At the front door ’Zekiel and Huldy met Quincy.  The latter had turned Miss Very over to the care of Mrs. Maxwell, and had got one of the twins to carry the young lady’s trunk to her room, which was the one formerly occupied by Mandy.  He had then driven the carryall around to the barn and was returning, anxious to bear his tidings of success to Alice, when he met the departing couple.

“I hear you are going to leave us,” said Huldy.

“Who told you?” inquired Quincy.

“Alice,” replied Huldy; “and I told her she’d miss you very much when you were gone.”

“I am afraid,” replied Quincy, “that any service that I have rendered Miss Pettengill has not been of so important a nature that it would be greatly missed.  I am glad that I have succeeded in securing her a companion and assistant of her own sex, which will much more than compensate for the loss of my feeble services.”

“That’s what I don’t like about city folks,” said Huldy Pettengill, as she walked along the path, hanging on her husband’s arm.

“What’s that?” asked ’Zekiel bluntly.

“Because,” continued Huldy, “they use such big words to cover up their real feelings.  Of course, he wouldn’t let on to us, but any one with half an eye could see that he’s head over heels in love with your sister Alice, and he’d stand on his head if she told him to.”

“Well, Alice is too sensible a girl to ask him to do that sort of thing,” said ’Zekiel frankly.  “Any way, I don’t believe she’s in love with him.”

“’Twould be a great match for her,” said Huldy.

“I don’t know ’bout that.  On general principles, I don’t believe in country girls marryin’ city fellers.”

“I know you don’t,” said Huldy, and she gave his arm a little squeeze.

“But,” continued ’Zekiel, “Alice is different from most country girls.  Besides, she’s lived in the city and knows city ways.  Anyway, I sha’n’t interfere; I know Mr. Sawyer is a respectable young man, and, by George! when he wants to do anything, don’t he jest put it through.  The way he sarcumvented that Strout was as good as a circus.”

“I think I sarcumvented that Strout, too,” said Huldy, as they reached the corner of Deacon Mason’s front fence.

“You’ve been quite a little flirt in your day,” remarked ’Zekiel, “but it’s all over now;” and he squeezed the little hand that stole confidingly into his big, brawny one.

Quincy at once entered the parlor and found Alice seated in her accustomed easy-chair.

“You have returned, Sir Knight,” was the remark with which Alice greeted him.

“I have, fair lady,” replied Quincy, in the same vein; “I have captured one of the enemy and brought her as a prisoner to your castle.  Here are some documents,” he continued, as he placed the proofs in Alice’s hands, “that contain valuable secrets, and they will, no doubt, furnish strong evidence against the prisoner.”