n't much matter; an' there's Jack the
Giant-killer, an' Jack and the Pea-stalk--no; let me see; it was a
beanstalk, I think--anyhow, it was the stalk of a vegetable o' some
sort. Why, I wonder it never struck me before to tell you all about
them tales."

Reader, if you had seen the joy depicted on Sally's face, and the rich
flush of her cheek, and her half-open mouth with its double row of
pearls, while Adams ran over this familiar list, you would have thought
it well worth that seaman's while to tax his memory even more severely
than he did.

"And then," he continued, knitting his brows still more severely,
"there's Gulliver an' the Lillycups or putts, an' the Pilgrim's
Progress--though, of course, I don't mean for to say I knows 'em all
right off by heart, but that's no odds. An' there's Robinson Crusoe--
ha! _that's_ the story for you, Sall; that's the tale that'll make your
hair stand on end, an' a'most split your sides open, an' cause the very
marrow in your spine to wriggle. Yes; we'll begin with Robinson
Crusoe."

Having settled this point to their mutual and entire satisfaction, the
two went off for a short walk before supper. On the way, they met
Elizabeth Mills and Mary Christian, both of whom were now no longer
staggerers, but far advanced as jumpers. They led between them Adams's
little daughter Dinah, who, being still very small, could not take long
walks without assistance and an occasional carry.

"Di, my pet," cried her father, seizing the willing child, and hoisting
her on his shoulder. "Come, you shall go along with us. And you too,
lassies, if you have no other business in hand."

"Yes, we'll go with you," cried Bessy Mills. "May was just saying it
was too soon to go home to supper."

"Come along, then," cried Adams, tossing his child in the air as he
went. "My beauty, you'll beat your mammy in looks yet, eh? an' when
you're old enough we'll tell you all about Rob--"

He checked himself abruptly, cleared his voice, and looked at Sally.

"Well, father," said May Christian, quickly, "about Rob who?"

"Ahem! eh? well, yes, about Rob--ha, but we won't talk about him just
now, dear. Sally and I were havin' some private conversation just now
about Rob, though that isn't the whole of his name neither, but we won't
make it public at present. You'll hear about him time enough--eh,
Sall?"

The girls were so little accustomed to anything approaching to mystery
or secrecy in John Adams, th