The doctor's reverie came to an end for he had reached his destination--a large white house standing very close to the road. "Don't talk to me while you are hitching the horse," Mary whispered, "then they won't know there is anyone with you. I don't want to go in--I want to see the moon come up." The doctor took his case and went inside. Mary sat in the buggy and listened. The neighing of a horse far down the road and the barking of a dog in the distance were the only sounds she heard. How still and cool it was after the heat of the day. A wandering breeze brought the sweet perfume of dewy clover fields. She looked across the intervening knoll to the east. The tree that crowned its summit stood outlined against the brightening sky. She was sitting very near the open kitchen window and now saw the family taking their places around the supper table. She felt a little uncomfortable and as if she were trespassing on their privacy. But they did not know of her proximity and she could only sit still in the friendly cover of the darkness. How good the ham smelled and the potatoes and the coffee. A pretty home-scene! The father at the head of the table, the mother opposite with four sturdy boys between them, two on each side. The father looked around the board. Stillness settled down upon them, and then he bowed his head. The mother, too, bowed her head. The boys looked down. "Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for these evening blessings--" the boys looked up and four forks started simultaneously for the meat platter. Every fork impaled its slice. Mary gasped. She crammed her handkerchief into her mouth to shut off the laughter that almost shouted itself before she could stop it. The oldest boy, a burly fellow of fifteen, looked astonished and then sheepish. The other three looked defiance at him. Each sat erect in perfect silence and held his slice to the platter with a firm hand. Mary, almost suffocating with laughter which _must_ be suppressed, watched anxiously for the denouement. The blessing went on. The boys evidently knew all its stages. As it advanced there was a tightening of the tension and at the welcome "amen" there was a grand rake-off. At the commotion of the sudden swipe the father and mother looked up in amazement. "Boys, boys! what do you mean!" exclaimed the mother. "We got even with Mr. Jake that time." It was the second boy who spoke. "We got _ahead_ of him," said the third. "He didn't get the biggest piece this time." "No, _I_ got it myself," said the fourth. "Well, I'm scandalized," said the mother, looking across the table at her husband. "Well, Mother, I'll tell you how it was," said the second boy. "Last night I looked up before Father was through with the blessing and I saw Jake with his fork in the biggest piece of ham. You and Father didn't notice and so he was _it_. I'll bet he's been at it a good while, too." "I've not, either," said the accused.