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A week later Sammy teased Mrs. Moore into taking her to the Elks’ concert and dance at the Wheatfield Hall over the post-office. When Mrs. Moore protested at this unheard-of proceeding, the girl used her one unfailing threat: “Then I’ll tell father I want another governess!”

Mrs. Moore hated governesses. There had been no governess at the doctor’s for two years. She looked uneasy. “You’ve nothing to wear,” said she.

“I’ll wear my embroidered linen,” said Sammy, “and Mary’s spangled scarf.”

“You oughtn’t borrow your sister’s things without permission,” said Mrs. Moore, half-heartedly.

“Mary’s in New York,” said Sammy, recklessly. “She’s not been home for two years, and she may not be back for two more! She won’t care. I’m eighteen, and I’ve never been to a dance, and I’m GOING–that’s all there is about it!”

And she burst into tears, and presently laughed herself out of them, and went to her sister’s orderly empty room to see what other treasures besides the spangled scarf Mary had left behind her.

Three months later, on a burning July afternoon, the Wheatfield “Terrors” played a team from the neighboring town of Copadoro. Wheatfield’s population was reputedly nine hundred, and certainly almost that number of onlookers had gathered to watch the game. The free seats were packed with perspiring women in limp summer gowns, and restless, crimson-faced children; and a shouting, vociferous line of men fringed the field. But in the “grand stand,” where chairs rented for twenty-five cents, there was still some room.

Three late-comers found seats there when the game was almost over–Sammy’s sister Mary, an extremely handsome young woman in a linen gown and wide hat, her brother Tom, a correct young man whose ordinary expression indicated boredom, and their aunt, a magnificent personage in gray silk, with a gray silk parasol. Their arrival caused some little stir.

“Well, for pit–!” exclaimed a stout matron seated immediately in front of them. “If it ain’t Mary Peneyre–an’ Thomas too! An’ Mrs. Bond–for goodness’ sake! Well, say, you folks ARE strangers. When ‘jew all get here? Sammy never told me you was coming!”

“How d’you do, Mrs. Pidgeon?” said Sammy’s aunt, cordially. “No, Samantha didn’t know it. We came–ah–rather suddenly. Yes, I’ve not been in Wheatfield for ten years. We got here on the two o’clock train.”

“Going to stay long, Mary?” said Mrs. Pidgeon, sociably.

“Only a few days,” said Miss Peneyre, distantly. (“That’s the worst of growing up in a place,” she said to herself. “Every one calls you ‘Mary’!”) “We are going to take Samantha back to New York with us,” she added.

“Look out you don’t find you’re a little late,” said Mrs. Pidgeon, with great archness. “I’m surprised you ain’t asked me if there’s any news from Sammy. Whole village talking about it.”

The three smiles that met her gaze were not so unconcerned as their wearers fondly hoped. Mrs. Bond ended a tense moment when she exclaimed, “There’s Sammy now!” and indicated to the others the last row of seats, where a girl in blue, with a blue parasol, was sitting alone. Mrs. Pidgeon delivered a parting shot. “Sammy might do lots worse than Anthony Gayley,” said she, confidentially. “Carpenter or no carpenter, he’s an elegant fellow. I thought Lizzie Philliber was ace high, an’ then folks talked some of Bootsy White. I guess Bootsy’d like to do some hair-pulling.”

“I dare say it’s just a boy-and-girl friendship,” said Mrs. Bond, lightly, but trembling a little and pressing Mary’s foot with her own. When they were climbing over the wooden seats a moment later, on their way to join Sammy, she added:

“Oh, really, it’s insufferable! I’d like to spank that girl!”

“Apparently the whole village is on,” contributed Tom, bitterly.

A moment later Sammy saw them; and if her welcome was a little constrained, it was merely because of shyness. She settled down radiantly between her sister and aunt, with a hand for each.

“Well, this is FUN!” said Sammy. “Did you get my letter? Were you surprised? Are you all going to stay until September?”