o do with the state o' Mona's mind, 'n' if ye'd watched
her as clus as I hev, ye'd know it. Do ye 'member when ye was a gal how
Hitty Baker, ez used ter live up to the north village, got crossed in
love 'n' kept broodin' on't until one day she was missin', an' 'bout a
week arter they found her hangin' in the old mill? Thar's no tellin'
what a gal'll do an' when she'll do it, if she gits to broodin' over
sich matters."

"I hope you don't think Mona, brought up as she has been, will be such a
fool as Hitty Baker was," rejoined Mrs. Hutton, sharply. "Mona's got
more sense."

"'Tain't a matter o' sense," Jess retorted quickly, "it's a matter o'
nater 'n' 'magination, 'n' the more o' them peculiarities a gal's got,
the more onsartin she is apt to be, 'n' ez I said, Mona ain't herself
these days, 'n' unless suthin's done to change the current o' her mind,
fust thing you'll find, some day, she's a missin'."

"That's all your notion, Jess," answered Mrs. Hutton, now more aroused
than she was willing to admit; "an' if Mona'd listen to Dave Moore, as I
want her to, he'd soon cure such whims."

"Did yer mother ever make ye take catnip tea when ye was a gal, Letty,"
responded Jess, laconically, "an' how did ye injie the dose?" Then, not
waiting for an answer, he continued, "Dave's catnip tea to Mona, 'n' I
tell ye it's better ye quit dosin' her with Dave, 'n' purty soon, too.
She's nobody to go to but me, an' I know how she feels, 'n' I don't
think ye do."

"Have you any better medicine to advise?" came the query, as Mrs. Hutton
laid aside her sewing and looked at Jess.

"I hev," replied Jess, firmly, "only it'll take both on us to give it,
'n' that's what I come here for, Letty. Ye know how I feel 'bout Mona,
an' one o' these days she'll come into all I've laid by. But that's no
savin' grace jist now."

"An' what'll savin' grace jist now be, I'd like to know," queried the
mother. "Ain't helping me and having company when she likes, all that's
needful to take up her mind? She's whimsical, an' that young feller
Hardy's put notions into her head she'd be better off without."

Jess was making scant progress toward his ultimate object, and realized
it--also that sentiment was a matter quite beyond Mrs. Hutton's ken.
"Letty," he said at last, almost in desperation, "I've stood by ye 'n'
Mona purty middlin' well fer quite a spell now, hain't I? an' ye'll 'low
I kin see a hole in a grinstun if thar is one, 'n' what I've sot my mi