right, her or the rest on
us. Ef she is, we ain't. And her and the rest o' the world ain't agreed
on nothin'. But it is hard to say she ain't right, for she's the
happiest woman that ever I see."

Diana assented absently.

"Wall," said Joe, "I'm a little happier for that 'ere cup o' coffee.
I'll go at it agin now. Who's that 'ere little bundle o' muslin
ruffles, Diany? she's a kind o' pretty creatur', too. She hain't sot
down this hull noonspell. Who is it?"

"Miss Masters."

"She ain't none o' the family o' our parson?"

"A cousin, I believe."

"Cousin, eh," said Joe. "She hain't set down once. I guess she's afeard
o' gettin' the starch out somewhere. The captain's sweet on her, ain't
he? I see he tuk a deal o' care o' her eatin'."

"Mr. Knowlton is not a captain yet, Joe; he is only a lieutenant."

"Want to know," said Joe. "Wall, I kin tell ye, she likes him."

And Joe strolled off, evidently bent on doing his best with the
blackberry bushes. So must Diana; at least she must seem to do it.
There was a lull with the coffee cups; lunch was getting done; here and
there parties were handling their baskets and throwing their
sun-bonnets on. The column of smoke had thinned now to a filmy veil of
grey vapour, slowly ascending, through which Diana could look over to
the round hill-tops, with their green leaves glittering in the sun; and
farther still, to the blue, clear vault of ether, where there was
neither shine nor shadow, but the changeless rest of heaven. Earth with
its wildness of untrodden ways, its glitter and flutter; heaven,--how
did that seem? Far off and inscrutable, though with an infinite depth
of repose, an infinite power of purity. The human heart shrank before
both.

"And I had thought to-day would be a day of pleasure," Diana said to
herself. "If I could get into the waggon and go home--alone--and get
the fire started and the afternoon work done ready for supper before
mother comes!--They will not need me to pilot them home at any rate."

But things have to be faced, not run away from, in life; and trials
take their time and cannot be lopped into easier length. Diana did what
she could. She caught up her basket very quietly, carrying it and her
sun-bonnet in one hand, and slipped away down the hill under cover of
the trees till she was out of sight of everybody; then plunged into the
forest of high bushes and lost herself. She began to pick vigorously;
if she was found, anybody should see wh