silvering the autumn landscape, the party separated. As Manson drove
along the wooded road conveying Liddy to her home, he felt a little
curious. He could not quite understand why she had taken pains _not_ to
find a red ear. All the other girls had found one or more, and seemed
to enjoy the scramble that followed.

"Why did you not husk that red ear?" he asked her, after they were well
on their way.

"Simply because I do not like public kissing," she replied quietly.
"Some girls do not mind, and perhaps they like it. I do not. It cheapens
a girl in my opinion, or at least it certainly cheapens a kiss. You are
not offended, are you?" turning her face toward him.

"By no means," he answered; and then, after a pause, he added: "I think
you are right, but it seemed a little odd."

"I presume I am a little peculiar," she continued, "but to me this
public kissing at parties and huskings seems not only silly, but just a
trifle vulgar. When we were children at the district school, I thought
it was fun, but it appears different now." Then, after a pause: "If I
were a young man I would not want the girl I thought most of kissed a
dozen times by every other fellow at a party. It is customary here in
Southton, and considered all right and proper, while card-playing and
dancing are not. I would much rather play cards or dance than act like
school children."

"I most certainly agree with you, so far as the cards and dancing go,"
said Manson, "and now that you put it in the way you have, I will agree
with you regarding kissing games."

As these two young people had just entered their third year at the
academy, and Liddy was only eighteen, it may seem that she was rather
young to discuss the ethics of kissing; but it must be remembered that
she was older in thought than in years, and besides, she was blessed
with a father who had rather liberal and advanced ideas. He did not
consider card-playing at one's home a vice, or dancing a crime.

"A penny for your thoughts," said she, after they had ridden in silence
for a time, and were crossing a brook that looked like a rippling stream
of silver in the moonlight.

"I was thinking," he replied, "of a night just like this four years ago,
when I went home with you from that party at the Stillman's. It was an
event in my life that set me thinking."

"And have you been thinking about it ever since?" she said, laughing.
"If you have it must have been an important event."

"No," he ans