with a bright twinkle in her eyes,

"At least, you and Jemima will be amused this winter."

"I guess we shall be in more ways than one," assented Belinda, "for I'm
pretty sure that Grandma Babson and that small boy will be enemies from
the start."

Belinda's habitually jolly face wore such a comical look of anxiety that
Randy refrained from laughing, and to change the subject asked for a
schoolmate whom she had not recently seen. "Where is Molly Wilson?" she
questioned.

"Oh, Molly is so hard at work now it's only once in a while that I see
her. Her baby sister is ill, and Molly has no time for anything but
helping around home. Her mother says that she intends to have her go back
to school if she can spare her, but whatever do you suppose Molly meant?

"She said to me, 'Belinda, even if mother can spare me, I may not go to
school. You can't think how anxious I am to be at work at my lessons
again, but I'm afraid I shan't look fit and father's had such a hard
summer, the farm hasn't paid for working it, he says, that I couldn't ask
him for anything for myself if I never had it.'

"And oh, I never thought, Randy, I promised Molly I would not tell what
she said. I didn't mean to. Whatever made me forget?"

"Never mind," said Randy, an odd little smile showing the dimples at the
corners of her mouth.