Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE MOULDING OF JUDITH CREE It was sunnily still, and verging on drowsiness about Alderson Cree's cabin, as the morning drew on towards eleven o'clock. The genial air was faintly redolent with wandering perfumes, and all the world seemed mellowed by the lazy autumnal sunshine. One felt as though the valley lay happily at rest after the bringing forth of its crops, and the gathering in of the kindly fruits of the earth. In the dooryard a few chickens strolled about indifferently, crooning occasional idle notes to one another, or, getting up a little spirit, meandered over to the frost-nipped vegetable garden where the empty beds offered luxurious dust baths. Three of the Cree children, with more energy than the hens, played hiding around the stacks of corn fodder in the stable yard; or, when that became too hot an amusement, betook themselves to the illicit joy of burrowing deep into the heart of the stacks themselves, making thereby delightful playhouses of a dark and cavernous nature. To Judith Cree, Alderson's wife, the world seemed a pleasant place on that October morning. Thewarmth and tranquillity of the day went to the very fibres of her being, and stirred them into quick response to all the joys she knew. The simple domestic round of autumn duties which her energy had accomplished, reviewed by the light of that golden weather, appeared blessings of almost a Heaven-sent description. The contented crooning of the chickens about the doorstep; the ripple of the children's play, as it surged in to her now and again in waves of laughter from the stackyard; the perfume of ripened apples; and the occasional sharp whiff of cut fodder — seemed all to her in tune with the day, and things to be glad for. Every now and again as she moved about the house, perfo...