to start for the station, she called her friend to the fence and shook hands with her so warmly that the tears overflowed the awe in the other's eyes. 

 "Good-bye, Mrs. Lathrop," she said with a solemnity that had nothing to relieve its sombreness and much to deepen the impressiveness of the moment. "Good-bye! I 'm goin' now, 'n' I sh'll be back this evenin', 'n' so help me God while I'm gone, for I have a goose-flesh kind o' a sensation 't I'm goin' to get a surprise." 

 Mrs. Lathrop clung to her in a heart-wrung silence. Both the friends were deeply affected, feeling that this journey was a something quite apart from Susan's ordinary every-day little expeditions to the city. Finally Miss Clegg withdrew her hand, straightened out the resultant wrinkles in her mitt, and stalked away. Mrs. Lathrop sighed sadly, returned to her own rocker, and entered upon the course of a long day of patient waiting. 

 It was about three in the afternoon that, to her great surprise, she saw Miss Clegg returning. There was something altogether new and strange in the gait of the latter while she was at a distance, and as she drew nearer Mrs. Lathrop's eyes and mouth opened together. The nearer that Susan drew the more provocative of astonishment was her general appearance. To sum up the whole state of the case in as few words as possible, I will say that she seemed to have barely survived some hitherto totally unknown species of catastrophe. Mrs. Lathrop, much overcome, ran to the door and cried,— 

 "Come over! I've got the kettle—" 

 "I was comin' anyhow," Susan called feebly back, and wearily dragging herself through the gate, along the walk, and up the steps, sank down finally in one of the kitchen chairs. 

 Mrs. Lathrop hastened to fortify her with hot tea and gingerbread. She ate and drank in silence for some time, only volunteering, as she took the third cup,— 

 "I ain't had nothin' since I left home." 

 "Didn't you find your—" Mrs. Lathrop began eagerly. 

 "Cousin?" said the traveller, in a tone that suggested revelations as yet unrevealed,—"oh, yes, Mrs. Lathrop, I found my cousin." 

 Mrs. Lathrop felt herself to be silenced, and spoke no more. Miss Clegg drank all the tea and ate all the gingerbread. Then, when there was nothing else left to do, she declared herself satisfied, and fixing 

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