“As if you didn't know better'n me!” she derided.

“Eh?”

“Oh, you needn't be so innercent,” she retorted with mock indignation; “—you what led me wildgoose chasin' in the first place!”

“What do ye mean?”

Nancy glanced through the open barn door toward the house, and came a step nearer to the old man.

“Listen! 'Twas you that was tellin' me Miss Polly had a lover in the first place, wa'n't it? Well, one day I thinks I finds two and two, and I puts 'em tergether an' makes four. But it turns out ter be five—an' no four at all, at all!”

With a gesture of indifference Old Tom turned and fell to work.

“If you're goin' ter talk ter me, you've got ter talk plain horse sense,” he declared testily. “I never was no hand for figgers.”

Nancy laughed.

“Well, it's this,” she explained. “I heard somethin' that made me think him an' Miss Polly was lovers.”