The valley where the Gordons lived had narrowly escaped having a village at the corner. The surrounding district held all the requirements of one, but they did not happen to be placed near enough to one another. At the cross-roads in the center of the valley stood a store and post-office. But the blacksmith's shop, which should have been opposite, was missing. In the early days the blacksmith, being a Highland³ Scot, had refused to work opposite the storekeeper, who was only a Lowlander, and had set up his business over on the proud seclusion⁴ of the next concession⁵. The school, too, had got mislaid somehow, away to the south out of sight. So the valley was left to the farms and orchards⁶, and contained only five homes in all its length.  
But where man had been neglectful, nature had lavished⁷ wealth, performing great feats⁸ in the way of landscape gardening. On all sides, the vale was held in by encircling hills. The eastern boundary was steep and straight and was known as Arrow Hill. On its summit stood a gaunt old pine stump⁹, scarred and weather-beaten. Here, an old Indian legend said, the Hurons were wont¹⁰ to tie a captive while they showered their arrows into his quivering body. The children of the valley could point out the very holes in the old trunk where certain arrows, missing their victim, had lodged¹¹. Away opposite, forming the western wall, rose the Long Hill, with a moss-fringed road winding¹² lingeringly up its face. Down through the cedars¹³ and balsams that hedged its side tumbled a clear little brook¹⁴, singing its way through the marigolds and musk¹⁵ that lovingly strove to hold it back. Reaching the valley, it was joined by the waters that oozed¹⁷ from a great dark swamp to the south, and swelling¹⁸ into a good-sized stream, it wound its way past The Dale, held in by steep banks, all trilliums and pinks and purple violets and golden touch-me-not, and hedged by a double-line of feathery white-stemmed birches.
 
From east to west of the valley stretched a straight road, hard and white. Old Indian tales hung about it also. It was an early Huron trail, they said, and the one followed by Champlain when he marched over from the Ottawa valley and found Lake Simcoe hanging like a sapphire¹⁹ pendant from the jewel-chain of the Great Lakes. It was still called Champlain's Road, and had in it something of the ancient Indian character. For it cut straight across country over hill and stream, all unmindful of Government surveys or civilized²⁰ lines.
 
Just a few miles beyond Arrow Hill it ran into the little town of Cheemaun, and on market-days its hard, white surface rang with the beat of hoofs²¹ and the rattle²² of wheels. In the early morning the procession rolled forward, strong and eager for the day's bargaining, and at night it swept back bearing some weary ones, some gleeful over their money-getting, some jealous and dissatisfied because of the wealth and ease they had seen, and some glad to return to the quiet and peace of their farm homes. And there were always the few who lurched along, caring not whether they reached home or fell by the wayside, having sold their manhood over the bar of one of Cheemaun's many hotels.
 
And thus the tide of rural life ebbed²³ and flowed, beating ceaselessly against the town, leaving its impress both for good and ill, bringing back on its waves treasure-trove¹⁶ to be swallowed by the deep of the country, and often, too, carrying on its surface some of the urban community's slime and filth²⁴.
 
On this May evening Champlain's Road stretched across the valley, not white and hard, but softened²⁵ by the rain, and looking like a great broad lilac ribbon, set here and there with sparkling jewels made by the pools of water. The sun had slipped behind the cedars of the Long Hill and the valley was clothed in a wonderful combination of all shades of blue—the cloak Mother Nature so often throws round her shoulders after a shower. The towering elms, the glossy²⁶ beeches²⁷, and the spreading maples²⁸, that grew on either side of the highway, were all bathed in the blue radiance. The old snake fences, smothered³⁰ in raspberry and alder³¹ bushes, were a deep purple, and the white rapture³² of the cherry-trees and the orchards by the farm-houses had turned a delicate lilac. The valley had taken on heaven's own blue this evening, and smiled back at the gleaming skies with something of their own beauty.
 
On every side the robins³³ shouted their joy from the treetops, the bob-o'-links tinkled³⁴ their fairy bells as they wheeled above the clover-fields; and from the dainty line of white-stemmed birches that guarded the stream came the mingled³⁵ even-song of the frogs and the veeries.
 
