"During the summer, of course, I have no time to do any studying, and not too much in the winter. I have a great deal else to busy me, helping Mr. Marcy."
"Why, what do you help him with?" inquired Gerald, with interest, remembering Touchtone in the office and the dining-room, and indeed every-where about the Ossokosee, except the parlors.
"Well, Mr. Marcy calls me a kind of aid-de-camp to him and Mrs. Ingraham, the housekeeper, too, particularly when there is danger of the kitchen running short of supplies. Now and then, if the farmers around here fail us, I have to spend half the day driving about the country, or you might starve at supper-table all at once. O, and then I look after one or two books in the office!"
Gerald laughed.
"Papa has kept me here because he heard so much about the table; and because Mr. Marcy told him there were so few boys that I couldn't get into mischief. Papa used to be a broker, but he don't do any thing now. I believe he retired, or whatever they call it, a year or so ago. He's been camping out with a party of
