nd Captain Darby
were on the beach together? Do you think he has grown much older? Had he
lost his hair then? Did he care for the opposite sex? Was he very
brave--or would you say more brave than stubborn and contrary? Isn't it
a blessing that I never married him?"

Fearful of the ridicule of the sisters, Blossy was always careful to
conduct these inquiries in whispers, or at least in undertones with a
great observance of secrecy, sometimes stopping Abe on the stairs,
sometimes beckoning him to her side when she was busy about her
household tasks on the pretense of requiring his assistance. On one
occasion she even went so far as to inveigle him into holding a skein of
wool about his clumsy hands, while she wound the violet worsted into a
ball, and delicately inquired if he believed Samuel spoke the truth when
he had protested that he had never paid court to any other woman.

Alas, Blossy's frequent tete-a-tetes with the amused but sometimes
impatient Abraham started an exceedingly foolish suspicion. When, asked
the sisters of one another, did Abe ever help any one, save Blossy,
shell dried beans or pick over prunes? When had he ever been known to
hold wool for Angy's winding? Not once since wooing-time, I warrant you.
What could this continual hobnobbing and going off into corners mean,
except--flirtation?

Ruby Lee whispered it first into Aunt Nancy's good ear. Aunt Nancy
indulged in four pinches of snuff in rapid succession, sneezed an
amazing number of times, and then acridly informed Ruby Lee that she was
a "jealous cat" and always had been one.

However, Aunt Nancy could not refrain from carrying the gossip to Miss
Ellie, adding that she herself had been suspicious of Abe's behavior
from the start.

"Oh, no, no!" cried the shocked and shrinking spinster. "And Angy so
cheerful all the time? I don't believe it."

But whisper, whisper, buzz, buzz, went the gossip, until finally it
reached the pink little ears at the side of Miss Abigail's generously
proportioned head. The pink ears turned crimson, likewise the adjoining
cheeks, and Miss Abigail panted with righteous indignation.

"It all comes of this plagued old winter-time," she declared, sharply
biting her thread, for she was mending a table-cloth. "Shet the winders
on summer, an' yew ketch the tail of slander in the latch every time.
Naow, ef I hear one word about this 'tarnal foolishness comin' to
Angy's ears, or Brother Abe's, or Blossy's either, fer th