The doctor consulted his watch.

"It is just eleven o'clock," he said quietly. "Try not to make a noise
as you go upstairs for I hope Mother is asleep. I'll turn the lamp so
that it will light you as far as the landing."

So she had been out there only two hours, thought Rosemary as she
tumbled into her own bed. Two hours!

"It seemed like two years!" she murmured, drifting off into a peaceful
sleep almost instantly.

She woke in the morning to find the others downstairs, breakfast over
and all traces of her couch under the maple tree removed.

"I know Hugh did that," she said to herself gratefully as she dressed.
Her first act had been to run to the window to see if the quilt was
spread out on the grass. "He'll never give me away, either. And I
know, too, he would have stayed out on the porch all night, if I hadn't
come in, just so he would be on hand to help me when I needed him.
Hugh is so dear to me!"

She said something of this to him late that afternoon, following him
out to the barn when he went to get the car, preparatory to making the
trip back to Eastshore. Sarah and Shirley had remained in ignorance of
the brief experiment and Winnie had proved extremely tactful, asking no
questions at all. Rosemary had learned, from the conversation of
Warren and Richard, that a cow had strayed from the pasture and a blind
old sheep had cropped the grass all night. It had been the wet nose of
the cow that touched her hand and she had clumsily dodged the sheep.

"You're so good, Hugh," said Rosemary, pretending to polish the
foredoor handle. "But I won't want to sleep outdoors ever again--did
you know I wouldn't?"

Doctor Hugh smiled a little.

"We'll all go camping some day and you'll 'love' sleeping outdoors, as
you say," he declared. "My dear little sister, I would be the last
person to try to discourage you in that effort. But Mother knew and
Winnie knew and I knew that, for a number of reasons, it isn't
practical for you to try to sleep outdoors here; neither practical nor
necessary. It wasn't a matter of sleeping outdoors, Rosemary--it was
just the same old question, 'Why can't I have my own way?' Now wasn't
it?"

Rosemary blushed, but her eyes met his honestly.

"Yes, I guess it was," she admitted. "But I'm sorry I was so
obstinate--truly I am, Hugh."

Doctor Hugh leaned forward from behind the wheel and kissed her.

"You'll make the Willis will an aid and not a hindrance yet," he
decl