There was but one pedestrian on Champlain's Road this quiet evening. This was a small person who had just emerged from a farm gate at the foot of the Long Hill. Back from the gate stood an old farm-house and at its door a woman was standing³⁶. She was knitting a long gray sock, holding her ball under her arm, knitting swiftly, even while her eyes followed lovingly the little figure skipping along the lavender road. The soft blue light touched her silver hair and her white apron³⁷ and turned the gray homespun dress into a royal robe of purple worthy³⁸ of the owner's wearing. The little figure danced out of sight behind a clump³⁹ of cedars and the woman turned from the doorway⁴⁰ with a tender smile that ended in a sigh. One evening her own little girl had passed down the lane and along Champlain's Road to the churchyard beyond the hills, and this little one filled somewhat the dreary⁴¹ space in the mother's heart.
 
Meanwhile, the one pedestrian on the lavender road was going swiftly on. She was clothed in a blue checked pinafore and a sunbonnet of the same material, which absorbed the blue light and glowed with vivid color. Beneath the sunbonnet hung a long heavy braid of shiny brown hair, with a reddish streak⁴² down the middle of it. The pinafore was tucked up round the owner's waist to form a bag, in which were carried a pair of stockings and strong, copper-toed boots, three very wrinkled apples, a bunch of wilted⁴³ marigolds, and a cake of maple²⁹-sugar. The small person clutched this bundle in her arms and held up her short skirts in a highly improper⁴⁴ manner, while she went splashing through the puddles⁴⁵ singing a loud and riotous⁴⁶ song.
 
This was Elizabeth. And this unseemly manner of peregrination⁴⁷ displayed just one of Elizabeth's trying peculiarities⁴⁸. For four years she had been faithfully taught that little girls should never go barefoot outside their own gardens, and that when they were on the public highway they must walk quietly and properly on the grass by the roadside. When she remembered, Elizabeth strove to conform to the laws of home and social usage, for she was very docile⁵⁰ by nature; but then Elizabeth seldom remembered. When she did, it was only to recall hopelessly her aunt's many times reiterated⁵¹ statement that Lizzie had the wild streak of the MacDuffs in her, and what could you expect? The Gordon family had generally been genteel enough to keep this objectionable MacDuff connection hidden, but occasionally it came out in red hair, deep gray eyes, and a wild, erratic⁵² disposition⁵³. To be sure, little Elizabeth's hair was not red, but a deep nut-brown, shading to rich yellow at the ends, where it curled upwards⁵⁴. But down the middle of her heavy brown braid ran a thick strand⁵⁵ of reddish gold, quite enough to account for the vagaries⁵⁶ of her behavior. And there was no doubt about Elizabeth's eyes—those unfathomable gray eyes that looked steel blue or soft gray or deep black, according to the owner's mood. Yes, Elizabeth had the two fatal badges of the wild MacDuffs, coupled with dear knows what inheritance from her mother's people, the fighting MacDonalds, who had been the scandal of the whole countryside in the early days.
 
Having heard all this many, many times from her aunt, Elizabeth had finally accepted the sad fact that she had "a wild streak" in her, just as she accepted the variegated⁵⁷ color of her hair, not without much rebellion against her fate though, and many tears of repentance⁵⁸, and frequent solemn pledges to walk in unstreaked propriety⁵⁹ for the rest of her days.
 
At other times she recklessly concluded that it was impossible to battle against destiny. For one never knew just how one was going to act. For a very chameleon⁶⁰ was this strange Elizabeth, always the color of her surroundings. Being just ten-and-a-half, she would act with the wisdom of an ancient sage⁴⁹ when in company with Mrs. MacAllister, and the foolishness of a spring lamb when left to gambol⁶¹ with her little brother. To-night her spirit had caught the joyous⁶² note of the wonderful spring evening, and she was like the valley, gay and sparkling and noisy with delight. Besides, this was the first time she had ever been allowed to go home alone from Mother MacAllister's, and the sense of freedom went to her head.
 
So, along the lavender road she skipped, holding her skirts very high, splashing mud over her pinafore and even her sunbonnet, and singing loudly:
 
"She's ower the border an' awa
    Wi' Jock o' Hazeldean!"
Mr. MacAllister had sung this song after supper, between the puffs⁶³ of his pipe, as he sat on the wash bench by the door, and Mother MacAllister had told them the story, as she and Elizabeth washed up the dishes, the story of the lady of high degree who had cast aside wealth and noble lovers to hie awa wi' Jock o' Hazeldean.
 
