light shone full upon its countenance.

"How did you come to know the names of them all?" he asked.

"Why, we grow them in gardens up North. I know their names in that
way. They are old acquaintances."

"Oh, that's it. Well, it is n't hard to grow them here. Us fellows
out on the prairie make all our flower-beds round."

Janet paused.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "You mean the _horizon_. Is n't that an idea! I
am going to tell that to Ruth Ferguson the first time I write."

Steve made no reply. Janet gave her attention for a space to the
beans. Then, suddenly reminded, she put down her fork.

"Mr. Brown! If you were teaching just ten or twelve children, would
n't it strike you as rather foolish to call the roll every morning?
You know there were only fourteen pupils in the school where I was
substituting; so of course I got acquainted with them all right away.
Well, one morning when the weather was bad there were only six present;
so when the hour came I just began to teach. But a little boy who is
in the first reader held up his hand and told me I had to call the roll
first. I could hardly keep from smiling. As if I could n't see the
six that were there. Then I made inquiry and I found that Miss Porter
called the roll when there were only four there. Does n't it seem
funny for a person to go through a formality like that just
because--well, just because?"

"That's because you 've got sense," said Steve.

She dropped her eyes and ate. When this remark had had time to pass
over, Janet's sociable spirit, never self-conscious for long, began to
unfold its leaves and raise its stems and lift up its branches again.

In this juncture, the dog profited. Shep had been giving her such
unremitting attention, his wistful brown eyes following each forkful as
it went from plate to mouth, that Janet's consciousness of her selfish
situation kept bearing in upon her till now every bean carried reproach
with it. Thinking to convince him that it was only beans, and not
desirable, she put him down a forkful from her own too generous
allowance. She was surprised at the suddenness with which it
disappeared. Beans were his staff of life also, a discovery which made
her smile. And as one good turn deserves another--at least Shep seemed
to think so--she was expected to do it again; thus supper, with his
assistance, was soon over. And now Janet, with nothing whatever to do,
sat face to face with her situation.

"Hav