od bye.
From your frend,

"JANEY."

CHAPTER VI

The next day being town day, David "hooked up" Old Hundred and drove
to the house. After the butter crock, egg pails, and kerosene and
gasoline cans had been piled in, Barnabas squeezed into the space
beside David. M'ri came out with a memorandum of supplies for them to
get in town. To David she handed a big bunch of spicy, pink June
roses.

"What shall I do with them?" he asked wonderingly.

"Give them to some one who looks as if he needed flowers," she
replied.

"I will," declared the boy interestedly. "I will watch them all and
see how they look at the roses."

At last M'ri had a kindred spirit in her household. Jud would have
sneered, and Janey would not have understood. To Barnabas all flowers
looked alike.

It had come to be a custom for Barnabas to take David to town with him
at least once a week. The trip was necessarily a slow one, for from
almost every farmhouse he received a petition to "do a little errand
in town." As the good nature and accommodating tendency of Barnabas
were well known, they were accordingly imposed upon. He received
commissions of every character, from the purchase of a corn sheller to
the matching of a blue ribbon. He also stopped to pick up a child or
two en route to school or to give a lift to a weary pedestrian whom he
overtook.

While Barnabas made his usual rounds of the groceries, meatmarket,
drug store, mill, feed store, general store, and a hotel where he was
well known, David was free to go where he liked. Usually he
accompanied Barnabas, but to-day he walked slowly up the principal
business street, watching for "one who needed flowers." Many glances
were bestowed upon the roses, some admiring, some careless, and
then--his heart almost stopped beating at the significance--Judge
Thorne came by. He, too, glanced at the roses. His gaze lingered, and
a look came into his eyes that stimulated David's passion for
romance.

"He's remembering," he thought joyfully.

He didn't hesitate even an instant. He stopped in front of the Judge
and extended the flowers.

"Would you like these roses, Judge Thorne?" he asked courteously.

Then for the first time the Judge's attention was diverted from the
flowers.

"Your face is familiar, my lad, but--"

"My name is David Dunne."

"Yes, to be sure, but it must be four years or more since I last saw
you. How's y