"There, you blatherskite! What's your guardian angel thinkin' of ye the now, you poor, ignorant, heathen gossoon? Well for ye that old Cleena has met up with ye to beat some bits o' sense into your idle pate. Tight, is it? Well, not so tight as the bands o' me heart when I looked to see ye brought up to me dead. 'Twon't hurt. Lie there an' rest." Cleena finished her harangue and her task together. After that she stood up straight and strong, and regarded the teamster with a questioning eye. "Is it true, what he says, that he's nor kith nor kin, hereabouts?" "I guess it's true," answered John, laughing at the ludicrous appearance of Fayette upon the ground. "He was born in the poorhouse, an' I've heard his mother died. His father had before then, I know. I used--" Cleena was in no mood for long stories, and she foresaw that one was imminent. She interrupted without ceremony-- "So, if I take him in hand to train him a bit, what for no? There'll be no one botherin' an' interferin', is it?" "I guess there won't anybody worry about 'Bony.' He's right handy around the mill, an' he does odd jobs for a many people; but if you want him, I 'low you can have him 'for a song.'" "I'll have no song singin', not I, nor from him. But if I don't make a smart, decent lad where there lies a fool, my name isn't Cleena Keegan, the day. Now what's about the well?" "That's what I want to know, Cleena," cried Amy. "How did he, could he, fall into it and climb out of it alive?" "Easier than you think, miss. He slid down the rope as far as it went, I suppose, then caught his feet in the stones of the sides, then his hands, and went down just as he came up. He didn't go into the water in the bottom, of course; but he's proved that the well is safe enough, and to-morrow morning he ought to be made to go down, properly fixed, with a rope around his waist and the tackle for bailing it out. It'll be a job, then, even after to-day's beginning. But I'll tell the boss about it, and I don't doubt he'll send the other man that helps 'Bony' in the mill village, and get things right this time. What say, boy? Think you'll take matters a little soberer to-morrow, if I come back to help?" Fayette lay with closed eyes and made no answer, but Cleena spoke for him, and as one in authority:-- "Faith an' he will. An' I'm thankin' ye, sir, for all ye've done the day. Sure, by this hour to-morrow, we should begin to see daylight 'twixt the dirt." "I 'low you will. You're a master scrubber, and no mistake. Well, good-by. Anything I can do for you village way?" "I'm beholden to you, sir, an' so are my folks, but there's not. I'm for sending the childer down on their donkeys to see how fares the mistress an' master; an' they'll fetch back what's lackin' o' food an' so on, when they come. It's hungerin' sore will the sweet lady be for a sight of her own." "Oh, Cleena, is that so? May we go? But--that will leave you quite alone," said Amy.