might be important."

Jake slipped the letter into the band of his broad-brimmed straw hat and
slouched lazily out of the store. An old blaze-faced sorrel horse
whinnied as he stepped up to untie it. Jake mounted and rode off slowly,
his bare feet dangling far below the stirrups. It was two miles to the
Appleton farm, down a hot, dusty road, and he took his time in going.
Well for little Betty that she did not know what wonderful surprise was
on its way to her, or she would have been in a fever of impatience for
the letter to arrive.

It had been a tiresome day for the child. Up before five, in her bare
little room in the west gable, busy with morning chores until breakfast
was ready, she had earned a rest long before the Little Colonel's day
had begun. Afterward she had helped with the breakfast dishes and had
taken her turn at the butter-making in the spring-house, thumping the
heavy dasher up and down in the cedar churn until her arms ached. But it
was cool and pleasant down in the spring-house with the water trickling
out in a ceaseless drip-drip on the cold stones. She dabbled her fingers
in the spring for a long time when the churning was done, wishing she
had nothing to do but sit there and listen to the secrets it was trying
to tell. Surely it must have learned a great many on its underground way
among the roots of things, and all else that lies hidden in the earth.

But she could not loiter long. There was the dinner-table to set for the
hungry farm-hands, and after the dinner was over more dishes to wash.
Then there were some towels to iron. It was two o'clock before her work
was all done, and she had time to go up to her little room in the west
gable.