eclared, chagrined. "If she ain't gone!"

Lucy was indeed far down the level road, laughing to herself as she
thought of the discomfited Elias. This was not the first time he had shown
an inclination to force his oily pleasantries upon her; but it was the
first time she had so pointedly snubbed him.

"I hope it will do him good," she murmured half aloud. "I'd like to
convince him that every woman in Sefton Falls isn't his for the asking."

As she went on her way between the bordering tangle of goldenrod and
scarlet-tinted sumach, she was still smiling quietly. The sun had risen
higher, and a dry heat rose in waves from the earth. Already her shoes
were white, and moist tendrils of hair curled about her brow. Before her
loomed three miles of parching highway as barren of shade as the
woodsman's axe could make it. The picture of Ellen's cool kitchen and
breezy porch made the distance at that moment seem interminable. There was
not a wagon in sight, and unless one came along, she would have to trudge
every step of the way home.

Well, there was no use in becoming discouraged at the outset of her
journey, and she was not, although she did halt a moment to draw a crisp,
white handkerchief from her pocket and fan her burning cheeks. She had no
idea the walk was going to be so hot a one. Despite her aunt's objections,
she almost wished she had waited for Tony. If only she could have the good
luck to be overtaken by somebody! Hark, did she hear wheels?

Yes, as good fortune would have it, from around the curve in the road
behind her a wagon was coming into sight, the measured _clop, clop_ of the
horse's feet reaching her distinctly. The cloud of dust that enveloped the
approaching Jehu made it impossible for her to see who he was;
nevertheless, it did not much matter, for country etiquette stipulated
that those traveling on foot were always welcome to the hospitality of a
passing vehicle.

Therefore Lucy sat down on the wall to await her oncoming rescuer.

Meanwhile the wagon came nearer.

It contained a single occupant who was perched with careless grace astride
a barrel of flour and appeared to be very much hedged in by a multifarious
assortment of small packages and sacks of grain. It did not look as if
there were room in the carriage for an additional ounce, and when the girl
saw how crowded it was, her heart sank; then as she looked again, it
bounded with sudden emotion, for the man who so jauntily urged forward his