wagon, coming along the road from Fairport.

It stopped opposite the Jasper B., and from the seat beside the
driver leaped lightly the most beautiful woman Cleggett had ever
seen, and walked hesitatingly but gracefully towards him.

She was agitated. She was, in fact, sobbing; and a Pomeranian
dog which she carried in her arms was whimpering excitedly as if
in sympathy with its mistress. Cleggett, soul of chivalry that
he was, born cavalier of beauty in distress, removed his hat and
advanced to meet her.

CHAPTER V

BEAUTY IN DISTRESS

"Can you tell me where I can get some ice? Can you sell me some
ice?" cried the lady excitedly, when she was still some yards
distant from Cleggett.

"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain
that he had understood.

"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character
of her eagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could
not have been more in earnest. "Don't tell me that you have none
on your boat. Don't tell me that! Don't tell me that!"

And suddenly, like a woman who has borne all that she can bear,
she burst undisguisedly into a paroxysm of weeping. Cleggett,