"Hello!" hailed Zoeth. "What's the matter?"

Mary-'Gusta seated herself upon an empty cranberry crate. The partners
had a joint interest in a small cranberry bog and the crate was one of
several unused the previous fall.

"There's nothin' the matter," she said, solemnly. "I've been thinkin',
that's all."

"Want to know!" observed the Captain. "Well, what made you do anything
as risky as that?"

Mary-'Gusta's forehead puckered.

"I was playin' with Jimmie Bacheldor yesterday," she said, "and he made
me think."

Abner Bacheldor was the nearest neighbor. His ramshackle dwelling was an
eighth of a mile from the Gould-Hamilton place. Abner had the reputation
of being the meanest man in town; also he had a large family, of which
Jimmie, eight years old, was the youngest.

"Humph!" sniffed Captain Shad. "So Jimmie Bacheldor made you think, eh?
I never should have expected it from one of that tribe. How'd he do it?"

"He asked me about my relations," said Mary-'Gusta, "and when I said I
hadn't got any he was awful surprised. He has ever so many, sisters and
brothers and aunts and cousins and--Oh, everything. He thought 'twas
dreadful funny my not havin' any. I think I'd ought to have some, don't