Show by dally story publishing company bear went for the hundredth time and looked at the spare room she knew every smallest detail ot its ar ran gement by heart the gay rag car pet the blue and white spread the open worked pillow shams were they not part and parcel of the spare room in order and ready for the chanca comer but she herself had gathered the honeysuckle blooms and the wild grasses tor the tall vase la the window and she herself had arranged the few little books on the stand with the white cloth was it chance that the pretty copy of tenny son was the topmost one of the little heap and that it lay shyly open at the poem about the king who wooed a beggar maida when she had looked wistfully at everything once more then again she read the letter for he had written the letter to her and not to her fath er and mother as might have been expected her cheeks flamed as she read again I 1 will be there thursday and I 1 am going to have a great surprise for you this time this will be the fourth summer I 1 have spent at the farm and it will be like going home again I 1 have watched grow up little laurie and have thought about you a great deal more I 1 am sure than you have thought about a stupid stiff selfish old fellow like me thursday he was to be here thursday and this was the time she had begun arranging the room for him four days ago and every day swept and garnished it afresh and gone to the woods for more flowers even now she went to the window and twisted the tendrils of honey suckle so that the flowers would show better and resolved to go to the woods after prettier ones after all and then was in a panic lest he should come while she was gone if only che might have made this room look as she had dreamed it over and over again she stood seeing it through a gold en at the window caught and drifted here and there by the breeze and soft car pets were on the floor and tall mir bors stood between the windows and everything was so beautiful that the golden banded bumblebee on the honeysuckle blooms seemed to bp frightened with idle wistful dreams her eyes fell before the open book as though he had been there beside the book looking at her tor had he not given her the book and had read the poem and told her that it the king really loved the beggar maid she was the only woman in the world for him and poverty was a little thing compared with love laurie cried her mother from the kitchen run here a minute an fetch me in some wood an I 1 wish while you re out oud see if the chickens have got back into the gar A letter to her to heri den the way they re carrein on we won t have any tables left by the time mr pairlie comes what was that he wrote bout havin a s prise tor yea he said bed have a great sur prise for me this time said baurle waiting a moment with her face turn ed away well I 1 hope it aint any more them shrimps he brought last time said mrs morrell comfortably id est as soon eat an done with t I 1 jest know its so methin to eat or he knows bothin else i prise us run on an get the wood baurle an there goes one them chickens into the garden baurle hurried away her shy wild flower face turned from her mother A eyes but once in the garden she found the row of hollyhocks against the further fence and walked beside them touching their petals tenderly he likes hollyhock holly hoci s she said to herself that s why I 1 planted em again this year he says they made him think of his grandmother s gar den it would be nice to have a whole garden planted with hollyhocks and marigolds ani pinks just for him and then all in a moment she had planted just such a garden and well atre she t had grown to its full glory and he figure coming down one of the ank bordered walks was not hia grandmother but was laurie herself lad in the bhart old brocade ike that pretty picture of his grand nother when she was so fair and oung and was the belle of the bhole country round lauriea called her mother ain t you ever coming with that the wood was carried in and baurle was at once placed in charge of the churn and began splashing the dasher up and down wearily well I 1 declare exclaimed her mother with quite justifiable dexa alon you din t payin a bit ot at to what you re doln look how youve splashed up this floor an your cheeks Is that red a boda d anink ye had fever jest as like as not you re because ye II 11 have more work to do now that he s comin but the money s so methin I 1 people cant always consult children like you when they want to take in boarders listen ain t that the stage comin T you 11 have to go out an meet 1 tor I 1 ve got my hands in the dough but before she had finished speak ing laurie was off like a flash and was hidden away in the diang room drawn back into a corner holding her heart down to keep it from burst ing there was a rattle of wheels and a cheerful hello at the cafe and then the sound of dragging trunks down from the root of the stage and her fathers voice in loud and cheerful greeting he was down now he was paying the drive rhe was coming along the walk and up the steps and into the house he would be there in another moment she could ahlie no longer she must creep out of her corner and meet him he came along the bright hallway tall pale from work but smiling with frank delight ah here she Is he cried catch ing her brown rough little hand and drawing her closer dian didn t I 1 tell you laurie that I 1 had a surprise for you this time well here she Is this Is my wife mrs olga it you please and we are both going to spend a whole long summer with you the beautiful woman with the blue eyes and the golden rings of hair took the hand he put into hers and looked at the small frightened face clearly this country was not so healthful ater all A look at this girl with her white cheeks and start led eyes suggested the thought that they might have belonged to some wild thing out of the woods mr morrell came staggering in with a trunk shouting cordially well if thi ain t a su prise mrs morrell peeped in from the kitchen amiling and nodding I 1 can t shake hands she said but youve gone and got married lave yea well bet laurie s glad hear that the lady II 11 be so much company tor her just go to your oom you icar where it Is mrs atlle pilled off her elores and looked abouna the room a little disdainfully you have talked so much avit your little woodland nymph that I 1 suppose I 1 expected too much she said s rather a commonplace little country girl it seems to me no powers of conversation no ex pres slon and not the smallest spark of imagination mr fairlie did not try to answer he stood sti 1 looking absently at the heap of books on the table here are her books he said aln gering them one by one see longfellow whittler mrs browning I 1 gave her tennyson too I 1 think wonder what she has done with that |