understood curing ham and drying beef better than I."

"He was a most sensible man, I am sure. I drink your health, ma'am, in
this cider."

He took a long draught, and set down his glass.

"It is like nectar."

The widow was feeding Bose and the cat (who thought they were entitled
to a share of every meal eaten in the house), and did not quite hear
what he said.

"Fine dog, ma'am, and a very pretty cat."

"They were my husband's favorites," and a sigh followed the answer.

"Ah, your husband must have been a very happy man."

The blue eyes looked at her so long, that she grew flurried.

"Is there anything more I can get for you, sir?" she asked, at last.

"Nothing, thank you; I have finished."

She rose to clear the things away. He assisted her, and somehow their
hands had a queer knack of touching as they carried the dishes to the
pantry shelves. Coming back to the kitchen, she put the apples and cider
in their old places, and brought out a clean pipe and a box of tobacco
from an arched recess near the chimney.

"My husband always said he could not sleep after eating supper late
unless he smoked," she said. "Perhaps you would like to try it."

"Not if it is to drive you away," he answered, for she had her candle in
her hand.

"Oh, no; I do not object to smoke at all." She put the candle down; some
faint suggestion about "propriety" troubled her, but she glanced at the
old clock, and felt reassured. It was only half-past nine.

The stranger pushed the stand back after the pipe was lit, and drew her
easy-chair a little nearer the fire, and his own.

"Come, sit down," he said, pleadingly; "it's not late, and when a man
has been knocking about in California and all sorts of places, for a
score of years, he is glad enough to get into a berth like this, and to
have a pretty woman to speak to once again."

"California! Have you been in California?" she exclaimed, dropping into
the chair at once. Unconsciously, she had long cherished the idea that
Sam Payson, the lover of her youth, with whom she had so foolishly
quarreled, had pitched his tent, after many wanderings, in that far-off
land. Her heart warmed to one who, with something of Sam's looks and
ways about him, had also been sojourning in that country, and who very
possibly had met him--perhaps had known him intimately! At that thought
her heart beat quick, and she looked very graciously at the bearded
stranger, who, wrapped in Mr. Townsend's dressin