vertheless, the Gordons had benefited
some from the slight addition to their income, and there were many
comforts in the big stone house which had been absent in the early
days. Early in the evening Mother MacAllister and Charles Stuart came
over, and Granny Teeter returned their visit, bringing with her Auntie
Jinit McKerracher, who had dropped in. Elizabeth and Mary and Sarah
Emily, when they were not quarreling over who should nurse Baby Jackie,
managed to set the table for a second late tea. A grand tea it was
too, with the big shining tablecloth Aunt Margaret had brought from the
Old Country, and the high glass preserve dish that always had reminded
Elizabeth in her early years of the pictures of the laver in the
tabernacle court. It was a great day altogether, and Elizabeth enjoyed
so much the old joy of straying down the lane and over the fields with
John and Charles Stuart, that when John Coulson drove up to the door,
and Annie with the Vision, once more a bundle of shawls, was put into
the carriage, she was glad she was to remain at home till Monday.

The Coulson family drove away, with a bunch of early Dale rhubarb, and
green onions, under the carriage seat, along with a fresh loaf of
Mother MacAllister's bread, and a roll of Auntie Jinit McKerracher's
butter, and a jar of Granny Teeter's cider. When they were gone, John
went into the study for a talk with his father alone, and Elizabeth and
Mary repaired to their little room to discuss the week's doings. It
was not the bare room it once was; the girl's deft hands had decorated
it with cheap but dainty muslin curtains, pictures, and bric-a-brac.
Elizabeth went down on her knees to clear out a bureau drawer for the
clothes she had brought.

She laughed as she brought up some old treasures. Here was a pair of
white pillow covers that Mrs. Jarvis had sent her on her thirteenth
birthday. There was a motto outlined on each, and silk threads for
working it had accompanied the gift. But Elizabeth had finished only
one, and put a half-dozen stitches into the other. "Look at those!"
she cried, half-laughing, half-ashamed, as she hung them over a chair.
"I wonder when I'll ever get them finished." Mary picked them up, and
examined them. "You really ought to do them, Lizzie. They'd be so
pretty for our bed done in the pale blue silk." She read the mottoes
aloud, "I slept and dreamed that life was beauty," and the second, "I
awoke and found that life was du