reat interest. "Is that so? Do you suppose it'll interfere
with Zeena's getting back?" She flushed red as the question escaped her,
and hastily set down the cup she was lifting.

Ethan reached over for another helping of pickles. "You never can tell,
this time of year, it drifts so bad on the Flats." The name had benumbed
him again, and once more he felt as if Zeena were in the room between
them.

"Oh, Puss, you're too greedy!" Mattie cried.

The cat, unnoticed, had crept up on muffled paws from Zeena's seat to
the table, and was stealthily elongating its body in the direction
of the milk-jug, which stood between Ethan and Mattie. The two leaned
forward at the same moment and their hands met on the handle of the jug.
Mattie's hand was underneath, and Ethan kept his clasped on it a
moment longer than was necessary. The cat, profiting by this unusual
demonstration, tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so
backed into the pickle-dish, which fell to the floor with a crash.

Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her
knees by the fragments.

"Oh, Ethan, Ethan--it's all to pieces! What will Zeena say?"

But this time his courage was up. "Well, she'll have to say it to the
cat, any way!" he rejoined with a laugh, kneeling down at Mattie's side
to scrape up the swimming pickles.

She lifted stricken eyes to him. "Yes, but, you see, she never meant it
should be used, not even when there was company; and I had to get up on
the step-ladder to reach it down from the top shelf of the china-closet,
where she keeps it with all her best things, and of course she'll want
to know why I did it--"

The case was so serious that it called forth all of Ethan's latent
resolution.

"She needn't know anything about it if you keep quiet. I'll get another
just like it to-morrow. Where did it come from? I'll go to Shadd's Falls
for it if I have to!"

"Oh, you'll never get another even there! It was a wedding present--don't
you remember? It came all the way from Philadelphia, from Zeena's aunt
that married the minister. That's why she wouldn't ever use it. Oh,
Ethan, Ethan, what in the world shall I do?"

She began to cry, and he felt as if every one of her tears were pouring
over him like burning lead. "Don't, Matt, don't--oh, don't!" he implored
her.

She struggled to her feet, and he rose and followed her helplessly while
she spread out the pieces of glass on the kitchen dresser. It seemed to