to thank for it," he added, looking
distressed.

Theodora could not stand that another minute. She stole round behind the
old Squire's chair, put her arms about his neck, and whispered something
in his ear.

"What!" he exclaimed, incredulously.

"Yes!" she cried to him.

"Impossible, child!" said he.

"No, it isn't!" shouted Addison. "We've got that birch off, sir. It is
all sawn up in bolts and out on the lake!"

"What, in a week?" exclaimed the old Squire.

"All in five days, sir!" cried Addison and I.

The old gentleman sat looking at us in blank surprise. He was an
experienced lumberman, and knew exactly what such a statement as ours
implied.

"Not three hundred cords?" said he, gravely.

"Close on to that, sir!" cried Addison.

Thereupon we all began to tell him about it at once. None of us could
remain quiet. But it was not till we had related the whole story, and
told him who had helped us, along with Addison's scheme of hiring the
horse-power and saw, that he really believed it. He sprang up, walked
twice across the sitting-room, then stopped short and looked at us.

"Boys, I'm proud of you!" he exclaimed. "Proud of you! I couldn't have
done as well myself."

"Yes, Joseph, they're chips of the old block!" grandmother chimed in.
"And we've beaten that wicked woman!"

Mrs. Lurvey, as I may add here, was far from sharing in our exultation.
She was a person of violent temper. It was said that she shook with rage
when she heard what we boys had done. But her lawyer advised her to keep
quiet.

During the next two weeks the birch bolts were drawn to our mill, four
miles down Lurvey's Stream, and sawn into thin strips and dowels, then
shipped in bundles, by rail and schooner from Portland, to New York; and
the contract netted the old Squire about twenty-five hundred dollars
above the cost of the birch.

But as I look back on it, I am inclined to think that Aunt Olive was the
real heroine of that strenuous week.

NOTE. The following recipe will make a sufficient quantity
of "white monkey" for three persons. Put over the fire one pint of
new milk in a double boiler. As soon as the milk is warm, stir in
one teaspoonful of flour mixed with two tablespoonfuls of cold
water. As the milk gets hotter, add slowly, so as to dissolve it,
two ounces of cheese, grated or chipped fine. Then add one ounce of
butter, a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of Cayenne pepper, and one