iting cause was
left to the imagination of the beholder.

Ruth laughed over the flash-light picture till she cried, and declared
that it had almost cured her headache. When Graham helped her up the
stairs that night, she startled him by leaning up against him to laugh
again. "I was thinking of Claire's picture in the flash-light," she
explained, as her brother looked down at her anxiously. "Poor Claire!
I'm afraid she felt more like crying than laughing."

"'Tisn't every girl that's as plucky as my little sister," said Graham,
tightening his clasp about her. Ruth's laughter ended abruptly. "Oh,
don't, Graham," she pleaded, as if distressed by his praise. "If you
only knew--" And there she stopped. It was quite enough for Ruth Wylie
to know the true inwardness of that day; a day, Ruth was certain, that
would never, never be duplicated in her experience.

CHAPTER X

MRS. SNOOKS' EDUCATION

For the next few days Ruth continued to be the centre of the life of the
cottage. All the fun was planned with due regard to her lack of
strength. At almost every meal some little extra delicacy appeared
beside her plate. Whatever impatience Graham and Jack may have felt over
the further postponement of their tramp, they concealed the feeling with
remarkable tact. There was little danger however, that the unusual
attentions showered on Ruth would turn her head, as she had a
counter-irritant in the shape of a firm conviction that she did not
deserve any of this spontaneous kindness.

It was a day or two after her unsuccessful attempt to enact the role of
heroine that Graham arrived at the cottage at an early hour and in a
noticeable state of indignation. In spite of Ruth's protests that she
was quite well enough to assist in the work of the morning, the girls
had unanimously scoffed at the suggestion, and had forcibly seated her
in one of the porch rockers and thrust a late magazine in her hands. But
by the time Graham arrived, the magazine had slipped to the floor and
Ruth sitting with folded hands, was able to give her brother her
undivided attention.

"It's the most extraordinary thing," Graham sat down on the steps at
Ruth's feet, and fanned his flushed face with his hat. "Have you missed
anything that belongs to you, lately?"

"Why, no! Have you found anything?"

"That's what I'm going to tell you. To start at the beginning, the first
night Jack and I slept at Mrs. Snooks', we weren't warm enough. There
weren't m