rchasing Jim Ranger's new buggy and his best set of
harness, drove to the Bubbles', the eyed of all observers, but before
he had opened the gate Mrs. Bubble was on the porch.

"Jonas ain't at home," she shrilled down at him.

"Yes, I know," replied Wallingford; "but I came to see Miss Fannie."

"She's busy," said Mrs. Bubble with forbidding loftiness. "She's in
the kitchen getting dinner."

Wallingford, however, strode quite confidently up the walk, and by the
time he reached the porch Miss Fannie was in the door, removing her
apron.

"What a pretty turnout!" she exclaimed.

"It's a beauty," agreed Wallingford. "I just bought it from Abner
Follis."

She smiled.

"I bet he beat you in the bargain."

"So long as I'm satisfied," retorted Wallingford, smiling back at her,
"I don't see why we shouldn't all be happy. Come on and take the first
ride in it."

She glanced at her stepmother dubiously.

"I'm very busy," she replied; "and I'd have to change my dress."

"You look good enough just as you are," he insisted. "Come right on.
Mrs. Bubble can finish the dinner. I'll bet she's a better cook,
anyhow," and he laughed cordially.

The remark was intended as a compliment, but Mrs. Bubble took distinct
umbrage. This was, without doubt, a premeditated slur. Of course he
knew that she had once been Mr. Bubble's cook!

"Fannie can't go," she snapped.

Wallingford walked straight up to Mrs. Bubble, beaming down upon her
from his overawing height; and for just one affrighted moment Fannie
feared that he intended to uptilt her stepmother's chin, or make some
equally familiar demonstration. Instead, he only laughed down into
that lady's belligerent eyes.

"Yes, she can," he insisted with large persuasiveness. "You were young
once yourself, Mrs. Bubble, and not so very long ago."

It was not what he said, but his jovial air of secret understanding,
that made Mrs. Bubble flush and laugh nervously and soften.

"Oh, I reckon I can get along," she said.

Miss Fannie, with a wondering glance at Wallingford, had already flown
up-stairs, and J. Rufus set himself deliberately to be agreeable to
Mrs. Bubble. When Fannie came tripping down again in an incredibly
short space of time, having shaken herself out of one frock and into
another with an expedition which surprised even herself, she found her
stepmother actually giggling! And when the young couple drove away in
the bright, shining new rig behind the handsome bays,