, with the
difference of freezing instead of burning at her post.

You see, Mac had made an appointment to meet her at a certain spot, and
have a grand skating bout as soon as the few lessons he was allowed were
over. She had promised to wait for him, and did so with a faithfulness
that cost her dear, because Mac forgot his appointment when the lessons
were done, and became absorbed in a chemical experiment, till a general
combustion of gases drove him out of his laboratory. Then he suddenly
remembered Rose, and would gladly have hurried away to her, but his
mother forbade his going out, for the sharp wind would hurt his eyes.

"She will wait and wait, mother, for she always keeps her word, and
I told her to hold on till I came," explained Mac, with visions of a
shivering little figure watching on the windy hill-top.

"Of course, your uncle won't let her go out such a day as this. If he
does, she will have the sense to come here for you, or to go home again
when you don't appear," said Aunt Jane, returning to her "Watts on the
Mind."

"I wish Steve would just cut up and see if she's there, since I can't
go," began Mac, anxiously.

"Steve won't stir a peg, thank you. He's got his own toes to thaw
out, and wants his dinner," answered Dandy, just in from school, and
wrestling impatiently with his boots.

So Mac resigned himself, and Rose waited dutifully till dinner-time
assured her that her waiting was in vain. She had done her best to keep
warm, had skated till she was tired and hot, then stood watching others
till she was chilled; tried to get up a glow again by trotting up and
down the road, but failed to do so, and finally cuddled disconsolately
under a pine-tree to wait and watch. When she at length started for
home, she was benumbed with cold, and could hardly make her way against
the wind that buffeted the frost-bitten rose most unmercifully.

Dr. Alec was basking in the warmth of the study fire, after his drive,
when the sound of a stifled sob made him hurry to the door and look
anxiously into the hall. Rose lay in a shivering bunch near the
register, with her things half off, wringing her hands, and trying
not to cry with the pain returning warmth brought to her half-frozen
fingers.

"My darling, what is it?" and Uncle Alec had her in his arms in a
minute.

"Mac didn't come I can't get warm the fire makes me ache!" and with a
long shiver Rose burst out crying, while her teeth chattered, and her
poor l