, carrying a fish-pole and smoking his pipe, was
wandering in circles preparatory to a drift in the general direction of
the railroad station.

"Evenin', neighbour!" he said.

"Good evening," said the young man.

"Goin' sparkin'?" inquired Si, overflowing with natural curiosity and
tobacco.

"What?"

"Be you goin' a-sparkin'?"

"Nonsense!" said Marque, reddening. "I don't know any girls in Caranay."

"Waal, I cal'late you know that gal down to the depot, don't ye?"

"No, I don't."

"Hey? I'm a leetle deef."

"No!" shouted Marque, "I don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't know her, dammit!"

"Aw, quit yer cussin'," said Si, with a gummy wink. "Folks has been
talkin' ever since the fustest time you set onto that there platform and
that Eden gal fooled ye with her lookin' glass."

"What are you talking about?" said Marque impatiently.

"Issy Eden and her pretendin' not to see nobody--an' her a lookin' into
the leetle glass behind her table and a seein' of ye all the time! I know
she kin see because she ketched Hi Orville's boy a-hookin' apples outen
the bar'l that--"

"You mean she is able to see _anybody_ on the platform," said Marque,
confused and astounded.

"You bet she kin. I know because I peeked in the winder an' I seen her
a-lookin' at you when you was fishin'----"

But the young fellow had recovered himself: "All right," he interrupted;
"that isn't your business or mine. Who gave you that crack on the lid?"

"By gum," he said, "Hetty done it. I was that took! Forty year, and she
ain't never throwed s'much as a dish pan at me. I wa'n't lookin' for no
sech thing at my time o' life, young man. So when I come in to wash up
for supper, I sez to my woman, 'Hello, Het,' sez I, an' she up an'
screeched an' fetched me a clip.

"'Lord a'mighty!' sez I. 'Look out what ye doin',' sez I. 'Air wimmen to
hev their rights?' sez she, makin' for me some more. 'Is wimmen to be
free?' she sez.

"'Yew bet,' sez I, grabbin' onto her. 'I'll make free with ye,' sez I.
An' I up an' tuk an' spanked Hetty--the first time in forty year, young
man! An' it done her good, I guess, for she ain't never cooked like she
cooked supper to-night. God a'mighty, what biscuits them was!"

Marque listened indifferently, scarcely following the details of the
domestic episode because his mind was full of the girl at the station and
the amazing discovery that all these days she could have seen him
perfectly well at any moment if she had