them," she asked, "if the hens hide them away so
carefully?"

"Oh, you'll hear 'em scrattlin' round!" replied the farmer. "They're
gret fools, hens are,--greter than folks, as a rule; an' that is sayin'
a good deal."

They crossed the great sunny barn-yard, and paused at the barn-door,
while Hilda looked in with delight. A broad floor, big enough for a
ballroom, with towering walls of fragrant hay on either side reaching
up to the rafters; great doors open at the farther end, showing a snatch
of blue, radiant sky, and a lovely wood-road winding away into deep
thickets of birch and linden; dusty, golden, cobwebby sunbeams slanting
down through the little windows, and touching the tossed hay-piles into
gold; and in the middle, hanging by iron chains from the great central
beam, a swing, almost big enough for a giant,--such was the barn at
Hartley Farm; as pleasant a place, Hilda thought, as she had ever seen.

"Waal, Huldy, I'll leave ye heer," said the farmer; "ye kin find yer way
home, I reckon."

"Oh, yes, indeed!" said Hilda. "But stop one moment, please, Farmer
Hartley. I want to know--will you please--may I teach Bubble Chirk a
little?" The farmer gave a low whistle of surprise; but Hilda went on
eagerly: "I found him studying, this morning, while he was weeding the
garden,--oh! studying so hard, and yet not neglecting his work for a
minute. He seems a very bright boy, and it is a pity he should not have
a good education. Could you spare him, do you think, for an hour every
day?" She stopped, while the farmer looked at her with a merry twinkle
in his eye.

"You teach Bubble Chirk!" he said. "Why, what would your fine friends
say to that, Miss Huldy? Bubble ain't nothin' but a common farm-boy, if
he _is_ bright; an' I ain't denyin' that he is."

"I don't know what they would say," said Hildegarde, blushing hotly,
"and I don't care, either! I know what mamma would do in my place; and
so do you, Farmer Hartley!" she added, with a little touch of
indignation.

"Waal, I reckon I do!" said Farmer Hartley. "And I know who looks like
her mother, this minute, though I never thought she would. Yes!" he
said, more seriously, "you shall teach Bubble Chirk, my gal; and it's my
belief 'twill bring you a blessin' as well as him. Ye are yer mother's
darter, after all. Shall I give ye a swing now, before I go; or are ye
too big to swing!"

"I--don't--know!" said Hildegarde, eying the swing wistfully. "Am I too
big, I wond