glass of
buttermilk as in a valentine," she finally said, and as she spoke a
roguish smile coaxed at the comer of her mouth. "Don't you suppose a
piece of hemp twine would turn into a gold cord if you tied it around
a bundle of true love?" she ventured further in a spirit of daring,
still with her eyes on the butter.

"Now that's something in meaning like my first husband, Mr.
Satterwhite, said when we was married," assented Mrs. Rucker with
hearty appreciation of the practicality in Rose Mary's sentiment. "He
gave me two sows, each with a litter of pigs, for a wedding present
and said they'd be a heap more to me than any kind of jimcracks he
could er bought for half the money they'd bring. And they was, for, in
due course of time, I sold all them hogs and bought the plush
furniture in the front room, melojeon and all. Now Mr. Rucker, he give
me a ring with a blue set and 'darling' printed inside it that cost
fifty cents extra, and Jennie Rucker swallowed that ring before she
was a year old. I guess she has got it growed up inside her, for all I
know of it, and her Paw is a-setting on Mr. Satterwhite's furniture at
present, speaking still. Sometimes it makes me feel sad to think of
Mr. Satterwhite when Cal Rucker spells out, _Shall we meet beyond the
river_ with two fingers on that melojeon. But then I even up my
feelings by remembering how Cal let me name Pete for Mr. Satterwhite,
which is a second-husband compliment they don't many men pass; and it
pleased Granny so."

"Mr. Rucker is always nice to Granny Satterwhite," said Rose Mary with
the evident intention of extolling the present incumbent of the
husband office to her friend. But at the mention of his name a moment
earlier, young Peter, the bond between the past and present, had
sidled out the door and proceeded to sit calmly down on the rippling
surface of the spring branch. His rescue and retirement necessitated
his mother's departure and Everett was left in command of the
two-alone situation he desired.

"Hasn't this been a lovely, long day?" asked Rose Mary as she turned
the butter into a large jar and pressed a white cloth close over it
with a stone top. "To-night is the full April moon and I've got a
surprise for you, if you don't find it out too soon. Will you walk
over to Tilting Rock, beyond the barn-lot, with me after supper and
let me show you?"

"Will I cross the fields of Elysium to gaze over the pearly ramparts?"
demanded Everett with boyish e