ouse together.

"That boy? That boy is a very smart boy."

"But is he studying Greek?"

"What makes you ask so?"

"Because there was a Greek book and a dictionary there in the
boat with him."

"Then I suppose he is studying it," said Mr. Herder.

Elizabeth changed her mind and agreed to go with the huckle-
berry party; but she carried a book with her and sat in a
corner with it, seldom giving her eyes to anything beside.

Yet there was enough on every hand to call them away. The soft
grey sky and grey water, the deep heavy-green foliage of the
banks, and the fine quiet outlines of the further mountains,
set off by no brilliant points of light and shade, -- made a
picture rare in its kind of beauty. Its colouring was not the
cold grey of the autumn, only a soft mellow chastening of
summer's gorgeousness. A little ripple on the water, -- a
little fleckiness in the cloud, -- a quiet air; it was one of
summer's choice days, when she escapes from the sun's fierce
watch and sits down to rest herself. But Elizabeth's eyes, if
they wavered at all, were called off by some burst of the
noisy sociability of the party, in which she deigned not to
share. Her cousin, Mr. Herder, Rufus, Asahel, and Winifred,
were in full cry after pleasure; and a cheery hunt they made
of it.

"Miss Elisabet' does look grave at us," said the naturalist, --
"she is the only one wise of us all; she does nothing but
read. What are you reading, Miss Elisabet'?"

"Something you don't know, Mr. Herder."

"O it's only a novel," said her cousin; "she reads nothing but
novels."

"That's not true, Rose Cadwallader, and you know it."

"A novel!" said Mr. Herder. "Ah! -- yes -- that is what the
ladies read -- they do not trouble themselves wiz ugly big
dictionaries -- they have easy times."

He did not mean any reproof; but Elizabeth's cheek coloured
exceedingly and for several minutes kept its glow; and though
her eyes still held to the book, her mind had lost it.

The boat coasted along the shore, down to the head of the bay,
where the huckleberry region began; and then drew as close in
to the bank as possible. No more was necessary to get at the
fruit, for the bushes grew down to the very water's edge and
hung over, black with berries, though us Asahel remarked, a
great many of them were _blue_. Everybody had baskets, and now
the fun was to hold the baskets under and fill them from the
overhanging bunches as fast as they could; though in t