he reins, and the shabby old hack moved off toward Shady Dale. Mr.
Sanders waited for the vehicle to get some distance ahead, and then he
too urged his team forward.

"The word is Home," he said; "I reckon Margaret has had her sheer of
trouble, an' a few slices more. She made her own bed, as the sayin' is,
an' now she's layin' on it. Well, well, well! when time an' occasions
take arter you, it ain't no use to run; you mought jest as well set
right flat on the ground an' see what they've got ag'in you."

The remark was not original, nor very deep, but it recurred to Gabriel
when trouble plucked at his own sleeve, or when he saw disaster run
through a family like a contagion.

In no long time the waggon reached the outskirts of the town, where the
highway became a part of the wide street that ran through the centre of
Shady Dale, flowing around the old court-house in the semblance of a
wide river embracing a small island. Gabriel and Cephas were on the
point of leaving the waggon here, but Mr. Sanders was of another mind.

"Ride on to Dorrin'tons' wi' us," he said. "I want to swap a joke or two
wi' Mrs. Ab."

"She's sure to get the best of it," Gabriel warned him.

"Likely enough, but that won't spile the fun," responded Mr. Sanders.

Mrs. Absalom, as she was called, was the wife of Mr. Goodlett, and was
marked off from the great majority of her sex by her keen appreciation
of humour. Her own contributions were spoiled for some, for the reason
that she gave them the tone of quarrelsomeness; whereas, it is to be
doubted whether she ever gave way to real anger more than once or twice
in her life. She was Dr. Randolph Dorrington's housekeeper, and was a
real mother to Nan, who was motherless before she had drawn a dozen
breaths of the poisonous air of this world.

By the time the waggon reached Dorrington's, Gabriel, acting on the
instructions of Mr. Sanders, had crawled under the cover of the waggon,
and was holding out a pair of old shoes, so that a passer-by would
imagine that some one was lying prone in the waggon with his feet
sticking out.

When the waggon reached the Dorrington Place, Mr. Sanders drew rein, and
hailed the house, having signed to Cephas to make himself invisible.
Evidently Mrs. Absalom was in the rear, or in the kitchen, which was a
favourite resort of hers, for the "hello" had to be repeated a number of
times before she made her appearance. She came wiping her face on her
ample apron, and br