THE STORY OF A STONE. 203 



over Oconto, and little Favosites was torn from 

 the place where he had lain so long; but by good 

 fortune he happened to fall into a crevice of the ice 

 where he was not much crowded, else he would 

 have been ground to powder and I should not have 

 had this story to tell. And the ice melted as it slid 

 along, and it made great torrents of water, which, 

 as they swept onward, covered the land with clay 

 and pebbles. At last the ice came to a great 

 swamp overgrown with tamarack and balsam. It 

 melted here ; and all the rocks and stones and dirt 

 it had carried, — little Favosites and all, — were 

 dumped into one great heap. 



It was a very long time after, and man had been 

 created, and America had been discovered, and 

 the War of the Revolution and the War of the 

 Rebellion had all been fought to the end, and a 

 great many things had happened, when one day 

 a farmer living near Grand Chute, in Outagamie 

 County, Wisconsin, was ploughing up his clover- 

 field to sow to winter wheat He picked up in the 

 furrow a curious little bit of petrified honeycomb," 

 a good deal worn and dirty, but still showing plainly 

 the honey-cells and the bee-bread. Then he put it 

 into his pocket and carried it home, and gave it to 

 his boy Charley to take to the teacher and hear 

 what he would say about it. And this is what he 

 said. 



