in our family and help me to bring little Patience up right." This was
her regular formula. To-night she added a plea and a threat. "And O
God, don't let us move again. Seems though I can't stand being jerked
around so much. If you do, God, I don't know what I'll say to
you--Amen."

Softly as a shadow she crept in beside her baby sister and the
moonlight slowly edged across the room and rested for a long time on
the two curly heads, motionless in childhood's slumber.




CHAPTER II

THE HEROIC DAY


"Where the roots strike deepest, the fruitage is best."--_The Murmuring
Pine_.


Little Patience had forgotten the red balloon, overnight. Lydia had
known that she would. Nevertheless, with the feeling that something
was owing to the baby, she decided to turn this Saturday into an extra
season of delight for her little charge.

"Do you care, Dad," asked Lydia, at breakfast, "if baby and I have
lunch over at the lake shore?"