come with authority from the fish commissioners, to give due notice of the law and its penalties regarding obstructions in the way of migratory fish." Rush did not feel like making a merry reply to that. His heart sank a little, as he said:

"That is something I don't think they know anything about." He thought of the dam. "They are in the shop. Will you come in and see about the obstructions?"

The man got out of his buggy, followed Rush into the mill, and there delivered his errand to the oldest son.

"The law requires that streams shall be free for fish to run from the middle of April to the middle of June. The alewives go up into the pond to spawn. After that they descend the river again, and return to the sea."

Mart had by this time recovered from the consternation into which he had at first been thrown, and his ingenious mind was already seeing its way out of the difficulty.

"I should greatly enjoy cracking the Dushee cocoa-nut," he drawled, alluding in that irreverent way to the former owner's head-piece, "for not

"Is this a new thing?" he asked.

"Not at all; we have to attend to it every year," replied the officer. "The alewives will be running up the river in great numbers soon after the middle of the month, and they must have free passage-way."

Mart was silent a moment, only a reddish suffusion of his eyes betraying to Rush that the deputy's words had struck deep.

"Come out here and see my brother," he said. It was high water, the ebb was just setting in, and Lute was on the platform over the dam, studying the probable working of his proposed tide-gate in some preliminary experiments with the flashboards.

such a terrible matter, Lute. The fish go up with the tide, I believe?"

"The great mass of them," replied the deputy. "But a good many stragglers get caught by the ebb, and have to work their way against it.”

"These flash-boards float with the flood-tide," said Mart, "and of course they 'll let the alewives run up with it. I guess they wont be seriously hindered, any of 'em. And by the time they have spawned, and are all ready to run down again, we 'll "We'll have a f-f-fish-way constructed!" broke in Lute, with a rapid stammer. "I've got it already p-p-planned.”

"That will be the best way," remarked the deputy. "In case of an impassable dam, the law

"I guess we'll give up the idea of a gate for the present," said Mart, with his usual drawl. "This man has an argument against it. Fire it off for my brother's benefit, will you, Mr. Fish-officer?"

The deputy complied with cheerful glibness. Lute listened intently, having set the flash-boards to keep back the water. Then, having glanced at Mart's serious face, he turned his gleaming spectacles up at the officer.

"If this had happened three days ago," he remarked, "I should have said it was an Aprilf-f-fool!"

commissioners approve; or it requires them to build it, and charge the cost to him. Dushee thought it unnecessary, and preferred to keep his flash-boards open."

He added that he did not wish to be unduly strict with any man who was willing to comply with the law; having thus performed his duty, he parted on very civil terms with the Tinkham boys, and rode away.

"We can get over this well enough," said Mart. "But, I tell ye, I was in a pouring sweat for about a minute. I believe I lost about a pound of flesh." "I wonder if there is anything else Dushee

"I say Mr. Dushee is a f-f-fraud !"

"He never said a word to one of us about a fish-way," Rush spoke up in great excitement "But he knows the need of it well enough, often as he has been warned," said the deputy.

"What has he done to keep within the law?" Mart inquired.

"There was only one thing to do. He has pulled out his flash-boards and let the fish run." "But that destroys the water-power!"

"Exactly."

"How l-l-long?" stammered Lute.

afraid we don't yet know all his reasons for being so anxious to sell."

"I remember, Father used to say, 'A man always has two motives for every action, his real motive and his pretended motive,'" drawled Mart. "I'm afraid Dushee is the kind of man he meant. What I'm still more afraid of is, that we shan't be glad when we find all his reasons out."

above the other, so connected that the alewives could easily work their way up or down through them-seemed to be a simple and inexpensive

affair.

So did the tide-gate. But there was a stronger argument against that than any the boys dreamed of yet.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ODD-LOOKING SUMMER-HOUSE.

RUSH had been too busy to go off the place since the day of the moving. But, after supper that evening, he and Letty and the two younger boys took a walk.

They strolled up the river as far as the bridge, where they chanced to meet the elder Dushee returning home from Tammoset.

Rush was inwardly boiling with indignation at the man's extraordinary economy of the truth regarding the alewife business, in all his talks with the purchasers of the mill. But he controlled himself, and said quietly, in reply to Dushee's observation that 't was a pooty evenin' to be takin' a ramble:

"You never mentioned to any of us that there might be some trouble about the alewives passing the dam."

