Jinnie dropped her eyes. "I was talking to my uncle about it," she explained embarrassedly, "and he thought same's I, that you were paying too much for that little wood. I'm goin' to bring more after this." "I'm satisfied, though, and I can't have you hurting yourself by being too strenuously honest.... I might--yes, I will! I'll send for you every day or every other----" Jinnie's eyes lighted up with happiness. "Oh, sir,----" she began entreatingly. "Wait----" said Mr. King. "It's this way! If you brought it up here in one of my cars, it would save a lot of your time, and you wouldn't have to come every day." "I could fiddle more," Jinnie blurted radiantly. She remembered how sympathetically he had listened to her through the blizzard. He liked the fiddle! She went a little nearer him. "I'm trying to make a tune different from any I've ever done, and I can't always play well after lugging shortwood all day.... I'd love to deliver it the way you said." King stood gazing at her. How strangely beautiful she was! Something in the wind-browned face stirred his heart to its depths. "Then that's settled," he said kindly. "You tell me where to have my man and what time, and to-morrow he'll meet you." Jinnie thought a moment. "I wonder if he knows where Paradise Road ends near the edge of the marsh." "He could find it, of course." "There's a path going into the marsh right at the end of the road. I'll meet him there to-morrow at twelve o'clock, and--and I'm so much obliged to you." When Jinnie told Lafe of the new arrangement, she gurgled with joy. "Lafe, now I'll make that tune." "Yes, honey," murmured Lafe contentedly. "Now get your fiddle and practice; after that you c'n study a while out of that there grammar book." CHAPTER XVIII RED ROSES AND YELLOW The days went on peacefully after the new arrangements for the shortwood. Every other day, at twelve o'clock, one of Theodore King's cars waited for Jinnie at the head of the path leading into the marsh. When the weather was stormy, Bennett, the chauffeur, took the wood, telling Jinnie to run along home. All this made it possible for Jinnie to study profitably during the warm months, and by the last of August she had mastered many difficult subjects. Lafe helped her when he could, but often shook his head despondently as she sat down beside him on the bench, asking his advice. "The fact is, honey, I ain't got much brains," he said to her one afternoon. "If I hung by my neck till I could see through them figures, I'd be as dead as Moses." One Thursday morning, as she climbed into the big car with her load, Bennett said, "I ain't goin' to pay you this mornin'! The boss'll do it. Mr. King wants to see you." Jinnie nodded, her heart pounding.