She smiled.  “And I am very glad to meet you,” she said.  “It was very kind of you to bring my little girl home last night and she and I have come to thank you for doing it.”

Jed was more embarrassed than ever.

“Sho, sho!” he protested; “’twasn’t anything.”

“Oh, yes, it was; it was a great deal.  I was getting very worried, almost frightened.  She had been gone ever since luncheon—­dinner, I mean—­and I had no idea where.  She’s a pretty good little girl, generally speaking,” drawing the child close and smiling down upon her, “but sometimes she is heedless and forgets.  Yesterday she forgot, didn’t you, dear?”

Barbara shook her head.

“I didn’t forget,” she said.  “I mean I only forgot a little.  Petunia forgot almost everything.  I forgot and went as far as the bridge, but she forgot all the way to the clam field.”

Jed rubbed his chin.

“The which field?” he drawled.

“The clam field.  The place where Mrs. Smalley’s fish man unplants the clams she makes the chowder of.  He does it with a sort of hoe thing and puts them in a pail.  He was doing it yesterday; I saw him.”

Jed’s eyes twinkled at the word “unplants,” but another thought occurred to him.

“You wasn’t out on those clam flats alone, was you?” he asked, addressing Barbara.

She nodded.  “Petunia and I went all alone,” she said.  “It was kind of wet so we took off our shoes and stockings and paddled.  I—­I don’t know’s I remembered to tell you that part, Mamma,” she added, hastily.  “I—­I guess it must have slipped my mind.”

But Mrs. Armstrong was watching Jed’s face.

“Was there any danger?” she asked, quickly.

Jed hesitated before answering.  “Why,” he drawled, “I—­I don’t know as there was, but—­well, the tide comes in kind of slow off on the flats, but it’s liable to fill up the channels between them and the beach some faster.  Course if you know the wadin’ places it’s all right, but if you don’t it’s—­well, it’s sort of uncomfortable, that’s all.”

The lady’s cheeks paled a bit, but she did not exclaim, nor as Jed would have said “make a fuss.”  She said, simply, “Thank you, I will remember,” and that was the only reference she made to the subject of the “clam field.”

Miss Barbara, to whom the events of dead yesterdays were of no particular concern compared to those of the vital and living to-day, was rummaging among the stock.

“Mamma,” she cried, excitedly, “here is a whale fish like the one I was going to buy for Captain Hedge.  Come and see it.”

Mrs. Armstrong came and was much interested.  She asked Jed questions concerning the “whale fish” and others of his creations.  At first his replies were brief and monosyllabic, but gradually they became more lengthy, until, without being aware of it, he was carrying on his share of a real conversation.  Of course, he hesitated and paused and drawled, but he always did that, even when talking with Captain Sam Hunniwell.