"O Mr. Linden!" said Faith,--"I should advise you to do--just what you
do!"

"Unsound!" he said,--"I thought you were a better adviser. But about
this matter of the boys--I shall probably read them a lecture, wherein
I shall set forth the risk they run of getting sick by such exposure to
the night air; also the danger I am in of being sent away from my
present quarters, because ladies prefer sleep to disturbance. Having
thus wrought up their feelings to the highest pitch, I shall give them
a holiday and come home to dinner."

Faith laughed her little low laugh of pleasure; at least it always
sounded so. It might be pleasure at one thing or at another; but it was
as round and sweet a tone of merry or happy acknowledgment, as is ever
heard in this world of discordances.

"But are you really sleepy, sir?" said Mrs. Derrick. "I'm so sorry! I
thought they were doing nothing but good. I never once thought of their
waking you up."

Mr. Linden laughed too, a little.

"I shall get waked up"--he said,--"in the course of the day. Unless
somebody has drugged my coffee."

"Judge Harrison was here this morning, Mr. Linden, with a message for
you," said Faith. "Mother, will you tell Mr. Linden what Judge Harrison
said?"

"I'd rather hear you, child, by half," said her mother, with a smile
whereon the house cast a little shadow. "Tell him yourself, Faith." And
Mrs. Derrick sighed, and took her napkin and rubbed off a spot on the
coffeepot.

"Judge Harrison came--" said Faith, and paused.

"And went away"--said Mr. Linden.

"Yes," said Faith. "He stopped on his way somewhere, and came into the
kitchen to talk to us. He said he would like, if you would like it, he
would like to have a great exhibition of the boys--he knows about the
school, he says, and there hasn't been such a school in Pattaquasset
since he has been here himself; and he would like to shew it up to the
whole town. So if Mr. Linden approved of it, Judge Harrison said, he
would have a gathering of all the countryside in some nice place--the
Judge has plenty of ground and can get anybody else's besides; and the
boys should have a great examination, and after that there should be an
entertainment under the trees, for boys and all. And he wanted mother
to speak to Mr. Linden, and see whether he would like it. And mother
wouldn't," said Faith as she finished.

Mr. Linden raised his eyebrows slightly--then let them fall and
likewise his eyes. Then sent his cup