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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Enchanted Barn
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Illustrator: Edmund Frederick
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2011 [eBook #34426]
+[Most recently updated: January 23, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Al Haines
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED BARN ***
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: SHE WAS ALMOST BREATHLESS WHEN SHE REACHED THE BOTTOM OF
+THE HILL AND STOOD IN FRONT OF THE GREAT BARN.  _Page 20_]
+
+
+
+
+
+The Enchanted Barn
+
+
+By
+
+Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+Author of "Marcia Schuyler," "Phoebe Deane," "The Obsession of Victoria
+Gracen," etc.
+
+
+
+_With Frontispiece by_
+
+EDMUND FREDERICK
+
+
+
+
+Philadelphia & London
+
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE GOLDEN RULE COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+
+
+PUBLISHED APRIL, 1918
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+
+PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Shirley Hollister pushed back the hair from her hot forehead, pressed
+her hands wearily over tired eyes, then dropped her fingers again to
+the typewriter keys, and flew on with the letter she was writing.
+
+There was no one else in the inner office where she sat.  Mr. Barnard,
+the senior member of the firm, whose stenographer she was, had stepped
+into the outer office for a moment with a telegram which he had just
+received.  His absence gave Shirley a moment's respite from that
+feeling that she must keep strained up to meet his gaze and not let
+trouble show in her eyes, though a great lump was choking in her throat
+and the tears stung her hot eyelids and insisted on blurring her vision
+now and then.  But it was only for an instant that she gave way.  Her
+fingers flew on with their work, for this was an important letter, and
+Mr. Barnard wanted it to go in the next mail.
+
+As she wrote, a vision of her mother's white face appeared to her
+between the lines, the mother weak and white, with tears on her cheeks
+and that despairing look in her eyes.  Mother hadn't been able to get
+up for a week.  It seemed as if the cares of life were getting almost
+too much for her, and the warm spring days made the little brick house
+in the narrow street a stifling place to stay.  There was only one
+small window in mother's room, opening against a brick wall, for they
+had had to rent the front room with its two windows.
+
+But, poor as it was, the little brick house had been home; and now they
+were not to have that long.  Notice had been served that they must
+vacate in four weeks; for the house, in fact, the whole row of houses
+in which it was situated, had been sold, and was to be pulled down to
+make way for a big apartment-house that was to be put up.
+
+Where they were going and what they were going to do now was the great
+problem that throbbed on Shirley's weary brain night and day, that kept
+her from sleeping and eating, that choked in her throat when she tried
+to speak to Mr. Barnard, that stared from her feverish eyes as she
+looked at the sunshine on the street or tried to work in the busy
+monotony of the office.
+
+They had been in the little house nearly a year, ever since the father
+died.  It had taken all they could scrape together to pay the funeral
+expenses, and now with her salary, and the roomer's rent, and what
+George got as cash-boy in a department store they were just barely able
+to get along.  There was not a cent over for sickness or trouble, and
+nothing to move with, even if they had anywhere to move, or any time to
+hunt for a place.  Shirley knew from her experience in hunting for the
+present house that it was going to be next to impossible for them to
+find any habitable place for as little rent as they were now paying,
+and how _could_ they pay more?  She was only a beginner, and her salary
+was small.  There were three others in the family, not yet
+wage-earners.  The problem was tremendous.  Could it be that Carol,
+only fourteen years old, must stop school and go to work somewhere to
+earn a pittance also?  Carol was slender and pale, and needed fresh air
+and nourishing food.  Carol was too young to bear burdens yet; besides,
+who would be housekeeper and take care of mother if Carol had to go to
+work?  It was different with George; he was a boy, strong and sturdy;
+he had his school in the department store, and was getting on well with
+his studies.  George would be all right.  He belonged to a baseball
+team, too, and got plenty of chances for exercise; but Carol was frail,
+there was no denying it.  Harley was a boisterous nine-year-old, always
+on the street these days when he wasn't in school; and who could blame
+him?  For the narrow, dark brick house was no place for a lively boy.
+But the burden and anxiety for him were heavy on his sister's heart,
+who had taken over bodily all the worries of her mother.  Then there
+was the baby Doris, with her big, pathetic eyes, and her round cheeks
+and loving ways.  Doris, too, had to be shut in the dark little house
+with the summer heat coming on, and no one with time enough or strength
+enough to take her to the Park.  Doris was only four.  Oh, it was
+terrible, _terrible_!  and Shirley could do nothing but sit there, and
+click those keys, and earn her poor little inadequate salary!  Some
+day, of course, she would get more--but some day might be too late!
+
+She shuddered as the terrible thought flashed through her mind, then
+went on with her work again.  She must shake off this state of mind and
+give attention to her duty, or she would lose even this opportunity to
+help her dear ones.
+
+The door of the outer office opened, and Mr. Barnard entered.
+
+"Miss Hollister," he said hurriedly, "if you have those letters ready,
+I will sign them at once.  We have just had word that Mr. Baker of the
+firm died last night in Chicago, and I must go on at once.  The office
+will be closed for the rest of the day.  You can let those other
+matters that I spoke of go until to-morrow, and you may have the day
+off.  I shall not be at the office at the usual hour to-morrow morning,
+but you can come in and look after the mail.  I will leave further
+directions with Mr. Clegg.  You can mail these letters as you go down."
+
+Ten minutes later Shirley stood on the street below in the warm spring
+sunshine, and gazed about her half dazed.  It seemed a travesty on her
+poor little life just now to have a holiday and no way to make it count
+for the dear ones at home.  How should she use it, anyway?  Should she
+go home and help Carol?  Or should she go out and see whether she could
+find a house somewhere that they could possibly afford to move to?
+That, of course, was the sensible thing to do; yet she had no idea
+where to go.  But they did not expect her home at this time of day.
+Perhaps it was as well that she should use this time and find out
+something without worrying her mother.  At least, she would have time
+to think undisturbed.
+
+She grasped her little package of lunch that she had brought from home
+with her and looked about her helplessly.  In her little thin purse was
+the dime she always carried with her to pay her car-fare in case
+something happened that she had to ride either way--though she seldom
+rode, even in a storm.  But her mother insisted on the dime.  She said
+it was not safe to go without any money at all.  This dime was her
+capital wherewith to hunt a house.  Perhaps the day had been given her
+by a kind heavenly Father to go on her search.  She would try to use it
+to the best of her ability.  She lifted her bewildered heart in a
+feeble petition for light and help in her difficult problem, and then
+she went and stood on the corner of the street where many trolley-cars
+were passing and repassing.  Which one should she take, and where
+should she go?  The ten cents must cover all her riding, and she must
+save half of it for her return.
+
+She studied the names on the cars.  "Glenside Road" one read.  What had
+she heard about that?  Ah! that it was the longest ride one could take
+for five cents within the limits of the city's roads!  Her heart leaped
+up at the word.  It sounded restful anyway, and would give her time to
+think.  It wasn't likely, if it went near any glens, that there would
+be any houses within her means on its way; but possibly it passed some
+as it went through the city, and she could take notice of the streets
+and numbers and get out on her return trip to investigate if there
+proved to be anything promising; or, if it were too far away from home
+for her to walk back from it, she could come another time in the
+evening with George, some night when he did not have school.  Anyhow,
+the ride would rest her and give her a chance to think what she ought
+to do, and one car was as good as another for that.  Her resolve was
+taken, and she stepped out and signalled it.
+
+There were not many people in the car.  It was not an hour when people
+rode out to the suburbs.  Two workmen with rolls of wall-paper slung in
+burlap bags, a woman and a little girl, that was all.
+
+Shirley settled back in her seat, and leaned her head against the
+window-sash wearily.  She felt so tired, body and soul, that she would
+have been glad to sleep and forget for a little while, only that there
+was need for her to be up and doing.  Her room had been oppressively
+warm the night before; and Doris, who slept with her, had rolled from
+one side of the bed to the other, making sleep well-nigh impossible for
+the elder sister.  She felt bruised and bleeding in her very soul, and
+longed for rest.
+
+The car was passing through the thickest of the city's business
+thoroughfare, and the noise and confusion whirled about her ears like
+some fiendish monotonous music that set the time for the mad dance of
+the world.  One danced to it whether one would or not, and danced on to
+one's death.
+
+Around the city hall the car passed, and on up Market Street.  They
+passed a great fruit-store, and the waft of air that entered the open
+windows came laden with the scent of over-ripe bananas, late oranges
+and lemons; a moment later with sickening fumes it blended into a
+deadly smell of gas from a yawning hole in the pavement, and mingled
+with the sweat of the swarthy foreigners grouped about it, picks in
+hand.  It seemed as though all the smells in creation were met and
+congregated in that street within four or five blocks; and one by one
+they tortured her, leather and paint and metal and soap, rank cheese in
+a fellow traveller's market-basket, thick stifling smoke from a street
+engine that was champing up the gravel they fed it to make a new patch
+of paving, the stench from the cattle-sheds as they passed the railroad
+and stock-yards, the dank odor of the river as they crossed the bridge,
+and then an oilcloth-factory just beyond!  The faint sweet breath of
+early daffodils and violets from an occasional street vendor stood no
+chance at all with these, and all the air seemed sickening and dreadful
+to the girl as she rested wearily against the window with closed eyes,
+and tried to think.
+
+They slipped at last into the subway with a whir and a swish, where the
+cool, clean smell of the cement seemed gradually to rise and drown the
+memory of the upper world, and came refreshingly in at the windows.
+Shirley had a passing thought, wondering whether it would be like that
+in the grave, all restful and sweet and quiet and clean, with the
+noisy, heartless world roaring overhead.  Then they came up suddenly
+out of the subway, with a kind of triumphant leap and shout of brakes
+and wheels, into the light and sunshine above, and a new world.  For
+here were broad streets, clean pavements, ample houses, well-trimmed
+lawns, quiet people walking in comfort, bits of flower-boxes on the
+window-sills filled with pansies and hyacinths; and the air was sweet
+and clean.  The difference made Shirley sit up and look about her, and
+the contrast reminded her of the heaven that would be beyond the grave.
+It was just because she was so tired and disheartened that her thoughts
+took this solemn form.
+
+But now her heart sank again, for she was in the world of plenty far
+beyond her means, and there was no place for such as she.  Not in
+either direction could she see any little side streets with tiny houses
+that would rent for fifteen dollars a month.  There were such in the
+city, she knew; but they were scarce, and were gobbled up as soon as
+vacant.
+
+But here all was spaciousness, and even the side streets had three
+stories and smug porches with tidy rockers and bay windows.
+
+She looked at the great plate-glass windows with their cobwebby lace
+draperies, and thought what it would be if she were able to take her
+mother and the children to such a home as one of those.  Why, if she
+could afford that, George could go to college, and Doris wear a little
+velvet coat with rose-buds in her bonnet, like the child on the
+sidewalk with her nurse and her doll-carriage.
+
+But a thing like that could never come to her.  There were no rich old
+uncles to leave them a fortune; she was not bright and gifted to invent
+some wonderful toy or write a book or paint a picture that would bring
+the fortune; and no one would ever come her way with a fortune to marry
+her.  Those things happened only in story-books, and she was not a
+story-book girl; she was just a practical, every-day, hard-working girl
+with a fairly good complexion, good blue eyes and a firm chin.  She
+could work hard and was willing; but she could not bear anxiety.  It
+was eating into her soul, and she could feel a kind of mental paralysis
+stealing over her from it, benumbing her faculties hour by hour.
+
+The car glided on, and the houses grew less stately and farther apart.
+They were not so pretentious now, but they were still substantial and
+comfortable, with more ground and an air of having been there always,
+with no room for newcomers.  Now and then would come a nucleus of shops
+and an old tavern with a group of new groceries and crying competition
+of green stamps and blue stamps and yellow stamps posted alluringly in
+their windows.  Here busy, hurried people would swarm, and children ran
+and shouted; but every house they passed seemed full to overflowing,
+and there was nowhere any place that seemed to say, "Here you may come
+and find room!"
+
+And now the car left the paved and built-up streets, and wandered out
+between the open fields, where trees arched lavishly overhead, and
+little new green things lifted up unfrightened heads, and dared to grow
+in the sunshine.  A new smell, the smell of rich earth and young green
+growing things, of skunk-cabbage in bloom in the swamps, of budding
+willows and sassafras, roused her senses; the hum of a bee on its way
+to find the first honey-drops came to her ears.  Sweet, droning,
+restful, with the call of a wild bird in the distance, and all the air
+balmy with the joy of spring.  Ah!  This was a new world!  This indeed
+was heaven!  What a contrast to the office, and the little narrow
+stifling brick house where mother lay, and Doris cut strings of paper
+dolls from an old newspaper and sighed to go out in the Park!  What a
+contrast!  Truly, this was heaven!  If she could but stay, and all the
+dear ones come!
+
+She had spent summers in the country, of course; and she knew and loved
+nature, but it had been five years since she had been free to get
+outside the city limits for more than a day, and then not far.  It
+seemed to her now that she had never sensed the beauty of the country
+as to-day; perhaps because she had never needed it as now.
+
+The road went on smoothly straight ahead, with now a rounding curve,
+and then another long stretch of perfect road.  Men were ploughing in
+the fields on one side, and on the other lay the emerald velvet of a
+field of spring wheat.  More people had got into the car as it left the
+city.  Plain, substantial men, nice, pleasant women; but Shirley did
+not notice them; she was watching the changing landscape and thinking
+her dismal, pitiful thoughts.  Thinking, too, that she had spent her
+money--or would have when she returned, with nothing to show for it,
+and her conscience condemned her.
+
+They were coming now to a wide, old-fashioned barn of stone, with ample
+grassy stone-coped entrance rising like a stately carpeted stairway
+from the barn-yard.  It was resting on the top of a green knoll, and a
+great elm-tree arched over it protectingly.  A tiny stream purled below
+at one side, and the ground sloped gradually off at the other.  Shirley
+was not noticing the place much except as it was a part of the
+landscape until she heard the conductor talking to the man across the
+aisle about it.
+
+"Good barn!" he was saying reflectively.  "Pity to have it standing
+idle so long; but they'll never rent it without a house, and they won't
+build.  It belongs to the old man's estate, and can't be divided until
+the youngest boy's of age, four 'r five years yet.  The house burned
+down two years ago.  Some tramps set it afire.  No, nobody was living
+in it at the time.  The last renter didn't make the farm pay,--too fur
+from the railroad, I guess,--and there ain't anybody near enough round
+to use the barn since Halyer built his new barn," and he indicated a
+great red structure down the road on the other side.  "Halyer useta use
+this,--rented it fer less'n nothing, but he got too lazy to come this
+fur, and so he sold off half his farm fer a dairy and built that there
+barn.  So now I s'pose that barn'll stand idle and run to waste till
+that kid comes of age and there's a boom up this way and it's sold.
+Pity about it, though; it's a good barn.  Wisht I had it up to my
+place; I could fill it."
+
+"Make a good location for a house," said the other man, looking
+intently at the big stone pile.  "Been a fine barn in its time.  Old
+man must uv had a pile of chink when he built it.  Who'd ya say owned
+it?"
+
+"Graham, Walter Graham, big firm down near the city hall--guess you
+know 'em.  Got all kinds of money.  This ain't one, two, three with the
+other places they own.  Got a regular palace out Arden way fer summer
+and a town house in the swellest neighborhood, and own land all over.
+Old man inherited it from his father and three uncles.  They don't even
+scarcely know they got this barn, I reckon.  It ain't very stylish out
+this way just yet."
+
+"Be a big boom here some day; nice location," said the passenger.
+
+"Not yetta while," said the conductor sagely; "railroad station's too
+far.  Wait till they get a station out Allister Avenue; then you can
+talk.  Till then it'll stay as it is, I reckon.  There's a spring down
+behind the barn, the best water in the county.  I useta get a drink
+every day when the switch was up here.  I missed it a lot when they
+moved the switch to the top of the hill.  Water's cold as ice and clear
+as crystal--can't be beat this side the soda-fountain.  I sometimes
+stop the car on a hot summer day now, and run and get a drink--it's
+great."
+
+The men talked on, but Shirley heard no more.  Her eyes were intent on
+the barn as they passed it--the great, beautiful, wide,
+comfortable-looking barn.  What a wonderful house it would make!  She
+almost longed to be a cow to enter this peaceful shelter and feel at
+home for a little while.
+
+The car went on, and left the big barn in the distance; but Shirley
+kept thinking, going over almost unconsciously all the men had said
+about it.  Walter Graham!  Where had she seen that name?  Oh, of course
+in the Ward Trust Building, the whole fourth floor.  Leather goods of
+some sort, perhaps, she couldn't just remember; yet she was sure of the
+name.
+
+The man had said the barn rented for almost nothing.  What could that
+mean translated in terms of dollars?  Would the fifteen dollars a month
+that they were now paying for the little brick house cover it?  But
+there would be the car-fare for herself and George.  Walking that
+distance twice a day, or even once, would be impossible.  Ten cents a
+day, sixty cents a week--twice sixty cents!  If they lived out of the
+city, they couldn't afford to pay but twelve dollars a month.  They
+never would rent that barn for that, of course, it was so big and
+grand-looking; and yet--it was a _barn_!  What did barns rent for,
+anyway?
+
+And, if it could be had, could they live in a barn?  What were barns
+like, anyway, inside?  Did they have floors, or only stalls and mud?
+There had been but two tiny windows visible in the front; how did they
+get light inside?  But then it couldn't be much darker than the brick
+house, no matter what it was.  Perhaps there was a skylight, and hay,
+pleasant hay, to lie down on and rest.  Anyhow, if they could only
+manage to get out there for the summer somehow, they could bear some
+discomforts just to sit under that great tree and look up at the sky.
+To think of Doris playing under that tree!  And mother sitting under it
+sewing!  Mother could get well out there in that fresh air, and Doris
+would get rosy cheeks again.  There would not likely be a school about
+for Carol; but that would not hurt her for the summer, anyway, and
+maybe by fall they could find a little house.  Perhaps she would get a
+raise in the fall.  If they could only get somewhere to go now!
+
+But yet--a barn!  Live in a barn!  What would mother say?  Would she
+feel that it was a disgrace?  Would she call it one of Shirley's wild
+schemes?  Well, but what were they going to do?  They must live
+_somewhere_, unless they were destined to die homeless.
+
+The car droned on through the open country coming now and then to
+settlements of prosperous houses, some of them small; but no empty ones
+seemed to beckon her.  Indeed, they looked too high-priced to make her
+even look twice at them; besides, her heart was left behind with that
+barn, that great, beautiful barn with the tinkling brook beside it, and
+the arching tree and gentle green slope.
+
+At last the car stopped in a commonplace little town in front of a red
+brick church, and everybody got up and went out.  The conductor
+disappeared, too, and the motorman leaned back on his brake and looked
+at her significantly.
+
+"End of the line, lady," he said with a grin, as if she were dreaming
+and had not taken notice of her surroundings.
+
+"Oh," said Shirley, rousing up, and looking bewilderedly about her.
+"Well, you go back, don't you?"
+
+"Yes.  Go back in fifteen minutes," said the motorman indulgently.
+There was something appealing in the sadness of this girl's eyes that
+made him think of his little girl at home.
+
+"Do you go back just the same way?" she asked with sudden alarm.  She
+did want to see that barn again, and to get its exact location so that
+she could come back to it some day if possible.
+
+"Yes, we go back just the same way," nodded the motorman.
+
+Shirley sat back in her seat again contented, and resumed her thoughts.
+The motorman took up his dinner-pail, sat down on a high stool with his
+back to her, and began to eat.  It was a good time now for her to eat
+her little lunch, but she was not hungry.  However, she would be if she
+did not eat it, of course; and there would be no other time when people
+would not be around.  She put her hand in her shabby coat-pocket for
+her handkerchief, and her fingers came into contact with something
+small and hard and round.  For a moment she thought it was a button
+that had been off her cuff for several days, But no, she remembered
+sewing that on that very morning.  Then she drew the little object out,
+and behold it was a five-cent piece!  Yes, of course, she remembered
+now.  It was the nickel she put in her pocket last night when she went
+for the extra loaf of bread and found the store closed.  She had made
+johnny-cake instead, and supper had been late; but the nickel had
+stayed in her coat-pocket forgotten.  And now suddenly a big temptation
+descended upon her, to spend that nickel in car-fare, riding to the
+barn and getting out for another closer look at it, and then taking the
+next car on into the city.  Was it wild and foolish, was it not perhaps
+actually wrong, to spend that nickel that way when they needed so much
+at home, and had so little?  A crazy idea,--for how could a barn ever
+be their shelter?
+
+She thought so hard about it that she forgot to eat her lunch until the
+motorman slammed the cover down on his tin pail and put the high stool
+away.  The conductor, too, was coming out of a tiny frame house, wiping
+his mouth with the back of his hand and calling to his wife, who stood
+in the doorway and told him about an errand she wanted him to do for
+her in the city.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew red with excitement, for the nickel was burning
+in her hand, and she knew in her heart that she was going to spend it
+getting off that car near that barn.  She would eat her lunch under the
+tree by the brook!  How exciting that would be!  At least it would be
+something to tell the children about at night!  Or no! they would think
+her crazy and selfish, perhaps, to waste a whole day and fifteen cents
+on herself.  Still, it was not on herself; it was really for them.  If
+they could only see that beautiful spot!
+
+When she handed her nickel to the conductor, she felt almost guilty,
+and it seemed as if he could see her intention in her eyes; but she
+told herself that she was not sure she was going to get off at all.
+She could decide as she came near the place.  She would have to get off
+either before she got there or after she had passed and walk back.  The
+conductor would think it strange if a young girl got off the car in the
+country in front of an empty barn.  How would she manage it?  There had
+been houses on the way, not far from the barn.  What was the name the
+conductor had mentioned of the man who had built another barn?  She
+might get off at his house, but still--stay--what was that avenue where
+they had said the railroad would come some day with a station?  They
+had called it out as they stopped to let off the woman and the little
+girl.  Allister Avenue!  That was it.  She would ask the conductor to
+let her off at Allister Avenue.
+
+She watched the way intently; and, as they neared the place where
+Allister Avenue ought to be, her heart pounded so that she felt quite
+conscious, as if she were going to steal a barn and carry it home in
+her coat-pocket.
+
+She managed to signal the car to stop quite quietly, however, and
+stepped down to the pavement as if it were her regular stopping-place.
+She was aware of the curious gaze of both motorman and conductor, but
+she held her head up, and walked a few steps up Allister Avenue until
+the car had whirred on out of sight.  Then she turned anxiously,
+looking down the road, and there to her joy saw the stone gable of the
+great barn high on its knoll in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Shirley walked down the dusty road by the side of the car-track,
+elation and excitement in her breast.  What an adventure!  To be
+walking alone in this strange, beautiful spring country, and nobody to
+interfere!  It was her Father's beautiful out-of-doors, and she had
+paid her extra nickel to have a right to it for a little while.
+Perhaps her mother would have been worried at her being alone in the
+country, but Shirley had no fears.  Young people seldom have fears.
+She walked down the road with a free step and a bright light in her
+eyes.  She had to see that barn somehow; she _just had to_!
+
+She was almost breathless when she reached the bottom of the hill at
+last, and stood in front of the great barn.  The up car passed her just
+as she got there, and the people looked out at her apathetically as
+they would at any country girl.  She stood still a minute, and watched
+the car up the hill and out of sight, then picked her way across the
+track, and entered the field where the fence was broken down, walking
+up the long grassy slope to the front of the barn and standing still at
+the top in front of the big double doors, so grim and forbidding.
+
+The barn was bigger than it looked in the distance.  She fell very
+small; yet her soul rejoiced in its bigness.  Oh, to have plenty of
+room for once!
+
+She put her nose close to the big doors, and tried to find a crack to
+look through; but the doors were tight and fitted well.  There was no
+use trying to see in from there.  She turned and ran down the long
+grassy slope, trying to pretend it was a palatial stairway, then around
+the side to the back of the barn, and there at last she found a door
+part way ajar, opening into what must have been the cow-stables, and
+she slipped joyously in.  Some good angel must have been protecting her
+in her ignorance and innocence, for that dark basement of the barn
+would have been an excellent hiding-place for a whole regiment of
+tramps; but she trod safely on her way, and found nothing but a
+field-mouse to dispute her entrance; and it scurried hastily under the
+foundation, and disappeared.
+
+The cow-stables evidently had not been occupied for a number of years,
+for the place was clean and littered with dry straw, as if it had
+fallen and sifted from the floor above.  The stalls were all empty now,
+and old farm implements, several ploughs, and a rickety wagon occupied
+the dusty, cobwebby spaces beyond the stalls.  There were several
+openings, rude doorways and crude windows; and the place was not
+unpleasant, for the back of it opened directly upon a sloping hill
+which dropped away to the running brook below, and a little stone
+spring-house, its mossy roof half hidden by a tangle of willows.
+Shirley stood in a doorway and gazed with delight, then turned back to
+her investigation.  This lower place would not do for human habitation,
+of course; it was too low and damp, and the floor was only mud.  She
+must penetrate if possible to the floor above.
+
+Presently she found a rough ladder, cleats nailed to uprights against
+the wall; and up this she crept cautiously to the opening above, and
+presently emerged into the wide floor of the real barn.
+
+There were several small windows, left open, and the sweet spring air
+swept gently in; and there were little patches of pale sunshine in the
+misty recesses of the great dim room.  Gentle motes floated in the
+sharp lances of sunshine that stole through the cracks; another ladder
+rose in the midst of the great floor to the loft above; and festoons of
+ancient hay and cobwebs hung dustily down from the opening above.
+After Shirley had skipped about the big floor and investigated every
+corner of it, imagining how grand it would be to set the table in one
+end of the room and put mother's bed behind a screen in the other end,
+with the old piano somewhere in the centre and the big parlor chair,
+mended, near by, the old couch covered with a portière standing on the
+other side, she turned her attention to the loft, and, gathering
+courage, climbed up there.
+
+There were two great openings that let in the light; but they seemed
+like tiny mouse-holes in the great place, and the hay lay sweet and
+dim, thinly scattered over the whole big floor.  In one corner there
+was quite a luxurious lot of it, and Shirley cast herself down upon it
+for a blessed minute, and looked up to the dark rafters, lit with beams
+of sunlight creeping through fantastic cracks here and there, and
+wondered how the boys would enjoy sleeping up here, though there was
+plenty of room down-stairs for a dozen sleeping-rooms for the matter of
+that.
+
+Foolish, of course, and utterly impossible, as all daydreams always had
+been; but somehow it seemed so real and beautiful that she could
+scarcely bring herself to abandon it.  Nevertheless, her investigation
+had made her hungry, and she decided at last to go down and eat her
+lunch under the big tree out in the sunshine; for it was dark and
+stuffy inside, although one could realize how beautiful it would be
+with those two great doors flung wide, and light and air let in.
+
+The day was perfect, and Shirley found a beautiful place to sit, high
+and sheltered, where she would not be noticed when the trolley-cars
+sped by; and, as she ate her sandwiches, she let her imagination build
+a beautiful piazza where the grassy rise came up to the front of the
+barn, and saw in thought her mother sitting with the children at the
+door.  How grand it would be to live in a home like this, even if it
+were a barn!  If they could just get out here for the summer, it would
+do wonders for them all, and put new heart into her mother for the hard
+work of the winter.  Perhaps by fall mother would be well enough to
+keep boarders as she longed to do, and so help out with the finances
+more.
+
+Well, of course, this was just one of her wild schemes, and she must
+not think any more about it, much less even speak of it at home, for
+they would never get done laughing and teasing her for it.
+
+She finished the last crumb of the piece of one-egg cake that Carol had
+made the day before for her lunch, and ran down to the spring to see
+whether she could get a drink, for she was very thirsty.
+
+There proved to be an old tin can on the stones in the spring-house,
+doubtless used by the last tramp or conductor who came that way; but
+Shirley scrubbed it carefully in the sand, drank a delicious draught,
+and washed her hands and face in the clear cold water.  Then she went
+back to the barn again, for a new thought had entered her mind.
+Supposing it were possible to rent that place for the summer at any
+reasonable price, how could they cook and how keep warm?  Of course
+there were such things as candles and oil-lamps for lighting, but
+cooking!  Would they have to build a fire out-of-doors and play at
+camping?  Or would they have to resort to oil-stoves?  Oil-stoves with
+their sticky, oily outsides, and their mysterious moods of smoke and
+sulkiness, out of which only an expert could coax them!
+
+But, though she stood on all sides of that barn, and gazed up at the
+roof, and though she searched each floor diligently, she could find no
+sign of a chimney anywhere.  Her former acquaintance with barns had not
+put her into a position to judge whether this was a customary lack of
+barns or not.  There were two wooden, chimney-like structures
+decorating the roof, but it was all too evident that they were solely
+for purposes of ornament.  Her heart sank.  What a grand fireplace
+there might have been right in the middle of the great wall opposite
+the door!  Could anything be more ideal?  She could fancy mother
+sitting in front of it, with Harley and Doris on the floor playing with
+a kitten.  But there was no fireplace.  She wondered vaguely whether a
+stovepipe could be put out of the window, and so make possible a fire
+in a small cook-stove.  She was sure she had seen stovepipes coming out
+of all sorts of odd places in the cities.  But would the owners allow
+it?  And would any fire at all perhaps make it dangerous and affect the
+fire-insurance?  Oh, there were so many things to think about, and it
+was all so impossible, of course.
+
+She turned with heavy heart, and let herself down the ladder.  It was
+time she went home, for the afternoon was well on its way.  She could
+hear the whir of the trolley-car going up.  She must be out and down
+the road a little way to get the next one that passed it at the switch
+when it came back.
+
+So with a wistful glance about the big dusty floor she turned away, and
+went down to the ground floor and out into the afternoon sunshine.
+
+Just as she crossed the knoll and was stepping over the broken fence,
+she saw a clump of clover, and among the tiny stems one bearing four
+leaves.  She was not superstitious, nor did the clover mean any special
+omen to her; but she stooped, smiling, and plucked it, tucking it into
+the button-hole of her coat, and hurried down the road; for she could
+already hear the returning trolley-car, and she wished to be a little
+farther from the barn before it overtook her.  Somehow she shrank from
+having people in the car know where she had been, for it seemed like
+exposing her audacious wish to the world.
+
+Seated in the car, she turned her eyes back to the last glimpse of the
+stone gables and the sweeping branches of the budding tree as the car
+sped down the hill and curved away behind another slope.
+
+After all, it was but half-past four when the car reached the city
+hall.  Its route lay on half a mile nearer to the little brick house,
+and she could stay in it, and have a shorter walk if she chose.  It was
+not in the least likely anybody would be in any office at this hour of
+the day, anyway; that is, anybody with authority; but somehow Shirley
+had to signal that car and get out, long walk or not.  A strong desire
+seized her to put her fate to the test, and either crush out this dream
+of hers forever, or find out at once whether it had a foundation to
+live.
+
+She walked straight to the Ward Trust Building and searched the
+bulletin-board in the hallway carefully.  Yes, there it was,
+"Graham-Walter--Fourth floor front."
+
+With rapidly beating heart she entered the elevator and tried to steady
+her voice as she said, "Fourth"; but it shook in spite of her.  What
+was she doing?  How dared she?  What should she say when they asked her
+what she wanted?
+
+But Shirley's firm little lips were set, and her head had that tilt
+that her mother knew meant business.  She had gone so far she would see
+the matter to the finish, even if it was ridiculous.  For now that she
+was actually on the elevator and almost to the fourth floor it seemed
+the most extraordinary thing in the world for a girl to enter a great
+business office and demand that its head should stoop to rent her an
+old barn out in the country for the infinitesimal sum she could offer.
+He would perhaps think her crazy, and have her put out.
+
+But she got out of the elevator calmly, and walked down the hall to
+where a ground-glass door proclaimed in gold letters the name she was
+hunting.  Timidly she turned the knob, and entered a large room,
+spacious and high ceiled, with Turkish rugs on the inlaid floor,
+leather chairs, and mahogany desks.
+
+There was no one in the office but a small office-boy, who lolled idly
+on one elbow on the table, reading the funny page of the afternoon
+paper.  She paused, half frightened, and looked about her appealingly;
+and now she began to be afraid she was too late.  It had taken longer
+than she had thought it would to get here.  It was almost a quarter to
+five by the big clock on the wall.  No head of a business firm was
+likely to stay in his office so late in the day as that, she knew.  Yet
+she could hear the steady click of typewriter keys in an inner office;
+he might have remained to dictate a letter.
+
+The office-boy looked up insolently.
+
+"Is Mr. Graham in?" asked Shirley.
+
+"Which Mr. Graham?"
+
+"Why," hesitating and catching the name on the door, "Mr. Walter
+Graham."
+
+"No, he isn't here.  Never here after four o'clock."  The boy dropped
+on his elbow again, and resumed his reading.
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, dismayed now, in spite of her fright, as she saw
+all hope fading from her.  "Well, is there another--I mean is the
+other--Mr. Graham in?"
+
+Someone stirred in the inner office, and came across to the door,
+looking out, someone with an overcoat and hat on.  He looked at the
+girl, and then spoke sharply to the boy, who stood up straight as if he
+had been shot.
+
+"Edward!  See what the lady wants."
+
+"Yes, sir!" said Edward with sudden respect.
+
+Shirley caught her breath, and plunged in.
+
+"I would like to see _some_ Mr. Graham if possible for just a moment."
+There was something self-possessed and businesslike in her voice now
+that commanded the boy's attention.  Her brief business training was
+upon her.
+
+The figure from the inner room emerged, and took off his hat.  He was a
+young man and strikingly handsome, with heavy dark hair that waved over
+his forehead and fine, strong features.  His eyes were both keen and
+kind.  There was something luminous in them that made Shirley think of
+Doris's eyes when she asked a question.  Doris had wonderfully wise
+eyes.
+
+"I am Mr. _Sidney_ Graham," said the young man, advancing.  "What can I
+do for you?"
+
+"Oh, I wanted to ask you about a barn," began Shirley eagerly, then
+stopped abashed.  How could she ask this immaculate son of luxury if he
+would rent a young girl his barn to live in during the summer?  She
+could feel the color mounting in her cheeks, and would have turned and
+fled gladly if a way had been open.  She was aware not only of the kind
+eyes of the man upon her, but also of the gaping boy taking it all in,
+and her tongue was suddenly tied.  She could say no more.
+
+But the young man saw how it was, and he bowed as gracefully as if
+asking about barns was a common habit of young women coming into his
+office.
+
+"Oh, certainly," he said; "won't you just step in here a moment and sit
+down?  We can talk better.  Edward, you may go.  I shall not need you
+any longer this evening."
+
+"But I am detaining you; you were just going out!" cried Shirley in a
+panic.  "I will go away now and come again--perhaps."  She would do
+anything to get away without telling her preposterous errand.
+
+"Not at all!" said young Mr. Graham.  "I am in no hurry whatever.  Just
+step this way, and sit down."  His tone was kindness itself.  Somehow
+Shirley had to follow him.  Her face was crimson now, and she felt
+ready to cry.  What a fool she had been to get herself into a
+predicament like this!  What would her mother say to her?  How could
+she tell this strange young man what she had come for?  But he was
+seated and looking at her with his nice eyes, taking in all the little
+pitiful attempts at neatness and style and beauty in her shabby little
+toilet.  She was awfully conscious of a loose fluff of gold-glinted
+hair that had come down over one hot cheek and ear.  How dishevelled
+she must look, and how dusty after climbing over that dirty barn!  And
+then she plunged into her subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what you will think of my asking," said Shirley
+excitedly, "but I want very much to know whether there is any
+possibility that you would rent a beautiful big stone barn you own out
+on the old Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue.  You do own it, don't
+you?  I was told you did, or at least that Mr. Walter Graham did.  They
+said it belonged to 'the estate.'"
+
+"Well, now you've got one on me," said the young man with a most
+engaging smile.  "I'm sure I don't know whether I own it or not.  I'm
+sorry.  But if it belongs to grandfather's estate,--his name was
+Walter, too, you know.--why, I suppose I do own part of it.  I'm sorry
+father isn't here.  He of course knows all about it--or the
+attorney--of course he would know.  But I think he has left the office.
+However, that doesn't matter.  What was it you wanted?  To rent it, you
+say?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, feeling very small and very much an impostor;
+"that is, if I could afford it.  I suppose perhaps it will be way ahead
+of my means, but I thought it wouldn't do any harm to ask."  Her shy
+eyes were almost filled with tears, and the young man was deeply
+distressed.
+
+"Not at all, not at all," he hastened to say.  "I'm just stupid that I
+don't know about it.  Where did you say it was?  Out on the Glenside
+Road?  A barn?  Come to think of it, I remember one of my uncles lived
+out that way once, and I know there is a lot of land somewhere out
+there belonging to the estate.  You say there is a barn on it?"
+
+"Yes, a beautiful barn," said Shirley anxiously, her eyes dreamy and
+her cheeks like two glowing roses.  "It is stone, and has a wide grassy
+road like a great staircase leading up to it, and a tall tree over it.
+There is a brook just below,--it is high up from the road on a little
+grassy hill."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said, nodding eagerly, "I see!  It almost seems as
+if I remember.  And you wanted to rent it for the summer, you say?  You
+are--ah--in the agricultural business, I suppose?"  He looked at her
+respectfully.  He knew the new woman, and honored her.  He did not seem
+at all startled that she wanted to rent a barn for the summer.
+
+But Shirley did not in the least understand.  She looked at him
+bewildered a moment.
+
+"Oh, no!  I am only a stenographer myself--but my mother--that is----"
+she paused in confusion.
+
+"Oh, I see, your mother is the farmer, I suppose.  Your home is near
+by--near to the barn you want to rent?"
+
+Then she understood.
+
+"No, oh, no!" she said desperately.  "We don't want to use the barn for
+a barn at all.  I want to use it for a house!"
+
+It was out at last, the horrible truth; and she sat trembling to see
+his look of amazement.
+
+"Use it for a house!" he exclaimed.  "Why, how could you?  To live in,
+do you mean? or just to take a tent and camp out there for a few days?"
+
+"To _live in_," said Shirley doggedly, lifting her eyes in one swift
+defiant look and then dropping them to her shabby gloves and thin
+pocketbook, empty now even of the last precious nickel.  If he said
+anything more, she was sure she should cry.  If he patronized her the
+least little bit, or grew haughty, now that he saw how low she was
+reduced, she would turn and fly from the office and never look him in
+the face.
+
+But he did neither.  Instead, he just talked in a natural tone, as if
+it were the most common thing in the world for a girl to want to live
+in a barn, and nothing to be surprised over in the least.
+
+"Oh, I see," he said pleasantly.  "Well, now, that might be arranged,
+you know.  Of course I don't know much about things, but I could find
+out.  You see, I don't suppose we often have calls to rent the property
+that way----"
+
+"No, of course not," said Shirley, gathering up her scattered
+confidence.  "I know it's queer for me to ask, but we have to
+move--they are going to build an apartment-house where we are renting
+now, and mother is sick.  I should like to get her out into the
+country, our house is so little and dark; and I thought, if she could
+be all summer where she could see the sky and hear the birds, she might
+get well.  I want to get my little sisters and brothers out of the
+city, too.  But we couldn't likely pay enough rent.  I suppose it was
+silly of me to ask."
+
+"Not at all!" said the young man courteously, as though she had been a
+queen whom he delighted to honor.  "I don't see why we shouldn't be
+able to get together on some kind of a proposition--that is, unless
+father has other plans that I don't know about.  A barn ought not to be
+worth such a big price.  How much would you feel like paying?"
+
+He was studying the girl before him with interested eyes; noting the
+well-set head on the pretty shoulders, even in spite of the ill-fitting
+shabby blue coat; the delicate features; the glint of gold in the soft
+brown hair; the tilt of the firm little chin, and the wistfulness in
+the big blue eyes.  This was a new kind of girl, and he was disposed to
+give her what she wanted if he could.  And he _could_.  He knew well
+that anything he willed mightily would not be denied him.
+
+The frightened color came into the delicate cheeks again, and the blue
+eyes fluttered down ashamedly.
+
+"We are only paying fifteen a month now," she said; "and I couldn't pay
+any more, for we haven't got it.  I couldn't pay _as much_, for it
+would cost sixty cents a week apiece for George and me to come in to
+our work from there.  I couldn't pay more than twelve! and I know
+that's ridiculous for such a great big, beautiful place, but--I _had_
+to ask."
+
+She lifted her eyes swiftly in apology, and dropped them again; the
+young man felt a glow of sympathy for her, and a deep desire to help
+her have her wish.
+
+"Why, certainly," he said heartily.  "Of course you did.  And it's not
+ridiculous at all for you to make a business proposition of any kind.
+You say what you can do, and we accept it or not as we like.  That's
+our lookout.  Now of course I can't answer about this until I've
+consulted father; and, not knowing the place well, I haven't the least
+idea what it's worth; it may not be worth even twelve dollars."  (He
+made a mental reservation that it _should_ not be if he could help it.)
+"Suppose I consult with father and let you know.  Could I write or
+phone you, or will you be around this way any time to-morrow?"
+
+Shirley's breath was fairly gone with the realization that he was
+actually considering her proposition in earnest.  He had not laughed at
+her for wanting to live in a barn, and he had not turned down the price
+she offered as impossible!  He was looking at her in a kindly way as if
+he liked her for being frank.
+
+"Why, yes," she said, looking up shyly, "I can come in to-morrow at my
+noon hour--if that would not be too soon.  I always have a little time
+to myself then, and it isn't far from the office."
+
+"That will be perfectly all right for me," smiled young Graham.  "I
+shall be here till half-past one, and you can ask the boy to show you
+to my office.  I will consult with father the first thing in the
+morning and be ready to give you an answer.  But I am wondering if you
+have seen this barn, I suppose you have, or you would not want to rent
+it; but I should suppose a barn would be an awfully unpleasant place to
+live, kind of almost impossible.  Are you sure you realize what the
+proposition would be?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," said Shirley, looking troubled and earnest.  "It is
+a beautiful big place, and the outlook is wonderful.  I was there
+to-day, and found a door open at the back, and went in to look around.
+The up-stairs middle floor is so big we could make several rooms out of
+it with screens and curtains.  It would be lovely.  We could live in
+picnic style.  Yes, I'm sure mother would like it.  I haven't told her
+about it yet, because if I couldn't afford it I didn't want to
+disappoint her; so I thought I would wait till I found out; but I'm
+just about certain she would be delighted.  And anyhow we've _got_ to
+go _somewhere_."
+
+"I see," said this courteous young man, trying not to show his
+amazement and delight in the girl who so coolly discussed living in a
+barn with curtains and screens for partitions.  He thought of his own
+luxurious home and his comfortable life, where every need had been
+supplied even before he realized it, and, wondering again, was
+refreshed in soul by this glimpse into the brave heart of the girl.
+
+"Then I will expect you," he said pleasantly, and, opening the door,
+escorted her to the elevator, touching his hat to her as he left her.
+
+Shirley would not have been a normal girl if she had not felt the least
+flutter in her heart at the attention he showed her and the pleasant
+tones of his voice.  It was for all the world as if she had been a lady
+dressed in broadcloth and fur.  She looked down at her shabby little
+serge suit--that had done duty all winter with an old gray sweater
+under it--half in shame and half in pride in the man who had not let it
+hinder him from giving her honor.  He was a _man_.  He must be.  She
+had bared her poverty-stricken life to his gaze, and he had not taken
+advantage of it.  He had averted his eyes, and acted as if it were just
+like other lives and others' necessities; and he had made her feel that
+she was just as good as any one with whom he had to deal.
+
+Well, it was probably only a manner, a kind of refined, courteous habit
+he had; but it was lovely, and she was going to enjoy the bit of it
+that had fallen at her feet.
+
+On the whole, Shirley walked the ten blocks to her narrow little home
+feeling that she had had a good day.  She was weary, but it was a
+healthy weariness.  The problem which had been pressing on her brain
+for days, and nights too, did not seem so impossible now, and hope was
+in her heart that somehow she would find a way out.  It had been good
+to get away from the office and the busy monotony and go out into the
+wide, open out-of-doors.  It was good also to meet a real nobleman,
+even if it were only in passing, and on business.
+
+She decided not to tell her mother and the children of her outing yet,
+not until she was sure there were to be results.  Besides, it might
+only worry her mother the more and give her a sleepless night if she
+let out the secret about the barn.
+
+One more little touch of pleasantness there came to make this day stand
+out from others as beautiful.  It was when she turned into Chapel
+Street, and was swinging along rapidly in order to get home at her
+usual time and not alarm her mother, that a car rolled quickly past to
+the middle of the block, and stopped just under a street-light.  In a
+moment more a lady came out of the door of a house, entered the car,
+and was driven away.  As she closed the car-door, Shirley fancied she
+saw something drop from the lady's hand.  When Shirley reached the
+place she found it was two great, luscious pink rosebuds that must have
+slipped from the lady's corsage and fallen on the pavement.  Shirley
+picked them up almost reverently, inhaling their exotic breath, and
+taking in their delicate curves and texture.  Then she looked after the
+limousine.  It was three blocks away and just turning into another
+street.  It would be impossible for her to overtake it, and there was
+little likelihood of the lady's returning for two roses.  Probably she
+would never miss them.  Shirley turned toward the house, thinking she
+ought to take them in, but discovered that it bore the name of a
+fashionable modiste, who would, of course, not have any right to the
+roses, and Shirley's conscience decided they were meant by Providence
+for her.  So, happily, she hurried on to the little brick house,
+bearing the wonderful flowers to her mother.
+
+She hurried so fast that she reached home ten minutes earlier than
+usual, and they all gathered around her eagerly as if it were some
+great event, the mother calling half fearfully from her bedroom
+up-stairs to know whether anything had happened.  She was always
+expecting some new calamity like sickness, or the loss of their
+positions by one or the other of her children.
+
+"Nothing at all the matter, mother dear!" called Shirley happily as she
+hung up her coat and hat, and hugged Doris.  "I got off earlier than
+usual because Mr. Barnard had to go away.  Just see what a beautiful
+thing I have brought you--found it on the street, dropped by a
+beautiful lady.  You needn't be afraid of them, for she and her
+limousine looked perfectly hygienic; and it wasn't stealing, because I
+couldn't possibly have caught her.  Aren't they lovely?"
+
+By this time she was up in her mother's room, with Doris and Carol
+following close behind exclaiming in delight over the roses.
+
+She kissed her mother, and put the flowers into a glass beside the bed.
+
+"You're looking better to-night, I believe, dear," said the mother.
+"I've been worried about you all day.  You were so white and tired this
+morning."
+
+"Oh, I'm feeling fine, mother dear!" said Shirley gayly, "and I'm going
+down to make your toast and poach you an egg while Carol finishes
+getting supper.  George will be here in ten minutes now, and Harley
+ought to be in any minute.  He always comes when he gets hungry.  My!
+I'm hungry myself!  Let's hurry, Carol.  Doris, darling, you fix
+mother's little table all ready for her tray.  Put on the white cloth,
+take away the books, set the glass with the roses in the middle very
+carefully.  You won't spill it, will you, darling?"
+
+Doris, all smiles at the responsibility accorded her, promised: "No, I
+yun't spill it I'll move it tarefully."
+
+There was something in Shirley's buoyant air that night that lifted
+them all above the cares that had oppressed them for weeks, and gave
+them new hope.  She flew around, getting the supper things together,
+making her mother's tray pretty, and taking little extra pains for each
+one as she had not felt able to do before.  Carol caught the contagion,
+and mashed the potatoes more carefully, so that there wasn't a single
+lump in them.
+
+"Goodness!  But it's been hot in this kitchen all day, Shirley," said
+Carol.  "I had the back door open, but it just seemed stifling.  I got
+the ironing all done except a table-cloth, and I guess I can finish
+that this evening.  I haven't got much studying to do for to-morrow.
+Nellie Waite stopped, and left me my books.  I don't believe I'll have
+to stay at home another day this week.  Mother says she can get along.
+I can leave her lunch all ready, and Doris can manage."
+
+Shirley's conscience gave a sudden twinge.  Here had she been sitting
+under a lovely tree by a brook, eating her lunch, and dreaming foolish
+day-dreams about living in a barn, while Carol stayed at home from
+school and toiled in the kitchen!  Perhaps she ought to have come home
+and sent Carol back to school.  And yet perhaps that nice young Mr.
+Graham would be able to do something; she would not condemn herself
+until the morrow, anyway.  She had tried to do her best.  She had not
+gone off there selfishly just to have a good time by herself when her
+dear ones were suffering.  It had been for their sake.
+
+Then George came in whistling, and Harley banged in gayly a minute
+later, calling to know whether supper was ready.
+
+"'Cause I gotta date with the fellas this evening, and I gotta beat
+it," he declared impatiently.
+
+The shadow of anxiety passed over Shirley's face again at that, but she
+quieted her heart once more with her hopes for to-morrow.  If her plan
+succeeded, Harley would be away from "the fellas," and wouldn't have so
+many questionable "dates" to worry them all.
+
+George was in a hurry, too.
+
+"Gee, Shirley, I gotta be at the store all evening," he said, bolting
+his food hurriedly.  "I wouldn't 'a' come home, only I knew you'd
+worry, and mother gets so upset.  Gee, Shirley, what we gonta do about
+a house?  It's getting almost time to move.  I went to all those places
+you suggested at noon to-day, but there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere.
+There's some rooms on Louden Street, but there's all sorts in the
+house.  Mother wouldn't like it.  It's dirty besides.  I suppose if we
+look long enough we could find rooms; but we'd have to get along with
+only two or three, for they come awful high.  We'd have to have three
+anyway, you girls and mother in one, us boys in the other, and one for
+parlor and kitchen together.  Gee!  Wouldn't that be fierce?  I oughtta
+get a better job.  We can't live that way."
+
+"Don't worry, George; I think we'll find something better," said
+Shirley with a hopeful ring in her voice.  "I've been thinking out a
+plan.  I haven't got it all just arranged in my mind yet, but I'll tell
+you about it pretty soon.  You don't have school to-morrow night, do
+you?  No, I thought not.  Well, maybe we can talk it over then.  You
+and I will have to go out together and look up a place perhaps," and
+she smiled an encouraging smile, and sent him off to his school happily.
+
+She extracted a promise from Harley that he would be in by nine
+o'clock, discovered that he was only going to a "movie" show around the
+corner with one of the fellows who was going to "stand treat" on
+account of a wonderful ball game they had won, found out where his
+lessons were for the morrow, promised to help him when he returned, and
+sent him away with a feeling of comfort and responsibility to return
+early.  She washed the dishes and ironed the table-cloth so Carol could
+go to her lessons.  Then she went up and put Doris to bed with a story
+about a little bird that built a nest in a tall, beautiful tree that
+grew beside the place where the little girl lived; a little bird that
+drank from a little running brook, and took a bath on its pebbly shore,
+and ate the crumbs and berries the little girl gave it, and sat all day
+on five little blue eggs.
+
+Harley came in at five minutes after nine, and did his lessons with her
+help.  George came home just as they finished.  He was whistling,
+though he looked tired.  He said "the prof." had been "the limit" all
+the evening.  Shirley fixed her mother comfortably for the night, and
+went at last to her own bed, more tired than she had been for weeks,
+and yet more happy.  For through it all she had been sustained by a
+hope; inspired by a cultured, pleasant voice, and eyes that wanted to
+help, and seemed to understand.
+
+As she closed her eyes to sleep, somehow that pleasant voice and those
+kind eyes mingled with her dreams, and seemed to promise relief from
+her great anxieties.
+
+It was with a feeling of excitement and anticipation that she dressed
+the next morning and hurried away.  Something was coming, she felt
+sure, some help for their trying situation.  She had felt it when she
+knelt for her usual prayer that morning, and it throbbed in her excited
+heart as she hurried through the streets to the office.  It almost
+frightened her to feel so sure, for she knew how terrible would be the
+disappointment if she got her hopes too high.
+
+There was plenty to be done at the office, a great many letters to
+answer, and a telegram with directions from Mr. Barnard.  But she
+worked with more ease than for some time, and was done by half-past
+eleven.  When she took the letters out to Mr. Clegg to be signed, he
+told her that she would not be needed the rest of the day, and might go
+at once if she chose.
+
+She ate her bit of lunch hurriedly, and made herself as fresh and tidy
+as was possible in the office.  Then she took her way to the fourth
+floor of the Ward Trust Building.  With throbbing heart and glowing
+cheeks she entered the office of Walter Graham, and asked for Mr.
+Sidney Graham.
+
+The office-boy had evidently received instructions, for he bowed most
+respectfully this time, and led her at once to the inner office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The afternoon before, when Mr. Sidney Graham had returned to his office
+from seeing Shirley to the elevator, he stood several minutes looking
+thoughtfully at the chair where she had sat, while he carefully drew on
+his gloves.
+
+There had been something interesting and appealing in the spirited face
+of the girl, with her delicate features and wistful eyes.  He could not
+seem to get away from it.  It had left an impression of character and a
+struggle with forces of which in his sheltered life he had had only a
+vague conception.  It had left him with the feeling that she was
+stronger in some ways than himself, and he did not exactly like the
+sensation of it.  He had always aimed to be a strong character himself;
+and for a young man who had inherited two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars on coming of age, and double that amount two years later, with
+the prospect of another goodly sum when his paternal grandfather's
+estate was divided, he had done very well indeed.  He had stuck to
+business ever since leaving college, where he had been by no means a
+nonentity either in studies or in athletics; and he had not been
+spoiled by the adulation that a young man of his good looks and wealth
+and position always receives in society.  He had taken society as a
+sort of duty, but had never given it an undue proportion of his time
+and thoughts.  Notably he was a young man of fine balance and strong
+self-control, not given to impulsive or erratic likes and dislikes; and
+he could not understand why a shabby little person with a lock of gold
+over one crimson cheek, and tired, discouraged lights in her had made
+so strong an impression upon him.
+
+It had been his intention just before Shirley's arrival to leave the
+office at once and perhaps drop in on Miss Harriet Hale.  If the hour
+seemed propitious, he would take her for a spin in his new racing-car
+that even now waited in the street below; but somehow suddenly his plan
+did not attract him deeply.  He felt the need of being by himself.
+After a turn or two up and down his luxurious office he took the
+elevator down to the street floor, dismissed his chauffeur, and whirled
+off in his car, taking the opposite direction from that which would
+have taken him to the Hale residence.  Harriet Hale was a very pretty
+girl with a brilliant mind and a royal fortune.  She could entertain
+him and stimulate him tremendously, and sometimes he almost thought the
+attraction was strong enough to last him through life; but Harriet Hale
+would not be able to appreciate his present mood nor explain to him why
+the presence in his office for fifteen minutes of a nervy little
+stenographer who was willing to live in a barn should have made him so
+vaguely dissatisfied with himself.  If he were to try to tell her about
+it, he felt sure he would meet with laughing taunts and brilliant
+sarcasm.  She would never understand.
+
+He took little notice of where he was going, threading his way
+skilfully through the congested portion of the city and out into the
+comparatively empty highways, until at last he found himself in the
+suburbs.  The name of the street as he slowed up at a grade crossing
+gave him an idea.  Why shouldn't he take a run out and hunt up that
+barn for himself?  What had she said about it, where it was?  He
+consulted the memorandum he had written down for his father's
+edification.  "Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue."  He further
+searched his memory.  "Big stone barn, wide approach like a grand
+staircase, tall tree overhanging, brook."  This surely ought to be
+enough to help him identify it.  There surely were not a flock of stone
+barns in that neighborhood that would answer that description.
+
+He turned into Glenside Road with satisfaction, and set a sharp watch
+for the names of the cross-avenues with a view to finding Allister
+Avenue, and once he stopped and asked a man in an empty milk-wagon
+whether he knew where Allister Avenue was, and was informed that it was
+"on a piece, about five miles."
+
+There was something interesting in hunting up his own strange barn, and
+he began to look about him and try to see things with the eyes of the
+girl who had just called upon him.
+
+Most of the fields were green with spring, and there was an air of
+things doing over them, as if growing were a business that one could
+watch, like house-cleaning and paper-hanging and painting.  Graham had
+never noticed before that the great bare spring out-of-doors seemed to
+have a character all its own, and actually to have an attraction.  A
+little later when the trees were out, and all the orchards in bloom,
+and the wild flowers blowing in the breeze, he could rave over spring;
+but he had never seen the charm of its beginnings before.  He wondered
+curiously over the fact of his keen appreciation now.
+
+The sky was all opalescent with lovely pastel colors along the horizon,
+and a few tall, lank trees had put on a soft gauze of green over their
+foreheads like frizzes, discernible only to a close observer.  The air
+was getting chilly with approaching night, and the bees were no longer
+proclaiming with their hum the way to the skunk-cabbages; but a
+delicate perfume was in the air, and though perhaps Graham had never
+even heard of skunk-cabbages, he drew in long breaths of sweetness, and
+let out his car over the smooth road with a keen delight.
+
+Behind a copse of fine old willows, age-tall and hoary with weather,
+their extremities just hinting of green, as they stood knee-deep in the
+brook on its way to a larger stream, he first caught sight of the old
+barn.
+
+He knew it at once by something indefinable.  Its substantial stone
+spaciousness, its mossy roof, its arching tree, and the brook that
+backed away from the wading willows, up the hillside, under the rail
+fence, and ran around its side, all were unmistakable.  He could see it
+just as the girl had seen it, and something in him responded to her
+longing to live there and make it into a home.  Perhaps he was a
+dreamer, even as she, although he passed in the world of business for a
+practical young man.  But anyhow he slowed his car down and looked at
+the place intently as he passed by.  He was convinced that this was the
+place.  He did not need to go on and find Allister Avenue--though he
+did, and then turned back again, stopping by the roadside.  He got out
+of the car, looking all the time at the barn and seeing it in the light
+of the girl's eyes.  As he walked up the grassy slope to the front
+doors, he had some conception of what it must be to live so that this
+would seem grand as a home.  And he showed he was not spoiled by his
+life in the lap of luxury, for he was able to get a glimpse of the
+grandeur of the spot and the dignity of the building with its long
+simple lines and rough old stones.
+
+The sun was just going down as he stood there looking up.  It touched
+the stones, and turned them into jewelled settings, glorifying the old
+structure into a palace.  The evening was sweet with the voices of
+birds not far away.  One above the rest, clear and occasional, high in
+the elm-tree over the barn, a wood-thrush spilling its silver notes
+down to the brook that echoed them back in a lilt.  The young man took
+off his hat and stood in the evening air, listening and looking.  He
+could see the poetry of it, and somehow he could see the girl's face as
+if she stood there beside him, her wonderful eyes lighted as they had
+been when she told him how beautiful it was there.  She was right.  It
+was beautiful, and it was a lovely soul that could see it and feel what
+a home this would make in spite of the ignominy of its being nothing
+but a barn.  Some dim memory, some faint remembrance, of a stable long
+ago, and the glory of it, hovered on the horizon of his mind; but his
+education had not been along religious lines, and he did not put the
+thing into a definite thought.  It was just a kind of sensing of a
+great fact of the universe which he perhaps might have understood in a
+former existence.
+
+Then he turned to the building itself.  He was practical, after all,
+even if he was a dreamer.  He tried the big padlock.  How did they get
+into this thing?  How had the girl got in?  Should he be obliged to
+break into his own barn?
+
+He walked down the slope, around to the back, and found the entrance
+close to the ladder; but the place was quite dark within the great
+stone walls, and he peered into the gloomy basement with disgust at the
+dirt and murk.  Only here and there, where a crack looked toward the
+setting sun, a bright needle of light sent a shaft through to let one
+see the inky shadows.  He was half turning back, but reflected that the
+girl had said she went up a ladder to the middle floor.  If she had
+gone, surely he could.  Again that sense that she was stronger than he
+rebuked him.  He got out his pocket flashlight and stepped within the
+gloom determinedly.  Holding the flash-light above his head, he
+surveyed his property disapprovingly; then with the light in his hand
+he climbed in a gingerly way up the dusty rounds to the middle floor.
+
+As he stood alone in the dusky shadows of the big barn, with the
+blackness of the hay-loft overhead, the darkness pierced only by the
+keen blade of the flash-light and a few feebler darts from the sinking
+sun, the poetry suddenly left the old barn, and a shudder ran through
+him.  To think of trying to live here!  How horrible!
+
+Yet still that same feeling that the girl had more nerve than he had
+forced him to walk the length and breadth of the floor, peering
+carefully into the dark corners and acquainting himself fully with the
+bare, big place; and also to climb part way up the ladder to the loft
+and send his flash-light searching through its dusty hay-strewn
+recesses.
+
+With a feeling utterly at variance with the place he turned away in
+disgust, and made his way down the ladders again, out into the sunset.
+
+In that short time the evening had arrived.  The sky had flung out
+banners and pennants, pencilled by a fringe of fine saplings like
+slender brown threads against the sky.  The earth was sinking into
+dusk, and off by the brook the frogs were tinkling like tiny answering
+silver rattles.  The smell of earth and growing stole upon his senses,
+and even as he gazed about him a single star burned into being in the
+clear ether above him.  The birds were still now, and the frogs with
+the brook for accompaniment held the stage.  Once more the charm of the
+place stole over him; and he stood with hat removed, and wondered no
+longer that the girl was willing to live here.  A conviction grew
+within him that somehow he must make it possible for her to do so, that
+things would not be right and as they ought to be unless he did.  In
+fact, he had a curiosity to have her do it and see whether it could be
+done.
+
+He went slowly down to his car at last with lingering backward looks.
+The beauty of the situation was undoubted, and called for admiration.
+It was too bad that only a barn should occupy it.  He would like to see
+a fine house reared upon it.  But somehow in his heart he was glad that
+it was not a fine house standing there against the evening sky, and
+that it was possible for him to let the girl try her experiment of
+living there.  Was it possible?  Could there be any mistake?  Could it
+be that he had not found the right barn, after all?  He must make sure,
+of course.
+
+But still he turned his car toward home, feeling reasonably sure that
+he had found the right spot; and, as he drove swiftly back along the
+way, he was thinking, and all his thoughts were woven with the softness
+of the spring evening and permeated with its sounds.  He seemed to be
+in touch with nature as he had never been before.
+
+At dinner that night he asked his father:
+
+"Did Grandfather Graham ever live out on the old Glenside Road, father?"
+
+A pleasant twinkle came in the elder Graham's eyes.
+
+"Sure!" he said.  "Lived there myself when I was five years old, before
+the old man got to speculating and made his pile, and we got too grand
+to stay in a farmhouse.  I can remember rolling down a hill under a
+great big tree, and your Uncle Billy pushing me into the brook that ran
+at the foot.  We boys used to wade in that brook, and build dams, and
+catch little minnows, and sail boats.  It was great sport.  I used to
+go back holidays now and then after I got old enough to go away to
+school.  We were living in town then, but I used to like to go out and
+stay at the farmhouse.  It was rented to a queer old dick; but his wife
+was a good sort, and made the bulliest apple turnovers for us boys--and
+doughnuts!  The old farmhouse burned down a year or so ago.  But the
+barn is still standing.  I can remember how proud your grandfather was
+of that barn.  It was finer than any barn around, and bigger.  We boys
+used to go up in the loft, and tumble in the hay; and once when I was a
+little kid I got lost in the hay, and Billy had to dig me out.  I can
+remember how scared I was when I thought I might have to stay there
+forever, and have nothing to eat."
+
+"Say, father," said the son, leaning forward eagerly, "I've a notion
+I'd like to have that old place in my share.  Do you think it could be
+arranged?  The boys won't care, I'm sure; they're always more for the
+town than the country."
+
+"Why, yes, I guess that could be fixed up.  You just see Mr. Dalrymple
+about it.  He'll fix it up.  Billy's boy got that place up river, you
+know.  Just see the lawyer, and he'll fix it up.  No reason in the
+world why you shouldn't have the old place if you care for it.  Not
+much in it for money, though, I guess.  They tell me property's way
+down out that direction now."
+
+The talk passed to other matters, and Sidney Graham said nothing about
+his caller of the afternoon, nor of the trip he had taken out to see
+the old barn.  Instead, he took his father's advice, and saw the family
+lawyer, Mr. Dalrymple, the first thing in the morning.
+
+It was all arranged in a few minutes.  Mr. Dalrymple called up the
+other heirs and the children's guardian.  An office-boy hurried out
+with some papers, and came back with the signatures of heirs and
+guardians, who happened all to be within reach; and presently the
+control of the old farm was formally put into the hands of Mr. Sidney
+Graham, he having signed certain papers agreeing to take this as such
+and such portion of his right in the whole estate.
+
+It had been a simple matter; and yet, when at about half-past eleven
+o'clock Mr. Dalrymple's stenographer laid a folded paper quietly on
+Sidney Graham's desk and silently left the room, he reached out and
+touched it with more satisfaction than he had felt in any acquisition
+in a long time, not excepting his last racing-car.  It was not the
+value the paper represented, however, that pleased him, but the fact
+that he would now be able to do as he pleased concerning the
+prospective tenant for the place, and follow out a curious and
+interesting experiment.  He wanted to study this girl and see whether
+she really had the nerve to go and live in a barn--a girl with a face
+like that to live in a barn!  He wanted to see what manner of girl she
+was, and to have the right to watch her for a little space.
+
+It is true that the morning light might present her in a very different
+aspect from that in which she had appeared the evening before, and he
+mentally reserved the right to turn her down completely if she showed
+the least sign of not being all that he had thought her.  At the same
+time, he intended to be entirely sure.  He would not turn her away
+without a thorough investigation.
+
+Graham had been greatly interested in the study of social science when
+in college, and human nature interested him at all times.  He could not
+but admit to himself that this girl had taken a most unusual hold upon
+his thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+As the morning passed on and it drew near to the noon hour Sidney
+Graham found himself almost excited over the prospect of the girl's
+coming.  Such foolish fancies as a fear lest she might have given up
+the idea and would not come at all presented themselves to his
+distraught brain, which refused to go on its well-ordered way, but kept
+reverting to the expected caller and what he should say to her.  When
+at last she was announced, he drew back his chair from the desk, and
+prepared to meet her with a strange tremor in his whole bearing.  It
+annoyed him, and brought almost a frown of sternness to his fine
+features.  It seemed not quite in keeping with his dignity as junior
+member of his father's firm that he should be so childish over a simple
+matter like this, and he began to doubt whether, after all, he might
+not be doing a most unwise and irregular thing in having anything at
+all to do with this girl's preposterous proposition.  Then Shirley
+entered the office, looked eagerly into his eyes; and he straight-way
+forgot all his reasoning.  He met her with a smile that seemed to
+reassure her, for she drew in her breath half relieved, and smiled
+shyly back.
+
+She was wearing a little old crêpe de chine waist that she had dyed a
+real apple-blossom pink in the wash-bowl with a bit of pink crepe-paper
+and a kettle of boiling water.  The collar showed neatly over the
+shabby dark-blue coat, and seemed to reflect apple-blossom tints in her
+pale cheeks.  There was something sky-like in the tint of her eyes that
+gave the young man a sense of spring fitness as he looked at her
+contentedly.  He was conscious of gladness that she looked as good to
+him in the broad day as in the dusk of evening.  There was still that
+spirited lift of her chin, that firm set of the sweet lips, that gave a
+conviction of strength and nerve.  He reflected that he had seldom seen
+it in the girls of his acquaintance.  Was it possible that poverty and
+privation and big responsibility made it, or was it just innate?
+
+"You--you have found out?" she asked breathlessly as she sat down on
+the edge of the chair, her whole body tense with eagerness.
+
+"Sure!  It's all right," he said smilingly.  "You can rent it if you
+wish."
+
+"And the price?"  It was evident the strain was intense.
+
+"Why, the price will be all right, I'm sure.  It really isn't worth
+what you mentioned at all.  It's only a barn, you know.  We couldn't
+think of taking more than ten dollars a month, if we took that.  I must
+look it over again; but it won't be more than ten dollars, and it may
+be less."
+
+Young Graham wore his most businesslike tone to say this, and his eyes
+were on the paper-knife wherewith he was mutilating his nice clean
+blotter pad on the desk.
+
+"Oh!" breathed Shirley, the color almost leaving her face entirely with
+the relief of his words.  "Oh, _really_?"
+
+"And you haven't lost your nerve about living away out there in the
+country in a great empty barn?" he asked quickly to cover her
+embarrassment--and his own, too, perhaps.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Shirley with a smile that showed a dimple in one cheek,
+and the star sparks in her eyes.  "Oh, no!  It is a lovely barn, and it
+won't be empty when we all get into it."
+
+"Are there many of you?" he asked interestedly.  Already the
+conversation was taking on a slightly personal tinge, but neither of
+them was at all aware of it.
+
+"Two brothers and two sisters and mother," said the girl shyly.  She
+was so full of delight over finding that she could rent the barn that
+she hardly knew what she was answering.  She was unconscious of the
+fact that she had in a way taken this strange young man into her
+confidence by her shy, sweet tone and manner.
+
+"Your mother approves of your plan?" he asked.  "She doesn't object to
+the country?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't told her yet," said Shirley.  "I don't know that I
+shall; for she has been quite sick, and she trusts me entirely.  She
+loves the country, and it will be wonderful to her to get out there.
+She might not like the idea of a barn beforehand; but she has never
+seen the barn, you know, and, besides, it won't look like a barn inside
+when I get it fixed up.  I must talk it over with George and Carol, but
+I don't think I shall tell her at all till we take her out there and
+surprise her.  I'll tell her I've found a place that I think she will
+like, and ask her if I may keep it a surprise.  She'll be willing, and
+she'll be pleased, I know!"  Her eyes were smiling happily, dreamily;
+the dreamer was uppermost in her face now, and made it lovely; then a
+sudden cloud came, and the strong look returned, with courage to meet a
+storm.
+
+"But, anyhow," she finished after a pause, "we _have_ to go there for
+the summer, for we've nowhere else to go that we can afford; and
+_anywhere_ out of the city will be good, even if mother doesn't just
+choose it.  I think perhaps it will be easier for her if she doesn't
+know about it until she's there.  It won't seem so much like not going
+to live in a house."
+
+"I see," said the young man interestedly.  "I shouldn't wonder if you
+are right.  And anyhow I think we can manage between us to make it
+pretty habitable for her."  He was speaking eagerly and forgetting that
+he had no right, but a flush came into the sensitive girl's cheek.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to make you trouble," she said.  "You have been
+very kind already, and you have made the rent so reasonable!  I'm
+afraid it isn't right and fair; it is such a _lovely_ barn!"
+
+"Perfectly fair," said Graham glibly.  "It will do the barn good to be
+lived in and taken care of again."
+
+If he had been called upon to tell just what good it would do the barn
+to be lived in, he might have floundered out of the situation, perhaps;
+but he took care not to make that necessary.  He went on talking.
+
+"I will see that everything is in good order, the doors made all right,
+and the windows--I--that is, if I remember rightly there were a few
+little things needed doing to that barn that ought to be attended to
+before you go in.  How soon did you want to take possession?  I'll try
+to have it all ready for you."
+
+"Oh, why, that is very kind," said Shirley.  "I don't think it needs
+anything; that is, I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you know best.
+Why, we have to leave our house the last of this month.  Do you suppose
+we could have the rent begin a few days before that, so we could get
+things moved gradually?  I haven't much time, only at night, you know."
+
+"We'll date the lease the first of next month," said the young man
+quickly; "and then you can put your things in any time you like from
+now on.  I'll see that the locks are made safe, and there ought to be a
+partition put in--just a simple partition, you know--at one end of the
+up-stairs room, where you could lock up things.  Then you could take
+them up there when you like.  I'll attend to that partition at once.
+The barn needs it.  This is as good a time as any to put it in.  You
+wouldn't object to a partition?  That wouldn't upset any of your plans?"
+
+He spoke as if it would be a great detriment to the barn not to have a
+partition, but of course he wouldn't insist if she disliked it.
+
+"Oh, why, no, of course not," said Shirley, bewildered.  "It would be
+lovely.  Mother could use that for her room, but I wouldn't want you to
+do anything on our account that you do not have to do anyway."
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not, but it might as well be done now as any time,
+and you get the benefit of it, you know.  I shouldn't want to rent the
+place without putting it in good order, and a partition is always
+needed in a barn, you know, if it's to be a really good barn."
+
+It was well that no wise ones were listening to that conversation; else
+they might have laughed aloud at this point and betrayed the young
+man's strategy, but Shirley was all untutored in farm lore, and knew
+less about barns and their needs than she did of Sanskrit; so the
+remark passed without exciting her suspicion.
+
+"Oh, it's going to be lovely!" said Shirley suddenly, like an eager
+child, "and I can't thank you enough for being so kind about it."
+
+"Not at all," said the young man gracefully.  "And now you will want to
+go out and look around again to make your plans.  Were you planning to
+go soon?  I should like to have you look the place over again and see
+if there is anything else that should be done."
+
+"Oh, why," said Shirley, "I don't think there could be anything else;
+only I'd like to have a key to that big front door, for we couldn't
+carry things up the ladder very well.  I was thinking I'd go out this
+afternoon, perhaps, if I could get George a leave of absence for a
+little while.  There's been a death in our firm, and the office is
+working only half-time to-day, and I'm off again.  I thought I'd like
+to have George see it if possible; he's very wise in his judgments, and
+mother trusts him a lot next to me; but I don't know whether they'll
+let him off on such short notice."
+
+"Where does he work?"
+
+"Farwell and Story's department store.  They are pretty particular, but
+George is allowed a day off every three months if he takes it out of
+his vacation; so I thought I'd try."
+
+"Here, let me fix that.  Harry Farwell's a friend of mine."  He caught
+up the telephone.
+
+"Oh, you are very kind!" murmured Shirley, quite overcome at the
+blessings that were falling at her feet.
+
+Graham already had the number, and was calling for Mr. Farwell, Junior.
+
+"That you, Hal?  Oh, good morning!  Have a good time last night?  Sorry
+I couldn't have been there, but I had three other engagements and
+couldn't get around.  Say, I want to ask a favor of you.  You have a
+boy there in the store I want to borrow for the afternoon if you don't
+mind.  His name is George Hollister.  Could you look him up and send
+him over to my office pretty soon?  It will be a personal favor to me
+if you will let him off and not dock his pay.  Thank you!  I was sure
+you would.  Return the favor sometime myself if opportunity comes my
+way.  Yes, I'll hold the phone till you hunt him up.  Thank you."
+
+Graham looked up from the phone into the astonished grateful girl's
+eyes, and caught her look of deep admiration, which quite confused
+Shirley for a moment, and put her in a terrible way trying to thank him
+again.
+
+"Oh, that's all right.  Farwell and I went to prep school together.
+It's nothing for him to arrange matters.  He says it will be all right.
+Now, what are your plans?  I wonder if I can help in any way.  How were
+you planning to go out?"
+
+"Oh, by the trolley, of course," said Shirley.  How strange it must be
+to have other ways of travelling at one's command!
+
+"I did think," she added, half thinking aloud, "that perhaps I would
+stop at the schoolhouse and get my sister.  I don't know but it would
+be better to get her judgment about things.  She is rather a wise
+little girl."
+
+She looked up suddenly, and seeing the young man's eyes upon her, grew
+ashamed that she had brought her private affairs to his notice; yet it
+had seemed necessary to say something to fill in this embarrassing
+pause.  But Sidney Graham did not let her continue to be embarrassed.
+He entered into her plans just as if they concerned himself also.
+
+"Why, I think that would be a very good plan," he said.  "It will be a
+great deal better to have a real family council before you decide about
+moving.  Now I've thought of something.  Why couldn't you all go out in
+the car with me and my kid sister?  I've been promising to take her a
+spin in the country, and my chauffeur is to drive her down this
+afternoon for me.  It's almost time for her to be here now.  Your
+brother will be here by the time she comes.  Why couldn't we just go
+around by the schoolhouse and pick up your sister, and all go out
+together?  I want to go out myself, you know, and look things over, and
+it seems to me that would save time all around.  Then, if there should
+be anything you want done, you know----"
+
+"Oh, there is nothing I want done," gasped Shirley.  "You have been
+most kind.  I couldn't think of asking for anything at the price we
+shall be paying.  And we mustn't impose upon you.  We can go out in the
+trolley perfectly well, and not trouble you."
+
+"Indeed, it is no trouble whatever when I am going anyway."  Then to
+the telephone: "Hello!  He's coming, you say?  He's on his way?  Good.
+Thank you very much, Harry.  Good-by!"
+
+"That's all right!" he said, turning to her, smiling.  "Your brother is
+on his way, and now excuse me just a moment while I phone to my sister."
+
+Shirley sat with glowing cheeks and apprehensive mind while the young
+man called up a girl whom he addressed as "Kid" and told her to hurry
+the car right down, that he wanted to start very soon, and to bring
+some extra wraps along for some friends he was going to take with him.
+
+He left Shirley no opportunity to express her overwhelming thanks, but
+gave her some magazines, and hurried from the room to attend to some
+matters of business before he left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Shirley sat with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, turning over the
+leaves of the magazines with trembling fingers, but unable to read
+anything, for the joy of what was before her.  A real automobile ride!
+The first she had ever had!  And it was to include George and Carol!
+How wonderful!  And how kind in him, how thoughtful, to take his own
+sister, and hers, and so make the trip perfectly conventional and
+proper!  What a nice face he had!  What fine eyes!  He didn't seem in
+the least like the young society man she knew he must be from the
+frequent mention she had noticed of his name in the papers.  He was a
+real gentleman, a real nobleman!  There were such.  It was nice to know
+of them now and then, even though they did move in a different orbit
+from the one where she had been set.  It gave her a happier feeling
+about the universe just to have seen how nice a man could be to a poor
+little nobody when he didn't have to.  For of course it couldn't be
+anything to him to rent that barn--at ten dollars a month!  That was
+ridiculous!  Could it be that he was thinking her an object of charity?
+That he felt sorry for her and made the price merely nominal?  She
+couldn't have that.  It wasn't right nor honest, and--it wasn't
+respectable!  That was the way unprincipled men did when they wanted to
+humor foolish little dolls of girls.  Could it be that he thought of
+her in any such way?
+
+Her cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed.  She sat up very straight
+indeed, and began to tremble.  How was it she had not thought of such a
+thing before?  Her mother had warned her to be careful about having
+anything to do with strange men, except in the most distant business
+way; and here had she been telling him frankly all the private affairs
+of the family and letting him make plans for her.  How had it happened?
+What must he think of her?  This came of trying to keep a secret from
+mother.  She might have known it was wrong, and yet the case was so
+desperate and mother so likely to worry about any new and
+unconventional suggestion.  It had seemed right.  But of course it
+wasn't right for her to fall in that way and allow him to take them all
+in his car.  She must put a stop to it somehow.  She must go in the
+trolley if she went at all.  She wasn't sure but she had better call
+the whole thing off and tell him they couldn't live in a barn, that she
+had changed her mind.  It would be so dreadful if he had taken her for
+one of those girls who wanted to attract the attention of a young man!
+
+In the midst of her perturbed thoughts the door opened and Sidney
+Graham walked in again.  His fine, clean-cut face and clear eyes
+instantly dispelled her fears again.  His bearing was dignified and
+respectful, and there was something in the very tone of his voice as he
+spoke to her that restored her confidence in him and in his impression
+of her.  Her half-formed intention of rising and declining to take the
+ride with him fled, and she sat quietly looking at the pictures in the
+magazine with unseeing eyes.
+
+"I hope you will find something to interest you for a few minutes,"
+young Graham said pleasantly.  "It won't be long, but there are one or
+two matters I promised father I would attend to before I left this
+afternoon.  There is an article in that other magazine under your hand
+there about beautifying country homes, bungalows, and the like.  It may
+give you some ideas about the old barn.  I shouldn't wonder if a few
+flowers and vines might do a whole lot."
+
+He found the place in the magazine, and left her again; and strangely
+enough she became absorbed in the article because her imagination
+immediately set to work thinking how glorious it would be to have a few
+flowers growing where Doris could go out and water them and pick them.
+She grew so interested in the remarks about what flowers would grow
+best in the open and which were easiest to care for that she got out
+her little pencil and notebook that were in her coat-pocket, and began
+to copy some of the lists.  Then suddenly the door opened again, and
+Graham returned with George.
+
+The boy stopped short on the threshold, startled, a white wave of
+apprehension passing over his face.  He did not speak.  The boy-habit
+of silence and self-control in a crisis was upon him.  He looked with
+apprehension from one to the other.
+
+Shirley jumped to her feet.
+
+"Oh, George, I'm so glad you could come!  This is Mr. Graham.  He has
+been kind enough to offer to take us in his car to see a place we can
+rent for the summer, and it was through his suggestion that Mr. Farwell
+let you off for the afternoon."
+
+There was a sudden relaxing of the tenseness in the young face and a
+sigh of relief in the tone as the boy answered:
+
+"Aw, gee!  That's great!  Thanks awfully for the holiday.  They don't
+come my way often.  It'll be great to have a ride in a car, too.  Some
+lark, eh, Shirley?"
+
+The boy warmed to the subject with the friendly grasp the young man
+gave him, and Shirley could see her brother had made a good impression;
+for young Graham was smiling appreciatively, showing all his even white
+teeth just as if he enjoyed the boy's offhand way of talking.
+
+"I'm going to leave you here for ten minutes more until I talk with a
+man out here in the office.  Then we will go," said young Graham, and
+hurried away again.
+
+"Gee, Shirley!" said the boy, flinging himself down luxuriously in a
+big leather chair.  "Gee!  You certainly did give me some start!  I
+thought mother was worse, or you'd got arrested, or lost your job, or
+something, finding you here in a strange office.  Some class to this,
+isn't there?  Look at the thickness of that rug!" and he kicked the
+thick Turkish carpet happily.  "Say, he must have some coin!  Who is
+the guy, anyway?  How'd ya get onto the tip?  You don't think he's
+handing out Vanderbilt residences at fifteen a month, do you?"
+
+"Listen, George.  I must talk fast because he may come back any minute.
+Yesterday I got a half-holiday, and instead of going home I thought I'd
+go out and hunt a house.  I took the Glenside trolley; and, when we got
+out past the city, I heard two men talking about a place we were
+passing.  It was a great big, beautiful stone barn.  They told who
+owned it, and said a lot about its having such a splendid spring of
+water beside it.  It was a beautiful place, George; and I couldn't help
+thinking what a thing it would be for mother to be out in the country
+this summer, and what a wonderful house that would make----"
+
+"We couldn't live in a barn, Shirl!" said the boy, aghast.
+
+"Wait, George.  Listen.  Just you don't say that till you see it.  It's
+the biggest barn you ever saw, and I guess it hasn't been used for a
+barn in a long time.  I got out of the trolley on the way back, and
+went in.  It is just enormous, and we could screen off rooms and live
+like princes.  It has a great big front door, and we could have a
+hammock under the tree; and there's a brook to fish in, and a big third
+story with hay in it.  I guess it's what they call in books a hay-loft.
+It's great."
+
+"Gee!" was all the electrified George could utter.  "Oh, gee!"
+
+"It is on a little hill with the loveliest tree in front of it, and
+right on the trolley line.  We'd have to start a little earlier in the
+morning; but I wouldn't mind, would you?"
+
+"Naw!" said George, "but could we walk that far?"
+
+"No, we'd have to ride, but the rent is so much lower it would pay our
+carfare."
+
+"Gee!" said George again, "isn't that great?  And is this the guy that
+owns it?"
+
+"Yes, or at least he and his father do.  He's been very kind.  He's
+taking all this trouble to take us out in his car to-day to make sure
+if there is anything that needs to be done for our comfort there.  He
+certainly is an unusual man for a landlord."
+
+"He sure is, Shirley.  I guess mebbe he has a case on you the way he
+looks at you."
+
+"George!" said Shirley severely, the red staining her cheeks and her
+eyes flashing angrily.  "George!  That was a _dreadful_ thing for you
+to say.  If you ever even think a thing like that again, I won't have
+anything to do with him or the place.  We'll just stay in the city all
+summer.  I suppose perhaps that would be better, anyway."
+
+Shirley got up and began to button her coat haughtily, as if she were
+going out that minute.
+
+"Aw, gee, Shirley!  I was just kidding.  Can't you take a joke?  This
+thing must be getting on your nerves.  I never saw you so touchy."
+
+"It certainly is getting on my nerves to have you say a thing like
+that, George."
+
+Shirley's tone was still severe.
+
+"Aw, cut the grouch, Shirley.  I tell you I was just kidding.  'Course
+he's a good guy.  He probably thinks you're cross-eyed, knock-kneed----"
+
+"George!"  Shirley started for the door; but the irrepressible George
+saw it was time to stop, and he put out an arm with muscles that were
+iron-like from many wrestlings and ball-games with his fellow laborers
+at the store.
+
+"Now, Shirley, cut the comedy.  That guy'll be coming back next, and
+you don't want to have him ask what's the matter, do you?  He certainly
+is some fine guy.  I wouldn't like to embarrass him, would you?  He's a
+peach of a looker.  Say, Shirley, what do you figure mother's going to
+say about this?"
+
+Shirley turned, half mollified.
+
+"That's just what I want to ask you, George.  I don't want to tell
+mother until it's all fixed up and we can show it to her.  You know it
+will sound a great deal worse to talk about living in a barn than it
+will to go in and see it all fixed up with rugs and curtains and
+screens and the piano and a couch, and the supper-table set, and the
+sun setting outside the open door, and a bird singing in the tree."
+
+"Gee!  Shirley, wouldn't that be some class?  Say, Shirley, don't let's
+tell her!  Let's just make her say she'll trust the moving to us to
+surprise her.  Can't you kid her along and make her willing for that?"
+
+"Why, that was what I was thinking.  If you think there's no danger she
+will be disappointed and sorry, and think we ought to have done
+something else."
+
+"What else could we do?  Say, Shirley, it would be great to sleep in
+the hay-loft!"
+
+"We could just tell her we were coming out in the country for the
+summer to camp in a nice place where it was safe and comfortable, and
+then we would have plenty of time to look around for the right kind of
+a house for next winter."
+
+"That's the dope, Shirley!  You give her that.  She'll fall for that,
+sure thing.  She'll like the country.  At least, if it's like what you
+say it is."
+
+"Well, you wait till you see it."
+
+"Have you told Carol?" asked George, suddenly sobering.  Carol was his
+twin sister, inseparable chum, and companion when he was at home.
+
+"No," said Shirley, "I haven't had a chance; but Mr. Graham suggested
+we drive around by the school and get her.  Then she can see how she
+likes it, too; and, if Carol thinks so, we'll get mother not to ask any
+questions, but just trust to us."
+
+"Gee!  That guy's great.  He's got a head on him.  Some lark, what?"
+
+"Yes, he's been very kind," said Shirley.  "At first I told him I
+couldn't let him take so much trouble for us, but he said he was going
+to take his sister out for a ride----"
+
+"A girl!  Aw, gee!  I'm going to beat it!"  George stopped in his eager
+walk back and forth across the office, and seized his old faded cap.
+
+"George, stop!  You mustn't be impolite.  Besides, I think she's only a
+very little girl, probably like Doris.  He called her his 'kid sister.'"
+
+"H'm!  You can't tell.  I ain't going to run any risks.  I better beat
+it."
+
+But George's further intentions were suddenly brought to a finish by
+the entrance of Mr. Sidney Graham.
+
+"Well, Miss Hollister," he said with a smile, "we are ready at last.
+I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long; but there was something
+wrong with one of my tires, and the chauffeur had to run around to the
+garage.  Come on, George," he said to the boy, who hung shyly behind
+now, wary of any lurking female who might be haunting the path.  "Guess
+you'll have to sit in the front seat with me, and help me drive.  The
+chauffeur has to go back and drive for mother.  She has to go to some
+tea or other."
+
+George suddenly forgot the possible girl, and followed his new hero to
+the elevator with a swelling soul.  What would the other fellows at the
+store think of him?  A whole half-holiday, an automobile-ride, and a
+chance to sit in the front and learn to drive!  But all he said was:
+
+"Aw, gee!  Yes, sure thing!"
+
+The strange girl suddenly loomed on his consciousness again as they
+emerged from the elevator and came out on the street.  She was sitting
+in the great back seat alone, arrayed in a big blue velvet coat the
+color of her eyes, and George felt at once all hands and feet.  She was
+a slender wisp of a thing about Carol's age, with a lily complexion and
+a wealth of gold hair caught in a blue veil.  She smiled very prettily
+when her brother introduced her as "Elizabeth."  There was nothing
+snobbish or disagreeable about her, but that blue velvet coat suddenly
+made George conscious of his own common attire, and gave Shirley a pang
+of dismay at her own little shabby suit.
+
+However, Sidney Graham soon covered all differences in the attire of
+his guests by insisting that they should don the two long blanket coats
+that he handed them; and somehow when George was seated in the big
+leather front seat, with that great handsome coat around his shoulders,
+he did not much mind the blue velvet girl behind him, and mentally
+resolved to earn enough to get Carol a coat like it some day; only
+Carol's should be pink or red to go with her black eyes and pink cheeks.
+
+After all, it was Shirley, not George, who felt embarrassment over the
+strange girl and wished she had not come.  She was vexed with herself
+for it, too.  It was foolish to let a child no older than Carol fluster
+her so, but the thought of a long ride alone on that back seat with the
+dainty young girl actually frightened her.
+
+But Elizabeth was not frightened.  She had been brought up in the
+society atmosphere, and was at home with people always, everywhere.
+She tucked the robes about her guest, helped Shirley button the big,
+soft dark-blue coat about her, remarking that it got awfully chilly
+when they were going; and somehow before Shirley had been able to think
+of a single word to say in response the conversation seemed to be
+moving along easily without her aid.
+
+"Sid says we're going to pick up your sister from her school.  I'm so
+glad!  How old is she?  About my age?  Won't that be delightful?  I'm
+rather lonesome this spring because all my friends are in school.  I've
+been away at boarding-school, and got the measles.  Wasn't that too
+silly for a great big girl like me?  And the doctor said I couldn't
+study any more this spring on account of my eyes.  It's terribly
+lonesome.  I've been home six weeks now, and I don't know what to do
+with myself.  What's your sister's name?  Carol?  Carol Hollister?
+That's a pretty name!  Is she the only sister you have?  A baby sister?
+How sweet!  What's her name?  Oh, I think Doris is the cutest name
+ever.  Doris Hollister.  Why don't we go and get Doris?  Wouldn't she
+like to ride, too?  Oh, it's too bad your mother is ill; but of course
+she wouldn't want to stay all alone in the house without some of her
+family."
+
+Elizabeth was tactful.  She knew at a glance that trained nurses and
+servants could not be plentiful in a family where the young people wore
+such plain, old-style garments.  She gave no hint of such a thought,
+however.
+
+"That's your brother," she went on, nodding toward George.  "I've got
+another brother, but he's seventeen and away at college, so I don't see
+much of him.  Sid's very good to me when he has time, and often he
+takes me to ride.  We're awfully jolly chums, Sid and I.  Is this the
+school where your sister goes?  She's in high school, then.  The third
+year?  My!  She must be bright.  I've only finished my second.  Does
+she know she's going with us?  What fun to be called out of school by a
+surprise!  Oh, I just know I'm going to like her."
+
+Shirley sat dumb with amazement, and listened to the eager gush of the
+lively girl, wondered what shy Carol would say, trying to rouse herself
+to answer the young questioner in the same spirit in which she asked
+questions.
+
+George came out with Carol in a very short time, Carol struggling into
+her coat and trying to straighten her hat, while George mumbled in her
+ear as he helped her clumsily:
+
+"Some baby doll out there!  Kid, you better preen your feathers.  She's
+been gassing with Shirley to beat the band I couldn't hear all they
+said, but she asked a lot about you.  You should worry!  Hold up your
+head, and don't flicker an eyelash.  You're as good as she is any day,
+if you don't look all dolled up like a new saloon.  But she's some
+looker!  Pretty as a red wagon!  Her brother's a peach of a fellow.
+He's going to let me run the car when we get out of the city limit; and
+say!  Shirley says for me to tell you we're going out to look at a barn
+where we're going to move this summer, and you're not to say a word
+about it's being a barn.  See?  Get onto that sky-blue-pink satin scarf
+she's got around her head?  Ain't she some chicken, though?"
+
+"Hush, George!  She'll hear you!" murmured Carol in dismay.  "What do
+you mean about a barn?  How could we live in a barn?"
+
+"You just shut up and saw wood, kid, and you'll see.  Shirley thinks
+she's got onto something pretty good."
+
+Then Carol was introduced to the beautiful blue-velvet girl and sat
+down beside her, wrapped in a soft furry cloak of garnet, to be whirled
+away into a fairy-land of wonder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Carol and Elizabeth got on very well together.  Shirley was amazed to
+see the ease with which her sister entered into this new relation,
+unawed by the garments of her hostess.  Carol had more of the modern
+young America in her than Shirley, perhaps, whose early life had been
+more conventionally guarded.  Carol was democratic, and, strange to
+say, felt slightly superior to Elizabeth on account of going to a
+public school.  The high-school girls were in the habit of referring to
+a neighboring boarding-school as "Dummy's Retreat"; and therefore Carol
+was not at all awed by the other girl, who declared in a friendly
+manner that she had always been crazy to go to the public school, and
+asked rapid intelligent questions about the doings there.  Before they
+were out of the city limits the two girls were talking a steady stream,
+and one could see from their eyes that they liked each other.  Shirley,
+relieved, settled back on the comfortable cushions, and let herself
+rest and relax.  She tried to think how it would feel to own a car like
+this and be able to ride around when she wanted to.
+
+On the front seat George and Graham were already excellent friends, and
+George was gaining valuable information about running a car, which he
+had ample opportunity to put into practice as soon as they got outside
+the crowded thoroughfares.
+
+They were perhaps half-way to the old barn and running smoothly on an
+open road, with no one in sight a long way ahead, when Graham turned
+back to Shirley, leaving George to run the car for a moment himself.
+The boy's heart swelled with gratitude and utmost devotion to be thus
+trusted.  Of course there wasn't anything to do but keep things just as
+he had been told, but this man realized that he would do it and not
+perform any crazy, daring action to show off.  George set himself to be
+worthy of this trust.  To be sure, young Graham had a watchful eye upon
+things, and was taking no chances; but he let the boy feel free, and
+did not make him aware of his espionage, which is a course of action
+that will win any boy to give the best that is in him to any
+responsibility, if he has any best at all.
+
+It was not the kind of conversation that one would expect between
+landlord and tenant that the young girl and the man carried on in these
+brief sentences now and then.  He called her attention to the soft
+green tint that was spreading over the tree-tops more distinctly than
+the day before; to the lazy little clouds floating over the blue; to
+the tinting of the fields, now taking on every hour new colors; to the
+perfume in the air.  So with pleasantness of passage they arrived at
+last at the old barn.
+
+Like a pack of eager children they tumbled out of the car and hurried
+up to the barn, all talking at once, forgetting all difference in
+station.  They were just young and out on a picnic.
+
+Graham had brought a key for the big padlock; and clumsily the man and
+the boy, unused to such manoeuvres, unlocked and shoved back the two
+great doors.
+
+"These doors are too heavy.  They should have ball bearings," remarked
+young Graham.  "I'll attend to that at once.  They should be made to
+move with a light touch.  I declare it doesn't pay to let property lie
+idle without a tenant, there are so many little things that get
+neglected."
+
+He walked around with a wise air as if he had been an active landowner
+for years, though indeed he was looking at everything with strange,
+ignorant eyes.  His standard was a home where every detail was perfect,
+and where necessities came and vanished with the need.  This was his
+first view into the possibilities of "being up against it," as he
+phrased it in his mind.
+
+Elizabeth in her blue velvet cloak and blue cloudy veil stood like a
+sweet fairy in the wide doorway, and looked around with delight.
+
+"Oh Sid, wouldn't this be just a dandy place for a party?" she
+exclaimed eagerly.  "You could put the orchestra over in that corner
+behind a screen of palms, and decorate with gray Florida moss and
+asparagus vine with daffodils wired on in showers from the beams, and
+palms all around the walls, and colored electrics hidden everywhere.
+You could run a wire in from the street, couldn't you? the way they did
+at Uncle Andy's, and serve the supper out on the lawn with little
+individual rustic tables.  Brower has them, and brings them out with
+rustic chairs to match.  You could have the tree wired, too, and have
+colored electrics all over the place.  Oh! wouldn't it be just
+heavenly?  Say, Sid, Carol says they are coming out here to live,
+maybe; why couldn't we give them a party like that for a house-warming?"
+
+Sidney Graham looked at his eager, impractical young sister and then at
+the faces of the three Hollisters, and tried not to laugh as the
+tremendous contrast of circumstances was presented to him.  But his
+rare tact served him in good stead.
+
+"Why, Elizabeth, that would doubtless be very delightful; but Miss
+Hollister tells me her mother has been quite ill, and I'm sure, while
+that might be the happiest thing imaginable for you young folks, it
+would be rather trying on an invalid.  I guess you'll have to have your
+parties somewhere else for the present."
+
+"Oh!" said Elizabeth with quick recollection, "of course!  They told me
+about their mother.  How thoughtless of me!  But it would be lovely,
+wouldn't it, Miss Hollister?  Can't you see it?"
+
+She turned in wistful appeal to Shirley, and that young woman, being a
+dreamer herself, at once responded with a radiant smile:
+
+"Indeed I can, and it would be lovely indeed, but I've been thinking
+what a lovely home it could be made, too."
+
+"Yes?" said Elizabeth questioningly, and looking around with a dubious
+frown.  "It would need a lot of changing, I should think.  You would
+want hardwood floors, and lots of rugs, and some partitions and
+windows----"
+
+"Oh, no," said Shirley, laughing.  "We're not hardwood people, dear;
+we're just plain hard-working people; and all we need is a quiet, sweet
+place to rest in.  It's going to be just heavenly here, with that tree
+outside to shade the doorway, and all this wide space to walk around
+in.  We live in a little narrow city house now, and never have any
+place to get out except the street.  We'll have the birds and the brook
+for orchestra, and we won't need palms, because the trees and vines
+will soon be in leaf and make a lovely screen for our orchestra.  I
+imagine at night the stars will have almost as many colors as
+electrics."
+
+Elizabeth looked at her with puzzled eyes, but half convinced.
+
+"Well, yes, perhaps they would," she said, and smiled.  "I've never
+thought of them that way, but it sounds very pretty, quite like some of
+Browning's poetry that I don't understand, or was it Mrs. Browning?  I
+can't quite remember."
+
+Sidney Graham, investigating the loft above them, stood a moment
+watching the tableau and listening to the conversation, though they
+could not see him; and he thought within himself that it might not be a
+bad thing for his little sister, with her boarding-school rearing, to
+get near to these true-hearted young working people, who yet were
+dreamers and poets, and get her standards somewhat modified by theirs.
+He was especially delighted with the gentle, womanly way in which
+Shirley answered the girl now when she thought herself alone with her.
+
+George and Carol had grasped hold of hands and run wildly down the
+slope to the brook after a most casual glance at the interior of the
+barn.  Elizabeth now turned her dainty high-heeled boots in the brook's
+direction, and Shirley was left alone to walk the length and breadth of
+her new abode and make some real plans.
+
+The young man in the dim loft above watched her for a moment as she
+stood looking from one wall to the other, measuring distances with her
+eye, walking quickly over to the window and rubbing a clear space on
+the dusty pane with her handkerchief that she might look out.  She was
+a goodly sight, and he could not help comparing her with the girls he
+knew, though their garments would have far outshone hers.  Still, even
+in the shabby dark-blue serge suit she seemed lovely.
+
+The young people returned as precipitately as they had gone, and both
+Carol and George of their own accord joined Shirley in a brief council
+of war.  Graham thoughtfully called his sister away, ostensibly to
+watch a squirrel high in the big tree, but really to admonish her about
+making no further propositions like that for the party, as the young
+people to whom he had introduced her were not well off, and had no
+money or time for elaborate entertainments.
+
+"But they're lovely, Sid, aren't they?  Don't you like them just
+awfully?  I know you do, or you wouldn't have taken the trouble to
+bring them out here in the car with us.  Say, you'll bring me to see
+them often after they come here to live, won't you?"
+
+"Perhaps," said her brother smilingly.  "But hadn't you better wait
+until they ask you?"
+
+"Oh, they'll ask me," said Elizabeth with a charming smile and a
+confident little toss of her head.  "I'll make them ask me."
+
+"Be careful, kid," he said, still smiling.  "Remember, they won't have
+much money to offer you entertainment with, and probably their things
+are very plain and simple.  You may embarrass them if you invite
+yourself out."
+
+Elizabeth raised her azure eyes to her brother's face thoughtfully for
+a moment, then smiled back confidently once more.
+
+"Don't you worry, Sid, dear; there's more than one way.  I won't hurt
+their feelings, but they're going to ask me, and they're going to want
+me, and I'm going to come.  Yes, and you're going to bring me!"
+
+She turned with a laughing pirouette, and danced down the length of the
+barn to Carol, catching her hand and whirling her after her in a
+regular childish frolic.
+
+"Well, do you think we ought to take it?  Do you think I dare give my
+final word without consulting mother?" Shirley asked her brother when
+they were thus left alone for a minute.
+
+"Sure thing!  No mistake!  It's simply _great_.  You couldn't get a
+place like this if you went the length and breadth of the city and had
+a whole lot more money than you have to spend."
+
+"But remember it's a barn!" said Shirley impressively.  "Mother may
+mind that very much."
+
+"Not when she sees it," said Carol, whirling back to the consultation.
+"She'll think it's the sensiblest thing we ever did.  She isn't foolish
+like that.  We'll tell her we've found a place to camp with a shanty
+attached, and she can't be disappointed.  I think it'll be great.  Just
+think how Doris can run in the grass!"
+
+"Yes," put in George.  "I was telling Carol down by the spring--before
+that _girl_ came and stopped us--I think we might have some chickens
+and raise eggs.  Harley could do that, and Carol and I could raise
+flowers, and I could take 'em to town in the morning.  I could work
+evenings."
+
+Shirley smiled.  She almost felt like shouting that they agreed with
+her.  The place seemed so beautiful, so almost heavenly to her when she
+thought of the close, dark quarters at home and the summer with its
+heat coming on.
+
+"We couldn't keep a lodger, and we'd have that much less," said Shirley
+thoughtfully.
+
+"But we wouldn't have their laundry nor their room-work to do," said
+Carol, "and I could have that much more time for the garden and
+chickens."
+
+"You mustn't count on being able to make much that way," said Shirley
+gravely.  "You know nothing about gardening, and would probably make a
+lot of mistakes at first, anyway."
+
+"I can make fudge and sandwiches, and take them to school to sell,"
+declared Carol stoutly; "and I'll find out how to raise flowers and
+parsley and little things people have to have.  Besides, there's
+watercress down by that brook, and people like that.  We could sell
+that."
+
+"Well, we'll see," said Shirley thoughtfully, "but you mustn't get up
+too many ideas yet.  If we can only get moved and mother is satisfied,
+I guess we can get along.  The rent is only ten dollars."
+
+"Good _night_!  That's cheap enough!" said George, and drew a long
+whistle.  Then, seeing Elizabeth approaching, he put on an indifferent
+air, and sauntered to the dusty window at the other end of the barn.
+
+Sidney Graham appeared now, and took Shirley over to the east end to
+ask her just where she thought would be a good place to put the
+partition, and did she think it would be a good thing to have another
+one at the other end just like it?  And so they stood and planned,
+quite as if Shirley were ordering a ten-thousand-dollar alteration put
+into her ten-dollar barn.  Then suddenly the girl remembered her fears;
+and, looking straight up into the interested face of the young man, she
+asked earnestly:
+
+"You are sure you were going to put in these partitions?  You are not
+making any change on my account?  Because I couldn't think of allowing
+you to go to any trouble or expense, you know."
+
+Her straightforward look embarrassed him.
+
+"Why, I----" he said, growing a little flushed.  "Why, you see I hadn't
+been out to look things over before.  I didn't realize how much better
+it would be to have those in, you know.  But now I intend to do it
+right away.  Father put the whole thing in my hands to do as I pleased.
+In fact, the place is mine now, and I want to put it in good shape to
+rent.  So don't worry yourself in the least.  Things won't go to wrack
+and ruin so quickly, you know, if there is someone on the place."
+
+He finished his sentence briskly.  It seemed quite plausible even to
+himself now, and he searched about for a change of topic.
+
+"You think you can get on here with the rough floor?  You might put
+padding or something under your carpets, you know, but it will take
+pretty large carpets----"  He looked at her dubiously.  To his
+conventional mind every step of the way was blocked by some impassable
+barrier.  He did not honestly see how she was going to do the thing at
+all.
+
+"Oh, we don't need carpets!" laughed Shirley gayly.  "We'll spread down
+a rug in front of mother's bed, and another one by the piano, and the
+rest will be just perfectly all right.  We're not expecting to give
+receptions here, you know," she added mischievously.  "We're only
+campers, and very grateful campers at that, too, to find a nice, clean,
+empty floor where we can live.  The only thing that is troubling me is
+the cooking.  I've been wondering if it will affect the insurance if we
+use an oil-stove to cook with, or would you rather we got a wood-stove
+and put the pipe out of one of the windows?  I've seen people do that
+sometimes.  Of course we could cook outdoors on a camp-fire if it was
+necessary, but it might be a little inconvenient rainy days."
+
+Graham gasped at the coolness with which this slip of a girl discoursed
+about hardships as if they were necessities to be accepted pleasantly
+and without a murmur.  She actually would not be daunted at the idea of
+cooking her meals on a fire out-of-doors!  Cooking indeed!  That was of
+course a question that people had to consider.  It had never been a
+question that crossed his mind before.  People cooked--how did they
+cook?  By electricity, gas, coal and wood fires, of course.  He had
+never considered it a matter to be called in any way serious.  But now
+he perceived that it was one of the first main things to be looked out
+for in a home.  He looked down at the waiting girl with a curious
+mixture of wonder, admiration, and dismay in his face.
+
+"Why, of course you will need a fire and a kitchen," he said as if
+those things usually grew in houses without any help and it hadn't
+occurred to him before that they were not indigenous to barns.  "Well,
+now, I hadn't thought of that.  There isn't any chimney here, is there?
+H'm!  There ought to be a chimney in every barn.  It would be better
+for the--ah--for the hay, I should think; keep it dry, you know, and
+all that sort of thing.  And then I should think it might be better for
+the animals.  I must look into that matter."
+
+"No, Mr. Graham," said Shirley decidedly.  "There is no necessity for a
+chimney.  We can perfectly well have the pipe go through a piece of tin
+set in the back window if you won't object, and we can use the little
+oil-stove when it's very hot if that doesn't affect the insurance.  We
+have a gas stove, of course, that we could bring; but there isn't any
+gas in a barn."
+
+Graham looked around blankly at the cobwebby walls as if expecting
+gas-jets to break forth simultaneously with his wish.
+
+"No, I suppose not," he said, "although I should think there ought to
+be.  In a _barn_, you know.  But I'm sure there will be no objection
+whatever to your using any kind of a stove that will work here.  This
+is a stone barn, you know, and I'm sure it won't affect the insurance.
+I'll find out and let you know."
+
+Shirley felt a trifle uneasy yet about those partitions and the low
+price of the rent, but somehow the young man had managed to impress her
+with the fact that he was under no unpleasant delusions concerning
+herself and that he had the utmost respect for her.  He stood looking
+down earnestly at her for a moment without saying a word, and then he
+began hesitatingly.
+
+"I wish you'd let me tell you," he said frankly, "how awfully brave you
+are about all this, planning to come out here in this lonely place, and
+not being afraid of hard work, and rough floors, and a barn, and even a
+fire out-of-doors."
+
+Shirley's laugh rang out, and her eyes sparkled.
+
+"Why, it's the nicest thing that's happened to me in ages," she said
+joyously.  "I can't hardly believe it's true that we can come here,
+that we can really _afford_ to come to a great, heavenly country place
+like this.  I suppose of course there'll be hard things.  There always
+are, and some of them have been just about unbearable, but even the
+hard things can be made fun if you try.  This is going to be grand!"
+and she looked around triumphantly on the dusty rafters and rough stone
+walls with a little air of possession.
+
+"You are rather"--he paused--"unusual!" he finished thoughtfully as
+they walked toward the doorway and stood looking off at the distance.
+
+But now Shirley had almost forgotten him in the excitement of the view.
+
+"Just think of waking up to that every morning," she declared with a
+sweep of her little blue-clad arm toward the view in the distance.
+"Those purply hills, the fringe of brown and green against the horizon,
+that white spire nestling among those evergreens!  Is that a church?
+Is it near enough for us to go to?  Mother wouldn't want us to be too
+far from church."
+
+"We'll go home that way and discover," said Graham decidedly.  "You'll
+want to get acquainted with your new neighborhood.  You'll need to know
+how near there is a store, and where your neighbors live.  We'll
+reconnoitre a little.  Are you ready to go?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I'm afraid we have kept you too long already, and we must
+get home about the time Carol usually comes from school, or mother will
+be terribly worried.  Carol is never later than half-past four."
+
+"We've plenty of time," said the driver of the car, looking at his
+watch and smiling assurance.  "Call the children, and we'll take a
+little turn around the neighborhood before we go back."
+
+And so the little eager company were reluctantly persuaded to climb
+into the car again and start on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The car leaped forward up the smooth white road, and the great barn as
+they looked back to it seemed to smile pleasantly to them in farewell.
+Shirley looked back, and tried to think how it would seem to come home
+every night and see Doris standing at the top of the grassy incline
+waiting to welcome her; tried to fancy her mother in a hammock under
+the big tree a little later when it grew warm and summery, and the boys
+working in their garden.  It seemed too heavenly to be true.
+
+The car swept around the corner of Allister Avenue, and curved down
+between tall trees.  The white spire in the distance drew nearer now,
+and the purplish hills were off at one side.  The way was fresh with
+smells of spring, and everywhere were sweet scents and droning bees and
+croaking frogs.  The spirit of the day seemed to enter into the young
+people and make them glad.  Somehow all at once they seemed to have
+known one another a long time, and to be intimately acquainted with one
+another's tastes and ecstasies.  They exclaimed together over the
+distant view of the misty city with the river winding on its far way,
+and shouted simultaneously over a frightened rabbit that scurried
+across the road and hid in the brushwood; and then the car wound round
+a curve and the little white church swept into view below them.
+
+
+  "The little white church in the valley
+    Is bright with the blossoms of May,
+  And true is the heart of your lover
+    Who waits for your coming to-day!"
+
+chanted forth George in a favorite selection of the department-store
+victrola, and all the rest looked interested.  It was a pretty church,
+and nestled under the hills as if it were part of the landscape, making
+a home-centre for the town.
+
+"We can go to church and Sunday-school there," said Shirley eagerly.
+"How nice!  That will please mother!"
+
+Elizabeth looked at her curiously, and then speculatively toward the
+church.
+
+"It looks awfully small and cheap," said Elizabeth.
+
+"All the more chance for us to help!" said Shirley.  "It will be good
+for us."
+
+"What could you do to help a church?" asked the wondering Elizabeth.
+"Give money to paint it?  The paint is all scaling off."
+
+"We couldn't give much money," said Carol, "because we haven't got it.
+But there's lots of things to do in a church besides giving.  You teach
+in Sunday-school, and you wait on table at suppers when they have
+Ladies' Aid."
+
+"Maybe they'll ask you to play the organ, Shirley," suggested George.
+
+"Oh George!" reproved Shirley.  "They'll have plenty that can play
+better than I can.  Remember I haven't had time to practise for ages."
+
+"She's a crackerjack at the piano!" confided George to Graham in a low
+growl.  "She hasn't had a lesson since father died, but before that she
+used to be at it all the time.  She c'n sing too.  You oughtta hear
+her."
+
+"I'm sure I should like to," assented Graham heartily.  "I wonder if
+you will help me get her to sing sometime if I come out to call after
+you are settled."
+
+"Sure!" said George heartily, "but she mebbe won't do it.  She's awful
+nutty about singing sometimes.  She's not stuck on herself nor nothing."
+
+But the little white church was left far behind, and the city swept on
+apace.  They were nearing home now, and Graham insisted on knowing
+where they lived, that he might put them down at their door.  Shirley
+would have pleaded an errand and had them set down in the business part
+of the town; but George airily gave the street and number, and Shirley
+could not prevail upon Graham to stop at his office and let them go
+their way.
+
+And so the last few minutes of the drive were silent for Shirley, and
+her cheeks grew rosy with humiliation over the dark little narrow
+street where they would presently arrive.  Perhaps when he saw it this
+cultured young man would think they were too poor and common to be good
+tenants even for a barn.  But, when they stopped before the little
+two-story brick house, you would not have known from the expression on
+the young man's face as he glanced at the number but that the house was
+a marble front on the most exclusive avenue in the city.  He handed
+down Shirley with all the grace that he would have used to wait upon a
+millionaire's daughter, and she liked the way he helped out Carol and
+spoke to George as if he were an old chum.
+
+"I want you to come and see me next Saturday," called Elizabeth to
+Carol as the car glided away from the curb; "and I'm coming out to help
+you get settled, remember!"
+
+The brother and two sisters stood in front of their little old dark
+house, and watched the elegant car glide away.  They were filled with
+wonder at themselves that they had been all the afternoon a part of
+that elegant outfit.  Was it a dream?  They rubbed their eyes as the
+car disappeared around the corner, and turned to look up at the
+familiar windows and make sure where they were.  Then they stood a
+moment to decide how they should explain to the waiting mother why they
+happened to be home so early.
+
+It was finally decided that George should go to hunt up a drayman and
+find out what he would charge to move their things to the country, and
+Shirley should go to a neighbor's to inquire about a stove she heard
+they wanted to sell.  Then Carol could go in alone, and there would be
+nothing to explain.  There was no telling when either George or Shirley
+would have a holiday again, and it was as well to get these things
+arranged as soon as possible.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham was eagerly interviewing her brother, having
+taken the vacant front seat for the purpose.
+
+"Sid, where did you find those perfectly dear people?  I think they are
+just great!  And are they really going to live in that barn?  Won't
+that be dandy?  I wish mother'd let me go out and spend a month with
+them.  I mean to ask her.  That Carol is the nicest girl ever.  She's
+just a dear!"
+
+"Now, look here, kid," said Graham, facing about to his sister.  "I
+want you to understand a thing or two.  I took you on this expedition
+because I thought I could trust you.  See?"
+
+Elizabeth nodded.
+
+"Well, I don't want a lot of talk at home about this.  Do you
+understand?  I want you to wait a bit and go slow.  If things seem to
+be all right a little later on, you can ask Carol to come and see you,
+perhaps; but you'll have to look out.  She hasn't fine clothes to go
+visiting in, I imagine, and they're pretty proud.  I guess they've lost
+their money.  Their father died a couple of years ago, and they've been
+up against it.  They do seem like awfully nice people, I'll admit; and,
+if it's all right later on, you can get to be friends, but you'll have
+to go slow.  Mother wouldn't understand it, and she mustn't be annoyed,
+you know.  I'll take you out to see them sometime when they get settled
+if it seems all right, but meantime can you keep your tongue still?"
+
+Elizabeth's face fell, but she gave her word immediately.  She and her
+brother were chums; it was easy to see that.
+
+"But can't I have her out for a week-end, Sid?  Can't I tell mother
+anything about her?  I could lend her some dresses, you know."
+
+"You go slow, kid, and leave the matter to me.  I'll tell mother about
+them pretty soon when I've had a chance to see a little more of them
+and am sure mother wouldn't mind.  Meantime, don't you fret.  I'll take
+you out when I go on business, and you shall see her pretty soon again."
+
+Elizabeth had to be content with that.  She perceived that for some
+reason her brother did not care to have the matter talked over in the
+family.  She knew they would all guy him about his interest in a girl
+who wanted to rent his barn, and she felt herself that Shirley was too
+fine to be talked about in that way.  The family wouldn't understand
+unless they saw her.
+
+"I know what you mean, Sid," she said after a thoughtful pause.  "You
+want the folks to see them before they judge what they are, don't you?"
+
+"That's just exactly the point," said Sidney with a gleam of
+satisfaction in his eyes.  "That's just what makes you such a good pal,
+kid.  You always understand."
+
+The smile dawned again in Elizabeth's eyes, and she patted her
+brother's sleeve.
+
+"Good old Sid!" she murmured tenderly.  "You're all right.  And I just
+know you're going to take me out to that barn soon.  Aren't you going
+to fix it up for them a little?  They can't live there that way.  It
+would be a dandy place to live if the windows were bigger and there
+were doors like a house, and a piazza, and some fireplaces.  A great
+big stone fireplace in the middle there opposite that door!  Wouldn't
+that be sweet?  And they'll have to have electric lights and some
+bathrooms, of course."
+
+Her brother tipped back his head, and laughed.
+
+"I'm afraid you wouldn't make much of a hand to live in a barn, kid,"
+he said.  "You're too much of an aristocrat.  How much do you want for
+your money?  My dear, they don't expect tiled bathrooms, and electric
+lights, and inlaid floors when they rent a barn for the summer."
+
+"But aren't you going to do anything, Sid?"
+
+"Well, I can't do much, for Miss Hollister would suspect right away.
+She's very businesslike, and she has suspicions already because I said
+I was going to put in partitions.  She isn't an object of charity, you
+know.  I imagine they are all pretty proud."
+
+Elizabeth sat thoughtful and still.  It was the first time in her life
+she had contemplated what it would be to be very poor.
+
+Her brother watched her with interest.  He had a feeling that it was
+going to be very good for Elizabeth to know these Hollisters.
+
+Suddenly he brought the car to a stop before the office of a big
+lumber-yard they were passing.
+
+"I'm going in here, kid, for just a minute, to see if I can get a man
+to put in those partitions."
+
+Elizabeth sat meditatively studying the office window through whose
+large dusty panes could be seen tall strips of moulding, unpainted
+window-frames, and a fluted column or two, evidently ready to fill an
+order.  The sign over the door set forth that window-sashes, doors, and
+blinds were to be had.  Suddenly Elizabeth sat up straight and read the
+sign again, strained her eyes to see through the window, and then
+opened the car door and sprang out.  In a moment more she stood beside
+her brother, pointing mutely to a large window-frame that stood against
+the wall.
+
+"What is it, kid?" he asked kindly.
+
+"Sid, why can't you put on great big windows like that?  They would
+never notice the windows, you know.  It would be so nice to have plenty
+of light and air."
+
+"That's so," he murmured.  "I might change the windows some without its
+being noticed."
+
+Then to the man at the desk:
+
+"What's the price of that window?  Got any more?"
+
+"Yes," said the man, looking up interested; "got half a dozen, made
+especially for a party, and then he wasn't pleased.  Claimed he ordered
+sash-winders 'stead of casement.  If you can use these six, we'll make
+you a special price."
+
+"Oh, take them, Sid!  They're perfectly lovely," said Elizabeth
+eagerly.  "They're casement windows with diamond panes.  They'll just
+be so quaint and artistic in that stone!"
+
+"Well, I don't know how they'll fit," said the young man doubtfully.
+"I don't want to make it seem as if I was trying to put on too much
+style."
+
+"No, Sid, it won't seem that way, really.  I tell you they'll never
+notice the windows are bigger, and casement windows aren't like a
+regular house, you know.  See, they'll open wide like doors.  I think
+it would be just grand!"
+
+"All right, kid, we'll see!  We'll take the man out with us; and, if he
+says it can be done, I'll take them."
+
+Elizabeth was overjoyed.
+
+"That's just what it needed!" she declared.  "They couldn't live in the
+dark on rainy days.  You must put two in the front on each side the
+door, and one on each end.  The back windows will do well enough."
+
+"Well, come on, kid.  Mr. Jones is going out with me at once.  Do you
+want to go with us, or shall I call a taxi and send you home?" asked
+her brother.
+
+"I'm going with you, of course," said Elizabeth eagerly, hurrying out
+to the car as if she thought the thing would be done all wrong without
+her.
+
+So Elizabeth sat in the back seat alone, while her brother and the
+contractor discoursed on the price of lumber and the relative values of
+wood and stone for building-purposes, and the big car went back over
+the way it had been before that afternoon.
+
+They stopped on the way out, and picked up one of Mr. Jones's
+carpenters who was just leaving a job with his kit of tools, and who
+climbed stolidly into the back seat, and sat as far away from the
+little blue-velvet miss as possible, all the while taking furtive notes
+to tell his own little girl about her when he went home.
+
+Elizabeth climbed out, and went about the barn with them, listening to
+all they had to say.
+
+The two men took out pencils and foot rules, and went around measuring
+and figuring.  Elizabeth watched them with bright, attentive eyes,
+putting a whispered suggestion now and then to her brother.
+
+"They can't go up and down a ladder all the time," she whispered.
+"There ought to be some rough stairs with a railing, at least as good
+as our back stairs at home."
+
+"How about it?" said Graham aloud to the contractor.  "Can you put in
+some steps, just rough ones, to the left?  I'm going to have a party
+out here camping for a while this summer, and I want it to be safe.
+Need a railing, you know, so nobody will get a fall."
+
+The man measured the space up with his eye.
+
+"Just want plain steps framed up with a hand-rail?" he said, squinting
+up again.  "Guess we better start 'em up this way to the back wall and
+then turn back from a landing.  That'll suit the overhead space best.
+Just pine, you want 'em, I s'pose?"
+
+Elizabeth stood like a big blue bird alighted on the door-sill,
+watching and listening.  She was a regular woman, and saw big
+possibilities in the building.  She would have enjoyed ordering
+parquetry flooring and carved newel-posts and making a regular palace.
+
+The sun was setting behind the purply hill and sending a glint from the
+weather-vane on the little white church spire when they started back to
+the city.  Elizabeth looked wistfully toward it, and wondered about the
+rapt expression on Shirley's face when she spoke of "working" in the
+church.  How could one get any pleasure out of that?  She meant to find
+out.  At present her life was rather monotonous, and she longed to have
+some new interests.
+
+That night after she had gone to her luxurious little couch she lay in
+her downy nest, and tried to think how it would be to live in that big
+barn and go to sleep up in the loft, lying on that hay.  Then suddenly
+the mystery of life was upon her with its big problems.  Why, for
+instance, was she born into the Graham family with money and culture
+and all the good times, and that sweet, bright Carol-girl born into the
+Hollister family where they had a hard time to live at all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Quite early the next morning Sidney Graham was in his office at the
+telephone.  He conferred with the carpenter, agreeing to meet him out
+at the barn and make final arrangements about the windows in a very
+short time.  Then he called up the trolley company and the electric
+company, and made arrangements with them to have a wire run from the
+road to his barn, with a very satisfactory agreement whereby he could
+pay them a certain sum for the use of as much light as he needed.  This
+done, he called up an electrician, and arranged that he should send
+some men out that morning to wire the barn.
+
+He hurried through his morning mail, giving his stenographer a free
+hand with answering some of the letters, and then speeded out to
+Glenside.
+
+Three men were already there, two of them stone-masons, working away
+under the direction of the contractor.  They had already begun working
+at the massive stone around the windows, striking musical blows from a
+light scaffolding that made the old barn look as if it had suddenly
+waked up and gone to house-cleaning.  Sidney Graham surveyed it with
+satisfaction as he stopped his car by the roadside and got out.  He did
+delight to have things done on time.  He decided that if this
+contractor did well on the job he would see that he got bigger things
+to do.  He liked it that his work had been begun at once.
+
+The next car brought a quartette of carpenters, and before young Graham
+went back to the city a motor-truck had arrived loaded with lumber and
+window-frames.  It was all very fascinating to him, this new toy barn
+that had suddenly come into his possession, and he could hardly tear
+himself away from it and go back to business.  One would not have
+supposed, perhaps, that it was so very necessary for him to do so,
+either, seeing that he was already so well off that he really could
+have gotten along quite comfortably the rest of his life without any
+more money; but he was a conscientious young man, who believed that no
+living being had a right to exist in idleness, and who had gone into
+business from a desire to do his best and keep up the honorable name of
+his father's firm.  So after he had given careful directions for the
+electric men when they should come he rushed back to his office once
+more.
+
+The next two days were filled with delightful novelties.  He spent much
+time flying from office to barn and back to the office again, and
+before evening of the second day he had decided that a telephone in the
+barn was an absolute necessity, at least while the work was going on.
+So he called up the telephone company, and arranged that connection
+should be put in at once.  That evening he wrote a short note to Miss
+Shirley Hollister, telling her that the partitions were under way and
+would soon be completed, and that in a few days he would send her the
+key so that she might begin to transport her belongings to the new home.
+
+The next morning, when Graham went out to the stone barn, he found that
+the front windows were in, and gave a very inviting appearance to the
+edifice, both outside and in.  As Elizabeth had surmised, the big
+latticed windows opening inwards like casement doors seemed quite in
+keeping with the rough stone structure.  Graham began to wonder why all
+barns did not affect this style of window, they were so entirely
+attractive.  He was thoroughly convinced that the new tenants would not
+be likely to remember or notice the difference in the windows; he was
+sure he shouldn't have unless his attention had been called to them in
+some way.  Of course the sills and sashes were rather new-looking, but
+he gave orders that they should at once be painted an unobtrusive dark
+green which would well accord with the mossy roof, and he trusted his
+particular young tenant would not think that he had done anything
+pointed in changing the windows.  If she did, he would have to think up
+some excuse.
+
+But, as he stood at the top of the grassy slope and looked about, he
+noticed the great pile of stones under each window, from the masonry
+that had been torn away to make room for the larger sashes, and an idea
+came to him.
+
+"Mr. Jones!" he called to the contractor, who had just come over on the
+car to see how the work was progressing.  "Wouldn't there be stones
+enough all together from all the windows to build some kind of a rude
+chimney and fireplace?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Jones thought there would.  There were stones enough down in the
+meadow to piece out with in case they needed more, anyway.  Where would
+Mr. Graham want the fireplace?  Directly opposite the front doors?  He
+had thought of suggesting that himself, but didn't know as Mr. Graham
+wanted to go to any more expense.
+
+"By all means make that fireplace!" said the young owner delightedly.
+"This is going to be a jolly place when it gets done, isn't it?  I
+declare I don't know but I'd like to come out here and live."
+
+"It would make a fine old house, sir," said the contractor
+respectfully, looking up almost reverently at the barn.  "I'd like to
+see it with verandys, and more winders, and a few such.  You don't see
+many of these here old stone buildings around now.  They knew how to
+build 'em substantial in those old times, so they did."
+
+"H'm!  Yes.  It would make a fine site for a house, wouldn't it?" said
+the young man, looking about thoughtfully.  "Well, now, we'll have to
+think about that sometime, perhaps.  However, I think it looks very
+nice for the present"; and he walked about, looking at the improvements
+with great satisfaction.
+
+At each end of the barn a good room, long and narrow, had been
+partitioned off, each of which by use of a curtain would make two very
+large rooms, and yet the main section of the floor looked as large as
+ever.  A simple stairway of plain boards had been constructed a little
+to one side of the middle toward the back, going up to the loft, which
+had been made safe for the children by a plain rude railing consisting
+of a few uprights with strips across.  The darkening slats at the small
+windows in the loft had been torn away and shutters substituted that
+would open wide and let in air and light.  Rough spots in the floor had
+been mended, and around the great place both up-stairs and down, and
+even down in the basement underneath, electric wires ran with simple
+lights and switches conveniently arranged, so that if it became
+desirable the whole place could be made a blaze of light.  The young
+man did not like to think of this family of unprotected women and
+children coming out into the country without all the arrangements
+possible to make them feel safe.  For this reason also he had
+established the telephone.  He had talked it over with the agent,
+paying a certain sum for its installation, and had a telephone put in
+that they could pay for whenever they desired to use it.  This would
+make the young householder feel more comfortable about leaving her
+mother out in the country all day, and also prevent her pride from
+being hurt.  The telephone was there.  She need not use it unless
+necessity arose.  He felt he could explain that to her.  If she didn't
+like it, of course she could have it taken away.
+
+There were a lot more things he would like to do to make the place more
+habitable, but he did not dare.  Sometimes even now his conscience
+troubled him.  What did he know about these people, anyway? and what
+kind of a flighty youth was he becoming that he let a strange girl's
+appealing face drive him to such lengths as he was going now?
+Telephone, and electric lights, and stairs, and a fireplace in a barn!
+It was all perfectly preposterous; and, if his family should hear of
+it, he would never hear the last of it; that he was certain.
+
+At such times he would hunt up his young sister and carry her off for a
+long drive in the car, always ending up at Glenside Road, where she
+exclaimed and praised to his heart's satisfaction, and gave anew her
+word not to tell anybody a thing about it until he was ready.
+
+Indeed, Elizabeth was wild with delight.  She wanted to hunt up some of
+her mother's old Turkish rugs that were put away in dark closets, to
+decorate the walls with pictures and bric-â-brac from her own room, and
+to smother the place in flowering shrubs for the arrival of the
+tenants; but her brother firmly forbade anything more being done.  He
+waited with fear and trembling for the time when the clear-eyed young
+tenant should look upon the changes he had already made; for something
+told him she would not stand charity, and there was a point beyond
+which he must not go if he wished ever to see her again.
+
+At last one morning he ventured to call her up on the telephone at her
+office.
+
+"My sister and I were thinking of going out to see how things are
+progressing at the Glenside place," he said after he had explained who
+he was.  "I was wondering if you would care to come along and look
+things over.  What time do you get through at your office this
+afternoon?"
+
+"That is very kind of you, Mr. Graham," said Shirley, "but I'm afraid
+that won't be possible.  I'm not usually done until half-past five.  I
+might get through by five, but not much sooner, and that would be too
+late for you."
+
+"Not at all, Miss Hollister.  That would be a very agreeable time.  I
+have matters that will keep me here quite late to-night, and that will
+be just right for me.  Shall I call for you, then, at five?  Or is that
+too soon?"
+
+"Oh, no, I can be ready by then, I'm sure," said Shirley with
+suppressed excitement.  "You are very kind----"
+
+"Not at all.  It will be a pleasure," came the answer.  "Then I will
+call at your office at five," and the receiver clicked at the other
+end, leaving Shirley in a whirl of doubt and joy.
+
+How perfectly delightful!  And yet ought she to go?  Would mother think
+it was all right?  His little sister was going, but was it quite right
+for her to accept this much attention even in a business way?  It
+wasn't at all customary or necessary, and both he and she knew it.  He
+was just doing it to be nice.
+
+And then there was mother.  She must send a message somehow, or mother
+would be frightened when she did not come home at her usual time.
+
+She finally succeeded in getting Carol at her school, and told her to
+tell mother she was kept late and might not be home till after seven.
+Then she flew at her work to get it out of the way before five o'clock.
+
+But, when she came down at the appointed time, she found Carol sitting
+excitedly in the back seat with Elizabeth, fairly bursting with the
+double pleasure of the ride and of surprising her sister.
+
+"They came to the school for me, and took me home; and I explained to
+mother that I was going with you to look at a place we were going to
+move to.  I put on the potatoes, and put the meat in the oven, and
+mother is going to tell George just what to do to finish supper when he
+gets home," she exclaimed eagerly.  "And, oh, isn't it lovely?"
+
+"Indeed it is lovely," said Shirley, her face flushing with pleasure
+and her eyes speaking gratitude to the young man in the front seat who
+was opening the door for her to step in beside him.
+
+That was a wonderful ride.
+
+The spring had made tremendous advances in her work during the ten days
+since they went that way before.  The flush of green that the willows
+had worn had become a soft, bright feather of foliage, and the maples
+had sent out crimson tassels to offset them.  Down in the meadows and
+along the roadside the grass was thick and green, and the bare brown
+fields had disappeared.  Little brooks sang tinklingly as they glided
+under bridges, and the birds darted here and there in busy, noisy
+pairs.  Frail wavering blossoms starred the swampy places, and the air
+was sweet with scents of living things.
+
+But, when they came in sight of the barn, Elizabeth and her brother
+grew silent from sheer desire to talk and not act as if there was
+anything different about it.  Now that they had actually brought
+Shirley here, the new windows seemed fairly to flaunt themselves in
+their shining mossy paint and their vast extent of diamond panes, so
+that the two conspirators were deeply embarrassed, and dared not face
+what they had done.
+
+It was Carol who broke the silence that had come upon them all.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" she shouted.  "Shirley, just look!  New, great big
+windows!  Isn't that great?  Now you needn't worry whether it will be
+dark for mother days when she can't go out!  Isn't that the best ever?"
+
+But Shirley looked, and her cheeks grew pink as her eyes grew starry.
+She opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, for the words
+would not come, and the tears came instead; but she drove them back,
+and then managed to say:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham!  Oh, you have gone to so much trouble!"
+
+"No, no trouble at all," said he almost crossly; for he had wanted her
+not to notice those windows, at least not yet.
+
+"You see it was this way.  The windows were some that were left over
+from another order, and I got a chance to get them at a bargain.  I
+thought they might as well be put in now as any time and you get the
+benefit of them.  The barn really needed more light.  It was a very
+dark barn indeed.  Hadn't you noticed it?  I can't see how my
+grandfather thought it would do to have so little light and air.  But
+you know in the old times they didn't use to have such advanced ideas
+about ventilation and germs and things----"  He felt he was getting on
+rather famously until he looked down at the clear eyes of the girl, and
+knew she was seeing right straight through all his talk.  However, she
+hadn't the face to tell him so; and so he boldly held on his way,
+making up fine stories about things that barns needed until he all but
+believed them himself; and, when he got through, he needed only to
+finish with "And, if it isn't so, it ought to be" to have a regular
+Water-Baby argument out of it.  He managed to talk on in this vein
+until he could stop the car and help Shirley out, and together they all
+went up the now velvety green of the incline to the big door.
+
+"It is beautiful! beautiful!" murmured Shirley in a daze of delight.
+She could not yet make it seem real that she was to come to this
+charmed spot to live in a few days.
+
+Graham unlocked the big doors, and sent them rolling back with a touch,
+showing what ball bearings and careful workmanship can do.  The group
+stepped inside, and stood to look again.
+
+The setting sun was casting a red glow through the diamond panes and
+over the wide floor.  The new partitions, guiltless of paint, for
+Graham had not dared to go further, were mellowed into ruby hangings.
+The stone fireplace rose at the opposite side of the room, and the new
+staircase was just at the side, all in the ruddy evening glow that
+carried rich dusky shadows into the corners, and hung a curtain of
+vagueness over blemishes.
+
+Then all suddenly, before they had had time to take in the changes,
+more than the fact of the partitions which they expected, Graham
+stepped to the side of the door, and touched a button, and behold a
+myriad of lights burst forth about the place, making it bright like
+noontime.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" breathed Carol in awe and wonder, and "Oh!" again, as
+if there were nothing else to say.  But Shirley only looked and caught
+her breath.  It seemed a palace too fine for their poor little means,
+and a sudden fear gripped hold upon her.
+
+"Oh Mr. Graham!  You have done too much!" she choked.  "You shouldn't
+have done it!  We can never afford to pay for all this!"
+
+"Not at all!" said young Graham quickly.  "This isn't anything.  The
+electric people gave permission for this, and I thought it would be
+safer than lamps and candles, you know.  It cost scarcely anything for
+the wiring.  I had our regular man do it that attends to the wiring and
+lights at the office.  It was a mere trifle, and will make things a lot
+more convenient for you.  You see it's nothing to the company.  They
+just gave permission for a wire to be run from the pole there.  Of
+course they might not do it for every one, but I've some pretty good
+friends in the company; so it's all right."
+
+"But the fireplace!" said Shirley, going over to look at it.  "It's
+beautiful!  It's like what you see in magazine pictures of beautiful
+houses."
+
+"Why, it was just the stones that were left from cutting the windows
+larger.  I thought they might as well be utilized, you know.  It wasn't
+much more work to pile them up that way while the men were here than if
+we had had them carted away."
+
+Here Carol interrupted.
+
+"Shirley!  There's a telephone!  A real telephone!"
+
+Shirley's accusing eyes were upon her landlord.
+
+"It was put in for our convenience while the workmen were here," he
+explained defensively.  "It is a pay phone, you see, and is no expense
+except when in use.  It can be taken out if you do not care to have it,
+of course; but it occurred to me since it was here your mother might
+feel more comfortable out here all day if she could call you when she
+needed to."
+
+Shirley's face was a picture of varying emotions as she listened, but
+relief and gratitude conquered as she turned to him.
+
+"I believe you have thought of everything," she said at last.  "I have
+worried about that all this week.  I have wondered if mother would be
+afraid out in the country with only the children, and the neighbors not
+quite near enough to call; but this solves the difficulty.  You are
+sure it hasn't cost you a lot to have this put in?"
+
+"Why, don't you know the telephone company is glad to have their phones
+wherever they can get them?" he evaded.  "Now, don't worry about
+anything more.  You'll find hardships enough living in a barn without
+fretting about the few conveniences we have been able to manage."
+
+"But this is real luxury!" she said, sitting down on the steps and
+looking up where the lights blazed from the loft.  "You have put lights
+up there, too, and a railing.  I was so afraid Doris would fall down
+some time!"
+
+"I'm glad to find you are human, after all, and have a few fears!"
+declared the owner, laughing.  "I had begun to think you were Spartan
+through and through and weren't afraid of anything.  Yes, I had the men
+put what lumber they had left into that railing.  I thought it wasn't
+safe to have it all open like that, and I didn't want you to sue me for
+life or limb, you know.  There's one thing I haven't managed yet, and
+that is piping water up from the spring.  I haven't been able to get
+hold of the right man so far; but he's coming out to-morrow, and I hope
+it can be done.  There is a spring on the hill back of us, and I
+believe it is high enough, to get the water to this floor.  If it is it
+will make your work much easier and be only the matter of a few rods of
+pipe."
+
+"Oh, but, indeed, you mustn't do anything more!" pleaded Shirley.  "I
+shall feel so ashamed paying such a little rent."
+
+"But, my dear young lady," said Graham in his most dignified business
+manner, "you don't at all realize how much lower rents are in the
+country, isolated like this, than they are in the city; and you haven't
+as yet realized what a lot of inconveniences you have to put up with.
+When you go back to the city in the winter, you will be glad to get
+away from here."
+
+"Never!" said Shirley fervently, and shuddered.  "Oh, never!  You don't
+know how dreadful it seems that we shall have to go back.  But of
+course I suppose we shall.  One couldn't live in a barn in the winter,
+even though it is a palace for the summer"; and she looked about
+wistfully.  Then, her eyes lighting up, she said in a low tone, for the
+young man's benefit alone:
+
+"I think God must have made you do all this for us!"  She turned and
+walked swiftly over to one of the new casement windows, looking out at
+the red glow that the sun in sinking had left in the sky; and there
+against the fringes of the willows and maples shone out the bright
+weather-vane on the spire of the little white church in the valley.
+
+"I think God must have sent you to teach me and my little sister a few
+things," said a low voice just behind Shirley as she struggled with
+tired, happy tears that would blur her eyes.  But, when she turned to
+smile at the owner of the voice, he was walking over by the door and
+talking to Carol.  They tumbled joyously into the car very soon, and
+sped on their way to the city again.
+
+That night the Hollister children told their mother they had found a
+place in which to live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The crisis was precipitated by Shirley's finding her mother crying when
+she came up softly to see her.
+
+"Now, little mother, _dear_!  What can be the matter?" she cried
+aghast, sitting down on the bed and drawing her mother's head into her
+lap.
+
+But it was some time before Mrs. Hollister could recover her calmness,
+and Shirley began to be frightened.  At last, when she had kissed and
+petted her, she called down to the others to come up-stairs quickly.
+
+They came with all haste, George and Harley with dish-towels over their
+shoulders, Carol with her arithmetic and pencil, little Doris trudging
+up breathless, one step at a time, and all crying excitedly, "What's
+the matter?"
+
+"Why, here's our blessed little mother lying here all by herself,
+crying because she doesn't know where in the world we can find a
+house!" cried Shirley; "and I think it's time we told our beautiful
+secret, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," chorused the children, although Harley and Doris had no idea
+until then that there was any beautiful secret.  Beautiful secrets
+hadn't been coming their way.
+
+"Well, I think we better tell it," said Shirley, looking at George and
+Carol questioningly.  "Don't you?  We don't want mother worrying."  So
+they all clustered around her on the bed and the floor, and sat
+expectantly while Shirley told.
+
+"You see, mother, it's this way.  We've been looking around a good deal
+lately, George and I, and we haven't found a thing in the city that
+would do; so one day I took a trolley ride out of the city, and I've
+found something I think will do nicely for the summer, anyway, and that
+will give us time to look around and decide.  Mother dear, would you
+mind camping so very much if we made you a nice, comfortable place?"
+
+"Camping!" said Mrs. Hollister in dismay.  "Dear child!  In a tent?"
+
+"No, mother, not in a tent.  There's a--a--sort of a house--that is,
+there's a building, where we could sleep, and put our furniture, and
+all; but there's a lovely out-of-doors.  Wouldn't you like that, for
+Doris and you?"
+
+"Oh, yes," sighed the poor woman; "I'd like it; but, child, you haven't
+an idea what you are talking about.  Any place in the country costs
+terribly, even a shanty----"
+
+"That's it, mother, call it a shanty!" put in Carol.  "Mother, would
+you object to living in a shanty all summer if it was good and clean,
+and you had plenty of out-of-doors around it?"
+
+"No, of course not, Carol, if it was perfectly respectable.  I
+shouldn't want to take my children among a lot of low-down people----"
+
+"Of course not, mother!" put in Shirley.  "And there's nothing of that
+sort.  It's all perfectly respectable, and the few neighbors are nice,
+respectable people.  Now, mother, if you're willing to trust us, we'd
+like it if you'll just let us leave it at that and not tell you
+anything more about it till we take you there.  George and Carol and I
+have all seen the place, and we think it will be just the thing.
+There's plenty of room, and sky, and a big tree, and birds; and it only
+costs ten dollars a month.  Now, mother, will you trust us for the rest
+and not ask any questions?"
+
+The mother looked in bewilderment from one to another, and, seeing
+their eager faces, she broke into a weary smile.
+
+"Well, I suppose I'll have to," she said with a sigh of doubt; "but I
+can't understand how any place you could get would be only that price,
+and I'm afraid you haven't thought of a lot of things."
+
+"Yes, mother, we've thought of everything--and then some," said
+Shirley, stooping down to kiss the thin cheek; "but we are sure you are
+going to like this when you see it.  It isn't a palace, of course.  You
+don't expect plate-glass windows, you know."
+
+"Well, hardly," said Mrs. Hollister dryly, struggling with herself to
+be cheerful.  She could see that her children were making a brave
+effort to make a jolly occasion out of their necessity, and she was
+never one to hang back; so, as she could do nothing else, she assented.
+
+"You are sure," she began, looking at Shirley with troubled eyes.
+"There are so many things to think of, and you are so young."
+
+"Trust me, mudder dearie," said Shirley joyously, remembering the
+fireplace and the electric lights.  "It really isn't so bad; and
+there's a beautiful hill for Doris to run down, and a place to hang a
+hammock for you right under a big tree where a bird has built its nest."
+
+"Oh-h!" echoed the wondering Doris.  "And could I see de birdie?"
+
+"Yes, darling, you can watch him every day, and see him fly through the
+blue sky."
+
+"It's all right, mother," said George in a businesslike tone.  "You'll
+think it's great after you get used to it.  Carol and I are crazy over
+it."
+
+"But will it be where you can get to your work, both of you?  I
+shouldn't like you to take long, lonely walks, you know," said the
+troubled mother.
+
+"Right on the trolley line, mother dear; and the difference in rent
+will more than pay our fare."
+
+"Besides, I'm thinking of buying a bicycle from one of the fellows.  He
+says he'll sell it for five dollars, and I can pay fifty cents a month.
+Then I could go in on my bike in good weather, and save that much."
+This from George.
+
+"Oh, gee!" said Harley breathlessly.  "Then I could ride it sometimes,
+too."
+
+"Sure!" said George generously.
+
+"Now," said Shirley with her commanding manner that the children called
+"brigadier-general," "now, mother dear, you're going to put all your
+worries out of your head right this minute, and go to sleep.  Your
+business is to get strong enough to be moved out there.  When you get
+there, you'll get well so quick you won't know yourself; but you've got
+to rest from now on every minute, or you won't be able to go when the
+time comes; and then what will happen?  Will you promise?"
+
+Amid the laughing and pleading of her children the mother promised,
+half smilingly, half tearfully, and succumbed to being prepared for the
+night.  Then they all tiptoed away to the dining-room for a council of
+war.
+
+It was still two weeks before they had to vacate the little brick
+house, plenty of time to get comfortably settled before they took their
+mother out there.
+
+It was decided that George and Shirley should go out the next evening
+directly from their work, not waiting to return for supper, but eating
+a lunch down-town.  Now that the place was lighted and they had been
+told to use the light as freely as they chose, with no charge, the
+question of getting settled was no longer a problem.  They could do it
+evenings after their work was over.  The first thing would be to clean
+house, and for that they needed a lot of things, pails, pans, brooms,
+mops and the like.  It would be good to take a load of things out the
+next day if possible.
+
+So George went out to interview the man with the moving-wagon, while
+Shirley and Carol made out a list of things that ought to go in that
+first load.  George came back with the report that the man could come
+at half past four in the afternoon; and, if they could have the things
+that were to go all ready, he would have his son help to load them, and
+they could get out to Glenside by six o'clock or seven at the latest.
+Harley might go along if he liked, and help to unload at the other end.
+
+Harley was greatly excited both at the responsibility placed upon him
+and at the prospect of seeing the new home.  It almost made up for the
+thought of leaving "the fellows" and going to live in a strange place.
+
+The young people were late getting to bed that night, for they had to
+get things together so that Carol would not have her hands too full the
+next day when she got home from school.  Then they had to hunt up soap,
+scrubbing-pails, rags, brushes and brooms; and, when they went to bed
+at last, they were much too excited to sleep.
+
+Of course there were many hindrances to their plans, and a lot of delay
+waiting for the cartman, who did not always keep his word; but the days
+passed, and every one saw some little progress toward making a home out
+of the big barn.  Shirley would not let them stay later in the evenings
+than ten o'clock, for they must be ready to go to work the next
+morning; so of course the work of cleaning the barn progressed but
+slowly.  After the first night they got a neighbor to sit with their
+mother and Doris, letting Carol and Harley come out on the car to help;
+and so with four willing workers the barn gradually took on a nice
+smell of soap and water.
+
+The old furniture arrived little by little, and was put in place
+eagerly, until by the end of the first week the big middle room and the
+dining-room and kitchen began really to look like living.
+
+It was Saturday evening of that first week, and Shirley was sitting on
+the old couch at the side of the fireplace, resting, watching George,
+who was reeling out a stormy version of chopsticks on the piano, and
+looking about on her growing home hopefully.  Suddenly there came a
+gentle tapping at the big barn door, and George as the man of the house
+went to the door with his gruffest air on, but melted at once when he
+saw the landlord and his sister standing out in front in the moonlight.
+
+"Are you ready for callers?" asked Graham, taking off his hat in
+greeting.  "Elizabeth and I took a spin out this way, and we sighted
+the light, and thought we'd stop and see if we could help any.  My, how
+homelike you've made it look!  Say, this is great!"
+
+Sidney Graham stood in the centre of the big room, looking about him
+with pleasure.
+
+The young people had put things in apple-pie order as far as they had
+gone.  A fire was laid in the big stone fireplace, all ready for
+touching off, and gave a homelike, cleared-up look to the whole place
+as if it were getting ready for some event.  On each side of the
+chimney stood a simple set of bookshelves filled with well-worn volumes
+that had a look of being beloved and in daily intimate association with
+the family.  On the top of the shelves Carol had placed some bits of
+bric-â-brac, and in the centre of each a tall vase.  Beside them were a
+few photographs in simple frames, a strong-faced man with eyes that
+reminded one of Shirley and a brow like George's; a delicate-featured,
+refined woman with sweet, sensitive mouth and eyes like Carol's; a
+lovely little child with a cloud of fair curls.
+
+The old couch was at one side of the fireplace, at a convenient angle
+to watch the firelight, and yet not hiding the bookshelves.  On the
+other side, with its back toward the first landing of the rude
+staircase, stood an old upright piano with a pile of shabby music on
+the top and a book of songs open on the rack.  On the floor in the
+space between was spread a worn and faded ingrain rug, its original
+colors and pattern long since blended into neutral grays and browns,
+which strangely harmonized with the rustic surroundings.  A few
+comfortable but shabby chairs were scattered about in a homelike way,
+and a few pictures in plain frames were hung on the clean new
+partitions.  Under one stood a small oak desk and a few
+writing-materials.  A little further on a plain library table held a
+few magazines and papers and a cherished book or two.  There had been
+no attempt to cover the wide bare floor spaces, save by a small dingy
+rug or two or a strip of carpet carefully brushed and flung here and
+there in front of a chair.  There was no pretension and therefore no
+incongruity.  The only luxurious thing in the place was the bright
+electric light, and yet it all looked pleasant and inviting.
+
+"Say, now, this is great!" reiterated the young owner of the place,
+sinking into the nearest chair and looking about him with admiration.
+"Who would ever have imagined you could make a barn look like this?
+Why, you're a genius, Miss Hollister.  You're a real artist."
+
+Shirley in an old gingham dress, with her sleeves rolled high and her
+hair fluffing wilfully in disorder about her hot cheeks, stood before
+him in dismay.  She had been working hard, and was all too conscious of
+the brief time before they must be done; and to have company just
+now--and such company--put her to confusion; but the honest admiration
+in the young man's voice did much to restore her equilibrium.  She
+began to pull down her sleeves and sit down to receive her callers
+properly; but he at once insisted that she should not delay on his
+account, and, seeing her shyness, immediately plunged into some
+questions about the water-pipes, which brought about a more
+businesslike footing and relieved her embarrassment.  He was soon on
+his way to the partitioned corner which was to be the kitchen, telling
+Shirley how it was going to be no trouble to run a pipe from the spring
+and have a faucet put in, and that it should be done on the morrow.
+Then he called to Elizabeth.
+
+"Kid, what did you do with those eats you brought along?  I think it
+would be a good time to hand them out.  I'm hungry.  Suppose you take
+George out to the car to help you bring them in, and let's have a
+picnic!"
+
+Then, turning to Shirley, he explained:
+
+"Elizabeth and I are great ones to have something along to eat.  It
+makes one hungry to ride, you know."
+
+The children needed no second word, but all hurried out to the car, and
+came back with a great bag of most delicious oranges and several boxes
+of fancy cakes and crackers; and they all sat down to enjoy them,
+laughing and chattering, not at all like landlord and tenants.
+
+"Now what's to do next?" demanded the landlord as soon as the repast
+was finished.  "I'm going to help.  We're not here to hinder, and we
+must make up for the time we have stopped you.  What were you and
+George doing, Miss Carol, when we arrived?"
+
+"Unpacking dishes," giggled Carol, looking askance at the frowning
+Shirley, who was shaking her head at Carol behind Graham's back.
+Shirley had no mind to have the elegant landlord see the dismal state
+of the Hollister crockery.  But the young man was not to be so easily
+put off, and to Carol's secret delight insisted upon helping despite
+Shirley's most earnest protests that it was not necessary to do
+anything more that evening.  He and Elizabeth repaired to the
+dining-room end of the barn, and helped unpack dishes, pans, kettles,
+knives, and forks, and arrange them on the shelves that George had
+improvised out of a large old bookcase that used to be his father's.
+After all, there was something in good breeding, thought Shirley, for
+from the way in which Mr. Graham handled the old cracked dishes, and
+set them up so nicely, you never would have known but they were
+Haviland china.  He never seemed to see them at all when they were
+cracked.  One might have thought he had been a member of the family for
+years, he made things seem so nice and comfortable and sociable.
+
+Merrily they worked, and accomplished wonders that night, for Shirley
+let them stay until nearly eleven o'clock "just for once"; and then
+they all piled into the car, Shirley and Carol and Elizabeth in the
+back seat, George and the happy Harley with Graham in the front.  If
+there had been seven more of them, they would have all happily squeezed
+in.  The young Hollisters were having the time of their lives, and as
+for the Grahams it wasn't quite certain but that they were also.
+Certainly society had never seen on Sidney Graham's face that happy,
+enthusiastic look of intense satisfaction that the moon looked down
+upon that night.  And, after all, they got home almost as soon as if
+they had gone on the ten-o'clock trolley.
+
+After that on one pretext or another those Grahams were always dropping
+in on the Hollisters at their work and managing to "help," and
+presently even Shirley ceased to be annoyed or to apologize.
+
+The east end of the barn had been selected for bedrooms.  A pair of
+cretonne curtains was stretched across the long, narrow room from wall
+to partition, leaving the front room for their mother's bed and Doris's
+crib, and the back room for Shirley and Carol.  The boys had taken
+possession of the loft with many shouts and elaborate preparations, and
+had spread out their treasures with deep delight, knowing that at last
+there was room enough for their proper display and they need feel no
+fear that they would be thrown out because their place was wanted for
+something more necessary.  Little by little the Hollisters were getting
+settled.  It was not so hard, after all, because there was that
+glorious big "attic" in which to put away things that were not needed
+below, and there was the whole basement for tubs and things, and a
+lovely faucet down there, too, so that a lot of work could be done
+below the living-floor.  It seemed just ideal to the girls, who had
+been for several years accustomed to the cramped quarters of a tiny
+city house.
+
+At last even the beds were made up, and everything had been moved but
+the bed and a few necessities in their mother's room, which were to
+come the next day while they were moving their mother.
+
+That moving of mother had been a great problem to Shirley until Graham
+anticipated her necessity, and said in a matter-of-fact way that he
+hoped Mrs. Hollister would let him take her to her new home in his car.
+Then Shirley's eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  She knew her
+mother was not yet able to travel comfortably in a trolley-car, and the
+price of a taxicab was more than she felt they ought to afford; yet in
+her secret heart she had been intending to get one; but now there would
+be no necessity.
+
+Shirley's words of gratitude were few and simple, but there was
+something in her eyes as she lifted them to Graham's face that made a
+glow in his heart and fully repaid him for his trouble.
+
+The last thing they did when they left the barn that night before they
+were coming to stay was to set the table, and it really looked very
+cozy and inviting with a white cloth on it and the dishes set out to
+look their best.  Shirley looked back at it with a sweeping glance that
+took in the great, comfortable living-room, the open door into the
+dining-room on one hand and the vista of a white bed on the other side
+through the bedroom door.  She smiled happily, and then switched off
+the electric light, and stepped out into the sweet spring night.
+Graham, who had stood watching her as one might watch the opening of
+some strange, unknown flower, closed and locked the door behind them,
+and followed her down the grassy slope to the car.
+
+"Do you know," he said earnestly, "it's been a great thing to me to
+watch you make a real home out of this bare barn?  It's wonderful!
+It's like a miracle.  I wouldn't have believed it could be done.  And
+you have done it so wonderfully!  I can just see what kind of a
+delightful home it is going to be."
+
+There was something in his tone that made Shirley forget he was rich
+and a stranger and her landlord.  She lifted her face to the stars, and
+spoke her thoughts.
+
+"You can't possibly know how much like heaven it is going to be to us
+after coming from that other awful little house," she said; "and you
+are the one who has made it possible.  If it hadn't been for you I know
+I never could have done it."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Miss Hollister!  You mustn't think of it, I haven't done
+anything at all, just the simplest things that were absolutely
+necessary."
+
+"Oh, I understand," said Shirley; "and I can't ever repay you, but I
+think God will.  That is the kind of thing the kingdom of heaven is
+made of."
+
+"Oh, really, now," said Graham, deeply embarrassed; he was not much
+accustomed to being connected with the kingdom of heaven in any way.
+"Oh, really, you--you over-estimate it.  And as for pay, I don't ask
+any better than the fun my sister and I have had helping you get
+settled.  It has been a great play for us.  We never really moved, you
+see.  We've always gone off and had some one do it for us.  I've
+learned a lot since I've known you."
+
+That night as she prepared to lie down on the mattress and blanket that
+had been left behind for herself and Carol to camp out on, Shirley
+remembered her first worries about Mr. Graham, and wondered whether it
+could be possible that he thought she had been forward in any way, and
+what her mother would think when she heard the whole story of the new
+landlord; for up to this time the secret had been beautifully kept from
+mother, all the children joining to clap their hands over wayward
+mouths that started to utter tell-tale sentences, and the mystery grew,
+and became almost like Christmas-time for little Doris and her mother.
+It must, however, be stated that Mrs. Hollister, that last night, as
+she lay wakeful on her bed in the little bare room in the tiny house,
+had many misgivings, and wondered whether perchance she would not be
+sighing to be back even here twenty-four hours later.  She was holding
+her peace wonderfully, because there really was nothing she could do
+about it even if she was going out of the frying-pan into the fire; but
+the tumult and worry in her heart had been by no means bliss.  So the
+midnight drew on, and the weary family slept for the last night in the
+cramped old house where they had lived since trouble and poverty had
+come upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Shirley was awake early that morning, almost too excited to sleep but
+fitfully even through the night.  Now that the thing was done and they
+were actually moved into a barn she began to have all sorts of fears
+and compunctions concerning it.  She seemed to see her delicate mother
+shrink as from a blow when she first learned that they had come to
+this.  Try as she would to bring back all the sensible philosophy that
+had caused her to enter into this affair in the first place, she simply
+could not feel anything but trouble.  She longed to rush into her
+mother's room, tell her all about it, and get the dreaded episode over.
+But anyhow it was inevitable now.  They were moved.  They had barely
+enough money to pay the cartage and get things started before next
+pay-day.  There was nothing for it but to take her mother there, even
+if she did shrink from the idea.
+
+Of course mother always had been sensible, and all that; but somehow
+the burden of the great responsibility of decision rested so heavily
+upon her young shoulders that morning that it seemed as if she could
+not longer bear the strain.
+
+They still had a good fire in the kitchen range, and Shirley hastened
+to the kitchen, prepared a delicate piece of toast, a poached egg, a
+cup of tea, and took it to her mother's room, tiptoeing lightly lest
+she still slept.
+
+But the mother was awake and glad to see her.  She had been awake since
+the first streak of dawn had crept into the little back window.  She
+had the look of one who was girded for the worst.  But, when she saw
+her daughter's face, the mother in her triumphed over the woman.
+
+"What's the trouble, little girl?  Has something happened?"
+
+The tenderness in her voice was the last straw that broke Shirley's
+self-control.  The tears suddenly sprang into her eyes, and her lip
+trembled.
+
+"Oh mother!" she wailed, setting the tray down quickly on a box and
+fumbling for her handkerchief.  "I'm so worried!  I'm so afraid you
+won't like what we've done, and then what shall we do?"
+
+"I _shall_ like it!" said the mother with instant determination.
+"Don't for a minute think of anything else.  Having done something
+irrevocably, never look back and think you might have done something
+better.  You did the best you could, or you thought you did, anyway;
+and there didn't seem to be anything else at the time.  So now just
+consider it was the very best thing in the world, and don't go to
+fretting about it.  There'll be _something_ nice about it, I'm sure,
+and goodness knows we've had enough unpleasant things here; so we
+needn't expect beds of roses.  We are just going to _make_ it nice,
+little girl.  Remember that!  We are going to like it.  There's a tree
+there, you say; so, when we find things we don't like, we'll just go
+out and look up at our tree, and say, 'We've got _you_, anyway, and
+_we're glad of it!_'"
+
+"You blessed little mother!" laughed Shirley, wiping her tears away.
+"I just believe you will like it, maybe, after all, though I've had a
+lot of compunctions all night.  I wondered if maybe I oughtn't to have
+told you all about it; only I knew you couldn't really judge at all
+until you had seen it yourself, and we wanted to surprise you."
+
+"Well, I'm determined to be surprised," said the brave little woman;
+"so don't you worry.  We're going to have a grand good time to-day.
+Now run along.  It's almost time for your car, and you haven't had any
+breakfast yet."
+
+Shirley kissed her mother, and went smiling down to eat her breakfast
+and hurry away to the office.
+
+There was a big rush of work at the office, or Shirley would have asked
+for a half-holiday; but she did not dare endanger her position by
+making a request at so busy a season.  She was glad that the next day
+was Sunday and they would have a whole day to themselves in the new
+home before she would have to hurry away to the office again.  It would
+serve to make it seem less lonely for her mother, having them all home
+that first day.  She meant to work fast to-day and get all the letters
+written before five if possible.  Then she would have time to get home
+a few minutes before Graham arrived with his car, and see that her
+mother was all comfortably ready.  It was a good deal to put upon Carol
+to look after everything.  It wasn't as if they had neighbors to help
+out a little, for they were the very last tenants in the doomed block
+to leave.  All the others had gone two or three weeks before.
+
+Thinking over again all the many details for the day, Shirley walked
+down to the office through the sunshine.  It was growing warm weather,
+and her coat felt oppressive already.  She was so thankful that mother
+would not have to sleep in those breathless rooms after the heat began.
+The doctor had said that her mother needed rest and air and plenty of
+sunshine more than anything else.  She would at least have those at the
+barn, and what did other things matter, after all?  Mother was game.
+Mother wouldn't let herself feel badly over such a silly thing.  They
+certainly were going to be more comfortable than they had been for
+several years.  Think of that wonderful electric light.  And clear cold
+water from the spring!  Oh, it was great!  And a little thrill of
+ecstasy passed over her, the first she had let herself feel since she
+had taken the great responsibility of transplanting her family to a
+barn.
+
+After all, the day passed very quickly; and, when at half-past four the
+telephone-bell rang and Graham's voice announced that he would be down
+at the street door waiting for her in half an hour, that she needn't
+hurry, he would wait till she was ready, her heart gave a little jump
+of joy.  It was as if school was out and she was going on a real picnic
+like other girls.  How nice of him!  How perfectly lovely of him!  And
+yet there hadn't been anything but the nicest friendliness in his
+voice, such as any kindly disposed landlord might use if he chose,
+nothing that she need feel uncomfortable about.  At least, there was
+the relief that after to-night mother would know all about it; and, if
+she didn't approve, Shirley could decline any further kindness, of
+course.  And now she was just going to take mother's advice and forget
+everything but the pleasant part.
+
+At home Carol and Harley bustled about in the empty house like two
+excited bumble-bees, washing up the few dishes, putting in an open box
+everything that had been left out for their last night's sleeping,
+getting lunch, and making mother take a nap.  Doris, vibrating between
+her mother's room and down-stairs, kept singing over to herself: "We
+goin' to tuntry!  We goin' to tuntry!  See birdies an' twees and walk
+on gween gwass!"
+
+After lunch was over and the dishes were put carefully into the big box
+between comfortables and blankets Carol helped her mother to dress, and
+then made her lie down and take a good long nap, with Doris asleep by
+her side.  After that Carol and Harley tiptoed down to the bare
+kitchen, and sat on a box side by side to converse.
+
+"Gee!  Ain't you tired, Carol?" said the boy, pushing his hair back
+from his hot face.  "Gee!  Don't it seem funny we aren't coming back
+here any more?  It kind of gets my goat I sha'n't see the fellows so
+often, but it'll be great to ask 'em to see us sometimes.  Say, do you
+suppose we really can keep chickens?"
+
+"Sure!" said Carol convincingly.  "I asked Mr. Graham if we
+might,--George said we ought to, he was such a good scout you'd want to
+be sure he'd like it, and he said, 'Sure, it would be great.'  He'd
+like to come out and see them sometimes.  He said he used to keep
+chickens himself when he was a kid, and he shouldn't wonder if they had
+a few too many at their place they could spare to start with.  He told
+me he'd look it up and see soon's we got settled."
+
+"Gee!  He's a peach, isn't he?  Say, has he got a case on Shirl?"
+
+"I don't know," said the girl thoughtfully; "maybe he has, but he
+doesn't know it yet, I guess.  But anyhow you must promise me you will
+never breathe such a word.  Why, Shirley would just bust right up if
+you did.  I said a little something to her like that once; it wasn't
+much, only just that he was awfully nice and I guessed he liked her by
+the way he looked at her, and she just fairly froze.  You know the way
+her eyes get when she is sore at us?  And she said I must never,
+_never_ even _think_ anything like that, or she would give the place
+right up, and get a few rooms down on South Street, and stay in the
+city all summer!  She said Mr. Graham was a gentleman, and she was only
+a working girl, and it would be a disgrace for her to accept any favors
+from him except what she could pay for, and an insult for him to offer
+them, because she was only a working girl and he was a gentleman, you
+know."
+
+"H'm!" growled Harley.  "I guess our sister's as good as he is any day."
+
+"Of course!" snapped Carol; "but then he might not think so."
+
+"Well, if he don't, he can go to thunder!" bristled Harley wrathfully.
+"I'm not going to have him looking down on Shirley.  She's as good as
+his baby-doll sister with her pink cheeks, and her little white hands,
+and her high heels and airs, any day!  She's a nut, she is."
+
+"Harley!  You stop!" declared Carol, getting wrathful.  "Elizabeth's a
+dear, and you're not going to talk about her that way.  Just because
+she is pretty and doesn't have to work."
+
+"Well, you said her brother looked down on our sister," declared Harley.
+
+"I did not!  I only said he _might_!  I only meant that was the way
+_some_ gentlemen would.  I only said people kind of expect gentlemen to
+do that."
+
+"Not if they're real gentlemen, they won't.  And anyhow _he_ won't.  If
+I find him looking down on my sister Shirley, I'll punch his face for
+him.  Yes, I will!  I'm not afraid.  George and I could beat the
+stuffing out of him, and we will if he does any looking-down stunts,
+and don't you forget it!"
+
+"Well, I'm sure he doesn't," said Carol pacifically, trying to put a
+soothing sound into her voice as wise elder sisters learn to do.  "You
+see if he did look down on her, Shirley would know it; right away she'd
+know it.  Nobody would have to tell _her_!  She'd see it in his voice
+and smile and everything.  And, if he had, she wouldn't have gone out
+there to live in the place he owns, you know.  So I guess you can trust
+Shirley.  _I_ think he's been just dandy, fixing up that fireplace and
+stairs and lights and water and everything."
+
+"Well, mebbe!" said Harley grudgingly.  "Say, this is slow.  I'm going
+out to meet the fellows when they come from school, and see what the
+score of the game is.  Gee!  I wish I could play to-day!"
+
+"You'll be sure to come back in time?" asked Carol anxiously.
+
+"Sure!  You don't suppose I'd miss going out in that car, do you?" said
+the brother contemptuously.  "Not on your tintype!"
+
+"Well, maybe there won't be room for you.  Maybe Elizabeth'll come
+along, and you'll have to go in the trolley with George."
+
+"No chance!" declared the boy.  "Mr. Graham said I should ride with him
+in the front seat, and he looks like a man that kept his word."
+
+"You see!  _You_ know he's a gentleman!" triumphed Carol.  "Well, I
+think you'd better stay here with me.  You'll forget and be late, and
+make a mess waiting for you."
+
+"No, I won't!" said the restless boy.  "I can't be bothered sticking
+round this dump all afternoon"; and Harley seized his cap, and
+disappeared with a whoop around the corner.  After he was gone Carol
+found she was tired out herself, and, curling up on a mattress that was
+lying ready for the cartman, was soon asleep.  It was so that Harley
+found her when he hurried back an hour later, a trifle anxious, it must
+be confessed, lest he had stayed too long.  He stirred up the small
+household noisily, and in no time had Carol in a panic brewing the cup
+of tea that was to give her mother strength to take the journey,
+dressing Doris, smoothing her own hair, putting the last things into
+bags and baskets and boxes, and directing the cartman, who arrived half
+an hour sooner than he promised.  Carol was quite a little woman, going
+from one thing to another and taking the place of everybody.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham and her brother had been spending the
+afternoon in business of their own.  It was Elizabeth who had suggested
+it, and her brother saw no reason why she should not carry out her plan
+and why he should not help her.
+
+She came down in the car after lunch, the chauffeur driving her, a
+great basket of cut and potted flowers from the home conservatory in
+the tonneau beside her, carefully wrapped in wax-paper.  She stopped at
+the office for her brother, and together they went about to several
+shops giving orders and making purchases.  When they had finished they
+drove out to Glenside to unpack their bundles and baskets.  Graham left
+Elizabeth with the old servant to help her, and drove rapidly back to
+his office, where he telephoned to Shirley.
+
+Certainly Elizabeth had never had such fun in her life.  She scarcely
+knew which delightful thing to do first, and she had only about two
+hours to complete her arrangements before the family would arrive.
+
+She decided to decorate first, and the great hamper of flowers was
+forthwith brought into the barn, and the chauffeur set to work twining
+ropes and sprays of smilax and asparagus fern over doorways and
+pictures, and training it like a vine about the stone chimney.  Then
+came the flowers.  Pots of tall starry lilies, great, heavy-headed,
+exquisite-breathed roses, pink, white, yellow, and crimson; daffodils
+and sweet peas, with quantities of sweet violets in the bottom of the
+basket.  Elizabeth with deft fingers selected the flowers skilfully,
+putting pots of lilies on the window-sills, massing a quantity of pink
+roses in a dull gray jar she found among the kitchen things, that
+looked to the initiated amazingly as though it might once have been
+part of a water-filter, but it suited the pink roses wonderfully.  The
+tall vases on the bookcases each side of the fireplace held daffodils.
+Sweet peas were glowing in small vases and glasses and bowls, and
+violets in saucers filled the air with fragrance.  White and yellow
+roses were on the dining-table, and three exquisite tall crimson
+rosebuds glowed in a slender glass vase Elizabeth had brought with her.
+This she placed in Mrs. Hollister's room on the little stand that she
+judged would be placed beside the bed when the bed arrived.  The
+flowers certainly did give an atmosphere to the place in more senses
+than one; and the girl was delighted, and fluttered from one spot to
+another, changing the position of a vase or bowl, and then standing off
+to get the effect.
+
+"Now bring me the big bundle, Jenkins, please," she said at length when
+she was satisfied with the effect.  "Oh, and the little long box.  Be
+careful.  It is broken at one end, and the screws may fall out."
+
+Jenkins was soon back with the things.
+
+"Now, you get the rods put up at the windows, Jenkins, while I get out
+the curtains," and she untied the big bundle with eager fingers.
+
+Jenkins was adaptable, and the rods were simple affairs.  He was soon
+at work, and Elizabeth ran the rods into the curtains.
+
+They were not elegant curtains.  Graham had insisted that she should
+get nothing elaborate, nothing that would be out of keeping with the
+simplicity.  They were soft and straight and creamy, with a frost-like
+pattern rambling over them in threads of the same, illuminated here and
+there with a single rose and a leaf in color.  There was something
+cheerful and spring-like to them, and yet they looked exceedingly plain
+and suitable, no ruffles or trimming of any kind, just hems.  To
+Elizabeth's mind they had been very cheap.  Shirley would have
+exclaimed over their beauty wistfully and turned from them with a gasp
+when she heard their price.  They were one of those quiet fitting
+things that cost without flaunting it.  They transformed the room into
+a dream.
+
+"Oh, isn't it _beautiful_!" exclaimed Elizabeth, standing back to look
+as the first curtain went up.
+
+"Yes, Miss, it's very stunning, Miss," said the man, working away with
+good will in his face.
+
+When the curtains were all up, Elizabeth pinned one of her cards to the
+curtain nearest the front door, inscribed, "With love from Elizabeth."
+
+Then in a panic she looked at her watch.
+
+"Oh Jenkins!  It's almost six o'clock," she cried in dismay.  "They
+might get here by half-past, perhaps.  We must hurry!  Bring the other
+things in quick now, please."
+
+So Jenkins brought them in, bundles and bags and boxes, an ice-cream
+freezer, and last of all the cooking-outfit belonging to their
+touring-car.
+
+"Now you get the hot things ready, Jenkins, while I fix the table,"
+directed the girl.
+
+Jenkins, well trained in such things, went to work, opening cans and
+starting his chafing-dish fire.  Elizabeth with eager fingers opened
+her parcels.
+
+A great platter of delicious triangular chicken sandwiches, a dish of
+fruit and nut salad surrounded by crisp lettuce leaves, a plate of
+delicate rolls, cream puffs, chocolate éclairs, macaroons, a cocoanut
+pie, things she liked herself; and then because she knew no feast
+without them there were olives, salted almonds, and bonbons as a matter
+of course.
+
+Delicious odors from the kitchen end of the room began to fill the air.
+Jenkins was heating a pail of rich soup--chicken with rice and
+gumbo--from one of the best caterers in the city.  He was making rich
+cocoa to be eaten with whipped cream that Elizabeth was pouring into a
+glass pitcher; the pitcher came from the ten-cent store if she had only
+known it.  Jenkins was cooking canned peas and heating lovely little
+brown potato croquettes.  The ice-cream freezer was out in full sight,
+where they could never miss it.  Everything was ready now.
+
+"Jenkins, you better light up that queer stove of theirs now if you're
+sure you know how,--she said it was just like a lamp the way it
+worked,--and put those things in the oven to keep warm.  Then we'll
+pack up our things, and hide them out in the grass where they can't
+see, and get them in the car when they get out.  Hurry, for they'll be
+here very soon now, I think."
+
+Elizabeth stuck a card in the middle of the rose-bowl that said in
+pretty letters, "Welcome Home," stood back a minute to see how
+everything looked, and then fluttered to the door to watch for the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+When Shirley came down to the street at five o'clock.  Graham was
+waiting for her as he promised, and swung the car door open for her
+with as much eagerness as if he were taking the girl of his choice on a
+picnic instead of just doing a poor little stenographer a kindness.
+
+"I telephoned to the store and sent a message to George.  We're going
+to pick him up on our way," he said as the car wended its way skilfully
+through the traffic.
+
+She was sitting beside him, and he looked down at her as if they were
+partners in a pleasant scheme.  A strange sense of companionship with
+him thrilled through her, and was properly rebuked and fled at once,
+without really rippling the surface of her joy much.  She had
+determined to have the pleasure out of this one evening ride at least,
+and would not let her thoughts play truant to suggest what wider,
+sweeter realms might be for other girls.  She was having this good
+time.  It was for her and no one else, and she would just enjoy it as
+much as she could, and keep it the sweet, sane, innocent pleasure that
+it really was.  If she was not a fool, everything would be all right.
+
+George was waiting in a quiver of pride and eagerness for them as they
+swept up to the employees' entrance, and a line of admiring
+fellow-laborers stood gaping on the sidewalk to watch his departure.
+
+"Oh, gee!  Isn't this great?" shouted George, climbing into the back
+seat hilariously.  "Got a whole omnibus of a car this time, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I thought we'd have plenty of room for your mother, so she could
+lie down if she liked."
+
+"That was very kind of you," murmured Shirley.  "You think of
+everything, don't you?  I'm sure I don't see how we ever could have
+managed without your help.  I should have been frightened a dozen times
+and been ready to give up."
+
+"Not you!" said Graham fervently.  "You're the kind that never gives
+up.  You've taught me several valuable lessons."
+
+As they turned the corner into the old street where the little brick
+house stood, Shirley suddenly began to have a vivid realization that
+she had told her mother nothing whatever about Mr. Graham.  What would
+she think, and how could she explain his presence?  She had expected to
+get there before Graham arrived and have time enough to make her mother
+understand, but now she began to realize that her real reason for
+leaving the matter yet unexplained was that she did not know just what
+to say without telling the whole story from beginning to end.
+
+"I'll hurry in and see if mother is all ready," she said, as the car
+stopped in front of the house, and the children rushed out eagerly,
+Doris just behind the others, to see the "booful tar."
+
+"Mother," said Shirley, slipping softly into the house and going over
+to the bed where she lay with hat and coat on, fully ready.  "Mother, I
+sha'n't have time to explain all about it, but it's all right; so don't
+think anything.  Mr. Graham, the man who owns the place where we are
+going, has been kind enough to offer to take you in his car.  He thinks
+it will be easier for you than the trolley, and he is out at the door
+now waiting.  It's perfectly all right.  He has been very kind about
+it----"
+
+"Oh daughter, I couldn't think of troubling any one like that!" said
+the mother, shrinking from the thought of a stranger; but, looking up,
+she saw him standing, hat in hand, just in the doorway.  The children
+had led him to the door when he offered to help their mother out to the
+car.
+
+"Mother, this is Mr. Graham," said Shirley.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, a little pink spot on each cheek, tried to rise, but
+the young man came forward instantly and stooped over her.
+
+"Don't try to get up, Mrs. Hollister.  Your daughter tells me you
+haven't been walking about for several weeks.  You must reserve all
+your strength for the journey.  Just trust me.  I'm perfectly strong,
+and I can lift you and put you into the car almost without your knowing
+it.  I often carry my own mother up-stairs just for fun, and she's
+quite a lot larger and heavier than you.  Just let me put my hand under
+your back so, and now this hand here.  Now if you'll put your arms
+around my neck--yes, that way--no, don't be a bit afraid.  I'm
+perfectly strong, and I won't drop you."
+
+Little Mrs. Hollister cast a frightened look at her daughter and
+another at the fine, strong face bent above her, felt herself lifted
+like thistle-down before she had had time to protest, and found herself
+obediently putting her weak arms around his neck and resting her
+frightened head against a strong shoulder.  A second more, and she was
+lying on the soft cushions of the car, and the young man was piling
+pillows about her and tucking her up with soft, furry robes.
+
+"Are you perfectly comfortable?" he asked anxiously.  "I didn't strain
+your back or tire you, did I?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed!" said the bewildered woman.  "You are very kind, and I
+hardly knew what you were doing till I was here.  I never dreamed of
+anything like this.  Shirley didn't tell me about it."
+
+"No," said the young man, smiling, "she said she wanted to surprise
+you; and I believe she thought you might worry a little if you heard
+the details of the journey.  Now, kitten, are you ready to get in?"  He
+turned a smiling face to Doris, who stood solemnly waiting her turn,
+with an expression of one who at last sees the gates of the kingdom of
+heaven opening before her happy eyes.
+
+"Soor!" said Doris in a tone as like Harley's as possible.  She lifted
+one little shabby shoe, and tried to reach the step, but failed, and
+then surrendered her trusting hands to the young man; and he lifted her
+in beside her mother.
+
+"Sit there, kitten, till your sister comes out," he said, looking at
+her flower face admiringly.
+
+Doris giggled.
+
+"I ain't a kitty," she declared; "I'se a 'ittle gurrul!"
+
+"Well, little girl, do you like to go riding?"
+
+"Soor!  I do 'ike to go widin'!" said Doris.  "Oh!  There goes muvver's
+bed!" as the drayman came out carrying the headboard.
+
+Shirley meanwhile was working rapidly, putting the last things from her
+mother's bed into the box, tossing things into the empty clothes-basket
+that had been left for this purpose, and directing the man who was
+taking down the bed and carrying out the boxes and baskets.  At last
+all the things were out of the house, and she was free to go.  She
+turned for one swift moment, and caught a sob in her throat.  There had
+not been time for it before.  It had come when she saw the young man
+stoop and lift her mother so tenderly and bear her out to the car.
+
+But the children were calling her loudly to come.  She gave one happy
+dab at her eyes with her handkerchief to make sure no tears had
+escaped, and went out of the little brick house forever.
+
+A little middle seat had been turned down for Carol, and Doris was in
+her lap.  Graham turned the other middle seat down for Shirley; the
+boys piled into the front seat with him; and they were off.  Mrs.
+Hollister in her wonder over it all completely forgot to look back into
+what she had been wont to call in the stifling days of summer her
+"frying-pan," or to wonder whether she were about to jump into the
+fire.  She just lay back on her soft cushions, softer than any she had
+ever rested upon before, and felt herself glide along away from the
+hated little dark house forever!  It was a wonderful experience.  It
+almost seemed as if a chariot of fire had swooped down and gathered all
+her little flock with her, and was carrying them to some kind of
+gracious heaven where comfort would be found at last.  A bit of hope
+sprang up within her, utterly unpremeditated and unreasonable, and
+persisted so that she could not help feeling happy.  As yet it had not
+come to her to wonder who this handsome young man was that presumed to
+lift her and carry her like a baby, and move her on beds of down to
+utterly unknown regions.  She was too much taken up with the wonder of
+it all.  If Doris hadn't been prattling, asking questions of her, and
+the light breeze hadn't flapped a lock of hair into her eyes and
+tickled her nose, she might have thought she was dreaming, so utterly
+unreal did it all seem to her.
+
+And now they passed out from the narrow streets, through crowded
+thoroughfares for a brief space, then out beyond, and free, into the
+wider reaches.  Fair houses and glimpses of green were appearing.  The
+car was gliding smoothly, for the sake of the invalid not going at high
+speed; and she could see on every side.  The trees were in full leaf;
+the sky was large and blue; the air was filled with freshness.  She
+drew a long breath; and closed her eyes to pray, "Oh, my Father!" and
+then opened them again to see whether it was all true.  Shirley,
+sensitive for her to the slightest breath, turned and drew the robes
+closer about her mother, and asked whether she were perfectly warm and
+whether she wanted another pillow under her head.
+
+Graham did not intrude himself upon the family behind him.  He was
+absorbed in the two boys, who were entirely willing to be monopolized.
+He told them all about the car, and discoursed on the mysteries of the
+different makes with a freedom that gave George the impression that he
+was himself almost a man to be honored by such talk.
+
+It was nearly seven o'clock when they reached Glenside and the big
+stone barn came in sight, for they had travelled slowly to make it
+easier for the invalid.
+
+Elizabeth had sighted the car far down the road below the curve; and,
+switching on every electric light in the place, she fled down the
+ladder to the basement, dragging the willing Jenkins after her.  Here
+they waited with bated breath until the family had gone inside, when
+they made their stealthy way out the east end, across the little brook
+under the fence, and down the road, to be picked up by the car
+according to previous arrangement.
+
+As the car came in sight of the barn a deep silence suddenly fell upon
+the little company.  Even Doris felt it, and ceased her prattle to look
+from one to another.  "Whatzie mattah?" she asked Shirley shyly,
+putting out her hand to pat Shirley's face in a way she had when she
+was uneasy or troubled.  "_Whatzie mattah, Surly?_"
+
+But Shirley only squeezed her hand reassuringly, and smiled.
+
+As they drew near, the young people noticed that the bars of the fence
+in front of the barn had been taken down and the ditch filled in
+smoothly.  Then they saw that the car was turning in and going straight
+up the grassy incline to the door.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, lying comfortably among her cushions, was looking at
+the evening sky, hearing a bird that reminded her of long ago, and
+scarcely noticed they had turned until the car stopped.  Then in silent
+joy the children swarmed out of the car, and with one consent stood
+back and watched mother, as the strong young man came to the open door
+and gathered her in his arms once more.
+
+"Now we're almost home, Mrs. Hollister," he said pleasantly.  "Just put
+your arms around my neck once more, and we'll soon have you beside your
+own fire."  He lifted her and bore her in to the wide couch before the
+crackling fire that Elizabeth had started just before she went to look
+out the door the last time.
+
+Then into the blazing light of the transformed barn they all stepped,
+and every one stood back and stared, blinking.  What was this?  What
+wondrous perfume met their senses?  What luxury!  What flowers!  What
+hangings!
+
+They stood and stared, and could not understand; and between them they
+forgot to wonder what their mother was thinking, or to do a thing but
+stupidly stare and say, "Why!" and "Oh!" and "Ah!" half under their
+breath.
+
+"Just phone me if you need anything, Miss Hollister, please.  I shall
+be glad to serve you," said Graham, stepping quickly over to the door.
+"Mrs. Hollister, I hope you'll be none the worse for your ride"; and he
+slipped out the door, and was gone.
+
+The sound of the car softly purring its way backward down the slope
+brought Shirley out of her daze; but, when she turned and understood
+that he was gone, the car was just backing into the road, turning with
+a quick whirl, and was away before she could make him hear.
+
+"Oh!  He is _gone_!" she cried out, turning in dismay to the children.
+"He is gone, and we never thanked him!"
+
+George was out down the road like a shot; and the rest, forgetful for
+the moment of the invalid who had been the great anxiety all day,
+crowded at the door to watch him.  They could hear the throbbing of the
+machine; they heard it stop down the road and start again almost
+immediately, growing fainter with every whir as it went farther from
+them.  In a moment more George came running back.
+
+"He's gone.  He meant to, I guess, so we could have it all to ourselves
+right at first.  Elizabeth and the man were down the road waiting for
+him.  They've been dolling the place up to surprise us."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, turning to look around, her cheeks growing rosy.
+"Oh!  Isn't it beautiful?"  Then, turning swiftly to the couch and
+kneeling, she said, "Oh _mother_!"
+
+"What does it all mean, daughter?" asked the bewildered mother, looking
+about on the great room that seemed a palace to her sad eyes.
+
+But they all began to clamor at once, and she could make nothing of it.
+
+"Oh Shirley, look at the curtains!  Aren't they perfectly dear?" cried
+Carol ecstatically.
+
+"Perf'ly deah!" echoed Doris, dancing up and down gleefully.
+
+"And here's a card, 'With love from Elizabeth'!  Isn't it sweet of her?
+Isn't she a perfect _darling_?"
+
+"Who is Elizabeth?" asked Mrs. Hollister, rising to her elbow and
+looking around.
+
+"Gee!  Look at the flowers!" broke in George.  "It's like our store at
+Easter!  I say!  Those lilies are pretty keen, aren't they, Shirl?"
+
+"Wait'll you see the dining-room!" called Harley, who was investigating
+with the help of his nose.  "_Some_ supper-table!  Come on quick; I'm
+starved.  Hello!  Hustle here quick.  Here's another sign-board!"
+
+They followed to the dining-room.  Harley, still following his nose,
+pursued his investigations to the kitchen, discovered the source of the
+savory odors that were pervading the place, and raised another cry so
+appreciative that the entire family, with the exception of the invalid,
+followed him and found the supper steaming hot and crying to be eaten.
+
+After the excitement was somewhat quieted Shirley took command.
+
+"Now, children, you're getting mother all excited, and this won't do.
+And, besides, we must eat this supper right away before it spoils.
+Quiet down, and bring the hot things to the table while I get mother's
+things off.  Then we will tell her all about it.  There's plenty of
+time, you know.  We're going to stay right here all summer."
+
+"Aw, gee!  Can't we bring mother out to the table?" pleaded George.
+"Harley and I could lift that couch just as easy."
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Shirley, hesitating.  "You know she isn't
+strong, and she will worry about your lifting her."
+
+"Oh Shirley, let her come," pleaded Carol.  "We could all take hold and
+wheel the couch out here; you know the floor is real smooth since those
+new boards were put in, and there are good castors on the couch."
+
+"Mother!  Mother!  You're coming out to supper!" they chorused, rushing
+back to the living-room; and before the invalid realized what was
+happening her couch was being wheeled carefully, gleefully into the
+brilliantly lighted dining-room, with Doris like a fairy sprite dancing
+attendance, and shouting joyously:
+
+"Mudder's tumin' to suppy!  Mudder's tumin' to suppy adin!"
+
+The mother gazed in amazement at the royally spread table, so smothered
+in flowers that she failed to recognize the cracked old blue dishes.
+
+"Children, I insist," she raised her voice above the happy din.  "I
+insist on knowing immediately what all this means.  Where are we, and
+what is this?  A hotel?  And who was the person who brought us here?  I
+cannot eat anything nor stay here another minute until I know.  People
+can't rent houses like this for ten dollars a month anywhere, and I
+didn't suppose we had come to charity, even if I am laid up for a few
+days."
+
+Shirley could see the hurt in her mother's eyes and the quick alarm in
+her voice, and came around to her couch, smiling.
+
+"Now, mother dear, we'll tell you the whole thing.  It isn't a hotel
+we're in, and it isn't a house at all.  It's only an old barn!"
+
+"A barn!"  Mrs. Hollister sat up on her couch alertly, and looked at
+the big bowl of roses in the middle of the table, at the soft, flowing
+curtains at the window and the great pot of Easter lilies on the little
+stand in front, and exclaimed, "Impossible!"
+
+"But it is, really, mother, just a grand old stone barn!  Look at the
+walls.  See those two over there are just rough stones, and this one
+back of you is a partition made of common boards.  That's only an old
+brown denim curtain over there to hide the kitchen, and we've got the
+old red chenille curtains up to partition off the bedrooms.  The boys
+are going to sleep up in the hay-loft, and it's going to be just great!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked wildly at the stone walls, back at the new
+partition, recognized one by one the ancient chairs, the old bookcase
+now converted into a china-closet, the brown denim curtain that had
+once been a cover for the dining-room floor in the little brick house.
+Now it was washed and mended, and was doing its faded part to look like
+a wall and fit into the scheme of things.  She darted questioning
+glances at the wealth of flowers, and the abundantly set table, then
+settled back on her pillow but half satisfied.
+
+"They don't have curtains in a barn!" she remarked dryly.
+
+"Those are a present from Elizabeth, the little sister of the landlord.
+She was out here with him when he came to see about things, and she got
+acquainted with Carol.  She has put up those curtains, and brought the
+flowers, and fixed the table, for a surprise.  See, mother!" and
+Shirley brought the card on which Elizabeth had printed her crude
+welcome.
+
+Mrs. Hollister took the card as if it were some sort of a
+life-preserver, and smiled with relief.
+
+"But this is a great deal to do for strangers," she said tremblingly,
+and tears began to glitter in her eyes.  "They must be wealthy people."
+
+"Yes, mother, I think they are," said Shirley, "and they have been most
+kind."
+
+"But, daughter, wealthy people do not usually take the trouble to do
+things like that for nothing.  And ten dollars a month for a barn could
+be nothing to them."
+
+"I know, mother, but he seems very well satisfied with the price," said
+Shirley with a troubled brow.  "I----"
+
+"Something's burning!" yelled Harley at the top of his lungs from the
+kitchen, and immediately they all rushed out to rescue the supper,
+which took that moment to assert itself.
+
+"Now, mother," said Shirley, coming in with a big tureen of soup,
+"we've got to eat this supper or it will spoil.  You're not to ask
+another question till we are through."
+
+They all settled expectantly down at the table, Doris climbing joyously
+into her high chair, calling:
+
+"Suppy!  Suppy!  Oh goody!"
+
+Such a clatter and a clamor, such shoutings over the sandwiches and
+such jumpings up and down to carry something to mother!  Such lingering
+over the delicious ice-cream and fresh strawberries that were found in
+the freezer!  Think of it!  Real strawberries for _them_ that time of
+year!
+
+Then, when they had eaten all they could, and began to realize that it
+was time to get mother to bed, they pushed the chairs back, and all
+fell to clearing off the table and putting things away.  It was Carol
+who discovered the big roasted fowl and the bowl of salad set away in
+the tiny ice-box ready for to-morrow.  How had Elizabeth, who never
+kept house in her life, known just what would be nice for a family were
+all tired out with moving, and needed to lie back and rest before
+starting on with living?
+
+The dishes were almost washed when the cart arrived with the last load
+of things, and the drayman helped George to put up mother's bed.
+
+They wheeled the couch into the living-room after the big doors were
+closed and safely fastened for the night.  Before the glowing fire
+Shirley helped mother to undress, then rolled her couch into the
+bedroom and got her to bed.
+
+"Do you mind very much that it is only a barn, mother dear?" questioned
+Shirley, bending anxiously over her mother after she was settled.
+
+"I can't make it seem like a barn, dear; it seems a palace!" said the
+mother with a tremble in her voice.  "I'm glad it's a barn, because we
+could never afford a house with space like this, and air!"  She threw
+out her hands as if to express her delight in the wide rooms, and drew
+in a breath of the delicious country air, so different from air of the
+dusty little brick house in the city.
+
+"Daughter!" she drew Shirley down where she could whisper to her.
+"You're sure he is not looking on us as objects of charity, and you're
+sure he understands that you are a self-respecting girl earning her
+honorable living and paying her way?  You know this is a wicked,
+deceitful world we live in, and there are all sorts of people in it."
+
+"Mother dear!  I'm sure.  Sure as anybody could be.  He has been a
+perfect gentleman.  You didn't think he looked like one of those--those
+people--that go around misunderstanding girls, did you mother?"
+
+The mother remembered the gentle, manly way in which the young man had
+lifted her and carried her to and from the car, and her heart warmed to
+him.  Yet her fears lingered as she watched her sweet-eyed girl.
+
+"No-o-o," she answered slowly; "but then, you can't always judge.  He
+certainly was a gentleman, and he was very nice-looking."  Then she
+looked sharply at Shirley.
+
+"You won't go to getting any notions in your head, dear child?"  Her
+eyes were wistful and sad as she searched the sweet, weary face of the
+girl.  "You know rich young men follow whims sometimes for a few days.
+They don't mean anything.  I wouldn't want your heart broken.  I wish
+he was an old man with white hair."
+
+"Oh mother dear!" laughed Shirley with heart-free ring to her voice,
+"did you think you had a young fool for a daughter?  He was only being
+nice because he is a perfect gentleman; but I know he is not in the
+same universe as I am, so far as anything more than pleasant kindliness
+is concerned.  We shall probably never see him again now that we are
+settled.  But don't you think I ought to go and telephone thanks to his
+little sister?  They will be home by this time, and it seems as if we
+ought to make some acknowledgment of her great kindness."
+
+"By all means, dear; but how can you?  Is there a pay-station near
+here?  I thought you said this was out in the country."
+
+"Why, we have a telephone of our own, muddy dear!  Just think of the
+luxury of it!  Us with a telephone!  Mr. Graham had it put into the
+barn when he was making some repairs, so he could communicate with his
+workmen; and he said if we would like it we might keep it.  It is one
+of those 'pay-as-you-go' phones, with a place to drop nickels and dimes
+in; so we are perfectly independent.  Mr. Graham thought it would be a
+comfort to you when George or I had to stay late in town."
+
+"How thoughtful of him!  He must be a _wonderful_ rich man!  By all
+means telephone at once, and tell the little girl to say to her brother
+from me that I shall esteem it a privilege to thank him personally for
+all that he has done for my children, sometime when he is out this way.
+Think.  A real rose by my bed!"  She reached out a frail hand, and
+touched the exquisite petals lovingly.  "It is wonderful!"
+
+So Shirley went into the living-room to telephone, while all the
+children stood about to watch and comment and tell her what to say.
+Doris sat on a little cushion at her feet in awe, and listened, asking
+Carol with large eyes: "Is Sirley tautin to Dod?  Vy doesn't see sut
+her yeyes?" for Shirley's conversation over the telephone sounded to
+the little sister much like a prayer of thanksgiving; only she was not
+accustomed to hearing that joyous laughter in the voice when people
+prayed.
+
+Then Doris was put to bed in her own little crib, and the light in
+mother's room was switched off amid Doris's flood of questions.
+
+"Vat makes it light?  Vy did it do avay?  Will it tum adin?"
+
+At last she was asleep, and the other children tiptoed excitedly about
+preparing for bed, going up and downstairs softly, whispering back and
+forth for this or that they could not find, till quiet settled down
+upon the tired, happy household, and the bullfrogs in the distant creek
+droned out the nightly chorus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+It was beautiful to wake the next morning with the birds singing a
+matin in the trees, and a wonderful Sabbath quiet over everything.
+Tired out as she was and worn with excitement and care, Shirley was the
+first to waken, and she lay there quiet beside Carol for a little while
+with her eyes closed, listening, and saying a prayer of thanksgiving
+for the peace of the place, and the wonder that it had come into her
+life.  Then suddenly a strange luminousness about her simply forced her
+to open her eyes.
+
+The eastern window was across the room from her bed, and the sky was
+rosy, with the dawn, and flooding the room.  It was the first time in
+years she had watched the sun rise.  She had almost forgotten, in the
+little dark city house, that there was a sun to rise and make things
+glorious.  The sun had seemed an enemy to burn and wilt and stifle.
+
+But now here was a friend, a radiant new friend, to be waited for and
+enjoyed, to give glory to all their lives.  She raised herself on one
+elbow and watched until the red ball had risen and burst into the
+brightness of day.  Then she lay down softly again and listened to the
+birds.  They seemed to be mad with joy over the new day.  Presently the
+chorus grew less and less.  The birds had gone about their morning
+tasks, and only a single bright song now and then from some soloist in
+the big tree overhead marked the sweet-scented silence of the morning.
+
+In the quiet Shirley lay and went over events since she had first seen
+this spot and taken the idea of living in the barn.  Her heart gave
+thanks anew that her mother had not disliked it as she had feared.
+There was no sense that it was a stable, no odor of living creatures
+having occupied it before, only sweet dusty clover like a lingering of
+past things put away carefully.  It was like a great camping
+expedition.  And then all those flowers!  The scent of the lilies was
+on the air.  How lovely of the young girl out of her luxury to think to
+pass on some of the sweet things of life!  And the gracious, chivalrous
+man, her brother!  She must not let him think she would presume upon
+his kindness.  She must not let even her thoughts cross the line and
+dwell on the ground of social equality.  She knew where he belonged,
+and there he should stay for all her.  She was heart-free and happy,
+and only too glad to have such a kind landlord.
+
+She drifted off to sleep again, and it was late when she awoke the next
+time.  A silvery bell from the little white church in the valley was
+ringing and echoing distantly.  Sabbath, real Sabbath, seemed brooding
+happily in the very air.  Shirley got up and dressed hastily.  She felt
+as if she had already lost too much of this first wonderful day in the
+country.
+
+A thrush was spilling his liquid notes in the tree overhead when she
+tiptoed softly into her mother's room.  Doris opened her eyes and
+looked in wonder, then whispered softly:
+
+"Vat is dat, Sirley?  Vat _is_ dat pitty sound?"
+
+"A birdie in the tree, dearie!" whispered Shirley.
+
+"A _weel budie_!  I yantta see it!  Take Doris up, Sirley!"
+
+So Shirley lifted the little maiden, wrapped a shawl about her, and
+carried her softly to the window, where she looked up in wonder and joy.
+
+The boys came tumbling down from their loft in a few minutes, and there
+was no more sleep to be had.  Carol was up and out, and the voice of
+one or the other of them was continually raised in a shout of triumph
+over some new delight.
+
+"I saw a fish in the brook!" shouted Harley under his mother's window.
+"It was only a little fellow, but maybe it'll grow bigger some day, and
+then we can fish!"
+
+"You silly!" cried George.  "It was a minnow.  Minnows don't grow to be
+big.  They're only good for bait!"
+
+"Hush, George, there's a nest in the big tree.  I've been watching and
+the mother bird is sitting on it.  That was the father bird singing a
+while ago."  This from Carol.
+
+George, Harley, and Carol declared their intention of going to church.
+That had likely been the first bell that rang, their mother told them,
+and they would have plenty of time to get there if they hurried.  It
+was only half-past nine.  Country churches rang a bell then, and
+another at ten, and the final bell at half-past ten, probably.
+Possibly they had Sunday-school at ten.  Anyhow, they could go and find
+out.  It wouldn't matter if they were a little late the first time.
+
+So they ate some breakfast in a hurry, took each a sandwich left from
+the night before, crossed the road, climbed the fence, and went
+joyously over the green fields to church, thinking how much nicer it
+was than walking down a brick-paved street, past the same old grimy
+houses to a dim, artificially lighted church.
+
+Shirley took a survey of the larder, decided that roast chicken, potato
+croquettes, and peas would all warm up quickly, and, as there was
+plenty of ice cream left and some cakes, they would fare royally
+without any work; so she sat beside her mother and told the whole story
+of her ride, the finding of the barn, her visit to the Graham office,
+and all that transpired until the present time.
+
+The mother listened, watching her child, but said no more of her inner
+thoughts.  If it occurred to her that her oldest daughter was fair to
+look upon, and that her winning ways, sweet, unspoiled face, and
+wistful eyes had somewhat to do with the price of their summer's abode,
+it would be no wonder.  But she did not mean to trouble her child
+further.  She would investigate for herself when opportunity offered.
+So she quieted all anxieties Shirley might have had about her sanction
+of their selection of a home, kissed Shirley, and told her she felt it
+in her bones she was going to get well right away.
+
+And, indeed, there was much in the fact of the lifting of the burden of
+anxiety concerning where they should live that went to brighten the
+eyes of the invalid and strengthen her heart.
+
+When the children came home from church Shirley was putting dinner on
+the table, and her mother was arrayed in a pretty kimono, a relic of
+their better days, and ready to be helped to the couch and wheeled out
+to the dining-room.  It had been pleasant to see the children coming
+across the green meadow in the distance, and get things all ready for
+them when they rushed in hungry.  Shirley was so happy she felt like
+crying.
+
+After the dinner things were washed they shoved the couch into the
+living-room among the flowers, where George had built up a beautiful
+fire, for it was still chilly.  The children gathered around their
+mother and talked, making plans for the summer, telling about the
+service they had attended, chattering like so many magpies.  The mother
+lay and watched them and was content.  Sometimes her eyes would search
+the dim, mellow rafters overhead, and glance along the stone walls, and
+she would say to herself: "This is a barn!  I am living in a barn!  My
+husband's children have come to this, that they have no place to live
+but a barn!"  She was testing herself to see if the thought hurt her.
+But, looking on their happy faces, somehow she could not feel sad.
+
+"Children," she said suddenly in one of the little lulls of
+conversation, "do you realize that Christ was born in a stable?  It
+isn't so bad to live in a barn.  We ought to be very thankful for this
+great splendid one!"
+
+"Oh mother, dear!  It is so beautiful of you to take it that way!"
+cried Shirley with tears in her eyes.
+
+"Doris, you sing your little song about Jesus in the stable," said
+Carol.  "I'll play it for you."
+
+Doris, nothing loath, got a little stool, stood up beside her mother's
+couch, folded her small hands demurely, and began to sing without
+waiting for accompaniment:
+
+  "Away in a manger,
+    No trib for His head,
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    Lay down His sveet head.
+  The tars in the haaven
+    Look down vhere 'e lay--
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    As'eep in the hay.
+
+  "The catta are lowing,
+    The poor baby wates;
+  But the litta Lord Jesus
+    No cwyin' He mates.
+  I love Thee, Lord Jesus;
+    Look down fum the sky,
+  An' stay by my trib,
+    Watching my lul-la-by!"
+
+
+Shirley kissed Doris, and then they began to sing other things, all
+standing around the piano.  By and by that distant bell from the valley
+called again.
+
+"There's a vesper service at five o'clock.  Why don't you go, Shirley?
+You and George and Harley," said Carol.
+
+"Me 'ant do too!" declared Doris earnestly, and it was finally decided
+that the walk would not be too long; so the boys, Shirley and the baby
+started off across the fields, while Carol stayed with her mother.  And
+this time Mrs. Hollister heard all about Elizabeth and how she wanted
+Carol to come and see her sometime.  Heard, too, about the proposed
+dance, and its quiet squelching by the brother.  Heard, and looked
+thoughtful, and wondered more.
+
+"Mother is afraid they are not quite our kind of people, dear!" she
+said gently.  "You mustn't get your heart bound up in that girl.  She
+may be very nice, but she's a society girl, and you are not, you know.
+It stands to reason she will have other interests pretty soon, and then
+you will be disappointed when she forgets all about you."
+
+"She won't forget, mother, I know she won't!" declared Carol stoutly.
+"She's not that kind.  She loves me; she told me so.  She wanted to put
+one of her rings on my finger to 'bind our friendship,' only I wouldn't
+let her till I had asked you, because I didn't have any but
+grandmother's to give her, and I couldn't give her that."
+
+"That was right, dear.  You can't begin things like that.  You would
+find a great many of them, and we haven't the money to keep up with a
+little girl who has been used to everything."
+
+Carol's face went down.  Tears began to come in her eyes.
+
+"Can't we have even _friends_?" she said, turning her face away to hide
+the quiver in her lip, and the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.
+
+"Yes, dear," said the mother sorrowfully, "but don't choose them from
+among another people.  People who can't possibly have much in common
+with us.  It is sure to hurt hard when there are differences in station
+like that."
+
+"But I didn't choose them.  They chose us!" declared Carol.  "Elizabeth
+just went wild over us the first time she saw us, and her brother told
+Shirley he was glad, that it would do Elizabeth a lot of good to know
+us.  He said, 'We've learned a lot of things from you already'; just
+like that, he said it!  I was coming down the stairs behind them when
+they stood here talking one day, and I couldn't help hearing them."
+
+"Yes?" said Mrs. Hollister thoughtfully.  "Well, perhaps, but, dear, go
+slow and don't pin your heart to a friendship like that, for it will
+most likely be disappointing.  Just be happy in what she has done for
+us already, and don't expect anything more.  She may never come again.
+It may just have been a passing whim.  And I don't want you to be
+always looking for her and always disappointed."
+
+"I shall not be disappointed, mamma," said Carol decidedly.  "You'll
+see!" and her face brightened.
+
+Then as if to make good her words a big car came whirring up the road
+and stopped in front of the barn, and almost before she could get to
+the window to look out Carol heard Elizabeth's voice calling softly:
+
+"Carol!  Car-_roll_!  Are you there?" and she flung the door open and
+rushed into her new friend's arms.
+
+Graham came more slowly up the incline, smiling apologetically and
+hoping he didn't intrude, coming so soon.
+
+Carol led them over to the invalid and introduced her friend, and the
+young man came after them.
+
+"I'm afraid this is rather soon to obey your summons, Mrs. Hollister,"
+he said engagingly, "but Elizabeth couldn't stand it without coming
+over to see if you really found the ice-cream freezer, so I thought
+we'd just drop in for a minute and see whether you were quite
+comfortable."
+
+Somehow, suddenly, Mrs. Hollister's fears and conclusions concerning
+these two young people began to vanish, and in spite of her she felt
+just as Shirley had done, that they were genuine in their kindliness
+and friendship.  Carol, watching her, was satisfied, and a glow of
+triumph shone in her eyes.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Hollister gathered her
+caution about her as a garment, and in dignified and pleasant phrases
+thanked the two in such a way that they must see that neither she nor
+her children would ever presume upon what had been done for them, nor
+take it for more than a passing kindliness.
+
+But to her surprise the young man did not seem to be more than half
+listening to her words.  He seemed to be studying her face with deep
+intention that was almost embarrassing.  The soft color stole into her
+thin cheeks, and she stopped speaking and looked at him in dismay.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, seeing her bewilderment, "but you can't
+understand perhaps how interested I am in you.  I am afraid I have been
+guilty of staring.  You see it is simply amazing to me to find a woman
+of your refinement and evident culture and education who is content--I
+might even say joyful--to live in a _barn_!  I don't know another woman
+who would be satisfied.  And you seem to have brought up all your
+children with just such happy, adaptable natures, that it is a great
+puzzle to me.  I--I--why, I feel sort of rebuked!  I feel that you and
+your children are among the great of the earth.  Don't thank Elizabeth
+and me for the little we have been able to do toward making this barn
+habitable.  It was a sort of--I might say homage, due to you, that we
+were rendering.  And now please don't think anything more about it.
+Let's just talk as if we were friends--that is, if you are willing to
+accept a couple of humble strangers among your list of friends."
+
+"Why, surely, if you put it that way!" smiled the little woman.
+"Although I'm sure I don't know what else we could do but be glad and
+happy over it that we had a barn like this to come to under a sweet
+blue sky, with a bird and a tree thrown in, when we literally didn't
+know where we could afford to lay our heads.  You know beggars
+shouldn't be choosers, but I'm sure one would choose a spacious place
+like this any day in preference to most of the ordinary city houses,
+with their tiny dark rooms, and small breathless windows."
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn?"
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn!" said the woman with a flitting dance in
+her eyes that reminded him of the girl Shirley.
+
+"Well, I'm learning a lot, I tell you!" said the young man.  "The more
+I see of you all, the more I learn.  It's opened my eyes to a number of
+things in my life that I'm going to set right.  By the way, is Miss
+Hollister here?  I brought over a book I was telling her about the
+other day.  I thought she might like to see it."
+
+"She went over to the vesper service at the little church across the
+fields.  They'll be coming home soon, I think.  It must be nearly over."
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+"Suppose I take the car and bring them back.  You stay here, Elizabeth.
+I'll soon be back.  I think I can catch them around by the road if I
+put on speed."
+
+He was off, and the mother lay on the couch watching the two girls and
+wishing with all her heart that it were so that her children might have
+these two fine young people for friends.  But of course such things
+could not very well be in this world of stern realities and
+multitudinous conventionalities.  What, for instance, would be said in
+the social set to which the Grahams belonged if it were known that some
+of their intimate friends lived in a barn?  No, such things did not
+happen even in books, and the mother lay still and sighed.  She heard
+the chatter of the two girls.
+
+"You're coming home with me to stay over Sunday pretty soon.  Sidney
+said he would fix it all up with your mother pretty soon.  We'll sleep
+together and have the grandest times.  Mother likes me to have friends
+stay with me, but most of the girls I know are off at boarding-school
+now, and I'm dreadfully lonesome.  We have tennis-courts and golf links
+and a bowling-alley.  Do you play tennis?  And we can go out in the car
+whenever we like.  It's going to be grand.  I'll show you my dog and my
+pony I used to ride.  He's getting old now, and I'm too big for him,
+but I love him just the same.  I have a saddle-horse, but I don't ride
+much.  I'd rather go motoring with Sid----"
+
+And so she rattled on, and the mother sighed for her little girl who
+was being tempted by a new and beautiful world, and had not the
+wherewithal to enter it, even if it were possible for her to do so.
+
+Out in the sunset the car was speeding back again with the seats full,
+Doris chirping gleefully at the ride, for her fat legs had grown very
+weary with the long walk through the meadow and Shirley had been almost
+sorry she had taken her along.
+
+The boys were shouting all sorts of questions about dogs and chickens
+and cars and a garden, and Graham was answering them all
+good-humoredly, now and then turning around to throw back a pleasant
+sentence and a smile at the quiet girl with the happy eyes sitting in
+the back seat with her arm around her little sister.
+
+There was nothing notable about the ride to remember.  It was just one
+of those beautiful bits of pleasantness that fit into the mosaic of any
+growing friendship, a bit of color without which the whole is not
+perfect.  Shirley's part in it was small.  She said little and sat
+listening happily to the boys' conversation with Graham.  She had
+settled it with her heart that morning that she and the young man on
+that front seat had nothing in future to do with each other, but it was
+pleasant to see him sitting there talking with her brothers.  There was
+no reason why she should not be glad for that, and glad he was not a
+snob.  For every time she looked on his clean, frank face, and saw his
+nice gray eyes upon her, she was surer that he was not a snob.
+
+The guests stayed a little while after they all got back, and accepted
+quite as a matter of course the dainty little lunch that Carol and
+Elizabeth, slipping away unobserved, prepared and brought in on
+trays,--some of the salad left from dinner, some round rolls that
+Shirley had brought out with her Saturday, cut in two and crisply
+toasted, cups of delicious cocoa, and little cakes.  That was all, but
+it tasted fine, and the two self-invited guests enjoyed it hugely.
+Then they all ranged themselves around the piano and sang hymns, and it
+is safe to say that the guests at least had not spent as "Sabbathy" a
+Sabbath in all their lives.  Elizabeth was quite astonished when she
+suggested that they sing a popular song to have Carol answer in a
+polite but gently reproving tone, "Oh, not _to-day_, you know."
+
+"Why not?  Doesn't your mother like it?" whispered Elizabeth.
+
+"Why, we don't any of us usually sing things like that on Sunday, you
+know.  It doesn't seem like Sunday.  It doesn't seem quite respectful
+to God."  Carol was terribly embarrassed and was struggling to make her
+idea plain.
+
+"Oh!" Elizabeth said, and stood looking wistfully, wonderingly at her
+friend, and finally stole out a soft hand and slipped it into Carol's,
+pressing her fingers as if to make her know she understood.  Then they
+lifted up their voices again over the same hymn-book:
+
+  "Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
+  But there's a nobler rest above;
+  To that our longing souls aspire
+  With cheerful hope and strong desire."
+
+
+Graham looked about on the group as they sang, his own fine tenor
+joining in the words, his eyes lingering on the earnest face of his
+little sister as she stood arm in arm with the other girl, and was
+suddenly thrilled with the thought of what a Sabbath might be, kept in
+this way.  It had never appealed to him quite like that before.
+Sabbath-keeping had seemed a dry, thankless task for a few fanatics;
+now a new possibility loomed vaguely in his mind.  He could see that
+people like this could really make the Sabbath something to love, not
+just a day to loll through and pass the time away.
+
+When they finally went away there was just a streak of dull red left in
+the western horizon where the day had disappeared, and all the air was
+seething with sweet night sounds and odors, the dampness of the swamps
+striking coolly in their faces as the car sped along.
+
+"Sidney," said Elizabeth after a long time, "did you ever feel as if
+God were real?"
+
+"Why, how do you mean, kid?" asked the brother, rather embarrassed.
+These subjects were not discussed at all in the Graham household.
+
+"Did you ever feel as if there really was a God somewhere, like a
+person, that could see and hear you and know what you did and how you
+felt to Him?  Because they do.  Carol said they didn't sing 'Tipperary'
+on Sunday because it didn't seem quite respectful to God, and I could
+see she really meant it.  It wasn't just because her mother said she
+had to or anything like that.  She thought so herself."
+
+"H'm!" said Graham thoughtfully.  "Well, they're rather remarkable
+people, I think."
+
+"Well, I think so too, and I think it's about time you fixed it up with
+mamma to let Carol come and visit me."
+
+"I'm going to get mother to go out there and call this week if I can,"
+said Graham after another longer pause, and then added: "I think she
+will go and I think she will like them.  After that we'll see, kid.
+Don't you worry.  They're nice, all right."  He was thinking of the
+look on Shirley's face as she sat at the piano playing for them all to
+sing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The first few days in the new home were filled with wonder and delight
+for them all.  They just could not get used to having plenty of room
+indoors, with all outdoors for a playground.  Doris's cheeks took on a
+lovely pink, and her eyes began to sparkle.  She and Harley spent all
+day out-of-doors.  They were making a garden.  Not that they had any
+experience or any utensils.  There was an old hoe and a broken spade
+down in the basement of the barn, and with these Harley managed to
+remove a few square feet of young turf, and mellow up an inch or two of
+soil depth.  In this they planted violet roots and buttercups and
+daisies which they found in the meadows.  Doris had a corner all her
+own, with neat rows of tiny stones from the brook laid in elaborate
+baby-patterns around the edge, and in this she stuck twigs and weeds of
+all descriptions, and was never daunted, only pained and surprised when
+they drooped and died in a day or two and had to be supplanted by
+others.
+
+It had been decided that Harley was to stop school and stay at home
+with mother and Doris, which indeed he was quite willing to do under
+the glamour of the new life.  The school itself never had much
+attraction for him, and "the fellows" were almost forgotten in
+searching for angleworms and building dams in the creek.
+
+Carol went to high school every morning with Shirley and George on the
+trolley.  There were only six more weeks till the term was over, and it
+was better for Carol to finish out her year and get her credits.
+Shirley thought they could afford the extra carfare for just that
+little while, and so all day long mother and Doris and Harley kept
+quiet home in the old barn, and the meadows rang with Doris's shouts
+and Harley's answers.
