t.

Nan could not exactly understand at last why Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin
always asked about her grandmother every morning with so much interest
and curiosity, or why they came oftener and oftener to help with the
heavy work. Mrs. Thacher had never before minded her occasional
illnesses so much, and some time passed before Nan's inexperienced
eyes and fearless young heart understood that the whole atmosphere
which overhung the landscape of her life had somehow changed, that
another winter approached full of mystery and strangeness and
discomfort of mind, and at last a great storm was almost ready to
break into the shelter and comfort of her simple life. Poor Nan! She
could not think what it all meant. She was asked many a distressing
question, and openly pitied, and heard her future discussed, as if her
world might come to an end any day. The doctor had visited her
grandmother from time to time, but always while she was at school,
until vacation came, and poor Mrs. Thacher grew too feeble to enter
into even a part of the usual business of the farmhouse.

One morning, as Nan was coming back from the Dyer farm with the milk,
she met Mrs. Meeker in the highway. This neighbor and our heroine were
rarely on good terms with each other, since Nan had usually laid
herself under some serious charge of wrong-doing, and had come to
believe that she would be disapproved in any event, and so might enjoy
life as she chose, and revel in harmless malice.

The child could not have told why she shrank from meeting her enemy so
much more than usual, and tried to discover some refuge or chance for
escape; but, as it was an open bit of the road, and a straight way to
the lane, she could have no excuse for scrambling over the stone wall
and cutting short the distance. However, her second thought scorned
the idea of running away in such cowardly fashion, and not having any
recent misdemeanor on her conscience, she went forward unflinchingly.

Mrs. Meeker's tone was not one of complaint, but of pity, and
insinuating friendliness. "How's your grandma to-day?" she asked, and
Nan, with an unsympathetic answer of "About the same," stepped bravely
forward, resenting with all her young soul the discovery that Mrs.
Meeker had turned and was walking alongside.

"She's been a good, kind grandma to you, hain't she?" said this
unwelcome companion, and when Nan had returned a wondering but almost
inaudible assent, she continued, "She'll be a great l