“Crackey!” he called, as she stumbled toward him. “You done all the chores, Janice?”
“All but the milking,” she assured him.
“You’re some girl, you are,” declared the boy, with satisfaction. “Most any other girl would have been afraid to go out in the storm. Don’t take much to scare some of ’em into a conniption fit—and then they step in it!” grunted Marty, in vast disgust, being at just that age when the opposite sex seems to be a useless creation of Nature.
Janice refrained from telling him about the rat!
When the girl entered the house a surprise awaited her. Uncle Jason had brought a letter for her—one all the way from Mexico and in her father’s handwriting. Anxiously she tore it open and scanned its contents. Did it contain more bad news?
“Oh, isn’t this lovely!” she cried, her face showing her pleasure. “Daddy writes that matters at the mine have taken a turn for the better. The government has acknowledged their rights and will leave them alone in the future. Oh, isn’t it just grand!”
“I knew it would come out all right in the end, Janice,” returned Aunt ’Mira. “Wasn’t no call for to worry like ye done.”
“But I couldn’t help it,” answered Janice. “Oh, I must tell Uncle Jason and Marty”; and she ran off to do so. It seemed as if one of the great weights on her heart had been lifted away.
The wind blew and the snow was swept furiously across the lake and through the streets of Polktown all that night. When morning came the entire mountain was a mass of white, with the smoking chimneys and the Union Church spire standing like sentinels above the white-mantled trees.
Snow shovels were at a premium. Plows were got out and everybody was busy making the highways, as well as the paths about the dwellings, passable. Business was almost at a standstill that day, and it was not until the next morning that Janice could get to her friend, Miss ’Rill, to tell her of the good news from Mexico. Of course, she found the pretty little maiden lady around at the grocery on the side street, doing some kindly task for Hopewell Drugg’s little one.