we climb," cried Ivy.

"Well, he'd make a better ladder than anything else, he's so bony;
besides that he'd rather stand still any day and let us climb him!"

"You ungrateful Mat! But, Oh, girls and boys, to sit and let the air
blow upon us, and feast our eyes on the glorious sunrise and the lovely
green fields and flowers! The air is like champagne I tasted once,
kind of thin and clear and nippy and refreshing!"

"If I knew you were a boozer, Miss Bonner, nothing would have induced
me to undertake the management of this nervous racer. If the air
brings on an attack of the delirium tremenjous, how can I manage the
two of you?"

"Just manage your own tongue, Mr. Lee, but that would be an
impossibility," said Ivy.

"Talking of wine and things reminds me of Claude," said Laura. "I
overtook him coming down street the other day and we walked together.
He stopped to peer in at the bars of the jail. 'I'd hate to be put in
a stall like the poor drunkards.' (He called them Dunkards.) 'And I'm
sure you never will, Claude,' said I. He threw back his shoulders and
said, 'Well, I drank root-beer till I was six years old and then swore
off and haven't drank a drop since!' I could have screeched!"

Hugh laughed heartily.

"The little scamp! He insisted on taking the pledge when I did last
year! The temperance lecturer was here. He was a speaker, I can tell
you! When he cried that ancient warning:

'Young men, Ahoy there!
'What is it?'
'The rapids are below you.'

I could see some of our old soaks shrinking in their seats; and when he
wound up, 'Shrieking, howling, blaspheming, over they go,' it was
simply immense! There was such a stampede for the platform that you'd
think we were drowning, and scrambling for life-buoys. I knew from the
way Mother spoke when I set out for the hall that she would like me to
pledge myself. Someway I didn't see any use in it, but that lecturer
made me see lots of things, so I up and followed old man Potter who
hadn't drawn a sober breath ever since I could remember. Claude clung
to my coat-tails. "I want a ribbon, too!" he screamed. The lecturer
gave one look at the little shaver and the crowd roared as he pinned a
badge on the boy's coat. Ah, here we are at the patch!"

Mat turned the horse into a lane leading to the left.

"Here's your bonnet, Alene," cried Laura. "Don't forget the buckets,
boys!"

Mat tied Old Hurricane to the fence beneath a shady tree and