righter clime bid her good
morning,'" quoted Margaret softly. "That was her own wish, you know.
Let us go back now. It is getting late."

When they had gone Nanny crept out from the shadows. It had not
occurred to her that perhaps she should not have listened--she had
been too shy to make her presence known to those who came to Avis's
grave. But her heart was full of joy.

"Oh, Miss Avis, I'm so glad, I'm so glad! They haven't forgotten you
after all, Miss Avis, dear, not one of them. I'm sorry I was so cross
at them; and I'm so glad they haven't forgotten you. I love them for
it."

Then the old dog and Nanny went home together.

The Wooing of Bessy

When Lawrence Eastman began going to see Bessy Houghton the Lynnfield
people shrugged their shoulders and said he might have picked out
somebody a little younger and prettier--but then, of course, Bessy was
well off. A two-hundred-acre farm and a substantial bank account were
worth going in for. Trust an Eastman for knowing upon which side his
bread was buttered.

Lawrence was only twenty, and looked even younger, owing to his
smooth, boyish face, curly hair, and half-girlish bloom. Bessy
Houghton was in reality no more than twenty-five, but Lynnfield people
had the impression that she was past thirty. She had always been older
than her years--a quiet, reserved girl who dressed plainly and never
went about with other young people. Her mother had died when Bessy was
very young, and she had always kept house for her father. The
responsibility made her grave and mature. When she was twenty her
father died and Bessy was his sole heir. She kept the farm and took
the reins of government in her own capable hands. She made a success
of it too, which was more than many a man in Lynnfield had done.

Bessy had never had a lover. She had never seemed like other girls,
and passed for an old maid when her contemporaries were in the flush
of social success and bloom.

Mrs. Eastman, Lawrence's mother, was a widow with two sons. George,
the older, was the mother's favourite, and the property had been
willed to him by his father. To Lawrence had been left the few
hundreds in the bank. He stayed at home and hired himself to George,
thereby adding slowly to his small hoard. He had his eye on a farm in
Lynnfield, but he was as yet a mere boy, and his plans for the future
were very vague until he fell in love with Bessy Houghton.

In reality nobody was more surprised over thi