+
+One day the doctor came out in his machine to see Mrs. Hollister as he
+had promised to do, and found her so much better that he told her she
+might get up and go around a little while every day if she was very
+careful not to get over-tired.  He prophesied a speedy return to health
+if she kept on looking happy and breathing this good air.  He praised
+the good sense that brought her out into the country to live, in
+preference to any little tucked-up house in town, and said if she could
+only get well enough to work outdoors in the ground and have a
+flower-bed it would be the making of her.  Her eyes brightened at that,
+for she loved flowers, and in the days of her youth had been extremely
+successful at making things grow.
+
+The doctor was deeply interest in the barn.  He walked about with his
+hands in his pockets, looking the rooms over, as delighted as a child
+at seeing a new mechanical toy.
+
+"Well, now this is great!" he said heartily.  "This is simply great!  I
+admire you people for having the nerve to go against conventionality
+and come out here.  If I had a few more patients who could be persuaded
+to go out into the country and take some of the unused old barns and
+fix them up to live in, I'd have to change my occupation.  It's a great
+idea, and I mean to recommend it to others if you don't mind.  Only I
+doubt if I find two others who have the nerve to follow your example."
+
+The invalid laughed.
+
+"Why, doctor, I can't see the nerve.  We really hadn't any choice.  We
+couldn't find a decent place that we could afford, and this was big and
+healthful and cost less than the worst little tenement that would have
+done in town.  Any one would be a fool not to have come here."
+
+"Mrs. Hollister, do you know that most people would rather starve and
+swelter, yes--and _die_ in a conventional house, than to do such an
+unheard-of thing as to live in a barn, no matter how delightful that
+barn might be?  You are a great little woman, Mrs. Hollister, and you
+deserve to get well, and to see your children prosper.  And they will.
+They have the right spirit."
+
+After his visit Mrs. Hollister began to get up a little while every
+day, and her improvement in health was rapid.  She even ventured out to
+see Doris's garden and watch the "budie" in his nest in the tree.
+
+One day a drayman stopped at the place and left several great rolls of
+chicken-wire, and a couple of big crates.  One crate was bigger than
+the other and contained half a dozen big yellow hens and a beautiful
+rooster.  The small crate held two lovely white rabbits.
+
+The children hovered joyfully over the crates.
+
+"Mine wabbits!" declared Doris solemnly.  "Nice Mistah Dwaham give
+Doris wabbits."
+
+"Did Mr. Graham say he was going to send you some rabbits?" questioned
+her mother.
+
+"'Es.  He did say he was goin' to sen' me some wabbits.  On 'e way fum
+chutch in big oughtymobeel.  He did say he would give me wabbits.  Oh,
+mine wabbits!"  Doris was in ecstasy.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked at the big rolls of wire questioningly:
+
+"George and I told him we wanted some chickens.  I guess that's why he
+sent 'em," announced Harley excitedly.
+
+"I hope you boys didn't hint.  That's very bad manners.  You know I
+can't have Mr. Graham giving you such expensive presents; it won't do,
+dear."
+
+"No, mother, we didn't hint.  George just asked him if he minded if we
+kept chickens here, and he said no, indeed, he'd like to go into the
+business himself.  He said he used to have a lot of his own when he was
+a boy, and he guessed there was a lot of wire from the old chicken-run
+around at his place yet.  If there was, there wasn't any reason why it
+shouldn't be in use, and he'd look it up.  He said, if it was, he and
+we'd go into business.  He'd furnish the tools and we could do the
+work, and maybe some day we could sell eggs and make it pay."
+
+"That's very kind of him, I'm sure.  But, Harley, that looks like new
+wire.  It isn't the least bit rusted."
+
+"It's galvanized, mother.  Galvanized wire doesn't rust, don't you know
+that?" said Harley in a superior, man's voice.
+
+Harley and Doris were wild over their pets, and could do nothing all
+that day but hover about them, and the minute George arrived the boys
+went out to see about putting up some of the wire and making a
+temporary abode for the creatures until they could get time to plan an
+elaborate chicken-run.
+
+Before dark Graham arrived.  He had brought a book on chicken-raising
+and had a good many suggestions to offer.  With him in the front seat
+of the car rode a great golden-brown dog with a white-starred face,
+great affectionate eyes, and a plumy white tail.  He bounded floppily
+out after Graham and came affably up to the door as if he understood
+everything; and at sight of him the children went wild.
+
+"I brought this fellow along, thinking perhaps you'd like him to help
+look after things here.  He's only a puppy, but he's a good breed, and
+I think you'll find him a splendid watch-dog.  You don't need to keep
+him, of course, if you don't want him, Mrs. Hollister, but I thought
+out in the country this way it might be as well for you to have him on
+guard, at night especially.  He'll be good company for the children.
+We've got so many of them that we want to give this one away."
+
+And what was there to do but accept him with thanks, a dog like that
+begging for a home, and a home like that really needing a dog?
+
+So the dog was promptly accepted as a member of the family, was named
+Star, and accepted the overtures of his devoted worshippers in many
+amiable waggings of tail and a wide puppy laugh on his face.  He stayed
+behind most contentedly when Graham departed after a long conference
+with George and Harley over the "chicken" book, and a long discussion
+in the back yard as to the best place for the chicken-run.  He seemed
+to know from the start that he had come to stay, that this was his
+"job" and he was on it for life.
+
+It must be admitted that Mrs. Hollister went to sleep that night with
+more content, knowing that big, floppy, deep-voiced dog was lying
+across the door out in the living-room.  The hillside had seemed a bit
+lonely at night, though she had never admitted it even to herself
+before, and she was glad the dog had come.  That night in the little
+prayer that she said every night with all her children gathered about
+her couch in front of the fire, she added, "We thank Thee, oh, Lord,
+for sending us such good kind friends to make the world so much happier
+for us."
+
+A few days later Mrs. Graham came to call.
+
+Her son did not explain to her anything about the Hollisters, nor say a
+word about the place where they were living.  He merely remarked
+casually: "Mother, there are some people I'd like you to call on if you
+don't mind.  They live out Glenside way, and I'll take you any
+afternoon you have time."
+
+"I really haven't much time now before we go to the shore, Sidney," she
+said.  "Couldn't they wait till the fall when we return?"
+
+"No, mother, I'd like you to call now.  It needn't take you long, and I
+think you'll like them--her--Mrs. Hollister, I mean.  Can't you go this
+afternoon?  I'll call for you with the car anywhere you say, along
+about half-past four or five o'clock.  It will be a pleasant little
+drive and rest you."
+
+"Shall I have to be much dressed?" asked the mother thoughtfully,
+"because I shouldn't have time for an elaborate toilet.  I have to go
+to Madame's for a fitting, meet with the Red Cross committee, drop in
+at the hospital for a few minutes, and see Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs.
+Follette about our Alumni Anniversary banquet."
+
+"Just wear something simple, mother.  They are not society people.
+It's you I want to show them, not your clothes."
+
+"You ridiculous boy!  You're as unsophisticated as your father.  Well,
+I'll be ready at half-past four.  You may call for me then at the
+Century Building."
+
+Elizabeth had been loyal to her brother's commands and had said nothing
+about her new-found friend, awaiting his permission.  Graham earnestly
+discussed the pros and cons of woman's suffrage with his mother during
+the drive out, so that she was utterly unprejudiced by any former ideas
+concerning the Hollisters, which was exactly what her son desired her
+to be.  He knew that his mother was a woman of the world, and hedged
+about by conventions of all sorts, but he also knew her to be fair in
+her judgments when once she saw a thing right, and a keen reader of
+character.  He wanted her to see the Hollisters without the least bit
+of a chance to judge them beforehand.
+
+So when the car drew up in front of the old barn Mrs. Graham was quite
+unprepared to have her son get out and open the car door and say,
+"Mother, this is the place: may I help you out?"  She had been talking
+earnestly, and had thought he was getting out to look after something
+wrong about the car.  Now she looked up startled.
+
+"Why, Sidney!  Why, you must have made a mistake!  This isn't a house;
+it is a barn!"
+
+"This is the place, mother.  Just come right up this way."
+
+Mrs. Graham picked her way over the short green turf up to the door and
+stood astonished while her son knocked.  What in the world did he mean?
+Was this one of his jokes?  Had he brought her out to see a new
+riding-horse?  That must be it, of course.  He was always taking a
+fancy to a horse or a dog.  She really hadn't the time to spare for
+nonsense this afternoon, but one must humor one's son once in a while.
+She stepped back absent-mindedly, her eyes resting on the soft greens
+and purples of the foliage across the meadows, her thoughts on the next
+paper she intended to write for the club.  This incident would soon be
+over, and then she might pursue the even tenor of her busy way.
+
+Then the door slid back and she became aware of something unusual in
+the tenseness of the moment.  Looking up quickly she saw a beautiful
+girl of about Elizabeth's age, with a wealth of dark wavy hair, lovely
+dark eyes, and vivid coloring, and by her side one of the loveliest
+golden-haired, blue-eyed babies she had ever seen in her life.  In the
+wonder of the moment she forgot that the outside of the building had
+been a barn, for the curtain had risen on a new setting, and here on
+the very threshold there opened before her amazed eyes a charming,
+homelike room.
+
+At first she did not take in any of the details of furnishings.
+Everything was tastefully arranged, and the dull tones of wall and
+floor and ceiling in the late afternoon light mellowed the old
+furniture into its background so perfectly that the imperfections and
+make-shifts did not appear.  It was just a place of comfort and beauty,
+even though the details might show shabby poverty.
+
+But her son was speaking.
+
+"Mother, this is Miss Carol Hollister, and this little girl is her
+sister Doris----"
+
+Doris put out a fat hand and gravely laid it in the lady's kid glove,
+saying carefully, with shy lashes drooped sideways, and blue eyes
+furtively searching the stranger's face.
+
+"How oo do?"
+
+Then as if she had performed her duty, she turned on her smiles and
+dimples with a flash, and grasping Graham's hand said,
+
+"Now, Mistah Dwa'm, oo tum out an' see my wabbits!"
+
+It was evident to the mother that her son had been here before.  She
+looked at him for an explanation, but he only said to Carol,
+
+"Is your mother able to see callers for a few minutes?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Carol with a glad little ring in her voice.  "Mother is
+up in a chair this afternoon.  See!  The doctor says she may get up
+now, she is so much better!" and she turned and flung out her arm
+toward the big easy chair where her mother sat.
+
+Mrs. Hollister arose and came forward to meet them.
+
+She was dressed in a plain little gown of cheap gray challis, much
+washed and mended, but looking somehow very nice; and Carol had just
+finished fastening one of Shirley's sheer white fluffy collars around
+her neck, with a bit of a pink ribbon looped in a pretty knot.  Her
+hair was tastefully arranged, and she looked every inch a lady as she
+stood to receive her unexpected guests.  Graham had never seen her in
+any but invalid's garb before, and he stood amazed for a moment at the
+likeness between her and Shirley.  He introduced his mother with a few
+words, and then yielded to Doris's eager, pulling hand and went out to
+see the bunnies.
+
+The situation was a trifle trying for both ladies, but to the woman of
+the world perhaps the more embarrassing.  She hadn't a clew as to who
+this was she had been brought to see.  She was entirely used to
+dominating any situation, but for a moment she was almost confused.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, however, tactfully relieved the situation, with a
+gentle, "Won't you sit here by the fire?  It is getting a little cool
+this evening, don't you think?" and put her at once at her ease.  Only
+her family would have guessed from the soft pink spots in her cheeks
+that she was at all excited over her grand guest.  She took the
+initiative at once, leading the talk into natural channels, about the
+spring and its wonderful unfolding in the country, exhibited a vase
+with jack-in-the-pulpits, and a glass bowl of hepaticas blushing blue
+and pink, told of the thrush that had built a nest in the elm over the
+door, and pointed out the view over the valley where the sinking sun
+was flashing crimson from the weather-vane on the little white spire of
+the church.  She said how much they had enjoyed the sunsets since
+coming out here to live, taking it for granted that her visitor knew
+all about their circumstances, and making no apologies or comments; and
+the visitor, being what her son called "a good sport," showed no hint
+that she had never heard of the Hollisters before, but smiled and said
+the right thing at the right moment.  And somehow, neither knew just
+how, they got to the subject of Browning and Ibsen, and from there to
+woman's suffrage, and when Graham returned with Carol and Harley, Doris
+chattering beside him and the dog bounding in ahead, they were deep in
+future politics.  Graham sat and listened for a while, interested to
+note that the quiet little woman who had spent the last few years of
+her life working in a narrow dark city kitchen could talk as
+thoughtfully and sensibly as his cultured, versatile mother.
+
+The next trolley brought Shirley and George, and again the mother was
+amazed to find how altogether free and easy seemed to be the relation
+between all these young people.
+
+She gave a keen look at Shirley, and then another at her son, but saw
+nothing which gave her uneasiness.  The girl was unconscious as a rose,
+and sweet and gracious to the stranger guests as if she had been in
+society all her life.  She slipped away at once to remove her hat, and
+when she came back her hair was brushed, and she looked as fresh as a
+flower in her clean white ruffled blouse.  The older woman could not
+take her eyes from her face.  What a charming girl to be set among all
+this shabbiness!  For by this time her discriminating eyes had
+discovered that everything--literally _every_thing was shabby.  Who
+were these people, and how did they happen to get put here?  The baby
+was ravishingly beautiful, the girls were charming, and the boys looked
+like splendid, manly fellows.  The mother was a product of culture and
+refinement.  Not one word or action had shown that she knew her
+surroundings were shabby.  She might have been mistress of a palace for
+aught she showed of consciousness of the pitiful poverty about her.  It
+was as if she were just dropped down for the day in a stray barn and
+making a palace out of it while she stayed.
+
+Unconsciously the woman of the world lingered longer than was her wont
+in making calls.  She liked the atmosphere, and was strangely
+interested by them all.
+
+"I wish you would come and see me," she said cordially as she rose at
+last to go, and she said it as if she meant it,--as if she lived right
+around the corner and not twenty-two miles away,--as if she really
+wanted her to come, and not as if this other woman lived in a barn at
+all.
+
+"Good old sport!" commented her son in his heart as he listened.  He
+had known she must see their worth, and yet he had been strangely
+afraid.
+
+Mrs. Hollister received the invitation with a flush of pleasure.
+
+"Thank you," she answered graciously, "I'm afraid not.  I seldom go
+anywhere any more.  But I've been very glad to have had this call from
+you.  It will be a pleasure to think about.  Come sometime again when
+you are out this way.  Your son has been most kind.  I cannot find
+words to express my thanks."
+
+"Has he?" and his mother looked questioningly at her son.  "Well, I'm
+very glad----"
+
+"Yes, and Elizabeth!  She is a dear sweet girl, and we all love her!"
+
+Revelations!
+
+"Oh, has Elizabeth been here too?  Well, I'm glad.  I hope she has not
+been a nuisance.  She's such an impulsive, erratic child.  Elizabeth is
+quite a problem just now.  She's out of school on account of her eyes,
+and her girl friends, most of them, being away at school, she is
+perfectly forlorn.  I am delighted to have her with your children.  I
+am sure they are charming associates for her."  And her eyes rested
+approvingly on the sparkling Carol in her simple school dress of brown
+linen with its white collar and cuffs.  There was nothing countrified
+about Carol.  She looked dainty in the commonest raiment, and she
+smiled radiantly at Elizabeth's mother and won her heart.
+
+"Would you let Elizabeth stay overnight with us here sometime?" she
+asked shyly.
+
+"Why, surely!  I presume she would be delighted.  She does about as she
+pleases these days.  I really don't see very much of her, I'm so busy
+this time of year, just at the end of the season, you know, and lots of
+committee meetings and teas and things."
+
+They stopped at the doorway to look up into the big tree, in response
+to the earnest solicitations of Doris, who pulled at the lady's gloved
+hand insistently, murmuring sweetly:
+
+"Budie!  Budie!  See mine budie in the twee!"
+
+The Hollisters stood grouped at the doorway when at last the visitors
+got into their car and went away.  Mrs. Graham looked back at them
+wistfully.
+
+"What a lovely group they make!" she murmured.  "Now, Sidney, tell me
+at once who they are and why they live in a barn, and why you brought
+me out here.  I know you had some special object.  I knew the minute I
+saw that charming woman."
+
+"Mother, you certainly are great!  I thought you'd have the good sense
+to see what they are."
+
+"Why, I haven't spent a more delightful hour in a long time than I
+spent talking with her.  She has very original ideas, and she expresses
+herself well.  As for the children, they are lovely.  That oldest girl
+has a great deal of character in her face.  But what are they doing in
+a barn, Sidney, and how did you come to know them?"
+
+And so, as they speeded out the smooth turnpike to their lovely home
+Sidney Graham told his mother as much of the story of Shirley Hollister
+and the old barn as he thought she would care to know, and his mother
+sat thoughtfully watching his handsome, enthusiastic face while he
+talked, and wondering.
+
+One comment she made as they swept up the beautiful drive to their
+luxurious country home:
+
+"Sidney dear, they are delightful and all that, and I'm sure I'm glad
+to have that little girl come to see Elizabeth, but if I were you I
+wouldn't go out there too often when that handsome oldest girl is at
+home.  She's not exactly in your set, you know, charming as she is, and
+you wouldn't want to give her any ideas.  A gentleman looks out for
+things like that, you know."
+
+"What has being in our set got to do with it, mother dear?  Do you know
+any girl in our set that is better-looking or has nicer manners, or a
+finer appreciation of nature and books?  You ought to hear her talk!"
+
+"Yes, but, Sidney, that isn't everything!  She isn't exactly----"
+
+"Mother, were you and father, when you used to have good times
+together?  Now, mother, you know you are just talking twaddle when you
+let that idea about 'our set' rule your mind.  Be a good sport, mother
+dear, and look the facts in the face.  That girl is as good as any
+other girl I know, and you know it.  She's better than most.  Please
+admit the facts.  Yet you never warned me to be careful about calling
+on any of the girls in our set.  Do please be consistent.  However,
+don't worry about me.  I've no idea at present of paying any special
+attention to anybody," and he swung the car door and jumped down to
+help her out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A man arrived one morning with a horse and a plough and several other
+implements of farm life of which Harley didn't know the name, and
+announced that Mr. Graham had sent him to plough the garden.  Would
+Mrs. Hollister please tell him where she wanted the ground broken, and
+how much?  He volunteered the information that he was her next
+neighbor, and that if he was in her place he'd plough the south slope
+of the meadow, and if she wanted flower-beds a strip along the front
+near the road; the soil was best in those spots, and she wouldn't need
+so much fertilizer.
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to do it, and he said
+a little job like that wasn't worth talking about; that he used to rent
+the barn himself, and he always did a little turn for Mr. Graham
+whenever he needed it.  He did it for Mr. Graham, and it wouldn't cost
+her "nothin'."
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to see where it would
+be best to have the ploughing done, and when she came in a few minutes
+later and dropped down on the couch to rest from her unusual fatigue a
+new thought was racing through her mind.  They could have a garden, a
+real garden, with lettuce and green peas and lima beans and corn!  She
+knew all about making them grow.  She had been brought up in a little
+village home, where a garden was a part of every one's necessary
+equipment for living.  She used to kelp her father every spring and all
+summer.  Her own little patch always took the prize of the family.  But
+for years she had been in the city without an inch of space.  Now,
+however, the old fever of delight in gardening took possession of her.
+If she could get out and work in the ground, as the doctor had
+suggested, she would get well right away.  And why, with Harley to
+help, and George and Carol to work a little every evening, couldn't
+they raise enough on all that ground to sell some?  George could take
+things into town early in the morning, or they could find some private
+families who would buy all they had to sell.  It was worth thinking
+about, anyway.  She could raise flowers for sale, too.  She had always
+been a success with flowers.  She had always wanted a hothouse and a
+chance to experiment.  She heard the children say there were some old
+window-sashes down under the barn.  She would get George to bring them
+out, and see what she could do with a coldframe or two.  Violets would
+grow under a coldframe, and a lot of other things.  Oh, if they could
+only just live here always, and not have to go back to the city in the
+fall!  But of course there was no way to heat the barn in winter, and
+that was out of the question.  Nevertheless, the idea of making some
+money with growing things had seized hold of her mind and would not be
+entirely put by.  She thought of it much, and talked of it now and then
+to Shirley and the other children.
+
+Shirley brought home some packages of seeds she got at the ten-cent
+store, and there was great excitement planting them.  Then Mr. Graham
+sent over a lot of seeds, of both vegetables and flowers, and some
+shrubs, cuttings and bulbs which he said were "left-overs" at their
+country house that he thought perhaps the children could use; and so
+before the Hollisters knew it they were possessed of a garden, which
+almost in a breath lifted up its green head and began to grow.
+
+Life was very full for the Hollisters in those days, and those who went
+to the city for the day could hardly bear to tear themselves away from
+the many delights of the country.  The puppy was getting bigger and
+wiser every day, tagging Doris and Harley wherever they went, or
+sitting adoringly at Mrs. Hollister's feet; always bounding out to meet
+the evening trolley on which George and Shirley came, and always
+attending them to the trolley in the morning.
+
+Out behind the barn a tiny coop held a white hen and her seven little
+downy balls of chickens.  Another hen was happily ensconced in a barrel
+of hay with ten big blue duck-eggs under her happy wings, and a little
+further down toward the creek a fine chicken-run ended in a trig little
+roosting-place for the poultry, which George had manufactured out of a
+packing-box and some boards.  The feathered family had been increased
+by two white Leghorns and three bantams.  George and Harley spent their
+evenings watching them and discussing the price of eggs and chickens
+per pound.  They were all very happy.
+
+Elizabeth came out to spend Sunday as she had promised.  She got up
+early to see the sun rise and watch the birds.  She helped get
+breakfast and wash the dishes.  Then she went with the others across
+the fields to the little white church in the valley to Sunday-school
+and church.  She was as hungry and eager as any of them when she came
+home, and joyfully helped to do the work, taking great pride in the
+potatoes she was allowed to warm up under careful tutelage.  In the
+afternoon there was no more eager listener among them to the Bible
+story Shirley told to Doris and the book she read aloud to them all
+afterward; her voice was sweetest and clearest of them all in the hymns
+they sang together; and she was most eager to go with Shirley to the
+Christian Endeavor service.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if Sidney wishes he was here too," she remarked
+dreamily that evening, as she sat before the fire on a little cushion,
+her chin in her hands, her eyes on the fantastic shadows in the ashes.
+
+She went to school with Carol the next morning, came home with her in
+the afternoon, and when her brother came for her in the evening she was
+most reluctant to go home to the big, lonely, elegant house again, and
+begged that Carol might soon come and see her.
+
+Friday afternoon Elizabeth called up Mrs. Hollister.
+
+"Please, Mrs. Hollister, let Carol come and stay with me till Monday.
+I'm so lonesome, and mamma says she will be so glad if you will let her
+come."
+
+"Oh, my dear, that would be impossible.  Carol isn't suitably dressed
+to make a visit, you know," answered the mother quickly, glad that she
+had so good an excuse for keeping her child from this venture into an
+alien world about which she had many grave doubts.
+
+But the young voice at the other end of the telephone was insistent.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Hollister, please!  She doesn't need any other clothes.
+I've got lots of things that would fit her.  She loaned me her gingham
+dress to make garden in, and why shouldn't I loan her a dress to wear
+on Sunday?  I've got plenty of clean middy blouses and skirts and can
+fix her all out fresh for school, too, Monday morning, and if you'll
+just let her stay Sidney will take us both down to her school when he
+goes to the office.  You've got all those children there at home, and
+I've only myself.  Sidney doesn't count, you know, for he's grown up."
+
+So, with a sigh, the mother gave her consent, and Carol found the
+Graham car waiting for her when she came out of school.  Thus she
+started on her first venture into the world.
+
+It was all like fairy-land that wonderful week-end to the little girl
+whose memories were full of burdens and sacrifices: the palatial home
+of many rooms and rich furnishings, the swarm of servants, the
+anticipation of every want, the wide, beautiful grounds with all that
+heart could wish in the way of beauty and amusement, the music-room
+with grand piano, harp, and violin lying mute most of the time, the
+great library with its walls lined with rare books, mostly unread.
+Everything there to satisfy any whim, reasonable or unreasonable, and
+nobody using any of it much.
+
+"Not a room in the whole place as dear and cozy and homey as this!"
+sighed Carol happily, sinking into the old denim-covered couch before
+the fireplace in the barn-living-room that Monday night after she got
+home.  "I declare, mother, I don't see how Elizabeth stands it.  Her
+mother is nice, but she's hardly ever there, unless she has a swarm of
+people dinnering or teaing or lunching.  She hardly ever has time to
+speak to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth doesn't seem to care much, either.
+She almost seems to think more of that old nurse Susan that took care
+of her when she was a baby than she does of her mother.  I'm so glad I
+was sent to you instead of to her!"  And Carol suddenly slipped across
+the room and buried her face in her mother's neck, hugging and kissing
+her, leaving a few bright tears on her mother's happy face.
+
+It was a wonderful relief to Mrs. Hollister to find her child unspoiled
+by her first experience of the world and glad to get back to her home,
+after all the anxiety her mother heart had felt.  Carol presently sat
+up and told them minutely all about her visit.  The grand concert that
+Sidney had taken them to Friday evening in the Academy of Music, where
+a world-renowned pianist was the soloist with the great symphony
+orchestra; the tennis and riding Saturday morning; the luncheon at a
+neighboring estate, where there were three girls and a brother who were
+"snobs" and hadn't at all good manners; the party in the evening that
+lasted so late that they didn't get to bed till long after midnight;
+the beautiful room they slept in, with every imaginable article for the
+toilet done in sterling silver with monograms; the strange Sabbath,
+with no service in the morning because they woke up too late, and no
+suggestion of anything but a holiday,--except the vesper service in a
+cold, formal chapel that Carol had begged to go to; just a lot of
+worldly music and entertaining, with a multitude of visitors for the
+end of it.  Carol told of the beautiful dresses that Elizabeth had
+loaned her, coral crêpe de chine accordion-plaited for the concert,
+white with an orange sash for the luncheon, pale yellow with a black
+velvet girdle for the party, a little blue silk affair and another
+lovely white organdie for Sunday, and all with their accompanying silk
+stockings and slippers and gloves, and necklaces and bands for her
+hair.  It was most wonderful to her, and as they listened they
+marvelled that their Carol had come back to them so gladly, and
+rejoiced to see her nestling in her brown linen skirt and middy blouse
+close beside her mother's chair.  She declared herself satisfied with
+her flight into the world.  She might like to go again for a glimpse
+now and then, but she thought she would rather have Elizabeth out to
+Glenside.  She hated to lose any of the time out here, it was so
+pretty.  Besides, it was lonesome without them all.
+
+About that time Shirley picked up the morning paper in her office one
+day to look up a matter for Mr. Barnard.  Her eye happened to fall on
+the society column and catch the name of Sidney Graham.  She glanced
+down the column.  It was an account of a wedding in high circles in
+which Graham had taken the part of best man, with Miss Harriet Hale--in
+blue tulle and white orchids as maid of honor--for his partner down the
+aisle.  She read the column hurriedly, hungrily, getting every detail,
+white spats, gardenia, and all, until in those few printed sentences a
+picture was printed indelibly upon her vision, of Graham walking down
+the lily-garlanded aisle with the maid in blue tulle and white orchids
+on his arm.  To make it more vivid the lady's picture was in the paper
+along with Graham's, just under those of the bride and groom, and her
+face was both handsome and haughty.  One could tell that by the tilt of
+chin, the short upper lip, the cynical curve of mouth and sweep of long
+eyelash, the extreme effect of her dress and the arrangement of her
+hair.  Only a beauty could have stood that hair and not been positively
+ugly.
+
+Shirley suddenly realized what she was doing and turned over the page
+of the paper with a jerk that tore the sheet from top to bottom, going
+on with her search for the real-estate column and the item she was
+after.  All that morning her typewriter keys clicked with mad rapidity,
+yet her work was strangely correct and perfect.  She was working under
+a tense strain.
+
+By noon she had herself in hand, realized what she had been doing with
+her vagrant thoughts, and was able to laugh at Miss Harriet
+Hale--whoever or whatever she was.  What mattered it, Miss Harriet Hale
+or somebody else?  What was that to Shirley Hollister?  Mr. Graham was
+her landlord and a kindly gentleman.  He would probably continue to be
+that to her to the end of her tenancy, without regard to Miss Hale or
+any other intruding Miss, and what did anything else matter?  She
+wanted nothing else of Mr. Graham but to be a kindly gentleman whenever
+it was her necessity to come in his way.
+
+But although her philosophy was on hand and her pride was aroused, she
+realized just where her heart might have been tending if it had not
+been for this little jolt it got; and she resolved to keep out of the
+gentleman's way whenever it was possible, and also, as far as she was
+able, to think no more about him.
+
+Keeping out of Sidney Graham's way was one thing, but making him keep
+out of her way was quite another matter, and Shirley realized it every
+time he came out to Glenside, which he did quite frequently.  She could
+not say to him that she wished he would not come.  She could not be
+rude to him when he came.  There was no way of showing him pointedly
+that she was not thinking of him in any way but as her landlord,
+because he never showed in any way that he was expecting her to.  He
+just happened in evening after evening, in his frank, jolly way, on one
+pretext or other, never staying very long, never showing her any more
+attention than he did her mother or Carol or the boys, not so much as
+he did to Doris.  How was she to do anything but sit quietly and take
+the whole thing as a matter of course?  It really was a matter to deal
+with in her own heart alone.  And there the battle must be fought if
+ever battle there was to be.  Meantime, she could not but own that this
+frank, smiling, merry young man did bring a lot of life and pleasure
+into their lives, dropping in that way, and why should she not enjoy it
+when it came, seeing it in no wise interfered with Miss Harriet Hale's
+rights and prerogatives?  Nevertheless, Shirley withdrew more and more
+into quietness whenever he came, and often slipped into the kitchen on
+some household pretext, until one day he boldly came out into the
+kitchen after her with a book he wanted her to read, and was so frank
+and companionable that she led the way back to the living-room, and
+concluded it would be better in future to stay with the rest of the
+family.
+
+Shirley had no intention whatever of letting her heart stray out after
+any impossible society man.  She had her work in the world, and to it
+she meant to stick.  If there were dreams she kept them well under lock
+and key, and only took them out now and then at night when she was very
+tired and discouraged and life looked hard and long and lonely on
+ahead.  Shirley had no intention that Sidney Graham should ever have
+reason to think, when he married Miss Harriet Hale or some one
+equivalent to her, that any poor little stenographer living in a barn
+had at one time fancied him fond of her.  No, indeed!  Shirley tilted
+her firm little chin at the thought, and declined to ride with Graham
+and Elizabeth the next time they called at the office for her, on the
+plea that she had promised to go home in the trolley with one of the
+office girls.  And yet the next time she saw him he was just as
+pleasant, and showed no sign that she had declined his invitation.  In
+fact, the whole basis of their acquaintance was such that she felt free
+to go her own way and yet know he would be just as pleasant a friend
+whenever she needed one.
+
+Matters stood in this way when Graham was suddenly obliged to go West
+on a trip for the office, to be gone three or four weeks.  Mrs. Graham
+and Elizabeth went to the Adirondacks for a short trip, and the people
+at Glenside settled down to quiet country life, broken only by a few
+visits from their farm neighbors, and a call from the cheery, shabby
+pastor of the little white church in the valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Graham did not seem to forget his friends entirely while he was gone.
+The boys received a number of post-cards from time to time, and a lot
+of fine views of California, Yellowstone Park, the Grand Cañon, and
+other spots of interest.  A wonderful picture-book came for Doris, with
+Chinese pictures, and rhymes printed on crêpe paper.  The next morning
+a tiny sandalwood fan arrived for Carol with Graham's compliments, and
+a few days later a big box of oranges for Mrs. Hollister with no clew
+whatever as to their sender.  Shirley began to wonder what her part
+would be and what she should do about it, and presently received--a
+letter!  And then, after all, it was only a pleasant request that she
+would not pay the rent, about which she had always been so punctual,
+until his return, as no one else understood about his affairs.  He
+added a few words about his pleasant trip and a wish that they were all
+prospering,--and that was all.
+
+Shirley was disappointed, of course, and yet, if he had said more, or
+if he had ventured to send her even a mere trifle of a gift, it would
+have made her uncomfortable and set her questioning how she should
+treat him and it.  It was the perfection of his behavior that he had
+not overstepped a single bound that the most particular might set for a
+landlord and his respected tenant.  She drew a deep sigh and put the
+letter back into the envelope, and as she did so she spied a small
+card, smaller than the envelope, on which was an exquisite bit of
+scenery, a colored photograph, apparently, and underneath had been
+pencilled, "One of the many beautiful spots in California that I am
+sure you would appreciate."
+
+Her heart gave an unforbidden leap, and was promptly taken to task for
+it.  Yet when Shirley went back to her typewriter the bit of a picture
+was pinned to the wall back of her desk, and her eyes rested on it many
+times that day when she lifted them from her work.  It is questionable
+whether Shirley remembered Miss Harriet Hale at all that day.
+
+The garden was growing beautifully now.  There would soon be lettuce
+and radishes ready to eat.  George had secured a number of customers
+through people at the store, and was planning to take early trips to
+town, when his produce was ripe, to deliver it.  They watched every
+night and looked again every morning for signs of the first pea
+blossoms, and the little green spires of onion tops, like sparse hairs,
+beginning to shoot up.  Every day brought some new wonder.  They almost
+forgot they had ever lived in the little old brick house, until George
+rode by there on his bicycle one noon and reported that it had been
+half pulled down, and you could now see the outline of where the stairs
+and closets had been, done in plaster, on the side of the next house.
+They were all very silent for a minute thinking after he told that, and
+Mrs. Hollister looked around the great airy place in which they were
+sitting, and then out the open door where the faint stain of sunset was
+still lingering against the horizon, and said:
+
+"We ought all to be very thankful, children.  George, get the Bible and
+read the thirty-fourth psalm."  Wonderingly George obeyed, and they all
+sat listening as the words sank into their souls.
+
+"Now," said the mother when the psalm was finished and those last
+words, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them
+that trust in him shall be desolate"; "now let us kneel down and thank
+Him."
+
+And they all knelt while she prayed a few earnest, simple words of
+thanksgiving and commended them to God's keeping.
+
+By this time Mrs. Hollister was so well that she went every day for a
+little while into the garden and worked, and was able to do a great
+deal in the house.  The children were overjoyed, and lived in a
+continual trance of delight over the wild, free life they were living.
+Carol's school had closed and Carol was at home all day.  This made one
+more to help in the garden.  George was talking about building a little
+pigeon-house and raising squabs for sale.  The man who did the
+ploughing had given him a couple to start with and told him there was
+money in squabs if one only went about it right.  George and Harley
+pored over a book that told all about it, and talked much on the
+subject.
+
+The weather was growing warm, and Shirley was wishing her vacation came
+in July or August instead of the first two weeks in September.  Somehow
+she felt so used up these hot days, and the hours dragged by so slowly.
+At night the trolleys were crowded until they were half-way out to
+Glenside.  She often had to stand, and her head ached a great deal.
+Yet she was very happy and thankful--only there was so much to be done
+in this world, and she seemed to have so little strength to do it all.
+The burden of next fall came occasionally to mar the beauty of the
+summer, and rested heavily upon her young shoulders.  If only there
+wouldn't be any winter for just one year, and they could stay in the
+barn and get rested and get a little money ahead somehow for moving.
+It was going to be so hard to leave that wide, beautiful abiding-place,
+barn though it was.
+
+One morning nearly four weeks after Graham left for California Shirley
+was called from her desk to the outer office to take some dictation for
+Mr. Clegg.  While she was there two men entered the outer office and
+asked for Mr. Barnard.  One of them was a short, thick-set man with a
+pretentious wide gray mustache parted in the middle and combed
+elaborately out on his cheeks.  He had a red face, little cunning eyes,
+and a cruel set to his jaw, which somehow seemed ridiculously at
+variance with his loud, checked suit, sporty necktie of soft bright
+blue satin, set with a scarf-pin of two magnificent stones, a diamond
+and a sapphire, and with the three showy jewelled rings which he wore
+on his fat, pudgy hand.  The other man was sly, quiet, gray,
+unobtrusive, obviously the henchman of the first.
+
+Mr. Clegg told the men they might go into the inner office and wait for
+Mr. Barnard, who would probably be in shortly, and Shirley watched them
+as they passed out of her view, wondering idly why those exquisite
+stones had to be wasted in such an out-of-place spot as in that
+coarse-looking man's necktie, and if a man like that really cared for
+beautiful things, else why should he wear them?  It was only a passing
+thought, and then she took up her pencil and took down the closing
+sentences of the letter Mr. Clegg was dictating.  It was but a moment
+more and she was free to go back to her own little alcove just behind
+Mr. Barnard's office and connecting with it.  There was an entrance to
+it from the tiny cloak-room, which she always used when Mr. Barnard had
+visitors in his office, and through this way she now went, having a
+strange repugnance toward being seen by the two men.  She had an innate
+sense that the man with the gaudy garments would not be one who would
+treat a young girl in her position with any respect, and she did not
+care to come under his coarse gaze, so she slipped in quietly through
+the cloak-room, and passed like a shadow the open door into Mr.
+Barnard's office, where they sat with their backs toward her, having
+evidently just settled down and begun to talk.  She could hear a
+low-breathed comment on the furnishings of the office as indicating a
+good bank-account of the owner, and a coarse jest about a photograph of
+Mr. Barnard's wife which stood on his desk.  It made her wish that the
+door between the rooms was closed; yet she did not care to rise and
+close it lest she should call attention to herself, and of course it
+might be but a minute or two before Mr. Barnard returned.  A pile of
+envelopes to be addressed lay on her desk, and this work she could do
+without any noise, so she slipped softly into her seat and began to
+work.
+
+"Well, we got them Grahams good and fast now!" a coarse voice, that she
+knew for that of the man with the loud clothing, spoke.  "The young
+feller bit all right!  I thought he would.  He's that kind."  He
+stopped for a laugh of contempt, and Shirley's heart stood still with
+apprehension.  What could it mean?  Was it something about her Grahams?
+Some danger threatening them?  Some game being played on them?  He
+looked like the kind of man who lived on the blindnesses of others.
+What was it they called such?  A parasite?  Instinctively she was on
+the alert at once, and automatically she reached for the pad on which
+she took dictation and began to write down in shorthand what she had
+just heard.  The voice in the other room went on and her fountain pen
+kept eager pace, her breath coming quick and short now, and her face
+white with excitement.
+
+"He went out to see the place, you know, examine the mines and all
+that.  Oh, he's awful cautious!  Thought he took a government expert
+with him to test the ore.  We fixed that up all right--had the very man
+on tap at the right minute, government papers all O.K.--you couldn't
+have told 'em from the real thing.  It was Casey; you know him; he's a
+crackerjack on a job like that,--could fool the devil himself.  Well,
+he swore it was the finest kind of ore and all that kind of dope, and
+led that Graham kid around as sweetly as a blue-eyed baby.  We had a
+gang out there all bribed, you know, to swear to things, and took
+particular pains so Graham would go around and ask the right ones
+questions,--Casey tended to that,--and now he's come home with the
+biggest kind of a tale and ready to boost the thing to the skies.  I've
+got his word for it, and his daddy is to sign the papers this morning.
+When he wakes up one of these fine days he'll find himself minus a
+hundred thousand or so, and nobody to blame for it, because how could
+anybody be expected to know that those are only pockets?  He'll
+recommend it right and left too, and we'll clean out a lot of other
+fellers before we get done.  Teddy, my boy, pat yourself on the back!
+We'll have a tidy little sum between us when we pull out of this deal,
+and take a foreign trip for our health till the fracas blows over.  Now
+mind you, not a word of this to Barnard when he comes in.  We're only
+going to pave the way this morning.  The real tip comes from Graham
+himself.  See?"
+
+Shirley was faint and dizzy with excitement as she finished writing,
+and her brain was in a whirl.  She felt as if she would scream in a
+minute if this strain kept up.  The papers were to be signed that
+morning!  Even now the deed might be done and it would be too late,
+perhaps, to stop it.  And yet she must make no sign, must not have the
+men know that she was there and that they had been heard.  She must sit
+here breathless until they were gone, so they would not know she had
+overheard them, or they might manage to prevent her getting word to
+Graham.  How long would they stay?  Would they talk on and reveal more?
+The other man had only grunted something unintelligible in reply, and
+then before more could be said an office boy opened the outer door and
+told them that Mr. Barnard had just phoned that he would not be back
+before two o'clock.
+
+The men swore and went out grumbling.  Suddenly Shirley knew her time
+had come to do something.  Stepping quickly to the door she scanned the
+room carefully to make sure they were gone, then closing her own door
+she took up the telephone on her desk and called up the Graham number.
+She did not know just what she meant to say, nor what she would do if
+Sidney Graham were not in the office,--and it was hardly probable he
+would be there yet if he had only arrived home the day before.  He
+would be likely to take a day off before getting back to work.  Her
+throbbing heart beat out these questions to her brain while she waited
+for the number.  Would she dare to ask for Mr. Walter Graham?  And if
+she did, what would she say to him?  How explain?  He did not know her,
+and probably never heard of her.  He might think her crazy.  Then there
+was always the possibility that there was some mistake--and yet it
+seemed a coincidence that two men of the same name should both be going
+West at that time.  It must be these Grahams that the plot was against.
+But how explain enough over the phone to do any good?  Of course she
+must give them a copy of what she had taken down in shorthand, but
+first she must stop the signing of those papers, whatever they were, at
+all costs.
+
+Then all at once, into the midst of her whirling confusion of thoughts,
+came a voice at the other end of the phone, "Hello!" and her frantic
+senses realized that it was a familiar one.
+
+"Oh, is this,--this _is_ Mr. Sidney Graham, isn't it?  This is Shirley
+Hollister."
+
+There was a catch in her voice that sounded almost like a sob as she
+drew in her breath with relief to know that he was there, and his
+answer came in swift alarm:
+
+"Yes?  Is there anything the matter, Miss Shirley?  You are not ill,
+are you?"
+
+There was a sharp note of anxiety in the young man's voice, and even in
+her excitement it made Shirley's heart leap to hear it.
+
+"No, there is nothing the matter with me," she said, trying to steady
+her voice, "but something has happened that I think you ought to know
+at _once_.  I don't know whether I ought to tell it over the phone.
+I'm not sure but I may be overheard."
+
+"I will come to you immediately.  Where can I find you?"
+
+Her heart leaped again at his willingness to trust her and to obey her
+call.
+
+"In Mr. Barnard's private office.  If you ask for me they will let you
+come right in.  There is one thing more.  If there is anything
+important your father was to decide this morning, could you get him to
+wait till you return, or till you phone him?"
+
+There was a second's hesitation, and the reply was politely puzzled but
+courteous:
+
+"He is not in the office at present and will not be for an hour."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!  Then _please hurry_!"
+
+"I will get there as soon as I can," and the phone clicked into place.
+
+Shirley sat back in her chair and pressed her hands over her eyes to
+concentrate all her powers.  Then she turned to her typewriter and
+began to copy off the shorthand, her fingers flying over the keys with
+more than their usual swiftness.  As she wrote she prayed, prayed that
+nothing might have been signed, and that her warning might not come too
+late; prayed, too, that Mr. Barnard might not return until Mr. Graham
+had been and gone, and that Mr. Graham might not think her an utter
+fool in case this proved to have nothing whatever to do with his
+affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+When Graham entered the office Shirley came to meet him quietly,
+without a word of greeting other than to put her little cold hand into
+his that he held out to her.  She began to speak in a low voice full of
+suppressed excitement.  She had a vague fear lest the two men might be
+still lingering about the outer office, waiting for Mr. Barnard, and a
+momentary dread lest Mr. Barnard might enter the room at any minute.
+She must get the telling over before he came.
+
+"Mr. Graham, two men were sitting in this room waiting for Mr. Barnard
+a few minutes ago, and I was in my little room just back there.  I
+could not help hearing what they said, and when I caught the name of
+Graham in connection with what sounded like an evil plot I took down
+their words in shorthand.  It may not have anything to do with your
+firm, but I thought I ought to let you know.  I called you on the phone
+as soon as they left the office and would not hear me, and I have made
+this copy of their conversation.  Read it quickly, please, because if
+it does have anything to do with you, you will want to phone your
+father at once, before those men can get there."
+
+Her tone was very cool, and her hand was steady as she handed him the
+typewritten paper, but her heart was beating mildly, because there had
+been a look in his eyes as he greeted her that made her feel that he
+was glad to see her, and it touched an answering gladness in her heart
+and filled her both with delight and with apprehension.  What a fool
+she was!
+
+She turned sharply away and busied herself with arranging some papers
+on Mr. Barnard's desk while he read.  She must still this excitement
+and get control of herself before he was through.  She _must_ be the
+cool, impersonal stenographer, and not let him suspect for a moment
+that she was so excited about seeing him again.
+
+The young man stood still, reading rapidly, his face growing graver as
+he read.  The girl snatched a furtive glance at him, and felt convinced
+that the matter was a serious one and had to do with him.
+
+Suddenly he looked up.
+
+"Do you know who those men were, Miss Shirley?" he asked, and she saw
+his eyes were full of anxiety.
+
+"No," said Shirley.  "But I saw them as they passed through the outer
+office, and stopped to speak to Mr. Clegg.  I was taking dictation from
+Mr. Clegg at the time.  I came back to my desk through the cloak-room,
+so they did not know I was within hearing."
+
+"What kind of looking men were they?  Do you remember?"
+
+She described them.
+
+Certainty grew in his face as she talked, and grave concern.
+
+"May I use your phone a minute?" he asked after an instant's thought.
+
+She led him to her own desk and handed him the receiver, then stepped
+back into the office and waited.
+
+"Hello!  Is that you, Edward?" she heard him say.  "Has father come
+yet?  Give me his phone, please.  Hello, father; this is Sidney.
+Father, has Kremnitz come in yet?  He has?  You say he's waiting in the
+office to see you?  Well, don't see him, father, till I get there.
+Something has turned up that I'm afraid is going to alter matters
+entirely.  Yes, pretty serious, I'm afraid.  Don't see him.  Keep him
+waiting.  I'll be there in five minutes, and come in from the back way
+directly to your office.  Don't talk with him on any account till I can
+get there.  Good-by."
+
+He hung up the receiver and turned to Shirley.
+
+"Miss Shirley, you were just in time to save us.  I haven't time now to
+tell you how grateful I am for this.  I must hurry right over.  Do you
+suppose if we should need you it would be possible for you to come over
+and identify those men?  Thank you.  I'll speak to Mr. Clegg about it
+as I go out, and if we find it necessary we'll phone you.  In case you
+have to come I'll have an office-boy in the hall to take your hat, and
+you can come right into the office as if you were one of our
+employees--just walk over to the bookcase as if you were looking for a
+book--any book.  Select one and look through it, meanwhile glancing
+around the room, and see if you find those men.  Then walk through into
+my office.  I'll be waiting there.  Good-by, and thank you so much!"
+
+He gave her hand one quick clasp and was gone, and Shirley found she
+was trembling from head to foot.  She walked quickly into her own room
+and sat down, burying her face in her hands and trying to get control
+of herself, but the tears would come to her eyes in spite of all she
+could do.  It was not the excitement of getting the men and stopping
+their evil plans before they could do any damage, although that had
+something to do with her nervous state, of course; and it was not just
+that she had been able to do a little thing in return for all he had
+done for her; nor even his gratitude; it was--she could not deny it to
+herself--it was a certain quality in his voice, a something in the look
+he gave her, that made her whole soul glow, and seemed to fill the
+hungry longing that had been in her heart.
+
+It frightened her and made her ashamed, and as she sat with bowed head
+she prayed that she might be given strength to act like a sensible
+girl, and crush out such foolish thoughts before they dared lift their
+heads and be recognized even by her own heart.  Then strengthened, she
+resolved to think no more about the matter, but just get her work done
+and be ready to enter into that other business if it became necessary.
+Mr. Barnard would be coming soon, and she must have his work finished.
+She had lost almost an hour by this matter.
+
+She went at her typewriter pell-mell, and soon had Mr. Clegg's letters
+done.  She was nearly through with the addressing that Mr. Barnard left
+for her to do when the telephone called her to Graham's office.
+
+She slipped on her hat and hurried out.
+
+"Will it be all right for me to take my noontime now, Mr. Clegg?" she
+said, stopping by his desk.  "Mr. Graham said he spoke to you."
+
+"Yes, he wants you to help him identify some one.  That's all right.
+I'll explain to Mr. Barnard when he comes.  There's nothing important
+you have to finish, is there?  All done but those envelopes?  Well, you
+needn't return until one o'clock, anyway.  The envelopes can wait till
+the four-o'clock mail, and if Mr. Barnard needs anything in a hurry
+Miss Dwight can attend to it this time.  Just take your time, Miss
+Hollister."
+
+Shirley went out bewildered by the unusual generosity of Mr. Clegg, who
+was usually taciturn and abrupt.  She realized, however, that his
+warmth must be due to Graham's visit, and not to any special desire to
+give her a holiday.  She smiled to think what a difference wealth and
+position made in the eyes of the world.
+
+The same office-boy she had met on her first visit to Graham's office
+was waiting most respectfully for her now in the hall when she got out
+of the elevator, and she gave him her hat and walked into the office
+according to programme, going straight to the big glass bookcase full
+of calf-bound volumes, and selecting one after running her finger over
+two rows of them.  She was as cool as though her part had been
+rehearsed many times, although her heart was pounding most
+unmercifully, and it seemed as though the people in the next room must
+hear it.  She stood and opened her book, casting a casual glance about
+the room.
+
+There, sure enough, quite near to her, sat the two men, fairly bursting
+with impatience.  The once immaculate hair of the loudly dressed one
+was rumpled as if he had run his fingers through it many times, and he
+played nervously with his heavy rings, and caressed half viciously his
+elaborate mustache, working his thick, sensuous lips impatiently all
+the while.  Shirley took a good look at him, necktie, scarf-pin, and
+all; looked keenly into the face of the gray one also; then coolly
+closed the door of the bookcase and carried the book she had selected
+into Sidney Graham's office.
+
+Graham was there, standing to receive her, and just back of him stood a
+kindly-faced elderly man with merry blue eyes, gray hair, and a
+stylishly cut beard.  By their attitude and manner Shirley somehow
+sensed that they had both been watching her.  Then Graham introduced
+her.
+
+"This is my father, Miss Hollister."
+
+The elder man took her hand and shook it heartily, speaking in a gruff,
+hearty way that won her from the first:
+
+"I'm glad to know you, Miss Hollister.  I certainly am!  My son has
+been telling me what you've done for us, and I think you're a great
+little girl!  That was bully work you did, and I appreciate it.  I was
+watching you out there in the office.  You were as cool as a cucumber.
+You ought to be a detective.  You found your men all right, did you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Shirley, much abashed, and feeling the return of that
+foolish trembling in her limbs.  "Yes, they are both out there, and the
+short one with the rings and the blue necktie is the one that did the
+talking."
+
+"Exactly what I thought," drawled the father, with a keen twinkle in
+his kindly eyes.  "I couldn't somehow trust that chap from the start.
+That's why I sent my son out to investigate.  Well, now, will you just
+step into my private office, Miss Hollister, and take your seat by the
+typewriter as if you were my stenographer?  You'll find paper there in
+the drawer, and you can just be writing--write anything, you choose, so
+it looks natural when the men come in.  When we get to talking I'd like
+you to take down in shorthand all that is said by all of us.  You're
+pretty good at that, I judge.  Sid, will you phone for those officers
+now?  I think it's about time for the curtain to rise."  And he led the
+way into his own office.
+
+Shirley sat down at the typewriter as she had been directed and began
+to write mechanically.  Mr. Graham touched the bell on his desk, and
+told the office boy who answered to send in Mr. Kremnitz and his
+companion.
+
+Shirley was so seated that she could get occasional glimpses of the men
+without being noticed, and she was especially interested in the twinkle
+that shone in the bright blue eyes of the elder Graham as he surveyed
+the men who thought he was their dupe.  Her heart warmed to him.  His
+kindly, merry face, his hearty, unconventional speech, all showed him
+to be a big, warm-hearted man without a bit of snobbishness about him.
+
+The son came in, and talk began just as if the matter of the mine were
+going on.  Mr. Kremnitz produced some papers which he evidently
+expected to be signed at once, and sat complacently answering
+questions; keen questions Shirley saw they were afterwards, and in the
+light of the revelation she had overheard in Mr. Barnard's office
+Kremnitz perjured himself hopelessly by his answers.  Presently the
+office-boy announced the arrival of some one in the next room.  Shirley
+had taken down minutely a great deal of valuable information which the
+Grahams had together drawn from their victim.  She was surprised at the
+list of wealthy business men who were to have been involved in the
+scheme.
+
+Then suddenly the quiet scene changed.  The elder Graham gave a signal
+to his office-boy, which looked merely like waving him away, and the
+door was flung open, revealing four officers of the law, who stepped
+into the room without further word.  Graham arose and faced his two
+startled callers, his hand firmly planted on the papers on his desk
+which he had been supposed to sign.
+
+"Mr. Kremnitz," he said, and even in the midst of this serious business
+Shirley fancied there was a half-comic drawl to his words.  He simply
+could not help letting his sense of humor come on top.  "Mr. Kremnitz,
+it is not going to be possible for me to sign these papers this
+morning, as you expected.  I do not feel satisfied that all things are
+as you have represented.  In fact, I have the best evidence to the
+contrary.  Officer, these are the gentlemen you have come to arrest,"
+and he stepped back and waved his hand toward the two conspirators, who
+sat with startled eyes and blanched faces, appalled at the sudden
+developments where they had thought all was moving happily toward their
+desired end.
+
+"Arrest!  Who?  On what charge?" flashed the little gaudy Kremnitz,
+angrily springing to his feet and making a dash toward the door, while
+his companion slid furtively toward the other end of the room,
+evidently hoping to gain young Graham's office before he was noticed.
+But two officers blocked their way and the handcuffs clanked in the
+hands of the other two policemen.
+
+"Why, arrest _you_, my friend," said Graham senior, as if he rather
+enjoyed the little man's discomfiture.  "And for trying to perpetrate
+the biggest swindle that has been attempted for ten years.  I must say
+for you that you've worked hard, and done the trick rather neatly, but
+you made one unfortunate slip that saved all us poor rich men.  It
+seems a pity that so much elaborate lying should have brought you two
+nothing but those bracelets you're wearing,--they don't seem to match
+well with your other jewels,--but that's the way things go in this
+world.  Now, take them away, officer.  I've no more time to waste on
+them this morning!" and he turned and walked over by Shirley's desk,
+while the curtain fell over the brief drama.
+
+"Do you know how much money you've saved for us, little girl,--just
+plain _saved_?  I'll tell you.  A clean hundred thousand!  That's what
+I was going to put into this affair!  And as for other men, I expected
+to influence a lot of other men to put in a good deal also.  Now,
+little girl, I don't know what you think about it, but I want to shake
+hands."  He put out his hand and Shirley laid her own timid one in it,
+smiling and blushing rosily, and saying softly with what excited breath
+she had, "Oh, I'm so glad I got you in time!"  Then she was aware that
+the man had gone on talking.  "I don't know what you think about it,"
+he repeated, "but I feel that you saved me a clean hundred thousand
+dollars, and I say that a good percentage of that belongs to you as a
+reward of your quickness and keenness."
+
+But Shirley drew away her hand and stepped back, her face white, her
+head up, her chin tilted proudly, her eyes very dark with excitement
+and determination.  She spoke clearly and earnestly.
+
+"No, Mr. Graham, nothing whatever belongs to me.  I don't want any
+reward.  I couldn't think of taking it.  It is utterly out of the
+question!"
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the elder Graham, sitting down on the edge of
+his desk, watching her in undisguised admiration.  "Now that's a new
+kind of girl that won't take what she's earned,--what rightly belongs
+to her."
+
+"Mr. Graham, it was a very little thing I did,--anybody would have done
+it,--and it was just in the way of simple duty.  Please don't say
+anything more about it.  I am only too glad to have had opportunity to
+give a little help to people who have helped me so much.  I feel that I
+am under deep obligation to your son for making it possible for us to
+live in the country, where my mother is getting well."
+
+"Well, now I shall have to inquire into this business.  I haven't heard
+anything about obligations, and for my part I feel a big one just now.
+Perhaps you think it was a very little thing you did, but suppose you
+_hadn't_ done it.  Suppose you'd been too busy, or it hadn't occurred
+to you to take down that conversation until it was too late; or suppose
+you hadn't had the brains to see what it would mean to us.  Why, then
+it would have become a very big thing indeed, and we should have been
+willing, if we had known, to pay a mighty big sum to get that evidence.
+You see a hundred thousand dollars isn't exactly a very little thing
+when you're swindled out of it.  It's the _swindling_ that hurts more
+than the loss of the money.  And you saved us from that.  Now, young
+lady, I consider myself under obligation to you, and I intend to
+discharge it somehow.  If I can't do it one way I shall another, but in
+the meantime I'm deeply grateful, and please accept our thanks.  If you
+are willing to add one more to your kindness, I shall be glad if you
+will make a carbon copy of those shorthand notes you took.  I may need
+them for evidence.  And, by the way, you will probably be called upon
+to testify in court.  I'm sorry.  That may be unpleasant, but I guess
+it can't be helped, so you see before you get through you may not think
+you did so very small a thing after all.  Sid, I think you better
+escort this young lady back to her office and explain to Barnard.  He's
+probably been on the verge of being buncoed also.  You said Kremnitz
+was waiting for him when the conversation took place?  I guess you
+better go with Miss Hollister and clear the whole thing up.  Say,
+child, have you had your lunch yet?  No, of course not.  Sidney, you
+take her to get some lunch before she goes back to the office.  She's
+had an exciting morning.  Now, good-by, little girl.  I sha'n't forget
+what you've done for us, and I'm coming to see you pretty soon and get
+things squared up."
+
+So that was how it came about that in spite of her protests Mr. Sidney
+Graham escorted Shirley Hollister into one of the most exclusive
+tea-rooms of the city, and seated her at a little round table set for
+two, while off at a short distance Miss Harriet Hale sat with her
+mother, eating her lunch and trying in vain to "place" the pretty girl
+she did not recognize.
+
+It never occurred to her for a moment that Sidney Graham's companion
+might be a stenographer, for Shirley had a knack about her clothes that
+made her always seem well dressed.  That hat she wore had seen service
+for three summers, and was now a wholly different shape and color from
+what it had been when it began life.  A scrub in hot water had removed
+the dust of toil, some judiciously applied dye had settled the matter
+of color, and a trifling manipulation on her head while the hat was
+still wet had made the shape not only exceedingly stylish but becoming.
+The chic little rosette and strictly tailored band which were its sole
+trimming were made from a much-soiled waist-ribbon, washed and
+stretched around a bottle of hot water to dry it, and teased into the
+latest thing in rosettes by Shirley's witching fingers.  The simple
+linen dress she wore fitted well and at a distance could not have been
+told from something better, and neither were gloves and shoes near
+enough to be inspected critically, so Miss Hale was puzzled, and
+jealously watched the pretty color come and go in Shirley's cheek, and
+the simple grace of her movements.
+
+Fortunately, Shirley did not see Miss Hale, and would not have
+recognized her if she had from that one brief glimpse she had of her
+picture on the society page of the newspaper.  So she ate her
+delectable lunch, ordered by Graham, in terms that she knew not, about
+dishes that she had never seen before.  She ate and enjoyed herself so
+intensely that it seemed to her she would never be able to make the
+rest of her life measure up to the privileges of the hour.
+
+For Shirley was a normal girl.  She could not help being pleased to be
+doing just for once exactly as other more favored girls did constantly.
+To be lunching at Blanco's with one of the most-sought-after men in the
+upper set, to be treated like a queen, and to be talking beautiful
+things about travels and pictures and books, it was all too beautiful
+to be real.  Shirley began to feel that if it didn't get over pretty
+soon and find her back in the office addressing the rest of those
+envelopes she would think she had died in the midst of a dream and gone
+to heaven.
+
+There was something else too that brought an undertone of beauty, which
+she was not acknowledging even to her inmost self.  That was the way
+Graham looked at her, as if she were some fine beautiful angel dropped
+down from above that he loved to look at; as if he really cared what
+she thought and did; as if there were somehow a soul-harmony between
+them that set them apart this day from others, and put them into tune
+with one another; as if he were glad, _glad_ to see her once more after
+the absence!  All through her being it thrilled like a song that brings
+tears to the throat and gladness to the eyes, and makes one feel strong
+and pure.  That was how it seemed when she thought about it afterward.
+At the time she was just living it in wonder and thanksgiving.
+
+At another time her sordid worldliness and pride might have risen and
+swelled with haughtiness of spirit over the number of people who eyed
+her enviously as they went out together; over the many bows and
+salutations her escort received from people of evident consequence, for
+she had the normal human pride somewhere in her nature as we all have.
+But just then her heart was too humble with a new, strange happiness to
+feel it or take it in, and she walked with unconscious grace beside
+him, feeling only the joy of being there.
+
+Later, in the quiet of her chamber, her mother's warning came to her,
+and her cheeks burned with shame in the dark that her heart had dared
+make so much of a common little luncheon, just a mere courtesy after
+she had been able to do a favor.  Yet through it all Shirley knew there
+was something fine and true there that belonged just to her, and
+presently she would rise above everything and grasp it and keep it hers
+forever.
+
+She felt the distinction of her escort anew when she entered Barnard
+and Clegg's in his company, and saw Mr. Clegg spring to open the door
+and to set a chair for his young guest, saw even Mr. Barnard rise and
+greet him with almost reverence.  And this honor she knew was being
+paid to money, the great demagogue.  It was not the man that she
+admired to whom they were paying deference, it was to his money!  She
+smiled to herself.  It was the _man_ she admired, not his money.
+
+All that afternoon she worked with flying fingers, turning off the work
+at marvellous speed, amused when she heard the new note of respect in
+Mr. Barnard's voice as he gave her a direction.  Mr. Barnard had been
+greatly impressed with the story Graham had told him, and was also
+deeply grateful on his own account that Shirley had acted as she had,
+for he had been on the verge of investing a large trust fund that was
+in his keeping in the new mining operation, and it would have meant
+absolute failure for him.
+
+When Shirley left the office that night she was almost too tired to see
+which trolley was coming, but some one touched her on the arm, and
+there was Sidney Graham waiting for her beside his car,--a little
+two-passenger affair that she had never seen before and that went like
+the wind.  They took a road they had not travelled together before, and
+Shirley got in joyously, her heart all in a tumult of doubts and joys
+and questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+What that ride was to Shirley she hardly dared let herself think
+afterwards.  Sitting cozily beside Graham in the little racing car,
+gliding through the better part of town where all the tall, imposing
+houses slept with drawn blinds, and dust-covered shutters proclaimed
+that their owners were far away from heat and toil.  Out through wide
+roads and green-hedged lanes, where stately mansions set in flowers and
+mimic landscapes loomed far back from road in dignified seclusion.
+Passing now and then a car of people who recognized Graham and bowed in
+the same deferential way as they had done in the tea-room.  And all the
+time his eyes were upon her, admiring, delighting; and his care about
+her, solicitous for her comfort.
+
+Once he halted the car and pointed off against the sunset, where wide
+gables and battlemented towers stood gray amidst a setting of green
+shrubbery and trees, and velvety lawns reached far, to high, trim
+hedges arched in places for an entrance to the beautiful estate.
+
+"That is my home over there," he said, and watched her widening eyes.
+"I wish I had time to take you over to-night, but I know you are tired
+and ought to get home and rest.  Another time we'll go around that
+way."  And her heart leaped up as the car went forward again.  There
+was to be another time, then!  Ah!  But she must not allow it.  Her
+heart was far too foolish already.  Yet she would enjoy this ride, now
+she was started.
+
+They talked about the sunset and a poem he had lately read.  He told
+her bits about his journey, referring to his experience at the mines,
+touching on some amusing incidents, sketching some of the queer
+characters he had met.  Once he asked her quite abruptly if she thought
+her mother would be disturbed if he had a cement floor put in the
+basement of the barn some time soon.  He wanted to have it done before
+cold weather set in, and it would dry better now in the hot days.  Of
+course, if it would be in the least disturbing to any of them it could
+wait, but he wanted to store a few things there that were being taken
+out of the office buildings, and he thought they would keep drier if
+there was a cement floor.  When she said it would not disturb any one
+in the least, would on the contrary be quite interesting for the
+children to watch, she was sure, he went easily back to California
+scenery and never referred to it again.
+
+All through the ride, which was across a country she had never seen
+before, and ended at Glenside approaching from a new direction, there
+was a subtle something between them, a sympathy and quick understanding
+as if they were comrades, almost partners in a lot of common interests.
+Shirley chided herself for it every time she looked up and caught his
+glance, and felt the thrill of pleasure in this close companionship.
+Of course it was wholly in her own imagination, and due entirely to the
+nervous strain through which she had passed that day, she told herself.
+Of course, he had nothing in his mind but the most ordinary kindly
+desire to give her a good time out of gratitude for what she had done
+for him.  But nevertheless it was sweet, and Shirley was loath to
+surrender the joy of it while it lasted, dream though it might be.
+
+It lasted all the way, even up to the very stop in front of the barn
+when he took her hand to help her out, and his fingers lingered on hers
+with just an instant's pressure, sending a thrill to her heart again,
+and almost bringing tears to her eyes.  Foolishness!  She was
+overwrought.  It was a shame that human beings were so made that they
+had to become weak like that in a time of pleasant rejoicing.
+
+The family came forth noisily to meet them, rejoicing openly at
+Graham's return, George and Harley vying with each other to shout the
+news about the garden and the chickens and the dove-cote; Carol
+demanding to know where was Elizabeth; and Doris earnestly looking in
+his face and repeating:
+
+"Ickle budie fy away, Mistah Gwaham.  All gone!  All ickle budies fy
+away!"
+
+Even Mrs. Hollister came smiling to the door to meet him, and the young
+man had a warm word of hearty greeting and a hand-shake for each one.
+It was as if he had just got home to a place where he loved to be, and
+he could not show his joy enough.  Shirley stood back for the moment
+watching him, admiring the way his hair waved away from his temples,
+thinking how handsome he looked when he smiled, wondering that he could
+so easily fit himself into this group, which must in the nature of
+things be utterly different from his native element, rejoicing over the
+deference he paid to her plain, quiet mother, thrilling over the kiss
+he gave her sweet little sister.
+
+Then Mrs. Hollister did something perfectly unexpected and
+dreadful--she invited him to stay to dinner!  Shirley stood back and
+gasped.  Of course he would decline, but think of the temerity of
+inviting the wealthy and cultured Mr. Graham to take dinner in his own
+barn!
+
+Oh!  But he wasn't going to decline at all.  He was accepting as if it
+were a great pleasure Mrs. Hollister was conferring upon him.  _Sure_,
+he would stay!  He had been wishing all the way out they would ask him.
+He had wondered whether he dared invite himself.
+
+Shirley with her cheeks very red hurried in to see that the table-cloth
+was put on straight, and look after one or two little things; but
+behold, he followed her out, and, gently insisting and assisting,
+literally compelled her to come and lie down on the couch while he told
+the family what she had been through that day.  Shirley was so happy
+she almost cried right there before them all.  It was so wonderful to
+have some one take care of her that way.  Of course it was only
+gratitude--but she had been taking care of other people so long that it
+completely broke her down to have some one take care of her.
+
+The dinner went much more easily than she had supposed it could with
+those cracked plates, and the forks from which the silver was all worn
+off.  Doris insisted that the guest sit next to her and butter her
+bread for her, and she occasionally caressed his coat-sleeve with a
+sticky little hand, but he didn't seem to mind it in the least, and
+smiled down on her in quite a brotherly way, arranging her bib when it
+got tangled in her curls, and seeing that she had plenty of jelly on
+her bread.
+
+It was a beautiful dinner.  Mother Hollister had known what she was
+about when she selected that particular night to invite unexpected
+company.  There was stewed chicken on little round biscuits, with
+plenty of gravy and currant jelly, mashed potatoes, green peas, little
+new beets, and the most delicious custard pie for dessert, all rich,
+velvety yellow with a golden-brown top.  The guest ate as if he enjoyed
+it, and asked for a second piece of pie, just as if he were one of
+them.  It was unbelievable!
+
+He helped clear off the table too, and insisted on Carol's giving him a
+wiping-towel to help with the dishes.  It was just like a dream.
+
+The young man tore himself reluctantly away about nine o'clock and went
+home, but before he left he took Shirley's hand and looked into her
+eyes with another of those deep understanding glances, and Shirley
+watched him whirling away in the moonlight, and wondered if there ever
+would be another day as beautiful and exciting and wonderful as this
+had been, and whether she could come down to sensible, every-day living
+again by morning.
+
+Then there was the story of the day to tell all over again after he was
+gone, and put in the little family touches that had been left out when
+the guest was there, and there was: "Oh, did you notice how admiring he
+looked when he told mother Shirley had a remarkably keen mind?" and "He
+said his father thought Shirley was the most unspoiled-looking girl he
+had ever seen!" and a lot of other things that Shirley hadn't heard
+before.
+
+Shirley told her mother what the senior Mr. Graham had said about
+giving her a reward, and her mother agreed that she had done just right
+in declining anything for so simple a service, but she looked after
+Shirley with a sigh as she went to put Doris to bed, and wondered if
+for this service the poor child was to get a broken heart.  It could
+hardly be possible that a girl could be given much attention such as
+Shirley had received that day, from as attractive a young man as
+Graham, without feeling it keenly not to have it continue.  And of
+_course_ it was out of the question that it should continue.  Mrs.
+Hollister decided that she had done wrong to invite the young man to
+stay to supper, and resolved never to offend in that way again.  It was
+a wrong to Shirley to put him on so intimate a footing in the
+household, and it could not but bring her sadness.  He was a most
+unusual young man to have even wanted to stay, but one must not take
+that for more than a passing whim, and Shirley must be protected at all
+hazards.
+
+"Now," said the elder Graham the next morning, when the business of the
+day was well under way and he had time to send for his son to come into
+his office, "now, I want you to tell me all about that little girl, and
+what you think we ought to give her.  What did she mean by
+'obligations' yesterday?  Have you been doing anything for her, son?  I
+meant to ask you last night, but you came home so late I couldn't sit
+up."
+
+And then Sidney Graham told his father the whole story.  It was
+different from telling his mother.  He knew no barn would have the
+power to prejudice his father.
+
+"And you say that girl lives in the old barn!" exclaimed the father
+when the story was finished.  "Why, the nervy little kid!  And she
+looks as if she came out of a bandbox!  Well, she's a bully little girl
+and no mistake!  Well, now, son, what can we do for her?  We ought to
+do something pretty nice.  You see it wasn't just the money we might
+have lost.  That would have been a mere trifle beside getting all those
+other folks balled up in the mess.  Why, I'd have given every cent I
+own before I'd have had Fuller and Browning and Barnard and Wilts get
+entangled.  I tell you, son, it was a great escape!"
+
+"Yes, father, and it was a great lesson for me.  I'll never be buncoed
+as easily again.  But about Miss Hollister, I don't know what to say.
+She's very proud and sensitive.  I had an awful time doing the little
+things I just had to do to that barn without her suspecting I was doing
+it especially for her.  Father, you ought to go out there and meet the
+family; then you'd understand.  They're not ordinary people.  Their
+father was a college professor and wrote things.  They're cultured
+people."
+
+"Well, I want to meet them.  Why don't we go out there and call to-day?
+I think they must be worth knowing."
+
+So late that afternoon the father and son rode out to Glenside, and
+when Shirley and George reached home they found the car standing in
+front of their place, and the Grahams comfortably seated in the great
+open doorway, enjoying the late afternoon breeze, and seemingly
+perfectly at home in their own barn.
+
+"I'm not going to swarm here every day, Miss Shirley," said the son,
+rising and coming out to meet her.  "You see father hadn't heard about
+the transformation of the old barn, and the minute I told him about it
+he had to come right out and see it."
+
+"Yes," said the father, smiling contentedly, "I had to come and see
+what you'd done out here.  I've played in the hay up in that loft many
+a day in my time, and I love the old barn.  It's great to see it all
+fixed up so cozy.  But we're going home now and let you have your
+dinner.  We just waited to say 'Howdy' to you before we left."
+
+They stayed a few minutes longer, however, and the senior Graham talked
+with Shirley while he held Doris on his knee and stroked her silky
+hair, and she nestled in his arms quite content.
+
+Then, although young Graham was quite loath to leave so soon, they
+went, for he could not in conscience, expect an invitation to dinner
+two days in succession.
+
+They rode away into the sunset, going across country to their home
+without going back to town, and Doris, as she stood with the others
+watching them away, murmured softly:
+
+"Nice favver-man!  Nice Gwaham favver man!"
+
+The "nice-Graham-father-man" was at that moment remarking to his son in
+very decided tones, as he turned to get a last glimpse of the old barn:
+
+"That old barn door ought to come down right away, Sid, and a nice big
+old-fashioned door with glass around the sides made to fill the space.
+That door is an eyesore on the place, and they need a piazza.  People
+like those can't live with a great door like that to open and shut
+every day."
+
+"Yes, father, I've thought of that, but I don't just know how to manage
+it.  You see they're not objects of charity.  I've been thinking about
+some way to fix up a heating arrangement without hurting their
+feelings, so they could stay there all winter.  I know they hate to go
+back to the city, and they're only paying ten dollars a month.  It's
+all they can afford.  What could they get in the city for that?"
+
+"Great Scott!  A girl like that living in a house she could get for ten
+dollars, when some of these feather-brained baby-dolls we know can't
+get on with less than three or four houses that cost from fifty to a
+hundred thousand dollars apiece!  Say, son, that's a peach of a girl,
+do you know it?  A peach of a girl!  I've been talking with her, and
+she has a very superior mind."
+
+"I know she has, father," answered the son humbly.
+
+"I say, Sid, why don't you marry her?  That would solve the whole
+problem.  Then you could fix up the old barn into a regular house for
+her folks."
+
+"Well, father, that's just what I've made up my mind to do--if she'll
+have me," said the son with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.
+
+"Bully for you, Sid!  Bully for you!" and the father gave his son's
+broad shoulder a resounding slap.  "Why, Sid, I didn't think you had
+that much sense.  Your mother gave me to understand that you were
+philandering around with that dolly-faced Harriet Hale, and I couldn't
+see what you saw in her.  But if you mean it, son, I'm with you every
+time.  That girl's a peach, and you couldn't get a finer if you
+searched the world over."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid mother's got her heart set on Harriet Hale," said the
+son dubiously, "but I can't see it that way."
+
+"H'm!  Your mother likes show," sighed the father comically, "but she's
+got a good heart, and she'll bowl over all right and make the best of
+it.  You know neither your mother nor I were such high and mighties
+when we were young, and _we_ married for _love_.  But now, if you
+really mean business, I don't see why we can't do something right away.
+When does that girl have her vacation?  Of course she gets one
+sometime.  Why couldn't your mother just invite the whole family to
+occupy the shore cottage for a little while,--get up some excuse or
+other,--ask 'em to take care of it?  You know it's lying idle all this
+summer, and two servants down there growing fat with nothing to do.  We
+might ship Elizabeth down there and let 'em be company for her.  They
+seem like a fine set of children.  It would do Elizabeth good to know
+them."
+
+"Oh, she's crazy about them.  She's been out a number of times with me,
+and don't you remember she had Carol out to stay with her?"
+
+"Was that the black-eyed, sensible girl?  Well, I declare!  I didn't
+recognize her.  She was all dolled up out at our house.  I suppose
+Elizabeth loaned 'em to her, eh?  Well, I'm glad.  She's got sense,
+too.  That's the kind of people I like my children to know.  Now if
+that vacation could only be arranged to come when your mother and I
+take that Western trip, why, it would be just the thing for Elizabeth,
+work right all around.  Now, the thing for you to do is to find out
+about that vacation, and begin to work things.  Then you could have
+everything all planned, and rush the work so it would be done by the
+time they came back."
+
+So the two conspirators plotted, while all unconscious of their
+interest Shirley was trying to get herself in hand and not think how
+Graham's eyes had looked when he said good-night to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Since the pastor from the village had called upon them, the young
+people of the stone barn had been identified with the little white
+church in the valley.  Shirley had taken a class of boys in the
+Sunday-school and was playing the organ, as George had once predicted.
+Carol was helping the primary teacher, George was assistant librarian
+and secretary, Harley was in Shirley's class, and Doris was one of the
+primaries.
+
+Shirley had at once identified herself with the struggling little
+Christian Endeavor society and was putting new life into it, with her
+enthusiasm, her new ideas about getting hold of the young people of the
+community, and her wonderful knack of getting the silent ones to take
+part in the meetings.  She had suggested new committees, had invited
+the music committee to meet her at her home some evening to plan out
+special music, and to coöperate with the social committee in planning
+for music at the socials.  She always carried a few appropriate
+clippings or neatly written verses or other quotations to meeting to
+slip into the hands of some who had not prepared to speak, and she saw
+to it that her brothers and sisters were always ready to say something.
+Withal, she did her part so unobtrusively that none of the old members
+could think she was trying to usurp power or make herself prominent.
+She became a quiet power behind the powers, to whom the president and
+all the other officers came for advice, and who seemed always ready to
+help in any work, or to find a way out of any difficulty.  Christian
+Endeavor in the little white church at once took great strides after
+the advent of the Hollisters, and even the idlers on the street corners
+were moved with curiosity to drop into the twilight service of the
+young people and see what went on, and why everybody seemed so
+interested.  But the secret of it all, Shirley thought, was the little
+five-minute prayer service that the prayer-meeting committee held in
+the tiny primary room just before the regular meeting.  Shirley as
+chairman of the prayer-meeting committee had started this little
+meeting, and she always came into the larger room with an exalted look
+upon her face and a feeling of strength in her heart from this brief
+speaking with her Master.
+
+Shirley was somewhat aghast the next Sabbath to have Sidney Graham
+arrive and ask her to take a ride with him.
+
+"Why, I was just going to church," she said, half hesitating, and then
+smiling bravely up at him; "besides, I have a Sunday-school class.  I
+couldn't very well leave them, you know."
+
+He looked at her for a moment thoughtfully, trying to bridge in his
+thoughts this difference between them.  Then he said quite humbly,
+
+"Will you take me with you?"
+
+"To church?" she asked, and there was a glad ring in her voice.  Would
+he really go to church with her?
+
+"Yes, and to Sunday School if I may.  I haven't been to Sunday School
+in years.  I'd like to go if you'll only let me."
+
+Her cheeks grew rosy.  She had a quick mental picture of putting him in
+Deacon Pettigrew's Bible class.
+
+"I'm afraid there isn't any class you would enjoy," she began with a
+troubled look.  "It's only a little country church, you know.  They
+don't have all the modern system, and very few teachers."
+
+"I should enjoy going into your class very much if I might."
+
+"Oh, mine are just boys, just little boys like Harley!" said Shirley,
+aghast.
+
+"I've been a little boy once, you know I should enjoy it very much,"
+said the applicant with satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, but--I couldn't teach _you_!"  There was dismay in her voice.
+
+"Couldn't you, though?  You've taught me more in the few months I've
+known you than I've learned in that many years from others.  Try me.
+I'll be very good.  I'll be a boy with the rest of them, and you can
+just forget I'm there and go ahead.  I really am serious about it.  I
+want to hear what you have to say to them."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't teach with you there!" exclaimed Shirley, putting her
+hands on her hot cheeks and looking like a frightened little child.
+"Indeed I couldn't, really.  I'm not much of a teacher.  I'm only a
+beginner.  I shouldn't know how to talk before any but children."
+
+He watched her silently for a minute, his face grave with wistfulness.
+
+"Why do you teach them?" he asked rather irrelevantly.
+
+"Because--why, because I want to help them to live right lives; I want
+to teach them how to know God."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that they will be saved.  Because it was Christ's command that His
+disciples should give the message.  I am His disciple, so I have to
+tell the message."
+
+"Was there any special stipulation as to whom that message should be
+given?" asked the young man thoughtfully.  "Did He say you were just to
+give it to those boys?"
+
+"Why, no; it was to be given to--all the world, every creature."
+Shirley spoke the words hesitatingly, a dimple beginning to show in her
+cheek as her eyelids drooped over her shy eyes.
+
+"And don't I come in on that?" asked Graham, with a twinkle that
+reminded Shirley of his father.
+
+Shirley had to laugh shamefacedly then.
+
+"But I couldn't!" said Shirley.  "I'd be so scared I couldn't think of
+a thing to say."
+
+"You're not afraid of me, Miss Shirley?  You wouldn't be scared if you
+thought I really needed to know the message, would you?  Well, I really
+do, as much as any of those kids."
+
+Shirley looked steadily into his earnest eyes and saw something there
+that steadied her nerve.  The laughter died out of her own eyes, and a
+beautiful light of longing came into them.
+
+"All right," she said, with a little lift of her chin as if girding up
+her strength to the task.  "You may come, and I'll do the best I can,
+but I'm afraid it will be a poor best.  I've only a little story to
+tell them this morning."
+
+"Please give them just what you had intended.  I want the real thing,
+just as a boy would get it from you.  Will the rest of them come in the
+car with us?"
+
+Shirley was very quiet during the ride to church.  She let the rest do
+all the talking, and she sat looking off at the woods and praying for
+help, trying to calm the flutter of her frightened heart, trying to
+steady her nerves and brace herself to teach the lesson just as she had
+intended to teach it.
+
+She watched him furtively during the opening exercises, the untrained
+singing, the monotonous prayer of an old farmer-elder, the dry
+platitudes of the illiterate superintendent; but he sat respectfully
+listening, taking it all for what it was worth, the best service these
+people knew how to render to their Maker.
+
+Somehow her heart had gained the strength she needed from the prayers
+she breathed continually, and when the time for teaching the lesson
+arrived she came to her class with quietness.
+
+There was a little awe upon the boys because of the stranger in their
+midst.  They did not fling the hymn-books down with a noisy thud, nor
+send the lesson leaves flying like winged darts across the room quite
+so much as they were wont to do.  They looked askance at Harley, who
+sat proudly by the visitor, supplying him with Bibles, hymn-books,
+lesson leaves, and finding the place for him officiously.  But Graham
+sat among the boys without ostentation, and made as little of his own
+presence as possible.  He smiled at them now and then, put a handful of
+silver into the collection envelope when they would have passed him by,
+and promised a ride to one fellow who ventured to ask him hoarsely if
+that was his car outside the church.
+
+Shirley had made up her mind to forget as far as she could the presence
+of the visitor in the class, and to this end she fixed her eyes upon
+the worst little boy present, the boy who got up all the disturbances,
+and made all the noises, and was the most adorable, homely, sturdy
+young imp the Valley Church could produce.  He sat straight across from
+her, while Graham was at the side, and she could see in Jack's eye that
+he meant mischief if he could overcome his awe of the stranger.  So
+before Jack could possibly get started she began her story, and told it
+straight to Jack, never taking her eyes from his face from start to
+finish, and before she was half-way through she had her little audience
+enthralled.  It was a story of the Bible told in modern setting, and
+told straight to the heart of a boy who was the counterpart in his own
+soul of the man whom Christ cured and forgave.  What Graham was
+thinking or looking Shirley did not know.  She had literally forgotten
+his existence after the first few minutes.  She had seen the gleam of
+interest in the eyes of the boy Jack; she knew that her message was
+going home to a convicted young soul, and that he saw himself and his
+own childish sins in the sinful life of the hero of her tale.  Her
+whole soul was bent on making him see the Saviour who could make that
+young life over.  Not until the story was almost finished did any one
+of the listeners, unless perhaps Harley, who was used to such
+story-recitals, have a suspicion that the story was just a plain,
+ordinary chapter out of the Bible.  Then suddenly one of the elder boys
+broke forth: "Aw!  Gee!  That's just the man in the Bible let down
+through the roof!"  There was a slight stir in the class at the
+discovery as it dawned upon them that the teacher had "put one over on
+them" again, but the interest for the most part was sustained
+breathlessly until the superintendent's bell rang, and the heads drew
+together in an absorbed group around her for the last few sentences,
+spoken in a lower tone because the general hum of teaching in the room
+had ceased.
+
+Graham's face was very grave and thoughtful as she finished and slipped
+away from them to take her place at the little organ.  One could see
+that it was not in the teacher alone, but in her message as well, that
+he was interested.  The boys all had that subdued, half-ashamed,
+half-defiant look that boys have when they have been caught looking
+serious.  Each boy frowned and studied his toes, or hunted assiduously
+in his hymn-book to hide his confusion, and the class in various keys
+lifted up assertive young voices vigorously in the last hymn.
+
+Graham sat beside Shirley in the little crowded church during the
+rather monotonous service.  The regular pastor, who was a good,
+spiritual man if not a brilliant one, and gave his congregation solid,
+practical sermons, was on his vacation, and the pulpit was supplied by
+a young theologue who was so new to his work that his sermon was a
+rather involved effort.  But so strong was the power of the
+Sunday-school lesson to which he had just listened that Graham felt as
+if he were sitting in some hallowed atmosphere.  He did not see the
+red-faced, embarrassed young preacher, nor notice his struggles to
+bring forth his message bravely; he saw only the earnest-faced young
+teacher as she spoke the words of life to her boys; saw the young
+imp-faces of her boys softened and touched by the story she told; saw
+that she really believed and felt every word she spoke; and knew that
+there was something in it all that he wanted.
+
+The seat was crowded and the day was warm, but the two who looked over
+the same hymn-book did not notice it.  The soft air came in from the
+open window beside them, breathing sweet clover and wild honeysuckle,
+and the meadowlarks sang their songs, and made it seem just like a
+little bit of heaven.
+
+Shirley's muslin frills trembled against Graham's hand as she reached
+to catch a fluttering leaf of the hymn-book that the wind had caught;
+once her hand brushed the coatsleeve beside her as they turned the
+page, and she felt the soft texture of the fine dark blue goods with a
+pleasant sense of the beautiful and fitting.  It thrilled her to think
+he was standing thus beside her in her own little church, yielding
+himself to the same worship with her in the little common country
+congregation.  It was wonderful, beautiful!  And to have come to her!
+She glanced shyly up at him, so handsome, standing there singing, his
+hand almost touching hers holding the book.  He felt her glance and
+answered it with a look and smile, their eyes holding each other for
+just the fraction of a second in which some inner thought was
+interchanged, some question asked and answered by the invisible flash
+of heart-beats, a mutual joining in the spiritual service, and then
+half-frightened Shirley dropped her eyes to the page and the soft roses
+stole into her cheeks again.  She felt as if she had seen something in
+his eyes and acknowledged it in her own, as if she had inadvertently
+shown him her heart in that glance, and that heart of hers was leaping
+and bounding with an uncontrollable joy, while her conscience sought by
+every effort to get it in control.  What nonsense, it said, what utter
+folly, to make so much of his coming to church with her once!  To allow
+her soul to get into such a flutter over a man who had no more idea of
+noticing her or caring for her than he had for a bird on the tree.
+
+And with all the tumult in her heart she did not even see the envious
+glances of the village maidens who stared and stared with all their
+might at the handsome man who came to church in an expensive car and
+brought the girl who lived in a barn!  Shirley's social position went
+up several notches, and she never even knew it.  In fact, she was
+becoming a great puzzle to the residents of Glenside.
+
+It was good to know that for once the shabby collection-box of the
+little church was borne back to the altar laden with a goodly bill, put
+in with so little ostentation that one might have judged it but a
+penny, looking on, though even a penny would have made more noise in
+the unlined wooden box.
+
+After the service was over Graham went out with the children, while
+Shirley lingered to play over an accompaniment for a girl who was going
+to sing at the vesper service that afternoon.  He piled all the
+children in the back seat of the car, put the boy he had promised a
+ride in the seat beside him, took a spin around the streets, and was
+back in front of the church by the time Shirley came out.  Then that
+foolish heart of hers had to leap again at the thought that he had
+saved the front seat for her.  The boy descended as if he had been
+caught up into heaven for a brief space, and would never forget it the
+rest of his life.
+
+There was that same steady look of trust and understanding in Graham's
+eyes whenever he looked at her on the way home, and once while the
+children were talking together in the back seat he leaned toward her
+and said in a low tone:
+
+"I wonder if you will let me take you away for a little while this
+afternoon to a quiet place I know where there is a beautiful view, and
+let us sit and talk.  There are some things I want to ask you, about
+what you said this morning.  I was very much interested in it all, and
+I'm deeply grateful that you let me go.  Now, will you go with me?
+I'll bring you back in time for the Christian Endeavor service, and you
+see in the meantime I'm inviting myself to dinner.  Do you think your
+mother will object?"
+
+What was there for Shirley to do but accept this alluring invitation?
+She did not believe in going off on pleasure excursions on the Sabbath,
+but this request that she ride to a quiet place out-of-doors for a
+religious talk could not offend her strongest sense of what was right
+on the Sabbath day.  And surely, if the Lord had a message for her to
+bear, she must bear it to whomsoever He sent.  This, then, was this
+man's interest in her, that she had been able to make him think of God.
+A glad elation filled her heart, something deep and true stirred within
+her and lifted her above the thought of self, like a blessing from on
+high.  To be asked to bring light to a soul like this one, this was
+honor indeed.  This was an answer to her prayer of the morning, that
+she might fulfil God's pleasure with the lesson of the day.  The
+message then had reached his soul.  It was enough.  She would think no
+more of self.
+
+Yet whenever she looked at him and met that smile again she was
+thrilled with joy in spite of herself.  At least there was a
+friendliness here beyond the common acquaintance, a something that was
+true, deep, lasting, even though worlds should separate them in the
+future; a something built on a deep understanding, sympathy and common
+interests.  Well, so be it.  She would rejoice that it had been given
+her to know one man of the world in this beautiful way; and her foolish
+little human heart should understand what a high, true thing this was
+that must not be misunderstood.
+
+So she reasoned with herself, and watched him during the dinner, among
+the children, out in the yard among the flowers and animals,
+everywhere, he seemed so fine and splendid, so far above all other men
+that she had ever met.  And her mother, watching, trembled for her when
+she saw her happy face.
+
+"Do you think you ought to go with him, daughter?" she asked with
+troubled eyes, when they were left alone for a moment after dinner.
+"You know it is the Sabbath, and you know his life is very different
+from ours."
+
+"Mother, he wants to talk about the Sunday School lesson this morning,"
+said Shirley shyly.  "I guess he is troubled, perhaps, and wants me to
+help him.  I guess he has never thought much about religious things."
+
+"Well, daughter dear, be careful.  Do all you can for him, of course,
+but remember, don't let your heart stray out of your keeping.  He is
+very attractive, dear, and very unconventional for a wealthy man.  I
+think he is true and wouldn't mean to trifle, but he wouldn't realize."
+
+"I know; mother; don't you be afraid for me!" said Shirley with a lofty
+look, half of exultation, half of proud self-command.
+
+He took her to a mossy place beside a little stream, where the light
+filtered down through the lacy leaves flecking the bank, and braided
+golden currents in the water; with green and purple hazy hills in the
+distance, and just enough seclusion for a talk without being too far
+away from the world.
+
+"My little sister says that you people have a 'real' God," he said,
+when she was comfortably fixed with cushions from the car at her back
+against a tall tree-trunk.  "She says you seem to realize His
+presence--I don't know just how to say it, but I'd like to know if this
+is so.  I'd like to know what makes you different from other girls, and
+your home different from most of the homes I know.  I'd like to know if
+I may have it too."
+
+That was the beginning.
+
+Shirley, shy as a bird at first, having never spoken on such subjects
+except to children, yet being well versed in the Scriptures, and
+feeling her faith with every atom of her being, drew out her little
+Bible that she had slipped into her pocket when they started, and
+plunged into the great subject.
+
+Never had preacher more earnest listener, or more lovely temple in
+which to preach.  And if sometimes the young man's thoughts for a few
+moments strayed from the subject to rest his eyes in tenderness upon
+the lovely face of the young teacher, and long to draw her into his
+arms and claim her for his own, he might well have been forgiven.  For
+Shirley was very fair, with the light of other worlds in her face, her
+eyes all sparkling with her eagerness, her lips aglow with words that
+seemed to be given her for the occasion.  She taught him simply, not
+trying to go into deep arguments, but urging the only way she knew, the
+way of taking Christ's promise on its face value, the way of being
+willing to do His will, trusting it to Him to reveal Himself, and the
+truth of the doctrine, and make the believer sure.
+
+They talked until the sun sunk low, and the calling of the wood-birds
+warned them that the Endeavor hour was near.  Before they left the
+place he asked her for the little Bible, and she laid it in his hand
+with joy that he wanted it, that she was chosen to give him a gift so
+precious.
+
+"It is all marked up," she said apologetically.  "I always mark the
+verses I love, or have had some special experience with."
+
+"It will be that much more precious to me," he said gently, fingering
+the leaves reverently, and then he looked up and gave her one of those
+deep looks that seemed to say so much to her heart.  And all at once
+she realized that she was on earth once more, and that his presence and
+his look were very precious to her.  Her cheeks grew pink with the joy
+of it, and she looked down in confusion and could not answer, so she
+rose to her feet.  But he, springing at once to help her up, kept her
+hand for just an instant with earnest pressure, and said in deeply
+moved tones:
+
+"You don't know what you have done for me this afternoon,
+my--_friend_!"  He waited with her hand in his an instant as if he were
+going to say more, but had decided it were better not.  The silence was
+so compelling that she looked up into his eyes, meeting his smile, and
+that said so many things her heart went into a tumult again and could
+not quite come to itself all through the Christian Endeavor service.
+
+On the way home from the church he talked a little about her vacation:
+when it came, how long it lasted, what she would do with it.  Just as
+they reached home he said,
+
+"I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"
+
+There was something wonderful in the way he said that word "friend."
+It thrilled her through and through as she stood beside the road and
+watched him speed away into the evening.
+
+"My friend!  I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"  It sang a
+glory-song down in her heart as she turned to go in with the vivid
+glory of the sunset on her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+The cement floor had been down a week and was as hard as a rock, when
+one day two or three wagon-loads of things arrived with a note from
+Graham to Mrs. Hollister to say that he would be glad if these might be
+stored in one corner of the basement floor, where they would be out of
+her way and not take up too much room.
+
+Harley and George went down to look them over that evening.
+
+"He said something about some things being taken from the office
+building," said Harley, kicking a pile of iron pipes with his toe.
+
+"These don't look like any old things that have been used," said George
+thoughtfully.  "They look perfectly new."  Then he studied them a few
+minutes more from another angle, and shut his lips judiciously.  He
+belonged to the boy species that has learned to "shut up and saw wood,"
+whatever that expression may mean.  If anything was to come out of that
+pile of iron in the future, he did not mean to break confidence with
+anybody's secrets.  He walked away whistling and said nothing further
+about them.
+
+The next day Mrs. Graham came down upon the Hollisters in her
+limousine, and an exquisite toilet of organdie and ribbons.  She was
+attended by Elizabeth, wild with delight over getting home again.  She
+begged Mrs. Hollister very charmingly and sincerely to take care of
+Elizabeth for three or four weeks, while she and her husband were away,
+and to take her entire family down to the shore and occupy their
+cottage, which had been closed all summer and needed opening and
+airing.  She said that nothing would please Elizabeth so much as to
+have them all her guests during September.  The maids were there, with
+nothing to do but look after them, and would just love to serve them;
+it really would be a great favor to her if she could know that
+Elizabeth was getting a little salt air under such favorable
+conditions.  She was so genuine in her request and suggested so
+earnestly that Shirley and George needed the change during their
+vacation, and could just as well come down every night and go up every
+morning for a week or two more after the vacations were over, that Mrs.
+Hollister actually promised to consider it and talk it over with
+Shirley when she came home.  Elizabeth and Carol nearly went into
+spasms of joy over the thought of all they could do down at the shore
+together.
+
+When Shirley came home she found the whole family quite upset
+discussing the matter.  Carol had brought out all the family wardrobe
+and was showing how she could wash this, and dye that, and turn this
+skirt upside down, and put a piece from the old waist in there to make
+the lower part flare; and Harley was telling how he could get the man
+next door to look after the hens and pigeons, and there was nothing
+needing much attention in the garden now, for the corn was about over
+except the last picking, which wasn't ripe yet.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was saying that they ought really to stay at home and
+look up another place to live during the winter, and Carol was pleading
+that another place would be easier found when the weather was cooler
+anyway, and that Shirley was just awfully tired and needed a change.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew pink in spite of the headache which she had been
+fighting all day, when she heard of the invitation, and sat down to
+think it out.  Was this, then, another of the kind schemes of her kind
+friend to make the way easier for her?  What right had she to take all
+this?  Why was he doing it?  Why were the rest of the family?  Did they
+really need some one to take care of Elizabeth?  But of course it was a
+wonderful opportunity, and one that her mother at least should not let
+slip by.  And Doris!  Think of Doris playing in the sand at the seaside!
+
+Supper was flung onto the table that night any way it happened, for
+they were all too excited to know what they were about.  Carol got
+butter twice and forgot to cut the bread, and Harley poured milk into
+the already filled water-pitcher.  They were even too excited to eat.
+
+Graham arrived with Elizabeth early in the evening to add his pleading
+to his mother's, and before he left he had about succeeded in getting
+Mrs. Hollister's promise that she would go.
+
+Shirley's vacation began the first of September, and George had asked
+for his at the same time so that they could enjoy it together.  Each
+had two weeks.  Graham said that the cost of going back and forth to
+the city for the two would be very little.  By the next morning they
+had begun to say what they would take along, and to plan what they
+would do with the dog.  It was very exciting.  There was only a week to
+get ready, and Carol wanted to make bathing-suits for everybody.
+
+Graham came again that night with more suggestions.  There were plenty
+of bathing-suits down at the cottage, of all sizes and kinds.  No need
+to make bathing-suits.  The dog, of course, was to go along.  He needed
+the change as much as anybody, and they needed him there.  That breed
+of dog was a great swimmer.  He would take care of the children when
+they went in bathing.  How would Mrs. Hollister like to have one of the
+old Graham servants come over to sleep at the barn and look after
+things while they were gone?  The man had really nothing to do at home
+while everybody was away, as the whole corps of servants would be
+there, and this one would enjoy coming out to the country.  He had a
+brother living on a place about a mile away.  As for the trip down
+there, Graham would love to take them all in the big touring-car with
+Elizabeth.  He had been intending to take her down that way, and there
+was no reason in the world why they should not all go along.  They
+would start Saturday afternoon as soon as Shirley and George were free,
+and be down before bedtime.  It would be cool and delightful journeying
+at that hour, and a great deal pleasanter than the train.
+
+So one by one the obstructions and hindrances were removed from their
+path, and it was decided that the Hollisters were to go to the seashore.
+
+At last the day came.
+
+Shirley and George went off in the morning shouting last directions
+about things.  They were always having to go to their work whatever was
+happening.  It was sometimes hard on them, particularly this day when
+everything was so delightfully exciting.
+
+The old Graham servant arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon,
+and proved himself invaluable in doing the little last things without
+being told.  Mrs. Hollister had her first gleam of an idea of what it
+must be to have plenty of perfectly trained servants about to
+anticipate one's needs.  He entered the barn as if barns were his
+native heath, and moved about with the ease and unobtrusiveness that
+marks a perfect servant, but with none of the hauteur and disdain that
+many of those individuals entertain toward all whom they consider poor
+or beneath them in any way.  He had a kindly face, and seemed to
+understand just exactly what was to be done.  Things somehow moved more
+smoothly after he arrived.
+
+At four o'clock came Graham with the car and a load of long linen
+dust-cloaks and veils.  The Hollisters donned them and bestowed
+themselves where they were told.  The servant stowed away the wraps and
+suitcases; Star mounted the seat beside Harley, and they were ready.
+
+They turned to look back at the barn as the car started.  The old
+servant was having a little trouble with the big door, trying to shut
+it.  "That door is a nuisance," said Graham as they swept away from the
+curb.  "It must be fixed.  It is no fit door for a barn anyway."  Then
+they curved up around Allister Avenue and left the barn far out of
+sight.
+
+They were going across country to the Graham home to pick up Elizabeth.
+It was a wonderful experience for them, that beautiful ride in the late
+afternoon; and when they swept into the great gates, and up the broad
+drive to the Graham mansion, and stopped under the porte-cochère, Mrs.
+Hollister was quite overcome with the idea of being beholden to people
+who lived in such grandeur as this.  To think she had actually invited
+their son to dine in a barn with her!
+
+Elizabeth came rushing out eagerly, all ready to start, and climbed in
+beside Carol.  Even George, who was usually silent when she was about,
+gave her a grin of welcome.  The father and mother came out to say
+good-by, gave them good wishes, and declared they were perfectly happy
+to leave their daughter in such good hands.  Then the car curved about
+the great house, among tennis courts, green-houses, garage, stable, and
+what not, and back to the pike again, leaping out upon the perfect road
+as if it were as excited as the children.
+
+Two more stops to pick up George, who was getting off early, and
+Shirley, who was through at five o'clock, and then they threaded their
+way out of the city, across the ferry, through another city, and out
+into the open country, dotted all along the way with clean, pretty
+little towns.
+
+They reached a lovely grove at sundown and stopped by the way to have
+supper.  Graham got down and made George help him get out the big
+hamper.
+
+There was a most delectable lunch; sandwiches of delicate and unknown
+condiments, salad as bewildering, soup that had been kept hot in a
+thermos bottle, served in tiny white cups, iced tea and ice-cream
+meringues from another thermos compartment, and plenty of delicious
+little cakes, olives, nuts, bonbons, and fruit.  It seemed a wonderful
+supper to them all, eaten out there under the trees, with the birds
+beginning their vesper songs and the stars peeping out slyly.  Then
+they packed up their dishes and hurried on their beautiful way, a
+silver thread of a moon coming out to make the scene more lovely.
+
+Doris was almost asleep when at last they began to hear the booming of
+the sea and smell the salt breeze as it swept back inland; but she
+roused up and opened wide, mysterious eyes, peering into the new
+darkness, and murmuring softly: "I yant to see ze osun!  I yant to see
+the gate bid watter!"
+
+Stiff, bewildered, filled with ecstasy, they finally unloaded in front
+of a big white building that looked like a hotel.  They tried to see
+into the deep, mysterious darkness across the road, where boomed a
+great voice that called them, and where dashing spray loomed high like
+a waving phantom hand to beckon them now and again, and far-moving
+lights told of ships and a world beyond the one they knew,--a wide,
+limitless thing like eternity, universe, chaos.
+
+With half-reluctant feet they turned away from the mysterious unseen
+lure and let themselves be led across an unbelievably wide veranda into
+the bright light of a hall, where everything was clean and shining, and
+a great fireplace filled with friendly flames gave cheer and welcome.
+The children stood bewildered in the brightness while two strange
+serving-maids unfastened their wraps and dust-cloaks and helped them
+take off their hats.  Then they all sat around the fire, for Graham had
+come in by this time, and the maids brought trays of some delicious
+drink with little cakes and crackers, and tinkling ice, and straws to
+drink with.  Doris almost fell asleep again, and was carried up-stairs
+by Shirley and put to bed in a pretty white crib she was too sleepy to
+look at, while Carol, Elizabeth, George, and Harley went with Graham
+across the road to look at the black, yawning cavern they called ocean,
+and to have the shore light-houses pointed out to them and named one by
+one.
+
+They were all asleep at last, a little before midnight, in spite of the
+excitement over the spacious rooms, and who should have which.  Think
+of it!  Thirty rooms in the house, and every one as pretty as every
+other one!  What luxury!  And nobody to occupy them but themselves!
+Carol could hardly get to sleep.  She felt as if she had dropped into a
+novel and was living it.
+
+When Graham came out of his room the next morning the salt breeze swept
+invitingly through the hall and showed him the big front door of the
+upper piazza open and some one standing in the sunlight, with light,
+glowing garments, gazing at the sea in rapt enjoyment.  Coming out
+softly, he saw that it was Shirley dressed in white, with a ribbon of
+blue at her waist and a soft pink color in her cheeks, looking off to
+sea.
+
+He stood for a moment to enjoy the picture, and said in his heart that
+sometime, if he got his wish, he would have her painted so by some
+great artist, with just that little simple white dress and blue ribbon,
+her round white arm lifted, her small hand shading her eyes, the
+sunlight burnishing her brown hair into gold.  He could scarcely
+refrain from going to her and telling her how beautiful she was.  But
+when he stepped quietly up beside her only his eyes spoke, and brought
+the color deeper into her cheeks; and so they stood for some minutes,
+looking together and drawing in the wonder of God's sea.
+
+"This is the first time I've ever seen it, you know," spoke Shirley at
+last, "and I'm so glad it was on Sunday morning.  It will always make
+the day seem more holy and the sea more wonderful to think about.  I
+like best things to happen on Sunday, don't you, because that is the
+best day of all?"
+
+Graham looked at the sparkling sea all azure and pearls, realized the
+Sabbath quiet, and marvelled at the beauty of the soul of the girl,
+even as her feeling about it all seemed to enter into and become a part
+of himself.
+
+"Yes, I do," said he.  "I never did before, but I do now,--and always
+shall," he added under his breath.
+
+That was almost as wonderful a Sabbath as the one they had spent in the
+woods a couple of weeks before.  They walked and talked by the sea, and
+they went to a little Episcopal chapel, where the windows stood open
+for the chanting of the waves and the salt of the breeze to come in
+freely, and then they went out and walked by the sea again.  Wherever
+they went, whether resting in some of the many big rockers on the broad
+verandas or walking on the hard smooth sand, or sitting in some cozy
+nook by the waves, they felt the same deep sympathy, the same
+conviction that their thoughts were one, the same wonderful thrill of
+the day and each other's nearness.
+
+Somehow in the new environment Shirley forgot for a little that this
+young man was not of her world, that he was probably going back soon to
+the city to enter into a whirl of the winter's season in society, that
+other girls would claim his smiles and attentions, and she would likely
+be forgotten.  She lost the sense of it entirely and companioned with
+him as joyously as if there had never been anything to separate them.
+Her mother, looking on, sighed, feared, smiled, and sighed again.
+
+They walked together in the sweet darkness beside the waves that
+evening, and he told her how when he was a little boy he wanted to
+climb up to the stars and find God, but later how he thought the stars
+and God were myths like Santa Claus, and that the stars were only
+electric lights put up by men and lighted from a great switch every
+night, and when they didn't shine somebody had forgotten to light them.
+He told her many things about himself that he had never told to any one
+before, and she opened her shy heart to him, too.
+
+Then they planned what they would do next week when he came back.  He
+told her he must go back to the city in the morning to see his father
+and mother off and attend to a few matters of business at the office.
+It might be two or three days before he could return, but after that he
+was coming down to take a little vacation himself if she didn't mind,
+and they would do a lot of delightful things together: row, fish, go
+crabbing, and he would teach her to swim and show her all the walks and
+favorite places where he used to go as a boy.  Reluctantly they went
+in, his fingers lingering about hers for just a second at the door,
+vibrating those mysterious heart-strings of hers again, sweeping
+dearest music from them, and frightening her with joy that took her
+half the night to put down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Sidney Graham went back to the city the next morning.  They all stood
+out on the piazza to watch the big car glide away.  Doris stood on the
+railing of the piazza with Shirley's arm securely about her and waved a
+little fat hand; then with a pucker of her lip she demanded:
+
+"Fy does mine Mister Dwaham do way?  I don't yant him to do way.  I
+yant him to stay wif me aw-ways, don't oo, Sirley?"
+
+Shirley with glowing cheeks turned from watching the retreating car and
+put her little sister down on the floor suddenly.
+
+"Run get your hat, Doris, and we'll take a walk on the sand!" she said,
+smiling alluringly at the child, till the baby forgot her grievance and
+beamed out with answering smiles.
+
+That was a wonderful day.
+
+They all took a walk on the sand first, George pushing his mother in a
+big wheeled chair belonging to the cottage.  Elizabeth was guide and
+pointed out all the beauties of the place, telling eager bits of
+reminiscence from her childhood memories to which even George listened
+attentively.  From having been only tolerant of her George had now come
+to look upon Elizabeth as "a good scout."
+
+When Mrs. Hollister grew tired they took her back to the cottage and
+established her in a big chair with a book.  Then they all rushed off
+to the bath-houses and presently emerged in bathing-suits, Doris
+looking like a little sprite in her scarlet flannel scrap of a suit,
+her bright hair streaming, and her beautiful baby arms and legs
+flashing white like a cherub's in the sunlight.
+
+They came back from their dip in the waves, hungry and eager, to the
+wonderful dinner that was served so exquisitely in the great cool
+dining-room, from the windows of which they could watch the lazy ships
+sailing in the offing.
+
+Doris fell asleep over her dessert and was tumbled into the hammock to
+finish her nap.  Carol and Elizabeth and the boys started off crabbing,
+and Shirley settled herself in another hammock with a pile of new
+magazines about her and prepared to enjoy a whole afternoon of
+laziness.  It was so wonderful to lie still, at leisure and unhurried,
+with all those lovely magazines to read, and nothing to disturb her.
+She leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a minute just to
+listen to the sea, and realize how good it was to be here.  Back in her
+mind there was a pleasant consciousness of the beautiful yesterday, and
+the beautiful to-morrows that might come when Sidney Graham returned,
+but she would not let her heart dwell upon them; that would be humoring
+herself too much, and perhaps give her a false idea of things.  She
+simply would not let this wonderful holiday be spoiled by the thought
+that it would have to end some day and that she would be back at the
+old routine of care and worry once more.
+
+She was roused from her reverie by the step of the postman bringing a
+single letter, for her!
+
+It was addressed in an unknown hand and was in a fat long envelope.
+Wonderingly she opened it and found inside a bank book and blank check
+book with a little note on which was written:
+
+
+Dear Little Girl:
+
+This is just a trifle of that present we were talking about the other
+day that belongs to you.  It isn't all by any means, but we'll see to
+the rest later.  Spend this on chocolates or chewing-gum or frills or
+whatever you like and have a good time down at the shore.  You're a
+bully little girl and deserve everything nice that's going.  Don't be
+too serious, Miss Shirley.  Play a little more.
+
+Your elderly friend,
+    Walter K Graham.
+
+
+In the bank book was an entry of five thousand dollars, on check
+account.  Shirley held her breath and stared at the figures with wide
+eyes, then slipped away and locked herself in the big white room that
+was hers.  Kneeling down by the bed she cried and prayed and smiled all
+in one, and thanked the Lord for making people so kind to her.  After
+that she went to find her mother.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was sitting on the wide upper piazza in a steamer chair
+looking off to sea and drawing in new life at every breath.  Her book
+was open on her lap, but she had forgotten to read in the joy of all
+that was about her.  To tell the truth she was wondering if the dear
+father who was gone from them knew of their happy estate, and thinking
+how glad he would be for them if he did.
+
+She read the letter twice before she looked at the bank book with its
+astonishing figures, and heard again Shirley's tale of the happening in
+the office the morning of the arrest.  Then she read the letter once
+more.
+
+"I'm not just sure, daughter," she said at last with a smile, "what we
+ought to do about this.  Are you?"
+
+"No," said Shirley, smiling; "I suppose I'll give it back, but wasn't
+it wonderful of him to do it?  Isn't it grand that there are such men
+in the world?"
+
+"It certainly is, dear, and I'm glad my little girl was able to do
+something that was of assistance to him; and that she has won her way
+into his good graces so simply and sweetly.  But I'm not so sure what
+you ought to do.  Hadn't we better pray about it a bit before you
+decide?  How soon ought you to write to him?  It's too late to reach
+him before he leaves for California, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he's just about starting now," said the girl.  "Don't you
+suppose he planned it so that I couldn't answer right away?  I don't
+know his address.  I can't do a thing till I find out where to write.
+I wouldn't like to send it to the office because they would probably
+think it was business and his secretary might open it."
+
+"Of course.  Then we'll just pray about it, shall we, dear?  I'm not
+just sure in my mind whether it's a well-meant bit of charity that we
+ought to hand back with sincere thanks, or whether it's God's way of
+rewarding my little girl for her faithfulness and quickness of action.
+Our Father knows we have been--and still are--in a hard place.  He
+knows that we have need of 'all these things' that money has to buy.
+You really did a good thing and saved Mr. Graham from great loss, you
+know, and perhaps he is the kind of man who would feel a great deal
+happier if he shared a little of it with you, was able to make some
+return for what you did for him.  However, five thousand dollars is a
+great deal of money for a brief service.  What do you think, dear?"
+
+"I don't know, mother dear.  I'm all muddled just as you say, but I
+guess it will come right if we pray about it.  Anyhow, I'm going to be
+happy over his thinking of me, whether I keep it or not."
+
+Shirley went thoughtfully back to her hammock and her magazines, a
+smile on her lips, a dream in her eyes.  She found herself wondering
+whether Sidney Graham knew about this money and what he would wish her
+to do about it.  Then suddenly she cast the whole question from her and
+plunged into her magazine, wondering why it was that almost any
+question that came into her mind promptly got around and entangled
+itself with Mr. Sidney Graham.  What did he have to do with it, anyway?
+
+The magazine story was very interesting and Shirley soon forgot
+everything else in the pleasure of surrendering herself to the printed
+page.  An hour went by, another passed, and Shirley was still oblivious
+to all about her.  Suddenly she became aware of a boy on a bicycle,
+riding almost up to the very steps, and whistling vigorously.
+
+"Miss Shirley Hollister here?" he demanded as he alighted on one foot
+on the lower step, the other foot poised for flight as soon as his
+errand should have been performed.
+
+"Why, yes," said Shirley, startled, struggling to her feet and letting
+a shower of magazines fall all about her.
+
+"Long distance wants yer," he announced, looking her over
+apathetically.  "Mr. Barnard, of Philadelphia, wants to talk to yer!"
+and with the final word chanted nasally he alighted upon his obedient
+steed and spun away down the walk again.
+
+"But, wait!  Where shall I go?  Where is the telephone?"
+
+"Pay station!" shouted the impervious child, turning his head over his
+shoulder, "Drug store!  Two blocks from the post office!"
+
+Without waiting to go upstairs Shirley, whose training had been to
+answer the telephone at once, caught up Elizabeth's parasol that lay on
+a settee by the door, rumpled her fingers through her hair by way of
+toilet and hurried down the steps in the direction the boy had
+disappeared, wondering what in the world Mr. Barnard could want of her?
+Was he going to call her back from her vacation?  Was this perhaps the
+only day she would have, this and yesterday?  There would always be
+yesterday!  With a sigh she looked wistfully at the sea.  If she had
+only known a summons was to come so soon she would not have wasted a
+second on magazines.  She would have sat and gazed all the afternoon at
+the sea.  If Mr. Barnard wanted her, of course she would have to go.
+Business was business and she couldn't afford to lose her job even with
+that fairy dream of five thousand to her credit in the bank.  She knew,
+of course, she meant to give that back.  It was hers for the day, but
+it could not become tangible.  It was beautiful, but it was right that
+it must go back, and if her employer felt he must cut short her
+vacation why of course she must acquiesce and just be glad she had had
+this much.  Perhaps it was just as well, anyway, for if Sidney Graham
+came down and spent a few days there was no knowing what foolish
+notions her heart would take, jumping and careening the way it had been
+doing lately when he just looked at her.  Yes, she would go back if Mr.
+Barnard wanted her.  It was the best thing she could do.  Though
+perhaps he would only be calling her to ask where she had left
+something for which they were searching.  That stupid Ashton girl who
+took her place might not have remembered all her directions.
+
+Breathless, with possibilities crowding upon her mind, she hurried into
+the drug store and sought the telephone booth.  It seemed ages before
+the connection was made and she heard Mr. Barnard's dry familiar tones
+over the phone:
+
+"That you, Miss Hollister?  This is Mr. Barnard.  I'm sorry to disturb
+you right in the midst of your holiday, but a matter has come up that
+is rather serious and I'm wondering if you could help us out for a day
+or two.  If you would we'd be glad to give you fifty dollars for the
+extra time, and let you extend your vacation to a month instead of two
+weeks.  Do you think you could spare a day or two to help us right
+away?"
+
+"Oh!  Why, yes, of course!" faltered Shirley, her eyes dancing at the
+thought of the extra vacation and money.
+
+"Thank you!  I was sure you would," said Mr. Barnard, with relief in
+his voice.  "You see we have got that Government contract.  The news
+just came in the afternoon mail.  It's rather particular business
+because it has to do with matters that the Government wishes to keep
+secret.  I am to go down to-morrow morning to Washington to receive
+instructions, and I have permission to bring a trusted private
+secretary with me.  Now you know, of course, that I couldn't take Miss
+Ashton.  She wouldn't be able to do what I want done even if she were
+one I could trust not to say a word about the matter.  I would take Jim
+Thorpe, but his father has just died and I can't very well ask him to
+leave.  Neither can I delay longer than to-morrow.  Now the question
+is, would you be willing to go to Washington in the morning?  I have
+looked up the trains and I find you can leave the shore at 8.10 and
+meet me in Baltimore at ten o'clock.  I will be waiting for you at the
+train gate, but in case we miss each other wait in the station, close
+to the telephone booths, till I find you.  We will take the next train
+for Washington and be there a little before noon.  If all goes well we
+ought to be through our business in plenty of time to make a four
+o'clock train home.  Of course there may be delays, and it is quite
+possible you might have to remain in Washington over night, though I
+hardly think so.  But in case you do I will see that you are safe and
+comfortable in a quiet hotel near the station where my wife's sister is
+staying this summer.
+
+"Of course your expenses will all be paid.  I will telegraph and have a
+mileage book put at your disposal that you can call for right there in
+your station in the morning.  Are you willing to undertake this for us?
+I assure you we shall not forget the service."
+
+When Shirley finally hung up the receiver and looked about the little
+country drug store in wonder at herself the very bottles on the shelves
+seemed to be whirling and dancing about before her eyes.  What strange
+exciting things were happening to her all in such breathless haste!
+Only one day at the shore and a piece of another, and here she was with
+a trip to Washington on her hands!  It certainly was bewildering to
+have things come in such rapid succession.  She wished it had come at
+another time, and not just now when she had not yet got used to the
+great sea and the wonder of the beautiful place where they were
+staying.  She did not want to be interrupted just yet.  It would not be
+quite the same when she got back to it she was afraid.  But of course
+she could not refuse.  It never entered her head to refuse.  She knew
+enough about the office to realize that Mr. Barnard must have her.
+Jimmie Thorpe would have been the one to go if he were available,
+because he was a man and had been with Barnard and Clegg for ten years
+and knew all their most confidential business, but of course Jimmie
+could not go with his father lying dead and his mother and invalid
+sister needing him; and there was no one else but herself.
+
+She thought it all out on the way back to the cottage, with a little
+pang at the thought of losing the next day and of having perhaps to
+stay over in Washington a day and maybe miss the arrival of Sidney
+Graham, if he should come in a day or two, as he had promised.  He
+might even come and go back again before she was able to return, and
+perhaps he would think her ungrateful to leave when he had been so kind
+to plan all this lovely vacation for her pleasure.  Then she brought
+herself up smartly and told herself decidedly that it was nothing to
+him whether she was there or not, and it certainly had no right to be
+anything to her.  It was a good thing she was going, and would probably
+be a good thing for all concerned if she stayed until he went back to
+the city again.
+
+With this firm determination she hurried up to the veranda where her
+mother sat with Doris, and told her story.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked troubled.
+
+"I'm sorry you gave him an answer, Shirley, without waiting to talk it
+over with me.  I don't believe I like the idea of your going to a
+strange city, all alone that way.  Of course Mr. Barnard will look
+after you in a way, but still he's a good deal of a stranger.  I do
+wish he had let you alone for your vacation.  It seems as if he might
+have found somebody else to go.  I wish Mr. Graham was here.  I
+shouldn't wonder if he would suggest some way out of it for you."
+
+But Shirley stiffened into dignity at once.
+
+"Really, mother dear, I'm sure I don't see what Mr. Graham would have
+to say about it if he were here.  I shouldn't ask his advice.  You see,
+mother, really, there isn't anybody else that could do this but Jimmie
+Thorpe, and he's out of the question.  It would be unthinkable that I
+should refuse in this emergency.  And you know Mr. Barnard has been
+very kind.  Besides, think of the ducky vacation I'll have afterward, a
+whole month!  And all that extra money!  That shall go to the rent of a
+better house for winter!  Think of it!  Don't you worry, mother dear!
+There isn't a thing in the world could happen to me.  I'll be the very
+most-discreetest person you ever heard of.  I'll even glance shyly at
+the White House and Capitol!  Come, let's go up and get dolled up for
+supper!  Won't the children be surprised when they hear I'm really to
+go to Washington!  I'm so excited I don't know what to do!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister said no more, and entered pleasantly into the merry talk
+at the table, telling Shirley what she must be sure to see at the
+nation's capital.  But the next morning just as Shirley was about to
+leave for the station, escorted by all the children, Mrs. Hollister
+came with a package of addressed postal cards which she had made George
+get for her the night before, and put them in Shirley's bag.
+
+"Just drop us a line as you go along, dear," she said.  "I'll feel
+happier about it to be hearing from you.  Mail one whenever you have a
+chance."
+
+Shirley laughed as she looked at the fat package.
+
+"All those, mother dear?  You must expect I am going to stay a month!
+You know I won't have much time for writing, and I fully expect to be
+back to-night or to-morrow at the latest."
+
+"Well, that's all right," said her mother.  "You can use them another
+time, then; but you can just put a line on one whenever it is
+convenient.  I shall enjoy getting them even after you get back.  You
+know this is your first journey out into the world alone."
+
+Shirley stooped to kiss the little mother.
+
+"All right, dear!  I'll write you a serial story.  Each one continued
+in our next.  Good-by!  Don't take too long a walk to-day.  I want you
+rested to hear all I'll have to tell when I get back to-night!"
+
+Shirley wrote the first postal card as soon as she was settled in the
+train, describing the other occupants of the car, and making a vivid
+picture of the landscape that was slipping by her windows.  She wrote
+the second in the Baltimore station, after she had met Mr. Barnard,
+while he went to get seats in the parlor car, and she mailed them both
+at Baltimore.
+
+The third was written as they neared Washington, with the dim vision of
+the great monument dawning on her wondering sight in the distance.  Her
+last sentence gave her first impression of the nation's capital.
+
+They had eaten lunch in the dining car, a wonderful experience to the
+girl, and she promised herself another postal devoted to that, but
+there was no time to write more after they reached Washington.  She was
+put into a taxi and whirled away to an office where her work began.
+She caught glimpses of great buildings on the way, and gazed with awe
+at the dome of the Capitol building.  Mr. Barnard was kind and pointed
+out this and that, but it was plain his mind was on the coming
+interview.  When Shirley sat at last in a quiet corner of a big dark
+office, her pen poised, her note-book ready for work, and looked at the
+serious faces of the men in the room, she felt as if she had been
+rushed through a treasure vault of glorious jewels and thrust into the
+darkness of a tomb.  But presently the talk about her interested her.
+Things were being said about the vital interests of the country, scraps
+of sentences that reminded her of the trend of talk in the daily
+papers, and the headings of front columns.  She looked about her with
+interest and noted the familiarity with which these men quoted the
+words of those high up in authority in the government.  With awe she
+began her work, taking down whatever Mr. Barnard dictated, her fingers
+flying over the tiny pages of the note-book, in small neat characters,
+keeping pace with the voices going on about her.  The detail work she
+was setting down was not of especial interest to her, save that it was
+concerned with Government work, for its phraseology was familiar and a
+part of her daily routine office work at home; but she set every sense
+on the alert to get the tiniest detail and not to make the smallest
+mistake, understanding from the voices of the men about her that it was
+of vital interest to the country that this order should be filled
+quickly and accurately.  As she capped her fountain pen, and slipped
+the rubber band on her note-book when it was over, she heard one of the
+men just behind her say in a low tone to Mr. Barnard:
+
+"You're sure of your secretary of course?  I just want to give you the
+tip that this thing is being very closely watched.  We have reason to
+believe there's some spying planned.  Keep your notes carefully and
+don't let too many in on this.  We know pretty well what's going on,
+but it's not desirable just now to make any arrests until we can watch
+a little longer and round up the whole party.  So keep your eyes
+peeled, and don't talk."
+
+"Oh, certainly!  I quite understand," said Mr. Barnard, "and I have a
+most discreet secretary," and he glanced with a significant smile
+toward Shirley as she rose.
+
+"Of course!" said the other.  "She looks it," and he bowed
+deferentially to Shirley as she passed.
+
+She did not think of it at the time, but afterwards she recalled how in
+acknowledging his courtesy she had stepped back a little and almost
+stumbled over a page, a boy about George's age, who had been standing
+withdrawn into the shadow of the deep window.  She remembered he had a
+keen intelligent look, and had apologized and vanished immediately.  A
+moment later it seemed to be the same boy in blue clothes and gilt
+buttons who held the outer door open for them to pass out--or was this
+a taller one?  She glanced again at his side face with a lingering
+thought of George as she paused to fasten her glove and slip her
+note-book into her hand-bag.
+
+"I think I will put you into the taxi and let you go right back to the
+station while I attend to another errand over at the War Department.
+It won't take me long.  We can easily catch that four-o'clock train
+back.  I suppose you are anxious to get back to-night?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Shirley earnestly, "I must, if possible.  Mother isn't
+well and she worries so easily."
+
+"Well, I don't know why we can't.  Then perhaps you can come up to town
+to-morrow and type those notes for us.  By the way, I guess it would be
+better for me to take them and lock them in the safe to-night.  No,
+don't stop to get them out now"--as Shirley began to unfasten her bag
+and get the note-book out--"We haven't much time if we want to catch
+that train.  Just look after them carefully and I'll get them when we
+are on the train."
+
+He helped her into the taxi, gave the order, "To the station," and
+touching his hat, went rapidly over to the War Department Building.  No
+one saw a boy with a blue cap and brass buttons steal forth on a
+bicycle from the court just below the office, and circling about the
+asphalt uncertainly for a moment, shoot off across the park.
+
+Shirley sat up very straight and kept her eyes about her.  She was glad
+they were taking another way to the station so that she might see more.
+When she got there she would write another postal and perhaps it would
+go on the same train with her.
+
+It was all too short, that ride up Pennsylvania Avenue and around by
+the Capitol.  Shirley gathered up her bag and prepared to get out
+reluctantly.  She wished she might have just one more hour to go about,
+but of course that would be impossible if she wished to reach home
+to-night.
+
+But before the driver of the car could get down and open the door for
+her to get out a boy with a bicycle slid up to the curb and touching
+his gilt-buttoned cap respectfully said:
+
+"Excuse me, Miss, but Mr. Barnard sent me after you.  He says there's
+been some mistake and you'll have to come back and get it corrected."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, too surprised to think for a minute.  "Oh!  Then
+please hurry, for Mr. Barnard wants to get back in time to get that
+four-o'clock train."
+
+The driver frowned, but the boy stepped up and handed him something,
+saying:
+
+"That's all right, Joe, he sent you this."  The driver's face cleared
+and he started his machine again.  The boy vanished into the throng.
+It was another of Shirley's after-memories that she had caught a
+glimpse of a scrap of paper along with the money the boy had handed the
+driver, and that he had stuffed it in his pocket after looking intently
+at it; but at the time she thought nothing of it.  She was only glad
+that they were skimming along rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Shirley's sense of direction had always been keen.  Even as a child she
+could tell her way home when others were lost.  It was some minutes,
+however, before she suddenly became aware that the car was being driven
+in an entirely different direction from the place she had just left Mr.
+Barnard.  For a moment she looked around puzzled, thinking the man was
+merely taking another way around, but a glance back where the white
+dome of the Capitol loomed, palace-like, above the city, made her sure
+that something was wrong.  She looked at the buildings they were
+passing, at the names of the streets--F Street--they had not been on
+that before!  These stores and tall buildings were all new to her eyes.
+Down there at the end of the vista was a great building all columns.
+Was that the Treasury and were they merely seeing it from another
+angle?  It was all very confusing, but the time was short, why had the
+man not taken the shorter way?
+
+She looked at her small wrist watch anxiously and watched eagerly for
+the end of the street.  But before the great building was reached the
+car suddenly curved around a corner to the right,--one block,--a turn
+to the left,--another turn,--a confusion of new names and streets!  New
+York Avenue!  Connecticut Avenue!  Thomas Circle!  The names spun by so
+fast she could read but few of them, and those she saw she wanted to
+remember that she might weave them into her next postal.  She opened
+her bag, fumbled for her little silver pencil in the pocket of her coat
+and scribbled down the names she could read as she passed, on the back
+of the bundle of postal cards, and without looking at her writing.  She
+did not wish to miss a single sight.  Here were rows of homes, pleasant
+and palatial, some of them even cozy.  The broad avenues were
+enchanting, the park spaces, the lavish scattering of noble statues.
+Bah the time was hastening by and they were going farther and farther
+from the station and from the direction of the offices where she had
+been.  She twisted her neck once more and the Capitol dome loomed soft
+and blended in the distance.  A thought of alarm leaped into her mind.
+She leaned forward and spoke to the driver:
+
+"You understood, didn't you, that I am to return to the office where
+you took me with the gentleman?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"All right, lady.  Yes, lady!"  And the car rushed on, leaping out upon
+the beautiful way and disclosing new beauties ahead.  For a few minutes
+more Shirley was distracted from her anxiety in wondering whether the
+great buildings on her right belonged to any of the embassies or not.
+And then as the car swerved and plunged into another street and darted
+into a less thickly populated district, with trees and vacant lots
+almost like the country, alarm arose once more and she looked wildly
+back and tried to see the signs; but they were going faster still now
+upon a wide empty road past stretches of park, with winding drives and
+charming views, and a great stone bridge to the right, arching over a
+deep ravine below, a railroad crossing it.  There were deer parks
+fenced with high wire, and filled with the pretty creatures.
+Everything went by so fast that Shirley hardly realized that something
+really must be wrong before she seemed to be in the midst of a strange
+world aloof.
+
+"I am sure you have made a mistake!"  The girl's clear voice cut
+through the driving wind as they rushed along.  "I must go back right
+away to that office from which you brought me.  I must go _at once_ or
+I shall be too late for my train!  The gentleman will be very angry!"
+She spoke in the tone that always brought instant obedience from the
+employees around the office building at home.
+
+But the driver was stolid.  He scarcely stirred in his seat to turn
+toward her.  His thick voice was brought back to her on the breeze:
+
+"No, lady, it's all right, lady!  I had my orders, lady!  You needn't
+to worry.  I get you there plenty time."
+
+A wild fear seized Shirley, and her heart lifted itself as was its
+habit, to God.  "Oh, my Father!  Take care of me!  Help me!  Show me
+what to do!" she cried.
+
+Thoughts rushed through her brain as fast as the car rushed over the
+ground.  What was she up against?  Was this man crazy or bad?  Was he
+perhaps trying to kidnap her?  What for?  She shuddered to look the
+thought in the face.  Or was it the notes?  She remembered the men in
+the office and what they had said about keeping still and
+"spying-enemies."  But perhaps she was mistaken.  Maybe this man was
+only stupid, and it would all come out right in a few minutes.  But no,
+she must not wait for anything like that.  She must take no chance.
+The notes were in her keeping.  She must put them where they would be
+safe.  No telling how soon she would be overpowered and searched if
+that was what they were after.  She must hide them, and she must think
+of some way to send word to Mr. Barnard before it was toe late.  No
+telling what moment they would turn from the main road and she be
+hidden far from human habitation.  She must work fast.  What could she
+do?  Scream to the next passer-by?  No, for the car was going too fast
+for that to do any good, and the houses up this way seemed all to be
+isolated, and few people about.  There were houses on ahead beyond the
+park.  She must have something ready to throw out when they came to
+them.  "Oh God!  Help me think what to do!" she prayed again, and then
+looking down at her bag she saw the postal cards.  Just the thing!
+Quickly she scribbled, still holding her hand within the bag so that
+her movements were not noticeable:
+
+"Help!  Quick!  Being carried off!  Auto!  Connecticut Ave.!  Park.
+Deer.  Stone bridge.  Phone Mr. Clegg.  Don't tell mother!  Shirley."
+
+She turned the card over, drew a line through her mother's name and
+wrote Carol's in its place.  Stealthily she slipped the card up her
+sleeve, dropped her hand carelessly over the side of the car for a
+moment, let the card flutter from her fingers, and wrote another.
+
+She had written three cards and dropped them in front of houses before
+it suddenly occurred to her that even if these cards should be picked
+up and mailed it would be sometime before they reached their
+destination and far too late for help to reach her in time.  Her heart
+suddenly went down in a swooning sickness and her breath almost went
+from her.  Her head was reeling, and all the time she was trying to
+tell herself that she was exaggerating this thing, that probably the
+man would slow up or something and it would all be explained.  Yes, he
+was slowing up, but for what?  It was in another lonely spot, and out
+from the bushes there appeared, as if by magic, another man, a
+queer-looking man with a heavy mustache that looked as if it didn't
+belong to him.  He stood alertly waiting for the car and sprang into
+the front seat without waiting for it to stop, or even glancing back at
+her, and the car shot forward again with great leaps.
+
+Shirley dropped out the two cards together that she had just written
+and leaned forward, touching the newcomer on the arm.
+
+"Won't you please make this driver understand that he is taking me to
+the wrong place?" she said with a pleasant smile.  "I must get back to
+an office two or three blocks away from the Treasury Building
+somewhere.  I must turn back at once or I shall miss my appointment and
+be late for my train.  It is quite important.  Tell him, please, I will
+pay him well if he will get me back at once."
+
+The stranger turned with an oily smile.
+
+"That's all right, Miss.  He isn't making any mistake.  We're taking
+you right to Secretary Baker's country home.  He sent for your man,
+Mr.----  What's his name?  I forget.  Barnard?  Oh, yes.  He sent for
+Mr. Barnard to come out there, sent his private car down for him; and
+Mr. Barnard, he left orders we should go after you and bring you along.
+It's something they want to change in those notes you was taking.
+There was a mistake, and the Secretary he wanted to look after the
+matter himself."
+
+Shirley sat back with a sudden feeling of weakness and a fear she might
+faint, although she had never done such a thing in her life.  She was
+not deceived for an instant now, although she saw at once that she must
+not let the man know it.  The idea that Secretary Baker would pause in
+the midst of his multiplicity of duties to look into the details of a
+small article of manufacture was ridiculous!  It was equally impossible
+that Mr. Barnard would have sent strangers after her and let her be
+carried off in this queer way.  He had been most particular that she
+should be looked after carefully.  She was horribly to blame that she
+had allowed herself to be carried back at all until Mr. Barnard himself
+appeared; and yet, was she?  That surely had been the page from the
+office who came with the message?  Well, never mind, she was in for it
+now, and she must do her best while there was any chance to do
+anything.  She must drop all those postals somehow, and she must hide
+those notes somewhere, and perhaps write some others,--fake ones.  What
+should she do first?
+
+"Father, help me!  Show me!  Oh, don't let me lose the notes!  Please
+take care of me!"  Again and again her heart prayed as her hand worked
+stealthily in her bag, while she tried to put a pleasant smile upon her
+face and pretend she was still deceived, leaning forward and speaking
+to the strange man once more:
+
+"Is Secretary Baker's home much farther from here?" she asked, feeling
+her lips draw stiffly in the frozen smile she forced.  "Will it take
+long?"
+
+"'Bout ten minutes!" the man answered graciously, with a peculiar look
+toward the driver.  "Nice view 'round here!" he added affably with a
+leering look of admiration toward her.
+
+Shirley's heart stood still with new fear, but she managed to make her
+white lips smile again and murmur, "Charming!"
+
+Then she leaned back again and fussed around in her bag, ostentatiously
+bringing out a clean handkerchief, though she really had been detaching
+the pages which contained the notes from her loose-leaf note-book.
+There were not many of them, for she always wrote closely in small
+characters.  But where should she hide them?  Pull the lining away from
+the edge of her bag and slip them inside?  No, for the bag would be the
+first place they would likely search, and she could not poke the lining
+back smoothly so it would not show.  If she should try to drop the tiny
+pages down her neck inside her blouse, the men would very likely see
+her.  Dared she try to slip the leaves down under the linen robe that
+lay over her lap and put them inside her shoe?  She was wearing plain
+little black pumps, and the pages would easily go in the soles, three
+or four in each.  Once in they would be well hidden, and they would not
+rattle and give notice of their presence; but oh, what a terrible risk
+if anything should happen to knock off her shoe, or if they should try
+to search her!  Still she must take some risk and this was the safest
+risk at hand.  She must try it and then write out some fake notes,
+giving false numbers and sizes, and other phraseology.  Or stay!
+Wasn't there already something written in that book that would answer?
+Some specifications she had written down for the Tillman-Brooks
+Company.  Yes, she was sure.  It wasn't at all for the same articles,
+nor the same measurements, but only an expert would know that.  She
+leaned down quite naturally to pick up her handkerchief and deftly
+managed to get five small leaves slipped into her right shoe.  It
+occurred to her that she must keep her keepers deceived, so she asked
+once more in gracious tones:
+
+"Would it trouble you any to mail a card for me as soon as possible
+after we arrive?  I am afraid my mother will be worried about my delay
+and she isn't well.  I suppose they have a post office out this way."
+
+"Sure, Miss!" said the man again, with another leering smile that made
+her resolve to have no further conversation than was absolutely
+necessary.  She took out her fountain pen and hurriedly wrote:
+
+"Detained longer than I expected.  May not get back to-night.  S. H.,"
+and handed the card to the man.  He took it and turned it over, all too
+evidently reading it, and put it in his pocket.  Shirley felt that she
+had made an impression of innocence by the move which so far was good.
+She put away her fountain pen deliberately, and managed in so doing to
+manipulate the rest of the leaves of notes into her left shoe.  Somehow
+that gave her a little confidence and she sat back and began to wonder
+if there was anything more she could do.  Those dropped postals were
+worse than useless, of course.  Why had she not written an appeal to
+whoever picked them up?  Suiting the action to the thought she wrote
+another postal card--her stock was getting low, there were but two more
+left.
+
+"For Christ's sake send the police to help me!  I am being carried off
+by two strange men!  Shirley Hollister."
+
+She marked out the address on the other side and wrote: "To whoever
+picks this up."  She fluttered it to the breeze cautiously; but her
+heart sank as she realized how little likelihood there was of its being
+picked up for days perhaps.  For who would stop in a car to notice a
+bit of paper on the road?  And there seemed to be but few pedestrians.
+If she only had something larger, more attractive.  She glanced at her
+belongings and suddenly remembered the book she had brought with her to
+read, one of the new novels from the cottage, a goodly sized volume in
+a bright red cover.  The very thing!
+
+With a cautious glance at her keepers she took up the book as if to
+read, and opening it at the flyleaf began to write surreptitiously much
+the same message that had been on her last postal, signing her name and
+home address and giving her employers' address.  Her heart was beating
+wildly when she had finished.  She was trying to think just how she
+should use this last bit of ammunition to the best advantage.  Should
+she just drop it in the road quietly?  If only there were some way to
+fasten the pages open so her message would be read!  Her handkerchief!
+Of course!  She folded it cornerwise and slipped it in across the pages
+so that the book would fall open at the fly leaf, knotting the ends on
+the back of the cover.  Every moment had to be cautious, and she must
+remember to keep her attitude of reading with the printed pages
+covering the handkerchief.  It seemed hours that it took her, her
+fingers trembled so.  If it had not been for the rushing noise of wind
+and car she would not have dared so much undiscovered, but apparently
+her captors were satisfied that she still believed their story about
+going to Secretary Baker's country house, for they seemed mainly
+occupied in watching to see if they were pursued, casting anxious
+glances back now and then, but scarcely noticing her at all.
+
+Shirley had noticed two or three times when a car had passed them that
+the men both leaned down to do something at their feet to the machinery
+of the car.  Were they afraid of being recognized?  Would this perhaps
+give her a chance to fling her book out where it would be seen by
+people in an oncoming car?  Oh, if she but had the strength and skill
+to fling it _into_ a car.  But of course that was impossible without
+attracting the attention of the two men.  Nevertheless, she must try
+what she could do.
+
+She lifted her eyes to the road ahead and lo, a big car was bearing
+down upon them!  She had almost despaired of meeting any more, for the
+road was growing more and more lonely and they must have come many
+miles.  As soon as the two men in front of her sighted the car, they
+seemed to settle in their seats and draw their hats down a little
+farther over their eyes.  The same trouble seemed to develop with the
+machinery at their feet that Shirley had noticed before, and they
+bobbed and ducked and seemed to be wholly engrossed with their own
+affairs.
+
+Shirley's heart was beating so fast that it seemed as though it would
+suffocate her, and her hand seemed powerless as it lay innocently
+holding the closed book with the knotted handkerchief turned down out
+of sight; but she was girding herself, nerving herself for one great
+last effort, and praying to be guided.
+
+The big car came on swiftly and was about to pass, when Shirley half
+rose and hurled her book straight at it and then sank back in her seat
+with a fearful terror upon her, closing her eyes for one brief second,
+not daring to watch the results of her act,--if there were to be any
+results.
+
+The men in the front seat suddenly straightened up and looked around.
+
+"What's the matter?" growled the man who had got in last in quite a
+different tone from any he had used before.  "What you tryin' to put
+over on us?"
+
+Shirley gasped and caught at her self-control.
+
+"I've dropped my book," she stammered out wildly, "Could you stop long
+enough to pick it up?  It was borrowed!" she ended sweetly as if by
+inspiration, and wondering at the steadiness of her tone when blood was
+pounding so in her throat and ears, and everything was black before
+her.  Perhaps--oh, perhaps they would stop and she could cry out to the
+people for help.
+
+The man rose up in his seat and looked back.  Shirley cast one
+frightened glance back, too, and saw in that brief second that the
+other car had stopped and someone was standing up and looking back.
+
+"Hell!  No!" said her captor briefly, ducking down in his seat.  "_Let
+her out!_" he howled to the driver, and the car broke into a galloping
+streak, the wheels hardly seeming to touch the ground, the tonneau
+bounding and swaying this way and that.  Shirley had all she could do
+to keep in her seat.  At one moment she thought how easy it would be to
+spring from the car and lie in a little still heap at the roadside.
+But there were the notes!  She must not abandon her trust even for so
+fearful an escape from her captors.  Suddenly, without warning, they
+turned a sharp curve and struck into a rough, almost unbroken road into
+the woods, and the thick growth seemed to close in behind them and shut
+them out from the world.
+
+Shirley shut her eyes and prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The next trolley that passed the old barn after the Hollisters had left
+brought a maid servant and a man servant from the Graham place.  The
+other old servant met them, and together the three went to work.  They
+had brought with them a lot of large dust-covers and floor-spreads such
+as are used by housemaids in cleaning a room, and with these they now
+proceeded to cover all the large pieces of furniture in the place.  In
+a very short space of time the rugs and bits of carpet were carefully
+rolled up, the furniture piled in small compass in the middle of the
+rooms, and everything enveloped in thick coverings.  The curtains,
+bric-â-brac, and even the dishes were put away carefully, and the whole
+big, inviting home was suddenly denuded.  The clothes from the
+calico-curtained clothes-presses were folded and laid in drawers, and
+everything made perfectly safe for a lot of workmen to come into the
+house.  Even the hay-loft bedrooms shared in this process.  Only a cot
+was left for the old servant and a few necessary things for him to use,
+and most of these he transported to the basement out of the way.  When
+the work was done the man and maid took the trolley back home again and
+the other old man servant arranged to make his Sabbath as pleasant as
+possible in the company of his brother from the near-by farm.
+
+Monday morning promptly at eight o'clock the trolley landed a bevy of
+workmen, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and furnace men, with a
+foreman who set them all at work as if it were a puzzle he had studied
+out and memorized the solution.  In a short time the quiet spot was
+full of sound, the symphony of industry, the rhythm of toil.  Some men
+were working away with the furnace that had been stored in the cellar;
+others were measuring, fitting, cutting holes for lead pipes; still
+others were sawing away at the roof, making great gashes in its mossy
+extent; and two men were busy taking down the old barn door.  Out in
+front more men were building a vat for mortar, and opening bags of lime
+and sand that began to arrive.  Three men with curious aprons made of
+ticking, filled with thin wire nails, were frantically putting laths on
+the uprights that the carpenters had already set up, and stabbing them
+with nails from a seemingly inexhaustible supply in their mouths.  It
+was as if they had all engaged to build the tower of Babel in a day,
+and meant to win a prize at it.  Such sounds!  Such shoutings, such
+bangings, thumpings, and harsh, raucous noises!  The bird in the tall
+tree looked and shivered, thankful that her brood were well away on
+their wings before all this cataclysm came to pass.
+
+Presently arrived a load of sashes, doors, and wooden frames, and
+another load of lumber.  Things can be done in a hurry if you have
+money and influence and the will to insist upon what you want.  Before
+night there was a good start made toward big changes in the old barn.
+
+Plumbers and gas-fitters and men who were putting in the hot-water heat
+chased one another around the place, each man seeking to get his pipes
+in place before the lathers got to that spot; and the contractor was
+everywhere, proving his right to be selected for this rush job.  As
+soon as the lathers had finished with a room the plasterers took
+possession, and the old door was rapidly being replaced with a great
+glazed floor set in a frame of more sashes, so that the old darkness
+was gone entirely.
+
+In the roof big dormer windows were taking the place of the two or
+three little eyebrow affairs that had given air to the hay heretofore,
+and the loft was fast becoming pleasanter than the floor below.
+
+Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a wide
+cement-floor piazza with stone foundations and low stone walls was to
+run across the entire front.  Another chimney was rising from the
+region of the kitchen.  A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf
+attached appeared next, with signs of a butler's pantry between kitchen
+and dining-room.  A delightful set of china-closet doors with little
+diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the
+dining-room, and some bookcases with sliding doors began to develop
+along the walls of the living-room.  Down in the basement a man was
+fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and on both the first floor and
+the second bathrooms were being made.  If the place hadn't been so big,
+the workmen would have got in one another's way.  Closets big and
+little were being put in, and parts of a handsome staircase were lying
+about, until you wouldn't know the place at all.  Every evening the old
+servant and the neighbor next door, who used to rent the old barn
+before he built his own new one, came together to look over what had
+been accomplished during the day, and to discourse upon this changing
+world and the wonders of it.  The farmer, in fact, learned a great deal
+about modern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them
+to bear upon his own modest farmhouse.  He had money in the bank, and
+why shouldn't he "have things convenient for Sally"?
+
+When Sidney Graham reached the city on Monday morning he scarcely took
+time to read his mail in the office and give the necessary attention to
+the day's work before he was up and off again, flying along the
+Glenside Road as fast as his car would carry him.  His mind certainly
+was not on business that morning.  He was as eager as a child to see
+how work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small
+chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every
+minute count, no matter how much it cost.  He spent a large part of
+Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of
+progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn.  But when
+Tuesday arrived an accumulation of work at the office in connection
+with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk.
+He had hoped to get away in time to reach Glenside before the workmen
+left in the afternoon, but four o'clock arrived with still a great pile
+of letters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day.
+
+He had just signed his name for the forty-ninth time and laid his pen
+down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk
+rang.  He hesitated.  Should he answer it and be hindered again, or
+call his secretary and let her attend to it while he slipped away to
+his well-earned respite?  A second insistent ring, however, brought him
+back to duty and he reached out and took up the receiver.
+
+"Is this Mr. Sidney Graham?  Long distance is calling!"
+
+The young man frowned impatiently and wished he had sent for his
+secretary.  It was probably another tiresome confab on that Chicago
+matter, and it really wasn't worth the trouble, anyway.  Then a small
+scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke:
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Graham?  Well, this is Carol.  Say, Mr. Graham, I'm
+afraid something awful has happened to Shirley!  I don't know what to
+do, and I thought I'd better ask you."  Her voice broke off in a gasp
+like a sob.
+
+A cold chill struck at the young man's heart, and a vision of Shirley
+battling with the ocean waves was instantly conjured up.
+
+"Shirley!  Where is she?  Tell me, quick!" he managed to say, though
+the words seemed to stick in his throat.
+
+"She's down at Washington," answered Carol.  "Mr. Barnard phoned her
+last night.  There was something special nobody else could take notes
+about, because it was for a Government contract, and has to be secret.
+Mr. Barnard asked her to please go and she went this morning.  Mother
+didn't like her to go, but she addressed a lot of postal cards for her
+to write back, and one came postmarked Baltimore in this afternoon's
+mail, saying she was having a nice time.  But just now a call came for
+mother to go to the telephone.  She was asleep and George was crabbing
+so I had to come.  It was a strange man in Washington.  He said he had
+just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mother, that all
+said 'Help!  Quick!  Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to
+phone to the police.'  He took the postals to the police station, but
+he thought he ought to phone us.  And oh, Mr. Graham, _what shall I
+do_?  I can't tell mother.  It will kill her, and how can we help
+Shirley?"
+
+"Don't tell mother," said Graham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of
+his horror.  "Be a brave girl, Carol.  A great deal depends on you just
+now.  Have you phoned Mr. Barnard?  Oh, you say he's in Washington?  He
+was to meet your sister in Baltimore?  He _did_ meet her you say?  The
+postal card said she had met him?  Well, the next thing is to phone Mr.
+Clegg and find out if he knows anything.  I'll do that at once, and
+unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington
+on the next train.  Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past
+five.  I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry.  Then
+you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully.  Say
+you went to take a walk.  Isn't Elizabeth with you?  Well, tell her to
+help keep your mother from suspecting anything.  Above all things don't
+cry!  It won't do any good and it may do lots of harm.  Get George off
+by himself and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make
+some excuse to go down town after supper and stay at the telephone
+office till ten o'clock.  I may want to call him up from Washington.
+Now be a brave little girl.  I suspect your sister Shirley would tell
+you to pray.  Good-by."
+
+"I will!" gasped Carol.  "Good-by!"
+
+Graham pressed his foot on the bell under his desk and reached out to
+slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers.  His secretary
+appeared at the door.
+
+"Get me Barnard and Clegg on the phone!  Ask for Mr. Barnard or, if he
+isn't in, Mr. Clegg.  Then go out to the other phone and call up the
+station.  Find out what's the next express to Washington.  Tell
+Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the station and bring my car back
+to the garage."
+
+He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe,
+jotting down a few notes for the next day's work, trying to think of
+everything at once.  The secretary handed him the phone, quietly
+saying, "Mr. Clegg on the phone," and went out of the room.
+
+Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but
+just in receipt of a telegram from Police Headquarters in Washington
+saying that a book with Barnard and Clegg's address and an appeal from
+a young woman named Shirley Hollister who was apparently being
+kidnapped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a passing
+car and brought to them.  They had sent forces in search of the girl at
+once and would do all in their power to find her.  Meantime they would
+like any information that would be helpful in the search.
+
+Mr. Clegg was much excited.  He appeared to have lost his head.  He
+seemed glad to have another cooler mind at work on the case.  He
+spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the
+necessity for secrecy.  He said he hoped it wouldn't get into the
+papers, and that it would be Barnard and Clegg's undoing if it did.  He
+seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably
+had, than about the girl's situation.  When Graham brought him up
+rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard
+that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no
+significance to that.  He knew Barnard's usual hotel address in
+Washington but hadn't thought to phone him about the telegram from
+police headquarters.  Graham hung up at last in a panic of fury and
+dismay, ringing violently for his secretary again.
+
+"The next train leaves at five o'clock," she said capably, as she
+entered.  "Bromwell has gone after the car.  I told him to buy you a
+mileage book and save your time at this end.  You have forty minutes
+and he will be back in plenty of time."
+
+"Good!" said Graham.  "Now call up long distance and get me Police
+Headquarters in Washington.  No!  Use the phone in father's office
+please, I'll have to use this while you're getting them."
+
+As soon as she had left the room he called up the shore again and was
+fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being
+close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of
+nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders.
+
+"Can you give me an exact description of your sister's dress, and
+everything that she had with her when she started this morning?" asked
+Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down.
+
+Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley's simple outfit exactly,
+even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally
+through the small hand-bag she had carried.
+
+"Oh, yes!" she added, "and she had a book to read!  One she found here
+in the cottage.  It had a red cover and was called, "From the Car
+Behind."
+
+Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more details of
+Shirley's plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a
+message to George to be at the phone from half-past eight to ten.
+
+He was all ready to go to his train when the Washington call came in,
+and as he hurried to his father's office to answer it he found his
+heart crying out to an Unseen Power to help in this trying hour and
+protect the sweet girl in awful peril.
+
+"Oh, God, I love her!" he found his heart saying over and over again,
+as if it had started out to be an individual by itself without his will
+or volition.
+
+There was no comfort from Washington Police Headquarters.  Nothing more
+had been discovered save another crumpled postal lying along the
+roadside.  They received with alacrity, however, Mr. Barnard's
+Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and
+her belongings.  When Graham had finished the hasty conversation he had
+to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in
+the parlor car and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over
+him he was almost overwhelmed.  He had led a comparatively tranquil
+life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and
+this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way.
+Calamity?  No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity.  He was
+hurrying to her!  He would find her!  He would not allow himself to
+think that anything had befallen her.  But wherever she was, if she was
+still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying
+now, and he would pray too!  Yes, pray as she had taught him.  Oh, God!
+If he only knew how to pray better!  What was it she had said so often?
+"Whatsoever ye ask in my name"--yes, that was it--"I will do it."  What
+was that talismanic Name?  Ah!  Christ!  "Oh, God, in the name of
+Christ--"  But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite
+and dear to be put into words, so his petition went up in spirit form,
+unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in
+torture.
+
+At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to
+meet him at the train, and when he got out at Union Station the first
+person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through
+the bars of the train gate.  He grasped the young man's hand as if it
+were a last straw for a drowning man to cling to, and demanded in a
+shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister.
+
+One of the first questions that Graham asked was whether Barnard had
+been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation,
+to report her disappearance.
+
+"Well, no, I hadn't thought of that,"' said Barnard blankly.  "What
+would they know about it?  The fact is I was rather anxious to keep the
+facts from getting to them.  You see they warned me that there were
+parties anxious to get hold of those specifications.  It's Government
+work, you know."
+
+"They should know at once," said Graham sternly.  "They may have inside
+information which would give us a clew to follow.  The secret service
+men are onto a lot of things that we common mortals don't suspect."
+
+Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced.
+
+"Well, what _have_ you done so far?  We would better understand each
+other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground.  You
+have been in communication with Police Headquarters, of course?" asked
+Graham.
+
+"Why, no," said the older man apologetically.  "You see, I got here
+just in time for the train, and failing to find the young lady in the
+station where we had agreed to meet, I took it for granted that she had
+used the extra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city,
+as I suggested, and had somehow failed to get back in time.  I couldn't
+understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home to-night.
+I could have caught the train myself, but didn't exactly like to leave
+her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it's perfectly safe for
+a steady girl like that.  Afterward it occurred to me that she might
+have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but
+there was really very little time to decide, for the train pulled out
+two minutes after I reached the station.  I waited about here for a
+time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is
+stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for
+the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down
+to the shore for a few days; so I had something to eat and while I was
+in the dining-room your telegram came.  I was hoping somehow you had
+seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right."
+
+One could see the poor man had no conception of what was due to a lady
+in his care, and Graham looked at him for a moment with rage, wishing
+he could take him by the throat and shake some sense into him.
+
+"Then you don't know that she's been kidnapped and the police are out
+on track for her?" said Graham dryly.
+
+"No!  You don't say!" exclaimed Barnard, turning white and showing he
+had some real feeling after all.  "Kidnapped!  Why--why--how _could_
+she?  And she's got _those notes_!  Why, Graham!  You're fooling!  Why,
+how came you to know?"
+
+Graham told him tersely as he walked the man over to the telephone
+booths, and finished with:
+
+"Now, you go in that booth and phone your Government man, and I'll call
+up police headquarters and see what's doing.  We've got to work fast,
+for there's no telling what may have happened in the last three hours.
+It's up to us to find that girl before anything worse happens to her."
+
+White and trembling Barnard tottered into the booth.  When he came out
+again the sleuth-hounds of the Secret Service were on the trail of
+Shirley Hollister's captors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The car that was bearing Shirley Hollister through the lonely wooded
+road at a breathless speed suddenly came to a halt in the rear of an
+old house whose front faced on another road equally lonely.  During the
+brief time that they had been in the woods, the sky seemed to have
+perceptibly darkened with the coming evening.
+
+Shirley looked about her with increased fright.  It was almost night
+and here was her prison, far from town or human dwelling place.  Even
+the road was at some distance in front of the house, and there were
+more woods on either side.
+
+"This here is Secretary Baker's summer home," announced the man who had
+done the talking, as he climbed out of the car and opened the door for
+her.  "You can just step in the back door and go through to the parlor;
+the help's all out this afternoon.  The Secretary'll be down presently.
+He always takes a nap afternoons about this time.  I'll tell him you've
+come."
+
+There seemed nothing to do but obey, and Shirley chose to let the farce
+continue.  Surely the man must know she was not a fool, but it was
+better than open hostility.  There was nothing to be gained by
+informing him that she knew he was guying her.
+
+"Oh, Jesus Christ, I trust myself to you!" she breathed in her heart as
+she stepped across the leaf-strewn grass and looked about her,
+wondering whether she should ever walk the earth again after she had
+stepped into the dim tree-shrouded house.  But why go in?
+
+"I think I will remain out here," she said calmly, albeit her heart was
+pounding away like a trip-hammer.  "Please tell Mr. Baker to come to me
+here.  It is much pleasanter than in the house a day like this."
+
+"Aw no!  You won't neither!  The Secretary don't receive in the open
+air even in summer," drawled the man, and she noticed that he and the
+driver straightened up and stepped closer to her, one on either side.
+She gave one wild glance toward the open space.  There was simply no
+chance at all to run away even if she succeeded in eluding them at the
+start by a quick, unexpected dash.  They were alert athletic men, and
+no telling how many more were hidden in the house.
+
+"Oh, very well, of course, if it's a matter of etiquette!" said Shirley
+pleasantly, determined to keep up the farce as long as possible.
+
+A cold, dark air met the girl as she stepped within the creaking door
+and looked about her.  At her left was an old-fashioned kitchen, dusty
+and cobwebby.  A long, narrow hall led to the front of the house and
+her guide pointed her toward a room on the right.  There was something
+hollow and eerie in the sound of their footsteps on the old oaken
+floor.  The room into which she was ushered was musty and dusty as the
+rest.  The floor was covered with an ancient ingrain carpet.  The table
+was covered with a magenta felt cover stamped with a vine of black
+leaves and riddled with moth holes.  The walls were hung with old
+prints and steel engravings suspended by woollen cords and tassels.
+The furniture was dilapidated.  Everything was covered with dust, but
+there were finger marks in the dust here and there that showed the
+place had been recently visited.  Through an open doorway an old square
+piano was visible in what must be the parlor.  The place seemed to
+Shirley fairly teeming with memories of some family now departed.  She
+leaped to the quick conclusion that the house had been long deserted
+and had only recently been entered and used as a rendezvous for illegal
+conferences.  It occurred to her that there might be an opportunity for
+her to hide her precious papers somewhere safely if it came to it that
+she must be searched.  How about that piano?  Could she slip some of
+them between the keys?  But it was hardly likely that there would be
+opportunity for anything like that.
+
+She felt strangely calm as she looked about upon her prison.
+
+"H'm!  He ain't come yet!" remarked her guide as he glanced into the
+front room.  "Well, you can set down.  He won't be long now.  Joe, you
+jest look about a bit and see if you can find the Secretary, and tell
+him the young lady is here."
+
+The man flung himself full length on the carpet-covered couch and
+looked at her with satisfaction.
+
+"What train was that you said you must make?  I'm afraid now you might
+be going to be just a trifle late if he don't get a hustle on, but you
+can't hurry a great man like that you know."
+
+"Oh, it's no matter!" said Shirley coolly, looking around her with the
+utmost innocence.  "What a quaint old house!  Has it been in the family
+a long time?"
+
+The man looked at her amusedly.
+
+"You're a cute one!" he remarked affably.  "I believe you're a pretty
+good sport!  You know perfectly well you're in my power and can't do a
+turn to help yourself, yet you sail around here as calm as a queen!
+You're some looker, too!  Blamed if I'm not enjoying myself.  I
+wouldn't mind a kiss or two from those pretty lips----"
+
+But Shirley had melted through the doorway into the other room and her
+voice floated back with charming indifference as if she had not heard,
+though she was ready to scream with loathing and fear of the man:
+
+"Why, isn't this a delightful old piano?  The keys are actually
+mother-of-pearl.  Isn't it odd?  Would Mr. Baker mind if I played on
+it?"
+
+And before her astonished captor could get himself to the doorway she
+had sat down on the rickety old hair-cloth stool and swept the keys
+lightly.  The old chords trembled and shivered as if awaking from a
+tomb, and uttered forth a quavering, sweet sound like ancient memories.
+
+The man was too much astonished to stop her, amused too, perhaps, and
+interested.  Her white fingers over the dusty pearls in the growing
+dusk had a strange charm for the hardened reprobate, like the wonder of
+a flower dropped into the foulness of a prison.  Before he could
+recover, he was startled again by her voice soaring out in the empty
+echoing house:
+
+  Rock of ages, cleft for me,
+    Let me hide myself in Thee;
+  Let the water and the blood
+    From Thy riven side which flowed,
+  Be of sin the double cure,
+    Save me Lord and make me pure!
+
+
+Perhaps those dim, gloomy walls had echoed before to the grand old
+tune, but never could it have been sung in dire strait, or with more
+earnest cry from a soul in distress.  She had chosen the first words
+that seemed to fit the chords she had struck, but every syllable was a
+prayer to the God in whom she trusted.  It may be the man felt the
+power of her appeal as he stood rooted in the doorway and listened
+while she sang through all the verses she could remember.  But the last
+trembling note was broken harshly by Joe's voice at the kitchen door in
+sharp, rasping orders:
+
+"Hist, there!  Can that noise!  Do you want to raise hell here?  Wake
+up, Sam!  Get onto your job.  Hennie's comin'."
+
+"That's all right, Joe!  Dry up!  This is good Sunday School dope!
+This won't rouse no suspicions.  Go to the devil and mind your
+business!  I know what I'm about!"
+
+Shirley was almost ready to cry, but she drew a deep breath and started
+on another song:
+
+  Jesus, Lover of my soul,
+    Let me to Thy bosom fly,
+  While the nearer waters roll,
+    While the tempest still is high!
+  Hide me, oh, my Saviour hide,
+    Till the storm of life is past.
+
+
+On through the time-worn words she sang, while the sin-hardened man
+stood silently and listened.  His eyes had gradually lost their leer
+and grown soft and tender, as if some childhood memories of home and
+mother and a time when he was innocent and good were looking out his
+eyes, reminding him of what he once intended to be before he ate the
+apple of wisdom and became as the gods and devils.  Shirley gradually
+became aware that she was holding her strange audience; and a power
+beyond herself steadied her voice, and kept her fingers from trembling
+on the old pearl keys, as she wandered on from song to song; perhaps
+happening on the very ones,--who knows?--that this man, standing in the
+dying twilight of the old gloomy house, had sung beside his mother's
+hearth or in church during his childhood?  Certain it is that he stood
+there silent and listened for at least half an hour without an
+interruption, while the light in the big room grew dimmer and dimmer
+and all about the house seemed still as death in the intervals between
+her voice.  She was just beginning:
+
+  Abide with me,
+    Fast falls the eventide,
+  The darkness deepens,
+    Lord, with me abide!
+
+When the man put his hand in his pocket and brought out a candle.
+Scratching a match on his trousers, he lit the candle and set it
+carefully on the piano, where its light fell flickering, wavering over
+her worn young face; and who shall say that she was not a messenger
+from another world to this man who had long trodden the downward path?
+
+They were interrupted, however, before this song was finished by a
+newcomer who entered like a shadow and stood at the end of the piano
+looking wonderingly from Shirley to the man, when she glanced up.  She
+stopped, startled, for although he wore no brass buttons nor blue
+clothes she was quite sure those were the same gray eyes that had
+looked at her from the recess of the window in the Government office
+that afternoon, perhaps the same boy who had come after her car and
+sent her off on this long way into the wilderness.
+
+The man Sam straightened up suddenly and looked about him half-ashamed
+with an apologetic grin:
+
+"Oh, you've come, have you, Hennie?  Well, you been a long time about
+it!  But now I guess we'll get to work.  Where's Joe?  Out on the
+watch?  All right then, Miss, if you've no objection, we'll just take a
+little vacation on the psalm singin' and turn our attention to worldly
+things.  I calculate you're sharp enough to know what we brought you
+put here for?  I acknowledge you can sing real well, and you sorta got
+my goat for a while there with all that mourning bench tra-la, for you
+certainly have got that holy dope down fine; but now the time's come
+for business, and you needn't to think that because I can enjoy a
+little sentiment now and then in a leisure moment that you can put
+anything over on me, for it can't be did!  I mean business and I've got
+you in my power!  We're ten miles from any settlement, and no neighbors
+anywhere's about.  Everybody moved away.  So it won't do any good to
+work any funny business on us.  You can't get away.  We're all armed,
+and no one knows where you are!  If you behave yourself and do as
+you're told there won't be any trouble.  We'll just transact our
+business and then we'll have a bit of supper, and mebbe a few more
+tunes--got any rag-time in your repitwar?--and then sometime after
+midnight, when the moon's good and dark, we'll get you back to
+civilization where you won't have no trouble in gettin' home.  But if
+you act up and get funny, why you know what to expect.  There was a
+young girl murdered once in this house and buried in the cellar and
+ever since folks say it's hanted and they won't come near it.  That's
+the kind of a place we're in!  So, now are you ready?"
+
+Shirley sat cold and still.  It seemed as if her life blood had
+suddenly congealed in her veins and for a second she felt as if her
+senses were going to desert her.  Then the echo of her own song: "Hide
+me, oh, my Saviour hide!" seemed to cry out from her soul silently and
+she rallied once more and gained her self-control.
+
+"Well, Miss," went on the man impressively, "I see you're ready for the
+question, and you've got your nerve with you, too, I'll hand you that!
+But I warn you it won't do no good!  We brung you out here to get a
+hold of that note-book you wrote in this morning, and we're goin' to
+have it.  We know that Mr. Barnard left it in your care.  Hennie here
+heard him say for you to keep it.  So it won't be of any use for you to
+lie about it."
+
+"Of course!" said Shirley, standing up and reaching over for her
+hand-bag, which she had laid on the piano beside her while she played.
+"I understand perfectly.  But I'd like to ask you a question, Mr.----?"
+
+"Smith, or Jones, whichever you like to call it.  Spit it out!"
+
+"I suppose you are paid to bring me out here, Mr. Smith, and get my
+property away from me?" she said gravely.
+
+"Well, yes, we don't calculate to do it just for sweet charity."
+
+"And _I_ am paid to look after my note-book, you see.  It's a trust
+that has been given me!  I just _have_ to look after it.  It's out of
+the question for me to desert it!"  Shirley spoke coolly and held her
+little bag close in the firm grasp of her two hands.  The man stared at
+her and laughed.  The boy Hennie fairly gaped in his astonishment.  "A
+girl with all that nerve!"
+
+"Of course, I understand perfectly that you can murder me and bury me
+down in the cellar beside that other girl that was murdered, and
+perhaps no one will find it out for a while, and you can go on having a
+good time on the money you will get for it.  But the day will come when
+you will have to answer for it!  You know I didn't come here alone
+to-day----!"
+
+Both men looked startled and glanced uneasily into the shadows, as if
+there might be someone lurking there.
+
+"_God_ came with me and _He_ knows!  He'll _make you remember_ some
+day!"
+
+The boy laughed out a nervous ha! ha! of relief, but the man seemed
+held, fascinated by her look and words.  There was silence for a second
+while the girl held off the ruffian in the man by sheer force of her
+strong personality.  Then the boy laughed again, with a sneer in the
+end of it, and the spell was broken.  The leer came into the eyes of
+the man again.  The sneer of the boy had brought him to himself,--to
+the self he had come to be.
+
+"Nix on the sob-stuff, girlie!" he said gruffly.  "It won't go down
+with me!  We're here for business and we've been delayed too long
+already.  Come now, will you hand out that note-book or will we have to
+search you?"  He took one stride across to where she stood and wrenched
+the hand-bag from her grasp before she was aware of his intention.  She
+had not meant to give it up without a struggle, much as she loathed the
+thought of one.  She must make the matter last as long as possible, if
+perchance God was sending help to her, and must contest every inch of
+the way as far as lay in her power.  Oh, had anyone picked up her
+cards?  Had the book with its message reached any friendly eye?
+
+Frail and white and stern she stood with folded arms while they turned
+out the contents of the little bag and scattered it over the piano,
+searching with clumsy fingers among her dainty things.
+
+The note-book she had rolled within her handkerchiefs and made it hard
+to find.  She feared lest her ruse would be discovered when they looked
+it over.  The boy was the one who clutched for the little book,
+recognizing it as the one he had seen in the office that morning.  The
+man hung over his shoulder and peered in the candlelight, watching the
+boy anxiously.  It meant a good deal of money if they put this thing
+through.
+
+"Here it is!" said the boy, fluttering through the leaves and carefully
+scrutinizing the short-hand characters.  "Yes, that's the dope!"
+
+He ran his eye down the pages, caught a word here and there,
+technicalities of manufacture, the very items, of course, that he
+wanted, if this had been the specifications for the Government order.
+Shirley remembered with relief that none of the details were identical,
+however, with the notes she carried in her shoes.  The book-notes were
+in fact descriptive of an entirely different article from that demanded
+by the Government.  The question was, would these people be wise enough
+to discover that fact before she was out of their power or not?
+
+Furtively she studied the boy.  There was something keen and cunning
+about his youthful face.  He was thick-set, with blond hair and blue
+eyes.  He might be of German origin, though there was not a sign of
+accent about his speech.  He had the bull-dog chin, retreating forehead
+and eagle nose of the Kaiser in embryo.  Shirley saw all this as she
+studied him furtively.  That he was an expert in short-hand was proved
+by the ease with which he read some of her obscure sentences,
+translating rapidly here and there as he examined the book.  Was he
+well enough informed about the Government contract to realize that
+these were not the notes she had taken in the office that morning?  And
+should he fail to recognize it, was there perhaps some one higher in
+authority to whom they would be shown before she was released?  She
+shivered and set her weary toes tight with determination over the
+little crinkling papers in her shoes.  Somehow she would protect those
+notes from being taken, even if she had to swallow them.  There surely
+would be a way to hide them if the need came.
+
+Suddenly the tense strain under which she was holding herself was
+broken by the man.  He looked up with a grin, rubbing his hands with
+evident self-gratulation and relief:
+
+"That's all right, Girlie!  That's the dope we want.  Now we won't
+trouble you any longer.  We'll have supper.  Hennie, you go get some of
+that wood out in the shed and we'll have a fire on the hearth and make
+some coffee!"
+
+But Shirley, standing white and tense in the dim shadow of the room,
+suddenly felt the place whirling about her, and the candle dancing afar
+off.  Her knees gave way beneath her and she dropped back to the piano
+stool weakly, and covered her face with her hands, pressing hard on her
+eyeballs; trying to keep her senses and stop this black dizziness that
+threatened to submerge her consciousness.  She must not faint--if this
+was fainting.  She must keep her senses and guard her precious shoes.
+If one of those should fall off while she was unconscious all would be
+undone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The man looked up from the paper he was twisting for a fire and saw
+Shirley's attitude of despair.
+
+"Say, kid," he said, with a kind of gruff tenderness, "you don't need
+to take it that a-way.  I know it's tough luck to lose out when you
+been so nervy and all, but you knew we had it over you from the start.
+You hadn't a show.  And say!  Girlie!  I tell you what!  I'll make
+Hennie sit down right now and copy 'em off for you, and you can put 'em
+in your book again when you get back and nobody be the wiser.  We'll
+just take out the leaves.  We gotta keep the original o' course, but
+that won't make any beans for you.  It won't take you no time to write
+'em over again if he gives you a copy."
+
+Somehow it penetrated through Shirley's tired consciousness that the
+man was trying to be kind to her.  He was pitying her and offering her
+a way out of her supposed dilemma, offering to assist her in some of
+his own kind of deception.  The girl was touched even through all her
+other crowding emotions and weariness.  She lifted up her head with a
+faint little smile.
+
+"Thank you," she said, wearily, "but that wouldn't do me any good."
+
+"Why not?" asked the man sharply.  "Your boss would never know it got
+out through you."
+
+"But _I_ should know I had failed!" she said sadly.  "If you had my
+notes I should know that I had failed in my trust."
+
+"It wouldn't be your fault.  You couldn't have helped it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I could, and I ought.  I shouldn't have let the driver turn
+around.  I should have got out of that car and waited at the station as
+Mr. Barnard told me to do till he came.  I had been warned and I ought
+to have been on my guard.  So you see it _was_ my fault."
+
+She drooped her head forward and rested her chin dejectedly on the palm
+of her hand, her elbow on her knee.  The man stood looking at her for a
+second in half-indignant astonishment.
+
+"By golly!" he said at last.  "You certainly are some nut!  Well,
+anyhow, buck up, and let's have some tea.  Sorry I can't see my way
+clear to help you out any further, being as we're sort of partners in
+this job and you certainly have got some nerve for a girl, but you know
+how it is.  I guess I can't do no more'n I said.  I got my honor to
+think about, too.  See?  Hennie!  Get a move on you.  We ain't waitin'
+all night fer eats.  Bring in them things from the cupboard and let's
+get to work."
+
+Shirley declined to come to the table when at last the repast was
+ready.  She said she was not hungry.  In fact, the smell or the
+crackers and cheese and pickles and dried beef sickened her.  She felt
+too hysterical to try to eat, and besides she had a lingering feeling
+that she must keep near that piano.  If anything happened she had a
+vague idea that she might somehow hide the precious notes within the
+big old instrument.
+
+The man frowned when she declined to come to supper, but a moment later
+stumbled awkwardly across the room with a slopping cup of coffee and
+set it down beside her.
+
+"Buck up, girlie!" he growled.  "Drink that and you'll feel better."
+
+Shirley thanked him and tried to drink a few mouthfuls.  Then the
+thought occurred to her that it might be drugged, and she swallowed no
+more.  But she tried to look a bit brighter.  If she must pass this
+strange evening in the company of these rough men, it would not help
+matters for her to give way to despair.  So after toying with the
+teaspoon a moment, she put the cup down and began to play soft airs on
+the old piano again while the men ate and took a stealthy taste now and
+then from a black bottle.  She watched them furtively as she played,
+marvelling at their softened expressions, remembering the old line:
+
+"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and wondering if
+perhaps there were not really something in it.  If she had not been in
+such a terrifying situation she would really have enjoyed the character
+study that this view of those two faces afforded her, as she sat in the
+shadow playing softly while they ate with the flaring candle between
+them.
+
+"I like music with my meals!" suddenly chanted out the boy in an
+interval.  But the man growled in a low tone:
+
+"Shut up!  Ain't you got no manners?"
+
+Shirley prolonged that meal as much as music could do it, for she had
+no relish for a more intimate tête-a-tête with either of her
+companions.  When she saw them grow restless she began to sing again,
+light little airs this time with catchy words; or old tender melodies
+of home and mother and childhood.  They were songs she had sung that
+last night in the dear old barn when Sidney Graham and Elizabeth were
+with them, and unconsciously her voice took on the wail of her heart
+for all that dear past so far away from her now.
+
+Suddenly, as the last tender note of a song died away Joe stumbled
+breathlessly into the room.  The boy Hennie slithered out of the room
+like a serpent at his first word.
+
+"Beat it!" he cried in a hoarse whisper.  "Get a move on!  All hell's
+out after us!  I bet they heard her singin'!  Take her an' beat it!
+I'll douse the fire an' out the candle."
+
+He seized a full bucket of water and dashed it over the dying fire.
+Shirley felt the other man grasp her arm in a fierce grip.  Then Joe
+snuffed out the candle with his broad thumb and finger and all was
+pitch dark.  She felt herself dragged across the floor regardless of
+furniture in the way, stumbling, choking with fear, her one thought
+that whatever happened she must not let her slippers get knocked off;
+holding her feet in a tense strain with every muscle extended to keep
+the shoes fastened on like a vise.  She was haunted with a wild thought
+of how she might have slipped under the piano and eluded her captor if
+only the light had gone out one second sooner before he reached her
+side.  But it was too late to think of that now, and she was being
+dragged along breathlessly, out the front door, perhaps, and down a
+walk; no, it was amongst trees, for she almost ran into one.  The man
+swore at her, grasped her arm till he hurt her and she cried out.
+
+"You shut up or I'll shoot you!" he said with an oath.  He had lost all
+his suavity and there was desperation in his voice.  He kept turning
+his head to look back and urging her on.
+
+She tripped on a root and stumbled to her knees, bruising them
+painfully, but her only thought was one of joy that her shoes had not
+come off.
+
+The man swore a fearful oath under his breath, then snatched her up and
+began to run with her in his arms.  It was then she heard Graham's
+voice calling:
+
+"Shirley!  Where are you?  I'm coming!"
+
+She thought she was swooning or dreaming and that it was not really he,
+for how could he possibly be here?  But she cried out with a voice as
+clear as a bell: "I'm here, Sidney, come quick!"  In his efforts to
+hush her voice, the man stumbled and fell with her in his arms.  There
+came other voices and forms through the night.  She was gathered up in
+strong, kind arms and held.  The last thought she had before she sank
+into unconsciousness was that God had not forgotten.  He had been
+remembering all the time and sent His help before it was too late; just
+as she had known all along He must do, because He had promised to care
+for His own, and she was one of His little ones.
+
+When she came to herself again she was lying in Sidney Graham's arms
+with her head against his shoulder feeling oh, so comfortable and
+tired.  There were two automobiles with powerful headlights standing
+between the trees, and a lot of policemen in the shadowy background.
+Her captor stood sullen against a tree with his hands and feet
+shackled.  Joe stood between two policemen with a rope bound about his
+body spirally, and the boy Hennie, also bound, beside his fallen
+bicycle, turned his ferret eyes from side to side as if he hoped even
+yet to escape.  Two other men with hawk-like faces that she had not
+seen before were there also, manacled, and with eyes of smouldering
+fires.  Climbing excitedly out of one of the big cars came Mr. Barnard,
+his usually immaculate pink face smutty and weary; his sparse white
+hair rumpled giddily, and a worried pucker on his kind, prim face.
+
+"Oh, my dear Miss Hollister!  How unfortunate!" he exclaimed.  "I do
+hope you haven't suffered too much inconvenience!"
+
+Shirley smiled up at him from her shoulder of refuge as from a dream.
+It was all so amusing and impossible after what she had been through.
+It couldn't be real.
+
+"I assure you I am very much distressed on your account," went on Mr.
+Barnard, politely and hurriedly, "and I hate to mention it at such a
+time, but could you tell me whether the notes are safe?  Did those
+horrid men get anything away from you?"
+
+A sudden flicker of triumph passed over the faces of the fettered man
+and the boy, like a ripple over still water and died away into
+unintelligence.
+
+But Shirley's voice rippled forth in a glad, clear laugh, as she
+answered joyously:
+
+"Yes, Mr. Barnard, they got my note-book, but not the notes!  They
+thought the Tilman-Brooks notes were what they were after, but the real
+notes are in my shoes.  Won't you please get them out, for I'm afraid I
+can't hold them on any longer, my feet ache so!"
+
+It is a pity that Shirley was not in a position to see the look of
+astonishment, followed by a twinkle of actual appreciation that came
+over the face of the shackled man beside the tree as he listened.  One
+could almost fancy he was saying to himself: "The nervy little nut!
+She put one over on me after all!"
+
+It was also a pity that Shirley could not have got the full view of the
+altogether precise and conventional Mr. Barnard kneeling before her on
+the ground, removing carefully, with deep embarrassment and concern,
+first one, then the other, of her little black pumps, extracting the
+precious notes, counting over the pages and putting them ecstatically
+into his pocket.  No one of that group but Shirley could fully
+appreciate the ludicrous picture he made.
+
+"You are entirely sure that no one but yourself has seen these notes?"
+he asked anxiously as if he hardly dared to believe the blessed truth.
+
+"Entirely sure, Mr. Barnard!" said Shirley happily, "and now if you
+wouldn't mind putting on my shoes again I can relieve Mr. Graham of the
+necessity of carrying me any further."
+
+"Oh, surely, surely!" said Mr. Barnard, quite fussed and getting down
+laboriously again, his white forelock all tossed, and his forehead
+perplexed over the unusual task.  How did women get into such a little
+trinket of a shoe, anyway?
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, our firm appreciates what you have done!
+We shall not forget it.  You will see, we shall not forget it!" he
+puffed as he rose with beads of perspiration on his brow.  "You have
+done a great thing for Barnard and Clegg to-day!"
+
+"She's done more than that!" said a burly policeman significantly
+glancing around the group of sullen prisoners, as Graham put her upon
+her feet beside him.  "She's rounded up the whole gang for us, and
+that's more than anybody else has been able to do yet!  She oughtta get
+a medal of some kind fer that!"
+
+Then, with a dare-devil lift of his head and a gleam of something like
+fun in his sullen eyes, the manacled man by the tree spoke out, looking
+straight at Shirley, real admiration in his voice:
+
+"I say, pard!  I guess you're the winner!  I'll hand you what's comin'
+to you if I do lose.  You certainly had your nerve!"
+
+Shirley looked at him with a kind of compassion in her eyes.
+
+"I'm sorry you have to be--there," she finished.  "You were--as fine as
+you could be to me under the circumstances, I suppose!  I thank you for
+that."
+
+The man met her gaze for an instant, a flippant reply upon his lips,
+but checked it and dropping his eyes, was silent.  The whole little
+company under the trees were hushed into silence before the miracle of
+a girl's pure spirit, leaving its impress on a blackened soul.
+
+Then, quietly, Graham led her away to his car with Barnard and the
+detectives following.  The prisoners were loaded into the other cars,
+and hurried on the way to judgment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The ride back to the city was like a dream to Shirley afterward.  To
+see the staid Mr. Barnard so excited, babbling away about her bravery
+and exulting like a child over the recovery of the precious notes, was
+wonder enough.  But to feel the quiet protection and tender interest of
+Sidney Graham filled her with ecstasy.  Of course it was only kindly
+interest and friendly anxiety, and by to-morrow she would have put it
+into order with all his other kindlinesses, but to-night, weary and
+excited as she was, with the sense of horror over her recent experience
+still upon her, it was sweet to feel his attention, and to let his
+voice thrill through her tired heart, without stopping to analyze it
+and be sure she was not too glad over it.  What if he would be merely a
+friend to-morrow again!  To-night he was her rescuer, and she would
+rest back upon that and be happy.
+
+"I feel that I was much to blame for leaving you alone to go to the
+station with a bait like these notes in your possession," said Mr.
+Barnard humbly.  "Though of course I did not dream that there was any
+such possibility as your being in danger."
+
+"It is just as well not to run any risks in these days when the country
+is so unsettled," said the detective dryly.
+
+"Especially where a lady is concerned!" remarked Graham significantly.
+
+"I suppose I should have taken Miss Hollister with me and left her in
+the cab while I transacted my business at the War Department!" said
+Barnard with self-reproach in his tones.
+
+"They would have only done the same thing in front of the War
+Department," said the detective convincingly.  "They had it all planned
+to get those notes somehow.  You only made it a trifle easier for them
+by letting the lady go alone.  If they hadn't succeeded here, they
+would have followed you to your home and got into your office or your
+safe.  They are determined, desperate men.  We've been watching them
+for some time, letting them work till we could find out who was behind
+them.  To-night we caught the whole bunch red-handed, thanks to the
+lady's cleverness.  But you had better not risk her alone again when
+there's anything like this on hand.  She might not come out so easy
+next time!"
+
+Graham muttered a fervent applause in a low tone to this advice,
+tucking the lap robes closer about the girl.  Barnard gave little
+shudders of apology as he humbly shouldered the blame:
+
+"Oh, no, of course not!  I certainly am so sorry!"  But Shirley
+suddenly roused herself to explain:
+
+"Indeed, you mustn't any of you blame Mr. Barnard.  He did the
+perfectly right and natural thing.  He always trusts me to look after
+my notes, even in the most important cases; and I heard the warning as
+much as he did.  It was my business to be on the lookout!  I'm old
+enough and have read enough in the papers about spies and ruffians.  I
+ought to have known there was something wrong when that boy ordered me
+back and said Mr. Barnard had sent me word.  I ought to have known Mr.
+Barnard would never do that.  I did know just as soon as I stopped to
+think.  The trouble was I was giving half my attention to looking at
+the strange sights out of the window and thinking what I would tell the
+folks at home about Washington, or I would not have got into such a
+position.  I insist that you shall not blame yourself, Mr. Barnard.  It
+is a secretary's business to be on her job and not be out having a good
+time when she is on a business trip.  I hadn't got beyond the city
+limits before I knew exactly what I ought to have done.  I should have
+asked that boy more questions, and I should have got right out of that
+car and told him to tell you I would wait in the station till you came
+for me.  It troubled me from the start that you had sent for me that
+way.  It wasn't like you."
+
+Then they turned their questions upon her, and she had to tell the
+whole story of her capture, Graham and Barnard exclaiming indignantly
+as she went on, the detective sitting grim and serious, nodding his
+approval now and then.  Graham's attitude toward her grew more tender
+and protective.  Once or twice as she told of her situation in the old
+house, or spoke of how the man dragged her along in the dark, he set
+his teeth and drew his breath hard, saying in an undertone: "The
+villain!"  And there was that in the way that he looked at her that
+made Shirley hasten through the story, because of the wild, joyous
+clamor of her heart.
+
+As soon as the city limits were reached, Graham stopped the car to
+telephone.  It was after eleven o'clock, and there was little chance
+that George would have stayed at the phone so long, but he would leave
+a message for the early morning at least.  George, however, had stuck
+to his post.
+
+"Sure!  I'm here yet!  What'd ya think?  Couldn't sleep, could I, with
+_my sister_ off alone with a fella somewhere _being kidnapped_?  What'd
+ya say?  Found her?  She's all right?  Oh, gee!  That's good!  I told
+Carol you would!  I told her not to worry!  What'd ya say?  Oh,
+Shirley's going to talk?  Oh, hello, Shirley!  How's Washington?  Some
+speed, eh?  Say, when ya coming home?  To-morrow?  That's good.  No,
+mother doesn't know a thing.  She thinks I went to bed early 'cause I
+planned to go fishing at sunrise.  She went to bed herself early.  Say,
+Mister Graham's a prince, isn't he?  Well, I guess I'll go to bed now.
+I might make the fishing in the morning yet, if I don't sleep too late.
+I sure am glad you're all right!  Well, so long, Shirley!"
+
+Shirley turned from the phone with tears in her eyes.  It wasn't what
+George said that made her smile tenderly through them, but the gruff
+tenderness in his boy tones that touched her so.  She hadn't realized
+before what she meant to him.
+
+They drove straight to the station, got something to eat, and took the
+midnight train back to their home city.  Graham had protested that
+Shirley should go to a hotel and get a good rest before attempting the
+journey, but she laughingly told him she could rest anywhere, and would
+sleep like a top in the train.  When Graham found that it was possible
+to secure berths in the sleeper for them all, and that they would not
+have to get out until seven in the morning he withdrew his protests;
+and his further activities took the form of supplementing her supper
+with fruit and bonbons.  His lingering hand-clasp as he bade her
+good-night told her how glad he was that she was safe; as if his eyes
+had not told her the same story every time there had been light enough
+for them to be seen!
+
+Locked at last into her safe little stateroom, with a soft bed to lie
+on and no bothersome notes to be guarded, one would have thought she
+might have slept, but her brain kept time to the wheels, and her heart
+with her brain.  She was going over and over the scenes of the eventful
+day, and living through each experience again, until she came to the
+moment when she looked up to find herself in Sidney Graham's arms, with
+her face against his shoulder.  Her face glowed in the dark at the
+remembrance, and her heart thrilled wildly sweet with the memory of his
+look and tone, and all his carefulness for her.  How wonderful that
+_he_ should have come so many miles to find her!  That he should have
+been the one to find her first, with all those other men on the hunt.
+He had forged ahead and picked her up before any of the others had
+reached her.  He had not been afraid to rush up to an armed villain and
+snatch her from her perilous position!  He was a man among men!  Never
+mind if he wasn't her own personal property!  Never mind if there were
+others in his own world who might claim him later, he was hers for
+to-night!  She would never forget it!
+
+She slept at last, profoundly, with a smile upon her lips No dream of
+villains nor wild automobile rides came to trouble her thoughts.  And
+when she woke in the home station with familiar sounds outside, and
+realized that a new day was before her, her heart was flooded with a
+happiness that her common sense found it hard to justify.  She tried to
+steady herself while she made her toilet, but the face that was
+reflected rosily from the mirror in her little dressing room would
+smile contagiously back at her.
+
+"Well, then, have it your own way for just one more day!" she said
+aloud to her face in the glass.  "But to-morrow you must get back to
+common sense again!"  Then she turned, fresh as a rose, and went out to
+meet her fellow travellers.
+
+She went to breakfast with Sidney Graham, a wonderful breakfast in a
+wonderful place with fountains and palms and quiet, perfect service.
+Mr. Barnard had excused himself and hurried away to his home, promising
+to meet Shirley at the office at half-past nine.  And so these two sat
+at a little round table by themselves and had sweet converse over their
+coffee.  Shirley utterly forgot for the time that she was only a poor
+little stenographer working for her bread and living in a barn.  Sidney
+Graham's eyes were upon her, in deep and unveiled admiration, his
+spirit speaking to hers through the quiet little commonplaces to which
+he must confine himself in this public place.  It was not till the meal
+was over and he was settling his bill that Shirley suddenly came to
+herself and the color flooded her sweet face.  What was she better than
+any other poor fool of a girl who let a rich man amuse himself for a
+few hours in her company and then let him carry her heart away with him
+to toss with his collection?  She drew her dignity about her and tried
+to be distant as they went out to the street, but he simply did not
+recognize it at all.  He just kept his tender, deferential manner, and
+smiled down at her with that wonderful, exalted look that made her
+dignity seem cheap; so there was nothing to do but look up as a flower
+would to the sun and be true to the best that was in her heart.
+
+She was surprised to find his own car at the door when they came out on
+the street.  He must have phoned for it before they left the station.
+He was so kind and thoughtful.  It was so wonderful to her to be cared
+for in this way.  "Just as if I were a rich girl in his own social
+set," she thought to herself.
+
+He gave his chauffeur the orders and sat beside her in the back seat,
+continuing his role of admirer and protector.
+
+"It certainly is great to think you're here beside me," he said in a
+low tone as they threaded their way in and out of the crowded
+thoroughfare toward the office.  "I didn't have a very pleasant
+afternoon and evening yesterday, I can tell you!  I don't think we'll
+let you go off on any more such errands.  You're too precious to risk
+in peril like that, you know!"
+
+Shirley's cheeks were beautiful to behold as she tried to lift her eyes
+easily to his glance and take his words as if they had been a mere
+commonplace.  But there was something deep down in the tone of his
+voice, and something intent and personal in his glance that made her
+drop her eyes swiftly and covered her with a sweet confusion.
+
+They were at the office almost immediately and Graham was helping her
+out.
+
+"Now, when will you be through here?" he asked, glancing at his watch.
+"What train were you planning to take down to the shore?  I suppose
+you'll want to get back as soon as possible?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, doubtfully, "I do.  But I don't know whether I
+oughtn't to run out home first and get mother's big old shawl, and two
+or three other little things we ought to have brought along."
+
+"No," said Graham, quickly, with a flash of anxiety in his face.  "I
+wouldn't if I were you.  They'll be anxious to see you, and if it's
+necessary you can run up again sometime.  I think you'll find there are
+lots of shawls down at the cottage.  I'm anxious to have you safely
+landed with your family once more.  I promised Carol you'd be down the
+first train after you got your work done.  How long is it going to take
+you to fix Mr. Barnard up so he can run things without you?"
+
+"Oh, not more than two hours I should think, unless He wants something
+more than I know."
+
+"Well, two hours.  It is half-past nine now.  We'll say two hours and a
+half.  That ought to give you time.  I think there's a train about
+then.  I'll phone to the station and find out and let you know the
+exact time.  The car will be here waiting for you."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham, that's not a bit necessary!  You have taken trouble
+enough for me already!" protested Shirley.
+
+"No trouble at all!" declared Graham.  "My chauffeur hasn't a thing to
+do but hang around with the car this morning and you might as well ride
+as walk.  I'll phone you in plenty of time."
+
+He lifted his hat and gave her a last look that kept the glow in her
+cheeks.  She turned and went with swift steps in to her elevator.
+
+Sidney Graham dropped his chauffeur at the station to enquire about
+trains and get tickets, with orders to report at his office within an
+hour, and himself took the wheel.  Quickly working his way out of the
+city's traffic he put on all possible speed toward Glenside.  He must
+get a glimpse of things and see that all was going well before he went
+to the office.  What would Shirley have said if she had carried out her
+plan of coming out for her mother's shawl?  He must put a stop to that
+at all costs.  She simply must not see the old barn till the work was
+done, or the whole thing would be spoiled.  Strange it had not occurred
+to him that she might want to come back after something!  Well, he
+would just have to be on the continual lookout.  For one thing he would
+stop at a store on the way back and purchase a couple of big steamer
+rugs and a long warm cloak.  He could smuggle them into the cottage
+somehow and have the servants bring them out for common use as if they
+belonged to the house.
+
+He was as eager as a child over every little thing that had been
+started during his absence, and walked about with the boss carpenter,
+settling two or three questions that had come up the day before.  In
+ten minutes he was back in his car, whirling toward the city again,
+planning how he could best get those rugs and cloaks into the hands of
+the housekeeper at the shore without anybody suspecting that they were
+new.  Then it occurred to him to take them down to Elizabeth and let
+her engineer the matter.  There must be two cloaks, one for Shirley,
+for he wanted to take her out in the car sometimes and her little scrap
+of a coat was entirely too thin even for summer breezes at the shore.
+
+Shirley met with a great ovation when she entered the office.  It was
+evident that her fame had gone before her.  Mr. Barnard was already
+there, smiling benevolently, and Mr. Clegg frowning approvingly over
+his spectacles at her, The other office clerks came to shake hands or
+called congratulations, till Shirley was quite overwhelmed at her
+reception.  Clegg and Barnard both followed her into the inner office
+and continued to congratulate her on the bravery she had shown and to
+express their appreciation of her loyalty and courage in behalf of the
+firm.  Mr. Barnard handed her a check for a hundred dollars as a slight
+token of their appreciation of her work, telling her that beginning
+with the first of the month her salary was to be raised.
+
+When at last she sat down to her typewriter and began to click out the
+wonderful notes that had made so much trouble, and put them in shape
+for practical use, her head was in a whirl and her heart was beating
+with a childish ecstasy.  She felt as if she were living a real fairy
+tale, and would not ever be able to get back to common every-day life
+again.
+
+At half-past eleven Graham called her up to tell her there was a train
+a little after twelve if she could be ready, and the car would be
+waiting for her in fifteen minutes.
+
+When she finally tore herself away from the smiles and effusive thanks
+of Barnard and Clegg and took the elevator down to the street she found
+Sidney Graham himself awaiting her eagerly.  This was a delightful
+surprise, for he had not said anything about coming himself or
+mentioned when he would be coming back to the shore, so she had been
+feeling that It might be some time before she would see him again.
+
+He had just slammed the door of the car and taken his seat beside her
+when a large gray limousine slowed down beside them and a radiant,
+well-groomed, much-tailored young woman leaned out of the car, smiling
+at Graham, and passing over Shirley with one of those unseeing stares
+wherewith some girls know so well how to erase other girls.
+
+"Oh, Sidney!  I'm so glad I met you!" she cried.  "Mother has been
+phoning everywhere to find you.  We are out at our country place for a
+couple of weeks, and she wants to ask you to come over this afternoon
+for a little tennis tournament we are having, with a dance on the lawn
+afterward."
+
+"That's very kind of you, Harriet," said Graham pleasantly, "but I
+can't possibly be there.  I have an engagement out of town for this
+afternoon and evening.  Give my regards to your mother, please, and
+thank her for the invitation.  I know you'll have a lovely time, you
+always do at your house."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad, Sidney!" pouted the girl.  "Why will you be so
+busy! and in the summer-time, too!  You ought to take a vacation!
+Well, if you can't come to-night, you'll run down over the week-end,
+won't you?  We are having the Foresters and the Harveys.  You like
+them, and we simply can't do without you."
+
+"Sorry," said Graham, smilingly, "but I've got all my week-ends filled
+up just now.  Harriet, let me introduce you to Miss Hollister.  Miss
+Hale, Miss Hollister!"
+
+Then did Harriet Hale have to take over her unseeing stare and
+acknowledge the introduction; somewhat stiffly, it must be
+acknowledged, for Harriet Hale did not enjoy having her invitations
+declined, and she could not quite place this girl with the lovely face
+and the half-shabby garments, that yet had somehow an air of having
+been made by a French artist.
+
+"I'm sorry, Harriet, but we'll have to hurry away.  We're going to
+catch a train at twelve-fifteen.  Hope you have a beautiful time this
+afternoon.  Remember me to Tom Harvey and the Foresters.  Sorry to
+disappoint you, Harriet, but you see I've got my time just full up at
+present.  Hope to see you soon again."
+
+They were off, Shirley with the impression of Harriet Hale's smile of
+vinegar and roses; the roses for Graham, the vinegar for her.
+Shirley's heart was beating wildly underneath her quiet demeanor.  She
+had at last met the wonderful Harriet Hale, and Graham had not been
+ashamed to introduce her!  There had been protection and enthronement
+in his tone as he spoke her name!  It had not been possible for Miss
+Hale to patronize her after that.  Shirley was still in a daze of
+happiness.  She did not think ahead.  She had all she could do to
+register new occurrences and emotions, and realize that her joy was not
+merely momentary.  It had not occurred to her to wonder where Graham
+was going out of town.  It was enough that he was here now.
+
+When they reached the station Graham took two large packages out of the
+car, and gave some directions to the chauffeur.
+
+"Sorry we couldn't have gone down in the car again," he said as they
+walked into the station, "but it needs some repairs and I don't want to
+take as long a run as that until it has been thoroughly overhauled."
+
+Then he was going down too!  He had declined Harriet Hale's invitation
+to go back to the cottage with her!  Shirley's breath came in little
+happy gasps as she walked beside her companion down the platform to the
+train.
+
+She found herself presently being seated in a big green velvet chair in
+the parlor car while the porter stowed away the two big packages in the
+rack overhead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+There was only one other passenger in the car, an old man nodding
+behind a newspaper, with his chair facing in the other direction.
+Graham took a swift survey of him and turned happily back with a smile
+to Shirley:
+
+"At last I have you to myself!" he said with a sigh of satisfaction
+that made Shirley's cheeks bloom out rosily again.
+
+He whirled her chair and his quite away from the vision of the old man,
+so that they were at the nearest possible angle to each other, and
+facing the windows.  Then he sat down and leaned toward her.
+
+"Shirley," he said in a tone of proprietorship that was tender and
+beautiful, "I've waited just as long as I'm going to wait to tell you
+something.  I know it's lunch time, and I'm going to take you into the
+dining-car pretty soon and get you some lunch, but I must have a little
+chance to talk with you first, please."
+
+Shirley's eyes gave glad permission and he hurried on.
+
+"Shirley, I love you.  I guess you've been seeing that for some time.
+I knew I ought to hide it till you knew me better, but I simply
+couldn't do it.  I never saw a girl like you, and I knew the minute I
+looked at you that you were of finer clay than other girls, anyway.  I
+knew that if I couldn't win you and marry you I would never love
+anybody else.  But yesterday when I heard you were in peril away off
+down in Washington and I away up here helpless to save you, and not
+even having the right to organize a search for you, I nearly went wild!
+All the way down on the train I kept shutting my eyes and trying to
+pray the way you told your Sunday School boys how to pray.  But all I
+could get out was, 'Oh, God, I love her!  Save her!  I love her!'
+Shirley, I know I'm not one-half worthy enough for you, but I love you
+with all my heart and I want you for my wife.  Will you marry me,
+Shirley?"
+
+When she had recovered a little from her wonder and astonishment, and
+realized that he had asked her to marry him, and was waiting for his
+answer, she lifted her wondering eyes to his face, and tried to speak
+as her conscience and reason bade her.
+
+"But I'm not like the other girls you know," she said bravely.  Then he
+broke in upon her fervently.
+
+"No, you're not like any other girl I know in the whole wide world.
+Thank God for that!  You are one among a thousand!  No, you're one
+among the whole earthful of women!  You're the _only_ one I could ever
+love!"
+
+"But listen, please; you haven't thought.  I'm not a society girl.  I
+don't belong in your circle.  I couldn't grace your position the way
+your wife ought to do.  Remember, we're nobodies.  We're poor!  We live
+in a _barn_!"
+
+"What do you suppose I care about that?" he answered eagerly.  "You may
+live in a barn all your days if you like, and I'll love you just the
+same.  I'll come and live in the barn with you if you want me to.  My
+position!  My circle!  What's that?  You'll grace my home and my life
+as no other girl could do.  You heart of my heart!  You strong, sweet
+spirit!  The only question I'm going to ask of you is, Can you love me?
+If you can, I know I can make you happy, for I love you better than my
+life.  Answer, please.  Do you love me?"
+
+She lifted her eyes, and their spirits broke through their glances.  If
+the old man at the other end of the car was looking they did not know
+it.
+
+They came back to the cottage at the shore with a manner so blissful
+and so unmistakable that even the children noticed.  Elizabeth
+whispered to Carol at table: "My brother likes your sister a lot,
+doesn't he?  I hope she likes him, too."
+
+"I guess she does," responded Carol philosophically.  "She oughtta.
+He's been awfully good to her, and to all of us."
+
+"People don't like people just for that," said wise Elizabeth.
+
+Harley, out on the veranda after dinner, drew near to Carol to confide.
+
+"Say, kid, I guess he _has_ got a case on her all right now.  Gee!
+Wouldn't that be great?  Think of all those cars!"
+
+But Carol giggled.
+
+"Good night!  Harley!  How could we ever have a wedding in a barn?  And
+they're such particular people, too!"
+
+"Aw, gee!" said Harley, disgusted.  "You girls are always thinking of
+things like that!  As if that mattered.  You can get married in a
+chicken-run if you really have a case like that on each other!  _You
+make me tired!_" and he stalked away in offended male dignity.
+
+Meantime the unconscious subjects of this discussion had gone to Mrs.
+Hollister to confess, and the sea was forgotten by all three for that
+one evening at least, even though the moon was wide and bright and gave
+a golden pathway across the dark water.  For a great burden had rolled
+from Mrs. Hollister's shoulders when she found her beloved eldest
+daughter was really loved by this young man, and he was not just
+amusing himself for a little while at her expense.
+
+The days that followed were like one blissful fleeting dream to
+Shirley.  She just could not get used to the fact that she was engaged
+to such a prince among men!  It seemed as if she were dreaming, and
+that presently she would wake up and find herself in the office with a
+great pile of letters to write, and the perplexing problem before her
+of where they were going to live next winter.  She had broached that
+subject once to Graham shyly, saying that she must begin to look around
+as soon as she got back to town, and he put her aside, asking her to
+leave that question till they all went back, as he had a plan he
+thought she might think well of, but he couldn't tell her about it just
+yet.  He also began to urge her to write at once to Mr. Barnard and
+resign her position, but that she would not hear of.
+
+"No," she said decidedly.  "We couldn't live without my salary, and
+there are a lot of things to be thought out and planned before I can be
+married.  Besides, we need to get to know each other and to grow into
+each other's lives a little bit.  You haven't any idea even now how far
+I am from being fitted to be the wife of a man in your position.  You
+may be sorry yet.  If you are ever going to find it out, I want you to
+do it beforehand."
+
+He looked adoringly into her eyes.
+
+"I know perfectly now, dear heart!" he said, "and I'm not going to be
+satisfied to wait a long time for you to find out that you don't really
+care for me after all.  If you've got to find that out, I believe I'd
+rather it would be after I have you close and fast and you'll _have_ to
+like me anyway."
+
+And then the wonder and thrill of it all would roll over her again and
+she would look into his eyes and be satisfied.
+
+Still she continued quite decided that nothing could be done about
+prolonging her vacation, for she meant to go back to Barnard and
+Clegg's on the day set.
+
+"You know I'm the man of the house," she said archly.  "I can't quite
+see it at all myself--how I'm ever going to give up."
+
+"But I thought I was going to be the man of the house," pleaded Sidney.
+"I'm sure I'm quite capable and eager to look out for the interests of
+my wife's family."
+
+"But you see I'm not the kind of a girl that has been looking around
+for a man who will support my family."
+
+"No, you surely are not!" said the young man, laughing.  "If you had
+been, young lady, I expect you'd have been looking yet so far as I am
+concerned.  It is because you are what you are that I love you.  Now
+that's all right about being independent, but it's about time to fight
+this thing to a finish.  I don't see why we all have to be made
+miserable just because there are a lot of unpleasant precedents and
+conventions and crochets in the world.  Why may I not have the pleasure
+of helping to take care of your perfectly good family if I want to?  It
+is one of the greatest pleasures to which I am looking forward, to try
+and make them just as happy as I can, so that you will be the happier.
+I've got plenty to do it with.  God has been very good to me in that
+way, and why should you try to hinder me?"
+
+And then the discussion would end in a bewildering look of worshipful
+admiration on Shirley's part and a joyous taking possession of her and
+carrying her off on some ride or walk or other on the part of Graham.
+
+He did not care just now that she was slow to make plans.  He was
+enjoying each day, each hour, to the full.  He wanted to keep her from
+thinking about the future, and especially about the winter, till she
+got home, and so he humored her and led her to other topics.
+
+One night, as they sat on the dark veranda alone, Graham said to George:
+
+"If you were going to college, where would you want to prepare?"
+
+He wondered what the boy would say, for the subject of college had
+never been mentioned with relation to George.  He did not know whether
+the boy had ever thought of it.  But the answer came promptly in a
+ringing voice:
+
+"Central High!  They've got the best football team in the city."
+
+"Then you wouldn't want to go away to some preparatory school?"
+
+"No, _sir_!" was the decided answer.  "I believe in the public school
+every time!  When I was a little kid I can remember my father taking me
+to walk and pointing out the Central High School, and telling me that
+some day I would go there to school.  I used to always call that 'my
+school.'  I used to think I'd get there yet, some day, but I guess
+that's out of the question."
+
+"Well, George, if that's your choice you can get ready to enter as soon
+as you go back to the city."
+
+"What?"  George's feet came down from the veranda railing with a thud,
+and he sat upright in the darkness and stared wildly at his prospective
+brother-in-law.  Then he slowly relaxed and his young face grew grim
+and stern.
+
+"No chance!" he said laconically.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I've got my mother and the children to support.  I can't waste
+time going to school.  I've got to be a _man_."
+
+Something sudden like a choke came in the young man's throat, and a
+great love for the brave boy who was so courageous in his self-denial.
+
+"George, you're not a man yet, and you'll shoulder the burden twice as
+well when you're equipped with a college education.  I mean you shall
+have it.  Do you suppose I'm going to let my new brother slave away
+before his time?  No, sir; you're going to get ready to make the best
+man that's in you.  And as for your mother and the family, isn't she
+going to be my mother, and aren't they to be my family?  We'll just
+shoulder the job together, George, till you're older--and then we'll
+see."
+
+"But I couldn't take charity from anybody."
+
+"Not even from a brother?"
+
+"Not even from a brother."
+
+"Well, suppose we put it in another way.  Suppose you borrow the money
+from me to keep things going, and when you are ready to pay it back
+we'll talk about it then.  Or, better still, suppose you agree to pass
+it on to some other brother when you are able."
+
+They talked a long time in the dark, and Graham had quite a hard time
+breaking down the boy's reserve and independence, and getting a real
+brotherly confidence.  But at last George yielded, saw the common sense
+and right of the thing, and laid an awkward hand in the man's, growling
+out:
+
+"You're a pippin and no mistake, Mr. Graham.  I can't ever thank you
+enough!  I never thought anything like this would happen to me!"
+
+"Don't try thanks, George.  We're brothers now, you know.  Just you do
+your best at school, and it's all I ask.  Shirley and I are going to be
+wonderfully proud of you.  But please don't call me Mr. Graham any
+more.  Sid, or Sidney, or anything you like, but no more mistering."
+
+He flung a brotherly arm across the boy's shoulders and together they
+went into the house.
+
+Meantime the beautiful days went by in one long, golden dream of
+wonder.  The children were having the time of their lives, and
+Elizabeth was never so happy.  Shirley sat on the wide verandas and
+read the wealth of books and magazines which the house contained, or
+roamed the beach with the children and Star, or played in the waves
+with Doris, and wondered if it were really Shirley Hollister who was
+having all this good time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The morning they all started back to the city was a memorable one.
+Graham had insisted that Shirley ask for a holiday until Tuesday
+morning so that she might go up with them in the car, and have the
+whole day to be at home and help her mother get settled.  She had
+consented, and found to her surprise that Mr. Barnard was most kind
+about it.  He had even added that he intended to raise her salary, and
+she might consider that hereafter she was to have ten dollars more per
+month for her services, which they valued very highly.
+
+George had sent his resignation to the store and was not to go back at
+all.  Graham had arranged that, for school began the day after his
+return and he would need to be free at once.
+
+Elizabeth, to her great delight, was to go with the Hollisters and
+remain a few days until her parents returned.  Mrs. Graham had written
+from the West making a proposition to Mrs. Hollister that Carol be
+allowed to go to school with Elizabeth the next winter, because Mrs.
+Graham felt it would be so good for Elizabeth to have a friend like
+that.  Mrs. Hollister, however, answered that she felt it better for
+her little girl to remain with her mother a little longer; and that she
+did not feel it would be a good thing for her child, who would be
+likely to have a simple life before her with very few luxuries, to go
+to a fashionable finishing-school where the standards must all
+necessarily be so different from those of her own station in life, and,
+kind as the offer had been, she must decline it.  She did not say that
+Carol had fairly bristled at the idea of leaving her beloved high
+school now when she was a senior and only one year before her
+graduation.  That bit of horror and hysterics on Carol's part had been
+carefully suppressed within the four walls of her mother's room; but
+Elizabeth, deeply disappointed, had wept her heart out over the matter,
+and finally been comforted by the promise that Mrs. Hollister would
+write and ask Mrs. Graham to allow Elizabeth to go to school with Carol
+the coming winter.  That proposition was now on its way West, together
+with an announcement of Sidney's engagement to Shirley.  Sidney was
+confidently expecting congratulatory telegrams that morning when he
+reached the city.  He had written his father in detail all about their
+plans for returning, and how the work at the old barn was progressing,
+and Mr. Graham, Senior, was too good a manager not to plan to greet the
+occasion properly.  Therefore Graham stopped at his office for a few
+minutes before taking the family out to Glenside, and, sure enough,
+came down with his hands full of letters and telegrams, and one long
+white envelope which he put carefully in his breast pocket.  They had a
+great time reading the telegrams and letters.
+
+The way out to Glenside seemed very short now, watching as they did for
+each landmark.  The children were as eager to get back as they had been
+to leave, and Star snuggled in between Harley's feet, held his head
+high, and smiled benevolently on everybody, as if he knew he was going
+home and was glad.  They began to wonder about the chickens, and if the
+garden was all dried up, and whether the doves were all right.  There
+was an undertone of sadness and suppressed excitement, for it was in
+the minds of all the Hollisters that the time in the old barn must of
+necessity be growing brief.  The fall would soon be upon them, and a
+need for warmth.  They must go hunting for a house at once.  And yet
+they all wanted this one day of delight before they faced that question.
+
+At last they reached the final curve and could see the tall old tree in
+the distance, and the clump of willows knee-deep in the brook.  By
+common consent they all grew silent, watching for the first glimpse of
+the dear old barn.
+
+Then they came around the curve, and there it was!  But what was the
+matter?
+
+Nobody spoke.  It seemed as if they could not get their breath.
+
+Shirley rubbed her eyes, and looked again.  Mrs. Hollister gave a
+startled look from her daughter to Graham and back to the barn again.
+Elizabeth and Carol were utterly silent, grasping each other's hands in
+violent ecstasy.  The boys murmured inarticulately, of which the only
+audible words were: "Good night!  Some class!"  Doris looked for a long
+second, puckered her lips as if she were going to cry, and inquired
+pitifully: "I yant my dear barn house home!  I yant to doh home!" and
+Star uttered a sharp, bewildered bark and bounded from the car as if
+this were something he ought to attend to.
+
+But before anybody could say anything more, Graham brought out the long
+white envelope and handed it to Shirley.
+
+"Before you get out and go in I just want to say a word," he began.
+"Father and I both want Shirley to have the old barn for her very own,
+to do with as she pleases.  This envelope contains the deed for the
+property made out in her name.  We have tried to put it in thorough
+repair before handing it over to her, and if there is anything more she
+can think of that it needs we'll do that too.  And now, welcome home to
+the old barn!  Mother, may I help you out?"
+
+"But there isn't any barn any more," burst forth the irrepressible
+Elizabeth.  "The barn's gone!  It's just a house!"
+
+And, sure enough, there stood a stately stone mansion on a wide green
+terrace, where shrubs and small trees were grouped fittingly about,
+erasing all signs of the old pasture-land; and the old grassy incline
+to the door now rolled away in velvety lawn on either side of a smooth
+cement walk bordered with vivid scarlet geraniums.  Trailing vines and
+autumn flowers were blossoming in jars on the wide stone railing.  The
+old barn door had been replaced by glass which gave a glimpse of
+strange new rooms beyond, and the roof had broken forth in charming
+colonial dormer windows like a new French hat on a head that had worn
+the same old poke bonnet for years.  No wonder Doris didn't recognize
+the dear old barn.  It did seem as though a wizard had worked magic
+upon it.  How was one to know that only a brief half-hour before the
+old gardener from the Graham estate set the last geranium in the row
+along the walk, and trailed the last vine over the stone wall; or that
+even now the corps of men who had been hastily laying and patting the
+turf in place over the terrace were in hiding down in the basement,
+with their wheelbarrows and picks and spades, having beat a hasty
+retreat at the sound of the car coming, and were only waiting till they
+could get away unobserved?  For orders were orders, and the orders were
+that the work was to be _done_ and every man out of sight by the time
+they arrived.  A bonus to every man if the orders were obeyed.  That is
+what money and influence can do in a month!