Charles Stuart, who was Mother MacAllister's really, truly child, had interrupted to inquire what "ower the border an' awa'" meant, and Elizabeth had felt impatient enough to slap him had she dared. Charles Stuart was very stupid about some things, though he could spell and always got the right answer to a sum in school. Elizabeth knew exactly what it meant, though she could not have explained. It was just what she was doing now, as she leaped from pool to pool with her skirts and her pinafore in a string about her waist—fleeing in ecstasy⁶⁴ away, away, to that far-off undiscovered country of dreams, "Ower the border."
 
Her joyous abandon was rudely checked. There was a quick splash from a pool not a yard ahead of her, where a stone hit the water sharply. Elizabeth stopped in alarm. She whirled round towards the low fence bordering the highway. Its innocent appearance, all draped in woodbine and fringed with alder and raspberry bushes, did not deceive her in the least. "You're a nasty, mean, mean boy, Charles Stuart MacAllister!" she cried indignantly to the thickest clump of alders⁶⁵. She dropped her dress and stepped to the grassy⁶⁶ side of the road, filled with rage. Of course it was Charles Stuart. He was always in the direction whence stones and abuse came. It had ever seemed to Elizabeth the strangest injustice⁶⁸ that a dear, lovely lady like Mother MacAllister should have been so shabbily treated both in the quantity and quality of the family Providence⁶⁹ had given her. For while there were eight Gordons, and every one of them fairly nice at times, there was but one single solitary⁷⁰ MacAllister, and a boy at that; yes, and sometimes the very nastiest boy that went to Forest Glen School!
 
She walked along with a haughtiness⁷¹ her Aunt Margaret might have envied and took not the smallest notice when a little turbulent fox-terrier, with many squeaks⁷² and squirms, wriggled⁷³ through a hole in the fence and came bounding towards her. And she turned her head and gazed absorbedly across the fields when it was followed by a boy who pitched himself over the fence and crossed to her side.
 
"Hello, Lizzie!" he cried, his brown eyes dancing in his brown face in the friendliest manner. "Mother says I've got to see you home."
 
Elizabeth's head went higher. She fixed⁷⁴ her eyes on the line of white-stemmed birches that guarded the stream. Neither did she deign⁷⁵ to notice "Trip," who frisked and barked about her.
 
Charles Stuart came a step nearer and took hold of the long, heavy braid. "Mud-turtle, Lizzie!" he hissed⁷⁶. "Mud-turtle! Look out there! Your neck's gettin' that long you'll hit the telegraph wires in another minute."
 
Elizabeth's shoulders came up towards her ears with a quick, convulsive movement. Her dignity vanished. Her long neck, her long hair, her long fingers, and her gray eyes were features over which much teasing had made her acutely sensitive.
 
She whirled round, made a slap at her tormentor⁷⁷, which he dodged⁷⁸, stumbled over Trip, who was always in the way, and fell full length upon the wet grass, scattering⁷⁹ her treasures far and wide. Trip snatched up a boot and began worrying it; Charles Stuart shouted with laughter; and Elizabeth picked herself up, sank upon a stone, and began to cry.
 
The boy was all repentance immediately. He gathered up the apples, the stockings, the maple sugar, and even the faded bunch of marigolds, rescued the boot from Trip, and handed them all to their owner, remembering contritely⁸⁰ how his mother had said he must be kind to little Lizzie on the way home and, above all things, not to make her cry.
 
Elizabeth received her treasures with averted⁸¹ face. "I wish you'd go back home and leave me alone," she wailed⁸², as she wiped away her tears with the muddy skirt of her pinafore.
 
"Well, I'd like to," said Charles Stuart honestly; "but mother said I'd got to see you home. Hurrah⁸³, Lizzie! Aw, come on, I won't tease you any more."
 
So Elizabeth rose, not without much of the dignity of a broken heart in her attitude, and walked forward in a very stately fashion indeed.
 
Charles Stuart did his best to make amends⁸⁴. He pointed⁸⁵ out the oriole's little cradle that swung from the elm bough⁸⁶ high above their heads. He showed her the ground-hogs' hole beside the hollow stump and the wasps⁸⁷' nest in the fence corner, until at last friendly relations were once more established.
 
They walked along side-by-side: he, splashing through the blue rainpools; she, envious⁸⁸ and proper, stepping over the soft, wet grass. She was slightly disconcerted, too; for a Charles Stuart that walked beside you on the public highway, and did not run and hide nor throw stones, nor even pull your hair, was something to raise even more apprehension⁸⁹ than when he behaved naturally.
 
