of a clock. The
night breeze stirred in the great woods, and the sound of a brook that
went falling down the hillside grew louder and louder. Now and then
one could hear the plaintive chirp of a bird. The moon glittered with
whiteness like a winter moon, and shone upon the low-roofed house
until its small window-panes gleamed like silver, and one could almost
see the colors of a blooming bush of lilac that grew in a sheltered
angle by the kitchen door. There was an incessant sound of frogs in
the lowlands.

"Be you sound asleep, John?" asked the wife presently.

"I don't know but what I was a'most," said the tired man, starting a
little. "I should laugh if I was to fall sound asleep right here on
the step; 't is the bright night, I expect, makes my eyes feel heavy,
an' 'tis so peaceful. I was up an' dressed a little past four an' out
to work. Well, well!" and he laughed sleepily and rubbed his eyes.
"Where's the little girls? I'd better step along an' meet 'em."

"I wouldn't just yet; they'll get home all right, but 't is late for
'em certain. I don't want 'em keepin' Mis' Becker's folks up neither.
There, le' 's wait a few minutes," urged Mrs. Hilton.

"I've be'n a-thinkin' all day I'd like to give the child'n some kind
of a treat," said the father, wide awake now. "I hurried up my work
'cause I had it so in mind. They don't have the opportunities some do,
an' I want 'em to know the world, an' not stay right here on the farm
like a couple o' bushes."

"They're a sight better off not to be so full o' notions as some is,"
protested the mother suspiciously.

"Certain," answered the farmer; "but they're good, bright child'n, an'
commencin' to take a sight o' notice. I want 'em to have all we can
give 'em. I want 'em to see how other folks does things."

"Why, so do I,"--here the rocking-chair stopped ominously,--"but so
long's they're contented"--

"Contented ain't all in this world; hopper-toads may have that quality
an' spend all their time a-blinkin'. I don't know's bein' contented is
all there is to look for in a child. Ambition's somethin' to me."

"Now you've got your mind on to some plot or other." (The
rocking-chair began to move again.) "Why can't you talk right out?"

"'T ain't nothin' special," answered the good man, a little ruffled;
he was never prepared for his wife's mysterious powers of divination.
"Well there, you do find things out the master! I only thought perhaps
I'd take 'em to-morrow, an