Year: 1873

the contrary, she did not find it monOto-
nous, for every day brought her some nov
city: from milking and butter and bed
making to sketching, rowing, climbing,
berrying, there was scarcely possibility
OF the country which she left untried.
And watching Jimmy's puny muscles
harden, and little Kitty's white cheeks
take color like the wild roses in the
hedge briers, she actually found more
interesting daily occupation than noting
the progress of filtration, or undressing
Mrs. A at the hops Very strange
taste, no doubt, but tastes never are to be
accounted for


But if Miss Lascelles enjoyed herself,
what shall be said of the two poor young
things that, like good fairy, she had car
ried away from squalor and privation?
Truly, to them this was another world, in
its utter unlikeness to any thing they had
ever known. Though not out of child
hood, they had never yet been children,
and Miss Lascelles saw with delight the
| transformation coming over them, as they
rolled on the grass, tumbled down the
| brambles, screamed, laughed and whoop-
ed "like wild Ingines," as Mrs. Hutch
ins said, and, in a manner, got tipsy on
u.
Undoubtedly for the time being they were
little animals like the puppy and the kit
ten they played with, Miss Lascelles aid
ing and abetting, in the belief that by
taking care Of the body now she was do
ing the best service to the soul by-and-by.


One of the children's favorite occupa-
tions was driving the COWS home at night,
and then standing by to see them MIXED,
performance which lost none of its in
terest from the bowl apiece of warm new
milk with which it ended. The milk, real
country milk, with no smack of the pump
handle, was, perhaps, greater marvel
than even the COWS to these benighted lit
tie cits, and they swallowed it literally
open-mouthed. A pretty sight it was, this
milking time; so thought chance conner
who had strayed down the lane by the
backyard, and stopped to look over the
bars at the scene inside. Miss Neeny's
blue draperies falling as gracefully from
the milking as ever they had done from
the music STOOL her black hair crisping
into picturesque lights and shades against
the sleek side of the white cow, who stood
chewing the cud, her large mild eyes med
itatively fixed on Kitty perched on an
overturned wheelbarrow, and steadfastly
returning the gaze with her great blue
English eyes, while Jimmy, divided be-
tween admiration and a kind of fascinated
fear, hovered round Farmer Colby's big
chestnut horse, that it's owner had left tied
to post while he drove bargains in but
ter and cheese in Mrs. Hutchins's dairy,
and that champed and paved and other
wise testified impatience at the delay
The sun, just disappearing behind the
hills, as If to make sure that all was as it
should be before retiring for the night
shot forth last keen blink that searched
out CLEAN of gold in the moss under the
gable and tiny crimson flower in the
grass, while the chestnut's coat shone as
if vanished, and the shadow of the old
cherry-tree heightened till it seemed to be
growing out of sight.


The stranger, whose knapsack on the
shoulder and stout stick in hand, to say
nothing of dusty gray garments, bespoke
him pedestrian tourist, after looking on
for minute unperceived, put his hand on
the bar and called to Jimmy. But Jimmy,
whose nerves had not yet hardened to a
country boys stolidity, jumped back at
the sudden sound, unfortunately at the
precise moment when the chestnut launch
ed out at fly that was buzzing about
him. The fly, with contemptuous b-rr,
sailed off untouched, but poor wingless
Jimmy lay his length on the ground.


At Kitty's scream Nina looked around,
but before any body could move, the
young man was over the bars, and had the
insensible boy in his arms. He was sur
geOn, he said, and Nina anxiously
awaited his report of the boys injuries.
They proved less serious than she had
feared-a slight conclusion of the brain
and broken leg, broken so cleanly, as the
young surgeon with professional enthusl-
asm declared after setting it, that it might
almost be trusted to heal of itself


Nevertheless DR.. Hilton, as he gave his
name, did not trust it to itself. Perhaps
he felt that as he had indirectly been the
cause of Jimmy's battering, the least he
could do was to leave him as sound as he
had found him. So the knapsack was un-
strapped, and, with its owner, remained in
definitely under Mrs. Hutchins's gambrel
roof. Never surely was patient better
tended than Jimmy Pratt. The young
man told him stories and invented games
for his amusement, taught him, to the
boys intense pride and delight to play on
a creaky old fiddle that had spent its best
days in the service of the deceased Hutch
ins, brought him news of all the small
happenings of the farm and the village,
till he was we'll enough to be moved, after
which, in all favorable weather the
daily rambles were resumed, Jimmy
riding in great style and comfort
on DR.. Hilton's back The neigh
borhood, with keen country instinct in
love matters, once more opined that all
this meant that the yeung doctor was
'smakin' up to Miss Neeny," in which
fancy they were not wholly at fault. In
fa0
grew worse, and by the time the one
could go on crutches the other was quite
helpless.


If practice makes perfect, it is not to be
doubted that Miss Lascelles said No with
the utmost grace-at least she would have
done so, only that this time, perhaps for
variety's sake, she chose to say Yes in
stead. Was she crazy enough, then, to
engage herself to an utter stranger? No,
for, as it happened, he was not quite
stranger to her. She speedily discovered
that this DR.. Hilton was a person of
whom she had heard great deal before
ever having seen him; no other than a
certain cousin of her friend Mrs Chud-
leigh. His devotion to his profession in
general and his poor patients in particu-
lar, his indifference to society-in word,
his oddtty-were grievances on which
Mrs. Chudleigh was never tired of des-
canting, so that Nina was almost as
familiar with his character and pursuits
as if he had been personal acquaint-
ance. Here she had the advantage
of him; he knew nothing of her an
tecedents, and took her simply for what
she seemed here. Nina felt some twinges
of conscience at continuing to mislead
him, but she had that mistrust of her pos
sessions frequent with heiresses, and the
little summer idyl she had been living