60 AN OLD ROAD. 



their names from their owners, real or re- 

 puted; and as some of these appellations 

 were rather disrespectfully abbreviated, it 

 may be as well to omit setting them down 

 in print. 



To all these places we resorted a little 

 later in the season for blackberries, and 

 later still for barberries. In one or two 

 of them we set snares, also, but without 

 materially lessening the quantity of game. 

 The rabbits, especially, always helped 

 themselves to the bait, and left us the 

 noose. At this distance of time I do not 

 begrudge them their good fortune. I hope 

 they are all alive yet, including the young- 

 ster that we once caught in our hands and 

 brought home, and then, in a fit of con- 

 trition, carried back again to its native 

 heath. 



All in all, the berries that we prized 

 most, perhaps, were those that came first, 

 and were at the same time least abundant. 

 Yankee children will understand at once 

 that I mean the checkerberries, or, as we 

 were more accustomed to call them, the 

 boxberries. The very first mild days in 

 March, if the snow happened to be mostly 



