ep affection,
and slowly wiped them upon either ankle, a stork-like process at which
David, safe in the barn, could afford to smile.

"If it don't rain soon," she called fretfully, "I guess you'll find
yourselves alone an' forsaken, like pelicans in the wilderness. Anybody
must want to see ye to traipse up through that lot as I've been doin',
an' git their best clo'es all over dirt."

"You could ha' come in the road," said Letty, smiling. Letty had a very
sweet temper, and she had early learned that it takes all sorts o' folks
to make a world. It was a part of her leisurely and generous scheme of
life to live and let live.

"Ain't the road dustier 'n the path?" inquired Debby contradictorily.
"My stars! I guess 't is. Well, now, what do you s'pose brought me up
here this mornin'?"

Letty's eyes involuntarily sought the bag, whose concave sides flapped
hungrily together; but she told her lie with cheerfulness. "I don't
know."

"I guess ye don't. No, I ain't comin' in. I'm goin' over to Mis'
Tolman's, to spend the day. I'm in hopes she's got b'iled dish. You look
here!" She opened the bag, and searched portentously, the while Letty,
in some unworthy interest, regarded the smooth, thick hair under her
large poke-bonnet. Debby had an original fashion of coloring it; and
this no one had suspected until her little grandson innocently revealed
the secret. She rubbed it with a candle, in unconscious imitation of an
actor's make-up, and then powdered it with soot from the kettle. "I
believe to my soul she does!" said Letty to herself.

But Debby, breathing hard, had taken something from the bag, and was
holding it out on the end of a knotted finger.

"There!" she said, "ain't that your'n? Vianna said 't was your
engagement ring."

Letty flushed scarlet, and snatched the ring tremblingly. She gave an
involuntary look at the barn, where David was whistling a merry stave.

"Oh, my!" she breathed. "Where'd you find it?"

"Well, that's the question!" returned Debby triumphantly. "Where'd ye
lose it?"

But Letty had no mind to tell. She slipped the ring on her finger, and
looked obstinate.

"Can't I get you somethin' to put in your bag?" she asked cannily. Debby
was diverted, though only for the moment.

"I should like a mite o' pork," she answered, lowering her voice and
giving a glance, in her turn, at the barn. "I s'pose ye don't want _him_
to know of it?"

"I should like to be told why!" flamed Letty, in an indi