long cousin, hospitably offered sticks of
candy all around.

"Did you get any letters?" asked Rose, declining the sticky treat.

"Lots, but Mama forgot to give 'em to me, and I was rather in a hurry,
for Mrs. Atkinson said somebody had come and I couldn't wait," explained
Jamie, reposing luxuriously with his head on Mac's legs and his mouth
full.

"I'll step and get them. Aunty must be tired, and we should enjoy
reading the news together."

"She is the most convenient girl that ever was," observed Jamie as Rose
departed, thinking Mac might like some more substantial refreshment than
sweetmeats.

"I should think so, if you let her run your errands, you lazy little
scamp," answered Mac, looking after her as she went up the green slope,
for there was something very attractive to him about the slender figure
in a plain white gown with a black sash about the waist and all the wavy
hair gathered to the top of the head with a little black bow.

"Sort of pre-Raphaelite, and quite refreshing after the furbelowed
creatures at the hotels," he said to himself as she vanished under the
arch of scarlet runners over the garden gate.

"Oh, well! She likes it. Rose is fond of me, and I'm very good to her
when I have time," continued Jamie, calmly explaining. "I let her cut
out a fishhook, when it caught in my leg, with a sharp penknife, and
you'd better believe it hurt, but I never squirmed a bit, and she said I
was a brave boy. And then, one day I got left on my desert island out in
the pond, you know the boat floated off, and there I was for as much
as an hour before I could make anyone hear. But Rose thought I might be
there, and down she came, and told me to swim ashore. It wasn't far, but
the water was horrid cold, and I didn't like it. I started though, just
as she said, and got on all right, till about halfway, then cramp or
something made me shut up and howl, and she came after me slapdash, and
pulled me ashore. Yes, sir, as wet as a turtle, and looked so funny, I
laughed, and that cured the cramp. Wasn't I good to mind when she said,
'Come on'?"

"She was, to dive after such a scapegrace. I guess you lead her a life
of it, and I'd better take you home with me in the morning," suggested
Mac, rolling the boy over and giving him a good-natured pummeling on the
haycock while Dulce applauded from her nest.

When Rose returned with ice-cold milk, gingerbread, and letters, she
found the reader of Emerson up in the tree, pel