hawk's eagerness, since the "trembling" can be discerned only by
a keen eye; but there were moments when Stephen was willing to
risk the loss of a battle if he could watch Rose's drooping
eyelashes, the delicate down on her pink cheek, and the feathery
curls that broke away from her hair.

He was looking at her now from a distance, for she and Mite
Shapley were assisting Jed Towle to pile up the tin plates and
tie the tin dippers together. Next she peered into one of the
bean-pots, and seemed pleased that there was still something in
its depths; then she gathered the fragments neatly together in a
basket, and, followed by her friend, clambered down the banks to
a shady spot where the Boomshers, otherwise known as the Crambry
family, were "lined up" expectantly.

It is not difficult to find a single fool in any community,
however small; but a family of fools is fortunately somewhat
rarer. Every county, however, can boast of one fool-family, and
Itork County is always in the fashion, with fools as with
everything else. The unique, much-quoted, and undesirable
Boomshers could not be claimed as indigenous to the Saco valley,
for this branch was an offshoot of a still larger tribe
inhabiting a distant township. Its beginnings were shrouded in
mystery. There was a French-Canadian ancestor somewhere, and a
Gipsy or Indian grandmother. They had always intermarried from
time immemorial. When one of the selectmen of their native place
had been asked why the Boomshers always married cousins, and why
the habit was not discouraged, he replied that he really didn't
know; he s'posed they felt it would be kind of odd to go right
out and marry a stranger.