ace with
all men! It is a cruel thing." And here Miss Osla began to weep again.

Yaspard went to the table and picked up the letter, read the address,
and put it in his pocket. "Leave this affair to me, auntie," he said;
"I'll see that Fred Garson gets the letter, and gets it right properly."

Poor Miss Adiesen was too much troubled to notice anything peculiar in
Yaspard's words or expression, but Signy did, and as he left the room
she followed and asked in a whisper--

"Is it going to fit into your idea, brodhor?"

"Fits like the skin to a sealkie," said he.

Yaspard went up the stairs four steps at every stride until he reached
the attics. One of these was used for lumber, and into it he went.
There was a marvellous collection of things in that room, but Yaspard
knew what he had come for, and where to find it. He pulled some broken
chairs from off an old chest which had no lid, and was piled full of
curious swords, cutlasses, horse-pistols, battle-axes, some foils and
masks, and a battered old shield. Not one of all these implements had
been in use for a century--some were of far more ancient date. They
had neither edge, nor point, nor power of any sort beyond what might
lie in their weight if it were brought into play. Yaspard gathered up
as many of these weapons as he could carry, and bore them off to his
own room, where he proceeded to scrub the rust from them with some
sandpaper and a pair of woollen socks. He whistled at his task, and
was infinitely pleased with his own thoughts, which ran something like
this:--

"Oh yes! I'll make it work. I'll turn this old feud into a rare old
lark, I will. How nicely it all fits in for to-morrow--the Harrison
boys to go with the letter in my boat, and the Manse boys spending the
night on Havnholme! What times those boys have, to be sure. They go
everywhere, and stay just as long as they please. I could not count
how many times this summer they have camped out for the night on
Havnholme, and the Gruen holme, and the Ootskerries. Guess they'll be
surprised at the waking up they'll get tomorrow!"

When he had cleaned up the armour to his satisfaction, he sat down to
his desk and wrote a letter, which pleased him so much that he read it
twice aloud, and ended by saying--

"Prime! I didn't know that I could express myself so well on paper.
It's as good as Garson's own. I wonder what he will say!"

Then Yaspard went down to supper, and while demolishing