"Dear man--shouldn't I know her by this time!" exclaimed Patience very impatiently. "What has she to live for but this baby? If only you would understand--if only you would see that she has left the way clear for you! Come in; the child won't eat you." Jimmy came in, and introduced himself to the baby; she seemed to approve of him; in the lonely heart of the man there was a curious stirring as the soft fingers of the child closed on his. "She's a pretty baby," he said with a smile. "Not another like her in the world--and lots that'll tell her so as she grows up. Girl babies growing up every day--and boy babies to match 'em, and none of 'em knowing what's in store for 'em. It's just a big puzzle they'll have to unravel for themselves in the years to come." Thus Patience, wagging the head of experience over the baby. "I've made up my mind what to do; I've been thinking about it all night," said Jimmy presently. "She'll come back to the child, you said; and I believe you're right. I want her, Patience; I seem to have grown up years and years in the last day or two. I dare not lose her now; I need her, as I never needed anyone in all my life." "I wonder if that's true," said the old woman, bending over the child. "Men are so sure of things one minute--and not at all sure the next. For the love of God, Mr. Jimmy, be very sure before you meet her; she deserves something better than any man has given her yet." "I'm sure now, Patience," whispered Jimmy humbly. "I'm going to take the child--_my_ child, she called it--and I'm going to trust to her to follow. You must help me, Patience; I'll leave a message for her that shall bring her--not to me, because I don't deserve it--but to the baby. I didn't understand before; I've been a blind fool--groping in the dark." "You seem to understand yourself pretty well, Mr. Jimmy," replied the old woman; and Jimmy laughed. Behold, then, Jimmy in a hurry; see him writing a note (not literary this time, but something from the old Jimmy to the old Moira) and leaving it for her. See also Patience, keenly alive to what was in his mind and eager to help him, and hear the baby crowing through it all! This is the note he left: "I have taken the child; she is the prettiest baby I have ever seen, and you were right to say so. She belongs to me, and I shall keep her. She is a child, as we once were; she is going to teach me what is best and brightest in the world that once was good to us. I am taking her back to the beginning of things--I want to show her how her mother was once a child who loved the sun and the fields and the woods. "JIMMY."