26 
B )' THE WA YE IDE 
Max was proud to be trusted with this duty 
and was ns happy as could be since he loved 
to watch the birds and squirrels, and Jep, his 
do*', was a lively companion. 
O t/ A 
During the last summer he had spent many 
an hour picking berries, but he had kept this 
business a secret from his mother, though it 
was very hard for him not to tell her. 
The truth was, he was determined to buy 
for her a thick winter cape. He had heard her 
sav she wanted one and he felt sure that ev¬ 
ery dollar she could earn would be spent on 
himself and his little sisters, so he had asked 
his uncle how he could earn eight dollars with¬ 
out letting his mother know what he was 
about. 
“Why, Max,” said his uncle, “you spend 
such a lot of time with your dog and cows, you 
may as well go into business out in the 
woods. 
“If you will bring me fresh berries every 
night, I will pay for every quart and sell them 
in my store. Then when nuts are ripe, you 
can gather them. You will be quite rich' by 
winter if you have sense enough not to spend 
your money as fast as vou earn it. 
Max had often seen Indian women and 
children picking wild berries, and he knew 
that it was slow work, especially in raspberry 
time; but he could think of no other way to 
fret the money while he had the cows in 
O v 
charge, so he had worked all through the berry 
season and throng nutting time, and now had 
all he needed except fifty cents. 
Xuts were very scarce now and he could 
think of only one more grove, and that a 
long way off, where he could hope to find any. 
That very day he had gone to his hiding place 
hoping that he had made a mistake and per¬ 
haps, after all, the whole sum was there. Af¬ 
ter changing his mind a great many times as 
to where he should keep his money safely, he 
had decided to put it in a tin cracker box and 
to hide it under the oats. They were kept 
in a dee]) bin in the barn built with a high 
wall in front, and a little sliding door at the 
bottom. This he called his bank. To enter 
it he took off shoes and stockings, rolled up 
his trousers, climbed a ladder set up against 
the wall, and jumped down into the soft 
grain. At first he had worn his shoes in, but 
when his mother wondered how they got so 
full of oats, he was afraid they would betray 
him. He had nailed some boards onto the in¬ 
side of the bin so that he could climb out 
easily. 
Today he had been very much disappointed, 
for no matter how often he counted the little 
silver pieces, there was never more than seven 
dollars and a half. 
So when he sat with his mother that even¬ 
ing, she said, “Max, it is time to keep the 
cows in the yard now and you needn’t be 
away from me all day any more.” “O! moth- 
er!” he cried, “one day more, just one! I 
must go tomorrow. There is a place Jep and 
I want to go to so much!” “All right,” she 
said, “one day more, then.” 
So the next morning they drove the cows 
over the familiar road, down the lane, across 
the bare lots and past the woods now brown 
and still except for the rustling of the squir¬ 
rels and the screaming bluejays. 
They left the cow r s in a wide green meadow 
and he and Jep went on across a little river 
where he knew hickory trees and hazel bushes 
were plenty. Here he spent the whole day 
beating down the few he found on the 
branches, and hunting through the grass for 
such as the squirrels and chipmunks had fail¬ 
ed to carry off. When it was time to turn 
A 
homeward he was ready to cry with disap¬ 
pointment; he had not half enough nuts and 
this was his last chance. Jep was more anx¬ 
ious to go home than Max, and scampered on 
ahead while Max called up the cows and fol¬ 
lowed. 
As he dragged his tired feet along, he heard 
sudden yelps and frantic barking which lasted 
so long that he turned into the woods to see 
what had happened. Jep was standing up 
against an old oak trying his best to climb up 
after a squirrel that had fled to the top 
branches, and there was chattering furiously. 
Jep was wilder than ever wh'en he saw Max, 
and whined and scrambled so comically that 
Max laughed at him and held him up to 
prove that he was no climber. As he leaned 
against the bark it gave way with a crash 
and left a great hole which they nearly fell 
into. When he looked in he grew as excited 
as Jep had been and capered about for joy, 
for there inside the hollow trunk he saw a 
lot of nuts—more than he had found all day. 
The squirrel was still scolding and jerking his 
tail up and down in his angriest manner, but 
now Max had no thought for him or for Jep. 
He took all the nuts and put them into his 
