a little strange to our ways, but you will
soon make her at home, I hope."

"I will try and make her happy," Mysa replied, looking at her new
companion.

Although the girls were about the same age, Ruth looked the elder of
the two. Mysa was still little more than a child, full of fun and
life. Ruth was broken down by the death of her grandfather and by the
journey she had made; but in any case she would have looked older than
Mysa, the difference being in manner rather than in face or figure.
Ruth had long had many responsibilities on her shoulders. There was
the care and nursing of the old man, the cultivation of the garden on
which their livelihood depended, the exchange of its products for
other articles, the preparation of the meals. Her grandfather had been
in the habit of talking to her as a grown-up person, and there was an
expression of thoughtfulness and gravity in her eyes. Mysa, on the
contrary, was still but a happy child, who had never known the
necessity for work or exertion; her life had been like a summer day,
free from all care and anxiety. Naturally, then, she felt as she
looked at Ruth that she was a graver and more serious personage than
she had expected to see.

"I think I shall like you," she said when her examination was
finished, "when we know each other a little better, and I hope you
will like me; because, as my father says, we are to be together."

"I am sure we shall," Ruth replied, looking admiringly at Mysa's
bright face. "I have never had anything to do with girls of my own
age, and you will find me clumsy at first; but I will do my best to
please you, for your father and brother have been very good to me."

"There, take her away, Mysa. I have told your mother about her coming,
and want to go on with my reading," Ameres said. "Show her your garden
and animals, and where she is to sleep; and give her in charge of old
Male, who will see that she has all that she wants, and get suitable
garments and all that is requisite."

Before many days were over Ruth became quite at home in her new abode.
Her position was a pleasant one. She was at once companion and
attendant to Mysa, accompanying her in her walks under the escort of
Jethro, playing with her in the garden, helping her to feed the
animals, and amusing her when she preferred to sit quiet by telling
her about her life near the lake by the Great Sea, about the fowling
and fishing there, and especially about the river course close to