Faid and Aunt Crete would
have been hurt and jealous. Only it did not seem now to Hanny as if she
had ever lived there. The old kitchen, the creek that went purling
along, bearing fleets of ducks and geese, and the wide old porch looked
natural, but the daily living was so changed! Old black Aunt Mary was
dead. Some of the neighbours had gone away. Cousin Retty had a new baby,
a little girl; but she said it was the crossest thing alive, and it did
seem to cry a good deal. It couldn't compare with Stephen's baby, who
was always laughing and jolly.

They had to stop at Fordham to see some cousins. When people live a
century or so in one place and intermarry, they get related to a good
many people. And there was a sweet little grandmother here, who, in her
girlhood, had the same name as the little visitor--Hannah Underhill.
There was no Ann in it to be sure. And now her name was Hannah Horton.

There were lots of gay, rollicking cousins. The little girl felt almost
afraid of the big boys, and she was used to boys, too.

Her mother had said she might make a visit with the Odell girls. They
had grown and changed; and Hanny felt quite as if she were undersized.
Mr. Odell had been building a new part to the house; and oh, what a
lovely garden they had! It made the little girl almost envious.

Margaret left her there for several days. At least, Dr. Hoffman drove up
one afternoon and took Margaret home, as Hanny's visit wasn't near
finished. They had to talk about their schools and the girls they knew.
Polly and Janey wanted to hear about the First Street girls and Daisy
Jasper, who was getting well, and Nora, who had moved away, and the
quaint old ladies in Beach Street.

There was a splendid big cat at the Odell's who liked nothing better
than being nursed, and two kittens that Hanny never tired of watching,
they were so utterly funny in their antics, and seemed to do so much
actual reasoning, as to cause and effect, that it amazed her. And, oh,
the beautiful country ways and wild flowers on every hand!

It does not look so now. One wonders where all the people have come from
to fill the rows and rows of houses, and to keep busy about the mills
and factories. But then the great city had only about five hundred
thousand inhabitants, and did not need to overflow into suburban
districts.

It seemed strange for the little girl to come home to a city street. It
looked narrow and bare, with its cobblestones and paved sidewalk