The shock being over, and things only postponed, he dramatized his grief a
trifle, thrust his hands savagely into his pockets, and scowled down the
Street. In the line of his vision, his quick eye caught a tiny moving
shadow, lost it, found it again.

"Great Scott! There goes Reginald!" he cried, and ran after the shadow.
"Watch for the McKees' cat!"

Sidney was running by that time; they were gaining. Their quarry, a
four-inch chipmunk, hesitated, gave a protesting squeak, and was caught in
Sidney's hand.

"You wretch!" she cried. "You miserable little beast--with cats
everywhere, and not a nut for miles!"

"That reminds me,"--Joe put a hand into his pocket,--"I brought some
chestnuts for him, and forgot them. Here."

Reginald's escape had rather knocked the tragedy out of the evening. True,
Sidney would not marry him for years, but she had practically promised to
sometime. And when one is twenty-one, and it is a summer night, and life
stretches eternities ahead, what are a few years more or less?

Sidney was holding the tiny squirrel in warm, protecting hands. She smiled
up at the boy.

"Good-night, Joe."

"Good-night. I say, Sidney, it's more than half an engagement. Won't you