"  What  you  two  quar'lin'  about  ? "  demanded
'Manda  Grier,  coming  suddenly  into  the  room  ;  and
that  turned  their  retrospective  griefs  into  joy  again.
THE  APPRENTICESHIP  OF  LEMUEL  BARKER.  221

"  I  'm  scoldin'  him  because  he  don't  think  enough
of  himself,"  cried  Statira.
"  Well,  he  seems  to  take  it  pretty  meekly,"  said
'Manda  Grier.  "  I  guess  you  didn't  scold  very  hard.
Now,  young  man,"  she  added  to  Lemuel,  "  I  guess
you  better  be  goin'.  It's  five  o'clock,  and  if  you
should  be  out  after  dark,  and  the  bears  should  get
you,  I  don't  know  what  S'tira  would  do."

"  'Tain't  five  yet !  "  pleaded  Statira.  "  That  old
watch  of  yours  is  always  tryin'  to  beat  the  town
clock."

"Well,  it's  the  clock  that's  ahead  this  time,"
said  'Manda  Grier.  "My  watch  says  quarter  of.
Come,  now,  S'tira,  you  let  him  go,  or  he  sha'n't  come
back  any  more."

They  had  a  parting  that  Lemuel's  mother  would
have  called  sickish  without  question;  but  it  all
seemed  heavenly  sweet  and  right.  Statira  said  now
he  had  got  to  kiss  'Manda  Grier  too ;  and  when  he
insisted,  her  chin  knocked  against  his,  and  saved
her  lips,  and  she  gave  him  a  good  box  on  the  ear.
"There,  I  guess  that'll  do  for  one  while,"  she
said,  arranging  her  tumbled  hair ;  "  but  there  's  more
kisses  where  that  came  from,  for  both  of  you  if  you
want  'em.  Coots  ! "

Once,  when  Lemuel  was  little,  he  had  a  fever,  and
he  was  always  seeming  to  glide  down  the  school-
house  stairs  without  touching  the  steps  with  his  feet.
