ome and live
in! That old uncle of yours was as cracked as he could be to think you'd
ever stay here for good. And imagine spending even a single shilling
buying land here. I wouldn't take a barrowful at a gift."

"Well, I am taking a great many barrowfuls," said Anna, "and I am sure
Uncle Joachim was right to buy a place here--he was always right."

"Oh, of course, it's your duty now to praise him up. Perhaps it gets
better farther on, but I don't see how anybody can squeeze two thousand
a year out of a desert like this."

The prospect from the railway that day was certainly not attractive; but
Anna told herself that any place would look dreary such weather, and was
much too happy in the first flush of independence to be depressed by
anything whatever. Had she not that very morning given the chambermaid
at the Berlin hotel so bounteous a reward for services not rendered that
the woman herself had said it was too much? Thus making amends for those
innumerable departures from hotels when Susie had escaped without giving
anything at all. Had she not also asked, and readily obtained,
permission of Susie at the station in Berlin to pay for the tickets of
the whole party? And had it not been a delightful and warming feeling,
buying those tickets for other people instead of having tickets bought
by other people for herself? At Pasewalk, a little town half way between
Berlin and Stralsund, where the train stopped ten minutes, she insisted
on getting out, defying the sleet and the puddles, and went into the
refreshment room, and bought eggs and rolls and cakes,--everything she
could find that was least offensive. Also a guidebook to Stralsund,
though she was not going to stop in Stralsund; also some postcards with
views on them, though she never used postcards with views on them, and
came back loaded with parcels, her face glowing with childish pleasure
at spending money.

"My _dear_ Anna," said Susie; but she was hungry, and ate a roll with
perfect complacency, allowing Letty to do the same, although only two
days had elapsed since she had so energetically lectured her on the
grossness of eating in trains.

Susie was in a particularly amiable frame of mind, and in spite of the
weather was looking forward to seeing the place Uncle Joachim had
thought would be a fit home for his niece; and as she and Anna were
sitting together at one end of the carriage, and Letty and Miss Leech
were at the other, and there was no one else