They reached the measuring-tree, and taking out his knife and
pocket-rule, Rob passed his fingers over the notches which stood for the
many years they had measured their heights against the old locust. Then
he held out the rule and waited for her to take her place under it, with
her back against the tree.
"What a long way you've stretched up between six and seventeen," he
said. "This'll be about the last time we'll need to go through this
ceremony, for I've reached my top notch, and probably you have too."
"Wait!" she exclaimed, stooping to pick something out of the grass at
her feet. "Heah's anothah foah-leaved clovah. I find one neahly every
time I come down this side of the avenue. I'm making a collection of
them. When I get enough, maybe I'll make a photograph-frame of them."
"Then you ought to put your own picture in it, for you're certainly the
luckiest person for finding them I ever heard of. I'm going to carve one
on the tree, here by this last notch under the date. It will be quite
neat and symbolical, don't you think? A sort of 'when this you see
remember me' hieroglyphic. It will remind you of the long discussions
we've had on the subject since we read 'Abdallah' together."
He dug away in silence for a moment, then said, "It's queer how you
happened to find that just now, for last night I came across a verse
about one, that made me think of you, and I learned it on purpose to say
to you--sort of a farewell wish, you know."
"Spouting poetry is a new accomplishment for you, Bobby," said Lloyd,
teasingly. "I certainly want to hear it. Go on."
She looked down to thrust the stem of the clover through the silver
arrow that fastened her belt, and waited with an expectant smile to
hear what Limerick or nonsense jingle he had found that made him think
of her. It was neither. With eyes fixed on the little symbol he was
outlining on the bark of the tree, he recited as if he were reading the
words from it:
"Love, be true to her;
Life, be dear to her;
Health, stay close to her;
Joy, draw near to her;
Fortune, find what your gifts
Can do for her.
Search your treasure-house
Through and through for her.
Follow her steps
The wide world over;
You must! for here is
The four-leaved clover."
"Why, Rob, that is _lovely_!" she exclaimed, looking up at him,
surprised and pleased. "I'm glad you put that clovah on the tree, for
every time I look at it, it will remind me of yoah wish, and--"
The letter she had been carrying fluttered to the ground. He stooped to
pick it up and return it to her.
"That's the lettah you are to mail for me," she said, giving it back to
him. "Don't forget it, for it's impawtant."
The address was uppermost, in her clear, plain hand, and she held it
toward him, so that he saw she intended him to read it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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