rpenter stowed away anywhere!" And her laugh broke forth upon
the air of those wild downs, as Jerry turned his head about.

"I must be something, you know," said Mr. Linden,--"and I don't choose
to be the butcher--and certainly am not the baker."

They turned into the village again, and then down towards the shore;
getting brilliant glimpses of the Sound now and then, and a pretty keen
breeze. But the sun was strong in its modifying power, and bright and
happy spirits did the rest. One little pause the sleigh made at the
house where Faith had had her decisive interview with Squire Deacon,
but they did not get out there; only gave a selection of comforts into
the hands of one of the household, and jingled on their way shorewards.
Not turning down to the bathing region, but taking a road that ran
parallel with the Sound.

"Do you remember our first walk down here, Faith?" said Mr.
Linden,--"when you said you had shewed me the shore?"

"Well I did," said Faith smiling,--"I shewed you what I knew; but you
shewed me what I had never known before."

"I'm sure you shewed me some things I had never known before," he said
laughing a little. "Do you know where we are going now?"--they had left
the beaten road, and entered a by-way where only footsteps marked the
snow, and no sleigh before their own had broken ground. It seemed to be
a sort of coast-way,--leading right off towards the dashing Sound and
its low points and inlets. The shore was marked with ice as well as
foam; the water looked dark and cold, with the white gulls soaring and
dipping, and the white line of Long Island in the distance.

"No, I don't know. Where are we going? O how beautiful! O how
beautiful!" Faith exclaimed. "Hasn't every time its own pleasure! Where
are we going, Endecott?"

"To see one who Dr. Harrison 'fancies' may have 'something in him.'
Whatever made the doctor take such a dislike to Reuben?"

Faith did not answer, and instead looked forward with a sort of
contemplative gravity upon her brow. Her cheeks were already so
brilliant with riding in the fresh air that a little rise of colour
could hardly have been noticed.

"Do you know?"

Faith presently replied that she supposed it was a dislike taken up
without any sort of real ground.

"Well to tell you the truth, my little Mignonette," said Mr. Linden,
"the doctor's twenty-five dollars gives me some trouble in that
connexion. Reuben will take favours gladly from anybody that likes hi