Accordingly Billy went. He consulted his grandfather as to the time he ought to go, and was told as early after breakfast as he pleased. So soon after nine o'clock found him at the top of the hill, hastening in the direction of the village. At the first turn of the road he met May and Harold.
"Oh, here you are!" exclaimed Harold. "We were coming to meet you. She—" nodding at his sister—"would come too! Now what would you like to do before dinner? I thought we wouldn't go to the allotment field till this afternoon, then father'll be there. Father can't leave the post office in the morning, because mother's too busy about the house to attend to the shop. I say, don't you think it would be nice to go down to the bridge by the railway-station? We might sit on it and watch the Canadians."
"The Canadians?" echoed Billy, inquiringly.
"Yes—the Canadian lumbermen. They've been taking down trees in the valley, and they've got a steam saw near the station cutting them up. It's great fun looking on. You'd like it, wouldn't you?"
"Yes," agreed Billy, "I expect I should."
So the children spent the morning seated on top of one of the arches of an old stone bridge close to the railway-station, watching a great steam saw at work, and a lot of khaki-clad Canadian lumbermen loading trucks with timber. Some of the men spoke to them good-naturedly in passing, and one, a grey-headed, middle-aged man who seemed to be in command of the others, stopped, and, after exchanging a few words with the boys, addressed himself to May.
"I've a little daughter at home in Canada with fair hair like yours," he told her, with a smile. "Guess she's about your age, my dear. Real smart she is. See!"
He took a letter from his pocket, opened it, looked at it admiringly for a few moments, then showed it to May.
"Her own handwriting," he said proudly; "her own spelling too. Guess, now, you can't write or spell much better than that yourself."
"May can't either write or spell," Harold said, as his little sister did not attempt to answer; "she goes to school, but she can't learn—it's not her fault."