I've got the rheumatiz in my j'ints."

"_Nothing to eat for a week!_" exclaimed Hildegarde, severely. "My boy,
you are not telling the truth. And who ever heard of rheumatism at your
age? Do you think we ought to let him in, Rose?" she added, in a lower
tone.

But the boy continued still sidling toward the gate. "I've got a wife
and seven little children, lady! They're all down with the small-pox and
the yeller--" But at this point his eloquence was interrupted, for Rose
sprang from her seat, upsetting the basket of pods, and running forward,
seized him by the shoulders.

"You scamp!" she cried, shaking him with tender violence. "You naughty
monkey, how could you frighten us so? Oh, my dear, dear little lad, how
do you do?" and whirling the boy round and tossing off his hat, she
revealed to Hildegarde's astonished gaze the freckled, laughing face and
merry blue eyes of Zerubbabel Chirk.

Bubble was highly delighted at the success of his ruse. He rubbed his
hands and chuckled, then went down on all-fours and began picking up
the pea-pods. "Sorry I made you upset the basket, Pink!" he said. "I
say! how well you're looking! Isn't she, Miss Hilda? Oh! I didn't
suppose you were as well as this."

He gazed with delighted eyes at his sister's face, on which the fresh
pink and white told a pleasant tale of health and strength. She returned
his look with one of such beaming love and joy that Hildegarde, in the
midst of her own heartfelt pleasure, could not help feeling a momentary
pang. "If my baby brother had only lived!" she thought. But the next
moment she was shaking Bubble by both hands, and telling him how glad
she was to see him.

"And now tell us!" cried both girls, pulling him down on the ground
between them. "Tell us all about it! How did you get here? Where do you
come from? When did you leave New York? What have you been doing? How
is Dr. Flower?"

"Guess I've got under Niag'ry Falls, by mistake!" said Bubble, dryly.
"Let me see, now!" He rumpled up his short tow-colored hair with his
favorite gesture, and meditated. "I guess I'll begin at the beginning!"
he said. "Well!" (it was observable that Bubble no longer said "Wa-al!"
and that his speech had improved greatly during the year spent in New
York, though he occasionally dropped back into his former broad drawl.)
"Well! it's been hot in the city. I tell you, it's been hot. Why, Miss
Hilda, I never knew what heat was before."

"I know it must be dreadful,