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“I’ll be fourteen in September,” replied Lily.

“But you still play with your doll?” said Barry, laughing kindly down at her.

Lily hugged her doll more tightly, in spite of her father’s kind voice.”Yes, sir,” she replied.

Nelson glanced across at some glass jars filled with sticks of candy.”See here, little Lily, do you like candy?” said he.

“Yes, sir.”

“Wait a minute.”

Lily waited while her father went over to the counter. Soon he returned with a package of the candy.

“I don’t see how you are going to carry so much,” he said, smiling.”Suppose you throw away your doll?”

Lily gazed at her father and hugged the doll tightly, and there was all at once in the child’s expression something mature. It became the reproach of a woman. Nelson’s face sobered.

“Oh, it’s all right, Lily,” he said; “keep you doll. Here, I guess you can carry this candy under your arm.”

Lily could not resist the candy. She obeyed Nelson’s instructions for carrying it, and left the store laden. The two men also left and walked in the opposite direction, talking busily.

When Lily reached home, her grandmother, who was watching for her, spied at once the package of candy.

“What’s that?” she asked, sharply.

“My father gave it to me,” answered Lily, in a faltering voice. Sally regarded her with something like alertness.

“Your father?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Where did you seem him?”

“In the store.”

“He gave you this candy?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What did he say?”

“He asked me how old I was, and– “

“And what?”

“I don’t know,” replied Lily; and it really seemed to her that she did not know, she was so frightened and bewildered by it all, and, more than anything else, by her grandmother’s face as she questioned her.

Old Woman Magoun’s face was that of one upon whom a long-anticipated blow had fallen. Sally Jinks gazed at her with a sort of stupid alarm.

Old Woman Magoun continued to gaze at her grandchild with that look of terrible solicitude, as if she saw the girl in the clutch of a tiger.”You can’t remember what else he said?” she asked, fiercely, and the child began to whimper softly.

“No, ma’am,” she sobbed.”I–don’t know, and– “

“And what?Answer me.”

“There was another man there. A real handsome man.”

“Did he speak to you?” asked Old Woman Magoun.

“Yes, ma’am; he walked along with me a piece,” confessed Lily, with a sob of terror and bewilderment.

“What did hesay to you?” asked Old Woman Magoun, with a sort of despair.

Lily told, in her little, faltering, frightened voice, all of the conversation which she could recall. It sounded harmless enough, but the look of the realization of a long-expected blow never left her grandmother’s face.

The sun was getting low, and the bridge was nearing completion. Soon the workmen would be crowding into the cabin for their promised supper. There became visible in the distance, far up the road, the heavily plodding figure of another woman who had agreed to come and help. Old Woman Magoun turned again to Lily.

“You go right up-stairs to your own chamber now,” said she.

“Good land! ain’t you goin’ to let that poor child stay up and see the fun?” said Sally Jinks.

“You jest mind your own business,” said Old Woman Magoun, forcibly, and Sally Jinks shrank.”You go right up there now, Lily,” said the grandmother, in a softer tone, “and grandma will bring you up a nice plate of supper.”

“When be you goin’ to let that girl grow up?” asked Sally Jinks, when Lily had disappeared.

“She’ll grow up in the Lord’s good time,” replied Old Woman Magoun, and there was in her voice something both sad and threatening. Sally Jinks again shrank a little.

Soon the workmen came flocking noisily into the house. Old Woman Magoun and her two helpers served the bountiful supper. Most of the men had drunk as much as, and more than, was good for them, and Old Woman Magoun had stipulated that there was to be no drinking of anything except coffee during supper.