The next morning, the long shining car sped down the highway toward Oakdale, with John at the wheel and his mother sitting proudly by his side. In the back seat was the happy Whitmer family. Little Laura Gene was thrilled at the sight of real live horses and cows that were grazing in the pastures along the road. She had never seen farm animals except in the picture books.

"Oh, those blessed, gorgeous mountains! They are just the same, Gene, and the big round roofed barns and the willows along Cotton Creek. They are all calling out to me and my heart is singing a happy reply." Laura Mae was in a poetic mood, she was so very, very happy when they entered the Oakdale Valley.

"The same dear schoolhouse, the same old store and the same old Post Office," Gene said as they passed through the business part of the little town. "Wasn't that Erick Johnsons in the Post Office right where he always used to stand? I thought I saw a crutch under his arm. I wonder—Oh, confound that war anyway."

"I am sure it was Erick. Oh, look, dear! There is a brand-new garage, with a gas tank and all!" Laura Mae pointed excitedly. "Cars have come to Oakdale at last!" She drew a short breath and giggles, "Do you remember the day Hank Dalton's Ford almost ran us over?"

"Do I? Who was driving that tea, of prancing horses but me?" he laughed and patted his chest as he filled it very full with a deep breath of air. Then he put his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Say, that is what you were so big and smart on the way back home from the springs that day when all of a sudden Father's buggy came into view." She reached up and caught his hand so she could pull his arm tighter around her.

"Can you blame him for having you climb right out of the buggy to get you out of the clutches of such a caveman?" At that, they both laughed heartily.

"Say, you two blessed turtle-doves, back there, which way do we from here?" John asked, slowing the car down as he approached the corner.

"Turn to the right," both of the "turtle-doves," said in the same instant.

"Needles."

"Pines." They locked their little fingers together in a childish custom they had when they both said the same thing at the same time, then begun giggling again.

The little girl watched every move her parents made, laughing when they laughed and listening intently when they were serious. At length, she said, "Ooh, it's lots of fun. Where did you say we are going, Mony May?"

"To see Grandmother Porter and Uncle Everett, and Aunt Martha and good old Maria Beckman." Laura Mae pronounced each name very distinctly.

"Do they all 'bong to the weally fa-wee tale?"

"Yes, dear, they all belong to the really fairy tale."

"Well, have I dot two gammas?" the child asked with her eyes wide.

"Yes, you have two grandmas, Dolly," Emily Chatterton answered, turning in her seat so she could look at the little girl. "You always remember, that I will be your grandma just the same as Grandma Porter will." She smiled with tears in her eyes at the thought of having to live in the spacious home without the patter of little feet. John would simply have to get marries, then perhaps she would have real grandchildren of her own to bring joy into the home Colonial Heights.

"So has Bobby Wandall dot two gammas. Now I am happy as Bobby."

"Does Bobby have uncles and aunts, too?" the mother asked.

"Oh, yes, he has. But nen, I have Uncle Evet, an' Aunt Marfa an', an' Uncle Sjohn. Is Sjohn my uncle, Mony May?"

"Yes, he can be your Uncle John." Gene gave Laura Mae an understanding smile, approving the answer she had made. John acted pleased, too.

"Goody, goody. Now I have dot everybody like Bobby Wandall has—ah, all but a baby sister. Will I have a baby sister in the weally fa-wee tale?" she asked in childish innocence, looking first at her mother for an answer, then at her father, while they stared at each other, each waiting for the other to answer the child. John grinned to himself and Mrs. Chatterton turned again and spoke to Laura Gene as if the question had been addressed to her.

"Of course, you will, little sweetheart. You will have a baby sister and a baby brother, too. Maybe, lots of them, If I could live my life over again, John here would have a whole house full of brothers and sister, then when he went away, I would not have to be lonesome, because there would still be children around me." John looked at his mother in surprise although he had heard her talk that way often when she would threaten to adopt a group of orphans.

"I am glad 'at I will have a baby sister, anyway," Laura Gene said and looked up in time to see her daddy wink at her mother.

"Our tree, Gene, there it is!? Sure enough, by the side of the road was the shade tree with the deserted wood-pecker nest in it, standing just as it had always stood when merry little breezes brushed past it. Gene gave Laura Mae's hand a tight squeeze at the sight of it.

"And look, honey!" He was overjoyed as he pointed toward the west. "It's the Whitmer Mansion! Do you see it through the clearing in the quaking asps? Oh, boy! Oh, joy! 'Mid pleasures and palaces, there's no place like home!'"

Laura Mae was so excited that she was sitting out on the very edge of the seat. "Turn down the lane there from the crossroads, John," she said in a voice that sounded like she was either ready to laugh or else cry, he was not sure which, but he knew how he had felt when the home on Colonial Heights had come into view after he had been released from the hospital.

