat out there too; and his next +thought was that he had plenty of fire to cook by, and that he wanted +some supper as soon as he had been to the lake for a long drink of +water. That water tasted good, now, I tell you, and so did the broiled +meat afterwards; for the sun was only an hour high, and he had had an +early breakfast that morning. He sat and cooked and ate, and felt +better; and all the while the fire was finishing up the bear-trap, roof +and all. He did his cooking on the gate; and, if he had not been able to +get out when he did, the gate and roof would have cooked him."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" exclaimed Pen. "And he wasn't hurt a mite?"</p> + +<p>"No," said her father; "and just as he finished eating, and rose to pick +up his rifle and start for the camp, there came a yelp, yelp, yelp +through the woods, and there was his dog got back again. He hadn't come +alone either; for right along behind him, travelling good and fast, were +the three other hunters. The dog had been to the camp for them, and made +them understand that his master was in trouble."</p> + +<p>"Splendid!" exclaimed Susie.</p> + +<p>"And when they saw the smoke of that fire, they all shouted and ran, +till the dog gave a howl and a jump, and began to dance around the man +he belonged to. He told his friends the whole story, and there was the +fire to prove the truth of it; and each of them had killed a deer that +day."</p> + +<p>"And how did you ever come to know just exactly how it all happened," +said Mrs. Stebbins, "so't you can tell it right along, 'most as if you'd +been there?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said the deacon, "I suppose it's because I was the man that got +caught in the trap; and the other three were Alvin Lucas, and Levi +Stebbins, and Sarah's brother, Marvin Trowbridge, that's living now at +Ticonderoga."</p> + +<p>"I'd heard the story before," said aunt Sarah, "and I remember seeing +that dog when he was so old he was gray."</p> + +<p>"I guess he didn't get turned out of the house when he was old," said +Port enthusiastically; "but why didn't you fix the trap, and set it +again?"</p> + +<p>"That's the very thing we did; and we caught three bears in it, and one +wildcat, before the snow came. Only we always took care to bait the hook +before we set the trap; and nobody else had to set it on fire to get out +of it."</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said his mother, "as soon as I've finished this apple, it'll be +time for you and me to be getting ready to go home."</p> + +<p>"That's all," said the deacon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>THE NEW CHESSMEN.</h3> + + +<p>Porter Hudson did not feel like going to the woods the following +morning. He had a pretty clear idea that they were empty, that the bears +were asleep in their trees, that the wolves had mostly been killed, that +the deer had run away, and that the cougars and wildcats had gone after +them. He was quite willing to go to the village with Susie, when she +told him she must go and see if she could find some tidy-yarn, and some +more colored wool for the last few inches of the fringe for the fur of +the Mink-lake trophy.</p> + +<p>"There's three stores," said aunt Judith, "and you'll be sure to find +what you want at one of 'em. I can remember when old Mr. McGinniss kept +the only store in Benton, and it did seem sometimes as if he never had +nothing in it that you wanted to buy. It was always something else that +he'd picked up at a bargain, and was asking two prices for, and it +didn't make him rich neither."</p> + +<p>The walking in the road was good enough now, and from the very outskirts +of the village the paths were all that could be asked for; but Port +looked at them several times with remarks about Broadway.</p> + +<p>"If we were there now," he said, "we'd find all the flagging clear and +clean of snow."</p> + +<p>"I almost wish I could be there for an hour or so," replied Susie. +"There'd be a better chance of finding just what I want than there is +here."</p> + +<p>The stores of Benton Village, however improved they were since aunt +Judith was a girl, bore no resemblance whatever to those of the great +city. There was a cheese on the counter over which Susie first asked for +colored wool; and the young man she spoke to took down a large +pasteboard box of crewel and other stuff, and politely carried it to the +front window. He set it down on a pile of home-made sausages, and lifted +a bag of flour out of her way, so that she could make a search. She +found one skein that would do, and only one, and she bought it.</p> + +<p>"Now, Port, we will try the next. I've made a beginning."</p> + +<p>"That's more than I thought you would do," said he. "It's a mixed-up +sort of place."</p> + +<p>So was store No. 2, but it had a long showcase for that description of +goods, and for fishing-tackle and candies, and for a lot of stuff that +looked as if it might have been intended for Christmas presents to the +heathen.</p> + +<p>"It must have been some accident," said Susie almost as soon as she +looked into that collection. "Here are the very things. We needn't go +any farther."</p> + +<p>The merchant, who was smiling across the showcase at her, knew that she +was "that young lady from the city that's visiting with Deacon Farnham's +folks, and she can skate like a bird."</p> + +<p>He had never seen a bird skate, but he knew she was pretty, and he was +sincerely proud of the fact that she found the right wool in his +establishment. He was doing it up satisfactorily, when Port pointed at a +box in the showcase, and asked,—</p> + +<p>"What's that, Mr. Rosenstein?"</p> + +<p>"Dot is chessmen. I show you."</p> + +<p>The box was lifted out in a twinkling, and pulled open.</p> + +<p>"I thought as much," said Port.</p> + +<p>They had evidently been on hand a long time, and had a forlorn and +forsaken look. The white king was in two pieces, and so was one of the +black horse-men; but Mr. Rosenstein said encouragingly,—</p> + +<p>"I zell dose chessmen for two shilling. Dey cost me four. You joost dake +a leetle glue"—</p> + +<p>"Guess I can," said Port. "I'll buy 'em.—That's what I've been thinking +of, Susie. Vosh can beat me at checkers, but he never played a game of +chess in all his life. I'll show him something."</p> + +<p>Mr. Rosenstein was again very much pleased, for that box had been a bad +speculation; and Port and Susie were bowed out of the store a great +deal.</p> + +<p>There was not much to see in the village after that, but they strolled +around for a little while. There were many people in from the +surrounding country; and the jingle of sleigh-bells, and the continual +coming and going of teams, made things lively.</p> + +<p>One large double sleigh, with extravagant goose-necks, pulled up almost +in front of them, and a lady's voice called to Susie,—</p> + +<p>"Miss Hudson!"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. King! Good-morning. I've been doing some shopping."</p> + +<p>"Hope you succeeded better than I can do. Glad I've met you. There are +your invitations, and your aunts' and uncle's; and if you'll be kind +enough to send over Mrs. Stebbins's to her"—</p> + +<p>"I'll attend to that with pleasure," said Port, reaching out his hand +for the white envelopes her own was offering.</p> + +<p>"And you must all come," said Mrs. King. "I'm going to have my house +full. You will not disappoint me? Most of 'em will be young folks, but +I'll have a few grown-up people on my own account."</p> + +<p>Susie promised faithfully, and Mrs. King drove on.</p> + +<p>"I'd like it first-rate," said Port, as he read his own invitation to +the party. "We must go, Susie. It'll be fun."</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll go. Don't you think she has a very pleasant face?"</p> + +<p>He spoke strongly of Mrs. King's face, and they turned to go home. The +fact that a young-people's party was getting ready to be announced at +Squire King's was a secret pretty well known and carefully kept by all +Benton; but everybody was glad to get an invitation, just the same. +Twenty-three people, or perhaps twenty-four, remarked that they were +very glad Squire King's house was so large, or there wouldn't be room in +it to walk around after the folks got there. That was not all; for some +of the Benton people found out, for the first time, that they were no +longer considered "young people," and some of them felt as if Mrs. King +had made a mistake in her reckoning. Mrs. Bunce, the doctor's wife, +asked her where she drew the line; and she said,—</p> + +<p>"I don't exactly know, but if they've got gray hair, or their children +go to school"—</p> + +<p>"That'll do," said Mrs. Bunce. "It hits me in both places. My Sam and +his sisters'll be there, and I'll come after them. I hope you'll have a +good time."</p> + +<p>There was some stir at the Farnham and Stebbins homesteads over those +invitations. Both houses had been swept by Mrs. King's list in order to +make sure of Susie and her brother, and it came as both a triumph and a +trial to Mrs. Stebbins and Vosh.</p> + +<p>"They wear white silk neckties to parties," said she to him, "and I'll +see that you hev one. They say it'll be the largest young-folks' party +there ever was in Benton Valley."</p> + +<p>Some of the young folk expecting to go were very large, truly, but not +all of them; for Penelope had a special invitation. That was old Squire +King's work; for he knew Pen, and he declared that he wouldn't miss +hearing what she had to say about the company, and things in general.</p> + +<p>That had been a busy day for Mrs. Stebbins, but her cake had turned out +splendidly.</p> + +<p>"They're all coming over after tea, Lavawjer," she said to him, "and we +must see to it that they have a good time. If you and Porter Hudson play +checkers, you needn't mind a-letting of him beat you for once. He hasn't +won a game on you yet."</p> + +<p>That was a fact; but there was something in store for Vosh that evening. +He had every thing around the house attended to in prime good season; +and his fireplace wore as bright a glow, for its size, as did Deacon +Farnham's own. The weather called for that sort of thing; but everybody +was now so accustomed and hardened to it, that there was less difficulty +in understanding how the Russians can make out to be happy after their +frosts begin to come.</p> + +<p>The entire Farnham family, Ponto and all, turned out in a procession +soon after supper, and they made a noisy walk of it to their neighbor's +gate.</p> + +<p>"There they come!" exclaimed Mrs. Stebbins; "and they're all talking at +once, and it sounds as if they were in good sperrets, and we must keep +'em a-going, and you mustn't talk too much yourself, and give 'em a fair +chance, and"—</p> + +<p>The door flew open at that moment, and Pen's voice shouted,—</p> + +<p>"They're all a-coming, Mrs. Stebbins!—O Ponto! I never ought to have +let you get in.