eaves and
waist-deep with bracken; little brooks, clean as whistles, piped away
among immaculate stones, and limpid light broken by delicious shadows
fell over all.

"Who shall ask her first?" said Aladdin. Peter smiled. "Shall we toss
for it?" said Aladdin. Peter laughed gaily. "Do you really want it to be
like that?" he said.

"What's the use of our being friends," said Aladdin, "if we are not
going to back each other up in this of all things?"

"Right!" said Peter. "But you ought to have the first show because you
mentioned it first."

"Rubbish!" said Aladdin. "We'll toss, but not now; we'll wait till we
get there."

Peter looked at his watch.

"Nearly in," he said.

"Yes," said Aladdin. "I know by the woods."

"Did you telegraph, by any chance?" said Peter. "Because I didn't."

"Nor I," said Aladdin; "I didn't want to be met."

"Nor I," said Peter.

"The sick man and the lame man will take hands and hobble up the hill,"
said Aladdin. "And whatever happens, they mustn't let anything make any
difference."

"No," said Peter, "they mustn't."

XXIX

Our veterans walked painfully through the town and up the hill; nor were
they suffered to go in peace, for right and left they were recognized,
and people rushed up to shake them by the hands and ask news of such an
one, and if Peter's bullet was still in him, and if it was true, which
of course they saw it wasn't, that Aladdin had a wooden leg. Aladdin,
it must be owned, enjoyed these demonstrations, and in spite of his
lameness strutted a little. But Peter, white from the after effects of
his wound and weary with the long travel, did not enjoy them at all.
Then the steep pitch of the hill was almost too much for him, and now
and again he was obliged to stop and rest.

The St. Johns' house stood among lilacs and back from the street by the
breadth of a small garden. In the rear were large grounds, fields, and
even woods. The place had two entrances, one immediately in front of the
house for people on foot, and the other, a quarter of a mile distant,
for people driving. This latter, opening from a joyous country lane
of blackberry-vines and goldenrod, passed between two prodigious round
stones, and S-ed into a dark and stately wood. Trees, standing gladly
where God had set them, made a screen, impenetrable to the eye, between
the gateway and the house.

Here Peter and Aladdin halted, while Aladdin sent a coin spinning into
the air.

"Heads!" c