ow had led her to seek some hiding-place, near home but secluded,
wherein to secrete her new-born calf.

"I guess old 'Spotty' knows enough to come home when she gets ready,
Child!" she answered. "She's been kept that close all winter, the snow
bein' so deep, I don't wonder she wants to roam a bit now she can git
'round. Land sakes, I wish't _I_ could roam a bit, 'stead er sittin',
sittin', an' knittin', knittin', mornin', noon an' night, all along of
these 'ere useless old legs of mine!"

"Poor Granny!" murmured the girl, softly, tears coming into her eyes.
"I wish't we could get 'round, the two of us, in these sweet-smellin'
spring woods, an' get the first Mayflowers together! Couldn't you just
try now, Granny? I believe you are goin' to walk all right again some
day, just as well as any of us. Do try!"

Thus adjured, the old woman grasped the arms of her chair sturdily,
set her jaw, and lifted herself quite upright. But a groan forced
itself from her lips, and she sank back heavily, her face creased with
pain. Recovering herself with a resolute effort, however, she smiled
rather ruefully.

"Some day, mebbe, if the good Lord wills!" said she, shaking her head.
"But 'tain't this day, Melindy! You'll be the death o' me yet, Child,
you're so set on me gittin' 'round ag'in!"

"Why, Granny, you did splendid!" cried the girl. "That was the best
yet, the best you've ever done since I come to you. You stood just as
straight as anybody for a minute. Now, I'll go an' hunt old 'Spotty.'"
And she turned toward the tiny path that led across the pasture to the
burnt-woods.

But Mrs. Griffis's voice detained her.

"What's the good o' botherin' about old 'Spotty' to-night, Melindy?
Let her have her fling. Them frogs make me that lonesome to-night I
can't bear to let ye a minnit out o' my sight, Child! Ther' ain't no
other sound like it, to my way o' thinkin', for music nor for
lonesomeness. It 'most breaks my heart with the sweetness of it,
risin' an' fallin' on the wet twilight that way. But I just got to
have somebody 'round when I listen to it!"

"Yes, Granny, I love it, too!" assented Melindy in a preoccupied tone,
"when I ain't too bothered to listen. Just now, I'm thinkin' about old
'Spotty' out there alone in the woods, an' maybe some hungry lynxes
watchin' for her to lie down an' go to sleep. You know how hungry the
bears will be this spring, too, Granny, after the snow layin' deep so
late. I just couldn't sleep, if