Liz dropped a pan with a bang. "I'll tell you just's I tell her--there ain't goin' to be any more traipsing 'way from her work all the time like with the schoolmar'm either to Happy House nor nowhere. All them notions is settin' the girl loony goin' on with her lies and things 'bout things bein' differunt. She'll stay _right_ to home!" And to prevent further argument Liz' head bent meaningly toward the door. But at that moment a shadow crossed it. Mrs. Sniggs, very gingerly, thrust a head inside. Under her arm she carried a kettle. Once in a while old Dan'l mended the village kettles. "How d'do," snapped Liz. But Mrs. Sniggs, with an uplift of her nose that said plainly: "I don't even _see_ you," put her kettle near the door without a word and turned to depart. At which Liz, in a loud tone, exclaimed: "Most _certainly_, Miss Leavitt, we're _delighted_! Our Nonie can visit you up to Happy House real often!" Liz knew and Nancy knew, by the tell-tale shadow that lingered across the threshold that Mrs. Sniggs had heard; Nancy blessed the good fortune that had brought the woman there at that moment! Walking homeward, her mind full of plans of all she wanted to do for Nonie and Davy, Nancy with a shudder recalled the Hopworth home--and Liz. Something in the tired eyes haunted her. "Maybe," she thought with a pang of pity, "maybe she's as--starved--as Nonie!" CHAPTER XIII THE FOURTH OF JULY B'lindy had said, truly, that "she guessed if Webb got up the Fourth of July doin's they'd be doin's no one'd forget!" Webb's "doin's" took the form of a parade--a parade in which the very young and the very old should take part. At its head Webb himself would march, with the two recently returned soldiers, one on each side. The young people would come in costumes depicting the characters of the men associated with the Island history. "Mrs. Eaton wants you to help her dress the children, Anne," Miss Sabrina had announced, the day before the Fourth. "She asked me to ask you to be at the meeting-house at 9 o'clock. "Oh, I'd love to," Nancy had responded eagerly. "It is very nice of her, I am sure," Miss Sabrina had added. "She _wants_ to be pleasant." And a hint of apology in Miss Sabrina's voice made Nancy suddenly think that perhaps Mrs. Eaton was not _always_ pleasant. She remembered that B'lindy had added the Eaton name to the list of acquaintances possible to a Leavitt. The very air of that Fourth of July morning was a-tingle with excitement. When Nancy turned into the village street it seemed to her filled with people, all in Sunday-best and holiday spirits. The green in front of the meeting-house was alive with eager, tumbling youngsters.