stockin's by the pair, better separate 'em, I say! Like man an' wife!
Give 'em a vacation, once in a while, an' love'll live the longer!"

Dilly was thinking, this morning, of all the possibilities of the
lovely, shining day. So many delights lay open to her! She could take
her luncheon in her pocket, and go threading through the woods behind
her house. She could walk over to Pine Hollow, to see how the cones
were coming on, and perchance scrape together a basket of pine needles,
to add to her winter's kindling; or she might, if the world and the
desires thereof assailed her, visit Sudleigh Fair. Better still, she
need account to nobody if she chose to sit there on the doorstone, and
let the hours go unregretted by. Presently, her happy musing was broken
by a ripple from the outer world. A girl came briskly round the corner
where the stone-wall lay hidden under a wilderness of cinnamon
rosebushes and blackberry vines,--Rosa Tolman, dressed in white
_pique_, with a great leghorn hat over her curls. The girl came
hurrying up the path, with a rustle of starched petticoats, and still
Dilly kept her trance-like posture.

"I know who 'tis!" she announced, presently, in a declamatory voice.
"It's Rosy Tolman, an' she's dressed in white, with red roses, all
complete, an' she's goin' to Sudleigh Cattle-Show."

Rosa lost a shade of pink from her cheeks. Her round blue eyes widened,
in an unmistakable terror quite piteous to see.

"O Dilly!" she quavered, "how do you know such things? Why, you 'ain't
looked at me!"

Dilly opened her eyes, and chuckled in keen enjoyment.