nne Peace stood close by, holding fast the hand of little Joey.
Strange sounds were in her ears, which she did not recognize as the
beating of her own heart; she kept looking over her shoulder, to see
what was coming. Her eyes never left David's face, but they were
hopeful, even cheerful eyes. She thought he would come back much
better, perhaps quite well. Doctor had said there was a chance, and
she did hear great things of Florida.

And now the conductor put up his watch and hardened his heart. "Come,
David, better step inside now. All aboard!"

"Good-by, David!" cried Doctor Brown, waving a friendly hand.

"Good-by, David!" cried Anne Peace, lifting little Joey in her arms,
though he was far too heavy for her.

"Look at father, Joey dear, throw a kiss to father; good-by, good-by,
David!" The train moved out of the station, but David Means, his eyes
fixed on the faces of his children, had forgotten to look at Anne
Peace.

Winter came, and a bitter winter it was. No one in Cyrus could
remember such steady cold, since the great winter of sixty years ago,
when the doctor's grandfather was frozen to death, driving across the
plains to visit a poor woman. The horse went straight to the place,
his head being turned that way and his understanding being good; but
when the farmer came out with his lantern, there sat the old doctor
stiff and dead in his sleigh. Those were the days when people, even
doctors, had not learned how to wrap up, and would drive about all
winter with high, stiff hats and one buffalo robe, not tucked in, as
we have them nowadays, but dropping down at their feet. There was
small chance of our Doctor Brown's freezing to death, in his
well-lined sleigh, with his fur cap pulled down over his nose and his
fur coat buttoned up to his chin and the great robes tucked round him
in a scientific manner. Still, for all that, it was a bitter winter,
and a good many people in Cyrus and elsewhere, who had no fur coats,
went cold by day and lay cold by night, as one good lady pathetically
expressed it. There was little snow, and what there was fell in
wonderful crystals, fairy studies in geometry, which delighted the
eyes of Joey and Georgie Means, as they trotted to school, with Miss
Peace's "nuby" over one little head and her shawl over the other.
Every morning the sun rose in a clear sky, shining like steel; every
evening the same sky glowed with wonderful tints of amethyst and
tender rose, fading gradually, ti