ay was as sweet as
stolen apples. No doubt the stir of far, green thickets and the
twinkle of silver-slippered creeks shimmered in the longing vision of
their minds' eyes; even so, they were merry. But Joseph Louden,
sighing as he descended his narrow stairs, with the bitterness still
upon his lips of the frightful coffee he had made, heard the echo of
their laughter with wonder.

It would be an hour at least before time to start to church, when Ariel
expected him; he stared absently up the street, then down, and, after
that, began slowly to walk in the latter direction, with no very active
consciousness, or care, of where he went. He had fallen into a
profound reverie, so deep that when he had crossed the bridge and
turned into a dusty road which ran along the river-bank, he stopped
mechanically beside the trunk of a fallen sycamore, and, lifting his
head, for the first time since he had set out, looked about him with a
melancholy perplexity, a little surprised to find himself there.

For this was the spot where he had first seen the new Ariel, and on
that fallen sycamore they had sat together. "REMEMBER, ACROSS MAIN
STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" And Joe's cheeks burned, as he recalled why he
had not understood the clear voice that had haunted him. But that
shame had fallen from him; she had changed all that, as she had changed
so many things. He sank down in the long grass, with his back against
the log, and stared out over the fields of tall corn, shaking in a
steady wind all the way to the horizon.

"Changed so many things?" he said, half aloud. "Everything!" Ah, yes,
she had changed the whole world for Joseph Louden--at his first sight
of her! And now it seemed to him that he was to lose her, but not in
the way he had thought.

Almost from the very first, he had the feeling that nothing so
beautiful as that she should stay in Canaan could happen to him. He
was sure that she was but for the little while, that her coming was
like the flying petals of which he had told her.

He had lain upon the earth; and she had lifted him up. For a moment he
had felt the beatific wings enfolding him with gentle protection, and
then saw them lifted to bear the angel beyond his sight. For it was
incredible that the gods so loved Joe Louden that they would make
greater gifts to him than this little time with her which they had
granted him.

"Changed so many things?"

The bars that had been between him and half of his wo