d-TTRSWBWDGE 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 5=^ 
 
J. T. TROWBRIDGE^S BOOKS 
 
 NOVELS 
 
 Cloth. Price $1.50 each 
 
 Farnell s Folly 
 
 Coupon Bonds and Other Stories 
 Neighbor Jackwood. Revised Ed. 
 Cudjo s Cave 
 
 The Three Scouts 
 The Drummer Boy 
 Martin Merrivale, His X 
 Neighbors Wives 
 
 JUVENILES 
 
 AU Handsomely Illustrated, xamo. Cloth 
 
 SILVER MEDAL STORIES 
 Price $1.25 each 
 
 The Silver Medal 
 His Own Maste* 
 Bound in Honor 
 
 The Pocket-Rifle 
 The Jolly Rover 
 Young Joe and Other Boys 
 
 THE TIDE-MILL STORIES 
 Price $1.25 each 
 
 Phil and His Frienfls 
 
 The Tinkham Brothers Tide-Mill 
 
 The Satin wood Box 
 
 The Little Master 
 His One Fault 
 Peter Budstone 
 
 START IN LIFE STORIES 
 
 A Start in Life 
 Biding His Time 
 The Lottery Ticket 
 The Kelp-Gatherers 
 
 Price $i.oo each 
 
 The Scarlet Tanager 
 The Adventures of David Vane 
 and David Crane 
 
 TOBT TRAFFORD SERIES 
 
 Price $i.a$ each 
 
 The Fortimeg of Toby Trafford I Woodie Thorpe s Pilgrimage and 
 Father Brighthopes | Other Stories 
 
 A Pair of Madcaps. Price $1.50 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., Boston 
 
A START IN LIFE 
 
 A STORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY 
 
 BY 
 
 J. T. TROWBRIDGE 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1888, 
 Br J. T. TROWBRIDOI 
 
 AU Rights Reserved. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Shows that one need not go barefoot even 
 
 when one is without shoes 9 
 
 II. A good hand with an axe, but poor at figures, 16 
 
 III, A startling question from the friendly store 
 
 keeper 23 
 
 IV. Our hero appears in his new rig, and mounted 
 
 on Mr. Brooke s best horse 29 
 
 V. Why Eli Westlake was not so glad as he 
 
 might have been to see his younger brother, 38 
 VI. A short leave-taking and a long journey . . 45 
 VII. Walden enters the new settlement, and dis 
 covers an old acquaintance eating Johnny- 
 cake 61 
 
 VIII. A backwoods lodging, about which there was 
 
 destined to be some dispute 8 
 
 IX. Demonstration by a schoolmaster that a man 
 may sometimes come down a ladder more 
 
 rapidly than he went up 63 
 
 X. Shows who did, and who did not, sleep in the 
 
 loft at the top of the ladder 63 
 
 XL Mr. A. Randolph Hedgewick fails to see that 
 one good turn at a grindstone deserves 
 another . . . 75 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XII. Mr. Brooke settles one dispute, and Mr. Gad- 
 bury is chosen umpire in another that it 
 led to 81 
 
 XIII. The grinders of the two axes have a rare 
 
 opportunity to try their edge 87 
 
 XIV. Mr. Gadbury s novel method of raising pota 
 
 toes, and how it succeeded 97 
 
 XV. A coon-hunt with a dog that was not a coon- 
 dog 105 
 
 XVI. A true family history of a kitten, a puppy, 
 
 and a young raccoon 116 
 
 XVII. Mr. Hedgewick thinks it time for him to quit, 
 and is surprised to find his employer of the 
 
 same opinion 122 
 
 XVHI. A bee-hunt, which shows that they don t 
 always get the most honey who receive the 
 
 most stings 129 
 
 XIX. A burglary, which looked also like a revenge, 140 
 XX. In which Gadbury s old Revolutionary mus 
 ket plays an interesting part 146 
 
 XXI. End of the tragical episode of the burglar, 
 
 and also of this history 159 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " He had nothing on his feet but some old rags loosely 
 
 tied with strings" 9 
 
 " Eli stood by the steers, looking up with a scowl at 
 
 the boy on the horse " 43 
 
 In the new settlement 54 
 
 How Walden ground his axe 84 
 
 Chopping for a wager 99 
 
 A successful coon-hunt HT 
 
 Carrying home the honey 140 
 
 "Shaggy, savage, dying, but still turning to strike and 
 
 snarl" . 16 
 
A START IN LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SHOWS THAT ONE NEED NOT GO BABEFOOT EVEN WHEN 
 ONE IS WITHOUT SHOES. 
 
 WHEN the region lying west of the Mohawk 
 River was mostly a wilderness, and the oldest of 
 the towns which now star its banks were little 
 more than frontier villages, in the streets of 
 one of them, bearing then, as now, the impe 
 rial name of Rome, there appeared, at the close 
 of a gloomy afternoon, a limping, overgrown 
 boy. 
 
 He was about seventeen years old, and per 
 haps not large for his age ; it might have been 
 the gauntness of his frame and the shortness 
 of his rent coat-sleeves and tattered trousers 
 which gave him his overgrown appearance. 
 He did not limp because he was lame, but he 
 had nothing on his feet but some old rags 
 9 
 
10 A START IN LIFE 
 
 loosely tied with strings ; they were continu 
 ally getting awry, and he had to pick his way 
 over sharp clods. 
 
 It was late in November; and what is now a 
 handsome street, well paved, with level side 
 walks, fine residences and showy shops, was 
 then a rough wagon-road cut up into gullies 
 and ruts ; the puddles had become ice, and the 
 wrinkles and ridges of frozen mud were cruel 
 to unprotected feet. 
 
 The wayfarer stopped occasionally to adjust 
 his bandages and tighten the strings at his 
 ankles, and at last turned up at a store, the 
 front of which bore the sign, 
 
 BROOKE BROTHERS & Co. 
 
 As he entered, he took from his jacket pocket 
 a crumpled paper, which he handed to a man 
 who came forward, and then watched with 
 painful solicitude while he unfolded the scrap 
 and pursed his brows together over it, as if 
 either it were hard to read, or its contents 
 were unsatisfactory. 
 
ONE NEED NOT GO BAREFOOT 11 
 
 "Did Thomas Tadmore give you this?" the 
 storekeeper inquired. 
 
 "Yes, sir," faltered the short-sleeved, bare- 
 ankled boy. 
 
 " You are Walden Westlake ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir. I have worke^. for him all 
 summer. He has never paid me anything. I 
 have got through now ; and when I asked for 
 my money he gave me this." 
 
 "It s an order for clothes and shoes, to the 
 amount of twenty dollars," the storekeeper 
 said to another man who now came forward. 
 " We don t owe Thomas Tadmore twenty dol 
 lars, do we ? " 
 
 " We don t owe anybody by that name any 
 thing ; not a dollar," said the second man, who 
 was considerably older than the first, reaching 
 for the paper. "This looks like one of Tad- 
 more s tricks." 
 
 The gaunt youth seemed to grow gaunter 
 than ever at these words, and his anxious face 
 took on an expression of despair. 
 
 "You have had dealings with him, haven t 
 you?" he said. 
 
12 A START IN LIFE 
 
 "Dealings enough," said the older man. 
 "But the indebtedness has always been the 
 other way; it s like getting grease out of a 
 grindstone to collect money of Tom Tad- 
 
 more." 
 
 "But he has corn and potatoes and wool, 
 which he says he is going to sell you," the boy 
 insisted. " Can t you trust him for at least a 
 part of this order ? I have worn out my 
 clothes working for him ; my shoes have fairly 
 dropped off my feet. Now winter is coming, 
 and I don t know what I am to do." 
 
 "I m sorry for you, my boy," said the older 
 man. " But we can t trust Tadmore. Haven t 
 you found him out ? " 
 
 " He hasn t kept his word with me," was the 
 miserable reply. " But I didn t think he would 
 turn me off so, without anything." 
 
 "It s a hard time to get work," said the 
 younger man, handing back the order. "You d 
 better go home to your folks if you have any. 
 Where do you live?" 
 
 Having put the worthless paper back into 
 his pocket, Walden Westlake remained silent 
 
ONE NEED NOT GO BAREFOOT 13 
 
 for a moment, then answered with a swelling 
 heart, 
 
 " My folks live in Whitestown. But I can t 
 go back to them." When pressed for the 
 reason, he went on, his tongue growing elo 
 quent when once loosed. 
 
 " My father died a year and a half ago ; I 
 am one of the younger children. Our oldest 
 brother, Eli, is head now ; a good man enough, 
 but he s a perfect tyrant, and he treats us out 
 rageously. I stood it as long as I could, then I 
 told my mother I wouldn t be a slave to my 
 own brother any longer; I was going to try 
 my luck away from home. She couldn t do 
 anything for me ; he has his way in spite of 
 her ; and, seeing just how it was, she said she 
 didn t know but I d better go." 
 
 "Didn t your brother feed and clothe you 
 decently?" 
 
 "Yes, the food and clothes were well 
 enough." 
 
 " Did he overwork you ? " 
 
 " We had enough to do. But that I didn t 
 care for. I m not afraid of work, and I should 
 
14 A START IN LITE 
 
 have been contented to stay with him if he had 
 been kind. He used to be. But almost the 
 very day he took our father s place, and had 
 authority over us, he changed. He made new 
 rules ; and, I tell you, we got hard words and 
 something worse if we stepped over one of em. 
 So I left last May, and came over here and 
 hired out to Mr. Tadmore." 
 
 "Walked from the frying-pan into the fire, 
 eh ? " said the younger storekeeper, eying the 
 boy with a sort of humorous commiseration. 
 
 "In one sense I did," replied Walden, his 
 face kindling with intelligence and honest 
 pride, which made those who heard him forget 
 his split trousers-legs and bandaged feet. " He 
 worked me half to death, and then half-starved 
 me. But he never dared to strike me a blow. 
 And we can take from a stranger what we can t 
 take from our own kin." 
 
 " Well," said the man, kindly, " go and sit 
 down by the fire, and toast your shins and 
 think it over. It s a hard case, but I guess 
 you d better make up your mind to go home." 
 
 * I didn t run away ; don t think that," said 
 
ONE NEED NOT GO BAREFOOT 15 
 
 Walden, looking back, as he started for the 
 fireplace. " I walked away. I told my brother 
 I would if he struck me another blow. In 
 that case, says he, I ll give you a flogging 
 that will last you ; and he did give me a 
 stinger ! Then I came off with not much else 
 but the clothes I had on, and they were too 
 small even then." 
 
 " Don t you want to see your mother ? " 
 "Don t I want to see my" But, instead 
 of finishing the sentence, Walden Westlake 
 gave way to unmanly tears. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A GOOD HAND WITH AN AXE, BUT POOB AT FIGURES. 
 
 HE went and sat down by the open fire, and, 
 pulling off the wrappings of rags, looked rue 
 fully at his bare bruised feet. He tried to dig 
 a sliver out of one of them with the point of 
 a dull knife, by the light of the blazing logs, 
 which one of the men came and poked for his 
 benefit. 
 
 I wish I could picture him there, so lank and 
 ungainly, so wretched and so ragged, his foot 
 drawn up and his body crooked over it, the 
 wincing face very near the callous sole and 
 probing blade, in the red fire-gleam. In that 
 strained position his sleeves slipped farther 
 than ever up toward the sharp elbows, and 
 the receding trousers-legs seemed to be taking 
 final leave of the lean projecting shanks. But 
 
 one could see that his features, if not hand- 
 16 
 
& GOOD HAND WITH AN AXE 17 
 
 some, had a rude strength, and that here was 
 the rough material of a man. 
 
 Perhaps the younger storekeeper saw it, for in 
 a little while he came and stood with his back 
 to the fire, and his hands spread out towards it, 
 parting his coat-tails, and looked down with 
 genial curiosity at the bent, barefooted boy. 
 
 "Rather hard travelling, isn t it?" he said, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " It is for me ! " Walden lowered his heel 
 to the warm hearth, straightened the curve in 
 his back, and, snapping the blade, returned the 
 knife to his pocket. " I never went barefoot 
 before in cold weather." 
 
 " What sort of work have you been used to ? " 
 
 " Almost every sort of farm-work ; planting, 
 hoeing, driving oxen, milking cows, sugar-mak 
 ing ; I can t tell what." 
 
 " A good hand with an axe ? " 
 
 The boy looked up with a smile. "I can 
 make cord-wood of a tree about as quick as 
 any fellow of my age," he said, with modest 
 confidence. 
 
 " Ever been much to school ? " 
 
18 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " I ve generally had about three months 
 schooling in winter, till last winter." 
 
 " Your tyrant of a brother kept you out ? " 
 
 "No," said Walden, frankly, eager to do 
 justice even to the author of his woes. "It 
 wasn t his fault. He was willing I should go 
 when work wasn t driving. But we had a 
 master who was as much of a tyrant in school 
 as my brother was at home. One day he un 
 dertook to whale one of the little fellows for 
 some trifling thing, when four or five big ones 
 pitched in and turned him out. He couldn t 
 keep our school after that; so I lost a good 
 half of the term." 
 
 " That was a foolish thing for the big boys to 
 do," observed the storekeeper. 
 
 * I suppose it was," the boy by the fire an 
 swered, with a laugh ; " though I was never so 
 tickled at anything in my life." 
 
 " From a love of malicious fun ? " queried the 
 storekeeper, with a look of disapproval. 
 
 " Partly from a love of fun, maybe, but not 
 malicious fun." Walden grew serious as he 
 added, " I think it was more from a love of jus- 
 
A GOOD HAND WITH AN AXE 19 
 
 tice. It was a satisfaction to see the master 
 paid off for his cruelty to others." 
 
 All this time he was unconsciously giving 
 glimpses of his own character to the shrewd 
 and kindly storekeeper. 
 
 "Are you good at figures?" was the next 
 question. 
 
 " Not so good as I ought to be, considering 
 the amount of schooling I have had," he can 
 didly admitted. 
 
 " Whose fault is that ? " 
 
 " Partly my own, I suppose ; for if a scholar 
 is in earnest he can learn, even with poor 
 teachers." 
 
 The storekeeper questioned him still further 
 as to his proficiency in arithmetic; then re 
 marking, with a regretful shake of his head, 
 " It s a pity you did not do more in figures ; 
 there s nothing so useful in business," walked 
 off to serve a customer. 
 
 Walden followed him with a quick glance, 
 thinking, " If he had found I was first-rate at 
 accounts, maybe he would have given me a 
 place in his store." But immediately his good- 
 
20 A START IN LIFE 
 
 sense showed him the absurdity of such a thing. 
 Glancing down at his lank, ill-clad limbs, he 
 said to himself, " I m no more fit for a clerk 
 than a scrawny colt is for a war-horse ! " 
 
 Then he sat warming himself, and contem 
 plating his gloomy prospects, while the bleak 
 November evening closed in. Without money, 
 or work, or clothes, what was he to do ? 
 
 It was the darkest hour in Walden West- 
 lake s life ; darker by far than the time when 
 he left his comfortable home and went out to 
 seek employment in a world which he knew 
 well enough he would find rough. That was in 
 the joyous days of spring; now winter had 
 fairly begun. Then hope of success beckoned 
 him on ; now disheartening failure was his lot. 
 
 An inexpressible yearning possessed him to 
 go back to his mother and his forsaken home. 
 He longed to lay his face in his mother s lap, as 
 he used to do when a child, tell her his griefs, 
 feel her comforting hand upon his head, and 
 hear her soothing voice, 
 
 "There, there, my son ! don t cry ! it will all 
 turn out right, I am sure, if you try to do right." 
 
A GOOD HAND WITH AN AXE 21 
 
 He knew that was just what she would say, 
 and he endeavored to draw consolation and 
 strength from such imagined sympathy and 
 advice. 
 
 "If he had tried to do right!" But had 
 he not tried? He had worked faithfully for 
 Thomas Tad more, and waited patiently for his 
 pay, and now it appeared that he was never to 
 get a cent of it. He could hardly repress his 
 angry sobs as he thought of his bitter wrongs. 
 
 Was it his duty to return and humble him 
 self to the brother who had given him that last 
 undeserved flogging, in addition to the other 
 hard blows and hard words which he had found 
 too much to bear ? He might have done even 
 that, but for one thing. 
 
 "If it was May again, with the summer 
 before us, and plenty of work, he would be 
 glad to see me, and I shouldn t be so much 
 ashamed. But I know what he would say 
 now. Been idling all the season, have you ? 
 and now cold weather, an empty stomach, and 
 bare bones send you back to them that can feed 
 and clothe you ; just as I expected ! A pretty 
 
22 A START IN LIFE 
 
 prodigal you are ! He shaVt say that," the 
 homeless one muttered to himself, after a mo 
 ment s reflection ; " he never shall say that to 
 me!" 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A STARTLING QUESTION FROM THE FBIENDLY STORE 
 KEEPER. 
 
 AGAIN the younger man came and warmed 
 his back at the fire, with his palms outspread 
 behind him against the blaze. 
 
 " Well," he said, as if reading the boy s mis 
 erable thoughts, " what have you concluded to 
 do?" 
 
 Walden was tying the rags on his feet again, 
 in preparation for another dreary tramp over 
 the frozen ground. He could not find voice to 
 speak for a moment, and he went on adjusting 
 the wrappings without looking up. 
 
 "I guess you ll go back to your brother, 
 won t you ? " 
 
 " To get more insults and very likely more 
 blows ! " Walden replied, lifting his eyes with 
 a look of resolute despair. " No, sir ; that s the 
 last thing I shall do." 
 
 23 
 
24 A START IN LIFE 
 
 "Well, then, what s the first thing?" 
 
 " The first thing seems to be the only thing I 
 can do to-night. I shall go back to Mr. Tad- 
 more. I ll tell him what you say about the 
 order, and demand my money." 
 
 " I m afraid you won t get it," said the man. 
 
 " I don t expect to. But if he won t pay me, 
 he must keep me. He can t turn me outdoors 
 in this condition, in this weather ; I shall have 
 something to say about that ! " Walden added, 
 with a surly smile. 
 
 He got up and was shuffling off with his 
 bandaged feet, when the man called after 
 him: 
 
 " See here, boy ! let me look at that, order 
 again." Walden s heart gave a leap as he re 
 produced the crumpled paper. " I ve spoken 
 to my brother, and he thinks he can get a little 
 of it out of Tadmore, one way or another ; any 
 how, we ll take the risk. I think I could 
 manage him, if I was to stay here; but I m 
 going out to our new settlement in a day or 
 two." 
 
 Thereupon the older man called out, " Don t 
 
A STARTLING QUESTION 25 
 
 let Tadmore know, if we advance anything on 
 that order ; he never will bring us any of his 
 stuff if you do." 
 
 " Then I mustn t go back there to-night," 
 said Walden. " For if he asks me I can t lie 
 to him." 
 
 "We ll manage somehow to get around 
 that," said the younger man, to the boy s great 
 content. 
 
 Ready-made articles of clothing were in 
 those days few, and generally of coarse qual 
 ity. The store of the enterprising Brooke 
 Brothers was probably the only place in all 
 that region where anything of the kind was* 
 to be had. 
 
 A thick red flannel shirt, to take the place of 
 the worn-out cotton one which the boy wore, 
 was the first thing selected. The next was a 
 cloth cap. Then he chose a pair of blue-yarn 
 socks for his bare feet, and a pair of cowhide 
 boots, which he thought extravagant, having 
 aspired to nothing higher than shoes. But 
 there were no shoes of his size in the store, and 
 the younger Mr. Brooke strongly advised boots, 
 
26 A START IN LIFE 
 
 in view of the deep snows those old-fashioned 
 winters were sure to bring. 
 
 Jacket and trousers to fit were a more diffi 
 cult matter. Those best adapted to his inches 
 had the sleeves and legs as much too long as 
 those he wore were too short. But the younger 
 Mr. Brooke said that was a good fault. 
 
 " You ll be growing," he said ; " and in the 
 meantime you can wear your trousers and cuffs 
 turned up." 
 
 As the clothes were of a stout gray home 
 spun, Walden was well pleased. He put them 
 on in the corner of the store, and came forward 
 and showed himself proudly in the fire-light. 
 The elder Mr. Brooke held a candle to him 
 while the younger stooped to adjust the rolled- 
 up part of the legs, remarking : 
 
 " I suppose you can have em cut off, or 
 tucks taken in em, if you think best. The 
 sleeves look very well." 
 
 " I rather think he d better have the trousers 
 cut off," said the elder Mr. Brooke. "Wife 
 will do it in a few minutes, this evening. 
 How s the shirt?" 
 
A STARTLING QUESTION 27 
 
 "ihist the thing!" said the enthusiastic 
 wearer. 
 
 "Well, you ll want that and the socks 
 washed once in a while ; so you d better take 
 an extra pair of each," said the younger store 
 keeper, with a generosity that brought tears to 
 the boy s eyes. " If we can t get our pay out 
 of Tadmore, we ll charge em to you. Is that 
 right?" 
 
 " Right certainly if I am ever able to 
 pay for them," said Walden. 
 
 " There isn t much doubt about that if you re 
 the kind of a boy I take you for. Now I want 
 to ask you another question." 
 
 Walden s eyes had wandered down admiring 
 ly at his new trousers, and the stout boots 
 that had replaced the wrappings of his feet. 
 But he looked up quickly into the man s genial 
 face. 
 
 " I m going out with a load of goods to our 
 new settlement in the Genesee country, where 
 we re setting up a store and a sawmill. About 
 day after to-morrow, if the weather continues 
 favorable; I ve been waiting for the mud to 
 
28 A START IN LIFE 
 
 dry up, or freeze up, so I can haul through. 
 There ll be plenty to do out there for a young 
 fellow who can swing an axe, and is minded to 
 make himself useful. How would you like to 
 go with me?" 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUR HEBO APPEARS IN HIS NEW BIG, AND MOUNTED ON 
 MB. BBOOKE S BEST HOBSE. 
 
 IN his comfortable clothes and new boots, 
 Walden Westlake was beginning to take more 
 hopeful views of things. But he was not pre 
 pared for this joyful surprise. If the dismal 
 November evening had changed just then to a 
 fine morning in spring, the world could not 
 have looked brighter to him all at once than 
 when he heard the storekeeper s astonishing 
 proposal. 
 
 " Do you mean I am to go out to the new 
 settlement to stay ? " he asked, wonderingly. 
 
