on't you suppose he would a thousand times rather have you with him
than to live off there by himself?"

"No, I didn't think so," replied Marian, with the idea that somehow
she had said something she ought not. "But, Mrs. Hunt, if he does
care, why doesn't he come over and get me?"

"Just as I told you; because he thinks you are better off here with
your kith and kin. What would you do all day alone, with him off at
his business and you by yourself in lodgings or a boarding-house,
I'd like to know. He wouldn't want to send you to boarding-school,
for then you'd not be so well off as where you are. Oh, no, don't
you be getting it into your head that your father doesn't care for
you." Mrs. Hunt made decided plunges at the yellow dough at each
attack leaving behind a scalloped circle. "How I talk," she said as
she deftly lifted the cookies into a pan, "but my tongue runs away
with me sometimes. When do you think you'll be smart enough to get
that letter off?"

"Oh, in another week, perhaps. Miss Dorothy thinks I will."

"Humph! that's quick enough work. Here, don't you want to go down
into the garden and get me a few tomatoes? I thought I'd stew some
for dinner, and I can't leave my baking very well."

This was something Marian always liked to do, so she took the little
round basket Mrs. Hunt handed her and was soon very busy among the
tomato vines. She was watching a big yellow butterfly bury itself in
an opening flower when she heard a voice on the other side of the
fence, say: "Hello!" and looking up she saw Marjorie Stone and Alice
Evans smiling at her.

"What are you doing?" asked Marjorie. "I didn't know you lived
here."

"I don't," said Marian going toward her. "I just came to see Mrs.
Hunt and I am getting some tomatoes for her. Most everything else
has gone. There used to be lovely currants and raspberries over
there, and there were a few blackberries."

"We know where there are some blackberries still, don't we, Alice?"
said Marjorie.

"Yes, they have ripened late; they're not so very big, but we are
going to get them. We're going to take our lunch with us and gather
all we can find."

"If you bring some lunch you can go too," said Marjorie amiably to
Marian.

"Oh, is it a picnic?"

"Just a little one. Three or four of us were going, but two of the
girls can't go. One has to stay at home and take care of the baby,
and the other has gone to town with her mother, but maybe Alice's
big sister, Stel