se a living for ourselves and the stock in the winter. The chief
business is fruit and vegetables for the summer folks. Cal--the owner
of the place likes this part of the world for what time he can get off
in summer, so he bought this little farm and hired me to run it. That
was ten years ago. I wasn't enjoying the business I was at in those
days, but I was just learning to think right about things then, and I
knew I'd be shown something else if it was best, and so I was."

"What made you know it?" asked Sylvia.

Her companion smiled without looking at her. "How do you know the sun
is shining this morning and the apple-trees are in blossom?"

"Why, I can see that."

"I saw, too, Sylvia. It's a great thing when you begin to see."

The girl observed her companion's half-averted face curiously. "Who
lives with you at the farm?" she asked.

"My two helpers. Good Cap'n Lem Foster and his daughter-in-law, young
Lem's widow. She's an excellent cook. Can you cook, little one?"

"I?" the girl laughed. "I can make Welsh rarebit."

Her companion patted her hand. "Sam Lacey brought you up, didn't he?"
he remarked.

"You see we always boarded," went on Sylvia, "because father--well, it
was better; he was contented if he could play cards and go to a show
sometimes; and when he had had too much he always kept away from me--he
was so good about that."

"Too much?" echoed her companion questioningly.

"Yes, of course he'd go out with the boys some nights, but they always
kept him away from me until he was all right again."

The matter-of-fact tone gave the listener a pang. His big hand closed
over the one he had been caressing. "You're in a prohibition state
now," he remarked.

"Yes, I remember. I've heard father speak of it. I was just thinking of
a verse he used to say:--

"'Johnny and Jane,
Maiden and swain,
Never had tasted a drop of champagne;
Reason is plain,
They lived in Maine,
Where all the folks are obliged to drink rain.'"

"H'm. I wish they were," commented the other, regarding the
black-clothed figure beside him. A thin veil was pinned to her hat in
such a way as to cover the shortness of the soft curls. Her figure was
erect, her coloring exquisite, her eyes innocent. She seemed to him
like a jewel which had been set in base metal, carelessly guarded, and
was now in danger of sinking into the mud of the highway. Laura's
little girl!

He patted her hand again.

"Here we