ever knew of. And Mr. Miller was always
reading to Mrs. Miller, with all the children racin' through the house
and laughin'. It made no difference--he read right on; but sometimes
Mrs. Miller would look up from her sewin' and say, "Read that over,
Robert, I lost that," and that would be when the children made such a
noise you couldn't hear nothin'. So when we got to the house, there was
Mr. Miller, readin' English history to Mrs. Miller, and the children
already playin' blind man's buff, and makin' a terrible noise, though it
was before supper. Zueline Hasson had come over and was goin' to stay to
supper too. She was Angela Miller's friend besides bein' Mitch's
sweetheart. You ought to have seen Mitch look when he saw Zueline. He
just stood a minute like he was lookin' at an angel he was afraid of.

Pretty soon Mrs. Miller said she had to have a bucket of water, and
Mitch went to pump it, and Zueline went with him. The sun was down now,
but it was bright day, and the robins were singin' their heads off, and
the air smelt of grass and flowers. I stood at the kitchen window and
watched Mitch pump a cup of water for Zueline and hand it to her. And I
knew what it meant; for Mitch had told me that he couldn't be near her
without a lump comin' into his throat. He said it was like religion, for
Mitch had got religion too, and he'd seen lots of people get it, and he
knew what it was. And as for Zueline, she thought Mitch was the finest
boy in town, which he was.

By and by we set down to supper. There was nine of us, and the awfullest
gigglin' and talkin' you ever heard, even before Mr. Miller had hardly
finished sayin' grace. We had oatmeal and eggs and biscuits and jam and
milk; and Mr. Miller was talkin' English history to Mrs. Miller, no more
disturbed by us children than if we wasn't there. After that we played
blind man's buff. And every time Mitch could find Zueline, and trace her
about the room, though she didn't make any noise at all, and I knew he
couldn't see. It was almost spooky.

[Illustration: Mitch Pumps a Cup of Water]

Before we started to go Mitch said he had to feed Fanny, which was his
dog that he loved most to death.

Fanny was about to have some puppies, and he kept her in the barn. So we
made up a dish of things and went out to the barn, Mitch whistlin' all
the way and callin' to her. "That's funny," said Mitch. "She doesn't
answer. I wonder why." We got to the barn and opened the door and he
called