sure to be at their windows, looking out. This hat will just turn 'em
green--greener than ever."

"You're just horrid, Ciss!" said Piney, with admiration.

"And then," continued Cissy, "we'll just sail down past the new block to
the parson's and make a call."

"Oh, I see," said Piney archly. "It'll be just about the time when the
new engineer of the mill works has a clean shirt on, and is smoking his
cigyar before the office."

Cissy tossed her hat disdainfully. "Much anybody cares whether he's
there or not! I haven't forgotten how he showed us over the mill the
other day in a pair of overalls, just like a workman."

"But they say he's awfully smart and well educated, and needn't work,
and I'm sure it's very nice of him to dress just like the other men when
he's with 'em," urged Piney.

"Bah! That was just to show that he didn't care what we thought of him,
he's that conceited! And it wasn't respectful, considering one of the
directors was there, all dressed up. Don't tell me! You can see it in
his eye, looking you over without blinking and then turning away as if
he'd got enough of you. He makes me tired."

Piney did not reply. The engineer had seemed to her to be a singularly
attractive young man, yet she was equally impressed with Cissy's
superior condition, which could find flaws in such perfection. Following
her friend down the steps of the veranda, they passed into the staring
graveled walk of the new garden, only recently recovered from the wild
wood, its accurate diamond and heart shaped beds of vivid green set
in white quartz borders giving it the appearance of elaborately iced
confectionery. A few steps further brought them to the road and the
wooden "sidewalk" to Main Street, which carried civic improvements
to the hillside, and Mr. Trixit's very door. Turning down this
thoroughfare, they stopped laughing, and otherwise assumed a conscious
half artificial air; for it was the hour when Canada City lounged
listlessly before its shops, its saloons, its offices and mills, or even
held lazy meetings in the dust of the roadway, and the passage down the
principal street of its two prettiest girls was an event to be viewed as
if it were a civic procession. Hats flew off as they passed; place was
freely given; impeding barrels and sacks were removed from the wooden
pavement, and preoccupied indwellers hastily summoned to the front door
to do homage to Cissy Trixit and Piney as they went by. Not but that
Canada