"He looks nice--don't he?" She held it toward Aunt Jane. "And that's Wesley. His tie don't set quite straight." Regret and pride mingled over the tie and smiled at it fondly. "And that's Lulie! It's the whole family!" "Well, I _am pleased_!" She lay back and looked at them, proud and content, and Aunt Jane praised the children. "I've got another one here," said the man. He looked half shamefaced as he drew it out. Aunt Jane took it and smiled, and glanced from the picture to his face. "Yes, it's good-- Looks like you," she said. The woman raised a curious hand to it---- "Why--John!" He stood smiling almost bashfully. "I thought you'd better have the whole family while you were about it," he said. She gathered her family into eager hands. "I'd rather have them than anything in the world!" she said softly. "They didn't cost much," he volunteered. "Twenty cents apiece--the kind you send on post-cards, you know." "I don't care what they cost!" said the little woman. "It's worth it!... The doctor says I'm going to be real well, John, when I get up." She was looking at the baby, in his knitted sack. "But there won't be any more babies," she said half wistfully. John blew his nose violently and looked out of the window. "I'd better be going," he announced. "Yes--time for you to go," said Aunt Jane. She moved with him toward the door. In the corridor he turned to her. "Tickled most to death, wa'n't she?--I was kind o' 'fraid she'd think it was foolish." "If more men were foolish, the world would get along a good deal better," said Aunt Jane cryptically. She beamed on him. "You better not come again for four-five days now, Mr. Pelton. She'd ought to keep quiet and not think about what the children are doing and what's going on. "She can think about her pictures for a while," she added kindly as his face fell. "There's times when picture children help more than real ones--more handy for sick folks sometimes." "I guess that's so," said the man. "I don't know as I ever saw her look so pleased--not since before we were married," he added thoughtfully. Aunt Jane watched him march happily down the corridor. Then she turned back to the room. The woman had spread the children in a little row along the ridge of the blanket, and was looking at them with happy eyes. She turned her gaze to Aunt Jane as she came in. "Wa'n't that just like a man!" she said deprecatingly. "Just like a man," assented Aunt Jane. "One of them senseless things that comes out all right!" She sat down comfortably by the bed. "Sometimes I think men don't know any more'n big grampuses--they just go blundering along!" She looked benevolently at the row of faces on the blanket. XVI Half-way down the corridor Aunt Jane encountered Miss Canfield. The nurse stopped her with a word. "Mr. Medfield keeps asking for you." She raised her chin a little as she spoke. Aunt Jane regarded it mildly. "Anything the matter with him?" she asked.