ister
out there, with whom he might be rusticated for his next college prank.
Everybody promised to come as far as Kinnicutt "some time" to see them;
the good-bys were all said at last; the city cook had departed, and a
woman had been taken in her place who "had no objections to the country";
and on one of the last bright days of May they skimmed, steam-sped, over
the intervening country between the brick-and-stone-encrusted hills of
Mishaumok and the fair meadow reaches of Kinnicutt; and so disappeared
out of the places that had known them so long, and could yet, alas! do
so exceedingly well without them.
By the first of June nobody in the great city remembered, or remembered
very seriously to regard, the little gap that had been made in its
midst.
CHAPTER XIV.
A DRIVE WITH THE DOCTOR.
"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays."
LOWELL.
"All lives have their prose translation as well as their ideal
meaning."--CHARLES AUCHESTER.
But Kinnicutt opened wider to receive them than Mishaumok had to let
them go.
If Mr. Gartney's invalidism had to be pleaded to get away with dignity,
it was even more needed to shield with anything of quietness their
entrance into the new sphere they had chosen.
Faith, with her young adaptability, found great fund of entertainment in
the new social developments that unfolded themselves at Cross Corners.
All sorts of quaint vehicles drove up under the elms in the afternoon
visiting hours, day after day--hitched horses, and unladed passengers.
Both doctors and their wives came promptly, of course; the "old doctor"
from the village, and the "young doctor" from "over at Lakeside." Quiet
Mrs. Holland walked in at the twilight, by herself, one day, to explain
that her husband, the minister, was too unwell to visit, and to say her
pleasant, unpretentious words of welcome. Squire Leatherbee's daughters
made themselves fine in lilac silks and green Estella shawls, to offer
acquaintance to the new "city people." Aunt Faith came over, once or
twice a week, at times when "nobody else would be round under foot," and
always with some dainty offering from dairy, garden, or kitchen. At
other hours, Glory was fain to seize all opportunity of errands that
Miss Henderson could not do, and irradiate the kitchen, lingeringly,
unti
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