continually in her mind, and each recurrent thought of it brought an
actual physical pleasure-pang to her heart.

The night she told the news to Billy, he withheld his own news of the
wage-cut, and joined with her in welcoming the little one.

"What'll we do? Go to the theater to celebrate?" he asked, relaxing the
pressure of his embrace so that she might speak. "Or suppose we stay in,
just you and me, and... and the three of us?"

"Stay in," was her verdict. "I just want you to hold me, and hold me,
and hold me."

"That's what I wanted, too, only I wasn't sure, after bein' in the house
all day, maybe you'd want to go out."

There was frost in the air, and Billy brought the Morris chair in by the
kitchen stove. She lay cuddled in his arms, her head on his shoulder,
his cheek against her hair.

"We didn't make no mistake in our lightning marriage with only a week's
courtin'," he reflected aloud. "Why, Saxon, we've been courtin' ever
since just the same. And now... my God, Saxon, it's too wonderful to be
true. Think of it! Ourn! The three of us! The little rascal! I bet he's
goin' to be a boy. An' won't I learn 'm to put up his fists an' take
care of himself! An' swimmin' too. If he don't know how to swim by the
time he's six..."

"And if HE'S a girl?"

"SHE'S goin' to be a boy," Billy retorted, joining in the playful misuse
of pronouns.

And both laughed and kissed, and sighed with content. "I'm goin' to turn
pincher, now," he announced, after quite an interval of meditation. "No
more drinks with the boys. It's me for the water wagon. And I'm goin' to
ease down on smokes. Huh! Don't see why I can't roll my own cigarettes.
They're ten times cheaper'n tailor-mades. An' I can grow a beard. The
amount of money the barbers get out of a fellow in a year would keep a
baby."

"Just you let your beard grow, Mister Roberts, and I'll get a divorce,"
Saxon threatened. "You're just too handsome and strong with a smooth
face. I love your face too much to have it covered up.--Oh, you dear!
you dear! Billy, I never knew what happiness was until I came to live
with you."

"Nor me neither."

"And it's always going to be so?"

"You can just bet," he assured her.

"I thought I was going to be happy married," she went on; "but I never
dreamed it would be like this." She turned her head on his shoulder and
kissed his cheek. "Billy, it isn't happiness. It's heaven."

And Billy resolutely kept undivulged the cut in wages. No