see some cousins or something than being
summer-boarders, isn't it, mamma?" said Marty.

"Here we all are, Mrs. Stokes!" cried Mrs. Ashford from the wagon.
"Quite an addition to your family."

"The more the merrier! I'm right down glad to see you," said
good-natured Mrs. Stokes, coming to lift the children down and kissing
them heartily.

The travellers were very tired after their long day's journey. Mrs.
Ashford and Marty were ready to do justice to the good supper provided,
but Freddie was only able to keep his eyes open long enough to eat a
little bread and milk. The next morning, however, he was as bright as a
button, and took to country life so naturally that he was out in the
yard feeding the chickens before his mother knew what he was about.

CHAPTER XIV.

A PLAN AND A TALK.

Marty so enjoyed being back at the farm, and there was so much to see
and to do, that for four or five days she could think of nothing else.
She and Evaline raced all over the place, climbing trees and fences,
playing in the barn or down in the wood, paddling in the little brook,
riding on the hay-wagon, and going with the boy to bring home the cows.

In short, the delights of farm life for the time being drove everything
else out of Marty's head, and it was not until Sunday morning that she
gave a thought to missions. Perhaps she would not have remembered even
then had not her mother said,

"Marty, here are your ten pennies. I forgot to give them to you
yesterday."

"There!" thought Marty. "In spite of what Miss Agnes said the very last
thing, I've forgotten all about missions. I've never told Evaline a
breath about them, and I haven't prayed or done anything."

She got out her box and put in it her tenth, and four pennies for a
thank-offering for the happy time she had been having. She also got the
list of subjects Miss Walsh had furnished her with, and some of her
books; but there was no time to read then, for her mother had said she
might go to church with Mr. and Mrs. Stokes, and she must get ready.
Evaline was not at home, her uncle having called the previous evening
and taken her to spend a couple of days at his house.

There was preaching that Sunday in the schoolhouse at Black's Mills, a
village between four and five miles distant in the opposite direction
from Riseborough. It was quite a novelty to Marty to go so far to
church, but it was a lovely drive and she enjoyed it extremely. It
certainly seemed strange