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A Great Year of Our Lives 
 
 At the Old Squire's 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 076 055 817 
 
 BY 
 
 C. A. STEPHENS 
 
 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE YOUTH'S COMPANION 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
Copyright, igi2 
 By C. A. Stephens 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Electrotypedand Printed by 
 THE COLONIAL PRESS 
 C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U. S. A. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 WITH CORDIAL BEST 
 
 WISHES TO THE MANY 
 
 IReaBers of tbe H?outb's Companion 
 
 WHO HAVE SO KINDLY REMEMBERED 
 
 US AT THE OLD SQUIRE'S 
 
 FARM 
 
Contents 
 
 I. The New Schoolmaster 
 
 II. " The Important Man "... 
 
 III. Sudden Departure of Master Lurvey 
 
 IV. Master Joel Pierson . 
 
 V. Proud - flesh and Powder - post 
 
 VI. School Money 
 
 VII. A Novel Venture 
 
 VIII. Addison's Christmas Misadventure . 
 
 IX. Joel Pierson Arrives . 
 
 X. How to Thaw a Frozen Pump: Cather 
 
 ine's Bright Idea 
 
 XL Latin and the Constitution 
 
 XII. The Quiz Goes On 
 
 XIII. Latin in Earnest .... 
 
 XIV. We All Have the Mumps . 
 XV. Making Maple Sugar .... 
 
 XVI. Caesar and Maple Syrup 
 
 XVII. A School - meeting 
 
 XVIII. Addison's " War " with Tibbetts 
 
 XIX. Our First Great Sorrow . 
 
 XX. Addison's Juggernaut .... 
 
 XXI. At the Hay - meadows 
 
 XXII. Addison Wheels a Road - measurer 
 
 XXIII. The Line -storm 
 
 XXIV. Theodora's Barrel op Baldwins 
 XXV. Sprangle - Legs 
 
 XXVI. My Ride with Mary Inez . 
 
 XXVII. The Old Squire's Clocks . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
A Great Year of Our Lives 
 
 At the Old Squire's 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 THE winter school at the Old Squire's was to 
 begin on Monday following Thanksgiving ; and 
 for several weeks our interest and attention had 
 centered about the old red schoolhouse, down at the 
 forks of the road, leading to the Corners. 
 
 Thay have built a new schoolhouse there now in 
 place of the large old red one, a neat, modern structure, 
 painted white, with new patent desks and chairs, also 
 adjustable blackboards and globe; and there are por- 
 traits of Washington, Lincoln, Lafayette and Ben. 
 Franklin on the walls. It is a great improvement; 
 every one says so; yet I cannot help missing the old 
 red one where I went to school that first winter after 
 coming to Maine. 
 
 The day they tore the old house down I really felt 
 quite sad. It does not seem like the same place there 
 now, and memory runs back somewhat regretfully, as I 
 pass to those old eventful winter terms under Master 
 Joel Pierson, Master Cummings, Master French and 
 young Thomas Jefferson Cobb who was drowned in 
 the Kennebec. Excellent teachers they were ; possibly 
 there are as good instructors now, but I cannot help 
 doubting it. 
 
 1 
 
2 A GREAT YEAR OF, OUR LIVES 
 
 We set great store by our winter school then, and 
 so would boys and girls at present, if they had but ten 
 weeks a year, — for only girls and little boys attended 
 the summer school. Throughout the entire year wa 
 doted on that coming winter term of school. 
 
 Really, we made remarkable progress; those old 
 masters pushed us lovingly on. In one winter, when 
 fourteen, my cousin Addison mastered Greenleaf's 
 National Arithmetic and could perform every example 
 in it; but to do this he had worked morning and 
 evening as well as during school hours. Those 
 teachers possessed the gift of firing our hearts with 
 an ambition to learn. How did they do it? Their 
 own hearts were in it. To this day I feel the thrill of 
 Master Pierson's enthusiasm and his faith in us, as he 
 laid out long lessons and somehow made us feel sure 
 that we could learn them. What a true friend he was ! 
 I take off my hat reverently to his memory. 
 
 They were all good teachers, every one — but no, 
 there was an exception. We did have one poor 
 teacher, yes, he was a bad teacher. It came about in 
 a singular way. It was " the year rum reigned in 
 No. ii," — for that was the way we always referred 
 to it. That winter — the winter of 1867 — there was 
 a strange state of things at the old schoolhouse. I 
 shall have to explain it a little. 
 
 In Maine at that time, each and every country school 
 district governed itself and managed its own affairs. 
 A school meeting of the legal residents of the district 
 was held every spring to elect a school agent, bid off 
 teacher's board, fuel, etc. The agent chosen hired the 
 teachers and was in charge of the school property. 
 The day of centralism and supervisors was not yet. 
 In the matter of its school business every district was 
 a small republic, largely independent of the town or 
 county in which it was situated. 
 
 The system had its advantages, also a few disad- 
 vantages. It kept the people keenly alive to the in- 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 3 
 
 terests of their school. An abuse of it was the tend- 
 ency on the part of agents, sometimes, to hire teachers 
 in whom they were personally interested from kinship, 
 or otherwise. But as a rule, there was an honest in- 
 tent on the part of the agent to get the best teachers 
 he could for the money. 
 
 In No. 1 1 harmony had prevailed for years. There 
 had been few dissensions, until the spring of 1866. 
 Then an element of discord and disorder entered, and 
 I must needs admit that the cause of it was the State 
 Liquor Law. 
 
 Now the " Maine Law," so called, has done an un- 
 told amount of good. It would be indeed strange, 
 however, if some abuses had not attended its enforce- 
 ment. The law sometimes fomented animosity and 
 set not only school districts but whole towns by the 
 ears. Yet there are many who hold that intemperance 
 is an evil so terrible that it is batter to set people by the 
 ears than to ignore it, — but we need not go into that 
 here. 
 
 Three-fourths of the families, or heads of families, 
 in No. 1 1 were temperate, law-abiding citizens, but we 
 had one bad man among us. 
 
 For some reason Nature, in fashioning men, does 
 not always produce a good citizen. It must needs be 
 owned that there are many bad jobs, and one of the 
 worst of these was our neighbor, Tibbetts, out at the 
 Corners. 
 
 Tibbetts was one of those men who, their lives long, 
 drag the community down hill. He sold rum in de- 
 fiance of the State Law ; and he manufactured the rum 
 himself; that is to say, he made four barrels from one 
 by the addition of substances deleterious to the human 
 organism. In a small and mean way he was a gambler 
 and his " store " a resort for such as could be drawn 
 into card games, " hustling " and dicing. 
 
 Personally, he was a heavy-set, wheezy man, much 
 bloated from intemperance, red-faced, repulsive, yet 
 
4 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 possessed of strong vitality and not a little energy, 
 abetted by great craftiness. 
 
 At first thought one might say that such a person 
 would have very little influence in any average com- 
 munity, and that it ought not to be difficult to suppress 
 him. But in a state with a strict liquor law, such a 
 man is often able to enlist strong support. 
 
 During the winter of 1865-6, Tibbetts' place was 
 the scene of a brawl, ending in a manslaughter, and 
 altogether became so scandalous, that the Old Squire 
 felt it incumbent on him to enforce the " Law," with 
 the result that Tibbetts was fined one hundred dollars 
 and costs. 
 
 It followed, of course, that such a man would seek 
 to be revenged, and the way Tibbetts took to spite us, 
 was to> get control of the school district. Not that he 
 cared the least for the welfare of the school. It was 
 purely for revenge; and he went about this with a 
 cunning worthy of a better object. 
 
 Near his grocery at the Corners, he owned two ram- 
 shackle old houses, and in these he contrived to domi- 
 cile, as tenants, two shiftless families who would do 
 his bidding. He had also a son, Jerry Tibbetts, re- 
 cently arrived at the age of twenty-one, who though 
 absent from home still retained a residence there as 
 a voter. That winter, too, he hired a man of his own 
 stamp, to tend store for him, and had the fellow fetch 
 his trunk and make his legal residence at the Corners. 
 
 Thus, before we were aware, he secured a majority 
 in the school meeting of March, 1866, and elected a 
 man of his own choosing, named Glinds, as school 
 agent. There were but eighteen legal voters in the 
 district, and as six of them were opponents of the 
 Maine Law, two of them very intemperate, Tibbetts 
 was able to get his man elected. Glinds was one of his 
 rum-debtors. 
 
 When we young folks at the Old Squire's learned 
 what had happened at school meeting, we were both 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 5 
 
 angry and alarmed, particularly Addison, Theodora 
 and Ellen, and our two young neighbors, Catherine 
 and Thomas Edwards. These five were the best 
 scholars in the district and had now but a few years 
 more to attend school. 
 
 Before this, for three winters, the school had been 
 taught by Master Pierson, a talented young man who 
 was working his way through college. He excelled 
 in algebra and English grammar. He hung the walls 
 of the old schoolhouse with maps and charts of his 
 own, and brought with him a cabinet organ, also his 
 own property. 
 
 To secure the services of such a teacher, twenty- 
 seven dollars per month — large wages then — was 
 paid, with board. But never before had the school 
 made such progress ; in three winters No. 1 1 came to 
 rank first in the town. 
 
 Hence we ware all very desirous of having Master 
 Pierson returned the following winter, and when it 
 was learned that Giinds had been elected agent, a 
 petition to this effect, bearing the names of forty out 
 of forty-nine of the scholars in the district, was pre- 
 sented to him. 
 
 On reading it Giinds seemed confused, but made no 
 reply, nor could we learn anything as to his intentions, 
 if ha had any; but Tibbetts gave out that no more 
 high-priced teachers would be hired. The excuse was 
 " economy," so often the pretext of those who wish to 
 do wrong. 
 
 We knew from this that Master Pierson was lost 
 to us and felt badly over it. Theodora, Ellen and Kate 
 Edwards actually shed tears of regret and resentment. 
 Being greatly interested, we made frequent inquiries, 
 but during that whole season, till near Thanksgiving, 
 we could learn nothing as to whom that old sot at the 
 Corners meant to hire as our teacher. Tibbetts was 
 gratifying his malice. Well he knew how he could 
 best do so. 
 
6 A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 
 
 Proper care was not given the schoolhotise that sea- 
 son. Agent Glinds and Tibbetts did not deem such 
 matters worthy of attention. In consequence there 
 was diphtheria among the small pupils during the 
 summer term, which the physician who attended 
 them pronounced due to the bad sanitary condition 
 there. 
 
 Shortly before Thanksgiving a rumor reached us 
 that the new schoolmaster's name was Samuel Lur- 
 vey and that he hailed from Lurvey's Mills, ten or 
 eleven miles from us. Some of the young folks had 
 seen him. He was about twenty-one, they said, a 
 large, strong young man, the son of "Old Jack Lur- 
 vey," the owner of the lumber mills. Those who knew 
 him did not speak very highly of him, but they said 
 that he had attended the village Academy for two 
 years, and that his father wished him to teach. 
 
 Every one in that county knew Old Jack Lurvey, 
 an illiterate man of violent temper who had become 
 wealthy in the lumber business. It was said of him 
 that, being unable to read or write, he kept his ac- 
 counts with kernels of corn and beans of differ- 
 ent colors, on the attic floor of his house, but that 
 no one ever got the better of him in business 
 matters. 
 
 To 'those who are interested in heredity, I may add 
 here that this Lurvey's wife, our new master's mother, 
 had been a servant girl of foreign birth, whom " Old 
 Jack " married from a Portland tavern. While this 
 ought not to be mentioned against the son, it may even 
 show in apology for him, since his boyhood at home 
 was amidst rude, rough associations, where violent 
 outbursts of temper and bad language were of daily 
 occurrence. 
 
 But " Old Jack " had sent his son to the Academy 
 and was now determined that he should " keep 
 school." It transpired afterwards that he had a 
 private understanding with Tibbetts to hire Samuel; 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 7 
 
 Lurvey senior was not averse to .a glass of rum at 
 times, himself. 
 
 Young Master Lurvey was to be paid seventeen 
 dollars per month; he would have been dear at less. 
 At Lurvey's Mills municipal affairs want on as " Old 
 Jack " dictated; in a small way he was an adroit poli- 
 tician and knew how to manage people. Even before 
 our school began a curious instance of his craftiness 
 showed itself. 
 
 Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving, Addison 
 and I, with my cousin Halstead, were cutting up tur- 
 nips and beets for the young cattle at the west barn, 
 when we heard bells, and, looking out, saw that an 
 elderly man, driving a spirited chestnut horse, with 
 new sleigh and bear-skin robes, had come up the lane. 
 The man got out and hitched his horse to a post and 
 we noticed that he tested the ring in the post carefully. 
 
 " That looks like Old Jack Lurvey, our new master's 
 father," whispered Addison. " Wonder what he's 
 come for ? " 
 
 Lurvey senior glanced at the house, then came to the 
 open barn door, nodded and inquired for the Old 
 Squire who was away from home that day. He did 
 not seem greatly disappointed, looked at our live stock, 
 asked how we fed them, and talked for some time, 
 addressing himself mostly to Addison. 
 
 " What think o' that colt o' mine, young man? " he 
 at length said to him. 
 
 " He's a handsome one," replied Addison. 
 
 " Yes, he is a good colt, and he's a pretty stepper, 
 too," continued our visitor. " Never drawed rein over 
 a hoss I liked better. Hop in and let me show ye how 
 he handles a sleigh." 
 
 Addison was a little surprised, but buttoned up his 
 coat and got in the sleigh beside the owner of the colt, 
 who turned and drove down the lane and out on the 
 road at a fine pace. 
 
 As much as half an hour passed before they came 
 
8 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 back to the foot of the lane, where our caller put 
 Addison down and drove away. The latter came back 
 to the barn, but seemed preoccupied; he was smiling 
 covertly. 
 
 " How did you like the ' stepper ? ' " I asked him. 
 
 " O very well," said he absently. But later in the 
 winter he told us what had passed. 
 
 It would appear that Lurvey senior had learned that 
 Addison was the most advanced scholar in the school 
 district and the boy who had most influence. ' After 
 " talking horse " awhile, he turned the conversation 
 to school matters and the subject of his son, soon to 
 be our teacher. Very adroitly he sounded Addison as 
 to his good-will toward him. 
 
 " Now, my Sam's all right on book-larnin', I guess," 
 he remarked ; " but he's young and never teached 
 before; and he may have some ways that some of ye, 
 over here, may not quite take to, at fust." (It would 
 seem that Old Jack was not blind to certain of his son's 
 traits and deficiencies. ) 
 
 " Now I'm anxious to have him git through all 
 right," Lurvey senior continued. " I can see that you 
 know 'bout how a school oughter be run ; and I can 
 see that ef a boy like you went in fer the master and 
 stood up fer him, stiff and strong, 'twould make a big 
 diffrunce with the other scholars. An' you can see, 
 yerself, that 'twill ba better to stand by him and all 
 pull together fer a good school than to pull apart. 
 So I ax ye, as a favor, to go in for my Sam, good and 
 solid; and" (lowering his voice) "I never axes any- 
 buddy to help me for nothing; here's a nice new five 
 dollar bill ter slip into yer vest pocket." 
 
 Addison had already begun to mistrust what was 
 coming. He was a good deal taken aback, none the 
 less, but gathered his wits to extricate himself from a 
 position so equivocal and delicate, and he got out of it 
 pretty well. 
 
 "0 1 want a good school, Mr. Lurvey," said he. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 9 
 
 " I'll help the master in every way I can to make the 
 school a success. I like money, too, Mr. Lurvey. I 
 would be glad of that five dollars. Still, as I do not 
 yet know how much I may be able to help him, I would 
 not like to take this beforehand. If I find that I have 
 been of any real service to your son, at the close of 
 the school, I will remind you of this." 
 
 Old Jack was not wholly satisfied. It was not what 
 he wanted. He said no more, however; but he was 
 much too keen a man not to form a favorable opinion 
 of Addison's sagacity, and he always kept him in mind. 
 Several years later, quite unexpectedly, he made him 
 a proposition to take charge of a wood-pulp manufac- 
 turing business in which he had embarked. 
 
 Peradventure, Old Jack's influence had assisted his 
 son in passing his examination before a member of the 
 town School Committee. There was much wonder as 
 to this later in the winter. Then, however, we knew 
 very little of our new master save by hearsay, and 
 hoped to have a good school. Theodora, I remember, 
 was feverishly anxious as to this. On Saturday 
 evening before school began, Monday, there was a 
 general muster of our school books from the " book 
 cupboard." Theodora even tried some of the hard 
 examples in the National Arithmetic, which she had 
 been able to perform at the close of school the winter 
 before. 
 
 " O dear, it seems as if I had forgotten everything 
 I ever knew!" she lamented. "I cannot get these 
 right!" 
 
 " It will all come back to you, Doad, after a day or 
 two at school," said Addison to comfort her. But she 
 was far from reassured. 
 
 " If I have forgotten how to do this sum in Equa- 
 tion of Payments, when I worked it so many times 
 last winter, it's of no use for me to study at all ! " she 
 declared disconsolately. " I cannot do it now to save 
 my life!" 
 
10 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Doad, you've fed chickens too long this summer. 
 Your . head has weakened ! " cried Halstead to hector 
 her ; but he had himself forgotten how far he had ad- 
 vanced in his own arithmetic, and even did not know 
 his own book, by sight! 
 
 In order to lengthen the winter school, the Old 
 Squire had, long before, made a standing offer to the 
 district to board the master at the nominal sum of one 
 dollar per week, if no one else wished to board him 
 at that rate. Master Pierson had been so popular 
 that, expecting he would return, the Batchelder family 
 in the district had bid off the board at ninety-five 
 cents, to have him with them evenings. But now, on 
 Saturday, Mrs. Batchelder, hearing who was to teach, 
 oalled and asked us to board the master. Not wholly 
 pleased, the Old Squire and Gram assented, and the 
 " east chamber " was put in order. He was expected 
 Sunday evening, but did not arrive. 
 
 How well I recall that Monday morning and our 
 setting off for school ! 
 
 According to former law and custom, the old school- 
 house stood at the geographical center of the school 
 district, at a place where three roads diverged, one to 
 the Corners half a mile away, one to the Old Squire's 
 farm and our neighbors beyond us, and the third to the 
 Darnley neighborhood. 
 
 It was a cloudy morning; snow had fallen during 
 the night, but by eight o'clock a blithe smoke was 
 rising from the schoolhouse chimney, and from that 
 time on till nine, groups of the scholars could be seen 
 approaching along all three roads. Some had even 
 gone before eight, Newman Darnley and Alfred 
 Batchelder among the number, in order to secure the 
 best seats. There were benches and desks for about 
 fifty pupils, placed in four rows, opposite the teacher's 
 higher desk, with one much longer seat on each side, 
 flanking the floor and stove. On either hand of the 
 teacher's desk was an enclosed " cuddy," one for the 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 11 
 
 girls' wraps, the other for the boys' caps, and the 
 water-pail and dipper. The outer door was also- at the 
 right of the teacher's desk, between it and the boys' 
 cuddy. 
 
 The boys occupied two rows of seats and one of the 
 long seats on the north side of the schoolhouse, and 
 the girls an equal number on the south side. The 
 back seat was the place of honor and seniority, and the 
 next seat, most preferred, was the long seat flanking 
 the floor and stove. 
 
 There were five of us from the Old Squire's that 
 morning. Halstead, however, had gone on in ad- 
 vance. As the distance was considerable and the road 
 snowy we carried a lunch basket which was generally 
 in charge of Theodora. Catherine and Thomas Ed- 
 wards had oome to go with us, also Edwin and Elsie 
 Wilbur, and the two Murch boys, Willis and Ben, who 
 lived farther along our road. Octavia Sylvester and 
 Adriana Darnley, Newman's sister, joined us near the 
 schoolhouse door. 
 
 A tremendous hubbub of voices was heard inside. 
 Disputes concerning seats were running high. Our 
 Halstead, Alfred Batchelder and Billy Glinds had got 
 possession of the long seat on the boys' side, and were 
 holding it against all comers. Newman Darnley and 
 Absum Glinds were threatening to eject them. A 
 scuffle appeared certain. Several other disputes were 
 passing the argument stage. 
 
 Altogether forty-seven scholars had arrived. 
 Thomas and I pushed for a bench next to the back 
 seat, got into it and put our books on the desk, in sign 
 of possession. We dared not leave it, however, and 
 sat there for some time holding the fort. 
 
 It was past nine o'clock, and thus far no one of us 
 had seen or heard anything of the new teacher; but 
 now suddenly above the din of contention a jingle of 
 bells was heard outside, and Ned Wilbur cried, " The 
 master's coming ! Here he is ! " 
 
12 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 A lively scramble followed, and those who had not 
 secured seats took what was left, grumbling angrily; 
 but the most of us had our eyes fixed on the door. 
 
 It opened and the new master walked in. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 " THE IMPORTANT MAN " 
 
 EVERY eye was on him. Truth to say, he was a 
 handsome fellow, nearly six feet tall, of fine 
 form and strong. His face was fresh and ruddy, 
 his hair abundant, curly and black. On his upper lip 
 a faint black mustache was beginning to show and 
 gave him a youthful appearance, despite his size and 
 weight. 
 
 Handsome was the word for him, externally at 
 least, and shy looks of admiration showed on the faces 
 of Adrians, Octavia and other large girls in the back 
 seat. Hitherto our schoolmasters had not been re- 
 markable for good looks, but this was a handsome one. 
 He wore a stylish, dark suit and was of the type of 
 young men who set off their clothes well. 
 
 First impressions are sometimes quite erroneous, 
 but it seemed to us boys that his glance around was 
 hard and morose. He appeared sullen and disdainful, 
 as if displeased at the start, and his first words were, 
 as he laid his books and a very large ruler on the desk, 
 " I don't want to hear another such a noise when I 
 come into this house. If I do, there'll be trouble for 
 somebody." 
 
 It was not a gracious remark to open school with, 
 but there was justice in it; the most of us felt it so. 
 The noise had been outrageous, but it was still enough 
 now. He began to take off .his overcoat, and thereupon 
 Addison went down to the desk, bade him good-morn- 
 ing and showed him the two pegs always reserved for 
 the master's hat and coat. " We do not often have 
 
 13 
 
14. A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 such a noise," Addison then said apologetically, as he 
 took his seat. 
 
 It was but common courtesy to a stranger in our 
 schoolhouse, but the new master stared at Addison in 
 a suspicious way, without even saying good-morning 
 in response. But no doubt he was somewhat uncer- 
 tain, or embarrassed, and too much on his guard. He 
 had just come from an interview with Tibbetts and 
 Glinds; and it is likely that the rum-seller had not 
 given many of us a good character. 
 
 After removing his coat, Master Lurvey advanced 
 to the stove and holding his hands to the warmth, ran 
 his eyes slowly around the room again. 
 
 " Well, you all mean to know me the next time you 
 see me, I guess," said he at length. " You seem to 
 like the looks of me, by the way you stare." 
 
 No doubt we were all watching him rather more 
 attentively than true politeness warrants. With this 
 hint the most of the scholars took up their books. 
 
 " Oh, you needn't begin to study just yet," said he. 
 " I've got something to say .to ye before we begin 
 lessons." 
 
 Thereupon we laid our books down and tried to sit 
 without looking at our new master, since he resented 
 our regards. He stepped up behind his desk, took up 
 his ruler and began in a set tone of voice to make us 
 an address which, evidently, he had thought over in 
 advance. 
 
 " I don't doubt," he went on, after a little pause, 
 " that you all want to have a good school. I want you 
 to have a good school, too'. The first thing, to have is 
 good order. I shall make such rules as I think you 
 ought to have, and when I make a rule I expect you all 
 to obey it prompt — promptly," he added. 
 
 " If any boy here thinks he can get around a rule 
 I make, he will find out bis mistake quick. Order is 
 the first thing, and order I'll have if I have to ferula 
 ten boys a day. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 15 
 
 " When I give out a lesson, too, I expect that it will 
 be learned, right off, that day. I shall give only such 
 lessons as I think suitable. 
 
 " I shall not expect that you will all be running to 
 me to do sums for you in school hours, ox here in the 
 schoolroom. I've seen enough of that sort of thing. 
 It isn't the teacher's business to do hard sums in school 
 hours. If you have hard sums that you cannot do, 
 after you have tried them for two or three days, fetch 
 them to me at night, when school is dismissed. If I 
 have time I'll take them home with me and do them 
 for you, and will hand them to you done on paper. 
 Then I shall expect you to look them over and explain 
 them to the others. But don't you think that I have 
 come here to do hard sums for you all the time, for I 
 haven't. I'm here to give you your lessons and hear 
 them." 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the harsh and de- 
 fiant tone in which these remarks were delivered to us. 
 It was evident that the new master was resolved to 
 govern us strictly, and also that he had a distaste for 
 hard sums. 
 
 " Generally," he continued, after pausing for a 
 while to give his words time to take effect in our minds, 
 " generally I shall have you read in the Testament, 
 mornings, and I want you all to read up loud and 
 plain. But this morning I will read part of a chapter 
 myself, so you oan see how I want you to read." 
 
 He then took a Testament from his books and read 
 to us a portion of the fifth chapter of John, wherein 
 is described the miracle of healing the impotent man. 
 He read loud and slow, with long pauses. We noticed 
 that he pronounced the word impotent as important. 
 Many of the forty or more pupils probably did not 
 know the difference. I recall being in doubt myself, 
 yet it occurred to me that I had never heard of an 
 " important man " in the Gospels. 
 
 The mistake would probably have passed as a slip 
 
16 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 of the tongue; but our young instructor saw fit to com- 
 ment on what he had read, after he closed the book. 
 " You all see," said he, " that this was an important 
 man. That's why so much is said about him. That's 
 why he was healed. He was a very important man." 
 
 I knew now that something was wrong and glanced 
 at Theodora. She blushed .and sat looking very un- 
 comfortable. I saw her steal a look toward Addison, 
 but that pledged ally of the schoolmaster was gazing 
 steadfastly at his hands. A curious kind of hush per- 
 vaded the room. 
 
 The master put away his Testament and looked 
 around on us again. " You heard me read," he re- 
 marked. " That's the way I want you to read. 
 Readin' is the most important thing in school. So 
 first of all this morning, I'm going to call out the class 
 in the Fifth Reader. All who read in the Fifth Reader 
 come to the front seats. I want to see what kind of 
 readers you are, and whether you know the rules of 
 readin', or not." 
 
 As many as twenty of us found our Readers and 
 ranged ourselves on the front seats, facing the floor 
 and the master's desk. 
 
 " I want to hear one of you read," said he. " This 
 young lady right in front of me — she looks as if she 
 thought she could read. I'll hear her." 
 
 He opened the Reader to a selection, called A Plea 
 for Blennerhassett, and named the page. " Read the 
 first section," said he. 
 
 The " young lady " whom he had selected chanced 
 to be Catherine Edwards, one of the best readers in 
 the school. She flushed a little at being addressed in 
 a manner so pointed, but immediately complied with 
 the request, reading fluently and well, as any good 
 reader would. 
 
 " There ! That's about what I thought. Just about 
 what I expected," commented the master in a tone far 
 from flattering to Catherine. " That's the way you've 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 17 
 
 been reading here, I suppose. Runnin' on like that; 
 no regard for yer stops; no regard for the rules of 
 readin'. Young lady, do you know what the rules of 
 readin' are ? " 
 
 Catherine was much embarrassed. " Why, yes," 
 said she. " I think I do, but I'm afraid I do not quite 
 understand what you mean, Mr. Lurvey." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes, I thought so. I thought you didn't 
 know," said the master. " I knew ye didn't. Now 
 listen to me. I'll teach ye something. After a comma, 
 stop long enough to count one. After a semicolon, 
 stop long enough to count two. After a colon, stop 
 long enough to count three. After a period let yer 
 voice fall and stop long enough to count four. The 
 whole class now, repeat the rules of readin' after me." 
 
 We all repeated the above " rules," after our teacher, 
 sentence by sentence. 
 
 " Now, young lady, read that section again and 
 read it according to rule," said the new master. 
 
 " But is that really necessary, Mr. Lurvey? " Cath- 
 erine ventured to ask. "If the voice is allowed to fall 
 at a period, and a new sentence is properly begun, 
 isn't that enough ? " 
 
 " What do you suppose rules are for ? " exclaimed 
 tihe master in a loud, harsh tone. " Let the voice fall 
 and stop long enough to count four — every time." 
 
 Catherine was a spirited girl and resented the tone 
 in which she was answered. " Certainly, Mr. Lurvey," 
 she replied. " The only reason why I asked, was that 
 our teaoher last winter instructed us differently:" 
 
 The master slapped his book down on the desk. 
 " Now look here ! " ha exclaimed, " I don't care what 
 the teacher last winter did! Maybe he didn't know 
 his business. I don't know and don't care. I teach 
 by rule and I want you to go by rule. Next may 
 read." 
 
 The next chanced to be Theodora who sat with 
 Catherine. She also was a good reader. But she now 
 
18 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 attempted to make pauses, .according to " rule," and 
 her section consequently seemed to pause and hop 
 along so oddly that we all laughed. No one oould 
 help laughing. 
 
 The master flushed. " Silence ! " he shouted in a 
 tremendous voice. "What are you laughing at? 
 That's the way to read," he asserted stoutly. " Slowly 
 and distinctly and accordin' to rule ; only of course 
 you needn't be quite so slow, counting four, as that 
 last young lady was. Count four right off smart, as 
 if you had some life in you." 
 
 He went on lecturing us and spent fully an hour that 
 morning drilling a class of good readers in the prac- 
 tice of pausing long enough to count four after every 
 sentence ! 
 
 After the Fifth Reader, the Fourth, Third and Sec- 
 ond were called out and put through the same drill. 
 
 The class in the National Arithmetic was next called. 
 It consisted of Addison, Theodora, Catherine, Myra 
 Batchelder and two others. They had been through 
 the book the previous winter and wished merely to 
 review it. The new master did not even inquire as to 
 their progress, but opening the book hastily, assigned 
 as their next day's lessons, the two rules for Reduction 
 Ascending and Reduction Descending. 
 
 " Learn those two rules by heart," s^id he and shut 
 the book. 
 
 Addison now ventured to say to him pleasantly that 
 they knew these rules in principle, and could give them 
 in substance, if called for, at any time. 
 
 " Now, I don't want to hear any such excuses as 
 that," replied the master. " That is just an excuse to 
 shirk studyin'. We are going to do thorough work 
 here this term. You've got to learn every rule by 
 heart, or I will keep you on it till you do. There's 
 nothing like having rules by heart. At the end of the 
 term I shall call for all these rules and every one of 
 you must be able to give any rule that I call for by 
 
A GREAT YEARJ OF OUR LIVES 19 
 
 heart. I am going to beat the rules of this Arithmetic 
 into you so that you never'll forget 'em if you live to 
 be as old as Methuselah." 
 
 " But Mr. Lurvey," said Catherine who had not yet 
 recovered her equanimity, " they would perhaps have 
 a different kind of Arithmetic by that time." 
 
 " Now look here, young lady! " exclaimed the mas- 
 ter, " I don't want any more nonsense from you. 
 When I am speakin', I don't expect to be broke in on 
 by anybody. When I want scholars to speak to me, 
 I will let them know it. The next time any one inter- 
 rupts me like that, they'll be sorry for it." 
 
 Ha looked around upon us in a very determined, 
 not to say savage, manner; and it was plain to see 
 that he fully meant what he said. Catherine sat re- 
 garding him with mingled indignation and fear. It 
 was not an auspicious opening for a pleasant term. 
 Our new master appeared to regard us as his enemies. 
 Catherine and Theodora were good scholars who 
 wished to be on the best of terms with the teacher and 
 aid him in all respects; they rarely or never needed 
 even to be cautioned as to their deportment, and natu- 
 rally were aggrieved to be treated so rudely. 
 
 ■When the lower class in the Practical Arithmetic — 
 my own class — was called, the master gave us the 
 same two rules in Reduction which had been assigned 
 to the higher class in the National. " They are im- 
 portant rules," said he. " Learn them by heart for 
 to-morrow." 
 
 When school was dismissed for the noon intermis- 
 sion of one hour, Addison again approached the new 
 master and, mentioning to him that his boarding place 
 was to be with us, offered to escort him thither, and 
 they went away together. Certain of the others also 
 went home. 
 
 We who remained then opened our lunch baskets 
 and while refreshing ourselves compared notes, so to 
 .speak, in a quiet way. At length I ventured to ask 
 
20 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Catherine how she liked the new master. She did not 
 reply for some time, but merely glanced at me. " If 
 you want to know what I think," she said at last, in 
 a low tone, " I think he is a great rude fellow. I don't 
 think he knows much, either." My cousin Ellen 
 agreed with her. Theodora would not express an 
 opinion. She said there were some advantages in learn- 
 ing rules "by heart;" it strengthened the memory. 
 But Catherine made sport of such rules. Between 
 them, she and cousin Ellen had quietly christened the 
 new master " the important man." Theodora was so 
 much disappointed that 'she took but a small share of 
 the lunch. She had hoped to make fine progress dur- 
 ing this term. Addison and she expected to go on with 
 algebra, in which they had made a beginning under 
 Master Pierson. 
 
 On the other hand, Adriana Darnky and Octavia 
 Sylvester were much impressed by our new master's 
 appearance. " Oh, but isn't he fine lookin' ! " Adriana 
 went about saying to all of us. " We never had such 
 a handsome schoolmaster before. He's real stylish- 
 lookin'." Octavia agreed with her. " I wish he 
 boarded at our house," said Adriana, — overhearing 
 which Catherine and Ellen exchanged wondrous-wise 
 glances. 
 
 At one o'clock Addison and the new master returned, 
 and in the afternoon we were again drilled in reading 
 by " rule." Afterwards the class in English grammar 
 was called to the recitation seats. 
 
 " Now I suppose," said Master Lurvey, " that 
 you've been in the habit here of spending an hour a day, 
 parsing and constrain'. " 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Lurvey," replied Ellen. 
 
 " I thought you'd say so," said he with a sneer. " I 
 expect that some young lady " (glancing toward Cath- 
 erine) " will tell me that the master last winter had you 
 do that. I've been hearing a good deal about that 
 tremendous master, last winter, the tremendous great 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 21 
 
 Mr. Pierson! But let me tell you all right here that 
 he don't scare me a bit. 
 
 " Now, see here, parsin' and constrain' is a waste of 
 time, and I shall not waste time on it. So you can 
 carry those parsing books home with you. It's a 
 miserable waste of time. What you want in life is the 
 rules of grammar, and that's what I'm going to give 
 ye. Take Nouns and Pronouns for to-morrow, and see 
 that you have every word of it. Take your seats." 
 
 As we did so, I recollect glancing at Addison. His 
 face was a study. Catherine and Theodora looked 
 bewildered. Adriana was trying to have Mr. Lurvey 
 notice that. she approved him. 
 
 " I suppose there are geography classes," the new 
 master remarked, presently. " Will any one tell me 
 how many? " 
 
 " There were three last winter, Mr. Lurvey," said 
 Addison. 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes, yes, ' last winter ! ' " exclaimed the 
 new master with a laugh. " There 'tis again. This 
 school seems to be all ' last winter.' Nothin' but ' last 
 winter.' But you're going to have something different 
 this winter. I shall teach geography on a new plan. 
 This book (Colton and Fitch's) you use here, takes 
 ye flying all over creation and when you get back, you 
 don't know where you are. 
 
 "Now, listen; you are going to begin geography 
 with this town you're living in, and then this county, 
 and then this state." 
 
 That seemed a rather good idea to me; it sounded 
 practical. 
 
 " How many of you know anything about your own 
 State of Maine? " the new master demanded, reproach- 
 fully. 
 
 The question was so general that no one replied. 
 
 " How many of ye know what the largest river in 
 yer own State of Maine is ? " 
 
 " t The Penobscot," said Addison, smiling, and not 
 
22 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 to have us all seem too ignorant. " It is said, how- 
 ever, that as much or more water flows in the Kenne- 
 bec, in a year," he added. 
 
 " I didn't suppose you knew," said the master in an 
 overbearing tone. " And no matter about that last 
 part. You're not supposed to know more than your 
 books. 
 
 " What is the largest lake in Maine ? Perhaps this 
 very bright young lady who knew so much about arith- 
 metic this morning can tell me," he continued with 
 sarcasm, looking at Catherine. 
 
 " Moosehead Lake," replied Catherine, indifferently, 
 as one grown weary. 
 
 " Oh, you did happen to know that," commented 
 the master. " Do you say it is a large or a small 
 lake?" 
 
 " Large," replied Catherine. She cast a sudden 
 keen look at the new master, and to our astonishment, 
 added, " It is the largest body of fresh water in the 
 world!" 
 
 We looked for another outburst of sarcasm. But 
 to our still greater astonishment the new master said 
 nothing. 
 
 " The lesson to-morrow will be the map of Maine," 
 he announced, after making a note with a pencil. 
 " That's for all three classes." 
 
 I stole a glance at Catherine, as we went to our seats. 
 Her eyebrows were arched in a peculiar way. Addi- 
 son's face wore a curious smile. In my own mind, an 
 odd query was turning itself over: did he know? 
 
 Exercises in spelling followed, the master then said, 
 " Lay aside your books." But Addison raised his 
 hand. 
 
 " Well, young man, what is it ? " said Master Lur- 
 vey rather gruffly. " There is one class, sir, that has 
 not yet been called to-day," Addison replied. 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " The class in algebra." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 23 
 
 " Did you have a class in algebra last winter, under 
 the great Mr. Pierson?" asked the master ironically. 
 
 " We had algebra last winter and the winter before," 
 replied Addison. 
 
 " Didn't you know that that was contrary to law ? " 
 demanded Master Lurvey. " It's against the law to 
 teach algebra in a common school like this." 
 
 " I have heard that a teacher is not obliged to teach 
 algebra unless he is willing," said Addison. " I did 
 not know there was any law forbidding it." 
 
 " There are lots of things you don't know," retorted 
 the master. He laughed condescendingly. " Not but 
 that I would be willing enough to teach algebra," said 
 he, offhand. " Fact, I'd like to. But I've been warned 
 not to teach it. The agent warned me not to. I'd like 
 to, but I can't lay myself liable to the law, you know. 
 So we won't have it. Lay aside your books. 
 
 " Now, remember what I said about noise here, 
 mornings. When I come into this house to-morrow 
 morning every boy is to be in his seat, every girl, too, 
 with their Testaments out, ready to read. 
 
 " Another thing : I've seen some of you whispering 
 in school to-day. No more whispering. You hear 
 that. School is dismissed." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SUDDEN DEPARTURE OF MASTER LURVEY 
 
 IF the first day of school, under Master Lurvey, had 
 been tumultuous, the second proved even more so. 
 We soon had earnest that his " rule " against 
 whisperers would be enforced. Reading from the Tes- 
 tament had scarcely concluded that morning when he 
 made a sudden rush up one of the aisles to the long 
 back seat and collaring Newman Darnley (who was 
 certainly whispering to his seat-mate) dragged him 
 down the aisle to the open floor of the room. Newman 
 made some feeble efforts at resistance, but was whirled 
 around in a circle, his heals nearly knocking down the 
 stove, then trounced smartly on the floor, shaken nearly 
 out of his jacket and finally shoved back up the aisle 
 and fairly flung into his seat — a much rumpled New- 
 man! 
 
 Clearly Master Lurvey was a powerful youth, 
 physically. Moreover, he appeared to enjoy the fracas ; 
 his face grew very red, but took on an aspect of glee. 
 As he marched back to his desk, he faced around to 
 the school and said, " I'll serve the next one I catch 
 whispering in the same way ! " 
 
 This menace was probably directed to the boys, but 
 he was facing the entire room and said, " the next 
 one ! " The thought that he might pull out a young 
 lady of sixteen into the floor and shake her as he had 
 shaken Newman astounded us for a time. Addison 
 appeared greatly amused, although he was looking into 
 a book. At the forenoon recess, too, three of the boys 
 having delayed a little in returning indoors after the 
 
 24 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR XIVES 25 
 
 bell was rung, Master Lurvey expedited their move- 
 ments by seizing them, one after another as they ap- 
 peared in the doorway and throwing them headlong 
 to their seats. The room was very quiet during all the 
 remainder of the day; in fact, we sat in a kind of 
 breathless expectancy waiting some fresh manifesta- 
 tion of the master's rigor in discipline. Although we 
 had our books well in hand, we were not studying 
 exactly, but watching out. 
 
 At recess that afternoon Newman, who was much 
 incensed by the trouncing which he had received, de- 
 clared that he would be one of four to put the master 
 out of the house. William Tibbetts and Edgar Merrill 
 said the same, but Addison dissuaded them. 
 
 Alfred Batchelder, generally a bad boy at school 
 himself, perfidiously reported this to the master as 
 we went home from school that night. In consequence 
 of this bit of tale-bearing we witnessed a fresh evidence 
 of the master's prowess the following morning. After 
 reading in the Testament (stopping long enough to 
 count four after every sentence) Master Lurvey re- 
 marked that there was a little business to be transacted 
 before beginning lessons. " I understand that three 
 of you talk of carrying me out of school," said he. 
 " If that's so, now is a good time to begin. I'm all 
 ready. Come on now and carry me." He squared 
 himself in the floor and clenched his fist. 
 
 No one cared to accept the challenge. I do not think 
 that there were four boys in school who could have 
 put him out of the room. " Well," said he at length, 
 " if you are not going to tackle me, I've got a little 
 bone to pick with you. Newman Darnley, oome out 
 into the floor." 
 
 Newman hesitated. 
 
 " Start ! " shouted the master, " or I'll come after 
 you again." 
 
 Newman came out, reluctantly enough, and the 
 master " feruled " him on both hands, very severely ; 
 
26 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 in fact, he applied the ruler with all his strength. 
 William Tibbetts and Edgar Merrill were then called 
 out in turn and punished in the same manner; both 
 cried out from the pain. Their hands after a few mo- 
 ments puffed up white and became much swollen. It 
 was cruel punishment. 
 
 " Does anybody else want to carry me out of 
 school?" demanded the master, exultantly, striding 
 forward past the stove, ruler in hand. Several of the 
 little fellows began to whimper. Then, to our amaze- 
 ment, Catherine Edwards exclaimed, " Yes, I do. I 
 think you are a hateful tyrant ! " 
 
 The master rushed toward her, his eyes blazing with 
 rage. We all thought he was about to strike her. If 
 he had done so, there would have been a general 
 emeute. I think that we would all have fought him, 
 tooth and nail. Kate was as white as paper. She was 
 wo fully frightened. Afterwards she said that she 
 hardly knew how sbfe came to say what she did. She 
 faced the master, however, with a species of despera- 
 tion in her eyes, and he evidently thought it better not 
 to attempt her chastisement. 
 
 " You sassy piece ! " he growled and turning, went 
 back to his desk, where he made a number of marks in 
 his record, saying, " I'll give you the lowest rank in 
 school." 
 
 During the last two days of the week our rigorous 
 instructor developed a very unpleasant habit of using 
 his foot on the floor to enforce his orders. If any 
 pupil did not start, or reply, instantly when spoken to, 
 he would stamp with his foot so heavily as to jar the 
 whole house. He heard lessons quickly, spending very 
 little time upon them, and rarely asking a question con- 
 cerning them. During most of the time he sat watch- 
 ing us, evidently to surprise some one in the act of 
 breaking a " rule." No one dared ask him a question, 
 much less carry a " hard sum " to him. He had ter- 
 rorized us. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 27 
 
 Joel Pierson, while boarding at the Old Squire's the 
 previous winter, had been very genial with the young 
 folks, and assisted them with their studies, in the 
 sitting-room, during the long evenings. Master Lur- 
 vey held himself aloof and scarcely spoke to us at 
 home, nor we to him. 
 
 I overheard Theodora talking of the school to Addi- 
 son Friday evening; she was lamenting that we bade 
 fair to make no progress. 
 
 " Yes, he is a pill," Addison replied ; " but I guess 
 we shall have to make the best of him." 
 
 The fact was that many of the parents in the district 
 had gained an idea that Master Lurvey must be a 
 pretty good teacher, because he had feruled the boys 
 who talked of putting him out of the house. He was no 
 doubt aware 'that he was incompetent to teach scholars 
 like Theodora, Catherine or Addison; but he knew 
 that he possessed the brute strength to repress any- 
 thing like rebellion, and he resolved to rule by the 
 strong arm and keep us in fear of him. He was suf- 
 ficiently- coarse in disposition to enjoy the exercise of 
 his absolute power. I never saw so quiet a school- 
 room as ours during Friday and Saturday that week, 
 — for we had a holiday in our district school only on 
 every second Saturday of the ' term. 
 
 On Saturday our new master began to display an- 
 other odd trait. When any one of us in the classes 
 recited, or made even a simple statement of a rule, or 
 a fact, he now called out, " Sure of that, sir? " or " Do 
 you know that is so ? " 
 
 He was, in truth, far more ignorant of dates, the 
 names of capital cities, the location of countries, and 
 of historical events, than we suspected, but he was 
 crafty about committing himself to any statement of 
 'his own, until he had looked in the book. 
 
 One of the town School Committee usually visited 
 the schools twice each term, once during the opening 
 week and once near the end of the term. We looked 
 
28 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 for the " committee man " on Thursday and on Friday. 
 It then transpired that Glinds, the school agent, had 
 neglected to notify the Committee that the term had 
 begun. 
 
 The second week opened with little change for the 
 better. It was Master Lurvey's first taste of the 
 sweets of absolute power, and he was of the stuff that 
 Neroes and Caligulas are fashioned from; he enjoyed 
 witnessing the fear that he inspired. Very likely it 
 was his idea of a well-governed school — where every 
 pupil jumped at the master's nod and listened, when 
 he spoke, in awed expectancy. 
 
 Addison alone had preserved his ordinary easy de- 
 meanor, attending to his studies without much refer- 
 ence to the master, but addressing him whenever he 
 desired. Addison, indeed, was never disorderly in 
 school; he was much too busy with his books. He 
 alone of us all would now raise his hand to attract the 
 master's attention and then address him in ordinary 
 tones during school hours. Although Master Lurvey 
 must have been aware that Addison was the most 
 friendly to him of any one in the room, it soon began 
 to be apparent that he did not like to see even Addison 
 unterrified. Perhaps he deemed him a bad example 
 to the others. Be that as it may, he determined to 
 humble him and watched for a pretext to do so. In 
 the utter quiet of the room he could hear the least 
 whisper in any part of it, and while sitting in his desk 
 Tuesday afternoon, the sound of communicating lips 
 reached his ear from the direction of the long seat 
 where Alfred, Halstead and Addison now sat. Pick- 
 ing up his ruler he strode along in front of that seat, 
 and looking at Addison, said, " Were you whisper- 
 ing?" 
 
 " No, sir," replied Addison. 
 
 " I think I heard you ! " exclaimed the master. 
 
 " I repeat that I was not whispering," replied Addi-' 
 son firmly. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 29 
 
 The fact was that Halstead had whispered to Addi- 
 son but the latter had not replied. 
 
 " Somebody whispered here ! " shouted the master. 
 " Was it you ? " pointing his ruler at Halse. 
 
 I regret to say that my kinsman could not always, 
 under pressure, be relied on to tell the truth. 
 
 " No, sir," replied Halse. 
 
 " Was it you, then ? " demanded the master, point- 
 ing at Alfred. 
 
 " No, it was not," said Alfred. " I haven't whis- 
 pered this week." 
 
 " Who was it then ? " asked the master. 
 
 " I don't know," said Alfred. " I did not hear any- 
 body." 
 
 This may have been falsehood number two. 
 
 " One of you three has lied to me ! " cried the master 
 in a loud tone; " and I think it is you! " pointing at 
 Addison. 
 
 " You are entirely mistaken, Mr. Lurvey. I have 
 not broken a rule of your school thus far," rejoined 
 Addison, with great distinctness. 
 
 " Then which of those two boys did whisper? " ex- 
 claimed the master, pointing at Halse and Alf. 
 
 " It is not my business to spy on, or report, other 
 scholars," replied Addison, with great spirit. " I do 
 not think you have any right to ask me to do it. I will 
 be spy and informer to no teacher." 
 
 This resolute attitude nonplussed the inexperienced 
 master somewhat ; he was staggered by the firm stand 
 which Addison took on the question and did not press 
 that point. 
 
 " I'll find out some way who whispered here," he 
 exclaimed wrathily, and turning walked to his desk 
 and for a long time sat there staring hard at. Addison 
 again. Theodora and I, all the scholars, in fact, were 
 also looking furtively at Addison. He was a little 
 flushed, but I did not see that he smiled. Mr. Lurvey 
 appeared to think differently, however; for ha sud- 
 
30 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 denly strode toward him again and shook his fist at 
 him. " Don't you grin at me ! " he exclaimed, at 
 shouting pitch. " I still think you are the one who 
 whispered. If I find out you did, I'll ferule you till 
 you can't get your hands to your head ! I'll take that 
 grin off your face ! " 
 
 Addison did not change countenance ; he looked the 
 master in the eye as he uttered his threat, and said, 
 " Very well, Mr. Lurvey." 
 
 We expected that the master would collar him for 
 that, but for some reason he did not. Addison re- 
 sumed his algebra (which he was taking without as- 
 sistance, at odd hours, and kept very busy during the 
 rest of the afternoon. 
 
 After school that night Newman Darnley again 
 sounded Addison as to whether he would join a party 
 to put the master out of the house by force, but Addi- 
 son strongly advised them to mind the rules of school 
 and give up that project. He would not let them know 
 that he resented the master's language, but Theodora 
 and I knew him well enough to feel pretty sure that 
 Mr. Lurvey would live to regret his threat. 
 
 The master did not speak to any of us that night, 
 and the Old Squire noticed that something had gone 
 wrong, although none of us had said anything con- 
 cerning the school at home. Next morning as I was 
 pumping water at the barn, the old gentleman asked 
 me privately if the master had taken offense at any- 
 thing. 
 
 " He is pretty savage with us all," I replied, but 
 did not like to tell him of Addison's trouble. 
 
 " Savage, is he ? " said the Old Squire, with a 
 chuckle ; he still held old-time ideas about order in the 
 schoolroom. 
 
 About twelve o'clock the following night, Master 
 Lurvey was taken very ill. Gram heard him crying 
 out dolorously and set herself to care for his ailment. 
 At length, she judged it necessary to administer an 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 31 
 
 emetic of mustard and water, the result of which gave 
 evidence that her patient had been partaking very 
 freely from a sack of dried apple which hung in the 
 passage, leading to his room. In consequence of this 
 imprudent refreshment, he not only came near expiring 
 intra dies, from congestion of the stomach, but was 
 unable to appear at breakfast, or go to the schoolroom 
 till near eleven o'clock. 
 
 Not knowing when our tyrant might appear on the 
 scene, however, we all repaired to the schoolhouse at 
 the usual hour, and after waiting awhile, Catherine 
 proposed that Addison should keep school till the 
 master came. To this all agreed. Addison, however, 
 declined; but the others insisting, he at length called 
 the school to order and laid himself out to do his best. 
 For awhile he kept a bright eye out at the window for 
 Mr. Lurvey's approach, intending to take his seat 
 before the master should come in. But there were 
 numbers of hard examples to be worked in arithmetic, 
 and Addison solved several, one after the other on the 
 blackboard. Presently he became absorbed in his task 
 and was cyphering away at the board on a tough ex- 
 ample in Cube Root, explaining it as he did so in a 
 loud, clear voice, when the door opened softly and in 
 walked Master Lurvey, looking far from well and de- 
 cidedly sour. How long he had been listening outside, 
 no one could say. Instead of enjoying Addison's con- 
 fusion and thanking him for the pains he was taking, 
 he seemed far from pleased and his first words were, 
 " So you think you can take my place, do you? " 
 
 Addison brushed the chalk off his fingers. " No, 
 Mr. Lurvey," said he. " I should never try to take 
 your place. 
 
 " I was only doing a few examples for some of the 
 scholars, while we waited," he added, seeing that the 
 master's face was growing very black. He started to 
 go to his seat, but Mr. Lurvey suddenly stepped in 
 front of him. " You seem to think that you can do 
 
32 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 just as you've a mind to here ! " he cried in an angry 
 tone. " You think you can set yourself up for a pat- 
 tern for me to keep school by! A big schoolmaster 
 you would make ! Let's see now how you would look. 
 Take a seat in the desk. I want them all to look at 
 ye!" 
 
 For an instant Addison flushed and looked rebel- 
 lious. I think that he was half minded to resist. If 
 he had done so every boy in the room would have 
 sprung to assist him. Whether we could have over- 
 come the master is uncertain. He was a powerful 
 youth. Muscle was his one strong point. " Take your 
 seat in my desk ! " he shouted, advancing on Addison, 
 while the rest of us sat breathless. 
 
 It had taken Addison but that one moment to think 
 twice and rise above his first rash impulse. 
 
 " Why, certainly, Mr. Lurvey," he replied in a cor- 
 dial tone, " if you think we need two teachers here. But 
 you are so well able to govern a school that I never 
 thought of our needing another." He went to the desk 
 and took the master's seat there, and then looked 
 around at us all with a queer smile. 
 
 " That is the great schoolmaster ! " exclaimed Mr. 
 Lurvey, pointing at him in derision. " Isn't he a big 
 one? " 
 
 We laughed, but rather at the master than at Addi- 
 son who laughed, too ; the master himself had put on 
 a grin, for Ad's ambiguous compliment to him on his 
 ability to govern the school had pleased him and dis- 
 armed his temper somewhat. 
 
 " Do you want me to hear classes ? " Addison asked 
 after a few moments. " If I am going to be the mas- 
 ter's assistant, I should like to make myself useful." 
 
 " If I want you to do anything, I'll tell you," replied 
 Mr. Lurvey gruffly ; he then called out a class in arith- 
 metic and began to drill us on the verbatim recitation 
 of rules again. Addison took up a book and read. 
 After every few minutes, the Master would turn around 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 33 
 
 and point at him, saying, " He thinks he's the school- 
 master." The joke was rather weak. 
 
 At the noon intermission Addison quietly withdrew 
 from the desk and nothing more was said, but this 
 affair had wounded his feelings even more than the 
 previous threat to ferule him, and I think that from 
 that moment he began to plot the master's downfall. 
 Addison, however, was naturally a strategist and pos- 
 sessed the strategist's instinct to work quietly and to 
 attack an enemy at his weak point. For that reason 
 he would have nothing to do with any plan for carrying 
 the master out of the schoolroom. He said nothing 
 to the others and gave no hint of his intention. 
 
 School proceeded far from pleasantly all day, per- 
 haps because the master was not yet feeling very well. 
 He was more than usually fractious and overbearing 
 with us. " Is that so? " he would exclaim after nearly 
 every answer which we gave in the classes. " How do 
 you know that is so ? " or " Give your reasons for 
 that ? " He even asked this latter question when Ellen 
 said that Pekin was the capital of China ! She replied 
 that she did not know any reason, and he bade her be 
 prepared to give a reason at next recitation. 
 
 When in the history class Newman Darnley replied 
 that John Adams was the second President of the 
 United States the master cried, " Are you sure of 
 that?" 
 
 " Pretty sure," said Newman. " Why ? " said the 
 master. 
 
 " Because George Washington was the first and 
 John Adams came next," replied Newman. 
 
 The master looked in the book. " You are not half 
 as bright as you think you are," said he. " George 
 Washington was the second President and the first 
 President, too ; he was President twice." 
 
 This was so fine a point that Addison as well as the 
 rest of us laughed, and the master shouted, " Silence ! " 
 — in an awful voice and stamped on the floor. 
 
34 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Next afternoon, about half an hour after school be- 
 gan, one of the School Committee appeared, to visit 
 the school. In our town there was then a School Com-' 
 mittee consisting of three members to either one of 
 whom an applicant for the position of teacher might 
 apply to be examined, and obtain a certificate as to 
 fitness. As is often the case in country towns, men 
 were occasionally elected to the office who were not 
 wholly competent to properly examine proposing 
 teachers and who did so in a very superficial manner. 
 One such person was on the board that year and it was 
 from him that Master Lurvey had obtained his cer- 
 tificate to teach. But the member of the Committee 
 who came to> visit the school that day was the Con- 
 gregationalist clergyman at the village, Mr. Lowell 
 Furness, a young gentleman not more than twenty- 
 four years of age, of good education and talented. 
 
 Mr. Furness had been in town but two years; he 
 was elected on the Committee the previous spring and 
 made chairman of the board, it being understood that 
 he was better qualified than his fellow members. His 
 personal appearance was unusually attractive; he was 
 gentlemanly and had an animated, cheery way of 
 speaking. 
 
 Having hitched his horse outside, he came in with- 
 out rapping ; and as he was a stranger to us all and to 
 the teacher, he introduced himself and stated his busi- 
 ness there, in a very genial happy manner. " I would 
 like to hear the most of the classes," said he, " in order 
 that at my second visit, near the end of the term, I may 
 be able to judge of the progress made." 
 
 He conversed pleasantly with Master Lurvey for 
 some moments; the latter then called the arithmetic 
 classes, in order, one after another. When we of the 
 more advanced class took our places, Mr. Furness in- 
 quired of each what progress we had made the pre- 
 vious winter, and asked a few questions. " Why, this 
 ought to be a pretty good class," he said to the master. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 35 
 
 " All they need is a review of the arithmetic. I should 
 have them advance rapidly over the principal rules, 
 dwelling on the more difficult ones only." 
 
 The master said something about learning the rules 
 and showed him where he had given lessons in Reduc- 
 tion and Common Fractions. 
 
 " Well, that may be of some advantage," replied 
 Mr. Furness doubtfully. " But I would not keep them 
 back there long. This is a class that can go ahead. 
 This class can master everything in the book this 
 term." 
 
 It was plain that Master Lurvey did not like this 
 advice very well ; he did not reply to it. 
 
 The Fifth Reader class was presently called for a 
 brief exercise. Catherine sat at the head of the class, 
 and at a nod from Mr. Furness, she rose and read a 
 section from the reading lesson for that day; and she 
 took particular pains to stop long enough to count four 
 at every period. As she read Mr. Furness at first ap- 
 peared amused, then perplexed. 
 
 " Why, you read correctly," he said, when she had 
 finished, " but why do you stop so long at every sen- 
 tence ? " 
 
 " So as to count four," replied Kate in a demure 
 and melancholy tone. 
 
 Mr. Furness burst into a hearty laugh. " When did 
 you take that up! " he exclaimed, still laughing. 
 
 " On the first day of this term," replied Kate, with 
 sadness. 
 
 Mr. Furness rose hastily from his seat and walked 
 to the window. We could see that he was still shaking, 
 as he looked out. After a time he came back and, 
 clapping his hand kindly on the master's shoulder, 
 said in a low voice, " My dear young fellow, rules are 
 good things, no doubt, but many of them are somewhat 
 antiquated. It isn't best to insist upon them too 
 closely." 
 
 But the master had grown very glum and morose 
 
36 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 by this time. He muttered something about teaching 
 as he thought best, then abruptly dismissed the class. 
 Mr. Furness regarded him with an inquiring eye for 
 some moments, then begged his pardon if he had said 
 anything to injure his feelings. 
 
 The master did not reply, but turned to call a 
 geography class, and there was no more laughter on 
 the part of any one after this; matters had already 
 taken a serious turn, and Addison — the strategist — 
 perceived that his opportunity had come. 
 
 The more advanced class in geography had the map 
 of North America for a lesson that day, and Mr. Fur- 
 ness, perceiving that the master was offended, re- 
 frained from asking questions. Mr. Lurvey therefore 
 heard the lesson himself. . 
 
 "Where is Great Bear Lake situated?" he asked 
 Addison, at length. 
 
 The latter purposely hesitated an instant, then re- 
 plied in a rather uncertain manner, that it was situated 
 in British America. 
 
 " Sure of that ! " exclaimed the master, brusquely. 
 
 " Perhaps I was wrong," replied Addison, with 
 seeming candor. " I remember now that it is situated 
 in the southern part of Mexico. Its outlet is the Snake 
 River which flows into the Gulf of Georgia." 
 
 This astonishing answer struck amazement to all our 
 minds. We glanced quickly at the master and saw 
 his eyes wandering vaguely over the map of the book 
 which he held in his hand. He did not find it and did 
 not speak for several moments. We perceived in- 
 stantly that he was all at sea, himself. Addison 
 Watched him, his lip curling in a scornful smile; and 
 Mr. Furness glanced first at Addison, then at the 
 master, who, to extricate himself from his dilemma, 
 at once put another question to the next member of 
 the class. Presently he came around to Addison again, 
 and being, I think, a little suspicious that his former 
 answer was not quite what it should have been, he 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OtJR LIVES 3? 
 
 took care this time to ask him a question which he 
 was himself sure of, or thought that he was. 
 
 " Where does the St. Lawrence River rise ? " he de- 
 manded; and we saw that he had put his forefinger 
 on the Great Lakes. 
 
 " In the Great Lakes," replied Addison, " according 
 to this book. But," he added with assured confidence, 
 " it really rises in the Rocky Mountains ! The waters 
 find their way by a subterranean passage into Lake 
 Superior. This passage is over a thousand miles 
 long," he continued in a lower, matter-of-fact tone. 
 " It was only recently discovered." Under his breath, 
 he added, so that some of us sitting near him heard, 
 " I discovered it myself." 
 
 The master looked at him hard, but helplessly. He 
 did not like to acknowledge his ignorance of something 
 which Addison and Mr. Furness might know to be a 
 fact, and he was so illy informed that he did not know 
 that Addison's burlesque answer was absurd and im- 
 possible. Determined at least not to commit himself 
 he hurried on to the next question. By this time Cath- 
 erine had divined what the game was to be ; when her 
 turn came next, she replied with a serene countenance 
 that the Colorado River emptied into Great Salt Lake ! 
 — and we all saw the master looking in British Amer- 
 ica for it. He did not find it, and abruptly assigning 
 a lesson for the next day, dismissed the class. 
 
 By this time Mr. Furness' face wore an aspect of 
 intense dissatisfaction, but he leaned back and made 
 no comment; he knit his brows occasionally, but a 
 smile appeared to be hiding at the corners of his mouth. 
 
 The last class called was the class in United States 
 History. We had begun the term with the chapter 
 treating of the causes of the Revolutionary War, and 
 that afternoon had for our lesson the one describing 
 the campaign in the Carolinas and Georgia, also the 
 chapter following it. One of the text books was 
 handed to Mr. Furness by either Theodora or Cath- 
 
38 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 erine, but the master put the questions as set down at 
 the margin of each page. 
 
 Presently the question, " What American officer 
 took command in the Southern States?" came to 
 Addison. 
 
 " General Lincoln," he replied. 
 
 " Sure of that? " demanded the master, for he had 
 his eye on the paragraph and was therefore sure him- 
 self. 
 
 "Very sure," Ad replied, smiling; then bethinking 
 himself that the given name of this officer was not set 
 down in our school history, he added boldly, " It was 
 Abraham Lincoln, the same who was afterwards 
 President of the United States ! " Mr. Lurvey looked 
 hard at him, but did not dare to dispute it. He was 
 ignorant to this gross extent. 
 
 " Seems to me that he must have become a very 
 old man in i860," remarked Mr. Furness, regarding 
 Addison with a strange smile. 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Addison with a smile equally 
 strange. " That is why his face always looks so deeply 
 wrinkled — on account of his great age." 
 
 Mr. Furness cast a glance of pity at the master who 
 stood regarding them both in angry perplexity. He 
 was out of his depth, and really did not know what to 
 make of it. 
 
 " Name some of the advantages of the French alli- 
 ance? " was the next question. Theodora answered at 
 considerable length, speaking of Lafayette, and of the 
 French fleet and French army which were despatched 
 to assist the Americans. 
 
 " Who can name any other advantage? " the master 
 asked. 
 
 Addison raised his hand and said with a semblance 
 of gravity, " One other great advantage was that the 
 gay French officers taught the American ladies how to 
 waltz and thus kept up their spirits through a gloomy 
 period of the War. Another advantage was that in 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 39 
 
 battle they could give orders in French which the 
 British could not understand." 
 
 These manifest advantages pleased Mr. Furness so 
 much that he again made an excursion to the window, 
 ostensibly to see if his team was standing quietly, but 
 Master Lurvey appeared to be considerably struck by 
 the cogency of these suggestions. 
 
 The last question of the lesson was to name the prin- 
 cipal battles of the Revolution. Thomas Edwards did 
 so, and Mr. Furness, rising to take his coat and hat, 
 remarked that Brandywine was an odd name for a 
 battlefield. " Can any one tell why it was thus 
 called? " he asked. 
 
