ven than I did in the
store."

Miss Mehitable put an arm around her, not because at the moment she
loved her, but because she was there.

"I wonder," she said, "if there's anything in this world that can make
anything but a fool out of a girl before it's too late. I know you're
just as crazy about him as he is about you! If you wasn't, would you
have been snivellin' around because he might get hurt to the farm? And
yet jest 'cause o' your silly, foolish pride you've gone and refused
him. It's as plain as the nose on his splendid face. As if in the long
run it mattered if Mrs. Barry was a little cantankerous. She's run
everything around here so long that she forgets her boy's a man with a
mind of his own. It's awful narrow of you, Geraldine, awful narrow!"

Upon this the girl lifted her head and smiled faintly into the accusing
face.

"Won't it be nice to have Pete help us move," she said innocently.

Miss Upton's lips tightened. She dropped her arm, moved away, and put
the droopy hat back in its box.

"You're heartless!" she exclaimed. There was such a peachy bloom on the
girl's face. "I won't waste my breath."

"I love _you_," said Geraldine, meekly and defensively.

"Ho!" snorted her good fairy, unappeased.

CHAPTER XIV

The Mermaid Shop

For the next few days Miss Mehitable had no time to worry over
love-affairs. No matter how early she arose in the morning she found
Pete arrayed in overalls sitting on the stone step of Upton's Fancy
Goods and Notions, and when by the evening of the third day all her
goods, wares, and chattels were deposited in the little shop at
Keefeport, she wondered how she had ever got on without him.

On that very day Ben Barry received a threatening letter from Rufus
Carder demanding the return of Pete, and he knew that no more time must
be lost. He flew over to the Port that afternoon, and alighting on the
landing-field which had been prepared near his cottage walked to the
little shop near the wharf. Here he found Pete industriously obeying
Miss Upton's orders in company with his idol, the whole quartet gay amid
their chaos. Even Mrs. Whipp had postponed the fear of rheumatism and
had learned how to laugh.

They had formed a line and were passing the articles from boxes to
shelves when the leather-coated, helmeted figure stood suddenly before
them.

The effect of the apparition upon Geraldine with its associations was so
extreme as to make her feel faint for a minu