“This is my last,” Bob announced regretfully as he swallowed the bite of cherry pie. “That is, I mean the last for the time being.”

“All right, it’s a good thing you added that because you are not at home now and you don’t know where the pantry is located—”

“Don’t kid yourself. I ascertained the location yesterday afternoon, before I’d been here twenty minutes.”

“You would! Where was I?”

“Luxuriating in Champlain. I watched your fair form in the red bathing suit while I ate gingerbread and milk—”

“Humph, that’s nothing, I had some when I came in—four pieces and two glasses—cream on top. Come along—that is—is there anything we can do to help you, sir?”

“No, thank you, Jim. I have a couple of chore boys and if you helped they might think I do not want them any more. We want you to enjoy your stay in Vermont—”

“Great guns, we are. It’s a grand State even if we could put it into a comer of Texas,” Bob replied sincerely.

“You ought to like it, your mother was brought up here, but goodness sakes, she went off when she wasn’t much more than a girl. She was married right here in the parlor. I can remember it just as if it was yesterday, then the pair of them drove away in the two seater with old shoes tied to the end. They did look handsome. Your pa was all spruced up—and the next year they were in Texas—”

“You boys coming?”

“Yes sir.”

As they went out onto the front piazza, the sun was setting and the sky was streaked with brilliant red and gold which shone magnificently through the trees. There was no doubting that the storm had been an actuality, for a deep stream was racing down the run-off toward the lake, and everywhere the place was strewn with leaves and branches that had been broken. The Rural Free Delivery Box was leaning wearily against a maple, as if the struggle to keep upright had been altogether too much. The three picked their way across the road with water dripping from trees and shrubs, and the ground soggy underfoot. They were soon past the garden, and at the further side they could see the foreign boy busy working, but this time his uncle was with him.

“Whoo-oo,” Bob called cheerfully. The boy straightened up and smiled, then he came toward them and they went to the ditch he had showed them earlier in the day. It 

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