“I know that you love me,” said the girl brokenly; “I know that, all right!”

“I couldn’t have stood Pappy Lon nor Lem nor none of the rest,” groaned Flukey, “and I was to tell ye tonight to let me go, and I would come back for ye; but if ye be made to go with Lem—­”

“That makes ye take me with you,” gasped Flea eagerly.  “Huh?”

“Yep, that makes me take ye with me, Flea; but if we go mebbe sometimes we have to go without no bread.”

There was warning in his tones; for he had heard stories of other lads who had left the settlement and had returned home lank, pale, and hungry.

“I’ve been out o’ bread here,” encouraged Flea.  “Granny’s put me to bed many a time, and no supper.  Get along, will ye?”

“Yep, I’m goin’; but I can’t leave Snatchet.  We can take my dorg, Flea.  Where’s he gone?”

“We’ll take him,” promised Flea.  “He’s in the wood-house.  Scoot and get the duds and him!”

The boy toiled up the rocks to the top of the cave, and Flea heard his departing steps for a moment, then seated herself in tremulous fear.

Flukey pushed open the cabin door, listened a moment, and stepped in.  No sound save of loud breathing came from the back room where the old woman slept.  At the top of the ladder he could hear Lon snoring loudly.  Flukey crawled upon his knees to a small box against the wall.  He pulled out a pair of brown overalls and a blue shirt, and with great caution crept back.  Almost before Flea realized that he had gone, he was in the cave again with Snatchet in his arms, displaying his plunder.

“Put ’em on quick!” ordered Flukey.  “Here, hold still!” As he spoke, he gathered Flea’s black curls into his fingers and cut them off boylike to her head.  “If Pappy Lon catches us,” he went on, “he’ll knock hell out of us both.”

The girl, having surrendered her spirit of command, crawled into the trousers and donned the blue shirt.  After extinguishing the candle, which Flukey slipped into his pocket, they clambered out of the cave, leaving the rocky floor strewn with locks of hair, and stole softly along the shore toward the college hill.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Horace Shellington, newly fledged attorney and counsellor-at-law, sat in his luxurious library, his feet cocked upon the desk in true bachelor fashion.  He was apparently deep in thought, his handsome head resting against the back of the chair, when his meditations were broken by a knock at the door.

“Come in.  Is it you, Sis?” he said.

“Yes, Dear,” was the answer as the girl entered.  “Everett wants us to go in his party to the Dryden fair.  Would you like to?”

Horace glanced up quizzically and smiled as the blush mounted to her fair hair.  “The question, Ann dear, rests with you.”

“I never tire being with Everett,” Ann said slowly.

“That’s because you’re in love with him, Sis.  When a girl is in love she always wants to be with the lucky chap.”