And Master Frederick, looking up, found a finger warningly pointed in his direction, and realized that he had broken the rule. Jasper solemnly took out his note-book and made an entry. Next he leaped ashore himself and stood waiting to help the girls, who, after a moment’s hesitation, also stepped ashore. Then, the boat being made fast to a convenient post, they all started leisurely up the bank. They soon came to a road which led them directly across the railroad and toward the red house. This house was a small, one-story cottage, very humble, but with the thrifty Cape Cod look, having a bright garden in front and a neat walk, bordered with curious shells, running down to the gate. Jasper, catching sight of a well near the side door, was about to make an excuse for turning in, when Kitty forestalled him. “Oh,” sang she, her spirits already revived by the change from sea to shore, “Be it ever so humble, I must have some water.” They went in, therefore, and Jasper was about to let down the bucket, which worked by some modern arrangement, when a woman came running out with a glass. “Here, here!” she cried shrilly. “We don’t ’low strangers to meddle with that well! _I_’ll draw it for you, if you please.” And she put Jasper one side, carefully letting down the bucket, and then breathlessly drawing it up. “You gave me quite a turn, I declare!” she observed as she handed Ethel the glass. “I thought you were that sewin’-machine man when I first heard ye. He said he sh’d come to-day.” She eyed them curiously. She was a spare, energetic-looking woman, with a pinched face and small bright eyes. She seemed rather puzzled when no one spoke, though the two girls and Freddy bowed their thanks profusely as they finished drinking. Her bewilderment may well have grown to wonder as she beheld Jasper, with one hand still extended after handing back the glass and the other laid dramatically upon his heart, open his mouth and begin to sing, to the air of “Auld Lang Syne,” familiar in Cape Cod homes as everywhere else in the world, “‘Thanks,’ said the judge, ‘a sweeter draught A fairer hand ne’er _quaffed_——’” The combined exigencies of the tune and the effort to adapt the quotation to it, left the singer, attitude and all, hanging, so to speak, at the end of a high note; and the effect was supremely ludicrous. Jasper’s comrades could not restrain their laughter. The woman regarded him for an instant with a look of amazement; but people on the Cape have a way of keeping their feelings to themselves, and she quickly recovered her self-possession. “Humph!” said she, glancing keenly from Jasper to the rest. “Where do you folks come from, anyway?” “We came,” Jasper answered, still true to “Auld Acquaintance,” “We came, in yonder noble ship, From lands beyond the sea; And we’ve landed on this barren shore To—to—see what we could see.” He broke a little on the last line and finished rather lamely.