“Haven’t we had a good time to-day, Fred?” asked John, after they were once more in bed on Elm Island.
“Never had such a good time in my life. I’m real glad Tige bit me, that I got to going with you and Charlie, and you like me. I used to think there couldn’t be any good time without I was in some deviltry. Then to think how good Uncle Isaac and his wife were to come down there and bring all those good things, just that we boys might have a good time! Wasn’t that apple pudding and sauce good?”
Fred slept in the middle, and, in the fulness of his heart, he hugged first one and then the other of his companions.
“It seems,” said John, “that Uncle Isaac knew what we wanted better than we did ourselves.”
“What shall we do to-morrow, Charlie?”
He received no answer; Charlie was fast asleep; and all three of them were soon buried in those refreshing slumbers that succeed to exercise and exposure in the open air. It was impossible that Uncle Isaac’s dealings with the boys should be kept secret, although he mentioned it to no one; and the only witness was a crow that sat on the top of a neighboring birch.
Ben was in the house when Charles came for the auger. “What does he want it for?” asked he.
“I don’t know; he told me to get it.”
Ben returned to the woods, wondering what Uncle Isaac could be going to do with the auger. But at night, before Charlie went to bed, he told Ben and his wife all that had been said and done on both sides. Ben remained silent after he had told the story.
At length Sally said, “I don’t think, myself, that boys ought to drink spirit till they are old enough to have discretion, and to make a proper use of it; but to promise never to drink, I never heard of such a thing. For my part, I don’t see how anybody that works, and is exposed, can get along without it; and I’m sure they can’t in sickness.”