a
lift."

Phoebe looked into Billie's kind gray eyes for a moment and then smiled
as if she had found something there that pleased her.

"I will come," she said, as Ben took the basket from her arm and helped
her into the car.

"Have you walked across the mountain this morning?" he asked, when they
had started on their way again.

"I started early," she said, "when it was cool."

"And you are not tired?" asked the doctor.

[Illustration: Her eyes had a remote expression as if she had been
awakened from a dream.--Page 136.]

"No, no, I am not tired. Why should I be? This was my work for to-day.
If I had been tired, I could not have done it."

The doctor looked at her curiously.

"You believe, then, you are given strength for each day's task?"

Phoebe did not reply. She was not accustomed to conversation and it was
impossible to find words in which to express herself.

She turned her dark beautiful eyes on him with a gaze that was almost
disconcerting while searching her mind for an answer.

The doctor put his question in a different way.

"When it's your day's work to take a long walk across the mountain in
the hot sun, what keeps you from getting tired?"

"I sing," answered Phoebe, and settled back in the seat between Elinor
and Ben, her brown hands folded loosely in her lap.

The ride over to meet the new maid was intended to be something in the
nature of a picnic, and they had made an early start in order to eat
lunch in the woods after the first stage of the journey. And now, as the
sun crept up toward the meridian, their appetites began to clamor for
food. About that time, too, they came near to the road which led to the
Antlers, where Phoebe hoped to sell some of her baskets. She lifted the
big basket into her lap and touched Billie on the shoulder as a dumb
signal to stop.

"But we are not going to let you go, Phoebe," exclaimed Billie. "You
must lunch with us in the woods. Then we'll have time I think to drop
you at the Antlers and stop for you again on the way back."

"I do not see why Miss Phoebe needs to visit the inn at all," put in Dr.
Hume. "I wanted to get presents for my nieces and nephews. I will buy
the basketful and that will save me no end of trouble searching for
things in the village."

Phoebe thoughtfully considered these generous and hospitable
propositions before she replied with great seriousness of tone and
manner:

"Thank you, but it is too much; I cannot accept. It i