She was a pleasant woman to look at, very trim and
tidy, and a good-humored eye and smile when she saw Ellen.
Ellen made up to her, and asked for Miss Humphreys.
"Why, where in the world did you come from?" said the woman.
"I don't receive company at the back of the house."
"I knocked at the front door till I was tired," said Ellen,
smiling in return.
"Miss Alice must ha' been asleep. Now, honey, you have come so
far round to find me, will you go a little further and find
Miss Alice? Just go round this corner, and keep straight along
till you come to the glass-door — there you'll find her. Stop!
— may be she's asleep; I may as well go along with you
myself."
She wrung the water from her hands and led the way.
A little space of green grass stretched in front of the shed,
and Ellen found it extended all along that side of the house
like a very narrow lawn; at the edge of it shot up the high
forest-trees — nothing between them and the house but the
smooth grass, and a narrow, worn footpath. The woods were now
all brown stems, except here and there a superb hemlock and
some scattered silvery birches. But the grass was still green,
and the last day of the Indian summer hung its soft veil over
all; the foliage of the forest was hardly missed. They passed
another hall door, opposite the one where Ellen had tried her
strength and patience upon the knocker; a little further on
they paused at the glass-door.
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