The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen,
sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though
she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had
called the Ball homestead _home_.
"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge,"
said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and
Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've
fixed up for you."
"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder.
"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in
Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move
this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled.
"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried
his wife.
"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned.
"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you
hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other
them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'"
"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who
would refuse such a generous offer?"
"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily.
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