ot the
time to allow any ill feeling among the families of the settlement, and
that Rebecca's failure to ask the Hortons to come with the other
neighbors to taste the wild honey could easily offend them.

Anna stood looking first at Rebby and then at her mother. It was so
seldom that Rebby cried, that it seemed a very dreadful thing to her
younger sister.

"I'll go, Mother, let me go!" she asked eagerly.

"Do not be so foolish, Anna," responded Mrs. Weston. "This is your
sister's duty. It has nothing to do with you. Take off your pinafore,
Rebecca, and do as I bid you."

Rebecca was sobbing bitterly. She could not believe that her mother
really meant that she should go and ask Lucia Horton's forgiveness.

"If you knew----" she began, tempted to tell her mother all that Lucia
had said about the liberty pole, and even what they had done to prevent
its erection. But the memory of her promise held her. She knew that her
mother expected obedience, and she took off her pinafore, took her
sunbonnet, and, still sobbing, went slowly from the room. Anna started
to follow her, but Mrs. Weston called her back sharply.

"Anna, you are not to go with your sister," she said, and the little
girl came slowly back.

"Oh, dear," she sighed, "I wish Lucia Horton would go sailing off to far
lands. To--to Egypt," she concluded. For Anna had never heard much that
was pleasant about Egypt, and was sure that all this trouble was
Lucia's fault.

Rebecca had never been so unhappy in her life as when she realized that
her mother expected her to go to the Hortons' and ask Lucia's pardon for
not inviting Mrs. Horton and Lucia to the honey party. There were robins
singing in the trees, bluebirds flitting about with gay little notes,
and the spring day was full of beauty, but Rebby was not conscious of it
as she went slowly along the path.

Very soon she was again standing in front of the Hortons' door, and
summoning all her courage she rapped loudly. There was no response, and
after a few moments she rapped again; but the house seemed silent and
deserted, and no one came to open the door.

And now Rebecca did not know what to do. If she went home she knew that
her mother would say that she must return at a later hour to fulfil her
errand. So the little girl decided to sit down on the steps and wait for
a time.

Twilight was near at hand. The sun was low in the western sky, and a
cool little breeze crept up from the river and stirred the