she went on with her old gay enthusiasm, "and I
am fully persuaded now, as I never have quite been since you left us,
that you have chosen your work wisely. I had to come at last and see
for myself.

"But are you going to live your life alone, Steve, dear," she asked
after a moment wistfully, "with no sweet home ties?"

"I do not know, little mother," he said gravely. His mind went
instantly to the old cabin home and little Steve, but he couldn't tell
even her of the family life there now,--nor yet of the mystic vision
which had intruded upon his brooding thought.

His sudden smile flashed over the seriousness of his face as he
replied at last, "I have been too busy and too poor to think about it
so far."

She did not smile in return, but catching both his hands in hers she
looked up at him with motherly insistence, and asked:

"Have you never loved any dear girl? Is there no sweet face that
sometimes steals into the little home which nestles always in every
true man's innermost heart?"

Her strong mother-love had surely lent her a mystic's insight and
compelling power!

Instantly into the dim outline of the vision of his brooding thought
which he had hitherto constantly thrust aside, came with a
distinctness that startled him, a childish face framed in yellow curls
above a little white pinafore!

He caught his breath with the vividness of it, then pulled himself
together and looking down into the dear eyes of the woman who had been
more than second mother to him, and who thereby had won the right to
question him, he said with a curiously puzzled look:

"Why, I do not know,--perhaps so,"--then, as she still looked intently
at him, "you have startled me. I have become such a stupid grind, I
guess I need waking up. I will commune with myself, as I have never
done before, and let you know what I discover," he ended more
lightly.

She knew that a revelation had come to him in that moment and was
content without further questioning. With a last gentle, loving
pressure for his hands she released them and they walked out together
to join Nita.

Their team was soon ready and after another long, pleasant drive Steve
was watching the departing train from the little station platform. He
felt keen regret as it bore his friends out of sight, but he turned to
his team for the homeward drive with a strange exhilaration in his
heart. He had hardly been able to wait for that communion with
himself, and when the opportun