old you about my little mountain rose,
and now is your chance to meet her, for here she is. Smiles, this is my
closest friend and associate, Dr. Philip Bentley--the man who steps into
my shoes when I am summarily ordered to board the next train for the
Cumberland Mountains, or elsewhere."

"Who steps into his practice, perhaps, but not into his shoes, Miss
Rose," added the other. "I could not fill _them_, figuratively or
physically."

"Go ahead, make all the fun of me that you like," answered Donald. "I'm
not ashamed of having a broad understanding."

"You would not think Dr. Donald's boots large if you could have seen my
Granddaddy's," interposed Smiles, pretending to think that reflection
was being cast upon her idol. "I could get _both_ my feet inside one of
them--really I could."

"I don't wonder," answered Philip with a return to seriousness. And the
girl hastily tucked her diminutive shoes underneath her chair, as she
saw the man's gaze fastened upon them.

For nearly an hour she lived in unaccustomed delight, as she listened to
the merry badinage of this group of educated city dwellers and, although
it was something new to her, her quick mind soon realized that Philip
was a most entertaining conversationalist, with a wit like a rapier
which flashed and touched, but never hurt, and that Donald, in his
slower way, possessed a dry humor which she had not suspected. At the
end of that time a telephone call came for Donald which sent him forth,
pretending to grumble over the lack of consideration of modern children,
who insisted upon getting sick at the most inconvenient times, and of
their parents, who permitted it.

"Your loss, my gain," chuckled Philip. "I'll be only too pleased to take
Miss Rose home."

"Indeed, I'll not allow such a thing," promptly responded Ethel. "Rose
stays here for dinner, and _you're_ not invited. This is to be strictly
a family party."

"'Family?' Is Don going to be a Mormon, then?" challenged Philip.

It was Rose, who--blushing prettily--answered, "I hope not, for he is
my brother, too, by blood adoption." And she told the story.

"Then why can't _I_ be? I'm ready, nay, anxious, to shed quarts and
quarts of blood to attain a like relationship," persisted Philip. And
thus the conversation ran on through dinner, for Ethel relented and
allowed Dr. Bentley to remain, and, as Donald was again summoned away,
it was he who, after all, took Rose to the Merriman apartment.

"Oh," she