hen I went away, I could find enough to rig myself out
suitably to the occasion.

My mother had a new blue guernsey just finished for me, a wonderful
guernsey, when you think of it. She had, I think, gone on working at it,
after the others had given me up, just to show her trust in Providence, and
her dear eyes shone when she saw me in it. Loans from my grandfather, whose
full stature I had now attained, and whose contribution was of importance,
and from Krok, who would have given me one of his eyes if I had needed it,
filled all my requirements, and I set off for Beaumanoir about nine o'clock
as glad a man as any in Sercq that night.

And oh, the sweetness of the night and all things in it. The solemn pulse
of the great sea in Saut de Juan; the voices of many waters in the Gouliot
Pass; the great dusky cushions of gorse studded with blooms that looked
white under the moon; the mingling in the soft salt air of the scent of
hedge-roses and honeysuckle, of dewy, trodden grass and the sweet breath of
cows--ay, even the smell of the pigsties was good that night, and mightily
refreshing after the dark Everglades of Florida.

Aunt Jeanne's hospitable door stood wide. She kept open house that night,
for the old observances were dear to her ever-young heart. I walked right
into her kitchen, and she met me with a cry of amazement and delight, and
every wrinkle in the weather-browned face creased into a smile.

"Why, Phil, mon gars! Is it possible?" she cried. "You are welcome as one
from the dead. Though, ma fe, I hoped all along, as your mother did. And,
my good! what a big fellow it is! And not bad-looking either! I used to
think you'd grow up square. You were the squarest boy I ever saw. But
foreign parts have drawn you out like a ship's mast."

She was dragging me by the hand all the time, and now halted me in front of
the great square fern-bed in the corner between the window and the hearth,
and stood looking up into my face with the air of an artist awaiting
approval of her latest masterpiece. A dear old face, sharp-featured,
clever, all alive with the brightness of that which was in her, and with
two bright dark eyes sparkling like a robin's under the black silk
sun-bonnet which the gossips said she wore day and night.

I knew she looked just all that, but no eyes or thought had I for Aunt
Jeanne or anyone else just then.

For here in front of me was the great green fern-bed, green no longer but
transformed into a r