in through the now
restored gateway. It may be worth while to mention that the first thing
in which Max had shown a real interest was the restoration of that
gateway. He had declared--nobody knew why--that it must be in absolutely
correct shape before the Neil Chases came through it again. So the mason
who came to mend the broken chimney found himself, much to his surprise,
put first at the tumble-down stone pillars of the gateway. The carpenter,
also, who arrived prepared to repair the porch columns and floor, and to
mend the broken shutters, was led at once by the young master of the
place to the gateway and instructed that he must make the old gate
itself substantial, and hang it so that it should swing true. But
although it was nearly six months since the Chases had tried to buy the
place, they had not yet driven through that restored gateway. Possibly
they did not care to be in haste to look at the place they could not own.

"There's Sally, in the old garden. She told me she could hardly wait to
begin on it," and Josephine waved her hand at a distant figure with a
spade in its hand. The spade was promptly cast aside and the worker came
running around the house to meet the arriving car. "Isn't she looking
splendidly?" Sally's friend murmured in her brother's ear, as the figure
came near enough for a pair of very blooming cheeks to show clearly in
the April sunshine.

"Never better. Out-door life is going to make her a Hebe," replied the
driver of the car, under his breath, though he kept his eyes dutifully
on the roadway until the car came to a standstill and he had stopped
his engine.

"Come and see the garden, and listen to my plans," commanded Sally, the
moment her friends were on the ground. "No, I don't mean Jarvis. I know
he has more important business--in the orchard, or the barns, or the
woods, or the south lot--"

"Meadow, please," corrected Jarvis, with a smile which suggested past
efforts to teach Sally the nomenclature of the farm.

"--or anywhere that he can walk to in the mud, and come back covered with
stick-tights, with a tear in his coat. He looks happiest when his clothes
are most demoralized and his boots thickest with clay."

"The sign of your true farmer," urged Jarvis.

But Sally had no further attention to bestow on him, and immediately led
Josephine away over the damp and spongy sod to that portion of the ground
at the rear of the house which showed, by a few lingering signs, that it