—Vosh, turn him out before he has time to shake +himself."</p> + +<p>It was too late for that, and Mrs. Stebbins would not have had a dog of +the Farnham family turned out of her house at any time. Ponto was made +at home by everybody but the cat; and even she showed very plainly that +she knew who he was, even if she could not call him by name.</p> + +<p>"Here we are," said aunt Judith. "Did your cake come up? Hope it didn't +fall."</p> + +<p>"Fall! No. It's just the lightest kind. Now, do get your things off, all +of ye, and sit down. I'm to your house often enough, and I'm right glad +to hev the whole of you in mine at once, and not scattering along."</p> + +<p>The room looked all the cosier for not being large; and, as soon as +everybody had found a chair, Vosh was justified in saying to Port and +Corry,—</p> + +<p>"Now, if this isn't first-rate, I'd like to know what is."</p> + +<p>Port's reply was,—</p> + +<p>"I got me a set of chessmen down in the village to-day, and I brought +them over with me. It's worth all the checkers."</p> + +<p>Everybody seemed disposed to take an interest in that matter. The +chessmen were turned out of their box, and showed signs of recent +discipline. They had a bright and much-rubbed look. A little glue had +remounted the knight, and set up the broken king; and when Corry +remarked, "Didn't he get 'em cheap?" he expressed the general opinion.</p> + +<p>Vosh looked at them eagerly, and began to set them in their places. He +had never played a game of chess; but he had watched the playing of +several, and that was something to a good checker-player. It was not all +new ground. From the moment he had heard about Port's purchase, by way +of Corry, his mind had busied itself with his memories of the games he +had watched; and he was at this hour crammed full of enthusiasm for the +royal game.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," said Port, "suppose Susie and I play a game, and you look on and +learn the moves."</p> + +<p>"No," said Susie: "you and Vosh play, and I'll be his adviser. I can +play as well as you can."</p> + +<p>"Better too, if I make blunders in the opening."</p> + +<p>"Lavawjer," remarked his mother, "that's what you'd better do; and I +don't suppose you can learn much in one evening, but you can make a +start at it. They say it's an awful hard thing to get into, and there +was a man over in Scoville's Corners that went crazy just a-studying +over it."</p> + +<p>The chessmen were in place by that time, and so were the players; and +Susie began to explain to Vosh the different powers of the pieces. He +listened politely, but it seemed to him as if he already began to see +into the matter. He was only too confident of what he saw, for a +trifling neglect by him of Susie's advice enabled her brother to +announce what players call "the scholar's mate" in a very few moves.</p> + +<p>"I told you so, Lavawjer," said his mother. "She knew jest what she was +about, and you didn't." But there was no danger that her son would ever +again be defeated by so simple a combination. The second game, with +Susie's help, was more protracted; and then it was aunt Judith's keen +eyes that detected the state of mind Vosh had arrived at.</p> + +<p>"Susie," she said, "let him alone this time. He's got a-going now. Don't +say one word to him, and let's see how he'll work it out."</p> + +<p>"I won't speak, Vosh," said Susie. "Go right ahead now.—It won't be +long, Port, before he'll catch up with you."</p> + +<p>Vosh was not a conceited young fellow, but he had a fair degree of +self-confidence. He was not afraid of any reasonable undertaking at any +time, but he had a queer experience coming to him just now. He found his +imagination running away ahead, and placing those men on the board in +new positions, and then understanding what would be the consequences of +those arrangements. It was the power to do that very thing which had +made him so good a checker-player; but he had never used it so vividly +as now, and it almost startled him. All the brains in the world are not +made upon the same pattern, and not many boys with good heads on their +shoulders know what is in them.</p> + +<p>The older people were having a good time in their own way, but every now +and then they turned to watch that third game of chess. Susie was in a +fever several times, and came very near breaking in with advice, as her +pupil seemed running into dangers. Each time she checked herself; and +each time Vosh discovered the snags ahead of him, and avoided them. Port +himself was getting more deeply interested than he had expected, and +called up all he had ever learned. He was not a bad player for so young +a one, and he had worked out problems, and studied printed games. He +remembered one of the latter now, that seemed to fit his present case +very well, and he tried to make it serve as a trap for Vosh Stebbins. It +seemed a success at first, but it was just like Joshua Farnham's +bear-trap exactly: the fellow that was caught in it destroyed it +altogether. There was a way out of the proposed defeat which had not +been seen by the newspaper problem-maker, and Vosh found it.</p> + +<p>That was the end of the game; and, in a few moves more, Port was himself +in a tangle from which he could not escape. He was beaten. He was +tremendously exercised by the laugh that went around the room, and by +Susie's patting him on the head and advising him to wake up. He had not +dreamed of any such result, and called for another trial. That game he +managed to win, and one more; but beyond that neither he nor any other +but a really good player was likely to go with Vosh Stebbins.</p> + +<p>"I declare, Sarah!" exclaimed the deacon at last: "we've staid too late. +We must go home at once."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins protested that it was early; but the game of chess was +over, and go they did. Every slice of all that remarkable cake had been +eaten, and all declared that they had had an uncommonly pleasant +evening. Pen improved it by remarking,—</p> + +<p>"Port's had a pretty hard time, but he'll get over it."</p> + +<p>After the company were gone, and the house was quiet, and Vosh could go +to bed, it seemed to him as if he should never get to sleep. It was not +exactly the fact that chess-problems were troubling his brains: it was +more the yet greater fact that he had discovered brains in his head that +he had not known of. With that also came the idea that he must find some +better use for them than any kind of game could give him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>WINTER FLOWERS AND THE PARTY.</h3> + + +<p>Squire King was one of the most liberal of men, and he had something to +be liberal with. He had gradually gone more and more into the spirit of +the young folks' party matter, and had even astonished his wife by the +things he did and proposed.</p> + +<p>To have had actual dancing would have offended some of the best people +in the village; but every other kind of amusement that was to be +tolerated he provided for, and he almost doubled the allowance of +ice-cream and confectionery. He had no idea, nor had even his wife, what +an amount of work and of contriving they had provided for their +neighbors. Every store in Benton Village, and some over in Cobbleville, +did a better business from the hour in which Mrs. King's invitations +were delivered.</p> + +<p>The family at the Farnham homestead seemed to concentrate their interest +upon the kind of appearance Susie Hudson was to make. Even Pen remarked +to her,—</p> + +<p>"They all know me, and they won't care so much how I look; but you're +from the city, and every one of 'em'll look at you as soon as you come +in."</p> + +<p>Susie had brought a good enough wardrobe with her; and aunt Judith +herself declared it extravagant, but at the same time selected the best +things in it for use at Mrs. King's party.</p> + +<p>"I shall have no trouble at all," said Susie. "There needn't be any +thing added to that dress."</p> + +<p>"No," said Pen, "it's mine that's got to be added to." But there was one +lady in the neighborhood who was of a different opinion.</p> + +<p>The very morning of the party, Mrs. Stebbins said to her son,—</p> + +<p>"I don't keer if you do miss a day's schoolin'. You jest hitch up the +colt after breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Going somewhere?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you after we're a-going. It won't be any short drive, now. +I'm going to hev my own notions for once. She's the nicest gal I know +of."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean Susie Hudson?"</p> + +<p>"I'll show you what I mean, and if I don't open somebody's eyes!"</p> + +<p>She evidently had some plot or other on her mind, and she grew almost +red in the face over it at the breakfast-table. She finished putting +away the dishes while Vosh was out getting ready the colt and cutter, +but she did not seem disposed to tell even herself precisely what her +plans were. It was not until she and her deeply interested driver were +actually driving into Benton that she came out with it.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," she said, "take right down the main street, and out the +Cobbleville road. We're going way to cousin Jasper's."</p> + +<p>"That's three miles beyond. Well, it isn't much of a drive in such +sleighing as this is. The colt's feeling prime. But what's it for?"</p> + +<p>"We're going all the way to cousin Jasper Harding's; and, if the frost +hasn't clean killed out his hot-house, I'm going to hev somethin' for +Susie Hudson that the rest on 'em can't get a hold of. The last time I +seen him he said his plants was doing first-rate, and he'd put in +steam-pipe enough to save 'em if the frost was a-splitting the rocks. He +hasn't any use for 'em on earth, except that he had lettuce and radishes +for his Christmas dinner."</p> + +<p>There was steady work for the sorrel colt after that, and the bells +jingled the merriest kind of tune right through Cobbleville without +stopping. When "cousin Jasper's" was reached, it was nothing but a +long-built, story-and-a-half white house, with no pretension whatever. +There were young fruit-trees around it in all directions, and uncommonly +extensive trellises for vines; and at one end the glass roof of a +hot-house barely lifted itself above the snow-banks. One man, at least, +in that region, had materially added to his other resources for winter +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>"He says it doesn't cost him any thing to speak of," said Mrs. Stebbins +to Vosh. "He's got some fixings rigged to the big stove in the parlor, +to send the steam around the hot-house, and the fire doesn't go out in +that stove all winter long. I'd kind o' like to try it some day myself. +It's the getting started that costs money."</p> + +<p>"And then," said Vosh, "there's the knowing how to do it."