like before mother and Sally as she had
been at the schoolhouse. Maybe that was why father told mother that
night that the new teacher would bear acquaintance.

Sunday was like every other Sabbath, except that I felt so sad all day
I could have cried, but I was not going to do it. Seemed as if I never
could put on shoes, and so many clothes Monday morning, quite like
church, and be shut in a room for hours, to try to learn what was in
books, when the world was running over with things to find out where
you could have your feet in water, leaves in your hair, and little
living creatures in your hands. In the afternoon Miss Amelia asked
Laddie to take her for a walk to see the creek, and the barn, and he
couldn't escape.

I suppose our barn was exactly like hundreds of others. It was built
against an embankment so that on one side you could drive right on the
threshing floor with big loads of grain. On the sunny side in the
lower part were the sheep pens, cattle stalls, and horse mangers. It
was always half bursting with overflowing grain bins and haylofts in
the fall; the swallows twittered under the roof until time to go south
for winter, as they sailed from the ventilators to their nests
plastered against the rafters or eaves. The big swinging doors front
and back could be opened to let the wind blow through in a strong
draft. From the east doors you could see for miles across the country.

I said our barn was like others, but it was not. There was not another
like it in the whole world. Father, the boys, and the hired men always
kept it cleaned and in proper shape every day. The upper floor was as
neat as some women's houses. It was swept, the sun shone in, the winds
drifted through, the odours of drying hay and grain were heavy, and
from the top of the natural little hill against which it stood you
could see for miles in all directions.

The barn was our great playhouse on Sundays. It was clean there, we
were where we could be called when wanted, and we liked to climb the
ladders to the top of the haymows, walk the beams to the granaries, and
jump to the hay. One day May came down on a snake that had been
brought in with a load. I can hear her yell now, and it made her so
frantic she's been killing them ever since. It was only a harmless
little garter snake, but she was so surprised.

Miss Amelia held her head very much on one side all the time she walked
with Laddie, and she was so birdlike Leon