itself, a thing to rejoice in.
The very air she breathed seemed charged with the indistinguishable
odours of growing things, as it might strike the unspoiled, sensitive
nostrils of a child. She felt a child's joy in merely being.

"How well you are looking, Clyde," said Kitty Wade, as she entered the
breakfast room.

"Positively blooming," said Wade.

"Positively bloomin' hungry," laughed Clyde. "I haven't had such an
appetite since I left boarding school."

"God save all here!" said Casey, from the door. "How did you sleep? No
need to ask you ladies, and it doesn't matter about Wade. Hey, you,
Feng! You catch breakfast quick!"

During the meal they made plans for the day. In the morning Casey was
going to shift the water to his oats; in the afternoon he would drive
them over to Talapus. They would have supper there, and return by
moonlight. Meanwhile they were to consider the place theirs, to go
where and do what they liked.

"I'll help you," Wade offered.

"We'll all help you," said Clyde.

"I can rig Wade out for irrigating," Casey replied, "but not you
ladies. It's too muddy a job for you."

"But I should like to see how it is done," said Clyde.

She had her way, and accompanied them to the field, watching the
turning of the water down the rows, the careful adjustment of its flow,
and the progress of the streams. In spite of her care she became wet
and muddy--and enjoyed herself the more.

"I told you so," said Casey. "No sympathy, Miss Burnaby."

"I don't want it. I'm enjoying myself. I'd like to play in the water,
to sail sticks down the ditch, and pretend that they were boats."

"Shocking!" he laughed. "But I'd like to play with you."

"Nice pair of kids you are," Wade commented. He was perspiring from
unaccustomed exertion. "'Pon my soul, though, I feel the same. To think
of me messing away my life in a tenth-story office worrying about other
people's business and quarrels! What do you keep in this air, Casey?
Old Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth?"

"I keep some very fair Scotch in a cupboard at the house," Casey
responded. "The water is all right now. Suppose we adjourn."

"I'll go you once," said Wade.

"Where do I come in?" Clyde asked. "I'm thirsty, too."

"Feng shall produce Chakchak fizzes for both of us."

They trooped into the house, thirsty, hungry, and laughing, and Kitty
Wade exclaimed at Clyde's dress.

"Thank Heaven I didn't go!" she cried. "Mr. Dunne, you should get a
com