Saturday morning was a time of wild excitement for Marjorie.  She went to the brook by anticipation, to look at the sportive fish, and turned up a flat stone or two, to be sure the crawfish, which the ignorant Timotheus called crabs, were still there.  She was prepared to report favourably on the creek.  Then she journeyed along the banks, looking for new flowers, and over the stepping stones to the opposite shore, and up the hill to the strip of brush, returning with a handful of showy wild blossoms.  Next, she visited the stable yard, and watched Timotheus and Maguffin polishing up the waggonette and the harness of the horses.  The colonel was there, and, in answer to Marjorie’s enquiry regarding his interest in the scene, said:  “You are not going to leave me behind, you little puss, although you did not invite me.  I have invited myself, and am going to accompany you on hohseback.”

“Are you going to take Guff too, colonel?”

“Who is Guff, my deah?”

“Don’t you know Guff?”

“No; I am not awahe that I do.”

     “Oh Guffee am de niggah
       Wif de tah on his heel;
     He done trabble roun’ so libely
       Dat he’s wuff a mighty deal.”

“You do not shuhly mean Maguffin?”

“Of course I do; who else could be Guff?”

“No, I shall not take Maguffin, seeing we come right back.  Had we been going to put up anywheah, of couhse, he would have been indispensable.”

“What a funny name!  Do you mean the waggonette?”

“By what, Mahjohie?”

“By this fencepail?”

“Silly child, I did not say that.  I said indispensable, which means, cannot be done without.”

“Oh!” answered Marjorie; “it’s a long word, is it?”

There was no necessity for starting before ten, at which hour Timotheus brought round the waggonette, and Maguffin the colonel’s horse.  The Squire assisted the two Marjories to the front seat, and took his place beside the younger.  The colonel chivalrously bowed to the ladies while on foot; then, he mounted his horse with a bound, and the transport and escort trotted away.  Mr. Terry, alone and neglected, betook himself to the Carruthers children, who soon found many uses to which a good-natured grandfather could be put, to the advantage and pleasure of his grandchildren.

CHAPTER XX.

     The Collingwood Arrivals—­Coristine Goes to the Post Office—­Mr.
     Perrowne is Funny—­Bang’s Note and the Lawyer’s Fall—­Coristine in
     Hospital—­Miss Carmichael Relents—­Bangs on the Hunt—­The
     Barber—­Mr. Rigby on Wounds—­Berry-Picking with the New
     Arrivals—­The Lawyer’s Crisis—­Matilda’s—­Miss Carmichael in
     Charge.