"Trouble? trouble?" said Mr. Dushee, blandly. "Why, no! for I never believed there 'd be any trouble."

all he could do to keep his anger from breaking forth.

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"I s'pose I might," Dushee replied, cheerfully. "But I did n't think it necessary. There's a good many little things about the mill you'll have to find out for yourselves. If I can be of service to ye, le' me know."

Then, as Rush was walking silently away, the large-featured man repeated, with friendly persistence, "It's a re'l pooty kind of an evenin' to be takin' a ramble," and went smiling home.

The snow had vanished from the hill-sides, and the ice from the lake. It was a still evening, and the glassy water reflected the shores, the distant orchards and groves, and the rosy hues of the western sky.

The boys ran on toward the outlet, while Letty sauntered slowly, waiting for Rush.

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'Oh, can't we have a boat-ride?" she called to him, looking across the river, and seeing a skiff hauled up on the opposite bank.

"That's the first boat I've seen; I did n't know there was one on the river," said Rush. "Wait here, and I'll try to get it."

He hurried back to the bridge, crossed over to a farm-house on the other shore, and was soon seen running down to the water's edge with a pair of oars.

"Go on up farther," he shouted, "and I'll come over and take you all aboard."

The current was running out, and he had to keep close by the bank and pull hard until he had

"Oh! there's been an officer around, has they? I knew 't was about time. Comes every year. It's his business. But that 's all 't amounts to."

"You have paid no attention to his warning?" said Rush.

"Skurcely," Dushee replied in a confidential way. "I'd set my youngsters to watch for a few days when the fish was runnin' the thickest, and if they see the fish-officer a-comin', I'd jest pull up my flash-boards, and mabby leave 'em up till they see him go 'long back down the river. That is, if I happened to be runnin' the wheel. But gener❜ly I could git along without it for a part of the time; then I'd let the fish run. The dam never was no hendrance to the alewives, and the officer knew it," the former owner added, seeing a wrathful light in the boy's eyes. "There never was no trouble, and there never need to be none." "It seems to me, you might at least have told us of anything of the kind that might turn up," Rush replied, in a rather choked voice; for it was

Eager for adventure, they scrambled aboard, and Rush pushed off again.

"This is better than the boat-rides we used to have around the edge of the dirty old harbor," said Rupert.

"Oh, it is heavenly!" said Letty, who sometimes indulged in an almost too enthusiastic way of expressing herself. "Why is n't the water covered with boats? I should think it would be.”

"I suppose it is too early in the season for them yet," replied Rush. "Mr. Rumney said he had only just got his into the water. That accounts for its leaking so. Look out for your feet, boys!"

"Let us row awhile, Rush," said Rupert, as they glided out toward the center of the lake, which appeared like a vast gulf of infinite depth illumined by soft and delicate hues, until broken by prow and oars.

Rush indulged them; they took each an oar,

It was not because the young Tinkhams were so much better bred or kinder-hearted than many children, nor yet because their mother's crippled condition had called out their gentlest feelings toward her, but rather, I suppose, because she made herself so sympathetic and delightful a companion to them, that they constantly thought of her in this way.

But now all at once Rush had something else to attract his attention.

"Hello! there 's that odd-looking-summerhouse, Dick Dushee called it."

"What! that building on the shore?" said Letty. "Nobody would ever think of making such a summer-house as that!"

"And only an idiot or a knave would call it one!" Rush exclaimed, flushing very red in the evening light. "Hold your oar, Rod! We'll run over and look at it."

Steering with his shingle, he headed the skiff toward the Tammoset shore and Dick Dushee's astonishing summer-house.

"It's built on piles over the water," said Rupert. "And what 's that before it?" "A float," said Rush. "It's easy enough to see what the building is, and the rogue must have known!"

He was not long in surmising a reason for Dick's seemingly uncalled-for prevarication. What he had learned that afternoon made him suspicious of the Dushees.

"That's Dick Dushee there, with another boy, on the float," said Rupe.

"Pull away! I want to catch him before he gets off," said Rush, lowering his voice.

