pin' up the dirt. Oh, my! What all
does she want done?"

Dannie turned another spadeful of earth and studied the premises, while
Jimmy gathered the worms.

"Palins all on the fence?" asked Dannie.

"Yep," said Jimmy.

"Well, the yard is to be raked."

"Yep."

"The flooer beds spaded."

"Yep."

"Stones around the peonies, phlox, and hollyhocks raised and manure
worked in. All the trees must be pruned, the bushes and vines trimmed,
and the gooseberries, currants, and raspberries thinned. The strawberry
bed must be fixed up, and the rhubarb and asparagus spaded around and
manured. This whole garden must be made----"

"And the road swept, and the gate sandpapered, and the barn
whitewashed! Return to grazing, Nebuchadnezzar," said Jimmy. "We do
what's raisonable, and then we go fishin'. See?"

Three beds spaded, squared, and ready for seeding lay in the warm
spring sunshine before noon. Jimmy raked the yard, and Dannie trimmed
the gooseberries. Then he wheeled a barrel of swamp loam for a flower
bed by the cabin wall, and listened intently between each shovelful he
threw. He could not hear a sound. What was more, he could not bear it.
He went to Jimmy.

"Say, Jimmy," he said. "Dinna ye have to gae in fra a drink?"

"House or town?" inquired Jimmy sweetly.

"The house!" exploded Dannie. "I dinna hear a sound yet. Ye gae in fra
a drink, and tell Mary I want to know where she'd like the new flooer
bed she's been talking about."

Jimmy leaned the rake against a tree, and started.

"And Jimmy," said Dannie. "If she's quit crying, ask her what was the
matter. I want to know."

Jimmy vanished. Presently he passed Dannie where he worked.

"Come on," whispered Jimmy.

The bewildered Dannie followed. Jimmy passed the wood pile, and pig
pen, and slunk around behind the barn, where he leaned against the logs
and held his sides. Dannie stared at him.

"She says," wheezed Jimmy, "that she guesses SHE wanted to go and hear
the Bass splash, too!"

Dannie's mouth fell open, and then closed with a snap.

"Us fra the fool killer!" he said. "Ye dinna let her see ye laugh?"

"Let her see me laugh!" cried Jimmy. "Let her see me laugh! I told her
she wasn't to go for a few days yet, because we were sawin' the
Kingfisher's stump up into a rustic sate for her, and we were goin' to
carry her out to it, and she was to sit there and sew, and umpire the
fishin', and whichiver bait she told the Bass to take, that one of us