away. Jeff's
bright black eyes--he was Charlotte's counterpart in colouring and
looks--rested anxiously on the second violin's curly mop of hair, tied
at the neck with a big black bow of ribbon. It was always most
expressive to Jeff, that bow of ribbon.

Lansing repeated Celia's words. "Yes, tell us plainly, sir. We'd rather
know."

"I am alarming you," Mr. Birch said, quickly. "I knew I could not say
the slightest thing about her without doing that. But I need to talk it
over with you all, because if we carry out the doctor's prescription it
means much sacrifice for every one. I had no doubt that you would make
it, but I think it is better for you to understand its importance.
Doctor Forester says New Mexico is an almost certain cure for such
trouble as mother's, if taken early. And we are taking it early."

Justin and Jeff looked puzzled, but Celia caught her breath, and
Lansing's ruddy colour suddenly faded. Charlotte buried her head in her
father's shoulder and drew the scarlet flannel arm tighter about his
neck.

The iron-gray head bent over the curly black one for a moment, as if the
strong man of the household found it hard to face the anxious eyes which
searched his, and would have liked, like his eighteen-year-old daughter,
to run to cover. But in an instant, he looked up again and spoke in the
cheery tone they knew so well.

"Now listen, and be brave," he said. "Mother's trouble is like a house
just set on fire. A dash of Water and a blanket--and it is out. Wait
till a whole room is ablaze, and it's a serious matter to stop it. Now,
in our case, we've only the little kindling corner to smother, and the
New Mexico air is water and blanket--a whole fire department, if need
be. The doctor assures me that with mother's good constitution, and the
absence of any hereditary predisposition to this sort of thing, we've
only to give her the ten or twelve months of rest and reenforcement--the
winter in New Mexico, the summer in Colorado--to nip the whole thing in
the bud. I believe him, and you must believe him--and me. More than all,
you must not show the slightest change of front to her. She knows it
all, but she doesn't want you to know. I think differently about that.

"Three of you are men and women now, and the other two," he smiled into
the upturned, eager faces of Jeff and Justin, "are getting to be men.
Even my youngest can be depended upon to act the strong part."

Justin scrambled to his feet at that,