ister every day or
two--sometimes, when I am very idle, every day. I love him as I would my
own brother, if I had one."

"Not _better_ than a brother, eh, cousin Josey?" asked the country girl,
with a funny glance out of the corners of her eyes.

"Oh, no," said Joe, laughing. "Not _better_ than a brother, or I should
scarcely be trying to make matters right between him and Mary
Crawford."

"No, I suppose you would not--I didn't think of that," said Susy. "And
so you know them, and you know _him_, and he is a good man, is he? Why,
cousin Josey, where did all these stories come from, then?"

"Humph!" said the city girl, "we may find all that out by-and-bye. It is
enough to say that they are not true, and that I _know_ them not to be
true. If I find that I am right in my suspicions of their origin, I will
tell you: if not, you will be the better for not knowing."

"And what are you going to do?" asked the proprietor of the unmanageable
curls and the wondering eyes.

"I scarcely know yet, myself," said the schemer. "It seems certain that
no time is to be lost. You say that old Mr. Crawford may die any day.
Now, Susy, it is my belief that if he should die to-day, as matters are
arranged Mary and all the property would go--well, I cannot tell you
where, but where you would not like to see them."

"Indeed you frighten me, cousin!" said Susy.

"I suppose so," answered Josephine. "But now--see here! I think I ought
to see Mary Crawford this very day, and without any one at the big house
knowing that I am at West Falls or that she has any communication with
this house. How can that be managed?"

"Indeed I do not see how it can be managed at all!" said the country
girl, with a very hopeless look at her pleasant face.

"Indeed it _must_!" said Miss Josey, who was only confirmed in the
determination by the supposed difficulty.

"I do not see how it can," repeated Susy. "You cannot go _there_, of
course, without being seen, and I do not know of any way to get her
_here_."

"But that is the thing," persisted Josephine. "She must be got _here_,
in some way or another. Pshaw! I don't see how it is to be done, but it
_must_ be done. We might set fire to the house, and that would probably
bring her over, but then it would bring all the other people from the
house, and then your mother might have some objections."

"I should think very likely she _would_!" said Susy, with another
wondering look around at the female torpedo