the end of the lever and release it; the
weight of the pen would then close the gap. Behind this rail the
acorns were to be thrown; and the hogs, in trying to get the bait,
would push the rail, free the lever or trigger, and the gap would be
closed by the fall of the pen when the lever was released.

It was nearly night when the boys finished.

They scattered a portion of the acorns for bait along the path and up
into the pen, to toll the hogs in. The rest they strewed inside the
pen, beyond their sliding rail.

They could scarcely tear themselves away from the pen; but it was so
late they had to hurry home.

Next day was Sunday. But Monday morning, by daylight, they were up and
went out with their guns, apparently to hunt squirrels. They went,
however, straight to their trap. As they approached they thought they
heard the hogs grunting in the pen. Willy was sure of it; and they ran
as hard as they could. But there were no hogs there. After going every
morning and evening for two weeks, there never had been even an acorn
missed, so they stopped their visits.

Peter and Cole found out about the pen, and then the servants learned
of it, and the boys were joked and laughed at unmercifully.

"I believe them boys is distracted," said old Balla, in the kitchen;
"settin' a pen in them woods for to ketch hogs,--with the gap open!
Think hogs goin' stay in pen with gap open--ef any wuz dyah to went
in!"

"Well, you come out and help us hunt for them," said the boys to the
old driver.

"Go 'way, boy, I ain' got time foolin' wid you chillern, buildin' pen
in swamp. There ain't no hogs in them woods, onless they got in dyah
sence las' fall."

"You saw 'em, didn't you, Willy?" declared Frank.

"Yes, I did."

"Go 'way. Don't you know, ef that old sow had been in them woods, the
boys would have got her up las' fall--an' ef they hadn't, she'd come
up long befo' this?"

"Mister Hall ketch you boys puttin' his hogs up in pen, he'll teck you
up," said Lucy Ann, in her usual teasing way.

This was too much for the boys to stand after all they had done. Uncle
Balla must be right. They would have to admit it. The hogs must have
belonged to some one else. And their mother was in such desperate
straits about meat!

Lucy Ann's last shot, about catching Mr. Hall's hogs, took effect; and
the boys agreed that they would go out some afternoon and pull the pen
down.

The next afternoon they took their guns, and started out on a