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"Why! it’s Gran’ma Ripley, just getting back from her trip. Why! how do you do? Come in. Why! you must be nearly frozen. Let me take off your hat and veil. "

"No, thank ye kindly, but I can’t stop. I must be glttin’ back to Ripley. I expec’ that man has jest let ev’rything go six ways f’r Sunday. "

"Oh, you must sit down just a minute and warm. "

"Waal, I will, but I’ve got to git home by sundown. Sure I don’t s’pose they’s a thing in the house to eat. "

"Oh dear! I wish Stacey was here, so he could take you home. An’ the boys at school. "

"Don’t need any help, if ‘twa’n’t for these bundles an’ things. I guess I’ll jest leave some of ’em here an’– Here! take one of these apples. I brought ’em from Lizy Jane’s suller, back to Yaark State. "

"Oh! they’re delicious! You must have had a lovely time. "

"Pretty good. But I kep’ thinkin’ o’ Ripley an’ Tukey all the time. I s’pose they have had a gay time of it" (she meant the opposite of gay). "Waal, as I told Lizy Jane, I’ve had my spree, an’ now I’ve got to git back to work. They ain’t no rest for such as we are. As I told Lizy Jane, them folks in the big houses have Thanksgivin’ dinners every day uv their lives, and men an’ women in splendid do’s to wait on ’em, so’t Thanksgivin’ don’t mean anything to ’em; but we poor critters, we make a great to-do if we have a good dinner oncet a year. I’ve saw a pile o’ this world, Mrs. Stacey–a pile of it! I didn’t think they was so many big houses in the world as I saw b’tween here an’ Chicago. Waal, I can’t set here gabbin’; I must get home to Ripley. Jest kinder stow them bags away. I’ll take two an’ leave them three others. Goodbye. I must be gittin’ home to Ripley. He’ll want his supper on time. " And off up the road the indomitable little figure trudged, head held down to the cutting blast. Little snow fly, a speck on a measureless expanse, crawling along with painful breathing and slipping, sliding steps– "Gittin’ home to Ripley an’ the boy. "

Ripley was out to the barn when she entered, but Tewksbury was building a fire in the old cookstove. He sprang up with a cry of joy and ran to her. She seized him and kissed him, and it did her so much good she hugged him close and kissed him again and again, crying hysterically.

"Oh, gran’ma, I’m so glad to see you! We’ve had an awful time since you’ve been gone. "

She released him and looked around. A lot of dirty dishes were on the table, the tablecloth was a "sight to behold," and so was the stove–kettle marks all over the tablecloth, splotches of pancake batter all over the stove.

"Waal, I sh’d say as much," she dryly vouchsafed, untying her bonnet strings.

When Ripley came in she had on her regimentals, the stove was brushed, the room swept, and she was elbow-deep in the dishpan. " Hullo, Mother! Got back, hev yeh?"

"I sh’d say it was about time," she replied briefly without looking up or ceasing work. "Has ol’ ‘Cruuipy’ dried up yit?" This was her greeting.

Her trip was a fact now; no chance could rob her of it. She had looked forward twenty-three years toward it, and now she could look back at it accomplished. She took up her burden again, never more thinking to lay it down.