Tests

That September Amanda began her third year of teaching at Crow Hill.

"I declare," Millie said, "how quick the time goes! Here's your third
year o' teachin' started a'ready. A body gets old fast."

"Yes, I'll soon be an old maid school teacher."

"Now, mebbe not!" The hired girl had lost none of her frankness. "I
notice that Mart Landis sneaks round here a good bit this while past."

"Ach, Millie, he's not here often."

"No, o' course not! He just stops in in the afternoon about every other
day with a book or something of excuse like that, and about every other
day in the morning he's likely to happen to drop in to get the book
back, and then in between that he comes and you go out for a walk after
flowers or birds or something, and then between times there he comes
with something his mom told him to ask or bring or something like that
--no, o' course not, he don't come often! Not at all! I guess he's just
neighborly, ain't, Amanda?" Millie chuckled at her own wit and Amanda
could not long keep a frown upon her face.

"Of course, Millie," she said with an assumed air of indifference, "the
Landis people have always been neighborly. Pennsylvania Dutch are great
for that."

It was not from Millie alone that Amanda had to take teasing. Philip,
always ready for amusement, was at times almost insufferable in the
opinion of his sister.

"What's the matter with Mart Landis's home?" the boy asked innocently
one day at the supper table.