acious sake, keep still--you'll drive me wild."
But her voice only increased the bird's vehemence, and the throbbing
in her ears brought on a headache. When she put a paper over the cage,
the clock annoyed her. She was irritated by a passing boy whistling
"The Girl I Left Behind Me" with all his might, but sadly off the key.
She went to the window and saw Bud Perkins.

[Illustration: "_Dickey, Dickey, for gracious sake, keep still_."]

She did not know that the child had just arisen from a cheering
breakfast at the Penningtons'--even if she knew how much a hearty
breakfast cheers up any boy. But the spectacle of the orphan facing
the world so bravely moved Miss Morgan. She felt a sudden wave of
pity, and with it came the conviction of guilt--that she had been
selfish while the boy was suffering. She had heard at the Penningtons'
that the county would probably take charge of him; but she recalled
what she had heard in its full meaning to the child only when she saw
him turn the corner, going toward the centre of the town. There was
a feeling of keen joy in her heart as she realized that she was not
useless in the world, and she went about her morning's work with the
lightest heart in all Willow Creek beating in her breast.

Bud Perkins had seen but two Memorial Days in Kansas--and upon each of
these days he and his father had gone fishing. The boy knew it was a
soldiers' holiday, and from Piggy Pennington Bud had found out what
were the purposes of the day. He knew that his father had been a
soldier--a soldier on the wrong side. But he did not know that graves
of Confederate soldiers were not included in the day's sacrament.

"Mornin', Captain," said Bud to a slight, gray-haired old man,
stooping over a basket of flowers in a vacant store-room in the main
street of the town.

When the man replied kindly the boy took heart to say: "You must be
kind o' runnin' things here, I guess."

"I'm in charge of the flowers, Bud, just for to-day," replied Captain
Meyers, who did not wish to seem as vain-glorious as he was.

"Goin' to put flowers on all the soldiers' graves--are you?" queried
Bud. The elder replied that the Post aimed to do so.

"Did you know my dad was a soldier?" was the boy's next question.

[Illustration: "_Did you know my dad was a soldier_?"]

The captain's heart was pricked when he saw what was in Bud's mind.
The captain knew what the next query would be. He was a gentle man and
kind. So, looking abo