house, and after the scoop was returned Luther did not
come again. Elizabeth had days when she wanted his cheery presence and
sensible ways of looking at life, but she was almost glad he did not come;
she could not have explained her seclusion to him nor could she have
refused to explain. The girl's pride was cut to the quick.

January passed, and February. One afternoon in early March Elizabeth sat
at the dining-room window sewing and meditating sadly upon John's growing
irritability whenever she mentioned Aunt Susan. She was unable as yet to
force him to take her as she requested; neither had she been able to get
her own consent to going the first time to the house of this old friend
alone and have Aunt Susan's questioning eyes looking her over for
explanations. She was puzzled still, for John usually spoke of her friends
with respect, and there was nothing to indicate his reasons for opposition
except that he was simply averse to visiting on general principles, and
even then why should he so resolutely refuse to accommodate her when he
was so reasonable on all other subjects?

"I don't care, I'm going this week if he's ever so cross," she muttered.

Almost at the same instant she looked up and saw a bobsled coming into the
side lane.

"Aunt Susan's very self!" she cried, pushing away the little garment on
which she was sewing, and running to the door.

She met the muffled figure halfway down the path, called to Nathan to take
his team to the barn, where they would be out of the cutting wind, and
bundled Susan Hornby into the house with little shrieks of delight and
welcome.

Susan Hornby knew that she was wanted at the end of that five minutes.

"However could you know that I was wanting you so bad to-day?" Elizabeth
said finally, as she thrust her guest down into a rocking chair and then
went down on her knees to unfasten her overshoes.

"Land sakes! What are you trying to do--and you----" The sentence stopped
and the speaker looked embarrassed.

Elizabeth, still on her knees, looked up. A soft blush covered her face as
she gave a happy little laugh.

"Yes--it's true," she whispered. "Oh, Aunt Susan, I'm so happy!"

Outside, Nathan Hornby seized the opportunity to look around the barns.

"Good cattle sheds," he remarked to himself. "Good bunch of pigs, too. I
hope 'e ain't goin' into debt, as they say, but I swan, it looks like
it."

Nathan's survey of the barns had given the two women inside the house