"What's that he says?" demanded the woman in a sharp whisper. "He's goin' to get out o' here?" "So he says," Pearl replied, scarcely understanding Mrs. Petty's anxiety. Sarah Petty stepped back, staring at the girl with eyes that glittered like a snake's. She closed the door at the bottom of the stairs with a careful hand. "Don't you let him do that, Pearl Holden!" she hissed. "You have a care. You'll find it a whole lot better to have me for a friend than an enemy. Now, mind that! You keep Uncle Jonah here." "Me?" gasped the girl in surprise. "What have I to do with it?" Mrs. Petty's speech amazed her. Indeed, the treatment accorded her on this morning by all the family greatly puzzled Pearl Holden. In the first place, the clack of Sarah Petty's tongue seemed to be muffled. The woman scarcely spoke to her, and never to find fault. This was her single outbreak of ill-temper. Orrin, when he came for the can of grease for the harness, which was kept soft behind the kitchen stove, asked her for it with a "please" tacked to the request. She was sweeping the big lower front hall when Tom came blundering through. She would not have spoken to him, but he would not be denied. "Say! you ain't goin' to stay mad with me, are you, Pearly?" he asked with a grin. She looked at him with an angry spark in either eye; but Tom would not be warned. "Aw, come, now, Pearly!" he said. "You know you like me. I was just foolin'----" As he approached she backed away into a corner and held the broom straight out before her. "You keep your foolin' to yourself, Tom Petty!" she cried. "Get away from me!" "Aw, now, Pearly!" he exclaimed, half laughing and half his ugly self. To be denied made him angry. He seized the handle of the broom. "Keep away from me!" panted the girl. Tom was by far the stronger. He quickly wrenched the broom from her hands. Pearl screamed. Tom had his arm around her waist and she was fighting him off with both hands. "Come on, Pearly! Give us a kiss," he said, still only half in earnest. "Le's you an' me be good friends again." A door slammed above as though in answer to the girl's half stifled shriek. The quick step of Joe Helmford saved her. Tom uttered an imprecation and flung away the broom. But the boarder, descending the stairs, saw them both--the girl with flaming face and drooping eyes, and the young fellow standing before her in a most suggestive attitude. Helmford went right on without speaking. He thought his appearance had been most inopportune, and that he had interfered in a tender scene between Pearl and Tom. CHAPTER XVI THE ALLEGORY Cap'n Jonah hobbled downstairs in season for the noonday dinner. "Jest about as spry as a crippled fiddler crab," he expressed it. But after the meal he insisted upon going out of doors.