and make us tell them
ourselves, just as pretty as we could; and you and I 'magine so many
things about the moon lady and the mountain elves and water sprites.
It's easy to _tell_ them like stories, so I just tried writing them out.
That ain't so easy, 'cause I can't always spell the words, but it's fun
now that I'm used to it. Then Gussie showed me how rhymes were made into
real poetry, so I tried that, too. It's just fitting words into a tune
like you used to do, only you don't need a tune either. The poems in our
Readers are what I go by."

Peace was very much interested. In her "Glimmers of Gladness" she had
essayed a poem or two, as she was pleased to call them; but Allee's were
far superior to any of her attempts, and Allee was two years younger.
"Bring me all the old Readers in the library," she abruptly commanded,
"and while you are copying your poems in my book, I'll write a few of my
own."

Allee ran to do her bidding, and soon the two embryo poets were so busy
with pen and pencil that they were amazed when Jud appeared to carry the
invalid into the house.

"It's surely not dinner time yet!" Allee protested. "Why, I've got only
one poem and half of a story copied."

"That's better'n me," Peace dolefully sighed, closing the First Reader
with reluctant hands and laying it aside. "I haven't done a line yet. I
haven't even found a poem to pattern after, though I guess I'll take
'Long Time Ago' for my first one. That's easy, and when I get onto the
hang of it, I'll try something harder. If it's dinner time already the
days must be getting lots shorter again."

"You are right, they are," Jud agreed. "Soon it will be too cold out
here for you--"

"I shan't mind," Peace interrupted. "I'm going to write a good deal this
winter. Gussie'll teach me to be a poet, and I always could write better
inside the house. There's too much to look at out-of-doors."

Jud heaved a gusty sigh. "You all think a heap of Gussie, don't you?" he
asked with a jealous pang, for he found it almost impossible to get a
quiet word with that busy and important member of the household, and now
that winter was coming on, it would be harder than ever, for even the
little after-dinner chats in the garden would have to be discontinued.

"I sh'd say we do!" both girls chorused. "She is worth thinking a lot
of--"

"That's where you are right again," the man agreed heartily.

"She can do _anything_" said Peace, who was never tired of singing