arley's epistle would reach the
eyes that were anxiously waiting for it, but there were indeed "high
times" in those three houses on the Long-Island shore.

Old Bill Lee was obliged to trust largely to the greater learning of his
wife, but he chuckled over every word he managed to pick out, as if he
had pulled in a twenty-pound bluefish; and the signature at the bottom
affected him somewhat as if he had captured a small whale.

"Sho! De boy!" said Glorianna. "He's doin' fust-rate. Dar ain't anoder
young gen'lman at dat ar' 'cad'my jes' like him. Onless it's young Mr.
Kinzer. I hasn't a word to say 'gin him or Mr. Foster, or dat ar' young
mish'nayry."

"Glorianna," said Bill doubtfully, "do you s'pose Dick did all dat
writin' his own self?"

"Sho! Course he did! Don't I know his hand-writin'? Ain't he my own
blessed boy? Guess he did, and I's goin' ober to show it to Mrs. Kinzer.
It'll do her good to hear from de 'cad'my."

So it did; for Dick's letter to his mother, like the shorter one he sent
to Ham Morris, was largely made up of complimentary remarks concerning
Dabney Kinzer.

When Glorianna knocked at the kitchen door of the Morris mansion,
however, it was opened by "the help;" and she might have lost her errand
if Mrs. Kinzer had not happened to hear her voice. It is just possible
it was pitched somewhat higher than usual that morning.

"Glorianna? Is that you? Come right in. We've some letters from the
boys. Something in them about Dick that you'll be glad to hear."

"Sho! De boy! Course dey all had to say somet'ing 'bout him! I's jes'
like to know wot 'tis, dough."

In she went, but more than the Kinzer family were gathered in the
sitting-room.

Mrs. Foster and Annie had brought Jenny Walters with them, and Ham was
there, and all the rest; and they all sat still as mice while Glorianna
listened to Dab's account, and Ford's, of the journey to Grantley, and
the arrival, and the examination, and their boarding-house.

There was not a word of complaint anywhere; and it did seem as if Ham
Morris was right when he said,--

"We've hit it this time, Mrs. Foster. I think I ought to write to Mr.
Hart, and thank him for his recommendation."

"Just as you please, Hamilton," said Mrs. Kinzer; "but this is their
very first week, you know."

"Guess dey won't fool Dick much, anyhow," said the radiant Glorianna.
"But wot's dat 'bout de corn-shellin'?"

"That's all right," said Ham. "Shelling corn won't hurt him