I could not see any person
there; but the door and windows were opened, and a faint smoke crept out
of the chimney and up among the new spring foliage after the squirrels.
I had walked some distance, and was tired, and the weather was not
perfect; but I thought I would go round that way and see what was going
on. It was one of those charming child-days in early May, laughing and
crying all in one, the fine mist-drops shining down in the sun's rays,
like star-dust from some new world in process of rasping up for use. I
liked such days. The showers were as good for me as for the trees. I
grew and budded under them, and they filled my soul's soil full of
singing brooks.
When I reached the lawn before the door, Mr. Ames came out to see
me,--so glad to meet that he held my hand and drew me in, asking two or
three times how I was and if I were glad to see him. He had called at
the house and seen Cousin Mary, on his way over, he said,--for he was
hungering for a sight of us. He was not looking as well as when he left
in the autumn,--thinner, paler, and with a more anxious expression when
he was not speaking; but when I began to talk with him, he brightened
up, and seemed like his old self.
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