Alice made a pretty grimace.
“You are away so much. And then it—it is different.�
But Alice kissed her sister, and left her to spend the remainder of the balmy night in her new home.
CHAPTER VII
IN THE NEW HOME
The next morning when Lissa awoke the sun was shining brightly in through one of the small windows of her adobe house and she had leisure to look about her, and to survey this new, and to her, novel style of architecture.
The house was built of sod and mud, the roof being formed of poles of cotton-wood covered with sod, and brightly green with the upspringing grass. The inside of the house was lined by a strong paper, firmly stretched and fastened at the corners, and presented a smooth and cleanly looking wall. Through the windows Lissa could see the vast prairies level gray, dotted with small houses, similar in construction to this one to which her husband had brought her.
There were but two large rooms in the house, and one bed-room. No second story, as the roof was low. A large cupboard stood in one corner of the kitchen and another in the bed-room.
“That shall be my dressing-case,� said Lissa to herself; “in this other I will put up some hooks and a curtain, for a wardrobe.�
Just back of the house was a symmetrical little grove of cotton-wood trees of perhaps three or four years’ growth. Some ponies corralled near, together with herds of cattle grazing at a distance, gave life to the scene; the sunlit grass sparkled and waved invitingly, and the halo of the early morning enveloped all, presenting a landscape of pleasing attractiveness.
All this Lissa noted with the eye of an artist as, while dressing, she peered from the door and window, wondering what had become of Nathan, for he had risen while she slept.