orehead, a drooping mustache,
and wondering, sad eyes that looked forward into the distance, as
if they already beheld the New World.

After dinner Lou and Oscar went to the orchard to pick cherries--they
had neither of them had the patience to grow an orchard of their
own--and Annie went down to gossip with Alexandra's kitchen girls
while they washed the dishes. She could always find out more about
Alexandra's domestic economy from the prattling maids than from
Alexandra herself, and what she discovered she used to her own
advantage with Lou. On the Divide, farmers' daughters no longer
went out into service, so Alexandra got her girls from Sweden, by
paying their fare over. They stayed with her until they married,
and were replaced by sisters or cousins from the old country.

Alexandra took her three nieces into the flower garden. She was
fond of the little girls, especially of Milly, who came to spend
a week with her aunt now and then, and read aloud to her from the
old books about the house, or listened to stories about the early
days on the Divide. While they were walking among the flower beds,
a buggy drove up the hill and stopped in front of the gate. A man
got out and stood talking to the driver. The little girls were
delighted at the advent of a stranger, some one from very far away,
they knew by his clothes, his gloves, and the sharp, pointed cut
of his dark beard. The girls fell behind their aunt and peeped out
at him from among the castor beans. The stranger came up to the
gate and stood holding his hat in his hand, smiling, while Alexandra
advanced slowly to meet him. As she approached he spoke in a low,
pleasant voice.

"Don't you know me, Alexandra? I would have known you, anywhere."

Alexandra shaded her eyes with her hand. Suddenly she took a quick
step forward. "Can it be!" she exclaimed with feeling; "can it be
that it is Carl Linstrum? Why, Carl, it is!" She threw out both
her hands and caught his across the gate. "Sadie, Milly, run tell
your father and Uncle Oscar that our old friend Carl Linstrum is
here. Be quick! Why, Carl, how did it happen? I can't believe
this!" Alexandra shook the tears from her eyes and laughed.

The stranger nodded to his driver, dropped his suitcase inside
the fence, and opened the gate. "Then you are glad to see me, and
you can put me up overnight? I couldn't go through this country
without stopping off to have a look at you. How little you have
changed! Do you know