indispensable. I wonder if you, too, will leave us after awhile as
so many pass on."

"No; this has become my very life," she soberly answered, looking
down at the ground and then into his face with frank, open-eyed
pleasure.

He was silent for several minutes and then softly laughed.

"What is it?" she cried.

"You could never guess."

She lifted her superb arms, showing bare to the elbow, and felt of
the mass of auburn hair. "That load of red hay about to fall?"

"Don't be sacrilegious. No."

"Harness broken anywhere?" She felt of her belt, and ran her hands
down the lines of her beautiful figure, eyeing him laughingly.

"I'll tell you," he said, sinking his voice to its lowest note
of expressive feeling, while a whimsical smile played round the
corners of his eyes. "Sitting here in the woods by your side on
this glorious summer day, your eyes looked so blue in the creamy
satin of your face, I suddenly thought I smelled the violets with
which God mixed their colours."

"You think of such silly things," she said with mock severity.