in a
good store of chocolate, which Betty proclaimed to be very nourishing.
She got two pots of her favorite orange marmalade too, in case they made
toast for supper.

"All the old ladies are looking out of their windows, just as they were
the day I was coming to Tideshead," she said; and Becky replied that
their faces were always at just the same pane of glass. The fences were
very high and had their tops cut in points, and over them here and there
drooped the heavy bough of a fruit-tree or a long tendril of grapevine,
as if there were delightful gardens inside. The sidewalks were very
narrow underneath these fences, so that Betty often walked in the street
to be alongside her companion. There were pretty old knockers on the
front doors, and sometimes a parrot hung out under the porch, and
shouted saucily at the passers-by. Riverport was a delightful old town.
Betty was sure that if she did not love Tideshead best she should like
to belong in Riverport, and have a garden with a river gate, and a great
square house of three stories and a lookout on top.

The stores were put on board, and Seth Pond came back from researches
which had been rewarded by a half-bushel basket full of clams. Then they
swung out into the stream again, and ever so many little boys with four
grown men on the wharf gave them a cheer. It was great fun stopping for
Aunt Barbara, who was in the garden watching for them, and was escorted
by a charming white-haired old gentleman who teased her a little upon
her youthful escapade, and a younger lady who walked sedately under an
antique Chinese parasol. Betty sprang ashore to greet this latter
personage, who had lately paid a visit to Miss Barbara at Tideshead. She
was fond of Miss Marcia Drummond.

"It seems like old times to have you going home by boat," said Miss
Marcia, kissing Aunt Barbara good-by. "It is much pleasanter than a car
journey. Betty, my dear, you know that your aunt is a very rash and
heedless person; I hope you will hold her in check. I have been trying
to persuade her that she will be much safer to-night in one of our old
four-posters;" and so they said good-by merrily and were off again,
while the young people in the boat looked back as long as they could see
the old garden with its hollyhocks and lilies, and the two figures of
the courtly old gentleman and the lady with the parasol going up the
broad walk.

"What a good thing it was in Tom Leicester to send his daughter to
Tid