Mary Bell laughed at the idea of a man attempting to canter, and said that she should be very glad to try to learn to draw.  Mary Erskine then said that after they had finished their breakfast the children might go out an hour to walk and play, and that then when they should come in, they would find every thing ready for the school.

Mary Bell concluded to take a walk about the farm during the time which they were allowed to spend in play, before the school was to begin.  So she and Bella put on their bonnets, and bidding Mary Erskine good morning, they sallied forth.  As they came out at the great stoop door their attention was arrested by the sound of a cow-bell.  The sound seemed to come from the barn-yard.

“Ah,” said Mary Bell, “there is Queen Bess going to pasture this morning.  How glad I was to see her yesterday in the woods!  Let us go and see her now.”

So saying she led the way around the corner of the house, by a pleasant path through the high grass that was growing in the yard, toward the barns.  Bella followed her.  They passed through a gate, then across a little lane, then through a gate on the other side of the lane, which led into the barn-yards.  The barns, like the house, were built of logs, but they were very neatly made, and the yards around them were at this season of the year dry and green.

Mary and Bella walked on across the barn-yard until they got to the back side of the barn, when they found Thomas turning the cows into a little green lane which led to the pasture.  It was not very far to the pasture bars, and so Mary Bell proposed that they should go and help Thomas drive the cows.  They accordingly went on, but they had not gone far before they came to a brook, which here flowed across the lane.  The cows walked directly through the brook, while Thomas got across it by stepping over some stones at one side.  Mary Bell thought that the spaces were a little too wide for Bella to jump over, so she concluded not to go any farther in that direction.

Bella then proposed that they should go and see the new house.  This Mary Bell thought would be an excellent plan if Bella’s mother would give them leave.  They accordingly went in to ask her.  They found her in the back stoop, employed in straining the milk which Thomas had brought in.  She was straining it into great pans.  She said that she should like to have the children go and see the new house very much indeed, and she gave them the key, so that they might go into it.  The children took the key and went across the fields by a winding path until they came out into the main road again, near the new house.  The house was in a very pleasant place indeed.  There was a green yard in front of it, and a place for a garden at one side.  At the other side was a wide yard open to the road, so that persons could ride up to the door without the trouble of opening any gate.  The children walked up this open yard.

They went to the door, intending to unlock it with their key, but they were surprised to find that there was not any key hole.  Mary Bell said that she supposed the key hole was not made yet.  They tried to open the door, but they could not succeed.  It was obviously fastened on the inside.