Uncle George broke his leg and is very sick this morning , and there 's no breakfast ready for anyone and the fire black out ... but that does n't matter when Father is safe ... and oh , I 'm so tired ! '' And then Mary Margaret sat down just for a moment , intending to get right up and help her mother light the fire , laid her head on her father 's shoulder , and fell sound asleep before she ever suspected it . The Prodigal Brother Miss Hannah was cutting asters in her garden . It was a very small garden , for nothing would grow beyond the shelter of the little , grey , low-eaved house which alone kept the northeast winds from blighting everything with salt spray ; but small as it was , it was a miracle of blossoms and a marvel of neatness . The trim brown paths were swept clean of every leaf or fallen petal , each of the little square beds had its border of big white quahog clamshells , and not even a sweet-pea vine would have dared to straggle from its appointed course under Miss Hannah 's eye . Miss Hannah had always lived in the little grey house down by the shore , so far away from all the other houses in Prospect and so shut away from them by a circle of hills that it had a seeming isolation . Not another house could Miss Hannah see from her own doorstone ; she often declared she could not have borne it if it had not been for the lighthouse beacon at night flaming over the northwest hill behind the house like a great unwinking , friendly star that never failed even on the darkest night . Behind the house a little tongue of the St. Lawrence gulf ran up between the headlands until the wavelets of its tip almost lapped against Miss Hannah 's kitchen doorstep . Beyond , to the north , was the great crescent of the gulf , whose murmur had been Miss Hannah 's lullaby all her life . When people wondered to her how she could endure living in such a lonely place , she retorted that the loneliness was what she loved it for , and that the lighthouse star and the far-away call of the gulf had always been company enough for her and always would be ... until Ralph came back . When Ralph came home , of course , he might like a livelier place and they might move to town or up-country as he wished . `` Of course , '' said Miss Hannah with a proud smile , `` a rich man might n't fancy living away down here in a little grey house by the shore . He 'll be for building me a mansion , I expect , and I 'd like it fine . But until he comes I must be contented with things as they are . '' People always smiled to each other when Miss Hannah talked like this . But they took care not to let her see the smile . Miss Hannah snipped her white and purple asters off ungrudgingly and sang , as she snipped , an old-fashioned song she had learned long ago in her youth . The day was one of October 's rarest , and Miss Hannah loved fine days . The air was clear as golden-hued crystal , and all the slopes around her were mellow and hazy in the autumn sunshine . She knew that beyond those sunny slopes were woods glorying in crimson and gold , and she would have the delight of a walk through them later on when she went to carry the asters to sick Millie Starr at the Bridge .
Flowers were all Miss Hannah had to give , for she was very poor , but she gave them XXXXX a great wealth of friendliness and goodwill .
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