200“I think you will be forgiven,” said Hannah firmly. “Miss Smith will be here next Sunday, but I, I am thankful to say, shall not!”
PART THREE
TOGETHER AT LAST
203CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ALICE ON THE WAY
Out on a Dakota prairie, in a corner of a motionless Pullman sat a short girl in a plain blue suit, her grey eyes behind thick glasses bent upon the pages of a red leather book.
“‘Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’” She read the words over and over, and the book fell from her hands as she looked out on the limitless fields. “‘Beauty for ashes.’ What a striking way of putting it! ‘The oil of joy’–why, I wonder what we are stopping here so long for. It doesn’t look like a station.”
And suddenly Alice Prescott sat up straight and looked about her, alert and alive.
The porter came slowly in response to her repeated ring. “What’s the matter? Why, there’s an engine off the track a little ways off, and our crew and engine has gone to help. No, nobody hurt. Just a freight engine. Don’t know how long. Mebbe one hour. Mebbe two.”