 44 Why not ? " said Mr. Brooke. " It s a fine 
 country ; just as good as this. In a few years 
 there ll be as handsome farms there as any 
 hereabouts. People laugh at me, and say 
 there ll be no inhabitants to speak of but bears 
 and panthers, in the Genesee region, for the 
 29 
 
30 A START IN LIFE 
 
 next hundred years. I tell em the wilderness 
 will be a garden of civilization in half that 
 time. 
 
 "A young man with the right stuff in him, 
 going out there now, will have chances to take 
 up land of his own, or start some thriving 
 business, and grow up with the country." 
 
 Walden kindled with something of his new 
 friend s enthusiasm, and laughed with repressed 
 glee at the prospect held out to him. 
 
 " You can stop here with us till we are ready 
 to start," Mr. Brooke continued, "and help a 
 little, to pay your way. It s a long journey, 
 and you ll probably have a chance to turn 
 down your trousers before ever you come 
 back." 
 
 " I should hope so," said Walden, " if I am 
 to grow up with the country ! " 
 
 Eager as he was to accept a proposal which 
 seemed to him so full of promise, he found 
 there was a serious side to it when he came to 
 think it over that night. 
 
 Having eaten a bountiful supper of baked 
 potatoes and broiled bacon with the Brooke 
 
OUR HERO IN HIS NEW RIG 31 
 
 family, washed his feet and greased his boots 
 before the kitchen fire, and gone to bed, leav 
 ing his trousers to be shortened by the house 
 wife s shears, he lay for a long while thinking 
 excitedly of the adventure before him, and of 
 the home he was perhaps leaving forever 
 behind. Once more the longing to see his 
 mother came over him, and with his improved 
 prospects he did not dread so much a meeting 
 with his oldest brother. 
 
 " I m independent now, and he can t say I 
 go back for anything I want of him," he said 
 to himself, with a grateful heart. 
 
 The next morning, his face seemed to show 
 what had been passing in his mind, for when 
 he asked what work he should go about the 
 younger Mr. Brooke looked at him pleasantly, 
 and said, 
 
 "I shall let you do what you like to-day; 
 and I rather think I can guess what that will 
 be. How long since you ve seen any of your 
 folks?* 
 
 "Not since I left home in May," replied 
 Walden, with glistening eyes. 
 
32 A START IN LIFE 
 
 "I thought so. And there s no knowing 
 when you will have another chance to visit 
 them. Now, if you would like to go over to 
 Whitestown and bid em good-by, I ve a horse 
 you can ride, unless," the storekeeper added, 
 with a humorous twinkle, "you prefer to try 
 your new boots on the road." 
 
 Something between a sob and a laugh broke 
 into the boy s speech when he attempted to 
 reply. He glanced down at his improved trou 
 sers and well oiled boots, then looked up at Mr. 
 Brooke, winked hard, and dashed away a tear 
 or two, as he faltered, 
 
 " I should like to ride. I didn t expect any 
 such luck as that ! though I did wish I could 
 go over and say good-by to the folks." 
 
 Accordingly, not long after breakfast the 
 horse was saddled, and, mounting at the front 
 steps, Walden received his employer s parting 
 advice. 
 
 "If you have any clothing at home you 
 haven t outgrown, you d better get it. I don t 
 think you ll have trouble with your brother 
 when you tell him of your engagement with 
 
OUR HERO IN HIS NEW RIG 33 
 
 me. If he s inclined to be brotherly, you ll 
 meet him more than half way, of course. If 
 he is harsh with you, treat him respectfully, 
 but don t answer back. If it so happens that 
 he tries to detain you, I ll see about it." 
 
 " Oh, he won t try that ; he knows me too 
 well ! " replied Walden. " I think he ll be all 
 right when he sees me in this rig." 
 
 Mr. Brooke laughed. It was certainly a 
 very different " rig " from that in which the 
 boy had made his appearance the night before. 
 In his new suit, with boots in stirrups, sitting 
 erect in the saddle, he could not help showing 
 something of the pride and happiness which 
 filled his heart ; and his employer was not ill 
 pleased. 
 
 " I ve got a prize in that boy," he said to his 
 brother, as they stood in the door and saw him 
 ride off at a brisk trot. 
 
 Walden made the journey in high spirits, 
 often contrasting his present content with the 
 sense of wrong which embittered him when 
 last he travelled that road. It was May-time 
 then, but his sky was full of wrath and gloom. 
 
34 A START IN LIFE 
 
 It was not so much hope that had sustained 
 him in the rash step he was taking, as a fierce 
 determination to free himself from his thral 
 dom, and win a success which should some day 
 burn his unjust brother s heart. 
 
 He remembered how ardently he had longed 
 for that triumph; how sweet had been the 
 thought of that innocent revenge. 
 
 " He shall be sorry for his treatment of me ; 
 he shall find that even a younger brother is 
 entitled to some respect ! " he had muttered 
 angrily to himself, again and again, as he 
 passed those fields and farmhouses by which 
 he was returning in so changed a mood. 
 
 Some of the scenes recalled vividly his feel 
 ings at that time. There was a wayside trough 
 by which he had sat down to rest, the sight of 
 which brought up wonderful confused visions 
 of himself, here a rebel and an outcast, driven 
 forth by a brutal elder brother, and there a 
 radiant youth returning to confront an elder 
 brother humbled and repentant. 
 
 Such was the dream he had nourished at 
 that spot. It had faded now. Not that he 
 
OUR HERO IN HIS NEW RIG 35 
 
 had forgotten his wrongs ; but he felt that he 
 could almost forgive the author of them if 
 he should come forward to meet him with 
 kind words. 
 
 As he approached the neighborhood where 
 he was known, and became conscious of eyes 
 gazing at him from the farmhouses he passed, 
 Walden felt no little satisfaction at being seen 
 in decent clothes, mounted on a good horse. 
 He was anxious to give old acquaintances an 
 impression that he had got on very well away 
 from home ; perhaps forgetting what very 
 different notions they would have formed if 
 they had seen him limping up to Brooke 
 Brothers steps the night before. 
 
 He stopped to speak to persons whom he 
 knew, and, in reply to their questions, said, 
 with an air of some importance, that he was 
 making a mere flying visit, that he had got a 
 good chance and was "going West." 
 
 That phrase meant something in those days 
 altogether unlike what it means now. It was 
 only to push on a hundred miles or so into the 
 wilderness of western New York. But that 
 
36 A START IN LIFE 
 
 was about as formidable an undertaking as 
 anything the words imply to-day. 
 
 At last, on the brow of a gentle declivity, 
 Walden came in sight of his old home. There 
 was the low brown gable, and the great chim 
 ney built outside the house, and the tall well- 
 sweep on the edge of the little peach-orchard 
 in the rear. Through the pleasant valley 
 beyond, the Mohawk River wound, a curve of 
 shining silver in the morning sun. 
 
 A gust of tears swelled the boy s heart and 
 rained quick drops from his eyes at sight of 
 these well remembered scenes. How often, in 
 the thirst and weariness and homesickness of 
 the season that was past, he had thought of 
 that pleasant peach-orchard and its delicious 
 fruit, and of the cool bucket rising at the end 
 of the long well-pole, to poise plashing on the 
 curb ! 
 
 There was the lane where he had so often 
 ridden the colts and driven the cows to water 
 down to the river s brink, singing as he went 
 and came ; and there the upland, with its fields 
 and groves, where he had wandered many a 
 
OUR HERO IN HIS NEW RIG 37 
 
 summer s afternoon, his boyish soul filled with 
 the mystery and beauty of the world, and 
 dreams of a golden future. 
 
 It was a hopeful, not unhappy childhood he 
 had known there ; and over him, as he gazed, 
 swept a great wave of yearning and regret. He 
 was for a few minutes almost sick of his engage 
 ment with Mr. Brooke. But then the great 
 grievance he had suffered at his brother s hands 
 rose up before him; and his hope of "growing 
 up " with the new country came back fresh and 
 strong. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHY ELI WESTLAKE WAS NOT SO GLAD AS HE MIGHT 
 HAVE BEEN TO SEE HIS YOUNGER BBOTHEB. 
 
 HE had recovered his fortitude just in time. 
 Out of the barnyard lane before him came a 
 yoke of steers, pushing and clashing their 
 horns. They turned into the road, guided 
 by a sturdy young man wielding a short hick 
 ory gad. A heavy log-chain trailed from the 
 jingling ring of the yoke ; the near ox was 
 stepping over and on it as they turned, and 
 the driver was reaching across to beat the 
 crowding off ox over the forehead, when he 
 looked up and saw the horseback boy in the 
 road. 
 
 " Whoa ! back ! " he suddenly called, plying 
 his stick deftly over the faces of both steers ; 
 and as they came to an unwilling stop, he gave 
 Walden an astonished, sarcastic gaze. 
 
 It was hard for Walden to control his excite- 
 38 
 
WHY ELI WAS NOT SO GLAD 39 
 
 ment and speak calmly as he drew rein ; but he 
 succeeded. 
 
 " How do you do, Eli ? " he said, with a con 
 strained and somewhat sallow smile. " How 
 are all the folks?" 
 
 Instead of answering his questions, the oldest 
 brother regarded him with rather less astonish 
 ment and rather more sarcasm in his gaze, and 
 said, bluntly, 
 
 "Come back, have ye? Where did ye get 
 that horse ? " 
 
 " It s a borrowed one," said Walden ; and he 
 was going on to explain as soon as he could get 
 a good breath to keep his voice from quavering, 
 when Eli broke in again, 
 
 " Of course, I know it s a borrowed one, 
 that is, without it s stolen ; for I didn t for a 
 moment suppose you owned him. But I asked 
 where you got him." 
 
 " And I was going to tell you I got him of 
 Mr. Brooke, of Brooke Brothers, who keep the 
 big store in Rome," Walden answered, with 
 spirit, glad to let his brother know he had such 
 a friend. 
 
40 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " Why didn t you tell me, then ? " Eli de* 
 manded. 
 
 " Because you were so short with me I didn t 
 have a chance. There was no need of your " 
 Walden then remembered Mr. Brooke s ad 
 vice, and checked himself. 
 
 "No need of my what?" 
 
 Thus urged, Walden answered, firmly, "No 
 need of your being so quick to put in that fling 
 about the horse being stolen. Whatever else 
 you can say of me, you know very well I never 
 deserved any such taunt as that." 
 
 " You mean to say you never took anything 
 that didn t belong to you ? " said Eli. 
 
 " Never ! " exclaimed Walden, hotly. 
 
 " Oh ! haven t you ? " sneered Eli. " Whoa ! 
 back ! " and he rattled his stick on the horns of 
 the restless steers. 
 
 " If you think I have, what is it ? " asked 
 Walden. 
 
 " You ve taken your services, which belong 
 to me till you are twenty-one," said Eli. 
 
 " You might have had them, if you had been 
 to me what father supposed you would be when 
 
WHY ELI WAS NOT SO GLAD 41 
 
 he made that will. He never meant that I 
 should be treated as you treat those dumb 
 beasts ! " 
 
 Walden s face flushed, and he spoke with the 
 memory of his wrongs surging in his voice. 
 
 "You were to work for me till you were 
 twenty-one," said Eli. " Have you come back 
 to stay ? " 
 
 " No, Eli," Walden replied, with more steadi 
 ness of tone. " I have made an engagement 
 with Mr. Brooke, who loaned me this horse." 
 
 Eli studied him with a bitter sneer, and after 
 a moment s silence rejoined, 
 
 " You think you can do better, I suppose." 
 
 " If I get kind treatment and encouraging 
 words, I call that doing better," said Walden, 
 looking down with dignity from his horse. 
 
 Eli hesitated, and appeared for a moment to 
 be swallowing something very disagreeable. 
 The truth is, he had missed Walden s help on 
 the farm, and had felt pricks of conscience on 
 account of his own harsh conduct towards him. 
 Hearing how hard he worked and how ill 
 fed he was in Thomas Tadmore s service, hb 
 
42 A STAKT IS LIFE 
 
 had until this hour fostered hopes of seeing 
 return penitent and submissive. To see him 
 come back proud and resolute, well clothed and 
 mounted on a good horse, was not an agreeable 
 surprise. 
 
 " Small loss ! guess I can stand it if he can," 
 he had said many times of Walden in his ab 
 sence, and he had even tried to think the farm 
 would get along as well without him. But all 
 the time his inmost thought said otherwise ; 
 and he was forced to respect and prize his 
 brother all the more since the Brookes of Rome 
 had taken him up. 
 
 Perhaps, by a little more conciliatory treat 
 ment he might yet win the lost one back. It 
 was a hard thing for Eli to make up his mind 
 to. but after a while he swallowed the unpala 
 table morsel in his throat, and said, in a tone 
 that reminded Walden of the old days before 
 their father died, and they were still like broth 
 ers, 
 
 "I guess you d better come home, Walden. 
 Mother misses ye, and I d do anything for 
 her, as I suppose you would. Come back, 
 
WHY ELI WAS NOT SO GLAD 43 
 
 and it sha n t be my fault if there s any more 
 trouble." 
 
 Walden was touched. That Eli should 
 speak to him in that way almost realized his 
 former dream of triumph. But something 
 deeper in his heart was stirred, as he answered, 
 with almost tearful emotion, 
 
 " I would do anything for her, as you know. 
 For her sake I stayed with you months longer 
 than I should have done if I had had my own 
 way. And if you," he could not help adding 
 reproachfully, " if you had cared half as much 
 for her feelings then as you seem to now, you 
 would have treated me more as she always said 
 I should be treated." 
 
 Eli stood by the steers, looking up with a 
 scowl at the boy on the horse looking earnestly 
 down and speaking these plain words. It was 
 some seconds before he could bring himself to 
 reply, 
 
 "I don t pretend that I always did just 
 right; there s nobody but what makes mis 
 takes now and then. I m quick, and maybe 
 too arbitrary. I felt I had got to take father s 
 
44 A START IN LIFE 
 
 place and do my duty to the younger children. 
 I always meant to do right by you. I ll prove 
 it to you, if you care to come back and try it 
 again." 
 
 " If you had talked this way six months ago," 
 said Walden, bitterly, "I never should have 
 gone. But it s too late now. I have made 
 different arrangements." 
 
 It was stinging to the pride of Eli to find 
 that he had humbled himself in vain. He did 
 not ask what the different arrangements were, 
 but turned and brandished his whip over 
 the steers, playing a lively tattoo on their horns 
 and heads. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A SHOBT LEAVE-TAKING AND A LONG JOUBNET. 
 
 BY this time the strange boy on horseback, 
 who had stopped to talk with Eli in the road, 
 had been recognized by the eyes peering at him 
 from the kitchen windows. As he dismounted 
 at the gate, his younger brothers, Amos and 
 James, came running from the barn, with ears 
 of corn they had been husking still in their 
 hands; his elder sister Susan came smiling 
 from the house, with a cheery welcome ; and, 
 last of all, out tottered his gray-haired mother, 
 to fling herself on his neck with sobs of joy. 
 
 She clung to him with smiles and tears as 
 they all went into the house together. Susan 
 walked by his other side, proudly clasping his 
 arm ; and the boys capered about, with grins 
 and exclamations of delight. Then Walden, 
 seated in the midst of them, had his story to 
 45 
 
46 A START IN LIFE 
 
 tell, and questions to ask, and there was more 
 talk than would fill the chapters which we 
 must hasten to give to other scenes. 
 
 Mrs. Westlake fondly hoped that her boy 
 had come home to remain. But she could not 
 disapprove of the engagement he had made 
 with Mr. Brooke ; and Amos and James clam 
 orously wished that they could go too. Eli 
 had never treated them so harshly as he had 
 Walden ; perhaps because, there being so much 
 more difference between his age and theirs, he 
 had felt less necessity of asserting his authority 
 over them, and they less inclination to rebel. 
 But they fretted under his tyranny, neverthe 
 less, and envied Walden his freedom, and be^ 
 wailed the fate that kept them still at home. 
 
 Considering that his presence could not, 
 under the circumstances, be very welcome to 
 Eli, Walden declined to stay for dinner, but he 
 partook of a lunch which Susan set out for him 
 on the kitchen table, and then helped his moth 
 er do up a little bundle which he was to take 
 away with him on the saddle. 
 
 Into that bundle he was careful to slip his 
 
A SHORT LEAVE-TAKING 47 
 
 Arithmetic, which he so much regretted Dot 
 having studied more diligently at school, along 
 with two or three other books which he might 
 find useful or entertaining in the back country 
 where he was going. 
 
 As he was making a final knot in the great 
 red handkerchief which had been his father s, 
 but which his mother gave him for his bundle, 
 Eli came in. 
 
 "Here is Walden!" cried Mrs. Westlake, 
 longing to see the brothers reconciled. " Come 
 to make us a little visit ; and now he is starting 
 off again." 
 
 " Yes, I see," said Eli, grimly, standing in the 
 door. 
 
 " And only think," she added, " he is going 
 to the Genesee country with Mr. Jonathan 
 Brooke ! " 
 
 This was news to the oldest brother, but he 
 did not betray any surprise. Since Walden 
 was not to stay and help him on the farm, he 
 cared little where he went. 
 
 " If it don t beat all ! " exclaimed good Mrs. 
 Westlake, all tears. 
 
48 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " Beats all," said Eli, stolid and sarcastic. 
 
 At daybreak the next morning, Mr. Brooke 
 and Walden set off with a load of goods for 
 the new settlement. The stout horse Walden 
 had ridden home made one of the span that 
 was to haul the heavy wagon over the rough 
 roads, past frontier farms and villages, into the 
 great wilderness beyond. 
 
 During much of the first day they were 
 within sight of settlements, which became 
 more and more scattered as they kept on. 
 The next day they entered almost continuous 
 woods, following the trail which led to the 
 Holland Land Company s immense "Pur 
 chase" in western New York. 
 
 Buffalo, on the farther borders of that Pur 
 chase, was then a village of two thousand 
 inhabitants. But along the road and its 
 branches there were only, at long intervals, 
 log-huts which served as taverns, and here and 
 there a clearing. Syracuse was then " Cossit s 
 Corners ; " it was not even a village. 
 
 The Genesee River was not yet bridged, but 
 travellers crossed at the mouth, in a ferry-boat 
 
A SHOUT LEAVE-TAKING 49 
 
 when it was open, and on the ice when it was 
 frozen. Mr. Brooke, in his talks with Walden 
 on the journey, expressed regret that he had 
 not secured land on the site of certain falls ; 
 and predicted the rise of a thriving town there 
 some day. 
 
 "My brother and I were thinking of that 
 purchase when Mr. Rochester and his friends 
 stepped in before us. They are going to call it 
 4 Rochesterville. They had better call it just 
 4 Rochester, I tell em, and leave off the ville. 
 They ve got five or six houses there already." 
 
 Such was the beginning of a great city. 
 
 The ground continued frozen much of the 
 time ; but the road, winding among great 
 trunks and passing through hollows and over 
 the roots of trees, was rough and uneven. 
 
 "There s going to be a canal cut right 
 through this region, running the whole length 
 of the State, and connecting the Hudson with 
 Lake Erie; and that before many years," 
 Mr. Brooke averred. " Folks call me over- 
 sanguine. But you will live to see it, Walden, 
 and I haven t much doubt but that I shall." 
 
50 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " It s a magnificent idea ! " said Walden, as 
 he helped pry a wheel out of a rut. But it 
 seemed to him a wild one. 
 
 Fortunately for his reputation for sanity, 
 Mr. Brooke did not predict a railroad which 
 they should both live to ride on over that 
 very spot, making more than their entire day s 
 journey in an hour. 
 
 They walked much of the way beside or 
 behind the team, and put up at the cabins 
 which served as taverns, sleeping generally on 
 the floor, beds being a scarce luxury. It was a 
 toilsome trip, as you may well believe. Even 
 the wildness of the forest scenery became 
 monotonous after the second or third day; 
 and Walden was glad enough when, a few 
 miles off the main track, they one evening 
 crossed a tumbling brook and entered a stumpy 
 clearing, which Mr. Brooke called the " settle 
 ment." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WALDEN ENTERS THE NEW SETTLEMENT, AND DISCOV 
 ERS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE EATING JOHNNY-CAKE. 
 
 WALDEN could distinguish three or four 
 huts and log-houses against the background of 
 the gloomy woods, and one skeleton frame 
 rising over the banks of the stream. 
 
 " I m glad to see that ! " said Mr. Brooke, 
 with satisfaction. " It s our sawmill. The 
 first framed building in the settlement; it 
 has got to saw the boards to cover its own 
 back." 
 
 The saw was in the wagon, under their feet, 
 and some of the necessary gearing was packed 
 behind. 
 
 "Well, here we are!" said Mr. Brooke, 
 turning up to one of the log-houses, in which 
 not a light was to be seen, although it was now 
 deep dusk. 
 
 " Where is the store ? " asked Walden. 
 51 
 
52 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " This is it," replied Mr. Brooke. 
 
 Walden was not expecting a very brilliant 
 display there in the backwoods, yet his idea of 
 a store went a trifle beyond that gloomy log- 
 house, with one or two dark windows and a 
 closed door. 
 
 44 Ase is probably over at Gadbury s, eating 
 his supper," said Mr. Brooke. " Run and get 
 him, or ask Gadbury to send somebody to help, 
 while I m unhitching the team." 
 
 " Gadbury s " was the tavern, another log- 
 house a few rods away. A man and a boy 
 were grinding an axe by the light of an open 
 lantern hung on a peg by the door ; and within, 
 as he approached, Walden could see some men 
 at supper before a glowing fireplace. 
 
 He did his errand to the man holding the 
 axe on the stone. The man lifted it to feel 
 the edge ; while the stone, relieved of the 
 pressure, and impelled by a final effort of the 
 boy at the crank, spun through the gurgling 
 water of the trough. 
 
 "I m Gadbury," said the man; "an I thought 
 it might be Mr. Brooke ; thought I knowed his 
 
WALDEN ENTERS THE NEW SETTLEMENT 53 
 
 voice. Ase ! " calling in at the door " Mr. 
 Brooke has come and wants ye. There, Sam ! 
 guess that ll do fer to-night; though I might 
 put a leetle finer edge on t by daylight, tell yer 
 dad." 
 
 " I guess the edge is fine enough," said the 
 boy, straightening his shoulders. "I druther 
 go a-fishin all day, any time, than turn grin - 
 stun half an hour." 
 
 " Wai, mos boys would," said the tavern- 
 keeper, with a quiet chuckle. "An there s 
 things I druther du n grind folks s axes fer 
 em. But yer dad s welcome." 
 
