Before this torrent of words Jasper was as helpless as a child.  He allowed Betty to unfold the muffler and wrap it carefully about his neck.

“There, isn’t that fine, Mrs. Peterson?” she asked.  “Mr. Jasper won’t get cold now in his throat, will he?”

“I have never worn such a thing in my life,” Jasper managed to explain.  “What shall I do with it?  I couldn’t wear that in the woods.”

“Oh, but you might need it, Mr. Jasper,” Betty insisted.  “Anyway, if you don’t wear it Miss Lois will be so disappointed.  She knit every bit of it with her own fingers, for she told me so.  You should wear it because of that if for no other reason.”

Jasper made no reply, but taking off the muffler folded it up and laid it upon the table.  In fact, he hardly knew what he was doing so full of happiness was his heart.  It was fortunate that just then Mrs. Peterson announced that breakfast was ready, for it changed the topic of conversation and gave him time to think it all over.

What a day that was at the Haven!  There were so many things to talk about and such a number of questions to be asked and answered that the time sped by all too quickly.  David was in excellent spirits, for he learned of the progress the men were making in the woods.  Jasper heard, as well, about Lois, and Betty showed him several letters she had received from her.  In every one she told of her longing for the spring that she might return to Creekdale.

When Jasper left the Haven he noticed how the weather had changed.  The brightness of the day had passed and the sky was a mackerel grey.  The wind, drifting in from the northeast, hummed a weird prelude to the coming storm upon the telephone wires stretched along the road.

The journey to the station was a pleasant one, for Pedro, after his rest, swung along at a swift clip.  The wind was in their backs and the snow had not begun to fall.  Jasper realised that the storm would not hold off much longer, and he wondered how the nurse would mind facing it for fifteen miles to Mrs. Bean’s.  The muffler that Lois had given him he was wearing.  Betty had put it there before he left the Haven with the strict instruction to wear it, because if he didn’t Miss Lois would feel badly.  Never had he received any present which he valued more highly than this.  And to think that Lois made it herself, especially for him, and that it had been so often in her hands.  He was almost like a man beside himself as he thought of this, and several times his lips pressed the muffler in the fervency of his emotion.

Reaching the station he had half an hour to spare before the train would arrive.  This gave him an opportunity to give Pedro a feed of oats in a nearby stable, for he well knew that a severe battle was ahead of him.  Already the storm had set in, gentle at first but increasing in intensity as the afternoon waned.  It was snowing hard by the time the train surged up to the station, and as Jasper waited for the passengers to alight he wondered whether it would be advisable to face the tempest on such a night and in the teeth of so furious a storm.