etropolitan financial circles, was responded to with sensitive pulse on
these far-away hills of Maine and resulted in migratory flights, by tens
and twenties, of Irish and Poles, of Swedes, Italians, French Canucks,
and American-born to more favorable conditions. "Here one day and gone
the next"; even the union did not make for stability of tenure.

In this ceaseless tidal ebb and flow of industrials, the original
population of Flamsted managed at times to come to the surface to
breathe; to look about them; to speculate as to "what next?" for the
changes were rapid and curiosity was fed almost to satiety. A fruitful
source of speculation was Champney Googe's long absence from home,
already six years, and his prospects when he should have returned.
Speculation was also rife when Aurora Googe crossed the ocean to spend a
summer with her son; at one time rumors were afloat that Champney's
prospective marriage with a relation of the Van Ostends was near at
hand, and this was said to be the cause of his mother's rather sudden
departure. But on her return, Mrs. Googe set all speculation in this
direction at rest by denying the rumor most emphatically, and adding the
information for every one's benefit that she had gone over to be with
Champney because he did not wish to come home at the time his contract
with Mr. Van Ostend permitted.

Once during the past year, the village wise heads foregathered in the
office of The Greenbush to discuss the very latest:--the coming to
Flamsted of seven Sisters, Daughters of the Mystic Rose, who, foreseeing
the suppression of their home institution in France, had come to prepare
a refuge for their order on the shores of America and found another home
and school among the quarrymen in this distant hill-country of the new
Maine--an echo of the old France of their ancestors. This was looked
upon as an undreamed-of innovation exceeding all others that had come to
their knowledge; it remained for old Joel Quimber to enter the lists as
champion of the newcomers, their cause, and their school which, with
Father Honore's aid, they at once established among the barren hills of
The Gore.

"Hounded out er France, poor souls, just like my own
great-great-great-granther's father!" he said, referring to the subject
again on that last Saturday evening when the frequenters of The
Greenbush were to be stirred shortly by the news they considered best of
all: Champney Googe's unexpected arrival. "I was up th