Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/169



HINGS went better after this visit of September's. Cool nights began. The noons were still hot, but with a different heat. Something of life and freshness breathed in the air. Thekla's wheel, set out under the spreading boughs of an oak-tree, hummed as it turned, like a great bumblebee. It had been silent of late, as if languid with August's warmth. Now its voice came back, and it sang merrily as ever. Leaf-shadows fell from overhead, dappling the fair hair of the little spinner, and the fleece of the lamb which lay at her feet. "Lamb" it was still called, though fast getting into sheephood. Thekla had a real motherly feeling toward it; and, as