THE INTERPRETER


The young woman announced her presence at the open door of the hut by
calling, "Are you there?"

The deep voice of the Interpreter answered, "Helen! Here I am,
child--on the porch. Come!" As she passed swiftly through the house and
appeared in the porch doorway, he added, "This is a happy surprise,
indeed. I thought you were not expected home for another month. It
seems ages since you went away."

She tried bravely to smile in response to the gladness in her old
friend's greeting. "I had planned to stay another month," she said,
"but I--" She paused as if for some reason she found it hard to explain
why she had returned to Millsburgh so long before the end of the summer
season. Then she continued slowly, as if remembering that she must
guard her words, "Brother wrote me that they were expecting serious
labor troubles, and with father as he is--" Her voice broke and she
finished lamely, "Mother is _so_ worried and unhappy. I--I felt that I
really ought not to be away."

She turned quickly and went to stand at the porch railing, where she
watched the cloud of dust that marked the progress of Bobby and Maggie
through the Flats.

"I can't understand father's condition at all," she said, presently,
without looking at the Interpreter. "He is so--so--" Again she paused
as if she could not find courage to speak the thought that so disturbed