"You shan't do it, Joseph!" exclaimed Gram. "There's no dollar due her." But the Old Squire persisted in handing the woman a dollar. "I do not care whether it is due or not!" he exclaimed. "I have heard altogether too much of this." "I thank you, Joseph, for doing me justice of my hard-handed employer," said the tall woman, austerely. "Now did ever anybody hear the like!" Gram exclaimed, pink from vexation. "Oh, Olive, you--you--you bold thing, to say that of me!" "There, there!" cried the Old Squire. "Peace, women folks. Remember that you are both Christians and public professors." Gram sat and fanned herself, fast and hard. Our visitor folded the dress into a bundle and marched slowly and austerely out. "Olive, I hope your conscience is clear," Gram called after her severely. "Ruth, I hope your conscience is as clear as mine," the departing one called back in calm tones, from the yard outside. She left an awkward silence behind her; breakfast had come to a standstill; and I improved the elemental sort of hush, to whisper to Theodora, who had been at the farm a year, and ask who this portentous disturber of the family credit really was. "Oh, it is only 'Aunt Olive,'" Theodora whispered back. "She comes here to help us every spring and fall." "Is she our actual aunt?" I asked in some dismay. "No, she isn't our real, kindred aunt," said Theodora, "but folks call her Aunt Olive. She is a sister to Elder Witham; and they say she can quote more Scripture than the Elder himself. "And I'm sort of glad that Gramp gave her the dollar," Theodora added, in a still lower whisper. "Maybe Gram did forget to pay her, once." But Gram was both incensed and humiliated. She resumed the interrupted coffee pouring and handed the Old Squire his cup, with a look of deep reproach. Partly to change the unpleasant subject, perhaps, he said to us briskly, "Boys, if we have good luck and get our haying work along, so we can, we will all make a trip over to Norridgewock and see Father Rasle's monument. "Ruth, wouldn't you like to take a good long drive over to Norridgewock, after the grain is in?" he asked in pacificatory tones. "Joseph!" replied Gram, "you make me smile! You have been talking of driving over to Norridgewock to visit Father Rasle's monument, and of going to Lovewell's Pond, ever since I first knew you! But you never have been, and I haven't a thought that you ever will go!" "Well, but something has always come up to prevent it, Ruth," Gramp replied hastily. "Yes, Joseph, and something will come up to prevent it this year, too." It was at this point that the second early caller had his arrival announced. Little Wealthy, who had stolen out to watch Aunt Olive's departure and then gone to the barn to see to her own small brood of chicks, came running in headlong and cried, "Oh, Gram! Gram! a great big fox has got one of your geese--on his back--and is running away!"