“Oh, hurry, Kit, and don’t stop to spout,” Doris begged.  “He is really awfully nice, and he’s in earnest, I know he is.”

But Kit went with dignity across the fields to the road where the automobile stood with its lone occupant.  He must have been over forty years of age, but with his closely curled dark hair and alert smile he appeared much younger.  He wore no hat, and was heavily tanned.  It seemed to Kit at first glance as though she had never seen eyes so full of keen curiosity and genial friendliness.

“How do you do?” he called as soon as she came within hailing distance.  “Are you the young lady who has the renting of these tents which I see every once in a while?”

Kit admitted that she was.  He nodded his head approvingly and smiled, a broad pleasant smile which seemed to include the entire landscape.

“I like it here,” he announced with emphasis.  “It is sequestered and silent.  I have not met a single team or car on the road for miles.”

“Oh, that happens often,” said Kit, eagerly.  “There are days when nobody passes at all except the mail carrier.”

“It suits me,” he exclaimed, buoyantly.  “I must have quiet and perfect relaxation.  I will rent one of your tents and occupy it at once.  I have been touring this part of the country looking for a spot which appealed to me.”

“We have one on the hill yonder,” Kit suggested.  He seemed rather peculiar, and perhaps it would be just as well to sequester him as far off as possible.  “It is right on the edge of the pines, and faces the west.  The sunsets are beautiful from there.”

“No, no,” he repeated.  “I like the sound of the water.  I hear falls below here.  I will take that tent I see over there.”

So came the first tent dweller to Greenacres.  Kit had still been in doubt, and taking no chances on strangers within the gates, she had guided Mr. Ormond up to her father to make the closing arrangements on renting the waterfall tent, as the girls called it, for the entire summer.  The most amazing part was that he left a check that first day for $75.00, full rental for ten weeks.

“I must not be interrupted or bothered by little things,” he told Mr. Robbins, earnestly.  “I must have perfect isolation or I cannot do my work.”

“Now, what on earth do you suppose he meant by that?” Kit asked, after the underslung gray roadster had passed out of sight.  “My goodness, girls, he may be a counterfeiter.  You can bet a cookie Gilead would look upon him as a suspicious character when he could pay seventy-five dollars right down all at once.”

“I rather liked his face,” Mrs. Robbins remarked, “and he gave your father excellent business references.  I think you’re very fortunate that he happened to travel this way.”

He arrived promptly the following day and arranged with Shad to put up the automobile in the barn.