+
+In due time they got themselves out of that car in a sort of bewildered
+daze and walked up the new cement path, feeling strangely like
+intruders as they met the bright stare of the geraniums.
+
+They walked the length of the new piazza in delight.  They exclaimed
+and started and smiled and almost wept in one another's arms.  Graham
+stood and watched Shirley's happy face and was satisfied.
+
+The first thing Doris did when she got inside the lovely glass door was
+to start to run for her own little willow chair and her own little old
+rag doll that had been left behind, and down she went on the slippery
+floor.  And there, behold, the old barn floors too had disappeared
+under a coating of simple matched hardwood flooring, oiled and polished
+smoothly, and Doris was not expecting it.
+
+She got up quickly, half ashamed, and looked around laughing.
+
+"I vas skating!" she declared with a ringing laugh.  "I skated yite
+down on mine nose."
+
+Then she hurried more cautiously to the haven of her own chair, and
+with her old doll hugged to her breast she reiterated over and over as
+if to reassure herself: "Mine!  Doris!  Mine!  Doris!"
+
+Words would fail to describe all they said about the wonderful rooms,
+the walls all shining in a soft rough-finish plaster, tinted creamy on
+the upper half and gray below, and finished in dark chestnut trimmings;
+of the beautiful staircase and the wide bay window opening from the
+first landing like a little half-way room, with seats to rest upon.  It
+was standing in this bay window that Graham first called Mrs.
+Hollister's attention to something strange and new outside behind the
+house.  It was a long, low glass building with green things gleaming
+through its shining roof.
+
+"There, mother," he said, coming up softly behind her.  "There is your
+plaything.  You said you had always wanted a hot-house, so we made you
+one.  It is heated from a coil in the furnace, and you can try all the
+experiments with flowers you want to.  We put in a few things to start
+with, and you can get more at your leisure."
+
+Mrs. Hollister gave one look, and then turned and put her arms around
+the tall young man, reaching up on her tip-toes to do so, brought his
+handsome face down to hers, and kissed him.
+
+"My dear son!" she said.  That was all, but he knew that she had
+accepted him and given him a loving place with her own children in her
+heart.
+
+There were shoutings and runnings up stairs and down by first one and
+then another.  The bathrooms were discovered one by one, and then they
+had to all rush down into the basement by the new stairs to see the new
+laundry and the new furnace, and the entrance to the hot-house; and the
+hot-house itself, with its wealth of bloom transplanted from the Graham
+greenhouses.
+
+They almost forgot the chickens and the doves, and the garden was a
+past Eden not to be remembered till long hours afterward.
+
+The sunset was dying away in the sky, and the stars were large and few
+and piercing in the twilight night when Shirley and Sidney came walking
+up the terrace arm in arm, and found Doris sitting in the doorway
+cuddling her old rag doll and a new little gray kitten the farmer next
+door had brought her, and singing an evening song to herself.
+
+Shirley and Sidney turned and looked off at the sky where a rosy stain
+was blending softly into the gray of evening.
+
+"Do you remember the first night we stood here together?" Sidney said
+in a low tone, as he drew her fingers within his own.  "I loved you
+then, Shirley, that first night----"
+
+And then Doris's little shrill voice chimed above their murmurings:
+
+"Oh, mine nice dear home!  Mine kitty an' mine dolly! and mine piazza!
+and mine bafwoom wif a place to swim boats! an' mine fowers an' pitty
+house!  No more barn!  Barn _all dawn_!  Never turn bat any moh!  Oh,
+mine nice, pitty dear home!"
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED BARN ***
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Enchanted Barn</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Edmund Frederick</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October 11, 2011 [eBook #34426]<br />
+[Most recently updated: January 23, 2022]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Al Haines</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED BARN ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/img-front.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="[Illustration]" />
+<p class="caption">SHE WAS ALMOST BREATHLESS WHEN SHE REACHED THE BOTTOM <br/>
+OF THE HILL AND STOOD IN FRONT OF THE GREAT BARN.  <i><a href="#p20">Page 20</a></i></p>
+</div>
+
+<h1>
+The Enchanted Barn
+</h1>
+
+<h3>
+By
+</h3>
+
+<h2>
+Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+</h2>
+
+<h4>
+Author of "Marcia Schuyler," "Phoebe Deane," <br/>
+"The Obsession of Victoria Gracen," etc.
+</h4>
+
+<h3>
+<i>With Frontispiece by</i>
+<br/>
+EDMUND FREDERICK
+</h3>
+
+<h2>
+Philadelphia &amp; London
+<br/>
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+<br/>
+1918
+</h2>
+
+<h4>
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE GOLDEN RULE COMPANY
+<br/>
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+<br/><br/>
+PUBLISHED APRIL, 1918
+<br/><br/><br/>
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+<br/>
+AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+<br/>
+PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>
+CHAPTER I
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Shirley Hollister pushed back the hair from her hot forehead, pressed
+her hands wearily over tired eyes, then dropped her fingers again to
+the typewriter keys, and flew on with the letter she was writing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no one else in the inner office where she sat.  Mr. Barnard,
+the senior member of the firm, whose stenographer she was, had stepped
+into the outer office for a moment with a telegram which he had just
+received.  His absence gave Shirley a moment's respite from that
+feeling that she must keep strained up to meet his gaze and not let
+trouble show in her eyes, though a great lump was choking in her throat
+and the tears stung her hot eyelids and insisted on blurring her vision
+now and then.  But it was only for an instant that she gave way.  Her
+fingers flew on with their work, for this was an important letter, and
+Mr. Barnard wanted it to go in the next mail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As she wrote, a vision of her mother's white face appeared to her
+between the lines, the mother weak and white, with tears on her cheeks
+and that despairing look in her eyes.  Mother hadn't been able to get
+up for a week.  It seemed as if the cares of life were getting almost
+too much for her, and the warm spring days made the little brick house
+in the narrow street a stifling place to stay.  There was only one
+small window in mother's room, opening against a brick wall, for they
+had had to rent the front room with its two windows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, poor as it was, the little brick house had been home; and now they
+were not to have that long.  Notice had been served that they must
+vacate in four weeks; for the house, in fact, the whole row of houses
+in which it was situated, had been sold, and was to be pulled down to
+make way for a big apartment-house that was to be put up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Where they were going and what they were going to do now was the great
+problem that throbbed on Shirley's weary brain night and day, that kept
+her from sleeping and eating, that choked in her throat when she tried
+to speak to Mr. Barnard, that stared from her feverish eyes as she
+looked at the sunshine on the street or tried to work in the busy
+monotony of the office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had been in the little house nearly a year, ever since the father
+died.  It had taken all they could scrape together to pay the funeral
+expenses, and now with her salary, and the roomer's rent, and what
+George got as cash-boy in a department store they were just barely able
+to get along.  There was not a cent over for sickness or trouble, and
+nothing to move with, even if they had anywhere to move, or any time to
+hunt for a place.  Shirley knew from her experience in hunting for the
+present house that it was going to be next to impossible for them to
+find any habitable place for as little rent as they were now paying,
+and how <i>could</i> they pay more?  She was only a beginner, and her salary
+was small.  There were three others in the family, not yet
+wage-earners.  The problem was tremendous.  Could it be that Carol,
+only fourteen years old, must stop school and go to work somewhere to
+earn a pittance also?  Carol was slender and pale, and needed fresh air
+and nourishing food.  Carol was too young to bear burdens yet; besides,
+who would be housekeeper and take care of mother if Carol had to go to
+work?  It was different with George; he was a boy, strong and sturdy;
+he had his school in the department store, and was getting on well with
+his studies.  George would be all right.  He belonged to a baseball
+team, too, and got plenty of chances for exercise; but Carol was frail,
+there was no denying it.  Harley was a boisterous nine-year-old, always
+on the street these days when he wasn't in school; and who could blame
+him?  For the narrow, dark brick house was no place for a lively boy.
+But the burden and anxiety for him were heavy on his sister's heart,
+who had taken over bodily all the worries of her mother.  Then there
+was the baby Doris, with her big, pathetic eyes, and her round cheeks
+and loving ways.  Doris, too, had to be shut in the dark little house
+with the summer heat coming on, and no one with time enough or strength
+enough to take her to the Park.  Doris was only four.  Oh, it was
+terrible, <i>terrible</i>!  and Shirley could do nothing but sit there, and
+click those keys, and earn her poor little inadequate salary!  Some
+day, of course, she would get more&mdash;but some day might be too late!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She shuddered as the terrible thought flashed through her mind, then
+went on with her work again.  She must shake off this state of mind and
+give attention to her duty, or she would lose even this opportunity to
+help her dear ones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door of the outer office opened, and Mr. Barnard entered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Miss Hollister," he said hurriedly, "if you have those letters ready,
+I will sign them at once.  We have just had word that Mr. Baker of the
+firm died last night in Chicago, and I must go on at once.  The office
+will be closed for the rest of the day.  You can let those other
+matters that I spoke of go until to-morrow, and you may have the day
+off.  I shall not be at the office at the usual hour to-morrow morning,
+but you can come in and look after the mail.  I will leave further
+directions with Mr. Clegg.  You can mail these letters as you go down."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ten minutes later Shirley stood on the street below in the warm spring
+sunshine, and gazed about her half dazed.  It seemed a travesty on her
+poor little life just now to have a holiday and no way to make it count
+for the dear ones at home.  How should she use it, anyway?  Should she
+go home and help Carol?  Or should she go out and see whether she could
+find a house somewhere that they could possibly afford to move to?
+That, of course, was the sensible thing to do; yet she had no idea
+where to go.  But they did not expect her home at this time of day.
+Perhaps it was as well that she should use this time and find out
+something without worrying her mother.  At least, she would have time
+to think undisturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She grasped her little package of lunch that she had brought from home
+with her and looked about her helplessly.  In her little thin purse was
+the dime she always carried with her to pay her car-fare in case
+something happened that she had to ride either way&mdash;though she seldom
+rode, even in a storm.  But her mother insisted on the dime.  She said
+it was not safe to go without any money at all.  This dime was her
+capital wherewith to hunt a house.  Perhaps the day had been given her
+by a kind heavenly Father to go on her search.  She would try to use it
+to the best of her ability.  She lifted her bewildered heart in a
+feeble petition for light and help in her difficult problem, and then
+she went and stood on the corner of the street where many trolley-cars
+were passing and repassing.  Which one should she take, and where
+should she go?  The ten cents must cover all her riding, and she must
+save half of it for her return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She studied the names on the cars.  "Glenside Road" one read.  What had
+she heard about that?  Ah! that it was the longest ride one could take
+for five cents within the limits of the city's roads!  Her heart leaped
+up at the word.  It sounded restful anyway, and would give her time to
+think.  It wasn't likely, if it went near any glens, that there would
+be any houses within her means on its way; but possibly it passed some
+as it went through the city, and she could take notice of the streets
+and numbers and get out on her return trip to investigate if there
+proved to be anything promising; or, if it were too far away from home
+for her to walk back from it, she could come another time in the
+evening with George, some night when he did not have school.  Anyhow,
+the ride would rest her and give her a chance to think what she ought
+to do, and one car was as good as another for that.  Her resolve was
+taken, and she stepped out and signalled it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were not many people in the car.  It was not an hour when people
+rode out to the suburbs.  Two workmen with rolls of wall-paper slung in
+burlap bags, a woman and a little girl, that was all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley settled back in her seat, and leaned her head against the
+window-sash wearily.  She felt so tired, body and soul, that she would
+have been glad to sleep and forget for a little while, only that there
+was need for her to be up and doing.  Her room had been oppressively
+warm the night before; and Doris, who slept with her, had rolled from
+one side of the bed to the other, making sleep well-nigh impossible for
+the elder sister.  She felt bruised and bleeding in her very soul, and
+longed for rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The car was passing through the thickest of the city's business
+thoroughfare, and the noise and confusion whirled about her ears like
+some fiendish monotonous music that set the time for the mad dance of
+the world.  One danced to it whether one would or not, and danced on to
+one's death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Around the city hall the car passed, and on up Market Street.  They
+passed a great fruit-store, and the waft of air that entered the open
+windows came laden with the scent of over-ripe bananas, late oranges
+and lemons; a moment later with sickening fumes it blended into a
+deadly smell of gas from a yawning hole in the pavement, and mingled
+with the sweat of the swarthy foreigners grouped about it, picks in
+hand.  It seemed as though all the smells in creation were met and
+congregated in that street within four or five blocks; and one by one
+they tortured her, leather and paint and metal and soap, rank cheese in
+a fellow traveller's market-basket, thick stifling smoke from a street
+engine that was champing up the gravel they fed it to make a new patch
+of paving, the stench from the cattle-sheds as they passed the railroad
+and stock-yards, the dank odor of the river as they crossed the bridge,
+and then an oilcloth-factory just beyond!  The faint sweet breath of
+early daffodils and violets from an occasional street vendor stood no
+chance at all with these, and all the air seemed sickening and dreadful
+to the girl as she rested wearily against the window with closed eyes,
+and tried to think.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They slipped at last into the subway with a whir and a swish, where the
+cool, clean smell of the cement seemed gradually to rise and drown the
+memory of the upper world, and came refreshingly in at the windows.
+Shirley had a passing thought, wondering whether it would be like that
+in the grave, all restful and sweet and quiet and clean, with the
+noisy, heartless world roaring overhead.  Then they came up suddenly
+out of the subway, with a kind of triumphant leap and shout of brakes
+and wheels, into the light and sunshine above, and a new world.  For
+here were broad streets, clean pavements, ample houses, well-trimmed
+lawns, quiet people walking in comfort, bits of flower-boxes on the
+window-sills filled with pansies and hyacinths; and the air was sweet
+and clean.  The difference made Shirley sit up and look about her, and
+the contrast reminded her of the heaven that would be beyond the grave.
+It was just because she was so tired and disheartened that her thoughts
+took this solemn form.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now her heart sank again, for she was in the world of plenty far
+beyond her means, and there was no place for such as she.  Not in
+either direction could she see any little side streets with tiny houses
+that would rent for fifteen dollars a month.  There were such in the
+city, she knew; but they were scarce, and were gobbled up as soon as
+vacant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But here all was spaciousness, and even the side streets had three
+stories and smug porches with tidy rockers and bay windows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at the great plate-glass windows with their cobwebby lace
+draperies, and thought what it would be if she were able to take her
+mother and the children to such a home as one of those.  Why, if she
+could afford that, George could go to college, and Doris wear a little
+velvet coat with rose-buds in her bonnet, like the child on the
+sidewalk with her nurse and her doll-carriage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But a thing like that could never come to her.  There were no rich old
+uncles to leave them a fortune; she was not bright and gifted to invent
+some wonderful toy or write a book or paint a picture that would bring
+the fortune; and no one would ever come her way with a fortune to marry
+her.  Those things happened only in story-books, and she was not a
+story-book girl; she was just a practical, every-day, hard-working girl
+with a fairly good complexion, good blue eyes and a firm chin.  She
+could work hard and was willing; but she could not bear anxiety.  It
+was eating into her soul, and she could feel a kind of mental paralysis
+stealing over her from it, benumbing her faculties hour by hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The car glided on, and the houses grew less stately and farther apart.
+They were not so pretentious now, but they were still substantial and
+comfortable, with more ground and an air of having been there always,
+with no room for newcomers.  Now and then would come a nucleus of shops
+and an old tavern with a group of new groceries and crying competition
+of green stamps and blue stamps and yellow stamps posted alluringly in
+their windows.  Here busy, hurried people would swarm, and children ran
+and shouted; but every house they passed seemed full to overflowing,
+and there was nowhere any place that seemed to say, "Here you may come
+and find room!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now the car left the paved and built-up streets, and wandered out
+between the open fields, where trees arched lavishly overhead, and
+little new green things lifted up unfrightened heads, and dared to grow
+in the sunshine.  A new smell, the smell of rich earth and young green
+growing things, of skunk-cabbage in bloom in the swamps, of budding
+willows and sassafras, roused her senses; the hum of a bee on its way
+to find the first honey-drops came to her ears.  Sweet, droning,
+restful, with the call of a wild bird in the distance, and all the air
+balmy with the joy of spring.  Ah!  This was a new world!  This indeed
+was heaven!  What a contrast to the office, and the little narrow
+stifling brick house where mother lay, and Doris cut strings of paper
+dolls from an old newspaper and sighed to go out in the Park!  What a
+contrast!  Truly, this was heaven!  If she could but stay, and all the
+dear ones come!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had spent summers in the country, of course; and she knew and loved
+nature, but it had been five years since she had been free to get
+outside the city limits for more than a day, and then not far.  It
+seemed to her now that she had never sensed the beauty of the country
+as to-day; perhaps because she had never needed it as now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The road went on smoothly straight ahead, with now a rounding curve,
+and then another long stretch of perfect road.  Men were ploughing in
+the fields on one side, and on the other lay the emerald velvet of a
+field of spring wheat.  More people had got into the car as it left the
+city.  Plain, substantial men, nice, pleasant women; but Shirley did
+not notice them; she was watching the changing landscape and thinking
+her dismal, pitiful thoughts.  Thinking, too, that she had spent her
+money&mdash;or would have when she returned, with nothing to show for it,
+and her conscience condemned her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were coming now to a wide, old-fashioned barn of stone, with ample
+grassy stone-coped entrance rising like a stately carpeted stairway
+from the barn-yard.  It was resting on the top of a green knoll, and a
+great elm-tree arched over it protectingly.  A tiny stream purled below
+at one side, and the ground sloped gradually off at the other.  Shirley
+was not noticing the place much except as it was a part of the
+landscape until she heard the conductor talking to the man across the
+aisle about it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good barn!" he was saying reflectively.  "Pity to have it standing
+idle so long; but they'll never rent it without a house, and they won't
+build.  It belongs to the old man's estate, and can't be divided until
+the youngest boy's of age, four 'r five years yet.  The house burned
+down two years ago.  Some tramps set it afire.  No, nobody was living
+in it at the time.  The last renter didn't make the farm pay,&mdash;too fur
+from the railroad, I guess,&mdash;and there ain't anybody near enough round
+to use the barn since Halyer built his new barn," and he indicated a
+great red structure down the road on the other side.  "Halyer useta use
+this,&mdash;rented it fer less'n nothing, but he got too lazy to come this
+fur, and so he sold off half his farm fer a dairy and built that there
+barn.  So now I s'pose that barn'll stand idle and run to waste till
+that kid comes of age and there's a boom up this way and it's sold.
+Pity about it, though; it's a good barn.  Wisht I had it up to my
+place; I could fill it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Make a good location for a house," said the other man, looking
+intently at the big stone pile.  "Been a fine barn in its time.  Old
+man must uv had a pile of chink when he built it.  Who'd ya say owned
+it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Graham, Walter Graham, big firm down near the city hall&mdash;guess you
+know 'em.  Got all kinds of money.  This ain't one, two, three with the
+other places they own.  Got a regular palace out Arden way fer summer
+and a town house in the swellest neighborhood, and own land all over.
+Old man inherited it from his father and three uncles.  They don't even
+scarcely know they got this barn, I reckon.  It ain't very stylish out
+this way just yet."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be a big boom here some day; nice location," said the passenger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not yetta while," said the conductor sagely; "railroad station's too
+far.  Wait till they get a station out Allister Avenue; then you can
+talk.  Till then it'll stay as it is, I reckon.  There's a spring down
+behind the barn, the best water in the county.  I useta get a drink
+every day when the switch was up here.  I missed it a lot when they
+moved the switch to the top of the hill.  Water's cold as ice and clear
+as crystal&mdash;can't be beat this side the soda-fountain.  I sometimes
+stop the car on a hot summer day now, and run and get a drink&mdash;it's
+great."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men talked on, but Shirley heard no more.  Her eyes were intent on
+the barn as they passed it&mdash;the great, beautiful, wide,
+comfortable-looking barn.  What a wonderful house it would make!  She
+almost longed to be a cow to enter this peaceful shelter and feel at
+home for a little while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The car went on, and left the big barn in the distance; but Shirley
+kept thinking, going over almost unconsciously all the men had said
+about it.  Walter Graham!  Where had she seen that name?  Oh, of course
+in the Ward Trust Building, the whole fourth floor.  Leather goods of
+some sort, perhaps, she couldn't just remember; yet she was sure of the
+name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man had said the barn rented for almost nothing.  What could that
+mean translated in terms of dollars?  Would the fifteen dollars a month
+that they were now paying for the little brick house cover it?  But
+there would be the car-fare for herself and George.  Walking that
+distance twice a day, or even once, would be impossible.  Ten cents a
+day, sixty cents a week&mdash;twice sixty cents!  If they lived out of the
+city, they couldn't afford to pay but twelve dollars a month.  They
+never would rent that barn for that, of course, it was so big and
+grand-looking; and yet&mdash;it was a <i>barn</i>!  What did barns rent for,
+anyway?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, if it could be had, could they live in a barn?  What were barns
+like, anyway, inside?  Did they have floors, or only stalls and mud?
+There had been but two tiny windows visible in the front; how did they
+get light inside?  But then it couldn't be much darker than the brick
+house, no matter what it was.  Perhaps there was a skylight, and hay,
+pleasant hay, to lie down on and rest.  Anyhow, if they could only
+manage to get out there for the summer somehow, they could bear some
+discomforts just to sit under that great tree and look up at the sky.
+To think of Doris playing under that tree!  And mother sitting under it
+sewing!  Mother could get well out there in that fresh air, and Doris
+would get rosy cheeks again.  There would not likely be a school about
+for Carol; but that would not hurt her for the summer, anyway, and
+maybe by fall they could find a little house.  Perhaps she would get a
+raise in the fall.  If they could only get somewhere to go now!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But yet&mdash;a barn!  Live in a barn!  What would mother say?  Would she
+feel that it was a disgrace?  Would she call it one of Shirley's wild
+schemes?  Well, but what were they going to do?  They must live
+<i>somewhere</i>, unless they were destined to die homeless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The car droned on through the open country coming now and then to
+settlements of prosperous houses, some of them small; but no empty ones
+seemed to beckon her.  Indeed, they looked too high-priced to make her
+even look twice at them; besides, her heart was left behind with that
+barn, that great, beautiful barn with the tinkling brook beside it, and
+the arching tree and gentle green slope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the car stopped in a commonplace little town in front of a red
+brick church, and everybody got up and went out.  The conductor
+disappeared, too, and the motorman leaned back on his brake and looked
+at her significantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"End of the line, lady," he said with a grin, as if she were dreaming
+and had not taken notice of her surroundings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh," said Shirley, rousing up, and looking bewilderedly about her.
+"Well, you go back, don't you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes.  Go back in fifteen minutes," said the motorman indulgently.
+There was something appealing in the sadness of this girl's eyes that
+made him think of his little girl at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you go back just the same way?" she asked with sudden alarm.  She
+did want to see that barn again, and to get its exact location so that
+she could come back to it some day if possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, we go back just the same way," nodded the motorman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat back in her seat again contented, and resumed her thoughts.
+The motorman took up his dinner-pail, sat down on a high stool with his
+back to her, and began to eat.  It was a good time now for her to eat
+her little lunch, but she was not hungry.  However, she would be if she
+did not eat it, of course; and there would be no other time when people
+would not be around.  She put her hand in her shabby coat-pocket for
+her handkerchief, and her fingers came into contact with something
+small and hard and round.  For a moment she thought it was a button
+that had been off her cuff for several days, But no, she remembered
+sewing that on that very morning.  Then she drew the little object out,
+and behold it was a five-cent piece!  Yes, of course, she remembered
+now.  It was the nickel she put in her pocket last night when she went
+for the extra loaf of bread and found the store closed.  She had made
+johnny-cake instead, and supper had been late; but the nickel had
+stayed in her coat-pocket forgotten.  And now suddenly a big temptation
+descended upon her, to spend that nickel in car-fare, riding to the
+barn and getting out for another closer look at it, and then taking the
+next car on into the city.  Was it wild and foolish, was it not perhaps
+actually wrong, to spend that nickel that way when they needed so much
+at home, and had so little?  A crazy idea,&mdash;for how could a barn ever
+be their shelter?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She thought so hard about it that she forgot to eat her lunch until the
+motorman slammed the cover down on his tin pail and put the high stool
+away.  The conductor, too, was coming out of a tiny frame house, wiping
+his mouth with the back of his hand and calling to his wife, who stood
+in the doorway and told him about an errand she wanted him to do for
+her in the city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's cheeks grew red with excitement, for the nickel was burning
+in her hand, and she knew in her heart that she was going to spend it
+getting off that car near that barn.  She would eat her lunch under the
+tree by the brook!  How exciting that would be!  At least it would be
+something to tell the children about at night!  Or no! they would think
+her crazy and selfish, perhaps, to waste a whole day and fifteen cents
+on herself.  Still, it was not on herself; it was really for them.  If
+they could only see that beautiful spot!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she handed her nickel to the conductor, she felt almost guilty,
+and it seemed as if he could see her intention in her eyes; but she
+told herself that she was not sure she was going to get off at all.
+She could decide as she came near the place.  She would have to get off
+either before she got there or after she had passed and walk back.  The
+conductor would think it strange if a young girl got off the car in the
+country in front of an empty barn.  How would she manage it?  There had
+been houses on the way, not far from the barn.  What was the name the
+conductor had mentioned of the man who had built another barn?  She
+might get off at his house, but still&mdash;stay&mdash;what was that avenue where
+they had said the railroad would come some day with a station?  They
+had called it out as they stopped to let off the woman and the little
+girl.  Allister Avenue!  That was it.  She would ask the conductor to
+let her off at Allister Avenue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She watched the way intently; and, as they neared the place where
+Allister Avenue ought to be, her heart pounded so that she felt quite
+conscious, as if she were going to steal a barn and carry it home in
+her coat-pocket.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She managed to signal the car to stop quite quietly, however, and
+stepped down to the pavement as if it were her regular stopping-place.
+She was aware of the curious gaze of both motorman and conductor, but
+she held her head up, and walked a few steps up Allister Avenue until
+the car had whirred on out of sight.  Then she turned anxiously,
+looking down the road, and there to her joy saw the stone gable of the
+great barn high on its knoll in the distance.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>
+CHAPTER II
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Shirley walked down the dusty road by the side of the car-track,
+elation and excitement in her breast.  What an adventure!  To be
+walking alone in this strange, beautiful spring country, and nobody to
+interfere!  It was her Father's beautiful out-of-doors, and she had
+paid her extra nickel to have a right to it for a little while.
+Perhaps her mother would have been worried at her being alone in the
+country, but Shirley had no fears.  Young people seldom have fears.
+She walked down the road with a free step and a bright light in her
+eyes.  She had to see that barn somehow; she <i>just had to</i>!
+</p>
+
+
+
+<p><a name="p20"></a>
+She was almost breathless when she reached the bottom of the hill at
+last, and stood in front of the great barn.  The up car passed her just
+as she got there, and the people looked out at her apathetically as
+they would at any country girl.  She stood still a minute, and watched
+the car up the hill and out of sight, then picked her way across the
+track, and entered the field where the fence was broken down, walking
+up the long grassy slope to the front of the barn and standing still at
+the top in front of the big double doors, so grim and forbidding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The barn was bigger than it looked in the distance.  She fell very
+small; yet her soul rejoiced in its bigness.  Oh, to have plenty of
+room for once!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She put her nose close to the big doors, and tried to find a crack to
+look through; but the doors were tight and fitted well.  There was no
+use trying to see in from there.  She turned and ran down the long
+grassy slope, trying to pretend it was a palatial stairway, then around
+the side to the back of the barn, and there at last she found a door
+part way ajar, opening into what must have been the cow-stables, and
+she slipped joyously in.  Some good angel must have been protecting her
+in her ignorance and innocence, for that dark basement of the barn
+would have been an excellent hiding-place for a whole regiment of
+tramps; but she trod safely on her way, and found nothing but a
+field-mouse to dispute her entrance; and it scurried hastily under the
+foundation, and disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cow-stables evidently had not been occupied for a number of years,
+for the place was clean and littered with dry straw, as if it had
+fallen and sifted from the floor above.  The stalls were all empty now,
+and old farm implements, several ploughs, and a rickety wagon occupied
+the dusty, cobwebby spaces beyond the stalls.  There were several
+openings, rude doorways and crude windows; and the place was not
+unpleasant, for the back of it opened directly upon a sloping hill
+which dropped away to the running brook below, and a little stone
+spring-house, its mossy roof half hidden by a tangle of willows.
+Shirley stood in a doorway and gazed with delight, then turned back to
+her investigation.  This lower place would not do for human habitation,
+of course; it was too low and damp, and the floor was only mud.  She
+must penetrate if possible to the floor above.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently she found a rough ladder, cleats nailed to uprights against
+the wall; and up this she crept cautiously to the opening above, and
+presently emerged into the wide floor of the real barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were several small windows, left open, and the sweet spring air
+swept gently in; and there were little patches of pale sunshine in the
+misty recesses of the great dim room.  Gentle motes floated in the
+sharp lances of sunshine that stole through the cracks; another ladder
+rose in the midst of the great floor to the loft above; and festoons of
+ancient hay and cobwebs hung dustily down from the opening above.
+After Shirley had skipped about the big floor and investigated every
+corner of it, imagining how grand it would be to set the table in one
+end of the room and put mother's bed behind a screen in the other end,
+with the old piano somewhere in the centre and the big parlor chair,
+mended, near by, the old couch covered with a portière standing on the
+other side, she turned her attention to the loft, and, gathering
+courage, climbed up there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were two great openings that let in the light; but they seemed
+like tiny mouse-holes in the great place, and the hay lay sweet and
+dim, thinly scattered over the whole big floor.  In one corner there
+was quite a luxurious lot of it, and Shirley cast herself down upon it
+for a blessed minute, and looked up to the dark rafters, lit with beams
+of sunlight creeping through fantastic cracks here and there, and
+wondered how the boys would enjoy sleeping up here, though there was
+plenty of room down-stairs for a dozen sleeping-rooms for the matter of
+that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Foolish, of course, and utterly impossible, as all daydreams always had
+been; but somehow it seemed so real and beautiful that she could
+scarcely bring herself to abandon it.  Nevertheless, her investigation
+had made her hungry, and she decided at last to go down and eat her
+lunch under the big tree out in the sunshine; for it was dark and
+stuffy inside, although one could realize how beautiful it would be
+with those two great doors flung wide, and light and air let in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The day was perfect, and Shirley found a beautiful place to sit, high
+and sheltered, where she would not be noticed when the trolley-cars
+sped by; and, as she ate her sandwiches, she let her imagination build
+a beautiful piazza where the grassy rise came up to the front of the
+barn, and saw in thought her mother sitting with the children at the
+door.  How grand it would be to live in a home like this, even if it
+were a barn!  If they could just get out here for the summer, it would
+do wonders for them all, and put new heart into her mother for the hard
+work of the winter.  Perhaps by fall mother would be well enough to
+keep boarders as she longed to do, and so help out with the finances
+more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, of course, this was just one of her wild schemes, and she must
+not think any more about it, much less even speak of it at home, for
+they would never get done laughing and teasing her for it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She finished the last crumb of the piece of one-egg cake that Carol had
+made the day before for her lunch, and ran down to the spring to see
+whether she could get a drink, for she was very thirsty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There proved to be an old tin can on the stones in the spring-house,
+doubtless used by the last tramp or conductor who came that way; but
+Shirley scrubbed it carefully in the sand, drank a delicious draught,
+and washed her hands and face in the clear cold water.  Then she went
+back to the barn again, for a new thought had entered her mind.
+Supposing it were possible to rent that place for the summer at any
+reasonable price, how could they cook and how keep warm?  Of course
+there were such things as candles and oil-lamps for lighting, but
+cooking!  Would they have to build a fire out-of-doors and play at
+camping?  Or would they have to resort to oil-stoves?  Oil-stoves with
+their sticky, oily outsides, and their mysterious moods of smoke and
+sulkiness, out of which only an expert could coax them!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, though she stood on all sides of that barn, and gazed up at the
+roof, and though she searched each floor diligently, she could find no
+sign of a chimney anywhere.  Her former acquaintance with barns had not
+put her into a position to judge whether this was a customary lack of
+barns or not.  There were two wooden, chimney-like structures
+decorating the roof, but it was all too evident that they were solely
+for purposes of ornament.  Her heart sank.  What a grand fireplace
+there might have been right in the middle of the great wall opposite
+the door!  Could anything be more ideal?  She could fancy mother
+sitting in front of it, with Harley and Doris on the floor playing with
+a kitten.  But there was no fireplace.  She wondered vaguely whether a
+stovepipe could be put out of the window, and so make possible a fire
+in a small cook-stove.  She was sure she had seen stovepipes coming out
+of all sorts of odd places in the cities.  But would the owners allow
+it?  And would any fire at all perhaps make it dangerous and affect the
+fire-insurance?  Oh, there were so many things to think about, and it
+was all so impossible, of course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned with heavy heart, and let herself down the ladder.  It was
+time she went home, for the afternoon was well on its way.  She could
+hear the whir of the trolley-car going up.  She must be out and down
+the road a little way to get the next one that passed it at the switch
+when it came back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So with a wistful glance about the big dusty floor she turned away, and
+went down to the ground floor and out into the afternoon sunshine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as she crossed the knoll and was stepping over the broken fence,
+she saw a clump of clover, and among the tiny stems one bearing four
+leaves.  She was not superstitious, nor did the clover mean any special
+omen to her; but she stooped, smiling, and plucked it, tucking it into
+the button-hole of her coat, and hurried down the road; for she could
+already hear the returning trolley-car, and she wished to be a little
+farther from the barn before it overtook her.  Somehow she shrank from
+having people in the car know where she had been, for it seemed like
+exposing her audacious wish to the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Seated in the car, she turned her eyes back to the last glimpse of the
+stone gables and the sweeping branches of the budding tree as the car
+sped down the hill and curved away behind another slope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After all, it was but half-past four when the car reached the city
+hall.  Its route lay on half a mile nearer to the little brick house,
+and she could stay in it, and have a shorter walk if she chose.  It was
+not in the least likely anybody would be in any office at this hour of
+the day, anyway; that is, anybody with authority; but somehow Shirley
+had to signal that car and get out, long walk or not.  A strong desire
+seized her to put her fate to the test, and either crush out this dream
+of hers forever, or find out at once whether it had a foundation to
+live.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She walked straight to the Ward Trust Building and searched the
+bulletin-board in the hallway carefully.  Yes, there it was,
+"Graham-Walter&mdash;Fourth floor front."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With rapidly beating heart she entered the elevator and tried to steady
+her voice as she said, "Fourth"; but it shook in spite of her.  What
+was she doing?  How dared she?  What should she say when they asked her
+what she wanted?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley's firm little lips were set, and her head had that tilt
+that her mother knew meant business.  She had gone so far she would see
+the matter to the finish, even if it was ridiculous.  For now that she
+was actually on the elevator and almost to the fourth floor it seemed
+the most extraordinary thing in the world for a girl to enter a great
+business office and demand that its head should stoop to rent her an
+old barn out in the country for the infinitesimal sum she could offer.
+He would perhaps think her crazy, and have her put out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she got out of the elevator calmly, and walked down the hall to
+where a ground-glass door proclaimed in gold letters the name she was
+hunting.  Timidly she turned the knob, and entered a large room,
+spacious and high ceiled, with Turkish rugs on the inlaid floor,
+leather chairs, and mahogany desks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no one in the office but a small office-boy, who lolled idly
+on one elbow on the table, reading the funny page of the afternoon
+paper.  She paused, half frightened, and looked about her appealingly;
+and now she began to be afraid she was too late.  It had taken longer
+than she had thought it would to get here.  It was almost a quarter to
+five by the big clock on the wall.  No head of a business firm was
+likely to stay in his office so late in the day as that, she knew.  Yet
+she could hear the steady click of typewriter keys in an inner office;
+he might have remained to dictate a letter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The office-boy looked up insolently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is Mr. Graham in?" asked Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Which Mr. Graham?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why," hesitating and catching the name on the door, "Mr. Walter
+Graham."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, he isn't here.  Never here after four o'clock."  The boy dropped
+on his elbow again, and resumed his reading.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" said Shirley, dismayed now, in spite of her fright, as she saw
+all hope fading from her.  "Well, is there another&mdash;I mean is the
+other&mdash;Mr. Graham in?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Someone stirred in the inner office, and came across to the door,
+looking out, someone with an overcoat and hat on.  He looked at the
+girl, and then spoke sharply to the boy, who stood up straight as if he
+had been shot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Edward!  See what the lady wants."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, sir!" said Edward with sudden respect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley caught her breath, and plunged in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I would like to see <i>some</i> Mr. Graham if possible for just a moment."
+There was something self-possessed and businesslike in her voice now
+that commanded the boy's attention.  Her brief business training was
+upon her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The figure from the inner room emerged, and took off his hat.  He was a
+young man and strikingly handsome, with heavy dark hair that waved over
+his forehead and fine, strong features.  His eyes were both keen and
+kind.  There was something luminous in them that made Shirley think of
+Doris's eyes when she asked a question.  Doris had wonderfully wise
+eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am Mr. <i>Sidney</i> Graham," said the young man, advancing.  "What can I
+do for you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I wanted to ask you about a barn," began Shirley eagerly, then
+stopped abashed.  How could she ask this immaculate son of luxury if he
+would rent a young girl his barn to live in during the summer?  She
+could feel the color mounting in her cheeks, and would have turned and
+fled gladly if a way had been open.  She was aware not only of the kind
+eyes of the man upon her, but also of the gaping boy taking it all in,
+and her tongue was suddenly tied.  She could say no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the young man saw how it was, and he bowed as gracefully as if
+asking about barns was a common habit of young women coming into his
+office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, certainly," he said; "won't you just step in here a moment and sit
+down?  We can talk better.  Edward, you may go.  I shall not need you
+any longer this evening."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I am detaining you; you were just going out!" cried Shirley in a
+panic.  "I will go away now and come again&mdash;perhaps."  She would do
+anything to get away without telling her preposterous errand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all!" said young Mr. Graham.  "I am in no hurry whatever.  Just
+step this way, and sit down."  His tone was kindness itself.  Somehow
+Shirley had to follow him.  Her face was crimson now, and she felt
+ready to cry.  What a fool she had been to get herself into a
+predicament like this!  What would her mother say to her?  How could
+she tell this strange young man what she had come for?  But he was
+seated and looking at her with his nice eyes, taking in all the little
+pitiful attempts at neatness and style and beauty in her shabby little
+toilet.  She was awfully conscious of a loose fluff of gold-glinted
+hair that had come down over one hot cheek and ear.  How dishevelled
+she must look, and how dusty after climbing over that dirty barn!  And
+then she plunged into her subject.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>
+CHAPTER III
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+"I'm sure I don't know what you will think of my asking," said Shirley
+excitedly, "but I want very much to know whether there is any
+possibility that you would rent a beautiful big stone barn you own out
+on the old Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue.  You do own it, don't
+you?  I was told you did, or at least that Mr. Walter Graham did.  They
+said it belonged to 'the estate.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, now you've got one on me," said the young man with a most
+engaging smile.  "I'm sure I don't know whether I own it or not.  I'm
+sorry.  But if it belongs to grandfather's estate,&mdash;his name was
+Walter, too, you know.&mdash;why, I suppose I do own part of it.  I'm sorry
+father isn't here.  He of course knows all about it&mdash;or the
+attorney&mdash;of course he would know.  But I think he has left the office.
+However, that doesn't matter.  What was it you wanted?  To rent it, you
+say?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Shirley, feeling very small and very much an impostor;
+"that is, if I could afford it.  I suppose perhaps it will be way ahead
+of my means, but I thought it wouldn't do any harm to ask."  Her shy
+eyes were almost filled with tears, and the young man was deeply
+distressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all, not at all," he hastened to say.  "I'm just stupid that I
+don't know about it.  Where did you say it was?  Out on the Glenside
+Road?  A barn?  Come to think of it, I remember one of my uncles lived
+out that way once, and I know there is a lot of land somewhere out
+there belonging to the estate.  You say there is a barn on it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, a beautiful barn," said Shirley anxiously, her eyes dreamy and
+her cheeks like two glowing roses.  "It is stone, and has a wide grassy
+road like a great staircase leading up to it, and a tall tree over it.
+There is a brook just below,&mdash;it is high up from the road on a little
+grassy hill."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said, nodding eagerly, "I see!  It almost seems as
+if I remember.  And you wanted to rent it for the summer, you say?  You
+are&mdash;ah&mdash;in the agricultural business, I suppose?"  He looked at her
+respectfully.  He knew the new woman, and honored her.  He did not seem
+at all startled that she wanted to rent a barn for the summer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley did not in the least understand.  She looked at him
+bewildered a moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no!  I am only a stenographer myself&mdash;but my mother&mdash;that is&mdash;&mdash;"
+she paused in confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I see, your mother is the farmer, I suppose.  Your home is near
+by&mdash;near to the barn you want to rent?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, oh, no!" she said desperately.  "We don't want to use the barn for
+a barn at all.  I want to use it for a house!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was out at last, the horrible truth; and she sat trembling to see
+his look of amazement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Use it for a house!" he exclaimed.  "Why, how could you?  To live in,
+do you mean? or just to take a tent and camp out there for a few days?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To <i>live in</i>," said Shirley doggedly, lifting her eyes in one swift
+defiant look and then dropping them to her shabby gloves and thin
+pocketbook, empty now even of the last precious nickel.  If he said
+anything more, she was sure she should cry.  If he patronized her the
+least little bit, or grew haughty, now that he saw how low she was
+reduced, she would turn and fly from the office and never look him in
+the face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he did neither.  Instead, he just talked in a natural tone, as if
+it were the most common thing in the world for a girl to want to live
+in a barn, and nothing to be surprised over in the least.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I see," he said pleasantly.  "Well, now, that might be arranged,
+you know.  Of course I don't know much about things, but I could find
+out.  You see, I don't suppose we often have calls to rent the property
+that way&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, of course not," said Shirley, gathering up her scattered
+confidence.  "I know it's queer for me to ask, but we have to
+move&mdash;they are going to build an apartment-house where we are renting
+now, and mother is sick.  I should like to get her out into the
+country, our house is so little and dark; and I thought, if she could
+be all summer where she could see the sky and hear the birds, she might
+get well.  I want to get my little sisters and brothers out of the
+city, too.  But we couldn't likely pay enough rent.  I suppose it was
+silly of me to ask."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all!" said the young man courteously, as though she had been a
+queen whom he delighted to honor.  "I don't see why we shouldn't be
+able to get together on some kind of a proposition&mdash;that is, unless
+father has other plans that I don't know about.  A barn ought not to be
+worth such a big price.  How much would you feel like paying?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was studying the girl before him with interested eyes; noting the
+well-set head on the pretty shoulders, even in spite of the ill-fitting
+shabby blue coat; the delicate features; the glint of gold in the soft
+brown hair; the tilt of the firm little chin, and the wistfulness in
+the big blue eyes.  This was a new kind of girl, and he was disposed to
+give her what she wanted if he could.  And he <i>could</i>.  He knew well
+that anything he willed mightily would not be denied him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The frightened color came into the delicate cheeks again, and the blue
+eyes fluttered down ashamedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We are only paying fifteen a month now," she said; "and I couldn't pay
+any more, for we haven't got it.  I couldn't pay <i>as much</i>, for it
+would cost sixty cents a week apiece for George and me to come in to
+our work from there.  I couldn't pay more than twelve! and I know
+that's ridiculous for such a great big, beautiful place, but&mdash;I <i>had</i>
+to ask."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She lifted her eyes swiftly in apology, and dropped them again; the
+young man felt a glow of sympathy for her, and a deep desire to help
+her have her wish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, certainly," he said heartily.  "Of course you did.  And it's not
+ridiculous at all for you to make a business proposition of any kind.
+You say what you can do, and we accept it or not as we like.  That's
+our lookout.  Now of course I can't answer about this until I've
+consulted father; and, not knowing the place well, I haven't the least
+idea what it's worth; it may not be worth even twelve dollars."  (He
+made a mental reservation that it <i>should</i> not be if he could help it.)
+"Suppose I consult with father and let you know.  Could I write or
+phone you, or will you be around this way any time to-morrow?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's breath was fairly gone with the realization that he was
+actually considering her proposition in earnest.  He had not laughed at
+her for wanting to live in a barn, and he had not turned down the price
+she offered as impossible!  He was looking at her in a kindly way as if
+he liked her for being frank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, yes," she said, looking up shyly, "I can come in to-morrow at my
+noon hour&mdash;if that would not be too soon.  I always have a little time
+to myself then, and it isn't far from the office."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That will be perfectly all right for me," smiled young Graham.  "I
+shall be here till half-past one, and you can ask the boy to show you
+to my office.  I will consult with father the first thing in the
+morning and be ready to give you an answer.  But I am wondering if you
+have seen this barn, I suppose you have, or you would not want to rent
+it; but I should suppose a barn would be an awfully unpleasant place to
+live, kind of almost impossible.  Are you sure you realize what the
+proposition would be?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, I think so," said Shirley, looking troubled and earnest.  "It is
+a beautiful big place, and the outlook is wonderful.  I was there
+to-day, and found a door open at the back, and went in to look around.
+The up-stairs middle floor is so big we could make several rooms out of
+it with screens and curtains.  It would be lovely.  We could live in
+picnic style.  Yes, I'm sure mother would like it.  I haven't told her
+about it yet, because if I couldn't afford it I didn't want to
+disappoint her; so I thought I would wait till I found out; but I'm
+just about certain she would be delighted.  And anyhow we've <i>got</i> to
+go <i>somewhere</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I see," said this courteous young man, trying not to show his
+amazement and delight in the girl who so coolly discussed living in a
+barn with curtains and screens for partitions.  He thought of his own
+luxurious home and his comfortable life, where every need had been
+supplied even before he realized it, and, wondering again, was
+refreshed in soul by this glimpse into the brave heart of the girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then I will expect you," he said pleasantly, and, opening the door,
+escorted her to the elevator, touching his hat to her as he left her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley would not have been a normal girl if she had not felt the least
+flutter in her heart at the attention he showed her and the pleasant
+tones of his voice.  It was for all the world as if she had been a lady
+dressed in broadcloth and fur.  She looked down at her shabby little
+serge suit&mdash;that had done duty all winter with an old gray sweater
+under it&mdash;half in shame and half in pride in the man who had not let it
+hinder him from giving her honor.  He was a <i>man</i>.  He must be.  She
+had bared her poverty-stricken life to his gaze, and he had not taken
+advantage of it.  He had averted his eyes, and acted as if it were just
+like other lives and others' necessities; and he had made her feel that
+she was just as good as any one with whom he had to deal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, it was probably only a manner, a kind of refined, courteous habit
+he had; but it was lovely, and she was going to enjoy the bit of it
+that had fallen at her feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the whole, Shirley walked the ten blocks to her narrow little home
+feeling that she had had a good day.  She was weary, but it was a
+healthy weariness.  The problem which had been pressing on her brain
+for days, and nights too, did not seem so impossible now, and hope was
+in her heart that somehow she would find a way out.  It had been good
+to get away from the office and the busy monotony and go out into the
+wide, open out-of-doors.  It was good also to meet a real nobleman,
+even if it were only in passing, and on business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She decided not to tell her mother and the children of her outing yet,
+not until she was sure there were to be results.  Besides, it might
+only worry her mother the more and give her a sleepless night if she
+let out the secret about the barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One more little touch of pleasantness there came to make this day stand
+out from others as beautiful.  It was when she turned into Chapel
+Street, and was swinging along rapidly in order to get home at her
+usual time and not alarm her mother, that a car rolled quickly past to
+the middle of the block, and stopped just under a street-light.  In a
+moment more a lady came out of the door of a house, entered the car,
+and was driven away.  As she closed the car-door, Shirley fancied she
+saw something drop from the lady's hand.  When Shirley reached the
+place she found it was two great, luscious pink rosebuds that must have
+slipped from the lady's corsage and fallen on the pavement.  Shirley
+picked them up almost reverently, inhaling their exotic breath, and
+taking in their delicate curves and texture.  Then she looked after the
+limousine.  It was three blocks away and just turning into another
+street.  It would be impossible for her to overtake it, and there was
+little likelihood of the lady's returning for two roses.  Probably she
+would never miss them.  Shirley turned toward the house, thinking she
+ought to take them in, but discovered that it bore the name of a
+fashionable modiste, who would, of course, not have any right to the
+roses, and Shirley's conscience decided they were meant by Providence
+for her.  So, happily, she hurried on to the little brick house,
+bearing the wonderful flowers to her mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She hurried so fast that she reached home ten minutes earlier than
+usual, and they all gathered around her eagerly as if it were some
+great event, the mother calling half fearfully from her bedroom
+up-stairs to know whether anything had happened.  She was always
+expecting some new calamity like sickness, or the loss of their
+positions by one or the other of her children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nothing at all the matter, mother dear!" called Shirley happily as she
+hung up her coat and hat, and hugged Doris.  "I got off earlier than
+usual because Mr. Barnard had to go away.  Just see what a beautiful
+thing I have brought you&mdash;found it on the street, dropped by a
+beautiful lady.  You needn't be afraid of them, for she and her
+limousine looked perfectly hygienic; and it wasn't stealing, because I
+couldn't possibly have caught her.  Aren't they lovely?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time she was up in her mother's room, with Doris and Carol
+following close behind exclaiming in delight over the roses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She kissed her mother, and put the flowers into a glass beside the bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're looking better to-night, I believe, dear," said the mother.
+"I've been worried about you all day.  You were so white and tired this
+morning."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I'm feeling fine, mother dear!" said Shirley gayly, "and I'm going
+down to make your toast and poach you an egg while Carol finishes
+getting supper.  George will be here in ten minutes now, and Harley
+ought to be in any minute.  He always comes when he gets hungry.  My!
+I'm hungry myself!  Let's hurry, Carol.  Doris, darling, you fix
+mother's little table all ready for her tray.  Put on the white cloth,
+take away the books, set the glass with the roses in the middle very
+carefully.  You won't spill it, will you, darling?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris, all smiles at the responsibility accorded her, promised: "No, I
+yun't spill it I'll move it tarefully."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something in Shirley's buoyant air that night that lifted
+them all above the cares that had oppressed them for weeks, and gave
+them new hope.  She flew around, getting the supper things together,
+making her mother's tray pretty, and taking little extra pains for each
+one as she had not felt able to do before.  Carol caught the contagion,
+and mashed the potatoes more carefully, so that there wasn't a single
+lump in them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Goodness!  But it's been hot in this kitchen all day, Shirley," said
+Carol.  "I had the back door open, but it just seemed stifling.  I got
+the ironing all done except a table-cloth, and I guess I can finish
+that this evening.  I haven't got much studying to do for to-morrow.
+Nellie Waite stopped, and left me my books.  I don't believe I'll have
+to stay at home another day this week.  Mother says she can get along.
+I can leave her lunch all ready, and Doris can manage."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's conscience gave a sudden twinge.  Here had she been sitting
+under a lovely tree by a brook, eating her lunch, and dreaming foolish
+day-dreams about living in a barn, while Carol stayed at home from
+school and toiled in the kitchen!  Perhaps she ought to have come home
+and sent Carol back to school.  And yet perhaps that nice young Mr.
+Graham would be able to do something; she would not condemn herself
+until the morrow, anyway.  She had tried to do her best.  She had not
+gone off there selfishly just to have a good time by herself when her
+dear ones were suffering.  It had been for their sake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then George came in whistling, and Harley banged in gayly a minute
+later, calling to know whether supper was ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"'Cause I gotta date with the fellas this evening, and I gotta beat
+it," he declared impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The shadow of anxiety passed over Shirley's face again at that, but she
+quieted her heart once more with her hopes for to-morrow.  If her plan
+succeeded, Harley would be away from "the fellas," and wouldn't have so
+many questionable "dates" to worry them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George was in a hurry, too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee, Shirley, I gotta be at the store all evening," he said, bolting
+his food hurriedly.  "I wouldn't 'a' come home, only I knew you'd
+worry, and mother gets so upset.  Gee, Shirley, what we gonta do about
+a house?  It's getting almost time to move.  I went to all those places
+you suggested at noon to-day, but there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere.
+There's some rooms on Louden Street, but there's all sorts in the
+house.  Mother wouldn't like it.  It's dirty besides.  I suppose if we
+look long enough we could find rooms; but we'd have to get along with
+only two or three, for they come awful high.  We'd have to have three
+anyway, you girls and mother in one, us boys in the other, and one for
+parlor and kitchen together.  Gee!  Wouldn't that be fierce?  I oughtta
+get a better job.  We can't live that way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't worry, George; I think we'll find something better," said
+Shirley with a hopeful ring in her voice.  "I've been thinking out a
+plan.  I haven't got it all just arranged in my mind yet, but I'll tell
+you about it pretty soon.  You don't have school to-morrow night, do
+you?  No, I thought not.  Well, maybe we can talk it over then.  You
+and I will have to go out together and look up a place perhaps," and
+she smiled an encouraging smile, and sent him off to his school happily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She extracted a promise from Harley that he would be in by nine
+o'clock, discovered that he was only going to a "movie" show around the
+corner with one of the fellows who was going to "stand treat" on
+account of a wonderful ball game they had won, found out where his
+lessons were for the morrow, promised to help him when he returned, and
+sent him away with a feeling of comfort and responsibility to return
+early.  She washed the dishes and ironed the table-cloth so Carol could
+go to her lessons.  Then she went up and put Doris to bed with a story
+about a little bird that built a nest in a tall, beautiful tree that
+grew beside the place where the little girl lived; a little bird that
+drank from a little running brook, and took a bath on its pebbly shore,
+and ate the crumbs and berries the little girl gave it, and sat all day
+on five little blue eggs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harley came in at five minutes after nine, and did his lessons with her
+help.  George came home just as they finished.  He was whistling,
+though he looked tired.  He said "the prof." had been "the limit" all
+the evening.  Shirley fixed her mother comfortably for the night, and
+went at last to her own bed, more tired than she had been for weeks,
+and yet more happy.  For through it all she had been sustained by a
+hope; inspired by a cultured, pleasant voice, and eyes that wanted to
+help, and seemed to understand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As she closed her eyes to sleep, somehow that pleasant voice and those
+kind eyes mingled with her dreams, and seemed to promise relief from
+her great anxieties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was with a feeling of excitement and anticipation that she dressed
+the next morning and hurried away.  Something was coming, she felt
+sure, some help for their trying situation.  She had felt it when she
+knelt for her usual prayer that morning, and it throbbed in her excited
+heart as she hurried through the streets to the office.  It almost
+frightened her to feel so sure, for she knew how terrible would be the
+disappointment if she got her hopes too high.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was plenty to be done at the office, a great many letters to
+answer, and a telegram with directions from Mr. Barnard.  But she
+worked with more ease than for some time, and was done by half-past
+eleven.  When she took the letters out to Mr. Clegg to be signed, he
+told her that she would not be needed the rest of the day, and might go
+at once if she chose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She ate her bit of lunch hurriedly, and made herself as fresh and tidy
+as was possible in the office.  Then she took her way to the fourth
+floor of the Ward Trust Building.  With throbbing heart and glowing
+cheeks she entered the office of Walter Graham, and asked for Mr.
+Sidney Graham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The office-boy had evidently received instructions, for he bowed most
+respectfully this time, and led her at once to the inner office.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>
+CHAPTER IV
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The afternoon before, when Mr. Sidney Graham had returned to his office
+from seeing Shirley to the elevator, he stood several minutes looking
+thoughtfully at the chair where she had sat, while he carefully drew on
+his gloves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There had been something interesting and appealing in the spirited face
+of the girl, with her delicate features and wistful eyes.  He could not
+seem to get away from it.  It had left an impression of character and a
+struggle with forces of which in his sheltered life he had had only a
+vague conception.  It had left him with the feeling that she was
+stronger in some ways than himself, and he did not exactly like the
+sensation of it.  He had always aimed to be a strong character himself;
+and for a young man who had inherited two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars on coming of age, and double that amount two years later, with
+the prospect of another goodly sum when his paternal grandfather's
+estate was divided, he had done very well indeed.  He had stuck to
+business ever since leaving college, where he had been by no means a
+nonentity either in studies or in athletics; and he had not been
+spoiled by the adulation that a young man of his good looks and wealth
+and position always receives in society.  He had taken society as a
+sort of duty, but had never given it an undue proportion of his time
+and thoughts.  Notably he was a young man of fine balance and strong
+self-control, not given to impulsive or erratic likes and dislikes; and
+he could not understand why a shabby little person with a lock of gold
+over one crimson cheek, and tired, discouraged lights in her had made
+so strong an impression upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been his intention just before Shirley's arrival to leave the
+office at once and perhaps drop in on Miss Harriet Hale.  If the hour
+seemed propitious, he would take her for a spin in his new racing-car
+that even now waited in the street below; but somehow suddenly his plan
+did not attract him deeply.  He felt the need of being by himself.
+After a turn or two up and down his luxurious office he took the
+elevator down to the street floor, dismissed his chauffeur, and whirled
+off in his car, taking the opposite direction from that which would
+have taken him to the Hale residence.  Harriet Hale was a very pretty
+girl with a brilliant mind and a royal fortune.  She could entertain
+him and stimulate him tremendously, and sometimes he almost thought the
+attraction was strong enough to last him through life; but Harriet Hale
+would not be able to appreciate his present mood nor explain to him why
+the presence in his office for fifteen minutes of a nervy little
+stenographer who was willing to live in a barn should have made him so
+vaguely dissatisfied with himself.  If he were to try to tell her about
+it, he felt sure he would meet with laughing taunts and brilliant
+sarcasm.  She would never understand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He took little notice of where he was going, threading his way
+skilfully through the congested portion of the city and out into the
+comparatively empty highways, until at last he found himself in the
+suburbs.  The name of the street as he slowed up at a grade crossing
+gave him an idea.  Why shouldn't he take a run out and hunt up that
+barn for himself?  What had she said about it, where it was?  He
+consulted the memorandum he had written down for his father's
+edification.  "Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue."  He further
+searched his memory.  "Big stone barn, wide approach like a grand
+staircase, tall tree overhanging, brook."  This surely ought to be
+enough to help him identify it.  There surely were not a flock of stone
+barns in that neighborhood that would answer that description.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned into Glenside Road with satisfaction, and set a sharp watch
+for the names of the cross-avenues with a view to finding Allister
+Avenue, and once he stopped and asked a man in an empty milk-wagon
+whether he knew where Allister Avenue was, and was informed that it was
+"on a piece, about five miles."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something interesting in hunting up his own strange barn, and
+he began to look about him and try to see things with the eyes of the
+girl who had just called upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the fields were green with spring, and there was an air of
+things doing over them, as if growing were a business that one could
+watch, like house-cleaning and paper-hanging and painting.  Graham had
+never noticed before that the great bare spring out-of-doors seemed to
+have a character all its own, and actually to have an attraction.  A
+little later when the trees were out, and all the orchards in bloom,
+and the wild flowers blowing in the breeze, he could rave over spring;
+but he had never seen the charm of its beginnings before.  He wondered
+curiously over the fact of his keen appreciation now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sky was all opalescent with lovely pastel colors along the horizon,
+and a few tall, lank trees had put on a soft gauze of green over their
+foreheads like frizzes, discernible only to a close observer.  The air
+was getting chilly with approaching night, and the bees were no longer
+proclaiming with their hum the way to the skunk-cabbages; but a
+delicate perfume was in the air, and though perhaps Graham had never
+even heard of skunk-cabbages, he drew in long breaths of sweetness, and
+let out his car over the smooth road with a keen delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind a copse of fine old willows, age-tall and hoary with weather,
+their extremities just hinting of green, as they stood knee-deep in the
+brook on its way to a larger stream, he first caught sight of the old
+barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He knew it at once by something indefinable.  Its substantial stone
+spaciousness, its mossy roof, its arching tree, and the brook that
+backed away from the wading willows, up the hillside, under the rail
+fence, and ran around its side, all were unmistakable.  He could see it
+just as the girl had seen it, and something in him responded to her
+longing to live there and make it into a home.  Perhaps he was a
+dreamer, even as she, although he passed in the world of business for a
+practical young man.  But anyhow he slowed his car down and looked at
+the place intently as he passed by.  He was convinced that this was the
+place.  He did not need to go on and find Allister Avenue&mdash;though he
+did, and then turned back again, stopping by the roadside.  He got out
+of the car, looking all the time at the barn and seeing it in the light
+of the girl's eyes.  As he walked up the grassy slope to the front
+doors, he had some conception of what it must be to live so that this
+would seem grand as a home.  And he showed he was not spoiled by his
+life in the lap of luxury, for he was able to get a glimpse of the
+grandeur of the spot and the dignity of the building with its long
+simple lines and rough old stones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun was just going down as he stood there looking up.  It touched
+the stones, and turned them into jewelled settings, glorifying the old
+structure into a palace.  The evening was sweet with the voices of
+birds not far away.  One above the rest, clear and occasional, high in
+the elm-tree over the barn, a wood-thrush spilling its silver notes
+down to the brook that echoed them back in a lilt.  The young man took
+off his hat and stood in the evening air, listening and looking.  He
+could see the poetry of it, and somehow he could see the girl's face as
+if she stood there beside him, her wonderful eyes lighted as they had
+been when she told him how beautiful it was there.  She was right.  It
+was beautiful, and it was a lovely soul that could see it and feel what
+a home this would make in spite of the ignominy of its being nothing
+but a barn.  Some dim memory, some faint remembrance, of a stable long
+ago, and the glory of it, hovered on the horizon of his mind; but his
+education had not been along religious lines, and he did not put the
+thing into a definite thought.  It was just a kind of sensing of a
+great fact of the universe which he perhaps might have understood in a
+former existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he turned to the building itself.  He was practical, after all,
+even if he was a dreamer.  He tried the big padlock.  How did they get
+into this thing?  How had the girl got in?  Should he be obliged to
+break into his own barn?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He walked down the slope, around to the back, and found the entrance
+close to the ladder; but the place was quite dark within the great
+stone walls, and he peered into the gloomy basement with disgust at the
+dirt and murk.  Only here and there, where a crack looked toward the
+setting sun, a bright needle of light sent a shaft through to let one
+see the inky shadows.  He was half turning back, but reflected that the
+girl had said she went up a ladder to the middle floor.  If she had
+gone, surely he could.  Again that sense that she was stronger than he
+rebuked him.  He got out his pocket flashlight and stepped within the
+gloom determinedly.  Holding the flash-light above his head, he
+surveyed his property disapprovingly; then with the light in his hand
+he climbed in a gingerly way up the dusty rounds to the middle floor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he stood alone in the dusky shadows of the big barn, with the
+blackness of the hay-loft overhead, the darkness pierced only by the
+keen blade of the flash-light and a few feebler darts from the sinking
+sun, the poetry suddenly left the old barn, and a shudder ran through
+him.  To think of trying to live here!  How horrible!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet still that same feeling that the girl had more nerve than he had
+forced him to walk the length and breadth of the floor, peering
+carefully into the dark corners and acquainting himself fully with the
+bare, big place; and also to climb part way up the ladder to the loft
+and send his flash-light searching through its dusty hay-strewn
+recesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a feeling utterly at variance with the place he turned away in
+disgust, and made his way down the ladders again, out into the sunset.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that short time the evening had arrived.  The sky had flung out
+banners and pennants, pencilled by a fringe of fine saplings like
+slender brown threads against the sky.  The earth was sinking into
+dusk, and off by the brook the frogs were tinkling like tiny answering
+silver rattles.  The smell of earth and growing stole upon his senses,
+and even as he gazed about him a single star burned into being in the
+clear ether above him.  The birds were still now, and the frogs with
+the brook for accompaniment held the stage.  Once more the charm of the
+place stole over him; and he stood with hat removed, and wondered no
+longer that the girl was willing to live here.  A conviction grew
+within him that somehow he must make it possible for her to do so, that
+things would not be right and as they ought to be unless he did.  In
+fact, he had a curiosity to have her do it and see whether it could be
+done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He went slowly down to his car at last with lingering backward looks.
+The beauty of the situation was undoubted, and called for admiration.
+It was too bad that only a barn should occupy it.  He would like to see
+a fine house reared upon it.  But somehow in his heart he was glad that
+it was not a fine house standing there against the evening sky, and
+that it was possible for him to let the girl try her experiment of
+living there.  Was it possible?  Could there be any mistake?  Could it
+be that he had not found the right barn, after all?  He must make sure,
+of course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But still he turned his car toward home, feeling reasonably sure that
+he had found the right spot; and, as he drove swiftly back along the
+way, he was thinking, and all his thoughts were woven with the softness
+of the spring evening and permeated with its sounds.  He seemed to be
+in touch with nature as he had never been before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At dinner that night he asked his father:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Did Grandfather Graham ever live out on the old Glenside Road, father?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A pleasant twinkle came in the elder Graham's eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!" he said.  "Lived there myself when I was five years old, before
+the old man got to speculating and made his pile, and we got too grand
+to stay in a farmhouse.  I can remember rolling down a hill under a
+great big tree, and your Uncle Billy pushing me into the brook that ran
+at the foot.  We boys used to wade in that brook, and build dams, and
+catch little minnows, and sail boats.  It was great sport.  I used to
+go back holidays now and then after I got old enough to go away to
+school.  We were living in town then, but I used to like to go out and
+stay at the farmhouse.  It was rented to a queer old dick; but his wife
+was a good sort, and made the bulliest apple turnovers for us boys&mdash;and
+doughnuts!  The old farmhouse burned down a year or so ago.  But the
+barn is still standing.  I can remember how proud your grandfather was
+of that barn.  It was finer than any barn around, and bigger.  We boys
+used to go up in the loft, and tumble in the hay; and once when I was a
+little kid I got lost in the hay, and Billy had to dig me out.  I can
+remember how scared I was when I thought I might have to stay there
+forever, and have nothing to eat."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Say, father," said the son, leaning forward eagerly, "I've a notion
+I'd like to have that old place in my share.  Do you think it could be
+arranged?  The boys won't care, I'm sure; they're always more for the
+town than the country."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, yes, I guess that could be fixed up.  You just see Mr. Dalrymple
+about it.  He'll fix it up.  Billy's boy got that place up river, you
+know.  Just see the lawyer, and he'll fix it up.  No reason in the
+world why you shouldn't have the old place if you care for it.  Not
+much in it for money, though, I guess.  They tell me property's way
+down out that direction now."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The talk passed to other matters, and Sidney Graham said nothing about
+his caller of the afternoon, nor of the trip he had taken out to see
+the old barn.  Instead, he took his father's advice, and saw the family
+lawyer, Mr. Dalrymple, the first thing in the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all arranged in a few minutes.  Mr. Dalrymple called up the
+other heirs and the children's guardian.  An office-boy hurried out
+with some papers, and came back with the signatures of heirs and
+guardians, who happened all to be within reach; and presently the
+control of the old farm was formally put into the hands of Mr. Sidney
+Graham, he having signed certain papers agreeing to take this as such
+and such portion of his right in the whole estate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been a simple matter; and yet, when at about half-past eleven
+o'clock Mr. Dalrymple's stenographer laid a folded paper quietly on
+Sidney Graham's desk and silently left the room, he reached out and
+touched it with more satisfaction than he had felt in any acquisition
+in a long time, not excepting his last racing-car.  It was not the
+value the paper represented, however, that pleased him, but the fact
+that he would now be able to do as he pleased concerning the
+prospective tenant for the place, and follow out a curious and
+interesting experiment.  He wanted to study this girl and see whether
+she really had the nerve to go and live in a barn&mdash;a girl with a face
+like that to live in a barn!  He wanted to see what manner of girl she
+was, and to have the right to watch her for a little space.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true that the morning light might present her in a very different
+aspect from that in which she had appeared the evening before, and he
+mentally reserved the right to turn her down completely if she showed
+the least sign of not being all that he had thought her.  At the same
+time, he intended to be entirely sure.  He would not turn her away
+without a thorough investigation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham had been greatly interested in the study of social science when
+in college, and human nature interested him at all times.  He could not
+but admit to himself that this girl had taken a most unusual hold upon
+his thoughts.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>
+CHAPTER V
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+As the morning passed on and it drew near to the noon hour Sidney
+Graham found himself almost excited over the prospect of the girl's
+coming.  Such foolish fancies as a fear lest she might have given up
+the idea and would not come at all presented themselves to his
+distraught brain, which refused to go on its well-ordered way, but kept
+reverting to the expected caller and what he should say to her.  When
+at last she was announced, he drew back his chair from the desk, and
+prepared to meet her with a strange tremor in his whole bearing.  It
+annoyed him, and brought almost a frown of sternness to his fine
+features.  It seemed not quite in keeping with his dignity as junior
+member of his father's firm that he should be so childish over a simple
+matter like this, and he began to doubt whether, after all, he might
+not be doing a most unwise and irregular thing in having anything at
+all to do with this girl's preposterous proposition.  Then Shirley
+entered the office, looked eagerly into his eyes; and he straight-way
+forgot all his reasoning.  He met her with a smile that seemed to
+reassure her, for she drew in her breath half relieved, and smiled
+shyly back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was wearing a little old crêpe de chine waist that she had dyed a
+real apple-blossom pink in the wash-bowl with a bit of pink crepe-paper
+and a kettle of boiling water.  The collar showed neatly over the
+shabby dark-blue coat, and seemed to reflect apple-blossom tints in her
+pale cheeks.  There was something sky-like in the tint of her eyes that
+gave the young man a sense of spring fitness as he looked at her
+contentedly.  He was conscious of gladness that she looked as good to
+him in the broad day as in the dusk of evening.  There was still that
+spirited lift of her chin, that firm set of the sweet lips, that gave a
+conviction of strength and nerve.  He reflected that he had seldom seen
+it in the girls of his acquaintance.  Was it possible that poverty and
+privation and big responsibility made it, or was it just innate?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You&mdash;you have found out?" she asked breathlessly as she sat down on
+the edge of the chair, her whole body tense with eagerness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!  It's all right," he said smilingly.  "You can rent it if you
+wish."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And the price?"  It was evident the strain was intense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, the price will be all right, I'm sure.  It really isn't worth
+what you mentioned at all.  It's only a barn, you know.  We couldn't
+think of taking more than ten dollars a month, if we took that.  I must
+look it over again; but it won't be more than ten dollars, and it may
+be less."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Young Graham wore his most businesslike tone to say this, and his eyes
+were on the paper-knife wherewith he was mutilating his nice clean
+blotter pad on the desk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" breathed Shirley, the color almost leaving her face entirely with
+the relief of his words.  "Oh, <i>really</i>?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you haven't lost your nerve about living away out there in the
+country in a great empty barn?" he asked quickly to cover her
+embarrassment&mdash;and his own, too, perhaps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no!" said Shirley with a smile that showed a dimple in one cheek,
+and the star sparks in her eyes.  "Oh, no!  It is a lovely barn, and it
+won't be empty when we all get into it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are there many of you?" he asked interestedly.  Already the
+conversation was taking on a slightly personal tinge, but neither of
+them was at all aware of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Two brothers and two sisters and mother," said the girl shyly.  She
+was so full of delight over finding that she could rent the barn that
+she hardly knew what she was answering.  She was unconscious of the
+fact that she had in a way taken this strange young man into her
+confidence by her shy, sweet tone and manner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your mother approves of your plan?" he asked.  "She doesn't object to
+the country?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I haven't told her yet," said Shirley.  "I don't know that I
+shall; for she has been quite sick, and she trusts me entirely.  She
+loves the country, and it will be wonderful to her to get out there.
+She might not like the idea of a barn beforehand; but she has never
+seen the barn, you know, and, besides, it won't look like a barn inside
+when I get it fixed up.  I must talk it over with George and Carol, but
+I don't think I shall tell her at all till we take her out there and
+surprise her.  I'll tell her I've found a place that I think she will
+like, and ask her if I may keep it a surprise.  She'll be willing, and
+she'll be pleased, I know!"  Her eyes were smiling happily, dreamily;
+the dreamer was uppermost in her face now, and made it lovely; then a
+sudden cloud came, and the strong look returned, with courage to meet a
+storm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But, anyhow," she finished after a pause, "we <i>have</i> to go there for
+the summer, for we've nowhere else to go that we can afford; and
+<i>anywhere</i> out of the city will be good, even if mother doesn't just
+choose it.  I think perhaps it will be easier for her if she doesn't
+know about it until she's there.  It won't seem so much like not going
+to live in a house."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I see," said the young man interestedly.  "I shouldn't wonder if you
+are right.  And anyhow I think we can manage between us to make it
+pretty habitable for her."  He was speaking eagerly and forgetting that
+he had no right, but a flush came into the sensitive girl's cheek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to make you trouble," she said.  "You have been
+very kind already, and you have made the rent so reasonable!  I'm
+afraid it isn't right and fair; it is such a <i>lovely</i> barn!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perfectly fair," said Graham glibly.  "It will do the barn good to be
+lived in and taken care of again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If he had been called upon to tell just what good it would do the barn
+to be lived in, he might have floundered out of the situation, perhaps;
+but he took care not to make that necessary.  He went on talking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will see that everything is in good order, the doors made all right,
+and the windows&mdash;I&mdash;that is, if I remember rightly there were a few
+little things needed doing to that barn that ought to be attended to
+before you go in.  How soon did you want to take possession?  I'll try
+to have it all ready for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, why, that is very kind," said Shirley.  "I don't think it needs
+anything; that is, I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you know best.
+Why, we have to leave our house the last of this month.  Do you suppose
+we could have the rent begin a few days before that, so we could get
+things moved gradually?  I haven't much time, only at night, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We'll date the lease the first of next month," said the young man
+quickly; "and then you can put your things in any time you like from
+now on.  I'll see that the locks are made safe, and there ought to be a
+partition put in&mdash;just a simple partition, you know&mdash;at one end of the
+up-stairs room, where you could lock up things.  Then you could take
+them up there when you like.  I'll attend to that partition at once.
+The barn needs it.  This is as good a time as any to put it in.  You
+wouldn't object to a partition?  That wouldn't upset any of your plans?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He spoke as if it would be a great detriment to the barn not to have a
+partition, but of course he wouldn't insist if she disliked it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, why, no, of course not," said Shirley, bewildered.  "It would be
+lovely.  Mother could use that for her room, but I wouldn't want you to
+do anything on our account that you do not have to do anyway."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no, certainly not, but it might as well be done now as any time,
+and you get the benefit of it, you know.  I shouldn't want to rent the
+place without putting it in good order, and a partition is always
+needed in a barn, you know, if it's to be a really good barn."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was well that no wise ones were listening to that conversation; else
+they might have laughed aloud at this point and betrayed the young
+man's strategy, but Shirley was all untutored in farm lore, and knew
+less about barns and their needs than she did of Sanskrit; so the
+remark passed without exciting her suspicion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, it's going to be lovely!" said Shirley suddenly, like an eager
+child, "and I can't thank you enough for being so kind about it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all," said the young man gracefully.  "And now you will want to
+go out and look around again to make your plans.  Were you planning to
+go soon?  I should like to have you look the place over again and see
+if there is anything else that should be done."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, why," said Shirley, "I don't think there could be anything else;
+only I'd like to have a key to that big front door, for we couldn't
+carry things up the ladder very well.  I was thinking I'd go out this
+afternoon, perhaps, if I could get George a leave of absence for a
+little while.  There's been a death in our firm, and the office is
+working only half-time to-day, and I'm off again.  I thought I'd like
+to have George see it if possible; he's very wise in his judgments, and
+mother trusts him a lot next to me; but I don't know whether they'll
+let him off on such short notice."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Where does he work?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Farwell and Story's department store.  They are pretty particular, but
+George is allowed a day off every three months if he takes it out of
+his vacation; so I thought I'd try."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here, let me fix that.  Harry Farwell's a friend of mine."  He caught
+up the telephone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, you are very kind!" murmured Shirley, quite overcome at the
+blessings that were falling at her feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham already had the number, and was calling for Mr. Farwell, Junior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That you, Hal?  Oh, good morning!  Have a good time last night?  Sorry
+I couldn't have been there, but I had three other engagements and
+couldn't get around.  Say, I want to ask a favor of you.  You have a
+boy there in the store I want to borrow for the afternoon if you don't
+mind.  His name is George Hollister.  Could you look him up and send
+him over to my office pretty soon?  It will be a personal favor to me
+if you will let him off and not dock his pay.  Thank you!  I was sure
+you would.  Return the favor sometime myself if opportunity comes my
+way.  Yes, I'll hold the phone till you hunt him up.  Thank you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham looked up from the phone into the astonished grateful girl's
+eyes, and caught her look of deep admiration, which quite confused
+Shirley for a moment, and put her in a terrible way trying to thank him
+again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, that's all right.  Farwell and I went to prep school together.
+It's nothing for him to arrange matters.  He says it will be all right.
+Now, what are your plans?  I wonder if I can help in any way.  How were
+you planning to go out?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, by the trolley, of course," said Shirley.  How strange it must be
+to have other ways of travelling at one's command!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I did think," she added, half thinking aloud, "that perhaps I would
+stop at the schoolhouse and get my sister.  I don't know but it would
+be better to get her judgment about things.  She is rather a wise
+little girl."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked up suddenly, and seeing the young man's eyes upon her, grew
+ashamed that she had brought her private affairs to his notice; yet it
+had seemed necessary to say something to fill in this embarrassing
+pause.  But Sidney Graham did not let her continue to be embarrassed.
+He entered into her plans just as if they concerned himself also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, I think that would be a very good plan," he said.  "It will be a
+great deal better to have a real family council before you decide about
+moving.  Now I've thought of something.  Why couldn't you all go out in
+the car with me and my kid sister?  I've been promising to take her a
+spin in the country, and my chauffeur is to drive her down this
+afternoon for me.  It's almost time for her to be here now.  Your
+brother will be here by the time she comes.  Why couldn't we just go
+around by the schoolhouse and pick up your sister, and all go out
+together?  I want to go out myself, you know, and look things over, and
+it seems to me that would save time all around.  Then, if there should
+be anything you want done, you know&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, there is nothing I want done," gasped Shirley.  "You have been
+most kind.  I couldn't think of asking for anything at the price we
+shall be paying.  And we mustn't impose upon you.  We can go out in the
+trolley perfectly well, and not trouble you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Indeed, it is no trouble whatever when I am going anyway."  Then to
+the telephone: "Hello!  He's coming, you say?  He's on his way?  Good.
+Thank you very much, Harry.  Good-by!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's all right!" he said, turning to her, smiling.  "Your brother is
+on his way, and now excuse me just a moment while I phone to my sister."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat with glowing cheeks and apprehensive mind while the young
+man called up a girl whom he addressed as "Kid" and told her to hurry
+the car right down, that he wanted to start very soon, and to bring
+some extra wraps along for some friends he was going to take with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He left Shirley no opportunity to express her overwhelming thanks, but
+gave her some magazines, and hurried from the room to attend to some
+matters of business before he left.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>
+CHAPTER VI
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, turning over the
+leaves of the magazines with trembling fingers, but unable to read
+anything, for the joy of what was before her.  A real automobile ride!
+The first she had ever had!  And it was to include George and Carol!
+How wonderful!  And how kind in him, how thoughtful, to take his own
+sister, and hers, and so make the trip perfectly conventional and
+proper!  What a nice face he had!  What fine eyes!  He didn't seem in
+the least like the young society man she knew he must be from the
+frequent mention she had noticed of his name in the papers.  He was a
+real gentleman, a real nobleman!  There were such.  It was nice to know
+of them now and then, even though they did move in a different orbit
+from the one where she had been set.  It gave her a happier feeling
+about the universe just to have seen how nice a man could be to a poor
+little nobody when he didn't have to.  For of course it couldn't be
+anything to him to rent that barn&mdash;at ten dollars a month!  That was
+ridiculous!  Could it be that he was thinking her an object of charity?
+That he felt sorry for her and made the price merely nominal?  She
+couldn't have that.  It wasn't right nor honest, and&mdash;it wasn't
+respectable!  That was the way unprincipled men did when they wanted to
+humor foolish little dolls of girls.  Could it be that he thought of
+her in any such way?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed.  She sat up very straight
+indeed, and began to tremble.  How was it she had not thought of such a
+thing before?  Her mother had warned her to be careful about having
+anything to do with strange men, except in the most distant business
+way; and here had she been telling him frankly all the private affairs
+of the family and letting him make plans for her.  How had it happened?
+What must he think of her?  This came of trying to keep a secret from
+mother.  She might have known it was wrong, and yet the case was so
+desperate and mother so likely to worry about any new and
+unconventional suggestion.  It had seemed right.  But of course it
+wasn't right for her to fall in that way and allow him to take them all
+in his car.  She must put a stop to it somehow.  She must go in the
+trolley if she went at all.  She wasn't sure but she had better call
+the whole thing off and tell him they couldn't live in a barn, that she
+had changed her mind.  It would be so dreadful if he had taken her for
+one of those girls who wanted to attract the attention of a young man!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of her perturbed thoughts the door opened and Sidney
+Graham walked in again.  His fine, clean-cut face and clear eyes
+instantly dispelled her fears again.  His bearing was dignified and
+respectful, and there was something in the very tone of his voice as he
+spoke to her that restored her confidence in him and in his impression
+of her.  Her half-formed intention of rising and declining to take the
+ride with him fled, and she sat quietly looking at the pictures in the
+magazine with unseeing eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope you will find something to interest you for a few minutes,"
+young Graham said pleasantly.  "It won't be long, but there are one or
+two matters I promised father I would attend to before I left this
+afternoon.  There is an article in that other magazine under your hand
+there about beautifying country homes, bungalows, and the like.  It may
+give you some ideas about the old barn.  I shouldn't wonder if a few
+flowers and vines might do a whole lot."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He found the place in the magazine, and left her again; and strangely
+enough she became absorbed in the article because her imagination
+immediately set to work thinking how glorious it would be to have a few
+flowers growing where Doris could go out and water them and pick them.
+She grew so interested in the remarks about what flowers would grow
+best in the open and which were easiest to care for that she got out
+her little pencil and notebook that were in her coat-pocket, and began
+to copy some of the lists.  Then suddenly the door opened again, and
+Graham returned with George.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boy stopped short on the threshold, startled, a white wave of
+apprehension passing over his face.  He did not speak.  The boy-habit
+of silence and self-control in a crisis was upon him.  He looked with
+apprehension from one to the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley jumped to her feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, George, I'm so glad you could come!  This is Mr. Graham.  He has
+been kind enough to offer to take us in his car to see a place we can
+rent for the summer, and it was through his suggestion that Mr. Farwell
+let you off for the afternoon."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a sudden relaxing of the tenseness in the young face and a
+sigh of relief in the tone as the boy answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, gee!  That's great!  Thanks awfully for the holiday.  They don't
+come my way often.  It'll be great to have a ride in a car, too.  Some
+lark, eh, Shirley?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boy warmed to the subject with the friendly grasp the young man
+gave him, and Shirley could see her brother had made a good impression;
+for young Graham was smiling appreciatively, showing all his even white
+teeth just as if he enjoyed the boy's offhand way of talking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm going to leave you here for ten minutes more until I talk with a
+man out here in the office.  Then we will go," said young Graham, and
+hurried away again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee, Shirley!" said the boy, flinging himself down luxuriously in a
+big leather chair.  "Gee!  You certainly did give me some start!  I
+thought mother was worse, or you'd got arrested, or lost your job, or
+something, finding you here in a strange office.  Some class to this,
+isn't there?  Look at the thickness of that rug!" and he kicked the
+thick Turkish carpet happily.  "Say, he must have some coin!  Who is
+the guy, anyway?  How'd ya get onto the tip?  You don't think he's
+handing out Vanderbilt residences at fifteen a month, do you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Listen, George.  I must talk fast because he may come back any minute.
+Yesterday I got a half-holiday, and instead of going home I thought I'd
+go out and hunt a house.  I took the Glenside trolley; and, when we got
+out past the city, I heard two men talking about a place we were
+passing.  It was a great big, beautiful stone barn.  They told who
+owned it, and said a lot about its having such a splendid spring of
+water beside it.  It was a beautiful place, George; and I couldn't help
+thinking what a thing it would be for mother to be out in the country
+this summer, and what a wonderful house that would make&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We couldn't live in a barn, Shirl!" said the boy, aghast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wait, George.  Listen.  Just you don't say that till you see it.  It's
+the biggest barn you ever saw, and I guess it hasn't been used for a
+barn in a long time.  I got out of the trolley on the way back, and
+went in.  It is just enormous, and we could screen off rooms and live
+like princes.  It has a great big front door, and we could have a
+hammock under the tree; and there's a brook to fish in, and a big third
+story with hay in it.  I guess it's what they call in books a hay-loft.
+It's great."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!" was all the electrified George could utter.  "Oh, gee!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is on a little hill with the loveliest tree in front of it, and
+right on the trolley line.  We'd have to start a little earlier in the
+morning; but I wouldn't mind, would you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Naw!" said George, "but could we walk that far?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, we'd have to ride, but the rent is so much lower it would pay our
+carfare."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!" said George again, "isn't that great?  And is this the guy that
+owns it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, or at least he and his father do.  He's been very kind.  He's
+taking all this trouble to take us out in his car to-day to make sure
+if there is anything that needs to be done for our comfort there.  He
+certainly is an unusual man for a landlord."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He sure is, Shirley.  I guess mebbe he has a case on you the way he
+looks at you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"George!" said Shirley severely, the red staining her cheeks and her
+eyes flashing angrily.  "George!  That was a <i>dreadful</i> thing for you
+to say.  If you ever even think a thing like that again, I won't have
+anything to do with him or the place.  We'll just stay in the city all
+summer.  I suppose perhaps that would be better, anyway."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley got up and began to button her coat haughtily, as if she were
+going out that minute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, gee, Shirley!  I was just kidding.  Can't you take a joke?  This
+thing must be getting on your nerves.  I never saw you so touchy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It certainly is getting on my nerves to have you say a thing like
+that, George."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's tone was still severe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, cut the grouch, Shirley.  I tell you I was just kidding.  'Course
+he's a good guy.  He probably thinks you're cross-eyed, knock-kneed&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"George!"  Shirley started for the door; but the irrepressible George
+saw it was time to stop, and he put out an arm with muscles that were
+iron-like from many wrestlings and ball-games with his fellow laborers
+at the store.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, Shirley, cut the comedy.  That guy'll be coming back next, and
+you don't want to have him ask what's the matter, do you?  He certainly
+is some fine guy.  I wouldn't like to embarrass him, would you?  He's a
+peach of a looker.  Say, Shirley, what do you figure mother's going to
+say about this?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley turned, half mollified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's just what I want to ask you, George.  I don't want to tell
+mother until it's all fixed up and we can show it to her.  You know it
+will sound a great deal worse to talk about living in a barn than it
+will to go in and see it all fixed up with rugs and curtains and
+screens and the piano and a couch, and the supper-table set, and the
+sun setting outside the open door, and a bird singing in the tree."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!  Shirley, wouldn't that be some class?  Say, Shirley, don't let's
+tell her!  Let's just make her say she'll trust the moving to us to
+surprise her.  Can't you kid her along and make her willing for that?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, that was what I was thinking.  If you think there's no danger she
+will be disappointed and sorry, and think we ought to have done
+something else."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What else could we do?  Say, Shirley, it would be great to sleep in
+the hay-loft!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We could just tell her we were coming out in the country for the
+summer to camp in a nice place where it was safe and comfortable, and
+then we would have plenty of time to look around for the right kind of
+a house for next winter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's the dope, Shirley!  You give her that.  She'll fall for that,
+sure thing.  She'll like the country.  At least, if it's like what you
+say it is."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, you wait till you see it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Have you told Carol?" asked George, suddenly sobering.  Carol was his
+twin sister, inseparable chum, and companion when he was at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said Shirley, "I haven't had a chance; but Mr. Graham suggested
+we drive around by the school and get her.  Then she can see how she
+likes it, too; and, if Carol thinks so, we'll get mother not to ask any
+questions, but just trust to us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!  That guy's great.  He's got a head on him.  Some lark, what?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, he's been very kind," said Shirley.  "At first I told him I
+couldn't let him take so much trouble for us, but he said he was going
+to take his sister out for a ride&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A girl!  Aw, gee!  I'm going to beat it!"  George stopped in his eager
+walk back and forth across the office, and seized his old faded cap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"George, stop!  You mustn't be impolite.  Besides, I think she's only a
+very little girl, probably like Doris.  He called her his 'kid sister.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!  You can't tell.  I ain't going to run any risks.  I better beat
+it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But George's further intentions were suddenly brought to a finish by
+the entrance of Mr. Sidney Graham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, Miss Hollister," he said with a smile, "we are ready at last.
+I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long; but there was something
+wrong with one of my tires, and the chauffeur had to run around to the
+garage.  Come on, George," he said to the boy, who hung shyly behind
+now, wary of any lurking female who might be haunting the path.  "Guess
+you'll have to sit in the front seat with me, and help me drive.  The
+chauffeur has to go back and drive for mother.  She has to go to some
+tea or other."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George suddenly forgot the possible girl, and followed his new hero to
+the elevator with a swelling soul.  What would the other fellows at the
+store think of him?  A whole half-holiday, an automobile-ride, and a
+chance to sit in the front and learn to drive!  But all he said was:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, gee!  Yes, sure thing!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The strange girl suddenly loomed on his consciousness again as they
+emerged from the elevator and came out on the street.  She was sitting
+in the great back seat alone, arrayed in a big blue velvet coat the
+color of her eyes, and George felt at once all hands and feet.  She was
+a slender wisp of a thing about Carol's age, with a lily complexion and
+a wealth of gold hair caught in a blue veil.  She smiled very prettily
+when her brother introduced her as "Elizabeth."  There was nothing
+snobbish or disagreeable about her, but that blue velvet coat suddenly
+made George conscious of his own common attire, and gave Shirley a pang
+of dismay at her own little shabby suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However, Sidney Graham soon covered all differences in the attire of
+his guests by insisting that they should don the two long blanket coats
+that he handed them; and somehow when George was seated in the big
+leather front seat, with that great handsome coat around his shoulders,
+he did not much mind the blue velvet girl behind him, and mentally
+resolved to earn enough to get Carol a coat like it some day; only
+Carol's should be pink or red to go with her black eyes and pink cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After all, it was Shirley, not George, who felt embarrassment over the
+strange girl and wished she had not come.  She was vexed with herself
+for it, too.  It was foolish to let a child no older than Carol fluster
+her so, but the thought of a long ride alone on that back seat with the
+dainty young girl actually frightened her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Elizabeth was not frightened.  She had been brought up in the
+society atmosphere, and was at home with people always, everywhere.
+She tucked the robes about her guest, helped Shirley button the big,
+soft dark-blue coat about her, remarking that it got awfully chilly
+when they were going; and somehow before Shirley had been able to think
+of a single word to say in response the conversation seemed to be
+moving along easily without her aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sid says we're going to pick up your sister from her school.  I'm so
+glad!  How old is she?  About my age?  Won't that be delightful?  I'm
+rather lonesome this spring because all my friends are in school.  I've
+been away at boarding-school, and got the measles.  Wasn't that too
+silly for a great big girl like me?  And the doctor said I couldn't
+study any more this spring on account of my eyes.  It's terribly
+lonesome.  I've been home six weeks now, and I don't know what to do
+with myself.  What's your sister's name?  Carol?  Carol Hollister?
+That's a pretty name!  Is she the only sister you have?  A baby sister?
+How sweet!  What's her name?  Oh, I think Doris is the cutest name
+ever.  Doris Hollister.  Why don't we go and get Doris?  Wouldn't she
+like to ride, too?  Oh, it's too bad your mother is ill; but of course
+she wouldn't want to stay all alone in the house without some of her
+family."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth was tactful.  She knew at a glance that trained nurses and
+servants could not be plentiful in a family where the young people wore
+such plain, old-style garments.  She gave no hint of such a thought,
+however.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's your brother," she went on, nodding toward George.  "I've got
+another brother, but he's seventeen and away at college, so I don't see
+much of him.  Sid's very good to me when he has time, and often he
+takes me to ride.  We're awfully jolly chums, Sid and I.  Is this the
+school where your sister goes?  She's in high school, then.  The third
+year?  My!  She must be bright.  I've only finished my second.  Does
+she know she's going with us?  What fun to be called out of school by a
+surprise!  Oh, I just know I'm going to like her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat dumb with amazement, and listened to the eager gush of the
+lively girl, wondered what shy Carol would say, trying to rouse herself
+to answer the young questioner in the same spirit in which she asked
+questions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George came out with Carol in a very short time, Carol struggling into
+her coat and trying to straighten her hat, while George mumbled in her
+ear as he helped her clumsily:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Some baby doll out there!  Kid, you better preen your feathers.  She's
+been gassing with Shirley to beat the band I couldn't hear all they
+said, but she asked a lot about you.  You should worry!  Hold up your
+head, and don't flicker an eyelash.  You're as good as she is any day,
+if you don't look all dolled up like a new saloon.  But she's some
+looker!  Pretty as a red wagon!  Her brother's a peach of a fellow.
+He's going to let me run the car when we get out of the city limit; and
+say!  Shirley says for me to tell you we're going out to look at a barn
+where we're going to move this summer, and you're not to say a word
+about it's being a barn.  See?  Get onto that sky-blue-pink satin scarf
+she's got around her head?  Ain't she some chicken, though?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hush, George!  She'll hear you!" murmured Carol in dismay.  "What do
+you mean about a barn?  How could we live in a barn?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You just shut up and saw wood, kid, and you'll see.  Shirley thinks
+she's got onto something pretty good."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Carol was introduced to the beautiful blue-velvet girl and sat
+down beside her, wrapped in a soft furry cloak of garnet, to be whirled
+away into a fairy-land of wonder.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>
+CHAPTER VII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Carol and Elizabeth got on very well together.  Shirley was amazed to
+see the ease with which her sister entered into this new relation,
+unawed by the garments of her hostess.  Carol had more of the modern
+young America in her than Shirley, perhaps, whose early life had been
+more conventionally guarded.  Carol was democratic, and, strange to
+say, felt slightly superior to Elizabeth on account of going to a
+public school.  The high-school girls were in the habit of referring to
+a neighboring boarding-school as "Dummy's Retreat"; and therefore Carol
+was not at all awed by the other girl, who declared in a friendly
+manner that she had always been crazy to go to the public school, and
+asked rapid intelligent questions about the doings there.  Before they
+were out of the city limits the two girls were talking a steady stream,
+and one could see from their eyes that they liked each other.  Shirley,
+relieved, settled back on the comfortable cushions, and let herself
+rest and relax.  She tried to think how it would feel to own a car like
+this and be able to ride around when she wanted to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the front seat George and Graham were already excellent friends, and
+George was gaining valuable information about running a car, which he
+had ample opportunity to put into practice as soon as they got outside
+the crowded thoroughfares.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were perhaps half-way to the old barn and running smoothly on an
+open road, with no one in sight a long way ahead, when Graham turned
+back to Shirley, leaving George to run the car for a moment himself.
+The boy's heart swelled with gratitude and utmost devotion to be thus
+trusted.  Of course there wasn't anything to do but keep things just as
+he had been told, but this man realized that he would do it and not
+perform any crazy, daring action to show off.  George set himself to be
+worthy of this trust.  To be sure, young Graham had a watchful eye upon
+things, and was taking no chances; but he let the boy feel free, and
+did not make him aware of his espionage, which is a course of action
+that will win any boy to give the best that is in him to any
+responsibility, if he has any best at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not the kind of conversation that one would expect between
+landlord and tenant that the young girl and the man carried on in these
+brief sentences now and then.  He called her attention to the soft
+green tint that was spreading over the tree-tops more distinctly than
+the day before; to the lazy little clouds floating over the blue; to
+the tinting of the fields, now taking on every hour new colors; to the
+perfume in the air.  So with pleasantness of passage they arrived at
+last at the old barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Like a pack of eager children they tumbled out of the car and hurried
+up to the barn, all talking at once, forgetting all difference in
+station.  They were just young and out on a picnic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham had brought a key for the big padlock; and clumsily the man and
+the boy, unused to such manoeuvres, unlocked and shoved back the two
+great doors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"These doors are too heavy.  They should have ball bearings," remarked
+young Graham.  "I'll attend to that at once.  They should be made to
+move with a light touch.  I declare it doesn't pay to let property lie
+idle without a tenant, there are so many little things that get
+neglected."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He walked around with a wise air as if he had been an active landowner
+for years, though indeed he was looking at everything with strange,
+ignorant eyes.  His standard was a home where every detail was perfect,
+and where necessities came and vanished with the need.  This was his
+first view into the possibilities of "being up against it," as he
+phrased it in his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth in her blue velvet cloak and blue cloudy veil stood like a
+sweet fairy in the wide doorway, and looked around with delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh Sid, wouldn't this be just a dandy place for a party?" she
+exclaimed eagerly.  "You could put the orchestra over in that corner
+behind a screen of palms, and decorate with gray Florida moss and
+asparagus vine with daffodils wired on in showers from the beams, and
+palms all around the walls, and colored electrics hidden everywhere.
+You could run a wire in from the street, couldn't you? the way they did
+at Uncle Andy's, and serve the supper out on the lawn with little
+individual rustic tables.  Brower has them, and brings them out with
+rustic chairs to match.  You could have the tree wired, too, and have
+colored electrics all over the place.  Oh! wouldn't it be just
+heavenly?  Say, Sid, Carol says they are coming out here to live,
+maybe; why couldn't we give them a party like that for a house-warming?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham looked at his eager, impractical young sister and then at
+the faces of the three Hollisters, and tried not to laugh as the
+tremendous contrast of circumstances was presented to him.  But his
+rare tact served him in good stead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, Elizabeth, that would doubtless be very delightful; but Miss
+Hollister tells me her mother has been quite ill, and I'm sure, while
+that might be the happiest thing imaginable for you young folks, it
+would be rather trying on an invalid.  I guess you'll have to have your
+parties somewhere else for the present."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" said Elizabeth with quick recollection, "of course!  They told me
+about their mother.  How thoughtless of me!  But it would be lovely,
+wouldn't it, Miss Hollister?  Can't you see it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned in wistful appeal to Shirley, and that young woman, being a
+dreamer herself, at once responded with a radiant smile:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Indeed I can, and it would be lovely indeed, but I've been thinking
+what a lovely home it could be made, too."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes?" said Elizabeth questioningly, and looking around with a dubious
+frown.  "It would need a lot of changing, I should think.  You would
+want hardwood floors, and lots of rugs, and some partitions and
+windows&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no," said Shirley, laughing.  "We're not hardwood people, dear;
+we're just plain hard-working people; and all we need is a quiet, sweet
+place to rest in.  It's going to be just heavenly here, with that tree
+outside to shade the doorway, and all this wide space to walk around
+in.  We live in a little narrow city house now, and never have any
+place to get out except the street.  We'll have the birds and the brook
+for orchestra, and we won't need palms, because the trees and vines
+will soon be in leaf and make a lovely screen for our orchestra.  I
+imagine at night the stars will have almost as many colors as
+electrics."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth looked at her with puzzled eyes, but half convinced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, yes, perhaps they would," she said, and smiled.  "I've never
+thought of them that way, but it sounds very pretty, quite like some of
+Browning's poetry that I don't understand, or was it Mrs. Browning?  I
+can't quite remember."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham, investigating the loft above them, stood a moment
+watching the tableau and listening to the conversation, though they
+could not see him; and he thought within himself that it might not be a
+bad thing for his little sister, with her boarding-school rearing, to
+get near to these true-hearted young working people, who yet were
+dreamers and poets, and get her standards somewhat modified by theirs.
+He was especially delighted with the gentle, womanly way in which
+Shirley answered the girl now when she thought herself alone with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George and Carol had grasped hold of hands and run wildly down the
+slope to the brook after a most casual glance at the interior of the
+barn.  Elizabeth now turned her dainty high-heeled boots in the brook's
+direction, and Shirley was left alone to walk the length and breadth of
+her new abode and make some real plans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man in the dim loft above watched her for a moment as she
+stood looking from one wall to the other, measuring distances with her
+eye, walking quickly over to the window and rubbing a clear space on
+the dusty pane with her handkerchief that she might look out.  She was
+a goodly sight, and he could not help comparing her with the girls he
+knew, though their garments would have far outshone hers.  Still, even
+in the shabby dark-blue serge suit she seemed lovely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young people returned as precipitately as they had gone, and both
+Carol and George of their own accord joined Shirley in a brief council
+of war.  Graham thoughtfully called his sister away, ostensibly to
+watch a squirrel high in the big tree, but really to admonish her about
+making no further propositions like that for the party, as the young
+people to whom he had introduced her were not well off, and had no
+money or time for elaborate entertainments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But they're lovely, Sid, aren't they?  Don't you like them just
+awfully?  I know you do, or you wouldn't have taken the trouble to
+bring them out here in the car with us.  Say, you'll bring me to see
+them often after they come here to live, won't you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perhaps," said her brother smilingly.  "But hadn't you better wait
+until they ask you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, they'll ask me," said Elizabeth with a charming smile and a
+confident little toss of her head.  "I'll make them ask me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Be careful, kid," he said, still smiling.  "Remember, they won't have
+much money to offer you entertainment with, and probably their things
+are very plain and simple.  You may embarrass them if you invite
+yourself out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth raised her azure eyes to her brother's face thoughtfully for
+a moment, then smiled back confidently once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't you worry, Sid, dear; there's more than one way.  I won't hurt
+their feelings, but they're going to ask me, and they're going to want
+me, and I'm going to come.  Yes, and you're going to bring me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned with a laughing pirouette, and danced down the length of the
+barn to Carol, catching her hand and whirling her after her in a
+regular childish frolic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, do you think we ought to take it?  Do you think I dare give my
+final word without consulting mother?" Shirley asked her brother when
+they were thus left alone for a minute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure thing!  No mistake!  It's simply <i>great</i>.  You couldn't get a
+place like this if you went the length and breadth of the city and had
+a whole lot more money than you have to spend."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But remember it's a barn!" said Shirley impressively.  "Mother may
+mind that very much."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not when she sees it," said Carol, whirling back to the consultation.
+"She'll think it's the sensiblest thing we ever did.  She isn't foolish
+like that.  We'll tell her we've found a place to camp with a shanty
+attached, and she can't be disappointed.  I think it'll be great.  Just
+think how Doris can run in the grass!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," put in George.  "I was telling Carol down by the spring&mdash;before
+that <i>girl</i> came and stopped us&mdash;I think we might have some chickens
+and raise eggs.  Harley could do that, and Carol and I could raise
+flowers, and I could take 'em to town in the morning.  I could work
+evenings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley smiled.  She almost felt like shouting that they agreed with
+her.  The place seemed so beautiful, so almost heavenly to her when she
+thought of the close, dark quarters at home and the summer with its
+heat coming on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We couldn't keep a lodger, and we'd have that much less," said Shirley
+thoughtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But we wouldn't have their laundry nor their room-work to do," said
+Carol, "and I could have that much more time for the garden and
+chickens."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You mustn't count on being able to make much that way," said Shirley
+gravely.  "You know nothing about gardening, and would probably make a
+lot of mistakes at first, anyway."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can make fudge and sandwiches, and take them to school to sell,"
+declared Carol stoutly; "and I'll find out how to raise flowers and
+parsley and little things people have to have.  Besides, there's
+watercress down by that brook, and people like that.  We could sell
+that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, we'll see," said Shirley thoughtfully, "but you mustn't get up
+too many ideas yet.  If we can only get moved and mother is satisfied,
+I guess we can get along.  The rent is only ten dollars."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good <i>night</i>!  That's cheap enough!" said George, and drew a long
+whistle.  Then, seeing Elizabeth approaching, he put on an indifferent
+air, and sauntered to the dusty window at the other end of the barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham appeared now, and took Shirley over to the east end to
+ask her just where she thought would be a good place to put the
+partition, and did she think it would be a good thing to have another
+one at the other end just like it?  And so they stood and planned,
+quite as if Shirley were ordering a ten-thousand-dollar alteration put
+into her ten-dollar barn.  Then suddenly the girl remembered her fears;
+and, looking straight up into the interested face of the young man, she
+asked earnestly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are sure you were going to put in these partitions?  You are not
+making any change on my account?  Because I couldn't think of allowing
+you to go to any trouble or expense, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her straightforward look embarrassed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, I&mdash;&mdash;" he said, growing a little flushed.  "Why, you see I hadn't
+been out to look things over before.  I didn't realize how much better
+it would be to have those in, you know.  But now I intend to do it
+right away.  Father put the whole thing in my hands to do as I pleased.
+In fact, the place is mine now, and I want to put it in good shape to
+rent.  So don't worry yourself in the least.  Things won't go to wrack
+and ruin so quickly, you know, if there is someone on the place."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He finished his sentence briskly.  It seemed quite plausible even to
+himself now, and he searched about for a change of topic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You think you can get on here with the rough floor?  You might put
+padding or something under your carpets, you know, but it will take
+pretty large carpets&mdash;&mdash;"  He looked at her dubiously.  To his
+conventional mind every step of the way was blocked by some impassable
+barrier.  He did not honestly see how she was going to do the thing at
+all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, we don't need carpets!" laughed Shirley gayly.  "We'll spread down
+a rug in front of mother's bed, and another one by the piano, and the
+rest will be just perfectly all right.  We're not expecting to give
+receptions here, you know," she added mischievously.  "We're only
+campers, and very grateful campers at that, too, to find a nice, clean,
+empty floor where we can live.  The only thing that is troubling me is
+the cooking.  I've been wondering if it will affect the insurance if we
+use an oil-stove to cook with, or would you rather we got a wood-stove
+and put the pipe out of one of the windows?  I've seen people do that
+sometimes.  Of course we could cook outdoors on a camp-fire if it was
+necessary, but it might be a little inconvenient rainy days."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham gasped at the coolness with which this slip of a girl discoursed
+about hardships as if they were necessities to be accepted pleasantly
+and without a murmur.  She actually would not be daunted at the idea of
+cooking her meals on a fire out-of-doors!  Cooking indeed!  That was of
+course a question that people had to consider.  It had never been a
+question that crossed his mind before.  People cooked&mdash;how did they
+cook?  By electricity, gas, coal and wood fires, of course.  He had
+never considered it a matter to be called in any way serious.  But now
+he perceived that it was one of the first main things to be looked out
+for in a home.  He looked down at the waiting girl with a curious
+mixture of wonder, admiration, and dismay in his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, of course you will need a fire and a kitchen," he said as if
+those things usually grew in houses without any help and it hadn't
+occurred to him before that they were not indigenous to barns.  "Well,
+now, I hadn't thought of that.  There isn't any chimney here, is there?
+H'm!  There ought to be a chimney in every barn.  It would be better
+for the&mdash;ah&mdash;for the hay, I should think; keep it dry, you know, and
+all that sort of thing.  And then I should think it might be better for
+the animals.  I must look into that matter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, Mr. Graham," said Shirley decidedly.  "There is no necessity for a
+chimney.  We can perfectly well have the pipe go through a piece of tin
+set in the back window if you won't object, and we can use the little
+oil-stove when it's very hot if that doesn't affect the insurance.  We
+have a gas stove, of course, that we could bring; but there isn't any
+gas in a barn."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham looked around blankly at the cobwebby walls as if expecting
+gas-jets to break forth simultaneously with his wish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, I suppose not," he said, "although I should think there ought to
+be.  In a <i>barn</i>, you know.  But I'm sure there will be no objection
+whatever to your using any kind of a stove that will work here.  This
+is a stone barn, you know, and I'm sure it won't affect the insurance.
+I'll find out and let you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley felt a trifle uneasy yet about those partitions and the low
+price of the rent, but somehow the young man had managed to impress her
+with the fact that he was under no unpleasant delusions concerning
+herself and that he had the utmost respect for her.  He stood looking
+down earnestly at her for a moment without saying a word, and then he
+began hesitatingly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish you'd let me tell you," he said frankly, "how awfully brave you
+are about all this, planning to come out here in this lonely place, and
+not being afraid of hard work, and rough floors, and a barn, and even a
+fire out-of-doors."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's laugh rang out, and her eyes sparkled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, it's the nicest thing that's happened to me in ages," she said
+joyously.  "I can't hardly believe it's true that we can come here,
+that we can really <i>afford</i> to come to a great, heavenly country place
+like this.  I suppose of course there'll be hard things.  There always
+are, and some of them have been just about unbearable, but even the
+hard things can be made fun if you try.  This is going to be grand!"
+and she looked around triumphantly on the dusty rafters and rough stone
+walls with a little air of possession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are rather"&mdash;he paused&mdash;"unusual!" he finished thoughtfully as
+they walked toward the doorway and stood looking off at the distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now Shirley had almost forgotten him in the excitement of the view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just think of waking up to that every morning," she declared with a
+sweep of her little blue-clad arm toward the view in the distance.
+"Those purply hills, the fringe of brown and green against the horizon,
+that white spire nestling among those evergreens!  Is that a church?
+Is it near enough for us to go to?  Mother wouldn't want us to be too
+far from church."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We'll go home that way and discover," said Graham decidedly.  "You'll
+want to get acquainted with your new neighborhood.  You'll need to know
+how near there is a store, and where your neighbors live.  We'll
+reconnoitre a little.  Are you ready to go?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes.  I'm afraid we have kept you too long already, and we must
+get home about the time Carol usually comes from school, or mother will
+be terribly worried.  Carol is never later than half-past four."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We've plenty of time," said the driver of the car, looking at his
+watch and smiling assurance.  "Call the children, and we'll take a
+little turn around the neighborhood before we go back."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the little eager company were reluctantly persuaded to climb
+into the car again and start on their way.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>
+CHAPTER VIII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The car leaped forward up the smooth white road, and the great barn as
+they looked back to it seemed to smile pleasantly to them in farewell.
+Shirley looked back, and tried to think how it would seem to come home
+every night and see Doris standing at the top of the grassy incline
+waiting to welcome her; tried to fancy her mother in a hammock under
+the big tree a little later when it grew warm and summery, and the boys
+working in their garden.  It seemed too heavenly to be true.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The car swept around the corner of Allister Avenue, and curved down
+between tall trees.  The white spire in the distance drew nearer now,
+and the purplish hills were off at one side.  The way was fresh with
+smells of spring, and everywhere were sweet scents and droning bees and
+croaking frogs.  The spirit of the day seemed to enter into the young
+people and make them glad.  Somehow all at once they seemed to have
+known one another a long time, and to be intimately acquainted with one
+another's tastes and ecstasies.  They exclaimed together over the
+distant view of the misty city with the river winding on its far way,
+and shouted simultaneously over a frightened rabbit that scurried
+across the road and hid in the brushwood; and then the car wound round
+a curve and the little white church swept into view below them.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The little white church in the valley<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Is bright with the blossoms of May,<br/>
+And true is the heart of your lover<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Who waits for your coming to-day!"<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+chanted forth George in a favorite selection of the department-store
+victrola, and all the rest looked interested.  It was a pretty church,
+and nestled under the hills as if it were part of the landscape, making
+a home-centre for the town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We can go to church and Sunday-school there," said Shirley eagerly.
+"How nice!  That will please mother!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth looked at her curiously, and then speculatively toward the
+church.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It looks awfully small and cheap," said Elizabeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All the more chance for us to help!" said Shirley.  "It will be good
+for us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What could you do to help a church?" asked the wondering Elizabeth.
+"Give money to paint it?  The paint is all scaling off."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We couldn't give much money," said Carol, "because we haven't got it.
+But there's lots of things to do in a church besides giving.  You teach
+in Sunday-school, and you wait on table at suppers when they have
+Ladies' Aid."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Maybe they'll ask you to play the organ, Shirley," suggested George.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh George!" reproved Shirley.  "They'll have plenty that can play
+better than I can.  Remember I haven't had time to practise for ages."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She's a crackerjack at the piano!" confided George to Graham in a low
+growl.  "She hasn't had a lesson since father died, but before that she
+used to be at it all the time.  She c'n sing too.  You oughtta hear
+her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm sure I should like to," assented Graham heartily.  "I wonder if
+you will help me get her to sing sometime if I come out to call after
+you are settled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!" said George heartily, "but she mebbe won't do it.  She's awful
+nutty about singing sometimes.  She's not stuck on herself nor nothing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the little white church was left far behind, and the city swept on
+apace.  They were nearing home now, and Graham insisted on knowing
+where they lived, that he might put them down at their door.  Shirley
+would have pleaded an errand and had them set down in the business part
+of the town; but George airily gave the street and number, and Shirley
+could not prevail upon Graham to stop at his office and let them go
+their way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so the last few minutes of the drive were silent for Shirley, and
+her cheeks grew rosy with humiliation over the dark little narrow
+street where they would presently arrive.  Perhaps when he saw it this
+cultured young man would think they were too poor and common to be good
+tenants even for a barn.  But, when they stopped before the little
+two-story brick house, you would not have known from the expression on
+the young man's face as he glanced at the number but that the house was
+a marble front on the most exclusive avenue in the city.  He handed
+down Shirley with all the grace that he would have used to wait upon a
+millionaire's daughter, and she liked the way he helped out Carol and
+spoke to George as if he were an old chum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I want you to come and see me next Saturday," called Elizabeth to
+Carol as the car glided away from the curb; "and I'm coming out to help
+you get settled, remember!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The brother and two sisters stood in front of their little old dark
+house, and watched the elegant car glide away.  They were filled with
+wonder at themselves that they had been all the afternoon a part of
+that elegant outfit.  Was it a dream?  They rubbed their eyes as the
+car disappeared around the corner, and turned to look up at the
+familiar windows and make sure where they were.  Then they stood a
+moment to decide how they should explain to the waiting mother why they
+happened to be home so early.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was finally decided that George should go to hunt up a drayman and
+find out what he would charge to move their things to the country, and
+Shirley should go to a neighbor's to inquire about a stove she heard
+they wanted to sell.  Then Carol could go in alone, and there would be
+nothing to explain.  There was no telling when either George or Shirley
+would have a holiday again, and it was as well to get these things
+arranged as soon as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham was eagerly interviewing her brother, having
+taken the vacant front seat for the purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sid, where did you find those perfectly dear people?  I think they are
+just great!  And are they really going to live in that barn?  Won't
+that be dandy?  I wish mother'd let me go out and spend a month with
+them.  I mean to ask her.  That Carol is the nicest girl ever.  She's
+just a dear!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, look here, kid," said Graham, facing about to his sister.  "I
+want you to understand a thing or two.  I took you on this expedition
+because I thought I could trust you.  See?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I don't want a lot of talk at home about this.  Do you
+understand?  I want you to wait a bit and go slow.  If things seem to
+be all right a little later on, you can ask Carol to come and see you,
+perhaps; but you'll have to look out.  She hasn't fine clothes to go
+visiting in, I imagine, and they're pretty proud.  I guess they've lost
+their money.  Their father died a couple of years ago, and they've been
+up against it.  They do seem like awfully nice people, I'll admit; and,
+if it's all right later on, you can get to be friends, but you'll have
+to go slow.  Mother wouldn't understand it, and she mustn't be annoyed,
+you know.  I'll take you out to see them sometime when they get settled
+if it seems all right, but meantime can you keep your tongue still?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth's face fell, but she gave her word immediately.  She and her
+brother were chums; it was easy to see that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But can't I have her out for a week-end, Sid?  Can't I tell mother
+anything about her?  I could lend her some dresses, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You go slow, kid, and leave the matter to me.  I'll tell mother about
+them pretty soon when I've had a chance to see a little more of them
+and am sure mother wouldn't mind.  Meantime, don't you fret.  I'll take
+you out when I go on business, and you shall see her pretty soon again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth had to be content with that.  She perceived that for some
+reason her brother did not care to have the matter talked over in the
+family.  She knew they would all guy him about his interest in a girl
+who wanted to rent his barn, and she felt herself that Shirley was too
+fine to be talked about in that way.  The family wouldn't understand
+unless they saw her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know what you mean, Sid," she said after a thoughtful pause.  "You
+want the folks to see them before they judge what they are, don't you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's just exactly the point," said Sidney with a gleam of
+satisfaction in his eyes.  "That's just what makes you such a good pal,
+kid.  You always understand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The smile dawned again in Elizabeth's eyes, and she patted her
+brother's sleeve.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good old Sid!" she murmured tenderly.  "You're all right.  And I just
+know you're going to take me out to that barn soon.  Aren't you going
+to fix it up for them a little?  They can't live there that way.  It
+would be a dandy place to live if the windows were bigger and there
+were doors like a house, and a piazza, and some fireplaces.  A great
+big stone fireplace in the middle there opposite that door!  Wouldn't
+that be sweet?  And they'll have to have electric lights and some
+bathrooms, of course."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her brother tipped back his head, and laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm afraid you wouldn't make much of a hand to live in a barn, kid,"
+he said.  "You're too much of an aristocrat.  How much do you want for
+your money?  My dear, they don't expect tiled bathrooms, and electric
+lights, and inlaid floors when they rent a barn for the summer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But aren't you going to do anything, Sid?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I can't do much, for Miss Hollister would suspect right away.
+She's very businesslike, and she has suspicions already because I said
+I was going to put in partitions.  She isn't an object of charity, you
+know.  I imagine they are all pretty proud."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth sat thoughtful and still.  It was the first time in her life
+she had contemplated what it would be to be very poor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her brother watched her with interest.  He had a feeling that it was
+going to be very good for Elizabeth to know these Hollisters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly he brought the car to a stop before the office of a big
+lumber-yard they were passing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm going in here, kid, for just a minute, to see if I can get a man
+to put in those partitions."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth sat meditatively studying the office window through whose
+large dusty panes could be seen tall strips of moulding, unpainted
+window-frames, and a fluted column or two, evidently ready to fill an
+order.  The sign over the door set forth that window-sashes, doors, and
+blinds were to be had.  Suddenly Elizabeth sat up straight and read the
+sign again, strained her eyes to see through the window, and then
+opened the car door and sprang out.  In a moment more she stood beside
+her brother, pointing mutely to a large window-frame that stood against
+the wall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What is it, kid?" he asked kindly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sid, why can't you put on great big windows like that?  They would
+never notice the windows, you know.  It would be so nice to have plenty
+of light and air."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's so," he murmured.  "I might change the windows some without its
+being noticed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then to the man at the desk:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What's the price of that window?  Got any more?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said the man, looking up interested; "got half a dozen, made
+especially for a party, and then he wasn't pleased.  Claimed he ordered
+sash-winders 'stead of casement.  If you can use these six, we'll make
+you a special price."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, take them, Sid!  They're perfectly lovely," said Elizabeth
+eagerly.  "They're casement windows with diamond panes.  They'll just
+be so quaint and artistic in that stone!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I don't know how they'll fit," said the young man doubtfully.
+"I don't want to make it seem as if I was trying to put on too much
+style."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, Sid, it won't seem that way, really.  I tell you they'll never
+notice the windows are bigger, and casement windows aren't like a
+regular house, you know.  See, they'll open wide like doors.  I think
+it would be just grand!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All right, kid, we'll see!  We'll take the man out with us; and, if he
+says it can be done, I'll take them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth was overjoyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's just what it needed!" she declared.  "They couldn't live in the
+dark on rainy days.  You must put two in the front on each side the
+door, and one on each end.  The back windows will do well enough."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, come on, kid.  Mr. Jones is going out with me at once.  Do you
+want to go with us, or shall I call a taxi and send you home?" asked
+her brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm going with you, of course," said Elizabeth eagerly, hurrying out
+to the car as if she thought the thing would be done all wrong without
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Elizabeth sat in the back seat alone, while her brother and the
+contractor discoursed on the price of lumber and the relative values of
+wood and stone for building-purposes, and the big car went back over
+the way it had been before that afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They stopped on the way out, and picked up one of Mr. Jones's
+carpenters who was just leaving a job with his kit of tools, and who
+climbed stolidly into the back seat, and sat as far away from the
+little blue-velvet miss as possible, all the while taking furtive notes
+to tell his own little girl about her when he went home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth climbed out, and went about the barn with them, listening to
+all they had to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two men took out pencils and foot rules, and went around measuring
+and figuring.  Elizabeth watched them with bright, attentive eyes,
+putting a whispered suggestion now and then to her brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They can't go up and down a ladder all the time," she whispered.
+"There ought to be some rough stairs with a railing, at least as good
+as our back stairs at home."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How about it?" said Graham aloud to the contractor.  "Can you put in
+some steps, just rough ones, to the left?  I'm going to have a party
+out here camping for a while this summer, and I want it to be safe.
+Need a railing, you know, so nobody will get a fall."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man measured the space up with his eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just want plain steps framed up with a hand-rail?" he said, squinting
+up again.  "Guess we better start 'em up this way to the back wall and
+then turn back from a landing.  That'll suit the overhead space best.
+Just pine, you want 'em, I s'pose?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth stood like a big blue bird alighted on the door-sill,
+watching and listening.  She was a regular woman, and saw big
+possibilities in the building.  She would have enjoyed ordering
+parquetry flooring and carved newel-posts and making a regular palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun was setting behind the purply hill and sending a glint from the
+weather-vane on the little white church spire when they started back to
+the city.  Elizabeth looked wistfully toward it, and wondered about the
+rapt expression on Shirley's face when she spoke of "working" in the
+church.  How could one get any pleasure out of that?  She meant to find
+out.  At present her life was rather monotonous, and she longed to have
+some new interests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night after she had gone to her luxurious little couch she lay in
+her downy nest, and tried to think how it would be to live in that big
+barn and go to sleep up in the loft, lying on that hay.  Then suddenly
+the mystery of life was upon her with its big problems.  Why, for
+instance, was she born into the Graham family with money and culture
+and all the good times, and that sweet, bright Carol-girl born into the
+Hollister family where they had a hard time to live at all?
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>
+CHAPTER IX
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Quite early the next morning Sidney Graham was in his office at the
+telephone.  He conferred with the carpenter, agreeing to meet him out
+at the barn and make final arrangements about the windows in a very
+short time.  Then he called up the trolley company and the electric
+company, and made arrangements with them to have a wire run from the
+road to his barn, with a very satisfactory agreement whereby he could
+pay them a certain sum for the use of as much light as he needed.  This
+done, he called up an electrician, and arranged that he should send
+some men out that morning to wire the barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He hurried through his morning mail, giving his stenographer a free
+hand with answering some of the letters, and then speeded out to
+Glenside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three men were already there, two of them stone-masons, working away
+under the direction of the contractor.  They had already begun working
+at the massive stone around the windows, striking musical blows from a
+light scaffolding that made the old barn look as if it had suddenly
+waked up and gone to house-cleaning.  Sidney Graham surveyed it with
+satisfaction as he stopped his car by the roadside and got out.  He did
+delight to have things done on time.  He decided that if this
+contractor did well on the job he would see that he got bigger things
+to do.  He liked it that his work had been begun at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next car brought a quartette of carpenters, and before young Graham
+went back to the city a motor-truck had arrived loaded with lumber and
+window-frames.  It was all very fascinating to him, this new toy barn
+that had suddenly come into his possession, and he could hardly tear
+himself away from it and go back to business.  One would not have
+supposed, perhaps, that it was so very necessary for him to do so,
+either, seeing that he was already so well off that he really could
+have gotten along quite comfortably the rest of his life without any
+more money; but he was a conscientious young man, who believed that no
+living being had a right to exist in idleness, and who had gone into
+business from a desire to do his best and keep up the honorable name of
+his father's firm.  So after he had given careful directions for the
+electric men when they should come he rushed back to his office once
+more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next two days were filled with delightful novelties.  He spent much
+time flying from office to barn and back to the office again, and
+before evening of the second day he had decided that a telephone in the
+barn was an absolute necessity, at least while the work was going on.
+So he called up the telephone company, and arranged that connection
+should be put in at once.  That evening he wrote a short note to Miss
+Shirley Hollister, telling her that the partitions were under way and
+would soon be completed, and that in a few days he would send her the
+key so that she might begin to transport her belongings to the new home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next morning, when Graham went out to the stone barn, he found that
+the front windows were in, and gave a very inviting appearance to the
+edifice, both outside and in.  As Elizabeth had surmised, the big
+latticed windows opening inwards like casement doors seemed quite in
+keeping with the rough stone structure.  Graham began to wonder why all
+barns did not affect this style of window, they were so entirely
+attractive.  He was thoroughly convinced that the new tenants would not
+be likely to remember or notice the difference in the windows; he was
+sure he shouldn't have unless his attention had been called to them in
+some way.  Of course the sills and sashes were rather new-looking, but
+he gave orders that they should at once be painted an unobtrusive dark
+green which would well accord with the mossy roof, and he trusted his
+particular young tenant would not think that he had done anything
+pointed in changing the windows.  If she did, he would have to think up
+some excuse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, as he stood at the top of the grassy slope and looked about, he
+noticed the great pile of stones under each window, from the masonry
+that had been torn away to make room for the larger sashes, and an idea
+came to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mr. Jones!" he called to the contractor, who had just come over on the
+car to see how the work was progressing.  "Wouldn't there be stones
+enough all together from all the windows to build some kind of a rude
+chimney and fireplace?" he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jones thought there would.  There were stones enough down in the
+meadow to piece out with in case they needed more, anyway.  Where would
+Mr. Graham want the fireplace?  Directly opposite the front doors?  He
+had thought of suggesting that himself, but didn't know as Mr. Graham
+wanted to go to any more expense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By all means make that fireplace!" said the young owner delightedly.
+"This is going to be a jolly place when it gets done, isn't it?  I
+declare I don't know but I'd like to come out here and live."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It would make a fine old house, sir," said the contractor
+respectfully, looking up almost reverently at the barn.  "I'd like to
+see it with verandys, and more winders, and a few such.  You don't see
+many of these here old stone buildings around now.  They knew how to
+build 'em substantial in those old times, so they did."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!  Yes.  It would make a fine site for a house, wouldn't it?" said
+the young man, looking about thoughtfully.  "Well, now, we'll have to
+think about that sometime, perhaps.  However, I think it looks very
+nice for the present"; and he walked about, looking at the improvements
+with great satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At each end of the barn a good room, long and narrow, had been
+partitioned off, each of which by use of a curtain would make two very
+large rooms, and yet the main section of the floor looked as large as
+ever.  A simple stairway of plain boards had been constructed a little
+to one side of the middle toward the back, going up to the loft, which
+had been made safe for the children by a plain rude railing consisting
+of a few uprights with strips across.  The darkening slats at the small
+windows in the loft had been torn away and shutters substituted that
+would open wide and let in air and light.  Rough spots in the floor had
+been mended, and around the great place both up-stairs and down, and
+even down in the basement underneath, electric wires ran with simple
+lights and switches conveniently arranged, so that if it became
+desirable the whole place could be made a blaze of light.  The young
+man did not like to think of this family of unprotected women and
+children coming out into the country without all the arrangements
+possible to make them feel safe.  For this reason also he had
+established the telephone.  He had talked it over with the agent,
+paying a certain sum for its installation, and had a telephone put in
+that they could pay for whenever they desired to use it.  This would
+make the young householder feel more comfortable about leaving her
+mother out in the country all day, and also prevent her pride from
+being hurt.  The telephone was there.  She need not use it unless
+necessity arose.  He felt he could explain that to her.  If she didn't
+like it, of course she could have it taken away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were a lot more things he would like to do to make the place more
+habitable, but he did not dare.  Sometimes even now his conscience
+troubled him.  What did he know about these people, anyway? and what
+kind of a flighty youth was he becoming that he let a strange girl's
+appealing face drive him to such lengths as he was going now?
+Telephone, and electric lights, and stairs, and a fireplace in a barn!
+It was all perfectly preposterous; and, if his family should hear of
+it, he would never hear the last of it; that he was certain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At such times he would hunt up his young sister and carry her off for a
+long drive in the car, always ending up at Glenside Road, where she
+exclaimed and praised to his heart's satisfaction, and gave anew her
+word not to tell anybody a thing about it until he was ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed, Elizabeth was wild with delight.  She wanted to hunt up some of
+her mother's old Turkish rugs that were put away in dark closets, to
+decorate the walls with pictures and bric-â-brac from her own room, and
+to smother the place in flowering shrubs for the arrival of the
+tenants; but her brother firmly forbade anything more being done.  He
+waited with fear and trembling for the time when the clear-eyed young
+tenant should look upon the changes he had already made; for something
+told him she would not stand charity, and there was a point beyond
+which he must not go if he wished ever to see her again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last one morning he ventured to call her up on the telephone at her
+office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My sister and I were thinking of going out to see how things are
+progressing at the Glenside place," he said after he had explained who
+he was.  "I was wondering if you would care to come along and look
+things over.  What time do you get through at your office this
+afternoon?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That is very kind of you, Mr. Graham," said Shirley, "but I'm afraid
+that won't be possible.  I'm not usually done until half-past five.  I
+might get through by five, but not much sooner, and that would be too
+late for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all, Miss Hollister.  That would be a very agreeable time.  I
+have matters that will keep me here quite late to-night, and that will
+be just right for me.  Shall I call for you, then, at five?  Or is that
+too soon?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no, I can be ready by then, I'm sure," said Shirley with
+suppressed excitement.  "You are very kind&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all.  It will be a pleasure," came the answer.  "Then I will
+call at your office at five," and the receiver clicked at the other
+end, leaving Shirley in a whirl of doubt and joy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How perfectly delightful!  And yet ought she to go?  Would mother think
+it was all right?  His little sister was going, but was it quite right
+for her to accept this much attention even in a business way?  It
+wasn't at all customary or necessary, and both he and she knew it.  He
+was just doing it to be nice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then there was mother.  She must send a message somehow, or mother
+would be frightened when she did not come home at her usual time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She finally succeeded in getting Carol at her school, and told her to
+tell mother she was kept late and might not be home till after seven.
+Then she flew at her work to get it out of the way before five o'clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, when she came down at the appointed time, she found Carol sitting
+excitedly in the back seat with Elizabeth, fairly bursting with the
+double pleasure of the ride and of surprising her sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They came to the school for me, and took me home; and I explained to
+mother that I was going with you to look at a place we were going to
+move to.  I put on the potatoes, and put the meat in the oven, and
+mother is going to tell George just what to do to finish supper when he
+gets home," she exclaimed eagerly.  "And, oh, isn't it lovely?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Indeed it is lovely," said Shirley, her face flushing with pleasure
+and her eyes speaking gratitude to the young man in the front seat who
+was opening the door for her to step in beside him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was a wonderful ride.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The spring had made tremendous advances in her work during the ten days
+since they went that way before.  The flush of green that the willows
+had worn had become a soft, bright feather of foliage, and the maples
+had sent out crimson tassels to offset them.  Down in the meadows and
+along the roadside the grass was thick and green, and the bare brown
+fields had disappeared.  Little brooks sang tinklingly as they glided
+under bridges, and the birds darted here and there in busy, noisy
+pairs.  Frail wavering blossoms starred the swampy places, and the air
+was sweet with scents of living things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, when they came in sight of the barn, Elizabeth and her brother
+grew silent from sheer desire to talk and not act as if there was
+anything different about it.  Now that they had actually brought
+Shirley here, the new windows seemed fairly to flaunt themselves in
+their shining mossy paint and their vast extent of diamond panes, so
+that the two conspirators were deeply embarrassed, and dared not face
+what they had done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Carol who broke the silence that had come upon them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" she shouted.  "Shirley, just look!  New, great big
+windows!  Isn't that great?  Now you needn't worry whether it will be
+dark for mother days when she can't go out!  Isn't that the best ever?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley looked, and her cheeks grew pink as her eyes grew starry.
+She opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, for the words
+would not come, and the tears came instead; but she drove them back,
+and then managed to say:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Mr. Graham!  Oh, you have gone to so much trouble!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, no trouble at all," said he almost crossly; for he had wanted her
+not to notice those windows, at least not yet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see it was this way.  The windows were some that were left over
+from another order, and I got a chance to get them at a bargain.  I
+thought they might as well be put in now as any time and you get the
+benefit of them.  The barn really needed more light.  It was a very
+dark barn indeed.  Hadn't you noticed it?  I can't see how my
+grandfather thought it would do to have so little light and air.  But
+you know in the old times they didn't use to have such advanced ideas
+about ventilation and germs and things&mdash;&mdash;"  He felt he was getting on
+rather famously until he looked down at the clear eyes of the girl, and
+knew she was seeing right straight through all his talk.  However, she
+hadn't the face to tell him so; and so he boldly held on his way,
+making up fine stories about things that barns needed until he all but
+believed them himself; and, when he got through, he needed only to
+finish with "And, if it isn't so, it ought to be" to have a regular
+Water-Baby argument out of it.  He managed to talk on in this vein
+until he could stop the car and help Shirley out, and together they all
+went up the now velvety green of the incline to the big door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is beautiful! beautiful!" murmured Shirley in a daze of delight.
+She could not yet make it seem real that she was to come to this
+charmed spot to live in a few days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham unlocked the big doors, and sent them rolling back with a touch,
+showing what ball bearings and careful workmanship can do.  The group
+stepped inside, and stood to look again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The setting sun was casting a red glow through the diamond panes and
+over the wide floor.  The new partitions, guiltless of paint, for
+Graham had not dared to go further, were mellowed into ruby hangings.
+The stone fireplace rose at the opposite side of the room, and the new
+staircase was just at the side, all in the ruddy evening glow that
+carried rich dusky shadows into the corners, and hung a curtain of
+vagueness over blemishes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then all suddenly, before they had had time to take in the changes,
+more than the fact of the partitions which they expected, Graham
+stepped to the side of the door, and touched a button, and behold a
+myriad of lights burst forth about the place, making it bright like
+noontime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" breathed Carol in awe and wonder, and "Oh!" again, as
+if there were nothing else to say.  But Shirley only looked and caught
+her breath.  It seemed a palace too fine for their poor little means,
+and a sudden fear gripped hold upon her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh Mr. Graham!  You have done too much!" she choked.  "You shouldn't
+have done it!  We can never afford to pay for all this!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not at all!" said young Graham quickly.  "This isn't anything.  The
+electric people gave permission for this, and I thought it would be
+safer than lamps and candles, you know.  It cost scarcely anything for
+the wiring.  I had our regular man do it that attends to the wiring and
+lights at the office.  It was a mere trifle, and will make things a lot
+more convenient for you.  You see it's nothing to the company.  They
+just gave permission for a wire to be run from the pole there.  Of
+course they might not do it for every one, but I've some pretty good
+friends in the company; so it's all right."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But the fireplace!" said Shirley, going over to look at it.  "It's
+beautiful!  It's like what you see in magazine pictures of beautiful
+houses."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, it was just the stones that were left from cutting the windows
+larger.  I thought they might as well be utilized, you know.  It wasn't
+much more work to pile them up that way while the men were here than if
+we had had them carted away."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Carol interrupted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shirley!  There's a telephone!  A real telephone!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's accusing eyes were upon her landlord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was put in for our convenience while the workmen were here," he
+explained defensively.  "It is a pay phone, you see, and is no expense
+except when in use.  It can be taken out if you do not care to have it,
+of course; but it occurred to me since it was here your mother might
+feel more comfortable out here all day if she could call you when she
+needed to."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's face was a picture of varying emotions as she listened, but
+relief and gratitude conquered as she turned to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I believe you have thought of everything," she said at last.  "I have
+worried about that all this week.  I have wondered if mother would be
+afraid out in the country with only the children, and the neighbors not
+quite near enough to call; but this solves the difficulty.  You are
+sure it hasn't cost you a lot to have this put in?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, don't you know the telephone company is glad to have their phones
+wherever they can get them?" he evaded.  "Now, don't worry about
+anything more.  You'll find hardships enough living in a barn without
+fretting about the few conveniences we have been able to manage."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But this is real luxury!" she said, sitting down on the steps and
+looking up where the lights blazed from the loft.  "You have put lights
+up there, too, and a railing.  I was so afraid Doris would fall down
+some time!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm glad to find you are human, after all, and have a few fears!"
+declared the owner, laughing.  "I had begun to think you were Spartan
+through and through and weren't afraid of anything.  Yes, I had the men
+put what lumber they had left into that railing.  I thought it wasn't
+safe to have it all open like that, and I didn't want you to sue me for
+life or limb, you know.  There's one thing I haven't managed yet, and
+that is piping water up from the spring.  I haven't been able to get
+hold of the right man so far; but he's coming out to-morrow, and I hope
+it can be done.  There is a spring on the hill back of us, and I
+believe it is high enough, to get the water to this floor.  If it is it
+will make your work much easier and be only the matter of a few rods of
+pipe."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, but, indeed, you mustn't do anything more!" pleaded Shirley.  "I
+shall feel so ashamed paying such a little rent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But, my dear young lady," said Graham in his most dignified business
+manner, "you don't at all realize how much lower rents are in the
+country, isolated like this, than they are in the city; and you haven't
+as yet realized what a lot of inconveniences you have to put up with.
+When you go back to the city in the winter, you will be glad to get
+away from here."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Never!" said Shirley fervently, and shuddered.  "Oh, never!  You don't
+know how dreadful it seems that we shall have to go back.  But of
+course I suppose we shall.  One couldn't live in a barn in the winter,
+even though it is a palace for the summer"; and she looked about
+wistfully.  Then, her eyes lighting up, she said in a low tone, for the
+young man's benefit alone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think God must have made you do all this for us!"  She turned and
+walked swiftly over to one of the new casement windows, looking out at
+the red glow that the sun in sinking had left in the sky; and there
+against the fringes of the willows and maples shone out the bright
+weather-vane on the spire of the little white church in the valley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think God must have sent you to teach me and my little sister a few
+things," said a low voice just behind Shirley as she struggled with
+tired, happy tears that would blur her eyes.  But, when she turned to
+smile at the owner of the voice, he was walking over by the door and
+talking to Carol.  They tumbled joyously into the car very soon, and
+sped on their way to the city again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night the Hollister children told their mother they had found a
+place in which to live.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>
+CHAPTER X
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The crisis was precipitated by Shirley's finding her mother crying when
+she came up softly to see her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, little mother, <i>dear</i>!  What can be the matter?" she cried
+aghast, sitting down on the bed and drawing her mother's head into her
+lap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it was some time before Mrs. Hollister could recover her calmness,
+and Shirley began to be frightened.  At last, when she had kissed and
+petted her, she called down to the others to come up-stairs quickly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came with all haste, George and Harley with dish-towels over their
+shoulders, Carol with her arithmetic and pencil, little Doris trudging
+up breathless, one step at a time, and all crying excitedly, "What's
+the matter?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, here's our blessed little mother lying here all by herself,
+crying because she doesn't know where in the world we can find a
+house!" cried Shirley; "and I think it's time we told our beautiful
+secret, don't you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," chorused the children, although Harley and Doris had no idea
+until then that there was any beautiful secret.  Beautiful secrets
+hadn't been coming their way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I think we better tell it," said Shirley, looking at George and
+Carol questioningly.  "Don't you?  We don't want mother worrying."  So
+they all clustered around her on the bed and the floor, and sat
+expectantly while Shirley told.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see, mother, it's this way.  We've been looking around a good deal
+lately, George and I, and we haven't found a thing in the city that
+would do; so one day I took a trolley ride out of the city, and I've
+found something I think will do nicely for the summer, anyway, and that
+will give us time to look around and decide.  Mother dear, would you
+mind camping so very much if we made you a nice, comfortable place?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Camping!" said Mrs. Hollister in dismay.  "Dear child!  In a tent?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, mother, not in a tent.  There's a&mdash;a&mdash;sort of a house&mdash;that is,
+there's a building, where we could sleep, and put our furniture, and
+all; but there's a lovely out-of-doors.  Wouldn't you like that, for
+Doris and you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes," sighed the poor woman; "I'd like it; but, child, you haven't
+an idea what you are talking about.  Any place in the country costs
+terribly, even a shanty&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's it, mother, call it a shanty!" put in Carol.  "Mother, would
+you object to living in a shanty all summer if it was good and clean,
+and you had plenty of out-of-doors around it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, of course not, Carol, if it was perfectly respectable.  I
+shouldn't want to take my children among a lot of low-down people&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course not, mother!" put in Shirley.  "And there's nothing of that
+sort.  It's all perfectly respectable, and the few neighbors are nice,
+respectable people.  Now, mother, if you're willing to trust us, we'd
+like it if you'll just let us leave it at that and not tell you
+anything more about it till we take you there.  George and Carol and I
+have all seen the place, and we think it will be just the thing.
+There's plenty of room, and sky, and a big tree, and birds; and it only
+costs ten dollars a month.  Now, mother, will you trust us for the rest
+and not ask any questions?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mother looked in bewilderment from one to another, and, seeing
+their eager faces, she broke into a weary smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I suppose I'll have to," she said with a sigh of doubt; "but I
+can't understand how any place you could get would be only that price,
+and I'm afraid you haven't thought of a lot of things."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, mother, we've thought of everything&mdash;and then some," said
+Shirley, stooping down to kiss the thin cheek; "but we are sure you are
+going to like this when you see it.  It isn't a palace, of course.  You
+don't expect plate-glass windows, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, hardly," said Mrs. Hollister dryly, struggling with herself to
+be cheerful.  She could see that her children were making a brave
+effort to make a jolly occasion out of their necessity, and she was
+never one to hang back; so, as she could do nothing else, she assented.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are sure," she began, looking at Shirley with troubled eyes.
+"There are so many things to think of, and you are so young."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Trust me, mudder dearie," said Shirley joyously, remembering the
+fireplace and the electric lights.  "It really isn't so bad; and
+there's a beautiful hill for Doris to run down, and a place to hang a
+hammock for you right under a big tree where a bird has built its nest."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh-h!" echoed the wondering Doris.  "And could I see de birdie?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, darling, you can watch him every day, and see him fly through the
+blue sky."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's all right, mother," said George in a businesslike tone.  "You'll
+think it's great after you get used to it.  Carol and I are crazy over
+it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But will it be where you can get to your work, both of you?  I
+shouldn't like you to take long, lonely walks, you know," said the
+troubled mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Right on the trolley line, mother dear; and the difference in rent
+will more than pay our fare."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Besides, I'm thinking of buying a bicycle from one of the fellows.  He
+says he'll sell it for five dollars, and I can pay fifty cents a month.
+Then I could go in on my bike in good weather, and save that much."
+This from George.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, gee!" said Harley breathlessly.  "Then I could ride it sometimes,
+too."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!" said George generously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," said Shirley with her commanding manner that the children called
+"brigadier-general," "now, mother dear, you're going to put all your
+worries out of your head right this minute, and go to sleep.  Your
+business is to get strong enough to be moved out there.  When you get
+there, you'll get well so quick you won't know yourself; but you've got
+to rest from now on every minute, or you won't be able to go when the
+time comes; and then what will happen?  Will you promise?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Amid the laughing and pleading of her children the mother promised,
+half smilingly, half tearfully, and succumbed to being prepared for the
+night.  Then they all tiptoed away to the dining-room for a council of
+war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was still two weeks before they had to vacate the little brick
+house, plenty of time to get comfortably settled before they took their
+mother out there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was decided that George and Shirley should go out the next evening
+directly from their work, not waiting to return for supper, but eating
+a lunch down-town.  Now that the place was lighted and they had been
+told to use the light as freely as they chose, with no charge, the
+question of getting settled was no longer a problem.  They could do it
+evenings after their work was over.  The first thing would be to clean
+house, and for that they needed a lot of things, pails, pans, brooms,
+mops and the like.  It would be good to take a load of things out the
+next day if possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So George went out to interview the man with the moving-wagon, while
+Shirley and Carol made out a list of things that ought to go in that
+first load.  George came back with the report that the man could come
+at half past four in the afternoon; and, if they could have the things
+that were to go all ready, he would have his son help to load them, and
+they could get out to Glenside by six o'clock or seven at the latest.
+Harley might go along if he liked, and help to unload at the other end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harley was greatly excited both at the responsibility placed upon him
+and at the prospect of seeing the new home.  It almost made up for the
+thought of leaving "the fellows" and going to live in a strange place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young people were late getting to bed that night, for they had to
+get things together so that Carol would not have her hands too full the
+next day when she got home from school.  Then they had to hunt up soap,
+scrubbing-pails, rags, brushes and brooms; and, when they went to bed
+at last, they were much too excited to sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course there were many hindrances to their plans, and a lot of delay
+waiting for the cartman, who did not always keep his word; but the days
+passed, and every one saw some little progress toward making a home out
+of the big barn.  Shirley would not let them stay later in the evenings
+than ten o'clock, for they must be ready to go to work the next
+morning; so of course the work of cleaning the barn progressed but
+slowly.  After the first night they got a neighbor to sit with their
+mother and Doris, letting Carol and Harley come out on the car to help;
+and so with four willing workers the barn gradually took on a nice
+smell of soap and water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old furniture arrived little by little, and was put in place
+eagerly, until by the end of the first week the big middle room and the
+dining-room and kitchen began really to look like living.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Saturday evening of that first week, and Shirley was sitting on
+the old couch at the side of the fireplace, resting, watching George,
+who was reeling out a stormy version of chopsticks on the piano, and
+looking about on her growing home hopefully.  Suddenly there came a
+gentle tapping at the big barn door, and George as the man of the house
+went to the door with his gruffest air on, but melted at once when he
+saw the landlord and his sister standing out in front in the moonlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you ready for callers?" asked Graham, taking off his hat in
+greeting.  "Elizabeth and I took a spin out this way, and we sighted
+the light, and thought we'd stop and see if we could help any.  My, how
+homelike you've made it look!  Say, this is great!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham stood in the centre of the big room, looking about him
+with pleasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young people had put things in apple-pie order as far as they had
+gone.  A fire was laid in the big stone fireplace, all ready for
+touching off, and gave a homelike, cleared-up look to the whole place
+as if it were getting ready for some event.  On each side of the
+chimney stood a simple set of bookshelves filled with well-worn volumes
+that had a look of being beloved and in daily intimate association with
+the family.  On the top of the shelves Carol had placed some bits of
+bric-â-brac, and in the centre of each a tall vase.  Beside them were a
+few photographs in simple frames, a strong-faced man with eyes that
+reminded one of Shirley and a brow like George's; a delicate-featured,
+refined woman with sweet, sensitive mouth and eyes like Carol's; a
+lovely little child with a cloud of fair curls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old couch was at one side of the fireplace, at a convenient angle
+to watch the firelight, and yet not hiding the bookshelves.  On the
+other side, with its back toward the first landing of the rude
+staircase, stood an old upright piano with a pile of shabby music on
+the top and a book of songs open on the rack.  On the floor in the
+space between was spread a worn and faded ingrain rug, its original
+colors and pattern long since blended into neutral grays and browns,
+which strangely harmonized with the rustic surroundings.  A few
+comfortable but shabby chairs were scattered about in a homelike way,
+and a few pictures in plain frames were hung on the clean new
+partitions.  Under one stood a small oak desk and a few
+writing-materials.  A little further on a plain library table held a
+few magazines and papers and a cherished book or two.  There had been
+no attempt to cover the wide bare floor spaces, save by a small dingy
+rug or two or a strip of carpet carefully brushed and flung here and
+there in front of a chair.  There was no pretension and therefore no
+incongruity.  The only luxurious thing in the place was the bright
+electric light, and yet it all looked pleasant and inviting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Say, now, this is great!" reiterated the young owner of the place,
+sinking into the nearest chair and looking about him with admiration.
+"Who would ever have imagined you could make a barn look like this?
+Why, you're a genius, Miss Hollister.  You're a real artist."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley in an old gingham dress, with her sleeves rolled high and her
+hair fluffing wilfully in disorder about her hot cheeks, stood before
+him in dismay.  She had been working hard, and was all too conscious of
+the brief time before they must be done; and to have company just
+now&mdash;and such company&mdash;put her to confusion; but the honest admiration
+in the young man's voice did much to restore her equilibrium.  She
+began to pull down her sleeves and sit down to receive her callers
+properly; but he at once insisted that she should not delay on his
+account, and, seeing her shyness, immediately plunged into some
+questions about the water-pipes, which brought about a more
+businesslike footing and relieved her embarrassment.  He was soon on
+his way to the partitioned corner which was to be the kitchen, telling
+Shirley how it was going to be no trouble to run a pipe from the spring
+and have a faucet put in, and that it should be done on the morrow.
+Then he called to Elizabeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Kid, what did you do with those eats you brought along?  I think it
+would be a good time to hand them out.  I'm hungry.  Suppose you take
+George out to the car to help you bring them in, and let's have a
+picnic!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, turning to Shirley, he explained:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Elizabeth and I are great ones to have something along to eat.  It
+makes one hungry to ride, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The children needed no second word, but all hurried out to the car, and
+came back with a great bag of most delicious oranges and several boxes
+of fancy cakes and crackers; and they all sat down to enjoy them,
+laughing and chattering, not at all like landlord and tenants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now what's to do next?" demanded the landlord as soon as the repast
+was finished.  "I'm going to help.  We're not here to hinder, and we
+must make up for the time we have stopped you.  What were you and
+George doing, Miss Carol, when we arrived?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Unpacking dishes," giggled Carol, looking askance at the frowning
+Shirley, who was shaking her head at Carol behind Graham's back.
+Shirley had no mind to have the elegant landlord see the dismal state
+of the Hollister crockery.  But the young man was not to be so easily
+put off, and to Carol's secret delight insisted upon helping despite
+Shirley's most earnest protests that it was not necessary to do
+anything more that evening.  He and Elizabeth repaired to the
+dining-room end of the barn, and helped unpack dishes, pans, kettles,
+knives, and forks, and arrange them on the shelves that George had
+improvised out of a large old bookcase that used to be his father's.
+After all, there was something in good breeding, thought Shirley, for
+from the way in which Mr. Graham handled the old cracked dishes, and
+set them up so nicely, you never would have known but they were
+Haviland china.  He never seemed to see them at all when they were
+cracked.  One might have thought he had been a member of the family for
+years, he made things seem so nice and comfortable and sociable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Merrily they worked, and accomplished wonders that night, for Shirley
+let them stay until nearly eleven o'clock "just for once"; and then
+they all piled into the car, Shirley and Carol and Elizabeth in the
+back seat, George and the happy Harley with Graham in the front.  If
+there had been seven more of them, they would have all happily squeezed
+in.  The young Hollisters were having the time of their lives, and as
+for the Grahams it wasn't quite certain but that they were also.
+Certainly society had never seen on Sidney Graham's face that happy,
+enthusiastic look of intense satisfaction that the moon looked down
+upon that night.  And, after all, they got home almost as soon as if
+they had gone on the ten-o'clock trolley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that on one pretext or another those Grahams were always dropping
+in on the Hollisters at their work and managing to "help," and
+presently even Shirley ceased to be annoyed or to apologize.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The east end of the barn had been selected for bedrooms.  A pair of
+cretonne curtains was stretched across the long, narrow room from wall
+to partition, leaving the front room for their mother's bed and Doris's
+crib, and the back room for Shirley and Carol.  The boys had taken
+possession of the loft with many shouts and elaborate preparations, and
+had spread out their treasures with deep delight, knowing that at last
+there was room enough for their proper display and they need feel no
+fear that they would be thrown out because their place was wanted for
+something more necessary.  Little by little the Hollisters were getting
+settled.  It was not so hard, after all, because there was that
+glorious big "attic" in which to put away things that were not needed
+below, and there was the whole basement for tubs and things, and a
+lovely faucet down there, too, so that a lot of work could be done
+below the living-floor.  It seemed just ideal to the girls, who had
+been for several years accustomed to the cramped quarters of a tiny
+city house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last even the beds were made up, and everything had been moved but
+the bed and a few necessities in their mother's room, which were to
+come the next day while they were moving their mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That moving of mother had been a great problem to Shirley until Graham
+anticipated her necessity, and said in a matter-of-fact way that he
+hoped Mrs. Hollister would let him take her to her new home in his car.
+Then Shirley's eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  She knew her
+mother was not yet able to travel comfortably in a trolley-car, and the
+price of a taxicab was more than she felt they ought to afford; yet in
+her secret heart she had been intending to get one; but now there would
+be no necessity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's words of gratitude were few and simple, but there was
+something in her eyes as she lifted them to Graham's face that made a
+glow in his heart and fully repaid him for his trouble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The last thing they did when they left the barn that night before they
+were coming to stay was to set the table, and it really looked very
+cozy and inviting with a white cloth on it and the dishes set out to
+look their best.  Shirley looked back at it with a sweeping glance that
+took in the great, comfortable living-room, the open door into the
+dining-room on one hand and the vista of a white bed on the other side
+through the bedroom door.  She smiled happily, and then switched off
+the electric light, and stepped out into the sweet spring night.
+Graham, who had stood watching her as one might watch the opening of
+some strange, unknown flower, closed and locked the door behind them,
+and followed her down the grassy slope to the car.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you know," he said earnestly, "it's been a great thing to me to
+watch you make a real home out of this bare barn?  It's wonderful!
+It's like a miracle.  I wouldn't have believed it could be done.  And
+you have done it so wonderfully!  I can just see what kind of a
+delightful home it is going to be."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something in his tone that made Shirley forget he was rich
+and a stranger and her landlord.  She lifted her face to the stars, and
+spoke her thoughts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You can't possibly know how much like heaven it is going to be to us
+after coming from that other awful little house," she said; "and you
+are the one who has made it possible.  If it hadn't been for you I know
+I never could have done it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, nonsense, Miss Hollister!  You mustn't think of it, I haven't done
+anything at all, just the simplest things that were absolutely
+necessary."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I understand," said Shirley; "and I can't ever repay you, but I
+think God will.  That is the kind of thing the kingdom of heaven is
+made of."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, really, now," said Graham, deeply embarrassed; he was not much
+accustomed to being connected with the kingdom of heaven in any way.
+"Oh, really, you&mdash;you over-estimate it.  And as for pay, I don't ask
+any better than the fun my sister and I have had helping you get
+settled.  It has been a great play for us.  We never really moved, you
+see.  We've always gone off and had some one do it for us.  I've
+learned a lot since I've known you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night as she prepared to lie down on the mattress and blanket that
+had been left behind for herself and Carol to camp out on, Shirley
+remembered her first worries about Mr. Graham, and wondered whether it
+could be possible that he thought she had been forward in any way, and
+what her mother would think when she heard the whole story of the new
+landlord; for up to this time the secret had been beautifully kept from
+mother, all the children joining to clap their hands over wayward
+mouths that started to utter tell-tale sentences, and the mystery grew,
+and became almost like Christmas-time for little Doris and her mother.
+It must, however, be stated that Mrs. Hollister, that last night, as
+she lay wakeful on her bed in the little bare room in the tiny house,
+had many misgivings, and wondered whether perchance she would not be
+sighing to be back even here twenty-four hours later.  She was holding
+her peace wonderfully, because there really was nothing she could do
+about it even if she was going out of the frying-pan into the fire; but
+the tumult and worry in her heart had been by no means bliss.  So the
+midnight drew on, and the weary family slept for the last night in the
+cramped old house where they had lived since trouble and poverty had
+come upon them.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>
+CHAPTER XI
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was awake early that morning, almost too excited to sleep but
+fitfully even through the night.  Now that the thing was done and they
+were actually moved into a barn she began to have all sorts of fears
+and compunctions concerning it.  She seemed to see her delicate mother
+shrink as from a blow when she first learned that they had come to
+this.  Try as she would to bring back all the sensible philosophy that
+had caused her to enter into this affair in the first place, she simply
+could not feel anything but trouble.  She longed to rush into her
+mother's room, tell her all about it, and get the dreaded episode over.
+But anyhow it was inevitable now.  They were moved.  They had barely
+enough money to pay the cartage and get things started before next
+pay-day.  There was nothing for it but to take her mother there, even
+if she did shrink from the idea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course mother always had been sensible, and all that; but somehow
+the burden of the great responsibility of decision rested so heavily
+upon her young shoulders that morning that it seemed as if she could
+not longer bear the strain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They still had a good fire in the kitchen range, and Shirley hastened
+to the kitchen, prepared a delicate piece of toast, a poached egg, a
+cup of tea, and took it to her mother's room, tiptoeing lightly lest
+she still slept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the mother was awake and glad to see her.  She had been awake since
+the first streak of dawn had crept into the little back window.  She
+had the look of one who was girded for the worst.  But, when she saw
+her daughter's face, the mother in her triumphed over the woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What's the trouble, little girl?  Has something happened?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tenderness in her voice was the last straw that broke Shirley's
+self-control.  The tears suddenly sprang into her eyes, and her lip
+trembled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh mother!" she wailed, setting the tray down quickly on a box and
+fumbling for her handkerchief.  "I'm so worried!  I'm so afraid you
+won't like what we've done, and then what shall we do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I <i>shall</i> like it!" said the mother with instant determination.
+"Don't for a minute think of anything else.  Having done something
+irrevocably, never look back and think you might have done something
+better.  You did the best you could, or you thought you did, anyway;
+and there didn't seem to be anything else at the time.  So now just
+consider it was the very best thing in the world, and don't go to
+fretting about it.  There'll be <i>something</i> nice about it, I'm sure,
+and goodness knows we've had enough unpleasant things here; so we
+needn't expect beds of roses.  We are just going to <i>make</i> it nice,
+little girl.  Remember that!  We are going to like it.  There's a tree
+there, you say; so, when we find things we don't like, we'll just go
+out and look up at our tree, and say, 'We've got <i>you</i>, anyway, and
+<i>we're glad of it!</i>'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You blessed little mother!" laughed Shirley, wiping her tears away.
+"I just believe you will like it, maybe, after all, though I've had a
+lot of compunctions all night.  I wondered if maybe I oughtn't to have
+told you all about it; only I knew you couldn't really judge at all
+until you had seen it yourself, and we wanted to surprise you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I'm determined to be surprised," said the brave little woman;
+"so don't you worry.  We're going to have a grand good time to-day.
+Now run along.  It's almost time for your car, and you haven't had any
+breakfast yet."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley kissed her mother, and went smiling down to eat her breakfast
+and hurry away to the office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a big rush of work at the office, or Shirley would have asked
+for a half-holiday; but she did not dare endanger her position by
+making a request at so busy a season.  She was glad that the next day
+was Sunday and they would have a whole day to themselves in the new
+home before she would have to hurry away to the office again.  It would
+serve to make it seem less lonely for her mother, having them all home
+that first day.  She meant to work fast to-day and get all the letters
+written before five if possible.  Then she would have time to get home
+a few minutes before Graham arrived with his car, and see that her
+mother was all comfortably ready.  It was a good deal to put upon Carol
+to look after everything.  It wasn't as if they had neighbors to help
+out a little, for they were the very last tenants in the doomed block
+to leave.  All the others had gone two or three weeks before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thinking over again all the many details for the day, Shirley walked
+down to the office through the sunshine.  It was growing warm weather,
+and her coat felt oppressive already.  She was so thankful that mother
+would not have to sleep in those breathless rooms after the heat began.
+The doctor had said that her mother needed rest and air and plenty of
+sunshine more than anything else.  She would at least have those at the
+barn, and what did other things matter, after all?  Mother was game.
+Mother wouldn't let herself feel badly over such a silly thing.  They
+certainly were going to be more comfortable than they had been for
+several years.  Think of that wonderful electric light.  And clear cold
+water from the spring!  Oh, it was great!  And a little thrill of
+ecstasy passed over her, the first she had let herself feel since she
+had taken the great responsibility of transplanting her family to a
+barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After all, the day passed very quickly; and, when at half-past four the
+telephone-bell rang and Graham's voice announced that he would be down
+at the street door waiting for her in half an hour, that she needn't
+hurry, he would wait till she was ready, her heart gave a little jump
+of joy.  It was as if school was out and she was going on a real picnic
+like other girls.  How nice of him!  How perfectly lovely of him!  And
+yet there hadn't been anything but the nicest friendliness in his
+voice, such as any kindly disposed landlord might use if he chose,
+nothing that she need feel uncomfortable about.  At least, there was
+the relief that after to-night mother would know all about it; and, if
+she didn't approve, Shirley could decline any further kindness, of
+course.  And now she was just going to take mother's advice and forget
+everything but the pleasant part.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At home Carol and Harley bustled about in the empty house like two
+excited bumble-bees, washing up the few dishes, putting in an open box
+everything that had been left out for their last night's sleeping,
+getting lunch, and making mother take a nap.  Doris, vibrating between
+her mother's room and down-stairs, kept singing over to herself: "We
+goin' to tuntry!  We goin' to tuntry!  See birdies an' twees and walk
+on gween gwass!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After lunch was over and the dishes were put carefully into the big box
+between comfortables and blankets Carol helped her mother to dress, and
+then made her lie down and take a good long nap, with Doris asleep by
+her side.  After that Carol and Harley tiptoed down to the bare
+kitchen, and sat on a box side by side to converse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!  Ain't you tired, Carol?" said the boy, pushing his hair back
+from his hot face.  "Gee!  Don't it seem funny we aren't coming back
+here any more?  It kind of gets my goat I sha'n't see the fellows so
+often, but it'll be great to ask 'em to see us sometimes.  Say, do you
+suppose we really can keep chickens?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!" said Carol convincingly.  "I asked Mr. Graham if we
+might,&mdash;George said we ought to, he was such a good scout you'd want to
+be sure he'd like it, and he said, 'Sure, it would be great.'  He'd
+like to come out and see them sometimes.  He said he used to keep
+chickens himself when he was a kid, and he shouldn't wonder if they had
+a few too many at their place they could spare to start with.  He told
+me he'd look it up and see soon's we got settled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!  He's a peach, isn't he?  Say, has he got a case on Shirl?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't know," said the girl thoughtfully; "maybe he has, but he
+doesn't know it yet, I guess.  But anyhow you must promise me you will
+never breathe such a word.  Why, Shirley would just bust right up if
+you did.  I said a little something to her like that once; it wasn't
+much, only just that he was awfully nice and I guessed he liked her by
+the way he looked at her, and she just fairly froze.  You know the way
+her eyes get when she is sore at us?  And she said I must never,
+<i>never</i> even <i>think</i> anything like that, or she would give the place
+right up, and get a few rooms down on South Street, and stay in the
+city all summer!  She said Mr. Graham was a gentleman, and she was only
+a working girl, and it would be a disgrace for her to accept any favors
+from him except what she could pay for, and an insult for him to offer
+them, because she was only a working girl and he was a gentleman, you
+know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!" growled Harley.  "I guess our sister's as good as he is any day."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course!" snapped Carol; "but then he might not think so."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, if he don't, he can go to thunder!" bristled Harley wrathfully.
+"I'm not going to have him looking down on Shirley.  She's as good as
+his baby-doll sister with her pink cheeks, and her little white hands,
+and her high heels and airs, any day!  She's a nut, she is."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Harley!  You stop!" declared Carol, getting wrathful.  "Elizabeth's a
+dear, and you're not going to talk about her that way.  Just because
+she is pretty and doesn't have to work."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, you said her brother looked down on our sister," declared Harley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I did not!  I only said he <i>might</i>!  I only meant that was the way
+<i>some</i> gentlemen would.  I only said people kind of expect gentlemen to
+do that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not if they're real gentlemen, they won't.  And anyhow <i>he</i> won't.  If
+I find him looking down on my sister Shirley, I'll punch his face for
+him.  Yes, I will!  I'm not afraid.  George and I could beat the
+stuffing out of him, and we will if he does any looking-down stunts,
+and don't you forget it!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I'm sure he doesn't," said Carol pacifically, trying to put a
+soothing sound into her voice as wise elder sisters learn to do.  "You
+see if he did look down on her, Shirley would know it; right away she'd
+know it.  Nobody would have to tell <i>her</i>!  She'd see it in his voice
+and smile and everything.  And, if he had, she wouldn't have gone out
+there to live in the place he owns, you know.  So I guess you can trust
+Shirley.  <i>I</i> think he's been just dandy, fixing up that fireplace and
+stairs and lights and water and everything."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, mebbe!" said Harley grudgingly.  "Say, this is slow.  I'm going
+out to meet the fellows when they come from school, and see what the
+score of the game is.  Gee!  I wish I could play to-day!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You'll be sure to come back in time?" asked Carol anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!  You don't suppose I'd miss going out in that car, do you?" said
+the brother contemptuously.  "Not on your tintype!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, maybe there won't be room for you.  Maybe Elizabeth'll come
+along, and you'll have to go in the trolley with George."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No chance!" declared the boy.  "Mr. Graham said I should ride with him
+in the front seat, and he looks like a man that kept his word."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see!  <i>You</i> know he's a gentleman!" triumphed Carol.  "Well, I
+think you'd better stay here with me.  You'll forget and be late, and
+make a mess waiting for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, I won't!" said the restless boy.  "I can't be bothered sticking
+round this dump all afternoon"; and Harley seized his cap, and
+disappeared with a whoop around the corner.  After he was gone Carol
+found she was tired out herself, and, curling up on a mattress that was
+lying ready for the cartman, was soon asleep.  It was so that Harley
+found her when he hurried back an hour later, a trifle anxious, it must
+be confessed, lest he had stayed too long.  He stirred up the small
+household noisily, and in no time had Carol in a panic brewing the cup
+of tea that was to give her mother strength to take the journey,
+dressing Doris, smoothing her own hair, putting the last things into
+bags and baskets and boxes, and directing the cartman, who arrived half
+an hour sooner than he promised.  Carol was quite a little woman, going
+from one thing to another and taking the place of everybody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham and her brother had been spending the
+afternoon in business of their own.  It was Elizabeth who had suggested
+it, and her brother saw no reason why she should not carry out her plan
+and why he should not help her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She came down in the car after lunch, the chauffeur driving her, a
+great basket of cut and potted flowers from the home conservatory in
+the tonneau beside her, carefully wrapped in wax-paper.  She stopped at
+the office for her brother, and together they went about to several
+shops giving orders and making purchases.  When they had finished they
+drove out to Glenside to unpack their bundles and baskets.  Graham left
+Elizabeth with the old servant to help her, and drove rapidly back to
+his office, where he telephoned to Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Certainly Elizabeth had never had such fun in her life.  She scarcely
+knew which delightful thing to do first, and she had only about two
+hours to complete her arrangements before the family would arrive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She decided to decorate first, and the great hamper of flowers was
+forthwith brought into the barn, and the chauffeur set to work twining
+ropes and sprays of smilax and asparagus fern over doorways and
+pictures, and training it like a vine about the stone chimney.  Then
+came the flowers.  Pots of tall starry lilies, great, heavy-headed,
+exquisite-breathed roses, pink, white, yellow, and crimson; daffodils
+and sweet peas, with quantities of sweet violets in the bottom of the
+basket.  Elizabeth with deft fingers selected the flowers skilfully,
+putting pots of lilies on the window-sills, massing a quantity of pink
+roses in a dull gray jar she found among the kitchen things, that
+looked to the initiated amazingly as though it might once have been
+part of a water-filter, but it suited the pink roses wonderfully.  The
+tall vases on the bookcases each side of the fireplace held daffodils.
+Sweet peas were glowing in small vases and glasses and bowls, and
+violets in saucers filled the air with fragrance.  White and yellow
+roses were on the dining-table, and three exquisite tall crimson
+rosebuds glowed in a slender glass vase Elizabeth had brought with her.
+This she placed in Mrs. Hollister's room on the little stand that she
+judged would be placed beside the bed when the bed arrived.  The
+flowers certainly did give an atmosphere to the place in more senses
+than one; and the girl was delighted, and fluttered from one spot to
+another, changing the position of a vase or bowl, and then standing off
+to get the effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now bring me the big bundle, Jenkins, please," she said at length when
+she was satisfied with the effect.  "Oh, and the little long box.  Be
+careful.  It is broken at one end, and the screws may fall out."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jenkins was soon back with the things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, you get the rods put up at the windows, Jenkins, while I get out
+the curtains," and she untied the big bundle with eager fingers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jenkins was adaptable, and the rods were simple affairs.  He was soon
+at work, and Elizabeth ran the rods into the curtains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were not elegant curtains.  Graham had insisted that she should
+get nothing elaborate, nothing that would be out of keeping with the
+simplicity.  They were soft and straight and creamy, with a frost-like
+pattern rambling over them in threads of the same, illuminated here and
+there with a single rose and a leaf in color.  There was something
+cheerful and spring-like to them, and yet they looked exceedingly plain
+and suitable, no ruffles or trimming of any kind, just hems.  To
+Elizabeth's mind they had been very cheap.  Shirley would have
+exclaimed over their beauty wistfully and turned from them with a gasp
+when she heard their price.  They were one of those quiet fitting
+things that cost without flaunting it.  They transformed the room into
+a dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, isn't it <i>beautiful</i>!" exclaimed Elizabeth, standing back to look
+as the first curtain went up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, Miss, it's very stunning, Miss," said the man, working away with
+good will in his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the curtains were all up, Elizabeth pinned one of her cards to the
+curtain nearest the front door, inscribed, "With love from Elizabeth."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then in a panic she looked at her watch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh Jenkins!  It's almost six o'clock," she cried in dismay.  "They
+might get here by half-past, perhaps.  We must hurry!  Bring the other
+things in quick now, please."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Jenkins brought them in, bundles and bags and boxes, an ice-cream
+freezer, and last of all the cooking-outfit belonging to their
+touring-car.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now you get the hot things ready, Jenkins, while I fix the table,"
+directed the girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jenkins, well trained in such things, went to work, opening cans and
+starting his chafing-dish fire.  Elizabeth with eager fingers opened
+her parcels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A great platter of delicious triangular chicken sandwiches, a dish of
+fruit and nut salad surrounded by crisp lettuce leaves, a plate of
+delicate rolls, cream puffs, chocolate éclairs, macaroons, a cocoanut
+pie, things she liked herself; and then because she knew no feast
+without them there were olives, salted almonds, and bonbons as a matter
+of course.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Delicious odors from the kitchen end of the room began to fill the air.
+Jenkins was heating a pail of rich soup&mdash;chicken with rice and
+gumbo&mdash;from one of the best caterers in the city.  He was making rich
+cocoa to be eaten with whipped cream that Elizabeth was pouring into a
+glass pitcher; the pitcher came from the ten-cent store if she had only
+known it.  Jenkins was cooking canned peas and heating lovely little
+brown potato croquettes.  The ice-cream freezer was out in full sight,
+where they could never miss it.  Everything was ready now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Jenkins, you better light up that queer stove of theirs now if you're
+sure you know how,&mdash;she said it was just like a lamp the way it
+worked,&mdash;and put those things in the oven to keep warm.  Then we'll
+pack up our things, and hide them out in the grass where they can't
+see, and get them in the car when they get out.  Hurry, for they'll be
+here very soon now, I think."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth stuck a card in the middle of the rose-bowl that said in
+pretty letters, "Welcome Home," stood back a minute to see how
+everything looked, and then fluttered to the door to watch for the car.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>
+CHAPTER XII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+When Shirley came down to the street at five o'clock.  Graham was
+waiting for her as he promised, and swung the car door open for her
+with as much eagerness as if he were taking the girl of his choice on a
+picnic instead of just doing a poor little stenographer a kindness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I telephoned to the store and sent a message to George.  We're going
+to pick him up on our way," he said as the car wended its way skilfully
+through the traffic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was sitting beside him, and he looked down at her as if they were
+partners in a pleasant scheme.  A strange sense of companionship with
+him thrilled through her, and was properly rebuked and fled at once,
+without really rippling the surface of her joy much.  She had
+determined to have the pleasure out of this one evening ride at least,
+and would not let her thoughts play truant to suggest what wider,
+sweeter realms might be for other girls.  She was having this good
+time.  It was for her and no one else, and she would just enjoy it as
+much as she could, and keep it the sweet, sane, innocent pleasure that
+it really was.  If she was not a fool, everything would be all right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George was waiting in a quiver of pride and eagerness for them as they
+swept up to the employees' entrance, and a line of admiring
+fellow-laborers stood gaping on the sidewalk to watch his departure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, gee!  Isn't this great?" shouted George, climbing into the back
+seat hilariously.  "Got a whole omnibus of a car this time, haven't
+you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, I thought we'd have plenty of room for your mother, so she could
+lie down if she liked."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That was very kind of you," murmured Shirley.  "You think of
+everything, don't you?  I'm sure I don't see how we ever could have
+managed without your help.  I should have been frightened a dozen times
+and been ready to give up."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not you!" said Graham fervently.  "You're the kind that never gives
+up.  You've taught me several valuable lessons."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they turned the corner into the old street where the little brick
+house stood, Shirley suddenly began to have a vivid realization that
+she had told her mother nothing whatever about Mr. Graham.  What would
+she think, and how could she explain his presence?  She had expected to
+get there before Graham arrived and have time enough to make her mother
+understand, but now she began to realize that her real reason for
+leaving the matter yet unexplained was that she did not know just what
+to say without telling the whole story from beginning to end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'll hurry in and see if mother is all ready," she said, as the car
+stopped in front of the house, and the children rushed out eagerly,
+Doris just behind the others, to see the "booful tar."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother," said Shirley, slipping softly into the house and going over
+to the bed where she lay with hat and coat on, fully ready.  "Mother, I
+sha'n't have time to explain all about it, but it's all right; so don't
+think anything.  Mr. Graham, the man who owns the place where we are
+going, has been kind enough to offer to take you in his car.  He thinks
+it will be easier for you than the trolley, and he is out at the door
+now waiting.  It's perfectly all right.  He has been very kind about
+it&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh daughter, I couldn't think of troubling any one like that!" said
+the mother, shrinking from the thought of a stranger; but, looking up,
+she saw him standing, hat in hand, just in the doorway.  The children
+had led him to the door when he offered to help their mother out to the
+car.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother, this is Mr. Graham," said Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister, a little pink spot on each cheek, tried to rise, but
+the young man came forward instantly and stooped over her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't try to get up, Mrs. Hollister.  Your daughter tells me you
+haven't been walking about for several weeks.  You must reserve all
+your strength for the journey.  Just trust me.  I'm perfectly strong,
+and I can lift you and put you into the car almost without your knowing
+it.  I often carry my own mother up-stairs just for fun, and she's
+quite a lot larger and heavier than you.  Just let me put my hand under
+your back so, and now this hand here.  Now if you'll put your arms
+around my neck&mdash;yes, that way&mdash;no, don't be a bit afraid.  I'm
+perfectly strong, and I won't drop you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Little Mrs. Hollister cast a frightened look at her daughter and
+another at the fine, strong face bent above her, felt herself lifted
+like thistle-down before she had had time to protest, and found herself
+obediently putting her weak arms around his neck and resting her
+frightened head against a strong shoulder.  A second more, and she was
+lying on the soft cushions of the car, and the young man was piling
+pillows about her and tucking her up with soft, furry robes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Are you perfectly comfortable?" he asked anxiously.  "I didn't strain
+your back or tire you, did I?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no, indeed!" said the bewildered woman.  "You are very kind, and I
+hardly knew what you were doing till I was here.  I never dreamed of
+anything like this.  Shirley didn't tell me about it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said the young man, smiling, "she said she wanted to surprise
+you; and I believe she thought you might worry a little if you heard
+the details of the journey.  Now, kitten, are you ready to get in?"  He
+turned a smiling face to Doris, who stood solemnly waiting her turn,
+with an expression of one who at last sees the gates of the kingdom of
+heaven opening before her happy eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Soor!" said Doris in a tone as like Harley's as possible.  She lifted
+one little shabby shoe, and tried to reach the step, but failed, and
+then surrendered her trusting hands to the young man; and he lifted her
+in beside her mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sit there, kitten, till your sister comes out," he said, looking at
+her flower face admiringly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris giggled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I ain't a kitty," she declared; "I'se a 'ittle gurrul!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, little girl, do you like to go riding?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Soor!  I do 'ike to go widin'!" said Doris.  "Oh!  There goes muvver's
+bed!" as the drayman came out carrying the headboard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley meanwhile was working rapidly, putting the last things from her
+mother's bed into the box, tossing things into the empty clothes-basket
+that had been left for this purpose, and directing the man who was
+taking down the bed and carrying out the boxes and baskets.  At last
+all the things were out of the house, and she was free to go.  She
+turned for one swift moment, and caught a sob in her throat.  There had
+not been time for it before.  It had come when she saw the young man
+stoop and lift her mother so tenderly and bear her out to the car.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the children were calling her loudly to come.  She gave one happy
+dab at her eyes with her handkerchief to make sure no tears had
+escaped, and went out of the little brick house forever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little middle seat had been turned down for Carol, and Doris was in
+her lap.  Graham turned the other middle seat down for Shirley; the
+boys piled into the front seat with him; and they were off.  Mrs.
+Hollister in her wonder over it all completely forgot to look back into
+what she had been wont to call in the stifling days of summer her
+"frying-pan," or to wonder whether she were about to jump into the
+fire.  She just lay back on her soft cushions, softer than any she had
+ever rested upon before, and felt herself glide along away from the
+hated little dark house forever!  It was a wonderful experience.  It
+almost seemed as if a chariot of fire had swooped down and gathered all
+her little flock with her, and was carrying them to some kind of
+gracious heaven where comfort would be found at last.  A bit of hope
+sprang up within her, utterly unpremeditated and unreasonable, and
+persisted so that she could not help feeling happy.  As yet it had not
+come to her to wonder who this handsome young man was that presumed to
+lift her and carry her like a baby, and move her on beds of down to
+utterly unknown regions.  She was too much taken up with the wonder of
+it all.  If Doris hadn't been prattling, asking questions of her, and
+the light breeze hadn't flapped a lock of hair into her eyes and
+tickled her nose, she might have thought she was dreaming, so utterly
+unreal did it all seem to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now they passed out from the narrow streets, through crowded
+thoroughfares for a brief space, then out beyond, and free, into the
+wider reaches.  Fair houses and glimpses of green were appearing.  The
+car was gliding smoothly, for the sake of the invalid not going at high
+speed; and she could see on every side.  The trees were in full leaf;
+the sky was large and blue; the air was filled with freshness.  She
+drew a long breath; and closed her eyes to pray, "Oh, my Father!" and
+then opened them again to see whether it was all true.  Shirley,
+sensitive for her to the slightest breath, turned and drew the robes
+closer about her mother, and asked whether she were perfectly warm and
+whether she wanted another pillow under her head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham did not intrude himself upon the family behind him.  He was
+absorbed in the two boys, who were entirely willing to be monopolized.
+He told them all about the car, and discoursed on the mysteries of the
+different makes with a freedom that gave George the impression that he
+was himself almost a man to be honored by such talk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was nearly seven o'clock when they reached Glenside and the big
+stone barn came in sight, for they had travelled slowly to make it
+easier for the invalid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth had sighted the car far down the road below the curve; and,
+switching on every electric light in the place, she fled down the
+ladder to the basement, dragging the willing Jenkins after her.  Here
+they waited with bated breath until the family had gone inside, when
+they made their stealthy way out the east end, across the little brook
+under the fence, and down the road, to be picked up by the car
+according to previous arrangement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the car came in sight of the barn a deep silence suddenly fell upon
+the little company.  Even Doris felt it, and ceased her prattle to look
+from one to another.  "Whatzie mattah?" she asked Shirley shyly,
+putting out her hand to pat Shirley's face in a way she had when she
+was uneasy or troubled.  "<i>Whatzie mattah, Surly?</i>"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley only squeezed her hand reassuringly, and smiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they drew near, the young people noticed that the bars of the fence
+in front of the barn had been taken down and the ditch filled in
+smoothly.  Then they saw that the car was turning in and going straight
+up the grassy incline to the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister, lying comfortably among her cushions, was looking at
+the evening sky, hearing a bird that reminded her of long ago, and
+scarcely noticed they had turned until the car stopped.  Then in silent
+joy the children swarmed out of the car, and with one consent stood
+back and watched mother, as the strong young man came to the open door
+and gathered her in his arms once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now we're almost home, Mrs. Hollister," he said pleasantly.  "Just put
+your arms around my neck once more, and we'll soon have you beside your
+own fire."  He lifted her and bore her in to the wide couch before the
+crackling fire that Elizabeth had started just before she went to look
+out the door the last time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then into the blazing light of the transformed barn they all stepped,
+and every one stood back and stared, blinking.  What was this?  What
+wondrous perfume met their senses?  What luxury!  What flowers!  What
+hangings!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They stood and stared, and could not understand; and between them they
+forgot to wonder what their mother was thinking, or to do a thing but
+stupidly stare and say, "Why!" and "Oh!" and "Ah!" half under their
+breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just phone me if you need anything, Miss Hollister, please.  I shall
+be glad to serve you," said Graham, stepping quickly over to the door.
+"Mrs. Hollister, I hope you'll be none the worse for your ride"; and he
+slipped out the door, and was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sound of the car softly purring its way backward down the slope
+brought Shirley out of her daze; but, when she turned and understood
+that he was gone, the car was just backing into the road, turning with
+a quick whirl, and was away before she could make him hear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!  He is <i>gone</i>!" she cried out, turning in dismay to the children.
+"He is gone, and we never thanked him!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George was out down the road like a shot; and the rest, forgetful for
+the moment of the invalid who had been the great anxiety all day,
+crowded at the door to watch him.  They could hear the throbbing of the
+machine; they heard it stop down the road and start again almost
+immediately, growing fainter with every whir as it went farther from
+them.  In a moment more George came running back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He's gone.  He meant to, I guess, so we could have it all to ourselves
+right at first.  Elizabeth and the man were down the road waiting for
+him.  They've been dolling the place up to surprise us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" said Shirley, turning to look around, her cheeks growing rosy.
+"Oh!  Isn't it beautiful?"  Then, turning swiftly to the couch and
+kneeling, she said, "Oh <i>mother</i>!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What does it all mean, daughter?" asked the bewildered mother, looking
+about on the great room that seemed a palace to her sad eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But they all began to clamor at once, and she could make nothing of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh Shirley, look at the curtains!  Aren't they perfectly dear?" cried
+Carol ecstatically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Perf'ly deah!" echoed Doris, dancing up and down gleefully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And here's a card, 'With love from Elizabeth'!  Isn't it sweet of her?
+Isn't she a perfect <i>darling</i>?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Who is Elizabeth?" asked Mrs. Hollister, rising to her elbow and
+looking around.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Gee!  Look at the flowers!" broke in George.  "It's like our store at
+Easter!  I say!  Those lilies are pretty keen, aren't they, Shirl?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Wait'll you see the dining-room!" called Harley, who was investigating
+with the help of his nose.  "<i>Some</i> supper-table!  Come on quick; I'm
+starved.  Hello!  Hustle here quick.  Here's another sign-board!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They followed to the dining-room.  Harley, still following his nose,
+pursued his investigations to the kitchen, discovered the source of the
+savory odors that were pervading the place, and raised another cry so
+appreciative that the entire family, with the exception of the invalid,
+followed him and found the supper steaming hot and crying to be eaten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the excitement was somewhat quieted Shirley took command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, children, you're getting mother all excited, and this won't do.
+And, besides, we must eat this supper right away before it spoils.
+Quiet down, and bring the hot things to the table while I get mother's
+things off.  Then we will tell her all about it.  There's plenty of
+time, you know.  We're going to stay right here all summer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, gee!  Can't we bring mother out to the table?" pleaded George.
+"Harley and I could lift that couch just as easy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, I don't know," said Shirley, hesitating.  "You know she isn't
+strong, and she will worry about your lifting her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh Shirley, let her come," pleaded Carol.  "We could all take hold and
+wheel the couch out here; you know the floor is real smooth since those
+new boards were put in, and there are good castors on the couch."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother!  Mother!  You're coming out to supper!" they chorused, rushing
+back to the living-room; and before the invalid realized what was
+happening her couch was being wheeled carefully, gleefully into the
+brilliantly lighted dining-room, with Doris like a fairy sprite dancing
+attendance, and shouting joyously:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mudder's tumin' to suppy!  Mudder's tumin' to suppy adin!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mother gazed in amazement at the royally spread table, so smothered
+in flowers that she failed to recognize the cracked old blue dishes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Children, I insist," she raised her voice above the happy din.  "I
+insist on knowing immediately what all this means.  Where are we, and
+what is this?  A hotel?  And who was the person who brought us here?  I
+cannot eat anything nor stay here another minute until I know.  People
+can't rent houses like this for ten dollars a month anywhere, and I
+didn't suppose we had come to charity, even if I am laid up for a few
+days."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley could see the hurt in her mother's eyes and the quick alarm in
+her voice, and came around to her couch, smiling.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, mother dear, we'll tell you the whole thing.  It isn't a hotel
+we're in, and it isn't a house at all.  It's only an old barn!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A barn!"  Mrs. Hollister sat up on her couch alertly, and looked at
+the big bowl of roses in the middle of the table, at the soft, flowing
+curtains at the window and the great pot of Easter lilies on the little
+stand in front, and exclaimed, "Impossible!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But it is, really, mother, just a grand old stone barn!  Look at the
+walls.  See those two over there are just rough stones, and this one
+back of you is a partition made of common boards.  That's only an old
+brown denim curtain over there to hide the kitchen, and we've got the
+old red chenille curtains up to partition off the bedrooms.  The boys
+are going to sleep up in the hay-loft, and it's going to be just great!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister looked wildly at the stone walls, back at the new
+partition, recognized one by one the ancient chairs, the old bookcase
+now converted into a china-closet, the brown denim curtain that had
+once been a cover for the dining-room floor in the little brick house.
+Now it was washed and mended, and was doing its faded part to look like
+a wall and fit into the scheme of things.  She darted questioning
+glances at the wealth of flowers, and the abundantly set table, then
+settled back on her pillow but half satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They don't have curtains in a barn!" she remarked dryly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Those are a present from Elizabeth, the little sister of the landlord.
+She was out here with him when he came to see about things, and she got
+acquainted with Carol.  She has put up those curtains, and brought the
+flowers, and fixed the table, for a surprise.  See, mother!" and
+Shirley brought the card on which Elizabeth had printed her crude
+welcome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister took the card as if it were some sort of a
+life-preserver, and smiled with relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But this is a great deal to do for strangers," she said tremblingly,
+and tears began to glitter in her eyes.  "They must be wealthy people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, mother, I think they are," said Shirley, "and they have been most
+kind."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But, daughter, wealthy people do not usually take the trouble to do
+things like that for nothing.  And ten dollars a month for a barn could
+be nothing to them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know, mother, but he seems very well satisfied with the price," said
+Shirley with a troubled brow.  "I&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Something's burning!" yelled Harley at the top of his lungs from the
+kitchen, and immediately they all rushed out to rescue the supper,
+which took that moment to assert itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, mother," said Shirley, coming in with a big tureen of soup,
+"we've got to eat this supper or it will spoil.  You're not to ask
+another question till we are through."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They all settled expectantly down at the table, Doris climbing joyously
+into her high chair, calling:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Suppy!  Suppy!  Oh goody!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a clatter and a clamor, such shoutings over the sandwiches and
+such jumpings up and down to carry something to mother!  Such lingering
+over the delicious ice-cream and fresh strawberries that were found in
+the freezer!  Think of it!  Real strawberries for <i>them</i> that time of
+year!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, when they had eaten all they could, and began to realize that it
+was time to get mother to bed, they pushed the chairs back, and all
+fell to clearing off the table and putting things away.  It was Carol
+who discovered the big roasted fowl and the bowl of salad set away in
+the tiny ice-box ready for to-morrow.  How had Elizabeth, who never
+kept house in her life, known just what would be nice for a family were
+all tired out with moving, and needed to lie back and rest before
+starting on with living?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dishes were almost washed when the cart arrived with the last load
+of things, and the drayman helped George to put up mother's bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They wheeled the couch into the living-room after the big doors were
+closed and safely fastened for the night.  Before the glowing fire
+Shirley helped mother to undress, then rolled her couch into the
+bedroom and got her to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you mind very much that it is only a barn, mother dear?" questioned
+Shirley, bending anxiously over her mother after she was settled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I can't make it seem like a barn, dear; it seems a palace!" said the
+mother with a tremble in her voice.  "I'm glad it's a barn, because we
+could never afford a house with space like this, and air!"  She threw
+out her hands as if to express her delight in the wide rooms, and drew
+in a breath of the delicious country air, so different from air of the
+dusty little brick house in the city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Daughter!" she drew Shirley down where she could whisper to her.
+"You're sure he is not looking on us as objects of charity, and you're
+sure he understands that you are a self-respecting girl earning her
+honorable living and paying her way?  You know this is a wicked,
+deceitful world we live in, and there are all sorts of people in it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother dear!  I'm sure.  Sure as anybody could be.  He has been a
+perfect gentleman.  You didn't think he looked like one of those&mdash;those
+people&mdash;that go around misunderstanding girls, did you mother?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mother remembered the gentle, manly way in which the young man had
+lifted her and carried her to and from the car, and her heart warmed to
+him.  Yet her fears lingered as she watched her sweet-eyed girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No-o-o," she answered slowly; "but then, you can't always judge.  He
+certainly was a gentleman, and he was very nice-looking."  Then she
+looked sharply at Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You won't go to getting any notions in your head, dear child?"  Her
+eyes were wistful and sad as she searched the sweet, weary face of the
+girl.  "You know rich young men follow whims sometimes for a few days.
+They don't mean anything.  I wouldn't want your heart broken.  I wish
+he was an old man with white hair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh mother dear!" laughed Shirley with heart-free ring to her voice,
+"did you think you had a young fool for a daughter?  He was only being
+nice because he is a perfect gentleman; but I know he is not in the
+same universe as I am, so far as anything more than pleasant kindliness
+is concerned.  We shall probably never see him again now that we are
+settled.  But don't you think I ought to go and telephone thanks to his
+little sister?  They will be home by this time, and it seems as if we
+ought to make some acknowledgment of her great kindness."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By all means, dear; but how can you?  Is there a pay-station near
+here?  I thought you said this was out in the country."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, we have a telephone of our own, muddy dear!  Just think of the
+luxury of it!  Us with a telephone!  Mr. Graham had it put into the
+barn when he was making some repairs, so he could communicate with his
+workmen; and he said if we would like it we might keep it.  It is one
+of those 'pay-as-you-go' phones, with a place to drop nickels and dimes
+in; so we are perfectly independent.  Mr. Graham thought it would be a
+comfort to you when George or I had to stay late in town."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How thoughtful of him!  He must be a <i>wonderful</i> rich man!  By all
+means telephone at once, and tell the little girl to say to her brother
+from me that I shall esteem it a privilege to thank him personally for
+all that he has done for my children, sometime when he is out this way.
+Think.  A real rose by my bed!"  She reached out a frail hand, and
+touched the exquisite petals lovingly.  "It is wonderful!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Shirley went into the living-room to telephone, while all the
+children stood about to watch and comment and tell her what to say.
+Doris sat on a little cushion at her feet in awe, and listened, asking
+Carol with large eyes: "Is Sirley tautin to Dod?  Vy doesn't see sut
+her yeyes?" for Shirley's conversation over the telephone sounded to
+the little sister much like a prayer of thanksgiving; only she was not
+accustomed to hearing that joyous laughter in the voice when people
+prayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Doris was put to bed in her own little crib, and the light in
+mother's room was switched off amid Doris's flood of questions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Vat makes it light?  Vy did it do avay?  Will it tum adin?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last she was asleep, and the other children tiptoed excitedly about
+preparing for bed, going up and downstairs softly, whispering back and
+forth for this or that they could not find, till quiet settled down
+upon the tired, happy household, and the bullfrogs in the distant creek
+droned out the nightly chorus.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>
+CHAPTER XIII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was beautiful to wake the next morning with the birds singing a
+matin in the trees, and a wonderful Sabbath quiet over everything.
+Tired out as she was and worn with excitement and care, Shirley was the
+first to waken, and she lay there quiet beside Carol for a little while
+with her eyes closed, listening, and saying a prayer of thanksgiving
+for the peace of the place, and the wonder that it had come into her
+life.  Then suddenly a strange luminousness about her simply forced her
+to open her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eastern window was across the room from her bed, and the sky was
+rosy, with the dawn, and flooding the room.  It was the first time in
+years she had watched the sun rise.  She had almost forgotten, in the
+little dark city house, that there was a sun to rise and make things
+glorious.  The sun had seemed an enemy to burn and wilt and stifle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now here was a friend, a radiant new friend, to be waited for and
+enjoyed, to give glory to all their lives.  She raised herself on one
+elbow and watched until the red ball had risen and burst into the
+brightness of day.  Then she lay down softly again and listened to the
+birds.  They seemed to be mad with joy over the new day.  Presently the
+chorus grew less and less.  The birds had gone about their morning
+tasks, and only a single bright song now and then from some soloist in
+the big tree overhead marked the sweet-scented silence of the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the quiet Shirley lay and went over events since she had first seen
+this spot and taken the idea of living in the barn.  Her heart gave
+thanks anew that her mother had not disliked it as she had feared.
+There was no sense that it was a stable, no odor of living creatures
+having occupied it before, only sweet dusty clover like a lingering of
+past things put away carefully.  It was like a great camping
+expedition.  And then all those flowers!  The scent of the lilies was
+on the air.  How lovely of the young girl out of her luxury to think to
+pass on some of the sweet things of life!  And the gracious, chivalrous
+man, her brother!  She must not let him think she would presume upon
+his kindness.  She must not let even her thoughts cross the line and
+dwell on the ground of social equality.  She knew where he belonged,
+and there he should stay for all her.  She was heart-free and happy,
+and only too glad to have such a kind landlord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She drifted off to sleep again, and it was late when she awoke the next
+time.  A silvery bell from the little white church in the valley was
+ringing and echoing distantly.  Sabbath, real Sabbath, seemed brooding
+happily in the very air.  Shirley got up and dressed hastily.  She felt
+as if she had already lost too much of this first wonderful day in the
+country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A thrush was spilling his liquid notes in the tree overhead when she
+tiptoed softly into her mother's room.  Doris opened her eyes and
+looked in wonder, then whispered softly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Vat is dat, Sirley?  Vat <i>is</i> dat pitty sound?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A birdie in the tree, dearie!" whispered Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A <i>weel budie</i>!  I yantta see it!  Take Doris up, Sirley!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Shirley lifted the little maiden, wrapped a shawl about her, and
+carried her softly to the window, where she looked up in wonder and joy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boys came tumbling down from their loft in a few minutes, and there
+was no more sleep to be had.  Carol was up and out, and the voice of
+one or the other of them was continually raised in a shout of triumph
+over some new delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I saw a fish in the brook!" shouted Harley under his mother's window.
+"It was only a little fellow, but maybe it'll grow bigger some day, and
+then we can fish!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You silly!" cried George.  "It was a minnow.  Minnows don't grow to be
+big.  They're only good for bait!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hush, George, there's a nest in the big tree.  I've been watching and
+the mother bird is sitting on it.  That was the father bird singing a
+while ago."  This from Carol.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George, Harley, and Carol declared their intention of going to church.
+That had likely been the first bell that rang, their mother told them,
+and they would have plenty of time to get there if they hurried.  It
+was only half-past nine.  Country churches rang a bell then, and
+another at ten, and the final bell at half-past ten, probably.
+Possibly they had Sunday-school at ten.  Anyhow, they could go and find
+out.  It wouldn't matter if they were a little late the first time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they ate some breakfast in a hurry, took each a sandwich left from
+the night before, crossed the road, climbed the fence, and went
+joyously over the green fields to church, thinking how much nicer it
+was than walking down a brick-paved street, past the same old grimy
+houses to a dim, artificially lighted church.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley took a survey of the larder, decided that roast chicken, potato
+croquettes, and peas would all warm up quickly, and, as there was
+plenty of ice cream left and some cakes, they would fare royally
+without any work; so she sat beside her mother and told the whole story
+of her ride, the finding of the barn, her visit to the Graham office,
+and all that transpired until the present time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mother listened, watching her child, but said no more of her inner
+thoughts.  If it occurred to her that her oldest daughter was fair to
+look upon, and that her winning ways, sweet, unspoiled face, and
+wistful eyes had somewhat to do with the price of their summer's abode,
+it would be no wonder.  But she did not mean to trouble her child
+further.  She would investigate for herself when opportunity offered.
+So she quieted all anxieties Shirley might have had about her sanction
+of their selection of a home, kissed Shirley, and told her she felt it
+in her bones she was going to get well right away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, indeed, there was much in the fact of the lifting of the burden of
+anxiety concerning where they should live that went to brighten the
+eyes of the invalid and strengthen her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the children came home from church Shirley was putting dinner on
+the table, and her mother was arrayed in a pretty kimono, a relic of
+their better days, and ready to be helped to the couch and wheeled out
+to the dining-room.  It had been pleasant to see the children coming
+across the green meadow in the distance, and get things all ready for
+them when they rushed in hungry.  Shirley was so happy she felt like
+crying.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the dinner things were washed they shoved the couch into the
+living-room among the flowers, where George had built up a beautiful
+fire, for it was still chilly.  The children gathered around their
+mother and talked, making plans for the summer, telling about the
+service they had attended, chattering like so many magpies.  The mother
+lay and watched them and was content.  Sometimes her eyes would search
+the dim, mellow rafters overhead, and glance along the stone walls, and
+she would say to herself: "This is a barn!  I am living in a barn!  My
+husband's children have come to this, that they have no place to live
+but a barn!"  She was testing herself to see if the thought hurt her.
+But, looking on their happy faces, somehow she could not feel sad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Children," she said suddenly in one of the little lulls of
+conversation, "do you realize that Christ was born in a stable?  It
+isn't so bad to live in a barn.  We ought to be very thankful for this
+great splendid one!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh mother, dear!  It is so beautiful of you to take it that way!"
+cried Shirley with tears in her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Doris, you sing your little song about Jesus in the stable," said
+Carol.  "I'll play it for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris, nothing loath, got a little stool, stood up beside her mother's
+couch, folded her small hands demurely, and began to sing without
+waiting for accompaniment:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Away in a manger,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No trib for His head,<br/>
+The litta Lord Jesus<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lay down His sveet head.<br/>
+The tars in the haaven<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Look down vhere 'e lay&mdash;<br/>
+The litta Lord Jesus<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As'eep in the hay.<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The catta are lowing,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The poor baby wates;<br/>
+But the litta Lord Jesus<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No cwyin' He mates.<br/>
+I love Thee, Lord Jesus;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Look down fum the sky,<br/>
+An' stay by my trib,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Watching my lul-la-by!"<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley kissed Doris, and then they began to sing other things, all
+standing around the piano.  By and by that distant bell from the valley
+called again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There's a vesper service at five o'clock.  Why don't you go, Shirley?
+You and George and Harley," said Carol.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Me 'ant do too!" declared Doris earnestly, and it was finally decided
+that the walk would not be too long; so the boys, Shirley and the baby
+started off across the fields, while Carol stayed with her mother.  And
+this time Mrs. Hollister heard all about Elizabeth and how she wanted
+Carol to come and see her sometime.  Heard, too, about the proposed
+dance, and its quiet squelching by the brother.  Heard, and looked
+thoughtful, and wondered more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother is afraid they are not quite our kind of people, dear!" she
+said gently.  "You mustn't get your heart bound up in that girl.  She
+may be very nice, but she's a society girl, and you are not, you know.
+It stands to reason she will have other interests pretty soon, and then
+you will be disappointed when she forgets all about you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She won't forget, mother, I know she won't!" declared Carol stoutly.
+"She's not that kind.  She loves me; she told me so.  She wanted to put
+one of her rings on my finger to 'bind our friendship,' only I wouldn't
+let her till I had asked you, because I didn't have any but
+grandmother's to give her, and I couldn't give her that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That was right, dear.  You can't begin things like that.  You would
+find a great many of them, and we haven't the money to keep up with a
+little girl who has been used to everything."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carol's face went down.  Tears began to come in her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Can't we have even <i>friends</i>?" she said, turning her face away to hide
+the quiver in her lip, and the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, dear," said the mother sorrowfully, "but don't choose them from
+among another people.  People who can't possibly have much in common
+with us.  It is sure to hurt hard when there are differences in station
+like that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I didn't choose them.  They chose us!" declared Carol.  "Elizabeth
+just went wild over us the first time she saw us, and her brother told
+Shirley he was glad, that it would do Elizabeth a lot of good to know
+us.  He said, 'We've learned a lot of things from you already'; just
+like that, he said it!  I was coming down the stairs behind them when
+they stood here talking one day, and I couldn't help hearing them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes?" said Mrs. Hollister thoughtfully.  "Well, perhaps, but, dear, go
+slow and don't pin your heart to a friendship like that, for it will
+most likely be disappointing.  Just be happy in what she has done for
+us already, and don't expect anything more.  She may never come again.
+It may just have been a passing whim.  And I don't want you to be
+always looking for her and always disappointed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I shall not be disappointed, mamma," said Carol decidedly.  "You'll
+see!" and her face brightened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then as if to make good her words a big car came whirring up the road
+and stopped in front of the barn, and almost before she could get to
+the window to look out Carol heard Elizabeth's voice calling softly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Carol!  Car-<i>roll</i>!  Are you there?" and she flung the door open and
+rushed into her new friend's arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham came more slowly up the incline, smiling apologetically and
+hoping he didn't intrude, coming so soon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carol led them over to the invalid and introduced her friend, and the
+young man came after them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm afraid this is rather soon to obey your summons, Mrs. Hollister,"
+he said engagingly, "but Elizabeth couldn't stand it without coming
+over to see if you really found the ice-cream freezer, so I thought
+we'd just drop in for a minute and see whether you were quite
+comfortable."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow, suddenly, Mrs. Hollister's fears and conclusions concerning
+these two young people began to vanish, and in spite of her she felt
+just as Shirley had done, that they were genuine in their kindliness
+and friendship.  Carol, watching her, was satisfied, and a glow of
+triumph shone in her eyes.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Hollister gathered her
+caution about her as a garment, and in dignified and pleasant phrases
+thanked the two in such a way that they must see that neither she nor
+her children would ever presume upon what had been done for them, nor
+take it for more than a passing kindliness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But to her surprise the young man did not seem to be more than half
+listening to her words.  He seemed to be studying her face with deep
+intention that was almost embarrassing.  The soft color stole into her
+thin cheeks, and she stopped speaking and looked at him in dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I beg your pardon," he said, seeing her bewilderment, "but you can't
+understand perhaps how interested I am in you.  I am afraid I have been
+guilty of staring.  You see it is simply amazing to me to find a woman
+of your refinement and evident culture and education who is content&mdash;I
+might even say joyful&mdash;to live in a <i>barn</i>!  I don't know another woman
+who would be satisfied.  And you seem to have brought up all your
+children with just such happy, adaptable natures, that it is a great
+puzzle to me.  I&mdash;I&mdash;why, I feel sort of rebuked!  I feel that you and
+your children are among the great of the earth.  Don't thank Elizabeth
+and me for the little we have been able to do toward making this barn
+habitable.  It was a sort of&mdash;I might say homage, due to you, that we
+were rendering.  And now please don't think anything more about it.
+Let's just talk as if we were friends&mdash;that is, if you are willing to
+accept a couple of humble strangers among your list of friends."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, surely, if you put it that way!" smiled the little woman.
+"Although I'm sure I don't know what else we could do but be glad and
+happy over it that we had a barn like this to come to under a sweet
+blue sky, with a bird and a tree thrown in, when we literally didn't
+know where we could afford to lay our heads.  You know beggars
+shouldn't be choosers, but I'm sure one would choose a spacious place
+like this any day in preference to most of the ordinary city houses,
+with their tiny dark rooms, and small breathless windows."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Even if 'twas called a barn?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Even if 'twas called a barn!" said the woman with a flitting dance in
+her eyes that reminded him of the girl Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I'm learning a lot, I tell you!" said the young man.  "The more
+I see of you all, the more I learn.  It's opened my eyes to a number of
+things in my life that I'm going to set right.  By the way, is Miss
+Hollister here?  I brought over a book I was telling her about the
+other day.  I thought she might like to see it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She went over to the vesper service at the little church across the
+fields.  They'll be coming home soon, I think.  It must be nearly over."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at his watch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Suppose I take the car and bring them back.  You stay here, Elizabeth.
+I'll soon be back.  I think I can catch them around by the road if I
+put on speed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was off, and the mother lay on the couch watching the two girls and
+wishing with all her heart that it were so that her children might have
+these two fine young people for friends.  But of course such things
+could not very well be in this world of stern realities and
+multitudinous conventionalities.  What, for instance, would be said in
+the social set to which the Grahams belonged if it were known that some
+of their intimate friends lived in a barn?  No, such things did not
+happen even in books, and the mother lay still and sighed.  She heard
+the chatter of the two girls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're coming home with me to stay over Sunday pretty soon.  Sidney
+said he would fix it all up with your mother pretty soon.  We'll sleep
+together and have the grandest times.  Mother likes me to have friends
+stay with me, but most of the girls I know are off at boarding-school
+now, and I'm dreadfully lonesome.  We have tennis-courts and golf links
+and a bowling-alley.  Do you play tennis?  And we can go out in the car
+whenever we like.  It's going to be grand.  I'll show you my dog and my
+pony I used to ride.  He's getting old now, and I'm too big for him,
+but I love him just the same.  I have a saddle-horse, but I don't ride
+much.  I'd rather go motoring with Sid&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so she rattled on, and the mother sighed for her little girl who
+was being tempted by a new and beautiful world, and had not the
+wherewithal to enter it, even if it were possible for her to do so.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out in the sunset the car was speeding back again with the seats full,
+Doris chirping gleefully at the ride, for her fat legs had grown very
+weary with the long walk through the meadow and Shirley had been almost
+sorry she had taken her along.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boys were shouting all sorts of questions about dogs and chickens
+and cars and a garden, and Graham was answering them all
+good-humoredly, now and then turning around to throw back a pleasant
+sentence and a smile at the quiet girl with the happy eyes sitting in
+the back seat with her arm around her little sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was nothing notable about the ride to remember.  It was just one
+of those beautiful bits of pleasantness that fit into the mosaic of any
+growing friendship, a bit of color without which the whole is not
+perfect.  Shirley's part in it was small.  She said little and sat
+listening happily to the boys' conversation with Graham.  She had
+settled it with her heart that morning that she and the young man on
+that front seat had nothing in future to do with each other, but it was
+pleasant to see him sitting there talking with her brothers.  There was
+no reason why she should not be glad for that, and glad he was not a
+snob.  For every time she looked on his clean, frank face, and saw his
+nice gray eyes upon her, she was surer that he was not a snob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The guests stayed a little while after they all got back, and accepted
+quite as a matter of course the dainty little lunch that Carol and
+Elizabeth, slipping away unobserved, prepared and brought in on
+trays,&mdash;some of the salad left from dinner, some round rolls that
+Shirley had brought out with her Saturday, cut in two and crisply
+toasted, cups of delicious cocoa, and little cakes.  That was all, but
+it tasted fine, and the two self-invited guests enjoyed it hugely.
+Then they all ranged themselves around the piano and sang hymns, and it
+is safe to say that the guests at least had not spent as "Sabbathy" a
+Sabbath in all their lives.  Elizabeth was quite astonished when she
+suggested that they sing a popular song to have Carol answer in a
+polite but gently reproving tone, "Oh, not <i>to-day</i>, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why not?  Doesn't your mother like it?" whispered Elizabeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, we don't any of us usually sing things like that on Sunday, you
+know.  It doesn't seem like Sunday.  It doesn't seem quite respectful
+to God."  Carol was terribly embarrassed and was struggling to make her
+idea plain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" Elizabeth said, and stood looking wistfully, wonderingly at her
+friend, and finally stole out a soft hand and slipped it into Carol's,
+pressing her fingers as if to make her know she understood.  Then they
+lifted up their voices again over the same hymn-book:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,<br/>
+But there's a nobler rest above;<br/>
+To that our longing souls aspire<br/>
+With cheerful hope and strong desire."<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham looked about on the group as they sang, his own fine tenor
+joining in the words, his eyes lingering on the earnest face of his
+little sister as she stood arm in arm with the other girl, and was
+suddenly thrilled with the thought of what a Sabbath might be, kept in
+this way.  It had never appealed to him quite like that before.
+Sabbath-keeping had seemed a dry, thankless task for a few fanatics;
+now a new possibility loomed vaguely in his mind.  He could see that
+people like this could really make the Sabbath something to love, not
+just a day to loll through and pass the time away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they finally went away there was just a streak of dull red left in
+the western horizon where the day had disappeared, and all the air was
+seething with sweet night sounds and odors, the dampness of the swamps
+striking coolly in their faces as the car sped along.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sidney," said Elizabeth after a long time, "did you ever feel as if
+God were real?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, how do you mean, kid?" asked the brother, rather embarrassed.
+These subjects were not discussed at all in the Graham household.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Did you ever feel as if there really was a God somewhere, like a
+person, that could see and hear you and know what you did and how you
+felt to Him?  Because they do.  Carol said they didn't sing 'Tipperary'
+on Sunday because it didn't seem quite respectful to God, and I could
+see she really meant it.  It wasn't just because her mother said she
+had to or anything like that.  She thought so herself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!" said Graham thoughtfully.  "Well, they're rather remarkable
+people, I think."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I think so too, and I think it's about time you fixed it up with
+mamma to let Carol come and visit me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm going to get mother to go out there and call this week if I can,"
+said Graham after another longer pause, and then added: "I think she
+will go and I think she will like them.  After that we'll see, kid.
+Don't you worry.  They're nice, all right."  He was thinking of the
+look on Shirley's face as she sat at the piano playing for them all to
+sing.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>
+CHAPTER XIV
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The first few days in the new home were filled with wonder and delight
+for them all.  They just could not get used to having plenty of room
+indoors, with all outdoors for a playground.  Doris's cheeks took on a
+lovely pink, and her eyes began to sparkle.  She and Harley spent all
+day out-of-doors.  They were making a garden.  Not that they had any
+experience or any utensils.  There was an old hoe and a broken spade
+down in the basement of the barn, and with these Harley managed to
+remove a few square feet of young turf, and mellow up an inch or two of
+soil depth.  In this they planted violet roots and buttercups and
+daisies which they found in the meadows.  Doris had a corner all her
+own, with neat rows of tiny stones from the brook laid in elaborate
+baby-patterns around the edge, and in this she stuck twigs and weeds of
+all descriptions, and was never daunted, only pained and surprised when
+they drooped and died in a day or two and had to be supplanted by
+others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had been decided that Harley was to stop school and stay at home
+with mother and Doris, which indeed he was quite willing to do under
+the glamour of the new life.  The school itself never had much
+attraction for him, and "the fellows" were almost forgotten in
+searching for angleworms and building dams in the creek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carol went to high school every morning with Shirley and George on the
+trolley.  There were only six more weeks till the term was over, and it
+was better for Carol to finish out her year and get her credits.
+Shirley thought they could afford the extra carfare for just that
+little while, and so all day long mother and Doris and Harley kept
+quiet home in the old barn, and the meadows rang with Doris's shouts
+and Harley's answers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One day the doctor came out in his machine to see Mrs. Hollister as he
+had promised to do, and found her so much better that he told her she
+might get up and go around a little while every day if she was very
+careful not to get over-tired.  He prophesied a speedy return to health
+if she kept on looking happy and breathing this good air.  He praised
+the good sense that brought her out into the country to live, in
+preference to any little tucked-up house in town, and said if she could
+only get well enough to work outdoors in the ground and have a
+flower-bed it would be the making of her.  Her eyes brightened at that,
+for she loved flowers, and in the days of her youth had been extremely
+successful at making things grow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctor was deeply interest in the barn.  He walked about with his
+hands in his pockets, looking the rooms over, as delighted as a child
+at seeing a new mechanical toy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, now this is great!" he said heartily.  "This is simply great!  I
+admire you people for having the nerve to go against conventionality
+and come out here.  If I had a few more patients who could be persuaded
+to go out into the country and take some of the unused old barns and
+fix them up to live in, I'd have to change my occupation.  It's a great
+idea, and I mean to recommend it to others if you don't mind.  Only I
+doubt if I find two others who have the nerve to follow your example."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The invalid laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, doctor, I can't see the nerve.  We really hadn't any choice.  We
+couldn't find a decent place that we could afford, and this was big and
+healthful and cost less than the worst little tenement that would have
+done in town.  Any one would be a fool not to have come here."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mrs. Hollister, do you know that most people would rather starve and
+swelter, yes&mdash;and <i>die</i> in a conventional house, than to do such an
+unheard-of thing as to live in a barn, no matter how delightful that
+barn might be?  You are a great little woman, Mrs. Hollister, and you
+deserve to get well, and to see your children prosper.  And they will.
+They have the right spirit."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After his visit Mrs. Hollister began to get up a little while every
+day, and her improvement in health was rapid.  She even ventured out to
+see Doris's garden and watch the "budie" in his nest in the tree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One day a drayman stopped at the place and left several great rolls of
+chicken-wire, and a couple of big crates.  One crate was bigger than
+the other and contained half a dozen big yellow hens and a beautiful
+rooster.  The small crate held two lovely white rabbits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The children hovered joyfully over the crates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mine wabbits!" declared Doris solemnly.  "Nice Mistah Dwaham give
+Doris wabbits."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Did Mr. Graham say he was going to send you some rabbits?" questioned
+her mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"'Es.  He did say he was goin' to sen' me some wabbits.  On 'e way fum
+chutch in big oughtymobeel.  He did say he would give me wabbits.  Oh,
+mine wabbits!"  Doris was in ecstasy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister looked at the big rolls of wire questioningly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"George and I told him we wanted some chickens.  I guess that's why he
+sent 'em," announced Harley excitedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope you boys didn't hint.  That's very bad manners.  You know I
+can't have Mr. Graham giving you such expensive presents; it won't do,
+dear."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, mother, we didn't hint.  George just asked him if he minded if we
+kept chickens here, and he said no, indeed, he'd like to go into the
+business himself.  He said he used to have a lot of his own when he was
+a boy, and he guessed there was a lot of wire from the old chicken-run
+around at his place yet.  If there was, there wasn't any reason why it
+shouldn't be in use, and he'd look it up.  He said, if it was, he and
+we'd go into business.  He'd furnish the tools and we could do the
+work, and maybe some day we could sell eggs and make it pay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's very kind of him, I'm sure.  But, Harley, that looks like new
+wire.  It isn't the least bit rusted."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It's galvanized, mother.  Galvanized wire doesn't rust, don't you know
+that?" said Harley in a superior, man's voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harley and Doris were wild over their pets, and could do nothing all
+that day but hover about them, and the minute George arrived the boys
+went out to see about putting up some of the wire and making a
+temporary abode for the creatures until they could get time to plan an
+elaborate chicken-run.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before dark Graham arrived.  He had brought a book on chicken-raising
+and had a good many suggestions to offer.  With him in the front seat
+of the car rode a great golden-brown dog with a white-starred face,
+great affectionate eyes, and a plumy white tail.  He bounded floppily
+out after Graham and came affably up to the door as if he understood
+everything; and at sight of him the children went wild.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I brought this fellow along, thinking perhaps you'd like him to help
+look after things here.  He's only a puppy, but he's a good breed, and
+I think you'll find him a splendid watch-dog.  You don't need to keep
+him, of course, if you don't want him, Mrs. Hollister, but I thought
+out in the country this way it might be as well for you to have him on
+guard, at night especially.  He'll be good company for the children.
