He spied her at the same time and came rushing to greet her, both hands
outstretched.

"And here you be!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Mary laughed happily.

"Yes, Uncle Shad, here I am," she said. "Are you glad to see me?"

Shadrach looked at her.

"JUMPIN'!" was the only answer he made, but it was fervent and
sufficient.

They rode home together in the old buggy. As they reached the corner by
the store Mary expected the vehicle to be brought to a halt at the curb,
but it was not. The Captain chirruped to the horse and drove straight
on.

"Why, Uncle Shad!" exclaimed the girl. "Aren't you going to stop?"

"Eh? Stop? What for?"

"Why, to see Uncle Zoeth, of course. He's at the store, isn't he?"

Shadrach shook his head.

"No, he ain't," he said. "He's to home."

Mary was amazed and a trifle alarmed. One partner of Hamilton and
Company was there in the buggy with her. By all the rules of precedent
and South Harniss business the other should have been at the store. She
knew that her uncles had employed no clerk or assistant since she left.

"But--but is Uncle Zoeth sick?" she asked.

"Sick? No, no, course he ain't sick. If he didn't have no better sense
than to get sick the day you come home I'd--I'd--I don't know's
I wouldn't drown him. HE ain't sick--unless," he added, as an
afterthought, "he's got Saint Vitus dance from hoppin' up and down to
look out of the window, watchin' for us."

"But if he isn't sick, why isn't he at the store? Who is there?"

The Captain chuckled.

"Not a solitary soul," he declared. "That store's shut up tight and
it's goin' to stay that way this whole blessed evenin'. Zoeth and me
we talked it over. I didn't know but we'd better get Abel Snow's boy or
that pesky Annabel or somebody to stay while we was havin' supper. You
see, we was both sot on eatin' supper with you tonight, no matter store
or not, and Isaiah, he was just as sot as we was. But all to once Zoeth
had an idea. 'Shadrach,' he says, 'in Scriptur' times when people was
real happy, same as we are now, they used to make a sacrifice to the
Almighty to show how glad and grateful they was. Let's you and me make a
sacrifice; let's sacrifice this evenin's trade--let's shut up the store
on account of our girl's comin' home.' 'Good idea!' says I, so we did
it."

Mary looked at him reproachfully.

"Oh, Uncle Shad," she said, "you shouldn't have done that. It was dear
and sweet of you to think of it, but you shou