ern, Susan left the
window and turned to the mirror.

"La!" she said, holding a mass of blond hair in one hand and deftly
coiling it upon her little head, "I believe she got up early to meet
him." But Kate only yawned lazily.

Retracing his steps from the barn, the soldier crossed the back-yard,
where already on the clothes' line evidences of early matutinal
industry, a pair of blue over-alls, with sundry white and red
stockings, were dancing in the breeze. First the over-alls performed
wildly, then the white stockings responded with vim, while the red
ones outdid themselves by their shocking abandonment, vaunting skyward
as though impelled by the phantom limbs of some Parisian _danseuse_.

Making his way by this dizzy saturnalia and avoiding the pranks of
animated hosiery and the more ponderous frolics of over-alls, sheets
and tablecloths, Saint-Prosper entered the kitchen. Here the farm hand
and maid of all work were eating, and the landlord's rotund and
energetic wife was bustling before the fireplace. An old iron crane,
with various sized pothooks and links of chain, swung from the jambs
at the will of the housewife. Boneset, wormwood and catnip had their
places on the wall, together with ears of corn and strings of dried
apples.

Bustling and active, with arms bared to the elbow and white with
flour, the spouse of mine host realized the scriptural injunction:
"She looketh well to the ways of her household." Deftly she spread the
dough in the baking pan; smoothly leveled it with her palm; with nice
mathematical precision distributed bits of apple on top in parallel
rows; lightly sprinkled it with sugar, and, lo and behold, was
fashioned an honest, wholesome, Dutch apple cake, ready for the
baking!

In the tap-room the soldier encountered the newcomer, seated not far
from the fire as though his blood flowed sluggishly after his long
ride in the chill morning air. Upon the table lay his hat, and he was
playing with the seals on his watch ribbon, his legs indolently
stretched out straight before him. Occasionally he coughed when the
smoke, exuding from the damp wood, was not entirely expelled up the
chimney, but curled around the top of the fireplace and diffused
itself into the atmosphere. Well-built, although somewhat slender of
figure, this latest arrival had a complexion of tawny brown, a living
russet, as warm and glowing as the most vivid of Vandyke pigments.

He raised his eyes slowly as the soldier ente