H Hopkins's Pond. 



lives a long way from the pond now, and 

 his hair is grayer than it was in muskrat 

 days, but it is a pleasure when visiting the 

 old homestead to go over to the pond and 

 hunt-for the heaps of unio shells and the 

 burrows under the bank, Ed and Nellie 

 are married and have sons and daughters 

 of their own, and he as a man of wide re- 

 nown has proven that fraudulent estimates 

 were furnished to us boys by the green- 

 eyed dealer in the game of life. Dave and 

 Susie drifted away from each other when 

 Dave went off to college, and while his 

 tastes were ascending, hers remained sta- 

 tionary, so that after a few years they were 

 not companions for each other at all. She 

 as a household drudge is very different 

 from the happy Susie whose skates rang 

 merrily with ours on the black ice under 

 the winter stars. Joe and Pete, who failed 

 to do much with the muskrats and who 

 were ugly about it, have failed to get up 

 early in any of their undertakings, and 

 they often go for aid to the boy who tried 

 to show them how to succeed in former 

 days, but it is of no use. They still grum- 



