"All right—and then I'll show you the old rose garden the other side of the house."
"It's awfully good of you, but I'm afraid I'm taking your time from work."
"It's all right! I'll make the other fellows do it to-day."
She blushed again and waved her bare arm high over her dark brown hair from the porch as he swung through the gate and disappeared.
In a few minutes he had returned. Through the long hours of a beautiful summer afternoon they walked through the enchanted paths of the old garden on velvet feet, the boy pouring out his dreams and high ambitions, the girl's lonely heart for the first time in life basking in the joyous light of a perfect day.
Andy made an excuse to go in the garden and putter about some flowers just to watch them, laugh and chuckle over the exhibition. He was just in time as he softly approached behind a trellis of climbing roses to hear Tom say:
"Please give me that bud you're wearing?"
"Why?" she asked demurely.
"Just because I've taken a fancy to it."
She blushed scarlet, took the rosebud from her bosom and pinned it on his coat: