rapped lightly. They both turned with a slight start. Cassandra rose, holding the sleeping babe in the hollow of her arm, and set a chair for him before the fire. Then she laid the child carefully in the mother’s arms, and removed the porridge from the fire.

“Shall I call Hoke?” she asked, moving toward the door.

David did not want her to leave them, loving the sight of her. “Don’t go. I saw him as I came along,” he said.

But she went on, and sat herself on a seat under a huge locust tree. Tardiest of all the trees, it had not yet leaved out. Later it would be covered with a wealth of sweet white blossoms swarming with honey-bees, and the air all about it would be filled with its lavish fragrance and the noise of humming wings.