dows of
other trees fell and met in soft wavy outline. From the side of one old
tree a family of grey squirrels looked out, to see the besiegers lay
waste the surrounding country; in the top of another--a tall hickory,
full clad with golden leaves, Mr. Linden sat--to view the same country
himself; well knowing that he had given the boys full occupation for at
least fifteen minutes. He was not very visible from below, so thickly
did the gold leaves close him in; but Faith heard one of the boys call
out,

"You Johnny Fax! if you throw stones in _that_ tree, you'll hit Mr.
Linden."

"Trust Johnny Fax for not never throwin' so high as _he_ is," said Joe
Deacon.

"I don't _want_ to--" said Johnny Fax--"I don't want to fetch _him_
down."

Whereupon there was a general shout, and "Guess you'd better not,
Johnny!"--"He might come, if you didn't just hit him," vociferated from
various quarters.

"My!" Mrs. Derrick said, surveying the golden hickory, "how on earth
did he ever get up?--And how _do_ you s'pose, Faith, he'll ever get
down!"

Faith's low laugh was her only answer; but it would have told, to
anybody who could thoroughly have translated it, Faith's mind on both
points.

Apparently he was in no haste to come down--certainly meant to send the
nuts first; for a sudden shower of hickory nuts and leaves swept away
every boy from the tree near which Faith and her mother stood, and
threw them all into its vortex. Drop, drop, the nuts came down, with
their sweet patter upon the grass; while the golden leaves fell singly
or in sprays, or floated off upon the calm air.

"Child," said Mrs. Derrick, "how pretty it is! I haven't seen such a
sight since--since a long while ago," she added with a sobering face.

"I want to be there under the tree," said Faith looking on enviously.
"No mother--and I haven't seen it before in a long time, either. It's
as pretty as it can be!"

"Run along then, child," said her mother,--"only take care of your
eyes. Why shouldn't you? I don't want to pick up nuts myself, but I'll
go down and pick you up."

Faith however kept away from the crowd under the hickory tree; and went
peering about under some others where the ground was beaten and the
branches had been, and soon found enough spoil to be hammering away
with a stone on a rock like the rest. But she couldn't escape the boys
so, for little runners came to her constantly. One brought a handful of
nuts, another a better stone--while