94 



HO^LE ASD FLO WEBS 



the trees bore aloft their magnificent snow- 

 white cnps, brimming over with fragrance. 

 Underfoot, the blaelv mold, a foot in depth, 

 fed a great family of shade-loving plants, 

 and the children ran on aliead of her. wild 

 with delight over each new treasure. Mrs. 

 ^Taring's preoccupation had to give way 

 for the while, in their happiness. She 

 could not remember that in all their yoitng 

 lives she had ever carried them to the 

 woods before. 



They fonnd Itixiiriant clumps of ferns 

 in many varieties, and her experienced 

 hands lifted them carefnlly. with the mold 

 clinging to them, and placed them in the 

 baskets; there were bnnches of what Billy 

 called ^^leart leaf, which the children 

 insisted on taking tip. and down deeper in 

 the dell, in the edges of a tinv pool, a 

 perfect mat of Indian pencils in full 

 flower, their ivory cylinders pointing sky- 

 ward from the bed of lily-like leaves. 

 Xearby grew the delicate pink star-tlowers. 

 and otit in the sunshine the golden 

 coreopsis were shovring in a thin glow of 

 early bloom. 



They gathered until the baskets were 

 filled, and Mrs. Waring sat down in the 

 cool shadows to rest awhile. Xearby Anita. 

 Carl and little Alice paddled aljout in the 

 shallow water, their first distracting ex- 

 perience of wading in a brook. Xed and 

 Billy, quite forgetful of their late approach 

 to combat, had climbed high into the mag- 

 nolia trees to get some of the fragrant 

 blossoms to carry home with them. 



Mrs. Waring resumed her interru]3ted 

 thoughts. What if present conditions 

 must be permanent ? What if it was never 

 to be, that she might give those ])lithe- 

 hearted children their first insight into the 

 great world of people and scenes outside 

 the prosaic little town of Wimbledon? 

 She could see how narrow a horizon had 

 bounded Billy's life, and yet his mother, 

 whom she had lately met, seemed a fairly 

 well-educated and well bred woman. 

 Billy's vernacular was shocking, and his 

 ideas no less so. Another quesfion con- 

 fronted her — her children's associations, 



and their influence. How was she to live 

 a life of ht^r own. and yet keep in such 

 close touch with them as to be instantly 

 able to counteract the undesirable? Xed 

 was already at the restless age. and would 

 break away from his dependence on the 

 inner home life at the first excuse, and 

 his example must surely tell upon the 

 younger ones. 



The conclusion was inevitable. She 

 must live with and for those lives en- 

 trusted to her care, letting evervthino- 

 else go. if necessarv. It was with a si^'h 

 that she relinquished the memory of those 

 happy afternoons and evenings in the old 

 home, when congenial spirits had gathered 

 there, and her own intellect and per- 

 sonality had been stimulated to their 

 best, by the attrition of the minds of 

 bright men and women. She could see no 

 place to hope for a resumption of that 

 dear social life, and yet. as shn slowlv. 

 that Spring afternoon, made up her mind 

 that it must remain onlv as a niemorv. she 

 felt glad that she had once been a part 

 of it. 



AVhen long pale rays of dying sunlight 

 came slanting through the trees, the little 

 party with their laden baskets went back 

 through the woods to the House of Happy 

 Hours. As they came near it. Mrs. War- 

 ing thought how she had been prompted 

 to call it so. by the renewal of a hope, in 

 the mocking-lurd's song, a hope which she 

 had hugged to herself as a stav until 

 things should take a turn, but now as she 

 looked across the bobbing golden heads 

 of the little ones trotting on ahead to the 

 father standing bareheaded in the yellow 

 radiance of the evening. a beautiful resolve, 

 not dependent on any future of ease and 

 comfort, took deep root in heart, to stay 

 there forever, blessing her and hers. 



^'It shall be the House of Happy Hours, 

 whether things change or not. Gilbert 

 shall go from it cheered and strengthened 

 for his work — the children shall see onlv 

 the good and true there, and I — God will- 

 ing — I shall in time learn to Ijecome as 

 a little child in faith and trust." 



