From the orchard the travelers walked across a field and down into the glen, and after crossing a brook upon some stepping-stones, they ascended upon the other side, and presently climbing over a fence, they came out into what James had called the back road.  They walked along upon this road, for about three quarters of a mile, until at last they came in sight of the school-house.  Marco spied it first.

“There,” said Marco, “that is the school-house.”

“How do you know that that is the one?” asked Forester.

“Oh, I know the Jones district very well,” said Marco.

In New England the tract of country included within the jurisdiction of a town, is divided into districts for the establishment and support of schools.  These districts are called school-districts, and each one is generally named from some of the principal families that happen to live in it.  It happened that there were several families of the name of Jones that lived in this part of the town, and so their district was called the Jones district.

“How do you happen to know it?” said Forester.

“Oh, I came out here two or three times with Thomas Jones to set my squirrel trap,” said Marco.  “There goes Thomas Jones now.”

“Where?” asked Forester.

“There,” said Marco, pointing along the road a little way.

Forester looked forward, and saw in the road before them a boy walking toward the school-house, with his slate under his arm.  Beyond the boy, upon the knoll on the left side of the road, was the school-house itself.

[Illustration:  THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.]

The school-house was not far from the road, and there was a little grove of trees behind it.  Beyond the school-house, and almost directly before them, Marco and Forester saw the road turning a little to the left toward the gate.

“There is the gate,” said Marco, “that we are to go through.”

“Yes,” said Forester, “that must be the one.”

Forester and Marco walked on until they came to the school-house.  Thomas got to the school-house before them, and went in.  Forester and Marco passed on and went through the gate.  They then went on beyond the gate a little way till they came to a pair of bars.  Marco took down all but the topmost bar, and Forester, stooping down, passed under.  Marco attempted to do the same; but forgetting that he had a knapsack upon his back, he did not stoop low enough, and gave his knapsack such a knock as almost threw him down.  Fortunately there was nothing frangible inside, and so no damage was done.  One of his apples was mellowed a little; that was all.

The path led the travelers first across a rough and rocky pasture, and then it suddenly entered a wood where every thing wore an expression of wild and solemn grandeur.  The trees were very lofty, and consisted of tall stems, rising to a vast height and surmounted above with a tuft of branches, which together formed a broad canopy over the heads of the travelers, and produced a sort of somber twilight below.  Birds sang in plaintive notes on the tops of distant trees, and now and then a squirrel was seen running along the ground, or climbing up the trunk of some vast hemlock or pine.