+We've got so many of them that we want to give this one away."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what was there to do but accept him with thanks, a dog like that
+begging for a home, and a home like that really needing a dog?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the dog was promptly accepted as a member of the family, was named
+Star, and accepted the overtures of his devoted worshippers in many
+amiable waggings of tail and a wide puppy laugh on his face.  He stayed
+behind most contentedly when Graham departed after a long conference
+with George and Harley over the "chicken" book, and a long discussion
+in the back yard as to the best place for the chicken-run.  He seemed
+to know from the start that he had come to stay, that this was his
+"job" and he was on it for life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted that Mrs. Hollister went to sleep that night with
+more content, knowing that big, floppy, deep-voiced dog was lying
+across the door out in the living-room.  The hillside had seemed a bit
+lonely at night, though she had never admitted it even to herself
+before, and she was glad the dog had come.  That night in the little
+prayer that she said every night with all her children gathered about
+her couch in front of the fire, she added, "We thank Thee, oh, Lord,
+for sending us such good kind friends to make the world so much happier
+for us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days later Mrs. Graham came to call.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her son did not explain to her anything about the Hollisters, nor say a
+word about the place where they were living.  He merely remarked
+casually: "Mother, there are some people I'd like you to call on if you
+don't mind.  They live out Glenside way, and I'll take you any
+afternoon you have time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I really haven't much time now before we go to the shore, Sidney," she
+said.  "Couldn't they wait till the fall when we return?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, mother, I'd like you to call now.  It needn't take you long, and I
+think you'll like them&mdash;her&mdash;Mrs. Hollister, I mean.  Can't you go this
+afternoon?  I'll call for you with the car anywhere you say, along
+about half-past four or five o'clock.  It will be a pleasant little
+drive and rest you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shall I have to be much dressed?" asked the mother thoughtfully,
+"because I shouldn't have time for an elaborate toilet.  I have to go
+to Madame's for a fitting, meet with the Red Cross committee, drop in
+at the hospital for a few minutes, and see Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs.
+Follette about our Alumni Anniversary banquet."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just wear something simple, mother.  They are not society people.
+It's you I want to show them, not your clothes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You ridiculous boy!  You're as unsophisticated as your father.  Well,
+I'll be ready at half-past four.  You may call for me then at the
+Century Building."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth had been loyal to her brother's commands and had said nothing
+about her new-found friend, awaiting his permission.  Graham earnestly
+discussed the pros and cons of woman's suffrage with his mother during
+the drive out, so that she was utterly unprejudiced by any former ideas
+concerning the Hollisters, which was exactly what her son desired her
+to be.  He knew that his mother was a woman of the world, and hedged
+about by conventions of all sorts, but he also knew her to be fair in
+her judgments when once she saw a thing right, and a keen reader of
+character.  He wanted her to see the Hollisters without the least bit
+of a chance to judge them beforehand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So when the car drew up in front of the old barn Mrs. Graham was quite
+unprepared to have her son get out and open the car door and say,
+"Mother, this is the place: may I help you out?"  She had been talking
+earnestly, and had thought he was getting out to look after something
+wrong about the car.  Now she looked up startled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, Sidney!  Why, you must have made a mistake!  This isn't a house;
+it is a barn!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is the place, mother.  Just come right up this way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Graham picked her way over the short green turf up to the door and
+stood astonished while her son knocked.  What in the world did he mean?
+Was this one of his jokes?  Had he brought her out to see a new
+riding-horse?  That must be it, of course.  He was always taking a
+fancy to a horse or a dog.  She really hadn't the time to spare for
+nonsense this afternoon, but one must humor one's son once in a while.
+She stepped back absent-mindedly, her eyes resting on the soft greens
+and purples of the foliage across the meadows, her thoughts on the next
+paper she intended to write for the club.  This incident would soon be
+over, and then she might pursue the even tenor of her busy way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the door slid back and she became aware of something unusual in
+the tenseness of the moment.  Looking up quickly she saw a beautiful
+girl of about Elizabeth's age, with a wealth of dark wavy hair, lovely
+dark eyes, and vivid coloring, and by her side one of the loveliest
+golden-haired, blue-eyed babies she had ever seen in her life.  In the
+wonder of the moment she forgot that the outside of the building had
+been a barn, for the curtain had risen on a new setting, and here on
+the very threshold there opened before her amazed eyes a charming,
+homelike room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first she did not take in any of the details of furnishings.
+Everything was tastefully arranged, and the dull tones of wall and
+floor and ceiling in the late afternoon light mellowed the old
+furniture into its background so perfectly that the imperfections and
+make-shifts did not appear.  It was just a place of comfort and beauty,
+even though the details might show shabby poverty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But her son was speaking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother, this is Miss Carol Hollister, and this little girl is her
+sister Doris&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris put out a fat hand and gravely laid it in the lady's kid glove,
+saying carefully, with shy lashes drooped sideways, and blue eyes
+furtively searching the stranger's face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"How oo do?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then as if she had performed her duty, she turned on her smiles and
+dimples with a flash, and grasping Graham's hand said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, Mistah Dwa'm, oo tum out an' see my wabbits!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evident to the mother that her son had been here before.  She
+looked at him for an explanation, but he only said to Carol,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is your mother able to see callers for a few minutes?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes," said Carol with a glad little ring in her voice.  "Mother is
+up in a chair this afternoon.  See!  The doctor says she may get up
+now, she is so much better!" and she turned and flung out her arm
+toward the big easy chair where her mother sat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister arose and came forward to meet them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was dressed in a plain little gown of cheap gray challis, much
+washed and mended, but looking somehow very nice; and Carol had just
+finished fastening one of Shirley's sheer white fluffy collars around
+her neck, with a bit of a pink ribbon looped in a pretty knot.  Her
+hair was tastefully arranged, and she looked every inch a lady as she
+stood to receive her unexpected guests.  Graham had never seen her in
+any but invalid's garb before, and he stood amazed for a moment at the
+likeness between her and Shirley.  He introduced his mother with a few
+words, and then yielded to Doris's eager, pulling hand and went out to
+see the bunnies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The situation was a trifle trying for both ladies, but to the woman of
+the world perhaps the more embarrassing.  She hadn't a clew as to who
+this was she had been brought to see.  She was entirely used to
+dominating any situation, but for a moment she was almost confused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister, however, tactfully relieved the situation, with a
+gentle, "Won't you sit here by the fire?  It is getting a little cool
+this evening, don't you think?" and put her at once at her ease.  Only
+her family would have guessed from the soft pink spots in her cheeks
+that she was at all excited over her grand guest.  She took the
+initiative at once, leading the talk into natural channels, about the
+spring and its wonderful unfolding in the country, exhibited a vase
+with jack-in-the-pulpits, and a glass bowl of hepaticas blushing blue
+and pink, told of the thrush that had built a nest in the elm over the
+door, and pointed out the view over the valley where the sinking sun
+was flashing crimson from the weather-vane on the little white spire of
+the church.  She said how much they had enjoyed the sunsets since
+coming out here to live, taking it for granted that her visitor knew
+all about their circumstances, and making no apologies or comments; and
+the visitor, being what her son called "a good sport," showed no hint
+that she had never heard of the Hollisters before, but smiled and said
+the right thing at the right moment.  And somehow, neither knew just
+how, they got to the subject of Browning and Ibsen, and from there to
+woman's suffrage, and when Graham returned with Carol and Harley, Doris
+chattering beside him and the dog bounding in ahead, they were deep in
+future politics.  Graham sat and listened for a while, interested to
+note that the quiet little woman who had spent the last few years of
+her life working in a narrow dark city kitchen could talk as
+thoughtfully and sensibly as his cultured, versatile mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next trolley brought Shirley and George, and again the mother was
+amazed to find how altogether free and easy seemed to be the relation
+between all these young people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She gave a keen look at Shirley, and then another at her son, but saw
+nothing which gave her uneasiness.  The girl was unconscious as a rose,
+and sweet and gracious to the stranger guests as if she had been in
+society all her life.  She slipped away at once to remove her hat, and
+when she came back her hair was brushed, and she looked as fresh as a
+flower in her clean white ruffled blouse.  The older woman could not
+take her eyes from her face.  What a charming girl to be set among all
+this shabbiness!  For by this time her discriminating eyes had
+discovered that everything&mdash;literally <i>every</i>thing was shabby.  Who
+were these people, and how did they happen to get put here?  The baby
+was ravishingly beautiful, the girls were charming, and the boys looked
+like splendid, manly fellows.  The mother was a product of culture and
+refinement.  Not one word or action had shown that she knew her
+surroundings were shabby.  She might have been mistress of a palace for
+aught she showed of consciousness of the pitiful poverty about her.  It
+was as if she were just dropped down for the day in a stray barn and
+making a palace out of it while she stayed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unconsciously the woman of the world lingered longer than was her wont
+in making calls.  She liked the atmosphere, and was strangely
+interested by them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wish you would come and see me," she said cordially as she rose at
+last to go, and she said it as if she meant it,&mdash;as if she lived right
+around the corner and not twenty-two miles away,&mdash;as if she really
+wanted her to come, and not as if this other woman lived in a barn at
+all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good old sport!" commented her son in his heart as he listened.  He
+had known she must see their worth, and yet he had been strangely
+afraid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister received the invitation with a flush of pleasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thank you," she answered graciously, "I'm afraid not.  I seldom go
+anywhere any more.  But I've been very glad to have had this call from
+you.  It will be a pleasure to think about.  Come sometime again when
+you are out this way.  Your son has been most kind.  I cannot find
+words to express my thanks."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Has he?" and his mother looked questioningly at her son.  "Well, I'm
+very glad&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, and Elizabeth!  She is a dear sweet girl, and we all love her!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Revelations!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, has Elizabeth been here too?  Well, I'm glad.  I hope she has not
+been a nuisance.  She's such an impulsive, erratic child.  Elizabeth is
+quite a problem just now.  She's out of school on account of her eyes,
+and her girl friends, most of them, being away at school, she is
+perfectly forlorn.  I am delighted to have her with your children.  I
+am sure they are charming associates for her."  And her eyes rested
+approvingly on the sparkling Carol in her simple school dress of brown
+linen with its white collar and cuffs.  There was nothing countrified
+about Carol.  She looked dainty in the commonest raiment, and she
+smiled radiantly at Elizabeth's mother and won her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Would you let Elizabeth stay overnight with us here sometime?" she
+asked shyly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, surely!  I presume she would be delighted.  She does about as she
+pleases these days.  I really don't see very much of her, I'm so busy
+this time of year, just at the end of the season, you know, and lots of
+committee meetings and teas and things."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They stopped at the doorway to look up into the big tree, in response
+to the earnest solicitations of Doris, who pulled at the lady's gloved
+hand insistently, murmuring sweetly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Budie!  Budie!  See mine budie in the twee!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Hollisters stood grouped at the doorway when at last the visitors
+got into their car and went away.  Mrs. Graham looked back at them
+wistfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What a lovely group they make!" she murmured.  "Now, Sidney, tell me
+at once who they are and why they live in a barn, and why you brought
+me out here.  I know you had some special object.  I knew the minute I
+saw that charming woman."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother, you certainly are great!  I thought you'd have the good sense
+to see what they are."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, I haven't spent a more delightful hour in a long time than I
+spent talking with her.  She has very original ideas, and she expresses
+herself well.  As for the children, they are lovely.  That oldest girl
+has a great deal of character in her face.  But what are they doing in
+a barn, Sidney, and how did you come to know them?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so, as they speeded out the smooth turnpike to their lovely home
+Sidney Graham told his mother as much of the story of Shirley Hollister
+and the old barn as he thought she would care to know, and his mother
+sat thoughtfully watching his handsome, enthusiastic face while he
+talked, and wondering.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One comment she made as they swept up the beautiful drive to their
+luxurious country home:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sidney dear, they are delightful and all that, and I'm sure I'm glad
+to have that little girl come to see Elizabeth, but if I were you I
+wouldn't go out there too often when that handsome oldest girl is at
+home.  She's not exactly in your set, you know, charming as she is, and
+you wouldn't want to give her any ideas.  A gentleman looks out for
+things like that, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What has being in our set got to do with it, mother dear?  Do you know
+any girl in our set that is better-looking or has nicer manners, or a
+finer appreciation of nature and books?  You ought to hear her talk!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, but, Sidney, that isn't everything!  She isn't exactly&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother, were you and father, when you used to have good times
+together?  Now, mother, you know you are just talking twaddle when you
+let that idea about 'our set' rule your mind.  Be a good sport, mother
+dear, and look the facts in the face.  That girl is as good as any
+other girl I know, and you know it.  She's better than most.  Please
+admit the facts.  Yet you never warned me to be careful about calling
+on any of the girls in our set.  Do please be consistent.  However,
+don't worry about me.  I've no idea at present of paying any special
+attention to anybody," and he swung the car door and jumped down to
+help her out.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>
+CHAPTER XV
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+A man arrived one morning with a horse and a plough and several other
+implements of farm life of which Harley didn't know the name, and
+announced that Mr. Graham had sent him to plough the garden.  Would
+Mrs. Hollister please tell him where she wanted the ground broken, and
+how much?  He volunteered the information that he was her next
+neighbor, and that if he was in her place he'd plough the south slope
+of the meadow, and if she wanted flower-beds a strip along the front
+near the road; the soil was best in those spots, and she wouldn't need
+so much fertilizer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to do it, and he said
+a little job like that wasn't worth talking about; that he used to rent
+the barn himself, and he always did a little turn for Mr. Graham
+whenever he needed it.  He did it for Mr. Graham, and it wouldn't cost
+her "nothin'."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to see where it would
+be best to have the ploughing done, and when she came in a few minutes
+later and dropped down on the couch to rest from her unusual fatigue a
+new thought was racing through her mind.  They could have a garden, a
+real garden, with lettuce and green peas and lima beans and corn!  She
+knew all about making them grow.  She had been brought up in a little
+village home, where a garden was a part of every one's necessary
+equipment for living.  She used to kelp her father every spring and all
+summer.  Her own little patch always took the prize of the family.  But
+for years she had been in the city without an inch of space.  Now,
+however, the old fever of delight in gardening took possession of her.
+If she could get out and work in the ground, as the doctor had
+suggested, she would get well right away.  And why, with Harley to
+help, and George and Carol to work a little every evening, couldn't
+they raise enough on all that ground to sell some?  George could take
+things into town early in the morning, or they could find some private
+families who would buy all they had to sell.  It was worth thinking
+about, anyway.  She could raise flowers for sale, too.  She had always
+been a success with flowers.  She had always wanted a hothouse and a
+chance to experiment.  She heard the children say there were some old
+window-sashes down under the barn.  She would get George to bring them
+out, and see what she could do with a coldframe or two.  Violets would
+grow under a coldframe, and a lot of other things.  Oh, if they could
+only just live here always, and not have to go back to the city in the
+fall!  But of course there was no way to heat the barn in winter, and
+that was out of the question.  Nevertheless, the idea of making some
+money with growing things had seized hold of her mind and would not be
+entirely put by.  She thought of it much, and talked of it now and then
+to Shirley and the other children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley brought home some packages of seeds she got at the ten-cent
+store, and there was great excitement planting them.  Then Mr. Graham
+sent over a lot of seeds, of both vegetables and flowers, and some
+shrubs, cuttings and bulbs which he said were "left-overs" at their
+country house that he thought perhaps the children could use; and so
+before the Hollisters knew it they were possessed of a garden, which
+almost in a breath lifted up its green head and began to grow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Life was very full for the Hollisters in those days, and those who went
+to the city for the day could hardly bear to tear themselves away from
+the many delights of the country.  The puppy was getting bigger and
+wiser every day, tagging Doris and Harley wherever they went, or
+sitting adoringly at Mrs. Hollister's feet; always bounding out to meet
+the evening trolley on which George and Shirley came, and always
+attending them to the trolley in the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out behind the barn a tiny coop held a white hen and her seven little
+downy balls of chickens.  Another hen was happily ensconced in a barrel
+of hay with ten big blue duck-eggs under her happy wings, and a little
+further down toward the creek a fine chicken-run ended in a trig little
+roosting-place for the poultry, which George had manufactured out of a
+packing-box and some boards.  The feathered family had been increased
+by two white Leghorns and three bantams.  George and Harley spent their
+evenings watching them and discussing the price of eggs and chickens
+per pound.  They were all very happy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth came out to spend Sunday as she had promised.  She got up
+early to see the sun rise and watch the birds.  She helped get
+breakfast and wash the dishes.  Then she went with the others across
+the fields to the little white church in the valley to Sunday-school
+and church.  She was as hungry and eager as any of them when she came
+home, and joyfully helped to do the work, taking great pride in the
+potatoes she was allowed to warm up under careful tutelage.  In the
+afternoon there was no more eager listener among them to the Bible
+story Shirley told to Doris and the book she read aloud to them all
+afterward; her voice was sweetest and clearest of them all in the hymns
+they sang together; and she was most eager to go with Shirley to the
+Christian Endeavor service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I shouldn't wonder if Sidney wishes he was here too," she remarked
+dreamily that evening, as she sat before the fire on a little cushion,
+her chin in her hands, her eyes on the fantastic shadows in the ashes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She went to school with Carol the next morning, came home with her in
+the afternoon, and when her brother came for her in the evening she was
+most reluctant to go home to the big, lonely, elegant house again, and
+begged that Carol might soon come and see her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Friday afternoon Elizabeth called up Mrs. Hollister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Please, Mrs. Hollister, let Carol come and stay with me till Monday.
+I'm so lonesome, and mamma says she will be so glad if you will let her
+come."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, my dear, that would be impossible.  Carol isn't suitably dressed
+to make a visit, you know," answered the mother quickly, glad that she
+had so good an excuse for keeping her child from this venture into an
+alien world about which she had many grave doubts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the young voice at the other end of the telephone was insistent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Dear Mrs. Hollister, please!  She doesn't need any other clothes.
+I've got lots of things that would fit her.  She loaned me her gingham
+dress to make garden in, and why shouldn't I loan her a dress to wear
+on Sunday?  I've got plenty of clean middy blouses and skirts and can
+fix her all out fresh for school, too, Monday morning, and if you'll
+just let her stay Sidney will take us both down to her school when he
+goes to the office.  You've got all those children there at home, and
+I've only myself.  Sidney doesn't count, you know, for he's grown up."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, with a sigh, the mother gave her consent, and Carol found the
+Graham car waiting for her when she came out of school.  Thus she
+started on her first venture into the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all like fairy-land that wonderful week-end to the little girl
+whose memories were full of burdens and sacrifices: the palatial home
+of many rooms and rich furnishings, the swarm of servants, the
+anticipation of every want, the wide, beautiful grounds with all that
+heart could wish in the way of beauty and amusement, the music-room
+with grand piano, harp, and violin lying mute most of the time, the
+great library with its walls lined with rare books, mostly unread.
+Everything there to satisfy any whim, reasonable or unreasonable, and
+nobody using any of it much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not a room in the whole place as dear and cozy and homey as this!"
+sighed Carol happily, sinking into the old denim-covered couch before
+the fireplace in the barn-living-room that Monday night after she got
+home.  "I declare, mother, I don't see how Elizabeth stands it.  Her
+mother is nice, but she's hardly ever there, unless she has a swarm of
+people dinnering or teaing or lunching.  She hardly ever has time to
+speak to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth doesn't seem to care much, either.
+She almost seems to think more of that old nurse Susan that took care
+of her when she was a baby than she does of her mother.  I'm so glad I
+was sent to you instead of to her!"  And Carol suddenly slipped across
+the room and buried her face in her mother's neck, hugging and kissing
+her, leaving a few bright tears on her mother's happy face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a wonderful relief to Mrs. Hollister to find her child unspoiled
+by her first experience of the world and glad to get back to her home,
+after all the anxiety her mother heart had felt.  Carol presently sat
+up and told them minutely all about her visit.  The grand concert that
+Sidney had taken them to Friday evening in the Academy of Music, where
+a world-renowned pianist was the soloist with the great symphony
+orchestra; the tennis and riding Saturday morning; the luncheon at a
+neighboring estate, where there were three girls and a brother who were
+"snobs" and hadn't at all good manners; the party in the evening that
+lasted so late that they didn't get to bed till long after midnight;
+the beautiful room they slept in, with every imaginable article for the
+toilet done in sterling silver with monograms; the strange Sabbath,
+with no service in the morning because they woke up too late, and no
+suggestion of anything but a holiday,&mdash;except the vesper service in a
+cold, formal chapel that Carol had begged to go to; just a lot of
+worldly music and entertaining, with a multitude of visitors for the
+end of it.  Carol told of the beautiful dresses that Elizabeth had
+loaned her, coral crêpe de chine accordion-plaited for the concert,
+white with an orange sash for the luncheon, pale yellow with a black
+velvet girdle for the party, a little blue silk affair and another
+lovely white organdie for Sunday, and all with their accompanying silk
+stockings and slippers and gloves, and necklaces and bands for her
+hair.  It was most wonderful to her, and as they listened they
+marvelled that their Carol had come back to them so gladly, and
+rejoiced to see her nestling in her brown linen skirt and middy blouse
+close beside her mother's chair.  She declared herself satisfied with
+her flight into the world.  She might like to go again for a glimpse
+now and then, but she thought she would rather have Elizabeth out to
+Glenside.  She hated to lose any of the time out here, it was so
+pretty.  Besides, it was lonesome without them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About that time Shirley picked up the morning paper in her office one
+day to look up a matter for Mr. Barnard.  Her eye happened to fall on
+the society column and catch the name of Sidney Graham.  She glanced
+down the column.  It was an account of a wedding in high circles in
+which Graham had taken the part of best man, with Miss Harriet Hale&mdash;in
+blue tulle and white orchids as maid of honor&mdash;for his partner down the
+aisle.  She read the column hurriedly, hungrily, getting every detail,
+white spats, gardenia, and all, until in those few printed sentences a
+picture was printed indelibly upon her vision, of Graham walking down
+the lily-garlanded aisle with the maid in blue tulle and white orchids
+on his arm.  To make it more vivid the lady's picture was in the paper
+along with Graham's, just under those of the bride and groom, and her
+face was both handsome and haughty.  One could tell that by the tilt of
+chin, the short upper lip, the cynical curve of mouth and sweep of long
+eyelash, the extreme effect of her dress and the arrangement of her
+hair.  Only a beauty could have stood that hair and not been positively
+ugly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley suddenly realized what she was doing and turned over the page
+of the paper with a jerk that tore the sheet from top to bottom, going
+on with her search for the real-estate column and the item she was
+after.  All that morning her typewriter keys clicked with mad rapidity,
+yet her work was strangely correct and perfect.  She was working under
+a tense strain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By noon she had herself in hand, realized what she had been doing with
+her vagrant thoughts, and was able to laugh at Miss Harriet
+Hale&mdash;whoever or whatever she was.  What mattered it, Miss Harriet Hale
+or somebody else?  What was that to Shirley Hollister?  Mr. Graham was
+her landlord and a kindly gentleman.  He would probably continue to be
+that to her to the end of her tenancy, without regard to Miss Hale or
+any other intruding Miss, and what did anything else matter?  She
+wanted nothing else of Mr. Graham but to be a kindly gentleman whenever
+it was her necessity to come in his way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But although her philosophy was on hand and her pride was aroused, she
+realized just where her heart might have been tending if it had not
+been for this little jolt it got; and she resolved to keep out of the
+gentleman's way whenever it was possible, and also, as far as she was
+able, to think no more about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Keeping out of Sidney Graham's way was one thing, but making him keep
+out of her way was quite another matter, and Shirley realized it every
+time he came out to Glenside, which he did quite frequently.  She could
+not say to him that she wished he would not come.  She could not be
+rude to him when he came.  There was no way of showing him pointedly
+that she was not thinking of him in any way but as her landlord,
+because he never showed in any way that he was expecting her to.  He
+just happened in evening after evening, in his frank, jolly way, on one
+pretext or other, never staying very long, never showing her any more
+attention than he did her mother or Carol or the boys, not so much as
+he did to Doris.  How was she to do anything but sit quietly and take
+the whole thing as a matter of course?  It really was a matter to deal
+with in her own heart alone.  And there the battle must be fought if
+ever battle there was to be.  Meantime, she could not but own that this
+frank, smiling, merry young man did bring a lot of life and pleasure
+into their lives, dropping in that way, and why should she not enjoy it
+when it came, seeing it in no wise interfered with Miss Harriet Hale's
+rights and prerogatives?  Nevertheless, Shirley withdrew more and more
+into quietness whenever he came, and often slipped into the kitchen on
+some household pretext, until one day he boldly came out into the
+kitchen after her with a book he wanted her to read, and was so frank
+and companionable that she led the way back to the living-room, and
+concluded it would be better in future to stay with the rest of the
+family.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley had no intention whatever of letting her heart stray out after
+any impossible society man.  She had her work in the world, and to it
+she meant to stick.  If there were dreams she kept them well under lock
+and key, and only took them out now and then at night when she was very
+tired and discouraged and life looked hard and long and lonely on
+ahead.  Shirley had no intention that Sidney Graham should ever have
+reason to think, when he married Miss Harriet Hale or some one
+equivalent to her, that any poor little stenographer living in a barn
+had at one time fancied him fond of her.  No, indeed!  Shirley tilted
+her firm little chin at the thought, and declined to ride with Graham
+and Elizabeth the next time they called at the office for her, on the
+plea that she had promised to go home in the trolley with one of the
+office girls.  And yet the next time she saw him he was just as
+pleasant, and showed no sign that she had declined his invitation.  In
+fact, the whole basis of their acquaintance was such that she felt free
+to go her own way and yet know he would be just as pleasant a friend
+whenever she needed one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Matters stood in this way when Graham was suddenly obliged to go West
+on a trip for the office, to be gone three or four weeks.  Mrs. Graham
+and Elizabeth went to the Adirondacks for a short trip, and the people
+at Glenside settled down to quiet country life, broken only by a few
+visits from their farm neighbors, and a call from the cheery, shabby
+pastor of the little white church in the valley.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>
+CHAPTER XVI
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Graham did not seem to forget his friends entirely while he was gone.
+The boys received a number of post-cards from time to time, and a lot
+of fine views of California, Yellowstone Park, the Grand Cañon, and
+other spots of interest.  A wonderful picture-book came for Doris, with
+Chinese pictures, and rhymes printed on crêpe paper.  The next morning
+a tiny sandalwood fan arrived for Carol with Graham's compliments, and
+a few days later a big box of oranges for Mrs. Hollister with no clew
+whatever as to their sender.  Shirley began to wonder what her part
+would be and what she should do about it, and presently received&mdash;a
+letter!  And then, after all, it was only a pleasant request that she
+would not pay the rent, about which she had always been so punctual,
+until his return, as no one else understood about his affairs.  He
+added a few words about his pleasant trip and a wish that they were all
+prospering,&mdash;and that was all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was disappointed, of course, and yet, if he had said more, or
+if he had ventured to send her even a mere trifle of a gift, it would
+have made her uncomfortable and set her questioning how she should
+treat him and it.  It was the perfection of his behavior that he had
+not overstepped a single bound that the most particular might set for a
+landlord and his respected tenant.  She drew a deep sigh and put the
+letter back into the envelope, and as she did so she spied a small
+card, smaller than the envelope, on which was an exquisite bit of
+scenery, a colored photograph, apparently, and underneath had been
+pencilled, "One of the many beautiful spots in California that I am
+sure you would appreciate."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her heart gave an unforbidden leap, and was promptly taken to task for
+it.  Yet when Shirley went back to her typewriter the bit of a picture
+was pinned to the wall back of her desk, and her eyes rested on it many
+times that day when she lifted them from her work.  It is questionable
+whether Shirley remembered Miss Harriet Hale at all that day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The garden was growing beautifully now.  There would soon be lettuce
+and radishes ready to eat.  George had secured a number of customers
+through people at the store, and was planning to take early trips to
+town, when his produce was ripe, to deliver it.  They watched every
+night and looked again every morning for signs of the first pea
+blossoms, and the little green spires of onion tops, like sparse hairs,
+beginning to shoot up.  Every day brought some new wonder.  They almost
+forgot they had ever lived in the little old brick house, until George
+rode by there on his bicycle one noon and reported that it had been
+half pulled down, and you could now see the outline of where the stairs
+and closets had been, done in plaster, on the side of the next house.
+They were all very silent for a minute thinking after he told that, and
+Mrs. Hollister looked around the great airy place in which they were
+sitting, and then out the open door where the faint stain of sunset was
+still lingering against the horizon, and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We ought all to be very thankful, children.  George, get the Bible and
+read the thirty-fourth psalm."  Wonderingly George obeyed, and they all
+sat listening as the words sank into their souls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," said the mother when the psalm was finished and those last
+words, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them
+that trust in him shall be desolate"; "now let us kneel down and thank
+Him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And they all knelt while she prayed a few earnest, simple words of
+thanksgiving and commended them to God's keeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time Mrs. Hollister was so well that she went every day for a
+little while into the garden and worked, and was able to do a great
+deal in the house.  The children were overjoyed, and lived in a
+continual trance of delight over the wild, free life they were living.
+Carol's school had closed and Carol was at home all day.  This made one
+more to help in the garden.  George was talking about building a little
+pigeon-house and raising squabs for sale.  The man who did the
+ploughing had given him a couple to start with and told him there was
+money in squabs if one only went about it right.  George and Harley
+pored over a book that told all about it, and talked much on the
+subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The weather was growing warm, and Shirley was wishing her vacation came
+in July or August instead of the first two weeks in September.  Somehow
+she felt so used up these hot days, and the hours dragged by so slowly.
+At night the trolleys were crowded until they were half-way out to
+Glenside.  She often had to stand, and her head ached a great deal.
+Yet she was very happy and thankful&mdash;only there was so much to be done
+in this world, and she seemed to have so little strength to do it all.
+The burden of next fall came occasionally to mar the beauty of the
+summer, and rested heavily upon her young shoulders.  If only there
+wouldn't be any winter for just one year, and they could stay in the
+barn and get rested and get a little money ahead somehow for moving.
+It was going to be so hard to leave that wide, beautiful abiding-place,
+barn though it was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One morning nearly four weeks after Graham left for California Shirley
+was called from her desk to the outer office to take some dictation for
+Mr. Clegg.  While she was there two men entered the outer office and
+asked for Mr. Barnard.  One of them was a short, thick-set man with a
+pretentious wide gray mustache parted in the middle and combed
+elaborately out on his cheeks.  He had a red face, little cunning eyes,
+and a cruel set to his jaw, which somehow seemed ridiculously at
+variance with his loud, checked suit, sporty necktie of soft bright
+blue satin, set with a scarf-pin of two magnificent stones, a diamond
+and a sapphire, and with the three showy jewelled rings which he wore
+on his fat, pudgy hand.  The other man was sly, quiet, gray,
+unobtrusive, obviously the henchman of the first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Clegg told the men they might go into the inner office and wait for
+Mr. Barnard, who would probably be in shortly, and Shirley watched them
+as they passed out of her view, wondering idly why those exquisite
+stones had to be wasted in such an out-of-place spot as in that
+coarse-looking man's necktie, and if a man like that really cared for
+beautiful things, else why should he wear them?  It was only a passing
+thought, and then she took up her pencil and took down the closing
+sentences of the letter Mr. Clegg was dictating.  It was but a moment
+more and she was free to go back to her own little alcove just behind
+Mr. Barnard's office and connecting with it.  There was an entrance to
+it from the tiny cloak-room, which she always used when Mr. Barnard had
+visitors in his office, and through this way she now went, having a
+strange repugnance toward being seen by the two men.  She had an innate
+sense that the man with the gaudy garments would not be one who would
+treat a young girl in her position with any respect, and she did not
+care to come under his coarse gaze, so she slipped in quietly through
+the cloak-room, and passed like a shadow the open door into Mr.
+Barnard's office, where they sat with their backs toward her, having
+evidently just settled down and begun to talk.  She could hear a
+low-breathed comment on the furnishings of the office as indicating a
+good bank-account of the owner, and a coarse jest about a photograph of
+Mr. Barnard's wife which stood on his desk.  It made her wish that the
+door between the rooms was closed; yet she did not care to rise and
+close it lest she should call attention to herself, and of course it
+might be but a minute or two before Mr. Barnard returned.  A pile of
+envelopes to be addressed lay on her desk, and this work she could do
+without any noise, so she slipped softly into her seat and began to
+work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, we got them Grahams good and fast now!" a coarse voice, that she
+knew for that of the man with the loud clothing, spoke.  "The young
+feller bit all right!  I thought he would.  He's that kind."  He
+stopped for a laugh of contempt, and Shirley's heart stood still with
+apprehension.  What could it mean?  Was it something about her Grahams?
+Some danger threatening them?  Some game being played on them?  He
+looked like the kind of man who lived on the blindnesses of others.
+What was it they called such?  A parasite?  Instinctively she was on
+the alert at once, and automatically she reached for the pad on which
+she took dictation and began to write down in shorthand what she had
+just heard.  The voice in the other room went on and her fountain pen
+kept eager pace, her breath coming quick and short now, and her face
+white with excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He went out to see the place, you know, examine the mines and all
+that.  Oh, he's awful cautious!  Thought he took a government expert
+with him to test the ore.  We fixed that up all right&mdash;had the very man
+on tap at the right minute, government papers all O.K.&mdash;you couldn't
+have told 'em from the real thing.  It was Casey; you know him; he's a
+crackerjack on a job like that,&mdash;could fool the devil himself.  Well,
+he swore it was the finest kind of ore and all that kind of dope, and
+led that Graham kid around as sweetly as a blue-eyed baby.  We had a
+gang out there all bribed, you know, to swear to things, and took
+particular pains so Graham would go around and ask the right ones
+questions,&mdash;Casey tended to that,&mdash;and now he's come home with the
+biggest kind of a tale and ready to boost the thing to the skies.  I've
+got his word for it, and his daddy is to sign the papers this morning.
+When he wakes up one of these fine days he'll find himself minus a
+hundred thousand or so, and nobody to blame for it, because how could
+anybody be expected to know that those are only pockets?  He'll
+recommend it right and left too, and we'll clean out a lot of other
+fellers before we get done.  Teddy, my boy, pat yourself on the back!
+We'll have a tidy little sum between us when we pull out of this deal,
+and take a foreign trip for our health till the fracas blows over.  Now
+mind you, not a word of this to Barnard when he comes in.  We're only
+going to pave the way this morning.  The real tip comes from Graham
+himself.  See?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was faint and dizzy with excitement as she finished writing,
+and her brain was in a whirl.  She felt as if she would scream in a
+minute if this strain kept up.  The papers were to be signed that
+morning!  Even now the deed might be done and it would be too late,
+perhaps, to stop it.  And yet she must make no sign, must not have the
+men know that she was there and that they had been heard.  She must sit
+here breathless until they were gone, so they would not know she had
+overheard them, or they might manage to prevent her getting word to
+Graham.  How long would they stay?  Would they talk on and reveal more?
+The other man had only grunted something unintelligible in reply, and
+then before more could be said an office boy opened the outer door and
+told them that Mr. Barnard had just phoned that he would not be back
+before two o'clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men swore and went out grumbling.  Suddenly Shirley knew her time
+had come to do something.  Stepping quickly to the door she scanned the
+room carefully to make sure they were gone, then closing her own door
+she took up the telephone on her desk and called up the Graham number.
+She did not know just what she meant to say, nor what she would do if
+Sidney Graham were not in the office,&mdash;and it was hardly probable he
+would be there yet if he had only arrived home the day before.  He
+would be likely to take a day off before getting back to work.  Her
+throbbing heart beat out these questions to her brain while she waited
+for the number.  Would she dare to ask for Mr. Walter Graham?  And if
+she did, what would she say to him?  How explain?  He did not know her,
+and probably never heard of her.  He might think her crazy.  Then there
+was always the possibility that there was some mistake&mdash;and yet it
+seemed a coincidence that two men of the same name should both be going
+West at that time.  It must be these Grahams that the plot was against.
+But how explain enough over the phone to do any good?  Of course she
+must give them a copy of what she had taken down in shorthand, but
+first she must stop the signing of those papers, whatever they were, at
+all costs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then all at once, into the midst of her whirling confusion of thoughts,
+came a voice at the other end of the phone, "Hello!" and her frantic
+senses realized that it was a familiar one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, is this,&mdash;this <i>is</i> Mr. Sidney Graham, isn't it?  This is Shirley
+Hollister."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a catch in her voice that sounded almost like a sob as she
+drew in her breath with relief to know that he was there, and his
+answer came in swift alarm:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes?  Is there anything the matter, Miss Shirley?  You are not ill,
+are you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a sharp note of anxiety in the young man's voice, and even in
+her excitement it made Shirley's heart leap to hear it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, there is nothing the matter with me," she said, trying to steady
+her voice, "but something has happened that I think you ought to know
+at <i>once</i>.  I don't know whether I ought to tell it over the phone.
+I'm not sure but I may be overheard."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will come to you immediately.  Where can I find you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her heart leaped again at his willingness to trust her and to obey her
+call.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In Mr. Barnard's private office.  If you ask for me they will let you
+come right in.  There is one thing more.  If there is anything
+important your father was to decide this morning, could you get him to
+wait till you return, or till you phone him?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a second's hesitation, and the reply was politely puzzled but
+courteous:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He is not in the office at present and will not be for an hour."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I'm so glad!  Then <i>please hurry</i>!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will get there as soon as I can," and the phone clicked into place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat back in her chair and pressed her hands over her eyes to
+concentrate all her powers.  Then she turned to her typewriter and
+began to copy off the shorthand, her fingers flying over the keys with
+more than their usual swiftness.  As she wrote she prayed, prayed that
+nothing might have been signed, and that her warning might not come too
+late; prayed, too, that Mr. Barnard might not return until Mr. Graham
+had been and gone, and that Mr. Graham might not think her an utter
+fool in case this proved to have nothing whatever to do with his
+affairs.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>
+CHAPTER XVII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+When Graham entered the office Shirley came to meet him quietly,
+without a word of greeting other than to put her little cold hand into
+his that he held out to her.  She began to speak in a low voice full of
+suppressed excitement.  She had a vague fear lest the two men might be
+still lingering about the outer office, waiting for Mr. Barnard, and a
+momentary dread lest Mr. Barnard might enter the room at any minute.
+She must get the telling over before he came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mr. Graham, two men were sitting in this room waiting for Mr. Barnard
+a few minutes ago, and I was in my little room just back there.  I
+could not help hearing what they said, and when I caught the name of
+Graham in connection with what sounded like an evil plot I took down
+their words in shorthand.  It may not have anything to do with your
+firm, but I thought I ought to let you know.  I called you on the phone
+as soon as they left the office and would not hear me, and I have made
+this copy of their conversation.  Read it quickly, please, because if
+it does have anything to do with you, you will want to phone your
+father at once, before those men can get there."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her tone was very cool, and her hand was steady as she handed him the
+typewritten paper, but her heart was beating mildly, because there had
+been a look in his eyes as he greeted her that made her feel that he
+was glad to see her, and it touched an answering gladness in her heart
+and filled her both with delight and with apprehension.  What a fool
+she was!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned sharply away and busied herself with arranging some papers
+on Mr. Barnard's desk while he read.  She must still this excitement
+and get control of herself before he was through.  She <i>must</i> be the
+cool, impersonal stenographer, and not let him suspect for a moment
+that she was so excited about seeing him again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man stood still, reading rapidly, his face growing graver as
+he read.  The girl snatched a furtive glance at him, and felt convinced
+that the matter was a serious one and had to do with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly he looked up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you know who those men were, Miss Shirley?" he asked, and she saw
+his eyes were full of anxiety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said Shirley.  "But I saw them as they passed through the outer
+office, and stopped to speak to Mr. Clegg.  I was taking dictation from
+Mr. Clegg at the time.  I came back to my desk through the cloak-room,
+so they did not know I was within hearing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What kind of looking men were they?  Do you remember?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She described them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Certainty grew in his face as she talked, and grave concern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"May I use your phone a minute?" he asked after an instant's thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She led him to her own desk and handed him the receiver, then stepped
+back into the office and waited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hello!  Is that you, Edward?" she heard him say.  "Has father come
+yet?  Give me his phone, please.  Hello, father; this is Sidney.
+Father, has Kremnitz come in yet?  He has?  You say he's waiting in the
+office to see you?  Well, don't see him, father, till I get there.
+Something has turned up that I'm afraid is going to alter matters
+entirely.  Yes, pretty serious, I'm afraid.  Don't see him.  Keep him
+waiting.  I'll be there in five minutes, and come in from the back way
+directly to your office.  Don't talk with him on any account till I can
+get there.  Good-by."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He hung up the receiver and turned to Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Miss Shirley, you were just in time to save us.  I haven't time now to
+tell you how grateful I am for this.  I must hurry right over.  Do you
+suppose if we should need you it would be possible for you to come over
+and identify those men?  Thank you.  I'll speak to Mr. Clegg about it
+as I go out, and if we find it necessary we'll phone you.  In case you
+have to come I'll have an office-boy in the hall to take your hat, and
+you can come right into the office as if you were one of our
+employees&mdash;just walk over to the bookcase as if you were looking for a
+book&mdash;any book.  Select one and look through it, meanwhile glancing
+around the room, and see if you find those men.  Then walk through into
+my office.  I'll be waiting there.  Good-by, and thank you so much!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He gave her hand one quick clasp and was gone, and Shirley found she
+was trembling from head to foot.  She walked quickly into her own room
+and sat down, burying her face in her hands and trying to get control
+of herself, but the tears would come to her eyes in spite of all she
+could do.  It was not the excitement of getting the men and stopping
+their evil plans before they could do any damage, although that had
+something to do with her nervous state, of course; and it was not just
+that she had been able to do a little thing in return for all he had
+done for her; nor even his gratitude; it was&mdash;she could not deny it to
+herself&mdash;it was a certain quality in his voice, a something in the look
+he gave her, that made her whole soul glow, and seemed to fill the
+hungry longing that had been in her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It frightened her and made her ashamed, and as she sat with bowed head
+she prayed that she might be given strength to act like a sensible
+girl, and crush out such foolish thoughts before they dared lift their
+heads and be recognized even by her own heart.  Then strengthened, she
+resolved to think no more about the matter, but just get her work done
+and be ready to enter into that other business if it became necessary.
+Mr. Barnard would be coming soon, and she must have his work finished.
+She had lost almost an hour by this matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She went at her typewriter pell-mell, and soon had Mr. Clegg's letters
+done.  She was nearly through with the addressing that Mr. Barnard left
+for her to do when the telephone called her to Graham's office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She slipped on her hat and hurried out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Will it be all right for me to take my noontime now, Mr. Clegg?" she
+said, stopping by his desk.  "Mr. Graham said he spoke to you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, he wants you to help him identify some one.  That's all right.
+I'll explain to Mr. Barnard when he comes.  There's nothing important
+you have to finish, is there?  All done but those envelopes?  Well, you
+needn't return until one o'clock, anyway.  The envelopes can wait till
+the four-o'clock mail, and if Mr. Barnard needs anything in a hurry
+Miss Dwight can attend to it this time.  Just take your time, Miss
+Hollister."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley went out bewildered by the unusual generosity of Mr. Clegg, who
+was usually taciturn and abrupt.  She realized, however, that his
+warmth must be due to Graham's visit, and not to any special desire to
+give her a holiday.  She smiled to think what a difference wealth and
+position made in the eyes of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same office-boy she had met on her first visit to Graham's office
+was waiting most respectfully for her now in the hall when she got out
+of the elevator, and she gave him her hat and walked into the office
+according to programme, going straight to the big glass bookcase full
+of calf-bound volumes, and selecting one after running her finger over
+two rows of them.  She was as cool as though her part had been
+rehearsed many times, although her heart was pounding most
+unmercifully, and it seemed as though the people in the next room must
+hear it.  She stood and opened her book, casting a casual glance about
+the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, sure enough, quite near to her, sat the two men, fairly bursting
+with impatience.  The once immaculate hair of the loudly dressed one
+was rumpled as if he had run his fingers through it many times, and he
+played nervously with his heavy rings, and caressed half viciously his
+elaborate mustache, working his thick, sensuous lips impatiently all
+the while.  Shirley took a good look at him, necktie, scarf-pin, and
+all; looked keenly into the face of the gray one also; then coolly
+closed the door of the bookcase and carried the book she had selected
+into Sidney Graham's office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham was there, standing to receive her, and just back of him stood a
+kindly-faced elderly man with merry blue eyes, gray hair, and a
+stylishly cut beard.  By their attitude and manner Shirley somehow
+sensed that they had both been watching her.  Then Graham introduced
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is my father, Miss Hollister."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The elder man took her hand and shook it heartily, speaking in a gruff,
+hearty way that won her from the first:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm glad to know you, Miss Hollister.  I certainly am!  My son has
+been telling me what you've done for us, and I think you're a great
+little girl!  That was bully work you did, and I appreciate it.  I was
+watching you out there in the office.  You were as cool as a cucumber.
+You ought to be a detective.  You found your men all right, did you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, sir," said Shirley, much abashed, and feeling the return of that
+foolish trembling in her limbs.  "Yes, they are both out there, and the
+short one with the rings and the blue necktie is the one that did the
+talking."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Exactly what I thought," drawled the father, with a keen twinkle in
+his kindly eyes.  "I couldn't somehow trust that chap from the start.
+That's why I sent my son out to investigate.  Well, now, will you just
+step into my private office, Miss Hollister, and take your seat by the
+typewriter as if you were my stenographer?  You'll find paper there in
+the drawer, and you can just be writing&mdash;write anything, you choose, so
+it looks natural when the men come in.  When we get to talking I'd like
+you to take down in shorthand all that is said by all of us.  You're
+pretty good at that, I judge.  Sid, will you phone for those officers
+now?  I think it's about time for the curtain to rise."  And he led the
+way into his own office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat down at the typewriter as she had been directed and began
+to write mechanically.  Mr. Graham touched the bell on his desk, and
+told the office boy who answered to send in Mr. Kremnitz and his
+companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was so seated that she could get occasional glimpses of the men
+without being noticed, and she was especially interested in the twinkle
+that shone in the bright blue eyes of the elder Graham as he surveyed
+the men who thought he was their dupe.  Her heart warmed to him.  His
+kindly, merry face, his hearty, unconventional speech, all showed him
+to be a big, warm-hearted man without a bit of snobbishness about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The son came in, and talk began just as if the matter of the mine were
+going on.  Mr. Kremnitz produced some papers which he evidently
+expected to be signed at once, and sat complacently answering
+questions; keen questions Shirley saw they were afterwards, and in the
+light of the revelation she had overheard in Mr. Barnard's office
+Kremnitz perjured himself hopelessly by his answers.  Presently the
+office-boy announced the arrival of some one in the next room.  Shirley
+had taken down minutely a great deal of valuable information which the
+Grahams had together drawn from their victim.  She was surprised at the
+list of wealthy business men who were to have been involved in the
+scheme.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then suddenly the quiet scene changed.  The elder Graham gave a signal
+to his office-boy, which looked merely like waving him away, and the
+door was flung open, revealing four officers of the law, who stepped
+into the room without further word.  Graham arose and faced his two
+startled callers, his hand firmly planted on the papers on his desk
+which he had been supposed to sign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mr. Kremnitz," he said, and even in the midst of this serious business
+Shirley fancied there was a half-comic drawl to his words.  He simply
+could not help letting his sense of humor come on top.  "Mr. Kremnitz,
+it is not going to be possible for me to sign these papers this
+morning, as you expected.  I do not feel satisfied that all things are
+as you have represented.  In fact, I have the best evidence to the
+contrary.  Officer, these are the gentlemen you have come to arrest,"
+and he stepped back and waved his hand toward the two conspirators, who
+sat with startled eyes and blanched faces, appalled at the sudden
+developments where they had thought all was moving happily toward their
+desired end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Arrest!  Who?  On what charge?" flashed the little gaudy Kremnitz,
+angrily springing to his feet and making a dash toward the door, while
+his companion slid furtively toward the other end of the room,
+evidently hoping to gain young Graham's office before he was noticed.
+But two officers blocked their way and the handcuffs clanked in the
+hands of the other two policemen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, arrest <i>you</i>, my friend," said Graham senior, as if he rather
+enjoyed the little man's discomfiture.  "And for trying to perpetrate
+the biggest swindle that has been attempted for ten years.  I must say
+for you that you've worked hard, and done the trick rather neatly, but
+you made one unfortunate slip that saved all us poor rich men.  It
+seems a pity that so much elaborate lying should have brought you two
+nothing but those bracelets you're wearing,&mdash;they don't seem to match
+well with your other jewels,&mdash;but that's the way things go in this
+world.  Now, take them away, officer.  I've no more time to waste on
+them this morning!" and he turned and walked over by Shirley's desk,
+while the curtain fell over the brief drama.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you know how much money you've saved for us, little girl,&mdash;just
+plain <i>saved</i>?  I'll tell you.  A clean hundred thousand!  That's what
+I was going to put into this affair!  And as for other men, I expected
+to influence a lot of other men to put in a good deal also.  Now,
+little girl, I don't know what you think about it, but I want to shake
+hands."  He put out his hand and Shirley laid her own timid one in it,
+smiling and blushing rosily, and saying softly with what excited breath
+she had, "Oh, I'm so glad I got you in time!"  Then she was aware that
+the man had gone on talking.  "I don't know what you think about it,"
+he repeated, "but I feel that you saved me a clean hundred thousand
+dollars, and I say that a good percentage of that belongs to you as a
+reward of your quickness and keenness."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley drew away her hand and stepped back, her face white, her
+head up, her chin tilted proudly, her eyes very dark with excitement
+and determination.  She spoke clearly and earnestly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, Mr. Graham, nothing whatever belongs to me.  I don't want any
+reward.  I couldn't think of taking it.  It is utterly out of the
+question!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, well, well!" said the elder Graham, sitting down on the edge of
+his desk, watching her in undisguised admiration.  "Now that's a new
+kind of girl that won't take what she's earned,&mdash;what rightly belongs
+to her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mr. Graham, it was a very little thing I did,&mdash;anybody would have done
+it,&mdash;and it was just in the way of simple duty.  Please don't say
+anything more about it.  I am only too glad to have had opportunity to
+give a little help to people who have helped me so much.  I feel that I
+am under deep obligation to your son for making it possible for us to
+live in the country, where my mother is getting well."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, now I shall have to inquire into this business.  I haven't heard
+anything about obligations, and for my part I feel a big one just now.
+Perhaps you think it was a very little thing you did, but suppose you
+<i>hadn't</i> done it.  Suppose you'd been too busy, or it hadn't occurred
+to you to take down that conversation until it was too late; or suppose
+you hadn't had the brains to see what it would mean to us.  Why, then
+it would have become a very big thing indeed, and we should have been
+willing, if we had known, to pay a mighty big sum to get that evidence.
+You see a hundred thousand dollars isn't exactly a very little thing
+when you're swindled out of it.  It's the <i>swindling</i> that hurts more
+than the loss of the money.  And you saved us from that.  Now, young
+lady, I consider myself under obligation to you, and I intend to
+discharge it somehow.  If I can't do it one way I shall another, but in
+the meantime I'm deeply grateful, and please accept our thanks.  If you
+are willing to add one more to your kindness, I shall be glad if you
+will make a carbon copy of those shorthand notes you took.  I may need
+them for evidence.  And, by the way, you will probably be called upon
+to testify in court.  I'm sorry.  That may be unpleasant, but I guess
+it can't be helped, so you see before you get through you may not think
+you did so very small a thing after all.  Sid, I think you better
+escort this young lady back to her office and explain to Barnard.  He's
+probably been on the verge of being buncoed also.  You said Kremnitz
+was waiting for him when the conversation took place?  I guess you
+better go with Miss Hollister and clear the whole thing up.  Say,
+child, have you had your lunch yet?  No, of course not.  Sidney, you
+take her to get some lunch before she goes back to the office.  She's
+had an exciting morning.  Now, good-by, little girl.  I sha'n't forget
+what you've done for us, and I'm coming to see you pretty soon and get
+things squared up."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So that was how it came about that in spite of her protests Mr. Sidney
+Graham escorted Shirley Hollister into one of the most exclusive
+tea-rooms of the city, and seated her at a little round table set for
+two, while off at a short distance Miss Harriet Hale sat with her
+mother, eating her lunch and trying in vain to "place" the pretty girl
+she did not recognize.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It never occurred to her for a moment that Sidney Graham's companion
+might be a stenographer, for Shirley had a knack about her clothes that
+made her always seem well dressed.  That hat she wore had seen service
+for three summers, and was now a wholly different shape and color from
+what it had been when it began life.  A scrub in hot water had removed
+the dust of toil, some judiciously applied dye had settled the matter
+of color, and a trifling manipulation on her head while the hat was
+still wet had made the shape not only exceedingly stylish but becoming.
+The chic little rosette and strictly tailored band which were its sole
+trimming were made from a much-soiled waist-ribbon, washed and
+stretched around a bottle of hot water to dry it, and teased into the
+latest thing in rosettes by Shirley's witching fingers.  The simple
+linen dress she wore fitted well and at a distance could not have been
+told from something better, and neither were gloves and shoes near
+enough to be inspected critically, so Miss Hale was puzzled, and
+jealously watched the pretty color come and go in Shirley's cheek, and
+the simple grace of her movements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, Shirley did not see Miss Hale, and would not have
+recognized her if she had from that one brief glimpse she had of her
+picture on the society page of the newspaper.  So she ate her
+delectable lunch, ordered by Graham, in terms that she knew not, about
+dishes that she had never seen before.  She ate and enjoyed herself so
+intensely that it seemed to her she would never be able to make the
+rest of her life measure up to the privileges of the hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For Shirley was a normal girl.  She could not help being pleased to be
+doing just for once exactly as other more favored girls did constantly.
+To be lunching at Blanco's with one of the most-sought-after men in the
+upper set, to be treated like a queen, and to be talking beautiful
+things about travels and pictures and books, it was all too beautiful
+to be real.  Shirley began to feel that if it didn't get over pretty
+soon and find her back in the office addressing the rest of those
+envelopes she would think she had died in the midst of a dream and gone
+to heaven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something else too that brought an undertone of beauty, which
+she was not acknowledging even to her inmost self.  That was the way
+Graham looked at her, as if she were some fine beautiful angel dropped
+down from above that he loved to look at; as if he really cared what
+she thought and did; as if there were somehow a soul-harmony between
+them that set them apart this day from others, and put them into tune
+with one another; as if he were glad, <i>glad</i> to see her once more after
+the absence!  All through her being it thrilled like a song that brings
+tears to the throat and gladness to the eyes, and makes one feel strong
+and pure.  That was how it seemed when she thought about it afterward.
+At the time she was just living it in wonder and thanksgiving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At another time her sordid worldliness and pride might have risen and
+swelled with haughtiness of spirit over the number of people who eyed
+her enviously as they went out together; over the many bows and
+salutations her escort received from people of evident consequence, for
+she had the normal human pride somewhere in her nature as we all have.
+But just then her heart was too humble with a new, strange happiness to
+feel it or take it in, and she walked with unconscious grace beside
+him, feeling only the joy of being there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Later, in the quiet of her chamber, her mother's warning came to her,
+and her cheeks burned with shame in the dark that her heart had dared
+make so much of a common little luncheon, just a mere courtesy after
+she had been able to do a favor.  Yet through it all Shirley knew there
+was something fine and true there that belonged just to her, and
+presently she would rise above everything and grasp it and keep it hers
+forever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She felt the distinction of her escort anew when she entered Barnard
+and Clegg's in his company, and saw Mr. Clegg spring to open the door
+and to set a chair for his young guest, saw even Mr. Barnard rise and
+greet him with almost reverence.  And this honor she knew was being
+paid to money, the great demagogue.  It was not the man that she
+admired to whom they were paying deference, it was to his money!  She
+smiled to herself.  It was the <i>man</i> she admired, not his money.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All that afternoon she worked with flying fingers, turning off the work
+at marvellous speed, amused when she heard the new note of respect in
+Mr. Barnard's voice as he gave her a direction.  Mr. Barnard had been
+greatly impressed with the story Graham had told him, and was also
+deeply grateful on his own account that Shirley had acted as she had,
+for he had been on the verge of investing a large trust fund that was
+in his keeping in the new mining operation, and it would have meant
+absolute failure for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Shirley left the office that night she was almost too tired to see
+which trolley was coming, but some one touched her on the arm, and
+there was Sidney Graham waiting for her beside his car,&mdash;a little
+two-passenger affair that she had never seen before and that went like
+the wind.  They took a road they had not travelled together before, and
+Shirley got in joyously, her heart all in a tumult of doubts and joys
+and questions.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>
+CHAPTER XVIII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+What that ride was to Shirley she hardly dared let herself think
+afterwards.  Sitting cozily beside Graham in the little racing car,
+gliding through the better part of town where all the tall, imposing
+houses slept with drawn blinds, and dust-covered shutters proclaimed
+that their owners were far away from heat and toil.  Out through wide
+roads and green-hedged lanes, where stately mansions set in flowers and
+mimic landscapes loomed far back from road in dignified seclusion.
+Passing now and then a car of people who recognized Graham and bowed in
+the same deferential way as they had done in the tea-room.  And all the
+time his eyes were upon her, admiring, delighting; and his care about
+her, solicitous for her comfort.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once he halted the car and pointed off against the sunset, where wide
+gables and battlemented towers stood gray amidst a setting of green
+shrubbery and trees, and velvety lawns reached far, to high, trim
+hedges arched in places for an entrance to the beautiful estate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That is my home over there," he said, and watched her widening eyes.
+"I wish I had time to take you over to-night, but I know you are tired
+and ought to get home and rest.  Another time we'll go around that
+way."  And her heart leaped up as the car went forward again.  There
+was to be another time, then!  Ah!  But she must not allow it.  Her
+heart was far too foolish already.  Yet she would enjoy this ride, now
+she was started.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They talked about the sunset and a poem he had lately read.  He told
+her bits about his journey, referring to his experience at the mines,
+touching on some amusing incidents, sketching some of the queer
+characters he had met.  Once he asked her quite abruptly if she thought
+her mother would be disturbed if he had a cement floor put in the
+basement of the barn some time soon.  He wanted to have it done before
+cold weather set in, and it would dry better now in the hot days.  Of
+course, if it would be in the least disturbing to any of them it could
+wait, but he wanted to store a few things there that were being taken
+out of the office buildings, and he thought they would keep drier if
+there was a cement floor.  When she said it would not disturb any one
+in the least, would on the contrary be quite interesting for the
+children to watch, she was sure, he went easily back to California
+scenery and never referred to it again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All through the ride, which was across a country she had never seen
+before, and ended at Glenside approaching from a new direction, there
+was a subtle something between them, a sympathy and quick understanding
+as if they were comrades, almost partners in a lot of common interests.
+Shirley chided herself for it every time she looked up and caught his
+glance, and felt the thrill of pleasure in this close companionship.
+Of course it was wholly in her own imagination, and due entirely to the
+nervous strain through which she had passed that day, she told herself.
+Of course, he had nothing in his mind but the most ordinary kindly
+desire to give her a good time out of gratitude for what she had done
+for him.  But nevertheless it was sweet, and Shirley was loath to
+surrender the joy of it while it lasted, dream though it might be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It lasted all the way, even up to the very stop in front of the barn
+when he took her hand to help her out, and his fingers lingered on hers
+with just an instant's pressure, sending a thrill to her heart again,
+and almost bringing tears to her eyes.  Foolishness!  She was
+overwrought.  It was a shame that human beings were so made that they
+had to become weak like that in a time of pleasant rejoicing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The family came forth noisily to meet them, rejoicing openly at
+Graham's return, George and Harley vying with each other to shout the
+news about the garden and the chickens and the dove-cote; Carol
+demanding to know where was Elizabeth; and Doris earnestly looking in
+his face and repeating:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ickle budie fy away, Mistah Gwaham.  All gone!  All ickle budies fy
+away!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even Mrs. Hollister came smiling to the door to meet him, and the young
+man had a warm word of hearty greeting and a hand-shake for each one.
+It was as if he had just got home to a place where he loved to be, and
+he could not show his joy enough.  Shirley stood back for the moment
+watching him, admiring the way his hair waved away from his temples,
+thinking how handsome he looked when he smiled, wondering that he could
+so easily fit himself into this group, which must in the nature of
+things be utterly different from his native element, rejoicing over the
+deference he paid to her plain, quiet mother, thrilling over the kiss
+he gave her sweet little sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Mrs. Hollister did something perfectly unexpected and
+dreadful&mdash;she invited him to stay to dinner!  Shirley stood back and
+gasped.  Of course he would decline, but think of the temerity of
+inviting the wealthy and cultured Mr. Graham to take dinner in his own
+barn!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh!  But he wasn't going to decline at all.  He was accepting as if it
+were a great pleasure Mrs. Hollister was conferring upon him.  <i>Sure</i>,
+he would stay!  He had been wishing all the way out they would ask him.
+He had wondered whether he dared invite himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley with her cheeks very red hurried in to see that the table-cloth
+was put on straight, and look after one or two little things; but
+behold, he followed her out, and, gently insisting and assisting,
+literally compelled her to come and lie down on the couch while he told
+the family what she had been through that day.  Shirley was so happy
+she almost cried right there before them all.  It was so wonderful to
+have some one take care of her that way.  Of course it was only
+gratitude&mdash;but she had been taking care of other people so long that it
+completely broke her down to have some one take care of her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dinner went much more easily than she had supposed it could with
+those cracked plates, and the forks from which the silver was all worn
+off.  Doris insisted that the guest sit next to her and butter her
+bread for her, and she occasionally caressed his coat-sleeve with a
+sticky little hand, but he didn't seem to mind it in the least, and
+smiled down on her in quite a brotherly way, arranging her bib when it
+got tangled in her curls, and seeing that she had plenty of jelly on
+her bread.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a beautiful dinner.  Mother Hollister had known what she was
+about when she selected that particular night to invite unexpected
+company.  There was stewed chicken on little round biscuits, with
+plenty of gravy and currant jelly, mashed potatoes, green peas, little
+new beets, and the most delicious custard pie for dessert, all rich,
+velvety yellow with a golden-brown top.  The guest ate as if he enjoyed
+it, and asked for a second piece of pie, just as if he were one of
+them.  It was unbelievable!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He helped clear off the table too, and insisted on Carol's giving him a
+wiping-towel to help with the dishes.  It was just like a dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man tore himself reluctantly away about nine o'clock and went
+home, but before he left he took Shirley's hand and looked into her
+eyes with another of those deep understanding glances, and Shirley
+watched him whirling away in the moonlight, and wondered if there ever
+would be another day as beautiful and exciting and wonderful as this
+had been, and whether she could come down to sensible, every-day living
+again by morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then there was the story of the day to tell all over again after he was
+gone, and put in the little family touches that had been left out when
+the guest was there, and there was: "Oh, did you notice how admiring he
+looked when he told mother Shirley had a remarkably keen mind?" and "He
+said his father thought Shirley was the most unspoiled-looking girl he
+had ever seen!" and a lot of other things that Shirley hadn't heard
+before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley told her mother what the senior Mr. Graham had said about
+giving her a reward, and her mother agreed that she had done just right
+in declining anything for so simple a service, but she looked after
+Shirley with a sigh as she went to put Doris to bed, and wondered if
+for this service the poor child was to get a broken heart.  It could
+hardly be possible that a girl could be given much attention such as
+Shirley had received that day, from as attractive a young man as
+Graham, without feeling it keenly not to have it continue.  And of
+<i>course</i> it was out of the question that it should continue.  Mrs.
+Hollister decided that she had done wrong to invite the young man to
+stay to supper, and resolved never to offend in that way again.  It was
+a wrong to Shirley to put him on so intimate a footing in the
+household, and it could not but bring her sadness.  He was a most
+unusual young man to have even wanted to stay, but one must not take
+that for more than a passing whim, and Shirley must be protected at all
+hazards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now," said the elder Graham the next morning, when the business of the
+day was well under way and he had time to send for his son to come into
+his office, "now, I want you to tell me all about that little girl, and
+what you think we ought to give her.  What did she mean by
+'obligations' yesterday?  Have you been doing anything for her, son?  I
+meant to ask you last night, but you came home so late I couldn't sit
+up."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then Sidney Graham told his father the whole story.  It was
+different from telling his mother.  He knew no barn would have the
+power to prejudice his father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And you say that girl lives in the old barn!" exclaimed the father
+when the story was finished.  "Why, the nervy little kid!  And she
+looks as if she came out of a bandbox!  Well, she's a bully little girl
+and no mistake!  Well, now, son, what can we do for her?  We ought to
+do something pretty nice.  You see it wasn't just the money we might
+have lost.  That would have been a mere trifle beside getting all those
+other folks balled up in the mess.  Why, I'd have given every cent I
+own before I'd have had Fuller and Browning and Barnard and Wilts get
+entangled.  I tell you, son, it was a great escape!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, father, and it was a great lesson for me.  I'll never be buncoed
+as easily again.  But about Miss Hollister, I don't know what to say.
+She's very proud and sensitive.  I had an awful time doing the little
+things I just had to do to that barn without her suspecting I was doing
+it especially for her.  Father, you ought to go out there and meet the
+family; then you'd understand.  They're not ordinary people.  Their
+father was a college professor and wrote things.  They're cultured
+people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I want to meet them.  Why don't we go out there and call to-day?
+I think they must be worth knowing."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So late that afternoon the father and son rode out to Glenside, and
+when Shirley and George reached home they found the car standing in
+front of their place, and the Grahams comfortably seated in the great
+open doorway, enjoying the late afternoon breeze, and seemingly
+perfectly at home in their own barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm not going to swarm here every day, Miss Shirley," said the son,
+rising and coming out to meet her.  "You see father hadn't heard about
+the transformation of the old barn, and the minute I told him about it
+he had to come right out and see it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said the father, smiling contentedly, "I had to come and see
+what you'd done out here.  I've played in the hay up in that loft many
+a day in my time, and I love the old barn.  It's great to see it all
+fixed up so cozy.  But we're going home now and let you have your
+dinner.  We just waited to say 'Howdy' to you before we left."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They stayed a few minutes longer, however, and the senior Graham talked
+with Shirley while he held Doris on his knee and stroked her silky
+hair, and she nestled in his arms quite content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, although young Graham was quite loath to leave so soon, they
+went, for he could not in conscience, expect an invitation to dinner
+two days in succession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They rode away into the sunset, going across country to their home
+without going back to town, and Doris, as she stood with the others
+watching them away, murmured softly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nice favver-man!  Nice Gwaham favver man!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The "nice-Graham-father-man" was at that moment remarking to his son in
+very decided tones, as he turned to get a last glimpse of the old barn:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That old barn door ought to come down right away, Sid, and a nice big
+old-fashioned door with glass around the sides made to fill the space.
+That door is an eyesore on the place, and they need a piazza.  People
+like those can't live with a great door like that to open and shut
+every day."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, father, I've thought of that, but I don't just know how to manage
+it.  You see they're not objects of charity.  I've been thinking about
+some way to fix up a heating arrangement without hurting their
+feelings, so they could stay there all winter.  I know they hate to go
+back to the city, and they're only paying ten dollars a month.  It's
+all they can afford.  What could they get in the city for that?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Great Scott!  A girl like that living in a house she could get for ten
+dollars, when some of these feather-brained baby-dolls we know can't
+get on with less than three or four houses that cost from fifty to a
+hundred thousand dollars apiece!  Say, son, that's a peach of a girl,
+do you know it?  A peach of a girl!  I've been talking with her, and
+she has a very superior mind."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know she has, father," answered the son humbly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I say, Sid, why don't you marry her?  That would solve the whole
+problem.  Then you could fix up the old barn into a regular house for
+her folks."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, father, that's just what I've made up my mind to do&mdash;if she'll
+have me," said the son with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Bully for you, Sid!  Bully for you!" and the father gave his son's
+broad shoulder a resounding slap.  "Why, Sid, I didn't think you had
+that much sense.  Your mother gave me to understand that you were
+philandering around with that dolly-faced Harriet Hale, and I couldn't
+see what you saw in her.  But if you mean it, son, I'm with you every
+time.  That girl's a peach, and you couldn't get a finer if you
+searched the world over."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, I'm afraid mother's got her heart set on Harriet Hale," said the
+son dubiously, "but I can't see it that way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!  Your mother likes show," sighed the father comically, "but she's
+got a good heart, and she'll bowl over all right and make the best of
+it.  You know neither your mother nor I were such high and mighties
+when we were young, and <i>we</i> married for <i>love</i>.  But now, if you
+really mean business, I don't see why we can't do something right away.
+When does that girl have her vacation?  Of course she gets one
+sometime.  Why couldn't your mother just invite the whole family to
+occupy the shore cottage for a little while,&mdash;get up some excuse or
+other,&mdash;ask 'em to take care of it?  You know it's lying idle all this
+summer, and two servants down there growing fat with nothing to do.  We
+might ship Elizabeth down there and let 'em be company for her.  They
+seem like a fine set of children.  It would do Elizabeth good to know
+them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, she's crazy about them.  She's been out a number of times with me,
+and don't you remember she had Carol out to stay with her?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Was that the black-eyed, sensible girl?  Well, I declare!  I didn't
+recognize her.  She was all dolled up out at our house.  I suppose
+Elizabeth loaned 'em to her, eh?  Well, I'm glad.  She's got sense,
+too.  That's the kind of people I like my children to know.  Now if
+that vacation could only be arranged to come when your mother and I
+take that Western trip, why, it would be just the thing for Elizabeth,
+work right all around.  Now, the thing for you to do is to find out
+about that vacation, and begin to work things.  Then you could have
+everything all planned, and rush the work so it would be done by the
+time they came back."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the two conspirators plotted, while all unconscious of their
+interest Shirley was trying to get herself in hand and not think how
+Graham's eyes had looked when he said good-night to her.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>
+CHAPTER XIX
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Since the pastor from the village had called upon them, the young
+people of the stone barn had been identified with the little white
+church in the valley.  Shirley had taken a class of boys in the
+Sunday-school and was playing the organ, as George had once predicted.
+Carol was helping the primary teacher, George was assistant librarian
+and secretary, Harley was in Shirley's class, and Doris was one of the
+primaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley had at once identified herself with the struggling little
+Christian Endeavor society and was putting new life into it, with her
+enthusiasm, her new ideas about getting hold of the young people of the
+community, and her wonderful knack of getting the silent ones to take
+part in the meetings.  She had suggested new committees, had invited
+the music committee to meet her at her home some evening to plan out
+special music, and to coöperate with the social committee in planning
+for music at the socials.  She always carried a few appropriate
+clippings or neatly written verses or other quotations to meeting to
+slip into the hands of some who had not prepared to speak, and she saw
+to it that her brothers and sisters were always ready to say something.
+Withal, she did her part so unobtrusively that none of the old members
+could think she was trying to usurp power or make herself prominent.
+She became a quiet power behind the powers, to whom the president and
+all the other officers came for advice, and who seemed always ready to
+help in any work, or to find a way out of any difficulty.  Christian
+Endeavor in the little white church at once took great strides after
+the advent of the Hollisters, and even the idlers on the street corners
+were moved with curiosity to drop into the twilight service of the
+young people and see what went on, and why everybody seemed so
+interested.  But the secret of it all, Shirley thought, was the little
+five-minute prayer service that the prayer-meeting committee held in
+the tiny primary room just before the regular meeting.  Shirley as
+chairman of the prayer-meeting committee had started this little
+meeting, and she always came into the larger room with an exalted look
+upon her face and a feeling of strength in her heart from this brief
+speaking with her Master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was somewhat aghast the next Sabbath to have Sidney Graham
+arrive and ask her to take a ride with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, I was just going to church," she said, half hesitating, and then
+smiling bravely up at him; "besides, I have a Sunday-school class.  I
+couldn't very well leave them, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at her for a moment thoughtfully, trying to bridge in his
+thoughts this difference between them.  Then he said quite humbly,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Will you take me with you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To church?" she asked, and there was a glad ring in her voice.  Would
+he really go to church with her?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, and to Sunday School if I may.  I haven't been to Sunday School
+in years.  I'd like to go if you'll only let me."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her cheeks grew rosy.  She had a quick mental picture of putting him in
+Deacon Pettigrew's Bible class.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm afraid there isn't any class you would enjoy," she began with a
+troubled look.  "It's only a little country church, you know.  They
+don't have all the modern system, and very few teachers."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I should enjoy going into your class very much if I might."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, mine are just boys, just little boys like Harley!" said Shirley,
+aghast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I've been a little boy once, you know I should enjoy it very much,"
+said the applicant with satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, but&mdash;I couldn't teach <i>you</i>!"  There was dismay in her voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Couldn't you, though?  You've taught me more in the few months I've
+known you than I've learned in that many years from others.  Try me.
+I'll be very good.  I'll be a boy with the rest of them, and you can
+just forget I'm there and go ahead.  I really am serious about it.  I
+want to hear what you have to say to them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, I couldn't teach with you there!" exclaimed Shirley, putting her
+hands on her hot cheeks and looking like a frightened little child.
+"Indeed I couldn't, really.  I'm not much of a teacher.  I'm only a
+beginner.  I shouldn't know how to talk before any but children."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He watched her silently for a minute, his face grave with wistfulness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why do you teach them?" he asked rather irrelevantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Because&mdash;why, because I want to help them to live right lives; I want
+to teach them how to know God."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"So that they will be saved.  Because it was Christ's command that His
+disciples should give the message.  I am His disciple, so I have to
+tell the message."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Was there any special stipulation as to whom that message should be
+given?" asked the young man thoughtfully.  "Did He say you were just to
+give it to those boys?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, no; it was to be given to&mdash;all the world, every creature."
+Shirley spoke the words hesitatingly, a dimple beginning to show in her
+cheek as her eyelids drooped over her shy eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And don't I come in on that?" asked Graham, with a twinkle that
+reminded Shirley of his father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley had to laugh shamefacedly then.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I couldn't!" said Shirley.  "I'd be so scared I couldn't think of
+a thing to say."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're not afraid of me, Miss Shirley?  You wouldn't be scared if you
+thought I really needed to know the message, would you?  Well, I really
+do, as much as any of those kids."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley looked steadily into his earnest eyes and saw something there
+that steadied her nerve.  The laughter died out of her own eyes, and a
+beautiful light of longing came into them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All right," she said, with a little lift of her chin as if girding up
+her strength to the task.  "You may come, and I'll do the best I can,
+but I'm afraid it will be a poor best.  I've only a little story to
+tell them this morning."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Please give them just what you had intended.  I want the real thing,
+just as a boy would get it from you.  Will the rest of them come in the
+car with us?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was very quiet during the ride to church.  She let the rest do
+all the talking, and she sat looking off at the woods and praying for
+help, trying to calm the flutter of her frightened heart, trying to
+steady her nerves and brace herself to teach the lesson just as she had
+intended to teach it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She watched him furtively during the opening exercises, the untrained
+singing, the monotonous prayer of an old farmer-elder, the dry
+platitudes of the illiterate superintendent; but he sat respectfully
+listening, taking it all for what it was worth, the best service these
+people knew how to render to their Maker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow her heart had gained the strength she needed from the prayers
+she breathed continually, and when the time for teaching the lesson
+arrived she came to her class with quietness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a little awe upon the boys because of the stranger in their
+midst.  They did not fling the hymn-books down with a noisy thud, nor
+send the lesson leaves flying like winged darts across the room quite
+so much as they were wont to do.  They looked askance at Harley, who
+sat proudly by the visitor, supplying him with Bibles, hymn-books,
+lesson leaves, and finding the place for him officiously.  But Graham
+sat among the boys without ostentation, and made as little of his own
+presence as possible.  He smiled at them now and then, put a handful of
+silver into the collection envelope when they would have passed him by,
+and promised a ride to one fellow who ventured to ask him hoarsely if
+that was his car outside the church.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley had made up her mind to forget as far as she could the presence
+of the visitor in the class, and to this end she fixed her eyes upon
+the worst little boy present, the boy who got up all the disturbances,
+and made all the noises, and was the most adorable, homely, sturdy
+young imp the Valley Church could produce.  He sat straight across from
+her, while Graham was at the side, and she could see in Jack's eye that
+he meant mischief if he could overcome his awe of the stranger.  So
+before Jack could possibly get started she began her story, and told it
+straight to Jack, never taking her eyes from his face from start to
+finish, and before she was half-way through she had her little audience
+enthralled.  It was a story of the Bible told in modern setting, and
+told straight to the heart of a boy who was the counterpart in his own
+soul of the man whom Christ cured and forgave.  What Graham was
+thinking or looking Shirley did not know.  She had literally forgotten
+his existence after the first few minutes.  She had seen the gleam of
+interest in the eyes of the boy Jack; she knew that her message was
+going home to a convicted young soul, and that he saw himself and his
+own childish sins in the sinful life of the hero of her tale.  Her
+whole soul was bent on making him see the Saviour who could make that
+young life over.  Not until the story was almost finished did any one
+of the listeners, unless perhaps Harley, who was used to such
+story-recitals, have a suspicion that the story was just a plain,
+ordinary chapter out of the Bible.  Then suddenly one of the elder boys
+broke forth: "Aw!  Gee!  That's just the man in the Bible let down
+through the roof!"  There was a slight stir in the class at the
+discovery as it dawned upon them that the teacher had "put one over on
+them" again, but the interest for the most part was sustained
+breathlessly until the superintendent's bell rang, and the heads drew
+together in an absorbed group around her for the last few sentences,
+spoken in a lower tone because the general hum of teaching in the room
+had ceased.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham's face was very grave and thoughtful as she finished and slipped
+away from them to take her place at the little organ.  One could see
+that it was not in the teacher alone, but in her message as well, that
+he was interested.  The boys all had that subdued, half-ashamed,
+half-defiant look that boys have when they have been caught looking
+serious.  Each boy frowned and studied his toes, or hunted assiduously
+in his hymn-book to hide his confusion, and the class in various keys
+lifted up assertive young voices vigorously in the last hymn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham sat beside Shirley in the little crowded church during the
+rather monotonous service.  The regular pastor, who was a good,
+spiritual man if not a brilliant one, and gave his congregation solid,
+practical sermons, was on his vacation, and the pulpit was supplied by
+a young theologue who was so new to his work that his sermon was a
+rather involved effort.  But so strong was the power of the
+Sunday-school lesson to which he had just listened that Graham felt as
+if he were sitting in some hallowed atmosphere.  He did not see the
+red-faced, embarrassed young preacher, nor notice his struggles to
+bring forth his message bravely; he saw only the earnest-faced young
+teacher as she spoke the words of life to her boys; saw the young
+imp-faces of her boys softened and touched by the story she told; saw
+that she really believed and felt every word she spoke; and knew that
+there was something in it all that he wanted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The seat was crowded and the day was warm, but the two who looked over
+the same hymn-book did not notice it.  The soft air came in from the
+open window beside them, breathing sweet clover and wild honeysuckle,
+and the meadowlarks sang their songs, and made it seem just like a
+little bit of heaven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's muslin frills trembled against Graham's hand as she reached
+to catch a fluttering leaf of the hymn-book that the wind had caught;
+once her hand brushed the coatsleeve beside her as they turned the
+page, and she felt the soft texture of the fine dark blue goods with a
+pleasant sense of the beautiful and fitting.  It thrilled her to think
+he was standing thus beside her in her own little church, yielding
+himself to the same worship with her in the little common country
+congregation.  It was wonderful, beautiful!  And to have come to her!
+She glanced shyly up at him, so handsome, standing there singing, his
+hand almost touching hers holding the book.  He felt her glance and
+answered it with a look and smile, their eyes holding each other for
+just the fraction of a second in which some inner thought was
+interchanged, some question asked and answered by the invisible flash
+of heart-beats, a mutual joining in the spiritual service, and then
+half-frightened Shirley dropped her eyes to the page and the soft roses
+stole into her cheeks again.  She felt as if she had seen something in
+his eyes and acknowledged it in her own, as if she had inadvertently
+shown him her heart in that glance, and that heart of hers was leaping
+and bounding with an uncontrollable joy, while her conscience sought by
+every effort to get it in control.  What nonsense, it said, what utter
+folly, to make so much of his coming to church with her once!  To allow
+her soul to get into such a flutter over a man who had no more idea of
+noticing her or caring for her than he had for a bird on the tree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with all the tumult in her heart she did not even see the envious
+glances of the village maidens who stared and stared with all their
+might at the handsome man who came to church in an expensive car and
+brought the girl who lived in a barn!  Shirley's social position went
+up several notches, and she never even knew it.  In fact, she was
+becoming a great puzzle to the residents of Glenside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was good to know that for once the shabby collection-box of the
+little church was borne back to the altar laden with a goodly bill, put
+in with so little ostentation that one might have judged it but a
+penny, looking on, though even a penny would have made more noise in
+the unlined wooden box.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the service was over Graham went out with the children, while
+Shirley lingered to play over an accompaniment for a girl who was going
+to sing at the vesper service that afternoon.  He piled all the
+children in the back seat of the car, put the boy he had promised a
+ride in the seat beside him, took a spin around the streets, and was
+back in front of the church by the time Shirley came out.  Then that
+foolish heart of hers had to leap again at the thought that he had
+saved the front seat for her.  The boy descended as if he had been
+caught up into heaven for a brief space, and would never forget it the
+rest of his life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was that same steady look of trust and understanding in Graham's
+eyes whenever he looked at her on the way home, and once while the
+children were talking together in the back seat he leaned toward her
+and said in a low tone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I wonder if you will let me take you away for a little while this
+afternoon to a quiet place I know where there is a beautiful view, and
+let us sit and talk.  There are some things I want to ask you, about
+what you said this morning.  I was very much interested in it all, and
+I'm deeply grateful that you let me go.  Now, will you go with me?
+I'll bring you back in time for the Christian Endeavor service, and you
+see in the meantime I'm inviting myself to dinner.  Do you think your
+mother will object?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What was there for Shirley to do but accept this alluring invitation?
+She did not believe in going off on pleasure excursions on the Sabbath,
+but this request that she ride to a quiet place out-of-doors for a
+religious talk could not offend her strongest sense of what was right
+on the Sabbath day.  And surely, if the Lord had a message for her to
+bear, she must bear it to whomsoever He sent.  This, then, was this
+man's interest in her, that she had been able to make him think of God.
+A glad elation filled her heart, something deep and true stirred within
+her and lifted her above the thought of self, like a blessing from on
+high.  To be asked to bring light to a soul like this one, this was
+honor indeed.  This was an answer to her prayer of the morning, that
+she might fulfil God's pleasure with the lesson of the day.  The
+message then had reached his soul.  It was enough.  She would think no
+more of self.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet whenever she looked at him and met that smile again she was
+thrilled with joy in spite of herself.  At least there was a
+friendliness here beyond the common acquaintance, a something that was
+true, deep, lasting, even though worlds should separate them in the
+future; a something built on a deep understanding, sympathy and common
+interests.  Well, so be it.  She would rejoice that it had been given
+her to know one man of the world in this beautiful way; and her foolish
+little human heart should understand what a high, true thing this was
+that must not be misunderstood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So she reasoned with herself, and watched him during the dinner, among
+the children, out in the yard among the flowers and animals,
+everywhere, he seemed so fine and splendid, so far above all other men
+that she had ever met.  And her mother, watching, trembled for her when
+she saw her happy face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you think you ought to go with him, daughter?" she asked with
+troubled eyes, when they were left alone for a moment after dinner.
+"You know it is the Sabbath, and you know his life is very different
+from ours."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Mother, he wants to talk about the Sunday School lesson this morning,"
+said Shirley shyly.  "I guess he is troubled, perhaps, and wants me to
+help him.  I guess he has never thought much about religious things."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, daughter dear, be careful.  Do all you can for him, of course,
+but remember, don't let your heart stray out of your keeping.  He is
+very attractive, dear, and very unconventional for a wealthy man.  I
+think he is true and wouldn't mean to trifle, but he wouldn't realize."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know; mother; don't you be afraid for me!" said Shirley with a lofty
+look, half of exultation, half of proud self-command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He took her to a mossy place beside a little stream, where the light
+filtered down through the lacy leaves flecking the bank, and braided
+golden currents in the water; with green and purple hazy hills in the
+distance, and just enough seclusion for a talk without being too far
+away from the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My little sister says that you people have a 'real' God," he said,
+when she was comfortably fixed with cushions from the car at her back
+against a tall tree-trunk.  "She says you seem to realize His
+presence&mdash;I don't know just how to say it, but I'd like to know if this
+is so.  I'd like to know what makes you different from other girls, and
+your home different from most of the homes I know.  I'd like to know if
+I may have it too."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the beginning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley, shy as a bird at first, having never spoken on such subjects
+except to children, yet being well versed in the Scriptures, and
+feeling her faith with every atom of her being, drew out her little
+Bible that she had slipped into her pocket when they started, and
+plunged into the great subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never had preacher more earnest listener, or more lovely temple in
+which to preach.  And if sometimes the young man's thoughts for a few
+moments strayed from the subject to rest his eyes in tenderness upon
+the lovely face of the young teacher, and long to draw her into his
+arms and claim her for his own, he might well have been forgiven.  For
+Shirley was very fair, with the light of other worlds in her face, her
+eyes all sparkling with her eagerness, her lips aglow with words that
+seemed to be given her for the occasion.  She taught him simply, not
+trying to go into deep arguments, but urging the only way she knew, the
+way of taking Christ's promise on its face value, the way of being
+willing to do His will, trusting it to Him to reveal Himself, and the
+truth of the doctrine, and make the believer sure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They talked until the sun sunk low, and the calling of the wood-birds
+warned them that the Endeavor hour was near.  Before they left the
+place he asked her for the little Bible, and she laid it in his hand
+with joy that he wanted it, that she was chosen to give him a gift so
+precious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is all marked up," she said apologetically.  "I always mark the
+verses I love, or have had some special experience with."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It will be that much more precious to me," he said gently, fingering
+the leaves reverently, and then he looked up and gave her one of those
+deep looks that seemed to say so much to her heart.  And all at once
+she realized that she was on earth once more, and that his presence and
+his look were very precious to her.  Her cheeks grew pink with the joy
+of it, and she looked down in confusion and could not answer, so she
+rose to her feet.  But he, springing at once to help her up, kept her
+hand for just an instant with earnest pressure, and said in deeply
+moved tones:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You don't know what you have done for me this afternoon,
+my&mdash;<i>friend</i>!"  He waited with her hand in his an instant as if he were
+going to say more, but had decided it were better not.  The silence was
+so compelling that she looked up into his eyes, meeting his smile, and
+that said so many things her heart went into a tumult again and could
+not quite come to itself all through the Christian Endeavor service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the way home from the church he talked a little about her vacation:
+when it came, how long it lasted, what she would do with it.  Just as
+they reached home he said,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I hope you will pray for me, <i>my friend</i>!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something wonderful in the way he said that word "friend."
+It thrilled her through and through as she stood beside the road and
+watched him speed away into the evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My friend!  I hope you will pray for me, <i>my friend</i>!"  It sang a
+glory-song down in her heart as she turned to go in with the vivid
+glory of the sunset on her face.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>
+CHAPTER XX
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The cement floor had been down a week and was as hard as a rock, when
+one day two or three wagon-loads of things arrived with a note from
+Graham to Mrs. Hollister to say that he would be glad if these might be
+stored in one corner of the basement floor, where they would be out of
+her way and not take up too much room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harley and George went down to look them over that evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"He said something about some things being taken from the office
+building," said Harley, kicking a pile of iron pipes with his toe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"These don't look like any old things that have been used," said George
+thoughtfully.  "They look perfectly new."  Then he studied them a few
+minutes more from another angle, and shut his lips judiciously.  He
+belonged to the boy species that has learned to "shut up and saw wood,"
+whatever that expression may mean.  If anything was to come out of that
+pile of iron in the future, he did not mean to break confidence with
+anybody's secrets.  He walked away whistling and said nothing further
+about them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day Mrs. Graham came down upon the Hollisters in her
+limousine, and an exquisite toilet of organdie and ribbons.  She was
+attended by Elizabeth, wild with delight over getting home again.  She
+begged Mrs. Hollister very charmingly and sincerely to take care of
+Elizabeth for three or four weeks, while she and her husband were away,
+and to take her entire family down to the shore and occupy their
+cottage, which had been closed all summer and needed opening and
+airing.  She said that nothing would please Elizabeth so much as to
+have them all her guests during September.  The maids were there, with
+nothing to do but look after them, and would just love to serve them;
+it really would be a great favor to her if she could know that
+Elizabeth was getting a little salt air under such favorable
+conditions.  She was so genuine in her request and suggested so
+earnestly that Shirley and George needed the change during their
+vacation, and could just as well come down every night and go up every
+morning for a week or two more after the vacations were over, that Mrs.
+Hollister actually promised to consider it and talk it over with
+Shirley when she came home.  Elizabeth and Carol nearly went into
+spasms of joy over the thought of all they could do down at the shore
+together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Shirley came home she found the whole family quite upset
+discussing the matter.  Carol had brought out all the family wardrobe
+and was showing how she could wash this, and dye that, and turn this
+skirt upside down, and put a piece from the old waist in there to make
+the lower part flare; and Harley was telling how he could get the man
+next door to look after the hens and pigeons, and there was nothing
+needing much attention in the garden now, for the corn was about over
+except the last picking, which wasn't ripe yet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister was saying that they ought really to stay at home and
+look up another place to live during the winter, and Carol was pleading
+that another place would be easier found when the weather was cooler
+anyway, and that Shirley was just awfully tired and needed a change.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's cheeks grew pink in spite of the headache which she had been
+fighting all day, when she heard of the invitation, and sat down to
+think it out.  Was this, then, another of the kind schemes of her kind
+friend to make the way easier for her?  What right had she to take all
+this?  Why was he doing it?  Why were the rest of the family?  Did they
+really need some one to take care of Elizabeth?  But of course it was a
+wonderful opportunity, and one that her mother at least should not let
+slip by.  And Doris!  Think of Doris playing in the sand at the seaside!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Supper was flung onto the table that night any way it happened, for
+they were all too excited to know what they were about.  Carol got
+butter twice and forgot to cut the bread, and Harley poured milk into
+the already filled water-pitcher.  They were even too excited to eat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham arrived with Elizabeth early in the evening to add his pleading
+to his mother's, and before he left he had about succeeded in getting
+Mrs. Hollister's promise that she would go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's vacation began the first of September, and George had asked
+for his at the same time so that they could enjoy it together.  Each
+had two weeks.  Graham said that the cost of going back and forth to
+the city for the two would be very little.  By the next morning they
+had begun to say what they would take along, and to plan what they
+would do with the dog.  It was very exciting.  There was only a week to
+get ready, and Carol wanted to make bathing-suits for everybody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham came again that night with more suggestions.  There were plenty
+of bathing-suits down at the cottage, of all sizes and kinds.  No need
+to make bathing-suits.  The dog, of course, was to go along.  He needed
+the change as much as anybody, and they needed him there.  That breed
+of dog was a great swimmer.  He would take care of the children when
+they went in bathing.  How would Mrs. Hollister like to have one of the
+old Graham servants come over to sleep at the barn and look after
+things while they were gone?  The man had really nothing to do at home
+while everybody was away, as the whole corps of servants would be
+there, and this one would enjoy coming out to the country.  He had a
+brother living on a place about a mile away.  As for the trip down
+there, Graham would love to take them all in the big touring-car with
+Elizabeth.  He had been intending to take her down that way, and there
+was no reason in the world why they should not all go along.  They
+would start Saturday afternoon as soon as Shirley and George were free,
+and be down before bedtime.  It would be cool and delightful journeying
+at that hour, and a great deal pleasanter than the train.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So one by one the obstructions and hindrances were removed from their
+path, and it was decided that the Hollisters were to go to the seashore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the day came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley and George went off in the morning shouting last directions
+about things.  They were always having to go to their work whatever was
+happening.  It was sometimes hard on them, particularly this day when
+everything was so delightfully exciting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old Graham servant arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon,
+and proved himself invaluable in doing the little last things without
+being told.  Mrs. Hollister had her first gleam of an idea of what it
+must be to have plenty of perfectly trained servants about to
+anticipate one's needs.  He entered the barn as if barns were his
+native heath, and moved about with the ease and unobtrusiveness that
+marks a perfect servant, but with none of the hauteur and disdain that
+many of those individuals entertain toward all whom they consider poor
+or beneath them in any way.  He had a kindly face, and seemed to
+understand just exactly what was to be done.  Things somehow moved more
+smoothly after he arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At four o'clock came Graham with the car and a load of long linen
+dust-cloaks and veils.  The Hollisters donned them and bestowed
+themselves where they were told.  The servant stowed away the wraps and
+suitcases; Star mounted the seat beside Harley, and they were ready.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They turned to look back at the barn as the car started.  The old
+servant was having a little trouble with the big door, trying to shut
+it.  "That door is a nuisance," said Graham as they swept away from the
+curb.  "It must be fixed.  It is no fit door for a barn anyway."  Then
+they curved up around Allister Avenue and left the barn far out of
+sight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were going across country to the Graham home to pick up Elizabeth.
+It was a wonderful experience for them, that beautiful ride in the late
+afternoon; and when they swept into the great gates, and up the broad
+drive to the Graham mansion, and stopped under the porte-cochère, Mrs.
+Hollister was quite overcome with the idea of being beholden to people
+who lived in such grandeur as this.  To think she had actually invited
+their son to dine in a barn with her!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth came rushing out eagerly, all ready to start, and climbed in
+beside Carol.  Even George, who was usually silent when she was about,
+gave her a grin of welcome.  The father and mother came out to say
+good-by, gave them good wishes, and declared they were perfectly happy
+to leave their daughter in such good hands.  Then the car curved about
+the great house, among tennis courts, green-houses, garage, stable, and
+what not, and back to the pike again, leaping out upon the perfect road
+as if it were as excited as the children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two more stops to pick up George, who was getting off early, and
+Shirley, who was through at five o'clock, and then they threaded their
+way out of the city, across the ferry, through another city, and out
+into the open country, dotted all along the way with clean, pretty
+little towns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They reached a lovely grove at sundown and stopped by the way to have
+supper.  Graham got down and made George help him get out the big
+hamper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a most delectable lunch; sandwiches of delicate and unknown
+condiments, salad as bewildering, soup that had been kept hot in a
+thermos bottle, served in tiny white cups, iced tea and ice-cream
+meringues from another thermos compartment, and plenty of delicious
+little cakes, olives, nuts, bonbons, and fruit.  It seemed a wonderful
+supper to them all, eaten out there under the trees, with the birds
+beginning their vesper songs and the stars peeping out slyly.  Then
+they packed up their dishes and hurried on their beautiful way, a
+silver thread of a moon coming out to make the scene more lovely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris was almost asleep when at last they began to hear the booming of
+the sea and smell the salt breeze as it swept back inland; but she
+roused up and opened wide, mysterious eyes, peering into the new
+darkness, and murmuring softly: "I yant to see ze osun!  I yant to see
+the gate bid watter!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Stiff, bewildered, filled with ecstasy, they finally unloaded in front
+of a big white building that looked like a hotel.  They tried to see
+into the deep, mysterious darkness across the road, where boomed a
+great voice that called them, and where dashing spray loomed high like
+a waving phantom hand to beckon them now and again, and far-moving
+lights told of ships and a world beyond the one they knew,&mdash;a wide,
+limitless thing like eternity, universe, chaos.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With half-reluctant feet they turned away from the mysterious unseen
+lure and let themselves be led across an unbelievably wide veranda into
+the bright light of a hall, where everything was clean and shining, and
+a great fireplace filled with friendly flames gave cheer and welcome.
+The children stood bewildered in the brightness while two strange
+serving-maids unfastened their wraps and dust-cloaks and helped them
+take off their hats.  Then they all sat around the fire, for Graham had
+come in by this time, and the maids brought trays of some delicious
+drink with little cakes and crackers, and tinkling ice, and straws to
+drink with.  Doris almost fell asleep again, and was carried up-stairs
+by Shirley and put to bed in a pretty white crib she was too sleepy to
+look at, while Carol, Elizabeth, George, and Harley went with Graham
+across the road to look at the black, yawning cavern they called ocean,
+and to have the shore light-houses pointed out to them and named one by
+one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were all asleep at last, a little before midnight, in spite of the
+excitement over the spacious rooms, and who should have which.  Think
+of it!  Thirty rooms in the house, and every one as pretty as every
+other one!  What luxury!  And nobody to occupy them but themselves!
+Carol could hardly get to sleep.  She felt as if she had dropped into a
+novel and was living it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Graham came out of his room the next morning the salt breeze swept
+invitingly through the hall and showed him the big front door of the
+upper piazza open and some one standing in the sunlight, with light,
+glowing garments, gazing at the sea in rapt enjoyment.  Coming out
+softly, he saw that it was Shirley dressed in white, with a ribbon of
+blue at her waist and a soft pink color in her cheeks, looking off to
+sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stood for a moment to enjoy the picture, and said in his heart that
+sometime, if he got his wish, he would have her painted so by some
+great artist, with just that little simple white dress and blue ribbon,
+her round white arm lifted, her small hand shading her eyes, the
+sunlight burnishing her brown hair into gold.  He could scarcely
+refrain from going to her and telling her how beautiful she was.  But
+when he stepped quietly up beside her only his eyes spoke, and brought
+the color deeper into her cheeks; and so they stood for some minutes,
+looking together and drawing in the wonder of God's sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This is the first time I've ever seen it, you know," spoke Shirley at
+last, "and I'm so glad it was on Sunday morning.  It will always make
+the day seem more holy and the sea more wonderful to think about.  I
+like best things to happen on Sunday, don't you, because that is the
+best day of all?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham looked at the sparkling sea all azure and pearls, realized the
+Sabbath quiet, and marvelled at the beauty of the soul of the girl,
+even as her feeling about it all seemed to enter into and become a part
+of himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, I do," said he.  "I never did before, but I do now,&mdash;and always
+shall," he added under his breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was almost as wonderful a Sabbath as the one they had spent in the
+woods a couple of weeks before.  They walked and talked by the sea, and
+they went to a little Episcopal chapel, where the windows stood open
+for the chanting of the waves and the salt of the breeze to come in
+freely, and then they went out and walked by the sea again.  Wherever
+they went, whether resting in some of the many big rockers on the broad
+verandas or walking on the hard smooth sand, or sitting in some cozy
+nook by the waves, they felt the same deep sympathy, the same
+conviction that their thoughts were one, the same wonderful thrill of
+the day and each other's nearness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow in the new environment Shirley forgot for a little that this
+young man was not of her world, that he was probably going back soon to
+the city to enter into a whirl of the winter's season in society, that
+other girls would claim his smiles and attentions, and she would likely
+be forgotten.  She lost the sense of it entirely and companioned with
+him as joyously as if there had never been anything to separate them.
+Her mother, looking on, sighed, feared, smiled, and sighed again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked together in the sweet darkness beside the waves that
+evening, and he told her how when he was a little boy he wanted to
+climb up to the stars and find God, but later how he thought the stars
+and God were myths like Santa Claus, and that the stars were only
+electric lights put up by men and lighted from a great switch every
+night, and when they didn't shine somebody had forgotten to light them.
+He told her many things about himself that he had never told to any one
+before, and she opened her shy heart to him, too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they planned what they would do next week when he came back.  He
+told her he must go back to the city in the morning to see his father
+and mother off and attend to a few matters of business at the office.
+It might be two or three days before he could return, but after that he
+was coming down to take a little vacation himself if she didn't mind,
+and they would do a lot of delightful things together: row, fish, go
+crabbing, and he would teach her to swim and show her all the walks and
+favorite places where he used to go as a boy.  Reluctantly they went
+in, his fingers lingering about hers for just a second at the door,
+vibrating those mysterious heart-strings of hers again, sweeping
+dearest music from them, and frightening her with joy that took her
+half the night to put down.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap21"></a>
+CHAPTER XXI
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham went back to the city the next morning.  They all stood
+out on the piazza to watch the big car glide away.  Doris stood on the
+railing of the piazza with Shirley's arm securely about her and waved a
+little fat hand; then with a pucker of her lip she demanded:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Fy does mine Mister Dwaham do way?  I don't yant him to do way.  I
+yant him to stay wif me aw-ways, don't oo, Sirley?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley with glowing cheeks turned from watching the retreating car and
+put her little sister down on the floor suddenly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Run get your hat, Doris, and we'll take a walk on the sand!" she said,
+smiling alluringly at the child, till the baby forgot her grievance and
+beamed out with answering smiles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was a wonderful day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They all took a walk on the sand first, George pushing his mother in a
+big wheeled chair belonging to the cottage.  Elizabeth was guide and
+pointed out all the beauties of the place, telling eager bits of
+reminiscence from her childhood memories to which even George listened
+attentively.  From having been only tolerant of her George had now come
+to look upon Elizabeth as "a good scout."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Mrs. Hollister grew tired they took her back to the cottage and
+established her in a big chair with a book.  Then they all rushed off
+to the bath-houses and presently emerged in bathing-suits, Doris
+looking like a little sprite in her scarlet flannel scrap of a suit,
+her bright hair streaming, and her beautiful baby arms and legs
+flashing white like a cherub's in the sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came back from their dip in the waves, hungry and eager, to the
+wonderful dinner that was served so exquisitely in the great cool
+dining-room, from the windows of which they could watch the lazy ships
+sailing in the offing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doris fell asleep over her dessert and was tumbled into the hammock to
+finish her nap.  Carol and Elizabeth and the boys started off crabbing,
+and Shirley settled herself in another hammock with a pile of new
+magazines about her and prepared to enjoy a whole afternoon of
+laziness.  It was so wonderful to lie still, at leisure and unhurried,
+with all those lovely magazines to read, and nothing to disturb her.
+She leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a minute just to
+listen to the sea, and realize how good it was to be here.  Back in her
+mind there was a pleasant consciousness of the beautiful yesterday, and
+the beautiful to-morrows that might come when Sidney Graham returned,
+but she would not let her heart dwell upon them; that would be humoring
+herself too much, and perhaps give her a false idea of things.  She
+simply would not let this wonderful holiday be spoiled by the thought
+that it would have to end some day and that she would be back at the
+old routine of care and worry once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was roused from her reverie by the step of the postman bringing a
+single letter, for her!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was addressed in an unknown hand and was in a fat long envelope.
+Wonderingly she opened it and found inside a bank book and blank check
+book with a little note on which was written:
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Dear Little Girl:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is just a trifle of that present we were talking about the other
+day that belongs to you.  It isn't all by any means, but we'll see to
+the rest later.  Spend this on chocolates or chewing-gum or frills or
+whatever you like and have a good time down at the shore.  You're a
+bully little girl and deserve everything nice that's going.  Don't be
+too serious, Miss Shirley.  Play a little more.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Your elderly friend,
+<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Walter K Graham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the bank book was an entry of five thousand dollars, on check
+account.  Shirley held her breath and stared at the figures with wide
+eyes, then slipped away and locked herself in the big white room that
+was hers.  Kneeling down by the bed she cried and prayed and smiled all
+in one, and thanked the Lord for making people so kind to her.  After
+that she went to find her mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister was sitting on the wide upper piazza in a steamer chair
+looking off to sea and drawing in new life at every breath.  Her book
+was open on her lap, but she had forgotten to read in the joy of all
+that was about her.  To tell the truth she was wondering if the dear
+father who was gone from them knew of their happy estate, and thinking
+how glad he would be for them if he did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She read the letter twice before she looked at the bank book with its
+astonishing figures, and heard again Shirley's tale of the happening in
+the office the morning of the arrest.  Then she read the letter once
+more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm not just sure, daughter," she said at last with a smile, "what we
+ought to do about this.  Are you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said Shirley, smiling; "I suppose I'll give it back, but wasn't
+it wonderful of him to do it?  Isn't it grand that there are such men
+in the world?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It certainly is, dear, and I'm glad my little girl was able to do
+something that was of assistance to him; and that she has won her way
+into his good graces so simply and sweetly.  But I'm not so sure what
+you ought to do.  Hadn't we better pray about it a bit before you
+decide?  How soon ought you to write to him?  It's too late to reach
+him before he leaves for California, isn't it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes, he's just about starting now," said the girl.  "Don't you
+suppose he planned it so that I couldn't answer right away?  I don't
+know his address.  I can't do a thing till I find out where to write.
+I wouldn't like to send it to the office because they would probably
+think it was business and his secretary might open it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course.  Then we'll just pray about it, shall we, dear?  I'm not
+just sure in my mind whether it's a well-meant bit of charity that we
+ought to hand back with sincere thanks, or whether it's God's way of
+rewarding my little girl for her faithfulness and quickness of action.
+Our Father knows we have been&mdash;and still are&mdash;in a hard place.  He
+knows that we have need of 'all these things' that money has to buy.
+You really did a good thing and saved Mr. Graham from great loss, you
+know, and perhaps he is the kind of man who would feel a great deal
+happier if he shared a little of it with you, was able to make some
+return for what you did for him.  However, five thousand dollars is a
+great deal of money for a brief service.  What do you think, dear?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I don't know, mother dear.  I'm all muddled just as you say, but I
+guess it will come right if we pray about it.  Anyhow, I'm going to be
+happy over his thinking of me, whether I keep it or not."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley went thoughtfully back to her hammock and her magazines, a
+smile on her lips, a dream in her eyes.  She found herself wondering
+whether Sidney Graham knew about this money and what he would wish her
+to do about it.  Then suddenly she cast the whole question from her and
+plunged into her magazine, wondering why it was that almost any
+question that came into her mind promptly got around and entangled
+itself with Mr. Sidney Graham.  What did he have to do with it, anyway?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The magazine story was very interesting and Shirley soon forgot
+everything else in the pleasure of surrendering herself to the printed
+page.  An hour went by, another passed, and Shirley was still oblivious
+to all about her.  Suddenly she became aware of a boy on a bicycle,
+riding almost up to the very steps, and whistling vigorously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Miss Shirley Hollister here?" he demanded as he alighted on one foot
+on the lower step, the other foot poised for flight as soon as his
+errand should have been performed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, yes," said Shirley, startled, struggling to her feet and letting
+a shower of magazines fall all about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Long distance wants yer," he announced, looking her over
+apathetically.  "Mr. Barnard, of Philadelphia, wants to talk to yer!"
+and with the final word chanted nasally he alighted upon his obedient
+steed and spun away down the walk again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But, wait!  Where shall I go?  Where is the telephone?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Pay station!" shouted the impervious child, turning his head over his
+shoulder, "Drug store!  Two blocks from the post office!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without waiting to go upstairs Shirley, whose training had been to
+answer the telephone at once, caught up Elizabeth's parasol that lay on
+a settee by the door, rumpled her fingers through her hair by way of
+toilet and hurried down the steps in the direction the boy had
+disappeared, wondering what in the world Mr. Barnard could want of her?
+Was he going to call her back from her vacation?  Was this perhaps the
+only day she would have, this and yesterday?  There would always be
+yesterday!  With a sigh she looked wistfully at the sea.  If she had
+only known a summons was to come so soon she would not have wasted a
+second on magazines.  She would have sat and gazed all the afternoon at
+the sea.  If Mr. Barnard wanted her, of course she would have to go.
+Business was business and she couldn't afford to lose her job even with
+that fairy dream of five thousand to her credit in the bank.  She knew,
+of course, she meant to give that back.  It was hers for the day, but
+it could not become tangible.  It was beautiful, but it was right that
+it must go back, and if her employer felt he must cut short her
+vacation why of course she must acquiesce and just be glad she had had
+this much.  Perhaps it was just as well, anyway, for if Sidney Graham
+came down and spent a few days there was no knowing what foolish
+notions her heart would take, jumping and careening the way it had been
+doing lately when he just looked at her.  Yes, she would go back if Mr.
+Barnard wanted her.  It was the best thing she could do.  Though
+perhaps he would only be calling her to ask where she had left
+something for which they were searching.  That stupid Ashton girl who
+took her place might not have remembered all her directions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Breathless, with possibilities crowding upon her mind, she hurried into
+the drug store and sought the telephone booth.  It seemed ages before
+the connection was made and she heard Mr. Barnard's dry familiar tones
+over the phone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That you, Miss Hollister?  This is Mr. Barnard.  I'm sorry to disturb
+you right in the midst of your holiday, but a matter has come up that
+is rather serious and I'm wondering if you could help us out for a day
+or two.  If you would we'd be glad to give you fifty dollars for the
+extra time, and let you extend your vacation to a month instead of two
+weeks.  Do you think you could spare a day or two to help us right
+away?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!  Why, yes, of course!" faltered Shirley, her eyes dancing at the
+thought of the extra vacation and money.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thank you!  I was sure you would," said Mr. Barnard, with relief in
+his voice.  "You see we have got that Government contract.  The news
+just came in the afternoon mail.  It's rather particular business
+because it has to do with matters that the Government wishes to keep
+secret.  I am to go down to-morrow morning to Washington to receive
+instructions, and I have permission to bring a trusted private
+secretary with me.  Now you know, of course, that I couldn't take Miss
+Ashton.  She wouldn't be able to do what I want done even if she were
+one I could trust not to say a word about the matter.  I would take Jim
+Thorpe, but his father has just died and I can't very well ask him to
+leave.  Neither can I delay longer than to-morrow.  Now the question
+is, would you be willing to go to Washington in the morning?  I have
+looked up the trains and I find you can leave the shore at 8.10 and
+meet me in Baltimore at ten o'clock.  I will be waiting for you at the
+train gate, but in case we miss each other wait in the station, close
+to the telephone booths, till I find you.  We will take the next train
+for Washington and be there a little before noon.  If all goes well we
+ought to be through our business in plenty of time to make a four
+o'clock train home.  Of course there may be delays, and it is quite
+possible you might have to remain in Washington over night, though I
+hardly think so.  But in case you do I will see that you are safe and
+comfortable in a quiet hotel near the station where my wife's sister is
+staying this summer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course your expenses will all be paid.  I will telegraph and have a
+mileage book put at your disposal that you can call for right there in
+your station in the morning.  Are you willing to undertake this for us?
+I assure you we shall not forget the service."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Shirley finally hung up the receiver and looked about the little
+country drug store in wonder at herself the very bottles on the shelves
+seemed to be whirling and dancing about before her eyes.  What strange
+exciting things were happening to her all in such breathless haste!
+Only one day at the shore and a piece of another, and here she was with
+a trip to Washington on her hands!  It certainly was bewildering to
+have things come in such rapid succession.  She wished it had come at
+another time, and not just now when she had not yet got used to the
+great sea and the wonder of the beautiful place where they were
+staying.  She did not want to be interrupted just yet.  It would not be
+quite the same when she got back to it she was afraid.  But of course
+she could not refuse.  It never entered her head to refuse.  She knew
+enough about the office to realize that Mr. Barnard must have her.
+Jimmie Thorpe would have been the one to go if he were available,
+because he was a man and had been with Barnard and Clegg for ten years
+and knew all their most confidential business, but of course Jimmie
+could not go with his father lying dead and his mother and invalid
+sister needing him; and there was no one else but herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She thought it all out on the way back to the cottage, with a little
+pang at the thought of losing the next day and of having perhaps to
+stay over in Washington a day and maybe miss the arrival of Sidney
+Graham, if he should come in a day or two, as he had promised.  He
+might even come and go back again before she was able to return, and
+perhaps he would think her ungrateful to leave when he had been so kind
+to plan all this lovely vacation for her pleasure.  Then she brought
+herself up smartly and told herself decidedly that it was nothing to
+him whether she was there or not, and it certainly had no right to be
+anything to her.  It was a good thing she was going, and would probably
+be a good thing for all concerned if she stayed until he went back to
+the city again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this firm determination she hurried up to the veranda where her
+mother sat with Doris, and told her story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister looked troubled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm sorry you gave him an answer, Shirley, without waiting to talk it
+over with me.  I don't believe I like the idea of your going to a
+strange city, all alone that way.  Of course Mr. Barnard will look
+after you in a way, but still he's a good deal of a stranger.  I do
+wish he had let you alone for your vacation.  It seems as if he might
+have found somebody else to go.  I wish Mr. Graham was here.  I
+shouldn't wonder if he would suggest some way out of it for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley stiffened into dignity at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Really, mother dear, I'm sure I don't see what Mr. Graham would have
+to say about it if he were here.  I shouldn't ask his advice.  You see,
+mother, really, there isn't anybody else that could do this but Jimmie
+Thorpe, and he's out of the question.  It would be unthinkable that I
+should refuse in this emergency.  And you know Mr. Barnard has been
+very kind.  Besides, think of the ducky vacation I'll have afterward, a
+whole month!  And all that extra money!  That shall go to the rent of a
+better house for winter!  Think of it!  Don't you worry, mother dear!
+There isn't a thing in the world could happen to me.  I'll be the very
+most-discreetest person you ever heard of.  I'll even glance shyly at
+the White House and Capitol!  Come, let's go up and get dolled up for
+supper!  Won't the children be surprised when they hear I'm really to
+go to Washington!  I'm so excited I don't know what to do!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister said no more, and entered pleasantly into the merry talk
+at the table, telling Shirley what she must be sure to see at the
+nation's capital.  But the next morning just as Shirley was about to
+leave for the station, escorted by all the children, Mrs. Hollister
+came with a package of addressed postal cards which she had made George
+get for her the night before, and put them in Shirley's bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Just drop us a line as you go along, dear," she said.  "I'll feel
+happier about it to be hearing from you.  Mail one whenever you have a
+chance."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley laughed as she looked at the fat package.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All those, mother dear?  You must expect I am going to stay a month!
+You know I won't have much time for writing, and I fully expect to be
+back to-night or to-morrow at the latest."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, that's all right," said her mother.  "You can use them another
+time, then; but you can just put a line on one whenever it is
+convenient.  I shall enjoy getting them even after you get back.  You
+know this is your first journey out into the world alone."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley stooped to kiss the little mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All right, dear!  I'll write you a serial story.  Each one continued
+in our next.  Good-by!  Don't take too long a walk to-day.  I want you
+rested to hear all I'll have to tell when I get back to-night!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley wrote the first postal card as soon as she was settled in the
+train, describing the other occupants of the car, and making a vivid
+picture of the landscape that was slipping by her windows.  She wrote
+the second in the Baltimore station, after she had met Mr. Barnard,
+while he went to get seats in the parlor car, and she mailed them both
+at Baltimore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The third was written as they neared Washington, with the dim vision of
+the great monument dawning on her wondering sight in the distance.  Her
+last sentence gave her first impression of the nation's capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They had eaten lunch in the dining car, a wonderful experience to the
+girl, and she promised herself another postal devoted to that, but
+there was no time to write more after they reached Washington.  She was
+put into a taxi and whirled away to an office where her work began.
+She caught glimpses of great buildings on the way, and gazed with awe
+at the dome of the Capitol building.  Mr. Barnard was kind and pointed
+out this and that, but it was plain his mind was on the coming
+interview.  When Shirley sat at last in a quiet corner of a big dark
+office, her pen poised, her note-book ready for work, and looked at the
+serious faces of the men in the room, she felt as if she had been
+rushed through a treasure vault of glorious jewels and thrust into the
+darkness of a tomb.  But presently the talk about her interested her.
+Things were being said about the vital interests of the country, scraps
+of sentences that reminded her of the trend of talk in the daily
+papers, and the headings of front columns.  She looked about her with
+interest and noted the familiarity with which these men quoted the
+words of those high up in authority in the government.  With awe she
+began her work, taking down whatever Mr. Barnard dictated, her fingers
+flying over the tiny pages of the note-book, in small neat characters,
+keeping pace with the voices going on about her.  The detail work she
+was setting down was not of especial interest to her, save that it was
+concerned with Government work, for its phraseology was familiar and a
+part of her daily routine office work at home; but she set every sense
+on the alert to get the tiniest detail and not to make the smallest
+mistake, understanding from the voices of the men about her that it was
+of vital interest to the country that this order should be filled
+quickly and accurately.  As she capped her fountain pen, and slipped
+the rubber band on her note-book when it was over, she heard one of the
+men just behind her say in a low tone to Mr. Barnard:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're sure of your secretary of course?  I just want to give you the
+tip that this thing is being very closely watched.  We have reason to
+believe there's some spying planned.  Keep your notes carefully and
+don't let too many in on this.  We know pretty well what's going on,
+but it's not desirable just now to make any arrests until we can watch
+a little longer and round up the whole party.  So keep your eyes
+peeled, and don't talk."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, certainly!  I quite understand," said Mr. Barnard, "and I have a
+most discreet secretary," and he glanced with a significant smile
+toward Shirley as she rose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course!" said the other.  "She looks it," and he bowed
+deferentially to Shirley as she passed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She did not think of it at the time, but afterwards she recalled how in
+acknowledging his courtesy she had stepped back a little and almost
+stumbled over a page, a boy about George's age, who had been standing
+withdrawn into the shadow of the deep window.  She remembered he had a
+keen intelligent look, and had apologized and vanished immediately.  A
+moment later it seemed to be the same boy in blue clothes and gilt
+buttons who held the outer door open for them to pass out&mdash;or was this
+a taller one?  She glanced again at his side face with a lingering
+thought of George as she paused to fasten her glove and slip her
+note-book into her hand-bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think I will put you into the taxi and let you go right back to the
+station while I attend to another errand over at the War Department.
+It won't take me long.  We can easily catch that four-o'clock train
+back.  I suppose you are anxious to get back to-night?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes," said Shirley earnestly, "I must, if possible.  Mother isn't
+well and she worries so easily."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, I don't know why we can't.  Then perhaps you can come up to town
+to-morrow and type those notes for us.  By the way, I guess it would be
+better for me to take them and lock them in the safe to-night.  No,
+don't stop to get them out now"&mdash;as Shirley began to unfasten her bag
+and get the note-book out&mdash;"We haven't much time if we want to catch
+that train.  Just look after them carefully and I'll get them when we
+are on the train."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He helped her into the taxi, gave the order, "To the station," and
+touching his hat, went rapidly over to the War Department Building.  No
+one saw a boy with a blue cap and brass buttons steal forth on a
+bicycle from the court just below the office, and circling about the
+asphalt uncertainly for a moment, shoot off across the park.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat up very straight and kept her eyes about her.  She was glad
+they were taking another way to the station so that she might see more.
+When she got there she would write another postal and perhaps it would
+go on the same train with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all too short, that ride up Pennsylvania Avenue and around by
+the Capitol.  Shirley gathered up her bag and prepared to get out
+reluctantly.  She wished she might have just one more hour to go about,
+but of course that would be impossible if she wished to reach home
+to-night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before the driver of the car could get down and open the door for
+her to get out a boy with a bicycle slid up to the curb and touching
+his gilt-buttoned cap respectfully said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Excuse me, Miss, but Mr. Barnard sent me after you.  He says there's
+been some mistake and you'll have to come back and get it corrected."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh!" said Shirley, too surprised to think for a minute.  "Oh!  Then
+please hurry, for Mr. Barnard wants to get back in time to get that
+four-o'clock train."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The driver frowned, but the boy stepped up and handed him something,
+saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's all right, Joe, he sent you this."  The driver's face cleared
+and he started his machine again.  The boy vanished into the throng.
+It was another of Shirley's after-memories that she had caught a
+glimpse of a scrap of paper along with the money the boy had handed the
+driver, and that he had stuffed it in his pocket after looking intently
+at it; but at the time she thought nothing of it.  She was only glad
+that they were skimming along rapidly.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap22"></a>
+CHAPTER XXII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's sense of direction had always been keen.  Even as a child she
+could tell her way home when others were lost.  It was some minutes,
+however, before she suddenly became aware that the car was being driven
+in an entirely different direction from the place she had just left Mr.
+Barnard.  For a moment she looked around puzzled, thinking the man was
+merely taking another way around, but a glance back where the white
+dome of the Capitol loomed, palace-like, above the city, made her sure
+that something was wrong.  She looked at the buildings they were
+passing, at the names of the streets&mdash;F Street&mdash;they had not been on
+that before!  These stores and tall buildings were all new to her eyes.
+Down there at the end of the vista was a great building all columns.
+Was that the Treasury and were they merely seeing it from another
+angle?  It was all very confusing, but the time was short, why had the
+man not taken the shorter way?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at her small wrist watch anxiously and watched eagerly for
+the end of the street.  But before the great building was reached the
+car suddenly curved around a corner to the right,&mdash;one block,&mdash;a turn
+to the left,&mdash;another turn,&mdash;a confusion of new names and streets!  New
+York Avenue!  Connecticut Avenue!  Thomas Circle!  The names spun by so
+fast she could read but few of them, and those she saw she wanted to
+remember that she might weave them into her next postal.  She opened
+her bag, fumbled for her little silver pencil in the pocket of her coat
+and scribbled down the names she could read as she passed, on the back
+of the bundle of postal cards, and without looking at her writing.  She
+did not wish to miss a single sight.  Here were rows of homes, pleasant
+and palatial, some of them even cozy.  The broad avenues were
+enchanting, the park spaces, the lavish scattering of noble statues.
+Bah the time was hastening by and they were going farther and farther
+from the station and from the direction of the offices where she had
+been.  She twisted her neck once more and the Capitol dome loomed soft
+and blended in the distance.  A thought of alarm leaped into her mind.
+She leaned forward and spoke to the driver:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You understood, didn't you, that I am to return to the office where
+you took me with the gentleman?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"All right, lady.  Yes, lady!"  And the car rushed on, leaping out upon
+the beautiful way and disclosing new beauties ahead.  For a few minutes
+more Shirley was distracted from her anxiety in wondering whether the
+great buildings on her right belonged to any of the embassies or not.
+And then as the car swerved and plunged into another street and darted
+into a less thickly populated district, with trees and vacant lots
+almost like the country, alarm arose once more and she looked wildly
+back and tried to see the signs; but they were going faster still now
+upon a wide empty road past stretches of park, with winding drives and
+charming views, and a great stone bridge to the right, arching over a
+deep ravine below, a railroad crossing it.  There were deer parks
+fenced with high wire, and filled with the pretty creatures.
+Everything went by so fast that Shirley hardly realized that something
+really must be wrong before she seemed to be in the midst of a strange
+world aloof.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am sure you have made a mistake!"  The girl's clear voice cut
+through the driving wind as they rushed along.  "I must go back right
+away to that office from which you brought me.  I must go <i>at once</i> or
+I shall be too late for my train!  The gentleman will be very angry!"
+She spoke in the tone that always brought instant obedience from the
+employees around the office building at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the driver was stolid.  He scarcely stirred in his seat to turn
+toward her.  His thick voice was brought back to her on the breeze:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, lady, it's all right, lady!  I had my orders, lady!  You needn't
+to worry.  I get you there plenty time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A wild fear seized Shirley, and her heart lifted itself as was its
+habit, to God.  "Oh, my Father!  Take care of me!  Help me!  Show me
+what to do!" she cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thoughts rushed through her brain as fast as the car rushed over the
+ground.  What was she up against?  Was this man crazy or bad?  Was he
+perhaps trying to kidnap her?  What for?  She shuddered to look the
+thought in the face.  Or was it the notes?  She remembered the men in
+the office and what they had said about keeping still and
+"spying-enemies."  But perhaps she was mistaken.  Maybe this man was
+only stupid, and it would all come out right in a few minutes.  But no,
+she must not wait for anything like that.  She must take no chance.
+The notes were in her keeping.  She must put them where they would be
+safe.  No telling how soon she would be overpowered and searched if
+that was what they were after.  She must hide them, and she must think
+of some way to send word to Mr. Barnard before it was toe late.  No
+telling what moment they would turn from the main road and she be
+hidden far from human habitation.  She must work fast.  What could she
+do?  Scream to the next passer-by?  No, for the car was going too fast
+for that to do any good, and the houses up this way seemed all to be
+isolated, and few people about.  There were houses on ahead beyond the
+park.  She must have something ready to throw out when they came to
+them.  "Oh God!  Help me think what to do!" she prayed again, and then
+looking down at her bag she saw the postal cards.  Just the thing!
+Quickly she scribbled, still holding her hand within the bag so that
+her movements were not noticeable:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Help!  Quick!  Being carried off!  Auto!  Connecticut Ave.!  Park.
+Deer.  Stone bridge.  Phone Mr. Clegg.  Don't tell mother!  Shirley."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned the card over, drew a line through her mother's name and
+wrote Carol's in its place.  Stealthily she slipped the card up her
+sleeve, dropped her hand carelessly over the side of the car for a
+moment, let the card flutter from her fingers, and wrote another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had written three cards and dropped them in front of houses before
+it suddenly occurred to her that even if these cards should be picked
+up and mailed it would be sometime before they reached their
+destination and far too late for help to reach her in time.  Her heart
+suddenly went down in a swooning sickness and her breath almost went
+from her.  Her head was reeling, and all the time she was trying to
+tell herself that she was exaggerating this thing, that probably the
+man would slow up or something and it would all be explained.  Yes, he
+was slowing up, but for what?  It was in another lonely spot, and out
+from the bushes there appeared, as if by magic, another man, a
+queer-looking man with a heavy mustache that looked as if it didn't
+belong to him.  He stood alertly waiting for the car and sprang into
+the front seat without waiting for it to stop, or even glancing back at
+her, and the car shot forward again with great leaps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley dropped out the two cards together that she had just written
+and leaned forward, touching the newcomer on the arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Won't you please make this driver understand that he is taking me to
+the wrong place?" she said with a pleasant smile.  "I must get back to
+an office two or three blocks away from the Treasury Building
+somewhere.  I must turn back at once or I shall miss my appointment and
+be late for my train.  It is quite important.  Tell him, please, I will
+pay him well if he will get me back at once."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger turned with an oily smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's all right, Miss.  He isn't making any mistake.  We're taking
+you right to Secretary Baker's country home.  He sent for your man,
+Mr.&mdash;&mdash;  What's his name?  I forget.  Barnard?  Oh, yes.  He sent for
+Mr. Barnard to come out there, sent his private car down for him; and
+Mr. Barnard, he left orders we should go after you and bring you along.
+It's something they want to change in those notes you was taking.
+There was a mistake, and the Secretary he wanted to look after the
+matter himself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat back with a sudden feeling of weakness and a fear she might
+faint, although she had never done such a thing in her life.  She was
+not deceived for an instant now, although she saw at once that she must
+not let the man know it.  The idea that Secretary Baker would pause in
+the midst of his multiplicity of duties to look into the details of a
+small article of manufacture was ridiculous!  It was equally impossible
+that Mr. Barnard would have sent strangers after her and let her be
+carried off in this queer way.  He had been most particular that she
+should be looked after carefully.  She was horribly to blame that she
+had allowed herself to be carried back at all until Mr. Barnard himself
+appeared; and yet, was she?  That surely had been the page from the
+office who came with the message?  Well, never mind, she was in for it
+now, and she must do her best while there was any chance to do
+anything.  She must drop all those postals somehow, and she must hide
+those notes somewhere, and perhaps write some others,&mdash;fake ones.  What
+should she do first?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Father, help me!  Show me!  Oh, don't let me lose the notes!  Please
+take care of me!"  Again and again her heart prayed as her hand worked
+stealthily in her bag, while she tried to put a pleasant smile upon her
+face and pretend she was still deceived, leaning forward and speaking
+to the strange man once more:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is Secretary Baker's home much farther from here?" she asked, feeling
+her lips draw stiffly in the frozen smile she forced.  "Will it take
+long?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"'Bout ten minutes!" the man answered graciously, with a peculiar look
+toward the driver.  "Nice view 'round here!" he added affably with a
+leering look of admiration toward her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's heart stood still with new fear, but she managed to make her
+white lips smile again and murmur, "Charming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she leaned back again and fussed around in her bag, ostentatiously
+bringing out a clean handkerchief, though she really had been detaching
+the pages which contained the notes from her loose-leaf note-book.
+There were not many of them, for she always wrote closely in small
+characters.  But where should she hide them?  Pull the lining away from
+the edge of her bag and slip them inside?  No, for the bag would be the
+first place they would likely search, and she could not poke the lining
+back smoothly so it would not show.  If she should try to drop the tiny
+pages down her neck inside her blouse, the men would very likely see
+her.  Dared she try to slip the leaves down under the linen robe that
+lay over her lap and put them inside her shoe?  She was wearing plain
+little black pumps, and the pages would easily go in the soles, three
+or four in each.  Once in they would be well hidden, and they would not
+rattle and give notice of their presence; but oh, what a terrible risk
+if anything should happen to knock off her shoe, or if they should try
+to search her!  Still she must take some risk and this was the safest
+risk at hand.  She must try it and then write out some fake notes,
+giving false numbers and sizes, and other phraseology.  Or stay!
+Wasn't there already something written in that book that would answer?
+Some specifications she had written down for the Tillman-Brooks
+Company.  Yes, she was sure.  It wasn't at all for the same articles,
+nor the same measurements, but only an expert would know that.  She
+leaned down quite naturally to pick up her handkerchief and deftly
+managed to get five small leaves slipped into her right shoe.  It
+occurred to her that she must keep her keepers deceived, so she asked
+once more in gracious tones:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Would it trouble you any to mail a card for me as soon as possible
+after we arrive?  I am afraid my mother will be worried about my delay
+and she isn't well.  I suppose they have a post office out this way."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure, Miss!" said the man again, with another leering smile that made
+her resolve to have no further conversation than was absolutely
+necessary.  She took out her fountain pen and hurriedly wrote:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Detained longer than I expected.  May not get back to-night.  S. H.,"
+and handed the card to the man.  He took it and turned it over, all too
+evidently reading it, and put it in his pocket.  Shirley felt that she
+had made an impression of innocence by the move which so far was good.
+She put away her fountain pen deliberately, and managed in so doing to
+manipulate the rest of the leaves of notes into her left shoe.  Somehow
+that gave her a little confidence and she sat back and began to wonder
+if there was anything more she could do.  Those dropped postals were
+worse than useless, of course.  Why had she not written an appeal to
+whoever picked them up?  Suiting the action to the thought she wrote
+another postal card&mdash;her stock was getting low, there were but two more
+left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"For Christ's sake send the police to help me!  I am being carried off
+by two strange men!  Shirley Hollister."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She marked out the address on the other side and wrote: "To whoever
+picks this up."  She fluttered it to the breeze cautiously; but her
+heart sank as she realized how little likelihood there was of its being
+picked up for days perhaps.  For who would stop in a car to notice a
+bit of paper on the road?  And there seemed to be but few pedestrians.
+If she only had something larger, more attractive.  She glanced at her
+belongings and suddenly remembered the book she had brought with her to
+read, one of the new novels from the cottage, a goodly sized volume in
+a bright red cover.  The very thing!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a cautious glance at her keepers she took up the book as if to
+read, and opening it at the flyleaf began to write surreptitiously much
+the same message that had been on her last postal, signing her name and
+home address and giving her employers' address.  Her heart was beating
+wildly when she had finished.  She was trying to think just how she
+should use this last bit of ammunition to the best advantage.  Should
+she just drop it in the road quietly?  If only there were some way to
+fasten the pages open so her message would be read!  Her handkerchief!
+Of course!  She folded it cornerwise and slipped it in across the pages
+so that the book would fall open at the fly leaf, knotting the ends on
+the back of the cover.  Every moment had to be cautious, and she must
+remember to keep her attitude of reading with the printed pages
+covering the handkerchief.  It seemed hours that it took her, her
+fingers trembled so.  If it had not been for the rushing noise of wind
+and car she would not have dared so much undiscovered, but apparently
+her captors were satisfied that she still believed their story about
+going to Secretary Baker's country house, for they seemed mainly
+occupied in watching to see if they were pursued, casting anxious
+glances back now and then, but scarcely noticing her at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley had noticed two or three times when a car had passed them that
+the men both leaned down to do something at their feet to the machinery
+of the car.  Were they afraid of being recognized?  Would this perhaps
+give her a chance to fling her book out where it would be seen by
+people in an oncoming car?  Oh, if she but had the strength and skill
+to fling it <i>into</i> a car.  But of course that was impossible without
+attracting the attention of the two men.  Nevertheless, she must try
+what she could do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She lifted her eyes to the road ahead and lo, a big car was bearing
+down upon them!  She had almost despaired of meeting any more, for the
+road was growing more and more lonely and they must have come many
+miles.  As soon as the two men in front of her sighted the car, they
+seemed to settle in their seats and draw their hats down a little
+farther over their eyes.  The same trouble seemed to develop with the
+machinery at their feet that Shirley had noticed before, and they
+bobbed and ducked and seemed to be wholly engrossed with their own
+affairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's heart was beating so fast that it seemed as though it would
+suffocate her, and her hand seemed powerless as it lay innocently
+holding the closed book with the knotted handkerchief turned down out
+of sight; but she was girding herself, nerving herself for one great
+last effort, and praying to be guided.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The big car came on swiftly and was about to pass, when Shirley half
+rose and hurled her book straight at it and then sank back in her seat
+with a fearful terror upon her, closing her eyes for one brief second,
+not daring to watch the results of her act,&mdash;if there were to be any
+results.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men in the front seat suddenly straightened up and looked around.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What's the matter?" growled the man who had got in last in quite a
+different tone from any he had used before.  "What you tryin' to put
+over on us?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley gasped and caught at her self-control.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I've dropped my book," she stammered out wildly, "Could you stop long
+enough to pick it up?  It was borrowed!" she ended sweetly as if by
+inspiration, and wondering at the steadiness of her tone when blood was
+pounding so in her throat and ears, and everything was black before
+her.  Perhaps&mdash;oh, perhaps they would stop and she could cry out to the
+people for help.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man rose up in his seat and looked back.  Shirley cast one
+frightened glance back, too, and saw in that brief second that the
+other car had stopped and someone was standing up and looking back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hell!  No!" said her captor briefly, ducking down in his seat.  "<i>Let
+her out!</i>" he howled to the driver, and the car broke into a galloping
+streak, the wheels hardly seeming to touch the ground, the tonneau
+bounding and swaying this way and that.  Shirley had all she could do
+to keep in her seat.  At one moment she thought how easy it would be to
+spring from the car and lie in a little still heap at the roadside.
+But there were the notes!  She must not abandon her trust even for so
+fearful an escape from her captors.  Suddenly, without warning, they
+turned a sharp curve and struck into a rough, almost unbroken road into
+the woods, and the thick growth seemed to close in behind them and shut
+them out from the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley shut her eyes and prayed.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap23"></a>
+CHAPTER XXIII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The next trolley that passed the old barn after the Hollisters had left
+brought a maid servant and a man servant from the Graham place.  The
+other old servant met them, and together the three went to work.  They
+had brought with them a lot of large dust-covers and floor-spreads such
+as are used by housemaids in cleaning a room, and with these they now
+proceeded to cover all the large pieces of furniture in the place.  In
+a very short space of time the rugs and bits of carpet were carefully
+rolled up, the furniture piled in small compass in the middle of the
+rooms, and everything enveloped in thick coverings.  The curtains,
+bric-â-brac, and even the dishes were put away carefully, and the whole
+big, inviting home was suddenly denuded.  The clothes from the
+calico-curtained clothes-presses were folded and laid in drawers, and
+everything made perfectly safe for a lot of workmen to come into the
+house.  Even the hay-loft bedrooms shared in this process.  Only a cot
+was left for the old servant and a few necessary things for him to use,
+and most of these he transported to the basement out of the way.  When
+the work was done the man and maid took the trolley back home again and
+the other old man servant arranged to make his Sabbath as pleasant as
+possible in the company of his brother from the near-by farm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Monday morning promptly at eight o'clock the trolley landed a bevy of
+workmen, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and furnace men, with a
+foreman who set them all at work as if it were a puzzle he had studied
+out and memorized the solution.  In a short time the quiet spot was
+full of sound, the symphony of industry, the rhythm of toil.  Some men
+were working away with the furnace that had been stored in the cellar;
+others were measuring, fitting, cutting holes for lead pipes; still
+others were sawing away at the roof, making great gashes in its mossy
+extent; and two men were busy taking down the old barn door.  Out in
+front more men were building a vat for mortar, and opening bags of lime
+and sand that began to arrive.  Three men with curious aprons made of
+ticking, filled with thin wire nails, were frantically putting laths on
+the uprights that the carpenters had already set up, and stabbing them
+with nails from a seemingly inexhaustible supply in their mouths.  It
+was as if they had all engaged to build the tower of Babel in a day,
+and meant to win a prize at it.  Such sounds!  Such shoutings, such
+bangings, thumpings, and harsh, raucous noises!  The bird in the tall
+tree looked and shivered, thankful that her brood were well away on
+their wings before all this cataclysm came to pass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently arrived a load of sashes, doors, and wooden frames, and
+another load of lumber.  Things can be done in a hurry if you have
+money and influence and the will to insist upon what you want.  Before
+night there was a good start made toward big changes in the old barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Plumbers and gas-fitters and men who were putting in the hot-water heat
+chased one another around the place, each man seeking to get his pipes
+in place before the lathers got to that spot; and the contractor was
+everywhere, proving his right to be selected for this rush job.  As
+soon as the lathers had finished with a room the plasterers took
+possession, and the old door was rapidly being replaced with a great
+glazed floor set in a frame of more sashes, so that the old darkness
+was gone entirely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the roof big dormer windows were taking the place of the two or
+three little eyebrow affairs that had given air to the hay heretofore,
+and the loft was fast becoming pleasanter than the floor below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a wide
+cement-floor piazza with stone foundations and low stone walls was to
+run across the entire front.  Another chimney was rising from the
+region of the kitchen.  A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf
+attached appeared next, with signs of a butler's pantry between kitchen
+and dining-room.  A delightful set of china-closet doors with little
+diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the
+dining-room, and some bookcases with sliding doors began to develop
+along the walls of the living-room.  Down in the basement a man was
+fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and on both the first floor and
+the second bathrooms were being made.  If the place hadn't been so big,
+the workmen would have got in one another's way.  Closets big and
+little were being put in, and parts of a handsome staircase were lying
+about, until you wouldn't know the place at all.  Every evening the old
+servant and the neighbor next door, who used to rent the old barn
+before he built his own new one, came together to look over what had
+been accomplished during the day, and to discourse upon this changing
+world and the wonders of it.  The farmer, in fact, learned a great deal
+about modern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them
+to bear upon his own modest farmhouse.  He had money in the bank, and
+why shouldn't he "have things convenient for Sally"?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Sidney Graham reached the city on Monday morning he scarcely took
+time to read his mail in the office and give the necessary attention to
+the day's work before he was up and off again, flying along the
+Glenside Road as fast as his car would carry him.  His mind certainly
+was not on business that morning.  He was as eager as a child to see
+how work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small
+chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every
+minute count, no matter how much it cost.  He spent a large part of
+Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of
+progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn.  But when
+Tuesday arrived an accumulation of work at the office in connection
+with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk.
+He had hoped to get away in time to reach Glenside before the workmen
+left in the afternoon, but four o'clock arrived with still a great pile
+of letters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had just signed his name for the forty-ninth time and laid his pen
+down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk
+rang.  He hesitated.  Should he answer it and be hindered again, or
+call his secretary and let her attend to it while he slipped away to
+his well-earned respite?  A second insistent ring, however, brought him
+back to duty and he reached out and took up the receiver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is this Mr. Sidney Graham?  Long distance is calling!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man frowned impatiently and wished he had sent for his
+secretary.  It was probably another tiresome confab on that Chicago
+matter, and it really wasn't worth the trouble, anyway.  Then a small
+scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Is that you, Mr. Graham?  Well, this is Carol.  Say, Mr. Graham, I'm
+afraid something awful has happened to Shirley!  I don't know what to
+do, and I thought I'd better ask you."  Her voice broke off in a gasp
+like a sob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A cold chill struck at the young man's heart, and a vision of Shirley
+battling with the ocean waves was instantly conjured up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shirley!  Where is she?  Tell me, quick!" he managed to say, though
+the words seemed to stick in his throat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She's down at Washington," answered Carol.  "Mr. Barnard phoned her
+last night.  There was something special nobody else could take notes
+about, because it was for a Government contract, and has to be secret.
+Mr. Barnard asked her to please go and she went this morning.  Mother
+didn't like her to go, but she addressed a lot of postal cards for her
+to write back, and one came postmarked Baltimore in this afternoon's
+mail, saying she was having a nice time.  But just now a call came for
+mother to go to the telephone.  She was asleep and George was crabbing
+so I had to come.  It was a strange man in Washington.  He said he had
+just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mother, that all
+said 'Help!  Quick!  Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to
+phone to the police.'  He took the postals to the police station, but
+he thought he ought to phone us.  And oh, Mr. Graham, <i>what shall I
+do</i>?  I can't tell mother.  It will kill her, and how can we help
+Shirley?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't tell mother," said Graham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of
+his horror.  "Be a brave girl, Carol.  A great deal depends on you just
+now.  Have you phoned Mr. Barnard?  Oh, you say he's in Washington?  He
+was to meet your sister in Baltimore?  He <i>did</i> meet her you say?  The
+postal card said she had met him?  Well, the next thing is to phone Mr.
+Clegg and find out if he knows anything.  I'll do that at once, and
+unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington
+on the next train.  Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past
+five.  I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry.  Then
+you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully.  Say
+you went to take a walk.  Isn't Elizabeth with you?  Well, tell her to
+help keep your mother from suspecting anything.  Above all things don't
+cry!  It won't do any good and it may do lots of harm.  Get George off
+by himself and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make
+some excuse to go down town after supper and stay at the telephone
+office till ten o'clock.  I may want to call him up from Washington.
+Now be a brave little girl.  I suspect your sister Shirley would tell
+you to pray.  Good-by."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will!" gasped Carol.  "Good-by!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham pressed his foot on the bell under his desk and reached out to
+slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers.  His secretary
+appeared at the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Get me Barnard and Clegg on the phone!  Ask for Mr. Barnard or, if he
+isn't in, Mr. Clegg.  Then go out to the other phone and call up the
+station.  Find out what's the next express to Washington.  Tell
+Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the station and bring my car back
+to the garage."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe,
+jotting down a few notes for the next day's work, trying to think of
+everything at once.  The secretary handed him the phone, quietly
+saying, "Mr. Clegg on the phone," and went out of the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but
+just in receipt of a telegram from Police Headquarters in Washington
+saying that a book with Barnard and Clegg's address and an appeal from
+a young woman named Shirley Hollister who was apparently being
+kidnapped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a passing
+car and brought to them.  They had sent forces in search of the girl at
+once and would do all in their power to find her.  Meantime they would
+like any information that would be helpful in the search.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Clegg was much excited.  He appeared to have lost his head.  He
+seemed glad to have another cooler mind at work on the case.  He
+spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the
+necessity for secrecy.  He said he hoped it wouldn't get into the
+papers, and that it would be Barnard and Clegg's undoing if it did.  He
+seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably
+had, than about the girl's situation.  When Graham brought him up
+rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard
+that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no
+significance to that.  He knew Barnard's usual hotel address in
+Washington but hadn't thought to phone him about the telegram from
+police headquarters.  Graham hung up at last in a panic of fury and
+dismay, ringing violently for his secretary again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The next train leaves at five o'clock," she said capably, as she
+entered.  "Bromwell has gone after the car.  I told him to buy you a
+mileage book and save your time at this end.  You have forty minutes
+and he will be back in plenty of time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good!" said Graham.  "Now call up long distance and get me Police
+Headquarters in Washington.  No!  Use the phone in father's office
+please, I'll have to use this while you're getting them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as she had left the room he called up the shore again and was
+fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being
+close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of
+nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Can you give me an exact description of your sister's dress, and
+everything that she had with her when she started this morning?" asked
+Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley's simple outfit exactly,
+even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally
+through the small hand-bag she had carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes!" she added, "and she had a book to read!  One she found here
+in the cottage.  It had a red cover and was called, "From the Car
+Behind."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more details of
+Shirley's plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a
+message to George to be at the phone from half-past eight to ten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was all ready to go to his train when the Washington call came in,
+and as he hurried to his father's office to answer it he found his
+heart crying out to an Unseen Power to help in this trying hour and
+protect the sweet girl in awful peril.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, God, I love her!" he found his heart saying over and over again,
+as if it had started out to be an individual by itself without his will
+or volition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no comfort from Washington Police Headquarters.  Nothing more
+had been discovered save another crumpled postal lying along the
+roadside.  They received with alacrity, however, Mr. Barnard's
+Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and
+her belongings.  When Graham had finished the hasty conversation he had
+to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in
+the parlor car and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over
+him he was almost overwhelmed.  He had led a comparatively tranquil
+life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and
+this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way.
+Calamity?  No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity.  He was
+hurrying to her!  He would find her!  He would not allow himself to
+think that anything had befallen her.  But wherever she was, if she was
+still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying
+now, and he would pray too!  Yes, pray as she had taught him.  Oh, God!
+If he only knew how to pray better!  What was it she had said so often?
+"Whatsoever ye ask in my name"&mdash;yes, that was it&mdash;"I will do it."  What
+was that talismanic Name?  Ah!  Christ!  "Oh, God, in the name of
+Christ&mdash;"  But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite
+and dear to be put into words, so his petition went up in spirit form,
+unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in
+torture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to
+meet him at the train, and when he got out at Union Station the first
+person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through
+the bars of the train gate.  He grasped the young man's hand as if it
+were a last straw for a drowning man to cling to, and demanded in a
+shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the first questions that Graham asked was whether Barnard had
+been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation,
+to report her disappearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, no, I hadn't thought of that,"' said Barnard blankly.  "What
+would they know about it?  The fact is I was rather anxious to keep the
+facts from getting to them.  You see they warned me that there were
+parties anxious to get hold of those specifications.  It's Government
+work, you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They should know at once," said Graham sternly.  "They may have inside
+information which would give us a clew to follow.  The secret service
+men are onto a lot of things that we common mortals don't suspect."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, what <i>have</i> you done so far?  We would better understand each
+other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground.  You
+have been in communication with Police Headquarters, of course?" asked
+Graham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, no," said the older man apologetically.  "You see, I got here
+just in time for the train, and failing to find the young lady in the
+station where we had agreed to meet, I took it for granted that she had
+used the extra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city,
+as I suggested, and had somehow failed to get back in time.  I couldn't
+understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home to-night.
+I could have caught the train myself, but didn't exactly like to leave
+her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it's perfectly safe for
+a steady girl like that.  Afterward it occurred to me that she might
+have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but
+there was really very little time to decide, for the train pulled out
+two minutes after I reached the station.  I waited about here for a
+time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is
+stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for
+the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down
+to the shore for a few days; so I had something to eat and while I was
+in the dining-room your telegram came.  I was hoping somehow you had
+seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One could see the poor man had no conception of what was due to a lady
+in his care, and Graham looked at him for a moment with rage, wishing
+he could take him by the throat and shake some sense into him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you don't know that she's been kidnapped and the police are out
+on track for her?" said Graham dryly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No!  You don't say!" exclaimed Barnard, turning white and showing he
+had some real feeling after all.  "Kidnapped!  Why&mdash;why&mdash;how <i>could</i>
+she?  And she's got <i>those notes</i>!  Why, Graham!  You're fooling!  Why,
+how came you to know?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham told him tersely as he walked the man over to the telephone
+booths, and finished with:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, you go in that booth and phone your Government man, and I'll call
+up police headquarters and see what's doing.  We've got to work fast,
+for there's no telling what may have happened in the last three hours.
+It's up to us to find that girl before anything worse happens to her."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+White and trembling Barnard tottered into the booth.  When he came out
+again the sleuth-hounds of the Secret Service were on the trail of
+Shirley Hollister's captors.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap24"></a>
+CHAPTER XXIV
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The car that was bearing Shirley Hollister through the lonely wooded
+road at a breathless speed suddenly came to a halt in the rear of an
+old house whose front faced on another road equally lonely.  During the
+brief time that they had been in the woods, the sky seemed to have
+perceptibly darkened with the coming evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley looked about her with increased fright.  It was almost night
+and here was her prison, far from town or human dwelling place.  Even
+the road was at some distance in front of the house, and there were
+more woods on either side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"This here is Secretary Baker's summer home," announced the man who had
+done the talking, as he climbed out of the car and opened the door for
+her.  "You can just step in the back door and go through to the parlor;
+the help's all out this afternoon.  The Secretary'll be down presently.
+He always takes a nap afternoons about this time.  I'll tell him you've
+come."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There seemed nothing to do but obey, and Shirley chose to let the farce
+continue.  Surely the man must know she was not a fool, but it was
+better than open hostility.  There was nothing to be gained by
+informing him that she knew he was guying her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Jesus Christ, I trust myself to you!" she breathed in her heart as
+she stepped across the leaf-strewn grass and looked about her,
+wondering whether she should ever walk the earth again after she had
+stepped into the dim tree-shrouded house.  But why go in?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I think I will remain out here," she said calmly, albeit her heart was
+pounding away like a trip-hammer.  "Please tell Mr. Baker to come to me
+here.  It is much pleasanter than in the house a day like this."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw no!  You won't neither!  The Secretary don't receive in the open
+air even in summer," drawled the man, and she noticed that he and the
+driver straightened up and stepped closer to her, one on either side.
+She gave one wild glance toward the open space.  There was simply no
+chance at all to run away even if she succeeded in eluding them at the
+start by a quick, unexpected dash.  They were alert athletic men, and
+no telling how many more were hidden in the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, very well, of course, if it's a matter of etiquette!" said Shirley
+pleasantly, determined to keep up the farce as long as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A cold, dark air met the girl as she stepped within the creaking door
+and looked about her.  At her left was an old-fashioned kitchen, dusty
+and cobwebby.  A long, narrow hall led to the front of the house and
+her guide pointed her toward a room on the right.  There was something
+hollow and eerie in the sound of their footsteps on the old oaken
+floor.  The room into which she was ushered was musty and dusty as the
+rest.  The floor was covered with an ancient ingrain carpet.  The table
+was covered with a magenta felt cover stamped with a vine of black
+leaves and riddled with moth holes.  The walls were hung with old
+prints and steel engravings suspended by woollen cords and tassels.
+The furniture was dilapidated.  Everything was covered with dust, but
+there were finger marks in the dust here and there that showed the
+place had been recently visited.  Through an open doorway an old square
+piano was visible in what must be the parlor.  The place seemed to
+Shirley fairly teeming with memories of some family now departed.  She
+leaped to the quick conclusion that the house had been long deserted
+and had only recently been entered and used as a rendezvous for illegal
+conferences.  It occurred to her that there might be an opportunity for
+her to hide her precious papers somewhere safely if it came to it that
+she must be searched.  How about that piano?  Could she slip some of
+them between the keys?  But it was hardly likely that there would be
+opportunity for anything like that.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She felt strangely calm as she looked about upon her prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"H'm!  He ain't come yet!" remarked her guide as he glanced into the
+front room.  "Well, you can set down.  He won't be long now.  Joe, you
+jest look about a bit and see if you can find the Secretary, and tell
+him the young lady is here."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man flung himself full length on the carpet-covered couch and
+looked at her with satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What train was that you said you must make?  I'm afraid now you might
+be going to be just a trifle late if he don't get a hustle on, but you
+can't hurry a great man like that you know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, it's no matter!" said Shirley coolly, looking around her with the
+utmost innocence.  "What a quaint old house!  Has it been in the family
+a long time?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man looked at her amusedly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're a cute one!" he remarked affably.  "I believe you're a pretty
+good sport!  You know perfectly well you're in my power and can't do a
+turn to help yourself, yet you sail around here as calm as a queen!
+You're some looker, too!  Blamed if I'm not enjoying myself.  I
+wouldn't mind a kiss or two from those pretty lips&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley had melted through the doorway into the other room and her
+voice floated back with charming indifference as if she had not heard,
+though she was ready to scream with loathing and fear of the man:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why, isn't this a delightful old piano?  The keys are actually
+mother-of-pearl.  Isn't it odd?  Would Mr. Baker mind if I played on
+it?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And before her astonished captor could get himself to the doorway she
+had sat down on the rickety old hair-cloth stool and swept the keys
+lightly.  The old chords trembled and shivered as if awaking from a
+tomb, and uttered forth a quavering, sweet sound like ancient memories.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man was too much astonished to stop her, amused too, perhaps, and
+interested.  Her white fingers over the dusty pearls in the growing
+dusk had a strange charm for the hardened reprobate, like the wonder of
+a flower dropped into the foulness of a prison.  Before he could
+recover, he was startled again by her voice soaring out in the empty
+echoing house:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Rock of ages, cleft for me,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Let me hide myself in Thee;<br/>
+Let the water and the blood<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;From Thy riven side which flowed,<br/>
+Be of sin the double cure,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Save me Lord and make me pure!<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps those dim, gloomy walls had echoed before to the grand old
+tune, but never could it have been sung in dire strait, or with more
+earnest cry from a soul in distress.  She had chosen the first words
+that seemed to fit the chords she had struck, but every syllable was a
+prayer to the God in whom she trusted.  It may be the man felt the
+power of her appeal as he stood rooted in the doorway and listened
+while she sang through all the verses she could remember.  But the last
+trembling note was broken harshly by Joe's voice at the kitchen door in
+sharp, rasping orders:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Hist, there!  Can that noise!  Do you want to raise hell here?  Wake
+up, Sam!  Get onto your job.  Hennie's comin'."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's all right, Joe!  Dry up!  This is good Sunday School dope!
+This won't rouse no suspicions.  Go to the devil and mind your
+business!  I know what I'm about!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley was almost ready to cry, but she drew a deep breath and started
+on another song:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Jesus, Lover of my soul,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Let me to Thy bosom fly,<br/>
+While the nearer waters roll,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;While the tempest still is high!<br/>
+Hide me, oh, my Saviour hide,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Till the storm of life is past.<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On through the time-worn words she sang, while the sin-hardened man
+stood silently and listened.  His eyes had gradually lost their leer
+and grown soft and tender, as if some childhood memories of home and
+mother and a time when he was innocent and good were looking out his
+eyes, reminding him of what he once intended to be before he ate the
+apple of wisdom and became as the gods and devils.  Shirley gradually
+became aware that she was holding her strange audience; and a power
+beyond herself steadied her voice, and kept her fingers from trembling
+on the old pearl keys, as she wandered on from song to song; perhaps
+happening on the very ones,&mdash;who knows?&mdash;that this man, standing in the
+dying twilight of the old gloomy house, had sung beside his mother's
+hearth or in church during his childhood?  Certain it is that he stood
+there silent and listened for at least half an hour without an
+interruption, while the light in the big room grew dimmer and dimmer
+and all about the house seemed still as death in the intervals between
+her voice.  She was just beginning:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Abide with me,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Fast falls the eventide,<br/>
+The darkness deepens,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lord, with me abide!<br/>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+When the man put his hand in his pocket and brought out a candle.
+Scratching a match on his trousers, he lit the candle and set it
+carefully on the piano, where its light fell flickering, wavering over
+her worn young face; and who shall say that she was not a messenger
+from another world to this man who had long trodden the downward path?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were interrupted, however, before this song was finished by a
+newcomer who entered like a shadow and stood at the end of the piano
+looking wonderingly from Shirley to the man, when she glanced up.  She
+stopped, startled, for although he wore no brass buttons nor blue
+clothes she was quite sure those were the same gray eyes that had
+looked at her from the recess of the window in the Government office
+that afternoon, perhaps the same boy who had come after her car and
+sent her off on this long way into the wilderness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man Sam straightened up suddenly and looked about him half-ashamed
+with an apologetic grin:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, you've come, have you, Hennie?  Well, you been a long time about
+it!  But now I guess we'll get to work.  Where's Joe?  Out on the
+watch?  All right then, Miss, if you've no objection, we'll just take a
+little vacation on the psalm singin' and turn our attention to worldly
+things.  I calculate you're sharp enough to know what we brought you
+put here for?  I acknowledge you can sing real well, and you sorta got
+my goat for a while there with all that mourning bench tra-la, for you
+certainly have got that holy dope down fine; but now the time's come
+for business, and you needn't to think that because I can enjoy a
+little sentiment now and then in a leisure moment that you can put
+anything over on me, for it can't be did!  I mean business and I've got
+you in my power!  We're ten miles from any settlement, and no neighbors
+anywhere's about.  Everybody moved away.  So it won't do any good to
+work any funny business on us.  You can't get away.  We're all armed,
+and no one knows where you are!  If you behave yourself and do as
+you're told there won't be any trouble.  We'll just transact our
+business and then we'll have a bit of supper, and mebbe a few more
+tunes&mdash;got any rag-time in your repitwar?&mdash;and then sometime after
+midnight, when the moon's good and dark, we'll get you back to
+civilization where you won't have no trouble in gettin' home.  But if
+you act up and get funny, why you know what to expect.  There was a
+young girl murdered once in this house and buried in the cellar and
+ever since folks say it's hanted and they won't come near it.  That's
+the kind of a place we're in!  So, now are you ready?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley sat cold and still.  It seemed as if her life blood had
+suddenly congealed in her veins and for a second she felt as if her
+senses were going to desert her.  Then the echo of her own song: "Hide
+me, oh, my Saviour hide!" seemed to cry out from her soul silently and
+she rallied once more and gained her self-control.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, Miss," went on the man impressively, "I see you're ready for the
+question, and you've got your nerve with you, too, I'll hand you that!
+But I warn you it won't do no good!  We brung you out here to get a
+hold of that note-book you wrote in this morning, and we're goin' to
+have it.  We know that Mr. Barnard left it in your care.  Hennie here
+heard him say for you to keep it.  So it won't be of any use for you to
+lie about it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course!" said Shirley, standing up and reaching over for her
+hand-bag, which she had laid on the piano beside her while she played.
+"I understand perfectly.  But I'd like to ask you a question, Mr.&mdash;&mdash;?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Smith, or Jones, whichever you like to call it.  Spit it out!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I suppose you are paid to bring me out here, Mr. Smith, and get my
+property away from me?" she said gravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, yes, we don't calculate to do it just for sweet charity."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And <i>I</i> am paid to look after my note-book, you see.  It's a trust
+that has been given me!  I just <i>have</i> to look after it.  It's out of
+the question for me to desert it!"  Shirley spoke coolly and held her
+little bag close in the firm grasp of her two hands.  The man stared at
+her and laughed.  The boy Hennie fairly gaped in his astonishment.  "A
+girl with all that nerve!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Of course, I understand perfectly that you can murder me and bury me
+down in the cellar beside that other girl that was murdered, and
+perhaps no one will find it out for a while, and you can go on having a
+good time on the money you will get for it.  But the day will come when
+you will have to answer for it!  You know I didn't come here alone
+to-day&mdash;&mdash;!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Both men looked startled and glanced uneasily into the shadows, as if
+there might be someone lurking there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>God</i> came with me and <i>He</i> knows!  He'll <i>make you remember</i> some
+day!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boy laughed out a nervous ha! ha! of relief, but the man seemed
+held, fascinated by her look and words.  There was silence for a second
+while the girl held off the ruffian in the man by sheer force of her
+strong personality.  Then the boy laughed again, with a sneer in the
+end of it, and the spell was broken.  The leer came into the eyes of
+the man again.  The sneer of the boy had brought him to himself,&mdash;to
+the self he had come to be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Nix on the sob-stuff, girlie!" he said gruffly.  "It won't go down
+with me!  We're here for business and we've been delayed too long
+already.  Come now, will you hand out that note-book or will we have to
+search you?"  He took one stride across to where she stood and wrenched
+the hand-bag from her grasp before she was aware of his intention.  She
+had not meant to give it up without a struggle, much as she loathed the
+thought of one.  She must make the matter last as long as possible, if
+perchance God was sending help to her, and must contest every inch of
+the way as far as lay in her power.  Oh, had anyone picked up her
+cards?  Had the book with its message reached any friendly eye?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Frail and white and stern she stood with folded arms while they turned
+out the contents of the little bag and scattered it over the piano,
+searching with clumsy fingers among her dainty things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The note-book she had rolled within her handkerchiefs and made it hard
+to find.  She feared lest her ruse would be discovered when they looked
+it over.  The boy was the one who clutched for the little book,
+recognizing it as the one he had seen in the office that morning.  The
+man hung over his shoulder and peered in the candlelight, watching the
+boy anxiously.  It meant a good deal of money if they put this thing
+through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Here it is!" said the boy, fluttering through the leaves and carefully
+scrutinizing the short-hand characters.  "Yes, that's the dope!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ran his eye down the pages, caught a word here and there,
+technicalities of manufacture, the very items, of course, that he
+wanted, if this had been the specifications for the Government order.
+Shirley remembered with relief that none of the details were identical,
+however, with the notes she carried in her shoes.  The book-notes were
+in fact descriptive of an entirely different article from that demanded
+by the Government.  The question was, would these people be wise enough
+to discover that fact before she was out of their power or not?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Furtively she studied the boy.  There was something keen and cunning
+about his youthful face.  He was thick-set, with blond hair and blue
+eyes.  He might be of German origin, though there was not a sign of
+accent about his speech.  He had the bull-dog chin, retreating forehead
+and eagle nose of the Kaiser in embryo.  Shirley saw all this as she
+studied him furtively.  That he was an expert in short-hand was proved
+by the ease with which he read some of her obscure sentences,
+translating rapidly here and there as he examined the book.  Was he
+well enough informed about the Government contract to realize that
+these were not the notes she had taken in the office that morning?  And
+should he fail to recognize it, was there perhaps some one higher in
+authority to whom they would be shown before she was released?  She
+shivered and set her weary toes tight with determination over the
+little crinkling papers in her shoes.  Somehow she would protect those
+notes from being taken, even if she had to swallow them.  There surely
+would be a way to hide them if the need came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly the tense strain under which she was holding herself was
+broken by the man.  He looked up with a grin, rubbing his hands with
+evident self-gratulation and relief:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's all right, Girlie!  That's the dope we want.  Now we won't
+trouble you any longer.  We'll have supper.  Hennie, you go get some of
+that wood out in the shed and we'll have a fire on the hearth and make
+some coffee!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley, standing white and tense in the dim shadow of the room,
+suddenly felt the place whirling about her, and the candle dancing afar
+off.  Her knees gave way beneath her and she dropped back to the piano
+stool weakly, and covered her face with her hands, pressing hard on her
+eyeballs; trying to keep her senses and stop this black dizziness that
+threatened to submerge her consciousness.  She must not faint&mdash;if this
+was fainting.  She must keep her senses and guard her precious shoes.
+If one of those should fall off while she was unconscious all would be
+undone.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap25"></a>
+CHAPTER XXV
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The man looked up from the paper he was twisting for a fire and saw
+Shirley's attitude of despair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Say, kid," he said, with a kind of gruff tenderness, "you don't need
+to take it that a-way.  I know it's tough luck to lose out when you
+been so nervy and all, but you knew we had it over you from the start.
+You hadn't a show.  And say!  Girlie!  I tell you what!  I'll make
+Hennie sit down right now and copy 'em off for you, and you can put 'em
+in your book again when you get back and nobody be the wiser.  We'll
+just take out the leaves.  We gotta keep the original o' course, but
+that won't make any beans for you.  It won't take you no time to write
+'em over again if he gives you a copy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow it penetrated through Shirley's tired consciousness that the
+man was trying to be kind to her.  He was pitying her and offering her
+a way out of her supposed dilemma, offering to assist her in some of
+his own kind of deception.  The girl was touched even through all her
+other crowding emotions and weariness.  She lifted up her head with a
+faint little smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Thank you," she said, wearily, "but that wouldn't do me any good."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why not?" asked the man sharply.  "Your boss would never know it got
+out through you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But <i>I</i> should know I had failed!" she said sadly.  "If you had my
+notes I should know that I had failed in my trust."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It wouldn't be your fault.  You couldn't have helped it!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, yes, I could, and I ought.  I shouldn't have let the driver turn
+around.  I should have got out of that car and waited at the station as
+Mr. Barnard told me to do till he came.  I had been warned and I ought
+to have been on my guard.  So you see it <i>was</i> my fault."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She drooped her head forward and rested her chin dejectedly on the palm
+of her hand, her elbow on her knee.  The man stood looking at her for a
+second in half-indignant astonishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"By golly!" he said at last.  "You certainly are some nut!  Well,
+anyhow, buck up, and let's have some tea.  Sorry I can't see my way
+clear to help you out any further, being as we're sort of partners in
+this job and you certainly have got some nerve for a girl, but you know
+how it is.  I guess I can't do no more'n I said.  I got my honor to
+think about, too.  See?  Hennie!  Get a move on you.  We ain't waitin'
+all night fer eats.  Bring in them things from the cupboard and let's
+get to work."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley declined to come to the table when at last the repast was
+ready.  She said she was not hungry.  In fact, the smell or the
+crackers and cheese and pickles and dried beef sickened her.  She felt
+too hysterical to try to eat, and besides she had a lingering feeling
+that she must keep near that piano.  If anything happened she had a
+vague idea that she might somehow hide the precious notes within the
+big old instrument.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man frowned when she declined to come to supper, but a moment later
+stumbled awkwardly across the room with a slopping cup of coffee and
+set it down beside her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Buck up, girlie!" he growled.  "Drink that and you'll feel better."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley thanked him and tried to drink a few mouthfuls.  Then the
+thought occurred to her that it might be drugged, and she swallowed no
+more.  But she tried to look a bit brighter.  If she must pass this
+strange evening in the company of these rough men, it would not help
+matters for her to give way to despair.  So after toying with the
+teaspoon a moment, she put the cup down and began to play soft airs on
+the old piano again while the men ate and took a stealthy taste now and
+then from a black bottle.  She watched them furtively as she played,
+marvelling at their softened expressions, remembering the old line:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and wondering if
+perhaps there were not really something in it.  If she had not been in
+such a terrifying situation she would really have enjoyed the character
+study that this view of those two faces afforded her, as she sat in the
+shadow playing softly while they ate with the flaring candle between
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I like music with my meals!" suddenly chanted out the boy in an
+interval.  But the man growled in a low tone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shut up!  Ain't you got no manners?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley prolonged that meal as much as music could do it, for she had
+no relish for a more intimate tête-a-tête with either of her
+companions.  When she saw them grow restless she began to sing again,
+light little airs this time with catchy words; or old tender melodies
+of home and mother and childhood.  They were songs she had sung that
+last night in the dear old barn when Sidney Graham and Elizabeth were
+with them, and unconsciously her voice took on the wail of her heart
+for all that dear past so far away from her now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly, as the last tender note of a song died away Joe stumbled
+breathlessly into the room.  The boy Hennie slithered out of the room
+like a serpent at his first word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Beat it!" he cried in a hoarse whisper.  "Get a move on!  All hell's
+out after us!  I bet they heard her singin'!  Take her an' beat it!
+I'll douse the fire an' out the candle."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He seized a full bucket of water and dashed it over the dying fire.
+Shirley felt the other man grasp her arm in a fierce grip.  Then Joe
+snuffed out the candle with his broad thumb and finger and all was
+pitch dark.  She felt herself dragged across the floor regardless of
+furniture in the way, stumbling, choking with fear, her one thought
+that whatever happened she must not let her slippers get knocked off;
+holding her feet in a tense strain with every muscle extended to keep
+the shoes fastened on like a vise.  She was haunted with a wild thought
+of how she might have slipped under the piano and eluded her captor if
+only the light had gone out one second sooner before he reached her
+side.  But it was too late to think of that now, and she was being
+dragged along breathlessly, out the front door, perhaps, and down a
+walk; no, it was amongst trees, for she almost ran into one.  The man
+swore at her, grasped her arm till he hurt her and she cried out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You shut up or I'll shoot you!" he said with an oath.  He had lost all
+his suavity and there was desperation in his voice.  He kept turning
+his head to look back and urging her on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She tripped on a root and stumbled to her knees, bruising them
+painfully, but her only thought was one of joy that her shoes had not
+come off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man swore a fearful oath under his breath, then snatched her up and
+began to run with her in his arms.  It was then she heard Graham's
+voice calling:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shirley!  Where are you?  I'm coming!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She thought she was swooning or dreaming and that it was not really he,
+for how could he possibly be here?  But she cried out with a voice as
+clear as a bell: "I'm here, Sidney, come quick!"  In his efforts to
+hush her voice, the man stumbled and fell with her in his arms.  There
+came other voices and forms through the night.  She was gathered up in
+strong, kind arms and held.  The last thought she had before she sank
+into unconsciousness was that God had not forgotten.  He had been
+remembering all the time and sent His help before it was too late; just
+as she had known all along He must do, because He had promised to care
+for His own, and she was one of His little ones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she came to herself again she was lying in Sidney Graham's arms
+with her head against his shoulder feeling oh, so comfortable and
+tired.  There were two automobiles with powerful headlights standing
+between the trees, and a lot of policemen in the shadowy background.
+Her captor stood sullen against a tree with his hands and feet
+shackled.  Joe stood between two policemen with a rope bound about his
+body spirally, and the boy Hennie, also bound, beside his fallen
+bicycle, turned his ferret eyes from side to side as if he hoped even
+yet to escape.  Two other men with hawk-like faces that she had not
+seen before were there also, manacled, and with eyes of smouldering
+fires.  Climbing excitedly out of one of the big cars came Mr. Barnard,
+his usually immaculate pink face smutty and weary; his sparse white
+hair rumpled giddily, and a worried pucker on his kind, prim face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, my dear Miss Hollister!  How unfortunate!" he exclaimed.  "I do
+hope you haven't suffered too much inconvenience!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley smiled up at him from her shoulder of refuge as from a dream.
+It was all so amusing and impossible after what she had been through.
+It couldn't be real.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I assure you I am very much distressed on your account," went on Mr.
+Barnard, politely and hurriedly, "and I hate to mention it at such a
+time, but could you tell me whether the notes are safe?  Did those
+horrid men get anything away from you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A sudden flicker of triumph passed over the faces of the fettered man
+and the boy, like a ripple over still water and died away into
+unintelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Shirley's voice rippled forth in a glad, clear laugh, as she
+answered joyously:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes, Mr. Barnard, they got my note-book, but not the notes!  They
+thought the Tilman-Brooks notes were what they were after, but the real
+notes are in my shoes.  Won't you please get them out, for I'm afraid I
+can't hold them on any longer, my feet ache so!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is a pity that Shirley was not in a position to see the look of
+astonishment, followed by a twinkle of actual appreciation that came
+over the face of the shackled man beside the tree as he listened.  One
+could almost fancy he was saying to himself: "The nervy little nut!
+She put one over on me after all!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was also a pity that Shirley could not have got the full view of the
+altogether precise and conventional Mr. Barnard kneeling before her on
+the ground, removing carefully, with deep embarrassment and concern,
+first one, then the other, of her little black pumps, extracting the
+precious notes, counting over the pages and putting them ecstatically
+into his pocket.  No one of that group but Shirley could fully
+appreciate the ludicrous picture he made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You are entirely sure that no one but yourself has seen these notes?"
+he asked anxiously as if he hardly dared to believe the blessed truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Entirely sure, Mr. Barnard!" said Shirley happily, "and now if you
+wouldn't mind putting on my shoes again I can relieve Mr. Graham of the
+necessity of carrying me any further."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, surely, surely!" said Mr. Barnard, quite fussed and getting down
+laboriously again, his white forelock all tossed, and his forehead
+perplexed over the unusual task.  How did women get into such a little
+trinket of a shoe, anyway?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, our firm appreciates what you have done!
+We shall not forget it.  You will see, we shall not forget it!" he
+puffed as he rose with beads of perspiration on his brow.  "You have
+done a great thing for Barnard and Clegg to-day!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"She's done more than that!" said a burly policeman significantly
+glancing around the group of sullen prisoners, as Graham put her upon
+her feet beside him.  "She's rounded up the whole gang for us, and
+that's more than anybody else has been able to do yet!  She oughtta get
+a medal of some kind fer that!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, with a dare-devil lift of his head and a gleam of something like
+fun in his sullen eyes, the manacled man by the tree spoke out, looking
+straight at Shirley, real admiration in his voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I say, pard!  I guess you're the winner!  I'll hand you what's comin'
+to you if I do lose.  You certainly had your nerve!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley looked at him with a kind of compassion in her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm sorry you have to be&mdash;there," she finished.  "You were&mdash;as fine as
+you could be to me under the circumstances, I suppose!  I thank you for
+that."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man met her gaze for an instant, a flippant reply upon his lips,
+but checked it and dropping his eyes, was silent.  The whole little
+company under the trees were hushed into silence before the miracle of
+a girl's pure spirit, leaving its impress on a blackened soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, quietly, Graham led her away to his car with Barnard and the
+detectives following.  The prisoners were loaded into the other cars,
+and hurried on the way to judgment.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap26"></a>
+CHAPTER XXVI
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The ride back to the city was like a dream to Shirley afterward.  To
+see the staid Mr. Barnard so excited, babbling away about her bravery
+and exulting like a child over the recovery of the precious notes, was
+wonder enough.  But to feel the quiet protection and tender interest of
+Sidney Graham filled her with ecstasy.  Of course it was only kindly
+interest and friendly anxiety, and by to-morrow she would have put it
+into order with all his other kindlinesses, but to-night, weary and
+excited as she was, with the sense of horror over her recent experience
+still upon her, it was sweet to feel his attention, and to let his
+voice thrill through her tired heart, without stopping to analyze it
+and be sure she was not too glad over it.  What if he would be merely a
+friend to-morrow again!  To-night he was her rescuer, and she would
+rest back upon that and be happy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I feel that I was much to blame for leaving you alone to go to the
+station with a bait like these notes in your possession," said Mr.
+Barnard humbly.  "Though of course I did not dream that there was any
+such possibility as your being in danger."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It is just as well not to run any risks in these days when the country
+is so unsettled," said the detective dryly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Especially where a lady is concerned!" remarked Graham significantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I suppose I should have taken Miss Hollister with me and left her in
+the cab while I transacted my business at the War Department!" said
+Barnard with self-reproach in his tones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"They would have only done the same thing in front of the War
+Department," said the detective convincingly.  "They had it all planned
+to get those notes somehow.  You only made it a trifle easier for them
+by letting the lady go alone.  If they hadn't succeeded here, they
+would have followed you to your home and got into your office or your
+safe.  They are determined, desperate men.  We've been watching them
+for some time, letting them work till we could find out who was behind
+them.  To-night we caught the whole bunch red-handed, thanks to the
+lady's cleverness.  But you had better not risk her alone again when
+there's anything like this on hand.  She might not come out so easy
+next time!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Graham muttered a fervent applause in a low tone to this advice,
+tucking the lap robes closer about the girl.  Barnard gave little
+shudders of apology as he humbly shouldered the blame:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, no, of course not!  I certainly am so sorry!"  But Shirley
+suddenly roused herself to explain:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Indeed, you mustn't any of you blame Mr. Barnard.  He did the
+perfectly right and natural thing.  He always trusts me to look after
+my notes, even in the most important cases; and I heard the warning as
+much as he did.  It was my business to be on the lookout!  I'm old
+enough and have read enough in the papers about spies and ruffians.  I
+ought to have known there was something wrong when that boy ordered me
+back and said Mr. Barnard had sent me word.  I ought to have known Mr.
+Barnard would never do that.  I did know just as soon as I stopped to
+think.  The trouble was I was giving half my attention to looking at
+the strange sights out of the window and thinking what I would tell the
+folks at home about Washington, or I would not have got into such a
+position.  I insist that you shall not blame yourself, Mr. Barnard.  It
+is a secretary's business to be on her job and not be out having a good
+time when she is on a business trip.  I hadn't got beyond the city
+limits before I knew exactly what I ought to have done.  I should have
+asked that boy more questions, and I should have got right out of that
+car and told him to tell you I would wait in the station till you came
+for me.  It troubled me from the start that you had sent for me that
+way.  It wasn't like you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they turned their questions upon her, and she had to tell the
+whole story of her capture, Graham and Barnard exclaiming indignantly
+as she went on, the detective sitting grim and serious, nodding his
+approval now and then.  Graham's attitude toward her grew more tender
+and protective.  Once or twice as she told of her situation in the old
+house, or spoke of how the man dragged her along in the dark, he set
+his teeth and drew his breath hard, saying in an undertone: "The
+villain!"  And there was that in the way that he looked at her that
+made Shirley hasten through the story, because of the wild, joyous
+clamor of her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as the city limits were reached, Graham stopped the car to
+telephone.  It was after eleven o'clock, and there was little chance
+that George would have stayed at the phone so long, but he would leave
+a message for the early morning at least.  George, however, had stuck
+to his post.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sure!  I'm here yet!  What'd ya think?  Couldn't sleep, could I, with
+<i>my sister</i> off alone with a fella somewhere <i>being kidnapped</i>?  What'd
+ya say?  Found her?  She's all right?  Oh, gee!  That's good!  I told
+Carol you would!  I told her not to worry!  What'd ya say?  Oh,
+Shirley's going to talk?  Oh, hello, Shirley!  How's Washington?  Some
+speed, eh?  Say, when ya coming home?  To-morrow?  That's good.  No,
+mother doesn't know a thing.  She thinks I went to bed early 'cause I
+planned to go fishing at sunrise.  She went to bed herself early.  Say,
+Mister Graham's a prince, isn't he?  Well, I guess I'll go to bed now.
+I might make the fishing in the morning yet, if I don't sleep too late.
+I sure am glad you're all right!  Well, so long, Shirley!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley turned from the phone with tears in her eyes.  It wasn't what
+George said that made her smile tenderly through them, but the gruff
+tenderness in his boy tones that touched her so.  She hadn't realized
+before what she meant to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They drove straight to the station, got something to eat, and took the
+midnight train back to their home city.  Graham had protested that
+Shirley should go to a hotel and get a good rest before attempting the
+journey, but she laughingly told him she could rest anywhere, and would
+sleep like a top in the train.  When Graham found that it was possible
+to secure berths in the sleeper for them all, and that they would not
+have to get out until seven in the morning he withdrew his protests;
+and his further activities took the form of supplementing her supper
+with fruit and bonbons.  His lingering hand-clasp as he bade her
+good-night told her how glad he was that she was safe; as if his eyes
+had not told her the same story every time there had been light enough
+for them to be seen!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Locked at last into her safe little stateroom, with a soft bed to lie
+on and no bothersome notes to be guarded, one would have thought she
+might have slept, but her brain kept time to the wheels, and her heart
+with her brain.  She was going over and over the scenes of the eventful
+day, and living through each experience again, until she came to the
+moment when she looked up to find herself in Sidney Graham's arms, with
+her face against his shoulder.  Her face glowed in the dark at the
+remembrance, and her heart thrilled wildly sweet with the memory of his
+look and tone, and all his carefulness for her.  How wonderful that
+<i>he</i> should have come so many miles to find her!  That he should have
+been the one to find her first, with all those other men on the hunt.
+He had forged ahead and picked her up before any of the others had
+reached her.  He had not been afraid to rush up to an armed villain and
+snatch her from her perilous position!  He was a man among men!  Never
+mind if he wasn't her own personal property!  Never mind if there were
+others in his own world who might claim him later, he was hers for
+to-night!  She would never forget it!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She slept at last, profoundly, with a smile upon her lips No dream of
+villains nor wild automobile rides came to trouble her thoughts.  And
+when she woke in the home station with familiar sounds outside, and
+realized that a new day was before her, her heart was flooded with a
+happiness that her common sense found it hard to justify.  She tried to
+steady herself while she made her toilet, but the face that was
+reflected rosily from the mirror in her little dressing room would
+smile contagiously back at her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, then, have it your own way for just one more day!" she said
+aloud to her face in the glass.  "But to-morrow you must get back to
+common sense again!"  Then she turned, fresh as a rose, and went out to
+meet her fellow travellers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She went to breakfast with Sidney Graham, a wonderful breakfast in a
+wonderful place with fountains and palms and quiet, perfect service.
+Mr. Barnard had excused himself and hurried away to his home, promising
+to meet Shirley at the office at half-past nine.  And so these two sat
+at a little round table by themselves and had sweet converse over their
+coffee.  Shirley utterly forgot for the time that she was only a poor
+little stenographer working for her bread and living in a barn.  Sidney
+Graham's eyes were upon her, in deep and unveiled admiration, his
+spirit speaking to hers through the quiet little commonplaces to which
+he must confine himself in this public place.  It was not till the meal
+was over and he was settling his bill that Shirley suddenly came to
+herself and the color flooded her sweet face.  What was she better than
+any other poor fool of a girl who let a rich man amuse himself for a
+few hours in her company and then let him carry her heart away with him
+to toss with his collection?  She drew her dignity about her and tried
+to be distant as they went out to the street, but he simply did not
+recognize it at all.  He just kept his tender, deferential manner, and
+smiled down at her with that wonderful, exalted look that made her
+dignity seem cheap; so there was nothing to do but look up as a flower
+would to the sun and be true to the best that was in her heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was surprised to find his own car at the door when they came out on
+the street.  He must have phoned for it before they left the station.
+He was so kind and thoughtful.  It was so wonderful to her to be cared
+for in this way.  "Just as if I were a rich girl in his own social
+set," she thought to herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He gave his chauffeur the orders and sat beside her in the back seat,
+continuing his role of admirer and protector.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It certainly is great to think you're here beside me," he said in a
+low tone as they threaded their way in and out of the crowded
+thoroughfare toward the office.  "I didn't have a very pleasant
+afternoon and evening yesterday, I can tell you!  I don't think we'll
+let you go off on any more such errands.  You're too precious to risk
+in peril like that, you know!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's cheeks were beautiful to behold as she tried to lift her eyes
+easily to his glance and take his words as if they had been a mere
+commonplace.  But there was something deep down in the tone of his
+voice, and something intent and personal in his glance that made her
+drop her eyes swiftly and covered her with a sweet confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were at the office almost immediately and Graham was helping her
+out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Now, when will you be through here?" he asked, glancing at his watch.
+"What train were you planning to take down to the shore?  I suppose
+you'll want to get back as soon as possible?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yes," said Shirley, doubtfully, "I do.  But I don't know whether I
+oughtn't to run out home first and get mother's big old shawl, and two
+or three other little things we ought to have brought along."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," said Graham, quickly, with a flash of anxiety in his face.  "I
+wouldn't if I were you.  They'll be anxious to see you, and if it's
+necessary you can run up again sometime.  I think you'll find there are
+lots of shawls down at the cottage.  I'm anxious to have you safely
+landed with your family once more.  I promised Carol you'd be down the
+first train after you got your work done.  How long is it going to take
+you to fix Mr. Barnard up so he can run things without you?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, not more than two hours I should think, unless He wants something
+more than I know."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, two hours.  It is half-past nine now.  We'll say two hours and a
+half.  That ought to give you time.  I think there's a train about
+then.  I'll phone to the station and find out and let you know the
+exact time.  The car will be here waiting for you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Mr. Graham, that's not a bit necessary!  You have taken trouble
+enough for me already!" protested Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No trouble at all!" declared Graham.  "My chauffeur hasn't a thing to
+do but hang around with the car this morning and you might as well ride
+as walk.  I'll phone you in plenty of time."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He lifted his hat and gave her a last look that kept the glow in her
+cheeks.  She turned and went with swift steps in to her elevator.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sidney Graham dropped his chauffeur at the station to enquire about
+trains and get tickets, with orders to report at his office within an
+hour, and himself took the wheel.  Quickly working his way out of the
+city's traffic he put on all possible speed toward Glenside.  He must
+get a glimpse of things and see that all was going well before he went
+to the office.  What would Shirley have said if she had carried out her
+plan of coming out for her mother's shawl?  He must put a stop to that
+at all costs.  She simply must not see the old barn till the work was
+done, or the whole thing would be spoiled.  Strange it had not occurred
+to him that she might want to come back after something!  Well, he
+would just have to be on the continual lookout.  For one thing he would
+stop at a store on the way back and purchase a couple of big steamer
+rugs and a long warm cloak.  He could smuggle them into the cottage
+somehow and have the servants bring them out for common use as if they
+belonged to the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was as eager as a child over every little thing that had been
+started during his absence, and walked about with the boss carpenter,
+settling two or three questions that had come up the day before.  In
+ten minutes he was back in his car, whirling toward the city again,
+planning how he could best get those rugs and cloaks into the hands of
+the housekeeper at the shore without anybody suspecting that they were
+new.  Then it occurred to him to take them down to Elizabeth and let
+her engineer the matter.  There must be two cloaks, one for Shirley,
+for he wanted to take her out in the car sometimes and her little scrap
+of a coat was entirely too thin even for summer breezes at the shore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley met with a great ovation when she entered the office.  It was
+evident that her fame had gone before her.  Mr. Barnard was already
+there, smiling benevolently, and Mr. Clegg frowning approvingly over
+his spectacles at her, The other office clerks came to shake hands or
+called congratulations, till Shirley was quite overwhelmed at her
+reception.  Clegg and Barnard both followed her into the inner office
+and continued to congratulate her on the bravery she had shown and to
+express their appreciation of her loyalty and courage in behalf of the
+firm.  Mr. Barnard handed her a check for a hundred dollars as a slight
+token of their appreciation of her work, telling her that beginning
+with the first of the month her salary was to be raised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When at last she sat down to her typewriter and began to click out the
+wonderful notes that had made so much trouble, and put them in shape
+for practical use, her head was in a whirl and her heart was beating
+with a childish ecstasy.  She felt as if she were living a real fairy
+tale, and would not ever be able to get back to common every-day life
+again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half-past eleven Graham called her up to tell her there was a train
+a little after twelve if she could be ready, and the car would be
+waiting for her in fifteen minutes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she finally tore herself away from the smiles and effusive thanks
+of Barnard and Clegg and took the elevator down to the street she found
+Sidney Graham himself awaiting her eagerly.  This was a delightful
+surprise, for he had not said anything about coming himself or
+mentioned when he would be coming back to the shore, so she had been
+feeling that It might be some time before she would see him again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had just slammed the door of the car and taken his seat beside her
+when a large gray limousine slowed down beside them and a radiant,
+well-groomed, much-tailored young woman leaned out of the car, smiling
+at Graham, and passing over Shirley with one of those unseeing stares
+wherewith some girls know so well how to erase other girls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, Sidney!  I'm so glad I met you!" she cried.  "Mother has been
+phoning everywhere to find you.  We are out at our country place for a
+couple of weeks, and she wants to ask you to come over this afternoon
+for a little tennis tournament we are having, with a dance on the lawn
+afterward."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That's very kind of you, Harriet," said Graham pleasantly, "but I
+can't possibly be there.  I have an engagement out of town for this
+afternoon and evening.  Give my regards to your mother, please, and
+thank her for the invitation.  I know you'll have a lovely time, you
+always do at your house."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, that's too bad, Sidney!" pouted the girl.  "Why will you be so
+busy! and in the summer-time, too!  You ought to take a vacation!
+Well, if you can't come to-night, you'll run down over the week-end,
+won't you?  We are having the Foresters and the Harveys.  You like
+them, and we simply can't do without you."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sorry," said Graham, smilingly, "but I've got all my week-ends filled
+up just now.  Harriet, let me introduce you to Miss Hollister.  Miss
+Hale, Miss Hollister!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then did Harriet Hale have to take over her unseeing stare and
+acknowledge the introduction; somewhat stiffly, it must be
+acknowledged, for Harriet Hale did not enjoy having her invitations
+declined, and she could not quite place this girl with the lovely face
+and the half-shabby garments, that yet had somehow an air of having
+been made by a French artist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I'm sorry, Harriet, but we'll have to hurry away.  We're going to
+catch a train at twelve-fifteen.  Hope you have a beautiful time this
+afternoon.  Remember me to Tom Harvey and the Foresters.  Sorry to
+disappoint you, Harriet, but you see I've got my time just full up at
+present.  Hope to see you soon again."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were off, Shirley with the impression of Harriet Hale's smile of
+vinegar and roses; the roses for Graham, the vinegar for her.
+Shirley's heart was beating wildly underneath her quiet demeanor.  She
+had at last met the wonderful Harriet Hale, and Graham had not been
+ashamed to introduce her!  There had been protection and enthronement
+in his tone as he spoke her name!  It had not been possible for Miss
+Hale to patronize her after that.  Shirley was still in a daze of
+happiness.  She did not think ahead.  She had all she could do to
+register new occurrences and emotions, and realize that her joy was not
+merely momentary.  It had not occurred to her to wonder where Graham
+was going out of town.  It was enough that he was here now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they reached the station Graham took two large packages out of the
+car, and gave some directions to the chauffeur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sorry we couldn't have gone down in the car again," he said as they
+walked into the station, "but it needs some repairs and I don't want to
+take as long a run as that until it has been thoroughly overhauled."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he was going down too!  He had declined Harriet Hale's invitation
+to go back to the cottage with her!  Shirley's breath came in little
+happy gasps as she walked beside her companion down the platform to the
+train.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She found herself presently being seated in a big green velvet chair in
+the parlor car while the porter stowed away the two big packages in the
+rack overhead.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap27"></a>
+CHAPTER XXVII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+There was only one other passenger in the car, an old man nodding
+behind a newspaper, with his chair facing in the other direction.
+Graham took a swift survey of him and turned happily back with a smile
+to Shirley:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At last I have you to myself!" he said with a sigh of satisfaction
+that made Shirley's cheeks bloom out rosily again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He whirled her chair and his quite away from the vision of the old man,
+so that they were at the nearest possible angle to each other, and
+facing the windows.  Then he sat down and leaned toward her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shirley," he said in a tone of proprietorship that was tender and
+beautiful, "I've waited just as long as I'm going to wait to tell you
+something.  I know it's lunch time, and I'm going to take you into the
+dining-car pretty soon and get you some lunch, but I must have a little
+chance to talk with you first, please."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley's eyes gave glad permission and he hurried on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Shirley, I love you.  I guess you've been seeing that for some time.
+I knew I ought to hide it till you knew me better, but I simply
+couldn't do it.  I never saw a girl like you, and I knew the minute I
+looked at you that you were of finer clay than other girls, anyway.  I
+knew that if I couldn't win you and marry you I would never love
+anybody else.  But yesterday when I heard you were in peril away off
+down in Washington and I away up here helpless to save you, and not
+even having the right to organize a search for you, I nearly went wild!
+All the way down on the train I kept shutting my eyes and trying to
+pray the way you told your Sunday School boys how to pray.  But all I
+could get out was, 'Oh, God, I love her!  Save her!  I love her!'
+Shirley, I know I'm not one-half worthy enough for you, but I love you
+with all my heart and I want you for my wife.  Will you marry me,
+Shirley?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she had recovered a little from her wonder and astonishment, and
+realized that he had asked her to marry him, and was waiting for his
+answer, she lifted her wondering eyes to his face, and tried to speak
+as her conscience and reason bade her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I'm not like the other girls you know," she said bravely.  Then he
+broke in upon her fervently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, you're not like any other girl I know in the whole wide world.
+Thank God for that!  You are one among a thousand!  No, you're one
+among the whole earthful of women!  You're the <i>only</i> one I could ever
+love!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But listen, please; you haven't thought.  I'm not a society girl.  I
+don't belong in your circle.  I couldn't grace your position the way
+your wife ought to do.  Remember, we're nobodies.  We're poor!  We live
+in a <i>barn</i>!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What do you suppose I care about that?" he answered eagerly.  "You may
+live in a barn all your days if you like, and I'll love you just the
+same.  I'll come and live in the barn with you if you want me to.  My
+position!  My circle!  What's that?  You'll grace my home and my life
+as no other girl could do.  You heart of my heart!  You strong, sweet
+spirit!  The only question I'm going to ask of you is, Can you love me?
+If you can, I know I can make you happy, for I love you better than my
+life.  Answer, please.  Do you love me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She lifted her eyes, and their spirits broke through their glances.  If
+the old man at the other end of the car was looking they did not know
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They came back to the cottage at the shore with a manner so blissful
+and so unmistakable that even the children noticed.  Elizabeth
+whispered to Carol at table: "My brother likes your sister a lot,
+doesn't he?  I hope she likes him, too."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I guess she does," responded Carol philosophically.  "She oughtta.
+He's been awfully good to her, and to all of us."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"People don't like people just for that," said wise Elizabeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harley, out on the veranda after dinner, drew near to Carol to confide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Say, kid, I guess he <i>has</i> got a case on her all right now.  Gee!
+Wouldn't that be great?  Think of all those cars!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Carol giggled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good night!  Harley!  How could we ever have a wedding in a barn?  And
+they're such particular people, too!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Aw, gee!" said Harley, disgusted.  "You girls are always thinking of
+things like that!  As if that mattered.  You can get married in a
+chicken-run if you really have a case like that on each other!  <i>You
+make me tired!</i>" and he stalked away in offended male dignity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime the unconscious subjects of this discussion had gone to Mrs.
+Hollister to confess, and the sea was forgotten by all three for that
+one evening at least, even though the moon was wide and bright and gave
+a golden pathway across the dark water.  For a great burden had rolled
+from Mrs. Hollister's shoulders when she found her beloved eldest
+daughter was really loved by this young man, and he was not just
+amusing himself for a little while at her expense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The days that followed were like one blissful fleeting dream to
+Shirley.  She just could not get used to the fact that she was engaged
+to such a prince among men!  It seemed as if she were dreaming, and
+that presently she would wake up and find herself in the office with a
+great pile of letters to write, and the perplexing problem before her
+of where they were going to live next winter.  She had broached that
+subject once to Graham shyly, saying that she must begin to look around
+as soon as she got back to town, and he put her aside, asking her to
+leave that question till they all went back, as he had a plan he
+thought she might think well of, but he couldn't tell her about it just
+yet.  He also began to urge her to write at once to Mr. Barnard and
+resign her position, but that she would not hear of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No," she said decidedly.  "We couldn't live without my salary, and
+there are a lot of things to be thought out and planned before I can be
+married.  Besides, we need to get to know each other and to grow into
+each other's lives a little bit.  You haven't any idea even now how far
+I am from being fitted to be the wife of a man in your position.  You
+may be sorry yet.  If you are ever going to find it out, I want you to
+do it beforehand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked adoringly into her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I know perfectly now, dear heart!" he said, "and I'm not going to be
+satisfied to wait a long time for you to find out that you don't really
+care for me after all.  If you've got to find that out, I believe I'd
+rather it would be after I have you close and fast and you'll <i>have</i> to
+like me anyway."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then the wonder and thrill of it all would roll over her again and
+she would look into his eyes and be satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still she continued quite decided that nothing could be done about
+prolonging her vacation, for she meant to go back to Barnard and
+Clegg's on the day set.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You know I'm the man of the house," she said archly.  "I can't quite
+see it at all myself&mdash;how I'm ever going to give up."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I thought I was going to be the man of the house," pleaded Sidney.
+"I'm sure I'm quite capable and eager to look out for the interests of
+my wife's family."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But you see I'm not the kind of a girl that has been looking around
+for a man who will support my family."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, you surely are not!" said the young man, laughing.  "If you had
+been, young lady, I expect you'd have been looking yet so far as I am
+concerned.  It is because you are what you are that I love you.  Now
+that's all right about being independent, but it's about time to fight
+this thing to a finish.  I don't see why we all have to be made
+miserable just because there are a lot of unpleasant precedents and
+conventions and crochets in the world.  Why may I not have the pleasure
+of helping to take care of your perfectly good family if I want to?  It
+is one of the greatest pleasures to which I am looking forward, to try
+and make them just as happy as I can, so that you will be the happier.
+I've got plenty to do it with.  God has been very good to me in that
+way, and why should you try to hinder me?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then the discussion would end in a bewildering look of worshipful
+admiration on Shirley's part and a joyous taking possession of her and
+carrying her off on some ride or walk or other on the part of Graham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not care just now that she was slow to make plans.  He was
+enjoying each day, each hour, to the full.  He wanted to keep her from
+thinking about the future, and especially about the winter, till she
+got home, and so he humored her and led her to other topics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One night, as they sat on the dark veranda alone, Graham said to George:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If you were going to college, where would you want to prepare?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He wondered what the boy would say, for the subject of college had
+never been mentioned with relation to George.  He did not know whether
+the boy had ever thought of it.  But the answer came promptly in a
+ringing voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Central High!  They've got the best football team in the city."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Then you wouldn't want to go away to some preparatory school?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No, <i>sir</i>!" was the decided answer.  "I believe in the public school
+every time!  When I was a little kid I can remember my father taking me
+to walk and pointing out the Central High School, and telling me that
+some day I would go there to school.  I used to always call that 'my
+school.'  I used to think I'd get there yet, some day, but I guess
+that's out of the question."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, George, if that's your choice you can get ready to enter as soon
+as you go back to the city."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What?"  George's feet came down from the veranda railing with a thud,
+and he sat upright in the darkness and stared wildly at his prospective
+brother-in-law.  Then he slowly relaxed and his young face grew grim
+and stern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"No chance!" he said laconically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Why not?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Because I've got my mother and the children to support.  I can't waste
+time going to school.  I've got to be a <i>man</i>."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Something sudden like a choke came in the young man's throat, and a
+great love for the brave boy who was so courageous in his self-denial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"George, you're not a man yet, and you'll shoulder the burden twice as
+well when you're equipped with a college education.  I mean you shall
+have it.  Do you suppose I'm going to let my new brother slave away
+before his time?  No, sir; you're going to get ready to make the best
+man that's in you.  And as for your mother and the family, isn't she
+going to be my mother, and aren't they to be my family?  We'll just
+shoulder the job together, George, till you're older&mdash;and then we'll
+see."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But I couldn't take charity from anybody."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not even from a brother?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Not even from a brother."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Well, suppose we put it in another way.  Suppose you borrow the money
+from me to keep things going, and when you are ready to pay it back
+we'll talk about it then.  Or, better still, suppose you agree to pass
+it on to some other brother when you are able."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They talked a long time in the dark, and Graham had quite a hard time
+breaking down the boy's reserve and independence, and getting a real
+brotherly confidence.  But at last George yielded, saw the common sense
+and right of the thing, and laid an awkward hand in the man's, growling
+out:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You're a pippin and no mistake, Mr. Graham.  I can't ever thank you
+enough!  I never thought anything like this would happen to me!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Don't try thanks, George.  We're brothers now, you know.  Just you do
+your best at school, and it's all I ask.  Shirley and I are going to be
+wonderfully proud of you.  But please don't call me Mr. Graham any
+more.  Sid, or Sidney, or anything you like, but no more mistering."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He flung a brotherly arm across the boy's shoulders and together they
+went into the house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime the beautiful days went by in one long, golden dream of
+wonder.  The children were having the time of their lives, and
+Elizabeth was never so happy.  Shirley sat on the wide verandas and
+read the wealth of books and magazines which the house contained, or
+roamed the beach with the children and Star, or played in the waves
+with Doris, and wondered if it were really Shirley Hollister who was
+having all this good time.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap28"></a>
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The morning they all started back to the city was a memorable one.
+Graham had insisted that Shirley ask for a holiday until Tuesday
+morning so that she might go up with them in the car, and have the
+whole day to be at home and help her mother get settled.  She had
+consented, and found to her surprise that Mr. Barnard was most kind
+about it.  He had even added that he intended to raise her salary, and
+she might consider that hereafter she was to have ten dollars more per
+month for her services, which they valued very highly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George had sent his resignation to the store and was not to go back at
+all.  Graham had arranged that, for school began the day after his
+return and he would need to be free at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elizabeth, to her great delight, was to go with the Hollisters and
+remain a few days until her parents returned.  Mrs. Graham had written
+from the West making a proposition to Mrs. Hollister that Carol be
+allowed to go to school with Elizabeth the next winter, because Mrs.
+Graham felt it would be so good for Elizabeth to have a friend like
+that.  Mrs. Hollister, however, answered that she felt it better for
+her little girl to remain with her mother a little longer; and that she
+did not feel it would be a good thing for her child, who would be
+likely to have a simple life before her with very few luxuries, to go
+to a fashionable finishing-school where the standards must all
+necessarily be so different from those of her own station in life, and,
+kind as the offer had been, she must decline it.  She did not say that
+Carol had fairly bristled at the idea of leaving her beloved high
+school now when she was a senior and only one year before her
+graduation.  That bit of horror and hysterics on Carol's part had been
+carefully suppressed within the four walls of her mother's room; but
+Elizabeth, deeply disappointed, had wept her heart out over the matter,
+and finally been comforted by the promise that Mrs. Hollister would
+write and ask Mrs. Graham to allow Elizabeth to go to school with Carol
+the coming winter.  That proposition was now on its way West, together
+with an announcement of Sidney's engagement to Shirley.  Sidney was
+confidently expecting congratulatory telegrams that morning when he
+reached the city.  He had written his father in detail all about their
+plans for returning, and how the work at the old barn was progressing,
+and Mr. Graham, Senior, was too good a manager not to plan to greet the
+occasion properly.  Therefore Graham stopped at his office for a few
+minutes before taking the family out to Glenside, and, sure enough,
+came down with his hands full of letters and telegrams, and one long
+white envelope which he put carefully in his breast pocket.  They had a
+great time reading the telegrams and letters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The way out to Glenside seemed very short now, watching as they did for
+each landmark.  The children were as eager to get back as they had been
+to leave, and Star snuggled in between Harley's feet, held his head
+high, and smiled benevolently on everybody, as if he knew he was going
+home and was glad.  They began to wonder about the chickens, and if the
+garden was all dried up, and whether the doves were all right.  There
+was an undertone of sadness and suppressed excitement, for it was in
+the minds of all the Hollisters that the time in the old barn must of
+necessity be growing brief.  The fall would soon be upon them, and a
+need for warmth.  They must go hunting for a house at once.  And yet
+they all wanted this one day of delight before they faced that question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last they reached the final curve and could see the tall old tree in
+the distance, and the clump of willows knee-deep in the brook.  By
+common consent they all grew silent, watching for the first glimpse of
+the dear old barn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they came around the curve, and there it was!  But what was the
+matter?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobody spoke.  It seemed as if they could not get their breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley rubbed her eyes, and looked again.  Mrs. Hollister gave a
+startled look from her daughter to Graham and back to the barn again.
+Elizabeth and Carol were utterly silent, grasping each other's hands in
+violent ecstasy.  The boys murmured inarticulately, of which the only
+audible words were: "Good night!  Some class!"  Doris looked for a long
+second, puckered her lips as if she were going to cry, and inquired
+pitifully: "I yant my dear barn house home!  I yant to doh home!" and
+Star uttered a sharp, bewildered bark and bounded from the car as if
+this were something he ought to attend to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But before anybody could say anything more, Graham brought out the long
+white envelope and handed it to Shirley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Before you get out and go in I just want to say a word," he began.
+"Father and I both want Shirley to have the old barn for her very own,
+to do with as she pleases.  This envelope contains the deed for the
+property made out in her name.  We have tried to put it in thorough
+repair before handing it over to her, and if there is anything more she
+can think of that it needs we'll do that too.  And now, welcome home to
+the old barn!  Mother, may I help you out?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"But there isn't any barn any more," burst forth the irrepressible
+Elizabeth.  "The barn's gone!  It's just a house!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, sure enough, there stood a stately stone mansion on a wide green
+terrace, where shrubs and small trees were grouped fittingly about,
+erasing all signs of the old pasture-land; and the old grassy incline
+to the door now rolled away in velvety lawn on either side of a smooth
+cement walk bordered with vivid scarlet geraniums.  Trailing vines and
+autumn flowers were blossoming in jars on the wide stone railing.  The
+old barn door had been replaced by glass which gave a glimpse of
+strange new rooms beyond, and the roof had broken forth in charming
+colonial dormer windows like a new French hat on a head that had worn
+the same old poke bonnet for years.  No wonder Doris didn't recognize
+the dear old barn.  It did seem as though a wizard had worked magic
+upon it.  How was one to know that only a brief half-hour before the
+old gardener from the Graham estate set the last geranium in the row
+along the walk, and trailed the last vine over the stone wall; or that
+even now the corps of men who had been hastily laying and patting the
+turf in place over the terrace were in hiding down in the basement,
+with their wheelbarrows and picks and spades, having beat a hasty
+retreat at the sound of the car coming, and were only waiting till they
+could get away unobserved?  For orders were orders, and the orders were
+that the work was to be <i>done</i> and every man out of sight by the time
+they arrived.  A bonus to every man if the orders were obeyed.  That is
+what money and influence can do in a month!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In due time they got themselves out of that car in a sort of bewildered
+daze and walked up the new cement path, feeling strangely like
+intruders as they met the bright stare of the geraniums.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked the length of the new piazza in delight.  They exclaimed
+and started and smiled and almost wept in one another's arms.  Graham
+stood and watched Shirley's happy face and was satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first thing Doris did when she got inside the lovely glass door was
+to start to run for her own little willow chair and her own little old
+rag doll that had been left behind, and down she went on the slippery
+floor.  And there, behold, the old barn floors too had disappeared
+under a coating of simple matched hardwood flooring, oiled and polished
+smoothly, and Doris was not expecting it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She got up quickly, half ashamed, and looked around laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I vas skating!" she declared with a ringing laugh.  "I skated yite
+down on mine nose."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she hurried more cautiously to the haven of her own chair, and
+with her old doll hugged to her breast she reiterated over and over as
+if to reassure herself: "Mine!  Doris!  Mine!  Doris!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Words would fail to describe all they said about the wonderful rooms,
+the walls all shining in a soft rough-finish plaster, tinted creamy on
+the upper half and gray below, and finished in dark chestnut trimmings;
+of the beautiful staircase and the wide bay window opening from the
+first landing like a little half-way room, with seats to rest upon.  It
+was standing in this bay window that Graham first called Mrs.
+Hollister's attention to something strange and new outside behind the
+house.  It was a long, low glass building with green things gleaming
+through its shining roof.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"There, mother," he said, coming up softly behind her.  "There is your
+plaything.  You said you had always wanted a hot-house, so we made you
+one.  It is heated from a coil in the furnace, and you can try all the
+experiments with flowers you want to.  We put in a few things to start
+with, and you can get more at your leisure."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mrs. Hollister gave one look, and then turned and put her arms around
+the tall young man, reaching up on her tip-toes to do so, brought his
+handsome face down to hers, and kissed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"My dear son!" she said.  That was all, but he knew that she had
+accepted him and given him a loving place with her own children in her
+heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were shoutings and runnings up stairs and down by first one and
+then another.  The bathrooms were discovered one by one, and then they
+had to all rush down into the basement by the new stairs to see the new
+laundry and the new furnace, and the entrance to the hot-house; and the
+hot-house itself, with its wealth of bloom transplanted from the Graham
+greenhouses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They almost forgot the chickens and the doves, and the garden was a
+past Eden not to be remembered till long hours afterward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sunset was dying away in the sky, and the stars were large and few
+and piercing in the twilight night when Shirley and Sidney came walking
+up the terrace arm in arm, and found Doris sitting in the doorway
+cuddling her old rag doll and a new little gray kitten the farmer next
+door had brought her, and singing an evening song to herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shirley and Sidney turned and looked off at the sky where a rosy stain
+was blending softly into the gray of evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Do you remember the first night we stood here together?" Sidney said
+in a low tone, as he drew her fingers within his own.  "I loved you
+then, Shirley, that first night&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then Doris's little shrill voice chimed above their murmurings:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Oh, mine nice dear home!  Mine kitty an' mine dolly! and mine piazza!
+and mine bafwoom wif a place to swim boats! an' mine fowers an' pitty
+house!  No more barn!  Barn <i>all dawn</i>!  Never turn bat any moh!  Oh,
+mine nice, pitty dear home!"
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
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diff --git a/34426-h/images/img-front.jpg b/34426-h/images/img-front.jpg
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #34426 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34426)
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+Project Gutenberg's The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Enchanted Barn
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Illustrator: Edmund Frederick
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2011 [EBook #34426]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED BARN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: SHE WAS ALMOST BREATHLESS WHEN SHE REACHED THE BOTTOM OF
+THE HILL AND STOOD IN FRONT OF THE GREAT BARN.  _Page 20_]
+
+
+
+
+
+The Enchanted Barn
+
+
+By
+
+Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+Author of "Marcia Schuyler," "Phoebe Deane," "The Obsession of Victoria
+Gracen," etc.
+
+
+
+_With Frontispiece by_
+
+EDMUND FREDERICK
+
+
+
+
+Philadelphia & London
+
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE GOLDEN RULE COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+
+
+PUBLISHED APRIL, 1918
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+
+PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Shirley Hollister pushed back the hair from her hot forehead, pressed
+her hands wearily over tired eyes, then dropped her fingers again to
+the typewriter keys, and flew on with the letter she was writing.
+
+There was no one else in the inner office where she sat.  Mr. Barnard,
+the senior member of the firm, whose stenographer she was, had stepped
+into the outer office for a moment with a telegram which he had just
+received.  His absence gave Shirley a moment's respite from that
+feeling that she must keep strained up to meet his gaze and not let
+trouble show in her eyes, though a great lump was choking in her throat
+and the tears stung her hot eyelids and insisted on blurring her vision
+now and then.  But it was only for an instant that she gave way.  Her
+fingers flew on with their work, for this was an important letter, and
+Mr. Barnard wanted it to go in the next mail.
+
+As she wrote, a vision of her mother's white face appeared to her
+between the lines, the mother weak and white, with tears on her cheeks
+and that despairing look in her eyes.  Mother hadn't been able to get
+up for a week.  It seemed as if the cares of life were getting almost
+too much for her, and the warm spring days made the little brick house
+in the narrow street a stifling place to stay.  There was only one
+small window in mother's room, opening against a brick wall, for they
+had had to rent the front room with its two windows.
+
+But, poor as it was, the little brick house had been home; and now they
+were not to have that long.  Notice had been served that they must
+vacate in four weeks; for the house, in fact, the whole row of houses
+in which it was situated, had been sold, and was to be pulled down to
+make way for a big apartment-house that was to be put up.
+
+Where they were going and what they were going to do now was the great
+problem that throbbed on Shirley's weary brain night and day, that kept
+her from sleeping and eating, that choked in her throat when she tried
+to speak to Mr. Barnard, that stared from her feverish eyes as she
+looked at the sunshine on the street or tried to work in the busy
+monotony of the office.
+
+They had been in the little house nearly a year, ever since the father
+died.  It had taken all they could scrape together to pay the funeral
+expenses, and now with her salary, and the roomer's rent, and what
+George got as cash-boy in a department store they were just barely able
+to get along.  There was not a cent over for sickness or trouble, and
+nothing to move with, even if they had anywhere to move, or any time to
+hunt for a place.  Shirley knew from her experience in hunting for the
+present house that it was going to be next to impossible for them to
+find any habitable place for as little rent as they were now paying,
+and how _could_ they pay more?  She was only a beginner, and her salary
+was small.  There were three others in the family, not yet
+wage-earners.  The problem was tremendous.  Could it be that Carol,
+only fourteen years old, must stop school and go to work somewhere to
+earn a pittance also?  Carol was slender and pale, and needed fresh air
+and nourishing food.  Carol was too young to bear burdens yet; besides,
+who would be housekeeper and take care of mother if Carol had to go to
+work?  It was different with George; he was a boy, strong and sturdy;
+he had his school in the department store, and was getting on well with
+his studies.  George would be all right.  He belonged to a baseball
+team, too, and got plenty of chances for exercise; but Carol was frail,
+there was no denying it.  Harley was a boisterous nine-year-old, always
+on the street these days when he wasn't in school; and who could blame
+him?  For the narrow, dark brick house was no place for a lively boy.
+But the burden and anxiety for him were heavy on his sister's heart,
+who had taken over bodily all the worries of her mother.  Then there
+was the baby Doris, with her big, pathetic eyes, and her round cheeks
+and loving ways.  Doris, too, had to be shut in the dark little house
+with the summer heat coming on, and no one with time enough or strength
+enough to take her to the Park.  Doris was only four.  Oh, it was
+terrible, _terrible_!  and Shirley could do nothing but sit there, and
+click those keys, and earn her poor little inadequate salary!  Some
+day, of course, she would get more--but some day might be too late!
+
+She shuddered as the terrible thought flashed through her mind, then
+went on with her work again.  She must shake off this state of mind and
+give attention to her duty, or she would lose even this opportunity to
+help her dear ones.
+
+The door of the outer office opened, and Mr. Barnard entered.
+
+"Miss Hollister," he said hurriedly, "if you have those letters ready,
+I will sign them at once.  We have just had word that Mr. Baker of the
+firm died last night in Chicago, and I must go on at once.  The office
+will be closed for the rest of the day.  You can let those other
+matters that I spoke of go until to-morrow, and you may have the day
+off.  I shall not be at the office at the usual hour to-morrow morning,
+but you can come in and look after the mail.  I will leave further
+directions with Mr. Clegg.  You can mail these letters as you go down."
+
+Ten minutes later Shirley stood on the street below in the warm spring
+sunshine, and gazed about her half dazed.  It seemed a travesty on her
+poor little life just now to have a holiday and no way to make it count
+for the dear ones at home.  How should she use it, anyway?  Should she
+go home and help Carol?  Or should she go out and see whether she could
+find a house somewhere that they could possibly afford to move to?
+That, of course, was the sensible thing to do; yet she had no idea
+where to go.  But they did not expect her home at this time of day.
+Perhaps it was as well that she should use this time and find out
+something without worrying her mother.  At least, she would have time
+to think undisturbed.
+
+She grasped her little package of lunch that she had brought from home
+with her and looked about her helplessly.  In her little thin purse was
+the dime she always carried with her to pay her car-fare in case
+something happened that she had to ride either way--though she seldom
+rode, even in a storm.  But her mother insisted on the dime.  She said
+it was not safe to go without any money at all.  This dime was her
+capital wherewith to hunt a house.  Perhaps the day had been given her
+by a kind heavenly Father to go on her search.  She would try to use it
+to the best of her ability.  She lifted her bewildered heart in a
+feeble petition for light and help in her difficult problem, and then
+she went and stood on the corner of the street where many trolley-cars
+were passing and repassing.  Which one should she take, and where
+should she go?  The ten cents must cover all her riding, and she must
+save half of it for her return.
+
+She studied the names on the cars.  "Glenside Road" one read.  What had
+she heard about that?  Ah! that it was the longest ride one could take
+for five cents within the limits of the city's roads!  Her heart leaped
+up at the word.  It sounded restful anyway, and would give her time to
+think.  It wasn't likely, if it went near any glens, that there would
+be any houses within her means on its way; but possibly it passed some
+as it went through the city, and she could take notice of the streets
+and numbers and get out on her return trip to investigate if there
+proved to be anything promising; or, if it were too far away from home
+for her to walk back from it, she could come another time in the
+evening with George, some night when he did not have school.  Anyhow,
+the ride would rest her and give her a chance to think what she ought
+to do, and one car was as good as another for that.  Her resolve was
+taken, and she stepped out and signalled it.
