four legs taut, his head jerking from side to side in
his eagerness to be agreeable to his roadside acquaintance;
the agate-eyed setter returning Meg's attentions
with the stony gaze of a club swell ignoring a
shabby relative. The doctor smiled thoughtfully.
There was nothing he loved to study so much as dogs
--they had a peculiar humor of their own, he often
said, more enjoyable sometimes than that of men--
then he turned to Martha again.

"And why are you away from home this morning
of all others?" he asked. "I thought Miss Lucy
was expected from school to-day?"

"And so she is, God bless her! And that's why
I'm here. I was that restless I couldn't keep still,
and so I says to Miss Jane, 'I'm goin' to the beach
with Meg and watch the ships go by; that's the only
thing that'll quiet my nerves. They're never in a
hurry with everybody punchin' and haulin' them.'
Not that there's anybody doin' that to me, 'cept like
it is to-day when I'm waitin' for my blessed baby to
come back to me. Two years, doctor--two whole
years since I had my arms round her. Wouldn't ye
think I'd be nigh crazy?"

"She's too big for your arms now, Martha,"
laughed the doctor, gathering up his reins. "She's
a woman--seventeen, isn't she?"