Sarah came hurriedly from the other side of the schoolhouse.
"I didn't mean anything," she explained. "I wanted just to see if Ellen Louisa and Louisa Ellen were in school, that was all."
She did not say that the twins had added another frightened hour to those which had made her face so white. They had slipped away while she went to the barn.
"Didn't you want them to come to school?" asked Miss Miflin.
"Ach, yes!" cried Sarah. "I want them to go every day in the school."
Belief and the sight of Miss Miflin were already patting some color into her cheeks.
"Are you well, Sarah?" asked Miss Miflin.
"Ach, yes!" answered Sarah. "But now I must go home. You must excuse me while I disturbed the school for you. Here is lunch for Ellen Louisa and Louisa Ellen, then they need not come all the way home for dinner. Will you—will you watch them, so they do not go off to play at recess? Just give it to them if they are not good. I will then walk a piece way along to meet them when they come home from school."
Sarah was gone before Miss Miflin could ask any more questions. She saw her look back as she tramped along the muddy road, then she vanished behind a hedge of alders. Miss Miflin was puzzled and disturbed.