n I can get out o' this business of stayin' at home,"
declared Duke, his face growing grave, "and I guess I need all that's
comin' to me with Trooper and the other fellows away fightin' for me!"

Gavin could not join the laughter. He was too deeply hurt. He
gathered up his parcels and hurried away; and once more the bells set
themselves to the tune of "Blue Bonnets" and played "March, March, Why,
ma lads, dinna' ye March Forward in Order?" as he drove home.

Auntie Elspie was talking to Hughie Reid in deep conference when Gavin
arrived at the farm, and on the way home she was so silent, that he was
worried over her.

"You're not cold, are you, Auntie Elspie?" he asked for the third time,
as he tucked the old sheep skin robe around her.

"No, no, lad, I'm not cold," she said, but she shivered as she said it.
It was not the blustering February wind that chilled, but the cold hand
that seemed closing round her heart, the knowledge that now it was
possible for Gavin to go and that soon she must tell him. She put off
the evil day. She could not tell him to-night, she felt, but perhaps
on the morrow.

As they were sitting down to their early supper and the February sunset
was turning all the white fields to a glory of rose and gold, a big
sleigh-load of merry young folk came jingling down the glittering road
and swept past the house with a storm of bell-music. There was a good
Winter road here across their sheltered valley and through the swamp to
Dalton's Corners and the Orchard Glen Choir was taking its musical way
thither. They were singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," and Auntie
Janet, young as any of them, ran to the door and waved to them, while
Bruce and Wallace and Prince and Bonnie bounded out barking madly. But
Gavin did not go near the door nor look after them. He suspected
Christina would be there, and most likely Wallace Sutherland and their
gay company was not for him.

"You ought to be going with them, Gavie, lad," cried Auntie Janet,
coming in with a rush of fresh air. "Listen, they're singin': 'All the
Blue Bonnets are over the Border!' now! Eh, isn't it bonnie?"

Auntie Elspie's loving eyes were watching Gavin, and her sinking heart
told her she must soon do something to put an end to his misery.

He went to his bed early that night, before they could ask him to sing,
but he could not sleep. He heard Auntie Janet and Auntie Flora come up
the creaking old stairs together, talking in whis