oman. The house was quiet
save for Ling in the kitchen--and lonely--but she had a fancy that her
mother would like to have her there beside her; so, although she was
cramped from sitting, and the house was close after a hot day, she refused
all offers to relieve her.

She was glad to see McArthur when he tapped on the door.

"I thought you'd like to read the letter that came with the picture," he
said, as he pulled up a chair beside her. "I want you to know how welcome
you will be."

He handed her the letter, with its neat, old-fashioned penmanship, its
primness a little tremulous from the excitement of the writer at the time
she had penned it. Susie read it carefully, and when she had finished she
looked up at him with softened, grateful eyes.

"Isn't she good!"

"The kindest of gentlewomen--your Aunt Harriet."

"My Aunt Harriet!" Susie said it to herself rapturously.

"She hasn't much in her life now--_she's_ lonely, too--and if you can be
spoiled, Susie, you soon will be well on the way--between Aunt Harriet and
me." He stroked her hair fondly.

"And I'm to go to school back there and live with her. I can't believe it
yet!" Susie declared. "So much has happened in the last twenty-four hours
that I don't know what to think about first. More things have happened in
this little time than in all my life put together."

"That's the way life seems to be," McArthur said musingly--"a few hours at
a tension, and long, dull stretches in between."

"Does she know--does Aunt Harriet know--how _green_ I am?"

McArthur laughed at her anxiety.

"I am sure," he replied reassuringly, "that she isn't expecting a young
lady of fashion."

"Oh, I've got clothes," said Susie. "Mother made me a dress that will be
just the thing to wear in that--what do you call it?--train. She made it
out of two shawls that she bought at the Agency."

McArthur looked startled at the frock of red, green, and black plaids
which Susie took from a nail behind the door.

"The colors seem a little--a little----"

"If that black was yellow, it _would_ look better," Susie admitted. "I've
got a new Stetson, too."

"It will take some little time to arrange your affairs out here, and in
the meantime I'll write Aunt Harriet to choose a wardrobe for you and send
it. It will give her the greatest pleasure."

"Can I take Croppy and Daisy May?"

"Daisy May?"

"The pet badger," she explained. "I named her after a Schoolmarm we
had--she looks so so