ss worry, to doctor their sick folks, and to make their dresses.
At last, when every thing was talked over, and there began to be a
quiet time, father would reach across the table, pick up a paper and
read all the interesting things that had happened in the country during
the past week; the jokes too, and they made people think of funny
stories to tell, and we just laughed. In the Agriculturist there were
new ways to farm easier, to make land bear more crops; so he divided
that with the neighbours, also how to make gardens, and prune trees.
Before he finished, he always managed to work in a lot about being
honest, kind, and loving God.

He and mother felt so good over Leon, and by this time they were
beginning to see that they were mighty glad about the money too. It
wouldn't have been so easy to work, and earn, and pay back all that for
our school, roads, and the church; and every day you could see plainer
how happy they felt that they didn't have to do it. Because they were
so glad about these things, they invited every one they met that day;
but we knew Saturday mother felt that probably she would ask a crowd,
from the chickens, pie, and cake she got ready. When the reading part
was over, and the women were beginning to look at the clock, and you
knew they felt they should go home, and didn't want to, Laddie arose
and said that, and Leon piped up like he always does and made every one
laugh. Of course they looked at Laddie, and no one knew what he meant,
so all the women and a few of the men asked him.

"Watch me, I said," laughed Laddie as he left the room.

Soon Mrs. Dover, sitting beside the front window, cried: "Here he is
at the gate!"

He was on his horse, but he hitched it and went around the house and up
the back way. Before long the stair door of the sitting-room opened,
and there he stood. We stared at him. Of course he was bathed, and in
clean clothing to start with, but he had washed and brushed some more,
until he shone. His cheeks were as smooth and as clear pink as any
girl's, his eyes blue-gray and big, with long lashes and heavy brows.
His hair was bright brown and wavy, and he was so big and broad. He
never had been sick a day in his life, and he didn't look as if he ever
would be.

And clothes DO make a difference. He would have had exactly the same
hair, face, and body, wearing a hickory shirt and denim trousers; but
he wouldn't have looked as he did in the clothes he wore at coll