“That’s love,” said Rose; “and I heard Mr. Pepperill say that Noah had a pain under his ribs.” “It’s like a hot pertater lodged here,” said Noah; “I can’t get no rest at all from it.” “That’s love also; I know it. I’ve had the same till Jan came to his senses.” “And I don’t seem to take no interest in the farm; do I, mother?” asked Noah. “Indeed you don’t, Noah.” “That also is love,” said Rose; “we’ll soon put that to rights.” “I thought it was liver,” observed the mother; “and that blue pill”’ “Oh, nothing of the sort,” interrupted Rose. “I know all the symptoms: hot potato, distaste for biled bacon, and indifference to farm affairs’it’s love; I had it all badly till Jan came round. Love turns heavy on the chest, if disappointed. That’s what Noah feels under his ribs. Come on, Noah, take your hat, and we will go to the Cellars together.” Noah complied with as much alacrity as he was capable of displaying. He was a docile youth; he had fallen in love with Kitty, partly at Rose’s bidding, partly out of compunction at his conduct at the fair. That evening had closed in rapidly. There were dense clouds overhead, so that the twilight was cut off, also all danger of dew, as Rose at once pointed out to Mrs. Flood. As, however, the mother feared her dear boy might get wet in the event of rain, Noah was induced to take a greatcoat. The young man was shy and timid. “You know, Rose, I treated her terrible bad at Ashburton, when I knocked away the workbox from under her arm.” “She will like you all the better for it,” answered the girl. “Young maidens like a lad of spirit, and you may be sure it gave her pleasure to see you and Jan punching each other’s heads. That schoolmaster! he ain’t up to nothing but whacking childer with a cane. If you like, I’ll try and egg him on to fight you, and then you can knock him all to pieces; and there’s nothing surer for finding your way to Kitty’s heart. If she’s like me, she’ll like to see lads fighting about her.” “You don’t think, Rose, she really had anything to do wi’ the fire?” “The fire?” snapped the girl. “No more than you or I. Her uncle did it. He wanted the insurance money. That’s a fine tale’that she set fire to the warehouse, because her uncle wouldn’t hear of her marrying the schoolmaster’and now, of her own accord, she throws the fellow over. If she had been so set on him, she wouldn’t have done _that_. Can’t you see, Noah, or are you stupid, that her giving up Mr. Bramber is the best answer to that story? It shows it could not have been. And then, as to that other tale,’that Mr. Pepperill sent her back to set the place in a blaze,’no one who knows Kitty can believe _that_. She’s not the girl to do a wrong thing at anyone’s bidding. Besides, what good would it have been to her?” Noah did not answer.