our usual way," he laughed.

This was at Cheslow Station on the arrival of the afternoon up train that
had brought Miss Stone, her Aunt Kate, and the smiling Colonel Henri
Marchand to join the automobile touring party which Jennie soon dubbed
"the later Pilgrims."

"And that big machine looks much as the _Mayflower_ must have looked
steering across Cape Cod Bay on that special occasion we read of in sacred
and profane history, hung about with four-poster beds and whatnots. In our
neighborhood," the plump girl added, "there is enough decrepit furniture
declared to have been brought over on the _Mayflower_ to have made a cargo
for the _Leviathan_."

"Oh, _ma chere_! you do but stretch the point, eh?" demanded the handsome
Henri Marchand, amazed.

"I assure you----"

"Don't, Heavy," advised Helen. "You will only go farther and do worse. In
my mind there has always been a suspicion that the _Mayflower_ was sent
over here by some shipped knocked-down furniture factory. Miles Standish
and Priscilla Mullins and John Alden must have hung on by their eyebrows."

"Their eyebrows--_ma foi_!" gasped Marchand.

"Say, old man," said Tom, laughing, "if you listen to these crazy college
girls you will have a fine idea of our historical monuments, and so forth.
Take everything with a grain of salt--do."

"_Oui, Monsieur!_ But I must have a little pepper, too. I am 'strong,' as
you Americans say, for plentiful seasoning."

"Isn't he cute?" demanded Jenny Stone. "He takes to American slang like a
bird to the air."

"Poetry barred!" declared Helen.

"Say," Tom remarked aside to the colonel, "you've got all the pep
necessary, sure enough, in Jennie."

"She is one dear!" sighed the Frenchman.

"And she just said you were a bird. You'll have a regular zoo about you
yet. Come on. Let's see if we can get this baggage aboard the good ship.
It does look a good deal of an ark, doesn't it?"

Although Ruth and Aunt Kate had not joined in this repartee, the girl of
the Red Mill, as well as their lovely chaperon, enjoyed the fun immensely.
Ruth had revived in spirits on meeting her friends. Jennie had flown to
her arms at the first greeting, and hugged the girl of the Red Mill with
due regard to the mending shoulder.

"My dear! My dear!" she had cried. "I _dream_ of you lying all so pale and
bloody under that window-sill stone. And what I hear of your and Tom's
experiences coming over----"

"But worse has happened to me since I arr