no time to recover from this _bon mot_. She went on
with:

"And it was said of a certain young man, as he rode on the way to
Bridleburg, that he was met by another youth, who halted and asked a
question of the traveler. But the traveler was strangely smitten at
that moment, and all he could do was to _bray_."

There were no more shots at the Hillcrest folk after that--at least, if
there were, the Bray girls did not hear them. The "Chronicles" came to
an end at last. Somehow the sisters got away from the hateful place with
their escorts.

"But don't ever ask me to go to that schoolhouse again," said Lyddy,
who was infrequently angry and so, when she displayed wrath, was the
more impressive. "I think, Lucas, the people around here are the most
ill-mannered and brutal folk who ever lived. They are in the stone age.
They should be living in caves in the hillside and be wearing skins of
wild animals instead of civilized clothing."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Lucas, gently. "I reckon it looks so to you. But
they have all got used to Mayme Lowry's shots--it's give an' take with
most of 'em."

"There is no excuse--there _can_ be no excuse for such cruelty,"
reiterated Lyddy. "And we never have done a single thing knowingly to
hurt them."

Harris Colesworth was silent, but 'Phemie saw that his eyes danced. He
only said, soothingly:

"They are a different class from your own, Miss Lydia. They look on life
differently. You cannot understand them any more than they can understand
you. Forget it!"

But that was more easily said than done. Forget it, indeed! Lydia declared
when she went to bed with 'Phemie that she still "burned all over" at the
recollection of the impudence of that Lowry girl!

Of course, common sense should have come to the aid of the Bray sisters
and aided them to scorn the matter. "Overlook it" was the wise thing
to do. But a tiny thorn in the thumb may irritate more than a much more
serious injury.

Lyddy considered Mr. Somers quite as much at fault for what had happened
at the meeting as anybody else. He was nominally in charge of the
temperance meeting. On the other hand 'Phemie decided that she would not
be seen so much in Lucas's company--although Lucas was a loyal friend.

The morrow was the first Sunday of the month of May, and its dawn promised
as perfect a day as the month ever produced. Now the girls' flower
gardens were made, the vines 'Phemie had planted were growing, the
old lawns about th