the roof of one of the cabins, and the water could
be seen issuing again from underneath the logs at one side of the cabin.
A very primitive cider mill--two wooden rollers fastened in a frame, and
moved by a long sapling sweep attached to one of them--stood near. The
ground was covered with rotting apple pomace, from which arose the odor
that had reached Kent's nose.

"Hello!" said the latter, "here's luck; here's richness! We've succeeded
beyond our most sanguine expectations, as the boy said, who ran away
from school to catch minnows, and caught a ducking, a bad cold and a
licking. We've struck an apple-jack distillery, and as they've been at
work lately, they've probably left enough somewhere to give us all that
we can drink."

Abe's sigh was eloquent of a disbelief that such a consummation was
possible, short of the blissful hereafter.

Inside of one of the cabins they found a still about the size of a tub,
with a worm of similar small proportions, kept cook by the flow from the
spring. Some tubs and barrels, in which the lees of cider were rapidly
turning to vinegar, gave off a fruity, spirituous odor, but for awhile
their eager search did not discover a bit of the distilled product.
At last, Kent, with a cry of triumph, dragged from a place of cunning
concealment a small jug, stopped with a corncob. He smelled it hungrily.

"Yes, here is some. It's apple-jack, not a week old, and as rank as a
Major General. Phew! I can smell every stick they burned to distil it.
Abe, watch me closely while I drink. I magnanimously take the lead, out
of consideration for you. If I ain't dead in five minutes, you try it."

"O, stop monkeying, and drink," was the impatient answer.

Kent put the jug to his mouth and took a long draught. "Shade of old
Father Noah, the first drunkard," he said as he wiped the tears from
his eyes, "another swig like that would pull out all the rivets in my
internal pipings. Heavens! it went down like pulling a cat out of a hole
by the tail. I'm afraid to wipe my mouth, lest my breath burn a hole in
the sleeve of my blouse."

Three-quarters of an hour later, the spirits in the jug were lowering
and those in the men rising with unequal rapidity. Under the influence
of the fiery stimulant, Kent's sanguine temperament boiled and bubbled
over. Imagination painted the present and future in hues of dazzling
radiance. Everything was as delightful as it could be now, and would
become more charming as time