round for a
picturesque scene. In the same spot where Hortense Markle had so
cleverly staged Mary Louise's out door wedding not so many months
before, ten little children from two years up to six were playing
happily in a sand pile, recently donated to the home by Mrs. Peter
Conant with shovels and buckets enough to go around and a few to spare
for possible additions.

Peter Waller was evidently the chief engineer of the sand pile and the
other children looked to him for inspiration, whether it were turning
out whole spice cakes by packing down the sand in buckets and adroitly
inverting them or excavating marvelous tunnels that one could actually
see through.

"Now this is a tunnel," he said. "I know 'cause I've been through a
whole lot of tunnels. Haven't I Polly?" calling to his sister who was
patiently nursing a child with a bumped knee on a bench near by.

"Yes!" answered Polly, "but don't be too show-offy."

Peter disregarded this sisterly rebuke.

"Well, anyhow it is and I have. And this is a chu-chu track."

"Chu-chu track!" echoed his admirers who didn't at all mind his showing
off.

"And when the chu-chu train goes in the tunnel it is all dark, as dark
as dark, and the engine makes a rumblin' noise and the cars get all
full of smoke. But you mustn't git scairt--nobody mustn't git scairt
'cause God is there in that tunnel same as he is on dry land and God
loves you--"

"Dod loves us! Dod loves us!" cried a wee tot jumping up and down in
the sand in a kind of ecstasy of emotion and the other babies took up
the refrain and in a moment all of the sand diggers were shouting in
glee but with absolutely no conception of what it all meant: "Dod loves
us! Dod loves us!"

They were unconscious of the onlookers. Dr. Weston and the lady and
gentleman stood close by hearing Peter's lecture and witnessing the
sudden wave of emotion that took the children.

"Wonderful!" exclaimed the lady. "What a darling boy that is--the one
who preached the sermon. I want him! Oh, how I want him! I could raise
him to be a preacher, I am sure; and look at his curls!"

"He has only been with us a short time," said Dr. Weston, "so short a
time that we should prefer keeping him until we find out more about
him. He was left here with his sister under rather unusual
circumstances."

"I don't care what the circumstances were, I want him. I will have him
or none at all."

Dr. Weston glanced at the lady's determined chin and had a