"What is the building--if you know?" Letty asked, with excited curiosity.

Nothing anybody need to lie about," Rush muttered, still with his angry flush on. "I'll tell you by and by. Dick!" he called, "see here a moment."

Dick was stepping up from the float into a large open door-way in the barn-like end of the building, when, hearing the summons, he reluctantly faced about.

"This is your summer-house, is it?" said Rush, sharply.

"I knew 't was some sort of a house to have fun in-in summer," said Dick, with an ignoble grin, visible in the twilight. "I've found out what it is, now."

"So have I, without any help from you," said Rush. "And, I'm sorry to say, we 're finding out other things that don't reflect much credit on those who left us to discover them for ourselves." "I don't know what you mean," said Dick. Rush was flaming up for a fierce reply, when Letty stopped him. "Don't have any words with him, Rocket!" "Well, then, I wont. Not now. Hold on here a minute, boys!"

To satisfy himself with regard to the character and use of the ugly structure, he leaped to the float, mounted the steps, and entered the great door-way. In a little while he came out again, with a troubled but resolute look.

"How long has this been building?" he asked of Dick's companion on the float. "Ever since last winter," was the reply. "They drove the piles through holes in the ice." "Did you know then what it was for?"

"I guess so! Everybody knew. Anyhow, it had been talked of enough."

Rush gave Dick Dushee an annihilating look, but said nothing as he stepped back into the boat.

"Why, what is it troubles you so?" Letty asked, as they pushed off. "That boy told us what the house was for, when you were inside; but Rupert had already guessed."

"I should think anybody could guess!" said Rupert.

Rush declined to talk upon the subject, as they returned along the shore to the river. After landing on Mr. Rumney's bank, he told Letty and the boys to walk along to the bridge, while he returned the oars.

Having thanked the farmer for them, he said: "Are there many boats owned here on the river?"

The farmer, standing in his open shed, filling his pipe, answered, good-naturedly:

"Wall, consider'ble many; more 'n the' use' to be, 'nuff sight."

"And on the lake?" queried Rush.

"Wall, a consider'ble many on the lake. There's been a kin' of a boom in the boatin' interest lately."

'Specially sense the Argue-not Club was started last summer, though why they call it the Argue-not beats me, for I never seen anything else there was so much arguin' about."

The smile that broadened the good-natured face betrayed some consciousness of a joke. Rush, however, took the matter with intense seriousness. "This new building over here, on the shore of the pond, is the Argonaut Club's boat-house?" Mr. Rumney nodded as he puffed at his pipe. Rush then said, trying to suppress a tremor in his voice:

"Has there been much trouble-about-boats passing- Mr. Dushee's dam?"

"Wall," said the farmer, smiling again, "since you ask me a candid question, I s'pose I must make a candid reply. There's been some trouble. I may say perty consider'ble trouble. They say the dam has got to go. Your folks 'll have to know it, and ye may as well know it fust as last." Rush constrained himself to say calmly: "Seems to me we ought to have known it a little sooner."

"'T would have been for your interest, no doubt," the farmer replied; adding, with a smile of the broadest humor: "If a man 's going to put on a stockin', and there's a hornet's nest in it,

he'd nat'rally ruther like to know it 'forehand leastways, 'fore he puts his foot in too fur!

"Naturally," said Rush. "It was the hornet's nest, as you call it, that made Dushee so anxious to sell?"

"Should n't wonder!" Mr. Rumney gave a chuckle, which had a disagreeable sound to the boy's ears. "Anyhow, he never said nothin' about sellin 'till the Argue-nots argued him into it."

"My brothers came and talked with you before buying," said Rush. "Why did n't you tell them?"

"Wall, 't wan't my business. Dushee he come with 'em. Neighbors so, I did n' like to interfere and spile his trade."

In saying this, the worthy man appeared wholly unconscious of having acted in any but a fair and honorable way.

Something swelled alarmingly in Rush's throat, but he swallowed hard at it, and finally managed to say, "Thank you, Mr. Rumney.”

He turned to go, paused, turned back, and hesitated a moment, as if struggling against a tumultuous inward pressure, an impulse to free his mind of some volcanic stuff. But he merely added: Much obliged to you for the boat," and walked stiffly away.

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