. There wasn't a cloud in sight."

"There's none in sight now; we're inside of one so thick that we
can't see out. I dare say we'll encounter more than one rain-storm
'while the days are going by'; but it would be handy if Joe were here
this morning."

"Yes, indeed! I only hope Joe's conscience acquits him, wherever he
is."

"Oh, I am sure it does--if he has a conscience--for I suppose that's
what you would call his feeling obliged to worry about us," I said, in
quick defence of the absent friend whose actions I might secretly
question, but of whom I could not bear that another should speak
slightingly.

I put on my old felt hat and took up the milk-pail. Jessie was busy
over something that she was cooking in a skillet on the stove, but she
glanced up as I opened the door, and a dash of rain came swirling in.

"Why, Leslie Gordon! Are you going out in this storm dressed like
that? Here, put on my mackintosh."

I had forgotten all about wraps, but a shawl or cape would have been
better than the long mackintosh that Jessie insisted upon buttoning
me into. It was too long; the skirts nearly tripped me up as I started
to run down the path to the corral, and when I held it up it was
little protection.

The corral where the cows were usually penned over-night was behind
the barn. As I came in sight of it a feeling of almost despair swept
over me. The corral bars were down, and the cows were gone! I hung
the milk-pail bottom-side up on one of the bar posts. The raindrops
played a lively tattoo on its resounding sides, while I dropped the
mackintosh skirt, regardless of its trailing length, and stood still,
trying to recollect that I had put up the bars after we had finished
milking on the previous evening. Search my memory as I might,
however, I could not find that I had taken this simple but necessary
precaution, and, if I had forgotten it, it was useless to suppose that
Jessie had not.

"It's just my negligence!" I remarked, scornfully, to my drenched
surroundings; "just my negligence, and now I shall have to hunt for
those cows, and in this rain that shuts everything out it will be like
looking for a needle in a haymow."

I took down the pail, seeming to take down an entire chorus of singing
water witches with it, and retraced my steps to the house. Even this
simple act was performed with some difficulty, for again I stepped on
the mackintosh and nearly fell.

"You've been very quick with the milking, and brea