hat _he_ did, so I come right along."

"He will get well now."

"He was middlin' discouraged," said Uncle William.

"He couldn't see anything the way it is." Her face had flushed a little,
but the light in her eyes was clear.

Uncle William met it. "You showed a good deal of sense," he said.

The face, as she pushed back the hair from it, looked tired. "I had to
think for two."

Uncle William nodded. "He wants to see you."

She mused over it. "Do you think I'd better?"

"No," said Uncle William, promptly.

Her lips remained parted. "Not to-morrow?" she said. Her lips closed on
the word gently.

"Not for a considabul spell." Uncle William shook his head. "He ain't
acted right."

"He was ill."

"He was sick," admitted Uncle William, "--some. But it was some
cussedness, too. That ain't the main thing though." Uncle William leaned
nearer. "He'll get well faster if he has suthin' to kind o' pester him."

She looked at him with open eyes.

"It's the way men be," said Uncle William. "The Lord knew how 't was, I
reckon, when he made 'em. He hadn't more'n got 'em done, 'fore he made
wimmen." He beamed on her genially. "He'll get well a good deal faster
if the' 's suthin' he thinks he wants and can't have."

"Yes. How will you keep him away?" A little twinkle sounded in her
voice.

"I'll take him home with me," said Uncle William, "up to Arichat."

"Now?"

"Well, in a day or two--soon's it's safe. It'd do anybody good." His
face grew wistful. "If you jest see it once, the way it is, you'd
know what I mean: kind o' big sweeps,"--he waved his arm over acres of
moor,--"an' a good deal o' sky--room enough for clouds, sizable ones,
and wind. You'd o't to hear our wind." He paused, helpless, before the
wind. He could not convey it.

"I _have_ heard it."

He stared at her. "You been there?"

"I've seen it, I mean--in Alan's pictures."

"Oh, them!" His tone reduced them to mere art. But a thought hung on it.
"Where be they?" he asked.

"At the 'Exhibition of American Artists.'" It was the tone of sheer
pride.

"They took 'em, did they?" said William.

"They couldn't help it. They sent back one for lack of room, but he will
have four hung."

"That's good. You haven't told him?"

"I only heard an hour ago, and I had copying to finish. I have a little
recital, of my pupils, this evening. I was planning to write the letter
and mail it on the way out."

Uncle William started up. "I'm hinderin' ye."

"N