yard of the sawmill, where there was a strong and 

 not unpleasant odour of hemlock sawdust, and 

 where we were speedily the objects of benevolent 

 suspicion to several persons who eyed us through 

 the green blinds. Nevertheless, we were gra 

 ciously provided with hunks of bread and flowing 

 bowls of milk served in a summer kitchen by a 

 young woman in freckles whom the angels called 

 Pauline, and who kept her eye on the big seal- 

 ring on my little finger, so that when she refused 

 to let me pay for the food I gave her the ring, 

 coming dangerously near calling her Pauline and 

 telling her that my grandfather the Doge of Ven 

 ice had married the Adriatic with it. 



By this time the old teamster, who had been 

 wrestling with himself in the woodshed, had ob 

 tained a victory over his conscience and concluded 

 to take us back for the dollar. As the life was 

 nearly jolted out of us by the time we reached 

 the edge of the Hotchkiss woods, we told him 

 ve would walk the rest of the way, and then 

 Charlie and I set out to find our water pail, com 

 ing after much wandering upon a little brook 

 winding down through the valley among water 

 cress and marsh-grasses with a pianissimo gurgle. 

 We took off our shoes and stockings, and plunged 

 our dust-covered feet into its cool pockets, and 

 then set out to explore it, wading along its channel. 



Presently we came to a grassy basin with slop 

 ing green banks a natural saucer that must at 

 some time have been brimming, but now was left 

 green by the litde stream that wound through 



27 



