nto the box and brought out a sandwich. "It's
mine as much as yours."

"Going in for Woman's Suffrage and Rights and the like?" he asked,
laughing.

"Ugh," she wrinkled her nose, "don't mention things like that to-day. I
don't want to hear about war or work or problems or anything but just
pure joy this day! I earned this perfect day this year. This is to be a
day of all-joy for us. Have another sandwich? I'm going to--this makes
only four more left for each. Aunt Maria knew what she was doing when
she made me take this big box of lunch for just us two. Now, aren't you
glad that I brought lunch in a box instead of eating our dinner at
Hull's as you suggested?" she said as she kicked her feet, little girl
fashion, against the side of the boulder.

"Of course I am glad. I was afraid you might like dinner at the tavern
better, that is why I suggested it."

"Don't you know me better than that? Why, we can eat in dining-rooms
three hundred and sixty-four days in every year. This is one day when we
eat in the birds' dining-room."

"I am enjoying it, Phoebe. It is the first picnic I have had for a long
time. I can't tell how I'm drinking in the joy of it."

"Now," said Phoebe later, when the last crumb had been taken out of the
lunch box, "we can pack the arbutus in this box. If you find some damp
moss I'll arrange them."

She laid the flowers on the cushion of moss, covered them with a few
damp leaves and closed the box. "That will keep them fresh," she said.
"Now for our drink of mountain water, then home again."

Farther in the woods they found the spring. In a little cove edged with
laurel bushes and overhung with chestnut trees and tall oaks it sent up
a bubbling fountain of cold water.

"I'm sorry the picnic is over," said Phoebe as she leaned over the clear
water and drank the cold draught.

"There is still the lovely drive home," he consoled her.

"Yes," she said as they turned and walked back through the woods to the
road again, "and I shall remember this day for a long time. In the
spring it's dreadful to be shut in the city."

"I believe you are growing tired of Philadelphia."

"Yes and no. I love the many things to do and see there, but on a day
like this I think the country is the place to really enjoy the spring. I
wish you could come down some time to the city; there are many places of
interest you would like to visit."

"Yes." He opened his lips to tell her that he was soon to be in the
servic