y, did I ever! Well, there it is again. I shall never be able to
crush anything like that without remembering what you've said just now.
I--I wish you wouldn't. It makes me feel sort of wicked. And that's
silly, just for a fern."

"Gwen, anything that makes us more merciful can't be silly. Heigho!
there are the picnickers all coming along the banks and over the
bridges. Truly, a goodly company, yet we began with just you and Lionel,
Mary Reese, Hallam, and me. Now there are a hundred members, old and
young. There's one of the everyday miracles for you!"

The vigorous young association which went by the name of the "Ardsley
Club" flourished beyond even Amy's most sanguine expectation. Three
rooms of "Charity House," the sunny western side of the higher story,
had been cheerfully offered by Mr. Kaye as a home for the club. These
rooms he had had fitted up under his own supervision, though the work
had been done by the members themselves, in hours after mill duties were
over. The color mixer had supplied the material with which the once ugly
white walls were tinted; and upon the soft-hued groundwork there had
been stencilled a delicate conventional design. At one end of the large
room designated the "reading room" a scroll bore the legend which old
Adam Burns had given Amy as a "rule of life": "Simplicity, Sincerity,
Sympathy," and opposite gleamed in golden letters the other maxim: "Love
Conquers All."

"Love, Simplicity, Sincerity, and Sympathy, which is the synonym of
Love, and forms with it the golden circle," was adopted as one of the
by-laws, and it is true that each member endeavored to keep this one
law inviolably. The result was a spirit of peace and goodwill rarely
found in a gathering of so many varying natures. It had been Mr. Kaye's
idea to make the affair one of no expense to the members, outside of his
own household, but Frederic promptly vetoed that.

"In the first place, there are none of us rich enough to do such a
thing. There will be lights, firing, musical instruments, books, current
literature, games--any number of things that cost money. Amy's idea is
fine. A club of the right sort will be a powerful factor for good in
this community of mill workers, but it must be made self-supporting. If
you give the use of the rooms and will act as instructor along some
lines,--art and literature, which you comprehend better than
financiering, respected brother,--you will have done your generous
share. Amy and