dy is trained to
perfection. Look at Willie Darner running down that path! he is just
crazy with the summer wind and the frolic of an afternoon's holiday.
There is nothing to match with his enjoyment, unless it be a kitten
sporting with the flying leaves, or a butterfly floating in the
sunshine. He has not a care, that boy, except how he is to get over the
ground fast enough.'

Audrey had only a little bit of the town to traverse, but her progress
was almost as slow and stately as a queen's. She had so many friends to
greet, so many smiles and nods and how-d'ye-do's to execute; but at last
she arrived at her destination. The Gray Cottage was a small stone
house, placed between Dr. Ross's house and the school-house, with two
windows overlooking the street. The living-rooms were at the back, and
the view from them was far pleasanter, as Audrey well knew. From the
drawing-room one looked down on the rugged court of the school-house,
and on the gray old arches, through which one passed to the chapel and
library. The quaint old buildings, with the stone facade, hoary with
age, was the one feature of interest that always made Audrey think the
Gray Cottage one of the pleasantest houses in Rutherford. Audrey knew
every room. She had looked out on the old school-house often and often;
she knew exactly how it looked in the moonlight, or on a winter's day
when the snow lay on the ground, and the ruddy light of a December
sunset tinged the windows and threw a halo over the old buildings. But
she liked to see it best in the dim starlight, when all sorts of shadows
seemed to lurk between the arches, and a strange, solemn light invested
it with a legendary and imaginative interest.

A heavy green gate shut off the Gray Cottage from the road. Audrey
opened it, and walked up to the door, which had always stood open in the
old days when her friends, the Powers, had lived there. It was open now;
a profusion of packing-cases blocked up the spacious courtyard, and a
black retriever was lying on some loose straw--evidently keeping watch
and ward over them. He shook himself lazily as Audrey spoke to him, and
then wagged his tail in a friendly fashion, and finally uttered a short
bark of welcome.

Audrey stooped down and stroked his glossy head. She always made friends
with every animal--she had a large four-footed acquaintance with whom
she was on excellent terms--from Jenny, the cobbler's donkey, down to
Tim, the little white terrier that