and seizing a long branch under one dimpled arm, and a short, heavy
one under the other, to make good his words, with the will of an older
head, he started for the cabin.

Out from under his arm would be wrenched the long one by some bush
beside the path, and Bub would pick it up and pull at it until it had
cleared itself, when down would go the big piece from the other arm.
Then he would bravely lift it again, his baby frock going up with it;
and thus dropping his load and picking it up, with an occasional
tumble, which he would not cry about, he reached the house, dragging
his load in through the door, to the imminent danger of knocking over
the old stove. He now rested from his labors to eat a cold potato and
a piece of his mother's much-loved corn-cake, which, while disposing
of, he dropped asleep, his rosy cheeks crammed to their utmost
capacity.

"Pooh!" cried Charley, coming noisily in to see if dinner was most
ready, "why didn't you keep to work, like the rest of us?"

Bub resumed eating, and replied, dignifiedly,--

"Tause I found out that it wasn't fun."

The unexpected effect of his answer on Charley, who received it with
uproarious laughter, highly offended the child; and when Charley was
out of sight, he said to his mother,--

"I isn't never going to work no more."

"Ah, why not?" she inquired.

"Tause I don't like to work."

"Then," said she, "you'll never make a man."

"Do men have to work?" he asked.

"Certainly," she replied.

"Then I won't be a man," he answered, decidedly.

"Won't!" exclaimed his mother; "what, then, will you be?"

"I sail be a missernary, and walk wound, and wear dold dlasses!"

CHAPTER IX.

A SURPRISE.

"Can you tell me, sir, if I can find a conveyance for myself and
children to L----, Minnesota?" inquired a lady of the attentive clerk
at a hotel in the thriving young town of Dacotah, Iowa.

"There is no stage running to that point," he replied; "but we can
send a team with you, if you wish to go to so much expense."

"I would like," answered the lady, smiling, "to get there with as
little cost as I can. My husband is a missionary. I am on my way to
join him."

"I will see what I can do for you," returned the clerk, bowing
respectfully; and, stepping into the bar-room, he asked,--

"Is there any one here going to L---- to-day?"

"I shall go half way there," said a short, sharp-nosed, black-eyed
man, who sat reading an eastern paper.

"Could you