ch like a theayter!"

That was the battle cry of defeat. The "theayter," to Quinton, was as
pernicious as a bullfight would have been to a Puritan.

Janet, who was accountable for the donkey head, felt a real
disappointment in the downfall of the dramatic society. It had appealed
to her artistic, imaginative nature. In it she saw a glimmer of
enjoyment which all the other village pastimes lacked. She loved
dancing, but, without knowing why, she disliked to dance with the young
men of the place. With the yearning of youth for popularity and
companionship she felt the growing conviction that she was outside the
inner circle. Davy had closed the lips of idle gossipers, but even he
was unable to open the hearts of suspicious neighbors. The girl longed
to draw to herself human love and loyalty, but her every attempt
failed.

"Davy," she said with a deep sigh, "I reckon I'm just a bungler.
Everything I do seems wrong. I'm afraid,"--and here she grew
dreamy,--"I'm afraid I'm like the poor poplars. I see over the dunes. I
see too much, and I frighten others."

"'T ain't overwise, Janet," mused Davy through the tobacco smoke, "to
get t' thinkin' what ye are an' what ye ain't. Let other folks do that.
Jest be somethin'."

"Yes, yes, Davy, but what? Everything I try to be, I fail in." Janet
thought of the chance that lay in the distant city and wondered if she
would have failed there.

"Well, I allus take it," Davy replied, "that the good God gives us jest
as much t' do as we're able t' do, an' He wants it well done. He ain't
goin' t' chuck jobs around t' folks that ain't equal t' doin' well what
they has in hand. Fur instance," Davy pointed his remark with the stem
of his pipe, "ye ain't such an all-fired good housekeeper as ye might
be!"

"I know it, Davy."

"An' yer clo'es, while they become ye like as not, have a loose look in
the sewin' that might be bettered. The fact is, Janet, ye ain't
pertikiler 'bout the fussin' things! An' it may be, yer way lies in
perfectin' yerself in the fussin's of life."

"Oh! you dear Davy!" Janet was laughing above her inclination to cry. "I
do believe you are right. I'm going to pay particular attention to the
little fussy things. Dear knows! if I do them all well, I'll have little
time for discontent." She stood up--she and Davy were in the living
room, while Mark was doing duty aloft--and flung her strong, young arms
above her head.

"Davy, I wish just once in my life I could--l