"after the way you saved
his life last summer, Miss Hilda. Well, he did pull through, and so did
we; but I was pretty shaky, and the morning came red-hot. The sun was
like copper when it rose, and there seemed to be a sort of haze of
heat, just pure heat, hanging over the city. And Dr. Flower says,
'You're going to git out o' this!' says he."

"I don't believe he said anything of the kind!" interrupted Rose, who
regarded Dr. Flower as a combination of Bayard, Sidney, and the
Admirable Crichton.

"Well, it came to the same thing!" retorted Bubble, unabashed. "Anyhow,
we took the first train after breakfast for Glenfield."

"Oh, oh, Bubble!" cried both girls, eagerly. "Not really?"

"Yes, really!" said Bubble. "I got to the Farm about ten o'clock, and
went up and knocked at the front door, thinking I'd give Mrs. Hartley a
surprise, same as I did you just now; but nobody came, so I went in, and
found not a soul in the house. But I knowed--I _knew_ she couldn't be
far off; for her knitting lay on the table, and the beans--it was
Saturday--were in the pot, simmering away. So I sat down in the farmer's
big chair, and looked about me. Oh, I tell you, Miss Hilda, it seemed
good! There was the back door open, and the hens picking round the big
doorstep, just the way they used, and the great willow tapping against
the window, and a pile of Summer Sweetings on the shelf, all warm in the
sunshine, you know,--only you weren't there, and I kept kind o' hoping
you would come in. Do you remember, one day I wanted one of them
Sweetings, and you wouldn't give me one till I'd told you about all the
famous apples I'd ever heard of?"

"No, you funny boy!" said Hildegarde, laughing. "I have forgotten about
it."

"Well, I hain't--haven't, I mean!" said the boy. "I couldn't think of a
single one, 'cept William Tell's apple, and Adam and Eve, of course, and
three that Lawyer Clinch's red cow choked herself with trying to
swallow 'em all at once, being greedy, like the man that owned her. So
you gave me the apple, gave me two or three; and while I was eating 'em,
you told me about the Hesperides ones, and the apple of discord, and
that--that young woman who ran the race: what was her name?--some
capital of a Southern State! Milledgeville, was it?"

"Atlanta!" cried Hildegarde, bursting into a peal of laughter; and
"Atlanta! you goosey!" exclaimed Rose, pretending to box the boy's ears.
"And it wasn't named for Atalanta at all, was it, Hi