</p> + +<p>He thought so again after he got into that bit of a winter garden, and +looked around him. Cousin Jasper Harding was an under-sized man, and his +wife was a short woman of twice his weight. They could stand erect where +Vosh had to stoop a little; but he could stand up in the middle, and see +what they pointed out to him. Both were glad to see him and his mother, +and to have them stay to dinner; but, for some reason or other, Mrs. +Stebbins was slow about opening her errand. Vosh wondered a little, but +he waited and listened. It was at the dinner-table that she began to +tell about the young folks' party to be at Mrs. King's that evening. +From that she went over to Deacon Farnham's, and told about Susie +Hudson, and how pretty she was, and about her skating, and all the nice +evenings at the deacon's, and at last somewhat suddenly inquired,—</p> + +<p>"Didn't you use to think a good deal of Joshaway Farnham and his wife, +and Judith, and"—</p> + +<p>"Best friends I ever had in my life."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking, Jasper. City girls are used to having a sprig of +something to wear in their dresses to a party. Now, I know it would +please Joshaway and Sarah and Judith if you'd send a bit of something +green,—jest a leaf or so, not to rob any of your plants. There ain't +many of 'em, and cutting 'em might hurt 'em; and where a man hasn't but +a little"—</p> + +<p>"Something green? Guess so. There's more in that hot-house than you +think there is, Angeline."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe there is. It looks too nice to take out any thing of what +few plants you've got."</p> + +<p>"You just finish your pie, and come along. I'll show you something you +think I can't do. I'd like to do a favor for any girl of that family. +Tell her I knowed her mother 'fore she was born. I'll go right in now; +be ready by the time you get there.—Betsey, you keep Angeline company, +and I'll show her something."</p> + +<p>He certainly astonished both her and Vosh. As she afterwards explained +to the latter, no money could have made him part with any of his +hot-house treasures as a direct sale, nor would he have given them for +the asking. She had to get them the way she did; but there they were.</p> + +<p>"That's for her throat-latch, Angeline; and she can put that on her +waistband,—little fellows, you know. She can carry that in her hand; +and, if she wants to send her photygraph to old Jasper Harding and his +wife, she can. I'll hang it up in the hot-house."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stebbins had a great deal to say about those flowers and green +leaves, and the skill with which they had been cultivated and now were +put together, and she added,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Betsey, Vosh and I must go. Jasper's bokay and the buds'll be worn +by the nicest and prettiest gal at Mrs. King's party, and I wish you two +were going to be there to see."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes more the colt was brought from his dinner in the barn, +Mrs. Stebbins was in the cutter guarding her prizes, the liberal florist +was thanked again, and then the bells made lively music homeward.</p> + +<p>Very complete was the astonishment on all the faces in the Farnham +sitting-room when Mrs. Stebbins walked in, and announced the results of +her morning's undertaking. The sorrel colt had trotted twenty miles and +more for the sake of Susie Hudson; but it was Vosh's mother who got +kissed for it, and that was probably sound justice. She also received an +invitation to go and come in Deacon Farnham's sleigh, and so the sorrel +colt did save an evening job in cold weather.</p> + +<p>Vosh was particularly glad of that invitation. He was a young man of a +good deal of courage, but it seemed to him that he could march into Mrs. +King's front parlor more easily with a crowd than with only his mother +or alone. Corry was not troubled in that way, nor Penelope; and Porter +Hudson was only too well aware that he was from the city, and had been +to parties before. He had no doubt whatever that he would know how to do +the right things in the right place, but that was just where Vosh +Stebbins found his courage called for. He made a mental chessboard of +Mrs. King's premises, and the people who were to be in them, and found +that he could not place the pieces to suit himself. He was the worst +piece in the whole lot whenever he arranged one of those society +problems. It was a game he had never played, and he was only half sure +he could win at it. He was confident of being as well dressed as was +necessary, except that he wondered whether or not any one would wear +gloves. His mother settled that for him, and Mr. Rosenstein could have +told him that only three young men in Benton had bought any. These had +run the risk of it, meaning to put them on if it should be necessary. +One had purchased white kids, and another a black pair, while the third +had heard that bright yellow was the correct thing. The pair he selected +were very bright and very yellow.</p> + +<p>Susie Hudson's dress did not trouble aunt Judith's mind after she saw it +on, and she remarked of it,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Sarah, I'm glad there isn't any thing showy about it. It's just +the best thing. She isn't looking as if she was putting on. It'll be all +the prettier when the flowers are there, and nobody else'll have any."</p> + +<p>It was simple, tasteful, of very good material, and there was no +question as to the good effect of the flowers. Susie was all but sorry +that she was to be alone in that particular; and so, as soon as she got +there, was every other girl in the room.</p> + +<p>The deacon's hired man lived at some distance down the road, but he came +up to look out for the team, and was sent first to the Stebbins house.</p> + +<p>Vosh and his mother were ready, and he was thinking of his new white +silk necktie when he came to the door with her. The man in the sleigh +could not hear him think, and did not know what a burden a necktie can +be; but he did hear Mrs. Stebbins remark,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Lavawjer, the one thing you're to remember is, that you mustn't +talk too much. Let other folks do the talking, and, if you keep your +eyes about ye, you may learn something."</p> + +<p>He had already begun not to talk too much, for hardly a word escaped him +till they got to the Farnham gate.</p> + +<p>"I'll go in and see if they're ready," he said, and was preparing to get +out.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll go in too," added his mother. "I'd like to see how they're +all a-looking."</p> + +<p>At that moment, however, the front-door swung open, and a procession +marched out, headed by Pen, and closed, as was the door behind it, by +her father.</p> + +<p>"We're all fixed, Vosh," said Pen. "My back hair's in two braids, and +Susie's got a bracelet with a gold bug on it, and Port's got on his +summer shoes, and aunt Judith"—</p> + +<p>Just there her account of the condition of things was cut off by the +general confusion of getting into the sleigh, but Pen made up for it +afterwards. Vosh again showed a strong tendency to take his mother's +advice, and the drive to the village was by no means a long one. They +were not any too early, and had to wait for three other sleigh-loads to +get out, before theirs could be drawn in front of the pathway cut +through the drifts to the sidewalk. Only one of Mrs. King's guests was +very late that evening, and he was a young man who was learning to play +the flute, and had heard that fashionable people never went anywhere +till after nine o'clock. Besides, it took him an hour or so to decide +not to carry his flute with him.</p> + +<p>It helped Vosh a great deal, that they all had to go to the +dressing-rooms first, and unwrap themselves. After that, it all came +easier than he had expected, for Squire King and his wife had a hearty, +kindly way of welcoming people. Perhaps it helped him somewhat, that +they had no opportunity to say too much to him just then, and he could +go right on following his mother's advice.</p> + +<p>There was a stir in the rooms, that Susie did not at all understand, +when she and her brother passed on to mingle with the rest of the young +people. Some of them had seen her before, and some had not, and all of +them were taking a deeper interest in her dress and appearance than she +had any idea of. It was as well for her comfort, that she was ignorant +of it, and that she did not hear eleven different young ladies assure +each other, "She must have sent away to the city for those flowers."</p> + +<p>Her uncle and aunts were exceedingly proud of her, and so was Pen. In +fact, the latter informed several persons whom she knew, "She's my +cousin Susie, and she's the prettiest girl there is here; but I don't +believe I shall look much like her when I grow up."</p> + +<p>Squire King asked her why not, when she told him, and was at once +informed,—</p> + +<p>"Susie's never been freckled, and mine won't ever come off. They go away +round to the back of my neck. Most all the girls here have got 'em, but +they don't amount to any thing."</p> + +<p>"Freckles, or girls either," laughed the squire. "But, Pen, does your +cousin play the piano?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she does, only we haven't any, and so she's learned how to +spin. She can crochet, but I showed her how to heel a stocking, and so +did aunt Judith."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure she can," remarked Mrs. King. "I'll go and ask her myself."</p> + +<p>That was not until the party had been in full operation for some time; +and quite a number were wondering what it was best to do next, when Mrs. +King led Susie to the piano. Several of the local musicians had already +done their duty by it, and Susie had consented without a thought of +hesitation. She heard a remark as she passed one young lady who had +barely missed the outer line of Mrs. King's list of invitations:—</p> + +<p>"The flowers are real, and she's pretty enough, but she's too young to +play well. They're paying her too much attention, I think."</p> + +<p>If there was one thing that Susie loved better than another, it was +music, and her teachers had done their duty by her. The moment her +fingers touched the keys, they felt entirely at home, and sent back word +to her that they would play any thing she could remember. Then they went +right on, and convinced every pair of ears within hearing that they were +skilfully correct about it.</p> + +<p>"I declare!" exclaimed Vosh Stebbins to the little knot around him, "she +can play the piano better than she can skate, and that's saying a good +deal."