inane and bovine
as to the original ringer of that bell grazing all the season in her
own shadow over the same pasture-ground.

And more than all, that twopence for which Ezra toiled so miserably
was to go towards the weaving of a rag carpet which his mother was
making, and for which she was saving every penny. He could not lay it
out in red-and-white sugar-sticks at the store. He sat there all the
week, and every time there was a whir of little brown wings and the
darting flash of a red breast among the cherry branches he rang in
frantic haste the old cow-bell. All the solace he obtained was an
occasional robin-pecked cherry which he found in the grass, and then
Mr. Berry questioned him severely when he saw stains around his mouth
and on his fingers.

He was on hand early in the morning on the day of the cherry picnic,
trudging half awake, with the taste of breakfast in his mouth,
through the acres of white dewy grass. He sat on his rock until the
grass was dry, and patiently jingled his cow-bell. It was to young
Ezra Ray, although all unwittingly, as if he himself were assisting
in the operations of nature. He watched so assiduously that it was as
if he dried the dewy grass and ripened the cherries.

When the cherry party began to arrive he still sat on his rock and
jingled his bell; he did not know when to stop. But his eyes were
upon the assembling people rather than upon the robins. He watched
the brave young men whose ignominy of boyhood was past, bearing
ladders and tossing up shining tin pails as they came. He watched the
girls swinging their little straw baskets daintily; his stupidly
wondering eyes followed especially Rebecca Thayer. Rebecca, in her
black muslin, with her sweet throat fairly dazzling above the
half-low bodice, and wound about twice with a slender gold chain,
with her black silk apron embroidered with red roses, and beautiful
face glowing with rich color between the black folds of her hair,
held the instinctive attention of the boy. He stared at her as she
stood talking to another girl with her back quite turned upon all the
young men, until his own sister touched him upon the shoulder with a
sharp nudge of a bony little hand.

Amelia Ray's face, blonde like her brother's, but sharp with the
sharpness of the thin and dark, was thrust into his. "You must go
right home now," declared her high voice. "Mother said so."

"I'm going to stay and help pick 'em," said Ezra, in a voice which
was n