We met Ralph in the town, and I'm sure he didn't want us to see him, for what _do_ you think he was doing ?" A chill went through poor grandmother's heart.

In an instant she pictured to herself all manner of scrapes Ralph might have got into.

Had her thoughts of him this very afternoon been a sort of presentiment of evil?
She grew white, so white that even in the already dusky light, Sylvia's sharp eyes detected it, and she turned fiercely to Molly, the heedless.
"You naughty girl," she said, "to go and frighten dear little grandmother like that.

And only this very morning or yesterday grandmother was explaining to you about tact.

Don't be frightened, dear grandmother.
Ralph wasn't doing anything naughty, only I daresay he didn't want us to see." "But what _was_ he doing ?" said grandmother, and Molly, irrepressible still, though on the verge of sobs, made answer before Sylvia could speak.
"He was carrying wood, grandmother dear," she said--"big bundles, and another boy with him too.