me and his honour. Poor little Polly had to admit
that honour with her had always been a matter of, "Now remember," "Be
careful," and like caution on the lips of her mother.

The more Polly thought, the worse she felt. The worse she felt, the
more the whole Peters family tried to comfort her. She was violently
homesick in a few days; but Adam had said she was to come when she
"could face her mother," and Polly suddenly found that she would rather
undertake to run ten miles than to face her mother, so she began a
process of hiding from her. If she sat on the porch, and saw her
mother coming, she ran in the house. She would go to no public place
where she might meet her. For a few weeks she lived a life of working
for Mrs. Peters from dawn to dark, under the stimulus of what a sweet
girl she was, how splendidly she did things, how fortunate Henry was,
interspersed with continual kissing, patting, and petting, all very new
and unusual to Polly. By that time she was so very ill, she could not
lift her head from the pillow half the day, but it was to the credit of
the badly disappointed Peters family that they kept up the petting.
When Polly grew better, she had no desire to go anywhere; she worked to
make up for the trouble she had been during her illness, to sew every
spare moment, and to do her full share of the day's work in the house
of an excessively nice woman, whose work never was done, and most
hopeless thing of all, never would be. Mrs. Peters' head was full of
things that she meant to do three years in the future. Every night
found Polly so tired she staggered to bed early as possible; every
morning found her confronting the same round, which from the nature of
her condition every morning was more difficult for her.

Kate and Adam followed their usual routine with only the alterations
required by the absence of Polly. Kate now prepared breakfast while
Adam did the feeding and milking; washed the dishes and made the beds
while he hitched up; then went to the field with him. On rainy days he
swept and she dusted; always they talked over and planned everything
they did, in the house or afield; always they schemed, contrived,
economized, and worked to attain the shortest, easiest end to any
result they strove for. They were growing in physical force, they were
efficient, they attended their own affairs strictly. Their work was
always done on time, their place in order, their deposits at the bank
frequent.