delight. Those floating
flakes were the very first snow of the season; but they were by no
means the last. The winter, delayed, but apparently all the more
violent for that very reason, burst suddenly upon the city, stopping
the finishing touches on both suburban additions. Came rain and sleet
and snow, and rain and sleet and snow again, then biting cold that
sank deep into the ground and sealed it as if with a crust of iron.
March, that had come in like a lamb, went out like a lion, and the
lion raged through April and into May. Then, as suddenly as it had
come, the belated winter passed away and the warm sun beat down upon
the snow-clad hills and swept them clean. It penetrated into the
valleys and turned them into rivulets, thousands of which poured into
the river and swelled its banks brimming full. The streets of the
Applerod Addition were quickly washed with their own white covering
and dried, and immediately with this break-up began the great
advertising campaign. The papers flamed with full-page and half-page
announcements of the wonderful home-making opportunity; circulars were
mailed to possible home-buyers by the hundred thousand; every
street-car told of the bargain on striking cards; immense electric
signs blazoned the project by night; sixteen-sheet posters were spread
upon all the bill-boards, and every device known to expert advertising
was requisitioned. Not one soul within the city or within a radius of
fifty miles but had kept constantly before him the duty he owed to
himself to purchase a lot in the marvelous Applerod Addition; and now
indeed Oliver P. Applerod, reassured once more, began to reap the
fruit of his life's ambitions as prospective buyers thronged to look
at his frock-coat and silk hat.

June the first was set for the date of the "grand opening," and though
it was not to be a month of roses, still the earth looked bright and
gay as the time approached, and Bobby Burnit took Agnes out to view
his coming triumph. This was upon a bright day toward the end of May,
when those yellow squares were tempered to a golden green by the
tender young grass that had been sown at the completion of the
grading. She had made frequent visits with him through the winter, and
now she gloried with him.

"It looks fine, Bobby," she confessed with glowing eyes. "Fine! It
really seems as if you had won your spurs."

"Diamond-studded ones!" he exulted. "Why, Agnes, the office is
besieged with requests for al