 " He says the ain t another man that can put 
 such an edge on a tool as you can, nowheres," 
 replied the boy, shouldering the axe and start 
 ing off. 
 
 "That s the way they all talk when they 
 want to git favors out of ol* man Gadbury," 
 said the tavern-keeper, good-naturedly. "I 
 see through their palaver, but I commodate 
 em all the same. On hand, Ase ? " 
 
 "I suppose I must say yes, though I shall 
 feel for the rest of my natural life that I hadn t 
 
54 A START IN LIFE 
 
 quite finished my supper," said a coatless young 
 man, coming away from the table with his 
 mouth full and a piece of Johnny-cake in his 
 hand. 
 
 The voice gave Walden an unpleasant start, 
 and, as he was going off with Mr. Gadbury, he 
 turned to glance back at the speaker. 
 
 "It can t be!" he thought. "Yes, it is, 
 though ! " And, staring in through the open 
 doorway, he saw the young man take the 
 Johnny-cake in his teeth, while he pulled down 
 a coat from some peg and put it on. 
 
 He had a burly figure, stout arms, and coarse 
 features, with prominent cheek-bones ; to which 
 the wedge of Johnny-cake in his mouth lent 
 a grotesque aspect, in the eyes of Walden. 
 The boy s first shock of surprise quickly gave 
 place to merry recollections, and some such 
 sense of the ludicrous as one feels at sight of a 
 pretentious person in a new and undignified 
 situation. 
 
 " Who would have thought of ever running 
 against him out here in the woods ? " he said to 
 himself, as he hurried on after the tavern- 
 
IN THE NEW SETTLEMENT. Pnge 54. 
 
WALDEN ENTEKS THE NEW SETTLEMENT 56 
 
 keeper and his lantern. "Oh, wouldn t the 
 boys laugh if they knew ! " 
 
 " The wagon can stand there till morning," 
 Mr. Brooke was saying, "with all but a few 
 things I ll have Ase take into the store. Then, 
 if you ll care for the horses, and give us some 
 supper, Gadbury, we ll be grateful." 
 
 "I ll do both," said the tavern-keeper, lifting 
 his lantern to take a view of the load. "I 
 hope, for one thing, you ve brought three or 
 four good grin -stones. Settlement s been suf- 
 ferin for grin -stones. Folks come five or six 
 mile to grind on mine, er send their axes fer 
 me to grind for em." 
 
 " I ve got two," said Mr. Brooke ; " and half 
 a dozen more coming by water to the mouth of 
 the river." He stopped to give the burly young 
 man some directions about the goods to be 
 taken into the store, then said to Walden, 
 "Come, boy, our hardships are over for one 
 day; let s go in and get warm, and see what 
 they can give us for supper." 
 
 Walden kept the wagon between him and 
 the young man; then, taking his bundle of 
 
56 A START IN LIFE 
 
 clothes and hurrying to Mr. Brooke s side, he 
 said, in a low, excited voice, with a smothered 
 laugh in it, 
 
 " Is that the man you said you had left in 
 charge of the store ? " 
 
 "Ase? Yes," said Mr. Brooke. "Didn t I 
 tell you his name was Ase ? " 
 
 "I believe you did; but I had no idea" 
 the boy s words became lost in a titter. 
 
 "Why, what?" said Mr. Brooke. "Did 
 you ever see or hear of him before?" 
 
 "You d think so!" replied Walden. "He 
 used to write his name A. Randolph Hedgewick ; 
 and I remember, now, some of the girls said his 
 first name was Asa." 
 
 " You don t mean to tell me ! " Mr. Brooke 
 exclaimed, laughing, too, as he caught the drift 
 of Walden s explanation. 
 
 "Yes," giggled the boy. " He s the big-feel 
 ing tyrant of a master the boys turned out of 
 our school last winter ! " 
 
 " I m sorry for that," said Mr. Brooke, more 
 seriously. "He s my mainstay here in the 
 store." 
 
WALDEN ENTERS THE NEW SETTLEMENT 57 
 
 Walden made no reply. He was sorry, too, 
 foreseeing no very great satisfaction in the 
 renewal of his acquaintance with Mr. A. Ran 
 dolph Hedgewick. 
 
CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 A BACKWOODS LODGING, ABOUT WHICH THERE WAS 
 DESTINED TO BE SOME DISPUTE. 
 
 IN the tavern they found a glowing back 
 log, a supper of pork-chop and Johnny-cake, and 
 the talk of backwoodsmen awaiting them ; all 
 which Walden enjoyed until he caught him 
 self nodding in the corner of the fireplace, and 
 heard Mr. Brooke saying, 
 
 " Well, Gadbury, can you find a place for this 
 boy?" 
 
 Walden looked up with a start, and saw the 
 good-natured tavern-keeper looking down at 
 him on his stool, with a whimsical puzzled ex 
 pression. 
 
 " I must find a place, er make one, fuzino ! " 
 Gadbury replied, puckering his lean face and 
 scratching his rough head. 
 
 Fuzino, a contraction of " as fur as I know," 
 and equivalent to " for aught I know," was a 
 58 
 
A BACKWOODS LODGING 59 
 
 common enough expression among New Eng 
 land and New York country people in those 
 early days ; and it was one of two that were as 
 pepper and salt to the landlord s rustic speech, 
 sprinkling it and giving it a flavor. The other 
 was, " Id n o n ti," signifying, " I do not know, 
 not I." 
 
 " The ain t the fust hooter o room in this 
 ere house," Gadbury went on ; " it s chuck-full, 
 beds an floors. But I guess mebbe I can du 
 suthin fer him in the riginal stand." 
 
 Walden was wondering what the " riginal 
 stand " was, when Gadbury lighted, by means 
 of a pine-sliver, the stub of tallow candle in the 
 lantern which he gave him to carry. Then 
 saying, "Fetch along your passel, f ye want 
 anything in t " (meaning the boy s small bun 
 dle brought from home), he took up some hot 
 coals on the fire-shovel, and led the way out-of- 
 doors. 
 
 The lantern, which was of perforated tin, 
 bristling like a porcupine with rays for quills, 
 shed its nebulous glimmer along a path which 
 took them to the bank of the babbling stream. 
 
60 A START IN LIFE 
 
 There Gadbury, with his coals still glowing 
 before him on the shovel, threw open the door 
 of a hut, and, entering, emptied them in what 
 proved to be a fireplace in a corner. 
 
 Walden, at his request, opened the lantern- 
 door for more light ; with the aid of which the 
 landlord gathered bark and sticks from a pile 
 near the hearth (if that could be called a hearth 
 which was mere native earth covered with 
 ashes), and cast them on the coals. 
 
 " This ere," said Gadbury, " s the riginal 
 tavern-stand, n the fust thing shape of a house, 
 fuzino, n the hull country. Jest a cabin o 
 poles, as you see ; floor o chestnut slabs, 
 though twuz a long while fore it had any 
 floor at all, er any winder er door, save an 
 except we had a hole cut fer a door. An nary 
 nail in it." 
 
 " How could you build without nails ? " Wal 
 den inquired. 
 
 " How could ye ? Jest as a man can du e en- 
 a most anything in natur he s got to du. We 
 didn t have no nails, an we got along without 
 nails; used wooden pegs instid. But, soon as 
 
A BACKWOODS LODGING 61 
 
 ever I had neighbors to help, I sot to work, cut 
 logs, an rolled up t other house, an had things 
 in style, fer a new settlement." 
 
 There were two beds, side by side, made up 
 on the floor ; and Walden, looking about him 
 by the gleam of the kindling fire, which soon 
 outshone the feeble lantern-light, asked which 
 he was to sleep in. 
 
 " Wai, I guess, nary one o these," Gadbury 
 replied. " Some o my boarders 11 be turnin 
 inter em, fore a gre t while. But you can go 
 to roost up there," casting his eye up a short 
 ladder. 
 
 Walden thought at first that he was expected 
 to perch, like a featherless fowl, on the top 
 rounds ; looking for which he perceived that 
 the upper end of the ladder disappeared in the 
 darkness of a loft overhead. 
 
 "There s a straw bed up there," said the 
 tavern-keeper, " with on y one man in t ; and 
 you ll haf to sleep with him, fuzino, thout you 
 roll yourself up in a blanket er bear-skin on the 
 floor. Now make yerself to hum ; and don t 
 be afeered o burnin a leetle wood. It s cheap 
 
62 A STAET IN LIFE 
 
 in this country ; don t cost nothin but elbow- 
 grease, an I guess by your looks t you ve got 
 your share o that, to help us out, when we 
 want a back-log or fore-stick." 
 
 44 What time will these men be coming to 
 bed?" Walden asked; "particularly the one 
 that s to sleep up there with me ! " 
 
 44 Id n o n ti, but not long fust," the tavern- 
 keeper announced, as he took up the shovel 
 and the lantern and left the hut. 
 
 Walden then mounted the short ladder, and, 
 putting his head through the opening into the 
 loft, looked for the bed, one undivided half of 
 which had been assigned him for the night. 
 The reflection of the fire below revealed it, 
 behind the ladder, made up under the low roof. 
 It was so near the opening that he concluded 
 the ladder must be of use to prevent the person 
 who should sleep on the front side from going 
 through to the ground floor, in case he should 
 roll out of bed. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DEMONSTRATION BY A SCHOOLMASTER THAT A MAN MAY 
 SOMETIMES COME DOWN A LADDER MORE RAPIDLY 
 THAN HE WENT UP. 
 
 IT was a gloomy place, and silent, but for the 
 crackling of the fire beneath, and the plashy 
 murmurs of the brook outside. Just as he was 
 turning to descend the ladder, footsteps ap 
 proached the cabin, the door was pushed open, 
 and a man entered. He had a burly figure, and 
 Walden, looking down from his perch, could see 
 a pair of prominent cheek-bones turned up at 
 him in the firelight. 
 
 " Hallo ! " said the comer, in a voice whose 
 arbitrary tones reminded the boy disagreeably 
 of old times, " what ye doing there ? " 
 
 " Looking to see where I am to sleep," Wal 
 den replied, stepping down the ladder. 
 
 " You needn t be looking in that direction ; 
 that s my bed." The voice sounded so natural 
 63 
 
64 A START IN LIFE 
 
 that it seemed as if it must add immediately, 
 " Stand out here in the floor, and I ll tend 
 to your case ! " 
 
 " Excuse me, Mr. Hedgewick ! " said Wai- 
 den, slipping to the ground. "I haven t the 
 faintest kind of a wish to have you for a bed 
 fellow ; but Mr. Gadbury said I was to sleep up 
 there." 
 
 It was an unusual thing for the former 
 schoolmaster of Whitestown to be called any 
 thing but " Ase," or " Asy," there in the back 
 woods ; and perhaps something in Walden s 
 voice sounded familiar to his ears. The two 
 stood face to face in the little fi relit cabin, 
 staring, Walden with a troubled smile, Mr. 
 A. Randolph Hedgewick with a scowl of 
 amazed displeasure, followed by a vigorous ex 
 clamation, 
 
 " You re one of the Westlake boys ! You re 
 Walden ! " 
 
 " That s my name," said Walden. " And I 
 used to go to school to you." 
 
 " What business have you here ? " the man 
 demanded. 
 
DEMONSTRATION BY A SCHOOLMASTER 65 
 
 " Mr. Brooke s business," the boy replied. 
 "I came with him." 
 
 " Well, when he took you," said Mr. A. Ran 
 dolph Hedgewick, " he took one of the worst 
 of the worst lot of boys in Oneida County, and 
 I shall tell him so." 
 
 " You can tell him what you please," rejoined 
 Walden, indignantly. " I never had any quar 
 rel with you, Mr. Hedgewick, and, even if I did 
 have, I don t see the use of bringing it up, out 
 here in a new place like this." 
 
 " Maybe you don t ; but I do." Mr. Hedge 
 wick put one foot and one hand on the ladder. 
 " My quarrel was with the whole school ; and, 
 though you was too much of a coward to have 
 a hand in the final tussle, I saw you laugh when 
 they tumbled me into the snow." 
 
 " I couldn t help laughing ! " said Walden, 
 with a reminiscent chuckle. " Who could ? " 
 
 " The treatment I received from that school," 
 Mr. Hedgewick went on, with a fierce look, " I 
 never have, I never can, I never will forgive ! " 
 So saying, he went quickly up the ladder. 
 
 " Seems to me it s the school that has the 
 
66 A START IN LIFE 
 
 most to forgive," said Walden, quickly, but 
 with a full heart. " Look here ! what are you 
 doing ? " 
 
 Mr. A. Randolph Hedgewick was pulling the 
 ladder up after him into the loft. 
 
 "You don t want me for a bedfellow," he re 
 plied, " and no more do I want you. We re 
 perfectly agreed as to that." 
 
 " Yes ! " cried Walden. " But, after what the 
 tavern-keeper said, you ve no more right to the 
 bed than I have. Let down the ladder ! " 
 
 It was too long to go into the loft. So 
 Hedgewick pulled the upper end of it down on 
 his bed and sat on it, leaving the lower end 
 tipped up close under the floor. 
 
 " Will you let -me have that ladder ? " Wal 
 den demanded. 
 
 " Who are you? " retorted Hedgewick, show 
 ing his face at the opening, with a sarcastic 
 grin Walden knew of old, but which did not 
 affright him now. 
 
 " I ll let you know who I am, if you don t 
 give me my rights," replied Walden. " I don t 
 want your bed, and I don t say I shall go up 
 
DEMONSTRATION BY A SCHOOLMASTER 67 
 
 the ladder, but I ll have it, at least one end 
 of it ! " 
 
 So saying, he caught hold of the lower round, 
 which was easily done, the cabin being low, and 
 swayed upon it heavily, with an astounding re 
 sult. 
 
 Hedgewick, as I have said, was seated on the 
 upper end; he was at the same time leaning 
 forward to jeer at the boy below. Down went 
 Walden s end with a jerk ; up went the other 
 to the roof; when with a cry of consternation 
 Mr. A. Randolph Hedgewick shot head fore 
 most through the opening, and made a help 
 less, sprawling plunge to the floor. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SHOWS WHO DID, AND WHO DID NOT, SLEEP IN THE LOFT 
 AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER. 
 
 WALDEN was as much astonished as Hedge- 
 wick himself at the effect produced by that 
 sudden spring and pull at the ladder. He did 
 not know at first but the ex-schoolmaster was 
 coming down from the loft in that abrupt fash 
 ion to eat him. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to state that Mr. A. 
 Randolph Hedgewick had no such cannibal in 
 tention. While seeming to clutch wildly at 
 Walden s legs in his descent, he was merely 
 endeavoring to save himself from a dangerous 
 fall. The boy sprang out of his way, and 
 tumbled backwards upon the beds, which 
 tripped his heels and received him somewhat 
 more hospitably than the rough-hewn floor 
 welcomed the plunging schoolmaster. 
 
 Then the two sat up, Walden on the nearest 
 
SHOWS WHO SLEPT IN THE LOFT 69 
 
 bed, with his knees in the air, bracing himself 
 with his hands behind him ; Mr. Hedgewick 
 on the floor, holding by the ladder with one 
 hand, and feeling his neck with the other. 
 Walden ventured to express a hope that it 
 wasn t broken. 
 
 " No thanks to you if it ain t ! " Hedgewick 
 muttered, wrathfully. "Laugh, will ye, like 
 a fool ! " For Walden was again overcome by 
 most untimely mirth, even as when he saw the 
 big boys take their revenge on the schoolmas 
 ter by keeling him over in the snowdrifts. 
 
 Mr. A. Randolph Hedgewick or shall we 
 follow the fashion of the settlers, and call him 
 for short Ase ? looked about for some missile 
 to hurl ; but fortunately only the ladder was 
 within his reach, and that was hardly available 
 as a projectile. 
 
 Walden laughed until he fell back again on 
 the bed, and lay there shaking. 
 
 " Really I can t help help it ! " he said, 
 chokingly. " If I d seen my great-great-grand 
 father come down a ladder that way, I believe 
 I should have laughed! You looked like a 
 
70 A START IN LIFE 
 
 bear and a spread eagle combined ! " And the 
 more he tried to control himself, the more he 
 was convulsed. 
 
 " Lucky I m too dizzy now to take ye by the 
 heels and snap your ears off ! " said Ase ; at 
 the same time feeling his own ears, as if to 
 make sure they were not missing. "But 
 you ll get your pay some time ! " 
 
 "Pay for what? For laughing? " said Wai- 
 den. " But you don t consider, Mr. Hedge- 
 wick ! If it had been the President of these 
 United States, I should have grinned! It s 
 from no spite against you ; but to see any 
 man dive out of a hole in a floor that way, 
 and dance with his heels up and his claws 
 down, you mustn t blame me," Walden 
 held his aching sides, " for for smiling, 
 Mr. Hedgewick ! " 
 
 " It s for giving me the tumble I blame 
 you!" said Ase, with a belligerent shake of 
 his big black curly head. 
 
 "That was your own fault," returned Wal 
 den. " You had no right to pull up the ladder, 
 and sit on it ! " he added, with another burst. 
 
SHOWS WHO SLEPT IN THE LOFT 71 
 
 " I was after that ; and I had no idea ! Oh ! 
 oh ! " he struggled with his emotions, and 
 added, "If it had suddenly rained cows and 
 calves, I couldn t have been more surprised ! " 
 
 "You always was a giggling dunce in 
 school," growled the sufferer, who had just 
 discovered that his nose was bleeding. 
 
 " Yes, I don t know about the dunce part," 
 said Walden ; " but I had to laugh sometimes, 
 though I didn t know but your ruler would 
 come whizzing at my head the next minute ! " 
 
 "I m sorry I didn t give you the ruler 
 more n I did ! " said Hedgewick, getting up 
 on a block by the fire. 
 
 It was impossible for Walden to continue 
 to stand in awe of a man he had seen descend 
 from above in the manner described, and he 
 was provoked to retort, 
 
 " I was in hopes you had sense enough to 
 be sorry you gave any of us the ruler as much 
 as you did ! " 
 
 When he came to think about it, he was 
 astonished at his own audacity in thus " talk 
 ing up" to the man who had once played the 
 
72 A START IN LIFE 
 
 tyrant over him. But now his slumbering 
 indignation at the old outrage blazed up again. 
 
 " Nobody could keep that school without 
 being savage with the big boys," said Ase, 
 stung into making some feeble defence of his 
 conduct. 
 
 " You were savage with the little ones, too," 
 replied Walden ; " and you couldn t keep the 
 school, after all ! Other masters had managed 
 to keep it before you, with not half your 
 amount of muscle, but with a good deal more 
 judgment and justice. You made us feel that 
 you were our enemy the very first day you 
 brandished your ruler in that schoolhouse. 
 The man who taught there before you made 
 us feel that he was our friend ; and, though he 
 had to lick some before the winter was over, 
 we knew he was in the right; and if any 
 big fellows had tried to turn him out, there 
 were enough others that would have taken his 
 part. That s the difference in masters. Every 
 body was glad to see you pitched out." 
 
 Walden got up, and stood with his little 
 bundle under his arm ; wondering whether 
 
SHOWS WHO SLEPT IN THE LOFT 73 
 
 he should go and ask the tavern-keeper for 
 the blanket or bearskin he had suggested, 
 with a view to sleeping on the cabin floor. 
 But, all at once reflecting that he ought not 
 to allow himself to be kept out of bed by a 
 bully, he stepped to the ladder, and adjusted 
 it at the opening in the loft. 
 
 "Now I ve had my say, Mr. Hedgewick," 
 he added ; " and I m willing to let the subject 
 rest for to-night, anyway. I m going to 
 sleep where the landlord told me to; you 
 can do as you please about it." 
 
 So saying, he scrambled into the loft. Ase 
 cast up at him a vicious look, and started 
 towards the ladder, as if minded to pull it 
 from under him. But he didn t. He was 
 beginning to realize, as much as Walden did, 
 their changed relations ; they were no longer 
 master and pupil. He sat down again by the 
 fire while Walden crept into the bed under 
 the low roof. 
 
 Then the men who were to occupy the other 
 beds came in, and the boy heard Hedgewick 
 tell them that he guessed he would go out and 
 sleep in the woods. 
 
74 A STABT IN LIFE 
 
 " First, Mr. Brooke comes, and I am turned 
 out of his bed in the tavern ; and now some 
 body else is put into my old bed in the loft 
 here. I m just kicked about as if I was of no 
 consequence," Ase added complainingly. 
 
 What he really did, as Waldeii afterwards 
 learned, was to get a buffalo-skin and roll him 
 self up in it on the cabin floor. So the boy 
 had the loft to himself. He could feel the 
 wind blowing over him from chinks in the 
 gable, and see stars through a gap in the 
 roof, and hear the brook come tumbling down 
 from the dam near by, with a lonesome sound 
 in the November night, to whose soft lullaby 
 he soon fell asleep. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 ME. A. RANDOLPH HEDGEWICK FAILS TO SEE THAT ONE 
 GOOD TURN AT A GRINDSTONE DESERVES ANOTHER. 
 
 HE was awakened early the next morning 
 by voices in the room below ; which he found 
 empty, dark, and cold, with the fire out, 
 when he came down the ladder from the loft 
 shortly after. He hastened forth, feeling that 
 that day was the beginning of a new life for 
 him there in the woods. 
 
 The recollection of his encounter with 
 Hedgewick caused him some uneasiness; but 
 he could not feel that he had done anything 
 very wrong, nor believe that Mr. Brooke was 
 a man to be much influenced by anything 
 the former master might have to say against 
 him. 
 
 "I ll just go about my own business," he 
 said to himself, " and never trouble him unless 
 he troubles me." 
 
 75 
 
76 A START IN LIFE 
 
 He walked over to the tavern, and, finding 
 the table crowded with early risers, breakfast 
 ing by the mingled firelight and daylight, he 
 walked out again to take a view of the settle 
 ment. 
 
 The morning was mild and hazy. The 
 smoke of smouldering log-heaps gave a bluish 
 tint and a pungent odor to the air. In the 
 midst of stumpy clearings was the newly built 
 dam across the stream, with its skeleton saw 
 mill, and its little pond reflecting the rough 
 banks and the reddening sky behind the forest- 
 tops. The marks of civilization were of the 
 rudest primitive sort : and yet Walden s heart 
 swelled with anticipations of the life which 
 was to grow up there, and of which he was to 
 be a part. 
 
 Several of Gadbury s boarders were men 
 who were building houses for themselves in 
 the neighborhood " rolling them up," as the 
 phrase was; working in gangs, and assisting 
 one another to " roll up," by means of inclined 
 poles, the logs which were to form the walls of 
 the future house. 
 
