I know I'm foolish, and it is a shame now that you are here not to be better company."

"You are nervous," repeated Betsey. "And what you want is to feel the fresh air blowing about you. See here, old Samson is right here in the shed. You go and put on your things and have a drive. It will do you all the good in the world."

"And will you come with me?"

"No, I guess not. Then you'd want to hurry right home again, because of your father. I'll stay with him, and then you won't worry. If he's pretty well, I want to have a talk with him anyway, and now will be as good a time as any. So don't you hurry back."

"Well, I won't. But it doesn't seem worth while to go alone."

"Yes, it does. And see here! You go over as far as Mrs Fleming's.

She'll do you good, and maybe she'll let Katie come home with you to stay a day or two. What you want is to have somebody to look at besides Sally Griffith, and I don't know anybody any better for that than little Katie Fleming. Her grandmother will let her come, seeing you are alone."

It was not a blight day even yet, though the snow had ceased to fall, and the clouds were clearing away. Elizabeth looked out of the window, hesitating.

"If any one should come in," said she.

"Well, I guess I could say all that need be said--unless it was anybody very particular, and then I could keep them till you came home again."

"Well, I'll go; and thank you, cousin," said Elizabeth, laughing.

She did not drive old Samson. He was safely stabled by this time. She drove her own horse and sleigh with its pretty robes, and acknowledged herself better the very first breath of wind that fanned her cheek. The snow had fallen so heavily as to make it not easy to drive rapidly, and so she enjoyed all the more the winter sights and sounds that were about her. The whole earth was dazzlingly white. The evergreen trees in the graveyard looked like pyramids of snow. The trunks of the great maples under which she pa.s.sed as she drew near Mr Fleming's house, showed black and rugged, and so did the leafless boughs that met each other overhead.

But even the great boughs were bending under their load of new-fallen snow, and every now and then, as the wind stirred them, it fell in great, soft ma.s.ses silently to the ground. How still and restful it was. The sleigh-bells tinkled softly, and there was a faint rushing of the wind through the trees, and the sharp stroke of an axe was heard now and then in the distance. That was all. Elizabeth put away all troubled thoughts to enjoy it, and there were no traces of tears, no signs of nerves visible, when she drove up to Mrs Fleming's door. She had been there a good many times since the night she had made the visit with Clifton and the minister, and she never came but that she was heartily welcomed by them all.

"Especially welcome to-day, when we never expected to see any one after such a fall of snow. Come awa' ben, Miss Elizabeth, and when Davie comes down with his load of wood, he'll put in the horse, and you'll bide to your tea, and go home by light of the new moon."

But Elizabeth could not stay long. Betsey, who was with her father, would be anxious to be home early, and she must not leave her father alone, though she would like to stay.

"Well, you know best, and we winna spoil the time you're here by teasing you about staying longer. So sit you down here by the fire and warm your hands, though you look anything but chilled and cold. Your cheeks are like twin roses."

Elizabeth thought of Betsey's dismissal of her and laughed.

"My drive has done me good."

She stayed a good while and enjoyed every minute of it. It was a great rest and pleasure to listen to Mrs Fleming's cheerful talk, with Katie's quiet mother putting in a word, and now and then Katie herself.

Neither Katie nor Davie were at the school this winter. The studies that Davie liked best he would have had to go on with alone, even if he had gone, and he liked as well to get a little help from the master now and then and stay at home. But he had not much time for study. For he had taken "just a wonderful turn for work," his grandmother said, and much was told of the land he was clearing and the cord-wood he was piling for the market. Katie brought in a wonderful bee-hive he had made, to show Miss Elizabeth, and told her how much honey they had had, and how much more they were to have next year, because of Davie's skill.

Davie had made an ice-house too, for the summer b.u.t.ter--a rather primitive one it seemed to be as Katie described it--on a plan of Davie's own, and it had to be proved yet, but it gave great satisfaction in the meantime. And the frame of the new dairy was lying ready beside the burn to be put up as soon as the snow melted, and the water was to be made to run round the milk-pans in the warm nights, and Katie, under the direction of her grandmother, was to make the best b.u.t.ter in the country. All this might not seem of much interest to any one but themselves, but listening to them, and watching their happy, eager faces, Elizabeth, who had more than the common power of enjoying other people's happiness, felt herself to be refreshed and encouraged as she listened, especially to what was said about Davie. The troubles of the Flemings would soon be over should Davie prove to be a prop on which, in their old age, they might lean.

"He is wonderfully taken up about the work, and the best way of doing it just now, and I only hope it may last," said Mrs Fleming, and then Katie said, "Oh, grannie!" so deprecatingly that they all laughed at her.

