ure of his ground he determined that now was the time
to strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at Meadow
Brook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Of
course there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry up
there ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance in
the world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; to
look again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startled
and half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing and
everything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little and
as much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was frankly
and boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and they
were both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would just
as leave have ridden on that way for ever.

Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, so
Sam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedly
and directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assembly
room. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but only
nodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freest
from observation.

"You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterly
eye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I met
you. I need you. I can not do without you. I--"

"Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in the
doorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the young
people, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing down
at her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven a
four-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, with
an entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression.

"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.

[Illustration: "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.]

It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her rare
smile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father.

"You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What is
it?"

"Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, and
wants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens,
plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all its
aggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the
'phone now."

Sam, as he walked