“I was thinkin’.  Humph!  What would you do to fix it so’s your sister would stop her bossin’ and you could have your own way once in a while?”

“Do?  By time, I’d do anything!  Anything, by thunder-mighty!”

“You would?  You mean it?”

“You bet I mean it!”

“Would you promise to stay right here and work for Mrs. Thankful as long as she wanted you to?”

“Course I would.  I ain’t anxious to leave.  It’s Hannah that’s got that notion.  Fust she was dead sot on my workin’ here and now she’s just as sot on my leavin’.”

“Do you know why she’s so—­what do you call it?—­sot?”

Kenelm fidgeted and looked foolish.  “Well,” he admitted, “I—­I wouldn’t wonder if ’twas account of you, Imogene.  Hannah knows I—­I like you fust rate, that we’re good friends, I mean.  She’s—­well, consarn it all!—­she’s jealous, that’s what’s the matter.  She’s awful silly that way.  I can’t so much as look at a woman, but she acts like a plumb idiot.  Take that Abbie Larkin, for instance.  One time she—­ho, ho!  I did kind of get ahead of her then, though.”

Imogene nodded.  “Yes,” she said; “I heard about that.  Well, maybe you can get ahead of her again.  You wait a minute.”

She went into the living-room.  When she came back she had an ink-bottle, a pen and a sheet of note-paper in her hands.

“What’s them things for?” demanded Mr. Kenelm.

“I’ll tell you pretty soon.  Kenelm, you—­you asked me somethin’ a while ago, didn’t you?”

Kenelm started.  “Why—­why, Imogene,” he stammered, “I—­I don’t know’s I know what you mean.”

“I guess you know, all right.  You did ask me—­or, anyhow, you would if I hadn’t said no before you had the chance.  You like me pretty well, don’t you, Kenelm?”

This pointed question seemed to embarrass Mr. Parker greatly.  He turned red and glanced at the door.

“Why—­why, yes, I like you fust rate, Imogene,” he admitted.  “I—­I don’t know’s I ever see anybody I liked better.  But when it comes to—­You see, that time when I said—­er—­er what I said I was kind of—­of desperate along of Hannah and—­”

“Well, you’re desperate now, ain’t you?  Here,” sharply, “you sit still and let me finish.  I’ve got a plan and you’d better listen to it.  Kenelm, won’t you sit still, for—­for my sake?”

The “big day” of the Ostable County Cattle Show and Fair came to an end as all days, big or little, have to come.  Captain Obed Bangs and his guests enjoyed every minute of it.  They inspected the various exhibits, witnessed the horse races and the baseball game, saw the balloon ascension, and thrilled with the rest of the great crowd at the “parachute drop.”  It was six o’clock when they left the Fair grounds and Thankful began to worry about the condition of affairs at the High Cliff House.

“It’ll be way past dinner time when you and I get there, Emily,” she said, “and goodness knows what my boarders have had to eat.  Imogene’s smart and capable enough, but whether she can handle everything alone I don’t know.  We ought to have started sooner, but it’s nobody’s fault more’n mine that we didn’t.”