le thought your ma was crazy when she took him. But she'd a right
to please herself. Folks is too ready to call other folks crazy. There's
people who say I'M not in my right mind. Did yez ever"--Peg fixed
Felicity with a piercing glance--"hear anything so ridiculous?"

"Never," said Felicity, white to the lips.

"I wish everybody was as sane as I am," said Peg scornfully. Then she
looked poor Felicity over critically. "You're good-looking but proud.
And your complexion won't wear. It'll be like your ma's yet--too much
red in it."

"Well, that's better than being the colour of mud," muttered Peter, who
wasn't going to hear his lady traduced, even by a witch. All the thanks
he got was a furious look from Felicity, but Peg had not heard him and
now she turned her attention to Cecily.

"You look delicate. I daresay you'll never live to grow up."

Cecily's lip trembled and Dan's face turned crimson.

"Shut up," he said to Peg. "You've no business to say such things to
people."

I think my jaw dropped. I know Peter's and Felix's did. Felicity broke
in wildly.

"Oh, don't mind him, Miss Bowen. He's got SUCH a temper--that's just the
way he talks to us all at home. PLEASE excuse him."

"Bless you, I don't mind him," said Peg, from whom the unexpected seemed
to be the thing to expect. "I like a lad of spurrit. And so your father
run away, did he, Peter? He used to be a beau of mine--he seen me home
three times from singing school when we was young. Some folks said he
did it for a dare. There's such a lot of jealousy in the world, ain't
there? Do you know where he is now?"

"No," said Peter.

"Well, he's coming home before long," said Peg mysteriously.

"Who told you that?" cried Peter in amazement.

"Better not ask," responded Peg, looking up at the skull.

If she meant to make the flesh creep on our bones she succeeded. But
now, much to our relief, the meal was over and Peg invited us to draw
our chairs up to the stove again.

"Make yourselves at home," she said, producing her pipe from her pocket.
"I ain't one of the kind who thinks their houses too good to live in.
Guess I won't bother washing the dishes. They'll do yez for breakfast if
yez don't forget your places. I s'pose none of yez smokes."

"No," said Felicity, rather primly.

"Then yez don't know what's good for yez," retorted Peg, rather
grumpily. But a few whiffs of her pipe placated her and, observing
Cecily sigh, she asked her kindly what was t