“What a lovely air,” she said, and then she turned to her brother.  “It is nice to have visitors, and to have plenty of people to do your work, but it is a hundred times jollier for just us two to be here by ourselves.  Don’t you think so, Ralph?” And, without waiting for her brother’s answer, she went on.  “You see, we can do whatever we please.  We can be as free as anything—­as free as cats.  Here, puss, puss,” she called to the gray barn cat in the yard below.  “No, she will not even look at me.  Cats are the freest creatures in the world; they will not come to you if they do not want to.  If you call your dog, he feels that he has to come to you.  Ralph, do you know I think it is the most absurd thing in the world that in a place like this we should have no dog.”

“I have been waiting for somebody to give me one,” said Ralph, taking up a pitchfork and preparing to throw some hay into the stable below.

“That will be the nicest way of getting one,” said Miriam, as she came and stood by him, and watched him thrust the hay into the yawning hole.  “We do not want a dog that people are willing to sell.  We want one that is the friend of the family, and which the owners are obliged to part with because they are going to Europe, or something of that sort.  Such a dog we should prize.  Don’t you think so, Ralph?”

“Yes,” said he, and went on taking up forkloads of hay and thrusting them into the hole.  He was wondering if this were a good time to tell Miriam that that very morning Dora Bannister had been talking about there being no dog at Cobhurst, and had asked him if he would like to have one; for if he would, she had a very handsome black setter, which had been given to her when it was a little puppy, and of which she was very fond, but which had now grown too big and lively to be cooped up in the yard of their house.  He had said that he would be charmed to have the dog, and had intended to tell Miriam about it, but now a most excellent opportunity had come to do so, he hesitated.  Miriam’s soul did not seem to incline toward their late visitor, and perhaps she might not care for a gift from her.  It might be better to wait awhile.  Then there came a happy thought to Ralph; here was a good reason for going to see Dora.  It would be no more than polite to take an interest in the animal which had been offered him, and even if he did not immediately bring it to Cobhurst, he could go and look at it.  Miriam now returned to the house, leaving her brother pondering over the question whether or not the next morning would be too soon to go and look at the dog.

The sun had set, and Ralph, having finished his day’s work, and having helped his sister as much as she and Mike would let him, sat on the piazza, gazing between the tall pillars upon the evening landscape, and still trying to decide whether or not it would be out of the way to go the next morning to Dora Bannister.  The evening light grew less and less, and Ralph’s healthy instincts drew his mind from thoughts of Dora to thoughts of supper.  It certainly was very late for the evening meal, but he would not worry Miriam with any signs of impatience.  That would be unkind indeed, when she was slaving away in the kitchen, while he sat here enjoying the evening coolness.