close to that of his beloved adversary. The jackstraws have to be watched with
a hawk's eagerness, since the "trembling" can be discerned only by a keen eye;
but there were moments when Stephen was willing to risk the loss of a battle
if he could watch Rose's drooping eyelashes, the delicate down on her pink
cheek, and the feathery curls that broke away from her hair.

He was looking at her now from a distance, for she and Mite Shapley were
assisting Jed Towle to pile up the tin plates and tie the tin dippers
together. Next she peered into one of the bean-pots, and seemed pleased that
there was still something in its depths; then she gathered the fragments
neatly together in a basket, and, followed by her friend, clambered down the
banks to a shady spot where the Boomshers, otherwise known as the Crambry
family, were "lined up" expectantly.

It is not difficult to find a single fool in any community, however small; but
a family of fools is fortunately somewhat rarer. Every county, however, can
boast of one fool-family, and York County is always in the fashion, with fools
as with everything else. The unique, much-quoted, and undesirable Boomshers
could not be claimed as indigenous to the Saco valley, for this branch was an
offshoot of a still larger tribe inhabiting a distant township. Its beginnings
were shrouded in mystery. There was a French-Canadian ancestor somewhere, and
a Gypsy or Indian grandmother. They had always intermarried from time
immemorial. When one of the selectmen of their native place had been asked why
the Boomshers always married cousins, and why the habit was not discouraged,
he replied that he really did n't know; he s'posed they felt it would be kind
of odd to go right out and marry a stranger.

Lest "Boomsher" seem an unusual surname, it must be explained that the actual
name was French and could not be coped with by Edgewood or Pleasant River,
being something (luite as impossible to spell as to pronounce. As the family