"Just in time, Amos! A miss is as good as a mile;" and he ran forward in time to catch a glimpse of Dr Justin Everett on the platform of the cars as the train moved on.

Fidelia had not seen the approach of Dr Justin; and it was a surprise, to say the least, when he entered the car, and, bidding her "Good morning," took his seat beside her, as if that had been the most natural thing in the world to do.

"I did not know you thought of going to Halsey this morning. What about the Summit?" said Fidelia.

"It looks ungrateful to leave them, does it not? But it could not be helped; I did not know till late last night that I was expected elsewhere this morning. And I am at least no more to blame than you are."

Fidelia made no answer to that. They could see the Summit as they turned a curve among the hills.

"It looks pleasant up there!" said she.

"Yes, with the morning sunshine on it."

"I am sorry it happened that I could not go up with Nellie and the rest.

I should have enjoyed it, and it would have been something always to remember."

"Yes, it would have been something to remember," said Dr Justin.

The sound of his voice had quite changed, and the look on his face also, Fidelia thought, as she glanced up at him.

"Have you ever been at the Summit?" said she; and then she remembered.

"Yes. Once I was on the Summit," he answered gravely; and he did not remove his eyes from the mountain while it was in sight, nor did a word pa.s.s between them for some time after that. It was Dr Justin who spoke first, and his first words were about her friend Amos.

"I should like to take him West with me; and your friend Jabez Ainsworth as well. They are bound to go there first or last."

"Oh, but you must not think of such a thing! His father would not like it. Amos is going to please his father now, he says, and go to college.

Don't speak of his going West, please."

"Well, no; not just at present; but when these boys are 'thoroughly furnished,' as there is good hope they may be in time, the great West is the place for them, and for many more of their sort. They are needed there now, and will be needed still more in the future."

"I like Amos. He will do his part well wherever he is," said Fidelia.

"Yes, I am sure he will."

"And Jabez, too, in a different way. Jabez and I have always been good friends."

"Yes, I know. You have helped them both."

"I have helped Jabez with his arithmetic and grammar, and with good advice, too, sometimes," added she, laughing; "but as for Amos, if I have ever helped him, it has been without knowing it."

"That is the best kind of help to give, I think," said Dr Justin, smiling.

The Austin family was a safe subject to discuss, and they held to it for awhile. Fidelia told about her good fortune in having Nellie for her room-mate at the seminary, and of the many pleasant things they had enjoyed together during the year. When she thought about it afterwards, she wondered at the ease with which she had talked with him, and hoped she had not talked too much.

As they drew near to the last stopping-place before reaching Halsey, Dr Justin stooped to lift his handbag, saying,--

"My brother is waiting for me here, I think. We are going to M--to see a patient of his, about whom he is anxious. Have you a message to send to any one in Eastwood: I go back there to-night."

"I shall send a message to-morrow by mail, I thank you," said Fidelia a little stiffly. She was indignant with herself in feeling a little disappointed that he was not going on to Halsey.

"Well, good-bye. We ought to be friends, you and I, and we shall be friends in time." And then he was gone.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

HOME AGAIN.

Fidelia did not have to take her homeward way through fields and woods this time. Jabez was waiting with his grandfather's "team," which was more than capable of taking her and all her belongings.

"All well, Jabez?" said Fidelia, as she caught sight of his smiling sunburnt face.

"Oh, yes, pretty much as usual! Miss Eunice is first-rate;" and with this satisfactory though rather indefinite a.s.surance Fidelia had to content herself till all things were safely bestowed in the wagon, and they were on their way home. Then she did not need to ask questions.

Jabez had the faculty of putting a good deal of information into a few words; and as she listened, Fidelia got a summary of all that had been said and done--or at least attempted--in town-meeting, church-meeting, and even in school meeting, with personal and domestic items of the neighbours thrown in here and there as he went on. He had an interested and appreciative listener, and he knew it and did his best to be at the same time comprehensive and brief.

"And the garden, Jabez? I hope that has been a success," said Fidelia at last.

"Well, yes--pretty middling;" and then a brief but clear and satisfactory statement of the sowing and planting, the transplanting, watering, and hoeing which had followed; of what the bugs and worms had taken, and what had come to maturity; of how all had in general been disposed of, and the net results in dollars and cents.

It was not a large sum, but it was the first money that Jabez had ever earned--that is, it was the first he had earned for himself, though he had done a good many fair days' work for his grandfather. He had all he needed as to food, clothes, and schooling. He had been as well off as most boys in the state; and the boys in the state where Jabez lived were bound to believe that nowhere in the world were the boys better off than they were. But Jabez had never before owned a tenth of the money which by cents and dimes he had been acc.u.mulating through the summer; and his dollars meant more to him by a great deal than his first ten thousand-- should he ever possess such a sum--could possibly do.

"It isn't so much, but it is a beginning. I tell you, Fidelia, it feels good to be earning money for yourself--to be independent and to kind o'

see your way clear. If I were to set out for it, I could be a rich man before I died."

"Would it pay, do you suppose?" said Fidelia gravely.

"Well, judging by the pains folks take to get rich, it ought to pay.

There would have to be a good many other things along with it to make it amount to--well, to satisfaction."

Fidelia laughed, partly at his way of expressing himself, and partly at the extreme gravity of his countenance.

"I expect more from you, Jabez, than just to die a rich man. Many can do as much as that."

"Oh, well, I say before I die; but I mean a good while before, so that I should have the benefit a spell! I say I _could_ do it."

"I hope you haven't let your lettuce and cuc.u.mbers put your Nepos and Euclid out of your head. If I were you, I would make up my mind to be a learned man rather than a rich man, though, as you remarked, there would have to be something else along, to make even that amount to satisfaction."

"And better be a wise man than either one or the other. That would be about the right thing to end off with, wouldn't it?" said Jabez, looking up with a smile. "But about Nepos--I've tackled him; and I find him pretty tough. As for Euclid--I've walked through the first four books without a hitch. I've had considerable satisfaction out of him. Give me any proposition you like--well, some time, as we've got almost home.

And I've never asked you a word about what _you_ have been doing. I have thought about you often enough."

"That may wait too; I haven't done very much."

"But if Miss Eunice keep so pretty well, you're going back again, aren't you?"

Fidelia turned on him a startled look. She had been at ease of late with regard to her sister, partly because she had been much occupied, and partly because of the cheerful tone of her sister's letters.

Jabez's words were spoken just as they had reached the top of the hill, where, on her last return home, she had caught sight of Dr Everett; and a sudden pang of the fear that had seized her then came back upon her now. She forgot to answer the lad's question, and took little heed of all that he was saying as they went down the hill.

But when they turned the little curve which the road made round a projecting rock, and came in sight of the house, her heart leaped up with a sense of relief, and a rush of happy tears came to her eyes. For at the gate, serene and smiling, stood Eunice, waiting. The light which fell on the expressive face came trembling through the boughs of the elm which waved and murmured above. But Fidelia only saw the face.

Afterwards it all came back to her--the vine and the pale blossoms that lingered, and the flickering shadows never to be forgotten; but it was her sister's face that she saw first.