"Yes, I'll mend it, Aunt," replied Rowena.
Her aunt stared. Such a pleasant answer amazed her, and if she was amazed, Rowena was much more so! She had been gone, as it seemed to her, many hours, and here she was at home in plenty of time to set the table for supper!
"Love must have done that, somehow," she said to herself, and while she worked she thought of the boy in the shining white clothes with whom she had eaten the pear, and she felt again the little pink feet of the dove on her hand, and heard its gentle coo.
Her poor, torn dress and her snarly hair seemed dreadful to her. She must try to look more like those children in the orchard.
She sat up that night and worked hard to mend her dress and she asked for buttons to put on the places where they were missing. Her aunt put her hand on the child's head. She feared she might be ill, she was so unlike herself, and Rowena, looking up and to the right, saw something very like love looking out of the puzzled woman's eyes.
The next morning when Rowena was ready for school her aunt looked at her again in surprise. Her hair had been brushed until it shone. She looked pink and clean all over from scrubbing with soap and water. Her old dress was whole and properly buttoned down the back.
"My hair gets into my eyes, Aunt," said Rowena. "Have you a ribbon that I could use to hold it back?"
"Yes, I guess so," was the reply and her aunt brought a piece of black ribbon. Rowena tied it around her red locks where the dove's feet had rested.
"I think I'll have to get you a new dress, Rowena, if you are going to be willing to take some care of it."
At this the little girl looked up so pleased that her aunt thought, "She's not such a bad-looking young one, after all," and again Rowena saw something like love looking out of the eyes that usually frowned at her.