"You are a goose. Tell me how I am caught." "Listen, then," throwing her hair back, and becoming logical. "Dan loves you as well as any man or woman could love another, you said." "Did I say as well? I thought I said better. I meant better." "That's no matter. Dan loves you,"--she held up her left hand, and checked off the items on her fingers--"that is one finger. And Dan would go to sea with you; and it would be right, because he loves you--that is two fingers. But Dan can't go because he is lame--that is three fingers. Now I love you, and I am not lame--that is four fingers. And it would not be wrong in me to follow you--and that is my thumb, the largest reason of all. So you are caught, caught, caught, you see." "I do not see," said Joshua in a very decided voice. "Dan is a boy, and you are a girl; and what is right for a boy to do is often wrong for a girl. I do not see that I am caught." But Minnie had relinquished the argument. She was satisfied that she was right. "And you would really be very angry with me if I did it?" she asked. "I should be very angry with you now, Minnie, if it were not that you were a stupid little girl, just a trifle too fond of talking nonsense. Such nonsense, too! Why, there's Ellen, Dan's sister, _she_ wouldn't talk so." All the brightness went out of Minnie's face, and a dark cloud was there instead. Joshua noticed it with surprise. He took her hand gently; but she snatched it away. "Ellen would not behave like that," he said; "she is too mild and gentle." There came into his mind what he had said to Dan of the two girls--that Ellen was like a lake, and Minnie like the sea; and he thought how true it was. "It would do you good to know her." "I don't want to know her," said Minnie sullenly, "and I don't want to be done good to." "I didn't think you would be cross-tempered on my last day at home," said Joshua in a grave and gentle voice. He paused, as if expecting her to speak; but she remained silent. "Ah, well," he said, rising, "I shall go and see if I can find your father." She jumped up and walked with him to the door. "Say that you are not angry with me," she said in a voice of the softest pleading, raising her face to his. He would have made a different reply, but he saw that her face was covered with tears. "Angry with you!" he said kindly. "Who could be angry with you for long, little Minnie?" She smiled gratefully and thoughtfully as he kissed her; and when he had gone, and she had heard his last footstep, she returned to her old place upon the floor, and crouching down, placed the shell to her ear, and listened to the singing of the sea. CHAPTER X. GOOD-BY.