 " Because," said Thomas, who also wanted to dis- 
 tinguish himself in the farce, " because on that occa- 
 sion the British drank wine and the Americans 
 brandy. That was before the Maine Law. The 
 Americans took so much brandy that they were de- 
 feated in that battle. Washington paced his room all 
 the following night. ' Oh, my bleeding country ! ' he 
 cried, ' but don't let it happen again ! ' " 
 
 This was too broad even for Master Lurvey; he 
 stamped his foot and bade Tom behave himself, in- 
 timating that he would settle with him after school. 
 Mr. Furness made no comment, further than to remark 
 that he saw that it was already past four o'clock, and 
 that he hoped that we would excuse him for keeping 
 us after school hours. 
 
 " I wish to see the school agent, to make a few in- 
 quiries as to the length of the term, etc.," he added ; 
 " and as I am a stranger in your district, will one of 
 you boys kindly point out the way to his house ? " 
 
 " I will do so," said Addison, and taking his hat 
 and coat went out with him, while the rest of us 
 lingered to lay aside our books and be dismissed in the 
 regular order. 
 
 Mr. Furness and Addison were driving away from 
 the schoolhouse as we game out, and as soon as they 
 
40 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 were fairly on the road and out of ear-shot (so Ad 
 told us that evening) the young clergyman turned to 
 him and asked, " What sort of a master have you got 
 here?" 
 
 " Well, I am only a scholar," replied Addison, " but 
 if you desire my opinion of Master Lurvey, I will give 
 it." 
 
 " I would like your opinion of him," said Mr. Fur- 
 ness. 
 
 " Well, then, he is as ignorant as a horse and even 
 more of a brute," replied Addison. 
 
 " That is a strong opinion," observed Mr. Furness, 
 with a smile ; " but from what I have seen, this after- 
 noon, I am much inclined to accept it. At least, I am 
 quite sure that he is unfit for the position." 
 
 Shortly after we had arrived home from school, 
 Mr. Furness and school agent, Glinds, drove up and 
 went into the house. Addison, Halse and I were busy 
 with our night chores, but Theodora came out to in- 
 form us that they were holding a conversation with 
 Master Lurvey in the sitting-room, behind closed 
 doors. 
 
 " His goose is cooked," Ad exclaimed. 
 
 After some time Mr. Furness came out and drove 
 away. Mr. Glinds also went away, after a talk with 
 the Old Squire. 
 
 Nothing was said that evening, but next morning 
 Master Sam Lurvey set off for home on foot, without 
 saying anything to any one. 
 
 During the clay, Saturday, it transpired that the 
 committee and the agent had advised him to with- 
 draw quietly from the school, and that he had prob- 
 ably gone home to consult his father. 
 
 We saw no more of him till Monday morning, when 
 Mr. Lurvey senior, appeared with his promising son. 
 We had repaired to the schoolhouse before nine o'clock, 
 as usual, and were all in our seats, when at a quarter 
 past, they drove up to the door. Master Sam then 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 41 
 
 entered (while his father sat outside in the sleigh) and 
 called the school to order. Instead of proceeding with 
 the classes, however, he made us a pompous speech in 
 which he asserted that he had just received an offer to 
 go into business, so much more lucrative than school 
 teaching that he had accepted it at once. Consequently, 
 we would be obliged to get a new teacher. " My time 
 is worth too much to me, to spend it in a school like 
 this, at seventeen dollars a month," he added. 
 
 Without further farewell he took his books, walked 
 out to his father's sleigh and they drove off. 
 
 Something that sounded very much like three groans 
 followed him as soon as he was fairly outside the door. 
 From the windows we saw that he heard them and that 
 he shot a malignant look back at us ; — and that was 
 the last we saw of Master Sam Lurvey. 
 
 Theodora said that she pitied his father, but the 
 most of us young folks wasted very little pity on father 
 or son. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MASTER JOEL PIERSON 
 
 WE went home from the schoolhouse that Monday- 
 morning with our books and baskets of un- 
 eaten lunch, elated, but in a very uncertain, 
 disturbed state of mind. School had terminated in so 
 doubtful a manner that none of us knew what to think 
 of it. Theodora could hardly refrain from shedding 
 tears. "It is all the chance we have in a whole year to go 
 to school," she lamented. " And now I am afraid we 
 shall have no more school. I wanted so much to get 
 a good start this winter. I am fifteen and know hardly 
 anything." 
 
 " Well, I am glad that Lurvey has gone ! " ex- 
 claimed Catherine fervently. " I would rather study 
 alone at home than have such a master ! I wish Addi- 
 son would keep school awhile." 
 
 " But he is scarcely older than we are and in the 
 same classes with us," said Theodora. 
 
 " But he knows more, all the same, and he has such 
 a nice way. Addison ! " she called back to him, for the 
 boys were coming on a little behind Theodora and 
 Catherine. " Addison, we are going to elect you 
 schoolmaster ! " 
 
 " Not if I know it ! " replied Addison. " I want to 
 go to school myself. Besides, I helped keep school one 
 forenoon, you know ; I didn't enjoy it." 
 
 " I guess you enjoyed it as well as Mr. Lurvey did, 
 yesterday afternoon," replied Catherine, laughing. 
 " Oh, that repaid me for all the hateful snubs that 
 fellow has put on us. And did you see Mr. Furness, 
 
 42 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 43 
 
 laughing to himself? At first he did not understand 
 it, but when he perceived what was going on, the cor- 
 ners of his mouth began to twitch. When Addison 
 explained why Abraham Lincoln looked so careworn, 
 I know he wanted to shout. He hurried to the win- 
 dow." 
 
 " But now we shall have no school at all," repeated 
 Theodora mournfully. 
 
 " Oh, we shall get another teacher," said Addison. 
 
 " What say to getting up a strong petition to have 
 Joel Pierson again?" 
 
 " That would be good, but you know he is at Bates 
 College," Catherine remarked. " The term there does 
 not close till Christmas." 
 
 " Well, we can wait. Let's all go in for it," Addi- 
 son said. " Let's get up a petition to have him come 
 back here. 
 
 " Of course, Joel was a little peculiar," Addison con- 
 tinued, " but he is a good teacher, well-informed on a 
 great many subjects, and you know he brought maps 
 and pictures for the schoolroom. What nice talks he 
 used to give us, too ! " 
 
 " I will carry a petition around for names in the 
 district, if you will draw one up," replied Catherine. 
 
 " It's a bargain," said Addison. " Let's see, how 
 shall we word it. What say to this ? — ' Now that 
 our school has terminated in an unsatisfactory man- 
 ner, we, the undersigned, believe that it would be well 
 to wait a few zveeks and secure the services of Mr. Joel 
 Pierson as teacher.' " 
 
 " That's good," cried Catherine and Theodora. 
 
 " Well, then, you call over at our house to-morrow 
 morning and I will have the petition ready," Addison 
 said. " We will all sign it, and I will write a letter 
 this very night to Joel and ask him to take the school. 
 I don't believe Glinds can refuse, after what has hap- 
 pened, if we all go in strong for Joel again." 
 
 The petition was drawn up and during the after- 
 
44 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 noon, Tuesday, Catherine circulated it, securing the 
 names of fully three-fourths of the people in the dis- 
 trict. 
 
 Two days later Addison received a letter from Mr. 
 Pierson, stating that, although he had had the offer 
 of three other schools, he would prefer to teach ours 
 again, since we were all desirous of it. 
 
 Tibbetts had said nothing, and Agent Glinds wrote 
 to arrange the matter of wages with Master Pierson. 
 Higher wages we knew would have necessarily to be 
 paid him, and the school would be shortened in con- 
 sequence. Joel Pierson was a young man who had his 
 own expenses to defray at college, and he was known 
 to look out sharply for good wages. We had supposed 
 that he might be willing to accept thirty dollars per 
 month, that being the sum which had been paid him 
 the previous winter. 
 
 A day or two later, however, Glinds called to con- 
 sult with the Old Squire, having received a letter from 
 Pierson, stating that thirty-eight dollars per month 
 with board was the lowest sum which he would be 
 willing to accept, since he had already received an 
 offer of a little more than that. At this rate, with 
 other expenses, there was school money enough for 
 only about eight weeks, and the most of the people, 
 Glinds said, were unwilling to pay so much. 
 
 Addison was present and strongly favored hiring 
 Joel Pierson at his own price, his argument being that 
 a short good school was better than a long poor one. 
 Enough additional money, he urged, might be raised 
 to lengthen the school to eleven or twelve weeks. In 
 his earnestness he almost as good as pledged himself to 
 raise at least thirty dollars extra, and largely on the 
 strength of this, Glinds wrote to engage Joel. 
 
 Next day, Addison drew up a subscription paper 
 and, going to the Corners, began canvassing the dis- 
 trict, to raise money for the school. He met with in- 
 different success, however, in fact, no success. Some 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 45 
 
 rumor of his intention had preceded him, and Tibbetts, 
 always unfriendly, had been forming an opposition 
 party. Not only did he sarcastically decline to con- 
 tribute anything himself, but he had, Addison learned, 
 been about in advance of him, to dissuade others from 
 doing so, his argument being that this was a scheme 
 to benefit us at the Old Squire's at the expense of the 
 rest of the district. 
 
 In consequence, many of the people in that quarter 
 of the district listened but coldly to Addison's appeal, 
 and he came home disheartened. At the dinner table 
 we held an animated consultation as to what it was 
 best to do. There was no doubt that " the folks on our 
 road " (as we commonly spoke of the Edwardses, Wil- 
 burs, Murches, Batch elders and Sylvesters) would 
 contribute, but Addison now took the ground that it 
 would not be fair to ask them to do so. 
 
 " I am not going to coax them to furnish money to 
 Tibbetts and his clique for schooling," he exclaimed. 
 
 Addison, in fact, was greatly disturbed, for he felt 
 that after saying what he had to the agent, to induce 
 him to hire Joel Pierson, he was in a manner bound 
 to raise at least thirty dollars, and it was by no means 
 easy to raise thirty dollars among young folks, in 
 those days. 
 
 Addison tore up his subscription paper and looked 
 quite the reverse of amiable for a day or two. At the 
 supper table, the second evening, however, he suddenly 
 looked across to the Old Squire and said, " Sir, I am 
 in difficulties and would like to ask a favor of you." 
 
 " Certainly," replied the old gentleman with a smile, 
 but not wholly at his ease, for I imagine that he 
 thought Addison might be about to ask him to con- 
 tribute money. 
 
 " Well, sir," said Addison, " you told us yesterday 
 that we must improve these three or four weeks before 
 school begins again to cut and draw the winter's wood 
 pile. Now, sir, are you willing, after we get our own, 
 
46 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 wood, to let me ask the boys on our road to come and 
 help us chop seven or eight cords of wood in our wood 
 lots ? All you will have to furnish us, sir, is the wood 
 on the stump. We will cut it, and then I propose to in- 
 vite all the boys to ask their fathers for their ox teams, 
 one day, to draw the wood down to market. I hear that 
 we can get four dollars a cord for the wood and get 
 cash. I shall only have to ask you for the use of our 
 oxen and horses for one day." 
 
 The Old Squire looked relieved. " That is a very 
 thrifty plan," said he. " I am willing." 
 
 If Addison had asked him for the thirty dollars out- 
 right, I do not think he would really have refused. 
 
 " That is a fine plan of yours, Ad, a splendid plan," 
 Theodora exclaimed. " I wish we girls could help 
 you. I think Tibbetts will feel a little ashamed when 
 he hears that you have worked and earned the money 
 for his boys to go to school." 
 
 " Don't you think it ! " said Addison. " He isn't the 
 kind of man to have any fine feelings of that sort. He 
 will simply be glad that he has got it out of us for 
 nothing, and brag of it." 
 
 " Well, if he does we need not care," said Theodora. 
 " To be that sort of person is the worst kind of mis- 
 fortune." 
 
 " That is a very true remark," said Gram. 
 
 " But I don't believe in letting such a man get the 
 advantage, and keep it, and boast of it," exclaimed Ad- 
 dison, resentfully. " He took this course on purpose 
 to spite us, and I will yet square accounts with him." 
 
 " You must learn to forgive your enemies, Addi- 
 son," Gram replied. 
 
 The dear old lady was not, to state the entire truth, 
 remarkably quick to forgive enemies, herself, till they 
 had been properly humiliated. 
 
 " Oh, I will forgive him, Gram, I will forgive him 
 — afterwards," said Addison, laughing. " But the 
 fact is, that old reprobate needs discipline. He is a 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 47 
 
 man who is always on the wrong side and carries as 
 many other people with him as he can. His grocery 
 business is and always has been a mere cloak to cover 
 rum-selling. He gives the place a bad name and in- 
 jures a great many people in this part of the town. 
 In fact, he injures us all. He is a common enemy. 
 Now, Gram, I don't believe in forgiving a man of 
 that stamp, if by forgiving him you mean letting him 
 alone, to do the worst he can." 
 
 " No more do I," exclaimed the old lady, firing up 
 suddenly. " He is a mean scamp and ought to be 
 punished ! " 
 
 The Old Squire burst into a hearty laugh. " Ruth," 
 said he, " there's no doubt, I guess, that Addison is a 
 true grandson of yours." 
 
 Next morning the two wood-sleds were got down 
 from the scaffold of the west barn and put together, 
 and new leather brackets nailed to the sled beams, for 
 the axes which were then brought forth from the wood- 
 house and taken to the grind-stone. For an hour or 
 more Halstead and I toiled at" turning the stone, while 
 the Old Squire and Addison applied the ax blades to it. 
 
 At length all was ready. The oxen were now yoked 
 and we set off for the east wood-lot, Halstead and 
 Addison driving and the Old Squire and I riding on 
 the sleds — first down the lane, across the east field 
 and adown the pasture side to the brook and the 
 Little Sea, and thence on into the woods. 
 
 There was now about a foot of snow on the ground, 
 and the morning was bright and cold, so cold that my 
 fingers soon ached inside the woolen mittens with 
 which Gram had provided me, my toes, too, inside 
 my leather boots. 
 
 " Thump your feet against the sled beam," the Old 
 Squire said. " Thrash your hands about your shoul- 
 ders. That will warm them up." He illustrated the 
 process to me and I attempted it with some little suc- 
 cess. 
 
48 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Following the " wood road," we entered a mixed 
 growth of yellow birch, beech and rock maple, with 
 occasional large white birches and a few hemlocks. 
 
 " Stop the teams. Here is a good place to get our 
 winter's wood," the old gentleman called out. " This 
 old growth has sixty cords to the acre. We will begin 
 with that large birch and fall it down hill. Unhook 
 the oxen and chain them up to those little beeches 
 yonder. Then we will set at work." 
 
 Throwing off his coat, he tried the edge of an ax, 
 then beat down the snow about the large birch and 
 planting his feet, lumberman fashion, moistened his 
 palms and struck the first blow — a blow which echoed 
 afar through the frozen woodland. 
 
 I had taken an ax myself from a bracket and stood 
 watching him as stroke followed stroke on the trunk 
 of the forest giant, and great white chips began to 
 leap forth from the scarf. 
 
 "Where shall I chop?" I asked him. The Old 
 Squire stopped and laughed. " Anywhere, but on your 
 toes," said he. " There is a good tree for you," point- 
 ing to a medium-sized white birch about a foot in 
 diameter. " Down with that, my son, and let's see how 
 handsome a scarf you can cut." 
 
 Thus exhorted I beat down the snow and essayed 
 to fall my first tree. I had plied the ax on logs pre- 
 viously, but found it far more difficult to chop a scarf 
 in an upright tree trunk. Halstead passed by and de- 
 rided me, and even the Old Squire himself laughed a 
 little as he observed the droll " scooch " which I gave 
 my body with every blow. " But don't you be dis- 
 couraged," he said. " Take your time. You will learn. 
 Rest often. I will give you half an hour to fall that 
 tree." 
 
 In point of fact I needed the half hour. I can 
 scarcely describe how greatly the effort to cut into a 
 standing tree tired my inexperienced muscles. I could 
 strike but a few blows without stopping. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 49 
 
 " Keep at it ! " Halstead sang out to me. " You 
 will nigger it down in time ! " 
 
 Meantime the Old Squire's great birch fell with a 
 prodigious crash and he began chopping up the trunk 
 into logs eight feet long — since that was the length 
 we commonly cut firewood in the wood-lot. Prepar- 
 ing it for the stoves and fire-places was done later in 
 the winter at the house yard. 
 
 Now and then as the old gentleman stood erect on 
 the fallen birch trunk • — chopping it half off with a 
 perpendicular scarf between his feet, first on one side, 
 then the other — he cast a glance at my tree, to see 
 if it were about to fall, for it leaned in his direction. 
 But after a time he forgot it, I imagine, it was so long 
 falling, and when at last it did go and I shouted to 
 him, he had scanty time to get away. 
 
 " Why, you should have given me a little more 
 notice!" he exclaimed. "Never fall a tree upon a 
 man, without giving him ample notice." 
 
 " I gave you all the notice I had myself," I replied, 
 humbly. " I thought it never would go." 
 
 He began to laugh and came along to look at my 
 scarf, and when he saw the stump, he laughed still 
 more. Addison and Halstead also came to share in 
 the merriment. Instead of being square-cut in two 
 half scarfs, my stump was cut all around, resembling 
 a ragged cone. My chips resembled chankings. Ad- 
 dison surveyed it in silence a moment then said, " That 
 certainly resembles beaver's work." This remark was 
 quite enough to fit Halstead out with another nickname 
 for me ; he hailed me about as " the beaver " all the 
 remainder of the week. 
 
 After a few days, however, I became able to do 
 nearly or quite as well as he, which, however, was not 
 saying very much ; he was but an uncertain and indif- 
 ferent axman himself. 
 
 Addison told me in confidence that night, that he 
 had experienced much the same difficulty in falling 
 
50 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 trees when he first came to the farm. " How my left 
 arm ached ! " said he. " I knew just how you felt to- 
 day." 
 
 I had next to cut my tree into eight-foot logs. " Let 
 me see your ax a moment," the Old Squire said to 
 me. He then compared the handle with his own and 
 notched a two foot measure on it, so that I could lay 
 off the logs correctly. " Cut them just eight feet from 
 peak to scarf," he bade me, but it was not till I found 
 opportunity to consult with Addison that I quite un- 
 derstood the meaning of that latter phrase. 
 
 I found it far easier to cut my tree into logs than 
 to fall it, but I was still farther humiliated by being 
 told that I swung my ax " like an old woman," and 
 several days elapsed ere I caught the knack of prop- 
 erly swinging it high over my shoulder as I delivered 
 the blows. 
 
 Next day we had James and Asa Doane to assist 
 us; the latter, however, soon disabled himself on ac- 
 count of cutting his left foot. This accident led to a 
 singular adventure which I shall relate presently. By 
 the end of the second day a passably good wood-road 
 was trodden, and tree after tree was felled, chopped 
 into logs which were then rolled upon the sleds and 
 drawn to the yard before the wood-house door, where 
 four high piles soon grew to towering dimensions. 
 From thirty to forty cords was the quantity usually 
 required to properly warm the old farm-house through 
 the winter and keep the kitchen stove supplied. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PROUD - FLESH AND POWDER - POST 
 
 A SUDDEN thaw with rain now interrupted our 
 wood-chopping and carried off nearly all the 
 snow. Cold icy weather soon followed, how- 
 ever; but meantime we boys had gone on a singular 
 sort of errand up into the great woods, and became 
 involved in a curious adventure. 
 
 The fact was that we now had a very painfully lame 
 sojourner at the Old Squire's, in the person of Asa 
 Doane who had wounded the instep of his foot with 
 an ax the first day he worked with us in the wood-lot. 
 It was a deep cut, and what old people quaintly call 
 " proud-flesh " got into it. The wound refused to 
 heal on account of granulations. 
 
 There is a tiny borer which eats seasoned oak wood, 
 boring thousands of minute holes through it till it be- 
 comes a mere shell, and turning out a fine white 
 powder, known among country folk as " powder-post." 
 When a shovel or a pitchfork-handle snaps suddenly, 
 or an ax helve or a rake's tail breaks off under no 
 great strain, the farmer says, " 'Twas powder-post." 
 
 If this small pest obtains lodgment in a barn, or in 
 the oak finish or furniture of a house, it is likely to 
 do a vexatious amount of damage, and no practicable 
 method of checking its ravages has been found. Var- 
 nishes do not exclude it. Boiling will kill the borer, 
 but furniture and wainscotings are not easily boiled. 
 From the frames of old buildings, when of oak, pow- 
 der-post will sometimes run in streams when a beam 
 or brace is struck. 
 
 51 
 
52 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 But everything has its virtues, if only they can be 
 found out, and long ago, in New England, some rustic 
 ^Esculapius discovered that powder-post was a sov- 
 ereign balm for all flesh-wounds, causing them to heal 
 rapidly, without proud-flesh. And if proud-flesh 
 appeared, the wound would still heal if it were opened 
 and dressed with powder-post. 
 
 What modern medical science would predicate con- 
 cerning this panacea, I know not, but thousands of 
 cuts,, in rural districts, treated with powder-post, did 
 very well, and faith in it waxed strong. So when Asa 
 cut his foot, the old folks declared that the foot must 
 be done up in powder-post. " If it isn't," they said, 
 " proud-flesh will get into it." 
 
 It was a bad cut. Asa had been hard at work, when 
 his ax, glancing, had buried the blade in his instep; 
 the very bones were cut. We ran to him, tied a hand- 
 kerchief round his ankle, and twisted it tight with a 
 stick to ligate it, but blood flowed profusely. 
 
 When at last we had helped him home, night was at 
 hand, and no " powder-post " could be found. Several 
 people said, however, that plenty of it could be obtained 
 at an old hay barn up in the great woods. The braces 
 of that barn had been made of cleft red oak, and were 
 powder-posted. 
 
 The barn was four miles distant, but next morning 
 Asa's brother James, Willis Murch and the writer set 
 off to go there. James carried an ax with which to 
 split the timbers; and we took along four old news- 
 papers on which to gather up the precious dust, with 
 a bottle in which to put it. 
 
 It was a cold morning ; the ground was icy and hard 
 frozen, but the sky was calm and bright. 
 
 " This is a weather-breeder," the Old Squire re- 
 marked at breakfast, and low down on the southern 
 horizon, scarcely visible above the hilltops, was a line 
 of slate-gray cloud. 
 
 We set off immediately after breakfast; it was a 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 53 
 
 good time for hunting; the swamps were frozen and 
 the foliage off the trees. Willis had brought his gun, 
 loaded for deer. 
 
 At length we heard a deer run, and followed it for 
 an hour or more. James then espied a hedgehog in 
 a poplar-tree, which Willis shot. The long black- 
 pointed quills were a curiosity to me, but we did not 
 deem such game worth carrying home. 
 
 Owing to these delays it was near noon when we 
 reached the clearing, and the sky had become over- 
 cast, but as we crossed Stoss Pond brook a new diver- 
 sion presented itself. The pools were frozen over, but 
 the ice was so transparent that the bottom was plainly 
 visible, and we could see trout lying sluggishly in the 
 deep water. Several of them were fine fish that looked 
 as if they might weigh a pound or more. 
 
 James had heard it said that if a gun is fired with 
 the muzzle held just through the ice of a frozen pool 
 the concussion may so stun the fish beneath that they 
 will float up to the under side of the ice. Willis was 
 afraid that this would burst his gun, but the trout 
 looked so alluring that at last he ventured the experi- 
 ment. James cut a small hole with the ax, and Willis 
 lying down thrust the muzzle of the gun about six 
 inches beneath the ice. Then he edged away, and 
 stretching out his arm at full length pulled the trigger. 
 The gun recoiled, but no apparent damage was done. 
 
 For a few moments the water was turbid with the 
 smoke, but when it cleared, there, sure enough, were 
 five or six of the very largest trout floating, belly up- 
 ward, against the ice. We had but to cut through and 
 take them out, but James was so slow with his ax that 
 two of the trout recovered and darted away. 
 
 We had four fine fish to show for the charge of pow- 
 der, and immediately searched for another pool. We 
 soon came to one much deeper and better stocked with 
 trout, and Willis fired under the ice again. Eight fish 
 were secured here, and going on up the stream we 
 
54 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 found still another pool. This time Willis thrust the 
 gun deeper into the water, with the result that about a 
 foot of the barrel was split open! 
 
 He and James had words about this accident, for 
 Willis, much chapfallen over the mishap, blamed 
 Doane, and declared that he ought to buy him a new 
 gun. 
 
 James now hit upon a stratagem for capturing trout 
 on his own account. Knowing that it was the concus- 
 sion which stunned the trout he went to the old barn 
 and procured a long board. Using this like a flail, he 
 could strike the ice a blow that made a noise well-nigh 
 as loud as a gun. When just the right sort of blow 
 was given the trout below would turn on their backs 
 and float up to the ice. Two good strings of trout were 
 secured, and by this time Willis thought it best to 
 make peace. 
 
 " Come on, boys ! " he exclaimed. " We had better 
 be going. It's two o'clock, and beginning to snow." 
 
 So engrossed had James and I become in this new 
 method of fishing that we had not heeded the weather. 
 Fine snow was falling already. 
 
 " But I must get the powder-post for Ase's foot ! " 
 exclaimed James. 
 
 " Hurry, then," said Willis, and we ran to the barn. 
 Wooden pins held the oak braces of the frame in posi- 
 tion. We knocked out the pins, and prying out two 
 of the braces, split them, and then beat the pieces on 
 the newspapers. The white powder ran from the per- 
 forated wood in tiny streams. The bottle filled but 
 slowly, however, and it needed much splitting and 
 hammering to obtain even a teaspoonful of powder- 
 post. Then, at the last moment, Willis spilled nearly 
 all we had collected, and another brace had to be taken 
 out and split. 
 
 By this time our newspapers were torn to bits, and 
 altogether we had much trouble in collecting half a 
 bottleful. When at last we corked up the bottle and 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 55 
 
 hurried out of the barn, a heavy snow storm was 
 raging. We could not even see the woods across the 
 clearing. But we ran as fast as we could, and for fif- 
 teen minutes scarcely slackened our pace. 
 
 The whole forest had taken on a wintry aspect. The 
 snow rattled on the bare twigs and sodden leaves, and 
 the rising gusts of wind sighed drearily. 
 
 " It seems to me that we ought to come to that little 
 hollow where the muck-holes are," James said at 
 length. " I think we're heading off too far toward 
 Stoss Pond." 
 
 Thereupon we tacked and, gripping our strings of 
 fish, ran on again, but presently were perplexed to dis- 
 cern the side of a mountain looming up, directly 
 ahead. 
 
 " There, now, what did I tell you ? " cried James. 
 " That's Stoss Pond Mountain." 
 
 Thereupon we tacked again, and ran on. 
 
 The storm thickened and the forest darkened, but 
 on we went through brush and thicket till we oame to 
 the bank of a large brook. 
 
 " We didn't cross any such brook as this on our way 
 up ! " James exclaimed. 
 
 " We're away down on Stoss Pond brook," said 
 Willis. " We've come wrong ! If you both think you 
 know more than I, keep on; I'm going in the other 
 direction," and Willis set off to run again. James and 
 I followed him. In the course of five minutes we came 
 suddenly out into cleared land. 
 
 "There! What did I tell you?" cried Willis. 
 " This is Wilbur's pasture. We're almost home now." 
 
 James and I were too much gratified to question 
 Willis' apparently superior wisdom and followed after 
 him, intent only on getting home to dinner. The storm 
 was now driving thick and fast. We could not see a 
 hundred yards ahead, but we seemed to be on level 
 ground, such as I had never seen in Wilbur's pasture. 
 Soon we came to another large brook. 
 
56 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " There's no brook in Wilbur's pasture ! " exclaimed 
 James, stopping short. 
 
 " I don't care ! " cried Willis. " This must be Wil- 
 bur's pasture ! " He crossed the brook. 
 
 " Of course it is ! " he shouted back to us, " for 
 there's Wilbur's barn ahead of us ! " 
 
 We hastened after him, and came to a barn about 
 which the storm eddied in snowy gusts. 
 
 " But where is Wilbur's house ? " asked James. 
 
 We looked round in perplexity. There was no house 
 in sight; but here was a barn, and the door was ajar. 
 We went in. It was empty of hay or cattle. The barn 
 looked curiously familiar, but it was not till we per- 
 ceived the torn newspapers and the pieces of split oak 
 brace on the floor that the full truth dawned on us. 
 It was the old hay barn we had left an hour previously ! 
 
 We had run five miles through the woods only to 
 reach the place from which we had started! James 
 looked at me and I looked at Willis. A sense of utter 
 bewilderment fell on us. In fact, we were terrified. 
 All hope of dinner, or of reaching home at all that 
 night, deserted us. The storm was increasing; the 
 late November day was at an end. Dusk fell. 
 
 For a while we scarcely spoke. The old barn 
 creaked dismally as each gust of wind racked it; loose 
 boards rattled and banged. No created place can be 
 more dreary than an old, empty barn. 
 
 After our exertions we soon felt very chilly. We 
 would not have dared build a fire in the barn, even if 
 we had had matches. Willis groped about in the old 
 hay bay and gathered a few armfuls of musty hay, 
 which we spread on the barn floor; and then we lay 
 down as snugly together as we could nestle, but noth- 
 ing sufficed to warm us, and we lay shivering for what 
 seemed hours. 
 
 James and I finally fell asleep, and perhaps Willis 
 did, although he always denied it. At last he waked 
 us, shaking us violently. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 57 
 
 " You mustn't sleep ! " he exclaimed. " You'll 
 freeze to death and never wake up! 
 
 " It's getting terribly cold," he continued. " We'd 
 better get up and jump around." 
 
 But James and I did not wish to stir from that one 
 small slightly warmed spot. Our toes and fingers 
 ached. A fine dust of snow sifted down through the 
 cracks on our faces; a gale was raging, and how that 
 old barn creaked! 
 
 " I guess it would be warmer under the barn floor," 
 Willis said at last. " There's almost always old dry 
 stuff under a barn floor. If we can lift a plank or two 
 we'll get down there." 
 
 " Yes, we had better," quavered James, his teeth 
 chattering. " If we get under the floor the barn will 
 be less likely to kill us if it blows down." 
 
 Willis crept to the ends of the floor planks, and tried 
 first one and then another. He found one that could 
 be raised and tipped it over, making an .aperture large 
 enough to descend. It was pokerish moving about in 
 the dark, but we thrust down our legs and found that 
 there was dry chaff and hay there. Willis let himself 
 down and felt around, then bade us get down beside 
 him. We snuggled together under the floor, and with 
 our hands banked the old dry stuff about our shivering 
 bodies. 
 
 It seemed safer down there, and we felt the wind 
 less, but lay listening to the gusts, more than half 
 expecting with every one to hear the barn fall over 
 us. 
 
 Probably we fell asleep after a while, for my next 
 recollection is of coughing chaff, then noticing that it 
 had grown slightly light. The wind appeared to have 
 lulled in part. James, who was in the middle, felt 
 warm as a kitten. I was but half awake, and so cold 
 that I selfishly crept over between him and Willis. 
 That waked James; he began to crawl back over me 
 into the warm spot, but bumped his head against the 
 
58 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 barn floor and landed on Willis, who waked in a bad 
 temper. 
 
 " What you doing ! " he snarled. " Getting the 
 warm chaff all away from my back ! " 
 
 James thrust out a hand and grasped what he sup- 
 posed was Willis's hair. 
 
 " Where is your old head, anyv/ay ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Is that it? Your mouth isn't with it, is it? " Willis 
 did not reply; he was falling asleep again. 
 
 " Say, Willis, has your mouth got strayed away 
 from your head ? " said James. 
 
 " Is that your head ? " he exclaimed a moment after, 
 speaking to me. 
 
 " Keep still, can't you ? " I growled. " You've been 
 in the middle all night! I want to go to sleep now." 
 
 "Well, by gummy, it isn't his head either!" cried 
 James. " Whose head is that over there? " 
 
 " You lie down, Jim," said Willis. 
 
 "But there's somebody else here!" cried James, 
 with a queer note in his voice, and he scrambled back 
 over us both. The space was all too narrow for such 
 a maneuver, and his knees felt hard. 
 
 " Now, look here," said Willis. " You quit that! " 
 
 But James was climbing through the hole to the 
 barn floor above. " You must get out of there ! " he 
 cried. " There is something down there." 
 
 By this time Willis was fully waked up. He 
 reached over with his hand, on the side where James 
 had been, and then he, too, gave a spring and climbed 
 out on the floor! That alarmed me in turn, and I 
 followed them, bumping my head in my haste. " What 
 is it? " I exclaimed. 
 
 " I don't know," said Willis, his voice shaking from 
 cold and excitement. 
 
 " He's got an awful thick head of hair," said James, 
 " but he felt warm ! Seemed to be all hair ! " 
 
 " I'll bet it's a bear ! " cried Willis. " Denned up, 
 under the floor ! " 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 59 
 
 With that James and I made for the door, but Willis 
 said he did not believe it would come out, if it was 
 asleep for the winter. 
 
 For some time we stood near the door, prepared for 
 flight. It was growing light, however, and with the 
 daylight our courage revived. First Willis, then 
 James and I, went back to the hole in the floor and 
 peeped down, but it was too dark to distinguish ob- 
 jects. 
 
 Growing bolder, Willis ventured to lift another 
 floor plank over where our strange bed-fellow lay, and 
 even now I seem to see James' dilated eyes, as we 
 looked down on a great round mat of shaggy black 
 hair ! 
 
 We had now no doubt that it was indeed a bear. 
 Willis lowered the plank gently into its place, and, 
 going outside, we discovered that there was a hole at 
 the far end of the barn where the old stone work under 
 the sill had fallen out. 
 
 This discovery excited us so much that we nearly 
 forgot our miserable plight. The bear's skin .and the 
 state bounty would be worth sixteen dollars. As 
 Willis' gun was useless, we concluded that the thing 
 for us to do was to run home — if we could find the 
 way — and get assistance. 
 
 We had scarcely left the barn when we saw two 
 men come out of the woods. One of them had a gun. 
 As they drew nearer, we perceived that the foremost 
 was Willis' older brother, Ben Murch, and the other 
 Addison. 
 
 " They're out hunting for us ! Now don't you tell 
 them we got lost ! " said Willis, with that guile which 
 is apt to develop in a boy who has older brothers that 
 tease him. " Make them believe we've been guarding 
 this bear all night." 
 
 James looked to me and laughed, but Willis did the 
 talking, and when Ben called out to demand why in the 
 world we had not come home, Willis shouted : 
 
60 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " We've got a big bear under the barn ! We are 
 afraid he'll get away ! " 
 
 Neither Ben nor Addison asked us another question, 
 but hastened to see the bear. A plank was pulled up, 
 and Ben shot the animal at short range. It scarcely 
 moved, and did not even growl. 
 
 Removing its hide, however, proved a bitterly cold 
 job for Willis and Ben, and they were so long about 
 it that James, Addison and I finally left them and went 
 home with our powder-post and the string of frozen 
 trout. 
 
 In consequence, when James and I asked for our 
 share of the ursine bounty, both Willis and his brother 
 denied our claim. As the original discoverer of the 
 bear, James deemed himself ill-used and was not on 
 speaking terms with the Murch boys for a number of 
 weeks. The net result of the adventure to me Avas 
 merely a bad cold. 
 
 As for the powder-post, well, it was used, and at 
 length, Asa's foot healed. So it may be as well to give 
 the time-honored panacea the benefit of the doubt as 
 to its efficacy as an antidote for proud-flesh. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SCHOOL MONEY 
 
 WINDY, cold weather followed the snow-storm, 
 but we were now able to get to the wood-lot 
 on runners again, and completed the wood- 
 pile in the house yard two days later. This was on 
 Tuesday, and word having been passed through the 
 neighborhood, the school-boys turned out for the pro- 
 posed wood-chopping bee, to raise school money. 
 Thomas Edwards was the first to appe'ar, at seven 
 o'clock Wednesday morning, with his sharp chop- 
 ping-ax on one shoulder and his blunt splitting-ax on 
 the other. Addison and I had ground our own axes and 
 were in the wood-house looking up the iron wedges 
 and beetle, used for splitting cord-wood when Ned 
 Wilbur, Willis and Ben Murch, Rufus Sylvester and 
 Alfred Batchelder arrived, all provided with axes and 
 ready to go to work. They had brought lunch to be 
 taken into the woods, but Theodora and Ellen now ex- 
 tended an invitation for all to come to the house, at 
 noon, for a warm dinner. 
 
 The Old Squire also quietly brought out his own 
 ax and said that he, too, proposed to join the party, 
 " to keep order." Rather unexpectedly to Addison 
 and myself James Doane made his appearance in the 
 yard ; he also had an ax on his shoulder, and it trans- 
 pired that the old gentleman had sent for him, to come 
 for a day's work. We had expected that two days 
 would be required to cut eight cords, since few of the 
 boys could really cut, split and pile more than half or 
 three-fourths of a cord in a day. But with this strong 
 
 61 
 
62 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 reinforcement we set off for the woods, greatly en- 
 couraged. 
 
 Wood on the stump was not deemed of much value 
 at this time. Nearly all the farmers had large wood- 
 lots in which they cut their fuel without much regard 
 for future want or the preservation of forests. 
 
 The whole party now proceeded to the east wood- 
 lot, where we had recently got wood for the house 
 yard. 
 
 " Here is a good place, boys," said the Old Squire, 
 " along the upper side of this little opening which we 
 made last week. Here are straight-bodied maples that 
 will split well, and a dozen or two white birches and 
 yellow birches. Go ahead, but take care not to fall 
 trees on each other, and look out for your feet. Sharp 
 axes are bad company for boys' toes." 
 
 As a matter of fact the old gentleman soon found 
 it necessary to allot our trees to us and assign to each 
 his place. Alfred Batchelder and Halstead had taken 
 a tree together to chop and after falling it, attempted 
 to chop in company, after a manner known to woods- 
 men as " chip-chop," that is, both in one scarf — an 
 exceedingly dangerous method. The Old Squire was 
 obliged to forbid this, in the interest of common safety, 
 and as a result the irrepressible Alfred waxed saucy. 
 The Old Squire made as if not hearing him, and Alfred 
 went on for some moments, saying that he should do 
 as he liked and that he did not come there to be ordered 
 around by anybody, etc., till James Doane suddenly 
 bade him keep quiet or he would roll him in the snow. 
 But for the most part all went well and merrily. The 
 ax strokes made the frosty woods resound. Trees 
 went crashing down, and with each tree-fall a cheer 
 rose. 
 
 James and the Old Squire now turned their attention 
 chiefly to splitting the four-foot logs, as we boys 
 chopped them. Occasionally they were obliged to use 
 the beetle and wedges on a log, but for the most part 
 
A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 63 
 
 a few blows of the ax; in the end of the log would 
 cleave the frozen wood along its entire length. 
 
 Of the boys, Addison, Thomas and the two Murches 
 were the best choppers. Ned Wilbur and I were about 
 equally matched. Alfred Batchelder was rather more 
 experienced than Halstead, but both of them, after the 
 first hour, were much inclined to stand talking and 
 watch the others work. 
 
 At twelve o'clock we went to dinner and had an 
 hour's nooning, then fell to work again till four o'clock, 
 when we stopped chopping and began piling the wood 
 in tiers. By this time, I was very tired myself, and the 
 others had grown more quiet. At dusk we had the 
 fresh cleft wood piled up and were ready to shoulder 
 our axes and go home. 
 
 " How much have we cut ? " Addison asked, as the 
 Old Squire stood looking the piles over. 
 
 " Plump eight cords," said James. 
 
 " Yes, I think it will measure that," said the Old 
 Squire. 
 
 By good luck, too, no one had cut a foot or even 
 scarred his boot. The old gentleman had looked for 
 at least one case of cut foot that day, and had a 
 stout string in his pocket on purpose for " cording " 
 ankles. 
 
 " Now the next thing is to haul our wood to the 
 village," Addison said. " How many can bring teams 
 to-morrow ? " Thomas and the Murch boys and Al- 
 fred already had the promise of their teams at home, 
 on any day, for this purpose. But Ned could not have 
 one till the day following, and Rufus was not able to 
 bring a team. It was agreed that Thomas should come 
 with his oxen the next day and assist Addison to draw 
 several loads of the wood out to the road. Once on the 
 well-trodden highway, each team could draw a cord 
 of wood, but not from the wood-lot up the pasture 
 side. 
 
 Accordingly, next day we yoked up and, with 
 
64 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Thomas' assistance, drew three cords of the wood to 
 the road where it was piled ready for " topping out " 
 the loads for market. 
 
 Wednesday was a great day with us, in the wood 
 business. Before sunrise shouts of " Haw, Buck, get 
 up there, Golden ! " announced the arrival of boys with 
 ox teams. Addison had risen at five; and we had 
 breakfast before six, while it was still dark. The 
 oxen, steers and horses were fed, and we were all 
 ready, when Thomas and the others arrived. It was 
 a jocund setting-forth. The youthful teamsters 
 shouted and so-hoed to each other; chains jingled, 
 sled shoes creaked on the dry, hard snow and in the 
 woodland the trees were snapping loudly from the 
 frost in their trunks. 
 
 The Old Squire went to the lot with us, to super- 
 vise the loading of the sleds. About six cord feet of 
 wood were loaded on each sled, and as fast as a load 
 was ready, it was despatched on its. way, to be topped 
 out up at the road with enough more to make a full 
 cord. 
 
 Addison took charge of our horse team and set off 
 in advance, and when our ox-team was loaded, I was 
 not a little surprised and gratified to have the Old 
 Squire say to me that I might drive it, for I had ex- 
 pected that it would be intrusted to Halstead. No 
 great skill as a teamster was required to drive steady, 
 well-broken old Bright and Broad, however; and 
 whether Gramp deemed it a good lesson for me, or 
 whether he considered the team safer in my charge 
 than with Halstead, did not appear. Halstead was 
 offended, however, and said at first that he would not 
 go to the village, if he could not drive a team, but 
 finally came on behind the Murch team, with Ben who 
 also had no team, since Willis drove theirs. 
 
 The only difficulty on the road was the frequent 
 necessity of turning out into the snow for teams which 
 we met. Our progress with such heavy loads was 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 65 
 
 slow, and as the distance was nearly seven miles, we 
 were until past noon on the road. 
 
 Addison with the horse team had made better time 
 and had his load disposed of when we reached the 
 house where the entire eight cords of wood was to be 
 delivered. There was room for but one load at a time 
 in the narrow yard, and all joined in the task of un- 
 loading each sled in turn. The oxen were then fed 
 with the bundles of hay which we had brought, and 
 while the cattle were eating, we devoured our own 
 lunches with keen appetites. 
 
 No time had been wasted, yet it was two o'clock 
 before we were ready to set off for home. With empty 
 sleds the teams walked a little faster, however; we 
 were able to ride now, for the oxen needed no attention 
 on the homeward trip, save when teams were met. All 
 six sleds followed, one behind the other, with all of us 
 save Addison riding on the forward sled. 
 
 Six cords of the- wood were thus marketed, and next 
 day Addison and Thomas drew the other two cords 
 and brought home with them that evening the pay for 
 it, thirty-two dollars, in green-backs, which Addison 
 carefully locked up in his trunk, till after the district 
 school money should be used. We had certainly earned 
 the money, yet earned it quite pleasantly. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A NOVEL VENTURE 
 
 THAT evening — the evening we finished draw- 
 ing the wood — a new plan was hit on for rais- 
 ing more school money. 
 
 On his way home, Addison had called at the post 
 office and got our weekly newspapers. 
 
 Theodora usually read the news items in The In- 
 dependent, quite carefully. As she sat poring them 
 over, she suddenly looked across to Addison and said, 
 " What are ' Christmas greens ? ' " 
 
 The latter looked up, uncertain for the moment, then 
 replied that he guessed they were not anything eatable. 
 " What else does it say about them ? " he asked ab- 
 sently. 
 
 " It says, ' Christmas greens have begun to come into 
 the city (New York). The trade in Christmas trees 
 bids fair to be brisk,' " Theodora read from her paper. 
 
 " Oh, it's some kind of green stuff", laurel or ever- 
 greens, I suppose, for decorating rooms and halls and 
 churches," replied Addison. 
 
 At that time Christmas trees had not come in vogue 
 with us; we had scarcely heard of them. Addison, 
 however, had read of such use of small evergreen trees. 
 " They stand a little pine, or spruce, or fir tree, up in 
 a church, or a room, and put wax tapers on it and also 
 presents, I believe," said he. 
 
 At the Old Squire's the only rite or festivity at 
 Christmas consisted of hanging one's stocking in the 
 chimney corner. Sometimes a few cents, or a stick 
 of candy, or a roll of lozenges had been known to be 
 found in stockings on Christmas mornings. 
 
 66 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 67 
 
 " Well, here wa could easily get a ' Christmas tree ' 
 by going out to the woods," Theodora remarked, " but 
 in New York the folks have to buy them." 
 
 " They would have to buy theni in Boston, or even 
 in Portland, or any city," said Addison. " People can- 
 not go out in the vicinity of a city and chop down a 
 tree at pleasure. Probably such evergreen trees bring 
 a good price." 
 
 " If they do, we could make something by selling 
 what there are out along the border of our woods," 
 said Theodora, laughing. 
 
 " Maybe," said Addison, still absently, — for he was 
 trying to read all the while. 
 
 Nothing further was said at the time, but it was 
 mentioned at the breakfast table next morning, when 
 Theodora remarked that if any one could sell a hundred 
 Christmas trees at fifty cents apiece, quite a nice sum 
 would come of it. 
 
 " I think it likely they would sell for that in Port- 
 land," replied Addison. " But it would be a long way 
 to draw them from here." 
 
 It seemed a very visionary scheme to us all, at first ; 
 no one was serious about it, till it had been mentioned 
 several times, when Addison suddenly grew interested 
 and expressed a conviction that we could really make 
 it profitable. The Old Squire also thought the plan 
 might succeed. 
 
 Next evening Theodora called at the Edwards, Wil- 
 burs and Murches, and canvassed the project afresh. 
 After much discussion of ways and means, Thomas 
 and Willis offered to furnish each a horse, and so make 
 up a span, if we would set our large hay-rack on two 
 traverse-sleds for transporting the trees to Portland. 
 
 Next forenoon we hitched up and driving down the 
 wood-road to the borders of the lot, began the task of 
 selecting and cutting small spruce and fir trees. Ned, 
 Thomas, both the Murch boys and also Catherine, 
 Elsie Wilbur, Theodora and Ellen went with us. It 
 
68 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 was an entirely new business, and there were a great 
 many diverse opinions and much earnest discussion 
 as to how it should be conducted. Theodora had the 
 clearest idea as to what was wanted, and took the lead 
 in selecting the trees to be cut. Most of the evergreens 
 chosen were from eight to ten feet in height, and we 
 took great care not to mar the graceful boughs and 
 " balsam buds " of the firs. 
 
 As fast as one was cut, the girls dragged it to the 
 rack and soon had the snow around it covered with 
 green heaps. 
 
 I recollect that we cut three large trees, for we 
 argued that in some of the churches the Sunday school 
 children might be holding a festival, and would want 
 a big one. One of these larger firs was fully twenty 
 feet in height, and not less than thirty-five feet in cir- 
 cumference. 
 
 I remember that at first we were not a little puzzled 
 how to pack them in the rack so as not to crush the 
 delicate boughs. At last we tried standing them up, 
 beginning at the forward end, and crowding them as 
 closely as possible, and succeeded in packing more in 
 the rack than one would suppose possible. I think 
 there were fifty-seven or fifty-eight trees. The three 
 large ones were set in the rear, and allowed to lean far 
 back over the rail. 
 
 It was a prodigiously bulky, green load, though by 
 no means a heavy one. We were tired and hungry 
 before we reached home with it. 
 
 Willis, Tom and Ned, Addison and I, then arranged 
 to start for Portland at four o'clock the next morning. 
 Theodora and Catherine suggested that Willis should 
 dress up as " St. Nicholas," with Tom and Ned as his 
 assistants. Such a device, they fancied, would help 
 the sale, and the girls worked two " signs," with the 
 words, " Christmas Trees, 50 cents each ! " upon them. 
 The letters were in red yarn, a foot high, on a broad 
 strip of- white cloth. These were to be stretched on 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 69 
 
 either side of the load on entering the city. For a seat 
 on our drive to Portland, we rigged a board across the 
 top of the rack at the forward end. 
 
 Next morning we were astir at three o'clock, but it 
 was between four and five before we were ready to 
 start. 
 
 Day had scarcely broken. The morning star shone 
 cold and bright, and the wind blew sharply, making the 
 snow fly at times. 
 
 Our seat was sheltered by the green boughs, and 
 we sat as snugly as we could to keep warm, but we 
 were obliged to get down at times and run smartly to 
 stir our blood. 
 
 It was a tedious day's drive, yet we had some sport 
 from it. Almost every one we met would cry out, 
 " What are you going to do with all that green stuff? " 
 or, " Where are ye taking all those firs to ? " Addison's 
 answer was always, " Christmas trees, for Portland! " 
 
 We ran foul of a load of hay which we met in the 
 road, but got clear without any great damage. At a 
 place where the highway was near the railroad, our 
 horses, unused to the steam cars, tried to run away, 
 and it proved difficult holding them from that high 
 seat, without a fender to brace our feet against. 
 
 In the afternoon, too, we passed a schoolhouse just 
 as the boys came out, at recess. Full of fun, they be- 
 gan to snowball us. We jumped down and retaliated. 
 The snowballs flew ! There was a battle, but we routed 
 them and drove them into their entry. 
 
 Several snowballs flew in at the door. The master 
 came out, and we fell back, leaving one fellow rubbing 
 his ear. 
 
 That night we put up at a farmer's, named Martin, 
 in the town of Westbrook, a few miles out of Portland. 
 He charged us "nine shillings " for our night's lodging. 
 
 Getting an early start the next morning, we drove 
 into town. Near the bridge from Westbrook into the 
 city, we put out our signs, but could not muster courage 
 
70 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 to don the old hats, coats and belts which we had 
 brought to personate St. Nicholas. 
 
 Following the street, which had a track laid for 
 horse-cars, we came out into another long, broad 
 street, probably Congress Street. 
 
 It was early, much too early, in fact; the great 
 street looked gray, cold and deserted. Just then an al- 
 most empty car came grinding past. The driver did 
 not so much as notice us with a cast of his eye. 
 
 Here and there a muffled-up passer's boot-heels 
 struck loudly on the sidewalk. A policeman from 
 the other side of the street gave us a surly glance. It 
 seemed as if nobody would or could possibly want any- 
 thing of us or our load. 
 
 " Well, what are we going to do, Willis ? " Tom 
 asked at last. " Say something. Sing out, ' Christ- 
 mas trees ! ' " But for one, I felt as if I could not 
 open my mouth. 
 
 " You call out, Willis," said Addison. 
 
 " No, you," said Willis, " I'm driving." 
 
 At length Ned mustered his voice and cried, 
 "Christmas trees!" But it was in such a timid 
 voice, with such shamefaced accent (for all the 
 world as if he were afraid somebody would hear him) 
 that we all laughed. A newsboy standing inside a 
 doorway took in the situation, and reviled us. 
 
 " You keep quiet ! " Thomas shouted to him, and 
 having thus got his mouth open, he cried, " Christmas 
 trees ! " and did a little better. 
 
 Thereupon we all shouted, " Christmas trees ! 
 Christmas trees ! " making the lonesome streets re- 
 echo. 
 
 No sort of notice, however, was taken of this ap- 
 peal, a circumstance which disheartened us not a little. 
 
 We journeyed on, up and down different streets, 
 but a great and ever-darkening cloud of discourage- 
 ment had fallen upon us. The streets filled after a 
 time. Carts and hacks rumbled past us. There were 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 71 
 
 many people passing now, but they seemed to ignore 
 us, as if from a settled purpose. 
 
 Never in my life have I felt more out of place than 
 on that morning, and my own feelings were faithfully 
 reflected in the faces of my youthful partners. 
 
 Martin, the farmer, had advised us to ring the door 
 bells as we drove along with our load and tell the 
 people what we had to sell. After a time we bethought 
 ourselves of this advice, and as Willis went on, Ned, 
 Thomas and myself began ringing. We were now on 
 a street where there were handsome brick dwelling- 
 houses. Our calls, however, were mostly answered by 
 frowzy-headed servant girls who cried, " Be off with 
 ye ! " and slammed the doors in our faces. 
 
 Ten o'clock finally struck from a church steeple — 
 and not a tree had been sold. We had frequently 
 halted beside the curbstone, and during one of these 
 waits, a door opened close beside us, and an old gentle- 
 man, gray-headed and much wrinkled, came out, pick- 
 ing his way with his gold-headed cane. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, stopping short, " Whose are these 
 balsams, my boys? " 
 
 " For Christmas, if anybody wants them," replied 
 Willis, in a glum tone. 
 
 The old gentleman was critically examining the 
 buds. " They are very good for the lungs," he re- 
 marked. " It's a pity folks do not plant them around 
 their houses." 
 
 " But these are Christmas, trees," Thomas inter- 
 posed. 
 
 " Ah, yes ; ah, yes," said the old gentleman absently. 
 " They are Nature's sovereign remedy for the terrible 
 disease of the climate in which they grow." 
 
 " These are Christmas trees, Christmas trees," we 
 all told him again, as gently and insinuatingly as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 " Blind, blind ! How blind ! Our children die of 
 consumption, month by month, score by score," the old 
 
72 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 gentleman ran on, " when a little grove of these round 
 every house would be as sure a preventive as food is 
 of hunger." 
 
 Thomas pulled one out of the load and proffered it. 
 "Hava one?" said he. "Have one of these good 
 balsams? Only fifty cents." 
 
 " Throughout the North Nature has planted this 
 great antidote," the old gentleman went on, fumbling 
 in his pocket. He drew out two quarters, which we 
 took at once, and drove quickly on, fearing, as Ned 
 said, that our customer might " wake up." We left 
 his balsam leaning against a yard fence, the old gentle- 
 man still contemplating it, rapt and oblivious. 
 
 But our luck had turned. We had not gone a hun- 
 dred yards farther before we met a nicely dressed lady 
 of middle age — who looked wide-awake enough, too. 
 We saw her eyes brighten. 
 
 " How do you sell your Christmas trees, my good 
 boys ? " she asked. 
 
 " A beauty for fifty cents ! " cried Willis. 
 
 Seeing her unloose the little chain of her purse, we 
 picked out a nice one, and Ned went with her to carry 
 it to her door, two or three blocks away. She gave him 
 ten cents more for that act of courtesy. 
 
 Before he got back we had sold another to a gentle- 
 man in a coupe, who tried to draw it into the carriage 
 with him. Not ten minutes after, a butcher in a long 
 white frock bought another. 
 
 We sold one every five or ten minutes after that. 
 So wrought up were we by this happy change in our 
 fortunes that not one of us thought of dinner, either 
 for ourselves or our horses. 
 
 The best stroke of business was done at about three 
 o'clock in the afternoon. We drew a crowd then, and 
 our stock became small in a very few minutes. Our 
 customers, themselves, forced us to put up our price. 
 They began to offer a dollar for the remaining trees. 
 Shortly after, a party of children ran off to the super- 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 73 
 
 intendent of the' Sunday school at their church, and 
 coaxed him to come and buy one of the three big trees 
 for their vestry. We received two dollars for it. The 
 other two large firs we did not sell. But I think we 
 might easily have sold fifty more of the small ones if 
 we had had them. Never had a day begun with such 
 discouragement, and ended in such triumph. 
 
 Determined to be magnanimous now, we drove past 
 two churches, in the gathering dusk, and left a big fir 
 on the steps of each. It was in the Eastern Argus, 
 next morning, that " some unknown Santa Claus " had 
 left a " beautiful Christmas tree " on the steps of these 
 churches. 
 
 We drove back to the same farmer's house where 
 we had spent the previous night, and I am sure his 
 good wife thought we did justice to her supper, and 
 were bound to have our " nine shillings' " worth. 
 
 Next morning we set off for home, and it so hap- 
 pened that we passed the schoolhouse where we had 
 had the battle, just as the boys came out at their fore- 
 noon recess. We felt so good-humored over our suc- 
 cessful venture that we were now for having a jolli- 
 fication with them. They pitched into us, however, 
 like hornets! Their snowballs were all made up and 
 frozen over night. We received an awful pelting. 
 The balls whistled about our ears vindictively, and we 
 were glad to put our horses to their best paces and get 
 away as fast as we could. 
 
 The net proceeds of this venture, after deducting all 
 expenses, were thirty-three dollars and fifty cents, and 
 this sum was laid aside for a further school fund. 
 After the winter term was finished, we thought that it 
 would be a good investment to have a short private 
 term, if Joel Pierson, or some other efficient teacher, 
 could be hired. In fact, we had grown very enthusi- 
 astic on the subject of more school. A week later, 
 however, it was decided to take six dollars of the 
 money for a schoolhouse stove. The old stove was 
 
74 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 badly cracked, smoky and small, and Tibbetts was un- 
 willing to allow Glinds to procure a better one; ha 
 declared that the old one was good enough. It brought 
 two dollars as old iron; .and for eight dollars we pro- 
 cured a new and larger one. Even then Tibbetts con- 
 demned the transaction. 
 
 The credit for this then novel effort, peddling Christ- 
 mas trees, was clearly due to Theodora; it was her 
 suggestion, but she never claimed the honor of it. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 addison's Christmas misadventure 
 
 CHRISTMAS day came and passed at the Old 
 Squire's very quietly. As I have said before, 
 Maine people had not yet begun to celebrate the 
 day as much as is now the custom. Something was 
 said the previous evening, I recollect, about " St. 
 Nick," whether he would come down our chimney or 
 not, Addison remarking that the flue was big enough, 
 if he desired to descend. Little Wealthy hung one of 
 her stockings in the chimney corner, when she went to 
 bed that night, on a large pin which she drove with a 
 billet of wood. Halstead said that it would be a good 
 joke to put a potato in it and did so ; but I think that 
 either Gram or Theodora removed it, for when 
 Wealthy looked in her stocking next morning, she 
 found a handful of new cents, a pretty bit of blue 
 ribbon and a roll of lozenges. She was delighted with 
 these trifles. We who were older considered that it 
 would be too childish to hang our stockings. Addison 
 assured Wealthy, in jest, that he had heard a clatter 
 on the house roof in the night — when St. Nick 
 came. 
 
 I remember that Gram wished us all " Merry Christ- 
 mas " as fast as we made our appearance that morning. 
 She was very jolly and, for the nonce, repeated an old 
 rhyme, current when she was a girl, — 
 
 " I wish you merry Christmas 
 And a happy New Year, 
 With your pockets full of money 
 And your stomach full of beer." 
 75 
 
76 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " But that last part of the wish sounds intemperate," 
 she added. " It ought to be changed to something 
 better." And at the breakfast table we began to amend 
 it; many rhymes were suggested, none of them very 
 apposite. " And a heart without a fear," was Theo- 
 dora's amendment. " And the best of all good cheer," 
 was Addison's. Halstead declared it should be, " And 
 a cuff on either ear." Wealthy's line was, " And a 
 sled that you can steer." Ellen and I floundered on a 
 number of rhymes which at best were unfit, and failed 
 to distinguish ourselves as poets. Catherine Edwards 
 to whom the stanza was referred, that evening, thought 
 that it ought to run, " And a jewel in your ear," which 
 was perhaps as good as any, in the sense of fitness for 
 the place, although as Catherine herself admitted, it 
 suggested a strain of personal vanity. 
 
 On New Year's there came a violent wind which 
 blew all night, so heavily that we were much disturbed 
 lest the farm buildings should be blown down. The 
 wind came in great gusts, every few minutes, with 
 lulls betwixt them. After every gust we sat listening, 
 to hear whether the barns had been unroofed or were 
 falling. 
 
 " Ruth, I guess the Hat has got out of the Notch ! " 
 the Old Squire exclaimed to Gram, after a particularly 
 hard flaw during the evening. 
 
 We could not imagine what ha meant, till Gram at 
 length explained to us that he referred, humorously, to 
 a saying common in that county, that some mythical 
 " Clerk of the Weather " kept his old hat stuffed into 
 the Notch of the White Mountains, to keep off the 
 northwest winds. 
 
 Next morning we learned that our neighbor Syl- 
 vester's barn had been unroofed and one of his cows 
 killed by a rafter which had fallen inside. The men of 
 the neighborhood gathered to assist him to replace and 
 re-shingle the roof ; and all pronounced it a " cold 
 job," for the weather continued severe. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 77 
 
 In secret Addison, Thomas and a number of the 
 other boys had for some time been planning a joke on 
 the young people of an adjoining school district, four 
 miles to the eastward of us, known as Baghdad. The 
 school districts of Maine towns are numbered i, 2, 3, 4, 
 etc.; but locally they sometimes bear whimsical nick- 
 names ; " Baghdad " was one of these. 
 
 The boys over in Baghdad had, for a number of 
 winters, been exercising their wits at our expense, so 
 much so that Addison and Thomas thought it neces- 
 sary to square accounts with them and restore the 
 honors. Preparations were made quietly, and on the 
 following night, shortly after eleven o'clock, we set off, 
 privately, with " Old Sol " harnessed to a pung, for an 
 incursion into Baghdad. 
 
 The cargo of that pung was remarkable and, if 
 overhauled by strangers, would have been difficult of 
 explanation. It consisted of a bushel basket, contain- 
 ing not less than twenty old socks and stockings, such 
 as pertain to the wearing apparel of both sexes, many 
 of them much darned, but clean and stuffed with can- 
 dies, rolls of lozenges, maple sugar and raisins. 
 
 In another basket were ten or a dozen old boots, 
 shocking ones, and in some of these were pigs' tails, 
 or ears, a brimstone roll, carrots, turnips, red ears of 
 corn, fragments of old greenish brass, caricatures on 
 paper, variously inscribed in painful rhyme, old hats, 
 a ball of stout twine, etc. There was also a long, 
 crook-neck squash. 
 
 The bells had been removed from the shafts of the 
 pung, and the outfit proceeded very quietly along the 
 snowy road, by a roundabout route, for a distance of 
 nearly or quite five miles, till we entered a piece of 
 hemlock woods on the farther border of which stood 
 the Baghdad schoolhouse. 
 
 About a hundred yards on the hither side of the 
 schoolhouse, a lumber road diverged from the highway 
 where hemlock logs had recently been drawn out to a 
 
78 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 neighboring saw-mill. Here we turned in and, after 
 proceeding ten or twelve rods into the woods, hitched 
 our horse and carefully blanketed him, for the night 
 was frosty and sharp. 
 
 This done we took our baskets on our shoulders, 
 walked back to the road and, after listening and glan- 
 cing up and down the highway, entered the school- 
 house. No one could have made us out, at least by 
 starlight. In addition to great coats, fur caps pulled 
 down over our ears .and knit comforters to keep us 
 warm on our night ride, Addison had what looked to 
 be a long white beard — it was the tail of a white 
 horse — hanging far down in front of his coat. 
 
 We knew most of the boys in " Baghdad." They 
 outnumbered us in the Old Squire's district and were 
 inclined to be unfriendly, but the girls were pleasant 
 acquaintances. Addison and Thomas had hung May- 
 baskets to a number of them, the previous spring — 
 and been hotly chased home by a strong party of the 
 boys who threatened unpleasant proceedings if they 
 caught us. Hence the sedulous caution in our move- 
 ments. 
 
 Two days previously, however, Addison had not 
 scrupled to visit the Baghdad school one afternoon for 
 an hour ; he had a motive as will appear ; but not to 
 fall into difficulties with the boys over there, he took 
 care to enter after school had been called to order, and 
 to take leave before it was dismissed. 
 
 Not one country schoolhouse in a dozen in that 
 county was then locked at night. We entered without 
 difficulty. A faint sense of warmth still lingered about 
 the stove, and opening it we raked forward a few 
 bright coals and warmed our fingers. 
 
 Addison then lighted the lantern which we had 
 brought ; and we proceeded to decorate " Baghdad." 
 The seats were benches with long desks behind the 
 backs of each and shelves underneath for the books. 
 Addison had observed, during his call, where all the 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 79 
 
 older boys and girls sat. Beneath the shelves of their 
 respective seats plump stockings of confectionery were 
 hung to many of the girls, with befitting notes attached. 
 Addison was a good hand at such efforts; I still re- 
 member some of them: 
 
 " Tried to get down your chimney and couldn't, 
 Amy Eastman. Fire was too hot. Had to come to 
 the schoolhouse. Should never keep a fire Christmas 
 night. St. Nick." 
 
