re?" asked Phonny.

"Somebody to decide when there is a dispute," replied Wallace. "Who
shall be the umpire?"

"Beechnut," said Phonny.

"Agreed," said Wallace.

"And now there is one point more," he continued, "and that is, perhaps
you will neglect to feed him, and then we shall be uncomfortable, for
fear that the squirrel is suffering."

"No," said Phonny, shaking his head; "I shall certainly feed him every
day, and sometimes twice a day."

"Are you willing to agree to forfeit him, if you fail to feed him?"

"Why--I don't know," said Phonny. "But I certainly shall feed him, I
know I shall."

"Then there will be no harm in agreeing to forfeit him if you fail,"
rejoined Wallace; "for if you certainly do feed him, then your
agreement to forfeit him will be a dead letter."

"But I might accidentally omit to feed him some one day," said Phonny.
"I might be sick, or I might be gone away, and I might ask Stuyvesant
to feed him, and he forget it, and then I should lose my squirrel
entirely."

"No," said Wallace, "you are not to forfeit him except for _neglect_.
It must be a real and inexcusable neglect on your part, Beechnut being
judge."

"Well," said Phonny, "I agree to it."

"And I will give you three warnings," said Wallace, "both for making
trouble and disturbance with your squirrel, and for neglecting to feed
him. After the third warning, he is forfeited, and I am to do what I
please with him."

"Well," said Phonny, "I agree to it."

A short time after this conversation, the road in which Wallace and
Phonny were riding emerged from the wood, and there was opened before
them the prospect of a wide and beautiful valley. A short distance
before them down the valley, there was a stream with a mill. By the
side of the mill, under some large spreading elms, was a red house,
which Phonny said was the one where Espy lived.

They rode on rapidly, intending to go to the house and inquire for
Espy. Just before reaching the place, however, Phonny's attention was
arrested by his seeing some boys fishing on the bank of the stream,
just below the mill. It was at a place where the road lay along the
bank of the stream, at a little distance from it. The stream was very
broad at this place, and the water quite deep and clear. The ground
was smooth and green between the road and the water, and there were
large trees on the bank overshadowing the shore, so that it was a very
pleasant place.[B]

[Footnote B: See Front