e back, after what I've already learned. I must see the end
of your queer game, sir. But I'm glad that it isn't likely to interfere
with our working in the baseball match, which starts at three this
afternoon on the home grounds."

"Oh! I assure you we'll be all through long before then, and luncheon
eaten in the bargain; though it isn't going to be the simple bill
of fare that Matilda'll be putting in the basket we're going to
carry with us. Well, Hugh, I'm going to keep you in just a little
fever of suspense until then. When you and Thad show up, try to
act toward me as you've been doing right along. Don't call me Mr.
Corbley, remember, for that might excite suspicions. Even poor
simple but good-hearted Andrew, whose best clothes I'm wearing right
now with brazen assurance, doesn't dream that I've got more than
a few dollars in the wide world. He even begged me not to squander
those, saying that we could have a holiday without extra expense;
but say, I told him to shut up, that if I chose to spend two dollars
on my only sister it was nobody's business. I really think Andrew
has come to like me first-rate, though I'm a little afraid he misses
his garments and has to curtail his customary smokes on my account."

He laughed at the conceit until he shook all over, and Hugh, now
alive to the immensity of the great surprise that awaited the gentle
couple, found himself obliged to join in the merriment.

Shortly afterwards Hugh started off to finish his errand. He rode
with speed now because of his eagerness to get back home and look
up Thad, upon whom he meant to let loose a bombshell that must fairly
stagger him.

It was not yet nine o'clock, and ten was the appointed hour when they
were expected to join the picnic party. Hugh believed he had never
in all his life felt one-half so joyous. If a fortune had come his
way he could not have appreciated it as much as he did the knowledge
that Matilda and Andrew were going to reap the reward of their long
life of tender-heartedness in their relations with their fellows. It
was simply grand, and Hugh felt that his mother must know all about
it as soon as the affair had developed to the grand finale and
Matilda's eyes were opened to the fact that she had all this while
been entertaining an angel unawares.

Thad was at home and up to his eyes in rewinding a fishing-rod that
needed attention. When Hugh burst in upon him with such a glow in
his face and a light in h