nothin'! You're the huskiest-lookin' thing I ever saw. No, I ain't goin' to ask you to wait on table; but I've got an idea. We're too out o' the way here for me to get college boys. They'd rather go to the mountains and so on—fashionable resorts. But I've got a niece, if she don't feel too big of herself to do that sort of thing; she might come. I'm goin' to ask her anyway. I haven't seen her for years 'cause her mother's been gone a long time and her father went out to Jersey to live, but I've no doubt she's a nice girl. Her name's Veronica. Isn't that a beater? I told my sister I couldn't see why she didn't name her Japonica and be done with it." [Pg 15] [Pg 15] "It's the name of a saint," remarked Philip. "Well, I hope she's enough of one to come and help me out. I'm goin' to ask her." "Better get Miss Wilbur to write her about the rosy dawn and the jeweled denizens. I'm afraid you'll be too truthful and tell about the leaks. With an 'old master' and a saint, you ought to get on swimmingly." "Well, will you stay with me a few days?" said Miss Priscilla coaxingly. "If I had a rapscallion to add to the menagerie—" "Do you mean ménage, Miss Burridge?" "I'll call it anything in the world you like, if you'll only stand by me, Phil." "All right." The young fellow tossed the second cleaned fish on to the plate. "Let me wash my hands and I'll go and throw out a line for the plumber." "You're a good boy," returned Miss Burridge, relieved. "I do think, Philip, that in the main you are a good boy! Who's that comin' over?" Miss Burridge craned her neck and narrowed her eyes the better to observe a bicycle which appeared across the field. The apparition of any human being was exciting to one responsible for the comfort of[Pg 16] others in this Arcadia, where modern conveniences could only be obtained by effort both spasmodic and continuous. [Pg 16] "Oh, it's Marley Hughes from the post-office." A youngster of fourteen came wheeling nonchalantly over the bumps of the field, and finally jumped off his
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