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She never complained, but she grew thinner and paler as the winter went by. She had worked as hard on the farm, but it was the close confinement and weary routine that told on her. Mrs. John was exacting and querulous. John was absorbed in his business worries and had no time to waste on his sister. Now, when the summer had come, her homesickness was almost unbearable.

The next day Mr. Bell came he handed her a big bunch of sweet-brier roses.

“Here you are,” he said heartily. “I took the liberty to bring you these today, seeing you’re so fond of posies. The country roads are pink with them now. Why don’t you get your husband to bring you out for a drive some day? You’d be as welcome as a lark at my farm.”

“I will when he comes along, but I haven’t seen him yet.”

Mr. Bell gave a prolonged whistle. “Excuse me. I thought you were Mrs. Something-or-other for sure. Aren’t you mistress here?”

“Oh, no. My brother’s wife is the mistress here. I’m only Jessamine.”

She laughed again. She was holding the roses against her face, and her eyes sparkled over them roguishly. The vegetable-man looked at her admiringly.

“You’re a country rose yourself, miss, and you ought to be blooming out in the fields, instead of wilting in here.”

“I wish I was. Thank you so much for the roses, Mr. —- Mr. —-“

“Bell–Andrew Bell, that’s my name. I live out at Pine Pastures. We’re all Bells out there–can’t throw a stone without hitting one. Glad you like the roses.”

After that the vegetable-man brought Jessamine a bouquet every trip. Now it was a big bunch of field-daisies or golden buttercups, now a green glory of spicy ferns, now a cluster of old-fashioned garden flowers.

“They keep life in me,” Jessamine told him.

They were great friends by this time. True, she knew little about him but she felt instinctively that he was manly and kind-hearted.

One day when he came Jessamine met him almost gleefully. “No, nothing today. There is no dinner to cook.”

“You don’t say. Where are the folks?”

“Gone on an excursion. They won’t be back until tonight.”

“They won’t? Well, I’ll tell you what to do. You get ready, and when I’m through my rounds we’ll go for a drive up the country.”

“Oh, Mr. Bell! But won’t it be too much bother for you?”

“Well, I reckon not! You want an excursion as well as other folks, and you shall have it.”

“Oh, thank you so much. Yes, I’ll be ready. You don’t know how much it means to me.”

“Poor little creature,” said Mr. Bell, as he drove away. “It’s downright cruelty, that’s what it is, to keep her penned up like that. You might as well coop up a lark in a hen-house and expect it to thrive and sing. I’d like to give that brother of hers a piece of my mind.”

When he lifted her up to the high seat of his express wagon that afternoon he said, “Now, I want you to do something. Just shut your eyes and don’t open them again until I tell you to.”

Jessamine laughed and obeyed. Finally she heard him say, “Look.”

Jessamine opened her eyes with a little cry. They were on a remote country road, cool and dim and quiet, in the very heart of the beech woods. Long banners of light fell athwart the grey boles. Along the roadsides grew sheets of feathery ferns. Above the sky was gloriously blue. The air was sweet with the wild woodsy smell of the forest.

Jessamine lifted and clasped her hands in rapture. “Oh, how lovely!”

“Do you know where we’re going?” said Mr. Bell delightedly. “Out to my farm at Pine Pastures. My aunt keeps house for me, and she’ll be real glad to see you. You’re just going to have a real good time this afternoon.”

They had a delightful drive to begin with, and presently Mr. Bell turned into a wide lane.