rs; and no wonder, for I had crashed directly into a huge jar
of jam which she held in her hand, and in less time than it takes to
tell it I was completely besmeared with it from head to foot. For once
in my life I got enough jam in my mouth, and as I scrambled to my feet I
beheld a young lady standing before me screaming with laughter.

"At a glance I knew it could be none other than Miss Vincent. What I
said as I hastily stepped up to her is but a confused memory to me. I
managed to articulate that I had been sent from Gray Gables with a
carriage for her. The more I said the more she screamed with laughter,
in which I could not help joining to have saved my life.

"'What! ride through the town with a jammed-up man like that!' she
ejaculated. 'Why, that would be too sweet for anything--so sweet that
all the bees in the clover fields we passed would come flying after us
to enjoy the sport.'

"The laugh that followed fairly made the rafters of the old depot ring;
and at this juncture a friend in need came to my assistance--one of my
old chums--and in a trice had stripped off my coat and hat, and replaced
them by a new overcoat and Derby hat which he had just purchased. And
when the luckless jam was washed from my face 'Richard was himself
again.'

"'Now you look something like a respectable human being,' she declared,
as I helped her into the carriage.

"And all during the drive home we had the greatest kind of a laugh over
my ludicrous mishap. It was forming each other's acquaintance under
difficulties, as she phrased it. I can truthfully say that I never was
so much embarrassed before a young girl in all my life. But do you know,
Dorothy," he went on, "that that laughable incident which happened made
us better acquainted with each other during that half hour's ride home
than if we had met under ordinary circumstances and known each other for
long months?"

Dorothy laughed heartily at the highly amusing scene which he pictured
so graphically, and said to herself that now she could understand why
Harry and this strange young girl were laughing so gayly together as
they came up the graveled walk.

"You will be sure to like her," cried Harry, enthusiastically. "I will
go and fetch her to you now."

But just as he was about to put his intention into execution, they heard
the voice of Mrs. Kemp and her niece outside, and they entered an
instant later.

"Dorothy," said Mrs. Kemp, "my niece, Iris, is here. Iris, thi