r made him feel boyish, and he believed that he would take
the boat and go out fishing.

"I can haul her out and fix her up for winter when I git ashore," he
explained. "I've been distressed to think it wa'n't done before. I
expect she's got some little ice in her now, there where she lays just
under the edge of Joe Banks's fish-house. I spoke to Joe, but he said
she'd do till I could git down. No; I'll turn her over, and make her
snug for winter, and git a small boat o' Joe. I ain't goin' out a
great ways: just so's I can git a cod or two. I always begin to think
of a piece o' new fish quick 's these mild days come; feels like the
Janooary thaw."

"'T would be a good day for you to ride over to Bolton, too," said
Mrs. Packer. "But I'd like to go with you when you go there, an' I've
got business here to-day. I've put the kettle on some time ago to do a
little colorin'. We can go to Bolton some day next week."

"I've got to be here next week," said Packer ostentatiously; but at
this moment his heart for the first time completely failed him about
the agreement with Ferris. The south wind had blown round the vane of
his determination. He forgot his wife and daughter, laid down his
knife and fork, and quite unknown to himself began to hang his head.
The great trees were not so far from the house that he had not noticed
the sound of the southerly breeze in their branches as he came across
the yard. He knew it as well as he knew the rote of the beaches and
ledges on that stretch of shore. He was meaning, at any rate, to think
it over while he was out fishing, where nobody could bother him. He
wasn't going to be hindered by a pack of folks from doing what he
liked with his own; but neither was old Ferris going to say what he
had better do with his own trees.

"You put me up a bite o' somethin' hearty, mother," he made haste to
say. "I sha'n't git in till along in the afternoon."

"Ain't you feelin' all right, father?" asked Lizzie, looking at him
curiously.

"I be," said John Packer, growing stern again for the moment. "I feel
like a day out fishin'. I hope Joe won't git the start o' me. You seen
his small boat go out?" He looked up at his daughter, and smiled in a
friendly way, and went on with his breakfast. It was evidently one of
his pleasant days; he never had made such a frank acknowledgment of
the lovers' rights, but he had always liked Joe Banks. Lizzie's cheeks
glowed; she gave her mother a happy glance of sati