devoting herself with all the greater assiduity to her muslin
curtains and ruffled pillow-shams. Stephen, too, had his
momentary pangs. There were times when he could calm his doubts
only by working on the little house. The mere sight of the
beloved floors and walls and ceilings comforted his heart, and
brought him good cheer.

The winter was a cold one, so bitterly cold that even the rapid
water at the Gray Rock was a mass of curdled yellow ice,
something that had only occurred once or twice before within the
memory of the oldest inhabitant.

It was also a very gay season for Pleasant River and Edgewood.
Never had there been so many card-parties, sleigh rides and
tavern dances, and never such wonderful skating. The river was
one gleaming, glittering thoroughfare of ice from Milliken's
Mills to the dam at the Edgewood bridge. At sundown bonfires
were built here and there on the mirror like surface, and all the
young people from the neighboring villages gathered on the ice;
while detachments of merry, rosycheeked boys and girls, those who
preferred coasting, met at the top of Brigadier Hill, from which
one could get a longer and more perilous slide than from any
other point in the township.

Claude Merrill, in his occasional visits from Boston, was very
much in evidence at the Saturday evening ice parties. He was not
an artist at the sport himself, but he was especially proficient
in the art of strapping on a lady's skates, and mur'muring--as
he adjusted the last buckle,--"The prettiest foot and ankle on
the river!" It cannot be denied that this compliment gave secret