l pleasure in them, and that was more than could be said of any visit
he had made before. Miss Betsey did not put him through his catechism
in Clifton's presence; that ceremony was reserved for a future occasion.
She was rather stiff and formal in her reception of them, but she
thawed out and consented to be pleased and interested before the after
noon was over. She smiled and assented with sufficient graciousness
when Clifton not only bespoke Ben's company, on an expedition with gun
and rod, which he and Mr Maxwell were going to make further down the
river, but he invited himself and the minister to tea on their way home.

"For you know, Cousin Betsey, that Ben and I won't be very likely to get
into mischief in the minister's company, and you can't object to our
going this time."

"If anybody doesn't object to the minister's going in your company.
That is the thing to be considered, I should say," said Cousin Betsey,
smiling grimly.

"Oh, cousin! do you mean that going fishing with me will compromise the
minister? No wonder that you are afraid to trust me with Ben. But I
say that a day in the woods with Ben and me will do Mr Maxwell more
good than two or three tea-meetings or sewing-circles. Only you have a
good supper ready for us, and I will bring him home hungry as a hunter."

"Which hasn't happened very often to him of late, if one may judge from
his looks," said Miss Betsey.

"No, he ought to be living here at the Hill. It would suit him better
than Jacob's. And when are you coming to see us? Lizzie wanted to come
with us to-day, but she was afraid you wouldn't be glad to see her. You
never come to our house, and she mustn't do all the visiting. And,
besides, you don't ask her."

"It aint likely that she'll be so hard up for something to amuse her,
that she'll want to fall back on a visit to the Hill. But if she should
be, she can come along over, and try how it would seem to visit with
mother and Cynthy and me. She'll always find some of us here."

"All right. I'll tell her you asked her, and she'll be sure to come."

The success of this visit encouraged Clifton to try more in the
minister's company. For a reason that it was not difficult to
understand, Jacob in his rounds had not taken him to visit at Mr
Fleming's, nor had any one else, and Clifton, remembering his own visit
there, took the introduction of Mr Maxwell at Ythan Brae into his own
hands, and Elizabeth went with him. They saile