Old Man Shaw yielded , influenced thereto not at all by Mrs. Adair 's readily flowing tears , but greatly by his conviction that justice to Sara demanded it . Sara herself did not want to go ; she protested and pleaded ; but her father , having become convinced that it was best for her to go , was inexorable . Everything , even her own feelings , must give way to that . But she was to come back to him without let or hindrance when her `` schooling '' was done . It was only on having this most clearly understood that Sara would consent to go at all . Her last words , called back to her father through her tears as she and her aunt drove down the lane , were , `` I 'll be back , daddy . In three years I 'll be back . Do n't cry , but just look forward to that . '' He had looked forward to it through the three long , lonely years that followed , in all of which he never saw his darling . Half a continent was between them and Mrs. Adair had vetoed vacation visits , under some specious pretense . But every week brought its letter from Sara . Old Man Shaw had every one of them , tied up with one of her old blue hair ribbons , and kept in her mother 's little rose-wood work-box in the parlour . He spent every Sunday afternoon re-reading them , with her photograph before him . He lived alone , refusing to be pestered with kind help , but he kept the house in beautiful order . `` A better housekeeper than farmer , '' said White Sands people . He would have nothing altered . When Sara came back she was not to be hurt by changes . It never occurred to him that she might be changed herself . And now those three interminable years were gone , and Sara was coming home . She wrote him nothing of her aunt 's pleadings and reproaches and ready , futile tears ; she wrote only that she would graduate in June and start for home a week later .
Thenceforth Old Man XXXXX went about in a state of beatitude , making ready for her homecoming .
Adair Sands Sara Shaw afternoon hindrance parlour week work-box years