HEDGEWICK AT THE GRINDSTONE 77 
 
 Then there were the men, carpenters and 
 woodsmen, employed by Mr. Brooke. Walden 
 soon made acquaintance with these, and found 
 enough to do. 
 
 " Here, Walden ! " called Mr. Brooke from 
 the store ; " come and pick out your axe." 
 
 The boy had already fixed his eye on the 
 lightest of the axes which had come in the load 
 the day before. He chose a helve to match, 
 among several which had been shaped by back 
 woodsmen and brought in to be exchanged for 
 goods at the store. 
 
 The helve was soon fitted to the axe and 
 firmly wedged. All this time Walden had had 
 nothing to say to Hedgewick, who was at work 
 placing the new goods. But now the axe, and 
 another which Mr. Brooke called his own, were 
 to be sharpened. 
 
 "Take both axes, Ase, you and Walden," 
 said Mr. Brooke, " and give em a good grind- 
 ing." 
 
 Neither Ase nor Walden said anything as 
 they took each an axe and went over to the 
 stone at the tavern-door. Ase gave it a turn 
 
78 A START IN LIFE 
 
 and found there was no water in the under- 
 hanging trough. He then brought out an 
 empty pail, which he dropped at Walden s 
 feet, saying tersely, 
 
 " Fetch some ! " 
 
 Walden hesitated a moment, but seemed to 
 conclude it would be becoming in him to obey. 
 
 " From the brook ? " he asked. 
 
 "No; from the spring." 
 
 Ase pointed with an authoritative look. 
 The spring was near by, with a bottomless 
 barrel set. The boy soon returned from it 
 with a dripping pail, and the trough was 
 filled. Then Ase said sententiously, 
 
 "Turn ! " And Walden turned. 
 
 Ase held Mr. Brooke s axe to the stone, 
 bearing on harder and harder, until Walden, 
 tugging at the crank, began to laugh. 
 
 " Always snickering ! " exclaimed Ase. 
 "What now?" 
 
 "I was thinking of what the boy said last 
 night that he d rather go a-fishing all day 
 than * turn grin -stun half an hour. I wonder 
 what he would have said if he had been 
 
HEDGEWICK AT THE GRINDSTONE 79 
 
 turning for you ! " Walden added good- 
 humoredly. 
 
 " Maybe you can guess what he d say, fore 
 we get through," muttered the grim axe- 
 grinder. 
 
 It was very evident that he was doing all 
 he could to tire the boy out. But Walden 
 stuck to his task heroically, and took pride in 
 keeping the stone lightly whirling even when 
 the tool was lifted. He thus reminded himself 
 of a story he had read of some people starving 
 in a besieged town, who with gay defiance let 
 some plump pigeons fly from the walls, in the 
 face of the enemy. 
 
 " Glad you like turning so well," said Ase, 
 feeling the edge for the last time, and then 
 reaching to lean the helve against the side of 
 the house. " Give me t other axe." 
 
 " Beg pardon ! " replied Walden, reaching 
 for the axe, but holding on to it. " I like 
 turning well enough, when it s my turn to 
 turn. But I ve turned for you ; now it s 
 your turn to turn for me. One good turn 
 deserves another, as they say." 
 
80 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " Give me that axe ! " Ase demanded, in the 
 good old-style schoolmaster tones. 
 
 " I prefer to grind my own axe," said Wai- 
 den, quietly, still keeping out of reach, with 
 his keen eyes fixed on Hedgewick. " Espe 
 cially after seeing the way you have ground 
 Mr. Brooke s." 
 
 " He told me to grind the axes, with you to 
 help," Ase declared. 
 
 " No, he didn t ; he simply told us to take 
 the axes and give em a good grinding." 
 
 " I ll see about that ! " muttered Ase, start 
 ing towards the store. 
 
 " So will I ! " cried Walden, springing 
 before him. 
 
 He was almost sorry that he had made a 
 stand for his independence, since it made 
 necessary an appeal to Mr. Brooke, that very 
 first morning in the new settlement. But he 
 concluded that, if A. Randolph Hedgewick 
 was to be his master still, he might as well 
 know the fact at once. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MR. BROOKE SETTLES ONE DISPUTE, AND MB. GADBURY 
 IS CHOSEN UMPIRE IN ANOTHER THAT IT LED TO. 
 
 HE did not have far to go, for Mr. Brooke 
 just then made his appearance at the door. 
 Walden made haste to get in his question, 
 
 " I suppose you will trust me to grind my 
 own axe, since I am to use it ? " 
 
 "Why yes I don t know," said Mr. 
 Brooke, doubtfully. " Can you ? " 
 
 " I should hope so ! " Walden replied, confi 
 dently. " I ve done as much before now. 
 Anyway," he added, seeing Ase about to put 
 in his remonstrance, " just let me try ; and 
 then, if you don t say it s ground as well as 
 yours is, I ll never ask to grind my own axe 
 again." 
 
 " Well, go ahead ! " said Mr. Brooke, care 
 lessly. " What is it, Ase ? " 
 
 "I don t want to turn grin -stun for that 
 boy ! " said Ase. 
 
 81 
 
82 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " I didn t very much fancy turning for him," 
 spoke up Walden ; " but I did it." 
 
 " I don t see, Ase," remarked Mr. Brooke, 
 " that you can reasonably object to returning 
 the favor." 
 
 " I do object, decidedly ! " said Ase. " I 
 didn t hire out to turn grin -stuns for upstart 
 boys like him. You don t know him as well as 
 I do." 
 
 " I think I stand a pretty good chance to get 
 acquainted with him," Mr. Brooke replied with 
 a good-natured, open countenance and unruffled 
 temper. " As for the terms of your agreement 
 with me, I believe nothing was said about 
 grinding axes, though I understood that you 
 were to do anything I asked of you, within the 
 bounds of reason." 
 
 " So I was," said Ase, glowering obstinately ; 
 "but"- 
 
 "Well, never mind," interrupted Mr. 
 Brooke. " If you consider it beneath your 
 dignity " 
 
 "I do ! " exclaimed Hedgewick, with in 
 creasing vehemence, now that his employer 
 
SETTLING DISPUTES 83 
 
 showed signs of giving in to him. " I should 
 consider myself degraded." 
 
 "I m sorry ! " Mr. Brooke smiled pleasantly, 
 and walked over towards Walden, who was 
 waiting, axe in hand, to hear his decision. 
 " Go into the store, Ase, and take care of your 
 dignity. It won t degrade me, I guess, to turn 
 grindstone, even for a boy. Come, Walden ! " 
 
 44 1 I can t let you do that ! " Ase pro 
 tested, in sudden consternation. Mr. Brooke 
 made no reply, but went over to the tavern- 
 door and left him staring. 
 
 " You hold the axe, and let me turn ! " Wal 
 den entreated. 
 
 41 No, no, boy," said Mr. Brooke, laying hold 
 of the crank. 44 1 want to see if you are really 
 capable of grinding an axe. Now, don t bear 
 on too hard," he added, playfully. 44 If you 
 do, I may throw up the job." 
 
 Walden remonstrated in vain; and finally, 
 in great shame and confusion, put his axe upon 
 the stone, which his employer stooped to turn. 
 He soon regained his courage, however, and 
 laid the edge upon the watery, revolving rim, 
 
84 A START IN LIFE 
 
 and drew it to and fro, and turned it, shifting 
 the helve from hand to hand, as his father had 
 taught him to do when he was only fifteen 
 years old, and as he had done many times since. 
 
 Then again he begged Mr. Brooke to change 
 places with him, but that just and genial gen 
 tleman smilingly refused. " You re doing 
 pretty well," he said. " But you haven t shown 
 yet that you can finish what you have begun." 
 
 " Well, then, let her buzz ! " laughed Walden, 
 thinking no longer of anything else than put 
 ting the best edge possible, and the smoothest 
 polish, on a very good axe. 
 
 Mr. Brooke regarded it approvingly when it 
 was done, but said nothing. He then took up 
 the other axe and examined that. 
 
 " I don t suppose I should be an unprejudiced 
 judge," he remarked, in answer to a question of 
 comparison from Walden, as they walked back 
 to the store together. " But here comes Gad- 
 bury; he s the best axe-grinder I know of. 
 See here, Gadbury ! " 
 
 Thus accosted, the tavern-keeper, who was 
 going by, turned up to the store. 
 
SETTLING DISPUTES 85 
 
 " Who s the best judge of axe-grinding here 
 abouts ? " Mr. Brooke inquired. 
 
 "Id n o n ti," replied the old man, modestly. 
 " But Pve seen an axe ground fore to-day ! " 
 
 " Here are two axes," Mr. Brooke continued. 
 " I sha n t tell you who ground them, but I 
 want to know which is done the best." 
 
 Walden s heart fluttered with expectation 
 as Gadbury took the implements, one after the 
 other, felt their edges, looked across them at 
 the light, turned his quid, and drew up one 
 side of his face in a pucker of amused con 
 ceit. 
 
 " You want to know my pinion ? " he asked. 
 " Wai, it mayn t be wuth a hooter ; but, if , 
 that ere axe " handing Walden s to Mr. 
 Brooke "is a decently ground axe." 
 
 " And the other ?" said Mr. Brooke. 
 
 " This ere may be a pretty good axe ; I like 
 the looks on t all," the umpire added, with 
 great positiveness, " save an* excep the grindin . 
 Good stuff, good helve, good every way. But 
 the grindin s uneven an too much on the edge, 
 as you can see with your own eyes, Mr. 
 
86 A START IN LIFE 
 
 Brooke, though you may have ground it 
 yerself, fuzino." 
 
 "No, I didn t," said Mr. Brooke, with a smile, 
 while Walden had to put his face in a corner 
 to conceal his delight. 
 
 But Mr. A. Randolph Hedgewick, farther 
 back in the store, looked glum. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GRINDERS OF THE TWO AXES HAVE A BARE OPPOR 
 TUNITY TO TRY THEIR EDGE. 
 
 LOGS for the sawmill had been cut on the 
 spot, and Walden, with his newly ground axe, 
 was set to clearing up some heavy tree-tops, 
 which were to be reduced to piles of fire-wood, 
 or thrown into heaps and burned. 
 
 The preparations for sawing the first log 
 went on before his eyes, and were as interest 
 ing to him as if the fate of an empire had been 
 at stake. The new enterprise meant framed 
 houses, with boarded sides and smooth floors, 
 and other cheap conveniences, unknown in a 
 settlement of log huts. 
 
 Walden was frequently called to help about 
 the mill, using axe, or handspike, or nimble 
 hands ; and he was one of a small number of 
 spectators who gathered to see the first slab 
 cut, on the afternoon of the third day. 
 87 
 
88 A START IN LIFE 
 
 The bright new saw was fixed in the strong 
 upright frame. The log was on the truck, or 
 carriage, in its place. The gate was hoisted, 
 the water rushed upon the wheel, the gearing 
 moved, the flashing blade began to dance, the 
 log was carried forward against the relentless 
 teeth. Then, at the whizzing contact of wood 
 and steel, and the sight of flying sawdust and 
 the blade eating its way, a glad hurrah went 
 up. Everybody congratulated everybody in 
 general, and Mr. Brooke in particular. 
 
 The machinery was quickly stopped for 
 some necessary adjustment. But the problem 
 was solved ; and in a few minutes the saw, 
 once more set in motion, took off, cleanly and 
 handsomely, the first slab. 
 
 " Now there ll be a chance for the big bear 
 I see in the woods t other day," remarked 
 Gadbury, the tavern-keeper, as the log was 
 backing up for a second cut. "Did I ever 
 tell you the story bout the bear that tackled 
 a sawmill onct, an ruther got the wust on t? " 
 
 "Tell it, uncle," said Mr. Brooke, in the 
 best of spirits, as well he might be. 
 
THE AXE-GRINDERS TRY THE TOOLS 89 
 
 " Ye see," the old man resumed, " the sawyer 
 had shet down an gone off to bring some 
 grease fer his gearin , leavin his pail o dinner ; 
 an , when he come back, there sot a big bear 
 on the truck, pail under one arm, a-scoopin 
 out the biled cabbage an corn-beef with t other 
 paw, like he was boss of the hull consarn. 
 
 " Sawyer wuz consider ble discomfusticated, 
 as I guess e ena most any man u d be under 
 the sarcumstances. But he had time to gether 
 up his wits, fer the beast s attention wuz so 
 tuck up with his victuals t he never see no 
 man. He wuz a-clawin an a-swallerin , when 
 the sawyer, thinkin jest to drive him away, 
 slipped in an set the mill a-goin . 
 
 " Bear felt suthin twitch his tail ; turned, 
 an see the saw a-bobbin an a-grinnin at him. 
 Saw snarled an showed its teeth ; bear snarled 
 back, and showed his n. Bear put out his paw f 
 as if to see what sort of a critter wuz a-foolin 
 with him ; paw got bit. Then that ere bear 
 went fer that ere saw. Bear s natur , ye 
 know, s to hug. He hugged. He hugged 
 that ere saw, an that ere saw sawed, whilst 
 
90 A STAKT IN LIFE 
 
 the sawyer jest laid back an kep dark an 
 watched the fight. Bear got the wust on t; 
 ripped clean in tew, slick as a whistle ! Sawyer 
 said he didn t haf to travel off fer no more 
 grease fer his gearin that season ! Did I ever 
 /jell it ? Id nVn ti ! " 
 
 " You never told it to me," said Mr. Brooke. 
 " But I ve heard the story before." 
 
 " Wai, ye may have," said the tavern-keeper, 
 biting a plug of tobacco. " I heerd it long 
 ago s when I wuz a young man, an carried a 
 musket in the Revolution, an fit under our 
 gre t and good commander, Gin ral Jawge 
 Wash n ton. Twuz an ol story then, fuzino." 
 
 " There wa n t any sawmills so long ago," 
 said Ase, who sometimes hazarded rash state 
 ments in order to make a show of superior 
 knowledge, and who lost no opportunity of 
 discrediting the old man s word since he had 
 passed adverse judgment on his axe-grinding. 
 "Sawmills wa n t invented." 
 
 At the same time, having attracted the 
 attention of the spectators, he flourished an 
 axe which he picked up, and, stepping to a log 
 
THE AXE-GKINDERS TRY THE TOOLS 91 
 
 near by, struck it a blow that exhibited, as he 
 evidently meant it should, a very creditable 
 amount of muscle. 
 
 But Gadbury was not silenced. 
 
 " Sawmills wa n t invented, hey ? " he slowly 
 repeated. "Mabbe they wa n t. An mabbe 
 bears wa n t invented, nuther. But I kin o 
 run of a notion t I seen both, an some other 
 things, too, thirty year, t least, fore ever your 
 hair begun to curl, young man ! " 
 
 Thereupon everybody laughed ; Walden, for 
 reasons of his own, perhaps a little more glee 
 fully than the rest. Ase gave him a glowering 
 look, and once more struck, with a prodigious 
 display of force, his axe into the butt of the 
 log. He left it sticking, and was rising up 
 to answer the tavern-keeper, when Mr. Brooke 
 interposed. 
 
 "Don t waste breath in argument and 
 strokes that do more harm than good. Come, 
 boys ! " he called, starting off towards the 
 woods. "There s a little stick up here I 
 want to get out of the way. Bring your axes." 
 
 By the " boys " he meant Ase and Walden ; 
 
92 A START IN LIFE 
 
 and the " little stick " mentioned was part of 
 a gnarly oak, near thirty inches in diameter, 
 that was to be divided into lengths convenient 
 for being hauled to a log-heap and burned. 
 
 "Now Ase will have a chance to show what 
 he can do," said Luke Ball, one of Mr. Brooke s 
 wood-choppers. " He s always bragging t he 
 can cut more wood in a day than any of us, 
 only he never gits the time." 
 
 Mr. Brooke had heard his storekeeper brag 
 of what he could accomplish with an axe, 
 which, however, he did not often take occa 
 sion to wield, except for a few showy strokes. 
 He had also been annoyed by the ridicule Ase 
 habitually cast upon whatever Walden set out 
 to do. 
 
 " Make the first cut about there," said he, 
 laying a twig across the prostrate trunk ; " and 
 the next," taking a few paces toward the top, 
 "where this decayed spot is. Then we can 
 handle it." 
 
 At sight of the " little stick," Ase felt his 
 ambition to swing an axe rapidly evaporate, 
 and suddenly remembered some important 
 
THE AXE-GRINDERS TRY THE TOOLS 93 
 
 matter he had neglected at the store when he 
 ran over to see the mill start. 
 
 " I ll look out for that," said Mr. Brooke. 
 " Now, boys, there s a little stint for you." 
 
 The stem was slightly tapering, and the 
 decayed spot appeared to offer a still further 
 advantage to the chopper who should take the 
 upper cut. Walden had his eye on it, but 
 stopped at a stump to whet his axe, when Ase 
 walked in before him. 
 
 " Oh, Ase ! " cried Luke Ball, from a hemlock 
 trunk near by. " You ain t goin to let him 
 butt ye ! " 
 
 For one chopper to butt another signified 
 that he was to make the cut nearest the thick 
 end of a stem in the time it took his companion 
 to make the next above, where the diameter 
 was less. 
 
 44 There ain t no butting about it," replied 
 Ase. Schoolmaster as he was, or had been, he 
 sometimes used the double negative, which 
 form of speech he probably thought good 
 enough for the backwoods. "There s scarce 
 any difference in the trunk, when you get 
 
94 A START IN LIFE 
 
 a few feet away from the stump, till you pass 
 the branches." 
 
 " Wai ! " said Tom Keyes, another chopper, 
 who was helping Luke divide the hemlock logs 
 by means of a cross-cut saw, " I d give the boy 
 the advantage of the difference, if the is any ; 
 and of course the is a little." 
 
 "Til bet the boy can butt him" said Gad- 
 bury, who had sauntered up the stumpy slope 
 after the choppers. " Come, Brooke, what ll 
 ye bet?" 
 
 "Don t bet anything on me," spoke up 
 Walden. "You ll lose if you do. But I d 
 just as soon take the first cut." And he 
 walked over to the trunk, where he sat down 
 beside the twig Mr. Brooke had laid across it, 
 and continued sharpening his axe. 
 
 After some hesitation, Ase, for very shame, 
 left the spot he had chosen, although he had 
 already taken a chip out of it, and started to 
 walk along on the trunk, saying that he didn t 
 care ; he wasn t going to try his strength with 
 a boy s anyway. 
 
 "Of course not !" said Walden. "I don t 
 
THE AXE-GRINDERS TRY THE TOOLS 95 
 
 pretend I can chop with a man. But I guess 
 I can manage to gnaw this stick off, give me 
 time. I m going to try it, and I m going to 
 have this cut." 
 
 So Hedgewick walked back to where he had 
 made a beginning, and struck in his axe again. 
 
 " I ve got a mighty dull axe ! " he said. 
 
 " Is that so ? " asked Mr. Brooke, surprised. 
 " It has been used very little since you ground 
 it the other day." 
 
 Meanwhile Gadbury was urging him to bet. 
 Mr. Brooke laughingly put him off, but at last 
 said, 
 
 " Well, if you will be so foolish, I ll bet you 
 a bushel of potatoes. But the odds are all 
 against you ; don t you see they are ? " 
 
 " They may be, fuzino," replied the tavern- 
 keeper. " Ol man Gadbury don t know much, 
 ye know ; don t even know when sawmills was 
 invented ! But he ll resk a bushel o taters on 
 Walden s buttin on him. Jes to see a little 
 fun goin on, and incourage the boys." 
 
 " I m sorry about those taters" Walden said 
 to him, with a smile, as he stood on the log, 
 poising his axe. 
 
96 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " You put in ! " returned old man Gadbury, 
 with an emphatic nod. " I ve seen you swing 
 an axe, an I ve seen him swing an axe, an I 
 ain t afeard o losin the taters. Not if you ll 
 try. Don t ye see, he s gittin the start ? " 
 
 " I haven t lost any time while I was sharpen 
 ing my axe," said Walden, and he drove the 
 bright edge into the brittle bark. 
 
 His strokes were not very heavy, and he did 
 not seem to be hurried in the least. But every 
 blow fell precisely on the spot where it would 
 do the most good ; and somehow his axe had a 
 way of settling into the oak, which the appar 
 ent strength put forth did not lead you to 
 expect. 
 
 " He s a born chopper," remarked the tavern- 
 keeper, half leaning, half sitting on a neigh 
 boring stump. " Gives his axe jes the right 
 slant, an hits where he aims ter, tu a hair, 
 every time. Then, don t ye see ? there s a kin 
 of a force goes into the eend of his stroke, stid 
 o losin itself in the air, fore it hits, like some 
 folks s strokes du." 
 
 And he cast a sarcastic glance at Ase, rub 
 bing at the same time his husky hands. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MB. GADBUBY S NOVEL, METHOD OF RAISING POTATOES, 
 
 AND HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 
 
 ASE set his first chips flying handsomely, and 
 they were thick and broad. But, on getting 
 deeper into the trunk, he soon betrayed that 
 his skill was by no means equal to his strength. 
 Much of the force of his strokes seemed to 
 spend itself in the air, as the critic on the 
 stump had intimated ; and, what was worse, he 
 could seldom strike twice in the same place. 
 
 The slanting sides of his cut were constantly 
 getting haggled by false strokes, instead of 
 preserving a clean and polished appearance, 
 as Walden s did. "E ena most like the pages 
 of a book," as old man Gadbury observed; 
 " where the minister could write a sarmon, if 
 he was so disposed." 
 
 Ase lost a good deal of time in trimming off 
 those mangled edges, often striking still out- 
 97 
 
98 A START IN LIFE 
 
 side of them in the attempt, and thus involun 
 tarily broadening his cut. Then another thing 
 happened. 
 
 The decayed spot was near the upper side of 
 the log, and to his inexperienced eye it had no 
 doubt indicated easy chopping when he should 
 get into it ; perhaps he would find the trunk 
 hollow. But it turned out quite otherwise. 
 There had once been a limb there ; the wood 
 was dead, indeed, but hard as " linkum vity," 
 as Gadbury pleasantly remarked. 
 
 " He s got into a knot older n he is ; old s 
 the fust sawmill t ever was invented, fuzino ! " 
 chuckled the tavern-keeper, again rattling his 
 horny hands. " See here, Brooke ! will ye say 
 tew bushel?" 
 
 " Who is beating ? " Mr. Brooke called back 
 from the mill. 
 
