a Saturday morning in mid-December. Mary's
trunk was packed and ready, and she and it reached the South Station
long before train time. She was going home, home for the holidays, and
if she had been going on a trip around the world she could not have been
more delighted at the prospect. And her delight and anticipations were
shared in South Harniss. Her uncles' letters for the past fortnight had
contained little except joyful announcements of preparations for her
coming.

We are counting the minutes [wrote Zoeth]. The first thing Shadrach does
every morning is to scratch another day off the calendar. I never saw
him so worked up and excited and I calculate I ain't much different
myself. I try not to set my heart on things of this world more than I
ought to, but it does seem as if I couldn't think of much else but our
girl's coming back to us. I am not going to worry the way Shadrach does
about your getting here safe and sound. The Lord's been mighty good to
us and I am sure He will fetch you to our door all right. I am contented
to trust you in His hands.

P.S. One or both of us will meet you at the depot.

Captain Shad's epistle was more worldly but not more coherent.

Be sure and take the train that comes right on through [he wrote]. Don't
take the one that goes to Woods Hole. Zoeth is so fidgety and nervous
for fear you will make a mistake that he keeps me on pins and needles.
Isaiah ain't much better. He swept out the setting-room twice last week
and if he don't roast the cat instead of the chicken he is calculating
to kill, it will be a mercy. I am the only one aboard the ship that
keeps his head and I tell them not to worry. Be sure you take that
through train. And look out for them electric cars, if you come to the
depot in one. Better settle on the one you are going to take and then
take the one ahead of it so as to be sure and not be late. Your train
leaves the dock at quarter-past four. The Woods Hole one is two minutes
earlier. Look out and not take that. Zoeth is afraid you will make a
mistake, but I laugh at him. Don't take the wrong train.

Mary laughed when she read these letters, but there was a choke in the
laugh. In spite of the perils of travel by the electrics and the New
Haven railroad, she reached South Harniss safe, sound, and reasonably
on time. The first person she saw on the platform of the station was
Captain Shadrach. He had been pacing that platform for at least forty
minutes.