d, at least I could do my best to comfort him with the pie. I was
going along being very careful the more I thought about how he would
like it, so I was not watching the road so far ahead as I usually did.
I always kept a lookout for Paddy Ryan, Gypsies, or Whitmore's bull.
When I came to an unusually level place, and took a long glance ahead,
my heart turned right over and stopped still, and I looked long enough
to be sure, and then right out loud some one said, "I'll DO something!"
and as usual, I was the only one there.

For days I'd been in a ferment, like the vinegar barrel when the cider
boils, or the yeast jar when it sets too close to the stove. To have
Laddie and the Princess separated was dreadful, and knowing him as I
did, I knew he never really would get over it. I had tried to help
once, and what I had done started things going wrong; no wonder I was
slow about deciding what to try next. That I was going to do
something, I made up my mind the instant Laddie said he was not mad at
me; that I was his partner, and asked me to help; but exactly WHAT
would do any good, took careful thought.

Here was my chance coming right at me. She was far up the road, riding
Maud like racing. I began to breathe after a while, like you always
do, no matter how you are worked up, and with my brain whirling, I went
slowly toward her. How would I manage to stop her? Or what could I
say that would help Laddie? I was shaking, and that's the truth; but
through and over it all, I was watching her too. I only wish you might
have seen her that morning. Of course the morning was part of it. A
morning like that would make a fence post better looking. Half a mile
away you could see she was tipsy with spring as I was, or the song
sparrows, or the crazy babbling old bobolinks on the stakes and riders.
She made such a bright splash against the pink fence row, with her dark
hair, flushed cheeks, and red lips, she took my breath. Father said
she was the loveliest girl in three counties, and Laddie stretched that
to the whole world. As she came closer, smash! through me went the
thought that she looked precisely as Shelley had at Christmas time; and
Shelley had been that way because she was in love with the Paget man.
Now if the Princess was gleaming and flashing like that, for the same
reason, there wasn't any one for her to love so far as I knew, except
Laddie.

Then smash! came another thought. She HAD to love him! She co