"Are you all going off?" cried Lilian, in alarm, lest she should lose even the doubtful pleasure of her brothers' company.
"We're going on the ponies, to look up some stray cattle for Uncle Abner."
"But mamma said you would take me for a drive?"
"Can't this morning—too busy!"
"We're all to go this evening, you know," comforted Jamie.
"This evening! What am I to do alone all day?"
A flood of tears again threatened.
"Oh, entertain your callers!" said Harry, with scant sympathy.
Lilian watched the four boys on their ponies go down the poplar-lined lane to the highway, and then, too desperate for reading or study, or even helping her mother, she flung herself on a sofa and hid her face.
The day was a dazzling one. The rolling prairie on every side looked like a white ocean, with great, sweeping billows of snow as far as eye could see.