entering into the
spirit of the salutation. "Let's turn our heads Farnham way! I'll take
Jack and you take Fardie, and we'll say togedder, 'More love'; shall
we?"

"More love, John."

"More love, Jack."

The words floated out over the trees in the woman's trembling voice and
the child's treble.

"Elder Gray looks tired though he's just got up," Sue continued.

"He is not strong," replied her mother, remembering Brother Ansel's
statement that the Elder "wa'n't diseased anywheres, but did n't have no
durability."

"The Elder would have a lovely lap," Sue remarked presently.

"_What_?"

"A nice lap to sit in. Fardie has a nice lap, too, and Uncle Joel
Atterbury, but not Aunt Louisa; she lets you slide right off; it's a
bony, hard lap. I love Elder Gray, and I climbed on his lap one day. He
put me right down, but I'm sure he likes children. I wish I could take
right hold of his hand and walk all over the farm, but he would n't let
me, I s'pose.-- _More love, Elder Gray_!" she cried suddenly, bobbing
up above the windowsill and shaking her fairy hand at him.

The Elder looked up at the sound of the glad voice. No human creature
could have failed to smile back into the roguish face or have treated
churlishly the sweet, confident little greeting. The heart of a real man
must have an occasional throb of the father, and when Daniel Gray rose
from his seat under the maple and called, "More love, child!" there was
something strange and touching in his tone. He moved away from the
tree to his morning labors with the consciousness of something new
to conquer. Long, long ago he had risen victorious above many of the
temptations that flesh is heir to. Women were his good friends, his
comrades, his sisters; they no longer troubled the waters of his soul;
but here was a child who stirred the depths; who awakened the potential
father in him so suddenly and so strongly that he longed for the
sweetness of a human tie that could bind him to her. But the current of
the Elder's being was set towards sacrifice and holiness, and the common
joys of human life he felt could never and must never be his; so he
went to the daily round, the common task, only a little paler, a little
soberer than was his wont.

"More love, Martha!" said Susanna when she met Martha a little later in
the day.

"More love, Susanna!" Martha replied cheerily. "You heard our Shaker
greeting, I see! It was the beautiful weather, the fine air and glorious
col