" for a dozen years; and the wonder was that he should so long have lived alone in the big, sq

ettled about the house. As to that and his great, spreading, half-cul

ably sure of, on his return from his wedding

duties as were assigned him, with a new and grand idea steadily taking shape in his mind. He felt as if his brains too, like his body, were growing. Some of his mother's older and more intimate frie

hemselves wonderfully busy, one way and another, so that they paid even

, to take for himself whatever of odd time he mig

his dinner, and slipped away, leaving her in undisturbed possession of the table and h

good-sized bundle out from under the lilac-thicket

ross-road leading down to the shore. There he sat, eying one passer-b

they'll fit him, and that's

re he could have found a human being better suited to his present ch

e shade of black. His old tow trowsers and calico shirt revealed the shining

abney, "was yo

h a peal of very musical laugh

; "but I was very ne

of his white teeth. "Done ye good, den

ou were only dressed up," sai

t he seized the bundle Dab threw him

n de pockets

d Dab; "but ther

med Dick. "But won't

off what he had on, before getting into his unexpected present. Coat, vest, and trousers, they

Dick very proudly, as he strutted across the

u do, then?

a-fishin'," said Dic

y odds to them," said Dabney.

white friend were really a pretty good fit, marched on down th

is, when he and Miranda get home again,"

as escort to his mother's guests, she rewarded him with more t

she laid her plump hand on the collar of his new coat, and k

spent too much of his time with that

was till I told her. I'm going to wear a label with m

n your other suit in t

ep this for Sundays

e family; but the girls were all very busy just then, with their books and their sewing, and he did n

a more than usually early riser, for he felt

he came in to breakfast, "did I not

" replied Dab: this

claimed Mr

s!" crie

tha. "Mother, that is not

g again," mildly

rs. Kinzer, "wha

to buy. The lot I wore yesterday were a present from Ham Morris.

t was vigorously resented by the remaining three. As so

about it, but it's too late now. Anyhow,

ng suit?"

old ones,-those you too

ey are," slowly

y are?" responded a c

day afternoon, and I reckon he's gone a-fishing again to-d

was pleasantly mistaken; and his sisters had it all to themselves for a mome

ore ways than one. Dabney, I shall want you to go over to the Morris house with me after

ank astonishment, and Samantha would have left t

ympathy, gave a very admiring look at her br

t such a change in Dabney's appearance might have

used to that second suit, as yet,

imself, "what Jenny Walt

f she'd

had finished his breakfast, an

, girls. I almost fear

n't a little

claimed Samantha. "And h

oes grow so!" r

you get Dab to give Dick Lee the

ut it," replie

y's mother had begun to take

that he was "growing in more ways than one," and it was quite

nto a triumphant success; and, before the evening w

and I'd ever so much rather have a f