th his hands and mused for a few minutes;
then he finally said, "Mr. Sawyer, I have got an idea. That fellow,
Strout, thinks he runs this town, and it would tickle him to death if
he thought he made things uncomfortable for you. Then, again, I happen
to know that he is sweet on Huldy Mason himself, and he would do all he
could to widen the breach between 'Zeke and her. You see, he isn't but
forty himself, and he wouldn't mind the difference in ages at all. Now,
my plan is this." Uncle Ike looked out the window and said, "Here comes
Cobb's twins with the team. Now we will take, my things up to the house,
then you take the team and go up to Deacon Mason's and get your trunk
and bring it down to Pettengill's house. You will be my guest for
to-night, anyway, and if I don't make things right with 'Zeke so you can
stay there, I'll fix it anyway so you can stay till you get a place to
suit you. Now don't say no, Mr. Sawyer. Your father and I are old
friends and he will sort o' hold me responsible for your good treatment.
I won't take no for an answer. If you have no objections, Mr. Sawyer, I
wish you would keep your eye on those books when they are put into the
team, for those Cobb boys handle everything as though it was a rock or a
tree stump." And Uncle Ike, taking his kerosene lamp in one hand and his
looking glass in the other, cried, "Come in," as one of the Cobb boys
knocked on the door.

CHAPTER XIII.

A VISIT TO THE VICTIM.

It was not until Quincy had reached the Pettengill house and helped
Uncle Ike get his things in order, that he finally decided to accept
Uncle Ike's offer. If he went to Eastborough Centre to live at the
hotel, he knew Strout would consider he had won a victory. He had
thought of going to Mr. and Mrs. Putnam about a room and board, but then
he remembered Lindy, and said to himself that Miss Putnam was a pretty
girl and it would be the same old story over again. Then he thought,
"There won't be any danger here with a blind girl and Mandy Skinner, and
if Uncle Ike can arrange matters it will be the best thing I can do."

And so he drove up to Deacon Mason's with Cobb's twins, saw Mrs. Mason,
went upstairs and packed his trunk quickly, and the Cobb boys drove away
with it to his new, though perhaps only temporary, lodgings.

When Quincy went downstairs, Mrs. Mason was in the parlor, and she
beckoned to him to come in. He entered and closed the door.

"I want to speak to you a few minutes