“ Don’t worry, Martha,” she added, seeing that the girl beside her was struggling with emotion, “Jim knows these roads, as probably no one else does. He will find her, I’m sure.”
“But—but—” faltered Martha, “suppose something has happened to Nan.”
“We just won’t think about such a possibility,” decreed Miss Ashton determinedly.
“But I don’t see why Jeanette didn’t waken me.”
“She probably thought every minute that Nancy would come. You know how it is, Martha, when one is waiting for somebody. Besides, after all, what could you have done?” ”

“ Janie——”
“Yes, Nan?”
“I suppose you noticed that Jim has been—has been—sort of nice to me.”
“Yes.”
“Well—he—he asked me to marry him.”
“Oh, Nancy darling, I’m so glad!”
Jeanette caught her friend in her arms, and squeezed her until she could hardly breathe. “I think he’s just fine, and I hope you’ll be just awfully, awfully happy.”
“Not so fast! Not so fast!” protested Nancy. “I haven’t said ‘yes’ yet.”
“You haven’t? Why Nan, don’t you care too? I thought you did.”
“I do; but I must be positive. It is too eternal, too serious a thing to decide in a hurry. I’m not even engaged yet.” ”

“ A huge double bed near the fireplace, a single beside the two long windows (from which they could see the wharf) , a big wardrobe, an immense dresser, a fair-sized square table and three chairs only partly filled the old-fashioned room; and its very high ceilings accentuated its huge proportions.
“You could take the single bed if you wanted to, Mart,” proposed Nancy; “and give Miss Ashton a chance to get a little real sleep. You see, we know how restless she is at night, as well as by day,” she added to Miss Ashton. ”

“ Laughing, they turned in opposite directions, Martha toward the garage where she knew Mr. Pierce would be waiting; and Nancy toward Lower Woods Harbor.
The selection of a luncheon set took Miss Ashton and Jeanette much longer than they expected; then they spent an hour looking at the fascinating souvenirs in one of the shops devoted to such bait for the tourist. It is almost impossible to tear one’s self away from their attractive displays.
Martha found driving on the dusty, winding roads of Nova Scotia quite a different thing from rolling smoothly over the concrete roads at home. ”

“ Jim good-naturedly stopped the bus and let the girls get out to take a picture of the animals at a watering trough where they paused for a drink.
“Why, they have no harness,” said Jeanette, “only that heavy wooden yoke laid across their necks and binding their heads together. How do you guide them?” she asked of the driver.
“With this small whip, Miss, and my directions,” replied the man.
“Poor things!” said Nancy, after they had climbed back into the bus again. “They look so sad, and lumber along so bent down that it really is depressing. The expression in their eyes is truly pathetic. ”

“ Seeing a policeman crossing the station, the man slunk off, and was soon lost in the crowd; and the girls hurried out, and up the stairs toward the train.
“My goodness!” panted Martha, as they almost ran along the platform. “I was scared.”
“I wasn’t scared; for there were too many people all around us; but I was almost stunned by the unexpectedness of the encounter,” said Nancy.
“Poor, poor Georgia,” commented Jeanette, “to have such a brother! What do you——”
“Our car!” cried Martha. “It’s gone.”
“It can’t be,” protested Nancy. “That is our engine.” ”

“ The floor is bare, and the woodwork painted Acadian blue; and on the walls are a few holy pictures, and a couple of rifles. At one side of the fireplace with its andirons and swinging crane, stands a wooden cradle with a hood at one end; and on the other side is the spinning wheel. The chairs have seats made of strips of deerskin, woven in and out. “Just like the mats we made out of paper in the kindergarten,” said Nancy. One of the oddest articles in the room is a table which one can transform into a chair or a cupboard by the proper manipulation of the leaves. ”

“ RAMBLES ABOUT YARMOUTH
“What are we to do to-day?” asked Martha at the breakfast table.
“Shop, and see the town,” suggested Jeanette.
“Suits me,” said Nancy, when they all waited for her comments. Just a few minutes before, she had heard the whistle of a boat from the wharf. The steamer from Boston must have docked, and the big bus was down there now ready for a new cargo of passengers. What would this crowd be like? She wondered.
“I have some letters to write; so I’ll have to be excused,” said Miss Ashton. “If I finish in time, I may hunt you up; if not, we’ll all meet here at lunch time.” ”

