cal but approving eyes. "I like it. It's much better than I
expected. It _is_ wonderful. But we must have new curtains for the
windows," she added, with the housewife's attention to details.

The children danced through the brilliantly lighted rooms, but declined
to go into the dining-room or to open the door to the kitchen which they
remembered only as a mass of black embers and steaming ashes. I did not
urge them to do so. On the contrary, I gathered them round me on the
restored hearth and talked of the Thanksgiving dinner of the morrow.

As the hour for bedtime came Connie's eyes grew big and dark, and every
small unusual sound startled her. Daddy's presence at last reassured
them both and they went to sleep and, with only one or two restless
intervals, slumbered till daylight.

Two of our neighbors--two capable women, came in next morning to help,
and in a few hours the windows were curtained, the linen laid out and
the turkey in the oven. Under Zulime's hands the rooms bloomed into
homeliness. The kitchen things fell into orderly array. Pictures took
their places on the walls, little knick-knacks which had been brought
from the city were set on the mantels and bookcases, and when our guests
arrived they each and all exclaimed, "No one would ever know you'd _had_
a fire!"

At one o'clock the cooks, the children and Zulime all agreed that the
fowl was ready for the carver and so we all assembled in the new and
larger dining-room. No formal Thanksgiving was spoken, but vaguely
forming in my mind was a poem which should express our joy and
gratitude. My brother's seat was empty and so were those of other loved
ones, but we did not dwell upon these sad things. I was living, working
and planning now for the vivid souls of my daughters whose glowing
cheeks and laughing eyes repaid me for all my toil. For them I had
rebuilt this house--for them and their grandsire--whose trail was almost
at its end. How happy he was in their presence! They, too, were happy
because they were young, the sun was shining and their home was
magically restored.

The happiest time of all was at night, when the evening shadows closed
round the friendly walls, and the trees sighed in the chill wind--for
beside the fire we gathered, the Garlands and McClintocks, in the good
old fashion, while our neighbors came in to congratulate and rejoice.
All the black terror of the dismantled house, all the toil and worry of
the months which lay between,