"So Mr. Clement Lindsay has been saving a life, has he, and got some
hard knocks doing it, hey, Susan Posey? Well, well, Clement Lindsay is a
brave fellow, and there is no need of hiding his name, my child. Let
me take the letter again a moment, Susan Posey. What is the date of it?
June 16th. Yes,--yes,--yes!"

He read the paragraph over again, and the signature too, if he wanted
to; for poor Susan had found that her secret was hardly opaque to those
round spectacles and the eyes behind them, and, with a not unbecoming
blush, opened the fold of the letter before she handed it back.

"No, no, Susan Posey. He will come all right. His writing is steady, and
if he had broken any bones he would have mentioned it. It's a thing his
wife will be proud of, if he is ever married, Susan Posey," (blushes,)
"and his children too," (more blushes running up to her back hair,) "and
there 's nothing to be worried about. But I'll tell you what, my dear,
I've got a little business that calls me down the river tomorrow, and
I shouldn't mind stopping an hour at Alderbank and seeing how our young
friend Clement Lindsay is; and then, if he was going to have a long
time of it, why we could manage it somehow that any friend who had
any special interest in him could visit him, just to while away the
tiresomeness of being sick. That's it, exactly. I'll stop at Alderbank,
Susan Posey. Just clear up these two children for me, will you, my dear?
Isosceles, come now,--that 's a good child. Helminthia, carry these
sugar-plums down--stairs for me, and take good care of them, mind!"

It was a case of gross bribery and corruption, for the fortress was
immediately, evacuated on the receipt of a large paper of red and white
comfits, and the garrison marched down--stairs much like conquerors,
under the lead of the young lady, who was greatly eased in mind by the
kind words and the promise of Mr. Byles Gridley.

But he, in the mean time, was busy with thoughts she did not suspect. "A
young person," he said to himself,--"why a young person? Why not say a
boy, if it was a boy? What if this should be our handsome truant?--'June
16th, Thursday morning!'--About time to get to Alderbank by the river, I
should think. None of the boats missing? What then? She may have made
a raft, or picked up some stray skiff. Who knows? And then got
shipwrecked, very likely. There are rapids and falls farther along the
river. It will do no harm to go down there and look about,