Thankful Rest | Page 4

it will be a sore
change from the tender care of a mother. We must do what we can,
Frank, to make their home at Thankful Rest as happy as possible. We
had such a happy one ourselves, I feel an intense pity for those who
have not. There is Judge Keane on horseback at the gate. He wants
either you or me to go out and speak with him."
The minister rose, and both stepped out to the veranda, and down the
steps to the garden. The judge had alighted, and fastening his bridle to
the gate-post, came up the path to meet them. He was an old man, with
white hair and beard; but his fine figure was as erect and stately as it
had been a quarter of a century before. He shook hands cordially with
the minister, touched Carrie Goldthwaite's brow with his lips, and then
said, in a brisk, cheerful voice,--

"My wife heard you were going to Newhaven for a couple of days, and
sent me down to say she would expect you, miss," (he nodded to
Carrie,) "at the Red House to-morrow, to stay till he comes back. I may
say yes, I suppose?"
"Yes, and thank you, Judge Keane," said Miss Goldthwaite with a little
grateful smile. "Even with Abbie's company, it is very dull when Frank
is away. Won't you come in?"
The judge shook his head, and turned to the gate again. "Not to-night,
my dear. Good-night, and good-bye, Frank."
"Have you no commissions, judge?" asked the minister. "I shall have
plenty of time at my disposal; my own business is very little."
"No, I think not," returned the judge. "But, let me see."
Miss Goldthwaite moved to the gate, and laid her hand caressingly on
Beauty's glossy neck.
"I only envy you one thing, Judge Keane," she said; "and this is it.
What a beauty she is!"
The judge laughed, and his eyes lingered on the slim, girlish figure in
its dainty muslin garb; and on the sweet, unclouded face, which was a
true index to the happy heart within.
"Beauty shall be yours by-and-by," he laughed; and a swift wave of
colour swept across her face, and she hid it in the animal's glossy
mane.--"Safe journey, Frank. Come to the Red House for your sister
when you want her.--Steady, Beauty." He sprang to the saddle, and
held out his hand to Carrie.
"I'm glad you've said yes, my dear," he whispered, with a mischievous
twinkle in his gray eyes, "or a certain young man would have thought
nothing of coming to take you by main force. Shall I tell him of that
sweet blush? Or--"
But Miss Goldthwaite had fled, and Beauty flew off like an arrow.

III.
THE ARRRIVAL.
On Friday morning, Miss Hepsy received a brief note from Mr.
Goldthwaite, stating that he had attended the funeral of Mrs. Hurst,
paid the little she had owed in Newhaven, and would be at Pendlepoint
by the noon cars that day, when he requested Miss Hepsy to be in
waiting at the depot to meet her nephew and niece.

Now, Friday was Miss Hepsy's cleaning day. Although ordinary eyes
would have been puzzled to point out what spot in that shining domain
required more than the touch of a duster, the house was upturned from
ceiling to basement, and received such sweeping and dusting and
polishing, such scouring and scrubbing, that it was a marvel Miss
Hepsy was not exhausted at the end of it. She had just turned out the
parlour chairs into the lobby, and was busy with broom and dust-pan,
sweeping up invisible dust, when Ebenezer brought her Mr.
Goldthwaite's letter. So much did it upset her, that he had to depart
without his glass of cider, for she took no more notice of him than if he
had been one of the pillars at the door. It was eleven o'clock almost; it
would take her every moment to dress and be at the depot in time; so
she had to set the chairs back into the half-swept room, replace her
working garb by the green dress and the plaid shawl, take her blue
umbrella and trudge off, leaving the management of the dinner to
Keziah. Her frame of mind as she did so augured ill for the welcome of
her sister's children.
The cars were half an hour late, and Miss Hepsy strode up and down
the platform in a ferment of wrath and impatience, thinking of the
dinner under awkward Keziah's supervision; of the sweeping and
dusting and baking all to be done in the afternoon; of the bother two
strange children were sure to be; of a hundred and one things, which
brought her temper up to fever heat by the time the