ep, below
where ice freezes."

"How do you know?" questioned Esther, a little doubtfully.

"Father told me. And I have seen their houses over in the mill meadow,
where the brook is as wide as this whole clearing."

Before Faith had finished her story of how beavers could cut down
trees with their sharp teeth, and of the dams they built across
streams, Esther was fast asleep.

Faith lay awake thinking over all that Esther had said about school;
about seeing little girls and boys of her own age, and of games and
parties. Then with a little sigh of content she whispered to herself:
"I guess I'd be lonesome without father and mother and the brook."

Mrs. Carew had heard Esther's suggestion about Faith going to Brandon
to go to school, and after the little girls had gone to bed she spoke
of it to Faith's father, as they sat together before the fire.

"Perhaps we ought to send Faithie where she could go to school and be
with other children," said Mr. Carew, "but I hardly know how we could
spare her."

There was a little silence, for the father and mother knew that their
pleasant home on the slope of the hillside would be a very different
place without their little maid.

"But of course we would not think of Brandon," continued Faith's
father. "If we must let her go, why, her Aunt Priscilla will give her
a warm welcome and take good care of the child; and the school at
Ticonderoga is doubtless a good one."

"Esther seems sorry for her mischief, but I should not wish Faith to
be with her so far from home. Perhaps we had best send some word to
Priscilla by the next traveler who goes that way, and ask her if Faith
may go to her for the winter months," said Mrs. Carew.

So, while Faith described the beaver's home to the sleepy Esther, it
was settled that as soon as it could be arranged she should go to stay
with her Aunt Priscilla in the village of Ticonderoga, across Lake
Champlain, and go to school.

"If 'twere not that some stray Indians might happen along and make a
bonfire of our house and mill we might plan for a month's visit
ourselves," said Mr. Carew.

"We must not think of it," responded his wife. For the log cabin home
was very dear to her, and at that time the Indians, often incited by
the British in command of the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
burned the homes of settlers who held their land through grants given
by the New Hampshire government.

"More settlers are coming into this region every