Jenny," and Helen was delighted with the break. Jenny was
sunburned but looked well, quite like a country farmer's wife, and was
gayly cordial, laughed because her mother's supper was late; they always
had theirs early on Saturday afternoon.

"You wait until you get a house full of children," said her mother with
a touch of annoyance.

The girls sat out on the old bench that had gone a little more to
splinters. Uncle Jason came in; he had not quite worked Nathan up to the
point of Sam's usefulness. Aunt Jane didn't mean to lead off with any
fuss for Helen, so supper was in the kitchen, but the tablecloth was
clean--the other had met with a big accident at noon.

Nothing was much changed except the children were a year older and
larger. Two or three of them still talked at once. Jenny sat by and had
a cup of tea. Aurelia and Fanny were a little awed by Helen's fine ways,
and began to eye her furtively. Jenny kept most of the talk and when the
meal was through took Helen out on the front stoop. What was the school
like and were there many rich girls in it? And what did Mrs. Van Dorn
mean to do with her when she was through with school?

Helen was relieved when she branched off on her own affairs. How much
the egg and butter money had amounted to, and another scheme she had
struck. She helped mother out with her sewing, but she found in the
winter she had a good deal of time on her hands, so she began to sew for
the neighbors. "You know I always did like running the machine," she
declared. "And you'd be surprised at the money I've earned. I don't see
how women can dawdle away their time so, when they've small families. I
think working in a shop is a grand good training. You must be there at a
certain hour, you must put in every moment if you are going to be a
success, and you get brisk ways if there's anything at all to you."

Joe came over presently, and the two farmers smoked and talked. Then
Jenny said she would take Helen home with her, she had such a nice spare
room, and she and Aunt Jane had some words over it, but Jenny carried
her point. It was lovely and quiet, and Helen was thankful.

Yes, she _had_ grown away from them; while she loved them just as well,
she thought she loved Uncle Jason better. The life was so different. It
need not be so hard and,--yes, it was coarse, really untender. Aunt Jane
would have suffered anything for her children's sake, but it must be in
_her_ way. After all these years of marr