ath, winding among the huge boulders, brought them within sound of
Pounder's Brook. 'Phemie laughed now at the remembrance of her intimate
acquaintance with that brook the day they had first come to Hillcrest.

It broadened here in a deep brown pool under an overhanging boulder. A
big beech tree, too, shaded it. It certainly was a most attractive place.

"Wish I was a boy!" gasped 'Phemie, in delight. "I certainly would get
a bathing suit and come up here like Harris Colesworth. And Lucas comes
here and plunges in after his day's work--he told me so."

"Dear me! I hope nobody will come here for a bath just now," observed
Lyddy. "It would be rather awkward."

"And I reckon the water's cold, too," agreed her sister, with a giggle.
"This stream is fed by a dozen different springs around among the rocks
here, so Lucas says. And I expect one spring is just a little colder than
another!"

"Oh, look!" exclaimed Lyddy. "There are the strawberries."

The girls were down upon their knees immediately, picking into their
tins--and their mouths. They could not resist the luscious berries--"tame"
strawberries never can be as sweet as the wild kind.

And this patch near the swimming hole afforded a splendid crop. The girls
saw that they might come here again and again to pick berries for their
table--and every free boon of Nature like this helped in the management of
the boarding house!

But suddenly--when their kettles were near full--'Phemie jumped up with a
shrill whisper:

"What's that?"

"Hush, 'Phemie!" exclaimed her sister. "How you scared me."

"Hush yourself! don't you hear it?"

Lyddy did. Surely that was a strange clinking noise to be heard up here
in the woods. It sounded like a milkman going along the street carrying
a bunch of empty bottles.

"It's no wild animal--unless he's got glass teeth and is gnashing 'em,"
giggled 'Phemie. "Come on! I want to know what it means."

"I wouldn't, 'Phemie----"

"Well, _I_ would, Lyddy. Come on! Who's afraid of bottles?"

"But _is_ it bottles we hear?"

"We'll find out in a jiff," declared her younger sister, leading the way
deeper into the woods.

The sound was from up stream. They followed the noisy brook for some
hundreds of yards. Then they came suddenly upon a little hollow, where
water dripped over a huge boulder into another still pool--but smaller
than the swimming hole.

Behind the drip of the water was a ledge, and on this ledge stood a row of
variousl