Not only one but two rather disconsolate members of the M’Clean family appeared at church the next Sabbath day. Not relenting in her determination to tease Jeanie, as well as to punish Archie for a fit of sulks he had had during the week, Agnes triumphantly had her way and led David to offer his escort. What did she care if heretofore he had seemed to have eyes and ears only for Jeanie? She would let Jeanie see that there were other girls beside herself, and it would also raise Archie’s estimation of her if he knew that she could walk off so easily with another girl’s lover, so she argued. Very adroitly she made Jeanie the main topic of conversation, so that David was entertained greatly, and the two were chatting like old friends when Jeanie and Archie passed them on the road. David was always rather silent in Jeanie’s company, and she felt a jealous pang as she noticed how ready he seemed to talk to Agnes. She gave the two a stiff little nod as she passed, and Agnes smiled to herself. “It’s all for her own good,” she thought, “and I am glad I could make her put on that top-loftical look. As for Archie, he looks sour enough, but I don’t care.” She had learned some of Polly’s saucy ways, and the toss of her head was Polly’s own. Yet when Mrs. M’Clean urged her and David to come home with her to supper, the girl was nothing loath, and indeed was mischievously curious to see how Jeanie would treat her, and to carry further her harmless little flirtation with David. The M’Cleans had made of their clearing one of the most comfortable places thereabouts. Both father and son had a genius for the mechanic arts, so that they were well supplied with hominy blocks, hand-mills, tanning vats, looms, and such affairs, all of their own manufacture, and though rude and clumsy, these were well adapted to their needs. The house was more commodious than at first, having besides its living-room, a bedroom on the first floor and a lean-to, or kitchen. A loft overhead gave two or three sleeping rooms. The building, floored with smooth puncheons, and, being well roofed and chinked, was very comfortable. Archie’s latest achievement, a milk bucket having staves alternately red and white, Jeanie displayed with great pride, and though Agnes really thought it beautiful, she declared that it was too gaudy.