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 of him to decide which were the better, the Brandywines or the Strawberry Reds themselves.

Then something happened, something as unlooked for as it was disconcerting. This surprise took the form of Miss Arabella herself, calmly and methodically propping the back of Cap'n Steiner's old canvas camp-chair against the trunk of the tree in which Lonely sat perched. A moment later the old Captain himself appeared, and Miss Arabella went over to the side veranda for her rocking-chair.

The old Captain stretched himself out for his customary noonday nap. Miss Arabella put on her spectacles, opened her "Family Guardian," and asserted that she was ready for a good long spell o' reading before she was going to get settled down after that young varmint's leading her such a chase—the young whipper-snapper!

The young varmint and whipper-snapper at this pricked up his guilty young ears.

The old Captain, leaning back in his chair, swore softly behind his red bandanna, spread over his face to keep away the flies.