Even if he should happen to tumble in, he can swim." "I suppose," said Rachel, with mild sarcasm, "you expect him to come home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him." "Well," said the cooper, good-humoredly, "that's a good deal better to anticipate than your suggestion, and I don't know but it's as probable." Rachel shook her head dismally.
"Bless me!" interrupted Mrs.Harding, looking out of the window, in a tone of excitement, "there's a carriage just stopped at the door, and--yes, it is Jack and Ida, too!" The strange fulfillment of her own ironical suggestion struck even Aunt Rachel.

She, too, hastened to the window, and saw a handsome carriage drawn, not by four horses, but by two, standing before the door.
Jack had already jumped out, and was now assisting Ida to alight.

No sooner was Ida on firm ground than she ran into the house, and was at once clasped in the arms of her adopted mother.
"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to see you once more!" "Haven't you a kiss for me, too, Ida ?" said the cooper, his face radiant with joy.

"You don't know how much we've missed you." "And I am so glad to see you all, and Aunt Rachel too!" To her astonishment, Aunt Rachel, for the first time in her remembrance, kissed her.

There was nothing wanting to her welcome home.
But the observant eyes of the spinster detected what had escaped the cooper and his wife, in their joy at Ida's return.
"Where did you get this handsome dress, Ida ?" she asked.
Then, for the first time, the cooper's family noticed that Ida was more elegantly dressed than when she went away.