ide the old nest,
feeling sure that he would contract bronchitis before the wife of his
bosom arrived to join him.

Hinpoha listened to his disgruntled "pewit phoebe, pewit phoebe," and
made haste to throw him some crumbs. It seemed like a delicious joke to
her that he should be calling so plaintively for his phoebe, not knowing
that there was a Phoebe on the premises all the while. And one day the
little mate came and both birds forgot the snow and cold in the joy of
their reunion. Phoebes consider it extremely indecorous to travel in
mixed company, (just like Aunt Phoebe, thought Hinpoha humorously,) so
the females linger behind for several days after the males start north
and join them in the seclusion of their own homes. Hinpoha's heart sang
in sympathy with the joy of the reunited lovers.

Sahwah had come over to get her lessons with Hinpoha, and as she turned
the leaves of her "Cicero" a little red heart dropped out on the floor.
Hinpoha stooped to pick it up. "What's this?" she asked with interest.
Sahwah blushed.

"Ned Roberts--you remember Ned Roberts up at camp--sent it to me for a
valentine." Hinpoha went back in her thoughts to the dance at the
Mountain Lake Camp the summer before, where she had had such a royal
good time. How far removed that time seemed now!

"I wonder if Sherry ever writes to Nyoda," she said musingly.

"I don't believe he does," said Sahwah, "for Nyoda has never said
anything." If they could have seen Nyoda at that very moment, reading a
certain letter and thrusting it into her bureau drawer with a pile of
others bearing the same post-mark, they would really have had something
to gossip about.

"Did you ever see such a snowfall in March?" said Hinpoha, looking out
the window at the white landscape.

"It must be perfectly grand coasting," said Sahwah, ever with an eye for
sport. "Dick Albright promised he would take us out on his new bob the
next time there was snow, and this is the next time, and will probably
be the last time. Do you suppose you could come along?"

"I doubt it," said Hinpoha. "Aunt Phoebe thinks coasting is too rough.
Did I ever tell you the time mother and I coasted down the walk and ran
into Aunt Phoebe?" Sahwah laughed heartily over the story.

"Poor Aunt Phoebe!" she said, wiping the tears of laughter from her
eyes. "She is bound to get all the shocks that flesh is heir to."

As she was walking home through the snow that afternoon some one came up
behind