ngsters ministered as
angels.

The young man felt moved with an emotion he resisted: "My God! can it be
that this savage is right in his instincts, and I am wrong? Can some
peculiar blessing of Heaven rest on the man who dares Fate for family
love? Or is the poor wretch's fondness a recompense for his overburdened
lot?"

The baby took a fine picture. Mallston stood by a window and gazed at
the large tin-type. His full lips dropped apart and his head leaned
sidewise. He turned to his wife and said with a foolish expression, "If
the little feller 'ud happen to drop off now we got sumpin' to remember
him by."

"My childern's kind o' sickly," remarked his wife, marshalling forth her
quartette, "fer all they look so hearty."

* * * * *

The photographic car remained day after day, although sitters seldom
came now, for even the loafers were helping to put in crops. The horses
which should have dragged it out almost any dewy morning were not
exactly eating their heads off, being turned upon pasture, but the
landlord was famous for getting his entertainment's worth. As long as
weekly board-bills were paid he said it was none of his business if the
man stayed all summer.

On Monday the photographer resolved, "I will start on Wednesday;" on
Wednesday he decided, "I will wait till Saturday;" and on Saturday,
"It's too late in the week now, but I _must_ go next Monday."

Mrs. Harbison, when interviewed about the generous portion of time he
spent on her lawn with her summer visitor, answered with downrightness,
"Well, what if he does like to come to our place? We know all about his
folks. And if them two wants to sit and talk, they're fit company fer
each other, and I reckon it won't hurt 'em. So what you going to do
about it?"

The village was going to talk about it. The female population gathered
at the storekeeper's house, their favorite rallying-place because the
storekeeper's wife had no opinions of her own, but made a good echo to
whatever was said, and there they judged that Gill girl for taking up
with strangers like she done, so stuck up, and hoped it would turn out
he was a married man, and wouldn't that bring her down?

Meanwhile, the photographer stretched himself on his oilcloth-cushioned
locker and stared at the now fully-unfurled woods, without one mental
glance at the vivid moss in its shades, its four varieties of ferns or
the ruined cabin with one side thrown down, showing