down at the one and looked off at the other by turns, in
a sort of peaceful musing and note-taking, altogether suited to the
October stillness and beauty. Now and then she got up to replenish the
fire. And then the beauty and her musing got the better of the reading,
and Faith sat with her book in her hand, looking out into the
dream-provoking atmosphere. No sound came from the far-off nut trees;
the crickets and grasshoppers and katydids alone broke the stillness of
the unused farm. Only they moved, and the wind-stirred leaves, and the
slow-creeping shadows.

When these last were but an hour's length from the tree stems, Faith
proposed an adjournment to the nut trees before the party should come
back to lunch. The fire was mended, the pot of coffee put on to warm;
and they locked the door and set out.

It was not hot that day, even under the meridian sun. They crossed an
orchard, and one or two farm fields, on the skirts of which grew single
trees of great beauty. White oaks that had seen hundreds of years, yet
stood in as fresh and hale green youth as the upstart of twenty;
sometimes a hemlock or a white pine stretching its lithe branches far
and wide and generously allowed to do so in despite of pasture and
crops. Then came broken ground, and beyond this a strip of fallow at
the further border of which stood a continuous wall of woodland, being
in fact the crest of the bank of the little river Faith had referred to.

And now, and truly for one or two fields before, the shouts and cries
of the nut-hunters rang through the air. For just edging, and edging
into, the border of trees last spoken of, were the great chestnuts and
hickories; and underneath and among them many little dark spots were
flying about; which spots, as Mrs. Derrick and Faith came up, enlarged
into the familiar outlines of boys' caps, jackets, and trowsers, and
ran about on two legs apiece.

CHAPTER X.

The two ladies paused at a safe distance,--there seemed to be nothing
but boys astir--boys and nuts; and these last not dropping from the
tree, but thrown from hand to hand (hand to head would be more correct)
of the busy throng. Some picking up, some throwing stones to bring
down, others at some flat stone 'shucking,' others still filling their
baskets. And four boys out of five, cracking and eating--whatever else
they were about. The grass, trodden down by the many feet, lay in
prostrate shadow at the foot of the great tree; and the sha