old stand-bys," and he turned to me. "Don't you let Mrs.
Todd overdo to-day,--old folks like her are apt to be thoughtless;" and
then we all laughed, and, parting, went our ways gayly.

"I suppose he puts up with your rivalry the same as ever?" asked Mrs.
Blackett. "You and he are as friendly as ever, I see, Almiry," and
Almira sagely nodded.

"He's got too many long routes now to stop to 'tend to all his door
patients," she said, "especially them that takes pleasure in talkin'
themselves over. The doctor and me have got to be kind of partners; he's
gone a good deal, far an' wide. Looked tired, didn't he? I shall have to
advise with him an' get him off for a good rest. He'll take the big boat
from Rockland an' go off up to Boston an' mouse round among the other
doctors, one in two or three years, and come home fresh as a boy. I
guess they think consider'ble of him up there." Mrs. Todd shook the
reins and reached determinedly for the whip, as if she were compelling
public opinion.

Whatever energy and spirit the white horse had to begin with were soon
exhausted by the steep hills and his discernment of a long expedition
ahead. We toiled slowly along. Mrs. Blackett and I sat together, and
Mrs. Todd sat alone in front with much majesty and the large basket of
provisions. Part of the way the road was shaded by thick woods, but we
also passed one farmhouse after another on the high uplands, which we
all three regarded with deep interest, the house itself and the barns
and garden-spots and poultry all having to suffer an inspection of the
shrewdest sort. This was a highway quite new to me; in fact, most of my
journeys with Mrs. Todd had been made afoot and between the roads, in
open pasturelands. My friends stopped several times for brief dooryard
visits, and made so many promises of stopping again on the way home
that I began to wonder how long the expedition would last. I had often
noticed how warmly Mrs. Todd was greeted by her friends, but it was
hardly to be compared with the feeling now shown toward Mrs. Blackett.
A look of delight came to the faces of those who recognized the plain,
dear old figure beside me; one revelation after another was made of the
constant interest and intercourse that had linked the far island and
these scattered farms into a golden chain of love and dependence.

"Now, we mustn't stop again if we can help it," insisted Mrs. Todd at
last. "You'll get tired, mother, and you'll think the less o'