 " Id n o n ti ! But I ll ventur a few more 
 taters, jes to see the fun go on." 
 
 "You ll ruin yourself, Mr. Gadbury," Wai- 
 den laughingly protested, between strokes. 
 "You and your boarders will" hack! 
 " have to go without potatoes all winter, if 
 
m 
 
 fr- 
 
 I 
 
 *- i rs*? 
 
 . 
 
 
NEW METHOD OF RAISING POTATOES 99 
 
 you risk any more on " hack ! " my chop 
 ping." Hack ! hack ! and out tumbled a big 
 chip. 
 
 The day was cool, but both choppers had 
 thrown off their coats at the beginning of the 
 contest. Walden now flung his cap down on 
 the log with his coat, and unbuttoned his vest. 
 Ase threw off both hat and vest, and loosened 
 his shirt at the throat. 
 
 The afternoon sun shone upon their faces, 
 and their shadows chopped behind them, on 
 the background of the bare hills. Gadbury 
 rested on the stump, critical, turning his quid. 
 Luke Ball and Tom Keyes plied their cross-cut 
 saw on the hemlock trunk near by. Bluejays 
 screamed and black squirrels leaped in the 
 forest tops. The sawmill sang below, and the 
 brook came down from above, falling into the 
 little pond. 
 
 Walden had gauged his cut so as to bring 
 the angle of the meeting sides very near the 
 centre of the log. He did not quite clear it 
 out, but turned to start the corresponding cut 
 in the opposite side. 
 
100 A START IN LIFE 
 
 Ase turned at the same time ; but he had 
 not gone quite so near the centre, and he had 
 left a much wider chip still to be taken out ; 
 or perhaps he expected to cut through from 
 the other side, which promised easier chop 
 ping. 
 
 "Why don t you notch out?" Gadbury 
 asked him. " I wouldn t leave sich a botch as 
 that ! " 
 
 " I wouldn t, neither, if twa n t for the sun 
 in my eyes," replied Ase, in a voice which 
 betrayed his laboring breath. 
 
 He was very much heated, his face was 
 flushed and sweaty, the drops trickled down 
 his brawny neck. 
 
 He wiped his low forehead, spat upon his 
 hands (with a furtive glance at something very 
 much like blisters appearing on the palms), 
 and resumed his task. 
 
 Gadbury took up three thick chips, and, 
 carrying them over to the other side of the 
 trunk, sat down on them, again facing the 
 choppers. 
 
 " It s an easy thing to see white men work, 
 
NEW METHOD OF RAISING tfG 
 
 as the old Injun said," he remarked, cheerfully, 
 once more biting his plug. " Though it dooes 
 make my back ache to see you, Ase ! Seems 
 to me I feel the j ints o my fingers achin 
 round that ere helve ; an I m git in awful 
 hot about the neck an chist ! Plenty o time, 
 plenty o time, Ase ! What makes us so 
 troubled in sperit? What are we so con- 
 sarned about ? Id n o n ti ! " and the old man 
 chuckled. 
 
 " You d better go about your business ! " 
 said Ase. 
 
 " Why, I be about my business ! I m inakin 
 money faster n I ever did afore in my life 
 hand over fist!" said Gadbury, with provoking 
 good humor. " How so ? says you. Rais 
 in taters, says I." 
 
 Walden had to stop and laugh ; and he took 
 that occasion to whet his axe again. He was 
 well aware that the little time thus spent 
 would be fully offset by the steel s keener 
 edge and his own refreshed strength. Sharp 
 ening was not like chopping. 
 
 " I m in a pretty hard place," he said, balanc- 
 
Sl?AKT IN LIFE 
 
 ing himself on the log again. " If I get beat 
 as of course I shall, for Ase is only playing 
 with me " hack ! (think of the easy impu 
 dence of his calling Mr. A. Randolph Hedge- 
 wick Ase! wouldn t his old school-fellows 
 have laughed ?) " He s just making believe ; 
 he ll drop the log from under me, first you 
 know ! If I get beat," he went on hack ! 
 " I lose my credit as a woodsman. If I beat 
 him, Mr. Brooke loses " hack ! " his pota 
 toes. And Mr. Brooke s interest is my " 
 hack! "is my interest. So I lose, anyway." 
 
 "Never mind about Mr. Brooke s interest," 
 said a voice ; and the shadow of his employer, 
 coming up behind, fell across the log. " Win 
 for Gadbury if you can. Ase will look out 
 for me. I ll say two bushels, Gadbury I " and 
 Mr. Brooke walked off again. 
 
 Fresh courage and strength seemed to enter 
 into the youthful chopper. Sunburnt, flushed, 
 his short, fair locks tossed over his brow, his 
 red flannel shirt-sleeves tucked up from his 
 brown arms ; his breath drawn in through open 
 nostrils and exhaled in a quick " hah ! " with 
 
NEW METHOD OF RAISING POTATOES 108 
 
 each stroke ; lithe, athletic, keen-eyed, his 
 features clear and strong ; he stood on the log, 
 above the cut already made, and with the other 
 fast growing between his feet. 
 
 Ase was doing better than at first; his 
 strength held out well, and he was getting 
 what he called "the hang o the axe." He 
 would not be beaten by that boy ! Hard and 
 fast fell his strokes. Meanwhile, the tone of 
 old man Gadbury s remarks changed somewhat. 
 
 It was plainly to be seen that, as he after 
 wards confessed, he was " feelin shaky bout 
 them ere taters." He got up from his throne 
 of chips, and walked from one part of the log 
 to the other, and squinted across the cuts, 
 making silent comparisons, which were evi 
 dently not favorable to his side. 
 
 " Be ye gittin tuckered ? " he said to Wai- 
 den. " Can t ye put in a leetle more ginger ? " 
 
 The boy knew what he meant by " ginger," 
 and quickened his strokes. The two openings 
 made about equal progress towards the centre 
 of the log ; but, before it was reached, Hedge- 
 wick s drew to an angle, with still three inches 
 
104 A START IN LIFE 
 
 of solid heart of oak remaining for his axe. He 
 would have been hopelessly beaten if he had 
 been obliged to broaden the notch ; but there 
 was the unfinished one on the other side. 
 
 "Now s your chance!" Gadbury cried, ex 
 citedly, to Walden. " I ll give ye half o them 
 taters I Two or three strokes right there ! 
 Leetle lower down ! It s off ! it s off save 
 an except a hangnail t the bottom ! " 
 
 Walden s part of the log wasn t quite so 
 nearly off as Gadbury said. But Ase was 
 made to think it was. He had turned to chop 
 on the sunny side. The level light was in his 
 eyes again. He plied his axe furiously until, 
 almost at the last stroke, it went wild, glanced, 
 flew from his hands, and struck the stump 
 where Gadbury had been sitting, a do^en feet 
 away. 
 
 " Lucky I wa n t settV there now ! " was 
 the old man s first exclamation. His second 
 was, as the log began to twist and crack under 
 Walden s final blows, " We ve got them ere 
 taters, boy ! " 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A COON-HUNT WITH A DOG THAT WAS NOT A COON-DOG. 
 
 MR. BKOOKE did not seem to be much dis 
 pleased when he heard that he had lost his bet. 
 He was not a betting man, and he had a fine 
 sense of right, which would have troubled him 
 if he had been conscious of taking anything 
 from his neighbor without rendering a fair 
 return. 
 
 Walden did not brag of his success, which 
 had cost his employer two bushels of a product 
 which commanded a good price in that new 
 country. Hedgewick had still better reasons 
 for silence on the subject. Mr. Brooke forbore 
 making any comment, but said, quietly, 
 
 " Take a two-bushel bag, Ase, and fill it 
 from the large pile of potatoes in the cellar. 
 Then, when you go to supper, you can take it 
 over to Gadbury s and pay our debt." 
 
 Hedge wick s soul revolted against that humil- 
 
 105 
 
106 A START IN LIFE 
 
 iation. " Let him come for em," he growled, 
 ungraciously. But Mr. Brooke said that 
 wouldn t do. 
 
 " It s a debt of honor, and we must pay it 
 honorably, young man ! " 
 
 Gadbury had no scruples against receiving 
 it ; he stood in his door with a number of his 
 boarders (Walden and the wood-choppers 
 among them), and watched with immense 
 satisfaction the burly Ase bringing over the 
 bag on his back. 
 
 " It s the heaviest two bushel o taters ever 
 lie had to lug ! " he remarked ; while Walden s 
 unfortunate risibilities ("tickle-strings," the 
 old man called them) were so shaken that 
 he had to dodge in behind the door, to avoid 
 giving the ex-schoolmaster fresh offence. 
 
 Ase did not for a long while hear the last 
 of the affair. Luke Ball and Tom Keyes made 
 frequent allusions in his presence to famous 
 feats of wood-chopping ; and at almost every 
 meal somebody would urge him to " take anoth 
 er tater ; " adding, perhaps, " They re some o 
 ihenCere taters, ye know ! " 
 
A COON-HUNT 107 
 
 All this, I am sorry to say, increased the 
 animosity with which Hedge wick was inclined 
 to regard his former pupil. Walden himself 
 did not willingly do anything to aggravate 
 it. But, with those over-sensitive " tickle- 
 strings " of his, he couldn t help laughing at 
 the jokes which Ase did not find laughable. 
 
 The sawmill had hardly covered its own 
 back with boarding when there came a snow 
 storm. That made a change of scene, but not 
 of work, for Walden. He was in the woods 
 the most of the time, now helping with his 
 axe, now driving the team for the men, haul 
 ing logs or loads of wood, and clearing the 
 ground for crops. 
 
 He loved this outdoor life, with all its hard 
 work. In winter, too, no less than in summer, 
 the forest had its charms for him. When the 
 bare boughs revealed their wonderful tracery 
 against the sky, or sparkled with glittering 
 frost-work ; when the snapping ice rattled from 
 limbs and twigs at the touch of the morning 
 sun, and the crows cawed high overhead ; when 
 the partridge skulked under low branches of 
 
108 A START IN LIFE 
 
 fir, drooping with their weight of snow, by 
 the brookside, and the brook sang its cheery 
 song between icy banks; when the rabbit 
 hopped away before him, dotting the earth s 
 white mantle with its tracks ; at all such sights 
 and sounds, a sense of wildness and beauty 
 stirred within him, and he was happy without 
 knowing why. 
 
 In the winter evenings he waited on cus 
 tomers in the store, when his services were 
 needed. But he had much time to himself, 
 and now the books which he had brought 
 from home proved useful. He had never 
 forgotten what Mr. Brooke, in their first 
 interview, said to him about arithmetic; and 
 he devoted many hours, and many sheets 01 
 birch bark (which served instead of slate or 
 paper), to mastering what he had neglected at 
 school. 
 
 He would have been glad of Mr. A. Ran 
 dolph Hedgewick s assistance about certain 
 hard sums, but would not ask for it; and it 
 was perhaps all the better for him that he 
 worked them out unaided. He did not know 
 
A COON-HUNT 109 
 
 how soon he had passed on where his former 
 teacher would have found it impossible to 
 follow. For that gentleman was not the 
 mathematical prodigy he managed to appear 
 to pupils a little more ignorant than himself. 
 
 Mr. Brooke had engaged the boy to do what 
 ever work was required of him ; and had con 
 cluded that he could afford to give him, besides 
 his living, three dollars a week, do you 
 think ? No ; three dollars a month. Walden 
 thought this liberal, and, for the times, it was. 
 But how would it strike lads of his age and 
 spirit and muscle, making a start in life to-day ? 
 
 Walden did not get along very well with 
 Ase in the store ; and he had a particularly 
 hard time with him when, in January, Mr. 
 Brooke was away. Hedgewick had been left 
 in charge ; and Walden, in his subordinate 
 position, endured his domineering and abuse 
 as best he could. 
 
 Mr. Brooke returned from the East with a 
 sleigh-load of goods ; and in February Ase was 
 sent for another load, to Wai den s great relief. 
 The boy was now employed much of the time 
 
110 A START IN LIFE 
 
 in the store, and he was rapidly learning the 
 details of the business. Those were happy 
 days when he had Mr. Brooke for a boss, in 
 stead of Ase. 
 
 He was in the woods one day in spring, when 
 he saw a strange-looking animal running up a 
 tall trunk near the edge of the clearing. 
 
 " A wild-cat ! " was his first thought. But 
 then he reflected that no creature of the cat 
 tribe, that he ever heard of, had a bushy tail 
 tipped and ringed with black. 
 
 "A coon!" was his second thought; and 
 he felt sure this time that he couldn t be mis 
 taken. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it was the first rac 
 coon our boy of the backwoods had ever seen 
 alive. He had often enough at home witnessed 
 the depredations this nocturnal visitor com 
 mitted in the cornfields ; but he had never 
 hunted it, and it did not often show itself by 
 day. 
 
 While he stood watching it from below, it 
 glided over a lofty limb and disappeared in the 
 crotch. 
 
A COON-HUNT 111 
 
 "It has a hole there," he said to himself; 
 and it occurred to him that its skin would 
 make a very good cap. 
 
 He kept his own counsel, but that evening 
 told his good friend the tavern-keeper what 
 he had seen. Since Walden had won for him 
 "them ere taters," and refused to accept any 
 part of them for his share, Gadbury had shown 
 him many favors. 
 
 " Keep dark," said he, " V we ll have a nice 
 little coon-hunt of our own Sa day art noon. 
 He ll stay where he is, fer that s his hum." 
 
 " You have a gun," replied Walden, who 
 remembered seeing one behind the chimney in 
 the room Mr. Brooke occupied at the tavern. 
 
 " I ve got a gun." The old man s eyes grew 
 hazy with reminiscence. " My Revolutionary 
 musket. The same t I carried to the war, 
 when I fit under our gre t and good command 
 er, Gin ral Jawge Wash n ton. But tain t o 
 much account fer huntin . Though I s pose - 
 mind ! I don t say I know, on y s pose t that 
 ere gun killed a redcoat onct. Fuzino." 
 
 Walden thought he would some time ask 
 
112 A START IN LIFE 
 
 him for the story ; but just now he was more 
 interested in a coat that wasn t red. 
 
 "I can chop down the tree myself," he 
 said. 
 
 " So ye can ! But how ye ll ketch the coon ? 
 Tell ye what we ll du. Git Warrett to come 
 over ith his yaller dog an his shotgun. An 
 the coon-skin shall be your n, fer he owes me a 
 good turn fer grindin his axe, an I owe you 
 one fer them ere " 
 
 " Don t mention the taters ! " laughed Wai- 
 den. 
 
 He got Mr. Brooke s permission to cut the 
 tree ; and, at Gadbury s invitation, Warrett 
 came on Saturday afternoon, bringing his axe 
 and his gun, and accompanied by his son Sam 
 and his " yaller dog." The son Sam was the 
 same boy whom Walden had seen turning the 
 grindstone for the old man, on the evening of 
 his arrival in the new settlement. 
 
 The "yaller dog " was not a coon-dog, and he 
 could not be got to show much interest in 
 anything supposed to be up the tree Walden 
 pointed out. 
 
A COON-HUNT 113 
 
 "Wait till he sets eyes on him! "said the 
 elder Warrett. " Then you ll see music." 
 
 "He ain t good on a scent, but there s a 
 power o fight in him ! " bragged young 
 Sam. 
 
 The axes set to work on each side of the 
 trunk, Walden taking the upper, and Warrett 
 the under cut, in such a way as to lay the top 
 over into the clearing. It was an elm of good 
 size ; but it was not long before it began to 
 sway and rustle, and, at a finishing stroke from 
 Warrett s axe, went crashing down. 
 
 " Now for the varmint ! " said Gadbury, as 
 all went rushing towards the still quivering 
 top. 
 
 The dog felt the excitement, and went caper 
 ing among the branches ; when shown a hole 
 in the crotch, where Walden had seen the coon 
 disappear, he bristled and pawed and gnawed 
 and barked furiously. He was left to guard 
 the entrance while Warrett stood by with his 
 gun, and Walden cut holes, one after another, 
 in the hollow limb. 
 
 At last a stick which the old man thrust in 
 
114 A START IN LIFE 
 
 discovered the tenant s lodging ; and, after a 
 few vigorous punches, the animal appeared 
 through one of the holes Walden had cut. It 
 was about one-third the size of the dog, into 
 whose very face it put out its nose. 
 
 " Let Tory shake him ! " yelled little War- 
 re tt, dancing " like a wild Injun," as old man 
 Gadbury remarked afterwards. 
 
 There was some shaking done ; but it struck 
 Walden that it was in an unusual manner. 
 The dog did not seize the game, but the game 
 seized the dog. He pulled it out of the hole 
 with his nose fastened in the raccoon s teeth. 
 The dog jerked and backed off; the raccoon 
 hung on with savage persistence. The " power 
 o fight" in the cur remained problematical; 
 but his power of yelping was apparent. He 
 filled the woods with his cries of terror and 
 pain. 
 
 " The critter might a hild on till doomsday," 
 said Gadbury, telling the story in the evening, 
 " if Walden hadn t a run in an gin it a coody- 
 grass with his axe." He meant coup de grace ; 
 and, when asked to explain the term, said it was 
 
A COON-HUNT 115 
 
 one he learned in the army of the Revolution, 
 when he " carried a musket and fit under that 
 gre t an good commander, Gin ral Jawge 
 Wash n ton." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A TEUE FAMILY HISTORY OF A KITTEN, A PUPPY, AND 
 A YOUNG RACCOON. 
 
 THE raccoon despatched, Tory got Ms nose 
 free, and, turning tail, ran for home faster than 
 he had ever run before in his life; uttering 
 short yelps till he was out of sight. 
 
 "Why didn t ye let em have the fight out?" 
 said young Sam, in amusing bewilderment. 
 
 " There wasn t any fight," Walden replied, 
 convulsed with mirth. 
 
 "But the would a been," the elder Warrett 
 declared, " if ye d on y waited fer Tory to git 
 mad ! " 
 
 " I thought it was about time for him to get 
 mad, if he was ever going to," said Walden. 
 " I think I should have been, if a coon had had 
 me by the nose ! " 
 
 He sobered again when Gadbury, examining 
 the carcass, said, oracularly, " The varmint s 
 116 
 
m 
 
 
 V B 
 
A TRUE FAMILY HISTORY 117 
 
 got young uns in that ere limb. Twon t do 
 to let them grow up to make mischief in our 
 new cornfields." 
 
 " Nor leave em to starve," said Walden. 
 
 With a few strokes of his axe he enlarged 
 the opening through which the mother-coon 
 had been driven, thrust in his arm, and took 
 out, one after another, five young ones that 
 had not yet got their eyes open. They were 
 passed around and regarded with a great deal 
 of curiosity. Old man Gadbury was in favor 
 of thumping their heads on the log at once. 
 
 But Walden thought he would like to have a 
 raccoon for a pet ; and young Sam had a still 
 more original scheme for making them useful. 
 
 " Give em to me," said he, " an I ll give ye 
 five puppies not a mite older n they be." 
 
 Walden did not readily perceive the value to 
 him of five blind puppies; nor could he see 
 what Sam wanted of so many helpless " coon- 
 kittens," as the tavern-keeper called them. 
 
 "I ll take away the pups and give their 
 mother the coons to nuss an bring up. Then 
 soon s they re big enough I ll show one to 
 
118 A START IN LIFE 
 
 Tory, an* make him fight an shake it. Then 
 when they re a little bigger I ll give him 
 another. Fin ly I ll turn him loose in a pen 
 with the last one when it s got full-grown ; for 
 I m bound to edecate him into a coon-dog, if I 
 live ! " 
 
 Walden laughed. " There s a cat in the 
 store with kittens," he said. "I might give 
 her one coon, and one of your puppies, and see 
 if she ll bring them up. You may have the 
 other four coons for educational purposes ; and 
 keep the rest of the puppies." 
 
 Taking the old raccoon for her skin, and one 
 of her young for a pet, he returned trium 
 phantly to the store, accompanied by the old 
 man carrying the axe. Mr. Brooke congratu 
 lated him on his good luck, and took a lively 
 interest in the experiment to be tried with the 
 cat. 
 
 One of her four kittens was removed and 
 the young " varmint " carefully put in its 
 place. She did not seem to notice the fraud, 
 but received and nursed the changeling as if 
 it had been her own. Then, when Sam War- 
 
A TRUE FAMILY HISTORY 119 
 
 rett, who had run home with his pockets full 
 of coons, reappeared with a plump brown 
 puppy in his hands, the further deception was 
 practised of substituting it for another of her 
 young. 
 
 She was kind to that also; although its 
 greater size might have betrayed, even to a 
 cat s comprehension, one would think, the fact 
 that her hospitality was being imposed upon. 
 The coon was about as large as one of the 
 kittens, which it sufficiently resembled in 
 shape and color. But the puppy was of a 
 more decided brown, and nearly twice as 
 big. 
 
 The next day another of her own young was 
 abducted, leaving the cat with progeny belong 
 ing to three distinct families of carnivorous 
 animals the feline, the canine, and the ur 
 sine ; the kitten, the puppy, and the little 
 plantigrade stranger from the woods. She at 
 first treated them all with about equal con 
 sideration ; but soon her entire maternal affec 
 tion seemed to centre in the raccoon, perhaps 
 because it was the puniest of the three. 
 
120 A START IN LIFE 
 
 It did not get its eyes open, and it did not 
 seem to grow. The kitten became playful, and 
 the puppy thrived ; but the other changeling 
 did not change, except to become even slighter 
 and feebler than when it was taken from the 
 hollow limb. For its sake the foster-mother 
 snubbed the puppy, and neglected her own 
 child. She would cuff their ears, and snarl at 
 them when they appeared to be taking too 
 large a share of the nutriment she was able to 
 supply ; and one day, at the end of about a 
 month, she forsook them altogether, carrying 
 off her favorite in her mouth. 
 
 She took it to a new bed she found in anoth 
 er corner of the store ; and, when Walden 
 placed the kitten and puppy with her there, 
 she abandoned them again, taking the poor 
 little pet tenderly in her teeth, by the skin of 
 its neck, and hopping back with it into the 
 basket, which had once been the happy home 
 of the now divided family. 
 
 Ever after that, whenever the forsaken ones 
 were brought to her, she would immediately 
 get up from her comfortable couch, and, leav- 
 
A TRUE FAMILY HISTORY 121 
 
 ing it to them, trot off with her ridiculous 
 charge. 
 
