CHAPTER IX.
That evening Mrs.Rexford and Sophia had been sitting sewing, as they often did, under a tree near the house.

Sophia had mused and stitched.
Then there came a time when her hands fell idle, and she looked off at the scene before her.

It was the hour when the sun has set, and the light is not less than daylight but mellower.

She observed with pleasure how high the hops had grown that she had planted against the gables of the house and dairies.

On this side the house there was no yard, only the big hay-fields from which the hay had been taken a month before; in them were trees here and there, and beyond she saw the running river.
She had seen it all every day that summer, yet-- "I think I never saw the place look so nice," she said to her step-mother.
Dottie came walking unsteadily over the thick grass.