ary
Margaret--careful, steady, prudent little Mary Margaret. Little! Ah,
that was just the trouble. Careful and steady and prudent as Mary
Margaret might be, she was only twelve years old, after all, and there
would not be another soul besides her and Nellie on the Little Dipper
that whole day. Mrs. Campbell felt that she hardly dared to go away
under such circumstances. And yet she _must_ dare it. Oscar Bryan had
sailed over from the mainland the evening before with word that her
sister Nan--her only sister, who lived in Cartonville--was ill and
about to undergo a serious operation. She must go to see her, and
Uncle Martin was waiting with his boat to take her over to the
mainland to catch the morning train for Cartonville.

If five-year-old Nellie had been quite well Mrs. Campbell would have
taken both her and Mary Margaret and locked up the house. But Nellie
had a very bad cold and was quite unfit to go sailing across the
harbour on a raw, chilly November day. So there was nothing to do but
leave Mary Margaret in charge, and Mary Margaret was quite pleased at
the prospect.

"You know, Mother Campbell, I'm not afraid of anything except tramps.
And no tramps ever come to the Dippers. You see what an advantage it
is to live on an island! There, Uncle Martin is waving. Run along,
little mother."

Mary Margaret watched the boat out of sight from the window and then
betook herself to the doing of her tasks, singing blithely all the
while. It was rather nice to be left in sole charge like this--it made
you feel so important and grown-up. She would do everything very
nicely and Mother would see when she came back what a good housekeeper
her daughter was.

Mary Margaret and Nellie and Mrs. Campbell had been living on the
Little Dipper ever since the preceding April. Before that they had
always lived in their own cosy home at the Harbour Head. But in April
Captain Campbell had sailed in the _Two Sisters_ for a long voyage
and, before he went, Mrs. Campbell's brother, Martin Clowe, had come
to them with a proposition. He ran a lobster cannery on the Little
Dipper, and he wanted his sister to go and keep house for him while
her husband was away. After some discussion it was so arranged, and
Mrs. Campbell and her two girls moved to the Little Dipper. It was not
a lonesome place then, for the lobstermen and their families lived on
it, and boats were constantly sailing to and fro between it and the
mainland. Mary Margaret enj