pretty mad young man
with nose, eyes, and a mouth, and a mole in front of his left ear."

"He was real polite," said Billy Louise reprovingly, "and his voice is
nice."

"Yes? I mind-read a heap of cussing. The politeness was all on top."
Ward chuckled and swept more water outside. "I expect you saved me a
licking that time, Miss William the Conqueror."

"Can you think of any more names to call me, besides my own, I wonder?"
Billy Louise leaned and inspected the floor like a chicken preparing to
hop off its roost.

"Heaps more." The glow in Ward's eyes was dangerous to their calm
friendship. "Want to hear them?"

"No, I don't. I want to get off this table before that college youth
comes back to be shocked silly again. I want to see if he's
really--got a mole in front of his ear!"

"You know what inquisitiveness did to old lady Lot, don't you?
However--" He lifted her in his arms and set her down outside the
door. "There, Wilhemina; trot along and see the nice young man."

Billy Louise sat down on the wheelbarrow, remembered its latest
service, and got up hastily. "I won't go a step," she asserted
positively.

Ward had not wanted her to go. He gave her a smile and finished off
his scrubbing with the mop, which he handled with quite surprising
skill for a young man who seemed more at home in the saddle than
anywhere else.

"I'm awfully glad he came, anyway." Billy Louise pulled down a budded
lilac branch and sniffed at it. "I won't have to stay all night, now.
I was going to."

"In that case, the young man is welcome as a gold mine. Here they
come--he and Mrs. Martha. You'll have to introduce me, Bill-the-Conk;
I have never met the lady." Ward hastily returned the mop to its
corner, rolled down his sleeves, and picked up his gloves. Then he
stepped outside and waited beside Billy Louise, looking not in the
least like a man who has just wiped a lot of dishes and scrubbed a
floor.

The nephew, striding along behind Marthy and showing head and shoulders
above her, seemed not to resent any little mischance, such as muddy
water flirted upon him from a broom. He grinned reminiscently as he
came up, shook hands with the two of them, and did not let his glance
dwell too long or too often upon Billy Louise, nor too briefly upon
Ward.

"You've got a splendid place here, Aunt Martha," he told the old woman
appreciatively. "I'd no idea there was such a little beauty-spot down
here. This is even mo