t was one of the queer things neither of us ever found out.'

"Miss Amanda was amused. ('Of course you didn't; it was not intended
that you should. How could you know that, being greatly troubled, I woke
up very early that morning, and when I found you were not in your room I
put on my overshoes and walked across the fields to Dr. Hendricks's. I
did not get there as soon as I hoped I would; but when I rang the
door-bell, and the doctor himself came to the door, and I told him I did
not want to see him but Rebecca, and he went to look for her and found
her gone, and I confided to him as a great secret what I was sure had
happened, it did not take him long to get his horse and buggy and go
after her. And how glad I was she had our old mare, and not Ripstaver!
But I thought all the time it was you she had run away with, and I never
knew until now that it wasn't. The doctor told me afterwards that he and
his daughter had agreed not to say anything about it, and he advised me
to do the same; but the sly old fellow never told me it was Mr. Bridges
and not you. But if I had only known who really was running away with
her, I would not have walked across those wet pasture-fields that
chilly morning--that is, I do not think I would have done it.')

"'But one thing I did know,' said the old gentleman, 'which I often
regretted; and that was that if my Aunt Amanda had not meddled with the
horses and so spoiled my plan, Rebecca Hendricks would have married
Mr. Bridges, and several evil consequences would have been avoided.' ('I
wonder what they were?' thought Miss Amanda.) 'Well, things went on
pretty much as they had been going on, and that Garrett Bridges came
every day, just as bold as brass, to see my Aunt Amanda, who, of course,
knew nothing of his trying to run away with Rebecca. Sometimes I thought
of telling her, but that would have made a dreadful mess, and I was
bound in honor not to say a word about Rebecca.

"'Mr. Randolph Castine sometimes came to our house, but not often, and I
began to wish he would court my Aunt Amanda and marry her. If she had to
marry, he would be a thousand times better than Garrett Bridges, and I
thought I could go to his house--which was a beautiful one, with hunting
and fishing--to see her, and perhaps make long stays in the summer-time,
which would have been utterly impossible in the case of Garrett
Bridges.' ('You would have been welcome enough in any home of mine,'
said Miss Amanda. 'But you