150 
A DAY OF PLAY 
note out of his pocket and gave it to me. It was 
from his mother, asking us there the coming Sat- 
urday afternoon to see the roses. 
“But we have already seen them,” I said. “We 
were looking at them only yesterday.” 
“Oh,” Mr. Percy said, “that is only a way 
mother has of getting the people together. I be- 
lieve it is to be a garden party, or something of the 
sort.” 
I said I would tell Joseph. 
“You must surely come, though,” Mr. Percy 
continued, adding that, if we remained away, he 
would think we would do less for him than for his 
father. 
I cannot remember then how it slipped out, but 
I told Mr. Percy we thought his father very like 
the wind. I was sorry the instant I said it, and felt 
sure that Joseph would have known better. The 
words, however, were spoken ; there was no calling 
them back. 
I never heard Mr. Percy laugh so much before. 
Usually he is quiet, and a little grave. He seemed 
not in the least offended, however, that we had 
amused ourselves with this thought. When at 
length he stopped laughing, there seemed to be 
more things for each of us to talk about. He asked 
a great many questions about our lives before we 
came to the Six Spruces, and wished to know if we 
had found it hard leaving all our old friends, and 
coming where every one was strange to us. He 
