oney in full and cut us off, in default, from removing the
birch lumber from the lot. The old Squire himself had gone to Canada.

The notification came by letter, and as usual when the old Squire was
away, grandmother Ruth opened his mail to see what demanded our
attention. We were all in the sitting-room, except Halstead, who was
away that evening.

"What can this mean?" grandmother suddenly exclaimed, and handed the
letter to Addison. He saw through it instantly, and jumped up in
excitement.

"We're trapped!" he cried. "If we don't get that birch off next week we
shall lose two thousand dollars!"

Grandmother was dismayed. "Oh, that wicked woman!" she cried. "Why,
winter always means through sledding!"

"I'm afraid not, in law," said Addison, looking puzzled. "Winter ends
either the first or the twenty-first of March. I think a good argument
could be made in court for the twenty-first. But she may be right, and
it's too late to take chances. The only thing to do is to get that
lumber off right away."

Addison and I went out to the stable to talk the matter over; we did not
want to excite grandmother any further. At best, she had a good deal to
worry her that winter.

"Now what can we do?" Addison exclaimed. Five or six days would be
required to get the old Squire home from Canada.

"And what could he do after he got here?" Addison asked. "The teams and
the choppers are all off at the lumber-camps."

"Let's take our axes and go up there and cut what birch we can next
week," said I, in desperation.

"Oh, we boys couldn't do much alone in so short a time," replied
Addison.

Still, we could think of nothing else; and with the loss of two thousand
dollars staring us in the face, we began planning desperately how much
of that birch we could save in a week's time. In fact, we scarcely slept
at all that night, and early the next morning started out to rally what
help we could.

Willis Murch and Thomas Edwards volunteered to work for us, and take
each a yoke of oxen. After much persuasion our neighbor Sylvester
promised to go with a team, and to take his son Rufus, Jr. Going on to
the post-office at the Corners, we succeeded in hiring two other young
men.

But even with the help of these men we could account for scarcely a
seventh part of the contract, since one chopper could cut not more than
a cord and a half of birch bolts in a day; and moreover, the bolts had
to be removed from the lot.

But as we rushe