id Anne. "I don't know what I'd
do without Leslie, especially just now when Gilbert is so busy. He's
hardly ever home except for a few hours in the wee sma's. He's really
working himself to death. So many of the over-harbor people send for
him now."

"They might better be content with their own doctor," said Miss
Cornelia. "Though to be sure I can't blame them, for he's a Methodist.
Ever since Dr. Blythe brought Mrs. Allonby round folks think he can
raise the dead. I believe Dr. Dave is a mite jealous--just like a man.
He thinks Dr. Blythe has too many new-fangled notions! 'Well,' I says
to him, 'it was a new-fangled notion saved Rhoda Allonby. If YOU'D
been attending her she'd have died, and had a tombstone saying it had
pleased God to take her away.' Oh, I DO like to speak my mind to Dr.
Dave! He's bossed the Glen for years, and he thinks he's forgotten
more than other people ever knew. Speaking of doctors, I wish Dr.
Blythe'd run over and see to that boil on Dick Moore's neck. It's
getting past Leslie's skill. I'm sure I don't know what Dick Moore
wants to start in having boils for--as if he wasn't enough trouble
without that!"

"Do you know, Dick has taken quite a fancy to me," said Anne. "He
follows me round like a dog, and smiles like a pleased child when I
notice him."

"Does it make you creepy?"

"Not at all. I rather like poor Dick Moore. He seems so pitiful and
appealing, somehow."

"You wouldn't think him very appealing if you'd see him on his
cantankerous days, believe ME. But I'm glad you don't mind him--it's
all the nicer for Leslie. She'll have more to do when her boarder
comes. I hope he'll be a decent creature. You'll probably like
him--he's a writer."

"I wonder why people so commonly suppose that if two individuals are
both writers they must therefore be hugely congenial," said Anne,
rather scornfully. "Nobody would expect two blacksmiths to be
violently attracted toward each other merely because they were both
blacksmiths."

Nevertheless, she looked forward to the advent of Owen Ford with a
pleasant sense of expectation. If he were young and likeable he might
prove a very pleasant addition to society in Four Winds. The
latch-string of the little house was always out for the race of Joseph.

CHAPTER 23

OWEN FORD COMES

One evening Miss Cornelia telephoned down to Anne.

"The writer man has just arrived here. I'm going to drive him down to
your place, and y