“In Rose Alley? Yes, I was just thinking of that, and how hot and stifling the air must be there to-day. O mother, I do believe I should have been left alone in the world before now if we had had to stay on there! When I think of that I feel that I owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Travilla and Captain Raymond that I can never, never pay.”
“To them and to Him who put it into their hearts to do such great kindness and gave them the ability,” responded her mother. “I feel like another woman—find it a pleasure to busy myself with this beautiful napery. See, I am at the last dozen napkins, and will be ready to begin on those linen sheets presently. Yes, this is easy and pleasant employment, yet I should prefer something that would keep me out of doors most of the day. Dr. Conly says it would be the best thing for my health, and I have a plan in my head that perhaps I may be able to carry out if our kind friends approve, and will give me a little assistance at the start.”
“What is that, mother?” asked Susan; then glancing from the door, “Oh, there is the Woodburn carriage!”
She sprang up and ran down the path to open the gate for its occupants and bid them welcome.
They were Grandma Elsie, the captain, and Lulu. They greeted her with a pleasant, “Good-afternoon,” and kindly inquiries about her mother; then Lulu, handing out a bundle, said, “I’ve brought you some more work, Susan; parts of dresses for me. Alma says they are all cut and basted, so that you won’t need any directions about them; and Mamma Vi says you may please lay aside other work and do this as promptly as you can.”
“Yes, Miss Lulu; but won’t you all ’light and come in? A bit of chat with you and the captain always does mother so much good, Mrs. Travilla.”
They had not intended doing so, but that plea was powerful to Grandma Elsie’s kind heart.
“Yes, I can spare a few minutes,” she said, in reply to the captain’s inquiring look.
He at once alighted, assisted her to do so, and then Lulu.
They made only a short call, yet it was long enough for Grandma Elsie’s sympathetic listening and questioning to draw from Mrs. Allen the secret of her desire for outdoor employment of a kind not too laborious for her slender strength, and her idea that she might find it in bee-raising, had she the means to buy a hive, a swarm of the insects, and a book of instructions.