“Oh, all right! I dare you to jump off the hay.”
“Down there? Take you!” she cried, and with the word sprang into the air.
Beside her the boy leaped, too. They landed lightly on the fragrant mass in the bay of the barn.
“Oh,” she cried, “it’s like flying, isn’t it! Why wasn’t I brought up on a farm?”
There was a little choke still left in her voice, and her smile was a trifle unsteady, but her words were ready enough. In the doorway she turned and waved to the boy and then went on, her head held high, slender and straight and gallant, into the house.
CHAPTER XII
HOME-LOVING HEARTS
Mother Jess and Laura were coming home. Perhaps Father Bob had dropped a hint that their presence was needed in the white house at the end of the road; perhaps, on the other hand, they were just ready to come. Elliott never knew for certain.
Father Bob met the train, while all the Cameron boys and girls flew around, making ready at home. The plan had developed on the tacit understanding that since they all wished to, it was fairer for none of them to go to the station.