the brief tussle between
maid and mare. It ended with the latter's securing the lion's share of
the goodly bunch; but myrtle vines are tough and Dorothy came off a
partial victor with one spray in her hand. It had lost most of its
leaves and otherwise suffered mischance, yet she was not wholly hopeless
of saving that much alive; and in any case the incident had banished all
morbid thoughts from her mind, and she was quite the merriest of all
during that long drive homeward to the hotel.

As they alighted Monty stepped gallantly forward and offered:

"When we get to Halifax I'll buy you a slender vase and you can keep it
in water till you go home yourself. Or I'll send back to that graveyard
and pay somebody to send you on a lot, after you get back to your own
home."

"Oh! thank you. That's ever so kind, and I'll be glad of the vase. But
you needn't send for any more vines. They wouldn't be the same as this I
gathered myself for darling Father John."

"But you shall have them all the same. They'd be just as valuable to him
if not to you and some of those boys that hung around the church would
pack it for a little money. I'll do it, sure."

"_Will_ you, Montmorency? _How?_" asked a voice beside him and the lad
looked up into the face of the Judge.

"No, sir, I won't! I'll have to take that offer back, Dorothy, take them
both back," and he flushed furiously at her surprised and questioning
glance. It was the first test he had made of his "poverty" and he found
it as uncomfortable as novel.

CHAPTER XII

SIGHT SEEING UNDER DIFFICULTIES

"Halifax! End of the line!"

The conductor's announcement was followed by the usual haste and bustle
among the passengers, the taking down of parcels from the racks
overhead, and a general settling and straightening of travel-crushed
garments.

This little preparatory freshening over, the travelers stepped into the
car aisles and followed the rush forward; passing out into by far the
most pretentious station they had seen in the Province. Lines of hackmen
were drawn up alongside the rail which bordered the paved descent to the
railway level, and a policeman in uniform held back the too-solicitous
drivers from the arriving strangers, who looked about them, mostly, in
doubt which vehicle to select:

"Here you are for the Halifax!" "Right this way for the Queen! Queen,
sir? Queen, madam? Finest hotel in--" "Prince Edward! Right on the
bluff--overlooking--" "King's Arms!