ghed a little, and looked at each other
affectionately, and then at me. Mrs. Todd considerately paused, and
faced about to regard the wide sea view. I was glad to stop, being more
out of breath than either of my companions, and I prolonged the halt
by asking the names of the neighboring islands. There was a fine breeze
blowing, which we felt more there on the high land than when we were
running before it in the dory.

"Why, this ain't that kitten I saw when I was out last, the one that I
said didn't appear likely?" exclaimed Mrs. Todd as we went our way.

"That's the one, Almiry," said her mother. "She always had a likely look
to me, an' she's right after business. I never see such a mouser for
one of her age. If't wan't for William, I never should have housed that
other dronin' old thing so long; but he sets by her on account of her
havin' a bob tail. I don't deem it advisable to maintain cats just on
account of their havin' bob tails; they're like all other curiosities,
good for them that wants to see 'm twice. This kitten catches mice for
both, an' keeps me respectable as I ain't been for a year. She's a real
understandin' little help, this kitten is. I picked her from among five
Miss Augusta Pernell had over to Burnt Island," said the old woman,
trudging along with the kitten close at her skirts. "Augusta, she says
to me, 'Why, Mis' Blackett, you've took and homeliest;' and, says I,
'I've got the smartest; I'm satisfied.'"

"I'd trust nobody sooner'n you to pick out a kitten, mother," said the
daughter handsomely, and we went on in peace and harmony.

The house was just before us now, on a green level that looked as if
a huge hand had scooped it out of the long green field we had been
ascending. A little way above, the dark, spruce woods began to climb the
top of the hill and cover the seaward slopes of the island. There was
just room for the small farm and the forest; we looked down at the
fish-house and its rough sheds, and the weirs stretching far out into
the water. As we looked upward, the tops of the firs came sharp against
the blue sky. There was a great stretch of rough pasture-land round
the shoulder of the island to the eastward, and here were all the
thick-scattered gray rocks that kept their places, and the gray backs
of many sheep that forever wandered and fed on the thin sweet pasturage
that fringed the ledges and made soft hollows and strips of green turf
like growing velvet. I could see the rich g