+
+There were not many people in the car.  It was not an hour when people
+rode out to the suburbs.  Two workmen with rolls of wall-paper slung in
+burlap bags, a woman and a little girl, that was all.
+
+Shirley settled back in her seat, and leaned her head against the
+window-sash wearily.  She felt so tired, body and soul, that she would
+have been glad to sleep and forget for a little while, only that there
+was need for her to be up and doing.  Her room had been oppressively
+warm the night before; and Doris, who slept with her, had rolled from
+one side of the bed to the other, making sleep well-nigh impossible for
+the elder sister.  She felt bruised and bleeding in her very soul, and
+longed for rest.
+
+The car was passing through the thickest of the city's business
+thoroughfare, and the noise and confusion whirled about her ears like
+some fiendish monotonous music that set the time for the mad dance of
+the world.  One danced to it whether one would or not, and danced on to
+one's death.
+
+Around the city hall the car passed, and on up Market Street.  They
+passed a great fruit-store, and the waft of air that entered the open
+windows came laden with the scent of over-ripe bananas, late oranges
+and lemons; a moment later with sickening fumes it blended into a
+deadly smell of gas from a yawning hole in the pavement, and mingled
+with the sweat of the swarthy foreigners grouped about it, picks in
+hand.  It seemed as though all the smells in creation were met and
+congregated in that street within four or five blocks; and one by one
+they tortured her, leather and paint and metal and soap, rank cheese in
+a fellow traveller's market-basket, thick stifling smoke from a street
+engine that was champing up the gravel they fed it to make a new patch
+of paving, the stench from the cattle-sheds as they passed the railroad
+and stock-yards, the dank odor of the river as they crossed the bridge,
+and then an oilcloth-factory just beyond!  The faint sweet breath of
+early daffodils and violets from an occasional street vendor stood no
+chance at all with these, and all the air seemed sickening and dreadful
+to the girl as she rested wearily against the window with closed eyes,
+and tried to think.
+
+They slipped at last into the subway with a whir and a swish, where the
+cool, clean smell of the cement seemed gradually to rise and drown the
+memory of the upper world, and came refreshingly in at the windows.
+Shirley had a passing thought, wondering whether it would be like that
+in the grave, all restful and sweet and quiet and clean, with the
+noisy, heartless world roaring overhead.  Then they came up suddenly
+out of the subway, with a kind of triumphant leap and shout of brakes
+and wheels, into the light and sunshine above, and a new world.  For
+here were broad streets, clean pavements, ample houses, well-trimmed
+lawns, quiet people walking in comfort, bits of flower-boxes on the
+window-sills filled with pansies and hyacinths; and the air was sweet
+and clean.  The difference made Shirley sit up and look about her, and
+the contrast reminded her of the heaven that would be beyond the grave.
+It was just because she was so tired and disheartened that her thoughts
+took this solemn form.
+
+But now her heart sank again, for she was in the world of plenty far
+beyond her means, and there was no place for such as she.  Not in
+either direction could she see any little side streets with tiny houses
+that would rent for fifteen dollars a month.  There were such in the
+city, she knew; but they were scarce, and were gobbled up as soon as
+vacant.
+
+But here all was spaciousness, and even the side streets had three
+stories and smug porches with tidy rockers and bay windows.
+
+She looked at the great plate-glass windows with their cobwebby lace
+draperies, and thought what it would be if she were able to take her
+mother and the children to such a home as one of those.  Why, if she
+could afford that, George could go to college, and Doris wear a little
+velvet coat with rose-buds in her bonnet, like the child on the
+sidewalk with her nurse and her doll-carriage.
+
+But a thing like that could never come to her.  There were no rich old
+uncles to leave them a fortune; she was not bright and gifted to invent
+some wonderful toy or write a book or paint a picture that would bring
+the fortune; and no one would ever come her way with a fortune to marry
+her.  Those things happened only in story-books, and she was not a
+story-book girl; she was just a practical, every-day, hard-working girl
+with a fairly good complexion, good blue eyes and a firm chin.  She
+could work hard and was willing; but she could not bear anxiety.  It
+was eating into her soul, and she could feel a kind of mental paralysis
+stealing over her from it, benumbing her faculties hour by hour.
+
+The car glided on, and the houses grew less stately and farther apart.
+They were not so pretentious now, but they were still substantial and
+comfortable, with more ground and an air of having been there always,
+with no room for newcomers.  Now and then would come a nucleus of shops
+and an old tavern with a group of new groceries and crying competition
+of green stamps and blue stamps and yellow stamps posted alluringly in
+their windows.  Here busy, hurried people would swarm, and children ran
+and shouted; but every house they passed seemed full to overflowing,
+and there was nowhere any place that seemed to say, "Here you may come
+and find room!"
+
+And now the car left the paved and built-up streets, and wandered out
+between the open fields, where trees arched lavishly overhead, and
+little new green things lifted up unfrightened heads, and dared to grow
+in the sunshine.  A new smell, the smell of rich earth and young green
+growing things, of skunk-cabbage in bloom in the swamps, of budding
+willows and sassafras, roused her senses; the hum of a bee on its way
+to find the first honey-drops came to her ears.  Sweet, droning,
+restful, with the call of a wild bird in the distance, and all the air
+balmy with the joy of spring.  Ah!  This was a new world!  This indeed
+was heaven!  What a contrast to the office, and the little narrow
+stifling brick house where mother lay, and Doris cut strings of paper
+dolls from an old newspaper and sighed to go out in the Park!  What a
+contrast!  Truly, this was heaven!  If she could but stay, and all the
+dear ones come!
+
+She had spent summers in the country, of course; and she knew and loved
+nature, but it had been five years since she had been free to get
+outside the city limits for more than a day, and then not far.  It
+seemed to her now that she had never sensed the beauty of the country
+as to-day; perhaps because she had never needed it as now.
+
+The road went on smoothly straight ahead, with now a rounding curve,
+and then another long stretch of perfect road.  Men were ploughing in
+the fields on one side, and on the other lay the emerald velvet of a
+field of spring wheat.  More people had got into the car as it left the
+city.  Plain, substantial men, nice, pleasant women; but Shirley did
+not notice them; she was watching the changing landscape and thinking
+her dismal, pitiful thoughts.  Thinking, too, that she had spent her
+money--or would have when she returned, with nothing to show for it,
+and her conscience condemned her.
+
+They were coming now to a wide, old-fashioned barn of stone, with ample
+grassy stone-coped entrance rising like a stately carpeted stairway
+from the barn-yard.  It was resting on the top of a green knoll, and a
+great elm-tree arched over it protectingly.  A tiny stream purled below
+at one side, and the ground sloped gradually off at the other.  Shirley
+was not noticing the place much except as it was a part of the
+landscape until she heard the conductor talking to the man across the
+aisle about it.
+
+"Good barn!" he was saying reflectively.  "Pity to have it standing
+idle so long; but they'll never rent it without a house, and they won't
+build.  It belongs to the old man's estate, and can't be divided until
+the youngest boy's of age, four 'r five years yet.  The house burned
+down two years ago.  Some tramps set it afire.  No, nobody was living
+in it at the time.  The last renter didn't make the farm pay,--too fur
+from the railroad, I guess,--and there ain't anybody near enough round
+to use the barn since Halyer built his new barn," and he indicated a
+great red structure down the road on the other side.  "Halyer useta use
+this,--rented it fer less'n nothing, but he got too lazy to come this
+fur, and so he sold off half his farm fer a dairy and built that there
+barn.  So now I s'pose that barn'll stand idle and run to waste till
+that kid comes of age and there's a boom up this way and it's sold.
+Pity about it, though; it's a good barn.  Wisht I had it up to my
+place; I could fill it."
+
+"Make a good location for a house," said the other man, looking
+intently at the big stone pile.  "Been a fine barn in its time.  Old
+man must uv had a pile of chink when he built it.  Who'd ya say owned
+it?"
+
+"Graham, Walter Graham, big firm down near the city hall--guess you
+know 'em.  Got all kinds of money.  This ain't one, two, three with the
+other places they own.  Got a regular palace out Arden way fer summer
+and a town house in the swellest neighborhood, and own land all over.
+Old man inherited it from his father and three uncles.  They don't even
+scarcely know they got this barn, I reckon.  It ain't very stylish out
+this way just yet."
+
+"Be a big boom here some day; nice location," said the passenger.
+
+"Not yetta while," said the conductor sagely; "railroad station's too
+far.  Wait till they get a station out Allister Avenue; then you can
+talk.  Till then it'll stay as it is, I reckon.  There's a spring down
+behind the barn, the best water in the county.  I useta get a drink
+every day when the switch was up here.  I missed it a lot when they
+moved the switch to the top of the hill.  Water's cold as ice and clear
+as crystal--can't be beat this side the soda-fountain.  I sometimes
+stop the car on a hot summer day now, and run and get a drink--it's
+great."
+
+The men talked on, but Shirley heard no more.  Her eyes were intent on
+the barn as they passed it--the great, beautiful, wide,
+comfortable-looking barn.  What a wonderful house it would make!  She
+almost longed to be a cow to enter this peaceful shelter and feel at
+home for a little while.
+
+The car went on, and left the big barn in the distance; but Shirley
+kept thinking, going over almost unconsciously all the men had said
+about it.  Walter Graham!  Where had she seen that name?  Oh, of course
+in the Ward Trust Building, the whole fourth floor.  Leather goods of
+some sort, perhaps, she couldn't just remember; yet she was sure of the
+name.
+
+The man had said the barn rented for almost nothing.  What could that
+mean translated in terms of dollars?  Would the fifteen dollars a month
+that they were now paying for the little brick house cover it?  But
+there would be the car-fare for herself and George.  Walking that
+distance twice a day, or even once, would be impossible.  Ten cents a
+day, sixty cents a week--twice sixty cents!  If they lived out of the
+city, they couldn't afford to pay but twelve dollars a month.  They
+never would rent that barn for that, of course, it was so big and
+grand-looking; and yet--it was a _barn_!  What did barns rent for,
+anyway?
+
+And, if it could be had, could they live in a barn?  What were barns
+like, anyway, inside?  Did they have floors, or only stalls and mud?
+There had been but two tiny windows visible in the front; how did they
+get light inside?  But then it couldn't be much darker than the brick
+house, no matter what it was.  Perhaps there was a skylight, and hay,
+pleasant hay, to lie down on and rest.  Anyhow, if they could only
+manage to get out there for the summer somehow, they could bear some
+discomforts just to sit under that great tree and look up at the sky.
+To think of Doris playing under that tree!  And mother sitting under it
+sewing!  Mother could get well out there in that fresh air, and Doris
+would get rosy cheeks again.  There would not likely be a school about
+for Carol; but that would not hurt her for the summer, anyway, and
+maybe by fall they could find a little house.  Perhaps she would get a
+raise in the fall.  If they could only get somewhere to go now!
+
+But yet--a barn!  Live in a barn!  What would mother say?  Would she
+feel that it was a disgrace?  Would she call it one of Shirley's wild
+schemes?  Well, but what were they going to do?  They must live
+_somewhere_, unless they were destined to die homeless.
+
+The car droned on through the open country coming now and then to
+settlements of prosperous houses, some of them small; but no empty ones
+seemed to beckon her.  Indeed, they looked too high-priced to make her
+even look twice at them; besides, her heart was left behind with that
+barn, that great, beautiful barn with the tinkling brook beside it, and
+the arching tree and gentle green slope.
+
+At last the car stopped in a commonplace little town in front of a red
+brick church, and everybody got up and went out.  The conductor
+disappeared, too, and the motorman leaned back on his brake and looked
+at her significantly.
+
+"End of the line, lady," he said with a grin, as if she were dreaming
+and had not taken notice of her surroundings.
+
+"Oh," said Shirley, rousing up, and looking bewilderedly about her.
+"Well, you go back, don't you?"
+
+"Yes.  Go back in fifteen minutes," said the motorman indulgently.
+There was something appealing in the sadness of this girl's eyes that
+made him think of his little girl at home.
+
+"Do you go back just the same way?" she asked with sudden alarm.  She
+did want to see that barn again, and to get its exact location so that
+she could come back to it some day if possible.
+
+"Yes, we go back just the same way," nodded the motorman.
+
+Shirley sat back in her seat again contented, and resumed her thoughts.
+The motorman took up his dinner-pail, sat down on a high stool with his
+back to her, and began to eat.  It was a good time now for her to eat
+her little lunch, but she was not hungry.  However, she would be if she
+did not eat it, of course; and there would be no other time when people
+would not be around.  She put her hand in her shabby coat-pocket for
+her handkerchief, and her fingers came into contact with something
+small and hard and round.  For a moment she thought it was a button
+that had been off her cuff for several days, But no, she remembered
+sewing that on that very morning.  Then she drew the little object out,
+and behold it was a five-cent piece!  Yes, of course, she remembered
+now.  It was the nickel she put in her pocket last night when she went
+for the extra loaf of bread and found the store closed.  She had made
+johnny-cake instead, and supper had been late; but the nickel had
+stayed in her coat-pocket forgotten.  And now suddenly a big temptation
+descended upon her, to spend that nickel in car-fare, riding to the
+barn and getting out for another closer look at it, and then taking the
+next car on into the city.  Was it wild and foolish, was it not perhaps
+actually wrong, to spend that nickel that way when they needed so much
+at home, and had so little?  A crazy idea,--for how could a barn ever
+be their shelter?
+
+She thought so hard about it that she forgot to eat her lunch until the
+motorman slammed the cover down on his tin pail and put the high stool
+away.  The conductor, too, was coming out of a tiny frame house, wiping
+his mouth with the back of his hand and calling to his wife, who stood
+in the doorway and told him about an errand she wanted him to do for
+her in the city.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew red with excitement, for the nickel was burning
+in her hand, and she knew in her heart that she was going to spend it
+getting off that car near that barn.  She would eat her lunch under the
+tree by the brook!  How exciting that would be!  At least it would be
+something to tell the children about at night!  Or no! they would think
+her crazy and selfish, perhaps, to waste a whole day and fifteen cents
+on herself.  Still, it was not on herself; it was really for them.  If
+they could only see that beautiful spot!
+
+When she handed her nickel to the conductor, she felt almost guilty,
+and it seemed as if he could see her intention in her eyes; but she
+told herself that she was not sure she was going to get off at all.
+She could decide as she came near the place.  She would have to get off
+either before she got there or after she had passed and walk back.  The
+conductor would think it strange if a young girl got off the car in the
+country in front of an empty barn.  How would she manage it?  There had
+been houses on the way, not far from the barn.  What was the name the
+conductor had mentioned of the man who had built another barn?  She
+might get off at his house, but still--stay--what was that avenue where
+they had said the railroad would come some day with a station?  They
+had called it out as they stopped to let off the woman and the little
+girl.  Allister Avenue!  That was it.  She would ask the conductor to
+let her off at Allister Avenue.
+
+She watched the way intently; and, as they neared the place where
+Allister Avenue ought to be, her heart pounded so that she felt quite
+conscious, as if she were going to steal a barn and carry it home in
+her coat-pocket.
+
+She managed to signal the car to stop quite quietly, however, and
+stepped down to the pavement as if it were her regular stopping-place.
+She was aware of the curious gaze of both motorman and conductor, but
+she held her head up, and walked a few steps up Allister Avenue until
+the car had whirred on out of sight.  Then she turned anxiously,
+looking down the road, and there to her joy saw the stone gable of the
+great barn high on its knoll in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Shirley walked down the dusty road by the side of the car-track,
+elation and excitement in her breast.  What an adventure!  To be
+walking alone in this strange, beautiful spring country, and nobody to
+interfere!  It was her Father's beautiful out-of-doors, and she had
+paid her extra nickel to have a right to it for a little while.
+Perhaps her mother would have been worried at her being alone in the
+country, but Shirley had no fears.  Young people seldom have fears.
+She walked down the road with a free step and a bright light in her
+eyes.  She had to see that barn somehow; she _just had to_!
+
+She was almost breathless when she reached the bottom of the hill at
+last, and stood in front of the great barn.  The up car passed her just
+as she got there, and the people looked out at her apathetically as
+they would at any country girl.  She stood still a minute, and watched
+the car up the hill and out of sight, then picked her way across the
+track, and entered the field where the fence was broken down, walking
+up the long grassy slope to the front of the barn and standing still at
+the top in front of the big double doors, so grim and forbidding.
+
+The barn was bigger than it looked in the distance.  She fell very
+small; yet her soul rejoiced in its bigness.  Oh, to have plenty of
+room for once!
+
+She put her nose close to the big doors, and tried to find a crack to
+look through; but the doors were tight and fitted well.  There was no
+use trying to see in from there.  She turned and ran down the long
+grassy slope, trying to pretend it was a palatial stairway, then around
+the side to the back of the barn, and there at last she found a door
+part way ajar, opening into what must have been the cow-stables, and
+she slipped joyously in.  Some good angel must have been protecting her
+in her ignorance and innocence, for that dark basement of the barn
+would have been an excellent hiding-place for a whole regiment of
+tramps; but she trod safely on her way, and found nothing but a
+field-mouse to dispute her entrance; and it scurried hastily under the
+foundation, and disappeared.
+
+The cow-stables evidently had not been occupied for a number of years,
+for the place was clean and littered with dry straw, as if it had
+fallen and sifted from the floor above.  The stalls were all empty now,
+and old farm implements, several ploughs, and a rickety wagon occupied
+the dusty, cobwebby spaces beyond the stalls.  There were several
+openings, rude doorways and crude windows; and the place was not
+unpleasant, for the back of it opened directly upon a sloping hill
+which dropped away to the running brook below, and a little stone
+spring-house, its mossy roof half hidden by a tangle of willows.
+Shirley stood in a doorway and gazed with delight, then turned back to
+her investigation.  This lower place would not do for human habitation,
+of course; it was too low and damp, and the floor was only mud.  She
+must penetrate if possible to the floor above.
+
+Presently she found a rough ladder, cleats nailed to uprights against
+the wall; and up this she crept cautiously to the opening above, and
+presently emerged into the wide floor of the real barn.
+
+There were several small windows, left open, and the sweet spring air
+swept gently in; and there were little patches of pale sunshine in the
+misty recesses of the great dim room.  Gentle motes floated in the
+sharp lances of sunshine that stole through the cracks; another ladder
+rose in the midst of the great floor to the loft above; and festoons of
+ancient hay and cobwebs hung dustily down from the opening above.
+After Shirley had skipped about the big floor and investigated every
+corner of it, imagining how grand it would be to set the table in one
+end of the room and put mother's bed behind a screen in the other end,
+with the old piano somewhere in the centre and the big parlor chair,
+mended, near by, the old couch covered with a portière standing on the
+other side, she turned her attention to the loft, and, gathering
+courage, climbed up there.
+
+There were two great openings that let in the light; but they seemed
+like tiny mouse-holes in the great place, and the hay lay sweet and
+dim, thinly scattered over the whole big floor.  In one corner there
+was quite a luxurious lot of it, and Shirley cast herself down upon it
+for a blessed minute, and looked up to the dark rafters, lit with beams
+of sunlight creeping through fantastic cracks here and there, and
+wondered how the boys would enjoy sleeping up here, though there was
+plenty of room down-stairs for a dozen sleeping-rooms for the matter of
+that.
+
+Foolish, of course, and utterly impossible, as all daydreams always had
+been; but somehow it seemed so real and beautiful that she could
+scarcely bring herself to abandon it.  Nevertheless, her investigation
+had made her hungry, and she decided at last to go down and eat her
+lunch under the big tree out in the sunshine; for it was dark and
+stuffy inside, although one could realize how beautiful it would be
+with those two great doors flung wide, and light and air let in.
+
+The day was perfect, and Shirley found a beautiful place to sit, high
+and sheltered, where she would not be noticed when the trolley-cars
+sped by; and, as she ate her sandwiches, she let her imagination build
+a beautiful piazza where the grassy rise came up to the front of the
+barn, and saw in thought her mother sitting with the children at the
+door.  How grand it would be to live in a home like this, even if it
+were a barn!  If they could just get out here for the summer, it would
+do wonders for them all, and put new heart into her mother for the hard
+work of the winter.  Perhaps by fall mother would be well enough to
+keep boarders as she longed to do, and so help out with the finances
+more.
+
+Well, of course, this was just one of her wild schemes, and she must
+not think any more about it, much less even speak of it at home, for
+they would never get done laughing and teasing her for it.
+
+She finished the last crumb of the piece of one-egg cake that Carol had
+made the day before for her lunch, and ran down to the spring to see
+whether she could get a drink, for she was very thirsty.
+
+There proved to be an old tin can on the stones in the spring-house,
+doubtless used by the last tramp or conductor who came that way; but
+Shirley scrubbed it carefully in the sand, drank a delicious draught,
+and washed her hands and face in the clear cold water.  Then she went
+back to the barn again, for a new thought had entered her mind.
+Supposing it were possible to rent that place for the summer at any
+reasonable price, how could they cook and how keep warm?  Of course
+there were such things as candles and oil-lamps for lighting, but
+cooking!  Would they have to build a fire out-of-doors and play at
+camping?  Or would they have to resort to oil-stoves?  Oil-stoves with
+their sticky, oily outsides, and their mysterious moods of smoke and
+sulkiness, out of which only an expert could coax them!
+
+But, though she stood on all sides of that barn, and gazed up at the
+roof, and though she searched each floor diligently, she could find no
+sign of a chimney anywhere.  Her former acquaintance with barns had not
+put her into a position to judge whether this was a customary lack of
+barns or not.  There were two wooden, chimney-like structures
+decorating the roof, but it was all too evident that they were solely
+for purposes of ornament.  Her heart sank.  What a grand fireplace
+there might have been right in the middle of the great wall opposite
+the door!  Could anything be more ideal?  She could fancy mother
+sitting in front of it, with Harley and Doris on the floor playing with
+a kitten.  But there was no fireplace.  She wondered vaguely whether a
+stovepipe could be put out of the window, and so make possible a fire
+in a small cook-stove.  She was sure she had seen stovepipes coming out
+of all sorts of odd places in the cities.  But would the owners allow
+it?  And would any fire at all perhaps make it dangerous and affect the
+fire-insurance?  Oh, there were so many things to think about, and it
+was all so impossible, of course.
+
+She turned with heavy heart, and let herself down the ladder.  It was
+time she went home, for the afternoon was well on its way.  She could
+hear the whir of the trolley-car going up.  She must be out and down
+the road a little way to get the next one that passed it at the switch
+when it came back.
+
+So with a wistful glance about the big dusty floor she turned away, and
+went down to the ground floor and out into the afternoon sunshine.
+
+Just as she crossed the knoll and was stepping over the broken fence,
+she saw a clump of clover, and among the tiny stems one bearing four
+leaves.  She was not superstitious, nor did the clover mean any special
+omen to her; but she stooped, smiling, and plucked it, tucking it into
+the button-hole of her coat, and hurried down the road; for she could
+already hear the returning trolley-car, and she wished to be a little
+farther from the barn before it overtook her.  Somehow she shrank from
+having people in the car know where she had been, for it seemed like
+exposing her audacious wish to the world.
+
+Seated in the car, she turned her eyes back to the last glimpse of the
+stone gables and the sweeping branches of the budding tree as the car
+sped down the hill and curved away behind another slope.
+
+After all, it was but half-past four when the car reached the city
+hall.  Its route lay on half a mile nearer to the little brick house,
+and she could stay in it, and have a shorter walk if she chose.  It was
+not in the least likely anybody would be in any office at this hour of
+the day, anyway; that is, anybody with authority; but somehow Shirley
+had to signal that car and get out, long walk or not.  A strong desire
+seized her to put her fate to the test, and either crush out this dream
+of hers forever, or find out at once whether it had a foundation to
+live.
+
+She walked straight to the Ward Trust Building and searched the
+bulletin-board in the hallway carefully.  Yes, there it was,
+"Graham-Walter--Fourth floor front."
+
+With rapidly beating heart she entered the elevator and tried to steady
+her voice as she said, "Fourth"; but it shook in spite of her.  What
+was she doing?  How dared she?  What should she say when they asked her
+what she wanted?
+
+But Shirley's firm little lips were set, and her head had that tilt
+that her mother knew meant business.  She had gone so far she would see
+the matter to the finish, even if it was ridiculous.  For now that she
+was actually on the elevator and almost to the fourth floor it seemed
+the most extraordinary thing in the world for a girl to enter a great
+business office and demand that its head should stoop to rent her an
+old barn out in the country for the infinitesimal sum she could offer.
+He would perhaps think her crazy, and have her put out.
+
+But she got out of the elevator calmly, and walked down the hall to
+where a ground-glass door proclaimed in gold letters the name she was
+hunting.  Timidly she turned the knob, and entered a large room,
+spacious and high ceiled, with Turkish rugs on the inlaid floor,
+leather chairs, and mahogany desks.
+
+There was no one in the office but a small office-boy, who lolled idly
+on one elbow on the table, reading the funny page of the afternoon
+paper.  She paused, half frightened, and looked about her appealingly;
+and now she began to be afraid she was too late.  It had taken longer
+than she had thought it would to get here.  It was almost a quarter to
+five by the big clock on the wall.  No head of a business firm was
+likely to stay in his office so late in the day as that, she knew.  Yet
+she could hear the steady click of typewriter keys in an inner office;
+he might have remained to dictate a letter.
+
+The office-boy looked up insolently.
+
+"Is Mr. Graham in?" asked Shirley.
+
+"Which Mr. Graham?"
+
+"Why," hesitating and catching the name on the door, "Mr. Walter
+Graham."
+
+"No, he isn't here.  Never here after four o'clock."  The boy dropped
+on his elbow again, and resumed his reading.
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, dismayed now, in spite of her fright, as she saw
+all hope fading from her.  "Well, is there another--I mean is the
+other--Mr. Graham in?"
+
+Someone stirred in the inner office, and came across to the door,
+looking out, someone with an overcoat and hat on.  He looked at the
+girl, and then spoke sharply to the boy, who stood up straight as if he
+had been shot.
+
+"Edward!  See what the lady wants."
+
+"Yes, sir!" said Edward with sudden respect.
+
+Shirley caught her breath, and plunged in.
+
+"I would like to see _some_ Mr. Graham if possible for just a moment."
+There was something self-possessed and businesslike in her voice now
+that commanded the boy's attention.  Her brief business training was
+upon her.
+
+The figure from the inner room emerged, and took off his hat.  He was a
+young man and strikingly handsome, with heavy dark hair that waved over
+his forehead and fine, strong features.  His eyes were both keen and
+kind.  There was something luminous in them that made Shirley think of
+Doris's eyes when she asked a question.  Doris had wonderfully wise
+eyes.
+
+"I am Mr. _Sidney_ Graham," said the young man, advancing.  "What can I
+do for you?"
+
+"Oh, I wanted to ask you about a barn," began Shirley eagerly, then
+stopped abashed.  How could she ask this immaculate son of luxury if he
+would rent a young girl his barn to live in during the summer?  She
+could feel the color mounting in her cheeks, and would have turned and
+fled gladly if a way had been open.  She was aware not only of the kind
+eyes of the man upon her, but also of the gaping boy taking it all in,
+and her tongue was suddenly tied.  She could say no more.
+
+But the young man saw how it was, and he bowed as gracefully as if
+asking about barns was a common habit of young women coming into his
+office.
+
+"Oh, certainly," he said; "won't you just step in here a moment and sit
+down?  We can talk better.  Edward, you may go.  I shall not need you
+any longer this evening."
+
+"But I am detaining you; you were just going out!" cried Shirley in a
+panic.  "I will go away now and come again--perhaps."  She would do
+anything to get away without telling her preposterous errand.
+
+"Not at all!" said young Mr. Graham.  "I am in no hurry whatever.  Just
+step this way, and sit down."  His tone was kindness itself.  Somehow
+Shirley had to follow him.  Her face was crimson now, and she felt
+ready to cry.  What a fool she had been to get herself into a
+predicament like this!  What would her mother say to her?  How could
+she tell this strange young man what she had come for?  But he was
+seated and looking at her with his nice eyes, taking in all the little
+pitiful attempts at neatness and style and beauty in her shabby little
+toilet.  She was awfully conscious of a loose fluff of gold-glinted
+hair that had come down over one hot cheek and ear.  How dishevelled
+she must look, and how dusty after climbing over that dirty barn!  And
+then she plunged into her subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what you will think of my asking," said Shirley
+excitedly, "but I want very much to know whether there is any
+possibility that you would rent a beautiful big stone barn you own out
+on the old Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue.  You do own it, don't
+you?  I was told you did, or at least that Mr. Walter Graham did.  They
+said it belonged to 'the estate.'"
+
+"Well, now you've got one on me," said the young man with a most
+engaging smile.  "I'm sure I don't know whether I own it or not.  I'm
+sorry.  But if it belongs to grandfather's estate,--his name was
+Walter, too, you know.--why, I suppose I do own part of it.  I'm sorry
+father isn't here.  He of course knows all about it--or the
+attorney--of course he would know.  But I think he has left the office.
+However, that doesn't matter.  What was it you wanted?  To rent it, you
+say?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, feeling very small and very much an impostor;
+"that is, if I could afford it.  I suppose perhaps it will be way ahead
+of my means, but I thought it wouldn't do any harm to ask."  Her shy
+eyes were almost filled with tears, and the young man was deeply
+distressed.
+
+"Not at all, not at all," he hastened to say.  "I'm just stupid that I
+don't know about it.  Where did you say it was?  Out on the Glenside
+Road?  A barn?  Come to think of it, I remember one of my uncles lived
+out that way once, and I know there is a lot of land somewhere out
+there belonging to the estate.  You say there is a barn on it?"
+
+"Yes, a beautiful barn," said Shirley anxiously, her eyes dreamy and
+her cheeks like two glowing roses.  "It is stone, and has a wide grassy
+road like a great staircase leading up to it, and a tall tree over it.
+There is a brook just below,--it is high up from the road on a little
+grassy hill."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said, nodding eagerly, "I see!  It almost seems as
+if I remember.  And you wanted to rent it for the summer, you say?  You
+are--ah--in the agricultural business, I suppose?"  He looked at her
+respectfully.  He knew the new woman, and honored her.  He did not seem
+at all startled that she wanted to rent a barn for the summer.
+
+But Shirley did not in the least understand.  She looked at him
+bewildered a moment.
+
+"Oh, no!  I am only a stenographer myself--but my mother--that is----"
+she paused in confusion.
+
+"Oh, I see, your mother is the farmer, I suppose.  Your home is near
+by--near to the barn you want to rent?"
+
+Then she understood.
+
+"No, oh, no!" she said desperately.  "We don't want to use the barn for
+a barn at all.  I want to use it for a house!"
+
+It was out at last, the horrible truth; and she sat trembling to see
+his look of amazement.
+
+"Use it for a house!" he exclaimed.  "Why, how could you?  To live in,
+do you mean? or just to take a tent and camp out there for a few days?"
+
+"To _live in_," said Shirley doggedly, lifting her eyes in one swift
+defiant look and then dropping them to her shabby gloves and thin
+pocketbook, empty now even of the last precious nickel.  If he said
+anything more, she was sure she should cry.  If he patronized her the
+least little bit, or grew haughty, now that he saw how low she was
+reduced, she would turn and fly from the office and never look him in
+the face.
+
+But he did neither.  Instead, he just talked in a natural tone, as if
+it were the most common thing in the world for a girl to want to live
+in a barn, and nothing to be surprised over in the least.
+
+"Oh, I see," he said pleasantly.  "Well, now, that might be arranged,
+you know.  Of course I don't know much about things, but I could find
+out.  You see, I don't suppose we often have calls to rent the property
+that way----"
+
+"No, of course not," said Shirley, gathering up her scattered
+confidence.  "I know it's queer for me to ask, but we have to
+move--they are going to build an apartment-house where we are renting
+now, and mother is sick.  I should like to get her out into the
+country, our house is so little and dark; and I thought, if she could
+be all summer where she could see the sky and hear the birds, she might
+get well.  I want to get my little sisters and brothers out of the
+city, too.  But we couldn't likely pay enough rent.  I suppose it was
+silly of me to ask."
+
+"Not at all!" said the young man courteously, as though she had been a
+queen whom he delighted to honor.  "I don't see why we shouldn't be
+able to get together on some kind of a proposition--that is, unless
+father has other plans that I don't know about.  A barn ought not to be
+worth such a big price.  How much would you feel like paying?"
+
+He was studying the girl before him with interested eyes; noting the
+well-set head on the pretty shoulders, even in spite of the ill-fitting
+shabby blue coat; the delicate features; the glint of gold in the soft
+brown hair; the tilt of the firm little chin, and the wistfulness in
+the big blue eyes.  This was a new kind of girl, and he was disposed to
+give her what she wanted if he could.  And he _could_.  He knew well
+that anything he willed mightily would not be denied him.
+
+The frightened color came into the delicate cheeks again, and the blue
+eyes fluttered down ashamedly.
+
+"We are only paying fifteen a month now," she said; "and I couldn't pay
+any more, for we haven't got it.  I couldn't pay _as much_, for it
+would cost sixty cents a week apiece for George and me to come in to
+our work from there.  I couldn't pay more than twelve! and I know
+that's ridiculous for such a great big, beautiful place, but--I _had_
+to ask."
+
+She lifted her eyes swiftly in apology, and dropped them again; the
+young man felt a glow of sympathy for her, and a deep desire to help
+her have her wish.
+
+"Why, certainly," he said heartily.  "Of course you did.  And it's not
+ridiculous at all for you to make a business proposition of any kind.
+You say what you can do, and we accept it or not as we like.  That's
+our lookout.  Now of course I can't answer about this until I've
+consulted father; and, not knowing the place well, I haven't the least
+idea what it's worth; it may not be worth even twelve dollars."  (He
+made a mental reservation that it _should_ not be if he could help it.)
+"Suppose I consult with father and let you know.  Could I write or
+phone you, or will you be around this way any time to-morrow?"
+
+Shirley's breath was fairly gone with the realization that he was
+actually considering her proposition in earnest.  He had not laughed at
+her for wanting to live in a barn, and he had not turned down the price
+she offered as impossible!  He was looking at her in a kindly way as if
+he liked her for being frank.
+
+"Why, yes," she said, looking up shyly, "I can come in to-morrow at my
+noon hour--if that would not be too soon.  I always have a little time
+to myself then, and it isn't far from the office."
+
+"That will be perfectly all right for me," smiled young Graham.  "I
+shall be here till half-past one, and you can ask the boy to show you
+to my office.  I will consult with father the first thing in the
+morning and be ready to give you an answer.  But I am wondering if you
+have seen this barn, I suppose you have, or you would not want to rent
+it; but I should suppose a barn would be an awfully unpleasant place to
+live, kind of almost impossible.  Are you sure you realize what the
+proposition would be?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," said Shirley, looking troubled and earnest.  "It is
+a beautiful big place, and the outlook is wonderful.  I was there
+to-day, and found a door open at the back, and went in to look around.
+The up-stairs middle floor is so big we could make several rooms out of
+it with screens and curtains.  It would be lovely.  We could live in
+picnic style.  Yes, I'm sure mother would like it.  I haven't told her
+about it yet, because if I couldn't afford it I didn't want to
+disappoint her; so I thought I would wait till I found out; but I'm
+just about certain she would be delighted.  And anyhow we've _got_ to
+go _somewhere_."
+
+"I see," said this courteous young man, trying not to show his
+amazement and delight in the girl who so coolly discussed living in a
+barn with curtains and screens for partitions.  He thought of his own
+luxurious home and his comfortable life, where every need had been
+supplied even before he realized it, and, wondering again, was
+refreshed in soul by this glimpse into the brave heart of the girl.
+
+"Then I will expect you," he said pleasantly, and, opening the door,
+escorted her to the elevator, touching his hat to her as he left her.
+
+Shirley would not have been a normal girl if she had not felt the least
+flutter in her heart at the attention he showed her and the pleasant
+tones of his voice.  It was for all the world as if she had been a lady
+dressed in broadcloth and fur.  She looked down at her shabby little
+serge suit--that had done duty all winter with an old gray sweater
+under it--half in shame and half in pride in the man who had not let it
+hinder him from giving her honor.  He was a _man_.  He must be.  She
+had bared her poverty-stricken life to his gaze, and he had not taken
+advantage of it.  He had averted his eyes, and acted as if it were just
+like other lives and others' necessities; and he had made her feel that
+she was just as good as any one with whom he had to deal.
+
+Well, it was probably only a manner, a kind of refined, courteous habit
+he had; but it was lovely, and she was going to enjoy the bit of it
+that had fallen at her feet.
+
+On the whole, Shirley walked the ten blocks to her narrow little home
+feeling that she had had a good day.  She was weary, but it was a
+healthy weariness.  The problem which had been pressing on her brain
+for days, and nights too, did not seem so impossible now, and hope was
+in her heart that somehow she would find a way out.  It had been good
+to get away from the office and the busy monotony and go out into the
+wide, open out-of-doors.  It was good also to meet a real nobleman,
+even if it were only in passing, and on business.
+
+She decided not to tell her mother and the children of her outing yet,
+not until she was sure there were to be results.  Besides, it might
+only worry her mother the more and give her a sleepless night if she
+let out the secret about the barn.
+
+One more little touch of pleasantness there came to make this day stand
+out from others as beautiful.  It was when she turned into Chapel
+Street, and was swinging along rapidly in order to get home at her
+usual time and not alarm her mother, that a car rolled quickly past to
+the middle of the block, and stopped just under a street-light.  In a
+moment more a lady came out of the door of a house, entered the car,
+and was driven away.  As she closed the car-door, Shirley fancied she
+saw something drop from the lady's hand.  When Shirley reached the
+place she found it was two great, luscious pink rosebuds that must have
+slipped from the lady's corsage and fallen on the pavement.  Shirley
+picked them up almost reverently, inhaling their exotic breath, and
+taking in their delicate curves and texture.  Then she looked after the
+limousine.  It was three blocks away and just turning into another
+street.  It would be impossible for her to overtake it, and there was
+little likelihood of the lady's returning for two roses.  Probably she
+would never miss them.  Shirley turned toward the house, thinking she
+ought to take them in, but discovered that it bore the name of a
+fashionable modiste, who would, of course, not have any right to the
+roses, and Shirley's conscience decided they were meant by Providence
+for her.  So, happily, she hurried on to the little brick house,
+bearing the wonderful flowers to her mother.
+
+She hurried so fast that she reached home ten minutes earlier than
+usual, and they all gathered around her eagerly as if it were some
+great event, the mother calling half fearfully from her bedroom
+up-stairs to know whether anything had happened.  She was always
+expecting some new calamity like sickness, or the loss of their
+positions by one or the other of her children.
+
+"Nothing at all the matter, mother dear!" called Shirley happily as she
+hung up her coat and hat, and hugged Doris.  "I got off earlier than
+usual because Mr. Barnard had to go away.  Just see what a beautiful
+thing I have brought you--found it on the street, dropped by a
+beautiful lady.  You needn't be afraid of them, for she and her
+limousine looked perfectly hygienic; and it wasn't stealing, because I
+couldn't possibly have caught her.  Aren't they lovely?"
+
+By this time she was up in her mother's room, with Doris and Carol
+following close behind exclaiming in delight over the roses.
+
+She kissed her mother, and put the flowers into a glass beside the bed.
+
+"You're looking better to-night, I believe, dear," said the mother.
+"I've been worried about you all day.  You were so white and tired this
+morning."
+
+"Oh, I'm feeling fine, mother dear!" said Shirley gayly, "and I'm going
+down to make your toast and poach you an egg while Carol finishes
+getting supper.  George will be here in ten minutes now, and Harley
+ought to be in any minute.  He always comes when he gets hungry.  My!
+I'm hungry myself!  Let's hurry, Carol.  Doris, darling, you fix
+mother's little table all ready for her tray.  Put on the white cloth,
+take away the books, set the glass with the roses in the middle very
+carefully.  You won't spill it, will you, darling?"
+
+Doris, all smiles at the responsibility accorded her, promised: "No, I
+yun't spill it I'll move it tarefully."
+
+There was something in Shirley's buoyant air that night that lifted
+them all above the cares that had oppressed them for weeks, and gave
+them new hope.  She flew around, getting the supper things together,
+making her mother's tray pretty, and taking little extra pains for each
+one as she had not felt able to do before.  Carol caught the contagion,
+and mashed the potatoes more carefully, so that there wasn't a single
+lump in them.
+
+"Goodness!  But it's been hot in this kitchen all day, Shirley," said
+Carol.  "I had the back door open, but it just seemed stifling.  I got
+the ironing all done except a table-cloth, and I guess I can finish
+that this evening.  I haven't got much studying to do for to-morrow.
+Nellie Waite stopped, and left me my books.  I don't believe I'll have
+to stay at home another day this week.  Mother says she can get along.
+I can leave her lunch all ready, and Doris can manage."
+
+Shirley's conscience gave a sudden twinge.  Here had she been sitting
+under a lovely tree by a brook, eating her lunch, and dreaming foolish
+day-dreams about living in a barn, while Carol stayed at home from
+school and toiled in the kitchen!  Perhaps she ought to have come home
+and sent Carol back to school.  And yet perhaps that nice young Mr.
+Graham would be able to do something; she would not condemn herself
+until the morrow, anyway.  She had tried to do her best.  She had not
+gone off there selfishly just to have a good time by herself when her
+dear ones were suffering.  It had been for their sake.
+
+Then George came in whistling, and Harley banged in gayly a minute
+later, calling to know whether supper was ready.
+
+"'Cause I gotta date with the fellas this evening, and I gotta beat
+it," he declared impatiently.
+
+The shadow of anxiety passed over Shirley's face again at that, but she
+quieted her heart once more with her hopes for to-morrow.  If her plan
+succeeded, Harley would be away from "the fellas," and wouldn't have so
+many questionable "dates" to worry them all.
+
+George was in a hurry, too.
+
+"Gee, Shirley, I gotta be at the store all evening," he said, bolting
+his food hurriedly.  "I wouldn't 'a' come home, only I knew you'd
+worry, and mother gets so upset.  Gee, Shirley, what we gonta do about
+a house?  It's getting almost time to move.  I went to all those places
+you suggested at noon to-day, but there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere.
+There's some rooms on Louden Street, but there's all sorts in the
+house.  Mother wouldn't like it.  It's dirty besides.  I suppose if we
+look long enough we could find rooms; but we'd have to get along with
+only two or three, for they come awful high.  We'd have to have three
+anyway, you girls and mother in one, us boys in the other, and one for
+parlor and kitchen together.  Gee!  Wouldn't that be fierce?  I oughtta
+get a better job.  We can't live that way."
+
+"Don't worry, George; I think we'll find something better," said
+Shirley with a hopeful ring in her voice.  "I've been thinking out a
+plan.  I haven't got it all just arranged in my mind yet, but I'll tell
+you about it pretty soon.  You don't have school to-morrow night, do
+you?  No, I thought not.  Well, maybe we can talk it over then.  You
+and I will have to go out together and look up a place perhaps," and
+she smiled an encouraging smile, and sent him off to his school happily.
+
+She extracted a promise from Harley that he would be in by nine
+o'clock, discovered that he was only going to a "movie" show around the
+corner with one of the fellows who was going to "stand treat" on
+account of a wonderful ball game they had won, found out where his
+lessons were for the morrow, promised to help him when he returned, and
+sent him away with a feeling of comfort and responsibility to return
+early.  She washed the dishes and ironed the table-cloth so Carol could
+go to her lessons.  Then she went up and put Doris to bed with a story
+about a little bird that built a nest in a tall, beautiful tree that
+grew beside the place where the little girl lived; a little bird that
+drank from a little running brook, and took a bath on its pebbly shore,
+and ate the crumbs and berries the little girl gave it, and sat all day
+on five little blue eggs.
+
+Harley came in at five minutes after nine, and did his lessons with her
+help.  George came home just as they finished.  He was whistling,
+though he looked tired.  He said "the prof." had been "the limit" all
+the evening.  Shirley fixed her mother comfortably for the night, and
+went at last to her own bed, more tired than she had been for weeks,
+and yet more happy.  For through it all she had been sustained by a
+hope; inspired by a cultured, pleasant voice, and eyes that wanted to
+help, and seemed to understand.
+
+As she closed her eyes to sleep, somehow that pleasant voice and those
+kind eyes mingled with her dreams, and seemed to promise relief from
+her great anxieties.
+
+It was with a feeling of excitement and anticipation that she dressed
+the next morning and hurried away.  Something was coming, she felt
+sure, some help for their trying situation.  She had felt it when she
+knelt for her usual prayer that morning, and it throbbed in her excited
+heart as she hurried through the streets to the office.  It almost
+frightened her to feel so sure, for she knew how terrible would be the
+disappointment if she got her hopes too high.
+
+There was plenty to be done at the office, a great many letters to
+answer, and a telegram with directions from Mr. Barnard.  But she
+worked with more ease than for some time, and was done by half-past
+eleven.  When she took the letters out to Mr. Clegg to be signed, he
+told her that she would not be needed the rest of the day, and might go
+at once if she chose.
+
+She ate her bit of lunch hurriedly, and made herself as fresh and tidy
+as was possible in the office.  Then she took her way to the fourth
+floor of the Ward Trust Building.  With throbbing heart and glowing
+cheeks she entered the office of Walter Graham, and asked for Mr.
+Sidney Graham.
+
+The office-boy had evidently received instructions, for he bowed most
+respectfully this time, and led her at once to the inner office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The afternoon before, when Mr. Sidney Graham had returned to his office
+from seeing Shirley to the elevator, he stood several minutes looking
+thoughtfully at the chair where she had sat, while he carefully drew on
+his gloves.
+
+There had been something interesting and appealing in the spirited face
+of the girl, with her delicate features and wistful eyes.  He could not
+seem to get away from it.  It had left an impression of character and a
+struggle with forces of which in his sheltered life he had had only a
+vague conception.  It had left him with the feeling that she was
+stronger in some ways than himself, and he did not exactly like the
+sensation of it.  He had always aimed to be a strong character himself;
+and for a young man who had inherited two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars on coming of age, and double that amount two years later, with
+the prospect of another goodly sum when his paternal grandfather's
+estate was divided, he had done very well indeed.  He had stuck to
+business ever since leaving college, where he had been by no means a
+nonentity either in studies or in athletics; and he had not been
+spoiled by the adulation that a young man of his good looks and wealth
+and position always receives in society.  He had taken society as a
+sort of duty, but had never given it an undue proportion of his time
+and thoughts.  Notably he was a young man of fine balance and strong
+self-control, not given to impulsive or erratic likes and dislikes; and
+he could not understand why a shabby little person with a lock of gold
+over one crimson cheek, and tired, discouraged lights in her had made
+so strong an impression upon him.
+
+It had been his intention just before Shirley's arrival to leave the
+office at once and perhaps drop in on Miss Harriet Hale.  If the hour
+seemed propitious, he would take her for a spin in his new racing-car
+that even now waited in the street below; but somehow suddenly his plan
+did not attract him deeply.  He felt the need of being by himself.
+After a turn or two up and down his luxurious office he took the
+elevator down to the street floor, dismissed his chauffeur, and whirled
+off in his car, taking the opposite direction from that which would
+have taken him to the Hale residence.  Harriet Hale was a very pretty
+girl with a brilliant mind and a royal fortune.  She could entertain
+him and stimulate him tremendously, and sometimes he almost thought the
+attraction was strong enough to last him through life; but Harriet Hale
+would not be able to appreciate his present mood nor explain to him why
+the presence in his office for fifteen minutes of a nervy little
+stenographer who was willing to live in a barn should have made him so
+vaguely dissatisfied with himself.  If he were to try to tell her about
+it, he felt sure he would meet with laughing taunts and brilliant
+sarcasm.  She would never understand.
+
+He took little notice of where he was going, threading his way
+skilfully through the congested portion of the city and out into the
+comparatively empty highways, until at last he found himself in the
+suburbs.  The name of the street as he slowed up at a grade crossing
+gave him an idea.  Why shouldn't he take a run out and hunt up that
+barn for himself?  What had she said about it, where it was?  He
+consulted the memorandum he had written down for his father's
+edification.  "Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue."  He further
+searched his memory.  "Big stone barn, wide approach like a grand
+staircase, tall tree overhanging, brook."  This surely ought to be
+enough to help him identify it.  There surely were not a flock of stone
+barns in that neighborhood that would answer that description.
+
+He turned into Glenside Road with satisfaction, and set a sharp watch
+for the names of the cross-avenues with a view to finding Allister
+Avenue, and once he stopped and asked a man in an empty milk-wagon
+whether he knew where Allister Avenue was, and was informed that it was
+"on a piece, about five miles."
+
+There was something interesting in hunting up his own strange barn, and
+he began to look about him and try to see things with the eyes of the
+girl who had just called upon him.
+
+Most of the fields were green with spring, and there was an air of
+things doing over them, as if growing were a business that one could
+watch, like house-cleaning and paper-hanging and painting.  Graham had
+never noticed before that the great bare spring out-of-doors seemed to
+have a character all its own, and actually to have an attraction.  A
+little later when the trees were out, and all the orchards in bloom,
+and the wild flowers blowing in the breeze, he could rave over spring;
+but he had never seen the charm of its beginnings before.  He wondered
+curiously over the fact of his keen appreciation now.
+
+The sky was all opalescent with lovely pastel colors along the horizon,
+and a few tall, lank trees had put on a soft gauze of green over their
+foreheads like frizzes, discernible only to a close observer.  The air
+was getting chilly with approaching night, and the bees were no longer
+proclaiming with their hum the way to the skunk-cabbages; but a
+delicate perfume was in the air, and though perhaps Graham had never
+even heard of skunk-cabbages, he drew in long breaths of sweetness, and
+let out his car over the smooth road with a keen delight.
+
+Behind a copse of fine old willows, age-tall and hoary with weather,
+their extremities just hinting of green, as they stood knee-deep in the
+brook on its way to a larger stream, he first caught sight of the old
+barn.
+
+He knew it at once by something indefinable.  Its substantial stone
+spaciousness, its mossy roof, its arching tree, and the brook that
+backed away from the wading willows, up the hillside, under the rail
+fence, and ran around its side, all were unmistakable.  He could see it
+just as the girl had seen it, and something in him responded to her
+longing to live there and make it into a home.  Perhaps he was a
+dreamer, even as she, although he passed in the world of business for a
+practical young man.  But anyhow he slowed his car down and looked at
+the place intently as he passed by.  He was convinced that this was the
+place.  He did not need to go on and find Allister Avenue--though he
+did, and then turned back again, stopping by the roadside.  He got out
+of the car, looking all the time at the barn and seeing it in the light
+of the girl's eyes.  As he walked up the grassy slope to the front
+doors, he had some conception of what it must be to live so that this
+would seem grand as a home.  And he showed he was not spoiled by his
+life in the lap of luxury, for he was able to get a glimpse of the
+grandeur of the spot and the dignity of the building with its long
+simple lines and rough old stones.
+
+The sun was just going down as he stood there looking up.  It touched
+the stones, and turned them into jewelled settings, glorifying the old
+structure into a palace.  The evening was sweet with the voices of
+birds not far away.  One above the rest, clear and occasional, high in
+the elm-tree over the barn, a wood-thrush spilling its silver notes
+down to the brook that echoed them back in a lilt.  The young man took
+off his hat and stood in the evening air, listening and looking.  He
+could see the poetry of it, and somehow he could see the girl's face as
+if she stood there beside him, her wonderful eyes lighted as they had
+been when she told him how beautiful it was there.  She was right.  It
+was beautiful, and it was a lovely soul that could see it and feel what
+a home this would make in spite of the ignominy of its being nothing
+but a barn.  Some dim memory, some faint remembrance, of a stable long
+ago, and the glory of it, hovered on the horizon of his mind; but his
+education had not been along religious lines, and he did not put the
+thing into a definite thought.  It was just a kind of sensing of a
+great fact of the universe which he perhaps might have understood in a
+former existence.
+
+Then he turned to the building itself.  He was practical, after all,
+even if he was a dreamer.  He tried the big padlock.  How did they get
+into this thing?  How had the girl got in?  Should he be obliged to
+break into his own barn?
+
+He walked down the slope, around to the back, and found the entrance
+close to the ladder; but the place was quite dark within the great
+stone walls, and he peered into the gloomy basement with disgust at the
+dirt and murk.  Only here and there, where a crack looked toward the
+setting sun, a bright needle of light sent a shaft through to let one
+see the inky shadows.  He was half turning back, but reflected that the
+girl had said she went up a ladder to the middle floor.  If she had
+gone, surely he could.  Again that sense that she was stronger than he
+rebuked him.  He got out his pocket flashlight and stepped within the
+gloom determinedly.  Holding the flash-light above his head, he
+surveyed his property disapprovingly; then with the light in his hand
+he climbed in a gingerly way up the dusty rounds to the middle floor.
+
+As he stood alone in the dusky shadows of the big barn, with the
+blackness of the hay-loft overhead, the darkness pierced only by the
+keen blade of the flash-light and a few feebler darts from the sinking
+sun, the poetry suddenly left the old barn, and a shudder ran through
+him.  To think of trying to live here!  How horrible!
+
+Yet still that same feeling that the girl had more nerve than he had
+forced him to walk the length and breadth of the floor, peering
+carefully into the dark corners and acquainting himself fully with the
+bare, big place; and also to climb part way up the ladder to the loft
+and send his flash-light searching through its dusty hay-strewn
+recesses.
+
+With a feeling utterly at variance with the place he turned away in
+disgust, and made his way down the ladders again, out into the sunset.
+
+In that short time the evening had arrived.  The sky had flung out
+banners and pennants, pencilled by a fringe of fine saplings like
+slender brown threads against the sky.  The earth was sinking into
+dusk, and off by the brook the frogs were tinkling like tiny answering
+silver rattles.  The smell of earth and growing stole upon his senses,
+and even as he gazed about him a single star burned into being in the
+clear ether above him.  The birds were still now, and the frogs with
+the brook for accompaniment held the stage.  Once more the charm of the
+place stole over him; and he stood with hat removed, and wondered no
+longer that the girl was willing to live here.  A conviction grew
+within him that somehow he must make it possible for her to do so, that
+things would not be right and as they ought to be unless he did.  In
+fact, he had a curiosity to have her do it and see whether it could be
+done.
+
+He went slowly down to his car at last with lingering backward looks.
+The beauty of the situation was undoubted, and called for admiration.
+It was too bad that only a barn should occupy it.  He would like to see
+a fine house reared upon it.  But somehow in his heart he was glad that
+it was not a fine house standing there against the evening sky, and
+that it was possible for him to let the girl try her experiment of
+living there.  Was it possible?  Could there be any mistake?  Could it
+be that he had not found the right barn, after all?  He must make sure,
+of course.
+
+But still he turned his car toward home, feeling reasonably sure that
+he had found the right spot; and, as he drove swiftly back along the
+way, he was thinking, and all his thoughts were woven with the softness
+of the spring evening and permeated with its sounds.  He seemed to be
+in touch with nature as he had never been before.
+
+At dinner that night he asked his father:
+
+"Did Grandfather Graham ever live out on the old Glenside Road, father?"
+
+A pleasant twinkle came in the elder Graham's eyes.
+
+"Sure!" he said.  "Lived there myself when I was five years old, before
+the old man got to speculating and made his pile, and we got too grand
+to stay in a farmhouse.  I can remember rolling down a hill under a
+great big tree, and your Uncle Billy pushing me into the brook that ran
+at the foot.  We boys used to wade in that brook, and build dams, and
+catch little minnows, and sail boats.  It was great sport.  I used to
+go back holidays now and then after I got old enough to go away to
+school.  We were living in town then, but I used to like to go out and
+stay at the farmhouse.  It was rented to a queer old dick; but his wife
+was a good sort, and made the bulliest apple turnovers for us boys--and
+doughnuts!  The old farmhouse burned down a year or so ago.  But the
+barn is still standing.  I can remember how proud your grandfather was
+of that barn.  It was finer than any barn around, and bigger.  We boys
+used to go up in the loft, and tumble in the hay; and once when I was a
+little kid I got lost in the hay, and Billy had to dig me out.  I can
+remember how scared I was when I thought I might have to stay there
+forever, and have nothing to eat."
+
+"Say, father," said the son, leaning forward eagerly, "I've a notion
+I'd like to have that old place in my share.  Do you think it could be
+arranged?  The boys won't care, I'm sure; they're always more for the
+town than the country."
+
+"Why, yes, I guess that could be fixed up.  You just see Mr. Dalrymple
+about it.  He'll fix it up.  Billy's boy got that place up river, you
+know.  Just see the lawyer, and he'll fix it up.  No reason in the
+world why you shouldn't have the old place if you care for it.  Not
+much in it for money, though, I guess.  They tell me property's way
+down out that direction now."
+
+The talk passed to other matters, and Sidney Graham said nothing about
+his caller of the afternoon, nor of the trip he had taken out to see
+the old barn.  Instead, he took his father's advice, and saw the family
+lawyer, Mr. Dalrymple, the first thing in the morning.
+
+It was all arranged in a few minutes.  Mr. Dalrymple called up the
+other heirs and the children's guardian.  An office-boy hurried out
+with some papers, and came back with the signatures of heirs and
+guardians, who happened all to be within reach; and presently the
+control of the old farm was formally put into the hands of Mr. Sidney
+Graham, he having signed certain papers agreeing to take this as such
+and such portion of his right in the whole estate.
+
+It had been a simple matter; and yet, when at about half-past eleven
+o'clock Mr. Dalrymple's stenographer laid a folded paper quietly on
+Sidney Graham's desk and silently left the room, he reached out and
+touched it with more satisfaction than he had felt in any acquisition
+in a long time, not excepting his last racing-car.  It was not the
+value the paper represented, however, that pleased him, but the fact
+that he would now be able to do as he pleased concerning the
+prospective tenant for the place, and follow out a curious and
+interesting experiment.  He wanted to study this girl and see whether
+she really had the nerve to go and live in a barn--a girl with a face
+like that to live in a barn!  He wanted to see what manner of girl she
+was, and to have the right to watch her for a little space.
+
+It is true that the morning light might present her in a very different
+aspect from that in which she had appeared the evening before, and he
+mentally reserved the right to turn her down completely if she showed
+the least sign of not being all that he had thought her.  At the same
+time, he intended to be entirely sure.  He would not turn her away
+without a thorough investigation.
+
+Graham had been greatly interested in the study of social science when
+in college, and human nature interested him at all times.  He could not
+but admit to himself that this girl had taken a most unusual hold upon
+his thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+As the morning passed on and it drew near to the noon hour Sidney
+Graham found himself almost excited over the prospect of the girl's
+coming.  Such foolish fancies as a fear lest she might have given up
+the idea and would not come at all presented themselves to his
+distraught brain, which refused to go on its well-ordered way, but kept
+reverting to the expected caller and what he should say to her.  When
+at last she was announced, he drew back his chair from the desk, and
+prepared to meet her with a strange tremor in his whole bearing.  It
+annoyed him, and brought almost a frown of sternness to his fine
+features.  It seemed not quite in keeping with his dignity as junior
+member of his father's firm that he should be so childish over a simple
+matter like this, and he began to doubt whether, after all, he might
+not be doing a most unwise and irregular thing in having anything at
+all to do with this girl's preposterous proposition.  Then Shirley
+entered the office, looked eagerly into his eyes; and he straight-way
+forgot all his reasoning.  He met her with a smile that seemed to
+reassure her, for she drew in her breath half relieved, and smiled
+shyly back.
+
+She was wearing a little old crêpe de chine waist that she had dyed a
+real apple-blossom pink in the wash-bowl with a bit of pink crepe-paper
+and a kettle of boiling water.  The collar showed neatly over the
+shabby dark-blue coat, and seemed to reflect apple-blossom tints in her
+pale cheeks.  There was something sky-like in the tint of her eyes that
+gave the young man a sense of spring fitness as he looked at her
+contentedly.  He was conscious of gladness that she looked as good to
+him in the broad day as in the dusk of evening.  There was still that
+spirited lift of her chin, that firm set of the sweet lips, that gave a
+conviction of strength and nerve.  He reflected that he had seldom seen
+it in the girls of his acquaintance.  Was it possible that poverty and
+privation and big responsibility made it, or was it just innate?
+
+"You--you have found out?" she asked breathlessly as she sat down on
+the edge of the chair, her whole body tense with eagerness.
+
+"Sure!  It's all right," he said smilingly.  "You can rent it if you
+wish."
+
+"And the price?"  It was evident the strain was intense.
+
+"Why, the price will be all right, I'm sure.  It really isn't worth
+what you mentioned at all.  It's only a barn, you know.  We couldn't
+think of taking more than ten dollars a month, if we took that.  I must
+look it over again; but it won't be more than ten dollars, and it may
+be less."
+
+Young Graham wore his most businesslike tone to say this, and his eyes
+were on the paper-knife wherewith he was mutilating his nice clean
+blotter pad on the desk.
+
+"Oh!" breathed Shirley, the color almost leaving her face entirely with
+the relief of his words.  "Oh, _really_?"
+
+"And you haven't lost your nerve about living away out there in the
+country in a great empty barn?" he asked quickly to cover her
+embarrassment--and his own, too, perhaps.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Shirley with a smile that showed a dimple in one cheek,
+and the star sparks in her eyes.  "Oh, no!  It is a lovely barn, and it
+won't be empty when we all get into it."
+
+"Are there many of you?" he asked interestedly.  Already the
+conversation was taking on a slightly personal tinge, but neither of
+them was at all aware of it.
+
+"Two brothers and two sisters and mother," said the girl shyly.  She
+was so full of delight over finding that she could rent the barn that
+she hardly knew what she was answering.  She was unconscious of the
+fact that she had in a way taken this strange young man into her
+confidence by her shy, sweet tone and manner.
+
+"Your mother approves of your plan?" he asked.  "She doesn't object to
+the country?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't told her yet," said Shirley.  "I don't know that I
+shall; for she has been quite sick, and she trusts me entirely.  She
+loves the country, and it will be wonderful to her to get out there.
+She might not like the idea of a barn beforehand; but she has never
+seen the barn, you know, and, besides, it won't look like a barn inside
+when I get it fixed up.  I must talk it over with George and Carol, but
+I don't think I shall tell her at all till we take her out there and
+surprise her.  I'll tell her I've found a place that I think she will
+like, and ask her if I may keep it a surprise.  She'll be willing, and
+she'll be pleased, I know!"  Her eyes were smiling happily, dreamily;
+the dreamer was uppermost in her face now, and made it lovely; then a
+sudden cloud came, and the strong look returned, with courage to meet a
+storm.
+
+"But, anyhow," she finished after a pause, "we _have_ to go there for
+the summer, for we've nowhere else to go that we can afford; and
+_anywhere_ out of the city will be good, even if mother doesn't just
+choose it.  I think perhaps it will be easier for her if she doesn't
+know about it until she's there.  It won't seem so much like not going
+to live in a house."
+
+"I see," said the young man interestedly.  "I shouldn't wonder if you
+are right.  And anyhow I think we can manage between us to make it
+pretty habitable for her."  He was speaking eagerly and forgetting that
+he had no right, but a flush came into the sensitive girl's cheek.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to make you trouble," she said.  "You have been
+very kind already, and you have made the rent so reasonable!  I'm
+afraid it isn't right and fair; it is such a _lovely_ barn!"
+
+"Perfectly fair," said Graham glibly.  "It will do the barn good to be
+lived in and taken care of again."
+
+If he had been called upon to tell just what good it would do the barn
+to be lived in, he might have floundered out of the situation, perhaps;
+but he took care not to make that necessary.  He went on talking.
+
+"I will see that everything is in good order, the doors made all right,
+and the windows--I--that is, if I remember rightly there were a few
+little things needed doing to that barn that ought to be attended to
+before you go in.  How soon did you want to take possession?  I'll try
+to have it all ready for you."
+
+"Oh, why, that is very kind," said Shirley.  "I don't think it needs
+anything; that is, I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you know best.
+Why, we have to leave our house the last of this month.  Do you suppose
+we could have the rent begin a few days before that, so we could get
+things moved gradually?  I haven't much time, only at night, you know."
+
+"We'll date the lease the first of next month," said the young man
+quickly; "and then you can put your things in any time you like from
+now on.  I'll see that the locks are made safe, and there ought to be a
+partition put in--just a simple partition, you know--at one end of the
+up-stairs room, where you could lock up things.  Then you could take
+them up there when you like.  I'll attend to that partition at once.
+The barn needs it.  This is as good a time as any to put it in.  You
+wouldn't object to a partition?  That wouldn't upset any of your plans?"
+
+He spoke as if it would be a great detriment to the barn not to have a
+partition, but of course he wouldn't insist if she disliked it.
+
+"Oh, why, no, of course not," said Shirley, bewildered.  "It would be
+lovely.  Mother could use that for her room, but I wouldn't want you to
+do anything on our account that you do not have to do anyway."
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not, but it might as well be done now as any time,
+and you get the benefit of it, you know.  I shouldn't want to rent the
+place without putting it in good order, and a partition is always
+needed in a barn, you know, if it's to be a really good barn."
+
+It was well that no wise ones were listening to that conversation; else
+they might have laughed aloud at this point and betrayed the young
+man's strategy, but Shirley was all untutored in farm lore, and knew
+less about barns and their needs than she did of Sanskrit; so the
+remark passed without exciting her suspicion.
+
+"Oh, it's going to be lovely!" said Shirley suddenly, like an eager
+child, "and I can't thank you enough for being so kind about it."
+
+"Not at all," said the young man gracefully.  "And now you will want to
+go out and look around again to make your plans.  Were you planning to
+go soon?  I should like to have you look the place over again and see
+if there is anything else that should be done."
+
+"Oh, why," said Shirley, "I don't think there could be anything else;
+only I'd like to have a key to that big front door, for we couldn't
+carry things up the ladder very well.  I was thinking I'd go out this
+afternoon, perhaps, if I could get George a leave of absence for a
+little while.  There's been a death in our firm, and the office is
+working only half-time to-day, and I'm off again.  I thought I'd like
+to have George see it if possible; he's very wise in his judgments, and
+mother trusts him a lot next to me; but I don't know whether they'll
+let him off on such short notice."
+
+"Where does he work?"
+
+"Farwell and Story's department store.  They are pretty particular, but
+George is allowed a day off every three months if he takes it out of
+his vacation; so I thought I'd try."
+
+"Here, let me fix that.  Harry Farwell's a friend of mine."  He caught
+up the telephone.
+
+"Oh, you are very kind!" murmured Shirley, quite overcome at the
+blessings that were falling at her feet.
+
+Graham already had the number, and was calling for Mr. Farwell, Junior.
+
+"That you, Hal?  Oh, good morning!  Have a good time last night?  Sorry
+I couldn't have been there, but I had three other engagements and
+couldn't get around.  Say, I want to ask a favor of you.  You have a
+boy there in the store I want to borrow for the afternoon if you don't
+mind.  His name is George Hollister.  Could you look him up and send
+him over to my office pretty soon?  It will be a personal favor to me
+if you will let him off and not dock his pay.  Thank you!  I was sure
+you would.  Return the favor sometime myself if opportunity comes my
+way.  Yes, I'll hold the phone till you hunt him up.  Thank you."
+
+Graham looked up from the phone into the astonished grateful girl's
+eyes, and caught her look of deep admiration, which quite confused
+Shirley for a moment, and put her in a terrible way trying to thank him
+again.
+
+"Oh, that's all right.  Farwell and I went to prep school together.
+It's nothing for him to arrange matters.  He says it will be all right.
+Now, what are your plans?  I wonder if I can help in any way.  How were
+you planning to go out?"
+
+"Oh, by the trolley, of course," said Shirley.  How strange it must be
+to have other ways of travelling at one's command!
+
+"I did think," she added, half thinking aloud, "that perhaps I would
+stop at the schoolhouse and get my sister.  I don't know but it would
+be better to get her judgment about things.  She is rather a wise
+little girl."
+
+She looked up suddenly, and seeing the young man's eyes upon her, grew
+ashamed that she had brought her private affairs to his notice; yet it
+had seemed necessary to say something to fill in this embarrassing
+pause.  But Sidney Graham did not let her continue to be embarrassed.
+He entered into her plans just as if they concerned himself also.
+
+"Why, I think that would be a very good plan," he said.  "It will be a
+great deal better to have a real family council before you decide about
+moving.  Now I've thought of something.  Why couldn't you all go out in
+the car with me and my kid sister?  I've been promising to take her a
+spin in the country, and my chauffeur is to drive her down this
+afternoon for me.  It's almost time for her to be here now.  Your
+brother will be here by the time she comes.  Why couldn't we just go
+around by the schoolhouse and pick up your sister, and all go out
+together?  I want to go out myself, you know, and look things over, and
+it seems to me that would save time all around.  Then, if there should
+be anything you want done, you know----"
+
+"Oh, there is nothing I want done," gasped Shirley.  "You have been
+most kind.  I couldn't think of asking for anything at the price we
+shall be paying.  And we mustn't impose upon you.  We can go out in the
+trolley perfectly well, and not trouble you."
+
+"Indeed, it is no trouble whatever when I am going anyway."  Then to
+the telephone: "Hello!  He's coming, you say?  He's on his way?  Good.
+Thank you very much, Harry.  Good-by!"
+
+"That's all right!" he said, turning to her, smiling.  "Your brother is
+on his way, and now excuse me just a moment while I phone to my sister."
+
+Shirley sat with glowing cheeks and apprehensive mind while the young
+man called up a girl whom he addressed as "Kid" and told her to hurry
+the car right down, that he wanted to start very soon, and to bring
+some extra wraps along for some friends he was going to take with him.
+
+He left Shirley no opportunity to express her overwhelming thanks, but
+gave her some magazines, and hurried from the room to attend to some
+matters of business before he left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Shirley sat with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, turning over the
+leaves of the magazines with trembling fingers, but unable to read
+anything, for the joy of what was before her.  A real automobile ride!
+The first she had ever had!  And it was to include George and Carol!
+How wonderful!  And how kind in him, how thoughtful, to take his own
+sister, and hers, and so make the trip perfectly conventional and
+proper!  What a nice face he had!  What fine eyes!  He didn't seem in
+the least like the young society man she knew he must be from the
+frequent mention she had noticed of his name in the papers.  He was a
+real gentleman, a real nobleman!  There were such.  It was nice to know
+of them now and then, even though they did move in a different orbit
+from the one where she had been set.  It gave her a happier feeling
+about the universe just to have seen how nice a man could be to a poor
+little nobody when he didn't have to.  For of course it couldn't be
+anything to him to rent that barn--at ten dollars a month!  That was
+ridiculous!  Could it be that he was thinking her an object of charity?
+That he felt sorry for her and made the price merely nominal?  She
+couldn't have that.  It wasn't right nor honest, and--it wasn't
+respectable!  That was the way unprincipled men did when they wanted to
+humor foolish little dolls of girls.  Could it be that he thought of
+her in any such way?
+
+Her cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed.  She sat up very straight
+indeed, and began to tremble.  How was it she had not thought of such a
+thing before?  Her mother had warned her to be careful about having
+anything to do with strange men, except in the most distant business
+way; and here had she been telling him frankly all the private affairs
+of the family and letting him make plans for her.  How had it happened?
+What must he think of her?  This came of trying to keep a secret from
+mother.  She might have known it was wrong, and yet the case was so
+desperate and mother so likely to worry about any new and
+unconventional suggestion.  It had seemed right.  But of course it
+wasn't right for her to fall in that way and allow him to take them all
+in his car.  She must put a stop to it somehow.  She must go in the
+trolley if she went at all.  She wasn't sure but she had better call
+the whole thing off and tell him they couldn't live in a barn, that she
+had changed her mind.  It would be so dreadful if he had taken her for
+one of those girls who wanted to attract the attention of a young man!
+
+In the midst of her perturbed thoughts the door opened and Sidney
+Graham walked in again.  His fine, clean-cut face and clear eyes
+instantly dispelled her fears again.  His bearing was dignified and
+respectful, and there was something in the very tone of his voice as he
+spoke to her that restored her confidence in him and in his impression
+of her.  Her half-formed intention of rising and declining to take the
+ride with him fled, and she sat quietly looking at the pictures in the
+magazine with unseeing eyes.
+
+"I hope you will find something to interest you for a few minutes,"
+young Graham said pleasantly.  "It won't be long, but there are one or
+two matters I promised father I would attend to before I left this
+afternoon.  There is an article in that other magazine under your hand
+there about beautifying country homes, bungalows, and the like.  It may
+give you some ideas about the old barn.  I shouldn't wonder if a few
+flowers and vines might do a whole lot."
+
+He found the place in the magazine, and left her again; and strangely
+enough she became absorbed in the article because her imagination
+immediately set to work thinking how glorious it would be to have a few
+flowers growing where Doris could go out and water them and pick them.
+She grew so interested in the remarks about what flowers would grow
+best in the open and which were easiest to care for that she got out
+her little pencil and notebook that were in her coat-pocket, and began
+to copy some of the lists.  Then suddenly the door opened again, and
+Graham returned with George.
+
+The boy stopped short on the threshold, startled, a white wave of
+apprehension passing over his face.  He did not speak.  The boy-habit
+of silence and self-control in a crisis was upon him.  He looked with
+apprehension from one to the other.
+
+Shirley jumped to her feet.
+
+"Oh, George, I'm so glad you could come!  This is Mr. Graham.  He has
+been kind enough to offer to take us in his car to see a place we can
+rent for the summer, and it was through his suggestion that Mr. Farwell
+let you off for the afternoon."
+
+There was a sudden relaxing of the tenseness in the young face and a
+sigh of relief in the tone as the boy answered:
+
+"Aw, gee!  That's great!  Thanks awfully for the holiday.  They don't
+come my way often.  It'll be great to have a ride in a car, too.  Some
+lark, eh, Shirley?"
+
+The boy warmed to the subject with the friendly grasp the young man
+gave him, and Shirley could see her brother had made a good impression;
+for young Graham was smiling appreciatively, showing all his even white
+teeth just as if he enjoyed the boy's offhand way of talking.
+
+"I'm going to leave you here for ten minutes more until I talk with a
+man out here in the office.  Then we will go," said young Graham, and
+hurried away again.
+
+"Gee, Shirley!" said the boy, flinging himself down luxuriously in a
+big leather chair.  "Gee!  You certainly did give me some start!  I
+thought mother was worse, or you'd got arrested, or lost your job, or
+something, finding you here in a strange office.  Some class to this,
+isn't there?  Look at the thickness of that rug!" and he kicked the
+thick Turkish carpet happily.  "Say, he must have some coin!  Who is
+the guy, anyway?  How'd ya get onto the tip?  You don't think he's
+handing out Vanderbilt residences at fifteen a month, do you?"
+
+"Listen, George.  I must talk fast because he may come back any minute.
+Yesterday I got a half-holiday, and instead of going home I thought I'd
+go out and hunt a house.  I took the Glenside trolley; and, when we got
+out past the city, I heard two men talking about a place we were
+passing.  It was a great big, beautiful stone barn.  They told who
+owned it, and said a lot about its having such a splendid spring of
+water beside it.  It was a beautiful place, George; and I couldn't help
+thinking what a thing it would be for mother to be out in the country
+this summer, and what a wonderful house that would make----"
+
+"We couldn't live in a barn, Shirl!" said the boy, aghast.
+
+"Wait, George.  Listen.  Just you don't say that till you see it.  It's
+the biggest barn you ever saw, and I guess it hasn't been used for a
+barn in a long time.  I got out of the trolley on the way back, and
+went in.  It is just enormous, and we could screen off rooms and live
+like princes.  It has a great big front door, and we could have a
+hammock under the tree; and there's a brook to fish in, and a big third
+story with hay in it.  I guess it's what they call in books a hay-loft.
+It's great."
+
+"Gee!" was all the electrified George could utter.  "Oh, gee!"
+
+"It is on a little hill with the loveliest tree in front of it, and
+right on the trolley line.  We'd have to start a little earlier in the
+morning; but I wouldn't mind, would you?"
+
+"Naw!" said George, "but could we walk that far?"
+
+"No, we'd have to ride, but the rent is so much lower it would pay our
+carfare."
+
+"Gee!" said George again, "isn't that great?  And is this the guy that
+owns it?"
+
+"Yes, or at least he and his father do.  He's been very kind.  He's
+taking all this trouble to take us out in his car to-day to make sure
+if there is anything that needs to be done for our comfort there.  He
+certainly is an unusual man for a landlord."
+
+"He sure is, Shirley.  I guess mebbe he has a case on you the way he
+looks at you."
+
+"George!" said Shirley severely, the red staining her cheeks and her
+eyes flashing angrily.  "George!  That was a _dreadful_ thing for you
+to say.  If you ever even think a thing like that again, I won't have
+anything to do with him or the place.  We'll just stay in the city all
+summer.  I suppose perhaps that would be better, anyway."
+
+Shirley got up and began to button her coat haughtily, as if she were
+going out that minute.
+
+"Aw, gee, Shirley!  I was just kidding.  Can't you take a joke?  This
+thing must be getting on your nerves.  I never saw you so touchy."
+
+"It certainly is getting on my nerves to have you say a thing like
+that, George."
+
+Shirley's tone was still severe.
+
+"Aw, cut the grouch, Shirley.  I tell you I was just kidding.  'Course
+he's a good guy.  He probably thinks you're cross-eyed, knock-kneed----"
+
+"George!"  Shirley started for the door; but the irrepressible George
+saw it was time to stop, and he put out an arm with muscles that were
+iron-like from many wrestlings and ball-games with his fellow laborers
+at the store.
+
+"Now, Shirley, cut the comedy.  That guy'll be coming back next, and
+you don't want to have him ask what's the matter, do you?  He certainly
+is some fine guy.  I wouldn't like to embarrass him, would you?  He's a
+peach of a looker.  Say, Shirley, what do you figure mother's going to
+say about this?"
+
+Shirley turned, half mollified.
+
+"That's just what I want to ask you, George.  I don't want to tell
+mother until it's all fixed up and we can show if to her.  You know it
+will sound a great deal worse to talk about living in a barn than it
+will to go in and see it all fixed up with rugs and curtains and
+screens and the piano and a couch, and the supper-table set, and the
+sun setting outside the open door, and a bird singing in the tree."
+
+"Gee!  Shirley, wouldn't that be some class?  Say, Shirley, don't let's
+tell her!  Let's just make her say she'll trust the moving to us to
+surprise her.  Can't you kid her along and make her willing for that?"
+
+"Why, that was what I was thinking.  If you think there's no danger she
+will be disappointed and sorry, and think we ought to have done
+something else."
+
+"What else could we do?  Say, Shirley, it would be great to sleep in
+the hay-loft!"
+
+"We could just tell her we were coming out in the country for the
+summer to camp in a nice place where it was safe and comfortable, and
+then we would have plenty of time to look around for the right kind of
+a house for next winter."
+
+"That's the dope, Shirley!  You give her that.  She'll fall for that,
+sure thing.  She'll like the country.  At least, if it's like what you
+say it is."
+
+"Well, you wait till you see it."
+
+"Have you told Carol?" asked George, suddenly sobering.  Carol was his
+twin sister, inseparable chum, and companion when he was at home.
+
+"No," said Shirley, "I haven't had a chance; but Mr. Graham suggested
+we drive around by the school and get her.  Then she can see how she
+likes it, too; and, if Carol thinks so, we'll get mother not to ask any
+questions, but just trust to us."
+
+"Gee!  That guy's great.  He's got a head on him.  Some lark, what?"
+
+"Yes, he's been very kind," said Shirley.  "At first I told him I
+couldn't let him take so much trouble for us, but he said he was going
+to take his sister out for a ride----"
+
+"A girl!  Aw, gee!  I'm going to beat it!"  George stopped in his eager
+walk back and forth across the office, and seized his old faded cap.
+
+"George, stop!  You mustn't be impolite.  Besides, I think she's only a
+very little girl, probably like Doris.  He called her his 'kid sister.'"
+
+"H'm!  You can't tell.  I ain't going to run any risks.  I better beat
+it."
+
+But George's further intentions were suddenly brought to a finish by
+the entrance of Mr. Sidney Graham.
+
+"Well, Miss Hollister," he said with a smile, "we are ready at last.
+I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long; but there was something
+wrong with one of my tires, and the chauffeur had to run around to the
+garage.  Come on, George," he said to the boy, who hung shyly behind
+now, wary of any lurking female who might be haunting the path.  "Guess
+you'll have to sit in the front seat with me, and help me drive.  The
+chauffeur has to go back and drive for mother.  She has to go to some
+tea or other."
+
+George suddenly forgot the possible girl, and followed his new hero to
+the elevator with a swelling soul.  What would the other fellows at the
+store think of him?  A whole half-holiday, an automobile-ride, and a
+chance to sit in the front and learn to drive!  But all he said was:
+
+"Aw, gee!  Yes, sure thing!"
+
+The strange girl suddenly loomed on his consciousness again as they
+emerged from the elevator and came out on the street.  She was sitting
+in the great back seat alone, arrayed in a big blue velvet coat the
+color of her eyes, and George felt at once all hands and feet.  She was
+a slender wisp of a thing about Carol's age, with a lily complexion and
+a wealth of gold hair caught in a blue veil.  She smiled very prettily
+when her brother introduced her as "Elizabeth."  There was nothing
+snobbish or disagreeable about her, but that blue velvet coat suddenly
+made George conscious of his own common attire, and gave Shirley a pang
+of dismay at her own little shabby suit.
+
+However, Sidney Graham soon covered all differences in the attire of
+his guests by insisting that they should don the two long blanket coats
+that he handed them; and somehow when George was seated in the big
+leather front seat, with that great handsome coat around his shoulders,
+he did not much mind the blue velvet girl behind him, and mentally
+resolved to earn enough to get Carol a coat like it some day; only
+Carol's should be pink or red to go with her black eyes and pink cheeks.
+
+After all, it was Shirley, not George, who felt embarrassment over the
+strange girl and wished she had not come.  She was vexed with herself
+for it, too.  It was foolish to let a child no older than Carol fluster
+her so, but the thought of a long ride alone on that back seat with the
+dainty young girl actually frightened her.
+
+But Elizabeth was not frightened.  She had been brought up in the
+society atmosphere, and was at home with people always, everywhere.
+She tucked the robes about her guest, helped Shirley button the big,
+soft dark-blue coat about her, remarking that it got awfully chilly
+when they were going; and somehow before Shirley had been able to think
+of a single word to say in response the conversation seemed to be
+moving along easily without her aid.
+
+"Sid says we're going to pick up your sister from her school.  I'm so
+glad!  How old is she?  About my age?  Won't that be delightful?  I'm
+rather lonesome this spring because all my friends are in school.  I've
+been away at boarding-school, and got the measles.  Wasn't that too
+silly for a great big girl like me?  And the doctor said I couldn't
+study any more this spring on account of my eyes.  It's terribly
+lonesome.  I've been home six weeks now, and I don't know what to do
+with myself.  What's your sister's name?  Carol?  Carol Hollister?
+That's a pretty name!  Is she the only sister you have?  A baby sister?
+How sweet!  What's her name?  Oh, I think Doris is the cutest name
+ever.  Doris Hollister.  Why don't we go and get Doris?  Wouldn't she
+like to ride, too?  Oh, it's too bad your mother is ill; but of course
+she wouldn't want to stay all alone in the house without some of her
+family."
+
+Elizabeth was tactful.  She knew at a glance that trained nurses and
+servants could not be plentiful in a family where the young people wore
+such plain, old-style garments.  She gave no hint of such a thought,
+however.
+
+"That's your brother," she went on, nodding toward George.  "I've got
+another brother, but he's seventeen and away at college, so I don't see
+much of him.  Sid's very good to me when he has time, and often he
+takes me to ride.  We're awfully jolly chums, Sid and I.  Is this the
+school where your sister goes?  She's in high school, then.  The third
+year?  My!  She must be bright.  I've only finished my second.  Does
+she know she's going with us?  What fun to be called out of school by a
+surprise!  Oh, I just know I'm going to like her."
+
+Shirley sat dumb with amazement, and listened to the eager gush of the
+lively girl, wondered what shy Carol would say, trying to rouse herself
+to answer the young questioner in the same spirit in which she asked
+questions.
+
+George came out with Carol in a very short time, Carol struggling into
+her coat and trying to straighten her hat, while George mumbled in her
+ear as he helped her clumsily:
+
+"Some baby doll out there!  Kid, you better preen your feathers.  She's
+been gassing with Shirley to beat the band I couldn't hear all they
+said, but she asked a lot about you.  You should worry!  Hold up your
+head, and don't flicker an eyelash.  You're as good as she is any day,
+if you don't look all dolled up like a new saloon.  But she's some
+looker!  Pretty as a red wagon!  Her brother's a peach of a fellow.
+He's going to let me run the car when we get out of the city limit; and
+say!  Shirley says for me to tell you we're going out to look at a barn
+where we're going to move this summer, and you're not to say a word
+about it's being a barn.  See?  Get onto that sky-blue-pink satin scarf
+she's got around her head?  Ain't she some chicken, though?"
+
+"Hush, George!  She'll hear you!" murmured Carol in dismay.  "What do
+you mean about a barn?  How could we live in a barn?"
+
+"You just shut up and saw wood, kid, and you'll see.  Shirley thinks
+she's got onto something pretty good."
+
+Then Carol was introduced to the beautiful blue-velvet girl and sat
+down beside her, wrapped in a soft furry cloak of garnet, to be whirled
+away into a fairy-land of wonder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Carol and Elizabeth got on very well together.  Shirley was amazed to
+see the ease with which her sister entered into this new relation,
+unawed by the garments of her hostess.  Carol had more of the modern
+young America in her than Shirley, perhaps, whose early life had been
+more conventionally guarded.  Carol was democratic, and, strange to
+say, felt slightly superior to Elizabeth on account of going to a
+public school.  The high-school girls were in the habit of referring to
+a neighboring boarding-school as "Dummy's Retreat"; and therefore Carol
+was not at all awed by the other girl, who declared in a friendly
+manner that she had always been crazy to go to the public school, and
+asked rapid intelligent questions about the doings there.  Before they
+were out of the city limits the two girls were talking a steady stream,
+and one could see from their eyes that they liked each other.  Shirley,
+relieved, settled back on the comfortable cushions, and let herself
+rest and relax.  She tried to think how it would feel to own a car like
+this and be able to ride around when she wanted to.
+
+On the front seat George and Graham were already excellent friends, and
+George was gaining valuable information about running a car, which he
+had ample opportunity to put into practice as soon as they got outside
+the crowded thoroughfares.
+
+They were perhaps half-way to the old barn and running smoothly on an
+open road, with no one in sight a long way ahead, when Graham turned
+back to Shirley, leaving George to run the car for a moment himself.
+The boy's heart swelled with gratitude and utmost devotion to be thus
+trusted.  Of course there wasn't anything to do but keep things just as
+he had been told, but this man realized that he would do it and not
+perform any crazy, daring action to show off.  George set himself to be
+worthy of this trust.  To be sure, young Graham had a watchful eye upon
+things, and was taking no chances; but he let the boy feel free, and
+did not make him aware of his espionage, which is a course of action
+that will win any boy to give the best that is in him to any
+responsibility, if he has any best at all.
+
+It was not the kind of conversation that one would expect between
+landlord and tenant that the young girl and the man carried on in these
+brief sentences now and then.  He called her attention to the soft
+green tint that was spreading over the tree-tops more distinctly than
+the day before; to the lazy little clouds floating over the blue; to
+the tinting of the fields, now taking on every hour new colors; to the
+perfume in the air.  So with pleasantness of passage they arrived at
+last at the old barn.
+
+Like a pack of eager children they tumbled out of the car and hurried
+up to the barn, all talking at once, forgetting all difference in
+station.  They were just young and out on a picnic.
+
+Graham had brought a key for the big padlock; and clumsily the man and
+the boy, unused to such manoeuvres, unlocked and shoved back the two
+great doors.
+
+"These doors are too heavy.  They should have ball bearings," remarked
+young Graham.  "I'll attend to that at once.  They should be made to
+move with a light touch.  I declare it doesn't pay to let property lie
+idle without a tenant, there are so many little things that get
+neglected."
+
+He walked around with a wise air as if he had been an active landowner
+for years, though indeed he was looking at everything with strange,
+ignorant eyes.  His standard was a home where every detail was perfect,
+and where necessities came and vanished with the need.  This was his
+first view into the possibilities of "being up against it," as he
+phrased it in his mind.
+
+Elizabeth in her blue velvet cloak and blue cloudy veil stood like a
+sweet fairy in the wide doorway, and looked around with delight.
+
+"Oh Sid, wouldn't this be just a dandy place for a party?" she
+exclaimed eagerly.  "You could put the orchestra over in that corner
+behind a screen of palms, and decorate with gray Florida moss and
+asparagus vine with daffodils wired on in showers from the beams, and
+palms all around the walls, and colored electrics hidden everywhere.
+You could run a wire in from the street, couldn't you? the way they did
+at Uncle Andy's, and serve the supper out on the lawn with little
+individual rustic tables.  Brower has them, and brings them out with
+rustic chairs to match.  You could have the tree wired, too, and have
+colored electrics all over the place.  Oh! wouldn't it be just
+heavenly?  Say, Sid, Carol says they are coming out here to live,
+maybe; why couldn't we give them a party like that for a house-warming?"
+
+Sidney Graham looked at his eager, impractical young sister and then at
+the faces of the three Hollisters, and tried not to laugh as the
+tremendous contrast of circumstances was presented to him.  But his
+rare tact served him in good stead.
+
+"Why, Elizabeth, that would doubtless be very delightful; but Miss
+Hollister tells me her mother has been quite ill, and I'm sure, while
+that might be the happiest thing imaginable for you young folks, it
+would be rather trying on an invalid.  I guess you'll have to have your
+parties somewhere else for the present."
+
+"Oh!" said Elizabeth with quick recollection, "of course!  They told me
+about their mother.  How thoughtless of me!  But it would be lovely,
+wouldn't it, Miss Hollister?  Can't you see it?"
+
+She turned in wistful appeal to Shirley, and that young woman, being a
+dreamer herself, at once responded with a radiant smile:
+
+"Indeed I can, and it would be lovely indeed, but I've been thinking
+what a lovely home it could be made, too."
+
+"Yes?" said Elizabeth questioningly, and looking around with a dubious
+frown.  "It would need a lot of changing, I should think.  You would
+want hardwood floors, and lots of rugs, and some partitions and
+windows----"
+
+"Oh, no," said Shirley, laughing.  "We're not hardwood people, dear;
+we're just plain hard-working people; and all we need is a quiet, sweet
+place to rest in.  It's going to be just heavenly here, with that tree
+outside to shade the doorway, and all this wide space to walk around
+in.  We live in a little narrow city house now, and never have any
+place to get out except the street.  We'll have the birds and the brook
+for orchestra, and we won't need palms, because the trees and vines
+will soon be in leaf and make a lovely screen for our orchestra.  I
+imagine at night the stars will have almost as many colors as
+electrics."
+
+Elizabeth looked at her with puzzled eyes, but half convinced.
+
+"Well, yes, perhaps they would," she said, and smiled.  "I've never
+thought of them that way, but it sounds very pretty, quite like some of
+Browning's poetry that I don't understand, or was it Mrs. Browning?  I
+can't quite remember."
+
+Sidney Graham, investigating the loft above them, stood a moment
+watching the tableau and listening to the conversation, though they
+could not see him; and he thought within himself that it might not be a
+bad thing for his little sister, with her boarding-school rearing, to
+get near to these true-hearted young working people, who yet were
+dreamers and poets, and get her standards somewhat modified by theirs.
+He was especially delighted with the gentle, womanly way in which
+Shirley answered the girl now when she thought herself alone with her.
+
+George and Carol had grasped hold of hands and run wildly down the
+slope to the brook after a most casual glance at the interior of the
+barn.  Elizabeth now turned her dainty high-heeled boots in the brook's
+direction, and Shirley was left alone to walk the length and breadth of
+her new abode and make some real plans.
+
+The young man in the dim loft above watched her for a moment as she
+stood looking from one wall to the other, measuring distances with her
+eye, walking quickly over to the window and rubbing a clear space on
+the dusty pane with her handkerchief that she might look out.  She was
+a goodly sight, and he could not help comparing her with the girls he
+knew, though their garments would have far outshone hers.  Still, even
+in the shabby dark-blue serge suit she seemed lovely.
+
+The young people returned as precipitately as they had gone, and both
+Carol and George of their own accord joined Shirley in a brief council
+of war.  Graham thoughtfully called his sister away, ostensibly to
+watch a squirrel high in the big tree, but really to admonish her about
+making no further propositions like that for the party, as the young
+people to whom he had introduced her were not well off, and had no
+money or time for elaborate entertainments.
+
+"But they're lovely, Sid, aren't they?  Don't you like them just
+awfully?  I know you do, or you wouldn't have taken the trouble to
+bring them out here in the car with us.  Say, you'll bring me to see
+them often after they come here to live, won't you?"
+
+"Perhaps," said her brother smilingly.  "But hadn't you better wait
+until they ask you?"
+
+"Oh, they'll ask me," said Elizabeth with a charming smile and a
+confident little toss of her head.  "I'll make them ask me."
+
+"Be careful, kid," he said, still smiling.  "Remember, they won't have
+much money to offer you entertainment with, and probably their things
+are very plain and simple.  You may embarrass them if you invite
+yourself out."
+
+Elizabeth raised her azure eyes to her brother's face thoughtfully for
+a moment, then smiled back confidently once more.
+
+"Don't you worry, Sid, dear; there's more than one way.  I won't hurt
+their feelings, but they're going to ask me, and they're going to want
+me, and I'm going to come.  Yes, and you're going to bring me!"
+
+She turned with a laughing pirouette, and danced down the length of the
+barn to Carol, catching her hand and whirling her after her in a
+regular childish frolic.
+
+"Well, do you think we ought to take it?  Do you think I dare give my
+final word without consulting mother?" Shirley asked her brother when
+they were thus left alone for a minute.
+
+"Sure thing!  No mistake!  It's simply _great_.  You couldn't get a
+place like this if you went the length and breadth of the city and had
+a whole lot more money than you have to spend."
+
+"But remember it's a barn!" said Shirley impressively.  "Mother may
+mind that very much."
+
+"Not when she sees it," said Carol, whirling back to the consultation.
+"She'll think it's the sensiblest thing we ever did.  She isn't foolish
+like that.  We'll tell her we've found a place to camp with a shanty
+attached, and she can't be disappointed.  I think it'll be great.  Just
+think how Doris can run in the grass!"
+
+"Yes," put in George.  "I was telling Carol down by the spring--before
+that _girl_ came and stopped us--I think we might have some chickens
+and raise eggs.  Harley could do that, and Carol and I could raise
+flowers, and I could take 'em to town in the morning.  I could work
+evenings."
+
+Shirley smiled.  She almost felt like shouting that they agreed with
+her.  The place seemed so beautiful, so almost heavenly to her when she
+thought of the close, dark quarters at home and the summer with its
+heat coming on.
+
+"We couldn't keep a lodger, and we'd have that much less," said Shirley
+thoughtfully.
+
+"But we wouldn't have their laundry nor their room-work to do," said
+Carol, "and I could have that much more time for the garden and
+chickens."
+
+"You mustn't count on being able to make much that way," said Shirley
+gravely.  "You know nothing about gardening, and would probably make a
+lot of mistakes at first, anyway."
+
+"I can make fudge and sandwiches, and take them to school to sell,"
+declared Carol stoutly; "and I'll find out how to raise flowers and
+parsley and little things people have to have.  Besides, there's
+watercress down by that brook, and people like that.  We could sell
+that."
+
+"Well, we'll see," said Shirley thoughtfully, "but you mustn't get up
+too many ideas yet.  If we can only get moved and mother is satisfied,
+I guess we can get along.  The rent is only ten dollars."
+
+"Good _night_!  That's cheap enough!" said George, and drew a long
+whistle.  Then, seeing Elizabeth approaching, he put on an indifferent
+air, and sauntered to the dusty window at the other end of the barn.
+
+Sidney Graham appeared now, and took Shirley over to the east end to
+ask her just where she thought would be a good place to put the
+partition, and did she think it would be a good thing to have another
+one at the other end just like it?  And so they stood and planned,
+quite as if Shirley were ordering a ten-thousand-dollar alteration put
+into her ten-dollar barn.  Then suddenly the girl remembered her fears;
+and, looking straight up into the interested face of the young man, she
+asked earnestly:
+
+"You are sure you were going to put in these partitions?  You are not
+making any change on my account?  Because I couldn't think of allowing
+you to go to any trouble or expense, you know."
+
+Her straightforward look embarrassed him.
+
+"Why, I----" he said, growing a little flushed.  "Why, you see I hadn't
+been out to look things over before.  I didn't realize how much better
+it would be to have those in, you know.  But now I intend to do it
+right away.  Father put the whole thing in my hands to do as I pleased.
+In fact, the place is mine now, and I want to put it in good shape to
+rent.  So don't worry yourself in the least.  Things won't go to wrack
+and ruin so quickly, you know, if there is someone on the place."
+
+He finished his sentence briskly.  It seemed quite plausible even to
+himself now, and he searched about for a change of topic.
+
+"You think you can get on here with the rough floor?  You might put
+padding or something under your carpets, you know, but it will take
+pretty large carpets----"  He looked at her dubiously.  To his
+conventional mind every step of the way was blocked by some impassable
+barrier.  He did not honestly see how she was going to do the thing at
+all.
+
+"Oh, we don't need carpets!" laughed Shirley gayly.  "We'll spread down
+a rug in front of mother's bed, and another one by the piano, and the
+rest will be just perfectly all right.  We're not expecting to give
+receptions here, you know," she added mischievously.  "We're only
+campers, and very grateful campers at that, too, to find a nice, clean,
+empty floor where we can live.  The only thing that is troubling me is
+the cooking.  I've been wondering if it will affect the insurance if we
+use an oil-stove to cook with, or would you rather we got a wood-stove
+and put the pipe out of one of the windows?  I've seen people do that
+sometimes.  Of course we could cook outdoors on a camp-fire if it was
+necessary, but it might be a little inconvenient rainy days."
+
+Graham gasped at the coolness with which this slip of a girl discoursed
+about hardships as if they were necessities to be accepted pleasantly
+and without a murmur.  She actually would not be daunted at the idea of
+cooking her meals on a fire out-of-doors!  Cooking indeed!  That was of
+course a question that people had to consider.  It had never been a
+question that crossed his mind before.  People cooked--how did they
+cook?  By electricity, gas, coal and wood fires, of course.  He had
+never considered it a matter to be called in any way serious.  But now
+he perceived that it was one of the first main things to be looked out
+for in a home.  He looked down at the waiting girl with a curious
+mixture of wonder, admiration, and dismay in his face.
+
+"Why, of course you will need a fire and a kitchen," he said as if
+those things usually grew in houses without any help and it hadn't
+occurred to him before that they were not indigenous to barns.  "Well,
+now, I hadn't thought of that.  There isn't any chimney here, is there?
+H'm!  There ought to be a chimney in every barn.  It would be better
+for the--ah--for the hay, I should think; keep it dry, you know, and
+all that sort of thing.  And then I should think it might be better for
+the animals.  I must look into that matter."
+
+"No, Mr. Graham," said Shirley decidedly.  "There is no necessity for a
+chimney.  We can perfectly well have the pipe go through a piece of tin
+set in the back window if you won't object, and we can use the little
+oil-stove when it's very hot if that doesn't affect the insurance.  We
+have a gas stove, of course, that we could bring; but there isn't any
+gas in a barn."
+
+Graham looked around blankly at the cobwebby walls as if expecting
+gas-jets to break forth simultaneously with his wish.
+
+"No, I suppose not," he said, "although I should think there ought to
+be.  In a _barn_, you know.  But I'm sure there will be no objection
+whatever to your using any kind of a stove that will work here.  This
+is a stone barn, you know, and I'm sure it won't affect the insurance.
+I'll find out and let you know."
+
+Shirley felt a trifle uneasy yet about those partitions and the low
+price of the rent, but somehow the young man had managed to impress her
+with the fact that he was under no unpleasant delusions concerning
+herself and that he had the utmost respect for her.  He stood looking
+down earnestly at her for a moment without saying a word, and then he
+began hesitatingly.
+
+"I wish you'd let me tell you," he said frankly, "how awfully brave you
+are about all this, planning to come out here in this lonely place, and
+not being afraid of hard work, and rough floors, and a barn, and even a
+fire out-of-doors."
+
+Shirley's laugh rang out, and her eyes sparkled.
+
+"Why, it's the nicest thing that's happened to me in ages," she said
+joyously.  "I can't hardly believe it's true that we can come here,
+that we can really _afford_ to come to a great, heavenly country place
+like this.  I suppose of course there'll be hard things.  There always
+are, and some of them have been just about unbearable, but even the
+hard things can be made fun if you try.  This is going to be grand!"
+and she looked around triumphantly on the dusty rafters and rough stone
+walls with a little air of possession.
+
+"You are rather"--he paused--"unusual!" he finished thoughtfully as
+they walked toward the doorway and stood looking off at the distance.
+
+But now Shirley had almost forgotten him in the excitement of the view.
+
+"Just think of waking up to that every morning," she declared with a
+sweep of her little blue-clad arm toward the view in the distance.
+"Those purply hills, the fringe of brown and green against the horizon,
+that white spire nestling among those evergreens!  Is that a church?
+Is it near enough for us to go to?  Mother wouldn't want us to be too
+far from church."
+
+"We'll go home that way and discover," said Graham decidedly.  "You'll
+want to get acquainted with your new neighborhood.  You'll need to know
+how near there is a store, and where your neighbors live.  We'll
+reconnoitre a little.  Are you ready to go?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I'm afraid we have kept you too long already, and we must
+get home about the time Carol usually comes from school, or mother will
+be terribly worried.  Carol is never later than half-past four."
+
+"We've plenty of time," said the driver of the car, looking at his
+watch and smiling assurance.  "Call the children, and we'll take a
+little turn around the neighborhood before we go back."
+
+And so the little eager company were reluctantly persuaded to climb
+into the car again and start on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The car leaped forward up the smooth white road, and the great barn as
+they looked back to it seemed to smile pleasantly to them in farewell.
+Shirley looked back, and tried to think how it would seem to come home
+every night and see Doris standing at the top of the grassy incline
+waiting to welcome her; tried to fancy her mother in a hammock under
+the big tree a little later when it grew warm and summery, and the boys
+working in their garden.  It seemed too heavenly to be true.
+
+The car swept around the corner of Allister Avenue, and curved down
+between tall trees.  The white spire in the distance drew nearer now,
+and the purplish hills were off at one side.  The way was fresh with
+smells of spring, and everywhere were sweet scents and droning bees and
+croaking frogs.  The spirit of the day seemed to enter into the young
+people and make them glad.  Somehow all at once they seemed to have
+known one another a long time, and to be intimately acquainted with one
+another's tastes and ecstasies.  They exclaimed together over the
+distant view of the misty city with the river winding on its far way,
+and shouted simultaneously over a frightened rabbit that scurried
+across the road and hid in the brushwood; and then the car wound round
+a curve and the little white church swept into view below them.
+
+
+  "The little white church in the valley
+    Is bright with the blossoms of May,
+  And true is the heart of your lover
+    Who waits for your coming to-day!"
+
+chanted forth George in a favorite selection of the department-store
+victrola, and all the rest looked interested.  It was a pretty church,
+and nestled under the hills as if it were part of the landscape, making
+a home-centre for the town.
+
+"We can go to church and Sunday-school there," said Shirley eagerly.
+"How nice!  That will please mother!"
+
+Elizabeth looked at her curiously, and then speculatively toward the
+church.
+
+"It looks awfully small and cheap," said Elizabeth.
+
+"All the more chance for us to help!" said Shirley.  "It will be good
+for us."
+
+"What could you do to help a church?" asked the wondering Elizabeth.
+"Give money to paint it?  The paint is all scaling off."
+
+"We couldn't give much money," said Carol, "because we haven't got it.
+But there's lots of things to do in a church besides giving.  You teach
+in Sunday-school, and you wait on table at suppers when they have
+Ladies' Aid."
+
+"Maybe they'll ask you to play the organ, Shirley," suggested George.
+
+"Oh George!" reproved Shirley.  "They'll have plenty that can play
+better than I can.  Remember I haven't had time to practise for ages."
+
+"She's a crackerjack at the piano!" confided George to Graham in a low
+growl.  "She hasn't had a lesson since father died, but before that she
+used to be at it all the time.  She c'n sing too.  You oughtta hear
+her."
+
+"I'm sure I should like to," assented Graham heartily.  "I wonder if
+you will help me get her to sing sometime if I come out to call after
+you are settled."
+
+"Sure!" said George heartily, "but she mebbe won't do it.  She's awful
+nutty about singing sometimes.  She's not stuck on herself nor nothing."
+
+But the little white church was left far behind, and the city swept on
+apace.  They were nearing home now, and Graham insisted on knowing
+where they lived, that he might put them down at their door.  Shirley
+would have pleaded an errand and had them set down in the business part
+of the town; but George airily gave the street and number, and Shirley
+could not prevail upon Graham to stop at his office and let them go
+their way.
+
+And so the last few minutes of the drive were silent for Shirley, and
+her cheeks grew rosy with humiliation over the dark little narrow
+street where they would presently arrive.  Perhaps when he saw it this
+cultured young man would think they were too poor and common to be good
+tenants even for a barn.  But, when they stopped before the little
+two-story brick house, you would not have known from the expression on
+the young man's face as he glanced at the number but that the house was
+a marble front on the most exclusive avenue in the city.  He handed
+down Shirley with all the grace that he would have used to wait upon a
+millionaire's daughter, and she liked the way he helped out Carol and
+spoke to George as if he were an old chum.
+
+"I want you to come and see me next Saturday," called Elizabeth to
+Carol as the car glided away from the curb; "and I'm coming out to help
+you get settled, remember!"
+
+The brother and two sisters stood in front of their little old dark
+house, and watched the elegant car glide away.  They were filled with
+wonder at themselves that they had been all the afternoon a part of
+that elegant outfit.  Was it a dream?  They rubbed their eyes as the
+car disappeared around the corner, and turned to look up at the
+familiar windows and make sure where they were.  Then they stood a
+moment to decide how they should explain to the waiting mother why they
+happened to be home so early.
+
+It was finally decided that George should go to hunt up a drayman and
+find out what he would charge to move their things to the country, and
+Shirley should go to a neighbor's to inquire about a stove she heard
+they wanted to sell.  Then Carol could go in alone, and there would be
+nothing to explain.  There was no telling when either George or Shirley
+would have a holiday again, and it was as well to get these things
+arranged as soon as possible.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham was eagerly interviewing her brother, having
+taken the vacant front seat for the purpose.
+
+"Sid, where did you find those perfectly dear people?  I think they are
+just great!  And are they really going to live in that barn?  Won't
+that be dandy?  I wish mother'd let me go out and spend a month with
+them.  I mean to ask her.  That Carol is the nicest girl ever.  She's
+just a dear!"
+
+"Now, look here, kid," said Graham, facing about to his sister.  "I
+want you to understand a thing or two.  I took you on this expedition
+because I thought I could trust you.  See?"
+
+Elizabeth nodded.
+
+"Well, I don't want a lot of talk at home about this.  Do you
+understand?  I want you to wait a bit and go slow.  If things seem to
+be all right a little later on, you can ask Carol to come and see you,
+perhaps; but you'll have to look out.  She hasn't fine clothes to go
+visiting in, I imagine, and they're pretty proud.  I guess they've lost
+their money.  Their father died a couple of years ago, and they've been
+up against it.  They do seem like awfully nice people, I'll admit; and,
+if it's all right later on, you can get to be friends, but you'll have
+to go slow.  Mother wouldn't understand it, and she mustn't be annoyed,
+you know.  I'll take you out to see them sometime when they get settled
+if it seems all right, but meantime can you keep your tongue still?"
+
+Elizabeth's face fell, but she gave her word immediately.  She and her
+brother were chums; it was easy to see that.
+
+"But can't I have her out for a week-end, Sid?  Can't I tell mother
+anything about her?  I could lend her some dresses, you know."
+
+"You go slow, kid, and leave the matter to me.  I'll tell mother about
+them pretty soon when I've had a chance to see a little more of them
+and am sure mother wouldn't mind.  Meantime, don't you fret.  I'll take
+you out when I go on business, and you shall see her pretty soon again."
+
+Elizabeth had to be content with that.  She perceived that for some
+reason her brother did not care to have the matter talked over in the
+family.  She knew they would all guy him about his interest in a girl
+who wanted to rent his barn, and she felt herself that Shirley was too
+fine to be talked about in that way.  The family wouldn't understand
+unless they saw her.
+
+"I know what you mean, Sid," she said after a thoughtful pause.  "You
+want the folks to see them before they judge what they are, don't you?"
+
+"That's just exactly the point," said Sidney with a gleam of
+satisfaction in his eyes.  "That's just what makes you such a good pal,
+kid.  You always understand."
+
+The smile dawned again in Elizabeth's eyes, and she patted her
+brother's sleeve.
+
+"Good old Sid!" she murmured tenderly.  "You're all right.  And I just
+know you're going to take me out to that barn soon.  Aren't you going
+to fix it up for them a little?  They can't live there that way.  It
+would be a dandy place to live if the windows were bigger and there
+were doors like a house, and a piazza, and some fireplaces.  A great
+big stone fireplace in the middle there opposite that door!  Wouldn't
+that be sweet?  And they'll have to have electric lights and some
+bathrooms, of course."
+
+Her brother tipped back his head, and laughed.
+
+"I'm afraid you wouldn't make much of a hand to live in a barn, kid,"
+he said.  "You're too much of an aristocrat.  How much do you want for
+your money?  My dear, they don't expect tiled bathrooms, and electric
+lights, and inlaid floors when they rent a barn for the summer."
+
+"But aren't you going to do anything, Sid?"
+
+"Well, I can't do much, for Miss Hollister would suspect right away.
+She's very businesslike, and she has suspicions already because I said
+I was going to put in partitions.  She isn't an object of charity, you
+know.  I imagine they are all pretty proud."
+
+Elizabeth sat thoughtful and still.  It was the first time in her life
+she had contemplated what it would be to be very poor.
+
+Her brother watched her with interest.  He had a feeling that it was
+going to be very good for Elizabeth to know these Hollisters.
+
+Suddenly he brought the car to a stop before the office of a big
+lumber-yard they were passing.
+
+"I'm going in here, kid, for just a minute, to see if I can get a man
+to put in those partitions."
+
+Elizabeth sat meditatively studying the office window through whose
+large dusty panes could be seen tall strips of moulding, unpainted
+window-frames, and a fluted column or two, evidently ready to fill an
+order.  The sign over the door set forth that window-sashes, doors, and
+blinds were to be had.  Suddenly Elizabeth sat up straight and read the
+sign again, strained her eyes to see through the window, and then
+opened the car door and sprang out.  In a moment more she stood beside
+her brother, pointing mutely to a large window-frame that stood against
+the wall.
+
+"What is it, kid?" he asked kindly.
+
+"Sid, why can't you put on great big windows like that?  They would
+never notice the windows, you know.  It would be so nice to have plenty
+of light and air."
+
+"That's so," he murmured.  "I might change the windows some without its
+being noticed."
+
+Then to the man at the desk:
+
+"What's the price of that window?  Got any more?"
+
+"Yes," said the man, looking up interested; "got half a dozen, made
+especially for a party, and then he wasn't pleased.  Claimed he ordered
+sash-winders 'stead of casement.  If you can use these six, we'll make
+you a special price."
+
+"Oh, take them, Sid!  They're perfectly lovely," said Elizabeth
+eagerly.  "They're casement windows with diamond panes.  They'll just
+be so quaint and artistic in that stone!"
+
+"Well, I don't know how they'll fit," said the young man doubtfully.
+"I don't want to make it seem as if I was trying to put on too much
+style."
+
+"No, Sid, it won't seem that way, really.  I tell you they'll never
+notice the windows are bigger, and casement windows aren't like a
+regular house, you know.  See, they'll open wide like doors.  I think
+it would be just grand!"
+
+"All right, kid, we'll see!  We'll take the man out with us; and, if he
+says it can be done, I'll take them."
+
+Elizabeth was overjoyed.
+
+"That's just what it needed!" she declared.  "They couldn't live in the
+dark on rainy days.  You must put two in the front on each side the
+door, and one on each end.  The back windows will do well enough."
+
+"Well, come on, kid.  Mr. Jones is going out with me at once.  Do you
+want to go with us, or shall I call a taxi and send you home?" asked
+her brother.
+
+"I'm going with you, of course," said Elizabeth eagerly, hurrying out
+to the car as if she thought the thing would be done all wrong without
+her.
+
+So Elizabeth sat in the back seat alone, while her brother and the
+contractor discoursed on the price of lumber and the relative values of
+wood and stone for building-purposes, and the big car went back over
+the way it had been before that afternoon.
+
+They stopped on the way out, and picked up one of Mr. Jones's
+carpenters who was just leaving a job with his kit of tools, and who
+climbed stolidly into the back seat, and sat as far away from the
+little blue-velvet miss as possible, all the while taking furtive notes
+to tell his own little girl about her when he went home.
+
+Elizabeth climbed out, and went about the barn with them, listening to
+all they had to say.
+
+The two men took out pencils and foot rules, and went around measuring
+and figuring.  Elizabeth watched them with bright, attentive eyes,
+putting a whispered suggestion now and then to her brother.
+
+"They can't go up and down a ladder all the time," she whispered.
+"There ought to be some rough stairs with a railing, at least as good
+as our back stairs at home."
+
+"How about it?" said Graham aloud to the contractor.  "Can you put in
+some steps, just rough ones, to the left?  I'm going to have a party
+out here camping for a while this summer, and I want it to be safe.
+Need a railing, you know, so nobody will get a fall."
+
+The man measured the space up with his eye.
+
+"Just want plain steps framed up with a hand-rail?" he said, squinting
+up again.  "Guess we better start 'em up this way to the back wall and
+then turn back from a landing.  That'll suit the overhead space best.
+Just pine, you want 'em, I s'pose?"
+
+Elizabeth stood like a big blue bird alighted on the door-sill,
+watching and listening.  She was a regular woman, and saw big
+possibilities in the building.  She would have enjoyed ordering
+parquetry flooring and carved newel-posts and making a regular palace.
+
+The sun was setting behind the purply hill and sending a glint from the
+weather-vane on the little white church spire when they started back to
+the city.  Elizabeth looked wistfully toward it, and wondered about the
+rapt expression on Shirley's face when she spoke of "working" in the
+church.  How could one get any pleasure out of that?  She meant to find
+out.  At present her life was rather monotonous, and she longed to have
+some new interests.
+
+That night after she had gone to her luxurious little couch she lay in
+her downy nest, and tried to think how it would be to live in that big
+barn and go to sleep up in the loft, lying on that hay.  Then suddenly
+the mystery of life was upon her with its big problems.  Why, for
+instance, was she born into the Graham family with money and culture
+and all the good times, and that sweet, bright Carol-girl born into the
+Hollister family where they had a hard time to live at all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Quite early the next morning Sidney Graham was in his office at the
+telephone.  He conferred with the carpenter, agreeing to meet him out
+at the barn and make final arrangements about the windows in a very
+short time.  Then he called up the trolley company and the electric
+company, and made arrangements with them to have a wire run from the
+road to his barn, with a very satisfactory agreement whereby he could
+pay them a certain sum for the use of as much light as he needed.  This
+done, he called up an electrician, and arranged that he should send
+some men out that morning to wire the barn.
+
+He hurried through his morning mail, giving his stenographer a free
+hand with answering some of the letters, and then speeded out to
+Glenside.
+
+Three men were already there, two of them stone-masons, working away
+under the direction of the contractor.  They had already begun working
+at the massive stone around the windows, striking musical blows from a
+light scaffolding that made the old barn look as if it had suddenly
+waked up and gone to house-cleaning.  Sidney Graham surveyed it with
+satisfaction as he stopped his car by the roadside and got out.  He did
+delight to have things done on time.  He decided that if this
+contractor did well on the job he would see that he got bigger things
+to do.  He liked it that his work had been begun at once.
+
+The next car brought a quartette of carpenters, and before young Graham
+went back to the city a motor-truck had arrived loaded with lumber and
+window-frames.  It was all very fascinating to him, this new toy barn
+that had suddenly come into his possession, and he could hardly tear
+himself away from it and go back to business.  One would not have
+supposed, perhaps, that it was so very necessary for him to do so,
+either, seeing that he was already so well off that he really could
+have gotten along quite comfortably the rest of his life without any
+more money; but he was a conscientious young man, who believed that no
+living being had a right to exist in idleness, and who had gone into
+business from a desire to do his best and keep up the honorable name of
+his father's firm.  So after he had given careful directions for the
+electric men when they should come he rushed back to his office once
+more.
+
+The next two days were filled with delightful novelties.  He spent much
+time flying from office to barn and back to the office again, and
+before evening of the second day he had decided that a telephone in the
+barn was an absolute necessity, at least while the work was going on.
+So he called up the telephone company, and arranged that connection
+should be put in at once.  That evening he wrote a short note to Miss
+Shirley Hollister, telling her that the partitions were under way and
+would soon be completed, and that in a few days he would send her the
+key so that she might begin to transport her belongings to the new home.
+
+The next morning, when Graham went out to the stone barn, he found that
+the front windows were in, and gave a very inviting appearance to the
+edifice, both outside and in.  As Elizabeth had surmised, the big
+latticed windows opening inwards like casement doors seemed quite in
+keeping with the rough stone structure.  Graham began to wonder why all
+barns did not affect this style of window, they were so entirely
+attractive.  He was thoroughly convinced that the new tenants would not
+be likely to remember or notice the difference in the windows; he was
+sure he shouldn't have unless his attention had been called to them in
+some way.  Of course the sills and sashes were rather new-looking, but
+he gave orders that they should at once be painted an unobtrusive dark
+green which would well accord with the mossy roof, and he trusted his
+particular young tenant would not think that he had done anything
+pointed in changing the windows.  If she did, he would have to think up
+some excuse.
+
+But, as he stood at the top of the grassy slope and looked about, he
+noticed the great pile of stones under each window, from the masonry
+that had been torn away to make room for the larger sashes, and an idea
+came to him.
+
+"Mr. Jones!" he called to the contractor, who had just come over on the
+car to see how the work was progressing.  "Wouldn't there be stones
+enough all together from all the windows to build some kind of a rude
+chimney and fireplace?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Jones thought there would.  There were stones enough down in the
+meadow to piece out with in case they needed more, anyway.  Where would
+Mr. Graham want the fireplace?  Directly opposite the front doors?  He
+had thought of suggesting that himself, but didn't know as Mr. Graham
+wanted to go to any more expense.
+
+"By all means make that fireplace!" said the young owner delightedly.
+"This is going to be a jolly place when it gets done, isn't it?  I
+declare I don't know but I'd like to come out here and live."
+
+"It would make a fine old house, sir," said the contractor
+respectfully, looking up almost reverently at the barn.  "I'd like to
+see it with verandys, and more winders, and a few such.  You don't see
+many of these here old stone buildings around now.  They knew how to
+build 'em substantial in those old times, so they did."
+
+"H'm!  Yes.  It would make a fine site for a house, wouldn't it?" said
+the young man, looking about thoughtfully.  "Well, now, we'll have to
+think about that sometime, perhaps.  However, I think it looks very
+nice for the present"; and he walked about, looking at the improvements
+with great satisfaction.
+
+At each end of the barn a good room, long and narrow, had been
+partitioned off, each of which by use of a curtain would make two very
+large rooms, and yet the main section of the floor looked as large as
+ever.  A simple stairway of plain boards had been constructed a little
+to one side of the middle toward the back, going up to the loft, which
+had been made safe for the children by a plain rude railing consisting
+of a few uprights with strips across.  The darkening slats at the small
+windows in the loft had been torn away and shutters substituted that
+would open wide and let in air and light.  Rough spots in the floor had
+been mended, and around the great place both up-stairs and down, and
+even down in the basement underneath, electric wires ran with simple
+lights and switches conveniently arranged, so that if it became
+desirable the whole place could be made a blaze of light.  The young
+man did not like to think of this family of unprotected women and
+children coming out into the country without all the arrangements
+possible to make them feel safe.  For this reason also he had
+established the telephone.  He had talked it over with the agent,
+paying a certain sum for its installation, and had a telephone put in
+that they could pay for whenever they desired to use it.  This would
+make the young householder feel more comfortable about leaving her
+mother out in the country all day, and also prevent her pride from
+being hurt.  The telephone was there.  She need not use it unless
+necessity arose.  He felt he could explain that to her.  If she didn't
+like it, of course she could have it taken away.
+
+There were a lot more things he would like to do to make the place more
+habitable, but he did not dare.  Sometimes even now his conscience
+troubled him.  What did he know about these people, anyway? and what
+kind of a flighty youth was he becoming that he let a strange girl's
+appealing face drive him to such lengths as he was going now?
+Telephone, and electric lights, and stairs, and a fireplace in a barn!
+It was all perfectly preposterous; and, if his family should hear of
+it, he would never hear the last of it; that he was certain.
+
+At such times he would hunt up his young sister and carry her off for a
+long drive in the car, always ending up at Glenside Road, where she
+exclaimed and praised to his heart's satisfaction, and gave anew her
+word not to tell anybody a thing about it until he was ready.
+
+Indeed, Elizabeth was wild with delight.  She wanted to hunt up some of
+her mother's old Turkish rugs that were put away in dark closets, to
+decorate the walls with pictures and bric-â-brac from her own room, and
+to smother the place in flowering shrubs for the arrival of the
+tenants; but her brother firmly forbade anything more being done.  He
+waited with fear and trembling for the time when the clear-eyed young
+tenant should look upon the changes he had already made; for something
+told him she would not stand charity, and there was a point beyond
+which he must not go if he wished ever to see her again.
+
+At last one morning he ventured to call her up on the telephone at her
+office.
+
+"My sister and I were thinking of going out to see how things are
+progressing at the Glenside place," he said after he had explained who
+he was.  "I was wondering if you would care to come along and look
+things over.  What time do you get through at your office this
+afternoon?"
+
+"That is very kind of you, Mr. Graham," said Shirley, "but I'm afraid
+that won't be possible.  I'm not usually done until half-past five.  I
+might get through by five, but not much sooner, and that would be too
+late for you."
+
+"Not at all, Miss Hollister.  That would be a very agreeable time.  I
+have matters that will keep me here quite late to-night, and that will
+be just right for me.  Shall I call for you, then, at five?  Or is that
+too soon?"
+
+"Oh, no, I can be ready by then, I'm sure," said Shirley with
+suppressed excitement.  "You are very kind----"
+
+"Not at all.  It will be a pleasure," came the answer.  "Then I will
+call at your office at five," and the receiver clicked at the other
+end, leaving Shirley in a whirl of doubt and joy.
+
+How perfectly delightful!  And yet ought she to go?  Would mother think
+it was all right?  His little sister was going, but was it quite right
+for her to accept this much attention even in a business way?  It
+wasn't at all customary or necessary, and both he and she knew it.  He
+was just doing it to be nice.
+
+And then there was mother.  She must send a message somehow, or mother
+would be frightened when she did not come home at her usual time.
+
+She finally succeeded in getting Carol at her school, and told her to
+tell mother she was kept late and might not be home till after seven.
+Then she flew at her work to get it out of the way before five o'clock.
+
+But, when she came down at the appointed time, she found Carol sitting
+excitedly in the back seat with Elizabeth, fairly bursting with the
+double pleasure of the ride and of surprising her sister.
+
+"They came to the school for me, and took me home; and I explained to
+mother that I was going with you to look at a place we were going to
+move to.  I put on the potatoes, and put the meat in the oven, and
+mother is going to tell George just what to do to finish supper when he
+gets home," she exclaimed eagerly.  "And, oh, isn't it lovely?"
+
+"Indeed it is lovely," said Shirley, her face flushing with pleasure
+and her eyes speaking gratitude to the young man in the front seat who
+was opening the door for her to step in beside him.
+
+That was a wonderful ride.
+
+The spring had made tremendous advances in her work during the ten days
+since they went that way before.  The flush of green that the willows
+had worn had become a soft, bright feather of foliage, and the maples
+had sent out crimson tassels to offset them.  Down in the meadows and
+along the roadside the grass was thick and green, and the bare brown
+fields had disappeared.  Little brooks sang tinklingly as they glided
+under bridges, and the birds darted here and there in busy, noisy
+pairs.  Frail wavering blossoms starred the swampy places, and the air
+was sweet with scents of living things.
+
+But, when they came in sight of the barn, Elizabeth and her brother
+grew silent from sheer desire to talk and not act as if there was
+anything different about it.  Now that they had actually brought
+Shirley here, the new windows seemed fairly to flaunt themselves in
+their shining mossy paint and their vast extent of diamond panes, so
+that the two conspirators were deeply embarrassed, and dared not face
+what they had done.
+
+It was Carol who broke the silence that had come upon them all.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" she shouted.  "Shirley, just look!  New, great big
+windows!  Isn't that great?  Now you needn't worry whether it will be
+dark for mother days when she can't go out!  Isn't that the best ever?"
+
+But Shirley looked, and her cheeks grew pink as her eyes grew starry.
+She opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, for the words
+would not come, and the tears came instead; but she drove them back,
+and then managed to say:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham!  Oh, you have gone to so much trouble!"
+
+"No, no trouble at all," said he almost crossly; for he had wanted her
+not to notice those windows, at least not yet.
+
+"You see it was this way.  The windows were some that were left over
+from another order, and I got a chance to get them at a bargain.  I
+thought they might as well be put in now as any time and you get the
+benefit of them.  The barn really needed more light.  It was a very
+dark barn indeed.  Hadn't you noticed it?  I can't see how my
+grandfather thought it would do to have so little light and air.  But
+you know in the old times they didn't use to have such advanced ideas
+about ventilation and germs and things----"  He felt he was getting on
+rather famously until he looked down at the clear eyes of the girl, and
+knew she was seeing right straight through all his talk.  However, she
+hadn't the face to tell him so; and so he boldly held on his way,
+making up fine stories about things that barns needed until he all but
+believed them himself; and, when he got through, he needed only to
+finish with "And, if it isn't so, it ought to be" to have a regular
+Water-Baby argument out of it.  He managed to talk on in this vein
+until he could stop the car and help Shirley out, and together they all
+went up the now velvety green of the incline to the big door.
+
+"It is beautiful! beautiful!" murmured Shirley in a daze of delight.
+She could not yet make it seem real that she was to come to this
+charmed spot to live in a few days.
+
+Graham unlocked the big doors, and sent them rolling back with a touch,
+showing what ball bearings and careful workmanship can do.  The group
+stepped inside, and stood to look again.
+
+The setting sun was casting a red glow through the diamond panes and
+over the wide floor.  The new partitions, guiltless of paint, for
+Graham had not dared to go further, were mellowed into ruby hangings.
+The stone fireplace rose at the opposite side of the room, and the new
+staircase was just at the side, all in the ruddy evening glow that
+carried rich dusky shadows into the corners, and hung a curtain of
+vagueness over blemishes.
+
+Then all suddenly, before they had had time to take in the changes,
+more than the fact of the partitions which they expected, Graham
+stepped to the side of the door, and touched a button, and behold a
+myriad of lights burst forth about the place, making it bright like
+noontime.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" breathed Carol in awe and wonder, and "Oh!" again, as
+if there were nothing else to say.  But Shirley only looked and caught
+her breath.  It seemed a palace too fine for their poor little means,
+and a sudden fear gripped hold upon her.
+
+"Oh Mr. Graham!  You have done too much!" she choked.  "You shouldn't
+have done it!  We can never afford to pay for all this!"
+
+"Not at all!" said young Graham quickly.  "This isn't anything.  The
+electric people gave permission for this, and I thought it would be
+safer than lamps and candles, you know.  It cost scarcely anything for
+the wiring.  I had our regular man do it that attends to the wiring and
+lights at the office.  It was a mere trifle, and will make things a lot
+more convenient for you.  You see it's nothing to the company.  They
+just gave permission for a wire to be run from the pole there.  Of
+course they might not do it for every one, but I've some pretty good
+friends in the company; so it's all right."
+
+"But the fireplace!" said Shirley, going over to look at it.  "It's
+beautiful!  It's like what you see in magazine pictures of beautiful
+houses."
+
+"Why, it was just the stones that were left from cutting the windows
+larger.  I thought they might as well be utilized, you know.  It wasn't
+much more work to pile them up that way while the men were here than if
+we had had them carted away."
+
+Here Carol interrupted.
+
+"Shirley!  There's a telephone!  A real telephone!"
+
+Shirley's accusing eyes were upon her landlord.
+
+"It was put in for our convenience while the workmen were here," he
+explained defensively.  "It is a pay phone, you see, and is no expense
+except when in use.  It can be taken out if you do not care to have it,
+of course; but it occurred to me since it was here your mother might
+feel more comfortable out here all day if she could call you when she
+needed to."
+
+Shirley's face was a picture of varying emotions as she listened, but
+relief and gratitude conquered as she turned to him.
+
+"I believe you have thought of everything," she said at last.  "I have
+worried about that all this week.  I have wondered if mother would be
+afraid out in the country with only the children, and the neighbors not
+quite near enough to call; but this solves the difficulty.  You are
+sure it hasn't cost you a lot to have this put in?"
+
+"Why, don't you know the telephone company is glad to have their phones
+wherever they can get them?" he evaded.  "Now, don't worry about
+anything more.  You'll find hardships enough living in a barn without
+fretting about the few conveniences we have been able to manage."
+
+"But this is real luxury!" she said, sitting down on the steps and
+looking up where the lights blazed from the loft.  "You have put lights
+up there, too, and a railing.  I was so afraid Doris would fall down
+some time!"
+
+"I'm glad to find you are human, after all, and have a few fears!"
+declared the owner, laughing.  "I had begun to think you were Spartan
+through and through and weren't afraid of anything.  Yes, I had the men
+put what lumber they had left into that railing.  I thought it wasn't
+safe to have it all open like that, and I didn't want you to sue me for
+life or limb, you know.  There's one thing I haven't managed yet, and
+that is piping water up from the spring.  I haven't been able to get
+hold of the right man so far; but he's coming out to-morrow, and I hope
+it can be done.  There is a spring on the hill back of us, and I
+believe it is high enough, to get the water to this floor.  If it is it
+will make your work much easier and be only the matter of a few rods of
+pipe."
+
+"Oh, but, indeed, you mustn't do anything more!" pleaded Shirley.  "I
+shall feel so ashamed paying such a little rent."
+
+"But, my dear young lady," said Graham in his most dignified business
+manner, "you don't at all realize how much lower rents are in the
+country, isolated like this, than they are in the city; and you haven't
+as yet realized what a lot of inconveniences you have to put up with.
+When you go back to the city in the winter, you will be glad to get
+away from here."
+
+"Never!" said Shirley fervently, and shuddered.  "Oh, never!  You don't
+know how dreadful it seems that we shall have to go back.  But of
+course I suppose we shall.  One couldn't live in a barn in the winter,
+even though it is a palace for the summer"; and she looked about
+wistfully.  Then, her eyes lighting up, she said in a low tone, for the
+young man's benefit alone:
+
+"I think God must have made you do all this for us!"  She turned and
+walked swiftly over to one of the new casement windows, looking out at
+the red glow that the sun in sinking had left in the sky; and there
+against the fringes of the willows and maples shone out the bright
+weather-vane on the spire of the little white church in the valley.
+
+"I think God must have sent you to teach me and my little sister a few
+things," said a low voice just behind Shirley as she struggled with
+tired, happy tears that would blur her eyes.  But, when she turned to
+smile at the owner of the voice, he was walking over by the door and
+talking to Carol.  They tumbled joyously into the car very soon, and
+sped on their way to the city again.
+
+That night the Hollister children told their mother they had found a
+place in which to live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The crisis was precipitated by Shirley's finding her mother crying when
+she came up softly to see her.
+
+"Now, little mother, _dear_!  What can be the matter?" she cried
+aghast, sitting down on the bed and drawing her mother's head into her
+lap.
+
+But it was some time before Mrs. Hollister could recover her calmness,
+and Shirley began to be frightened.  At last, when she had kissed and
+petted her, she called down to the others to come up-stairs quickly.
+
+They came with all haste, George and Harley with dish-towels over their
+shoulders, Carol with her arithmetic and pencil, little Doris trudging
+up breathless, one step at a time, and all crying excitedly, "What's
+the matter?"
+
+"Why, here's our blessed little mother lying here all by herself,
+crying because she doesn't know where in the world we can find a
+house!" cried Shirley; "and I think it's time we told our beautiful
+secret, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," chorused the children, although Harley and Doris had no idea
+until then that there was any beautiful secret.  Beautiful secrets
+hadn't been coming their way.
+
+"Well, I think we better tell it," said Shirley, looking at George and
+Carol questioningly.  "Don't you?  We don't want mother worrying."  So
+they all clustered around her on the bed and the floor, and sat
+expectantly while Shirley told.
+
+"You see, mother, it's this way.  We've been looking around a good deal
+lately, George and I, and we haven't found a thing in the city that
+would do; so one day I took a trolley ride out of the city, and I've
+found something I think will do nicely for the summer, anyway, and that
+will give us time to look around and decide.  Mother dear, would you
+mind camping so very much if we made you a nice, comfortable place?"
+
+"Camping!" said Mrs. Hollister in dismay.  "Dear child!  In a tent?"
+
+"No, mother, not in a tent.  There's a--a--sort of a house--that is,
+there's a building, where we could sleep, and put our furniture, and
+all; but there's a lovely out-of-doors.  Wouldn't you like that, for
+Doris and you?"
+
+"Oh, yes," sighed the poor woman; "I'd like it; but, child, you haven't
+an idea what you are talking about.  Any place in the country costs
+terribly, even a shanty----"
+
+"That's it, mother, call it a shanty!" put in Carol.  "Mother, would
+you object to living in a shanty all summer if it was good and clean,
+and you had plenty of out-of-doors around it?"
+
+"No, of course not, Carol, if it was perfectly respectable.  I
+shouldn't want to take my children among a lot of low-down people----"
+
+"Of course not, mother!" put in Shirley.  "And there's nothing of that
+sort.  It's all perfectly respectable, and the few neighbors are nice,
+respectable people.  Now, mother, if you're willing to trust us, we'd
+like it if you'll just let us leave it at that and not tell you
+anything more about it till we take you there.  George and Carol and I
+have all seen the place, and we think it will be just the thing.
+There's plenty of room, and sky, and a big tree, and birds; and it only
+costs ten dollars a month.  Now, mother, will you trust us for the rest
+and not ask any questions?"
+
+The mother looked in bewilderment from one to another, and, seeing
+their eager faces, she broke into a weary smile.
+
+"Well, I suppose I'll have to," she said with a sigh of doubt; "but I
+can't understand how any place you could get would be only that price,
+and I'm afraid you haven't thought of a lot of things."
+
+"Yes, mother, we've thought of everything--and then some," said
+Shirley, stooping down to kiss the thin cheek; "but we are sure you are
+going to like this when you see it.  It isn't a palace, of course.  You
+don't expect plate-glass windows, you know."
+
+"Well, hardly," said Mrs. Hollister dryly, struggling with herself to
+be cheerful.  She could see that her children were making a brave
+effort to make a jolly occasion out of their necessity, and she was
+never one to hang back; so, as she could do nothing else, she assented.
+
+"You are sure," she began, looking at Shirley with troubled eyes.
+"There are so many things to think of, and you are so young."
+
+"Trust me, mudder dearie," said Shirley joyously, remembering the
+fireplace and the electric lights.  "It really isn't so bad; and
+there's a beautiful hill for Doris to run down, and a place to hang a
+hammock for you right under a big tree where a bird has built its nest."
+
+"Oh-h!" echoed the wondering Doris.  "And could I see de birdie?"
+
+"Yes, darling, you can watch him every day, and see him fly through the
+blue sky."
+
+"It's all right, mother," said George in a businesslike tone.  "You'll
+think it's great after you get used to it.  Carol and I are crazy over
+it."
+
+"But will it be where you can get to your work, both of you?  I
+shouldn't like you to take long, lonely walks, you know," said the
+troubled mother.
+
+"Right on the trolley line, mother dear; and the difference in rent
+will more than pay our fare."
+
+"Besides, I'm thinking of buying a bicycle from one of the fellows.  He
+says he'll sell it for five dollars, and I can pay fifty cents a month.
+Then I could go in on my bike in good weather, and save that much."
+This from George.
+
+"Oh, gee!" said Harley breathlessly.  "Then I could ride it sometimes,
+too."
+
+"Sure!" said George generously.
+
+"Now," said Shirley with her commanding manner that the children called
+"brigadier-general," "now, mother dear, you're going to put all your
+worries out of your head right this minute, and go to sleep.  Your
+business is to get strong enough to be moved out there.  When you get
+there, you'll get well so quick you won't know yourself; but you've got
+to rest from now on every minute, or you won't be able to go when the
+time comes; and then what will happen?  Will you promise?"
+
+Amid the laughing and pleading of her children the mother promised,
+half smilingly, half tearfully, and succumbed to being prepared for the
+night.  Then they all tiptoed away to the dining-room for a council of
+war.
+
+It was still two weeks before they had to vacate the little brick
+house, plenty of time to get comfortably settled before they took their
+mother out there.
+
+It was decided that George and Shirley should go out the next evening
+directly from their work, not waiting to return for supper, but eating
+a lunch down-town.  Now that the place was lighted and they had been
+told to use the light as freely as they chose, with no charge, the
+question of getting settled was no longer a problem.  They could do it
+evenings after their work was over.  The first thing would be to clean
+house, and for that they needed a lot of things, pails, pans, brooms,
+mops and the like.  It would be good to take a load of things out the
+next day if possible.
+
+So George went out to interview the man with the moving-wagon, while
+Shirley and Carol made out a list of things that ought to go in that
+first load.  George came back with the report that the man could come
+at half past four in the afternoon; and, if they could have the things
+that were to go all ready, he would have his son help to load them, and
+they could get out to Glenside by six o'clock or seven at the latest.
+Harley might go along if he liked, and help to unload at the other end.
+
+Harley was greatly excited both at the responsibility placed upon him
+and at the prospect of seeing the new home.  It almost made up for the
+thought of leaving "the fellows" and going to live in a strange place.
+
+The young people were late getting to bed that night, for they had to
+get things together so that Carol would not have her hands too full the
+next day when she got home from school.  Then they had to hunt up soap,
+scrubbing-pails, rags, brushes and brooms; and, when they went to bed
+at last, they were much too excited to sleep.
+
+Of course there were many hindrances to their plans, and a lot of delay
+waiting for the cartman, who did not always keep his word; but the days
+passed, and every one saw some little progress toward making a home out
+of the big barn.  Shirley would not let them stay later in the evenings
+than ten o'clock, for they must be ready to go to work the next
+morning; so of course the work of cleaning the barn progressed but
+slowly.  After the first night they got a neighbor to sit with their
+mother and Doris, letting Carol and Harley come out on the car to help;
+and so with four willing workers the barn gradually took on a nice
+smell of soap and water.
+
+The old furniture arrived little by little, and was put in place
+eagerly, until by the end of the first week the big middle room and the
+dining-room and kitchen began really to look like living.
+
+It was Saturday evening of that first week, and Shirley was sitting on
+the old couch at the side of the fireplace, resting, watching George,
+who was reeling out a stormy version of chopsticks on the piano, and
+looking about on her growing home hopefully.  Suddenly there came a
+gentle tapping at the big barn door, and George as the man of the house
+went to the door with his gruffest air on, but melted at once when he
+saw the landlord and his sister standing out in front in the moonlight.
+
+"Are you ready for callers?" asked Graham, taking off his hat in
+greeting.  "Elizabeth and I took a spin out this way, and we sighted
+the light, and thought we'd stop and see if we could help any.  My, how
+homelike you've made it look!  Say, this is great!"
+
+Sidney Graham stood in the centre of the big room, looking about him
+with pleasure.
+
+The young people had put things in apple-pie order as far as they had
+gone.  A fire was laid in the big stone fireplace, all ready for
+touching off, and gave a homelike, cleared-up look to the whole place
+as if it were getting ready for some event.  On each side of the
+chimney stood a simple set of bookshelves filled with well-worn volumes
+that had a look of being beloved and in daily intimate association with
+the family.  On the top of the shelves Carol had placed some bits of
+bric-â-brac, and in the centre of each a tall vase.  Beside them were a
+few photographs in simple frames, a strong-faced man with eyes that
+reminded one of Shirley and a brow like George's; a delicate-featured,
+refined woman with sweet, sensitive mouth and eyes like Carol's; a
+lovely little child with a cloud of fair curls.
+
+The old couch was at one side of the fireplace, at a convenient angle
+to watch the firelight, and yet not hiding the bookshelves.  On the
+other side, with its back toward the first landing of the rude
+staircase, stood an old upright piano with a pile of shabby music on
+the top and a book of songs open on the rack.  On the floor in the
+space between was spread a worn and faded ingrain rug, its original
+colors and pattern long since blended into neutral grays and browns,
+which strangely harmonized with the rustic surroundings.  A few
+comfortable but shabby chairs were scattered about in a homelike way,
+and a few pictures in plain frames were hung on the clean new
+partitions.  Under one stood a small oak desk and a few
+writing-materials.  A little further on a plain library table held a
+few magazines and papers and a cherished book or two.  There had been
+no attempt to cover the wide bare floor spaces, save by a small dingy
+rug or two or a strip of carpet carefully brushed and flung here and
+there in front of a chair.  There was no pretension and therefore no
+incongruity.  The only luxurious thing in the place was the bright
+electric light, and yet it all looked pleasant and inviting.
+
+"Say, now, this is great!" reiterated the young owner of the place,
+sinking into the nearest chair and looking about him with admiration.
+"Who would ever have imagined you could make a barn look like this?
+Why, you're a genius, Miss Hollister.  You're a real artist."
+
+Shirley in an old gingham dress, with her sleeves rolled high and her
+hair fluffing wilfully in disorder about her hot cheeks, stood before
+him in dismay.  She had been working hard, and was all too conscious of
+the brief time before they must be done; and to have company just
+now--and such company--put her to confusion; but the honest admiration
+in the young man's voice did much to restore her equilibrium.  She
+began to pull down her sleeves and sit down to receive her callers
+properly; but he at once insisted that she should not delay on his
+account, and, seeing her shyness, immediately plunged into some
+questions about the water-pipes, which brought about a more
+businesslike footing and relieved her embarrassment.  He was soon on
+his way to the partitioned corner which was to be the kitchen, telling
+Shirley how it was going to be no trouble to run a pipe from the spring
+and have a faucet put in, and that it should be done on the morrow.
+Then he called to Elizabeth.
+
+"Kid, what did you do with those eats you brought along?  I think it
+would be a good time to hand them out.  I'm hungry.  Suppose you take
+George out to the car to help you bring them in, and let's have a
+picnic!"
+
+Then, turning to Shirley, he explained:
+
+"Elizabeth and I are great ones to have something along to eat.  It
+makes one hungry to ride, you know."
+
+The children needed no second word, but all hurried out to the car, and
+came back with a great bag of most delicious oranges and several boxes
+of fancy cakes and crackers; and they all sat down to enjoy them,
+laughing and chattering, not at all like landlord and tenants.
+
+"Now what's to do next?" demanded the landlord as soon as the repast
+was finished.  "I'm going to help.  We're not here to hinder, and we
+must make up for the time we have stopped you.  What were you and
+George doing, Miss Carol, when we arrived?"
+
+"Unpacking dishes," giggled Carol, looking askance at the frowning
+Shirley, who was shaking her head at Carol behind Graham's back.
+Shirley had no mind to have the elegant landlord see the dismal state
+of the Hollister crockery.  But the young man was not to be so easily
+put off, and to Carol's secret delight insisted upon helping despite
+Shirley's most earnest protests that it was not necessary to do
+anything more that evening.  He and Elizabeth repaired to the
+dining-room end of the barn, and helped unpack dishes, pans, kettles,
+knives, and forks, and arrange them on the shelves that George had
+improvised out of a large old bookcase that used to be his father's.
+After all, there was something in good breeding, thought Shirley, for
+from the way in which Mr. Graham handled the old cracked dishes, and
+set them up so nicely, you never would have known but they were
+Haviland china.  He never seemed to see them at all when they were
+cracked.  One might have thought he had been a member of the family for
+years, he made things seem so nice and comfortable and sociable.
+
+Merrily they worked, and accomplished wonders that night, for Shirley
+let them stay until nearly eleven o'clock "just for once"; and then
+they all piled into the car, Shirley and Carol and Elizabeth in the
+back seat, George and the happy Harley with Graham in the front.  If
+there had been seven more of them, they would have all happily squeezed
+in.  The young Hollisters were having the time of their lives, and as
+for the Grahams it wasn't quite certain but that they were also.
+Certainly society had never seen on Sidney Graham's face that happy,
+enthusiastic look of intense satisfaction that the moon looked down
+upon that night.  And, after all, they got home almost as soon as if
+they had gone on the ten-o'clock trolley.
+
+After that on one pretext or another those Grahams were always dropping
+in on the Hollisters at their work and managing to "help," and
+presently even Shirley ceased to be annoyed or to apologize.
+
+The east end of the barn had been selected for bedrooms.  A pair of
+cretonne curtains was stretched across the long, narrow room from wall
+to partition, leaving the front room for their mother's bed and Doris's
+crib, and the back room for Shirley and Carol.  The boys had taken
+possession of the loft with many shouts and elaborate preparations, and
+had spread out their treasures with deep delight, knowing that at last
+there was room enough for their proper display and they need feel no
+fear that they would be thrown out because their place was wanted for
+something more necessary.  Little by little the Hollisters were getting
+settled.  It was not so hard, after all, because there was that
+glorious big "attic" in which to put away things that were not needed
+below, and there was the whole basement for tubs and things, and a
+lovely faucet down there, too, so that a lot of work could be done
+below the living-floor.  It seemed just ideal to the girls, who had
+been for several years accustomed to the cramped quarters of a tiny
+city house.
+
+At last even the beds were made up, and everything had been moved but
+the bed and a few necessities in their mother's room, which were to
+come the next day while they were moving their mother.
+
+That moving of mother had been a great problem to Shirley until Graham
+anticipated her necessity, and said in a matter-of-fact way that he
+hoped Mrs. Hollister would let him take her to her new home in his car.
+Then Shirley's eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  She knew her
+mother was not yet able to travel comfortably in a trolley-car, and the
+price of a taxicab was more than she felt they ought to afford; yet in
+her secret heart she had been intending to get one; but now there would
+be no necessity.
+
+Shirley's words of gratitude were few and simple, but there was
+something in her eyes as she lifted them to Graham's face that made a
+glow in his heart and fully repaid him for his trouble.
+
+The last thing they did when they left the barn that night before they
+were coming to stay was to set the table, and it really looked very
+cozy and inviting with a white cloth on it and the dishes set out to
+look their best.  Shirley looked back at it with a sweeping glance that
+took in the great, comfortable living-room, the open door into the
+dining-room on one hand and the vista of a white bed on the other side
+through the bedroom door.  She smiled happily, and then switched off
+the electric light, and stepped out into the sweet spring night.
+Graham, who had stood watching her as one might watch the opening of
+some strange, unknown flower, closed and locked the door behind them,
+and followed her down the grassy slope to the car.
+
+"Do you know," he said earnestly, "it's been a great thing to me to
+watch you make a real home out of this bare barn?  It's wonderful!
+It's like a miracle.  I wouldn't have believed it could be done.  And
+you have done it so wonderfully!  I can just see what kind of a
+delightful home it is going to be."
+
+There was something in his tone that made Shirley forget he was rich
+and a stranger and her landlord.  She lifted her face to the stars, and
+spoke her thoughts.
+
+"You can't possibly know how much like heaven it is going to be to us
+after coming from that other awful little house," she said; "and you
+are the one who has made it possible.  If it hadn't been for you I know
+I never could have done it."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Miss Hollister!  You mustn't think of it, I haven't done
+anything at all, just the simplest things that were absolutely
+necessary."
+
+"Oh, I understand," said Shirley; "and I can't ever repay you, but I
+think God will.  That is the kind of thing the kingdom of heaven is
+made of."
+
+"Oh, really, now," said Graham, deeply embarrassed; he was not much
+accustomed to being connected with the kingdom of heaven in any way.
+"Oh, really, you--you over-estimate it.  And as for pay, I don't ask
+any better than the fun my sister and I have had helping you get
+settled.  It has been a great play for us.  We never really moved, you
+see.  We've always gone off and had some one do it for us.  I've
+learned a lot since I've known you."
+
+That night as she prepared to lie down on the mattress and blanket that
+had been left behind for herself and Carol to camp out on, Shirley
+remembered her first worries about Mr. Graham, and wondered whether it
+could be possible that he thought she had been forward in any way, and
+what her mother would think when she heard the whole story of the new
+landlord; for up to this time the secret had been beautifully kept from
+mother, all the children joining to clap their hands over wayward
+mouths that started to utter tell-tale sentences, and the mystery grew,
+and became almost like Christmas-time for little Doris and her mother.
+It must, however, be stated that Mrs. Hollister, that last night, as
+she lay wakeful on her bed in the little bare room in the tiny house,
+had many misgivings, and wondered whether perchance she would not be
+sighing to be back even here twenty-four hours later.  She was holding
+her peace wonderfully, because there really was nothing she could do
+about it even if she was going out of the frying-pan into the fire; but
+the tumult and worry in her heart had been by no means bliss.  So the
+midnight drew on, and the weary family slept for the last night in the
+cramped old house where they had lived since trouble and poverty had
+come upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Shirley was awake early that morning, almost too excited to sleep but
+fitfully even through the night.  Now that the thing was done and they
+were actually moved into a barn she began to have all sorts of fears
+and compunctions concerning it.  She seemed to see her delicate mother
+shrink as from a blow when she first learned that they had come to
+this.  Try as she would to bring back all the sensible philosophy that
+had caused her to enter into this affair in the first place, she simply
+could not feel anything but trouble.  She longed to rush into her
+mother's room, tell her all about it, and get the dreaded episode over.
+But anyhow it was inevitable now.  They were moved.  They had barely
+enough money to pay the cartage and get things started before next
+pay-day.  There was nothing for it but to take her mother there, even
+if she did shrink from the idea.
+
+Of course mother always had been sensible, and all that; but somehow
+the burden of the great responsibility of decision rested so heavily
+upon her young shoulders that morning that it seemed as if she could
+not longer bear the strain.
+
+They still had a good fire in the kitchen range, and Shirley hastened
+to the kitchen, prepared a delicate piece of toast, a poached egg, a
+cup of tea, and took it to her mother's room, tiptoeing lightly lest
+she still slept.
+
+But the mother was awake and glad to see her.  She had been awake since
+the first streak of dawn had crept into the little back window.  She
+had the look of one who was girded for the worst.  But, when she saw
+her daughter's face, the mother in her triumphed over the woman.
+
+"What's the trouble, little girl?  Has something happened?"
+
+The tenderness in her voice was the last straw that broke Shirley's
+self-control.  The tears suddenly sprang into her eyes, and her lip
+trembled.
+
+"Oh mother!" she wailed, setting the tray down quickly on a box and
+fumbling for her handkerchief.  "I'm so worried!  I'm so afraid you
+won't like what we've done, and then what shall we do?"
+
+"I _shall_ like it!" said the mother with instant determination.
+"Don't for a minute think of anything else.  Having done something
+irrevocably, never look back and think you might have done something
+better.  You did the best you could, or you thought you did, anyway;
+and there didn't seem to be anything else at the time.  So now just
+consider it was the very best thing in the world, and don't go to
+fretting about it.  There'll be _something_ nice about it, I'm sure,
+and goodness knows we've had enough unpleasant things here; so we
+needn't expect beds of roses.  We are just going to _make_ it nice,
+little girl.  Remember that!  We are going to like it.  There's a tree
+there, you say; so, when we find things we don't like, we'll just go
+out and look up at our tree, and say, 'We've got _you_, anyway, and
+_we're glad of it!_'"
+
+"You blessed little mother!" laughed Shirley, wiping her tears away.
+"I just believe you will like it, maybe, after all, though I've had a
+lot of compunctions all night.  I wondered if maybe I oughtn't to have
+told you all about it; only I knew you couldn't really judge at all
+until you had seen it yourself, and we wanted to surprise you."
+
+"Well, I'm determined to be surprised," said the brave little woman;
+"so don't you worry.  We're going to have a grand good time to-day.
+Now run along.  It's almost time for your car, and you haven't had any
+breakfast yet."
+
+Shirley kissed her mother, and went smiling down to eat her breakfast
+and hurry away to the office.
+
+There was a big rush of work at the office, or Shirley would have asked
+for a half-holiday; but she did not dare endanger her position by
+making a request at so busy a season.  She was glad that the next day
+was Sunday and they would have a whole day to themselves in the new
+home before she would have to hurry away to the office again.  It would
+serve to make it seem less lonely for her mother, having them all home
+that first day.  She meant to work fast to-day and get all the letters
+written before five if possible.  Then she would have time to get home
+a few minutes before Graham arrived with his car, and see that her
+mother was all comfortably ready.  It was a good deal to put upon Carol
+to look after everything.  It wasn't as if they had neighbors to help
+out a little, for they were the very last tenants in the doomed block
+to leave.  All the others had gone two or three weeks before.
+
+Thinking over again all the many details for the day, Shirley walked
+down to the office through the sunshine.  It was growing warm weather,
+and her coat felt oppressive already.  She was so thankful that mother
+would not have to sleep in those breathless rooms after the heat began.
+The doctor had said that her mother needed rest and air and plenty of
+sunshine more than anything else.  She would at least have those at the
+barn, and what did other things matter, after all?  Mother was game.
+Mother wouldn't let herself feel badly over such a silly thing.  They
+certainly were going to be more comfortable than they had been for
+several years.  Think of that wonderful electric light.  And clear cold
+water from the spring!  Oh, it was great!  And a little thrill of
+ecstasy passed over her, the first she had let herself feel since she
+had taken the great responsibility of transplanting her family to a
+barn.
+
+After all, the day passed very quickly; and, when at half-past four the
+telephone-bell rang and Graham's voice announced that he would be down
+at the street door waiting for her in half an hour, that she needn't
+hurry, he would wait till she was ready, her heart gave a little jump
+of joy.  It was as if school was out and she was going on a real picnic
+like other girls.  How nice of him!  How perfectly lovely of him!  And
+yet there hadn't been anything but the nicest friendliness in his
+voice, such as any kindly disposed landlord might use if he chose,
+nothing that she need feel uncomfortable about.  At least, there was
+the relief that after to-night mother would know all about it; and, if
+she didn't approve, Shirley could decline any further kindness, of
+course.  And now she was just going to take mother's advice and forget
+everything but the pleasant part.
+
+At home Carol and Harley bustled about in the empty house like two
+excited bumble-bees, washing up the few dishes, putting in an open box
+everything that had been left out for their last night's sleeping,
+getting lunch, and making mother take a nap.  Doris, vibrating between
+her mother's room and down-stairs, kept singing over to herself: "We
+goin' to tuntry!  We goin' to tuntry!  See birdies an' twees and walk
+on gween gwass!"
+
+After lunch was over and the dishes were put carefully into the big box
+between comfortables and blankets Carol helped her mother to dress, and
+then made her lie down and take a good long nap, with Doris asleep by
+her side.  After that Carol and Harley tiptoed down to the bare
+kitchen, and sat on a box side by side to converse.
+
+"Gee!  Ain't you tired, Carol?" said the boy, pushing his hair back
+from his hot face.  "Gee!  Don't it seem funny we aren't coming back
+here any more?  It kind of gets my goat I sha'n't see the fellows so
+often, but it'll be great to ask 'em to see us sometimes.  Say, do you
+suppose we really can keep chickens?"
+
+"Sure!" said Carol convincingly.  "I asked Mr. Graham if we
+might,--George said we ought to, he was such a good scout you'd want to
+be sure he'd like it, and he said, 'Sure, it would be great.'  He'd
+like to come out and see them sometimes.  He said he used to keep
+chickens himself when he was a kid, and he shouldn't wonder if they had
+a few too many at their place they could spare to start with.  He told
+me he'd look it up and see soon's we got settled."
+
+"Gee!  He's a peach, isn't he?  Say, has he got a case on Shirl?"
+
+"I don't know," said the girl thoughtfully; "maybe he has, but he
+doesn't know it yet, I guess.  But anyhow you must promise me you will
+never breathe such a word.  Why, Shirley would just bust right up if
+you did.  I said a little something to her like that once; it wasn't
+much, only just that he was awfully nice and I guessed he liked her by
+the way he looked at her, and she just fairly froze.  You know the way
+her eyes get when she is sore at us?  And she said I must never,
+_never_ even _think_ anything like that, or she would give the place
+right up, and get a few rooms down on South Street, and stay in the
+city all summer!  She said Mr. Graham was a gentleman, and she was only
+a working girl, and it would be a disgrace for her to accept any favors
+from him except what she could pay for, and an insult for him to offer
+them, because she was only a working girl and he was a gentleman, you
+know."
+
+"H'm!" growled Harley.  "I guess our sister's as good as he is any day."
+
+"Of course!" snapped Carol; "but then he might not think so."
+
+"Well, if he don't, he can go to thunder!" bristled Harley wrathfully.
+"I'm not going to have him looking down on Shirley.  She's as good as
+his baby-doll sister with her pink cheeks, and her little white hands,
+and her high heels and airs, any day!  She's a nut, she is."
+
+"Harley!  You stop!" declared Carol, getting wrathful.  "Elizabeth's a
+dear, and you're not going to talk about her that way.  Just because
+she is pretty and doesn't have to work."
+
+"Well, you said her brother looked down on our sister," declared Harley.
+
+"I did not!  I only said he _might_!  I only meant that was the way
+_some_ gentlemen would.  I only said people kind of expect gentlemen to
+do that."
+
+"Not if they're real gentlemen, they won't.  And anyhow _he_ won't.  If
+I find him looking down on my sister Shirley, I'll punch his face for
+him.  Yes, I will!  I'm not afraid.  George and I could beat the
+stuffing out of him, and we will if he does any looking-down stunts,
+and don't you forget it!"
+
+"Well, I'm sure he doesn't," said Carol pacifically, trying to put a
+soothing sound into her voice as wise elder sisters learn to do.  "You
+see if he did look down on her, Shirley would know it; right away she'd
+know it.  Nobody would have to tell _her_!  She'd see it in his voice
+and smile and everything.  And, if he had, she wouldn't have gone out
+there to live in the place he owns, you know.  So I guess you can trust
+Shirley.  _I_ think he's been just dandy, fixing up that fireplace and
+stairs and lights and water and everything."
+
+"Well, mebbe!" said Harley grudgingly.  "Say, this is slow.  I'm going
+out to meet the fellows when they come from school, and see what the
+score of the game is.  Gee!  I wish I could play to-day!"
+
+"You'll be sure to come back in time?" asked Carol anxiously.
+
+"Sure!  You don't suppose I'd miss going out in that car, do you?" said
+the brother contemptuously.  "Not on your tintype!"
+
+"Well, maybe there won't be room for you.  Maybe Elizabeth'll come
+along, and you'll have to go in the trolley with George."
+
+"No chance!" declared the boy.  "Mr. Graham said I should ride with him
+in the front seat, and he looks like a man that kept his word."
+
+"You see!  _You_ know he's a gentleman!" triumphed Carol.  "Well, I
+think you'd better stay here with me.  You'll forget and be late, and
+make a mess waiting for you."
+
+"No, I won't!" said the restless boy.  "I can't be bothered sticking
+round this dump all afternoon"; and Harley seized his cap, and
+disappeared with a whoop around the corner.  After he was gone Carol
+found she was tired out herself, and, curling up on a mattress that was
+lying ready for the cartman, was soon asleep.  It was so that Harley
+found her when he hurried back an hour later, a trifle anxious, it must
+be confessed, lest he had stayed too long.  He stirred up the small
+household noisily, and in no time had Carol in a panic brewing the cup
+of tea that was to give her mother strength to take the journey,
+dressing Doris, smoothing her own hair, putting the last things into
+bags and baskets and boxes, and directing the cartman, who arrived half
+an hour sooner than he promised.  Carol was quite a little woman, going
+from one thing to another and taking the place of everybody.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham and her brother had been spending the
+afternoon in business of their own.  It was Elizabeth who had suggested
+it, and her brother saw no reason why she should not carry out her plan
+and why he should not help her.
+
+She came down in the car after lunch, the chauffeur driving her, a
+great basket of cut and potted flowers from the home conservatory in
+the tonneau beside her, carefully wrapped in wax-paper.  She stopped at
+the office for her brother, and together they went about to several
+shops giving orders and making purchases.  When they had finished they
+drove out to Glenside to unpack their bundles and baskets.  Graham left
+Elizabeth with the old servant to help her, and drove rapidly back to
+his office, where he telephoned to Shirley.
+
+Certainly Elizabeth had never had such fun in her life.  She scarcely
+knew which delightful thing to do first, and she had only about two
+hours to complete her arrangements before the family would arrive.
+
+She decided to decorate first, and the great hamper of flowers was
+forthwith brought into the barn, and the chauffeur set to work twining
+ropes and sprays of smilax and asparagus fern over doorways and
+pictures, and training it like a vine about the stone chimney.  Then
+came the flowers.  Pots of tall starry lilies, great, heavy-headed,
+exquisite-breathed roses, pink, white, yellow, and crimson; daffodils
+and sweet peas, with quantities of sweet violets in the bottom of the
+basket.  Elizabeth with deft fingers selected the flowers skilfully,
+putting pots of lilies on the window-sills, massing a quantity of pink
+roses in a dull gray jar she found among the kitchen things, that
+looked to the initiated amazingly as though it might once have been
+part of a water-filter, but it suited the pink roses wonderfully.  The
+tall vases on the bookcases each Bide of the fireplace held daffodils.
+Sweet peas were glowing in small vases and glasses and bowls, and
+violets in saucers filled the air with fragrance.  White and yellow
+roses were on the dining-table, and three exquisite tall crimson
+rosebuds glowed in a slender glass vase Elizabeth had brought with her.
+This she placed in Mrs. Hollister's room on the little stand that she
+judged would be placed beside the bed when the bed arrived.  The
+flowers certainly did give an atmosphere to the place in more senses
+than one; and the girl was delighted, and fluttered from one spot to
+another, changing the position of a vase or bowl, and then standing off
+to get the effect.
+
+"Now bring me the big bundle, Jenkins, please," she said at length when
+she was satisfied with the effect.  "Oh, and the little long box.  Be
+careful.  It is broken at one end, and the screws may fall out."
+
+Jenkins was soon back with the things.
+
+"Now, you get the rods put up at the windows, Jenkins, while I get out
+the curtains," and she untied the big bundle with eager fingers.
+
+Jenkins was adaptable, and the rods were simple affairs.  He was soon
+at work, and Elizabeth ran the rods into the curtains.
+
+They were not elegant curtains.  Graham had insisted that she should
+get nothing elaborate, nothing that would be out of keeping with the
+simplicity.  They were soft and straight and creamy, with a frost-like
+pattern rambling over them in threads of the same, illuminated here and
+there with a single rose and a leaf in color.  There was something
+cheerful and spring-like to them, and yet they looked exceedingly plain
+and suitable, no ruffles or trimming of any kind, just hems.  To
+Elizabeth's mind they had been very cheap.  Shirley would have
+exclaimed over their beauty wistfully and turned from them with a gasp
+when she heard their price.  They were one of those quiet fitting
+things that cost without flaunting it.  They transformed the room into
+a dream.
+
+"Oh, isn't it _beautiful_!" exclaimed Elizabeth, standing back to look
+as the first curtain went up.
+
+"Yes, Miss, it's very stunning, Miss," said the man, working away with
+good will in his face.
+
+When the curtains were all up, Elizabeth pinned one of her cards to the
+curtain nearest the front door, inscribed, "With love from Elizabeth."
+
+Then in a panic she looked at her watch.
+
+"Oh Jenkins!  It's almost six o'clock," she cried in dismay.  "They
+might get here by half-past, perhaps.  We must hurry!  Bring the other
+things in quick now, please."
+
+So Jenkins brought them in, bundles and bags and boxes, an ice-cream
+freezer, and last of all the cooking-outfit belonging to their
+touring-car.
+
+"Now you get the hot things ready, Jenkins, while I fix the table,"
+directed the girl.
+
+Jenkins, well trained in such things, went to work, opening cans and
+starting his chafing-dish fire.  Elizabeth with eager fingers opened
+her parcels.
+
+A great platter of delicious triangular chicken sandwiches, a dish of
+fruit and nut salad surrounded by crisp lettuce leaves, a plate of
+delicate rolls, cream puffs, chocolate éclairs, macaroons, a cocoanut
+pie, things she liked herself; and then because she knew no feast
+without them there were olives, salted almonds, and bonbons as a matter
+of course.
+
+Delicious odors from the kitchen end of the room began to fill the air.
+Jenkins was heating a pail of rich soup--chicken with rice and
+gumbo--from one of the best caterers in the city.  He was making rich
+cocoa to be eaten with whipped cream that Elizabeth was pouring into a
+glass pitcher; the pitcher came from the ten-cent store if she had only
+known it.  Jenkins was cooking canned peas and heating lovely little
+brown potato croquettes.  The ice-cream freezer was out in full sight,
+where they could never miss it.  Everything was ready now.
+
+"Jenkins, you better light up that queer stove of theirs now if you're
+sure you know how,--she said it was just like a lamp the way it
+worked,--and put those things in the oven to keep warm.  Then we'll
+pack up our things, and hide them out in the grass where they can't
+see, and get them in the car when they get out.  Hurry, for they'll be
+here very soon now, I think."
+
+Elizabeth stuck a card in the middle of the rose-bowl that said in
+pretty letters, "Welcome Home," stood back a minute to see how
+everything looked, and then fluttered to the door to watch for the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+When Shirley came down to the street at five o'clock.  Graham was
+waiting for her as he promised, and swung the car door open for her
+with as much eagerness as if he were taking the girl of his choice on a
+picnic instead of just doing a poor little stenographer a kindness.
+
+"I telephoned to the store and sent a message to George.  We're going
+to pick him up on our way," he said as the car wended its way skilfully
+through the traffic.
+
+She was sitting beside him, and he looked down at her as if they were
+partners in a pleasant scheme.  A strange sense of companionship with
+him thrilled through her, and was properly rebuked and fled at once,
+without really rippling the surface of her joy much.  She had
+determined to have the pleasure out of this one evening ride at least,
+and would not let her thoughts play truant to suggest what wider,
+sweeter realms might be for other girls.  She was having this good
+time.  It was for her and no one else, and she would just enjoy it as
+much as she could, and keep it the sweet, sane, innocent pleasure that
+it really was.  If she was not a fool, everything would be all right.
+
+George was waiting in a quiver of pride and eagerness for them as they
+swept up to the employees' entrance, and a line of admiring
+fellow-laborers stood gaping on the sidewalk to watch his departure.
+
+"Oh, gee!  Isn't this great?" shouted George, climbing into the back
+seat hilariously.  "Got a whole omnibus of a car this time, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I thought we'd have plenty of room for your mother, so she could
+lie down if she liked."
+
+"That was very kind of you," murmured Shirley.  "You think of
+everything, don't you?  I'm sure I don't see how we ever could have
+managed without your help.  I should have been frightened a dozen times
+and been ready to give up."
+
+"Not you!" said Graham fervently.  "You're the kind that never gives
+up.  You've taught me several valuable lessons."
+
+As they turned the corner into the old street where the little brick
+house stood, Shirley suddenly began to have a vivid realization that
+she had told her mother nothing whatever about Mr. Graham.  What would
+she think, and how could she explain his presence?  She had expected to
+get there before Graham arrived and have time enough to make her mother
+understand, but now she began to realize that her real reason for
+leaving the matter yet unexplained was that she did not know just what
+to say without telling the whole story from beginning to end.
+
+"I'll hurry in and see if mother is all ready," she said, as the car
+stopped in front of the house, and the children rushed out eagerly,
+Doris just behind the others, to see the "booful tar."
+
+"Mother," said Shirley, slipping softly into the house and going over
+to the bed where she lay with hat and coat on, fully ready.  "Mother, I
+sha'n't have time to explain all about it, but it's all right; so don't
+think anything.  Mr. Graham, the man who owns the place where we are
+going, has been kind enough to offer to take you in his car.  He thinks
+it will be easier for you than the trolley, and he is out at the door
+now waiting.  It's perfectly all right.  He has been very kind about
+it----"
+
+"Oh daughter, I couldn't think of troubling any one like that!" said
+the mother, shrinking from the thought of a stranger; but, looking up,
+she saw him standing, hat in hand, just in the doorway.  The children
+had led him to the door when he offered to help their mother out to the
+car.
+
+"Mother, this is Mr. Graham," said Shirley.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, a little pink spot on each cheek, tried to rise, but
+the young man came forward instantly and stooped over her.
+
+"Don't try to get up, Mrs. Hollister.  Your daughter tells me you
+haven't been walking about for several weeks.  You must reserve all
+your strength for the journey.  Just trust me.  I'm perfectly strong,
+and I can lift you and put you into the car almost without your knowing
+it.  I often carry my own mother up-stairs just for fun, and she's
+quite a lot larger and heavier than you.  Just let me put my hand under
+your back so, and now this hand here.  Now if you'll put your arms
+around my neck--yes, that way--no, don't be a bit afraid.  I'm
+perfectly strong, and I won't drop you."
+
+Little Mrs. Hollister cast a frightened look at her daughter and
+another at the fine, strong face bent above her, felt herself lifted
+like thistle-down before she had had time to protest, and found herself
+obediently putting her weak arms around his neck and resting her
+frightened head against a strong shoulder.  A second more, and she was
+lying on the soft cushions of the car, and the young man was piling
+pillows about her and tucking her up with soft, furry robes.
+
+"Are you perfectly comfortable?" he asked anxiously.  "I didn't strain
+your back or tire you, did I?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed!" said the bewildered woman.  "You are very kind, and I
+hardly knew what you were doing till I was here.  I never dreamed of
+anything like this.  Shirley didn't tell me about it."
+
+"No," said the young man, smiling, "she said she wanted to surprise
+you; and I believe she thought you might worry a little if you heard
+the details of the journey.  Now, kitten, are you ready to get in?"  He
+turned a smiling face to Doris, who stood solemnly waiting her turn,
+with an expression of one who at last sees the gates of the kingdom of
+heaven opening before her happy eyes.
+
+"Soor!" said Doris in a tone as like Harley's as possible.  She lifted
+one little shabby shoe, and tried to reach the step, but failed, and
+then surrendered her trusting hands to the young man; and he lifted her
+in beside her mother.
+
+"Sit there, kitten, till your sister comes out," he said, looking at
+her flower face admiringly.
+
+Doris giggled.
+
+"I ain't a kitty," she declared; "I'se a 'ittle gurrul!"
+
+"Well, little girl, do you like to go riding?"
+
+"Soor!  I do 'ike to go widin'!" said Doris.  "Oh!  There goes muvver's
+bed!" as the drayman came out carrying the headboard.
+
+Shirley meanwhile was working rapidly, putting the last things from her
+mother's bed into the box, tossing things into the empty clothes-basket
+that had been left for this purpose, and directing the man who was
+taking down the bed and carrying out the boxes and baskets.  At last
+all the things were out of the house, and she was free to go.  She
+turned for one swift moment, and caught a sob in her throat.  There had
+not been time for it before.  It had come when she saw the young man
+stoop and lift her mother so tenderly and bear her out to the car.
+
+But the children were calling her loudly to come.  She gave one happy
+dab at her eyes with her handkerchief to make sure no tears had
+escaped, and went out of the little brick house forever.
+
+A little middle seat had been turned down for Carol, and Doris was in
+her lap.  Graham turned the other middle seat down for Shirley; the
+boys piled into the front seat with him; and they were off.  Mrs.
+Hollister in her wonder over it all completely forgot to look back into
+what she had been wont to call in the stifling days of summer her
+"frying-pan," or to wonder whether she were about to jump into the
+fire.  She just lay back on her soft cushions, softer than any she had
+ever rested upon before, and felt herself glide along away from the
+hated little dark house forever!  It was a wonderful experience.  It
+almost seemed as if a chariot of fire had swooped down and gathered all
+her little flock with her, and was carrying them to some kind of
+gracious heaven where comfort would be found at last.  A bit of hope
+sprang up within her, utterly unpremeditated and unreasonable, and
+persisted so that she could not help feeling happy.  As yet it had not
+come to her to wonder who this handsome young man was that presumed to
+lift her and carry her like a baby, and move her on beds of down to
+utterly unknown regions.  She was too much taken up with the wonder of
+it all.  If Doris hadn't been prattling, asking questions of her, and
+the light breeze hadn't flapped a lock of hair into her eyes and
+tickled her nose, she might have thought she was dreaming, so utterly
+unreal did it all seem to her.
+
+And now they passed out from the narrow streets, through crowded
+thoroughfares for a brief space, then out beyond, and free, into the
+wider reaches.  Fair houses and glimpsed of green were appearing.  The
+car was gliding smoothly, for the sake of the invalid not going at high
+speed; and she could see on every side.  The trees were in full leaf;
+the sky was large and blue; the air was filled with freshness.  She
+drew a long breath; and closed her eyes to pray, "Oh, my Father!" and
+then opened them again to see whether it was all true.  Shirley,
+sensitive for her to the slightest breath, turned and drew the robes
+closer about her mother, and asked whether she were perfectly warm and
+whether she wanted another pillow under her head.
+
+Graham did not intrude himself upon the family behind him.  He was
+absorbed in the two boys, who were entirely willing to be monopolized.
+He told them all about the car, and discoursed on the mysteries of the
+different makes with a freedom that gave George the impression that he
+was himself almost a man to be honored by such talk.
+
+It was nearly seven o'clock when they reached Glenside and the big
+stone barn came in sight, for they had travelled slowly to make it
+easier for the invalid.
+
+Elizabeth had sighted the car far down the road below the curve; and,
+switching on every electric light in the place, she fled down the
+ladder to the basement, dragging the willing Jenkins after her.  Here
+they waited with bated breath until the family had gone inside, when
+they made their stealthy way out the east end, across the little brook
+under the fence, and down the road, to be picked up by the car
+according to previous arrangement.
+
+As the car came in sight of the barn a deep silence suddenly fell upon
+the little company.  Even Doris felt it, and ceased her prattle to look
+from one to another.  "Whatzie mattah?" she asked Shirley shyly,
+putting out her hand to pat Shirley's face in a way she had when she
+was uneasy or troubled.  "_Whatzie mattah, Surly?_"
+
+But Shirley only squeezed her hand reassuringly, and smiled.
+
+As they drew near, the young people noticed that the bars of the fence
+in front of the barn had been taken down and the ditch filled in
+smoothly.  Then they saw that the car was turning in and going straight
+up the grassy incline to the door.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, lying comfortably among her cushions, was looking at
+the evening sky, hearing a bird that reminded her of long ago, and
+scarcely noticed they had turned until the car stopped.  Then in silent
+joy the children swarmed out of the car, and with one consent stood
+back and watched mother, as the strong young man came to the open door
+and gathered her in his arms once more.
+
+"Now we're almost home, Mrs. Hollister," he said pleasantly.  "Just put
+your arms around my neck once more, and we'll soon have you beside your
+own fire."  He lifted her and bore her in to the wide couch before the
+crackling fire that Elizabeth had started just before she went to look
+out the door the last time.
+
+Then into the blazing light of the transformed barn they all stepped,
+and every one stood back and stared, blinking.  What was this?  What
+wondrous perfume met their senses?  What luxury!  What flowers!  What
+hangings!
+
+They stood and stared, and could not understand; and between them they
+forgot to wonder what their mother was thinking, or to do a thing but
+stupidly stare and say, "Why!" and "Oh!" and "Ah!" half under their
+breath.
+
+"Just phone me if you need anything, Miss Hollister, please.  I shall
+be glad to serve you," said Graham, stepping quickly over to the door.
+"Mrs. Hollister, I hope you'll be none the worse for your ride"; and he
+slipped out the door, and was gone.
+
+The sound of the car softly purring its way backward down the slope
+brought Shirley out of her daze; but, when she turned and understood
+that he was gone, the car was just backing into the road, turning with
+a quick whirl, and was away before she could make him hear.
+
+"Oh!  He is _gone_!" she cried out, turning in dismay to the children.
+"He is gone, and we never thanked him!"
+
+George was out down the road like a shot; and the rest, forgetful for
+the moment of the invalid who had been the great anxiety all day,
+crowded at the door to watch him.  They could hear the throbbing of the
+machine; they heard it stop down the road and start again almost
+immediately, growing fainter with every whir as it went farther from
+them.  In a moment more George came running back.
+
+"He's gone.  He meant to, I guess, so we could have it all to ourselves
+right at first.  Elizabeth and the man were down the road waiting for
+him.  They've been dolling the place up to surprise us."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, turning to look around, her cheeks growing rosy.
+"Oh!  Isn't it beautiful?"  Then, turning swiftly to the couch and
+kneeling, she said, "Oh _mother_!"
+
+"What does it all mean, daughter?" asked the bewildered mother, looking
+about on the great room that seemed a palace to her sad eyes.
+
+But they all began to clamor at once, and she could make nothing of it.
+
+"Oh Shirley, look at the curtains!  Aren't they perfectly dear?" cried
+Carol ecstatically.
+
+"Perf'ly deah!" echoed Doris, dancing up and down gleefully.
+
+"And here's a card, 'With love from Elizabeth'!  Isn't it sweet of her?
+Isn't she a perfect _darling_?"
+
+"Who is Elizabeth?" asked Mrs. Hollister, rising to her elbow and
+looking around.
+
+"Gee!  Look at the flowers!" broke in George.  "It's like our store at
+Easter!  I say!  Those lilies are pretty keen, aren't they, Shirl?"
+
+"Wait'll you see the dining-room!" called Harley, who was investigating
+with the help of his nose.  "_Some_ supper-table!  Come on quick; I'm
+starved.  Hello!  Hustle here quick.  Here's another sign-board!"
+
+They followed to the dining-room.  Harley, still following his nose,
+pursued his investigations to the kitchen, discovered the source of the
+savory odors that were pervading the place, and raised another cry so
+appreciative that the entire family, with the exception of the invalid,
+followed him and found the supper steaming hot and crying to be eaten.
+
+After the excitement was somewhat quieted Shirley took command.
+
+"Now, children, you're getting mother all excited, and this won't do.
+And, besides, we must eat this supper right away before it spoils.
+Quiet down, and bring the hot things to the table while I get mother's
+things off.  Then we will tell her all about it.  There's plenty of
+time, you know.  We're going to stay right here all summer."
+
+"Aw, gee!  Can't we bring mother out to the table?" pleaded George.
+"Harley and I could lift that couch just as easy."
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Shirley, hesitating.  "You know she isn't
+strong, and she will worry about your lifting her."
+
+"Oh Shirley, let her come," pleaded Carol.  "We could all take hold and
+wheel the couch out here; you know the floor is real smooth since those
+new boards were put in, and there are good castors on the couch."
+
+"Mother!  Mother!  You're coming out to supper!" they chorused, rushing
+back to the living-room; and before the invalid realized what was
+happening her couch was being wheeled carefully, gleefully into the
+brilliantly lighted dining-room, with Doris like a fairy sprite dancing
+attendance, and shouting joyously:
+
+"Mudder's tumin' to suppy!  Mudder's tumin' to suppy adin!"
+
+The mother gazed in amazement at the royally spread table, so smothered
+in flowers that she failed to recognize the cracked old blue dishes.
+
+"Children, I insist," she raised her voice above the happy din.  "I
+insist on knowing immediately what all this means.  Where are we, and
+what is this?  A hotel?  And who was the person who brought us here?  I
+cannot eat anything nor stay here another minute until I know.  People
+can't rent houses like this for ten dollars a month anywhere, and I
+didn't suppose we had come to charity, even if I am laid up for a few
+days."
+
+Shirley could see the hurt in her mother's eyes and the quick alarm in
+her voice, and came around to her couch, smiling.
+
+"Now, mother dear, we'll tell you the whole thing.  It isn't a hotel
+we're in, and it isn't a house at all.  It's only an old barn!"
+
+"A barn!"  Mrs. Hollister sat up on her couch alertly, and looked at
+the big bowl of roses in the middle of the table, at the soft, flowing
+curtains at the window and the great pot of Easter lilies on the little
+stand in front, and exclaimed, "Impossible!"
+
+"But it is, really, mother, just a grand old stone barn!  Look at the
+walls.  See those two over there are just rough stones, and this one
+back of you is a partition made of common boards.  That's only an old
+brown denim curtain over there to hide the kitchen, and we've got the
+old red chenille curtains up to partition off the bedrooms.  The boys
+are going to sleep up in the hay-loft, and it's going to be just great!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked wildly at the stone walls, back at the new
+partition, recognized one by one the ancient chairs, the old bookcase
+now converted into a china-closet, the brown denim curtain that had
+once been a cover for the dining-room floor in the little brick house.
+Now it was washed and mended, and was doing its faded part to look like
+a wall and fit into the scheme of things.  She darted questioning
+glances at the wealth of flowers, and the abundantly set table, then
+settled back on her pillow but half satisfied.
+
+"They don't have curtains in a barn!" she remarked dryly.
+
+"Those are a present from Elizabeth, the little sister of the landlord.
+She was out here with him when he came to see about things, and she got
+acquainted with Carol.  She has put up those curtains, and brought the
+flowers, and fixed the table, for a surprise.  See, mother!" and
+Shirley brought the card on which Elizabeth had printed her crude
+welcome.
+
+Mrs. Hollister took the card as if it were some sort of a
+life-preserver, and smiled with relief.
+
+"But this is a great deal to do for strangers," she said tremblingly,
+and tears began to glitter in her eyes.  "They must be wealthy people."
+
+"Yes, mother, I think they are," said Shirley, "and they have been most
+kind."
+
+"But, daughter, wealthy people do not usually take the trouble to do
+things like that for nothing.  And ten dollars a month for a barn could
+be nothing to them."
+
+"I know, mother, but he seems very well satisfied with the price," said
+Shirley with a troubled brow.  "I----"
+
+"Something's burning!" yelled Harley at the top of his lungs from the
+kitchen, and immediately they all rushed out to rescue the supper,
+which took that moment to assert itself.
+
+"Now, mother," said Shirley, coming in with a big tureen of soup,
+"we've got to eat this supper or it will spoil.  You're not to ask
+another question till we are through."
+
+They all settled expectantly down at the table, Doris climbing joyously
+into her high chair, calling:
+
+"Suppy!  Suppy!  Oh goody!"
+
+Such a clatter and a clamor, such shoutings over the sandwiches and
+such jumpings up and down to carry something to mother!  Such lingering
+over the delicious ice-cream and fresh strawberries that were found in
+the freezer!  Think of it!  Real strawberries for _them_ that time of
+year!
+
+Then, when they had eaten all they could, and began to realize that it
+was time to get mother to bed, they pushed the chairs back, and all
+fell to clearing off the table and putting things away.  It was Carol
+who discovered the big roasted fowl and the bowl of salad set away in
+the tiny ice-box ready for to-morrow.  How had Elizabeth, who never
+kept house in her life, known just what would be nice for a family were
+all tired out with moving, and needed to lie back and rest before
+starting on with living?
+
+The dishes were almost washed when the cart arrived with the last load
+of things, and the drayman helped George to put up mother's bed.
+
+They wheeled the couch into the living-room after the big doors were
+closed and safely fastened for the night.  Before the glowing fire
+Shirley helped mother to undress, then rolled her couch into the
+bedroom and got her to bed.
+
+"Do you mind very much that it is only a barn, mother dear?" questioned
+Shirley, bending anxiously over her mother after she was settled.
+
+"I can't make it seem like a barn, dear; it seems a palace!" said the
+mother with a tremble in her voice.  "I'm glad it's a barn, because we
+could never afford a house with space like this, and air!"  She threw
+out her hands as if to express her delight in the wide rooms, and drew
+in a breath of the delicious country air, so different from air of the
+dusty little brick house in the city.
+
+"Daughter!" she drew Shirley down where she could whisper to her.
+"You're sure he is not looking on us as objects of charity, and you're
+sure he understands that you are a self-respecting girl earning her
+honorable living and paying her way?  You know this is a wicked,
+deceitful world we live in, and there are all sorts of people in it."
+
+"Mother dear!  I'm sure.  Sure as anybody could be.  He has been a
+perfect gentleman.  You didn't think he looked like one of those--those
+people--that go around misunderstanding girls, did you mother?"
+
+The mother remembered the gentle, manly way in which the young man had
+lifted her and carried her to and from the car, and her heart warmed to
+him.  Yet her fears lingered as she watched her sweet-eyed girl.
+
+"No-o-o," she answered slowly; "but then, you can't always judge.  He
+certainly was a gentleman, and he was very nice-looking."  Then she
+looked sharply at Shirley.
+
+"You won't go to getting any notions in your head, dear child?"  Her
+eyes were wistful and sad as she searched the sweet, weary face of the
+girl.  "You know rich young men follow whims sometimes for a few days.
+They don't mean anything.  I wouldn't want your heart broken.  I wish
+he was an old man with white hair."
+
+"Oh mother dear!" laughed Shirley with heart-free ring to her voice,
+"did you think you had a young fool for a daughter?  He was only being
+nice because he is a perfect gentleman; but I know he is not in the
+same universe as I am, so far as anything more than pleasant kindliness
+is concerned.  We shall probably never see him again now that we are
+settled.  But don't you think I ought to go and telephone thanks to his
+little sister?  They will be home by this time, and it seems as if we
+ought to make some acknowledgment of her great kindness."
+
+"By all means, dear; but how can you?  Is there a pay-station near
+here?  I thought you said this was out in the country."
+
+"Why, we have a telephone of our own, muddy dear!  Just think of the
+luxury of it!  Us with a telephone!  Mr. Graham had it put into the
+barn when he was making some repairs, so he could communicate with his
+workmen; and he said if we would like it we might keep it.  It is one
+of those 'pay-as-you-go' phones, with a place to drop nickels and dimes
+in; so we are perfectly independent.  Mr. Graham thought it would be a
+comfort to you when George or I had to stay late in town."
+
+"How thoughtful of him!  He must be a _wonderful_ rich man!  By all
+means telephone at once, and tell the little girl to say to her brother
+from me that I shall esteem it a privilege to thank him personally for
+all that he has done for my children, sometime when he is out this way.
+Think.  A real rose by my bed!"  She reached out a frail hand, and
+touched the exquisite petals lovingly.  "It is wonderful!"
+
+So Shirley went into the living-room to telephone, while all the
+children stood about to watch and comment and tell her what to say.
+Doris sat on a little cushion at her feet in awe, and listened, asking
+Carol with large eyes: "Is Sirley tautin to Dod?  Vy doesn't see sut
+her yeyes?" for Shirley's conversation over the telephone sounded to
+the little sister much like a prayer of thanksgiving; only she was not
+accustomed to hearing that joyous laughter in the voice when people
+prayed.
+
+Then Doris was put to bed in her own little crib, and the light in
+mother's room was switched off amid Doris's flood of questions.
+
+"Vat makes it light?  Vy did it do avay?  Will it tum adin?"
+
+At last she was asleep, and the other children tiptoed excitedly about
+preparing for bed, going up and downstairs softly, whispering back and
+forth for this or that they could not find, till quiet settled down
+upon the tired, happy household, and the bullfrogs in the distant creek
+droned out the nightly chorus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+It was beautiful to wake the next morning with the birds singing a
+matin in the trees, and a wonderful Sabbath quiet over everything.
+Tired out as she was and worn with excitement and care, Shirley was the
+first to waken, and she lay there quiet beside Carol for a little while
+with her eyes closed, listening, and saying a prayer of thanksgiving
+for the peace of the place, and the wonder that it had come into her
+life.  Then suddenly a strange luminousness about her simply forced her
+to open her eyes.
+
+The eastern window was across the room from her bed, and the sky was
+rosy, with the dawn, and flooding the room.  It was the first time in
+years she had watched the sun rise.  She had almost forgotten, in the
+little dark city house, that there was a sun to rise and make things
+glorious.  The sun had seemed an enemy to burn and wilt and stifle.
+
+But now here was a friend, a radiant new friend, to be waited for and
+enjoyed, to give glory to all their lives.  She raised herself on one
+elbow and watched until the red ball had risen and burst into the
+brightness of day.  Then she lay down softly again and listened to the
+birds.  They seemed to be mad with joy over the new day.  Presently the
+chorus grew less and less.  The birds had gone about their morning
+tasks, and only a single bright song now and then from some soloist in
+the big tree overhead marked the sweet-scented silence of the morning.
+
+In the quiet Shirley lay and went over events since she had first seen
+this spot and taken the idea of living in the barn.  Her heart gave
+thanks anew that her mother had not disliked it as she had feared.
+There was no sense that it was a stable, no odor of living creatures
+having occupied it before, only sweet dusty clover like a lingering of
+past things put away carefully.  It was like a great camping
+expedition.  And then all those flowers!  The scent of the lilies was
+on the air.  How lovely of the young girl out of her luxury to think to
+pass on some of the sweet things of life!  And the gracious, chivalrous
+man, her brother!  She must not let him think she would presume upon
+his kindness.  She must not let even her thoughts cross the line and
+dwell on the ground of social equality.  She knew where he belonged,
+and there he should stay for all her.  She was heart-free and happy,
+and only too glad to have such a kind landlord.
+
+She drifted off to sleep again, and it was late when she awoke the next
+time.  A silvery bell from the little white church in the valley was
+ringing and echoing distantly.  Sabbath, real Sabbath, seemed brooding
+happily in the very air.  Shirley got up and dressed hastily.  She felt
+as if she had already lost too much of this first wonderful day in the
+country.
+
+A thrush was spilling his liquid notes in the tree overhead when she
+tiptoed softly into her mother's room.  Doris opened her eyes and
+looked in wonder, then whispered softly:
+
+"Vat is dat, Sirley?  Vat _is_ dat pitty sound?"
+
+"A birdie in the tree, dearie!" whispered Shirley.
+
+"A _weel budie_!  I yantta see it!  Take Doris up, Sirley!"
+
+So Shirley lifted the little maiden, wrapped a shawl about her, and
+carried her softly to the window, where she looked up in wonder and joy.
+
+The boys came tumbling down from their loft in a few minutes, and there
+was no more sleep to be had.  Carol was up and out, and the voice of
+one or the other of them was continually raised in a shout of triumph
+over some new delight.
+
+"I saw a fish in the brook!" shouted Harley under his mother's window.
+"It was only a little fellow, but maybe it'll grow bigger some day, and
+then we can fish!"
+
+"You silly!" cried George.  "It was a minnow.  Minnows don't grow to be
+big.  They're only good for bait!"
+
+"Hush, George, there's a nest in the big tree.  I've been watching and
+the mother bird is sitting on it.  That was the father bird singing a
+while ago."  This from Carol.
+
+George, Harley, and Carol declared their intention of going to church.
+That had likely been the first bell that rang, their mother told them,
+and they would have plenty of time to get there if they hurried.  It
+was only half-past nine.  Country churches rang a bell then, and
+another at ten, and the final bell at half-past ten, probably.
+Possibly they had Sunday-school at ten.  Anyhow, they could go and find
+out.  It wouldn't matter if they were a little late the first time.
+
+So they ate some breakfast in a hurry, took each a sandwich left from
+the night before, crossed the road, climbed the fence, and went
+joyously over the green fields to church, thinking how much nicer it
+was than walking down a brick-paved street, past the same old grimy
+houses to a dim, artificially lighted church.
+
+Shirley took a survey of the larder, decided that roast chicken, potato
+croquettes, and peas would all warm up quickly, and, as there was
+plenty of ice cream left and some cakes, they would fare royally
+without any work; so she sat beside her mother and told the whole story
+of her ride, the finding of the barn, her visit to the Graham office,
+and all that transpired until the present time.
+
+The mother listened, watching her child, but said no wore of her inner
+thoughts.  If it occurred to her that her oldest daughter was fair to
+look upon, and that her winning ways, sweet, unspoiled face, and
+wistful eyes had somewhat to do with the price of their summer's abode,
+it would be no wonder.  But she did not mean to trouble her child
+further.  She would investigate for herself when opportunity offered.
+So she quieted all anxieties Shirley might have had about her sanction
+of their selection of a home, kissed Shirley, and told her she felt it
+in her bones she was going to get well right away.
+
+And, indeed, there was much in the fact of the lifting of the burden of
+anxiety concerning where they should live that went to brighten the
+eyes of the invalid and strengthen her heart.
+
+When the children came home from church Shirley was putting dinner on
+the table, and her mother was arrayed in a pretty kimono, a relic of
+their better days, and ready to be helped to the couch and wheeled out
+to the dining-room.  It had been pleasant to see the children coming
+across the green meadow in the distance, and get things all ready for
+them when they rushed in hungry.  Shirley was so happy she felt like
+crying.
+
+After the dinner things were washed they shoved the couch into the
+living-room among the flowers, where George had built up a beautiful
+fire, for it was still chilly.  The children gathered around their
+mother and talked, making plans for the summer, telling about the
+service they had attended, chattering like so many magpies.  The mother
+lay and watched them and was content.  Sometimes her eyes would search
+the dim, mellow rafters overhead, and glance along the stone walls, and
+she would say to herself: "This is a barn!  I am living in a barn!  My
+husband's children have come to this, that they have no place to live
+but a barn!"  She was testing herself to see if the thought hurt her.
+But, looking on their happy faces, somehow she could not feel sad.
+
+"Children," she said suddenly in one of the little lulls of
+conversation, "do you realize that Christ was born in a stable?  It
+isn't so bad to live in a barn.  We ought to be very thankful for this
+great splendid one!"
+
+"Oh mother, dear!  It is so beautiful of you to take it that way!"
+cried Shirley with tears in her eyes.
+
+"Doris, you sing your little song about Jesus in the stable," said
+Carol.  "I'll play it for you."
+
+Doris, nothing loath, got a little stool, stood up beside her mother's
+couch, folded her small hands demurely, and began to sing without
+waiting for accompaniment:
+
+  "Away in a manger,
+    No trib for His head,
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    Lay down His sveet head.
+  The tars in the haaven
+    Look down vhere 'e lay--
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    As'eep in the hay.
+
+  "The catta are lowing,
+    The poor baby wates;
+  But the litta Lord Jesus
+    No cwyin' He mates.
+  I love Thee, Lord Jesus;
+    Look down fum the sky,
+  An' stay by my trib,
+    Watching my lul-la-by!"
+
+
+Shirley kissed Doris, and then they began to sing other things, all
+standing around the piano.  By and by that distant bell from the valley
+called again.
+
+"There's a vesper service at five o'clock.  Why don't you go, Shirley?
+You and George and Harley," said Carol.
+
+"Me 'ant do too!" declared Doris earnestly, and it was finally decided
+that the walk would not be too long; so the boys, Shirley and the baby
+started off across the fields, while Carol stayed with her mother.  And
+this time Mrs. Hollister heard all about Elizabeth and how she wanted
+Carol to come and see her sometime.  Heard, too, about the proposed
+dance, and its quiet squelching by the brother.  Heard, and looked
+thoughtful, and wondered more.
+
+"Mother is afraid they are not quite our kind of people, dear!" she
+said gently.  "You mustn't get your heart bound up in that girl.  She
+may be very nice, but she's a society girl, and you are not, you know.
+It stands to reason she will have other interests pretty soon, and then
+you will be disappointed when she forgets all about you."
+
+"She won't forget, mother, I know she won't!" declared Carol stoutly.
+"She's not that kind.  She loves me; she told me so.  She wanted to put
+one of her rings on my finger to 'bind our friendship,' only I wouldn't
+let her till I had asked you, because I didn't have any but
+grandmother's to give her, and I couldn't give her that."
+
+"That was right, dear.  You can't begin things like that.  You would
+find a great many of them, and we haven't the money to keep up with a
+little girl who has been used to everything."
+
+Carol's face went down.  Tears began to come in her eyes.
+
+"Can't we have even _friends_?" she said, turning her face away to hide
+the quiver in her lip, and the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.
+
+"Yes, dear," said the mother sorrowfully, "but don't choose them from
+among another people.  People who can't possibly have much in common
+with us.  It is sure to hurt hard when there are differences in station
+like that."
+
+"But I didn't choose them.  They chose us!" declared Carol.  "Elizabeth
+just went wild over us the first time she saw us, and her brother told
+Shirley he was glad, that it would do Elizabeth a lot of good to know
+us.  He said, 'We've learned a lot of things from you already'; just
+like that, he said it!  I was coming down the stairs behind them when
+they stood here talking one day, and I couldn't help hearing them."
+
+"Yes?" said Mrs. Hollister thoughtfully.  "Well, perhaps, but, dear, go
+slow and don't pin your heart to a friendship like that, for it will
+most likely be disappointing.  Just be happy in what she has done for
+us already, and don't expect anything more.  She may never come again.
+It may just have been a passing whim.  And I don't want you to be
+always looking for her and always disappointed."
+
+"I shall not be disappointed, mamma," said Carol decidedly.  "You'll
+see!" and her face brightened.
+
+Then as if to make good her words a big car came whirring up the road
+and stopped in front of the barn, and almost before she could get to
+the window to look out Carol heard Elizabeth's voice calling softly:
+
+"Carol!  Car-_roll_!  Are you there?" and she flung the door open and
+rushed into her new friend's arms.
+
+Graham came more slowly up the incline, smiling apologetically and
+hoping he didn't intrude, coming so soon.
+
+Carol led them over to the invalid and introduced her friend, and the
+young man came after them.
+
+"I'm afraid this is rather soon to obey your summons, Mrs. Hollister,"
+he said engagingly, "but Elizabeth couldn't stand it without coming
+over to see if you really found the ice-cream freezer, so I thought
+we'd just drop in for a minute and see whether you were quite
+comfortable."
+
+Somehow, suddenly, Mrs. Hollister's fears and conclusions concerning
+these two young people began to vanish, and in spite of her she felt
+just as Shirley had done, that they were genuine in their kindliness
+and friendship.  Carol, watching her, was satisfied, and a glow of
+triumph shone in her eyes.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Hollister gathered her
+caution about her as a garment, and in dignified and pleasant phrases
+thanked the two in such a way that they must see that neither she nor
+her children would ever presume upon what had been done for them, nor
+take it for more than a passing kindliness.
+
+But to her surprise the young man did not seem to be more than half
+listening to her words.  He seemed to be studying her face with deep
+intention that was almost embarrassing.  The soft color stole into her
+thin cheeks, and she stopped speaking and looked at him in dismay.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, seeing her bewilderment, "but you can't
+understand perhaps how interested I am in you.  I am afraid I have been
+guilty of staring.  You see it is simply amazing to me to find a woman
+of your refinement and evident culture and education who is content--I
+might even say joyful--to live in a _barn_!  I don't know another woman
+who would be satisfied.  And you seem to have brought up all your
+children with just such happy, adaptable natures, that it is a great
+puzzle to me.  I--I--why, I feel sort of rebuked!  I feel that you and
+your children are among the great of the earth.  Don't thank Elizabeth
+and me for the little we have been able to do toward making this barn
+habitable.  It was a sort of--I might say homage, due to you, that we
+were rendering.  And now please don't think anything more about it.
+Let's just talk as if we were friends--that is, if you are willing to
+accept a couple of humble strangers among your list of friends."
+
+"Why, surely, if you put it that way!" smiled the little woman.
+"Although I'm sure I don't know what else we could do but be glad and
+happy over it that we had a barn like this to come to under a sweet
+blue sky, with a bird and a tree thrown in, when we literally didn't
+know where we could afford to lay our heads.  You know beggars
+shouldn't be choosers, but I'm sure one would choose a spacious place
+like this any day in preference to most of the ordinary city houses,
+with their tiny dark rooms, and small breathless windows."
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn?"
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn!" said the woman with a flitting dance in
+her eyes that reminded him of the girl Shirley.
+
+"Well, I'm learning a lot, I tell you!" said the young man.  "The more
+I see of you all, the more I learn.  It's opened my eyes to a number of
+things in my life that I'm going to set right.  By the way, is Miss
+Hollister here?  I brought over a book I was telling her about the
+other day.  I thought she might like to see it."
+
+"She went over to the vesper service at the little church across the
+fields.  They'll be coming home soon, I think.  It must be nearly over."
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+"Suppose I take the car and bring them back.  You stay here, Elizabeth.
+I'll soon be back.  I think I can catch them around by the road if I
+put on speed."
+
+He was off, and the mother lay on the couch watching the two girls and
+wishing with all her heart that it were so that her children might have
+these two fine young people for friends.  But of course such things
+could not very well be in this world of stern realities and
+multitudinous conventionalities.  What, for instance, would be said in
+the social set to which the Grahams belonged if it were known that some
+of their intimate friends lived in a barn?  No, such things did not
+happen even in books, and the mother lay still and sighed.  She heard
+the chatter of the two girls.
+
+"You're coming home with me to stay over Sunday pretty soon.  Sidney
+said he would fix it all up with your mother pretty soon.  We'll sleep
+together and have the grandest times.  Mother likes me to have friends
+stay with me, but most of the girls I know are off at boarding-school
+now, and I'm dreadfully lonesome.  We have tennis-courts and golf links
+and a bowling-alley.  Do you play tennis?  And we can go out in the car
+whenever we like.  It's going to be grand.  I'll show you my dog and my
+pony I used to ride.  He's getting old now, and I'm too big for him,
+but I love him just the same.  I have a saddle-horse, but I don't ride
+much.  I'd rather go motoring with Sid----"
+
+And so she rattled on, and the mother sighed for her little girl who
+was being tempted by a new and beautiful world, and had not the
+wherewithal to enter it, even if it were possible for her to do so.
+
+Out in the sunset the car was speeding back again with the seats full,
+Doris chirping gleefully at the ride, for her fat legs had grown very
+weary with the long walk through the meadow and Shirley had been almost
+sorry she had taken her along.
+
+The boys were shouting all sorts of questions about dogs and chickens
+and cars and a garden, and Graham was answering them all
+good-humoredly, now and then turning around to throw back a pleasant
+sentence and a smile at the quiet girl with the happy eyes sitting in
+the back seat with her arm around her little sister.
+
+There was nothing notable about the ride to remember.  It was just one
+of those beautiful bits of pleasantness that fit into the mosaic of any
+growing friendship, a bit of color without which the whole is not
+perfect.  Shirley's part in it was small.  She said little and sat
+listening happily to the boys' conversation with Graham.  She had
+settled it with her heart that morning that she and the young man on
+that front seat had nothing in future to do with each other, but it was
+pleasant to see him sitting there talking with her brothers.  There was
+no reason why she should not be glad for that, and glad he was not a
+snob.  For every time she looked on his clean, frank face, and saw his
+nice gray eyes upon her, she was surer that he was not a snob.
+
+The guests stayed a little while after they all got back, and accepted
+quite as a matter of course the dainty little lunch that Carol and
+Elizabeth, slipping away unobserved, prepared and brought in on
+trays,--some of the salad left from dinner, some round rolls that
+Shirley had brought out with her Saturday, cut in two and crisply
+toasted, cups of delicious cocoa, and little cakes.  That was all, but
+it tasted fine, and the two self-invited guests enjoyed it hugely.
+Then they all ranged themselves around the piano and sang hymns, and it
+is safe to say that the guests at least had not spent as "Sabbathy" a
+Sabbath in all their lives.  Elizabeth was quite astonished when she
+suggested that they sing a popular song to have Carol answer in a
+polite but gently reproving tone, "Oh, not _to-day_, you know."
+
+"Why not?  Doesn't your mother like it?" whispered Elizabeth.
+
+"Why, we don't any of us usually sing things like that on Sunday, you
+know.  It doesn't seem like Sunday.  It doesn't seem quite respectful
+to God."  Carol was terribly embarrassed and was struggling to make her
+idea plain.
+
+"Oh!" Elizabeth said, and stood looking wistfully, wonderingly at her
+friend, and finally stole out a soft hand and slipped it into Carol's,
+pressing her fingers as if to make her know she understood.  Then they
+lifted up their voices again over the same hymn-book:
+
+  "Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
+  But there's a nobler rest above;
+  To that our longing souls aspire
+  With cheerful hope and strong desire."
+
+
+Graham looked about on the group as they sang, his own fine tenor
+joining in the words, his eyes lingering on the earnest face of his
+little sister as she stood arm in arm with the other girl, and was
+suddenly thrilled with the thought of what a Sabbath might be, kept in
+this way.  It had never appealed to him quite like that before.
+Sabbath-keeping had seemed a dry, thankless task for a few fanatics;
+now a new possibility loomed vaguely in his mind.  He could see that
+people like this could really make the Sabbath something to love, not
+just a day to loll through and pass the time away.
+
+When they finally went away there was just a streak of dull red left in
+the western horizon where the day had disappeared, and all the air was
+seething with sweet night sounds and odors, the dampness of the swamps
+striking coolly in their faces as the car sped along.
+
+"Sidney," said Elizabeth after a long time, "did you ever feel as if
+God were real?"
+
+"Why, how do you mean, kid?" asked the brother, rather embarrassed.
+These subjects were not discussed at all in the Graham household.
+
+"Did you ever feel as if there really was a God somewhere, like a
+person, that could see and hear you and know what you did and how you
+felt to Him?  Because they do.  Carol said they didn't sing 'Tipperary'
+on Sunday because it didn't seem quite respectful to God, and I could
+see she really meant it.  It wasn't just because her mother said she
+had to or anything like that.  She thought so herself."
+
+"H'm!" said Graham thoughtfully.  "Well, they're rather remarkable
+people, I think."
+
+"Well, I think so too, and I think it's about time you fixed it up with
+mamma to let Carol come and visit me."
+
+"I'm going to get mother to go out there and call this week if I can,"
+said Graham after another longer pause, and then added: "I think she
+will go and I think she will like them.  After that we'll see, kid.
+Don't you worry.  They're nice, all right."  He was thinking of the
+look on Shirley's face as she sat at the piano playing for them all to
+sing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The first few days in the new home were filled with wonder and delight
+for them all.  They just could not get used to having plenty of room
+indoors, with all outdoors for a playground.  Doris's cheeks took on a
+lovely pink, and her eyes began to sparkle.  She and Harley spent all
+day out-of-doors.  They were making a garden.  Not that they had any
+experience or any utensils.  There was an old hoe and a broken spade
+down in the basement of the barn, and with these Harley managed to
+remove a few square feet of young turf, and mellow up an inch or two of
+soil depth.  In this they planted violet roots and buttercups and
+daisies which they found in the meadows.  Doris had a corner all her
+own, with neat rows of tiny stones from the brook laid in elaborate
+baby-patterns around the edge, and in this she stuck twigs and weeds of
+all descriptions, and was never daunted, only pained and surprised when
+they drooped and died in a day or two and had to be supplanted by
+others.
+
+It had been decided that Harley was to stop school and stay at home
+with mother and Doris, which indeed he was quite willing to do under
+the glamour of the new life.  The school itself never had much
+attraction for him, and "the fellows" were almost forgotten in
+searching for angleworms and building dams in the creek.
+
+Carol went to high school every morning with Shirley and George on the
+trolley.  There were only six more weeks till the term was over, and it
+was better for Carol to finish out her year and get her credits.
+Shirley thought they could afford the extra carfare for just that
+little while, and so all day long mother and Doris and Harley kept
+quiet home in the old barn, and the meadows rang with Doris's shouts
+and Harley's answers.
+
+One day the doctor came out in his machine to see Mrs. Hollister as he
+had promised to do, and found her so much better that he told her she
+might get up and go around a little while every day if she was very
+careful not to get over-tired.  He prophesied a speedy return to health
+if she kept on looking happy and breathing this good air.  He praised
+the good sense that brought her out into the country to live, in
+preference to any little tucked-up house in town, and said if she could
+only get well enough to work outdoors in the ground and have a
+flower-bed it would be the making of her.  Her eyes brightened at that,
+for she loved flowers, and in the days of her youth had been extremely
+successful at making things grow.
+
+The doctor was deeply interest in the barn.  He walked about with his
+hands in his pockets, looking the rooms over, as delighted as a child
+at seeing a new mechanical toy.
+
+"Well, now this is great!" he said heartily.  "This is simply great!  I
+admire you people for having the nerve to go against conventionality
+and come out here.  If I had a few more patients who could be persuaded
+to go out into the country and take some of the unused old barns and
+fix them up to live in, I'd have to change my occupation.  It's a great
+idea, and I mean to recommend it to others if you don't mind.  Only I
+doubt if I find two others who have the nerve to follow your example."
+
+The invalid laughed.
+
+"Why, doctor, I can't see the nerve.  We really hadn't any choice.  We
+couldn't find a decent place that we could afford, and this was big and
+healthful and cost less than the worst little tenement that would have
+done in town.  Any one would be a fool not to have come here."
+
+"Mrs. Hollister, do you know that most people would rather starve and
+swelter, yes--and _die_ in a conventional house, than to do such an
+unheard-of thing as to live in a barn, no matter how delightful that
+barn might be?  You are a great little woman, Mrs. Hollister, and you
+deserve to get well, and to see your children prosper.  And they will.
+They have the right spirit."
+
+After his visit Mrs. Hollister began to get up a little while every
+day, and her improvement in health was rapid.  She even ventured out to
+see Doris's garden and watch the "budie" in his nest in the tree.
+
+One day a drayman stopped at the place and left several great rolls of
+chicken-wire, and a couple of big crates.  One crate was bigger than
+the other and contained half a dozen big yellow hens and a beautiful
+rooster.  The small crate held two lovely white rabbits.
+
+The children hovered joyfully over the crates.
+
+"Mine wabbits!" declared Doris solemnly.  "Nice Mistah Dwaham give
+Doris wabbits."
+
+"Did Mr. Graham say he was going to send you some rabbits?" questioned
+her mother.
+
+"'Es.  He did say he was goin' to sen' me some wabbits.  On 'e way fum
+chutch in big oughtymobeel.  He did say he would give me wabbits.  Oh,
+mine wabbits!"  Doris was in ecstasy.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked at the big rolls of wire questioningly:
+
+"George and I told him we wanted some chickens.  I guess that's why he
+sent 'em," announced Harley excitedly.
+
+"I hope you boys didn't hint.  That's very bad manners.  You know I
+can't have Mr. Graham giving you such expensive presents; it won't do,
+dear."
+
+"No, mother, we didn't hint.  George just asked him if he minded if we
+kept chickens here, and he said no, indeed, he'd like to go into the
+business himself.  He said he used to have a lot of his own when he was
+a boy, and he guessed there was a lot of wire from the old chicken-run
+around at his place yet.  If there was, there wasn't any reason why it
+shouldn't be in use, and he'd look it up.  He said, if it was, he and
+we'd go into business.  He'd furnish the tools and we could do the
+work, and maybe some day we could sell eggs and make it pay."
+
+"That's very kind of him, I'm sure.  But, Harley, that looks like new
+wire.  It isn't the least bit rusted."
+
+"It's galvanized, mother.  Galvanized wire doesn't rust, don't you know
+that?" said Harley in a superior, man's voice.
+
+Harley and Doris were wild over their pets, and could do nothing all
+that day but hover about them, and the minute George arrived the boys
+went out to see about putting up some of the wire and making a
+temporary abode for the creatures until they could get time to plan an
+elaborate chicken-run.
+
+Before dark Graham arrived.  He had brought a book on chicken-raising
+and had a good many suggestions to offer.  With him in the front seat
+of the car rode a great golden-brown dog with a white-starred face,
+great affectionate eyes, and a plumy white tail.  He bounded floppily
+out after Graham and came affably up to the door as if he understood
+everything; and at sight of him the children went wild.
+
+"I brought this fellow along, thinking perhaps you'd like him to help
+look after things here.  He's only a puppy, but he's a good breed, and
+I think you'll find him a splendid watch-dog.  You don't need to keep
+him, of course, if you don't want him, Mrs. Hollister, but I thought
+out in the country this way it might be as well for you to have him on
+guard, at night especially.  He'll be good company for the children.
+We've got so many of them that we want to give this one away."
+
+And what was there to do but accept him with thanks, a dog like that
+begging for a home, and a home like that really needing a dog?
+
+So the dog was promptly accepted as a member of the family, was named
+Star, and accepted the overtures of his devoted worshippers in many
+amiable waggings of tail and a wide puppy laugh on his face.  He stayed
+behind most contentedly when Graham departed after a long conference
+with George and Harley over the "chicken" book, and a long discussion
+in the back yard as to the best place for the chicken-run.  He seemed
+to know from the start that he had come to stay, that this was his
+"job" and he was on it for life.
+
+It must be admitted that Mrs. Hollister went to sleep that night with
+more content, knowing that big, floppy, deep-voiced dog was lying
+across the door out in the living-room.  The hillside had seemed a bit
+lonely at night, though she had never admitted it even to herself
+before, and she was glad the dog had come.  That night in the little
+prayer that she said every night with all her children gathered about
+her couch in front of the fire, she added, "We thank Thee, oh, Lord,
+for sending us such good kind friends to make the world so much happier
+for us."
+
+A few days later Mrs. Graham came to call.
+
+Her son did not explain to her anything about the Hollisters, nor say a
+word about the place where they were living.  He merely remarked
+casually: "Mother, there are some people I'd like you to call on if you
+don't mind.  They live out Glenside way, and I'll take you any
+afternoon you have time."
+
+"I really haven't much time now before we go to the shore, Sidney," she
+said.  "Couldn't they wait till the fall when we return?"
+
+"No, mother, I'd like you to call now.  It needn't take you long, and I
+think you'll like them--her--Mrs. Hollister, I mean.  Can't you go this
+afternoon?  I'll call for you with the car anywhere you say, along
+about half-past four or five o'clock.  It will be a pleasant little
+drive and rest you."
+
+"Shall I have to be much dressed?" asked the mother thoughtfully,
+"because I shouldn't have time for an elaborate toilet.  I have to go
+to Madame's for a fitting, meet with the Red Cross committee, drop in
+at the hospital for a few minutes, and see Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs.
+Follette about our Alumni Anniversary banquet."
+
+"Just wear something simple, mother.  They are not society people.
+It's you I want to show them, not your clothes."
+
+"You ridiculous boy!  You're as unsophisticated as your father.  Well,
+I'll be ready at half-past four.  You may call for me then at the
+Century Building."
+
+Elizabeth had been loyal to her brother's commands and had said nothing
+about her new-found friend, awaiting his permission.  Graham earnestly
+discussed the pros and cons of woman's suffrage with his mother during
+the drive out, so that she was utterly unprejudiced by any former ideas
+concerning the Hollisters, which was exactly what her son desired her
+to be.  He knew that his mother was a woman of the world, and hedged
+about by conventions of all sorts, but he also knew her to be fair in
+her judgments when once she saw a thing right, and a keen reader of
+character.  He wanted her to see the Hollisters without the least bit
+of a chance to judge them beforehand.
