said Mr. Arbuton dismally.
"Miss Ellison," he cried, "I've been nothing but an affliction to your
party since I came on board this boat!"

"Do you think evil genius of our party would be too harsh a term?"
suggested Kitty.

"Not in the least; it would be a mere euphemism,--base flattery, in
fact. Call me something worse."

"I can't think of anything. I must leave you to your own conscience. It
was a pity to end our ride in that way; it would have been such a
pleasant ride!" And Kitty took heart from his apparent mood to speak of
some facts of the morning that had moved her fancy. "What a strange
little nest it is up here among these half-thawed hills! and imagine the
winter, the fifteen or twenty months of it, they must have every year. I
could almost have shed tears over that patch of corn that had escaped
the early August frosts. I suppose this is a sort of Indian summer that
we are enjoying now, and that the cold weather will set in after a week
or two. My cousin and I thought that Tadoussac was somewhat retired and
composed last night, but I'm sure that I shall see it in its true light,
as a metropolis, going back. I'm afraid that the turmoil and bustle of
Eriecreek, when I get home--"

"Eriecreek?--when you got home?--I thought you lived at Milwaukee."

"O no! It's my cousins who live at Milwaukee. I live at Eriecreek, New
York State."

"Oh!" Mr. Arbuton looked blank and not altogether pleased. Milwaukee was
bad enough, though he understood that it was largely peopled from New
England, and had a great German element, which might account for the
fact that these people were not quite barbaric. But this Eriecreek, New
York State! "I don't think I've heard of it," he said.

"It's a small place," observed Kitty, "and I believe it isn't noted for
anything in particular; it's not even on any railroad. It's in the
north-west part of the State."

"Isn't it in the oil-regions?" groped Mr. Arbuton.

"Why, the oil-regions are rather migratory, you know. It used to be in
the oil-regions; but the oil was pumped out, and then the oil-regions
gracefully withdrew and left the cheese-regions and grape-regions to
come back and take possession of the old derricks and the rusty boilers.
You might suppose from the appearance of the meadows, that all the
boilers that ever blew up had come down in the neighborhood of
Eriecreek. And every field has its derrick standing just as the last
dollar or the last drop of oil left it."