. "Miss Lacey nearly always
brings me somethin'."

"Take that pink ribbon right off your braid," commanded her mother,
reentering the house.

"Oh, no, ma, it goes so good with this dress," pleaded Minty, looking
down affectionately at the red plaid.

"Let her keep 'em on," said Cap'n Lem. "They ain't no time to change.
They're a-comin' right up. Thinkright asked me to tell ye they'd be
here for supper. They hain't had nothin' but trash on the road, I
guess. Miss Lacey looks kind o' peak-ed;" and so saying, the old man
drove on to the barn, his eyes closed tight as he slapped his knee in
enjoyment of this second witticism, possibly even better than the
first.

Minty skipped around helping her mother with the tea things, but her
round eyes were first to discern the pair who came in sight on the
hillside.

"There they be," she exclaimed, running to the window; "and ma," in
deep excitement, "they're hookin' arms!"

"What are you talkin' about?" exclaimed her mother, whose pompadour
fairly heaved in the jerk with which its wearer rose from the oven at
this significant information.

"They are," repeated Minty, secure in her tremendous discovery; "come
and look. Do you s'pose," in a hushed tone, "do you spose they're
beaux, ma?"

"Hold your tongue, Minty Foster; you're too young to say such things,"
returned her mother; but the pompadour continued in a state of violent
unrest as Mrs. Lem gazed at the new-comers and rapidly reviewed the
situation and its possibilities. "I can't say it wouldn't be fittin',"
she murmured, as she stood behind her daughter.

The approaching pair seemed absorbed in close conversation as they
sauntered slowly, the lady's face downcast and her companion's eyes
upon her.

"I'll never stay here with her, though, never in this world,"--went on
Mrs. Lem, "and probably she wouldn't want me to."

"Oh, ma, then we'll have to go back to Hawk Island. I don't want to,"
wailed Minty.

"Hush!" commanded her mother, giving the child's shoulder a nervous
shake. "Don't you dare to cry, Minty Foster. I guess you lived at Hawk
Island a good while, and you can do it again."

"Yes, but then pa wasn't drownded; and here we've got"--

"As comfortable as I've made Thinkright, too. I'd call it downright
ungrateful if 't was anybody but him," went on Mrs. Lem, paying no
further attention to her offspring than to give the small shoulder
another warning shake. "I s'pose he thinks age is goin' to steal on hi