SPRING is an unknown season in Lakeville. But if one waits sufficiently long, there comes at last a period known as the breaking of winter. Since, owing to the heavy snows of January, February and March, there is always a great deal of winter to break, the process is an extended and--to the "overshoed" young--a decidedly trying one. But even in northerly Lakeville there finally came an afternoon when the girls decided that the day was much too fine to be spent indoors; and that the hour had arrived when it would be safe to leave off rubbers. The snow had disappeared except in very shaded spots and the Bay was free of ice except for a line of white that showed far out beyond the intense blue. The sidewalks were comparatively dry, but streams of icy water gurgled merrily in the deep gutters that ran down all the sloping streets. Although this abundant moisture was only the result of melting snow in the hills back of Lakeville and possessed no beauty in itself, these impetuous streams gave forth pleasant springlike sounds and made one think sentimentally of babbling brooks, fresh clover and blossoms by the wayside. Yet one needed to draw pretty heavily on one's imagination to see either flowers or grass at that early date; but the _feel_ of them, as Jean said, was certainly in the air. "Let's walk down by Mrs. Malony's," suggested Mabel. "She doesn't milk at this time of day, does she?" queried Henrietta, cautiously. "We needn't go in," assured Mabel. "We'll just run down one hill and up the other; but it's always lovely to walk along the shore road. There's a sort of a side-walk--if folks aren't too particular." "Wouldn't it be beautiful," sighed Jean, "if Bettie could only come too? This air would do anybody good." "Yes," mourned Marjory, "nothing seems quite right without Bettie." The girls, a trifle saddened, went slowly down the hill. "We must certainly steer clear of Mrs. Malony," warned Henrietta, as the egg-woman's house became visible. "Another dose of her hot milk would drive me from Lakeville." "There she is now!" exclaimed Mabel. "I recognize her by her cow; she's driving it home." "Perhaps it ran away to look for summer," offered Marjory. "The lady seems displeased with her pet." "An' how are the darlin' childer?" cried Mrs. Malony, greeting her friends while yet a long way off. "'Tis a sight for a quane to see, so manny purty lasses. But where's me little black-oiyed Bettie--there's the swate choild for yez? Sure Oi heard she was loike to die, wan while back. Betther, is ut? Thot's good, thot's good. An' wud yez belave ut, Miss Mabel,--'tis fatter than iver yez are, Oi see--Oi had yez in me moind all this blissid day." "Why?" asked Mabel, rather coldly.