"That seems a fair proposition," he agreed. He reached for her hand and for a moment her soft, bright coloring, her dainty completeness, framed in the green of the little glade, were all he saw. Then, as his eyes lingered on the cool little pond and the waving pine boughs dark against the blue sky, he sighed. "But I'm sorry you don't like the country, Tina, I am, truly," he said boyishly. "I've had such bully times in it. And I--I rather had the idea that we liked the same things." "Gracious!" the young lady murmured, "after the arguments we've had over plays and actors!" "Oh well, I suppose girls are all alike. But I mean other things--" "Where did you do the Pirates?" Brother inquired, politely. "What? Where did I--oh to be sure," he returned good-naturedly. "We had an enormous cellar, all full of pillars, to hold it up, and queer little rooms and compartments in it; a milk room and vegetable bins and a workshop. You could ride on a wheel all round, dodging the pillars. There were all kinds of places to lie in wait there, and spring out. Win told us an awful thing out of Poe that happened in a cellar, and Thea would never go there after four in the afternoon. "It was a jolly old place," he went on dreamily, "I can't keep my mind off it this afternoon, somehow, since I've seen you fellows rigged out the way we used to. And there was a pond back in the Christmas Tree Lot like this one. Ridge and I built a raft out there and stayed all day on it. It was something out of Clark Russell's books, and Win pushed a barrel out and rescued us. She was a wonder, that girl." He chuckled softly to himself. "We tried to stock that pond with oysters once, and Ridge and I printed invitations for a clambake on our handpress, on the strength of them, but it was a dreadful waste of money. When we found it wasn't working, Ridge nearly killed himself diving for 'em, so we could get some good out of 'em. There they lay at the bottom, showing just as plain as possible, but it was no use--Poor fellow, he'll never dive any more." "Is he--did he--" Caroline had crawled along till her head lay almost on the young man's knee; her eyes were big with sympathy. "Lost his leg," he told her briefly. "Philippines. Above the knee. He ran away from college to go. He had the fever badly, too, and he'll never be fit for much again, I'm afraid. But he's just as brave about it--" "Oh, yes," Brother burst out eagerly, "I bet you he is!" "We had such plans," he said softly, "all of us, you know, for coming back to the old place and ending up there. Win says her kids shall stay there if she can't." "Where is she?" "Oh, she's 'most anywhere. Her husband's in the Navy--Asiatic Squadron--and she hangs about where he's likely to strike the country next. She was in Honolulu the last I heard. So she's not likely to do much for the place, you see." "Where's Thea?" Miss Honey inquired. "Wha tee?" mimicked the General, with an astounding similarity of inflection.