 Walden watched these migrations with much 
 interest ; and at length, to see what the cat 
 would do, left her kitten in one bed while he 
 replaced the puppy in the other. She was on 
 her four feet with the coon in her mouth in a 
 moment ; but when, on going back to the bas 
 ket, she found the kitten there, she went sadly 
 away and did not return to either bed again. 
 
 From that time she might often be seen 
 lugging her darling about and concealing it in 
 out-of-the-way places, to her own perfect satis 
 faction and the amusement of the spectators ; 
 until one day a little tragedy happened, which 
 involved more actors than the cat and her 
 young raccoon. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MB. HEDGEWICK THINKS IT TIME FOB HIM TO QUIT, AND 
 IS 8UBPBISED TO FIND HIS EMPLOYES OF THE SAME 
 OPINION. 
 
 ME. BROOKE came into the store after din 
 ner, and found Walden red-eyed and choking 
 with anger. When he asked what the trouble 
 was, the boy held out the limp and lifeless 
 body of the cat s favorite. 
 
 " Dead? " said Mr. Brooke. " How did that 
 happen ? " 
 
 "Ask him!" Walden replied, giving Ase 
 Hedgewick a wrathful look. 
 
 It was not in Hedgewick s nature to like 
 anything in which Walden took delight; and 
 he had come to hate the young raccoon. He 
 had been laughing grimly at the calamity that 
 had cut short its miserable little existence ; but 
 now, as Mr. Brooke turned upon him with a 
 stern question, he thought it time to be serious. 
 
 122 
 
TIME FOR HIM TO QUIT 128 
 
 "I don t know anything about it," he re 
 plied. 
 
 " He does ! " cried Walden. "I saw him hit 
 it with his foot." 
 
 " If I did, it was by accident," said Ase. 
 "It s been hard, half the time, to keep from 
 stepping on it ever since the cat has left it 
 lying around." 
 
 " It was no accident," Walden rejoined. 
 " It was between those barrels, when he came 
 along and gave it a kick. I saw him ; and I m 
 as sure he killed it as I am that he is forever 
 doing mean things, which he thinks will spite 
 me." 
 
 " Well, go to your work, Walden," said Mr. 
 Brooke. "It can t be helped now." 
 
 Walden looked down at the cat purring and 
 rubbing his feet, and mewing wishfully for 
 the baby raccoon in his hand. He gave it to 
 her, and she went off with it in her mouth, to 
 fondle it for the last time, while he walked dis 
 contentedly out of the store. 
 
 Then Mr. Brooke said to Ase, " What did 
 you want to kill that poor little thing for ? " 
 
124 A STABT IN LIFE 
 
 Hedge wick stoutly denied the charge. Mr. 
 Brooke frowned. 
 
 " I ve watched you both carefully ever since 
 that morning when you and Walden were at the 
 grindstone together. I saw and heard a great 
 deal more than either of you supposed ; and I ve 
 noticed your treatment of him since. You have 
 been constantly imposing on him, and trying to 
 prejudice me against him ; while he has sel 
 dom made any complaints against you, but has 
 borne your insults as patiently as I should ex 
 pect a boy of his spirit to do. He has so often 
 been in the right, while you have been in the 
 wrong, that I conclude he is in the right now." 
 
 "Then, you think I lie about that coon ! " ex 
 claimed Ase, looking as if he could, as easily as 
 not, make up his mind to throttle his employer. 
 
 Mr. Brooke answered firmly, " I believe Wal 
 den." 
 
 " Then," said Ase, " I guess it s about time 
 for me to quit." 
 
 " As you please," said Mr. Brooke. " How 
 much do I owe you ? " turning to his desk. 
 
 Walden was greatly surprised, on coming in 
 
TIME FOR HIM TO QUIT 125 
 
 from the woods late in the afternoon, to learn 
 what had occurred. 
 
 " I hope you don t think it was my fault," he 
 said to Mr. Brooke. 
 
 "No, it was his own fault," Mr. Brooke re 
 plied. "I m sorry to lose him, for work is 
 plenty and help is scarce, and he was a good 
 hand in the store. But I think I know of 
 somebody who can take his place." 
 
 "Who?" Walden inquired. 
 
 "A young chap about your size," said Mr. 
 Brooke. 
 
 " His place in the store ? " said the aston 
 ished Walden. " I don t believe I m capable I " 
 
 " If you are not now, you soon will be." 
 
 Mr. Brooke had raised his wages to four dol 
 lars a month since the days had lengthened and 
 the spring work set in ; he now advanced them 
 to five, with the promise of a still further aug 
 mentation, " if it should turn out that he liked 
 the store, and the store liked him." 
 
 Tears shone in the boy s eyes. To have his 
 pay increased, to be rid of his one enemy, and, 
 more than all else, to receive such proof of his 
 
126 A START IN LIFE 
 
 employer s confidence and good-will, seemed 
 almost too much for one day. 
 
 His preference was for active outdoor life 
 and the freedom of the woods. But he liked 
 the store well enough when Ase was out of it. 
 The work there was anything but confining, 
 and there was no lack of exercise for strong 
 arms and a sturdy back. 
 
 Hedgewick, when he threw up his situation, 
 had not the least idea that his services could be 
 dispensed with ; and Mr. Brooke s prompt offer 
 to pay him off rather stunned him for a mo 
 ment. He pocketed his pay, however, and 
 went out to cool his anger, lingering in sight 
 about the tavern, and still confidently expect 
 ing overtures for his return. He was wonder 
 fully cheerful, whistling or laughing loud 
 enough to be heard in the store, and appearing 
 to enjoy his leisure immensely. 
 
 As Mr. Brooke did not hasten to call him 
 back, he grew uneasy towards night, and took 
 some pains to attract that gentleman s attention 
 when they met at supper. The coolly civil 
 look he received did not raise his spirits re- 
 
TIME FOR HIM TO QUIT 127 
 
 markably ; and his talk at table, at first bois 
 terously jolly, became fitful and forced. He 
 was afraid Mr. Brooke did not see the immense 
 importance to his business of the man he had 
 lost. 
 
 He even found it necessary to remind him 
 of his existence ; and for that purpose accosted 
 him the next morning at the store, in <an ex 
 ceedingly mild and conciliatory tone. 
 
 "I d n know s I d ought to ve left you so 
 sudden, when you ve so much outside business; 
 and, if twill be any commodation, 1*11 come in 
 and " he hesitated, chilled by the coolness of 
 his reception. 
 
 "Thank you, Ase," Mr. Brooke replied 
 cheerfully. " But I think I can get along." 
 
 The discomfited Hedgewick saw there was 
 no other way for him but to humble himself. 
 
 " I was hasty, I d like to take back what 
 I said yesterday," he resumed, with ludicrous 
 embarrassment, looking foolish and scratching 
 his ear. " I m willing to keep on with you, if 
 you ve no objection." 
 
 " If you mean here in the store," said Mr. 
 
128 A START IN LIFE 
 
 Brooke, "you are too late. Your place is 
 filled." 
 
 " I m turned out for him ? " said Ase, with a 
 black look at Walden, in the back part of the 
 store. 
 
 " Oh, no, Ase. You turned yourself out. 
 I ve plenty of work yet, however, if you care 
 to do it." 
 
 " What work do you mean ? " 
 
 "You know what the work is outside," said 
 Mr. Brooke ; " logging, teaming, clearing, help 
 ing about the mill." 
 
 " Work you know I won t do no, sir ! not 
 for you ! " Ase exclaimed. " I ll have nothing 
 more to do with such a man. And as for that 
 puppy " 
 
 He did not allude to the dead raccoon s fos 
 ter-brother, but shook his belligerent fist at 
 Walden, and turned away muttering. 
 
 He remained a few days at the tavern, then 
 went to build a cabin of his own on a piece of 
 land he had taken up in another part of the set 
 tlement. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A. BEE-HUNT, WHICH SHOWS THAT THEY DON T ALWAYS 
 GET THE MOST HONEY WHO RECEIVE THE MOST STINGS. 
 
 THEN, one fine summer afternoon, a pleasant 
 surprise for Walden. As he was going from 
 the store over to the mill, where Mr. Brooke 
 was putting in a " run of stone " for grinding 
 the settlers grain with the same water- 
 power that sawed their logs, the boy noticed 
 another boy approaching on foot, carrying 
 a bundle, along the road that led from the 
 woods. 
 
 It was a boy new to the settlement ; yet his 
 face, as he drew near, grinning under his straw 
 hat-brim, grew astonishingly familiar to the 
 gazer. 
 
 "Hallo, Walden!" he called, in a voice 
 which was unmistakable. 
 
 " Amos ! " Walden exclaimed, starting to 
 meet him. " Where did you come from ? " re 
 garding him with delighted amazement. 
 129 
 
130 A START IN LIFE 
 
 " From home, of course," said Amos, laugh 
 ing. " For the same reason that made you 
 leave. I couldn t stand it any longer." 
 
 He might have added that the letters Wai- 
 den had written home from the new settlement 
 had inspired him with a restless desire to try 
 his fortunes with him there in the backwoods, 
 and caused their mother to yield a reluctant 
 consent to his going. 
 
 "What did Eli say?" Walden asked, 
 
 "To my leaving? He didn t know of it," 
 replied Amos. "Nor James; he would have 
 come too, if I had told him. Only mother and 
 Susie knew. I ve walked all the way." 
 
 "You must be tired! " said Walden. 
 
 " I m tired enough ! But it rests me, see 
 ing you," replied the happy Amos. 
 
 Then what long talks the boys had ! Amos 
 delivering messages and telling news from 
 home, and Walden, after asking a hundred 
 questions and showing the store, relating 
 more in full the experiences he had briefly 
 touched upon in his letters. Amos was espe 
 cially pleased to learn of Mr. A. Randolph 
 
A BEE-HUNT 131 
 
 Hedgewick s dismissal; and he had many a 
 good laugh at his former schoolmaster s ex 
 pense. 
 
 He had come to work ; and his offer of ser 
 vices was welcome just then to Mr. Brooke, 
 who proposed that he should take Walden s 
 place, and make himself generally useful, while 
 Walden continued to fill that of the departed 
 Ase. 
 
 Amos gladly accepted, and set to work the 
 next morning with willing hands. He was 
 not so old within two years as his brother, nor 
 so skilful with the axe ; but he was strong and 
 intelligent, and Mr. Brooke, watching him 
 with evident satisfaction, said to Walden, 
 
 " He ll do ! he ll do ! " adding, " It happens 
 just right for me. I ve got to make a journey 
 to the East next week ; and I was wondering, 
 till your brother came, whether I could leave 
 you in charge of the store. But with him to 
 help, when you need help, I rather think I 
 can." 
 
 " I ll do my best to take care of things ; and 
 I m sure I can rely on Amos," replied Walden. 
 
132 A START IN LIFE 
 
 The boys were very happy together ; and 
 everything went smoothly with them, in their 
 employer s absence, until a few days before he 
 was expected to return. 
 
 In the month of May, about the time when 
 he saw his raccoon running up the old elm on 
 the edge of the clearing, Walden, exploring the 
 woods one afternoon, had made another discov 
 ery. On the stump of a maple tree that had 
 been recently cut, he noticed some bees feed 
 ing on the still oozing sap, and observed that 
 they flew away in a certain direction. 
 
 " They are honey bees," he said to himself, 
 " and there must be a bee-tree not far off." 
 
 He cut from the top of the stump a few 
 chips sticky with the sweet juice, and scattered 
 them, at intervals of a hundred yards or so, 
 along the ground in the direction of the bees 
 flight. Returning the next day, he found them 
 alighting on the chips, or darting away from 
 them, in lines of flight which finally drew his 
 eye to the top of a tall chestnut, deep in the 
 forest. 
 
 Again he told nobody of his discovery except 
 
A BEE-HUNT 133 
 
 the friendly tavern-keeper, who chuckled and 
 said, 
 
 " We had our little coon-hunt, that turned 
 out lucky ; an now I shouldn t wonder a mite 
 if we should be tacklin a bee-tree, some day. 
 Say no thin , but wait till the right time comes, 
 an ol man Gadbury is the one to show ye how 
 to git the sweet without the stings." 
 
 "I think I d better ask Mr. Brooke if we 
 can cut the tree ; for I believe it is on his 
 land," said Walden. 
 
 Mr. Brooke s permission was readily ob 
 tained. Yet the time for getting the honey 
 would not come r in the tavern-keeper s judg 
 ment, until the bees had had time to lay in 
 their next winter s supply, and the weather 
 was cold enough to keep them quiet when 
 their home should be disturbed. 
 
 But one day, in Mr. Brooke s absence, Gad- 
 bury came to Walden and said, 
 
 " I ve ben keepin my eye on that ere bee- 
 tree, an I guess mabby the time s come for 
 cuttin on t. Who d ye think I seen there this 
 forenoon, ith his head flopped over on his back 
 
134 A START IN LIFE 
 
 like he would break his neck off, an his eyes 
 a-starin straight up into the canopy o heaven, 
 in the direction o that ere tree-top; so in- 
 gaged, he never spied me till I started to walk 
 past, jes as if I hadn t noticed him ? Twas 
 your friend Ase. He spoke, an I spoke, civil 
 enough ; but nuther one on us mentioned bees, 
 oh no ! " 
 
 It was the old man s opinion that, if they did 
 not get the honey very soon, somebody else 
 would; and they accordingly made prepara 
 tions for securing it that afternoon. 
 
 Luke Ball, one of Mr. Brooke s wood-chop 
 pers, was then let into the secret and invited 
 to assist. Amos, much to his regret, was left 
 in charge of the store. Walden provided sul 
 phur for smoking the bees in their cavity ; and 
 with mittens and veils for their hands and 
 faces, buckets for bringing away the honey, 
 arid axes for felling the tree, the little party 
 entered the forest. 
 
 The tree was about half cut when the sound 
 of the axes brought somebody tramping 
 towards it through the woods. 
 
A BEE-HUNT 135 
 
 "It s Ase!"said Gadbury, biting his plug. 
 " Keep to work, boys ; don t mind him a hooter. 
 I ll settle his hash ! " 
 
 They plied their axes, Walden on one side 
 of the tree, and Luke on the other, and the 
 chips were flying in lively fashion when Hedge- 
 wick came up, calling out, angrily, 
 
 " Look here ! you re cutting my bee-tree ! " 
 
 "How come it yourn?" the old man in 
 quired. 
 
 " I found it, two weeks ago ; it s got my 
 mark on it." 
 
 "Somebody else found it two months ago ; 
 an got Brooke s consent to cuttin on t, long 
 fore ever you sot up a claim tu it," replied 
 Gadbury. 
 
 " Who cares for Brooke s consent ? " Ase re 
 torted. "A man s got a right to a bee-tree 
 wherever he finds it, in these woods." 
 
 "Wai," said the old man, "you re in the 
 right on t, fuzino. An we re in the right on t 
 cordin to your own account, a-takin the tree." 
 And he gave a half-audible chuckle. "Peg 
 away, boys ! " 
 
136 A STAKT IN LIFE 
 
 " I m going to have my share o that honey ; 
 you see ! " cried Ase, turning and walking 
 rapidly away. 
 
 " He s a-goin fer buckets," said the old man. 
 "Let him! he ll be jest a little mite dis- 
 comfusticated, like as not, when he brings 
 em ! " 
 
 With flint and steel and powder, and dry 
 leaves and twigs, he proceeded to start a fire ; 
 which he had ready on a broad piece of bark 
 covered with earth, by the time the tree came 
 crashing down. Then, mittened and veiled, he 
 rushed to the top, to find the hollow occupied 
 by the bees. 
 
 A large limb had been split in falling ; it 
 hummed with the maddened swarm within, and 
 out of a broad crack honey was pouring in a 
 stream of lucent gold. Walden, likewise mit 
 tened and veiled, came bringing the buckets to 
 catch it ; while Luke hastened to make an 
 under-cut at a place the old man pointed out, 
 where the burning sulphur was to be intro 
 duced. 
 
 There seemed to be surprisingly few bees 
 
A BEE-HUNT 137 
 
 about them at first; but they soon began to 
 descend from the forest-tops, and pour out of 
 the broken limb, and dart hither and thith 
 er, in swift zigzags and whizzing circles ; and 
 soon the air was full of them. Gadbury had 
 intended to leave them for a while, in order to 
 let the ignited sulphur do its work ; but the 
 prospect of Hedgewick s speedy return caused 
 him and his companions to hurry up their oper 
 ations. 
 
 Luke laid open the smoking limb ; and Wai- 
 den and the old man, coughing, and half 
 blinded by the sulphurous fumes, cut out, with 
 ladle and scoop, great masses of the dripping 
 comb, and filled the buckets. They were in 
 the midst of this exciting work when Ase re 
 turned, bringing a big black kettle and a small 
 tin pail, and bellowed out at a distance, 
 
 "Where s my share?" 
 
 " Here tis ! " Gadbury answered, in a muf 
 fled voice. " Come an git it ! " 
 
 Hedgewick started to act upon this friendly 
 suggestion, thinking, no doubt, he would find 
 safety where there was so much smoke, al- 
 
138 A START IN LIFE 
 
 though he had not provided himself with a veil. 
 But, as he drew near, it seemed as if the entire 
 baffled and infuriated swarm gathered to wreak 
 vengeance on him. Away went the tin pail as 
 he flung up his hand to brush out his buzzing 
 hair. Then, turning to retreat, he dropped his 
 clattering kettle, and ran with both hands fly 
 ing wildly about his neck and ears, until a dead 
 limb on the ground tripped his heels, and he 
 sprawled headlong. 
 
 " Oh, that Ase ! that Ase ! " said Walden, 
 convulsed with laughter even at that critical 
 moment, with the smoke in his eyes and nos 
 trils and the bees getting in a sting or two 
 despite his veil. " He ll be the death of me 
 yet." 
 
 Hedgewick was up and running again by 
 that time, slapping and cursing. 
 
 " Minds me of that ere yaller pup o War- 
 rett s, arter the coon bit him," said the old 
 man, as he heaped up the honey-comb in the 
 last of the three pails. " Wonder if he s found 
 out when sawmills an bears was fust invented 
 an bees, tew, fer that matter ! Why don t 
 
A BEE-HUNT 139 
 
 ye come an pick up your kittle an* pail, and 
 take your sheer ? It s here in the holler limb ! " 
 he called out to Ase, who was by this time afar 
 off in the woods, still fighting the too persistent 
 bees. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A BUBGLABY, WHICH LOOKED ALSO LIKE A REVENGE. 
 
 THE buckets well filled with honey and 
 heaped-up comb, a sapling which Luke had 
 cut was passed through the bails, and they 
 were triumphantly carried off by him and Wai- 
 den, resting the weight on their shoulders; 
 while the old man followed with an axe in each 
 hand. 
 
 " I got tew or three pesky little stings," he 
 said ; " one up my trouses-leg, an one in my 
 sleeve. But all s fair in war-time. Can t 
 blame the bees. I tell ye, boys, I hain t had 
 sich a campaign sence I carried a musket an* fit 
 an bled under our gre t and good commander, 
 Gin ral Jawge Wash n ton ! " 
 
 As bees still followed them, they did not 
 venture to unveil until they had got their 
 honey safe in the cellar of the store, where it 
 was to be divided. 
 
 140 
 
CARRYING HOME THE HONEY. Page 140. 
 
A BURGLARY 141 
 
 " We got that ere bucket a leetle tew full," 
 said the old man. " I didn t ca c late on the 
 comb s settlin down so." 
 
 " It s running over on the floor here now," 
 said Walden, who hastened to bring a basin 
 and take out some. 
 
 Gadbury then selected a bucket for himself, 
 leaving one for Walden and one for Mr. Brooke. 
 
 "You shall have a share, too," Walden 
 said to Luke Ball. "You got stung worse 
 than either of us. Here s yours, Amos," giving 
 his brother the well filled basin. " This is for 
 staying here and not getting stung." 
 
 "I d rather have gone and got stung," re 
 plied Amos, who could not cease to regret the 
 fun he had missed. 
 
 The honey had been brought in through the 
 cellar door, which Walden now shut and 
 fastened on the inside. Even the pain of his 
 stings did not lessen his satisfaction in the 
 results of the afternoon s adventure, which 
 was something to talk about and brag of to all 
 comers. But the sequel was not so pleasant. 
 
 When he went to the store the next morn- 
 
142 A START IN LIFE 
 
 ing, an astonishing sight met his eye. The 
 cellar had been broken into, and one of the 
 buckets with its entire contents had disap> 
 peared. 
 
 The other bucket remained, but it was over 
 turned, and what was left of the honey had run 
 out on the ground. 
 
 "Oh, that Ase!" Walden exclaimed oncer 
 more. But he did not laugh this time. 
 
 It seemed as if the burglar had meant to 
 destroy as much of the honey as he could not 
 carry away ; and Walden felt sure it was the 
 work of Hedgewick, indulging his malice whiL 
 taking more than his supposed share. 
 
 The simple fastening of the door consist, 
 ing of a strong wooden latch, the string of 
 which was pulled in had been forced; and 
 the door stood wide open when Walden came 
 down the ladder from the other part of the 
 store. In his astonishment, he found himself 
 stepping in the honey and tracking it about 
 before he fully realized what had happened. 
 
 "Amos!" he said, for Amos also came, 
 attracted by his exclamations of astonishment 
 
A BUKGLABY 143 
 
 and anger " go over and tell Mr. Gadbury I 
 want to see him. Say nothing to anybody else, 
 and be quick ! " 
 
 Gadbury came, and saw, and shook his wise 
 old head. 
 
 "Who do you suppose has done this?" 
 Walden asked. 
 
 " Id n o n ti I " The old man bit his plug 
 and screwed up his face into shrewd wrinkles. 
 " But I can e ena most make a guess." 
 
 " So can I ! " cried Walden. " He knows 
 the store he knows just where we would be 
 apt to leave the honey over night." 
 
 "He s a revengeful critter!" commented 
 the old man. " No decent thief Vd a wanted 
 to make sich a muss ith what he couldn t lug 
 away. Fer my part, I thought he d be so laid 
 up ith his bee-stings t he couldn t git out an 
 around n a hurry." 
 
 "It s his stings that must have maddened 
 him to do this," said Walden. "As if twas 
 our fault that he got stung! All that nice 
 honey I was going to show Mr. Brooke not a 
 pound of it worth saving ! " And he seemed 
 
144 A START IN LIFE 
 
 almost ready to cry with disappointment and 
 chagrin. 
 
