Substitute Guest Read Online Free PDF Page B

warm as ever each to the touch of the other.
    “Do I remember it?” said Mother, turning a beaming look toward her old partner. “How could I ever forget?” And her hand nestled in his clasp.
    The children gave them a quick wistful glance. They were old enough to appreciate the love between these two, far enough along in their own life-stories to wonder if anything so precious and lasting could be in store for them.
    “Well, we’ve had a great time up in the woods, Lance and I, and I sort of think we enjoyed it all the better for the snow, though I will own it did get a bit heavy for me toward the end. I’m not as spry as I once was. Now, what’s to be done next? When do our guests arrive?”
    His eyes traveled around the group. Lance, who was cleaning out the applesauce dish, was too busy to answer, and Daryl flushed and hesitated, dropping her gaze suddenly. It was the mother after all who had to answer.
    “Why, Daryl says Mister—Harold, I mean—is driving and can’t get here till late in the afternoon. I suppose Lance means to go for Ruth. Don’t you, Lance?”
    “No,” said Lance, putting down the empty dish. “At least I didn’t arrange that way because I wasn’t quite sure what time Dad and I would get home. You know I took my car down last night to the garage to have them fix a leak in the pump, and Ruth was to go to the garage and get it as soon as she got done with that kids’ party she is running at the church. She won’t be through that till half past four or I’d go right now and get her. I don’t like the idea of her driving through all this snow alone. I’ll see how things get done here. Maybe I’ll foot it to the village and drive her back myself. It’s ridiculous her having to stay for that party. I don’t see how the kids can get there in this snow anyway.”
    “Oh, children don’t mind snow!” said the father, peering around to look out the window. “You know how you always used to go everywhere in it.”
    “I know,” Lance said with a sigh. “And I suppose it wouldn’t do any good even if I did go after her now, for she wouldn’t leave till the hour was over, even if there was only one kid there. She’d make him have a good time. That’s Ruth!”
    “Yes,” said his father, “that Ruth! And that’s why you like her, because she’s that kind of a dear, faithful girl!”
    “Well, yes, I suppose it is,” admitted the young man reluctantly, “but you know it makes me hot under the collar sometimes to see how they all let Ruth do everything, and she doesn’t even belong in this town, just does it out of the goodness of her heart. They wouldn’t bother for half the good times she gives those kids. She’s just a slave to whatever she undertakes.”
    “Well, that’s a pretty good way to be,” said the father. “But I guess after a while you’d better walk down and drive her back. This is really a storm, you know, and she’s a dear girl. I wouldn’t want her to get stuck in a drift.”
    “Yes,” said Lance, getting up quickly with a businesslike air. “Well, I’ll bring in plenty of wood for the fireplaces tonight and then that will be done. I’ll lay the other fires, too. Want one in each spare room, don’t you? I would. It’ll be chilly getting up in the morning without a fire, and a chap from the city will feel it even more than we would. Then I’ll fix the lights on the tree and Daryl can go ahead with her decorations.”
    “Yes,” said the mother firmly. “Fires laid in both rooms.”
    “Well,” said Father Devereaux, rising slowly, reluctantly, and stretching his tired limbs, “I’ll just go out to the barn and see how Chrystobel is getting on. She’ll be thinking it’s night with all this storm, and expect to be milked pretty soon. And I suppose the hens have gone to roost already.”
    “Better explain to them that tomorrow is Christmas, Dad. Tell ’em they’ll have a good dinner, and find plenty of corn in their stockings,” laughed