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12 wishes should be frustrated. I don't blame him, I'm sure; for we may be arrant scamps for what he knows. I wonder if we couldn't discover some common friends, if we tried."

"Don't try, for heaven's sake!" said Estcott. "Remember what Hobart was saying last night of his experience of the smallness of the world. If we tell him we have discovered a civilized family in some of our nearest neighbors, he will tell you he is in mortal terror lest they should turn out near relations on his hands. And as for Unc., I shudder to think of his observations on the subject! Well, considering the fact that our two partners embarked in this enterprise for the purpose of admission into a state of uncivilization pure and simple, it is a little hard; though, for my part, I think it will sweeten my daily toil for the whole time to come, just to be able to reflect that there is such a lovely maiden as that within a day's riding."

Dr. Gray returned from his visit to Westfields, as the young strangers' place was called, the evening meal was over, and Stella went into the dining-room with him to preside over the supper that had been kept for him.

"I hope you have had a pleasant day, papa," she said. "You look as if you had."

"I have indeed," said Dr. Gray: "it's been a rare experience to come into my life now. They are four as fine fellows as I ever came across, if appearances are to be trusted. The two who were here are the youngest,—one of their partners being, I suppose, thirty-five, and the other nearer to fifty. This one, by the way, whose name is Bell, seems to be the head of the concern. They all call him 'Uncle,' or 'Unc.,' and are plainly devoted to him. He is the one that's been sick; and you should have heard him scold them when he found they had been for a doctor. They tried to pretend that I had only come to make a friendly call, and had given me that cue beforehand; but it didn't go down with the old fellow at all. He is fat and ugly, and has a great rough shock of hair and a grizzly, shaggy beard, and was a great contrast to the young fellows; but they seem all to dote upon him, and took his Iterating like three lambs, and then set to work with the utmost humility to try to persuade him to let me prescribe, which he flatly refused to do. He wasn't going to die yet, he said, and if he did it was his own affair, and if his time had come he had no intention