etter see for yourself."

The yellow light was filling all the sky with resplendent glory when
Dixie, her face wan and wearied, came down the ladder. Henley's heart
sank at the first sight of her, but it bounded when she had seen him,
for the rarest of smiles broke about her mouth and eyes.

"He's going to get well, Alfred!" she cried, and she extended her hand
with the warm confidence of a child toward a trusted friend. He let it
rest in his as he walked with her to the gate, wondering over the good
news, wondering over the delight with which her touch was firing his
being.

"Yes, the worst is over," she went on. "The doctor says with good
nursing and watching he'll pull through. He is going to stay with him
while I run home and do up the things, then I'll come back and relieve
him. He is going to give Pitman a tongue-lashing, and says he'll appear
against him in court if he doesn't act different. As soon as Joe can be
moved we are going to bring him to my house. Oh, Alfred, won't that be
glorious? There I can give him everything he needs, and a clean, cool,
airy room to get well in. Weak as he was, he cried with actual joy when
he heard the doctor say he could come. Alfred, do you know we all ought
to be ashamed of ourselves for complaining in this life, and wanting
more and more of the trashy baubles. Right now I'm so happy I feel like
flying. Look at that sunrise! We couldn't have seen it like that if we'd
been in our beds with our eyes shut; we couldn't feel this way if we
hadn't dragged through all that pain and anxiety last night. I've got to
write a letter and mail it before I come back. Jasper Long was to come
over Sunday, you know, but I can't give the time to him. I'll ask him to
come Sunday after next."

"It will disappoint him mightily," Henley said, a sudden feeling of
aversion to the subject on him. "It will break the fellow all up. He's
been counting the days and hours."

"I can't help it." Dixie shrugged her shoulders indifferently, her head
down. They were now in the little wood that lay between Pitman's farm
and her cottage. To the leaves and branches of the chestnut and
sassafras bushes that bordered the little-used road the night mists and
silvery cobwebs clung, magnified by their coating of dew and the yellow
light.

"I don't know as I ever saw a fellow quite so much concerned and
anxious," Henley's strangely tentative voice produced. "I saw him over
there the other day, and he had lots to s