bed. Ellen, too, had gone to bed.

Next morning, affairs had not brightened much. Nobody spoke at the
breakfast table. The Elder's breakfast was carried in to him, and the
net result was that he did not preach that afternoon, as was expected;
another minister occupied the pulpit.

Gram gave up going to that quarterly meeting altogether. Shame was near
making her ill; and the clouds of chagrin hung low for several days.

It was not till Thursday, following, that Gram recovered her spirits and
temper sufficiently to inquire into it. Thursday morning she questioned
the whole of us with severity.

Little actual information was elicited, however, for the reason that the
most of us knew but little about it. We confessed what we knew, unless,
perhaps, Ad kept back something. We all--all except Theodora--knew that
we had previously taken elderberry instead of Van Tassel; and Gram gave
us an earnest lecture on the meanness of such concealments of facts. The
Old Squire said nothing at the time; but I think that he had some
private conversation with Addison concerning the matter.

The episode put a damper on the Vermifuge Bottle, however; it was never
quite so prominent afterwards. But I have digressed, and gone in advance
of my narrative of events at the old farm that season.

CHAPTER VII

IMMERSING THE LAMBS

The sheep were inclosed at the barn that night, partly that they might
not take cold, owing to the sudden loss of their winter coats, partly
also that, being pent up close with the lambs, all the parasites
("ticks") would leave the bare skins of the sheep and take refuge within
the partly grown fleeces of the lambs--and thus the more readily fall
victims to the bath which we had specially prepared for their
extermination on the morrow.

Immersing one hundred lambs, one by one, in a tubful of mingled poke and
tobacco juice is far from an agreeable task; it was a novelty to me
then, however, and I entered into it with much zeal and curiosity. I
wanted to see how the lambs would behave, and also how the parasites
would enjoy it. A boy's mind is eager for all kinds of visual
information.

We put on old clothes, and having set the tub containing the decoction
near the lean-to door of the barn, caught and brought forth the lambs,
one after another. Addison, by virtue of greater experience, undertook
the business of immersion, while Halstead and I caught the lambs. They
struggled vigorously, and the only pract