ingrained in a girl that
if she doesn't have dolls to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a
part of her natural rights. It's a pitiful thing to have been the little
girl in the picture who stands outside the window and gazes with longing
soul at the doll she is anxious to own and can't ever have. Harvester,
I was always that little girl. I am quite in earnest. I want a big,
beautiful doll more than anything else."

As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading the Harvester's
hair. His head lightly touched her knee, and she shifted her position
to afford him a comfortable resting place. With a thrill of delight that
shook him, the man laid his head in her lap and looked into the fire,
his face glowing as a happy boy's.

"You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy, Ruth," he
promised. "What else do you want?"

"A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid indigestible things
that Christmas stories always tell about; and popcorn balls, and candy,
and everything I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful
day with you. That's all!"

"Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to Heaven right now before
anything occurs to spoil this," said the Harvester.

The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge. He whirled to his knees,
and put his arms around the Girl.

"Ruth," he said huskily. "I'll wager a thousand dollars I know what is
coming. Hug me tight, quick! and give me the best kiss you can----any
old kind of a one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got to
open that door and let in trouble."

The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the imprint of her lips
warm on his the Harvester crossed the room, and his heart dropped from
the heights with a thud. He stepped out, closing the door behind him,
and crossing the veranda, passed down the walk. He recognized the car
as belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and in it sat two men, one of whom
spoke.

"Are you David Langston?"

"Yes," said the Harvester.

"Did you send a couple of photographs to a New York detective agency a
few days ago with inquiries concerning some parties you wanted located?"

"I did," said the Harvester. "But I was not expecting any such immediate
returns."

"Your questions touched on a case that long has been in the hands of the
agency, and they telegraphed the parties. The following day the people
had a letter, giving them the information they required, from another
source."

"That