occurred to me. Don't you think the expression of this right pant
is good? And shall I make this gore bias or on the selvage?"

He wanted to slash one trouser leg.

"Why not?" he demanded when Tish frowned him down. "It's awfully
fetching, and beauty half-revealed, you know. Do you suppose my
breastbone will ever straighten out again? It's concave from stooping."

It was after this that Tish made him exercise morning and evening and
then take a swim in the lake. By the time he was to start back, he was
in wonderful condition, and even the horse looked saucy and shiny, owing
to our rubbing him down each day with dried grasses.

The actual leave-taking was rather sad. We'd grown to think a lot of the
boy and I believe he liked us. He kissed each one of us twice, once for
himself and once for Dorothea, and flushed a little over doing it, and
Aggie's eyes were full of tears.

He rode away down the trail like a mixture of Robinson Crusoe and Indian
brave, his rubbing-fire stick, his sundial with burned figures, and his
bow and arrow jingling, his eagle feather blowing back in the wind, and
his moccasined feet thrust into Mr. Willoughby's stirrups, and left us
desolate. Tish watched him out of sight with set lips and Aggie was
whimpering on a bank.

"Tish," she said brokenly, "does he recall anything to you?"

"Only my age," said Tish rather wearily, "and that I'm an elderly
spinster teaching children to defy their parents and committing larceny
to help them."

"To me," said Aggie softly, "he is young love going out to seek his
mate. Oh, Tish, do you remember how Mr. Wiggins used to ride by taking
his work horses to be shod!"

* * * * *

We went home the following day, which was the time the spring-wagon man
was to meet us. We started very early and were properly clothed and
hatted when we saw him down the road.

The spring-wagon person came on without hurry and surveyed us as he
came.

"Well, ladies," he said, stopping before us, "I see you pulled it off
all right."

"We've had a very nice time, thank you," said Tish, drawing on her
gloves. "It's been rather lonely, of course."

The spring-wagon person did not speak again until he had reached the
open road. Then he turned round.

"The horse business was pretty good," he said. "You ought to hev seen
them folks when he rode out of the wood. Flabbergasted ain't the word.
They was ding-busted."

Tish whispered to us to show mo