By crossing the creek he had won no more than an equal chance with Eben King . And the field road before him was much worse than the main road . There was little snow on it and some bad sloughs . But Lady Jane was good for it . For once she should not be spared . Just as the red ball of the sun touched the wooded hills of the valley , Mrs. Theodora , looking from the cowstable door , saw two sleighs approaching , the horses of which were going at a gallop . One was trundling down the main road , headlong through old drifts and slumpy snow , where a false step might send the horse floundering to the bottom . The other was coming up from the direction of the creek , full tilt through Tony Mack 's stump land , where not a vestige of snow coated the huge roots over which the runners bumped . For a moment Mrs. Theodora stood at a gaze . Then she recognized both drivers . She dropped her milking pail and ran to the house , thinking as she ran . She knew that Judith was alone in the kitchen . If Eben King got there first , well and good , but if Bruce Marshall won the race he must encounter her , Mrs. Theodora . `` He wo n't propose to Judith as long as I 'm round , '' she panted . `` I know him -- he 's too shy . But Eben wo n't mind -- I 'll tip him the wink . '' Potter Vane was chopping wood before the door . Mrs. Theodora recognizing in him a further obstacle to Marshall 's wooing , caught him unceremoniously by the arm and hauled him , axe and all , over the doorstone and into the kitchen , just as Bruce Marshall and Eben King drove into the yard with not a second to spare between them . There was a woeful cut on Bay Billy 's slender foreleg and the reeking Lady Jane was trembling like a leaf . The staunch little mare had brought her master over that stretch of sticky field road in time , but she was almost exhausted .
Both men sprang XXXXX their sleighs and ran to the door .
For as between from in into like of over with