e. If they want to see Katie, they must come to the
house here, to my mother and you. I'm no' to have the responsibility."

"Davie, lad," said grannie solemnly, "if you kenned what you are saying,
you would deserve the tawse. Responsibility, indeed! A laddie like
you; and my bonnie simple-hearted Katie."

"I'm saying nothing about Katie, grannie. I'm speaking about other
folk. Jim to-day and Moses to-morrow, and maybe young Squire Holt--no
less, the next--with their compliments and their nonsense. And as for
Katie, she likes it well enough, or she might come to like it; she's but
a lassie after all."

"Oh, laddie, laddie!" was all his astonished grandmother could say.

"I'm no' needing her to-day," repeated Davie.

"Davy, you are to say nothing of all this to your sister. I wouldna for
much that she would hear the like of that from you."

"I thought it better to speak to you, grannie," said Davie with gravity.

Grannie would have liked to box his ears.

"Grannie, you needna be angry at me. I'm no saying that Katie is
heeding; but other folk call her bonnie Katie as well as you, and she's
almost a woman now, and it canna be helped."

"Whisht, Davie. Well, never mind; I'm no' angry. But say nothing to
Katie to put things in her head. A laddie like you." And grannie
laughed in spite of her indignation. But she kept her "bonnie Katie" at
home for the most part, unless there was some special reason for her
going with the rest.

There were many other visitors at the sugar-place--visitors whom even
Davie could not suspect of coming altogether for Katie's sake. Most
people who had a chance to do so, liked to go at least once into the
woods when the sugar-making was going on, and the Flemings' place was
not very far from the village, and lay high and dry and was easy of
access, so that few days passed without a visit from some one.

Sometimes they were visitors to mind and sometimes they were not, but
the laws of hospitality held good in the woods as in the house, and they
were welcomed civilly at least. Once or twice, when particular friends
of his came on sap-boiling days, Davie ventured on an impromptu
sugaring-off on his own responsibility. He made use of a small kettle
for the purpose, so that the important matter of boiling down the sap
need not be interfered with. He told himself that he was not disobeying
his grandfather, but he knew that probably it had never come into his
mind that such a