brother escorting a lone sister home."

And how kindly that wrinkled face beamed on him behind her spectacles
while he insisted that she stand by and let him unharness and see to the
horse as she directed! And how willingly he carried baskets of wood in
and started the parlor fire, and joked and jested with her regarding his
ability as an assistant!

It warmed her old heart in a wonderful way, for her husband and only son
had long years ago been laid at rest in the village "God's acre," and it
seemed so nice to her to be noticed at all.

Then the best blue china was none too good for this event, and the hot
biscuits must be made and a jar of peach preserves opened, some cold
tongue sliced, and by the time Alice had changed her garb and appeared
in a house-dress, he and Aunt Susan were the best of friends. It was all
an odd and new experience to him, and so anxious was he to win the favor
of those two people that he did not even stop to think what any of his
club friends would say could they have peeped into the old-fashioned
country home and seen him helping Aunt Susan. Even Alice had to laugh
when she saw what he was doing.

"I did not know you could make yourself so useful," she observed, "for
even my beloved brother was never known to help aunty set the table."

But she knew well enough what inspired him, and when supper was over he
began asking her all manner of questions about her school, and when she
meant to open it again, how the old miller was, and what had become of
the boat, and how the mill-pond looked in winter, and had she been there
since the day she gathered lilies. "Always back to that spot," she
thought, and colored a little.

Then later when she opened the piano she knew just what songs he
expected, but, disposed now to tease him, sang just their opposites, and
all the while the clock ticked the happy hours away.

It was ten ere he could coax her to favor him with one that suited his
mood, and when he asked her for "The Last Rose of Summer" she exclaimed
with a pretty pout:

"I do not want to sing that, Frank; it reminds me how scared I was when
I sang it last."

"But you brought tears into most of our eyes that night," he answered,
"so you may well feel proud of your effort."

"Do you want to weep again?" she asked archly, looking up at him and
smiling; "if you say you do, I will sing it."

"No," he answered, and then hesitating a moment added, "I do not feel
that way to-night. I may wh