“Nothing but work; I haven’t time to be sick, and when I’m tuckered out, I go and rest over yonder.  Then I’m all right, and buckle to again, as smart as ever;” and every freckle in Becky’s rosy face seemed to shine with cheerful strength and courage.

“I’m ‘tuckered out’ doing nothing,” said Emily, amused with the new expression, and eager to try a remedy which showed such fine results in this case.  “I shall visit your pet places and do a little work as soon as I am able, and see if it won’t set me up.  Now I can only dawdle, doze, and read a little.  Will you please put those books here on the table?  I shall want them by-and-by.”

Emily pointed to a pile of blue and gold volumes lying on a trunk, and Becky dusted her hands as she took them up with an air of reverence, for she read on the backs of the volumes names which made her eyes sparkle.

“Do you care for poetry?” asked Emily, surprised at the girl’s look and manner.

“Guess I do! don’t get much except the pieces I cut out of papers, but I love ’em, and stick ’em in an old ledger, and keep it down in my cubby among the rocks.  I do love that man’s pieces.  They seem to go right to the spot somehow;” and Becky smiled at the name of Whittier as if the sweetest of our poets was a dear old friend of hers.

“I like Tennyson better.  Do you know him?” asked Emily, with a superior air, for the idea of this farmer’s daughter knowing anything about poetry amused her.

“Oh yes, I’ve got a number of his pieces in my book, and I’m fond of ’em.  But this man makes things so kind of true and natural I feel at home with him.  And this one I’ve longed to read, though I guess I can’t understand much of it.  His ‘Bumble Bee’ was just lovely; with the grass and columbines and the yellow breeches of the bee.  I’m never tired of that;” and Becky’s face woke up into something like beauty as she glanced hungrily at the Emerson while she dusted the delicate cover that hid the treasures she coveted.

“I don’t care much for him, but Mamma does.  I like romantic poems, and ballads, and songs; don’t like descriptions of clouds and fields, and bees, and farmers,” said Emily, showing plainly that even Emerson’s simplest poems were far above her comprehension as yet, because she loved sentiment more than Nature.

“I do, because I know ’em better than love and the romantic stuff most poetry tells about.  But I don’t pretend to judge, I’m glad of anything I can get.  Now if you don’t want me I’ll pick up my dishes and go to work.”

With that Becky went away, leaving Emily to rest and dream with her eyes on the landscape which was giving her better poetry than any her books held.  She told her mother about the odd girl, and was sure she would be amusing if she did not forget her place and try to be friends.

“She is a good creature, my dear, her mother’s main stay, and works beyond her strength, I am sure.  Be kind to the poor girl, and put a little pleasure into her life if you can,” answered Mrs. Spenser, as she moved about, settling comforts and luxuries for her invalid.