en she awakes,"
and the little girl tiptoed noiselessly back to the edge of the woods,
where she had noticed a quantity of checkerberry leaves. There were many
crimson berries still clinging to the vines, and Anna picked these
carefully, using her cap for a basket, and gathering a quantity of the
young checkerberry leaves. "Rebby is sure to like these," she thought
happily.

Anna's sharp glance moved about quickly and finally rested near an old
stump.

"Partridge eggs!" she exclaimed joyfully, and in a moment she was
beside the stump peering down at a circle of small brownish eggs. She
counted them, and before she had whispered "twenty!" a whirring,
scrambling noise close at hand told her that the partridge to whom the
eggs belonged was close at hand.

"You won't miss a few eggs, Mistress Partridge," said Anna soberly,
carefully selecting four from the outer edge of the circle, and then
going softly away, that she might not unnecessarily frighten the
woodland bird.

She now carried the cap with great care, as she looked about hoping to
discover some sign of a woodland spring. She kept along at the edge of
the woods, and very soon she heard the sound of a noisy little brook
hurrying along to the river. It was not far up the river from the place
where Rebby was so comfortably asleep, and Anna decided that it would be
just the place for their noonday luncheon.

She set the cap, with all its treasures, carefully under the shade of a
tiny fir tree near the side of the brook and then ran back to awaken
Rebby.

"Dinner is ready!" she called gaily as she ran; and the sound of her
voice made Rebecca sit up quickly, and exclaim:

"The British will shoot down our liberty pole!" For her dreams had been
of soldiers in red coats firing at the liberty pole, while Mr. Worden
Foster, with a big pitchfork, tried to drive them away.

"It is a truly dinner, with eggs," declared Anna happily, as she led the
way back to the noisy little brook.

The raw eggs tasted good to the hungry girls, and the good corn-bread
and spicy berries and tender checkerberry leaves, with cool water to
drink, made them both feel refreshed and rested, and ready for the
remaining distance to Chandler's River settlement.

They crossed the little brook and went sturdily on. Now and then a
partridge flew in front of them. Squirrels scolded and chattered among
the tree tops, and once or twice a rabbit leaped out from behind some
stump and ran ahead of the