Agnes rejoiced with the rest, but she was a little troubled lest Polly should wish to leave her before the arrival of Mrs. Kennedy, this being just the opposite of that which had been her dilemma a short time before. How easy the matter would be settled if her mother would but come at once, and they could all go to the home which the girl still insisted to herself was rightfully theirs. She did not, however, consider another point in the case till Parker Willett asked her one day if she didn’t think that now Jimmy had come, it would be better for him to take up a piece of land for himself, and leave them all in Jimmy’s care. Agnes, with Honey in her lap, toyed with the child’s flaxen locks before she answered. Honey had attached himself with great decision to Agnes, and she was beginning to love the little child very much. He seemed to take the place of her own small brothers and sisters more than Polly’s children had ever done, and now that Polly was so absorbed in Jimmy, the girl was lonely at times. She answered Parker’s question with another. “And is it on our account you have been staying here all this time? You know I suspected it. And you risked your life for Jimmy and Honey--and--should you go far?” she asked a little tremulously. “Not farther than I needs must to find a good bit of land.” “You will not leave the neighborhood?” She was suddenly conscious that for her there would be a greater vacuum when Parker left than when Archie went away. “No.” He watched the girl’s downcast face, and he, too, was aware that he did not want to go very far away. Yet--There were no other words spoken for a moment, and then the girl raised her eyes. “Do you remember how we said at the time of the freshet that it wasn’t worth while to borrow trouble? And look what the freshet did for Polly, though it did destroy a part of our garden.” “And therefore you think my going away need not be an unalloyed disaster? That is very pleasant to know. I was hardly conceited enough to think it would cause any very great sorrow.” Agnes’s fair face flushed. “I meant that it might be the means of bringing you good fortune, and that would be a pleasure to your friends, however much they might miss you.” She had grown much gentler since the coming of Honey among them, Parker was quick to perceive. “If you keep on being so sweetly philosophical, I’m afraid you will soon be ready to be a minister’s wife,” he said with a half smile. Agnes compressed her lips. “Oh, do you think so?” she returned coldly. Then, after a pause, “Yes, I am quite sure that Jimmy will be ample protection for us, and as it is for your pleasure and profit to go away, I advise you to do it.”