“Thank you, Minerva,” said I, fully appreciating both the compliment and her peril. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XIV THE-FOURTH-OF-JULY. A WEEK of lovely weather made us forget time. We spent our days in the open air, and Minerva spent her days practising for the concert. It was wonderful with what expedition she cooked our meals and cleaned up afterward. The meals were, if anything, more delicious than formerly. She was happy, and she could not help communicating some of her happiness to her cooking. It was not so much the thing she cooked, as the happy way she cooked it. James was a sort of Luther Burbank in his power over plants. One afternoon I said to Ethel in his hearing that I thought it was a pity that the Wheelocks had not planted a vine in front of the house, as it would have added greatly to its picturesqueness. He was oiling his lawn mower at the time, and I noticed that he stood up and looked at the house front and nodded his head and smiled, but I would not have thought of it again had it not been for the fact that two days after, on returning from a drive with Ethel, we both burst out into ejaculations of surprise and delight. The front of the house, up to the second-story window, was adorned by a most beautiful crimson rambler. I felt like rubbing my eyes. We must have lost our way. It could not be our house. But just then Minerva and James came around the corner of the house, hand in hand. As soon as they saw us they let go of hands, and she went back to the kitchen with a guffaw that merely indicated light heartedness. James looked up at the vine and said, “Looks pretty nice, don’t it?” We overwhelmed him with compliments, and found out that he had bought a large potted plant in full bloom and had sunk pot and all in the earth. I had never heard of such a thing being done before, and I looked to see the roses all wither, but they did nothing of the kind. Our place looked a hundred per cent. better than it had done before, and when, a day or so later, I received a bill from a florist at Egerton, I paid it without a murmur. There is nothing like initiative, and it is worth paying for. As I say, the days went by unheeded. We were too far from any church to attend one, but we tried to be as good on Sunday as we were on week days. And this, by the way, is a most excellent rule for anyone to follow.