[THE UNLUCKY SETTLERS.]
BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
Deacon Whitney's drug store fronted on the green, and Steve had just come out, and his father was standing in the door.
Just then Andy Yokum called out across the street, "Steve! Steve Whitney! what are we boys going to do with this here Saturday, now we've lost our ball?"
"I know what I'd like to do. Come over here."
"What is it, Steve?"
"Well, you see, Andy, I was down to old Captain Hollowboy's after school yesterday with a lot of all sorts of chemicals and things he'd been buying, and I knocked and I knocked, and I couldn't get in; so I went around to the back door, and there was Captain Hollowboy looking up at the biggest hornets' nest you ever saw."
"Hornets' nest? Wasn't he trying to break 'em up?"
"No, sir! He was just looking at 'em. And he told me he'd been watching that nest ever since the hornets began on it."
"Haven't they stung him yet?"