d you ever see him?" asked Ella.

"He visited my school yesterday afternoon."

"Oh, no, that can't be the one," returned Ella, while Miss Porter,
too, said, "Certainly not; our cavalier never thaw the inthide of a
district school-houth, I know."

"I am quite sure he saw one yesterday," said Mary, relating the
circumstance of Mr. Knight's meeting him at the spot where Ella came
so near getting a fall.

"Did he go home with you?" asked Ella, in a tone plainly indicating
that a negative answer was expected.

Mary understood the drift of her sister's questioning, and promptly
replied, "Yes, he went home with me, and staid to tea."

Ella's countenance lowered, while Miss Porter exclaimed, "I declare,
we may as well give up all hope, for your sister, it seems, has the
first claim."

"Pshaw!" said Ella, contemptuously, while Miss Porter, again turning
to Mary, asked, "Did you learn his name? If you did, you are more
fortunate than we were; and he came all the way home with us, too,
leading Ella's pony; and besides that, we met him in the street this
morning."

"His name," returned Mary, "is Stuart, and he lives in Boston, I
believe."

"Stuart,--Stuart,--" repeated Ella; "I never heard Lizzie Upton, or
the Lincolns, mention the Stuarts, but perhaps they have recently
removed to the city. Any way, this young man is somebody, I know."

Here Miss Porter, again looking down the road, exclaimed, "There,
he's coming, I do believe."

Both girls rushed to the window, but Mr. Stuart was not there; and
when they were reseated, Mary very gravely remarked, that he was
probably ere this in Worcester, as she saw him in the eastern train.

"Why, really," said Ella, "you seem to be well posted in his affairs.
Perhaps you can tell us whose graves he wished to find. He said he had
some friends buried here, and inquired for the sexton."

Mary knew nothing about it, and Ella, as if thinking aloud, continued,
"It must be that he got belated, and went from the graveyard, across
the fields, to the depot;--but, oh horror!" she added, "there comes
Lizzie Upton and the rest of the Boston girls. Mary, I guess you'll
have to go, or rather, I guess you'll have to excuse me, for I must
run up and dress. By the way, wouldn't you like some flowers? If you
would just go into the kitchen, and ask Bridget to show you the
garden."

Mary had flowers enough at home, and so, in spite of Ella's manoeuvre,
she went out at the front door, meeting "Li