of course!"

"Then it was God," said father, "because 'God is love.' They are one
and the same thing."

Then he kissed me, and THAT was settled. So I wondered when you longed
for anything so hard you really felt it was worth bothering God about,
whether the quickest way to get it was to ask Him for it, or to try to
put a lot of love into the heart of some person who could do what you
wanted. I decided it all went back to God though, for most of the time
probably we wouldn't know who the right one was to try to awaken love
in. I was mighty sure none of us ever dreamed Laddie could walk over
to Pryors', and come back with that horse, in a way perfectly
satisfactory to every one, slick as an eel.

You should have seen Leon following around after Laddie, trying to do
things for him, taking on his work to give him more time with the
horses, getting up early to finish his own stunts, so he could go over
to Pryors' and help. Mother said it had done more to make a man of him
than anything that ever happened. It helped Shelley, too. Something
seemed to break in her, when she cried so with Leon, because he was in
trouble. Then he was so crazy to show off his horse he had Shelley
ride up and down the lane, while he ran along and led, so she got a lot
of exercise, and it made her good and hungry. If you don't think by
this time that my mother was the beatenest woman alive, I'll prove it
to you. When the supper bell rang there was strawberry preserves
instead of the apple butter, biscuit, fried chicken, and mashed
potatoes.

She must have slapped those chickens into the skillet before they knew
their heads were off. When Shelley came to the table, for the first
time since she'd been home, had pink in her cheeks, and talked some,
and ate too, mother forgot her own supper. She fumbled over her plate,
but scarcely touched even the livers, and those delicious little
kidneys in the tailpiece like Leon and I had at Sally's wedding. When
we finished, and it was time for her to give the signal to arise, no
one had asked to be excused, she said: "Let us have a word with the
Most High." Then she bowed her head, so all of us did too. "O Lord,
we praise Thee for all Thy tender mercies, and all Thy loving kindness.
Amen!"

Of course father always asked the blessing to begin with, and mostly it
was the same one, and that was all at meal time, but this was a little
extra that mother couldn't even wait until night to tell the