rily.

"Han't been crossed in love, have 'ee? But there! what be I clackin'
about, when better fit I was askin' your pardon for bein' so late?
I'm sent to fetch you over to Troy. Ought to have been here more'n a
half-hour ago; but when you've five children to wash an' dress an' get
breakfast for an' see their boots is shined, and after that to catch the
hoss and put'n to cart--well, you'll have to forgive it. That's your
luggage Tom's carryin', I s'pose?--and a funny passel of traps school
teachers travel with, I will say. You must be clever, though; else
you couldn't have coaxed Tom Trevarthen to shoulder such a load.
He wouldn't lift his little finger for _me_." She shot this
unrighteous shaft with a mischievous side-glance, and laughed.
She had beautiful teeth, and laughing became her mightily.

"But that is not my luggage."

"Not your luggage! Then where--Hullo! have you two been quarrellin'?
Well, I never! You can't have lost much time about it."

"I left my trunk at the station," Hester went on, flushing yet redder
with annoyance.

"And this here belongs to Mother Butson," declared Tom Trevarthen,
red also. "I'm fetchin' it home for her."

"Then take and pitch it into the tail of the trap; and you, my dear,
hand up your bag and climb up alongside o' me. We'll drive back to
station, fetch your trunk, and be back in time to overtake Tom at the
top o' the hill and give him a lift home. There's plenty room for
three on the seat--that is, by squeezin' a bit."

"You're very kind, Nuncey," said Tom Trevarthen sullenly. "But I'll
not take a lift alongside o' _she_; and I'll not trouble you with my
load, neither."

"Please yourself, you foolish mortal, you. But--I declare! You
_must_ have had a tiff!"

"No tiff at all," corrected Tom, sturdily wrathful. "It's despise
her I do--comin' here and drivin' an old 'ooman to the workhouse!"

He turned on his heel and trudged away stubbornly up the hill.

Nuncey gazed back at him for a moment over her shoulder.

"Never saw Tom in such a tear in all my life," she commented
cheerfully. "Take 'en all the week round, you couldn't find a
better-natered boy. Well, jump up, my dear, and we'll fit and get
your trunk. He may be cured of his sulks by time we overtake 'en."

Undoubtedly Hester had excuses enough for feeling hurt and annoyed;
yet what mainly hurt and annoyed her (though she would not confess
it) was that this sailor and this girl had each taken h