PHONNY’S LETTER. 25

The tin mug. The rustic table. Supports.

 

Caroline and Phonny proceeded to another part of the
garden, where the raspberry bushes were. This place was
in a remote part of the garden, round beyond a little grove,
formed by a nursery of young apple-trees. The place was
so secluded that Malleville, when she returned, could not
see, at first, where Caroline and Phonny had gone. So
she called them—very loud. Caroline answered, and
thus Malleville found out where they were.

Caroline directed the children not to eat any of the
raspberries which they gathered, but to put them all into
the tin mug. By pursuing this course, the mug began to
fill up very fast, for the raspberries were very large, and
the bushes were heavily laden with them. At last the
mug was full.

“ Now,” said Caroline, “ we will go to my stone table.”

So saying, she went out from among the rows of rasp-
berry bushes and entered a broad alley. Phonny and
Malleville followed. her. Caroline led the way along one
alley after another, until at length she came to a sort of
corner, where, under a little grove of lilac-bushes, there
was a seat, with a large flat stone before it, like a table.
The flat stone was supported at a convenient height to
serve the purpose of a table, by means of square blocks of
stone placed beneath it, one at each end. These stones
were more or less irregular in form, being all in the
natural state in which they had been found im the
pastures, though the upper surface of the table-stone was
very flat, and quite smooth.

The seat at this rustic place of entertainment was of
stone, as well as the table. It was a dark, smooth stone,
oblong in form, and somewhat convex on the upper side.