ve got so much to tell you, and so much to hear,
though I know all about dear little Allie' death,--didn't you feel
dreadfully?"

Mary's tears were a sufficient answer, and Jenny, as if suddenly
discovering something new, exclaimed, "Why, what have you been doing?
Who pulled your teeth?"

Mary explained the circumstance of the tooth-pulling, and Jenny
continued: "You look a great deal better, and if your cheeks were only
a little fatter and your skin not quite so yellow, you'd be real
handsome; but no matter about that. I saw George Moreland in Boston,
and I wanted to tell him about you, but I'd promised not to; and then
at first I felt afraid of him, for you can't think what a great big
fellow he's got to be. Why, he's awful tall! and handsome, too. Rose
likes him, and so do lots of the girls, but I don't believe he cares a
bit for any of them except his cousin Ida, and I guess he does like
her;--any way, he looks at her as though he did."

Mary wondered _how_ he looked at her, and would perhaps have asked,
had she not been prevented by the sudden appearance of Henry Lincoln,
who directly in front of her leaped across the brook. He was evidently
not much improved in his manners, for the moment he was safely landed
on terra firma, he approached her, and seizing her round the waist,
exclaimed, "Hallo, little pauper! You're glad to see me back, I dare
say."

Then drawing her head over so that he could look into her face, he
continued, "Had your tusks out, haven't you! Well, it's quite an
improvement, so much so that I'll venture to kiss you."

Mary struggled, and Jenny scolded, while Henry said "Don't kick and
flounce so, my little beauty. If there's any thing I hate, it's seeing
girls make believe they're modest. That clodhopper Bill kisses you
every day, I'll war rant."

Here Jenny's wrath exploded; and going up to her brother, she
attempted to pull him away, until bethinking her of the brook, she
commenced sprinkling him with water, but observing that more of it
fell upon Mary than her brother, she desisted, while Henry, having
accomplished his purpose, began spitting and making wry faces,
assuring Mary that "she needn't be afraid of his ever troubling her
again, for her lips were musty, and tasted of the poor-house!"

Meanwhile Tasso, who had become a great favorite with Mary, and who,
on this occasion, had accompanied her to the woods, was standing on
the other side of the brook, eyeing Henry's movements, an