"Bessy, my dear, don't you think you are talking rather more than your share?" asked her mother, smilingly. Such a hint would have sent Marion into the sulks for the whole evening, but Bessy only laughed, blushed a little, and put her finger on her lip.
"Suppose, Bessy and Marion, you put on your hats and go out for a little walk," said Mrs. Van Alstine. "The sun is low and it is very pleasant."
"Oh yes, come, Marion, and we'll go and meet the carriage," said Bessie.
Marion would have liked to excuse herself, but she did not know how. She put on her hat, and the two walked up the road to the top of the hill.
"Now you can see all the village," said Bessie; "a grand place, isn't it?"
"I don't see much village," said Marion. "What is that long, low building with the tall chimney?"
"Oh, that's the factory—the tannery, you know. Grandpa will want to take you over it some day; he always does."
"It must be a horrid dirty place."
"Not a bit. Oh, the beam-house is pretty dirty, of course, and it isn't exactly fragrant, you know. But tanning is very healthy work, after all, and particularly good for consumption, they say. The rest is all clean enough. And that largest house is our house, and the other, with green blinds, is Mr. Breck's, the foreman, and the others are where the hands live. And that great barn over the creek is the mule-barn, and that one across the road is the horse-barn, and there is the store and the blacksmith's and the shoemaker's, and that's all, I believe."
"You have left out the nicest of all," said Marion—"that pretty white building with the green blinds and the little bell. What is that?"