eenty drink. _He_ knows how to make
sick folks well."

"He couldn't make my baby well," the woman blurted out with such
bitterness that Peace recoiled, shocked.

"I'll bet he could have, if anyone could," she declared staunchly after
her first start of surprise.

"Yes, I suppose so. That is what Ed said," answered the bereft mother
more quietly.

"Is Ed your husband?"

"Yes."

"I thought he was dead!"

"Ed? Why, no! What put that idea into your head?"

"You are all rigged out in black--"

"My baby is dead."

"So is Elspeth's, but she never wears black. St. John likes to see her
in blue, so she wears that color lots. It just matches her eyes. St.
John is a perfectly good husband--"

"So is Ed," interrupted Mrs. Wood, with a passion that surprised her.
"No one can say one word against Ed. He is as good as gold."

"Does he like black on you?"

"Why--er--I don't know."

"I never saw a man yet that did," Peace commented sagely. "Grandpa has
fits when Grandma gets into an all-black rig. He says it looks too
gloomy. That's what St. John and Elspeth think, too, so she never wears
it."

"Who are they?" asked Mrs. Wood, for want of anything else to say,
because the child's criticism of her attire had sharply reminded her of
her own husband's frank disapproval.

"St. John was our minister in Parker, but now he has the Hill Street
Church in Martindale, where I live. Elspeth is his wife. They let me
name their twins, but the Tiniest One died before I could find a pretty
enough name for it."

"Ah! She still has something to live for. No wonder she can dress in
blue. She didn't lose her only child."

"'Twouldn't have made any difference if she had lost her whole family,"
Peace replied, unconsciously pushing the sharp arrow deeper and deeper
into her unwilling visitor's heart. "She'd have gone to work and adopted
some to raise. That's what Grandpa and Grandma did."

"I thought you said your grandfather was President of the State
University."

"I did. But he ain't our real grandfather. His only two children died
when they were little, and 'cause my own Grandpa had adopted him when
they were boys, Grandpa Campbell adopted the whole kit of us when he
found out who we were and that we were _orphants_. There are six of us,
but he said he'd have taken the whole bunch if there'd been a dozen.
That's the kind of a fellow he is, and Elspeth is just like him. Why
don't you adopt a baby?"

"Why--why--why--"

"Woul