vie, with a shrug. "When will you
be home again, Katie?"

"Oh, in a day or two. I cannot just tell; but soon."

They had not time to linger, and the horse did not care to stand, so
with a hurried good-bye they were away and moved on rapidly for a while.

"I don't think Davie likes me very well," said Miss Elizabeth.

"Oh, it's not you he doesn't like," said Katie eagerly.

"It is Jacob, I suppose?"

It was not Jacob that Katie meant, but she said nothing.

"Well, never mind; we are going to think and speak only of pleasant
things for the next three days, and that was a bad beginning."

Though the snow was deep it was light, and the horse, with the prospect
of home before him, was willing to go, and strong as well, so they flew
along, down the hill beneath the maples, past the graveyard and the
church, into the long street of the town; and then, though it was
growing late, Miss Elizabeth turned to the left over the bridge instead
of going up the hill toward home. They came into the road on the other
side of the bridge that brought most people to the town, and the snow
was already well beaten down, and they went on in perfect enjoyment of
the easiest of all movements.

It was neither sunlight nor moonlight, or rather it was both, for the
clouds had all cleared away, and a red glow lingered in the west, and
high above hung the moon, a silver crescent, and in the sky beyond a
bright star here and there; all the rest was white, with streaks of
black where the fences were and the wayside trees, and far in the
distance a long stretch of forest hid the line where the white of the
earth touched the blue of the sky.

In the light so faint, and yet so clear, that shone around them, all
things had an unfamiliar look--a look of mystery, and it seemed, even to
the sensible Katie, as though almost any strange adventure might happen
to them to-night.

"I could almost fancy that we were going away together into some strange
country, into the country of the `wraiths' maybe, that grannie whiles
tells the bairns about. Don't all things seem to have a strange look
to-night, Miss Elizabeth?"

Miss Elizabeth started. She had fallen into thought, and Katie could
see when she turned her face that her thoughts had not been happy.

"What were you saying, Katie? Going away together? Oh, how I wish we
were, away beyond the hills yonder, to leave all our troubles behind
us."

That was to be considered. Katie was not so ready