"What made you run and heat yourself so?" Gram asked him.
"I was afraid I should be late to dinner," answered Halstead with a bold look, intended for a frank one.
Grandfather looked at him earnestly; but nothing more was said. We all felt uneasy. Dinner ended rather drearily.
In the evening Theodora read to us several chapters from Dred, Mrs. Stowe's novel. Anti-slavery books were then well nigh sacred at the old farm. Almost any other work of fiction would hardly have been considered fit reading for Sunday.
CHAPTER III
MONDAY AT THE OLD FARM
"I shall expect you to work with us on the farm, 'Edmund,'" grandfather said to me after breakfast. "But you may have this forenoon, to look about and see the place. Enjoy yourself all you can."