ture of all and, indeed, I have since learned
that the rounded type of human architecture is apt to be more expensive
than the angular.

As we sat there I heard the men talking about the great Silas Wright,
who had just returned to his home in Canton. He had not entered my
consciousness until then.

While I sat listening I felt a tweak of my hair, and looking around I
saw the Dunkelberg girl standing behind me with a saucy smile on her
face.

"Won't you come and play with me?" she asked.

I took her out in the garden to show her where my watermelon had lain.
At the moment I couldn't think of anything else to show her. As we
walked along I observed that her feet were in dainty shiny button-shoes.
Suddenly I began to be ashamed of my feet that were browned by the
sunlight and scratched by the briers. The absent watermelon didn't seem
to interest her.

"Let's play house in the grove," said she, and showed me how to build a
house by laying rows of stones with an opening for a door.

"Now you be my husband," said she.

Oddly enough I had heard of husbands but had only a shadowy notion of
what they were. I knew that there was none in our house.

"What's that?" I asked.

She laughed and answered: "Somebody that a girl is married to."

"You mean a father?"

"Yes."

"Once I had a father," I boasted.

"Well, we'll play we're married and that you have just got home from a
journey. You go out in the woods and then you come home and I'll meet
you at the door."

I did as she bade me but I was not glad enough to see her.

"You must kiss me," she prompted in a whisper.

I kissed her very swiftly and gingerly--like one picking up a hot
coal--and she caught me in her arms and kissed me three times while her
soft hair threw its golden veil over our faces.

"Oh I'm so glad to see you," she said as she drew away from me and shook
back her hair.

"Golly! this is fun!" I said.

"Ask: 'How are the babies?'" she whispered.

"How are the babies?" I asked, feeling rather silly.

"They're fine. I'm just putting them to bed."

We sat on the grass and she had a stick which she pretended to be
dressing and often, after she had spanked the stick a little, she made a
noise through closed lips like that of a child crying.

"Now go to sleep and I'll tell you a story," said she.

Then she told pretty tales of fairies and of grand ladies and noble
gentlemen who wore gold coats and swords and diamonds and silks, and
said won