t like his book, Miss Prudence."

"Neither do I. And we need not read it, even if he did study twenty-two
thousand books and Johnson's Dictionary to help him write it."

"Why didn't he study Webster?" asked Linnet.

"Can't you think and tell me?"

"No."

"Can you not, Marjorie?"

"Because he was English, I suppose, and Johnson wrote the English
Dictionary and Webster the American."

"An Irish lady told me the other day that Webster was no authority. I
wish I could tell you all about Johnson; I love him, admire him, and pity
him."

Marjorie laughed and squeezed Miss Prudence's hand. "Don't you wish you
could tell us about every _body_ and every _thing_, Miss Prudence?"

"And then help you use the knowledge. I am glad of your question,
Marjorie, 'What did Mr. Buckle _do_ with his knowledge?' If I should
learn a new thing this week and not use it next week I should feel
guilty."

"I don't know how to use knowledge," said Linnet.

"You are putting your knowledge of tatting to very good service."

"Miss Prudence, will you use your things on me?" inquired Marjorie,
soberly.

"That is just what I am hoping to do."

"Hillo! Hillo! Hillo!" sounded a voice behind the woodshed. After a
moment a tall figure emerged around a corner, arrayed in coarse working
clothes, with a saw over his shoulders.

"Hillo! gals, I can't find your father. Tell him I left my saw here for
him to file."

"I will," Linnet called back.

"That's African John," explained Linnet as the figure disappeared around
the corner of the woodshed. "I wish I had asked him to stay and tell you
some of his adventures."

"_African_ John. He is not an African;" said Miss Prudence.

"No, oh no; he's Captain Rheid's cousin. People call him that because he
was three years in Africa. He was left on the coast. It happened this
way. He was only a sailor and he went ashore with another sailor and they
got lost in a jungle or something like it and when they came back to the
shore they saw the sails of their ship in the distance and knew it had
gone off and left them. The man with him fell down dead on the sand and
he had to stay three years before a ship came. He's an old man now and
that happened years and years ago. Captain Rheid can't tell anything more
frightful than that. Mother had a brother lost at sea, they supposed so,
for he never came back; if I ever have anybody go and not come back I'll
never, never, _never_ give him up."

"Never, never, ne