"Nothing at all."
Then Ellen felt a little uncomfortable. Something had happened, but it was too small a thing to tell. She had met Amos one afternoon in the woodland. He had been required by a new school law to give a small amount of instruction in botany and had come to find oak leaves. He was sitting on the stump which was her special seat and, glad to see him and ready to talk, she sat down at once on the fallen tree near by.
"How is school?"
Amos did not answer. His curious passion seemed suddenly entirely reasonable. Ellen's hair had gone up, her dresses down.
"It's pretty much like always," said he at last. "But you're not there." Then he added hastily, "And Matthew is not there."
"Are the boys still so dumb?"
Amos hesitated. The boys were very stupid, but it was against his code to speak in such fashion of any one.
"They do their best."
"And Millie? How does she get her lessons?"
"She is no longer there. Oh, Ellen, I wish you would come back!"