way
back into the bush.

Miss Pipkin gave him a quick look, and left the room. She very soon
returned carrying a bundle beneath one arm, and clutching a bulging
telescope suit-case in the other hand. From one end of the bundle
protruded the head of a cat.

"What in tarnation you got in there, Clemmie?" asked the seaman,
pointing toward the bundle.

"You didn't think I was going to leave my Tommy behind to be starved and
abused, did you?"

"Hadn't thought about that," meekly admitted the Captain, as he took the
telescope.

"Have you got a trunk to send over?"

"No."

Miss Pipkin breathed a deep sigh of relief as they passed out of the
gates. She looked back at the weather-beaten old buildings of the County
Farm into which ten years of her life had gone. But she felt no pang on
leaving.

The Captain kept up a constant stream of conversation on the way down
to the wharf. Suddenly, Miss Pipkin stopped, and suspiciously eyed the
seaman.

"Josiah, how are we going back?"

"In my _Jennie P._"

"In your what?"

"In my power-boat, the _Jennie P._"

"Josiah Pott! You know I ain't been aboard a boat for more than twenty
year, and I ain't going to start out on the thing, whatever-you-call-it!"

It appeared as if the Captain would have to come another day, in another
sort of vehicle, to carry home his newly-found housekeeper. He again led
trumps.

"The minister come all the way over with me to get you."

"He did?"

"Sartin did."

"Poor thing! He's been treated so scandalously that he's willing to do
'most anything. Well, it may be the death of me, but I've got this far,
and I may as well go on."

Mr. McGowan was waiting for them at the end of the wharf. The skipper
introduced them with a malicious wink at Miss Pipkin as he indicated
the physical strength of the minister. Her face flushed as nearly
crimson as it had in years. When they finally got into the dory she
leaned close to the Captain and set his staid old heart palpitating. Mr.
McGowan was engaged, waving to the girls in the _Jennie P._

"You ain't going to tell him what I said about his being delicate, and
the like, are you, Josiah?"

He answered with a vigorous shake of the head as he leaned back to draw
the oars through the water. Each time he swung forward he looked into
the eyes of Miss Pipkin. Did he imagine it, or did he see there
something more than interest in her own question?

Aboard the _Jennie P._ the young ladies took charge of