t, got
an injunction, and tied me all up in a hard legal knot until the state
surveyors can go over both pieces of timber. The land knows when that'll
be! Those state surveyors take a week of frog Sundays to do a job.

"I can't cut a stick on my whole piece 'cause Ged claims he'll have a
right to replevin an equal number of sticks cut, if the surveyors back
up his contention. Nasty mess. The original line was run years and years
ago, and they're not many alive today in the Big woods that know the
rights of it.

"I expect," added Uncle Henry, shaking his bushy head, "that old Toby
Vanderwiller knows the rights of that line business; but he won't tell.
Gedney Raffer's got a strangle hold on Toby and his little swamp farm,
and Toby doesn't dare say his soul's his own.

"Well!" continued the lumberman, with another of his big laughs. "This
has nothing to do with your stew, Bob. I didn't want to come to the
house last night and surprise you; so I stayed at the hotel. And all the
time I was thinking of this little nip, Beg pardon! This young lady, and
how smart and plucky she was.

"And lo and behold," pursued Uncle Henry, "she turns out to be my own
niece. I'm going to take her back with me to Pine Camp. Kate's got to
see and know her. The boys will be tickled out of their boots to have a
girl like her around. That's our one lack at Pine Camp. There never was
a girl in the family.

"Seems that this was just foreordained. You and Jessie have got to go
'way off, over the water; can't leave this plucky girl alone. Her old
uncle and aunt are the proper folks to take care of her. What do you say
yourself, young lady?"

Nan had liked the big man from the very beginning. She was a sensible
child, too. She saw that she must settle this matter herself, for it was
too hard a question for either Momsey or Papa Sherwood to decide.
She gained control of herself now; but nobody will ever know how much
courage it took for her to say, promptly:

"Of course I will go home with you, Uncle Henry. It will be fun, I
think, to go into the woods in the winter. And, and I can come right
back as soon as Momsey and Papa Sherwood return from Scotland."

So it was settled, just like that. The rush in which both parties got
under way on Monday made Nan's head whirl. Momsey was to buy a few
necessary things in New York before she boarded the steamer. Nan had a
plentiful supply of warm winter clothing, and she took a trunkful.

Mrs. Joyce was l