her, as if his touch, even,
caused her to break some vow. He whined, but she hurried away, not
waiting to know how he came, or with whom. Perhaps, if Dr. Knowles had
seen her face as she looked back at him, he would have thought there
were depths in her nature which his probing eyes had never reached.

The wheels came close, and directly a cart stopped at the gate. It was
one of those little wagons that hucksters drive; only this seemed to be
a home-made affair, patched up with wicker-work and bits of board. It
was piled up with baskets of vegetables, eggs, and chickens, and on a
broken bench in the middle sat the driver, a woman. You could not help
laughing, when you looked at the whole turn-out, it had such a
make-shift look altogether. The reins were twisted rope, the wheels
uneven. It went jolting along in such a careless, jolly way, as if it
would not care in the least, should it go to pieces any minute just
there in the road. The donkey that drew it was bony and blind of one
eye; but he winked the other knowingly at you, to ask if you saw the
joke of the thing. Even the voice of the owner of the establishment,
chirruping some idle song, as I told you, was one of the cheeriest
sounds you ever heard. Joel, up at the barn, forgot his dignity to
salute it with a prolonged "Hillo!" and presently appeared at the gate.

"I'm late, Joel," said the weak voice. It sounded like a child's, near
at hand.

"We can trade in the dark, Lois, both bein' honest," he responded,
graciously, hoisting a basket of tomatoes into the cart, and taking out
a jug of vinegar.

"Is that Lois?" said Mrs. Howth, coming to the gate. "Sit still,
child. Don't get down."

But the child, as she called her, had scrambled off the cart, and stood
beside her, leaning on the wheel, for she was helplessly crippled.

"I thought you would be down to-night. I put some coffee on the stove.
Bring it out, Joel."

Mrs. Howth never put up the shield between herself and this member of
"the class,"--because, perhaps, she was so wretchedly low in the social
scale. However, I suppose she never gave a reason for it even to
herself. Nobody could help being kind to Lois, even if he tried. Joel
brought the coffee with more readiness than he would have waited on
Mrs. Howth.

"Barney will be jealous," he said, patting the bare ribs of the old
donkey, and glancing wistfully at his mistress.

"Give him his supper, surely," she said, taking the hint.