t her a pair of
willing hands, and indomitable courage to face emergencies.

"Seems to me if I'd had to endure all that the Widow Patten has, I'd
have given up long ago," more than one neighbor said, beholding her
sorrows and cares; but the Widow Patten _never_ gave up. "The way will
open," was one of her favorite sayings, and nine times out of ten it
did. It had opened up opportunely when Miss Clyde asked her to take
little Gabriel and his nurse from the city hospital. The pantry had been
deplorably bare, and the very substantial check that preceded the
invalid's coming had been a godsend.

Blue Bonnet opened the white picket gate and walked up the path bordered
with old-fashioned flags that led to Mrs. Patten's front door. She
knocked softly.

Mrs. Patten was not long in answering. She flung back the door with a
gesture that bespoke hospitality.

"Why, it's Miss Blue Bonnet," she said, smiling a welcome. "Come right
in. S'pose you want to see Gabriel. He's out in the orchard with Miss
Warren. They're both crazy 'bout the fruit blooms and the sunshine."

She led the way through a spotless kitchen, and Blue Bonnet stopped at
the door to catch a glimpse of Gabriel's ecstatic face. The child was
propped with soft, comfortable pillows in a wheel chair. It was the
first time Blue Bonnet had seen him out of bed, and the sight of his
crutches gave her a start.

"So you arrived safely?" she said, shaking hands with Miss Warren and
dropping down beside Gabriel.

Gabriel removed his eyes from a robin in the peach-tree long enough to
say "good morning" at his nurse's request. Then he spied Solomon.

"A dog!" he cried delightedly, as if wonders were multiplying too
rapidly to be true.

Blue Bonnet took Solomon by the collar and pulled him closer to the boy.
"Pet him," she said, "he won't hurt you." But at Solomon's friendly
approach the child shrank away in terror.

"Gabriel has never known much about dogs," Miss Warren explained. "And
just think, Miss Ashe, he's never seen a robin before! That's why he
forgot to speak to you; he was entranced."

Entranced he was. The trees in bloom; the soft fragrant air swaying the
leaves gently; the singing birds; Mrs. Patten's lazy yellow cat drowsing
in the sunshine; the chickens cackling in the tiny barnyard, opened up
a panorama before the child's wondering eyes that could scarcely be
eclipsed by heaven itself. Only one who has lain for months in a
hospital ward with blank wal