brown atom kicking
and crowing on her lap, and looking down the steps with eyes that seemed
to grow daily more luminous, came to be an accepted reality to both Peter
and the doctor--as much of a reality as the reaching out of the atom's
small tendril-like fingers to curl about one's thumb or to cling to one's
watch-charm.

"Loving little cuss," muttered Peter one afternoon. "Can you tell me how
any mother under the sun could resist those eyes or the clutch of those
brown paws?"

"Don't forget one point," Sheila spoke quietly; "he wasn't a loving little
cuss then."

"He'll go down on the books as my pet case," chuckled the doctor. "Four
pounds in four weeks! Think of it, on a whole-milk formula!"

Hennessy wagged his head knowingly at Sheila, and when they had gone he
snorted forth his contempt for professional ignorance. "Milk!
Fiddlesticks! Sure a docthor don't know everything. 'Twas the egg-shells
that done it, an' Marm an' me can bear witness he quit the scratchin' an'
began the smilin' from that very hour. Look at him now! Can ye deny it,
Miss Leerie?"

"I'm not wanting to, Hennessy." Whereupon Sheila proved the matter by
reducing the atom to squeals of joy while she retold the old history of
the pigs with the aid of five little brown toes.

Between Peter and Hennessy, Sheila came into possession of many facts
concerning the senora. Her dresses and her jewels were the talk of the
sanitarium. She applied herself diligently to all beautifying treatments
and the charming of susceptible young men. Presumably life to her meant
only a continuous process of adorning herself and receiving admiration. So
she spent her days dressing and basking in the company of a dozen
different swains, and the atom cast no annoying shadow on her pathway.

August came, and the atom discovered his legs. Sheila disregarded the lace
and ribbons with a sigh of relief and took to making rompers. They were
adorable rompers with smocking and the palest of pink collars and belts.
The licorice sticks had changed to a rich olive brown and had assumed
sufficient rotundity to allow of pink-and-white socks and white
ankle-ties. In all the busy years of her nursing Sheila had never had time
for anything like this; she had never had a baby for longer than a week or
two at a time. Just as she was beginning to feel her individual share in
them they had all gone the way of properly parented offspring, and never
had she sewed a single baby dress. She