"Yes, especially with you for a keeper to stir me up once in a while with a long pole."
"And that I'd engage to do—cheap."
The entrance of Mrs. Condiment with the tea-tray put an end to the controversy. It was, as yet, a drawn battle.
"And what about the watch, my little Cap?"
"Take it back, uncle, if you please."
"But they won't have it back; it has got your initials engraved upon it. Look here," said the old man, holding the watch to her eyes. "'C. L. N.'—those are not my initials," said Capitola, looking up with surprise.
"Why, so they are not; the blamed fools have made a mistake. But you'll have to take it, Cap."
"No, uncle; keep it for the present," said Capitola, who was too honest to take a gift that she felt she did not deserve, and yet too proud to confess as much.
Peace was proclaimed—for the present.
Alas! 'twas but of short continuance. During these two days of coolness and enforced quietude Old Hurricane had gathered a store of bad humors that required expenditure.