ut in pursuit of an invisible purpose,
sounded loud. Hannah Rhein looked up from the small stocking she was
knitting to watch them. Her secular occupation was contradicted by her
black silk "Sunday dress," and there was a holiday appearance about the
little girl who sat very still, looking as though stillness were
habitual with her.

"You better run out to the gate. Maybe you can see them," Hannah said.
The child went, and stood looking down the road so long that she rolled
up her knitting and followed. "There they are!" she exclaimed. "Father
and Aunt Calista. Don't forget to give her a kiss when she gets out."

Conrad Rhein's austere face expressed no pleasure as he stepped from the
carriage and helped his companion, but she was not to be depressed by a
brother-in-law's gravity. Calista Yohe, moving lightly in her pink
delaine dress, resembled the prickly roses coming into bloom beside the
gate, which would flourish and fade imperturbably in accordance with
their own times and seasons. At present she looked as though the fading
were remote. She shook hands joyfully and seized the carpet-bag which
Hannah had taken.

"I guess I don't let you carry that," she said. "It's heavy."

The little girl put up her face, and Calista kissed her without speaking
to her, and went on talking:

"You are right, Dolly is hot. We drove good and hard. Conrad didn't want
to do it to give her the whip, but I don't like to ride slow. Let's sit
on the porch awhile."

The child placed her bench near the old woman's chair, but she watched
the young one admiringly. Calista did not notice her.

"How are the folks?" Hannah asked.

"They are good."

"Had they a big wedding?"

"I guess! It was teams on both sides of the road all the way down to
where you turn, and they had three tables. She wore such a nice dress,
too; such a silk it was, with little flowers in."

"How did it go while you were there?"

"Oh, all right; she's a nice girl and he and I could always get along;
but it wasn't like my home. If a man gets married once, he doesn't want
his sister afterwards," Calista said, cheerfully.

"Well, you stay here now. We are glad to have you. Conrad he is quiet
and I am getting along, so it's not such a lively place, but I guess you
can make out."

"Well, I think!" said Calista, "I like to work. Is Conrad always so
crabbed? He hardly talked anything all the way over."

"He hasn't much to say, but he is easy to get along with. He d