“Oh, I see,” with a breath of relief; “I thought the world must be coming to an end. It is the reflection. Look, don’t you see? the sun is opposite the window. But it _is_ a wonderful sight. I wish it would stay until I could call the neighbors in.” Judith looked at the west and reasoned about it; she turned toward the east, then to the west, then to the window again. “So it is,” with an inflection of disappointment. Mrs. Evans laughed softly and hurried back to the new kitchen. Judith pumped her glass of water with the radiance of two suns in her face. “Little girl, little girl,” called a voice from a buggy in the road, “will you direct me to the parsonage?” “Go on straight up the hill, turn to the right and see the church; the next house is the parsonage,” she replied with ready exactness. “Thank you,” said a second voice, with a foreign accent; the face bent forward was very dark, with dark eyes, and dark beard. Half an hour afterward she found Miss Marion in her own room, and before they went down to the parlor to the piano, she and Miss Marion read together in First Samuel. They were reading the Bible through together; Marion told her brother that it was a revelation to her to read the Bible with a girl, and an old woman; it was looking forward and looking backward. Judith read her three verses and then gave a joyful exclamation:— “‘And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them: Is the seer here? “‘And they answered them and said, He is, behold he is before you; make haste, now, for he came to-day to the city, for there is a sacrifice of the people to-day in the high place; as soon as ye be come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high place to eat, for the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice; and afterwards they eat that be bidden. Now, therefore, get you up; for about this time ye shall find him.’ Oh, Miss Marion, that is like me. I was getting a drink of water and I sent two men to find the Bensalem seer.” “Even Saul couldn’t find the way without the maidens,” reflected Marion. “And they were put in the story for all the world to read about; I wish people wouldn’t forget about girls now-a-days.” “Who does?” asked Marion; “this is the girls’ century.” [Illustration: “I wish people wouldn’t forget about girls now-a-days.” “Who does?” asked Marion; “this is the girls’ century.”] “Nobody ever thinks about me. I am never _in_ things like the other girls. Aunt Rody will never let me go anywhere; Aunt Affy coaxed her one day, and cried and said she was spoiling my girlhood, but Aunt Rody was worse than ever after that. I cry night after night because she will not let me go to boarding-school. Boarding-school has been the dream of my life; I make pictures about it to myself. Did _you_ go to boarding-school?”