"I don't think people who disappear can always help it," he said, laughing. "But I suppose you'll leave a note saying, 'Farewell--farewell forever;' or something like that." "Yes, I'll say 'Funeral at such a time, and I'll be ready.' How shockingly I talk! So saying, she folded her lips, and sank into silence. Will you drive, please?" "This cousin of the Browns," Burleigh remarked, "just went off, or was carried off, or something else: at least, he is gone. The Browns were going home in the mail-team at nine o'clock this morning, but Mrs. Brown didn't get ready until about one this afternoon." "And you lent them your horse. That was very good of you." "Oh, no! It was only casting bread upon the waters. I shall want a good turn of him some time, likely enough." "I never supposed," Flossy returned critically, "that bread cast upon the waters could be worth much when it came back after many days. It most likely would be mouldy, and so water-soaked it wouldn't be fit to eat." "I don't like to joke about Scripture," he said gravely, flushing at his own boldness. "Of course," he added, "I don't think you meant any harm." "Of course not. It is a trick I have caught from father: it is part of my inheritance, like dyspepsia and a liver. Though why," she added, "it should be called a liver, I can't see. I think _dier_ would be more appropriate." At that moment Wilk's Run came in sight. "Dear me!" Flossy exclaimed. "I entirely forgot them, but this man put them all out of my head." Her companion answered only by a puzzled stare. "This one that disappeared, you know," she explained lucidly. "And they went to find a popgun, or something, and the service was so very long, you know." Burleigh, vainly endeavoring to catch some clew to her meaning, said nothing. In another moment they reached the bridge. No person was to be seen. "I wish you'd shout," Flossy said. "They can't be far off." "What shall I shout?" "I don't believe you know a word I've been saying," she remarked, looking into his face. "I want you to call them." Burleigh was not without a sense of humor, and his bashfulness had yielded in a great degree to the pleasure which Miss Plant's presence gave him. He accepted the command literally, and roared, "Them! them!" so lustily that the rocky banks of the brook re-echoed. "Mercy!" cried his companion. "You've lungs like organ-bellows. I'll get out and look for them before I'm stone-deaf." "If 'them' means Will and Ease Apthorpe," Burleigh said, "there they come now." CHAPTER XVII. A CONFIDENCE.