by mail, which, when dissolved and applied to my upper lip, would
produce a moustache in the course of three or four weeks. I laid it
away, thinking that I was perhaps not quite old enough for so ambitious
an effort, but that it might be of importance to me, later.

We went to "Tom's fort" again on Wednesday evening; and I remember that
one of the stones in the fireplace exploded that night. It burst in
several pieces with a sharp report like that of a pistol. One of these
hit Halse, scorching his wrist somewhat. At first we thought that
someone had mischievously put powder in the fireplace; but after
examining the pieces of stone carefully, Addison decided that it had
burst from some unequal expansion of its substance, or of moisture in
it, due to the heat.

That night, too, those long-delayed ambrotypes came home from artist
Lockett. Lockett sent them up to us by Mr. Edwards, who had driven to
the village that day.

In the sitting-room, that evening, after returning from the "fort," we
examined them with great interest, each anxious to see what the result
had been to us, personally. Halstead, I recollect, was wofully
disappointed in his. Truth to say, the picture was far from good; and it
is supposed that he destroyed it, later, in a fit of pique, for it
mysteriously disappeared.

Indeed, the history of that day's little crop of ambrotypes is rather
tragic. The Old Squire's and Gram's, alas, were lost in the farmhouse
fire (1883). Addison's and Theodora's shared the same fate. Ellen lent
hers to her first sweetheart, a college student named Cobb, at Colby
University. He was unfortunately drowned a few months later; and for
some cause the ambrotype was not returned. Little Wealthy's alone has
survived the vicissitudes of time.

The pictures in this book are mainly from photographs taken
subsequently.

CHAPTER XXII

HIGH TIMES

Truth to say, we had a pretty "high time" that week. When not at Tom's
fort evenings, our youthful neighbors came to our house. Sweet corn was
in the "milk;" and early apples, pears and plums were ripe. We roasted
corn ears and played hide-and-seek by moonlight, over the house,
wagon-house, wood-shed, granary and both barns.

I am inclined to believe that the Old Squire did not leave work enough
to keep us properly out of that idleness which leads to mischief. For on
the afternoon of the fourth day, we broke one wheel of the ox cart and
hay rack, while "coasting" in it. There