e all right and on feed again, Mammy
wasn't any stiffer than usual, and he had promised the Byrd the first
chicken that the old Dominicker hatched out to stay at home and let him
come to see me. Mammy had sent me five fresh eggs, and Sam presented
them with a queer pod of little round black seeds, and a smile that
wouldn't look me in the face.

"Hollyhocks! I climbed over the Johnson fence about two miles from town
and stole them for you," he said, as he squirmed around from me and
picked a brown burr off the leg of his trousers.

"Aren't they sweeties?" I exclaimed, not noticing his entirely
unnecessary bashfulness. "And that is just what I want to talk to you
about." With which I produced my ancestral treasure, and with our heads
close together we dove into it, didn't come up until after ten o'clock,
and then were breathless.

"Oh, Sam, can I do all these things out at your farm?" I exclaimed, and
I fairly clung against his shoulder while his strong, rough hand folded
over mine as the husk did over the hollyhock seeds I had been holding
warm and moist in my palm.

"All of them, and then some, Betty," he answered, blowing away a wisp of
my hair that he had again roughed up instead of shaking hands in
greeting, despite my reproof. "I'll plow up that southern plot for you
just after daylight to-morrow, and every minute I can take from
grubbing at the things I have to work to make the eats for all of us
I'll put in on the posy-garden for you."

"I'm much obliged to you for the plowing, but I'll be out at about nine
o'clock and I'll bring my own spade and hoe and rake and things. I think
I'll take those two young white lilacs that are crowded over by the
fence in the front yard to start the garden. Don't you think lilacs
would be a lovely corner for a garden like my grandmother's, Sam?"

"I--I think it would be nice to--plant the hollyhock seeds you have in
your hand the first thing, Betty," answered Sam, with the gridiron
smolder in his eyes which snapped up into a twinkle as he added, "Could
you help me set onions for a few hours later on?"

"Oh, I'd adore it!" I answered, enthusiastically. "Of course, I mean to
help plant all the eat things, too. I may like them best. Let's see what
grandmother says about onions." And I began to ruffle back the pages of
the book that Sam held in both his hands for me.

"Good gracious! Betty, couldn't the old lady write!" exclaimed Sam, a
half-hour later, after we had finished w