aid John Coulson, with that indulgent
look he always bent upon the young sister-in-law, who had been such a
help to him in those days when he sorely needed help. "Come, tumble
in, everybody. All aboard for The Dale,--Champlain and Cheemaun R.
R.!" The Vision was quieted, the travelers sprang in, the whip
cracked, the wheels rattled, the horses pranced, and away they spun
down the leafy streets--down, down, to the long level stretch of
Champlain's Road that ran straight out into the country.

There was much to be told of college pranks and college work, and the
telling of it lasted until the horses climbed Arrow Hill and the old
familiar valley lay stretched before them.

"Yook, yook, Dackie!" chattered Aunt Elizabeth, clutching the Vision,
whose big blue eyes were gazing wonderingly from the depths of his
wrappings. "Yook at de pitty pitty wobin! A teenty weenty itty wobin
wed best!"

There was a groan from the front seat.

"Do you often get it as bad as that, Lizzie?" asked John anxiously.

"Remember The Rowdy, Lizzie?" asked Charles Stuart, "the fellow that
used to sing in the hawthorn bush?"

"I should think I do--and Granny Teeter. Listen, there is The Rowdy's
lineal descendant, for sure!"

It seemed to be The Rowdy's very reincarnation, singing and shouting
from an elm bough by the roadside.

"That's a gay bachelor all right," said John Coulson, who, because he
was so supremely happy in his married life, had to make allusion to his
condition as often as possible, even if only by way of contrast.

"He sounds more like a widower," said Elizabeth gloomily; "one that had
been bereaved about a year."

"Hush, hush, Betsey!" cried her brother-in-law. "Remember whose land
he's on."

"That's just what I am remembering."

"You don't mean that Jake's beginning to 'take notice,' surely?" asked
John Gordon, in wicked delight. For only the spring before poor
worn-out Mrs. Martin had suddenly ceased her baking, churning, and
hoeing, and had gone to her long rest in the Forest Glen churchyard,
and already rumor said that Jake was on the lookout for another baker,
churner, and hoer.

"I'm afraid he is," said John Coulson. "There he is now prowling round
his asparagus beds. He's probably got his eye on Betsey."

Elizabeth was not prepared to answer this sally. She was looking out
eagerly for some glimpse of Susie. All the elder Martins had left home
just as soon as they were old enough to assert their i