Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/101

Rh disliked the very sight of a "summer boarder." He disliked their clothes, their ways, their general bearing. He disliked the annual invasion of the quiet of the town; the assumption which so many of them showed only too plainly, that they felt that the Deerway farms and farmers were created chiefly for the purpose of making summer comfortable to city people who must leave home. So John never crossed the threshold of Mrs. Wilder's house, if he could help it, while there was a single, summer boarder left; and this had been the source of many a half quarrel between him and Molly, who, gentle as she was, could not help resenting and misinterpreting his absence.

And here was John Bassett, at the Middleburg camp-meeting, absolutely spending a whole afternoon and evening in watching a "summer boarder," following her about, looking at her face and studying it, as he never studied a woman's face before!

John's reverie did not last long. It passed by quick and easy stages into a sound sleep. When he waked it was almost dark. He sprang to his feet in bewildered wonder, but soon recalled the whole situation of his affairs. Sentiment and excitement had yielded in him, by this time, to fatigue and heat and hunger; and it must be acknowledged that as he walked briskly back toward the centre of the grove, his thoughts of himself and his behavior were not complimentary. He was as nearly