osed. "I could n't rise the hill if 't was a windy day. We
could take a hearty breakfast an' start in good season; I 'd rather
walk than ride, the road's so rough this time o' year."

"Oh, what a person you are to think o' things! I did so dread goin'
'way up there all alone," said Abby Pendexter. "I 'm no hand to go off
alone, an' I had it before me, so I really got to dread it. I do so
enjoy it after I get there, seein' Aunt Cynthy, an' she 's always so
much better than I expect to find her."

"Well, we 'll start early," said Mrs. Hand cheerfully; and so they
parted. As Miss Pendexter went down the foot-path to the gate, she
sent grateful thoughts back to the little sitting-room she had just
left.

"How doors are opened!" she exclaimed to herself. "Here I 've been so
poor an' distressed at beginnin' the year with nothin', as it were,
that I could n't think o' even goin' to make poor old Aunt Cynthy a
friendly call. I 'll manage to make some kind of a little pleasure
too, an' somethin' for dear Mis' Hand. 'Use what you 've got,' mother
always used to say when every sort of an emergency come up, an' I may
only have wishes to give, but I 'll make 'em good ones!"

II.

The first day of the year was clear and bright, as if it were a New
Year's pattern of what winter can be at its very best. The two friends
were prepared for changes of weather, and met each other well wrapped
in their winter cloaks and shawls, with sufficient brown barege veils
tied securely over their bonnets. They ignored for some time the plain
truth that each carried something under her arm; the shawls were
rounded out suspiciously, especially Miss Pendexter's, but each
respected the other's air of secrecy. The narrow road was frozen in
deep ruts, but a smooth-trodden little foot-path that ran along its
edge was very inviting to the wayfarers. Mrs. Hand walked first and
Miss Pendexter followed, and they were talking busily nearly all the
way, so that they had to stop for breath now and then at the tops of
the little hills. It was not a hard walk; there were a good many
almost level stretches through the woods, in spite of the fact that
they should be a very great deal higher when they reached Mrs.
Dallett's door.

"I do declare, what a nice day 't is, an' such pretty footin'!" said
Mrs. Hand, with satisfaction. "Seems to me as if my feet went o'
themselves; gener'lly I have to toil so when I walk that I can't enjoy
nothin' whe