Henry about going with me," said she.

"Why, what are you going to do?"

"I'll get Lily Merrill. I know she won't mind."

Maria and Lily Merrill had been together frequently since Maria had
come to Amity, and Eunice accounted them as intimate. She looked
hesitatingly a second at her niece, then she said, with an evident
air of relief:

"Well, I don't know but you can. It's bright moonlight, and it's late
in the season for tramps. I don't see why you two girls can't go
together, if you start early."

"We'll start right after supper," said Maria.

"I would," said Eunice, still with an air of relief.

Maria took her aunt's fish-net bag, as well as her own parcels, and
carried them around to her aunt Maria's side of the house, and
deposited them on the door-step. There was a light in the kitchen,
and she could see her aunt Maria's shadow moving behind the curtain,
preparing supper. Then she ran across the yard, over the frozen
furrows of a last year's garden, and knocked at the side-door of the
Merrill house.

Lily herself opened the door, and gave a little, loving cry of
surprise. "Why, is it you, dear?" she said.

"Yes. I want to know if you can go over the river with me to-night on
an errand?"

"Over the river? Where?"

"Oh, only to Jessy Ramsey's. Aunt Eunice and I have been to
Westbridge and bought these things for her, and I want to carry them
to her to-night. I thought maybe you would go with me."

Lily hesitated. "It's a pretty lonesome walk," said she, "and there
are an awful set of people on the other side of the river."

"Oh, nonsense!" cried Maria. "You aren't afraid--we two together--and
it's bright moonlight, as bright as day."

"Yes, I know it is," replied Lily, gazing out at the silver light
which flooded everything, but she still hesitated. A light in the
house behind gave her a background of light. She was a beautiful
girl, prettier than Maria, taller, and with a timid, pliant grace.
Her brown hair tossed softly over her big, brown eyes, which were
surmounted by strongly curved eyebrows, her nose was small, and her
mouth, and she had a fascinating little way of holding her lips
slightly parted, as if ready for a loving word or a kiss. Everybody
said that Lily Merrill had a beautiful disposition, albeit some
claimed that she lacked force. Maria dominated her, although she did
not herself know it. Lily continued to hesitate with her beautiful,
startled brown eyes on Maria's face.

"Aren'