owe was hard at work on a tireless iron and
steel sewing-woman and was puzzling his brains day and night to put an
eye in the needle that would be satisfactory.

"You'd need to be made of money to hire all these folks! Margaret ought
to be sewing this very minute, but she's fussing over those drawings of
John's. I've such a smart family I think they'll set me crazy. And what
you will do when I am gone----"

"We're not going to let you get away so easy. And if you would just go
out a bit now and then. Come, mother," with entreaty in his voice.

"Oh, 'Milyer," she said, touched by something in the tone, "I really
can't go to-day. I've all those shirts to cut out, and Miss Weir told me
of a girl who would be glad to come and sew for fifty cents a day. I
think I'll have her a few days. And you look up the poor old creatures
and see if they are in any want. Then if I really _can_ do them any good
I'll go."

She always softened in the end. She felt a little sore and touchy about
Steve's engagement, and proud, too, that Miss Beekman had accepted him.
Stephen had insisted some one must come in and help sew, and that his
mother must have a little time for herself. Seven men and boys to make
shirts for was no light matter. The little girl was learning to darn
stockings very nicely and helped her mother with those.

So father Underhill took the little girl and Dobbin and the ordinary
harness, for Steve had Prince and the silver-mounted trappings, and the
elders could guess where he had gone. Business was dull along in August,
so the men had some time for diversion, and the father always enjoyed
his little daughter. Her limited knowledge and quaint comments amused
him, and her sweet, innocent love touched the depths of his soul.

It was quite in the afternoon when they started. Dobbin was not as young
and frisky as Prince, so they jogged along, looking at the gardens, the
trees, the wild masses of vines and sumac, and then stretches of rocky
space interspersed with squatters' cabins and the goats, pigs, geese,
and chickens. Sometimes in after years when she rode through Central
Park, she wondered if she had not dreamed all this, instead of seeing it
with her own eyes.

They went over to Mr. Brockner's to inquire.

"Oh," he exclaimed, "Mrs. Brockner will be so sorry to miss you. She has
talked so much about your little girl, and threatened to hunt her up.
And now she's gone to Saratoga for a fortnight, to see the fashions. B