"But I think you had better go home, Archie," said Minnie with a look which he was not slow to interpret and respond to. "All right!" he replied cheerfully. Then in an undertone as Seymour and Mabel walked on, "you understand, Min, it _is_ all right." "Yes dear, I understand, and I _am_ so glad," she returned in such an affectionate voice, that Archie was moved to kiss her again, and then she ran off after the other two, feeling that her heart was almost too full of happiness. When the trio arrived at Mr. Rowson's he was out, but they were desired to wait for his coming as he had left word that if any of the young ladies from the Hollow called, he wished particularly to see them. Accordingly, they sat down as requested, and in the course of ten minutes the gentleman himself appeared. "I suppose you have come about the hall," he observed, addressing Minnie, after they had exchanged greetings. "Exactly," she replied, "we guessed it would be vacant now, as the miners' dispute is settled." "Thanks to you and your kind-hearted friends," put in the little man, smiling at the two girls who blushed violently. "I am sure," he continued, turning to Seymour, "it would be quite a pleasure to let the hall to these young ladies for any purpose, but most of all for the purpose they have in view, and not to be behind hand in doing a good turn when I can, I must beg of you to accept the use of the hall for that day as a present." And he stopped breathless and perspiring from his unwonted exertion. At first neither Mabel nor Minnie would hear of Mr. Rowson's proposal, and protested that they would rather pay for the hall, till Seymour, who had until now been a mere spectator of the proceedings, came to Mr. Rowson's aid who was by this time in a state of hopeless perspiration. "Come, come, young ladies!" he said. "Do try to reduce yourselves to an ordinary level. Be a little more sensible, and a little less quixotic. Does it not occur to you that it is perhaps a little selfish, trying to secure the monopoly of charity to yourselves, and leaving others who too would like to do something in that way out in the cold?" "But--" Minnie began, and then she came to a standstill, quite overcome by the last most ingenious argument. Seymour laughed, so did Mr. Rowson, so did Mabel, and finally so did Minnie herself, and thus the matter was amicably settled. Seymour and Minnie walked home with Mabel, and when they had left her at her own door, as they strolled slowly home, Seymour remarked, "What a quiet, sensible little woman your friend is--as different as possible from you; how comes it that two such extremes manage to get on so well?" "Thanks for your good opinion! It's quite flattering to be classed as the extreme opposite of quiet and sensible," was the only reply vouchsafed by Minnie with a great show of offended dignity. Seymour laughed, and remarked that often "people with a great deal more sense didn't put it to nearly such a good use."