didn't exactly sense what she meant by that, so I asked her
straight out; an' it seems that somehow, when the boy first come, he
struck her place one day an' spied a great big red rose on one of her
bushes. It seems he had his fiddle, an' he, played it,--that rose
a-growin' (you know his way!), an' she heard an' spoke up pretty sharp
an' asked him what in time he was doin'. Well, most kids would 'a'
run,--knowin' her temper as they does,--but not much David. He stands
up as pert as ye please, an' tells her how happy that red rose must be
ter make all that dreary garden look so pretty; an' then he goes on,
merry as a lark, a-playin' down the hill.

"Well, Mis' Somers owned up ter me that she was pretty mad at the time,
'cause her garden did look like tunket, an' she knew it. She said she
hadn't cared ter do a thing with it since her Bessie died that thought
so much of it. But after what David had said, even mad as she was, the
thing kind o' got on her nerves, an' she couldn't see a thing, day or
night, but that red rose a-growin' there so pert an' courageous-like,
until at last, jest ter quiet herself, she fairly had ter set to an'
slick that garden up! She said she raked an' weeded, an' fixed up all
the plants there was, in good shape, an' then she sent down to the
Junction fur some all growed in pots, 'cause 't was too late ter plant
seeds. An, now it's doin' beautiful, so she jest could n't help sendin'
them posies ter David. When I told Mis' Holly, she said she was glad it
happened, 'cause what Mis' Somers needed was somethin' ter git her out
of herself--an' I'm free ter say she did look better-natured, an' no
mistake,--kind o' like a chokecherry in blossom, ye might say."

"An' then there's the Widder Glaspell," continued Perry, after a pause.
"'Course, any one would expect she'd feel bad, seein' as how good David
was ter her boy--teachin' him ter play, ye know. But Mis' Glaspell says
Joe jest does take on somethin' turrible, an' he won't tech the fiddle,
though he was plum carried away with it when David was well an'
teachin' of him. An' there's the Clark kid. He's lame, ye know, an' he
thought the world an' all of David's playin'.

"'Course, there's you an' Miss Holbrook, always askin' an' sendin'
things--but that ain't so strange, 'cause you was 'specially his
friends. But it's them others what beats me. Why, some days it's 'most
ev'ry soul I meet, jest askin' how he is, an' sayin' they hopes he'll
git well. So