"Were you ever married, Cyrus?"
For an instant the boy was taken aback. As he turned and looked into the maiden's eyes, ready to carry on the joke, he saw those eyes were more than serious: they were almost tragic in their earnestness.
"Why, of course not! I'm too young."
"No, nobody is too young. It's a lovely, beautiful thing and everybody ought to do it."
Cyrus was clearly surprised; but, always polite to ladies, he nodded his appreciation of the new truth. "I didn't know. I thought only grown folks got married."
"No; it is everybody's duty. And it's my duty and yours, too."
Cyrus' eyebrows went up. "Me? Mine?"
"Yes. It's a beautiful thing and makes us all better. Father says so."
"Did he say children, too?"
Ruth hesitated. "He—he—said it makes everybody better—more unselfish—and of course he meant nobody is too young to be made better."