, to whom the present remarks held no interest, and who emphasized
her demand by seizing his cheeks.

"To be sure you do, and I want to see my present, too. I'll bring them
right down."

Not at all ill pleased at this opportunity to escape from his family's
jesting, which, for some indefinable reason, aroused his belligerency,
Donald jumped up hastily and departed for the sanctuary of his bedroom,
to get the bulky bundle with its mysterious enclosure. Minutes slipped
by, and he failed to return to the group downstairs.

At last his absorption was broken into by the arrival of Muriel, whose
entrance into the room, with the traces of tears on her cheeks, brought
him back to the present with a remorseful start.

"You didn't come down, an' you _didn't_ come down, Uncle Don, an' now
mother says it's bedtime, an' I want Smiles' basket to take with me."

"Why, I'm terribly sorry that I've been so long, sweetheart-mine. I
stopped to read the letter she wrote to me, and, I'm ashamed to say,
forgot that you were waiting for me. But see, here's your present.
Little Rose made it all herself for you. Isn't it pretty?"

With a cry of delight the child gathered the simple basket into her
chubby arms and bent her head over it. "Oh, don't it smell sweet, Uncle
Don. Does Smiles smell like that?"

"Perhaps not exactly," he replied, chuckling.

"Now please show me what she sent to you. Was it a basket, too?"

"No, not a basket. It's a very great secret; but, if you'll promise not
to tell a soul, no matter how they tease, I'll show it to you."

"Cross my heart, an' hope to die," said the child earnestly, making
across her pinafore the mystic sign, so potent to the childish mind.

Donald opened a drawer in the chiffonier and took out a small and
obviously cheap glazed blue-and-white vase. The child took it
wonderingly and, removing the cover, sniffed audibly and deeply.

"My. _This_ smells like Rose," she said with conviction.

"You're right, it does, indeed, because it _is_ roses--dried wild rose
petals which she gathered and preserved herself. I saw it in her little
cabin, and know that it was her most precious possession, yet she gave
it to 'Uncle Don' as a keepsake, so that he might remember her whenever
he smells of it."

"Wasn't she just _too_ sweet to do that. My, how I would like to see
her, Uncle Don."

"Well, perhaps you may, some day."

The sentence echoed out of the past, carrying his recollection back to
the n