h shavings to
exclaim, "His name _was_ Holmes! And that's the school-master's name. And
that's why he's in such a fume when the boys cheat at marbles. Well, did
I _ever_!"

Linnet ran in to exchange her afternoon dress for a short, dark calico,
and to put on her old shoes before she went into the barnyard to milk
Bess and Brindle and Beauty. Will Rheid found her in time to persuade
her to let him milk Brindle, for he was really afraid he would get his
hand out, and it would never do to let his wife do all the milking
when his father bequeathed him a fifth of his acres and two of his
hardest-to-be-milked cows. Linnet laughed, gave him one of her pails,
and found an other milking stool for him.

Marjorie wandered around disconsolate until she discovered Miss Prudence
in the garden.

She was perplexed over a new difficulty which vented itself in the
question propounded between tasting currants.

"Ought I--do you think I ought--talk to people--about--like the
minister--about--"

"No, child!" and Miss Prudence laughed merrily. "You ought to talk to
people like Marjorie West! Like a child and not like a minister."

IX.

JOHN HOLMES.

"Courage to endure and to obey."--_Tennyson._

It was vacation-time and yet John Holmes was at work. No one knew him to
take a vacation, he had attempted to do it more than once and at the end
of his stipulated time had found himself at work harder than ever. The
last lazy, luxurious vacation that he remembered was his last college
vacation. What a boyish, good-for-nothing, aimless fellow he was in those
days! How his brother used to snap him up and ask if he had nothing
better to do than to dawdle around into Maple Street and swing Prudence
under the maples in that old garden, or to write rhymes with her and
correct her German exercises! How he used to tease her about having by
and by to color her hair white and put on spectacles, or else she would
have to call her husband "papa." And she would dart after him and box his
ears and laugh her happy laugh and look as proud as a queen over every
teasing word. He had told her that she grew prettier every hour as her
day of fate drew nearer, and then had audaciously kissed her as he bade
her good-by, for, in one week would she not be his sister, the only
sister he had ever had? He stood at the gate watching her as she tripped
up to her father's arm-chair on the piazza, and saw her bend her head
down to his, and then he had gone off