 " Please burn out your chimney, Myra Edes. All 
 full of soot. Couldn't get down, at all! " 
 
 " Pray do build a bigger chimney at your house, 
 Minnie Wilkins. I'm getting too stout to crawl down 
 such a narrow one. Your affectionate St. Nick." 
 
 The old boots were for the boys; and the accom- 
 panying notes were not complimentary. 
 
 " Tickle your nose with this little pig's tail, Rufus 
 Eastman. That is all you will get from me, this year. 
 They say you were saucy to the schoolmaster, last 
 winter. Try and behave yourself better next year. 
 St. Nick." 
 
 " Quit off tobacco, Tim Jackson, and take a bite off 
 this turnip once in a while. It will sweeten up your 
 breath." 
 
 The crook-neck squash was for a tall lathy youth, 
 named Cephas Morton, and had pinned to it this bit of 
 personal advice. " Look at this squash, Cephas, and 
 pull that crook out of your spine." 
 
 The roll of brimstone was for a somewhat profane 
 youth, named America Robbins. It was wrapped in 
 a piece of paper on which was written, 
 
 " Better skip those hard words, Merrick. I've been 
 harking to you for some time. Remember, Merrick, 
 that there's a land where the candy is all hard and 
 yellow. Here's a stick of it for you. Take a sniff 
 at it now and then." 
 
 If we had confined our efforts that night to the Bagh- 
 dad schoolhouse we might have gotten away scot-free. 
 
80 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 But there were three girls, sisters, named Thomas — 
 Myrtle, Edith and Leola — very attractive, living 
 about a quarter of a mile from the schoolhouse, in a 
 large, low, one-story farmhouse, flanked by two barns 
 and a number of sheds and other out-buildings. 
 
 Nothing less would answer for Addison, Tom and 
 Willis Murch than the bold scheme of hanging three 
 of the best filled stockings down the chimney at the 
 Thomas place. The plan was to approach cautiously, 
 mount a shed in the rear, from the roof of which it 
 would be easy to pass to the roof of the ell and thence 
 to the house roof. By means of twine Addison deemed 
 it feasible to let down the stockings into the fire-place 
 of the farmhouse sitting-room, here they would be 
 discovered on kindling a fire the following morning. 
 
 Accordingly, leaving our two bushel baskets at the 
 schoolhouse, we went along the road to the Thomas 
 place. It was near two o'clock by this time. No one 
 was astir. The house was dark. We gained the shed 
 roof, climbed on the ell and went softly along the ell 
 roof to the house. Willis, Thomas and I went no 
 further, and passed up the stockings and lines to Addi- 
 son who had mounted to the roof of the house. 
 
 He had scarcely begun to lower the first stocking 
 down chimney, however, when we heard sleigh bells 
 and saw — for the stars shone brightly — a team 
 coming along the road, from the direction of the 
 schoolhouse. In the sleigh, as we learned afterwards, 
 were Tim Jackson and another boy, named Roscoe 
 Parmenter, on their way home from a young folks' 
 party, a few miles distant. 
 
 Willis and I lay low on the ell roof and easily es- 
 caped observation. Addison, too, sheltered himself be- 
 hind the big chimney top and was not seen till after 
 they had passed, when one of them happened to look 
 back and espied " St. Nick," standing beside the chim- 
 ney! If they had hailed us, or called out, we might 
 possibly have escaped, but they said nothing and we 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 81 
 
 supposed that they had not seen us. In fact, they knew 
 not what to think of the circumstance, at first ; but as 
 they drove on, they mistrusted that some prank was 
 on foot. At the next two houses, where the Eastman 
 and Robbins families lived, on opposite sides of the 
 road, they stopped and, waking the people, announced 
 that there were suspicious characters about the Thomas 
 place. 
 
 Rufus, Luke and Charley Eastman, with Ben and 
 Merrick Robbins, at once turned out; and as Addison 
 was making fast the last of the strings to a brick on 
 the chimney top, the whole party suddenly appeared 
 up the road, and shouted vigorously ! 
 
 Our plight for escape could hardly have been worse. 
 Earlier in the season we might have run away across 
 the fields and gained the woods. But with a foot and 
 a half of snow on the ground, the road was our only 
 avenue for flight. 
 
 " Put for the pung," whispered Willis ; and we 
 three on the ell roof dropped off into a drift of snow 
 in front of it and ran. Addison as hastily descended 
 off the house roof to the ell and, remembering certain 
 things better than we did, called after us in a low tone, 
 but thinking there was no time to lose and that he had 
 best be running, himself, we fled down the road at our 
 handsomest paces. Addison, however, on gaining the 
 ground, darted into a wood-house and hastily took 
 refuge on top of several tiers of stove-wood there. 
 
 The pursuing party saw us as we emerged upon the 
 road, and chased us for some distance. We then heard 
 Merrick Robbins say, "Here ain't all of 'em!" 
 whereupon he and two of the others turned back to 
 look about the Thomas premises. 
 
 The Thomases, too, were now appearing at doors 
 and windows. But Rufus Eastman and the three 
 others still pursued us. In fact, they were not more 
 than two hundred yards in our rear; but Willis, 
 Thomas and I knowing that everything depended on 
 
82 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 speed, exerted ourselves to distance them and widened 
 the interval a little by the time we reached the school- 
 house. We dared not stop here to get the baskets, but 
 dashed around a bend of the road, into the woods. It 
 was not so light in the shadows of the hemlock trees ; 
 we passed out of sight of our pursuers and, turning in 
 at the logging-road, had the satisfaction of hearing 
 them run past. 
 
 Meantime Merrick and the others, with the 
 Thomases, were searching the sheds and barns. Early 
 in the hubbub, however, Myrtle Thomas discovered the 
 stockings in the fire-place; and both she and the others 
 immediately guessed that their nocturnal visitors were 
 not very dangerous. The alarm terminated in much 
 laughter, but they continued searching; and Addison, 
 lying flat on top of the wood-pile, heard a great many 
 comical remarks. Once they came into the wood-house 
 with a lantern, and one of the boys threw several billets 
 of wood on top of the tiers, where Ad lay ; but he did 
 not stir. 
 
 At length the boys departed and the Thomases went 
 indoors. As soon as Addison deemed it safe, he made 
 his escape and hurried down the road. It was his im- 
 pression that the whole party had turned back from 
 chasing Willis, Thomas and me, to hunt him. Hence 
 he supposed that we had escaped to the pung and were 
 waiting for him in the woods. On reaching the school- 
 house, he went in to see if we had taken the baskets, 
 and was a little surprised to find that we had not done 
 so. He set them together and was on the point of 
 coming out at the door with them, when he heard 
 voices and caught sight of Rufus and the others, now 
 just returning along the road from their chase after 
 us ; — for they had run on past us for half a mile or 
 more, and being much out of breath by that time, had 
 rested and were returning slowly. Willis, Thomas and 
 I, wrapped up in the pung, heard them pass. 
 
 After a glance to make sure that it was not Willis 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 83 
 
 and I, Addison drew back into the little shed or portico 
 of the schoolhouse and gently closed the outer door. 
 He then tip-toed into the schoolroom and peeped out 
 at the window. Generally Addison was a good strate- 
 gist; but fortune was against him that night. The 
 portico door, which he had gently closed, swung back, 
 partly open of itself. As Rufus and the other boys 
 were passing, they noticed that it was ajar. 
 
 " How came that door open ? " one of them said. 
 " I'll bet those scamps have been in the schoolhouse ! " 
 
 They stopped, then approached the door. 
 
 In great trepidation again, Addison hurriedly got on 
 top of one of the benches, and reaching a little scuttle 
 in the low ceiling of the room, pushed it open and 
 raised himself by main strength through the hole. In 
 fact, ha had but barely time to draw himself up, when 
 the searchers entered noisily, discovered the baskets 
 and became much excited again. Addison could hear 
 all they said vary plainly, as they lighted matches at 
 the stove and examined the baskets, then looked in the 
 wood-shed and in the dark corners of the room. 
 
 " We've scared 'em off," said Rufus, " but they will 
 be back after their baskets before morning. Luke, you 
 put back and get Merrick and the others. We'll stay 
 here and watch." 
 
 Meantime, Willis and I turned the team and drove 
 slowly out of the logging-road to the highway. After 
 waiting a while, Willis went back on foot along the 
 road to the bend, and while watching there saw Mer- 
 rick and four or five others coming, at a run, toward 
 the schoolhouse. Thinking that another pursuit was 
 being made, he ran to the pung and we drove off as 
 fast as we could. What had become of Addison we 
 had little idea; but we surmised that he might have 
 escaped by what was called the " north road," leading 
 around from " Baghdad " to our home district. 
 
 He was not at home, however, when we arrived; 
 nor did he appear next morning. I was obliged to 
 
84 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 explain his absence to our folks as best I could. We 
 felt considerable anxiety concerning him, but were 
 somewhat at a loss what to do. 
 
 In point of fact he was a close prisoner in the little 
 dark loft, over the Baghdad schoolroom. For so con- 
 fident were those boys that we would return to get our 
 baskets, Rufus, Merrick, Luke and two others kindled 
 a fire in the stove and kept watch from the window. 
 Addison had the pleasure of hearing them describe 
 what they meant to do, if they caught us. 
 
 After it grew light, all save Luke went home to get 
 breakfast. He declared that he would stay, keep fire 
 and sweep the schoolroom — it being his turn to do 
 so — and that Rufus might bring him something to 
 eat, at school time. 
 
 Addison now had thoughts of coming down from 
 the loft, overpowering Luke and escaping ; and he was 
 afterwards exceedingly sorry that he had not done so; 
 but he disliked to betray his identity and still hoped to 
 escape, somehow, unrecognized. 
 
 After a time the scholars assembled, and when the 
 girls began to find the stockings of confectionary under 
 their desks, and the boys to read the advice given them 
 in the old boots, there was a general pow-wow — all of 
 which Addison heard. 
 
 The girls openly praised " St. Nick " whom some 
 of them declared they knew was Addison. The Thomas 
 girls told what they had found in their fire-place ; and 
 there were lively comments all around, till the teacher 
 entered and school began. 
 
 All this time Addison had scarcely dared move. He 
 lay on two boards which were placed across the scant- 
 lings to which the laths and plaster of the ceiling were 
 affixed. It grew very warm, too ; for they had a hot 
 fire in the stove below. The heat made him drowsy 
 in spite of himself; it was dark up there, and he had 
 been astir all night. He began to catch cat naps ; and 
 at length, in one of these which may have lasted some 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 85 
 
 minutes, he rolled uneasily over, off the narrow boards, 
 jumped to recover himself and actually thrust one foot, 
 boot and all, down through the plaster ! 
 
 Instantly there was a scream from the girls' seats! 
 — followed by a whoop from the boys' ! Schoolmaster 
 Wilson stood staring, amazed, then exclaimed, " Who- 
 ever is up there, come down, instantly ! " 
 
 Dreadfully mortified and broad awake enough now, 
 Addison for a moment was inclined to defy them all 
 and stand a siege; for he fancied he could hold the 
 loft against all comers. But reflecting that in the end 
 he would inevitably be forced to surrender, he crept 
 to the scuttle. 
 
 "Come down instantly!" the master again called 
 out. 
 
 Addison raised the scuttle and (one can imagine 
 with what a chap fallen smile) showed his face. 
 
 A roar of recognition, and an outburst of ironical 
 laughter and jeers from the boys greeted him. 
 
 He was in for it now! Slowly he lowered himself 
 to the desk below and then to the floor and, not for- 
 getting his manners, made his best bow ! 
 
 Another shout of laughter arose! 
 
 " Well, sir, how came you up there? " cried the 
 master. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson," replied Ad, " that is quite a long 
 story. But I meant no harm. I did not get up there 
 willingly. I did not mean to make a disturbance." 
 
 " But you have made one ! " exclaimed the master. 
 " I think we shall have to keep hold of you a while. 
 You have done us some damage." 
 
 " I will gladly pay for the hole I have made in the 
 plaster," replied Addison, humbly. 
 
 " Well, sir, you may take a seat at my desk, till 
 school is dismissed. On second thought, I think you 
 may sit on the desk and face the school. When we 
 have such unusual visitors, we want them where we 
 can all see them ! " 
 
86 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 This was a humiliation; but Addison was obliged 
 to submit to it, for the master placed himself between 
 him and the outer door. Worse still, although he had 
 slipped out of his St. Nicholas togs before coming 
 down, some of the boys looked up in the loft and drew 
 them out. The master then compelled him to don the 
 whole absurd rig, horse-tail whiskers and all, as he sat 
 there on top of the desk, facing the whole school ! 
 
 He no doubt suffered agonies of mortification dur- 
 ing the next half or three-quarters of an hour. There 
 was one continuous laugh and titter. Study and les- 
 sons wholly ceased. At length the master dismissed 
 school for the forenoon and went off to his boarding- 
 place for his dinner, leaving Ad to the tender mercies 
 of all "Baghdad!" 
 
 Merrick, Cephas, Rufus, Tim and others at once 
 made at him, with doubled fists, promising him a sound 
 drubbing — for his Christmas advice. But those girls, 
 Myrtle, Edith, Leola and others, fifteen or twenty of 
 them, promptly gathered around him and stoutly de- 
 clared that their nice, dear " St. Nick " should not be 
 molested ! They formed a great ring about him, pro- 
 tected him out of the schoolhouse and escorted him 
 away down the road, through the woods. It is always 
 a good thing to be on the right side of the girls. So at 
 least Addison found it. 
 
 Meantime Willis, Thomas and I had been through 
 our own district and raised a party. At noon that day, 
 fourteen of us set off to invade " Baghdad " and rescue 
 our missing man, v i et armis and pugnis et calcibus. 
 
 We met him on the road, coming home afoot, with 
 the bushel baskets resting on his shoulders, partly over 
 his head; and his face, as he looked out from under 
 them, wore a very sheepish grin. 
 
 He would not tell us what had befallen him, but our 
 girls got the whole story from the Thomas girls a week 
 later. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 JOEL PIERSON ARRIVES 
 
 ON the following Saturday afternoon Elder 
 Witham came, but so blinding a snow-storm 
 had set in that there were no Sunday services 
 next day. 
 
 But to us young folks a far more interesting person- 
 age was expected that day, none other than our greatly 
 desired, long-expected schoolmaster, Joed Pierson, 
 from Bates College. 
 
 The storm was so severe that we feared he would 
 not be able to reach us, but at about three in the after- 
 noon a horse and pung, piled with luggage, was seen 
 plodding up the lane. 
 
 " There's old Joel, trunks, maps and all ! " shouted 
 Addison and rushed out to welcome him. We all fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 Horse, pung, driver and Joel himself were so cov- 
 ered with snow as to be scarcely distinguishable. In 
 the pung was stowed not only a huge trunk, but two 
 great rolls, carefully bound up, containing the much- 
 valued school maps. In a large box, too, was Joel's 
 own school melodeon, which he always took with him 
 to every schoolhouse where he taught, — although in 
 point of fact we had a melodeon. 
 
 Joel could not sing a note himself. " I have no more 
 voice than a guinea-hen," he often remarked; but he 
 enjoyed music in the schoolroom. " It is a good thing 
 to sing together," he was accustomed to say, " it makes 
 us all feel more kindly to each other." Unless we were 
 very late with lessons he never dismissed school, either 
 at noon or night, without singing. 
 
 87 
 
88 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 He brought two dozen school song-books. 
 
 I would give ten times the price for one of those 
 old song-books now, but they have long since ceased 
 to be printed and sold, and I cannot even hear of a 
 copy. Trite old songs they were, but they went well. 
 
 " John Brown had a little Indian." 
 
 And, — 
 
 " Oh, there's nothing but shame to the tardy name." 
 
 And, — 
 
 " Pure, cold water ! That's the drink for me." 
 
 And, — 
 
 " Of all the mighty nations in the East or in the 
 West." 
 
 All these .are jmperishably associated with recollec- 
 tions of Joel Pierson and his school melodeon. 
 
 On this Sabbath afternoon of his arrival, Joel came 
 stamping his feet into the wood-house, shaking the 
 snow off his old somewhat worn overcoat, for he was 
 a very saving young man. Grasping Gram by the 
 hand, he sang out in his odd, cheery, falsetto voice, 
 
 " Well, now, ' Mother,' it does a fellow good to see 
 you again. Seems just like getting home. And Squire, 
 how are you ? Didn't expect to get back here this win- 
 ter, but here I am, same old sixpence ! And Theodora, 
 you look just as good as ever. Your face is as big as 
 a family Bible, and it's such a downright good face that 
 there ought to be a lot more of it. Addison, how 
 you've grown ! grown handsome, too !. My stars, Ad- 
 dison, you will take the shine all off me among the 
 girls this winter ! And Halstead, you limb of the Old 
 Boy, how do you do these days? You've been grow- 
 ing, too. Got to be almost as tall as I am. All the 
 same I'll take the kinks out of you, if you don't behave 
 better than you did some days, last winter!" — sha- 
 king him heartily by the hand. " And Ellen and 
 Wealthy, you nice little things, how are both of you ? " 
 — getting one by each hand at once and swinging them 
 clean around him. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 89 
 
 " And who's this round-headed chap that seems to 
 have stepped in here since I stepped out ? " he de- 
 manded suddenly looking me over very critically. Ad- 
 dison made haste to introduce me to Joel, and I stepped 
 forward to shake hands, since shaking hands seemed to 
 be a specialty of his. He grabbed me promptly, gave 
 me a jerk and a tremendous grip. " Then you are an- 
 other one! All the way from Philadelphia! Right 
 from under the shadow of Girard College. Think you 
 can give me points on education, hey ? You look pretty 
 muscley for a youngster. But don't you once think 
 you can handle me, for you couldn't do it ! " Where- 
 upon he illustrated how easily he could trip me up and 
 set me in a chair; and although this seemed a some- 
 what informal and hasty sort of greeting, I conceived 
 a great liking for Joel, at once. 
 
 There was a vein of semi-extravagant drollery in 
 the man ; he was odd, offhand and grotesque in many 
 of his movements; yet he somehow gained one's con- 
 fidence from the moment he spoke. The fact was that 
 Joel was a young man of sterling principles and a good 
 heart. The Old Squire often said of him, that he was 
 " always on the right side." I am sorry the old photo- 
 graph which I have of him is so poor a one, yet it looks 
 quite a good deal like him. 
 
 By this time we had all drifted into the sitting-room 
 and Joel was greeting the Elder. In short, he fell into 
 his old place in the family quite as if he had been away 
 on a visit only. Addison, Theodora, Ellen and all the 
 others were delighted to have him back again; and 
 from that time onward till the close of school there was 
 always something pleasant and amusing coming off, 
 either in progress or being planned. 
 
 Joel enjoyed play the best of any one of his age 
 (twenty-two) whom I have ever met. The sitting- 
 room, evening and morning, was the scene of uproari- 
 ous fun and laughter as well as of hard earnest study. 
 By the time we had been studying closely for half or 
 
90 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 three-quarters of an hour — for Joel was himself a 
 student as well as teacher — he would start up, ex- 
 claiming, " It's time to have a fracas ! " and perhaps 
 launch a cushion at Addison's head, as a preliminary. 
 Then for five or ten minutes there would be lively times 
 there, when all would subside into study again. 
 
 One of Joel's least amiable traits, perhaps, was his 
 penchant for playing practical jokes, never of a dan- 
 gerous kind, yet tricks none the less, which sometimes 
 occasioned a considerable commotion in the house. 
 He had been the youngest of a family of boys at home, 
 and his older brothers had enured him to rough sport 
 while very young. In parson Joel was rather above 
 medium height, not of symmetrical form, but quite 
 muscular; in complexion he was sallow, with black 
 hair, gray eyes and a nose far from Grecian. Both in 
 voice and gestures he was noticeably peculiar. 
 
 I mention all these memories of Joel Pierson, chiefly 
 because they are so interesting to jne, personally ; for 
 he was the first teacher who aroused the desire in me 
 to study, for learning's sake, to acquire knowledge 
 for the benefit which he made plain would come to me 
 from it. 
 
 What a contrast the old schoolhouse presented by 
 noon, Monday, from the aspect of gloom and discon- 
 tent which it had worn under the regime of Master 
 Sam Lurvey! Every vacant place on the walls was 
 filled with Joel's large, colored maps; he had even 
 brought and hung up a red curtain at the window be- 
 hind his desk to give warmth of color to the gray old 
 interior. This was a hint which Theodora and Cath- 
 erine acted on to add two more colored curtains for the 
 back side of the room. In winter a dash of such strong 
 color cheers a room wonderfully. 
 
 The melodeon with its stack of song-books was set 
 up in front of the desk; a small globe, too, made its 
 appearance from the capacious melodeon box; and a 
 large, unabridged Webster's dictionary was laid open 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 91 
 
 on the desk, with an invitation to every one to come 
 and consult it frequently. 
 
 Even the worser boys in the school felt the influence 
 of these improved preparations for study. They knew, 
 too, from past experience that Joel could govern, as 
 well as instruct, if necessary. He was one of those 
 teachers, however, who have very little personal dig- 
 nity to sustain. As long as pupils were of the right 
 spirit and desirous of study, Joel cared very little for 
 any joke or minor irregularity which they might per- 
 petrate, even if it set the whole school laughing. He 
 would laugh, too, as heartily as any one. If he thought 
 we were getting a little dull from prolonged study and 
 quiet, he would even get up a laugh in school himself ; 
 he was a believer in laughter. 
 
 On the other hand, however, let a pupil grow in- 
 dolent with a tendency to mischief and disorder, and 
 Joel would immediately find means to make him grieve 
 profoundly. The use of the rod was not then prohib- 
 ited in the schoolroom. If a boy really meant to be 
 bad and unruly, Joel would keep an eye to him for 
 about three days, without saying much, then send out 
 for a big birch stick and without more ado proceed to 
 give the evil-doer such castigation as he would vividly 
 remember all the remainder of his life. It was cur- 
 rently said that when once Joel had fallen to birch- 
 ing a boy, he would never desist till the stick was worn 
 out! 
 
 There were no such punishments administered that 
 winter, however ; for the most part good feeling pre- 
 vailed throughout the term. Joel wished to hear noth- 
 ing of Master Lurvey from .any one; and he set the 
 classes at work much as if there had been no attempt 
 at a winter school before he came. Our arithmetic 
 class first made a rapid review, then settled to do some 
 diligent cyphering on advance work. It was while 
 reviewing Decimal Fractions that an incident occurred 
 which was remembered for years afterwards. 
 
92 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Why do you place the sign + after this decimal ? " 
 Joel asked me in class. 
 
 " Because it will not come out without a remainder 
 and I wish to show that the answer I have here isn't 
 the whole of it," I replied rather hazily. 
 
 " What did you attempt to divide? " 
 
 " 150,000,000 by 7," said I. 
 
 "And you got?" 
 
 " 21.428571.428571.428571+ " 
 
 " Do you see anything peculiar about it ? " 
 
 " Yes; the same set of figures, 428571, occur in the 
 quotient, over and over, and I never come out without a 
 remainder." 
 
 " The next, Catherine, what sort of a decimal do 
 you call this ? " 
 
 " A repetend, or circulating decimal." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because we keep coming around to the same set 
 of figures in the quotient, I suppose, and would always 
 have a remainder at the end, even if we continued 
 dividing all day." 
 
 " But if you were to divide all day steadily, adding 
 cyphers, you must get the decimal down very small," 
 said the master, quizzically. " There couldn't be much 
 left of the remainder, could there? Seems to me you 
 might get it down pretty near nothing. What do you 
 think, Thomas Edwards ? " 
 
 Thomas pondered the question for some moments. 
 The problem appeared to have occurred to him in this 
 light very forcibly, for the first time. " Why, I should 
 really think that anybody would get it down to nothing 
 by dividing long enough," replied he, thoughtfully. 
 
 This was just such an answer as Joel liked to get. 
 " It does look that way, doesn't it, Thomas? " said he, 
 argumentatively. " It would seem that we might tire 
 that remainder out if we kept annexing cyphers and 
 chased it long enough. According to the atomic theory 
 of matter, you come at last to atoms which are indivis- 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIYES 93 
 
 ible. Now if that theory is correct, I see no reason 
 why, in numbers, we would not in time come to a 
 point where further division would be impossible. Isn't 
 that the way it looks to you, Thomas ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, it kind of seems to me so," replied 
 Thomas, still very thoughtfully. 
 
 "What is a repetend, Theodora?" 
 
 " It is the figure, or set of figures, in the circulating 
 decimal, which is constantly, repeated, and is indicated 
 by a dot over that figure, or over the first and the last 
 of the set of figures." 
 
 " In the example above, what figures constitute the 
 repetend and how would you indicate them on the 
 board, Thomas ? " 
 
 Whereupon Tom wrote 428571 — 428571 — 
 428571. 
 
 " Every time you annex a cypher and divide by 7, 
 you decrease the actual remainder tenfold, and it does 
 seem, doesn't it, Thomas, that in time, by dividing long 
 enough, you might get that remainder very near down 
 to nothing at all," continued Joel, as if still arguing 
 the question. " How many in the class think that it 
 might be divided out to nothing, by working long 
 enough? " 
 
 Not a hand went up, at first. 
 
 But after a while Thomas boldly thrust up his hand. 
 The others laughed. Joel laughed, too. 
 
 " It could never be done," said Addison. 
 
 " How do you know ? " exclaimed Thomas whom 
 the laughter irritated a little. " Did you ever try it? 
 Did any of you ever try it? " 
 
 " No ; I never tried it," replied Addison dryly. 
 
 " Then you don't know ; and you had better not 
 state what you don't know," retorted Thomas. 
 
 "And you had better try it?" advised Addison, 
 ironically. 
 
 " Yes, Thomas, suppose you try it," said Joel. " I 
 do not think any one ever has tried it,, so you will be 
 
94 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 on new ground and there's no saying exactly what the 
 result may be." 
 
 Thomas was a very resolute boy ; he never declined 
 a challenge from any one. What he thought he knew 
 he would always stick to, through thick and thin. 
 
 " All right ! " he exclaimed. " I will try it. At any 
 rate I will not say I know a thing till I do know it," 
 he added with an aggressive glance at Addison who sat 
 with a provoking grin on his countenance. 
 
 At noon we bantered Thomas a good deal. " Laugh, 
 if you want to ! " he rejoined stoutly. " I'm not 
 so sure. I said I would try reducing it down, and I 
 will." 
 
 This was oh Saturday, — for at that time it was 
 customary to have Saturday holiday but once a fort- 
 night. School was no sooner dismissed at night, than 
 Thomas carefully cleaned the blackboard and placed his 
 dividend, for proving the circulating decimal a hoax, 
 along the top margin of the board in small figures, to 
 wit, 7)15.000000000000, and began dividing. " I can 
 divide half an hour before dark," said he. " Then I 
 will go home, get my supper and get a lamp and come 
 back." 
 
 Catherine privately tried to dissuade him, but he was 
 resolute to keep his word and see how long-winded a 
 circulating decimal really is. 
 
 " You will soon get the blackboard full of figures," 
 remarked Joel who enjoyed a thing of this sort im- 
 mensely. " But here is a lead pencil and a tab of blank 
 white paper. You can carry the operation from the 
 board to a sheet of paper and then from one sheet to 
 another; and as fast as you cover the sheets you can 
 pin them up in a row from the end of the board around 
 the room to the right." 
 
 We went home and left Thomas there hard at work. 
 
 About seven in the evening Catherine called at the 
 Old Squire's. 
 
 " I thought I would come down and study with 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 95 
 
 Theodora awhile; it is sort of lonesome at home this 
 evening," she said, laughing. 
 
 " Is Tom at the schoolhouse? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes ; he came home to gat his supper and a paper 
 of pins, but took a lamp and went back ; and he filled 
 his pocket with doughnuts before starting." 
 
 Joel laughed heartily. 
 
 "Suppose he will stay there all night?" queried 
 Addison. 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know," replied Catherine. 
 " Mother is inclined to think that you kept him after 
 school, Mr. Pierson." 
 
 This amused us boys. 
 
 " He picked up all the white and brown paper that 
 he could find in the house," continued Catherine. " He 
 said he should want it." 
 
 The thought of Thomas down there at the school- 
 house alone, chasing that circulating decimal, diverted 
 us so much that it was difficult to study. At length 
 Joel exclaimed, " It's good walking ; let's all go down 
 and see what he is about ! " 
 
 This proposal was hailed with a shout ; and immedi- 
 ately we set off. Even Wealthy went along. On com- 
 ing in sight of the schoolhouse, the light of a lamp 
 could plainly be seen through a window. 
 
 " Let's scare him," said Halstead. 
 
 " You couldn't do it," Catherine said. 
 
 " No, no," remarked Joel. " We will not disturb 
 him, nor interfere with him in any way. Let him 
 work. We will merely peep in on the sly to see how 
 he is getting on and then go away. Thomas is all 
 right. I like his grit." 
 
 We approached softly, and first Joel, then Addison 
 and the rest of us peeped in at the window near the 
 doorstep. Thomas sat in the desk figuring away 
 smartly on paper; the lamp was set on the melodeon 
 hard by. Its light illuminated the room faintly; but 
 we could see that the blackboard was closely covered 
 
96 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 with figures, and that there were as many as fifteen 
 sheets of paper pinned up already. 
 
 Some one at length made a misstep and laughed. 
 The sound reached the figurer's ear inside. " Oh, I 
 hear you, out there ! " he exclaimed, but without look- 
 ing up. 
 
 We stole away. Afterwards Catherine told the girls 
 that Thomas came home at about one o'clock. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, but we saw Thomas go 
 past at about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, in the 
 direction of the schoolhouse; and it was dusk when 
 he returned. 
 
 While at breakfast the following morning, at about 
 seven o'clock, Ellen chanced to glance out and espied 
 Thomas hurrying along the road toward the school- 
 house. 
 
 " He is going to tackle that circulating decimal 
 again," cried Addison. 
 
 Joel was so amused that he sat laughing throughout 
 breakfast; and it was with great difficulty and sedu- 
 lously staring at the floor, or ceiling, that we kept sober 
 faces during family prayers. 
 
 When we arrived at the schoolhouse at a few mo- 
 ments before nine that morning, Thomas was in the 
 act of completing a sheetful of 428571s, which he 
 hastily added to the row of similar sheets which now 
 extended clean around the walls ! The interior of the 
 room presented a truly odd appearance, and there was a 
 great deal of merriment even after the bell rang ! The 
 usual morning exercises were held, however, and then 
 according to custom the first class in arithmetic was 
 called. Such a vast assemblage of figures as the black- 
 board and all those sheets of paper presented we had 
 none of us ever contemplated before! There were a 
 hundred and twenty-two sheets of paper pinned in 
 rows around the house. It was quite enough to make 
 one's head swim, as Ellen remarked, to even attempt 
 to enumerate them. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 97 
 
 Thomas took his place in the class quite as a matter 
 of course ; he looked as confident as ever ; and the fact 
 that we were all regarding him with broad smiles on 
 our faces did not appear to embarrass him in the least. 
 
 " At our last recitation, on Saturday, we had the 
 subject of circulating decimals," Joel now observed. 
 " The question whether a circulating decimal, consist- 
 ing of a repetend, could ever be reduced and brought 
 out without a remainder, was then raised. One of our 
 number thought this might possibly be done by dividing 
 long enough; and we have before us, as I conclude, 
 the result of his efforts in that direction. Am I right, 
 Thomas ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Thomas promptly. 
 
 '^What results, if any, have you obtained from your 
 calculations? " 
 
 " Well, sir," replied Thomas, getting up slowly and 
 facing half around so, as to have all his work in full 
 view, " I have proved and settled a number of points 
 in my own mind at least. One of these points is that 
 this is really and truly a circulating decimal, for as you 
 can all see it has brought me clean around the room to 
 the point where I started from," — indicating the long 
 circuitous row of figured sheets of paper, with a wide 
 gesture of his hand. 
 
 " So we see," said Joel, laughing. " But what re- 
 sult has come from the constant division, after annex- 
 ing cyphers ? Have you come out without a remainder, 
 at last?" 
 
 " Oh, no, sir, not yet ! " cried Thomas, quite as a 
 matter of course and as if surprised at such a question. 
 
 We all laughed heartily at his tone. 
 
 " You still think then that by dividing long enough 
 you might come out without a remainder? " questioned 
 Joel. 
 
 " I am sure of it," said Thomas, with enthusiasm. 
 
 Addison burst forth laughing, but Catherine and 
 Theodora looked at Tom in perplexity. 
 
98 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Have you any idea how long it would require ? " 
 continued Joel. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Thomas at once. " I think I see 
 exactly how long it would require." 
 
 "Well, how long?" exclaimed Joel. 
 
 " Forever," replied Thomas, emphatically. " No 
 more, no less." 
 
 " Forever's a long while," said Joel. 
 
 " Well, yes," said Thomas, " and that is a long ex- 
 ample. It will take just forever to do it in. It can be 
 done in that time, but in nothing less." 
 
 "Isn't forever the same thing as eternity?" asked 
 Theodora. 
 
 " Yes ; eternity, or infinity," replied Joel. " Thomas 
 has got as near the truth of the matter as any one can 
 get, I think; and I am glad he made this trial and 
 came to this conclusion from his own reasoning, with- 
 out aid. It is worth more to him and more to you 
 all than anything I could have said about it. Thomas 
 will never forget what a circulating, or infinite, decimal 
 is, I will warrant." 
 
 " No, I shall not," said Thomas. " I've been think- 
 ing of a great many other things, too, while I sat 
 making those figures. One thing I've thought of is 
 what you said about matter and atoms, atoms that are 
 supposed to be indivisible. I don't, believe anybody 
 would ever come to an ' atom ' so small but that it could 
 be divided again. Or at any rate it would take just as 
 long to divide down to an indivisible atom, as it would 
 to get that decimal down. And that is forever. That 
 is what nobody ever could come to. So nobody can 
 ever find an atom which can't be divided. When folks 
 talk about atoms, they are talking of something no one 
 ever found, or ever can find. So really there is no 
 such thing as an atom which cannot be divided." 
 
 " Thomas, you are getting us into very deep water," 
 said Joel. "We had better return to finite decimals, 
 I think." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 99 
 
 The blackboard was cleared of the figures; and 
 Tom's many sheets of paper were used to kindle the 
 fires that week, but the points brought out that morn- 
 ing lingered a great while in my mind. I have pon- 
 dered them often in later years, and have heard them 
 discussed by learned authorities who considered them- 
 selves philosophers. But I have never really heard 
 anything clearer on the subject than Thomas gave us 
 in about thirty words that morning; and Tom never 
 thought of such a thing as being a philosopher. It was 
 the fresh, spontaneous effort of a school-boy's mind, 
 and it had its effect on his whole after life. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 HOW TO THAW A FROZEN PUMP : CATHERINE'S BRIGHT 
 
 IDEA 
 
 MEANTIME I was having far more prosaic 
 trouble with another, inferior kind of frac- 
 tions, called vulgar. At the school which I 
 had previously attended no proper effort had been 
 made to teach vulgar fractions and render them plain 
 to young minds. Although in a far more pretentious 
 building than the red schoolhouse at the Old Squire's, 
 the school itself was much less efficient. When I came 
 t© review my Practical Arithmetic that winter, Master 
 Pierson promptly discovered my deficiencies. For a 
 week he kept me hard at work on those fractions, 
 particularly on the complex variety. Withal I was 
 ashamed that Tom and Catherine knew all these things 
 so much better than I did, more especially as I had 
 come from a place where there were forty weeks of 
 school in a year. I felt and feared that I was hope- 
 lessly dull. Shame spurred me to catch up with 
 Thomas ; but Master Joel would not let me budge, nor 
 go on, till I could solve those examples in complex 
 fractions. In fact, I was giving my mind to the task, 
 quite intently, for four or five days thereafter, when — 
 I think it was the fourth morning — I fell into a seri- 
 ous difficulty at home. 
 
 In short, I let the barn pump freeze up. It was 
 January weather, seven degrees below zero, with a bit- 
 ter wind blowing, as is often the case in Maine at this 
 time of year. The Old Squire was away that week 
 at a logging-camp up in the Great Woods. Halstead 
 
 100 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OtfR LIVES 101 
 
 was laid up in the house with a severe cold and had 
 not been out of doors for several days; he generally- 
 had two or three of those colds every winter, caught 
 imprudently, nearly always. 
 
 In consequence, Addison and I had all the barn 
 chores to do that week. The Old Squire had sent for 
 Asa Doane to help us, but he had failed to come. We 
 contrived to get to school as usual, but had to rise 
 early and hurry around. Neither of us was in the best 
 of humor; but we divided the work between us and 
 made haste. There were sixteen cows — but only two 
 of them gave milk — eight yearlings and two-year-olds, 
 two horses, three colts and fifty sheep to be cared for. 
 
 Addison took charge of the provender and hay, and 
 did the milking, while I pitched the hay from the mow, 
 did the pumping and watered the entire herd. His 
 share certainly required most attention, although I did 
 not think so, then. 
 
 It was quite true, too, that he had reminded me, the 
 night before, to run the pump down. I had to acknowl- 
 edge it, afterwards. But I had been in a kind of maze, 
 or a daze, all day, over two of those hard examples in 
 complex fractions. One of them I still remember dis- 
 tinctly. 
 
 | of 60J off -8^ -What? 
 
 The answer of course is i, but I could not get it, 
 and it was still worrying me when I reached home that 
 night ; so much so that after " fetching " the pump 
 and watering the cattle, I had somehow forgotten to 
 run the pump down as was the strict rule every time 
 water was pumped in winter. 
 
 It froze up that night, solid as a rock! And next 
 morning there was that whole stock to water, with 
 nothing but ice in the trough. What was harder even 
 
102 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 than ice, Addison had no sympathy for me. " I told 
 you last night to run that pump down ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Why didn't you ? Now you may lug water for all 
 of me — and serve you right ! " 
 
 He was so righteously indignant with me that at a 
 quarter to nine, he hastened off to school, without 
 speaking, and left me there with those cattle to water 
 as best I could. 
 
 I could not complain. It was my job; and after he 
 and the girls had gone to school, I set to work to carry 
 water in two buckets from the pump in the farmhouse 
 kitchen — all the way out through the long wood- 
 house, wagon-house, and stable, to the west barn, and 
 then down a flight of stairs to the watering-trough in 
 the barn cellar! 
 
 I am wondering, too, whether many of those who 
 read this realize how much water thirty head of cattle 
 will drink. I let them out to the trough one by one, 
 as I hastened back and forth from the house well, and 
 it did seem to me that never would they stop drinking 
 or get enough. The less water there was in the trough, 
 the thirstier they seemed to be. Some of them actually 
 drank four bucketfuls. 
 
 As I hurried to and fro, water slopped from the 
 buckets, which instantly turned to ice as it fell on the 
 floor and stairs; and the monotony of the trips was 
 enlivened for me by tumbling down occasionally with 
 two buckets of water. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock, and I had made forty-five or 
 fifty trips before all those thirsty cows and horses were 
 satisfied; the sheep had to eat snow; I then set to 
 work to thaw out the pump with hot water. For in the 
 house Gram and Aunt Olive were making complaint 
 against me for slopping water about ; they feared, too, 
 lest I might pump the well dry, since wells everywhere 
 were low that winter. 
 
 Reader, did you ever try to thaw out an iron or a 
 copper pump with the mercury below zero — and fetch 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 103 
 
 your hot water in a bucket from a kitchen stove a hun- 
 dred yards away? 
 
 The pump itself I thawed with no great difficulty, 
 down past the " boxes " to the point where it was 
 screwed to the inch-and-a-half lead pipe which led off 
 aslant to the barn well forty feet distant. But that 
 inch-and-a-half pipe was also frozen up hard and fast. 
 I was afraid it had burst; and that added to my 
 troubles, since the ground over the pipe was hard- 
 frozen and now buried under six feet of snow-drifts. 
 It would be next to impossible in such weather to dig it 
 up and put in new pipe. That was what Addison said 
 — for my comfort ! 
 
 But the pipe, as I may add here, was very thick and 
 of good stock. The Old Squire always made use of 
 the best material he could purchase for all such work. 
 The ice in the pipe, as we afterward learned, had 
 bulged it in places, but did not actually burst it. 
 
 As soon as I had cleared the pump, I unscrewed the 
 coupling to the pipe with ,a wrench, and then tried to 
 thaw the pipe by pouring hot water into it. This one 
 can do' for five or six feet downward without great 
 difficulty, but soon a point is reached where the hot 
 water no longer operates, for the reason that as it cools 
 it is not much displaced by what is poured in at the 
 top; and still deeper it is not displaced at all, the hot 
 which you pour in merely running over at the top. 
 
 Eight or nine feet down, where the pipe turned off 
 underground, I came to a standstill. I persevered and 
 fussed with it two or three hours, but quite in vain. 
 Meanwhile I had scalded one hand rather painfully 
 through my mitten. 
 
 Boys who read this may laugh at my troubles that 
 day, but they were very real troubles to me. I knew 
 not what to> do, and was not a little terrified at the 
 prospect ahead; for by three o'clock that afternoon 
 I had to begin carrying water for the cattle again, to 
 get them watered before dark. 
 
104 A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 
 
 I knew Addison would not help me. Moreover, he 
 had his own large share of the chores to do. In short, 
 I was in a hard spot. 
 
 And it got harder; for by the time I had carried 
 fifteen or sixteen turns of water from the house well 
 that afternoon, the kitchen pump sucked and gurgled. 
 I had pumped the well out, and now Gram and Aunt 
 Olive came down on me again. " Don't you take an- 
 other drop of water from here!" Aunt Olive ex- 
 claimed. " Do you think I want to .melt snow for 
 water ? " 
 
 " But the cattle must have' water. What can I do? " 
 I cried, nursing my scalded hand, and nearly in tears 
 but for shame of shedding them. 
 
 " Kindle a fire under the arch-kettle in the wagon- 
 house and melt snow yourself," said Aunt Olive, aus- 
 terely. " Why in the world, too, don't you put rock 
 salt or saltpetre in that pump pipe? Rock salt in it 
 overnight will thaw it out." 
 
 Thus adjured, I kindled a fire in the " arch,'' filled 
 the big kettle with ice and snow, then got rock salt, 
 such as we gave to the herd. But by this time the hot 
 water which I had poured into the pump earlier in the 
 afternoon had cooled and frozen. I thawed it down 
 for two feet again with more boiling hot water, then 
 filled it up with salt grains. 
 
 Soon after, Addison came home from school and 
 began doing his share of the chores. His face was still 
 hard set against me. " You will have to stay at home 
 and melt snow the rest of this winter, I guess," said he 
 grimly. 
 
 " Snow-water isn't good for cattle, either," he added. 
 " And I don't believe you can melt enough for them, 
 anyway." 
 
 I was afraid I could not myself, for it melted slowly 
 in spite of the good fire I kept. All that evening I 
 tended the kettle, carrying the water in a bucket to the 
 cattle .and horses in their stalls. It was nine o'clock 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 105 
 
 before I could give them even one bucketful apiece. 
 But it had to suffice ; and I crept away to bed, with my 
 smarting hand, completely tired out and discouraged 
 by the day's struggle with cold and adversity. 
 
 My hand, I remember, kept me from sleeping much 
 till past midnight. Then it got easier ; and I was com- 
 fortably dreaming when Addison roused me at six. 
 " Come, come ! " said he. " You had better be up melt- 
 ing more snow, instead of snoozing there. Those cattle 
 need water." 
 
 It was, in good truth, a hard, cold world to wake 
 into! I had cherished faint hopes that the rock salt 
 grains would thaw out the pump pipe, and dressing in 
 haste, I rushed out to ascertain. The water, strongly 
 impregnated with salt, had not frozen at the top end 
 of the pipe; and on thrusting in a long stick, I found 
 that the salt had actually eaten its way downward in 
 the ice for about five feet. But it had gone no farther, 
 and the prospect of its working its way underground 
 to the well outside the barn was poor indeed. It might 
 do so in a week or two, perhaps, but even that was un- 
 certain. 
 
 Master Pierson, who had now learned of the trouble 
 at the barn, came out with the kind purpose of aiding 
 me, but shook his head after trying the pump. 
 
 " That pipe is frozen, probably, clean down to the 
 water in the well," he said. 
 
 " It is hard on you, and I am very sorry to have you 
 lose time at school," he added, with genuine sympathy. 
 
 But even sympathy does not greatly help a case like 
 that. In still gloomier mood, I rekindled the fire in 
 the arch, and later saw Addison depart for school, 
 while I put in another day, melting snow for those 
 ever-thirsty cattle. Theodora and Ellen pitied me, but 
 there was not much that they could do to help matters. 
 So far as I could see, there was not a ray of hope ahead 
 anywhere. I should probably have to melt snow day 
 and night all the rest of that winter, or at least till the 
 
106 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Old Squire came home. That, too, was a bitter 
 thought. I was ashamed to have the old gentleman 
 learn how careless I had been. 
 
 By afternoon I had grown desperate, as well as tired 
 and disheartened. Doing my best with the arch-kettle, 
 I could not melt snow enough to water so numerous a 
 herd. I had been able to give them no more than a 
 bucketful apiece that day. Some of the cows were 
 lowing plaintively whenever they saw me enter the 
 barn with the bucket; and as for the sheep, they were 
 eating snow. What to do I knew not. 
 
 But relief was at hand. My good genius was about 
 to appear. I had now been absent from school two 
 days, and by this time my arithmetic class had begun 
 to ask after me. Addison, I suppose, told them where 
 I was and what I was doing, and that night six or seven 
 of my schoolmates called on their way home, to see 
 me at my task and sympathize, or have a little fun at 
 my predicament, according to their dispositions. 
 
 Among them were Thomas and Catherine. As I 
 was emerging from the barn, bucket in hand, they all 
 met me, laughing, and then must needs go to see the 
 pump and ask all sorts of questions which I was in no 
 mood to answer. 
 
 But Catherine lingered, with Theodora and Ellen, 
 after the others had gone. 
 
 " Couldn't you pour hot water into the pipe here? " 
 she asked me. 
 
 " Oh, I have," I said, impatiently. " But it will only 
 thaw the ice about so far down the pipe. It gets cold 
 down there. The hot water from the top will not work 
 down much deeper than eight feet." 
 
 " Isn't there any way you could get the real hot, 
 boiling water down there where the ice is ? " Catherine 
 persisted in asking. 
 
 " I don't know any way," said I, not very graciously, 
 for I was cross, and had no exalted idea of girls' wis- 
 dom. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 107 
 
 But Catherine's eyes were still thoughtfully bent on 
 that pipe. " If only you had a little pipe, smaller than 
 that, to run down into it, where the ice is, and then 
 poured the boiling water into the little pipe with a 
 funnel, wouldn't it go right down hot against that ice 
 and thaw it? " she persisted. 
 
 " Maybe, but I haven't any such little pipe," said I, 
 and hastened away to the arch, to get another bucket 
 of water. 
 
 Catherine lingered there, studying on it for some 
 moments longer, then started off hastily. 
 
 I had no idea that she could help me, and renewed 
 my fire; but a little later, in the twilight, Catherine 
 and Thomas came back. They had Tom's hand-sled, 
 and on it was a coil of old, half-inch lead pipe, the pipe 
 of an aqueduct at the Edwards farm, which had become 
 clogged the summer before, and had to be dug up and 
 replaced by larger pipe. 
 
 Tom was laughing, but Catherine was much in ear- 
 nest. " Let's try this ! " she exclaimed. " It will go 
 into your pump pipe, and it will bend easy. Get hot 
 water and a funnel." 
 
 There were forty or fifty feet of this little, thin old 
 lead pipe. We poked one end of it down the pump pipe 
 till it touched the ice in it, and then, elevating the other 
 end six or eight feet, we began pouring in hot water 
 through a tin funnel. 
 
 The effect was immediately apparent. Within five 
 minutes we were able to thrust the small pipe down 
 two feet deeper in the pump pipe ; and we now elevated 
 the upper end of the little pipe still higher, so as to give 
 the hot water in it greater pressure. The longer we 
 worked, too, the faster was the ice in the large pipe 
 melted, since the pipe was now getting hot. The water, 
 boiling hot, came directly in contact with the ice, and 
 as it cooled, it came bubbling up about the little pipe 
 and flowed out at the top of the large one. 
 
 Dusk had fallen, but a lantern was lighted, and we 
 
108 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 went on as fast as Aunt Olive, Addison and the girls 
 could fetch hot water from the kitchen stove, for now 
 they all turned out to help me. Within an hour that 
 pump pipe was free of ice clear down to the well. 
 
 I was not long screwing on the pump again, and 
 within another hour had my thirsty herd comfortably 
 watered once more. 
 
 Master Pierson deemed Catherine's idea such a 
 bright one that he wrote a brief account of it for the 
 county newspaper, under the heading, " How to Thaw 
 out a Frozen Pump." And a plumber in Portland has 
 since told me that he saw that item in the paper, and 
 recognizing its practical value, had a small, flexible 
 pipe made of Britannia metal for his own use in just 
 such cases of frozen water-pipes. Other plumbers, he 
 said, copied it from him, till it came into quite general 
 use throughout the northern United States. So far as 
 he knew, plumbers in this country had not thought of 
 that plan previously. 
 
 I hope I was really grateful to Catherine for my 
 rescue from disgrace, and I think I was, but my recol- 
 lecton is that I had little opportunity to express my 
 gratitude that night. For the moment that Catherine 
 found that the plan was about to succeed, she and 
 Thomas scampered home to supper. 
 
 I have alluded to Joel Pierson's trait or weakness 
 for practical jokes. I think that it was on Wednesday 
 of this week that he played one upon Addison which 
 had consequences. 
 
 Addison was always much interested in minerals. 
 Anything in the shape of a mineral specimen was 
 sure to attract his attention. He had made a col- 
 lection of specimens from the crags and ledges in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 That evening as we went into the sitting-room from 
 the supper-table, whither Joel had already preceded 
 us, the latter called out to Addison to take a look at 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 109 
 
 that pretty piece of rose quartz on the top of the fire- 
 frame. 
 
 In all good faith and quite unsuspicious, Addison at 
 once walked to the fire-frame and took up the bit of 
 quartz. He had no sooner raised it, however, than he 
 flung it away with a howl of displeasure. Joel, the 
 joker, had been heating it in the fire till the moment 
 before Addison entered, when he had removed it with 
 the tongs. 
 
 "What's the matter there?" cried the master. 
 " You act as if that was hot ! " 
 
 Addison did not reply, but proceeded to cool the ends 
 of his finger and thumb for a time, then took out his 
 books, quite as if nothing had happened and without 
 showing any signs of temper. Nevertheless, Theodora 
 and I thought it likely that this prank would have to be 
 settled for before school was done. Addison was not 
 the boy to let such a trick as that go unrequited. 
 
 As much as a week passed; other jokes were per- 
 petrated, so many that the master himself may have 
 forgotten that one ; it was merely one of many such. 
 
 About this time two pigs were slaughtered at the 
 Old Squire's, and the afternoon following, Addison 
 went home from school at recess, to assist Gram in 
 the task of preparing what she called " souse," or head 
 cheese, from the heads and other minor parts of the 
 two porkers. For this service the old lady much pre- 
 ferred Addison to the girls, or hired help. He had a 
 taste for dissection and understood how to remove the 
 flesh from the bone of the head, as also what parts it 
 was better to save, and what to reject. So Addison 
 was called home as assistant souse-maker. 
 
 While thus employed an idea appears to have oc- 
 curred to him ; for in addition to this other labor, that 
 afternoon, he carefully removed the eyes of one of the 
 pigs from their bony sockets. 
 
 From an anatomist's point of view this is an interest- 
 ing thing to do; but from the ordinary standpoint, the 
 
110 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 eyes of any such animal are unsightly and of frightful 
 appearance to many. Moreover, the eye is a larger 
 organ when its entire globe is exposed than would ap- 
 pear to the ordinary observer who sees only the front 
 portion of it in life. 
 
 Having removed the eyes with much care and atten- 
 tion to details, Addison first washed them in pickle, 
 then wired them together and proceeded to roll them 
 up in thickness after thickness of brown paper, till a 
 package as large as one's fist had been formed. This 
 he then secured carefully with several wrappings of 
 twine and laid aside. 
 
 It was Joel's custom, while sitting indoors at the Old 
 Squire's, to wear a loose, green jacket; but on setting 
 off for school, he put on a dark gray sack coat and his 
 overcoat. Just before he donned these garments, next 
 morning, to go to school, Addison privately slipped his 
 package into the pocket of this sack coat. Joel put it 
 on hastily as usual, then put on the overcoat and went 
 to school. About an hour after school had begun, 
 while the algebra class was at the blackboard and Joel 
 was walking up and down the floor, he chanced to put 
 his hand into that pocket of the sack coat, when his 
 fingers came in contact with the package. Addison, 
 who had kept a curious eye to his movements, observed 
 that he stopped in his walk, and, as he felt the package 
 over in his pocket, appeared to be pondering as to what 
 it could be. He turned a little aside, and taking it from 
 his pocket, looked at it curiously, as if still pondering 
 what it was and when or for what purpose he had put 
 it there. Apparently he could not think what it was, 
 but he dropped it back into his pocket, and for some 
 time paid no further attention to it. 
 
 But it was plain that it bothered his mind still, for 
 Addison saw his hand steal into that pocket several 
 times, during the next fifteen or twenty minutes. 
 
 At last curiosity gained the ascendency and taking 
 advantage of a spare moment, while the next class 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 111 
 
 was working at the blackboard, he sat down behind his 
 desk and, after a glance around the room, to make sure 
 that matters were going on well and that all were prop- 
 erly attending to their studies, he again drew forth 
 the package and, having cut the string with his knife, 
 began unrolling the paper. Thickness after thickness 
 was removed ; and a whimsical expression of curiosity 
 and " can't-for-the-life-of-me-remember-what-this-is " 
 overspread his countenance. 
 
 On a sudden, with the removal of the last thickness 
 of paper, the two pig's eyes were left in his hand, grim, 
 raw and staring up in his face! 
 
 The denouement would no doubt have startled al- 
 most any one ; and it so startled Joel that he uttered a 
 suppressed exclamation and threw them clean out of 
 his hand over the desk and the melodeon into the floor ! 
 
 Every one in the room looked up at once. There 
 lay the pig's eyes on the floor, and there stood the 
 master, looking hard at them. What it was all about 
 no one, except Addison, could for a time even guess. 
 First one, then another, began to laugh, till the room 
 was in an uproar. 
 
 Yet still we did not fully understand it. 
 
 Joel took up the horrible objects with two sticks 
 from the wood-box, and threw them in the stove. He 
 made no remark, but after the tumult had subsided, 
 went on with the algebra lesson; yet the affair had 
 flustered him considerably, as we could all see. 
 
 Addison said nothing; but Joel no doubt soon 
 guessed to whom he was indebted for the prank. He 
 was almost inclined to feel offended at first, I think, 
 for he scarcely spoke to Addison during the day, but 
 by evening they were as friendly as ever. On reflection 
 Joel probably concluded that it was not much more 
 than a fair offset to the hot " specimen." He had 
 thrown the pig's eyes even farther than Addison had 
 the stone. 
 
 A few evenings afterwards Thomas, Catherine and 
 
H2 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 the Wilbur young folks were at the Old Squire's, and 
 in an interval of study in the sitting-room, we began 
 to put catch-questions, riddles and conundrums. This 
 had been going on a few minutes, when Addison sud- 
 denly asked, "What is hotter than a hot stone?" 
 Every one laughed at this; but a fit answer was not 
 at once forthcoming from any one, till little Wealthy 
 piped up, " A dead pig's eye ! " 
 
 There was a shout. Joel shook his head with mock 
 solemnity, and said, " Let's go to studying again." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LATIN AND THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 ALTHOUGH I have spoken so much of these 
 whimsical occurrences, it must not be concluded 
 that we occupied our time to any great extent 
 with them. In reality we were studying very ambi- 
 tiously. With all of Master Pierson's peculiarities, 
 there was in him a profound sense of the importance of 
 education. A student himself, ha was a constant ex- 
 ample to us. What he sought constantly to impress 
 on our minds was that education is the one needful 
 condition to success in life; that the way to acquire 
 it is to study unsparingly ; and that all we could learn 
 was really worth the effort it cost us. 
 
 In geography his maps and globe were a great help. 
 Enthusiastic lessons were recited from those maps. 
 The text-book at that time was Colton and Fitch's 
 Geography. The class finished it in eight weeks. Al- 
 though I had studied geography previously, I never 
 really knew much of it, or took much interest in it till 
 that winter. When that term closed there was not a 
 question in the text-book which any one of our class 
 of seven could not answer. Master Joel stated this to 
 Mr. Furness, the visiting member of the school com- 
 mittee, when he visited the school the day before the 
 term closed. Mr. Furness was a little inclined to doubt 
 so broad an assertion and spent twenty minutes in 
 questioning us rapidly at hap-hazard over the book. 
 But no one failed to give a correct answer. At length 
 he closed the book and, turning to the master, ex- 
 
 113 
 
114 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 claimed, " I think you are right. It's really remark- 
 able. You must have worked hard with them." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Joel, laughing, " they are the ones 
 who have worked. They've had ambition." 
 
 That was quite true; we had an ambition to learn 
 everything in that book; and even now, after forty 
 years, those questions and answers, as also the coun- 
 tries, islands, seas and oceans of those large wall maps, 
 are fast in my memory. The great merit of Master 
 Pierson lay in that he was somehow able to kindle 
 such an ambition to learn, for learning's sake. 
 
 Eight weeks of school, with a few evening spelling- 
 matches and an examination to which the parents were 
 invited, passed quickly; yet we felt that we had really 
 grown, mentally, since Christmas; and now the ques- 
 tion arose, how we should expend the money which 
 remained over from our effort to raise funds in De- 
 cember. 
 
 I Theodora argued — and I now think she was right 
 — that it would be more generous and better to add 
 the money to the general school fund, and have school 
 for all in the district, by just so much longer. This 
 plan was the more advisable, since, although there had 
 been some dissent at first, nearly every pupil in the dis- 
 trict was now interested and learning well. Scarcely 
 any one expressed aught save regret that school was so 
 soon to close. 
 
 But Addison and Thomas said, " No-sir-ee ! " 
 
 " They would not help us. They fought it, or at 
 least Tibbetts and his party did. They tried to keep 
 us from hiring Joel. If they could have legally stopped 
 us they would have done so. And now do you think 
 we will agree to share the money that we worked to 
 get with them ! No-sir-ee ! " That was the way Addi- 
 son summed up the case. 
 
 And Thomas cried, " Right you are ! Let them 
 pack up their books now and go home. They did not 
 want school enough to work a day for it. Let them 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 115 
 
 go without it now, I say. We will have a nice little 
 private term, all by ourselves, in our own part of the 
 district." 
 
 It is perhaps regrettable, but natural, that the most 
 of our party sided with Addison and Thomas. 
 
 Theodora urged the more magnanimous way ; Cath- 
 erine did not express an opinion, but voted with 
 Thomas and Addison. 
 
 As for Joel he declared that it was not a question 
 for him to decide ; and he declined to advise us. " Set- 
 tle it," he said, " in the way that seems best to the 
 majority who earned the money." 
 
 Addison was not wholly unaffected by Theodora's 
 argument, however; for he was by no means an un- 
 usually selfish boy. On the last day of school, at recess 
 in the afternoon, he made a few remarks. 
 
 " We have got twenty-eight dollars of money left 
 over from the sixty dollars or more which we earned 
 before the last part of the school began," he said to 
 the others. " Now what we propose, is to have a 
 short private school which Master Pierson has agreed 
 to teach. But of course it is to be for those who 
 helped earn the money. Those who refused to help 
 do anything, cannot expect to share in it. But I will 
 tell you what we will do. There are more of you, out 
 at the Corners and thereabouts, than there are of us, 
 in the upper part of the district. If you will raise 
 twenty-eight dollars among you, to put alongside ours, 
 we will go in together and have five weeks more of 
 school here at the schoolhouse. What say to that? " 
 
 Several said that they would like to do so, and I 
 think that some effort was made that evening to raise 
 the required sum by means of a subscription paper, but 
 nothing came of it. 
 
 " Well, Doad, I made them a square offer to go in 
 share and share with them," Addison remarked at the 
 supper table that night, after school was done and we 
 had brought our books home. He then laughingly 
 
116 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 related what he had proposed to the Corners' boys. 
 But for some reason his tone and manner irritated 
 Theodora. 
 
 " Ad, you knew all the time that they wouldn't or 
 couldn't raise the money ! " she exclaimed. " I do not 
 think your ' square offer,' as you call it, amounted to 
 anything whatever. It was just a piece of hard self- 
 ishness ! " 
 
 Joel laughed ; Addison laughed, too. 
 
 " To be honest," said he, " I am just as selfish as 
 that looks. I do not think I would give that old rum- 
 seller, Tibbetts, one dollar of this money of ours to save 
 his life. Perhaps I would if the case came up, but I 
 do not feel this moment as if I would." 
 
 " But it isn't Tibbetts wholly," rejoined Theodora. 
 " It is our schoolmates from all that part of the dis- 
 trict." 
 
 " They all had their chance to do something a month 
 ago. I asked them and even urged them to join in 
 with us and help us," replied Addison. " They were 
 too lazy, or wrong-headed to help us. They had their 
 chance. They refused." 
 
 " But they were ill-advised at the time. They 
 thought of course that their parents were in the right," 
 interposed Theodora. 
 
 " Let it be a lesson to them for next time, then," 
 rejoined Addison. " They will remember it the bet- 
 ter." 
 
 The matter rested there. 
 
 That evening we canvassed the question where we 
 should have our private school. 
 
 " If we try to have it at the schoolhouse," said Ad- 
 dison, " there will be a fuss. Tibbetts will say we shall 
 not use it for private schools ; and I think it likely he 
 could make trouble on that ground. We may take it 
 for granted that he will, if he can. 
 
 " Gram," he continued, after a glance at Theodora 
 and Ellen, and putting on as innocent an expression 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 117 
 
 as he could summon, " what do you say to letting us 
 have the sitting-room for a schoolroom, a fortnight — 
 just for nine or ten of us, you know? " 
 
 The old lady did not appear very well pleased with 
 the proposition. " I guess my rag carpet would suf- 
 fer," said she. " A fine racket you would kick up in 
 there ! " 
 
 " I will promise to make them behave themselves, 
 Mother," Joel remarked. 
 
 " And we will have some good mats at the door to 
 scrub their feet on when they come in," said Ellen. 
 
 " Don't talk that fine stuff to me ! " exclaimed Gram. 
 " I know very well what would happen. By spring I 
 would have to make another carpet." 
 
 " We will sew the rags, Gram," said Ellen and 
 Wealthy. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you would sew a dozen balls, no doubt, 
 but when it came to sewing enough for a carpet for 
 that great room some one else would have to take a 
 hand, I guess." 
 
 " Well, it is only for two weeks and a half, Gram," 
 Addison reminded her. " I guess we would not do a 
 great deal of damage in that time." 
 
 " Gram, we might spread down a lot of mats, those 
 kitchen mats," said Theodora. " Or else some burlap. 
 We could tack down three or four strips of it all along 
 where we sat." 
 
 " Yes, yes, Ruth," interposed the Old Squire. 
 " They cannot do much harm in that time. And if 
 they do wear the old house out a little, it is in a good 
 cause." 
 
 Gram would not consent at once, however. " I will 
 think about it," she asid. But we were well aware the 
 cause was won; she never objected afterwards. 
 
 An even more important question came up the same 
 evening and the following day, as to what new studies 
 we should take up. Thomas and Catherine had come, 
 also Ned and his sisters, Georgie and Elsie. 
 
118 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Addison's mind was already made up. " I shall be- 
 gin Latin, sure," he said. " Joel is a good teacher for 
 it. I never shall have a better chance, and I have al- 
 ways meant to study it." 
 
 Theodora was not so certain; Catherine and 
 Thomas, too, were in doubt about Latin. 
 
 "Suppose it will ever do a fellow any good?" 
 Thomas queried. 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied Joel, confidently. " Of course, 
 it makes a difference what you intend doing later in 
 the way of an education and what pursuits you are 
 going to follow in life. If you are intending to get 
 a college education, you must have Latin, and the 
 sooner you begin the better. It will do you good, 
 anyhow, but most good the higher you aim to rise 
 in life." 
 
