orkbury, she forgot everything but that she
was at home,--miles away from Boston, her mother near, and Tom, and the
dear old days of paddling about on rafts, and having no dinner-parties to
disgrace herself at, and no aunt to be afraid of.

It seemed as if every one she knew were at the station. Mr. Surly was
there, under strict orders from his wife, to watch for her every train
till she came; and Mr. Fisher was there, just down on an errand from the
mountains; and Mrs. Rowe and Sarah were walking up the street; and Agnes
Gaylord was over at the grocer's, nodding and smiling as Gypsy stepped
upon the platform; and there, too, was Mr. Simms, who had been somewhere
in the cars, and who stepped into the coach just after she did.

"Why, Miss Gypsy!--why, really! You home again, my dear? Why, your father
didn't expect you!"

"I know it," said Gypsy. "Are they all well?"

"Oh, yes, yes, all well,--but to give them such a surprise! It is so
exactly like you, my dear."

"I don't like Boston," said Gypsy, coloring. "I had a horrid time, and I
came home very suddenly."

"Don't like Boston? Well, you _are_ a remarkable young lady!" exclaimed
Mr. Simms, and relapsed into silence, watching Gypsy's flushed and eager
face, as people watch a light coming back into a dark room.

"We have missed you up at the store, my dear," he said, after a while.

"Have you? I'm glad. Oh! who's that with Miss Melville out walking under
the elm-trees?"

"I guess it's Mr. Hallam."

"Oh, to be sure," interrupted Gypsy, looking very bright. "I see,--Mr. Guy
Hallam. Now I guess I know why she wouldn't teach school!"

"They are to be married in the spring," said Mr. Simms.

"Just think!" said Gypsy. "How funny! Now she'll have to stay at home and
keep house all day,--I think she's real silly, don't you?"

Of all the many remarkable things that Miss Gypsy had ever said, Mr. Simms
thought this capped the climax.

Now the coach had rattled up the hill, and lumbered round the corner, and
there was the old house, looking quiet and pleasant and dear, in the
morning sunlight. Gypsy was so excited that she could not sit still, and
kept Mr. Simms in a fever of anxiety, for fear she would tumble out of the
coach windows. It seemed to her as if she had been gone a year, instead of
just one week.

She sprang down the carriage-steps at a bound, and ran into the house. Her
mother was out in the kitchen helping Patty about the dinner. She heard
such a si