y
little face peeped at him from between two scrub, bloom-white cherry
trees.

"G'way, you bad man!" said Bobbles vindictively. "G'way! You made my
mommer cry--I saw you. I'm only Bobbles now, but when I grow up I'll
be Charles Henry Hayden and you won't dare to make my mommer cry
then."

Harrington smiled grimly. "So you're the lad who forgets to shut the
pigpen gate, are you? Come out here and let me see you. Who is in
there with you?"

"Ted is. He's littler than me. But I won't come out. I don't like you.
G'way home."

Harrington obeyed. He went home and to work in his garden. But work as
hard as he would, he could not forget Mary Hayden's grieved face.

"I was a brute!" he thought. "Why couldn't I have mentioned the matter
gently? I daresay she has enough to trouble her. Confound those pigs!"

* * * * *

After that there was a time of calm. Evidently something had been done
to Bobbles' memory or perhaps Mrs. Hayden attended to the gate
herself. At all events the pigs were not seen and Harrington's garden
blossomed like the rose. But Harrington himself was in a bad state.

For one thing, wherever he looked he saw the mental picture of his
neighbour's tired, sweet face and the tears in her blue eyes. The
original he never saw, which only made matters worse. He wondered what
opinion she had of him and decided that she must think him a cross old
bear. This worried him. He wished the pigs would break in again so
that he might have a chance to show how forbearing he could be.

One day he gathered a nice mess of tender young greens and sent them
over to Mrs. Hayden by Mordecai. At first he had thought of sending
her some flowers, but that seemed silly, and besides, Mordecai and
flowers were incongruous. Mrs. Hayden sent back a very pretty message
of thanks, whereat Harrington looked radiant and Mordecai, who could
see through a stone wall as well as most people, went out to the barn
and chuckled.

"Ef the little widder hain't caught him! Who'd a-thought it?"

The next day one adventurous pig found its way alone into the
Harrington garden. Harrington saw it get in and at the same moment he
saw Mrs. Hayden running through her orchard. She was in his yard by
the time he got out.

Her sunbonnet had fallen back and some loose tendrils of her auburn
hair were curling around her forehead. Her cheeks were so pink and her
eyes so bright from running that she looked almost girlish.

"