But the young man was really trying to atone⁹⁰ for his sins, for a reason Elizabeth could never have guessed, and he now sidled up to her holding something in his hand.
 
"Say, Lizzie?"
 
"What?"
 
"Don't you want this?" He handed her, with an embarrassed attempt at nonchalance⁹¹, a very sticky little candy tablet. It was pretty and pink and had some red printing on it. Elizabeth took it, quite overwhelmed with surprise and gratitude⁹². She was just about to put it into her mouth when she thought of Jamie. The little brother loved sweeties so. Of course she had saved her cake of maple sugar for him, all but one tiny bite; but a pink candy was ever so much better. With a hasty "thanks," she slipped it into her pinafore with her other treasures.
 
Charles Stuart looked disappointed. He picked up some stones, shied one at the telegraph wires, and another at the green glass fixture⁹³ at the top of the pole. This last proceeding⁹⁴ caused Elizabeth to scream and beseech⁹⁵ him to stop. For Malcolm had said that a dreadful man would come out from town and put you in jail if you committed this crime. Charles Stuart, having accomplished⁹⁷ his purpose in fixing Elizabeth's attention upon himself once more, desisted, and cast his last stone with a crash into the raspberry bushes by the roadside.
 
"Ain't you goin' to read it?" he asked, with his back towards her.
 
"Read what, the candy?"
 
"O' course."
 
Elizabeth paused and rummaged⁹⁸ in her pinafore. She bundled shoes and stockings aside and fished out the little pink tablet. The legend, inscribed⁹⁹ in red letters, was, "Be my girl." She read it aloud quite impersonally¹⁰⁰. She did not object to it, for fear of hurting Charles Stuart's feelings; but she wished that it had been, "Be my boy," instead. It would have been so appropriate for Jamie. For every day she bribed¹⁰¹ and coaxed¹⁰² him to be "Diddy's boy," in preference to Mary's or Jean's or even Annie's.
 
Charles Stuart waited for some comment, feeling that Elizabeth was certainly very dull. No wonder she could never get a sum right at school, and was always foot of the spelling class. He flung another stone to relieve his feelings; this time in the direction of a pair of chiming bob-o'-links that, far over the clover-meadow, went up and down in an airy dance. He felt he must put forth¹⁰³ another effort to make his position clear to Elizabeth's dull wits.
 
"Say, Lizzie, did anybody ever—ever see you home before?"
 
Elizabeth stared. Surely Charles Stuart must be wandering in his mind, for how could he help knowing that his mother or father or Long Pete Fowler, the hired man, often accompanied indeed by Charles Stuart himself, had always, heretofore, seen her home?
 
"Of course," she answered wonderingly. "But I'm a big girl now, I'm going on eleven, and I'm too old to have anybody see me home."
 
This was worse than ever. Charles Stuart looked at her in perplexity. Then he came straight to the point in the wise old way.
 
"Say, Lizzie, I think you're the nicest girl in all Forest Glen School."
 
Elizabeth stared again; not so much at the remark, though it was extremely absurd, for Charles Stuart hated all girls, as at his uncomfortable subdued¹⁰⁴ manner, which she now began to notice. She felt vaguely¹⁰⁵ sorry for him. Charles Stuart never acted like that unless his father had been giving him a scolding. Her sympathy made her responsive.
 
"Do you?" she cried. "Oh, I'm so glad, Charles Stuart."
 
This was making fine progress. The young man looked vastly encouraged.
 
"I'm going away to the High School, in Cheemaun, if I pass next summer," he said, with not so much irrelevance¹⁰⁶ as might appear.
 
Elizabeth was all interest. To "pass" and go to the High School in the neighboring town was the grand ambition of every boy and girl in Forest Glen School.
 
"Oh, are you, Charles Stuart? Maybe John is, too."
 
"Yes." He was getting on famously now. "Father says I can. And I'm going to college after."
 
"And what'll you be?" asked Elizabeth admiringly.
 
"I'm not sure," said Charles Stuart grandly. "Mother wants me to be a minister, but I think I'd rather be a horse-doctor."
 
Elizabeth looked dubious¹⁰⁷. She did not like to differ from Mother MacAllister, but she could not see how it would be possible to make anything like a minister out of such an uncomfortable, hair-pulling stone-thrower as Charles Stuart.
 
