"No," said Hugh John, "it must _happen_, not be dragged in by the collar. To-night, after shop-shutting, Elizabeth will go home to see that all is right with her people. I shall walk with her, and tell you what she says in the morning." "We would rather hear to-night," cried Butcher Donnan, hotly impatient after the manner of his kind. "No--to-morrow!" pronounced Hugh John. "She ought to have the night to think it over. It wouldn't be fair unless!" "No more it would, young fellow!" cried Butcher Donnan, clapping Hugh John on the shoulder. "You found us a new business. You are finding us a daughter--perhaps some day----" "Hush now, Butcher," said his wife, anxious as to what he should say next. But Hugh John, already deep in his mission, took no offense at Butcher Donnan's _innuendoes_. Elizabeth Fortinbras and he were the best of good friends. And when the time came he would stand by the right hand of the bridegroom of her choice and witness his joy. So at least he thought at that moment. XVII THE LITTLE GREEN MAN _Written the Summer we went abroad for the first time._ It was about then that Hugh John suddenly grew up. He had been threatening it for a long time, but had always put it off. This time, however, it was for keeps. We noticed it first when we made Father tell us stories. Hugh John had grown tired of the "Little Green Man"! Now this was a thing so terrible to us that we hardly dared to face it. For, you see, we had been, as it were, brought up on the Little Green Man, and this was like being false to the very salt we had eaten. And the crime was specially bad on Hugh John's part. For, you see, he ate such a lot of salt that the Doctor told him it was bad for his health. However, because there is no chance of Hugh John reading this book, I will try to tell the tale just as Father tells it even yet to Margaret the Maid--and the rest of us who have not grown too old to like such stories. THE TALE OF THE LITTLE GREEN MAN. "Of _course_ it is true," Father always began, "because you know yourselves that you have seen the very place and the Bogle Thorn and all. No doubt everything has shrunk a good deal since the time the story tells about. But that is only because you have grown out of all knowledge, and so everything seems smaller to you." "I know," cried the Maid, "last year when we came back from the seaside, the Edam Water looked quite small and shallow, even at the first Torres Vedras!" But Sir Toady nipped her good to make her "shut up"--yes, he had grown so rude in the use of words that that was what he said. But then, most boys are like that. It is school that does it, and, do you know, when they come back they even pervert us girls. That this is true was immediately proved by Maid Margaret giving a fierce kick under the table to Sir Toady, and whispering back, "Shut up yourself!"