white cat's tail ... and chased the infant turkeys ... and found sweet,
juicy, delicious bones in unexpected places ... and even inhaled, in
exquisite anticipation, the fragrance of one particularly succulent bone
that he had hidden under Miss Vilda's bed.

Sleep carried Samantha so many years back into the past that she heard
the blithe din of carpenters hammering and sawing on a little house
that was to be hers, his, _theirs_. ... And as she watched them, with
all sorts of maidenly hopes about the home that was to be ... some one
stole up behind and caught her at it, and she ran away blushing ... and
some one followed her ... and they watched the carpenters together. ...
Somebody else lived in the little house now, and Samantha never blushed
any more, but that part was mercifully hidden in the dream.

Miss Vilda's slumber was troubled. She seemed to be walking through
peaceful meadows, brown with autumn, when all at once there rose in the
path steep hills and rocky mountains ... She felt too tired and too old
to climb, but there was nothing else to be done ... And just as she
began the toilsome ascent, a little child appeared, and catching her
helplessly by the skirts implored to be taken with her ... And she
refused and went on alone ... but, miracle of miracles, when she reached
the crest of the first hill the child was there before her, still
beseeching to be carried ... And again she refused, and again she
wearily climbed the heights alone, always meeting the child when she
reached their summits, and always enacting the same scene.... At last
she cried in despair, "Ask me no more, for I have not even strength
enough for my own needs!" ... And the child said, "I will help you;" and
straightway crept into her arms and nestled there as one who would not
be denied ... and she took up her burden and walked.... And as she
climbed the weight grew lighter and lighter, till at length the clinging