"Well, there's that, of course, and I'll have to own that Cousin Nancy
Prime, who lives in Hartford, always says, when I talk so, that there's
no place where the poor are so well looked after as in a large city; but
it seems to me just like a howling wilderness, and, besides, who wants
to be looked after? I don't, nor you either; we want to have our own
means, and be independent of charity."

"Yes; but it won't take so very long to finish my little capital, then
what will I do if there is no work to be got? and you know there isn't
any here."

"Advertise for summer boarders," said Miss Prue brilliantly. "I don't
know why people shouldn't come to Killamet, as well as to fifty other
places along this coast. It's only because when they get here there's no
place to put them in, or, possibly, they haven't discovered our great
merits yet. Our beach, and the scenery about it, are finer than those of
half the places they throng, and what if they do have to come either by
stage or boat the last few miles! It gives all who don't consider time,
and are only off for an outing, so much the more variety. If you
advertise as I've seen people do before now, you could make it seem a
perfect paradise, and not be half so far out of the way, either."

"I never thought of that. _I_ take boarders? How queer!"

"Well, everything's queer, that is about you; my life has been humdrum
enough, we all know; but you seem marked out for exceptional fates--and
fortunes perhaps."

A funny light glinted in the girl's eyes.