scant success in capturing trout. Old Hucks could go out before
breakfast and bring in an ample supply of speckled beauties for Mary to
fry; but Uncle John's splendid outfit seemed scorned by the finny folk,
and after getting her dress torn in sundry places and a hook in the
fleshy part of her arm Patsy learned to seek shelter behind a tree
whenever her uncle cast his fly. But they reveled in the woods, and
would lie on the bank for hours listening to the murmur of the brook and
the songs of the birds.

The temper of the other two girls was different. Beth De Graf had
brought along an archery outfit, and she set up her target on the ample
green the day following her arrival. Here she practiced persistently,
shooting at sixty yards with much skill. But occasionally, when Louise
tired of her novel and her cushions in the hammock, the two girls would
play tennis or croquet together--Beth invariably winning.

Such delightful laziness could brook no interference for the first days
of their arrival, and it was not until Peggy McNutt ventured over on
Monday morning for a settlement with Mr. Merrick that any from the
little world around them dared intrude upon the dwellers at the
Wegg farm.

Although the agent had been late in starting from Millville and Nick
Thorne's sorrel mare had walked every step of the way, Peggy was obliged
to wait in the yard a good half hour for the "nabob" to finish his
breakfast. During that time he tried to decide which of the two
statements of accounts that he had prepared he was most justified in
presenting. He had learned from the liveryman at the Junction that Mr.
Merrick had paid five dollars for a trip that was usually made for two,
and also that the extravagant man had paid seventy-five cents more to