</p> + +<p>The young folks in two of the farther rooms were playing forfeits, and +missed the music, but the promenaders all stood still for a few minutes +and listened. It was just like the flowers. Nobody else had brought any +thing quite so nice, and there was danger that Susie would be unpopular. +As it was, she had no sooner risen from the piano than Squire King +announced that supper was ready. Vosh had not known that it was so near, +and was compelled to see Adonijah Bunce offer Susie his arm, and lead +her into the refreshment-room. He felt that he had made the first real +blunder of the evening, but he was wrong about it. Adonijah was so +agitated over his success, that he spilled some scalding hot coffee down +his left leg, and trod on Susie's toes in consequence. He made her +exclaim, "Oh, mercy!" and he made as much blood go into his own face as +it could possibly hold at the moment when he said "Golly!" and bit his +tongue for it.</p> + +<p>There was promenading during all the supper-time, and some music, +because the dining-room would not hold them all at once; but, as fast as +the young people finished and came out, they set more vigorously at work +to enjoy themselves. It was right there that the young people of Benton +Valley began to forgive Susie Hudson for her skating and her flowers and +her music, and for being a city girl. She went into every thing with +such heartiness, that even Adonijah Bunce began to feel as happy as his +left leg would let him. Still he was the only young fellow there who +could say that he had poured hot coffee on himself, if that could be +called distinction. Vosh Stebbins had seen him do it, and had been more +at ease ever since.</p> + +<p>Squire King and his wife were in tremendous good spirits about their +party, and they had a right to be. Aunt Judith herself told them it was +the nicest gathering of young folks that there had ever been in Benton; +and Pen enjoyed it so much, that at last she leaned up against Mrs. +Keyser on the sitting-room lounge, and went fast asleep.</p> + +<p>It was all over at last, and the guests went home. Sleigh-load after +sleigh-load was packed, and went jingling away. The nearby residents +marched off as they had come, except that some young men had more to +take care of, and some young ladies had other young gentlemen than their +own brothers. Pen went to sleep again in the sleigh, and her father +lifted her out and carried her into the house; and the moment she waked +up she remarked,—</p> + +<p>"He gave me a whole paper of candy, Susie, and it filled my muff so I +couldn't get my hands in."</p> + +<p>That had been Squire King's work, and her mother responded,—</p> + +<p>"You're going to bed now, and so is Susie. No candy till morning."</p> + +<p>At that very moment Mrs. Stebbins was saying to Vosh,—</p> + +<p>"I'm glad we're home again, but we've had a good time. She did look well +in them flowers, and she just can play the piano; and you got along +first-rate, Lavawjer; and I'm glad you let Nijah Bunce see her in to +supper, and wasn't round in the way at no time." She had more to say; +but it was a very late bed-time, and she had to put off saying it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE SNOW-FORT.</h3> + + +<p>There was a large amount of conversation performed in Benton Valley the +day following the party at Squire King's. It began before breakfast. In +some sleeping-rooms it began before people were out of bed. It went on +all over the village; and the whole affair was discussed at the +drug-store, and in the blacksmith-shop, and at the tavern. It is safe to +say that every thing that could be said was said; and the unanimous +verdict was, that the party had been a success. So had Susie Hudson +been, and she was not omitted from a single description of the company. +As for Adonijah Bunce, he obtained some liniment of his mother without +telling her just where he had been standing when he spilt the coffee. +Susie knew where he stepped next; but she was not very lame, and felt +kindly towards Adonijah.</p> + +<p>Vosh came over pretty early in the forenoon to see Port and Corry upon a +matter of some importance.</p> + +<p>"Snow-fort!" exclaimed Porter Hudson a little dignifiedly. "Don't you +think we're a little too old for that?"</p> + +<p>"Not if it's finished up in the way they began it," replied Vosh. "They +went at it after school, and I guess they must have finished it this +morning. We'll have the biggest game of draw you ever got into, and we +can keep it up all day."</p> + +<p>"I'm in for it," said Corry; but Port had really never seen any snow +citadels, nor had he been in any game of draw. He remembered reading +that Benedict Arnold mounted his cannon on a snow-fort, the better to +pepper Quebec, but he had a dim and small opinion of such matters. Still +it was a promise of fun, and he went right along. The weather had been +growing milder for two days, and that Saturday morning the sun had +actually risen with yellow in his face. Deacon Farnham had predicted a +change in the weather yet to come, and said something very deep about +sap in trees, and of how he must watch it. Port could not imagine any +method of watching the movements of sap in trees, or any reason for +caring how it moved. He was now thinking with increasing interest about +snowballs and their uses, for Vosh explained to him the proposed game of +"draw" as they went down the hill.</p> + +<p>"Three to one is fair odds," he said; "and, if a fellow gets hit, he +changes sides. I've seen a fort drawn so full, they had half of 'em to +sit down; and the last fellow out had no chance to pick up a snowball, +for dodging what they gave him. It's just so if there's only one left in +the fort. He can hardly show his head without having one of his ears +filled. The snow'll pack first-rate just now. It'll stick together, but +it won't make too hard a ball. Wet snow'll pack into a wad that stings, +and it'll do damage too, sometimes."</p> + +<p>Port remembered something about that from even his small experience in +the city. He had paid for a pane of glass once.</p> + +<p>The boys of Benton Village had snowballed a great deal that winter. They +had grown to be pretty expert marksmen, and their dodging qualities had +improved. They had even made snow breastworks two or three times; but +their ambition in that direction had recently been stimulated by a +picture in one of the illustrated papers. All hands had agreed that the +right kind of a fort had never yet been built upon that green, and that +it was time to have one. Snow was plentiful, and so were shovels; and, +so long as it was play, there were boys enough to do the work, hard as +it might be. They made it square, and the walls were nearly two feet +thick. They were so high that the shorter boys complained that only +their heads came above it.</p> + +<p>It made them all the safer in a game of draw, and they could throw +nearly as well. The fort was not finished on Friday evening, because so +many of the leading boys were to be at Mrs. King's party; but, by the +time Vosh and his two neighbors got there Saturday forenoon, they were +beginning to draw for sides.</p> + +<p>"There's just twenty-four of us, Vosh," said Adonijah Bunce. "That's six +for the fort, and eighteen for the field, to begin on. Draw your cut +now, and see where you belong."</p> + +<p>"There," said Vosh as he pulled a straw from the hand extended to him: +"where does it send me?"</p> + +<p>"Into the fort. I'm outside.—Now, Corry, you and Port."</p> + +<p>They drew, and discovered that they also were outsiders, under Capt. +Bunce; while Vosh was to command the fort as long as the sharp practice +should let him stay there.</p> + +<p>"It begins to look as if it were going to amount to something," said +Port to himself, when it was explained to him that none of his crowd +could go in beyond a certain line about forty feet from the snowy wall, +nor retreat beyond another line twice as distant.</p> + +<p>Vosh and his garrison of five privates were inside the fort in a +twinkling, and there were piles of snowballs there ready for use. So +there were along the lines of the attacking forces; and the shout of +"All ready!" had hardly been uttered, before the missiles began to fly.</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson was determined to do himself credit, and at once dashed up +to the line, throwing as he went.</p> + +<p>"Pick him," said Vosh to his men, and the next instant all their heads +came in sight at once. Capt. Bunce's force was well enough disciplined, +and their volley at those heads was prompt; but six balls came straight +for Porter Hudson. He dodged two, and one missed him widely; but another +lodged in his neck, another came spat against his waistband, and the +sixth took off his hat.</p> + +<p>"Called in!" shouted Vosh, and Port belonged to the garrison. So, in a +few moments more, did three other of Capt. Bunce's marksmen; but he had +played draw before, and was beginning to wake up. He divided his men, +scattering them all around the fort, and Port's next experience came to +him in that way. A random ball came over the opposite wall, and landed +in the middle of his back. He was again in the field, but his place was +taken by the young man who was learning to play the flute. Standing +still a moment to warm his hands, and whistle, a pellet thrown by Corry +Farnham had broken on his nose, and spoiled the music. The fun grew fast +and furious, and the fort was steadily gaining, until Vosh Stebbins made +a blunder. He saw somebody walking along on the sidewalk beyond the +green, but did not notice who they were till Corry remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Halloo! Aunt Judith and Susie. Guess they're going to see Mrs. King. +Morning call, eh?"</p> + +<p>The attention of Capt. Bunce was drawn in the same direction by a youth +who said to him,—</p> + +<p>"There's that young lady from New York. See her?"</p> + +<p>Adonijah turned to do so, and stood still long enough for Vosh Stebbins +to make a perfect and undodging mark of him. The ball was a hard one, +and it struck precisely upon the liniment, the spot where the coffee had +been. Nijah jumped, but he was a drawn man; and so, alas for the +fortunes of that fort! was Capt. Stebbins. He too stood still too long; +and he was bare-headed now, looking around for his cap, and rubbing his +red right ear, where a globe of well-packed snow had landed forcibly.</p> + +<p>Susie and her aunt stood still for some minutes, watching the game, +without the least idea that they had any thing to do with the exchange +of leaders. They were indeed on their way to Mrs. King's; but aunt +Judith had other errands, or she would have let that ceremony wait.</p> + +<p>Vosh had been studying war all that morning, and he was hardly among the +outsiders before he tried a new plan of attack.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys," he shouted, "you do as I tell you. Take the corners,—half +of us against the corner this way, and half against the opposite corner; +and they'll have to kind o' bunch up to throw back, and you're bound to +hit somebody. Make a lot of balls, and get good and ready, and we'll +empty that fort."