notice 'em much
before."

"Oh, no! It's more than that," she replied, shaking her head. "Some
people would notice them, yet never see how pretty they were."

"Then they'd be blind as moles."

"The worst kind of blindness is that of the mind."

"Well, I think many country people are as stupid and blind as oxen, and
I was one of 'em. I've seen more cherry and apple blossoms this year
than in all my life before, and I haven't thought only of cherries and
apples either."

"The habit of seeing what is pretty grows on one," she resumed. "It
seems to me that flowers and such things feed mind and heart. So if one
HAS mind and heart, flowers become one of the most useful crops. Isn't
that practical common sense?"

"Not very common in Oakville. I'm glad you think I'm in a hopeful
frame of mind, as they used to say down at the meeting house. Anyhow,
since you wish it, we will have a flower crop as well as a potato crop."

Thus they continued chatting while Alida cleared up the table, and
Holcroft, having lighted his pipe, busied himself with peeling a long,
slim hickory sapling intended for a whipstock.

Having finished her tasks, Alida was finally drying her hands on a
towel that hung near a window. Suddenly, she caught sight of a dark
face peering in. Her startled cry brought Holcroft hastily to his feet.
"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I saw--" Then she hesitated from a fear that he would rush into some
unknown danger.

The rough crew without perceived that their presence was known, and Tim
Weeks cried, "Now, all together!"

A frightful overture began at once, the hooting and yelling almost
drowning the instrumental part and sending to Alida's heart that awful
chill of fear produced by human voices in any mob-like assemblage.
Holcroft understood the affair at once, for he was familiar with the
custom, but she did not. He threw open the door with the purpose of
sternly expostulating with the disturbers of the peace and of
threatening them with the law unless they retired. With an instinct to
share his danger she stepped to his side, and this brought a yell of
derision. Lurid thoughts swept through her mind. She had brought this
danger. Her story had become known. What might they not do to
Holcroft? Under the impulse of vague terror and complete
self-sacrifice, she stepped forward and cried, "I only am to blame. I
will go away forever if you will spare--" But again the scornful clamor
rose and drowne