at she knew of places in the house in
which she could make a hoard that would be hard for us to find; but the
girls declared that they would like to see her try to hide a hoard away
from them.

Not many days after these conversations had occurred, the Old Squire
rather ostentatiously took a very fine August Pippin from his pocket, as
we were gathering round the breakfast table, and, after thumbing it
approvingly, set it beside his plate, remarking, incidentally, that if
one wanted his apples to ripen well, and have just the right flavor, it
was necessary that he should place his hoard in some dry, clean,
perfectly sweet place.

Of course we were not long in taking so broad a hint as that. Several
sly nudges and winks went around the table.

"He's got one!" Addison whispered to me, as Gram poured the coffee, and
from that time the Old Squire, in all his goings and comings, was a
marked man. He had thrown down a challenge to us, and we were determined
to prove that we were as smart as he had been in his youthful days. But
for more than a week we were unable to gain the slightest hint as to
where his preserve was situated. Meantime Gram had also begun to place a
nice August Sweet beside her own plate every morning, as she glanced
with a twinkle in her eye over to the Old Squire.

We rummaged everywhere that week, and even forgot to carry on mutual
injury and reprisal, in our desire to humble the pride of our elders.
We even bethought ourselves of the words "perfectly sweet," which the
old gentleman had used in connection with hoards, and looked in the
sugar barrel, but quite in vain. Yet all the while we were daily going
by the place where the Old Squire's hoard was concealed; passing so near
it that we might have laid hands on it without stepping out of our way,
for it was in the wood-house beside the walk which led past the tiered
up stove wood into the wagon-house and stable.

Ten or twelve cords of wood, sawed short and split, had been piled
loosely into the back part of the wood-house, but in front of this loose
pile, and next the plank walk, the wood had been tiered up evenly and
closely to a height of ten feet. The Old Squire managed to pull from
this tier, at a height of about four feet, a good-sized block, and then,
reaching in behind it, had made a considerable cavity. Here he deposited
his apples, replacing the block, which fitted to its place in the tier
so well that the woodpile appeared as if it had not