ch the water was purring in little blue ripples, and, oh,
the sunrise out there beyond the harbour! All the eastern
Heaven was abloom with it. And there was a wind that came
dancing and whistling up the channel to replace the beautiful
silence with a music more beautiful still.

The rest of the folks were just coming downstairs when I got
back to breakfast. They were all yawny, and some were grumpy,
but I had washed my being in the sunrise and felt as
blithesome as the day. Oh, life is so good to live!

Tomorrow Uncle James's new vessel, the _White Lady_, is to be
launched. We are going to make a festive occasion of it, and I
am to christen her with a bottle of cobwebby old wine.

But I hear the carriage, and Aunt Jane is calling me. I had a
great deal more to say--about your letter, your big "round-up"
and your tribulations with your Chinese cook--but I've only
time now to say goodbye. You wish me a lovely time at the
dance and a full programme, don't you?

Yours sincerely,
Sidney Richmond.

Aunt Jane came home presently and carried away her sleeping baby.
Sidney said her prayers, went to bed, and slept soundly and serenely.

She mailed her letter the next day, and a month later an answer came.
Sidney read it as soon as she left the post office, and walked the
rest of the way home as in a nightmare, staring straight ahead of her
with wide-open, unseeing brown eyes.

John Lincoln's letter was short, but the pertinent paragraph of it
burned itself into Sidney's brain. He wrote:

I am going east for a visit. It is six years since I was home,
and it seems like three times six. I shall go by the C.P.R.,
which passes through Plainfield, and I mean to stop off for a
day. You will let me call and see you, won't you? I shall have
to take your permission for granted, as I shall be gone before
a letter from you can reach the Bar N. I leave for the east in
five days, and shall look forward to our meeting with all
possible interest and pleasure.

Sidney did not sleep that night, but tossed restlessly about or cried
in her pillow. She was so pallid and hollow-eyed the next morning that
Aunt Jane noticed it, and asked her what the matter was.

"Nothing," said Sidney sharply. Sidney had never spoken sharply to her
aunt before. The good woman sho