as the tears
welled into her eyes and slipped down her cheeks.

Mary pressed close to her side with silent sympathy.

Presently Billie wiped her eyes and began to smile.

"Don't tell on me, Mary dear. I'm just like a foolish little girl. But I
do love Papa so, and sometimes I can't bear to have him leave me. Then I
wish I had been born his twin brother and we never could be separated."

Mary was about to dispute this argument on the grounds that marriage
would have separated them, when they noticed coming up the steep road a
small bony horse drawing a little cart. A girl was walking at one side,
holding the reins. She wore a broad-brimmed jimmy hat and an old gingham
dress faded to a soft mellowed pink. The two girls watched her with
admiration as she swung along the road, swaying slightly at the waist
like one who had adopted the easiest way of walking up hill. They were
so intent upon her that they hardly noticed the blackberries and
vegetables in the back of the cart.

Presently the girl paused and turned her beautiful dark blue eyes on
them without any embarrassment.

"Want to buy any vegetables?" she asked.

"Perhaps they will up at the camp," said Billie. "Ask Mrs. Lupo."

The mountain girl looked at her strangely and shook her head.

"Do you know Mrs. Lupo?" asked Billie.

"Yes, but I will not ask her."

"Very well, I'll buy something myself. What have you got?"

"Blackberries, onions and beets."

Billie bought a pail of berries.

"You had better come up to the camp and let me empty them," she said.

"Keep the pail," answered the mountain girl, and swung on up the road,
flicking the little old horse with a long switch.

Billie and Mary followed with the berries, which they presently left in
the kitchen where Mrs. Lupo was working.

"I bought these from a mountain girl, Mrs. Lupo," said Billie.

The woman went on working without looking up. Billie repeated what she
had said. There was still no answer, and the girls went out of the
kitchen somewhat disconcerted.

"She's a queer, shy creature," said Billie, and thought no more about
it.

CHAPTER IV.

TABLE TOP.

Miss Campbell was quite willing to trust her brood with Ben Austen.

"He was always reliable," she remarked. "When he was a baby, his mother
could depend on him not to cry at the wrong time, although, of course,
he was only human."

On the whole, she was relieved that her cousin had asked Ben to make
them a visit. Mr.