d tossed a handful of the pink blow she had
gathered over his shoulder. "Did you have your supper at Bolivar?" she
asked solicitously. "I saved you some; want it?"

"Yes, I had a repast at the Citizens', but I think I can manage yours
an hour or two later," answered Everett as he seated himself beside
her and lighted a cigar, from which he began to puff rings out into
the moonlight that sifted down on to them through the young leaves of
the bloom-covered old tree. "You weren't afraid of frost such a night
as this, were you?" he further inquired, as he took a deep breath of
the soft, perfume-laden air.

"I'm not now, but a cool breeze blew up about sundown and made me
afraid for my garden babies. Now I'm sure they will all wilt under
their covers, and you'll have to help me take them all off before you
go to bed. Isn't it strange how loving things make you afraid they
will freeze or wilt or get wet or cold or hungry?" asked Rose Mary
with such delightful ingenuousness that a warm little flush rose up
over Everett's collar. "Loving just frightens itself, like children in
the dark," she added musingly.

"And you saved my supper for me?" asked Everett softly.

"Of course I did; didn't you know I would?" asked Rose Mary quickly,
in her simplicity of heart not at all catching the subtle drift of his
question. "They all missed you, and Uncle Tucker went to bed almost
grumpy, while Stonie--"

"Rose Mamie," came in a sleepy but determined voice as the General in
a long-tailed nightshirt appeared in the dark doorway, "I went to
sleep and you never came back to hear me pray. Something woke me;
maybe the puppy in my bed or maybe God. I'll come out there and say
'em so you won't wake the puppy, because he's goned back to sleep," he
added in a voice that was hushed to a tone of extreme consideration
for the slumber of his young bedfellow.

"Yes, honey-heart, come say them here. Mr. Mark won't mind. I came
back, Stonie, to hear them, truly I did, but you were so fast to sleep
and so tired I hated to wake you." And Rose Mary held out tender arms
to the little chap who came and knelt on the floor at her side,
between her and Everett.

"But, Rose Mamie, you know Aunt Viney says tired ain't no 'scuse to
the Lord, and I don't think it are neither. I reckon He's tired, too,
sometimes, but He don't go back on the listening, and I ain't a-going
to go back on the praying. It wouldn't be fair. Now start me!" and
having in a completely