s he darted up the steps
toward Martha. "Got the finest mess of fish coming up here in a little
while you ever laid your eyes on," he shouted, catching the old nurse's
cap from her head and clapping it upon his own, roaring with laughter,
as he fled in the direction of the kitchen.

Jane joined in the merriment and, moving a chair from the hall, took
her seat on the porch to await the boy's return. She was too happy to
busy herself about the house or to think of any of her outside duties.
Doctor John would not be in until the afternoon, and so she would
occupy herself in thinking out plans to make her sister's home-coming a
joyous one.

As she looked down over the garden as far as the two big gate-posts
standing like grim sentinels beneath the wide branches of the hemlocks,
and saw how few changes had taken place in the old home since her girl
sister had left it, her heart thrilled with joy. Nothing really was
different; the same mass of tangled rose-vines climbed over the
porch--now quite to the top of the big roof, but still the same dear
old vines that Lucy had loved in her childhood; the same honeysuckle
hid the posts; the same box bordered the paths. The house was just as
she left it; her bedroom had really never been touched. What few
changes had taken place she would not miss. Meg would not run out to
meet her, and Rex was under a stone that the doctor had placed over his
grave; nor would Ann Gossaway peer out of her eyrie of a window and
follow her with her eyes as she drove by; her tongue was quiet at last,
and she and her old mother lay side by side in the graveyard. Doctor
John had exhausted his skill upon them both, and Martha, who had
forgiven her enemy, had sat by her bedside until the end, but nothing
had availed. Mrs. Cavendish was dead, of course, but she did not think
Lucy would care very much. She and Doctor John had nursed her for
months until the end came, and had then laid her away near the
apple-trees she was so fond of. But most of the faithful hearts who had
loved her were still beating, and all were ready with a hearty welcome.

Archie was the one thing new--new to Lucy. And yet she had no fear
either for him or for Lucy. When she saw him she would love him, and
when she had known him a week she would never be separated from him
again. The long absence could not have wiped out all remembrance of the
boy, nor would the new child crowd him from her heart.

When Doctor John sprang from his gig