Here grass and wild flowers grew apace, and close by ran the rippling river reflecting the violet sky above.

A cemetery, every one knows, is a place where any one may walk or sit as long as he likes, but Winifred was surprised to find Principal Trenholme's housekeeper there before her; and moreover, this staid, sad woman was in the very place Winifred was going to, for she was looking through the fence that enclosed the Harmon garden.
"Good morning, Mrs.Martha," said Winifred politely, concealing her surprise.
"I've been milking," said the sad woman, glancing slightly at a pail of foaming milk that she had set for greater security between two grave-heaps.
Winifred came and took her place beside the housekeeper, and they both looked through the paling of the Harmon property.
The tanager was still on the acacia, from this nearer point looking like a great scarlet blossom of some cactus, so intense was the colour; but Winifred was distracted from her interest in the bird by seeing the old house more plainly than she had ever seen it before.

It stood, a large substantial dwelling, built not without the variety of outline which custom has given to modern villas, but with all its doors and windows on this side fastened by wooden shutters, that, with one or two exceptions, were nailed up with crossbeams and overgrown with cobwebs.

Winifred surveyed it with an interested glance.
"Did you come to see him ?" whispered the housekeeper.
Winifred's eye reverted to the tanager of which, on the whole, her mind was more full.

"Yes"-- she whispered the word for fear of startling it.
"I should think yer ma would want you in of a morning, or Miss Sophia would be learning you yer lessons.