ouched the keys, bringing out a few faint chords
that could not add to the sweetness of his voice. Mrs. Friestone sat
motionless, looking intently at him until he came to the last words. Then
she abruptly took off her glasses and put her handkerchief to her eyes.

The sweet long ago! Again she saw the handsome, sturdy youth when he
returned from the war for the defence of his country, as brave, as
resolute, as aflame with patriotism as in his earlier years, but with
frame wrenched by painful wounds. Their lives were inexpressibly happy
from the time she became a bride, and their maturer age was blessed by
the gift of darling Nora. Existence became one grand sweet dream--more
happy, more radiant and more a foretaste of what awaited them all in the
great beyond. That loved form had vanished in the sweet long ago, but the
memory could never fade or grow dim.

It was the song that brought back the picture with a vividness it had not
worn for many a year. The tears would come, and Nora, glancing at her
mother, buried her face in her own handkerchief and sobbed. Alvin and
Chester sat silent, and Mike, turning gently on the stool, looked
sympathetically at mother and daughter.

"Thank you, Mike," came a soft, choking voice from behind the snowy bit
of linen, and the brave lad winked rapidly and fought back the tears that
crowded into his honest eyes.

It was not strange that the effect of Mike Murphy's beautiful singing of
the touching songs brooded like a benison throughout the evening. Even
Nora, when asked to favor them again, shook her head.

"Not after Mike," she replied, her eyes gleaming more brightly through
the moisture not yet dried.

It was impossible for the Irish lad to restrain his humor, and soon he
had them all smiling, but there was no loud laughter such as greeted his
first sallies, and the conversation as a whole was soberer and more
thoughtful. Alvin and Chester told of their school experiences, and
finally Mike related his adventure when marooned on the lonely island
well out toward the Atlantic and his friends found him after they had
given him up as drowned.

So the evening wore away until, at a seasonable hour, the head of the
household said that when they wished to retire she would show them to
their room. Just then Mike had his hand over his mouth in the effort to
repress a yawn. Nora laughingly pointed at him.

"In a few minutes he'll be asleep and will tumble off his chair."

"I'm afeard y