m 's if dey ever grow big ernough fer nothin'."

She ladled out the scalded meal, mixed with bits of broken bread. The
little girl laughed and nodded and crossed the small bridge that spanned
the creek. The spring, or rather the series of them, ran around the
house and down past the kitchen, then widened out into quite a pond
where the ducks and geese disported themselves, and the cows always
paused to drink on their way to the barn.

She went down to the barn. On the carriage-house side in the sun were
some chicken-coops. Pretty little chicks whose mothers had "stolen
their nests;" thirty-two of various sizes, and they belonged to the
little girl. She rarely forgot them.

There were plenty of chores for Ben and Jim. They drove the cows to
pasture, chopped wood, picked apples, and dug potatoes. You wondered how
they found any time for play or study.

Jim "tagged" the little girl as she came back with her pail. She could
run like a deer.

"Here you, Jim!" called Aunt Mary, "you jes' take dis pail an' git some
of dem big blackbre'es fer supper steder gallopin' roun' like a wild
palakin ob de desert!" and she held out the shining pail.

A "palakin of the desert" was Aunt Mary's favorite simile. In vain had
Margaret explained that the pelican was a bird and couldn't gallop.

"Laws, honey," the old woman would reply, "I aint hankerin' arter any ob
dis new book larnin'. I's a heap too old fer 'rithmertic an' 'stology. I
jes' keeps to de plain Bible dat served de chillen of Isrul in de
wilderness. Some day, Miss Peggy, when you's waded tru seas o' trubble
an' come out on de good Lord's side an' made your callin' an' 'lection
sure, you'll know more 'bout it I done reckon."

"Come with me, do, Hanny," pleaded Jim. "You can walk along the stone
fence and pick the high ones and we'll fill the kittle in no time."

Jim thought if he had made a spelling-book, he would have spelled the
word that way. Jim would have been a master hand at phonetics.

The little girl crossed two of her fingers. That was a sign of truce in
the game.

"No play till we come back," said Jim.

The little girl nodded and ran for her mitts of strong muslin with the
thumb and finger ends out. The briars were so apt to tear your hands.

They ran a race down to the blackberry patch. Then they sat on the fence
and ate berries. It was really a broad, handsome wall. There were so
many stones on the ground that they built the walls as they "cleared
up."