we strolled together in the old and lovely grave
yard before starting homeward. We had told them that we should prefer to
walk back. The day was beautiful, and one could see a little blue piece
of the river, sparkling."

"'Here is where they are all buried,' said Ethel, and we paused before
brown old headstones with Beverly upon them. 'Died 1750; died 1767,'
continued Ethel, reading the names and inscriptions. 'I think one
doesn't mind the idea of lying in such a place as this.'"

"Some of the young people in the pew now came along the path. 'The
grandchildren,' said Ethel. 'She is probably too old to come to church.
Or she is in Europe.'"

"The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place,
and now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. 'Give me some
of yours,' said one to the other, presently; 'I've not enough for
grandmother's.'"

"Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. 'Did you hear that?' she
asked."

"'It can't be she, you know,' said I. 'He would have come back from
Europe.'"

"But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for
fifteen years."

"Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday
morning. We had by that time grown calmer. 'If it is not false
pretences,' said she, 'and you cannot sue him for damages, and if it is
not stealing or something, and you cannot put him in prison, what are
you going to do to him, Richard?'"

"As this was a question which I had frequently asked myself during the
night, having found no satisfactory answer to it, I said: 'What would
you do in my place, Ethel?' But Ethel knew."

"'I should find out when he sails, and meet his steamer with a
cowhide.'"

"'Then he would sue me for damages.'"

"'That would be nothing, if you got a few good cuts in on him.'"

"'Ethel,' I said, 'please follow me carefully. I should like dearly to
cowhide him. and for the sake of argument we will consider it done Then
comes the lawsuit. Then I get up and say that I beat him because he made
me buy Standard Egg at 63 by telling me that his mother had some, when
really the old lady had been dead for fifteen years. When I think of it
in this way, I do not feel--'"

"I know,' interrupted Ethel, 'you are afraid of ridicule. All men are.'"

"Had Ethel insisted, I believe that I should have cowhided Mr. Beverly
for her sake. But before his return our destinies were brightened.
Copper had been found near Ethel's waste lands in Mich