the child should be sent to Miss Milly's room to amuse her. And
perhaps it would be wiser if she slipped away without telling Aunt
Sabrina. Aunt Sabrina was sure to look as though, when _she_ was a
girl, young ladies did not dash off on long automobile rides
unchaperoned!

Avoiding the living room and the hollyhock porch, Nancy sought out
B'lindy and begged a little lunch.

"We're going for a little ride in Mr. Judson's new car, B'lindy, but we
might not get back in time for lunch--you know you never _can_ tell
what'll happen when you start out in an automobile! A few nice jelly
sandwiches and a little cold chicken and some fruit cake and--tarts----"

B'lindy shook her head. "'Tain't the _lunch_ that's botherin' me,
child, but I can't get the pesky idee out o' my head that somethin' is
goin' to happen! I've been feelin' that way in my bones all day and
all day yesterday, too."

"B'lindy, you foolish, superstitious thing--it's your rheumatism!"

"I guess it ain't my rheumatiz, Miss Anne, and my bones generally feels
right. I ain't forgotten when Miss Milly had that accident nor when
Judson's barn burned. I thought mebbe it was poor Mis' Hopkins dyin'.
Didn't you know the poor soul dropped right off in her sleep last night
and left Timothy Hopkins with those ten children to care for? I sez
this mornin' when Jonathan told me that there was no use tryin' to
understand the ways of the Lord--ten children and that poor Timothy
Hopkins as helpless a body as ever was, anyway, and not much more'n
'nough to feed his own stomach and no one to manage now!"

"How dreadful! Poor man." Nancy tried to make her tone sympathetic.
"Of course that was what your bones were feeling, B'lindy!"

B'lindy turned a truly distressed face to Nancy. "But it _wa'nt_! No,
sir, right this minit my bones is feelin' worse than ever that
somethin' is goin' to happen!" She sighed as she patted a sandwich
together. "Lord knows mebbe it's the heat. There's somethin' brewin',
Miss Anne, and you'd better keep an eye open for a storm--they come up
fast in this valley!"

But Nancy refused to let B'lindy's fears or warnings dampen her gay
spirits. Indeed, she promptly forgot them in the joy of dashing off
over the dusty road. B'lindy's lunch was tucked away in the back;
ahead stretched miles of smooth inviting highway, winding through
pleasant green meadows.

And this man who grasped the wheel of the car with such complete
confidence,