to write to his relatives, stating the case, asking a home for the
waif and assistance to find its parents. He addressed this letter
to his cousin Maria, partly in consideration of the dramatic
farewell of that young lady, and its possible influence in turning
her susceptible heart towards his protege. He then quietly settled
back to his old solitary habits, and for a week left the Robinsons
unvisited. The result was a morning call by Trinidad Joe on the
hermit. "It's a whim of my gal's, Mr. North," he said, dejectedly,
"and ez I told you before and warned ye, when that gal hez an idee,
fower yoke of oxen and seving men can't drag it outer her. She's
got a idee o' larnin'--never hevin' hed much schoolin', and we ony
takin' the papers, permiskiss like--and she says YOU can teach her--
not hevin' anythin' else to do. Do ye folly me?"

"Yes," said North, "certainly."

"Well, she allows ez mebbee you're proud, and didn't like her
takin' care of the baby for nowt; and she reckons that ef you'll
gin her some book larnin', and get her to sling some fancy talk in
fash'n'ble style--why, she'll call it squar."

"You can tell her," said North, very honestly, "that I shall be
only too glad to help her in any way, without ever hoping to cancel
my debt of obligation to her."

"Then it's a go?" said the mystified Joe, with a desperate attempt
to convey the foregoing statement to his own intellect in three
Saxon words.

"It's a go," replied North, cheerfully.