Weatherby loved best to walk and Mary Louise enjoyed their tramps
together because Gran'pa Jim always told her so many interesting things
and was such a charming companion. He often developed a strain of humor
in the girl's society and would relate anecdotes that aroused in her
spontaneous laughter, for she possessed a keen sense of the ludicrous.
Yes, Gran'pa Jim was really funny, when in the mood, and as jolly a
comrade as one would wish.

He was fond of poetry, too, and the most severe trial Mary Louise was
forced to endure was when he carried a book of poems in his pocket and
insisted on reading from it while they rested in a shady nook by the
roadside or on the bank of the little river that flowed near by the
town. Mary Louise had no soul for poetry, but she would have endured far
greater hardships rather than forfeit the genial companionship of
Gran'pa Jim.

It was only during these past two years that she had come to know her
grandfather so intimately and to become as fond of him as she was proud.
Her earlier life had been one of so many changes that the constant
shifting had rather bewildered her. First she remembered living in a big
city house where she was cared for by a nurse who was never out of sight
or hearing. There it was that "Mamma Bee"--Mrs. Beatrice Burrows--
appeared to the child at times as a beautiful vision and often as she
bent over her little daughter for a good-night kiss the popular society
woman, arrayed in evening or ball costume, would seem to Mary Louise
like a radiant angel descended straight from heaven.

She knew little of her mother in those days, which were quite hazy in
memory because she was so young. The first change she remembered was an
abrupt flitting from the splendid city house to a humble cottage in a