ouldn't
have to come every day."

"I could fiddle more," Jinnie blurted radiantly. She remembered how
sympathetically he had listened to her through the blizzard. He liked
the fiddle! She went a little nearer him. "I'm trying to make a tune
different from any I've ever done, and I can't always play well after
lugging shortwood all day.... I'd love to deliver it the way you
said."

King stood gazing at her. How strangely beautiful she was! Something
in the wind-browned face stirred his heart to its depths.

"Then that's settled," he said kindly. "You tell me where to have my
man and what time, and to-morrow he'll meet you."

Jinnie thought a moment.

"I wonder if he knows where Paradise Road ends near the edge of the
marsh."

"He could find it, of course."

"There's a path going into the marsh right at the end of the road.
I'll meet him there to-morrow at twelve o'clock, and--and I'm so much
obliged to you."

When Jinnie told Lafe of the new arrangement, she gurgled with joy.

"Lafe, now I'll make that tune."

"Yes, honey," murmured Lafe contentedly. "Now get your fiddle and
practice; after that you c'n study a while out of that there grammar
book."

CHAPTER XVIII

RED ROSES AND YELLOW

The days went on peacefully after the new arrangements for the
shortwood. Every other day, at twelve o'clock, one of Theodore King's
cars waited for Jinnie at the head of the path leading into the
marsh.

When the weather was stormy, Bennett, the chauffeur, took the wood,
telling Jinnie to run along home.

All this made it possible for Jinnie to study profitably during the
warm months, and by the last of August she had mastered many difficult
subjects. Lafe helped her when he could, but often shook his head
despondently as she sat down beside him on the bench, asking his
advice.

"The fact is, honey, I ain't got much brains," he said to her one
afternoon. "If I hung by my neck till I could see through them
figures, I'd be as dead as Moses."

One Thursday morning, as she climbed into the big car with her load,
Bennett said,

"I ain't goin' to pay you this mornin'! The boss'll do it. Mr. King
wants to see you."

Jinnie nodded, her heart pounding.

It was delightful to contemplate seeing him once more. She wondered
where he had been all these days and if he had thought of her.
Jinnie's pulses were galloping along like a race horse. She stood
quietly until the master was called, and he came quickly witho