At the expiration of the three minutes which Cassie had set apart as sacred to her grief, she reappeared, sniffing audibly, but otherwise cheerful.
“Now, girls, I say let us buzz through the work like a swarm of industrious bumble-bees, and then go down to the creek lots and put in the day gathering nuts. Last night, as Ned and I came through them, the nuts were falling like hail, and we can pick up our winter’s supply in a few hours.”
This was favorably received, for they were all—even Rose—children enough to enjoy a long day in the autumn woods. We all know that willing hands make light work, and the morning’s task was quickly done; a basket of lunch was put up, and the girls, with the baby, were soon scampering through the meadow toward the little creek, whose borders for miles around were famous for their wealth of nuts.
The harvest was indeed bountiful, and they worked merrily and untiringly until bags and baskets were filled and deposited by a great log, where their brother would next day find them and cart them home. So busy and happy had they been that they could scarcely believe that the day had ended until the woods began to fill with shadows, and the baby declared he was sleepy and wanted his supper.
“Who would ever have believed it so late?” cried Rose, peering from under the low boughs toward the west, “and there are all those cows to milk and the chickens to feed! Come, come, girls, not another nut; we’ll have to go home at once if we want to get through before dark. Cassie, you are the quickest, do run ahead and let the bars down, and get the pails ready, and I’ll carry the baby—he’s so tired, poor little fellow, he can hardly stand. Florence can start the fire and begin the supper while you and I do the chores.”
Away sped the light-footed Cassie, while the others made such haste as they could with the tired baby, who wept in a self-pitying way upon Rose’s shoulder.
“Oo dirls is ’tarvin’ me an’ walkin’ me most to pieces, an’ I want my mover,” he wailed, as he finally dozed off.