e young gentleman obeyed orders. "Does it show much?" he queried. "I
can't see. Is there much left?"

Mary-'Gusta smiled. His contortions were as violent as they were vain.
"There's enough," she said simply. "Here are the things you bought. Now
go out of the back door and cut across the fields. It's the shortest way
home."

Mr. Smith took his various parcels, including the six boxes of
marshmallows which Mary-'Gusta produced from beneath the counter. "I
thought you said these were stale," he observed, wonderingly.

"I said they weren't real fresh, but they're fresh enough for a toast.
I said that so that the Keith girl wouldn't wait. I didn't think you
wanted her to."

"You bet your life I didn't! So that's why you said you would have to
open the other box? Just--just to help me out?"

"Yes. Now don't stop any longer. You'll have to run, you know. Go out
the back way."

Crawford started for the door of the back room, but at that door he
paused.

"Say," he said, feelingly, "this is mighty white of you, do you know it?
And after the way I guyed you when I first came in! I guess I was rather
fresh, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were."

"Yes, yes, I guess I was. I thought you were just a country kid, you
know, and I--say, by George, you WERE white. If I'd been you I'd have
got square. You had the chance; 'twould have served me right for playing
the smart Aleck. I beg your pardon. You're all RIGHT! And I'm awfully
sorry I was such a chump."

It was a straightforward, honest apology and confession of fault.
Mary-'Gusta was pleased, but she did not show it. He had referred to her
as a kid and she did not like that.

"If you don't hurry--yes, and run like everything," she said, "you won't
have time to get home and change and meet the others at the boat. And
somebody else will see you, too. You'd better go."

The young man went without further delay. Mary-'Gusta watching from the
back door saw him racing across the fields in the direction of the Keith
cottage. When her uncles returned she said nothing of the occurrence.
She considered it funny, but she knew Crawford Smith did not, and she
was sure he would prefer to have the secret kept.

The following afternoon the partners of Hamilton and Company entertained
a caller at the store. That evening Shadrach spoke of the call to
Mary-'Gusta.

"That young Smith feller that's been visitin' the Keiths was in today,"
said the Captain. "Didn't want to buy nothin'; said he just