timed. Mr. Baxter appeared to be pursuing his own train of
thought. "Is Miss Roberts well?" he asked, after another interval.

"Very," answered Polly.

"Not given to being sick much?"

"No, she is very strong."

"Well," said Mr. Baxter, rising with an air of relief, "I must be
going. Just tell your aunt, sissy, that I called on her. Where's
my hat?"

He had mislaid it somewhere, and while he charged up and down the
parlor looking for it, Alan and Molly prudently withdrew, to laugh
unseen. At length he discovered it in the hall, and went away,
leaving the children to speculate vainly on the cause of his
visit.

"Sissy!" exclaimed Polly violently. "Sissy! I wonder how he'd like
me to call him bubby! I'll try it, the next time he comes. But he
stayed so forever that we shan't have time to cook any potatoes
for dinner."

They surely would not, for the fire was out and the stove was
cold.

"Your poor father!" groaned Molly. "And we weren't going to let
him know that anything was wrong."