see Aunt
Susan. This time he said that the team had worked all week, and that he
felt that the horses needed rest. A new team was added to the farm assets
and the next Sunday John said he was too tired himself to go away from
home. Never once did he say that he had any motive which extended beyond
the time at hand. Each Sunday the excuse fitted the circumstances of that
particular day, and he talked of going in a general way as if it were a
matter of course that they would go soon. It was clearly the duty of the
young couple to make the first visit, and as clearly Nathan Hornby and his
wife were waiting for them to do so. Elizabeth was puzzled by her
husband's refusal. At the end of a month she became alarmed for fear their
neglect would give offence to the dear couple who had sheltered her when
she was in need. It had not occurred to her to discredit John's reasons,
though she began to suspect that she had married the sort of man she had
heard much about--the husband who never wanted to go anywhere.

Early in December Mrs. Hunter was called East by the serious illness of a
sister in Illinois. The day she left a heavy snow fell. Elizabeth went out
into the still yard and let the white flakes fall on her uncovered head
with such a sense of freedom as she had never felt since her marriage.

"The house is mine," she whispered ecstatically; "the house is all mine,
and now I can go out of doors if I want to and not be criticised."

Elizabeth had been far more accustomed to barn life than the life of the
house. This was a thing that Mrs. Hunter could not understand. It was not
the correct thing for a woman to go about the barn where a hired man was
employed, even if her husband worked at his side, and Elizabeth's trips to
the cow stable and granaries had been discouraged. Jake Ransom had been
shrewd enough to see that his first joke in the Hunter house had been
unpleasant to the mother of his employer and had never trespassed upon the
grounds of familiarity again, but Elizabeth had been criticised until
willing to give up her trips to the scene of her husband's work. John
might be impatient, but Elizabeth loved him; his mother was patient but
critical, and Elizabeth did not love her; therefore the first feeling of
relief when the older woman had gone away included the delight of being
free to go where she wished--at his side. The barns were a source of great
interest to Elizabeth. The pride of the girl, accustomed to straw st