 " But the trouble with me is," said Thomas, " I 
 don't know yet whether I will get an education, or not. 
 I don't know whether I can or not. Father cannot 
 send me to college. If I go, I shall have to pay my 
 own way, and so will Kate. Father isn't able and he 
 doesn't think any great things of colleges. But I 
 would like to go," Thomas added. " Do you suppose 
 I could go alone ? " 
 
 " Why, look at me ! " cried Joel. " Nobody has 
 sent me. I have been in college three years and expect 
 to get through all right, and not much in debt. You 
 can do it as easy as I can. Why, a fellow who tried to 
 tire out a circulating decimal, ought not to be dis- 
 couraged at anything ! " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know that I am discouraged," replied 
 Thomas, reflectively. " I rather think I could do it if 
 I were to start in for it. But I don't think I know ex- 
 actly yet whether I want to or not. I cannot seem 
 to think it out. I'm not so sure of it as Ad here is. 
 He appears to know just what he wants to do." 
 
 " That was my own experience," said Joel : " I think 
 that most young folks feel uncertain at first. But a 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 119 
 
 good way to get certain is to begin studying and go 
 ahead awhile. It opens before you and you soon begin 
 to feel sure what you want to do." 
 
 Those were very encouraging words to me, for 
 like Thomas, I felt wholly uncertain, even doubtful, 
 and experienced also a certain distaste for the hard 
 study I felt sure was in store for me, if I tried to get 
 a good education. 
 
 Meantime Catherine and Theodora had been con- 
 ferring earnestly together on the subject, more from 
 a girl's point of view, I suppose. I think they were 
 confiding and comparing their aspirations one with 
 another; Georgia and Elsie joined in their conversa- 
 tion. As for Ned he declared that he did not expect 
 to go to college, but he said that he should like to 
 study Latin awhile and go three or four terms at the 
 village Academy; and that- was Elsie's plan as well as 
 Georgie's. They meant to acquire education sufficient 
 to teach. At that time, however, Ned had a great 
 desire to become a locomotive engineer and run trains 
 on a railroad. Thomas, on the contrary, declared that 
 he meant to be a civil engineer and build railroads. 
 " I shall get big pay," he exclaimed. " Maybe I shall 
 take contracts and make a fortune out. of them. It's 
 done, every year!" he added. 
 
 " Good for you, Thomas ! " cried Joel, approvingly. 
 " You are just the boy to do it, too. You have got 
 the pluck and the health, if you do not injure it. You 
 are just the fellow to build railroads all over the 
 world. Go ahead and get the outfit to do it, Thomas ! " 
 
 Under this stimulating praise Thomas straightened 
 up and looked as resolute as a youthful Zouave. Still, 
 he was not a boy to be taken off his feet by mere praise, 
 and fell to deliberating again. 
 
 " What do you say to Latin ? " Joel at length asked 
 me. 
 
 " I don't know," was all the reply I had ready. It 
 seemed to me that I didn't know anything, for certain. 
 
120 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 The Old Squire had come into the sitting-room and 
 was giving a quiet ear to our talk, behind his news- 
 paper. I made it in my way to steal over to him and 
 in a lowered tone asked, " Had I better, sir ? " 
 
 The old gentleman looked at me kindly for some 
 moments. " Do you want to ? " he asked. 
 
 " I don't know whether I do or not," said I. 
 
 The Old Squire smiled. "Joel," said he, "he 
 doesn't know and I don't know, do you know ? " 
 
 " Yes," cried Joel, who was in one of his enthusias- 
 tic moods. " Study it, by all means." 
 
 " But Pierson," continued the old gentleman more 
 gravely, " all men cannot be lawyers, doctors and 
 ministers. Some must be farmers and mechanics. 
 What makes you so sure that it will be best for this 
 boy to study the higher branches? He will have his 
 own way to make as it looks now, in the course of a 
 few years more. Will it be worth his while to try to 
 secure what you call a higher education? He is just 
 a decently bright boy, nothing more, and will have to 
 face the world for himself." 
 
 " If he is going to make a farmer, or a carpenter, 
 or even a stone mason, I advise him to study Latin, 
 all the same! " exclaimed Joel, bringing his fist down 
 emphatically on the table. " I may be a farmer my- 
 self, and I know I can make all the better one for 
 knowing Latin and geometry. I can hold a plough all 
 the better for it. ' I don't believe in higher education 
 for a few persons, merely; I believe in higher educa- 
 tion, the very best that can be given them, for every 
 boy and girl in America. Depend on it, Squire, Latin 
 will never hurt him a bit! " 
 
 " Pierson, you are a man of great faith ! " exclaimed 
 the old gentleman, smiling. He seemed to ponder 
 awhile, took up his paper again, then turned to me 
 and said, " My son, you asked my advice. If you feel 
 at all like studying Latin, I would do it." 
 
 That was good brave advice from a Maine farmer, 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 1£1 
 
 sixty-five years old, who had never enjoyed the ad- 
 vantages of a liberal education himself. I have often 
 thanked the Old Squire in my heart for it since; I 
 felt that he thought I had better study it ; I determined 
 to do so and resolved, too, that I would prove to him 
 that he was not in the wrong about me. 
 
 A kind of Latin fever seized upon us all that eve- 
 ning. To many it will seem somewhat absurd, that 
 a dozen boys and girls, only fairly well advanced in 
 their common school studies, should all set themselves 
 to study Latin. 
 
 Gram said a little brusquely that she believed that 
 it was all nonsense. 
 
 " Oh, no, it isn't, Mother ! " cried Joel, cheerily. 
 " You will live to see them profiting by it." 
 
 " But I don't want to see these granddaughters of 
 mine all growing up school-marms ! " cried the old 
 lady, bluntly. " I want them to grow up into sensible 
 young women, and get married and raise good large 
 healthy families, as girls should. The folks all round 
 here are dying out. No children growing up! One 
 or two little pindling things in a family only! The 
 trouble is now that our girls aren't good for anything. 
 Heads full of ideas about higher education ! No health, 
 no motherly feelings in them. If this sort of thing 
 goes on fifty years more, there will be nobody left of 
 us hereabouts. All dead and nobody left in their 
 places. I know that cannot be right, Joel Pierson." 
 
 When Gram got started on an argument of that 
 sort, she was quite apt to give utterance to energetic 
 language. 
 
 " Well, now, Mother, you are partly right about 
 that," said Joel. " But your girls look nice and 
 healthy. Mother, dear, where you make your mis- 
 take is in supposing that education will injure girls. 
 Education will, on the whole, always make girls and 
 boys better and stronger men and women. If girls 
 have any wrong ideas in their heads, as you say, they 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 did not get there from studies such as I now recom- 
 mend, but from some other source." 
 
 " Maybe they didn't come from Latin, exactly," 
 Gram assented. " But I am not sure of it," she 
 added. 
 
 Whether the old lady was right or even partly right, 
 we young folks all agreed with Joel. Little Wealthy 
 was, of course, too young for so hard a branch of 
 study; but Ellen decided that she should join the class. 
 Even Halstead announced jocosely, that if all the 
 others were going in for Latin, he should. " For," 
 said he, " if they all know how to talk it and I don't, 
 they will be making remarks about me which I can't 
 understand." Halse had not yet grasped the idea that 
 Latin is a dead language, not much used for colloquial 
 purposes. Joel did not urge him to take up Latin. 
 He felt doubtful in Halstead's case, I imagine; and 
 again the Old Squire looked up from his paper and 
 appeared perplexed; but he said nothing more. I 
 fancy that he did not like to seem, by objecting in 
 Halstead's case, to single him out as the only one in 
 the family who was unfit. 
 
 It was really a difficult case. The old gentleman, 
 too, was pondering other things. There was another 
 study which he felt the importance of, one which he 
 had often mentioned to us during that summer of vexa- 
 tious political questions. He now saw his chance to 
 urge it more affectively, and again laid down his paper. 
 
 " Is Latin chosen ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes," we said. 
 
 " Unless you object, sir," Theodora added, dutifully. 
 
 " Then I object," the Old Squire said. 
 
 There were blank looks from all of us. Master 
 Pierson seemed disappointed ; he also appeared vexed. 
 
 " I object — for a week," the Old Squire continued, 
 at which all our faces brightened a little. 
 
 " First, before you begin on Latin, I want you to 
 take a week for something else," the old gentleman 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 123 
 
 went on. "One week of good hard study. Then I 
 agree to Latin." 
 
 " But what is it? " Master Pierson asked, not wholly 
 satisfied. 
 
 " The Constitution of the United States," replied 
 the Old Squire, his eye kindling. 
 
 " Well, sir, that's no bad idea," Joel assented. 
 
 " Before you go off on Latin and Greek, I want 
 you to put in a week on the Constitution and the first 
 principles of our government," the Old Squire re- 
 peated. " I think you will always be glad you did it. 
 I am sure it will be of use to you all your lives. You 
 will be the better citizens for it, you boys especially. 
 It will help you decide how to vote, when you come to 
 vote, and vote more intelligently." 
 
 The Old Squire belonged to the same generation 
 as Daniel Webster, and was a great believer in the 
 Constitution. He reverenced it, and he thought that 
 every young citizen ought to be thoroughly instructed 
 in it, from the time he is ten years old. 
 
 " But will that be of much use to us girls? " Cath- 
 erine ventured to inquire. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," the Old Squire rejoined. " Girls 
 as well as boys. The girls are the future mothers of 
 the nation, - and every mother should be able to instil 
 in her children the first great principles of American 
 free government." 
 
 The old gentleman waxed earnest. " Pierson," he 
 exclaimed, " I want you to go into this thoroughly — 
 one whole week. I will help what I can. Let's begin 
 with Magna Charta, that first great guarantee of 
 Anglo-Saxon rights, that sturdy declaration of Eng- 
 lish manhood." He felt what he was saying so deeply, 
 that lie rose suddenly and took a turn across the wide 
 old sitting-room. 
 
 " Pierson," he exclaimed again, " with all this 
 foreign immigration of every nation and every race 
 which is pouring into America, I am sometimes afraid 
 
124 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 that we are in grave danger of losing our birthright 
 and forgetting the noble stock from which we have 
 sprung. But I don't want these boys, nor these girls, 
 ever to lose sight of it, or ever forget it." 
 
 The Old Squire's zeal fired Joel who was, himself, 
 of Anglo-Saxon descent. " You're right, sir, right 
 every time," he exclaimed. " Fetch on the Constitu- 
 tion and Magna Charta behind it. We cannot do bet- 
 ter. We will put in a week on it. We will start school 
 here with that." 
 
 Among the books in the old mahogany bookcase 
 against the wall of the farmhouse sitting-room, there 
 was An American Family Atlas, containing the Con- 
 stitution, the Declaration of Independence, also the 
 Mecklenburg Declaration (which many hold to be the 
 germ of American liberty) and an epitome of Magna 
 Charta. 
 
 The Old Squire also owned a copy of Pomeroy's 
 Constitutional Law, which contains the Constitution, 
 Article by Article. It was also at the back of a former 
 small School History of the United States, and in an- 
 other small volume, entitled Lives of American States- 
 men. 
 
 Catherine and Thomas, too, were able to bring 
 from home another School History of the United 
 States, containing the Constitution. We mustered five' 
 copies of the great document ; and next morning our 
 week's study of it and its prototypes began in earnest. 
 
 I have to confess that to me, at that age, this whole 
 week's study was rather abstruse and uninteresting, 
 or would have been but for the fun that went with it 
 and the zeal of the others. Perhaps almost any aver- 
 age boy, not very keen and not wholly studiously in- 
 clined, would have found it as dull as I did. It was 
 unusually hard for me to remember the different Arti- 
 cles and Sections of the Constitution. I did not at all 
 grasp the meaning of some of them ; they were merely 
 so many hard words and sentences. Yet in after life 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 125 
 
 I have found those same abstruse sentences coming 
 back to me in a strangely new light, illumined by my 
 older understanding of things, and have frequently 
 blessed my fortunate star that I pored over them till 
 they were thus early and indelibly woven into the 
 plastic web of memory. In good truth, the Old Squire 
 made no mistake when he insisted on that week's work. 
 
 We began with Magna Charta — the great Charter 
 of civic rights which the English people wrested from 
 their kings, particularly King John, and were com- 
 pelled to depose one king and cut off the head of an- 
 other before these pampered, royal egotists could be 
 brought to respect popular rights and yield to consti- 
 tutional law. 
 
 We did not possess a complete copy of Magna 
 Charta. There was a digest of it with quotations in 
 the Family Atlas above mentioned; and two years 
 previously the Old Squire had been induced — rather 
 against Gram's wishes — to invest in an Encyclopedia 
 Britannica, which contains (Vol. V, pp. 431-432, Vol. 
 VIII, pp. 306-308) an account of Magna Charta, its 
 origin and general purport. 
 
 To these sources of information we now had re- 
 course, Addison and Theodora reading them over 
 aloud, the rest listening — trying hard to remember. 
 If I recollect aright this was read aloud four times, the 
 first day, for I recall that Catherine read it once, and 
 that Master Pierson read it, remarking particularly 
 the points we had best make notes of, and fix in mem- 
 ory. 
 
 " Let's get it well fixed," he exclaimed more than 
 once that day. " I mean to do so. This is just what 
 I need myself." 
 
 For much of the time, too, the Old Squire sat by, 
 now and then throwing in a word of advice or exhorta- 
 tion, on his own account. ' 
 
 Next day we labored on the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, Mecklenburg Declaration, and the Articles 
 
126 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 of Confederation whereby the thirteen Colonies and 
 Plantations were organized as The United States. 
 The Old Squire was at considerable pains to describe 
 to us the very prominent part borne by Thomas Jef- 
 ferson in framing the Declaration of Independence. 
 He held that Jefferson was second only to Washington 
 among the early American statesmen. He did not 
 wish us to spend any great amount of time on the 
 Articles of Confederation, however, and bade us take 
 care not to confound them in any way with the Con- 
 stitution, nor mix them up with it. 
 
 On the third morning we began the Constitution 
 of the United States. To me at the time, it was hard 
 and dry. I did not comprehend it clearly, nor see the 
 reason or use of it. Master Pierson, perceiving my 
 difficulty, helped me not a little by explaining the 
 tyrannous government of the American Colonies, 
 under the Crown of England, and, in general, the 
 servile condition of mankind before free, self-govern- 
 ment by the people began, not only in America but in 
 England. He simplified the matter by telling us how 
 few rights people had in former days, and how un- 
 justly they were sometimes imprisoned or put to death, 
 and how arbitrarily their property was seized by kings, 
 or their favorites. 
 
 Addison first read the Preamble of the Constitution, 
 twice, slowly, then the whole of Article I. It seemed 
 to me I could never remember it ; and Tom whispered 
 to me that he knew he never could. Ellen sat looking 
 equally helpless; Theodora, too, was knitting her 
 brows; while Halse sat grinning and shuffling his feet. 
 
 " You have heard it," Master Pierson said, when 
 Addison had finished. " Sounds formidable. But 
 now let's all take the books and study it an hour, by 
 the clock, and let our eyes help our ears with it." 
 
 Books were laid hold of, and I recall that I went 
 over Article I twice in that hour, trying very hard to 
 remember each Section as I read it. Some of the Sec- 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 127 
 
 tiOns were not easy to understand, and therefore very 
 hard to recollect. " Gummy ! " Thomas whispered. 
 " It's just so many long strings of words. How's a 
 fellow going to get all this by heart? " It seemed to 
 me I never could ; but in point of fact, I found myself 
 recalling far more of it afterwards than I thought I 
 should. Section VII and Section X gave me most 
 trouble. 
 
 " Recess for fifteen minutes ! " Master Pierson cried 
 when that hour was up. " Let's run out and snow- 
 ball. My brain is getting fuzzy ! " 
 
 It was indeed " fuzzy " work for young brains. We 
 rushed forth and for some time such whoops rose about 
 the old farmhouse and barns, that Gram declared our 
 neighbors must think there was a fire. 
 
 The Old Squire stood at the wagon-house door and 
 laughed to see us tear around and hurl light snow in 
 each other's faces. 
 
 "Pierson, is that the way you keep school?" he 
 cried. 
 
 " Surely," the master cried back, his own hair full 
 of snow. " Brains need fresh air when they are grap- 
 pling with the Constitution ! " 
 
 Well blown and freshened, we went back indoors. 
 
 " Now let's change back from eyes to ears," Joel 
 said. " Catherine, please read Article I to us once 
 more. Let's sit and hear it again — and soak it into 
 our heads. Mine needs a lot of soaking." 
 
 Catherine read it again, slowly; and I found that 
 I was now getting hold of it a little better. 
 
 We had an intermission of an hour and a half that 
 day, the work was so hard. In the afternoon Article II 
 and Article III were read, studied and re-read, in the 
 same way as Article I. But these were much shorter ; 
 they also seemed far easier to me. 
 
 Snow had begun to fall; and our afternoon recess 
 was spent up at the west barn, playing a game of 
 " gool " on the long floor. I recollect that Thomas 
 
128 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 succeeded in "going around," and therefore won the 
 game for his side, by climbing over the " great beams " 
 far up in the roof of the barn. 
 
 On the whole that first day's struggle with the Con- 
 stitution was a rather enjoyable one. I recall, how- 
 ever, that by evening my head felt as if I had worked 
 it strenuously and shaken out several new convolutions 
 of brain. 
 
 Next morning we began at eight o'clock, taking up 
 Articles IV, V, VI, and VII in the same way as yes- 
 terday's lesson. These latter Articles are so brief, 
 however, that we easily finished them during the fore- 
 noon, and in the afternoon proceeded to the Amend- 
 ments of the Constitution, the first thirteen brief Ar- 
 ticles of which had already been adopted by Congress 
 and appended to the original document. Articles 
 XIV and XV had not then been devised, and were 
 not added to the other Amendments until 1868 and 
 1870. 
 
 That evening we had a review of our two days' 
 work. " To-morrow," Master Pierson said, " we 
 must have a grand Quiz." 
 
 That was a word we had never heard before. It was 
 a new word which had recently come in vogue at col- 
 leges and law schools. Joel, then a student at Bates 
 College, had heard it there, and now explained it to us. 
 
 " We will hold a Quiz at eight to-morrow morn- 
 ing," said he. " Catherine may quiz us on Magna 
 Charta, and ask every question she can think of. That 
 will be good practice for the quizzer as well as the 
 quizzed." 
 
 The Old Squire came in while this was being talked 
 of. " But there is one thing more," said he, " which I 
 wish you to take up in connection with the Constitution 
 and its Amendments. You will hear a great deal about 
 it in time to come. It will give rise to many difficult, 
 delicate questions in regard to our foreign relations." 
 
 "Why, what is it, Gramp?" Ellen exclaimed. 
 
A GREAT YEAR QF OUR LIVES 129 
 
 " I wonder whether any of you can guess? " the Old 
 Squire queried, with a twinkle of his eye. 
 
 No one spoke at once. 
 
 "I rather think I could give a surmise," Joel re- 
 marked, at length. " I suppose you refer to the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine. But I confess I have no very clear idea 
 as to it," he added. 
 
 " Few have," replied the Old Squire, smiling. 
 " And yet it is something which is sure to loom up 
 large in the future history of this country. Here it is," 
 he continued, taking up the Atlas. " Here is the 
 original form of it, as given to the people during the 
 administration of President Monroe. It is quoted 
 from his Message to Congress, bearing date of Decem- 
 ber 2d, 1823. Read it aloud, Pierson. Let's see what 
 we can make of it." 
 
 The master read the three long paragraphs. 
 
 "Dear me, isn't that a mixture?" cried Catherine, 
 looking perplexed. 
 
 " It does sound badly twisted up," Addison said. 
 " Master Pierson, can you put that into plainer Eng- 
 lish and less words ? " 
 
 Joel shook his head. " I would much rather hear 
 my seniors speak," he said with a glance at the Old 
 Squire. " Expound it, sir." 
 
 " Well, the Monroe Doctrine has had a great many 
 expounders," the latter rejoined. " Politicians and 
 even great statesmen have disagreed as to its proper 
 interpretation. President Monroe was not quite as 
 clear, perhaps, as he might have been. Yet a great 
 principle of our future national policy was set forth by 
 him. I have read that part of his Message, time and 
 again, and what I make of it is this : 
 
 " That America, both North and South America, 
 is for Americans, and cannot properly be invaded, 
 held, or controlled by nations of the Eastern Hemi- 
 sphere, whether of Europe or Asia. 
 
 "That the United States as the largest, strongest 
 
130 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 republic of America, should display fraternal sym- 
 pathy for the smaller, weaker republics of Central and 
 South America and should protect them from aggres- 
 sion and invasion, especially when the invaders seek to 
 conquer them and overthrow free government by the 
 people — as when France attempted to conquer Mex- 
 ico, in 1863, and establish a monarchy there under the 
 Emperor Maximilian, of Austria. In such cases it will 
 always be proper for us to intervene in behalf of the 
 weaker American republic. 
 
 " But that such moral aid, or intervention, on the 
 part of the United States should be made only for the 
 protection and maintenance of free institutions and 
 free government by the people, and not in aid of selfish 
 dictators, styling themselves Presidents, when they 
 seek to evade payment of just debts, by relying on our 
 assistance, thereby making us party to dishonesty. 
 
 " In all such cases — as recently in Venezuela and 
 Guatemala — the United States may well stand aside 
 and allow a foreign nation to take reasonable steps to 
 collect what is justly due its citizens, as long as these 
 measures do not subvert free government, nor rob an 
 American republic of territory. 
 
 " That, at least, is my idea of it," the Old Squire 
 added modestly. " My view of it is, that the Monroe 
 Doctrine is to protect and foster free government by 
 the people throughout the Western Hemisphere, and 
 also to safeguard the future interests of the United 
 States." 
 
 " Much obliged to you, sir," Master Pierson ex- 
 claimed. " You have made this much clearer to me 
 than it ever was before ; — and I believe in the Monroe 
 Doctrine." 
 
 It was so bitterly cold the next morning, that Ned 
 and his sisters did not come. Willis, too, was pre- 
 vented from coming, and Alfred failed to put in an 
 appearance. Eight o'clock, however, saw the rest of 
 us gathered in the sitting-room for the Quiz. " Go 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 131 
 
 ahead, Catherine," Addison exclaimed. " It will not 
 take you long to find out how little I know." 
 
 Catherine appeared somewhat embarrassed, at first. 
 " I am not fit to ' quiz,' " she said. 
 
 " Oh, go on," cried Joel. " We are all learners 
 here. One is as fit as another." 
 
 "Well, then, Addison, what is Magna Charta? 
 What does it mean, and when and where did it orig- 
 inate?" 
 
 " It means Great Charter, from the Latin words 
 magna, great, and charta, paper or document," Ad 
 responded, smiling broadly. " It marked the begin- 
 ning of constitutional government among the English 
 people, and was for England what our Constitution is 
 for the United States. Our Constitution is founded 
 on it. It was granted by King John, in the year 12 13, 
 over six hundred and fifty years ago, at a place called 
 Runnymede." 
 
 " Was King John willing to grant it ? Ellen may 
 answer." 
 
 " Not a bit willing. He opposed it and fought 
 against it for two years." 
 
 " Who compelled the King to grant it? Master 
 Pierson may answer that," Catherine continued. 
 
 " The Barons of England, the Prelates of the church 
 and other representatives of the English people," Joel 
 replied. 
 
 As I was sitting near the master, the next question 
 fell to me and found me unprepared. " In what lan- 
 guage was Magna Charta written?" 
 
 " English," I hazarded. 
 
 " Wrong," cried Thomas, Addison and several other 
 voices, in a breath, and Theodora, sitting next beyond 
 me, whispered, " Latin." 
 
 " No telling in Quiz ! " shouted Joel. " I over- 
 heard that. Yes, it was in Latin. In those days nearly 
 all important documents, discourses and books were 
 composed in the Latin language. That is one reason 
 
132 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 why we need to study it now, because it was the lit- 
 erary language of our forefathers and has come down 
 to us in Law, Theology, Medicine and Science gener- 
 ally." 
 
 " Halstead, how many Articles did Magna Charta 
 contain? " Catherine asked next. 
 
 " Fifty," said he. 
 
 "Wrong!" cried everybody in concert. "Sixty- 
 one." 
 
 "Theodora, which are the most important?" 
 
 " The Thirty-ninth and the Fortieth." 
 
 Just then the Old Squire came in, looking much in- 
 terested. " Can any of you repeat those two Articles ? " 
 he inquired. 
 
 No one, not even Master Pierson, could do so, either 
 in the original Latin, or as quaintly translated in the 
 later English statutes, and they were at length read 
 aloud by Addison : — 
 
 " Article 39th. No freeman shall be taken or im- 
 prisoned, or be disseized of his freehold, or liberties, 
 or free customs, or be otherwise destroyed, nor will 
 we press upon him, nor seize upon him but by law- 
 ful judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the 
 land." 
 
 " That is where trial by jury came in," the Old 
 Squire remarked. 
 
 " Article 40th." (Addison continued.) " We will 
 sell to no man, we will not deny nor defer to any man, 
 either right or justice." 
 
 " What else does Magna Charta provide for, in the 
 way of liberty to the people ? " Catherine asked. 
 
 " Open courts and witnesses for the trial of of- 
 fenses," Joel mentioned. 
 
 " The right to make wills and leave one's property 
 as he chooses," the Old Squire mentioned. 
 
 " Protection against illegal seizure of one's goods 
 for debt," Theodora remembered. 
 
 " ' And even the villein and the rustic shall not be 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 133 
 
 deprived of his necessary chattels,' " Thomas quoted. 
 " But I wish somebody would tell me what a ' villein ' 
 is," he added. " Is it the same as villain which means 
 a ruffian? " 
 
 Master Pierson set him right. " Not exactly that, 
 Thomas," said he. " As then used, the word villein 
 meant a man in servitude, a thrall, or farm-servant. 
 Previously these poor fellows had had no rights which 
 their masters were bound to respect. Magna Charta 
 secured proper legal rights for them, as well as for 
 their betters." 
 
 " And that is precisely why it is such a grand docu- 
 ment," the Old Squire added very earnestly. 
 
 We went on to the Declaration of American Inde- 
 pendence and Theodora was called upon to quiz on 
 it; but since, after the grand opening paragraphs, it 
 consists largely of accusations against King George 
 and his ministers, not many questions of interest were 
 asked. The Old Squire wished us chiefly to remember 
 that it was written by Thomas Jefferson at Philadel- 
 phia, and amended by suggestions from Benjamin 
 Franklin and others of the fifty-five or fifty-seven orig- 
 inal signers ; and that when some of those who signed 
 were slow to put their names to a paper so resolute 
 and so unflattering to the British king, Franklin re- 
 marked dryly, by way of exhortation, that this was a 
 case where they must all hang together, or they would 
 surely hang separately ! 
 
 After recess, therefore, we went on to the Consti- 
 tution, and Addison was appointed Quiz-master for 
 Article I. 
 
 "Who can repeat the Preamble?" was his first 
 question. 
 
 A far from unanimous or distinct mumble of voices 
 followed. Neither Halstead nor I got in half the 
 words in their proper places. 
 
 " Master Pierson, who framed the Constitution ? " 
 Addison queried. 
 
134 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " A Convention of fifty-five delegates from the 
 States, which met in Philadelphia, May 14th, 1787." 
 
 " Catherine, can you name any of the celebrated 
 men who were in that Convention ? " 
 
 " Yes ; Washington, Madison, Randolph, Franklin, 
 Rufus King, Alexander Hamilton, Pinckney, Rut- 
 ledge. Washington presided." 
 
 " Halstead, did they easily agree on the present 
 Constitution ? " 
 
 " No; they wrangled over it." 
 
 " Wrangled is hardly the proper word," the Old 
 Squire remarked. " It was a very difficult task and 
 of course there were many different opinions. There 
 were two plans for a constitution somewhat opposed 
 to each other. The remarkable feature is that the 
 delegates harmonized their views and framed so wise 
 a document." 
 
 " Thomas, when was the Constitution adopted by 
 the Convention? " 
 
 " In September, 1787. But the different States were 
 slow to ratify it. A year or more passed before all the 
 States accepted it. For six months the country was 
 without any legal government. But great and good 
 old General George Washington had his paw on the 
 throttle, all the same. If anybody had started to make 
 trouble, they would have heard from George." 
 
 " Theodora, under the Constitution in whom is the 
 power to make laws vested?" 
 
 " In Congress." 
 
 " Ellen, of what does Congress consist? " 
 
 " Two branches, the Senate and the House of Repre- 
 sentatives." 
 
 Willis, Ned Wilbur and Alfred now came in and 
 took their places. 
 
 " Edgar, by whom are the Representatives to Con- 
 gress elected ? " Addison asked. 
 
 " By the voters, all the legal voters in each State, 
 just as we vote for Governor." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 135 
 
 " Willis, for how long a term ? " 
 
 " Two years." 
 
 " Master Pierson, how many people does a Repre- 
 sentative to Congress represent?" 
 
 " The number was set at thirty thousand at first. 
 It is much larger now. A new rate is established, after 
 the Census is taken, every ten years, as population in- 
 creases." 
 
 Gram had come to the door to speak with the Old 
 Squire and Addison roguishly cried, " Ruth, how 
 many Senators is each State entitled to have in Con- 
 gress and how are they elected ? " 
 
 " Two," said the old lady promptly. " They are 
 appointed for six years by the State Legislature which 
 contrives to appoint about whom it likes, whether the 
 people like them or not. For my part I think the. Sena- 
 tors ought to be voted for by the people at the polls, 
 just as the Representatives are — and put a stop to so 
 many rich men buying their way into Congress, and 
 making laws to favor their own interests." Joel 
 clapped his hands heartily. 
 
 " Why, Ruth, you are a revolutionist," the Old 
 Squire cried, smiling. " You would subvert the Con- 
 stitution." 
 
 " Joseph, you seem to think that old Constitution of 
 yours is infallible. But it isn't. Why, Congress has 
 had to be tinkering it and amending it ever since it 
 was adopted. It needs it, too, and will go on needing 
 it as the country grows. You can never make me 
 worship the Constitution as you do. It has too many 
 flaws in it." 
 
 " I suspect, Ruth, that one reason why you feel so 
 little reverence for the Constitution, is because it does 
 not ordain that women shall vote," the Old Squire re- 
 marked mischievously. 
 
 " Indeed it is," cried Gram warmly. " I think it is a 
 shame that an American woman of fairly good edu- 
 cation, who is the head of a household and owns prop- 
 
136 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 erty, is not allowed the privilege of helping elect those 
 who make the laws. I don't believe, either, that a man 
 who hasn't these qualifications ought to vote. I don't 
 believe in allowing people of bad character to vote, 
 whether men or women." 
 
 Joel applauded still more vigorously. " Right you 
 are, Mother, just right!" he cried. "Those are my 
 sentiments to a dot ! Good character is the best quali- 
 fication for a voter. It is the first requisite to be in- 
 sisted on. No drunkards, no criminals, no persons of 
 bad morals ought to be allowed at the polls." 
 
 " Pierson, I'm afraid you are a rank female suf- 
 fragist," the Old Squire said roguishly. 
 
 " Yes, I am — in that way," exclaimed Joel. " That 
 is to say, I think the right to vote should depend on 
 character and morals, not on sex. I do not think that 
 sex should have anything to do with it." 
 
 After this very frank tilt at the existing state of 
 things, Gram departed, victorious, to her household 
 affairs, and Addison resumed his quizzing. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE QUIZ GOES ON 
 
 " fT^HOMAS, how old must a Representative to 
 J^ Congress be, and what other qualifications 
 must he have? " was the next question. 
 
 " Twenty-five years old," said Tom promptly. 
 " He must have been seven years a citizen of the 
 United States, and he must be a resident of the State 
 which he represents." 
 
 " Master Pierson, does the word ' resident ' mean 
 that he must be a legal voter ? " Addison asked. 
 
 Joel hesitated. " I suppose it does," he said. " I 
 may be wrong." 
 
 " Catherine, if a Representative dies during his two 
 years' term, or if he resigns, or is expelled from Con- 
 gress, how is the vacancy to be filled ? " 
 
 " The Governor and Council of the State from 
 which he comes must issue a legal call for the election 
 of a new Representative." 
 
 " Thomas, what important presiding officer does the 
 House of Representatives have, and how is he 
 chosen ? " 
 
 " The Speaker of the House, and when he is a smart 
 man he is the whole cheese. The Representatives elect 
 him, themselves, by vote." 
 
 " What important powers are entrusted to the 
 House of Representatives, Willis ? " 
 
 Willis looked considerably puzzled. " The House 
 of Representatives starts all the law-making, I be- 
 lieve," said he. " It proposes bills for all the new 
 laws, but the Senate has to agree to them. They have 
 
 137 
 
138 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 to be sent to the President to be signed, too, before 
 they can become laws." 
 
 "What other power, Alfred?" 
 
 " Don't remember." 
 
 "Who does?" 
 
 " The sole power of impeachment," cried Thomas. 
 
 " Whom? Whom may it impeach? " 
 
 " Any United States officer, including the President 
 and Vice-President," said Catherine. 
 
 " Halstead, how old must a Senator be and what 
 other qualifications must he have?" 
 
 " Thirty years old ; and he must have been a citizen 
 of the United States nine years." 
 
 " What else — any one." 
 
 " He must be an inhabitant of the State which ap- 
 points him," said Joel. 
 
 " Does the word " inhabitant ' mean a legal voter? " 
 Addison asked. 
 
 " I suppose it does," replied Joel. 
 
 " If a Senator dies during his term of office, or re- 
 signs, or is expelled from Congress, what then, Theo- 
 dora?" 
 
 " The Legislature of his State shall fill the vacancy 
 by electing a new Senator." 
 
 " But suppose the Legislature is not in session at the 
 time, Ellen ? " 
 
 " I don't remember." 
 
 "Anyone?" 
 
 " The Governor of the State and his Council may 
 appoint a successor, temporarily, till the Legislature 
 is again in session," quoted Catherine with a sage 
 gravity which made us all smile. 
 
 " In case the House of Representatives impeaches, 
 that is, accuses, the President or the Vice-President 
 of treason, or other crimes and misdemeanors, what 
 is the duty of the Senate ? You may answer that, sir," 
 Addison continued, turning to the Old Squire. 
 
 " The Senate tries the case against him, acting as 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 139 
 
 a court under oath. But a two-thirds vote of all the 
 Senators is required to convict him," the old gentle- 
 man replied promptly. 
 
 " Thomas, in case the President of the United States 
 is being tried for treason, or other crimes, who presides 
 meantime in the Senate ? " 
 
 " The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States — till they decide whether ' Old Andy ' 
 is guilty or not." 
 
 "If pronounced guilty, what then, Master Pier- 
 son?" 
 
 " The Vice-President becomes President, quite as if 
 the President had died." 
 
 " But suppose the President and Vice-President 
 were both to die, or to be assassinated, what then ? " 
 
 " Never has been such a sad case, but it is held that 
 the Chief Justice would be President for the rest of 
 the four years." 
 
 " Edgar, how often must Congress meet? " 
 
 " Once a year, on the first Monday of December." 
 
 " Must it meet then, whether it wishes to do so or 
 not?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Ned. 
 
 " Doubted ! " cried Ellen. " The Constitution says 
 that Congress may, if it pleases, appoint a different 
 date for assembling." 
 
 " Correct," said Addison. " Can there be more 
 than one session of Congress in a year? " 
 
 " I believe not," Ellen replied rather doubtfully. 
 But Catherine cried, " Wrong." 
 
 " Who, then, has power to call a second, or extra 
 session, during the same year?" 
 
 " The President, if he deems it necessary." 
 
 " What is a quorum in Congress, Edgar? " 
 
 " A majority of members, either in the Senate or 
 the House of Representatives." 
 
 " Catherine, what are both branches of Congress 
 required to keep? " 
 
140 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " A Journal of their Proceedings, to be published 
 from time to time." 
 
 " Must all proceedings of Congress be published ? " 
 Addison asked me, and I replied " Yes ; " but the Old 
 Squire said, " Wrong, my boy. Not if in the opinion 
 of Congress certain proceedings ought to be kept 
 secret." 
 
 " How are the proceedings of Congress generally 
 published, Thomas ? " 
 
 " In the Congressional Record." 
 
 " Can the Senate adjourn without the consent of the 
 House of Representatives, or vice versa ? Master Pier- 
 son may answer that." 
 
 " Yes, but not for more than three days, without the 
 consent of the other Branch." 
 
 " Theodora, suppose a Bill, designed to become a 
 law, passes both Houses of Congress, what is the next 
 step to be taken? " 
 
 " It must be sent to the President for his approval 
 and signature." 
 
 " Alfred, suppose the President does not approve 
 it?" 
 
 " He can veto it. That stops it." 
 
 " What does ' veto ' mean, Master Pierson ? " 
 
 " Means / forbid." 
 
 " But, Catherine, suppose Congress still believes the 
 bill ought to become a law ? " 
 
 " Congress, after getting the vetoed bill back from 
 the President, with his objections to it, can by a two- 
 thirds vote of both Branches, pass it again over the 
 President's veto, and it will then become a law, despite 
 the President's opposition." 
 
 " Correct, good girl. Theodora, name some of the 
 duties and powers of Congress." 
 
 " To lay taxes and tariffs, and collect them. To 
 pay government expenses and debts. To provide for 
 the common defense and welfare of the country." 
 
 " Yes; what other powers, Willis? " 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 141 
 
 " Borrow money, if needed." 
 
 "What else, Edgar?" 
 
 " Regulate trade with foreign countries, and with 
 the Indian tribes." 
 
 "Yes; what else?" 
 
 " To make laws for the naturalization of immi- 
 grants, and make regulations for bankruptcy cases." 
 
 " What else, Master Pierson ? " 
 
 " To coin money and fix its value, also fix the values 
 of foreign money; to set up standards of weights and 
 measures. To capture and punish counterfeiters. To 
 establish post offices and post roads." 
 
 " Who can name other powers of Congress ? " 
 
 " To promote the progress of science and useful 
 arts," said Catherine. " To grant patents to inventors 
 and copyrights to authors." 
 
 " To establish United States Courts in the different 
 States," cried the Old Squire, who was warming up 
 in the Quiz. " To punish piracy and felony on the 
 high seas ; to capture pirates ; to declare war against 
 other nations; to raise armies and vote money for 
 their support; to build and equip a navy." 
 
 Joel now declared that it was time for a recess. 
 
 " Oh, I like to be ' Quizzer ! ' " Addison exclaimed, 
 after we were back in our places. " It saves me from 
 exposing how little I know." 
 
 " Go on, then," said Joel, " you are doing well." 
 
 " Well, then, good Master Pierson, tell us all about 
 the Writ of Habeas Corpus. What is it? To whom 
 does it apply, and when may it be suspended? " cried 
 Addison, grinning hugeously. 
 
 " My soul ! " exclaimed Joel. " I'm sorry now I got 
 you appointed Quiz-master. I would much rather 
 ask that question, myself, than answer it." 
 
 " Do you give it up? " cried Addison, relentlessly. 
 
 " No," replied Joel. " But I've a good mind to. 
 I will try to answer, but I want you to help me out, 
 sir," he added, turning to the Old Squire. 
 
142 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Oh, you are a Latin scholar and teacher," cried 
 the latter, smiling broadly. " Every man to his trade." 
 
 " Well then, habeas corpus means if you may have 
 the body, and refers to the body of a prisoner. But it 
 is a law phrase and came from an enactment of Eng- 
 lish law, designed to protect the rights of a person 
 under arrest, charged with crime, ensure him a fair 
 trial and get him out of prison. Is that anywhere near 
 right, sir ? " Joed added, looking at the Old Squire. 
 
 "Well, yes," replied the latter, a little doubtfully. 
 " A writ of habeas corpus, under our laws, may be 
 issued by a court judge, compelling the authorities 
 who have imprisoned a person on any charge, usually 
 political, to produce his body for trial by his peers and 
 state what his offenses are. It is designed to prevent 
 a citizen from being unjustly imprisoned for a long 
 time." 
 
 " What does the Constitution say about it ? " Addi- 
 son asked. 
 
 " It says that the privilege of the writ of habeas 
 corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of 
 rebellion, or invasion, the public safety may require it," 
 Joel replied. 
 
 " Glad that old sticker of a question didn't come to 
 me," Thomas whispered; and so was I. 
 
 " Haven't we got about to Article II? " Willis asked. 
 
 " A hundred more questions might be asked on Ar- 
 ticle I," said Addison, " but we will go on to Article II. 
 Willis, in whom is the executive power of the United 
 States vested ? " 
 
 " In the President, and the Vice-President, if the 
 President dies or is removed from office." 
 
 " What are the duties of the Vice-President, Hal- 
 stead?" 
 
 " Nothing but look on, as long as the President 
 lives and is not impeached." 
 
 " Wrong," said Catherine. " He is president of the 
 Senate when Congress is in session." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 143 
 
 " What office does this correspond to in the House 
 of Representatives? " 
 
 " The Speaker." 
 
 " Listen to the little pullet crow ! " cried Halse, de- 
 risively. 
 
 " Be quiet, sir," said Master Pierson. " No back 
 talk in Quiz." 
 
 " Master Pierson, can the President of the United 
 States resign, after taking the oath of office ? " 
 
 Joel looked nonplussed. " I give that up," said he. 
 " No President ever has." 
 
 " I suppose he might have the right to do so," the 
 Old Squire said. " Under certain circumstances, he 
 would have the right, if, for example, he became hope- 
 lessly ill, or felt that his mental powers were leaving 
 him." 
 
 " Catherine, what does executive mean, or rather, 
 why is the President, or the Governor of a State, called 
 the Executive? " 
 
 " Because he executes, or puts in force, the laws 
 which Congress, or the State Legislature, enacts. 
 Congress passes the laws, and the President sees that 
 they are put in force." 
 
 " Halstead, how long does the President hold 
 office? " 
 
 " Four years, or eight, if re-elected." 
 
 " Thomas, may a President be re-elected more than 
 once, and serve twelve years instead of eight?" 
 
 " No case of it yet. Americans do not believe in 
 that. Too much like a king, or a dictator." 
 
 " Edgar, how long does the Vice-President hold 
 office?" 
 
 " Four years, same as the President." 
 
 " Ellen, how old must the President be when elected, 
 and what other qualifications must he have? " 
 
 " Thirty-five years old. He must be a natural-born 
 citizen of the United States and a resident for fourteen 
 years in this country." 
 
144 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Theodora, must the Vice-President have the same 
 qualifications?" 
 
 " I think so," she replied. 
 
 " Master Pierson, how are the President and Vice- 
 President elected? " 
 
 " By the people, that is, by popular vote of the legal 
 voters of all the different States at the polls, every four 
 years. That is the way the election begins, but after 
 election is over, there comes a kind of after-clap in the 
 shape of Electors who journey to Washington to form 
 an Electoral college; as many Electors for each State 
 as there are Senators and Representatives. Altogether 
 it is the most clumsy method of election ever devised. 
 It affords a fine field for politicians to pull wires, and 
 has already made more trouble than any other part of 
 the Constitution. I think it was a mistake on the part 
 of the framers of the Constitution. It was amended 
 by Congress in 1804 — the Twelfth Amendment — 
 but the Amendment only complicated it worse." 
 
 " Pierson, you are rather severe," the Old Squire 
 remarked. " The framers of the Constitution saw the 
 necessity of having the President elected by vote of 
 the States, rather than by an aggregate popular vote. 
 They saw that it would not be fair to have one large 
 populous section of the country, which chanced to favor 
 some particular candidate, carry the election without 
 proper regard for the wishes of other sections of the 
 country, not as densely populated. I think they were 
 right in that; but I grant that the method of choos- 
 ing a President by means of Electors is not wholly 
 simple, or free from faults. I suppose it was the best 
 the framers of the Constitution could do, at that 
 time." 
 
 " Alfred, do the President, Vice-President and 
 Members of Congress receive pay for their services ? " 
 
 " They all draw pay." 
 
 " Anything else? — Any one answer." 
 
 " Mileage, on the road to Washington," said Willis. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 145 
 
 " In case of war with other nations, or rebellion, 
 what military command does the President hold, 
 Thomas? " 
 
 " He is commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
 and can go on the battle-field, -or on the flag-ship of the 
 fleet, if he sees fit." 
 
 " Is it customary for him to do so ? " 
 
 " No ; he generally remains at Washington and 
 leaves the fighting to his generals, admirals and cap- 
 tains." 
 
 " Master Pierson, can the President go off on the 
 flag-ship of the navy, to fight the navy of another na- 
 tion, in foreign waters ? " 
 
 " I don't know as to his power to do that," said Joel. 
 " He is not supposed to leave the country. It is not 
 thought safe for him to do so." 
 
 " No ; he ought not to do that ! " exclaimed Thomas. 
 " We want the ' Old Man ' to stay at home and hold 
 the reins." 
 
 " What oath of office does the President take, at the 
 time he is inaugurated and takes his seat, on March 
 4th, after his election the previous November? Re- 
 peat it, Catherine." 
 
 " ' I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faith- 
 fully execute the office of President of the United 
 States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, 
 protect and defend the Constitution of the United 
 States.' " 
 
 " Right. What important duty falls to the President 
 from time to time? Theodora may answer." 
 
 " To issue a message to Congress and the country. 
 It is a kind of report as to the state of the nation, tell- 
 ing what has happened, what has been done, and rec- 
 ommending such measures to Congress as the Presi- 
 dent deems necessary for the common good." 
 
 " Can you think of other Presidential duties ? " 
 
 " He may have to make treaties with other nations, 
 but the Senate must ratify them." 
 
146 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " He has to receive, officially, all foreign ministers 
 and ambassadors," said Ellen. 
 
 " Yes ; and he has to appoint ministers, ambassadors 
 and consuls to foreign countries, but always with the 
 advice and consent of the Senate," the Old Squire 
 threw in. 
 
 " And he has to sign the commissions of all United 
 States officers," Joel said. 
 
 " And choose his Cabinet of Secretaries and ad- 
 visers," said Willis. 
 
 " He has plenty more duties, but they are involved 
 with the proceedings of Congress," Addison remarked. 
 " We will go on now to Article III. We have had 
 the law-making powers of Congress and the executive 
 powers of the President. What other branch is there 
 of the United States government, Catherine ? " 
 
 " The Supreme Court and State Supreme Courts." 
 
 " But what other name do we give that power? " 
 
 " The Judicial Power, or Judiciary." 
 
 " What are the duties of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, Theodora?" 
 
 " I am not certain about that," Theodora said. " But 
 I think it is to try legal points under the Constitution, 
 and decide what is Constitutional and what is not." 
 
 "Yes; anything else? Any one answer." 
 
 " This is our highest court and has jurisdiction over 
 all United States laws," Joel said. 
 
 " And over questions involving our ambassadors, 
 ministers and consuls abroad," the Old Squire re- 
 marked. " Also over maritime affairs, on the seas, 
 and disputed law points between the different States, 
 and over controversies between citizens of this coun- 
 try and foreign powers." 
 
 " How many Judges are there of the Supreme Court, 
 Willis?" 
 
 " Three, or more." 
 
 " What is the title of the highest Judge? " 
 
 " The Chief Justice of the United States." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 147 
 
 " By whom are the Judges of the Supreme Court 
 appointed, Alfred?" 
 
 " By Congress." 
 
 " Wrong," cried Thomas. " By the President. But 
 Congress, or the Senate, confirms them." 
 
 Alfred began talking back ; but Master Pierson bade 
 him keep still in Quiz, or go out. 
 
 " What is treason on the part of a citizen of the 
 United States? Alfred, repeat what the Constitution 
 says of it." 
 
 Alfred could not. 
 
 " Catherine, can you ? " 
 
 " ' Treason against the United States shall consist 
 only in levying war against them, or in adhering to 
 their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.' " 
 
 " Good," cried Addison ; but Halse undertook to 
 crow like a hen. Thereupon the Old Squire sent him 
 out of the room, to the wood-shed, to saw wood, and 
 bade him be quiet out there, too. 
 
 " What is the punishment of treason, Willis ?"" 
 
 " Death." 
 
 " Doubted," said Thomas. " The Constitution 
 doesn't say that. It says that Congress shall have the 
 power to declare the punishment of treason." 
 
 " Article IV," Addison continued. " If a resident in 
 any State commits a crime and escapes over the border 
 into another State, can he thus go free of proper pun- 
 ishment, Edgar? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " What may be dona, Willis? " 
 
 " The Governor of the State he escapes to, must be 
 asked to give him up, to be taken back and tried in the 
 State where he committed the crime." 
 
 " What is this process called? " 
 
 " Extradition." 
 
 " How are new States admitted to the Union of the 
 United States, Ellen?" 
 
 " By act of Congress." 
 
148 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Can one of the States, as they now stand, be 
 divided to make two States, or can two States be joined 
 together to make one new one, Theodora ? " 
 
 " Not without the consent of Congress." 
 
 " How is each State of the Union protected from 
 foreign enemies, or from its own rebellious citizens, 
 Master Pierson ? " 
 
 " By the whole power of the United States, if neces- 
 sary." 
 
 " Article V. Can the Constitution be changed, or 
 amended, Alfred ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Wrong," exclaimed Thomas again. " The Con- 
 stitution can be amended by a two-thirds vote of both 
 Branches of Congress. The Legislatures of two-thirds 
 of the States may also apply for amendments and get 
 them enacted, if three-fourths of the States approve 
 of them. But there are some restrictions about this 
 which I have forgotten," Thomas added. 
 
 " They are not of much consequence, except as law 
 points," the Old Squire remarked. " The main fact 
 to keep in mind is, that the Constitution may be 
 amended when real need arises for it." 
 
 " How many Articles of Amendment are there ? " 
 Addison asked me, and I was able to answer thirteen, 
 the 14th and 15th having not yet been made. 
 
 " Catherine, what is the First Amendment ? " 
 
 " It reads that ' Congress shall make no law respect- 
 ing the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 
 free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of 
 speech, or of the press; or the right of the people 
 peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for 
 the redress of grievances.' " 
 
 " Correct ! " cried Addison. " I couldn't have re- 
 peated all that. What is the purport of the Second 
 Amendment, Willis ? " 
 
 " It gives to each State the right to maintain a 
 militia." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 149 
 
 " What is the purport of the Fourth Amendment, 
 Ellen?" 
 
 " I am not sure." 
 
 "Any one?" 
 
 " It protects all citizens against unreasonable 
 searches of their houses, and from seizures of their 
 property," said the Old Squire. 
 
 " The other Amendments, up to the Thirteenth, are 
 of interest to lawyers rather than to us, I think," Ad- 
 dison remarked. " But the Thirteenth is important. 
 Theodora, what about it? " 
 
 " It abolishes slavery in the United States." 
 
 " Right. And that's all for the present from ' yours 
 truly,' " said Addison, rising with a grand bow. 
 
 " Of course, I have not asked all the questions that 
 might be put," Addison continued. " I haven't gone 
 into it very deep. I have skimmed it over. Somebody 
 else can quiz now." 
 
 It was Saturday, however, and getting late. The 
 week was up, — the week for the Constitution, which 
 the Old Squire had insisted on. He appeared satisfied. 
 " You have done well," said he. " Remarkably well. 
 I feel sure that this week's study will do you good all 
 through life." 
 
 And looking back to that time, I can now say in 
 good truth, that no week of study, on any branch, be- 
 fore or since, has been as useful to me in after life as 
 those six days, spent on Magna Charta and the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LATIN IN EARNEST 
 
 EARLY the following Monday Master Pierson 
 drove to the village book store and purchased 
 for us seven copies of Andrews' Latin Lessons; 
 in fact, he bought the entire stock in hand at the store. 
 It was a week later before we wore all provided with 
 books; but meanwhile we studied in pairs, Thomas 
 and Catherine together, Theodora and Ellen, and Ad- 
 dison and myself. Halstead had a book to himself. 
 But here I may as well add, that he gave up Latin after 
 seven or eight days, becoming wholly disgusted with 
 it. " Miserable frothy stuff! " he exclaimed one night, 
 after endeavoring vainly to decline dominas, of the 
 second declension ; " I know it never will do a fellow 
 one bit of good." 
 
 Joel had already explained to us that the Latin is 
 a dead language, that is to say, an unspoken one. 
 
 " It ought to be dead," said Halstead. " And if it's 
 dead, what's the use to study it ? If I'm going to study 
 at all, I'll study a living language ; I'll study French." 
 
 " All right, Halse," replied Joel, laughing ; and go- 
 ing to his trunk, he brought out Fasquelle's French 
 Course. " Here's French for you. Take the first les- 
 son for to-morrow." 
 
 This pleased Halstead ; he thought he was thereby 
 getting the start of the others, and he actually learned 
 a number of lessons, after a manner; but in the end 
 he had quite as much trouble with the living French 
 as with the dead Latin. In fact, he found French pro- 
 nunciation even frothier than the declension of 
 
 150 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 151 
 
 dominus, and had quite enough of both during the 
 fortnight; so much so that those were his first and 
 last attempts at language studies. Possibly he might 
 have persevered a little better, but for Alfred Batchel- 
 der, who did not take Latin and ridiculed the others 
 for doing so whenever he could obtain a hearing. 
 When we were reciting our Latin, he and Halse would 
 sit listening, and try very hard to make a little fun of 
 it. One day they made so much disturbance, that Joel 
 sent them both out of the room. As usual, Alfred was 
 saucy and declared that as this was a private school, 
 he should do as he pleased. To this Joel made no reply 
 at the time. After school was dismissed that night, 
 Alfred continued to talk about it. Still Joel did not 
 reply. 
 
 At length, Alfred set off for home, but after going 
 a few steps turned and threw a hard lump of snow at 
 the master, who stood near the house door. Thereupon 
 Joel gave chase and, overhauling him directly, laid him 
 on his back in a snow-drift and scrubbed him with 
 snow till he was very wet and red. 
 
 " There, sir ! " exclaimed Joel, " I am not doing 
 this as your teacher. This is out of school." 
 
 We were all glad of it ; even Halstead laughed ; but 
 Alfred was so angry that he did not appear at the Old 
 Squire's again. It was a good riddance; at best Al- 
 fred was an irredeemable little rowdy, wrong-headed 
 in almost everything. He was far more ill-disposed 
 than Halstead; and the latter was always more rude 
 and unreliable when in his company. 
 
 Willis Murch and the Wilbur young folks attended 
 the private school, but did not attempt Latin. They 
 still had work in the Common School Arithmetic and 
 in geography. But with our Latin class Joel tried 
 what he called an experiment. " I want you to put out 
 all your strength and all your time on Latin alone, 
 during this fortnight," he said. " We will have only 
 one exercise besides Latin, and that will not be a lesson, 
 
152 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 exactly, but it will fit in well with this new study. 
 Every evening we will read an hour and a half from 
 ancient history, and then ask questions about it, all of 
 which I will explain to you as well as I can." His 
 idea was that even in that fortnight, if we devoted our 
 minds wholly to it, he could give us so good a start 
 in Latin that we would be able to translate it without 
 much assistance. 
 
 We commenced the declensions of nouns and recited 
 three lessons daily, beginning the translation of the 
 easy sentences, on the second day. Addison, Theo- 
 dora and Catherine made remarkable progress; they 
 learned all five of the declensions of nouns the first 
 day. The rest of us, who were not so quick, kept pace 
 as best we could. It seemed to me that I had never 
 studied so hard in my whole life. My head fairly sang 
 with musa, musae, musae, musam, musa, musa and 
 gladius, gladii, gladio, gladium, gladie, gladio! 
 
 I remember, too, that the first sounds I heard on 
 waking next morning were from Addison who was 
 tramping about our room, declining oratio, orationis, 
 orationi, orationem, oratio, oratione; orationes, ora- 
 tiomim, orationibus, orationes, orationes, orationibus. 
 
 "Doad!" ha shouted loud enough to be heard 
 through the wall of the room. " Can you decline 
 lex? " Whereupon, from the other side of the parti- 
 tion wall, arose a confident voice, reciting, — lex, legis, 
 legi, legem, lex, lege, etc. And she had no sooner 
 finished than Ellen chimed in with leo, leonis, leoni, 
 leonem, leo, leone, etc. 
 
 Then Joel, hearing the refrain up stairs, raised his 
 droll, falsetto voice and brayed out, " Hie, haec, hoc; 
 hit j lis, hujus, hujus; hide, hnic, huic; hunc, hanc, hoc; 
 etc. This was in pronouns, far ahead of us; and we 
 were unable to respond in kind ; but Ad shouted, " I'll 
 be there before night ! " 
 
 While dressing, the whole house resounded to Latin 
 nouns of various declensions in half a dozen different 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 153 
 
 voices, Joel at times displaying his superior acquisi- 
 tions by conjugating the verbs moneo and rcgo, to 
 which we all listened in silent admiration ! 
 
 At length, as we entered the dining-room, to break- 
 fast, a fearful chorus of nouns and verbs arose, de- 
 clined and conjugated in six different voices. Gram 
 stopped her ears. 
 
 " Joel Pierson, this is worse than the tower of 
 Babel! " she exclaimed. " I believe you are all crazy, 
 or soon will be! And I'm sure / shall be," she added, 
 " if you are going on like this long! Is this the way 
 scholars always study Latin? " 
 
 " No, Mother," replied Joel. " Students beginning 
 Latin are apt to be very blue and dumpish. Sometimes 
 they scarcely speak all day long; and there is one 
 case of suicide on record, but we have got it on the 
 cheerful side, here." 
 
 "The noisy side, I should think!" cried Gram. 
 " Do you expect to go on like this a fortnight? " 
 
 " Yes, Mother, day and night," cried Joel. 
 
 Thomas and Catherine reached the schoolroom at 
 eight, the second morning. They came in declining 
 cxcrcitus and dies, of the fourth and fifth declensions. 
 Catherine was ready to begin adjectives. So were 
 Theodora and Addison. Immediately the room re- 
 sounded to bonus-a-um and fcli.v, fclicis, fclici, fcliccm, 
 etc. 
 
 That day they three finished pronouns ; and the rest 
 of us in the class tagged after them, doing our best 
 to keep up, but succeeding only indifferently. It was 
 a veritable Latin steeple-chase, and no one wished to 
 be the hindmost. I recollect that after reading in 
 Ancient History that evening, we all resumed our 
 study of pronouns and would, I really think, have sat 
 up till midnight, but that Joel went around at ten and 
 resolutely gathering up all the books, sent Thomas 
 and Catherine home, and literally drove us off to bed. 
 He began to be alarmed concerning die demon of 
 
154 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 study which he had raised in us. We protested that 
 we were not a bit tired; but he blew out the sitting- 
 room lamp and shouted, " School's dismissed ! " 
 
 Addison went up stairs grumbling, whereupon Joel 
 called after us that he should himself rise at five and 
 kindle a fire in the sitting-room fire-place; and that if 
 any of us wished to rise then and study for an hour or 
 two before breakfast, we could do so. 
 
 We were all soundly asleep at five next morning; 
 but the noise made by Joel knocking about in the fire- 
 place with tongs and shovel, waked Addison who 
 turned out in a moment. His movements in turn 
 waked me and I made haste to follow his example. I 
 would gladly have gone to sleep again, but I durst not 
 let the others get ahead of me for an hour. As we 
 went down stairs in the dark, Addison tapped at Theo- 
 dora's door and said, " Five o'clock." 
 
 " Is it ? " said she, sleepily. " Seems to me I have 
 but just gone to sleep." She and Ellen soon came 
 down to the sitting-room, however; but Halstead did 
 not appear. 
 
 After we were fairly awake it was very cosy and 
 nice, studying there in the sitting-room before the 
 brightly blazing fire. Joel was reading Electra in 
 Greek and had his large lexicon laid open on the table, 
 as also Hadley's Greek grammar. It seemed to me 
 that it would be an age before I should be so far ad- 
 vanced as that. Joel told us that morning that it 
 would require three years to " fit " for college. 
 
 " I think I can fit in two years," said Addison. 
 
 " You could in a year and a half if you were to go 
 on as you are rushing ahead this week," replied Joel, 
 laughing. " But you will not long hold out, like this." 
 
 We began to learn the first conjugation of Latin 
 verbs before the sitting-room fire, that morning, taking 
 amo, of course, as the paradigm; and I recollect that 
 I learned the first four tenses of the indicative mood 
 before breakfast. Addison and Theodora finished the 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 155 
 
 indicative mood, I believe, and began the subjunctive. 
 Hitherto Addison had always been able to outstrip 
 Theodora a little in studies; but in Latin she proved 
 a match for him; he could not surpass her much, if 
 any. When Thomas and Catherine came that morn- 
 ing, after breakfast, we found that they, too, had be- 
 gun amo, and that Catherine was fully as far on in it 
 as Theodora. Thomas had more difficulty ; he and I 
 groaned our troubles to each other in private. 
 
 " This will kill me," said Thomas. 
 
 " It's killing me," said I. " But I don't want to get 
 left behind." 
 
 " I don't," said Thomas. " But aren't you sorry 
 you began ? " 
 
 " Almost," said I. 
 
 " If you are going to teach school here night and 
 day, too, Joel, I guess we shall have to get a new barrel 
 of kerosene," Gram observed at the breakfast table; 
 kerosene was high-priced in those days. 
 
 " I don't know but that you will, Mother," replied 
 Joel. " But what is kerosene, when such progress can 
 be made as we are making ! " 
 
 We entered the second conjugation that forenoon, 
 taking moneo, and also learned all the vocabularies 
 and exercises up to the third conjugation. 
 
 It was on this day that poor Halse dropped out al- 
 together. Ned and his sisters, too, missed a number 
 of days, although they did very well, Joel said re- 
 peatedly. 
 
 Next day we had rego to conjugate, also the irregu- 
 lar verb sum, with six exercises and the first four rules 
 in construction ; and the next day, a great and memo- 
 rable day with the class, we were given the first of 
 ^Esop's Fables to translate, or rather the tenth one in 
 our text book. It was the fable of The Fox and the 
 Lion. Vulpes quae nunquam leonem viderat, etc. 
 
 How almost insurmountably difficult that fable 
 looked to me, at first sight! Thought I to myself, 
 
156 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 others may be able to read this, but I never shall! 
 When I saw the hundreds of pages, too, which a stu- 
 dent aspiring to enter college must translate and be 
 prepared to pass examinations in, I said, " This is not 
 for me." How many hundreds of young persons have 
 thought the same, at first ! 
 
 " Turn to your vocabulary," said Joel encoura- 
 gingly. " Look up each word, and write them down, 
 one after another, then remembering your declensions 
 and conjugations try to put them together; and see 
 what you can get out of it ! " Theodora soon hit on the 
 meaning and translated the fable nearly right; but it 
 was a droll story which I got out of it ! Thomas, too, 
 grew disheartened and, after a long struggle, made a 
 fictitious translation to the effect that the fox saw the 
 lion poking about a hen-roost so frequently that he 
 grew tired of the spectacle and said to him one morn- 
 ing, if you were not quite so big and yellow, I would 
 address you in low Dutch ! 
 
 Joel did not approve of this effort. " That sort of 
 thing doesn't count, Thomas," said he. " Better stick 
 to the text." 
 
 After much mental travail I got hold of the main 
 points in the fable and then contrived to piece it to- 
 gether, after a fashion. It is always the first effort 
 which costs hard toil. The fable of The Hawk and 
 the Doves (Accipiter et Columbae), which was as- 
 signed us next day, came much easier. Joel was very 
 particular that we should not assist eaqh other, and 
 obtained a promise from us each to that effect. " You 
 will never make good, self-respecting Latin students, 
 if you depend on others to make your translations for 
 you ! " he exclaimed, with emphasis, and iterated this 
 sentiment nearly every day. " Make up your minds 
 at the outset, too, that you will never use ' ponies.' " 
 
 " What's a ' pony? ' " a number of us inquired. 
 
 Joel laughed. " It is somewhat to your credit that 
 you don't know," said he. " You will find out quite 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 157 
 
 soon enough, if you go to a Latin school, or to college. 
 But as there is neither safety nor merit in ignorance, 
 I will inform you that a ' pony ' is a translation, writ- 
 ten or printed, which lazy, unprincipled students make 
 use of secretly to get their lessons from, or rather to 
 evade their lessons." 
 
 " Ho ! " cried Thomas, " that must be jolly ! " 
 " It is so vary jolly that I never knew a student, 
 making use of them, who amounted to anything," re- 
 plied Joel. " It is cheating. It is also unfair to others 
 in the class. But the worst effect of it is always on the 
 one who uses it. It robs him at once of self-respect 
 and self-reliance. I take it upon myself to say boldly 
 that only a sneak will use a ' pony.' If I were reduced 
 to the necessity of using one, I would tell every member 
 of my class of it, in advance, and also my instructor; 
 but there never need be any necessity of using one, 
 where the student has studied honestly and well, to 
 begin with." 
 