</p> + +<p>It worked very much in that way. The defenders of the fort were drawn +carelessly towards the corners, under a raking fire. The pellets flew +over among them thick and fast; and in less than three minutes +Coriolanus Farnham stood alone, the entire garrison of the frosty +fortress. He stood in a bending posture, against the inner face of a +wall, while all around him flew the snowballs that were searching for +him. He was a forlorn hope, but he meant to stick it out. He even rose +suddenly to return the volleys with a solitary shot. He threw, but so +did twenty-three assailants from various directions; and Nijah Bunce had +waited, with a knowledge of his where-abouts.</p> + +<p>"Called out!" shouted Vosh. "What are you rubbing for, Corry?"</p> + +<p>"Got hit all over."</p> + +<p>"Game's up," said Nijah. "Now, boys, we'll choose over again."</p> + +<p>"Not till I've had a rest," said Corry; and Port remarked,—</p> + +<p>"I'll hold on. My arm's too lame to throw another ball."</p> + +<p>So was every other arm among them, by the time they had emptied that +fort again; but it was voted the best snowballing of the season.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE SUGAR-BUSH AND THE BEAR.</h3> + + +<p>The winter days went swiftly on, with constant repetitions of chess and +fireside comfort in evenings, and snowballing, skating, sleigh-rides, +and other fun whenever the circumstances permitted. There were frequent +and long letters from the South, and other and shorter letters from the +city. A pretty steady comparison of climates could be made from time to +time, and there was no small interest in that. Susie and Port became as +well known in Benton Village as if they had been residents, and at least +a dozen of the young ladies they knew had learned to skate. Old Miss +Turner, the dressmaker, tried it; but she told her friends that she tore +her dress and spoiled her bonnet for nothing, and she wouldn't bump the +back of her head in that way any more.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Sarah!" suddenly exclaimed Susie one afternoon, when she had just +finished reading a letter from Florida, "mother says she is as well as +ever, and that, now spring is coming"—</p> + +<p>"Spring! Why, it's hardly beyond the end of February yet. The winter'll +hold on till April, and maybe till nigh the end of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, away down there they've had real warm weather."</p> + +<p>"Now, Susie, you sit right down and write to her that the snow's three +feet deep on a level, and she mustn't dream of running the risk of her +health in coming North till May."</p> + +<p>"Spring'll come earlier in the city than it will up here, aunt Sarah. +You can't think how I want to see her."</p> + +<p>Port was listening, and he drew a long breath; but he said nothing, and +looked very hard out of the window at the endless reaches of snow. They +were there, but the long cold "snap" was unmistakably over. It was after +supper, that very evening, that Deacon Farnham remarked to his wife,—</p> + +<p>"Sarah, the sun's been pretty warm on the trees, and the sap'll be +running. I must be getting ready. I mean to have the biggest kind of a +sugaring this year."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad of it, Joshua. It'll be something for the young folks too. I'm +half afraid Susie's beginning to be homesick."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said aunt Judith; "but of course she wants to see her +mother. She and Port are doin' something or other all the while. It's +been just one jump with 'em, and they've had a good time. They read a +good deal, too; and Port shot two more rabbits only yesterday, and +carried 'em over to Mrs. Stebbins."</p> + +<p>The city cousins had indeed had a good time; but they did not tell +anybody how glad they were to see the sun climbing higher, and to feel +sure that spring was nearer.</p> + +<p>The increasing sun-power was settling and packing the drifts; and the +bitter nights were all that witnessed, for about a week, to the +remaining strength of the winter. The sap began to run, as the deacon +said it would, and he was fully ready for it. His sugar harvest was to +be gathered among the maple-trees on the south-lying slope, near the +spot where he had done most of his chopping. There were trees there of +the right sort, in great plenty,—great towering old fellows that could +well afford to lose a little sap.</p> + +<p>"Judith," said Mrs. Farnham, while her husband was at the barn loading +his wood-sleigh with the things he would need at the sugar-bush, "we +must have the sewing society meet at our house right in sugaring-time."</p> + +<p>"It'll be the very thing to do, and I'm glad you thought of it. Only +it'll take a good deal of sugar to sweeten some of 'em."</p> + +<p>There was more to be said; but Port and Susie had no share in the +discussion, for they hurried out to the sleigh, and were quickly on +their way to the woods. They had already learned that a hundred tall +maples, more or less, with holes bored into their sides, and with wooden +"spiles" driven into the holes, were thereby transformed into a "bush."</p> + +<p>The deacon made the boys leave their guns at home, as he had work for +them to do; but Vosh joined them when they passed his house, and he +carried his double-barrel on his shoulder. He was laughed at a little, +but he said there was no telling when he might find a use for it.</p> + +<p>It was a bright and sunny day, but there had been no real thaw as yet. +The crust had settled with the snow, and was still firm enough for the +workers to walk from tree to tree.</p> + +<p>The first business was to tap as many as the deacon thought he could +attend to; and the boys had enough to do in carrying from the sleigh the +wooden troughs, and placing them where they would catch the steady drip, +drip, from the sap-spiles.</p> + +<p>"They'll fill pretty fast," said the deacon. "We've got some evening +collecting before us, or I'm mistaken. We must have some kettles up as +soon as we can."</p> + +<p>He and Vosh and the hired man went right at it, and the deacon declared +that he would have two more hands from the village the next day. Susie +and Pen went with them, and stood watching the process.</p> + +<p>"It's easy enough," said Pen, as she saw them struggling with one of the +great iron kettles.</p> + +<p>Two strong forked stakes were driven down in convenient places, at about +eight feet apart. A stout pole was laid across each pair of stakes, +resting in the forks. A kettle was swung upon each cross-pole in due +season, but only three had been brought that morning. Then all was ready +for building a fire under the kettle, and beginning to make sugar.</p> + +<p>"Won't the snow melt under it?" asked Susie. "Won't it put out the +fire?"</p> + +<p>"You'll see," said Vosh. "Of course the snow melts on top, and sinks, +and we keep pitching on bark and stuff, and the ashes are there. The +water runs off through the snow, and all the stuff gets packed hard, +and'll bear as much fire as you can build on it. It makes a cake, and +freezes nights, and those cakes'll be the last things around here that +melt in spring."</p> + +<p>He was aching to get a bucket of sap into that first kettle, and a fire +under it, so he could show her how it worked; but the other kettles had +to be set up first. It was well that there should be enough of them to +take the sap as it came, so that nobody need be tempted to throw cold +sap into boiling sirup at the wrong time. A barrel was brought up +afterwards, to hold any surplus that a kettle was not ready for.</p> + +<p>While the workers at the sugar-bush were pushing forward their +preparations, Susie and Port were learning a great deal about +maple-sugar processes. They could not help remembering all they knew +about other kinds of sugar. At the same time there was much activity at +the farmhouse. Aunt Judith put on her things, as soon as she could spare +the time for it, and went over to consult with Mrs. Stebbins. Then they +both came back to see Mrs. Farnham; and all three wrapped up, and made +the quickest kind of a walk to the village. They made several short +calls separately, and, when they came together again, Mrs. Stebbins +announced the result triumphantly,—</p> + +<p>"We've set the ball a-rollin'. Elder Evans'll give it out in meeting +this evening. All the rest of 'em'll send word, and he'll give it out +again on Sunday. If we don't have your house full next Tuesday, I'm all +out in my count."</p> + +<p>Sugar-making in a large "bush" is not a business to be finished up in a +day or two. The weather grew better and better for it, and Deacon +Farnham's extra "hands" were kept at it most industriously. Tuesday +came, and Mrs. Stebbins was not at all out in her count. The house began +to look lively even before noon. Squire King and his wife came just +after dinner, and their sleigh could not have held one more passenger. +It went right back for some more. It was curious, too, considering that +everybody knew all about sugaring. Old or young, hardly any of them were +contented until they had paid a visit to the "bush," and drunk some sap. +Some of the younger people seemed very much inclined to stay there.</p> + +<p>"There won't be any great amount of sewing done for the poor heathen," +remarked one good old lady, with a lump of maple-sugar in one hand, and +a kruller in the other. "What's more, all their appetites'll be spiled, +and they won't enjoy eatin' any thing."</p> + +<p>Some afterwards seemed really to have suffered that injury, but not the +majority, by any means. The later arrivals, especially, came hungry. All +the latter part of that afternoon seemed to be one pretty steady-going +dinner or supper. The ladies of the society poured right out into the +kitchen to help aunt Judith, till she begged that no more should come at +once than could stand around the stove.</p> + +<p>It was well that there should be a sugar-bush, or some sort of +excitement, to keep a part of that gathering out of doors. The house was +full enough at all times; and before sunset the knots of merry people +scattered around among the maple-trees and kettles discovered why Vosh +Stebbins had persisted in carrying his gun out there every day since the +work began.</p> + +<p>Vosh had dreamed of such a thing, and had been almost half afraid of it; +but he had hoped in his heart that it might come, and the peaceful +course of events had disappointed him. He was getting ready to start for +the house that day, gun and all, when he heard somebody scream, away up +near the farthest clump of sugar-trees,—</p> + +<p>"Bear, bear, bear! There's a bear drinking sap!"</p> + +<p>Ever so many voices were raised at once to announce to everybody the +arrival of that ferocious wild animal, recently waked from his winter's +nap. They told of the dreadful thing he was doing, and suggested other +dreadful things that he might do. He might eat up the society.