in
on the other side of the hill and has a garden where he raises herbs
and sells them--they say he does a big business with the city
drugstores."

"Guess you'd call it work, digging in that yard of his," observed Mr.
Hildreth drily.

"Well--what I mean is, he doesn't have to go out and work by the week,"
explained Richard.

"And his music?" asked Rosemary, pulling Shirley back as the
investigating toe of her sandal threatened to dip into the water.

"He only plays when there is a moon," said Richard, his merry face
sobering. "Seems like he can't rest on a moonlight night. Sometimes
he walks up and down the road for hours and sometimes he sits out in
his yard and plays; but they say he never goes to bed and he never lays
his violin down till morning."

"He's a good fiddler," said Mr. Hildreth.

"His music was wonderful," glowed Rosemary. "Mother and I couldn't go
to bed as long as he played. I'd give anything if I could play like
that!"

"You play the piano just as nice!" chirped Shirley loyally.

"Say, there is a piano in the house, isn't there!" Richard almost
dropped the wire. "Can you play?"

"Not as well as my mother," said Rosemary, "but I've studied several
years."

"Can you play 'Old Black Joe'?" demanded Richard. "That's a song I
always liked."

The contrast between his cheerful, open face and his melancholy taste
in music was so great that Rosemary could not help laughing. But she
said she could play "Old Black Joe" and promised to play it for him at
the first opportunity.

Those early days at Rainbow Hill were not long enough. That was the
general complaint. Mrs. Willis and Winnie, busy in the house, said
evening came before the delightful tasks were half started or the more
prosaic duties completed. There was the garden to be visited, the
flower vases to be filled, the porch made cool and clean and
comfortable, every morning; Winnie reveled in her kitchen, hung over
the great pans of milk in the speckless pantry and gloated as she
skimmed the heavy cream. Sarah said she saved all the cream till Hugh
was expected and then served it up to him, whipped stiff in the largest
bowl she could find, with fresh, hot gingerbread, the doctor's favorite
dessert.

The girls roamed the place from one end to the other and knew every
inch of the farm as well as the Hildreths did, in a week's time. They
came in only to sleep, Winnie declared, but Mrs. Willis insisted, with
a gentle firmness th