. But her doughnuts could
not minister to the mind she had diseased. Old Man Shaw took them up;
carried them to the pig-pen, and fed them to the pigs. It was the first
spiteful thing he had done in his life, and he felt a most immoral
satisfaction in it.

In mid-afternoon he went out to the garden, finding the new loneliness
of the little house unbearable. The old bench was warm in the sunshine.
Old Man Shaw sat down with a long sigh, and dropped his white head
wearily on his breast. He had decided what he must do. He would tell
Blossom that she might go back to her aunt and never mind about him--he
would do very well by himself and he did not blame her in the least.

He was still sitting broodingly there when a girl came up the lane. She
was tall and straight, and walked with a kind of uplift in her motion,
as if it would be rather easier to fly than not. She was dark, with a
rich dusky sort of darkness, suggestive of the bloom on purple plums,
or the glow of deep red apples among bronze leaves. Her big brown eyes
lingered on everything in sight, and little gurgles of sound now and
again came through her parted lips, as if inarticulate joy were thus
expressing itself.

At the garden gate she saw the bent figure on the old bench, and the
next minute she was flying along the rose walk.

"Daddy!" she called, "daddy!"

Old Man Shaw stood up in hasty bewilderment; then a pair of girlish arms
were about his neck, and a pair of warm red lips were on his; girlish
eyes, full of love, were looking up into his, and a never-forgotten
voice, tingling with laughter and tears blended into one delicious
chord, was crying,

"Oh, daddy, is it really you? Oh, I can't tell you how good it is to see
you again!"

Old Man Shaw held her tightly in a silence of amazement and joy too deep
for wonder. Why, this was his Blossom--the very Blossom who had gone
away three years ago! A little taller, a little more womanly, but his
own dear Blossom, and no stranger. There was a new heaven and a new
earth for him in the realization.

"Oh, Baby Blossom!" he murmured, "Little Baby Blossom!"

Sara rubbed her cheek against the faded coat sleeve.

"Daddy darling, this moment makes up for everything, doesn't it?"

"But--but--where did you come from?" he asked, his senses beginning to
struggle out of their bewilderment of surprise. "I didn't expect you
till to-morrow. You didn't have to walk from the station, did you? And
your old daddy not ther