neck and jumping from the wagon, "is that you settin' thar? 'Pears to me
I see somethin' like a white apun gloomin' out o' the dark."

"Yes, Jacob," answered "Marm Lucy," "I am here, and so is Hilda. The
evening has been so lovely, we have not had the heart to light the
lamps, but have just been sitting here watching the sunset. We'll come
in now, though," she added, leading the way into the house. "You'll be
wanting some supper, my man. Or did ye stop at Cousin Sarah's?"

"I stopped at Sary's," replied the farmer. "Ho! ho! yes, Sary gave me
some supper, though she warn't in no mood for seein' comp'ny, even her
own kin. Poor Sary! she was in a dretful takin', sure enough!"

"Why, what was the matter?" asked Dame Hartley, as she trimmed and
lighted the great lamp, and drew the short curtains of Turkey red cotton
across the windows. "Is Abner sick again!"

"Shouldn't wonder if he was, by this time," replied the farmer; "but he
warn't at the beginnin' of it. I'll tell ye how 'twas;" and he sat down
in his great leather chair, and stretched his legs out comfortably
before him, while his wife filled his pipe and brought it to him,--a
little attention which she never forgot. "Sary, she bought a new bunnit
yisterday!" Farmer Hartley continued, puffing away at the pipe. "She's
kind o' savin', ye know, Sary is [Nurse Lucy nodded, with a knowing
air], and she hadn't had a new bunnit for ten years. (I d' 'no' 's she's
had one for twenty!" he added in parenthesis; "_I_ never seed her with
one to my knowledge.) Wal, the gals was pesterin' her, an' sayin' she
didn't look fit to go to meetin' in the old bunnit, so 't last she giv'
way, and went an' bought a new one. 'Twas one o' these newfangled
shapes. What was it Lizy called it? Somethin' Chinese, I reckon. Fan
Song! That was it!"

"Fanchon, wasn't it, perhaps?" asked Hilda, much amused.

"That's what I said, warn't it?" said the farmer. "Fan Song, Fan
Chong,--wal, what's the odds? 'Twas a queer lookin' thing, anyhow, I
sh'd think, even afore it-- Wal, I'm comin' to that. Sary showed it to
the gals, and they liked it fust-rate; then she laid it on the kitchen
table, an' went upstairs to git some ribbons an' stuff to put on it.
She rummaged round consid'able upstairs, an' when she kum down, lo and
behold, the bunnit was gone! Wal, Sary hunted high, and she hunted low.
She called the gals, thinkin' they'd played a trick on her, an' hidden
it for fun. But they hadn't, an' they a