AN ADAPTATION.

BY ORPHEUS C. KERR.




CHAPTER X.--(_Continued_.)


The Pond at Bumsteadville is sufficiently near the turnpike to be
readily reached from the latter, and, if mentioned in the advertisement
of a summer boarding-house, would be called Lake Duckingham, on account
of the fashionable ducks resorting thither for bathing and flirtation in
the season. When July's sun turns its tranquil mirror to hues of amber
and gold, the slender mosquito sings Hum, sweet Hum, along its margin;
and when Autumn hangs his livery of motley on the trees, the glassy
surface breathes out a mist wherefrom arises a spectre, with one hand of
ice and the other of flame, to scatter Chills and Fever. Strolling
beside this picturesque watering-place in the dusk, the Gospeler
suddenly caught the clatter of a female voice, and, in a moment, came
face to face with MONTGOMERY and MAGNOLIA PENDRAGON.

"A cold and frog-like place, this, for a lady's walk, Miss PENDRAGON,"
he said, hastily swallowing a bronchial troche to neutralize the damp
air admitted in speaking. "I hope you have on your overshoes."

"My sister brings me here," explained the brother, "so that her constant
talking to me, may not cause other people's heads to pain them."