"You know," said he, half smiling, "your aunt wants you, and has engaged my mother to bring you with her, if she can."
"I know it," said Fleda. "But I am not going."
It was spoken not rudely, but in a tone of quiet determination.
"Aren't you too tired, Sir?" said she gently, when she saw Mr.
Carleton preparing to launch into the remaining hickory trees.
"Not I!" said he. "I am not tired till I have done, Fairy. And besides, cheese is working man's fare, you know, isn't it?"
"No," said Fleda, gravely, "I don't think it is."
"What then?" said Mr. Carleton, stopping as he was about to spring into the tree, and looking at her with a face of comical amusement.
"It isn't what our men live on," said Fleda, demurely eyeing the fallen nuts, with a head full of business.
They set both to work again with renewed energy, and rested not till the treasures of the trees had been all brought to the ground, and as large a portion of them as could be coaxed and shaken into Fleda's basket, had been cleared from the hulls and bestowed there. But there remained a vast quantity. These with a good deal of labour, Mr. Carleton and Fleda gathered into a large heap in rather a sheltered place by the side of a rock, and took what measures they might to conceal them. This was entirely at Fleda's instance
"You and your maid Cynthia will have to make a good many journeys, Miss Fleda, to get all these home, unless you can muster a larger basket."