But late as it was when she reached home, she stopped at her grandmother’s door, knowing that the dear old lady would lie awake till her return.
“My heart is so full, grandma,” she whispered. “The brook and river meet to-day, and I don’t know what course the river means to take; it looks a very winding way.”
“‘He leadeth me,’” whispered back grandma. And Persis, for answer, said,—
“Let me sleep with you, grandma, to-night; I don’t want to be all alone.”
And grandma was only too glad to say, “Yes, my darling.”
CHAPTER XVII.
PASTURES NEW.
The first unexpected turn in Persis’s winding river was made very shortly after this, and her first view of it was through Mr. Danforth’s agency. To the girl’s disappointment she learned from Miss Adams that no scholarships at the college were open for applicants the coming year, and to Persis her college career seemed to drift farther and farther away into the unattainable.
While still chafing under the disappointment, a call from Mr. Danforth drew forth her confidence. “It was quite natural,” she told herself, that she should tell her former tutor of this special affair. “I haven’t said a word about it, even to Annis or Basil,” she informed him, “but I must talk it over with some one, or I shall lose my wits. I feel as if I didn’t know what to ‘jump into next,’ as Prue says.”
“It is strange how events shape themselves,” replied Mr. Danforth, “for I came here for the express purpose of making a proposition to you—I have not forgotten your ambition to be an editor, and I thought perhaps you would not object to a little journalistic training. In this new paper, which I think promises well, we purpose to have a page devoted to the young folks, and I wondered if you would care to try your hand at managing it in the fall.”