erested in it, who
had as yet said least, was shown into the house. Rufe and Wad and Link
and little Chokie came crowding in after him, all eager to hear him talk
of the adventure.

"And, O ma!" cried Link, after Jack had briefly told his story, "he says
he will give us the fawn, and pay me besides, if I will go with him
to-night, and bring back the old mare in the morning."

"I don't know," said the woman, wrapping her red shawl more closely
about her, to conceal from the stranger her untidy attire. "I suppose,
if Mr. Betterson was at home, he would let you take the mare. But you
know, Lincoln,"--turning with a reproachful look to the small boy,--"you
have never been brought up to take money for little services. Such
things are not becoming in a family like ours."

And in the midst of her distress she put on a complacent smirk,
straightened her emaciated form, and sat there, looking like the very
ghost of pride, wrapped in an old red shawl.

"Did you speak of Mr. Betterson?" Jack inquired, interested.

"That is my husband's name."

"Elisha L. Betterson?"

"Certainly. You know my husband? He belongs to the Philadelphia
Bettersons,--a very wealthy and influential family," said the woman with
a simper. "Very wealthy and influential."

"I have heard of your husband," said Jack. "If I am not mistaken, you
are Mrs. Caroline Betterson,--a sister of Vinnie Dalton, sometimes
called Vinnie Presbit."

"You know my sister Lavinia!" exclaimed Mrs. Betterson, surprised, but
not overjoyed. "And you know Mr. Presbit's people?"

"I have never seen them," replied Jack, "but I almost feel as if I had,
I have heard so much about them. I was with Vinnie's foster-brother,
George Greenwood, in New York, last summer, when he was sick, and she
went down to take care of him."

"And I presume," returned Mrs. Betterson, taking another reef in her
shawl, "that you heard her tell a good deal about us; things that would
no doubt tend to prejudice a stranger; though if all the truth was known
she wouldn't feel so hard towards us as I have reason to think she
does."

Jack hastened to say that he had never heard Vinnie speak unkindly of
her sister.

"You are very polite to say so," said Mrs. Betterson, rocking the
cradle, in which the baby had been placed. "But I know just what she
has said. She has told you that after I married Mr. Betterson I felt
above my family; and that when her mother died (she was not _my_ mother,
you know,--we