ything to forgive. And for my own part, I am glad
you are not what I have always thought you were. If I had come here
and found you what I expected, living in such a home as I expected, I
never could have told you or even thought of telling you what you have
come to mean to me in these lonely years during which your letters
have been the things most eagerly looked forward to. I should have
come this evening and spent an hour or so with you, and then have gone
away on the train tomorrow morning, and that would have been all.

"But I find instead just a dreamy romantic little girl, much like my
sisters at home, except that she is a great deal cleverer. And as a
result I mean to stay a week at Plainfield and come to see you every
day, if you will let me. And on my way back to the Bar N I mean to
stop off at Plainfield again for another week, and then I shall tell
you something more--something it would be a little too bold to say
now, perhaps, although I could say it just as well and truly. All this
if I may. May I, Sidney?"

He bent forward and looked earnestly into her face. Sidney felt a
new, curious, inexplicable thrill at her heart. "Oh, yes.--I suppose
so," she said shyly.

"Now, take me up to the house and introduce me to your Aunt Jane,"
said John Lincoln in satisfied tone.

An Adventure on Island Rock

"Who was the man I saw talking to you in the hayfield?" asked Aunt
Kate, as Uncle Richard came to dinner.

"Bob Marks," said Uncle Richard briefly. "I've sold Laddie to him."

Ernest Hughes, the twelve-year-old orphan boy whom Uncle "boarded and
kept" for the chores he did, suddenly stopped eating.

"Oh, Mr. Lawson, you're not going to sell Laddie?" he cried chokily.

Uncle Richard stared at him. Never before, in the five years that
Ernest had lived with him, had the quiet little fellow spoken without
being spoken to, much less ventured to protest against anything Uncle
Richard might do.

"Certainly I am," answered the latter curtly. "Bob offered me twenty
dollars for the dog, and he's coming after him next week."

"Oh, Mr. Lawson," said Ernest, rising to his feet, his small, freckled
face crimson. "Oh, don't sell Laddie! _Please_, Mr. Lawson, don't sell
him!"

"What nonsense is this?" said Uncle Richard sharply. He was a man who
brooked no opposition from anybody, and who never changed his mind
when it was once made up.

"Don't sell Laddie!" pleaded Ernest miserably. "He is the only friend
I