ould she give the old unvarying answer to his tireless formula?

She glanced around the tiny room. Ashamed though she was to admit it
even to herself, she missed that ample and cozy chamber which she had so
freely surrendered to Abraham and his wife. She missed it, as she felt
they must crave their very own fireside; and the thought that they
missed the old homestead made her yearn for the home that she might have
had--the home that she still might have.

Again she brought her eyes back to the portrait; and now she saw, not
the characteristics which had always made it seem impossible for her and
Samuel to jog together down life's road, but the great truth that the
face was honest and wholesome, while the eyes looked back into hers with
the promise of an unswerving care and affection.

The next morning found Blossy kneeling before a plump, little,
leather-bound, time-worn trunk which she kept under the eaves of the
kitchen chamber. The trunk was packed hard with bundles of old letters.
Some her younger fingers had tied with violet ribbon; some they had
bound with pink; others she had fastened together with white silk cord;
and there were more and more bundles, both slim and stout, which Blossy
had distinguished by some special hue of ribbon in the long ago, each
tint marking a different suitor's missives.

To her still sentimental eye the colors remained unfaded, and each would
bring to her mind instantly the picture of the writer as he had been in
the golden days. But save to Blossy's eye alone there were no longer any
rainbow tints in the little, old trunk; for every ribbon and every cord
had faded into that musty, yellow brown which is dyed by the passing of
many years.

Abraham discovered her there, too engrossed in the perusal of one of
the old letters to have heeded his creaking steps upon the stairs.

"Didn't see yer, till I 'most stumbled on yer," he began apologetically.
"I come fer the apple-picker. Thar's a handful of russets in the orchard
yit, that's calc'latin' ter spend Christmas up close ter heaven;
but--Say, Blossy," he added more loudly, since she did not raise her
head, "yew seen anythin' o' that air picker?"

Blossy glanced up from her ragged-edged crackly _billet-doux_ with a
start, and dropped the envelop to the floor.

For the moment, so deep in reminiscence was she, she thought Captain
Darby himself had surprised her; then, recognizing Abe and recalling
that Samuel's winter visits were inv