"I--I can't help it," pleaded Kenelm. "I never meant nothin'. I thought
they was asleep. And 'TIS most eight. By time, Hannah, you do pick on
me--"

A vigorous "Sshh!" interrupted him. The door between the sitting-room
and dining-room closed with a slam. Mrs. Barnes and Emily dressed
hurriedly.

They gathered about the breakfast table, the Parkers, Captain Obed and
the guests. Miss Parker's "company manner" was again much in evidence
and she seemed to feel it her duty to lead the conversation. She
professed to have discovered a striking resemblance between Miss Howes
and a deceased relative of her own named Melinda Ellis.

"The more I see of you, Miss Howes," she declared, "the more I can't
help thinkin' of poor Melindy. She was pretty and had dark eyes and hair
same's you've got, and that same sort of--of consumptic look to her. Not
that you've got consumption, I don't mean that. Only you look the way
she done, that's all. She did have consumption, poor thing. Everybody
thought she'd die of it, but she didn't. She got up in the night to take
some medicine and she took the wrong kind--toothache lotion it was and
awful powerful--and it ate right through to her diagram. She didn't live
long afterwards, poor soul."

No one said anything for a moment after this tragic recital. Then
Captain Bangs observed cheerfully:

"Well, I guess Miss Howes ain't likely to drink any toothache lotion."

Hannah nodded sedately. "I trust not," she said. "But accidents do