AT the threshold her bundles dropped to the floor and all color fled from her face.

Before her stood her Uncle George and Sam Wright and his father.

The two elderly men were glowering at her; Sam, white as his shirt and limp, was hanging his head.
"So, miss!--You've got back, eh ?" cried her uncle in a tone she would not have believed could come from him.
As quickly as fear had seized her she now shook it off.

"Yes, Uncle," she said calmly, meeting his angry eyes without flinching.

And back came that expression of resolution--of stubbornness we call it when it is the flag of opposition to _our_ will.
"What'd have become of you," demanded her uncle, "if I hadn't found out early this morning, and got after Sam here and choked the truth out of him ?" Susan gazed at Sam; but he was such a pitiful figure, so mean and frightened, that she glanced quickly back to her uncle.