"It is true that you have not known me long. But I have known you for
some time. I saw you leave Green Valley one summer night last year and
I came from the West two months before I should have just to see if you
got safely back at lilac time."

At that Nanny's eyes lost all their careful pride and he saw them
lovely with surprise. So he explained.

"I was standing on the back platform of the Los Angeles Limited the
night you went East with your father."

Then a smile that the Lord gives only now and then, to a man that He is
sure He can trust, flitted over the tall boy's face as he added:

"And the very first evening I came back to Green Valley I held you in
my arms--rescued you."

He laughed boyishly, plaguing her. But she stood motionless with
amazement,--too angry to say a word. When that smile came her anger
faded. Through her heart there flashed the mad conviction, through her
mind the certain knowledge, that for her in the time to come the height
of bliss would be to cry in this strange man's arms.

Then she recollected herself and flamed with shame so bitter that her
lower lip quivered and she hoped he would ask her again to call him
John so that she could make him pay for her momentary madness.

But he never asked again. It seemed he was not that kind of a man.

CHAPTER VI

GOSSIP

The last and surest sign of spring's arrival in Green Valley is gossip.
The mornings may be ever so full of meadow larks, the woods moistly
sweet and carpeted with spring's frail and dainty blossoms, but no one
dreams of letting the furnace go out or their base burner get cold
until they see Fanny Foster flitting about town at all hours of the day
and behold the array of shiny armchairs standing so invitingly in front
of Uncle Tony's hardware store.

When these two great news agencies open up for business Green Valley
laughs and goes to Martin's drug store to buy moth balls and talks
about how it's going to paint its kitchen woodwork and paper its
upstairs hall and where it's buying its special garden seed.

Then the whole town wakes up and comes outdoors to work and talk.
There are fences to be mended and gardens to be planted and houses to
be cleaned and all the winter happenings to be gone over. All the
doctor cases have to be discussed critically and the winter invalids,
strong once again, come out to visit one another and compare notes.
Letters from special relatives and former Green Valley souls are