Just then the whistle sounded, and soon the train came around the curve and stopped at the little station.
Very gently Helen kissed Randy, saying, “Remember I shall soon be here again.”
Then the train started, and through her tears Randy saw Helen’s beautiful, smiling face at the window. When the last car was out of sight, Randy turned toward her father a face which was a combination of smiles and tears.
“Well, Randy,” said he, “which is it, laughing or crying?”
“Both,” said Randy, “crying because I am sorry to have her go, and smiling because I know just when she will come again. And, now, father, I am going to tell you something. I mean to be the best scholar in school this year. I’d like to be able to talk and write as well as Miss Dayton does. I don’t suppose I could do that, but I will come as near as I can,” and Randy looked to her father for his approval.
“That’s right, Randy, that’s right,” said her father, heartily, “and now, I’ll tell you something. Sandy McLeod says that if Nathan Lawton gives the use of his best room for a schoolroom to the children, he isn’t going to have Nathan outdo him, so he’s offered a prize of a five-dollar gold piece to be given to the best scholar at the school this winter. I am glad that you spoke your mind before you knew about the prize. I’m willing you should try for it, but I’m glad to know that you intended to study before you had any idea of a prize to be won.”
“I’ll make myself a good scholar,” said Randy, “and I’ll get the prize, too.” Randy never forgot that morning.
Years after, the scene, in all its completeness, would rise before her with a perfection of detail that would for a moment startle her; the old mare leisurely crawling up the road toward home; the stone walls along the sides of the road, still covered with blackberry vines, their foliage russet-colored against the cold gray stones, and their thorny stems red in the October sunshine.
Across the roads the fields were dry and dun-colored, but in places the grass was still green, and over all the bright blue sky with its floating clouds. Birds twittered in the tree-tops or flew in swirling lines above the sunny fields, and everywhere, although the trees were bare and the flowers gone, a feeling of gladness and cheer seemed present.
Randy turned to speak to her father and found that he was looking curiously at her. “Oh, father,” said she, “I was just thinking that it seems as if everything was glad for some reason this morning. I don’t know how to tell you just how I feel, but the sky seems so bright, the birds are singing, and when I looked at you I thought that you looked glad too.”