this wind. I'll mix you a good hot currant drink.
I knew them black currants didn't bear so plentiful for nothing last
summer. Oh, this is a good day and no mistake!"

In twenty-four hours' time everybody in Prospect knew that Ralph
Walworth had come home, crippled and poor. Jacob Delancey shook his
head as he drove away from the station with Ralph's shabby little
trunk standing on end in his buggy. The station master had asked him
to take it down to Miss Hannah's, and Jacob did not fancy the errand.
He was afraid Miss Hannah would be in a bad way and he did not know
what to say to her.

She was in her garden, covering her pansies with seaweed, when he
drove up, and she came to the garden gate to meet him, all smiles.

"So you've brought Ralph's trunk, Mr. Delancey. Now, that was real
good of you. He was going over to the station to see about it himself,
but he had such a cold I persuaded him to wait till tomorrow. He's
lying down asleep now. He's just real tired. He brought this seaweed
up from the shore for me this morning and it played him out. He ain't
strong. But didn't I tell you he was coming back soon? You only
laughed at me, but I knew."

"He isn't very rich, though," said Jacob jokingly. He was relieved to
find that Miss Hannah did not seem to be worrying over this.

"That doesn't matter," cried Miss Hannah. "Why, he's my brother! Isn't
that enough? I'm rich if he isn't, rich in love and happiness. And
I'm better pleased in a way than if he had come back rich. He might
have wanted to take me away or build a fine house, and I'm too old to
be making changes. And then he wouldn't have needed me. I'd have been
of no use to him. As it is, it's just me he needs to look after him
and coddle him. Oh, it's fine to have somebody to do things for,
somebody that belongs to you. I was just dreading the loneliness of
the winter, and now it's going to be such a happy winter. I declare
last night Ralph and I sat up till morning talking over everything.
He's had a hard life of it. Bad luck and illness right along. And last
winter in the lumber woods he got his leg broke. But now he's come
home and we're never going to be parted again as long as we live. I
could sing for joy, Jacob."

"Oh, sure," assented Jacob cordially. He felt a little dazed. Miss
Hannah's nimble change of base was hard for him to follow, and he had
an injured sense of having wasted a great deal of commiseration on her
when she didn't need it at all.