 On the following day we were given two fables : 
 The Lion and the Kid and The Wolf. Now that we 
 were fairly started and the first hardness and fear of 
 translation were off, I think that I never enjoyed any 
 study, or exercise, so well as looking out the transla- 
 tions of those Latin fables. We sat at tables near the 
 windows and worked away at those involved sentences, 
 glancing up from moment to moment, to see, by the 
 expression on their faces, how the others were getting 
 on. Addison's countenance usually wore a smile of 
 triumph; Catherine would be looking keenly at the 
 page, with now and then a nimble reference to the vo- 
 cabulary ; Theodora would be thoughtfully gazing far 
 over the top of her book, and only when in dire per- 
 plexity would give a little restless nibble at her finger- 
 nails, — for she was trying hard to break off that 
 childish habit. Thomas was, for the most of the time, 
 twisting and turning and knocking his feet together, 
 with now and then an audible groan. As for myself, 
 
158 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 the most marked effect that I was aware of, was the 
 manner my hands perspired when I was on difficult 
 passages. I was obliged to keep wiping them, to pre- 
 vent my ringers from wetting the pages of the book. 
 I triad very hard to keep the matter private; but the 
 others noticed it after a time and nicknamed me " the 
 sweater." In spite of my best efforts, the pages of the 
 reader containing those Fables became much soiled. 
 
 After an hour or two of study Ellen would usually 
 go down cellar and fetch a large nappy full of apples : 
 orange apples, blue-pearmains, sponge-russets, jilly- 
 flowers, baldwins, Ribston pippins and other varieties, 
 of which there grew not less than thirty in the Old 
 Squire's orchard. As the old gentleman made it a rule 
 to put into the cellar every fall not less than twenty- 
 five barrels, there were apples for all who wanted them, 
 at any time, and no questions asked. Formerly it had 
 been the custom' to make six barrels of cider every 
 autumn; but after the Temperance reform began in 
 Maine, cider-mills fell into disrepute, and the more 
 conscientious farmers ceased altogether to sell or make 
 apple cider. The Old Squire was accustomed to say, 
 emphatically, that it was worse than useless to vote for 
 prohibition and then make cider, either to sell, give 
 away, or drink one's self. Nor would he sell his refuse 
 apples to others to make cider from. " Boil 'em for 
 the hogs, boys," he said. " If we are going to have a 
 ' Maine Law,' let's keep it. We might as well make 
 cider ourselves as sell the apples to a man who we 
 know means to make them into cider." 
 
 The Old Squire never took any credit to himself 
 for these opinions. It was simply his way. But if all 
 who believe in the national prohibition of intoxicants 
 would take that stand, the reform, in this respect, 
 would be much facilitated. A good citizen will live 
 his principles as well as vote them : such at least were 
 the doctrines the old gentleman tried to instil into our 
 minds, as boys. But of late different ideas are taught. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 159 
 
 Supply and Demand have been deified, so to speak, 
 and have taken the consciences of producers under 
 their care. If Demand offers a good price for poison, 
 to be used in making orphans in one or more parts of 
 the country, we are told that Supply need not trouble 
 himself about the orphans, but may produce the poison 
 as fast as possible and get his money for it. That, they 
 say, is " business." The writer makes no pretense of 
 giving advice or instruction on this subject, but none 
 the less ventures to advise all clear-minded boys to 
 think this question out for themselves and not take 
 any interested person's word for it. 
 
- CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WE ALL HAVE THE MUMPS 
 
 I THINK that it was the following day (for I re- 
 call that we had three fables assigned, The En- 
 emies, The Oxen and The Raven and the Fox) 
 when Addison, at dinner, suddenly complained that his 
 left ear ached. 
 
 " So does mine," said Ellen. " My jaw on the left 
 side feels queer, too. It is swelled." 
 
 Addison remarked that his own jaw also felt queer. 
 
 "Do you suppose it is the Latin, Ad?" Theodora 
 asked, laughing. 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder," Gram observed. " I have 
 been expecting that something would happen to all 
 your jaws, from the strange talk I have heard in the 
 sitting-room, this week. I would not like to put my 
 jaws about in that way." 
 
 " I could not eat a sponge-russet this forenoon, 
 either," continued Ellen. " It tasted so sour and 
 sharp that it made my ear ache dreadfully." 
 
 With that Gram, who had been merely in sport, 
 alluding to the Latin, suddenly looked up and said, 
 " Come around here. Let me see your ear, Ellen." 
 
 Ellen passed around the table to Gram's chair and 
 was examined attentively for some moments. " Taste 
 a little of that," said the old lady, pouring out a small 
 quantity of vinegar from the cruse. Ellen did so gin- 
 gerly and laughed at first, but a moment later made a 
 wry face and uttered a cry of extreme discomfort. 
 
 " I thought so ! " Gram cried confidently. " You've 
 got the mumps, young lady ! " 
 
 160 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 161 
 
 " Then I'll bet a cent I've got them ! " exclaimed 
 Addison in dismay. 
 
 " Well, taste of the vinegar," said Gram, pouring 
 out a little more and passing the spoon to him. 
 
 Addison sipped away with a wondrous wise look, 
 slowly' tasting it; and then he, too, made a wry face 
 and clapped both hands beneath his ears. " O gra- 
 cious! how it cuts! how it stings!" he ejaculated, 
 getting very red in the face. " What ails my jaws ! " 
 
 " You've both got the mumps ! " cried Gram. 
 " Your jaws will have to keep stiller for a while, or 
 I'm much mistaken ! " 
 
 " I heard that they had the mumps out at the Cor- 
 ners last week," Joel remarked, " when I went to the 
 post-office." 
 
 Addison and Ellen continued studying that after- 
 noon, although they felt far from well; their faces 
 were swollen on both sides. 
 
 Next morning they wera both quite ill. 
 
 Thomas came in alone that morning ; Catherine also 
 had an aching ear, he told us; and before noon Hal- 
 stead began to Jpomplain. 
 
 " You will all have the mumps, most likely," Joel 
 remarked to us that night. " I conclude it will be 
 better to close the school and save the remainder of 
 your money for the time being. You may wish, per- 
 haps, to have another short term, later on." 
 
 We disliked very much to stop, till the fifteen days 
 had expired, but finally decided to do so. Joel bade 
 us farewell, and went back to College the following 
 morning and left us to settle our accounts with the 
 mumps. 
 
 The question where we had " caught " the mumps, 
 was one which puzzled Gram exceedingly. No one had 
 been to the house during the previous week save the 
 pupils and neighbors, none of whom, except Catherine, 
 had mumps ; in fact, the question how they came to us 
 was obscure. It seemed to be a case of spontaneous 
 
162 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 mumps. In jest Gram always attributed them to the 
 Latin which had disturbed the normal and proper 
 movements of our jaws. Addison humorously 
 favored this opinion and argued that Latin would come 
 much easier to us all, as soon as we were well over the 
 mumps. 
 
 Before night, however, both he and Ellen ceased to 
 find anything humorous in their affection. They were 
 really quite ill. Their cheeks protruded like those of 
 a chipmunk, stuffed with corn. The lower lobes of 
 their ears turned outward in a very comical manner. 
 Both refused food, the effort to masticate caused them 
 such anguish. Gram bound up their cheeks in cotton 
 batting and fed them on chicken broth. 
 
 Halstead was not much ill; his jaw gave him less 
 trouble; he now derided Addison, and coming into 
 the sitting-room where the latter lay on the lounge, 
 much flushed and very miserable, set about making a 
 picture of him on the smooth cover of a salt box — the 
 only time we ever knew him to attempt anything in 
 the artistic line. He really made a very comical picture, 
 which bore so grotesque a resemblance that we who 
 had not mumps as yet, were convulsed with laughter. 
 Halstead continued at his task, walking first to one 
 point of view, then another, about the lounge, till he 
 nearly drove Addison wild. Theodora sought to coax 
 him away, but he would not budge. 
 
 " This is the chance I've always wanted," he de- 
 clared, " to get a good likeness of Ad and his big head. 
 I mean always to keep it. I want to make it a work 
 of art." Then he resumed his walks about the lounge 
 again. 
 
 "If you don't quit, I will get up and throw you 
 out ! " cried Addison, at length. 
 
 " Guess I wouldn't try it. I rather think I can best 
 you to-night," said Halse. " If I should get in a blow 
 right under that left ear of yours, you would squeal. 
 Doesn't that ear stick out, though! I never saw two 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 163 
 
 such chops on any living creature, except a fat pig. 
 Addison, you ought to get your photograph taken to- 
 night and send it over to Edith Thomas. You'd like 
 to have Edith see it, you know." 
 
 Addison began to get up, his swollen, flushed visage 
 turning even redder from pent-up indignation and 
 wrath; but at this juncture Gram entered and turned 
 Halstead out. 
 
 Addison sank back on the lounge with a groan, quite 
 dizzy, his ears singing, as he confessed, like a hot tea- 
 kettle. " But, by ginger, I will thrash that fellow, if 
 I ever get well," he exclaimed thickly. 
 
 Halstead meantime had gone out to interview Ellen 
 who was" in an old rocking-chair, wrapped up in a com- 
 forter, by the kitchen stove; and soon we heard a 
 plaintive outcry from that quarter : " Dear me ! Do go 
 off and let me alone. You've no more feeling than a 
 horse ! Gram ! Gram ! Sha'n't Halse quit plaguing 
 me?" The old lady set off for the kitchen in haste; 
 and a moment later Halstead's feet were heard clatter- 
 ing out toward the wood-house. 
 
 Mumps, or parotitis, is a capricious malady, due to 
 an infection which finds lodgment in the parotid, and 
 more rarely, in the sub-maxillary glands ; — and here I 
 may record that one of the Murch boys had an in- 
 flammation of the sub-maxillary gland a fortnight later, 
 instead of the more usual parotitis. Why the left paro- 
 tid gland is so much more commonly attacked than 
 the right, at first, is one of the mysteries of the ail- 
 ment. 
 
 Addison was not as ill the next morning and im- 
 proved rapidly, although his cheeks continued swollen 
 for three or four days. Ellen was miserably ill for two 
 days longer ; yet her face was not as badly swollen as 
 Addison's. Halstead scarcely minded his attack at all. 
 His face was' swollen but little and he boasted that he 
 was able to sip vinegar every day. 
 
 Meantime Catherine was quite ill, but none of the 
 
164 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 others of our school group were attacked till seven or 
 eight days later. 
 
 The Old Squire, with the two hired Doanes, had 
 now begun to work up the great wood-piles in front of 
 the farmhouse ell. He summoned Halstead and me to 
 his assistance. We had first to cut the eight-foot logs 
 in two and split them, then put them on a saw-horse 
 and saw them, once for the sitting-room fire-place, 
 twice for the kitchen stove and other stoves in the 
 chambers. The stove-wood had to be split again, so 
 that altogether we had a laborious task before us. 
 
 The old gentleman always made a point of getting 
 his entire stock of fuel for the year prepared and packed 
 away in the wood-house before beginning field work 
 in the spring. It was new business for me; and that 
 wood-pile looked so huge that I imagined that we 
 would hardly finish it in time for much else that season. 
 The great tiers grew small very slowly, during those 
 first three or four days. When Addison was able to 
 join us, the task progressed a little better, and in the 
 course of a week the most of the great logs had gone 
 over into a heap of fresh white stove : wood which was 
 rapidly tanned yellow under the March wind. 
 
 Not alone the wood was tanned; our faces got 
 brown with equal rapidity. Theodora assured us that 
 she could see the brown tint on our cheeks deepen 
 every hour when the wind blew. A little vacation was 
 at hand for me, however ; in the course of about nine 
 days, parotitis claimed me, too; Theodora and I had 
 been testing our mouths with vinegar for several days ; 
 she failed to stand the test on the following day ; and 
 Wealthy was seized the day after. All three of us had 
 the mumps very lightly, however ; although I am sorry 
 to confess that I made as much of mine as I could, in 
 order to escape the wood-pile which I had grown heart- 
 ily tired of. It was far more agreeable to sit in the 
 house with the girls and play the invalid. Gram had 
 seen too much parotitis in her day to be much deceived 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 165 
 
 by my languid airs, however, and soon pronounced me 
 able to work again. Ellen and Addison had sympathy 
 for me; but Halstead declared me a shirk. As I sat 
 at the window, indoors, he would look up from saw- 
 ing wood, at intervals, and make the most abominable 
 faces to me and, with expressive gestures and much 
 dumb show, intimate that my proper place was out 
 there with the buck-saw. I managed to enjoy a vaca- 
 tion of three days, however. In fact, I then regarded 
 the mumps as a rather agreeable respite from toil ; but 
 with mumps much depends on the severity of the at- 
 tack. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 MAKING MAPLE SUGAR 
 
 ALREADY the great snow drifts in front of the 
 farmhouse, in the roads, and beside the stone 
 walls had begun to melt away. At mid-day the 
 snow was soft and slumpy and the bees were out ; but 
 in the morning there would be a hard crust on which 
 we could run about and visit the neighbors. 
 
 On one of, these mornings, about March ioth, Ad- 
 dison looked across the breakfast table to the Old 
 Squire and asked if it were not getting about time to 
 " tap trees." " Pretty near time," was the reply. " I 
 see that sap has started." 
 
 " Well, Joseph, if you are going to make sugar, you 
 must get two of those new sap-pans and try to do the 
 sugaring off over in the lot; for I do not see how I 
 can have it in the house this spring," Gram declared. 
 
 The Old Squire replied that he was not at all desir- 
 ous of making sugar that spring, and there the subject 
 was dropped — to the dismay of us young folks ; for 
 much had been anticipated by us all in regard to maple 
 syrup. I had never seen the process, but had heard 
 glowing accounts of it from Ellen and Halstead. Gram 
 and the Old Squirer who had been making maple sugar 
 annually for forty years, had naturally grown a little 
 tired of the routine. 
 
 Addison and Ellen took counsel together; and at 
 length the latter came privately to call Theodora and 
 me out to the wood-shed. Halstead also was present. 
 
 " What we're talking about is making the old folks 
 166 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 167 
 
 an offer on maple-syrup this spring," Addison ex- 
 plained. " It's too bad not to make any, when we 
 have sap-house, buckets and kettles over in the ' Aunt 
 Hannah Lot,' all ready for it." 
 
 " That's so," Ellen and Halstead both said. " It's 
 luscious good," the former added. " I wish I had some 
 this minute." 
 
 " Well," said Addison, " I have been thinking, since 
 we all want to make some, that we might make it and 
 make a little money out of it, too; that is, if you are 
 all in favor of it and are willing to work ; for of course 
 there is work about it." 
 
 " But how, Ad ? " asked Theodora, looking a little 
 curious. 
 
 " Why, I was going to say to the Old Squire, that 
 .we would go ahead, if he would buy us one new sap- 
 pan, and make all the syrup and sugar we could, on 
 shares with him, half and half, and not trouble Gram 
 anything about it. If we made four hundred-weight, 
 half of it would come into the house ; but our half we 
 would sell at the village. It fetches twelve cents a 
 pound, you know; we might get that money, clear, 
 and please the folks, too. I rather think they would 
 like the idea." 
 
 We all thought exceedingly well of this proposition ; 
 young people — even lazy ones — are generally will- 
 ing to exert themselves somewhat to obtain maple 
 syrup. Besides, we believed that it would be great 
 sport to make syrup on our own account, in the lot; 
 for Thomas and Kate would be sure to call over often ; 
 and we could boil sap, evenings, make maple flap-jacks 
 on snow, and have a good time generally. 
 
 Addison was therefore commissioned to broach the 
 subject to the Old Squire. He entered on it at the 
 supper-table, that evening, while the rest of us sat 
 listening, with expectancy. 
 
 " Seems 'most too bad not to make any sugar this 
 spring, sir," he began, after we were all helped to milk 
 
168 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 toast. " But, of course, it is a good deal of work ; and 
 I've been thinking, sir, of making you an offer, if Gram 
 also thinks well of it." 
 
 " What's your offer? " said the old gentleman. 
 
 " Well, sir, we boys and the girls have been talking it 
 over and we are willing, if you will get us a sap-pan, 
 for syruping off, to go ahead over at the lot and make 
 what we can on shares, half and half, and relieve you 
 and Gram of all bother about it." 
 
 " I guess there would be some queer sugar made," 
 Gram remarked ironically. 
 
 " Well," said Ad, perceiving that he had gone a 
 step too fast, " I was about to say that perhaps Gram 
 would not mind riding over to the lot in the sleigh and 
 giving us the benefit of her advice once or twice, to help 
 us along." 
 
 " Well, but who will board you during the two or 
 three weeks that you are making sugar, on shares?" 
 demanded the old gentleman, his eye twinkling a little. 
 " Were you expecting to turn in your half of the syrup 
 toward your board ? " 
 
 " No, sir," said Addison, laughing, but coloring a 
 little. " We were proposing to sell our half toward a 
 school fund for next fall." 
 
 The Old Squire laughed. " I'm afraid, Ruth," said 
 he, " that I shall get my fingers pinched in this busi- 
 ness, if I don't look out for myself. These grand- 
 children of ours are sharp youngsters, I see." 
 
 " But I should call it a good offer," Gram said. 
 
 " You know you have us to board, anyway, grand- 
 father," said Theodora, quietly. " The more's the pity, 
 but it is so," she added. " I suppose we count on that 
 more than we ought to, perhaps." 
 
 " O, I guess we shall be able to get enough to eat 
 and drink ! " cried the Old Squire, disclaiming the sen- 
 timent which Theodora sought to express. " I was 
 only in fun about your board, my girl. 
 
 " But this syrup-making is hard work, boys," he 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 169 
 
 continued. " I don't mind your trying your hand at it 
 on shares; but it will be hard work for you." 
 
 " If you say the word, we will tackle it," said Hal- 
 stead; but the Old Squire did not " say the word " at 
 once. He took the evening to consider the matter. 
 
 Addison did not ask him further concerning it, but 
 while he and the old gentleman were at the stable to- 
 gether, next morning, they came to an understanding. 
 
 " We are going to take the job on shares," Addison 
 said to me as we went in to breakfast. " It's all set- 
 tled." 
 
 Accordingly, after breakfast we all set off for the 
 maple grove, in the Aunt Hannah Lot pasture. There 
 were here, scattered about the rough land adjoining the 
 Edwards farm, nearly three hundred maples fit for tap- 
 ping ; a few of them were white maples, but the most 
 rock maples, or sugar maples. Some of them were 
 very large with huge spreading tops ; and toward the 
 southerly side, near two great rocks close by which 
 grew five large maples and a yellow birch, stood the 
 weathered sap-house, a small hovel, ten by twenty 
 feet, with a chimney in one corner, an " arch " of brick, 
 in which were set three large iron kettles, and a little 
 dark loft overhead where the cedar sap-buckets, spiles,, 
 sap-yokes, etc., were stored. 
 
 Here the Old Squire had made maple sugar every 
 spring for more than a generation; and he accom- 
 panied us that morning to give us hints from his long 
 experience. We took a hand-sled with tapping augers, 
 hammers, shovels, etc., and were in high spirits, with 
 a bright March sun soaring above the white clouds 
 overhead and the hard snow crust underfoot. Already 
 the twigs of the maples had begun to turn red ; and the 
 day before, two crows had returned and were lurking 
 about the farm with an eye to defunct lambs. A blue 
 jay, too, was heard crying sharply as we went through 
 the little belt of woods between the farm and the Aunt 
 Hannah Lot. 
 
170 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " It will soon be spring again," the Old Squire said. 
 " We ought to be thankful there is no war and that we 
 have peace once more, even although times are a little 
 hard for farmers. Seems as if everything a farmer 
 has is shrinking in value. But store prices are lower; 
 that is one advantage." 
 
 This was the period succeeding the war, when so 
 many Eastern farmers became disheartened and were 
 led, many of them, into erroneous opinions as to na- 
 tional finance, which found expression, later, in the 
 " Greenback craze." A farm which had been worth 
 three thousand dollars at the close of the Civil War, 
 could now scarcely have been sold for seventeen hun- 
 dred. It was very difficult to raise money for any 
 purpose. The average citizen could not understand 
 why, since peace was restored, he found it so much 
 harder to get a living than in " war times." 
 
 During the war the government was paying out vast 
 sums in "bounties," wages and for munitions; and 
 hence money was plenty; although in reality the na- 
 tion — and that meant everybody in the country — 
 was getting enormously in debt. 
 
 When the war closed, these great sums ceased to be 
 paid out, and the unpleasant task of paying the great 
 debt began. 
 
 All wise citizens comprehended it, and bore it as best 
 they could, knowing that it was necessary and un- 
 avoidable. But there were still thousands who could 
 not comprehend it, and what was worse, other thou- 
 sands who did not wish to comprehend it, but desired 
 to have the government issue millions of dollars more 
 in greenbacks, or in other words to go on running in 
 debt, instead of paying what it already owed as it had 
 promised to do. 
 
 I recollect that Addison and the Old Squire were dis- 
 cussing the matter for weeks, and were in not a little 
 doubt, at times, what was right and best ; for the sub- 
 ject was not as easily understood then as now. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 171 
 
 That morning I saw a sugar maple " tapped " for 
 the first time, and saw the sweet sap drop into buckets, 
 set in the snow beneath the spiles. But first we had 
 kindled a fire in the sap-house, melted snow and 
 scalded out the buckets which Halstead handed down 
 from the loft, a hundred and seventy-eight of them. 
 After the water was hot Theodora and Ellen attended 
 to this part of the labor. The buckets had been care- 
 fully put away the previous spring and were in good 
 condition. 
 
 In one of them which had been set right side up, we 
 found a nest of dry leaves and a squirrel's hoard of 
 acorns ; — for there were a few red oaks in the pasture. 
 We concluded that it was the preserve of a squirrel that 
 had either forgotten where he had placed his store, or 
 else, as is more likely, one that had lost his life early 
 the previous winter and therefore left his hoard as 
 a legacy to the finder. 
 
 Addison, meantime, was tapping trees and Wealthy 
 supplying him with spiles, and carrying the hammer 
 about for him to drive the spiles into the holes in the 
 trees. It fell to my own lot to carry the buckets to the 
 trees ; and the Old Squire instructed me very carefully 
 how to set them in the snow and prop the southerly 
 side with stones or sticks. 
 
 Like most boys I soon began to think that my part 
 of the work was the hardest and intimated that I would 
 rather tap than distribute buckets ; — for it looked to 
 me very easy to bore holes in the trees. 
 
 " Well, let him tap one, if he wants to," the Old 
 Squire said quietly. 
 
 With a grin Addison handed me the tapping auger ; 
 and planting myself in front of a maple I essayed to 
 bore a hole in it. " Mind now," said Addison, " the 
 hole must slant upward a little, so that the spile may 
 slant down. If it doesn't, the sap will not run into the 
 bucket." 
 
 I stabbed the worm of the auger into the hard, rough 
 
172 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 bark and tried to bore into the tree — on an upward 
 slant. It did not auger well. I tried again, but could 
 not make the worm draw. Again and again I at- 
 tempted it, for I knew that Addison and the Old 
 Squire were looking on and I presumed that they were 
 amused, although I would not look at them. 
 
 As a result of my efforts I produced a scar in the 
 green tree, very shallow and resembling 1 an ulcer more 
 than an auger hole. The sap began to trickle forth, 
 but no spile could by any means be inserted. I was dis- 
 comfited, mortified, and uncertain what to do next. 
 
 " Bores hard, does it, my son? " said the Old Squire. 
 His visage was much puckered by smiles. Addison, 
 too, was regarding the effort with an aggravating 
 grin. Wealthy, the little traitress, had run off to tell 
 the others that I was trying to tap a tree and couldn't ; 
 and Halstead, Theodora and Ellen were approaching 
 with faces expectant of diversion. 
 
 " Going to give it up ? " Addison asked me. 
 
 I would not do that and again jabbed the auger into 
 the hole. At length I got it started to bore a little, but 
 Addison cried, " Slant it up ! Slant it up more ! " 
 
 In trying to slant the hole upward, I again lost the 
 bite of the worm and puggled away fruitlessly, while 
 Halstead and the girls laughed. 
 
 Again and yet again I tried, but had now got the 
 hole in such a condition that no one could have bored 
 there. With much shame, I finally made a virtue of 
 necessity and said, " I don't believe I can tap a tree." 
 
 "Have you just found that out?" cried Halstead. 
 " We've all known it for the last fifteen minutes." 
 
 I made an effort to get rid of the auger by handing 
 it back to Addison, but the Old Squire cried, " No, no, 
 sir. Never give up in that way. You must now tap a 
 tree." 
 
 " I don't believe I can," I faltered. 
 
 " Yes, you can ! " cried the old gentleman. " Take 
 that auger and come out here to this log." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 173 
 
 I followed him to a birch log which lay near the sap- 
 house. " Now bore a hole in it," said he. 
 
 This I succeeded in doing. 
 
 " Now come to this maple," the Old Squire exhorted 
 me, " and try again. , Get right down on your knees, 
 set your auger at the right slant, to begin with, and try 
 to tap that tree." 
 
 I had completely lost confidence in myself, but 
 obeyed and, somewhat to my own surprise, succeeded 
 this time in boring a fairly even hole in the tree, at the 
 proper angle. 
 
 " There you are! " cried the old gentleman, patting 
 me on the shoulder. " Now go back to that first tree, 
 begin a new hole and tap it right." 
 
 My courage was better now, and I tapped the big 
 maple and drove in the spile. 
 
 " Never show the white feather again, in anything 
 you try to do ! " cried the Old Squire, by way of final 
 advice to me. " What others can do, you can do." 
 
 It was a good lesson ; I had learned, moreover, that 
 tapping a frozen green rock maple, with an inch auger, 
 is something more than child's play, and was quite 
 willing to let Addison resume his task. The scar which 
 I had made on the big maple oozed and wasted sap all 
 that spring. Halstead often called my attention to it 
 when we were gathering sap, and he wished to hector 
 me a little. " See that poor tree bleed ! " he would say. 
 
 At length the Old Squire relieved Addison at his 
 task of tapping, for the latter grew not a little tired by 
 the time he had bored eighty or ninety holes. We did! 
 not feel quite right to have the old gentleman do the 
 work, however, since we had undertaken the job our- 
 selves ; and Theodora at last said that we would need 
 to give him- more than half of the first boiling of 
 syrup. " O no, O no," he replied. " I am not trying 
 to hedge on the contract. I do this of my own accord. 
 But if you fear an infringement, you must forbid my 
 working," he added, laughing heartily. " The fact is, 
 
174 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 I've tapped these trees here so many years that it comes 
 very handy for me. Seems just as if I must take hold 
 and work," he added. 
 
 We fancied that he felt a little touch of sadness at 
 the thought of giving up his annual task here despite 
 the laugh with which he turned it off. Theodora pres- 
 ently drew Addison aside, and they conversed for some 
 moments ; then as I was setting a bucket under a spile 
 that the Old Squire had just driven, Addison came 
 along and said, " We have been thinking, sir, that we 
 would like to have you go in company with us and 
 make a new contract." 
 
 Gramp glanced at him and divined his motive in- 
 stantly; for he was always very quick to appreciate a 
 touch of sentiment. But he only laughed. " No, no," 
 he said, " we will stick to our agreement. You couldn't 
 make a young man of me again, if you were all to try 
 ever so kindly," he added. " I have had my time. 
 Others must soon take my place. It is the law of nature. 
 The main thing is for each one to do his part well, 
 during his allotted time." With that he abruptly dis- 
 missed the subject and began to speak of the fire-wood 
 for boiling the sap. There were about two cords of 
 weathered dry wood which had been cut and piled 
 at a little distance from the sap-house the previous 
 spring. In addition to this the Old Squire now pointed 
 out to us several dead and partly dry trees, scattered 
 about the lot ; for a few maples died nearly every year 
 here. Tapping and drawing the sap from the trees 
 materially shortens their lives. The wood of their 
 trunks, too, near the ground, where the tapping is 
 done, is very liable to decay around the auger holes. 
 
 It seemed to me that I never tasted a more delight- 
 ful draught than that cold maple sap, fresh from those 
 great trees that morning. It ran quite rapidly, that is 
 to say, it dropped fast; by eleven o'clock some of the 
 buckets were half full. There were two large tubs, 
 called sap-holders, of about a hogshead's capacity each, 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 175 
 
 in the sap-house. Both these were scalded out with 
 hot water and prepared for storing the sap overnight. 
 
 By this time we went to dinner, but returned before 
 three to collect the day's run of sap. The snow crust 
 had thawed by this time beneath the warm sun; and 
 it became a laborious task to tread a path into the lot 
 and afterwards tread diverging paths from the sap- 
 house around to the trees. Carrying the sap in tin pails 
 through the snow, when sometimes we would slump 
 into it with both feet, was far from easy labor; this 
 part, indeed, is the prosy side of maple sugar making. 
 
 Many of the buckets were now brimming full. Hal- 
 stead, Addison and I were occupied for as much as two 
 hours, fetching in the sap and filling the sap-holders. 
 Addison made use of a sap-yoke and brought two pail- 
 fuls at once ; but one pail was as much as I could man- 
 age in the soft snow; and once or twice I spilled my 
 sap. 
 
 Before it was all gathered I had become very tired 
 and fully realized that even so alluring a business as 
 syrup-making has, necessarily, its share of work ere 
 the sweets can be enjoyed. 
 
 The weather was still so cool that there was no risk 
 from the sap souring in the holders ; and the business 
 of boiling it down was postponed till the following 
 forenoon. In fact, we were all fatigued; even the 
 girls, who had not assisted at gathering the sap, were 
 now quite content to wait till next day. 
 
 Just as we were finishing work and fastening the 
 door of the sap-house to go home, Thomas Edwards 
 came across lots on snowshoes, to see how we were 
 getting on. Their sugar-lot lay to the westward of 
 their farm and pasture; and he informed us that he 
 and his father were to begin tapping trees the follow- 
 ing morning. 
 
 " How's Latin lately? " he shouted back to us as he 
 climbed the fence, bordering their field. " We haven't 
 looked at it since we had the mumps," replied Addison. 
 
176 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " No more have I," replied Thomas. " I believe 
 the mumps wiped it all out of my head. But Kate is 
 hammering away at it, every day." 
 
 We had another reminder of our neglected Latin 
 that night. Ellen, who had hastened to the post-office 
 after the mail, brought a letter from Master Pierson, 
 also a package on which there were sixteen cents in 
 postage stamps, which proved to be a second-hand copy 
 of Ccesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, with 
 notes, map, a vocabulary and a short biography of 
 Julius Caesar. There were also pictures of the battles 
 between the Roman army and the Helvetii, Germans, 
 Nervii and numerous ancient peoples of Gaul. It was 
 a copy of what was called " the Brooks edition," that 
 being the name of the editor. 
 
 Oddly enough the first words in Joel's letter were 
 the same with which Thomas had hailed us, half an 
 hour previously: " How's Latin, lately? " 
 
 Joel then went on to encourage Addison (for the 
 letter was directed to him) and all the rest of the class, 
 to retain what we had already learned, by reviewing it 
 occasionally. " Perhaps," he added, " you can read a 
 few sections of Caesar. It opens rather hard, but you 
 will soon catch the knack of translating it. Suppose 
 you try eight or ten sections, during the spring. It is 
 interesting reading after you make a start with it." 
 
 We examined the book with much interest. It 
 looked ominously difficult to me; but I liked the pic- 
 tures and the portrait of Caesar very much. 
 
 " We will take it out to the sap-house while we are 
 tending kettles and see what we can make of it," Ad- 
 dison said. " Perhaps Kate and Tom will come over 
 and try their wisdom teeth on it." 
 
 Ellen had another piece of news. " There is a notice 
 posted on the schoolhouse, for a school-meeting, to 
 choose a new agent for next year," she informed us. 
 " I stopped and read it, as I came past." 
 
 This notice was of interest to us ; for there had been 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 177 
 
 much difference of opinion in the district for two 
 years ; and we knew that Tibbetts and his clique were 
 resolved if possible to elect an agent who would do as 
 they wished about the school. As we considered their 
 intentions bad, we were all — Addison in particular 
 — much exercised about it and desired, if possible, to 
 defeat them. We hoped to have Joel Pierson hired for 
 the following winter as our teacher again. " If Tib- 
 betts gets his man elected for agent, we shall not have 
 Joel," said Addison, at the supper table. " We can 
 count that as settled. There will be an end of Latin, 
 algebra and everything else that we want in the school 
 line here at home. We have advanced now where a 
 poor teacher will be of no use to us, only a drawback. 
 A good teacher, too, is best for every scholar in the 
 district, whether advanced or backward. I think it is 
 a shame to be held back and be put at a disadvantage 
 by one old rum-seller! What he will do, if he can, 
 really excludes us from the advantages of the school 
 here and defrauds us of our school money; we shall 
 be obliged to go somewheres else, if we have instruc- 
 tion. Fancy having another Sam Lurvey next win- 
 ter!" 
 
 Addison waxed indignant ; he felt very strongly on 
 this subject. / 
 
 " But perhaps Tibbetts will not get his man elected 
 for agent," Theodora said. 
 
 " I am anything but easy about that," exclaimed Ad- 
 dison. " There's a majority of voters out around the 
 Corners. The trouble is there are seven or eight weak- 
 headed, no-account fellows, some of them only just 
 come of age to vote, who have no sense and no care for 
 anything except Tibbetts' bad liquor. Half of them, 
 I suppose, are in debt to him for it ; and they will do 
 just as he gives them the wink to do. There's Tim 
 Darnley, Jerry Cross, Lige Davis, and that whole gang 
 of low-lived chaps, who spend most of their time 
 around Tibbetts' place, chewing tobacco, telling shady 
 
178 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 stories and working just enough to live along and get 
 a drink of rum now and then." 
 
 " It's a shame such men have the right to vote ! " 
 cried Gram whom Addison's oratory on the subject 
 of temperance, and of Tibbetts in particular, always 
 roused. " They ought no more to vote than so many 
 pigs!" 
 
 " Well, but they have the right to do so, under the 
 Constitution, Gram," replied Addison ; " and it's their 
 votes that I am afraid of." 
 
 " If I had made the Constitution, or if I had power 
 at the State Legislature, no man should vote who was 
 not of temperate habits and who did not have a family 
 and a home in the community," Gram declared, vehe- 
 mently. 
 
 " But, Ruth, that is not the Jeffersonian doctrine 
 of equal rights for all men," remarked the Old Squire, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Jefferson or no Jefferson, I don't believe in letting 
 drunkards vote," exclaimed Gram. " Such votes hold 
 the whole country back and degrade us. Nobody 
 ought to be called a citizen, or be able to vote, who 
 h^s not got a home of his own and something to vote 
 for. It is just as Addison says, only worse; for it is 
 drunken, worthless voters who defeat worthy measures 
 in our elections, all over the country. And you mark 
 what I say, for I have been hearing how elections go 
 for the last twenty years, it will grow worse and worse 
 in this respect, as time goes on, on account of liquor 
 and boughten votes. It will not be the honest and in- 
 telligent citizens who will rule the country, but a mob 
 of the Tibbetts and the Tim Darnley stamp. So I 
 say and shall always say that only those ought to have 
 a right to vote who are temperate and engaged in some 
 useful occupation, and who have something of their 
 own in the world to feel an interest in and to vote for." 
 
 " Just what I think, Gram ! " cried Addison, laugh- 
 ing. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 179 
 
 " We shall have to send you to Augusta, Ruth," ob- 
 served the Old Squire a little sarcastically, for he never 
 liked to hear grandmother talk politics too long at one 
 time. 
 
 " Well, Joseph," cried the old lady, turning her at- 
 tention to this last remark, " I have no doubt it would 
 be quite as well to send home one half the representa- 
 tives to the Legislature at Augusta, and put their wives 
 in their places. There would be a better winter's work 
 done at law-making than there was last winter, I'll be 
 bound to say — which wouldn't be saying much, either. 
 One thing we women would do, for certain, we would 
 cork up the rum business so tight that no cork-screw 
 ever yet made could get the stopper out." 
 
 The Old Squire did not reply to this sally, but re- 
 marked, at length, to Addison, that it would be well 
 to make a quiet effort before the school-meeting took 
 place, to set the matter before the minds of the voters 
 in its true light and appeal to their good sense. " That 
 is all we can properly do," he added. " All we ought 
 to do." 
 
 " We are sure of every voter here in our own neigh- 
 borhood, on this road," Addison remarked. " For I 
 think Batchelder will vote with us; and Sylvester, 
 Murch, Wilbur and Edwards will be with us, of course ; 
 but unless we can secure five or six of those Corners 
 voters, we shall be defeated, sure as fate." 
 
 We went out from supper to see the new sap-pan 
 which a neighbor had brought up from the village for 
 us that afternoon. The Old Squire scalded it out and 
 next morning we hauled it over to the sap-house where 
 it was set on the " arch," in place of the two old kettles. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CAESAR AND MAPLE SYRUP . 
 
 AT eight o'clock fires were kindled and the busi- 
 ness of evaporating the sap began. 
 What clouds of steam it made in and around 
 the sap-house, on that sharp cold morning! Addison 
 constituted himself fireman and pan-tender. The sci- 
 ence of evaporating rapidly lies in judiciously supply- 
 ing the pan or pans with sap, boiling hot from the 
 " heater," as we termed the kettle in which the cold 
 sap was first raised to the boiling point. Halstead was 
 set to fell and cut up a decayed maple, while I split 
 and prepared dry wood from the pile, getting it ready 
 for the fire. We worked till toward eleven when Theo- 
 dora and Ellen came, bringing a small kettle in which 
 there was a loaf of bread and a ball of fresh butter, 
 churned that morning, also several small bowls. By 
 this time the sap in the evaporator was very yellow 
 and quite ropy. Theodora dipped out two quarts into 
 the little kettle and, with Addison's assistance, set it 
 over the " cuddy hole " of the arch, next the chimney. 
 In the course of fifteen minutes more they pronounced 
 it down to syrup and taking it off set the kettle to cool 
 in the snow outside. Halstead had marked the ap- 
 proach of the girls and, feeling sure what was to fol- 
 low, left his task and came to the sap-house, with a 
 smilingly expectant countenance. " Just in time," 
 Theodora called out to him. " Now all find seats for 
 yourselves." 
 
 ISO 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 181 
 
 When we had gathered around she gave us each a 
 bowl half full of syrup, sliced the loaf of bread and 
 having set the ball of butter, with a knife conveniently 
 by, cried, " Now let's sample the syrup." 
 
 It was the first time I had ever tasted maple mo- 
 lasses fresh from the kettle ; and it seemed to me that 
 I had never found anything equal to it, — so smooth 
 to the tongue, so delicious to the palate. 
 
 " Don't this taste good," mumbled Halstead inco- 
 herently. " Wish my throat was two hundred feet 
 long. I would like to sit here and feel every spoonful 
 creep like a snail along the whole length of it." 
 
 " O, you glutton ! " exclaimed Ellen. " But it is 
 good, no mistake." 
 
 We found it so delightful that we voted to put on a 
 second small kettleful for syruping, and before we had 
 finished our lunch I imagine that we disposed of fully 
 a pint of syrup apiece. Our labor during the morning, 
 the cold air and the rough sylvan surroundings all 
 combined to give us good appetites ; and I do not recol- 
 lect that we experienced any inconvenience from so 
 unusual a ration of sweets. 
 
 Afterwards Theodora syruped a third kettleful to 
 take home to Gram and the Old Squire. Ellen kindly 
 assisted me at gathering sap for an hour; but as this 
 is too hard work for girls, we then set her to tend the 
 fire, while Addison took her place. 
 
 Halstead resumed his labors, wood-cutting, and 
 toward night hauled nearly half a cord of it to the sap- 
 house door, on the hand-sled. Indeed, there was plenty 
 of work to do ; for since nine o'clock in the forenoon, 
 the sap had flowed copiously all day ; and we had need 
 to go on evaporating it for two hours or more after 
 supper that evening. 
 
 It was a calm spring night, quite mild, although the 
 soft snow began freezing, as soon as the sun set. 
 Through the branches of the great maples, beyond the 
 sap-house, a warm red glow lingered long on the west- 
 
182 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 ern horizon ; and the little saw-whet owls were calling 
 out softly in the wooded lowland. 
 
 Addison had brought a small kerosene lamp from 
 the house, and as the evening darkened, he lighted it 
 and set it on one of the sap-holders, inside the open 
 door. It gave but a feeble light, yet sufficed for young 
 eyes; and immediately the kettles and pan were boil- 
 ing well, Addison cried, " Now for Caesar," and pro- 
 duced the copy which Joel had sent us. 
 
 " I'm afraid I couldn't translate a line of it," said 
 Theodora. 
 
 " I know I cannot," said Ellen. 
 
 " Well, here goes," said Addison, opening to the 
 first section of the first book. " Gallia est omnis divisa 
 in partes tres; quanim imam incolunt Belgce," he pro- 
 nounced slowly and ponderously. 
 
 " But stop, Ad, let's read the English Introduction 
 and the brief biography of Julius Caesar first, so as to 
 get some understanding of what it is all about," said 
 Theodora. " That will perhaps make it a little easier." 
 
 " All right; but I have read that already," said Ad- 
 dison. "You read it, though; read it aloud so the 
 rest can hear. I would like to hear it again, too." 
 
 Sitting on a bucket, with her back to the sap-holder 
 on which the dim light was placed, Theodora read the 
 Introductory Sketch, the rest of us listening with the 
 deepest interest, trying to comprehend and remember 
 it all. She was progressing slowly with it, re-reading 
 some paragraphs, pausing to talk and comment on it 
 at intervals, when we heard voices outside and saw a 
 lantern, flitting among the maples at a little distance. 
 
 " That's Thomas and Kate," cried Ellen. " Only 
 hear Kate fretting because the snow slumps so vexa- 
 tiously, and Thomas laughing at her." 
 
 They came to the door and saluted us merrily. 
 
 " We're not boiling sap this evening," Tom ex- 
 plained, " so we thought we would call on you awhile. 
 Kate wanted to see the new Latin book." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 183 
 
 " Well, here it is ! " said Theodora. " I'm reading 
 the Introduction in English. That is hard enough for 
 me." 
 
 " Do begin it again," cried Thomas. " I want to 
 hear it." 
 
 " What assurance, Tom ! " said Catherine. " Per- 
 haps she doesn't want to read it again." 
 
 " She must," exclaimed Thomas. " We've got to 
 hear it." 
 
 " Certainly," assented Theodora, good-humoredly ; 
 and she began again. 
 
 An hour or two was spent upon this, for we had 
 many points to discuss in it ; but at length we gathered 
 in a group, some looking over the shoulders of the 
 others, to glance at those first lines of Latin, and see 
 what we could make of them. 
 
 " Well, omnis means all," said Theodora. " I know 
 so much." 
 
 " And Gallia is Gaul, of course, which is now 
 France," said Catherine. 
 
 " Divisa is the participle from divido which means 
 divide," remarked Addison ; " and est, as we all know, 
 means is. So there you have it: All Gaul is di- 
 vided — " 
 
 " I saw whole pages of notes," I exclaimed. " About 
 half the book is notes ; and they tell a great deal about 
 the Latin part. Let's look at the notes." 
 
 "But is that right? " questioned Theodora. 
 
 " Of course," said Thomas. " Else what are they 
 there for?". 
 
 We had immediate recourse to the notes and found 
 that about half the Latin was translated there, or at 
 least explained so as to be easily translated: With this 
 important aid, we soon learned that All Gaul is divided 
 into three parts one of which the Belgffi inhabit, an- 
 other the Aquitanians, and the third — here we stuck 
 fast. How to translate qui ipsorum lingua Celta we 
 were all at a loss. It was a complete puzzle; and as 
 
184 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 it was already nearing nine o'clock, we were obliged 
 to give it up for that night. 
 
 If I remember aright it was not till the second night 
 after, that Addison solved the tangle of words in the 
 third and fourth lines, and succeeded in making the 
 meaning plain to the others. It is but fair to say, how- 
 ever, that we found nothing much harder than that, 
 afterwards. 
 
 We had become so much absorbed and agitated over 
 those two lines, that we quite forgot the sap and al- 
 lowed the fire to go down so low that when at length 
 Thomas called attention to the fact, the pan had en- 
 tirely ceased boiling. We therefore shut up the sap- 
 house, said good night to our visitors, and all set off 
 for home. When we had gone some little distance 
 along the path and Thomas and Catherine had nearly 
 reached the line wall between their field and our maple 
 grove, we suddenly heard the former shouting vigor- 
 ously :" Hullo ! Hullo, over there ! " "Hullo! What's 
 the matter ? " Addison shouted back. 
 
 " Something has happened ! " shouted Thomas, al- 
 though we could hear Catherine, in lower tones, trying 
 to hush him. 
 
 " Well, what is it? " we all shouted, a good deal in- 
 terested. 
 
 " All Gaul is divided into three parts ! " replied 
 Thomas in a voice that might have been heard a mile. 
 " One of which the Belgae inhabit ! " 
 
 This amused Theodora exceedingly. Addison 
 shouted back, " You go home and find out which part 
 the Celts inhabit!" 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A SCHOOL - MEETING 
 
 OUR labors syrup-making that week and our eve- 
 ning efforts at translating Caesar were tinged 
 with a certain anxiety relative to the result of 
 the school-meeting. A great deal appeared to us to 
 depend on it. Addison, in particular, was much exer- 
 cised and made several trips to the Corners, to ascer- 
 tain the statei of feeling in that quarter and also, as we 
 surmised, to do a little electioneering on his own ac- 
 count. Thomas accompanied him one evening; and 
 we learned afterwards that there had been hard words 
 in Tibbetts' store which was also the post office; for 
 by virtue of a petition which he had, himself, circulated 
 two years previously Tibbetts had been appointed post- 
 master. 
 
 It was learned, too, that Tibbetts had been among 
 the voters in that quarter of the district, with a paper, 
 and partly by persuasion, partly by threats, had secured 
 the names of a considerable number who thereby 
 pledged themselves to vote as he indicated. 
 
 This bit of news so angered Addison, that he, in 
 turn, began hatching plots. 
 
 We had with us then, for most of the time, two hired 
 men, named Doane, Asa and James. Asa, in fact, 
 might be said to live at the Old Squire's; and an 
 agreement between him and us had already been en- 
 tered into, to work at the farm for the ensuing season. 
 At table that night Addison suddenly said, " Ase, you 
 are a voter in this school district, did you know it ? " 
 
 Asa laughed. 
 
 185 
 
186 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Well, you are, if you choose to be," Addison in- 
 sisted. " You are twenty-three years old and you call 
 this your home." 
 
 The Old Squire looked up and seemed a little puz- 
 zled, but did not say anything, at first; at length he 
 asked, " Do you pay a poll tax in this town, Asa ? " 
 
 " Last year I did," replied Asa, in an injured tone. 
 " They 'sessed me three dollars, and the Collector come 
 and dunned me for it." 
 
 " That settles it ! " cried Addison in triumph. " You 
 can vote at our school-meeting, if you say this is your 
 home." 
 
 " Then, Asa, you say so and vote on our side," cried 
 Ellen. " You must, Asa, and help us beat Tibbetts and 
 his clique." 
 
 " All right," replied Asa, laughing. 
 
 The Old Squire did not comment on this; but I 
 thought that he did not seem wholly convinced. 
 
 Addison, however, cried out that here was one vote 
 gained; and that evening he and Asa went out to the 
 Corners together. The school-meeting was to come 
 off three days later and during this time Halstead and 
 I, with the girls, were obliged to do most of the syrup- 
 making. Addison could scarcely work at all, he was so 
 completely carried away by his interest in the coming 
 election of school agent and his schemes for defeating 
 Tibbetts. He would break off in the midst of the fore- 
 noon and start away across lots for the Corners, or to 
 go up to Batchelder's, or to Murch's, and not return 
 till noon ; and at table he appeared to be in a brown 
 study for most of the time. 
 
 Such undue interest in elections, either local or 
 national, has sometimes a demoralizing tendency. In 
 this instance we learned afterwards that Addison had 
 gone to lengths which no one could soberly approve, 
 and of which he was himself afterwards ashamed. But 
 he was one of that sort of boys who, if they once set 
 out to win a point, will labor day and night and leave 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 187 
 
 no stone unturned, to accomplish it. This is a valuable 
 trait in a good cause; but when it comes to securing 
 votes for carrying an election, it often leads to sur- 
 prising results. Addison did not really go so far as to 
 buy votes ; but he did hire Charles Melzar, one of the 
 Corners young men, to come to work at cutting wood 
 near our maple grove on the day of the school-meeting, 
 promising him a gallon of syrup if he would work all 
 day. That agreement was of course designed to keep 
 him away from the meeting. Asa and he also hatched 
 a plot which not only caused merriment, but a good 
 deal of irrelevant joking, when the facts came out. 
 
 On the day before the school-meeting there had come 
 what we termed a " robin snow," that is to say an inch 
 of snow, perhaps, which soon went off. Asa and Addi- 
 son were astir early that morning, and the former go- 
 ing- to Neighbor Murch's, borrowed their hound dog. 
 Leading the animal down across the meadows, he 
 started a fox, or at least found the track of one, upon 
 which he laid the hound. Then there was cheery music 
 as the chase led over the cleared pasture lands above 
 and beyond the Corners. 
 
 Waiting only till the hound was running well, Asa 
 went to the Corners and got out Lige Davis, Jerry 
 Cross and one other whose name I have now forgotten. 
 Asa had not seen the fox, but he somehow made these 
 three loafers believe that it was a " silver gray," the 
 skin of which would be worth not less than thirty dol- 
 lars. They therefore loaded their guns and set off with 
 Asa over the hills, tramping deviously through wood- 
 lots and over ridges, for four or five hours. At last, 
 the hound ran the fox to a burrow in a steep pasture 
 side, about two miles from the Corners ; all concerned 
 were by this time tired from the tramp; and if Lige 
 and Jerry remembered the school-meeting at all in the 
 excitement of getting a fox, they deemed it of minor 
 importance. 
 
 After some discussion of the best modes of getting 
 
188 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 the fox out, Asa left them to watch the burrow, while 
 he went off to borrow a shovel and crow-bar; but in- 
 stead of immediately procuring these needful tools, 
 he came across the country to the schoolhouse, leaving 
 these three voters, guarding a fox's hole ! 
 
 It was high time Asa was coming around, too, if he 
 was to vote; for the meeting had been appointed for 
 two o'clock in the afternoon, and it was three already. 
 Addison, Halstead and I, and in fact nearly every boy 
 in the district were there, as well as the men. There 
 was antagonism between the two factions. Almost 
 immediately after arriving the voters and also the boys 
 drew asunder in two parties with covert glances to and 
 fro, each side estimating the strength of the opposition. 
 Tibbetts, a thick, heavy, rather corpulent man, with a 
 face somewhat reddened from hard drinking, walked 
 pompously about, hemming impatiently as he conversed 
 in low, hoarse tones with the Corners men. 
 
 Before the meeting was called to order, Addison had 
 taken a seat about midway the room, where he could 
 hear much that was said on both sides. After every 
 few minutes I noticed that he went to a window and 
 glanced along the road. Several times, too, I observed 
 that Tibbetts was watching him with an unmistakably 
 hostile expression. 
 
 After a time Tibbetts called his boy (not his son, 
 but a lad named Reuben Hale whom he had taken) 
 and despatched him hastily on some errand. Reuben 
 would not tell the other boys where he was going ; but 
 we saw that he went along our road instead of going 
 back to the Corners, and that he was making haste. 
 
 Meanwhile the Old Squire arrived; and nearly 
 every one in the district having by this time reached 
 the schoolhouse, district clerk Batchelder rapped on 
 the teacher's desk to call the meeting to order. The 
 posted notice for the meeting was then read and some 
 one nominated the Old Squire as " moderator." 
 Every one seemed to say " Aye; " and he accordingly 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 189 
 
 stepped to the desk and began business in the usual 
 manner, calling for Mr. Glinds' account, as school 
 agent, of the expenditures of school money during the 
 year. 
 
 Neighbor Edwards made the usual motion to accept 
 the account. Tibbetts seconded the motion, but toole 
 the opportunity to make a few remarks. 
 
 " I move to accept the agent's report," he said. 
 " But in doing so I don't say I am satisfied with it. 
 I ain't. 
 
 " Fact is," he continued, " that a few, fine-feelin' 
 scholars in this district have got to runnin' things quite 
 too much to suit their own notions. The agent had a 
 good 'nough master hired, at a low price, in the fust 
 place, to teach the school last winter. Samuel Lurvey 
 was a smart boy, and he had grit enough to keep order, 
 too. But he wasn't quite toney enough and high-flown 
 enough to suit four or five scholars in this district, who 
 all come from one place I could mention; so they be- 
 gan pickin' on him and plaguin' him. When they 
 found he was like to warm their hides for 'em, they 
 got in the Parson Supervisor, a lofty-nosed, finicky sort 
 of man, and turned him out. It was all a cut-and-dried 
 plan to drive Sam Lurvey out and get the man they 
 wanted in his place. I saw through it all plain enough, 
 from the beginning. 
 
 " Wal, they got their man and paid him about twice 
 as much as would hire a good-enough master, and put 
 off the school till into the dead of winter, too. 
 
 " And now I hear that they are planning to do the 
 same thing agin, next winter. I heard the other day 
 that these four or five scholars had already made a bar- 
 gain with their man to take the school another winter, 
 at his own price ! Now what kind of a way is that to 
 do business in a school district and in a free country? 
 Have we got to be ruled here by a few little upstarts 
 who think they know a great deal more than their 
 elders ? 
 
190 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Now, I say no, and what I am here for to-day is 
 to elect an agent who will do as he thinks best in spite 
 of such nonsense, and will hire teachers as cheap as he 
 can." 
 
 Tibbetts said this in a harsh, aggressive tone of 
 voice and with many hard glances around the room. 
 The ground he took was adroitly chosen, and in allu- 
 ding to .the liberties of voters, he had touched a re- 
 sponsive chord with many. Yet the most of those 
 present knew that it was in reality an evil-minded 
 appeal. 
 
 No one made any response, for some moments. All 
 knew that there was ill-feeling ; and no one desired to 
 add to it, although the best men in the district differed 
 from Tibbetts. 
 
 The Old Squire sat at the desk, dispassionately, as 
 presiding officer, and did not make haste to close any 
 discussion that might be needed to clear up the ques- 
 tions at issue. At last he said, " The motion to accept 
 the report is seconded; those in favor will say aye," 
 etc. 
 
 All voted aye, as is customary on such a report. 
 
 Then after a moment I saw Addison get up from his 
 seat. I was astonished that he should attempt to speak. 
 I feared he would make a failure. 
 
 He rose quite coolly, however, and said, " Mr. Chair- 
 man, there is just a word I should like to say." 
 
 The Old Squire slowly nodded to recognize him. 
 
 Tibbetts, however, interposed. " I object," said he. 
 " This youngster is not a voter. We're not here to 
 hear boy's talk." 
 
 The Chairman looked a little perplexed. 
 
 But Addison said, " It is not necessary, I think, that 
 a person should be a voter. Any one who has a legal 
 interest in the proceedings of the meeting has a right 
 to address it. I am a scholar, drawing money in this 
 district, and have such an interest," 
 
 Tibbetts did not dispute this point; and just then 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 191 
 
 Tim Darnley, from the back seat, drawled out, " Let 
 the young rooster crow ! " 
 
 This caused a laugh; and Addison, turning to him 
 with a bow, and another to the Chairman, said, 
 " Thank you. I will ' crow ' quite briefly." 
 
 They laughed again at that ; so he had the advantage 
 of the laugh to begin on. 
 
 " I suppose," Addison said pleasantly, " that I am 
 one of the ' four or five upstart scholars ' to whom the 
 gentleman, our postmaster, has alluded. I wish to say 
 that I think he has put the matter of our running the 
 school to suit our own notions in an untrue light. I 
 am sure that he is wholly misinformed about it. I 
 think, too, that he has taken an unjust prejudice against 
 us. All that I, or any one of the four or five others to 
 whom he alludes, wanted last winter was a good 
 school. We had a right to such a school, and a right 
 to obtain it, if we could, by fair means. Now what 
 were the facts? I will state them and state them cor- 
 rectly, although I may seem to contradict the gentle- 
 man in doing so. The agent hired Master Lurvey, 
 believing that he would do well, no doubt. But he 
 proved to be ignorant and wholly unfit. He was rough 
 and rude, inflicting unreasonable punishments and 
 using improper language in the schoolroom, not once 
 or twice, but every day. To say that he was ' a good 
 enough teacher ' is merely to say what every scholar 
 in school and every voter in this district knows to be 
 false. The supervisor for these reasons advised him 
 to withdraw, and he did so ; — and here I want to say 
 that Mr. Furness seemed to us all to be a well-educated 
 and clear-minded man, and by no means ' lofty-nosed,' 
 or ' finicky.' I should call him just the reverse of that. 
 
 " After Sam Lurvey left, we had no teacher, and it 
 is true that six or eight of us were much in favor of 
 hiring Joel Pierson. Why? Because he is known to 
 be the best teacher in the town. Anything wrong in 
 that? 
 
192 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " It is true, too, that we urged the agent to hire him, 
 even although he had to pay a high price. That is 
 what, I understand, the gentleman most objects to — 
 the high price. For no one disputes that Master Pier- 
 son taught a fine school. 
 
 " Well, now, let's see about that high price and how 
 it affected the length of the school. We who wanted 
 Joel Pierson saw that point at once and knew that it 
 would make the winter term short, What did we do ? 
 I'll tell you. We joined works, chopped cord-wood in 
 the snow, got teams, drew it off to market at the vil- 
 lage, and raised thirty-two dollars extra money, every 
 cent of which we turned into the school money. With 
 that money extra we had a week more school last term, 
 with a good teacher, than we would have had if Sam 
 Lurvey had taught out the term ! 
 
 " We have some more money raised, too, which we 
 are planning to add to the district's money for another 
 winter, so as to have a longer school and give every 
 scholar in the district the benefit of it. 
 
 " These are the facts about this matter, gentle- 
 men. I should not get up here, at my age, to address 
 you in school-meeting, if the truth had not needed 
 telling." 
 
 With that Addison sat down; and I know that 
 every one thought that he had made his points pretty 
 well. 
 
 But Tibbetts was wrathy. " Wal, we've heard the 
 young rooster," he exclaimed. " He's quite a crower, 
 quite a palaverer, with self-conceit enough in his hide 
 to tell us all what to do and what not to. But I guess 
 the voters have got something to say about it, and I 
 move that we proceed to elect a school agent. Great 
 pity our young cock o' doodle here isn't old enough to 
 have for agent. He would save us all the trouble of 
 hiring masters and everything else. He knows all 
 about it and more too." 
 
 Addison turned a little red, but kept smiling and 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 193 
 
 said nothing further, although several laughed at Tib- 
 betts' coarse raillery. 
 
 Immediately there was separation of voters into 
 groups again where candidates for agent were pro- 
 posed and discussed in low tones. 
 
 The Old Squire kept his seat in the desk after an- 
 nouncing that a vote for agent might now proceed, in 
 the usual manner, which consisted simply in placing a 
 hat on the desk in which each voter deposited his vote. 
 
 The boys stood about, looking on, and laughing a 
 little at everything that occurred ; — for it is thus that 
 the American boy gets his education in local govern- 
 ment affairs. 
 
 Addison, I noticed, still kept an eye out the window 
 along the roads; and I saw that Tibbetts whom I 
 watched covertly, as a common enemy, was uneasy and 
 went several times to the window, himself. 
 
 The two candidates at length agreed on were our 
 neighbor, Mr. Murch, and Simeon Davis at the Cor- 
 ners. Murch was our man, of course; while Davis 
 was the candidate of the Tibbetts party. 
 
 Quite slowly the voters approached the hat, one by 
 one, and dropped in their votes, each consisting of a 
 bit of paper having the candidate's name written on it, 
 with a lead pencil. Addison had brought two sheets 
 of paper and wrote the votes. Tibbetts stood by and 
 watched each vote as written. Each knew almost ex- 
 actly how the score stood between the two parties, 
 from the outset. 
 
 After fifteen minutes, perhaps, the Chairman asked, 
 " Are your votes all in, gentlemen ? If so we will make 
 the count." 
 
 " No," said Tibbetts. " I have not voted yet. I call 
 for more time." It was plain that he was waiting for 
 something, or some one. 
 
 " Very well," responded the Old Squire. " I sup- 
 pose there need be no haste, although as much or more 
 time than usual has elapsed." 
 
194 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Wal, I claim more time," said Tibbetts. 
 
 " So be it," replied the Chairman. 
 
 For ten minutes or more Tibbetts conversed with 
 first one, then another of his party; he then called 
 little Jimmy Davis out of doors and sent him off at a 
 run towards the Corners. Re-entering the house he 
 asked for a temporary suspension of the vote for agent 
 and proposed that a vote for district clerk should be 
 first taken, also that the matter of teacher's board and 
 schoolhouse fuel should be considered. 
 
 " This is unusual — to interrupt a vote in process 
 of polling," remarked the Old Squire. " I'm not sure 
 that I have any warrant for so doing." After some 
 little discussion, however, the votes in the hat were 
 thrown in the stove, and the strength of the two parties 
 tested by voting for a clerk. 
 
 A tie-vote resulted. No choice being effected, the 
 fuel was set up and bid off by Mr. Wilbur at forty cents 
 per week; and as usual the Old Squire took the 
 teacher's board at the nominal sum of one dollar per 
 week; that, indeed, was the old gentleman's annual 
 offer, in order to prolong the school. 
 
 Mr. Edwards, our candidate for clerk, then with- 
 drew ; and the other, William Darnley, was unani- 
 mously elected. This was a mere maneuver, however, 
 to bring Tibbetts to time; the office of clerk is unim- 
 portant. 
 
 By this time it was four o'clock; and the meeting 
 having been called for two o'clock, there was no longer 
 any excuse for delay. 
 
 " We will now revert to the vote for agent," said 
 the Chairman. Addison again wrote two sets of votes 
 and the hat was placed on the desk for them. Still 
 Tibbetts held back his vote, talking with his men and 
 glancing out of the window from time to time. The 
 Old Squire was on the point of calling for a count, 
 when Addison whispered a word to him and again 
 there was a delay of some minutes. We then heard feet 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 195 
 
 in the entry outside and Asa Doane entered with the 
 general appearance of a man who has made a forced 
 march. 
 
 " They are now voting for school agent, Asa," Ad- 
 dison remarked. " The candidates are Cyrus Murch 
 and Simeon Davis. Will you have a vote ? " 
 
 "I object!" shouted Tibbetts. "I challenge his 
 vote. He is not a legal voter." 
 
 " Yes, I be," said Asa, stoutly. " I pay a poll tax in 
 this town and I've made my home at the Old Squire's 
 for the last two or three years. I keep my trunk and 
 all my things there. It's the only home I've got, any- 
 how. Ain't that so, Squire ? " 
 
 The old gentleman corroborated his statement, as to 
 his trunk, and said that so far as he knew, Asa had no 
 other domicile. 
 
 In great glee Addison handed Asa a Murch vote 
 which he deposited in the hat. 
 
 Tibbetts was furious and made use of strong lan- 
 guage, denouncing Asa's ballot as a fraud and threat- 
 ening legal measures. Asa began to approach him, 
 evidently with the intention of demonstrating his rights 
 by the strong arm; and the Old Squire called vigor- 
 ously for order. Hasty feet were heard now again in 
 the entry, and- Charles Melzar came in, looking some- 
 what sheepish as well as out of breath. I shall never 
 forget how Addison's countenance fell at sight of him. 
 He seemed a good deal astonished as well as chagrined. 
 The fact was that Tibbetts had sent so forcible and per- 
 haps so threatening a message to Melzar, up in our 
 sap-woods, that the latter had judged it best to break 
 his compact with Addison and hurry to the scene of 
 the election. 
 
 Tibbetts at once approached Melzar and put a vote 
 in his hand, with the air of a man who is leading a 
 horse to its stall. Rather shamefacedly Melzar put the 
 vote in the hat, Addison regarding him meantime with 
 a look of withering scorn. 
 
196 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 It is not customary for a candidate to vote for him- 
 self; but Tibbetts, after another glance along the road, 
 put a vote in Davis' hand and the latter approached the 
 hat and voted. 
 
 Addison, however, instantly beckoned our Mr. 
 Murch who came up and did likewise — both can- 
 didates voting for themselves! This is legal, but in 
 bad taste. 
 
