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“I ‘d really love to take her out to see mother at Green Island,” said Mrs. Todd with a sudden impulse.

“Oh, yes! I should love to have you,” exclaimed Mrs. Martin, and then she began to speak in a lower tone. “One day I got thinkin’ so about my dear Queen,” she said, “an’ livin’ so in my thoughts, that I went to work an’ got all ready for her, just as if she was really comin’. I never told this to a livin’ soul before, but I feel you ‘ll understand. I put my best fine sheets and blankets I spun an’ wove myself on the bed, and I picked some pretty flowers and put ’em all round the house, an’ I worked as hard an’ happy as I could all day, and had as nice a supper ready as I could get, sort of telling myself a story all the time. She was comin’ an’ I was goin’ to see her again, an’ I kep’ it up until nightfall; an’ when I see the dark an’ it come to me I was all alone, the dream left me, an’ I sat down on the doorstep an’ felt all foolish an’ tired. An’, if you ‘ll believe it, I heard steps comin’, an’ an old cousin o’ mine come wanderin’ along, one I was apt to be shy of. She was n’t all there, as folks used to say, but harmless enough and a kind of poor old talking body. And I went right to meet her when I first heard her call, ‘stead o’ hidin’ as I sometimes did, an’ she come in dreadful willin’, an’ we sat down to supper together; ‘t was a supper I should have had no heart to eat alone.”

“I don’t believe she ever had such a splendid time in her life as she did then. I heard her tell all about it afterwards,” exclaimed Mrs. Todd compassionately. “There, now I hear all this it seems just as if the Queen might have known and could n’t come herself, so she sent that poor old creatur’ that was always in need!”

Mrs. Martin looked timidly at Mrs. Todd and then at me. “‘T was childish o’ me to go an’ get supper,” she confessed.

“I guess you wa’n’t the first one to do that,” said Mrs. Todd. “No, I guess you wa’n’t the first one who ‘s got supper that way, Abby,” and then for a moment she could say no more.

Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Martin had moved their chairs a little so that they faced each other, and I, at one side, could see them both.

“No, you never told me o’ that before, Abby,” said Mrs. Todd gently. “Don’t it show that for folks that have any fancy in ’em, such beautiful dreams is the real part o’ life? But to most folks the common things that happens outside ’em is all in all.”

Mrs. Martin did not appear to understand at first, strange to say, when the secret of her heart was put into words; then a glow of pleasure and comprehension shone upon her face. “Why, I believe you ‘re right, Almira!” she said, and turned to me.

“Wouldn’t you like to look at my pictures of the Queen?” she asked, and we rose and went into the best room.

V.

The mid-day visit seemed very short; September hours are brief to match the shortening days. The great subject was dismissed for a while after our visit to the Queen’s pictures, and my companions spoke much of lesser persons until we drank the cup of tea which Mrs. Todd had foreseen. I happily remembered that the Queen herself is said to like a proper cup of tea, and this at once seemed to make her Majesty kindly join so remote and reverent a company. Mrs. Martin’s thin cheeks took on a pretty color like a girl’s. “Somehow I always have thought of her when I made it extra good,” she said. “I ‘ve got a real china cup that belonged to my grandmother, and I believe I shall call it hers now.”

“Why don’t you?” responded Mrs. Todd warmly, with a delightful smile.

Later they spoke of a promised visit which was to be made in the Indian summer to the Landing and Green Island, but I observed that Mrs. Todd presented the little parcel of dried herbs, with full directions, for a cure-all in the spring, as if there were no real chance of their meeting again first. As we looked back from the turn of the road the Queen’s Twin was still standing on the doorstep watching us away, and Mrs. Todd stopped, and stood still for a moment before she waved her hand again.

“There’s one thing certain, dear,” she said to me with great discernment; “it ain’t as if we left her all alone!”

Then we set out upon our long way home over the hill, where we lingered in the afternoon sunshine, and through the dark woods across the heron-swamp.