ately. It is right, you know, that all young
people should. I will tell you everything that I have thought, and then
you must tell me what you think. For there are some things that I can't
find out by myself, though I have tried and tried. And boys ought to
know more than girls about love. But I don't believe they do!"

The blue eyes gazed at him rather severely from under the gypsy hat. It
was the woman arraigning the man with the eternal challenge. The boy
looked down at the ground, and tried not to feel guilty, as the
challenged always do. Ruth saw how it was, and relented, as the woman
always does. She ran her arm through David's, and gave it an
affectionate teasing little squeeze.

"You can't help not knowing anything, can you, poor dear?" she said,
with sweet laughter. "Well, then, never mind. We will try to find out
together. There are only three things that I really must know--that I
can't possibly do without knowing."

The smile faded. She sat silently gazing across the wide, quiet river.

"Only three really very, very important things," she presently went on.
"The first is this: How may a girl tell what people call 'true love'
from every other kind of love? You see, dear, there are so many kinds of
love, and they are all true, too. When a girl like me has loved every
one ever since she could remember--because every one has always been so
good and loving to her that she couldn't help it--she knows, of course,
when another kind of love comes; but she doesn't know whether it is
truer than all the rest. How can she tell? That is one of the things I
want to find out--the first of the three really important things that I
most wish to know," checking it off on her small forefinger.

Resting her elbow on her knee, and her chin in the palm of her hand, she
fell suddenly silent again, and sat gazing across the river. Her blue
eyes seemed to be wistfully seeking the secret of love among the rosy
mists which the sunset had left beneath the shadowy trees. She did not
observe that the boy made no reply. Her lovely head was intently bent to
the other side, as if listening to hear some whisper from her own heart.
When she spoke, it was in a low, absent tone, as though she were
whispering to herself, or thinking only half aloud.

"And what are the signs of true love? That is the next thing. What are
the sure signs that true love may be known by, so that there can be no
danger of making a mistake, no risk of taking one kin