And she laid her little nicely-gloved hand across her homely
parcel, guardingly.

How nice it was to go buying little homely things together! Again,
it was as good and pleasant,--and meant ever so much more,--than if
it had been ordering china with a monogram in Dresden, or glass in
Prague, with a coat-of-arms engraved.

When they drove up to the Horseshoe, Dakie Thayne and Ruth met them.
They had been getting "spiritual ferns" and sumach leaves with
Dorris; "the dearest little tips," Ruth said, "of scarlet and
carbuncle, just like jets of fire."

And now they would go back to tea, and eat up the brown cake?

"Real Westover summum-bonum cake?" Dakie wanted to know. "Well, he
couldn't stand against that. Come, Ruthie!" And Ruthie came.

"What do you think Rosamond says?" said Kenneth, at the tea-table,
over the cake. "That everybody ought to live in a city or a village,
or, at least, a Horseshoe. She thinks nobody has a right to stick
his elbows out, in this world. She's in a great hurry to be packed
as closely as possible here."

"I wish the houses were all finished, and our neighbors in; that is
what I said," said Rosamond. "I should like to begin to know about
them, and feel settled; and to see flowers in their windows, and
lights at night."

"And you always hated so a 'little crowd!'" said Ruth.

"It isn't a crowd when they _don't_ crowd," said Rosamond. "I can't
bear little miserable jostles."

"How good it will be to see Rosamond here, at the head of her court;
at the top of the Horseshoe," said Dakie Thayne. "She will be quite
the 'Queen of the County.'"

"Don't!" said Rosamond. "I've a very weak spot in my head. You can't
tell the mischief you might do. No, I won't be queen!"

"Any more than you can help," said Dakie.

"She'll be Rosa Mundi, wherever she is," said Ruth affectionately.

"I think that is just grand of Kenneth and Rosamond," said Dakie
Thayne, as he and Ruth were walking home up West Hill in the
moonlight, afterward. "What do you think you and I ought to do, one
of these days, Ruthie? It sets me to considering. There are more
Horseshoes to make, I suppose, if the world is to jog on."

"_You_ have a great deal to consider about," said Ruth,
thoughtfully. "It was quite easy for Kenneth and Rosamond to
see what they ought to do. But you might make a great many
Horseshoes,--or something!"

"What do you mean by that second person plural, eh? Are you shirking
your responsibilities, or