er life, hovered over it, like a beautiful,
golden-crowned Madonna. Miss Cornelia nursed it as knackily as could
any mother in Israel. Captain Jim held the small creature in his big
brown hands and gazed tenderly at it, with eyes that saw the children
who had never been born to him.

"What are you going to call him?" asked Miss Cornelia.

"Anne has settled his name," answered Gilbert.

"James Matthew--after the two finest gentlemen I've ever known--not
even saving your presence," said Anne with a saucy glance at Gilbert.

Gilbert smiled.

"I never knew Matthew very well; he was so shy we boys couldn't get
acquainted with him--but I quite agree with you that Captain Jim is one
of the rarest and finest souls God ever clothed in clay. He is so
delighted over the fact that we have given his name to our small lad.
It seems he has no other namesake."

"Well, James Matthew is a name that will wear well and not fade in the
washing," said Miss Cornelia. "I'm glad you didn't load him down with
some highfalutin, romantic name that he'd be ashamed of when he gets to
be a grandfather. Mrs. William Drew at the Glen has called her baby
Bertie Shakespeare. Quite a combination, isn't it? And I'm glad you
haven't had much trouble picking on a name. Some folks have an awful
time. When the Stanley Flaggs' first boy was born there was so much
rivalry as to who the child should be named for that the poor little
soul had to go for two years without a name. Then a brother came along
and there it was--'Big Baby' and 'Little Baby.' Finally they called Big
Baby Peter and Little Baby Isaac, after the two grandfathers, and had
them both christened together. And each tried to see if it couldn't
howl the other down. You know that Highland Scotch family of MacNabs
back of the Glen? They've got twelve boys and the oldest and the
youngest are both called Neil--Big Neil and Little Neil in the same
family. Well, I s'pose they ran out of names."

"I have read somewhere," laughed Anne, "that the first child is a poem
but the tenth is very prosy prose. Perhaps Mrs. MacNab thought that
the twelfth was merely an old tale re-told."

"Well, there's something to be said for large families," said Miss
Cornelia, with a sigh. "I was an only child for eight years and I did
long for a brother and sister. Mother told me to pray for one--and
pray I did, believe ME. Well, one day Aunt Nellie came to me and said,
'Cornelia, there is a little bro