"Enjoy it!" cried Douglas. "Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest." Too happy herself for the right word, Leslie showed Douglas to his room, with its white bed, and row of hooks, on one of which hung the bathing suit; then she went to put on her own, and they hurried to the lake. "You are happy here, Leslie?" asked Douglas. "Never in my life have I been so happy as I am this moment," said Leslie, skifting the clear water with her hands while she waited for her father before starting the swim to the opposite shore. "I've got the most joyous thing to tell you." "Go on and tell, 'Bearer of Morning,'" he said. "I am so delighted I'm maudlin." "Right over there, on the road to the club house, while 'seeking new worlds to conquer' this afternoon, I ran into James Minturn wearing a bathing suit, to his knees in mud and water, building a sod dam for his boys." "You did?" cried Douglas. "I did!" said Leslie. "Here's the picture: a beautiful winding stream, big trees like these on the banks, shade and flowers, birds, and air a-plenty, a fine appearing woman he introduced as his sister, a Minturn boy catching fish with his bare hands on either bank, the brother Minturn must have adopted legally, since he gave him his name----" "He did," interrupted Douglas. "He told me so----" "I was sure of it," said Leslie. "And an interesting young man, a tutor, bringing up more sod; the boys acted quite like any other agreeably engaged children--but Minturn himself, looking like a man I never saw before, down in the sand and water building a sod dam--a sod dam I'm telling you----" "I notice what you are telling me," cried Douglas. "It is duly impressing me. 'Dam' is all I can think of." "It's no wonder!" exclaimed Leslie. "What did he say to you?" queried Douglas. "It wasn't necessary for him to say anything," said Leslie. "I could see. He is making over his boys and in order to do it sympathetically, and win their confidence and love, he is being a boy himself again. He has the little chaps under control now. There are love and admiration in their tones when they speak to him, while they _obey_ him. Think of it!" "It is something worth thinking of," said Douglas. "He was driven to action, but his methods must have been heroic; for they seem to have worked." "Yes, for him and the boys," said Leslie, "but they are not all his family." "The remainder of his family always has looked out for herself to the exclusion of everything else in life, you have told me; I imagine she is still doing it with wonderful success," hazarded Douglas. "It amazes me how men can be so unfeeling." "So you talked to him about her?" "I surely did!" asserted Leslie. "And I'll wager you wasted words," said Douglas. "Not one!" cried the girl. "He will remember each one I spoke. If I don't hear of him taking some action soon, I'll find another occasion, and try again. He shall divide the joy of remaking those boys with their mother."