g but the gleam of gold ahead.

Whatever had been wrong with the reception and the procession, no fault
could be found with the supper. It had been set outdoors on the church
lawn, and the tables were so ladened with chicken and ham and jellies
and salads and cake and pie, that instinctively the men took off their
coats before sitting down to the attack. And after everything was
eaten nobody seemed able either to hear or make a speech. And there
was no music and no programme, for the juvenile choir, after gorging
itself in a truly dangerous fashion, went out into the dust of the
village street, and played tag and hide-and-seek, and not even the Pied
Piper, himself, could have collected them again. And the other choir
was either waiting on the tables, or eating so much that they couldn't
sing either.

The address was read, but there was so much noise and joyous running to
and fro that not even Gavin heard it. And his speech was as short as a
speech could possibly be, just a word of thanks for himself and his
Aunts and his oft reiterated statement, he had only done his duty, and
all the fellows at the Front, and many at home were doing that.

But everybody had a grand time, nevertheless, such a time of laughing
and talking and eating together as had not been experienced in Orchard
Glen since the fell day the Piper came to rend the village
asunder,--the Piper, who was at this very moment cementing it again
with "Tullochgorum," which he was blowing uproariously as he marched up
and down in front of the Methodist Church!

When Christina reached home she found there was little work to be done.
Uncle Neil and Mitty had come home early and had already finished the
milking. Sandy was tired and had stretched himself in the hammock, to
have a talk with his mother. Contrary to her custom Christina did not
lay aside her white dress for a plainer garb. She spent a long time
rearranging the shining crown of her braids, and when the shadows of
the poplars began to stretch across the garden, she slipped away
through the barn-yard and up the back lane, up to the sun-lit hill top,
where Gavin had promised to meet her.

The peace of evening was falling with the dew. From far down in the
village came the sound of children's voices, beyond the orchards a
binder was singing its way through the golden fields. Up on the hill
top there was a sense of remoteness from the world, all sound and
movement seemed far away. Only the vesp