“Then you think the coast is clear up at the farm? Is Barbara—Miss Preston—at home?” “Miss Barb’ry was to home when I come away at six-thirty this mornin’. Say, are you——?” “I’ll walk over and call on her,” interrupted the young man, with some impatience. “Perhaps Barbara will remember an old friend. Her eyes used to be bright enough.” Peg unhitched the harrow with fine deliberation. “Hold on a minute,” he requested, “an’ I’ll step ’long with ye. It’s gittin’ ’long towards noon, anyhow.” He was furtively studying the younger man’s face and figure, as he let down the bars and drove his horses through. “B’en doin’ any school-teachin’ sence ye left these parts?” he drawled, as the two struck the road at a pace commensurate to the unhurried gait of the old horses. “No,” said the stranger. He plunged his hands deep in his pockets, the merriment suddenly gone from his face and eyes. “Ye look consid’ble older’n ye did,” observed Peg mildly, “an’ the whiskers gives ye a diff’rent look; but come t’ take notice, most anybody’d know ye, though ye must hev knocked ’round consid’able. Hev any luck minin’?” Whitcomb laughed, throwing back his head as if the question afforded him a vast deal of amusement. “Luck?” he echoed. “Certainly; a man’s bound to strike luck of one sort or another.” “That’s a fac’,” agreed Peg sententiously, “an’ you can’t most always sometimes tell one sort f’om the other. What passes fer the worst sort o’ luck ’ll frequent turn out to be fust-rate. I knew a man once——” He stopped short, his jaw dropping at sight of the numerous vehicles congregated near the house which they were approaching. “I swan!” he ejaculated. “It sure does look like—— But Miss Barb’ry never said nothin’ t’ me. She never tol’ me——” “I’m going in,” said David Whitcomb, scowling. Several women congregated near the door stared at him with a resentful air as he made his way masterfully among them. At one end of the long, low room, his back to the open windows, stood Thomas Bellows, a small bare table in front of him, on which he rested the flat of his outspread hands while haranguing the company ranged on either side, the women for the most part comfortably seated, the men standing in the rear, as if half ashamed to be present.