ced that when Fate dealt her last and final
blow and carried off Johnnie, he should give up the practice of medicine
in Burnet, and retire to the High Valley to live as physician in
ordinary to the community for the rest of his days. This prospect was so
alluring to the married daughters that they turned at once into the
veriest match-makers and were disposed to many Johnnie off
immediately,--it didn't much matter to whom, so long as they could get
possession of their father. Johnnie resented these manoeuvres highly,
and obstinately refused to "remove the impediment," declaring that
self-sacrifice was all very well, but she couldn't and wouldn't see that
it was her duty to go off and be content with a dull anybody, merely for
the sake of giving papa up to that greedy Clover and Elsie, who had
everything in the world already and yet were not content. She liked to
be at the head of the Burnet house and rule with a rod of iron, and make
Dorry mind his _p_'s and _q_'s; it was much better fun than marrying any
one, and there she was determined to stay, whatever they might say or
do. So matters stood at the present time, and though Clover and Elsie
still cherished little private plans of their own, nothing, so far,
seemed likely to come of them.

Elsie had time to set the room in beautiful order, and Clover had nearly
finished her hemming, before the sound of hoofs announced the return of
the two husbands from their early ride. They came cantering down the
side pass, with appetites sharpened by exercise, and quite ready for the
breakfast which Choo Loo presently brought in from the new
cooking-cabin, set a little one side out of sight, in the shelter of the
grove. Choo Loo was still a fixture in the valley. He and his methods
were a puzzle and somewhat of a distress to the order-loving Clover, who
distrusted not a little the ways and means of his mysteriously conducted
kitchen; but servants were so hard to come by at the High Valley, and
Choo Loo was so steady and faithful and his viands on the whole so good,
that she judged it wise to ask no questions and not look too closely
into affairs but just take the goods the gods provided, and be thankful
that she had any cook at all. Choo Loo was an amiable heathen also, and
very pleased to serve ladies, who appreciated his attempts at
decoration, for he had an eye for effect and loved to make things
pretty. Clover understood this and never forgot to notice and praise,
which gratifi