"'You will not be lonely,' continued Mrs. Bolt. 'Your father stopped at Mrs. Morrell's last evening, and invited Miss Gibson to come up and spend two or three weeks with us, and she is coming this morning.'"
"Fanny clapped her hands with joy. Miss Gibson was the lady who had taught the district school for the last two summers. She was very young, only eighteen; and though she well knew how to command obedience in school, out of school she was the best playfellow in the world. She knew heaps of stories and more plays than were ever heard of in the Bolt Hill district before, and all the children loved her. Miss Gibson was an orphan, and had no home of her own, but she was a welcome guest at every house in the district. Fanny loved her dearly, and nothing could please her more than the news that she was to have her darling Miss Gibson to herself for a whole day."
"'It looks like snow,' said Captain Bolt, as he came in after bringing the horse round to the door; 'but then it has looked so for two or three days. Mind and keep up good fires, Fanny. There is plenty of dry wood and pine-knots in the shed. I shall be home in time to milk.'"
"'Oh, father, let me milk!' said Fanny. 'I can do it just as well as not.'"
"'Very well, do as you please. And if anything should happen—mind, I don't see how anything can—but if anything should happen to prevent our coming home to-night, don't you be scared, but put your trust in God and go to bed in peace.'"
"'But, father, what could happen?' asked Fanny."
"Nothing that I know of, child, but it is way of mine to look at all sorts of possibilities. Come now, mother, if you are ready.'"
"Fanny stood at the door of the farm-house with her skirt thrown over her head, and watched the sleigh down the hill, till a turn in the road hid it from her eyes. Then, she turned the other way to see if Miss Gibson was coming, though it was rather early to expect her. Mr. Morrell lived five miles away by the road, but by the path, ''cross lots,' along which Fanny used to go to school and by which Miss Gibson would come, it was only about a mile. This path was almost always kept open in winter, for it was much the nearest way to the little village called Rockville Four Corners."
"As I said, it was early for Fanny to expect her friend, but Miss Gibson had said she should come as early as she could get away. Fanny gazed for some time across the pasture but saw nothing, and finally she went in, made up a bright fire, and occupied herself in washing up the breakfast dishes and putting the kitchen in nice order. She had done all this, got out her spinning wheel, and learned her Scripture verses, and still Miss Gibson did not make her appearance."
"'There is no use in this,' said Fanny, decidedly. 'The more I look for her the more she won't come. "A watched pot never boils," as father says. I will just set about my spinning and not go to the door again till she comes.'"