It was a heavenly summer evening, luminous even before the moon-rising. The last drift of smoke was gone, and the garden drenched with scent. Under the first stars the shrubs and trees stood in panoramic perspective; the lawns looked wide and smooth. Down the street, under a dark arch of elms, the lights of other houses showed yellow and warm; now and then a motor-car swept by, sending a circle of white light for a few moments against the gloom. "Dead, dear?" Bert asked, after awhile. Nancy sighed contentedly before she answered: "Tired, of course--a little!" "Well," summarized Bert, after another pause, "we have now reduced our problem somewhat. A man, his wife, his children. There we are!" "A roof above his head, a maid-servant, and all the Sunday meals in the house!" Nancy added optimistically. "A barn roof," amended Bert. "Barns have sheltered babies before this," Nancy reflected whimsically. Again she sighed. "I suppose babies do burn to death, sometimes, Bert? One sees it in the paper; just a line or two. I remember--" "Don't let your mind dwell on that side of it, Nance. For that matter a brick might fall off the roof on our heads now." "Yes, I know. But Priscilla was my responsibility, and I was a mile away." "You'll be a mile away from her many a time and oft," Bert reminded her wholesomely. "When I have to be," she conceded, slowly. "But to-day--" Her voice sank, and Bert, glancing sidewise at her, saw that her face was very thoughtful. "Bert," she said, "we have a good deal to be thankful for." "Everything in the world!" Chapter Thirty-eight Another silence. Then Nancy said briskly: "Well! Listen to what I've planned, Bert, and tell me what you think. Item one: this is vacation, but when it's over I want to start Anne and the boys in at the village school. They can cut right across the field at the back here, it's just a good walk for them. They're frantic to go, instead of to Fraulein, and I'm perfectly satisfied to have them!" "Sure you are?" the man asked, a little touched, for this had been a long-disputed point. "Oh, quite! Just as you and I did. And then, item two: Agnes is a good plain cook, and Priscilla is an angel. I'll walk to market every day, and send out the laundry, and keep Priscilla with me. So that makes Agnes our entire domestic staff--she's enthusiastic, so don't begin to curl your lips over it. Then we'll have to have a floor in here, and cut a window in the closet back there, and put in a little gas stove, and before winter we'll put on a little addition--a kitchen in back, with a room for the boys above. And we'll shut the big double doors, and I'll have another window box right across their windows, and curtain the whole place in plain net. The boys can sleep in the tent for the time being. There's a furnace, but we'll have to make some provision for coal--"