of the lighter articles--pillow-slips, and fair sheets of
"seventeen-hundred" linen were waiting her daintier hand.

As Winsome and Meg washed, Ralph Peden carried water, learning the
wondrous science of carrying two cans over a wooden hoop; and in
the frankest tutelage Winsome put her hand over his to teach him,
and the relation of master and pupil asserted its ancient danger.

It had not happened to Winsome Charteris to meet any one to whom
she was attracted with such frank liking. She had never known what
it was to have a brother, and she thought that this clear-eyed
young man might be a brother to her. It is a fallacy common among
girls that young men desire them as sisters. Ralph himself was
under no such illusion, or at least would not have been, had he
had the firmness of mind to sit down half a mile from his emotions
and coolly look them over. But in the meanwhile he was only
conscious of a great and rising delight in his heart.

As Winsome Charteris bent above the wash-tub he was at liberty to
observe how the blood mantled on the clear oval of her cheek. He
had time to note--of course entirely as a philosopher--the pale
purple shadow under the eyes, over which the dark, curling lashes
came down like the fringe of the curtain of night.

"Why--I wonder why?" he said, and stopped aghast at his utterance
aloud of his inmost thought.

"What do you wonder?" said Winsome, glancing up with a frank dewy
freshness in her eyes.