"Yes, it must be," Uncle Amos nodded his head in affirmation. He looked at the hired girl, who did not appear to notice him. "I just wish I was twenty years younger," he added. A week later Amanda and Martin were sitting in one of the big rooms of the Reist farmhouse. Through the open door came the sound of Millie and Mrs. Reist in conversation, with an occasional deeper note in Uncle Amos's slow, contented voice. "Do you know," said Martin, "I was never much of a hand to remember poetry, but there's one verse I read at school that keeps coming to me since I know you are going to marry me. That verse about 'A perfect woman, nobly planned To warn, to comfort, and command.'" "Oh, no, Martin! You put me on a pedestal, and that's a tottering bit of architecture." "Not on a pedestal," he contradicted, "but right by my side, walking together, that's the way we want to go." "That's the only way. It's the way my parents went and the way yours are still going." She rose and brought to him a little book. "Read Riley's 'Song of the Road,'" she told him. He opened the book and read the musical verses: "'O I will walk with you, my lad, whichever way you fare, You'll have me, too, the side o' you, with heart as light as air. No care for where the road you take's a-leadin'--anywhere,-- It can but be a joyful ja'nt the whilst _you_ journey there. The road you take's the path o' love, an' that's the bridth o' two-- An' I will walk with you, my lad--O I will walk with you.' "Why," he exclaimed, "that's beautiful! Riley knew how to put into words the things we all feel but can't express. Let's read the rest." Her voice blended with his and out in the adjoining room Millie heard and listened. Silently the hired girl walked to the open door. She watched the two heads bending over the little book. Her heart ached for the happy childhood and the romance she had missed. The closing words of the poem came distinctly to her; "'Sure, I will walk with you, my lad, As love ordains me to,-- To Heaven's door, and through, my lad, O I will walk with you.'" "Say," she startled the lovers by her remark, "if that ain't the prettiest piece I ever heard!" "Think so?" said Martin kindly. "I agree with you." "Yes, it sounds nice but the meanin' is what abody likes." The hired girl went back to her place in the other room. But Amanda turned to the man beside her and said, "Romance in the heart of Millie! Who would guess it?" "There's romance everywhere," Martin told her. "Millie's heart wouldn't be the fine big thing it is if she didn't keep a space there for love and romance." CHAPTER XXV THE HEART OF MILLIE