brownish, it was. And she had one of
those little ruffled capes the ladies used to wear. And a little
bonnet--"

"A BONNET!"

"A bonnet she had trimmed herself. I remember watching her, when we
were engaged, making that trimming. You don't see it any more, but that
year all the girls were making it. They made little bunches of grapes
out of dried peas covered with chamois skin--"

"Oh, not really!" ejaculated Anne.

"Indeed, they did. Then they covered their bonnets with them, and with
leaves cut out of the chamois skin. They were charming, too. My wife
wore that bonnet a long time. She trimmed it over and over." He sighed,
but there was a shade of longing as well as pity in his eyes. "We were
young," he said thoughtfully; "I was but twenty-five; we had our hard
times. The babies came pretty fast. Rose wasn't very strong. I worked
too hard, got broken down a little, and expenses went right on, you
know--"

"You bet I know!" Jim said, with his pleasant laugh, and a glance for
Anne.

"Well," said Charles Rideout, looking keenly from one to the other,
"thank God for it, you young people! It never comes back! The days when
you shoulder your troubles cheerfully together,--they come to their
end! And they are"--he shook his head--"they are very wonderful to look
back to! I remember a certain day," he went on reminiscently, "when we
had paid the last of the doctor's bills, and Rose met me down town for
a little celebration. We had had five or six years of pretty hard
sailing then. We bought her new gloves that day, I remember,
and--shoes, I think it was, and I got a hat, and a book I'd been
wanting. We went to a little French restaurant to dinner, with all our
bundles. And that, that, my dear,--" he said, smiling at Anne,--"seemed
to be the turning point. We got into the country next year, picked out
a little house. And then, the rest of it all followed; we had two
maids, a surrey, I was put into the superintendent's place--" a sweep
of the fine hand dismissed the details. "No man and wife, who do what
we did," said he, gravely, "who live modestly, and work hard, and love
each other and their children, can FAIL. That's one of the blessed
things of life."

Jim cleared his throat, but did not speak. Anne was frankly unable to
speak.

"And now I mustn't keep these children out of bed any longer," said the
older man. "This has been a--a lovely afternoon for me. I wish Mrs.
Rideout had been with me." He stood up. "Shall