saying with cheerful philosophy, "Well, I am thankful not to leave
mother. I'd prob'ly cry in the night, and worry dear grandmother." So
every one was satisfied, and Ethelwyn, dimpling delightfully under her
broad white pique hat, bade them good-bye, and took her place beside
Peter in the roomy old phaeton.

"Are you any relation of St. Peter's?" she asked politely, after they
were well on the way.

"Nobody ever thought so," said Peter, looking down at her with a twinkle
in his eye.

"Well, I didn't know," she said. "I thought I'd like to ask you some
questions about him if you were. We have had a good deal about him at
Sunday-school lately. I'm studying my lessons nowadays for a prize; they
are going to give a sacrilegious picture to the child that knows her
verses the best by Easter, and I think maybe I'll get it, for I'm only
about next to the worst now."

"How many are there of you?"

"O, a lot; but if I do get it, I shall ask for a goat and cart instead.
We have plenty of pictures at home, but we are much in need of a goat
and cart."

Peter had a peculiar habit, Ethelwyn afterwards told her grandmother, of
shaking after she had talked to him awhile, and gurgling down in his
throat. She felt sorry for him. "He was prob'ly not feeling well; maybe
what Aunt Mandy calls chilling," she said.