t nothin' as
can make a remark back to her."

"It's too bad, Joe!"

"Fact!" said Joe seriously; all the rest had been said with a smile;
"but you know mother. Come! put on your bonnit and run down and set
with her a spell. She's took a notion to have ye; and I know she'll be
watchin' till you come."

"Then I must go. I guess I can arrange it, Joe."

"Well, I'll get along, then, where I had ought to be. Mis' Starling
cuttin' her hay?"

"Yes, this week and more."

"It's turnin' out a handsome swath; but it had ought to be all down
now. Well, good day! Hurry up, now, for down yonder."

Diana brought in her pan of peas.

"Mother, where's Josiah Davis?"

"Where should he be? He's up in the hill lot, cuttin' hay. That grass
is all in flower; it had ought to been cut a week ago; but Josiah
always has one of his hands behind him."

"And he won't be in till noon. I must harness the waggon myself."

"If you can catch the horse," said her mother. "He's turned out in the
lot. It's a poor job, at this time o' day."

"I'll try and make a good job of it," said Diana. So she took her
sun-bonnet and went out to the barn. The old horse was not far off, for
the "lot" in this case meant simply the small field in which the barn
and the barnyard were enclosed; but being a wary old animal, with a
good deal of experience of life, he had come to know that a halter and
a pan of corn generally meant hard work near at hand, and was won't to
be shy of such allurements. Diana could sometimes do better than
anybody else with old Prince; they were on good terms; and Prince had
sense enough to take notice that she never followed the plough, and was
therefore a safer venture than his other flatterers. With the corn and
the halter Diana now sought the corner where Prince was standing
whisking his tail in the shade of a tree. But it was a warm morning;
and seeing her approach, Prince quietly walked off into the sun on the
other side of the tree, and went on to another shady resting-place some
distance away. Diana followed, speaking to him; but Prince repeated his
ungallant manoeuvre; and from tree to tree across the sunny field Diana
trudged after him, until she was hot and tired. Perhaps Prince's
philosophy came in play at last, warning him that this game could not
go on for ever, and would certainly end in his discomfiture some time;
for, with no apparent reason for his change of tactics, he stood still
at length under the tree farthest