“Mille pieds.”
“A thousand feet! Well, I had had mountain-climbing enough for one day, and after a visit to the Cascade, which was close by, I hobbled down the easy path and back to the hotel, to read ‘Redgauntlet,’ until bedtime.
“When Fred got back, and heard the story, his eyes were round enough, as he declared he would not leave me behind again, to play invalid, until we came in sight of the wharf in East Boston. And he kept his promise.”
CHAPTER XV.
GOOD-BYE!
THE morning of the last day at The Pines was full of sunshine. Ruel’s voice was heard, as early as five o’clock, out by the barn. The young folks, by a preconcerted plan, all rose at sunrise, in order to make as long a day as possible, and joined the men, who were milking.
“Well, well,” said Ruel, looking up from his foaming pail, into which the white streams were drumming merrily, “you hev got up with the birds this time, sartin!”
“We didn’t want to lose a minute,” answered Kittie rather sadly. “O Ruel, I wish we could stay till winter!”
“’Twouldn’t do,” replied the other, shaking his head. “Thar’s plenty to do in the city, an’ everybody has his place. Sometimes I’ve wished—” but Ruel did not say what he had wished.
“Ruel,” said Bess, after a moment’s silence, “why couldn’t you come to Boston in the winter and work. Surely you could earn more money there?”
Ruel shook his head again, more soberly than before.