Affectionately,
Deforrest Young."

Tessibel choked on the last word.

"It air awful hard to be brave, Andy," she faltered, brushing away a
tear.

The dwarf made a dash at his own eyes.

"Ye got another letter," he cut in irrelevantly.

"Yep," said Tess.

After pulling forth the second sheet, she spread it out and read it
through without looking up.

"Miss Tessibel Skinner:

"It is necessary for you to attend a church meeting next Wednesday
afternoon at three o'clock in the chapel. Please oblige,

"SILANDER GRIGGS, _Pastor_."

"Anything much?" demanded the dwarf, interestedly.

"Nope, Andy, only a note askin' me to come to church tomorrow afternoon,
but I jest can't go, Andy!... I can't! I ain't been fer two Sundays,
now, 'cause I been feelin' so bad."

She raised her eyes full of misery to meet Andy's sympathetic gaze. How
could she go after that awful scene nearly three weeks before with
Madelene and Frederick? She never could face the Waldstricker family
again.

"I won't never go to church, ever any more," she mourned presently.

"Mebbe not, dear," returned the dwarf, smothered in his throat. "An' the
church'll be worser off'n you!"

Troubled in spirit, Tess considered the letter a few minutes.

"I s'pose they be gittin' up somethin' fer Christmas, an' I ought to go
an' tell 'em I can't sing. I said as how I would over three months ago
if Miss Waldstricker'd help me; but I can't.... Will ye look after Daddy
while I air gone, Andy?"

"Sure," agreed the dwarf. "I'll slide under his bed an' talk the pains
right out o' 'im."

"I wish the meetin' was in the mornin'," Tess sighed. "It gits dark so
early, an' Mr. Young ain't home! He'd come an' git me an' bring me back
if he were. It air a long walk," and she sighed again.

"Mebbe 'twon't be so cold tomorrow as it air today," cheered Andy and
they lapsed into silence.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CHURCHING

The dawning of Wednesday brought one of those drab days so frequent in
the lake-country. The daylight, dim even at high noon, hardly suggested
a possible sun shining anywhere. Misty sheets of stinging ice-particles
drove from the northern skyline to the hill south of Ithaca.

The snow crunched sharply under Tessibel's feet as she picked her way
from the shanty to the lane. Kennedy's brindle bull, leaping and
barking, invited her to a frolic. The girl