ooked at the yawning grave, the
waiting coffin, the low-dropping sun and mumbled strange prayers.

Through a mist of tears the waiting watchers saw Hank Lolly and Billy
Evans pass through the cemetery gate, dragging something between them.
It was something that laughed and sobbed and gibbered horribly. Hank
and Billy tried to hold the ghastly thing erect between them but it
slipped from their trembling hands and lay, a twitching heap, at the
head of the open grave.

That was Green Valley's darkest hour. And after that came the dawn.
The following week Green Valley men walked quietly to the polls and as
one man voted the horror out of their lives. The day after little Jim
went off to take the Keeley cure. And then for two long weeks Green
Valley was still with the stillness of exhaustion.

Spring deepened and brought with it all the old gladness and a new
sweet peace, a peace such as Green Valley had never known. Gardens
began to bloom again and streets rippled with the laughter of
neighboring men and women. Life swung back to normal. Only the hotel
stood silent, a still vacant-eyed reminder of past pain. Nobody
mentioned it. Every one tried to forget it. But so long as it stood
there, a specter within its heart, Green Valley could not forget. It
was said that Sam Ellis had put it up for sale. But who would buy the
huge place?

Then it was that Green Valley's three good little men came forward.
Joe Gans, the socialist barber, was spokesman. He presented a plan
that made Green Valley catch its breath.

Why--said the three good little men--could not Green Valley buy the
hotel for its own use? Why not remodel it, make a Community House of
it? Why not move Joshua Stillman's wonderful library out of the little
dark room into which it was packed and spread it out in a big sunny
place, with comfortable chairs and rockers and a couple of nice long
reading tables? Why not fix a place for the young people to dance in
and have their parties? Why not have a real assembly hall--a big
enough and proper place to hold political meetings and all indoor
celebrations? Why not have pool, billiards, a bowling alley? Why not
have a manual-training room for Hen Tomlins and his boys? Why not have
a sewing room and cooking for the girls?

Oh, it was a glorious plan and Green Valley listened as a child does to
a fairy tale. Of course it couldn't really be done, many people said,
but--oh, my--if it only could!

But th