d?"

"Why, Aunt Kate--why on the other side of it is the man that mends
the boats."

"Oh, that so? Funny I never thought of that.

"But I suppose," she began again, "he wouldn't be very likely to be there
mending boats now?"

"Why yes, Aunt Kate, he might be."

"You heard anything about him, Worth?"

"Yes sir; Watts says he has cut him _out_. He says he's _on_ to him."

"That must be a bitter blow," said Aunt Kate. "Watts getting _on_ to
one--and cutting one out.

"Watts say anything about whether he was still mending boats?" she asked
in the off-hand manner people adopt for vital things.

"Why I guess he is, 'cause he made a speech last week--oh there was a
whole _lot_ of men--and he just _sowed seeds of discontentment_."

"Such a busy little sower!" murmured Aunt Kate lovingly.

She knew that he was there, or at least had been there the week before,
for just as she was leaving her uncle's she had received a note from him.
They had not been writing to each other since the brief letter she had
sent him the day after receiving the announcement of her brother's
engagement. This note had been written to tell her no special thing;
simply because, he said, after trying his best for a number of weeks, he
was not longer able to keep from writing. He wrote because he couldn't
help it. He had determined to love her too well to urge her to do what,
knowing it all, she evidently felt could not hold happiness for her. But
the utter desolation of life without her had crumbled the foundation of
that determination.

In the note he said that his boat-mending days were about over.
They would not have lasted that long only he had had no heart for
other things.

But the letter gave Katie heart for other things! Its unmistakable
wretchedness made her superbly radiant.

"Why, Worthie," she exclaimed, "just see here! Here's the very place
where we landed that other time."

"Oh yes, Aunt Kate--it's still here."

She smiled; he could not have done better had he been trying.

"Now I wonder if I could make that landing again. I was proud of the way
I did that before. I don't suppose I could do it again."

That baited him. "Oh yes, I guess you could, Aunt Kate. You just try it."

She demonstrated her skill and then they once more enjoyed the delightful
pastime of just sitting in the launch.

Katie's eyes were misty, her lips trembled to a tender smile as she
finally turned to him. "Worth dear, will you do something for yo