And so she escaped telling Lyddy all she knew about what was behind the mysteriously locked green door at the end of the long corridor of the farmhouse. Harris Colesworth, on his early Sunday morning jaunts to the swimming-hole in Pounder's Brook, had discovered a patch of wild strawberries, and had told the girls. Up to this time Lyddy and 'Phemie had found little time in which to walk over the farm. As for traversing the rocky part of it, as old Mr. Colesworth and Professor Spink did, that was out of the question. But fruit was high, and the chance to pick a dish for supper--enough for all the boarders--was a great temptation to the frugal Lyddy. She caught up her sunbonnet and pail and followed her sister. 'Phemie's bonnet was blue and Lyddy's was pink. As they crossed the cornfield, their bright tin pails flashing in the afternoon sunlight, Grandma Castle saw them from the shady porch. "What do you think about those two girls, Mrs. Chadwick?" she demanded of the little lame girl's mother. "I have been here so short a time I scarcely know how to answer that question, Mrs. Castle," responded the other lady. "I'll tell you: They're wonderful!" declared Grandma Castle. "If my granddaughters had half the get-up-and-get to 'em that Lydia and Euphemia have, I'd be as proud as Mrs. Lucifer! So I would." Meanwhile the girls of Hillcrest Farm had passed through the young corn--acres and acres of it, running clear down to Mr. Pritchett's line--and climbed the stone fence into the upper pasture. Here a path, winding among the huge boulders, brought them within sound of Pounder's Brook. 'Phemie laughed now at the remembrance of her intimate acquaintance with that brook the day they had first come to Hillcrest. It broadened here in a deep brown pool under an overhanging boulder. A big beech tree, too, shaded it. It certainly was a most attractive place. "Wish I was a boy!" gasped 'Phemie, in delight. "I certainly would get a bathing suit and come up here like Harris Colesworth. And Lucas comes here and plunges in after his day's work--he told me so." "Dear me! I hope nobody will come here for a bath just now," observed Lyddy. "It would be rather awkward." "And I reckon the water's cold, too," agreed her sister, with a giggle. "This stream is fed by a dozen different springs around among the rocks here, so Lucas says. And I expect one spring is just a little colder than another!" "Oh, look!" exclaimed Lyddy. "There are the strawberries." The girls were down upon their knees immediately, picking into their tins--and their mouths. They could not resist the luscious berries--"tame" strawberries never can be as sweet as the wild kind. And this patch near the swimming hole afforded a splendid crop. The girls saw that they might come here again and again to pick berries for their table--and every free boon of Nature like this helped in the management of the boarding house!