t bad amusement; for the exquisite simplicity in Faith's
manner, with the contrast of the coming and going colour and the shy
eyelashes, made a picture that any one claiming interest in it would
have been a little proud of. And the roses in her belt and the cowslips
in her hand and the delicate lines of her face which health had not yet
rounded out again, all joined to make the vision a very fair one. She
was most shy of Sam, and did not look at Mr. Linden.

"I haven't thanked you for your pigeons, Sam," she said, after a few
lively words with Reuben.

"No, Miss Faith, please don't!" was the gallant rejoinder.

"Weren't they worth thanks?" inquired Mr. Linden.

"I thought they were, when I was eating them; and mother said they were
the best I had. Don't you like to be thanked, Sam?"

"When it's worth while," said Sam. "But you know, ma'am--You know, Mr.
Linden, it's thanks enough to do anything for Miss Faith."

"I know that very well." Quiet as the words were they brought all Sam's
ideas to the ground like his own pigeons.

"Where are you now in college, Sam?" Faith went on perhaps because she
felt herself a coward.

Sam made answer, in a more subdued state of mind than was usual when he
announced his Sophomorical distinctions.

"What are you going to do when you come out?"

"O I don't know, Miss Faith,--father says I can do just what I like."

"And you don't know what that will be, Sam?"

"No--" said Sam. "I can't even guess."

"A man who can do what he likes ought to do a great deal," said Mr.
Linden. "Reuben, will you take the upper road home, and give these
flowers to Ency Stephens for Miss Faith?"

"O yes, sir!" Reuben said.

"No, Reuben! I didn't send them," said Faith eagerly.

"Tell her," said Mr. Linden smiling, "that they came from Miss Faith's
garden, and that I shall bring Miss Faith herself to see her, just so
soon as she can bear such a long drive." The bunch of flowers was laid
lightly on her hands for her disposal. "Now I must send you two
collegians--present and future--away, for you have had your breakfast
and we have not had ours."

At which remark Sam took Faith's hand with a bow of great perplexity
and reverence, and Reuben drew near and waited for the flowers.

"Give them to her from Mr. Linden," said Faith, rosy red, as she put
them in his keeping;--"she will like that best, Reuben."

Reuben thought he knew how to combine the two messages, and the boys
went off just as the