l vied in the
effort to "put away her things," and that in five minutes the city girl
was more pleasantly flustered than she would have been on entering a
fashionable ball at Irving Hall or attending the first hop of the season
at Newport. Pleasantly flustered--that is, she did not quite know
whether her head was on or off her shoulders, and yet she knew that she
was for the time in a quiet little haven of country rest from the noise
and whirl of the great city, very pleasant to contemplate.

"And you did not write us a word about your coming?" said Aunt Betsey,
interrogatively, when the bonnet had been laid off, the dust brushed
away, and the second kiss of meeting exchanged.

"Not a word, Aunt," was the young girl's reply. "You know that I never
do things like other people. I knew that you would be at home--knew that
you would be glad to see me--did not know that I was coming, myself,
until a day or two ago--and do not think that I should have written, if
I had, when it was so much easier to bring the information myself."

"Still the same rattle-brain!" said Aunt Betsey, shaking her head with
that peculiar gesture which really implies admiration of a prodigy. "So
mother is still in the city, is she? Why did not she come along?"

"Yes?" echoed Susan. "Why didn't she come along? Did you come all the
way alone?"

"No," answered Josey, with the least little bit of hesitation in her
answer, and the tiniest flush creeping up on her face, that neither of
the others had the tact to see. "There were some friends of mine going
on to Niagara, and so I had company all the way to Utica, and they set
me down there." Sly Joe!--why did she use the plural number,--"friends,"
and "they"? Why will people, even those belonging to the most
irreproachable classes of society, indulge in these little fibs upon
occasion?

"Oh, Cousin Joe," said Susy, "you do not know what a nice little room we
have for you, up-stairs. The vines have climbed up and half covered the
window, and a robin has built its nest in one of the branches of the big
apple-tree, that hangs so close to it. Little robie will wake you early
in the morning, I'll be bound--none of the late lying in bed that they
say you all practice in the great city!"

"No, you rose-bud!" exclaimed Joe. "I will get up as early as any of
you, especially as I have not come out here to be idle, but to _work_.
But where is Uncle?--I have not seen _him_ yet?"

"Your Uncle Halstead," said Au