serve out doses of excitement until the dear old place is running as it
did when it was a two-year old. Why get annoyed when people are
interested in you? It's a compliment, after all, and gives them more to
think about. I remembered the two trunks I had brought home with me, and
hugged my knees up under my chin with pleasure at the thought of the
town-talk they contained.

Then just as I had got the first plan well going and was deciding
whether to wear the mauve crêpe de Chine or the white chiffon with the
rosebud embroidery as a first dose for my friends, a sweetness came in
through my window that took my breath away, and I lay still with my hand
over my heart and listened. It was Billy singing right under my window,
and I've never heard him do it before in all his five years. It was
the dearest old-fashioned tune ever written, and Billy sang the words
as distinctly as if he had been a boy chorister doing a difficult
recitative. My heart beat so it shook the lace on my breast, like a
breeze from heaven, as he took the high note and then let it go on the
last few words.

"If you love me, Molly darling,
Let your answer be a kiss!"


A confused recollection of having heard the words and tune sung by my
mother when I was at the rocking age myself brought the tears to my eyes
as I flew to the window and parted the curtains. If you heard a little
boy-angel singing at your casement, wouldn't you expect a cherub face
upturned with heaven-lights all over it? Billy's face was upturned as he
heard me draw up the blind, but it was streaked like a wild Indian's
with decorations of brown mud, and he held a slimy frog in one hand