Now, in the gathering twilight he found himself stumbling across a great bridge that spanned a wide, flowing river, and the lights of still another town fell down deep into its limpid depths like golden piles.
Ho, ho! Surely he had crossed that bridge before, in his wild wanderings of other days! Surely, surely! He went a little faster.
And now he knew—on the farther side lay his own home-town. It was a short half-hour’s run, when one was feeling fine, to the Hill-Top,—and HOME!
HOME! The thought spurred his lagging feet. Down through the dear old streets where he had often trotted so gaily went Van. He had no thought for them now. “Betsy! Betsy!” his heart breathed; and that alone kept him going.
An attendant from the Hospital noticed him and turned to watch him as he wavered out of sight.
“If that dog was fatter and pearter and cleaner and had a collar on, I’d say it was Van, even if I knew that he was in another part of the country.”
* * * * *
Betsy sat on the steps of the honeysuckle porch in the soft May night, with the young moon silvering the glossy leaves around her. She was thinking of the changes that had come to her,—of the red house up in Wixon’s Hollow, now so far away. She wondered a little what had become of her father, but she did not trouble her soul very deeply; she remembered him only as one to dread and hide from. Then she thought of all that Aunt Kate had done to make her more like gentlefolk, of the lessons she had learned in the care of both soul and body.
Indeed, could she have compared her old self to the little white-clad figure with its soft halo of hair, its sweet fragrance of cleanliness, its childish grace and dignity, that had grown to be unconscious of itself, she would not have recognized the Betsy of two years ago. There was much yet to learn, but with so lovely a teacher as Aunt Kate, who could fail of doing her best?
Then she wondered how it fared with little Van. Would he come back from College like the knights of old from their quests, bearing a badge of honor? When would he come, and did he remember her and long for her as she longed for him? She sighed a bit of a sigh.