ttle girl in the big
rocking chair.

"Wrap her up, Andy," Tess directed. "I'm going to take her home."

Andy's shaking hands could hardly do the girl's bidding.

"It's an awful night, brat. Can you do it?"

"I'll get her back, all right," promised Tess, and she went out and down
the stairs.

When she came back, Andy viewed her with amazement. She stood tall and
slender before him, dressed like a stripling youth in one of Deforrest
Young's riding suits, boots on her feet and a cap in her hand.

"I couldn't walk in a dress," she explained simply. "Help me wrap up my
hair. I've got to go cross-lots."

Quickly, Andy fastened the shining curls under the big cap. Elsie was
still asleep in the blankets. Tess picked her up and went out into the
hall and down the stairs. When the dwarf opened the outside door, the
stinging gale slashed at the open portal.

"God help my brat!" prayed Andy. Tess looked into his face a moment, and
then strode away with her burden.

The lane was even harder to reach than it had been when she came from
Brewer's. She labored to the tracks, and struck off across the fields.
The wind stung her face with particles of ice, that cut like needles. A
snow owl dropped from the gloom of a tree, poised a moment on wing, and
stared at her with glittering, hungry eyes. Then, he fluttered upward
and was gone. To force her way along took all her skill and experience
with snow and storm. Unable to wade through the deep drifts by the
fences, she had to roll over and over the tops of them. At such times,
she put down the warmly wrapped baby and as she rolled, jerked her along
through the snow. The bitter gale contested every inch of the way. The
wind blew with such tremendous power in the cleared spaces that she
could not face the biting blast, but again and again was compelled to
creep over the icy crust, and pull the blanketed baby behind her.

When she reached the Trumansburg road, she could hardly breathe. The icy
winds froze the sweat upon her toiling body and chilled the very marrow
of her aching bones. The little one lay a dead weight in her arms. The
ceaseless attacks of the cruel wind sapped her strength. She wanted to
rest, but she remembered it wouldn't do to stop. Every step was a
nightmare of impossible effort.

Suddenly down the road but a little way, a white light spread before her
like a beckoning hand. Gathering her remaining strength for a final
effort, she staggered toward it.