said. "I went up attic, where I could see
you turn the corner. Then I snipped 'em off, and here they are."

Jerry took the box with a grave decorum, as if it represented something
precious to him, and disposed it in the back of the wagon under the
light robe.

"I'm obliged to you, Marietta," he said. "This'll mean a good deal to
me." He stepped into the wagon again and took up the reins. Then the
calm and beneficence of the spring day struck him as it had not before,
in his hurried preparations, and he looked down at Marietta. They had
always had a good deal to say to each other about the weather, and he
knew she would understand. "It's spring, Marietta," he said, with a
simplicity he had never thought it desirable to put into his verse.

"Yes," she answered, as quietly, yet with a thrill in her voice. "I
don't hardly think I ever saw a prettier day."

There was such a mist of green that the earth seemed to be breathing it
out in swirls and billows. It was impossible to say whether there were
more riot and surge in the budding ground, or in the heavens, where
clouds flew swiftly. The birds were singing, all kinds together, in a
tumultuous harmony. Jerry felt light-headed with the wonder of it; but
Marietta had an ache at her heart, she did not know why, though she was
used to that kind of thing when the outside world struck her as being
full of tremulous appeals without any answers.

Though Jerry had the reins in his hands, he did not go. Instead, he
continued looking at her standing there in her freshness of good health
and the candor of her gaze that seemed to him, next to his mother's
face, the kindest thing he had ever known. The blue of her eyes and the
blue of her dress matched each other in a lovely way. He felt that he
had something to say to her, but he could not remember what it was.
Suddenly a robin on the fence burst into adjurations of a robust sort,
and Marietta, without meaning to, spoke. She had always said since her
childhood that a robin bewitched her--he was so happy and so pert.

"Jerry," said she, "what if I should get my hat and ride with you as far
as Ferny Woods?"

"So do," said Jerry, with a perfect cordiality. "So do."

"It's a pretty day," Marietta asserted again; but he cut her short,
advising her to get ready, and she ran in, a flush on her cheeks and
lightness in her step. When she came out she had made no conventional
preparations for a drive. She had only pinned on her broad black