to the store t'other
day after the brown sugar and--and number 50 spool cotton you give me
seventy-five cents. You remember you did, yourself."

"Yes, and I remember you said there was a hole in your pocket and you
lost the change. I ain't likely to forget it, and I shouldn't think
you'd be."

"I didn't forget. By time! my ears ain't done singin' yet. But that
shows how reckless you talk to me. I never lost that change at all. I
found it afterwards in my vest, so all your jawin' was just for nothin'.
Ros, she ought to beg my pardon, hadn't she? Hadn't she now?"

Dorinda saved me the trouble of answering.

"Um-hm!" she observed, dryly. "Well, I'll beg my own pardon instead, for
bein' so dumb as not to go through your vest myself. So THAT'S where
the other fifteen cents come from! I see. Well, you march out to the
woodpile and chop till I tell you to quit."

"But, Dorindy, I've got one of my dyspepsy spells. I don't feel real
good this mornin'. I told you I didn't."

"Folks that make pigs of themselves on stolen berries hadn't ought to
feel good. Exercise is fine for dyspepsy. You march."

Lute marched, and I marched with him as far as the back yard. There I
left him, groaning before the woodpile, and went down to the boat house.

The Comfort's overhauling was complete and I had launched her the week
before. Now she lay anchored at the edge of the channel. For the want
of something more important to do I took down my shot gun and began to
polish its already glittering barrels.

Try as I might I could not get the memory of my adventure in the
"tempest" out of my head. I reviewed it from end to end, thinking of
many things I might have done which, in the light of what followed,
would have been better and more sensible. If, instead of leaving the
coachman, I had remained to help him with the frightened horse, I should
have been better employed. Between us we could have subdued the animal
and Miss Colton might have ridden home. I wondered what had become of
Jenkins and the horse. I wondered if the girl knew I carried her
through the brook. Victor had said the bridge was down; she must know.
I wondered what she thought of the proceeding; probably that splashing
about with young ladies in my arms was a habit of mine.

I told myself that I did not care what she thought. I resolved to forget
the whole affair and to focus my attention upon cleaning the gun. But
I could not forget. I waded that brook a dozen times as I