GEM OF THE MOUNTAINS parlor. She wasn't exactly astonished at wlnt she saw. It was what she had expected. There they all were, some in the parlor and some in the dining room, eating ice cream and cake. Of course the carpets would be ruined and those were her best china dishes. At least, she would be here to see t hat they were not broken in washing, and here came l\1 ildred with some cake. She wondered if it was good. It looked good. In a half daze s he crossed the veranda to the hammock which hung in the s hadow just back of the dining room window. From here she could look through the window into the dining room and through the door at the other end of the veranda into the parlor. s~on they were through eating and all the dishes removed. Then someone suggested that Bess play, and they all went into the parlor. She was playing a lively waltz and that Jimmy Smith was dancing about in the dining room upon the rug. 1'vlrs. Allison could hardly keep from Hying in there and boxing his cars. Then followed some popular pieces and songs to which she paid little heed. But suddenly she was awakened from her thoughts by the strains of "Away Down in Dixie." llow many memories that sent surging through her brain. Kentucky was l\Lr. Allison's home and it was while spending a summer there, as the guest of her friend l\largaret Allison, that she had met Mr. Allison . Uow many times they had all sung that song in the fine old parlor to the strains of that same piano. As these old memories came flood ing over her, it suddenly came to her that perhaps these songs meant as much to her children and their friends as they had to her. How much s he had been depriving them of, and what patient good girls they had been not to complain. She didn't know that they really cared for such things. In fact, she had almost forgotten that she cared for them, and as they star ted in on the last verse, she broke down and began to sob. Then two strong arms stole softly around her. She wasn't startled. Perhaps it was because those arms were so closely associated with the song, and a well known voice whispered ' 路Mary." Then the song ceased and she stopped sobbing and they swung silently back and forth until the young voices began: "When the Flowers J3loom in Springtime l\follie Dear." "Mary, dear, I thought you were in that wreck or I wouldn't have come home," he contin ued, "but the children seem to be getting along alright without us. So let's go back to Alvord and go down to the seashore for a week." She hesitated, "why--," "yes," he fin ished. She looked up and smiled. Jle bent down and kissed her. And ann in arm. to the strains of the last verse of ''\Vhcn the F lowers Bloom in Springtime" they stole down the path and moonlit road on their second honeymoon. MABEL KROll. HUNDRED
SEVENTY-SEVEN