Not Quite Eighteen

NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN. By SUSAN COOLIDGE, AUTHOR OF WHAT KATY DID, THE NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN, THE BARBERRY BUSH, A GUERNSEY LILY, IN THE HIGH VALLEY, ETC.
BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1894.
Copyright, 1894 , By Roberts Brothers.
University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
IT was Midsummer's Day, that delightful point toward which the whole year climbs, and from which it slips off like an ebbing wave in the direction of the distant winter. No wonder that superstitious people in old times gave this day to the fairies, for it is the most beautiful day of all. The world seems full of bird-songs, sunshine, and flower-smells then; storm and sorrow appear impossible things; the barest and ugliest spot takes on a brief charm and, for the moment, seems lovely and desirable.
That's a picturesque old place, said a lady on the back seat of the big wagon in which Hiram Swift was taking his summer boarders to drive.
They were passing a low, wide farmhouse, gray from want of paint, with a shabby barn and sheds attached, all overarched by tall elms. The narrow hay-field and the vegetable-patch ended in a rocky hillside, with its steep ledges, overgrown and topped with tall pines and firs, which made a dense green background to the old buildings.
I don't know about its being like a picter, said Hiram, dryly, as he flicked away a fly from the shoulder of his horse , but it isn't much by way of a farm. That bit of hay-field is about all the land there is that's worth anything; the rest is all rock. I guess the Widow Gale doesn't take much comfort in its bein' picturesque. She'd be glad enough to have the land made flat, if she could.
Oh, is that the Gale farm, where the silver-mine is said to be?
Yes, marm; at least, it's the farm where the man lived that, 'cordin' to what folks say, said he'd found a silver-mine. I don't take a great deal of stock in the story myself.
A silver-mine! That sounds interesting, said a pretty girl on the front seat, who had been driving the horses half the way, aided and abetted by Hiram, with whom she was a prime favorite. Tell me about it, Mr. Swift. Is it a story, and when did it all happen?