 " Ain t no doubt but what he done it," mused 
 the old man. "But the trouble 11 be to prove 
 it agin him. Best way is jes to keep quiet, 
 say nothin to nobody, an see what 11 turn up 
 next." 
 
 The boys thought this good policy, and set 
 to work to clear up the cellar as cheerfully as 
 boys could be expected to do on so trying an 
 occasion. There was some rubbish not easily 
 accounted for, unless the burglar, before going 
 off with his booty, had amused himself by 
 kicking a useless pail to pieces. This was 
 swept into a corner, a new fastening was fitted 
 to the door, and the cellar closed. 
 
 During the forenoon Gadbury sauntered 
 over through the woods to call on Hedgewick 
 in his new cabin; and reported the result of 
 his observations to Walden on his return. 
 
 "I pretended to be huntin fer more bee- 
 trees ; goin by, I jes looked in to ax him f he 
 got his sheer o the honey we lef fer him in 
 the tree. But I didn t git much out on him. 
 
A BURGLARY 145 
 
 Grouties feller ever you sot eyes on! An 
 well he might be ! " the old man chuckled. 
 
 " Did you see any signs of honey ? " Walden 
 asked. 
 
 " Nary sign. But I see signs of bees, plenty 
 on em, bout his face and neck, where they d 
 peppered him. I complimented him on his new 
 house, an what I d heerd said bout his gittin 
 ready to marry one of the Warrett gals. But 
 I couldn t dror his fire; he was tew mad fer 
 anything. Can t blame him; I sh d be mad in 
 his place, fuzino ! " 
 
 "I don t see that we re likely to find out 
 anything," grumbled Walden. 
 
 " You wait ! " responded the oracular old 
 man. " Suthin ll happen, you see ! " 
 
 So Walden waited, and something did indeed 
 happen, although not by any means what he 
 expected or wished. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IN WHICH GADBURY S OLD BE VOLUTION ABY MUSKET 
 PLAYS AN INTERESTING PART. 
 
 Two nights after the theft of the honey, the 
 store cellar was broken into again, in very 
 much the same way, and more mischief was 
 done. A keg of maple-sugar was overturned, 
 and its contents were purloined or scattered. 
 Even the pork-barrel suffered. The cover was 
 thrown aside, and certainly one large piece of 
 pork, which Walden had noticed emerging 
 from the brine only a day or two before, had 
 been taken ; how much more he did not know. 
 
 " It s the mos surprisin est thing t ever I 
 seen er heerd tell on ! " old man Gadbury ex 
 claimed, when he was once more called in, and 
 found Walden gazing astounded at the scene 
 of the last night s depredations. 
 
 "To think of the scoundrel s coming a 
 second time ! " said Walden. " What will 
 Mr. Brooke think?" 
 
 146 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MUSKET 147 
 
 " Id n o n ti ! " replied the old man, with his 
 plug between the only two front teeth he had 
 left good for a bite. " But I know what he s 
 expected to think. He s expected to make up 
 his mind t he s left his store in poor hands, an* 
 t if he wants it pertected when he s away, he d 
 better call back somebody t knows the busi 
 ness better." 
 
 "I thought of that," said Walden. "Of 
 course, he can t bear the idea of the store s 
 prospering since he was discharged. But it 
 shall prosper!" he declared, with angry em 
 phasis. " And I ll protect it ! " 
 
 " What 11 ye do ? " queried the old man. 
 
 " I ll stay here and stand guard ! " 
 
 " Ye better not du it alone, youngster ! ItV 
 a desprit scamp at breaks inter a buildin this 
 way, tew nights in a week; an f he comes 
 agin, an finds nobody but a boy to tackle him, 
 he jes s lives du ye a mischief as not." 
 
 "I shouldn t think he d be such a fool as to 
 come a third time," said Amos. 
 
 "But his coming a second time shows he 
 may be just that kind of a fool," replied 
 
148 A START IN LIFE 
 
 Walden ; " especially if his object is not only 
 to help himself to things he s too mad to come 
 here and buy, but to make Mr. Brooke believe 
 he has left his store in careless hands. Any 
 way, I shall keep watch now every night till 
 Mr. Brooke comes back. Will that old musket 
 of yours throw a load of buckshot?" 
 
 " It s done that as many times as onct sence 
 I ben in the settlement," replied the old man. 
 " An the bagnet 11 du good sarvice in a clost 
 fight. Though that ere ol gun," he added, 
 mournfully, " ain t the weepon it wuz when I 
 carried it in the Revolution, an fit under our 
 gre t an good" 
 
 " Of course not," interrupted Walden. " But 
 will it shoot?" 
 
 " Wai, yis ; clean er out, chuck in a picked 
 flint an ile up the lock, twill do at short 
 range." 
 
 "I don t expect anything else but short 
 range with a burglar like this one ! " said Wal 
 den. 
 
 After once more clearing up the cellar, and 
 getting what was left of the crushed and soiled 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MTJSKET 149 
 
 sugar back into the keg, he brought the old 
 musket over from the tavern and spent a good 
 hour or two in preparing it for use. He 
 washed it out with hot water, he wiped it 
 out with tow, he picked out the rusted vent, 
 adjusted a fresh flint, and gave the lock and 
 the hinge of the pan a good oiling ; then put 
 ting in a priming and a light charge of powder, 
 he fired it out of the back door. 
 
 " Shell do ! " he said with grim satisfaction. 
 " That was only for fun. Now for earnest." 
 
 He rammed down a heavier charge of pow 
 der, then dropped the big rattling buckshot 
 into the clumsy iron tube. So far it had all 
 seemed a serious sort of sport to Amos ; but at 
 the sound of the deadly lead falling into the 
 barrel he turned pale. 
 
 "Do you really mean to shoot him ? " he in 
 quired, anxiously watching his brother s reso 
 lute face. 
 
 " Not unless I m obliged to," said Walden. 
 kt I don t want to hurt anybody. But I ve been 
 left in charge of the store, and it s my business 
 to protect it. If it s necessary to use a gun, I 
 
150 A START IN LIFE 
 
 shall use a gun. If at short range, as the old 
 man says, then some rascal may get hurt." 
 
 " You ought to have somebody watch with 
 you," suggested the younger brother. 
 
 " I should like it. But I don t expect you 
 to." 
 
 " / am going to stay with you, of course ! " 
 Amos exclaimed. He was naturally more 
 timid than Walden, yet he was not wanting 
 in resolution. " But we are only two boys." 
 
 " Two boys, with the right on their side, and 
 a gun that s been shouldered by a patriot in the 
 Revolution, when he fit, bled, and died under 
 that gre t an good commander, Gin ral Jawge 
 Wash n ton," said Walden, imitating the old 
 tavern-keeper s speech, and causing Amos great 
 ly to admire his coolness while he laughed at his 
 humorous mimicry. 
 
 " I thought from what Gadbury said, when 
 he gave you the gun, he might watch with us," 
 said Amos. " I d get him and Luke Ball." 
 
 " Not both at once," replied Walden. "We 
 may have two or three nights of watching. I d 
 like Gadbury to-night, and then Luke to-mor- 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MUSKET 151 
 
 row night, if I don t have a chance to fire off 
 this old musket in the meantime." 
 
 The tavern-keeper consented to watch with 
 the boys the first night ; and, quietly leaving 
 his house at about nine o clock, he entered the 
 store, where he found them waiting by the dim 
 light of a tallow dip. 
 
 The store consisted of two rooms, one above 
 and one partly below the surface of the ground. 
 This was the cellar, in the rear end of which 
 was the door that had been forced by the 
 marauder. The only other entrance was by a 
 trap-door and a short ladder descending from 
 the floor above. 
 
 The walls were of logs, banked up on the 
 outside to exclude the winter s cold. Natural 
 light was also excluded, except such as came 
 in through the door when it was opened, or 
 from the trap and numerous crevices in the 
 upper floor. Between that and the cellar floor 
 of hard gravel there was barely room for a man 
 to stand upright. 
 
 Into this dismal place, crowded with casks 
 and kegs and agricultural tools, Walden groped 
 
152 A START IN LIFE 
 
 his way down the little ladder, carrying hia 
 candle and followed by Amos and the old man. 
 The glimmering rays showed the musket al 
 ready there, standing with a pair of pitchforks 
 beside the pork-barrel. 
 
 " Weepons enough fer a small campaign ! " 
 chuckled the old man, stooping under the low 
 ceiling of rough slabs. " Why don t ye fix the 
 bagnet?" 
 
 " The gun won t shoot so well with the bayo 
 net on, will it ? " said Walden. 
 
 " Jes s well, exac ly, t short range," replied 
 the old man. " Bagnet gives ye a double ad 
 vantage. Fust, you pull trigger; then foller 
 up yer shot with a bagnet charge. I ll give ye 
 a lesson if the scamp comes to-night." And he 
 proceeded to fix the bayonet. 
 
 Walden was quite willing that Gadbury 
 should use the musket ; for now that the time 
 of action seemed near, and he had only the 
 light of the candle to cheer him in that gloomy 
 cavern, he was unable to take quite so com 
 placent a view of shooting a burglar as he had 
 done by daylight. 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MUSKET 153 
 
 He armed himself with one of the forks and 
 gave the other to Amos, then sat down on an 
 empty meal-bag at the foot of the ladder. The 
 old man had a blanket to repose upon, and a 
 molasses cask at his back, opposite the door. 
 Amos squatted by the pork-barrel. 
 
 "Now, f everything s ready," said the old 
 man, " hide yer light." 
 
 Walden had an empty keg provided for the 
 purpose, which he now placed over the candle 
 on the gravelly floor. Utter darkness followed, 
 accompanied by silence so profound that he 
 could hear the beating of his own heart, and 
 the breathing of the old man by the molasses 
 cask. He was not a coward, and yet a sense of 
 mystery and danger made his blood chill for a 
 moment. 
 
 "What if there s more than one of em?" 
 whispered Amos. 
 
 " They ll find three of us," said the old man ; 
 " an one a vet ran that s ben through cam 
 paigns in the Revolution, an fit under " 
 
 " Tell us that story about your musket s 
 killing a red-coat," suggested Walden. " But 
 speak low." 
 
A START IN LIFE 
 
 " I guess we better not speak at all," Gad- 
 bury replied, " f we don t wanter give the vil 
 lain warnin when he comes tu the door. I ve 
 got the range, but I shall be onto my feet when 
 I fire. Level shot s the best. Minds me," he 
 chuckled, "of a man t I knowed onct, that 
 took his musket out int the field where he was 
 ploughin , to shute flocks o pigeons flyin over. 
 But jes s often s he hild the barrel up int the 
 air an snapped, jes so often it missed fire. 
 Bimeby, arter he d seen about the thickest flock 
 ever wuz sail right clust over him, an the ol 
 musket on y snapped and spilt the powder out 
 o the pan, he got riled. 
 
 " By the laws ! says he, I ll try a shot at 
 ol Goldin ! 
 
 " Ol Goldin was his best ox. He levelled 
 gun, jerked trigger, an filled his flank full o 
 buckshot. Ye see," Gadbury explained, "flint 
 wouldn t throw fire into the pan when the 
 barrel was hild up fer the pigeons, but it *u d 
 du it every time when twuz hild down fer the 
 
 The tavern-keeper was inclined to talk 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MUSKET 155 
 
 enough; but he would immediately fall back 
 upon the necessity for silence whenever he was 
 asked again for the story of the slaughtered 
 red-coat. At last, as it grew late, he became 
 silent altogether, and soon his deep breathing 
 betrayed that he was asleep. 
 
 "Amos," Walden whispered, "go to sleep 
 too, if you want to ; there s no need of more 
 than one keeping awake." 
 
 " Think I can sleep when we re expecting a 
 burglar to smash in on us any minute ? " re 
 plied Amos. 
 
 Yet, as no burglar smashed in for the next 
 half-hour, Amos by that time tranquilly joined 
 the old man, beyond the confines of slumber. 
 
 Then, with his back against the ladder-rungs, 
 the sharpness of which he had somewhat 
 ameliorated with meal-bags, Walden, still sit 
 ting awake, felt oppressed by the terrible loneli 
 ness of the situation. As he grew weary with 
 waiting and thinking, the burglary, which had 
 appeared to him so real by daylight, began to 
 fade to a sort of hideous dream. 
 
 "Are we just making fools of ourselves 
 
156 A START IN LIFE 
 
 here ? " he said to himself. " The idea of my 
 keeping this old man out of his bed ! I may 
 as well get my head on something and go to 
 sleep myself." 
 
 At that moment the oppressive silence was 
 broken by a strange brushing sound, as of a 
 heavy hand passing over the door on the out 
 side. Walden at the same time felt a curdling 
 sensation pass over his flesh and culminate in 
 the roots of his hair. 
 
 " Gadbury ! Amos ! " he whispered, not dar 
 ing to speak loud. " Did you hear ? " 
 
 Not a word from the sleepers. Then came 
 the brushing sound again ; it seemed this time 
 as if somebody was pressing hard against the 
 door. He reached over to shake the tavern* 
 keeper, and laid his hand on the musket. 
 
 At that moment there came a dull crash, and 
 the door was burst in. It was a gloomy night, 
 affording just light enough for Walden to see a 
 dark form stooping on the threshold, as the 
 door swung back. 
 
 " Who s there ? " he shouted, snatching up the 
 gun and levelling it, as he rose upon one knee. 
 
GADBURY S REVOLUTIONARY MUSKET 157 
 
 "Who? O Lord! O Lord!" gasped the 
 terrified Amos, suddenly awakened from a 
 sound sleep. 
 
 " Where where where s my gun ? " stam 
 mered the old man, fumbling along the ground. 
 
 "I ve got it," said Walden. "Speak!" he 
 cried out, his resolution ringing in clear tones 
 through the tremors of fear that thrilled him 
 from head to foot. " Or I ll fire." 
 
 No response from the bold marauder. Neith 
 er did he attempt to retreat. But with a slow 
 deliberate motion he partly rose from his crouch 
 ing posture, and stood half erect, under the low 
 ceiling, as if about to rush upon the challenger 
 back there in the darkness. 
 
 " Shute ! shute ! " said the tavern-keeper. 
 " Massy sakes ! why don t you shute ? " 
 
 But a point-blank discharge at three paces 
 seemed such certain death to the intruder that 
 the boy shrank from so terrible a responsibility. 
 He would give him one more chance. 
 
 " Speak, I say, or you re a dead man ! " 
 
 Almost at the same instant he pulled the 
 trigger. The gun snapped ; there was a spark 
 
158 A START IN LIFE 
 
 from the flint, but it did not fall into the pan. 
 Thereupon Amos, overcome by the mystery 
 and terror of the situation, felt himself one 
 crawling piece of flesh from scalp to shins, 
 shrinking and shivering behind the pork-barrel. 
 
 " Gi me the gun ! " said Gadbury, in hur 
 ried, husky tones, reaching for it in the dark 
 ness. 
 
 But Walden s spirit was now fully roused, 
 and he was troubled no more by scruples in 
 regard to shooting so desperate a house-breaker. 
 Click ! click ! he cocked the musket again and 
 threw down the pan. Meanwhile, as if em 
 boldened by the first futile attempt to shoot 
 him, the enemy advanced a step, rising still 
 more erect, dark and frightful, between Wai- 
 den and the faint light of the doorway, until 
 his exposed breast almost touched the point of 
 the bayonet. 
 
 Flash ! bang ! Two lurid gleams from pan 
 and muzzle, and a deafening explosion filled the 
 cave with its roar. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 IND OF THE TRAGICAL EPISODE OF THE BURGLAR, AND 
 ALSO OF THIS HISTORY. 
 
 WALDEN was thrown back against the lad 
 der, almost insensible, by the recoil of the gun. 
 Gathering himself up quickly, however, he saw 
 the marauder tumbling out at the door, and 
 heard old man Gadbury shrieking, 
 
 " Give him the bagnet now ! le me have the 
 gun ! Unkiver yer light an pitch in ith yer 
 forks, boys ! But be careful the critter ain t 
 dead yit ! " 
 
 Attempting to lift the cask from the candle, 
 Amos upset it, and put out the light. He had 
 lost his fork, and it was some moments before, 
 in his agitation, he could recover it. Mean 
 while, Walden and the old man rushed out to 
 a strange conflict, and filled the night with 
 their confused exclamations and yells for 
 help. 
 
 159 
 
160 A STAKT IN LIFE 
 
 Help and a lantern soon came from the 
 tavern, and followed the cries towards the 
 woods, where they found the boys with their 
 forks and the old man with his " bagnet," 
 close upon the wounded foe dragging himself 
 towards the woods shaggy, savage, dying, 
 but still turning to strike and snarl when too 
 hard-pressed. 
 
 On returning from the East the next day, 
 Mr. Brooke saw the tavern-keeper and the two 
 boys in front of the store, engaged in skinning 
 an enormous black bear. 
 
 " Ha ! where did you get that fellow ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " We cut that bee-tree in the woods the other 
 day," said Walden, " and I suppose he tracked 
 the honey that dripped from one of the pails, 
 for he broke into the store that very night to 
 get at it. He came again two nights later that 
 was night before last and got at the sugar 
 and salt pork ; so we kept watch last night, and 
 caught him." 
 
 " An* will ye b lieve," said the old man, " we 
 
END OF THE BURGLAR EPISODE 161 
 
 wuz sich discomfusticated fools t we never 
 spected no bear, but thought twuz a feller t 
 we knowed had a spite agin us an the store ! 
 We might a kep on spectin him all our lives, 
 fuzino, f we hadn t diskivered the real thief; 
 which wa n t over- n - above smart, I must own, 
 fer a Revolutionary patriot that can boast of 
 havin fit an bled under that gre t an good 
 commander, Gin ral Jawge Wash n ton ! " 
 
 " We thought he had carried one bucket of 
 honey away," said Walden. " But it seems he 
 had broken it to pieces, and then scattered the 
 staves about, after licking them clean. If I 
 was ever glad of anything in my life," he went 
 on, " it was when I found I had sent my charge 
 of buckshot into the heart of a bear instead of 
 a man ! " 
 
 " I should say so ! " exclaimed Mr. Brooke. 
 Then, after listening to a full account of the 
 supposed burglaries, " I don t wonder you sus 
 pected somebody ; but he isn t so bad a fellow 
 as that. I m sorry about the honey ; but you ll 
 more than make up for the loss by securing 
 
162 A START IN LIFE 
 
 such a skin as that, and such a supply of bear- 
 meat." 
 
 Walden was a happy boy that day ; and he 
 even began to entertain friendly feelings 
 towards the man whom he had triumphed 
 over, perhaps not unjustly, but whom he had 
 most unjustly suspected. 
 
 He was, if possible, made happier still by a 
 bit of good news Mr. Brooke had brought him 
 from home. 
 
 "My brother has finally squeezed the full 
 amount of that order out of your friend Tad- 
 more." 
 
 From this time forth, the boy had the satis 
 faction of feeling that he was more firmly estab 
 lished than ever in the business and confidence 
 of his employer. And I might go on to relate 
 how, before many years, he became a partner in 
 that business ; how his youngest brother, James, 
 next came to him, and then his mother and 
 sister, and finally Eli himself, giving up the old 
 farm, which he had mismanaged, and gladly 
 accepting the employment Walden gladly 
 
END OF THE BURGLAR EPISODE 
 
 offered; and how, "growing up with the 
 country," our boy of the backwoods became 
 one of its large-hearted, large-minded, influen 
 tial men. 
 
 But I only set out to tell you of his Start in 
 
 Life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
SERIRS 
 
 THE START IN LIFE 
 
 By J. T. TROWBRIDQB 
 
 Cloth Illustrated Price per volume, 
 
 A Start in Life : A STORY OF TOT 
 
 GENESEE COUNTRY. 
 
 In this story the author recounts the hard- 
 ships of a young lad, in his first endeavor to; 
 start out for himself. It is a tale that is full 
 of enthusiasm and budding hopes. 
 
 " Biding His Time. 
 
 "It is full of spirit and adventure, and 
 presents a plucky hero who was willing to 
 bide his time, no matter how great the 
 expectations that he indulged in from his 
 uncle s vast wealth, which he did not in the 
 least covet." Boston Home Journal. 
 
 The Kelp- GatherefS * A STORY OF THE MAINE COAST. 
 
 A bright and readable story, with all the hints of character and thf 
 vicissitudes of human life, in depicting which the author is an acknowl 
 edged master. 
 
 The Scarlet Tanager, AWD OTHER BIPEDS. 
 
 Every new story which Mr. Trowbridge begins is followed through 
 successive chapters by thousands who have read and re-read many times 
 his preceding tales. One of his greatest charms is his absolute truthful* 
 ness. He does not depict little saints, or incorrigible rascals, but just dtp* 
 
 The Lattery Ticket. 
 
 "This is one of the many popular stories written by this well-known 
 author, whose name on the title-page of a book makes it a welcome arrival 
 to most of the young people who read. The moral is always good, the 
 influence in the right direction, and the characters so portrayed that the 
 right is always rewarded and the wrong fails to prosper." Dubuque t 
 Iowa, Herald. 
 
 The Adventures of David Vane and David Crane. 
 
 A strong, homely, humorous story of the everyday life of Americai 
 country-bred boys, by one who is acknowledged to be the best living storv 
 teller in his peculiar vein. 
 
 LQTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD GO. 
 
 90STON 
 
The Tide-Mill Stories 
 
 fit A T. TROWBRIOQB 
 
 CtoflL Illtistrafed. Prtoiperonfciw, tltt 
 (Phil and His Friends. 
 
 The her* is the son of a man who from drink got Into debt, and, after hav 
 ing given a paper to a creditor authorizing him to keep the son as a se 
 curity for his claim, ran away, leaving poor Phil a bond slave. The story 
 Involves a great many unexpected incidents, some of which are painful and 
 some comic. Phil manfully works for a year cancelling his father s debt. 
 and then escapes. The characters are strongly drawn, and the story is ab 
 sorbingly interesting. 
 
 Tinkham Brothers Tide-Mill. 
 
 " * The Tinkham Brothers were the devoted sons of an invalid mother. The 
 
 Story tells how they purchased a tide-mill, which afterwards, by the ill-will 
 and obstinacy of neighbors, became a source of much trouble to them. It 
 tells also how, by discretion and the exercise of a peaceable spirit, they at 
 last overcome all difficulties." Christian Observer, Lmiuvtile.Xy. 
 
 The Satin-wood Box. 
 
