Doctor, "you would so much enjoy
travelling. It is too bad that you cannot go abroad."

"Perhaps I may. I have not thought of it, but as you speak of it, it
seems to me that it might be very pleasant to go."

"Aunt Peace!" exclaimed Mrs. Irving. "What are you thinking of!"

"Not of my seventy-five years, my dear; you may be sure of that."

"Why shouldn't she go?" asked Lynn. "Aunt Peace could go anywhere and
come back safely. Everybody she met would fall in love with her, and see
that she was comfortable."

"Quite right!" said the Doctor, with evident sincerity.

"Flatterers!" she laughed. "Fie upon you!" But there was a note of happy
youthfulness in the voice, and they knew that she was pleased.

"If you go, madam," the Doctor continued, "it will be my pleasure to
give you letters to friends of mine in Germany."

"Thank you," she returned, with a stately inclination of her head. "It
would be very kind."

"And," he went on, "I have many books which would be of service to you.
Shall I bring some of them, the next time I come?"

"I would not trouble you, Doctor, but sometime, if you happened to be
passing."

"Yes," he answered, "when I happen to be passing. I shall not forget."

"They might be interesting, if not of actual service. I am familiar with
much that has been written of foreign lands. We have _Marco Polo's
Adventures_ in our library."

The Doctor coughed into his handkerchief. "The world has changed, dear
madam, since Marco Polo travelled."

"Yes," she sighed, "it is always changing, and we older ones are left
far behind."

"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Lynn. "I'll tell you what, Aunt Peace, you're
well up at the head of the procession. You're no farther behind than
the drum-major is."

"The drum-major, my dear? I do not understand. Is he a military
gentleman?"

"He's the boss of the whole shooting match," explained Lynn,
inelegantly. "He wears a bear-skin bonnet and tickles the music out of
the band. If it weren't for him, the whole show would go up in smoke."

"Lynn!" said Margaret, reprovingly. "What language! Aunt Peace cannot
understand you!"

"I'll bet on Aunt Peace," remarked Lynn, sagely.

"I fear I am not quite abreast of the times," said the old lady. "Do you
think, Doctor, that the world grows better, or worse?"

"Better, madam, steadily better. I can see it every day."

"It is well for one to think so," observed Margaret, "whatever the facts
may be."

Midsummer and moonligh