rumpus, with Barbara in it--there's always a woman,
of course--but I can't recall----"

He paused to ponder--paused and became aware immediately of Barbara's
swift silence and Steve's hint of self-consciousness. Then it all
returned to him with a rush. He had his turn.

"Oh, but I do remember," he drawled. "Why, of course--_of course_! It
was a matter of knight-errantry and ladies fair! But who was it whose
choice conflicted with your own?"

He cocked his head on one side, mock thoughtful; then he fell to
pounding his knee and roared with laughter.

"Archie Wickersham!" he shouted. "Archie Wickersham--oh, Lord! I
never really appreciated that _melee_ until this minute. And you
promised that you'd be back, didn't you, and--well, b'gad, here you
are! And now don't suffer any longer, Barbara, though I must state
that this is the first time I ever knew you to search so diligently
beneath the table for renewed composure. I am not going to expound Mr.
O'Mara's reasons for going, any more than I could dilate upon those
which have brought him back. But please shake hands again--Steve.
And, if I may be pardoned the idiom, allow me to assure you that it was
some battle!"

If it did nothing else, Allison's ponderous raillery served one end.
It removed any sentimental awkwardness which might have attached to the
episode, and yet the girl rather resented its being so completely
reduced to terms of farce-comedy. When the men rose, after breakfast,
to go down into the town, she, too, declared her intention of
accompanying them, as though it were the expected thing. She crossed
the lawn at Steve's side, ahead of her father and Caleb, with Miss
Sarah watching from the door. Both men walked for a time in silence,
their eyes upon the slender figure in short skirt and woolly sweater
beside the taller one in blue flannel before them. And, as usual,
Allison was the first to speak.

"Now I know what you meant when you referred to that trip up the west
branch, Cal," he said. "And you were right. It does take stuff to
make that sort of a gentleman. Isn't there anything more to tell me?
I am truly interested, Cal."

So Caleb told him then of "Old Tom's" tin box. And while he was
explaining the man and girl ahead, all in one breath, skipped back to
that day-before-yesterday now many years gone. There was a quality of
camaraderie in the girl's half-parted lips and eager impulsiveness of
tongue that morning that was en