She smiled faintly, still looking dubious. Stella went over to her. "What he means is, that I'm a poor goose who doesn't know any more about keeping house than Buster does about astronomy," she laughed. "Of course you'll stay, Mrs. Pillig, and teach me." "Thank you, Miss--I mean Missus," said Mrs. Pillig, backing out. "Be careful," I warned. "If you let Mrs. Pillig think you're so very green, she'll begin to boss you." "That _would_ be a new sensation," laughed Stella. "I like new sensations as much as Peter Pan did. Oh, it's a new sensation having a home like this, and living in the country, and smelling good, cool air and--and having _you_." She was suddenly beside me on the settle. We heard Mrs. Pillig going up to bed. The house was still. Outside the choral song of night insects sounded drowsily. Buster came softly in and plopped down on the rug. We were alone in Twin Fires, together, and she would not rise to go up the road to Bert's. She would never go! So we sat a long, long while--and the rest shall be silence. Chapter XVIII WE BUILD A POOL It was the strangest, sweetest sensation I had ever known to wake in the morning and hear soft singing in the room where a fresh breeze was wandering. I saw Stella standing at the window, her hair about her shoulders, looking out. She turned when I stirred, came over to kiss me, while her hair fell about my face, and then cried, "Hurry! Hurry! I must get out into the garden!" Presently, hand in hand, we went over the new lawn to the sundial which stood amid a ring of brilliant blooms--which, however, had become unbelievably choked with weeds in the ten days of my absence. The gnomon was throwing a long shadow westward across the VII. We filled the bird bath, which Peter had neglected. We hurried through the orchard to the brook, to see the flowers blooming there, and there, alas! we found the volume of the stream shrunk to less than half its former size. We ran to the rows of berry vines to see how many had survived, and found the greater part of them sprouting nicely; we went up the slope into the rows of vegetables and inspected them; we rushed to see if all the roses were alive; we went to the barn where Mike had just begun to milk, and sniffed the warm, sweet odour. "Yes, it's better for any man to be married," I heard Mike saying to her, as I moved back toward the door. Then he added something I could not hear, and she came to me with rosy face. "The horrid old man!" She was half laughing to herself.