, according to Addison's reckoning,"
said Theodora.

"Very fair wages for us!" said Kate. "I would even work for less."

"None of your jokes!" exclaimed Addison.

"I think that I could get a living, digging spruce gum up here," Kate
went on. "Spruce gum is said to bring a dollar per pound, when nice and
clean; I could dig gum days, and scrape it clean evenings, and live in
the 'old slave's cabin;' that is, I could if the '_deer_' didn't scare
me away," she added, with a significant glance at us boys which made us
feel rather foolish.

"Kate, you are almost as knowing as your grandma!" exclaimed Tom,
derisively; "and you're not a quarter as old yet. Fact, you are almost
too knowing for your age."

"Don't think other folks are too knowing because you are a little
backward yourself, Thomas!" cried Kate. "Your _deer_ stories are not
quite right; there is something weak in them."

"Take a swallow of cold water in your mouth, Tom," said Addison,
laughing.

Luncheon being disposed of, we gathered up our specimen crystals and the
fragments of rose quartz, packed the crystals in moss, in the pail, and
then tied up the rose quartz in one of our jackets. The latter made a
rather heavy pack and, together with the pail, proved quite a load down
the mountain and back through the woods to the opening. Willis took the
_deer_ skin; and Tom carried the _deer_ meat. We returned across the
wooded intervale, seeing no game but a partridge, which Willis shot, and
reached the ford and the cabins at about four o'clock in the afternoon.

All of us were somewhat tired and sat down on the grass, or the benches,
to rest awhile. The sun had already sunk near the tree-tops again; for
by October 20th the afternoons are short in Maine. It was chilly, too.

"There will be a harder frost to-night than there was last night,"
Addison remarked.

Thomas brought wood and kindled a fire. "We must be stirring," he said.
"It takes a long time to get dinner."

"What are we going to have to-day for dinner?" Ellen asked.

"_Deer_ steak, I suppose," said Catherine, laughing.

"We must have those partridges that Willis shot this morning," said
Addison.

"I can catch more trout," said Thomas.

"No; let's have the trout for breakfast," remarked Theodora. "They are
splendid, fresh caught, for breakfast."

Willis went to get the partridges which he had hung up in a clump of
hazels, a little way back of the cabins, but immediately returned,
saying th