know he might have tried to pass on either of those sides and gone too close. Was he in a hurry?"
"Yes, he was," said Margaret. "He had been away longer than he expected, and he almost ran when he started home."
"And he'd left his violin somewhere that you knew, and you went and got it. I'll wager he was going to play, and didn't want mother to find it out!"
"It wouldn't make any difference to you if you knew every little thing, so quit thinking about it, and just be glad you are to have what he loved best of anything."
"That's true, and I must hurry home, or I'll have to be cutting too close the swamp myself. I am dreadfully late."
Elnora sprang up and ran down the road, but when she was near the cabin she climbed the fence, crossed the open woods pasture diagonally and entered at the back garden gate. As she often came that way when she had been looking for cocoons her mother asked no questions.
Elnora lived by the minute until Saturday, when, contrary to his usual custom, Sinton went to town in the forenoon, taking her along to buy some groceries. Sinton drove straight to the music store, and asked for the violin he had left to be mended.
In its new coat of varnish, with new keys and strings, it looked greatly like any other violin to Sinton, but to Elnora it was the most beautiful instrument ever made, and a priceless treasure. She held it in her arms, touched the strings softly and then she drew the bow across them