 * Mr. Trowbridge has always a purpose in his writings, and this time he 
 has undertaken to show how very near an innocent boy can come to the 
 guilty edge and yet be able by fortunate circumstances to rid himself of all 
 suspicion of evil. There is something winsome about the hero ; but he has 
 a singular way of falling into bad luck, although the careful reader will 
 never feel the least disposed to doubt his honesty." Syracuse Standard. 
 
 The Little Master. 
 
 This is the story of a schoolmaster, his trials, disappointments, and final 
 victory. It will recall to many a man his experience in teaching pupils, and 
 in managing their opinionated and self-willed parents. The story has the 
 charm which is always found in Mr. Trowbridge s works. 
 
 "Many a teacher could profit by reading of this plucky ttttto school 
 master. * Journal of Education. 
 
 His One Fault. 
 
 As for the hero of this story His One Fault* was absent-mindedness. 
 He forgot to lock his uncle s stable door, and the horse was stolen. In 
 seeking to recover the stolen horse, he unintentionally stole another. In 
 trying to restore the wrong horse to his rightful owner, he was himself ar 
 rested. After no end of comic and dolorous adventures, he surmounted all 
 his misfortunes by downright pluck and genuine good feeling. It is a noble 
 contribution to juvenile literature." Woman s Journal. 
 
 Peter Budstone. 
 
 " Mr. J. T. Trowbridge s Peter Budstone is another of those altogether 
 good and wholesome books for boys of which it is hardly possible to speak too 
 highly. Tnis author shows us convincingly how juvenile reading may be 
 made vivacious and interesting, and yet teach sound and clean lessons. 
 Peter Budstone shows forcibly the folly and crime of hazing. It is the 
 story of a noble young fellow whose reason is irreparably overthrown by 
 the savage treatment ne received from some of hia associates at college". 
 It is a powerful little book, and we wish every schoolboy and oollefie youth 
 Mid read it."- fhUadelphia American. 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co,, Boston 
 
The Silver Medal Stories 
 
 By J. T. TROWBRIDQE 
 
 Stoe volumes. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, flM 
 
 The Silver Medal, AND OTHER STORIES. 
 
 There were some schoolboys who had turned housebreakers, and among their 
 plunder was a silver medal that had been given to one John Harrison by the 
 Humane Society for rescuing from drowning a certain Benton Barry. Now Benton 
 Barry was one of the wretched housebreakers. This is the summary of the opening 
 chapter. The story is intensely interesting IB Its serious as well as its humorous 
 para. 
 
 His Own Master. 
 
 11 This is a book after the typical boy s own heart Its hero is a plucky young 
 fellow, who, seeing no chance for himself at home, determines to make his own 
 vay in the world. ... He sets out accordingly, trudges to the far West, and finds 
 the road to fortune an unpleasantly rough one." Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 Bound in Honor. 
 
 This story is of a lad, who, though not guilty of any bad action, has been an 
 eye-witness of the conduct of his comrades, and felt " Bound in Honor " not to 
 telL 
 
 "A capital book in all respects, overflowing with all sorts of fan and adventure ; 
 Just the sort of book, in short, that the young folks will be anxious to read and 
 re-read with as much continuous interest as the most favored of their storybooks." 
 Philadelphia Leader. 
 
 The Pocket Rifle. 
 
 "A boy s story which win be read with avidity. as it ought to be, it is so 
 brightly and frankly written, and with such evident knowledge of the tempera 
 ments and habits, the friendships and enmities of schoolboys." Jfoto York 
 Mail. 
 
 "This is a capital story for boys. It teaches honesty, integrity, and friendship, 
 and how best they can be promoted. It shows the danger of hasty judgment and 
 circumstantial evidence ; that right-doing pays, and dishonesty never." Chicago 
 Inter- Ocean. 
 
 The Jolly Rover. 
 
 " This book will help to neutralize the ffl effects of any poison which children 
 may have swallowed in the way of sham-adventurous stories and wildly fictitious 
 tales. The Jolly Hover runs away from home, and meets life as it is, till he is 
 glad enough to seek again his father s house. Mr. Trowbridge has the power of 
 making an instructive story absorbing in its interest, and of covering a moral so 
 that it is easy to take." Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 Young Joe, AND OTHER BOYS. 
 
 " Young Joe," who lived at Bass Cove, where he shot wild ducks, took some to 
 town for sale, and attracted the attention of a portly gentleman fond of shooting. 
 This gentleman went duck shooting with Joe, and their adventures were more 
 amusing to the boy than to the amateur sportsman. 
 
 There are thirteen other short stories in the book which wffl be tor* to please 
 the young folks. 
 
 Complete Illustrated Catalogue sent free on application, 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Boston 
 
THE TOBY TRAFFORD SERIES 
 
 By J. T. TR0WBRIDQB 
 
 Thane Volumes. . . CZotfu . 
 
 Price per volume $1.26 
 
 The Fortunes of Toby Trafford. 
 
 "A new story by J. T. Trowbridge, is, like all Mr. Trowbridge s fiction, the 
 good wine that needs no bush. The plot is full of interest, and is still so 
 natural that it all might happen in a thousand places. Its scenes and its 
 people are everywhere; only few writers have Trowbridge s eyes to see 
 them. The hero is not an impossibly good boy, but he has manly instincts ; 
 and he is kept from follies and mistakes by the counsels of an excellent 
 mother, and of his wise and noble-hearted schoolmaster. Boys will follow 
 his career and his good and bad fortune with genuine interest." Bottom 
 Budget. 
 
 Father Brighthopes ; AN OLD CLERGYMAN S VACATION. 
 
 " To the many friends which this book will doubtless gain it may be well 
 to say that Father Brighthopes of the story gains that cheery name by his 
 readiness to always see the bright and not the dark side of any difficulty, 
 great or small. The few weeks which he spent with his friends, the Roy- 
 dons, wrought a change in their daily life as marked as it was pleasant. The 
 writings of Trowbridge are too well known to require comment, since almost 
 everyone is familiar with his straightforward, simple style, underlying 
 which there is not a little humor as well as pathos," Chicago Times. 
 
 Woodie Thorpe s Pilgrimage, AND OTHER STORIES. 
 
 " The scenes are full of human interest and lifelikeness, and will please 
 many an old reader, as well as the younger folks, for whose delectation it is 
 intended. As in all the books of this author the spirit is manly, sincere, 
 and in the best sense moral. There is no " goody " talk and no cant, but 
 principles of truthfulness, integrity, and self-reliance are quietly inculcated 
 by example. It is safe to say that any boy will be the better for reading 
 books like this." St. Botolph. 
 
 For tale by all booksellers or tent postpaid on receipt of pnet 
 by the publishers. Our Illustrated Catalogue tent /to. 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co*, Boston 
 
The Trowbridge Novels 
 
 By J. T. TROWBRIDGE 
 @0fct Fondues. OoA. JTeu; unyomMndtoig. Fiice .*> em*, 
 
 Neighbor Jackwood. New Revised Edition, with Autobio- 
 
 graphical Chapter. 
 
 It sparkles with wit, It is liquid with humor, It has the unmistakable 
 touch of nature, and it has a procession of characters hke a novel of Scott; 
 indeed, in many ways it recalls that great master." John Burroughs. 
 
 <A new edition o f one of the most successful of this favorite author s 
 hooks. It will be read with fresh interest by many who have welcomed it 
 to earlier editions, and to those who now give it their first reading ; it , wiU 
 yield delightful entertainment, and unfold lessona that will live long in the 
 memory. Gospel Banner. 
 
 Coupon Bonds Is undoubtedly one of the best stories ever published 
 in this country. It is a most happy and felicitous stroke. It is brim- 
 ful of the very best quality of humor, the humor that grows naturally 
 out of the character and the situation, and it moves along briskly, without 
 ny urging or pushing by the author. It is full of incident, full of charac 
 ter, full of novel and ludicrous surprises and situations." - Scnbner 9 
 Monthly. 
 
 Cudjo s Cave. 
 
 " This is one of Mr. Trowbridge s best stories. His readers are accus 
 tomed to plenty of lively incidents and exciting adventures, and in this 
 
 volume the supply is surely abundant. The story opens with the struggle 
 hoolmaster in Tennessee previous to the opening of the late 
 
 of a Quaker sc 
 
 war, and the exciting scenes attendant upon the opening of the great 
 struggle between the North and South are portrayed in a graphic manner 
 Cudjo s Cave is a book to make a favorable impression," Capital. 
 
 Three Scouts. 
 
 This story is a companion to * Cudjo s Cave " and " The Drummer Boy,** 
 in being a narrative of stormy events in the Civil War, when the army of 
 the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, and the Confederate forces, under 
 Bragg, were battling with each other to 1862. Yet it is complete to itself as 
 a story. 
 
 The Drummer Boy. Illustrated. 
 
 The author of this book is so famous as a story- writer that another ex- 
 cellent one is only what all his readers expect. It is a story of the late war. 
 and of a boy who went into the army as a drummer, and who, from the good 
 instructions of a fond and noble mother, sought to impart to his rude and 
 reckless companions some of the good of his own character. 
 
 Farnell s Folly. 
 
 All the sterling qualities which have placed Mr. Trowbridge among 
 the foremost of American novelists are to oe found to this new romance- 
 It is not a short story or series of sketches that may be " devoured " to an 
 hour, but, as the number of its pages testify, a full-blooded romance, alive 
 with incident, and overflowing with interest. 
 
 Martin Merrivale: His X MARK. 
 
 This story of New England life abounds in passages of rare humor and 
 pathos. Not even to " Coupon Bonds " nor in " Neighbor Jackwood " has 
 Trowbndge created characters better fitted to give him enduring fame. 
 Nc one can read the story without seeing that the author has put his whole 
 oulinit. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price. 
 Our Complete Catalogue sent free. 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co M Boston 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIOUX 
 
 The Adventures of Two Boy Scouts on 
 the Minnesota Frontier 
 
 Illustrated 12mo 
 
 ON THE TRAIL 
 2L* SIOUX 
 
 By D. LANQE 
 Cloth Price, Net, $1.00 Postpaid, $1.10 
 
 THIS story was written by a prominent 
 educator to satisfy the insistent demand of 
 active boys for an " Indian Story," as well as 
 to help them to understand what even the young 
 endured in the making of our country. The story 
 is based on the last desperate stand of the brave 
 and warlike Sioux tribes against the resistless 
 tide of white men s civilization, the thrilling 
 scenes of which were enacted on the Minnesota 
 frontier in the early days of the Civil War. 
 
 * It is a book which will appeal to yonng and old 
 alike, as the incidents arc historically correct and 
 related in a wide-awake manner." Philadelphia 
 Press. 
 
 " It seems like a strange, true story more thar. 
 fiction. It is well written and in good taste, and 
 it can be commended to all boy readers and to many 
 of theirelder*." Hartford Times. 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND OF 
 THE CHIPPEWA 
 
 By D. LANQE 
 Illustrated 12mo Cloth Price, Net ,$1.00 Postpaid, $1.10 
 
 HERE is a boys book that tells of the famous 
 Silver Island in Lake Superior from which 
 it is a fact that ore to the value of $3,089,000 
 was taken, and represents a youth of nineteen 
 and his active small brother aged eleven as 
 locating it after eight months of wild life, dur 
 ing which they wintered on Isle Royale. Their 
 success and escape from a murderous half-breed 
 are due to the friendship of a noble Chippewa 
 Indian, and much is told of Indian nature and 
 ways by one who thoroughly knows the subject. 
 
 There is no call to buy cheap, impossible stuff 
 for boys reading while there is such a book as this 
 available*" Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 For tale by mil booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt 
 of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 
 
BOOKS BY EVERETT T. TOMLINSON. 
 
 THE-BOY 
 
 .VSAILORS 
 
 THE WAR OF 1812 SERIES 
 
 Seven volumes Cloth Illustrated Price per volume, $1.25 
 
 NO American writer for boys has ever 
 occupied a higher position than Dr. 
 Tomlinson, and the "War of 1812 Series" 
 covers a field attempted by no other juvenile 
 literature in a manner that has secured con 
 tinued popularity. 
 
 The Search for Andrew Field 
 The Boy Soldiers of 1812 
 The Boy Officers of 1812 
 Teeumseh s Young Braves 
 Guarding the Border 
 The Boys with Old Hickory 
 The Boy Sailors of 1812 
 
 ST. LAWRENCE SERIES 
 
 Cloth Illustrated $1.50 per volume 
 
 PHE author stands in the very front rank in ability to instruct the 
 I. young while entertaining them and here presents a series in his best 
 and strongest vein. A party of boys, fascinated by the glowing narrative 
 of Parkman, spend several summers in camp and on the majestic St. 
 Lawrence, tracing the footsteps of the early explorers, and having the 
 best time imaginable in combining pleasure with information. 
 
 CAMPING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, On the Trail of the Early Discoverers 
 
 THE HOUSE-BOAT ON THE ST, LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, Following Frontenae 
 
 CRUISING IN THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, A Summer Vacation in Historic Waters 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt 
 of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
OUR OWN LAND SERIES 
 
 By EVERETT T. TOHLINSON 
 
 Illustrated Cloth 12mo $1.50 each 
 
 U*OUR boy friends who chance to represent respectively the northern, 
 * southern, eastern, and western sections of our country, join in a 
 number of trips about the country, often in a 
 private car furnished by the father of one of 
 them. They come to appreciate their own land 
 by seeing it, and learn history by visiting historic 
 places. Above all, they have a good time, and 
 so will every one who reads this series. 
 
 Four Boys in the Yellowstone 
 Four Boys in the Land of Cotton 
 Four Boys on the Mississippi 
 Four Boys and a Fortune 
 Four Boys in the Yosemite 
 Four Boys on Pike s Peak 
 
 FOUR BOYS INTHE 
 
 IAND OF COTTON 
 
 E.T.TOMUNSON 
 
 It will be a genuine pleasure and a source of no little profit, to the vast 
 majority of American boys, to see something of their own great country through 
 the eyes of the delightful boy characters whom Dr. Tomlinson has given us in 
 " Our Own Land Series." Kennebec Journal, Augusta^ Me. 
 
 There are some parents and librarians who buy 
 anything new that Dr. Tomlinson writes, they are so 
 certain of its moral and literary worth and fidelity to 
 facts. All this is true of the Our Own Land Series. " 
 Work With Boys t Fall River, Mass. 
 
 "Appreciation of the possessions one has is one of 
 the strongest elements in a happy life, and in their 
 rarious travels these boys are certainly learning this 
 lesson with regard to what they possess in the beauties 
 of their own country." Epioorth Herald. 
 
 "Mr. Tomlinson possesses the happy faculty of 
 imparting information in the form of entertainment to 
 a remarkable degree." Evening Wisconsin. 
 
 " The next best thing to visiting these places yourself is to hear about them 
 from Mr. Tomlinson." Providence News. 
 
 ^E.T.TOMUNSON, 
 
 Par sale by all booksellers or soot postpaid on receipt of 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
War for the Union Series 
 
 By EVERETT T. TOMLINSON 
 12mo Cloth Illustrated $1.50 Each 
 
 For the Stars and Stripes 
 
 T HIS story is based on true happenings and 
 * the thread of it is the escape of a young 
 Union soldier from a Southern prison. Graphic 
 ally told incidents, true to fact, crowd each other. 
 There are guerillas, prisons, campaigns, negroes, 
 friends and enemies, loyal men and others, all 
 patts of the tale. Above all, the book is inter 
 esting as well as intrinsically valuable, and the 
 keynote to the series will be loyalty to a re 
 united country, in which sentiment those of all 
 sections can heartily join. 
 
 "There are enough exciting events to suit the 
 average live boy, and there is the advantage of a back- 
 ground of reality and a lesson in history. Brooklyn 
 
 " The author has a felicitous way of reaching and holding the boyish mind 
 nd heart with his excellent stories with historical backgrounds." Chicago 
 News. 
 
 The Young Blockaders 
 
 THIS story takes its readers into the midst of 
 the blockading fleet. Without bitterness it 
 portrays some of the daring deeds of each side 
 in the struggle. Naturally, its incidents and 
 adventures are based upon the daring attempts 
 of the blockader and the blockade-runner to 
 outwit each other. There is an abundance qf 
 action and excitement in the story, which is 
 founded upon fact. Its readers will be interested 
 and will obtain an insight into an important and 
 comparatively unfamiliar phase of the ** Irrepres 
 sible Conflict." 
 
 " Dr Tomlinson s stories have an earnest purpose that lifts their engrossing 
 interest to a higher plane than the average fiction for young people." Baptist 
 Watchman. 
 
 " It is a good story, and the author, who has written so much and so success- 
 fully for boys, is at his best in this volume." Buffalo News. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., Boston 
 
NORMAN CARVER SERIES 
 
 By C. B. BURLEIGH 
 
 Cloth Large I2mo Illustrated $1.50 each 
 
 All Among the Loggers 
 
 NJORMAN CARVER is a bright, vigorous youth, whose father feels 
 * ^ that a winter of practical affairs will be better for his son than getting 
 into scrapes at school, where, though clean and honest, his social position 
 and active nature make other things easier than hard, old-fashioned study. 
 So he is sent to the deep woods of Maine, where his father owns lumber 
 ing interests, and set to work as company s " clerk." An eventful winter 
 follows which does much for him. 
 
 With Pickpole and Peavey 
 
 CARVER, having had a winter as a clerk in a lumber camp, 
 is given a somewhat similar position with a crew of river-drivers, and 
 with him is his faithful friend, Fred Warner. The athletic, well-educated 
 city boy and the earnest rural youth, " a born woodsman " as he is called, 
 share in some very exciting adventures, and they bear themselves in a way 
 that is a pleasure to read about. 
 
 The Young Guide 
 
 ^ORMAN accompanies his father on a vacation 
 trip to the deep woods in the " open" season. 
 In addition to the natural excitement of hunting, 
 further adventures are supplied by a band of 
 undesirable citizens who steal deer left hanging 
 in the woods and sell them to "yarding crews." 
 Norman Carver, and friend, Fred Warner, 
 who wins laurels as a guide, are instrumental in 
 having some of these villains brought to justice. 
 
 For tale by mil booksellers or seat postpaid oa receipt 
 of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
Raymond Benson Series 
 
 By CLARENCE B. BURLE1QH 
 
 Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman Large ismo, Cloth 
 
 $1.50 per volume 
 
 The Camp on Letter K 
 
 T*HE story deals with two active boys in Aroostook County close to tha 
 * northeastern boundary of our country, and where smuggling across 
 Ihe Canadian line has been prevalent. Equally ready in athletics, hunting, 
 or helping their families on the rich farms of that section, these good 
 chums have many exciting adventures, the most important of which 
 directly concerns the leading smugglers of the district, and an important 
 public service is rendered by the boys. 
 
 "There is an atmosphere about the whole book that is attractive to boys, and it 
 will be read by them with enthusiastic delight." Democrat and Chronicle^ 
 Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 Raymond Benson at Krampton 
 
 RAYMOND BENSON and his friend, Ned Grover, go to Krampton 
 Academy, which is no other than the noted school at New 
 Hampton, N. H., where Mr. Burleigh was fitted for college. We have 
 had good books telling of the larger and more aristocratic preparatory 
 schools, but never before one that so well told of life at a typical country 
 academy of the sort that have furnished the inspiration for so many 
 successful men. 
 
 44 It is interesting from start to finish, and while rousing- and full of enthusiasm, 
 is wholesome in spirit, and teaches lessons of purity and justice and manliness in 
 real life." Herald & Presbyter. 
 
 The Kenton Pines 
 
 1ENTON COLLEGE" is Bowdoin 
 ^ College, beautiful in its location and 
 famous in its history. Raymond s athletic 
 abilities insure him immediate and enduring 
 prominence as a student, and the accounts of 
 athletic contests will stir the blood of any 
 one. But the book is far more than a tale of 
 these things; it is a wonderful picture of life 
 at a smaller college, with all its fine hard 
 work, "grinds," and triumphs. It is a book 
 that rings true on every manly question. 
 
 44 This book, like the other of the series, is of a very high character, and should 
 be an inspiration to all boys contemplating a college career." Interior. 
 
 For Bale at ail booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.. BOSTON 
 
American Heroes and Heroines 
 
 By PAULINE CARRINGTON 
 I2mo Cloth $1.25 
 
 Botrvi" Illustrated 
 
 THIS book, which will tend directly toward 
 the making of patriotism in young Americans, 
 , contains some twenty brief, clever and attractive 
 sketches of famous men and women in American 
 history, among them Father Marquette, Anne 
 Hutchinson, Israel Putnam, Molly Pitcher, Paul 
 Jones, Dolly Madison, Daniel Boone, etc. Mrs. 
 Bouv is well known as a writer both of fiction and 
 history, and her work in this case is admirable, i 
 " The style of the book for simplicity and clearness 
 of expression could hardly be excelled." Boston* 
 Budget. 
 
 The Scarlet Patch 
 
 The Story of a Patriot Boy in the Mohawk Valley 
 
 By MARY E. Q. BRUSH Illustrated by GEORGB W. PICKNELL $1.25 
 *"T^HE Scarlet Patch" was the badge of a Tory organization, and a 
 JL loyal patriot boy, Donald Bastien, is dismayed at learning that his 
 uncle, with whom he is a " bound boy," is secretly connected with this 
 treacherous band. Thrilling scenes follow in which a faithful Indian 
 
 figures prominently, and there is a vivid presentation of the sehool and 
 home life as well as the public affairs of those times. 
 
 " A book that will be most valuable to the library of the yowng boy," Provi- 
 dence News. 
 
 Stories of Brave Old Times 
 
 Some Pen Pictures of Scenes Which 
 
 Took Place Previous to, or Connected 
 
 With, the American Revolution 
 
 By HELEN M. CLEVELAND Profusely illustra 
 ted Large I2mo Cloth $1.25 
 
 IT is a book for every library, a book for 
 adults, and a book for the young. Per 
 haps no other book yet written sets the great 
 cost of freedom so clearly before the young, 
 consequently is such a spur to patriotism. 
 
 * It can unqualifiedly be commended as a book for 
 youthful readers; its great wealth of illustrations 
 adding to its value." Chicago News. 
 
 STORIES op 
 
 BRAVE OLD 
 TIMES 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price 
 by the publishers, 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
ETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 
 O ^ 202 Main Library 
 
 OAN PERIOD 1 
 HOME USE 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 1-month toans may be renewed by calling 642-3405 
 
 1-year loans may be recharged bv bringing the books to the Circulation 
 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to dim date 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 ORM NO. DD6, 60m, 1/83 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
GENERAL UBBARy - U.C. BERKELEY 
 
 W27064 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY