arr's namesake.

"How bad of her!" said Clover, smiling. "I wish children could be born
with a sense of the fitness of times and seasons. Jeffy is pretty good
as to sleeping, but he is dreadful about eating. Half the time he
doesn't want anything at dinner; and then at half-past three, or a
quarter to eight, or ten minutes after twelve, or some such uncanonical
hour, he is so ragingly hungry that he can scarcely wait till I fetch
him something. He is so tiresome about his bath too. Fancy a young
semi-Britain objecting to 'tub.' I've circumvented him to-day, however,
for Geoff has promised to wash him while you and I go up to set the new
house in order. Baby is always good with Geoff."

"So he is," remarked Elsie as she moved about giving little tidying
touches here and there to books and furniture. "I never knew a father
and child who suited each other so perfectly. Phil flirts with Clarence
and he is very proud of her notice, but I think they are mutually rather
shy; and he always touches her as though she were a bit of eggshell
china, that he was afraid of breaking."

The room in which the sisters were talking bore little resemblance to
the bare ranch-parlor of old days. It had been enlarged by a
semi-circular bay window toward the mountain view, which made it half as
long again as it then was; and its ceiling had been raised two feet on
the occasion of Clarence's marriage, when great improvements had been
undertaken to fit the "hut" for the occupation of two families. The
solid redwood beams which supported the floor above had been left bare,
and lightly oiled to bring out the pale russet-orange color of the wood.
The spaces between the beams were rough-plastered; and on the decoration
of this plaster, while in a soft state, a good deal of time had been
expended by Geoffrey Templestowe, who had developed a turn for household
art, and seemed to enjoy lying for hours on his back on a staging, clad
in pajamas and indenting the plaster with rosettes and sunken
half-rounds, using a croquet ball and a butter stamp alternately, the
whole being subsequently finished by a coat of dull gold paint. He and
Clover had themselves hung the walls with its pale orange-brown paper; a
herder with a turn for carpentry had laid the new floor of narrow
redwood boards. Clover had stained the striped pattern along its edges.
In that remote spot, where trained and regular assistance could be had
only at great trouble and expense, it was de