"You'd best be a horse-doctor, Charles Stuart," she advised wisely. After all, that was a very noble calling, Elizabeth felt. Once a horse-doctor had come out from town to Rosie Carrick's place and Rosie's pussy¹⁰⁸ had been sick, and he had given it medicine which cured it. She related the incident for Charles Stuart's encouragement, but he did not seem very favorably impressed. Pulling pussy-cats' tails was more in Charles Stuart's line. He began to show leanings towards the ministry¹⁰⁹.
 
"Mother says it's a grander thing to be a minister than anything else in the world," he asserted. "But you have to know an awful lot, I guess."
 
"And you have to be most awful good," said Elizabeth emphatically.
 
"Mother says you have to be most awful good no matter what you are," said Charles Stuart, with greater wisdom.
 
Elizabeth nodded; but she could not allow the ministry to be belittled¹¹⁰.
 
"My father was nearly a minister once, but he said he wasn't good enough, and he's the very, very goodest man that ever lived."
 
"It'll be easy to be good when we're grown up," said Charles Stuart.
 
"Oh, yes, ever so easy," said Elizabeth comfortably.
 
"And, say—Lizzie."
 
"What?"
 
Charles Stuart was looking embarrassed again. "I'm—I'm nearly twelve, you know."
 
They had reached the big gate between the willows¹¹¹ by this time. Elizabeth flung her treasure trove upon the grass and, springing upon the gate, swung out on to the road again.
 
"Well, I know that," she said, wondering what such gratuitous¹¹² information had to do either with being a minister or riding a gate, "and I'm going on eleven."
 
Charles Stuart mounted on the other side and swung, too. It was rather childish, but he was bound to be agreeable until he got something off his mind.
 
"Well, you know—when I'm done going to college, and we've grown up we'll have to get married, you and me. Long Pete Fowler said so."
 
Elizabeth did not look at all impressed. Such a proposition did not appeal to her. It was too vague and intangible. People all got married, of course, some day, but not until you were very, very old and staid, and all the joy of life had departed from it—just as everybody died some day. But, though death was inevitable¹¹³, Elizabeth did not borrow trouble from that solemn fact. Besides, she had far other and greater ambitions than were dreamed of in Charles Stuart's philosophy. She was going to be grand and famous some day—just how, Elizabeth had not yet decided¹¹⁴. One day she would be a great artist, the next a missionary¹¹⁵ in darkest Africa. But Joan of Arc's life appealed to her most strongly, and oftenest her dreams pictured herself clad in flashing armor, mounted on a prancing¹¹⁶ charger, and leading an army of brave Canadians to trample¹¹⁷ right over the United States.
 
So there was nothing very alluring¹¹⁸ in the prospect¹¹⁹ of exchanging all this to settle down with Charles Stuart, even though one would be living with dear Mother MacAllister, with whom one was always happy. She looked at Charles Stuart, about to speak out her disdain¹²⁰, when the expression of his face suddenly checked her. Even as a child Elizabeth had a marvelous intuition, which told her when another's feelings were in danger of being hurt. It gave her a strange, quite unacknowledged feeling that she was far older and wiser than the children she played with. There was always an inner self sitting in judgment¹²¹ on all childishness, even when she was on the highroad to every sort of nonsense by way of the wild streak.
 
That inner self spoke¹²² now. It said that Charles Stuart was very young and silly, but he was also very nervous, and she must not hurt him. She must pretend that she thought him very wise. It would not be very wicked, for was she not always pretending? When Jamie said, "Be a bear, Diddy," or "Be a bogey-man," Elizabeth would go down on her knees and growl¹²³ and roar, or pull her hair over her face, make goggle-eyes, and hop² madly about until the little brother was screaming with ecstatic terror. So when Charles Stuart said, "We'll get married," it required less effort to comply than to be a bogey-man, and she nodded radiantly, and said, "All right."
 
Charles Stuart looked equally radiant, and they swung back and forth smiling at each other over the top of the gate. Elizabeth began to think it would not be such a bad bargain after all. If Charles Stuart was really going to like her, how much happier life would be! For, of course, he would never plot with John to run away from her any more, and they three would play one perpetual game of ball for ever and ever.
 
They had swung some moments in happy silence when Charles Stuart, with masculine obtuseness¹²⁴, made a blunder that shattered the airy fabric¹²⁵ of their dream. He had been looking down into Elizabeth's deep eyes, and exclaimed in honest surprise:
 
"Say, Lizzie, your eyes are green, I do declare!"
 
