A NEW KIND OF EXAMINATION.


Three large trunks and one small one were delivered at Mrs. Myers's
front door before that first breakfast was disposed of; and Miss Almira
remarked of the boys, a few minutes later,--

"How strong they are, especially Mr. Kinzer!"

"Don't make a mistake, Almira," said her mother in an undertone. "I'm
glad the trunks are up stairs, but we mustn't begin by saying 'mister'
to them. I've got all their first names. They mustn't get it into their
heads that they're any thing more'n just so many boys."

She hurried up stairs, however; and it did not take long to make her new
boarders "know their places," so far as their rooms were concerned. That
house was largely made up of its one "wing," on the first floor of which
was the dining-room and sitting-room, all in one. In the second story of
it were two bedrooms, opening into each other. The first and larger one
was assigned to Dab and Ford, and the inner one to Frank.

"Yours is a coop," said Ford to his friend from India; "but ours is big
enough. You can come in here to study, and we'll fix it up prime. The
stove's a queer one. Guess they burn wood up here mostly."

Of course, so long as there was a good "wood-lot" on the outlying farm
that belonged to Mr. Hart's speculation.

The stove was a little box of an affair, with two "griddles" on top, and
was quite capable of warming that floor.