"Well I don't know whose he is if he isn't yours," said Hugh. "And even the Finns sent us some fish that their brother had caught, because, they said, they had more than they wanted. And Dr. Quackenboss sent us a goose and a turkey. We didn't like to keep them, but we were afraid if we sent them back it would not be understood."
"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 ha'n'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 ain't all that's glad of it," Miss Elster went on, with a glance of her bright eye.