there, too, and grandmother, if
she feels well enough. And old black fat Butler will be standing by the
baggage-room door with his wheelbarrow, waiting to take our trunks. And
we'll all talk at once. Everybody along the road will be calling
'Howdy!' to us, and at the post-office Miss Mattie will come out to
shake hands with us, and tell us how glad she is to see us back. Then
it'll be just a step, past the church and the manse and the Bakewell
cottage, and we'll turn in at The Beeches, _and the fun will begin_."

Betty turned to Gay. "That doesn't sound very exciting or especially
interesting to a stranger, but, oh, Gay, the Valley is so _dear_ when
you once get to know it. And when you go back, you feel almost as if
everybody were related to you, they're all so friendly and cordial and
glad to welcome you home."

Even to impatient schoolgirls homeward bound, the journey's end comes at
last, so by nightfall it all happened just as Kitty had predicted. Such
a royal welcome awaited Gay that she felt drawn into the midst of things
from the moment she stepped from the car.

"You're right, Betty," she whispered as she left her. "It _is_ a dear
Valley, and I feel already as if I belong here."

The two groups separated when the checks had been sorted out and the
baggage disposed of. Then, still laughing and talking, Kitty led one on
its merry way toward The Beeches, and the other whirled rapidly away in
the carriage toward the lights of Locust.

CHAPTER VIII.

A PICNIC IN THE SNOW

"WHAT a good gray day this is!" exclaimed Betty next morning, turning
from the window to look around the cheerful breakfast-room, all aglow
with an open wood-fire. "It's so bleak outside that there is no
temptation to go gadding, and so cosy indoors that we'll be glad of the
chance to stay at home and finish tying up our Christmas packages."

"Yes," assented Lloyd, who, having finished her breakfast, was standing
on the hearth-rug, her back to the fire and her hands clasped behind
her. "And for once I intend to have mine all ready the day befoah, so I
need not be rushed up to the last minute. For that reason I am glad that
mothah had to take the early train to town this mawning, to finish her
shopping. If she'd been at home, I should have talked all the time,
without accomplishing a thing."

"I think your tissue-paper and ribbon was put into my trunk," said
Betty, drumming idly on the window-pane. "I'll go and unpack it in a
minu