Carroll--more out of charity than anything else, I fancy.

The Brookes had a rather shady reputation. They were notoriously lazy,
and it was suspected that their line of distinction between their own
and their neighbours' goods was not very clearly drawn. Many people
censured Mr. Carroll for encouraging them at all, but he was too
kind-hearted to let them suffer actual want and, as a consequence, one
or the other of them was always dodging about his place.

Ned was a lank, tow-headed youth of about fourteen, with shifty,
twinkling eyes that could never look you straight in the face. His
appearance was anything but prepossessing, and I always felt, when I
looked at him, that if anyone wanted to do a piece of shady work by
proxy, Ned Brooke would be the very lad for the business.

Mr. Carroll came at last, and we all went down to meet him at the
gate. Ned Brooke also came shuffling along to take the horse, and Mr.
Carroll tossed the reins to him and at the same time handed a
pocketbook to his wife.

"Just as well to be careful where you put that," he said laughingly.
"There's a sum in it not to be picked up on every gooseberry bush.
Gilman Harris paid me this morning for that bit of woodland I sold him
last fall--five hundred dollars. I promised that you and the girls
should have it to get a new piano, so there it is for you."

"Thank you," said Mrs. Carroll delightedly. "However, you'd better put
it back in your pocket till we go in. Amy is in a hurry."

Mr. Carroll took back the pocketbook and dropped it carelessly into
the inside pocket of the light overcoat that he wore.

I happened to glance at Ned Brooke just then, and I could not help
noticing the sudden crafty, eager expression that flashed over his
face. He eyed the pocketbook in Mr. Carroll's hands furtively, after
which he went off with the horse in a great hurry.

The girls were exclaiming and thanking their father, and nobody
noticed Ned Brooke's behaviour but myself, and it soon passed out of
my mind.

"Come to take the place, are you, Amy?" said Mr. Carroll. "Well,
everything is ready, I think. I suppose we'd better proceed. Where
shall we stand? You had better group us as you think best."

Whereupon I proceeded to arrange them in due order under the maple.
Mrs. Carroll sat in a chair, while her husband stood behind her.
Gertie stood on the steps with a basket of flowers in her hand, and
Lilian was at one side. The two little boys, Teddy and Jack