"No," Billy shook his head; "I ain't blind, gal, ye ain't what most folks would call a modil, I'm thinkin'!" "Well, the artists think I am!" "The artists? Them womin in bonnets and smutchy pinafores? Gosh!" For a moment Janet's truth-loving soul shrank from deceiving Billy, but her promise to Thornly held her. She stopped her merry dance and came again beside him, clasping the hard hand tenderly within her own. "What do they think ye a modil of?" asked the man, and his face had lightened visibly. "Oh! just what their silly fancy tells them. Only don't you see, Daddy, dear, they don't want any one to know until the pictures are done. It would spoil the--the--well, I cannot explain; but they want to spring the pictures upon folks by and by." "'Cordin' t' what Andrew Farley tells," grinned Billy, all amiability now, "no one will be likely t' know ye from a scrub oak stump when the picters is done. Andrew says when he thinks of all it costs t' paint a boat an' then sees the waste of good, honest paint up on the Hills, it turns his stummick sick. Well, long as it is innercent potterin' like that, Janet, I don't know but as yer considerable sharp t' trade yer looks fur their money. It rather goes agin the grain with me t' have ye git the best of them. But Lord! as the good book says, a fool an' his money is soon parted, an' so long as they're sufferin' t' part with theirs, I don't know but what ye have a right t' barter what cargo yer little craft carries, as well as others what have less agreeable stores on board." Janet laughed merrily. "Mark Tapkins was on yisterday," Billy continued; "he says Bluff Head's open an' Mr. Devant an' a party is there. Must be quite gay an' altered on the mainland." Janet's face clouded. "Cap'n Daddy," she faltered, "I'm going to tell you something else." "Yer considerable talky, it seems t' me." Billy eyed the girl. "Cap'n Billy, have you ever wondered why I talk better than most of the others at the Station?" "I don't know as I would allow that ye _do_," Billy replied; "ye talk differenter, somewhat, but I don't know as it's better." "Well, it is. And it isn't all the teachers' doings either, Daddy, for Maud Grace and the rest never changed much; but for years, Daddy, I've been crawling in the cellar window of Bluff Head, when no one on earth knew, and I've read five shelves of books! I've thought like those books, and talked like them, until I seem to be like them; and, Daddy, the day Mr. Devant came home, he found me in his library-room, reading his books!" "Gawd!" ejaculated Billy, and stood stock still. "Did he fling ye out, neck and crop?" he gasped at last. "Daddy! he's a nice old gentleman!" "Old? He ain't dodderin' yet. An' he use t' have a bit of pepper in his nater. What did he do?" "Do? Why, he gave me the key to his front door. He reads with me and tells me what to read. We're great friends!"