Ah, we have had many pleasant spells together; and his eldest boy and girl, Master George and Miss Henrietta, used to come and fetch our eggs.

My Polly there was in love with him, we said; she sat upon his lap so, when she were two years old, and played with his beautiful hair, and blubbered--oh, she did blubber, when the Captain went away!" This invested Polly with new interest for me, and made me determine to spare no pains in putting her pretty figure well upon the plank.

Then I said to the miller, "How kind of you to draw up your sluice-gates to oblige my father! Now will you put them down and keep them down, to do a great service both to him and me ?" Without a moment's hesitation, he promised that any thing he could do should be done, if I would only tell him what I wanted.

But perhaps it would be better to have our talk outside.

Taking this hint, I followed him back to the bench in the open garden, and there explained what I wished to have done, and no longer concealed the true reason.