"Send them back!" said Fleda. "That would never do! All
Queechy would have rung with it."
"Well, we didn't," said Hugh. "But so we sent one of them to
Barby's old mother, for Christmas."
"Poor Dr. Quackenboss!" said Fleda. "That man has as near as possible killed me two or three times. As for the others, they are certainly the oddest of all the finny tribes. I must go out and see Barby for a minute."
It was a good many minutes, however, before she could get free to do any such thing.
"You han't lost no flesh," said Barby, shaking hands with her anew. "What did they think of Queechy keep, down in York?"
"I don't know I didn't ask them," said Fleda. "How goes the world with you, Barby?"
"I'm mighty glad you are come home, Fleda," said Barby, lowering her voice.
"Why?" said Fleda, in a like tone.
"I guess I aint all that's glad of it," Miss Elster went on, with a glance of her bright eye.
"I guess not," said Fleda, reddening a little "but what is the matter?"