left it so well preserved, with a reverent feeling that
he must be there and see her. She hoped he did. She wanted him to know
that she was back in his old home, following the haunts which he had
loved, knowing the very same people who had cared for him. She wondered,
as many an older person has wondered, if he did know, and she put the
question eagerly to Susanna, who was herself so old and should,
therefore, be so wise.

"Oh, Widow Sprigg! Do you believe he can see me, does know, is glad? Do
you suppose that right now, while I hold this basket, his basket, up
high toward the sky, careful and loving and not afraid, he is looking
down and loving, too? _Do_ you?"

Susanna pushed her spectacles very high, indeed, that she might better
observe this strange child who now confronted her with gleaming eyes and
that exalted expression; and the face startled her. She was not much
used to children, and this one was of a sort so novel that she made one
uncomfortable. She'd have given "Johnny's girl" the old egg-basket
instead of this "meeting" one, could she have foreseen results. But she
could and did bring the girl out of the clouds with the exclamation:

"My suz! You're enough to give a body the creeps. All I meant was that
Johnny was a good boy and took care. If you want to be like him you'll
take care, too. When he didn't take care, it was Moses' business to lick
him, an' if you keep him much longer at that lane gate, he'll feel like
lickin' you, too. So, off with you."

Katharine lowered the basket. Also, lowered her gaze from the ceiling it
had seemed to pierce till it rested on the old woman's face. What she
saw there was something very different from what the harsh words had
suggested, and, with an impulse of affection, she threw her arms, basket
and all, about Susanna's neck and kissed her ecstatically.

Poor Widow Sprigg caught her breath and gasped it back again before her
surprise allowed her to say: "There, there, deary, run along. Don't
keep Moses waitin' a minute longer. He'll be terrible cross. Yes, you
can take Punchy. I'd ruther you'd take him 'an not, for Sir Philip looks
peakeder 'n ever to-day. The very sight o' that humbly dog 'pears to
make him sick. After you've et your cookies you can put your chestnuts
in the basket to fetch 'em home--if you get any."

Moses had lost his patience, as was to be expected, but he soon regained
good nature while Katharine related to him all that her father had once
to