of mistake in accepting the well-intentioned invitation.

CHAPTER III BELATED HASTE

Instinctively Nancy sought a sheltered corner of the ice cream room. She was greatly embarrassed to have come along the road with a stranger whom she knew nothing about, and now she was determined to leave him alone with Teddy. There must be something odd about him, to have drawn that remark from the girls. Nancy looked at him critically from her place below the decorated looking glass, and decided he did appear queer to her.

“But I’m just starved,” she told herself, “and I’ve got to have something to eat.” The girl in the gingham dress, with a great wide muslin apron, took an order for cake and cream and a glass of milk. Fortunately, Nancy had her purse along with her. That much, at least, she had already learned about being a business woman.

Teddy was chatting gaily with the man down near the door. They seemed to be having a great time over their stories, and Nancy rightly suspected the stories concerned Ted’s favorite sport, camping.

She ate her lunch rather solemnly. Everything seemed to be going wrong, but the escape from fire, with the frying meat on a shallow griddle, was surely something to be thankful for.

Oh, well! Only half a day had been lost, and she really couldn’t have done more when Miss Townsend took all that precious time with her lamentations.

Miss Townsend! Nancy sipped the last of her milk as she reflected on the little dog’s interest in the old fireplace. Of course, Miss Townsend would come again, and Tiny would always be along with her. And Nancy hadn’t yet told Ted about that experience.

“Just buying a country store didn’t seem to mean buying a lot of freaks along with the bargain,” Nancy speculated. “And now here’s Mr. Baldy who wants to be called after Uncle Sam, going right in back of my counter and helping himself—”

“Ready, Sis!” called out Teddy, as he waited for Mr. Sanders to pay his bill.

“You go along, Ted,” called back Nancy. “I’ve got to stop some place, but I’ll be there in time to open the door for you.”

Ted never questioned one of those queer decisions of Nancy’s. He knew how useless such a thing would be; so off he went with the man in the short sleeved shirt, while Nancy tarried long enough to give them 

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