"You don't say. Where are the folks?"
"Gone on an excursion. They won't be back until tonight."
"They won't? Well, I'll tell you what to do. You get ready, and when I'm through my rounds we'll go for a drive up the country."
"Oh, Mr. Bell! But won't it be too much bother for you?"
"Well, I reckon not! You want an excursion as well as other folks, and you shall have it."
"Oh, thank you so much. Yes, I'll be ready. You don't know how much it means to me."
"Poor little creature," said Mr. Bell, as he drove away. "It's downright cruelty, that's what it is, to keep her penned up like that. You might as well coop up a lark in a hen-house and expect it to thrive and sing. I'd like to give that brother of hers a piece of my mind."
When he lifted her up to the high seat of his express wagon that afternoon he said, "Now, I want you to do something. Just shut your eyes and don't open them again until I tell you to."
Jessamine laughed and obeyed. Finally she heard him say, "Look."
Jessamine opened her eyes with a little cry. They were on a remote country road, cool and dim and quiet, in the very heart of the beech woods. Long banners of light fell athwart the grey boles. Along the roadsides grew sheets of feathery ferns. Above the sky was gloriously blue. The air was sweet with the wild woodsy smell of the forest.