ed him not to try, but that foolish Pocahontas looked
disappointed, and Jim dashed right at the tree. It was a terribly
foolhardy thing to do, and Grace said it made her sick to watch him;
every minute she expected to see him slip and come crashing to the
ground. The little girls all cried, and Grace boxed Jim's ears the
instant he was safe on the ground again with the mistletoe. The
children came home in great excitement, Pocahontas with the mistletoe
hugged tight in her arms and tears pouring down her cheeks. When I
scolded Jim for his recklessness, he opened those honest hazel eyes of
his at me in surprise and said, 'But Princess wanted it,' as if that
were quite sufficient reason for risking his life. Poor little
Princess."

After a moment she resumed: "I wish she could have loved him in the way
we wish. Marriage is a terrible risk for a girl like her. She is too
straightforward, too uncompromisingly intolerant of every-day
littleness, to have a very peaceful life. She has grown up so
different from other girls; so full of ideals and romance; she belongs,
in thought and motives, to the last century rather than to this, if
what I hear be true. She is large-hearted and has a great capacity for
affection, but she is self-willed and she could be hard upon occasion.
If she should fall into weak or wicked hands she would both endure and
inflict untold suffering. And there is within her, too, endless power
of generosity and self-sacrifice. Poor child! with Jim I could have
trusted her; but she couldn't love him, so there's nothing to be done."

"Why couldn't she?" demanded Berkeley, argumentatively. "She'll never
do any better; Jim's a handsome fellow, as men go, brave, honorable and
sweet-tempered. What more does she want? It looks to me like sheer
perversity."

Mrs. Mason smiled indulgently at her son's masculine obtuseness. The
subtleties of women were so far beyond his comprehension that it was
hardly worth while to endeavor to make him understand. She made the
effort, however, despite its uselessness.

"It isn't perversity, Berkeley," she said; "I hardly realize, myself,
why the thing should have seemed so impossible. I suppose, having
always regarded Jim as a kindly old playmate, and big, brotherly
friend, the idea of associating sentiment with him appeared absurd.
Had they ever been separated the affair might have had a different
termination; but there has never been a break in their intercourse