\Ohat Gwo Boys Pid.

f-OU'RE sure you wont. be afraid to stay alone if we don’t get
back to-night?” said Mr. Kent to his two sons, Johnnie and
Robert, aged respectively sixteen and fourteen, as he helped
Mrs. Kent into the lumber wagon, which stood before the
door.

g 2 “Of course not,” answered Johnnie, bravely. “I don’t see
wie we chould be afraid of, and I’m sure we aren’t cowards if there is anything
to look out for.”

“No, I know that,” answered Mr. Kent, “but two boys like you wouldn’t
stand much of a show with a good, stout man. I was thinking if I was gone,
whoever stole Johnson’s corn might pay us a visit and see what they could find.
But I guess there ain’t any danger. Shut up the cows and see that the chores
are done early, and we'll be back to-night if we possibly can.”

“Be sure and tend to the fire,” called out Mrs. Kent, as they drove through.
the “bars” into the road. “I always feel scary about that when I'm gone; boys
are so careless.”

Mr. and Mrs. Kent had started for “mill.” ‘Going to mill” was quite an
event in that section of the country in those days.

It generally took two days, as there were no horses and the roads were
bad; but by getting an early start, and by driving home after dark, the task
was sometimes accomplished in a day.

Mrs. Kent had not been to town for two years, and as her husband had
promised her five bushels of wheat to ‘“‘trade out” she went with him to do what
seemed to heran extensive shopping. Settlers were few and far between in
those days. Mr. Kent’s nearest neighbor, some two miles away, was the
man who had lost some corn.

Johnnie and Rob amused themselves about the house and barn all day.
When night came they attended to the chores, and then began to make their
preparations for supper. During the day Johnnie had Sige a partridge, and
they concluded to roast it.

“And we'll have some potatoes and senna Cane: ” said Rob, ‘‘and that'll be
good enough for anybody.”

So they put some potatoes in the ashes of the fire-place and covered them
over with hot coals. Then they hung the partridge over the fire, and Johnnie
kept watch of that and gave it the proper basting which he had heard his
mother say roasted fowls always required, while Rob made the johnny-cake,