Louise had enjoyed the controversy immensely and was relieved by
the promise of the trunks by midnight. For the first time in her life
the young orphaned girl was to play housekeeper for her grandfather and
surely one of her duties was to see that the baggage was safely
deposited in their new home.

This unknown home in an unknown town had an intense fascination for her
just now. Her grandfather had been rather reticent in his description
of the house he had rented at Cragg's Crossing, merely asserting it was
a "pretty place" and ought to make them a comfortable home for the
summer. Nor had the girl questioned him very closely, for she loved to
"discover things" and be surprised--whether pleasurably or not did not
greatly interfere with the thrill.

The motor took them speedily along a winding way to Cragg's Crossing, a
toy town that caused Mary Louise to draw a long breath of delight at
first sight. The "crossing" of two country roads had probably resulted,
at some far-back period, in farmers' building their residences on the
four corners, so as to be neighborly. Farm hands or others built little
dwellings adjoining--not many of them, though--and some unambitious or
misdirected merchant erected a big frame "store" and sold groceries,
dry goods and other necessities of life not only to the community at
the Crossing but to neighboring farmers. Then someone started the
little "hotel," mainly to feed the farmers who came to the store to
trade or the "drummers" who visited it to sell goods. A church and a
schoolhouse naturally followed, in course of time, and then, as if its
destiny were fulfilled, the sleepy little town--ten miles from the
nearest railway--gradually settled into the comatose state in which
Colonel Hathaway and his granddaughter now found it.

CHAPTER II
THE KENTON PLACE

The tiny town, however, was not all that belonged to the Cragg's
Crossing settlement. Barely a quarter of a mile away from the village a
stream with beautifully wooded banks ran diagonally through the
countryside. It was called a "river" by the natives, but it was more of
a creek; halfway between a small rivulet and a brook, perhaps. But its
banks afforded desirable places for summer residences, several of which
had been built by well-to-do families, either retired farmers or city
people who wished for a cool and quiet place in which to pass the
summer months.

These residences, all having ample grounds and facing the creek on
e