ying to say good-by to each other. At last Jeff made himself
really say it. At last he made himself, that he went down the steps
and went away.

On the next Sunday they arranged, they were to have the long happy day
of wandering that they had lost last time by Jane Harden's talking.
Not that Melanctha Herbert had heard yet of Jane Harden's talking.

Jeff saw Melanctha every day now. Jeff was a little uncertain all this
time inside him, for he had never yet told to Melanctha what it was
that had so nearly made him really want to leave her. Jeff knew that
for him, it was not right he should not tell her. He knew they could
only have real peace between them when he had been honest, and had
really told her. On this long Sunday Jeff was certain that he would
really tell her.

They were very happy all that day in their wandering. They had taken
things along to eat together. They sat in the bright fields and they
were happy, they wandered in the woods and they were happy. Jeff
always loved in this way to wander. Jeff always loved to watch
everything as it was growing, and he loved all the colors in the trees
and on the ground, and the little, new, bright colored bugs he found
in the moist ground and in the grass he loved to lie on and in which
he was always so busy searching. Jeff loved everything that moved and
that was still, and that had color, and beauty, and real being.

Jeff loved very much this day while they were wandering. He almost
forgot that he had any trouble with him still inside him. Jeff loved
to be there with Melanctha Herbert. She was always so sympathetic to
him for the way she listened to everything he found and told her, the
way she felt his joy in all this being, the way she never said she
wanted anything different from the way they had it. It was certainly a
busy and a happy day, this their first long day of really wandering.

Later they were tired, and Melanctha sat down on the ground, and Jeff
threw himself his full length beside her. Jeff lay there, very quiet,
and then he pressed her hand and kissed it and murmured to her, "You
certainly are very good to me, Melanctha." Melanctha felt it very deep
and did not answer. Jeff lay there a long time, looking up above
him. He was counting all the little leaves he saw above him. He was
following all the little clouds with his eyes as they sailed past him.
He watched all the birds that flew high beyond him, and all the time
Jeff knew he must tell to Mela