NUNCEY.
The driver of the spring-cart was a brown-skinned, bright-eyed, and exceedingly pretty damsel of eighteen or twenty, in a pink print frock with a large crimson rose pinned in its bodice, and a pink sun-bonnet, under the pent of which her dark hair curtained her temples in two ample rippling bands.
"Why, hullo!" She reined up. Hester and the young sailor had fallen apart to let her pass, and from her perch she stared down from one side of the road to the other with a puzzled, jolly smile. "Mornin', Tom!"
"Mornin', Nuncey!"
"Sakes alive! What be carryin' there 'pon your back?"
"School furnitcher."
The girl's eyes wandered from the bundle to Hester, and grew wide with surmise.
"You don't mean to tell me you're the new schoolmistress!"
"Yes, I'm Hester Marvin."
"And I pictered 'ee a frump! But, my dear soul," she asked with sudden solemnity, "what makes 'ee do it?"