gh I don't say as much about
it as perhaps some would."

"Have you really enjoyed it here, Gerald? Have you been happy? Will you
miss us a little--just a little--when you are gone?"

"I shall miss _you_, child, of course. You constitute Joppa to me, you
know. And indeed I have enjoyed it here very much, and it has done Olly a
world of good. Good-night, dear."

Phebe had her arms about her friend at once, clasping her close. "O
Gerald, Gerald, I think it is almost better to have no friends at all,
it is so hard--so cruelly hard--to part with them, and--and to lose
them! O Gerald!"

"Parting with them isn't losing them, you foolish sentimentalist,"
returned Gerald, gently unclasping Phebe's arms. "Now go to bed. You look
worn out."

"Just tell me once first, Gerald, that you love me. I haven't many to
love me. I need all your love."

"Of course I love you," said Gerald. "You know it without my saying so.
And don't talk so foolishly. I never knew a girl with more friends. Now
good-night."

Phebe kissed her very quietly, and then crept into Olly's room, and sat
down on his bed. "Olly, dear," she murmured, "are you asleep?"

The little fellow sprang up and flung his arms closely around her neck,
embracing collar, ruffles, and ribbon in one all-comprehensive
destruction.

"Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" whispered Phebe, half
laughing and half crying, as she strained him to her heart. "Oh, Olly
dear, I do want some one just to say so!"

"I do, I do, I do, and I do!" said Olly, with a bear's hug at each
assertion. "Blest if I don't. That's what Mr. Upjohn said when I asked
him if he didn't want some taffy. 'Blest if I don't.' I guess it's a
swear, 'cause he said I mustn't tell Mrs. Upjohn he said so, not to the
longest day I lived. The longest day won't come now till next year, the
twenty-first of June. That's the longest day, ain't it? Mr. Halloway
taught me that. My, don't he know a lot! I'm going to be like him when
I'm a man. That's who I'm going to be like. And I'm going to love you
always. He loves you too, doesn't he, Pheeb?"

"No, dear," answered Phebe, still laughing and crying together, and
rocking gently back and forth with the boy in her arms; "he doesn't at
all. There doesn't any body really love me, I think, but just you. But
you do, don't you, dear?"

"Bet on it!" said Olly, with forcible vulgarity.

"God bless you," said Phebe, very softly, as she put the boy back in the
bed,