married a farmer in the neighborhood. It was harvest
and he couldn't leave, so she went ALONE to see her folks and she said
it beat having him along all hollow."

She was setting out the supper, putting things down with a bang. He
didn't move, although he must have been starving.

"Another thing I'd advise," I said. "Eat first and talk after. You'll
see things different after you've got something in your stomach."

"I wish you wouldn't meddle, Minnie!" she snapped, and having put down
her own plate and knife and fork, not laying a place for him, she went
over and tried to get one of the potatoes from the fire.

Well, she burnt her finger, or pretended to, and I guess her solution
was as good as mine, for she began to cry, and when I left he was tying
it up with a bit of his handkerchief; if she shivered when he kissed it
I didn't notice it. They were to come up to the house after her father
left in the morning, and I was to dismiss all the old help and get new
ones so he could take charge and let Mr. Pierce go.

I plodded back with my empty basket. I had only one clear thought,--that
I wouldn't have any more tramping across the golf links in the snow. I
was too tired really to care that with the regular winter boarders gone
and eight weeks still until Lent, we'd hardly be able to keep going
another fortnight. I wanted to get back to my room and go to bed and
forget.

But as I came near the house I saw Mr. Pierce come out on the front
piazza and switch on the lights. He stood there looking out into the
snow, and the next minute I saw why. Coming up the hill and across the
lawn was a shadowy line of people, black against the white. They were
not speaking, and they moved without noise over the snow. I thought for
a minute that my brain had gone wrong; then the first figure came into
the light, and it was the bishop. He stood at the front of the steps and
looked up at Mr. Pierce.

"I dare say," he said, trying to look easy, "that this is sooner than
you expected us!"

Mr. Pierce looked down at the crowd. Then he smiled, a growing smile
that ended in a grin.

"On the contrary," he said, "I've been expecting you for an hour or
more."

The procession began to move gloomily up the steps. All of them carried
hand luggage, and they looked tired and sheepish Miss Cobb stopped in
front of Mr. Pierce.

"Do you mean to say," she demanded furiously, "that you knew the
railroad was blocked with snow, and yet you let us g