ace to linger in; and directly after we had
taken our luncheon, we resumed our journey along the old trail, having a
hard jaunt before us (as Addison well knew) to reach the "old slave's
farm" before nightfall. There were a great many windfalls across the
trail from the "fort," to the stream; we were an hour at least making
the two miles, and the path along the bank was even worse, for freshets
had lodged great quantities of drift stuff on the flats, so that, at
last, we abandoned the trail altogether and took to the less obstructed
woods, a little back from the banks.

The stream is a pretty one, being here not above forty or fifty feet in
width, running over a sandy bed, sometimes pebbles, and again bending
around in a deep pool where there are trout of good size, or at least
were then.

It seemed a very long way to the opening; the girls were becoming tired;
and we boys with the baskets had quite enough of it, long before we
reached the ford which Addison and Thomas, who had been here before,
remembered to be near two very tall pines. Several times we feared that
we must have passed it; but finally, at about four o'clock, the great
bushy opening on the other side of the stream came in view. Immediately
then Addison saw the pines, and taking off our boots and stockings, we
all walked across on a sandy bar over which the water ran in a shallow,
being nowhere over a foot deep. It was quite cold, however, so that we
were glad to replace socks and boots, after crossing.

The old slave's cabins stood about two hundred yards from the brook and,
as above described, were situated some twenty yards apart. The land
about them had been cleared at one time and put into grass, or corn. But
low clumps of hazel-nut bushes were now growing around the cabins. About
a year previously a party of deer hunters had camped here for a few days
and, thinking the cabins snug and pleasant, had cleared them out nicely
and built bunks in them to sleep in. We found the remains of their old
couches of fir boughs still in the bunks. Their camp-fire had been made
in the open space, midway between the two cabins; and they had
constructed a species of stone fireplace for setting their kettles in.

"Here we are!" Addison exclaimed, as we set down our baskets. "What say
to this for a camping-place, girls!"

"Oh, this is jolly!" cried Kate. "And won't it be nice, Doad, we girls
can have a whole cabin all to ourselves! Now which one can we have?"

"Y