de preparations to pass the night in
Baxter. The bag looked plump, as if it held much more than the
pocket-book and the jelly.

Mrs. Flagg looked up with unusual humility. "I did think about that
jelly," she said, as if Miss Pickett had openly reproached her. "I was
afraid it might look as if I was tryin' to pay Nancy for her
kindness."

"Well, I don't know," said Cynthia; "I guess she'd been pleased. She'd
thought you just brought her over a little present: but I do' know as
't would been any good to her after all; she'd thought so much of it,
comin' from you, that she'd kep' it till 't was all candied." But
Mrs. Flagg didn't look exactly pleased by this unexpected compliment,
and her fellow-traveler colored with confusion and a sudden feeling
that she had shown undue forwardness.

Presently they remembered the Beckett house, to their great relief,
and, as they approached, Mrs. Flagg reached over and moved her
hand-bag from the front seat to make room for another passenger. But
nobody came out to stop the stage, and they saw the unexpected guest
sitting by one of the front windows comfortably swaying a palm-leaf
fan, and rocking to and fro in calm content. They shrank back into
their corners, and tried not to be seen. Mrs. Flagg's face grew very
red.

"She got in, didn't she?" said Miss Pickett, snipping her words
angrily, as if her lips were scissors. Then she heard a call, and bent
forward to see Mrs. Beckett herself appear in the front doorway, very
smiling and eager to stop the stage.

The driver was only too ready to stop his horses. "Got a passenger for
me to carry back, ain't ye?" said he facetiously. "Them 's the kind I
like; carry both ways, make somethin' on a double trip," and he gave
Mrs. Flagg and Miss Pickett a friendly wink as he stepped down over
the wheel. Then he hurried toward the house, evidently in a hurry to
put the baggage on; but the expected passenger still sat rocking and
fanning at the window.

"No, sir; I ain't got any passengers," exclaimed Mrs. Beckett,
advancing a step or two to meet him, and speaking very loud in her
pleasant excitement. "This lady that come this morning wants her large
trunk with her summer things that she left to the depot in Woodville.
She's very desirous to git into it, so don't you go an' forgit; ain't
you got a book or somethin', Mr. Ma'sh? Don't you forgit to make a
note of it; here's her check, an' we've kep' the number in case you
should mislay it or an