iff, to-morrow,
but I'm not sure that I'm sorry."

"Poor Teddy!" his wife said, laughing.

"Poor me!" he answered. "And poor you! You will think I have brought you
into an undisciplined horde of savages, Bess. I feel like Job, myself,
for one thing follows another. I shouldn't have left the horse with
Teddy, in the first place, if Miss Hulburt hadn't come to me with a tale
of woe about Phebe."

"What about Phebe?" In spite of herself, Mrs. McAlister laughed.

"Some school scrape or other. Phebe is naughty as she can be, and, worst
of all, she is sly. That's not like Teddy. Ted hasn't a dishonorable
pore in her skin. She is headstrong and impetuous; but when she has done
wrong, she comes forward and tells the whole story and takes the
consequences. She has made me more trouble, one time and another, than
all the rest of them put together, and yet--" he hesitated, then he went
on; "and yet, I honestly think she's the flower of the flock."

"A climbing rose, not a violet," Mrs. McAlister suggested.

"A snapdragon, if you will. She has character and force and brains
enough for a dozen; and if we can provide a safe outlet for her extra
vitality, I think she will make us proud of her yet."

"You're right, Jack," Mrs. McAlister answered heartily. "The girl has
splendid possibilities. As you say, she only needs some sort of an
outlet for her energy. She's a motherly, womanish child, too, as much so
as Hope, in her way. She's got to have something to love, and to fuss
over, and to fight for. I sometimes think that Will Farrington may
supply a certain something that she needs."

The doctor rose and stood on the rug, facing his wife. Little by little,
his face had lost its anxiety and now, at her last words, he laughed
jovially.

"Will Farrington! Then Heaven help him, Bess! 'Twill be six months at
least before the boy can walk to amount to anything, and helpless as he
is and energetic as Teddy is, she'll be sure to break his neck. If she
is going to devote herself to Will Farrington, I'll send for Dr. Parker
and a cord or two of extra splints."

CHAPTER SIX

"But where are you going, Hu?"

"What?"

"Where are you going?"

Hubert crooked his hand at the back of his ear.

"Speak a little louder, please. I'm deef."

Phebe flew at him and caught his arm.

"Hubert McAlister, tell me where you are going."

"Oh, is that what you said?"

"You knew it perfectly well. Where are you going to?"

"Over to Bi