inet."

Hastily turning over the exercise books and worn sheets of music that
filled one of the lower shelves, she dragged out an old dog-eared
instruction book, which she propped up on the rack in front of Agnes.

"Heah," she said, pointing to a note. "When one of those little birds,
as you call them, perches on this place on the fence, then you're to
strike the A key on the piano. If it lights on the line just above it,
then you strike the next key, B. See?" She ran her fingers lightly up
the octavo and began again with A. Agnes leaned hungrily over the page,
reading the printed directions below each simple measure, where the
fingering was plainly marked.

"Oh, I could learn to do it by studying this!" she cried, her face all
alight. "I am sure I could. I don't mean that I could ever learn to play
as you do, or Miss Allison, but I could learn simple things and the
accompaniments to old songs that Marietta loves. It would be almost as
great a joy to her and sister Sarah as it would to me, for my learning
to play has always been one of our favourite air-castles. If you could
loan me this instruction book for awhile--" She hesitated.

"Of co'se!" cried Lloyd, thrilled by the eagerness of the eyes which met
hers. "I'll give you a lesson right now, if you like. I'll teach you a
set of chords you can use for an accompaniment. They are so easy you can
learn them befoah you go home, and you can surprise Miss Marietta by
singing and playing for her. They fit evah so many of the ballads."

Turning the leaves of the instructor, she found the simple chords of
"Annie Laurie," and wrote beside each note the letters that would enable
Agnes to find them on the keyboard. "This isn't the right way to begin,"
she said, with a laugh, "but we'll take this short cut just to surprise
Miss Marietta. You can come back aftahward and learn about time and all
the othah things that ought to come first. I'll give you a lesson every
week for awhile, if you like."

The eyes that met hers now were brimming with happy tears.

"If I like," Agnes repeated, with a tremulous catch of the voice. "As if
I wouldn't jump at the chance to have the key to paradise put into my
hands. It's the happiest thing that ever happened to me."

With her heart as well as her whole attention given to the effort, it
was not long before Agnes found her fingers falling naturally into
place, and she played the chords over and over, humming the tune softly,
with a pleasu