or you. Going to find time to be married in, think, Andy?"

"I rather expect to be able to manage it," responded Doctor Churchill,
laughing. "How long have you been home, Lanse--two hours? Just promised
to let me know when you came."

"I started, but you were whizzing up the street in the runabout,"
protested Just, picking up the debris of the unpacking and carrying it
away. "There was a trail of steam behind you sixteen feet long. I think
you were running beyond lawful speed."

"Here's your latest acquisition." Jeff pointed it out, picking up the
copper slab and holding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection.
Doctor Churchill turned and regarded it with interest. Then his bright
glance shifted to Charlotte, and he smiled at her.

"That's great, isn't it?" he said, and she nodded, smiling.

Just, returning, shouted. "Trust 'em both to get round anything that may
turn up! 'That's great!' is certainly safe and non-committal of a
four-foot motto that's of no earthly use."

"Well, but I like it," Doctor Churchill asserted, and came over to
Charlotte's side, where he examined the copper slab with attention.
"Don't you believe that will pretty nearly fit the depression in the
fireplace just above the shelf?"

Her interested look responded to his. "Why, I believe it will!" she
answered.

"Who sent it?"

"We can't find out."

"No card? That's odd. But there may be something about it to show. It
looks to me as if it had been made for that place. If it proves to fit,
we can narrow the mystery down to the few people who have seen the new
fireplace. Let's go over and try, shall we? Come on--everybody!"

Accordingly, the whole company streamed out across the lawn--Charlotte
and Doctor Churchill, Celia, her pretty blond head shining in the
October sunlight, Lanse and Jeff and Just, three stalwart fellows,
ranging in ages from twenty-six to sixteen, Mr. and Mrs. Birch, the
happy possessors of this happy clan.

They hurried up the two steps of the small front porch, into the brick
house, and stampeded into the front room. They stopped opposite the
fireplace, where Doctor Churchill was already triumphantly inserting the
copper panel--for that is what it instantly became--in the long,
horizontal depression in the fireplace.

"It fits to a hair!" he exclaimed, and a general murmur of approbation
arose. Now that the odd gift was where it so clearly belonged, its
peculiar beauty became evident even to the skeptical Jef