over and moveable belongs to you."

"Then the hay in the barn is ours?"

"Everything in the barn."

"There's a good deal in the barn," said Faith with a brightening face.
"You know the season has been early, sir, and our hay-fields lie well
to the sun; and a great deal of the hay is in. Mr. Deacon will want
some rent for the house I suppose,--and I guess there will be hay
enough to pay it, whatever it is. For I can't sell my cows!--" she
added laughing a little.

Her two friends--the Squire on the floor and his wife on the
sofa--looked at her and then at each other.

"My dear," the Squire began, "I want to ask you a question. And before
I do, let me tell you--which perhaps you don't know--just what right
I"--

"Oh Mr. Stoutenburgh!" cried his wife, "do please hush!--you'll say
something dreadful."

"Not a bit of it--" said the Squire,--"I know what to say this time, my
dear, and when to stop. I wanted to tell you, Miss Faith, that I am
your regularly appointed guardian--therefore if I ask questions you
will understand why." But what more on that subject the Squire might
have said, and said not, was left to conjecture. Faith looked at him,
wondering, colouring, doubting.

"I never heard of it before, sir," she said.

"You shouldn't say _regularly_, Mr. Stoutenburgh," said his
wife,--"Faith will think she is to be under your control."

"I shouldn't say _legally_," said the Squire, "and I didn't. No she
aint under my control. I only mean, Miss Faith," he said turning to
her, "that I am appointed to look after your interests, till somebody
who is better qualified comes to do it."

"There--Mr. Stoutenburgh,--don't go any further," said his wife.

"Not in that direction," said the Squire. "Now my dear, if Sam Deacon
will amuse himself in this way, as I said, what will you do? Do the
farm and the house about counterbalance each other most years?"

Faith never knew how she separated the two parts of her nature enough
at this moment to be practical, but she answered. "We have been able to
pay the interest on the mortgage, sir, every year. That's all. Mother
has not laid up anything."

The Squire took a turn or two up and down the room, then came and stood
before her again. "My dear," he said, "you can't tell just yet what
your plans will be, so I won't ask you to-night, but you had better let
me deal with Sam Deacon, and the new tenant, and the hay, and
everything else. And you may draw upon me for something mo