Barnabas
to get in town, M'ri set out on her errand of mercy.

The "hooking up" accomplished, David, laden with a tin pail in each
hand and carrying in his pocket a drawing of black tea for his mother
to sample, made his way through sheep-dotted pastures to Beechum's
woods, and thence along the bank of the River Rood. Presently he spied
a young man standing knee-deep in the stream in the patient pose
peculiar to fishermen.

"Catch anything?" called David eagerly.

The man turned and came to shore. He wore rubber hip boots, dark
trousers, a blue flannel shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat. His eyes, blue
and straight-gazing, rested reminiscently upon the lad.

"No," he replied calmly. "I didn't intend to catch anything. What is
your name?"

"David Dunne."

The man meditated.

"You must be about twelve years old."

"How did you know?"

"I am a good guesser. What have you got in your pail?"

"Which one?"

"Both."

"Thought you were a good guesser."

The youth laughed.

"You'll do, David. Let me think--where did you come from just now?"

"From Brumble's."

"It's ice cream you've got in your pail," he said assuredly.

"That's just what it is!" cried the boy in astonishment, "and there's
eggs in the other pail."

"Let's have a look at the ice cream."

David lifted the cover.

"It looks like butter," declared the stranger.

"It don't taste like butter," was the indignant rejoinder. "Miss M'ri
makes the best cream of any one in the country."

"I knew that, my young friend, before you did. It's a long time since
I had any, though. Will you sell it to me, David? I will give you half
a dollar for it."

Half a dollar! His mother had to work all day to earn that amount. The
ice cream was not his--not entirely. Miss M'ri had sent it to his
mother. Still--

"'T will melt anyway before I get home," he argued aloud and
persuasively.

"Of course it will," asserted the would-be purchaser.

David surrendered the pail, and after much protestation consented to
receive the piece of money which the young man pressed upon him.

"You'll have to help me eat it now; there's no pleasure in eating ice
cream alone."

"We haven't any spoons," commented the boy dubiously.

"We will go to my house and eat it."

"Where do you live?" asked David in surprise.

"Just around the bend of the river here."

David's freckles darkened. He didn't like to be made game of by older
people, for then there was no redress.

"The