Yes, and the sweet grass, then I am, but when I think of how
dreadfully frightened we were, I'm not."

"I don't intend to remember the scare," said Polly philosophically.

"Neither do I," added Mary. "I'd be an Arab again for the sake of
finding out how really good-hearted those boys are," which showed that
Mary had a good heart, too.

_CHAPTER XI_

_The Roseberry Family_

The green grass of June had turned to russet; the bay berry bushes
began to look dingy, and the waxy cranberries in the bog were turning
to a delicate pink. It had been a dry season and the children could
safely traverse the bog from end to end without danger of getting their
feet wet. Ellis was their pilot to this fascinating spot, and the day
of their introduction to it was one long to be remembered.

It was one morning when Ellis came around to the back door to deliver
clams that they first heard of the bog. He added to the weekly order a
little bag of pinky-white cranberries. "I thought maybe you'd like
'em," he said. "Miss Alice Harvey says they're much better when
they're not quite ripe. Ora tried some and they were fine, but they
took a lot of sugar."

"Thank you for remembering us," said Miss Ada as she received the
offering. "How much, Ellis?"

"Nawthin'. They're easy to pick and there's plenty of 'em," he made
reply.

Miss Ada accepted the gift in the spirit in which it was intended.
"I'm sure we shall enjoy them," she declared. "Where is the bog,
Ellis? Is it very wet there?"

"'Tain't wet at all this year. This has been such a dry season. It's
down back of Cap'n Orrin's barn."

"Oh, is that the place?" Molly was peeping over her aunt's shoulder.
"I've always longed to go there but I was afraid it was all sloppy and
marshy; some one said it was."

"Would you like me to go there with you?" said Ellis bashfully. "I
know where the cranberries grow, and there's lots of other things down
there, the kind you city people like to get, weeds, we call 'em."

"Oh, may we go?" Molly appealed to her aunt.

"Why yes, I have no objection. It is perfectly safe if it's not wet.
I suppose you may encounter a garter snake or two, but you don't mind
them, Molly."

"Wait for us, Ellis," said the little girl speeding away for her
cousins with whom she returned in a moment. All three were
breathlessly eager to start on the voyage of discovery, for with Ellis
as leader, into what regions of the unknown might they not pene