knelt at it, looking out into the redwoods, and breathing the
piney air. In the silence of the little room the girls could hear
a swollen creek rushing; rich, loamy odours drifted in from the
forest that had been soaked with long April rains. Cherry saw a
streak of light under the door of Hong's cabin, a hundred yards
away; there was no moon, it was blackness unbroken under the
trees. The season was late, but the girls felt with a rush of
delight that summer was with them at last; the air was soft and
warm, and there was a general sense of being freed from the
winter's wetness and heaviness.

Alix rolled herself in a gray army blanket, and was asleep in some
sixty seconds. But Cherry felt that she was floating in seas of
new joy and utter delight, and that she would never be sleepy
again.

Downstairs Anne and the doctor sat staidly on, the man dreaming
with a knotted forehead, the girl sewing. Presently she ran a
needle through her fine white work with seven tiny stitches,
folded it, and put her thimble into a case that hung from her
orderly workbag with a long ribbon.

"Wait a minute, Anne," said the doctor, as she straightened
herself to rise. "This young Lloyd, now--what do YOU think of
him?"

She widened demure blue eyes.

"Should you be sorry if I--liked him, Uncle Lee?" she smiled.