+
+So when the car drew up in front of the old barn Mrs. Graham was quite
+unprepared to have her son get out and open the car door and say,
+"Mother, this is the place: may I help you out?"  She had been talking
+earnestly, and had thought he was getting out to look after something
+wrong about the car.  Now she looked up startled.
+
+"Why, Sidney!  Why, you must have made a mistake!  This isn't a house;
+it is a barn!"
+
+"This is the place, mother.  Just come right up this way."
+
+Mrs. Graham picked her way over the short green turf up to the door and
+stood astonished while her son knocked.  What in the world did he mean?
+Was this one of his jokes?  Had he brought her out to see a new
+riding-horse?  That must be it, of course.  He was always taking a
+fancy to a horse or a dog.  She really hadn't the time to spare for
+nonsense this afternoon, but one must humor one's son once in a while.
+She stepped back absent-mindedly, her eyes resting on the soft greens
+and purples of the foliage across the meadows, her thoughts on the next
+paper she intended to write for the club.  This incident would soon be
+over, and then she might pursue the even tenor of her busy way.
+
+Then the door slid back and she became aware of something unusual in
+the tenseness of the moment.  Looking up quickly she saw a beautiful
+girl of about Elizabeth's age, with a wealth of dark wavy hair, lovely
+dark eyes, and vivid coloring, and by her side one of the loveliest
+golden-haired, blue-eyed babies she had ever seen in her life.  In the
+wonder of the moment she forgot that the outside of the building had
+been a barn, for the curtain had risen on a new setting, and here on
+the very threshold there opened before her amazed eyes a charming,
+homelike room.
+
+At first she did not take in any of the details of furnishings.
+Everything was tastefully arranged, and the dull tones of wall and
+floor and ceiling in the late afternoon light mellowed the old
+furniture into its background so perfectly that the imperfections and
+make-shifts did not appear.  It was just a place of comfort and beauty,
+even though the details might show shabby poverty.
+
+But her son was speaking.
+
+"Mother, this is Miss Carol Hollister, and this little girl is her
+sister Doris----"
+
+Doris put out a fat hand and gravely laid it in the lady's kid glove,
+saying carefully, with shy lashes drooped sideways, and blue eyes
+furtively searching the stranger's face.
+
+"How oo do?"
+
+Then as if she had performed her duty, she turned on her smiles and
+dimples with a flash, and grasping Graham's hand said,
+
+"Now, Mistah Dwa'm, oo tum out an' see my wabbits!"
+
+It was evident to the mother that her son had been here before.  She
+looked at him for an explanation, but he only said to Carol,
+
+"Is your mother able to see callers for a few minutes?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Carol with a glad little ring in her voice.  "Mother is
+up in a chair this afternoon.  See!  The doctor says she may get up
+now, she is so much better!" and she turned and flung out her arm
+toward the big easy chair where her mother sat.
+
+Mrs. Hollister arose and came forward to meet them.
+
+She was dressed in a plain little gown of cheap gray challis, much
+washed and mended, but looking somehow very nice; and Carol had just
+finished fastening one of Shirley's sheer white fluffy collars around
+her neck, with a bit of a pink ribbon looped in a pretty knot.  Her
+hair was tastefully arranged, and she looked every inch a lady as she
+stood to receive her unexpected guests.  Graham had never seen her in
+any but invalid's garb before, and he stood amazed for a moment at the
+likeness between her and Shirley.  He introduced his mother with a few
+words, and then yielded to Doris's eager, pulling hand and went out to
+see the bunnies.
+
+The situation was a trifle trying for both ladies, but to the woman of
+the world perhaps the more embarrassing.  She hadn't a clew as to who
+this was she had been brought to see.  She was entirely used to
+dominating any situation, but for a moment she was almost confused.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, however, tactfully relieved the situation, with a
+gentle, "Won't you sit here by the fire?  It is getting a little cool
+this evening, don't you think?" and put her at once at her ease.  Only
+her family would have guessed from the soft pink spots in her cheeks
+that she was at all excited over her grand guest.  She took the
+initiative at once, leading the talk into natural channels, about the
+spring and its wonderful unfolding in the country, exhibited a vase
+with jack-in-the-pulpits, and a glass bowl of hepaticas blushing blue
+and pink, told of the thrush that had built a nest in the elm over the
+door, and pointed out the view over the valley where the sinking sun
+was flashing crimson from the weather-vane on the little white spire of
+the church.  She said how much they had enjoyed the sunsets since
+coming out here to live, taking it for granted that her visitor knew
+all about their circumstances, and making no apologies or comments; and
+the visitor, being what her son called "a good sport," showed no hint
+that she had never heard of the Hollisters before, but smiled and said
+the right thing at the right moment.  And somehow, neither knew just
+how, they got to the subject of Browning and Ibsen, and from there to
+woman's suffrage, and when Graham returned with Carol and Harley, Doris
+chattering beside him and the dog bounding in ahead, they were deep in
+future politics.  Graham sat and listened for a while, interested to
+note that the quiet little woman who had spent the last few years of
+her life working in a narrow dark city kitchen could talk as
+thoughtfully and sensibly as his cultured, versatile mother.
+
+The next trolley brought Shirley and George, and again the mother was
+amazed to find how altogether free and easy seemed to be the relation
+between all these young people.
+
+She gave a keen look at Shirley, and then another at her son, but saw
+nothing which gave her uneasiness.  The girl was unconscious as a rose,
+and sweet and gracious to the stranger guests as if she had been in
+society all her life.  She slipped away at once to remove her hat, and
+when she came back her hair was brushed, and she looked as fresh as a
+flower in her clean white ruffled blouse.  The older woman could not
+take her eyes from her face.  What a charming girl to be set among all
+this shabbiness!  For by this time her discriminating eyes had
+discovered that everything--literally _every_thing was shabby.  Who
+were these people, and how did they happen to get put here?  The baby
+was ravishingly beautiful, the girls were charming, and the boys looked
+like splendid, manly fellows.  The mother was a product of culture and
+refinement.  Not one word or action had shown that she knew her
+surroundings were shabby.  She might have been mistress of a palace for
+aught she showed of consciousness of the pitiful poverty about her.  It
+was as if she were just dropped down for the day in a stray barn and
+making a palace out of it while she stayed.
+
+Unconsciously the woman of the world lingered longer than was her wont
+in making calls.  She liked the atmosphere, and was strangely
+interested by them all.
+
+"I wish you would come and see me," she said cordially as she rose at
+last to go, and she said it as if she meant it,--as if she lived right
+around the corner and not twenty-two miles away,--as if she really
+wanted her to come, and not as if this other woman lived in a barn at
+all.
+
+"Good old sport!" commented her son in his heart as he listened.  He
+had known she must see their worth, and yet he had been strangely
+afraid.
+
+Mrs. Hollister received the invitation with a flush of pleasure.
+
+"Thank you," she answered graciously, "I'm afraid not.  I seldom go
+anywhere any more.  But I've been very glad to have had this call from
+you.  It will be a pleasure to think about.  Come sometime again when
+you are out this way.  Your son has been most kind.  I cannot find
+words to express my thanks."
+
+"Has he?" and his mother looked questioningly at her son.  "Well, I'm
+very glad----"
+
+"Yes, and Elizabeth!  She is a dear sweet girl, and we all love her!"
+
+Revelations!
+
+"Oh, has Elizabeth been here too?  Well, I'm glad.  I hope she has not
+been a nuisance.  She's such an impulsive, erratic child.  Elizabeth is
+quite a problem just now.  She's out of school on account of her eyes,
+and her girl friends, most of them, being away at school, she is
+perfectly forlorn.  I am delighted to have her with your children.  I
+am sure they are charming associates for her."  And her eyes rested
+approvingly on the sparkling Carol in her simple school dress of brown
+linen with its white collar and cuffs.  There was nothing countrified
+about Carol.  She looked dainty in the commonest raiment, and she
+smiled radiantly at Elizabeth's mother and won her heart.
+
+"Would you let Elizabeth stay overnight with us here sometime?" she
+asked shyly.
+
+"Why, surely!  I presume she would be delighted.  She does about as she
+pleases these days.  I really don't see very much of her, I'm so busy
+this time of year, just at the end of the season, you know, and lots of
+committee meetings and teas and things."
+
+They stopped at the doorway to look up into the big tree, in response
+to the earnest solicitations of Doris, who pulled at the lady's gloved
+hand insistently, murmuring sweetly:
+
+"Budie!  Budie!  See mine budie in the twee!"
+
+The Hollisters stood grouped at the doorway when at last the visitors
+got into their car and went away.  Mrs. Graham looked back at them
+wistfully.
+
+"What a lovely group they make!" she murmured.  "Now, Sidney, tell me
+at once who they are and why they live in a barn, and why you brought
+me out here.  I know you had some special object.  I knew the minute I
+saw that charming woman."
+
+"Mother, you certainly are great!  I thought you'd have the good sense
+to see what they are."
+
+"Why, I haven't spent a more delightful hour in a long time than I
+spent talking with her.  She has very original ideas, and she expresses
+herself well.  As for the children, they are lovely.  That oldest girl
+has a great deal of character in her face.  But what are they doing in
+a barn, Sidney, and how did you come to know them?"
+
+And so, as they speeded out the smooth turnpike to their lovely home
+Sidney Graham told his mother as much of the story of Shirley Hollister
+and the old barn as he thought she would care to know, and his mother
+sat thoughtfully watching his handsome, enthusiastic face while he
+talked, and wondering.
+
+One comment she made as they swept up the beautiful drive to their
+luxurious country home:
+
+"Sidney dear, they are delightful and all that, and I'm sure I'm glad
+to have that little girl come to see Elizabeth, but if I were you I
+wouldn't go out there too often when that handsome oldest girl is at
+home.  She's not exactly in your set, you know, charming as she is, and
+you wouldn't want to give her any ideas.  A gentleman looks out for
+things like that, you know."
+
+"What has being in our set got to do with it, mother dear?  Do you know
+any girl in our set that is better-looking or has nicer manners, or a
+finer appreciation of nature and books?  You ought to hear her talk!"
+
+"Yes, but, Sidney, that isn't everything!  She isn't exactly----"
+
+"Mother, were you and father, when you used to have good times
+together?  Now, mother, you know you are just talking twaddle when you
+let that idea about 'our set' rule your mind.  Be a good sport, mother
+dear, and look the facts in the face.  That girl is as good as any
+other girl I know, and you know it.  She's better than most.  Please
+admit the facts.  Yet you never warned me to be careful about calling
+on any of the girls in our set.  Do please be consistent.  However,
+don't worry about me.  I've no idea at present of paying any special
+attention to anybody," and he swung the car door and jumped down to
+help her out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A man arrived one morning with a horse and a plough and several other
+implements of farm life of which Harley didn't know the name, and
+announced that Mr. Graham had sent him to plough the garden.  Would
+Mrs. Hollister please tell him where she wanted the ground broken, and
+how much?  He volunteered the information that he was her next
+neighbor, and that if he was in her place he'd plough the south slope
+of the meadow, and if she wanted flower-beds a strip along the front
+near the road; the soil was best in those spots, and she wouldn't need
+so much fertilizer.
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to do it, and he said
+a little job like that wasn't worth talking about; that he used to rent
+the barn himself, and he always did a little turn for Mr. Graham
+whenever he needed it.  He did it for Mr. Graham, and it wouldn't cost
+her "nothin'."
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to see where it would
+be best to have the ploughing done, and when she came in a few minutes
+later and dropped down on the couch to rest from her unusual fatigue a
+new thought was racing through her mind.  They could have a garden, a
+real garden, with lettuce and green peas and lima beans and corn!  She
+knew all about making them grow.  She had been brought up in a little
+village home, where a garden was a part of every one's necessary
+equipment for living.  She used to kelp her father every spring and all
+summer.  Her own little patch always took the prize of the family.  But
+for years she had been in the city without an inch of space.  Now,
+however, the old fever of delight in gardening took possession of her.
+If she could get out and work in the ground, as the doctor had
+suggested, she would get well right away.  And why, with Harley to
+help, and George and Carol to work a little every evening, couldn't
+they raise enough on all that ground to sell some?  George could take
+things into town early in the morning, or they could find some private
+families who would buy all they had to sell.  It was worth thinking
+about, anyway.  She could raise flowers for sale, too.  She had always
+been a success with flowers.  She had always wanted a hothouse and a
+chance to experiment.  She heard the children say there were some old
+window-sashes down under the barn.  She would get George to bring them
+out, and see what she could do with a coldframe or two.  Violets would
+grow under a coldframe, and a lot of other things.  Oh, if they could
+only just live here always, and not have to go back to the city in the
+fall!  But of course there was no way to heat the barn in winter, and
+that was out of the question.  Nevertheless, the idea of making some
+money with growing things had seized hold of her mind and would not be
+entirely put by.  She thought of it much, and talked of it now and then
+to Shirley and the other children.
+
+Shirley brought home some packages of seeds she got at the ten-cent
+store, and there was great excitement planting them.  Then Mr. Graham
+sent over a lot of seeds, of both vegetables and flowers, and some
+shrubs, cuttings and bulbs which he said were "left-overs" at their
+country house that he thought perhaps the children could use; and so
+before the Hollisters knew it they were possessed of a garden, which
+almost in a breath lifted up its green head and began to grow.
+
+Life was very full for the Hollisters in those days, and those who went
+to the city for the day could hardly bear to tear themselves away from
+the many delights of the country.  The puppy was getting bigger and
+wiser every day, tagging Doris and Harley wherever they went, or
+sitting adoringly at Mrs. Hollister's feet; always bounding out to meet
+the evening trolley on which George and Shirley came, and always
+attending them to the trolley in the morning.
+
+Out behind the barn a tiny coop held a white hen and her seven little
+downy balls of chickens.  Another hen was happily ensconced in a barrel
+of hay with ten big blue duck-eggs under her happy wings, and a little
+further down toward the creek a fine chicken-run ended in a trig little
+roosting-place for the poultry, which George had manufactured out of a
+packing-box and some boards.  The feathered family had been increased
+by two white Leghorns and three bantams.  George and Harley spent their
+evenings watching them and discussing the price of eggs and chickens
+per pound.  They were all very happy.
+
+Elizabeth came out to spend Sunday as she had promised.  She got up
+early to see the sun rise and watch the birds.  She helped get
+breakfast and wash the dishes.  Then she went with the others across
+the fields to the little white church in the valley to Sunday-school
+and church.  She was as hungry and eager as any of them when she came
+home, and joyfully helped to do the work, taking great pride in the
+potatoes she was allowed to warm up under careful tutelage.  In the
+afternoon there was no more eager listener among them to the Bible
+story Shirley told to Doris and the book she read aloud to them all
+afterward; her voice was sweetest and clearest of them all in the hymns
+they sang together; and she was most eager to go with Shirley to the
+Christian Endeavor service.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if Sidney wishes he was here too," she remarked
+dreamily that evening, as she sat before the fire on a little cushion,
+her chin in her hands, her eyes on the fantastic shadows in the ashes.
+
+She went to school with Carol the next morning, came home with her in
+the afternoon, and when her brother came for her in the evening she was
+most reluctant to go home to the big, lonely, elegant house again, and
+begged that Carol might soon come and see her.
+
+Friday afternoon Elizabeth called up Mrs. Hollister.
+
+"Please, Mrs. Hollister, let Carol come and stay with me till Monday.
+I'm so lonesome, and mamma says she will be so glad if you will let her
+come."
+
+"Oh, my dear, that would be impossible.  Carol isn't suitably dressed
+to make a visit, you know," answered the mother quickly, glad that she
+had so good an excuse for keeping her child from this venture into an
+alien world about which she had many grave doubts.
+
+But the young voice at the other end of the telephone was insistent.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Hollister, please!  She doesn't need any other clothes.
+I've got lots of things that would fit her.  She loaned me her gingham
+dress to make garden in, and why shouldn't I loan her a dress to wear
+on Sunday?  I've got plenty of clean middy blouses and skirts and can
+fix her all out fresh for school, too, Monday morning, and if you'll
+just let her stay Sidney will take us both down to her school when he
+goes to the office.  You've got all those children there at home, and
+I've only myself.  Sidney doesn't count, you know, for he's grown up."
+
+So, with a sigh, the mother gave her consent, and Carol found the
+Graham car waiting for her when she came out of school.  Thus she
+started on her first venture into the world.
+
+It was all like fairy-land that wonderful week-end to the little girl
+whose memories were full of burdens and sacrifices: the palatial home
+of many rooms and rich furnishings, the swarm of servants, the
+anticipation of every want, the wide, beautiful grounds with all that
+heart could wish in the way of beauty and amusement, the music-room
+with grand piano, harp, and violin lying mute most of the time, the
+great library with its walls lined with rare books, mostly unread.
+Everything there to satisfy any whim, reasonable or unreasonable, and
+nobody using any of it much.
+
+"Not a room in the whole place as dear and cozy and homey as this!"
+sighed Carol happily, sinking into the old denim-covered couch before
+the fireplace in the barn-living-room that Monday night after she got
+home.  "I declare, mother, I don't see how Elizabeth stands it.  Her
+mother is nice, but she's hardly ever there, unless she has a swarm of
+people dinnering or teaing or lunching.  She hardly ever has time to
+speak to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth doesn't seem to care much, either.
+She almost seems to think more of that old nurse Susan that took care
+of her when she was a baby than she does of her mother.  I'm so glad I
+was sent to you instead of to her!"  And Carol suddenly slipped across
+the room and buried her face in her mother's neck, hugging and kissing
+her, leaving a few bright tears on her mother's happy face.
+
+It was a wonderful relief to Mrs. Hollister to find her child unspoiled
+by her first experience of the world and glad to get back to her home,
+after all the anxiety her mother heart had felt.  Carol presently sat
+up and told them minutely all about her visit.  The grand concert that
+Sidney had taken them to Friday evening in the Academy of Music, where
+a world-renowned pianist was the soloist with the great symphony
+orchestra; the tennis and riding Saturday morning; the luncheon at a
+neighboring estate, where there were three girls and a brother who were
+"snobs" and hadn't at all good manners; the party in the evening that
+lasted so late that they didn't get to bed till long after midnight;
+the beautiful room they slept in, with every imaginable article for the
+toilet done in sterling silver with monograms; the strange Sabbath,
+with no service in the morning because they woke up too late, and no
+suggestion of anything but a holiday,--except the vesper service in a
+cold, formal chapel that Carol had begged to go to; just a lot of
+worldly music and entertaining, with a multitude of visitors for the
+end of it.  Carol told of the beautiful dresses that Elizabeth had
+loaned her, coral crêpe de chine accordion-plaited for the concert,
+white with an orange sash for the luncheon, pale yellow with a black
+velvet girdle for the party, a little blue silk affair and another
+lovely white organdie for Sunday, and all with their accompanying silk
+stockings and slippers and gloves, and necklaces and bands for her
+hair.  It was most wonderful to her, and as they listened they
+marvelled that their Carol had come back to them so gladly, and
+rejoiced to see her nestling in her brown linen skirt and middy blouse
+close beside her mother's chair.  She declared herself satisfied with
+her flight into the world.  She might like to go again for a glimpse
+now and then, but she thought she would rather have Elizabeth out to
+Glenside.  She hated to lose any of the time out here, it was so
+pretty.  Besides, it was lonesome without them all.
+
+About that time Shirley picked up the morning paper in her office one
+day to look up a matter for Mr. Barnard.  Her eye happened to fall on
+the society column and catch the name of Sidney Graham.  She glanced
+down the column.  It was an account of a wedding in high circles in
+which Graham had taken the part of best man, with Miss Harriet Hale--in
+blue tulle and white orchids as maid of honor--for his partner down the
+aisle.  She read the column hurriedly, hungrily, getting every detail,
+white spats, gardenia, and all, until in those few printed sentences a
+picture was printed indelibly upon her vision, of Graham walking down
+the lily-garlanded aisle with the maid in blue tulle and white orchids
+on his arm.  To make it more vivid the lady's picture was in the paper
+along with Graham's, just under those of the bride and groom, and her
+face was both handsome and haughty.  One could tell that by the tilt of
+chin, the short upper lip, the cynical curve of mouth and sweep of long
+eyelash, the extreme effect of her dress and the arrangement of her
+hair.  Only a beauty could have stood that hair and not been positively
+ugly.
+
+Shirley suddenly realized what she was doing and turned over the page
+of the paper with a jerk that tore the sheet from top to bottom, going
+on with her search for the real-estate column and the item she was
+after.  All that morning her typewriter keys clicked with mad rapidity,
+yet her work was strangely correct and perfect.  She was working under
+a tense strain.
+
+By noon she had herself in hand, realized what she had been doing with
+her vagrant thoughts, and was able to laugh at Miss Harriet
+Hale--whoever or whatever she was.  What mattered it, Miss Harriet Hale
+or somebody else?  What was that to Shirley Hollister?  Mr. Graham was
+her landlord and a kindly gentleman.  He would probably continue to be
+that to her to the end of her tenancy, without regard to Miss Hale or
+any other intruding Miss, and what did anything else matter?  She
+wanted nothing else of Mr. Graham but to be a kindly gentleman whenever
+it was her necessity to come in his way.
+
+But although her philosophy was on hand and her pride was aroused, she
+realized just where her heart might have been tending if it had not
+been for this little jolt it got; and she resolved to keep out of the
+gentleman's way whenever it was possible, and also, as far as she was
+able, to think no more about him.
+
+Keeping out of Sidney Graham's way was one thing, but making him keep
+out of her way was quite another matter, and Shirley realized it every
+time he came out to Glenside, which he did quite frequently.  She could
+not say to him that she wished he would not come.  She could not be
+rude to him when he came.  There was no way of showing him pointedly
+that she was not thinking of him in any way but as her landlord,
+because he never showed in any way that he was expecting her to.  He
+just happened in evening after evening, in his frank, jolly way, on one
+pretext or other, never staying very long, never showing her any more
+attention than he did her mother or Carol or the boys, not so much as
+he did to Doris.  How was she to do anything but sit quietly and take
+the whole thing as a matter of course?  It really was a matter to deal
+with in her own heart alone.  And there the battle must be fought if
+ever battle there was to be.  Meantime, she could not but own that this
+frank, smiling, merry young man did bring a lot of life and pleasure
+into their lives, dropping in that way, and why should she not enjoy it
+when it came, seeing it in no wise interfered with Miss Harriet Hale's
+rights and prerogatives?  Nevertheless, Shirley withdrew more and more
+into quietness whenever he came, and often slipped into the kitchen on
+some household pretext, until one day he boldly came out into the
+kitchen after her with a book he wanted her to read, and was so frank
+and companionable that she led the way back to the living-room, and
+concluded it would be better in future to stay with the rest of the
+family.
+
+Shirley had no intention whatever of letting her heart stray out after
+any impossible society man.  She had her work in the world, and to it
+she meant to stick.  If there were dreams she kept them well under lock
+and key, and only took them out now and then at night when she was very
+tired and discouraged and life looked hard and long and lonely on
+ahead.  Shirley had no intention that Sidney Graham should ever have
+reason to think, when he married Miss Harriet Hale or some one
+equivalent to her, that any poor little stenographer living in a barn
+had at one time fancied him fond of her.  No, indeed!  Shirley tilted
+her firm little chin at the thought, and declined to ride with Graham
+and Elizabeth the next time they called at the office for her, on the
+plea that she had promised to go home in the trolley with one of the
+office girls.  And yet the next time she saw him he was just as
+pleasant, and showed no sign that she had declined his invitation.  In
+fact, the whole basis of their acquaintance was such that she felt free
+to go her own way and yet know he would be just as pleasant a friend
+whenever she needed one.
+
+Matters stood in this way when Graham was suddenly obliged to go West
+on a trip for the office, to be gone three or four weeks.  Mrs. Graham
+and Elizabeth went to the Adirondacks for a short trip, and the people
+at Glenside settled down to quiet country life, broken only by a few
+visits from their farm neighbors, and a call from the cheery, shabby
+pastor of the little white church in the valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Graham did not seem to forget his friends entirely while he was gone.
+The boys received a number of post-cards from time to time, and a lot
+of fine views of California, Yellowstone Park, the Grand Cañon, and
+other spots of interest.  A wonderful picture-book came for Doris, with
+Chinese pictures, and rhymes printed on crêpe paper.  The next morning
+a tiny sandalwood fan arrived for Carol with Graham's compliments, and
+a few days later a big box of oranges for Mrs. Hollister with no clew
+whatever as to their sender.  Shirley began to wonder what her part
+would be and what she should do about it, and presently received--a
+letter!  And then, after all, it was only a pleasant request that she
+would not pay the rent, about which she had always been so punctual,
+until his return, as no one else understood about his affairs.  He
+added a few words about his pleasant trip and a wish that they were all
+prospering,--and that was all.
+
+Shirley was disappointed, of course, and yet, if he had said more, or
+if he had ventured to send her even a mere trifle of a gift, it would
+have made her uncomfortable and set her questioning how she should
+treat him and it.  It was the perfection of his behavior that he had
+not overstepped a single bound that the most particular might set for a
+landlord and his respected tenant.  She drew a deep sigh and put the
+letter back into the envelope, and as she did so she spied a small
+card, smaller than the envelope, on which was an exquisite bit of
+scenery, a colored photograph, apparently, and underneath had been
+pencilled, "One of the many beautiful spots in California that I am
+sure you would appreciate."
+
+Her heart gave an unforbidden leap, and was promptly taken to task for
+it.  Yet when Shirley went back to her typewriter the bit of a picture
+was pinned to the wall back of her desk, and her eyes rested on it many
+times that day when she lifted them from her work.  It is questionable
+whether Shirley remembered Miss Harriet Hale at all that day.
+
+The garden was growing beautifully now.  There would soon be lettuce
+and radishes ready to eat.  George had secured a number of customers
+through people at the store, and was planning to take early trips to
+town, when his produce was ripe, to deliver it.  They watched every
+night and looked again every morning for signs of the first pea
+blossoms, and the little green spires of onion tops, like sparse hairs,
+beginning to shoot up.  Every day brought some new wonder.  They almost
+forgot they had ever lived in the little old brick house, until George
+rode by there on his bicycle one noon and reported that it had been
+half pulled down, and you could now see the outline of where the stairs
+and closets had been, done in plaster, on the side of the next house.
+They were all very silent for a minute thinking after he told that, and
+Mrs. Hollister looked around the great airy place in which they were
+sitting, and then out the open door where the faint stain of sunset was
+still lingering against the horizon, and said:
+
+"We ought all to be very thankful, children.  George, get the Bible and
+read the thirty-fourth psalm."  Wonderingly George obeyed, and they all
+sat listening as the words sank into their souls.
+
+"Now," said the mother when the psalm was finished and those last
+words, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them
+that trust in him shall be desolate"; "now let us kneel down and thank
+Him."
+
+And they all knelt while she prayed a few earnest, simple words of
+thanksgiving and commended them to God's keeping.
+
+By this time Mrs. Hollister was so well that she went every day for a
+little while into the garden and worked, and was able to do a great
+deal in the house.  The children were overjoyed, and lived in a
+continual trance of delight over the wild, free life they were living.
+Carol's school had closed and Carol was at home all day.  This made one
+more to help in the garden.  George was talking about building a little
+pigeon-house and raising squabs for sale.  The man who did the
+ploughing had given him a couple to start with and told him there was
+money in squabs if one only went about it right.  George and Harley
+pored over a book that told all about it, and talked much on the
+subject.
+
+The weather was growing warm, and Shirley was wishing her vacation came
+in July or August instead of the first two weeks in September.  Somehow
+she felt so used up these hot days, and the hours dragged by so slowly.
+At night the trolleys were crowded until they were half-way out to
+Glenside.  She often had to stand, and her head ached a great deal.
+Yet she was very happy and thankful--only there was so much to be done
+in this world, and she seemed to have so little strength to do it all.
+The burden of next fall came occasionally to mar the beauty of the
+summer, and rested heavily upon her young shoulders.  If only there
+wouldn't be any winter for just one year, and they could stay in the
+barn and get rested and get a little money ahead somehow for moving.
+It was going to be so hard to leave that wide, beautiful abiding-place,
+barn though it was.
+
+One morning nearly four weeks after Graham left for California Shirley
+was called from her desk to the outer office to take some dictation for
+Mr. Clegg.  While she was there two men entered the outer office and
+asked for Mr. Barnard.  One of them was a short, thick-set man with a
+pretentious wide gray mustache parted in the middle and combed
+elaborately out on his cheeks.  He had a red face, little cunning eyes,
+and a cruel set to his jaw, which somehow seemed ridiculously at
+variance with his loud, checked suit, sporty necktie of soft bright
+blue satin, set with a scarf-pin of two magnificent stones, a diamond
+and a sapphire, and with the three showy jewelled rings which he wore
+on his fat, pudgy hand.  The other man was sly, quiet, gray,
+unobtrusive, obviously the henchman of the first.
+
+Mr. Clegg told the men they might go into the inner office and wait for
+Mr. Barnard, who would probably be in shortly, and Shirley watched them
+as they passed out of her view, wondering idly why those exquisite
+stones had to be wasted in such an out-of-place spot as in that
+coarse-looking man's necktie, and if a man like that really cared for
+beautiful things, else why should he wear them?  It was only a passing
+thought, and then she took up her pencil and took down the closing
+sentences of the letter Mr. Clegg was dictating.  It was but a moment
+more and she was free to go back to her own little alcove just behind
+Mr. Barnard's office and connecting with it.  There was an entrance to
+it from the tiny cloak-room, which she always used when Mr. Barnard had
+visitors in his office, and through this way she now went, having a
+strange repugnance toward being seen by the two men.  She had an innate
+sense that the man with the gaudy garments would not be one who would
+treat a young girl in her position with any respect, and she did not
+care to come under his coarse gaze, so she slipped in quietly through
+the cloak-room, and passed like a shadow the open door into Mr.
+Barnard's office, where they sat with their backs toward her, having
+evidently just settled down and begun to talk.  She could hear a
+low-breathed comment on the furnishings of the office as indicating a
+good bank-account of the owner, and a coarse jest about a photograph of
+Mr. Barnard's wife which stood on his desk.  It made her wish that the
+door between the rooms was closed; yet she did not care to rise and
+close it lest she should call attention to herself, and of course it
+might be but a minute or two before Mr. Barnard returned.  A pile of
+envelopes to be addressed lay on her desk, and this work she could do
+without any noise, so she slipped softly into her seat and began to
+work.
+
+"Well, we got them Grahams good and fast now!" a coarse voice, that she
+knew for that of the man with the loud clothing, spoke.  "The young
+feller bit all right!  I thought he would.  He's that kind."  He
+stopped for a laugh of contempt, and Shirley's heart stood still with
+apprehension.  What could it mean?  Was it something about her Grahams?
+Some danger threatening them?  Some game being played on them?  He
+looked like the kind of man who lived on the blindnesses of others.
+What was it they called such?  A parasite?  Instinctively she was on
+the alert at once, and automatically she reached for the pad on which
+she took dictation and began to write down in shorthand what she had
+just heard.  The voice in the other room went on and her fountain pen
+kept eager pace, her breath coming quick and short now, and her face
+white with excitement.
+
+"He went out to see the place, you know, examine the mines and all
+that.  Oh, he's awful cautious!  Thought he took a government expert
+with him to test the ore.  We fixed that up all right--had the very man
+on tap at the right minute, government papers all O.K.--you couldn't
+have told 'em from the real thing.  It was Casey; you know him; he's a
+crackerjack on a job like that,--could fool the devil himself.  Well,
+he swore it was the finest kind of ore and all that kind of dope, and
+led that Graham kid around as sweetly as a blue-eyed baby.  We had a
+gang out there all bribed, you know, to swear to things, and took
+particular pains so Graham would go around and ask the right ones
+questions,--Casey tended to that,--and now he's come home with the
+biggest kind of a tale and ready to boost the thing to the skies.  I've
+got his word for it, and his daddy is to sign the papers this morning.
+When he wakes up one of these fine days he'll find himself minus a
+hundred thousand or so, and nobody to blame for it, because how could
+anybody be expected to know that those are only pockets?  He'll
+recommend it right and left too, and we'll clean out a lot of other
+fellers before we get done.  Teddy, my boy, pat yourself on the back!
+We'll have a tidy little sum between us when we pull out of this deal,
+and take a foreign trip for our health till the fracas blows over.  Now
+mind you, not a word of this to Barnard when he comes in.  We're only
+going to pave the way this morning.  The real tip comes from Graham
+himself.  See?"
+
+Shirley was faint and dizzy with excitement as she finished writing,
+and her brain was in a whirl.  She felt as if she would scream in a
+minute if this strain kept up.  The papers were to be signed that
+morning!  Even now the deed might be done and it would be too late,
+perhaps, to stop it.  And yet she must make no sign, must not have the
+men know that she was there and that they had been heard.  She must sit
+here breathless until they were gone, so they would not know she had
+overheard them, or they might manage to prevent her getting word to
+Graham.  How long would they stay?  Would they talk on and reveal more?
+The other man had only grunted something unintelligible in reply, and
+then before more could be said an office boy opened the outer door and
+told them that Mr. Barnard had just phoned that he would not be back
+before two o'clock.
+
+The men swore and went out grumbling.  Suddenly Shirley knew her time
+had come to do something.  Stepping quickly to the door she scanned the
+room carefully to make sure they were gone, then closing her own door
+she took up the telephone on her desk and called up the Graham number.
+She did not know just what she meant to say, nor what she would do if
+Sidney Graham were not in the office,--and it was hardly probable he
+would be there yet if he had only arrived home the day before.  He
+would be likely to take a day off before getting back to work.  Her
+throbbing heart beat out these questions to her brain while she waited
+for the number.  Would she dare to ask for Mr. Walter Graham?  And if
+she did, what would she say to him?  How explain?  He did not know her,
+and probably never heard of her.  He might think her crazy.  Then there
+was always the possibility that there was some mistake--and yet it
+seemed a coincidence that two men of the same name should both be going
+West at that time.  It must be these Grahams that the plot was against.
+But how explain enough over the phone to do any good?  Of course she
+must give them a copy of what she had taken down in shorthand, but
+first she must stop the signing of those papers, whatever they were, at
+all costs.
+
+Then all at once, into the midst of her whirling confusion of thoughts,
+came a voice at the other end of the phone, "Hello!" and her frantic
+senses realized that it was a familiar one.
+
+"Oh, is this,--this _is_ Mr. Sidney Graham, isn't it?  This is Shirley
+Hollister."
+
+There was a catch in her voice that sounded almost like a sob as she
+drew in her breath with relief to know that he was there, and his
+answer came in swift alarm:
+
+"Yes?  Is there anything the matter, Miss Shirley?  You are not ill,
+are you?"
+
+There was a sharp note of anxiety in the young man's voice, and even in
+her excitement it made Shirley's heart leap to hear it.
+
+"No, there is nothing the matter with me," she said, trying to steady
+her voice, "but something has happened that I think you ought to know
+at _once_.  I don't know whether I ought to tell it over the phone.
+I'm not sure but I may be overheard."
+
+"I will come to you immediately.  Where can I find you?"
+
+Her heart leaped again at his willingness to trust her and to obey her
+call.
+
+"In Mr. Barnard's private office.  If you ask for me they will let you
+come right in.  There is one thing more.  If there is anything
+important your father was to decide this morning, could you get him to
+wait till you return, or till you phone him?"
+
+There was a second's hesitation, and the reply was politely puzzled but
+courteous:
+
+"He is not in the office at present and will not be for an hour."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!  Then _please hurry_!"
+
+"I will get there as soon as I can," and the phone clicked into place.
+
+Shirley sat back in her chair and pressed her hands over her eyes to
+concentrate all her powers.  Then she turned to her typewriter and
+began to copy off the shorthand, her fingers flying over the keys with
+more than their usual swiftness.  As she wrote she prayed, prayed that
+nothing might have been signed, and that her warning might not come too
+late; prayed, too, that Mr. Barnard might not return until Mr. Graham
+had been and gone, and that Mr. Graham might not think her an utter
+fool in case this proved to have nothing whatever to do with his
+affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+When Graham entered the office Shirley came to meet him quietly,
+without a word of greeting other than to put her little cold hand into
+his that he held out to her.  She began to speak in a low voice full of
+suppressed excitement.  She had a vague fear lest the two men might be
+still lingering about the outer office, waiting for Mr. Barnard, and a
+momentary dread lest Mr. Barnard might enter the room at any minute.
+She must get the telling over before he came.
+
+"Mr. Graham, two men were sitting in this room waiting for Mr. Barnard
+a few minutes ago, and I was in my little room just back there.  I
+could not help hearing what they said, and when I caught the name of
+Graham in connection with what sounded like an evil plot I took down
+their words in shorthand.  It may not have anything to do with your
+firm, but I thought I ought to let you know.  I called you on the phone
+as soon as they left the office and would not hear me, and I have made
+this copy of their conversation.  Read it quickly, please, because if
+it does have anything to do with you, you will want to phone your
+father at once, before those men can get there."
+
+Her tone was very cool, and her hand was steady as she handed him the
+typewritten paper, but her heart was beating mildly, because there had
+been a look in his eyes as he greeted her that made her feel that he
+was glad to see her, and it touched an answering gladness in her heart
+and filled her both with delight and with apprehension.  What a fool
+she was!
+
+She turned sharply away and busied herself with arranging some papers
+on Mr. Barnard's desk while he read.  She must still this excitement
+and get control of herself before he was through.  She _must_ be the
+cool, impersonal stenographer, and not let him suspect for a moment
+that she was so excited about seeing him again.
+
+The young man stood still, reading rapidly, his face growing graver as
+he read.  The girl snatched a furtive glance at him, and felt convinced
+that the matter was a serious one and had to do with him.
+
+Suddenly he looked up.
+
+"Do you know who those men were, Miss Shirley?" he asked, and she saw
+his eyes were full of anxiety.
+
+"No," said Shirley.  "But I saw them as they passed through the outer
+office, and stopped to speak to Mr. Clegg.  I was taking dictation from
+Mr. Clegg at the time.  I came back to my desk through the cloak-room,
+so they did not know I was within hearing."
+
+"What kind of looking men were they?  Do you remember?"
+
+She described them.
+
+Certainty grew in his face as she talked, and grave concern.
+
+"May I use your phone a minute?" he asked after an instant's thought.
+
+She led him to her own desk and handed him the receiver, then stepped
+back into the office and waited.
+
+"Hello!  Is that you, Edward?" she heard him say.  "Has father come
+yet?  Give me his phone, please.  Hello, father; this is Sidney.
+Father, has Kremnitz come in yet?  He has?  You say he's waiting in the
+office to see you?  Well, don't see him, father, till I get there.
+Something has turned up that I'm afraid is going to alter matters
+entirely.  Yes, pretty serious, I'm afraid.  Don't see him.  Keep him
+waiting.  I'll be there in five minutes, and come in from the back way
+directly to your office.  Don't talk with him on any account till I can
+get there.  Good-by."
+
+He hung up the receiver and turned to Shirley.
+
+"Miss Shirley, you were just in time to save us.  I haven't time now to
+tell you how grateful I am for this.  I must hurry right over.  Do you
+suppose if we should need you it would be possible for you to come over
+and identify those men?  Thank you.  I'll speak to Mr. Clegg about it
+as I go out, and if we find it necessary we'll phone you.  In case you
+have to come I'll have an office-boy in the hall to take your hat, and
+you can come right into the office as if you were one of our
+employees--just walk over to the bookcase as if you were looking for a
+book--any book.  Select one and look through it, meanwhile glancing
+around the room, and see if you find those men.  Then walk through into
+my office.  I'll be waiting there.  Good-by, and thank you so much!"
+
+He gave her hand one quick clasp and was gone, and Shirley found she
+was trembling from head to foot.  She walked quickly into her own room
+and sat down, burying her face in her hands and trying to get control
+of herself, but the tears would come to her eyes in spite of all she
+could do.  It was not the excitement of getting the men and stopping
+their evil plans before they could do any damage, although that had
+something to do with her nervous state, of course; and it was not just
+that she had been able to do a little thing in return for all he had
+done for her; nor even his gratitude; it was--she could not deny it to
+herself--it was a certain quality in his voice, a something in the look
+he gave her, that made her whole soul glow, and seemed to fill the
+hungry longing that had been in her heart.
+
+It frightened her and made her ashamed, and as she sat with bowed head
+she prayed that she might be given strength to act like a sensible
+girl, and crush out such foolish thoughts before they dared lift their
+heads and be recognized even by her own heart.  Then strengthened, she
+resolved to think no more about the matter, but just get her work done
+and be ready to enter into that other business if it became necessary.
+Mr. Barnard would be coming soon, and she must have his work finished.
+She had lost almost an hour by this matter.
+
+She went at her typewriter pell-mell, and soon had Mr. Clegg's letters
+done.  She was nearly through with the addressing that Mr. Barnard left
+for her to do when the telephone called her to Graham's office.
+
+She slipped on her hat and hurried out.
+
+"Will it be all right for me to take my noontime now, Mr. Clegg?" she
+said, stopping by his desk.  "Mr. Graham said he spoke to you."
+
+"Yes, he wants you to help him identify some one.  That's all right.
+I'll explain to Mr. Barnard when he comes.  There's nothing important
+you have to finish, is there?  All done but those envelopes?  Well, you
+needn't return until one o'clock, anyway.  The envelopes can wait till
+the four-o'clock mail, and if Mr. Barnard needs anything in a hurry
+Miss Dwight can attend to it this time.  Just take your time, Miss
+Hollister."
+
+Shirley went out bewildered by the unusual generosity of Mr. Clegg, who
+was usually taciturn and abrupt.  She realized, however, that his
+warmth must be due to Graham's visit, and not to any special desire to
+give her a holiday.  She smiled to think what a difference wealth and
+position made in the eyes of the world.
+
+The same office-boy she had met on her first visit to Graham's office
+was waiting most respectfully for her now in the hall when she got out
+of the elevator, and she gave him her hat and walked into the office
+according to programme, going straight to the big glass bookcase full
+of calf-bound volumes, and selecting one after running her finger over
+two rows of them.  She was as cool as though her part had been
+rehearsed many times, although her heart was pounding most
+unmercifully, and it seemed as though the people in the next room must
+hear it.  She stood and opened her book, casting a casual glance about
+the room.
+
+There, sure enough, quite near to her, sat the two men, fairly bursting
+with impatience.  The once immaculate hair of the loudly dressed one
+was rumpled as if he had run his fingers through it many times, and he
+played nervously with his heavy rings, and caressed half viciously his
+elaborate mustache, working his thick, sensuous lips impatiently all
+the while.  Shirley took a good look at him, necktie, scarf-pin, and
+all; looked keenly into the face of the gray one also; then coolly
+closed the door of the bookcase and carried the book she had selected
+into Sidney Graham's office.
+
+Graham was there, standing to receive her, and just back of him stood a
+kindly-faced elderly man with merry blue eyes, gray hair, and a
+stylishly cut beard.  By their attitude and manner Shirley somehow
+sensed that they had both been watching her.  Then Graham introduced
+her.
+
+"This is my father, Miss Hollister."
+
+The elder man took her hand and shook it heartily, speaking in a gruff,
+hearty way that won her from the first:
+
+"I'm glad to know you, Miss Hollister.  I certainly am!  My son has
+been telling me what you've done for us, and I think you're a great
+little girl!  That was bully work you did, and I appreciate it.  I was
+watching you out there in the office.  You were as cool as a cucumber.
+You ought to be a detective.  You found your men all right, did you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Shirley, much abashed, and feeling the return of that
+foolish trembling in her limbs.  "Yes, they are both out there, and the
+short one with the rings and the blue necktie is the one that did the
+talking."
+
+"Exactly what I thought," drawled the father, with a keen twinkle in
+his kindly eyes.  "I couldn't somehow trust that chap from the start.
+That's why I sent my son out to investigate.  Well, now, will you just
+step into my private office, Miss Hollister, and take your seat by the
+typewriter as if you were my stenographer?  You'll find paper there in
+the drawer, and you can just be writing--write anything, you choose, so
+it looks natural when the men come in.  When we get to talking I'd like
+you to take down in shorthand all that is said by all of us.  You're
+pretty good at that, I judge.  Sid, will you phone for those officers
+now?  I think it's about time for the curtain to rise."  And he led the
+way into his own office.
+
+Shirley sat down at the typewriter as she had been directed and began
+to write mechanically.  Mr. Graham touched the bell on his desk, and
+told the office boy who answered to send in Mr. Kremnitz and his
+companion.
+
+Shirley was so seated that she could get occasional glimpses of the men
+without being noticed, and she was especially interested in the twinkle
+that shone in the bright blue eyes of the elder Graham as he surveyed
+the men who thought he was their dupe.  Her heart warmed to him.  His
+kindly, merry face, his hearty, unconventional speech, all showed him
+to be a big, warm-hearted man without a bit of snobbishness about him.
+
+The son came in, and talk began just as if the matter of the mine were
+going on.  Mr. Kremnitz produced some papers which he evidently
+expected to be signed at once, and sat complacently answering
+questions; keen questions Shirley saw they were afterwards, and in the
+light of the revelation she had overheard in Mr. Barnard's office
+Kremnitz perjured himself hopelessly by his answers.  Presently the
+office-boy announced the arrival of some one in the next room.  Shirley
+had taken down minutely a great deal of valuable information which the
+Grahams had together drawn from their victim.  She was surprised at the
+list of wealthy business men who were to have been involved in the
+scheme.
+
+Then suddenly the quiet scene changed.  The elder Graham gave a signal
+to his office-boy, which looked merely like waving him away, and the
+door was flung open, revealing four officers of the law, who stepped
+into the room without further word.  Graham arose and faced his two
+startled callers, his hand firmly planted on the papers on his desk
+which he had been supposed to sign.
+
+"Mr. Kremnitz," he said, and even in the midst of this serious business
+Shirley fancied there was a half-comic drawl to his words.  He simply
+could not help letting his sense of humor come on top.  "Mr. Kremnitz,
+it is not going to be possible for me to sign these papers this
+morning, as you expected.  I do not feel satisfied that all things are
+as you have represented.  In fact, I have the best evidence to the
+contrary.  Officer, these are the gentlemen you have come to arrest,"
+and he stepped back and waved his hand toward the two conspirators, who
+sat with startled eyes and blanched faces, appalled at the sudden
+developments where they had thought all was moving happily toward their
+desired end.
+
+"Arrest!  Who?  On what charge?" flashed the little gaudy Kremnitz,
+angrily springing to his feet and making a dash toward the door, while
+his companion slid furtively toward the other end of the room,
+evidently hoping to gain young Graham's office before he was noticed.
+But two officers blocked their way and the handcuffs clanked in the
+hands of the other two policemen.
+
+"Why, arrest _you_, my friend," said Graham senior, as if he rather
+enjoyed the little man's discomfiture.  "And for trying to perpetrate
+the biggest swindle that has been attempted for ten years.  I must say
+for you that you've worked hard, and done the trick rather neatly, but
+you made one unfortunate slip that saved all us poor rich men.  It
+seems a pity that so much elaborate lying should have brought you two
+nothing but those bracelets you're wearing,--they don't seem to match
+well with your other jewels,--but that's the way things go in this
+world.  Now, take them away, officer.  I've no more time to waste on
+them this morning!" and he turned and walked over by Shirley's desk,
+while the curtain fell over the brief drama.
+
+"Do you know how much money you've saved for us, little girl,--just
+plain _saved_?  I'll tell you.  A clean hundred thousand!  That's what
+I was going to put into this affair!  And as for other men, I expected
+to influence a lot of other men to put in a good deal also.  Now,
+little girl, I don't know what you think about it, but I want to shake
+hands."  He put out his hand and Shirley laid her own timid one in it,
+smiling and blushing rosily, and saying softly with what excited breath
+she had, "Oh, I'm so glad I got you in time!"  Then she was aware that
+the man had gone on talking.  "I don't know what you think about it,"
+he repeated, "but I feel that you saved me a clean hundred thousand
+dollars, and I say that a good percentage of that belongs to you as a
+reward of your quickness and keenness."
+
+But Shirley drew away her hand and stepped back, her face white, her
+head up, her chin tilted proudly, her eyes very dark with excitement
+and determination.  She spoke clearly and earnestly.
+
+"No, Mr. Graham, nothing whatever belongs to me.  I don't want any
+reward.  I couldn't think of taking it.  It is utterly out of the
+question!"
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the elder Graham, sitting down on the edge of
+his desk, watching her in undisguised admiration.  "Now that's a new
+kind of girl that won't take what she's earned,--what rightly belongs
+to her."
+
+"Mr. Graham, it was a very little thing I did,--anybody would have done
+it,--and it was just in the way of simple duty.  Please don't say
+anything more about it.  I am only too glad to have had opportunity to
+give a little help to people who have helped me so much.  I feel that I
+am under deep obligation to your son for making it possible for us to
+live in the country, where my mother is getting well."
+
+"Well, now I shall have to inquire into this business.  I haven't heard
+anything about obligations, and for my part I feel a big one just now.
+Perhaps you think it was a very little thing you did, but suppose you
+_hadn't_ done it.  Suppose you'd been too busy, or it hadn't occurred
+to you to take down that conversation until it was too late; or suppose
+you hadn't had the brains to see what it would mean to us.  Why, then
+it would have become a very big thing indeed, and we should have been
+willing, if we had known, to pay a mighty big sum to get that evidence.
+You see a hundred thousand dollars isn't exactly a very little thing
+when you're swindled out of it.  It's the _swindling_ that hurts more
+than the loss of the money.  And you saved us from that.  Now, young
+lady, I consider myself under obligation to you, and I intend to
+discharge it somehow.  If I can't do it one way I shall another, but in
+the meantime I'm deeply grateful, and please accept our thanks.  If you
+are willing to add one more to your kindness, I shall be glad if you
+will make a carbon copy of those shorthand notes you took.  I may need
+them for evidence.  And, by the way, you will probably be called upon
+to testify in court.  I'm sorry.  That may be unpleasant, but I guess
+it can't be helped, so you see before you get through you may not think
+you did so very small a thing after all.  Sid, I think you better
+escort this young lady back to her office and explain to Barnard.  He's
+probably been on the verge of being buncoed also.  You said Kremnitz
+was waiting for him when the conversation took place?  I guess you
+better go with Miss Hollister and clear the whole thing up.  Say,
+child, have you had your lunch yet?  No, of course not.  Sidney, you
+take her to get some lunch before she goes back to the office.  She's
+had an exciting morning.  Now, good-by, little girl.  I sha'n't forget
+what you've done for us, and I'm coming to see you pretty soon and get
+things squared up."
+
+So that was how it came about that in spite of her protests Mr. Sidney
+Graham escorted Shirley Hollister into one of the most exclusive
+tea-rooms of the city, and seated her at a little round table set for
+two, while off at a short distance Miss Harriet Hale sat with her
+mother, eating her lunch and trying in vain to "place" the pretty girl
+she did not recognize.
+
+It never occurred to her for a moment that Sidney Graham's companion
+might be a stenographer, for Shirley had a knack about her clothes that
+made her always seem well dressed.  That hat she wore had seen service
+for three summers, and was now a wholly different shape and color from
+what it had been when it began life.  A scrub in hot water had removed
+the dust of toil, some judiciously applied dye had settled the matter
+of color, and a trifling manipulation on her head while the hat was
+still wet had made the shape not only exceedingly stylish but becoming.
+The chic little rosette and strictly tailored band which were its sole
+trimming were made from a much-soiled waist-ribbon, washed and
+stretched around a bottle of hot water to dry it, and teased into the
+latest thing in rosettes by Shirley's witching fingers.  The simple
+linen dress she wore fitted well and at a distance could not have been
+told from something better, and neither were gloves and shoes near
+enough to be inspected critically, so Miss Hale was puzzled, and
+jealously watched the pretty color come and go in Shirley's cheek, and
+the simple grace of her movements.
+
+Fortunately, Shirley did not see Miss Hale, and would not have
+recognized her if she had from that one brief glimpse she had of her
+picture on the society page of the newspaper.  So she ate her
+delectable lunch, ordered by Graham, in terms that she knew not, about
+dishes that she had never seen before.  She ate and enjoyed herself so
+intensely that it seemed to her she would never be able to make the
+rest of her life measure up to the privileges of the hour.
+
+For Shirley was a normal girl.  She could not help being pleased to be
+doing just for once exactly as other more favored girls did constantly.
+To be lunching at Blanco's with one of the most-sought-after men in the
+upper set, to be treated like a queen, and to be talking beautiful
+things about travels and pictures and books, it was all too beautiful
+to be real.  Shirley began to feel that if it didn't get over pretty
+soon and find her back in the office addressing the rest of those
+envelopes she would think she had died in the midst of a dream and gone
+to heaven.
+
+There was something else too that brought an undertone of beauty, which
+she was not acknowledging even to her inmost self.  That was the way
+Graham looked at her, as if she were some fine beautiful angel dropped
+down from above that he loved to look at; as if he really cared what
+she thought and did; as if there were somehow a soul-harmony between
+them that set them apart this day from others, and put them into tune
+with one another; as if he were glad, _glad_ to see her once more after
+the absence!  All through her being it thrilled like a song that brings
+tears to the throat and gladness to the eyes, and makes one feel strong
+and pure.  That was how it seemed when she thought about it afterward.
+At the time she was just living it in wonder and thanksgiving.
+
+At another time her sordid worldliness and pride might have risen and
+swelled with haughtiness of spirit over the number of people who eyed
+her enviously as they went out together; over the many bows and
+salutations her escort received from people of evident consequence, for
+she had the normal human pride somewhere in her nature as we all have.
+But just then her heart was too humble with a new, strange happiness to
+feel it or take it in, and she walked with unconscious grace beside
+him, feeling only the joy of being there.
+
+Later, in the quiet of her chamber, her mother's warning came to her,
+and her cheeks burned with shame in the dark that her heart had dared
+make so much of a common little luncheon, just a mere courtesy after
+she had been able to do a favor.  Yet through it all Shirley knew there
+was something fine and true there that belonged just to her, and
+presently she would rise above everything and grasp it and keep it hers
+forever.
+
+She felt the distinction of her escort anew when she entered Barnard
+and Clegg's in his company, and saw Mr. Clegg spring to open the door
+and to set a chair for his young guest, saw even Mr. Barnard rise and
+greet him with almost reverence.  And this honor she knew was being
+paid to money, the great demagogue.  It was not the man that she
+admired to whom they were paying deference, it was to his money!  She
+smiled to herself.  It was the _man_ she admired, not his money.
+
+All that afternoon she worked with flying fingers, turning off the work
+at marvellous speed, amused when she heard the new note of respect in
+Mr. Barnard's voice as he gave her a direction.  Mr. Barnard had been
+greatly impressed with the story Graham had told him, and was also
+deeply grateful on his own account that Shirley had acted as she had,
+for he had been on the verge of investing a large trust fund that was
+in his keeping in the new mining operation, and it would have meant
+absolute failure for him.
+
+When Shirley left the office that night she was almost too tired to see
+which trolley was coming, but some one touched her on the arm, and
+there was Sidney Graham waiting for her beside his car,--a little
+two-passenger affair that she had never seen before and that went like
+the wind.  They took a road they had not travelled together before, and
+Shirley got in joyously, her heart all in a tumult of doubts and joys
+and questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+What that ride was to Shirley she hardly dared let herself think
+afterwards.  Sitting cozily beside Graham in the little racing car,
+gliding through the better part of town where all the tall, imposing
+houses slept with drawn blinds, and dust-covered shutters proclaimed
+that their owners were far away from heat and toil.  Out through wide
+roads and green-hedged lanes, where stately mansions set in flowers and
+mimic landscapes loomed far back from road in dignified seclusion.
+Passing now and then a car of people who recognized Graham and bowed in
+the same deferential way as they had done in the tea-room.  And all the
+time his eyes were upon her, admiring, delighting; and his care about
+her, solicitous for her comfort.
+
+Once he halted the car and pointed off against the sunset, where wide
+gables and battlemented towers stood gray amidst a setting of green
+shrubbery and trees, and velvety lawns reached far, to high, trim
+hedges arched in places for an entrance to the beautiful estate.
+
+"That is my home over there," he said, and watched her widening eyes.
+"I wish I had time to take you over to-night, but I know you are tired
+and ought to get home and rest.  Another time we'll go around that
+way."  And her heart leaped up as the car went forward again.  There
+was to be another time, then!  Ah!  But she must not allow it.  Her
+heart was far too foolish already.  Yet she would enjoy this ride, now
+she was started.
+
+They talked about the sunset and a poem he had lately read.  He told
+her bits about his journey, referring to his experience at the mines,
+touching on some amusing incidents, sketching some of the queer
+characters he had met.  Once he asked her quite abruptly if she thought
+her mother would be disturbed if he had a cement floor put in the
+basement of the barn some time soon.  He wanted to have it done before
+cold weather set in, and it would dry better now in the hot days.  Of
+course, if it would be in the least disturbing to any of them it could
+wait, but he wanted to store a few things there that were being taken
+out of the office buildings, and he thought they would keep drier if
+there was a cement floor.  When she said it would not disturb any one
+in the least, would on the contrary be quite interesting for the
+children to watch, she was sure, he went easily back to California
+scenery and never referred to it again.
+
+All through the ride, which was across a country she had never seen
+before, and ended at Glenside approaching from a new direction, there
+was a subtle something between them, a sympathy and quick understanding
+as if they were comrades, almost partners in a lot of common interests.
+Shirley chided herself for it every time she looked up and caught his
+glance, and felt the thrill of pleasure in this close companionship.
+Of course it was wholly in her own imagination, and due entirely to the
+nervous strain through which she had passed that day, she told herself.
+Of course, he had nothing in his mind but the most ordinary kindly
+desire to give her a good time out of gratitude for what she had done
+for him.  But nevertheless it was sweet, and Shirley was loath to
+surrender the joy of it while it lasted, dream though it might be.
+
+It lasted all the way, even up to the very stop in front of the barn
+when he took her hand to help her out, and his fingers lingered on hers
+with just an instant's pressure, sending a thrill to her heart again,
+and almost bringing tears to her eyes.  Foolishness!  She was
+overwrought.  It was a shame that human beings were so made that they
+had to become weak like that in a time of pleasant rejoicing.
+
+The family came forth noisily to meet them, rejoicing openly at
+Graham's return, George and Harley vying with each other to shout the
+news about the garden and the chickens and the dove-cote; Carol
+demanding to know where was Elizabeth; and Doris earnestly looking in
+his face and repeating:
+
+"Ickle budie fy away, Mistah Gwaham.  All gone!  All ickle budies fy
+away!"
+
+Even Mrs. Hollister came smiling to the door to meet him, and the young
+man had a warm word of hearty greeting and a hand-shake for each one.
+It was as if he had just got home to a place where he loved to be, and
+he could not show his joy enough.  Shirley stood back for the moment
+watching him, admiring the way his hair waved away from his temples,
+thinking how handsome he looked when he smiled, wondering that he could
+so easily fit himself into this group, which must in the nature of
+things be utterly different from his native element, rejoicing over the
+deference he paid to her plain, quiet mother, thrilling over the kiss
+he gave her sweet little sister.
+
+Then Mrs. Hollister did something perfectly unexpected and
+dreadful--she invited him to stay to dinner!  Shirley stood back and
+gasped.  Of course he would decline, but think of the temerity of
+inviting the wealthy and cultured Mr. Graham to take dinner in his own
+barn!
+
+Oh!  But he wasn't going to decline at all.  He was accepting as if it
+were a great pleasure Mrs. Hollister was conferring upon him.  _Sure_,
+he would stay!  He had been wishing all the way out they would ask him.
+He had wondered whether he dared invite himself.
+
+Shirley with her cheeks very red hurried in to see that the table-cloth
+was put on straight, and look after one or two little things; but
+behold, he followed her out, and, gently insisting and assisting,
+literally compelled her to come and lie down on the couch while he told
+the family what she had been through that day.  Shirley was so happy
+she almost cried right there before them all.  It was so wonderful to
+have some one take care of her that way.  Of course it was only
+gratitude--but she had been taking care of other people so long that it
+completely broke her down to have some one take care of her.
+
+The dinner went much more easily than she had supposed it could with
+those cracked plates, and the forks from which the silver was all worn
+off.  Doris insisted that the guest sit next to her and butter her
+bread for her, and she occasionally caressed his coat-sleeve with a
+sticky little hand, but he didn't seem to mind it in the least, and
+smiled down on her in quite a brotherly way, arranging her bib when it
+got tangled in her curls, and seeing that she had plenty of jelly on
+her bread.
+
+It was a beautiful dinner.  Mother Hollister had known what she was
+about when she selected that particular night to invite unexpected
+company.  There was stewed chicken on little round biscuits, with
+plenty of gravy and currant jelly, mashed potatoes, green peas, little
+new beets, and the most delicious custard pie for dessert, all rich,
+velvety yellow with a golden-brown top.  The guest ate as if he enjoyed
+it, and asked for a second piece of pie, just as if he were one of
+them.  It was unbelievable!
+
+He helped clear off the table too, and insisted on Carol's giving him a
+wiping-towel to help with the dishes.  It was just like a dream.
+
+The young man tore himself reluctantly away about nine o'clock and went
+home, but before he left he took Shirley's hand and looked into her
+eyes with another of those deep understanding glances, and Shirley
+watched him whirling away in the moonlight, and wondered if there ever
+would be another day as beautiful and exciting and wonderful as this
+had been, and whether she could come down to sensible, every-day living
+again by morning.
+
+Then there was the story of the day to tell all over again after he was
+gone, and put in the little family touches that had been left out when
+the guest was there, and there was: "Oh, did you notice how admiring he
+looked when he told mother Shirley had a remarkably keen mind?" and "He
+said his father thought Shirley was the most unspoiled-looking girl he
+had ever seen!" and a lot of other things that Shirley hadn't heard
+before.
+
+Shirley told her mother what the senior Mr. Graham had said about
+giving her a reward, and her mother agreed that she had done just right
+in declining anything for so simple a service, but she looked after
+Shirley with a sigh as she went to put Doris to bed, and wondered if
+for this service the poor child was to get a broken heart.  It could
+hardly be possible that a girl could be given much attention such as
+Shirley had received that day, from as attractive a young man as
+Graham, without feeling it keenly not to have it continue.  And of
+_course_ it was out of the question that it should continue.  Mrs.
+Hollister decided that she had done wrong to invite the young man to
+stay to supper, and resolved never to offend in that way again.  It was
+a wrong to Shirley to put him on so intimate a footing in the
+household, and it could not but bring her sadness.  He was a most
+unusual young man to have even wanted to stay, but one must not take
+that for more than a passing whim, and Shirley must be protected at all
+hazards.
+
+"Now," said the elder Graham the next morning, when the business of the
+day was well under way and he had time to send for his son to come into
+his office, "now, I want you to tell me all about that little girl, and
+what you think we ought to give her.  What did she mean by
+'obligations' yesterday?  Have you been doing anything for her, son?  I
+meant to ask you last night, but you came home so late I couldn't sit
+up."
+
+And then Sidney Graham told his father the whole story.  It was
+different from telling his mother.  He knew no barn would have the
+power to prejudice his father.
+
+"And you say that girl lives in the old barn!" exclaimed the father
+when the story was finished.  "Why, the nervy little kid!  And she
+looks as if she came out of a bandbox!  Well, she's a bully little girl
+and no mistake!  Well, now, son, what can we do for her?  We ought to
+do something pretty nice.  You see it wasn't just the money we might
+have lost.  That would have been a mere trifle beside getting all those
+other folks balled up in the mess.  Why, I'd have given every cent I
+own before I'd have had Fuller and Browning and Barnard and Wilts get
+entangled.  I tell you, son, it was a great escape!"
+
+"Yes, father, and it was a great lesson for me.  I'll never be buncoed
+as easily again.  But about Miss Hollister, I don't know what to say.
+She's very proud and sensitive.  I had an awful time doing the little
+things I just had to do to that barn without her suspecting I was doing
+it especially for her.  Father, you ought to go out there and meet the
+family; then you'd understand.  They're not ordinary people.  Their
+father was a college professor and wrote things.  They're cultured
+people."
+
+"Well, I want to meet them.  Why don't we go out there and call to-day?
+I think they must be worth knowing."
+
+So late that afternoon the father and son rode out to Glenside, and
+when Shirley and George reached home they found the car standing in
+front of their place, and the Grahams comfortably seated in the great
+open doorway, enjoying the late afternoon breeze, and seemingly
+perfectly at home in their own barn.
+
+"I'm not going to swarm here every day, Miss Shirley," said the son,
+rising and coming out to meet her.  "You see father hadn't heard about
+the transformation of the old barn, and the minute I told him about it
+he had to come right out and see it."
+
+"Yes," said the father, smiling contentedly, "I had to come and see
+what you'd done out here.  I've played in the hay up in that loft many
+a day in my time, and I love the old barn.  It's great to see it all
+fixed up so cozy.  But we're going home now and let you have your
+dinner.  We just waited to say 'Howdy' to you before we left."
+
+They stayed a few minutes longer, however, and the senior Graham talked
+with Shirley while he held Doris on his knee and stroked her silky
+hair, and she nestled in his arms quite content.
+
+Then, although young Graham was quite loath to leave so soon, they
+went, for he could not in conscience, expect an invitation to dinner
+two days in succession.
+
+They rode away into the sunset, going across country to their home
+without going back to town, and Doris, as she stood with the others
+watching them away, murmured softly:
+
+"Nice favver-man!  Nice Gwaham favver man!"
+
+The "nice-Graham-father-man" was at that moment remarking to his son in
+very decided tones, as he turned to get a last glimpse of the old barn:
+
+"That old barn door ought to come down right away, Sid, and a nice big
+old-fashioned door with glass around the sides made to fill the space.
+That door is an eyesore on the place, and they need a piazza.  People
+like those can't live with a great door like that to open and shut
+every day."
+
+"Yes, father, I've thought of that, but I don't just know how to manage
+it.  You see they're not objects of charity.  I've been thinking about
+some way to fix up a heating arrangement without hurting their
+feelings, so they could stay there all winter.  I know they hate to go
+back to the city, and they're only paying ten dollars a month.  It's
+all they can afford.  What could they get in the city for that?"
+
+"Great Scott!  A girl like that living in a house she could get for ten
+dollars, when some of these feather-brained baby-dolls we know can't
+get on with less than three or four houses that cost from fifty to a
+hundred thousand dollars apiece!  Say, son, that's a peach of a girl,
+do you know it?  A peach of a girl!  I've been talking with her, and
+she has a very superior mind."
+
+"I know she has, father," answered the son humbly.
+
+"I say, Sid, why don't you marry her?  That would solve the whole
+problem.  Then you could fix up the old barn into a regular house for
+her folks."
+
+"Well, father, that's just what I've made up my mind to do--if she'll
+have me," said the son with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.
+
+"Bully for you, Sid!  Bully for you!" and the father gave his son's
+broad shoulder a resounding slap.  "Why, Sid, I didn't think you had
+that much sense.  Your mother gave me to understand that you were
+philandering around with that dolly-faced Harriet Hale, and I couldn't
+see what you saw in her.  But if you mean it, son, I'm with you every
+time.  That girl's a peach, and you couldn't get a finer if you
+searched the world over."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid mother's got her heart set on Harriet Hale," said the
+son dubiously, "but I can't see it that way."
+
+"H'm!  Your mother likes show," sighed the father comically, "but she's
+got a good heart, and she'll bowl over all right and make the best of
+it.  You know neither your mother nor I were such high and mighties
+when we were young, and _we_ married for _love_.  But now, if you
+really mean business, I don't see why we can't do something right away.
+When does that girl have her vacation?  Of course she gets one
+sometime.  Why couldn't your mother just invite the whole family to
+occupy the shore cottage for a little while,--get up some excuse or
+other,--ask 'em to take care of it?  You know it's lying idle all this
+summer, and two servants down there growing fat with nothing to do.  We
+might ship Elizabeth down there and let 'em be company for her.  They
+seem like a fine set of children.  It would do Elizabeth good to know
+them."
+
+"Oh, she's crazy about them.  She's been out a number of times with me,
+and don't you remember she had Carol out to stay with her?"
+
+"Was that the black-eyed, sensible girl?  Well, I declare!  I didn't
+recognize her.  She was all dolled up out at our house.  I suppose
+Elizabeth loaned 'em to her, eh?  Well, I'm glad.  She's got sense,
+too.  That's the kind of people I like my children to know.  Now if
+that vacation could only be arranged to come when your mother and I
+take that Western trip, why, it would be just the thing for Elizabeth,
+work right all around.  Now, the thing for you to do is to find out
+about that vacation, and begin to work things.  Then you could have
+everything all planned, and rush the work so it would be done by the
+time they came back."
+
+So the two conspirators plotted, while all unconscious of their
+interest Shirley was trying to get herself in hand and not think how
+Graham's eyes had looked when he said good-night to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Since the pastor from the village had called upon them, the young
+people of the stone barn had been identified with the little white
+church in the valley.  Shirley had taken a class of boys in the
+Sunday-school and was playing the organ, as George had once predicted.
+Carol was helping the primary teacher, George was assistant librarian
+and secretary, Harley was in Shirley's class, and Doris was one of the
+primaries.
+
+Shirley had at once identified herself with the struggling little
+Christian Endeavor society and was putting new life into it, with her
+enthusiasm, her new ideas about getting hold of the young people of the
+community, and her wonderful knack of getting the silent ones to take
+part in the meetings.  She had suggested new committees, had invited
+the music committee to meet her at her home some evening to plan out
+special music, and to coöperate with the social committee in planning
+for music at the socials.  She always carried a few appropriate
+clippings or neatly written verses or other quotations to meeting to
+slip into the hands of some who had not prepared to speak, and she saw
+to it that her brothers and sisters were always ready to say something.
+Withal, she did her part so unobtrusively that none of the old members
+could think she was trying to usurp power or make herself prominent.
+She became a quiet power behind the powers, to whom the president and
+all the other officers came for advice, and who seemed always ready to
+help in any work, or to find a way out of any difficulty.  Christian
+Endeavor in the little white church at once took great strides after
+the advent of the Hollisters, and even the idlers on the street corners
+were moved with curiosity to drop into the twilight service of the
+young people and see what went on, and why everybody seemed so
+interested.  But the secret of it all, Shirley thought, was the little
+five-minute prayer service that the prayer-meeting committee held in
+the tiny primary room just before the regular meeting.  Shirley as
+chairman of the prayer-meeting committee had started this little
+meeting, and she always came into the larger room with an exalted look
+upon her face and a feeling of strength in her heart from this brief
+speaking with her Master.
+
+Shirley was somewhat aghast the next Sabbath to have Sidney Graham
+arrive and ask her to take a ride with him.
+
+"Why, I was just going to church," she said, half hesitating, and then
+smiling bravely up at him; "besides, I have a Sunday-school class.  I
+couldn't very well leave them, you know."
+
+He looked at her for a moment thoughtfully, trying to bridge in his
+thoughts this difference between them.  Then he said quite humbly,
+
+"Will you take me with you?"
+
+"To church?" she asked, and there was a glad ring in her voice.  Would
+he really go to church with her?
+
+"Yes, and to Sunday School if I may.  I haven't been to Sunday School
+in years.  I'd like to go if you'll only let me."
+
+Her cheeks grew rosy.  She had a quick mental picture of putting him in
+Deacon Pettigrew's Bible class.
+
+"I'm afraid there isn't any class you would enjoy," she began with a
+troubled look.  "It's only a little country church, you know.  They
+don't have all the modern system, and very few teachers."
+
+"I should enjoy going into your class very much if I might."
+
+"Oh, mine are just boys, just little boys like Harley!" said Shirley,
+aghast.
+
+"I've been a little boy once, you know I should enjoy it very much,"
+said the applicant with satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, but--I couldn't teach _you_!"  There was dismay in her voice.
+
+"Couldn't you, though?  You've taught me more in the few months I've
+known you than I've learned in that many years from others.  Try me.
+I'll be very good.  I'll be a boy with the rest of them, and you can
+just forget I'm there and go ahead.  I really am serious about it.  I
+want to hear what you have to say to them."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't teach with you there!" exclaimed Shirley, putting her
+hands on her hot cheeks and looking like a frightened little child.
+"Indeed I couldn't, really.  I'm not much of a teacher.  I'm only a
+beginner.  I shouldn't know how to talk before any but children."
+
+He watched her silently for a minute, his face grave with wistfulness.
+
+"Why do you teach them?" he asked rather irrelevantly.
+
+"Because--why, because I want to help them to live right lives; I want
+to teach them how to know God."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that they will be saved.  Because it was Christ's command that His
+disciples should give the message.  I am His disciple, so I have to
+tell the message."
+
+"Was there any special stipulation as to whom that message should be
+given?" asked the young man thoughtfully.  "Did He say you were just to
+give it to those boys?"
+
+"Why, no; it was to be given to--all the world, every creature."
+Shirley spoke the words hesitatingly, a dimple beginning to show in her
+cheek as her eyelids drooped over her shy eyes.
+
+"And don't I come in on that?" asked Graham, with a twinkle that
+reminded Shirley of his father.
+
+Shirley had to laugh shamefacedly then.
+
+"But I couldn't!" said Shirley.  "I'd be so scared I couldn't think of
+a thing to say."
+
+"You're not afraid of me, Miss Shirley?  You wouldn't be scared if you
+thought I really needed to know the message, would you?  Well, I really
+do, as much as any of those kids."
+
+Shirley looked steadily into his earnest eyes and saw something there
+that steadied her nerve.  The laughter died out of her own eyes, and a
+beautiful light of longing came into them.
+
+"All right," she said, with a little lift of her chin as if girding up
+her strength to the task.  "You may come, and I'll do the best I can,
+but I'm afraid it will be a poor best.  I've only a little story to
+tell them this morning."
+
+"Please give them just what you had intended.  I want the real thing,
+just as a boy would get it from you.  Will the rest of them come in the
+car with us?"
+
+Shirley was very quiet during the ride to church.  She let the rest do
+all the talking, and she sat looking off at the woods and praying for
+help, trying to calm the flutter of her frightened heart, trying to
+steady her nerves and brace herself to teach the lesson just as she had
+intended to teach it.
+
+She watched him furtively during the opening exercises, the untrained
+singing, the monotonous prayer of an old farmer-elder, the dry
+platitudes of the illiterate superintendent; but he sat respectfully
+listening, taking it all for what it was worth, the best service these
+people knew how to render to their Maker.
+
+Somehow her heart had gained the strength she needed from the prayers
+she breathed continually, and when the time for teaching the lesson
+arrived she came to her class with quietness.
+
+There was a little awe upon the boys because of the stranger in their
+midst.  They did not fling the hymn-books down with a noisy thud, nor
+send the lesson leaves flying like winged darts across the room quite
+so much as they were wont to do.  They looked askance at Harley, who
+sat proudly by the visitor, supplying him with Bibles, hymn-books,
+lesson leaves, and finding the place for him officiously.  But Graham
+sat among the boys without ostentation, and made as little of his own
+presence as possible.  He smiled at them now and then, put a handful of
+silver into the collection envelope when they would have passed him by,
+and promised a ride to one fellow who ventured to ask him hoarsely if
+that was his car outside the church.
+
+Shirley had made up her mind to forget as far as she could the presence
+of the visitor in the class, and to this end she fixed her eyes upon
+the worst little boy present, the boy who got up all the disturbances,
+and made all the noises, and was the most adorable, homely, sturdy
+young imp the Valley Church could produce.  He sat straight across from
+her, while Graham was at the side, and she could see in Jack's eye that
+he meant mischief if he could overcome his awe of the stranger.  So
+before Jack could possibly get started she began her story, and told it
+straight to Jack, never taking her eyes from his face from start to
+finish, and before she was half-way through she had her little audience
+enthralled.  It was a story of the Bible told in modern setting, and
+told straight to the heart of a boy who was the counterpart in his own
+soul of the man whom Christ cured and forgave.  What Graham was
+thinking or looking Shirley did not know.  She had literally forgotten
+his existence after the first few minutes.  She had seen the gleam of
+interest in the eyes of the boy Jack; she knew that her message was
+going home to a convicted young soul, and that he saw himself and his
+own childish sins in the sinful life of the hero of her tale.  Her
+whole soul was bent on making him see the Saviour who could make that
+young life over.  Not until the story was almost finished did any one
+of the listeners, unless perhaps Harley, who was used to such
+story-recitals, have a suspicion that the story was just a plain,
+ordinary chapter out of the Bible.  Then suddenly one of the elder boys
+broke forth: "Aw!  Gee!  That's just the man in the Bible let down
+through the roof!"  There was a slight stir in the class at the
+discovery as it dawned upon them that the teacher had "put one over on
+them" again, but the interest for the most part was sustained
+breathlessly until the superintendent's bell rang, and the heads drew
+together in an absorbed group around her for the last few sentences,
+spoken in a lower tone because the general hum of teaching in the room
+had ceased.
+
+Graham's face was very grave and thoughtful as she finished and slipped
+away from them to take her place at the little organ.  One could see
+that it was not in the teacher alone, but in her message as well, that
+he was interested.  The boys all had that subdued, half-ashamed,
+half-defiant look that boys have when they have been caught looking
+serious.  Each boy frowned and studied his toes, or hunted assiduously
+in his hymn-book to hide his confusion, and the class in various keys
+lifted up assertive young voices vigorously in the last hymn.
+
+Graham sat beside Shirley in the little crowded church during the
+rather monotonous service.  The regular pastor, who was a good,
+spiritual man if not a brilliant one, and gave his congregation solid,
+practical sermons, was on his vacation, and the pulpit was supplied by
+a young theologue who was so new to his work that his sermon was a
+rather involved effort.  But so strong was the power of the
+Sunday-school lesson to which he had just listened that Graham felt as
+if he were sitting in some hallowed atmosphere.  He did not see the
+red-faced, embarrassed young preacher, nor notice his struggles to
+bring forth his message bravely; he saw only the earnest-faced young
+teacher as she spoke the words of life to her boys; saw the young
+imp-faces of her boys softened and touched by the story she told; saw
+that she really believed and felt every word she spoke; and knew that
+there was something in it all that he wanted.
+
+The seat was crowded and the day was warm, but the two who looked over
+the same hymn-book did not notice it.  The soft air came in from the
+open window beside them, breathing sweet clover and wild honeysuckle,
+and the meadowlarks sang their songs, and made it seem just like a
+little bit of heaven.
+
+Shirley's muslin frills trembled against Graham's hand as she reached
+to catch a fluttering leaf of the hymn-book that the wind had caught;
+once her hand brushed the coatsleeve beside her as they turned the
+page, and she felt the soft texture of the fine dark blue goods with a
+pleasant sense of the beautiful and fitting.  It thrilled her to think
+he was standing thus beside her in her own little church, yielding
+himself to the same worship with her in the little common country
+congregation.  It was wonderful, beautiful!  And to have come to her!
+She glanced shyly up at him, so handsome, standing there singing, his
+hand almost touching hers holding the book.  He felt her glance and
+answered it with a look and smile, their eyes holding each other for
+just the fraction of a second in which some inner thought was
+interchanged, some question asked and answered by the invisible flash
+of heart-beats, a mutual joining in the spiritual service, and then
+half-frightened Shirley dropped her eyes to the page and the soft roses
+stole into her cheeks again.  She felt as if she had seen something in
+his eyes and acknowledged it in her own, as if she had inadvertently
+shown him her heart in that glance, and that heart of hers was leaping
+and bounding with an uncontrollable joy, while her conscience sought by
+every effort to get it in control.  What nonsense, it said, what utter
+folly, to make so much of his coming to church with her once!  To allow
+her soul to get into such a flutter over a man who had no more idea of
+noticing her or caring for her than he had for a bird on the tree.
+
+And with all the tumult in her heart she did not even see the envious
+glances of the village maidens who stared and stared with all their
+might at the handsome man who came to church in an expensive car and
+brought the girl who lived in a barn!  Shirley's social position went
+up several notches, and she never even knew it.  In fact, she was
+becoming a great puzzle to the residents of Glenside.
+
+It was good to know that for once the shabby collection-box of the
+little church was borne back to the altar laden with a goodly bill, put
+in with so little ostentation that one might have judged it but a
+penny, looking on, though even a penny would have made more noise in
+the unlined wooden box.
+
+After the service was over Graham went out with the children, while
+Shirley lingered to play over an accompaniment for a girl who was going
+to sing at the vesper service that afternoon.  He piled all the
+children in the back seat of the car, put the boy he had promised a
+ride in the seat beside him, took a spin around the streets, and was
+back in front of the church by the time Shirley came out.  Then that
+foolish heart of hers had to leap again at the thought that he had
+saved the front seat for her.  The boy descended as if he had been
+caught up into heaven for a brief space, and would never forget it the
+rest of his life.
+
+There was that same steady look of trust and understanding in Graham's
+eyes whenever he looked at her on the way home, and once while the
+children were talking together in the back seat he leaned toward her
+and said in a low tone:
+
+"I wonder if you will let me take you away for a little while this
+afternoon to a quiet place I know where there is a beautiful view, and
+let us sit and talk.  There are some things I want to ask you, about
+what you said this morning.  I was very much interested in it all, and
+I'm deeply grateful that you let me go.  Now, will you go with me?
+I'll bring you back in time for the Christian Endeavor service, and you
+see in the meantime I'm inviting myself to dinner.  Do you think your
+mother will object?"
+
+What was there for Shirley to do but accept this alluring invitation?
+She did not believe in going off on pleasure excursions on the Sabbath,
+but this request that she ride to a quiet place out-of-doors for a
+religious talk could not offend her strongest sense of what was right
+on the Sabbath day.  And surely, if the Lord had a message for her to
+bear, she must bear it to whomsoever He sent.  This, then, was this
+man's interest in her, that she had been able to make him think of God.
+A glad elation filled her heart, something deep and true stirred within
+her and lifted her above the thought of self, like a blessing from on
+high.  To be asked to bring light to a soul like this one, this was
+honor indeed.  This was an answer to her prayer of the morning, that
+she might fulfil God's pleasure with the lesson of the day.  The
+message then had reached his soul.  It was enough.  She would think no
+more of self.
+
+Yet whenever she looked at him and met that smile again she was
+thrilled with joy in spite of herself.  At least there was a
+friendliness here beyond the common acquaintance, a something that was
+true, deep, lasting, even though worlds should separate them in the
+future; a something built on a deep understanding, sympathy and common
+interests.  Well, so be it.  She would rejoice that it had been given
+her to know one man of the world in this beautiful way; and her foolish
+little human heart should understand what a high, true thing this was
+that must not be misunderstood.
+
+So she reasoned with herself, and watched him during the dinner, among
+the children, out in the yard among the flowers and animals,
+everywhere, he seemed so fine and splendid, so far above all other men
+that she had ever met.  And her mother, watching, trembled for her when
+she saw her happy face.
+
+"Do you think you ought to go with him, daughter?" she asked with
+troubled eyes, when they were left alone for a moment after dinner.
+"You know it is the Sabbath, and you know his life is very different
+from ours."
+
+"Mother, he wants to talk about the Sunday School lesson this morning,"
+said Shirley shyly.  "I guess he is troubled, perhaps, and wants me to
+help him.  I guess he has never thought much about religious things."
+
+"Well, daughter dear, be careful.  Do all you can for him, of course,
+but remember, don't let your heart stray out of your keeping.  He is
+very attractive, dear, and very unconventional for a wealthy man.  I
+think he is true and wouldn't mean to trifle, but he wouldn't realize."
+
+"I know; mother; don't you be afraid for me!" said Shirley with a lofty
+look, half of exultation, half of proud self-command.
+
+He took her to a mossy place beside a little stream, where the light
+filtered down through the lacy leaves flecking the bank, and braided
+golden currents in the water; with green and purple hazy hills in the
+distance, and just enough seclusion for a talk without being too far
+away from the world.
+
+"My little sister says that you people have a 'real' God," he said,
+when she was comfortably fixed with cushions from the car at her back
+against a tall tree-trunk.  "She says you seem to realize His
+presence--I don't know just how to say it, but I'd like to know if this
+is so.  I'd like to know what makes you different from other girls, and
+your home different from most of the homes I know.  I'd like to know if
+I may have it too."
+
+That was the beginning.
+
+Shirley, shy as a bird at first, having never spoken on such subjects
+except to children, yet being well versed in the Scriptures, and
+feeling her faith with every atom of her being, drew out her little
+Bible that she had slipped into her pocket when they started, and
+plunged into the great subject.
+
+Never had preacher more earnest listener, or more lovely temple in
+which to preach.  And if sometimes the young man's thoughts for a few
+moments strayed from the subject to rest his eyes in tenderness upon
+the lovely face of the young teacher, and long to draw her into his
+arms and claim her for his own, he might well have been forgiven.  For
+Shirley was very fair, with the light of other worlds in her face, her
+eyes all sparkling with her eagerness, her lips aglow with words that
+seemed to be given her for the occasion.  She taught him simply, not
+trying to go into deep arguments, but urging the only way she knew, the
+way of taking Christ's promise on its face value, the way of being
+willing to do His will, trusting it to Him to reveal Himself, and the
+truth of the doctrine, and make the believer sure.
+
+They talked until the sun sunk low, and the calling of the wood-birds
+warned them that the Endeavor hour was near.  Before they left the
+place he asked her for the little Bible, and she laid it in his hand
+with joy that he wanted it, that she was chosen to give him a gift so
+precious.
+
+"It is all marked up," she said apologetically.  "I always mark the
+verses I love, or have had some special experience with."
+
+"It will be that much more precious to me," he said gently, fingering
+the leaves reverently, and then he looked up and gave her one of those
+deep looks that seemed to say so much to her heart.  And all at once
+she realized that she was on earth once more, and that his presence and
+his look were very precious to her.  Her cheeks grew pink with the joy
+of it, and she looked down in confusion and could not answer, so she
+rose to her feet.  But he, springing at once to help her up, kept her
+hand for just an instant with earnest pressure, and said in deeply
+moved tones:
+
+"You don't know what you have done for me this afternoon,
+my--_friend_!"  He waited with her hand in his an instant as if he were
+going to say more, but had decided it were better not.  The silence was
+so compelling that she looked up into his eyes, meeting his smile, and
+that said so many things her heart went into a tumult again and could
+not quite come to itself all through the Christian Endeavor service.
+
+On the way home from the church he talked a little about her vacation:
+when it came, how long it lasted, what she would do with it.  Just as
+they reached home he said,
+
+"I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"
+
+There was something wonderful in the way he said that word "friend."
+It thrilled her through and through as she stood beside the road and
+watched him speed away into the evening.
+
+"My friend!  I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"  It sang a
+glory-song down in her heart as she turned to go in with the vivid
+glory of the sunset on her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+The cement floor had been down a week and was as hard as a rock, when
+one day two or three wagon-loads of things arrived with a note from
+Graham to Mrs. Hollister to say that he would be glad if these might be
+stored in one corner of the basement floor, where they would be out of
+her way and not take up too much room.
+
+Harley and George went down to look them over that evening.
+
+"He said something about some things being taken from the office
+building," said Harley, kicking a pile of iron pipes with his toe.
+
+"These don't look like any old things that have been used," said George
+thoughtfully.  "They look perfectly new."  Then he studied them a few
+minutes more from another angle, and shut his lips judiciously.  He
+belonged to the boy species that has learned to "shut up and saw wood,"
+whatever that expression may mean.  If anything was to come out of that
+pile of iron in the future, he did not mean to break confidence with
+anybody's secrets.  He walked away whistling and said nothing further
+about them.
+
+The next day Mrs. Graham came down upon the Hollisters in her
+limousine, and an exquisite toilet of organdie and ribbons.  She was
+attended by Elizabeth, wild with delight over getting home again.  She
+begged Mrs. Hollister very charmingly and sincerely to take care of
+Elizabeth for three or four weeks, while she and her husband were away,
+and to take her entire family down to the shore and occupy their
+cottage, which had been closed all summer and needed opening and
+airing.  She said that nothing would please Elizabeth so much as to
+have them all her guests during September.  The maids were there, with
+nothing to do but look after them, and would just love to serve them;
+it really would be a great favor to her if she could know that
+Elizabeth was getting a little salt air under such favorable
+conditions.  She was so genuine in her request and suggested so
+earnestly that Shirley and George needed the change during their
+vacation, and could just as well come down every night and go up every
+morning for a week or two more after the vacations were over, that Mrs.
+Hollister actually promised to consider it and talk it over with
+Shirley when she came home.  Elizabeth and Carol nearly went into
+spasms of joy over the thought of all they could do down at the shore
+together.
+
+When Shirley came home she found the whole family quite upset
+discussing the matter.  Carol had brought out all the family wardrobe
+and was showing how she could wash this, and dye that, and turn this
+skirt upside down, and put a piece from the old waist in there to make
+the lower part flare; and Harley was telling how he could get the man
+next door to look after the hens and pigeons, and there was nothing
+needing much attention in the garden now, for the corn was about over
+except the last picking, which wasn't ripe yet.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was saying that they ought really to stay at home and
+look up another place to live during the winter, and Carol was pleading
+that another place would be easier found when the weather was cooler
+anyway, and that Shirley was just awfully tired and needed a change.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew pink in spite of the headache which she had been
+fighting all day, when she heard of the invitation, and sat down to
+think it out.  Was this, then, another of the kind schemes of her kind
+friend to make the way easier for her?  What right had she to take all
+this?  Why was he doing it?  Why were the rest of the family?  Did they
+really need some one to take care of Elizabeth?  But of course it was a
+wonderful opportunity, and one that her mother at least should not let
+slip by.  And Doris!  Think of Doris playing in the sand at the seaside!
+
+Supper was flung onto the table that night any way it happened, for
+they were all too excited to know what they were about.  Carol got
+butter twice and forgot to cut the bread, and Harley poured milk into
+the already filled water-pitcher.  They were even too excited to eat.
+
+Graham arrived with Elizabeth early in the evening to add his pleading
+to his mother's, and before he left he had about succeeded in getting
+Mrs. Hollister's promise that she would go.
+
+Shirley's vacation began the first of September, and George had asked
+for his at the same time so that they could enjoy it together.  Each
+had two weeks.  Graham said that the cost of going back and forth to
+the city for the two would be very little.  By the next morning they
+had begun to say what they would take along, and to plan what they
+would do with the dog.  It was very exciting.  There was only a week to
+get ready, and Carol wanted to make bathing-suits for everybody.
+
+Graham came again that night with more suggestions.  There were plenty
+of bathing-suits down at the cottage, of all sizes and kinds.  No need
+to make bathing-suits.  The dog, of course, was to go along.  He needed
+the change as much as anybody, and they needed him there.  That breed
+of dog was a great swimmer.  He would take care of the children when
+they went in bathing.  How would Mrs. Hollister like to have one of the
+old Graham servants come over to sleep at the barn and look after
+things while they were gone?  The man had really nothing to do at home
+while everybody was away, as the whole corps of servants would be
+there, and this one would enjoy coming out to the country.  He had a
+brother living on a place about a mile away.  As for the trip down
+there, Graham would love to take them all in the big touring-car with
+Elizabeth.  He had been intending to take her down that way, and there
+was no reason in the world why they should not all go along.  They
+would start Saturday afternoon as soon as Shirley and George were free,
+and be down before bedtime.  It would be cool and delightful journeying
+at that hour, and a great deal pleasanter than the train.
+
+So one by one the obstructions and hindrances were removed from their
+path, and it was decided that the Hollisters were to go to the seashore.
+
+At last the day came.
+
+Shirley and George went off in the morning shouting last directions
+about things.  They were always having to go to their work whatever was
+happening.  It was sometimes hard on them, particularly this day when
+everything was so delightfully exciting.
+
+The old Graham servant arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon,
+and proved himself invaluable in doing the little last things without
+being told.  Mrs. Hollister had her first gleam of an idea of what it
+must be to have plenty of perfectly trained servants about to
+anticipate one's needs.  He entered the barn as if barns were his
+native heath, and moved about with the ease and unobtrusiveness that
+marks a perfect servant, but with none of the hauteur and disdain that
+many of those individuals entertain toward all whom they consider poor
+or beneath them in any way.  He had a kindly face, and seemed to
+understand just exactly what was to be done.  Things somehow moved more
+smoothly after he arrived.
+
+At four o'clock came Graham with the car and a load of long linen
+dust-cloaks and veils.  The Hollisters donned them and bestowed
+themselves where they were told.  The servant stowed away the wraps and
+suitcases; Star mounted the seat beside Harley, and they were ready.
+
+They turned to look back at the barn as the car started.  The old
+servant was having a little trouble with the big door, trying to shut
+it.  "That door is a nuisance," said Graham as they swept away from the
+curb.  "It must be fixed.  It is no fit door for a barn anyway."  Then
+they curved up around Allister Avenue and left the barn far out of
+sight.
+
+They were going across country to the Graham home to pick up Elizabeth.
+It was a wonderful experience for them, that beautiful ride in the late
+afternoon; and when they swept into the great gates, and up the broad
+drive to the Graham mansion, and stopped under the porte-cochère, Mrs.
+Hollister was quite overcome with the idea of being beholden to people
+who lived in such grandeur as this.  To think she had actually invited
+their son to dine in a barn with her!
+
+Elizabeth came rushing out eagerly, all ready to start, and climbed in
+beside Carol.  Even George, who was usually silent when she was about,
+gave her a grin of welcome.  The father and mother came out to say
+good-by, gave them good wishes, and declared they were perfectly happy
+to leave their daughter in such good hands.  Then the car curved about
+the great house, among tennis courts, green-houses, garage, stable, and
+what not, and back to the pike again, leaping out upon the perfect road
+as if it were as excited as the children.
+
+Two more stops to pick up George, who was getting off early, and
+Shirley, who was through at five o'clock, and then they threaded their
+way out of the city, across the ferry, through another city, and out
+into the open country, dotted all along the way with clean, pretty
+little towns.
+
+They reached a lovely grove at sundown and stopped by the way to have
+supper.  Graham got down and made George help him get out the big
+hamper.
+
+There was a most delectable lunch; sandwiches of delicate and unknown
+condiments, salad as bewildering, soup that had been kept hot in a
+thermos bottle, served in tiny white cups, iced tea and ice-cream
+meringues from another thermos compartment, and plenty of delicious
+little cakes, olives, nuts, bonbons, and fruit.  It seemed a wonderful
+supper to them all, eaten out there under the trees, with the birds
+beginning their vesper songs and the stars peeping out slyly.  Then
+they packed up their dishes and hurried on their beautiful way, a
+silver thread of a moon coming out to make the scene more lovely.
+
+Doris was almost asleep when at last they began to hear the booming of
+the sea and smell the salt breeze as it swept back inland; but she
+roused up and opened wide, mysterious eyes, peering into the new
+darkness, and murmuring softly: "I yant to see ze osun!  I yant to see
+the gate bid watter!"
+
+Stiff, bewildered, filled with ecstasy, they finally unloaded in front
+of a big white building that looked like a hotel.  They tried to see
+into the deep, mysterious darkness across the road, where boomed a
+great voice that called them, and where dashing spray loomed high like
+a waving phantom hand to beckon them now and again, and far-moving
+lights told of ships and a world beyond the one they knew,--a wide,
+limitless thing like eternity, universe, chaos.
+
+With half-reluctant feet they turned away from the mysterious unseen
+lure and let themselves be led across an unbelievably wide veranda into
+the bright light of a hall, where everything was clean and shining, and
+a great fireplace filled with friendly flames gave cheer and welcome.
+The children stood bewildered in the brightness while two strange
+serving-maids unfastened their wraps and dust-cloaks and helped them
+take off their hats.  Then they all sat around the fire, for Graham had
+come in by this time, and the maids brought trays of some delicious
+drink with little cakes and crackers, and tinkling ice, and straws to
+drink with.  Doris almost fell asleep again, and was carried up-stairs
+by Shirley and put to bed in a pretty white crib she was too sleepy to
+look at, while Carol, Elizabeth, George, and Harley went with Graham
+across the road to look at the black, yawning cavern they called ocean,
+and to have the shore light-houses pointed out to them and named one by
+one.
+
+They were all asleep at last, a little before midnight, in spite of the
+excitement over the spacious rooms, and who should have which.  Think
+of it!  Thirty rooms in the house, and every one as pretty as every
+other one!  What luxury!  And nobody to occupy them but themselves!
+Carol could hardly get to sleep.  She felt as if she had dropped into a
+novel and was living it.
+
+When Graham came out of his room the next morning the salt breeze swept
+invitingly through the hall and showed him the big front door of the
+upper piazza open and some one standing in the sunlight, with light,
+glowing garments, gazing at the sea in rapt enjoyment.  Coming out
+softly, he saw that it was Shirley dressed in white, with a ribbon of
+blue at her waist and a soft pink color in her cheeks, looking off to
+sea.
+
+He stood for a moment to enjoy the picture, and said in his heart that
+sometime, if he got his wish, he would have her painted so by some
+great artist, with just that little simple white dress and blue ribbon,
+her round white arm lifted, her small hand shading her eyes, the
+sunlight burnishing her brown hair into gold.  He could scarcely
+refrain from going to her and telling her how beautiful she was.  But
+when he stepped quietly up beside her only his eyes spoke, and brought
+the color deeper into her cheeks; and so they stood for some minutes,
+looking together and drawing in the wonder of God's sea.
+
+"This is the first time I've ever seen it, you know," spoke Shirley at
+last, "and I'm so glad it was on Sunday morning.  It will always make
+the day seem more holy and the sea more wonderful to think about.  I
+like best things to happen on Sunday, don't you, because that is the
+best day of all?"
+
+Graham looked at the sparkling sea all azure and pearls, realized the
+Sabbath quiet, and marvelled at the beauty of the soul of the girl,
+even as her feeling about it all seemed to enter into and become a part
+of himself.
+
+"Yes, I do," said he.  "I never did before, but I do now,--and always
+shall," he added under his breath.
+
+That was almost as wonderful a Sabbath as the one they had spent in the
+woods a couple of weeks before.  They walked and talked by the sea, and
+they went to a little Episcopal chapel, where the windows stood open
+for the chanting of the waves and the salt of the breeze to come in
+freely, and then they went out and walked by the sea again.  Wherever
+they went, whether resting in some of the many big rockers on the broad
+verandas or walking on the hard smooth sand, or sitting in some cozy
+nook by the waves, they felt the same deep sympathy, the same
+conviction that their thoughts were one, the same wonderful thrill of
+the day and each other's nearness.
+
+Somehow in the new environment Shirley forgot for a little that this
+young man was not of her world, that he was probably going back soon to
+the city to enter into a whirl of the winter's season in society, that
+other girls would claim his smiles and attentions, and she would likely
+be forgotten.  She lost the sense of it entirely and companioned with
+him as joyously as if there had never been anything to separate them.
+Her mother, looking on, sighed, feared, smiled, and sighed again.
+
+They walked together in the sweet darkness beside the waves that
+evening, and he told her how when he was a little boy he wanted to
+climb up to the stars and find God, but later how he thought the stars
+and God were myths like Santa Claus, and that the stars were only
+electric lights put up by men and lighted from a great switch every
+night, and when they didn't shine somebody had forgotten to light them.
+He told her many things about himself that he had never told to any one
+before, and she opened her shy heart to him, too.
+
+Then they planned what they would do next week when he came back.  He
+told her he must go back to the city in the morning to see his father
+and mother off and attend to a few matters of business at the office.
+It might be two or three days before he could return, but after that he
+was coming down to take a little vacation himself if she didn't mind,
+and they would do a lot of delightful things together: row, fish, go
+crabbing, and he would teach her to swim and show her all the walks and
+favorite places where he used to go as a boy.  Reluctantly they went
+in, his fingers lingering about hers for just a second at the door,
+vibrating those mysterious heart-strings of hers again, sweeping
+dearest music from them, and frightening her with joy that took her
+half the night to put down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Sidney Graham went back to the city the next morning.  They all stood
+out on the piazza to watch the big car glide away.  Doris stood on the
+railing of the piazza with Shirley's arm securely about her and waved a
+little fat hand; then with a pucker of her lip she demanded:
+
+"Fy does mine Mister Dwaham do way?  I don't yant him to do way.  I
+yant him to stay wif me aw-ways, don't oo, Sirley?"
+
+Shirley with glowing cheeks turned from watching the retreating car and
+put her little sister down on the floor suddenly.
+
+"Run get your hat, Doris, and we'll take a walk on the sand!" she said,
+smiling alluringly at the child, till the baby forgot her grievance and
+beamed out with answering smiles.
+
+That was a wonderful day.
+
+They all took a walk on the sand first, George pushing his mother in a
+big wheeled chair belonging to the cottage.  Elizabeth was guide and
+pointed out all the beauties of the place, telling eager bits of
+reminiscence from her childhood memories to which even George listened
+attentively.  From having been only tolerant of her George had now come
+to look upon Elizabeth as "a good scout."
+
+When Mrs. Hollister grew tired they took her back to the cottage and
+established her in a big chair with a book.  Then they all rushed off
+to the bath-houses and presently emerged in bathing-suits, Doris
+looking like a little sprite in her scarlet flannel scrap of a suit,
+her bright hair streaming, and her beautiful baby arms and legs
+flashing white like a cherub's in the sunlight.
+
+They came back from their dip in the waves, hungry and eager, to the
+wonderful dinner that was served so exquisitely in the great cool
+dining-room, from the windows of which they could watch the lazy ships
+sailing in the offing.
+
+Doris fell asleep over her dessert and was tumbled into the hammock to
+finish her nap.  Carol and Elizabeth and the boys started off crabbing,
+and Shirley settled herself in another hammock with a pile of new
+magazines about her and prepared to enjoy a whole afternoon of
+laziness.  It was so wonderful to lie still, at leisure and unhurried,
+with all those lovely magazines to read, and nothing to disturb her.
+She leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a minute just to
+listen to the sea, and realize how good it was to be here.  Back in her
+mind there was a pleasant consciousness of the beautiful yesterday, and
+the beautiful to-morrows that might come when Sidney Graham returned,
+but she would not let her heart dwell upon them; that would be humoring
+herself too much, and perhaps give her a false idea of things.  She
+simply would not let this wonderful holiday be spoiled by the thought
+that it would have to end some day and that she would be back at the
+old routine of care and worry once more.
+
+She was roused from her reverie by the step of the postman bringing a
+single letter, for her!
+
+It was addressed in an unknown hand and was in a fat long envelope.
+Wonderingly she opened it and found inside a bank book and blank check
+book with a little note on which was written:
+
+
+Dear Little Girl:
+
+This is just a trifle of that present we were talking about the other
+day that belongs to you.  It isn't all by any means, but we'll see to
+the rest later.  Spend this on chocolates or chewing-gum or frills or
+whatever you like and have a good time down at the shore.  You're a
+bully little girl and deserve everything nice that's going.  Don't be
+too serious, Miss Shirley.  Play a little more.
+
+Your elderly friend,
+    Walter K Graham.
+
+
+In the bank book was an entry of five thousand dollars, on check
+account.  Shirley held her breath and stared at the figures with wide
+eyes, then slipped away and locked herself in the big white room that
+was hers.  Kneeling down by the bed she cried and prayed and smiled all
+in one, and thanked the Lord for making people so kind to her.  After
+that she went to find her mother.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was sitting on the wide upper piazza in a steamer chair
+looking off to sea and drawing in new life at every breath.  Her book
+was open on her lap, but she had forgotten to read in the joy of all
+that was about her.  To tell the truth she was wondering if the dear
+father who was gone from them knew of their happy estate, and thinking
+how glad he would be for them if he did.
+
+She read the letter twice before she looked at the bank book with its
+astonishing figures, and heard again Shirley's tale of the happening in
+the office the morning of the arrest.  Then she read the letter once
+more.
+
+"I'm not just sure, daughter," she said at last with a smile, "what we
+ought to do about this.  Are you?"
+
+"No," said Shirley, smiling; "I suppose I'll give it back, but wasn't
+it wonderful of him to do it?  Isn't it grand that there are such men
+in the world?"
+
+"It certainly is, dear, and I'm glad my little girl was able to do
+something that was of assistance to him; and that she has won her way
+into his good graces so simply and sweetly.  But I'm not so sure what
+you ought to do.  Hadn't we better pray about it a bit before you
+decide?  How soon ought you to write to him?  It's too late to reach
+him before he leaves for California, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he's just about starting now," said the girl.  "Don't you
+suppose he planned it so that I couldn't answer right away?  I don't
+know his address.  I can't do a thing till I find out where to write.
+I wouldn't like to send it to the office because they would probably
+think it was business and his secretary might open it."
+
+"Of course.  Then we'll just pray about it, shall we, dear?  I'm not
+just sure in my mind whether it's a well-meant bit of charity that we
+ought to hand back with sincere thanks, or whether it's God's way of
+rewarding my little girl for her faithfulness and quickness of action.
+Our Father knows we have been--and still are--in a hard place.  He
+knows that we have need of 'all these things' that money has to buy.
+You really did a good thing and saved Mr. Graham from great loss, you
+know, and perhaps he is the kind of man who would feel a great deal
+happier if he shared a little of it with you, was able to make some
+return for what you did for him.  However, five thousand dollars is a
+great deal of money for a brief service.  What do you think, dear?"
+
+"I don't know, mother dear.  I'm all muddled just as you say, but I
+guess it will come right if we pray about it.  Anyhow, I'm going to be
+happy over his thinking of me, whether I keep it or not."
+
+Shirley went thoughtfully back to her hammock and her magazines, a
+smile on her lips, a dream in her eyes.  She found herself wondering
+whether Sidney Graham knew about this money and what he would wish her
+to do about it.  Then suddenly she cast the whole question from her and
+plunged into her magazine, wondering why it was that almost any
+question that came into her mind promptly got around and entangled
+itself with Mr. Sidney Graham.  What did he have to do with it, anyway?
+
+The magazine story was very interesting and Shirley soon forgot
+everything else in the pleasure of surrendering herself to the printed
+page.  An hour went by, another passed, and Shirley was still oblivious
+to all about her.  Suddenly she became aware of a boy on a bicycle,
+riding almost up to the very steps, and whistling vigorously.
+
+"Miss Shirley Hollister here?" he demanded as he alighted on one foot
+on the lower step, the other foot poised for flight as soon as his
+errand should have been performed.
+
+"Why, yes," said Shirley, startled, struggling to her feet and letting
+a shower of magazines fall all about her.
+
+"Long distance wants yer," he announced, looking her over
+apathetically.  "Mr. Barnard, of Philadelphia, wants to talk to yer!"
+and with the final word chanted nasally he alighted upon his obedient
+steed and spun away down the walk again.
+
+"But, wait!  Where shall I go?  Where is the telephone?"
+
+"Pay station!" shouted the impervious child, turning his head over his
+shoulder, "Drug store!  Two blocks from the post office!"
+
+Without waiting to go upstairs Shirley, whose training had been to
+answer the telephone at once, caught up Elizabeth's parasol that lay on
+a settee by the door, rumpled her fingers through her hair by way of
+toilet and hurried down the steps in the direction the boy had
+disappeared, wondering what in the world Mr. Barnard could want of her?
+Was he going to call her back from her vacation?  Was this perhaps the
+only day she would have, this and yesterday?  There would always be
+yesterday!  With a sigh she looked wistfully at the sea.  If she had
+only known a summons was to come so soon she would not have wasted a
+second on magazines.  She would have sat and gazed all the afternoon at
+the sea.  If Mr. Barnard wanted her, of course she would have to go.
+Business was business and she couldn't afford to lose her job even with
+that fairy dream of five thousand to her credit in the bank.  She knew,
+of course, she meant to give that back.  It was hers for the day, but
+it could not become tangible.  It was beautiful, but it was right that
+it must go back, and if her employer felt he must cut short her
+vacation why of course she must acquiesce and just be glad she had had
+this much.  Perhaps it was just as well, anyway, for if Sidney Graham
+came down and spent a few days there was no knowing what foolish
+notions her heart would take, jumping and careening the way it had been
+doing lately when he just looked at her.  Yes, she would go back if Mr.
+Barnard wanted her.  It was the best thing she could do.  Though
+perhaps he would only be calling her to ask where she had left
+something for which they were searching.  That stupid Ashton girl who
+took her place might not have remembered all her directions.
+
+Breathless, with possibilities crowding upon her mind, she hurried into
+the drug store and sought the telephone booth.  It seemed ages before
+the connection was made and she heard Mr. Barnard's dry familiar tones
+over the phone:
+
+"That you, Miss Hollister?  This is Mr. Barnard.  I'm sorry to disturb
+you right in the midst of your holiday, but a matter has come up that
+is rather serious and I'm wondering if you could help us out for a day
+or two.  If you would we'd be glad to give you fifty dollars for the
+extra time, and let you extend your vacation to a month instead of two
+weeks.  Do you think you could spare a day or two to help us right
+away?"
+
+"Oh!  Why, yes, of course!" faltered Shirley, her eyes dancing at the
+thought of the extra vacation and money.
+
+"Thank you!  I was sure you would," said Mr. Barnard, with relief in
+his voice.  "You see we have got that Government contract.  The news
+just came in the afternoon mail.  It's rather particular business
+because it has to do with matters that the Government wishes to keep
+secret.  I am to go down to-morrow morning to Washington to receive
+instructions, and I have permission to bring a trusted private
+secretary with me.  Now you know, of course, that I couldn't take Miss
+Ashton.  She wouldn't be able to do what I want done even if she were
+one I could trust not to say a word about the matter.  I would take Jim
+Thorpe, but his father has just died and I can't very well ask him to
+leave.  Neither can I delay longer than to-morrow.  Now the question
+is, would you be willing to go to Washington in the morning?  I have
+looked up the trains and I find you can leave the shore at 8.10 and
+meet me in Baltimore at ten o'clock.  I will be waiting for you at the
+train gate, but in case we miss each other wait in the station, close
+to the telephone booths, till I find you.  We will take the next train
+for Washington and be there a little before noon.  If all goes well we
+ought to be through our business in plenty of time to make a four
+o'clock train home.  Of course there may be delays, and it is quite
+possible you might have to remain in Washington over night, though I
+hardly think so.  But in case you do I will see that you are safe and
+comfortable in a quiet hotel near the station where my wife's sister is
+staying this summer.
+
+"Of course your expenses will all be paid.  I will telegraph and have a
+mileage book put at your disposal that you can call for right there in
+your station in the morning.  Are you willing to undertake this for us?
+I assure you we shall not forget the service."
+
+When Shirley finally hung up the receiver and looked about the little
+country drug store in wonder at herself the very bottles on the shelves
+seemed to be whirling and dancing about before her eyes.  What strange
+exciting things were happening to her all in such breathless haste!
+Only one day at the shore and a piece of another, and here she was with
+a trip to Washington on her hands!  It certainly was bewildering to
+have things come in such rapid succession.  She wished it had come at
+another time, and not just now when she had not yet got used to the
+great sea and the wonder of the beautiful place where they were
+staying.  She did not want to be interrupted just yet.  It would not be
+quite the same when she got back to it she was afraid.  But of course
+she could not refuse.  It never entered her head to refuse.  She knew
+enough about the office to realize that Mr. Barnard must have her.
+Jimmie Thorpe would have been the one to go if he were available,
+because he was a man and had been with Barnard and Clegg for ten years
+and knew all their most confidential business, but of course Jimmie
+could not go with his father lying dead and his mother and invalid
+sister needing him; and there was no one else but herself.
+
+She thought it all out on the way back to the cottage, with a little
+pang at the thought of losing the next day and of having perhaps to
+stay over in Washington a day and maybe miss the arrival of Sidney
+Graham, if he should come in a day or two, as he had promised.  He
+might even come and go back again before she was able to return, and
+perhaps he would think her ungrateful to leave when he had been so kind
+to plan all this lovely vacation for her pleasure.  Then she brought
+herself up smartly and told herself decidedly that it was nothing to
+him whether she was there or not, and it certainly had no right to be
+anything to her.  It was a good thing she was going, and would probably
+be a good thing for all concerned if she stayed until he went back to
+the city again.
+
+With this firm determination she hurried up to the veranda where her
+mother sat with Doris, and told her story.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked troubled.
+
+"I'm sorry you gave him an answer, Shirley, without waiting to talk it
+over with me.  I don't believe I like the idea of your going to a
+strange city, all alone that way.  Of course Mr. Barnard will look
+after you in a way, but still he's a good deal of a stranger.  I do
+wish he had let you alone for your vacation.  It seems as if he might
+have found somebody else to go.  I wish Mr. Graham was here.  I
+shouldn't wonder if he would suggest some way out of it for you."
+
+But Shirley stiffened into dignity at once.
+
+"Really, mother dear, I'm sure I don't see what Mr. Graham would have
+to say about it if he were here.  I shouldn't ask his advice.  You see,
+mother, really, there isn't anybody else that could do this but Jimmie
+Thorpe, and he's out of the question.  It would be unthinkable that I
+should refuse in this emergency.  And you know Mr. Barnard has been
+very kind.  Besides, think of the ducky vacation I'll have afterward, a
+whole month!  And all that extra money!  That shall go to the rent of a
+better house for winter!  Think of it!  Don't you worry, mother dear!
+There isn't a thing in the world could happen to me.  I'll be the very
+most-discreetest person you ever heard of.  I'll even glance shyly at
+the White House and Capitol!  Come, let's go up and get dolled up for
+supper!  Won't the children be surprised when they hear I'm really to
+go to Washington!  I'm so excited I don't know what to do!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister said no more, and entered pleasantly into the merry talk
+at the table, telling Shirley what she must be sure to see at the
+nation's capital.  But the next morning just as Shirley was about to
+leave for the station, escorted by all the children, Mrs. Hollister
+came with a package of addressed postal cards which she had made George
+get for her the night before, and put them in Shirley's bag.
+
+"Just drop us a line as you go along, dear," she said.  "I'll feel
+happier about it to be hearing from you.  Mail one whenever you have a
+chance."
+
+Shirley laughed as she looked at the fat package.
+
+"All those, mother dear?  You must expect I am going to stay a month!
+You know I won't have much time for writing, and I fully expect to be
+back to-night or to-morrow at the latest."
+
+"Well, that's all right," said her mother.  "You can use them another
+time, then; but you can just put a line on one whenever it is
+convenient.  I shall enjoy getting them even after you get back.  You
+know this is your first journey out into the world alone."
+
+Shirley stooped to kiss the little mother.
+
+"All right, dear!  I'll write you a serial story.  Each one continued
+in our next.  Good-by!  Don't take too long a walk to-day.  I want you
+rested to hear all I'll have to tell when I get back to-night!"
+
+Shirley wrote the first postal card as soon as she was settled in the
+train, describing the other occupants of the car, and making a vivid
+picture of the landscape that was slipping by her windows.  She wrote
+the second in the Baltimore station, after she had met Mr. Barnard,
+while he went to get seats in the parlor car, and she mailed them both
+at Baltimore.
+
+The third was written as they neared Washington, with the dim vision of
+the great monument dawning on her wondering sight in the distance.  Her
+last sentence gave her first impression of the nation's capital.
+
+They had eaten lunch in the dining car, a wonderful experience to the
+girl, and she promised herself another postal devoted to that, but
+there was no time to write more after they reached Washington.  She was
+put into a taxi and whirled away to an office where her work began.
+She caught glimpses of great buildings on the way, and gazed with awe
+at the dome of the Capitol building.  Mr. Barnard was kind and pointed
+out this and that, but it was plain his mind was on the coming
+interview.  When Shirley sat at last in a quiet corner of a big dark
+office, her pen poised, her note-book ready for work, and looked at the
+serious faces of the men in the room, she felt as if she had been
+rushed through a treasure vault of glorious jewels and thrust into the
+darkness of a tomb.  But presently the talk about her interested her.
+Things were being said about the vital interests of the country, scraps
+of sentences that reminded her of the trend of talk in the daily
+papers, and the headings of front columns.  She looked about her with
+interest and noted the familiarity with which these men quoted the
+words of those high up in authority in the government.  With awe she
+began her work, taking down whatever Mr. Barnard dictated, her fingers
+flying over the tiny pages of the note-book, in small neat characters,
+keeping pace with the voices going on about her.  The detail work she
+was setting down was not of especial interest to her, save that it was
+concerned with Government work, for its phraseology was familiar and a
+part of her daily routine office work at home; but she set every sense
+on the alert to get the tiniest detail and not to make the smallest
+mistake, understanding from the voices of the men about her that it was
+of vital interest to the country that this order should be filled
+quickly and accurately.  As she capped her fountain pen, and slipped
+the rubber band on her note-book when it was over, she heard one of the
+men just behind her say in a low tone to Mr. Barnard:
+
+"You're sure of your secretary of course?  I just want to give you the
+tip that this thing is being very closely watched.  We have reason to
+believe there's some spying planned.  Keep your notes carefully and
+don't let too many in on this.  We know pretty well what's going on,
+but it's not desirable just now to make any arrests until we can watch
+a little longer and round up the whole party.  So keep your eyes
+peeled, and don't talk."
+
+"Oh, certainly!  I quite understand," said Mr. Barnard, "and I have a
+most discreet secretary," and he glanced with a significant smile
+toward Shirley as she rose.
+
+"Of course!" said the other.  "She looks it," and he bowed
+deferentially to Shirley as she passed.
+
+She did not think of it at the time, but afterwards she recalled how in
+acknowledging his courtesy she had stepped back a little and almost
+stumbled over a page, a boy about George's age, who had been standing
+withdrawn into the shadow of the deep window.  She remembered he had a
+keen intelligent look, and had apologized and vanished immediately.  A
+moment later it seemed to be the same boy in blue clothes and gilt
+buttons who held the outer door open for them to pass out--or was this
+a taller one?  She glanced again at his side face with a lingering
+thought of George as she paused to fasten her glove and slip her
+note-book into her hand-bag.
+
+"I think I will put you into the taxi and let you go right back to the
+station while I attend to another errand over at the War Department.
+It won't take me long.  We can easily catch that four-o'clock train
+back.  I suppose you are anxious to get back to-night?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Shirley earnestly, "I must, if possible.  Mother isn't
+well and she worries so easily."
+
+"Well, I don't know why we can't.  Then perhaps you can come up to town
+to-morrow and type those notes for us.  By the way, I guess it would be
+better for me to take them and lock them in the safe to-night.  No,
+don't stop to get them out now"--as Shirley began to unfasten her bag
+and get the note-book out--"We haven't much time if we want to catch
+that train.  Just look after them carefully and I'll get them when we
+are on the train."
+
+He helped her into the taxi, gave the order, "To the station," and
+touching his hat, went rapidly over to the War Department Building.  No
+one saw a boy with a blue cap and brass buttons steal forth on a
+bicycle from the court just below the office, and circling about the
+asphalt uncertainly for a moment, shoot off across the park.
+
+Shirley sat up very straight and kept her eyes about her.  She was glad
+they were taking another way to the station so that she might see more.
+When she got there she would write another postal and perhaps it would
+go on the same train with her.
+
+It was all too short, that ride up Pennsylvania Avenue and around by
+the Capitol.  Shirley gathered up her bag and prepared to get out
+reluctantly.  She wished she might have just one more hour to go about,
+but of course that would be impossible if she wished to reach home
+to-night.
+
+But before the driver of the car could get down and open the door for
+her to get out a boy with a bicycle slid up to the curb and touching
+his gilt-buttoned cap respectfully said:
+
+"Excuse me, Miss, but Mr. Barnard sent me after you.  He says there's
+been some mistake and you'll have to come back and get it corrected."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, too surprised to think for a minute.  "Oh!  Then
+please hurry, for Mr. Barnard wants to get back in time to get that
+four-o'clock train."
+
+The driver frowned, but the boy stepped up and handed him something,
+saying:
+
+"That's all right, Joe, he sent you this."  The driver's face cleared
+and he started his machine again.  The boy vanished into the throng.
+It was another of Shirley's after-memories that she had caught a
+glimpse of a scrap of paper along with the money the boy had handed the
+driver, and that he had stuffed it in his pocket after looking intently
+at it; but at the time she thought nothing of it.  She was only glad
+that they were skimming along rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Shirley's sense of direction had always been keen.  Even as a child she
+could tell her way home when others were lost.  It was some minutes,
+however, before she suddenly became aware that the car was being driven
+in an entirely different direction from the place she had just left Mr.
+Barnard.  For a moment she looked around puzzled, thinking the man was
+merely taking another way around, but a glance back where the white
+dome of the Capitol loomed, palace-like, above the city, made her sure
+that something was wrong.  She looked at the buildings they were
+passing, at the names of the streets--F Street--they had not been on
+that before!  These stores and tall buildings were all new to her eyes.
+Down there at the end of the vista was a great building all columns.
+Was that the Treasury and were they merely seeing it from another
+angle?  It was all very confusing, but the time was short, why had the
+man not taken the shorter way?
+
+She looked at her small wrist watch anxiously and watched eagerly for
+the end of the street.  But before the great building was reached the
+car suddenly curved around a corner to the right,--one block,--a turn
+to the left,--another turn,--a confusion of new names and streets!  New
+York Avenue!  Connecticut Avenue!  Thomas Circle!  The names spun by so
+fast she could read but few of them, and those she saw she wanted to
+remember that she might weave them into her next postal.  She opened
+her bag, fumbled for her little silver pencil in the pocket of her coat
+and scribbled down the names she could read as she passed, on the back
+of the bundle of postal cards, and without looking at her writing.  She
+did not wish to miss a single sight.  Here were rows of homes, pleasant
+and palatial, some of them even cozy.  The broad avenues were
+enchanting, the park spaces, the lavish scattering of noble statues.
+Bah the time was hastening by and they were going farther and farther
+from the station and from the direction of the offices where she had
+been.  She twisted her neck once more and the Capitol dome loomed soft
+and blended in the distance.  A thought of alarm leaped into her mind.
+She leaned forward and spoke to the driver:
+
+"You understood, didn't you, that I am to return to the office where
+you took me with the gentleman?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"All right, lady.  Yes, lady!"  And the car rushed on, leaping out upon
+the beautiful way and disclosing new beauties ahead.  For a few minutes
+more Shirley was distracted from her anxiety in wondering whether the
+great buildings on her right belonged to any of the embassies or not.
+And then as the car swerved and plunged into another street and darted
+into a less thickly populated district, with trees and vacant lots
+almost like the country, alarm arose once more and she looked wildly
+back and tried to see the signs; but they were going faster still now
+upon a wide empty road past stretches of park, with winding drives and
+charming views, and a great stone bridge to the right, arching over a
+deep ravine below, a railroad crossing it.  There were deer parks
+fenced with high wire, and filled with the pretty creatures.
+Everything went by so fast that Shirley hardly realized that something
+really must be wrong before she seemed to be in the midst of a strange
+world aloof.
+
+"I am sure you have made a mistake!"  The girl's clear voice cut
+through the driving wind as they rushed along.  "I must go back right
+away to that office from which you brought me.  I must go _at once_ or
+I shall be too late for my train!  The gentleman will be very angry!"
+She spoke in the tone that always brought instant obedience from the
+employees around the office building at home.
+
+But the driver was stolid.  He scarcely stirred in his seat to turn
+toward her.  His thick voice was brought back to her on the breeze:
+
+"No, lady, it's all right, lady!  I had my orders, lady!  You needn't
+to worry.  I get you there plenty time."
+
+A wild fear seized Shirley, and her heart lifted itself as was its
+habit, to God.  "Oh, my Father!  Take care of me!  Help me!  Show me
+what to do!" she cried.
+
+Thoughts rushed through her brain as fast as the car rushed over the
+ground.  What was she up against?  Was this man crazy or bad?  Was he
+perhaps trying to kidnap her?  What for?  She shuddered to look the
+thought in the face.  Or was it the notes?  She remembered the men in
+the office and what they had said about keeping still and
+"spying-enemies."  But perhaps she was mistaken.  Maybe this man was
+only stupid, and it would all come out right in a few minutes.  But no,
+she must not wait for anything like that.  She must take no chance.
+The notes were in her keeping.  She must put them where they would be
+safe.  No telling how soon she would be overpowered and searched if
+that was what they were after.  She must hide them, and she must think
+of some way to send word to Mr. Barnard before it was toe late.  No
+telling what moment they would turn from the main road and she be
+hidden far from human habitation.  She must work fast.  What could she
+do?  Scream to the next passer-by?  No, for the car was going too fast
+for that to do any good, and the houses up this way seemed all to be
+isolated, and few people about.  There were houses on ahead beyond the
+park.  She must have something ready to throw out when they came to
+them.  "Oh God!  Help me think what to do!" she prayed again, and then
+looking down at her bag she saw the postal cards.  Just the thing!
+Quickly she scribbled, still holding her hand within the bag so that
+her movements were not noticeable:
+
+"Help!  Quick!  Being carried off!  Auto!  Connecticut Ave.!  Park.
+Deer.  Stone bridge.  Phone Mr. Clegg.  Don't tell mother!  Shirley."
+
+She turned the card over, drew a line through her mother's name and
+wrote Carol's in its place.  Stealthily she slipped the card up her
+sleeve, dropped her hand carelessly over the side of the car for a
+moment, let the card flutter from her fingers, and wrote another.
+
+She had written three cards and dropped them in front of houses before
+it suddenly occurred to her that even if these cards should be picked
+up and mailed it would be sometime before they reached their
+destination and far too late for help to reach her in time.  Her heart
+suddenly went down in a swooning sickness and her breath almost went
+from her.  Her head was reeling, and all the time she was trying to
+tell herself that she was exaggerating this thing, that probably the
+man would slow up or something and it would all be explained.  Yes, he
+was slowing up, but for what?  It was in another lonely spot, and out
+from the bushes there appeared, as if by magic, another man, a
+queer-looking man with a heavy mustache that looked as if it didn't
+belong to him.  He stood alertly waiting for the car and sprang into
+the front seat without waiting for it to stop, or even glancing back at
+her, and the car shot forward again with great leaps.
+
+Shirley dropped out the two cards together that she had just written
+and leaned forward, touching the newcomer on the arm.
+
+"Won't you please make this driver understand that he is taking me to
+the wrong place?" she said with a pleasant smile.  "I must get back to
+an office two or three blocks away from the Treasury Building
+somewhere.  I must turn back at once or I shall miss my appointment and
+be late for my train.  It is quite important.  Tell him, please, I will
+pay him well if he will get me back at once."
+
+The stranger turned with an oily smile.
+
+"That's all right, Miss.  He isn't making any mistake.  We're taking
+you right to Secretary Baker's country home.  He sent for your man,
+Mr.----  What's his name?  I forget.  Barnard?  Oh, yes.  He sent for
+Mr. Barnard to come out there, sent his private car down for him; and
+Mr. Barnard, he left orders we should go after you and bring you along.
+It's something they want to change in those notes you was taking.
+There was a mistake, and the Secretary he wanted to look after the
+matter himself."
+
+Shirley sat back with a sudden feeling of weakness and a fear she might
+faint, although she had never done such a thing in her life.  She was
+not deceived for an instant now, although she saw at once that she must
+not let the man know it.  The idea that Secretary Baker would pause in
+the midst of his multiplicity of duties to look into the details of a
+small article of manufacture was ridiculous!  It was equally impossible
+that Mr. Barnard would have sent strangers after her and let her be
+carried off in this queer way.  He had been most particular that she
+should be looked after carefully.  She was horribly to blame that she
+had allowed herself to be carried back at all until Mr. Barnard himself
+appeared; and yet, was she?  That surely had been the page from the
+office who came with the message?  Well, never mind, she was in for it
+now, and she must do her best while there was any chance to do
+anything.  She must drop all those postals somehow, and she must hide
+those notes somewhere, and perhaps write some others,--fake ones.  What
+should she do first?
+
+"Father, help me!  Show me!  Oh, don't let me lose the notes!  Please
+take care of me!"  Again and again her heart prayed as her hand worked
+stealthily in her bag, while she tried to put a pleasant smile upon her
+face and pretend she was still deceived, leaning forward and speaking
+to the strange man once more:
+
+"Is Secretary Baker's home much farther from here?" she asked, feeling
+her lips draw stiffly in the frozen smile she forced.  "Will it take
+long?"
+
+"'Bout ten minutes!" the man answered graciously, with a peculiar look
+toward the driver.  "Nice view 'round here!" he added affably with a
+leering look of admiration toward her.
+
+Shirley's heart stood still with new fear, but she managed to make her
+white lips smile again and murmur, "Charming!"
+
+Then she leaned back again and fussed around in her bag, ostentatiously
+bringing out a clean handkerchief, though she really had been detaching
+the pages which contained the notes from her loose-leaf note-book.
+There were not many of them, for she always wrote closely in small
+characters.  But where should she hide them?  Pull the lining away from
+the edge of her bag and slip them inside?  No, for the bag would be the
+first place they would likely search, and she could not poke the lining
+back smoothly so it would not show.  If she should try to drop the tiny
+pages down her neck inside her blouse, the men would very likely see
+her.  Dared she try to slip the leaves down under the linen robe that
+lay over her lap and put them inside her shoe?  She was wearing plain
+little black pumps, and the pages would easily go in the soles, three
+or four in each.  Once in they would be well hidden, and they would not
+rattle and give notice of their presence; but oh, what a terrible risk
+if anything should happen to knock off her shoe, or if they should try
+to search her!  Still she must take some risk and this was the safest
+risk at hand.  She must try it and then write out some fake notes,
+giving false numbers and sizes, and other phraseology.  Or stay!
+Wasn't there already something written in that book that would answer?
+Some specifications she had written down for the Tillman-Brooks
+Company.  Yes, she was sure.  It wasn't at all for the same articles,
+nor the same measurements, but only an expert would know that.  She
+leaned down quite naturally to pick up her handkerchief and deftly
+managed to get five small leaves slipped into her right shoe.  It
+occurred to her that she must keep her keepers deceived, so she asked
+once more in gracious tones:
+
+"Would it trouble you any to mail a card for me as soon as possible
+after we arrive?  I am afraid my mother will be worried about my delay
+and she isn't well.  I suppose they have a post office out this way."
+
+"Sure, Miss!" said the man again, with another leering smile that made
+her resolve to have no further conversation than was absolutely
+necessary.  She took out her fountain pen and hurriedly wrote:
+
+"Detained longer than I expected.  May not get back to-night.  S. H.,"
+and handed the card to the man.  He took it and turned it over, all too
+evidently reading it, and put it in his pocket.  Shirley felt that she
+had made an impression of innocence by the move which so far was good.
+She put away her fountain pen deliberately, and managed in so doing to
+manipulate the rest of the leaves of notes into her left shoe.  Somehow
+that gave her a little confidence and she sat back and began to wonder
+if there was anything more she could do.  Those dropped postals were
+worse than useless, of course.  Why had she not written an appeal to
+whoever picked them up?  Suiting the action to the thought she wrote
+another postal card--her stock was getting low, there were but two more
+left.
+
+"For Christ's sake send the police to help me!  I am being carried off
+by two strange men!  Shirley Hollister."
+
+She marked out the address on the other side and wrote: "To whoever
+picks this up."  She fluttered it to the breeze cautiously; but her
+heart sank as she realized how little likelihood there was of its being
+picked up for days perhaps.  For who would stop in a car to notice a
+bit of paper on the road?  And there seemed to be but few pedestrians.
+If she only had something larger, more attractive.  She glanced at her
+belongings and suddenly remembered the book she had brought with her to
+read, one of the new novels from the cottage, a goodly sized volume in
+a bright red cover.  The very thing!
+
+With a cautious glance at her keepers she took up the book as if to
+read, and opening it at the flyleaf began to write surreptitiously much
+the same message that had been on her last postal, signing her name and
+home address and giving her employers' address.  Her heart was beating
+wildly when she had finished.  She was trying to think just how she
+should use this last bit of ammunition to the best advantage.  Should
+she just drop it in the road quietly?  If only there were some way to
+fasten the pages open so her message would be read!  Her handkerchief!
+Of course!  She folded it cornerwise and slipped it in across the pages
+so that the book would fall open at the fly leaf, knotting the ends on
+the back of the cover.  Every moment had to be cautious, and she must
+remember to keep her attitude of reading with the printed pages
+covering the handkerchief.  It seemed hours that it took her, her
+fingers trembled so.  If it had not been for the rushing noise of wind
+and car she would not have dared so much undiscovered, but apparently
+her captors were satisfied that she still believed their story about
+going to Secretary Baker's country house, for they seemed mainly
+occupied in watching to see if they were pursued, casting anxious
+glances back now and then, but scarcely noticing her at all.
+
+Shirley had noticed two or three times when a car had passed them that
+the men both leaned down to do something at their feet to the machinery
+of the car.  Were they afraid of being recognized?  Would this perhaps
+give her a chance to fling her book out where it would be seen by
+people in an oncoming car?  Oh, if she but had the strength and skill
+to fling it _into_ a car.  But of course that was impossible without
+attracting the attention of the two men.  Nevertheless, she must try
+what she could do.
+
+She lifted her eyes to the road ahead and lo, a big car was bearing
+down upon them!  She had almost despaired of meeting any more, for the
+road was growing more and more lonely and they must have come many
+miles.  As soon as the two men in front of her sighted the car, they
+seemed to settle in their seats and draw their hats down a little
+farther over their eyes.  The same trouble seemed to develop with the
+machinery at their feet that Shirley had noticed before, and they
+bobbed and ducked and seemed to be wholly engrossed with their own
+affairs.
+
+Shirley's heart was beating so fast that it seemed as though it would
+suffocate her, and her hand seemed powerless as it lay innocently
+holding the closed book with the knotted handkerchief turned down out
+of sight; but she was girding herself, nerving herself for one great
+last effort, and praying to be guided.
+
+The big car came on swiftly and was about to pass, when Shirley half
+rose and hurled her book straight at it and then sank back in her seat
+with a fearful terror upon her, closing her eyes for one brief second,
+not daring to watch the results of her act,--if there were to be any
+results.
+
+The men in the front seat suddenly straightened up and looked around.
+
+"What's the matter?" growled the man who had got in last in quite a
+different tone from any he had used before.  "What you tryin' to put
+over on us?"
+
+Shirley gasped and caught at her self-control.
+
+"I've dropped my book," she stammered out wildly, "Could you stop long
+enough to pick it up?  It was borrowed!" she ended sweetly as if by
+inspiration, and wondering at the steadiness of her tone when blood was
+pounding so in her throat and ears, and everything was black before
+her.  Perhaps--oh, perhaps they would stop and she could cry out to the
+people for help.
+
+The man rose up in his seat and looked back.  Shirley cast one
+frightened glance back, too, and saw in that brief second that the
+other car had stopped and someone was standing up and looking back.
+
+"Hell!  No!" said her captor briefly, ducking down in his seat.  "_Let
+her out!_" he howled to the driver, and the car broke into a galloping
+streak, the wheels hardly seeming to touch the ground, the tonneau
+bounding and swaying this way and that.  Shirley had all she could do
+to keep in her seat.  At one moment she thought how easy it would be to
+spring from the car and lie in a little still heap at the roadside.
+But there were the notes!  She must not abandon her trust even for so
+fearful an escape from her captors.  Suddenly, without warning, they
+turned a sharp curve and struck into a rough, almost unbroken road into
+the woods, and the thick growth seemed to close in behind them and shut
+them out from the world.
+
+Shirley shut her eyes and prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The next trolley that passed the old barn after the Hollisters had left
+brought a maid servant and a man servant from the Graham place.  The
+other old servant met them, and together the three went to work.  They
+had brought with them a lot of large dust-covers and floor-spreads such
+as are used by housemaids in cleaning a room, and with these they now
+proceeded to cover all the large pieces of furniture in the place.  In
+a very short space of time the rugs and bits of carpet were carefully
+rolled up, the furniture piled in small compass in the middle of the
+rooms, and everything enveloped in thick coverings.  The curtains,
+bric-â-brac, and even the dishes were put away carefully, and the whole
+big, inviting home was suddenly denuded.  The clothes from the
+calico-curtained clothes-presses were folded and laid in drawers, and
+everything made perfectly safe for a lot of workmen to come into the
+house.  Even the hay-loft bedrooms shared in this process.  Only a cot
+was left for the old servant and a few necessary things for him to use,
+and most of these he transported to the basement out of the way.  When
+the work was done the man and maid took the trolley back home again and
+the other old man servant arranged to make his Sabbath as pleasant as
+possible in the company of his brother from the near-by farm.
+
+Monday morning promptly at eight o'clock the trolley landed a bevy of
+workmen, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and furnace men, with a
+foreman who set them all at work as if it were a puzzle he had studied
+out and memorized the solution.  In a short time the quiet spot was
+full of sound, the symphony of industry, the rhythm of toil.  Some men
+were working away with the furnace that had been stored in the cellar;
+others were measuring, fitting, cutting holes for lead pipes; still
+others were sawing away at the roof, making great gashes in its mossy
+extent; and two men were busy taking down the old barn door.  Out in
+front more men were building a vat for mortar, and opening bags of lime
+and sand that began to arrive.  Three men with curious aprons made of
+ticking, filled with thin wire nails, were frantically putting laths on
+the uprights that the carpenters had already set up, and stabbing them
+with nails from a seemingly inexhaustible supply in their mouths.  It
+was as if they had all engaged to build the tower of Babel in a day,
+and meant to win a prize at it.  Such sounds!  Such shoutings, such
+bangings, thumpings, and harsh, raucous noises!  The bird in the tall
+tree looked and shivered, thankful that her brood were well away on
+their wings before all this cataclysm came to pass.
+
+Presently arrived a load of sashes, doors, and wooden frames, and
+another load of lumber.  Things can be done in a hurry if you have
+money and influence and the will to insist upon what you want.  Before
+night there was a good start made toward big changes in the old barn.
+
+Plumbers and gas-fitters and men who were putting in the hot-water heat
+chased one another around the place, each man seeking to get his pipes
+in place before the lathers got to that spot; and the contractor was
+everywhere, proving his right to be selected for this rush job.  As
+soon as the lathers had finished with a room the plasterers took
+possession, and the old door was rapidly being replaced with a great
+glazed floor set in a frame of more sashes, so that the old darkness
+was gone entirely.
+
+In the roof big dormer windows were taking the place of the two or
+three little eyebrow affairs that had given air to the hay heretofore,
+and the loft was fast becoming pleasanter than the floor below.
+
+Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a wide
+cement-floor piazza with stone foundations and low stone walls was to
+run across the entire front.  Another chimney was rising from the
+region of the kitchen.  A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf
+attached appeared next, with signs of a butler's pantry between kitchen
+and dining-room.  A delightful set of china-closet doors with little
+diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the
+dining-room, and some bookcases with sliding doors began to develop
+along the walls of the living-room.  Down in the basement a man was
+fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and on both the first floor and
+the second bathrooms were being made.  If the place hadn't been so big,
+the workmen would have got in one another's way.  Closets big and
+little were being put in, and parts of a handsome staircase were lying
+about, until you wouldn't know the place at all.  Every evening the old
+servant and the neighbor next door, who used to rent the old barn
+before he built his own new one, came together to look over what had
+been accomplished during the day, and to discourse upon this changing
+world and the wonders of it.  The farmer, in fact, learned a great deal
+about modern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them
+to bear upon his own modest farmhouse.  He had money in the bank, and
+why shouldn't he "have things convenient for Sally"?
+
+When Sidney Graham reached the city on Monday morning he scarcely took
+time to read his mail in the office and give the necessary attention to
+the day's work before he was up and off again, flying along the
+Glenside Road as fast as his car would carry him.  His mind certainly
+was not on business that morning.  He was as eager as a child to see
+how work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small
+chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every
+minute count, no matter how much it cost.  He spent a large part of
+Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of
+progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn.  But when
+Tuesday arrived an accumulation of work at the office in connection
+with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk.
+He had hoped to get away in time to reach Glenside before the workmen
+left in the afternoon, but four o'clock arrived with still a great pile
+of letters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day.
+
+He had just signed his name for the forty-ninth time and laid his pen
+down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk
+rang.  He hesitated.  Should he answer it and be hindered again, or
+call his secretary and let her attend to it while he slipped away to
+his well-earned respite?  A second insistent ring, however, brought him
+back to duty and he reached out and took up the receiver.
+
+"Is this Mr. Sidney Graham?  Long distance is calling!"
+
+The young man frowned impatiently and wished he had sent for his
+secretary.  It was probably another tiresome confab on that Chicago
+matter, and it really wasn't worth the trouble, anyway.  Then a small
+scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke:
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Graham?  Well, this is Carol.  Say, Mr. Graham, I'm
+afraid something awful has happened to Shirley!  I don't know what to
+do, and I thought I'd better ask you."  Her voice broke off in a gasp
+like a sob.
+
+A cold chill struck at the young man's heart, and a vision of Shirley
+battling with the ocean waves was instantly conjured up.
+
+"Shirley!  Where is she?  Tell me, quick!" he managed to say, though
+the words seemed to stick in his throat.
+
+"She's down at Washington," answered Carol.  "Mr. Barnard phoned her
+last night.  There was something special nobody else could take notes
+about, because it was for a Government contract, and has to be secret.
+Mr. Barnard asked her to please go and she went this morning.  Mother
+didn't like her to go, but she addressed a lot of postal cards for her
+to write back, and one came postmarked Baltimore in this afternoon's
+mail, saying she was having a nice time.  But just now a call came for
+mother to go to the telephone.  She was asleep and George was crabbing
+so I had to come.  It was a strange man in Washington.  He said he had
+just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mother, that all
+said 'Help!  Quick!  Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to
+phone to the police.'  He took the postals to the police station, but
+he thought he ought to phone us.  And oh, Mr. Graham, _what shall I
+do_?  I can't tell mother.  It will kill her, and how can we help
+Shirley?"
+
+"Don't tell mother," said Graham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of
+his horror.  "Be a brave girl, Carol.  A great deal depends on you just
+now.  Have you phoned Mr. Barnard?  Oh, you say he's in Washington?  He
+was to meet your sister in Baltimore?  He _did_ meet her you say?  The
+postal card said she had met him?  Well, the next thing is to phone Mr.
+Clegg and find out if he knows anything.  I'll do that at once, and
+unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington
+on the next train.  Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past
+five.  I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry.  Then
+you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully.  Say
+you went to take a walk.  Isn't Elizabeth with you?  Well, tell her to
+help keep your mother from suspecting anything.  Above all things don't
+cry!  It won't do any good and it may do lots of harm.  Get George off
+by himself and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make
+some excuse to go down town after supper and stay at the telephone
+office till ten o'clock.  I may want to call him up from Washington.
+Now be a brave little girl.  I suspect your sister Shirley would tell
+you to pray.  Good-by."
+
+"I will!" gasped Carol.  "Good-by!"
+
+Graham pressed his foot on the bell under his desk and reached out to
+slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers.  His secretary
+appeared at the door.
+
+"Get me Barnard and Clegg on the phone!  Ask for Mr. Barnard or, if he
+isn't in, Mr. Clegg.  Then go out to the other phone and call up the
+station.  Find out what's the next express to Washington.  Tell
+Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the station and bring my car back
+to the garage."
+
+He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe,
+jotting down a few notes for the next day's work, trying to think of
+everything at once.  The secretary handed him the phone, quietly
+saying, "Mr. Clegg on the phone," and went out of the room.
+
+Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but
+just in receipt of a telegram from Police Headquarters in Washington
+saying that a book with Barnard and Clegg's address and an appeal from
+a young woman named Shirley Hollister who was apparently being
+kidnapped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a passing
+car and brought to them.  They had sent forces in search of the girl at
+once and would do all in their power to find her.  Meantime they would
+like any information that would be helpful in the search.
+
+Mr. Clegg was much excited.  He appeared to have lost his head.  He
+seemed glad to have another cooler mind at work on the case.  He
+spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the
+necessity for secrecy.  He said he hoped it wouldn't get into the
+papers, and that it would be Barnard and Clegg's undoing if it did.  He
+seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably
+had, than about the girl's situation.  When Graham brought him up
+rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard
+that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no
+significance to that.  He knew Barnard's usual hotel address in
+Washington but hadn't thought to phone him about the telegram from
+police headquarters.  Graham hung up at last in a panic of fury and
+dismay, ringing violently for his secretary again.
+
+"The next train leaves at five o'clock," she said capably, as she
+entered.  "Bromwell has gone after the car.  I told him to buy you a
+mileage book and save your time at this end.  You have forty minutes
+and he will be back in plenty of time."
+
+"Good!" said Graham.  "Now call up long distance and get me Police
+Headquarters in Washington.  No!  Use the phone in father's office
+please, I'll have to use this while you're getting them."
+
+As soon as she had left the room he called up the shore again and was
+fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being
+close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of
+nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders.
+
+"Can you give me an exact description of your sister's dress, and
+everything that she had with her when she started this morning?" asked
+Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down.
+
+Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley's simple outfit exactly,
+even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally
+through the small hand-bag she had carried.
+
+"Oh, yes!" she added, "and she had a book to read!  One she found here
+in the cottage.  It had a red cover and was called, "From the Car
+Behind."
+
+Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more details of
+Shirley's plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a
+message to George to be at the phone from half-past eight to ten.
+
+He was all ready to go to his train when the Washington call came in,
+and as he hurried to his father's office to answer it he found his
+heart crying out to an Unseen Power to help in this trying hour and
+protect the sweet girl in awful peril.
+
+"Oh, God, I love her!" he found his heart saying over and over again,
+as if it had started out to be an individual by itself without his will
+or volition.
+
+There was no comfort from Washington Police Headquarters.  Nothing more
+had been discovered save another crumpled postal lying along the
+roadside.  They received with alacrity, however, Mr. Barnard's
+Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and
+her belongings.  When Graham had finished the hasty conversation he had
+to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in
+the parlor car and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over
+him he was almost overwhelmed.  He had led a comparatively tranquil
+life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and
+this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way.
+Calamity?  No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity.  He was
+hurrying to her!  He would find her!  He would not allow himself to
+think that anything had befallen her.  But wherever she was, if she was
+still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying
+now, and he would pray too!  Yes, pray as she had taught him.  Oh, God!
+If he only knew how to pray better!  What was it she had said so often?
+"Whatsoever ye ask in my name"--yes, that was it--"I will do it."  What
+was that talismanic Name?  Ah!  Christ!  "Oh, God, in the name of
+Christ--"  But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite
+and dear to be put into words, so his petition went up in spirit form,
+unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in
+torture.
+
+At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to
+meet him at the train, and when he got out at Union Station the first
+person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through
+the bars of the train gate.  He grasped the young man's hand as if it
+were a last straw for a drowning man to cling to, and demanded in a
+shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister.
+
+One of the first questions that Graham asked was whether Barnard had
+been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation,
+to report her disappearance.
+
+"Well, no, I hadn't thought of that,"' said Barnard blankly.  "What
+would they know about it?  The fact is I was rather anxious to keep the
+facts from getting to them.  You see they warned me that there were
+parties anxious to get hold of those specifications.  It's Government
+work, you know."
+
+"They should know at once," said Graham sternly.  "They may have inside
+information which would give us a clew to follow.  The secret service
+men are onto a lot of things that we common mortals don't suspect."
+
+Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced.
+
+"Well, what _have_ you done so far?  We would better understand each
+other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground.  You
+have been in communication with Police Headquarters, of course?" asked
+Graham.
+
+"Why, no," said the older man apologetically.  "You see, I got here
+just in time for the train, and failing to find the young lady in the
+station where we had agreed to meet, I took it for granted that she had
+used the extra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city,
+as I suggested, and had somehow failed to get back in time.  I couldn't
+understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home to-night.
+I could have caught the train myself, but didn't exactly like to leave
+her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it's perfectly safe for
+a steady girl like that.  Afterward it occurred to me that she might
+have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but
+there was really very little time to decide, for the train pulled out
+two minutes after I reached the station.  I waited about here for a
+time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is
+stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for
+the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down
+to the shore for a few days; so I had something to eat and while I was
+in the dining-room your telegram came.  I was hoping somehow you had
+seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right."
+
+One could see the poor man had no conception of what was due to a lady
+in his care, and Graham looked at him for a moment with rage, wishing
+he could take him by the throat and shake some sense into him.
+
+"Then you don't know that she's been kidnapped and the police are out
+on track for her?" said Graham dryly.
+
+"No!  You don't say!" exclaimed Barnard, turning white and showing he
+had some real feeling after all.  "Kidnapped!  Why--why--how _could_
+she?  And she's got _those notes_!  Why, Graham!  You're fooling!  Why,
+how came you to know?"
+
+Graham told him tersely as he walked the man over to the telephone
+booths, and finished with:
+
+"Now, you go in that booth and phone your Government man, and I'll call
+up police headquarters and see what's doing.  We've got to work fast,
+for there's no telling what may have happened in the last three hours.
+It's up to us to find that girl before anything worse happens to her."
+
+White and trembling Barnard tottered into the booth.  When he came out
+again the sleuth-hounds of the Secret Service were on the trail of
+Shirley Hollister's captors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The car that was bearing Shirley Hollister through the lonely wooded
+road at a breathless speed suddenly came to a halt in the rear of an
+old house whose front faced on another road equally lonely.  During the
+brief time that they had been in the woods, the sky seemed to have
+perceptibly darkened with the coming evening.
+
+Shirley looked about her with increased fright.  It was almost night
+and here was her prison, far from town or human dwelling place.  Even
+the road was at some distance in front of the house, and there were
+more woods on either side.
+
+"This here is Secretary Baker's summer home," announced the man who had
+done the talking, as he climbed out of the car and opened the door for
+her.  "You can just step in the back door and go through to the parlor;
+the help's all out this afternoon.  The Secretary'll be down presently.
+He always takes a nap afternoons about this time.  I'll tell him you've
+come."
+
+There seemed nothing to do but obey, and Shirley chose to let the farce
+continue.  Surely the man must know she was not a fool, but it was
+better than open hostility.  There was nothing to be gained by
+informing him that she knew he was guying her.
+
+"Oh, Jesus Christ, I trust myself to you!" she breathed in her heart as
+she stepped across the leaf-strewn grass and looked about her,
+wondering whether she should ever walk the earth again after she had
+stepped into the dim tree-shrouded house.  But why go in?
+
+"I think I will remain out here," she said calmly, albeit her heart was
+pounding away like a trip-hammer.  "Please tell Mr. Baker to come to me
+here.  It is much pleasanter than in the house a day like this."
+
+"Aw no!  You won't neither!  The Secretary don't receive in the open
+air even in summer," drawled the man, and she noticed that he and the
+driver straightened up and stepped closer to her, one on either side.
+She gave one wild glance toward the open space.  There was simply no
+chance at all to run away even if she succeeded in eluding them at the
+start by a quick, unexpected dash.  They were alert athletic men, and
+no telling how many more were hidden in the house.
+
+"Oh, very well, of course, if it's a matter of etiquette!" said Shirley
+pleasantly, determined to keep up the farce as long as possible.
+
+A cold, dark air met the girl as she stepped within the creaking door
+and looked about her.  At her left was an old-fashioned kitchen, dusty
+and cobwebby.  A long, narrow hall led to the front of the house and
+her guide pointed her toward a room on the right.  There was something
+hollow and eerie in the sound of their footsteps on the old oaken
+floor.  The room into which she was ushered was musty and dusty as the
+rest.  The floor was covered with an ancient ingrain carpet.  The table
+was covered with a magenta felt cover stamped with a vine of black
+leaves and riddled with moth holes.  The walls were hung with old
+prints and steel engravings suspended by woollen cords and tassels.
+The furniture was dilapidated.  Everything was covered with dust, but
+there were finger marks in the dust here and there that showed the
+place had been recently visited.  Through an open doorway an old square
+piano was visible in what must be the parlor.  The place seemed to
+Shirley fairly teeming with memories of some family now departed.  She
+leaped to the quick conclusion that the house had been long deserted
+and had only recently been entered and used as a rendezvous for illegal
+conferences.  It occurred to her that there might be an opportunity for
+her to hide her precious papers somewhere safely if it came to it that
+she must be searched.  How about that piano?  Could she slip some of
+them between the keys?  But it was hardly likely that there would be
+opportunity for anything like that.
+
+She felt strangely calm as she looked about upon her prison.
+
+"H'm!  He ain't come yet!" remarked her guide as he glanced into the
+front room.  "Well, you can set down.  He won't be long now.  Joe, you
+jest look about a bit and see if you can find the Secretary, and tell
+him the young lady is here."
+
+The man flung himself full length on the carpet-covered couch and
+looked at her with satisfaction.
+
+"What train was that you said you must make?  I'm afraid now you might
+be going to be just a trifle late if he don't get a hustle on, but you
+can't hurry a great man like that you know."
+
+"Oh, it's no matter!" said Shirley coolly, looking around her with the
+utmost innocence.  "What a quaint old house!  Has it been in the family
+a long time?"
+
+The man looked at her amusedly.
+
+"You're a cute one!" he remarked affably.  "I believe you're a pretty
+good sport!  You know perfectly well you're in my power and can't do a
+turn to help yourself, yet you sail around here as calm as a queen!
+You're some looker, too!  Blamed if I'm not enjoying myself.  I
+wouldn't mind a kiss or two from those pretty lips----"
+
+But Shirley had melted through the doorway into the other room and her
+voice floated back with charming indifference as if she had not heard,
+though she was ready to scream with loathing and fear of the man:
+
+"Why, isn't this a delightful old piano?  The keys are actually
+mother-of-pearl.  Isn't it odd?  Would Mr. Baker mind if I played on
+it?"
+
+And before her astonished captor could get himself to the doorway she
+had sat down on the rickety old hair-cloth stool and swept the keys
+lightly.  The old chords trembled and shivered as if awaking from a
+tomb, and uttered forth a quavering, sweet sound like ancient memories.
+
+The man was too much astonished to stop her, amused too, perhaps, and
+interested.  Her white fingers over the dusty pearls in the growing
+dusk had a strange charm for the hardened reprobate, like the wonder of
+a flower dropped into the foulness of a prison.  Before he could
+recover, he was startled again by her voice soaring out in the empty
+echoing house:
+
+  Rock of ages, cleft for me,
+    Let me hide myself in Thee;
+  Let the water and the blood
+    From Thy riven side which flowed,
+  Be of sin the double cure,
+    Save me Lord and make me pure!
+
+
+Perhaps those dim, gloomy walls had echoed before to the grand old
+tune, but never could it have been sung in dire strait, or with more
+earnest cry from a soul in distress.  She had chosen the first words
+that seemed to fit the chords she had struck, but every syllable was a
+prayer to the God in whom she trusted.  It may be the man felt the
+power of her appeal as he stood rooted in the doorway and listened
+while she sang through all the verses she could remember.  But the last
+trembling note was broken harshly by Joe's voice at the kitchen door in
+sharp, rasping orders:
+
+"Hist, there!  Can that noise!  Do you want to raise hell here?  Wake
+up, Sam!  Get onto your job.  Hennie's comin'."
+
+"That's all right, Joe!  Dry up!  This is good Sunday School dope!
+This won't rouse no suspicions.  Go to the devil and mind your
+business!  I know what I'm about!"
+
+Shirley was almost ready to cry, but she drew a deep breath and started
+on another song:
+
+  Jesus, Lover of my soul,
+    Let me to Thy bosom fly,
+  While the nearer waters roll,
+    While the tempest still is high!
+  Hide me, oh, my Saviour hide,
+    Till the storm of life is past.
+
+
+On through the time-worn words she sang, while the sin-hardened man
+stood silently and listened.  His eyes had gradually lost their leer
+and grown soft and tender, as if some childhood memories of home and
+mother and a time when he was innocent and good were looking out his
+eyes, reminding him of what he once intended to be before he ate the
+apple of wisdom and became as the gods and devils.  Shirley gradually
+became aware that she was holding her strange audience; and a power
+beyond herself steadied her voice, and kept her fingers from trembling
+on the old pearl keys, as she wandered on from song to song; perhaps
+happening on the very ones,--who knows?--that this man, standing in the
+dying twilight of the old gloomy house, had sung beside his mother's
+hearth or in church during his childhood?  Certain it is that he stood
+there silent and listened for at least half an hour without an
+interruption, while the light in the big room grew dimmer and dimmer
+and all about the house seemed still as death in the intervals between
+her voice.  She was just beginning:
+
+  Abide with me,
+    Fast falls the eventide,
+  The darkness deepens,
+    Lord, with me abide!
+
+When the man put his hand in his pocket and brought out a candle.
+Scratching a match on his trousers, he lit the candle and set it
+carefully on the piano, where its light fell flickering, wavering over
+her worn young face; and who shall say that she was not a messenger
+from another world to this man who had long trodden the downward path?
+
+They were interrupted, however, before this song was finished by a
+newcomer who entered like a shadow and stood at the end of the piano
+looking wonderingly from Shirley to the man, when she glanced up.  She
+stopped, startled, for although he wore no brass buttons nor blue
+clothes she was quite sure those were the same gray eyes that had
+looked at her from the recess of the window in the Government office
+that afternoon, perhaps the same boy who had come after her car and
+sent her off on this long way into the wilderness.
+
+The man Sam straightened up suddenly and looked about him half-ashamed
+with an apologetic grin:
+
+"Oh, you've come, have you, Hennie?  Well, you been a long time about
+it!  But now I guess we'll get to work.  Where's Joe?  Out on the
+watch?  All right then, Miss, if you've no objection, we'll just take a
+little vacation on the psalm singin' and turn our attention to worldly
+things.  I calculate you're sharp enough to know what we brought you
+put here for?  I acknowledge you can sing real well, and you sorta got
+my goat for a while there with all that mourning bench tra-la, for you
+certainly have got that holy dope down fine; but now the time's come
+for business, and you needn't to think that because I can enjoy a
+little sentiment now and then in a leisure moment that you can put
+anything over on me, for it can't be did!  I mean business and I've got
+you in my power!  We're ten miles from any settlement, and no neighbors
+anywhere's about.  Everybody moved away.  So it won't do any good to
+work any funny business on us.  You can't get away.  We're all armed,
+and no one knows where you are!  If you behave yourself and do as
+you're told there won't be any trouble.  We'll just transact our
+business and then we'll have a bit of supper, and mebbe a few more
+tunes--got any rag-time in your repitwar?--and then sometime after
+midnight, when the moon's good and dark, we'll get you back to
+civilization where you won't have no trouble in gettin' home.  But if
+you act up and get funny, why you know what to expect.  There was a
+young girl murdered once in this house and buried in the cellar and
+ever since folks say it's hanted and they won't come near it.  That's
+the kind of a place we're in!  So, now are you ready?"
+
+Shirley sat cold and still.  It seemed as if her life blood had
+suddenly congealed in her veins and for a second she felt as if her
+senses were going to desert her.  Then the echo of her own song: "Hide
+me, oh, my Saviour hide!" seemed to cry out from her soul silently and
+she rallied once more and gained her self-control.
+
+"Well, Miss," went on the man impressively, "I see you're ready for the
+question, and you've got your nerve with you, too, I'll hand you that!
+But I warn you it won't do no good!  We brung you out here to get a
+hold of that note-book you wrote in this morning, and we're goin' to
+have it.  We know that Mr. Barnard left it in your care.  Hennie here
+heard him say for you to keep it.  So it won't be of any use for you to
+lie about it."
+
+"Of course!" said Shirley, standing up and reaching over for her
+hand-bag, which she had laid on the piano beside her while she played.
+"I understand perfectly.  But I'd like to ask you a question, Mr.----?"
+
+"Smith, or Jones, whichever you like to call it.  Spit it out!"
+
+"I suppose you are paid to bring me out here, Mr. Smith, and get my
+property away from me?" she said gravely.
+
+"Well, yes, we don't calculate to do it just for sweet charity."
+
+"And _I_ am paid to look after my note-book, you see.  It's a trust
+that has been given me!  I just _have_ to look after it.  It's out of
+the question for me to desert it!"  Shirley spoke coolly and held her
+little bag close in the firm grasp of her two hands.  The man stared at
+her and laughed.  The boy Hennie fairly gaped in his astonishment.  "A
+girl with all that nerve!"
+
+"Of course, I understand perfectly that you can murder me and bury me
+down in the cellar beside that other girl that was murdered, and
+perhaps no one will find it out for a while, and you can go on having a
+good time on the money you will get for it.  But the day will come when
+you will have to answer for it!  You know I didn't come here alone
+to-day----!"
+
+Both men looked startled and glanced uneasily into the shadows, as if
+there might be someone lurking there.
+
+"_God_ came with me and _He_ knows!  He'll _make you remember_ some
+day!"
+
+The boy laughed out a nervous ha! ha! of relief, but the man seemed
+held, fascinated by her look and words.  There was silence for a second
+while the girl held off the ruffian in the man by sheer force of her
+strong personality.  Then the boy laughed again, with a sneer in the
+end of it, and the spell was broken.  The leer came into the eyes of
+the man again.  The sneer of the boy had brought him to himself,--to
+the self he had come to be.
+
+"Nix on the sob-stuff, girlie!" he said gruffly.  "It won't go down
+with me!  We're here for business and we've been delayed too long
+already.  Come now, will you hand out that note-book or will we have to
+search you?"  He took one stride across to where she stood and wrenched
+the hand-bag from her grasp before she was aware of his intention.  She
+had not meant to give it up without a struggle, much as she loathed the
+thought of one.  She must make the matter last as long as possible, if
+perchance God was sending help to her, and must contest every inch of
+the way as far as lay in her power.  Oh, had anyone picked up her
+cards?  Had the book with its message reached any friendly eye?
+
+Frail and white and stern she stood with folded arms while they turned
+out the contents of the little bag and scattered it over the piano,
+searching with clumsy fingers among her dainty things.
+
+The note-book she had rolled within her handkerchiefs and made it hard
+to find.  She feared lest her ruse would be discovered when they looked
+it over.  The boy was the one who clutched for the little book,
+recognizing it as the one he had seen in the office that morning.  The
+man hung over his shoulder and peered in the candlelight, watching the
+boy anxiously.  It meant a good deal of money if they put this thing
+through.
+
+"Here it is!" said the boy, fluttering through the leaves and carefully
+scrutinizing the short-hand characters.  "Yes, that's the dope!"
+
+He ran his eye down the pages, caught a word here and there,
+technicalities of manufacture, the very items, of course, that he
+wanted, if this had been the specifications for the Government order.
+Shirley remembered with relief that none of the details were identical,
+however, with the notes she carried in her shoes.  The book-notes were
+in fact descriptive of an entirely different article from that demanded
+by the Government.  The question was, would these people be wise enough
+to discover that fact before she was out of their power or not?
+
+Furtively she studied the boy.  There was something keen and cunning
+about his youthful face.  He was thick-set, with blond hair and blue
+eyes.  He might be of German origin, though there was not a sign of
+accent about his speech.  He had the bull-dog chin, retreating forehead
+and eagle nose of the Kaiser in embryo.  Shirley saw all this as she
+studied him furtively.  That he was an expert in short-hand was proved
+by the ease with which he read some of her obscure sentences,
+translating rapidly here and there as he examined the book.  Was he
+well enough informed about the Government contract to realize that
+these were not the notes she had taken in the office that morning?  And
+should he fail to recognize it, was there perhaps some one higher in
+authority to whom they would be shown before she was released?  She
+shivered and set her weary toes tight with determination over the
+little crinkling papers in her shoes.  Somehow she would protect those
+notes from being taken, even if she had to swallow them.  There surely
+would be a way to hide them if the need came.
+
+Suddenly the tense strain under which she was holding herself was
+broken by the man.  He looked up with a grin, rubbing his hands with
+evident self-gratulation and relief:
+
+"That's all right, Girlie!  That's the dope we want.  Now we won't
+trouble you any longer.  We'll have supper.  Hennie, you go get some of
+that wood out in the shed and we'll have a fire on the hearth and make
+some coffee!"
+
+But Shirley, standing white and tense in the dim shadow of the room,
+suddenly felt the place whirling about her, and the candle dancing afar
+off.  Her knees gave way beneath her and she dropped back to the piano
+stool weakly, and covered her face with her hands, pressing hard on her
+eyeballs; trying to keep her senses and stop this black dizziness that
+threatened to submerge her consciousness.  She must not faint--if this
+was fainting.  She must keep her senses and guard her precious shoes.
+If one of those should fall off while she was unconscious all would be
+undone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The man looked up from the paper he was twisting for a fire and saw
+Shirley's attitude of despair.
+
+"Say, kid," he said, with a kind of gruff tenderness, "you don't need
+to take it that a-way.  I know it's tough luck to lose out when you
+been so nervy and all, but you knew we had it over you from the start.
+You hadn't a show.  And say!  Girlie!  I tell you what!  I'll make
+Hennie sit down right now and copy 'em off for you, and you can put 'em
+in your book again when you get back and nobody be the wiser.  We'll
+just take out the leaves.  We gotta keep the original o' course, but
+that won't make any beans for you.  It won't take you no time to write
+'em over again if he gives you a copy."
+
+Somehow it penetrated through Shirley's tired consciousness that the
+man was trying to be kind to her.  He was pitying her and offering her
+a way out of her supposed dilemma, offering to assist her in some of
+his own kind of deception.  The girl was touched even through all her
+other crowding emotions and weariness.  She lifted up her head with a
+faint little smile.
+
+"Thank you," she said, wearily, "but that wouldn't do me any good."
+
+"Why not?" asked the man sharply.  "Your boss would never know it got
+out through you."
+
+"But _I_ should know I had failed!" she said sadly.  "If you had my
+notes I should know that I had failed in my trust."
+
+"It wouldn't be your fault.  You couldn't have helped it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I could, and I ought.  I shouldn't have let the driver turn
+around.  I should have got out of that car and waited at the station as
+Mr. Barnard told me to do till he came.  I had been warned and I ought
+to have been on my guard.  So you see it _was_ my fault."
+
+She drooped her head forward and rested her chin dejectedly on the palm
+of her hand, her elbow on her knee.  The man stood looking at her for a
+second in half-indignant astonishment.
+
+"By golly!" he said at last.  "You certainly are some nut!  Well,
+anyhow, buck up, and let's have some tea.  Sorry I can't see my way
+clear to help you out any further, being as we're sort of partners in
+this job and you certainly have got some nerve for a girl, but you know
+how it is.  I guess I can't do no more'n I said.  I got my honor to
+think about, too.  See?  Hennie!  Get a move on you.  We ain't waitin'
+all night fer eats.  Bring in them things from the cupboard and let's
+get to work."
+
+Shirley declined to come to the table when at last the repast was
+ready.  She said she was not hungry.  In fact, the smell or the
+crackers and cheese and pickles and dried beef sickened her.  She felt
+too hysterical to try to eat, and besides she had a lingering feeling
+that she must keep near that piano.  If anything happened she had a
+vague idea that she might somehow hide the precious notes within the
+big old instrument.
+
+The man frowned when she declined to come to supper, but a moment later
+stumbled awkwardly across the room with a slopping cup of coffee and
+set it down beside her.
+
+"Buck up, girlie!" he growled.  "Drink that and you'll feel better."
+
+Shirley thanked him and tried to drink a few mouthfuls.  Then the
+thought occurred to her that it might be drugged, and she swallowed no
+more.  But she tried to look a bit brighter.  If she must pass this
+strange evening in the company of these rough men, it would not help
+matters for her to give way to despair.  So after toying with the
+teaspoon a moment, she put the cup down and began to play soft airs on
+the old piano again while the men ate and took a stealthy taste now and
+then from a black bottle.  She watched them furtively as she played,
+marvelling at their softened expressions, remembering the old line:
+
+"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and wondering if
+perhaps there were not really something in it.  If she had not been in
+such a terrifying situation she would really have enjoyed the character
+study that this view of those two faces afforded her, as she sat in the
+shadow playing softly while they ate with the flaring candle between
+them.
+
+"I like music with my meals!" suddenly chanted out the boy in an
+interval.  But the man growled in a low tone:
+
+"Shut up!  Ain't you got no manners?"
+
+Shirley prolonged that meal as much as music could do it, for she had
+no relish for a more intimate tête-a-tête with either of her
+companions.  When she saw them grow restless she began to sing again,
+light little airs this time with catchy words; or old tender melodies
+of home and mother and childhood.  They were songs she had sung that
+last night in the dear old barn when Sidney Graham and Elizabeth were
+with them, and unconsciously her voice took on the wail of her heart
+for all that dear past so far away from her now.
+
+Suddenly, as the last tender note of a song died away Joe stumbled
+breathlessly into the room.  The boy Hennie slithered out of the room
+like a serpent at his first word.
+
+"Beat it!" he cried in a hoarse whisper.  "Get a move on!  All hell's
+out after us!  I bet they heard her singin'!  Take her an' beat it!
+I'll douse the fire an' out the candle."
+
+He seized a full bucket of water and dashed it over the dying fire.
+Shirley felt the other man grasp her arm in a fierce grip.  Then Joe
+snuffed out the candle with his broad thumb and finger and all was
+pitch dark.  She felt herself dragged across the floor regardless of
+furniture in the way, stumbling, choking with fear, her one thought
+that whatever happened she must not let her slippers get knocked off;
+holding her feet in a tense strain with every muscle extended to keep
+the shoes fastened on like a vise.  She was haunted with a wild thought
+of how she might have slipped under the piano and eluded her captor if
+only the light had gone out one second sooner before he reached her
+side.  But it was too late to think of that now, and she was being
+dragged along breathlessly, out the front door, perhaps, and down a
+walk; no, it was amongst trees, for she almost ran into one.  The man
+swore at her, grasped her arm till he hurt her and she cried out.
+
+"You shut up or I'll shoot you!" he said with an oath.  He had lost all
+his suavity and there was desperation in his voice.  He kept turning
+his head to look back and urging her on.
+
+She tripped on a root and stumbled to her knees, bruising them
+painfully, but her only thought was one of joy that her shoes had not
+come off.
+
+The man swore a fearful oath under his breath, then snatched her up and
+began to run with her in his arms.  It was then she heard Graham's
+voice calling:
+
+"Shirley!  Where are you?  I'm coming!"
+
+She thought she was swooning or dreaming and that it was not really he,
+for how could he possibly be here?  But she cried out with a voice as
+clear as a bell: "I'm here, Sidney, come quick!"  In his efforts to
+hush her voice, the man stumbled and fell with her in his arms.  There
+came other voices and forms through the night.  She was gathered up in
+strong, kind arms and held.  The last thought she had before she sank
+into unconsciousness was that God had not forgotten.  He had been
+remembering all the time and sent His help before it was too late; just
+as she had known all along He must do, because He had promised to care
+for His own, and she was one of His little ones.
+
+When she came to herself again she was lying in Sidney Graham's arms
+with her head against his shoulder feeling oh, so comfortable and
+tired.  There were two automobiles with powerful headlights standing
+between the trees, and a lot of policemen in the shadowy background.
+Her captor stood sullen against a tree with his hands and feet
+shackled.  Joe stood between two policemen with a rope bound about his
+body spirally, and the boy Hennie, also bound, beside his fallen
+bicycle, turned his ferret eyes from side to side as if he hoped even
+yet to escape.  Two other men with hawk-like faces that she had not
+seen before were there also, manacled, and with eyes of smouldering
+fires.  Climbing excitedly out of one of the big cars came Mr. Barnard,
+his usually immaculate pink face smutty and weary; his sparse white
+hair rumpled giddily, and a worried pucker on his kind, prim face.
+
+"Oh, my dear Miss Hollister!  How unfortunate!" he exclaimed.  "I do
+hope you haven't suffered too much inconvenience!"
+
+Shirley smiled up at him from her shoulder of refuge as from a dream.
+It was all so amusing and impossible after what she had been through.
+It couldn't be real.
+
+"I assure you I am very much distressed on your account," went on Mr.
+Barnard, politely and hurriedly, "and I hate to mention it at such a
+time, but could you tell me whether the notes are safe?  Did those
+horrid men get anything away from you?"
+
+A sudden flicker of triumph passed over the faces of the fettered man
+and the boy, like a ripple over still water and died away into
+unintelligence.
+
+But Shirley's voice rippled forth in a glad, clear laugh, as she
+answered joyously:
+
+"Yes, Mr. Barnard, they got my note-book, but not the notes!  They
+thought the Tilman-Brooks notes were what they were after, but the real
+notes are in my shoes.  Won't you please get them out, for I'm afraid I
+can't hold them on any longer, my feet ache so!"
+
+It is a pity that Shirley was not in a position to see the look of
+astonishment, followed by a twinkle of actual appreciation that came
+over the face of the shackled man beside the tree as he listened.  One
+could almost fancy he was saying to himself: "The nervy little nut!
+She put one over on me after all!"
+
+It was also a pity that Shirley could not have got the full view of the
+altogether precise and conventional Mr. Barnard kneeling before her on
+the ground, removing carefully, with deep embarrassment and concern,
+first one, then the other, of her little black pumps, extracting the
+precious notes, counting over the pages and putting them ecstatically
+into his pocket.  No one of that group but Shirley could fully
+appreciate the ludicrous picture he made.
+
+"You are entirely sure that no one but yourself has seen these notes?"
+he asked anxiously as if he hardly dared to believe the blessed truth.
+
+"Entirely sure, Mr. Barnard!" said Shirley happily, "and now if you
+wouldn't mind putting on my shoes again I can relieve Mr. Graham of the
+necessity of carrying me any further."
+
+"Oh, surely, surely!" said Mr. Barnard, quite fussed and getting down
+laboriously again, his white forelock all tossed, and his forehead
+perplexed over the unusual task.  How did women get into such a little
+trinket of a shoe, anyway?
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, our firm appreciates what you have done!
+We shall not forget it.  You will see, we shall not forget it!" he
+puffed as he rose with beads of perspiration on his brow.  "You have
+done a great thing for Barnard and Clegg to-day!"
+
+"She's done more than that!" said a burly policeman significantly
+glancing around the group of sullen prisoners, as Graham put her upon
+her feet beside him.  "She's rounded up the whole gang for us, and
+that's more than anybody else has been able to do yet!  She oughtta get
+a medal of some kind fer that!"
+
+Then, with a dare-devil lift of his head and a gleam of something like
+fun in his sullen eyes, the manacled man by the tree spoke out, looking
+straight at Shirley, real admiration in his voice:
+
+"I say, pard!  I guess you're the winner!  I'll hand you what's comin'
+to you if I do lose.  You certainly had your nerve!"
+
+Shirley looked at him with a kind of compassion in her eyes.
+
+"I'm sorry you have to be--there," she finished.  "You were--as fine as
+you could be to me under the circumstances, I suppose!  I thank you for
+that."
+
+The man met her gaze for an instant, a flippant reply upon his lips,
+but checked it and dropping his eyes, was silent.  The whole little
+company under the trees were hushed into silence before the miracle of
+a girl's pure spirit, leaving its impress on a blackened soul.
+
+Then, quietly, Graham led her away to his car with Barnard and the
+detectives following.  The prisoners were loaded into the other cars,
+and hurried on the way to judgment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The ride back to the city was like a dream to Shirley afterward.  To
+see the staid Mr. Barnard so excited, babbling away about her bravery
+and exulting like a child over the recovery of the precious notes, was
+wonder enough.  But to feel the quiet protection and tender interest of
+Sidney Graham filled her with ecstasy.  Of course it was only kindly
+interest and friendly anxiety, and by to-morrow she would have put it
+into order with all his other kindlinesses, but to-night, weary and
+excited as she was, with the sense of horror over her recent experience
+still upon her, it was sweet to feel his attention, and to let his
+voice thrill through her tired heart, without stopping to analyze it
+and be sure she was not too glad over it.  What if he would be merely a
+friend to-morrow again!  To-night he was her rescuer, and she would
+rest back upon that and be happy.
+
+"I feel that I was much to blame for leaving you alone to go to the
+station with a bait like these notes in your possession," said Mr.
+Barnard humbly.  "Though of course I did not dream that there was any
+such possibility as your being in danger."
+
+"It is just as well not to run any risks in these days when the country
+is so unsettled," said the detective dryly.
+
+"Especially where a lady is concerned!" remarked Graham significantly.
+
+"I suppose I should have taken Miss Hollister with me and left her in
+the cab while I transacted my business at the War Department!" said
+Barnard with self-reproach in his tones.
+
+"They would have only done the same thing in front of the War
+Department," said the detective convincingly.  "They had it all planned
+to get those notes somehow.  You only made it a trifle easier for them
+by letting the lady go alone.  If they hadn't succeeded here, they
+would have followed you to your home and got into your office or your
+safe.  They are determined, desperate men.  We've been watching them
+for some time, letting them work till we could find out who was behind
+them.  To-night we caught the whole bunch red-handed, thanks to the
+lady's cleverness.  But you had better not risk her alone again when
+there's anything like this on hand.  She might not come out so easy
+next time!"
+
+Graham muttered a fervent applause in a low tone to this advice,
+tucking the lap robes closer about the girl.  Barnard gave little
+shudders of apology as he humbly shouldered the blame:
+
+"Oh, no, of course not!  I certainly am so sorry!"  But Shirley
+suddenly roused herself to explain:
+
+"Indeed, you mustn't any of you blame Mr. Barnard.  He did the
+perfectly right and natural thing.  He always trusts me to look after
+my notes, even in the most important cases; and I heard the warning as
+much as he did.  It was my business to be on the lookout!  I'm old
+enough and have read enough in the papers about spies and ruffians.  I
+ought to have known there was something wrong when that boy ordered me
+back and said Mr. Barnard had sent me word.  I ought to have known Mr.
+Barnard would never do that.  I did know just as soon as I stopped to
+think.  The trouble was I was giving half my attention to looking at
+the strange sights out of the window and thinking what I would tell the
+folks at home about Washington, or I would not have got into such a
+position.  I insist that you shall not blame yourself, Mr. Barnard.  It
+is a secretary's business to be on her job and not be out having a good
+time when she is on a business trip.  I hadn't got beyond the city
+limits before I knew exactly what I ought to have done.  I should have
+asked that boy more questions, and I should have got right out of that
+car and told him to tell you I would wait in the station till you came
+for me.  It troubled me from the start that you had sent for me that
+way.  It wasn't like you."
+
+Then they turned their questions upon her, and she had to tell the
+whole story of her capture, Graham and Barnard exclaiming indignantly
+as she went on, the detective sitting grim and serious, nodding his
+approval now and then.  Graham's attitude toward her grew more tender
+and protective.  Once or twice as she told of her situation in the old
+house, or spoke of how the man dragged her along in the dark, he set
+his teeth and drew his breath hard, saying in an undertone: "The
+villain!"  And there was that in the way that he looked at her that
+made Shirley hasten through the story, because of the wild, joyous
+clamor of her heart.
+
+As soon as the city limits were reached, Graham stopped the car to
+telephone.  It was after eleven o'clock, and there was little chance
+that George would have stayed at the phone so long, but he would leave
+a message for the early morning at least.  George, however, had stuck
+to his post.
+
+"Sure!  I'm here yet!  What'd ya think?  Couldn't sleep, could I, with
+_my sister_ off alone with a fella somewhere _being kidnapped_?  What'd
+ya say?  Found her?  She's all right?  Oh, gee!  That's good!  I told
+Carol you would!  I told her not to worry!  What'd ya say?  Oh,
+Shirley's going to talk?  Oh, hello, Shirley!  How's Washington?  Some
+speed, eh?  Say, when ya coming home?  To-morrow?  That's good.  No,
+mother doesn't know a thing.  She thinks I went to bed early 'cause I
+planned to go fishing at sunrise.  She went to bed herself early.  Say,
+Mister Graham's a prince, isn't he?  Well, I guess I'll go to bed now.
+I might make the fishing in the morning yet, if I don't sleep too late.
+I sure am glad you're all right!  Well, so long, Shirley!"
+
+Shirley turned from the phone with tears in her eyes.  It wasn't what
+George said that made her smile tenderly through them, but the gruff
+tenderness in his boy tones that touched her so.  She hadn't realized
+before what she meant to him.
+
+They drove straight to the station, got something to eat, and took the
+midnight train back to their home city.  Graham had protested that
+Shirley should go to a hotel and get a good rest before attempting the
+journey, but she laughingly told him she could rest anywhere, and would
+sleep like a top in the train.  When Graham found that it was possible
+to secure berths in the sleeper for them all, and that they would not
+have to get out until seven in the morning he withdrew his protests;
+and his further activities took the form of supplementing her supper
+with fruit and bonbons.  His lingering hand-clasp as he bade her
+good-night told her how glad he was that she was safe; as if his eyes
+had not told her the same story every time there had been light enough
+for them to be seen!
+
+Locked at last into her safe little stateroom, with a soft bed to lie
+on and no bothersome notes to be guarded, one would have thought she
+might have slept, but her brain kept time to the wheels, and her heart
+with her brain.  She was going over and over the scenes of the eventful
+day, and living through each experience again, until she came to the
+moment when she looked up to find herself in Sidney Graham's arms, with
+her face against his shoulder.  Her face glowed in the dark at the
+remembrance, and her heart thrilled wildly sweet with the memory of his
+look and tone, and all his carefulness for her.  How wonderful that
+_he_ should have come so many miles to find her!  That he should have
+been the one to find her first, with all those other men on the hunt.
+He had forged ahead and picked her up before any of the others had
+reached her.  He had not been afraid to rush up to an armed villain and
+snatch her from her perilous position!  He was a man among men!  Never
+mind if he wasn't her own personal property!  Never mind if there were
+others in his own world who might claim him later, he was hers for
+to-night!  She would never forget it!
+
+She slept at last, profoundly, with a smile upon her lips No dream of
+villains nor wild automobile rides came to trouble her thoughts.  And
+when she woke in the home station with familiar sounds outside, and
+realized that a new day was before her, her heart was flooded with a
+happiness that her common sense found it hard to justify.  She tried to
+steady herself while she made her toilet, but the face that was
+reflected rosily from the mirror in her little dressing room would
+smile contagiously back at her.
+
+"Well, then, have it your own way for just one more day!" she said
+aloud to her face in the glass.  "But to-morrow you must get back to
+common sense again!"  Then she turned, fresh as a rose, and went out to
+meet her fellow travellers.
+
+She went to breakfast with Sidney Graham, a wonderful breakfast in a
+wonderful place with fountains and palms and quiet, perfect service.
+Mr. Barnard had excused himself and hurried away to his home, promising
+to meet Shirley at the office at half-past nine.  And so these two sat
+at a little round table by themselves and had sweet converse over their
+coffee.  Shirley utterly forgot for the time that she was only a poor
+little stenographer working for her bread and living in a barn.  Sidney
+Graham's eyes were upon her, in deep and unveiled admiration, his
+spirit speaking to hers through the quiet little commonplaces to which
+he must confine himself in this public place.  It was not till the meal
+was over and he was settling his bill that Shirley suddenly came to
+herself and the color flooded her sweet face.  What was she better than
+any other poor fool of a girl who let a rich man amuse himself for a
+few hours in her company and then let him carry her heart away with him
+to toss with his collection?  She drew her dignity about her and tried
+to be distant as they went out to the street, but he simply did not
+recognize it at all.  He just kept his tender, deferential manner, and
+smiled down at her with that wonderful, exalted look that made her
+dignity seem cheap; so there was nothing to do but look up as a flower
+would to the sun and be true to the best that was in her heart.
+
+She was surprised to find his own car at the door when they came out on
+the street.  He must have phoned for it before they left the station.
+He was so kind and thoughtful.  It was so wonderful to her to be cared
+for in this way.  "Just as if I were a rich girl in his own social
+set," she thought to herself.
+
+He gave his chauffeur the orders and sat beside her in the back seat,
+continuing his role of admirer and protector.
+
+"It certainly is great to think you're here beside me," he said in a
+low tone as they threaded their way in and out of the crowded
+thoroughfare toward the office.  "I didn't have a very pleasant
+afternoon and evening yesterday, I can tell you!  I don't think we'll
+let you go off on any more such errands.  You're too precious to risk
+in peril like that, you know!"
+
+Shirley's cheeks were beautiful to behold as she tried to lift her eyes
+easily to his glance and take his words as if they had been a mere
+commonplace.  But there was something deep down in the tone of his
+voice, and something intent and personal in his glance that made her
+drop her eyes swiftly and covered her with a sweet confusion.
+
+They were at the office almost immediately and Graham was helping her
+out.
+
+"Now, when will you be through here?" he asked, glancing at his watch.
+"What train were you planning to take down to the shore?  I suppose
+you'll want to get back as soon as possible?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, doubtfully, "I do.  But I don't know whether I
+oughtn't to run out home first and get mother's big old shawl, and two
+or three other little things we ought to have brought along."
+
+"No," said Graham, quickly, with a flash of anxiety in his face.  "I
+wouldn't if I were you.  They'll be anxious to see you, and if it's
+necessary you can run up again sometime.  I think you'll find there are
+lots of shawls down at the cottage.  I'm anxious to have you safely
+landed with your family once more.  I promised Carol you'd be down the
+first train after you got your work done.  How long is it going to take
+you to fix Mr. Barnard up so he can run things without you?"
+
+"Oh, not more than two hours I should think, unless He wants something
+more than I know."
+
+"Well, two hours.  It is half-past nine now.  We'll say two hours and a
+half.  That ought to give you time.  I think there's a train about
+then.  I'll phone to the station and find out and let you know the
+exact time.  The car will be here waiting for you."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham, that's not a bit necessary!  You have taken trouble
+enough for me already!" protested Shirley.
+
+"No trouble at all!" declared Graham.  "My chauffeur hasn't a thing to
+do but hang around with the car this morning and you might as well ride
+as walk.  I'll phone you in plenty of time."
+
+He lifted his hat and gave her a last look that kept the glow in her
+cheeks.  She turned and went with swift steps in to her elevator.
+
+Sidney Graham dropped his chauffeur at the station to enquire about
+trains and get tickets, with orders to report at his office within an
+hour, and himself took the wheel.  Quickly working his way out of the
+city's traffic he put on all possible speed toward Glenside.  He must
+get a glimpse of things and see that all was going well before he went
+to the office.  What would Shirley have said if she had carried out her
+plan of coming out for her mother's shawl?  He must put a stop to that
+at all costs.  She simply must not see the old barn till the work was
+done, or the whole thing would be spoiled.  Strange it had not occurred
+to him that she might want to come back after something!  Well, he
+would just have to be on the continual lookout.  For one thing he would
+stop at a store on the way back and purchase a couple of big steamer
+rugs and a long warm cloak.  He could smuggle them into the cottage
+somehow and have the servants bring them out for common use as if they
+belonged to the house.
+
+He was as eager as a child over every little thing that had been
+started during his absence, and walked about with the boss carpenter,
+settling two or three questions that had come up the day before.  In
+ten minutes he was back in his car, whirling toward the city again,
+planning how he could best get those rugs and cloaks into the hands of
+the housekeeper at the shore without anybody suspecting that they were
+new.  Then it occurred to him to take them down to Elizabeth and let
+her engineer the matter.  There must be two cloaks, one for Shirley,
+for he wanted to take her out in the car sometimes and her little scrap
+of a coat was entirely too thin even for summer breezes at the shore.
+
+Shirley met with a great ovation when she entered the office.  It was
+evident that her fame had gone before her.  Mr. Barnard was already
+there, smiling benevolently, and Mr. Clegg frowning approvingly over
+his spectacles at her, The other office clerks came to shake hands or
+called congratulations, till Shirley was quite overwhelmed at her
+reception.  Clegg and Barnard both followed her into the inner office
+and continued to congratulate her on the bravery she had shown and to
+express their appreciation of her loyalty and courage in behalf of the
+firm.  Mr. Barnard handed her a check for a hundred dollars as a slight
+token of their appreciation of her work, telling her that beginning
+with the first of the month her salary was to be raised.
+
+When at last she sat down to her typewriter and began to click out the
+wonderful notes that had made so much trouble, and put them in shape
+for practical use, her head was in a whirl and her heart was beating
+with a childish ecstasy.  She felt as if she were living a real fairy
+tale, and would not ever be able to get back to common every-day life
+again.
+
+At half-past eleven Graham called her up to tell her there was a train
+a little after twelve if she could be ready, and the car would be
+waiting for her in fifteen minutes.
+
+When she finally tore herself away from the smiles and effusive thanks
+of Barnard and Clegg and took the elevator down to the street she found
+Sidney Graham himself awaiting her eagerly.  This was a delightful
+surprise, for he had not said anything about coming himself or
+mentioned when he would be coming back to the shore, so she had been
+feeling that It might be some time before she would see him again.
+
+He had just slammed the door of the car and taken his seat beside her
+when a large gray limousine slowed down beside them and a radiant,
+well-groomed, much-tailored young woman leaned out of the car, smiling
+at Graham, and passing over Shirley with one of those unseeing stares
+wherewith some girls know so well how to erase other girls.
+
+"Oh, Sidney!  I'm so glad I met you!" she cried.  "Mother has been
+phoning everywhere to find you.  We are out at our country place for a
+couple of weeks, and she wants to ask you to come over this afternoon
+for a little tennis tournament we are having, with a dance on the lawn
+afterward."
+
+"That's very kind of you, Harriet," said Graham pleasantly, "but I
+can't possibly be there.  I have an engagement out of town for this
+afternoon and evening.  Give my regards to your mother, please, and
+thank her for the invitation.  I know you'll have a lovely time, you
+always do at your house."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad, Sidney!" pouted the girl.  "Why will you be so
+busy! and in the summer-time, too!  You ought to take a vacation!
+Well, if you can't come to-night, you'll run down over the week-end,
+won't you?  We are having the Foresters and the Harveys.  You like
+them, and we simply can't do without you."
+
+"Sorry," said Graham, smilingly, "but I've got all my week-ends filled
+up just now.  Harriet, let me introduce you to Miss Hollister.  Miss
+Hale, Miss Hollister!"
+
+Then did Harriet Hale have to take over her unseeing stare and
+acknowledge the introduction; somewhat stiffly, it must be
+acknowledged, for Harriet Hale did not enjoy having her invitations
+declined, and she could not quite place this girl with the lovely face
+and the half-shabby garments, that yet had somehow an air of having
+been made by a French artist.
+
+"I'm sorry, Harriet, but we'll have to hurry away.  We're going to
+catch a train at twelve-fifteen.  Hope you have a beautiful time this
+afternoon.  Remember me to Tom Harvey and the Foresters.  Sorry to
+disappoint you, Harriet, but you see I've got my time just full up at
+present.  Hope to see you soon again."
+
+They were off, Shirley with the impression of Harriet Hale's smile of
+vinegar and roses; the roses for Graham, the vinegar for her.
+Shirley's heart was beating wildly underneath her quiet demeanor.  She
+had at last met the wonderful Harriet Hale, and Graham had not been
+ashamed to introduce her!  There had been protection and enthronement
+in his tone as he spoke her name!  It had not been possible for Miss
+Hale to patronize her after that.  Shirley was still in a daze of
+happiness.  She did not think ahead.  She had all she could do to
+register new occurrences and emotions, and realize that her joy was not
+merely momentary.  It had not occurred to her to wonder where Graham
+was going out of town.  It was enough that he was here now.
+
+When they reached the station Graham took two large packages out of the
+car, and gave some directions to the chauffeur.
+
+"Sorry we couldn't have gone down in the car again," he said as they
+walked into the station, "but it needs some repairs and I don't want to
+take as long a run as that until it has been thoroughly overhauled."
+
+Then he was going down too!  He had declined Harriet Hale's invitation
+to go back to the cottage with her!  Shirley's breath came in little
+happy gasps as she walked beside her companion down the platform to the
+train.
+
+She found herself presently being seated in a big green velvet chair in
+the parlor car while the porter stowed away the two big packages in the
+rack overhead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+There was only one other passenger in the car, an old man nodding
+behind a newspaper, with his chair facing in the other direction.
+Graham took a swift survey of him and turned happily back with a smile
+to Shirley:
+
+"At last I have you to myself!" he said with a sigh of satisfaction
+that made Shirley's cheeks bloom out rosily again.
+
+He whirled her chair and his quite away from the vision of the old man,
+so that they were at the nearest possible angle to each other, and
+facing the windows.  Then he sat down and leaned toward her.
+
+"Shirley," he said in a tone of proprietorship that was tender and
+beautiful, "I've waited just as long as I'm going to wait to tell you
+something.  I know it's lunch time, and I'm going to take you into the
+dining-car pretty soon and get you some lunch, but I must have a little
+chance to talk with you first, please."
+
+Shirley's eyes gave glad permission and he hurried on.
+
+"Shirley, I love you.  I guess you've been seeing that for some time.
+I knew I ought to hide it till you knew me better, but I simply
+couldn't do it.  I never saw a girl like you, and I knew the minute I
+looked at you that you were of finer clay than other girls, anyway.  I
+knew that if I couldn't win you and marry you I would never love
+anybody else.  But yesterday when I heard you were in peril away off
+down in Washington and I away up here helpless to save you, and not
+even having the right to organize a search for you, I nearly went wild!
+All the way down on the train I kept shutting my eyes and trying to
+pray the way you told your Sunday School boys how to pray.  But all I
+could get out was, 'Oh, God, I love her!  Save her!  I love her!'
+Shirley, I know I'm not one-half worthy enough for you, but I love you
+with all my heart and I want you for my wife.  Will you marry me,
+Shirley?"
+
+When she had recovered a little from her wonder and astonishment, and
+realized that he had asked her to marry him, and was waiting for his
+answer, she lifted her wondering eyes to his face, and tried to speak
+as her conscience and reason bade her.
+
+"But I'm not like the other girls you know," she said bravely.  Then he
+broke in upon her fervently.
+
+"No, you're not like any other girl I know in the whole wide world.
+Thank God for that!  You are one among a thousand!  No, you're one
+among the whole earthful of women!  You're the _only_ one I could ever
+love!"
+
+"But listen, please; you haven't thought.  I'm not a society girl.  I
+don't belong in your circle.  I couldn't grace your position the way
+your wife ought to do.  Remember, we're nobodies.  We're poor!  We live
+in a _barn_!"
+
+"What do you suppose I care about that?" he answered eagerly.  "You may
+live in a barn all your days if you like, and I'll love you just the
+same.  I'll come and live in the barn with you if you want me to.  My
+position!  My circle!  What's that?  You'll grace my home and my life
+as no other girl could do.  You heart of my heart!  You strong, sweet
+spirit!  The only question I'm going to ask of you is, Can you love me?
+If you can, I know I can make you happy, for I love you better than my
+life.  Answer, please.  Do you love me?"
+
+She lifted her eyes, and their spirits broke through their glances.  If
+the old man at the other end of the car was looking they did not know
+it.
+
+They came back to the cottage at the shore with a manner so blissful
+and so unmistakable that even the children noticed.  Elizabeth
+whispered to Carol at table: "My brother likes your sister a lot,
+doesn't he?  I hope she likes him, too."
+
+"I guess she does," responded Carol philosophically.  "She oughtta.
+He's been awfully good to her, and to all of us."
+
+"People don't like people just for that," said wise Elizabeth.
+
+Harley, out on the veranda after dinner, drew near to Carol to confide.
+
+"Say, kid, I guess he _has_ got a case on her all right now.  Gee!
+Wouldn't that be great?  Think of all those cars!"
+
+But Carol giggled.
+
+"Good night!  Harley!  How could we ever have a wedding in a barn?  And
+they're such particular people, too!"
+
+"Aw, gee!" said Harley, disgusted.  "You girls are always thinking of
+things like that!  As if that mattered.  You can get married in a
+chicken-run if you really have a case like that on each other!  _You
+make me tired!_" and he stalked away in offended male dignity.
+
+Meantime the unconscious subjects of this discussion had gone to Mrs.
+Hollister to confess, and the sea was forgotten by all three for that
+one evening at least, even though the moon was wide and bright and gave
+a golden pathway across the dark water.  For a great burden had rolled
+from Mrs. Hollister's shoulders when she found her beloved eldest
+daughter was really loved by this young man, and he was not just
+amusing himself for a little while at her expense.
+
+The days that followed were like one blissful fleeting dream to
+Shirley.  She just could not get used to the fact that she was engaged
+to such a prince among men!  It seemed as if she were dreaming, and
+that presently she would wake up and find herself in the office with a
+great pile of letters to write, and the perplexing problem before her
+of where they were going to live next winter.  She had broached that
+subject once to Graham shyly, saying that she must begin to look around
+as soon as she got back to town, and he put her aside, asking her to
+leave that question till they all went back, as he had a plan he
+thought she might think well of, but he couldn't tell her about it just
+yet.  He also began to urge her to write at once to Mr. Barnard and
+resign her position, but that she would not hear of.
+
+"No," she said decidedly.  "We couldn't live without my salary, and
+there are a lot of things to be thought out and planned before I can be
+married.  Besides, we need to get to know each other and to grow into
+each other's lives a little bit.  You haven't any idea even now how far
+I am from being fitted to be the wife of a man in your position.  You
+may be sorry yet.  If you are ever going to find it out, I want you to
+do it beforehand."
+
+He looked adoringly into her eyes.
+
+"I know perfectly now, dear heart!" he said, "and I'm not going to be
+satisfied to wait a long time for you to find out that you don't really
+care for me after all.  If you've got to find that out, I believe I'd
+rather it would be after I have you close and fast and you'll _have_ to
+like me anyway."
+
+And then the wonder and thrill of it all would roll over her again and
+she would look into his eyes and be satisfied.
+
+Still she continued quite decided that nothing could be done about
+prolonging her vacation, for she meant to go back to Barnard and
+Clegg's on the day set.
+
+"You know I'm the man of the house," she said archly.  "I can't quite
+see it at all myself--how I'm ever going to give up."
+
+"But I thought I was going to be the man of the house," pleaded Sidney.
+"I'm sure I'm quite capable and eager to look out for the interests of
+my wife's family."
+
+"But you see I'm not the kind of a girl that has been looking around
+for a man who will support my family."
+
+"No, you surely are not!" said the young man, laughing.  "If you had
+been, young lady, I expect you'd have been looking yet so far as I am
+concerned.  It is because you are what you are that I love you.  Now
+that's all right about being independent, but it's about time to fight
+this thing to a finish.  I don't see why we all have to be made
+miserable just because there are a lot of unpleasant precedents and
+conventions and crochets in the world.  Why may I not have the pleasure
+of helping to take care of your perfectly good family if I want to?  It
+is one of the greatest pleasures to which I am looking forward, to try
+and make them just as happy as I can, so that you will be the happier.
+I've got plenty to do it with.  God has been very good to me in that
+way, and why should you try to hinder me?"
+
+And then the discussion would end in a bewildering look of worshipful
+admiration on Shirley's part and a joyous taking possession of her and
+carrying her off on some ride or walk or other on the part of Graham.
+
+He did not care just now that she was slow to make plans.  He was
+enjoying each day, each hour, to the full.  He wanted to keep her from
+thinking about the future, and especially about the winter, till she
+got home, and so he humored her and led her to other topics.
+
+One night, as they sat on the dark veranda alone, Graham said to George:
+
+"If you were going to college, where would you want to prepare?"
+
+He wondered what the boy would say, for the subject of college had
+never been mentioned with relation to George.  He did not know whether
+the boy had ever thought of it.  But the answer came promptly in a
+ringing voice:
+
+"Central High!  They've got the best football team in the city."
+
+"Then you wouldn't want to go away to some preparatory school?"
+
+"No, _sir_!" was the decided answer.  "I believe in the public school
+every time!  When I was a little kid I can remember my father taking me
+to walk and pointing out the Central High School, and telling me that
+some day I would go there to school.  I used to always call that 'my
+school.'  I used to think I'd get there yet, some day, but I guess
+that's out of the question."
+
+"Well, George, if that's your choice you can get ready to enter as soon
+as you go back to the city."
+
+"What?"  George's feet came down from the veranda railing with a thud,
+and he sat upright in the darkness and stared wildly at his prospective
+brother-in-law.  Then he slowly relaxed and his young face grew grim
+and stern.
+
+"No chance!" he said laconically.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I've got my mother and the children to support.  I can't waste
+time going to school.  I've got to be a _man_."
+
+Something sudden like a choke came in the young man's throat, and a
+great love for the brave boy who was so courageous in his self-denial.
+
+"George, you're not a man yet, and you'll shoulder the burden twice as
+well when you're equipped with a college education.  I mean you shall
+have it.  Do you suppose I'm going to let my new brother slave away
+before his time?  No, sir; you're going to get ready to make the best
+man that's in you.  And as for your mother and the family, isn't she
+going to be my mother, and aren't they to be my family?  We'll just
+shoulder the job together, George, till you're older--and then we'll
+see."
+
+"But I couldn't take charity from anybody."
+
+"Not even from a brother?"
+
+"Not even from a brother."
+
+"Well, suppose we put it in another way.  Suppose you borrow the money
+from me to keep things going, and when you are ready to pay it back
+we'll talk about it then.  Or, better still, suppose you agree to pass
+it on to some other brother when you are able."
+
+They talked a long time in the dark, and Graham had quite a hard time
+breaking down the boy's reserve and independence, and getting a real
+brotherly confidence.  But at last George yielded, saw the common sense
+and right of the thing, and laid an awkward hand in the man's, growling
+out:
+
+"You're a pippin and no mistake, Mr. Graham.  I can't ever thank you
+enough!  I never thought anything like this would happen to me!"
+
+"Don't try thanks, George.  We're brothers now, you know.  Just you do
+your best at school, and it's all I ask.  Shirley and I are going to be
+wonderfully proud of you.  But please don't call me Mr. Graham any
+more.  Sid, or Sidney, or anything you like, but no more mistering."
+
+He filing a brotherly arm across the boy's shoulders and together they
+went into the house.
+
+Meantime the beautiful days went by in one long, golden dream of
+wonder.  The children were having the time of their lives, and
+Elizabeth was never so happy.  Shirley sat on the wide verandas and
+read the wealth of books and magazines which the house contained, or
+roamed the beach with the children and Star, or played in the waves
+with Doris, and wondered if it were really Shirley Hollister who was
+having all this good time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The morning they all started back to the city was a memorable one.
+Graham had insisted that Shirley ask for a holiday until Tuesday
+morning so that she might go up with them in the car, and have the
+whole day to be at home and help her mother get settled.  She had
+consented, and found to her surprise that Mr. Barnard was most kind
+about it.  He had even added that he intended to raise her salary, and
+she might consider that hereafter she was to have ten dollars more per
+month for her services, which they valued very highly.
+
+George had sent his resignation to the store and was not to go back at
+all.  Graham had arranged that, for school began the day after his
+return and he would need to be free at once.
+
+Elizabeth, to her great delight, was to go with the Hollisters and
+remain a few days until her parents returned.  Mrs. Graham had written
+from the West making a proposition to Mrs. Hollister that Carol be
+allowed to go to school with Elizabeth the next winter, because Mrs.
+Graham felt it would be so good for Elizabeth to have a friend like
+that.  Mrs. Hollister, however, answered that she felt it better for
+her little girl to remain with her mother a little longer; and that she
+did not feel it would be a good thing for her child, who would be
+likely to have a simple life before her with very few luxuries, to go
+to a fashionable finishing-school where the standards must all
+necessarily be so different from those of her own station in life, and,
+kind as the offer had been, she must decline it.  She did not say that
+Carol had fairly bristled at the idea of leaving her beloved high
+school now when she was a senior and only one year before her
+graduation.  That bit of horror and hysterics on Carol's part had been
+carefully suppressed within the four walls of her mother's room; but
+Elizabeth, deeply disappointed, had wept her heart out over the matter,
+and finally been comforted by the promise that Mrs. Hollister would
+write and ask Mrs. Graham to allow Elizabeth to go to school with Carol
+the coming winter.  That proposition was now on its way West, together
+with an announcement of Sidney's engagement to Shirley.  Sidney was
+confidently expecting congratulatory telegrams that morning when he
+reached the city.  He had written his father in detail all about their
+plans for returning, and how the work at the old barn was progressing,
+and Mr. Graham, Senior, was too good a manager not to plan to greet the
+occasion properly.  Therefore Graham stopped at his office for a few
+minutes before taking the family out to Glenside, and, sure enough,
+came down with his hands full of letters and telegrams, and one long
+white envelope which he put carefully in his breast pocket.  They had a
+great time reading the telegrams and letters.
+
+The way out to Glenside seemed very short now, watching as they did for
+each landmark.  The children were as eager to get back as they had been
+to leave, and Star snuggled in between Harley's feet, held his head
+high, and smiled benevolently on everybody, as if he knew he was going
+home and was glad.  They began to wonder about the chickens, and if the
+garden was all dried up, and whether the doves were all right.  There
+was an undertone of sadness and suppressed excitement, for it was in
+the minds of all the Hollisters that the time in the old barn must of
+necessity be growing brief.  The fall would soon be upon them, and a
+need for warmth.  They must go hunting for a house at once.  And yet
+they all wanted this one day of delight before they faced that question.
+
+At last they reached the final curve and could see the tall old tree in
+the distance, and the clump of willows knee-deep in the brook.  By
+common consent they all grew silent, watching for the first glimpse of
+the dear old barn.
+
+Then they came around the curve, and there it was!  But what was the
+matter?
+
+Nobody spoke.  It seemed as if they could not get their breath.
+
+Shirley rubbed her eyes, and looked again.  Mrs. Hollister gave a
+startled look from her daughter to Graham and back to the barn again.
+Elizabeth and Carol were utterly silent, grasping each other's hands in
+violent ecstasy.  The boys murmured inarticulately, of which the only
+audible words were: "Good night!  Some class!"  Doris looked for a long
+second, puckered her lips as if she were going to cry, and inquired
+pitifully: "I yant my dear barn house home!  I yant to doh home!" and
+Star uttered a sharp, bewildered bark and bounded from the car as if
+this were something he ought to attend to.
+
+But before anybody could say anything more, Graham brought out the long
+white envelope and handed it to Shirley.
+
+"Before you get out and go in I just want to say a word," he began.
+"Father and I both want Shirley to have the old barn for her very own,
+to do with as she pleases.  This envelope contains the deed for the
+property made out in her name.  We have tried to put it in thorough
+repair before handing it over to her, and if there is anything more she
+can think of that it needs we'll do that too.  And now, welcome home to
+the old barn!  Mother, may I help you out?"
+
+"But there isn't any barn any more," burst forth the irrepressible
+Elizabeth.  "The barn's gone!  It's just a house!"
+
+And, sure enough, there stood a stately stone mansion on a wide green
+terrace, where shrubs and small trees were grouped fittingly about,
+erasing all signs of the old pasture-land; and the old grassy incline
+to the door now rolled away in velvety lawn on either side of a smooth
+cement walk bordered with vivid scarlet geraniums.  Trailing vines and
+autumn flowers were blossoming in jars on the wide stone railing.  The
+old barn door had been replaced by glass which gave a glimpse of
+strange new rooms beyond, and the roof had broken forth in charming
+colonial dormer windows like a new French hat on a head that had worn
+the same old poke bonnet for years.  No wonder Doris didn't recognize
+the dear old barn.  It did seem as though a wizard had worked magic
+upon it.  How was one to know that only a brief half-hour before the
+old gardener from the Graham estate set the last geranium in the row
+along the walk, and trailed the last vine over the stone wall; or that
+even now the corps of men who had been hastily laying and patting the
+turf in place over the terrace were in hiding down in the basement,
+with their wheelbarrows and picks and spades, having beat a hasty
+retreat at the sound of the car coming, and were only waiting till they
+could get away unobserved?  For orders were orders, and the orders were
+that the work was to be _done_ and every man out of sight by the time
+they arrived.  A bonus to every man if the orders were obeyed.  That is
+what money and influence can do in a month!
+
+In due time they got themselves out of that car in a sort of bewildered
+daze and walked up the new cement path, feeling strangely like
+intruders as they met the bright stare of the geraniums.
+
+They walked the length of the new piazza in delight.  They exclaimed
+and started and smiled and almost wept in one another's arms.  Graham
+stood and watched Shirley's happy face and was satisfied.
+
+The first thing Doris did when she got inside the lovely glass door was
+to start to run for her own little willow chair and her own little old
+rag doll that had been left behind, and down she went on the slippery
+floor.  And there, behold, the old barn floors too had disappeared
+under a coating of simple matched hardwood flooring, oiled and polished
+smoothly, and Doris was not expecting it.
+
+She got up quickly, half ashamed, and looked around laughing.
+
+"I vas skating!" she declared with a ringing laugh.  "I skated yite
+down on mine nose."
+
+Then she hurried more cautiously to the haven of her own chair, and
+with her old doll hugged to her breast she reiterated over and over as
+if to reassure herself: "Mine!  Doris!  Mine!  Doris!"
+
+Words would fail to describe all they said about the wonderful rooms,
+the walls all shining in a soft rough-finish plaster, tinted creamy on
+the upper half and gray below, and finished in dark chestnut trimmings;
+of the beautiful staircase and the wide bay window opening from the
+first landing like a little half-way room, with seats to rest upon.  It
+was standing in this bay window that Graham first called Mrs.
+Hollister's attention to something strange and new outside behind the
+house.  It was a long, low glass building with green things gleaming
+through its shining roof.
+
+"There, mother," he said, coming up softly behind her.  "There is your
+plaything.  You said you had always wanted a hot-house, so we made you
+one.  It is heated from a coil in the furnace, and you can try all the
+experiments with flowers you want to.  We put in a few things to start
+with, and you can get more at your leisure."
+
+Mrs. Hollister gave one look, and then turned and put her arms around
+the tall young man, reaching up on her tip-toes to do so, brought his
+handsome face down to hers, and kissed him.
+
+"My dear son!" she said.  That was all, but he knew that she had
+accepted him and given him a loving place with her own children in her
+heart.
+
+There were shoutings and runnings up stairs and down by first one and
+then another.  The bathrooms were discovered one by one, and then they
+had to all rush down into the basement by the new stairs to see the new
+laundry and the new furnace, and the entrance to the hot-house; and the
+hot-house itself, with its wealth of bloom transplanted from the Graham
+greenhouses.
+
+They almost forgot the chickens and the doves, and the garden was a
+past Eden not to be remembered till long hours afterward.
+
+The sunset was dying away in the sky, and the stars were large and few
+and piercing in the twilight night when Shirley and Sidney came walking
+up the terrace arm in arm, and found Doris sitting in the doorway
+cuddling her old rag doll and a new little gray kitten the farmer next
+door had brought her, and singing an evening song to herself.
+
+Shirley and Sidney turned and looked off at the sky where a rosy stain
+was blending softly into the gray of evening.
+
+"Do you remember the first night we stood here together?" Sidney said
+in a low tone, as he drew her fingers within his own.  "I loved you
+then, Shirley, that first night----"
+
+And then Doris's little shrill voice chimed above their murmurings:
+
+"Oh, mine nice dear home!  Mine kitty an' mine dolly! and mine piazza!
+and mine bafwoom wif a place to swim boats! an' mine fowers an' pitty
+house!  No more barn!  Barn _all dawn_!  Never turn bat any moh!  Oh,
+mine nice, pitty dear home!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Enchanted Barn
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+Illustrator: Edmund Frederick
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2011 [EBook #34426]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCHANTED BARN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: SHE WAS ALMOST BREATHLESS WHEN SHE REACHED THE BOTTOM OF
+THE HILL AND STOOD IN FRONT OF THE GREAT BARN.  _Page 20_]
+
+
+
+
+
+The Enchanted Barn
+
+
+By
+
+Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
+
+Author of "Marcia Schuyler," "Phoebe Deane," "The Obsession of Victoria
+Gracen," etc.
+
+
+
+_With Frontispiece by_
+
+EDMUND FREDERICK
+
+
+
+
+Philadelphia & London
+
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE GOLDEN RULE COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+
+
+PUBLISHED APRIL, 1918
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
+
+PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Shirley Hollister pushed back the hair from her hot forehead, pressed
+her hands wearily over tired eyes, then dropped her fingers again to
+the typewriter keys, and flew on with the letter she was writing.
+
+There was no one else in the inner office where she sat.  Mr. Barnard,
+the senior member of the firm, whose stenographer she was, had stepped
+into the outer office for a moment with a telegram which he had just
+received.  His absence gave Shirley a moment's respite from that
+feeling that she must keep strained up to meet his gaze and not let
+trouble show in her eyes, though a great lump was choking in her throat
+and the tears stung her hot eyelids and insisted on blurring her vision
+now and then.  But it was only for an instant that she gave way.  Her
+fingers flew on with their work, for this was an important letter, and
+Mr. Barnard wanted it to go in the next mail.
+
+As she wrote, a vision of her mother's white face appeared to her
+between the lines, the mother weak and white, with tears on her cheeks
+and that despairing look in her eyes.  Mother hadn't been able to get
+up for a week.  It seemed as if the cares of life were getting almost
+too much for her, and the warm spring days made the little brick house
+in the narrow street a stifling place to stay.  There was only one
+small window in mother's room, opening against a brick wall, for they
+had had to rent the front room with its two windows.
+
+But, poor as it was, the little brick house had been home; and now they
+were not to have that long.  Notice had been served that they must
+vacate in four weeks; for the house, in fact, the whole row of houses
+in which it was situated, had been sold, and was to be pulled down to
+make way for a big apartment-house that was to be put up.
+
+Where they were going and what they were going to do now was the great
+problem that throbbed on Shirley's weary brain night and day, that kept
+her from sleeping and eating, that choked in her throat when she tried
+to speak to Mr. Barnard, that stared from her feverish eyes as she
+looked at the sunshine on the street or tried to work in the busy
+monotony of the office.
+
+They had been in the little house nearly a year, ever since the father
+died.  It had taken all they could scrape together to pay the funeral
+expenses, and now with her salary, and the roomer's rent, and what
+George got as cash-boy in a department store they were just barely able
+to get along.  There was not a cent over for sickness or trouble, and
+nothing to move with, even if they had anywhere to move, or any time to
+hunt for a place.  Shirley knew from her experience in hunting for the
+present house that it was going to be next to impossible for them to
+find any habitable place for as little rent as they were now paying,
+and how _could_ they pay more?  She was only a beginner, and her salary
+was small.  There were three others in the family, not yet
+wage-earners.  The problem was tremendous.  Could it be that Carol,
+only fourteen years old, must stop school and go to work somewhere to
+earn a pittance also?  Carol was slender and pale, and needed fresh air
+and nourishing food.  Carol was too young to bear burdens yet; besides,
+who would be housekeeper and take care of mother if Carol had to go to
+work?  It was different with George; he was a boy, strong and sturdy;
+he had his school in the department store, and was getting on well with
+his studies.  George would be all right.  He belonged to a baseball
+team, too, and got plenty of chances for exercise; but Carol was frail,
+there was no denying it.  Harley was a boisterous nine-year-old, always
+on the street these days when he wasn't in school; and who could blame
+him?  For the narrow, dark brick house was no place for a lively boy.
