Willard wo n't be back till dark , so there is no use waiting for him . '' At twilight Sara decided to walk up the lane and meet Willard . She always liked to meet him thus when he had been away for a whole day . Sara thought there was nobody in the world as good and dear as Willard . It was a dull grey November twilight ; the maples in the hollow were all leafless , and the hawthorn hedge along the lane was sere and frosted ; a little snow had fallen in the afternoon , and lay in broad patches on the brown fields . The world looked very dull and dispirited , and Sara sighed . She could not help thinking of the dark side of things just then . `` Everything is wrong , '' said poor Sara dolefully . `` Willard has to work like a slave , and yet with all his efforts he can barely pay the interest on the mortgage . And Ray ought to go to college . But I do n't see how we can ever manage . To be sure , he wo n't be ready until next fall , but we wo n't have the money then any more than now . It would take every bit of a hundred and fifty dollars to fit him out with books and clothes , and pay for board and tuition at the academy . If he could just have a year there he could teach and earn his own way through college . But we might as well hope for the moon as one hundred and fifty dollars . '' Sara sighed again . She was only eighteen , but she felt very old . Willard was nineteen , and Willard had never had a chance to be young . His father had died when he was twelve , and he had run the farm since then , he and Sara together indeed , for Sara was a capital planner and manager and worker . The little mother had died two years ago , and the household cares had all fallen on Sara 's shoulders since .
Sometimes , as now , they pressed very heavily , but a talk XXXXX Willard always heartened her up .
along as at for since than till to until with