It had been agreed that the girls should meet at Woodhow that afternoon. Buzzy had been sent up to Maple Grove with the news that Ralph McRae had arrived, and an invitation for Rebecca to come down for supper. She drove down about four, fresh and cool-looking, wearing a black and white dress and a wide-brimmed black straw hat. Ralph helped her out of the car and stood smilingly while she examined him closely and patted his shoulder as she expressed her obvious approval.
“Just the sort of boy I expected Francelia’d have,” she said happily. “Well built and handsome too. Going to stay awhile, Ralph, and get acquainted?”
“Why, I’d like to, Miss Becky. It gets kind of lonesome out West with none of my own people there. I’ve always wanted to come back here and see all of you. Mother used to talk a lot about you all to me when I was little. She didn’t have anybody else to tell things to.”
“Like enough,” Becky responded rather soberly. “You must meet your cousins.”
“I didn’t know I had any.”
Miss Craig glanced over to the woodpile where Buzzy was sawing some chestnut tops for dry wood to mix in with the birch.
“Come over here, Buzzy,” she called briskly. “This is the boy cousin and Sally’s the girl, both children of your mother’s own sister Luella. Guess we’ll get this straightened out some time. Buzzy, this is Ralph McRae, your own blood cousin.”
Ralph took Buzzy’s tanned, supple hand in his, and held it fast, looking down at his cheery, freckled face.
“I think we’re going to be pals, Buzzy,” he said, and Buzzy’s heart warmed to him. Nobody had ever called him that before.
When Sally arrived with the other girls, she too was introduced, but she proved less pliable than Buzzy. Straight and tall, she faced her new cousin, every flash of her eyes telling him that she resented his having all while they had nothing, and Ralph could make no headway with her.