. People rather smiled to see Letitia sometimes, but
uncle Jack had always encouraged her in it; he said it was quaint.
Letitia's face was very sober, and very innocent, and very round, and
her hair was very long and light, and hung in two smooth braids, with
a neat blue bow on the end of each, down her back.

[Illustration: LETITIA STOOD BEFORE UNCLE JACK.]

Uncle Jack gazed inquiringly at her through his half-closed eyes.
"What is it, Letitia?"

"Aunt Malvina said 'as black as Toby,'" said Letitia with a look half
of inquiry, half of anxious abstraction. What Letitia could find out
herself she never asked other people.

"Yes; I know she did," replied uncle Jack.

"Then she said, 'Dark as Pokonoket.'"

"Yes; she said that too."

"And then she said, 'Crazy as a loon.'"

"Yes; she did."

"Uncle Jack, what is Toby, and what is Pokonoket, and what is a loon?"

"Toby," said uncle Jack slowly and impressively, "lives in Pokonoket,
and keeps a loon."

"Oh!" said Letitia, in a tone which implied that she was both relieved
and amazed at her own stupidity.

"Yes; perhaps you would like to hear something more particular about
Toby--how he got married, for instance?"

"I should, very much indeed," replied Letitia gravely and promptly.

"Well, you had better sit down; it will take a few minutes to tell
it."

Letitia carefully took her patchwork, her thimble, her spool of
cotton, and her scissors out of her little rocking-chair and laid them
on the table; then she sat down, and crossed her hands in her lap.

"Now, if you are ready," said uncle Jack, laughing a little to himself
as he looked down at her. Then he related as follows: "Toby is a
little black fellow, not much taller than you are, and he lives in
Pokonoket, and keeps a loon. Toby's hair is very short and kinky, and
his mouth is wide, and always curves up a little at the corners, as
if he were laughing; his eyes are astonishingly bright; but all the
people's eyes are bright in Pokonoket.

"Pokonoket is a very dark country. It always was dark. The most
ancient historians make no mention of its ever being light in
Pokonoket.

"The cause of the darkness has never been exactly understood.
Philosophers and men of science have worked very hard over it, but all
the conclusion they have been able to arrive at is, it must be due to
fog, or smoke, or atmospheric phenomena. The most celebrated of them
are in favor of atmospheric phenomena, and they are probabl