Page:The Grey Story Book (1905).pdf/42

 ever see a cat on the top of a telegraph pole, afraid to come down? Oh, dear, I kept thinking of that all the time until I almost expected you to cry 'meow'!" and Mattie dropped down upon the ground, overcome with laughter, in which the other children joined heartily.

"Well," said Walter, as soon as he could get his breath, "if you ever see me believing error again like that, just you saw 'meow,' and I'll remember the cat on the telegraph pole, and I'll brace up and give Mr. Mortal Mind his walking papers. It isn't the first time that I've been treed by mortal mind, but it's the last. Now come on, girls, it's time to go home."

The children gathered up their bags and baskets and set out for the farm-house. The distance was not long, but as they were heavily loaded it seemed much greater than when they came out in the morning.

As they neared the last field Mattie dropped her bag of hickory nuts upon the ground. "Let's go through the five-acre lot," she said.