d now appeared
also--"You ain't half buttoned up behind, Patience!" she protested,
"and your hair ribbon's not tied fit to be seen.--My sakes, to think of
anyone ever having named that young one _Patience_!"

"I'll overhaul her, Miranda," Pauline comforted her. "Come here,
Patience."

"Please, I am to sit up in front with you, ain't I, Tom?" Patience
urged. "You and I always get on so beautifully together, you know."

Tom relaxed a second time. "I don't see how I can refuse after that,"
and the over-hauling process being completed, Patience climbed up to
the high front seat, where she beamed down on the rest with such a look
of joyful content that they could only smile back in response.

From the doorway, came a warning voice. "Not too far, Tom, for Hilary;
and remember, Patience, what you have promised me."

"All right, Mrs. Shaw," Tom assured her, and Patience nodded her head
assentingly.

From the parsonage, they went first to the doctor's. Josie was waiting
for them at the gate, and as they drew up before it, with horn blowing,
and horses almost prancing--the proprietor of the hotel had given them
his best horses, in honor of the Folly--she stared from her brother to
the stage, with its white placard, with much the same look of wonder in
her eyes as Pauline and Hilary had shown.

"Miss Brice?" Tom was consulting his list again.

"So that's what you've been concocting, Tom Brice!" Josie answered.

Tom's face was as sober as his manner. "I am afraid we are a little
behind scheduled time, being unavoidably delayed."

"He means they had to wait for me to get ready," Patience explained.
"You didn't expect to see me along, did you, Josie?" And she smiled
blandly.

"I don't know what I did expect--certainly, not this." Josie took her
place in the stage, not altogether sure whether the etiquette of the
occasion allowed of her recognizing its other inmates, or not.

But Pauline nodded politely. "Good afternoon. Lovely day, isn't it?"
she remarked, while Shirley asked, if she had ever made this trip
before.

"Not in this way," Josie answered. "I've never ridden in the Folly
before. Have you, Paul?"

"Once, from the depot to the hotel, when I was a youngster, about
Impatience's age. You remember, Hilary?"

"Of course I do. Uncle Jerry took me up in front." Uncle Jerry was
the name the owner of the stage went by in Winton. "He'd had a lot of
Boston people up, and had been showing them around.