ndy, I don't want to be rude, but--"

"Rude?" cried the girl. "You? You couldn't be. You are always good--to
me--and--I--don't--know--" Here her voice broke.

"Oh, come, Mandy, get away to dinner. You are a good girl. Now leave me
alone."

The kindness in his voice quite broke down Mandy's all too slight
control. She turned away, audibly sniffling, with her apron to her eyes,
leaving Cameron in a state of wrathful perplexity.

"Oh, confound it all!" he groaned to himself. "This is a rotten go. By
Jove! This means the West for me. The West! After all, that's the place.
Here there is no chance anyway. Why did I not go sooner?"

He rose from the grass, shivering with a sudden chill, went to his bed
in the hay mow, and, covering himself with Tim's blankets and his own,
fell again into sleep. Here, late in the afternoon, Tim found him and
called him to supper.

With Mandy's watchful eye upon him he went through the form of eating,
but Mandy was not to be deceived.

"You ain't eatin' nothin'," she said reproachfully as he rose from the
table.

"Enough for a man who is doing nothing," replied Cameron. "What I want
is exercise. I think I shall take a walk."

"Going to church?" she enquired, an eager light springing into her eye.

"To church? I hadn't thought of it," replied Cameron, but, catching
the gleam of a smile on Perkins' face and noting the utterly woebegone
expression on Mandy's, he added, "Well, I might as well walk to church
as any place else. You are going, Tim?"

"Huh huh!" replied Tim.

"I am going to hitch up Deck, Mandy," said Perkins.

"Oh, I'm goin' to walk!" said Mandy, emphatically.

"All right!" said Perkins. "Guess I'll walk too with the crowd."

"Don't mind me," said Mandy.

"I don't," laughed Perkins, "you bet! Nor anybody else."

"And that's no lie!" sniffed Mandy, with a toss of her head.

"Better drive to church, Mandy," suggested her mother. "You know you're
jist tired out and it will be late when you get started."

"Tired? Late?" cried Mandy, with alacrity. "I'll be through them dishes
in a jiffy and be ready in no time. I like the walk through the woods."

"Depends on the company," laughed Perkins again. "So do I. Guess we'll
all go together."

True to her promise, Mandy was ready within half an hour. Cameron
shuddered as he beheld the bewildering variety of colour in her attire
and the still more bewildering arrangement of hat and hair.

"You're good and gay, Mandy," sai