thing all
along this line, and it were the Heavenly Father you asked to help you
out that put the right notion in your heart of what to do."

"Yes'm, I believe He did, and He got hold of Mr. Petway some too, to
make him kind about wanting to marry Aunt Prissy. He are a-going to ask
her to-night and I promised to keep Paw outen the way for him, 'cause
Paw WILL get away from Maw and come talk crops with him sometimes on
the front porch. May I go out to the kitchen and get Cindy to make a
little chicken soup for Mis' Bostick now? I can't get her to eat much
to-day."

"Yes, and welcome, Sister Pike," answered Mother Mayberry heartily, and
she shook with laughter as the end of the blue calico skirt disappeared
in the hall. "The little raven have actually begun to sprout cupid
wings," she said to herself as she went around the corner of the house
toward the Doctor's office. "Co'ting are a bombshell that explodes in
the big Road of life and look out who it hits," she further observed to
herself as she paused to train up a shoot of the rambler over the
office door.

The Doctor had just come from over the Ridge, put up his horse and made
his way through the kitchen and hall into his office where he found his
Mother sitting in his chair by the table. He smiled in a dejected way
and seated himself opposite her, leaned his elbows on the table and
dropped his chin into his hands.

"Now, what's your trouble, Tom Mayberry?" demanded his Mother, as she
gazed across at him with anxiety and tenderness striving in glance and
tone. "You've been a-going around like a dropped-wing young rooster
with a touch of malaria for a week. If it's just moon-gaps you can keep
'em and welcome, but if it's trouble, I claim my share, son."

"I meant to tell you to-day, Mother," he answered slowly. After a
moment's silence he looked up and said steadily, "I've failed with Miss
Wingate--and I'm too much of a coward to tell her. I feel sure now that
she'll never be able to use her voice any more than she can in the
speaking tones and she--she will never sing again." As he spoke he
buried his face in his hands and his arms shook the table they rested
upon.

For a moment Mother Mayberry sat perfectly still and from the whispered
words on her lips her son knew she was praying. "The Lord's will be
done," she said at last in her deep, quiet voice, and she laid one of
her strong hands on her son's arm. "Tell me about it, Tom. You ain't
done no operation ye