“ We are always looking forward to getting to the next place, or doing the next thing, and so lose the full joy of what we are doing at the time. As our friend Horace says, ‘Carpe diem.’”
“There was a lot of good sense in his poems, if he was a bit gloomy,” said Martha, as if she were announcing some hitherto unknown truth; and she wondered why the girls laughed.
“But it’s true, as you say, Janie,” said Nancy, “and then afterwards, when we think it over, we realize what we have missed, and wish we had enjoyed it more intensely while we had it.” ”

“ I suppose Miss Ashton suspects; and Jim has told his father and mother. I’ll tell Mother and Dad, and Uncle John, but I don’t want anyone else even to suspect it.”
“But Martha?” said Jeanette.
“Oh, she’s so wrapped up in Mr. Pierce that she probably hasn’t even noticed us,” giggled Nancy softly.
“Don’t deceive yourself,” said Jeanette, smiling to herself in the darkness over Nan’s naivete, “Martha is more observing than you give her credit for being. She hides a lot under that rather abrupt way of hers.” ”

“ Oh, have a heart,” he added, as she hesitated.
“Yes, Janie,” urged Martha; “do take pity on the rest of us, and keep that Perpetual Motion quiet for a few minutes. It would be an act of charity.”
Thus impelled, figuratively and literally, Jeanette, blushing to the roots of her hair, rose to comply with the request. Bowing low, Griff took her hand and led her ceremoniously across the room to the window seat, where he began to talk nonsense to her in a low tone.
“You other people will have to amuse yourselves,” he paused long enough to say. “We are too busy to bother about you.” ”

“ And you’ve just finished your breakfast,” laughed Jeanette.
“And not a petit déjeuner either,” said Nancy.
“I didn’t eat any more than you did,” retorted Martha. “You had three muffins, an egg, and a heap of bacon, besides peaches and cream.”
“Don’t let’s stop to quarrel over what we ate,” said Jeanette. “We must get right to work. You allot our tasks, Miss Ashton, and we’ll do our best to perform them.”
It was two o’clock before everything that could be prepared ahead of time was finished.
“What are you going to wear this afternoon?” asked Martha, as they left the kitchenette. ”

“ There is no good stopping place, once you have begun. If you really want to buy any of these things for friends, I would suggest that you get them as Christmas gifts. Lots of people buy their gifts when on their vacations.”
“Well, I don’t know about buying Christmas gifts as early as this,” said Martha, after thinking a minute; “but anyhow I’m going to get a sweater for myself. This rose one is lovely. Don’t you think so?”
“It is sweet,” said Jeanette; “but would it go with everything?”
“Always the careful shopper, Janie,” laughed Nancy. ”

“ The kicker, like the poor, we have always with us.
“There is really no danger,” cried John Pierce, working his way in and out among the people. “An SOS has been sent out, and assistance will soon be here.”
He had no time to linger with Martha now, but paused beside her long enough to say, “Don’t get excited. There is no need for worry.”
Jeanette and Martha, pale with anxiety, sat on the arms of Miss Ashton’s chair; for Jim had succeeded in finding a place for her to sit down. He and Nancy were half leaning, half sitting, on a pile of camp stools near by. ”

“ Cape Blomidon’s purple head, thrust far out into the basin, acts as a barrier to fog and storm, thus keeping this region especially suitable for fruit raising. The Micmac Indians believe that Glooscap lives on Blomidon.”
“Glooscap?” inquired Nancy.
“A supernatural hero, something like the Grecian Hercules.”
“Oh! I wish we could see it!” cried Martha. “Who, the hero?” asked Jim.
“Of course not! I’m not so stupid. I mean Cape Blomidon. Then we could gather amethysts for ourselves.”
“Can’t you be satisfied with your souvenir of Captain Kidd?” asked Jim, with a sidewise glance at Nancy. ”