do as well, though, as goin' over," he presently
remarked as an afterthought. "I could send one in the box an' ask him
to drop round an' set a spell before bedtime."

He caught up a piece of brown paper from the workbench, tore a ragged
corner from it, and hastily scrawled a message.

Bob watched the process with amusement.

"There!" announced the scribe when the epistle was finished. "I reckon
that'll fetch him. We'll put it in the box an' shoot it across to him."

Notwithstanding the dash implied in the term, it took no small length
of time for the diminutive receptacle to hitch its way through the
fields. The two men watched it jiggle along above the bushes of wild
roses, through verdant clumps of fragrant bayberry, and disappear into
the woods. Then they sat down to await Jan's appearance.

The twilight was rarely beautiful. In a sky of palest turquoise a
crescent moon hung low, its arc of silver poised above the tips of the
stunted pines, whose feathery outlines loomed black in the dusk. From
out the dimness the note of a vesper sparrow sounded and mingled its
sweetness with the faintly breathing ocean.

The men on the doorstep smoked silently, each absorbed in his own
reveries.

How peaceful it was there in the stillness, with the hush of evening
descending like a benediction on the darkening earth!

Bob sighed with contentment. His year of hard study was over, and now
that his well-earned rest had come he was surprised to discover how
tired he was. Already the peace of Wilton was stealing over him, its
dreamy atmosphere almost too beautiful to be real. From where he sat
he could see the trembling lights of the village jewelling the rim of
the bay like a circlet of stars. A man might do worse, he reflected,
than remain a few days in this sleepy little town. He liked Willie and
Celestina, too; indeed, he would have been without a heart not to have
appreciated their simple kindliness. Why should he hurry home? Would
not his father rejoice should he be content to stay and make his aunt a
short visit? There was no need to bind himself for any definite length
of time; he would merely drift and when he found himself becoming bored
flee. To be sure, about the last thing he had intended when setting
forth to the Cape was to linger there. He had come hither with
unwilling feet solely to please his parents, and having paid his
respects to his unknown relative he meant to depart West as speedily as