the shaded porch
light.

"I don't approve of night work for women," he informed them gravely.
"Especially for those who have had as active a day as you have had.
You don't want to knit, do you, Mother?"

She put down her work at once and smiled.

"I'll play for you," she said quickly and went in to the piano.

Doctor Hugh sat down in the swing and patted the pillows invitingly.
Rosemary, fastening her needles securely in place, put down her work a
little reluctantly and crossed over to the swing. But when he put his
arm about her and she leaned back against the cushions, her head on his
comfortable shoulder, she gave a little tired sigh of relief. A big
brother was nice!

And as the music drifted out to them--all the sweet old melodies the
doctor loved best, played as only Mrs. Willis could play them--Rosemary
felt her impatience and hurry slipping away. She who had been so eager
to have nine o'clock come, so anxious to get the evening over so that
she might be free to put her wish into practise, began to wish that she
could stay up later than usual.

"Ten minutes after nine," said Doctor Hugh, all too soon. "I must help
you get your sleeping outfit together."

"Oh, I'll just take a quilt and spread it out and then roll myself up
in it," planned Rosemary.

But Doctor Hugh insisted on a rubber sheet, to go under the heavy quilt
and insure positive protection from dampness; and blankets, he
declared, would be indispensable. He arranged the quilt under a maple
tree--the tree most distant from the house--which was Rosemary's
choice, carried out a pair of light blankets and parried Winnie's
volley of questions good-naturedly when she came in from visiting Mrs.
Hildreth and discovered what he was doing.

"Well, Rosemary, I see you're going to have your own way and I only
hope you don't regret it," was Winnie's greeting when Rosemary danced
out, a dark kimono over her gown and moccasins on her feet.

"I won't," Rosemary replied confidently.

"Of course I won't," she said to herself stoutly, when she was curled
up on a quilt, under the blankets. "This is heaps of fun!"

She could see the light from the porch lamp which made a golden shaft
through the wire netting into the darkness of the night. Over her head
the stars twinkled and the leafy branches of the maple spread out like
a network.

Pouf!--Rosemary scrambled to her feet, brushing at her face frantically.

"Something fell on me!" she gasped. "A