Elizabeth's face turned crimson¹²⁶. To accuse her of having black eyes, as many people did by lamplight, was horrid¹²⁷, horrid mean; to say her eyes were gray was a deadly insult. But to be told they were green! She had only a minute before delicately spared Charles Stuart's feelings, and now he had turned and trampled¹²⁸ upon her most tender sensibilities.
 
"They're not! They're not!" she cried indignantly. "They're blue, and I won't play with you ever again, Charles Stuart MacAllister, you nasty, nasty boy!"
 
She flung down off the gate and swept up her treasures from the wet grass. The sight of her roused all Charles Stuart's desire to tease. She really looked so funny snatching up a shoe or stocking and dropping it again in her wrath¹²⁹, while Trip grabbed everything she dropped and shook it madly. Charles Stuart jumped from the gate and began imitating her, catching¹³⁰ up a stone, letting it fall, with a shriek¹³¹ and crying loudly at the top of his voice, while Trip, enjoying the noise and commotion¹³², went round and round after his tail just because he could think of nothing else to do.
 
This was too much for Elizabeth. Charles Stuart was heaping insult upon insult. She got the last article of her bundle crushed into her pinafore, and as the boy, going through the same motions, raised his head, she gave him a sounding slap in the face, turned, darted¹³³ through the gate, and went raging down the lane, dropping a shoe, a stocking, an apple, or a piece of maple sugar at every bound. She was blinded with tears and choking with grief and anger—anger that Charles Stuart should have cajoled her into thinking he intended to be nice to her, and grief that she could have been so cruel. Oh, what a terrible blow she had struck! Her hand tingled¹³⁴ from it yet. It must have hurt poor Charles Stuart dreadfully, and after such conduct she could never hope to be a lady. Her aunt would be disgraced, and that wonderful lady, whose name she bore, would never come to see her. She was an outcast whom nobody loved, for not even Mother MacAllister could like her now!
 
She could not go home, so she flung herself down upon the wet grass in a corner of the lane and wept bitterly. It was always so with Elizabeth. She was up in the clouds one moment and down in the depths the next. Her heart was breaking over the injury she had done. For the first time in her life she experienced a feeling of warm regard towards Charles Stuart, simply because she had hurt him.
 
She stopped sobbing¹³⁵, and, raising herself from the ground, peeped out through her tears to see if he were in sight. Perhaps he was stunned¹³⁶ by the blow and was lying beneath the gate. She could see no sign of him and her heart stood still with dread⁹⁶. She had been vaguely conscious of joyous shouts and cries from the field behind the house and had heard the rifle-crack of a baseball against the bat, telling that there was a game in progress. She was now made aware that the joyous shouts were growing into a noisy clamor of welcome. Above the din¹ she could hear John's roar: "Charles Stuart on our side! I bar Charles Stuart!" And there was her false lover speeding across the field towards her home, Trip at his heels! Elizabeth arose from the ground, dry-eyed and indignant. She wished she had hit him harder. Charles Stuart MacAllister was without doubt the horridest, horridest boy that ever lived and she would never speak to him again—no, not if she lived to be two hundred and went over to his place every Saturday for a thousand years. Just see if she would!
 
As she passed an alder clump and caught a glimpse of her aunt standing near the garden gate talking with Mr. Coulson, Elizabeth became suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of her shoeless and disheveled condition. She knew that, while untidy hair and a dirty pinafore were extremely reprehensible¹³⁷, bare feet put one quite beyond the possibility of being genteel. That word "genteel" had become the shibboleth¹³⁸ of the Gordon family in the last four years. It was poor Elizabeth's chief burden in life. For how could anyone hope to live up to it when she was possessed¹³⁹ of a wild streak?
 
