what the old Pine Tree State will do--under glass!"

That is far from being the whole of Tom's "ballyhoo." Walking round and
round in ever larger circles, he constantly varied his praises and his
jokes. But the melons were their own best advertisement. All who bought
them pronounced them delicious; and frequently they bought one or two
more to prove to their friends how good they were.

At ten o'clock we still had a good many melons; but toward noon business
became very brisk, and at one o'clock only six melons were left.

In honor of this crop we rechristened the old haymaker the "cantaloupe
coaxer."

CHAPTER XVI

THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF GRANDPA EDWARDS

There was so much to do at the old farm that we rarely found time to
play games. But we had a croquet set that Theodora, Ellen and their girl
neighbor, Catherine Edwards, occasionally carried out to a little
wicketed court just east of the apple house in the rear of the farm
buildings.

Halstead rather disdained the game as too tame for boys and Addison so
easily outplayed the rest of us that there was not much fun in it for
him, unless, as Theodora used to say, he played with one hand in his
pocket. But as we were knocking the balls about one evening while we
decided which of us should play, we saw Catherine crossing the west
field. She had heard our voices and was making haste to reach us. As she
approached, we saw that she looked anxious.

"Has grandpa been over here to-day?" her first words were. "He's gone.
He went out right after breakfast this morning, and he hasn't come back.

"After he went out, Tom saw him down by the line wall," she continued
hurriedly. "We thought perhaps he had gone to the Corners by the
meadow-brook path. But he didn't come to dinner. We are beginning to
wonder where he is. Tom's just gone to the Corners to see if he is
there."

"Why, no," we said. "He hasn't been here to-day."

The two back windows at the rear of the kitchen were down, and Ellen,
who was washing dishes there, overheard what Catherine had said, and
spoke to grandmother Ruth, who called the old Squire.

"That's a little strange," he said when Catherine had repeated her
tidings to him. "But I rather think it is nothing serious. He may have
gone on from the Corners to the village. I shouldn't worry."

Grandpa Jonathan Edwards--distantly related to the stern New England
divine of that name--was a sturdy, strong old man sixty-seven years of
age, t