ure enough?"

Drusilla shook her head wildly. "How kin we bofe have de same kind er
dream? I seed de 'oman gwine on, en you seed 'er gwine on. Uh-uh!
Don't talk ter me 'bout no dreams."

The whole matter was settled when Buster John cried out from the next
room: "What fuss was that you were making in there last night,
squealing and squeaking?"

The matter was soon explained to Buster John, and after breakfast the
children went out and sat on the big wood-pile and talked it all over.
The boy asked a hundred questions, but still his curiosity was not
satisfied.

All this time the birds were singing in the trees and the wood-sawyers
sawing in the pine logs. Jo-reeter, jo-reeter, jo-ree! sang the
birds. Craik, craik, craik, went the wood-sawyers.

[Illustration: SWEETEST SUSAN WAKING UP]

"There are fifty dozen of them," said Buster John.

"Fifty-five thousand you'd better say," replied Sweetest Susan. "Just
listen!"

"No needs ter listen," cried Drusilla. "You'd hear 'em ef you plugged
up yo' years."

Buster John put his knife-blade under a thick piece of pine bark and
pried it up to find one of the busy sawyers. The bark was strong, but
presently it seemed to come up of its own accord, and out jumped the
queerest little man they had ever seen or even heard of except in
make-believe story-books. Buster John dropped his knife, and down it
went into the wood-pile. He could hear it go rattling from log to log
nearly to the bottom. Sweetest Susan gave a little screech. Drusilla
sat bolt upright and exclaimed:--

"You all better come en go see yo' ma. I want ter see 'er myse'f."

But there was nothing to be frightened at. The tiny man had brushed
the dust and trash from his clothes, and then turned to the children
with a good-humored smile. He was not above four inches high. He had
on a dress-coat. Drusilla afterward described it as a claw-hammer
coat, velveteen knickerbockers, and silver buckles on his shoes. His
hat was shaped like a thimble, and he had a tiny feather stuck in the
side of it.

"I'm much obliged to you for getting me out of that scrape," he said
with a bow to all the children. "It was a pretty tight place. I stayed
out last night just one second and a half too late, and when I went to
go home I found the door shut. So I just crawled under the bark there
for a nap. The log must have turned in some way, for when I woke up
and tried to crawl out I found I couldn't manage it. I wouldn't have
minde