“Come in, dear child. You are indeed welcome. Your father’s letter reached me but yesterday,” said Aunt Prissy, putting her arm about Faith and leading her into the house. “I know you are tired, and you shall lie down on the settle for a little, and then have your supper and go straight to bed.”
Faith was quite ready to agree. As she curled up on the broad sofa her three little cousins came into the room. They came on tiptoe, very quietly, Donald leading the two younger boys. Their mother had told them that Cousin Faith was tired after her long journey, and that they must just kiss her and run away.
Faith smiled up at the friendly little faces as they bent over to welcome her. “I know I shan’t be lonesome with such dear cousins,” she said, and the boys ran away to their play, quite sure that it was a fine thing to have a girl cousin come from the Wilderness to visit them.
Faith slept late the next morning, and awoke to hear the sound of rain against the windows. It was a lonesome sound to a little girl so far from her mother and father, and Faith was already thinking to herself that this big house, with its shining yellow floors, its white window curtains, and its nearness to a well-traveled road, was a very dreary place compared to her cabin home, when her chamber door opened and in came her Aunt Prissy, smiling and happy as if a rainy day was just what she had been hoping for.
“We shall have a fine time to-day, Faithie dear,” she declared, as she filled the big blue wash-basin with warm water. “There is nothing like a rainy day for a real good time. Your Uncle Philip and the boys are waiting to eat breakfast with you, and I have a great deal to talk over with you; so make haste and come down,” and Aunt Prissy, with a gay little nod, was gone, leaving Faith greatly cheered and wondering what the “good time” would be.
Uncle Philip Scott was waiting at the foot of the stairs. “So here is our little maid from the Wilderness! Well, it is a fine thing to have a girl in the house,” he declared, leading Faith into the dining-room and giving her a seat at the table beside his own. “Did you have any adventures coming over the trail?” he asked, after Faith had greeted her little cousins.
Faith told them of “Nooski’s” appearance, greatly to the delight of her boy cousins, who asked if the Indian woman had told Faith the best way to catch bear cubs and tame them.
“Come out to the shop, boys,” said Mr. Scott as they finished breakfast, “and help me repair the cart, and fix ‘Ginger’s’ harness. Perhaps Cousin Faith will come, too, later on in the morning.”
“We’ll see. Faithie and I have a good deal to do,” responded Mrs. Scott.
The boys ran off with their father, chattering gaily, but at the door Donald turned and called back: “You’ll come out to the shop, won’t you, Cousin Faith?”