When he was ready to go, she brought Dobbin from the barn for him; then, as he was mounting, she asked, with wistful inquiry in her tone—
“Can you tell me, please, how far it is from here to the Canadian border?”
He looked down at her with a friendly smile. “Nine or ten miles. Why do you want to know?”
“I am going there when Mrs. Munson has done with me,” she answered quietly.
“Going there? Where? It is a rather large order, don’t you know, to say you are going to Canada, because, you see, it is so big.”
“I don’t know where, but I shall be sure to find work, shan’t I? Granfer said there was work for everyone in Canada,” she said, a little anxiously.
“Humph! well, I suppose there is, only the trouble is that people won’t always do it. However, I don’t fancy there will be much trouble in your case, either in the getting or the doing, when you come over the border; and if you can’t get work, I will ask Mrs. Shaw to find you some if you come to Nine Springs.”
“Nine Springs? What a pretty name! Is that where you live? If I can’t get work, I will come, but I shan’t trouble you if I can help it,” Nell said, while a bright flush of excitement kept coming and going in her cheeks because of the kindness which was being shown to her by this stranger.
“What sort of work can you do—I mean what sort do you like best?” the doctor asked.
Nell’s brow clouded. “Oh, I like everything; but I don’t know how to do any except rough work, what everyone can do, I mean.”