+But the burden and anxiety for him were heavy on his sister's heart,
+who had taken over bodily all the worries of her mother.  Then there
+was the baby Doris, with her big, pathetic eyes, and her round cheeks
+and loving ways.  Doris, too, had to be shut in the dark little house
+with the summer heat coming on, and no one with time enough or strength
+enough to take her to the Park.  Doris was only four.  Oh, it was
+terrible, _terrible_!  and Shirley could do nothing but sit there, and
+click those keys, and earn her poor little inadequate salary!  Some
+day, of course, she would get more--but some day might be too late!
+
+She shuddered as the terrible thought flashed through her mind, then
+went on with her work again.  She must shake off this state of mind and
+give attention to her duty, or she would lose even this opportunity to
+help her dear ones.
+
+The door of the outer office opened, and Mr. Barnard entered.
+
+"Miss Hollister," he said hurriedly, "if you have those letters ready,
+I will sign them at once.  We have just had word that Mr. Baker of the
+firm died last night in Chicago, and I must go on at once.  The office
+will be closed for the rest of the day.  You can let those other
+matters that I spoke of go until to-morrow, and you may have the day
+off.  I shall not be at the office at the usual hour to-morrow morning,
+but you can come in and look after the mail.  I will leave further
+directions with Mr. Clegg.  You can mail these letters as you go down."
+
+Ten minutes later Shirley stood on the street below in the warm spring
+sunshine, and gazed about her half dazed.  It seemed a travesty on her
+poor little life just now to have a holiday and no way to make it count
+for the dear ones at home.  How should she use it, anyway?  Should she
+go home and help Carol?  Or should she go out and see whether she could
+find a house somewhere that they could possibly afford to move to?
+That, of course, was the sensible thing to do; yet she had no idea
+where to go.  But they did not expect her home at this time of day.
+Perhaps it was as well that she should use this time and find out
+something without worrying her mother.  At least, she would have time
+to think undisturbed.
+
+She grasped her little package of lunch that she had brought from home
+with her and looked about her helplessly.  In her little thin purse was
+the dime she always carried with her to pay her car-fare in case
+something happened that she had to ride either way--though she seldom
+rode, even in a storm.  But her mother insisted on the dime.  She said
+it was not safe to go without any money at all.  This dime was her
+capital wherewith to hunt a house.  Perhaps the day had been given her
+by a kind heavenly Father to go on her search.  She would try to use it
+to the best of her ability.  She lifted her bewildered heart in a
+feeble petition for light and help in her difficult problem, and then
+she went and stood on the corner of the street where many trolley-cars
+were passing and repassing.  Which one should she take, and where
+should she go?  The ten cents must cover all her riding, and she must
+save half of it for her return.
+
+She studied the names on the cars.  "Glenside Road" one read.  What had
+she heard about that?  Ah! that it was the longest ride one could take
+for five cents within the limits of the city's roads!  Her heart leaped
+up at the word.  It sounded restful anyway, and would give her time to
+think.  It wasn't likely, if it went near any glens, that there would
+be any houses within her means on its way; but possibly it passed some
+as it went through the city, and she could take notice of the streets
+and numbers and get out on her return trip to investigate if there
+proved to be anything promising; or, if it were too far away from home
+for her to walk back from it, she could come another time in the
+evening with George, some night when he did not have school.  Anyhow,
+the ride would rest her and give her a chance to think what she ought
+to do, and one car was as good as another for that.  Her resolve was
+taken, and she stepped out and signalled it.
+
+There were not many people in the car.  It was not an hour when people
+rode out to the suburbs.  Two workmen with rolls of wall-paper slung in
+burlap bags, a woman and a little girl, that was all.
+
+Shirley settled back in her seat, and leaned her head against the
+window-sash wearily.  She felt so tired, body and soul, that she would
+have been glad to sleep and forget for a little while, only that there
+was need for her to be up and doing.  Her room had been oppressively
+warm the night before; and Doris, who slept with her, had rolled from
+one side of the bed to the other, making sleep well-nigh impossible for
+the elder sister.  She felt bruised and bleeding in her very soul, and
+longed for rest.
+
+The car was passing through the thickest of the city's business
+thoroughfare, and the noise and confusion whirled about her ears like
+some fiendish monotonous music that set the time for the mad dance of
+the world.  One danced to it whether one would or not, and danced on to
+one's death.
+
+Around the city hall the car passed, and on up Market Street.  They
+passed a great fruit-store, and the waft of air that entered the open
+windows came laden with the scent of over-ripe bananas, late oranges
+and lemons; a moment later with sickening fumes it blended into a
+deadly smell of gas from a yawning hole in the pavement, and mingled
+with the sweat of the swarthy foreigners grouped about it, picks in
+hand.  It seemed as though all the smells in creation were met and
+congregated in that street within four or five blocks; and one by one
+they tortured her, leather and paint and metal and soap, rank cheese in
+a fellow traveller's market-basket, thick stifling smoke from a street
+engine that was champing up the gravel they fed it to make a new patch
+of paving, the stench from the cattle-sheds as they passed the railroad
+and stock-yards, the dank odor of the river as they crossed the bridge,
+and then an oilcloth-factory just beyond!  The faint sweet breath of
+early daffodils and violets from an occasional street vendor stood no
+chance at all with these, and all the air seemed sickening and dreadful
+to the girl as she rested wearily against the window with closed eyes,
+and tried to think.
+
+They slipped at last into the subway with a whir and a swish, where the
+cool, clean smell of the cement seemed gradually to rise and drown the
+memory of the upper world, and came refreshingly in at the windows.
+Shirley had a passing thought, wondering whether it would be like that
+in the grave, all restful and sweet and quiet and clean, with the
+noisy, heartless world roaring overhead.  Then they came up suddenly
+out of the subway, with a kind of triumphant leap and shout of brakes
+and wheels, into the light and sunshine above, and a new world.  For
+here were broad streets, clean pavements, ample houses, well-trimmed
+lawns, quiet people walking in comfort, bits of flower-boxes on the
+window-sills filled with pansies and hyacinths; and the air was sweet
+and clean.  The difference made Shirley sit up and look about her, and
+the contrast reminded her of the heaven that would be beyond the grave.
+It was just because she was so tired and disheartened that her thoughts
+took this solemn form.
+
+But now her heart sank again, for she was in the world of plenty far
+beyond her means, and there was no place for such as she.  Not in
+either direction could she see any little side streets with tiny houses
+that would rent for fifteen dollars a month.  There were such in the
+city, she knew; but they were scarce, and were gobbled up as soon as
+vacant.
+
+But here all was spaciousness, and even the side streets had three
+stories and smug porches with tidy rockers and bay windows.
+
+She looked at the great plate-glass windows with their cobwebby lace
+draperies, and thought what it would be if she were able to take her
+mother and the children to such a home as one of those.  Why, if she
+could afford that, George could go to college, and Doris wear a little
+velvet coat with rose-buds in her bonnet, like the child on the
+sidewalk with her nurse and her doll-carriage.
+
+But a thing like that could never come to her.  There were no rich old
+uncles to leave them a fortune; she was not bright and gifted to invent
+some wonderful toy or write a book or paint a picture that would bring
+the fortune; and no one would ever come her way with a fortune to marry
+her.  Those things happened only in story-books, and she was not a
+story-book girl; she was just a practical, every-day, hard-working girl
+with a fairly good complexion, good blue eyes and a firm chin.  She
+could work hard and was willing; but she could not bear anxiety.  It
+was eating into her soul, and she could feel a kind of mental paralysis
+stealing over her from it, benumbing her faculties hour by hour.
+
+The car glided on, and the houses grew less stately and farther apart.
+They were not so pretentious now, but they were still substantial and
+comfortable, with more ground and an air of having been there always,
+with no room for newcomers.  Now and then would come a nucleus of shops
+and an old tavern with a group of new groceries and crying competition
+of green stamps and blue stamps and yellow stamps posted alluringly in
+their windows.  Here busy, hurried people would swarm, and children ran
+and shouted; but every house they passed seemed full to overflowing,
+and there was nowhere any place that seemed to say, "Here you may come
+and find room!"
+
+And now the car left the paved and built-up streets, and wandered out
+between the open fields, where trees arched lavishly overhead, and
+little new green things lifted up unfrightened heads, and dared to grow
+in the sunshine.  A new smell, the smell of rich earth and young green
+growing things, of skunk-cabbage in bloom in the swamps, of budding
+willows and sassafras, roused her senses; the hum of a bee on its way
+to find the first honey-drops came to her ears.  Sweet, droning,
+restful, with the call of a wild bird in the distance, and all the air
+balmy with the joy of spring.  Ah!  This was a new world!  This indeed
+was heaven!  What a contrast to the office, and the little narrow
+stifling brick house where mother lay, and Doris cut strings of paper
+dolls from an old newspaper and sighed to go out in the Park!  What a
+contrast!  Truly, this was heaven!  If she could but stay, and all the
+dear ones come!
+
+She had spent summers in the country, of course; and she knew and loved
+nature, but it had been five years since she had been free to get
+outside the city limits for more than a day, and then not far.  It
+seemed to her now that she had never sensed the beauty of the country
+as to-day; perhaps because she had never needed it as now.
+
+The road went on smoothly straight ahead, with now a rounding curve,
+and then another long stretch of perfect road.  Men were ploughing in
+the fields on one side, and on the other lay the emerald velvet of a
+field of spring wheat.  More people had got into the car as it left the
+city.  Plain, substantial men, nice, pleasant women; but Shirley did
+not notice them; she was watching the changing landscape and thinking
+her dismal, pitiful thoughts.  Thinking, too, that she had spent her
+money--or would have when she returned, with nothing to show for it,
+and her conscience condemned her.
+
+They were coming now to a wide, old-fashioned barn of stone, with ample
+grassy stone-coped entrance rising like a stately carpeted stairway
+from the barn-yard.  It was resting on the top of a green knoll, and a
+great elm-tree arched over it protectingly.  A tiny stream purled below
+at one side, and the ground sloped gradually off at the other.  Shirley
+was not noticing the place much except as it was a part of the
+landscape until she heard the conductor talking to the man across the
+aisle about it.
+
+"Good barn!" he was saying reflectively.  "Pity to have it standing
+idle so long; but they'll never rent it without a house, and they won't
+build.  It belongs to the old man's estate, and can't be divided until
+the youngest boy's of age, four 'r five years yet.  The house burned
+down two years ago.  Some tramps set it afire.  No, nobody was living
+in it at the time.  The last renter didn't make the farm pay,--too fur
+from the railroad, I guess,--and there ain't anybody near enough round
+to use the barn since Halyer built his new barn," and he indicated a
+great red structure down the road on the other side.  "Halyer useta use
+this,--rented it fer less'n nothing, but he got too lazy to come this
+fur, and so he sold off half his farm fer a dairy and built that there
+barn.  So now I s'pose that barn'll stand idle and run to waste till
+that kid comes of age and there's a boom up this way and it's sold.
+Pity about it, though; it's a good barn.  Wisht I had it up to my
+place; I could fill it."
+
+"Make a good location for a house," said the other man, looking
+intently at the big stone pile.  "Been a fine barn in its time.  Old
+man must uv had a pile of chink when he built it.  Who'd ya say owned
+it?"
+
+"Graham, Walter Graham, big firm down near the city hall--guess you
+know 'em.  Got all kinds of money.  This ain't one, two, three with the
+other places they own.  Got a regular palace out Arden way fer summer
+and a town house in the swellest neighborhood, and own land all over.
+Old man inherited it from his father and three uncles.  They don't even
+scarcely know they got this barn, I reckon.  It ain't very stylish out
+this way just yet."
+
+"Be a big boom here some day; nice location," said the passenger.
+
+"Not yetta while," said the conductor sagely; "railroad station's too
+far.  Wait till they get a station out Allister Avenue; then you can
+talk.  Till then it'll stay as it is, I reckon.  There's a spring down
+behind the barn, the best water in the county.  I useta get a drink
+every day when the switch was up here.  I missed it a lot when they
+moved the switch to the top of the hill.  Water's cold as ice and clear
+as crystal--can't be beat this side the soda-fountain.  I sometimes
+stop the car on a hot summer day now, and run and get a drink--it's
+great."
+
+The men talked on, but Shirley heard no more.  Her eyes were intent on
+the barn as they passed it--the great, beautiful, wide,
+comfortable-looking barn.  What a wonderful house it would make!  She
+almost longed to be a cow to enter this peaceful shelter and feel at
+home for a little while.
+
+The car went on, and left the big barn in the distance; but Shirley
+kept thinking, going over almost unconsciously all the men had said
+about it.  Walter Graham!  Where had she seen that name?  Oh, of course
+in the Ward Trust Building, the whole fourth floor.  Leather goods of
+some sort, perhaps, she couldn't just remember; yet she was sure of the
+name.
+
+The man had said the barn rented for almost nothing.  What could that
+mean translated in terms of dollars?  Would the fifteen dollars a month
+that they were now paying for the little brick house cover it?  But
+there would be the car-fare for herself and George.  Walking that
+distance twice a day, or even once, would be impossible.  Ten cents a
+day, sixty cents a week--twice sixty cents!  If they lived out of the
+city, they couldn't afford to pay but twelve dollars a month.  They
+never would rent that barn for that, of course, it was so big and
+grand-looking; and yet--it was a _barn_!  What did barns rent for,
+anyway?
+
+And, if it could be had, could they live in a barn?  What were barns
+like, anyway, inside?  Did they have floors, or only stalls and mud?
+There had been but two tiny windows visible in the front; how did they
+get light inside?  But then it couldn't be much darker than the brick
+house, no matter what it was.  Perhaps there was a skylight, and hay,
+pleasant hay, to lie down on and rest.  Anyhow, if they could only
+manage to get out there for the summer somehow, they could bear some
+discomforts just to sit under that great tree and look up at the sky.
+To think of Doris playing under that tree!  And mother sitting under it
+sewing!  Mother could get well out there in that fresh air, and Doris
+would get rosy cheeks again.  There would not likely be a school about
+for Carol; but that would not hurt her for the summer, anyway, and
+maybe by fall they could find a little house.  Perhaps she would get a
+raise in the fall.  If they could only get somewhere to go now!
+
+But yet--a barn!  Live in a barn!  What would mother say?  Would she
+feel that it was a disgrace?  Would she call it one of Shirley's wild
+schemes?  Well, but what were they going to do?  They must live
+_somewhere_, unless they were destined to die homeless.
+
+The car droned on through the open country coming now and then to
+settlements of prosperous houses, some of them small; but no empty ones
+seemed to beckon her.  Indeed, they looked too high-priced to make her
+even look twice at them; besides, her heart was left behind with that
+barn, that great, beautiful barn with the tinkling brook beside it, and
+the arching tree and gentle green slope.
+
+At last the car stopped in a commonplace little town in front of a red
+brick church, and everybody got up and went out.  The conductor
+disappeared, too, and the motorman leaned back on his brake and looked
+at her significantly.
+
+"End of the line, lady," he said with a grin, as if she were dreaming
+and had not taken notice of her surroundings.
+
+"Oh," said Shirley, rousing up, and looking bewilderedly about her.
+"Well, you go back, don't you?"
+
+"Yes.  Go back in fifteen minutes," said the motorman indulgently.
+There was something appealing in the sadness of this girl's eyes that
+made him think of his little girl at home.
+
+"Do you go back just the same way?" she asked with sudden alarm.  She
+did want to see that barn again, and to get its exact location so that
+she could come back to it some day if possible.
+
+"Yes, we go back just the same way," nodded the motorman.
+
+Shirley sat back in her seat again contented, and resumed her thoughts.
+The motorman took up his dinner-pail, sat down on a high stool with his
+back to her, and began to eat.  It was a good time now for her to eat
+her little lunch, but she was not hungry.  However, she would be if she
+did not eat it, of course; and there would be no other time when people
+would not be around.  She put her hand in her shabby coat-pocket for
+her handkerchief, and her fingers came into contact with something
+small and hard and round.  For a moment she thought it was a button
+that had been off her cuff for several days, But no, she remembered
+sewing that on that very morning.  Then she drew the little object out,
+and behold it was a five-cent piece!  Yes, of course, she remembered
+now.  It was the nickel she put in her pocket last night when she went
+for the extra loaf of bread and found the store closed.  She had made
+johnny-cake instead, and supper had been late; but the nickel had
+stayed in her coat-pocket forgotten.  And now suddenly a big temptation
+descended upon her, to spend that nickel in car-fare, riding to the
+barn and getting out for another closer look at it, and then taking the
+next car on into the city.  Was it wild and foolish, was it not perhaps
+actually wrong, to spend that nickel that way when they needed so much
+at home, and had so little?  A crazy idea,--for how could a barn ever
+be their shelter?
+
+She thought so hard about it that she forgot to eat her lunch until the
+motorman slammed the cover down on his tin pail and put the high stool
+away.  The conductor, too, was coming out of a tiny frame house, wiping
+his mouth with the back of his hand and calling to his wife, who stood
+in the doorway and told him about an errand she wanted him to do for
+her in the city.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew red with excitement, for the nickel was burning
+in her hand, and she knew in her heart that she was going to spend it
+getting off that car near that barn.  She would eat her lunch under the
+tree by the brook!  How exciting that would be!  At least it would be
+something to tell the children about at night!  Or no! they would think
+her crazy and selfish, perhaps, to waste a whole day and fifteen cents
+on herself.  Still, it was not on herself; it was really for them.  If
+they could only see that beautiful spot!
+
+When she handed her nickel to the conductor, she felt almost guilty,
+and it seemed as if he could see her intention in her eyes; but she
+told herself that she was not sure she was going to get off at all.
+She could decide as she came near the place.  She would have to get off
+either before she got there or after she had passed and walk back.  The
+conductor would think it strange if a young girl got off the car in the
+country in front of an empty barn.  How would she manage it?  There had
+been houses on the way, not far from the barn.  What was the name the
+conductor had mentioned of the man who had built another barn?  She
+might get off at his house, but still--stay--what was that avenue where
+they had said the railroad would come some day with a station?  They
+had called it out as they stopped to let off the woman and the little
+girl.  Allister Avenue!  That was it.  She would ask the conductor to
+let her off at Allister Avenue.
+
+She watched the way intently; and, as they neared the place where
+Allister Avenue ought to be, her heart pounded so that she felt quite
+conscious, as if she were going to steal a barn and carry it home in
+her coat-pocket.
+
+She managed to signal the car to stop quite quietly, however, and
+stepped down to the pavement as if it were her regular stopping-place.
+She was aware of the curious gaze of both motorman and conductor, but
+she held her head up, and walked a few steps up Allister Avenue until
+the car had whirred on out of sight.  Then she turned anxiously,
+looking down the road, and there to her joy saw the stone gable of the
+great barn high on its knoll in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Shirley walked down the dusty road by the side of the car-track,
+elation and excitement in her breast.  What an adventure!  To be
+walking alone in this strange, beautiful spring country, and nobody to
+interfere!  It was her Father's beautiful out-of-doors, and she had
+paid her extra nickel to have a right to it for a little while.
+Perhaps her mother would have been worried at her being alone in the
+country, but Shirley had no fears.  Young people seldom have fears.
+She walked down the road with a free step and a bright light in her
+eyes.  She had to see that barn somehow; she _just had to_!
+
+She was almost breathless when she reached the bottom of the hill at
+last, and stood in front of the great barn.  The up car passed her just
+as she got there, and the people looked out at her apathetically as
+they would at any country girl.  She stood still a minute, and watched
+the car up the hill and out of sight, then picked her way across the
+track, and entered the field where the fence was broken down, walking
+up the long grassy slope to the front of the barn and standing still at
+the top in front of the big double doors, so grim and forbidding.
+
+The barn was bigger than it looked in the distance.  She fell very
+small; yet her soul rejoiced in its bigness.  Oh, to have plenty of
+room for once!
+
+She put her nose close to the big doors, and tried to find a crack to
+look through; but the doors were tight and fitted well.  There was no
+use trying to see in from there.  She turned and ran down the long
+grassy slope, trying to pretend it was a palatial stairway, then around
+the side to the back of the barn, and there at last she found a door
+part way ajar, opening into what must have been the cow-stables, and
+she slipped joyously in.  Some good angel must have been protecting her
+in her ignorance and innocence, for that dark basement of the barn
+would have been an excellent hiding-place for a whole regiment of
+tramps; but she trod safely on her way, and found nothing but a
+field-mouse to dispute her entrance; and it scurried hastily under the
+foundation, and disappeared.
+
+The cow-stables evidently had not been occupied for a number of years,
+for the place was clean and littered with dry straw, as if it had
+fallen and sifted from the floor above.  The stalls were all empty now,
+and old farm implements, several ploughs, and a rickety wagon occupied
+the dusty, cobwebby spaces beyond the stalls.  There were several
+openings, rude doorways and crude windows; and the place was not
+unpleasant, for the back of it opened directly upon a sloping hill
+which dropped away to the running brook below, and a little stone
+spring-house, its mossy roof half hidden by a tangle of willows.
+Shirley stood in a doorway and gazed with delight, then turned back to
+her investigation.  This lower place would not do for human habitation,
+of course; it was too low and damp, and the floor was only mud.  She
+must penetrate if possible to the floor above.
+
+Presently she found a rough ladder, cleats nailed to uprights against
+the wall; and up this she crept cautiously to the opening above, and
+presently emerged into the wide floor of the real barn.
+
+There were several small windows, left open, and the sweet spring air
+swept gently in; and there were little patches of pale sunshine in the
+misty recesses of the great dim room.  Gentle motes floated in the
+sharp lances of sunshine that stole through the cracks; another ladder
+rose in the midst of the great floor to the loft above; and festoons of
+ancient hay and cobwebs hung dustily down from the opening above.
+After Shirley had skipped about the big floor and investigated every
+corner of it, imagining how grand it would be to set the table in one
+end of the room and put mother's bed behind a screen in the other end,
+with the old piano somewhere in the centre and the big parlor chair,
+mended, near by, the old couch covered with a portiere standing on the
+other side, she turned her attention to the loft, and, gathering
+courage, climbed up there.
+
+There were two great openings that let in the light; but they seemed
+like tiny mouse-holes in the great place, and the hay lay sweet and
+dim, thinly scattered over the whole big floor.  In one corner there
+was quite a luxurious lot of it, and Shirley cast herself down upon it
+for a blessed minute, and looked up to the dark rafters, lit with beams
+of sunlight creeping through fantastic cracks here and there, and
+wondered how the boys would enjoy sleeping up here, though there was
+plenty of room down-stairs for a dozen sleeping-rooms for the matter of
+that.
+
+Foolish, of course, and utterly impossible, as all daydreams always had
+been; but somehow it seemed so real and beautiful that she could
+scarcely bring herself to abandon it.  Nevertheless, her investigation
+had made her hungry, and she decided at last to go down and eat her
+lunch under the big tree out in the sunshine; for it was dark and
+stuffy inside, although one could realize how beautiful it would be
+with those two great doors flung wide, and light and air let in.
+
+The day was perfect, and Shirley found a beautiful place to sit, high
+and sheltered, where she would not be noticed when the trolley-cars
+sped by; and, as she ate her sandwiches, she let her imagination build
+a beautiful piazza where the grassy rise came up to the front of the
+barn, and saw in thought her mother sitting with the children at the
+door.  How grand it would be to live in a home like this, even if it
+were a barn!  If they could just get out here for the summer, it would
+do wonders for them all, and put new heart into her mother for the hard
+work of the winter.  Perhaps by fall mother would be well enough to
+keep boarders as she longed to do, and so help out with the finances
+more.
+
+Well, of course, this was just one of her wild schemes, and she must
+not think any more about it, much less even speak of it at home, for
+they would never get done laughing and teasing her for it.
+
+She finished the last crumb of the piece of one-egg cake that Carol had
+made the day before for her lunch, and ran down to the spring to see
+whether she could get a drink, for she was very thirsty.
+
+There proved to be an old tin can on the stones in the spring-house,
+doubtless used by the last tramp or conductor who came that way; but
+Shirley scrubbed it carefully in the sand, drank a delicious draught,
+and washed her hands and face in the clear cold water.  Then she went
+back to the barn again, for a new thought had entered her mind.
+Supposing it were possible to rent that place for the summer at any
+reasonable price, how could they cook and how keep warm?  Of course
+there were such things as candles and oil-lamps for lighting, but
+cooking!  Would they have to build a fire out-of-doors and play at
+camping?  Or would they have to resort to oil-stoves?  Oil-stoves with
+their sticky, oily outsides, and their mysterious moods of smoke and
+sulkiness, out of which only an expert could coax them!
+
+But, though she stood on all sides of that barn, and gazed up at the
+roof, and though she searched each floor diligently, she could find no
+sign of a chimney anywhere.  Her former acquaintance with barns had not
+put her into a position to judge whether this was a customary lack of
+barns or not.  There were two wooden, chimney-like structures
+decorating the roof, but it was all too evident that they were solely
+for purposes of ornament.  Her heart sank.  What a grand fireplace
+there might have been right in the middle of the great wall opposite
+the door!  Could anything be more ideal?  She could fancy mother
+sitting in front of it, with Harley and Doris on the floor playing with
+a kitten.  But there was no fireplace.  She wondered vaguely whether a
+stovepipe could be put out of the window, and so make possible a fire
+in a small cook-stove.  She was sure she had seen stovepipes coming out
+of all sorts of odd places in the cities.  But would the owners allow
+it?  And would any fire at all perhaps make it dangerous and affect the
+fire-insurance?  Oh, there were so many things to think about, and it
+was all so impossible, of course.
+
+She turned with heavy heart, and let herself down the ladder.  It was
+time she went home, for the afternoon was well on its way.  She could
+hear the whir of the trolley-car going up.  She must be out and down
+the road a little way to get the next one that passed it at the switch
+when it came back.
+
+So with a wistful glance about the big dusty floor she turned away, and
+went down to the ground floor and out into the afternoon sunshine.
+
+Just as she crossed the knoll and was stepping over the broken fence,
+she saw a clump of clover, and among the tiny stems one bearing four
+leaves.  She was not superstitious, nor did the clover mean any special
+omen to her; but she stooped, smiling, and plucked it, tucking it into
+the button-hole of her coat, and hurried down the road; for she could
+already hear the returning trolley-car, and she wished to be a little
+farther from the barn before it overtook her.  Somehow she shrank from
+having people in the car know where she had been, for it seemed like
+exposing her audacious wish to the world.
+
+Seated in the car, she turned her eyes back to the last glimpse of the
+stone gables and the sweeping branches of the budding tree as the car
+sped down the hill and curved away behind another slope.
+
+After all, it was but half-past four when the car reached the city
+hall.  Its route lay on half a mile nearer to the little brick house,
+and she could stay in it, and have a shorter walk if she chose.  It was
+not in the least likely anybody would be in any office at this hour of
+the day, anyway; that is, anybody with authority; but somehow Shirley
+had to signal that car and get out, long walk or not.  A strong desire
+seized her to put her fate to the test, and either crush out this dream
+of hers forever, or find out at once whether it had a foundation to
+live.
+
+She walked straight to the Ward Trust Building and searched the
+bulletin-board in the hallway carefully.  Yes, there it was,
+"Graham-Walter--Fourth floor front."
+
+With rapidly beating heart she entered the elevator and tried to steady
+her voice as she said, "Fourth"; but it shook in spite of her.  What
+was she doing?  How dared she?  What should she say when they asked her
+what she wanted?
+
+But Shirley's firm little lips were set, and her head had that tilt
+that her mother knew meant business.  She had gone so far she would see
+the matter to the finish, even if it was ridiculous.  For now that she
+was actually on the elevator and almost to the fourth floor it seemed
+the most extraordinary thing in the world for a girl to enter a great
+business office and demand that its head should stoop to rent her an
+old barn out in the country for the infinitesimal sum she could offer.
+He would perhaps think her crazy, and have her put out.
+
+But she got out of the elevator calmly, and walked down the hall to
+where a ground-glass door proclaimed in gold letters the name she was
+hunting.  Timidly she turned the knob, and entered a large room,
+spacious and high ceiled, with Turkish rugs on the inlaid floor,
+leather chairs, and mahogany desks.
+
+There was no one in the office but a small office-boy, who lolled idly
+on one elbow on the table, reading the funny page of the afternoon
+paper.  She paused, half frightened, and looked about her appealingly;
+and now she began to be afraid she was too late.  It had taken longer
+than she had thought it would to get here.  It was almost a quarter to
+five by the big clock on the wall.  No head of a business firm was
+likely to stay in his office so late in the day as that, she knew.  Yet
+she could hear the steady click of typewriter keys in an inner office;
+he might have remained to dictate a letter.
+
+The office-boy looked up insolently.
+
+"Is Mr. Graham in?" asked Shirley.
+
+"Which Mr. Graham?"
+
+"Why," hesitating and catching the name on the door, "Mr. Walter
+Graham."
+
+"No, he isn't here.  Never here after four o'clock."  The boy dropped
+on his elbow again, and resumed his reading.
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, dismayed now, in spite of her fright, as she saw
+all hope fading from her.  "Well, is there another--I mean is the
+other--Mr. Graham in?"
+
+Someone stirred in the inner office, and came across to the door,
+looking out, someone with an overcoat and hat on.  He looked at the
+girl, and then spoke sharply to the boy, who stood up straight as if he
+had been shot.
+
+"Edward!  See what the lady wants."
+
+"Yes, sir!" said Edward with sudden respect.
+
+Shirley caught her breath, and plunged in.
+
+"I would like to see _some_ Mr. Graham if possible for just a moment."
+There was something self-possessed and businesslike in her voice now
+that commanded the boy's attention.  Her brief business training was
+upon her.
+
+The figure from the inner room emerged, and took off his hat.  He was a
+young man and strikingly handsome, with heavy dark hair that waved over
+his forehead and fine, strong features.  His eyes were both keen and
+kind.  There was something luminous in them that made Shirley think of
+Doris's eyes when she asked a question.  Doris had wonderfully wise
+eyes.
+
+"I am Mr. _Sidney_ Graham," said the young man, advancing.  "What can I
+do for you?"
+
+"Oh, I wanted to ask you about a barn," began Shirley eagerly, then
+stopped abashed.  How could she ask this immaculate son of luxury if he
+would rent a young girl his barn to live in during the summer?  She
+could feel the color mounting in her cheeks, and would have turned and
+fled gladly if a way had been open.  She was aware not only of the kind
+eyes of the man upon her, but also of the gaping boy taking it all in,
+and her tongue was suddenly tied.  She could say no more.
+
+But the young man saw how it was, and he bowed as gracefully as if
+asking about barns was a common habit of young women coming into his
+office.
+
+"Oh, certainly," he said; "won't you just step in here a moment and sit
+down?  We can talk better.  Edward, you may go.  I shall not need you
+any longer this evening."
+
+"But I am detaining you; you were just going out!" cried Shirley in a
+panic.  "I will go away now and come again--perhaps."  She would do
+anything to get away without telling her preposterous errand.
+
+"Not at all!" said young Mr. Graham.  "I am in no hurry whatever.  Just
+step this way, and sit down."  His tone was kindness itself.  Somehow
+Shirley had to follow him.  Her face was crimson now, and she felt
+ready to cry.  What a fool she had been to get herself into a
+predicament like this!  What would her mother say to her?  How could
+she tell this strange young man what she had come for?  But he was
+seated and looking at her with his nice eyes, taking in all the little
+pitiful attempts at neatness and style and beauty in her shabby little
+toilet.  She was awfully conscious of a loose fluff of gold-glinted
+hair that had come down over one hot cheek and ear.  How dishevelled
+she must look, and how dusty after climbing over that dirty barn!  And
+then she plunged into her subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what you will think of my asking," said Shirley
+excitedly, "but I want very much to know whether there is any
+possibility that you would rent a beautiful big stone barn you own out
+on the old Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue.  You do own it, don't
+you?  I was told you did, or at least that Mr. Walter Graham did.  They
+said it belonged to 'the estate.'"
+
+"Well, now you've got one on me," said the young man with a most
+engaging smile.  "I'm sure I don't know whether I own it or not.  I'm
+sorry.  But if it belongs to grandfather's estate,--his name was
+Walter, too, you know.--why, I suppose I do own part of it.  I'm sorry
+father isn't here.  He of course knows all about it--or the
+attorney--of course he would know.  But I think he has left the office.
+However, that doesn't matter.  What was it you wanted?  To rent it, you
+say?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, feeling very small and very much an impostor;
+"that is, if I could afford it.  I suppose perhaps it will be way ahead
+of my means, but I thought it wouldn't do any harm to ask."  Her shy
+eyes were almost filled with tears, and the young man was deeply
+distressed.
+
+"Not at all, not at all," he hastened to say.  "I'm just stupid that I
+don't know about it.  Where did you say it was?  Out on the Glenside
+Road?  A barn?  Come to think of it, I remember one of my uncles lived
+out that way once, and I know there is a lot of land somewhere out
+there belonging to the estate.  You say there is a barn on it?"
+
+"Yes, a beautiful barn," said Shirley anxiously, her eyes dreamy and
+her cheeks like two glowing roses.  "It is stone, and has a wide grassy
+road like a great staircase leading up to it, and a tall tree over it.
+There is a brook just below,--it is high up from the road on a little
+grassy hill."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said, nodding eagerly, "I see!  It almost seems as
+if I remember.  And you wanted to rent it for the summer, you say?  You
+are--ah--in the agricultural business, I suppose?"  He looked at her
+respectfully.  He knew the new woman, and honored her.  He did not seem
+at all startled that she wanted to rent a barn for the summer.
+
+But Shirley did not in the least understand.  She looked at him
+bewildered a moment.
+
+"Oh, no!  I am only a stenographer myself--but my mother--that is----"
+she paused in confusion.
+
+"Oh, I see, your mother is the farmer, I suppose.  Your home is near
+by--near to the barn you want to rent?"
+
+Then she understood.
+
+"No, oh, no!" she said desperately.  "We don't want to use the barn for
+a barn at all.  I want to use it for a house!"
+
+It was out at last, the horrible truth; and she sat trembling to see
+his look of amazement.
+
+"Use it for a house!" he exclaimed.  "Why, how could you?  To live in,
+do you mean? or just to take a tent and camp out there for a few days?"
+
+"To _live in_," said Shirley doggedly, lifting her eyes in one swift
+defiant look and then dropping them to her shabby gloves and thin
+pocketbook, empty now even of the last precious nickel.  If he said
+anything more, she was sure she should cry.  If he patronized her the
+least little bit, or grew haughty, now that he saw how low she was
+reduced, she would turn and fly from the office and never look him in
+the face.
+
+But he did neither.  Instead, he just talked in a natural tone, as if
+it were the most common thing in the world for a girl to want to live
+in a barn, and nothing to be surprised over in the least.
+
+"Oh, I see," he said pleasantly.  "Well, now, that might be arranged,
+you know.  Of course I don't know much about things, but I could find
+out.  You see, I don't suppose we often have calls to rent the property
+that way----"
+
+"No, of course not," said Shirley, gathering up her scattered
+confidence.  "I know it's queer for me to ask, but we have to
+move--they are going to build an apartment-house where we are renting
+now, and mother is sick.  I should like to get her out into the
+country, our house is so little and dark; and I thought, if she could
+be all summer where she could see the sky and hear the birds, she might
+get well.  I want to get my little sisters and brothers out of the
+city, too.  But we couldn't likely pay enough rent.  I suppose it was
+silly of me to ask."
+
+"Not at all!" said the young man courteously, as though she had been a
+queen whom he delighted to honor.  "I don't see why we shouldn't be
+able to get together on some kind of a proposition--that is, unless
+father has other plans that I don't know about.  A barn ought not to be
+worth such a big price.  How much would you feel like paying?"
+
+He was studying the girl before him with interested eyes; noting the
+well-set head on the pretty shoulders, even in spite of the ill-fitting
+shabby blue coat; the delicate features; the glint of gold in the soft
+brown hair; the tilt of the firm little chin, and the wistfulness in
+the big blue eyes.  This was a new kind of girl, and he was disposed to
+give her what she wanted if he could.  And he _could_.  He knew well
+that anything he willed mightily would not be denied him.
+
+The frightened color came into the delicate cheeks again, and the blue
+eyes fluttered down ashamedly.
+
+"We are only paying fifteen a month now," she said; "and I couldn't pay
+any more, for we haven't got it.  I couldn't pay _as much_, for it
+would cost sixty cents a week apiece for George and me to come in to
+our work from there.  I couldn't pay more than twelve! and I know
+that's ridiculous for such a great big, beautiful place, but--I _had_
+to ask."
+
+She lifted her eyes swiftly in apology, and dropped them again; the
+young man felt a glow of sympathy for her, and a deep desire to help
+her have her wish.
+
+"Why, certainly," he said heartily.  "Of course you did.  And it's not
+ridiculous at all for you to make a business proposition of any kind.
+You say what you can do, and we accept it or not as we like.  That's
+our lookout.  Now of course I can't answer about this until I've
+consulted father; and, not knowing the place well, I haven't the least
+idea what it's worth; it may not be worth even twelve dollars."  (He
+made a mental reservation that it _should_ not be if he could help it.)
+"Suppose I consult with father and let you know.  Could I write or
+phone you, or will you be around this way any time to-morrow?"
+
+Shirley's breath was fairly gone with the realization that he was
+actually considering her proposition in earnest.  He had not laughed at
+her for wanting to live in a barn, and he had not turned down the price
+she offered as impossible!  He was looking at her in a kindly way as if
+he liked her for being frank.
+
+"Why, yes," she said, looking up shyly, "I can come in to-morrow at my
+noon hour--if that would not be too soon.  I always have a little time
+to myself then, and it isn't far from the office."
+
+"That will be perfectly all right for me," smiled young Graham.  "I
+shall be here till half-past one, and you can ask the boy to show you
+to my office.  I will consult with father the first thing in the
+morning and be ready to give you an answer.  But I am wondering if you
+have seen this barn, I suppose you have, or you would not want to rent
+it; but I should suppose a barn would be an awfully unpleasant place to
+live, kind of almost impossible.  Are you sure you realize what the
+proposition would be?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," said Shirley, looking troubled and earnest.  "It is
+a beautiful big place, and the outlook is wonderful.  I was there
+to-day, and found a door open at the back, and went in to look around.
+The up-stairs middle floor is so big we could make several rooms out of
+it with screens and curtains.  It would be lovely.  We could live in
+picnic style.  Yes, I'm sure mother would like it.  I haven't told her
+about it yet, because if I couldn't afford it I didn't want to
+disappoint her; so I thought I would wait till I found out; but I'm
+just about certain she would be delighted.  And anyhow we've _got_ to
+go _somewhere_."
+
+"I see," said this courteous young man, trying not to show his
+amazement and delight in the girl who so coolly discussed living in a
+barn with curtains and screens for partitions.  He thought of his own
+luxurious home and his comfortable life, where every need had been
+supplied even before he realized it, and, wondering again, was
+refreshed in soul by this glimpse into the brave heart of the girl.
+
+"Then I will expect you," he said pleasantly, and, opening the door,
+escorted her to the elevator, touching his hat to her as he left her.
+
+Shirley would not have been a normal girl if she had not felt the least
+flutter in her heart at the attention he showed her and the pleasant
+tones of his voice.  It was for all the world as if she had been a lady
+dressed in broadcloth and fur.  She looked down at her shabby little
+serge suit--that had done duty all winter with an old gray sweater
+under it--half in shame and half in pride in the man who had not let it
+hinder him from giving her honor.  He was a _man_.  He must be.  She
+had bared her poverty-stricken life to his gaze, and he had not taken
+advantage of it.  He had averted his eyes, and acted as if it were just
+like other lives and others' necessities; and he had made her feel that
+she was just as good as any one with whom he had to deal.
+
+Well, it was probably only a manner, a kind of refined, courteous habit
+he had; but it was lovely, and she was going to enjoy the bit of it
+that had fallen at her feet.
+
+On the whole, Shirley walked the ten blocks to her narrow little home
+feeling that she had had a good day.  She was weary, but it was a
+healthy weariness.  The problem which had been pressing on her brain
+for days, and nights too, did not seem so impossible now, and hope was
+in her heart that somehow she would find a way out.  It had been good
+to get away from the office and the busy monotony and go out into the
+wide, open out-of-doors.  It was good also to meet a real nobleman,
+even if it were only in passing, and on business.
+
+She decided not to tell her mother and the children of her outing yet,
+not until she was sure there were to be results.  Besides, it might
+only worry her mother the more and give her a sleepless night if she
+let out the secret about the barn.
+
+One more little touch of pleasantness there came to make this day stand
+out from others as beautiful.  It was when she turned into Chapel
+Street, and was swinging along rapidly in order to get home at her
+usual time and not alarm her mother, that a car rolled quickly past to
+the middle of the block, and stopped just under a street-light.  In a
+moment more a lady came out of the door of a house, entered the car,
+and was driven away.  As she closed the car-door, Shirley fancied she
+saw something drop from the lady's hand.  When Shirley reached the
+place she found it was two great, luscious pink rosebuds that must have
+slipped from the lady's corsage and fallen on the pavement.  Shirley
+picked them up almost reverently, inhaling their exotic breath, and
+taking in their delicate curves and texture.  Then she looked after the
+limousine.  It was three blocks away and just turning into another
+street.  It would be impossible for her to overtake it, and there was
+little likelihood of the lady's returning for two roses.  Probably she
+would never miss them.  Shirley turned toward the house, thinking she
+ought to take them in, but discovered that it bore the name of a
+fashionable modiste, who would, of course, not have any right to the
+roses, and Shirley's conscience decided they were meant by Providence
+for her.  So, happily, she hurried on to the little brick house,
+bearing the wonderful flowers to her mother.
+
+She hurried so fast that she reached home ten minutes earlier than
+usual, and they all gathered around her eagerly as if it were some
+great event, the mother calling half fearfully from her bedroom
+up-stairs to know whether anything had happened.  She was always
+expecting some new calamity like sickness, or the loss of their
+positions by one or the other of her children.
+
+"Nothing at all the matter, mother dear!" called Shirley happily as she
+hung up her coat and hat, and hugged Doris.  "I got off earlier than
+usual because Mr. Barnard had to go away.  Just see what a beautiful
+thing I have brought you--found it on the street, dropped by a
+beautiful lady.  You needn't be afraid of them, for she and her
+limousine looked perfectly hygienic; and it wasn't stealing, because I
+couldn't possibly have caught her.  Aren't they lovely?"
+
+By this time she was up in her mother's room, with Doris and Carol
+following close behind exclaiming in delight over the roses.
+
+She kissed her mother, and put the flowers into a glass beside the bed.
+
+"You're looking better to-night, I believe, dear," said the mother.
+"I've been worried about you all day.  You were so white and tired this
+morning."
+
+"Oh, I'm feeling fine, mother dear!" said Shirley gayly, "and I'm going
+down to make your toast and poach you an egg while Carol finishes
+getting supper.  George will be here in ten minutes now, and Harley
+ought to be in any minute.  He always comes when he gets hungry.  My!
+I'm hungry myself!  Let's hurry, Carol.  Doris, darling, you fix
+mother's little table all ready for her tray.  Put on the white cloth,
+take away the books, set the glass with the roses in the middle very
+carefully.  You won't spill it, will you, darling?"
+
+Doris, all smiles at the responsibility accorded her, promised: "No, I
+yun't spill it I'll move it tarefully."
+
+There was something in Shirley's buoyant air that night that lifted
+them all above the cares that had oppressed them for weeks, and gave
+them new hope.  She flew around, getting the supper things together,
+making her mother's tray pretty, and taking little extra pains for each
+one as she had not felt able to do before.  Carol caught the contagion,
+and mashed the potatoes more carefully, so that there wasn't a single
+lump in them.
+
+"Goodness!  But it's been hot in this kitchen all day, Shirley," said
+Carol.  "I had the back door open, but it just seemed stifling.  I got
+the ironing all done except a table-cloth, and I guess I can finish
+that this evening.  I haven't got much studying to do for to-morrow.
+Nellie Waite stopped, and left me my books.  I don't believe I'll have
+to stay at home another day this week.  Mother says she can get along.
+I can leave her lunch all ready, and Doris can manage."
+
+Shirley's conscience gave a sudden twinge.  Here had she been sitting
+under a lovely tree by a brook, eating her lunch, and dreaming foolish
+day-dreams about living in a barn, while Carol stayed at home from
+school and toiled in the kitchen!  Perhaps she ought to have come home
+and sent Carol back to school.  And yet perhaps that nice young Mr.
+Graham would be able to do something; she would not condemn herself
+until the morrow, anyway.  She had tried to do her best.  She had not
+gone off there selfishly just to have a good time by herself when her
+dear ones were suffering.  It had been for their sake.
+
+Then George came in whistling, and Harley banged in gayly a minute
+later, calling to know whether supper was ready.
+
+"'Cause I gotta date with the fellas this evening, and I gotta beat
+it," he declared impatiently.
+
+The shadow of anxiety passed over Shirley's face again at that, but she
+quieted her heart once more with her hopes for to-morrow.  If her plan
+succeeded, Harley would be away from "the fellas," and wouldn't have so
+many questionable "dates" to worry them all.
+
+George was in a hurry, too.
+
+"Gee, Shirley, I gotta be at the store all evening," he said, bolting
+his food hurriedly.  "I wouldn't 'a' come home, only I knew you'd
+worry, and mother gets so upset.  Gee, Shirley, what we gonta do about
+a house?  It's getting almost time to move.  I went to all those places
+you suggested at noon to-day, but there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere.
+There's some rooms on Louden Street, but there's all sorts in the
+house.  Mother wouldn't like it.  It's dirty besides.  I suppose if we
+look long enough we could find rooms; but we'd have to get along with
+only two or three, for they come awful high.  We'd have to have three
+anyway, you girls and mother in one, us boys in the other, and one for
+parlor and kitchen together.  Gee!  Wouldn't that be fierce?  I oughtta
+get a better job.  We can't live that way."
+
+"Don't worry, George; I think we'll find something better," said
+Shirley with a hopeful ring in her voice.  "I've been thinking out a
+plan.  I haven't got it all just arranged in my mind yet, but I'll tell
+you about it pretty soon.  You don't have school to-morrow night, do
+you?  No, I thought not.  Well, maybe we can talk it over then.  You
+and I will have to go out together and look up a place perhaps," and
+she smiled an encouraging smile, and sent him off to his school happily.
+
+She extracted a promise from Harley that he would be in by nine
+o'clock, discovered that he was only going to a "movie" show around the
+corner with one of the fellows who was going to "stand treat" on
+account of a wonderful ball game they had won, found out where his
+lessons were for the morrow, promised to help him when he returned, and
+sent him away with a feeling of comfort and responsibility to return
+early.  She washed the dishes and ironed the table-cloth so Carol could
+go to her lessons.  Then she went up and put Doris to bed with a story
+about a little bird that built a nest in a tall, beautiful tree that
+grew beside the place where the little girl lived; a little bird that
+drank from a little running brook, and took a bath on its pebbly shore,
+and ate the crumbs and berries the little girl gave it, and sat all day
+on five little blue eggs.
+
+Harley came in at five minutes after nine, and did his lessons with her
+help.  George came home just as they finished.  He was whistling,
+though he looked tired.  He said "the prof." had been "the limit" all
+the evening.  Shirley fixed her mother comfortably for the night, and
+went at last to her own bed, more tired than she had been for weeks,
+and yet more happy.  For through it all she had been sustained by a
+hope; inspired by a cultured, pleasant voice, and eyes that wanted to
+help, and seemed to understand.
+
+As she closed her eyes to sleep, somehow that pleasant voice and those
+kind eyes mingled with her dreams, and seemed to promise relief from
+her great anxieties.
+
+It was with a feeling of excitement and anticipation that she dressed
+the next morning and hurried away.  Something was coming, she felt
+sure, some help for their trying situation.  She had felt it when she
+knelt for her usual prayer that morning, and it throbbed in her excited
+heart as she hurried through the streets to the office.  It almost
+frightened her to feel so sure, for she knew how terrible would be the
+disappointment if she got her hopes too high.
+
+There was plenty to be done at the office, a great many letters to
+answer, and a telegram with directions from Mr. Barnard.  But she
+worked with more ease than for some time, and was done by half-past
+eleven.  When she took the letters out to Mr. Clegg to be signed, he
+told her that she would not be needed the rest of the day, and might go
+at once if she chose.
+
+She ate her bit of lunch hurriedly, and made herself as fresh and tidy
+as was possible in the office.  Then she took her way to the fourth
+floor of the Ward Trust Building.  With throbbing heart and glowing
+cheeks she entered the office of Walter Graham, and asked for Mr.
+Sidney Graham.
+
+The office-boy had evidently received instructions, for he bowed most
+respectfully this time, and led her at once to the inner office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The afternoon before, when Mr. Sidney Graham had returned to his office
+from seeing Shirley to the elevator, he stood several minutes looking
+thoughtfully at the chair where she had sat, while he carefully drew on
+his gloves.
+
+There had been something interesting and appealing in the spirited face
+of the girl, with her delicate features and wistful eyes.  He could not
+seem to get away from it.  It had left an impression of character and a
+struggle with forces of which in his sheltered life he had had only a
+vague conception.  It had left him with the feeling that she was
+stronger in some ways than himself, and he did not exactly like the
+sensation of it.  He had always aimed to be a strong character himself;
+and for a young man who had inherited two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars on coming of age, and double that amount two years later, with
+the prospect of another goodly sum when his paternal grandfather's
+estate was divided, he had done very well indeed.  He had stuck to
+business ever since leaving college, where he had been by no means a
+nonentity either in studies or in athletics; and he had not been
+spoiled by the adulation that a young man of his good looks and wealth
+and position always receives in society.  He had taken society as a
+sort of duty, but had never given it an undue proportion of his time
+and thoughts.  Notably he was a young man of fine balance and strong
+self-control, not given to impulsive or erratic likes and dislikes; and
+he could not understand why a shabby little person with a lock of gold
+over one crimson cheek, and tired, discouraged lights in her had made
+so strong an impression upon him.
+
+It had been his intention just before Shirley's arrival to leave the
+office at once and perhaps drop in on Miss Harriet Hale.  If the hour
+seemed propitious, he would take her for a spin in his new racing-car
+that even now waited in the street below; but somehow suddenly his plan
+did not attract him deeply.  He felt the need of being by himself.
+After a turn or two up and down his luxurious office he took the
+elevator down to the street floor, dismissed his chauffeur, and whirled
+off in his car, taking the opposite direction from that which would
+have taken him to the Hale residence.  Harriet Hale was a very pretty
+girl with a brilliant mind and a royal fortune.  She could entertain
+him and stimulate him tremendously, and sometimes he almost thought the
+attraction was strong enough to last him through life; but Harriet Hale
+would not be able to appreciate his present mood nor explain to him why
+the presence in his office for fifteen minutes of a nervy little
+stenographer who was willing to live in a barn should have made him so
+vaguely dissatisfied with himself.  If he were to try to tell her about
+it, he felt sure he would meet with laughing taunts and brilliant
+sarcasm.  She would never understand.
+
+He took little notice of where he was going, threading his way
+skilfully through the congested portion of the city and out into the
+comparatively empty highways, until at last he found himself in the
+suburbs.  The name of the street as he slowed up at a grade crossing
+gave him an idea.  Why shouldn't he take a run out and hunt up that
+barn for himself?  What had she said about it, where it was?  He
+consulted the memorandum he had written down for his father's
+edification.  "Glenside Road, near Allister Avenue."  He further
+searched his memory.  "Big stone barn, wide approach like a grand
+staircase, tall tree overhanging, brook."  This surely ought to be
+enough to help him identify it.  There surely were not a flock of stone
+barns in that neighborhood that would answer that description.
+
+He turned into Glenside Road with satisfaction, and set a sharp watch
+for the names of the cross-avenues with a view to finding Allister
+Avenue, and once he stopped and asked a man in an empty milk-wagon
+whether he knew where Allister Avenue was, and was informed that it was
+"on a piece, about five miles."
+
+There was something interesting in hunting up his own strange barn, and
+he began to look about him and try to see things with the eyes of the
+girl who had just called upon him.
+
+Most of the fields were green with spring, and there was an air of
+things doing over them, as if growing were a business that one could
+watch, like house-cleaning and paper-hanging and painting.  Graham had
+never noticed before that the great bare spring out-of-doors seemed to
+have a character all its own, and actually to have an attraction.  A
+little later when the trees were out, and all the orchards in bloom,
+and the wild flowers blowing in the breeze, he could rave over spring;
+but he had never seen the charm of its beginnings before.  He wondered
+curiously over the fact of his keen appreciation now.
+
+The sky was all opalescent with lovely pastel colors along the horizon,
+and a few tall, lank trees had put on a soft gauze of green over their
+foreheads like frizzes, discernible only to a close observer.  The air
+was getting chilly with approaching night, and the bees were no longer
+proclaiming with their hum the way to the skunk-cabbages; but a
+delicate perfume was in the air, and though perhaps Graham had never
+even heard of skunk-cabbages, he drew in long breaths of sweetness, and
+let out his car over the smooth road with a keen delight.
+
+Behind a copse of fine old willows, age-tall and hoary with weather,
+their extremities just hinting of green, as they stood knee-deep in the
+brook on its way to a larger stream, he first caught sight of the old
+barn.
+
+He knew it at once by something indefinable.  Its substantial stone
+spaciousness, its mossy roof, its arching tree, and the brook that
+backed away from the wading willows, up the hillside, under the rail
+fence, and ran around its side, all were unmistakable.  He could see it
+just as the girl had seen it, and something in him responded to her
+longing to live there and make it into a home.  Perhaps he was a
+dreamer, even as she, although he passed in the world of business for a
+practical young man.  But anyhow he slowed his car down and looked at
+the place intently as he passed by.  He was convinced that this was the
+place.  He did not need to go on and find Allister Avenue--though he
+did, and then turned back again, stopping by the roadside.  He got out
+of the car, looking all the time at the barn and seeing it in the light
+of the girl's eyes.  As he walked up the grassy slope to the front
+doors, he had some conception of what it must be to live so that this
+would seem grand as a home.  And he showed he was not spoiled by his
+life in the lap of luxury, for he was able to get a glimpse of the
+grandeur of the spot and the dignity of the building with its long
+simple lines and rough old stones.
+
+The sun was just going down as he stood there looking up.  It touched
+the stones, and turned them into jewelled settings, glorifying the old
+structure into a palace.  The evening was sweet with the voices of
+birds not far away.  One above the rest, clear and occasional, high in
+the elm-tree over the barn, a wood-thrush spilling its silver notes
+down to the brook that echoed them back in a lilt.  The young man took
+off his hat and stood in the evening air, listening and looking.  He
+could see the poetry of it, and somehow he could see the girl's face as
+if she stood there beside him, her wonderful eyes lighted as they had
+been when she told him how beautiful it was there.  She was right.  It
+was beautiful, and it was a lovely soul that could see it and feel what
+a home this would make in spite of the ignominy of its being nothing
+but a barn.  Some dim memory, some faint remembrance, of a stable long
+ago, and the glory of it, hovered on the horizon of his mind; but his
+education had not been along religious lines, and he did not put the
+thing into a definite thought.  It was just a kind of sensing of a
+great fact of the universe which he perhaps might have understood in a
+former existence.
+
+Then he turned to the building itself.  He was practical, after all,
+even if he was a dreamer.  He tried the big padlock.  How did they get
+into this thing?  How had the girl got in?  Should he be obliged to
+break into his own barn?
+
+He walked down the slope, around to the back, and found the entrance
+close to the ladder; but the place was quite dark within the great
+stone walls, and he peered into the gloomy basement with disgust at the
+dirt and murk.  Only here and there, where a crack looked toward the
+setting sun, a bright needle of light sent a shaft through to let one
+see the inky shadows.  He was half turning back, but reflected that the
+girl had said she went up a ladder to the middle floor.  If she had
+gone, surely he could.  Again that sense that she was stronger than he
+rebuked him.  He got out his pocket flashlight and stepped within the
+gloom determinedly.  Holding the flash-light above his head, he
+surveyed his property disapprovingly; then with the light in his hand
+he climbed in a gingerly way up the dusty rounds to the middle floor.
+
+As he stood alone in the dusky shadows of the big barn, with the
+blackness of the hay-loft overhead, the darkness pierced only by the
+keen blade of the flash-light and a few feebler darts from the sinking
+sun, the poetry suddenly left the old barn, and a shudder ran through
+him.  To think of trying to live here!  How horrible!
+
+Yet still that same feeling that the girl had more nerve than he had
+forced him to walk the length and breadth of the floor, peering
+carefully into the dark corners and acquainting himself fully with the
+bare, big place; and also to climb part way up the ladder to the loft
+and send his flash-light searching through its dusty hay-strewn
+recesses.
+
+With a feeling utterly at variance with the place he turned away in
+disgust, and made his way down the ladders again, out into the sunset.
+
+In that short time the evening had arrived.  The sky had flung out
+banners and pennants, pencilled by a fringe of fine saplings like
+slender brown threads against the sky.  The earth was sinking into
+dusk, and off by the brook the frogs were tinkling like tiny answering
+silver rattles.  The smell of earth and growing stole upon his senses,
+and even as he gazed about him a single star burned into being in the
+clear ether above him.  The birds were still now, and the frogs with
+the brook for accompaniment held the stage.  Once more the charm of the
+place stole over him; and he stood with hat removed, and wondered no
+longer that the girl was willing to live here.  A conviction grew
+within him that somehow he must make it possible for her to do so, that
+things would not be right and as they ought to be unless he did.  In
+fact, he had a curiosity to have her do it and see whether it could be
+done.
+
+He went slowly down to his car at last with lingering backward looks.
+The beauty of the situation was undoubted, and called for admiration.
+It was too bad that only a barn should occupy it.  He would like to see
+a fine house reared upon it.  But somehow in his heart he was glad that
+it was not a fine house standing there against the evening sky, and
+that it was possible for him to let the girl try her experiment of
+living there.  Was it possible?  Could there be any mistake?  Could it
+be that he had not found the right barn, after all?  He must make sure,
+of course.
+
+But still he turned his car toward home, feeling reasonably sure that
+he had found the right spot; and, as he drove swiftly back along the
+way, he was thinking, and all his thoughts were woven with the softness
+of the spring evening and permeated with its sounds.  He seemed to be
+in touch with nature as he had never been before.
+
+At dinner that night he asked his father:
+
+"Did Grandfather Graham ever live out on the old Glenside Road, father?"
+
+A pleasant twinkle came in the elder Graham's eyes.
+
+"Sure!" he said.  "Lived there myself when I was five years old, before
+the old man got to speculating and made his pile, and we got too grand
+to stay in a farmhouse.  I can remember rolling down a hill under a
+great big tree, and your Uncle Billy pushing me into the brook that ran
+at the foot.  We boys used to wade in that brook, and build dams, and
+catch little minnows, and sail boats.  It was great sport.  I used to
+go back holidays now and then after I got old enough to go away to
+school.  We were living in town then, but I used to like to go out and
+stay at the farmhouse.  It was rented to a queer old dick; but his wife
+was a good sort, and made the bulliest apple turnovers for us boys--and
+doughnuts!  The old farmhouse burned down a year or so ago.  But the
+barn is still standing.  I can remember how proud your grandfather was
+of that barn.  It was finer than any barn around, and bigger.  We boys
+used to go up in the loft, and tumble in the hay; and once when I was a
+little kid I got lost in the hay, and Billy had to dig me out.  I can
+remember how scared I was when I thought I might have to stay there
+forever, and have nothing to eat."
+
+"Say, father," said the son, leaning forward eagerly, "I've a notion
+I'd like to have that old place in my share.  Do you think it could be
+arranged?  The boys won't care, I'm sure; they're always more for the
+town than the country."
+
+"Why, yes, I guess that could be fixed up.  You just see Mr. Dalrymple
+about it.  He'll fix it up.  Billy's boy got that place up river, you
+know.  Just see the lawyer, and he'll fix it up.  No reason in the
+world why you shouldn't have the old place if you care for it.  Not
+much in it for money, though, I guess.  They tell me property's way
+down out that direction now."
+
+The talk passed to other matters, and Sidney Graham said nothing about
+his caller of the afternoon, nor of the trip he had taken out to see
+the old barn.  Instead, he took his father's advice, and saw the family
+lawyer, Mr. Dalrymple, the first thing in the morning.
+
+It was all arranged in a few minutes.  Mr. Dalrymple called up the
+other heirs and the children's guardian.  An office-boy hurried out
+with some papers, and came back with the signatures of heirs and
+guardians, who happened all to be within reach; and presently the
+control of the old farm was formally put into the hands of Mr. Sidney
+Graham, he having signed certain papers agreeing to take this as such
+and such portion of his right in the whole estate.
+
+It had been a simple matter; and yet, when at about half-past eleven
+o'clock Mr. Dalrymple's stenographer laid a folded paper quietly on
+Sidney Graham's desk and silently left the room, he reached out and
+touched it with more satisfaction than he had felt in any acquisition
+in a long time, not excepting his last racing-car.  It was not the
+value the paper represented, however, that pleased him, but the fact
+that he would now be able to do as he pleased concerning the
+prospective tenant for the place, and follow out a curious and
+interesting experiment.  He wanted to study this girl and see whether
+she really had the nerve to go and live in a barn--a girl with a face
+like that to live in a barn!  He wanted to see what manner of girl she
+was, and to have the right to watch her for a little space.
+
+It is true that the morning light might present her in a very different
+aspect from that in which she had appeared the evening before, and he
+mentally reserved the right to turn her down completely if she showed
+the least sign of not being all that he had thought her.  At the same
+time, he intended to be entirely sure.  He would not turn her away
+without a thorough investigation.
+
+Graham had been greatly interested in the study of social science when
+in college, and human nature interested him at all times.  He could not
+but admit to himself that this girl had taken a most unusual hold upon
+his thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+As the morning passed on and it drew near to the noon hour Sidney
+Graham found himself almost excited over the prospect of the girl's
+coming.  Such foolish fancies as a fear lest she might have given up
+the idea and would not come at all presented themselves to his
+distraught brain, which refused to go on its well-ordered way, but kept
+reverting to the expected caller and what he should say to her.  When
+at last she was announced, he drew back his chair from the desk, and
+prepared to meet her with a strange tremor in his whole bearing.  It
+annoyed him, and brought almost a frown of sternness to his fine
+features.  It seemed not quite in keeping with his dignity as junior
+member of his father's firm that he should be so childish over a simple
+matter like this, and he began to doubt whether, after all, he might
+not be doing a most unwise and irregular thing in having anything at
+all to do with this girl's preposterous proposition.  Then Shirley
+entered the office, looked eagerly into his eyes; and he straight-way
+forgot all his reasoning.  He met her with a smile that seemed to
+reassure her, for she drew in her breath half relieved, and smiled
+shyly back.
+
+She was wearing a little old crepe de chine waist that she had dyed a
+real apple-blossom pink in the wash-bowl with a bit of pink crepe-paper
+and a kettle of boiling water.  The collar showed neatly over the
+shabby dark-blue coat, and seemed to reflect apple-blossom tints in her
+pale cheeks.  There was something sky-like in the tint of her eyes that
+gave the young man a sense of spring fitness as he looked at her
+contentedly.  He was conscious of gladness that she looked as good to
+him in the broad day as in the dusk of evening.  There was still that
+spirited lift of her chin, that firm set of the sweet lips, that gave a
+conviction of strength and nerve.  He reflected that he had seldom seen
+it in the girls of his acquaintance.  Was it possible that poverty and
+privation and big responsibility made it, or was it just innate?
+
+"You--you have found out?" she asked breathlessly as she sat down on
+the edge of the chair, her whole body tense with eagerness.
+
+"Sure!  It's all right," he said smilingly.  "You can rent it if you
+wish."
+
+"And the price?"  It was evident the strain was intense.
+
+"Why, the price will be all right, I'm sure.  It really isn't worth
+what you mentioned at all.  It's only a barn, you know.  We couldn't
+think of taking more than ten dollars a month, if we took that.  I must
+look it over again; but it won't be more than ten dollars, and it may
+be less."
+
+Young Graham wore his most businesslike tone to say this, and his eyes
+were on the paper-knife wherewith he was mutilating his nice clean
+blotter pad on the desk.
+
+"Oh!" breathed Shirley, the color almost leaving her face entirely with
+the relief of his words.  "Oh, _really_?"
+
+"And you haven't lost your nerve about living away out there in the
+country in a great empty barn?" he asked quickly to cover her
+embarrassment--and his own, too, perhaps.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Shirley with a smile that showed a dimple in one cheek,
+and the star sparks in her eyes.  "Oh, no!  It is a lovely barn, and it
+won't be empty when we all get into it."
+
+"Are there many of you?" he asked interestedly.  Already the
+conversation was taking on a slightly personal tinge, but neither of
+them was at all aware of it.
+
+"Two brothers and two sisters and mother," said the girl shyly.  She
+was so full of delight over finding that she could rent the barn that
+she hardly knew what she was answering.  She was unconscious of the
+fact that she had in a way taken this strange young man into her
+confidence by her shy, sweet tone and manner.
+
+"Your mother approves of your plan?" he asked.  "She doesn't object to
+the country?"
+
+"Oh, I haven't told her yet," said Shirley.  "I don't know that I
+shall; for she has been quite sick, and she trusts me entirely.  She
+loves the country, and it will be wonderful to her to get out there.
+She might not like the idea of a barn beforehand; but she has never
+seen the barn, you know, and, besides, it won't look like a barn inside
+when I get it fixed up.  I must talk it over with George and Carol, but
+I don't think I shall tell her at all till we take her out there and
+surprise her.  I'll tell her I've found a place that I think she will
+like, and ask her if I may keep it a surprise.  She'll be willing, and
+she'll be pleased, I know!"  Her eyes were smiling happily, dreamily;
+the dreamer was uppermost in her face now, and made it lovely; then a
+sudden cloud came, and the strong look returned, with courage to meet a
+storm.
+
+"But, anyhow," she finished after a pause, "we _have_ to go there for
+the summer, for we've nowhere else to go that we can afford; and
+_anywhere_ out of the city will be good, even if mother doesn't just
+choose it.  I think perhaps it will be easier for her if she doesn't
+know about it until she's there.  It won't seem so much like not going
+to live in a house."
+
+"I see," said the young man interestedly.  "I shouldn't wonder if you
+are right.  And anyhow I think we can manage between us to make it
+pretty habitable for her."  He was speaking eagerly and forgetting that
+he had no right, but a flush came into the sensitive girl's cheek.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to make you trouble," she said.  "You have been
+very kind already, and you have made the rent so reasonable!  I'm
+afraid it isn't right and fair; it is such a _lovely_ barn!"
+
+"Perfectly fair," said Graham glibly.  "It will do the barn good to be
+lived in and taken care of again."
+
+If he had been called upon to tell just what good it would do the barn
+to be lived in, he might have floundered out of the situation, perhaps;
+but he took care not to make that necessary.  He went on talking.
+
+"I will see that everything is in good order, the doors made all right,
+and the windows--I--that is, if I remember rightly there were a few
+little things needed doing to that barn that ought to be attended to
+before you go in.  How soon did you want to take possession?  I'll try
+to have it all ready for you."
+
+"Oh, why, that is very kind," said Shirley.  "I don't think it needs
+anything; that is, I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you know best.
+Why, we have to leave our house the last of this month.  Do you suppose
+we could have the rent begin a few days before that, so we could get
+things moved gradually?  I haven't much time, only at night, you know."
+
+"We'll date the lease the first of next month," said the young man
+quickly; "and then you can put your things in any time you like from
+now on.  I'll see that the locks are made safe, and there ought to be a
+partition put in--just a simple partition, you know--at one end of the
+up-stairs room, where you could lock up things.  Then you could take
+them up there when you like.  I'll attend to that partition at once.
+The barn needs it.  This is as good a time as any to put it in.  You
+wouldn't object to a partition?  That wouldn't upset any of your plans?"
+
+He spoke as if it would be a great detriment to the barn not to have a
+partition, but of course he wouldn't insist if she disliked it.
+
+"Oh, why, no, of course not," said Shirley, bewildered.  "It would be
+lovely.  Mother could use that for her room, but I wouldn't want you to
+do anything on our account that you do not have to do anyway."
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not, but it might as well be done now as any time,
+and you get the benefit of it, you know.  I shouldn't want to rent the
+place without putting it in good order, and a partition is always
+needed in a barn, you know, if it's to be a really good barn."
+
+It was well that no wise ones were listening to that conversation; else
+they might have laughed aloud at this point and betrayed the young
+man's strategy, but Shirley was all untutored in farm lore, and knew
+less about barns and their needs than she did of Sanskrit; so the
+remark passed without exciting her suspicion.
+
+"Oh, it's going to be lovely!" said Shirley suddenly, like an eager
+child, "and I can't thank you enough for being so kind about it."
+
+"Not at all," said the young man gracefully.  "And now you will want to
+go out and look around again to make your plans.  Were you planning to
+go soon?  I should like to have you look the place over again and see
+if there is anything else that should be done."
+
+"Oh, why," said Shirley, "I don't think there could be anything else;
+only I'd like to have a key to that big front door, for we couldn't
+carry things up the ladder very well.  I was thinking I'd go out this
+afternoon, perhaps, if I could get George a leave of absence for a
+little while.  There's been a death in our firm, and the office is
+working only half-time to-day, and I'm off again.  I thought I'd like
+to have George see it if possible; he's very wise in his judgments, and
+mother trusts him a lot next to me; but I don't know whether they'll
+let him off on such short notice."
+
+"Where does he work?"
+
+"Farwell and Story's department store.  They are pretty particular, but
+George is allowed a day off every three months if he takes it out of
+his vacation; so I thought I'd try."
+
+"Here, let me fix that.  Harry Farwell's a friend of mine."  He caught
+up the telephone.
+
+"Oh, you are very kind!" murmured Shirley, quite overcome at the
+blessings that were falling at her feet.
+
+Graham already had the number, and was calling for Mr. Farwell, Junior.
+
+"That you, Hal?  Oh, good morning!  Have a good time last night?  Sorry
+I couldn't have been there, but I had three other engagements and
+couldn't get around.  Say, I want to ask a favor of you.  You have a
+boy there in the store I want to borrow for the afternoon if you don't
+mind.  His name is George Hollister.  Could you look him up and send
+him over to my office pretty soon?  It will be a personal favor to me
+if you will let him off and not dock his pay.  Thank you!  I was sure
+you would.  Return the favor sometime myself if opportunity comes my
+way.  Yes, I'll hold the phone till you hunt him up.  Thank you."
+
+Graham looked up from the phone into the astonished grateful girl's
+eyes, and caught her look of deep admiration, which quite confused
+Shirley for a moment, and put her in a terrible way trying to thank him
+again.
+
+"Oh, that's all right.  Farwell and I went to prep school together.
+It's nothing for him to arrange matters.  He says it will be all right.
+Now, what are your plans?  I wonder if I can help in any way.  How were
+you planning to go out?"
+
+"Oh, by the trolley, of course," said Shirley.  How strange it must be
+to have other ways of travelling at one's command!
+
+"I did think," she added, half thinking aloud, "that perhaps I would
+stop at the schoolhouse and get my sister.  I don't know but it would
+be better to get her judgment about things.  She is rather a wise
+little girl."
+
+She looked up suddenly, and seeing the young man's eyes upon her, grew
+ashamed that she had brought her private affairs to his notice; yet it
+had seemed necessary to say something to fill in this embarrassing
+pause.  But Sidney Graham did not let her continue to be embarrassed.
+He entered into her plans just as if they concerned himself also.
+
+"Why, I think that would be a very good plan," he said.  "It will be a
+great deal better to have a real family council before you decide about
+moving.  Now I've thought of something.  Why couldn't you all go out in
+the car with me and my kid sister?  I've been promising to take her a
+spin in the country, and my chauffeur is to drive her down this
+afternoon for me.  It's almost time for her to be here now.  Your
+brother will be here by the time she comes.  Why couldn't we just go
+around by the schoolhouse and pick up your sister, and all go out
+together?  I want to go out myself, you know, and look things over, and
+it seems to me that would save time all around.  Then, if there should
+be anything you want done, you know----"
+
+"Oh, there is nothing I want done," gasped Shirley.  "You have been
+most kind.  I couldn't think of asking for anything at the price we
+shall be paying.  And we mustn't impose upon you.  We can go out in the
+trolley perfectly well, and not trouble you."
+
+"Indeed, it is no trouble whatever when I am going anyway."  Then to
+the telephone: "Hello!  He's coming, you say?  He's on his way?  Good.
+Thank you very much, Harry.  Good-by!"
+
+"That's all right!" he said, turning to her, smiling.  "Your brother is
+on his way, and now excuse me just a moment while I phone to my sister."
+
+Shirley sat with glowing cheeks and apprehensive mind while the young
+man called up a girl whom he addressed as "Kid" and told her to hurry
+the car right down, that he wanted to start very soon, and to bring
+some extra wraps along for some friends he was going to take with him.
+
+He left Shirley no opportunity to express her overwhelming thanks, but
+gave her some magazines, and hurried from the room to attend to some
+matters of business before he left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Shirley sat with shining eyes and glowing cheeks, turning over the
+leaves of the magazines with trembling fingers, but unable to read
+anything, for the joy of what was before her.  A real automobile ride!
+The first she had ever had!  And it was to include George and Carol!
+How wonderful!  And how kind in him, how thoughtful, to take his own
+sister, and hers, and so make the trip perfectly conventional and
+proper!  What a nice face he had!  What fine eyes!  He didn't seem in
+the least like the young society man she knew he must be from the
+frequent mention she had noticed of his name in the papers.  He was a
+real gentleman, a real nobleman!  There were such.  It was nice to know
+of them now and then, even though they did move in a different orbit
+from the one where she had been set.  It gave her a happier feeling
+about the universe just to have seen how nice a man could be to a poor
+little nobody when he didn't have to.  For of course it couldn't be
+anything to him to rent that barn--at ten dollars a month!  That was
+ridiculous!  Could it be that he was thinking her an object of charity?
+That he felt sorry for her and made the price merely nominal?  She
+couldn't have that.  It wasn't right nor honest, and--it wasn't
+respectable!  That was the way unprincipled men did when they wanted to
+humor foolish little dolls of girls.  Could it be that he thought of
+her in any such way?
+
+Her cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed.  She sat up very straight
+indeed, and began to tremble.  How was it she had not thought of such a
+thing before?  Her mother had warned her to be careful about having
+anything to do with strange men, except in the most distant business
+way; and here had she been telling him frankly all the private affairs
+of the family and letting him make plans for her.  How had it happened?
+What must he think of her?  This came of trying to keep a secret from
+mother.  She might have known it was wrong, and yet the case was so
+desperate and mother so likely to worry about any new and
+unconventional suggestion.  It had seemed right.  But of course it
+wasn't right for her to fall in that way and allow him to take them all
+in his car.  She must put a stop to it somehow.  She must go in the
+trolley if she went at all.  She wasn't sure but she had better call
+the whole thing off and tell him they couldn't live in a barn, that she
+had changed her mind.  It would be so dreadful if he had taken her for
+one of those girls who wanted to attract the attention of a young man!
+
+In the midst of her perturbed thoughts the door opened and Sidney
+Graham walked in again.  His fine, clean-cut face and clear eyes
+instantly dispelled her fears again.  His bearing was dignified and
+respectful, and there was something in the very tone of his voice as he
+spoke to her that restored her confidence in him and in his impression
+of her.  Her half-formed intention of rising and declining to take the
+ride with him fled, and she sat quietly looking at the pictures in the
+magazine with unseeing eyes.
+
+"I hope you will find something to interest you for a few minutes,"
+young Graham said pleasantly.  "It won't be long, but there are one or
+two matters I promised father I would attend to before I left this
+afternoon.  There is an article in that other magazine under your hand
+there about beautifying country homes, bungalows, and the like.  It may
+give you some ideas about the old barn.  I shouldn't wonder if a few
+flowers and vines might do a whole lot."
+
+He found the place in the magazine, and left her again; and strangely
+enough she became absorbed in the article because her imagination
+immediately set to work thinking how glorious it would be to have a few
+flowers growing where Doris could go out and water them and pick them.
+She grew so interested in the remarks about what flowers would grow
+best in the open and which were easiest to care for that she got out
+her little pencil and notebook that were in her coat-pocket, and began
+to copy some of the lists.  Then suddenly the door opened again, and
+Graham returned with George.
+
+The boy stopped short on the threshold, startled, a white wave of
+apprehension passing over his face.  He did not speak.  The boy-habit
+of silence and self-control in a crisis was upon him.  He looked with
+apprehension from one to the other.
+
+Shirley jumped to her feet.
+
+"Oh, George, I'm so glad you could come!  This is Mr. Graham.  He has
+been kind enough to offer to take us in his car to see a place we can
+rent for the summer, and it was through his suggestion that Mr. Farwell
+let you off for the afternoon."
+
+There was a sudden relaxing of the tenseness in the young face and a
+sigh of relief in the tone as the boy answered:
+
+"Aw, gee!  That's great!  Thanks awfully for the holiday.  They don't
+come my way often.  It'll be great to have a ride in a car, too.  Some
+lark, eh, Shirley?"
+
+The boy warmed to the subject with the friendly grasp the young man
+gave him, and Shirley could see her brother had made a good impression;
+for young Graham was smiling appreciatively, showing all his even white
+teeth just as if he enjoyed the boy's offhand way of talking.
+
+"I'm going to leave you here for ten minutes more until I talk with a
+man out here in the office.  Then we will go," said young Graham, and
+hurried away again.
+
+"Gee, Shirley!" said the boy, flinging himself down luxuriously in a
+big leather chair.  "Gee!  You certainly did give me some start!  I
+thought mother was worse, or you'd got arrested, or lost your job, or
+something, finding you here in a strange office.  Some class to this,
+isn't there?  Look at the thickness of that rug!" and he kicked the
+thick Turkish carpet happily.  "Say, he must have some coin!  Who is
+the guy, anyway?  How'd ya get onto the tip?  You don't think he's
+handing out Vanderbilt residences at fifteen a month, do you?"
+
+"Listen, George.  I must talk fast because he may come back any minute.
+Yesterday I got a half-holiday, and instead of going home I thought I'd
+go out and hunt a house.  I took the Glenside trolley; and, when we got
+out past the city, I heard two men talking about a place we were
+passing.  It was a great big, beautiful stone barn.  They told who
+owned it, and said a lot about its having such a splendid spring of
+water beside it.  It was a beautiful place, George; and I couldn't help
+thinking what a thing it would be for mother to be out in the country
+this summer, and what a wonderful house that would make----"
+
+"We couldn't live in a barn, Shirl!" said the boy, aghast.
+
+"Wait, George.  Listen.  Just you don't say that till you see it.  It's
+the biggest barn you ever saw, and I guess it hasn't been used for a
+barn in a long time.  I got out of the trolley on the way back, and
+went in.  It is just enormous, and we could screen off rooms and live
+like princes.  It has a great big front door, and we could have a
+hammock under the tree; and there's a brook to fish in, and a big third
+story with hay in it.  I guess it's what they call in books a hay-loft.
+It's great."
+
+"Gee!" was all the electrified George could utter.  "Oh, gee!"
+
+"It is on a little hill with the loveliest tree in front of it, and
+right on the trolley line.  We'd have to start a little earlier in the
+morning; but I wouldn't mind, would you?"
+
+"Naw!" said George, "but could we walk that far?"
+
+"No, we'd have to ride, but the rent is so much lower it would pay our
+carfare."
+
+"Gee!" said George again, "isn't that great?  And is this the guy that
+owns it?"
+
+"Yes, or at least he and his father do.  He's been very kind.  He's
+taking all this trouble to take us out in his car to-day to make sure
+if there is anything that needs to be done for our comfort there.  He
+certainly is an unusual man for a landlord."
+
+"He sure is, Shirley.  I guess mebbe he has a case on you the way he
+looks at you."
+
+"George!" said Shirley severely, the red staining her cheeks and her
+eyes flashing angrily.  "George!  That was a _dreadful_ thing for you
+to say.  If you ever even think a thing like that again, I won't have
+anything to do with him or the place.  We'll just stay in the city all
+summer.  I suppose perhaps that would be better, anyway."
+
+Shirley got up and began to button her coat haughtily, as if she were
+going out that minute.
+
+"Aw, gee, Shirley!  I was just kidding.  Can't you take a joke?  This
+thing must be getting on your nerves.  I never saw you so touchy."
+
+"It certainly is getting on my nerves to have you say a thing like
+that, George."
+
+Shirley's tone was still severe.
+
+"Aw, cut the grouch, Shirley.  I tell you I was just kidding.  'Course
+he's a good guy.  He probably thinks you're cross-eyed, knock-kneed----"
+
+"George!"  Shirley started for the door; but the irrepressible George
+saw it was time to stop, and he put out an arm with muscles that were
+iron-like from many wrestlings and ball-games with his fellow laborers
+at the store.
+
+"Now, Shirley, cut the comedy.  That guy'll be coming back next, and
+you don't want to have him ask what's the matter, do you?  He certainly
+is some fine guy.  I wouldn't like to embarrass him, would you?  He's a
+peach of a looker.  Say, Shirley, what do you figure mother's going to
+say about this?"
+
+Shirley turned, half mollified.
+
+"That's just what I want to ask you, George.  I don't want to tell
+mother until it's all fixed up and we can show if to her.  You know it
+will sound a great deal worse to talk about living in a barn than it
+will to go in and see it all fixed up with rugs and curtains and
+screens and the piano and a couch, and the supper-table set, and the
+sun setting outside the open door, and a bird singing in the tree."
+
+"Gee!  Shirley, wouldn't that be some class?  Say, Shirley, don't let's
+tell her!  Let's just make her say she'll trust the moving to us to
+surprise her.  Can't you kid her along and make her willing for that?"
+
+"Why, that was what I was thinking.  If you think there's no danger she
+will be disappointed and sorry, and think we ought to have done
+something else."
+
+"What else could we do?  Say, Shirley, it would be great to sleep in
+the hay-loft!"
+
+"We could just tell her we were coming out in the country for the
+summer to camp in a nice place where it was safe and comfortable, and
+then we would have plenty of time to look around for the right kind of
+a house for next winter."
+
+"That's the dope, Shirley!  You give her that.  She'll fall for that,
+sure thing.  She'll like the country.  At least, if it's like what you
+say it is."
+
+"Well, you wait till you see it."
+
+"Have you told Carol?" asked George, suddenly sobering.  Carol was his
+twin sister, inseparable chum, and companion when he was at home.
+
+"No," said Shirley, "I haven't had a chance; but Mr. Graham suggested
+we drive around by the school and get her.  Then she can see how she
+likes it, too; and, if Carol thinks so, we'll get mother not to ask any
+questions, but just trust to us."
+
+"Gee!  That guy's great.  He's got a head on him.  Some lark, what?"
+
+"Yes, he's been very kind," said Shirley.  "At first I told him I
+couldn't let him take so much trouble for us, but he said he was going
+to take his sister out for a ride----"
+
+"A girl!  Aw, gee!  I'm going to beat it!"  George stopped in his eager
+walk back and forth across the office, and seized his old faded cap.
+
+"George, stop!  You mustn't be impolite.  Besides, I think she's only a
+very little girl, probably like Doris.  He called her his 'kid sister.'"
+
+"H'm!  You can't tell.  I ain't going to run any risks.  I better beat
+it."
+
+But George's further intentions were suddenly brought to a finish by
+the entrance of Mr. Sidney Graham.
+
+"Well, Miss Hollister," he said with a smile, "we are ready at last.
+I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long; but there was something
+wrong with one of my tires, and the chauffeur had to run around to the
+garage.  Come on, George," he said to the boy, who hung shyly behind
+now, wary of any lurking female who might be haunting the path.  "Guess
+you'll have to sit in the front seat with me, and help me drive.  The
+chauffeur has to go back and drive for mother.  She has to go to some
+tea or other."
+
+George suddenly forgot the possible girl, and followed his new hero to
+the elevator with a swelling soul.  What would the other fellows at the
+store think of him?  A whole half-holiday, an automobile-ride, and a
+chance to sit in the front and learn to drive!  But all he said was:
+
+"Aw, gee!  Yes, sure thing!"
+
+The strange girl suddenly loomed on his consciousness again as they
+emerged from the elevator and came out on the street.  She was sitting
+in the great back seat alone, arrayed in a big blue velvet coat the
+color of her eyes, and George felt at once all hands and feet.  She was
+a slender wisp of a thing about Carol's age, with a lily complexion and
+a wealth of gold hair caught in a blue veil.  She smiled very prettily
+when her brother introduced her as "Elizabeth."  There was nothing
+snobbish or disagreeable about her, but that blue velvet coat suddenly
+made George conscious of his own common attire, and gave Shirley a pang
+of dismay at her own little shabby suit.
+
+However, Sidney Graham soon covered all differences in the attire of
+his guests by insisting that they should don the two long blanket coats
+that he handed them; and somehow when George was seated in the big
+leather front seat, with that great handsome coat around his shoulders,
+he did not much mind the blue velvet girl behind him, and mentally
+resolved to earn enough to get Carol a coat like it some day; only
+Carol's should be pink or red to go with her black eyes and pink cheeks.
+
+After all, it was Shirley, not George, who felt embarrassment over the
+strange girl and wished she had not come.  She was vexed with herself
+for it, too.  It was foolish to let a child no older than Carol fluster
+her so, but the thought of a long ride alone on that back seat with the
+dainty young girl actually frightened her.
+
+But Elizabeth was not frightened.  She had been brought up in the
+society atmosphere, and was at home with people always, everywhere.
+She tucked the robes about her guest, helped Shirley button the big,
+soft dark-blue coat about her, remarking that it got awfully chilly
+when they were going; and somehow before Shirley had been able to think
+of a single word to say in response the conversation seemed to be
+moving along easily without her aid.
+
+"Sid says we're going to pick up your sister from her school.  I'm so
+glad!  How old is she?  About my age?  Won't that be delightful?  I'm
+rather lonesome this spring because all my friends are in school.  I've
+been away at boarding-school, and got the measles.  Wasn't that too
+silly for a great big girl like me?  And the doctor said I couldn't
+study any more this spring on account of my eyes.  It's terribly
+lonesome.  I've been home six weeks now, and I don't know what to do
+with myself.  What's your sister's name?  Carol?  Carol Hollister?
+That's a pretty name!  Is she the only sister you have?  A baby sister?
+How sweet!  What's her name?  Oh, I think Doris is the cutest name
+ever.  Doris Hollister.  Why don't we go and get Doris?  Wouldn't she
+like to ride, too?  Oh, it's too bad your mother is ill; but of course
+she wouldn't want to stay all alone in the house without some of her
+family."
+
+Elizabeth was tactful.  She knew at a glance that trained nurses and
+servants could not be plentiful in a family where the young people wore
+such plain, old-style garments.  She gave no hint of such a thought,
+however.
+
+"That's your brother," she went on, nodding toward George.  "I've got
+another brother, but he's seventeen and away at college, so I don't see
+much of him.  Sid's very good to me when he has time, and often he
+takes me to ride.  We're awfully jolly chums, Sid and I.  Is this the
+school where your sister goes?  She's in high school, then.  The third
+year?  My!  She must be bright.  I've only finished my second.  Does
+she know she's going with us?  What fun to be called out of school by a
+surprise!  Oh, I just know I'm going to like her."
+
+Shirley sat dumb with amazement, and listened to the eager gush of the
+lively girl, wondered what shy Carol would say, trying to rouse herself
+to answer the young questioner in the same spirit in which she asked
+questions.
+
+George came out with Carol in a very short time, Carol struggling into
+her coat and trying to straighten her hat, while George mumbled in her
+ear as he helped her clumsily:
+
+"Some baby doll out there!  Kid, you better preen your feathers.  She's
+been gassing with Shirley to beat the band I couldn't hear all they
+said, but she asked a lot about you.  You should worry!  Hold up your
+head, and don't flicker an eyelash.  You're as good as she is any day,
+if you don't look all dolled up like a new saloon.  But she's some
+looker!  Pretty as a red wagon!  Her brother's a peach of a fellow.
+He's going to let me run the car when we get out of the city limit; and
+say!  Shirley says for me to tell you we're going out to look at a barn
+where we're going to move this summer, and you're not to say a word
+about it's being a barn.  See?  Get onto that sky-blue-pink satin scarf
+she's got around her head?  Ain't she some chicken, though?"
+
+"Hush, George!  She'll hear you!" murmured Carol in dismay.  "What do
+you mean about a barn?  How could we live in a barn?"
+
+"You just shut up and saw wood, kid, and you'll see.  Shirley thinks
+she's got onto something pretty good."
+
+Then Carol was introduced to the beautiful blue-velvet girl and sat
+down beside her, wrapped in a soft furry cloak of garnet, to be whirled
+away into a fairy-land of wonder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Carol and Elizabeth got on very well together.  Shirley was amazed to
+see the ease with which her sister entered into this new relation,
+unawed by the garments of her hostess.  Carol had more of the modern
+young America in her than Shirley, perhaps, whose early life had been
+more conventionally guarded.  Carol was democratic, and, strange to
+say, felt slightly superior to Elizabeth on account of going to a
+public school.  The high-school girls were in the habit of referring to
+a neighboring boarding-school as "Dummy's Retreat"; and therefore Carol
+was not at all awed by the other girl, who declared in a friendly
+manner that she had always been crazy to go to the public school, and
+asked rapid intelligent questions about the doings there.  Before they
+were out of the city limits the two girls were talking a steady stream,
+and one could see from their eyes that they liked each other.  Shirley,
+relieved, settled back on the comfortable cushions, and let herself
+rest and relax.  She tried to think how it would feel to own a car like
+this and be able to ride around when she wanted to.
+
+On the front seat George and Graham were already excellent friends, and
+George was gaining valuable information about running a car, which he
+had ample opportunity to put into practice as soon as they got outside
+the crowded thoroughfares.
+
+They were perhaps half-way to the old barn and running smoothly on an
+open road, with no one in sight a long way ahead, when Graham turned
+back to Shirley, leaving George to run the car for a moment himself.
+The boy's heart swelled with gratitude and utmost devotion to be thus
+trusted.  Of course there wasn't anything to do but keep things just as
+he had been told, but this man realized that he would do it and not
+perform any crazy, daring action to show off.  George set himself to be
+worthy of this trust.  To be sure, young Graham had a watchful eye upon
+things, and was taking no chances; but he let the boy feel free, and
+did not make him aware of his espionage, which is a course of action
+that will win any boy to give the best that is in him to any
+responsibility, if he has any best at all.
+
+It was not the kind of conversation that one would expect between
+landlord and tenant that the young girl and the man carried on in these
+brief sentences now and then.  He called her attention to the soft
+green tint that was spreading over the tree-tops more distinctly than
+the day before; to the lazy little clouds floating over the blue; to
+the tinting of the fields, now taking on every hour new colors; to the
+perfume in the air.  So with pleasantness of passage they arrived at
+last at the old barn.
+
+Like a pack of eager children they tumbled out of the car and hurried
+up to the barn, all talking at once, forgetting all difference in
+station.  They were just young and out on a picnic.
+
+Graham had brought a key for the big padlock; and clumsily the man and
+the boy, unused to such manoeuvres, unlocked and shoved back the two
+great doors.
+
+"These doors are too heavy.  They should have ball bearings," remarked
+young Graham.  "I'll attend to that at once.  They should be made to
+move with a light touch.  I declare it doesn't pay to let property lie
+idle without a tenant, there are so many little things that get
+neglected."
+
+He walked around with a wise air as if he had been an active landowner
+for years, though indeed he was looking at everything with strange,
+ignorant eyes.  His standard was a home where every detail was perfect,
+and where necessities came and vanished with the need.  This was his
+first view into the possibilities of "being up against it," as he
+phrased it in his mind.
+
+Elizabeth in her blue velvet cloak and blue cloudy veil stood like a
+sweet fairy in the wide doorway, and looked around with delight.
+
+"Oh Sid, wouldn't this be just a dandy place for a party?" she
+exclaimed eagerly.  "You could put the orchestra over in that corner
+behind a screen of palms, and decorate with gray Florida moss and
+asparagus vine with daffodils wired on in showers from the beams, and
+palms all around the walls, and colored electrics hidden everywhere.
+You could run a wire in from the street, couldn't you? the way they did
+at Uncle Andy's, and serve the supper out on the lawn with little
+individual rustic tables.  Brower has them, and brings them out with
+rustic chairs to match.  You could have the tree wired, too, and have
+colored electrics all over the place.  Oh! wouldn't it be just
+heavenly?  Say, Sid, Carol says they are coming out here to live,
+maybe; why couldn't we give them a party like that for a house-warming?"
+
+Sidney Graham looked at his eager, impractical young sister and then at
+the faces of the three Hollisters, and tried not to laugh as the
+tremendous contrast of circumstances was presented to him.  But his
+rare tact served him in good stead.
+
+"Why, Elizabeth, that would doubtless be very delightful; but Miss
+Hollister tells me her mother has been quite ill, and I'm sure, while
+that might be the happiest thing imaginable for you young folks, it
+would be rather trying on an invalid.  I guess you'll have to have your
+parties somewhere else for the present."
+
+"Oh!" said Elizabeth with quick recollection, "of course!  They told me
+about their mother.  How thoughtless of me!  But it would be lovely,
+wouldn't it, Miss Hollister?  Can't you see it?"
+
+She turned in wistful appeal to Shirley, and that young woman, being a
+dreamer herself, at once responded with a radiant smile:
+
+"Indeed I can, and it would be lovely indeed, but I've been thinking
+what a lovely home it could be made, too."
+
+"Yes?" said Elizabeth questioningly, and looking around with a dubious
+frown.  "It would need a lot of changing, I should think.  You would
+want hardwood floors, and lots of rugs, and some partitions and
+windows----"
+
+"Oh, no," said Shirley, laughing.  "We're not hardwood people, dear;
+we're just plain hard-working people; and all we need is a quiet, sweet
+place to rest in.  It's going to be just heavenly here, with that tree
+outside to shade the doorway, and all this wide space to walk around
+in.  We live in a little narrow city house now, and never have any
+place to get out except the street.  We'll have the birds and the brook
+for orchestra, and we won't need palms, because the trees and vines
+will soon be in leaf and make a lovely screen for our orchestra.  I
+imagine at night the stars will have almost as many colors as
+electrics."
+
+Elizabeth looked at her with puzzled eyes, but half convinced.
+
+"Well, yes, perhaps they would," she said, and smiled.  "I've never
+thought of them that way, but it sounds very pretty, quite like some of
+Browning's poetry that I don't understand, or was it Mrs. Browning?  I
+can't quite remember."
+
+Sidney Graham, investigating the loft above them, stood a moment
+watching the tableau and listening to the conversation, though they
+could not see him; and he thought within himself that it might not be a
+bad thing for his little sister, with her boarding-school rearing, to
+get near to these true-hearted young working people, who yet were
+dreamers and poets, and get her standards somewhat modified by theirs.
+He was especially delighted with the gentle, womanly way in which
+Shirley answered the girl now when she thought herself alone with her.
+
+George and Carol had grasped hold of hands and run wildly down the
+slope to the brook after a most casual glance at the interior of the
+barn.  Elizabeth now turned her dainty high-heeled boots in the brook's
+direction, and Shirley was left alone to walk the length and breadth of
+her new abode and make some real plans.
+
+The young man in the dim loft above watched her for a moment as she
+stood looking from one wall to the other, measuring distances with her
+eye, walking quickly over to the window and rubbing a clear space on
+the dusty pane with her handkerchief that she might look out.  She was
+a goodly sight, and he could not help comparing her with the girls he
+knew, though their garments would have far outshone hers.  Still, even
+in the shabby dark-blue serge suit she seemed lovely.
+
+The young people returned as precipitately as they had gone, and both
+Carol and George of their own accord joined Shirley in a brief council
+of war.  Graham thoughtfully called his sister away, ostensibly to
+watch a squirrel high in the big tree, but really to admonish her about
+making no further propositions like that for the party, as the young
+people to whom he had introduced her were not well off, and had no
+money or time for elaborate entertainments.
+
+"But they're lovely, Sid, aren't they?  Don't you like them just
+awfully?  I know you do, or you wouldn't have taken the trouble to
+bring them out here in the car with us.  Say, you'll bring me to see
+them often after they come here to live, won't you?"
+
+"Perhaps," said her brother smilingly.  "But hadn't you better wait
+until they ask you?"
+
+"Oh, they'll ask me," said Elizabeth with a charming smile and a
+confident little toss of her head.  "I'll make them ask me."
+
+"Be careful, kid," he said, still smiling.  "Remember, they won't have
+much money to offer you entertainment with, and probably their things
+are very plain and simple.  You may embarrass them if you invite
+yourself out."
+
+Elizabeth raised her azure eyes to her brother's face thoughtfully for
+a moment, then smiled back confidently once more.
+
+"Don't you worry, Sid, dear; there's more than one way.  I won't hurt
+their feelings, but they're going to ask me, and they're going to want
+me, and I'm going to come.  Yes, and you're going to bring me!"
+
+She turned with a laughing pirouette, and danced down the length of the
+barn to Carol, catching her hand and whirling her after her in a
+regular childish frolic.
+
+"Well, do you think we ought to take it?  Do you think I dare give my
+final word without consulting mother?" Shirley asked her brother when
+they were thus left alone for a minute.
+
+"Sure thing!  No mistake!  It's simply _great_.  You couldn't get a
+place like this if you went the length and breadth of the city and had
+a whole lot more money than you have to spend."
+
+"But remember it's a barn!" said Shirley impressively.  "Mother may
+mind that very much."
+
+"Not when she sees it," said Carol, whirling back to the consultation.
+"She'll think it's the sensiblest thing we ever did.  She isn't foolish
+like that.  We'll tell her we've found a place to camp with a shanty
+attached, and she can't be disappointed.  I think it'll be great.  Just
+think how Doris can run in the grass!"
+
+"Yes," put in George.  "I was telling Carol down by the spring--before
+that _girl_ came and stopped us--I think we might have some chickens
+and raise eggs.  Harley could do that, and Carol and I could raise
+flowers, and I could take 'em to town in the morning.  I could work
+evenings."
+
+Shirley smiled.  She almost felt like shouting that they agreed with
+her.  The place seemed so beautiful, so almost heavenly to her when she
+thought of the close, dark quarters at home and the summer with its
+heat coming on.
+
+"We couldn't keep a lodger, and we'd have that much less," said Shirley
+thoughtfully.
+
+"But we wouldn't have their laundry nor their room-work to do," said
+Carol, "and I could have that much more time for the garden and
+chickens."
+
+"You mustn't count on being able to make much that way," said Shirley
+gravely.  "You know nothing about gardening, and would probably make a
+lot of mistakes at first, anyway."
+
+"I can make fudge and sandwiches, and take them to school to sell,"
+declared Carol stoutly; "and I'll find out how to raise flowers and
+parsley and little things people have to have.  Besides, there's
+watercress down by that brook, and people like that.  We could sell
+that."
+
+"Well, we'll see," said Shirley thoughtfully, "but you mustn't get up
+too many ideas yet.  If we can only get moved and mother is satisfied,
+I guess we can get along.  The rent is only ten dollars."
+
+"Good _night_!  That's cheap enough!" said George, and drew a long
+whistle.  Then, seeing Elizabeth approaching, he put on an indifferent
+air, and sauntered to the dusty window at the other end of the barn.
+
+Sidney Graham appeared now, and took Shirley over to the east end to
+ask her just where she thought would be a good place to put the
+partition, and did she think it would be a good thing to have another
+one at the other end just like it?  And so they stood and planned,
+quite as if Shirley were ordering a ten-thousand-dollar alteration put
+into her ten-dollar barn.  Then suddenly the girl remembered her fears;
+and, looking straight up into the interested face of the young man, she
+asked earnestly:
+
+"You are sure you were going to put in these partitions?  You are not
+making any change on my account?  Because I couldn't think of allowing
+you to go to any trouble or expense, you know."
+
+Her straightforward look embarrassed him.
+
+"Why, I----" he said, growing a little flushed.  "Why, you see I hadn't
+been out to look things over before.  I didn't realize how much better
+it would be to have those in, you know.  But now I intend to do it
+right away.  Father put the whole thing in my hands to do as I pleased.
+In fact, the place is mine now, and I want to put it in good shape to
+rent.  So don't worry yourself in the least.  Things won't go to wrack
+and ruin so quickly, you know, if there is someone on the place."
+
+He finished his sentence briskly.  It seemed quite plausible even to
+himself now, and he searched about for a change of topic.
+
+"You think you can get on here with the rough floor?  You might put
+padding or something under your carpets, you know, but it will take
+pretty large carpets----"  He looked at her dubiously.  To his
+conventional mind every step of the way was blocked by some impassable
+barrier.  He did not honestly see how she was going to do the thing at
+all.
+
+"Oh, we don't need carpets!" laughed Shirley gayly.  "We'll spread down
+a rug in front of mother's bed, and another one by the piano, and the
+rest will be just perfectly all right.  We're not expecting to give
+receptions here, you know," she added mischievously.  "We're only
+campers, and very grateful campers at that, too, to find a nice, clean,
+empty floor where we can live.  The only thing that is troubling me is
+the cooking.  I've been wondering if it will affect the insurance if we
+use an oil-stove to cook with, or would you rather we got a wood-stove
+and put the pipe out of one of the windows?  I've seen people do that
+sometimes.  Of course we could cook outdoors on a camp-fire if it was
+necessary, but it might be a little inconvenient rainy days."
+
+Graham gasped at the coolness with which this slip of a girl discoursed
+about hardships as if they were necessities to be accepted pleasantly
+and without a murmur.  She actually would not be daunted at the idea of
+cooking her meals on a fire out-of-doors!  Cooking indeed!  That was of
+course a question that people had to consider.  It had never been a
+question that crossed his mind before.  People cooked--how did they
+cook?  By electricity, gas, coal and wood fires, of course.  He had
+never considered it a matter to be called in any way serious.  But now
+he perceived that it was one of the first main things to be looked out
+for in a home.  He looked down at the waiting girl with a curious
+mixture of wonder, admiration, and dismay in his face.
+
+"Why, of course you will need a fire and a kitchen," he said as if
+those things usually grew in houses without any help and it hadn't
+occurred to him before that they were not indigenous to barns.  "Well,
+now, I hadn't thought of that.  There isn't any chimney here, is there?
+H'm!  There ought to be a chimney in every barn.  It would be better
+for the--ah--for the hay, I should think; keep it dry, you know, and
+all that sort of thing.  And then I should think it might be better for
+the animals.  I must look into that matter."
+
+"No, Mr. Graham," said Shirley decidedly.  "There is no necessity for a
+chimney.  We can perfectly well have the pipe go through a piece of tin
+set in the back window if you won't object, and we can use the little
+oil-stove when it's very hot if that doesn't affect the insurance.  We
+have a gas stove, of course, that we could bring; but there isn't any
+gas in a barn."
+
+Graham looked around blankly at the cobwebby walls as if expecting
+gas-jets to break forth simultaneously with his wish.
+
+"No, I suppose not," he said, "although I should think there ought to
+be.  In a _barn_, you know.  But I'm sure there will be no objection
+whatever to your using any kind of a stove that will work here.  This
+is a stone barn, you know, and I'm sure it won't affect the insurance.
+I'll find out and let you know."
+
+Shirley felt a trifle uneasy yet about those partitions and the low
+price of the rent, but somehow the young man had managed to impress her
+with the fact that he was under no unpleasant delusions concerning
+herself and that he had the utmost respect for her.  He stood looking
+down earnestly at her for a moment without saying a word, and then he
+began hesitatingly.
+
+"I wish you'd let me tell you," he said frankly, "how awfully brave you
+are about all this, planning to come out here in this lonely place, and
+not being afraid of hard work, and rough floors, and a barn, and even a
+fire out-of-doors."
+
+Shirley's laugh rang out, and her eyes sparkled.
+
+"Why, it's the nicest thing that's happened to me in ages," she said
+joyously.  "I can't hardly believe it's true that we can come here,
+that we can really _afford_ to come to a great, heavenly country place
+like this.  I suppose of course there'll be hard things.  There always
+are, and some of them have been just about unbearable, but even the
+hard things can be made fun if you try.  This is going to be grand!"
+and she looked around triumphantly on the dusty rafters and rough stone
+walls with a little air of possession.
+
+"You are rather"--he paused--"unusual!" he finished thoughtfully as
+they walked toward the doorway and stood looking off at the distance.
+
+But now Shirley had almost forgotten him in the excitement of the view.
+
+"Just think of waking up to that every morning," she declared with a
+sweep of her little blue-clad arm toward the view in the distance.
+"Those purply hills, the fringe of brown and green against the horizon,
+that white spire nestling among those evergreens!  Is that a church?
+Is it near enough for us to go to?  Mother wouldn't want us to be too
+far from church."
+
+"We'll go home that way and discover," said Graham decidedly.  "You'll
+want to get acquainted with your new neighborhood.  You'll need to know
+how near there is a store, and where your neighbors live.  We'll
+reconnoitre a little.  Are you ready to go?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I'm afraid we have kept you too long already, and we must
+get home about the time Carol usually comes from school, or mother will
+be terribly worried.  Carol is never later than half-past four."
+
+"We've plenty of time," said the driver of the car, looking at his
+watch and smiling assurance.  "Call the children, and we'll take a
+little turn around the neighborhood before we go back."
+
+And so the little eager company were reluctantly persuaded to climb
+into the car again and start on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The car leaped forward up the smooth white road, and the great barn as
+they looked back to it seemed to smile pleasantly to them in farewell.
+Shirley looked back, and tried to think how it would seem to come home
+every night and see Doris standing at the top of the grassy incline
+waiting to welcome her; tried to fancy her mother in a hammock under
+the big tree a little later when it grew warm and summery, and the boys
+working in their garden.  It seemed too heavenly to be true.
+
+The car swept around the corner of Allister Avenue, and curved down
+between tall trees.  The white spire in the distance drew nearer now,
+and the purplish hills were off at one side.  The way was fresh with
+smells of spring, and everywhere were sweet scents and droning bees and
+croaking frogs.  The spirit of the day seemed to enter into the young
+people and make them glad.  Somehow all at once they seemed to have
+known one another a long time, and to be intimately acquainted with one
+another's tastes and ecstasies.  They exclaimed together over the
+distant view of the misty city with the river winding on its far way,
+and shouted simultaneously over a frightened rabbit that scurried
+across the road and hid in the brushwood; and then the car wound round
+a curve and the little white church swept into view below them.
+
+
+  "The little white church in the valley
+    Is bright with the blossoms of May,
+  And true is the heart of your lover
+    Who waits for your coming to-day!"
+
+chanted forth George in a favorite selection of the department-store
+victrola, and all the rest looked interested.  It was a pretty church,
+and nestled under the hills as if it were part of the landscape, making
+a home-centre for the town.
+
+"We can go to church and Sunday-school there," said Shirley eagerly.
+"How nice!  That will please mother!"
+
+Elizabeth looked at her curiously, and then speculatively toward the
+church.
+
+"It looks awfully small and cheap," said Elizabeth.
+
+"All the more chance for us to help!" said Shirley.  "It will be good
+for us."
+
+"What could you do to help a church?" asked the wondering Elizabeth.
+"Give money to paint it?  The paint is all scaling off."
+
+"We couldn't give much money," said Carol, "because we haven't got it.
+But there's lots of things to do in a church besides giving.  You teach
+in Sunday-school, and you wait on table at suppers when they have
+Ladies' Aid."
+
+"Maybe they'll ask you to play the organ, Shirley," suggested George.
+
+"Oh George!" reproved Shirley.  "They'll have plenty that can play
+better than I can.  Remember I haven't had time to practise for ages."
+
+"She's a crackerjack at the piano!" confided George to Graham in a low
+growl.  "She hasn't had a lesson since father died, but before that she
+used to be at it all the time.  She c'n sing too.  You oughtta hear
+her."
+
+"I'm sure I should like to," assented Graham heartily.  "I wonder if
+you will help me get her to sing sometime if I come out to call after
+you are settled."
+
+"Sure!" said George heartily, "but she mebbe won't do it.  She's awful
+nutty about singing sometimes.  She's not stuck on herself nor nothing."
+
+But the little white church was left far behind, and the city swept on
+apace.  They were nearing home now, and Graham insisted on knowing
+where they lived, that he might put them down at their door.  Shirley
+would have pleaded an errand and had them set down in the business part
+of the town; but George airily gave the street and number, and Shirley
+could not prevail upon Graham to stop at his office and let them go
+their way.
+
+And so the last few minutes of the drive were silent for Shirley, and
+her cheeks grew rosy with humiliation over the dark little narrow
+street where they would presently arrive.  Perhaps when he saw it this
+cultured young man would think they were too poor and common to be good
+tenants even for a barn.  But, when they stopped before the little
+two-story brick house, you would not have known from the expression on
+the young man's face as he glanced at the number but that the house was
+a marble front on the most exclusive avenue in the city.  He handed
+down Shirley with all the grace that he would have used to wait upon a
+millionaire's daughter, and she liked the way he helped out Carol and
+spoke to George as if he were an old chum.
+
+"I want you to come and see me next Saturday," called Elizabeth to
+Carol as the car glided away from the curb; "and I'm coming out to help
+you get settled, remember!"
+
+The brother and two sisters stood in front of their little old dark
+house, and watched the elegant car glide away.  They were filled with
+wonder at themselves that they had been all the afternoon a part of
+that elegant outfit.  Was it a dream?  They rubbed their eyes as the
+car disappeared around the corner, and turned to look up at the
+familiar windows and make sure where they were.  Then they stood a
+moment to decide how they should explain to the waiting mother why they
+happened to be home so early.
+
+It was finally decided that George should go to hunt up a drayman and
+find out what he would charge to move their things to the country, and
+Shirley should go to a neighbor's to inquire about a stove she heard
+they wanted to sell.  Then Carol could go in alone, and there would be
+nothing to explain.  There was no telling when either George or Shirley
+would have a holiday again, and it was as well to get these things
+arranged as soon as possible.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham was eagerly interviewing her brother, having
+taken the vacant front seat for the purpose.
+
+"Sid, where did you find those perfectly dear people?  I think they are
+just great!  And are they really going to live in that barn?  Won't
+that be dandy?  I wish mother'd let me go out and spend a month with
+them.  I mean to ask her.  That Carol is the nicest girl ever.  She's
+just a dear!"
+
+"Now, look here, kid," said Graham, facing about to his sister.  "I
+want you to understand a thing or two.  I took you on this expedition
+because I thought I could trust you.  See?"
+
+Elizabeth nodded.
+
+"Well, I don't want a lot of talk at home about this.  Do you
+understand?  I want you to wait a bit and go slow.  If things seem to
+be all right a little later on, you can ask Carol to come and see you,
+perhaps; but you'll have to look out.  She hasn't fine clothes to go
+visiting in, I imagine, and they're pretty proud.  I guess they've lost
+their money.  Their father died a couple of years ago, and they've been
+up against it.  They do seem like awfully nice people, I'll admit; and,
+if it's all right later on, you can get to be friends, but you'll have
+to go slow.  Mother wouldn't understand it, and she mustn't be annoyed,
+you know.  I'll take you out to see them sometime when they get settled
+if it seems all right, but meantime can you keep your tongue still?"
+
+Elizabeth's face fell, but she gave her word immediately.  She and her
+brother were chums; it was easy to see that.
+
+"But can't I have her out for a week-end, Sid?  Can't I tell mother
+anything about her?  I could lend her some dresses, you know."
+
+"You go slow, kid, and leave the matter to me.  I'll tell mother about
+them pretty soon when I've had a chance to see a little more of them
+and am sure mother wouldn't mind.  Meantime, don't you fret.  I'll take
+you out when I go on business, and you shall see her pretty soon again."
+
+Elizabeth had to be content with that.  She perceived that for some
+reason her brother did not care to have the matter talked over in the
+family.  She knew they would all guy him about his interest in a girl
+who wanted to rent his barn, and she felt herself that Shirley was too
+fine to be talked about in that way.  The family wouldn't understand
+unless they saw her.
+
+"I know what you mean, Sid," she said after a thoughtful pause.  "You
+want the folks to see them before they judge what they are, don't you?"
+
+"That's just exactly the point," said Sidney with a gleam of
+satisfaction in his eyes.  "That's just what makes you such a good pal,
+kid.  You always understand."
+
+The smile dawned again in Elizabeth's eyes, and she patted her
+brother's sleeve.
+
+"Good old Sid!" she murmured tenderly.  "You're all right.  And I just
+know you're going to take me out to that barn soon.  Aren't you going
+to fix it up for them a little?  They can't live there that way.  It
+would be a dandy place to live if the windows were bigger and there
+were doors like a house, and a piazza, and some fireplaces.  A great
+big stone fireplace in the middle there opposite that door!  Wouldn't
+that be sweet?  And they'll have to have electric lights and some
+bathrooms, of course."
+
+Her brother tipped back his head, and laughed.
+
+"I'm afraid you wouldn't make much of a hand to live in a barn, kid,"
+he said.  "You're too much of an aristocrat.  How much do you want for
+your money?  My dear, they don't expect tiled bathrooms, and electric
+lights, and inlaid floors when they rent a barn for the summer."
+
+"But aren't you going to do anything, Sid?"
+
+"Well, I can't do much, for Miss Hollister would suspect right away.
+She's very businesslike, and she has suspicions already because I said
+I was going to put in partitions.  She isn't an object of charity, you
+know.  I imagine they are all pretty proud."
+
+Elizabeth sat thoughtful and still.  It was the first time in her life
+she had contemplated what it would be to be very poor.
+
+Her brother watched her with interest.  He had a feeling that it was
+going to be very good for Elizabeth to know these Hollisters.
+
+Suddenly he brought the car to a stop before the office of a big
+lumber-yard they were passing.
+
+"I'm going in here, kid, for just a minute, to see if I can get a man
+to put in those partitions."
+
+Elizabeth sat meditatively studying the office window through whose
+large dusty panes could be seen tall strips of moulding, unpainted
+window-frames, and a fluted column or two, evidently ready to fill an
+order.  The sign over the door set forth that window-sashes, doors, and
+blinds were to be had.  Suddenly Elizabeth sat up straight and read the
+sign again, strained her eyes to see through the window, and then
+opened the car door and sprang out.  In a moment more she stood beside
+her brother, pointing mutely to a large window-frame that stood against
+the wall.
+
+"What is it, kid?" he asked kindly.
+
+"Sid, why can't you put on great big windows like that?  They would
+never notice the windows, you know.  It would be so nice to have plenty
+of light and air."
+
+"That's so," he murmured.  "I might change the windows some without its
+being noticed."
+
+Then to the man at the desk:
+
+"What's the price of that window?  Got any more?"
+
+"Yes," said the man, looking up interested; "got half a dozen, made
+especially for a party, and then he wasn't pleased.  Claimed he ordered
+sash-winders 'stead of casement.  If you can use these six, we'll make
+you a special price."
+
+"Oh, take them, Sid!  They're perfectly lovely," said Elizabeth
+eagerly.  "They're casement windows with diamond panes.  They'll just
+be so quaint and artistic in that stone!"
+
+"Well, I don't know how they'll fit," said the young man doubtfully.
+"I don't want to make it seem as if I was trying to put on too much
+style."
+
+"No, Sid, it won't seem that way, really.  I tell you they'll never
+notice the windows are bigger, and casement windows aren't like a
+regular house, you know.  See, they'll open wide like doors.  I think
+it would be just grand!"
+
+"All right, kid, we'll see!  We'll take the man out with us; and, if he
+says it can be done, I'll take them."
+
+Elizabeth was overjoyed.
+
+"That's just what it needed!" she declared.  "They couldn't live in the
+dark on rainy days.  You must put two in the front on each side the
+door, and one on each end.  The back windows will do well enough."
+
+"Well, come on, kid.  Mr. Jones is going out with me at once.  Do you
+want to go with us, or shall I call a taxi and send you home?" asked
+her brother.
+
+"I'm going with you, of course," said Elizabeth eagerly, hurrying out
+to the car as if she thought the thing would be done all wrong without
+her.
+
+So Elizabeth sat in the back seat alone, while her brother and the
+contractor discoursed on the price of lumber and the relative values of
+wood and stone for building-purposes, and the big car went back over
+the way it had been before that afternoon.
+
+They stopped on the way out, and picked up one of Mr. Jones's
+carpenters who was just leaving a job with his kit of tools, and who
+climbed stolidly into the back seat, and sat as far away from the
+little blue-velvet miss as possible, all the while taking furtive notes
+to tell his own little girl about her when he went home.
+
+Elizabeth climbed out, and went about the barn with them, listening to
+all they had to say.
+
+The two men took out pencils and foot rules, and went around measuring
+and figuring.  Elizabeth watched them with bright, attentive eyes,
+putting a whispered suggestion now and then to her brother.
+
+"They can't go up and down a ladder all the time," she whispered.
+"There ought to be some rough stairs with a railing, at least as good
+as our back stairs at home."
+
+"How about it?" said Graham aloud to the contractor.  "Can you put in
+some steps, just rough ones, to the left?  I'm going to have a party
+out here camping for a while this summer, and I want it to be safe.
+Need a railing, you know, so nobody will get a fall."
+
+The man measured the space up with his eye.
+
+"Just want plain steps framed up with a hand-rail?" he said, squinting
+up again.  "Guess we better start 'em up this way to the back wall and
+then turn back from a landing.  That'll suit the overhead space best.
+Just pine, you want 'em, I s'pose?"
+
+Elizabeth stood like a big blue bird alighted on the door-sill,
+watching and listening.  She was a regular woman, and saw big
+possibilities in the building.  She would have enjoyed ordering
+parquetry flooring and carved newel-posts and making a regular palace.
+
+The sun was setting behind the purply hill and sending a glint from the
+weather-vane on the little white church spire when they started back to
+the city.  Elizabeth looked wistfully toward it, and wondered about the
+rapt expression on Shirley's face when she spoke of "working" in the
+church.  How could one get any pleasure out of that?  She meant to find
+out.  At present her life was rather monotonous, and she longed to have
+some new interests.
+
+That night after she had gone to her luxurious little couch she lay in
+her downy nest, and tried to think how it would be to live in that big
+barn and go to sleep up in the loft, lying on that hay.  Then suddenly
+the mystery of life was upon her with its big problems.  Why, for
+instance, was she born into the Graham family with money and culture
+and all the good times, and that sweet, bright Carol-girl born into the
+Hollister family where they had a hard time to live at all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Quite early the next morning Sidney Graham was in his office at the
+telephone.  He conferred with the carpenter, agreeing to meet him out
+at the barn and make final arrangements about the windows in a very
+short time.  Then he called up the trolley company and the electric
+company, and made arrangements with them to have a wire run from the
+road to his barn, with a very satisfactory agreement whereby he could
+pay them a certain sum for the use of as much light as he needed.  This
+done, he called up an electrician, and arranged that he should send
+some men out that morning to wire the barn.
+
+He hurried through his morning mail, giving his stenographer a free
+hand with answering some of the letters, and then speeded out to
+Glenside.
+
+Three men were already there, two of them stone-masons, working away
+under the direction of the contractor.  They had already begun working
+at the massive stone around the windows, striking musical blows from a
+light scaffolding that made the old barn look as if it had suddenly
+waked up and gone to house-cleaning.  Sidney Graham surveyed it with
+satisfaction as he stopped his car by the roadside and got out.  He did
+delight to have things done on time.  He decided that if this
+contractor did well on the job he would see that he got bigger things
+to do.  He liked it that his work had been begun at once.
+
+The next car brought a quartette of carpenters, and before young Graham
+went back to the city a motor-truck had arrived loaded with lumber and
+window-frames.  It was all very fascinating to him, this new toy barn
+that had suddenly come into his possession, and he could hardly tear
+himself away from it and go back to business.  One would not have
+supposed, perhaps, that it was so very necessary for him to do so,
+either, seeing that he was already so well off that he really could
+have gotten along quite comfortably the rest of his life without any
+more money; but he was a conscientious young man, who believed that no
+living being had a right to exist in idleness, and who had gone into
+business from a desire to do his best and keep up the honorable name of
+his father's firm.  So after he had given careful directions for the
+electric men when they should come he rushed back to his office once
+more.
+
+The next two days were filled with delightful novelties.  He spent much
+time flying from office to barn and back to the office again, and
+before evening of the second day he had decided that a telephone in the
+barn was an absolute necessity, at least while the work was going on.
+So he called up the telephone company, and arranged that connection
+should be put in at once.  That evening he wrote a short note to Miss
+Shirley Hollister, telling her that the partitions were under way and
+would soon be completed, and that in a few days he would send her the
+key so that she might begin to transport her belongings to the new home.
+
+The next morning, when Graham went out to the stone barn, he found that
+the front windows were in, and gave a very inviting appearance to the
+edifice, both outside and in.  As Elizabeth had surmised, the big
+latticed windows opening inwards like casement doors seemed quite in
+keeping with the rough stone structure.  Graham began to wonder why all
+barns did not affect this style of window, they were so entirely
+attractive.  He was thoroughly convinced that the new tenants would not
+be likely to remember or notice the difference in the windows; he was
+sure he shouldn't have unless his attention had been called to them in
+some way.  Of course the sills and sashes were rather new-looking, but
+he gave orders that they should at once be painted an unobtrusive dark
+green which would well accord with the mossy roof, and he trusted his
+particular young tenant would not think that he had done anything
+pointed in changing the windows.  If she did, he would have to think up
+some excuse.
+
+But, as he stood at the top of the grassy slope and looked about, he
+noticed the great pile of stones under each window, from the masonry
+that had been torn away to make room for the larger sashes, and an idea
+came to him.
+
+"Mr. Jones!" he called to the contractor, who had just come over on the
+car to see how the work was progressing.  "Wouldn't there be stones
+enough all together from all the windows to build some kind of a rude
+chimney and fireplace?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Jones thought there would.  There were stones enough down in the
+meadow to piece out with in case they needed more, anyway.  Where would
+Mr. Graham want the fireplace?  Directly opposite the front doors?  He
+had thought of suggesting that himself, but didn't know as Mr. Graham
+wanted to go to any more expense.
+
+"By all means make that fireplace!" said the young owner delightedly.
+"This is going to be a jolly place when it gets done, isn't it?  I
+declare I don't know but I'd like to come out here and live."
+
+"It would make a fine old house, sir," said the contractor
+respectfully, looking up almost reverently at the barn.  "I'd like to
+see it with verandys, and more winders, and a few such.  You don't see
+many of these here old stone buildings around now.  They knew how to
+build 'em substantial in those old times, so they did."
+
+"H'm!  Yes.  It would make a fine site for a house, wouldn't it?" said
+the young man, looking about thoughtfully.  "Well, now, we'll have to
+think about that sometime, perhaps.  However, I think it looks very
+nice for the present"; and he walked about, looking at the improvements
+with great satisfaction.
+
+At each end of the barn a good room, long and narrow, had been
+partitioned off, each of which by use of a curtain would make two very
+large rooms, and yet the main section of the floor looked as large as
+ever.  A simple stairway of plain boards had been constructed a little
+to one side of the middle toward the back, going up to the loft, which
+had been made safe for the children by a plain rude railing consisting
+of a few uprights with strips across.  The darkening slats at the small
+windows in the loft had been torn away and shutters substituted that
+would open wide and let in air and light.  Rough spots in the floor had
+been mended, and around the great place both up-stairs and down, and
+even down in the basement underneath, electric wires ran with simple
+lights and switches conveniently arranged, so that if it became
+desirable the whole place could be made a blaze of light.  The young
+man did not like to think of this family of unprotected women and
+children coming out into the country without all the arrangements
+possible to make them feel safe.  For this reason also he had
+established the telephone.  He had talked it over with the agent,
+paying a certain sum for its installation, and had a telephone put in
+that they could pay for whenever they desired to use it.  This would
+make the young householder feel more comfortable about leaving her
+mother out in the country all day, and also prevent her pride from
+being hurt.  The telephone was there.  She need not use it unless
+necessity arose.  He felt he could explain that to her.  If she didn't
+like it, of course she could have it taken away.
+
+There were a lot more things he would like to do to make the place more
+habitable, but he did not dare.  Sometimes even now his conscience
+troubled him.  What did he know about these people, anyway? and what
+kind of a flighty youth was he becoming that he let a strange girl's
+appealing face drive him to such lengths as he was going now?
+Telephone, and electric lights, and stairs, and a fireplace in a barn!
+It was all perfectly preposterous; and, if his family should hear of
+it, he would never hear the last of it; that he was certain.
+
+At such times he would hunt up his young sister and carry her off for a
+long drive in the car, always ending up at Glenside Road, where she
+exclaimed and praised to his heart's satisfaction, and gave anew her
+word not to tell anybody a thing about it until he was ready.
+
+Indeed, Elizabeth was wild with delight.  She wanted to hunt up some of
+her mother's old Turkish rugs that were put away in dark closets, to
+decorate the walls with pictures and bric-a-brac from her own room, and
+to smother the place in flowering shrubs for the arrival of the
+tenants; but her brother firmly forbade anything more being done.  He
+waited with fear and trembling for the time when the clear-eyed young
+tenant should look upon the changes he had already made; for something
+told him she would not stand charity, and there was a point beyond
+which he must not go if he wished ever to see her again.
+
+At last one morning he ventured to call her up on the telephone at her
+office.
+
+"My sister and I were thinking of going out to see how things are
+progressing at the Glenside place," he said after he had explained who
+he was.  "I was wondering if you would care to come along and look
+things over.  What time do you get through at your office this
+afternoon?"
+
+"That is very kind of you, Mr. Graham," said Shirley, "but I'm afraid
+that won't be possible.  I'm not usually done until half-past five.  I
+might get through by five, but not much sooner, and that would be too
+late for you."
+
+"Not at all, Miss Hollister.  That would be a very agreeable time.  I
+have matters that will keep me here quite late to-night, and that will
+be just right for me.  Shall I call for you, then, at five?  Or is that
+too soon?"
+
+"Oh, no, I can be ready by then, I'm sure," said Shirley with
+suppressed excitement.  "You are very kind----"
+
+"Not at all.  It will be a pleasure," came the answer.  "Then I will
+call at your office at five," and the receiver clicked at the other
+end, leaving Shirley in a whirl of doubt and joy.
+
+How perfectly delightful!  And yet ought she to go?  Would mother think
+it was all right?  His little sister was going, but was it quite right
+for her to accept this much attention even in a business way?  It
+wasn't at all customary or necessary, and both he and she knew it.  He
+was just doing it to be nice.
+
+And then there was mother.  She must send a message somehow, or mother
+would be frightened when she did not come home at her usual time.
+
+She finally succeeded in getting Carol at her school, and told her to
+tell mother she was kept late and might not be home till after seven.
+Then she flew at her work to get it out of the way before five o'clock.
+
+But, when she came down at the appointed time, she found Carol sitting
+excitedly in the back seat with Elizabeth, fairly bursting with the
+double pleasure of the ride and of surprising her sister.
+
+"They came to the school for me, and took me home; and I explained to
+mother that I was going with you to look at a place we were going to
+move to.  I put on the potatoes, and put the meat in the oven, and
+mother is going to tell George just what to do to finish supper when he
+gets home," she exclaimed eagerly.  "And, oh, isn't it lovely?"
+
+"Indeed it is lovely," said Shirley, her face flushing with pleasure
+and her eyes speaking gratitude to the young man in the front seat who
+was opening the door for her to step in beside him.
+
+That was a wonderful ride.
+
+The spring had made tremendous advances in her work during the ten days
+since they went that way before.  The flush of green that the willows
+had worn had become a soft, bright feather of foliage, and the maples
+had sent out crimson tassels to offset them.  Down in the meadows and
+along the roadside the grass was thick and green, and the bare brown
+fields had disappeared.  Little brooks sang tinklingly as they glided
+under bridges, and the birds darted here and there in busy, noisy
+pairs.  Frail wavering blossoms starred the swampy places, and the air
+was sweet with scents of living things.
+
+But, when they came in sight of the barn, Elizabeth and her brother
+grew silent from sheer desire to talk and not act as if there was
+anything different about it.  Now that they had actually brought
+Shirley here, the new windows seemed fairly to flaunt themselves in
+their shining mossy paint and their vast extent of diamond panes, so
+that the two conspirators were deeply embarrassed, and dared not face
+what they had done.
+
+It was Carol who broke the silence that had come upon them all.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" she shouted.  "Shirley, just look!  New, great big
+windows!  Isn't that great?  Now you needn't worry whether it will be
+dark for mother days when she can't go out!  Isn't that the best ever?"
+
+But Shirley looked, and her cheeks grew pink as her eyes grew starry.
+She opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, for the words
+would not come, and the tears came instead; but she drove them back,
+and then managed to say:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham!  Oh, you have gone to so much trouble!"
+
+"No, no trouble at all," said he almost crossly; for he had wanted her
+not to notice those windows, at least not yet.
+
+"You see it was this way.  The windows were some that were left over
+from another order, and I got a chance to get them at a bargain.  I
+thought they might as well be put in now as any time and you get the
+benefit of them.  The barn really needed more light.  It was a very
+dark barn indeed.  Hadn't you noticed it?  I can't see how my
+grandfather thought it would do to have so little light and air.  But
+you know in the old times they didn't use to have such advanced ideas
+about ventilation and germs and things----"  He felt he was getting on
+rather famously until he looked down at the clear eyes of the girl, and
+knew she was seeing right straight through all his talk.  However, she
+hadn't the face to tell him so; and so he boldly held on his way,
+making up fine stories about things that barns needed until he all but
+believed them himself; and, when he got through, he needed only to
+finish with "And, if it isn't so, it ought to be" to have a regular
+Water-Baby argument out of it.  He managed to talk on in this vein
+until he could stop the car and help Shirley out, and together they all
+went up the now velvety green of the incline to the big door.
+
+"It is beautiful! beautiful!" murmured Shirley in a daze of delight.
+She could not yet make it seem real that she was to come to this
+charmed spot to live in a few days.
+
+Graham unlocked the big doors, and sent them rolling back with a touch,
+showing what ball bearings and careful workmanship can do.  The group
+stepped inside, and stood to look again.
+
+The setting sun was casting a red glow through the diamond panes and
+over the wide floor.  The new partitions, guiltless of paint, for
+Graham had not dared to go further, were mellowed into ruby hangings.
+The stone fireplace rose at the opposite side of the room, and the new
+staircase was just at the side, all in the ruddy evening glow that
+carried rich dusky shadows into the corners, and hung a curtain of
+vagueness over blemishes.
+
+Then all suddenly, before they had had time to take in the changes,
+more than the fact of the partitions which they expected, Graham
+stepped to the side of the door, and touched a button, and behold a
+myriad of lights burst forth about the place, making it bright like
+noontime.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!" breathed Carol in awe and wonder, and "Oh!" again, as
+if there were nothing else to say.  But Shirley only looked and caught
+her breath.  It seemed a palace too fine for their poor little means,
+and a sudden fear gripped hold upon her.
+
+"Oh Mr. Graham!  You have done too much!" she choked.  "You shouldn't
+have done it!  We can never afford to pay for all this!"
+
+"Not at all!" said young Graham quickly.  "This isn't anything.  The
+electric people gave permission for this, and I thought it would be
+safer than lamps and candles, you know.  It cost scarcely anything for
+the wiring.  I had our regular man do it that attends to the wiring and
+lights at the office.  It was a mere trifle, and will make things a lot
+more convenient for you.  You see it's nothing to the company.  They
+just gave permission for a wire to be run from the pole there.  Of
+course they might not do it for every one, but I've some pretty good
+friends in the company; so it's all right."
+
+"But the fireplace!" said Shirley, going over to look at it.  "It's
+beautiful!  It's like what you see in magazine pictures of beautiful
+houses."
+
+"Why, it was just the stones that were left from cutting the windows
+larger.  I thought they might as well be utilized, you know.  It wasn't
+much more work to pile them up that way while the men were here than if
+we had had them carted away."
+
+Here Carol interrupted.
+
+"Shirley!  There's a telephone!  A real telephone!"
+
+Shirley's accusing eyes were upon her landlord.
+
+"It was put in for our convenience while the workmen were here," he
+explained defensively.  "It is a pay phone, you see, and is no expense
+except when in use.  It can be taken out if you do not care to have it,
+of course; but it occurred to me since it was here your mother might
+feel more comfortable out here all day if she could call you when she
+needed to."
+
+Shirley's face was a picture of varying emotions as she listened, but
+relief and gratitude conquered as she turned to him.
+
+"I believe you have thought of everything," she said at last.  "I have
+worried about that all this week.  I have wondered if mother would be
+afraid out in the country with only the children, and the neighbors not
+quite near enough to call; but this solves the difficulty.  You are
+sure it hasn't cost you a lot to have this put in?"
+
+"Why, don't you know the telephone company is glad to have their phones
+wherever they can get them?" he evaded.  "Now, don't worry about
+anything more.  You'll find hardships enough living in a barn without
+fretting about the few conveniences we have been able to manage."
+
+"But this is real luxury!" she said, sitting down on the steps and
+looking up where the lights blazed from the loft.  "You have put lights
+up there, too, and a railing.  I was so afraid Doris would fall down
+some time!"
+
+"I'm glad to find you are human, after all, and have a few fears!"
+declared the owner, laughing.  "I had begun to think you were Spartan
+through and through and weren't afraid of anything.  Yes, I had the men
+put what lumber they had left into that railing.  I thought it wasn't
+safe to have it all open like that, and I didn't want you to sue me for
+life or limb, you know.  There's one thing I haven't managed yet, and
+that is piping water up from the spring.  I haven't been able to get
+hold of the right man so far; but he's coming out to-morrow, and I hope
+it can be done.  There is a spring on the hill back of us, and I
+believe it is high enough, to get the water to this floor.  If it is it
+will make your work much easier and be only the matter of a few rods of
+pipe."
+
+"Oh, but, indeed, you mustn't do anything more!" pleaded Shirley.  "I
+shall feel so ashamed paying such a little rent."
+
+"But, my dear young lady," said Graham in his most dignified business
+manner, "you don't at all realize how much lower rents are in the
+country, isolated like this, than they are in the city; and you haven't
+as yet realized what a lot of inconveniences you have to put up with.
+When you go back to the city in the winter, you will be glad to get
+away from here."
+
+"Never!" said Shirley fervently, and shuddered.  "Oh, never!  You don't
+know how dreadful it seems that we shall have to go back.  But of
+course I suppose we shall.  One couldn't live in a barn in the winter,
+even though it is a palace for the summer"; and she looked about
+wistfully.  Then, her eyes lighting up, she said in a low tone, for the
+young man's benefit alone:
+
+"I think God must have made you do all this for us!"  She turned and
+walked swiftly over to one of the new casement windows, looking out at
+the red glow that the sun in sinking had left in the sky; and there
+against the fringes of the willows and maples shone out the bright
+weather-vane on the spire of the little white church in the valley.
+
+"I think God must have sent you to teach me and my little sister a few
+things," said a low voice just behind Shirley as she struggled with
+tired, happy tears that would blur her eyes.  But, when she turned to
+smile at the owner of the voice, he was walking over by the door and
+talking to Carol.  They tumbled joyously into the car very soon, and
+sped on their way to the city again.
+
+That night the Hollister children told their mother they had found a
+place in which to live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The crisis was precipitated by Shirley's finding her mother crying when
+she came up softly to see her.
+
+"Now, little mother, _dear_!  What can be the matter?" she cried
+aghast, sitting down on the bed and drawing her mother's head into her
+lap.
+
+But it was some time before Mrs. Hollister could recover her calmness,
+and Shirley began to be frightened.  At last, when she had kissed and
+petted her, she called down to the others to come up-stairs quickly.
+
+They came with all haste, George and Harley with dish-towels over their
+shoulders, Carol with her arithmetic and pencil, little Doris trudging
+up breathless, one step at a time, and all crying excitedly, "What's
+the matter?"
+
+"Why, here's our blessed little mother lying here all by herself,
+crying because she doesn't know where in the world we can find a
+house!" cried Shirley; "and I think it's time we told our beautiful
+secret, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," chorused the children, although Harley and Doris had no idea
+until then that there was any beautiful secret.  Beautiful secrets
+hadn't been coming their way.
+
+"Well, I think we better tell it," said Shirley, looking at George and
+Carol questioningly.  "Don't you?  We don't want mother worrying."  So
+they all clustered around her on the bed and the floor, and sat
+expectantly while Shirley told.
+
+"You see, mother, it's this way.  We've been looking around a good deal
+lately, George and I, and we haven't found a thing in the city that
+would do; so one day I took a trolley ride out of the city, and I've
+found something I think will do nicely for the summer, anyway, and that
+will give us time to look around and decide.  Mother dear, would you
+mind camping so very much if we made you a nice, comfortable place?"
+
+"Camping!" said Mrs. Hollister in dismay.  "Dear child!  In a tent?"
+
+"No, mother, not in a tent.  There's a--a--sort of a house--that is,
+there's a building, where we could sleep, and put our furniture, and
+all; but there's a lovely out-of-doors.  Wouldn't you like that, for
+Doris and you?"
+
+"Oh, yes," sighed the poor woman; "I'd like it; but, child, you haven't
+an idea what you are talking about.  Any place in the country costs
+terribly, even a shanty----"
+
+"That's it, mother, call it a shanty!" put in Carol.  "Mother, would
+you object to living in a shanty all summer if it was good and clean,
+and you had plenty of out-of-doors around it?"
+
+"No, of course not, Carol, if it was perfectly respectable.  I
+shouldn't want to take my children among a lot of low-down people----"
+
+"Of course not, mother!" put in Shirley.  "And there's nothing of that
+sort.  It's all perfectly respectable, and the few neighbors are nice,
+respectable people.  Now, mother, if you're willing to trust us, we'd
+like it if you'll just let us leave it at that and not tell you
+anything more about it till we take you there.  George and Carol and I
+have all seen the place, and we think it will be just the thing.
+There's plenty of room, and sky, and a big tree, and birds; and it only
+costs ten dollars a month.  Now, mother, will you trust us for the rest
+and not ask any questions?"
+
+The mother looked in bewilderment from one to another, and, seeing
+their eager faces, she broke into a weary smile.
+
+"Well, I suppose I'll have to," she said with a sigh of doubt; "but I
+can't understand how any place you could get would be only that price,
+and I'm afraid you haven't thought of a lot of things."
+
+"Yes, mother, we've thought of everything--and then some," said
+Shirley, stooping down to kiss the thin cheek; "but we are sure you are
+going to like this when you see it.  It isn't a palace, of course.  You
+don't expect plate-glass windows, you know."
+
+"Well, hardly," said Mrs. Hollister dryly, struggling with herself to
+be cheerful.  She could see that her children were making a brave
+effort to make a jolly occasion out of their necessity, and she was
+never one to hang back; so, as she could do nothing else, she assented.
+
+"You are sure," she began, looking at Shirley with troubled eyes.
+"There are so many things to think of, and you are so young."
+
+"Trust me, mudder dearie," said Shirley joyously, remembering the
+fireplace and the electric lights.  "It really isn't so bad; and
+there's a beautiful hill for Doris to run down, and a place to hang a
+hammock for you right under a big tree where a bird has built its nest."
+
+"Oh-h!" echoed the wondering Doris.  "And could I see de birdie?"
+
+"Yes, darling, you can watch him every day, and see him fly through the
+blue sky."
+
+"It's all right, mother," said George in a businesslike tone.  "You'll
+think it's great after you get used to it.  Carol and I are crazy over
+it."
+
+"But will it be where you can get to your work, both of you?  I
+shouldn't like you to take long, lonely walks, you know," said the
+troubled mother.
+
+"Right on the trolley line, mother dear; and the difference in rent
+will more than pay our fare."
+
+"Besides, I'm thinking of buying a bicycle from one of the fellows.  He
+says he'll sell it for five dollars, and I can pay fifty cents a month.
+Then I could go in on my bike in good weather, and save that much."
+This from George.
+
+"Oh, gee!" said Harley breathlessly.  "Then I could ride it sometimes,
+too."
+
+"Sure!" said George generously.
+
+"Now," said Shirley with her commanding manner that the children called
+"brigadier-general," "now, mother dear, you're going to put all your
+worries out of your head right this minute, and go to sleep.  Your
+business is to get strong enough to be moved out there.  When you get
+there, you'll get well so quick you won't know yourself; but you've got
+to rest from now on every minute, or you won't be able to go when the
+time comes; and then what will happen?  Will you promise?"
+
+Amid the laughing and pleading of her children the mother promised,
+half smilingly, half tearfully, and succumbed to being prepared for the
+night.  Then they all tiptoed away to the dining-room for a council of
+war.
+
+It was still two weeks before they had to vacate the little brick
+house, plenty of time to get comfortably settled before they took their
+mother out there.
+
+It was decided that George and Shirley should go out the next evening
+directly from their work, not waiting to return for supper, but eating
+a lunch down-town.  Now that the place was lighted and they had been
+told to use the light as freely as they chose, with no charge, the
+question of getting settled was no longer a problem.  They could do it
+evenings after their work was over.  The first thing would be to clean
+house, and for that they needed a lot of things, pails, pans, brooms,
+mops and the like.  It would be good to take a load of things out the
+next day if possible.
+
+So George went out to interview the man with the moving-wagon, while
+Shirley and Carol made out a list of things that ought to go in that
+first load.  George came back with the report that the man could come
+at half past four in the afternoon; and, if they could have the things
+that were to go all ready, he would have his son help to load them, and
+they could get out to Glenside by six o'clock or seven at the latest.
+Harley might go along if he liked, and help to unload at the other end.
+
+Harley was greatly excited both at the responsibility placed upon him
+and at the prospect of seeing the new home.  It almost made up for the
+thought of leaving "the fellows" and going to live in a strange place.
+
+The young people were late getting to bed that night, for they had to
+get things together so that Carol would not have her hands too full the
+next day when she got home from school.  Then they had to hunt up soap,
+scrubbing-pails, rags, brushes and brooms; and, when they went to bed
+at last, they were much too excited to sleep.
+
+Of course there were many hindrances to their plans, and a lot of delay
+waiting for the cartman, who did not always keep his word; but the days
+passed, and every one saw some little progress toward making a home out
+of the big barn.  Shirley would not let them stay later in the evenings
+than ten o'clock, for they must be ready to go to work the next
+morning; so of course the work of cleaning the barn progressed but
+slowly.  After the first night they got a neighbor to sit with their
+mother and Doris, letting Carol and Harley come out on the car to help;
+and so with four willing workers the barn gradually took on a nice
+smell of soap and water.
+
+The old furniture arrived little by little, and was put in place
+eagerly, until by the end of the first week the big middle room and the
+dining-room and kitchen began really to look like living.
+
+It was Saturday evening of that first week, and Shirley was sitting on
+the old couch at the side of the fireplace, resting, watching George,
+who was reeling out a stormy version of chopsticks on the piano, and
+looking about on her growing home hopefully.  Suddenly there came a
+gentle tapping at the big barn door, and George as the man of the house
+went to the door with his gruffest air on, but melted at once when he
+saw the landlord and his sister standing out in front in the moonlight.
+
+"Are you ready for callers?" asked Graham, taking off his hat in
+greeting.  "Elizabeth and I took a spin out this way, and we sighted
+the light, and thought we'd stop and see if we could help any.  My, how
+homelike you've made it look!  Say, this is great!"
+
+Sidney Graham stood in the centre of the big room, looking about him
+with pleasure.
+
+The young people had put things in apple-pie order as far as they had
+gone.  A fire was laid in the big stone fireplace, all ready for
+touching off, and gave a homelike, cleared-up look to the whole place
+as if it were getting ready for some event.  On each side of the
+chimney stood a simple set of bookshelves filled with well-worn volumes
+that had a look of being beloved and in daily intimate association with
+the family.  On the top of the shelves Carol had placed some bits of
+bric-a-brac, and in the centre of each a tall vase.  Beside them were a
+few photographs in simple frames, a strong-faced man with eyes that
+reminded one of Shirley and a brow like George's; a delicate-featured,
+refined woman with sweet, sensitive mouth and eyes like Carol's; a
+lovely little child with a cloud of fair curls.
+
+The old couch was at one side of the fireplace, at a convenient angle
+to watch the firelight, and yet not hiding the bookshelves.  On the
+other side, with its back toward the first landing of the rude
+staircase, stood an old upright piano with a pile of shabby music on
+the top and a book of songs open on the rack.  On the floor in the
+space between was spread a worn and faded ingrain rug, its original
+colors and pattern long since blended into neutral grays and browns,
+which strangely harmonized with the rustic surroundings.  A few
+comfortable but shabby chairs were scattered about in a homelike way,
+and a few pictures in plain frames were hung on the clean new
+partitions.  Under one stood a small oak desk and a few
+writing-materials.  A little further on a plain library table held a
+few magazines and papers and a cherished book or two.  There had been
+no attempt to cover the wide bare floor spaces, save by a small dingy
+rug or two or a strip of carpet carefully brushed and flung here and
+there in front of a chair.  There was no pretension and therefore no
+incongruity.  The only luxurious thing in the place was the bright
+electric light, and yet it all looked pleasant and inviting.
+
+"Say, now, this is great!" reiterated the young owner of the place,
+sinking into the nearest chair and looking about him with admiration.
+"Who would ever have imagined you could make a barn look like this?
+Why, you're a genius, Miss Hollister.  You're a real artist."
+
+Shirley in an old gingham dress, with her sleeves rolled high and her
+hair fluffing wilfully in disorder about her hot cheeks, stood before
+him in dismay.  She had been working hard, and was all too conscious of
+the brief time before they must be done; and to have company just
+now--and such company--put her to confusion; but the honest admiration
+in the young man's voice did much to restore her equilibrium.  She
+began to pull down her sleeves and sit down to receive her callers
+properly; but he at once insisted that she should not delay on his
+account, and, seeing her shyness, immediately plunged into some
+questions about the water-pipes, which brought about a more
+businesslike footing and relieved her embarrassment.  He was soon on
+his way to the partitioned corner which was to be the kitchen, telling
+Shirley how it was going to be no trouble to run a pipe from the spring
+and have a faucet put in, and that it should be done on the morrow.
+Then he called to Elizabeth.
+
+"Kid, what did you do with those eats you brought along?  I think it
+would be a good time to hand them out.  I'm hungry.  Suppose you take
+George out to the car to help you bring them in, and let's have a
+picnic!"
+
+Then, turning to Shirley, he explained:
+
+"Elizabeth and I are great ones to have something along to eat.  It
+makes one hungry to ride, you know."
+
+The children needed no second word, but all hurried out to the car, and
+came back with a great bag of most delicious oranges and several boxes
+of fancy cakes and crackers; and they all sat down to enjoy them,
+laughing and chattering, not at all like landlord and tenants.
+
+"Now what's to do next?" demanded the landlord as soon as the repast
+was finished.  "I'm going to help.  We're not here to hinder, and we
+must make up for the time we have stopped you.  What were you and
+George doing, Miss Carol, when we arrived?"
+
+"Unpacking dishes," giggled Carol, looking askance at the frowning
+Shirley, who was shaking her head at Carol behind Graham's back.
+Shirley had no mind to have the elegant landlord see the dismal state
+of the Hollister crockery.  But the young man was not to be so easily
+put off, and to Carol's secret delight insisted upon helping despite
+Shirley's most earnest protests that it was not necessary to do
+anything more that evening.  He and Elizabeth repaired to the
+dining-room end of the barn, and helped unpack dishes, pans, kettles,
+knives, and forks, and arrange them on the shelves that George had
+improvised out of a large old bookcase that used to be his father's.
+After all, there was something in good breeding, thought Shirley, for
+from the way in which Mr. Graham handled the old cracked dishes, and
+set them up so nicely, you never would have known but they were
+Haviland china.  He never seemed to see them at all when they were
+cracked.  One might have thought he had been a member of the family for
+years, he made things seem so nice and comfortable and sociable.
+
+Merrily they worked, and accomplished wonders that night, for Shirley
+let them stay until nearly eleven o'clock "just for once"; and then
+they all piled into the car, Shirley and Carol and Elizabeth in the
+back seat, George and the happy Harley with Graham in the front.  If
+there had been seven more of them, they would have all happily squeezed
+in.  The young Hollisters were having the time of their lives, and as
+for the Grahams it wasn't quite certain but that they were also.
+Certainly society had never seen on Sidney Graham's face that happy,
+enthusiastic look of intense satisfaction that the moon looked down
+upon that night.  And, after all, they got home almost as soon as if
+they had gone on the ten-o'clock trolley.
+
+After that on one pretext or another those Grahams were always dropping
+in on the Hollisters at their work and managing to "help," and
+presently even Shirley ceased to be annoyed or to apologize.
+
+The east end of the barn had been selected for bedrooms.  A pair of
+cretonne curtains was stretched across the long, narrow room from wall
+to partition, leaving the front room for their mother's bed and Doris's
+crib, and the back room for Shirley and Carol.  The boys had taken
+possession of the loft with many shouts and elaborate preparations, and
+had spread out their treasures with deep delight, knowing that at last
+there was room enough for their proper display and they need feel no
+fear that they would be thrown out because their place was wanted for
+something more necessary.  Little by little the Hollisters were getting
+settled.  It was not so hard, after all, because there was that
+glorious big "attic" in which to put away things that were not needed
+below, and there was the whole basement for tubs and things, and a
+lovely faucet down there, too, so that a lot of work could be done
+below the living-floor.  It seemed just ideal to the girls, who had
+been for several years accustomed to the cramped quarters of a tiny
+city house.
+
+At last even the beds were made up, and everything had been moved but
+the bed and a few necessities in their mother's room, which were to
+come the next day while they were moving their mother.
+
+That moving of mother had been a great problem to Shirley until Graham
+anticipated her necessity, and said in a matter-of-fact way that he
+hoped Mrs. Hollister would let him take her to her new home in his car.
+Then Shirley's eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  She knew her
+mother was not yet able to travel comfortably in a trolley-car, and the
+price of a taxicab was more than she felt they ought to afford; yet in
+her secret heart she had been intending to get one; but now there would
+be no necessity.
+
+Shirley's words of gratitude were few and simple, but there was
+something in her eyes as she lifted them to Graham's face that made a
+glow in his heart and fully repaid him for his trouble.
+
+The last thing they did when they left the barn that night before they
+were coming to stay was to set the table, and it really looked very
+cozy and inviting with a white cloth on it and the dishes set out to
+look their best.  Shirley looked back at it with a sweeping glance that
+took in the great, comfortable living-room, the open door into the
+dining-room on one hand and the vista of a white bed on the other side
+through the bedroom door.  She smiled happily, and then switched off
+the electric light, and stepped out into the sweet spring night.
+Graham, who had stood watching her as one might watch the opening of
+some strange, unknown flower, closed and locked the door behind them,
+and followed her down the grassy slope to the car.
+
+"Do you know," he said earnestly, "it's been a great thing to me to
+watch you make a real home out of this bare barn?  It's wonderful!
+It's like a miracle.  I wouldn't have believed it could be done.  And
+you have done it so wonderfully!  I can just see what kind of a
+delightful home it is going to be."
+
+There was something in his tone that made Shirley forget he was rich
+and a stranger and her landlord.  She lifted her face to the stars, and
+spoke her thoughts.
+
+"You can't possibly know how much like heaven it is going to be to us
+after coming from that other awful little house," she said; "and you
+are the one who has made it possible.  If it hadn't been for you I know
+I never could have done it."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Miss Hollister!  You mustn't think of it, I haven't done
+anything at all, just the simplest things that were absolutely
+necessary."
+
+"Oh, I understand," said Shirley; "and I can't ever repay you, but I
+think God will.  That is the kind of thing the kingdom of heaven is
+made of."
+
+"Oh, really, now," said Graham, deeply embarrassed; he was not much
+accustomed to being connected with the kingdom of heaven in any way.
+"Oh, really, you--you over-estimate it.  And as for pay, I don't ask
+any better than the fun my sister and I have had helping you get
+settled.  It has been a great play for us.  We never really moved, you
+see.  We've always gone off and had some one do it for us.  I've
+learned a lot since I've known you."
+
+That night as she prepared to lie down on the mattress and blanket that
+had been left behind for herself and Carol to camp out on, Shirley
+remembered her first worries about Mr. Graham, and wondered whether it
+could be possible that he thought she had been forward in any way, and
+what her mother would think when she heard the whole story of the new
+landlord; for up to this time the secret had been beautifully kept from
+mother, all the children joining to clap their hands over wayward
+mouths that started to utter tell-tale sentences, and the mystery grew,
+and became almost like Christmas-time for little Doris and her mother.
+It must, however, be stated that Mrs. Hollister, that last night, as
+she lay wakeful on her bed in the little bare room in the tiny house,
+had many misgivings, and wondered whether perchance she would not be
+sighing to be back even here twenty-four hours later.  She was holding
+her peace wonderfully, because there really was nothing she could do
+about it even if she was going out of the frying-pan into the fire; but
+the tumult and worry in her heart had been by no means bliss.  So the
+midnight drew on, and the weary family slept for the last night in the
+cramped old house where they had lived since trouble and poverty had
+come upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Shirley was awake early that morning, almost too excited to sleep but
+fitfully even through the night.  Now that the thing was done and they
+were actually moved into a barn she began to have all sorts of fears
+and compunctions concerning it.  She seemed to see her delicate mother
+shrink as from a blow when she first learned that they had come to
+this.  Try as she would to bring back all the sensible philosophy that
+had caused her to enter into this affair in the first place, she simply
+could not feel anything but trouble.  She longed to rush into her
+mother's room, tell her all about it, and get the dreaded episode over.
+But anyhow it was inevitable now.  They were moved.  They had barely
+enough money to pay the cartage and get things started before next
+pay-day.  There was nothing for it but to take her mother there, even
+if she did shrink from the idea.
+
+Of course mother always had been sensible, and all that; but somehow
+the burden of the great responsibility of decision rested so heavily
+upon her young shoulders that morning that it seemed as if she could
+not longer bear the strain.
+
+They still had a good fire in the kitchen range, and Shirley hastened
+to the kitchen, prepared a delicate piece of toast, a poached egg, a
+cup of tea, and took it to her mother's room, tiptoeing lightly lest
+she still slept.
+
+But the mother was awake and glad to see her.  She had been awake since
+the first streak of dawn had crept into the little back window.  She
+had the look of one who was girded for the worst.  But, when she saw
+her daughter's face, the mother in her triumphed over the woman.
+
+"What's the trouble, little girl?  Has something happened?"
+
+The tenderness in her voice was the last straw that broke Shirley's
+self-control.  The tears suddenly sprang into her eyes, and her lip
+trembled.
+
+"Oh mother!" she wailed, setting the tray down quickly on a box and
+fumbling for her handkerchief.  "I'm so worried!  I'm so afraid you
+won't like what we've done, and then what shall we do?"
+
+"I _shall_ like it!" said the mother with instant determination.
+"Don't for a minute think of anything else.  Having done something
+irrevocably, never look back and think you might have done something
+better.  You did the best you could, or you thought you did, anyway;
+and there didn't seem to be anything else at the time.  So now just
+consider it was the very best thing in the world, and don't go to
+fretting about it.  There'll be _something_ nice about it, I'm sure,
+and goodness knows we've had enough unpleasant things here; so we
+needn't expect beds of roses.  We are just going to _make_ it nice,
+little girl.  Remember that!  We are going to like it.  There's a tree
+there, you say; so, when we find things we don't like, we'll just go
+out and look up at our tree, and say, 'We've got _you_, anyway, and
+_we're glad of it!_'"
+
+"You blessed little mother!" laughed Shirley, wiping her tears away.
+"I just believe you will like it, maybe, after all, though I've had a
+lot of compunctions all night.  I wondered if maybe I oughtn't to have
+told you all about it; only I knew you couldn't really judge at all
+until you had seen it yourself, and we wanted to surprise you."
+
+"Well, I'm determined to be surprised," said the brave little woman;
+"so don't you worry.  We're going to have a grand good time to-day.
+Now run along.  It's almost time for your car, and you haven't had any
+breakfast yet."
+
+Shirley kissed her mother, and went smiling down to eat her breakfast
+and hurry away to the office.
+
+There was a big rush of work at the office, or Shirley would have asked
+for a half-holiday; but she did not dare endanger her position by
+making a request at so busy a season.  She was glad that the next day
+was Sunday and they would have a whole day to themselves in the new
+home before she would have to hurry away to the office again.  It would
+serve to make it seem less lonely for her mother, having them all home
+that first day.  She meant to work fast to-day and get all the letters
+written before five if possible.  Then she would have time to get home
+a few minutes before Graham arrived with his car, and see that her
+mother was all comfortably ready.  It was a good deal to put upon Carol
+to look after everything.  It wasn't as if they had neighbors to help
+out a little, for they were the very last tenants in the doomed block
+to leave.  All the others had gone two or three weeks before.
+
+Thinking over again all the many details for the day, Shirley walked
+down to the office through the sunshine.  It was growing warm weather,
+and her coat felt oppressive already.  She was so thankful that mother
+would not have to sleep in those breathless rooms after the heat began.
+The doctor had said that her mother needed rest and air and plenty of
+sunshine more than anything else.  She would at least have those at the
+barn, and what did other things matter, after all?  Mother was game.
+Mother wouldn't let herself feel badly over such a silly thing.  They
+certainly were going to be more comfortable than they had been for
+several years.  Think of that wonderful electric light.  And clear cold
+water from the spring!  Oh, it was great!  And a little thrill of
+ecstasy passed over her, the first she had let herself feel since she
+had taken the great responsibility of transplanting her family to a
+barn.
+
+After all, the day passed very quickly; and, when at half-past four the
+telephone-bell rang and Graham's voice announced that he would be down
+at the street door waiting for her in half an hour, that she needn't
+hurry, he would wait till she was ready, her heart gave a little jump
+of joy.  It was as if school was out and she was going on a real picnic
+like other girls.  How nice of him!  How perfectly lovely of him!  And
+yet there hadn't been anything but the nicest friendliness in his
+voice, such as any kindly disposed landlord might use if he chose,
+nothing that she need feel uncomfortable about.  At least, there was
+the relief that after to-night mother would know all about it; and, if
+she didn't approve, Shirley could decline any further kindness, of
+course.  And now she was just going to take mother's advice and forget
+everything but the pleasant part.
+
+At home Carol and Harley bustled about in the empty house like two
+excited bumble-bees, washing up the few dishes, putting in an open box
+everything that had been left out for their last night's sleeping,
+getting lunch, and making mother take a nap.  Doris, vibrating between
+her mother's room and down-stairs, kept singing over to herself: "We
+goin' to tuntry!  We goin' to tuntry!  See birdies an' twees and walk
+on gween gwass!"
+
+After lunch was over and the dishes were put carefully into the big box
+between comfortables and blankets Carol helped her mother to dress, and
+then made her lie down and take a good long nap, with Doris asleep by
+her side.  After that Carol and Harley tiptoed down to the bare
+kitchen, and sat on a box side by side to converse.
+
+"Gee!  Ain't you tired, Carol?" said the boy, pushing his hair back
+from his hot face.  "Gee!  Don't it seem funny we aren't coming back
+here any more?  It kind of gets my goat I sha'n't see the fellows so
+often, but it'll be great to ask 'em to see us sometimes.  Say, do you
+suppose we really can keep chickens?"
+
+"Sure!" said Carol convincingly.  "I asked Mr. Graham if we
+might,--George said we ought to, he was such a good scout you'd want to
+be sure he'd like it, and he said, 'Sure, it would be great.'  He'd
+like to come out and see them sometimes.  He said he used to keep
+chickens himself when he was a kid, and he shouldn't wonder if they had
+a few too many at their place they could spare to start with.  He told
+me he'd look it up and see soon's we got settled."
+
+"Gee!  He's a peach, isn't he?  Say, has he got a case on Shirl?"
+
+"I don't know," said the girl thoughtfully; "maybe he has, but he
+doesn't know it yet, I guess.  But anyhow you must promise me you will
+never breathe such a word.  Why, Shirley would just bust right up if
+you did.  I said a little something to her like that once; it wasn't
+much, only just that he was awfully nice and I guessed he liked her by
+the way he looked at her, and she just fairly froze.  You know the way
+her eyes get when she is sore at us?  And she said I must never,
+_never_ even _think_ anything like that, or she would give the place
+right up, and get a few rooms down on South Street, and stay in the
+city all summer!  She said Mr. Graham was a gentleman, and she was only
+a working girl, and it would be a disgrace for her to accept any favors
+from him except what she could pay for, and an insult for him to offer
+them, because she was only a working girl and he was a gentleman, you
+know."
+
+"H'm!" growled Harley.  "I guess our sister's as good as he is any day."
+
+"Of course!" snapped Carol; "but then he might not think so."
+
+"Well, if he don't, he can go to thunder!" bristled Harley wrathfully.
+"I'm not going to have him looking down on Shirley.  She's as good as
+his baby-doll sister with her pink cheeks, and her little white hands,
+and her high heels and airs, any day!  She's a nut, she is."
+
+"Harley!  You stop!" declared Carol, getting wrathful.  "Elizabeth's a
+dear, and you're not going to talk about her that way.  Just because
+she is pretty and doesn't have to work."
+
+"Well, you said her brother looked down on our sister," declared Harley.
+
+"I did not!  I only said he _might_!  I only meant that was the way
+_some_ gentlemen would.  I only said people kind of expect gentlemen to
+do that."
+
+"Not if they're real gentlemen, they won't.  And anyhow _he_ won't.  If
+I find him looking down on my sister Shirley, I'll punch his face for
+him.  Yes, I will!  I'm not afraid.  George and I could beat the
+stuffing out of him, and we will if he does any looking-down stunts,
+and don't you forget it!"
+
+"Well, I'm sure he doesn't," said Carol pacifically, trying to put a
+soothing sound into her voice as wise elder sisters learn to do.  "You
+see if he did look down on her, Shirley would know it; right away she'd
+know it.  Nobody would have to tell _her_!  She'd see it in his voice
+and smile and everything.  And, if he had, she wouldn't have gone out
+there to live in the place he owns, you know.  So I guess you can trust
+Shirley.  _I_ think he's been just dandy, fixing up that fireplace and
+stairs and lights and water and everything."
+
+"Well, mebbe!" said Harley grudgingly.  "Say, this is slow.  I'm going
+out to meet the fellows when they come from school, and see what the
+score of the game is.  Gee!  I wish I could play to-day!"
+
+"You'll be sure to come back in time?" asked Carol anxiously.
+
+"Sure!  You don't suppose I'd miss going out in that car, do you?" said
+the brother contemptuously.  "Not on your tintype!"
+
+"Well, maybe there won't be room for you.  Maybe Elizabeth'll come
+along, and you'll have to go in the trolley with George."
+
+"No chance!" declared the boy.  "Mr. Graham said I should ride with him
+in the front seat, and he looks like a man that kept his word."
+
+"You see!  _You_ know he's a gentleman!" triumphed Carol.  "Well, I
+think you'd better stay here with me.  You'll forget and be late, and
+make a mess waiting for you."
+
+"No, I won't!" said the restless boy.  "I can't be bothered sticking
+round this dump all afternoon"; and Harley seized his cap, and
+disappeared with a whoop around the corner.  After he was gone Carol
+found she was tired out herself, and, curling up on a mattress that was
+lying ready for the cartman, was soon asleep.  It was so that Harley
+found her when he hurried back an hour later, a trifle anxious, it must
+be confessed, lest he had stayed too long.  He stirred up the small
+household noisily, and in no time had Carol in a panic brewing the cup
+of tea that was to give her mother strength to take the journey,
+dressing Doris, smoothing her own hair, putting the last things into
+bags and baskets and boxes, and directing the cartman, who arrived half
+an hour sooner than he promised.  Carol was quite a little woman, going
+from one thing to another and taking the place of everybody.
+
+Meantime Elizabeth Graham and her brother had been spending the
+afternoon in business of their own.  It was Elizabeth who had suggested
+it, and her brother saw no reason why she should not carry out her plan
+and why he should not help her.
+
+She came down in the car after lunch, the chauffeur driving her, a
+great basket of cut and potted flowers from the home conservatory in
+the tonneau beside her, carefully wrapped in wax-paper.  She stopped at
+the office for her brother, and together they went about to several
+shops giving orders and making purchases.  When they had finished they
+drove out to Glenside to unpack their bundles and baskets.  Graham left
+Elizabeth with the old servant to help her, and drove rapidly back to
+his office, where he telephoned to Shirley.
+
+Certainly Elizabeth had never had such fun in her life.  She scarcely
+knew which delightful thing to do first, and she had only about two
+hours to complete her arrangements before the family would arrive.
+
+She decided to decorate first, and the great hamper of flowers was
+forthwith brought into the barn, and the chauffeur set to work twining
+ropes and sprays of smilax and asparagus fern over doorways and
+pictures, and training it like a vine about the stone chimney.  Then
+came the flowers.  Pots of tall starry lilies, great, heavy-headed,
+exquisite-breathed roses, pink, white, yellow, and crimson; daffodils
+and sweet peas, with quantities of sweet violets in the bottom of the
+basket.  Elizabeth with deft fingers selected the flowers skilfully,
+putting pots of lilies on the window-sills, massing a quantity of pink
+roses in a dull gray jar she found among the kitchen things, that
+looked to the initiated amazingly as though it might once have been
+part of a water-filter, but it suited the pink roses wonderfully.  The
+tall vases on the bookcases each Bide of the fireplace held daffodils.
+Sweet peas were glowing in small vases and glasses and bowls, and
+violets in saucers filled the air with fragrance.  White and yellow
+roses were on the dining-table, and three exquisite tall crimson
+rosebuds glowed in a slender glass vase Elizabeth had brought with her.
+This she placed in Mrs. Hollister's room on the little stand that she
+judged would be placed beside the bed when the bed arrived.  The
+flowers certainly did give an atmosphere to the place in more senses
+than one; and the girl was delighted, and fluttered from one spot to
+another, changing the position of a vase or bowl, and then standing off
+to get the effect.
+
+"Now bring me the big bundle, Jenkins, please," she said at length when
+she was satisfied with the effect.  "Oh, and the little long box.  Be
+careful.  It is broken at one end, and the screws may fall out."
+
+Jenkins was soon back with the things.
+
+"Now, you get the rods put up at the windows, Jenkins, while I get out
+the curtains," and she untied the big bundle with eager fingers.
+
+Jenkins was adaptable, and the rods were simple affairs.  He was soon
+at work, and Elizabeth ran the rods into the curtains.
+
+They were not elegant curtains.  Graham had insisted that she should
+get nothing elaborate, nothing that would be out of keeping with the
+simplicity.  They were soft and straight and creamy, with a frost-like
+pattern rambling over them in threads of the same, illuminated here and
+there with a single rose and a leaf in color.  There was something
+cheerful and spring-like to them, and yet they looked exceedingly plain
+and suitable, no ruffles or trimming of any kind, just hems.  To
+Elizabeth's mind they had been very cheap.  Shirley would have
+exclaimed over their beauty wistfully and turned from them with a gasp
+when she heard their price.  They were one of those quiet fitting
+things that cost without flaunting it.  They transformed the room into
+a dream.
+
+"Oh, isn't it _beautiful_!" exclaimed Elizabeth, standing back to look
+as the first curtain went up.
+
+"Yes, Miss, it's very stunning, Miss," said the man, working away with
+good will in his face.
+
+When the curtains were all up, Elizabeth pinned one of her cards to the
+curtain nearest the front door, inscribed, "With love from Elizabeth."
+
+Then in a panic she looked at her watch.
+
+"Oh Jenkins!  It's almost six o'clock," she cried in dismay.  "They
+might get here by half-past, perhaps.  We must hurry!  Bring the other
+things in quick now, please."
+
+So Jenkins brought them in, bundles and bags and boxes, an ice-cream
+freezer, and last of all the cooking-outfit belonging to their
+touring-car.
+
+"Now you get the hot things ready, Jenkins, while I fix the table,"
+directed the girl.
+
+Jenkins, well trained in such things, went to work, opening cans and
+starting his chafing-dish fire.  Elizabeth with eager fingers opened
+her parcels.
+
+A great platter of delicious triangular chicken sandwiches, a dish of
+fruit and nut salad surrounded by crisp lettuce leaves, a plate of
+delicate rolls, cream puffs, chocolate eclairs, macaroons, a cocoanut
+pie, things she liked herself; and then because she knew no feast
+without them there were olives, salted almonds, and bonbons as a matter
+of course.
+
+Delicious odors from the kitchen end of the room began to fill the air.
+Jenkins was heating a pail of rich soup--chicken with rice and
+gumbo--from one of the best caterers in the city.  He was making rich
+cocoa to be eaten with whipped cream that Elizabeth was pouring into a
+glass pitcher; the pitcher came from the ten-cent store if she had only
+known it.  Jenkins was cooking canned peas and heating lovely little
+brown potato croquettes.  The ice-cream freezer was out in full sight,
+where they could never miss it.  Everything was ready now.
+
+"Jenkins, you better light up that queer stove of theirs now if you're
+sure you know how,--she said it was just like a lamp the way it
+worked,--and put those things in the oven to keep warm.  Then we'll
+pack up our things, and hide them out in the grass where they can't
+see, and get them in the car when they get out.  Hurry, for they'll be
+here very soon now, I think."
+
+Elizabeth stuck a card in the middle of the rose-bowl that said in
+pretty letters, "Welcome Home," stood back a minute to see how
+everything looked, and then fluttered to the door to watch for the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+When Shirley came down to the street at five o'clock.  Graham was
+waiting for her as he promised, and swung the car door open for her
+with as much eagerness as if he were taking the girl of his choice on a
+picnic instead of just doing a poor little stenographer a kindness.
+
+"I telephoned to the store and sent a message to George.  We're going
+to pick him up on our way," he said as the car wended its way skilfully
+through the traffic.
+
+She was sitting beside him, and he looked down at her as if they were
+partners in a pleasant scheme.  A strange sense of companionship with
+him thrilled through her, and was properly rebuked and fled at once,
+without really rippling the surface of her joy much.  She had
+determined to have the pleasure out of this one evening ride at least,
+and would not let her thoughts play truant to suggest what wider,
+sweeter realms might be for other girls.  She was having this good
+time.  It was for her and no one else, and she would just enjoy it as
+much as she could, and keep it the sweet, sane, innocent pleasure that
+it really was.  If she was not a fool, everything would be all right.
+
+George was waiting in a quiver of pride and eagerness for them as they
+swept up to the employees' entrance, and a line of admiring
+fellow-laborers stood gaping on the sidewalk to watch his departure.
+
+"Oh, gee!  Isn't this great?" shouted George, climbing into the back
+seat hilariously.  "Got a whole omnibus of a car this time, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I thought we'd have plenty of room for your mother, so she could
+lie down if she liked."
+
+"That was very kind of you," murmured Shirley.  "You think of
+everything, don't you?  I'm sure I don't see how we ever could have
+managed without your help.  I should have been frightened a dozen times
+and been ready to give up."
+
+"Not you!" said Graham fervently.  "You're the kind that never gives
+up.  You've taught me several valuable lessons."
+
+As they turned the corner into the old street where the little brick
+house stood, Shirley suddenly began to have a vivid realization that
+she had told her mother nothing whatever about Mr. Graham.  What would
+she think, and how could she explain his presence?  She had expected to
+get there before Graham arrived and have time enough to make her mother
+understand, but now she began to realize that her real reason for
+leaving the matter yet unexplained was that she did not know just what
+to say without telling the whole story from beginning to end.
+
+"I'll hurry in and see if mother is all ready," she said, as the car
+stopped in front of the house, and the children rushed out eagerly,
+Doris just behind the others, to see the "booful tar."
+
+"Mother," said Shirley, slipping softly into the house and going over
+to the bed where she lay with hat and coat on, fully ready.  "Mother, I
+sha'n't have time to explain all about it, but it's all right; so don't
+think anything.  Mr. Graham, the man who owns the place where we are
+going, has been kind enough to offer to take you in his car.  He thinks
+it will be easier for you than the trolley, and he is out at the door
+now waiting.  It's perfectly all right.  He has been very kind about
+it----"
+
+"Oh daughter, I couldn't think of troubling any one like that!" said
+the mother, shrinking from the thought of a stranger; but, looking up,
+she saw him standing, hat in hand, just in the doorway.  The children
+had led him to the door when he offered to help their mother out to the
+car.
+
+"Mother, this is Mr. Graham," said Shirley.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, a little pink spot on each cheek, tried to rise, but
+the young man came forward instantly and stooped over her.
+
+"Don't try to get up, Mrs. Hollister.  Your daughter tells me you
+haven't been walking about for several weeks.  You must reserve all
+your strength for the journey.  Just trust me.  I'm perfectly strong,
+and I can lift you and put you into the car almost without your knowing
+it.  I often carry my own mother up-stairs just for fun, and she's
+quite a lot larger and heavier than you.  Just let me put my hand under
+your back so, and now this hand here.  Now if you'll put your arms
+around my neck--yes, that way--no, don't be a bit afraid.  I'm
+perfectly strong, and I won't drop you."
+
+Little Mrs. Hollister cast a frightened look at her daughter and
+another at the fine, strong face bent above her, felt herself lifted
+like thistle-down before she had had time to protest, and found herself
+obediently putting her weak arms around his neck and resting her
+frightened head against a strong shoulder.  A second more, and she was
+lying on the soft cushions of the car, and the young man was piling
+pillows about her and tucking her up with soft, furry robes.
+
+"Are you perfectly comfortable?" he asked anxiously.  "I didn't strain
+your back or tire you, did I?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed!" said the bewildered woman.  "You are very kind, and I
+hardly knew what you were doing till I was here.  I never dreamed of
+anything like this.  Shirley didn't tell me about it."
+
+"No," said the young man, smiling, "she said she wanted to surprise
+you; and I believe she thought you might worry a little if you heard
+the details of the journey.  Now, kitten, are you ready to get in?"  He
+turned a smiling face to Doris, who stood solemnly waiting her turn,
+with an expression of one who at last sees the gates of the kingdom of
+heaven opening before her happy eyes.
+
+"Soor!" said Doris in a tone as like Harley's as possible.  She lifted
+one little shabby shoe, and tried to reach the step, but failed, and
+then surrendered her trusting hands to the young man; and he lifted her
+in beside her mother.
+
+"Sit there, kitten, till your sister comes out," he said, looking at
+her flower face admiringly.
+
+Doris giggled.
+
+"I ain't a kitty," she declared; "I'se a 'ittle gurrul!"
+
+"Well, little girl, do you like to go riding?"
+
+"Soor!  I do 'ike to go widin'!" said Doris.  "Oh!  There goes muvver's
+bed!" as the drayman came out carrying the headboard.
+
+Shirley meanwhile was working rapidly, putting the last things from her
+mother's bed into the box, tossing things into the empty clothes-basket
+that had been left for this purpose, and directing the man who was
+taking down the bed and carrying out the boxes and baskets.  At last
+all the things were out of the house, and she was free to go.  She
+turned for one swift moment, and caught a sob in her throat.  There had
+not been time for it before.  It had come when she saw the young man
+stoop and lift her mother so tenderly and bear her out to the car.
+
+But the children were calling her loudly to come.  She gave one happy
+dab at her eyes with her handkerchief to make sure no tears had
+escaped, and went out of the little brick house forever.
+
+A little middle seat had been turned down for Carol, and Doris was in
+her lap.  Graham turned the other middle seat down for Shirley; the
+boys piled into the front seat with him; and they were off.  Mrs.
+Hollister in her wonder over it all completely forgot to look back into
+what she had been wont to call in the stifling days of summer her
+"frying-pan," or to wonder whether she were about to jump into the
+fire.  She just lay back on her soft cushions, softer than any she had
+ever rested upon before, and felt herself glide along away from the
+hated little dark house forever!  It was a wonderful experience.  It
+almost seemed as if a chariot of fire had swooped down and gathered all
+her little flock with her, and was carrying them to some kind of
+gracious heaven where comfort would be found at last.  A bit of hope
+sprang up within her, utterly unpremeditated and unreasonable, and
+persisted so that she could not help feeling happy.  As yet it had not
+come to her to wonder who this handsome young man was that presumed to
+lift her and carry her like a baby, and move her on beds of down to
+utterly unknown regions.  She was too much taken up with the wonder of
+it all.  If Doris hadn't been prattling, asking questions of her, and
+the light breeze hadn't flapped a lock of hair into her eyes and
+tickled her nose, she might have thought she was dreaming, so utterly
+unreal did it all seem to her.
+
+And now they passed out from the narrow streets, through crowded
+thoroughfares for a brief space, then out beyond, and free, into the
+wider reaches.  Fair houses and glimpsed of green were appearing.  The
+car was gliding smoothly, for the sake of the invalid not going at high
+speed; and she could see on every side.  The trees were in full leaf;
+the sky was large and blue; the air was filled with freshness.  She
+drew a long breath; and closed her eyes to pray, "Oh, my Father!" and
+then opened them again to see whether it was all true.  Shirley,
+sensitive for her to the slightest breath, turned and drew the robes
+closer about her mother, and asked whether she were perfectly warm and
+whether she wanted another pillow under her head.
+
+Graham did not intrude himself upon the family behind him.  He was
+absorbed in the two boys, who were entirely willing to be monopolized.
+He told them all about the car, and discoursed on the mysteries of the
+different makes with a freedom that gave George the impression that he
+was himself almost a man to be honored by such talk.
+
+It was nearly seven o'clock when they reached Glenside and the big
+stone barn came in sight, for they had travelled slowly to make it
+easier for the invalid.
+
+Elizabeth had sighted the car far down the road below the curve; and,
+switching on every electric light in the place, she fled down the
+ladder to the basement, dragging the willing Jenkins after her.  Here
+they waited with bated breath until the family had gone inside, when
+they made their stealthy way out the east end, across the little brook
+under the fence, and down the road, to be picked up by the car
+according to previous arrangement.
+
+As the car came in sight of the barn a deep silence suddenly fell upon
+the little company.  Even Doris felt it, and ceased her prattle to look
+from one to another.  "Whatzie mattah?" she asked Shirley shyly,
+putting out her hand to pat Shirley's face in a way she had when she
+was uneasy or troubled.  "_Whatzie mattah, Surly?_"
+
+But Shirley only squeezed her hand reassuringly, and smiled.
+
+As they drew near, the young people noticed that the bars of the fence
+in front of the barn had been taken down and the ditch filled in
+smoothly.  Then they saw that the car was turning in and going straight
+up the grassy incline to the door.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, lying comfortably among her cushions, was looking at
+the evening sky, hearing a bird that reminded her of long ago, and
+scarcely noticed they had turned until the car stopped.  Then in silent
+joy the children swarmed out of the car, and with one consent stood
+back and watched mother, as the strong young man came to the open door
+and gathered her in his arms once more.
+
+"Now we're almost home, Mrs. Hollister," he said pleasantly.  "Just put
+your arms around my neck once more, and we'll soon have you beside your
+own fire."  He lifted her and bore her in to the wide couch before the
+crackling fire that Elizabeth had started just before she went to look
+out the door the last time.
+
+Then into the blazing light of the transformed barn they all stepped,
+and every one stood back and stared, blinking.  What was this?  What
+wondrous perfume met their senses?  What luxury!  What flowers!  What
+hangings!
+
+They stood and stared, and could not understand; and between them they
+forgot to wonder what their mother was thinking, or to do a thing but
+stupidly stare and say, "Why!" and "Oh!" and "Ah!" half under their
+breath.
+
+"Just phone me if you need anything, Miss Hollister, please.  I shall
+be glad to serve you," said Graham, stepping quickly over to the door.
+"Mrs. Hollister, I hope you'll be none the worse for your ride"; and he
+slipped out the door, and was gone.
+
+The sound of the car softly purring its way backward down the slope
+brought Shirley out of her daze; but, when she turned and understood
+that he was gone, the car was just backing into the road, turning with
+a quick whirl, and was away before she could make him hear.
+
+"Oh!  He is _gone_!" she cried out, turning in dismay to the children.
+"He is gone, and we never thanked him!"
+
+George was out down the road like a shot; and the rest, forgetful for
+the moment of the invalid who had been the great anxiety all day,
+crowded at the door to watch him.  They could hear the throbbing of the
+machine; they heard it stop down the road and start again almost
+immediately, growing fainter with every whir as it went farther from
+them.  In a moment more George came running back.
+
+"He's gone.  He meant to, I guess, so we could have it all to ourselves
+right at first.  Elizabeth and the man were down the road waiting for
+him.  They've been dolling the place up to surprise us."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, turning to look around, her cheeks growing rosy.
+"Oh!  Isn't it beautiful?"  Then, turning swiftly to the couch and
+kneeling, she said, "Oh _mother_!"
+
+"What does it all mean, daughter?" asked the bewildered mother, looking
+about on the great room that seemed a palace to her sad eyes.
+
+But they all began to clamor at once, and she could make nothing of it.
+
+"Oh Shirley, look at the curtains!  Aren't they perfectly dear?" cried
+Carol ecstatically.
+
+"Perf'ly deah!" echoed Doris, dancing up and down gleefully.
+
+"And here's a card, 'With love from Elizabeth'!  Isn't it sweet of her?
+Isn't she a perfect _darling_?"
+
+"Who is Elizabeth?" asked Mrs. Hollister, rising to her elbow and
+looking around.
+
+"Gee!  Look at the flowers!" broke in George.  "It's like our store at
+Easter!  I say!  Those lilies are pretty keen, aren't they, Shirl?"
+
+"Wait'll you see the dining-room!" called Harley, who was investigating
+with the help of his nose.  "_Some_ supper-table!  Come on quick; I'm
+starved.  Hello!  Hustle here quick.  Here's another sign-board!"
+
+They followed to the dining-room.  Harley, still following his nose,
+pursued his investigations to the kitchen, discovered the source of the
+savory odors that were pervading the place, and raised another cry so
+appreciative that the entire family, with the exception of the invalid,
+followed him and found the supper steaming hot and crying to be eaten.
+
+After the excitement was somewhat quieted Shirley took command.
+
+"Now, children, you're getting mother all excited, and this won't do.
+And, besides, we must eat this supper right away before it spoils.
+Quiet down, and bring the hot things to the table while I get mother's
+things off.  Then we will tell her all about it.  There's plenty of
+time, you know.  We're going to stay right here all summer."
+
+"Aw, gee!  Can't we bring mother out to the table?" pleaded George.
+"Harley and I could lift that couch just as easy."
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Shirley, hesitating.  "You know she isn't
+strong, and she will worry about your lifting her."
+
+"Oh Shirley, let her come," pleaded Carol.  "We could all take hold and
+wheel the couch out here; you know the floor is real smooth since those
+new boards were put in, and there are good castors on the couch."
+
+"Mother!  Mother!  You're coming out to supper!" they chorused, rushing
+back to the living-room; and before the invalid realized what was
+happening her couch was being wheeled carefully, gleefully into the
+brilliantly lighted dining-room, with Doris like a fairy sprite dancing
+attendance, and shouting joyously:
+
+"Mudder's tumin' to suppy!  Mudder's tumin' to suppy adin!"
+
+The mother gazed in amazement at the royally spread table, so smothered
+in flowers that she failed to recognize the cracked old blue dishes.
+
+"Children, I insist," she raised her voice above the happy din.  "I
+insist on knowing immediately what all this means.  Where are we, and
+what is this?  A hotel?  And who was the person who brought us here?  I
+cannot eat anything nor stay here another minute until I know.  People
+can't rent houses like this for ten dollars a month anywhere, and I
+didn't suppose we had come to charity, even if I am laid up for a few
+days."
+
+Shirley could see the hurt in her mother's eyes and the quick alarm in
+her voice, and came around to her couch, smiling.
+
+"Now, mother dear, we'll tell you the whole thing.  It isn't a hotel
+we're in, and it isn't a house at all.  It's only an old barn!"
+
+"A barn!"  Mrs. Hollister sat up on her couch alertly, and looked at
+the big bowl of roses in the middle of the table, at the soft, flowing
+curtains at the window and the great pot of Easter lilies on the little
+stand in front, and exclaimed, "Impossible!"
+
+"But it is, really, mother, just a grand old stone barn!  Look at the
+walls.  See those two over there are just rough stones, and this one
+back of you is a partition made of common boards.  That's only an old
+brown denim curtain over there to hide the kitchen, and we've got the
+old red chenille curtains up to partition off the bedrooms.  The boys
+are going to sleep up in the hay-loft, and it's going to be just great!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked wildly at the stone walls, back at the new
+partition, recognized one by one the ancient chairs, the old bookcase
+now converted into a china-closet, the brown denim curtain that had
+once been a cover for the dining-room floor in the little brick house.
+Now it was washed and mended, and was doing its faded part to look like
+a wall and fit into the scheme of things.  She darted questioning
+glances at the wealth of flowers, and the abundantly set table, then
+settled back on her pillow but half satisfied.
+
+"They don't have curtains in a barn!" she remarked dryly.
+
+"Those are a present from Elizabeth, the little sister of the landlord.
+She was out here with him when he came to see about things, and she got
+acquainted with Carol.  She has put up those curtains, and brought the
+flowers, and fixed the table, for a surprise.  See, mother!" and
+Shirley brought the card on which Elizabeth had printed her crude
+welcome.
+
+Mrs. Hollister took the card as if it were some sort of a
+life-preserver, and smiled with relief.
+
+"But this is a great deal to do for strangers," she said tremblingly,
+and tears began to glitter in her eyes.  "They must be wealthy people."
+
+"Yes, mother, I think they are," said Shirley, "and they have been most
+kind."
+
+"But, daughter, wealthy people do not usually take the trouble to do
+things like that for nothing.  And ten dollars a month for a barn could
+be nothing to them."
+
+"I know, mother, but he seems very well satisfied with the price," said
+Shirley with a troubled brow.  "I----"
+
+"Something's burning!" yelled Harley at the top of his lungs from the
+kitchen, and immediately they all rushed out to rescue the supper,
+which took that moment to assert itself.
+
+"Now, mother," said Shirley, coming in with a big tureen of soup,
+"we've got to eat this supper or it will spoil.  You're not to ask
+another question till we are through."
+
+They all settled expectantly down at the table, Doris climbing joyously
+into her high chair, calling:
+
+"Suppy!  Suppy!  Oh goody!"
+
+Such a clatter and a clamor, such shoutings over the sandwiches and
+such jumpings up and down to carry something to mother!  Such lingering
+over the delicious ice-cream and fresh strawberries that were found in
+the freezer!  Think of it!  Real strawberries for _them_ that time of
+year!
+
+Then, when they had eaten all they could, and began to realize that it
+was time to get mother to bed, they pushed the chairs back, and all
+fell to clearing off the table and putting things away.  It was Carol
+who discovered the big roasted fowl and the bowl of salad set away in
+the tiny ice-box ready for to-morrow.  How had Elizabeth, who never
+kept house in her life, known just what would be nice for a family were
+all tired out with moving, and needed to lie back and rest before
+starting on with living?
+
+The dishes were almost washed when the cart arrived with the last load
+of things, and the drayman helped George to put up mother's bed.
+
+They wheeled the couch into the living-room after the big doors were
+closed and safely fastened for the night.  Before the glowing fire
+Shirley helped mother to undress, then rolled her couch into the
+bedroom and got her to bed.
+
+"Do you mind very much that it is only a barn, mother dear?" questioned
+Shirley, bending anxiously over her mother after she was settled.
+
+"I can't make it seem like a barn, dear; it seems a palace!" said the
+mother with a tremble in her voice.  "I'm glad it's a barn, because we
+could never afford a house with space like this, and air!"  She threw
+out her hands as if to express her delight in the wide rooms, and drew
+in a breath of the delicious country air, so different from air of the
+dusty little brick house in the city.
+
+"Daughter!" she drew Shirley down where she could whisper to her.
+"You're sure he is not looking on us as objects of charity, and you're
+sure he understands that you are a self-respecting girl earning her
+honorable living and paying her way?  You know this is a wicked,
+deceitful world we live in, and there are all sorts of people in it."
+
+"Mother dear!  I'm sure.  Sure as anybody could be.  He has been a
+perfect gentleman.  You didn't think he looked like one of those--those
+people--that go around misunderstanding girls, did you mother?"
+
+The mother remembered the gentle, manly way in which the young man had
+lifted her and carried her to and from the car, and her heart warmed to
+him.  Yet her fears lingered as she watched her sweet-eyed girl.
+
+"No-o-o," she answered slowly; "but then, you can't always judge.  He
+certainly was a gentleman, and he was very nice-looking."  Then she
+looked sharply at Shirley.
+
+"You won't go to getting any notions in your head, dear child?"  Her
+eyes were wistful and sad as she searched the sweet, weary face of the
+girl.  "You know rich young men follow whims sometimes for a few days.
+They don't mean anything.  I wouldn't want your heart broken.  I wish
+he was an old man with white hair."
+
+"Oh mother dear!" laughed Shirley with heart-free ring to her voice,
+"did you think you had a young fool for a daughter?  He was only being
+nice because he is a perfect gentleman; but I know he is not in the
+same universe as I am, so far as anything more than pleasant kindliness
+is concerned.  We shall probably never see him again now that we are
+settled.  But don't you think I ought to go and telephone thanks to his
+little sister?  They will be home by this time, and it seems as if we
+ought to make some acknowledgment of her great kindness."
+
+"By all means, dear; but how can you?  Is there a pay-station near
+here?  I thought you said this was out in the country."
+
+"Why, we have a telephone of our own, muddy dear!  Just think of the
+luxury of it!  Us with a telephone!  Mr. Graham had it put into the
+barn when he was making some repairs, so he could communicate with his
+workmen; and he said if we would like it we might keep it.  It is one
+of those 'pay-as-you-go' phones, with a place to drop nickels and dimes
+in; so we are perfectly independent.  Mr. Graham thought it would be a
+comfort to you when George or I had to stay late in town."
+
+"How thoughtful of him!  He must be a _wonderful_ rich man!  By all
+means telephone at once, and tell the little girl to say to her brother
+from me that I shall esteem it a privilege to thank him personally for
+all that he has done for my children, sometime when he is out this way.
+Think.  A real rose by my bed!"  She reached out a frail hand, and
+touched the exquisite petals lovingly.  "It is wonderful!"
+
+So Shirley went into the living-room to telephone, while all the
+children stood about to watch and comment and tell her what to say.
+Doris sat on a little cushion at her feet in awe, and listened, asking
+Carol with large eyes: "Is Sirley tautin to Dod?  Vy doesn't see sut
+her yeyes?" for Shirley's conversation over the telephone sounded to
+the little sister much like a prayer of thanksgiving; only she was not
+accustomed to hearing that joyous laughter in the voice when people
+prayed.
+
+Then Doris was put to bed in her own little crib, and the light in
+mother's room was switched off amid Doris's flood of questions.
+
+"Vat makes it light?  Vy did it do avay?  Will it tum adin?"
+
+At last she was asleep, and the other children tiptoed excitedly about
+preparing for bed, going up and downstairs softly, whispering back and
+forth for this or that they could not find, till quiet settled down
+upon the tired, happy household, and the bullfrogs in the distant creek
+droned out the nightly chorus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+It was beautiful to wake the next morning with the birds singing a
+matin in the trees, and a wonderful Sabbath quiet over everything.
+Tired out as she was and worn with excitement and care, Shirley was the
+first to waken, and she lay there quiet beside Carol for a little while
+with her eyes closed, listening, and saying a prayer of thanksgiving
+for the peace of the place, and the wonder that it had come into her
+life.  Then suddenly a strange luminousness about her simply forced her
+to open her eyes.
+
+The eastern window was across the room from her bed, and the sky was
+rosy, with the dawn, and flooding the room.  It was the first time in
+years she had watched the sun rise.  She had almost forgotten, in the
+little dark city house, that there was a sun to rise and make things
+glorious.  The sun had seemed an enemy to burn and wilt and stifle.
+
+But now here was a friend, a radiant new friend, to be waited for and
+enjoyed, to give glory to all their lives.  She raised herself on one
+elbow and watched until the red ball had risen and burst into the
+brightness of day.  Then she lay down softly again and listened to the
+birds.  They seemed to be mad with joy over the new day.  Presently the
+chorus grew less and less.  The birds had gone about their morning
+tasks, and only a single bright song now and then from some soloist in
+the big tree overhead marked the sweet-scented silence of the morning.
+
+In the quiet Shirley lay and went over events since she had first seen
+this spot and taken the idea of living in the barn.  Her heart gave
+thanks anew that her mother had not disliked it as she had feared.
+There was no sense that it was a stable, no odor of living creatures
+having occupied it before, only sweet dusty clover like a lingering of
+past things put away carefully.  It was like a great camping
+expedition.  And then all those flowers!  The scent of the lilies was
+on the air.  How lovely of the young girl out of her luxury to think to
+pass on some of the sweet things of life!  And the gracious, chivalrous
+man, her brother!  She must not let him think she would presume upon
+his kindness.  She must not let even her thoughts cross the line and
+dwell on the ground of social equality.  She knew where he belonged,
+and there he should stay for all her.  She was heart-free and happy,
+and only too glad to have such a kind landlord.
+
+She drifted off to sleep again, and it was late when she awoke the next
+time.  A silvery bell from the little white church in the valley was
+ringing and echoing distantly.  Sabbath, real Sabbath, seemed brooding
+happily in the very air.  Shirley got up and dressed hastily.  She felt
+as if she had already lost too much of this first wonderful day in the
+country.
+
+A thrush was spilling his liquid notes in the tree overhead when she
+tiptoed softly into her mother's room.  Doris opened her eyes and
+looked in wonder, then whispered softly:
+
+"Vat is dat, Sirley?  Vat _is_ dat pitty sound?"
+
+"A birdie in the tree, dearie!" whispered Shirley.
+
+"A _weel budie_!  I yantta see it!  Take Doris up, Sirley!"
+
+So Shirley lifted the little maiden, wrapped a shawl about her, and
+carried her softly to the window, where she looked up in wonder and joy.
+
+The boys came tumbling down from their loft in a few minutes, and there
+was no more sleep to be had.  Carol was up and out, and the voice of
+one or the other of them was continually raised in a shout of triumph
+over some new delight.
+
+"I saw a fish in the brook!" shouted Harley under his mother's window.
+"It was only a little fellow, but maybe it'll grow bigger some day, and
+then we can fish!"
+
+"You silly!" cried George.  "It was a minnow.  Minnows don't grow to be
+big.  They're only good for bait!"
+
+"Hush, George, there's a nest in the big tree.  I've been watching and
+the mother bird is sitting on it.  That was the father bird singing a
+while ago."  This from Carol.
+
+George, Harley, and Carol declared their intention of going to church.
+That had likely been the first bell that rang, their mother told them,
+and they would have plenty of time to get there if they hurried.  It
+was only half-past nine.  Country churches rang a bell then, and
+another at ten, and the final bell at half-past ten, probably.
+Possibly they had Sunday-school at ten.  Anyhow, they could go and find
+out.  It wouldn't matter if they were a little late the first time.
+
+So they ate some breakfast in a hurry, took each a sandwich left from
+the night before, crossed the road, climbed the fence, and went
+joyously over the green fields to church, thinking how much nicer it
+was than walking down a brick-paved street, past the same old grimy
+houses to a dim, artificially lighted church.
+
+Shirley took a survey of the larder, decided that roast chicken, potato
+croquettes, and peas would all warm up quickly, and, as there was
+plenty of ice cream left and some cakes, they would fare royally
+without any work; so she sat beside her mother and told the whole story
+of her ride, the finding of the barn, her visit to the Graham office,
+and all that transpired until the present time.
+
+The mother listened, watching her child, but said no wore of her inner
+thoughts.  If it occurred to her that her oldest daughter was fair to
+look upon, and that her winning ways, sweet, unspoiled face, and
+wistful eyes had somewhat to do with the price of their summer's abode,
+it would be no wonder.  But she did not mean to trouble her child
+further.  She would investigate for herself when opportunity offered.
+So she quieted all anxieties Shirley might have had about her sanction
+of their selection of a home, kissed Shirley, and told her she felt it
+in her bones she was going to get well right away.
+
+And, indeed, there was much in the fact of the lifting of the burden of
+anxiety concerning where they should live that went to brighten the
+eyes of the invalid and strengthen her heart.
+
+When the children came home from church Shirley was putting dinner on
+the table, and her mother was arrayed in a pretty kimono, a relic of
+their better days, and ready to be helped to the couch and wheeled out
+to the dining-room.  It had been pleasant to see the children coming
+across the green meadow in the distance, and get things all ready for
+them when they rushed in hungry.  Shirley was so happy she felt like
+crying.
+
+After the dinner things were washed they shoved the couch into the
+living-room among the flowers, where George had built up a beautiful
+fire, for it was still chilly.  The children gathered around their
+mother and talked, making plans for the summer, telling about the
+service they had attended, chattering like so many magpies.  The mother
+lay and watched them and was content.  Sometimes her eyes would search
+the dim, mellow rafters overhead, and glance along the stone walls, and
+she would say to herself: "This is a barn!  I am living in a barn!  My
+husband's children have come to this, that they have no place to live
+but a barn!"  She was testing herself to see if the thought hurt her.
+But, looking on their happy faces, somehow she could not feel sad.
+
+"Children," she said suddenly in one of the little lulls of
+conversation, "do you realize that Christ was born in a stable?  It
+isn't so bad to live in a barn.  We ought to be very thankful for this
+great splendid one!"
+
+"Oh mother, dear!  It is so beautiful of you to take it that way!"
+cried Shirley with tears in her eyes.
+
+"Doris, you sing your little song about Jesus in the stable," said
+Carol.  "I'll play it for you."
+
+Doris, nothing loath, got a little stool, stood up beside her mother's
+couch, folded her small hands demurely, and began to sing without
+waiting for accompaniment:
+
+  "Away in a manger,
+    No trib for His head,
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    Lay down His sveet head.
+  The tars in the haaven
+    Look down vhere 'e lay--
+  The litta Lord Jesus
+    As'eep in the hay.
+
+  "The catta are lowing,
+    The poor baby wates;
+  But the litta Lord Jesus
+    No cwyin' He mates.
+  I love Thee, Lord Jesus;
+    Look down fum the sky,
+  An' stay by my trib,
+    Watching my lul-la-by!"
+
+
+Shirley kissed Doris, and then they began to sing other things, all
+standing around the piano.  By and by that distant bell from the valley
+called again.
+
+"There's a vesper service at five o'clock.  Why don't you go, Shirley?
+You and George and Harley," said Carol.
+
+"Me 'ant do too!" declared Doris earnestly, and it was finally decided
+that the walk would not be too long; so the boys, Shirley and the baby
+started off across the fields, while Carol stayed with her mother.  And
+this time Mrs. Hollister heard all about Elizabeth and how she wanted
+Carol to come and see her sometime.  Heard, too, about the proposed
+dance, and its quiet squelching by the brother.  Heard, and looked
+thoughtful, and wondered more.
+
+"Mother is afraid they are not quite our kind of people, dear!" she
+said gently.  "You mustn't get your heart bound up in that girl.  She
+may be very nice, but she's a society girl, and you are not, you know.
+It stands to reason she will have other interests pretty soon, and then
+you will be disappointed when she forgets all about you."
+
+"She won't forget, mother, I know she won't!" declared Carol stoutly.
+"She's not that kind.  She loves me; she told me so.  She wanted to put
+one of her rings on my finger to 'bind our friendship,' only I wouldn't
+let her till I had asked you, because I didn't have any but
+grandmother's to give her, and I couldn't give her that."
+
+"That was right, dear.  You can't begin things like that.  You would
+find a great many of them, and we haven't the money to keep up with a
+little girl who has been used to everything."
+
+Carol's face went down.  Tears began to come in her eyes.
+
+"Can't we have even _friends_?" she said, turning her face away to hide
+the quiver in her lip, and the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.
+
+"Yes, dear," said the mother sorrowfully, "but don't choose them from
+among another people.  People who can't possibly have much in common
+with us.  It is sure to hurt hard when there are differences in station
+like that."
+
+"But I didn't choose them.  They chose us!" declared Carol.  "Elizabeth
+just went wild over us the first time she saw us, and her brother told
+Shirley he was glad, that it would do Elizabeth a lot of good to know
+us.  He said, 'We've learned a lot of things from you already'; just
+like that, he said it!  I was coming down the stairs behind them when
+they stood here talking one day, and I couldn't help hearing them."
+
+"Yes?" said Mrs. Hollister thoughtfully.  "Well, perhaps, but, dear, go
+slow and don't pin your heart to a friendship like that, for it will
+most likely be disappointing.  Just be happy in what she has done for
+us already, and don't expect anything more.  She may never come again.
+It may just have been a passing whim.  And I don't want you to be
+always looking for her and always disappointed."
+
+"I shall not be disappointed, mamma," said Carol decidedly.  "You'll
+see!" and her face brightened.
+
+Then as if to make good her words a big car came whirring up the road
+and stopped in front of the barn, and almost before she could get to
+the window to look out Carol heard Elizabeth's voice calling softly:
+
+"Carol!  Car-_roll_!  Are you there?" and she flung the door open and
+rushed into her new friend's arms.
+
+Graham came more slowly up the incline, smiling apologetically and
+hoping he didn't intrude, coming so soon.
+
+Carol led them over to the invalid and introduced her friend, and the
+young man came after them.
+
+"I'm afraid this is rather soon to obey your summons, Mrs. Hollister,"
+he said engagingly, "but Elizabeth couldn't stand it without coming
+over to see if you really found the ice-cream freezer, so I thought
+we'd just drop in for a minute and see whether you were quite
+comfortable."
+
+Somehow, suddenly, Mrs. Hollister's fears and conclusions concerning
+these two young people began to vanish, and in spite of her she felt
+just as Shirley had done, that they were genuine in their kindliness
+and friendship.  Carol, watching her, was satisfied, and a glow of
+triumph shone in her eyes.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Hollister gathered her
+caution about her as a garment, and in dignified and pleasant phrases
+thanked the two in such a way that they must see that neither she nor
+her children would ever presume upon what had been done for them, nor
+take it for more than a passing kindliness.
+
+But to her surprise the young man did not seem to be more than half
+listening to her words.  He seemed to be studying her face with deep
+intention that was almost embarrassing.  The soft color stole into her
+thin cheeks, and she stopped speaking and looked at him in dismay.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, seeing her bewilderment, "but you can't
+understand perhaps how interested I am in you.  I am afraid I have been
+guilty of staring.  You see it is simply amazing to me to find a woman
+of your refinement and evident culture and education who is content--I
+might even say joyful--to live in a _barn_!  I don't know another woman
+who would be satisfied.  And you seem to have brought up all your
+children with just such happy, adaptable natures, that it is a great
+puzzle to me.  I--I--why, I feel sort of rebuked!  I feel that you and
+your children are among the great of the earth.  Don't thank Elizabeth
+and me for the little we have been able to do toward making this barn
+habitable.  It was a sort of--I might say homage, due to you, that we
+were rendering.  And now please don't think anything more about it.
+Let's just talk as if we were friends--that is, if you are willing to
+accept a couple of humble strangers among your list of friends."
+
+"Why, surely, if you put it that way!" smiled the little woman.
+"Although I'm sure I don't know what else we could do but be glad and
+happy over it that we had a barn like this to come to under a sweet
+blue sky, with a bird and a tree thrown in, when we literally didn't
+know where we could afford to lay our heads.  You know beggars
+shouldn't be choosers, but I'm sure one would choose a spacious place
+like this any day in preference to most of the ordinary city houses,
+with their tiny dark rooms, and small breathless windows."
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn?"
+
+"Even if 'twas called a barn!" said the woman with a flitting dance in
+her eyes that reminded him of the girl Shirley.
+
+"Well, I'm learning a lot, I tell you!" said the young man.  "The more
+I see of you all, the more I learn.  It's opened my eyes to a number of
+things in my life that I'm going to set right.  By the way, is Miss
+Hollister here?  I brought over a book I was telling her about the
+other day.  I thought she might like to see it."
+
+"She went over to the vesper service at the little church across the
+fields.  They'll be coming home soon, I think.  It must be nearly over."
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+"Suppose I take the car and bring them back.  You stay here, Elizabeth.
+I'll soon be back.  I think I can catch them around by the road if I
+put on speed."
+
+He was off, and the mother lay on the couch watching the two girls and
+wishing with all her heart that it were so that her children might have
+these two fine young people for friends.  But of course such things
+could not very well be in this world of stern realities and
+multitudinous conventionalities.  What, for instance, would be said in
+the social set to which the Grahams belonged if it were known that some
+of their intimate friends lived in a barn?  No, such things did not
+happen even in books, and the mother lay still and sighed.  She heard
+the chatter of the two girls.
+
+"You're coming home with me to stay over Sunday pretty soon.  Sidney
+said he would fix it all up with your mother pretty soon.  We'll sleep
+together and have the grandest times.  Mother likes me to have friends
+stay with me, but most of the girls I know are off at boarding-school
+now, and I'm dreadfully lonesome.  We have tennis-courts and golf links
+and a bowling-alley.  Do you play tennis?  And we can go out in the car
+whenever we like.  It's going to be grand.  I'll show you my dog and my
+pony I used to ride.  He's getting old now, and I'm too big for him,
+but I love him just the same.  I have a saddle-horse, but I don't ride
+much.  I'd rather go motoring with Sid----"
+
+And so she rattled on, and the mother sighed for her little girl who
+was being tempted by a new and beautiful world, and had not the
+wherewithal to enter it, even if it were possible for her to do so.
+
+Out in the sunset the car was speeding back again with the seats full,
+Doris chirping gleefully at the ride, for her fat legs had grown very
+weary with the long walk through the meadow and Shirley had been almost
+sorry she had taken her along.
+
+The boys were shouting all sorts of questions about dogs and chickens
+and cars and a garden, and Graham was answering them all
+good-humoredly, now and then turning around to throw back a pleasant
+sentence and a smile at the quiet girl with the happy eyes sitting in
+the back seat with her arm around her little sister.
+
+There was nothing notable about the ride to remember.  It was just one
+of those beautiful bits of pleasantness that fit into the mosaic of any
+growing friendship, a bit of color without which the whole is not
+perfect.  Shirley's part in it was small.  She said little and sat
+listening happily to the boys' conversation with Graham.  She had
+settled it with her heart that morning that she and the young man on
+that front seat had nothing in future to do with each other, but it was
+pleasant to see him sitting there talking with her brothers.  There was
+no reason why she should not be glad for that, and glad he was not a
+snob.  For every time she looked on his clean, frank face, and saw his
+nice gray eyes upon her, she was surer that he was not a snob.
+
+The guests stayed a little while after they all got back, and accepted
+quite as a matter of course the dainty little lunch that Carol and
+Elizabeth, slipping away unobserved, prepared and brought in on
+trays,--some of the salad left from dinner, some round rolls that
+Shirley had brought out with her Saturday, cut in two and crisply
+toasted, cups of delicious cocoa, and little cakes.  That was all, but
+it tasted fine, and the two self-invited guests enjoyed it hugely.
+Then they all ranged themselves around the piano and sang hymns, and it
+is safe to say that the guests at least had not spent as "Sabbathy" a
+Sabbath in all their lives.  Elizabeth was quite astonished when she
+suggested that they sing a popular song to have Carol answer in a
+polite but gently reproving tone, "Oh, not _to-day_, you know."
+
+"Why not?  Doesn't your mother like it?" whispered Elizabeth.
+
+"Why, we don't any of us usually sing things like that on Sunday, you
+know.  It doesn't seem like Sunday.  It doesn't seem quite respectful
+to God."  Carol was terribly embarrassed and was struggling to make her
+idea plain.
+
+"Oh!" Elizabeth said, and stood looking wistfully, wonderingly at her
+friend, and finally stole out a soft hand and slipped it into Carol's,
+pressing her fingers as if to make her know she understood.  Then they
+lifted up their voices again over the same hymn-book:
+
+  "Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
+  But there's a nobler rest above;
+  To that our longing souls aspire
+  With cheerful hope and strong desire."
+
+
+Graham looked about on the group as they sang, his own fine tenor
+joining in the words, his eyes lingering on the earnest face of his
+little sister as she stood arm in arm with the other girl, and was
+suddenly thrilled with the thought of what a Sabbath might be, kept in
+this way.  It had never appealed to him quite like that before.
+Sabbath-keeping had seemed a dry, thankless task for a few fanatics;
+now a new possibility loomed vaguely in his mind.  He could see that
+people like this could really make the Sabbath something to love, not
+just a day to loll through and pass the time away.
+
+When they finally went away there was just a streak of dull red left in
+the western horizon where the day had disappeared, and all the air was
+seething with sweet night sounds and odors, the dampness of the swamps
+striking coolly in their faces as the car sped along.
+
+"Sidney," said Elizabeth after a long time, "did you ever feel as if
+God were real?"
+
+"Why, how do you mean, kid?" asked the brother, rather embarrassed.
+These subjects were not discussed at all in the Graham household.
+
+"Did you ever feel as if there really was a God somewhere, like a
+person, that could see and hear you and know what you did and how you
+felt to Him?  Because they do.  Carol said they didn't sing 'Tipperary'
+on Sunday because it didn't seem quite respectful to God, and I could
+see she really meant it.  It wasn't just because her mother said she
+had to or anything like that.  She thought so herself."
+
+"H'm!" said Graham thoughtfully.  "Well, they're rather remarkable
+people, I think."
+
+"Well, I think so too, and I think it's about time you fixed it up with
+mamma to let Carol come and visit me."
+
+"I'm going to get mother to go out there and call this week if I can,"
+said Graham after another longer pause, and then added: "I think she
+will go and I think she will like them.  After that we'll see, kid.
+Don't you worry.  They're nice, all right."  He was thinking of the
+look on Shirley's face as she sat at the piano playing for them all to
+sing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The first few days in the new home were filled with wonder and delight
+for them all.  They just could not get used to having plenty of room
+indoors, with all outdoors for a playground.  Doris's cheeks took on a
+lovely pink, and her eyes began to sparkle.  She and Harley spent all
+day out-of-doors.  They were making a garden.  Not that they had any
+experience or any utensils.  There was an old hoe and a broken spade
+down in the basement of the barn, and with these Harley managed to
+remove a few square feet of young turf, and mellow up an inch or two of
+soil depth.  In this they planted violet roots and buttercups and
+daisies which they found in the meadows.  Doris had a corner all her
+own, with neat rows of tiny stones from the brook laid in elaborate
+baby-patterns around the edge, and in this she stuck twigs and weeds of
+all descriptions, and was never daunted, only pained and surprised when
+they drooped and died in a day or two and had to be supplanted by
+others.
+
+It had been decided that Harley was to stop school and stay at home
+with mother and Doris, which indeed he was quite willing to do under
+the glamour of the new life.  The school itself never had much
+attraction for him, and "the fellows" were almost forgotten in
+searching for angleworms and building dams in the creek.
+
+Carol went to high school every morning with Shirley and George on the
+trolley.  There were only six more weeks till the term was over, and it
+was better for Carol to finish out her year and get her credits.
+Shirley thought they could afford the extra carfare for just that
+little while, and so all day long mother and Doris and Harley kept
+quiet home in the old barn, and the meadows rang with Doris's shouts
+and Harley's answers.
+
+One day the doctor came out in his machine to see Mrs. Hollister as he
+had promised to do, and found her so much better that he told her she
+might get up and go around a little while every day if she was very
+careful not to get over-tired.  He prophesied a speedy return to health
+if she kept on looking happy and breathing this good air.  He praised
+the good sense that brought her out into the country to live, in
+preference to any little tucked-up house in town, and said if she could
+only get well enough to work outdoors in the ground and have a
+flower-bed it would be the making of her.  Her eyes brightened at that,
+for she loved flowers, and in the days of her youth had been extremely
+successful at making things grow.
+
+The doctor was deeply interest in the barn.  He walked about with his
+hands in his pockets, looking the rooms over, as delighted as a child
+at seeing a new mechanical toy.
+
+"Well, now this is great!" he said heartily.  "This is simply great!  I
+admire you people for having the nerve to go against conventionality
+and come out here.  If I had a few more patients who could be persuaded
+to go out into the country and take some of the unused old barns and
+fix them up to live in, I'd have to change my occupation.  It's a great
+idea, and I mean to recommend it to others if you don't mind.  Only I
+doubt if I find two others who have the nerve to follow your example."
+
+The invalid laughed.
+
+"Why, doctor, I can't see the nerve.  We really hadn't any choice.  We
+couldn't find a decent place that we could afford, and this was big and
+healthful and cost less than the worst little tenement that would have
+done in town.  Any one would be a fool not to have come here."
+
+"Mrs. Hollister, do you know that most people would rather starve and
+swelter, yes--and _die_ in a conventional house, than to do such an
+unheard-of thing as to live in a barn, no matter how delightful that
+barn might be?  You are a great little woman, Mrs. Hollister, and you
+deserve to get well, and to see your children prosper.  And they will.
+They have the right spirit."
+
+After his visit Mrs. Hollister began to get up a little while every
+day, and her improvement in health was rapid.  She even ventured out to
+see Doris's garden and watch the "budie" in his nest in the tree.
+
+One day a drayman stopped at the place and left several great rolls of
+chicken-wire, and a couple of big crates.  One crate was bigger than
+the other and contained half a dozen big yellow hens and a beautiful
+rooster.  The small crate held two lovely white rabbits.
+
+The children hovered joyfully over the crates.
+
+"Mine wabbits!" declared Doris solemnly.  "Nice Mistah Dwaham give
+Doris wabbits."
+
+"Did Mr. Graham say he was going to send you some rabbits?" questioned
+her mother.
+
+"'Es.  He did say he was goin' to sen' me some wabbits.  On 'e way fum
+chutch in big oughtymobeel.  He did say he would give me wabbits.  Oh,
+mine wabbits!"  Doris was in ecstasy.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked at the big rolls of wire questioningly:
+
+"George and I told him we wanted some chickens.  I guess that's why he
+sent 'em," announced Harley excitedly.
+
+"I hope you boys didn't hint.  That's very bad manners.  You know I
+can't have Mr. Graham giving you such expensive presents; it won't do,
+dear."
+
+"No, mother, we didn't hint.  George just asked him if he minded if we
+kept chickens here, and he said no, indeed, he'd like to go into the
+business himself.  He said he used to have a lot of his own when he was
+a boy, and he guessed there was a lot of wire from the old chicken-run
+around at his place yet.  If there was, there wasn't any reason why it
+shouldn't be in use, and he'd look it up.  He said, if it was, he and
+we'd go into business.  He'd furnish the tools and we could do the
+work, and maybe some day we could sell eggs and make it pay."
+
+"That's very kind of him, I'm sure.  But, Harley, that looks like new
+wire.  It isn't the least bit rusted."
+
+"It's galvanized, mother.  Galvanized wire doesn't rust, don't you know
+that?" said Harley in a superior, man's voice.
