dead o' winter for to see where the world come to an ind on the ither
side, just because old Matt McCarthy was afther tellin' her fairy
stories?"

"O Matt, dear old Matt! Remember the time I went swimming with the
Siwash girls from the Indian camp?"

"An' I dragged ye out by the hair o' yer head?"

"And lost one of your new rubber boots?"

"Ah, an' sure an' I do. And a most shockin' an' immodest affair it
was! An' the boots was worth tin dollars over yer father's counter."

"And then you went away, over the Pass, to the Inside, and we never
heard a word of you. Everybody thought you dead."

"Well I recollect the day. An' ye cried in me arms an' wuddent kiss
yer old Matt good-by. But ye did in the ind," he exclaimed,
triumphantly, "whin ye saw I was goin' to lave ye for sure. What a wee
thing ye were!"

"I was only eight."

"An' 'tis twelve year agone. Twelve year I've spint on the Inside,
with niver a trip out. Ye must be twinty now?"

"And almost as big as you," Frona affirmed.

"A likely woman ye've grown into, tall, an' shapely, an' all that." He