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 from her fingers as she straightened herself up, and then she called out, "Better late than never!"

"That sounds as if you had been waiting for me!"

"What an idea! I don't believe that I have given you one thought in twenty years."

"Nor I either," said I, "but all the same, it does me good to see you."

"And me too," she answered, crossing her wet arms, and looking at me as I stood there in my shirt-sleeves. Our eyes met and yet we could not seem to look each other in the face; between us the water filled and ran over the rim of the bucket, and at last she spoke again, "Come in and sit down a minute."

"I must be getting on, thank you," I said, "as I am rather in a hurry."

"Slow to come, and quick to go," said she. "I don't see why you came at all, then?"

"I was only taking a stroll about here," said I calmly.

"Money and time must be cheap where you come from."

"Oh! when I get an idea in my head I never count the cost."

"The same old looney still I see!" said she.