It was in the early autumn that Maud came. The grain had all been cutand stacked, and was waiting for the thresher to come on its rounds.Shaw was ploughing in the field in front of his house when Maud camewalking briskly up the road just as her grandmother had done fourmonths before! The trees in the poplar grove beside the road wereturning black and yellow with autumn, and Maud, inside her black-brown suit andhat, looked as if she belonged to the picture.

Some such thought as this struggled in Shaw's brain and shone inside hiseyes as he waited for her at the headland.

He raised his hat as she drew near. Maud went right into the subject.

"Have you my grandmother?" she asked.

Shaw hesitated--the dreaded moment had come. Visions of formerhousekeepers--dirty dishes, unmade bed, dust, flies, mice--rose beforehim and tempted him to say "no," but something stronger and better,perhaps it was the "clean hide" prompting the clean heart, spoke up inhim.