nough
for a lady--but she's a _small_ lady!"

Jonathan thought he "caught her idee. Old Mrs. King, over at North
Hero, couldn't walk a step 'count of rheumatism, and she had a rig-up
such as Nancy was describing." Yes, Timothy Hopkins at the smithy had
most every kind of a thing about and he'd see what he could do, and
Miss Anne could run down in the morning, early, before the stage
started for North Hero.

"And, Webb," Nancy levelled her sweetest smile, "don't even _try_ to
think whom it's for--it's a secret."

CHAPTER VI

IN THE ORCHARD

Until Webb could finish the task that Nancy had assigned to him, Nancy
curbing her impatience, had to return to the study of "Joshua, Jacob
and John."

"It was John that was killed in the war of 1812, and now we have
progressed to the next generation of Samuel and Ezekiel," she wrote to
Claire. "But let me tell you that just as soon as Webb finishes the
'rig-up' (that is what he calls my perfectly beautiful idea) I'm not
going to have a minute to spend on any of the old ancestors. Won't it
be wonderful to see Aunt Milly's face when she knows about it? _Think_
of it, Claire--how we love to frolic all around this good old earth,
and how awful it would be to be tied to a couch all your days--and in
_such_ a room!"

"After to-day my letters will be just scraps and you can picture your
Nancy working madly in her tree-top!

"So far all is safe, and I'm really beginning to feel as though I was a
real Leavitt and not walking around in Anne's shoes, especially when I
am with Aunt Milly. But it's terribly hard not to talk about Dad and
you and Anne, and I have to hold my lips together lots of times to keep
from bursting out with something. I suppose it's good training for
me--Miss Sykes used to tell me my impulsiveness would be my ruin some
day.

"I have seen the hired man! Yesterday, when I went out to my nest, I
deliberately walked around the edge of the orchard. I saw a lot of
tumble-down sheds and things over on a rise of ground that I supposed
was Judson's, and of course the lot in between was the ten-acre strip
that Webb told me about. I couldn't _see_ that it was any better than
any other part of the country around here. And while I was staring,
suddenly something moved, and there was that creature with a hoe
standing at the other end of the lot. And he waved his hand! Says I,
'Nancy Leavitt, this is your chance,' and I tossed my head so hard that
my neck