er father and the puzzle of her mother, who wished her
to be a young lady of society, and was greatly grieved because she
preferred doing something by which she could earn her living if
necessary.

"Far from saying anything against the character of the Hilltop boys,
my dear," said the father, "I must say that I find them a very fine
set of young gentlemen. Why, we have not had our lawn tramped over
by them, nor our fruit trees pilfered, nor have we suffered from
any annoyances which boarding school boys are prone to commit upon
neighbors. I am really-----"

"Why, Father, you speak as if the boys were from a primary school,
and had not learned the first rules of manners," laughed Margaret
gaily. What do you expect, Father dear? That the boys shall be
young ruffians?"

"Well, perhaps not that, my dear," replied Van der Donk loftily, "but
the city boys who come out here-----"

"The poor fellows never saw a tree before in their lives, and
they just wanted to make love to them," interrupted Margaret,
again laughing in the gayest fashion. "Could you blame the poor
unfortunates for wanting to shin up them and pick peaches and
apples and everything else? The only fruit they had ever seen
was stale and on city stands, and when they saw the real article
it was no wonder that they wanted it. You could not blame them."

Then Miss Margaret admired the boats, and accepted Jack's invitation
to take her out on the river, her father and mother accompanying
her, of course, and Percival going along to talk to the old folks
and give Jack a chance to devote himself to the young lady.

Jack was quite taken with the girl whom he considered very natural
and a good deal better company than her father who was forever
trying to impress everybody with the renown of the Van der Donks,
past and present, and after the company had gone Dick said to him:

"Very pretty girl, Miss Margaret, and has lots of sense, but what
a tiresome old bore that father of hers is."

"Yes, indeed," laughed Jack, "but there and many persons who parade
their blue blood and fine ancestry before the world just as much
as he does. What is he, pork merchant or something like that?"

"Pretty good, Jack," said Percival with a grin. "He was a butcher
at one time, but don't mention it if you don't want to earn his
everlasting scorn. It is never spoken of. He is one of the wealthiest
men along the river, and employs a man to do nothing but cut off
his stock c