 A count of the votes was then called. The hat was 
 very closely watched and carefully emptied of its con- 
 tents. Tibbetts stood by and saw every slip of paper 
 as the Old Squire read the name on it. The clerk re- 
 corded the votes, then, while all stood expectant, 
 counted them and announced that Mr. Murch had re- 
 ceived seventeen votes, and Mr. Davis eighteen. Davis 
 was then declared elected ; and the Old Squire admin- 
 istered the usual oath of office to him. Our party was 
 defeated. Tibbetts openly exulted and swaggered 
 about the room. He was in nowise inclined to be 
 good-natured, either; the absence of Lige Davis and 
 Tim Damley had given him much uneasiness; he 
 evinced greater spite against Addison than ever. 
 
 " You little impertinent, over-forward jack-a-dandy, 
 you," he exclaimed, shaking his fist toward him. 
 "You didn't fetch it off, did ye! If you's my boy, 
 I'd take ye home and tan yer hide with a hoss-whip." 
 
 Addison paid no attention to this outburst; he did 
 not much care for idle talk like that; but Asa Doane 
 shouldered snugly up to Tibbetts and, looking in his 
 face, said, "What's that you remarked, Mr. Tibbetts? " 
 Tibbetts did not think it well to repeat it. 
 
 The new agent took the schoolhouse key from the 
 old one, and we all went home. 
 
 On our side we felt sure that our cause had been that 
 of education and of progress. But a majority of the 
 voters had decided against us and the result had to be 
 borne with patience. The majority must rule in our 
 land even if the majority is mistaken and, alas, evil- 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 197 
 
 intentioned. For it is useless to dispute that the major- 
 ity is sometimes in the wrong. There is then but one 
 thing for the more intelligent minority — patience. 
 
 Addison hardly spoke on the way home; he felt so 
 badly, in fact, that he could scarcely eat supper. There 
 was deep gloom throughout the house. Theodora and 
 Ellen had met us in the yard as we returned ; and Ad- 
 dison's first words to them were, " No Joel next win- 
 ter. It will be another Sam Lurvey. Tibbetts has 
 beaten us." 
 
 If we had heard even of war or other sudden na- 
 tional calamity there could hardly have been longer 
 faces at the supper table, although Halstead enjoyed 
 Addison's extreme discomfiture. 
 
 " Gram ! " he broke forth. " You ought to have 
 heard our young rooster crow down at school-meeting ! 
 He's going to make a champion crower, I tell you. He 
 flapped his wings in big style but he dropped them 
 a little when he saw Charles Melzar come in." 
 
 No one laughed or paid the least attention to this 
 sally. Then Asa Doane tried to create a diversion 
 and cheer us up, by relating how he had left Lige Davis 
 and Tim Darnley watching at the fox-hole, while he 
 was racing across the country to vote. That raised a 
 slight wave of merriment ; for it was evident that this 
 prank had greatly disturbed Tibbetts who was expect- 
 ing them and awaiting their arrival, to vote his ticket 
 throughout the meeting. 
 
 Asa's account of the stratagem was the first the Old 
 Squire had heard of the matter. He listened to the 
 story, but did not laugh at it. " Asa, did you get those 
 fellows off up there to keep them from school-meet- 
 ing? " he asked. 
 
 " Wal, Squire," said Asa, looking a little queer, " I 
 thought 'twas a good morning for foxin' ; and I kinder 
 thought, too, that they might as well be foxin' as votin' 
 on the wrong side." 
 
 "Asa, I'm ashamed of you!" exclaimed the old 
 
198 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 gentleman ; but he was looking at Addison instead of 
 Asa, when he said it; and I noticed that Addison 
 colored up more than I had ever seen him before. It 
 was a day of mortification for him. All his efforts had 
 failed; and his scheming, too, had gone for naught. 
 Worse still, it had added a shade of disgrace to our 
 defeat. No cause is ever much strengthened by ruses 
 like that compact with Melzar. 
 
 As soon as supper was over, Addison set off for the 
 sugar lot and I followed him; for we had neglected 
 the sap during the whole afternoon. On coming where 
 Melzar had chopped wood till near four o'clock, Ad- 
 dison stopped and flew out in a greater burst of temper 
 than I had ever before seen him indulge in. " The 
 sneak ! " he exclaimed. " Promised me fair and 
 square — and broke his word the moment my back was 
 turned! Not one drop nor sniff of syrup will I give 
 him for what he has done. I'll see him in Guinea 
 first!" 
 
 " I suppose he didn't dare refuse to quit, after Tib- 
 betts sent for him," said I. Ad fairly stamped the 
 snow he was so charged with pent-up ire. " O, that 
 old rascal ! " he exclaimed. " But I will worst him 
 yet! " (shaking his fist at a maple). " By the great 
 Horn Spoon, I will beat him yet ! " 
 
 After this Addison scarcely uttered a word all the 
 evening, a circumstance which led Halstead to re- 
 mark that our " young rooster " had lost his voice. 
 But we were all somewhat glum at the Old Squire's, 
 for a week or more, so strong a hold had this contest 
 taken upon us, and so much that was unpleasant and 
 regrettable mingled with the mortification of defeat. 
 I remember that little Wealthy gave a sigh at the 
 breakfast table one morning and said she hoped there 
 never would be another school-meeting. "Why?" 
 said Halstead. 
 
 " 'Cause," grumbled Wealthy shortly. " It has 
 made us all 'most sick. Ad's sick, and Doad is sick; 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 199 
 
 and Nell is as mumpy as she was when she had the 
 real mumps." 
 
 The Old Squire glanced around and remarked that 
 it was time we forgot that school-meeting and turned 
 our thoughts in healthier directions. The old gentle- 
 man attempted a diversion by speaking of Fast Day 
 which was appointed for the seventeenth of April. 
 Theodora tried to second the effort, by remarking 
 pleasantly that we might improve the day by fasting, 
 to do penance for any recent errors or mistakes we 
 might have committed. This little sally was meant for 
 a harmless pleasantry ; but Addison, who was very sore 
 on the subject of recent errors, took it home to him- 
 self and cast a rather sour glance at the well-meaning 
 humorist. I saw her trying to explain it away to him 
 out in the wood-house after breakfast. Addison, in 
 fact, had fallen into a bad state of mind; he was ab- 
 stracted and evidently harbored revengeful thoughts. 
 
 For some reason, misfortunes as well as storms ap- 
 pear to come in groups. Next afternoon, while haul- 
 ing our hogshead of maple syrup home from the Aunt 
 Hannah Lot, we met with a disaster which quite con- 
 founded us, and was a source of chagrin ever after- 
 wards. 
 
 During the fortnight or more that we had been 
 boiling sap, the syrup had been stored daily in a mo- 
 lasses hogshead which had been bought at the village, 
 cleansed and set for the purpose in a back corner of 
 the sap-house. 
 
 But .now that the sap had ceased to flow and syrup- 
 making was over for the season, Addison and I yoked 
 old Bright and Broad, put them to the ox-sled — for 
 the farm road to the lot was still icy — and drove over 
 to get the season's product of sweets, to be divided 
 between us and the Old Squire at home. 
 
 The hogshead was full, or nearly so, but after driv- 
 ing the bung carefully we rolled it on the sled and 
 trigged it securely, as we thought, with two large sticks 
 
200 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 of four-foot wood. It was very heavy, weighing not 
 less than eight hundred pounds; I remember that it 
 was all we could both do to roll it upon the sled. 
 
 Addison then set off to drive home with it. Near the 
 line fence between the Aunt Hannah Lot and the old 
 farm there is a little ascent of a hundred feet in length 
 or more, with hazel clumps on each side of the farm 
 road. As the oxen were toiling slowly up this ascent, 
 they suddenly stopped. A bear, as we afterwards saw 
 by its tracks, had crossed the road here that very morn- 
 ing. Horned cattle as well as horses will smell a bear 
 for hours after one has passed. 
 
 At first the oxen snuffed the ground; then they 
 bawled and sprang furiously forward. The jerk dis- 
 placed the trig. Off went the hogshead, and away it 
 rolled down the hill ! 
 
 I was coming on behind the sled. By the time the 
 hogshead reached me, it was going so, rapidly that I 
 had to jump for my life to get out of the way. It 
 whirled past, rolled off the lower side of the road and 
 struck a maple stump. 
 
 When it struck the stump, out flew both heads, and 
 the syrup was thrown at least ten feet each way ! Glug, 
 glug, out it went, and ran down over a dirty snowbank ! 
 
 Addison and I stood petrified at the suddenness and 
 extent of the catastrophe. 
 
 The snowbank absorbed the entire contents of the 
 hogshead. That day there was one sweet spot in 
 Maine, sweeter than " sweet home." 
 
 Gram and the girls were great mourners. 
 
 The Old Squire said very little about it. 
 
 As for Addison and myself, our disgust was too 
 great for words ! 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 addison's " war " with tibbetts 
 
 MAY DAY came and passed ; and according to 
 custom thereabouts the boys were now hanging 
 May-baskets to the girls, evenings. On the 
 night of May 4th, Addison, Thomas, Halstead, Ned 
 Wilbur and I set off with two May-baskets apiece, 
 eight in all, for the Corners where we intended to hang 
 several to the girls living there, and also to visit three 
 farmhouses near the grist-mill, two miles beyond. 
 
 There was no moon, but the night was still and 
 warm, with the spring brooks roaring and the frogs 
 peeping in the swamps. Theodora and Ellen wanted to 
 go; and at length it was agreed that they and Cath- 
 erine Edwards with Thomas should set off together, 
 taking neighbor Edwards' horse and wagon, and drive 
 over past the Corners, about a mile and a half, to what 
 was locally known as " the picnic grove." There was 
 a cart trail leading off the highway into this grove, and 
 here they agreed to turn in quietly, hitch up the horse 
 and wait for us boys to come on afoot after we had 
 hung a number of baskets at the Corners. They were 
 to take no part in the frolic at the Corners, but wait 
 there for us to join them, later. 
 
 As it chanced they were obliged to wait much longer 
 than they or we expected. For we were hotly chased 
 by a party of the Corners girls and boys, and only 
 saved ourselves from capture by taking refuge in the 
 woods half a mile to the northward, where we lay 
 hidden for an hour or more before our pursuers retired 
 and gave up the search. 
 
 201 
 
202 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 In consequence, it was past ten o'clock before we 
 were able to reach the picnic grove. Thomas and the 
 girls, in fact, had come to the conclusion that we had 
 been taken captive and shut up for the night. We 
 explained our absence and recounted our adventures; 
 then, leaving the horse and wagon concealed in the 
 grove, we proceeded along the road to Miller Harland's 
 house, half a mile distant, to hang a basket for Alice 
 Harland. 
 
 I do not know how late it had grown, for none of us 
 carried a watch, but presume that it must have been 
 past eleven o'clock. 
 
 " It will be too bad to knock on their door and rouse 
 them all at this time of night," Theodora said. " Let's 
 pin the basket to the front door and go away without 
 knocking, this time. Alice will find it in the morn- 
 ing.". 
 
 This less boisterous plan was adopted; and after 
 pinning up a basket for Alice we went on toward the 
 house of a farmer, named Merrill, to leave a basket 
 there for his daughter Lizzie. 
 
 There was a long hill to climb and we had reached 
 the summit when we heard a horse and wagon, toiling 
 slowly up from the other side. 
 
 "Wonder who is out at this time o' night?" ex- 
 claimed Thomas in a low voice, for in that sparsely 
 settled community, it was somewhat unusual to find 
 persons abroad at that hour. 
 
 " Maybe the Merrills, themselves," said Catherine. 
 " Let's get out of sight." Thereupon we all covertly 
 left the road and hid in a clump of hemlock shrubs on 
 the south side of it, till the wagon should pass us. 
 
 It came slowly up the hill. " Guess they've got a 
 heavy load," whispered Ned. He and Addison peeped 
 out as the team went by. " It's one man alone," 
 whispered Addison, for it was starlight and not un- 
 commonly dark. " What's that he's got in the hind 
 part of the wagon ? " 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 203 
 
 " Looks like a barrel," said Ned. " 'Tis a barrel." 
 The wagon had passed by this time and we all stepped 
 forth. 
 
 " That looks like Tibbetts' old express wagon," 
 said Tom. " I believe it is, and I shouldn't wonder if 
 that was Tibbetts, himself, driving." 
 
 We had started to go on down the hill, when Addi- 
 son suddenly said, " You go ahead and hang the 
 baskets. I'm going back along." 
 
 "What for?" said Tom. 
 
 " O, I've got a reason," replied Addison. 
 
 " Don't, Ad," said Theodora. " I wouldn't go cha- 
 sing after that man." 
 
 Addison laughed. " Needn't wait for me at the 
 grove. I shall be at home by the time you are," he 
 said and hurried back along the road, in the wake of 
 the team that had passed. 
 
 We went on and hung a May-basket for Lizzie 
 Merrill, then retraced our steps to the grove and all 
 rode homeward. There was little fun in it ; it was too 
 late at night. 
 
 On the orchard hill, just below the Old Squire's, we 
 overtook Addison. 
 
 " Well, what did you find out? " Tom asked him. 
 
 " O, not much," he replied, evasively; but we no- 
 ticed that he seemed jolly and a good deal amused 
 about something. He would not answer any questions 
 that night. 
 
 Next forenoon, however, while he and I were 
 ploughing in the south field, I asked him if that were 
 really Tibbetts whom we had seen the previous night. 
 
 " No," said Addison, " that was Simeon Davis, our 
 new school agent. But 'twas Tibbetts' horse and 
 wagon," he continued after a moment, " and I think 
 I've got that old sinner in a tight place." 
 
 " Do you think it was a barrel of rum? " I asked. 
 
 " I'm sure it was," said Addison. " I followed along 
 after the wagon as close as I dared and once or twice 
 
204 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 got quite near. When at last he stopped at Tibbetts' 
 store, I went around through a field and came up close 
 behind the place. Tibbetts was there waiting for him 
 and came out, but did not have a lantern. They 
 scarcely spoke; and as soon as they could get the 
 barrel out of the wagon, they took the horse and wagon 
 into Tibbetts' stable. I slipped round the corner while 
 they were unharnessing and smelled of the barrel. It 
 smelled rummy. I rolled it just a little easy, too, and 
 heard it swash. Then Tibbetts and Davis came back to 
 the platform of the store and opened the bulkhead door 
 there, leading into the cellar. They made scarcely a bit 
 of noise and worked pretty fast, too. In half a minute 
 they had that barrel down the stairs and rolled it away 
 in the cellar. I couldn't tell what part of the cellar they 
 had put it, for as soon as they got the barrel down the 
 stairs, Tibbetts came back and, sticking his head out, 
 glanced around and listened, then eased the bulkhead 
 door down. 
 
 " After that they were down cellar there for fifteen 
 or twenty minutes, and I guess they sampled the liquor, 
 for when they came out Davis was sort of smacking 
 his lips and I heard him say, ' Pooty good stuff, Mr. 
 Tibbetts,' and Tibbetts said, ' 'Twill do.' 
 
 " And now," continued Addison with great satis- 
 faction, " I think I know how that old fox has man- 
 aged to get his liquor so long and beat the Law. We 
 have all wondered how he did it, and have had 
 the officers watching for him at the village and at the 
 railroad station where his other goods and groceries 
 come. But his liquor does not come that, way at all. 
 It comes over this hilly country road to the west, from 
 over New Hampshire way somewheres. No one ever 
 has thought of watching that road, for it doesn't seem 
 to lead anywhere, you know. But that's the route the 
 rum comes by ; and Davis — the man he put in for 
 school agent — does the hauling, between clays." 
 
 " But do you suppose you have got evidence enough 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 205 
 
 to convict him in court? " I asked; — for I had heard 
 a great deal about liquor cases since I came to the 
 OKI Squire's. 
 
 " 1 don't know," replied Addison a little doubtfully. 
 " It takes strong evidence, for half the jurymen nearly 
 always favor the rumseller; and if we were to summon 
 Simeon Davis as a witness, he would most likely swear 
 it was a barrel of kerosene, of vinegar. These old 
 topers always side with the rumseller and will commit 
 perjury, without turning a hair, in a liquor case. 
 
 " But I've got another plan," Addison continued, 
 in a lower tone. " I think I can use this to trap Tib- 
 hetts another way. Perhaps it will not work, for he is 
 as cunning as Old Nick, himself; but if it does work, 
 I'll make him dance like a rat on a hot stove, see if I 
 don't ! " 
 
 My curiosity was much excited; but Addison would 
 not say anything more that day. 
 
 Two evenings after, while he and I were on the way 
 to the post office together, to get the papers, he told 
 me he was going to say a word to Tibbetts that 
 night. " You watch and see how he takes it," he 
 added. 
 
 ^Ye went into the store and after standing about a 
 few moments, till nobody else chanced to be near, Ad- 
 dison called for our mail, and as Tibbetts handed it to 
 him, asked, " ITow does that barrel o' rum sell — the 
 one you got in last Tuesday night at about twelve 
 o'clock? " 
 
 Tibbetts started perceptibly and looked very hard at 
 Addison, but did not reply. 
 
 " O, you are wasting time being so sly about it," 
 Addison went on, coolly, " I know all about it, who 
 hauled it, where it came from and where you've been 
 getting all your other liquor for a year past. And the 
 County Attorney will soon know, too." 
 
 Tibbetts, who had been visibly alarmed, now begun 
 to grin a little at the injudicious manner in which 
 
206 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Addison threw out his information, from mere bra- 
 vado. 
 
 As soon as we were outside the store and on our way 
 home, I asked Addison if it was not foolish to tell Tib- 
 betts anything about it beforehand. " He thought you 
 were a greenhorn," said I. " You've been and warned 
 him now, and he will have time to get things all fixed 
 before you can do anything." 
 
 " That was just what I wanted him to think," replied 
 Addison. " But you wait and see. You know he has 
 had the name of stopping letters at the post office. 
 Two or three times folks have suspected him. Maybe 
 he did, maybe he didn't ; I don't know. I am sure he 
 has no more principle than to do it. A man who will 
 break the law constantly in one thing, is likely to in 
 another, if ha takes the notion. But it is a saucy busi- 
 ness, breaking open another person's letter, you know, 
 a state's prison offense. A liquor trial he would get 
 out of, somehow; but if we could catch him stopping 
 letters, we could make it hot for him. But I am not 
 going to say anything more of this just now, and don't 
 you," Addison continued. 
 
 Saturday Addison asked the Old Squire if he and I 
 could drive to the village, to get us each a pair of sum- 
 mer shoes and some calico shirts, by way of a summer 
 outfit. Permission being obtained, Gram, who knew 
 nothing of Addison's schemes, suggested that Halstead 
 should go with us, to purchase similar articles. Addi- 
 son looked slightly nonplussed at this proposition, and 
 at first opposed it, offering to buy the articles for 
 Halse, and fetch them home to be tried on. Gram in- 
 sisted that Halstead should go, however, and go he did ; 
 but after we had reached the village, and Halstead was 
 at the shoe store, Addison made a signal to me to come 
 away and leave him there. He and I then drove off 
 together. At first I was much in the dark as to what 
 was on foot. Addison explained it, however, as we 
 went along. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 207 
 
 " I want to see the County Attorney," said he. " I 
 am going to notify him, in advance, that I shall mail a 
 letter for him at our post office, Monday morning. I 
 shall tell him that folks have suspected Tibbetts of 
 opening other persons' letters, and that if he is that 
 sort of postmaster, we want to find him out ; and that 
 this letter is to be a test — a decoy letter. 
 
 " I am going to explain about the liquor barrel," 
 Addison continued. " Also some other facts, and ask 
 Attorney Foster to be on the lookout Monday evening 
 for a letter from me, mailed at our office. For I think 
 that Tibbetts, when he sees a letter from me to the 
 County Attorney in the office, will stop it and break it 
 open, to find out what is going on. I am pretty sure he 
 will, for he is just that kind of man. So I am setting 
 a trap for him — a regular bear-trap ; and if once 
 I get his old paw into it, he has got to do as I tell 
 him, or I'll have his skin nailed up to dry on my barn- 
 door!" 
 
 This project on Addison's part excited me not a 
 little. I do not think that the spirit which animated 
 him was a wholly amiable one; but perhaps it was 
 justifiable as such matters go. 
 
 " To make it all the surer," Ad went on, " I am 
 going to call at the village post office, as we go back, 
 and have a little talk with the postmaster there, who 
 knows me pretty well. The mail bag from our small 
 office at the Corners, you know, is taken to the village 
 office first and is there opened and the letters put in the 
 village bag. I am going to have a little talk with the 
 postmaster there, give him a hint of x what is on foot, 
 and ask him to take particular notice of the letters that 
 come from our office, Monday forenoon, to see whether 
 there is one for the County Attorney. I want him to 
 take such careful notice that he can testify if he should 
 be called as a witness. You see," Ad continued, " if 
 we can show that a letter was mailed at our office which 
 never reached the village office we shall have a tight 
 
208 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 squeeze on Tibbetts' fingers, particularly as it is a let- 
 ter about him and his illegal traffic." 
 
 When we reached Attorney Foster's office I sat and 
 held the horse while Addison made his call. He had 
 to wait some time, and when he at length got an audi- 
 ence the matter came near miscarrying altogether ; for 
 Attorney Foster said it was an irregular affair which 
 he did not care to have any connection with. But 
 when Ad had made the whole matter plain and told 
 what we had seen the night we hung the May-baskets, 
 the lawyer finally laughed and bade him go ahead, 
 adding that if Tibbetts was innocent no harm would 
 be done him or anybody else. 
 
 We drove back to the village, where Addison saw the 
 postmaster as he had planned. We then looked up 
 Halse and drove home. 
 
 Addison and I had been so much engrossed in his 
 project that we hurriedly bought calico shirts two or 
 three sizes too large for us, much to Gram's disgust. 
 Halse had bought an excellent fit ; and he blurted out 
 at the supper table that we had run off and left him 
 at the village, and that he believed we had driven a 
 good ways, for Old Sol was in a sweat when we came 
 back. No questions were asked, however, and the topic 
 of conversation was changed. 
 
 Next day Addison wrote his letter to the County 
 Attorney, stating what we had seen a few nights pre- 
 viously ; but it was largely a repetition of what he had 
 already told him. Monday morning we went to the 
 office and mailed it. Before starting, however, Addi- 
 son showed the envelope to the Old Squire and asked 
 him to bear in mind that on that day we went to the 
 post office to mail such a letter. The old gentleman 
 wished to know why he was writing such a letter and 
 what it contained. Ad explained briefly, not entirely 
 to the Old Squire's satisfaction, although he did not 
 say much. 
 
 On our way to the Corners Mr. Wilbur overtook 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 209 
 
 and gave us a ride. Addison bethought himself to 
 show the letter to him, and asked him to take notice, 
 after we got to the office, that he mailed it that morn- 
 ing, and to remember the day and the date. Mr. Wil- 
 bur said he would do so, but he looked a little curious, 
 and to satisfy him Addison gave him a hint as to what 
 was on foot. 
 
 When we reached the post office Ad went in alone 
 at first, so that Tibbetts would see him. Afterwards, 
 when Mr. Wilbur came in, Addison stepped up and 
 dropped the letter into the letter box. I was standing 
 near, and saw Tibbetts glance at us when the cover of 
 the slip rattled. We then came away. 
 
 The next day, in the afternoon, the Old Squire drove 
 to the village ; and Gram sent us down with him to 
 change our calico shirts for smaller ones. Addison 
 seized this opportunity to see the postmaster, and 
 learned from him that no letter to the County Attorney 
 had passed through the mail that day. " He may be 
 holding it," the postmaster suggested. " I will keep 
 watch for a week." 
 
 Saturday, following, Addison found excuse for go- 
 ing to the village again, and learned that his letter had 
 not appeared at the post office there. We had now no 
 doubt whatever that Tibbetts had stopped the letter 
 and desl roved it after reading the contents. It would 
 have been necessary now merely to obtain the affidavits 
 of the County Attorney and the village postmaster, 
 along with those of Mr. Wilbur and the Old Squire, 
 to put postmaster Tibbetts in an exceedingly unpleas- 
 ant situation. I suppose it may have been our duty 
 to enforce the law. Crime ought not to be covered up, 
 nor shielded from its proper penalty. But Addison 
 was a boy who, when he had an object in view, never 
 lost sight of it; he would turn any and every circum- 
 stance to account to forward that object. All that 
 winter and spring he had worked to beat Tibbetts and 
 get a school agent appointed who would hire Joel Pier- 
 
210 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 son the following winter. It seemed as if he cared little 
 for anything else. 
 
 A few nights afterwards we went to the post office, 
 and on the way there Addison gloated over his vic- 
 tory. " We've got his old paw in the trap," he ex- 
 claimed, " and now he shall do as I say, or we'll roast 
 him." 
 
 " Well, ' we are going to have a new postmaster, 
 aren't we? " said I. 
 
 " O, I don't know," replied Addison, indifferently. 
 " If Tibbetts will do as I say about the school, I don't 
 much care for turning him out." 
 
 " But he isn't fit for postmaster," said I. " A man 
 that will break open letters ought not to be kept in as 
 postmaster." 
 
 " Of course he hadn't," replied Ad. " But if he will 
 give in and help hire Joel Pierson, I'll let him go on 
 awhile." 
 
 I was not clear in my mind as to this. 
 
 " I guess we will stir him up a little, to-night," Ad 
 continued. " He doesn't realize that he is caught yet, 
 you know. So I'm going to rattle the trap chain a 
 little, just to let the old bear see the fix he is in, and 
 then punch him a few times with a pole. I shouldn't 
 wonder if he showed his old teeth and growled, at first. 
 But we have got him hard and fast. You keep your 
 ears open for all he says. He may say or do something 
 that there ought to be a witness for." 
 
 We went into the store and Addison asked for the 
 Old Squire's mail. Tibbetts was putting up kerosene 
 for little Mamie Davis who had come in with a can. 
 After she had gone out, he came around to the en- 
 closed space where the post office desk and box frame 
 stood, and handed Addison our mail, without speak- 
 ing. 
 
 Addison took it and said, " Well, Mr. Tibbetts, how 
 does the new barrel hold out ? Most time to haul home 
 another one, isn't it? " 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 211 
 
 The grocer was a heavy, red-faced man ; he looked 
 at Addison with an expression of hatred actually ven- 
 omous. 
 
 " Look-a-here, young imppidence, you take your mail 
 and get out of this store," he said in a low but really 
 savage tone. 
 
 " O certainly, Mr. Postmaster," Ad replied, going 
 to the door. 
 
 " I shouldn't have come into the post office if I had 
 not had business here. I am within my rights." 
 
 In the door he stopped, and turning toward Tibbetts 
 who had taken a step after us, said, " By the way, Post- 
 master, there is something a little queer about a letter 
 that was mailed here last Monday morning at eight 
 o'clock. You probably remember the letter I refer to. 
 It was addressed to the County Attorney at the village. 
 Now you thought, the other day, Postmaster, that I 
 was a greenhorn to say anything about that liquor 
 barrel to you, and to go and write a letter in that way 
 to the County Attorney. But it wasn't so green as it 
 looked. That letter which you stopped and broke 
 open was a decoy letter, mailed here on purpose to 
 trap you." 
 
 Tibbetts' angry face changed color a little. " Yes, 
 Postmaster," Addison continued, " we know about 
 your tricks with letters here ; that letter was to catch 
 you; and we've caught you. The County Attorney 
 was notified the Saturday before, that this letter was 
 to be mailed Monday morning; and the postmaster 
 at the village was also notified to be on the lookout 
 for it. He is ready to make oath that it was 
 not in the bag, neither on that day nor any day this 
 week." 
 
 "No such letter was ever mailed here!" shouted 
 Tibbetts. 
 
 " Not too fast. Postmaster," said Addison coolly. 
 " I looked out for that part. I have three witnesses 
 of the fact that I brought the letter here, two of whom 
 
212 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 can make oath that they saw me put it in the letter box, 
 under your very nose." 
 
 Tibbetts was not lacking in intelligence. He per- 
 ceived at once that he was in a fix. His face had turned 
 quite white, either from rage, or sudden apprehension. 
 The effects of his bad habits suddenly showed in him. 
 We noticed that the hand he thrust out against the case 
 of letter boxes shook and that his coarse hard nerve 
 suddenly failed him. Ad and I, thus far, had stood 
 ready to run, if he attacked us; but now our fear of 
 him abated ; we felt instinctively that he would not be 
 able to harm us much. 
 
 " Oh, we've got you, Tibbetts, don't you think we 
 haven't ! " exclaimed Ad. " You walked right into the 
 trap. It isn't a liquor case at all, this time, though we 
 can make a pretty case out of that, if we choose. But 
 it is something, this time, that you cannot get out of 
 by paying a fine. It isn't the Maine Law but Uncle 
 Sam's postal laws that you're foul of. We've got you 
 now where we can handle you. I have been getting 
 this thing ready for you, for some time, and now I've 
 got you where I can break you. I can close your rum 
 hole here, take this post office away from you and put 
 you in the state prison. You cannot stop a letter to 
 the County Attorney for nothing, you know ! " 
 
 Tibbetts' visage was a study for me as I stood in a 
 species of juvenile fascination, watching him. To this 
 day I can see the purple and white spots that showed on 
 his face. He did not speak, but stood staring at Addi- 
 son. 
 
 " I want you to understand," Addison continued, 
 walking up closer to him now, looking him full in the 
 face with cool scrutiny, speaking, too, with an intensity 
 of suppressed feeling which made me glance at him 
 curiously, " I want you to understand that I have 
 beaten you at last. There's been trouble in this school 
 district for two years ; but it was you and I who have 
 really been doing the fighting; and now I've beaten 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 213 
 
 you and got you in a corner; and I'll put the screws 
 on you, too — unless," Addison continued after a little 
 pause, still looking him in the eye, but changing his 
 tone, " unless you want to knuckle down and do as I 
 say about the school. Joel Pierson is a good teacher. 
 Everybody admits that. We want him here next win- 
 ter. Now, Postmaster, if you give Simeon Davis the 
 word to hire him, right off, pretty quick now, before 
 he is otherwise engaged, why, I may not press this mat- 
 ter, just yet. Understand?" 
 
 Still Tibbetts stood looking at Addison, measuring 
 him, so to speak, and pondering the situation, without 
 speaking. I could see that he was somewhat broken 
 up. 
 
 " Joel Pierson is going to teach this school next 
 winter anyhow, you see if he doesn't," Addison said 
 confidently. " If you stand out, I'll put you behind 
 bars. When you are gone, we will choose another 
 agent who will hire Master Pierson." 
 
 " Wal, I never said anything agin Pierson, or agin 
 hirin' him," Tibbetts said at length in a changed, con- 
 ciliatory tone. " Did you ever hear me say that I didn't 
 want him? " 
 
 " O that's all right, Postmaster," Ad exclaimed, 
 with a grim laugh. " You and I understand each 
 other pretty well. I don't trust you at all, in anything. 
 But if Simeon Davis writes to Joel Pierson Monday 
 morning, offering him the school, I shall know what 
 that means. If he doesn't, the United States marshal 
 will be around here by Wednesday." And with that 
 we came away. 
 
 I was, I remember, much staggered in mind by the 
 compact which Ad had made. I asked him as we 
 went home if he thought such a bargain was the right 
 thing. He laughed and said it was the way to get a 
 good school the next winter. 
 
 " But what suppose the Old Squire would say? " I 
 asked him. 
 
214 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " Well, I don't mean to say much about this at home 
 for a while," Addison replied. " I'm pretty sure that 
 the County Attorney will not take it up, because, as he 
 said, it is irregular procedure ; and I do not think that 
 the postmaster at the village will move in the matter, 
 unless complaint is made. I calculated that I held the 
 game in my own hands ; and I've played it in the way 
 I wanted to. I've got Tibbetts where I can chuck his 
 old head under water if he doesn't do as I bid him." 
 
 Addison wrote, himself, to Master Pierson on Mon- 
 day and received a reply from him saying that agent 
 Davis had written that day offering him the school! 
 When Addison read this letter at the supper table 
 Wednesday evening, there was a general exclamation 
 of surprise as well as pleasure. The Old Squire him- 
 self appeared to be astonished and puzzled, then recall- 
 ing the matter of the letter to the County Attorney, 
 the outside of which he had seen, he remarked that it 
 looked as if Tibbetts was trying to curry favor with us. 
 
 " That's what I think, sir," said Ad, giving me a 
 nudge to keep quiet. 
 
 " Well, well," said Gram. " I can hardly believe it, 
 but Tibbetts may not be so bad after all as we have 
 thought he was ; I suppose we ought to have charity." 
 
 This ingenuous remark made me feel rather queer; 
 and it amused Addison so much that for some mo- 
 ments he sat fairly shaken with suppressed laughter. 
 " Grandma," he said at length, " don't you waste any 
 charity on Tibbetts. He didn't do this out of any kind- 
 ness to us, you may be sure." 
 
 " I don't believe he did, either ! " exclaimed the old 
 lady, promptly rejecting her charity theory. " But I 
 don't see what has got into him." 
 
 Theodora and the Old Squire looked more puzzled 
 than ever. 
 
 " What has Ad been doing? " the former asked me, 
 after supper.; but I would not reveal anything, further 
 than to wink knowingly and exasperatingly. The Old 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 215 
 
 Squire did not learn the particulars of the compact 
 with Tibbetts for a year or more. When he did, he 
 quite disapproved of it, and even declared that Addi- 
 son, to some extent, rendered himself answerable for 
 compounding an offense against the postal laws. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 OUR FIRST GREAT SORROW 
 
 FARM work now came on apace. " Hot-beds " had 
 to be prepared for the garden, since a Maine gar- 
 den usually needs a little assistance at the start. 
 Then came ploughing and harrowing for rye and oats, 
 and later for wheat, then for potatoes and corn. Fences 
 which had " winter-killed " beneath the deep snow 
 drifts, had also to be repaired, so as to get the young 
 cattle and colts out to. pasture by May 15th; and then 
 came sheep-washing, sheep-shearing and dipping the 
 lambs again in " poke-stew." 
 
 But since this homely routine of farm work has been 
 already described in the first book of these chronicles, 
 I shall not hereafter dwell much on the details of it, 
 but go on to the more notable incidents of this my 
 second year at the Old Squire's. 
 
 During the first year we had lived with not much 
 thought as to the future, or what we were to do in 
 life ; but now, ever after Master Pierson came among 
 us, and we had begun the study of Latin, the stir of 
 new ambitions began to be felt. There was, in truth, a 
 budding of great hopes that year. The simple child life 
 was over with us — gone never to return. Youth had 
 come with its teeming schemes for the future. 
 
 True, we worked on the farm and played at times, 
 much as before; yet it was with a difference. For 
 now we were thinking much of money and how to 
 make it for school expenses at the Academy. 
 
 The Old Squire, too, had seemed to catch something 
 of the same spirit. He began to talk much of going 
 
 216 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 217 
 
 into business again, lumbering up at Three Rivers in 
 the Province of Quebec, also of dairying with Jersey 
 cows on a larger scale, and of raising hops, and even of 
 embarking in the petroleum oil business, out in Canada 
 West. 
 
 At heart the old gentleman earnestly desired to aid 
 all six of us in getting an education. These new 
 schemes of his were, as I now think, largely, if not 
 wholly, on our account; but they filled Gram with un- 
 easiness. " Joseph, what has come over you ! " she 
 often exclaimed that season. " To hear you talk any- 
 body would think you were a young man just starting 
 in life, instead of an old fellow, going on three score 
 and ten. It isn't natural, Joseph. I'm afraid your 
 mind is getting unsettled." 
 
 The Old Squire's eye would twinkle at that; and 
 one evening I remember hearing him say, " Ruth, it 
 seems to be the fashion now for Americans to make 
 a fortune. I have been a little backward about that, 
 I fear. So I must hurry around to keep up with 
 present fashions." 
 
 " Don't you try to be too fashionable in your old 
 age, Joe," replied Gram with considerable severity. 
 
 He went on scheming none the less. Time and again 
 Addison and I surprised him figuring away with a 
 lead pencil on a bit of board out in the wagon-house. 
 Already he was planning to get out five hundred thou- 
 sand of lumber that coming winter, from certain lots 
 he owned up Lurvey's stream, in the Great Woods. He 
 bought four spans of Prince Edward Island horses 
 in the fall, had new logging camps built and laid in 
 food supplies for a crew of twenty men to go to work 
 in November. 
 
 Early one morning about the middle of May, there 
 came a telegram — an unusual event at the farm — an- 
 nouncing the death of a brother-in-law of Gram, living 
 over in Kennebec County, and known to us as " Uncle 
 Dresser." He was supposed to be very well off as to 
 
218 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 this world's goods ; but even before his death there had 
 been ill-natured contentions among certain of his rela- 
 tives as to the disposition of his property ; — troubles 
 which were so distasteful to the Old Squire that he dis- 
 suaded Gram from attending the funeral which (the 
 telegram announced) was to be on Thursday of that 
 week. Both of them felt, however, that some one from 
 our family ought to be present; and at length it was 
 decided to have Theodora and myself set off, with Old 
 Sol in the light wagon, and drive there, across coun- 
 try, the distance being nearly or quite forty miles. 
 
 It proved a momentous trip. We were gone four 
 days, had a most exciting experience, and saw a very 
 seamy side of human nature — as will be related in 
 another place, hereafter. 
 
 Yet even this curious adventure was overshadowed 
 by the sad affliction which fell on us a few weeks later. 
 
 According to custom the summer term of school at 
 the old schoolhouse began on the first Monday in June ; 
 but the teacher hired by school agent Davis whom 
 Tibbetts had succeeded in electing after so bitter a con- 
 test, proved wholly inefficient. Theodora and Ellen 
 did not deem it worth while to attend. Addison, Hal- 
 stead and I were too busy with the farm work to go, in 
 any case. Boys in the district rarely went to school in 
 summer, after they were twelve years old. Little 
 Wealthy was therefore the only one to go from our 
 place. 
 
 From the very first day of school there was com- 
 plaint as to the condition of the schoolhouse. Nothing 
 had been done by the neglectful agent to render it clean 
 and sanitary after the long term, the previous winter. 
 Nor had fuel been procured for cold, damp days such 
 as often occur in Maine, during the early part of June. 
 On the ninth day of the month a rain-storm had set in, 
 which continued until the afternoon of the nth. 
 
 That night little Wealthy came home looking ill, and 
 complaining of a cold. She had sat and shivered all 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 219 
 
 day, she said. Gram gave her hot catnip tea, and put 
 her to bed early; but shortly after midnight the Old 
 Squire came up stairs and, waking Addison, sent him 
 to the village for Dr. Green, who came during the 
 latter part of the night. 
 
 It was not till breakfast, however, that the rest of us 
 learned that Wealthy was seriously ill. Even then we 
 did not realize that it was anything worse than a bad 
 cold. Gram and the Old Squire wore grave looks, 
 however; and before ten o'clock the doctor returned. 
 He was still at the house with his little patient, up 
 stairs, when we boys went in from the field, to dinner. 
 Gram did not come down to table; the Old Squire 
 told us that the doctor had pronounced it a case of 
 diphtheria of a croupous type; and that he said such 
 of us young folks as were not needed in the sick-room 
 had better not go up. 
 
 We three boys, with the two hired men, therefore, 
 went back to our work in the field. That day we were 
 finishing our corn planting. By five o'clock we had it 
 nearly done, and were covering the last six rows of 
 seed, when Theodora came hastening out to us from 
 the house. Her eyes were red from crying. " Little 
 Wealthy is very, very sick, boys," were her first words. 
 " She cannot get her breath. Nothing they do helps 
 her. If you want to see her, alive, you must come 
 quick!" 
 
 We dropped everything and ran' to the house. But 
 the child had expired before we reached it. It was as 
 sudden as that. At the door we met Ellen, sobbing 
 convulsively. She threw her arms about Theodora's 
 neck, and they wept together. 
 
 The Old Squire came down stairs. " Your dear 
 little cousin has passed away, my children," was all the 
 old gentleman could find words to say to us. 
 
 The doctor came down, and after giving some pre- 
 cautionary directions, drove away. 
 
 The suddenness of the calamity affected me 
 
220 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 strangely. A kind of stupefaction fell on me. I could 
 not believe what they said, at first. It seemed impos- 
 sible that Wealthy could be dead. I burst forth crying 
 so uncontrollably, that Addison laid hold of my arm 
 and hurried me out to the wagon-house. " You must 
 not let yourself behave like that," he said reprovingly. 
 " It is sad enough and bad enough without your setting 
 up such a noise ! " But for a long time I could not 
 calm myself. 
 
 Halstead had disappeared. We did not see him 
 again till late in the evening. 
 
 O, the solemnity and the black, bleak sorrow which 
 brooded over the old farmhouse that night! It ap- 
 peared to me that I could never go on living there un- 
 der this crushing weight of grief. The sight of the 
 closed door up stairs, and the tear-stained faces of 
 Theodora and Ellen, filled me with unspeakable an- 
 guish. 
 
 As it came dark I remember retreating to a dim 
 corner of the sitting-room, on the lounge, and was so 
 loath to leave it to go to bed, that Theodora at length 
 came in and, sitting beside me, held my hand for a 
 long time, without speaking. 
 
 In our room, later that night, Addison tried in vain 
 to cheer me by speaking of a trip which he had planned 
 for us to take to the mountains up in the great woods, 
 to search for tourmalines, amethysts and silver ore. 
 I thought him utterly heartless to think of such things, 
 at such a time, but know now that he felt quite as badly 
 as I did, but possessed a more self-controlled, less emo- 
 tional mind. 
 
 The same sense of wild anguish and bewilderment 
 rested on me for several days, till after the funeral, 
 when the little coffin stood in the sitting-room, and 
 " Aunt Olive " had come, and Elder Witham preached 
 a kindly sermon from the text, " It cometh up like a 
 flower." 
 
 Thus sadly was broken, for the first time, our little 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 221 
 
 war-waif circle of six cousins at the Old Squire's ; and 
 all that now remained to us by which to remember 
 Wealthy was that one small ambrotype, reproduced 
 here. 
 
 Elsie Wilbur and one other — little Millie Darnley 
 — who were at school at the same time, were taken 
 sick of the same disease, namely, a bad cold followed 
 by croupous diphtheria. All three were apparently 
 from the same cause — sitting in a too cold school- 
 room which was in an unsanitary condition. 
 
 At the Old Squire's we set little Wealthy's death 
 down as one of the calamities of the year when Rum 
 reigned in the school district. We believed that if the 
 schoolhouse had been in charge of a careful school 
 agent that summer, our winsome little cousin might 
 still be with us. Davis was a neglectful sot. Tibbetts 
 had made him so. Little Wealthy was the victim of 
 the worthlessness of the one and the malice of the 
 other. This thought embittered our hearts still more 
 against our liquor-selling postmaster. 
 
 He was, in truth, the evil genius of our lives at the 
 old farm, and at length — as I shall have to relate 
 later — succeeded in involving Halstead in a disrepu- 
 table affair which led him to run away from home. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 addison's juggernaut 
 
 FOR a fortnight, all through hoeing-time, the 
 gloom of our recent bereavement rested on us 
 heavily. Yet it is one of the kind provisions of 
 Nature that all griefs, even that for this greatest of 
 calamities, death, fade insensibly away as days pass. 
 
 Haying-time had now coma around again, haying- 
 time at the old farm. What memories of hot July suns, 
 palm-leaf hats and perspiring faces rise at the thought 
 of it!- 
 
 Again I seem to smell the early morning odors from 
 the swaths of grass, fresh-reeking from the scythes, or 
 catch the noontide fragrance of the hot windrows of 
 hay as we " tumbled " it up for the rack-cart, which 
 came rattling out into the field. Again I hear the 
 merry whit-te-whit of the whetstones, the low rip of 
 the severed grass-stalks, the wearying note of the 
 grindstone, and at last — after forenoons of infinite 
 length — the welcome toot of the old dinner-horn. 
 
 Once more I see Theodora, or Ellen, or Halstead, 
 coming afield in the blazing sunshine, bringing that 
 longed-for jug of cold water, tempered with a dash 
 of molasses and ginger to keep the inordinate quan- 
 tities which we drank from hurting us. Yet again the 
 loud black thunder-shower rises in drear gloom over 
 the mountain, bent on drenching the whole day's batch 
 of hay. And then what hurry and scurry there would 
 be to pile a big load on the cart and rush it to the 
 barn before the sheeted rain struck ! 
 
 222 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 223 
 
 Such' was " haying " before the days of farm 
 machinery. 
 
 During all those first years of our sojourn at the 
 old homestead in Maine, the seventy or eighty tons 
 of hay, for a large stock of cattle and horses, had to 
 be made and stored wholly by hand labor. Sixty acres 
 of grass on upland, swale and meadow had to be 
 mowed with scythes, raked by hand-rakes, and pitched 
 on and off the hay-rack by hand-forks. 
 
 Little wonder that after four or five weeks of such 
 labor, drinking so much water, perspiring so profusely 
 and toiling so many hours under the hot sun, wa 
 emerged from the ordeal fearfully tanned, indeed, but 
 perceptibly thinner, leaner, and sometimes sick. 
 
 The first relief from the hardest of the work came 
 when the Old Squire purchased the first mowing- 
 machine and the first horse-rake ever seen in that 
 vicinity. 
 
 The clatter of that new mower set our farm-horses 
 crazy at first, and for a while we were obliged to use a 
 yoke of oxen to draw it, Halstead walking beside them 
 with a goad-stick, while Addison sat on the machine 
 and worked the levers. Even when propelled by slow 
 ox-power, the new mower would cut as much grass 
 as three men; and the horse-rake accomplished as 
 much as four men. 
 
 It seemed to us then, fresh from those back-aching 
 scythes, that a golden epoch of haying had dawned; 
 and as is always the case, the hopefulness which sprang 
 from those new inventions led us to dream of others 
 that would do the rest of the hard work. 
 
 " Now if we could only contrive some way to pitch 
 the hay on to the cart in the field and pitch it off in 
 the barn, haying would be nothing but fun ! " Addison 
 used to say that summer, " I wonder if we couldn't? " 
 
 But the horse-fork which hoists an entire load at 
 four forkfuls, swings it round and drops it in the mow, 
 was then unknown to us, and seemed too difficult to be 
 
224 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 made practical. At that time it looked easier to con- 
 trive some device for hoisting the hay upon the cart 
 in the field; and I remember that Addison had talked 
 a great deal about this as we mowed, raked and 
 pitched the previous summer. He was always the 
 most resourceful among us, although Halstead and 
 I were keenly .interested. 
 
 Invention, however, proved by no means an easy 
 matter. He was unable to hit on anything which 
 promised success for a long time ; not until the follow- 
 ing March, in fact, while we were working up the 
 year's stock of fire-wood in the yard before the wood- 
 shed. 
 
 Then one afternoon, I remember, Addison suddenly 
 threw down his ax, shouting: 
 
 " I've got it ! I'll take the ' lags ' off our old thresh- 
 ing-machine and that pair of cart-wheels up at the 
 north barn ! " and he started to run for the barn. 
 
 He was up at the north barn much of the time after 
 that; but in the course of a fortnight he had put to- 
 gether the most remarkable combination ever seen in 
 that locality — either for loading hay or any other pur- 
 pose. Rumors concerning it spread abroad, and people 
 came to see it. For some reason it appeared to amuse 
 everybody tremendously, and the old north barn floor, 
 where Addison had set it up, rang with laughter on 
 those early spring days. 
 
 But the sight of it was as nothing to the sound of it. 
 For when in motion it made a truly awful noise, rum- 
 bling, squeaking and groaning; and some one soon 
 nicknamed it " the howler." 
 
 Yet clumsy as it was, I am now quite positive that 
 this was the first real hay-loader invented in America 
 — for the hay-loading machines now on the market 
 make use of the same principle which Addison studied 
 out that spring, and involve no new idea., The new 
 machines are comparatively light and portable, while 
 Addison's was ponderous and clumsy, since he had 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 225 
 
 nothing to work with save the large wheels from an 
 ox-cart and the " lags " and some other gear from two 
 old worn-out threshing-machines. If I remember 
 aright, the whole apparatus cost him not over eleven 
 dollars. 
 
 The wheels of the two- wheeled ox-carts such as we 
 then used were wholly of wood, hubs, spokes and 
 fellies, and were very large and heavy, the hubs being 
 fully twelve inches in diameter. Two of these huge 
 wheels and the two small forward wheels of an old 
 wagon furnished Addison with the wheeled gear for 
 his hay-loader. 
 
 For picking the hay up in the field, after it is raked 
 into windrows, he had perceived that some sort of 
 revolving cylinder, or drum, with projecting teeth like 
 those of a horse-rake, would be required ; and to raise 
 the hay from this gathering-drum to the top of the hay- 
 rack at the rear end, and drop it there, he had to devise 
 a long " carrier " of some sort running upward. For 
 this latter essential, he made use of both sets of lags 
 from the two old threshing-machines which I have 
 mentioned — that is to say, the part of the threshing- 
 machine on which the horses walk, and which runs on 
 iron trucks up a little inclined track. As his carrier 
 had to be fully sixteen feet long, he joined the two sets 
 of lags in one, and set them in a strong, lofty frame. 
 
 A far lighter carrier would have answered as well, 
 or better, but these old lags were all that he had to 
 work with for this purpose. 
 
 The frame supporting this long carrier was made 
 of white ash beams ; and the carrier itself was put in 
 motion by a large rotary cylinder, consisting of a 
 hollow log of yellow-birch wood put on over the axle 
 of the large wheels, between them, and attached rather 
 loosely, yet strongly, to the hubs of the wheels, so as 
 to revolve with them about the axle, and yet give some 
 little play for turning the machine round in the field. 
 
 Addison had made a new, longer axle for the wheels, 
 
226 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 with the ends of it projecting outward through them 
 on each side. It was on the ends of the axle, outside 
 the wheels, that the frame supporting the carrier 
 rested; the other or forward end of the frame was 
 attached to the bed-pieces of the hay-rack with two 
 clevises having iron pins which could be dropped into 
 place, or pulled out to cast the machine loose from the 
 cart. 
 
 At the top the carrier revolved about a small axle 
 set high in the frame. When the cart moved forward, 
 the large wheels of the loader revolved, turning the 
 cylinder which set the carrier in motion. 
 
 The other cylinder, or drum, which picked up the 
 hay and passed it to the carrier, consisted merely of 
 another hollow log off the same yellow-birch tree 
 trunk, two feet in diameter and six feet long, put on 
 the axle of the forward wagon-wheels and attached 
 to the hubs, much as the other, so that it would turn 
 with the wheels about the axle. The teeth — horse- 
 rake teeth, shortened — were set in this second log 
 drum, and were of a length nearly to touch the ground. 
 
 Addison carried the iron axle of these old wagon- 
 wheels to a blacksmith and had it drawn out so as to 
 extend four inches beyond the hubs outside; and to 
 these projecting ends he attached the ash shafts which 
 connected the drum and wheels to the wheels in front. 
 
 When the machine moved astride the windrow of 
 hay, the drum turned with the wheels, picked up the 
 hay and passed it to the carrier, which in turn passed 
 it up the incline to the top of the hay-rack, where the 
 man on the cart took it with a fork and loaded it. 
 
 To prevent the hay from falling off sidewise and 
 being drawn into the wheels, or blown away by the 
 wind, " guides," made of light strips of board, were 
 set on each side. And to keep the hay going steadily 
 up the carrier, Addison drove a row of tenpenny nails 
 into each lag, allowing the heads to protrude about 
 two inches. He also contrived a semicircular guide 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 227 
 
 behind the gathering-drum to keep the hay from fall- 
 ing back. 
 
 Gram, the girls, and everybody at the farm came 
 out to see the machine the first time we drove into 
 the field to get a load of hay with it. Several of our 
 neighbors came running across lots, too, for we were 
 making a fearful noise. 
 
 No amount of greasing would keep the " howler " 
 quiet. It groaned and rumbled and creaked, till even 
 steady old Bright and Broad rolled their eyes anxiously 
 round to sea what on earth was following them. 
 
 Gram laughed till she had to sit down on a stone 
 and fan herself; but the Old Squire was not inclined 
 to join in the hilarity. For some reason he considered 
 it a wild scheme, although as a rule he was very toler- 
 ant of Addison's projects. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that the loader worked 
 pretty well. It picked up a windrow of hay and passed 
 it up to the man on the cart as fast as the oxen could 
 walk. It gathered the hay up quite clean, too, and 
 required but little raking after. 
 
 It was necessary, however, that neither large stones 
 nor stumps should lie concealed in the windrows under 
 the hay. This had to be looked out for in advance 
 when the hay was raked. 
 
 When the load was on, Addison pulled the two iron 
 pins attaching the loader to the cart, and then drove 
 to the barn, leaving it standing there in the field, to be 
 hitched on again when we came back. 
 
 We considered it a success; and several of our 
 much-amused neighbors said the same. The Old 
 Squire, however, would express no opinion further 
 than to remark that it might do very well for lazy 
 folks. 
 
 Our chief difficulty was with the team in the field. 
 Either the dreadful noise it made or else the unfamiliar 
 drag which it set up at the rear end of the cart dis- 
 comfited the horses amazingly ; and even the oxen 
 
228 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 showed similar signs of alarm and dislike. Moreover, 
 it taxed the team somewhat heavily, for I suppose that 
 the contrivance must have weighed at least fifteen 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 Otherwise it worked pretty well — after a clumsy 
 fashion. We could get a load in about ten minutes 
 with it, and we used it for as many as thirty loads that 
 summer. 
 
 Then a little later, in grain harvest, we tried it one 
 afternoon for a load of oats in the south field, near 
 which were growing three acres of corn. 
 
 We had the oxen that day. Halstead was driving 
 them. He, always said afterward that there was a 
 wasps' nest under the windrow of oats, but he was not 
 a wholly careful driver. Whether it was from wasps, 
 or the noise of the howler, was never very clear. The 
 oxen started suddenly to run, escaped from Halstead's 
 control, and rushed down the slope of the oat-field into 
 the corn. 
 
 I never heard such a noise ! It was a rumble and a 
 groan combined, and when the howler struck into the 
 green corn, it took the corn up by the roots, and loaded 
 a stream of it, dirt and all, on top of the oats in the 
 rack. 
 
 Addison, who was on the cart, jumped down, and 
 we all three ran through the corn, trying to head the 
 oxen off and stop them; but they had too much the 
 start of us. They ran the whole width of the corn- 
 field, and never stopped till they brought up with a 
 crash against the stone wall on the lower side of the 
 south field. 
 
 It proved a bad wreck. Not only was the hay-rack 
 smashed, but on reaching the team, we found the nigh 
 ox badly injured, so much so that he was not of much 
 use again until spring. The howler, indeed, was about 
 the only thing which had not suffered; that loomed 
 up as tall as ever. 
 . There were visitors at the farmhouse that day ; but 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 229 
 
 even indoors the Old Squire had heard the terrific 
 noise and outcries from the south field. He came 
 hastening out, and when he saw that broad lane of 
 devastation through his corn, and found what had hap- 
 pened to the cart and to poor old Bright, he gave a 
 glance at the lofty howler, then turned sharply on Ad- 
 dison. 
 
 " I never want to see that Juggernaut in my field 
 again! " he exclaimed. " Bear that in mind." 
 
 That evening we hauled it from the field and stood 
 it up behind the north barn, as much out of the old 
 gentleman's sight as possible. It stood there for sev- 
 eral years, and was never used again. 
 
 Yet I now imagine that, with a little more apprecia- 
 tion and encouragement, Addison might have patented 
 his device and made a successful invention of it. So 
 far as I can learn, it was the first hay-loader in the 
 United States. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AT THE HAY - MEADOWS 
 
 AFTERWARDS I think that the Old Squire re- 
 gretted his sharpness with Addison in the mat- 
 ter of the hay-loader. For only a few mornings 
 later he made us a very generous offer in the way of 
 helping us on to earn money for school expenses. 
 
 " We shall need quite a good deal of hay at the 
 lumber camps this coming winter," said he. " It is 
 hard saying, too, how the lumber market is going to 
 be next season, and I cannot safely promise much in 
 advance. But hay we must have for the teams and I 
 engage to pay you seventeen dollars a ton for all you 
 will cut and stack, up at the hay-meadows." 
 
 Thereupon we pricked up our ears hopefully ; and it 
 was in consequence of this offer that two days later we 
 all set off in a boat up Lurvey's Stream, for the 
 meadows, with a full haying outfit of scythes, rakes, 
 forks and a grindstone. 
 
 In fact the market for spruce lumber was just then 
 fitful ; but far up in the " great woods " lay the hay 
 meadows which the Old Squire had controlled for 
 twenty years. 
 
 The hay was needed ; and I suppose that he deemed 
 it best to throw us on our own resources at the outset, 
 and find out if we really desired an education enough 
 to work for it. 
 
 Theodora and Ellen were quite as much interested 
 in this haymaking venture as were Addison, Halstead 
 and myself. As they were to share with us in the 
 profits, they bore their full share in the necessary 
 
 230 
 
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 M 
 
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A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 231 
 
 labor — cooking the food, getting our meals, and 
 " keeping house " for us at the camp near the head of 
 the meadows. 
 
 Lurvey's Stream is a small and, in this portion of 
 its course, not a rapid river. We had to pole our boat 
 seventeen miles, and in consequence did not reach the 
 scene of our coming labors till afternoon. 
 
 It was the first time I had ever seen the place, al- 
 though Addison and Halstead had been there the year 
 before. 
 
 In truth, these meadows were then a veritable wild 
 paradise ; moreover there was that in the dark aspect 
 of the pointed firs and the enclosing mountains which 
 filled me with awe. It was all much as nature made it, 
 a tract of natural grass-land, extending for six or seven 
 miles along the stream, sometimes in plats of several 
 acres together at the broad crooks and bends of the 
 river, or notched irregularly back into the fir woods 
 on both sides. There were scores of these curiously 
 linked little openings, half-isolated one from another 
 by rings and belts of choke-cherry, mountain-ash, 
 moose-maple, willow and alder. 
 
 Through it all wound the stream, its course marked 
 by a few water-maples and elms, where herons built 
 their nests, and a profusion of high-bush cranberry. 
 
 On the north and west rose the dark-wooded Bound- 
 ary mountains. In some of the wetter places grew 
 rank green clumps of Indian poke around sloughs 
 where stood numerous muskrat houses; but most of 
 the meadow was firm land which could be " hayed " 
 over with scythe and rake. One season fifteen years 
 before, the Old Squire had obtained hay enough here 
 to supply the ox-teams at four logging-camps on the 
 stream below. At that time, too, efforts were made 
 to seed these bottoms with " foul meadow," bluejoint 
 and even redtop, with some degree of success. 
 
 On the west bank of the stream, near the falls at the 
 head of the meadows, where the spruce woods began, 
 
232 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 stood a lumber-camp, consisting of two quaint struc- 
 tures, the " man camp " and the " ox camp," built of 
 logs and roofed with riven splits. The man camp was 
 our home during this haying venture. It was forty 
 feet long by eighteen in width, and contained not only 
 bunks, but a large old stove, very useful for cooking. 
 
 That afternoon the girls had us divide the camp 
 midway its length into two rooms, by putting up a par- 
 tition made of the splits from the roof of the ox camp. 
 This done, they began their labors as housekeepers. 
 In fair weather we took our meals at a table, made also 
 of splits, just outside the camp door, in the shadow 
 of a large gnarled yellow-birch which grew by a rock 
 on the very bank of the stream a few rods below the 
 falls. 
 
 We had brown doughnuts and cheese, pies, great 
 pots of baked beans and brown bread, and in the morn- 
 ing popovers, Jersey butter, crisp bacon and delicious 
 coffee, to say nothing of broad, thin " wheels " of 
 " salt-rising " bread and great round yellow pones of 
 johnny-cake. 
 
 Close by the birch, a little nearer the water, we set 
 up our grindstone, and a few hundred yards lower 
 down on the meadow, where bluejoint grew to the 
 mower's waist, our first haymaking operations began 
 and our first stacks were built. 
 
 It is almost needless to say that we soon became 
 aware that haymaking at the meadows was hard work, 
 far harder than on a well-equipped farm. For we not 
 only had the thick, heavy grass to mow, spread and 
 rake, but we had to carry all the hay together on hay- 
 poles. 
 
 Building the stack, too, was no light task. A large 
 pole, twenty feet in length, had first to be cut in the 
 woods, brought to the spot and set firmly in the 
 ground. A circular " bed " had then to be constructed 
 round the base of the pole to keep the hay up from the 
 damp ground. These beds were formed by setting 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 233 
 
 crotched stakes two feet high in the earth, and laying 
 cross poles and fir boughs on them. 
 
 Much depends on the way the hay is " laid," how- 
 ever. Beginning at the bottom, it must be piled slant- 
 ing outward, in order that the " weather " may not 
 get into it. Our rule was to lay each stack twelve feet 
 in diameter on the bed, and gradually increase this 
 diameter t© fourteen feet at a height of about eight 
 feet from the ground, then gradually draw it inward 
 to the apex, where it was " bound in " to the pole with 
 a withe, and a " weather cape " of rushes or fir boughs 
 tied on to keep water from running in at the top. 
 After it was laid and bound in, each stack was 
 " dressed," or raked down, so as to make the sides 
 shed water. Such is a properly constructed " bottle " 
 stack. Addison had learned the art of stacking — for 
 it is an art — under the Old Squire's own eye the year 
 before. 
 
 In truth, the work proved unexpectedly hard. 
 
 During the first three forenoons Addison and Hal- 
 stead mowed, while I spread out the swaths to dry, 
 with a fork. In the afternoon we raked up the hay 
 and stacked it. 
 
 From a ton to a ton and a half of hay was put in a 
 stack, and we placed the stacks with a view to carry- 
 ing the hay as short a distance as possible. For carry- 
 ing the hay was very toilsome. First, two long hay- 
 poles were laid parallel on the ground, two feet apart, 
 and about two hundred pounds of hay loaded on them. 
 One boy then went in front of the load, another be- 
 hind, standing each between the two ends of the poles. 
 
 " Now! " said the boy in front; and both ends of 
 the poles were raised at once. Then began the march 
 to the stack. One can get very tired carrying three 
 tons of hay that way. 
 
 The weather favored us that week; it was fair and 
 not uncomfortably hot. But Halstead complained bit- 
 terly of the hard work, and I have doubts as to the 
 
234 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 result if Addison had not hired three French boys 
 whom we espied, one afternoon, fishing in the stream. 
 They had come down through the woods from Megan- 
 tic, just over the Boundary. 
 
 These boys were wild-looking fellows, who wore 
 fur caps. They could not speak English, and were 
 very bashful with the girls at the camp ; but they knew 
 how to " hay," and by means of signs Addison struck 
 a bargain with them to help us at a dollar a day and 
 board. I must say of those French boys that they 
 were the best boys to work whom I have ever seen — 
 on either side of the Boundary. We kept them mow- 
 ing steadily, and we did the stacking. 
 
 On Friday afternoon Addison went home in the 
 bateau to get more food and money to pay our new 
 help. For those French youngsters ate as resolutely 
 as they worked. 
 
 During the first year or two at the old farm we had 
 each laid by a little fund of our spare cash at the vil- 
 lage savings-bank. The Old Squire constantly en- 
 couraged us to do so. " Have something in your own 
 names," he used to say. " It gives one self-respect. It 
 will make you better citizens." 
 
 Addison had, I remember, forty-seven dollars in the 
 bank at this time, Theodora eighteen and Ellen sixteen, 
 but I had been able to accumulate only eleven. 
 
 That Friday morning we talked the matter over 
 very earnestly in camp. So strong was Addison's 
 faith in this haying venture that he had determined to 
 draw out his own deposit to pay for help, and he also 
 induced Theodora, Ellen and myself to write and sign 
 orders on bits of paper, to the bank, which would 
 enable him to draw what we each had on deposit. 
 We were thus putting our all into the enterprise, even 
 though that " all " was not large. 
 
 While he was at home Addison also took in, as 
 partners, Thomas Edwards and his sister, Catherine, 
 who would help Theodora and Ellen. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 235 
 
 Addison did not return with the money and food 
 supplies until the following Monday morning; and 
 meanwhile we had been reduced to a diet largely of 
 fish and high-bush cranberries. 
 
 After this we went on haying for a week, and put 
 up twenty-six stacks, estimated at forty tons. So far 
 from exhausting the grass of the meadows, I may say 
 without exaggeration that we might have put up three 
 times as much. 
 
 But our money for hiring help was exhausted. 
 
