n Mountain Boys slept right here many a time, for
there wasn't much they did fightin' the Yorkers without consultin' a
Leavitt! But here I am rattlin' on and the oven waitin' for them pies."

"Oh, B'lindy--it's like a wonderful story! Will you show me the book
that tells all about it? I'm so glad my name is Anne, too. If you're
busy I'll run out and look at the garden--and find Jonathan. Webb told
me about him, too."

Nancy's spirits were soaring; instinctively she felt that she had won
B'lindy! It was a good beginning. She opened the great oak door and
stepped out upon the path. At one time the grounds of Happy House must
have been pretentious--they were quaintly beautiful now in their age
and half-neglect. Flowering perennials had crept out from their old
beds and had spread unchecked around among the giant trunks of the
trees so that from hedge to hedge there was a riot of color.

Among the gay blossoms Nancy picked her way, skirting the walls of the
house to discover what might lie beyond. In the back she found
Jonathan pottering among some raspberry bushes that bordered the
flagged walk. He was very bent and very old and very wrinkled; his
eyes twitched and blinked as he lifted his head to look at her.

"Good afternoon! I am Anne Leavitt," Nancy called blithely. He was
such a perfect part of the old, old garden that she loved him on the
spot.

"Wal, wal--little Anne Leavitt," and he nodded and blinked at her.

"I wish you'd call me Nancy," Nancy ventured. "Everyone does, and I
don't seem nearly big enough to be Anne. I love your flowers and oh,
what a lot of berries you are going to have!"

The old man straightened his shoulders--at least he tried to! His
flowers were his children.

"In my younger days this here garden was the show of the Island," he
answered proudly. "Folks come from all round to look at it!
Thirty-two kinds of posies and that want countin' the hollyhocks that
grew like trees--taller'n I am. And vines and berries and vegetables.
But I can't work like I used to, and Miss Sabriny don't like anyone but
me to touch things. So things have to go abit. Miss Nancy, huh! Ye
_are_ a little thing." But his smile was kindly. "And I hope ye bring
some sunshine to Happy House."

Suddenly Nancy exclaimed: "Oh--the lake! I didn't realize how close we
were to it."

Beyond the raspberry patch and the kitchen garden stretched an old
orchard. Through the trees Nancy had glimpsed t