ith such a rascal?

They lingered long at the table and after the gay supper was over
Christina was loath to go; she was having such a good time. So she did
not need much coaxing to prevail upon her to stay till the cows were
milked. They could surely do without her for once. It was Friday
night and Jimmie would help Uncle Neil and the girls, she admitted. So
she ran out to the barn with a pail, though Gavin was determined she
should not milk, and she helped with the separator, doing everything
with her usual swiftness, and the Aunties looked on in amazement and
admiration.

The short Autumn evening had descended in a soft purple haze and a
great round golden moon was riding up over Craig-Ellachie when
Christina put on her hat and declared reluctantly that she must leave.
She was ladened with gifts: a jar of tomato relish, a huge cake of
maple sugar, a bottle of a new kind of liniment for Grandpa, and such
an armful of dahlias and phlox and asters and gladioli as Christina had
never seen in her life.

The Aunties and Gavin all came with her as far as the pasture bars
where the tall ghosts of the corn stood whispering in the twilight.
The two younger sisters were for going all the way with her over the
hills, but Auntie Elspie, with her deeper insight, interfered.

"Gavie'll go and carry the flowers for you, Christina," she said.
"We'll have to be gettin' away back, girls." And the girls, being
young themselves, understood, and bade Christina good-night, with many
admonitions to come back again and warnings to Gavie to take good care
of her. Gavin put the bottle of liniment in one pocket and the catsup
in another, the relish and the maple sugar in a third and bundling the
bouquet under his arm in a fashion that made Auntie Flora scream with
dismay, walked by Christina's side across the dim pasture field, with
the golden and purple sunset ahead of them and the silver moonlight
behind coming down over Craig-Ellachie. The night was warm and still
and the endless song of the grass, the swan song of all that was left
of Summer, filled the air.

Christina felt perfectly happy and care-free. A career seemed a
far-off, nebulous thing that one need not fret over. It was very
pleasant to be walking up over the hills in the moonlight and sunset
with Gavin at her side carrying flowers for her. She felt it would be
beautiful to be able to always stroll around this way with the scent of
rosemary heavy in the air, and n