Prue followed her about as if she feared to lose sight of her, and
promised to recite an endless number of lessons to Randy if only she might
be permitted to stay out of school.

"I can't go to school and not see my Randy all day. I don't want to be
anywhere where my Randy isn't." Prue pleaded so earnestly that at last Mr.
Weston said,

"It is so near the end er the term, why not let her stay at home, mother?"

Even Aunt Prudence interceded for her, and Prue's joy was unbounded when
she was told that she might consider that her vacation had commenced.

The day after Randy's return was bright and sunny, and with little Prue
she wandered beneath the sweet scented apple blossoms drinking in their
beauty, and wondering if in all the world there was a fairer place than
the orchard with its wealth of bloom, when suddenly Prue exclaimed,

"You're '_most_ as glad to see me as anybody, Randy?

"Me 'n Tabby is just 'special glad you've got home." The little eyes
looked anxiously up into Randy's face.

"You precious little sister," Randy answered, "I've been longing all
winter to see you, and when I have sat before the fire with Miss Dayton on
a stormy afternoon I have wished that Tabby with her paws tucked in, sat
blinking at the flames. There is no one, Prue, whom I am more truly glad
to see than you."

While Randy and Prue were in the orchard, Mrs. Hodgkins "ran in fer a
chat," as she expressed it.

"Wal, I hear tell that Randy's come back. What's she goin' ter do next
year, er don't she know yet? Did ye know't I had comp'ny?" She continued,
asking a second question without awaiting an answer to the first.

"Wal, I _have_ got comp'ny, and comp'ny she means ter be considered.

"It's Mis' C. Barnard Boardman, as she calls herself; she's Sabriny
Brimblecom that was, an' a pretty time I'm havin' with her. She's
delicate, or she thinks she is, an' I'm 'baout wild with her notions
'baout food, and her talkin' of 'zileratin' air, whatever that may be.

"She can't lift her finger ter help me, an' the ruffles an' furbelows I
have ter iron fer her makes me bile, while she sets aout in the door-yard
a rockin' back'ards an' for'ards as cool as a cucumber. She ain't goin'
ter stay but a week longer with us, an' then she goes ter stay with her
brother Jabez, an' land knows, I pity Mis' Brimblecom, fer Sabriny says
she's goin' ter stay the whole summer. She's what ye might call savin',
fer she's savin' her board, an' when she left