ather could have been born and reared here, for then he wouldn't
have strayed into a career of making money. Nobody in Byrdsville ever
did, and Mr. Douglass Byrd will be the first one. And besides having
the soul of honor and loving-kindness in it, Byrdsville looks like it
might be one of the outposts of heaven, where tired souls can come to
rest before going up the shining ladder.

[Illustration: I never saw my father's face so lovely]

All the houses are old-fashioned, with wide doors for welcoming and
with vines running over the chimneys and up to the eaves, while blooms
and buds tumble over the walls and burst from the gardens into the
street. Yes, I think Byrdsville might be called the smile-place on the
old earth's round face.

But to return to Father and Tony at the front gate; only I didn't.
Father went on down the street and Tony came in to sit on the steps
and talk to me. I wouldn't be so frivolous and growny as to have a boy
come sit on my front steps talking to me like a "suitor," as Belle
thinks it is smart to have; but Tony is different. He's my friend, and
I would almost as soon talk to him as Roxanne.

"Well, I must say, girliky, that it was mighty considerate of you to
be born about the full moon time of the first of May," said Tony, with
one of those funny flares of his eyes. "Suppose you had opened your
peepers along in December; we would have had to have an apple-roasting
to celebrate for you, and I, for one, prefer the hay-lark. Your parent
is one fine old boy, and me for him."

"Oh, Tony, I am so glad you like Father, and it was fine of him to
have the hay ride for me. Do you suppose they will all go?" When I
said "all," I really meant Belle.

I don't know why, but somehow I hoped this hay ride would shake up
Belle's heart into being soft toward me. There are just eleven of us
in the junior class in the Byrd Academy: Tony and Pink and Sam and the
two Logan boys, while Roxanne and Mamie Sue and Belle and the two
Willises, with me, make up the girls. Eleven is a sacred number, and I
don't like for Belle and me to break the link by not being friends.

Tony is such a wise boy that he sometimes knows what a girl is
thinking about when she doesn't tell him. Most of the time he just
grins and leads us all on and we do tell him everything; especially
Mamie Sue, if we don't warn her beforehand and make her wear a
horsehair ring not to forget when he asks her questions. It makes
Belle mad for him to