s, for a
cure-all in the spring, as if there were no real chance of their
meeting again first. As we looked back from the turn of the road the
Queen's Twin was still standing on the doorstep watching us away, and
Mrs. Todd stopped, and stood still for a moment before she waved her
hand again.

"There's one thing certain, dear," she said to me with great
discernment; "it ain't as if we left her all alone!"

Then we set out upon our long way home over the hill, where we lingered
in the afternoon sunshine, and through the dark woods across the
heron-swamp.

A DUNNET SHEPHERDESS.

I.

Early one morning at Dunnet Landing, as if it were still night, I
waked, suddenly startled by a spirited conversation beneath my window.
It was not one of Mrs. Todd's morning soliloquies; she was not
addressing her plants and flowers in words of either praise or blame.
Her voice was declamatory though perfectly good-humored, while the
second voice, a man's, was of lower pitch and somewhat deprecating.

The sun was just above the sea, and struck straight across my room
through a crack in the blind. It was a strange hour for the arrival of
a guest, and still too soon for the general run of business, even in
that tiny eastern haven where daybreak fisheries and early tides must
often rule the day.

The man's voice suddenly declared itself to my sleepy ears. It was Mr.
William Blackett's.

"Why, sister Almiry," he protested gently, "I don't need none o' your
nostrums!"

"Pick me a small han'ful," she commanded. "No, no, a _small_ han'ful,
I said,--o' them large pennyr'yal sprigs! I go to all the trouble an'
cossetin' of 'em just so as to have you ready to meet such occasions,
an' last year, you may remember, you never stopped here at all the day
you went up country. An' the frost come at last an' blacked it. I
never saw any herb that so objected to gardin ground; might as well try
to flourish mayflowers in a common front yard. There, you can come in
now, an' set and eat what breakfast you 've got patience for. I 've
found everything I want, an' I 'll mash 'em up an' be all ready to put
'em on."

I heard such a pleading note of appeal as the speakers went round the
corner of the house, and my curiosity was so demanding, that I dressed
in haste, and joined my friends a little later, with two unnoticed
excuses of the beauty of the morning, and the early mail boat.
William's breakfast had been slighted; he had taken his cu