</p> + +<p>"They generally come at night," said the deacon calmly, "but they are +very apt to visit a sugar-bush. They're fond of sap."</p> + +<p>"Where's Susie? Where's Pen?" exclaimed Vosh. Then he remembered that +they and a whole party of village girls were up there near those very +trees, and he ran as if his life depended on it.</p> + +<p>"Steady, Vosh. Not so fast. I'm a-coming."</p> + +<p>There was the deacon panting behind him, axe in hand; and behind him was +the hired man with his axe, and away behind him were three or four +sturdy farmers following with no better weapons than sled-stakes.</p> + +<p>Port and Corry were with the girls, and it had been a wonder how quickly +the last girl and boy to be seen had gotten behind a tree. They were all +now peering out for a look at the bear, and Penelope declared of him,—</p> + +<p>"He's the largest bear in the world. He's awful!"</p> + +<p>Not all of them were where they could see him, and he was making no +effort at all to see them, but his offence was that he had come. No +doubt but he had been a little scared at first, when the girls began to +scream; but he was hungry and thirsty, and he was fond of sap, and he +took courage. There were all those troughs ready for him, and he could +not think of going away without a good drink.</p> + +<p>Besides, the bear could not see that any of those young ladies seemed +disposed to come any nearer, and he had not been introduced to one of +them. So he overcame any bashfulness, and put his nose into another +sap-trough, and it was empty in a twinkling. He served another in the +same way, and was going ahead quite contentedly, nearer and nearer the +girls that were afraid to run. At least half a dozen were braver, and +ran remarkably well towards the kettles. Port and Corry, behind their +trees, were longing for all sorts of weapons, when they saw something +well worth seeing.</p> + +<p>The bear stood still suddenly; for a dark-eyed, plucky-looking boy, with +something in his hands, stood right in the way.</p> + +<p>"What are you loaded with, Vosh?" shouted the deacon. "Nothing but +buckshot? It's risky."</p> + +<p>"Buckshot, and two slugs in each barrel."</p> + +<p>"That's better. He's turned a little. Take him in the shoulder."</p> + +<p>"Bang, bang!" was the reply made by the gun. It was close work, and not +many of the leaden missiles wandered from their broad black target.</p> + +<p>The bear was mortally wounded, but he instantly gathered his remaining +strength for a charge. The furiously angry growl he gave sent a thrill +and chill through all the bones of the scattered spectators.</p> + +<p>Right past Vosh at that moment sprang the deacon; and he met the bear +halfway, like the brave old borderer that he was. He was a master-hand +with an axe, and its keen edge fell with a thud squarely between the +eyes of the ferocious animal. It sank in as if the bear's head had been +the side of a hickory, and there was no need of any second blow.</p> + +<p>The bear was dead; and all the sugar makers and eaters could cluster +around and make remarks upon him, and praise Vosh Stebbins and the +deacon.</p> + +<p>"Pen!" exclaimed Susie, "what will his mother say of him now?"</p> + +<p>"Why, they'll skin him, and it'll make the beautifullest kind of a +buffalo-robe."</p> + +<p>Pen was thinking of the bear only; and Vosh had at once reloaded and +shouldered his gun, and walked away. He was ready for another bear, but +felt pretty sure that none would come. Port and Corry gave up going to +the house for guns and coming back again, and all the young ladies +seemed to think it must be near supper-time. They carried the news to +Mrs. Stebbins, and it was all but provoking that she should take it very +much as a matter of course. If any bear came to be killed, it was as +natural as life that her boy should kill him. He was a young fellow from +whom uncommon things were to be commonly expected.</p> + +<p>After the adventure with the bear, the sewing society was a greater +success than before. It went right on until late into the evening, but +the success of it was not in the sewing that was done. The only heathen +for whom much was accomplished was probably the bear himself.</p> + +<p>Susie Hudson said to her brother at last, "I don't care, Port, it beats +a city party all to pieces. There's ever so much more real enjoyment. I +want to live in the country."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I like it in winter. It's well enough. You've been out here +in summer too."</p> + +<p>"It's twice as good then."</p> + +<p>"No, Susie, it can't be. It must be all hard work in summer. But think +of the fun we've had!"</p> + +<p>She did; and late in the evening Vosh Stebbins stepped up to her, and +whispered,—</p> + +<p>"May I see you home? The cutter's waiting at the door. All the rest are +getting ready to start."</p> + +<p>"I've got to say good-by to them all, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Go round and say it now. I don't want to sleigh-ride anybody else. +They've all got company."</p> + +<p>That was the reason why, a little afterwards, Vosh Stebbins's mother +could not find him. He and Susie were jingling over the snow behind the +sorrel colt, and it was a long way home before they returned to the +house.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE FLOOD AND THE END.</h3> + + +<p>It was well for all who were fond of sleighing, to make the best use of +their time. A great many people had had enough, and were even eager to +see the snow depart. There was a great deal of it to go, and the weather +took an unexpected part in the matter. The sun came out with a power +that had in it something peculiar, and made all human beings feel +drowsy, heavy, listless, and disposed to take boneset-tea. The older +they were, the more black and bitter was the boneset they called for; +and aunt Judith manufactured some uncommonly good root-beer to go with +it. So far as the young people were concerned, the root-beer went much +more rapidly than the boneset.</p> + +<p>Then arrived two whole days of warm and heavy rain; and, when the sun +came out again, he had an altered landscape to look down upon. All the +hillsides were streaming with torrents of water, and every hollow was a +pond. The roads were channels of temporary rivulets, and the river in +the valley had swollen until its fetters were breaking. The ice in the +mill-pond cracked and lifted until the water broke out over the dam. +That relieved the pressure for a few hours, until the huge cakes of ice +got in a hurry, and began to climb upon each others' shoulders. They +rapidly built up a dam of their own, right on top of the old one, and +the water sent back up stream for more ice. As fast as the new supplies +came down, they were heaped up, right and left and centre; and no +engineer could have done the work better, so far as increasing the size +of the mill-pond was concerned. It grew tremendously, and the sun toiled +at the snow-banks on the hillsides, all along the banks of that river +away up into the mountains, to send down more snow-water for the big +spread in Benton Valley.</p> + +<p>"Sarah," said Deacon Farnham at about the middle of the second forenoon, +"if this thing keeps on, it'll drown out the village."</p> + +<p>"Has the water got there yet?" she asked. "Is it rising?"</p> + +<p>"Rising! Guess it is. I'll hitch up the team after dinner, and we'll go +and take a look at it."</p> + +<p>When Pen and Corry came home at noon, they reported that school was +dismissed for the day; and Pen explained it,—</p> + +<p>"She said the Flood was coming again, but I don't believe it is."</p> + +<p>"Not Noah's Flood," said her father; "but enough might come to carry +away the school-house. I can't say what they're going to do about it."</p> + +<p>The story Vosh told at home brought Mrs. Stebbins over after dinner, and +there was a full sleigh-load driven down to see the sights.</p> + +<p>Susie and Port were to have one more experience of winter life in the +country, and it was one they would not have missed for any thing. The +mill-pond was away below the village, and there was another up towards +Cobbleville that was said to be nearly as badly off. As the water had +risen, it had set back and back, until now the low-lying lands were a +great lake with houses and barns sticking up from it. Deacon Farnham +drove on down towards the village, and all the tongues in the sleigh +grew more and more silent. Aunt Judith had already told all there was to +tell about the great flood when she was a girl, and when they had to +live without flour or meal. The story sounded much more real now, for +the first man they met said to them,—</p> + +<p>"If the ice goes on packing up there at the dam, the mill and all will +break away before midnight."</p> + +<p>"Are they trying to do any thing to loosen the pack?" asked Vosh.</p> + +<p>"They can't get at it to pick at it, and it's wuth any man's life to +try. The water's in the main street now."</p> + +<p>"What if the upper dam should give way?" asked the deacon.</p> + +<p>"Well, if the ice there and the dam should give way all at once, and +come down in a heap, there wouldn't be much left of Benton."</p> + +<p>They drove on down the road to the right, towards what had been the +lower level of the coasting-hill, where the sleds darted out upon the +pond. They could see the whole thing now, and the long ridge of ice with +the flood surging and rising against it, and filling up every lower +place with fresh material. The water was still pouring over the pack at +the upper dam, the deacon said, or no more ice and snow would be coming +down.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Farnham!" suddenly exclaimed Vosh Stebbins, "I wish I had money +enough to pay for a keg of blasting-powder."</p> + +<p>"What for, Vosh?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you see? You can get to the second floor of the mill, right +across those logs. If a keg of powder could be shoved out on the pack, +and left there with a slow-match burning, I could get back before it +went off."</p> + +<p>"I'll pay for the powder," said the deacon as he turned his team towards +the village, and Mrs. Stebbins gasped,—</p> + +<p>"O Vosh! Lavawjer!"</p> + +<p>She sat still, and looked a little white for a moment, and then the +color came to her face, and there was a sort of flash in her eyes as she +said slowly and steadily,—</p> + +<p>"Just you try it on. Your father would have done it any day. Levi +Stebbins was a soldier, and he never flinched any thing in all his +life."</p> + +<p>"Joshaway," said aunt Judith with a bit of a tremor in her voice, "I +want to pay for that powder myself. He can buy two kegs if he needs +'em."</p> + +<p>The water was nearly a foot deep in front of Rosenstein's store when the +sleigh came splashing along. The whole village was boiling with +excitement, in spite of the fact that the flood was all of ice-water.