 We therefore finished our haying and returned 
 home, leaving the stacks to stand in the meadows un- 
 til winter, when the hay could be drawn to the lumber- 
 camps. There would be, Addison estimated, nearly six 
 hundred dollars' worth — to gain which we had in- 
 vested our savings to the amount of ninety-two dollars, 
 in addition to our labor and food supplies from home, 
 which, however, the Old Squire never charged up 
 against us. It looked like a fine stroke of business, 
 with profits sufficient to pay expenses for the first term 
 at the academy, with a surplus. 
 
 But danger impended — danger which we had not 
 anticipated. Our stacks were soon in peril. 
 
 August had been unusually dry that year, and the 
 first half of September proved drier still. During the 
 following week the sky grew very smoky; there were 
 forest fires up in the great woods, and we noticed that 
 the Old Squire cast uneasy looks in that direction. He 
 was thinking of his logging-camps. 
 
 On the day following the county fair the old gentle- 
 man was at the fair-grounds on prize-committee busir 
 ness; and he had Ellen and myself go with him to 
 help pack up our fruit and dairy exhibits. Thomas 
 Edwards and Catherine were also there. But Addison 
 and Halstead remained at home, to finish digging a 
 field of potatoes. Theodora was also at home, assist- 
 ing Gram. 
 
 At about three o'clock that afternoon the boys, as 
 
236 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 they plied their hoes, saw a rheumatic old trapper and 
 hunter named Hewey Glinds, who lived up at the 
 borders of the great woods, hobbling across the fields 
 toward them. 
 
 " What do you suppose old Hewey wants of us ? " 
 said Halstead. 
 
 They were not left long in doubt. 
 
 " Thar's a big fire ragin' up in the woods ! " he 
 hailed. " It's workin' down onto them hay-medders. 
 You're goin' to lose them stacks o' yourn, sure's you're 
 born!" 
 
 They dropped their hoes. " We must go up there ! " 
 exclaimed Addison. 
 
 " Wal, ye can't go too quick ! " cried old Hewey. 
 " And you'd better take a scythe and ax along," he 
 added, " and a couple o' buckets and a hoe and shovel. 
 Ef I wa'n't so pesky lame, I'd go with ye." 
 
 The boys left everything, ran to the house, got 
 tools, and hitched old Sol into the buckboard ; for the 
 water was now too low in the stream to go in the 
 bateau, and they had to take the winter trail. Addi- 
 son ran into the house to get food to carry, and to 
 tell Theodora where and why they were going. Some- 
 what to his annoyance, at first, Theodora wanted to 
 go with them. 
 
 " Oh, no, Doad, you had better not," he said. 
 
 " I'm sure I can help ! " she cried. " I can put on 
 that glazed cap of yours and my old rubber water- 
 proof." Indeed, she insisted on going, and came out 
 all ready as the boys drove through the yard. So 
 all three set off together, and put Sol at his best 
 pace. 
 
 The winter trail was far from being a smooth road, 
 however, and Sol was by no means speedy. It was 
 long past six when they reached the camp at the head 
 of the meadows. The early September dusk was fall- 
 ing; but to their great relief, no fire was in sight, and 
 there appeared to be no immediate danger. Yet the 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 237 
 
 wind blew in fitful gusts from the west, and a vast 
 amount of smoke that smelled strongly of burning 
 spruce and pine was drifting over the meadows. As 
 it grew dark, too, the sky over the forest, all round 
 to the westward, was lighted by an ominous red 
 glare. 
 
 This and the great amount of smoke rendered them 
 very uneasy. There was not much that could be done 
 in the night, however. Theodora got supper at the 
 camp, and they watched till as late as ten or eleven 
 o'clock. Then, as no fire was very near, Addison 
 urged Theodora to catch a nap. " I will call you if 
 there is any need of it," he said to her. 
 
 She accordingly retired to the little apartment which 
 Ellen and she had contrived for themselves while we 
 were haying. The two boys appear also to have fallen 
 asleep not long after in the bunk of the living-room, 
 and slept soundly. 
 
 Addison was the first to wake and go out. It was 
 already light. A sense of danger oppressed him, for 
 he had become aware of a far-borne, roaring sound, 
 with which blended low, distant crashes, as of falling 
 trees. The smoke was much thicker than on the eve- 
 ning before. It made his eyes smart. Vast white 
 columns of it were rolling skyward over the woods. 
 Flakes of white ashes were fluttering down. Across 
 the stream he saw two otters loping along the 
 bank, and heard robins crying in a disturbed man- 
 ner. 
 
 " Halse ! " he exclaimed, running back indoors. 
 " The fire is close on us ! Get up and help wet down 
 the stacks ! " 
 
 Halstead started up from sleep with an odd cry. 
 He seemed dazed, and stared wildly about him; then 
 dashing out, he crossed the stream and ran into the 
 open meadow to look round. After a single glance 
 he came rushing back. Addison noticed that he was 
 pale. 
 
238 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " We never can fight it alone ! " he cried. " The 
 woods are all afire! I'm going for help! " 
 
 " No, no! " said Addison. " You must stay right 
 here and help me wet down the stacks ! " 
 
 But Halstead was quite wild, either from sudden 
 fear for himself or some erratic notion of what he 
 ought to do. Before Addison could remonstrate with 
 him he ran to the ox camp, untied old Sol and jumped 
 on his back. Addison rushed after him, shouting, 
 " Stop ! Come back, Halse, and help me wet down the 
 stacks ! " Theodora, too, who had now emerged from 
 the camp, called to him several times. 
 
 " We need a big crew ! " was all the reply Halse 
 made; and at last Addison stopped chasing him, for 
 he had put Sol at a gallop down the trail and was soon 
 out of sight. 
 
 With another wrathful glance after him, Addison, 
 in turn, ran out into the open meadow to see for him- 
 self the progress of the fire. Theodora, equally aston- 
 ished and bewildered by Halstead's unexpected be- 
 havior, came hastening after. At a distance of less 
 than half a mile the entire forest, all round to the west 
 and northwest of the meadows, was on fire. Mag- 
 nificent in the still faint dawnlight, ruddy pillars of 
 flame were climbing to the very tops of the firs. Im- 
 mense writhing columns of yellowish and white vapor 
 rolled upward into the sky. 
 
 For the moment awe fell on them both, awe and the 
 instinct to escape. 
 
 With Addison, however, it was the instinct of an 
 instant only. Thoughts of our haystacks and a deter- 
 mination to save them roused his courage. "If only 
 Halse had taken the buckboard and you with him, 
 Doad, I wouldn't have cared ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " But I wouldn't have gone ! " cried Theodora, in- 
 dignantly. " I will help you, Ad. I would stay and 
 help if I burned up ! " 
 
 " Come on, then ! " shouted Addison. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 239 
 
 Together they sped back to the camp, where the 
 tools were still on the buckboard. First Addison 
 hung the scythe in the snath, then got the buckets. 
 
 " Fetch the rake and hoe, Doad ! " he exclaimed, and 
 ran down the meadow on the west side of the stream, 
 to Where the nearest of the stacks stood. While he 
 mowed swaths round them, Theodora hastily raked 
 the dry grass away, clearing a little space round each 
 one, so that the fire, when it came to run in the grass, 
 might not so readily reach them. 
 
 Addison was strong and quick; he worked fast; 
 within fifteen minutes they had cleared the grass from 
 round the base of the eleven stacks to the west of the 
 stream. Addison then caught up the hoe and dug a 
 little ditch across the westward side of each in the soft 
 black loam. 
 
 But already the firs all along the border of the 
 meadow on that side were ablaze, with a tremendous 
 crackling and roar. Fortunately, the wind blew but 
 fitfully as yet. The chief danger was from bla- 
 zing cinders and sparks whirled upward with the 
 smoke. 
 
 The rush " cape " on top of one stack suddenly be- 
 gan to blaze; but seizing a bucket, Addison dashed 
 water over it from the stream. Theodora brought 
 another bucketful. They put the blaze out, then wet 
 down all eleven of the stacks, running to and from the 
 stream, bringing more than fifty bucketfuls within ten 
 minutes — all this in a rain of ashes, amidst smoke so 
 thick that they panted as they worked. The roar of 
 the conflagration, too, nearly drowned their voices. 
 
 For a few minutes it looked as if they might suc- 
 ceed; but glancing across the stream, Addison saw, 
 to his consternation, that one of the stacks on the east 
 side was blazing ; also that sparks had set the dry grass 
 over there on fire in several places. 
 
 " Doad, it's getting the start of us ! " he cried. 
 " Come on, quick ! " 
 
240 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 He splashed through the stream, dipping up a buc- 
 ketful, and then ran to the stack and put out the blaze. 
 Theodora followed him, filling her own bucket, and 
 they wet the stack down. But even as they did so an- 
 other stack began to smoke — and there were 5 f teen 
 stacks on that side ! 
 
 Then began a desperate struggle against what 
 seemed hopeless odds. There was now no time to 
 mow round all these stacks or dig trenches. T .V:th a 
 few hasty slashes of his knife. Addison cut bunches 
 of green alder bushes by the stream. 
 
 " Take these. Doad, and whip out the little fires in 
 the grass as fast as they catch!" he exclaimed. 
 " Keep them from running to the stacks." 
 
 This for a time she succeeded in doing, darting this 
 way and that, up and down the meadow. Addison, 
 meanwhile, had snatched up the buckets again, and 
 filling them, rushed to the burning stack, the whole 
 top of which was now afire. He quenched it, how- 
 ever, partly with water, partly by whipping out the 
 blaze. 
 
 But by this time still ^another at a distance was 
 smoking. They had to run fast to save that one; 
 there was no rest even to -take breath. Fires in the 
 grass were starting on all sides. Flying sparks 
 scorched their faces and burned dozens of little holes 
 in their clothes. Time and again they had to throw 
 water on each other. 
 
 It was little wonder, indeed, that such frantic exer- 
 tion proved too much for a girl "While runuir.gr with 
 her bucket of water, Theodora was suddenly over- 
 come, either by the smoke or heat Turning to take 
 the bucket from her, Addison saw that she had sat 
 down in the grass, very pale, panting for breath. 
 
 Self-reproach smote him. "Doad! '" he exclaimed. 
 helping her to her feet " Go up on this side of the 
 stream to the faHs and sit down there beside that big 
 rock by the water. The hre will not get to . cu there, 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 241 
 
 for there's sand and gravel all round. Sit there till 
 you are rested. Don't come down here again! " 
 
 " But, Ad, I want to help! " she still urged. 
 
 " Go ! " he exclaimed. " Don't bother ! " And very 
 reluctantly Theodora left him there. 
 
 While this was happening two more stacks had taken 
 fire, and one of them burned in spite of all Addison 
 could do with bucket and bushes. 
 
 While rushing with his buckets to a bend of the 
 stream, he saw the alders on the other side part, and 
 a large bear that the fire had driven from the woods 
 plumped into the water up to its neck, and stood there, 
 wheezing for breath. Addison did not stop for bears, 
 however; he got more than fifty bucketfuls from the 
 same pool where the animal stood. Deer, too, were 
 bounding across the meadow, and a cow moose and 
 calf went galloping by. 
 
 His clothes repeatedly took fire as he whipped the 
 blazing grass, and to keep from blazing himself he 
 jumped into the water time and again, then, all drip- 
 ping, sprang out and rushed to the fight again. He 
 simply would not give up, but fought on with grim 
 determination, regardless of the outlook or of the 
 passage of time. 
 
 He had now wet down all the stacks on the east side 
 of the stream ; but by this time one of those already 
 wet on the west side was afire ! Then began the worst, 
 most disheartening part of the struggle; for by this 
 time the dry grass was afire all over the meadows, as 
 well as the fir woods on both sides. The smoke and 
 heat were well-nigh unbearable. It was only by plun- 
 ging into the stream repeatedly that he was able to en- 
 dure it and go on. 
 
 Addison had succeeded in putting out the burning 
 stack on the west side, and once more drenched the 
 entire eleven over there. But the heat and smoke 
 rapidly dried them ; he found that he must keep wet- 
 ting them, going from one to another as fast as he 
 
242 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 could run. Before he was aware — there were so 
 many of them partly hidden from view by trees and 
 bushes — another down the stream on the east side 
 was ablaze past quenching. After this he ran from 
 one to another of the stacks, dashing water on them, 
 six or eight bucketfuls apiece, and kept them all drip- 
 ping wet. 
 
 Toward noon the conflagration seemed to abate a 
 little, and hopes of winning encouraged Addison. The 
 sky had darkened. Through the smoke, clouds could 
 be seen gathering, but immediately gusts of wind, from 
 a shower passing a mile to the northward, sent sparks 
 and flame eddying across the meadows again ; and be- 
 fore he could run with water and his alder brush 
 three stacks were afire, one of which burned despite 
 his efforts. 
 
 Wind eddies now seemed to come first from one 
 quarter, then from another; and for two hours Addi- 
 son was constantly running up and down, quenching 
 new outbursts of the fire. Then came a smart shower, 
 which rendered the danger less imminent, and gave 
 him a moment's respite. 
 
 All the time anxiety concerning Theodora disturbed 
 him. When the shower began, he started to find her ; 
 but to his great relief he met her bringing a pot of 
 coffee in one hand and a pie in the other. Nor had 
 she been all this time making coffee. Theodora, in- 
 deed, had been fighting fire on her own account, and 
 almost as successfully as Addison himself. 
 
 After resting by the great rock in the cool of the 
 falls for a few minutes, she had felt much better, and 
 had started to go back down the meadows ; but the fire 
 was now burning all round the little clearing in which 
 the lumber-camp stood. 
 
 Suddenly she perceived that the roof of the ox camp 
 was smoking. In fact, it was ablaze before she could 
 do anything to put it out, for at first she could find 
 nothing with which to carry or throw water. At last 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 243 
 
 she snatched a kettle off the camp stove, and used it as 
 a bucket. 
 
 The ox camp burned in spite of Theodora's best 
 efforts, however, and the blazing cinders from it and 
 the burning woods would certainly have set the roof 
 of the man camp on fire if she had not thrown water 
 smartly for an hour or more, wetting down both roof 
 and walls repeatedly. 
 
 While Addison was saving the stacks, Theodora 
 saved the camp, with all we had in it. And that old 
 camp — afterward well known as Boundary Camp — 
 was yet to be the scene of several remarkable adven- 
 tures. 
 
 Meanwhile, down at the farm that morning, we had 
 been uncertain what to do, not knowing the extent of 
 the fire, and deeming it possible that Addison and Hal- 
 stead together might be able to look out for the hay. 
 We had got home from the fair, with our stock and 
 other exhibits, late the evening before, and were not 
 astir very early. In fact, we were at the breakfast- 
 table, between eight and nine, when Halstead, the 
 panic-stricken, came home, running old Sol and look- 
 ing very wild indeed. 
 
 On the way down, his imagination appeared to have 
 run away with him completely. His first words to us 
 as we rushed out were, " The meadows are all afire ! 
 The stacks are all burnt up ! " 
 
 " But where are Addison and Theodora? " the Old 
 Squire exclaimed. "Why did you leave them?" 
 
 " I came for help ! " cried Halstead, in a strange, 
 high-pitched voice. " It needs a big crew ! We must 
 raise a crew and go back ! " He was nearly in tears. 
 
 " Did you leave Addison and Theodora in the 
 camp? " the Old Squire questioned him. 
 
 " Yes ! " cried Halstead, vaguely. " But it is all 
 burnt up before this time ! The fire was close by ! 
 'Twas the awfullest sight I ever saw ! " 
 
 This, of course, was very alarming — if true. The 
 
244 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 Old Squire called in our two hired men from the field, 
 and sent me off in haste to summon Mr. Edwards and 
 his son Thomas; and as soon as they came, two of 
 the farm horses were hitched into a double-seated 
 market-wagon and we set off up the trail. 
 
 Halstead was so excited and upset that the Old 
 Squire told him he need not go back. 
 
 The day proved very hot for September, and all 
 the way up through the great woods the air was so full 
 of smoke that our eyes smarted from it. Driving as 
 fast as possible, however, we were unable to reach the 
 meadows till after four o'clock — in the midst of that 
 shower. 
 
 It was a strange sight. Stumps, logs and fallen 
 trees were still burning on all sides, and the entire 
 stretch of meadow-land, where the fire had consumed 
 the dry grass, was now smoking and steaming in the 
 rain. 
 
 The horses kept snorting, and they were very loath 
 to go past the worst of the fires, but we urged them 
 on. In truth, we were in great anxiety. It was plain 
 that a mighty conflagration had been raging there. 
 And what had become of Addison and Theodora? 
 
 At last we came in sight of the camp, and to our 
 great relief perceived that it was still standing, uncon- 
 sumed. What we saw there as we drove up was Ad- 
 dison, sitting on the " deacons' seat " near the door, 
 eating a crust of pie, and Theodora just emerging 
 from the door with a dishful of hot oatmeal porridge ! 
 
 But at first glance we hardly knew either of them, 
 they were so muddy, singed and blackened, Addison 
 in particular. His clothing was sodden, caked with 
 dry mud and burned full of holes, as was his hat. His 
 eyes were red-ringed, his hands blistered, his boots 
 burned and crumpled yellow. In truth, he was the 
 worst-looking boy I ever saw ! 
 
 But he grinned through his grime when he saw us 
 drive up. For the fight was won — a wonderful fight, 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 245 
 
 too, for a boy, eighteen. He had saved five hundred 
 dollars' worth of hay. 
 
 The Old Squire got out, and going down the 
 meadows among the stacks, ran an experienced eye 
 over the mute evidences of the struggle that had gone 
 on there, then came back to camp. 
 
 " Addison," said he, " you're a man, every inch a 
 man ! " and gave him a hearty handshake. 
 
 We never said much about this to Halstead after- 
 ward. Not every boy inherits a good head for emer- 
 gencies. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ADDISON WHEELS A ROAD - MEASURER 
 
 THE week after our return from making hay 
 at the meadows, Addison received an unusual 
 offer, and was led to undertake a very odd sort 
 of job — nothing less than to wheel a machine, 
 called a road-measurer, over the roads of the 
 entire county. The machine was automatic in its 
 action and somewhat resembled a wheelbarrow. The 
 wheel was much larger, however, being about four feet 
 in diameter and of lighter build; the two " arms " by 
 means of which it was wheeled about, were also lighter 
 than those of a wheelbarrow. 
 
 Connected with the axle there was a little box with 
 a glass lid, and on the other side of the wheel another 
 larger box with a cover and padlock. The whole 
 contrivance would hardly have weighed more than 
 thirty pounds, and to wheel it was mere child's play. 
 
 A lawyer and an editor invented it — Lawyer 
 Huntley at the village, six miles from the Old 
 Squire's farm, and Editor Rastwell of the Pine State 
 Gazette. Times were a little dull that season for both 
 of them ; it was an off year, politically. So they took 
 thought in a public-spirited way and hatched a scheme 
 for getting up a county map and real-estate atlas, the 
 idea being that all the well-to-do people thereabouts 
 would buy a copy, at six dollars. 
 
 But to draft their map accurately, they needed more 
 exact measurements than were then in hand, as to the 
 principal highways of the county. They therefore set 
 their wits to work and invented this " road-measurer," 
 as they called it. It was a sort of cyclometer. 
 
 246 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 247 
 
 It would have saved much slow footing it about if 
 they had attached their distance-recording gear to the 
 axle of a light road wagon ; but perhaps they did not 
 think of that. Their road-measurer had to be wheeled 
 like a wheelbarrow by a person on foot, who made 
 notes of the distances and the relative location of the 
 farmhouses and other property — plotting the map 
 roughly as he went on. To do this required very 
 careful attention to the task, also a good eye and 
 fidelity to the object in view. Neither the lawyer nor 
 the editor had any great liking for such painstaking 
 details, or for so much long, hard walking. What 
 they wanted was a young man on whose accuracy 
 they could rely and whom they could trust to do the 
 right thing; and after casting about, they came up 
 to the Old Squire's one evening and offered the job 
 to Addison. 
 
 Mr. Huntley introduced the subject of the map, and 
 finally offered Addison a one- fourth interest in the 
 prospective profits if he would do the necessary work 
 with the road-measurer. 
 
 We had finished our haying and Addison could be 
 spared. Moreover, this was the kind of thing that 
 always suited him pretty well. But he was a cautious 
 boy. He thought over Huntley's proposition for an 
 hour or more, figured up some four hundred miles of 
 road to be measured, then got the Old Squire's advice, 
 and offered to do what they wanted for the quarter- 
 interest as proposed, and a dollar and a half a day ad- 
 ditional. 
 
 The lawyer declared this to be impossible, and he 
 and the editor went away, taking their invention with 
 them, but returned two days later, and after some 
 further discussion, they came to an agreement, Addi- 
 son reducing his cash demand to a dollar and a quarter 
 a day. 
 
 Addison had to bear all his own expenses while 
 travelling; but he hoped to clear a dollar a day by 
 
248 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 taking a basket of cooked food with him from home, 
 and stopping overnight at farmhouses, where in those 
 days the charge for lodging was but trifling. The 
 road-measurer, with all that appertained to it, was en- 
 trusted to him; and the next morning we all turned 
 out betimes to see him start off with it. 
 
 It was August, and as hot days were to be looked 
 for, Addison put on an old cork helmet, which contrib- 
 uted to the outlandish aspect of the entire rig. We all 
 laughed, I remember, when he picked up the " arms " 
 of the road-measurer and walked off — the big front 
 wheel turning lazily and that droll little clicking noise 
 muttering to itself inside the box on the axle. 
 
 And if the contrivance looked queer to us, who 
 knew about it, it was ten times more an object of 
 curiosity to strangers whom Addison met on the high- 
 way. 
 
 This, indeed, was a phase of his new job which 
 Addison had not reckoned on — the curiosity of the 
 public. 
 
 Everybody whom he met stared first at him, next 
 at the road-measurer ; and then it was, " Say, you, 
 what d'ye call that machine?" or, "Hello, young 
 fellow, where you going with that queer wheelbar- 
 row ? " 
 
 On account of his two boxes and the basket of food, 
 some took him for a pedler, and pulled up to ask what 
 he had to sell. 
 
 At first this merely amused Addison. He stopped 
 and explained it all at length to them. By the time 
 he had done so half a dozen times, however, it began 
 to grow monotonous. He soon found, too, that so 
 many delays would prevent his making satisfactory 
 progress. Boys and men, working in the fields, came 
 hastening to the roadside to look the measurer over 
 and ask all about it. At nearly every house he passed, 
 people appeared at the doors or windows. 
 
 He grew weary of answering the same questions 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 249 
 
 over and over. " Can't stop ! Can't stop ! " he ex- 
 claimed. " I'm in a hurry ! " 
 
 " Sho ! " " Do tell ! " " You don't say ! " retorted 
 the curious ones; and a muscular youth whom Addi- 
 son advised to attend to his own affairs offered to give 
 him a lesson in politeness. 
 
 "Can't you answer a civil question?" said he. 
 " Tell me to mind my business again and I'll smash 
 that jig-a-maroon for you!" 
 
 Addison took second thought, and to the next per- 
 son — an old farmer with a skittish mare — who 
 pulled up to inquire, he cried, " This is a jig-a-maroon! 
 I'm grinding coffee with it ! Don't stop me ! " 
 
 The farmer's grin vanished in a scowl. " By gum ! " 
 said he, and grabbed for his whip. " I dastn't leave 
 my mare unhitched, or I'd dust your jacket for ye ! " 
 Evidently public curiosity has rights, or thinks it has, 
 and that the pursuit of knowledge by asking questions 
 is one of them. 
 
 Three old maids, going blueberrying with a wagon- 
 ful of tin pails, were the next team he met; and to 
 them Addison imparted the information jocosely that 
 he was walking with that wheel for the sake of his 
 health. 
 
 " You don't look very sick ! " one of them remarked, 
 tartly. " I guess all you need is a dose of good man- 
 ners." 
 
 Addison began to think so himself. He took 
 thought again, and on meeting an elderly couple a little 
 farther on, stopped when they stopped, and putting on 
 a sad look, pointed with his finger to his ears, then to 
 his mouth, and hastened on. 
 
 " Poor fellow! " he heard the woman say. " He's 
 deaf and dumb. I suppose he is some kind of a col- 
 porteur." 
 
 That worked so well that he determined to go on 
 pretending he was a deaf-mute. A few minutes later 
 a double wagon, with a merry party of young people, 
 
250 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 came along, who promptly plied him with ques- 
 tions. 
 
 Again he pointed to his ears and shook his head, 
 but had hardly got past when one young rogue let out 
 so piercing a yell that Addison started in spite of him- 
 self and glanced back. Whereupon a shout of laughter 
 rose behind; and jumping out, the boys of the party 
 began pelting him with whatever came handiest. He 
 was obliged to ply his legs and set the road-measurer 
 in rapid motion to escape the clods. 
 
 By this time he was thoroughly out of patience. It 
 seemed to him outrageous that a person could not go 
 along a public highway, attending strictly to his own 
 business, without being subjected to- such vexatious 
 attentions. He grew so angry over it that presently 
 he did a very foolish thing. 
 
 He had stopped to make a record and mark the 
 location of a farmhouse, when he noticed a horse and 
 wagon coining on behind him, driven by a large, over- 
 grown boy of very rustic appearance. On the back 
 seat of the wagon were two -girls, who looked as if 
 they might be the youngster's sisters. They had been 
 berrying, and had several baskets and pails well filled. 
 
 When opposite him they stopped, as Addison ex- 
 pected; but instead of asking the usual old question, 
 all three sat for some moments watching him. At last 
 the boy drawled out : 
 
 "What d'ye call that funny-lookin' wheel thing?" 
 
 Addison felt that the limit of his patience had been 
 reached. He rose up suddenly, rolling his eyes, bran- 
 dishing his arms, and advanced on them, shouting : 
 
 " Sic transit gloria numdi! Hie, haec, hoc! Mox 
 anguis recreatus! Carthago delcnda est!" 
 
 But the young berry-pickers did not wait to hear 
 all that. The girls cried out in alarm, the young fel- 
 low applied his whip, and on they went, with their 
 old white horse at a run. 
 
 "He's crazy! He's crazy!" Addison heard them 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 251 
 
 exclaim to each other; and in the irritable state of 
 mind into which he had fallen, he deemed this a good 
 joke. 
 
 By this time it was six o'clock. He sat down under 
 a large pine by the roadside, ate supper from his bas- 
 ket, then went on for a mile or two, with an eye out 
 for a farmhouse at which to pass the night. Accord- 
 ing to his record, he was twenty-four miles from 
 home, in the township of Greenboro, where the farms 
 were few and far between, and the farmers in rather 
 poor circumstances. 
 
 Coming to a small, new, unpainted house, he 
 wheeled into the yard and knocked at the door. 
 
 At last a chamber window was raised, and a 
 woman's voice cried out, " Go away! You go away! " 
 
 Stepping back, Addison attempted to explain his 
 need of lodging; but the woman still cried, "Go 
 away ! " and he at last did so, wondering what the 
 matter could be, for at that time it did not occur to him 
 that the youthful berry-pickers had given the alarm 
 as they drove on, that a crazy man was coming! He 
 went on for a mile, most of the way through wood- 
 lands, before coming to another habitation. By this 
 time it was long past sunset and beginning to grow 
 dusk. 
 
 He came to a large brook where there was a saw- 
 mill, and beyond the brook a house. He wheeled over 
 the bridge to the house, and then, seeing a light at a 
 shed in the rear, set down the road-measurer and went 
 round to it. The shed was open in front, and on look- 
 ing in, he saw a wagon with pails of blueberries in it, 
 and at the end of the shed a girl with a lantern. Be- 
 side her stood a young fellow in the act of feeding a 
 white horse. 
 
 Addison recognized both the horse and the young 
 people — the very ones to whom he had rolled his eyes 
 and declaimed the Latin. His first thought was that 
 he had better go on and say nothing. But he wanted 
 
252 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 a night's lodging, and supposed that he could easily 
 explain the joke to them after they had spoken. So 
 he said, " Good evening ! " The girl turned and held 
 up the lantern, but had no sooner seen him than she 
 screamed and darted out at the back of the shed; the 
 boy, too, suddenly made himself scarce. 
 
 Even then Addison did not suppose it was anything 
 which could not be explained as soon as he had spoken 
 with the older people of the place. In fact, he now 
 began to think it was best to explain. He therefore 
 went back to the house door and knocked. People 
 appeared to be running about indoors. Addison 
 knocked again. 
 
 At last the door opened a little way and an old man 
 peeped out. 
 
 " Good evening, sir ! " Addison said. " Can you 
 put me up here to-night ? " 
 
 Through the crack of the door the old man warily 
 peered at him in silence. 
 
 " None of you need be afraid of me," Addison con- 
 tinued. " I was only joking with your young folks 
 down the road. I am going around with a machine 
 to measure the roads." 
 
 That may have sounded sane enough to one who 
 knew about the road-measurer, but it failed to satisfy 
 this old citizen of Greenboro. He still gripped the 
 door. 
 
 " Pooty tired, be ye?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes," Addison said, smiling. 
 
 " Think you could keep pooty still? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," Addison said. " I want to go to bed 
 soon. I have had supper." 
 
 The old man slowly opened the door. 
 
 " You can come in," said he. " I will show you 
 where you can sleep." 
 
 Addison followed him in, saying as he did so that 
 he would like to take his road-measurer to his room 
 with him. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 253 
 
 " I am very careful of it," he added. 
 
 " I s'pose you be," the old man remarked, his face 
 wrinkling in a grin. " I make no doubt you be. Now 
 just you take a look into this room. See if it suits ye." 
 
 He opened a door back of the chamber stairs, then 
 stood aside, holding up the candle. 
 
 Addison stepped into the room to see what it was 
 like, but had no sooner done so than the door was 
 clapped to behind him. He called out and tried to 
 open the door. It was held fast, and he heard them 
 piling furniture or boxes against it. 
 
 By the dim light he saw the Outline of a small win- 
 dow at the rear of the room, and rushed to it, stum- 
 bling into a bedstead as he did so. But the sash of the 
 window stuck fast; he could not get it up. 
 
 Very angry by this time, he now pulled the bedstead 
 apart, and seizing one of the side rails, smashed out a 
 panel of the door. 
 
 " Stop ! Stop ! Keep still in there ! " the old man 
 shouted, repeatedly. " Stop that, or we shall have to 
 shoot ye!" And Addison heard some one, the large 
 boy, probably, loading a gun. 
 
 With that, Addison, who was generally a prudent 
 youth, concluded that it would be foolish to rush on 
 from bad to worse ; in fact, he began to realize that 
 he had been acting foolishly all day, and that this was 
 the natural result of it. In calm tones he now at- 
 tempted to hail the people through the door ; but they 
 were piling a tier of large boxes against it, and paid 
 no attention. 
 
 A few moments later he heard them nailing boards 
 over the window — which rendered the room dark 
 as Egypt. 
 
 What they might do next, or what he could do to 
 undeceive them, was not very clear. He found a 
 chair, sat down, and thought it all over. Unless he 
 resorted to violence again there was little he could do, 
 and he sat there for a long time. 
 
254 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 While stumbling about the room he had stepped on 
 a straw bed in one corner, and he now concluded that 
 he might as well make himself comfortable and let 
 matters take their course. This he did, with the result 
 that he presently fell asleep ; for he had been up early 
 that morning, and had had a long, hard day. 
 
 Meanwhile these good people, — their name* was 
 Simons, — having, as they thought, a crazy man shut 
 up in their house, determined to call on the town au- 
 thorities. 
 
 One of the selectmen of the town, Asaph Kimball 
 by name, lived at a distance of two or three miles; 
 and the boy set off to notify him and get assistance, 
 to take Addison off to an asylum. 
 
 The selectman turned out, roused up two neighbors, 
 and reached the place at about half past three o'clock, 
 just as day was dawning. 
 
 The noise they made removing the barricade at the 
 door waked Addison. Before he could get up, Kim- 
 ball and another man rushed in and had him by the 
 collar. 
 
 " Now be quiet ! Be quiet ! " they said to him, 
 soothingly. 
 
 " Oh, I am quiet enough," said Addison, laughing. 
 He then told Kimball who he was, what he was doing, 
 and exactly how the mistake had come about ; he also 
 showed him the road-measurer and explained its work- 
 ings. 
 
 Yet so firmly had the idea that he was a lunatic 
 taken possession of all their minds that it was fully 
 ten minutes before he could wholly undeceive them. 
 
 Kimball burst out laughing at last and let go his 
 collar. 
 
 " I guess you are all right," said he. " But you 
 had better not play off any more of your didoes on 
 people." 
 
 " You may be sure I shall not! " Addison exclaimed. 
 
 He paid for the door panel which he had smashed ; 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 255 
 
 and the episode ended by his taking breakfast with his 
 late jailers. 
 
 Addison had had his lesson, and being a shrewd 
 boy, he came to the conclusion that it would be better 
 policy to make public curiosity help advertise the new 
 map than to try to resist it. Before he left the Simons 
 place that morning, he stuck up a placard beside the 
 larger of the two boxes, on which he had printed the 
 words : 
 
 This is a Road - Measurer. 
 
 And to all who stopped to ask questions he now re- 
 plied rapidly, but politely : 
 
 " I am measuring the roads for a new county map 
 and real-estate atlas. It is going to be a fine thing. 
 An agent will be around to take subscriptions in the 
 course of a few weeks. Only six dollars. Good morn- 
 ing!" 
 
 He rehearsed that hundreds of times during the next 
 two weeks, and there was reason to think that it 
 proved a good advertisement. For the map was fairly 
 successful. If I remember aright, Addison's one- 
 fourth interest in it finally netted him seventy dollars. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE LINE - STORM 
 
 RARELY in the whole history of our country- 
 have there been more unpropitious times for 
 young people to obtain a liberal education and 
 pay their own way at school and college, than during 
 those first few years following the Civil War — 1867 
 to 1872. All values appeared to shrink away. It was 
 very difficult to turn farm products into money, diffi- 
 cult to sell them at any price. 
 
 In February, when Master Pierson was with us, we 
 had counted quite confidently on being able to raise 
 money enough by September to begin attending school 
 at the village Academy. At that time, too, the Old 
 Squire appeared to think there would be no obstacle 
 to this, although the outlay for five of us would be 
 considerable, to say nothing of the extra help which 
 would be required on the farm that fall, in place of 
 our work. The old gentleman was making a number 
 of investments, too, in the way of new business ven- 
 tures. 
 
 By August, however, everything in the way of 
 profits began going wrong. Scarcely a dollar could 
 be got in from any source; nor could debts be col- 
 lected; every one who owed us pleaded poverty. 
 
 Yet up to September 20th, we had hoped to pull 
 things around and make a start that fall, missing, 
 perhaps, the first two or three weeks of the Academy 
 term. 
 
 Quite a valuable load of farm produce was ready 
 256 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 257 
 
 for market at Portland : a homely, but precious load 
 on the sale of which depended new text-books, clothes, 
 tuition fees, etc. Gram and the girls had been three 
 weeks or more getting it ready to go. 
 
 In any ordinary times, indeed, the old farm was 
 generally good for a load of something or other, 
 which could be gathered up and taken to market. 
 Throughout our student days the place was a veri- 
 table mine of potential assets, which we often worked 
 for about all it would give up. Sometimes it was 
 lumber, sometimes fruit, butter, poultry and once or 
 twice, as in this present case, veal calves. 
 
 Dear old place, how we ransacked it ! And the Old 
 Squire and Gram — well, sometimes they winced a 
 little at our rapacity, but usually one would say to the 
 other, " It is to help them get an education, and let's 
 hope it will do some good in after years." So the old 
 farm bore the brunt of it. 
 
 This particular load, as I now recall, consisted of 
 three barrels of sliced dried apples, in the preparation 
 of which we had all taken a hand during several very 
 busy evenings ; also fifty dozen eggs, carefully packed 
 in five bushels of oats, and three firkins of butter. 
 
 There were also fifty cans of preserved green-gage 
 plums. The plum-trees in the south garden had borne 
 a prodigious crop that summer; and under Gram's 
 careful eye, Theodora and Ellen had put up the fruit 
 in glass jars, for which a Portland grocer had prom- 
 ised us twenty-four cents a jar. 
 
 If I remember aright, too, there were twenty pairs 
 of knit socks and double mittens, corded up in a sack, 
 also twenty pounds of dried sage and a bag of round 
 coriander seed. 
 
 It was to care for these more purely household prod- 
 ucts that Theodora journeyed with Addison and me on 
 the front seat of the farm wagon. 
 
 By far the most bulky and troublesome portion of 
 the load, as also the most valuable part, was eight lusty 
 
258 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 veal calves, grizzly Durhams, from four to six weeks 
 old, which had to be transported alive in a strong 
 crate, set at the rear of the wagon — a choice lot of 
 late calves for which we hoped to realize ten dollars 
 apiece. 
 
 On account of this young live stock, — to keep them 
 shut up as short a time as possible, — we had planned 
 to set off in the afternoon, pass the first night at the 
 Mansion House on Ricker Hill, and making an early- 
 start from there, get into Portland by eleven the fol- 
 lowing forenoon. This, it was thought, would afford 
 us opportunity to market our load and make our pur- 
 chases during the afternoon. 
 
 The night in Portland, as a matter of course, we 
 would spend at the house of Uncle Lucas Bushnell, 
 whose family often visited us. 
 
 From Uncle Lucas's, by starting early again and 
 driving late in the afternoon, we could return home in 
 a day. That, in fact, was the usual program on trips 
 from the old farm to Portland, the distance being 
 about sixty miles. 
 
 Everything was ready and the calves were well fed 
 for their journey at noon of September 19th. 
 
 Sol and Nep were hitched up for a start at three 
 o'clock; but the Old Squire had come out and stood 
 casting his " weather eye " round. It was not cloudy 
 exactly, but here was a whitish haze high up in the 
 sky; two bright sun-dogs had also appeared, one on 
 each side of the sun, in the southwest. 
 
 " Better not start to-day," the old gentleman said 
 to us. " There's a storm coming. 
 
 " To-morrow will be the 20th of September, you 
 know," he continued, with another glance at the sky. 
 " Sun crosses the line to-morrow. It is about time for 
 the line-storm. I'm afraid if you start off for Port- 
 land that you will get caught out in it." 
 
 All our plans, however, had been laid. The term 
 at the Academy had already begun, and we greatly 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 259 
 
 desired to buy our books, clothing, etc., and get 
 ready. 
 
 " Oh, we can rig up warm and take the big unir 
 brella ! " Addison exclaimed. 
 
 " But your load," the Old Squire reminded us, 
 " your dried apples and your sage ? " Then finding 
 that we were bent on going, he brought a tarpaulin 
 from the wagon-house chamber to cover over all, in 
 case of rain. And so, despite sun-dogs and other 
 omens, we set off, reached Ricker's tavern at seven 
 that evening, and passed the night there. 
 
 Hiram Ricker, senior, of Poland water fame, and 
 proprietor of the Poland Spring House, had been a 
 boyhood friend of the Old Squire. His family made 
 us welcome ; and we were called at five the next morn- 
 ing for an early start — but, oh, how it rained ! 
 
 A driving northeast storm had set in during the 
 night. Dark, raw and cold it looked; and how the 
 gusts of rain poured against the tavern windows! 
 They had a fire in the large fireplace, and Mr. Ricker 
 stood before it, rubbing his hands, when Addison and 
 I came down-stairs. 
 
 " This is the line-storm," said he. " I thought it 
 was coming yesterday, when I saw those sun-dogs. 
 You had better stay right here with us to-day. I can 
 give you some milk from my barns for the calves. It's 
 too bad weather for you to be out." 
 
 It would have been much better if we had heeded 
 this prudent advice, but thoughts of the Academy 
 urged us to make a start. Theodora, too, was quite 
 as plucky about it as Addison and myself. We cov- 
 ered the load with the tarpaulin, lashed it fast, and 
 then, as soon as the horses were fed and breakfast was 
 eaten, we put on our thick coats, and with the um- 
 brella held low, set off to drive the twenty-five miles 
 to Portland. 
 
 But it blew and poured and the calves bleated. The 
 horses seemed unable to make haste, and moped on 
 
260 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 dejectedly through the mud. Addison drove. We put 
 Theodora in the middle, held the big umbrella as close 
 as we could, and made the best of it. 
 
 " It's only a rain-storm ! " Theodora exclaimed, 
 hopefully. " Maybe it will slacken by the time we get 
 to Portland. We can get nice and dry at Uncle 
 Lucas's. How Aunt Barbara will stare when she sees 
 us turn up in such a storm ! 
 
 " But really, boys, we mustn't take these calves 
 there ! " Theodora added, laughing heartily. " It 
 would scandalize the whole street — and Aunt Bar- 
 bara and Cousin Sylvia are quite fashionable, you 
 know. It would mortify them terribly to have their 
 country relations appear at their door with a load of 
 bleating calves ! " 
 
 But we were by no means at Portland yet. By nine 
 o'clock we had only passed New Gloucester and en- 
 tered the wooded tract of country beyond. Thus far 
 we had met scarcely a team on the road, but now we 
 passed a man in a booted buggy, driving fast and 
 splashed with mud, whom we guessed to be a physician, 
 summoned in haste. 
 
 The road was rather narrow just there. His horse 
 turned in too suddenly in the rear of our long wagon, 
 and his hind wheels clicked sharply against ours. I 
 looked back to learn if damage had been done, and 
 saw that the buggy had pulled up and that the man 
 had his head out at one side of it. He shouted some- 
 thing indistinctly, and motioned with his hand toward 
 our wagon. We imagined, however, that he was 
 angry because we had not turned out farther, and so 
 drove on. 
 
 But a moment later we felt an odd kind of jolt at 
 the rear end of the wagon, then another and another ; 
 and looking hastily back, I saw that the calves were 
 jumping out of the crate behind and running off into 
 the woods, with their tails in the air. 
 
 " Hold up, Ad ! " I shouted. " Stop, quick ! There 
 
« 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 Z 
 ►J 
 
 w 
 a 
 
 H 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 261 
 
 go all those calves! That crate door's come un- 
 hasped ! " 
 
 Addison pulled up short. " Here, Doad, hold the 
 horses ! " he cried, and flung the reins to her. We then 
 both jumped out in the rain and ran back. 
 
 But two more of the calves, five in all, had made 
 their escape before we could reach the rear of the 
 wagon and close the crate door. Three of them had 
 run off on the west side of the road and two on the 
 other — through drenching wet bushes, tall weeds and 
 dripping goldenrod. 
 
 " O bother ! " Addison exclaimed. " Here's a pretty 
 go ! In this awful rain, too ! But we've got to catch 
 them ! " 
 
 There was no help for it; we seized each a halter 
 from under the wagon-seat, and bidding Theodora 
 mind the horses, we dashed off through the wet bushes 
 to recapture those fleeing calves. 
 
 Addison followed the two that had run off on the 
 right side of the road, and I the others on the other 
 side. 
 
 How those little torments ran ! I suppose they were 
 homesick. They coursed away like deer. We were 
 soaked to our skins before we had followed them 
 three minutes through the wet weeds and bushes. 
 
 Fortunately they kept bleating as 'they ran, — at 
 least, those which I was chasing did so, — and know- 
 ing that they must be recaptured at any cost, I ran on, 
 and finally came up with my' three at a fence, border- 
 ing the woodland on that side. 
 
 They could run no farther in that direction; and 
 here, after not a little coaxing and calling, I threw 
 my halter about the neck of one of them, and then 
 started to drag him back to the wagon. 
 
 Any one who has ever attempted to lead a vigorous 
 calf which resists at every step can easily surmise what 
 a task this proved through half a mile of bushy wood- 
 land, with the rain coming down in sheets. 
 
262 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 At last I reached the road and the wagon, where 
 Theodora sat waiting patiently. Addison had not re- 
 turned, and a new difficulty now beset me. I could not 
 tend the crate door and put the calf back into it alone, 
 he was so heavy and strong. 
 
 Like the helpful cousin she always proved, Theo- 
 dora got down in the mud and rain, and insisted on 
 adding her own strength to mine. We tied the recal- 
 citrant little brute's legs, and then, between us, hoisted 
 him into the crate and made the door fast. 
 
 I then set off again, found the two others still 
 bleating at the fence, and after another tussle, secured 
 them, one at one end of the halter, the other at the 
 other. But the troubles I had getting the two back 
 to the wagon at once were ten times worse than those 
 of the first trip. The little rascals seemed possessed 
 to run in opposite directions; and as often as we 
 came to a tree, one was sure to run to one side of it, 
 the other to the other. 
 
 The only redeeming feature was that the violent 
 exertion kept me warm in my wet clothes. I must 
 have been two hours getting those calves back to the 
 road. 
 
 Theodora, indeed, had grown uneasy for my safety, 
 but she was even more concerned about Addison ; for 
 nothing had been seen or heard from him since he 
 first set off in the woods on the east side of the road. 
 
 " I am really afraid he is lost," Theodora said to 
 me, as she again got down to help put the last two 
 calves in the crate. 
 
 I thought it more likely, however, that on this side 
 the calves had come to no fences which restrained 
 their vagrant flight, and had run off to a great dis- 
 tance. 
 
 It seemed useless to follow after him. I got into the 
 wagon again under the umbrella, and we waited for 
 a long time, the horses standing there disconsolately 
 in the driving rain; for it was now pouring harder 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 263 
 
 than ever, if that were possible. Not a soul was stir- 
 ring on the highway. 
 
 I should think we sat there for fully two hours, till 
 long past noon, certainly, but no Addison appeared. 
 
 Theodora then said that we must try to find him; 
 but after my experience in the wet underbrush, I was 
 by no means desirous of entering the dripping woods 
 again. Snug as we sat under the umbrella, I was now 
 shivering with cold ; wet clothes on a raw, stormy day 
 are very depressing to one's courage. 
 
 The prospect of reaching Portland that day had 
 now grown dim, indeed; and the six hungry calves 
 in the crate were making the woodland reecho to their 
 loud complaints of man's injustice. 
 
 " Oh, why doesn't Addison come ? " Theodora 
 sighed, occasionally. " Something surely has hap- 
 pened to him." 
 
 " No," I argued. " He has had to chase those 
 calves for miles, and is having no end of trouble, 
 catching them and leading them back. He wouldn't 
 come back without them, you know, if it took him all 
 day. Ad is that kind of a fellow." 
 
 We sat there for at least an hour longer, watching 
 and listening for some sign or sound of his return. 
 Theodora then began very quietly to get down from 
 the wagon. 
 
 " You are wet and cold," she said. " Hold the 
 horses. I am going to see if I can find him." 
 
 Of course no boy born in America would sit still and 
 see a girl start off under such circumstances as those. 
 I jumped down and set off as fast as I could through 
 the woodland in the direction in which I had seen 
 Addison disappear. Immediately I came to swampy 
 ground and a brook, but crossed the latter and ran on 
 for about a mile. I soon became drenched again, but 
 grew warm from the exercise. 
 
 At last I came to partially open land, and hastening 
 on for some distance farther among witch-hazel 
 
264 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 clumps and young pines, sighted an old weathered 
 barn, and near it a low, even more dilapidated house, 
 the windows and doors of which had been removed — 
 evidently a deserted farm. 
 
 On coming into plainer view of it, however, I no- 
 ticed that smoke was rising from the squat old chim- 
 ney. 
 
 Here, at last, was some one of whom I could inquire, 
 I thought; perhaps Addison himself might be there; 
 and I hastened forward, moving round through the 
 thick pines toward the front side of the barn. 
 
 I had approached within a few rods, when very dis- 
 tinctly I heard a coarse imprecation, followed by a loud 
 laugh and the words : 
 
 " Mut has cut his fingers ! " 
 
 The oath, the tones, caused me to pull up short, then 
 go forward more cautiously, keeping out of sight 
 among the little pines. On the front side the great 
 door of the barn was open, and just inside stood four 
 swarthy, rough-looking fellows, engaged in skinning 
 the carcass of a calf, which hung, suspended by the 
 hind legs, to the cross-beam over the door. 
 
 From the first instant I felt sure that this was one 
 of our calves ; moreover, as they pulled the skin away, 
 I saw that it was a grizzly Durham, just like ours. 
 
 But what did it all mean ? Why were they butcher- 
 ing our calf, and where was Addison? 
 
 My first impulse was to go forward and ask about 
 it. But a second glance at the men made me hesitate ; 
 they were evil-looking fellows, resembling Gipsies or 
 tramps. A sensation of fear stole over me. Where 
 could Addison possibly be? 
 
 I stood there for some minutes, watching the men 
 cut up the carcass of the calf. Presently I heard a calf 
 bleat ; and the sound appeared to come from the direc- 
 tion of the old house, as if the animal were shut up 
 inside it. Clearly our other calf was not far away. 
 
 A moment later a woman appeared in the doorway 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 265 
 
 of the house, and cried, " Ahoo-yeh! Moona-la! " or 
 words which sounded like that, to the men at the barn ; 
 and one of them responded gruffly, " Na-la-yeh! " 
 This woman was quite as dark of skin and as unkempt 
 as the men. A very muddy wagon with three seats 
 and a much-soiled flapping canvas top stood in the 
 yard before the house. 
 
 I went hastily round through the pines to a point 
 where I could get a better view of the house door. 
 From the voices I judged that there were several 
 women inside. , 
 
 The necessity of learning something more definite 
 as to what had become of Addison forced itself upon 
 me, and still keeping out of sight in the bushes, I went 
 round to the east side of the house, crossing a little- 
 used road, and then approached in the rear of it. I 
 wanted to see if Addison were really there and if that 
 was our other calf indoors. 
 
 I could not get near without showing myself, how- 
 ever; but while watching and listening, I saw one of 
 the men go to the house with a quarter of the calf. 
 The three others proceeded to the wagon, carrying the 
 calf-skin and the rest of the veal; then all four went 
 indoors. 
 
 I hung round for some minutes, at a loss what to do. 
 I could hear a frying-pan sizzling, and loud conversa- 
 tion, and I strained my ears to catch the sound of 
 Addison's voice. 
 
 I was much frightened, but something must be done, 
 I thought, and at last, mustering all my courage, I 
 marched up to the doorway and knocked. 
 
 I had to knock twice, they were making so much 
 noise inside. The voices then ceased suddenly, and a 
 woman looked out from an inner room, but drew back. 
 Two of the men appeared in her place. 
 
 " Good afternoon ! " I said. " Have you seen two 
 veal calves and a young man searching for them ? " 
 
 They may not have understood me. They did not 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 reply, but exchanged a word together, then came 
 slowly through the room toward me in a stealthy and 
 catlike manner. 
 
 Before they had taken three steps, I turned and ran. 
 
 With a shout they rushed forth and gave chase, but 
 I cut round the barn, gained the young pines beyond, 
 then tacked to the right and scudded away, keeping out 
 of their sight. I heard them coming after me, but ran 
 on tiptoe myself, and kept tacking from them. In the 
 course of a few moments I threw them off my track 
 altogether, then sped back through the woods to our 
 wagon. 
 
 Poor Theodora still sat there, holding the reins — 
 the image of patience and anxiety. Seeing me burst 
 forth, breathless, from the woods, she rose up sud- 
 denly under the umbrella. 
 
 "What is it? Oh, what is it?" she cried. 
 " Haven't you found Ad? " 
 
 I sprang up beside her, seized the reins, and started 
 the horses. " We must drive on to the nearest houses 
 and get help," I said. " There are some very bad 
 people over yonder! They have killed one of our 
 calves and got the other shut up ! " 
 
 " But Addison, where is he ? " Theodora exclaimed, 
 now nearly in tears. 
 
 " I don't know where he is," I replied. " I haven't 
 seen him." I did not like to tell her all I had seen, 
 but put the horses at a fast trot through the mud and 
 the pouring rain. 
 
 Meanwhile Addison was having a curious experi- 
 ence. 
 
 When the calves escaped from the crate, he had 
 followed fast after the two that ran off into the woods 
 on the east side of the road. The homesick little 
 creatures went bounding away like deer, and trying 
 hard to keep them in sight, Addison had run after 
 them, halter in hand. Like myself, he was soon 
 drenched by the wet bushes and rain. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 267 
 
 The calves raced on, and presently reached the partly 
 open land beyond the woods. Here Addison lost trace 
 of them among the young pines, and searched about 
 for some time. The calves, however, had gone on and 
 come to the old barn and deserted house, previously 
 mentioned, where, as it chanced, this vagrant party 
 of Gipsies or tramps had found shelter from the storm. 
 
 At last, hearing one of the calves bleat at a distance, 
 Addison again hastened on, and soon came in sight of 
 the old buildings. What he saw there gave him much 
 pleasure. Four men and two or three women and a 
 boy were out in the rain, surrounding and capturing 
 the calves, one of which the men led into the barn, 
 while the women coaxed and dragged the other into 
 the house. 
 
 It struck Addison that they were rather queer-look- 
 ing people; but that they should have turned out in 
 the rain to secure stray calves seemed a kind act for 
 which he felt inclined to thank them heartily. Before 
 he could go forward, however, the men went from the 
 barn to the house, and the whole party was inside, 
 talking excitedly, when he reached the open doorway 
 and knocked. 
 
 One of the men appeared, and when Addison bade 
 him good morning, replied, " Gooda morn! " but in a 
 rather surly tone. 
 
 "I am much obliged to you for catching my 
 calves ! " Addison said. " They got away from me 
 over on the main road. I will put a halter on them and 
 take them off. Shall I come in and get the one that's 
 in the house here ? " 
 
 The man hesitated, but drew back, as if assenting. 
 Addison, therefore, entered and followed the man 
 through the front room to a back room, where the 
 others of the party, men and women, were gathered 
 about the calf. Addison also noticed that they had 
 opened the door leading down a flight of stairs to the 
 cellar of the house, and it occurred to him that when 
 
268 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 he knocked they had been on the point of putting the 
 calf down into the cellar. 
 
 The whole swarthy party stood regarding him 
 keenly, in silence ; nor did any of them respond when 
 Addison nodded and' bade them good morning. _ In 
 fact, he did not at all like their looks or their behavior, 
 but he stepped forward to the calf and began tying 
 the halter about its neck. 
 
 Then, quick as a flash, one of the women, standing 
 behind him, threw a wet shawl over his head and held 
 it there with both arms round his neck. 
 
 Addison jumped forward and struggled hard to 
 throw the shawl and the woman off ; but she held him 
 tight. The others laid hold of him. He was hustled 
 backward, pushed hard, and the next instant he pitched 
 headlong down the cellar stairs and fell into a puddle 
 of water below. 
 
 There he tore the shawl off his head, but at the same 
 instant heard the cellar door slam, and found himself 
 in utter darkness. It was one of those old farmhouses 
 the cellars of which were banked up every autumn with 
 earth or turf. Not a ray of light penetrated the place, 
 and there appeared to be six inches or more of stag- 
 nant water on the cellar bottom. He found the stairs, 
 and rushing up, attempted to force open the door. His 
 captors, however, were now making the door fast, and 
 greeted his efforts to break out with derisive shouts 
 and much laughter. 
 
 At last he gave up and sat down on the cellar stairs. 
 What to do he did not know. In fact, there was noth- 
 ing he could do, save sit there and bear it — and there 
 he was sitting all the while that I was capturing my 
 three calves, and afterward, while I was reconnoitering 
 the old house. 
 
 Meanwhile the vagrants slaughtered and dressed 
 one of the calves. They probably intended to 
 slaughter the other, so as to take the veal with them 
 when they left the place. What they meant to do 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 269 
 
 with Addison, ultimately, can only be conjectured. 
 They probably intended to keep him a prisoner till 
 they had secured the calves and gone on. In the cellar 
 of a deserted house like that he might have remained 
 undiscovered for a day or two, and perhaps perished 
 there, for the road which led past those old buildings 
 was now scarcely more than a cart-track through the 
 partly overgrown land, and at this time rarely used. 
 The vagrants might have gone a day's journey on 
 their devious way before any one had found him, or 
 before he could have broken out of the cellar. 
 
 Very likely these strollers were hungry, and the 
 sight of a fat veal calf was a great temptation to them ; 
 certainly they had begun cooking portions of it within 
 five minutes of the time it was slaughtered. 
 
 My appearance on the scene, looking for Addison 
 and the calves, disconcerted them, however, and upset 
 their scheme. From the way they chased me, I sup- 
 pose that they meant to catch me and chuck me into 
 the cellar with Addison. 
 
 Night was at hand, and if they had succeeded, poor 
 Theodora, sitting over there in the rain, holding the 
 horses, would have been in serious plight. And so, 
 indeed, would Ad and I have been, in that dark, foul 
 old cellar ! 
 
 But I had escaped, and now drove on as fast as I 
 could. I felt sure that something had gone wrong 
 with Addison. 
 
 Dread lest he had been murdered fell on me ; but of 
 this I said nothing to Theodora, for she was already 
 much alarmed and very anxious. I kept the horses at 
 a canter, and after about a mile we came to a large 
 farmhouse, known as the Fowler place. 
 
 " We had better stop here overnight if the people 
 will keep us," Theodora said, as I turned in. It was 
 already as late as five o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Seeing strangers in the yard, Mr. Fowler and his 
 wife and two boys came out on the piazza, and when 
 
270 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 we told how far we had come and where we were go- 
 ing, they very kindly invited us to remain with them. 
 
 " Come right in," Mrs. Fowler said to Theodora. 
 " You couldn't get to Portland to-night. Come right 
 in out of this dreadful storm ! " 
 
 The boys ran to open the great doors of the barn, 
 and I drove in with our load. The farmer followed, 
 to help in putting up the horses. 
 
 Once inside, I hastily related what had happened to 
 us, told of Addison's disappearance and described the 
 place where our calf had been slaughtered. 
 
 Mr. Fowler appeared somewhat incredulous at first. 
 He regarded me closely. I fancy he thought I was 
 romancing. Then he looked at the calves in the crate, 
 asked my name and some other questions. 
 
 " The place where you say you lost your calves is 
 the old Yates farm," he remarked. " But nobody has 
 lived there for eight or ten years." 
 
 I urged him to go there with me at once. 
 
 " This is a bad storm to start out in," he replied. 
 Just then, however, Theodora came out to the barn, 
 accompanied by Mrs. Fowler, to whom she also had 
 related our adventure. Mrs. Fowler urged her hus- 
 band to go with us and look into the affair. 
 
 " James," said she, aside to him, " something bad 
 has happened up there." 
 
 One of the boys now put in his word to say that he 
 had seen a covered wagon with two " calico " horses 
 of unusual appearance on that crossroad early in the 
 morning. 
 
 Mr. Fowler still hesitated, as one but half-convinced, 
 and I think it was the well-nigh tearful anxiety in 
 Theodora's honest eyes that induced him to go. I 
 wished him to take a gun, but he laughed. 
 
 " I guess we shall not need to shoot anybody," he 
 said. " This is considered a pretty peaceful place." 
 
 The two boys went with us. They put on thick 
 overcoats and took umbrellas. Theodora also insisted 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 271 
 
 on going, and then, against Mr. Fowler's advice, Mrs. 
 Fowler herself donned her wraps and came out after 
 us. 
 
 The boys led the way across the fields and pastures. 
 We made haste, for it was now nearly night, and after 
 walking a mile and a half or two miles, we came in 
 sight of the Yates farm. No smoke was now rising 
 from the chimney and no wagon stood in front of the 
 house. 
 
 Everything looked very quiet. We went first to the 
 barn, and there saw evidences of the calf having been 
 killed. Somewhat cautiously, Mr. Fowler and I then 
 approached the old house and went in ; but apparently 
 it was quite deserted, although embers still smoldered 
 in the fireplace. 
 
 " Well, somebody has certainly been here to-day," 
 Mr. Fowler said. " I guess they have really made 
 way with your calves. No mistake about that." 
 
 He had no sooner spoken than a strangely muffled 
 voice from somewhere close at hand cried, " Hello ! 
 Hello ! Open the cellar door ! Open the cellar door ! " 
 
 Mr. Fowler was so startled that he turned suddenly, 
 as if to beat a retreat. But I had recognized Addison's 
 voice. Hastening to the back room, I saw the props 
 set against a door, and guessed instantly what had 
 happened. Addison, moreover, continued shouting 
 lustily, " Open the cellar door! " — for he had heard 
 us come in. " Open the cellar door ! Let me out ! Let 
 me out ! " 
 
 Theodora, Mrs. Fowler and the boys came rushing 
 into the house as I was pulling away the props. I 
 had no more than knocked the last one aside when the 
 door flew open and Addison struggled out, very 
 muddy, indeed, and in a sorry condition. 
 
 " Oh, but I'm glad you've come at last ! " were his 
 first words. " I thought nobody ever would come. 
 Those rascals have been gone more than two hours! 
 Something scared them off. They harnessed up and 
 
272 A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 
 
 left in a hurry. I heard them rushing round. But 
 they killed that other calf and put it in their wagon. 
 Then they drove off up the road back of the house." 
 
 Addison was so much exhausted that he had to sit 
 down to recover himself. Theodora stood wiping her 
 eyes, but they were tears of joy and relief, and as for 
 the Fowlers, they were simply astonished. 
 
 " I have lived here for over forty years," the farmer 
 exclaimed, " but I never knew of anything like this 
 before! We must notify the sheriff and have those 
 scamps arrested and punished — if they can be found." 
 
 It was getting dark, but Addison lighted a splinter 
 at the fireplace, and showed us where he had passed 
 the day on the cellar stairs, and he picked up the old 
 shawl and shook it out. 
 
 " That's what the Gipsy woman put over my head," 
 said he, with a grimace. It was a much-soiled old 
 garment, but the fabric was very fine camel's hair, or 
 cashmere. In its day it had been an expensive shawl 
 — stolen, probably, by these vagrants. 
 
 Still it rained, and night came on as we made our 
 way back across the bushy pastures to the Fowler 
 place. The farmer, however, at once hitched up and 
 drove to Gray Corners to notify the sheriff there of 
 what had occurred. But I may say here that the mis- 
 creants were never brought to justice. 
 • The next morning it was still raining, hard as ever, 
 and we gladly accepted the kind invitation of the 
 Fowlers to continue our sojourn with them. In fact, 
 we all three had taken cold and were somewhat the 
 worse for our adventure. Milk, too, by the bucketful 
 had to be procured for those hungry calves. 
 
 The following day was Sunday, and as the storm 
 had not yet abated, we remained there till the weather 
 cleared on Monday. Indeed, we became quite well 
 acquainted with these friends in need — an acquaint- 
 ance which continued very cordially for years after- 
 ward. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 273 
 
 Starting out early on Monday, we reached Portland 
 at eleven o'clock, and passed the night at Uncle 
 Lucas's, much as we had planned. 
 
 Our apparel, however, was the worse for the drench- 
 ings we had suffered, and we did not fail to notice that 
 Aunt Barbara was not proud of our appearance. She 
 was a very good woman, and we liked her; but she 
 considered Uncle Lucas's dry-goods store in Portland 
 immeasurably higher in the social scale than the Old 
 Squire's farm up in Oxford County. Three years 
 later, however, Uncle Lucas was very glad to accept a 
 loan of four thousand dollars, without interest, from 
 the Old Squire to tide his business over the hard times 
 of those years; but I do not think this fact had the 
 least effect on Aunt Barbara's social pride. To the 
 end of her days she continued to look serenely down 
 on us from her fancied social eminence. It must have 
 afforded her a great deal of enjoyment, and I am sure 
 it never injured us. 
 
 To this day, I believe Addison still retains in his 
 possession the old camel's-hair shawl, as a souvenir 
 of the line-storm, and of the vagrant " lady " who 
 held him so tightly round the neck before consigning 
 him to the depths of the cellar at the old Yates place. 
 
 But our load ! We were all the following day trying 
 to dispose of it. Twice Addison gave up in despair, 
 declaring that we would do better to take it home than 
 accept the low prices offered for it. Uncle Lucas was 
 able to aid us but little. Times were so hard that no- 
 body seemed willing to part with money. At what 
 appeared a terrible sacrifice we finally closed out nearly 
 everything, but the socks, mittens, sage and coriander. 
 I think it was but four cents per pound, live weight, 
 that we could get offered for these fine, fat veal calves ; 
 and we had lost two of them! 
 
 We reached home Wednesday night, after an ab- 
 sence of nearly a week, not a little discouraged. The 
 total receipts of the trip were so beggarly that Gram 
 
274 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 scolded in righteous indignation. The Old Squire, 
 too, looked so crestfallen that next day, while gather- 
 ing the last of the early apples, we young folks de- 
 bated the situation seriously. 
 
 " Don't you think, Ad, that perhaps we had better 
 put off going to the Academy this fall ? " Theodora 
 said at last. 
 
 " Well," replied Addison, judicially, " it does look 
 a little as if it might be as well. 
 