Fortunately, her aunt was in deep conversation with Mr. Coulson, and had not spied her. She dropped upon the grass, safely hidden by the alders, and began to drag her damp stockings over her muddy feet. There would arise dire⁶⁷ consequences from this later, but Elizabeth found the evil of the hour sufficient unto it and never added the troubles of the future. As she sat thus busily engaged, she was startled by the sound of footsteps and drew back further behind her flowery screen. The next moment Mr. Coulson strode rapidly past her and up the lane without glancing to the right or left. Elizabeth stared after him. He had passed so close she might have touched him, and how pale and angry he looked! The schoolmaster was one of the objects upon which Elizabeth showered the wealth of her devotion, and she was vaguely disturbed for him. He looked just as if he had been whipping someone in school. Then her own uncomfortable condition obtruded¹⁴⁰ itself once more, and she arose. She straightened her sunbonnet, smoothed down her crumpled¹⁴¹ skirts and slowly and fearfully took her way down the lane. She dreaded¹⁴² to meet her aunt, knowing by sad experience that as soon as that lady's eye fell upon her, not only would all the misdemeanors of which she was conscious appear silhouetted¹⁴³ against Miss Gordon's perfection, but dozens of unsuspected sins would spring to light and stand out black in the glare.
 
She peeped through the tangle¹⁴⁴ of alders and saw that Aunt Margaret was now talking to Annie, with her back to the lane, and the same instant she spied a way of escape. The lane ran straight past the big stone house and down to the line of birches that bordered the stream, forming the road by which Mr. MacAllister reached his old mill, lying away down there in the hollow. Down in the lower part of the lane where the birches grew, William Gordon was wont to walk in the evenings, and here Elizabeth, with infinite relief, spied him just coming into view from beyond a curve. He was walking slowly with bent¹⁴⁵ head, his long, thin hands clasped behind him. At his side was a young man, of medium height, thick-set, and powerful-looking. This was Mr. Tom Teeter, who worked the farm upon which The Dale stood, and lived only a few hundred yards from the Gordons. Mr. Teeter was an Irishman, with a fine gift for speech-making. He was much sought after, for tea-meetings and during political campaigns, and had won the proud alliterative name of Oro's Orator¹⁴⁶. Tom was now holding forth hotly upon the "onparalleled rascality¹⁴⁷ and treachersome villainousness" of the Opposition¹⁴⁸ in the Ontario Legislature.
 
Elizabeth, her eyes alight, ran swiftly past the gate towards her father. She loved each member of her family with all the might of her passionate¹⁴⁹ heart; but she held for her father an especially tender regard. Her love for him had in it something of the sacred grief that clung about the memory of her dead mother, something too of mother-love itself, felt in a longing¹⁵⁰ to comfort and protect him. The stoop of his thin shoulders, the silvering hair on his bowed head, and the sound of his gentle voice all appealed to Elizabeth's heart in the same way as when Jamie cried from a hurt. Whenever he looked unusually sad and abstracted, his little daughter yearned¹⁵¹ to fling her arms about his neck and pet and caress¹⁵² him. But Elizabeth knew better. Such conduct would be courting death by ridicule¹⁵³ at the hands of the Gay Gordons.
 
She ran to him now, and, as there was only Tom Teeter to see, ventured to slip her hand into his as she walked by his side. Tom Teeter was the bosom¹⁵⁴ friend of every young Gordon, and he pulled her sunbonnet and said:
 
"Hello, Lizzie! How's the wild streak behavin'?"
 
Her father looked down at her, apparently¹⁵⁵ just conscious of her presence. His eyes brightened.
 
"Well, well, little 'Lizbeth," he said. "And where have you been?"
 
"Over to Mother MacAllister's. And look, I've got three apples and some maple sugar, and there's a piece of it for you, father, and I found the marigolds at the crick."
 
"Well, well, yes, yes." He seemed suddenly to remember something. "What was it your aunt was saying? Oh, yes, that I must go to the gate and meet you. And here you are!"
 
Elizabeth beamed. "Come and tell her we're home then," she said warily¹⁵⁶; and thus fortified¹⁵⁷, but still fearful, she walked slowly up the garden path to the front door, where Aunt Margaret was standing.
 
But to Elizabeth's amazement¹⁵⁸ and infinite relief, Aunt Margaret was all smiles and graciousness, even to Tom Teeter. She took no notice of her niece's disheveled appearance, but said cordially:
 
"Run away in, Elizabeth. Sarah Emily has come back, and she has some news for you. I hope it will help to make you a very good, thankful little girl."
 
Entranced at this marvelous escape, Elizabeth flew through the old echoing hall and bounded wildly into the kitchen. She welcomed Sarah Emily rapturously, listened with wonder and awe¹⁵⁹ to the news that the fairy god-mother was no dream after all, but was really and truly coming to see her, and finally went shrieking¹⁶⁰ out to join in the game of ball, on Charles Stuart's side, too, all forgetful that not ten minutes before she had vowed¹⁶¹ against him an undying enmity.