edition, "and then we 'll hang up the basket on
some peg inside the house out o' the way o' the sheep, and have a
han'some entertainment as we 're comin' back. She 'll be all through
her little dinner when we get there, Mis' Martin will; but she 'll want
to make us some tea, an' we must have our visit an' be startin' back
pretty soon after two. I don't want to cross all that low ground again
after it's begun to grow chilly. An' it looks to me as if the clouds
might begin to gather late in the afternoon."

Before us lay a splendid world of sea and shore. The autumn colors
already brightened the landscape; and here and there at the edge of a
dark tract of pointed firs stood a row of bright swamp-maples like
scarlet flowers. The blue sea and the great tide inlets were
untroubled by the lightest winds.

"Poor land, this is!" sighed Mrs. Todd as we sat down to rest on the
worn doorstep. "I 've known three good hard-workin' families that come
here full o' hope an' pride and tried to make something o' this farm,
but it beat 'em all. There 's one small field that's excellent for
potatoes if you let half of it rest every year; but the land 's always
hungry. Now, you see them little peaked-topped spruces an' fir balsams
comin' up over the hill all green an' hearty; they 've got it all their
own way! Seems sometimes as if wild Natur' got jealous over a certain
spot, and wanted to do just as she 'd a mind to. You 'll see here; she
'll do her own ploughin' an' harrowin' with frost an' wet, an' plant
just what she wants and wait for her own crops. Man can't do nothin'
with it, try as he may. I tell you those little trees means business!"

I looked down the slope, and felt as if we ourselves were likely to be
surrounded and overcome if we lingered too long. There was a vigor of
growth, a persistence and savagery about the sturdy little trees that
put weak human nature at complete defiance. One felt a sudden pity for
the men and women who had been worsted after a long fight in that
lonely place; one felt a sudden fear of the unconquerable, immediate
forces of Nature, as in the irresistible moment of a thunderstorm.

"I can recollect the time when folks were shy o' these woods we just
come through," said Mrs. Todd seriously. "The men-folks themselves
never 'd venture into 'em alone; if their cattle got strayed they 'd
collect whoever they could get, and start off all together. They said
a person was liable to get bewi