When Mr Fleming came in, and had heard all about the squire, and how Cousin Betsey was staying with him while Elizabeth made her visit and got a breath of fresh air, she took courage to present her pet.i.tion that Katie might be allowed to go home with her and stay a day or two. It needed some courage to urge it, for she knew that her grandfather was never quite at peace when Katie was not at home. "It was Cousin Betsey, Mrs Fleming, that bade me ask you for Katie for a little while. She said her coming would do me good, and Katie no harm; and she said you would be sure to let her come since I was so lonesome at home."

Katie looked with wistful eyes at her grandmother, and she looked at the old man.

"We might spare her a while to Miss Elizabeth, who is kept so close at home with her father. And you must take your seam with you, Katie, my la.s.sie," added the old lady, as no dissenting frown from the grandfather followed her first words. "And maybe Miss Elizabeth has a new st.i.tch, or some other new thing to teach you. These things are easy carried about with a person, and they ay have a chance to come in use sometime.

Oh, ay, you can take a while with a book, too, now and then when Miss Elizabeth is occupied with her father. Only be reasonable, and don't forget all else, as is awhiles the way with you. And you can put on your bonny blue frock, but be sure and take good care o' it," and many more last words the happy Katie heard, and then they went away.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

TWO FRIENDS.

A day with Miss Elizabeth was one of Katie's chief pleasures, and it was scarcely less a pleasure to Miss Elizabeth to have her with her; so the faces of both were bright and smiling as they drove away from the door.

"It's no' often that you see two like these two," said Mrs Fleming, as they all stood looking after them for a minute. "And it's only good that they are like to do one another. May the Lord have them both in His keeping. There is nothing else that can keep them safe and happy; but that is enough, and I'm not afraid."

They drove slowly down the slope, and waited at the gate for a word with Davie, who was coming from the wood with his great brown oxen, with the last load for the night. He did not look more than half pleased to see his sister at Miss Elizabeth's side.

"You are not to grudge her to me, Davie, for a little while," said Miss Holt.

"Oh, she can please herself," said Davie, with a shrug. "When will you be home again, Katie?"

"Oh, in a day or two. I cannot just tell; but soon."

They had not time to linger, and the horse did not care to stand, so with a hurried good-bye they were away and moved on rapidly for a while.

"I don't think Davie likes me very well," said Miss Elizabeth.

"Oh, it's not you he doesn't like," said Katie eagerly.

"It is Jacob, I suppose?"

It was not Jacob that Katie meant, but she said nothing.

"Well, never mind; we are going to think and speak only of pleasant things for the next three days, and that was a bad beginning."

Though the snow was deep it was light, and the horse, with the prospect of home before him, was willing to go, and strong as well, so they flew along, down the hill beneath the maples, past the graveyard and the church, into the long street of the town; and then, though it was growing late, Miss Elizabeth turned to the left over the bridge instead of going up the hill toward home. They came into the road on the other side of the bridge that brought most people to the town, and the snow was already well beaten down, and they went on in perfect enjoyment of the easiest of all movements.

It was neither sunlight nor moonlight, or rather it was both, for the clouds had all cleared away, and a red glow lingered in the west, and high above hung the moon, a silver crescent, and in the sky beyond a bright star here and there; all the rest was white, with streaks of black where the fences were and the wayside trees, and far in the distance a long stretch of forest hid the line where the white of the earth touched the blue of the sky.

In the light so faint, and yet so clear, that shone around them, all things had an unfamiliar look--a look of mystery, and it seemed, even to the sensible Katie, as though almost any strange adventure might happen to them to-night.

"I could almost fancy that we were going away together into some strange country, into the country of the 'wraiths' maybe, that grannie whiles tells the bairns about. Don't all things seem to have a strange look to-night, Miss Elizabeth?"

Miss Elizabeth started. She had fallen into thought, and Katie could see when she turned her face that her thoughts had not been happy.

"What were you saying, Katie? Going away together? Oh, how I wish we were, away beyond the hills yonder, to leave all our troubles behind us."

That was to be considered. Katie was not so ready to a.s.sent to her friend's words as usual.

"But we should be leaving our comforts behind us too, all the people who love us, and all those whom we love."

"Ah, yes, I know; and all our work as well. And it would be no good, for we should carry our troubles with us. It was a foolish thing to say, Katie, dear. It must be time to turn back when such foolish words come to one's lips."

Besides they had come to a place where turning was easy, and it might be some time before they could get another chance, so deep was the snow on either side. So they turned round toward home, and Katie thought it more wonderful still, for the red glow in the sky was before them now, and the new moon, and more stars shone as the glow faded.

"But it would be fine to go away with you, Miss Elizabeth, to some far country, to see strange sights--if we could be spared, I mean, and with the thought of coming back again."