"She gave him hers, and he closed over it light with his other hand. "'May I see you to-morrow?' he asked her. "'Oh, I don't know,' said Letty. 'Come and see if I'll see you--will you?' "He laughed a little, looking in her eyes. "'At about eight,' he promised. 'Good night....' "I got the key out from under the mat to a tune inside me. Because I'd heard, and I knew that Letty had heard, that tone in Elbert's voice that is the human tone--I can't rightly name it, but every woman in the world knows it when she hears it--a tone that says: _If I have my way, you and I are going to live out our lives together_. "And I knew then, and I know now, that that tone won't ever die, either. And some day, away off in a new world right here on this earth, I believe there's going to be a wilder joy in being men and women than all the men and women up to now have ever lived or dared or dreamed. XIII "'Miss Marsh,' says Christopher. "Mis' Emmons's living-room was like a cup of something cool, and I set there in the after-supper light having such a nice rested time drinking it in that at first I didn't hear him. "'Miss Marsh,' he says again, and pulled at my dress. I put out my hand to him and he took it. Sometimes I donno but hands are a race of beings by themselves that talk and answer and do all the work and act like slaves and yet really rule the world. "'Is it me telling my feet where to go or do they tell me where I go?' asked Christopher. "'You can have it either way you want,' I told him. 'Some does one way and some does the other. Which way do you like?' "He thought for a minute, twisting on one foot with the other up in his hand. "'I'd like 'em to know how without our sayin' so,' he announces finally. "'Well,' I says, 'I left out that way. That's really the best way of all.' "He looked at me eager. "'Is it a game?' he says. "'Yes,' I told him. "'What's its name?' he ask' me. "'Game of Life,' I told him again. "He thought about it, still twisting. Then he done one of his littlest laughs, with his head turned away. "'My feet heard you,' he says. 'Now they know how to play.' "'I hope so, Christopher,' says I, and kissed him on the back of his neck. That made him mad, like it usually done. "'My neck is my neck,' says he, 'and it's shut in my collar. It ain't home to-day.' "'Is your mouth home?' I ask' him. "And it was. "I could of set there talking with him all evening, but not on the night of Sodality's Annual. I'd stopped by for Mis' Emmons. She was getting ready, and while I waited I could hear folks passing on their way to the schoolhouse where the meeting was. For the town was all het up about what the meeting was going to do. "I'd seen half-dozen or so of us that afternoon when we was putting plants on the hall platform, and we'd all spoke our minds. "'I'm gaspin',' observed Mis' Sturgis, 'to take a straw vote of us on this amendin' business. Near as I can make out, it's going through.'