+
+Harley and Doris were wild over their pets, and could do nothing all
+that day but hover about them, and the minute George arrived the boys
+went out to see about putting up some of the wire and making a
+temporary abode for the creatures until they could get time to plan an
+elaborate chicken-run.
+
+Before dark Graham arrived.  He had brought a book on chicken-raising
+and had a good many suggestions to offer.  With him in the front seat
+of the car rode a great golden-brown dog with a white-starred face,
+great affectionate eyes, and a plumy white tail.  He bounded floppily
+out after Graham and came affably up to the door as if he understood
+everything; and at sight of him the children went wild.
+
+"I brought this fellow along, thinking perhaps you'd like him to help
+look after things here.  He's only a puppy, but he's a good breed, and
+I think you'll find him a splendid watch-dog.  You don't need to keep
+him, of course, if you don't want him, Mrs. Hollister, but I thought
+out in the country this way it might be as well for you to have him on
+guard, at night especially.  He'll be good company for the children.
+We've got so many of them that we want to give this one away."
+
+And what was there to do but accept him with thanks, a dog like that
+begging for a home, and a home like that really needing a dog?
+
+So the dog was promptly accepted as a member of the family, was named
+Star, and accepted the overtures of his devoted worshippers in many
+amiable waggings of tail and a wide puppy laugh on his face.  He stayed
+behind most contentedly when Graham departed after a long conference
+with George and Harley over the "chicken" book, and a long discussion
+in the back yard as to the best place for the chicken-run.  He seemed
+to know from the start that he had come to stay, that this was his
+"job" and he was on it for life.
+
+It must be admitted that Mrs. Hollister went to sleep that night with
+more content, knowing that big, floppy, deep-voiced dog was lying
+across the door out in the living-room.  The hillside had seemed a bit
+lonely at night, though she had never admitted it even to herself
+before, and she was glad the dog had come.  That night in the little
+prayer that she said every night with all her children gathered about
+her couch in front of the fire, she added, "We thank Thee, oh, Lord,
+for sending us such good kind friends to make the world so much happier
+for us."
+
+A few days later Mrs. Graham came to call.
+
+Her son did not explain to her anything about the Hollisters, nor say a
+word about the place where they were living.  He merely remarked
+casually: "Mother, there are some people I'd like you to call on if you
+don't mind.  They live out Glenside way, and I'll take you any
+afternoon you have time."
+
+"I really haven't much time now before we go to the shore, Sidney," she
+said.  "Couldn't they wait till the fall when we return?"
+
+"No, mother, I'd like you to call now.  It needn't take you long, and I
+think you'll like them--her--Mrs. Hollister, I mean.  Can't you go this
+afternoon?  I'll call for you with the car anywhere you say, along
+about half-past four or five o'clock.  It will be a pleasant little
+drive and rest you."
+
+"Shall I have to be much dressed?" asked the mother thoughtfully,
+"because I shouldn't have time for an elaborate toilet.  I have to go
+to Madame's for a fitting, meet with the Red Cross committee, drop in
+at the hospital for a few minutes, and see Mrs. Sheppard and Mrs.
+Follette about our Alumni Anniversary banquet."
+
+"Just wear something simple, mother.  They are not society people.
+It's you I want to show them, not your clothes."
+
+"You ridiculous boy!  You're as unsophisticated as your father.  Well,
+I'll be ready at half-past four.  You may call for me then at the
+Century Building."
+
+Elizabeth had been loyal to her brother's commands and had said nothing
+about her new-found friend, awaiting his permission.  Graham earnestly
+discussed the pros and cons of woman's suffrage with his mother during
+the drive out, so that she was utterly unprejudiced by any former ideas
+concerning the Hollisters, which was exactly what her son desired her
+to be.  He knew that his mother was a woman of the world, and hedged
+about by conventions of all sorts, but he also knew her to be fair in
+her judgments when once she saw a thing right, and a keen reader of
+character.  He wanted her to see the Hollisters without the least bit
+of a chance to judge them beforehand.
+
+So when the car drew up in front of the old barn Mrs. Graham was quite
+unprepared to have her son get out and open the car door and say,
+"Mother, this is the place: may I help you out?"  She had been talking
+earnestly, and had thought he was getting out to look after something
+wrong about the car.  Now she looked up startled.
+
+"Why, Sidney!  Why, you must have made a mistake!  This isn't a house;
+it is a barn!"
+
+"This is the place, mother.  Just come right up this way."
+
+Mrs. Graham picked her way over the short green turf up to the door and
+stood astonished while her son knocked.  What in the world did he mean?
+Was this one of his jokes?  Had he brought her out to see a new
+riding-horse?  That must be it, of course.  He was always taking a
+fancy to a horse or a dog.  She really hadn't the time to spare for
+nonsense this afternoon, but one must humor one's son once in a while.
+She stepped back absent-mindedly, her eyes resting on the soft greens
+and purples of the foliage across the meadows, her thoughts on the next
+paper she intended to write for the club.  This incident would soon be
+over, and then she might pursue the even tenor of her busy way.
+
+Then the door slid back and she became aware of something unusual in
+the tenseness of the moment.  Looking up quickly she saw a beautiful
+girl of about Elizabeth's age, with a wealth of dark wavy hair, lovely
+dark eyes, and vivid coloring, and by her side one of the loveliest
+golden-haired, blue-eyed babies she had ever seen in her life.  In the
+wonder of the moment she forgot that the outside of the building had
+been a barn, for the curtain had risen on a new setting, and here on
+the very threshold there opened before her amazed eyes a charming,
+homelike room.
+
+At first she did not take in any of the details of furnishings.
+Everything was tastefully arranged, and the dull tones of wall and
+floor and ceiling in the late afternoon light mellowed the old
+furniture into its background so perfectly that the imperfections and
+make-shifts did not appear.  It was just a place of comfort and beauty,
+even though the details might show shabby poverty.
+
+But her son was speaking.
+
+"Mother, this is Miss Carol Hollister, and this little girl is her
+sister Doris----"
+
+Doris put out a fat hand and gravely laid it in the lady's kid glove,
+saying carefully, with shy lashes drooped sideways, and blue eyes
+furtively searching the stranger's face.
+
+"How oo do?"
+
+Then as if she had performed her duty, she turned on her smiles and
+dimples with a flash, and grasping Graham's hand said,
+
+"Now, Mistah Dwa'm, oo tum out an' see my wabbits!"
+
+It was evident to the mother that her son had been here before.  She
+looked at him for an explanation, but he only said to Carol,
+
+"Is your mother able to see callers for a few minutes?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Carol with a glad little ring in her voice.  "Mother is
+up in a chair this afternoon.  See!  The doctor says she may get up
+now, she is so much better!" and she turned and flung out her arm
+toward the big easy chair where her mother sat.
+
+Mrs. Hollister arose and came forward to meet them.
+
+She was dressed in a plain little gown of cheap gray challis, much
+washed and mended, but looking somehow very nice; and Carol had just
+finished fastening one of Shirley's sheer white fluffy collars around
+her neck, with a bit of a pink ribbon looped in a pretty knot.  Her
+hair was tastefully arranged, and she looked every inch a lady as she
+stood to receive her unexpected guests.  Graham had never seen her in
+any but invalid's garb before, and he stood amazed for a moment at the
+likeness between her and Shirley.  He introduced his mother with a few
+words, and then yielded to Doris's eager, pulling hand and went out to
+see the bunnies.
+
+The situation was a trifle trying for both ladies, but to the woman of
+the world perhaps the more embarrassing.  She hadn't a clew as to who
+this was she had been brought to see.  She was entirely used to
+dominating any situation, but for a moment she was almost confused.
+
+Mrs. Hollister, however, tactfully relieved the situation, with a
+gentle, "Won't you sit here by the fire?  It is getting a little cool
+this evening, don't you think?" and put her at once at her ease.  Only
+her family would have guessed from the soft pink spots in her cheeks
+that she was at all excited over her grand guest.  She took the
+initiative at once, leading the talk into natural channels, about the
+spring and its wonderful unfolding in the country, exhibited a vase
+with jack-in-the-pulpits, and a glass bowl of hepaticas blushing blue
+and pink, told of the thrush that had built a nest in the elm over the
+door, and pointed out the view over the valley where the sinking sun
+was flashing crimson from the weather-vane on the little white spire of
+the church.  She said how much they had enjoyed the sunsets since
+coming out here to live, taking it for granted that her visitor knew
+all about their circumstances, and making no apologies or comments; and
+the visitor, being what her son called "a good sport," showed no hint
+that she had never heard of the Hollisters before, but smiled and said
+the right thing at the right moment.  And somehow, neither knew just
+how, they got to the subject of Browning and Ibsen, and from there to
+woman's suffrage, and when Graham returned with Carol and Harley, Doris
+chattering beside him and the dog bounding in ahead, they were deep in
+future politics.  Graham sat and listened for a while, interested to
+note that the quiet little woman who had spent the last few years of
+her life working in a narrow dark city kitchen could talk as
+thoughtfully and sensibly as his cultured, versatile mother.
+
+The next trolley brought Shirley and George, and again the mother was
+amazed to find how altogether free and easy seemed to be the relation
+between all these young people.
+
+She gave a keen look at Shirley, and then another at her son, but saw
+nothing which gave her uneasiness.  The girl was unconscious as a rose,
+and sweet and gracious to the stranger guests as if she had been in
+society all her life.  She slipped away at once to remove her hat, and
+when she came back her hair was brushed, and she looked as fresh as a
+flower in her clean white ruffled blouse.  The older woman could not
+take her eyes from her face.  What a charming girl to be set among all
+this shabbiness!  For by this time her discriminating eyes had
+discovered that everything--literally _every_thing was shabby.  Who
+were these people, and how did they happen to get put here?  The baby
+was ravishingly beautiful, the girls were charming, and the boys looked
+like splendid, manly fellows.  The mother was a product of culture and
+refinement.  Not one word or action had shown that she knew her
+surroundings were shabby.  She might have been mistress of a palace for
+aught she showed of consciousness of the pitiful poverty about her.  It
+was as if she were just dropped down for the day in a stray barn and
+making a palace out of it while she stayed.
+
+Unconsciously the woman of the world lingered longer than was her wont
+in making calls.  She liked the atmosphere, and was strangely
+interested by them all.
+
+"I wish you would come and see me," she said cordially as she rose at
+last to go, and she said it as if she meant it,--as if she lived right
+around the corner and not twenty-two miles away,--as if she really
+wanted her to come, and not as if this other woman lived in a barn at
+all.
+
+"Good old sport!" commented her son in his heart as he listened.  He
+had known she must see their worth, and yet he had been strangely
+afraid.
+
+Mrs. Hollister received the invitation with a flush of pleasure.
+
+"Thank you," she answered graciously, "I'm afraid not.  I seldom go
+anywhere any more.  But I've been very glad to have had this call from
+you.  It will be a pleasure to think about.  Come sometime again when
+you are out this way.  Your son has been most kind.  I cannot find
+words to express my thanks."
+
+"Has he?" and his mother looked questioningly at her son.  "Well, I'm
+very glad----"
+
+"Yes, and Elizabeth!  She is a dear sweet girl, and we all love her!"
+
+Revelations!
+
+"Oh, has Elizabeth been here too?  Well, I'm glad.  I hope she has not
+been a nuisance.  She's such an impulsive, erratic child.  Elizabeth is
+quite a problem just now.  She's out of school on account of her eyes,
+and her girl friends, most of them, being away at school, she is
+perfectly forlorn.  I am delighted to have her with your children.  I
+am sure they are charming associates for her."  And her eyes rested
+approvingly on the sparkling Carol in her simple school dress of brown
+linen with its white collar and cuffs.  There was nothing countrified
+about Carol.  She looked dainty in the commonest raiment, and she
+smiled radiantly at Elizabeth's mother and won her heart.
+
+"Would you let Elizabeth stay overnight with us here sometime?" she
+asked shyly.
+
+"Why, surely!  I presume she would be delighted.  She does about as she
+pleases these days.  I really don't see very much of her, I'm so busy
+this time of year, just at the end of the season, you know, and lots of
+committee meetings and teas and things."
+
+They stopped at the doorway to look up into the big tree, in response
+to the earnest solicitations of Doris, who pulled at the lady's gloved
+hand insistently, murmuring sweetly:
+
+"Budie!  Budie!  See mine budie in the twee!"
+
+The Hollisters stood grouped at the doorway when at last the visitors
+got into their car and went away.  Mrs. Graham looked back at them
+wistfully.
+
+"What a lovely group they make!" she murmured.  "Now, Sidney, tell me
+at once who they are and why they live in a barn, and why you brought
+me out here.  I know you had some special object.  I knew the minute I
+saw that charming woman."
+
+"Mother, you certainly are great!  I thought you'd have the good sense
+to see what they are."
+
+"Why, I haven't spent a more delightful hour in a long time than I
+spent talking with her.  She has very original ideas, and she expresses
+herself well.  As for the children, they are lovely.  That oldest girl
+has a great deal of character in her face.  But what are they doing in
+a barn, Sidney, and how did you come to know them?"
+
+And so, as they speeded out the smooth turnpike to their lovely home
+Sidney Graham told his mother as much of the story of Shirley Hollister
+and the old barn as he thought she would care to know, and his mother
+sat thoughtfully watching his handsome, enthusiastic face while he
+talked, and wondering.
+
+One comment she made as they swept up the beautiful drive to their
+luxurious country home:
+
+"Sidney dear, they are delightful and all that, and I'm sure I'm glad
+to have that little girl come to see Elizabeth, but if I were you I
+wouldn't go out there too often when that handsome oldest girl is at
+home.  She's not exactly in your set, you know, charming as she is, and
+you wouldn't want to give her any ideas.  A gentleman looks out for
+things like that, you know."
+
+"What has being in our set got to do with it, mother dear?  Do you know
+any girl in our set that is better-looking or has nicer manners, or a
+finer appreciation of nature and books?  You ought to hear her talk!"
+
+"Yes, but, Sidney, that isn't everything!  She isn't exactly----"
+
+"Mother, were you and father, when you used to have good times
+together?  Now, mother, you know you are just talking twaddle when you
+let that idea about 'our set' rule your mind.  Be a good sport, mother
+dear, and look the facts in the face.  That girl is as good as any
+other girl I know, and you know it.  She's better than most.  Please
+admit the facts.  Yet you never warned me to be careful about calling
+on any of the girls in our set.  Do please be consistent.  However,
+don't worry about me.  I've no idea at present of paying any special
+attention to anybody," and he swung the car door and jumped down to
+help her out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A man arrived one morning with a horse and a plough and several other
+implements of farm life of which Harley didn't know the name, and
+announced that Mr. Graham had sent him to plough the garden.  Would
+Mrs. Hollister please tell him where she wanted the ground broken, and
+how much?  He volunteered the information that he was her next
+neighbor, and that if he was in her place he'd plough the south slope
+of the meadow, and if she wanted flower-beds a strip along the front
+near the road; the soil was best in those spots, and she wouldn't need
+so much fertilizer.
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to do it, and he said
+a little job like that wasn't worth talking about; that he used to rent
+the barn himself, and he always did a little turn for Mr. Graham
+whenever he needed it.  He did it for Mr. Graham, and it wouldn't cost
+her "nothin'."
+
+Mrs. Hollister asked him how much he would charge to see where it would
+be best to have the ploughing done, and when she came in a few minutes
+later and dropped down on the couch to rest from her unusual fatigue a
+new thought was racing through her mind.  They could have a garden, a
+real garden, with lettuce and green peas and lima beans and corn!  She
+knew all about making them grow.  She had been brought up in a little
+village home, where a garden was a part of every one's necessary
+equipment for living.  She used to kelp her father every spring and all
+summer.  Her own little patch always took the prize of the family.  But
+for years she had been in the city without an inch of space.  Now,
+however, the old fever of delight in gardening took possession of her.
+If she could get out and work in the ground, as the doctor had
+suggested, she would get well right away.  And why, with Harley to
+help, and George and Carol to work a little every evening, couldn't
+they raise enough on all that ground to sell some?  George could take
+things into town early in the morning, or they could find some private
+families who would buy all they had to sell.  It was worth thinking
+about, anyway.  She could raise flowers for sale, too.  She had always
+been a success with flowers.  She had always wanted a hothouse and a
+chance to experiment.  She heard the children say there were some old
+window-sashes down under the barn.  She would get George to bring them
+out, and see what she could do with a coldframe or two.  Violets would
+grow under a coldframe, and a lot of other things.  Oh, if they could
+only just live here always, and not have to go back to the city in the
+fall!  But of course there was no way to heat the barn in winter, and
+that was out of the question.  Nevertheless, the idea of making some
+money with growing things had seized hold of her mind and would not be
+entirely put by.  She thought of it much, and talked of it now and then
+to Shirley and the other children.
+
+Shirley brought home some packages of seeds she got at the ten-cent
+store, and there was great excitement planting them.  Then Mr. Graham
+sent over a lot of seeds, of both vegetables and flowers, and some
+shrubs, cuttings and bulbs which he said were "left-overs" at their
+country house that he thought perhaps the children could use; and so
+before the Hollisters knew it they were possessed of a garden, which
+almost in a breath lifted up its green head and began to grow.
+
+Life was very full for the Hollisters in those days, and those who went
+to the city for the day could hardly bear to tear themselves away from
+the many delights of the country.  The puppy was getting bigger and
+wiser every day, tagging Doris and Harley wherever they went, or
+sitting adoringly at Mrs. Hollister's feet; always bounding out to meet
+the evening trolley on which George and Shirley came, and always
+attending them to the trolley in the morning.
+
+Out behind the barn a tiny coop held a white hen and her seven little
+downy balls of chickens.  Another hen was happily ensconced in a barrel
+of hay with ten big blue duck-eggs under her happy wings, and a little
+further down toward the creek a fine chicken-run ended in a trig little
+roosting-place for the poultry, which George had manufactured out of a
+packing-box and some boards.  The feathered family had been increased
+by two white Leghorns and three bantams.  George and Harley spent their
+evenings watching them and discussing the price of eggs and chickens
+per pound.  They were all very happy.
+
+Elizabeth came out to spend Sunday as she had promised.  She got up
+early to see the sun rise and watch the birds.  She helped get
+breakfast and wash the dishes.  Then she went with the others across
+the fields to the little white church in the valley to Sunday-school
+and church.  She was as hungry and eager as any of them when she came
+home, and joyfully helped to do the work, taking great pride in the
+potatoes she was allowed to warm up under careful tutelage.  In the
+afternoon there was no more eager listener among them to the Bible
+story Shirley told to Doris and the book she read aloud to them all
+afterward; her voice was sweetest and clearest of them all in the hymns
+they sang together; and she was most eager to go with Shirley to the
+Christian Endeavor service.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if Sidney wishes he was here too," she remarked
+dreamily that evening, as she sat before the fire on a little cushion,
+her chin in her hands, her eyes on the fantastic shadows in the ashes.
+
+She went to school with Carol the next morning, came home with her in
+the afternoon, and when her brother came for her in the evening she was
+most reluctant to go home to the big, lonely, elegant house again, and
+begged that Carol might soon come and see her.
+
+Friday afternoon Elizabeth called up Mrs. Hollister.
+
+"Please, Mrs. Hollister, let Carol come and stay with me till Monday.
+I'm so lonesome, and mamma says she will be so glad if you will let her
+come."
+
+"Oh, my dear, that would be impossible.  Carol isn't suitably dressed
+to make a visit, you know," answered the mother quickly, glad that she
+had so good an excuse for keeping her child from this venture into an
+alien world about which she had many grave doubts.
+
+But the young voice at the other end of the telephone was insistent.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Hollister, please!  She doesn't need any other clothes.
+I've got lots of things that would fit her.  She loaned me her gingham
+dress to make garden in, and why shouldn't I loan her a dress to wear
+on Sunday?  I've got plenty of clean middy blouses and skirts and can
+fix her all out fresh for school, too, Monday morning, and if you'll
+just let her stay Sidney will take us both down to her school when he
+goes to the office.  You've got all those children there at home, and
+I've only myself.  Sidney doesn't count, you know, for he's grown up."
+
+So, with a sigh, the mother gave her consent, and Carol found the
+Graham car waiting for her when she came out of school.  Thus she
+started on her first venture into the world.
+
+It was all like fairy-land that wonderful week-end to the little girl
+whose memories were full of burdens and sacrifices: the palatial home
+of many rooms and rich furnishings, the swarm of servants, the
+anticipation of every want, the wide, beautiful grounds with all that
+heart could wish in the way of beauty and amusement, the music-room
+with grand piano, harp, and violin lying mute most of the time, the
+great library with its walls lined with rare books, mostly unread.
+Everything there to satisfy any whim, reasonable or unreasonable, and
+nobody using any of it much.
+
+"Not a room in the whole place as dear and cozy and homey as this!"
+sighed Carol happily, sinking into the old denim-covered couch before
+the fireplace in the barn-living-room that Monday night after she got
+home.  "I declare, mother, I don't see how Elizabeth stands it.  Her
+mother is nice, but she's hardly ever there, unless she has a swarm of
+people dinnering or teaing or lunching.  She hardly ever has time to
+speak to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth doesn't seem to care much, either.
+She almost seems to think more of that old nurse Susan that took care
+of her when she was a baby than she does of her mother.  I'm so glad I
+was sent to you instead of to her!"  And Carol suddenly slipped across
+the room and buried her face in her mother's neck, hugging and kissing
+her, leaving a few bright tears on her mother's happy face.
+
+It was a wonderful relief to Mrs. Hollister to find her child unspoiled
+by her first experience of the world and glad to get back to her home,
+after all the anxiety her mother heart had felt.  Carol presently sat
+up and told them minutely all about her visit.  The grand concert that
+Sidney had taken them to Friday evening in the Academy of Music, where
+a world-renowned pianist was the soloist with the great symphony
+orchestra; the tennis and riding Saturday morning; the luncheon at a
+neighboring estate, where there were three girls and a brother who were
+"snobs" and hadn't at all good manners; the party in the evening that
+lasted so late that they didn't get to bed till long after midnight;
+the beautiful room they slept in, with every imaginable article for the
+toilet done in sterling silver with monograms; the strange Sabbath,
+with no service in the morning because they woke up too late, and no
+suggestion of anything but a holiday,--except the vesper service in a
+cold, formal chapel that Carol had begged to go to; just a lot of
+worldly music and entertaining, with a multitude of visitors for the
+end of it.  Carol told of the beautiful dresses that Elizabeth had
+loaned her, coral crepe de chine accordion-plaited for the concert,
+white with an orange sash for the luncheon, pale yellow with a black
+velvet girdle for the party, a little blue silk affair and another
+lovely white organdie for Sunday, and all with their accompanying silk
+stockings and slippers and gloves, and necklaces and bands for her
+hair.  It was most wonderful to her, and as they listened they
+marvelled that their Carol had come back to them so gladly, and
+rejoiced to see her nestling in her brown linen skirt and middy blouse
+close beside her mother's chair.  She declared herself satisfied with
+her flight into the world.  She might like to go again for a glimpse
+now and then, but she thought she would rather have Elizabeth out to
+Glenside.  She hated to lose any of the time out here, it was so
+pretty.  Besides, it was lonesome without them all.
+
+About that time Shirley picked up the morning paper in her office one
+day to look up a matter for Mr. Barnard.  Her eye happened to fall on
+the society column and catch the name of Sidney Graham.  She glanced
+down the column.  It was an account of a wedding in high circles in
+which Graham had taken the part of best man, with Miss Harriet Hale--in
+blue tulle and white orchids as maid of honor--for his partner down the
+aisle.  She read the column hurriedly, hungrily, getting every detail,
+white spats, gardenia, and all, until in those few printed sentences a
+picture was printed indelibly upon her vision, of Graham walking down
+the lily-garlanded aisle with the maid in blue tulle and white orchids
+on his arm.  To make it more vivid the lady's picture was in the paper
+along with Graham's, just under those of the bride and groom, and her
+face was both handsome and haughty.  One could tell that by the tilt of
+chin, the short upper lip, the cynical curve of mouth and sweep of long
+eyelash, the extreme effect of her dress and the arrangement of her
+hair.  Only a beauty could have stood that hair and not been positively
+ugly.
+
+Shirley suddenly realized what she was doing and turned over the page
+of the paper with a jerk that tore the sheet from top to bottom, going
+on with her search for the real-estate column and the item she was
+after.  All that morning her typewriter keys clicked with mad rapidity,
+yet her work was strangely correct and perfect.  She was working under
+a tense strain.
+
+By noon she had herself in hand, realized what she had been doing with
+her vagrant thoughts, and was able to laugh at Miss Harriet
+Hale--whoever or whatever she was.  What mattered it, Miss Harriet Hale
+or somebody else?  What was that to Shirley Hollister?  Mr. Graham was
+her landlord and a kindly gentleman.  He would probably continue to be
+that to her to the end of her tenancy, without regard to Miss Hale or
+any other intruding Miss, and what did anything else matter?  She
+wanted nothing else of Mr. Graham but to be a kindly gentleman whenever
+it was her necessity to come in his way.
+
+But although her philosophy was on hand and her pride was aroused, she
+realized just where her heart might have been tending if it had not
+been for this little jolt it got; and she resolved to keep out of the
+gentleman's way whenever it was possible, and also, as far as she was
+able, to think no more about him.
+
+Keeping out of Sidney Graham's way was one thing, but making him keep
+out of her way was quite another matter, and Shirley realized it every
+time he came out to Glenside, which he did quite frequently.  She could
+not say to him that she wished he would not come.  She could not be
+rude to him when he came.  There was no way of showing him pointedly
+that she was not thinking of him in any way but as her landlord,
+because he never showed in any way that he was expecting her to.  He
+just happened in evening after evening, in his frank, jolly way, on one
+pretext or other, never staying very long, never showing her any more
+attention than he did her mother or Carol or the boys, not so much as
+he did to Doris.  How was she to do anything but sit quietly and take
+the whole thing as a matter of course?  It really was a matter to deal
+with in her own heart alone.  And there the battle must be fought if
+ever battle there was to be.  Meantime, she could not but own that this
+frank, smiling, merry young man did bring a lot of life and pleasure
+into their lives, dropping in that way, and why should she not enjoy it
+when it came, seeing it in no wise interfered with Miss Harriet Hale's
+rights and prerogatives?  Nevertheless, Shirley withdrew more and more
+into quietness whenever he came, and often slipped into the kitchen on
+some household pretext, until one day he boldly came out into the
+kitchen after her with a book he wanted her to read, and was so frank
+and companionable that she led the way back to the living-room, and
+concluded it would be better in future to stay with the rest of the
+family.
+
+Shirley had no intention whatever of letting her heart stray out after
+any impossible society man.  She had her work in the world, and to it
+she meant to stick.  If there were dreams she kept them well under lock
+and key, and only took them out now and then at night when she was very
+tired and discouraged and life looked hard and long and lonely on
+ahead.  Shirley had no intention that Sidney Graham should ever have
+reason to think, when he married Miss Harriet Hale or some one
+equivalent to her, that any poor little stenographer living in a barn
+had at one time fancied him fond of her.  No, indeed!  Shirley tilted
+her firm little chin at the thought, and declined to ride with Graham
+and Elizabeth the next time they called at the office for her, on the
+plea that she had promised to go home in the trolley with one of the
+office girls.  And yet the next time she saw him he was just as
+pleasant, and showed no sign that she had declined his invitation.  In
+fact, the whole basis of their acquaintance was such that she felt free
+to go her own way and yet know he would be just as pleasant a friend
+whenever she needed one.
+
+Matters stood in this way when Graham was suddenly obliged to go West
+on a trip for the office, to be gone three or four weeks.  Mrs. Graham
+and Elizabeth went to the Adirondacks for a short trip, and the people
+at Glenside settled down to quiet country life, broken only by a few
+visits from their farm neighbors, and a call from the cheery, shabby
+pastor of the little white church in the valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Graham did not seem to forget his friends entirely while he was gone.
+The boys received a number of post-cards from time to time, and a lot
+of fine views of California, Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon, and
+other spots of interest.  A wonderful picture-book came for Doris, with
+Chinese pictures, and rhymes printed on crepe paper.  The next morning
+a tiny sandalwood fan arrived for Carol with Graham's compliments, and
+a few days later a big box of oranges for Mrs. Hollister with no clew
+whatever as to their sender.  Shirley began to wonder what her part
+would be and what she should do about it, and presently received--a
+letter!  And then, after all, it was only a pleasant request that she
+would not pay the rent, about which she had always been so punctual,
+until his return, as no one else understood about his affairs.  He
+added a few words about his pleasant trip and a wish that they were all
+prospering,--and that was all.
+
+Shirley was disappointed, of course, and yet, if he had said more, or
+if he had ventured to send her even a mere trifle of a gift, it would
+have made her uncomfortable and set her questioning how she should
+treat him and it.  It was the perfection of his behavior that he had
+not overstepped a single bound that the most particular might set for a
+landlord and his respected tenant.  She drew a deep sigh and put the
+letter back into the envelope, and as she did so she spied a small
+card, smaller than the envelope, on which was an exquisite bit of
+scenery, a colored photograph, apparently, and underneath had been
+pencilled, "One of the many beautiful spots in California that I am
+sure you would appreciate."
+
+Her heart gave an unforbidden leap, and was promptly taken to task for
+it.  Yet when Shirley went back to her typewriter the bit of a picture
+was pinned to the wall back of her desk, and her eyes rested on it many
+times that day when she lifted them from her work.  It is questionable
+whether Shirley remembered Miss Harriet Hale at all that day.
+
+The garden was growing beautifully now.  There would soon be lettuce
+and radishes ready to eat.  George had secured a number of customers
+through people at the store, and was planning to take early trips to
+town, when his produce was ripe, to deliver it.  They watched every
+night and looked again every morning for signs of the first pea
+blossoms, and the little green spires of onion tops, like sparse hairs,
+beginning to shoot up.  Every day brought some new wonder.  They almost
+forgot they had ever lived in the little old brick house, until George
+rode by there on his bicycle one noon and reported that it had been
+half pulled down, and you could now see the outline of where the stairs
+and closets had been, done in plaster, on the side of the next house.
+They were all very silent for a minute thinking after he told that, and
+Mrs. Hollister looked around the great airy place in which they were
+sitting, and then out the open door where the faint stain of sunset was
+still lingering against the horizon, and said:
+
+"We ought all to be very thankful, children.  George, get the Bible and
+read the thirty-fourth psalm."  Wonderingly George obeyed, and they all
+sat listening as the words sank into their souls.
+
+"Now," said the mother when the psalm was finished and those last
+words, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them
+that trust in him shall be desolate"; "now let us kneel down and thank
+Him."
+
+And they all knelt while she prayed a few earnest, simple words of
+thanksgiving and commended them to God's keeping.
+
+By this time Mrs. Hollister was so well that she went every day for a
+little while into the garden and worked, and was able to do a great
+deal in the house.  The children were overjoyed, and lived in a
+continual trance of delight over the wild, free life they were living.
+Carol's school had closed and Carol was at home all day.  This made one
+more to help in the garden.  George was talking about building a little
+pigeon-house and raising squabs for sale.  The man who did the
+ploughing had given him a couple to start with and told him there was
+money in squabs if one only went about it right.  George and Harley
+pored over a book that told all about it, and talked much on the
+subject.
+
+The weather was growing warm, and Shirley was wishing her vacation came
+in July or August instead of the first two weeks in September.  Somehow
+she felt so used up these hot days, and the hours dragged by so slowly.
+At night the trolleys were crowded until they were half-way out to
+Glenside.  She often had to stand, and her head ached a great deal.
+Yet she was very happy and thankful--only there was so much to be done
+in this world, and she seemed to have so little strength to do it all.
+The burden of next fall came occasionally to mar the beauty of the
+summer, and rested heavily upon her young shoulders.  If only there
+wouldn't be any winter for just one year, and they could stay in the
+barn and get rested and get a little money ahead somehow for moving.
+It was going to be so hard to leave that wide, beautiful abiding-place,
+barn though it was.
+
+One morning nearly four weeks after Graham left for California Shirley
+was called from her desk to the outer office to take some dictation for
+Mr. Clegg.  While she was there two men entered the outer office and
+asked for Mr. Barnard.  One of them was a short, thick-set man with a
+pretentious wide gray mustache parted in the middle and combed
+elaborately out on his cheeks.  He had a red face, little cunning eyes,
+and a cruel set to his jaw, which somehow seemed ridiculously at
+variance with his loud, checked suit, sporty necktie of soft bright
+blue satin, set with a scarf-pin of two magnificent stones, a diamond
+and a sapphire, and with the three showy jewelled rings which he wore
+on his fat, pudgy hand.  The other man was sly, quiet, gray,
+unobtrusive, obviously the henchman of the first.
+
+Mr. Clegg told the men they might go into the inner office and wait for
+Mr. Barnard, who would probably be in shortly, and Shirley watched them
+as they passed out of her view, wondering idly why those exquisite
+stones had to be wasted in such an out-of-place spot as in that
+coarse-looking man's necktie, and if a man like that really cared for
+beautiful things, else why should he wear them?  It was only a passing
+thought, and then she took up her pencil and took down the closing
+sentences of the letter Mr. Clegg was dictating.  It was but a moment
+more and she was free to go back to her own little alcove just behind
+Mr. Barnard's office and connecting with it.  There was an entrance to
+it from the tiny cloak-room, which she always used when Mr. Barnard had
+visitors in his office, and through this way she now went, having a
+strange repugnance toward being seen by the two men.  She had an innate
+sense that the man with the gaudy garments would not be one who would
+treat a young girl in her position with any respect, and she did not
+care to come under his coarse gaze, so she slipped in quietly through
+the cloak-room, and passed like a shadow the open door into Mr.
+Barnard's office, where they sat with their backs toward her, having
+evidently just settled down and begun to talk.  She could hear a
+low-breathed comment on the furnishings of the office as indicating a
+good bank-account of the owner, and a coarse jest about a photograph of
+Mr. Barnard's wife which stood on his desk.  It made her wish that the
+door between the rooms was closed; yet she did not care to rise and
+close it lest she should call attention to herself, and of course it
+might be but a minute or two before Mr. Barnard returned.  A pile of
+envelopes to be addressed lay on her desk, and this work she could do
+without any noise, so she slipped softly into her seat and began to
+work.
+
+"Well, we got them Grahams good and fast now!" a coarse voice, that she
+knew for that of the man with the loud clothing, spoke.  "The young
+feller bit all right!  I thought he would.  He's that kind."  He
+stopped for a laugh of contempt, and Shirley's heart stood still with
+apprehension.  What could it mean?  Was it something about her Grahams?
+Some danger threatening them?  Some game being played on them?  He
+looked like the kind of man who lived on the blindnesses of others.
+What was it they called such?  A parasite?  Instinctively she was on
+the alert at once, and automatically she reached for the pad on which
+she took dictation and began to write down in shorthand what she had
+just heard.  The voice in the other room went on and her fountain pen
+kept eager pace, her breath coming quick and short now, and her face
+white with excitement.
+
+"He went out to see the place, you know, examine the mines and all
+that.  Oh, he's awful cautious!  Thought he took a government expert
+with him to test the ore.  We fixed that up all right--had the very man
+on tap at the right minute, government papers all O.K.--you couldn't
+have told 'em from the real thing.  It was Casey; you know him; he's a
+crackerjack on a job like that,--could fool the devil himself.  Well,
+he swore it was the finest kind of ore and all that kind of dope, and
+led that Graham kid around as sweetly as a blue-eyed baby.  We had a
+gang out there all bribed, you know, to swear to things, and took
+particular pains so Graham would go around and ask the right ones
+questions,--Casey tended to that,--and now he's come home with the
+biggest kind of a tale and ready to boost the thing to the skies.  I've
+got his word for it, and his daddy is to sign the papers this morning.
+When he wakes up one of these fine days he'll find himself minus a
+hundred thousand or so, and nobody to blame for it, because how could
+anybody be expected to know that those are only pockets?  He'll
+recommend it right and left too, and we'll clean out a lot of other
+fellers before we get done.  Teddy, my boy, pat yourself on the back!
+We'll have a tidy little sum between us when we pull out of this deal,
+and take a foreign trip for our health till the fracas blows over.  Now
+mind you, not a word of this to Barnard when he comes in.  We're only
+going to pave the way this morning.  The real tip comes from Graham
+himself.  See?"
+
+Shirley was faint and dizzy with excitement as she finished writing,
+and her brain was in a whirl.  She felt as if she would scream in a
+minute if this strain kept up.  The papers were to be signed that
+morning!  Even now the deed might be done and it would be too late,
+perhaps, to stop it.  And yet she must make no sign, must not have the
+men know that she was there and that they had been heard.  She must sit
+here breathless until they were gone, so they would not know she had
+overheard them, or they might manage to prevent her getting word to
+Graham.  How long would they stay?  Would they talk on and reveal more?
+The other man had only grunted something unintelligible in reply, and
+then before more could be said an office boy opened the outer door and
+told them that Mr. Barnard had just phoned that he would not be back
+before two o'clock.
+
+The men swore and went out grumbling.  Suddenly Shirley knew her time
+had come to do something.  Stepping quickly to the door she scanned the
+room carefully to make sure they were gone, then closing her own door
+she took up the telephone on her desk and called up the Graham number.
+She did not know just what she meant to say, nor what she would do if
+Sidney Graham were not in the office,--and it was hardly probable he
+would be there yet if he had only arrived home the day before.  He
+would be likely to take a day off before getting back to work.  Her
+throbbing heart beat out these questions to her brain while she waited
+for the number.  Would she dare to ask for Mr. Walter Graham?  And if
+she did, what would she say to him?  How explain?  He did not know her,
+and probably never heard of her.  He might think her crazy.  Then there
+was always the possibility that there was some mistake--and yet it
+seemed a coincidence that two men of the same name should both be going
+West at that time.  It must be these Grahams that the plot was against.
+But how explain enough over the phone to do any good?  Of course she
+must give them a copy of what she had taken down in shorthand, but
+first she must stop the signing of those papers, whatever they were, at
+all costs.
+
+Then all at once, into the midst of her whirling confusion of thoughts,
+came a voice at the other end of the phone, "Hello!" and her frantic
+senses realized that it was a familiar one.
+
+"Oh, is this,--this _is_ Mr. Sidney Graham, isn't it?  This is Shirley
+Hollister."
+
+There was a catch in her voice that sounded almost like a sob as she
+drew in her breath with relief to know that he was there, and his
+answer came in swift alarm:
+
+"Yes?  Is there anything the matter, Miss Shirley?  You are not ill,
+are you?"
+
+There was a sharp note of anxiety in the young man's voice, and even in
+her excitement it made Shirley's heart leap to hear it.
+
+"No, there is nothing the matter with me," she said, trying to steady
+her voice, "but something has happened that I think you ought to know
+at _once_.  I don't know whether I ought to tell it over the phone.
+I'm not sure but I may be overheard."
+
+"I will come to you immediately.  Where can I find you?"
+
+Her heart leaped again at his willingness to trust her and to obey her
+call.
+
+"In Mr. Barnard's private office.  If you ask for me they will let you
+come right in.  There is one thing more.  If there is anything
+important your father was to decide this morning, could you get him to
+wait till you return, or till you phone him?"
+
+There was a second's hesitation, and the reply was politely puzzled but
+courteous:
+
+"He is not in the office at present and will not be for an hour."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!  Then _please hurry_!"
+
+"I will get there as soon as I can," and the phone clicked into place.
+
+Shirley sat back in her chair and pressed her hands over her eyes to
+concentrate all her powers.  Then she turned to her typewriter and
+began to copy off the shorthand, her fingers flying over the keys with
+more than their usual swiftness.  As she wrote she prayed, prayed that
+nothing might have been signed, and that her warning might not come too
+late; prayed, too, that Mr. Barnard might not return until Mr. Graham
+had been and gone, and that Mr. Graham might not think her an utter
+fool in case this proved to have nothing whatever to do with his
+affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+When Graham entered the office Shirley came to meet him quietly,
+without a word of greeting other than to put her little cold hand into
+his that he held out to her.  She began to speak in a low voice full of
+suppressed excitement.  She had a vague fear lest the two men might be
+still lingering about the outer office, waiting for Mr. Barnard, and a
+momentary dread lest Mr. Barnard might enter the room at any minute.
+She must get the telling over before he came.
+
+"Mr. Graham, two men were sitting in this room waiting for Mr. Barnard
+a few minutes ago, and I was in my little room just back there.  I
+could not help hearing what they said, and when I caught the name of
+Graham in connection with what sounded like an evil plot I took down
+their words in shorthand.  It may not have anything to do with your
+firm, but I thought I ought to let you know.  I called you on the phone
+as soon as they left the office and would not hear me, and I have made
+this copy of their conversation.  Read it quickly, please, because if
+it does have anything to do with you, you will want to phone your
+father at once, before those men can get there."
+
+Her tone was very cool, and her hand was steady as she handed him the
+typewritten paper, but her heart was beating mildly, because there had
+been a look in his eyes as he greeted her that made her feel that he
+was glad to see her, and it touched an answering gladness in her heart
+and filled her both with delight and with apprehension.  What a fool
+she was!
+
+She turned sharply away and busied herself with arranging some papers
+on Mr. Barnard's desk while he read.  She must still this excitement
+and get control of herself before he was through.  She _must_ be the
+cool, impersonal stenographer, and not let him suspect for a moment
+that she was so excited about seeing him again.
+
+The young man stood still, reading rapidly, his face growing graver as
+he read.  The girl snatched a furtive glance at him, and felt convinced
+that the matter was a serious one and had to do with him.
+
+Suddenly he looked up.
+
+"Do you know who those men were, Miss Shirley?" he asked, and she saw
+his eyes were full of anxiety.
+
+"No," said Shirley.  "But I saw them as they passed through the outer
+office, and stopped to speak to Mr. Clegg.  I was taking dictation from
+Mr. Clegg at the time.  I came back to my desk through the cloak-room,
+so they did not know I was within hearing."
+
+"What kind of looking men were they?  Do you remember?"
+
+She described them.
+
+Certainty grew in his face as she talked, and grave concern.
+
+"May I use your phone a minute?" he asked after an instant's thought.
+
+She led him to her own desk and handed him the receiver, then stepped
+back into the office and waited.
+
+"Hello!  Is that you, Edward?" she heard him say.  "Has father come
+yet?  Give me his phone, please.  Hello, father; this is Sidney.
+Father, has Kremnitz come in yet?  He has?  You say he's waiting in the
+office to see you?  Well, don't see him, father, till I get there.
+Something has turned up that I'm afraid is going to alter matters
+entirely.  Yes, pretty serious, I'm afraid.  Don't see him.  Keep him
+waiting.  I'll be there in five minutes, and come in from the back way
+directly to your office.  Don't talk with him on any account till I can
+get there.  Good-by."
+
+He hung up the receiver and turned to Shirley.
+
+"Miss Shirley, you were just in time to save us.  I haven't time now to
+tell you how grateful I am for this.  I must hurry right over.  Do you
+suppose if we should need you it would be possible for you to come over
+and identify those men?  Thank you.  I'll speak to Mr. Clegg about it
+as I go out, and if we find it necessary we'll phone you.  In case you
+have to come I'll have an office-boy in the hall to take your hat, and
+you can come right into the office as if you were one of our
+employees--just walk over to the bookcase as if you were looking for a
+book--any book.  Select one and look through it, meanwhile glancing
+around the room, and see if you find those men.  Then walk through into
+my office.  I'll be waiting there.  Good-by, and thank you so much!"
+
+He gave her hand one quick clasp and was gone, and Shirley found she
+was trembling from head to foot.  She walked quickly into her own room
+and sat down, burying her face in her hands and trying to get control
+of herself, but the tears would come to her eyes in spite of all she
+could do.  It was not the excitement of getting the men and stopping
+their evil plans before they could do any damage, although that had
+something to do with her nervous state, of course; and it was not just
+that she had been able to do a little thing in return for all he had
+done for her; nor even his gratitude; it was--she could not deny it to
+herself--it was a certain quality in his voice, a something in the look
+he gave her, that made her whole soul glow, and seemed to fill the
+hungry longing that had been in her heart.
+
+It frightened her and made her ashamed, and as she sat with bowed head
+she prayed that she might be given strength to act like a sensible
+girl, and crush out such foolish thoughts before they dared lift their
+heads and be recognized even by her own heart.  Then strengthened, she
+resolved to think no more about the matter, but just get her work done
+and be ready to enter into that other business if it became necessary.
+Mr. Barnard would be coming soon, and she must have his work finished.
+She had lost almost an hour by this matter.
+
+She went at her typewriter pell-mell, and soon had Mr. Clegg's letters
+done.  She was nearly through with the addressing that Mr. Barnard left
+for her to do when the telephone called her to Graham's office.
+
+She slipped on her hat and hurried out.
+
+"Will it be all right for me to take my noontime now, Mr. Clegg?" she
+said, stopping by his desk.  "Mr. Graham said he spoke to you."
+
+"Yes, he wants you to help him identify some one.  That's all right.
+I'll explain to Mr. Barnard when he comes.  There's nothing important
+you have to finish, is there?  All done but those envelopes?  Well, you
+needn't return until one o'clock, anyway.  The envelopes can wait till
+the four-o'clock mail, and if Mr. Barnard needs anything in a hurry
+Miss Dwight can attend to it this time.  Just take your time, Miss
+Hollister."
+
+Shirley went out bewildered by the unusual generosity of Mr. Clegg, who
+was usually taciturn and abrupt.  She realized, however, that his
+warmth must be due to Graham's visit, and not to any special desire to
+give her a holiday.  She smiled to think what a difference wealth and
+position made in the eyes of the world.
+
+The same office-boy she had met on her first visit to Graham's office
+was waiting most respectfully for her now in the hall when she got out
+of the elevator, and she gave him her hat and walked into the office
+according to programme, going straight to the big glass bookcase full
+of calf-bound volumes, and selecting one after running her finger over
+two rows of them.  She was as cool as though her part had been
+rehearsed many times, although her heart was pounding most
+unmercifully, and it seemed as though the people in the next room must
+hear it.  She stood and opened her book, casting a casual glance about
+the room.
+
+There, sure enough, quite near to her, sat the two men, fairly bursting
+with impatience.  The once immaculate hair of the loudly dressed one
+was rumpled as if he had run his fingers through it many times, and he
+played nervously with his heavy rings, and caressed half viciously his
+elaborate mustache, working his thick, sensuous lips impatiently all
+the while.  Shirley took a good look at him, necktie, scarf-pin, and
+all; looked keenly into the face of the gray one also; then coolly
+closed the door of the bookcase and carried the book she had selected
+into Sidney Graham's office.
+
+Graham was there, standing to receive her, and just back of him stood a
+kindly-faced elderly man with merry blue eyes, gray hair, and a
+stylishly cut beard.  By their attitude and manner Shirley somehow
+sensed that they had both been watching her.  Then Graham introduced
+her.
+
+"This is my father, Miss Hollister."
+
+The elder man took her hand and shook it heartily, speaking in a gruff,
+hearty way that won her from the first:
+
+"I'm glad to know you, Miss Hollister.  I certainly am!  My son has
+been telling me what you've done for us, and I think you're a great
+little girl!  That was bully work you did, and I appreciate it.  I was
+watching you out there in the office.  You were as cool as a cucumber.
+You ought to be a detective.  You found your men all right, did you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Shirley, much abashed, and feeling the return of that
+foolish trembling in her limbs.  "Yes, they are both out there, and the
+short one with the rings and the blue necktie is the one that did the
+talking."
+
+"Exactly what I thought," drawled the father, with a keen twinkle in
+his kindly eyes.  "I couldn't somehow trust that chap from the start.
+That's why I sent my son out to investigate.  Well, now, will you just
+step into my private office, Miss Hollister, and take your seat by the
+typewriter as if you were my stenographer?  You'll find paper there in
+the drawer, and you can just be writing--write anything, you choose, so
+it looks natural when the men come in.  When we get to talking I'd like
+you to take down in shorthand all that is said by all of us.  You're
+pretty good at that, I judge.  Sid, will you phone for those officers
+now?  I think it's about time for the curtain to rise."  And he led the
+way into his own office.
+
+Shirley sat down at the typewriter as she had been directed and began
+to write mechanically.  Mr. Graham touched the bell on his desk, and
+told the office boy who answered to send in Mr. Kremnitz and his
+companion.
+
+Shirley was so seated that she could get occasional glimpses of the men
+without being noticed, and she was especially interested in the twinkle
+that shone in the bright blue eyes of the elder Graham as he surveyed
+the men who thought he was their dupe.  Her heart warmed to him.  His
+kindly, merry face, his hearty, unconventional speech, all showed him
+to be a big, warm-hearted man without a bit of snobbishness about him.
+
+The son came in, and talk began just as if the matter of the mine were
+going on.  Mr. Kremnitz produced some papers which he evidently
+expected to be signed at once, and sat complacently answering
+questions; keen questions Shirley saw they were afterwards, and in the
+light of the revelation she had overheard in Mr. Barnard's office
+Kremnitz perjured himself hopelessly by his answers.  Presently the
+office-boy announced the arrival of some one in the next room.  Shirley
+had taken down minutely a great deal of valuable information which the
+Grahams had together drawn from their victim.  She was surprised at the
+list of wealthy business men who were to have been involved in the
+scheme.
+
+Then suddenly the quiet scene changed.  The elder Graham gave a signal
+to his office-boy, which looked merely like waving him away, and the
+door was flung open, revealing four officers of the law, who stepped
+into the room without further word.  Graham arose and faced his two
+startled callers, his hand firmly planted on the papers on his desk
+which he had been supposed to sign.
+
+"Mr. Kremnitz," he said, and even in the midst of this serious business
+Shirley fancied there was a half-comic drawl to his words.  He simply
+could not help letting his sense of humor come on top.  "Mr. Kremnitz,
+it is not going to be possible for me to sign these papers this
+morning, as you expected.  I do not feel satisfied that all things are
+as you have represented.  In fact, I have the best evidence to the
+contrary.  Officer, these are the gentlemen you have come to arrest,"
+and he stepped back and waved his hand toward the two conspirators, who
+sat with startled eyes and blanched faces, appalled at the sudden
+developments where they had thought all was moving happily toward their
+desired end.
+
+"Arrest!  Who?  On what charge?" flashed the little gaudy Kremnitz,
+angrily springing to his feet and making a dash toward the door, while
+his companion slid furtively toward the other end of the room,
+evidently hoping to gain young Graham's office before he was noticed.
+But two officers blocked their way and the handcuffs clanked in the
+hands of the other two policemen.
+
+"Why, arrest _you_, my friend," said Graham senior, as if he rather
+enjoyed the little man's discomfiture.  "And for trying to perpetrate
+the biggest swindle that has been attempted for ten years.  I must say
+for you that you've worked hard, and done the trick rather neatly, but
+you made one unfortunate slip that saved all us poor rich men.  It
+seems a pity that so much elaborate lying should have brought you two
+nothing but those bracelets you're wearing,--they don't seem to match
+well with your other jewels,--but that's the way things go in this
+world.  Now, take them away, officer.  I've no more time to waste on
+them this morning!" and he turned and walked over by Shirley's desk,
+while the curtain fell over the brief drama.
+
+"Do you know how much money you've saved for us, little girl,--just
+plain _saved_?  I'll tell you.  A clean hundred thousand!  That's what
+I was going to put into this affair!  And as for other men, I expected
+to influence a lot of other men to put in a good deal also.  Now,
+little girl, I don't know what you think about it, but I want to shake
+hands."  He put out his hand and Shirley laid her own timid one in it,
+smiling and blushing rosily, and saying softly with what excited breath
+she had, "Oh, I'm so glad I got you in time!"  Then she was aware that
+the man had gone on talking.  "I don't know what you think about it,"
+he repeated, "but I feel that you saved me a clean hundred thousand
+dollars, and I say that a good percentage of that belongs to you as a
+reward of your quickness and keenness."
+
+But Shirley drew away her hand and stepped back, her face white, her
+head up, her chin tilted proudly, her eyes very dark with excitement
+and determination.  She spoke clearly and earnestly.
+
+"No, Mr. Graham, nothing whatever belongs to me.  I don't want any
+reward.  I couldn't think of taking it.  It is utterly out of the
+question!"
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the elder Graham, sitting down on the edge of
+his desk, watching her in undisguised admiration.  "Now that's a new
+kind of girl that won't take what she's earned,--what rightly belongs
+to her."
+
+"Mr. Graham, it was a very little thing I did,--anybody would have done
+it,--and it was just in the way of simple duty.  Please don't say
+anything more about it.  I am only too glad to have had opportunity to
+give a little help to people who have helped me so much.  I feel that I
+am under deep obligation to your son for making it possible for us to
+live in the country, where my mother is getting well."
+
+"Well, now I shall have to inquire into this business.  I haven't heard
+anything about obligations, and for my part I feel a big one just now.
+Perhaps you think it was a very little thing you did, but suppose you
+_hadn't_ done it.  Suppose you'd been too busy, or it hadn't occurred
+to you to take down that conversation until it was too late; or suppose
+you hadn't had the brains to see what it would mean to us.  Why, then
+it would have become a very big thing indeed, and we should have been
+willing, if we had known, to pay a mighty big sum to get that evidence.
+You see a hundred thousand dollars isn't exactly a very little thing
+when you're swindled out of it.  It's the _swindling_ that hurts more
+than the loss of the money.  And you saved us from that.  Now, young
+lady, I consider myself under obligation to you, and I intend to
+discharge it somehow.  If I can't do it one way I shall another, but in
+the meantime I'm deeply grateful, and please accept our thanks.  If you
+are willing to add one more to your kindness, I shall be glad if you
+will make a carbon copy of those shorthand notes you took.  I may need
+them for evidence.  And, by the way, you will probably be called upon
+to testify in court.  I'm sorry.  That may be unpleasant, but I guess
+it can't be helped, so you see before you get through you may not think
+you did so very small a thing after all.  Sid, I think you better
+escort this young lady back to her office and explain to Barnard.  He's
+probably been on the verge of being buncoed also.  You said Kremnitz
+was waiting for him when the conversation took place?  I guess you
+better go with Miss Hollister and clear the whole thing up.  Say,
+child, have you had your lunch yet?  No, of course not.  Sidney, you
+take her to get some lunch before she goes back to the office.  She's
+had an exciting morning.  Now, good-by, little girl.  I sha'n't forget
+what you've done for us, and I'm coming to see you pretty soon and get
+things squared up."
+
+So that was how it came about that in spite of her protests Mr. Sidney
+Graham escorted Shirley Hollister into one of the most exclusive
+tea-rooms of the city, and seated her at a little round table set for
+two, while off at a short distance Miss Harriet Hale sat with her
+mother, eating her lunch and trying in vain to "place" the pretty girl
+she did not recognize.
+
+It never occurred to her for a moment that Sidney Graham's companion
+might be a stenographer, for Shirley had a knack about her clothes that
+made her always seem well dressed.  That hat she wore had seen service
+for three summers, and was now a wholly different shape and color from
+what it had been when it began life.  A scrub in hot water had removed
+the dust of toil, some judiciously applied dye had settled the matter
+of color, and a trifling manipulation on her head while the hat was
+still wet had made the shape not only exceedingly stylish but becoming.
+The chic little rosette and strictly tailored band which were its sole
+trimming were made from a much-soiled waist-ribbon, washed and
+stretched around a bottle of hot water to dry it, and teased into the
+latest thing in rosettes by Shirley's witching fingers.  The simple
+linen dress she wore fitted well and at a distance could not have been
+told from something better, and neither were gloves and shoes near
+enough to be inspected critically, so Miss Hale was puzzled, and
+jealously watched the pretty color come and go in Shirley's cheek, and
+the simple grace of her movements.
+
+Fortunately, Shirley did not see Miss Hale, and would not have
+recognized her if she had from that one brief glimpse she had of her
+picture on the society page of the newspaper.  So she ate her
+delectable lunch, ordered by Graham, in terms that she knew not, about
+dishes that she had never seen before.  She ate and enjoyed herself so
+intensely that it seemed to her she would never be able to make the
+rest of her life measure up to the privileges of the hour.
+
+For Shirley was a normal girl.  She could not help being pleased to be
+doing just for once exactly as other more favored girls did constantly.
+To be lunching at Blanco's with one of the most-sought-after men in the
+upper set, to be treated like a queen, and to be talking beautiful
+things about travels and pictures and books, it was all too beautiful
+to be real.  Shirley began to feel that if it didn't get over pretty
+soon and find her back in the office addressing the rest of those
+envelopes she would think she had died in the midst of a dream and gone
+to heaven.
+
+There was something else too that brought an undertone of beauty, which
+she was not acknowledging even to her inmost self.  That was the way
+Graham looked at her, as if she were some fine beautiful angel dropped
+down from above that he loved to look at; as if he really cared what
+she thought and did; as if there were somehow a soul-harmony between
+them that set them apart this day from others, and put them into tune
+with one another; as if he were glad, _glad_ to see her once more after
+the absence!  All through her being it thrilled like a song that brings
+tears to the throat and gladness to the eyes, and makes one feel strong
+and pure.  That was how it seemed when she thought about it afterward.
+At the time she was just living it in wonder and thanksgiving.
+
+At another time her sordid worldliness and pride might have risen and
+swelled with haughtiness of spirit over the number of people who eyed
+her enviously as they went out together; over the many bows and
+salutations her escort received from people of evident consequence, for
+she had the normal human pride somewhere in her nature as we all have.
+But just then her heart was too humble with a new, strange happiness to
+feel it or take it in, and she walked with unconscious grace beside
+him, feeling only the joy of being there.
+
+Later, in the quiet of her chamber, her mother's warning came to her,
+and her cheeks burned with shame in the dark that her heart had dared
+make so much of a common little luncheon, just a mere courtesy after
+she had been able to do a favor.  Yet through it all Shirley knew there
+was something fine and true there that belonged just to her, and
+presently she would rise above everything and grasp it and keep it hers
+forever.
+
+She felt the distinction of her escort anew when she entered Barnard
+and Clegg's in his company, and saw Mr. Clegg spring to open the door
+and to set a chair for his young guest, saw even Mr. Barnard rise and
+greet him with almost reverence.  And this honor she knew was being
+paid to money, the great demagogue.  It was not the man that she
+admired to whom they were paying deference, it was to his money!  She
+smiled to herself.  It was the _man_ she admired, not his money.
+
+All that afternoon she worked with flying fingers, turning off the work
+at marvellous speed, amused when she heard the new note of respect in
+Mr. Barnard's voice as he gave her a direction.  Mr. Barnard had been
+greatly impressed with the story Graham had told him, and was also
+deeply grateful on his own account that Shirley had acted as she had,
+for he had been on the verge of investing a large trust fund that was
+in his keeping in the new mining operation, and it would have meant
+absolute failure for him.
+
+When Shirley left the office that night she was almost too tired to see
+which trolley was coming, but some one touched her on the arm, and
+there was Sidney Graham waiting for her beside his car,--a little
+two-passenger affair that she had never seen before and that went like
+the wind.  They took a road they had not travelled together before, and
+Shirley got in joyously, her heart all in a tumult of doubts and joys
+and questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+What that ride was to Shirley she hardly dared let herself think
+afterwards.  Sitting cozily beside Graham in the little racing car,
+gliding through the better part of town where all the tall, imposing
+houses slept with drawn blinds, and dust-covered shutters proclaimed
+that their owners were far away from heat and toil.  Out through wide
+roads and green-hedged lanes, where stately mansions set in flowers and
+mimic landscapes loomed far back from road in dignified seclusion.
+Passing now and then a car of people who recognized Graham and bowed in
+the same deferential way as they had done in the tea-room.  And all the
+time his eyes were upon her, admiring, delighting; and his care about
+her, solicitous for her comfort.
+
+Once he halted the car and pointed off against the sunset, where wide
+gables and battlemented towers stood gray amidst a setting of green
+shrubbery and trees, and velvety lawns reached far, to high, trim
+hedges arched in places for an entrance to the beautiful estate.
+
+"That is my home over there," he said, and watched her widening eyes.
+"I wish I had time to take you over to-night, but I know you are tired
+and ought to get home and rest.  Another time we'll go around that
+way."  And her heart leaped up as the car went forward again.  There
+was to be another time, then!  Ah!  But she must not allow it.  Her
+heart was far too foolish already.  Yet she would enjoy this ride, now
+she was started.
+
+They talked about the sunset and a poem he had lately read.  He told
+her bits about his journey, referring to his experience at the mines,
+touching on some amusing incidents, sketching some of the queer
+characters he had met.  Once he asked her quite abruptly if she thought
+her mother would be disturbed if he had a cement floor put in the
+basement of the barn some time soon.  He wanted to have it done before
+cold weather set in, and it would dry better now in the hot days.  Of
+course, if it would be in the least disturbing to any of them it could
+wait, but he wanted to store a few things there that were being taken
+out of the office buildings, and he thought they would keep drier if
+there was a cement floor.  When she said it would not disturb any one
+in the least, would on the contrary be quite interesting for the
+children to watch, she was sure, he went easily back to California
+scenery and never referred to it again.
+
+All through the ride, which was across a country she had never seen
+before, and ended at Glenside approaching from a new direction, there
+was a subtle something between them, a sympathy and quick understanding
+as if they were comrades, almost partners in a lot of common interests.
+Shirley chided herself for it every time she looked up and caught his
+glance, and felt the thrill of pleasure in this close companionship.
+Of course it was wholly in her own imagination, and due entirely to the
+nervous strain through which she had passed that day, she told herself.
+Of course, he had nothing in his mind but the most ordinary kindly
+desire to give her a good time out of gratitude for what she had done
+for him.  But nevertheless it was sweet, and Shirley was loath to
+surrender the joy of it while it lasted, dream though it might be.
+
+It lasted all the way, even up to the very stop in front of the barn
+when he took her hand to help her out, and his fingers lingered on hers
+with just an instant's pressure, sending a thrill to her heart again,
+and almost bringing tears to her eyes.  Foolishness!  She was
+overwrought.  It was a shame that human beings were so made that they
+had to become weak like that in a time of pleasant rejoicing.
+
+The family came forth noisily to meet them, rejoicing openly at
+Graham's return, George and Harley vying with each other to shout the
+news about the garden and the chickens and the dove-cote; Carol
+demanding to know where was Elizabeth; and Doris earnestly looking in
+his face and repeating:
+
+"Ickle budie fy away, Mistah Gwaham.  All gone!  All ickle budies fy
+away!"
+
+Even Mrs. Hollister came smiling to the door to meet him, and the young
+man had a warm word of hearty greeting and a hand-shake for each one.
+It was as if he had just got home to a place where he loved to be, and
+he could not show his joy enough.  Shirley stood back for the moment
+watching him, admiring the way his hair waved away from his temples,
+thinking how handsome he looked when he smiled, wondering that he could
+so easily fit himself into this group, which must in the nature of
+things be utterly different from his native element, rejoicing over the
+deference he paid to her plain, quiet mother, thrilling over the kiss
+he gave her sweet little sister.
+
+Then Mrs. Hollister did something perfectly unexpected and
+dreadful--she invited him to stay to dinner!  Shirley stood back and
+gasped.  Of course he would decline, but think of the temerity of
+inviting the wealthy and cultured Mr. Graham to take dinner in his own
+barn!
+
+Oh!  But he wasn't going to decline at all.  He was accepting as if it
+were a great pleasure Mrs. Hollister was conferring upon him.  _Sure_,
+he would stay!  He had been wishing all the way out they would ask him.
+He had wondered whether he dared invite himself.
+
+Shirley with her cheeks very red hurried in to see that the table-cloth
+was put on straight, and look after one or two little things; but
+behold, he followed her out, and, gently insisting and assisting,
+literally compelled her to come and lie down on the couch while he told
+the family what she had been through that day.  Shirley was so happy
+she almost cried right there before them all.  It was so wonderful to
+have some one take care of her that way.  Of course it was only
+gratitude--but she had been taking care of other people so long that it
+completely broke her down to have some one take care of her.
+
+The dinner went much more easily than she had supposed it could with
+those cracked plates, and the forks from which the silver was all worn
+off.  Doris insisted that the guest sit next to her and butter her
+bread for her, and she occasionally caressed his coat-sleeve with a
+sticky little hand, but he didn't seem to mind it in the least, and
+smiled down on her in quite a brotherly way, arranging her bib when it
+got tangled in her curls, and seeing that she had plenty of jelly on
+her bread.
+
+It was a beautiful dinner.  Mother Hollister had known what she was
+about when she selected that particular night to invite unexpected
+company.  There was stewed chicken on little round biscuits, with
+plenty of gravy and currant jelly, mashed potatoes, green peas, little
+new beets, and the most delicious custard pie for dessert, all rich,
+velvety yellow with a golden-brown top.  The guest ate as if he enjoyed
+it, and asked for a second piece of pie, just as if he were one of
+them.  It was unbelievable!
+
+He helped clear off the table too, and insisted on Carol's giving him a
+wiping-towel to help with the dishes.  It was just like a dream.
+
+The young man tore himself reluctantly away about nine o'clock and went
+home, but before he left he took Shirley's hand and looked into her
+eyes with another of those deep understanding glances, and Shirley
+watched him whirling away in the moonlight, and wondered if there ever
+would be another day as beautiful and exciting and wonderful as this
+had been, and whether she could come down to sensible, every-day living
+again by morning.
+
+Then there was the story of the day to tell all over again after he was
+gone, and put in the little family touches that had been left out when
+the guest was there, and there was: "Oh, did you notice how admiring he
+looked when he told mother Shirley had a remarkably keen mind?" and "He
+said his father thought Shirley was the most unspoiled-looking girl he
+had ever seen!" and a lot of other things that Shirley hadn't heard
+before.
+
+Shirley told her mother what the senior Mr. Graham had said about
+giving her a reward, and her mother agreed that she had done just right
+in declining anything for so simple a service, but she looked after
+Shirley with a sigh as she went to put Doris to bed, and wondered if
+for this service the poor child was to get a broken heart.  It could
+hardly be possible that a girl could be given much attention such as
+Shirley had received that day, from as attractive a young man as
+Graham, without feeling it keenly not to have it continue.  And of
+_course_ it was out of the question that it should continue.  Mrs.
+Hollister decided that she had done wrong to invite the young man to
+stay to supper, and resolved never to offend in that way again.  It was
+a wrong to Shirley to put him on so intimate a footing in the
+household, and it could not but bring her sadness.  He was a most
+unusual young man to have even wanted to stay, but one must not take
+that for more than a passing whim, and Shirley must be protected at all
+hazards.
+
+"Now," said the elder Graham the next morning, when the business of the
+day was well under way and he had time to send for his son to come into
+his office, "now, I want you to tell me all about that little girl, and
+what you think we ought to give her.  What did she mean by
+'obligations' yesterday?  Have you been doing anything for her, son?  I
+meant to ask you last night, but you came home so late I couldn't sit
+up."
+
+And then Sidney Graham told his father the whole story.  It was
+different from telling his mother.  He knew no barn would have the
+power to prejudice his father.
+
+"And you say that girl lives in the old barn!" exclaimed the father
+when the story was finished.  "Why, the nervy little kid!  And she
+looks as if she came out of a bandbox!  Well, she's a bully little girl
+and no mistake!  Well, now, son, what can we do for her?  We ought to
+do something pretty nice.  You see it wasn't just the money we might
+have lost.  That would have been a mere trifle beside getting all those
+other folks balled up in the mess.  Why, I'd have given every cent I
+own before I'd have had Fuller and Browning and Barnard and Wilts get
+entangled.  I tell you, son, it was a great escape!"
+
+"Yes, father, and it was a great lesson for me.  I'll never be buncoed
+as easily again.  But about Miss Hollister, I don't know what to say.
+She's very proud and sensitive.  I had an awful time doing the little
+things I just had to do to that barn without her suspecting I was doing
+it especially for her.  Father, you ought to go out there and meet the
+family; then you'd understand.  They're not ordinary people.  Their
+father was a college professor and wrote things.  They're cultured
+people."
+
+"Well, I want to meet them.  Why don't we go out there and call to-day?
+I think they must be worth knowing."
+
+So late that afternoon the father and son rode out to Glenside, and
+when Shirley and George reached home they found the car standing in
+front of their place, and the Grahams comfortably seated in the great
+open doorway, enjoying the late afternoon breeze, and seemingly
+perfectly at home in their own barn.
+
+"I'm not going to swarm here every day, Miss Shirley," said the son,
+rising and coming out to meet her.  "You see father hadn't heard about
+the transformation of the old barn, and the minute I told him about it
+he had to come right out and see it."
+
+"Yes," said the father, smiling contentedly, "I had to come and see
+what you'd done out here.  I've played in the hay up in that loft many
+a day in my time, and I love the old barn.  It's great to see it all
+fixed up so cozy.  But we're going home now and let you have your
+dinner.  We just waited to say 'Howdy' to you before we left."
+
+They stayed a few minutes longer, however, and the senior Graham talked
+with Shirley while he held Doris on his knee and stroked her silky
+hair, and she nestled in his arms quite content.
+
+Then, although young Graham was quite loath to leave so soon, they
+went, for he could not in conscience, expect an invitation to dinner
+two days in succession.
+
+They rode away into the sunset, going across country to their home
+without going back to town, and Doris, as she stood with the others
+watching them away, murmured softly:
+
+"Nice favver-man!  Nice Gwaham favver man!"
+
+The "nice-Graham-father-man" was at that moment remarking to his son in
+very decided tones, as he turned to get a last glimpse of the old barn:
+
+"That old barn door ought to come down right away, Sid, and a nice big
+old-fashioned door with glass around the sides made to fill the space.
+That door is an eyesore on the place, and they need a piazza.  People
+like those can't live with a great door like that to open and shut
+every day."
+
+"Yes, father, I've thought of that, but I don't just know how to manage
+it.  You see they're not objects of charity.  I've been thinking about
+some way to fix up a heating arrangement without hurting their
+feelings, so they could stay there all winter.  I know they hate to go
+back to the city, and they're only paying ten dollars a month.  It's
+all they can afford.  What could they get in the city for that?"
+
+"Great Scott!  A girl like that living in a house she could get for ten
+dollars, when some of these feather-brained baby-dolls we know can't
+get on with less than three or four houses that cost from fifty to a
+hundred thousand dollars apiece!  Say, son, that's a peach of a girl,
+do you know it?  A peach of a girl!  I've been talking with her, and
+she has a very superior mind."
+
+"I know she has, father," answered the son humbly.
+
+"I say, Sid, why don't you marry her?  That would solve the whole
+problem.  Then you could fix up the old barn into a regular house for
+her folks."
+
+"Well, father, that's just what I've made up my mind to do--if she'll
+have me," said the son with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.
+
+"Bully for you, Sid!  Bully for you!" and the father gave his son's
+broad shoulder a resounding slap.  "Why, Sid, I didn't think you had
+that much sense.  Your mother gave me to understand that you were
+philandering around with that dolly-faced Harriet Hale, and I couldn't
+see what you saw in her.  But if you mean it, son, I'm with you every
+time.  That girl's a peach, and you couldn't get a finer if you
+searched the world over."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid mother's got her heart set on Harriet Hale," said the
+son dubiously, "but I can't see it that way."
+
+"H'm!  Your mother likes show," sighed the father comically, "but she's
+got a good heart, and she'll bowl over all right and make the best of
+it.  You know neither your mother nor I were such high and mighties
+when we were young, and _we_ married for _love_.  But now, if you
+really mean business, I don't see why we can't do something right away.
+When does that girl have her vacation?  Of course she gets one
+sometime.  Why couldn't your mother just invite the whole family to
+occupy the shore cottage for a little while,--get up some excuse or
+other,--ask 'em to take care of it?  You know it's lying idle all this
+summer, and two servants down there growing fat with nothing to do.  We
+might ship Elizabeth down there and let 'em be company for her.  They
+seem like a fine set of children.  It would do Elizabeth good to know
+them."
+
+"Oh, she's crazy about them.  She's been out a number of times with me,
+and don't you remember she had Carol out to stay with her?"
+
+"Was that the black-eyed, sensible girl?  Well, I declare!  I didn't
+recognize her.  She was all dolled up out at our house.  I suppose
+Elizabeth loaned 'em to her, eh?  Well, I'm glad.  She's got sense,
+too.  That's the kind of people I like my children to know.  Now if
+that vacation could only be arranged to come when your mother and I
+take that Western trip, why, it would be just the thing for Elizabeth,
+work right all around.  Now, the thing for you to do is to find out
+about that vacation, and begin to work things.  Then you could have
+everything all planned, and rush the work so it would be done by the
+time they came back."
+
+So the two conspirators plotted, while all unconscious of their
+interest Shirley was trying to get herself in hand and not think how
+Graham's eyes had looked when he said good-night to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Since the pastor from the village had called upon them, the young
+people of the stone barn had been identified with the little white
+church in the valley.  Shirley had taken a class of boys in the
+Sunday-school and was playing the organ, as George had once predicted.
+Carol was helping the primary teacher, George was assistant librarian
+and secretary, Harley was in Shirley's class, and Doris was one of the
+primaries.
+
+Shirley had at once identified herself with the struggling little
+Christian Endeavor society and was putting new life into it, with her
+enthusiasm, her new ideas about getting hold of the young people of the
+community, and her wonderful knack of getting the silent ones to take
+part in the meetings.  She had suggested new committees, had invited
+the music committee to meet her at her home some evening to plan out
+special music, and to cooperate with the social committee in planning
+for music at the socials.  She always carried a few appropriate
+clippings or neatly written verses or other quotations to meeting to
+slip into the hands of some who had not prepared to speak, and she saw
+to it that her brothers and sisters were always ready to say something.
+Withal, she did her part so unobtrusively that none of the old members
+could think she was trying to usurp power or make herself prominent.
+She became a quiet power behind the powers, to whom the president and
+all the other officers came for advice, and who seemed always ready to
+help in any work, or to find a way out of any difficulty.  Christian
+Endeavor in the little white church at once took great strides after
+the advent of the Hollisters, and even the idlers on the street corners
+were moved with curiosity to drop into the twilight service of the
+young people and see what went on, and why everybody seemed so
+interested.  But the secret of it all, Shirley thought, was the little
+five-minute prayer service that the prayer-meeting committee held in
+the tiny primary room just before the regular meeting.  Shirley as
+chairman of the prayer-meeting committee had started this little
+meeting, and she always came into the larger room with an exalted look
+upon her face and a feeling of strength in her heart from this brief
+speaking with her Master.
+
+Shirley was somewhat aghast the next Sabbath to have Sidney Graham
+arrive and ask her to take a ride with him.
+
+"Why, I was just going to church," she said, half hesitating, and then
+smiling bravely up at him; "besides, I have a Sunday-school class.  I
+couldn't very well leave them, you know."
+
+He looked at her for a moment thoughtfully, trying to bridge in his
+thoughts this difference between them.  Then he said quite humbly,
+
+"Will you take me with you?"
+
+"To church?" she asked, and there was a glad ring in her voice.  Would
+he really go to church with her?
+
+"Yes, and to Sunday School if I may.  I haven't been to Sunday School
+in years.  I'd like to go if you'll only let me."
+
+Her cheeks grew rosy.  She had a quick mental picture of putting him in
+Deacon Pettigrew's Bible class.
+
+"I'm afraid there isn't any class you would enjoy," she began with a
+troubled look.  "It's only a little country church, you know.  They
+don't have all the modern system, and very few teachers."
+
+"I should enjoy going into your class very much if I might."
+
+"Oh, mine are just boys, just little boys like Harley!" said Shirley,
+aghast.
+
+"I've been a little boy once, you know I should enjoy it very much,"
+said the applicant with satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, but--I couldn't teach _you_!"  There was dismay in her voice.
+
+"Couldn't you, though?  You've taught me more in the few months I've
+known you than I've learned in that many years from others.  Try me.
+I'll be very good.  I'll be a boy with the rest of them, and you can
+just forget I'm there and go ahead.  I really am serious about it.  I
+want to hear what you have to say to them."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't teach with you there!" exclaimed Shirley, putting her
+hands on her hot cheeks and looking like a frightened little child.
+"Indeed I couldn't, really.  I'm not much of a teacher.  I'm only a
+beginner.  I shouldn't know how to talk before any but children."
+
+He watched her silently for a minute, his face grave with wistfulness.
+
+"Why do you teach them?" he asked rather irrelevantly.
+
+"Because--why, because I want to help them to live right lives; I want
+to teach them how to know God."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that they will be saved.  Because it was Christ's command that His
+disciples should give the message.  I am His disciple, so I have to
+tell the message."
+
+"Was there any special stipulation as to whom that message should be
+given?" asked the young man thoughtfully.  "Did He say you were just to
+give it to those boys?"
+
+"Why, no; it was to be given to--all the world, every creature."
+Shirley spoke the words hesitatingly, a dimple beginning to show in her
+cheek as her eyelids drooped over her shy eyes.
+
+"And don't I come in on that?" asked Graham, with a twinkle that
+reminded Shirley of his father.
+
+Shirley had to laugh shamefacedly then.
+
+"But I couldn't!" said Shirley.  "I'd be so scared I couldn't think of
+a thing to say."
+
+"You're not afraid of me, Miss Shirley?  You wouldn't be scared if you
+thought I really needed to know the message, would you?  Well, I really
+do, as much as any of those kids."
+
+Shirley looked steadily into his earnest eyes and saw something there
+that steadied her nerve.  The laughter died out of her own eyes, and a
+beautiful light of longing came into them.
+
+"All right," she said, with a little lift of her chin as if girding up
+her strength to the task.  "You may come, and I'll do the best I can,
+but I'm afraid it will be a poor best.  I've only a little story to
+tell them this morning."
+
+"Please give them just what you had intended.  I want the real thing,
+just as a boy would get it from you.  Will the rest of them come in the
+car with us?"
+
+Shirley was very quiet during the ride to church.  She let the rest do
+all the talking, and she sat looking off at the woods and praying for
+help, trying to calm the flutter of her frightened heart, trying to
+steady her nerves and brace herself to teach the lesson just as she had
+intended to teach it.
+
+She watched him furtively during the opening exercises, the untrained
+singing, the monotonous prayer of an old farmer-elder, the dry
+platitudes of the illiterate superintendent; but he sat respectfully
+listening, taking it all for what it was worth, the best service these
+people knew how to render to their Maker.
+
+Somehow her heart had gained the strength she needed from the prayers
+she breathed continually, and when the time for teaching the lesson
+arrived she came to her class with quietness.
+
+There was a little awe upon the boys because of the stranger in their
+midst.  They did not fling the hymn-books down with a noisy thud, nor
+send the lesson leaves flying like winged darts across the room quite
+so much as they were wont to do.  They looked askance at Harley, who
+sat proudly by the visitor, supplying him with Bibles, hymn-books,
+lesson leaves, and finding the place for him officiously.  But Graham
+sat among the boys without ostentation, and made as little of his own
+presence as possible.  He smiled at them now and then, put a handful of
+silver into the collection envelope when they would have passed him by,
+and promised a ride to one fellow who ventured to ask him hoarsely if
+that was his car outside the church.
+
+Shirley had made up her mind to forget as far as she could the presence
+of the visitor in the class, and to this end she fixed her eyes upon
+the worst little boy present, the boy who got up all the disturbances,
+and made all the noises, and was the most adorable, homely, sturdy
+young imp the Valley Church could produce.  He sat straight across from
+her, while Graham was at the side, and she could see in Jack's eye that
+he meant mischief if he could overcome his awe of the stranger.  So
+before Jack could possibly get started she began her story, and told it
+straight to Jack, never taking her eyes from his face from start to
+finish, and before she was half-way through she had her little audience
+enthralled.  It was a story of the Bible told in modern setting, and
+told straight to the heart of a boy who was the counterpart in his own
+soul of the man whom Christ cured and forgave.  What Graham was
+thinking or looking Shirley did not know.  She had literally forgotten
+his existence after the first few minutes.  She had seen the gleam of
+interest in the eyes of the boy Jack; she knew that her message was
+going home to a convicted young soul, and that he saw himself and his
+own childish sins in the sinful life of the hero of her tale.  Her
+whole soul was bent on making him see the Saviour who could make that
+young life over.  Not until the story was almost finished did any one
+of the listeners, unless perhaps Harley, who was used to such
+story-recitals, have a suspicion that the story was just a plain,
+ordinary chapter out of the Bible.  Then suddenly one of the elder boys
+broke forth: "Aw!  Gee!  That's just the man in the Bible let down
+through the roof!"  There was a slight stir in the class at the
+discovery as it dawned upon them that the teacher had "put one over on
+them" again, but the interest for the most part was sustained
+breathlessly until the superintendent's bell rang, and the heads drew
+together in an absorbed group around her for the last few sentences,
+spoken in a lower tone because the general hum of teaching in the room
+had ceased.
+
+Graham's face was very grave and thoughtful as she finished and slipped
+away from them to take her place at the little organ.  One could see
+that it was not in the teacher alone, but in her message as well, that
+he was interested.  The boys all had that subdued, half-ashamed,
+half-defiant look that boys have when they have been caught looking
+serious.  Each boy frowned and studied his toes, or hunted assiduously
+in his hymn-book to hide his confusion, and the class in various keys
+lifted up assertive young voices vigorously in the last hymn.
+
+Graham sat beside Shirley in the little crowded church during the
+rather monotonous service.  The regular pastor, who was a good,
+spiritual man if not a brilliant one, and gave his congregation solid,
+practical sermons, was on his vacation, and the pulpit was supplied by
+a young theologue who was so new to his work that his sermon was a
+rather involved effort.  But so strong was the power of the
+Sunday-school lesson to which he had just listened that Graham felt as
+if he were sitting in some hallowed atmosphere.  He did not see the
+red-faced, embarrassed young preacher, nor notice his struggles to
+bring forth his message bravely; he saw only the earnest-faced young
+teacher as she spoke the words of life to her boys; saw the young
+imp-faces of her boys softened and touched by the story she told; saw
+that she really believed and felt every word she spoke; and knew that
+there was something in it all that he wanted.
+
+The seat was crowded and the day was warm, but the two who looked over
+the same hymn-book did not notice it.  The soft air came in from the
+open window beside them, breathing sweet clover and wild honeysuckle,
+and the meadowlarks sang their songs, and made it seem just like a
+little bit of heaven.
+
+Shirley's muslin frills trembled against Graham's hand as she reached
+to catch a fluttering leaf of the hymn-book that the wind had caught;
+once her hand brushed the coatsleeve beside her as they turned the
+page, and she felt the soft texture of the fine dark blue goods with a
+pleasant sense of the beautiful and fitting.  It thrilled her to think
+he was standing thus beside her in her own little church, yielding
+himself to the same worship with her in the little common country
+congregation.  It was wonderful, beautiful!  And to have come to her!
+She glanced shyly up at him, so handsome, standing there singing, his
+hand almost touching hers holding the book.  He felt her glance and
+answered it with a look and smile, their eyes holding each other for
+just the fraction of a second in which some inner thought was
+interchanged, some question asked and answered by the invisible flash
+of heart-beats, a mutual joining in the spiritual service, and then
+half-frightened Shirley dropped her eyes to the page and the soft roses
+stole into her cheeks again.  She felt as if she had seen something in
+his eyes and acknowledged it in her own, as if she had inadvertently
+shown him her heart in that glance, and that heart of hers was leaping
+and bounding with an uncontrollable joy, while her conscience sought by
+every effort to get it in control.  What nonsense, it said, what utter
+folly, to make so much of his coming to church with her once!  To allow
+her soul to get into such a flutter over a man who had no more idea of
+noticing her or caring for her than he had for a bird on the tree.
+
+And with all the tumult in her heart she did not even see the envious
+glances of the village maidens who stared and stared with all their
+might at the handsome man who came to church in an expensive car and
+brought the girl who lived in a barn!  Shirley's social position went
+up several notches, and she never even knew it.  In fact, she was
+becoming a great puzzle to the residents of Glenside.
+
+It was good to know that for once the shabby collection-box of the
+little church was borne back to the altar laden with a goodly bill, put
+in with so little ostentation that one might have judged it but a
+penny, looking on, though even a penny would have made more noise in
+the unlined wooden box.
+
+After the service was over Graham went out with the children, while
+Shirley lingered to play over an accompaniment for a girl who was going
+to sing at the vesper service that afternoon.  He piled all the
+children in the back seat of the car, put the boy he had promised a
+ride in the seat beside him, took a spin around the streets, and was
+back in front of the church by the time Shirley came out.  Then that
+foolish heart of hers had to leap again at the thought that he had
+saved the front seat for her.  The boy descended as if he had been
+caught up into heaven for a brief space, and would never forget it the
+rest of his life.
+
+There was that same steady look of trust and understanding in Graham's
+eyes whenever he looked at her on the way home, and once while the
+children were talking together in the back seat he leaned toward her
+and said in a low tone:
+
+"I wonder if you will let me take you away for a little while this
+afternoon to a quiet place I know where there is a beautiful view, and
+let us sit and talk.  There are some things I want to ask you, about
+what you said this morning.  I was very much interested in it all, and
+I'm deeply grateful that you let me go.  Now, will you go with me?
+I'll bring you back in time for the Christian Endeavor service, and you
+see in the meantime I'm inviting myself to dinner.  Do you think your
+mother will object?"
+
+What was there for Shirley to do but accept this alluring invitation?
+She did not believe in going off on pleasure excursions on the Sabbath,
+but this request that she ride to a quiet place out-of-doors for a
+religious talk could not offend her strongest sense of what was right
+on the Sabbath day.  And surely, if the Lord had a message for her to
+bear, she must bear it to whomsoever He sent.  This, then, was this
+man's interest in her, that she had been able to make him think of God.
+A glad elation filled her heart, something deep and true stirred within
+her and lifted her above the thought of self, like a blessing from on
+high.  To be asked to bring light to a soul like this one, this was
+honor indeed.  This was an answer to her prayer of the morning, that
+she might fulfil God's pleasure with the lesson of the day.  The
+message then had reached his soul.  It was enough.  She would think no
+more of self.
+
+Yet whenever she looked at him and met that smile again she was
+thrilled with joy in spite of herself.  At least there was a
+friendliness here beyond the common acquaintance, a something that was
+true, deep, lasting, even though worlds should separate them in the
+future; a something built on a deep understanding, sympathy and common
+interests.  Well, so be it.  She would rejoice that it had been given
+her to know one man of the world in this beautiful way; and her foolish
+little human heart should understand what a high, true thing this was
+that must not be misunderstood.
+
+So she reasoned with herself, and watched him during the dinner, among
+the children, out in the yard among the flowers and animals,
+everywhere, he seemed so fine and splendid, so far above all other men
+that she had ever met.  And her mother, watching, trembled for her when
+she saw her happy face.
+
+"Do you think you ought to go with him, daughter?" she asked with
+troubled eyes, when they were left alone for a moment after dinner.
+"You know it is the Sabbath, and you know his life is very different
+from ours."
+
+"Mother, he wants to talk about the Sunday School lesson this morning,"
+said Shirley shyly.  "I guess he is troubled, perhaps, and wants me to
+help him.  I guess he has never thought much about religious things."
+
+"Well, daughter dear, be careful.  Do all you can for him, of course,
+but remember, don't let your heart stray out of your keeping.  He is
+very attractive, dear, and very unconventional for a wealthy man.  I
+think he is true and wouldn't mean to trifle, but he wouldn't realize."
+
+"I know; mother; don't you be afraid for me!" said Shirley with a lofty
+look, half of exultation, half of proud self-command.
+
+He took her to a mossy place beside a little stream, where the light
+filtered down through the lacy leaves flecking the bank, and braided
+golden currents in the water; with green and purple hazy hills in the
+distance, and just enough seclusion for a talk without being too far
+away from the world.
+
+"My little sister says that you people have a 'real' God," he said,
+when she was comfortably fixed with cushions from the car at her back
+against a tall tree-trunk.  "She says you seem to realize His
+presence--I don't know just how to say it, but I'd like to know if this
+is so.  I'd like to know what makes you different from other girls, and
+your home different from most of the homes I know.  I'd like to know if
+I may have it too."
+
+That was the beginning.
+
+Shirley, shy as a bird at first, having never spoken on such subjects
+except to children, yet being well versed in the Scriptures, and
+feeling her faith with every atom of her being, drew out her little
+Bible that she had slipped into her pocket when they started, and
+plunged into the great subject.
+
+Never had preacher more earnest listener, or more lovely temple in
+which to preach.  And if sometimes the young man's thoughts for a few
+moments strayed from the subject to rest his eyes in tenderness upon
+the lovely face of the young teacher, and long to draw her into his
+arms and claim her for his own, he might well have been forgiven.  For
+Shirley was very fair, with the light of other worlds in her face, her
+eyes all sparkling with her eagerness, her lips aglow with words that
+seemed to be given her for the occasion.  She taught him simply, not
+trying to go into deep arguments, but urging the only way she knew, the
+way of taking Christ's promise on its face value, the way of being
+willing to do His will, trusting it to Him to reveal Himself, and the
+truth of the doctrine, and make the believer sure.
+
+They talked until the sun sunk low, and the calling of the wood-birds
+warned them that the Endeavor hour was near.  Before they left the
+place he asked her for the little Bible, and she laid it in his hand
+with joy that he wanted it, that she was chosen to give him a gift so
+precious.
+
+"It is all marked up," she said apologetically.  "I always mark the
+verses I love, or have had some special experience with."
+
+"It will be that much more precious to me," he said gently, fingering
+the leaves reverently, and then he looked up and gave her one of those
+deep looks that seemed to say so much to her heart.  And all at once
+she realized that she was on earth once more, and that his presence and
+his look were very precious to her.  Her cheeks grew pink with the joy
+of it, and she looked down in confusion and could not answer, so she
+rose to her feet.  But he, springing at once to help her up, kept her
+hand for just an instant with earnest pressure, and said in deeply
+moved tones:
+
+"You don't know what you have done for me this afternoon,
+my--_friend_!"  He waited with her hand in his an instant as if he were
+going to say more, but had decided it were better not.  The silence was
+so compelling that she looked up into his eyes, meeting his smile, and
+that said so many things her heart went into a tumult again and could
+not quite come to itself all through the Christian Endeavor service.
+
+On the way home from the church he talked a little about her vacation:
+when it came, how long it lasted, what she would do with it.  Just as
+they reached home he said,
+
+"I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"
+
+There was something wonderful in the way he said that word "friend."
+It thrilled her through and through as she stood beside the road and
+watched him speed away into the evening.
+
+"My friend!  I hope you will pray for me, _my friend_!"  It sang a
+glory-song down in her heart as she turned to go in with the vivid
+glory of the sunset on her face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+The cement floor had been down a week and was as hard as a rock, when
+one day two or three wagon-loads of things arrived with a note from
+Graham to Mrs. Hollister to say that he would be glad if these might be
+stored in one corner of the basement floor, where they would be out of
+her way and not take up too much room.
+
+Harley and George went down to look them over that evening.
+
+"He said something about some things being taken from the office
+building," said Harley, kicking a pile of iron pipes with his toe.
+
+"These don't look like any old things that have been used," said George
+thoughtfully.  "They look perfectly new."  Then he studied them a few
+minutes more from another angle, and shut his lips judiciously.  He
+belonged to the boy species that has learned to "shut up and saw wood,"
+whatever that expression may mean.  If anything was to come out of that
+pile of iron in the future, he did not mean to break confidence with
+anybody's secrets.  He walked away whistling and said nothing further
+about them.
+
+The next day Mrs. Graham came down upon the Hollisters in her
+limousine, and an exquisite toilet of organdie and ribbons.  She was
+attended by Elizabeth, wild with delight over getting home again.  She
+begged Mrs. Hollister very charmingly and sincerely to take care of
+Elizabeth for three or four weeks, while she and her husband were away,
+and to take her entire family down to the shore and occupy their
+cottage, which had been closed all summer and needed opening and
+airing.  She said that nothing would please Elizabeth so much as to
+have them all her guests during September.  The maids were there, with
+nothing to do but look after them, and would just love to serve them;
+it really would be a great favor to her if she could know that
+Elizabeth was getting a little salt air under such favorable
+conditions.  She was so genuine in her request and suggested so
+earnestly that Shirley and George needed the change during their
+vacation, and could just as well come down every night and go up every
+morning for a week or two more after the vacations were over, that Mrs.
+Hollister actually promised to consider it and talk it over with
+Shirley when she came home.  Elizabeth and Carol nearly went into
+spasms of joy over the thought of all they could do down at the shore
+together.
+
+When Shirley came home she found the whole family quite upset
+discussing the matter.  Carol had brought out all the family wardrobe
+and was showing how she could wash this, and dye that, and turn this
+skirt upside down, and put a piece from the old waist in there to make
+the lower part flare; and Harley was telling how he could get the man
+next door to look after the hens and pigeons, and there was nothing
+needing much attention in the garden now, for the corn was about over
+except the last picking, which wasn't ripe yet.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was saying that they ought really to stay at home and
+look up another place to live during the winter, and Carol was pleading
+that another place would be easier found when the weather was cooler
+anyway, and that Shirley was just awfully tired and needed a change.
+
+Shirley's cheeks grew pink in spite of the headache which she had been
+fighting all day, when she heard of the invitation, and sat down to
+think it out.  Was this, then, another of the kind schemes of her kind
+friend to make the way easier for her?  What right had she to take all
+this?  Why was he doing it?  Why were the rest of the family?  Did they
+really need some one to take care of Elizabeth?  But of course it was a
+wonderful opportunity, and one that her mother at least should not let
+slip by.  And Doris!  Think of Doris playing in the sand at the seaside!
+
+Supper was flung onto the table that night any way it happened, for
+they were all too excited to know what they were about.  Carol got
+butter twice and forgot to cut the bread, and Harley poured milk into
+the already filled water-pitcher.  They were even too excited to eat.
+
+Graham arrived with Elizabeth early in the evening to add his pleading
+to his mother's, and before he left he had about succeeded in getting
+Mrs. Hollister's promise that she would go.
+
+Shirley's vacation began the first of September, and George had asked
+for his at the same time so that they could enjoy it together.  Each
+had two weeks.  Graham said that the cost of going back and forth to
+the city for the two would be very little.  By the next morning they
+had begun to say what they would take along, and to plan what they
+would do with the dog.  It was very exciting.  There was only a week to
+get ready, and Carol wanted to make bathing-suits for everybody.
+
+Graham came again that night with more suggestions.  There were plenty
+of bathing-suits down at the cottage, of all sizes and kinds.  No need
+to make bathing-suits.  The dog, of course, was to go along.  He needed
+the change as much as anybody, and they needed him there.  That breed
+of dog was a great swimmer.  He would take care of the children when
+they went in bathing.  How would Mrs. Hollister like to have one of the
+old Graham servants come over to sleep at the barn and look after
+things while they were gone?  The man had really nothing to do at home
+while everybody was away, as the whole corps of servants would be
+there, and this one would enjoy coming out to the country.  He had a
+brother living on a place about a mile away.  As for the trip down
+there, Graham would love to take them all in the big touring-car with
+Elizabeth.  He had been intending to take her down that way, and there
+was no reason in the world why they should not all go along.  They
+would start Saturday afternoon as soon as Shirley and George were free,
+and be down before bedtime.  It would be cool and delightful journeying
+at that hour, and a great deal pleasanter than the train.
+
+So one by one the obstructions and hindrances were removed from their
+path, and it was decided that the Hollisters were to go to the seashore.
+
+At last the day came.
+
+Shirley and George went off in the morning shouting last directions
+about things.  They were always having to go to their work whatever was
+happening.  It was sometimes hard on them, particularly this day when
+everything was so delightfully exciting.
+
+The old Graham servant arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon,
+and proved himself invaluable in doing the little last things without
+being told.  Mrs. Hollister had her first gleam of an idea of what it
+must be to have plenty of perfectly trained servants about to
+anticipate one's needs.  He entered the barn as if barns were his
+native heath, and moved about with the ease and unobtrusiveness that
+marks a perfect servant, but with none of the hauteur and disdain that
+many of those individuals entertain toward all whom they consider poor
+or beneath them in any way.  He had a kindly face, and seemed to
+understand just exactly what was to be done.  Things somehow moved more
+smoothly after he arrived.
+
+At four o'clock came Graham with the car and a load of long linen
+dust-cloaks and veils.  The Hollisters donned them and bestowed
+themselves where they were told.  The servant stowed away the wraps and
+suitcases; Star mounted the seat beside Harley, and they were ready.
+
+They turned to look back at the barn as the car started.  The old
+servant was having a little trouble with the big door, trying to shut
+it.  "That door is a nuisance," said Graham as they swept away from the
+curb.  "It must be fixed.  It is no fit door for a barn anyway."  Then
+they curved up around Allister Avenue and left the barn far out of
+sight.
+
+They were going across country to the Graham home to pick up Elizabeth.
+It was a wonderful experience for them, that beautiful ride in the late
+afternoon; and when they swept into the great gates, and up the broad
+drive to the Graham mansion, and stopped under the porte-cochere, Mrs.
+Hollister was quite overcome with the idea of being beholden to people
+who lived in such grandeur as this.  To think she had actually invited
+their son to dine in a barn with her!
+
+Elizabeth came rushing out eagerly, all ready to start, and climbed in
+beside Carol.  Even George, who was usually silent when she was about,
+gave her a grin of welcome.  The father and mother came out to say
+good-by, gave them good wishes, and declared they were perfectly happy
+to leave their daughter in such good hands.  Then the car curved about
+the great house, among tennis courts, green-houses, garage, stable, and
+what not, and back to the pike again, leaping out upon the perfect road
+as if it were as excited as the children.
+
+Two more stops to pick up George, who was getting off early, and
+Shirley, who was through at five o'clock, and then they threaded their
+way out of the city, across the ferry, through another city, and out
+into the open country, dotted all along the way with clean, pretty
+little towns.
+
+They reached a lovely grove at sundown and stopped by the way to have
+supper.  Graham got down and made George help him get out the big
+hamper.
+
+There was a most delectable lunch; sandwiches of delicate and unknown
+condiments, salad as bewildering, soup that had been kept hot in a
+thermos bottle, served in tiny white cups, iced tea and ice-cream
+meringues from another thermos compartment, and plenty of delicious
+little cakes, olives, nuts, bonbons, and fruit.  It seemed a wonderful
+supper to them all, eaten out there under the trees, with the birds
+beginning their vesper songs and the stars peeping out slyly.  Then
+they packed up their dishes and hurried on their beautiful way, a
+silver thread of a moon coming out to make the scene more lovely.
+
+Doris was almost asleep when at last they began to hear the booming of
+the sea and smell the salt breeze as it swept back inland; but she
+roused up and opened wide, mysterious eyes, peering into the new
+darkness, and murmuring softly: "I yant to see ze osun!  I yant to see
+the gate bid watter!"
+
+Stiff, bewildered, filled with ecstasy, they finally unloaded in front
+of a big white building that looked like a hotel.  They tried to see
+into the deep, mysterious darkness across the road, where boomed a
+great voice that called them, and where dashing spray loomed high like
+a waving phantom hand to beckon them now and again, and far-moving
+lights told of ships and a world beyond the one they knew,--a wide,
+limitless thing like eternity, universe, chaos.
+
+With half-reluctant feet they turned away from the mysterious unseen
+lure and let themselves be led across an unbelievably wide veranda into
+the bright light of a hall, where everything was clean and shining, and
+a great fireplace filled with friendly flames gave cheer and welcome.
+The children stood bewildered in the brightness while two strange
+serving-maids unfastened their wraps and dust-cloaks and helped them
+take off their hats.  Then they all sat around the fire, for Graham had
+come in by this time, and the maids brought trays of some delicious
+drink with little cakes and crackers, and tinkling ice, and straws to
+drink with.  Doris almost fell asleep again, and was carried up-stairs
+by Shirley and put to bed in a pretty white crib she was too sleepy to
+look at, while Carol, Elizabeth, George, and Harley went with Graham
+across the road to look at the black, yawning cavern they called ocean,
+and to have the shore light-houses pointed out to them and named one by
+one.
+
+They were all asleep at last, a little before midnight, in spite of the
+excitement over the spacious rooms, and who should have which.  Think
+of it!  Thirty rooms in the house, and every one as pretty as every
+other one!  What luxury!  And nobody to occupy them but themselves!
+Carol could hardly get to sleep.  She felt as if she had dropped into a
+novel and was living it.
+
+When Graham came out of his room the next morning the salt breeze swept
+invitingly through the hall and showed him the big front door of the
+upper piazza open and some one standing in the sunlight, with light,
+glowing garments, gazing at the sea in rapt enjoyment.  Coming out
+softly, he saw that it was Shirley dressed in white, with a ribbon of
+blue at her waist and a soft pink color in her cheeks, looking off to
+sea.
+
+He stood for a moment to enjoy the picture, and said in his heart that
+sometime, if he got his wish, he would have her painted so by some
+great artist, with just that little simple white dress and blue ribbon,
+her round white arm lifted, her small hand shading her eyes, the
+sunlight burnishing her brown hair into gold.  He could scarcely
+refrain from going to her and telling her how beautiful she was.  But
+when he stepped quietly up beside her only his eyes spoke, and brought
+the color deeper into her cheeks; and so they stood for some minutes,
+looking together and drawing in the wonder of God's sea.
+
+"This is the first time I've ever seen it, you know," spoke Shirley at
+last, "and I'm so glad it was on Sunday morning.  It will always make
+the day seem more holy and the sea more wonderful to think about.  I
+like best things to happen on Sunday, don't you, because that is the
+best day of all?"
+
+Graham looked at the sparkling sea all azure and pearls, realized the
+Sabbath quiet, and marvelled at the beauty of the soul of the girl,
+even as her feeling about it all seemed to enter into and become a part
+of himself.
+
+"Yes, I do," said he.  "I never did before, but I do now,--and always
+shall," he added under his breath.
+
+That was almost as wonderful a Sabbath as the one they had spent in the
+woods a couple of weeks before.  They walked and talked by the sea, and
+they went to a little Episcopal chapel, where the windows stood open
+for the chanting of the waves and the salt of the breeze to come in
+freely, and then they went out and walked by the sea again.  Wherever
+they went, whether resting in some of the many big rockers on the broad
+verandas or walking on the hard smooth sand, or sitting in some cozy
+nook by the waves, they felt the same deep sympathy, the same
+conviction that their thoughts were one, the same wonderful thrill of
+the day and each other's nearness.
+
+Somehow in the new environment Shirley forgot for a little that this
+young man was not of her world, that he was probably going back soon to
+the city to enter into a whirl of the winter's season in society, that
+other girls would claim his smiles and attentions, and she would likely
+be forgotten.  She lost the sense of it entirely and companioned with
+him as joyously as if there had never been anything to separate them.
+Her mother, looking on, sighed, feared, smiled, and sighed again.
+
+They walked together in the sweet darkness beside the waves that
+evening, and he told her how when he was a little boy he wanted to
+climb up to the stars and find God, but later how he thought the stars
+and God were myths like Santa Claus, and that the stars were only
+electric lights put up by men and lighted from a great switch every
+night, and when they didn't shine somebody had forgotten to light them.
+He told her many things about himself that he had never told to any one
+before, and she opened her shy heart to him, too.
+
+Then they planned what they would do next week when he came back.  He
+told her he must go back to the city in the morning to see his father
+and mother off and attend to a few matters of business at the office.
+It might be two or three days before he could return, but after that he
+was coming down to take a little vacation himself if she didn't mind,
+and they would do a lot of delightful things together: row, fish, go
+crabbing, and he would teach her to swim and show her all the walks and
+favorite places where he used to go as a boy.  Reluctantly they went
+in, his fingers lingering about hers for just a second at the door,
+vibrating those mysterious heart-strings of hers again, sweeping
+dearest music from them, and frightening her with joy that took her
+half the night to put down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Sidney Graham went back to the city the next morning.  They all stood
+out on the piazza to watch the big car glide away.  Doris stood on the
+railing of the piazza with Shirley's arm securely about her and waved a
+little fat hand; then with a pucker of her lip she demanded:
+
+"Fy does mine Mister Dwaham do way?  I don't yant him to do way.  I
+yant him to stay wif me aw-ways, don't oo, Sirley?"
+
+Shirley with glowing cheeks turned from watching the retreating car and
+put her little sister down on the floor suddenly.
+
+"Run get your hat, Doris, and we'll take a walk on the sand!" she said,
+smiling alluringly at the child, till the baby forgot her grievance and
+beamed out with answering smiles.
+
+That was a wonderful day.
+
+They all took a walk on the sand first, George pushing his mother in a
+big wheeled chair belonging to the cottage.  Elizabeth was guide and
+pointed out all the beauties of the place, telling eager bits of
+reminiscence from her childhood memories to which even George listened
+attentively.  From having been only tolerant of her George had now come
+to look upon Elizabeth as "a good scout."
+
+When Mrs. Hollister grew tired they took her back to the cottage and
+established her in a big chair with a book.  Then they all rushed off
+to the bath-houses and presently emerged in bathing-suits, Doris
+looking like a little sprite in her scarlet flannel scrap of a suit,
+her bright hair streaming, and her beautiful baby arms and legs
+flashing white like a cherub's in the sunlight.
+
+They came back from their dip in the waves, hungry and eager, to the
+wonderful dinner that was served so exquisitely in the great cool
+dining-room, from the windows of which they could watch the lazy ships
+sailing in the offing.
+
+Doris fell asleep over her dessert and was tumbled into the hammock to
+finish her nap.  Carol and Elizabeth and the boys started off crabbing,
+and Shirley settled herself in another hammock with a pile of new
+magazines about her and prepared to enjoy a whole afternoon of
+laziness.  It was so wonderful to lie still, at leisure and unhurried,
+with all those lovely magazines to read, and nothing to disturb her.
+She leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a minute just to
+listen to the sea, and realize how good it was to be here.  Back in her
+mind there was a pleasant consciousness of the beautiful yesterday, and
+the beautiful to-morrows that might come when Sidney Graham returned,
+but she would not let her heart dwell upon them; that would be humoring
+herself too much, and perhaps give her a false idea of things.  She
+simply would not let this wonderful holiday be spoiled by the thought
+that it would have to end some day and that she would be back at the
+old routine of care and worry once more.
+
+She was roused from her reverie by the step of the postman bringing a
+single letter, for her!
+
+It was addressed in an unknown hand and was in a fat long envelope.
+Wonderingly she opened it and found inside a bank book and blank check
+book with a little note on which was written:
+
+
+Dear Little Girl:
+
+This is just a trifle of that present we were talking about the other
+day that belongs to you.  It isn't all by any means, but we'll see to
+the rest later.  Spend this on chocolates or chewing-gum or frills or
+whatever you like and have a good time down at the shore.  You're a
+bully little girl and deserve everything nice that's going.  Don't be
+too serious, Miss Shirley.  Play a little more.
+
+Your elderly friend,
+    Walter K Graham.
+
+
+In the bank book was an entry of five thousand dollars, on check
+account.  Shirley held her breath and stared at the figures with wide
+eyes, then slipped away and locked herself in the big white room that
+was hers.  Kneeling down by the bed she cried and prayed and smiled all
+in one, and thanked the Lord for making people so kind to her.  After
+that she went to find her mother.
+
+Mrs. Hollister was sitting on the wide upper piazza in a steamer chair
+looking off to sea and drawing in new life at every breath.  Her book
+was open on her lap, but she had forgotten to read in the joy of all
+that was about her.  To tell the truth she was wondering if the dear
+father who was gone from them knew of their happy estate, and thinking
+how glad he would be for them if he did.
+
+She read the letter twice before she looked at the bank book with its
+astonishing figures, and heard again Shirley's tale of the happening in
+the office the morning of the arrest.  Then she read the letter once
+more.
+
+"I'm not just sure, daughter," she said at last with a smile, "what we
+ought to do about this.  Are you?"
+
+"No," said Shirley, smiling; "I suppose I'll give it back, but wasn't
+it wonderful of him to do it?  Isn't it grand that there are such men
+in the world?"
+
+"It certainly is, dear, and I'm glad my little girl was able to do
+something that was of assistance to him; and that she has won her way
+into his good graces so simply and sweetly.  But I'm not so sure what
+you ought to do.  Hadn't we better pray about it a bit before you
+decide?  How soon ought you to write to him?  It's too late to reach
+him before he leaves for California, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he's just about starting now," said the girl.  "Don't you
+suppose he planned it so that I couldn't answer right away?  I don't
+know his address.  I can't do a thing till I find out where to write.
+I wouldn't like to send it to the office because they would probably
+think it was business and his secretary might open it."
+
+"Of course.  Then we'll just pray about it, shall we, dear?  I'm not
+just sure in my mind whether it's a well-meant bit of charity that we
+ought to hand back with sincere thanks, or whether it's God's way of
+rewarding my little girl for her faithfulness and quickness of action.
+Our Father knows we have been--and still are--in a hard place.  He
+knows that we have need of 'all these things' that money has to buy.
+You really did a good thing and saved Mr. Graham from great loss, you
+know, and perhaps he is the kind of man who would feel a great deal
+happier if he shared a little of it with you, was able to make some
+return for what you did for him.  However, five thousand dollars is a
+great deal of money for a brief service.  What do you think, dear?"
+
+"I don't know, mother dear.  I'm all muddled just as you say, but I
+guess it will come right if we pray about it.  Anyhow, I'm going to be
+happy over his thinking of me, whether I keep it or not."
+
+Shirley went thoughtfully back to her hammock and her magazines, a
+smile on her lips, a dream in her eyes.  She found herself wondering
+whether Sidney Graham knew about this money and what he would wish her
+to do about it.  Then suddenly she cast the whole question from her and
+plunged into her magazine, wondering why it was that almost any
+question that came into her mind promptly got around and entangled
+itself with Mr. Sidney Graham.  What did he have to do with it, anyway?
+
+The magazine story was very interesting and Shirley soon forgot
+everything else in the pleasure of surrendering herself to the printed
+page.  An hour went by, another passed, and Shirley was still oblivious
+to all about her.  Suddenly she became aware of a boy on a bicycle,
+riding almost up to the very steps, and whistling vigorously.
+
+"Miss Shirley Hollister here?" he demanded as he alighted on one foot
+on the lower step, the other foot poised for flight as soon as his
+errand should have been performed.
+
+"Why, yes," said Shirley, startled, struggling to her feet and letting
+a shower of magazines fall all about her.
+
+"Long distance wants yer," he announced, looking her over
+apathetically.  "Mr. Barnard, of Philadelphia, wants to talk to yer!"
+and with the final word chanted nasally he alighted upon his obedient
+steed and spun away down the walk again.
+
+"But, wait!  Where shall I go?  Where is the telephone?"
+
+"Pay station!" shouted the impervious child, turning his head over his
+shoulder, "Drug store!  Two blocks from the post office!"
+
+Without waiting to go upstairs Shirley, whose training had been to
+answer the telephone at once, caught up Elizabeth's parasol that lay on
+a settee by the door, rumpled her fingers through her hair by way of
+toilet and hurried down the steps in the direction the boy had
+disappeared, wondering what in the world Mr. Barnard could want of her?
+Was he going to call her back from her vacation?  Was this perhaps the
+only day she would have, this and yesterday?  There would always be
+yesterday!  With a sigh she looked wistfully at the sea.  If she had
+only known a summons was to come so soon she would not have wasted a
+second on magazines.  She would have sat and gazed all the afternoon at
+the sea.  If Mr. Barnard wanted her, of course she would have to go.
+Business was business and she couldn't afford to lose her job even with
+that fairy dream of five thousand to her credit in the bank.  She knew,
+of course, she meant to give that back.  It was hers for the day, but
+it could not become tangible.  It was beautiful, but it was right that
+it must go back, and if her employer felt he must cut short her
+vacation why of course she must acquiesce and just be glad she had had
+this much.  Perhaps it was just as well, anyway, for if Sidney Graham
+came down and spent a few days there was no knowing what foolish
+notions her heart would take, jumping and careening the way it had been
+doing lately when he just looked at her.  Yes, she would go back if Mr.
+Barnard wanted her.  It was the best thing she could do.  Though
+perhaps he would only be calling her to ask where she had left
+something for which they were searching.  That stupid Ashton girl who
+took her place might not have remembered all her directions.
+
+Breathless, with possibilities crowding upon her mind, she hurried into
+the drug store and sought the telephone booth.  It seemed ages before
+the connection was made and she heard Mr. Barnard's dry familiar tones
+over the phone:
+
+"That you, Miss Hollister?  This is Mr. Barnard.  I'm sorry to disturb
+you right in the midst of your holiday, but a matter has come up that
+is rather serious and I'm wondering if you could help us out for a day
+or two.  If you would we'd be glad to give you fifty dollars for the
+extra time, and let you extend your vacation to a month instead of two
+weeks.  Do you think you could spare a day or two to help us right
+away?"
+
+"Oh!  Why, yes, of course!" faltered Shirley, her eyes dancing at the
+thought of the extra vacation and money.
+
+"Thank you!  I was sure you would," said Mr. Barnard, with relief in
+his voice.  "You see we have got that Government contract.  The news
+just came in the afternoon mail.  It's rather particular business
+because it has to do with matters that the Government wishes to keep
+secret.  I am to go down to-morrow morning to Washington to receive
+instructions, and I have permission to bring a trusted private
+secretary with me.  Now you know, of course, that I couldn't take Miss
+Ashton.  She wouldn't be able to do what I want done even if she were
+one I could trust not to say a word about the matter.  I would take Jim
+Thorpe, but his father has just died and I can't very well ask him to
+leave.  Neither can I delay longer than to-morrow.  Now the question
+is, would you be willing to go to Washington in the morning?  I have
+looked up the trains and I find you can leave the shore at 8.10 and
+meet me in Baltimore at ten o'clock.  I will be waiting for you at the
+train gate, but in case we miss each other wait in the station, close
+to the telephone booths, till I find you.  We will take the next train
+for Washington and be there a little before noon.  If all goes well we
+ought to be through our business in plenty of time to make a four
+o'clock train home.  Of course there may be delays, and it is quite
+possible you might have to remain in Washington over night, though I
+hardly think so.  But in case you do I will see that you are safe and
+comfortable in a quiet hotel near the station where my wife's sister is
+staying this summer.
+
+"Of course your expenses will all be paid.  I will telegraph and have a
+mileage book put at your disposal that you can call for right there in
+your station in the morning.  Are you willing to undertake this for us?
+I assure you we shall not forget the service."
+
+When Shirley finally hung up the receiver and looked about the little
+country drug store in wonder at herself the very bottles on the shelves
+seemed to be whirling and dancing about before her eyes.  What strange
+exciting things were happening to her all in such breathless haste!
+Only one day at the shore and a piece of another, and here she was with
+a trip to Washington on her hands!  It certainly was bewildering to
+have things come in such rapid succession.  She wished it had come at
+another time, and not just now when she had not yet got used to the
+great sea and the wonder of the beautiful place where they were
+staying.  She did not want to be interrupted just yet.  It would not be
+quite the same when she got back to it she was afraid.  But of course
+she could not refuse.  It never entered her head to refuse.  She knew
+enough about the office to realize that Mr. Barnard must have her.
+Jimmie Thorpe would have been the one to go if he were available,
+because he was a man and had been with Barnard and Clegg for ten years
+and knew all their most confidential business, but of course Jimmie
+could not go with his father lying dead and his mother and invalid
+sister needing him; and there was no one else but herself.
+
+She thought it all out on the way back to the cottage, with a little
+pang at the thought of losing the next day and of having perhaps to
+stay over in Washington a day and maybe miss the arrival of Sidney
+Graham, if he should come in a day or two, as he had promised.  He
+might even come and go back again before she was able to return, and
+perhaps he would think her ungrateful to leave when he had been so kind
+to plan all this lovely vacation for her pleasure.  Then she brought
+herself up smartly and told herself decidedly that it was nothing to
+him whether she was there or not, and it certainly had no right to be
+anything to her.  It was a good thing she was going, and would probably
+be a good thing for all concerned if she stayed until he went back to
+the city again.
+
+With this firm determination she hurried up to the veranda where her
+mother sat with Doris, and told her story.
+
+Mrs. Hollister looked troubled.
+
+"I'm sorry you gave him an answer, Shirley, without waiting to talk it
+over with me.  I don't believe I like the idea of your going to a
+strange city, all alone that way.  Of course Mr. Barnard will look
+after you in a way, but still he's a good deal of a stranger.  I do
+wish he had let you alone for your vacation.  It seems as if he might
+have found somebody else to go.  I wish Mr. Graham was here.  I
+shouldn't wonder if he would suggest some way out of it for you."
+
+But Shirley stiffened into dignity at once.
+
+"Really, mother dear, I'm sure I don't see what Mr. Graham would have
+to say about it if he were here.  I shouldn't ask his advice.  You see,
+mother, really, there isn't anybody else that could do this but Jimmie
+Thorpe, and he's out of the question.  It would be unthinkable that I
+should refuse in this emergency.  And you know Mr. Barnard has been
+very kind.  Besides, think of the ducky vacation I'll have afterward, a
+whole month!  And all that extra money!  That shall go to the rent of a
+better house for winter!  Think of it!  Don't you worry, mother dear!
+There isn't a thing in the world could happen to me.  I'll be the very
+most-discreetest person you ever heard of.  I'll even glance shyly at
+the White House and Capitol!  Come, let's go up and get dolled up for
+supper!  Won't the children be surprised when they hear I'm really to
+go to Washington!  I'm so excited I don't know what to do!"
+
+Mrs. Hollister said no more, and entered pleasantly into the merry talk
+at the table, telling Shirley what she must be sure to see at the
+nation's capital.  But the next morning just as Shirley was about to
+leave for the station, escorted by all the children, Mrs. Hollister
+came with a package of addressed postal cards which she had made George
+get for her the night before, and put them in Shirley's bag.
+
+"Just drop us a line as you go along, dear," she said.  "I'll feel
+happier about it to be hearing from you.  Mail one whenever you have a
+chance."
+
+Shirley laughed as she looked at the fat package.
+
+"All those, mother dear?  You must expect I am going to stay a month!
+You know I won't have much time for writing, and I fully expect to be
+back to-night or to-morrow at the latest."
+
+"Well, that's all right," said her mother.  "You can use them another
+time, then; but you can just put a line on one whenever it is
+convenient.  I shall enjoy getting them even after you get back.  You
+know this is your first journey out into the world alone."
+
+Shirley stooped to kiss the little mother.
+
+"All right, dear!  I'll write you a serial story.  Each one continued
+in our next.  Good-by!  Don't take too long a walk to-day.  I want you
+rested to hear all I'll have to tell when I get back to-night!"
+
+Shirley wrote the first postal card as soon as she was settled in the
+train, describing the other occupants of the car, and making a vivid
+picture of the landscape that was slipping by her windows.  She wrote
+the second in the Baltimore station, after she had met Mr. Barnard,
+while he went to get seats in the parlor car, and she mailed them both
+at Baltimore.
+
+The third was written as they neared Washington, with the dim vision of
+the great monument dawning on her wondering sight in the distance.  Her
+last sentence gave her first impression of the nation's capital.
+
+They had eaten lunch in the dining car, a wonderful experience to the
+girl, and she promised herself another postal devoted to that, but
+there was no time to write more after they reached Washington.  She was
+put into a taxi and whirled away to an office where her work began.
+She caught glimpses of great buildings on the way, and gazed with awe
+at the dome of the Capitol building.  Mr. Barnard was kind and pointed
+out this and that, but it was plain his mind was on the coming
+interview.  When Shirley sat at last in a quiet corner of a big dark
+office, her pen poised, her note-book ready for work, and looked at the
+serious faces of the men in the room, she felt as if she had been
+rushed through a treasure vault of glorious jewels and thrust into the
+darkness of a tomb.  But presently the talk about her interested her.
+Things were being said about the vital interests of the country, scraps
+of sentences that reminded her of the trend of talk in the daily
+papers, and the headings of front columns.  She looked about her with
+interest and noted the familiarity with which these men quoted the
+words of those high up in authority in the government.  With awe she
+began her work, taking down whatever Mr. Barnard dictated, her fingers
+flying over the tiny pages of the note-book, in small neat characters,
+keeping pace with the voices going on about her.  The detail work she
+was setting down was not of especial interest to her, save that it was
+concerned with Government work, for its phraseology was familiar and a
+part of her daily routine office work at home; but she set every sense
+on the alert to get the tiniest detail and not to make the smallest
+mistake, understanding from the voices of the men about her that it was
+of vital interest to the country that this order should be filled
+quickly and accurately.  As she capped her fountain pen, and slipped
+the rubber band on her note-book when it was over, she heard one of the
+men just behind her say in a low tone to Mr. Barnard:
+
+"You're sure of your secretary of course?  I just want to give you the
+tip that this thing is being very closely watched.  We have reason to
+believe there's some spying planned.  Keep your notes carefully and
+don't let too many in on this.  We know pretty well what's going on,
+but it's not desirable just now to make any arrests until we can watch
+a little longer and round up the whole party.  So keep your eyes
+peeled, and don't talk."
+
+"Oh, certainly!  I quite understand," said Mr. Barnard, "and I have a
+most discreet secretary," and he glanced with a significant smile
+toward Shirley as she rose.
+
+"Of course!" said the other.  "She looks it," and he bowed
+deferentially to Shirley as she passed.
+
+She did not think of it at the time, but afterwards she recalled how in
+acknowledging his courtesy she had stepped back a little and almost
+stumbled over a page, a boy about George's age, who had been standing
+withdrawn into the shadow of the deep window.  She remembered he had a
+keen intelligent look, and had apologized and vanished immediately.  A
+moment later it seemed to be the same boy in blue clothes and gilt
+buttons who held the outer door open for them to pass out--or was this
+a taller one?  She glanced again at his side face with a lingering
+thought of George as she paused to fasten her glove and slip her
+note-book into her hand-bag.
+
+"I think I will put you into the taxi and let you go right back to the
+station while I attend to another errand over at the War Department.
+It won't take me long.  We can easily catch that four-o'clock train
+back.  I suppose you are anxious to get back to-night?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Shirley earnestly, "I must, if possible.  Mother isn't
+well and she worries so easily."
+
+"Well, I don't know why we can't.  Then perhaps you can come up to town
+to-morrow and type those notes for us.  By the way, I guess it would be
+better for me to take them and lock them in the safe to-night.  No,
+don't stop to get them out now"--as Shirley began to unfasten her bag
+and get the note-book out--"We haven't much time if we want to catch
+that train.  Just look after them carefully and I'll get them when we
+are on the train."
+
+He helped her into the taxi, gave the order, "To the station," and
+touching his hat, went rapidly over to the War Department Building.  No
+one saw a boy with a blue cap and brass buttons steal forth on a
+bicycle from the court just below the office, and circling about the
+asphalt uncertainly for a moment, shoot off across the park.
+
+Shirley sat up very straight and kept her eyes about her.  She was glad
+they were taking another way to the station so that she might see more.
+When she got there she would write another postal and perhaps it would
+go on the same train with her.
+
+It was all too short, that ride up Pennsylvania Avenue and around by
+the Capitol.  Shirley gathered up her bag and prepared to get out
+reluctantly.  She wished she might have just one more hour to go about,
+but of course that would be impossible if she wished to reach home
+to-night.
+
+But before the driver of the car could get down and open the door for
+her to get out a boy with a bicycle slid up to the curb and touching
+his gilt-buttoned cap respectfully said:
+
+"Excuse me, Miss, but Mr. Barnard sent me after you.  He says there's
+been some mistake and you'll have to come back and get it corrected."
+
+"Oh!" said Shirley, too surprised to think for a minute.  "Oh!  Then
+please hurry, for Mr. Barnard wants to get back in time to get that
+four-o'clock train."
+
+The driver frowned, but the boy stepped up and handed him something,
+saying:
+
+"That's all right, Joe, he sent you this."  The driver's face cleared
+and he started his machine again.  The boy vanished into the throng.
+It was another of Shirley's after-memories that she had caught a
+glimpse of a scrap of paper along with the money the boy had handed the
+driver, and that he had stuffed it in his pocket after looking intently
+at it; but at the time she thought nothing of it.  She was only glad
+that they were skimming along rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Shirley's sense of direction had always been keen.  Even as a child she
+could tell her way home when others were lost.  It was some minutes,
+however, before she suddenly became aware that the car was being driven
+in an entirely different direction from the place she had just left Mr.
+Barnard.  For a moment she looked around puzzled, thinking the man was
+merely taking another way around, but a glance back where the white
+dome of the Capitol loomed, palace-like, above the city, made her sure
+that something was wrong.  She looked at the buildings they were
+passing, at the names of the streets--F Street--they had not been on
+that before!  These stores and tall buildings were all new to her eyes.
+Down there at the end of the vista was a great building all columns.
+Was that the Treasury and were they merely seeing it from another
+angle?  It was all very confusing, but the time was short, why had the
+man not taken the shorter way?
+
+She looked at her small wrist watch anxiously and watched eagerly for
+the end of the street.  But before the great building was reached the
+car suddenly curved around a corner to the right,--one block,--a turn
+to the left,--another turn,--a confusion of new names and streets!  New
+York Avenue!  Connecticut Avenue!  Thomas Circle!  The names spun by so
+fast she could read but few of them, and those she saw she wanted to
+remember that she might weave them into her next postal.  She opened
+her bag, fumbled for her little silver pencil in the pocket of her coat
+and scribbled down the names she could read as she passed, on the back
+of the bundle of postal cards, and without looking at her writing.  She
+did not wish to miss a single sight.  Here were rows of homes, pleasant
+and palatial, some of them even cozy.  The broad avenues were
+enchanting, the park spaces, the lavish scattering of noble statues.
+Bah the time was hastening by and they were going farther and farther
+from the station and from the direction of the offices where she had
+been.  She twisted her neck once more and the Capitol dome loomed soft
+and blended in the distance.  A thought of alarm leaped into her mind.
+She leaned forward and spoke to the driver:
+
+"You understood, didn't you, that I am to return to the office where
+you took me with the gentleman?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"All right, lady.  Yes, lady!"  And the car rushed on, leaping out upon
+the beautiful way and disclosing new beauties ahead.  For a few minutes
+more Shirley was distracted from her anxiety in wondering whether the
+great buildings on her right belonged to any of the embassies or not.
+And then as the car swerved and plunged into another street and darted
+into a less thickly populated district, with trees and vacant lots
+almost like the country, alarm arose once more and she looked wildly
+back and tried to see the signs; but they were going faster still now
+upon a wide empty road past stretches of park, with winding drives and
+charming views, and a great stone bridge to the right, arching over a
+deep ravine below, a railroad crossing it.  There were deer parks
+fenced with high wire, and filled with the pretty creatures.
+Everything went by so fast that Shirley hardly realized that something
+really must be wrong before she seemed to be in the midst of a strange
+world aloof.
+
+"I am sure you have made a mistake!"  The girl's clear voice cut
+through the driving wind as they rushed along.  "I must go back right
+away to that office from which you brought me.  I must go _at once_ or
+I shall be too late for my train!  The gentleman will be very angry!"
+She spoke in the tone that always brought instant obedience from the
+employees around the office building at home.
+
+But the driver was stolid.  He scarcely stirred in his seat to turn
+toward her.  His thick voice was brought back to her on the breeze:
+
+"No, lady, it's all right, lady!  I had my orders, lady!  You needn't
+to worry.  I get you there plenty time."
+
+A wild fear seized Shirley, and her heart lifted itself as was its
+habit, to God.  "Oh, my Father!  Take care of me!  Help me!  Show me
+what to do!" she cried.
+
+Thoughts rushed through her brain as fast as the car rushed over the
+ground.  What was she up against?  Was this man crazy or bad?  Was he
+perhaps trying to kidnap her?  What for?  She shuddered to look the
+thought in the face.  Or was it the notes?  She remembered the men in
+the office and what they had said about keeping still and
+"spying-enemies."  But perhaps she was mistaken.  Maybe this man was
+only stupid, and it would all come out right in a few minutes.  But no,
+she must not wait for anything like that.  She must take no chance.
+The notes were in her keeping.  She must put them where they would be
+safe.  No telling how soon she would be overpowered and searched if
+that was what they were after.  She must hide them, and she must think
+of some way to send word to Mr. Barnard before it was toe late.  No
+telling what moment they would turn from the main road and she be
+hidden far from human habitation.  She must work fast.  What could she
+do?  Scream to the next passer-by?  No, for the car was going too fast
+for that to do any good, and the houses up this way seemed all to be
+isolated, and few people about.  There were houses on ahead beyond the
+park.  She must have something ready to throw out when they came to
+them.  "Oh God!  Help me think what to do!" she prayed again, and then
+looking down at her bag she saw the postal cards.  Just the thing!
+Quickly she scribbled, still holding her hand within the bag so that
+her movements were not noticeable:
+
+"Help!  Quick!  Being carried off!  Auto!  Connecticut Ave.!  Park.
+Deer.  Stone bridge.  Phone Mr. Clegg.  Don't tell mother!  Shirley."
+
+She turned the card over, drew a line through her mother's name and
+wrote Carol's in its place.  Stealthily she slipped the card up her
+sleeve, dropped her hand carelessly over the side of the car for a
+moment, let the card flutter from her fingers, and wrote another.
+
+She had written three cards and dropped them in front of houses before
+it suddenly occurred to her that even if these cards should be picked
+up and mailed it would be sometime before they reached their
+destination and far too late for help to reach her in time.  Her heart
+suddenly went down in a swooning sickness and her breath almost went
+from her.  Her head was reeling, and all the time she was trying to
+tell herself that she was exaggerating this thing, that probably the
+man would slow up or something and it would all be explained.  Yes, he
+was slowing up, but for what?  It was in another lonely spot, and out
+from the bushes there appeared, as if by magic, another man, a
+queer-looking man with a heavy mustache that looked as if it didn't
+belong to him.  He stood alertly waiting for the car and sprang into
+the front seat without waiting for it to stop, or even glancing back at
+her, and the car shot forward again with great leaps.
+
+Shirley dropped out the two cards together that she had just written
+and leaned forward, touching the newcomer on the arm.
+
+"Won't you please make this driver understand that he is taking me to
+the wrong place?" she said with a pleasant smile.  "I must get back to
+an office two or three blocks away from the Treasury Building
+somewhere.  I must turn back at once or I shall miss my appointment and
+be late for my train.  It is quite important.  Tell him, please, I will
+pay him well if he will get me back at once."
+
+The stranger turned with an oily smile.
+
+"That's all right, Miss.  He isn't making any mistake.  We're taking
+you right to Secretary Baker's country home.  He sent for your man,
+Mr.----  What's his name?  I forget.  Barnard?  Oh, yes.  He sent for
+Mr. Barnard to come out there, sent his private car down for him; and
+Mr. Barnard, he left orders we should go after you and bring you along.
+It's something they want to change in those notes you was taking.
+There was a mistake, and the Secretary he wanted to look after the
+matter himself."
+
+Shirley sat back with a sudden feeling of weakness and a fear she might
+faint, although she had never done such a thing in her life.  She was
+not deceived for an instant now, although she saw at once that she must
+not let the man know it.  The idea that Secretary Baker would pause in
+the midst of his multiplicity of duties to look into the details of a
+small article of manufacture was ridiculous!  It was equally impossible
+that Mr. Barnard would have sent strangers after her and let her be
+carried off in this queer way.  He had been most particular that she
+should be looked after carefully.  She was horribly to blame that she
+had allowed herself to be carried back at all until Mr. Barnard himself
+appeared; and yet, was she?  That surely had been the page from the
+office who came with the message?  Well, never mind, she was in for it
+now, and she must do her best while there was any chance to do
+anything.  She must drop all those postals somehow, and she must hide
+those notes somewhere, and perhaps write some others,--fake ones.  What
+should she do first?
+
+"Father, help me!  Show me!  Oh, don't let me lose the notes!  Please
+take care of me!"  Again and again her heart prayed as her hand worked
+stealthily in her bag, while she tried to put a pleasant smile upon her
+face and pretend she was still deceived, leaning forward and speaking
+to the strange man once more:
+
+"Is Secretary Baker's home much farther from here?" she asked, feeling
+her lips draw stiffly in the frozen smile she forced.  "Will it take
+long?"
+
+"'Bout ten minutes!" the man answered graciously, with a peculiar look
+toward the driver.  "Nice view 'round here!" he added affably with a
+leering look of admiration toward her.
+
+Shirley's heart stood still with new fear, but she managed to make her
+white lips smile again and murmur, "Charming!"
+
+Then she leaned back again and fussed around in her bag, ostentatiously
+bringing out a clean handkerchief, though she really had been detaching
+the pages which contained the notes from her loose-leaf note-book.
+There were not many of them, for she always wrote closely in small
+characters.  But where should she hide them?  Pull the lining away from
+the edge of her bag and slip them inside?  No, for the bag would be the
+first place they would likely search, and she could not poke the lining
+back smoothly so it would not show.  If she should try to drop the tiny
+pages down her neck inside her blouse, the men would very likely see
+her.  Dared she try to slip the leaves down under the linen robe that
+lay over her lap and put them inside her shoe?  She was wearing plain
+little black pumps, and the pages would easily go in the soles, three
+or four in each.  Once in they would be well hidden, and they would not
+rattle and give notice of their presence; but oh, what a terrible risk
+if anything should happen to knock off her shoe, or if they should try
+to search her!  Still she must take some risk and this was the safest
+risk at hand.  She must try it and then write out some fake notes,
+giving false numbers and sizes, and other phraseology.  Or stay!
+Wasn't there already something written in that book that would answer?
+Some specifications she had written down for the Tillman-Brooks
+Company.  Yes, she was sure.  It wasn't at all for the same articles,
+nor the same measurements, but only an expert would know that.  She
+leaned down quite naturally to pick up her handkerchief and deftly
+managed to get five small leaves slipped into her right shoe.  It
+occurred to her that she must keep her keepers deceived, so she asked
+once more in gracious tones:
+
+"Would it trouble you any to mail a card for me as soon as possible
+after we arrive?  I am afraid my mother will be worried about my delay
+and she isn't well.  I suppose they have a post office out this way."
+
+"Sure, Miss!" said the man again, with another leering smile that made
+her resolve to have no further conversation than was absolutely
+necessary.  She took out her fountain pen and hurriedly wrote:
+
+"Detained longer than I expected.  May not get back to-night.  S. H.,"
+and handed the card to the man.  He took it and turned it over, all too
+evidently reading it, and put it in his pocket.  Shirley felt that she
+had made an impression of innocence by the move which so far was good.
+She put away her fountain pen deliberately, and managed in so doing to
+manipulate the rest of the leaves of notes into her left shoe.  Somehow
+that gave her a little confidence and she sat back and began to wonder
+if there was anything more she could do.  Those dropped postals were
+worse than useless, of course.  Why had she not written an appeal to
+whoever picked them up?  Suiting the action to the thought she wrote
+another postal card--her stock was getting low, there were but two more
+left.
+
+"For Christ's sake send the police to help me!  I am being carried off
+by two strange men!  Shirley Hollister."
+
+She marked out the address on the other side and wrote: "To whoever
+picks this up."  She fluttered it to the breeze cautiously; but her
+heart sank as she realized how little likelihood there was of its being
+picked up for days perhaps.  For who would stop in a car to notice a
+bit of paper on the road?  And there seemed to be but few pedestrians.
+If she only had something larger, more attractive.  She glanced at her
+belongings and suddenly remembered the book she had brought with her to
+read, one of the new novels from the cottage, a goodly sized volume in
+a bright red cover.  The very thing!
+
+With a cautious glance at her keepers she took up the book as if to
+read, and opening it at the flyleaf began to write surreptitiously much
+the same message that had been on her last postal, signing her name and
+home address and giving her employers' address.  Her heart was beating
+wildly when she had finished.  She was trying to think just how she
+should use this last bit of ammunition to the best advantage.  Should
+she just drop it in the road quietly?  If only there were some way to
+fasten the pages open so her message would be read!  Her handkerchief!
+Of course!  She folded it cornerwise and slipped it in across the pages
+so that the book would fall open at the fly leaf, knotting the ends on
+the back of the cover.  Every moment had to be cautious, and she must
+remember to keep her attitude of reading with the printed pages
+covering the handkerchief.  It seemed hours that it took her, her
+fingers trembled so.  If it had not been for the rushing noise of wind
+and car she would not have dared so much undiscovered, but apparently
+her captors were satisfied that she still believed their story about
+going to Secretary Baker's country house, for they seemed mainly
+occupied in watching to see if they were pursued, casting anxious
+glances back now and then, but scarcely noticing her at all.
+
+Shirley had noticed two or three times when a car had passed them that
+the men both leaned down to do something at their feet to the machinery
+of the car.  Were they afraid of being recognized?  Would this perhaps
+give her a chance to fling her book out where it would be seen by
+people in an oncoming car?  Oh, if she but had the strength and skill
+to fling it _into_ a car.  But of course that was impossible without
+attracting the attention of the two men.  Nevertheless, she must try
+what she could do.
+
+She lifted her eyes to the road ahead and lo, a big car was bearing
+down upon them!  She had almost despaired of meeting any more, for the
+road was growing more and more lonely and they must have come many
+miles.  As soon as the two men in front of her sighted the car, they
+seemed to settle in their seats and draw their hats down a little
+farther over their eyes.  The same trouble seemed to develop with the
+machinery at their feet that Shirley had noticed before, and they
+bobbed and ducked and seemed to be wholly engrossed with their own
+affairs.
+
+Shirley's heart was beating so fast that it seemed as though it would
+suffocate her, and her hand seemed powerless as it lay innocently
+holding the closed book with the knotted handkerchief turned down out
+of sight; but she was girding herself, nerving herself for one great
+last effort, and praying to be guided.
+
+The big car came on swiftly and was about to pass, when Shirley half
+rose and hurled her book straight at it and then sank back in her seat
+with a fearful terror upon her, closing her eyes for one brief second,
+not daring to watch the results of her act,--if there were to be any
+results.
+
+The men in the front seat suddenly straightened up and looked around.
+
+"What's the matter?" growled the man who had got in last in quite a
+different tone from any he had used before.  "What you tryin' to put
+over on us?"
+
+Shirley gasped and caught at her self-control.
+
+"I've dropped my book," she stammered out wildly, "Could you stop long
+enough to pick it up?  It was borrowed!" she ended sweetly as if by
+inspiration, and wondering at the steadiness of her tone when blood was
+pounding so in her throat and ears, and everything was black before
+her.  Perhaps--oh, perhaps they would stop and she could cry out to the
+people for help.
+
+The man rose up in his seat and looked back.  Shirley cast one
+frightened glance back, too, and saw in that brief second that the
+other car had stopped and someone was standing up and looking back.
+
+"Hell!  No!" said her captor briefly, ducking down in his seat.  "_Let
+her out!_" he howled to the driver, and the car broke into a galloping
+streak, the wheels hardly seeming to touch the ground, the tonneau
+bounding and swaying this way and that.  Shirley had all she could do
+to keep in her seat.  At one moment she thought how easy it would be to
+spring from the car and lie in a little still heap at the roadside.
+But there were the notes!  She must not abandon her trust even for so
+fearful an escape from her captors.  Suddenly, without warning, they
+turned a sharp curve and struck into a rough, almost unbroken road into
+the woods, and the thick growth seemed to close in behind them and shut
+them out from the world.
+
+Shirley shut her eyes and prayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The next trolley that passed the old barn after the Hollisters had left
+brought a maid servant and a man servant from the Graham place.  The
+other old servant met them, and together the three went to work.  They
+had brought with them a lot of large dust-covers and floor-spreads such
+as are used by housemaids in cleaning a room, and with these they now
+proceeded to cover all the large pieces of furniture in the place.  In
+a very short space of time the rugs and bits of carpet were carefully
+rolled up, the furniture piled in small compass in the middle of the
+rooms, and everything enveloped in thick coverings.  The curtains,
+bric-a-brac, and even the dishes were put away carefully, and the whole
+big, inviting home was suddenly denuded.  The clothes from the
+calico-curtained clothes-presses were folded and laid in drawers, and
+everything made perfectly safe for a lot of workmen to come into the
+house.  Even the hay-loft bedrooms shared in this process.  Only a cot
+was left for the old servant and a few necessary things for him to use,
+and most of these he transported to the basement out of the way.  When
+the work was done the man and maid took the trolley back home again and
+the other old man servant arranged to make his Sabbath as pleasant as
+possible in the company of his brother from the near-by farm.
+
+Monday morning promptly at eight o'clock the trolley landed a bevy of
+workmen, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and furnace men, with a
+foreman who set them all at work as if it were a puzzle he had studied
+out and memorized the solution.  In a short time the quiet spot was
+full of sound, the symphony of industry, the rhythm of toil.  Some men
+were working away with the furnace that had been stored in the cellar;
+others were measuring, fitting, cutting holes for lead pipes; still
+others were sawing away at the roof, making great gashes in its mossy
+extent; and two men were busy taking down the old barn door.  Out in
+front more men were building a vat for mortar, and opening bags of lime
+and sand that began to arrive.  Three men with curious aprons made of
+ticking, filled with thin wire nails, were frantically putting laths on
+the uprights that the carpenters had already set up, and stabbing them
+with nails from a seemingly inexhaustible supply in their mouths.  It
+was as if they had all engaged to build the tower of Babel in a day,
+and meant to win a prize at it.  Such sounds!  Such shoutings, such
+bangings, thumpings, and harsh, raucous noises!  The bird in the tall
+tree looked and shivered, thankful that her brood were well away on
+their wings before all this cataclysm came to pass.
+
+Presently arrived a load of sashes, doors, and wooden frames, and
+another load of lumber.  Things can be done in a hurry if you have
+money and influence and the will to insist upon what you want.  Before
+night there was a good start made toward big changes in the old barn.
+
+Plumbers and gas-fitters and men who were putting in the hot-water heat
+chased one another around the place, each man seeking to get his pipes
+in place before the lathers got to that spot; and the contractor was
+everywhere, proving his right to be selected for this rush job.  As
+soon as the lathers had finished with a room the plasterers took
+possession, and the old door was rapidly being replaced with a great
+glazed floor set in a frame of more sashes, so that the old darkness
+was gone entirely.
+
+In the roof big dormer windows were taking the place of the two or
+three little eyebrow affairs that had given air to the hay heretofore,
+and the loft was fast becoming pleasanter than the floor below.
+
+Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a wide
+cement-floor piazza with stone foundations and low stone walls was to
+run across the entire front.  Another chimney was rising from the
+region of the kitchen.  A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf
+attached appeared next, with signs of a butler's pantry between kitchen
+and dining-room.  A delightful set of china-closet doors with little
+diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the
+dining-room, and some bookcases with sliding doors began to develop
+along the walls of the living-room.  Down in the basement a man was
+fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and on both the first floor and
+the second bathrooms were being made.  If the place hadn't been so big,
+the workmen would have got in one another's way.  Closets big and
+little were being put in, and parts of a handsome staircase were lying
+about, until you wouldn't know the place at all.  Every evening the old
+servant and the neighbor next door, who used to rent the old barn
+before he built his own new one, came together to look over what had
+been accomplished during the day, and to discourse upon this changing
+world and the wonders of it.  The farmer, in fact, learned a great deal
+about modern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them
+to bear upon his own modest farmhouse.  He had money in the bank, and
+why shouldn't he "have things convenient for Sally"?
+
+When Sidney Graham reached the city on Monday morning he scarcely took
+time to read his mail in the office and give the necessary attention to
+the day's work before he was up and off again, flying along the
+Glenside Road as fast as his car would carry him.  His mind certainly
+was not on business that morning.  He was as eager as a child to see
+how work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small
+chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every
+minute count, no matter how much it cost.  He spent a large part of
+Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of
+progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn.  But when
+Tuesday arrived an accumulation of work at the office in connection
+with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk.
+He had hoped to get away in time to reach Glenside before the workmen
+left in the afternoon, but four o'clock arrived with still a great pile
+of letters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day.
+
+He had just signed his name for the forty-ninth time and laid his pen
+down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk
+rang.  He hesitated.  Should he answer it and be hindered again, or
+call his secretary and let her attend to it while he slipped away to
+his well-earned respite?  A second insistent ring, however, brought him
+back to duty and he reached out and took up the receiver.
+
+"Is this Mr. Sidney Graham?  Long distance is calling!"
+
+The young man frowned impatiently and wished he had sent for his
+secretary.  It was probably another tiresome confab on that Chicago
+matter, and it really wasn't worth the trouble, anyway.  Then a small
+scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke:
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Graham?  Well, this is Carol.  Say, Mr. Graham, I'm
+afraid something awful has happened to Shirley!  I don't know what to
+do, and I thought I'd better ask you."  Her voice broke off in a gasp
+like a sob.
+
+A cold chill struck at the young man's heart, and a vision of Shirley
+battling with the ocean waves was instantly conjured up.
+
+"Shirley!  Where is she?  Tell me, quick!" he managed to say, though
+the words seemed to stick in his throat.
+
+"She's down at Washington," answered Carol.  "Mr. Barnard phoned her
+last night.  There was something special nobody else could take notes
+about, because it was for a Government contract, and has to be secret.
+Mr. Barnard asked her to please go and she went this morning.  Mother
+didn't like her to go, but she addressed a lot of postal cards for her
+to write back, and one came postmarked Baltimore in this afternoon's
+mail, saying she was having a nice time.  But just now a call came for
+mother to go to the telephone.  She was asleep and George was crabbing
+so I had to come.  It was a strange man in Washington.  He said he had
+just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mother, that all
+said 'Help!  Quick!  Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to
+phone to the police.'  He took the postals to the police station, but
+he thought he ought to phone us.  And oh, Mr. Graham, _what shall I
+do_?  I can't tell mother.  It will kill her, and how can we help
+Shirley?"
+
+"Don't tell mother," said Graham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of
+his horror.  "Be a brave girl, Carol.  A great deal depends on you just
+now.  Have you phoned Mr. Barnard?  Oh, you say he's in Washington?  He
+was to meet your sister in Baltimore?  He _did_ meet her you say?  The
+postal card said she had met him?  Well, the next thing is to phone Mr.
+Clegg and find out if he knows anything.  I'll do that at once, and
+unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington
+on the next train.  Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past
+five.  I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry.  Then
+you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully.  Say
+you went to take a walk.  Isn't Elizabeth with you?  Well, tell her to
+help keep your mother from suspecting anything.  Above all things don't
+cry!  It won't do any good and it may do lots of harm.  Get George off
+by himself and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make
+some excuse to go down town after supper and stay at the telephone
+office till ten o'clock.  I may want to call him up from Washington.
+Now be a brave little girl.  I suspect your sister Shirley would tell
+you to pray.  Good-by."
+
+"I will!" gasped Carol.  "Good-by!"
+
+Graham pressed his foot on the bell under his desk and reached out to
+slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers.  His secretary
+appeared at the door.
+
+"Get me Barnard and Clegg on the phone!  Ask for Mr. Barnard or, if he
+isn't in, Mr. Clegg.  Then go out to the other phone and call up the
+station.  Find out what's the next express to Washington.  Tell
+Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the station and bring my car back
+to the garage."
+
+He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe,
+jotting down a few notes for the next day's work, trying to think of
+everything at once.  The secretary handed him the phone, quietly
+saying, "Mr. Clegg on the phone," and went out of the room.
+
+Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but
+just in receipt of a telegram from Police Headquarters in Washington
+saying that a book with Barnard and Clegg's address and an appeal from
+a young woman named Shirley Hollister who was apparently being
+kidnapped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a passing
+car and brought to them.  They had sent forces in search of the girl at
+once and would do all in their power to find her.  Meantime they would
+like any information that would be helpful in the search.
+
+Mr. Clegg was much excited.  He appeared to have lost his head.  He
+seemed glad to have another cooler mind at work on the case.  He
+spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the
+necessity for secrecy.  He said he hoped it wouldn't get into the
+papers, and that it would be Barnard and Clegg's undoing if it did.  He
+seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably
+had, than about the girl's situation.  When Graham brought him up
+rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard
+that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no
+significance to that.  He knew Barnard's usual hotel address in
+Washington but hadn't thought to phone him about the telegram from
+police headquarters.  Graham hung up at last in a panic of fury and
+dismay, ringing violently for his secretary again.
+
+"The next train leaves at five o'clock," she said capably, as she
+entered.  "Bromwell has gone after the car.  I told him to buy you a
+mileage book and save your time at this end.  You have forty minutes
+and he will be back in plenty of time."
+
+"Good!" said Graham.  "Now call up long distance and get me Police
+Headquarters in Washington.  No!  Use the phone in father's office
+please, I'll have to use this while you're getting them."
+
+As soon as she had left the room he called up the shore again and was
+fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being
+close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of
+nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders.
+
+"Can you give me an exact description of your sister's dress, and
+everything that she had with her when she started this morning?" asked
+Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down.
+
+Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley's simple outfit exactly,
+even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally
+through the small hand-bag she had carried.
+
+"Oh, yes!" she added, "and she had a book to read!  One she found here
+in the cottage.  It had a red cover and was called, "From the Car
+Behind."
+
+Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more details of
+Shirley's plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a
+message to George to be at the phone from half-past eight to ten.
+
+He was all ready to go to his train when the Washington call came in,
+and as he hurried to his father's office to answer it he found his
+heart crying out to an Unseen Power to help in this trying hour and
+protect the sweet girl in awful peril.
+
+"Oh, God, I love her!" he found his heart saying over and over again,
+as if it had started out to be an individual by itself without his will
+or volition.
+
+There was no comfort from Washington Police Headquarters.  Nothing more
+had been discovered save another crumpled postal lying along the
+roadside.  They received with alacrity, however, Mr. Barnard's
+Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and
+her belongings.  When Graham had finished the hasty conversation he had
+to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in
+the parlor car and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over
+him he was almost overwhelmed.  He had led a comparatively tranquil
+life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and
+this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way.
+Calamity?  No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity.  He was
+hurrying to her!  He would find her!  He would not allow himself to
+think that anything had befallen her.  But wherever she was, if she was
+still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying
+now, and he would pray too!  Yes, pray as she had taught him.  Oh, God!
+If he only knew how to pray better!  What was it she had said so often?
+"Whatsoever ye ask in my name"--yes, that was it--"I will do it."  What
+was that talismanic Name?  Ah!  Christ!  "Oh, God, in the name of
+Christ--"  But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite
+and dear to be put into words, so his petition went up in spirit form,
+unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in
+torture.
+
+At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to
+meet him at the train, and when he got out at Union Station the first
+person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through
+the bars of the train gate.  He grasped the young man's hand as if it
+were a last straw for a drowning man to cling to, and demanded in a
+shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister.
+
+One of the first questions that Graham asked was whether Barnard had
+been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation,
+to report her disappearance.
+
+"Well, no, I hadn't thought of that,"' said Barnard blankly.  "What
+would they know about it?  The fact is I was rather anxious to keep the
+facts from getting to them.  You see they warned me that there were
+parties anxious to get hold of those specifications.  It's Government
+work, you know."
+
+"They should know at once," said Graham sternly.  "They may have inside
+information which would give us a clew to follow.  The secret service
+men are onto a lot of things that we common mortals don't suspect."
+
+Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced.
+
+"Well, what _have_ you done so far?  We would better understand each
+other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground.  You
+have been in communication with Police Headquarters, of course?" asked
+Graham.
+
+"Why, no," said the older man apologetically.  "You see, I got here
+just in time for the train, and failing to find the young lady in the
+station where we had agreed to meet, I took it for granted that she had
+used the extra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city,
+as I suggested, and had somehow failed to get back in time.  I couldn't
+understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home to-night.
+I could have caught the train myself, but didn't exactly like to leave
+her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it's perfectly safe for
+a steady girl like that.  Afterward it occurred to me that she might
+have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but
+there was really very little time to decide, for the train pulled out
+two minutes after I reached the station.  I waited about here for a
+time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is
+stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for
+the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down
+to the shore for a few days; so I had something to eat and while I was
+in the dining-room your telegram came.  I was hoping somehow you had
+seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right."
+
+One could see the poor man had no conception of what was due to a lady
+in his care, and Graham looked at him for a moment with rage, wishing
+he could take him by the throat and shake some sense into him.
+
+"Then you don't know that she's been kidnapped and the police are out
+on track for her?" said Graham dryly.
+
+"No!  You don't say!" exclaimed Barnard, turning white and showing he
+had some real feeling after all.  "Kidnapped!  Why--why--how _could_
+she?  And she's got _those notes_!  Why, Graham!  You're fooling!  Why,
+how came you to know?"
+
+Graham told him tersely as he walked the man over to the telephone
+booths, and finished with:
+
+"Now, you go in that booth and phone your Government man, and I'll call
+up police headquarters and see what's doing.  We've got to work fast,
+for there's no telling what may have happened in the last three hours.
+It's up to us to find that girl before anything worse happens to her."
+
+White and trembling Barnard tottered into the booth.  When he came out
+again the sleuth-hounds of the Secret Service were on the trail of
+Shirley Hollister's captors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The car that was bearing Shirley Hollister through the lonely wooded
+road at a breathless speed suddenly came to a halt in the rear of an
+old house whose front faced on another road equally lonely.  During the
+brief time that they had been in the woods, the sky seemed to have
+perceptibly darkened with the coming evening.
+
+Shirley looked about her with increased fright.  It was almost night
+and here was her prison, far from town or human dwelling place.  Even
+the road was at some distance in front of the house, and there were
+more woods on either side.
+
+"This here is Secretary Baker's summer home," announced the man who had
+done the talking, as he climbed out of the car and opened the door for
+her.  "You can just step in the back door and go through to the parlor;
+the help's all out this afternoon.  The Secretary'll be down presently.
+He always takes a nap afternoons about this time.  I'll tell him you've
+come."
+
+There seemed nothing to do but obey, and Shirley chose to let the farce
+continue.  Surely the man must know she was not a fool, but it was
+better than open hostility.  There was nothing to be gained by
+informing him that she knew he was guying her.
+
+"Oh, Jesus Christ, I trust myself to you!" she breathed in her heart as
+she stepped across the leaf-strewn grass and looked about her,
+wondering whether she should ever walk the earth again after she had
+stepped into the dim tree-shrouded house.  But why go in?
+
+"I think I will remain out here," she said calmly, albeit her heart was
+pounding away like a trip-hammer.  "Please tell Mr. Baker to come to me
+here.  It is much pleasanter than in the house a day like this."
+
+"Aw no!  You won't neither!  The Secretary don't receive in the open
+air even in summer," drawled the man, and she noticed that he and the
+driver straightened up and stepped closer to her, one on either side.
+She gave one wild glance toward the open space.  There was simply no
+chance at all to run away even if she succeeded in eluding them at the
+start by a quick, unexpected dash.  They were alert athletic men, and
+no telling how many more were hidden in the house.
+
+"Oh, very well, of course, if it's a matter of etiquette!" said Shirley
+pleasantly, determined to keep up the farce as long as possible.
+
+A cold, dark air met the girl as she stepped within the creaking door
+and looked about her.  At her left was an old-fashioned kitchen, dusty
+and cobwebby.  A long, narrow hall led to the front of the house and
+her guide pointed her toward a room on the right.  There was something
+hollow and eerie in the sound of their footsteps on the old oaken
+floor.  The room into which she was ushered was musty and dusty as the
+rest.  The floor was covered with an ancient ingrain carpet.  The table
+was covered with a magenta felt cover stamped with a vine of black
+leaves and riddled with moth holes.  The walls were hung with old
+prints and steel engravings suspended by woollen cords and tassels.
+The furniture was dilapidated.  Everything was covered with dust, but
+there were finger marks in the dust here and there that showed the
+place had been recently visited.  Through an open doorway an old square
+piano was visible in what must be the parlor.  The place seemed to
+Shirley fairly teeming with memories of some family now departed.  She
+leaped to the quick conclusion that the house had been long deserted
+and had only recently been entered and used as a rendezvous for illegal
+conferences.  It occurred to her that there might be an opportunity for
+her to hide her precious papers somewhere safely if it came to it that
+she must be searched.  How about that piano?  Could she slip some of
+them between the keys?  But it was hardly likely that there would be
+opportunity for anything like that.
+
+She felt strangely calm as she looked about upon her prison.
+
+"H'm!  He ain't come yet!" remarked her guide as he glanced into the
+front room.  "Well, you can set down.  He won't be long now.  Joe, you
+jest look about a bit and see if you can find the Secretary, and tell
+him the young lady is here."
+
+The man flung himself full length on the carpet-covered couch and
+looked at her with satisfaction.
+
+"What train was that you said you must make?  I'm afraid now you might
+be going to be just a trifle late if he don't get a hustle on, but you
+can't hurry a great man like that you know."
+
+"Oh, it's no matter!" said Shirley coolly, looking around her with the
+utmost innocence.  "What a quaint old house!  Has it been in the family
+a long time?"
+
+The man looked at her amusedly.
+
+"You're a cute one!" he remarked affably.  "I believe you're a pretty
+good sport!  You know perfectly well you're in my power and can't do a
+turn to help yourself, yet you sail around here as calm as a queen!
+You're some looker, too!  Blamed if I'm not enjoying myself.  I
+wouldn't mind a kiss or two from those pretty lips----"
+
+But Shirley had melted through the doorway into the other room and her
+voice floated back with charming indifference as if she had not heard,
+though she was ready to scream with loathing and fear of the man:
+
+"Why, isn't this a delightful old piano?  The keys are actually
+mother-of-pearl.  Isn't it odd?  Would Mr. Baker mind if I played on
+it?"
+
+And before her astonished captor could get himself to the doorway she
+had sat down on the rickety old hair-cloth stool and swept the keys
+lightly.  The old chords trembled and shivered as if awaking from a
+tomb, and uttered forth a quavering, sweet sound like ancient memories.
+
+The man was too much astonished to stop her, amused too, perhaps, and
+interested.  Her white fingers over the dusty pearls in the growing
+dusk had a strange charm for the hardened reprobate, like the wonder of
+a flower dropped into the foulness of a prison.  Before he could
+recover, he was startled again by her voice soaring out in the empty
+echoing house:
+
+  Rock of ages, cleft for me,
+    Let me hide myself in Thee;
+  Let the water and the blood
+    From Thy riven side which flowed,
+  Be of sin the double cure,
+    Save me Lord and make me pure!
+
+
+Perhaps those dim, gloomy walls had echoed before to the grand old
+tune, but never could it have been sung in dire strait, or with more
+earnest cry from a soul in distress.  She had chosen the first words
+that seemed to fit the chords she had struck, but every syllable was a
+prayer to the God in whom she trusted.  It may be the man felt the
+power of her appeal as he stood rooted in the doorway and listened
+while she sang through all the verses she could remember.  But the last
+trembling note was broken harshly by Joe's voice at the kitchen door in
+sharp, rasping orders:
+
+"Hist, there!  Can that noise!  Do you want to raise hell here?  Wake
+up, Sam!  Get onto your job.  Hennie's comin'."
+
+"That's all right, Joe!  Dry up!  This is good Sunday School dope!
+This won't rouse no suspicions.  Go to the devil and mind your
+business!  I know what I'm about!"
+
+Shirley was almost ready to cry, but she drew a deep breath and started
+on another song:
+
+  Jesus, Lover of my soul,
+    Let me to Thy bosom fly,
+  While the nearer waters roll,
+    While the tempest still is high!
+  Hide me, oh, my Saviour hide,
+    Till the storm of life is past.
+
+
+On through the time-worn words she sang, while the sin-hardened man
+stood silently and listened.  His eyes had gradually lost their leer
+and grown soft and tender, as if some childhood memories of home and
+mother and a time when he was innocent and good were looking out his
+eyes, reminding him of what he once intended to be before he ate the
+apple of wisdom and became as the gods and devils.  Shirley gradually
+became aware that she was holding her strange audience; and a power
+beyond herself steadied her voice, and kept her fingers from trembling
+on the old pearl keys, as she wandered on from song to song; perhaps
+happening on the very ones,--who knows?--that this man, standing in the
+dying twilight of the old gloomy house, had sung beside his mother's
+hearth or in church during his childhood?  Certain it is that he stood
+there silent and listened for at least half an hour without an
+interruption, while the light in the big room grew dimmer and dimmer
+and all about the house seemed still as death in the intervals between
+her voice.  She was just beginning:
+
+  Abide with me,
+    Fast falls the eventide,
+  The darkness deepens,
+    Lord, with me abide!
+
+When the man put his hand in his pocket and brought out a candle.
+Scratching a match on his trousers, he lit the candle and set it
+carefully on the piano, where its light fell flickering, wavering over
+her worn young face; and who shall say that she was not a messenger
+from another world to this man who had long trodden the downward path?
+
+They were interrupted, however, before this song was finished by a
+newcomer who entered like a shadow and stood at the end of the piano
+looking wonderingly from Shirley to the man, when she glanced up.  She
+stopped, startled, for although he wore no brass buttons nor blue
+clothes she was quite sure those were the same gray eyes that had
+looked at her from the recess of the window in the Government office
+that afternoon, perhaps the same boy who had come after her car and
+sent her off on this long way into the wilderness.
+
+The man Sam straightened up suddenly and looked about him half-ashamed
+with an apologetic grin:
+
+"Oh, you've come, have you, Hennie?  Well, you been a long time about
+it!  But now I guess we'll get to work.  Where's Joe?  Out on the
+watch?  All right then, Miss, if you've no objection, we'll just take a
+little vacation on the psalm singin' and turn our attention to worldly
+things.  I calculate you're sharp enough to know what we brought you
+put here for?  I acknowledge you can sing real well, and you sorta got
+my goat for a while there with all that mourning bench tra-la, for you
+certainly have got that holy dope down fine; but now the time's come
+for business, and you needn't to think that because I can enjoy a
+little sentiment now and then in a leisure moment that you can put
+anything over on me, for it can't be did!  I mean business and I've got
+you in my power!  We're ten miles from any settlement, and no neighbors
+anywhere's about.  Everybody moved away.  So it won't do any good to
+work any funny business on us.  You can't get away.  We're all armed,
+and no one knows where you are!  If you behave yourself and do as
+you're told there won't be any trouble.  We'll just transact our
+business and then we'll have a bit of supper, and mebbe a few more
+tunes--got any rag-time in your repitwar?--and then sometime after
+midnight, when the moon's good and dark, we'll get you back to
+civilization where you won't have no trouble in gettin' home.  But if
+you act up and get funny, why you know what to expect.  There was a
+young girl murdered once in this house and buried in the cellar and
+ever since folks say it's hanted and they won't come near it.  That's
+the kind of a place we're in!  So, now are you ready?"
+
+Shirley sat cold and still.  It seemed as if her life blood had
+suddenly congealed in her veins and for a second she felt as if her
+senses were going to desert her.  Then the echo of her own song: "Hide
+me, oh, my Saviour hide!" seemed to cry out from her soul silently and
+she rallied once more and gained her self-control.
+
+"Well, Miss," went on the man impressively, "I see you're ready for the
+question, and you've got your nerve with you, too, I'll hand you that!
+But I warn you it won't do no good!  We brung you out here to get a
+hold of that note-book you wrote in this morning, and we're goin' to
+have it.  We know that Mr. Barnard left it in your care.  Hennie here
+heard him say for you to keep it.  So it won't be of any use for you to
+lie about it."
+
+"Of course!" said Shirley, standing up and reaching over for her
+hand-bag, which she had laid on the piano beside her while she played.
+"I understand perfectly.  But I'd like to ask you a question, Mr.----?"
+
+"Smith, or Jones, whichever you like to call it.  Spit it out!"
+
+"I suppose you are paid to bring me out here, Mr. Smith, and get my
+property away from me?" she said gravely.
+
+"Well, yes, we don't calculate to do it just for sweet charity."
+
+"And _I_ am paid to look after my note-book, you see.  It's a trust
+that has been given me!  I just _have_ to look after it.  It's out of
+the question for me to desert it!"  Shirley spoke coolly and held her
+little bag close in the firm grasp of her two hands.  The man stared at
+her and laughed.  The boy Hennie fairly gaped in his astonishment.  "A
+girl with all that nerve!"
+
+"Of course, I understand perfectly that you can murder me and bury me
+down in the cellar beside that other girl that was murdered, and
+perhaps no one will find it out for a while, and you can go on having a
+good time on the money you will get for it.  But the day will come when
+you will have to answer for it!  You know I didn't come here alone
+to-day----!"
+
+Both men looked startled and glanced uneasily into the shadows, as if
+there might be someone lurking there.
+
+"_God_ came with me and _He_ knows!  He'll _make you remember_ some
+day!"
+
+The boy laughed out a nervous ha! ha! of relief, but the man seemed
+held, fascinated by her look and words.  There was silence for a second
+while the girl held off the ruffian in the man by sheer force of her
+strong personality.  Then the boy laughed again, with a sneer in the
+end of it, and the spell was broken.  The leer came into the eyes of
+the man again.  The sneer of the boy had brought him to himself,--to
+the self he had come to be.
+
+"Nix on the sob-stuff, girlie!" he said gruffly.  "It won't go down
+with me!  We're here for business and we've been delayed too long
+already.  Come now, will you hand out that note-book or will we have to
+search you?"  He took one stride across to where she stood and wrenched
+the hand-bag from her grasp before she was aware of his intention.  She
+had not meant to give it up without a struggle, much as she loathed the
+thought of one.  She must make the matter last as long as possible, if
+perchance God was sending help to her, and must contest every inch of
+the way as far as lay in her power.  Oh, had anyone picked up her
+cards?  Had the book with its message reached any friendly eye?
+
+Frail and white and stern she stood with folded arms while they turned
+out the contents of the little bag and scattered it over the piano,
+searching with clumsy fingers among her dainty things.
+
+The note-book she had rolled within her handkerchiefs and made it hard
+to find.  She feared lest her ruse would be discovered when they looked
+it over.  The boy was the one who clutched for the little book,
+recognizing it as the one he had seen in the office that morning.  The
+man hung over his shoulder and peered in the candlelight, watching the
+boy anxiously.  It meant a good deal of money if they put this thing
+through.
+
+"Here it is!" said the boy, fluttering through the leaves and carefully
+scrutinizing the short-hand characters.  "Yes, that's the dope!"
+
+He ran his eye down the pages, caught a word here and there,
+technicalities of manufacture, the very items, of course, that he
+wanted, if this had been the specifications for the Government order.
+Shirley remembered with relief that none of the details were identical,
+however, with the notes she carried in her shoes.  The book-notes were
+in fact descriptive of an entirely different article from that demanded
+by the Government.  The question was, would these people be wise enough
+to discover that fact before she was out of their power or not?
+
+Furtively she studied the boy.  There was something keen and cunning
+about his youthful face.  He was thick-set, with blond hair and blue
+eyes.  He might be of German origin, though there was not a sign of
+accent about his speech.  He had the bull-dog chin, retreating forehead
+and eagle nose of the Kaiser in embryo.  Shirley saw all this as she
+studied him furtively.  That he was an expert in short-hand was proved
+by the ease with which he read some of her obscure sentences,
+translating rapidly here and there as he examined the book.  Was he
+well enough informed about the Government contract to realize that
+these were not the notes she had taken in the office that morning?  And
+should he fail to recognize it, was there perhaps some one higher in
+authority to whom they would be shown before she was released?  She
+shivered and set her weary toes tight with determination over the
+little crinkling papers in her shoes.  Somehow she would protect those
+notes from being taken, even if she had to swallow them.  There surely
+would be a way to hide them if the need came.
+
+Suddenly the tense strain under which she was holding herself was
+broken by the man.  He looked up with a grin, rubbing his hands with
+evident self-gratulation and relief:
+
+"That's all right, Girlie!  That's the dope we want.  Now we won't
+trouble you any longer.  We'll have supper.  Hennie, you go get some of
+that wood out in the shed and we'll have a fire on the hearth and make
+some coffee!"
+
+But Shirley, standing white and tense in the dim shadow of the room,
+suddenly felt the place whirling about her, and the candle dancing afar
+off.  Her knees gave way beneath her and she dropped back to the piano
+stool weakly, and covered her face with her hands, pressing hard on her
+eyeballs; trying to keep her senses and stop this black dizziness that
+threatened to submerge her consciousness.  She must not faint--if this
+was fainting.  She must keep her senses and guard her precious shoes.
+If one of those should fall off while she was unconscious all would be
+undone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The man looked up from the paper he was twisting for a fire and saw
+Shirley's attitude of despair.
+
+"Say, kid," he said, with a kind of gruff tenderness, "you don't need
+to take it that a-way.  I know it's tough luck to lose out when you
+been so nervy and all, but you knew we had it over you from the start.
+You hadn't a show.  And say!  Girlie!  I tell you what!  I'll make
+Hennie sit down right now and copy 'em off for you, and you can put 'em
+in your book again when you get back and nobody be the wiser.  We'll
+just take out the leaves.  We gotta keep the original o' course, but
+that won't make any beans for you.  It won't take you no time to write
+'em over again if he gives you a copy."
+
+Somehow it penetrated through Shirley's tired consciousness that the
+man was trying to be kind to her.  He was pitying her and offering her
+a way out of her supposed dilemma, offering to assist her in some of
+his own kind of deception.  The girl was touched even through all her
+other crowding emotions and weariness.  She lifted up her head with a
+faint little smile.
+
+"Thank you," she said, wearily, "but that wouldn't do me any good."
+
+"Why not?" asked the man sharply.  "Your boss would never know it got
+out through you."
+
+"But _I_ should know I had failed!" she said sadly.  "If you had my
+notes I should know that I had failed in my trust."
+
+"It wouldn't be your fault.  You couldn't have helped it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I could, and I ought.  I shouldn't have let the driver turn
+around.  I should have got out of that car and waited at the station as
+Mr. Barnard told me to do till he came.  I had been warned and I ought
+to have been on my guard.  So you see it _was_ my fault."
+
+She drooped her head forward and rested her chin dejectedly on the palm
+of her hand, her elbow on her knee.  The man stood looking at her for a
+second in half-indignant astonishment.
+
+"By golly!" he said at last.  "You certainly are some nut!  Well,
+anyhow, buck up, and let's have some tea.  Sorry I can't see my way
+clear to help you out any further, being as we're sort of partners in
+this job and you certainly have got some nerve for a girl, but you know
+how it is.  I guess I can't do no more'n I said.  I got my honor to
+think about, too.  See?  Hennie!  Get a move on you.  We ain't waitin'
+all night fer eats.  Bring in them things from the cupboard and let's
+get to work."
+
+Shirley declined to come to the table when at last the repast was
+ready.  She said she was not hungry.  In fact, the smell or the
+crackers and cheese and pickles and dried beef sickened her.  She felt
+too hysterical to try to eat, and besides she had a lingering feeling
+that she must keep near that piano.  If anything happened she had a
+vague idea that she might somehow hide the precious notes within the
+big old instrument.
+
+The man frowned when she declined to come to supper, but a moment later
+stumbled awkwardly across the room with a slopping cup of coffee and
+set it down beside her.
+
+"Buck up, girlie!" he growled.  "Drink that and you'll feel better."
+
+Shirley thanked him and tried to drink a few mouthfuls.  Then the
+thought occurred to her that it might be drugged, and she swallowed no
+more.  But she tried to look a bit brighter.  If she must pass this
+strange evening in the company of these rough men, it would not help
+matters for her to give way to despair.  So after toying with the
+teaspoon a moment, she put the cup down and began to play soft airs on
+the old piano again while the men ate and took a stealthy taste now and
+then from a black bottle.  She watched them furtively as she played,
+marvelling at their softened expressions, remembering the old line:
+
+"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," and wondering if
+perhaps there were not really something in it.  If she had not been in
+such a terrifying situation she would really have enjoyed the character
+study that this view of those two faces afforded her, as she sat in the
+shadow playing softly while they ate with the flaring candle between
+them.
+
+"I like music with my meals!" suddenly chanted out the boy in an
+interval.  But the man growled in a low tone:
+
+"Shut up!  Ain't you got no manners?"
+
+Shirley prolonged that meal as much as music could do it, for she had
+no relish for a more intimate tete-a-tete with either of her
+companions.  When she saw them grow restless she began to sing again,
+light little airs this time with catchy words; or old tender melodies
+of home and mother and childhood.  They were songs she had sung that
+last night in the dear old barn when Sidney Graham and Elizabeth were
+with them, and unconsciously her voice took on the wail of her heart
+for all that dear past so far away from her now.
+
+Suddenly, as the last tender note of a song died away Joe stumbled
+breathlessly into the room.  The boy Hennie slithered out of the room
+like a serpent at his first word.
+
+"Beat it!" he cried in a hoarse whisper.  "Get a move on!  All hell's
+out after us!  I bet they heard her singin'!  Take her an' beat it!
+I'll douse the fire an' out the candle."
+
+He seized a full bucket of water and dashed it over the dying fire.
+Shirley felt the other man grasp her arm in a fierce grip.  Then Joe
+snuffed out the candle with his broad thumb and finger and all was
+pitch dark.  She felt herself dragged across the floor regardless of
+furniture in the way, stumbling, choking with fear, her one thought
+that whatever happened she must not let her slippers get knocked off;
+holding her feet in a tense strain with every muscle extended to keep
+the shoes fastened on like a vise.  She was haunted with a wild thought
+of how she might have slipped under the piano and eluded her captor if
+only the light had gone out one second sooner before he reached her
+side.  But it was too late to think of that now, and she was being
+dragged along breathlessly, out the front door, perhaps, and down a
+walk; no, it was amongst trees, for she almost ran into one.  The man
+swore at her, grasped her arm till he hurt her and she cried out.
+
+"You shut up or I'll shoot you!" he said with an oath.  He had lost all
+his suavity and there was desperation in his voice.  He kept turning
+his head to look back and urging her on.
+
+She tripped on a root and stumbled to her knees, bruising them
+painfully, but her only thought was one of joy that her shoes had not
+come off.
+
+The man swore a fearful oath under his breath, then snatched her up and
+began to run with her in his arms.  It was then she heard Graham's
+voice calling:
+
+"Shirley!  Where are you?  I'm coming!"
+
+She thought she was swooning or dreaming and that it was not really he,
+for how could he possibly be here?  But she cried out with a voice as
+clear as a bell: "I'm here, Sidney, come quick!"  In his efforts to
+hush her voice, the man stumbled and fell with her in his arms.  There
+came other voices and forms through the night.  She was gathered up in
+strong, kind arms and held.  The last thought she had before she sank
+into unconsciousness was that God had not forgotten.  He had been
+remembering all the time and sent His help before it was too late; just
+as she had known all along He must do, because He had promised to care
+for His own, and she was one of His little ones.
+
+When she came to herself again she was lying in Sidney Graham's arms
+with her head against his shoulder feeling oh, so comfortable and
+tired.  There were two automobiles with powerful headlights standing
+between the trees, and a lot of policemen in the shadowy background.
+Her captor stood sullen against a tree with his hands and feet
+shackled.  Joe stood between two policemen with a rope bound about his
+body spirally, and the boy Hennie, also bound, beside his fallen
+bicycle, turned his ferret eyes from side to side as if he hoped even
+yet to escape.  Two other men with hawk-like faces that she had not
+seen before were there also, manacled, and with eyes of smouldering
+fires.  Climbing excitedly out of one of the big cars came Mr. Barnard,
+his usually immaculate pink face smutty and weary; his sparse white
+hair rumpled giddily, and a worried pucker on his kind, prim face.
+
+"Oh, my dear Miss Hollister!  How unfortunate!" he exclaimed.  "I do
+hope you haven't suffered too much inconvenience!"
+
+Shirley smiled up at him from her shoulder of refuge as from a dream.
+It was all so amusing and impossible after what she had been through.
+It couldn't be real.
+
+"I assure you I am very much distressed on your account," went on Mr.
+Barnard, politely and hurriedly, "and I hate to mention it at such a
+time, but could you tell me whether the notes are safe?  Did those
+horrid men get anything away from you?"
+
+A sudden flicker of triumph passed over the faces of the fettered man
+and the boy, like a ripple over still water and died away into
+unintelligence.
+
+But Shirley's voice rippled forth in a glad, clear laugh, as she
+answered joyously:
+
+"Yes, Mr. Barnard, they got my note-book, but not the notes!  They
+thought the Tilman-Brooks notes were what they were after, but the real
+notes are in my shoes.  Won't you please get them out, for I'm afraid I
+can't hold them on any longer, my feet ache so!"
+
+It is a pity that Shirley was not in a position to see the look of
+astonishment, followed by a twinkle of actual appreciation that came
+over the face of the shackled man beside the tree as he listened.  One
+could almost fancy he was saying to himself: "The nervy little nut!
+She put one over on me after all!"
+
+It was also a pity that Shirley could not have got the full view of the
+altogether precise and conventional Mr. Barnard kneeling before her on
+the ground, removing carefully, with deep embarrassment and concern,
+first one, then the other, of her little black pumps, extracting the
+precious notes, counting over the pages and putting them ecstatically
+into his pocket.  No one of that group but Shirley could fully
+appreciate the ludicrous picture he made.
+
+"You are entirely sure that no one but yourself has seen these notes?"
+he asked anxiously as if he hardly dared to believe the blessed truth.
+
+"Entirely sure, Mr. Barnard!" said Shirley happily, "and now if you
+wouldn't mind putting on my shoes again I can relieve Mr. Graham of the
+necessity of carrying me any further."
+
+"Oh, surely, surely!" said Mr. Barnard, quite fussed and getting down
+laboriously again, his white forelock all tossed, and his forehead
+perplexed over the unusual task.  How did women get into such a little
+trinket of a shoe, anyway?
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, our firm appreciates what you have done!
+We shall not forget it.  You will see, we shall not forget it!" he
+puffed as he rose with beads of perspiration on his brow.  "You have
+done a great thing for Barnard and Clegg to-day!"
+
+"She's done more than that!" said a burly policeman significantly
+glancing around the group of sullen prisoners, as Graham put her upon
+her feet beside him.  "She's rounded up the whole gang for us, and
+that's more than anybody else has been able to do yet!  She oughtta get
+a medal of some kind fer that!"
+
+Then, with a dare-devil lift of his head and a gleam of something like
+fun in his sullen eyes, the manacled man by the tree spoke out, looking
+straight at Shirley, real admiration in his voice:
+
+"I say, pard!  I guess you're the winner!  I'll hand you what's comin'
+to you if I do lose.  You certainly had your nerve!"
+
+Shirley looked at him with a kind of compassion in her eyes.
+
+"I'm sorry you have to be--there," she finished.  "You were--as fine as
+you could be to me under the circumstances, I suppose!  I thank you for
+that."
+
+The man met her gaze for an instant, a flippant reply upon his lips,
+but checked it and dropping his eyes, was silent.  The whole little
+company under the trees were hushed into silence before the miracle of
+a girl's pure spirit, leaving its impress on a blackened soul.
+
+Then, quietly, Graham led her away to his car with Barnard and the
+detectives following.  The prisoners were loaded into the other cars,
+and hurried on the way to judgment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The ride back to the city was like a dream to Shirley afterward.  To
+see the staid Mr. Barnard so excited, babbling away about her bravery
+and exulting like a child over the recovery of the precious notes, was
+wonder enough.  But to feel the quiet protection and tender interest of
+Sidney Graham filled her with ecstasy.  Of course it was only kindly
+interest and friendly anxiety, and by to-morrow she would have put it
+into order with all his other kindlinesses, but to-night, weary and
+excited as she was, with the sense of horror over her recent experience
+still upon her, it was sweet to feel his attention, and to let his
+voice thrill through her tired heart, without stopping to analyze it
+and be sure she was not too glad over it.  What if he would be merely a
+friend to-morrow again!  To-night he was her rescuer, and she would
+rest back upon that and be happy.
+
+"I feel that I was much to blame for leaving you alone to go to the
+station with a bait like these notes in your possession," said Mr.
+Barnard humbly.  "Though of course I did not dream that there was any
+such possibility as your being in danger."
+
+"It is just as well not to run any risks in these days when the country
+is so unsettled," said the detective dryly.
+
+"Especially where a lady is concerned!" remarked Graham significantly.
+
+"I suppose I should have taken Miss Hollister with me and left her in
+the cab while I transacted my business at the War Department!" said
+Barnard with self-reproach in his tones.
+
+"They would have only done the same thing in front of the War
+Department," said the detective convincingly.  "They had it all planned
+to get those notes somehow.  You only made it a trifle easier for them
+by letting the lady go alone.  If they hadn't succeeded here, they
+would have followed you to your home and got into your office or your
+safe.  They are determined, desperate men.  We've been watching them
+for some time, letting them work till we could find out who was behind
+them.  To-night we caught the whole bunch red-handed, thanks to the
+lady's cleverness.  But you had better not risk her alone again when
+there's anything like this on hand.  She might not come out so easy
+next time!"
+
+Graham muttered a fervent applause in a low tone to this advice,
+tucking the lap robes closer about the girl.  Barnard gave little
+shudders of apology as he humbly shouldered the blame:
+
+"Oh, no, of course not!  I certainly am so sorry!"  But Shirley
+suddenly roused herself to explain:
+
+"Indeed, you mustn't any of you blame Mr. Barnard.  He did the
+perfectly right and natural thing.  He always trusts me to look after
+my notes, even in the most important cases; and I heard the warning as
+much as he did.  It was my business to be on the lookout!  I'm old
+enough and have read enough in the papers about spies and ruffians.  I
+ought to have known there was something wrong when that boy ordered me
+back and said Mr. Barnard had sent me word.  I ought to have known Mr.
+Barnard would never do that.  I did know just as soon as I stopped to
+think.  The trouble was I was giving half my attention to looking at
+the strange sights out of the window and thinking what I would tell the
+folks at home about Washington, or I would not have got into such a
+position.  I insist that you shall not blame yourself, Mr. Barnard.  It
+is a secretary's business to be on her job and not be out having a good
+time when she is on a business trip.  I hadn't got beyond the city
+limits before I knew exactly what I ought to have done.  I should have
+asked that boy more questions, and I should have got right out of that
+car and told him to tell you I would wait in the station till you came
+for me.  It troubled me from the start that you had sent for me that
+way.  It wasn't like you."
+
+Then they turned their questions upon her, and she had to tell the
+whole story of her capture, Graham and Barnard exclaiming indignantly
+as she went on, the detective sitting grim and serious, nodding his
+approval now and then.  Graham's attitude toward her grew more tender
+and protective.  Once or twice as she told of her situation in the old
+house, or spoke of how the man dragged her along in the dark, he set
+his teeth and drew his breath hard, saying in an undertone: "The
+villain!"  And there was that in the way that he looked at her that
+made Shirley hasten through the story, because of the wild, joyous
+clamor of her heart.
+
+As soon as the city limits were reached, Graham stopped the car to
+telephone.  It was after eleven o'clock, and there was little chance
+that George would have stayed at the phone so long, but he would leave
+a message for the early morning at least.  George, however, had stuck
+to his post.
+
+"Sure!  I'm here yet!  What'd ya think?  Couldn't sleep, could I, with
+_my sister_ off alone with a fella somewhere _being kidnapped_?  What'd
+ya say?  Found her?  She's all right?  Oh, gee!  That's good!  I told
+Carol you would!  I told her not to worry!  What'd ya say?  Oh,
+Shirley's going to talk?  Oh, hello, Shirley!  How's Washington?  Some
+speed, eh?  Say, when ya coming home?  To-morrow?  That's good.  No,
+mother doesn't know a thing.  She thinks I went to bed early 'cause I
+planned to go fishing at sunrise.  She went to bed herself early.  Say,
+Mister Graham's a prince, isn't he?  Well, I guess I'll go to bed now.
+I might make the fishing in the morning yet, if I don't sleep too late.
+I sure am glad you're all right!  Well, so long, Shirley!"
+
+Shirley turned from the phone with tears in her eyes.  It wasn't what
+George said that made her smile tenderly through them, but the gruff
+tenderness in his boy tones that touched her so.  She hadn't realized
+before what she meant to him.
+
+They drove straight to the station, got something to eat, and took the
+midnight train back to their home city.  Graham had protested that
+Shirley should go to a hotel and get a good rest before attempting the
+journey, but she laughingly told him she could rest anywhere, and would
+sleep like a top in the train.  When Graham found that it was possible
+to secure berths in the sleeper for them all, and that they would not
+have to get out until seven in the morning he withdrew his protests;
+and his further activities took the form of supplementing her supper
+with fruit and bonbons.  His lingering hand-clasp as he bade her
+good-night told her how glad he was that she was safe; as if his eyes
+had not told her the same story every time there had been light enough
+for them to be seen!
+
+Locked at last into her safe little stateroom, with a soft bed to lie
+on and no bothersome notes to be guarded, one would have thought she
+might have slept, but her brain kept time to the wheels, and her heart
+with her brain.  She was going over and over the scenes of the eventful
+day, and living through each experience again, until she came to the
+moment when she looked up to find herself in Sidney Graham's arms, with
+her face against his shoulder.  Her face glowed in the dark at the
+remembrance, and her heart thrilled wildly sweet with the memory of his
+look and tone, and all his carefulness for her.  How wonderful that
+_he_ should have come so many miles to find her!  That he should have
+been the one to find her first, with all those other men on the hunt.
+He had forged ahead and picked her up before any of the others had
+reached her.  He had not been afraid to rush up to an armed villain and
+snatch her from her perilous position!  He was a man among men!  Never
+mind if he wasn't her own personal property!  Never mind if there were
+others in his own world who might claim him later, he was hers for
+to-night!  She would never forget it!
+
+She slept at last, profoundly, with a smile upon her lips No dream of
+villains nor wild automobile rides came to trouble her thoughts.  And
+when she woke in the home station with familiar sounds outside, and
+realized that a new day was before her, her heart was flooded with a
+happiness that her common sense found it hard to justify.  She tried to
+steady herself while she made her toilet, but the face that was
+reflected rosily from the mirror in her little dressing room would
+smile contagiously back at her.
+
+"Well, then, have it your own way for just one more day!" she said
+aloud to her face in the glass.  "But to-morrow you must get back to
+common sense again!"  Then she turned, fresh as a rose, and went out to
+meet her fellow travellers.
+
+She went to breakfast with Sidney Graham, a wonderful breakfast in a
+wonderful place with fountains and palms and quiet, perfect service.
+Mr. Barnard had excused himself and hurried away to his home, promising
+to meet Shirley at the office at half-past nine.  And so these two sat
+at a little round table by themselves and had sweet converse over their
+coffee.  Shirley utterly forgot for the time that she was only a poor
+little stenographer working for her bread and living in a barn.  Sidney
+Graham's eyes were upon her, in deep and unveiled admiration, his
+spirit speaking to hers through the quiet little commonplaces to which
+he must confine himself in this public place.  It was not till the meal
+was over and he was settling his bill that Shirley suddenly came to
+herself and the color flooded her sweet face.  What was she better than
+any other poor fool of a girl who let a rich man amuse himself for a
+few hours in her company and then let him carry her heart away with him
+to toss with his collection?  She drew her dignity about her and tried
+to be distant as they went out to the street, but he simply did not
+recognize it at all.  He just kept his tender, deferential manner, and
+smiled down at her with that wonderful, exalted look that made her
+dignity seem cheap; so there was nothing to do but look up as a flower
+would to the sun and be true to the best that was in her heart.
+
+She was surprised to find his own car at the door when they came out on
+the street.  He must have phoned for it before they left the station.
+He was so kind and thoughtful.  It was so wonderful to her to be cared
+for in this way.  "Just as if I were a rich girl in his own social
+set," she thought to herself.
+
+He gave his chauffeur the orders and sat beside her in the back seat,
+continuing his role of admirer and protector.
+
+"It certainly is great to think you're here beside me," he said in a
+low tone as they threaded their way in and out of the crowded
+thoroughfare toward the office.  "I didn't have a very pleasant
+afternoon and evening yesterday, I can tell you!  I don't think we'll
+let you go off on any more such errands.  You're too precious to risk
+in peril like that, you know!"
+
+Shirley's cheeks were beautiful to behold as she tried to lift her eyes
+easily to his glance and take his words as if they had been a mere
+commonplace.  But there was something deep down in the tone of his
+voice, and something intent and personal in his glance that made her
+drop her eyes swiftly and covered her with a sweet confusion.
+
+They were at the office almost immediately and Graham was helping her
+out.
+
+"Now, when will you be through here?" he asked, glancing at his watch.
+"What train were you planning to take down to the shore?  I suppose
+you'll want to get back as soon as possible?"
+
+"Yes," said Shirley, doubtfully, "I do.  But I don't know whether I
+oughtn't to run out home first and get mother's big old shawl, and two
+or three other little things we ought to have brought along."
+
+"No," said Graham, quickly, with a flash of anxiety in his face.  "I
+wouldn't if I were you.  They'll be anxious to see you, and if it's
+necessary you can run up again sometime.  I think you'll find there are
+lots of shawls down at the cottage.  I'm anxious to have you safely
+landed with your family once more.  I promised Carol you'd be down the
+first train after you got your work done.  How long is it going to take
+you to fix Mr. Barnard up so he can run things without you?"
+
+"Oh, not more than two hours I should think, unless He wants something
+more than I know."
+
+"Well, two hours.  It is half-past nine now.  We'll say two hours and a
+half.  That ought to give you time.  I think there's a train about
+then.  I'll phone to the station and find out and let you know the
+exact time.  The car will be here waiting for you."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Graham, that's not a bit necessary!  You have taken trouble
+enough for me already!" protested Shirley.
+
+"No trouble at all!" declared Graham.  "My chauffeur hasn't a thing to
+do but hang around with the car this morning and you might as well ride
+as walk.  I'll phone you in plenty of time."
+
+He lifted his hat and gave her a last look that kept the glow in her
+cheeks.  She turned and went with swift steps in to her elevator.
+
+Sidney Graham dropped his chauffeur at the station to enquire about
+trains and get tickets, with orders to report at his office within an
+hour, and himself took the wheel.  Quickly working his way out of the
+city's traffic he put on all possible speed toward Glenside.  He must
+get a glimpse of things and see that all was going well before he went
+to the office.  What would Shirley have said if she had carried out her
+plan of coming out for her mother's shawl?  He must put a stop to that
+at all costs.  She simply must not see the old barn till the work was
+done, or the whole thing would be spoiled.  Strange it had not occurred
+to him that she might want to come back after something!  Well, he
+would just have to be on the continual lookout.  For one thing he would
+stop at a store on the way back and purchase a couple of big steamer
+rugs and a long warm cloak.  He could smuggle them into the cottage
+somehow and have the servants bring them out for common use as if they
+belonged to the house.
+
+He was as eager as a child over every little thing that had been
+started during his absence, and walked about with the boss carpenter,
+settling two or three questions that had come up the day before.  In
+ten minutes he was back in his car, whirling toward the city again,
+planning how he could best get those rugs and cloaks into the hands of
+the housekeeper at the shore without anybody suspecting that they were
+new.  Then it occurred to him to take them down to Elizabeth and let
+her engineer the matter.  There must be two cloaks, one for Shirley,
+for he wanted to take her out in the car sometimes and her little scrap
+of a coat was entirely too thin even for summer breezes at the shore.
+
+Shirley met with a great ovation when she entered the office.  It was
+evident that her fame had gone before her.  Mr. Barnard was already
+there, smiling benevolently, and Mr. Clegg frowning approvingly over
+his spectacles at her, The other office clerks came to shake hands or
+called congratulations, till Shirley was quite overwhelmed at her
+reception.  Clegg and Barnard both followed her into the inner office
+and continued to congratulate her on the bravery she had shown and to
+express their appreciation of her loyalty and courage in behalf of the
+firm.  Mr. Barnard handed her a check for a hundred dollars as a slight
+token of their appreciation of her work, telling her that beginning
+with the first of the month her salary was to be raised.
+
+When at last she sat down to her typewriter and began to click out the
+wonderful notes that had made so much trouble, and put them in shape
+for practical use, her head was in a whirl and her heart was beating
+with a childish ecstasy.  She felt as if she were living a real fairy
+tale, and would not ever be able to get back to common every-day life
+again.
+
+At half-past eleven Graham called her up to tell her there was a train
+a little after twelve if she could be ready, and the car would be
+waiting for her in fifteen minutes.
+
+When she finally tore herself away from the smiles and effusive thanks
+of Barnard and Clegg and took the elevator down to the street she found
+Sidney Graham himself awaiting her eagerly.  This was a delightful
+surprise, for he had not said anything about coming himself or
+mentioned when he would be coming back to the shore, so she had been
+feeling that It might be some time before she would see him again.
+
+He had just slammed the door of the car and taken his seat beside her
+when a large gray limousine slowed down beside them and a radiant,
+well-groomed, much-tailored young woman leaned out of the car, smiling
+at Graham, and passing over Shirley with one of those unseeing stares
+wherewith some girls know so well how to erase other girls.
+
+"Oh, Sidney!  I'm so glad I met you!" she cried.  "Mother has been
+phoning everywhere to find you.  We are out at our country place for a
+couple of weeks, and she wants to ask you to come over this afternoon
+for a little tennis tournament we are having, with a dance on the lawn
+afterward."
+
+"That's very kind of you, Harriet," said Graham pleasantly, "but I
+can't possibly be there.  I have an engagement out of town for this
+afternoon and evening.  Give my regards to your mother, please, and
+thank her for the invitation.  I know you'll have a lovely time, you
+always do at your house."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad, Sidney!" pouted the girl.  "Why will you be so
+busy! and in the summer-time, too!  You ought to take a vacation!
+Well, if you can't come to-night, you'll run down over the week-end,
+won't you?  We are having the Foresters and the Harveys.  You like
+them, and we simply can't do without you."
+
+"Sorry," said Graham, smilingly, "but I've got all my week-ends filled
+up just now.  Harriet, let me introduce you to Miss Hollister.  Miss
+Hale, Miss Hollister!"
+
+Then did Harriet Hale have to take over her unseeing stare and
+acknowledge the introduction; somewhat stiffly, it must be
+acknowledged, for Harriet Hale did not enjoy having her invitations
+declined, and she could not quite place this girl with the lovely face
+and the half-shabby garments, that yet had somehow an air of having
+been made by a French artist.
+
+"I'm sorry, Harriet, but we'll have to hurry away.  We're going to
+catch a train at twelve-fifteen.  Hope you have a beautiful time this
+afternoon.  Remember me to Tom Harvey and the Foresters.  Sorry to
+disappoint you, Harriet, but you see I've got my time just full up at
+present.  Hope to see you soon again."
+
+They were off, Shirley with the impression of Harriet Hale's smile of
+vinegar and roses; the roses for Graham, the vinegar for her.
+Shirley's heart was beating wildly underneath her quiet demeanor.  She
+had at last met the wonderful Harriet Hale, and Graham had not been
+ashamed to introduce her!  There had been protection and enthronement
+in his tone as he spoke her name!  It had not been possible for Miss
+Hale to patronize her after that.  Shirley was still in a daze of
+happiness.  She did not think ahead.  She had all she could do to
+register new occurrences and emotions, and realize that her joy was not
+merely momentary.  It had not occurred to her to wonder where Graham
+was going out of town.  It was enough that he was here now.
+
+When they reached the station Graham took two large packages out of the
+car, and gave some directions to the chauffeur.
+
+"Sorry we couldn't have gone down in the car again," he said as they
+walked into the station, "but it needs some repairs and I don't want to
+take as long a run as that until it has been thoroughly overhauled."
+
+Then he was going down too!  He had declined Harriet Hale's invitation
+to go back to the cottage with her!  Shirley's breath came in little
+happy gasps as she walked beside her companion down the platform to the
+train.
+
+She found herself presently being seated in a big green velvet chair in
+the parlor car while the porter stowed away the two big packages in the
+rack overhead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+There was only one other passenger in the car, an old man nodding
+behind a newspaper, with his chair facing in the other direction.
+Graham took a swift survey of him and turned happily back with a smile
+to Shirley:
+
+"At last I have you to myself!" he said with a sigh of satisfaction
+that made Shirley's cheeks bloom out rosily again.
+
+He whirled her chair and his quite away from the vision of the old man,
+so that they were at the nearest possible angle to each other, and
+facing the windows.  Then he sat down and leaned toward her.
+
+"Shirley," he said in a tone of proprietorship that was tender and
+beautiful, "I've waited just as long as I'm going to wait to tell you
+something.  I know it's lunch time, and I'm going to take you into the
+dining-car pretty soon and get you some lunch, but I must have a little
+chance to talk with you first, please."
+
+Shirley's eyes gave glad permission and he hurried on.
+
+"Shirley, I love you.  I guess you've been seeing that for some time.
+I knew I ought to hide it till you knew me better, but I simply
+couldn't do it.  I never saw a girl like you, and I knew the minute I
+looked at you that you were of finer clay than other girls, anyway.  I
+knew that if I couldn't win you and marry you I would never love
+anybody else.  But yesterday when I heard you were in peril away off
+down in Washington and I away up here helpless to save you, and not
+even having the right to organize a search for you, I nearly went wild!
+All the way down on the train I kept shutting my eyes and trying to
+pray the way you told your Sunday School boys how to pray.  But all I
+could get out was, 'Oh, God, I love her!  Save her!  I love her!'
+Shirley, I know I'm not one-half worthy enough for you, but I love you
+with all my heart and I want you for my wife.  Will you marry me,
+Shirley?"
+
+When she had recovered a little from her wonder and astonishment, and
+realized that he had asked her to marry him, and was waiting for his
+answer, she lifted her wondering eyes to his face, and tried to speak
+as her conscience and reason bade her.
+
+"But I'm not like the other girls you know," she said bravely.  Then he
+broke in upon her fervently.
+
+"No, you're not like any other girl I know in the whole wide world.
+Thank God for that!  You are one among a thousand!  No, you're one
+among the whole earthful of women!  You're the _only_ one I could ever
+love!"
+
+"But listen, please; you haven't thought.  I'm not a society girl.  I
+don't belong in your circle.  I couldn't grace your position the way
+your wife ought to do.  Remember, we're nobodies.  We're poor!  We live
+in a _barn_!"
+
+"What do you suppose I care about that?" he answered eagerly.  "You may
+live in a barn all your days if you like, and I'll love you just the
+same.  I'll come and live in the barn with you if you want me to.  My
+position!  My circle!  What's that?  You'll grace my home and my life
+as no other girl could do.  You heart of my heart!  You strong, sweet
+spirit!  The only question I'm going to ask of you is, Can you love me?
+If you can, I know I can make you happy, for I love you better than my
+life.  Answer, please.  Do you love me?"
+
+She lifted her eyes, and their spirits broke through their glances.  If
+the old man at the other end of the car was looking they did not know
+it.
+
+They came back to the cottage at the shore with a manner so blissful
+and so unmistakable that even the children noticed.  Elizabeth
+whispered to Carol at table: "My brother likes your sister a lot,
+doesn't he?  I hope she likes him, too."
+
+"I guess she does," responded Carol philosophically.  "She oughtta.
+He's been awfully good to her, and to all of us."
+
+"People don't like people just for that," said wise Elizabeth.
+
+Harley, out on the veranda after dinner, drew near to Carol to confide.
+
+"Say, kid, I guess he _has_ got a case on her all right now.  Gee!
+Wouldn't that be great?  Think of all those cars!"
+
+But Carol giggled.
+
+"Good night!  Harley!  How could we ever have a wedding in a barn?  And
+they're such particular people, too!"
+
+"Aw, gee!" said Harley, disgusted.  "You girls are always thinking of
+things like that!  As if that mattered.  You can get married in a
+chicken-run if you really have a case like that on each other!  _You
+make me tired!_" and he stalked away in offended male dignity.
+
+Meantime the unconscious subjects of this discussion had gone to Mrs.
+Hollister to confess, and the sea was forgotten by all three for that
+one evening at least, even though the moon was wide and bright and gave
+a golden pathway across the dark water.  For a great burden had rolled
+from Mrs. Hollister's shoulders when she found her beloved eldest
+daughter was really loved by this young man, and he was not just
+amusing himself for a little while at her expense.
+
+The days that followed were like one blissful fleeting dream to
+Shirley.  She just could not get used to the fact that she was engaged
+to such a prince among men!  It seemed as if she were dreaming, and
+that presently she would wake up and find herself in the office with a
+great pile of letters to write, and the perplexing problem before her
+of where they were going to live next winter.  She had broached that
+subject once to Graham shyly, saying that she must begin to look around
+as soon as she got back to town, and he put her aside, asking her to
+leave that question till they all went back, as he had a plan he
+thought she might think well of, but he couldn't tell her about it just
+yet.  He also began to urge her to write at once to Mr. Barnard and
+resign her position, but that she would not hear of.
+
+"No," she said decidedly.  "We couldn't live without my salary, and
+there are a lot of things to be thought out and planned before I can be
+married.  Besides, we need to get to know each other and to grow into
+each other's lives a little bit.  You haven't any idea even now how far
+I am from being fitted to be the wife of a man in your position.  You
+may be sorry yet.  If you are ever going to find it out, I want you to
+do it beforehand."
+
+He looked adoringly into her eyes.
+
+"I know perfectly now, dear heart!" he said, "and I'm not going to be
+satisfied to wait a long time for you to find out that you don't really
+care for me after all.  If you've got to find that out, I believe I'd
+rather it would be after I have you close and fast and you'll _have_ to
+like me anyway."
+
+And then the wonder and thrill of it all would roll over her again and
+she would look into his eyes and be satisfied.
+
+Still she continued quite decided that nothing could be done about
+prolonging her vacation, for she meant to go back to Barnard and
+Clegg's on the day set.
+
+"You know I'm the man of the house," she said archly.  "I can't quite
+see it at all myself--how I'm ever going to give up."
+
+"But I thought I was going to be the man of the house," pleaded Sidney.
+"I'm sure I'm quite capable and eager to look out for the interests of
+my wife's family."
+
+"But you see I'm not the kind of a girl that has been looking around
+for a man who will support my family."
+
+"No, you surely are not!" said the young man, laughing.  "If you had
+been, young lady, I expect you'd have been looking yet so far as I am
+concerned.  It is because you are what you are that I love you.  Now
+that's all right about being independent, but it's about time to fight
+this thing to a finish.  I don't see why we all have to be made
+miserable just because there are a lot of unpleasant precedents and
+conventions and crochets in the world.  Why may I not have the pleasure
+of helping to take care of your perfectly good family if I want to?  It
+is one of the greatest pleasures to which I am looking forward, to try
+and make them just as happy as I can, so that you will be the happier.
+I've got plenty to do it with.  God has been very good to me in that
+way, and why should you try to hinder me?"
+
+And then the discussion would end in a bewildering look of worshipful
+admiration on Shirley's part and a joyous taking possession of her and
+carrying her off on some ride or walk or other on the part of Graham.
+
+He did not care just now that she was slow to make plans.  He was
+enjoying each day, each hour, to the full.  He wanted to keep her from
+thinking about the future, and especially about the winter, till she
+got home, and so he humored her and led her to other topics.
+
+One night, as they sat on the dark veranda alone, Graham said to George:
+
+"If you were going to college, where would you want to prepare?"
+
+He wondered what the boy would say, for the subject of college had
+never been mentioned with relation to George.  He did not know whether
+the boy had ever thought of it.  But the answer came promptly in a
+ringing voice:
+
+"Central High!  They've got the best football team in the city."
+
+"Then you wouldn't want to go away to some preparatory school?"
+
+"No, _sir_!" was the decided answer.  "I believe in the public school
+every time!  When I was a little kid I can remember my father taking me
+to walk and pointing out the Central High School, and telling me that
+some day I would go there to school.  I used to always call that 'my
+school.'  I used to think I'd get there yet, some day, but I guess
+that's out of the question."
+
+"Well, George, if that's your choice you can get ready to enter as soon
+as you go back to the city."
+
+"What?"  George's feet came down from the veranda railing with a thud,
+and he sat upright in the darkness and stared wildly at his prospective
+brother-in-law.  Then he slowly relaxed and his young face grew grim
+and stern.
+
+"No chance!" he said laconically.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I've got my mother and the children to support.  I can't waste
+time going to school.  I've got to be a _man_."
+
+Something sudden like a choke came in the young man's throat, and a
+great love for the brave boy who was so courageous in his self-denial.
+
+"George, you're not a man yet, and you'll shoulder the burden twice as
+well when you're equipped with a college education.  I mean you shall
+have it.  Do you suppose I'm going to let my new brother slave away
+before his time?  No, sir; you're going to get ready to make the best
+man that's in you.  And as for your mother and the family, isn't she
+going to be my mother, and aren't they to be my family?  We'll just
+shoulder the job together, George, till you're older--and then we'll
+see."
+
+"But I couldn't take charity from anybody."
+
+"Not even from a brother?"
+
+"Not even from a brother."
+
+"Well, suppose we put it in another way.  Suppose you borrow the money
+from me to keep things going, and when you are ready to pay it back
+we'll talk about it then.  Or, better still, suppose you agree to pass
+it on to some other brother when you are able."
+
+They talked a long time in the dark, and Graham had quite a hard time
+breaking down the boy's reserve and independence, and getting a real
+brotherly confidence.  But at last George yielded, saw the common sense
+and right of the thing, and laid an awkward hand in the man's, growling
+out:
+
+"You're a pippin and no mistake, Mr. Graham.  I can't ever thank you
+enough!  I never thought anything like this would happen to me!"
+
+"Don't try thanks, George.  We're brothers now, you know.  Just you do
+your best at school, and it's all I ask.  Shirley and I are going to be
+wonderfully proud of you.  But please don't call me Mr. Graham any
+more.  Sid, or Sidney, or anything you like, but no more mistering."
+
+He filing a brotherly arm across the boy's shoulders and together they
+went into the house.
+
+Meantime the beautiful days went by in one long, golden dream of
+wonder.  The children were having the time of their lives, and
+Elizabeth was never so happy.  Shirley sat on the wide verandas and
+read the wealth of books and magazines which the house contained, or
+roamed the beach with the children and Star, or played in the waves
+with Doris, and wondered if it were really Shirley Hollister who was
+having all this good time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The morning they all started back to the city was a memorable one.
+Graham had insisted that Shirley ask for a holiday until Tuesday
+morning so that she might go up with them in the car, and have the
+whole day to be at home and help her mother get settled.  She had
+consented, and found to her surprise that Mr. Barnard was most kind
+about it.  He had even added that he intended to raise her salary, and
+she might consider that hereafter she was to have ten dollars more per
+month for her services, which they valued very highly.
+
+George had sent his resignation to the store and was not to go back at
+all.  Graham had arranged that, for school began the day after his
+return and he would need to be free at once.
+
+Elizabeth, to her great delight, was to go with the Hollisters and
+remain a few days until her parents returned.  Mrs. Graham had written
+from the West making a proposition to Mrs. Hollister that Carol be
+allowed to go to school with Elizabeth the next winter, because Mrs.
+Graham felt it would be so good for Elizabeth to have a friend like
+that.  Mrs. Hollister, however, answered that she felt it better for
+her little girl to remain with her mother a little longer; and that she
+did not feel it would be a good thing for her child, who would be
+likely to have a simple life before her with very few luxuries, to go
+to a fashionable finishing-school where the standards must all
+necessarily be so different from those of her own station in life, and,
+kind as the offer had been, she must decline it.  She did not say that
+Carol had fairly bristled at the idea of leaving her beloved high
+school now when she was a senior and only one year before her
+graduation.  That bit of horror and hysterics on Carol's part had been
+carefully suppressed within the four walls of her mother's room; but
+Elizabeth, deeply disappointed, had wept her heart out over the matter,
+and finally been comforted by the promise that Mrs. Hollister would
+write and ask Mrs. Graham to allow Elizabeth to go to school with Carol
+the coming winter.  That proposition was now on its way West, together
+with an announcement of Sidney's engagement to Shirley.  Sidney was
+confidently expecting congratulatory telegrams that morning when he
+reached the city.  He had written his father in detail all about their
+plans for returning, and how the work at the old barn was progressing,
+and Mr. Graham, Senior, was too good a manager not to plan to greet the
+occasion properly.  Therefore Graham stopped at his office for a few
+minutes before taking the family out to Glenside, and, sure enough,
+came down with his hands full of letters and telegrams, and one long
+white envelope which he put carefully in his breast pocket.  They had a
+great time reading the telegrams and letters.
+
+The way out to Glenside seemed very short now, watching as they did for
+each landmark.  The children were as eager to get back as they had been
+to leave, and Star snuggled in between Harley's feet, held his head
+high, and smiled benevolently on everybody, as if he knew he was going
+home and was glad.  They began to wonder about the chickens, and if the
+garden was all dried up, and whether the doves were all right.  There
+was an undertone of sadness and suppressed excitement, for it was in
+the minds of all the Hollisters that the time in the old barn must of
+necessity be growing brief.  The fall would soon be upon them, and a
+need for warmth.  They must go hunting for a house at once.  And yet
+they all wanted this one day of delight before they faced that question.
+
+At last they reached the final curve and could see the tall old tree in
+the distance, and the clump of willows knee-deep in the brook.  By
+common consent they all grew silent, watching for the first glimpse of
+the dear old barn.
+
+Then they came around the curve, and there it was!  But what was the
+matter?
+
+Nobody spoke.  It seemed as if they could not get their breath.
+
+Shirley rubbed her eyes, and looked again.  Mrs. Hollister gave a
+startled look from her daughter to Graham and back to the barn again.
+Elizabeth and Carol were utterly silent, grasping each other's hands in
+violent ecstasy.  The boys murmured inarticulately, of which the only
+audible words were: "Good night!  Some class!"  Doris looked for a long
+second, puckered her lips as if she were going to cry, and inquired
+pitifully: "I yant my dear barn house home!  I yant to doh home!" and
+Star uttered a sharp, bewildered bark and bounded from the car as if
+this were something he ought to attend to.
+
+But before anybody could say anything more, Graham brought out the long
+white envelope and handed it to Shirley.
+
+"Before you get out and go in I just want to say a word," he began.
+"Father and I both want Shirley to have the old barn for her very own,
+to do with as she pleases.  This envelope contains the deed for the
+property made out in her name.  We have tried to put it in thorough
+repair before handing it over to her, and if there is anything more she
+can think of that it needs we'll do that too.  And now, welcome home to
+the old barn!  Mother, may I help you out?"
+
+"But there isn't any barn any more," burst forth the irrepressible
+Elizabeth.  "The barn's gone!  It's just a house!"
+
+And, sure enough, there stood a stately stone mansion on a wide green
+terrace, where shrubs and small trees were grouped fittingly about,
+erasing all signs of the old pasture-land; and the old grassy incline
+to the door now rolled away in velvety lawn on either side of a smooth
+cement walk bordered with vivid scarlet geraniums.  Trailing vines and
+autumn flowers were blossoming in jars on the wide stone railing.  The
+old barn door had been replaced by glass which gave a glimpse of
+strange new rooms beyond, and the roof had broken forth in charming
+colonial dormer windows like a new French hat on a head that had worn
+the same old poke bonnet for years.  No wonder Doris didn't recognize
+the dear old barn.  It did seem as though a wizard had worked magic
+upon it.  How was one to know that only a brief half-hour before the
+old gardener from the Graham estate set the last geranium in the row
+along the walk, and trailed the last vine over the stone wall; or that
+even now the corps of men who had been hastily laying and patting the
+turf in place over the terrace were in hiding down in the basement,
+with their wheelbarrows and picks and spades, having beat a hasty
+retreat at the sound of the car coming, and were only waiting till they
+could get away unobserved?  For orders were orders, and the orders were
+that the work was to be _done_ and every man out of sight by the time
+they arrived.  A bonus to every man if the orders were obeyed.  That is
+what money and influence can do in a month!
+
+In due time they got themselves out of that car in a sort of bewildered
+daze and walked up the new cement path, feeling strangely like
+intruders as they met the bright stare of the geraniums.
+
+They walked the length of the new piazza in delight.  They exclaimed
+and started and smiled and almost wept in one another's arms.  Graham
+stood and watched Shirley's happy face and was satisfied.
+
+The first thing Doris did when she got inside the lovely glass door was
+to start to run for her own little willow chair and her own little old
+rag doll that had been left behind, and down she went on the slippery
+floor.  And there, behold, the old barn floors too had disappeared
+under a coating of simple matched hardwood flooring, oiled and polished
+smoothly, and Doris was not expecting it.
+
+She got up quickly, half ashamed, and looked around laughing.
+
+"I vas skating!" she declared with a ringing laugh.  "I skated yite
+down on mine nose."
+
+Then she hurried more cautiously to the haven of her own chair, and
+with her old doll hugged to her breast she reiterated over and over as
+if to reassure herself: "Mine!  Doris!  Mine!  Doris!"
+
+Words would fail to describe all they said about the wonderful rooms,
+the walls all shining in a soft rough-finish plaster, tinted creamy on
+the upper half and gray below, and finished in dark chestnut trimmings;
+of the beautiful staircase and the wide bay window opening from the
+first landing like a little half-way room, with seats to rest upon.  It
+was standing in this bay window that Graham first called Mrs.
+Hollister's attention to something strange and new outside behind the
+house.  It was a long, low glass building with green things gleaming
+through its shining roof.
+
+"There, mother," he said, coming up softly behind her.  "There is your
+plaything.  You said you had always wanted a hot-house, so we made you
+one.  It is heated from a coil in the furnace, and you can try all the
+experiments with flowers you want to.  We put in a few things to start
+with, and you can get more at your leisure."
+
+Mrs. Hollister gave one look, and then turned and put her arms around
+the tall young man, reaching up on her tip-toes to do so, brought his
+handsome face down to hers, and kissed him.
+
+"My dear son!" she said.  That was all, but he knew that she had
+accepted him and given him a loving place with her own children in her
+heart.
+
+There were shoutings and runnings up stairs and down by first one and
+then another.  The bathrooms were discovered one by one, and then they
+had to all rush down into the basement by the new stairs to see the new
+laundry and the new furnace, and the entrance to the hot-house; and the
+hot-house itself, with its wealth of bloom transplanted from the Graham
+greenhouses.
+
+They almost forgot the chickens and the doves, and the garden was a
+past Eden not to be remembered till long hours afterward.
+
+The sunset was dying away in the sky, and the stars were large and few
+and piercing in the twilight night when Shirley and Sidney came walking
+up the terrace arm in arm, and found Doris sitting in the doorway
+cuddling her old rag doll and a new little gray kitten the farmer next
+door had brought her, and singing an evening song to herself.
+
+Shirley and Sidney turned and looked off at the sky where a rosy stain
+was blending softly into the gray of evening.
+
+"Do you remember the first night we stood here together?" Sidney said
+in a low tone, as he drew her fingers within his own.  "I loved you
+then, Shirley, that first night----"
+
+And then Doris's little shrill voice chimed above their murmurings:
+
+"Oh, mine nice dear home!  Mine kitty an' mine dolly! and mine piazza!
+and mine bafwoom wif a place to swim boats! an' mine fowers an' pitty
+house!  No more barn!  Barn _all dawn_!  Never turn bat any moh!  Oh,
+mine nice, pitty dear home!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
+
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