 " Mind you," he added, " I am not giving up my 
 plans, or anything like that. But all creation seems 
 to be against us this fall ! " 
 
 " Oh, dear," Ellen lamented, " isn't it discoura- 
 ging?" 
 
 " Ho ! " Halse exclaimed. " Who cares ? I knew 
 all the time we should never make it go." 
 
 For some reason this remark greatly irritated Addi- 
 son. " Did you really know all that? " he exclaimed. 
 " Your wisdom, Halse, will never hurt you. 
 
 " If I live I shall put this through and get an edu- 
 cation," he added, with great determination. 
 
 " Let me know when you do it," retorted Halse. 
 
 But Theodora and Ellen shook hands on a pledge 
 with Addison to go on as soon as the way looked a 
 little clearer, and I joined them in it. 
 
 " I am sure our affairs will brighten by next spring," 
 Theodora said hopefully. 
 
 " And we are going to have Master Pierson back 
 this winter, anyhow," Ellen exclaimed. " That's 
 worth a good deal." 
 
 " Yes, old Joel is a whole team, and a horse to let, 
 besides," cried Addison. " How he will drive us this 
 winter ! " 
 
 " And we still have fifteen dollars left for a private 
 school ! " Theodora added. 
 
 So, despite hard times, " line-storms " and financial 
 stringency, we took courage and put faith in the future. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 Theodora's barrel of Baldwins 
 
 FARM work, meantime, kept us very busy. There 
 was a plentiful apple crop that season, Baldwins 
 especially; for a fortnight we were gathering 
 apples every day until past the middle of October. 
 Fair weather had held, but now there were signs of a 
 change. 
 
 " Just in time, boys, and not an hour to spare," the 
 Old Squire said, when Addison and I drove in from 
 the orchard with the last load of Baldwins. " There's 
 a northeaster coming on ; but we have got ahead of it." 
 
 All the afternoon the sky had been turning lead- 
 colored ; a raw chilliness was in the air ; and as night 
 fell, an owl, over in the wood-lot, began hooting — 
 that dismal, low note that so often presages a storm. 
 
 Owing to the suddenness with which cold weather 
 sometimes came on, apple-picking was never a matter 
 about which we felt secure. It was sometimes a three 
 weeks' job with us, for we rarely got less than four 
 or five hundred barrels from our trees. 
 
 But that year we finished picking just in time, and 
 during the long storm of sleet, wind and rain that 
 followed, we were comfortably packing our crop in the 
 apple-house, with a cheery fire blazing in the fireplace. 
 
 Addison was culler, and had the culling-rack set 
 breast-high, where he could run the apples one by one 
 down a burlap spout into the barrels. Halstead carried 
 the apples from the bins to the rack in a bushel basket. 
 
 The Old Squire always packed his apples with great 
 275 
 
276 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 care. Formerly he had done the culling himself, but 
 for two years he had delegated the task to Addison, 
 whose eyes he found were sharper than his to detect 
 worm-holes, or the little dry spots of "bitter-rot" 
 under the skin. 
 
 I had been promoted to the post of facer, in which 
 my duties were to select fifty or more fine apples for 
 every barrel, and arrange them, stem ends up, in cir- 
 cles, directly beneath each head. 
 
 " But I want every barrel of apples that goes from 
 our farm to be an honest barrel," the Old Squire used 
 to say to us. " Put just as good apples in the middle 
 of the barrel as you do at the heads." 
 
 He himself was header. After Addison had culled 
 and filled the barrel, and I had faced it, the Old Squire 
 loosened the top hoops, forced the head down into the 
 groove of the chimes with a clamp and screw, then 
 nailed it in place. The name of the packer, together 
 with the variety and the grade of the fruit, was then 
 stenciled on the head. Then the barrel was ready to 
 go forth into the world's market — over the sea to 
 Liverpool, or west to St. Louis, or even to California. 
 
 When the apples were very good, the Old Squire 
 was accustomed to send a number of carefully packed 
 barrels of Baldwins to old friends and acquaintances 
 at a distance. Nearly always he sent one to " Uncle 
 Hannibal " Hamlin, who was then Senator from 
 Maine. Mr. Hamlin's early home was but a few miles 
 from the old farm. He and the Old Squire had been 
 boyhood friends and fellow students at Hebron Acad- 
 emy. 
 
 The Senator now lived at Bangor, when he was not 
 at Washington ; but he was wont to drive over to call 
 on us whenever he revisited his native county. It was 
 with Uncle Hannibal that we young people partook of 
 the fried pies one day when the Old Squire and Gram 
 were away from, home. 
 
 I need hardly say that Senator Hamlin's barrel was 
 
THAT BARREL OF BALDWINS. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OE OtJR LIVES %i1 
 
 a particularly good one. As a return courtesy, he used 
 to send us the Congressional Record and all the more 
 interesting government reports. 
 
 From fifty to sixty barrels a. day were as many as 
 we could pack. Ellen and Theodora sometimes came 
 out to help cull and face, or put on the stencil. Alto- 
 gether it was work that we liked, for generally we 
 had a row of apples set to roast at the fireplace. Some- 
 times, too, Ellen would bring out a pitcher of syrup, 
 and fry buckwheat cakes. 
 
 On the second day of the storm the Old Squire put 
 up his friends' barrels, as we called them. Theodora 
 helped him select fine apples for Uncle Hannibal. They 
 put in a few Northern Spys, some Rhode Island 
 Greenings, for mince pies, and half a bushel of large 
 Roxbury Russets at the bottom, for these will keep 
 till spring. 
 
 But presently I noticed that Theodora grew silent 
 and thoughtful. At last she said, " Grandfather, 
 would you be willing to let me pack a barrel of our 
 Baldwins to send to that Virginia family, near Chan- 
 cellorsville, who took my father into their house after 
 the battle, and were so kind to him the day he died ? " 
 
 This family was named Revell. They had cared for 
 Uncle Robert as if he had been one of their own men. 
 At that time they had no means of communicating with 
 us ; but after the war, Miss Cecilia Revell wrote to us, 
 and sent Uncle Robert's watch, pocketbook and two 
 ambrotypes of his wife and little daughter Theodora. 
 
 " Why, yes," the Old Squire said, after a moment, 
 in answer to Theodora's question. " But do you sup- 
 pose it would be well received from us ? The Revells 
 have suffered from the war, and may not feel kindly 
 toward us." 
 
 " Oh, I am sure they would accept it. That was a 
 kind letter that Miss Revell wrote us. Oh, I should 
 so like to send them something, something of the very 
 best we have ! " 
 
278 A GREAT YEAR OE OUR LIVES 
 
 " You shall, then! You shall! " the Old Squire ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 That afternoon we helped Theodora pack the barrel 
 of Baldwins to go to Virginia. We put in also a few 
 Northern Spys, Greenings, Sponge Russets, Roxbury 
 Russets, Gilliflowers, Spitzenbergs, and last, but far 
 from least, half a bushel of what we called " Orange- 
 specks " — because, when ripe, they were yellowish in 
 color, with numerous little brown specks under the 
 skin. 
 
 We had four Orange-speck trees. The apples were 
 broad and rather flat, with a strong stem, and from 
 sixteen to twenty-four very plump brown seeds. They 
 were mellow and good in December and January, and 
 of all the thirty varieties in the Old Squire's orchard, 
 we deemed those from the Orange-speck tree by the 
 garden wall the best. 
 
 The girls carefully wrapped each Orange-speck in 
 light-blue tissue-paper, put them in the middle of the 
 barrel, and among them laid an envelope, with a card 
 on which Theodora had written : 
 
 " From the daughter and nephews of the Union 
 soldier whom you so kindly cared for after the dread- 
 ful battle of Chancellorsville. 
 
 " These apples grew on the farm of his parents, in 
 Maine." 
 
 We faced and headed the barrel, and a day or two 
 later drew it to the railway-station, and sent it on its 
 way. 
 
 As much as a month passed. Then, on the day be- 
 fore Thanksgiving, a letter came for Theodora, a 
 really beautiful letter. It was from Miss Cecilia 
 Revell. Theodora shed tears over it. She kept it for 
 years, and it would still be treasured but for the fire 
 in 1883, which destroyed the old farmhouse, and with 
 it, a thousand such little keepsakes. Miss Revell wrote 
 in part: 
 
 " What we did for your father was only what I am 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 279 
 
 sure you would have done for any Confederate soldier 
 in distress near your home. 
 
 " These are delicious apples, particularly those yel- 
 low ones with the little specks in them. In Albemarle 
 County there is a fine apple, called the Albemarle Pip- 
 pin, which is somewhat like them, but yours have the 
 finer flavor. My brother, who deals in fruit at Rich- 
 mond, is very desirous to know the name of these 
 yellow apples, and if you grow many of them in 
 Maine." 
 
 The letter concluded by saying that Miss Revell and 
 her brother were sending us a return offering of some- 
 thing which grew in Virginia. 
 
 A few days later we were notified from the railway- 
 station that a barrel had arrived for us. Theodora 
 and Addison hitched up old Sol at once, and drove to 
 get it. 
 
 It proved to be a barrel of the finest sweet potatoes 
 we had ever seen. Down in the barrel was a box con- 
 taining two kinds of queer yellow fruit, new to us 
 young Northerners. Addison and the Old Squire 
 guessed what they were — persimmons and papaws, 
 yellow, soft, and just right for eating. 
 
 This pleasant exchange of Maine and Virginia 
 products was continued for a number of years. In 
 1872 Theodora visited the Revells, and was royally 
 entertained; and the year following, Miss Revell and 
 her sister Arabella spent a month with us, and a de- 
 lightful visit it proved. It was from them that we 
 learned how to make two of our now most-prized 
 breakfast dishes, " old Virginia egg pone " and 
 " spider cake." 
 
 In the Old Dominion they have plain corn-meal 
 pones and egg pones. When made right and baked 
 right, both are delicious. Of course, much depends on 
 the skill of the maker, and not a little on the corn-meal. 
 
 But a real yellow-tinted Indian spider cake, with the 
 eggs nicely omeletted, seasoned, and cooked half-way 
 
280 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 between the upper and under crusts — well, there's 
 nothing like it as a breakfast dish. The young ladies 
 from Virginia taught us the art. 
 
 Theodora's barrel of apples was indirectly the cause 
 of a considerable demand from Richmond for our 
 Baldwins. The people there, through Mr. Revell, 
 learned that we shipped good fruit; and one year the 
 Old Squire sent a hundred barrels there. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 SPRANGLE - LEGS 
 
 AFTER apple harvest came the late fall ploughing, 
 although the ground had already begun to 
 freeze nights. 
 
 It was at about this time that the Old Squire became 
 much interested in a new farming project. For a num- 
 ber of evenings he figured away steadily at it but said 
 little. Gram, however, grew uneasy and evidently 
 had misgivings; she was very apprehensive as to the 
 Old Squire's ambitious new departures in business. 
 
 This time the new departure was hop-raising. A 
 sudden demand for hops had risen throughout the 
 country. Many of our older readers will remember 
 it. Eighty cents, and even a dollar, a pound was paid 
 for hops. Fortunes bade fair to come from the new 
 crop, and the Old Squire — along with many other 
 Maine farmers — had resolved to embark in it, and to 
 put in six acres the following spring. 
 
 It was then that the question of hop-poles arose. Not 
 far from two thousand poles to the acre are required. 
 Cedar is best for this purpose, and the poles need to 
 be about fifteen feet in length. 
 
 But twelve thousand hop-poles of the right size are 
 not everywhere procurable. Up in the Great Woods, 
 however, five miles from the old farm, in a swamp 
 bordering Sheepskin Pond, there was just what was 
 wanted in the way of cedar; and early in November 
 that fall, after the swamp had frozen, all hands went 
 up there to get out those hop-poles. A little log camp 
 was rolled up near the pond shore, a " bean-hole " dug, 
 
 281 
 
282 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 a " pudding-oven " built, and best of all, Theodora 
 and Ellen went along with us, to cook our meals and 
 make things cheery. 
 
 As fast as we cut the poles we brought them to- 
 gether, so as to have them handy to haul home after 
 snow came; and as days passed, long piles of poles, 
 seven or eight feet high, were stacked up round the 
 camp. What appetites we had there, too, in that crisp, 
 cold air, and how good it seemed to come into camp 
 at night, when the bean-hole was uncovered and the 
 pudding-oven was opened! There were deer about 
 the swamp, and we boys wished very much to hunt 
 them and have some venison; but one cannot cut a 
 hundred hop-poles a day and hunt, too. 
 
 Beautiful, clear Indian-summer weather prevailed 
 for four days, but on the fifth day there came a change. 
 A thin white haze gathered high in the sky, and a halo 
 formed about the sun. 
 
 The Old Squire, who had been counting up the piles 
 of poles, cast his weather-eye round. 
 
 " There's a snow-storm coming soon," he said. 
 " We shall have to go down home to-night. We must 
 get in the young cattle, drive the sheep down to the 
 barns, and make things snug for winter." 
 
 " Shall we go, too ? " Ellen asked. 
 
 " You wouldn't want to stay up here alone over- 
 night, would you ? " the old gentleman asked her. 
 " There is no real danger, if you would not be lone- 
 some," he added. 
 
 "I'll stay if Doad will!" Ellen exclaimed. 
 
 Theodora seemed a little reluctant, but it was such 
 a long, hard tramp home through the woods that she 
 concluded it was better for them to remain. " But you 
 will surely be back to-morrow forenoon," she said, a 
 little anxiously. 
 
 Aside from the lonesomeness, however, none of us 
 thought there was any danger. Wolves and panthers 
 had even then wholly disappeared from the Maine 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 283 
 
 forests; and as for bears, the most of them were al- 
 ready in their winter dens. It seemed better for the 
 girls to stay and keep camp than to tramp home and 
 back. Addison rigged a bar for the camp door ; there 
 was a candlestick and candles. Halstead and I brought 
 in several big armfuls of dry wood, and we bade them 
 good night and left them. 
 
 We went home, and till long after dark were busy 
 at the barns by lantern-light. Winter was evidently 
 at hand, and there was much to do. The sky had be- 
 come completely overcast, and that chill, dead, stony 
 silence was in the air which presages a snowfall in 
 Maine. 
 
 In the meantime, at the camp up in the woods, the 
 evening was proving an eventful one. By four o'clock 
 it had grown dusk. The girls fastened their door, 
 then lighted a candle and prepared their supper. 
 
 From the first both felt rather lonely. Now and 
 then either Ellen or Theodora would go to the door to 
 peep out and listen. Not a breath of air stirred the 
 cedars. It was one of those utterly silent nights in 
 November, so still that even the faint tinkling of the 
 new ice, forming along the pond shore, came to their 
 ears. 
 
 Then, suddenly, loud, uncouth bellowings arose at 
 a distance in the swamp. 
 
 "Now what can that be?" Ellen exclaimed. "It 
 sounds like a cow, only wilder." 
 
 They heard it several times; and a little later they 
 heard some large animal or animals coming along the 
 pond shore. 
 
 Ten or fifteen minutes passed, when from the other 
 side of the swamp a prodigious crashing of the under- 
 growth began, accompanied by short, fierce snorts. 
 These drew an immediate response from directly 
 across the pond, and were followed a moment later by 
 loud splashings, which seemed to come nearer every 
 moment. 
 
28-4 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " It must be moose," Theodora said. 
 
 What followed was sufficiently alarming to startle 
 even an experienced woodsman. The moose that was 
 swimming across the arm of the pond opposite the 
 camp floundered ashore with a hoarse snort, and at 
 almost the same instant the one the girls had first 
 heard came rushing through the swamp from the other 
 side. 
 
 With a clash of their antlers, the two forest giants 
 met among the thick cedars. To the alarmed girls it 
 seemed as if the animals were beating down the whole 
 swamp, and might at any moment overrun the little 
 camp. Round and about they circled, and went crash- 
 ing up and down the pond shore. After a few mo- 
 ments, however, one appeared to have worsted the 
 other, and either pushed or pursued him to a distance, 
 the defeated one turning at bay here and there, when 
 again the clash of antlers would be heard. 
 
 Yet even above the din of conflict the girls heard 
 plaintive bleating notes, and at last dimly discerned 
 two or three shadowy forms huddled among the piles 
 of cedar poles close to the camp. Moose appeared to 
 be all round them. 
 
 There was quiet for a time. Then the battle was 
 suddenly renewed, the combatants coming headlong 
 among the piles of poles, bounding over them, scatter- 
 ing poles as if they had been jack-straws. Down 
 crashed pile after pile, some of the poles flying against 
 the camp, and even lodging on the roof. 
 
 The rush soon passed, however, the fighters going 
 off as suddenly as they had approached. But dis- 
 tressed outcries were now heard close at hand. 
 
 " Some of them got hurt, I guess," Ellen whispered; 
 but neither she nor Theodora dared to open the door. 
 
 The notes of distress continued, and the fight now 
 having passed to a distance, .Theodora unfastened the 
 door and peered forth. Hop-poles lay aslant and criss- 
 cross in every direction. The girls went out with a 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 285 
 
 candle, and saw a small black and gray animal half- 
 buried by the poles of a pile which had fallen on it. 
 
 For some time they were too much alarmed to at- 
 tempt anything for the relief of the animal; but at 
 last, while Theodora held the candle, Ellen attempted 
 to pull away the poles. 
 
 It was a moose calf. 
 
 Even after the poles were pulled away, the little 
 creature was unable to get up. One of its long gray 
 fore legs was broken. Whenever they approached, it 
 bleated frantically; and fearful lest the cow moose 
 might return, the girls retired into the camp. 
 
 They were not disturbed further, and that was the 
 condition of affairs there in the cedar swamp when we 
 returned the next morning. The sky was darkly over- 
 cast. It had snowed a little. Addison and I were 
 ahead of the others; and when we came in sight of 
 the camp, we did not know what to think. On all 
 sides the great piles of hop-poles were knocked down. 
 Poles lay every which way. The camp seemed half 
 buried by them ; and never shall I forget the sense of 
 horror that fell on me as we approached — for through 
 the thin film of snow I caught sight of faint blood- 
 stains where the moose had fought and gored each 
 other. 
 
 Addison, too, had stopped short and stood staring 
 around. He was quite white. " Something awful has 
 happened ! " he whispered. Then, throwing aside the 
 poles, we made a rush to the camp door — only to find 
 the girls smiling and all right inside. 
 
 Breathlessly they related what had happened. We 
 then examined the moose calf, still lying there helpless. 
 The others now came up ; and the Old Squire thought 
 it would be more merciful to put the disabled creature 
 out of its misery at once. Addison, however, wished 
 to set its leg with splints, as is sometimes done in the 
 case of lambs and little colts with broken legs. After 
 a fashion this was accomplished, and we afterward 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 put the little moose in a sling, so that its feet would 
 not touch the ground. In this position it was fed and 
 watered. It would eat apples; merely the odor of an 
 apple would set it wagging its stubby tail. 
 
 A week later, when we had finished cutting poles 
 there, we hauled the moose calf home on a horse-sled, 
 and slung it up again for a month or more in a stall 
 at the west barn. Gradually its leg knit, but our splint 
 had become displaced several times; and altogether, 
 our rude surgery proved rather a bad job. That left 
 fore leg projected stiffly outward, so that when the 
 animal finally began to walk, it had so odd a gait that 
 the Old Squire nicknamed it Sprangle-Legs. 
 
 A moose calf is a tall, odd-shaped creature, not easy 
 to describe. I only wish I had a photograph of 
 Sprangle-Legs, but we did not have many cameras in 
 those days. His legs were much longer than those 
 of a young colt's, and his body looked disproportion- 
 ately short. His nose and muzzle were relatively huge ; 
 his ears, too, were very large, and black on the outside, 
 but shaded to a pearly soft gray within. This gave 
 him an odd, wild look when he raised them or turned 
 them sidewise. Those ears, indeed, seemed to be con- 
 stantly in motion. Down to his knees his legs were 
 faced in black, but below the knee were a bright drab, 
 as were also the entire under parts of his body. 
 
 While in the sling the girls had made a pet of him, 
 feeding him with apples, and also carrots, of which he 
 was very fond. Whenever they entered the barn, 
 Sprangle-Legs would give forth a peculiar throaty 
 " bla-art," and come sprangling to meet them. One 
 might suppose, perhaps, that a fawn, or a moose calf, 
 being of a wild species, would display shyness and be 
 inclined to escape from captivity. But this is not so. 
 Young deer or moose soon become as tame as cosset 
 lambs. 
 
 Sprangle-Legs had absolutely no fear of human 
 beings, Unless the gates and doors were carefully 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 287 
 
 shut, he would follow the girls tumultously back to 
 the house and come rushing into the kitchen, much to 
 Gram's disgust. We kept him in a pen with four little 
 colts, but he formed a habit — his legs were so long — 
 of stepping over bars. 
 
 In the spring we turned him out to pasture with the 
 four colts. 
 
 Addison thought that he would probably take to the 
 woods as the season advanced, but he did nothing of 
 the sort. He liked domesticated life — particularly 
 apples, carrots and potatoes. He was greedy for salt, 
 too, and for oats, crusts of bread, or anything else from 
 the kitchen. Several times that summer he got out of 
 the pasture and came sprangling to the house; and 
 toward the end of the season we were obliged to put a 
 " yoke " on him — not to prevent him from escaping 
 to the forest, but to keep him away from the house ! 
 
 With the first snows he came down to the barn again 
 with the colts. As nearly as we could guess, he was 
 now about sixteen months old, and had a spike antler 
 coming out, five inches long. His head was now car- 
 ried full six feet high. Whenever he got loose at the 
 barn, he made a rush for the kitchen, and he now 
 pretty nearly filled the kitchen door. Gram did not 
 hesitate to put him to flight with the fire poker; but 
 even that did not prevent him from coming directly 
 back if he smelled an apple. 
 
 Moose have the sense of smell very acutely devel- 
 oped. Sprangle-Legs would track any of us as readily 
 as a dog. Time and again he got loose and followed 
 us when we were going to the post-office or to mill. 
 He would run till he overtook us, but I always thought 
 he followed rather from scent than sight ; his eyesight 
 was far from keen. 
 
 While the winter school was keeping, he broke out 
 one forenoon and came to the schoolhouse. We heard 
 a clatter in the entry outside, and Master Pierson, 
 thinking that some one had come and knocked, opened 
 
288 A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 
 
 the outer door. Instantly, before the astonished mas- 
 ter could stop him, in came Sprangle-Legs with that 
 raucous bla-art of his. I imagine he knew we were 
 there, or else smelled the apples in our lunch-baskets. 
 
 To say there were high times inside that school- 
 house for the next five or ten minutes would be to state 
 it mildly. At last Addison and Ellen and I pushed 
 and pulled him out, toled him home with apples and 
 shut him up again. 
 
 About a month after that, Uncle Lucas and Aunt 
 Barbara Bushnell came up from Portland to visit us, as 
 they usually did in maple-syrup time. They came on 
 the afternoon train, and did not arrive at the farm till 
 evening. 
 
 At breakfast the next morning Addison, who had 
 finished a little ahead of the rest and was in a hurry, 
 went out and left the kitchen door ajar. A few mo- 
 ments later, quite without warning, in rushed 
 Sprangle-Legs. Uncle Lucas and Aunt Barbara had 
 never seen him before, nor heard of him. Beyond 
 doubt they were much startled. 
 
 Uncle Lucas was a nervous man. He jumped up 
 from table, nearly upsetting it. " Stars and mercies ! " 
 he exclaimed. " What sort of beasts do you keep, 
 Joseph?" 
 
 The Old Squire laughed, and Ellen and I made 
 haste to expel the intruder ; but Gram was vexed ; her 
 patience was nearly exhausted. In truth, Sprangle- 
 Legs was getting rather too large and boisterous for 
 a house pet. He was of no earthly use, and a great 
 bother, yet we had grown much attached to him. Al- 
 though an awkward, uncouth creature, his black, 
 brown and gray markings, big, clear eyes and large, 
 soft ears rendered him rather attractive than other- 
 wise. Besides, he was really very fond of us. 
 
 But a few weeks later, in May, another of his es- 
 capades led to our finally getting rid of him. 
 
 The celebration of Memorial Day, as it is at present 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 289 
 
 observed, had not yet begun in Maine, but addresses in 
 remembrance of the dead soldiers were given in many 
 places. On the last Sunday in May, that spring, Mr. 
 James Stone, formerly a chaplain in one of the Maine 
 regiments, delivered a commemorative oration at the 
 old meeting-house two miles from the farm. We all 
 went, except Halstead, who was in one of his moods 
 of discontent that week. Wagon-loads of apple blos- 
 soms, lilacs, wild cherry and pear plum were drawn to 
 the church early in the morning, and the cheerless old 
 interior was converted into a bower of springtide 
 bloom. 
 
 There was a large audience for that place. Memo- 
 ries of the dead were still fresh and poignant. 
 
 Toward the close of the address there was a most 
 unseemly interruption. The day was warm; the 
 doors stood open; and on a sudden a loud clatter at 
 the entrance caused all to turn. 
 
 It was Sprangle-Legs ! Addison and I always sus- 
 pected that Halstead had turned him loose. He dashed 
 in, head aloft, stood still a moment, then, with one of 
 his awful bla-arts, came sprangling down the aisle to 
 the Old Squire's pew, and put his head in. It seemed 
 to me that he banged against every pew door on the 
 way. 
 
 Everybody jumped up. The orator paused in as- 
 tonishment. Confusion and laughter rapidly suc- 
 ceeded to pathos and tears. Poor Gram turned pink 
 from mortification. 
 
 We did the best we could and acted as promptly as 
 possible. Addison seized our obstreperous pet about 
 the neck, and the Old Squire and I helped push and 
 pull him out of the meeting-house as expeditiously as 
 could be done. 
 
 The old gentleman then hastened back indoors to 
 apologize and smooth the matter over, while Addison 
 and I got a nose halter from the wagon and set our- 
 selves to lead Sprangle-Legs home. 
 
290 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 We were an hour or more on the way, and the Old 
 Squire, with Gram and the girls, arrived almost as 
 soon as we did. Gram had not spoken at all, and the 
 girls looked overawed at the extent of the scandal 
 which had befallen. 
 
 It was now pretty plain that some disposition would 
 have to be made of Sprangle-Legs. Addison advised 
 advertising him for sale in the Portland papers. This 
 was done, but not much came of it at first ; yet in the 
 end it led to our swapping Sprangle-Legs for a light 
 wagon, with the keeper of a livery-stable, who had 
 recently bought another young moose, and wished to 
 make up a span to sell to a certain celebrated showman. 
 
 The subsequent history of our old farm pet was 
 eventful. When he was two years old his erratic leg 
 was successfully straightened by another surgical 
 operation, and later he became one of a pair of " trot- 
 ting moose " that travelled extensively with a circus. 
 But this is ahead of my story. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 MY RIDE WITH MARY INEZ 
 
 FOUR or five days later, after we had finished our 
 task of cutting the hop-poles, I had a curious 
 adventure, of a somewhat similar nature to that 
 just recorded. 
 
 Of the Old Squire's lumber camp on Lurvey's 
 Stream, up in the Great Woods, I have already spoken. 
 The loggers had now gone there for their winter's 
 work, cutting spruce; and if the snow had come and 
 laid, as the weather during the first of the month 
 seemed to promise, the teams for hauling the lumber 
 would have been sent up there before this time, and 
 taken their grain for the winter, also the food supply 
 for the men. But there came a week or more of warm 
 days — a kind of belated Indian summer — which 
 carried off what little snow had fallen earlier in the 
 month. 
 
 Hungry loggers who work hard consume rations 
 rapidly; and on the evening of the 13th word was 
 sent down to us at the farm that the camp was running 
 short of food. The stores were already bought and 
 put up, waiting to go with the teams and sleds ; but 
 as the weather continued soft, with the ground still 
 bare, the Old Squire sent me off, next morning, with 
 one yoke of oxen and the two-wheeled cart, to pick my 
 way up to camp, and haul a load of supplies. The dis- 
 tance was nearly twenty miles, much of the way 
 through the woods ; and as oxen are slow, a day was 
 required for the journey to the camp, and another to 
 return home. 
 
 291 
 
292 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 The road was about as bad as a road can be — a 
 mere trail, never much used till after snow came. 
 
 I had three bushels of white beans, two barrels of 
 pork, a barrel of flour, a ten-gallon keg of molasses, 
 four bushels of Indian meal in two bags, a two-gallon 
 keg of vinegar, two barrels of cooking apples and one 
 of eating apples, four bushels of potatoes, four of tur- 
 nips, half a barrel of sugar, two boxes of salt, and 
 some other articles, besides half a dozen axes, three 
 peevies and two steel wedges — altogether about a ton 
 in weight, but well packed in the cart body and securely- 
 lashed on account of the rough road. 
 
 It was not deemed a hazardous trip for me. Old 
 Bright and Broad were used to carting. They were 
 two eight-year-old Durham cattle, seven feet and four 
 inches in girth, and steady as clocks. However rough 
 the road, they could be depended on to move calmly 
 and slowly. In fact, they were rather too slow; two 
 miles an hour was about 'their natural rate of travel, 
 unless they were hastened with the goad. 
 
 I was given an early start from home, stopping only 
 for a half-hour to bait by the roadside. I reached the 
 camp just at dusk, and was hailed with delight by the 
 eighteen loggers there. 
 
 In prudence, I should have started on my return 
 trip before sunrise the next morning; but after break- 
 fast I was tempted to go off with two of the younger 
 loggers to see a beaver house at a pond in a stream, 
 some distance from camp. We lay in wait here for 
 two hours, hoping to get sight of the beavers ; and 
 with one delay and another, it was noon before I yoked 
 my team and made a start. 
 
 I now found that I was to have a passenger in the 
 cart, the wife of one of the loggers, who had come up 
 to the camp on foot during the forenoon from their 
 house, fourteen miles below, to bring her laboring hus- 
 band his winter supply of socks and knit leggings. 
 As there was no place for her to stay overnight, she 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 293 
 
 had to return that afternoon; and as she was tired 
 from her long walk, I could do no less than offer her 
 transportation, if she deemed riding in the cart over 
 that rough road easier than walking — a subject for 
 doubt. 
 
 She decided to ride, and her husband, having found 
 a half-barrel for her to sit on, asked me to drive very 
 carefully. The affectionate manner in which he then 
 took leave of his dear " Mary Inez " — as he fre- 
 quently called her — impressed my youthful mind with 
 a high sense of her preciousness. 
 
 We had not proceeded far when we began to have 
 music. The previous morning some one, whose duty 
 it was, had forgotten to " grease the cart," that is, to 
 lubricate the large wooden axle of the wheels. It had 
 not run dry during the outward trip ; but now it began 
 to call out piercingly for grease. 
 
 The massive wheels had great wooden fellies and 
 huge hubs, such as the pioneer wheelwright was ac- 
 customed to hew out fifty years ago. The axle, or 
 " ex," as the farmers called it, required frequent ap- 
 plications of lard. 
 
 I knew very well what the matter was. But there 
 was no help for it now, so I drove on. There was no 
 danger that the wooden axle would heat or choke, but 
 the sounds that issued from it were horrible. 
 
 Groo-ooo-oo-cce-czv-czv-aw-oook! Groo-ooo-oo-eee- 
 ezv-eiv-azv-oook ! at every revolution. It soon became 
 about as much as the human ear could endure. 
 
 I had driven slowly to spare my passenger the jolts. 
 But the sky had been growing overcast since morning, 
 and now the certainty of rain led me to hasten our 
 progress with the goad. 
 
 This proved rash, for immediately an unusually hard 
 jounce over a log threw the woman off her seat. Fall- 
 ing forward, she struck her nose on the rail of the cart 
 body, with the result that the blood began to flow. 
 
 She got out of the cart and sat down on a stone, 
 
294 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 and a very distressful interval followed. About all I 
 could do for her was to fetch cold water in my bucket 
 from a rill at a distance, and then look on. It seemed 
 to me that she must surely bleed to death. The hem- 
 orrhage continued for nearly an hour. I thought it 
 would never stop, and was filled with panic. If she 
 bled to death there, I was afraid that her husband 
 might accuse me of maltreating her, for I felt a little 
 guilty because I had driven the cart so fast. 
 
 The flow of blood stopped at last, and looking very 
 pale and dishevelled, the woman got into the cart again. 
 The oxen, meanwhile, had lain down in the yoke, and 
 were chewing their cuds. 
 
 We went on. But it was not long before sleet began 
 to fall, the beginning of one of those southerly storms 
 which in that part of the country often come on in the 
 afternoon, increasing in violence during the evening 
 and night. Evening, in fact, was at hand, for at this 
 season of the year the afternoons are short. 
 
 Passing an opening where several haystacks had 
 been put up for the lumber camps, I stopped, and bring- 
 ing large armfuls of the hay, piled it high about my 
 passenger's seat, to keep Mary Inez from bumping her 
 precious nose again. As the wayside was very brushy, 
 I now took up my own position on the cart tongue, 
 where I could hold on by the " sword " at the front 
 end of the cart body, and hastened old Bright and 
 Broad on with frequent pricks from my goad. 
 
 At best, however, we could proceed only at a walk 
 — and with every turn of the wheels that long, loud 
 and dismal Groo-ooo-oo-eee-ezv-ew-aiv-oook! went 
 echoing through the forest. 
 
 Cloudy nights in November are always very dark, 
 but I do not believe that ever a darker one than this 
 descended. 
 
 I had a whale-oil lantern, which we always carried 
 when out with a team ; and lighting it, I tied it by the 
 ring to the top of the sword, whence it cast a feeble 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 295 
 
 light on the hacks of the oxen and on the wan face 
 of my passenger in the cart. 
 
 We went squeaking and bumping on our way for 
 two or three miles more, the oxen keeping the road 
 from an instinct which cattle have, rather than from 
 sense of sight. 
 
 Owls hooted, as they often do before storms; and 
 once the oxen stopped short and were very reluctant 
 to go on, probably from scenting a bear in the road 
 ahead. 
 
 Shortly afterward we forded a brook, and then the 
 woman knew where we were. 
 
 ' Tis three miles from here home. We'll soon be 
 there," said she, and became more cheerful. 
 
 She had been anxious concerning her three small 
 children, left in the care of their grandfather, an old 
 hunter and Maine woods guide. 
 
 But the worst of our adventures was still to come. 
 As we plodded up the ascending ground beyond the 
 brook. I heard a loud snort behind us, and above the 
 squeaking of the cart caught the sound of hoofs splash- 
 ing through the brook. 
 
 " Somebody's coming! " exclaimed the woman. In- 
 deed, my first thought was that a man on horseback 
 was galloping after us, although to gallop a horse over 
 such a road in such darkness would have been a feat 
 worthy of The Wild Huntsman himself. 
 
 In a moment the sounds of galloping came close up 
 behind us, and I shouted, " Hello, there ! Wait a bit 
 and TT1 turn out! " and jumped down to execute the 
 promise. 
 
 But with another wild snort of his horse, the rider 
 turned and went galloping back down the hill to the 
 brook and across it. 
 
 " My goodness! " cried the woman. " He must be 
 crazy ! " I thought so, too; moreover, I was mystified, 
 and began to be frightened. 
 
 Another snort far back along the road blended with 
 
296 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 the creak and groan of our axle, then more gallop- 
 ing; and again the wild rider came close up behind 
 us! 
 
 Again I shouted, "Hello, there! Who are you? 
 What do you want? Do you want to go by? If you 
 want to go by, say so." 
 
 The only response was another snort and another 
 mad gallop back along the road,. 
 
 "I caught a glimpse of something!" said the 
 woman, in an awestruck whisper. " It looked like an 
 old stump — as if he was carrying an old stump over 
 his head!" 
 
 This was far from lucid or explanatory. I had dis- 
 cerned nothing myself. The glimmer of the lantern 
 was a little nearer my face than that of my passenger 
 and prevented my seeing. A chill stole over me — 
 fear, no doubt. The oxen, too, were hurrying for- 
 ward at an unusual rate. One of them gave vent to 
 low mooing sounds. 
 
 We had gone on but a few rods, however, when our 
 strange pursuer rushed after us yet again at a furious 
 gallop, as if to ride us down, and came up to the very 
 tail-board of the cart. Once more I shouted, " Hello, 
 there! What's wanted, anyhow? Are you trying to 
 get by us? " 
 
 Again it wheeled, snorting. Mary Inez screamed 
 outright, then hid in the hay. 
 
 " Oh, I saw that stump again ! " she cried. 
 
 But I saw nothing. 
 
 The thing galloped away, but instead of going back 
 far, plunged into the woods to the right of the road. 
 We heard it go tearing through the fir growth, crash 
 on crash. The sounds moved past us, describing a 
 circuit through the woods, then crossed the road ahead, 
 came completely round us on the left, and approached 
 from the rear again. 
 
 I now felt sure that no human being was concerned 
 in the demonstration, since a man could hardly ride a 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 297 
 
 horse at such a rate through thick woods. A suspicion 
 as to what it was began to dawn in my mind. 
 
 Meanwhile the oxen had been hurrying on at a great 
 rate, and presently we heard some one shout, and saw 
 through the storm the glimmer of a lantern in the road 
 ahead. 
 
 " That's father! " cried the woman. " We're most 
 home! " ami she called out joyfully. 
 
 As she surmised, it proved to be her father, Jared 
 Robbins, who had heard the distressful squeaking of 
 my wheels, and guessing that his daughter might be 
 with me, had come forth to meet her. 
 
 When we told him that we were being followed by 
 some prodigious beast, the old guide at once confirmed 
 my suspicion as to what it was. 
 
 " That 'ere's a moose.! " said he. " He heerd your 
 cart ex creaking, and he thought 'twas another moose, 
 a cow moose, bawlin' ! I don't wonder. I vum. I 
 thought 'twas one myself when 1 heerd ye comin"! 
 
 " Now put out your light," the old man continued, 
 in some little excitement. " Put out your light and I'll 
 put out mine. Then you drive on slow and let her 
 creak, while I hiper hack to the house and git my rifle." 
 
 The old man hastened away. And getting down 
 from my perch on the cart tongue. 1 drove slowly into 
 the opening where their house stood. Robbins soon 
 came out with his gun; but although we heard the 
 moose snort several times at a distance, the animal 
 did not approach the cart ag~ain. 
 
 It was now about nine o'clock, and owing to the 
 storm. I decided to remain there for the night. Before 
 morning the sleet had changed to snow, as much as 
 five inches having- fallen. So inclement was the day 
 that I was in no haste to set off. 
 
 But the old woodsman. Robbins, had risen and gone 
 out at daybreak to hunt the moose. He tracked the 
 animal to a swamp some two miles away, and getting 
 sight of it here amidst the snowy boughs of a thicket 
 
298 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 of young firs, brought it to the ground with his first 
 shot. 
 
 He returned in great good humor ; and after Mary 
 Inez had prepared breakfast, I yoked my oxen, and 
 going with the old man to the swamp, hauled the 
 moose to the house. It had a fine spreading set of 
 antlers — probably the " old stump " which my pas- 
 senger had seen. 
 
 While I was assisting Robbins to hang up the car- 
 cass and dress it, a messenger from home, in the person 
 of Addison, arrived in quest of me, riding one of the 
 farm horses. The family had become alarmed for my 
 safety, and had sent Addison to look me up. 
 
 We were all the afternoon getting down to the farm, 
 six miles, but had a quarter of moose meat to show for 
 my adventure. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE OLD SQUIRE'S CLOCKS 
 
 THANKSGIVING DAY came the following 
 week — November 23rd, I think ; and our long 
 anticipated winter school, with Master Pierson 
 again, was to begin on the Monday after. 
 
 The year had rolled round. It had brought us its 
 touch of sadness, also its eager new hopes and ambi- 
 tions. There was the vacant chair at table, the bright 
 little face absent forever; but the faces of us who 
 remained were now keenly set toward the future. 
 
 It was my second Thanksgiving at the Old Squire's. 
 The first was at the time of the great snow-storm, when 
 we got lost at Stoss Pond and were out all night — as 
 related in book first of this series. 
 
 This second Thanksgiving was quite a different oc- 
 casion, marked by a curious incident and not a little 
 excitement at table. To describe it properly, however, 
 I must revert to a circumstance which I forgot to 
 speak of in its proper place. 
 
 For three generations the old farmhouse garret had 
 been a dim and dusty repository of cast-off articles, 
 and offered a fine field for rummage and discovery, 
 particularly on rainy days. 
 
 Hung up there were old surtouts, faded blue army 
 overcoats and caps, and still older poke bonnets and 
 hats. There were two old " wheels " for wool " rolls " 
 and a smaller one for flax, " swifts " for winding yarn, 
 a large wooden loom for home-made cloth and 
 blankets, and another for rag carpets. 
 
 There were saddles and brass-mounted harness, and 
 
 299 
 
300 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 andirons with big round brass heads; old cradles, 
 bread-troughs and wooden trays; three tall German 
 silver candlesticks and six old whale-oil lamps; a 
 Springfield army rifle and haversack, and a much older 
 " Queen's Arm," with a wooden cartridge-box hang- 
 ing from the trigger-guard. 
 
 Then, too, there were dusty chests, a dozen or more 
 of them, pushed back under the eaves, some containing 
 leather-covered books, Bibles, hymn-books, sermons, 
 files of the Pine State News, and many copies of the 
 once popular Columbian Magazine. 
 
 Indeed, I could hardly more than begin to enumer- 
 ate all there was in that garret ; but I must not forget 
 " Old Uncle Ansel," as we called it, a curious com- 
 bination of fly-wheels, balance-wheels, tubes and other 
 nondescript gear, set in an oak frame as large as a 
 large table. This odd contrivance stood for the effort 
 of one of the Old Squire's uncles, back in 1830, to 
 solve the then fascinating problem of perpetual motion. 
 It was a disagreeable bit of family history, and there 
 was some sort of queer occurrence connected with it, 
 of which the old people were disinclined to speak. 
 
 On wet days we used to steal away up there to pore 
 over the stories in those old Columbian Magazines; 
 and Theodora and Ellen were accustomed to time their 
 stay — when they knew that Gram could not spare 
 them long down-stairs — by giving " Old Uncle An- 
 sel " a whirl as they read. 
 
 A smart twirl of the fly-wheel would cause the 
 machine to revolve silently for almost exactly seven 
 minutes, and two twirls stood for about a quarter of 
 an hour. 
 
 By the time we had been at the farm a year, there 
 was not much in that garret which we had not inves- 
 tigated — with one exception. 
 
 At the farther end of it, the end next to the kitchen 
 ell, there was a small, low room, partitioned off by 
 itself, like a large closet, although otherwise the garret 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 301 
 
 was all one large loft, extending back under the eaves 
 of the house on both sides, but having two small win- 
 dows at each end. 
 
 The door of this little room was secured by a pad- 
 lock. There was no peeping in at a keyhole; nor 
 could we boys come round on the ell roof to look in at 
 the window, for the green paper curtain was drawn 
 close down, and there were nails over the top of the 
 window-sashes. No one appeared to know where the 
 key was ; and whenever any of us had asked what was 
 in there, Gram always replied, " Nothing of any con- 
 sequence." 
 
 But one day, when our elders had gone away, my 
 cousin Ellen chanced to be rummaging for something 
 or other on the top shelf of the high dresser, and 
 knocked down a rusty key. " Now what in the world 
 do you suppose that's the key to? " said she. 
 
 Theodora was quite unable to answer that question, 
 and they laid the key on the table, where we boys saw 
 it when we came in from the field to our noon dinner. 
 
 " That looks like a padlock key," said Addison, and 
 he examined it for some moments. " I tell you that's 
 the key to that closet up-garret ! " he suddenly ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 " Let's try it and see! " cried Ellen; and with that 
 we all jumped up from the table and raced to the gar- 
 ret. For a long time our curiosity had been gathering 
 strength concerning what was in that closed room. 
 Gram's non-committal replies had but whetted it; and 
 although neither she nor the Old Squire had forbidden 
 us to unlock the door, we yet had the idea that there 
 was something inside which, at least, they did not care 
 to talk about. 
 
 Addison arrived first, but we were all close behind 
 when he tried the key in the padlock. The lock was 
 rusted and started hard. The key, however, fitted it. 
 Addison unhooked the padlock from the staple, then 
 shoved the door open, and we all peered in, 
 
302 A GREAT YEAR OP OUR LIVES 
 
 And it was a strange sight! 
 
 " Clocks ! " exclaimed Addison. " Only look at the 
 clocks ! " 
 
 The little room was dim with dusty cobwebs, crossed 
 and crisscrossed; but on two sides of it were tiers of 
 shelves, one above another, three tiers high; and on 
 all those shelves, and on yet another shelf partly under 
 the eaves, stood small clocks, three deep on a shelf, 
 clocks with wedge-shaped tops and little pointed spires 
 at the front corners. 
 
 " My, did you ever see so many ! " cried Ellen. 
 
 " All just alike, too ! " she exclaimed, laughing 
 wildly ; for so many clocks standing there all mute in 
 that dim, cobwebby room actually looked uncanny. 
 
 We went in, Ellen brushing down some of the cob- 
 webs with her kitchen apron, and began counting those 
 clocks. 
 
 There were eighty- four of them — all of the same 
 size and just alike, down to the figure of Father Time, 
 painted on the glass of the little front door. 
 
 " Now where do you suppose they all came from? " 
 exclaimed Halstead. 
 
 " And what makes Gram keep them hidden away up 
 here ? " said Ellen. 
 
 " She has never told us a word about them," Doad 
 chimed in. " She always said, ' Nothing of any con- 
 sequence in there.' Why, we might have a clock in 
 each of our rooms ! " 
 
 " It is queer about them, and no mistake," remarked 
 Addison. 
 
 " I guess the Old Squire must have robbed a clock 
 factory at some time," he continued laughing; but of 
 course we all knew better than that. 
 
 But eighty-four clocks! All just alike, and put 
 away in this little garret room years and years ago, 
 apparently. 
 
 Halstead brought one of the clocks out, set it on a 
 chest, and we looked it over. It w^g a pendulum 
 
THE OLD SQUIRE'S CLOCKS. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 303 
 
 clock, about two feet tall, with the key tied to the 
 striking; bell, inside the door. 
 
 Addison wound it up. " New clock," said he. " It 
 never was run any." 
 
 ' There's a little label here under the striker," said 
 Halstead. " Says, ' Smith & Skillings, Worcester, 
 Mass., 1S30. Brass works. Percussion hammer. 
 Warranted tor Four Years. Price, $0.00.' " 
 
 "Yes, siree!" cried Addison, again surveying; the 
 interior of the closet. " All nice, new, sitting-room 
 clocks. Worth six dollars apiece. Jingo, this is a 
 clock-mine ! " 
 
 " But we must never let Gram and the Old Squire 
 know we have been spying here," said Theodora. 
 " We must lock the door again and put the key back 
 where we got it." 
 
 " 1 suppose we had better," said Addison. " But 
 where in the world did they ever get all these clocks? " 
 
 " And never speak of them ! " exclaimed Ellen. 
 
 ' There's some reason that we don't know about," 
 Theodora said. " We ought not to have pried. So 
 let's lock the closet again and put the key back on the 
 high dresser. 1 think, too, that we had better say noth- 
 ing about it. It is something they don't want us to 
 know about, or they would have told us." 
 
 So, after yet another wondering look inside that 
 closet, we locked the door. Ellen put the key back 
 where she had found it. and we said no more about it. 
 
 In a way. too, Theodora was right. Those clocks 
 bad a history, and that old closet held a kind of family 
 skeleton. 
 
 Thirty-one years before, while the Old Squire was 
 a comparatively young man. he had set off for Port- 
 land, the week before Thanksgiving, with a two-horse 
 load of dressed poultry, turkeys, chickens and geese, 
 which Gram had been raising and fattening during- 
 that whole season. It was understood that if she took 
 care of the poultry, she was to have half the proceeds. 
 
304 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 There was over a ton of the poultry; and with a 
 part of the profits the Squire was to purchase twenty 
 yards of black silk, best quality, to make a gown, and a 
 " fitch victorine " — something like a fur shoulder- 
 cape. 
 
 He sold the poultry for more than three hundred 
 dollars, but had to remain two nights in Portland, at 
 the old Preble House, and while there fell in with a 
 man named Skillings, of the firm of Smith & Skillings, 
 Worcester, clock-makers. Skillings had recently come 
 to Portland, and had three hundred clocks with him. 
 The retail price was six dollars, but he offered the Old 
 Squire a hundred and fifteen' of them at three dollars 
 apiece, and succeeded in convincing him that he could 
 double his money on them by peddling them in the 
 home county that winter. 
 
 So instead of coming home light, with the money 
 for the poultry, and the black silk and fitch victorine 
 for Gram, he arrived loaded down with clocks. 
 
 It is a matter of family record that Gram was not 
 pleased, and that she met him with anything save an 
 ovation. But the Old Squire was young and hopeful 
 then; he expected to double his money selling those 
 clocks. He rigged up a covered pung with a rack in- 
 side, which would carry twenty of them at a time, and 
 began to make trips round and about the town and the 
 adjoining towns. 
 
 But times were hard. It was easier to plan selling 
 clocks at six dollars each than actually to sell them 
 and get the money. In fact, he was able to get rid of 
 but twenty-three of the clocks, and some of these at 
 five and four dollars each. Some, too, he " trusted 
 out " for payment the following year. ' 
 
 By spring he was sick enough of the investment; 
 and when farm-work demanded his attention, he drew 
 home a load of boards, constructed the closet in the 
 attic, and stored the ninety-two clocks there till an- 
 other winter, when he sold eight more. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 305 
 
 By this time the clocks had become such a sore sub- 
 ject between Gram and himself, and he. so dreaded to 
 fetch them down again, that he embarked in lumbering 
 the third winter. 
 
 And from that day onward, down to our time, 
 neither he nor Gram mentioned the matter, nor so 
 much as said clocks to each other. That closet had not 
 been opened for twenty-nine years — till we unlocked 
 it that day ! 
 
 But eighty-four clocks ! All just alike! It was im- 
 possible to forget them and one day, after we had be- 
 gun planning to raise money for school expenses, we 
 thought of those clocks. The idea of selling them 
 occurred to us ; and Addison and Ellen got the key 
 again, and made another examination of the old closet. 
 
 " They are such old-style clocks, and so out of 
 fashion, I don't believe any one would buy them now," 
 Ellen remarked. 
 
 But Addison thought that they could be sold. 
 
 " Brush them up, oil them, and varnish the cases, 
 and those clocks would bring four dollars apiece," 
 said he. " They are nice old clocks, with good works 
 in them." 
 
 " They're doing nobody any good up there, either," 
 said Halstead. " Why, those clocks might all be tick- 
 ing and doing some good in the world! And do us 
 some good, too." 
 
 " But I don't believe the Old Squire and Gram 
 would let us have them," Theodora remarked. " Those 
 clocks have been put away up there for some reason 
 we don't know of." 
 
 " Well, but they never go near them," urged Hal- 
 stead. " Maybe they have forgotten all about them." 
 
 " Oh, no, they have not ! " exclaimed Ellen. " Gram 
 knows all about those clocks and why they are there." 
 
 " But perhaps they would let us have them to sell," 
 said Addison. 
 
 " I wouldn't like to ask them," said Theodora. 
 
306 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 " I wouldn't, either," said Ellen. 
 
 " Well, no more would I," Addison admitted. " I 
 don't quite know why we shouldn't, but somehow it 
 seems a little like digging up an old grave." 
 
 " Pooh ! I'll ask them," said Halstead. 
 
 " No, don't ! " exclaimed Theodora. 
 
 " No, Halse, not right out bold-faced," said Addi- 
 son. " But perhaps we could bring it round easy, some 
 time when the Old Squire is feeling real good-natured, 
 and he and Gram are laughing over old times." 
 
 " Maybe," assented Theodora, " if you were to do 
 it just right." 
 
 " Well, wait a bit," said Addison. 
 
 He was the oldest and craftiest among us ; and at 
 last he and Ellen hit on a plan for broaching the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 A day or two before Thanksgiving they two went 
 quietly to the garret and wound up all those clocks, 
 then with a goose feather and kerosene oil touched up 
 the works, so that they would run. The clocks had 
 been there so long that some of them could not be 
 made to run at all; but they fixed up about sixty of 
 them so that they could be started if the pendulum was 
 given a swing. 
 
 What they did next was to set twenty of them at 
 eleven o'clock, ten more at one minute past eleven, ten 
 more at two minutes past eleven, and all the rest at 
 three or four minutes past eleven. 
 
 At the old farm we used to have our Thanksgiving 
 dinner at three o'clock in the afternoon. Addison's 
 plan was to go to the garret just before we sat down 
 to dinner, and set all those clocks going, so that by the 
 N time we had got well along with our dinner, and every 
 one was feeling in a good and thankful mood, they 
 would begin striking twelve, in platoons, so to speak, 
 and keep it up. 
 
 None of us knew anything about this, however, ex- 
 cept Addison and Ellen. They had thought best to 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 307 
 
 keep it quiet ; for we had three of Gram's nieces visit- 
 ing us that week from Philadelphia, and a girl named 
 Molly Totherly, a distant relative, who was then at- 
 tending school at Hebron Academy, about a day's 
 drive from the old place. According to Gram's cus- 
 tom, the Thanksgiving dinner-table was set in the sit- 
 ting-room, the largest room in the farmhouse. A door 
 opened from it into the front hall; and after we had 
 all been at table three-quarters of an hour, and the 
 turkey was well disposed of and the plum pudding was 
 brought on, Ellen suddenly exclaimed against the heat 
 of the room. 
 
 " Do, please, grandmother, let's have the door into 
 the hall open," she said. 
 
 " Why, yes, child, if you are too warm," replied the 
 old lady. So up rose Ellen and set the door wide open. 
 Addison had already left the door to the attic stairs 
 ajar. 
 
 The plum pudding followed the turkey, as usual; 
 the mince pie was being handed round, and Gram was 
 beaming on her company, and the Old Squire was 
 turning a joke on former dinners at the farm, when 
 suddenly a horological commotion broke loose in the 
 garret ! 
 
 Twenty clocks, all starting in to strike at once, 
 raised a tremendous tintinnabulation. Everybody at 
 the dinner-table — save Addison and Ellen — sat up 
 in astonishment. 
 
 Dong! dongl dongl Ding! ding! ding! Dang! 
 dang! dang! on as many different keys, with new ones 
 breaking in! 
 
 The Old Squire's hearing was not what it had once 
 been. He looked first one way, then another, and then 
 out of the window. " Seems to me I hear music," 
 said he. " Where is it ? Has anybody hired a brass 
 band?" 
 
 But Gram exclaimed, " For mercy's sake, what ails 
 the clock?" 
 
308 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 There came a little lull, but immediately the next 
 platoon opened on yet a different key, some striking 
 fast, some slow. 
 
 " Appear to have lost the tune ! " the Squire re- 
 marked, with his hand up to his best ear. 
 
 " Joseph ! " Gram exclaimed, severely. " That's 
 clocks striking. Can't you hear? And it isn't the 
 kitchen clock," she added, with a perplexed look. 
 
 By that time Molly Totherly and Halse were up 
 from the table and out in the hall, investigating; the 
 rest of us sat spellbound. For by this time platoon 
 number three had got at it : Cling! cling! cling! Clong! 
 clong! clong! Clung! clung! clung! 
 
 The nieces from Philadelphia were amazed; but 
 Addison and Ellen now jumped up from the table, to 
 keep from shouting with laughter. Halstead and 
 Theodora ran up-stairs, then came rushing down again. 
 
 " It is in that old closet, up-garret ! " Halse cried. 
 " Sounds as if more than fifty clocks were striking at 
 once in there ! " for all the rest had now started in, as 
 if executing a grand finale, for which the previous 
 efforts had been merely the overture ! 
 
 But no sooner had Gram heard the word garret than 
 she turned quite pale. The Old Squire was out in the 
 hall. But Theodora came hastily round to the back of 
 Gram's chair. " No, no ! " she whispered in her ear. 
 " It is just one of Ad's pranks," at which the old lady 
 sat up. 
 
 " Oh, the rogue ! " she cried, and then she began to 
 laugh, and laughed till she was breathless. 
 
 " Come back here, father ! " she finally called to 
 Gramp. " They have found your load of clocks at 
 last." 
 
 The Old Squire returned to the table, looking a little 
 queer. 
 
 " We found them almost by accident," Theodora 
 explained, hurriedly. " We didn't really mean to pry 
 into anything." 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 309 
 
 " But do tell us, Gram, how there came to be so 
 many of them ! " cried Ellen. 
 
 " Oh, that isn't for me to tell! " cried the old lady, 
 airily. " They are not my clocks. You will have to 
 ask your grandfather about that." 
 
 ". Oh, tell us, Gramp ! " Ellen exclaimed. 
 
 Never had we seen the Old Squire so embarrassed ; 
 he looked actually sheepish. 
 
 "You will have to tell them now, Joseph!" cried 
 Gram, exultantly. " You will have to own up to those 
 clocks now ! " She fell to laughing again. 
 
 But he would not enter on the subject at much 
 length. " Oh, I took a consignment of clocks off a 
 man's hands once," said he, in an offhand tone. 
 " They didn't sell quite as well as I thought they 
 might. And those you saw up-stairs were some I had 
 left over." 
 
 " Yes," said Gram, with intense irony. " Just a few 
 clocks left over ! That's all ! Just a few ! " and she 
 relapsed into another fit of laughter. Clearly, she 
 considered that the Old Squire's description of the 
 transaction was wholly inadequate. 
 
 But here Addison, who had been watching his 
 chance, put in a word. " Those are pretty good 
 clocks," he remarked. " They're a little out of style, 
 but I think I could sell them. What will you take for 
 the lot, sir?" 
 
 •' Before there's any trading done," said Gram, " I 
 want to say that I've got a black silk dress and a set of 
 furs sunk somewhere in those clocks." 
 
 " Yes, yes, Ruth, that's so, that's so," replied the 
 Old Squire, hastily. " You shall have all that the 
 clocks bring." 
 
 With that, Addison addressed himself more particu- 
 larly to Gram. " What do you say, Gram, to about a 
 dollar i apiece for those clocks ? " 
 
 But she had dealt with too many tin pedlers in her 
 day to be caught napping. " That's not enough," she 
 
310 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 said. " But as it is all in the family, Addison, if you 
 will promise me a hundred dollars out of it, you may 
 have them and no more said." 
 
 Addison hastily consulted with Ellen and the rest of 
 us. We all went up-stairs and looked again at the 
 clocks. It seemed a promising speculation; so we 
 wound up that Thanksgiving dinner with a bargain 
 for the Old Squire's clocks, all amid much laughter 
 on the part of our guests as well as ourselves. 
 
 I may add here that as far as we young folks were 
 concerned, it was well that we had our laugh at the 
 time and made sure of it. For we never had a chance 
 afterwards to laugh much over the outcome of that 
 clock speculation. If anything, we fared worse with 
 those clocks than the Old Squire had, thirty years pre- 
 viously. Bad fortune seemed destined to go with 
 them ; — but that is part of another experience which 
 runs far ahead of the limits of this volume. 
 
 While yet we lingered at table, bargaining for the 
 clocks, Thomas and Catherine came jingling to the 
 door in a new sleigh with Tom's colt. They had had 
 their Thanksgiving dinner in advance of us and driven 
 to the post office for the mail. They brought a letter 
 for Addison from Master Pierson and came in to hear 
 it read, for they were quite as eager as we to learn 
 what " Old Joel " had to say. 
 
 His letter put even those clocks out of mind. 
 
 " Hullo, all you young Latinites up there! " (That 
 was the way it began. ) " How's ^Esop's Fables ? 
 How's Caesar and the Helvetii? How's Ariovistus 
 rex Germanorum ? Have you forgotten all you learned 
 last winter? Did the mumps mump it all out of 
 your heads? Better be brushing up and reviewing 
 from now till Monday. Catch your breaths and get 
 ready, because this winter I am just going to make 
 you all everlastingly pick up and hiper! So be all 
 ready to pitch in and not waste a minute. We will 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES Sll 
 
 have a Quiz on Latin to start with. I'm going to put 
 you through four Books of Caesar this winter. So get 
 ready to do some tall studying, evenings. 
 
 " Tell ' Mother Ruth ' to get the burlap down on the 
 sitting-room carpet." 
 
 " My sakes," muttered Gram. " If this Latin busi- 
 ness goes on another winter, I will have to buy a new 
 carpet for that room." 
 
 " Ask the Old Squire how his ' Constitution ' is 
 holding out," Joel's letter ran on. " Ask him if the 
 ' Monroe Doctrine ' is still in force up that way ? Tell 
 him to have a writ of ' Habeas Corpus ' ready to get 
 me out of jail on, if I should happen to have a difficulty' 
 with School Agent Tibbetts. And, by the way, how is 
 Old Toddy-Blossom's health this fall? Pretty quiet, 
 isn't he, since that little episode of- the County Attor- 
 ney's letter which he opened? Not quite so rampant 
 as he was at school meeting last spring? Nothing so 
 quieting, sometimes, as a little wholesome fear. Par- 
 ticularly with a rumseller. One like Tibbetts who 
 knows he is doing wrong and injuring everybody. 
 That's the worst kind of a sinner — the fellow who 
 knows he is doing wrong and keeps at it. 
 
 " I tell you boys, that is the one thing you can't 
 live in peace and harmony with — rum, intoxicants. 
 I defy you to. It demoralizes everything, puts every- 
 thing wrong, drags the whole neighborhood down hill. 
 You cannot have peace with it. You've got to fight 
 it." 
 
 "Good!" exclaimed Gram. "That's just right!" 
 
 " That reminds me," the letter continued. " Tell 
 that Alfred Batchelder, if it comes handy, that I've got 
 a bigger stick than I had last winter. Also verbum 
 sap. — if he learned Latin enough to know what that 
 means." 
 
 " I don't believe he did," Catherine remarked, laugh- 
 ing. " That will be thrown away on Alfred." 
 
 " Say to Halstead, too, that I am very much in 
 
312 A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 
 
 earnest to have him start with right ideas this winter," 
 the letter went on. " He had wrong notions in his 
 head last winter, and they did him a whole lot of 
 harm. I want to have the school amount to something 
 to him this winter." 
 
 " O, shucks ! " Halse exclaimed. " Old Joel's got 
 only one idea in his head, and that is, study, study, 
 study ! For my part I want a little fun as I go along." 
 
 " That depends on what a fellow calls ' fun,' " 
 Thomas remarked. " For my part I thought we had 
 plenty of fun last winter." 
 
 " You call Latin fun, I suppose ! " Halse retorted, 
 
 "The' way we took it, yes, pretty good fun," said 
 Thomas. " It made us work, but we got lots of fun 
 out of it; and somehow it made us feel as if we were 
 getting on in the world and were going to be some- 
 body." 
 
 " Oh, you think you are going to be ' somebody,' 
 do you ? " said Halse, sarcastically. 
 
 " I don't know yet, and you don't," Tom rejoined, 
 laughing. 
 
 Not relishing this sort of conversation Catherine 
 interrupted it to ask Addison if that were all of Master 
 Pierson's letter. 
 
 " No," said Ad and resumed, smiling broadly : 
 
 " Tell Round Head " (this humble chronicler) 
 " that I've got to rub his ears for him again and wake 
 him up. He hasn't really waked up, yet. He doesn't 
 seem to know what he is in the world for. But tell 
 him that I'm going to wake him up, this winter, or I 
 will wear his ears out. What he needs is to make up 
 his mind what he wants to do in the world, so as to go 
 about it and feel certain of something." 
 
 It wasn't easy for me to see the joke in this, nor 
 understand why the others laughed. It is said there 
 are persons who never do really wake up to life and its 
 actualities. I have often feared that I was one of that 
 kind. 
 
A GREAT YEAR OF OUR LIVES 313 
 
 " Remember me to ' Sister ' Theodora and to ' Sis- 
 ter ' Ellen and ' Sister ' Catherine," Joel's letter con- 
 cluded. " I never had any sisters of my own, you 
 know, and 1 never knew what I had missed by it till I 
 boarded there at the Old Squire's so long. A fellow 
 really does need sisters. Sisters are a great institution. 
 So I've concluded to adopt all three of them — if they 
 can put up with such a brother. And anyhow they 
 will have hard work to shake me off ! " 
 
 The girls looked at each other and laughed. Jocose 
 as was the compliment, it pleased them immensely. 
 
 " Look for me Sunday afternoon," the letter ended, 
 " with the old melodeon, all the old maps and books, 
 and a few new ones. Vale. Selah. Yours for school, 
 
 " Joel." 
 
 That was Joel, dear old Joel, Joel all over; the best 
 schoolmaster we ever had. 
 
 THE END OF BOOK SECOND.