hill is the
schoolhouse where they do their dancing, and they've got a table or
two and a swing for the kids to fall outa--and they call it Bluebell
Grove because yuh never saw a bluebell within ten mile uh the place.
That's where the general round-up for the Fourth is pulled off this
year--so Jim Bleeker was telling me this morning. We sure got to be
present, Dilly."

"I'm afraid I'm not the sort of man to shine in society, William,"
dissented the other modestly. "You can go, and--"

"Don't yuh never _dance_?" Billy eyed him speculatively. A man under
fifty--and Dill might be anywhere between thirty and forty--who had
two sound legs and yet did not dance!

"Oh, I used to, after a fashion. But my feet are so far off that I
find communication with them necessarily slow, and they have a habit
of embarking in wild ventures of their own. I do not believe they
are really popular with the feminine element, William. And so I'd
rather--"

"Aw, you'll have to go and try it a whirl, anyhow. We ain't any of us
experts. Yuh see, the boys have been accustomed to having the wheels
of industry stop revolving on the Fourth, and turning kinda wobbly for
four or five days after. I don't feel like trying to break 'em in to
keep on working--do you?"

"To use your own term," said Dill, suddenly reckless of his diction,
"you're sure the doctor."

"Well, then, the proper dope for this case is, all hands show up at
the picnic." He picked up his hat from the floor, slapped it twice
against his leg to remove the dust, pinched the crown into four dents,
set it upon his head at a jaunty angle and went out, singing softly:

"She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother."

Dill, looking after him, puckered his face into what passed with him
for a smile. "I wonder now," he meditated aloud, "if William is not
thinking of some particular young lady who--er--who 'cannot leave her
mother'." If he had only known it, William was; he was also wondering
whether she would be at the picnic. And if she were at the picnic,
would she remember him? He had only seen her that one night--and to
him it seemed a very long while ago. He thought, however, that
he might be able to recall himself to her mind--supposing she had
forgotten. It was a long time ago, he kept reminding himself, and
the light was poor and he hadn't shaved for a week--he had always
afterward realized that with much mental discomfort--and he really did
look a lot different when he had