at his poor back--"

"No, thank you; I don't want to look at his poor
back, nor his poor tail, nor anything else poor about
him. And you will send him away, won't you, like
a dear good old Martha?" she added, patting
Martha's shoulder in a coaxing way. Then encircling
Jane's waist with her arm, the two sisters sauntered
slowly back to the house.

Martha followed behind with Meg.

Somehow, and for the first time where Lucy was
concerned, she felt a tightening of her heart-strings,
all the more painful because it had followed so
closely upon the joy of their meeting. What had
come over her bairn, she said to herself with a sigh,
that she should talk so to Meg--to anything that
her old nurse loved, for that matter? Jane interrupted
her reveries.

"Did you give Meg a bath, Martha?" she asked
over her shoulder. She had seen the look of disappointment
in the old nurse's face and, knowing
the cause, tried to lighten the effect.

"Yes--half water and half sand. Doctor John
came along with Rex shinin' like a new muff, and
I was ashamed to let him see Meg. He's comin' up
to see you to-night, Lucy, darlin'," and she bent forward