" He returned to
his own work, and Sara soon grew absorbed in hers; for it was the kind
of task she liked, and had often spent hours over, for pure amusement.
How it brought back the shore and the cliffs! The long rambles inland,
also, and the evenings on the floor amid her specimens, down before the
drift-wood fire. She forgot her surroundings finally, so interested was
she; and once the professor, glancing up, smiled a little at sight of
the bent head and eager, intent face. He watched her, unperceived, for
some seconds, then, with a nod of satisfaction, returned to his own
labors.
The three morning hours passed as one in this congenial labor, then
there was the brisk walk home to meet the children at a light lunch, and
look after baby. She found the little fellow supremely contented with
his new quarters, having made loving advances to a gray kitten who,
though suspicious of his favors, was too meek to escape them; and Mrs.
Hoffstott declared he had been "so goot as nefar vas!" The older
children were voluble over their school, Morton talking most of the
great, cheerful rooms, with their wonderful conveniences for study;
while Molly expatiated at large over a little girl with the euphonious
name of Henrietta May Hendrington, with whom she seemed to have fallen
rapturously in love!
Half-past one found them all at work again, and the afternoon hours were
even shorter than those of the morning to all but baby, who began to
grow homesick towards four o'clock, and who could not be comforted,
even by the children, who were out of school at three.
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