ll be up long before you are."

"Don't be too sure o' that."

It was delicious going to bed in that curious place, with the stars
shining in and the katydids singing. It gave them all a new view of
life.

"Now, the first feller that wakes up, yell," said Bert, as he crept
under the blanket.

"First feller asleep, whistle," said Lincoln.

"That won't be you, that's sure," grumbled Rance, already dozing.

As a matter of fact, no one slept much. About two o'clock they began,
first one, and then the other:

"Say, boys, don't you think it's about time?"

"Boys, it's gettin' daylight in the east!"

"No, it ain't. That's the moon."

At last the first faint light of the sun appeared, and Lincoln rose,
fed the horses, and harnessed them while the other boys got everything
else in readiness.

Mr. Jennings came out soon, and Mrs. Jennings got some hot coffee for
them, and before the sun was anywhere near the horizon, they said
good-by and were off. Mr. Jennings shouted many directions about the
road, while Mrs. Jennings told them again to be careful on the water.

To tell the truth, the boys were a little fagged at first, but at last
as the sun rose, the robins began to chatter, and the bobolinks began
to ring their fairy bells, and the boys broke into song. For the first
hour or two the road was familiar and excited no interest, but then
they came upon new roads, new fields, and new villages. Streams curved
down the slopes and ran musically across the road, as if on purpose to
water their horses. Wells beside the fences under silver-leaf maples
invited them to stop and drink and lunch. Boys they didn't know, on
their way to work, stopped and looked at them enviously. How glorious
it all was!

The sun grew hot, and at eleven o'clock they drew up in a beautiful
grove of oaks, beside a swift and sparkling little river, for dinner
and to rest their sweaty team. They concluded to eat doughnuts and
drink milk for that meal, and this gave them time to fish a little and
swim a good deal, while the horses munched hay under the trees.

After a good long rest, they hitched the team in again and started on
toward the west. They had still half-way (twenty-five miles) to go. The
way grew stranger. The land, more broken and treeless, seemed very
wonderful to them. They came into a region full of dry lake-beds, and
Bert, who had a taste for geology, explained the cause of the valleys
so level at the bottom, and pointed out the