or do
you _hope_ he'd keep your memory?"

"Oh--yes--why of course!" said my Father quite quickly. "It's a jolly
one after all, isn't it!--Color--Color?--Let me see!--For twenty-five
dollars you say? Yes Yes!--The very thing! _Yellow_ of course! I hope my
Best Friend would have wit enough to buy a _Lamp_!--Nothing fancy you
know but something absolutely reliable.--Daytimes to be sure your memory
wouldn't be much use to him. But nights--the time everybody needs
everybody the most,--Nights I say,--looking back from--from _China_, was
it that you designated?--Nights it would be rather pleasant I think to
feel that one lived on and on--as a yellow glow in his friend's life."

My Father reached out and pinched my ear.

"How about it, Ruthy?" he asked.

"Oh that's all right," I admitted. "But if _I_ gave my Best Friend
twenty-five dollars to remember me by--I hope he'd buy a Blueberry
Bush!--Just _think_ of all the colors it would keep your memory!--White
in blossom-time! And blue in fruit-season! And red as blood all the
Autumn! With brown rabbits hopping through you!--And speckled birds
laying--goodness knows _what_ colored eggs! And--"

Somebody banged the front door. Somebody scuffled on the threshold.
Somebody shouted "Hello--Hello--Hello--!" It was the Old Doctor.

We ran to see if he had peppermints in his pocket.

He had!

After the Old Doctor had given us all the peppermints he thought we
ought to have--and seven more besides, he sat down in the big cretonne
chair by the window, and fanned his neck with a newspaper. He seemed to
be pretty mad at the people who had made his collars.

"W-hew!" he said. "The man who invented a 21-inch collar ought to be
forced to suck boiling starch through the neck of a Blueing Bottle!"

We didn't see just why.

The Old Doctor said he didn't care to discuss it.

"Any news to-day?" asked my Father.

"News enough!" said the Old Doctor. He seemed pretty mad about that too!

"Such as what?" asked my Father.

"There's a Prince and Princess in town!" said the Old Doctor. "Or a Duch
and Duchess!--Or a Fool and Fooless!--I don't care what you call
'em!--They've got some sort of a claim on the old Dun Voolees estate.
Brook,--meadow,--blueberry----hillside,--popple grove,--everything!
They've come way from Austria to prove it! Going to build a Tannery! Or
a Fertilizer Factory! Or some other equally odoriferous industry! Fill
the town with foreign laborers!--String a line of lows