of the beach, when the golden stillness of September was upon us, clusters of hickory nuts split their brown cases, showing the white treasure within.
And every year Abel flourished and increased. Some new convenience or accessory was added to his small establishment each season. The cellar was cemented to keep out toads and garter-snakes; the veranda across the front was widened; a dairy adjoining the kitchen built and finally a real (though secondhand) motor-boat was installed. This last was an event indeed, a long-desired and much needed acquisition.
Never to be forgotten was the occasion when this same motor-boat was the means of rescuing us from an ill-starred expedition across the lake when the wind unexpectedly came up instead of going down, as it had been scheduled to do, and we found ourselves in the teeth of it in open boats seven miles from home. Among the spoils of the trip was a large, disabled blue-heron which a confiding member of the party had seen stranded on a rocky shore unable to extricate itself, and had insisted on taking aboard.
The few remaining scraps of nourishment
