a man cautioning it came
from toward the road.

"That you, Carter?" Silas called.

"Yes. This ground's fairly greasy to-night," answered the voice.

"Bring your horse in here; there's room under cover for it," was the
rejoinder.

They tied it in the darkness, feeling their way from strap to manger. "The
Farnshaw girl's here waitin' fur th' school."

"Glad of that," replied the newcomer. "I don't know her very well, but
they say she can handle youngsters. She's had some extry schoolin' too.
Don't know as that makes any difference in a summer term, but it's never
in th' way."

The young man slipped out of the stable, intending to get a word with the
new teacher before the others came to the house. The school was assured to
her with two members of the board in her favour, he reflected. Liza Ann
had gone to the other room, and finding the way clear he asked in a half
whisper:

"Did you lame your horse badly?" And when Elizabeth only nodded and looked
as if she hoped her hostess had not heard, John Hunter was filled with
joy. The mutuality of the reticence put them on the footing of good
fellowship. There was no further opportunity for conversation, as they
heard Silas and Carter on the step and a third party hail them from a
distance.

There was a moment's delay and when the door did at last open Elizabeth
Farnshaw gave a glad cry:

"Uncle Nate! Where in the world did you come from?"

She caught Nathan Hornby by the lapels of his wet overcoat and stood him
off from her, looking at him in such a transport of joy that they were the
centre of an admiring and curious group instantly.

While Nathan explained that they had only last month traded their wooded
eighty for a hundred and sixty acres of prairie land in this district, and
that it had been their plan to surprise her the next Sunday by driving
over to see her before she had heard that they were in that part of the
state, Elizabeth sat on the edge of the wood-box and still held to his
coat as if afraid the vision might vanish from her sight, and asked
questions twice as fast as the pleased old man could answer them, and
learned that Nathan had been appointed to fill out the unexpired term of
the moderator of the Chamberlain school district, with whom he had traded
for the land. The business of the evening was curtailed to give the pair a
chance to talk, and when the contract was signed, Elizabeth said that she
would go home with Nathan, and John Hunter thrust