hite Rose, an' there is nothin' _to_ be
said."

Then she bent her head over her sewing, feeling, indeed, that there was
little use for words.

"Do you know," he asked, breaking a protracted silence, "that you have
got to give up teachin'?"

"And do what? I might take to gardening. That would be better, perhaps;
I have thought about it."

"Let me see your hands. They look like gardenin': two rose-leaves! Don't
it make me wish to be back in my prime? Work for you! Wouldn't I love to
work for you?"

"And do you not, in every way you can? Am I to have no pride about
accepting so much service? What a poor creature you must take me for,
Mr. Chillis."

"There is nothin' else in the world that I think of; nothin' else that I
live for; an' after all it is so little, that I cannot save you from
spoilin' your pretty looks with care. An' you have troubled yourself
about me, too; don't think I haven't seen it. You fret your lovely soul
about the old man's trouble, when you can't help it--you, nor nobody.
An', after all, what does it matter about _me_? _I_ am nothin', and you
are everything. I want you to remember that, and do everything for your
own happiness without wastin' a thought on me. I am content to keep my
distance, ef I only see you happy and well off. Do you understand me?"

Mrs. Smiley looked up with a suffused face. "Mr. Chillis," she answered,
"you make me ashamed of myself and my selfishness. Let us never refer to
this subject again. Work don't hurt me; and since you have offered to
provide for Willie's education, you have lifted half my burden. Why
should you stand at a distance to see me happier than I am, when I am so
happy as to have such a friend as you? How am I to be happier by your
being at a distance, who have been the kindest of friends? You are out
of spirits this evening, and you talk just a little--nonsense." And she
smiled at him in a sweetly apologetic fashion for the word.

"That is like enough," he returned gravely; "but I want you to remember
my words, foolish or not. Don't let me stand in your light--not for one
minute; and don't forgit this: that Joe Chillis is happy when he sees
the White Rose bloomin' and bright."

Contrary to his command, Mrs. Smiley did endeavor to forget these words
in the weeks following, when the old mountain-man came no more to her
rose-embowered cottage, and when Captain Rumway invented many ingenious
schemes for getting the pale school-teacher to take more recr