“Yes, it’s really Esther,” Mrs. Carew called over the little girl’s shoulder, and Esther ran toward the settle as Faith started forward to meet her.
“Isn’t this a fine surprise?” Esther exclaimed. “I was so afraid you would hear about our living here before you got home.”
“Living here?” questioned Faith, looking so puzzled that both Mrs. Carew and Esther laughed aloud.
“Yes! yes, indeed! My father and mother and I,” answered Esther delightedly.
“But where? I have been up-stairs, and all over the house and I didn’t see anybody, or anything,” said Faith.
“Oh, we live in our own house—a house just like this; or it will be just like this when it is all finished,” and Esther told of her father’s decision to bring his family to the Wilderness to live. He had purchased a grant of land adjoining that held by Mr. Carew soon after Esther’s visit in September. The timber for the cabin had been cut early in the winter, and the cabin begun, and now it was nearly finished. “We moved last week,” said Esther, “and you can see our house from your back door.”
Faith forgot all about being tired and ran to the back door to look. Yes, there it was; the big new cabin, near the path down which Ethan Allen had led her home, when, angry at Esther, she had run off to the woods.
“Isn’t it splendid! Oh, Esther, it is the very best thing that ever happened,” Faith declared; “isn’t it, mother dear?”
Mrs. Carew was quite ready to agree with her little daughter. “Good neighbors was the only thing we really lacked,” she agreed, “and perhaps others will come when there is better protection for their safety.”
The two little friends had much to tell each other, and when Esther started for home Faith walked with her as far as the mill. From the mill the new cabin could be clearly seen.