</p> + +<p>"Powder? Going to blow up dot ice?" said Mr. Rosenstein doubtfully; but +he hurried to bring out a keg of it, and a long line of fuze.</p> + +<p>"Now, Vosh. No time to lose. You mustn't run any needless risk, but I +believe you can do it. I'll go as far as into the mill with you."</p> + +<p>"Joshua," said Mrs. Farnham, "will he need help? His weight's a good +deal lighter than yours."</p> + +<p>"We'll see about it when we get there. That pack has got to be broken: +so has the one at the upper dam."</p> + +<p>They were once more on the hill-road, and nearing the point of danger. +Great piles of saw-logs, ready for the saw-mill, had accumulated on the +slope between the mill and what was now the shore; and already quite a +number of adventurers had crossed upon them to the building itself, and +back again. Not a soul had cared to remain more than a minute, and none +had ventured beyond.</p> + +<p>"Go, Joshua," said Mrs. Farnham. "He'll need advice, if he doesn't need +any thing else."</p> + +<p>Corry took the reins, and his father and Vosh stepped out. There were +thirty or forty men and boys standing around and watching the flood, and +all were eager to know what was coming; but the answers given them had a +short, gruff sound, as if uttered by somebody too much in earnest to +talk.</p> + +<p>"Right along, Vosh," said the deacon. "The logs are firm enough."</p> + +<p>So they were, and it was easy to climb through an open window into the +second story of the mill. Through all the lower floor the water was +rushing and gurgling, and the building shook all over as if it were +chilly.</p> + +<p>An opposite window was reached, and there before them was the ice-pack. +Only at one point, beyond the centre, was there any water going over it; +and it seemed only too strong and solid.</p> + +<p>"As far out as you can, Vosh," said the deacon. "Put it into a hole of +some kind, if you can."</p> + +<p>Without a word of comment or reply, the brave boy crept through the +window, and let himself down upon the ice, and the keg was handed him.</p> + +<p>"Use the whole length of the fuze," said the deacon. "You'll have time +enough."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Farnham," said Vosh, "you go back right away, now."</p> + +<p>"I don't know but what it's my duty. Do yours quick, Vosh."</p> + +<p>He was every way disposed to obey that suggestion. The roar of the +waters, the strange sensation of the presence of great peril, and even +the idea that so many people were looking at him, made the situation one +from which he was in a hurry to get away. Nearly in the middle of the +pack he came to a deep crevice between the heaps of glimmering ice, and +into it he lowered his little barrel of explosive meal. He had made it +all ready, fixing the end of the fuze in its proper place, and now he +led the line back over comparatively dry ice.</p> + +<p>"Nothing to put it out," he muttered; "and they said it was water-proof, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>A stream of people, on foot and in sleighs, had followed that +undertaking from the moment when the news of it began to buzz around the +village, and a full hundred had now gathered on the slope opposite the +mill. They saw Vosh Stebbins scratch a match on his coat-sleeve, and +stoop down; and then they saw him turn, and walk swiftly away towards +the mill.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, deacon!" he shouted. "She's a-burning!"</p> + +<p>"Come on, Vosh. Hurry up. I just couldn't go ashore till you got back."</p> + +<p>Vosh replied with a ringing laugh that had a world of excitement in it. +He followed the deacon back through the mill, and across the perilous +bridge of floating logs; and there on the shore stood Susie Hudson, and +her aunts, and his mother, but Penelope was the only one who said any +thing.</p> + +<p>"Vosh," she asked, "did you lose all your powder and your string?"</p> + +<p>"Guess I have," replied he; and then it was Adonijah Bunce who +remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Didn't quite do it, did ye?"</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute," said Mr. Farnham. "It was a long fuze."</p> + +<p>It seemed as if everybody held their breaths till it must hurt them; +but, just when they could not do it any longer, a great sheet of smoke +and flame shot up from the middle of the ice-pack. It was followed by a +dull, heavy report, and by flying fragments of ice.</p> + +<p>Had it accomplished any thing?—that was the question in all minds; but +it was only a moment before there was another crash, and another. The +barrier had been blown away to such a thinness that the pressure from +above was sufficient to break it through. The flood rushed forward into +the widening channel with a surge and a plunge, and away went the river +again, roaring down its half-deserted bed below. More of the cakes of +ice to the right and left, now no longer wedged and self-supporting, +were swiftly torn away, and the gap so opened could not be closed again.</p> + +<p>"I just knew he'd do it," said Mrs. Stebbins proudly, as the round of +cheers died away after the explosion and crash. "His father would ha' +done it."</p> + +<p>There were plenty to congratulate Vosh; but he and the rest got into the +sleigh again, and drove back towards the village. Even before they +reached it, the waters were manifestly receding a little, and, when they +again stopped in front of Mr. Rosenstein's store, it was pretty well +understood that the first peril was over.</p> + +<p>"Now for the pack at the upper dam!" shouted the deacon. "It's safe to +make a hole in it, now our pack is broken.—I want to pay for that +powder, Mr. Rosenstein. I was in such a hurry, I forgot it."</p> + +<p>"Dot's joost vot I did," replied the merchant. "You bays for no powder +for dot boy. He safe de village. I deals not in pork."</p> + +<p>There was a cheer for Mr. Rosenstein; and a dozen men set off towards +the upper dam with more powder, and a new idea.</p> + +<p>"We have done enough for one day," said Deacon Farnham after he had seen +that squad set out. "We can afford to go home.—Mrs. Stebbins, you and +Vosh can take dinner with us, and Susie and Port can read their +letters."</p> + +<p>All were entirely willing, and the team headed for home as if they were +conscious of having done something for the public good. The village +post-office was kept in Mr. Rosenstein's store, and that was one reason +why the letters had been received in such an hour of excitement. They +were not read until after the arrival at the farmhouse, for every one in +that sleigh was looking back into the valley to see whether or not the +flood was visibly subsiding. Even after they reached the house, Vosh +said he felt as if he were about to hear the explosion at the upper dam. +He did not hear it; but the ice there was blown open, nevertheless, and +the river had a fair chance to carry all its surplus down stream, and +melt it up instead of making dams of it.</p> + +<p>Porter Hudson was the first to tear open an envelope.</p> + +<p>"Susie!" he shouted almost instantly, "mother's got home."</p> + +<p>Her fingers were busy with her own letter for a moment, and then she +turned to Mrs. Farnham.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Sarah!"</p> + +<p>"O Susie! I know what you mean. They want you at home."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said aunt Judith, "I suppose we've got to say good-by to 'em +pretty soon."</p> + +<p>"And there's no winter at all in the city," said Port. "No snow to be +seen, and some of the buds are beginning to show."</p> + +<p>The letters had a powerful effect upon all the gathering around that +dinner-table; and Pen thought she had settled the difficulty, or nearly +so, when she broke a long silence with,—</p> + +<p>"They might just as well all come up here and live. There's room for 'em +all, and it's ever so much better than the city is."</p> + +<p>There was no immediate haste called for, but winter was over. Word came +from the village in the morning, that the flood was going down fast, and +the mill was entirely safe, and that everybody was talking about the +feat performed by Vosh Stebbins. It looked as if Mr. Farnham's part of +it was a little neglected, and Pen remarked with some jealousy,—</p> + +<p>"Father got the powder, and all Vosh did was to touch it off."</p> + +<p>Everybody seemed to feel blue that evening, for some reason; and the +thaw carried away almost all the snow there was left, with hardly a +remark being made about it. The fire in the sitting-room burned low, and +no fresh logs were heaped upon it. Susie sat in front of it, and +remembered a summer day when she had seen nothing there but polished +andirons, and branches of fennel.</p> + +<p>"Port," said Corry almost mournfully, "I do hope you've had a good time. +We all want you to come again."</p> + +<p>"Good time! Tell you what, Corry, I won't come up here unless you'll +come and visit us in the city. I've been thinking over lots of things I +could show you and Pen. I've had the biggest kind of a time."</p> + +<p>"You must come up some time in summer," said aunt Judith. "The country +is beautiful then. Better fishing, hunting—all sorts of fun."</p> + +<p>"I guess there isn't any thing better than winter fun," said Susie +thoughtfully. "I do like the country at any time of the year."</p> + +<p>Vosh Stebbins and his mother also sat in front of their sitting-room +fireplace, and were uncommonly still and sober.</p> + +<p>"Mother," said he at last, "I've had the greatest winter I ever did +have. There's been any amount of fun in it, but seems to me there's been +a good deal more."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said his mother, "they've been right good company, and I'm real +sorry to hev 'em go; but it's time they went, and her mother's health's +come back to her. She's one of the best of women, I haven't the least +doubt in the world. I never seen a girl I took to more'n I hev to Susie +Hudson, and I hope she and Port'll come up here again; and I've been +a-findin' out how much it'll cost to hev you go to college, and you've +got to jest study up and go."</p> + +<p>"Mother!" That was all he could say; for his mind had been playing chess +with that problem since he did not know exactly when, and he had not +dared to speak of it.</p> + +<p>One week later the Farnham and Stebbins farmhouses felt smaller and +lonelier, and Penelope teased for a pen and ink, remarking,—</p> + +<p>"If I write to Susie right away, it may get there almost as soon as she +does, and she won't have to wait for it to come."