He did not have long to wait this time, for the train came rolling across the meadow, and while his head was turned toward the car where he fancied she might be, a pair of arms were thrown impetuously around his neck, and a little figure, standing on tiptoe, almost pulled him down in its attempts to kiss him.

“Uncle Eph! oh, Uncle Eph, I’ve come!  I’m here,” a young voice cried; but the words the deacon would have spoken were smothered by the kisses which pressed upon his lips, kisses which only came to an end when a voice said, rather reprovingly:  “There, Katy, that will do.  You have almost strangled him.”

Wilford had not been expected, and the expression of the deacon’s face was not a very cordial greeting to the young man who hastened to explain that he should only stop till the next train, and then go on to Boston.  In his presence the deacon was not quite natural, but he lifted in his arms his “little Katy-did,” looking straight into her face, where there were as yet no real lines of care, only shadows, which told that in some respects she was not the same Katy he had parted with two years before.  There was a good deal of the city about her dress and style, and the deacon felt a little overawed at first; but this wore off as on their way to the farmhouse, she, sitting partly in his lap and partly in her husband’s, kept one hand upon his neck, her snowy fingers occasionally playing with his silvery hair, while she looked at him with her loving old smile, and asked questions about the people he supposed she had forgotten, nodding to everybody she met, whether she knew them or not, and at last, as the old house came in sight, hiding her face in a gush of happy tears upon his neck, not Wilford’s.  That gentleman was watching her in silence, wishing she were less impulsive, and wondering at the strong home-love he could not understand.  To him there was nothing pleasant in that low, humble farmhouse, or in the rocks and hills which overshadowed it; while, with the exception of Helen, the women gathered at the door as they came up were very distasteful to him.  But with Katy it was different.  They were her rocks, her hills, her woods, and more than all, they were her folks into whose arms she threw herself with an impetuous rush, scarcely waiting for old Whitey to stop, but with one leap clearing the wheel and springing first to the embrace of her mother.  It was a joyful meeting, and when the first excitement was over Katy inspected the improvements, approving all, and thanking Wilford for having done so much for her comfort.

“I shall sleep so nicely here,” she said, tossing her hat into Helen’s lap, and lying down at once upon the bed it had taken so long to make.  “Yes, I shall rest so nicely, knowing I can wear my wrapper all day long.  Don’t look so horrified, Wilford,” she added, as she caught his eye.  “I shall dress me sometimes; but you don’t know what a luxury it is to feel that I need not unless I like.”