the
companionship of human beings. Therefore, the rush of a love her child's
comprehension could not analyze had gone out to him.

Farr returned with significance the look Zelie Dionne's dark eyes gave
him.

"I found the note. It made me go a-meddling. It left a legacy to
somebody--and I accepted--without understanding why I did so." He
stroked the child's curls.

"I did not understand at first--when Madame Maillet told me," she
confessed, with a smile. "Old Etienne came at noon to tell her and she
has told it to me. It is very sad--but yet it is comical when I look at
you. But as I look at you I understand better. You have a good heart. I
can see!"

"I am only a strolling stranger--here to-day and there to-morrow,"
protested Farr. "I think the heat must have affected my head. It has
been very warm lately. But when I saw her--" He choked suddenly.

"Oh, it is easy to understand," said the girl, reassuringly. A mist
of tears came across her big eyes, though her mouth did not lose the
wistful smile. "The poor folks help one another--and they understand."

"It wouldn't be right to give her to an orphanage," insisted Farr. "She
has missed too much already. Of course I don't pretend to know what a
little girl needs--but I am willing to be told."

"I will tell you and I will help."

"I think old Etienne and I need you in the partnership--as adviser. I
thank you."

Then came the old Canadian, his wrinkled face tender with solicitous
interest, and he chuckled when he welcomed the new member of the firm.

"Ah, Mam'selle Zelie she shall help us the very much in what we do not
know," he informed the young man, and continued, while the dark eyes
flashed protest: "I am of the Tadousac country, and she is a good girl,
for I have know her all the years since I trot her on my knee when she
much small as the petite Rosemarie. I can tell you how she dance down
the meadows in the ring-a-rosy play and how she--"

"Phut! Your tongue is as long as your rake and it goes reaching
down into other folks' affairs, old Etienne! What cares this strange
gentleman for what happened in Tadousac? Go use your key instead of your
tongue. Unlock your little door so that Rosemarie may walk on the cool
grass beside the canal."

The old man grinned and started away.

"We're going out where the birds will sing good night to you," Farr told
the child and lifted her off his knees. But at the door she stopped and
turned to Zelie Dionne, who had