</p> + +<p>The rest of the family and their neighbors had their hands full of +spring work, and had no time to think much of their recent visitors; but +their visitors were thinking of them. A lady and gentleman in a city +home were listening to prolonged and full accounts of their children's +winter in the country, and every now and then the gentleman exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Vosh Stebbins again!" At the end of it all, he said to his wife,—</p> + +<p>"My dear, did you know that youngsters of that kind were scarce? I must +keep an eye on him. Susie says he's to have an education. Got a good +beginning for one now, I should say. If he should go straight, there's +no telling what he might do. He can graduate from college into my +office, if he wishes to. I knew his father, and his mother's as good as +gold."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" shouted Port. "Then Vosh can kill his bears in the city. How'd +you like that, Susie? I'd like it."</p> + +<p>Susie only turned to her mother, and asked,—</p> + +<p>"What do you think, mother?"</p> + +<p>"I? Oh, we will have plenty of time to think it over. We can go up there +and visit, and we can have them down here."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Vosh did go to college, and he did pass from it to Mr. +Hudson's law-office; and it is true, to this day, that nobody can tell +what he will do, he is doing so much and so well.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SCRIBNERS_BOOKS_FOR_THE_YOUNG" id="SCRIBNERS_BOOKS_FOR_THE_YOUNG"></a>SCRIBNER'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.</h2> + +<h3><i>Scribner's List of Juvenile Books.</i></h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><i>The great legend of the Nibelungen told to boys and girls.</i></h3> + +<h3>THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED.</h3> + +<h3>BY JAMES BALDWIN</h3> + +<h3>With a series of superb illustrations by <span class="smcap">Howard Pyle</span>.</h3> + +<p>Mr. Baldwin has at last given "The Story of Siegfried" in the way in +which it most appeals to the boy-reader,—simply and strongly told, with +all its fire and action, yet without losing any of that strange charm of +the myth, and that heroic pathos, which every previous attempt at a +version, even for adult readers, has failed to catch.</p> + + +<h3>THE STORY OF ROLAND.</h3> + +<h3>BY JAMES BALDWIN</h3> + +<h3>With a series of illustrations by <span class="smcap">R. B. Birch</span>.</h3> + +<p>This volume is intended as a companion to "The Story of Siegfried." As +Siegfried was an adaptation of Northern myths and romances to the wants +and the understanding of young readers, so is this story a similar +adaptation of the middle-age romances relating to Charlemagne and his +paladins. As Siegfried was the greatest of the heroes of the North, so, +too, was Roland the most famous among the knights of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"We congratulate the boys of the land upon the appearance of this book. +We commend it to parents who are selecting literature for their +children, assured, as we are, that it will convince them that books may +be found which will engage the attention, and stimulate the imagination, +of the young, without dissipating the mind, or blunting the moral +sensibilities."—<i>Philadelphia Messenger.</i></p> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<h3>THE AMERICAN BOY'S HANDY BOOK;</h3> + +<h3>Or, WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT.</h3> + +<h3>BY DANIEL C. BEARD.</h3> + +<h3>THE FIRST REALLY PRACTICAL BOY'S BOOK.</h3> + +<h3>With three hundred illustrations by the author. <i>One volume</i></h3> + +<p><i>Mr. Beard's book is the first to tell the active, inventive, and +practical American boy the things he really wants to know, the thousand +things he wants to do, and the ten thousand ways in which he can do +them, with the helps and ingenious contrivances which every boy can +either procure or make.</i></p> + +<p>The author divides the book among the sports of the four seasons; and he +has made an almost exhaustive collection of the cleverest modern +devices, besides himself inventing an immense number of capital and +practical ideas.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>THE BOY'S <i>Library of Legend and Chivalry</i>.</h3> + +<h3>EDITED BY SIDNEY LANIER, <i>And richly illustrated by <span class="smcap">Fredericks</span>, <span class="smcap">Bensell</span>, +and <span class="smcap">Kappes</span>.</i></h3> + +<h3>KNIGHTLY LEGENDS OF WALES</h3> + +<h3>THE BOY'S PERCY</h3> + +<p>"Amid all the strange and fanciful scenery of these stories, character +and the ideals of character remain at the simplest and the purest. The +romantic history transpires in the healthy atmosphere of the open air, +on the green earth beneath the open sky.... The figures of Right, Truth, +Justice, Honor, Purity, Courage, Reverence for Law, are always in the +background; and the grand passion inspired by the book is for strength +to do well and nobly in the world."—<i>The Independent.</i></p> + + +<h3>THE BOY'S MABINOGION.</h3> + +<p>Being the earliest Welsh tales of King Arthur in the famous Red Book of +Hergest. Edited for boys, with an Introduction by <span class="smcap">Sidney Lanier</span>. With +twelve full-page illustrations by Alfred Fredericks.</p> + + +<h3>THE BOY'S KING ARTHUR.</h3> + +<p>Being Sir Thomas Mallory's History of King Arthur and his Knights of the +Round Table. Edited for boys, with an Introduction by <span class="smcap">Sidney Lanier</span>. +With twelve full-page illustrations by Alfred Kappes.</p> + + +<h3>THE BOY'S FROISSART.</h3> + +<p>Being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of Adventure, Battle, and Custom +in England, France, Spain, etc. Edited for boys, with an Introduction by +<span class="smcap">Sidney Lanier</span>. With twelve full-page illustrations by Alfred Kappes.</p> + + +<h3>THE BOY'S PERCY.</h3> + +<h3>With fifty text and full-page illustrations by <span class="smcap">E. B. Bensell</span>.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Lanier's books, which made him the companion and friend of half the +boys of the country, and showed his remarkable talent for guiding them +into the best parts of this ideal world, fitly close by giving the best +of the ballads in their purest and strongest form, from Bishop Percy's +famous collection. With "The Boy's Froissart," "The Boy's King Arthur," +"The Mabinogion," and "The Boy's Percy," Mr. Lanier's readers have the +full circle of heroes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FRANK_R_STOCKTONS_POPULAR_STORIES" id="FRANK_R_STOCKTONS_POPULAR_STORIES"></a>FRANK R. STOCKTON'S POPULAR STORIES.</h2> + + +<h3>THE STORY OF VITEAU.</h3> + +<h3>With sixteen full-page illustrations by <span class="smcap">R. B. Birch</span>.</h3> + + +<p>In "The Story of Viteau," Mr. Stockton has opened a new vein, and one +that he has shown all his well-known skill and ability in working. While +describing the life and surroundings of Raymond, Louis, and Agnes at +Viteau at the Castle of De Barran, or in the woods among the +<i>Cotereaux</i>, he gives a picture of France in the age of chivalry, and +tells, at the same time, a romantic and absorbing story of adventure and +knightly daring. Mr. Birch's spirited illustrations add much to the +attraction of the book.</p> + + +<h3>A JOLLY FELLOWSHIP.</h3> + +<h3><i>Illustrated.</i></h3> + +<p>"'A Jolly Fellowship,' by Mr. Frank Stockton, is a worthy successor to +his 'Rudder Grange.' Although written for lads, it is full of delicious +nonsense that will be enjoyed by men and women.... The less serious +parts are described with a mock gravity that is the perfection of +harmless burlesque, while all the nonsense has a vein of good sense +running through it, so that really useful information is conveyed to the +young and untravelled reader's mind."—<i>Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.</i></p> + + +<h3>THE FLOATING PRINCE, AND OTHER FAIRY TALES.</h3> + +<h3>With illustrations by <span class="smcap">Bensell</span> and others.</h3> + +<p>"Stockton has the knack, perhaps genius would be a better word, of +writing in the easiest of colloquial English, without descending to the +plane of the vulgar or common-place. The very perfection of his work +hinders the reader from perceiving at once how good of its kind it +is.... With the added charm of a most delicate humor,—a real humor, +mellow, tender, and informed by a singularly quaint and racy fancy,—his +stories become irresistibly attractive."—<i>Philadelphia Times.</i></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_O_STODDARDS_CAPITAL_STORIES_FOR_BOYS" id="WILLIAM_O_STODDARDS_CAPITAL_STORIES_FOR_BOYS"></a>WILLIAM O. STODDARD'S CAPITAL STORIES FOR BOYS.</h2> + + +<h3>DAB KINZER.</h3> + +<h3>A STORY OF A GROWING BOY.</h3> + +<p>"The book is enlivened with a racy and genuine humor. It is, moreover, +notably healthy in its tone, and in every way is just the thing for +boys."—<i>Philadelphia North American.</i></p> + +<p>"It is full of fun, liveliness, and entertainment. Dab Kinzer will be +voted a good fellow, whether at home, at school, or out +fishing."—<i>Portland Press.</i></p> + + +<h3>THE QUARTET.</h3> + +<h3>A SEQUEL TO "DAB KINZER."</h3> + + +<p>"The boys who read 'Dab Kinzer' will be delighted with 'The Quartet.' It +is the story of Dab's school and college life, and certainly equals the +former story in interest. In a literary point of view, it ranks among +the best of its kind. There are few writers of boys' books who present +boy-life in the strong, sympathetic, manly way that Mr. Stoddard does. +His good boys are genuine, fun-loving, careless, but royal-hearted. In +the words of one of their admirers, 'They're a fine lot, take 'em all +round.'"—<i>Boston Post.</i></p> + + +<h3>SALTILLO BOYS.</h3> + +<p>Mr. Stoddard's stories for boys grow better and better every year. Good +as were "Dab Kinzer" and the "Quartet," <span class="smcap">Saltillo Boys</span> surpasses them in +its narrative of bright, manly, and yet thoroughly boy-like life in an +inland town, whose actual name and locality may be shrewdly guessed by +those familiar with its characteristics. The incidents are thoroughly +boyish, and yet quite free from frivolity. The drift of the book is +wholly on the side of frank, intelligent, and self-reliant manliness; +and it is impossible for any boy to read it without absorbing a love for +nobility of character, and forming higher aspirations.</p> + + +<h3>AMONG THE LAKES.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Stoddard's bright, sympathetic story, "Among the Lakes," is a +fitting companion to his other books. It has the same flavor of happy, +boyish country life, brimful of humor, and abounding with incident and +the various adventures of healthy, well-conditioned boys turned loose in +the country, with all the resources of woods and water, and their own +unspoiled natures.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Winter Fun, by William O. Stoddard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINTER FUN *** + +***** This file should be named 35042-h.htm or 35042-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/4/35042/ + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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