JONATHAN gives him the hat)--it's you I'll be wanting to see when I get
me mind again.

(DR. JONATHAN goes with TIMOTHY and MINNIE as far as the door,
right, and then comes back thoughtfully to the bench, takes up a
test tube and holds it to the, light. Presently ASHER PINDAR
appears in the doorway, right.)

ASHER. Good morning, Jonathan.

DR. JONATHAN. Good morning, Asher. I didn't know you'd got back from
Washington.

ASHER. I came in on the mail train.

DR. JONATHAN. Have you been to the office?

ASHER. No. I stopped at the house to speak to Augusta, and then--(he
speaks a trifle apologetically)--well, I went for a little walk.

DR. JONATHAN. A walk.

ASHER. I've been turning something over in my mind. And the country
looked so fine and fresh I crossed the covered bridge to the other side
of the river. When George was a child I used to go over there with him
on summer afternoons. He was such a companionable little shaver--he'd
drop his toys when he'd see me coming home from the office. I can see
him now, running along that road over there, stopping to pick funny
little bouquets--the kind a child makes, you know--ox-eyed daisies and
red clover and buttercups all mixed up together, and he'd carry them home