se years?"

"Pretty near everywhere, Mattie--pretty near everywhere. And ye see
what it's come to--here I be driving a tin-wagon for Boone Brothers.
Business is business--don't you want to buy some new tinware?"

To himself, Jed thought it was romantic, asking a woman whom he had
loved all his life to buy tins on the occasion of their first meeting
after fifteen years' separation.

"I don't know but I do want a quart measure," said Mattie, in her
sweet, unchanged voice, "but all in good time. You must stay and have
tea with me, Jed. I'm all alone now--Mother and Father have gone.
Unhitch your horse and put him in the third stall in the stable."

Jed hesitated.

"I ought to be getting on, I s'pose," he said wistfully. "I hain't
done much today--"

"You must stay to tea," interrupted Mattie. "Why, Jed, there's ever so
much to tell and ask. And we can't stand here in the yard and talk.
Look at Selena. There she is, watching us from the kitchen window.
She'll watch as long as we stand here."

Jed swung himself around. Over the little valley below the Adams
homestead was a steep, treeless hill, and on its crest was perched a
bare farmhouse with windows stuck lavishly all over it. At one of them
a long, pale face was visible.

"Has Selena been pasted up at that window ever since the last time we
stood here and talked, Mattie?" asked Jed, half resentfully, half
amusedly. It was characteristic of Mattie to laugh first at the
question, and then blush over the memory it revived.

"Most of the time, I guess," she said shortly. "But come--come in. I
never could talk under Selena's eyes, even if they were four hundred
yards away."

Jed went in and stayed to tea. The old Adams pantry had not failed,
nor apparently the Adams skill in cooking. After tea Jed hung around
till sunset and drove away with a warm invitation from Mattie to call
every time his rounds took him through Amberley. As he went, Selena's
face appeared at the window of the house over the valley.

When he had gone Mattie went around to the classical porch and sat
herself down under the honeysuckle festoons that dangled above her
smooth braids of fawn-coloured hair. She knew Selena would be down
posthaste presently, agog with curiosity to find out who the pedlar
was whom Mattie had delighted to honour with an invitation to tea.
Mattie preferred to meet Selena out of doors. It was easier to thrust
and parry there. Meanwhile, she wanted to think over things.