ing them corner to corner or
diamondwise on the ground; then she set the table and examined further
into the resources of the provision box. While the fire was getting
itself under way, she completed the effect by arranging some flowers in
a cup and placing a nosegay upon the bosom of nature. Before long
there was a good bed of coals in the fire-hole.

Supper was just ready when the flock reached the knoll and began
streaming up the slope into the corral; then followed Steve Brown
escorted by three sheep. He carried four lambs, one on each arm, and
two others whose heads protruded from the breast of his coat.

"Four more!" she exclaimed, stepping forward to meet them. "Did you
get all there were, Mr. Brown?"

"I got all I saw, Miss Janet," he answered, casting a bright and
intelligent look at the fire-hole. "And I was afraid I had lost you.
You got supper, did n't you? That looks nice."

Steve Brown's conversation was largely illumined by the light of his
eye; likewise his silences, which were many. They were direct eyes
which paid close attention and shot their beams straight as along the
barrel of a rifle. The live interest of his look, and the slight but
expressive play of his features, made up quite well for the occasional
scarcity of words.

"Yes, everything is all ready," she said.

"Well, I won't keep you waiting long."

When he had rid himself of the lambs he strode down the slope to the
spring, and presently she heard him "washing up" with more than his
usual vigor. Pretty soon he came up and bore a beaming countenance to
supper.

Janet, as she poured the coffee and passed the hot bread, gave an
account of her day's work, telling first about the orphan and how she
managed with him; then she took up the other lambs, consecutively.

"I got four altogether," she ended.

"Oh, you should not have done that."

"No?"

There was mingled surprise and disappointment in her look; but mainly
disappointment.

"You could never have handled them that way--if they had been really
coming fast. It would take a wagon. There is no use of your working
like that."

"But," she insisted, after a pause, "you could n't have carried more
than those four, could you?"

"No--that was just about a load."

"And we got them all in, did n't we?"

"Oh, yes--yes. What I meant was that you ought n't to work like that.
But we certainly did get them all in. And it's the only way we could
have done it. As it turn