d, Lafe felt that each tone
of Jinnie's fiddle had a soul of its own--that the instrument was
peopled with angel voices--voices that soothed him when he suffered
beyond description--voices that now expressed in rhythmical harmony
the peace within him. Jinnie was able to put an estimate on his moods,
and knew just what comfort he needed most. Until that moment the
cobbler's wife had seemed outside the charm of the beloved home
circle. But to-day, ah, to-day!--Jinnie's bow raced over the strings
like a mad thing. To-day Peggy Grandoken became in the girl's eyes a
glorified woman, a woman set apart by God Himself to bring to the home
a new baby.

Jinnie played and played and played, and Theodore in spirit-fancy
stood beside her. Lafe thought and thought and thought, while Peggy
walked through his day dreams like some radiant being.

"A baby----my baby, in the house," sang the cobbler's heart.

"A baby, our baby, in the house," poured from Jinnie's soul, and
"Baby, little baby," sprang from the fiddle over and over, as golden
flashes of the sun warms the earth. Truly was Lafe being revivified;
truly was Jinnie! Theodore King! How infinitely close he seemed to
her! How the memory of his smile cheered and strengthened her!

From the tip of the fiddle tucked under a rounded chin to the line of
purple-black hair, the blood rushed in riotous confusion over the
fiddler's lovely face. What was it in Lafe's story that had brought
Theodore King so near?

Jinnie couldn't have told, but she was sure the fiddle knew. It was
intoning to Lafe--to her--the language of the birds and the mystery of
the flower blossoms, the invisible riddles of Heaven and earth, of all
the concealed secrets beyond the blue of the sky; all the panorama of
Nature strung out in a wild, sweet forest song. Jinnie had backed
against the wall as she played, and when out of her soul came the
twitter of the morning birds, the babbling of the brook on its way to
the sea, the scream of the owl in a high woodland tree, Lafe turned to
watch her, and from that moment until she dropped exhausted into a
chair, he did not take his eyes from her.

"Jinnie!" he gasped, as he thrust forth his hand and took hers.
"You've made me happier to-day'n I've been in many a week. Peg'll be
all right.... Everybody'll be all right.... God bless us!"

Jinnie sat up with bright, inquiring eyes.

"Did you tell Peg I was to know about----"

"About our baby?" intervened Lafe tenderly