A Little Maid of Ticonderoga

								

must just kiss her and run away.
Faith smiled up at the friendly little faces as they bent over to
welcome her. "I know I shan't be lonesome with such dear cousins," she
said, and the boys ran away to their play, quite sure that it was a
fine thing to have a girl cousin come from the Wilderness to visit
them.
Faith slept late the next morning, and awoke to hear the sound of rain
against the windows. It was a lonesome sound to a little girl so far
from her mother and father, and Faith was already thinking to herself
that this big house, with its shining yellow floors, its white window
curtains, and its nearness to a well-traveled road, was a very dreary
place compared to her cabin home, when her chamber door opened and in
came her Aunt Prissy, smiling and happy as if a rainy day was just
what she had been hoping for.
"We shall have a fine time to-day, Faithie dear," she declared, as she
filled the big blue wash-basin with warm water. "There is nothing like
a rainy day for a real good time. Your Uncle Philip and the boys are
waiting to eat breakfast with you, and I have a great deal to talk
over with you; so make haste and come down," and Aunt Prissy, with a
gay little nod, was gone, leaving Faith greatly cheered and wondering
what the "good time" would be.
Uncle Philip Scott was waiting at the foot of the stairs. "So here is
our little maid from the Wilderness! Well, it is a fine thing to have
a girl in the house," he declared, leading Faith into the dining-room
and giving her a seat at the table beside his own. "Did you have any
adventures coming over the trail?" he asked, after Faith had greeted
her little cousins.
Faith told them of "Nooski's" appearance, greatly to the delight of
her boy cousins, who asked if the Indian woman had told Faith the best
way to catch bear cubs and tame them.
"Come out to the shop, boys," said Mr. Scott as they finished
breakfast, "and help me repair the cart, and fix 'Ginger's' harness.
Perhaps Cousin Faith will come, too, later on in the morning."
"We'll see. Faithie and I have a good deal to do," responded Mrs.
Scott.
The boys ran off with their father, chattering gaily, but at the door
Donald turned and called back: "You'll come out to the shop, won't
you, Cousin Faith?"
"If Aunt Prissy says I may," answered Faith.
"Yes; she will come," added Aunt Prissy, with her ready smile.
It seemed to Faith that Aunt Prissy was always smiling. "I don't
believe she could be cross," thought the little girl.
She helped her aunt clear the table and wash the dishes, just as she
had helped her mother at home; and as they went back and forth in the
pleasant kitchen, with the dancing flames from the fireplace
brightening the walls and making the tins shine like silver, Faith
quite forgot that the rain was pouring down and that she was far from
home.
"I am going to begin a dress for you this very day. It is some