a movement at the door, and a new visitor appeared
in the person of Mrs. Perkins, who, with her large feather fan and
flounced gingham dress, entered smiling and bowing, and saying "she
had been trying all summer to visit the school."

Mr. Stuart immediately arose and offered his chair, but there was
something in his manner which led Mary to suppose that an introduction
was not at all desired, so she omitted it, greatly to the chagrin of
the widow, who, declining the proffered seat, squeezed herself between
Lydia Knight and another girl, upsetting the inkstand of the one, and
causing the other to make a curious character out of the letter "X"
she chanced to be writing.

"Liddy, Liddy," she whispered, "who is that man?"

But Lydia was too much engrossed with her spoiled apron to answer this
question, and she replied with, "Marm may I g'wout; I've spilt the ink
all over my apron."

Permission, of course, was granted, and as the girl who sat next knew
nothing of the stranger, Mrs. Perkins began to think she might just as
well have staid at home and finished her shoes. "But," thought she,
"may-be I shall find out after school."

Fortune, however, was against the widow, for scarcely was her feather
fan in full play, when Sally Ann came under the window, and punching
her back with a long stick, told her in a loud whisper, that "she must
come right home, for Uncle Jim and Aunt Dolly had just come from the
cars."

Accordingly, Mrs. Perkins, smoothing down her gingham flounces, and
drawing on her cotton gloves, arose to go, asking Mary as she passed,
"if that was an acquaintance of hers."

Mary shook her head, and the widow, more puzzled than ever, took her
leave.

When school was out, Mr. Stuart, who seemed in no haste whatever,
entered into a lively discussion with Mary concerning schools and
books, adroitly managing to draw her out upon all the leading topics
of the day. At last the conversation turned upon flowers; and when
Mary chanced to mention Mrs. Mason's beautiful garden, he instantly
expressed a great desire to see it, and finally offered to accompany
Mary home, provided she had no objections. She could not, of course,
say no, and the Widow Perkins, who, besides attending to "Uncle Jim"
and "Aunt Dolly," still found time to watch the school-house, came
very near letting her buttermilk biscuit burn to a cinder, when she
saw the young man walking down the road with Mary. Arrived at Mrs.
Mason's, the stranger