the one man of all work, who kept the Kimball place in order.

"Oh, I think we can manage," said her mother. "She is not heavy."

It was not until Cora and her mother lifted the girl, that they
realized what a frail burden she was in their arms.

"She's only a girl, yet she has the face of a woman, and with traces
of a woman's troubles," whispered Belle, as Cora and Mrs. Kimball,
preceded by Janet to hold aside the draperies, left the room.

"Yes. And I wonder what she meant by speaking of her father and Sea
Horse Island in the way she did?" spoke Bess. "It sounds almost like
a mystery!"

"Oh, you and your mysteries!" scoffed Belle. "You'd scent one, if an
Italian organ grinder stopped in front of the house, looked up at
your window, and played the Miserere."

"I might give him something to eat, anyhow," snapped Bess--that is,
as nearly as Bess ever came to snapping, for she was so well
"padded," both in mariners and by nature, that she was too much like
a mental sofa cushion to hurt even the feelings of any one.

Cora came down presently, announcing:

"She is better now. She took a little of the bouillon, but she is
very weak. Mother insists on her staying in bed. She really seems a
very decent sort of a person--the girl, I mean," added Cora quickly,
with a little laugh. "She was so afraid of giving trouble."