didn't seem overjoyed to see Miss Van Horne, as it was. In fact,
he reddened perceptibly and backed toward the door. The girl, her eyes
twinkling, took up her jacket and hat.

"Oh! I'm not going to stop, Mr. Pepper," she said. "I was only helping
Aunt Keziah a little, that's all. I must run on now."

"Run on--nonsense!" declared Keziah decisively. "You're goin' to stay
right here and help us get that stovepipe down. And 'Bishy'll help, too.
Won't you, 'Bish?"

The stovepipe was attached to the "air-tight" in the dining room.
It--the pipe--rose perpendicularly for a few feet and then extended
horizontally, over the high-boy, until it entered the wall. Kyan looked
at it and then at his "Sunday clothes."

"Why, I'd be glad to, of course," he declared with dubious enthusiasm.
"But I don't know's I'll have time. Perhaps I'd better come later and do
it. Laviny, she--"

"Oh, Laviny can spare you for a few minutes, I guess; 'specially as she
don't know you're out. Better take your coat off, hadn't you? Grace,
fetch one of those chairs for Ky--for 'Bishy to stand in."

Grace obediently brought the chair. It happened to be the one with a
rickety leg, but its owner was helping the reluctant Abishai remove the
long-tailed blue coat which had been his wedding garment and had adorned
his person on occasions of ceremony ever since. She did not notice the
chair.

"It's real good of you to offer to help," she said. "Grace and I didn't
hardly dast to try it alone. That pipe's been up so long that I wouldn't
wonder if 'twas chock-full of soot. If you're careful, though, I don't
believe you'll get any on you. Never mind the floor; I'm goin' to wash
that before I leave."

Reluctantly, slowly, the unwilling Mr. Pepper suffered himself to be led
to the chair. He mounted it and gingerly took hold of the pipe.

"Better loosen it at the stove hole first," advised Keziah. "What was it
you wanted to see me about, 'Bish?"

"Oh, nothin', nothin'," was the hasty response. "Nothin' of any
account--that is to say--"

He turned redder than ever and wrenched at the pipe. It loosened at its
lower end and the wires holding it in suspension shook.

"I guess," observed the lady of the house, "that you'd better move that
chest of drawers out so's you can get behind it. Grace, you help me.
There! that's better. Now move your chair."

Kyan stepped from the chair and moved the latter to a position between
the high-boy and the wall. Then he remoun