April Gold (Musaicum Romance Classics). Grace Livingston Hill

appreciation of his mother. Neither would Rilla, who was standing just within the pantry door, caught before she could slip upstairs.

      “And now,” said Mrs. Steele, “I feel just like a thief coming here to try to steal your home away. It’s lovely. Isn’t it going to be too hard for you to leave it?”

      A quick look of pain came into Mrs. Reed’s eyes, but she smiled through it.

      “Hard? Yes. But we’ll be glad to get the chance to sell it. We’ve been unfortunate, like a good many others these days.”

      “Yes, your son has been telling me. But now, since it had to come, I’m glad that we are to profit by it. Will it be all right for me to look the house over? I want to tell the rest of my committee about it before we meet with the man who is giving the property to our club as a memorial to his wife.”

      Then Mrs. Steele was all practicality, asking questions, exclaiming over this and that pleasant feature of the house.

      “I think it’s just what we want,” she said at last as, Rilla having been driven out from her hiding, the Reeds stood finally together and watched for their fate from those lips. “We’ll need another bath perhaps, some few alterations in partitions, but on the whole it is quite well planned for our purpose, and I’m positive the rest of the committee will agree with me. We have our meeting at ten tomorrow morning, and I should say by afternoon, if all goes well, we will be ready to sign the papers. But I would like to bring the rest of the committee, with Mr. Stanwood, our donor, to see the place before the papers are signed. Would it be inconvenient for you if we were to drive around sometime during the morning, say about half past eleven? Oh, thank you. Then I’m sure we shall find ready response from the other members!”

      “She knows her onions,” said Rilla softly as she turned from the window where she had been watching the taillight of the Steele car disappear into the evening.

      “Yes,” said Thurlow decidedly, “she knows all her vegetables, Rill, very well indeed.”

      “Well, who is she?” asked Rilla. “And where did you pick her up, and what’s it all about? Isn’t it about time you told us the whole thing? Come springing a highbrow like that on us when we were starving to death for our dinner and never explaining a thing, and me with my kitchen apron on, caught in the pantry. Sit right down and explain yourself.”

      “Not a word,” said the mother, laughing, “until dinner is on the table. Thurlow hasn’t even had any lunch, I’m quite sure; and as for the rest of us, we’ll all be sick if we get so excited. And, Rilla, quick! I smell the stew burning! If we have to eat stew day after day, it’s better to have it before it burns. You take it up, and I’ll get the coffee on. Hurry. Whatever news there is will keep, good or bad, till we’ve started dinner.”

      So presently they were seated at the table, and Thurlow was telling his story amid a fire of questions from his sister and an interested, thoughtful silence from their mother.

      “Well,” said Rilla when the tale was finally concluded and they couldn’t think of another question to ask, “I refuse to believe in it till it happens. This is the third time Thurl has gotten up an excitement, and it isn’t any more likely to happen this time than it was any of the others. I for one am glad there aren’t many more days before the worst is over.”

      There were tears behind the challenging voice, and the mother and brother realized that it was going to be hard for Rilla to give up her home. She had always loved it here so, where she and her father used to roam around the grounds arm in arm in the summertime and watch the trees and flowers grow and visit their favorite bird’s nest and feed the pet squirrel. It brought a mist to all their eyes to think about leaving the dear home.

      The mother got up at last, breaking the silence. There was a look of victory and peace in her face.

      “If it is God’s will that those people should buy this house, they will!” she said decidedly. “Or, if it is His will that we should go through humiliation and have our house taken from us, then we must not murmur at that either. Now, let’s get these dishes out of the way, children, and then go to bed. We are all pretty well tired out, and we don’t know what tomorrow holds for us, so we had better get some sleep.”

      Very quietly they all worked and, in a few minutes, had the kitchen immaculate. They had talked very little. Each one was realizing what it was going to mean to lose the house even in a respectable way.

      “But, Mother,” said Rilla as she hung up the last dish towel and turned out the kitchen light, “what are we going to do? Even if we sell the house in the right way, where are we going? We can’t just make a bonfire out of our furniture and then go and park on the street.”

      There was a panic in the girl’s voice. Things were looming large and sorrowful on her young horizon.

      “There will be a place provided,” said the mother firmly. “I think perhaps I have an idea, but we won’t talk about it yet. We must first see what happens to this house. And tomorrow morning, Rilla, you and I have got to begin looking over things and packing away some of our belongings. When we go, we may have to go suddenly. That is, if we should happen to be ejected.”

      “Mother!” said Rilla aghast. “Nobody could do that, could they?”

      “Yes, I guess they couldthat is, if they were mean enough. I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if that slick lawyer did it.”

      “Oh, Mother! Why didn’t we let Thurlow go to Mr. Sherwood before he left? He would have saved the house for us. I’m sure he would.”

      “Let?” said Thurlow sharply, appearing in the doorway. “Where did you get that word? Did you suppose you were keeping me from it? I certainly wouldn’t have gone to Mr. Sherwood, no matter if you all begged me to.”

      “Of course not!” said the mother. “Rilla, you are overwrought. You don’t realize what you are saying.”

      “I don’t see why it would have been so dreadful,” said the girl with troubled brow. “It would only have been borrowing a little money. We could have paid interest on it and paid it back pretty soon. Thurlow and I could get jobs and pay it back.”

      “We haven’t got the jobs yet, sister, and no telling when we will. Forget it, Rill, and go get yourself a night’s sleep. ‘You’ll be sorry you worried at all tomorrow morning,’” he chanted merrily, and then went up the stairs whistling.

      Trying to keep his courage up, thought the mother with a sigh as she followed slowly up the stairs.

      But in his room at last, he whistled no more. Instead, he went and stood at the open window looking down into the stillness of the summer night, and his heart was heavy. Rilla’s question of what they were going to do next confronted him and fell heavily on his heart. He had forgotten that there would be other and perhaps worse problems after the house was disposed of. And what of all his friendships and his college and Barbara and the future in general?

      Thurlow awoke from a troubled sleep early in the morning, and all the world looked dark to him again. He was afraid that his hopes of selling the house to Mrs. Steele’s club were going to be dashed. Somebody would be sure to rise up and object, or there would be delay in some way.

      He drank strong coffee for breakfast and wouldn’t eat the tempting things his mother had prepared. He was nervous and excitable. Rilla watched him warily.

      “You’re not so complacent yourself this morning,” she mocked her brother as she came upon him staring out the window.

      He forced a smile and turned upon her.

      “I was just thinking that I’d better go out and cut the lawn before we have that visit from the townspeople,” he announced with elaborate cheerfulness and hurried out to get the lawn mower.

      But even so the hours dragged slowly by.

      Then at last they came, staring critically at the house and grounds as they surged up the front walk.

      Rilla fled to the