"'No, I won't set any, thanks,' she says. 'I just got to thinking--mercy, no. Don't give me any kind of anything to eat any such time of night as this. I should be up till midnight taking soda. That's what ails folks' stomachs, my notion--these late lunches on nobody knows what. No, I got to bed and I was just dropping off when I happened to sense how wringing wet that child was, and that I betted he'd take cold and have the croup in the night, and you wouldn't have no remedy--not having any children, so. It rousted me right up wide awake, and I dressed me and run over here with this. Here. Put some on a rag and clap it on his chest if he coughs croupy. I donno's it would hurt him to clap it on him, anyway, so's to be sure. No, I can't stop. It's 'way past my bed-time....' "'There's lots of professors of being human, Miss Marsh,' Insley says to me, low. "Mis' Holcomb stood thinking a minute, brushing her lips with the fringe of her shawl. "'Mebbe somebody up to the Proudfits' would do something for him,' she says. 'I see they're lit up. Who's coming?' "'Mr. Alex Proudfit will be here to-morrow,' Mis' Emmons told her. 'He has some people coming to him in a day or two, for a house party over the Fourth.' "'Will he be here so soon?' says Insley. 'I've been looking forward to meeting him--I've a letter to him from Indian Mound.' "'Whatever happens,' says Mis' Holcomb, 'I'll get up attic first thing in the morning and find some old clothes for this dear child. I may be weak in the pocket-book, but I'm strong on old duds.' "Insley and I both said good night, so's to walk home with Mis' Holcomb, and Christopher kissed us both, simple as belonging to us. "'We had that hot ice-cream,' he announced to Mis' Holcomb. "'The lamb!' says she, and turns her back, hasty. "I wondered a little at Mis' Emmons not saying anything to her about the letter we'd found, that made us know somebody would have to do something. But just as we was starting out, Mis' Emmons says to me low, 'Don't let's say anything about his father yet. I have a plan--I want to think it over first.' And I liked knowing that already she had a plan, and I betted it was a plan that would be born four-square to its own future. "Insley stood holding the door open. The rain had stopped altogether now, and the night was full of little things sticking their heads up in deep grasses and beginning to sing about it. I donno about what, but about something nice. And Insley was looking toward Robin, and I see that all the ancestors he'd ever had was lingering around in his face, like they knew about something he was just beginning to know about. Something nice--nicer than the little outdoor voices. "'Good night, Miss Sidney,' he says. 'And what a good night for Christopher!' And he looked as if he wanted to add: 'And for me.' "'Good night, Mis' Emmons,' I says. 'It's been an evening like a full meal.' IV