48 ROBERT DAWSON.

the school-house and the meeting-house were, of course,
regarded as.the most prominent.

“There goes Squire Hall’s winter wood,” remarked
Charley Frazier. -“ He has got a neat yoke of oxen
there:—not another like them in our village — is
there ?”

A atau of this question, about Squire Hall’s
oxen, followed. Some of the boys supported the claims
of a pair that Major Brooks owned, but ‘they made a
feeble stand against the acknowledged merits of Squire
Hall’s,

“T wish I could help to pile that wood,” thought I.
“Squire Hall has got one man less than he used to
have. I wonder if he would not employ me? One
can never know till one tries, father says; so I'll try.”
When school closed in the afternoon, I determined
to go over to the squire’s; and soI joined the boys |
whose homes were below his house. The great gate of .
his wood-yard was open, and several of us went in. :
Everything about the premises was in perfect order.

We looked about, and in a short time my companions