churn-dasher and
opening her eyes.

"Like to ha' not been," whined the figure, slowly arising and giving the
offending ax-helve a glance which would have set it on fire had it not
been of green hickory; "but--_hev_ you heerd?"

"What?" asked Mrs. Crankett, hastily setting a chair for the newcomer,
while Ephr'm, deacon and sixty though he was, paused in his almost
completed exit.

"_He's_ gone!" exclaimed Miss Peekin.

"Oh, I heerd Jim hed gone to Califor--"

"Pshaw!" said Miss Peekin, contemptuously; "that was days ago! I mean
Brown--the New York chap--Millie Botayne's lover!"

"Ye don't?"

"But I do; an' what's more, he _had_ to. Ther wuz men come after him in
the nighttime, but he must hev heard 'em, fur they didn't find him in
his room, an' this mornin' they found that his sailboat was gone, too.
An' what's more, ther's a printed notice up about him, an' he's a
defaulter, and there's five thousand dollars for whoever catches him,
an' he's stole _twenty-five_, an' he's all described in the notice, as
p'ticular as if he was a full-blood Alderney cow."

"Poor fellow," sighed the deacon, for which interruption he received a
withering glance from Miss Peekin.

"They say Millie's a goin' on awful, and that she sez she'll marry him
now if he'll come back. But it ain't likely he'll be such a fool; now
he's got so much money, he don't need hern. Reckon her an' her father
won't be so high an' mighty an' stuck up now. It's powerful discouragin'
to the righteous to see the ungodly flourishin' so, an' a-rollin' in
ther wealth, when ther betters has to be on needles all year fur fear
the next mack'ril catch won't 'mount to much. The idee of her bein'
willin' to marry a defaulter! I can't understand it."

"Poor girl!" sighed Mrs. Crankett, wiping one eye with the corner of her
apron. "I'd do it myself, ef I was her?"

The deacon dropped the ax-helve, and gave his wife a tender kiss on each
eye.

II.

Perhaps Mr. Darwin can tell inquirers why, out of very common origin,
there occasionally spring beings who are very decided improvements on
their progenitors; but we are only able to state that Jim Hockson was
one of these superior beings, and was himself fully aware of the fact.
Not that he was conceited at all, for he was not, but he could not help
seeing what every one else saw and acknowledged.

Every one liked him, for he was always kind in word and action, and
every one was glad to be Jim Hockson's friend; bu