months when I stop to think about it. We had some hard
sledding along at the first, but with the two of us pulling together--.
She's laughed at sickness and drought and bugs and floods. We're all
through that now, we're doing fine; but, honest, it was worth it, to
know Annie through and through as I do. There isn't a thing about the
business she doesn't know as well as I do, and good reason why, too.
We've worked it all out together. We've stuck close, we have. I've
helped in the house and with the kids, and she's come right out into the
orchards with me. Share and share alike--that's our motto."

He was silent a moment, caressing Ariadne's dark hair gently, and
reviewing the past with shining eyes. "Lord! Lord! It's been a good
life!" He turned to his sister with a smile. "Well, Lyddie, I expect you
know something about it, too. You certainly are fixed fine, and
everybody says you've married a splendid fellow."

Lydia leaned forward eagerly, the impulse to unburden herself
overwhelming. "Oh, Paul is the best man--" she began, "so true and kind
and--and--pure--but Harry, we don't--we can't--his business--" She
turned away from her brother's too keen eyes and stared blindly at the
wall, conscious of an ache in her heart like a physical hurt.

Later, as they were talking of old memories, of Lydia's childhood, Harry
asked suddenly: "How'd you happen to give your little girl such a funny
name?"

It was a question that had not been put to Lydia before. Her family had
taken for granted that it was a feverish fancy of her sick-bed. She
gazed at her brother earnestly, and was about to speak when he looked at
his watch and stood up, glancing uneasily down toward the trolley track.
It was too late--he would be gone so soon--like something she had
dreamed. "Oh, I liked the name," she said vaguely; adding, "Harry! I
wish you could stay longer! There's so much I should like to talk over
with you. Oh, how I wish you'd never gone away."

"You come out and see us," he urged. "It'd do you good to get away from
this old hole-in-the-ground! We live six miles from a neighbor, so you'd
have to get along without tea-parties, but I bet Annie and the kids
would give you a good time all right."

He kissed Lydia good-by, tossed Ariadne high in the air, and as he
hurried down the driveway he called back over his shoulder: "Take good
care of my little niece for me! I tell you it's the kids that count the
most!" It was a saying that filled r