re going on,
that very day we saw you in the wood--the day I called you, and you
came. I shall see, some day, what has made it wrong--yes. Spinner in
the Shadow, I shall see. I'm grieving now for Laddie and my heart is
sore, but when I have forgiven him, I shall be at rest."

"Forgiven who?" queried Evelina.

"Why, the man who hurt Laddie--the same, I'm thinking, who hurt you.
But your hurt was worse than Laddie's, I take it, and so 't is harder
to forgive."

Evelina's heart beat hard. Never before had she thought of forgiving
Anthony Dexter. She put it aside quickly as altogether impossible.
Moreover, he had not asked.

"What is it to forgive?" she questioned, curiously.

"The word is not made right," answered the Piper, "I'm thinking 't is
wrong end to, as many things in this world are until we move and look
at them from another way. It's giving for, that's all. When you have
put self so wholly aside that you can be sorry for him because he has
wronged you, why, then, you have forgiven."

"I shall never be able to do that," she returned. "Why, I should not
even try."

"Ah," cried the Piper, "I knew that some day I should find what was
wrong, but I did not think it would be now. 'T is because you have not
forgiven that you have been sad for so long. When you have forgiven,
you will be free."

"He never asked," muttered Evelina.

"No; 't is very strange, I'm thinking, but those who most need to be
forgiven are those who never ask. 'T is hard, I know, for I cannot yet
be sorry for him because he hurt Laddie--I can only be sorry for
Laddie, who was hurt. But the great truth is there. When I have grown
to where I can be sorry for him as well as for Laddie, why, my grieving
will be done.

"The little chap," mused the Piper, fondly, "he was a faithful comrade.
'T was a true heart that the brute--ah, what am I saying! I'll not be
forgetting how he fared with me in sun and storm, sharing a crust with
me, often, as man to man, and not complaining, because we were
together. A woman never loved me but a dog has, and I'm thinking that
some day I may have the greater love because I've been worthy of the
less.

"My mother died when I was born and, because of that, I've tried to
make the world easier for all women. I'm not thinking I have wholly
failed, yet the great love has not come. I've often thought," went on
Piper Tom, simply, "that if a woman waited for me at night when I went
home, with love o