for dear life. Miss Lavendar herself, all
gay and sweet in the frills and laces she loved, dropped her shears
and ran joyously to meet her guests, while Charlotta the Fourth grinned
cheerfully.

"Welcome, Anne. I thought you'd come today. You belong to the afternoon
so it brought you. Things that belong together are sure to come
together. What a lot of trouble that would save some people if they only
knew it. But they don't . . . and so they waste beautiful energy moving
heaven and earth to bring things together that DON'T belong. And you,
Paul . . . why, you've grown! You're half a head taller than when you were
here before."

"Yes, I've begun to grow like pigweed in the night, as Mrs. Lynde
says," said Paul, in frank delight over the fact. "Grandma says it's the
porridge taking effect at last. Perhaps it is. Goodness knows . . ." Paul
sighed deeply . . . "I've eaten enough to make anyone grow. I do hope,
now that I've begun, I'll keep on till I'm as tall as father. He is six
feet, you know, Miss Lavendar."

Yes, Miss Lavendar did know; the flush on her pretty cheeks deepened
a little; she took Paul's hand on one side and Anne's on the other and
walked to the house in silence.

"Is it a good day for the echoes, Miss Lavendar?" queried Paul
anxiously. The day of his first visit had been too windy for echoes and
Paul had been much disappointed.

"Yes, just the best kind of a day," answered Miss Lavendar, rousing
herself from her reverie. "But first we are all going to have something
to eat. I know you two folks didn't walk all the way back here through
those beechwoods without getting hungry, and Charlotta the Fourth and
I can eat any hour of the day . . . we have such obliging appetites. So
we'll just make a raid on the pantry. Fortunately it's lovely and
full. I had a presentiment that I was going to have company today and
Charlotta the Fourth and I prepared."

"I think you are one of the people who always have nice things in
their pantry," declared Paul. "Grandma's like that too. But she doesn't
approve of snacks between meals. I wonder," he added meditatively, "if I
OUGHT to eat them away from home when I know she doesn't approve."

"Oh, I don't think she would disapprove after you have had a long walk.
That makes a difference," said Miss Lavendar, exchanging amused glances
with Anne over Paul's brown curls. "I suppose that snacks ARE extremely
unwholesome. That is why we have them so often at Echo Lodge. We.