nd
tall for a hundred feet and more, their trunks seamed and scarred, their
clouds of dusky green plumes tossing far overhead; the hemlocks were no
less massive in girth, but they were twisted into all manner of
grotesque shapes, and their feathery branches hung low, making a dense
canopy over the heads of the picnickers. Here, under one of these
hemlocks, the cloth had been laid, and decorated with ferns and hemlock
tassels. Then the baskets were unpacked, and the campers feasted as only
dwellers in the open air can feast. Ham and pasty, sandwiches and rolls,
jam and doughnuts--nothing seemed to come amiss; and they finished off
with a watermelon of such mighty proportions that it took all the
united energies of the boys to dispose of it.

But it was finally disposed of, and now came the hour that is apt to be
a little difficult at picnics; the hour between the feast and the going
home.

"I have a new game," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Perhaps you would like to
try it presently; but first, Colonel Ferrers, while the boys are
skylarking, or rather tree-larking, up there, I want to hear the story
you were telling Miles on the drive over. I could not hear very well on
the back seat, and besides, I was making up my game. It was some
adventure of yours when you were a boy."

"Capital story!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Do tell it, Colonel; I want to
hear it again."

The Colonel smiled, and puffed meditatively at his cigar.

"Story of the barrel, eh?" he said. "Upon my word, now, I think it is
pretty hard to make me tell that story before all these young people.
What do you say, Gertrude? you don't want to hear about your old
friend's being a young fool, do you?"

"Oh! Colonel Ferrers," said Gertrude; "a story that makes your eyes
twinkle so must be one that we all want to hear. Do begin, please!"

And all the girls, who had been putting away the table-cloth and
"tidying-up" generally, gathered about the Colonel in an eager group.

"Well! well!" he said, glancing from one bright face to another. "After
all, what are we old fogies for, but to point a moral and adorn a tale?
Listen, then. This happened when I was a young jackanapes of about my
nephew's age; I knew everything in the world then, you understand, and
nobody else knew much of anything. That was my belief, as it is the
belief of most young men."

"Uncle," said a voice from above, "there are three young men up here who
are prepared to drop things on your head if