would
have thought of Mark's bein' smart enough to set his Pa on that tack?
The way these city folks eat anythin' that is give them is scandalous.
They must have crops like yaller ducks. Have you heard 'bout Mrs. Jo
G.'s Maud Grace?"

"No, Susan Jane." Janet stirred the cake she was making by Susan's
recipe energetically.

"You're deef as a bulkhead, Janet! I bet you're envious."

"Envious, Susan Jane, envious of Maud Grace?"

"Oh! you have had yer eyes open, eh?"

"You just asked me about her, Susan Jane."

"Did I? Well, it's simply amazin' how Mrs. Jo G. is developin' a
business talent. Actually keepin' her girl dressed up t' entertain the
boarders, evenin's! She's got some one t' help wait in the dinin' room,
an' she cooks. Jo G. sails the boarders, when they pay him enough, an'
that girl just sparks around an' acts real entertainin', evenin's. I
shouldn't wonder, with such a smart ma, if she caught a beau. I do wish,
Janet, since you ain't got no one but Billy,--an' every one knows he's
got 'bout as much gumption as a snipe,--I do wish you could land one of
these boarders. They must be real easy from what I hear."

"I don't want them!"

"Course you don't! An' you don't want t' work fur your livin', an' Mark
ain't good enough fur you. You'd better look out, Janet, I tell you fur
your good, it ain't safe fur you t' trust yer leanin's too far."

So the day had passed. The afternoon had brought Mark Tapkins with his
gloomy face, too, so Janet had been obliged to give the Hills a wide
berth and only darkness brought relief.

Susan Jane was bewailing her woes in David's patient ears,--it was
Mark's night in the Light,--so, unseen and unsuspected, Janet loosed the
_Comrade_, unfurled the white wing before the obliging land breeze, and
made for the Station.

It was a glorious summer night; full moon, full tide, and a steady west
wind heavy with the odor of the Hills.

As the little boat darted ahead, Janet's spirits rose as poor David's
did, when once he parted company with the burden of Susan Jane's peevish
egotism. She looked back at the Light and thought, with a little sigh of
weariness, that she was free from the watchfulness of the three within
its walls.

"Only the Light has an eye upon me! Kind, good Light! Cap'n Daddy and I
do not need you to-night, but, come storm, then God bless you!"

It was not the girl's intention to run up to the Station dock. She knew
that Cap'n Billy had the midnight patrol