er side of the river, a--

GANDER PULIN
FORTH OF JULY
AT 5 OCLOCK.
FRADYS FEILD.

"I always make a point of going to these outdoor gatherings of the
country people," explained Mrs. Carroll to the Baron, as they drove
towards the field. "I think they like to have me."

Von Rittenheim had insisted upon going home to his cabin a few days
before, since which time the old lady had missed him grievously. He was
not yet strong enough to take the five-mile ride to Oakwood on his
mule, and she had made the gander-pulling an excuse to go to his cabin
to see how his housekeeping was progressing, and to take him for a
drive.

"We don't have gander-pullings often now, since the law requires that
the fowl shall be dead," she explained. "It demands less skill to break
the poor thing's neck when it isn't writhing wildly."

"And it does not r-rouse the br-rutal desire to kill that seems to live
in every one of us men. Will Miss Sydney be there?"

"Yes, she is going on horseback--"

"Ah!"

"--with John Wendell."

"Eh?"

"You didn't meet them--John and Katrina Wendell--when they were here in
the spring. They went North again not long after you came to Oakwood."

"Oh, dear madam, I do so earnestly hope that my going to Oakwood did
not depr-rive you of more welcome guests."

"Not the least in the world. They went back to New York to put the
crown to a pretty romance."

"A love-story!"

"Katrina was sent down here, under her brother's care, to forget a
certain Tom Schuyler, whom her mother considered impossible because he
was penniless."

"The poor but honest suitor."

"A poor but lavish suitor would describe him better. It seems that an
aunt of his was moved to give him a present of five hundred dollars. He
says that he had just paid his tailor's bill as a concession to his
desire to _range_ himself, and he really didn't know what to do with
the money. It wasn't enough to get anything really nice with,--he'd
been trying to make his father give him an automobile,--unless it were
a ring for Katrina. He concluded, however, that Mrs. Wendell would
object to her daughter's accepting it, and that he might as well take a
little flyer with it."

"Take--what is that?"

"Speculate--in stocks."

"And he made his for-rtune?"

"No, on the contrary. He took his father's advice about his purchase,
and lost his five