e when he
met her and, although the young lady was in better spirits and
prettier than he had ever seen her, these very facts made him
miserable, because he accepted them as proofs that the situation
was as he feared. He watched Ruth's face also and there, too, he
saw, or fancied that he saw, a growing anxiety. She had been very
well; her spirits, like Maud's, had been light; she had seemed
younger and so much happier than when he and she first met. The
little Winslow house was no longer so quiet, with no sound of
voices except those of Barbara and her mother. There were Red
Cross sewing meetings there occasionally, and callers came. Major
Grover was one of the latter. The major's errands in Orham were
more numerous than they had been, and his trips thither much more
frequent, in consequence. And whenever he came he made it a point
to drop in, usually at the windmill shop first, and then upon
Babbie at the house. Sometimes he brought her home from school in
his car. He told Jed that he had taken a great fancy to the little
girl and could not bear to miss an opportunity of seeing her.
Which statement Jed, of course, accepted wholeheartedly.

But Jed was sure that Ruth had been anxious and troubled of late
and he believed the reason to be that which troubled him. He hoped
she might speak to him concerning her brother. He would have liked
to broach the subject himself, but feared she might consider him
interfering.

One day--it was in late February, the ground was covered with snow
and a keen wind was blowing in over a sea gray-green and splashed
thickly with white--Jed was busy at his turning lathe when Charlie
came into the shop. Business at the bank was not heavy in mid-
winter and, although it was but little after three, the young man
was through work for the day. He hoisted himself to his accustomed
seat on the edge of the workbench and sat there, swinging his feet
and watching his companion turn out the heads and trunks of a batch
of wooden sailors. He was unusually silent, for him, merely
nodding in response to Jed's cheerful "Hello!" and speaking but a
few words in reply to a question concerning the weather. Jed,
absorbed in his work and droning a hymn, apparently forgot all
about his caller.

Suddenly the latter spoke.

"Jed," he said, "when you are undecided about doing or not doing a
thing, how do you settle it?"

Jed looked up over his spectacles.

"Eh?" he asked. "What's that?"

"I