o sigh, and Mr. Hyden interposed:

"I was on that train, Mistress McVeigh, and I remember the scene, now
you mention it."

"Were ye?" Nancy exclaimed, incredulously.

"To finish about Jennie's comin' to me. It was the previous year that
they built the bridge over the Narrows a mile or two back from the
Junction. I had most o' the men stayin' at the tavern, and the likes
o' the business I have never had since. But I was younger then, and
the work never tired me. The foreman's name was Green, and he occupied
the big room with the gable window."

"The scamp--er--I beg your pardon, Mistress McVeigh, but I knew that
fellow, and his name wasn't Green," interrupted Mr. Hyden.

"I thought as much, sir," continued Nancy, "for he carried on something
awful with the table help and the girls along the road, and it was just
his way to leave no traces o' his real name behind him. But he was not
a bad fellow, mind ye. As liberal in his spendin' as if he couldn't
abide the feelin' o' money, and as nice a gentleman about the house as
any one could wish fer. He was a handsome chap, too, and lively with
his tongue. The pick o' the whole countryside was his, and it was the
joke o' the tavern, who'd be his next love. I was terrible busy at the
time, but I heard the men talkin' at the bar and at their meals, an' I
knew there was scarcely two girls on speakin' terms with each other
over him. Finally he settled down to courtin' Florence Raeburn, the
daughter of old Silas, who owns the big stock farm on the fourth
concession. The Raeburns were English, an' they had high notions o'
their position. The mother was dead, and the three girls managed the
home. Florence was the youngest, and the other two were older than her
by ten years or more. Consequently, they thought her a bit flighty,
an' needin' o' some restriction. They did not let her associate with
any o' the neighbors, an' a great fuss they raised when she made
friends with me while her horse took a drink at the trough when she was
passing. I pitied the child, fer she had a pretty face, an' big, sad
eyes that seemed to yearn fer companions. After that, the sisters
drove her in to town to school in the old buggy which their father had
brought from England. However, she managed to see me quite often, and
I encouraged her, although, mind ye, I never let her know the looseness
o' the ways o' a tavern. The sisters had the Methodist parson picked
out fer her, an' he, poor