It was a long mile, but it did not contain any danger of getting lost;
and at the end of it they had quite enough of a surprise to pay them for
their trouble.

"Why, Ford, it's a beauty!"

"Dab, do you s'pose as nice a pond as that hasn't any thing in it but
pumpkin-seeds?"

"No boat that I can see," remarked Frank.

"We'll fish from the shore," said Dab. "There's a log that runs away out
in. Rocks too."

Rocks and trees and natural ruggedness all around, and some ten or a
dozen acres of clear, cold, beautiful water, with little brooks and
springs running into it, and a brook running out on the opposite shore
that would have to grow considerably before it would be fit for
mill-turning.

"Boys," said Dabney, "we've missed it!"

"How's that?" asked Ford.

"Put on the smallest hooks you've got, right away, and try for minnows.
There must be pickerel and bass here."

"Bass? Of course! Didn't he say something about seed-fish? That's what
they put in; and they weren't as big as pins when his boys came for