very bald, and the little fringe of hair he has left is decidedly red. His are hardly the "hyacinthine locks" Milton had in mind, and I doubt if Emerson would have recognized him as

"The hyacinthine boy for whom

Morn well might break and April bloom."

"You are fond of poetry, I see," said Jack when they had stopped laughing at her sally.

"Very," said Betty, "but you started us on the wrong tack if we are to do justice to that neglected little bulb. You should have recited Holmes' lines:

"The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the mold,

Naked and shivering with his cup of gold."

"But I don't see how that applies to this hyacinth."

"Pardon me-to that crocus."

"But I took a high stand in botany when I graduated. It was one of the optional studies on my course, and I plugged four volumes in two weeks."

"Primroses by the river's brim Dicotoledons were to him, And they were nothing more," she quoted smilingly from a clever parody.

"That may be," he replied, "but though my knowledge of botany is entirely bookish I'll leave it to the practical and redhaired Donald to prove that I am right. I'll wager a pair of gloves to a tie that this is a hyacinth. What do you say?" "Simply that I wear five-and-a-halfs." "Well, where can we find Donald?" "This being his day off I can hardly say. But I'll tell you what will be better fun. Let us plant the bulb and see which it turns out to be?"

"That is a bargain. But will it be sure to get the attention necessary to make it grow?"

"I'll plant it and care for it myself." "But I claim the right of superintending the work and examining the plant from time to time to make sure that my interest is being guarded."

"All right. If you will go up to the veranda and get the trowel that is lying by the step I will find an empty spot in one of the beds in which to plant my crocus."

When Jack had performed his errand he found Betty kneeling on the border of one of the beds waiting for him. He gallantly offered to do the planting, but she scorned his assistance.

"Do you think," she cried, "that I would trust the planting of an innocent little bulb to a man whose knowledge of botany is at once academic and wrong? Never!"

She had taken off her cuffs and pulled

up her sleeves to her elbows, and as Jack watched he had a chance to see how lithe and shapely were her wrists and hands. He could also see how naturally the sunlight glinted through her brown hair, and when she looked up at him with laughing eyes, after patting the soil into place over the bulb he could see that they were of an unfathomable blue.

"You have done the planting," he exclaimed. "Now I should be permitted to do the watering."

"But a plant like this should be watered every evening," she protested.

"Ör oftener," he pursued blandly. "Oh, I couldn't think of letting a foolish little bet like this interfere with your business."

"You couldn't? Why, I propose to make the watering of this plant my chiefest business, and I shall not let anything else interfere with it."

"But you are a lawyer, I understand. What will your clients say?"

"To be a lawyer you must first catch your client," he commented whimsically and then added with well affected earnestness: "By the way, you haven't any troubles that I could straighten out for you, have you? I mean trouble of a legal nature."

"I have no troubles of any kind," she replied laughingly.

"Lucky girl, though it is unlucky for me. I don't know but I shall feel it my duty to make trouble of some kind for you."

"If you try you will perhaps find that I can make trouble too."

"I don't doubt it," he said banteringly and heaved a deep sigh. "When it comes to really making trouble commend me to good-looking girls of eighteen or thereabout, especially in the springtime."

"Oh, you needn't be alarmed," she pouted.

"And I was just beginning to hope that I might be. Well, well, if you do have trouble of any kind that develops a legal aspect that does not require too profound a knowledge of the law, but at the same time demands lengthy consultations, I hope you will not forget me. My office hours are from 10 to 5, except when I am yachting, golfing or playing tennis."

"Do you do much yachting?"

"I usually spend Friday and Saturday of each week on board and take a couple of long cruises each season.

"Do you golf much?" she persisted with growing mischief in her eyes.

"I make it a rule to play eighteen holes each Monday and Wednesday. It really takes a great deal of practice to keep oneself in form at golf," he explained unblushingly.

"And tennis?"

estate of his father, he did not elect to live a strenuous life. After careful investigation he decided to hang out his shingle in this pleasant little town that had excellent golf links at the rear and a luxurious yacht club on the water front. He opened offices with a southern exposure in the post-office building and fitted them up with furniture admirably suited for lounging on and waited comfortably for his first client. In order to pass the time as pleasantly as possible he supplemented his library of law books with all the latest novels and current magazines. His mother was satisfied, and it cannot be said that he felt life to be unduly exacting. He conscientiously kept

call on Betty's mother, and he had to go along as her escort.

There never was a flower more carefully tended than that little waif. As Betty Curtis had come to the town with her mother to spend the summer in the fine residence her father had bought for them she had nothing to do but enjoy herself. Jack Etheridge was almost equally blessed with leisure, for, though, in compliance with the wishes of his widowed mother, he had commenced the practice of law so that he would know better how to care for his wealth when she left him her fortune, in addition to the handsome income he derived from the

-Van P. Ault, Phot.

regular office hours, as explained above, so it naturally happened that he frequently walked home from the links with Betty after a pleasant game, and the first thing they always did was to take a look at the little mound that covered their bulb. Donald had been warned to leave it alone, and they saw to it that no weed sprouted in its vicinity.

"I am inclined to think," said Betty a couple of weeks after the plauting, "that a watched bulb is somewhat like a watched pot."

"Perhaps the hyacinthine Donald threw it away because he saw that it was dead."

us wait until it flowers, and then I'll undertake to eat it in addition to paying my wager if you prove to be right, though I may be tempted to transplant something more edible in its place if it should really turn out to be a hyacinth." "A leek, for instance. It grows from a bulb and is edible."

Shakespeare has said that "for lovers lacking matter the cleanliest shift is to kiss," but Betty and Jack had not confessed to themselves that they vere lovers, and whenever they lacked matter they could fall back on the bulb. It furnished them with unfailing matter for chat and banter when other conversation failed, and in a subtle way all their thoughts of one another were intertwined with it.

When Jack went away on the annual

"I knew I was right," Jack exclaimed exultingly. "It is certainly not a crocus; therefore it must be a hyacinth. I prefer ties that are quiet in color and pattern."

"Not so fast," said Betty. "The idea of a lawyer using such logic. I admit it is not a crocus, but I see no reason to believe that it is a hyacinth. It is not necessarily a hyacinth because it is not a crocus. There are thousands of other things that it may be. You a lawyer and to make such a claim. Fie!"

"Oh, that is all right! A lawyer always claims everything in sight. I suppose we will have to ask Donald to settle the matter for us."

"We shall do nothing of the kind. Let

yachting cruise of the club Betty found a peculiar pleasure in tending to the mys terious little plant that was strangely familiar, although she could not remember ever having seen one in a garden. While watering it and removing every weed that dared to appear it brought back to her many pleasant memories, and she had a sense of companionship while watching it. And when it finally put forth the blossom that betrayed its iden-, tity she blushed and laughed and blushed again when she wondered what Jack would say when he saw it.

Yachting is a most leisurely pastime and gives one ample opportunities for thought. Before the cruise was over Jack had made for himself an unaccountable