At the supper table that night the baby fell asleep in his high chair.
Peter, after a hard day of play, was nodding in his place. Maizie,
replete after her third dish of rice pudding, was quiet; a little sleepy
too, if truth must be told.

It was then Suzanna told of her visit with the Eagle Man. She left out
no detail, from the time her stocking burst its confines to her
interesting intimacy with the Eagle Man.

"You told old John Massey, you say, Suzanna," said her father at length,
his eyes bright, "about my machine?"

Suzanna nodded. Then a little fear stole upon her. She slipped from her
place and went to her father.

"Did I talk too much, daddy?" she asked, mindful of former such
indictments.

His arm went about her waist. Then he drew her close and kissed her.

"No, Suzanna, little girl," he said; "I guess talk from the heart rarely
hurts." He paused. "Perhaps it was meant you should talk to him."

CHAPTER IX

A LEAF MISSING FROM THE BIBLE

Suzanna thought a great deal about the Eagle Man. She was extremely
puzzled as to the exact place he filled in the world. While she admired
him, indeed was strongly drawn to him, still she considered him in some
ways quite inferior to her father. And so she wondered why he could live
in a big house, could have servants who sprang at a word to do his
bidding, and could eat all the fruit he wanted as evidenced by the great
bunch of purple grapes, one of many bunches, while her father lived in a
very small house, had no servants, and had little fruit to eat. She knew
instinctively that the Eagle Man had no need to worry about rent day,
and the many other similar things she felt harassed her father, and over
and over again she pondered on this seemingly unjust state of affairs.
It would have been so much better, she thought, if the Eagle Man
occupied with his one daughter just a little cottage while the large
Procter family had the bigger house. Though she dearly loved the little
home, there had been times when it seemed very small for the growing
Procter family.

But she concluded at last that for the present there were many
perplexities which must remain perplexities till that wonderful time
when she would be a woman, and everything made clear to her.
Experiences, too, had shown her that a troublesome question of Monday
often had resolved itself by Wednesday. So she went contentedly on her
way.

On a morning following Suzanna's talk with the Eagle Man, Mr