"Had mine afore I started," replied Dromy. "But the thing's here. Mr. Linden says as how we wants your nuts off o' them trees over to Neanticut--and he says if you don't want 'em, why it'll fit, he says. And if you do, why you may keep 'em that's all." "What's Mr. Linden goin' to do with the nuts, s'pos'n he gets 'em?" "_He_ aint agoin' to get 'em," said Droiny--"it's us;--us and him. You see we did somethin' to please him, and so now he said as how he'd like to do somethin' to please us, if he only knowed what it was. And there wa'n't a boy of the hull on 'em as didn't say he'd rather go after nuts than any other livin' thing whatsomedever." "And now I s'pose you're askin' for them particular nuts to please me. It's a round game we're on," said Mr. Simlins. "How're you goin' to get to Neanticut? same way Jack went up his bean?--won't pay." "He didn't tell--" said Dromy. "He don't say everything to oncet, commonly." "When 'you goin'?" "Don' know, sir. Mr. Linden said as how we'd better go afore the nuts did. And Saturday aint fur off." "Saturday--well! You tell Mr. Linden, if he'll send Reuben Taylor here Saturday morning, he can take the big wagon; it'll hold the hull on ye, and I guess I'll do without the team; and if he wants to go into the old house and make a fire in case you want something to eat afore you get home, there's not a soul in it and no wood nother--but you can pick it up; and I'll give Reuben the key. Now don't you splice the two ends o' that together by the way." Great was the stir in a certain stratum of Pattaquasset that day! Many and startling were the demands for pies, cheese, and gingerbread, to be answered on the ensuing Saturday. Those good housewives who had no boys at school or elsewhere, thought it must be 'real good fun' to help them get ready for such a frolic,--those who _had_ boys--wished they had none! As to the rest, the disturbance spread a little (as disturbances are wont) from its proper sphere of action. Two boys even invaded Mrs. Derrick's peaceful dwelling, and called down Faith from conquering Peru. These were Reuben Taylor and Joe Deacon; for Joe with a slight variation of the popular adage, considered that 'once a scholar, always a scholar.' Reuben seemed inclined on his part to leave the present business in Joe's hands, but a sharp nudge from that young gentleman's elbow admonished him not only to speak but to speak quickly. Reuben modestly preferred his modest request, guiltless of any but the most innocent arrangement of his words. "We boys are all going over to Neanticut nutting, next Saturday, Miss Faith," he said, "and we thought as Mr. Linden was going, maybe you'd like to go too--and we'd all enjoy it a great deal more." "There ain't room in the wagon," put in Joe--"but I s'pose you kin fix that." "Joe!" said Reuben flushing up. "There's plenty of room, Miss Faith--there isn't one of us that wouldn't find it, somehow. I could walk easy enough, I know that."