"I wish you'd let me tell you," he said frankly, "how awfully brave you are about all this, planning to come out here in this lonely place, and not being afraid of hard work, and rough floors, and a barn, and even a fire out-of-doors."
Shirley's laugh rang out, and her eyes sparkled.
"Why, it's the nicest thing that's happened to me in ages," she said joyously. "I can't hardly believe it's true that we can come here, that we can really afford to come to a great, heavenly country place like this. I suppose of course there'll be hard things. There always are, and some of them have been just about unbearable, but even the hard things can be made fun if you try. This is going to be grand!" and she looked around triumphantly on the dusty rafters and rough stone walls with a little air of possession.
"You are rather"—he paused—"unusual!" he finished thoughtfully as they walked toward the doorway and stood looking off at the distance.
But now Shirley had almost forgotten him in the excitement of the view.
"Just think of waking up to that every morning," she declared with a sweep of her little blue-clad arm toward the view in the distance. "Those purply hills, the fringe of brown and green against the horizon, that white spire nestling among those evergreens! Is that a church? Is it near enough for us to go to? Mother wouldn't want us to be too far from church."
"We'll go home that way and discover," said Graham decidedly. "You'll want to get acquainted with your new neighborhood. You'll need to know how near there is a store, and where your neighbors live. We'll reconnoitre a little. Are you ready to go?"
"Oh, yes. I'm afraid we have kept you too long already, and we must get home about the time Carol usually comes from school, or mother will be terribly worried. Carol is never later than half-past four."
"We've plenty of time," said the driver of the car, looking at his watch and smiling assurance. "Call the children, and we'll take a little turn around the neighborhood before we go back."
And so the little eager company were reluctantly persuaded to climb into the car again and start on their way.