in to hope so, for this is the most delightfully
happening place I ever was in. Though I never was in, to stay, but one
other. First you fell over a precipice, and then I found a nest of
little turkeys all dead, out in the black currant-bushes, Susanna says
they are, that had stolen themselves--whatever that is. Then that
mystery of a brass bound box; and now Uncle Moses breaking his bones,
and so much going on. But--Montgomery Sturtevant! That box! What did
become of it? Would we dare, do you suppose we might go back to the
woods and find it? It was all your fault. If I hadn't let you carry
it--All this about poor Uncle Moses has put it out of my mind, but now
it comes back and it's more important than he is. I'm sure of it. We
must find it. Come, quick!"

Katharine pushed back from the table and; sprang to her feet, her
weariness forgotten in this fresh anxiety.

But Monty was neither anxious nor excited; at least, not about the box,
though he held it scarcely less important than she did. He was busy
over a "sum" in mental arithmetic, a branch of study he little favored,
though it had now come to assume considerable importance to him. Yet the
problem was beyond his capacity, though this keen-witted girl might
solve it. He'd try her. Therefore, still gurgling his milk, he
spluttered:

"S-s-s-ay, Katy! if a man, if a m-m-man can earn a dollar a day doin'
c-c-chores, all the c-c-chores, how much can a boy earn doin'
h-h-ha-half of 'em?"

"Not a single cent, if I had to pay him, and he were such a boy as you.
A boy so mean he'd take a brass bound box out of a girl's hands and lose
it for her, and then wouldn't budge to go get it. You do try me so,
Montgomery! And there's one thing I know. That is, that if I had the
management of you I'd break you of that detestable habit of stuttering,
or know the reason why. It's all nonsense. You can talk as well as
anybody else, only you're too lazy. Now, will you come?"

To her surprise and to her shame, also, he neither resented her sharp
speech nor her reply to his money question. Leaning forward, his blue
eyes took on an earnestness which effectually dispelled all notion of
vanity in their possessor, demanding:

"C-c-c-could you do it? C-c-can you? _W-w-w-wi-will you?_"

"Yes, I might, could, would, and should--if you'd go find my brass bound
box!"

"Cross your heart, honest Injun, h-h-hope to d-d-die?"

"No. Neither one. Just plain 'Yes.' I know a way. I've read all abo