though
Esther longed for cake she did not speak of it, and, bolstered up with
cushions, and Faith sitting in a high-backed chair facing her, she
began really to enjoy herself.

"My father made this little table," said Faith, helping Esther to a
second cup of "tea," "and he made these chairs and the settle. He came
up here with Mr. Stanley years ago, and cut down trees and built this
house and the barn and the mill; then he went way back where my
grandmother lives and brought my mother here. Some day I am to go to
Connecticut and go to school."

"Why don't you come to Brandon and go to school?" suggested Esther.
"Oh, do! Faith, ask your mother to let you go home with me and go to
school this winter. That would be splendid!" And Esther sat up so
quickly that she nearly tipped over her cup and saucer.

"I guess I couldn't," replied Faith. "My mother would be lonesome."

But Esther thought it would be a fine idea; and while Faith carried
the dishes to the kitchen, washed them with the greatest care,
and replaced them on the closet shelf, Esther talked of all the
attractions of living in a village and going to school with other
little girls.

"I feel as well as ever," declared Esther as the two little girls went
to bed that night; "but I do wish your mother thought sweet things
would be good for me. At home I have all I want."

"Mother says that is the reason you are not well," answered Faith.
"Hear the brook, Esther! Doesn't it sound as if it was saying, 'Hurry
to bed! Hurry to bed!' And in the morning it is 'Time to get up! Time
to get up!'"

"You are the queerest girl I ever knew. The idea that a brook could
say anything," replied Esther; but her tone was friendly. "I suppose
it's because you live way off here in the woods. Now if you lived in a
village----"

"I don't want to live in a village if it will stop my hearing what the
brook says. And I can tell you what the robins say to the young
robins; and what little foxes tell their mothers; and I know how the
beavers build their homes under water," declared Faith, with a little
laugh at Esther's puzzled expression.

"Tell me about the beavers," said Esther, as they snuggled down in the
big feather-bed.

"Every house a beaver builds has two doors," began Faith, "and it has
an up-stairs and down-stairs. One of the doors to the beaver's house
opens on the land side, so that they can get out and get their
dinners; and the other opens under the water--way down de