glad when five o'clock came and
she could go out in the garden and recruit her tired nerves.

The stage was stopping at the door. Oh, how glad she was to see Cousin
Leverett. He smiled down in the flushed face.

"How did the school go?" he asked.

She hung her head. "I don't like it. I have to be with the little class
because I don't know tables, but I learned all the one times. That was
easy enough when you came to see into it. But--nine and nine?"

"Eighteen," he answered promptly.

"And you answered it right offhand!" She gave a soft, cheerful laugh.
"Oh, do you suppose I shall ever know so much?"

"There was a time when I didn't know it."

"Truly?" She looked incredulous.

"Truly. And I had quite hard work remembering to spell correctly."

"I studied two lines. This morning I missed two words, but this
afternoon I knew them all. And I can't write on the slate. The pencil
wabbles so, and then it gives an awful squeak that goes all over you.
And I can't do sums. And there's all the tables to learn. And I don't
like the teacher. I wish Miss Eunice could teach me. Or maybe Rachel
might."

"I might help you a little. But you read well?"

"She said it was too--too"--she wrinkled up her forehead--"too affected,
like a play-actor."

"Nonsense!" he cried disapprovingly. "We will see about some other
school presently. Would you like to take a walk with me? I'm tired of
the long stage-ride."

"Oh, so much!" She caught one hand in both of hers and gave a few skips
of joy.

"Let us go over to the river."

Of course, he should have gone in and announced their resolve. But he
was so used to considering only himself, and he realized that it must
have been a tiresome day to her. They went over Lafayette Street, which
was only a lane, and then turned up the stream.

Oh, how sweet the air was with the odorous dampness and the smell of
new growths, tree and grass. The sun, low in the west, slanted golden
gleams through the tree branches which chased each other over the grassy
spaces, as if they were quite alive and at merry-making. There were
sedgy plants in bloom, jack-in-the-pulpit, and what might have been a
lily, with a more euphonious name. Iridescent flies were skimming about,
now and then a fish made a stir and dazzle. Squirrels ran up and down
the trees and chattered, robins were singing joyously, the thrush with
her soft, plaintive note. She glanced up now and then and caught his
eye, and he felt she was