n them in charge. To him
this was the most delightful spot in the world and well it might be, for
he suggested the idea and gave Rose all the credit of it. He was often
there, and his appearance was always greeted with shrieks of rapture,
as the children gathered from all quarters creeping, running, hopping
on crutches, or carried in arms which they gladly left to sit on "Uncle
Doctor's" knee, for that was the title by which he went among them.

He seemed as young as any of his comrades, though the curly head was
getting gray, and the frolics that went on when he arrived were better
than any medicine to children who had never learned to play. It was
a standing joke among the friends that the bachelor brother had the
largest family and was the most domestic man of the remaining four,
though Uncle Mac did his part manfully and kept Aunt Jane in a constant
fidget by his rash propositions to adopt the heartiest boys and
prettiest girls to amuse him and employ her.

On one occasion Aunt Jane had a very narrow escape, and the culprit
being her son, not her husband, she felt free to repay herself for many
scares of this sort by a good scolding, which, unlike many, produced
excellent results.

One bright June day, as Rose came cantering home from the Point on her
pretty bay pony, she saw a man sitting on a fallen tree beside the road
and something in his despondent attitude arrested her attention. As she
drew nearer he turned his head, and she stopped short, exclaiming in
great surprise: "Why, Mac! What are you doing here?"

"Trying to solve a problem," he answered, looking up with a whimsical
expression of perplexity and amusement in his face which made Rose smile
till his next words turned her sober in a twinkling: "I've eloped with
a young lady, and don't know what to do with her. I took her home, of
course, but mother turned her out of the house, and I'm in a quandary."

"Is that her baggage?" asked Rose, pointing with her whip to the large
bundle which he held while the wild idea flashed through her head that
perhaps he really had done some rash deed of this sort.

"No, this is the young lady herself." And, opening a corner of the brown
shawl, he displayed a child of three so pale, so thin and tiny that she
looked like a small scared bird just fallen from the nest as she shrank
away from the light with great frightened eyes and a hand like a little
claw tightly clutched a button of Mac's coat.

"Poor baby! Where did