d in his little wooden wagon.

"If you go berrying this mornin', you've got to take Jonathan with you,"
Mrs. Thayer had said. "Dorcas is weaving, an' Lyddy an' I have got to
dye. You'll have to take him out in the pasture with you, an' tend him."

The berry pasture whither they were bound was about a half-mile from
home. The two boys scurried on ahead, the four yellow sun-bonnets
marched bravely on, and Jonathan's wagon rattled behind.

"The berries are real thick," said Harriet; "but they say the bushes are
loaded with 'em over in Cap'n Moseby's lot, an' they're as big as
walnuts."

"He can't use quarter of 'em himself," returned Mary Ann. "I call it
real stingy not to let folks go in there pickin'!" She nodded her
sun-bonnet indignantly.

When they reached the berry pasture, they fell to work eagerly.
Jonathan's wagon was drawn up on one side, under the shade of a
pine-tree, and Mirandy was bidden to have an eye to him. Nobody had much
faith in the seriousness of Mirandy's picking, and they thought that she
might as well tend Jonathan and leave them free.

But Mirandy stationed herself at a bush near Jonathan, and began with a
will. They all had birch baskets fastened at their waists to pick into,
and they had brought buckets to fill. Mirandy had hers as well as the
rest.

The yellow sun-bonnets and the palm-leaf hats waved about among the
bushes, and the berries fell fast into the birch-bark baskets. Mirandy
stayed close to Jonathan, as she had been bidden, and she struggled
bravely with her berry bush, but it was too tall for her; the bushes in
this pasture were very tall. Mirandy tugged the branches down, and
panted for breath. She was eager to fill her basket as soon as anybody.
She heard Harriet and Mary Ann talking near her, although she could not
see them.

"Cap'n Moseby's pasture is right over there. You get over the
stone-wall, and go across one field, and you come to it," remarked
Harriet.

"I s'pose the berries are as thick as spatters," said Mary Ann, with a
sigh.

"Dan'l says the bushes are dragging down with 'em."

"Well," said Mary Ann, "nobody would dare to go there, for he keeps that
great black dog, and I've heard he watches with a gun."

"So've I. No; I shouldn't dare to go. I s'pose it would be stealing,
anyway."

"I don't s'pose 'twould," rejoined Harriet, hotly. "I guess if anything
is free, berry pastures are. Who planted berry bushes, I'd like to
know?"

"I s'pose the Lord d