acked him into the shafts.

"Back up!" he roared. "Back up, I tell you! You needn't look at me that
way," he added, in a lower tone. "_I_ can't help it. You ain't any worse
ashamed than I am. There! the ark's off the ways. All aboard!"

Turning to the expectant widow, he "boosted" her, not too tenderly, up
to the narrow seat. Then he climbed in himself. Two on that seat made
a tight fit. Bailey took up the reins. Debby leaned forward and peered
around the edge of the curtains.

"You!" she shouted. "You, Miss What's-your-name--Dorcas! Come here a
minute. I want to tell you somethin'."

The schoolmistress, her face red and her eyes moist, approached.

"I just wanted to say," explained Debby, "that I ain't real sure as that
diary's there. I burnt up a lot of my old letters and things a spell
ago, and seems to me I burnt some old diaries, too, but maybe that wan't
one of 'em. Anyhow, I can get them Arizona papers, and I do want you to
see 'em. They're the most INTERESTIN' things. Now," she added, turning
to her companion on the seat, "you can git dap just as soon as you want
to."

Whether or not Mr. Bangs wanted to "git dap" is a doubtful question. But
at all events he did. Before the astonished Miss Dawes could think of an
answer to the observation concerning the diary, the carriage, its
long unused axles shrieking protests, moved out of the yard. The
schoolmistress watched it go. Then she returned to the sitting room and
collapsed in a rocking chair.

Once out from the shelter of the house and on the open road, the sulky
received the full force of the wind. The first gust that howled in from
the bay struck its curtained side with a sudden burst of power that
caused Mrs. Beasley to clutch her driver's arm.

"Good land of mercy!" she screamed. "It blows real hard, don't it?"

Mr. Bangs's answer was in the form of delicate sarcasm, bellowed into
the ear trumpet.

"Sho!" he exclaimed. "I want to know! You don't say! Now you mention it,
seems as if I had noticed a little air stirrin'."

Another gust tilted the carriage top. Debby clutched the arm still
tighter.

"Why, it blows awful hard!" she cried. "I'd no idee it blew like this."

"Want to 'bout ship and go home again?" whooped Bailey, hopefully. But
the widow didn't intend to give up the rare luxury of a "ride" which a
kind Providence had cast in her way.

"No, no!" she answered. "I guess if you folks come all the way from
Bayport I can stand it as fur's t