George Allan England

“ His blue matches showed him the spring, all clogged with leaves, but no table—that was indisputably gone.
“Here’s a ‘facer!’” he said out loud. “If the key’s under the table and there isn’t any table, why, where the—Halifax—is the key?” Thought availed nothing, so back he blundered to the piazza. A little screech-owl—and the smaller they are the more outrageously their yells desecrate the silent places—came and sat in a spruce and curdled his blood till he hurled a bottle at it and sent it circling away, screaming like a soul in agony. ”

“ It proved a sore job to get the boat out of the boat-house and row to the village; Billy’s hands were blistered before he reached the cove. He tied the boat there, however, with good courage, and went on up to the store.
“No, we ain’t got none,” said Brooks, the store-keeper, in answer to Billy’s inquiries for beef and green-stuff. “All we got is right in plain sight. Bananies? Yes, an’ potatoes, too; no bread, but I kin give you doughnuts, an’ they’s half a fresh-killed hawg out in the shed. ”

“ Billy, a bit chastened, picked up his suit-case and followed his guide, who led him down a path over a stile, and finally to a rotting wharf where a boat lay half-submerged, with a pail floating ’round inside.
“We gotta bail some,” said Fuzzy. “Dipper or pail fer you?” ”

“ The key’s in the spring-house, under the little table. Clean up the camp and grounds, see that we have plenty of wood and supplies, and generally sweep and garnish for our coming. What a lark it will be for you. I only wish I were a man!
Your Big Sister,
Addie.
P.S. Aline sends her best regards and says you're positively to obey me!
Illustration: “Aline, the girl you met last year.”
Billy read it all through, from beginning to end. He groaned softly to himself. “‘What a lark!’” he quoted. “M-m-mm, yes, uber nicht! She wishes she were a man! ”

“ The management of stove-draughts had been omitted from his curriculum, as had been the care of tea-kettles; consequently the kettle soon boiled dry and the spout melted off. A noseless tea-kettle made him laugh, in spite of his choking and eye-watering over the stove.
“Oh, hang the darned thing!” he cried at last. “How’s a fellow to know, anyway?”—a question destined to be often on his lips. “Have I got to skin these potatoes, I wonder, before frying ’em, and, by the way, can you fry raw potatoes?” ”

“ Very soon he discovered that raking makes the sun extremely hot, that it causes the back-muscles to ache unpleasantly, and that it induces gnawing hunger. He stuck to it, however, till he felt certain it must be noon, in spite of his watch that pointed to eleven. ”

“ Fuzzy bit it and slid it into his overalls’ pocket; then, grasping the oars, backed away, whistling between his teeth.
“Oh, I say,” asked Billy, “can’t you lend me that lantern? Here—here’s a dollar! I’ll buy it!”
“Sorry, mista, but it b’longs to the Gran’ Trunk, an’ I dassent sell railroad stuff. Here’s matches, though. Better build a fire; you won’t find any ile in the camp, but they’s lots o’ bresh on the place. You ain’t much used to campin’, be you? Anythin’ else? No? ”

“ The boat came up to the wharf. Billy noted distinctly how very pretty and slender Aline was, prettier “in all that frilly business she’s got on,” he told himself, than he had even expected. Hot waves chased themselves over his face, beneath the grime, as he steadied the boat and helped the passengers disembark.
Illustration:“Nonsense!”she retorted
“Why, Billy!”
His sister had just got a good look at him. “No, I won’t kiss you! Get away! What is the matter! Aline, don’t look at him! No, don’t you dare shake hands with him! Oh, he’s—”
“Addie, Addie, I’m ashamed of you!” ”