And so it was settled, and Mary-'Gusta Lathrop was no longer a visitor,
but a permanent member of the odd household at South Harniss. She was
delighted when she heard the news, although, characteristically, she
said very little beyond confiding to her two "uncles" that she was
going to be a good girl and not take David into the parlor again. The
remainder of her "things" and belongings were sent over by the Judge
and, in due time, the guardianship papers were signed.

"There!" exclaimed Zoeth, laying down the pen. "That settles it, I
cal'late. Now, Mary-'Gusta, you're our little girl, mine and your Uncle
Shad's, for good and all."

"Not quite so long as that, Zoeth," put in the smiling Shadrach. "We'll
hang on to her for a spell, I shouldn't wonder; but one of these days,
a hundred years from now or such matter, there's liable to be a
good-lookin' young feller sparkin' 'round here and he'll want to marry
her and take her somewheres else. What'll you say when it comes to that,
Mary-'Gusta?"

Mary-'Gusta thought it over. "If 'twas a hundred years from now," she
said, "I guess he wouldn't want me."

The Captain laughed uproariously. "Well, maybe we can discount that
hundred some for cash," he admitted. "Make it twelve or fifteen years.
Then suppose somebody--er--er--" with a wink at Zoeth--"suppose Jimmie
Bacheldor, we'll say, comes and wants us to put you in his hands,
what'll you say then?"

The answer was prompt enough this time.

"I'll say no," asserted Mary-'Gusta, with decision. "Jimmie Bacheldor
hates to wash his hands; he told me so."

All that summer she played about the house or at the store or on the
beach and, when the fall term began, the partners sent her to school.
They were happy and proud men when Miss Dobson, the primary teacher,
said the girl was too far advanced for the first class and entered her
in the second. "Just natural smartness," Captain Shadrach declared.
"Natural smartness and nothin' else. She ain't had a mite of advantages,
but up she goes just the same. Why, Teacher told me she considered her a
reg'lar parachute."

"A parachute's somethin' that comes down, ain't it," suggested Zoeth,
remembering the balloon ascension he had seen at the county fair.

"Humph! So 'tis. Seems as if 'twasn't parachute she said.
'Twas--'twas--"

"Parasol?" suggested Isaiah, who was an interested listener.

"No, no; nor paralysis neither. Paragon, that's what 'twas. Teacher said
that child was a p