"That is Grandma Porter's house, Laura Gene," the daddy said, holding the child up so she could see better. The little eyes were full of wonderment, while tears of joy glistened in the eyes of her father and mother.

"That is Uncle Everett's new shining car standing there and look, Gene, look! They have seen us coming and are all out there to meet us. It's Mother, and Martha and Uncle Everett, and Maria! Oh, hurry up, car, hurry up!"

"There is someone else, there," Gene said as they came nearer to the group.

"Gene, it's June! June Malcolm! She is there with Martha" Laura Mae exclaimed.

"Of course, June is back. I got a letter from her, she is coming next week to visit at my house," Emily Chatterton said with a happy smile.

When the car stopped, it seemed like everybody was taking turns kissing and hugging everybody else. Gene went to his Uncle Everett, Laura Mae rushing into her mother's outstretched arms. June and her Aunt Emily clasped in a warm embrace. Maria Beckman picked up like Laura Gene, submitted to the kisses and tight hugs of the kind old lady. The eyes of the other two met, then lighted with recognition.

"Martha, my nurse!" John exclaimed in glad surprise, then stepped toward her to clasp the soft hand she offered him.

"Why, John Chatterton, you are well now," she said, radiant with happiness. "Is it at your mother's home where Laura Mae has stayed?"

"Yes, and are you the sister, Martha, of whom she speaks so often?"

"I guess I am; this makes it all even more mixed up than ever, but I guess it will all keep straight from now on, don't you think it will?" She smiled and turned to June. "Say, June, why didn't you make it plain to me that this wonderful cousin of yours, that you have been saying so many good things about, was named John? I had never connected him with the Mrs. Chatterton in whose home Laura Mae was staying, but I do remember now that I addressed the letter over in France to Colonial Heights."

June smiled. "How did I know that you had met him in France? Aunt Emily, I want you to meet Miss Porter, my dearest girlfriend. Martha, this is Mrs. Chatterton."

"I am, indeed, pleased to meet you," the lovely lady said. "John, is this the nurse, by the name of Martha, whom you mentioned to me that day?"

"Yes, she is, Mother. I said that I wished I could find her again so I could tell her how I missed her after she went away to the front.

Mrs. Chatterton and John were then introduced to Clara, Everett, and Maria. They all went into the house, chattering gaily all the while.

At one o'clock, Clara Porter seated the whole crowd to a meal such only farmer's wives can prepare. There were roast chickens, ripe tomato and cucumber salad, creamed potatoes, apple pie with whipped cream, besides the fresh ranch butter and perfect homemade bread. After the chickens had been removed from the roaster, Clara had made a whole big bowlful of rich brown gravy and had Martha bring up jelly and pickles from the shelves in the cellar to add to the menu.

Little Laura Gene noticed the happiness that was displayed by everyone while the food was disappearing very rapidly. She was eating her serving like a little lady, when all of a sudden, she looked up and said, "Mony May, it's a nice weally fa-wee tale, isn't it?" Her dimples showed so plainly when she smiled like that.

"Yes, dear, isn't it lovely? I'll bet Grandma Porter liked the big kiss you gave her," Laura Mae said. She saw her mother smiling at her little granddaughter, like every fond grandmother smiles.

"I dess she did, she kissed me lots a' times. I am glad I dot two gammas like Bobby Wandall."

"Oi vill be your grandmudder, too, liddle sveetheart," Maria Beckman said, smiling fondly at the pretty little girl. The way she loved Gene, she could not help but love his baby.

"A' wight, nen I will have fwee gammas," he pointed at Clara, Maria, and Emily Chatterton each in turn, as she counted, "One, two, fwee, and Bobby will 'ist have two." She laughed gleefully at the thought of having a way to get even with Bobby for getting a baby sister before she did.

"What a feast this it!" Gene said, smacking his lips, while he did justice to a wishbone, "A feast last night and another one today! I have almost forgotten that they ever served beans in the army after all this delicious food has been set before me."

"There will be two more feasts soon," Uncle Everett remarked, "You will all be invited to them."

"What do you mean?" Gene asked eagerly

"One will be a wedding feast next Sunday and the other will be Thanksgiving Day."

"A wedding feast, Uncle?" Gene did not understand.

"Yes," the good-natured man explained, "Clara, my childhood sweetheart, her and I are planning on getting married next Sunday."

"Oh, Mother!" Laura Mae was sitting by her mother, who looked so young and charming, having blossomed again, "Was Uncle Everett the lover you mentioned that once went away and you tried to forget but could not?"

"Yes, dear girl, he was," the mother answered, blushing like a bashful girl.

"And you never let on it was he? Mother, you were so brave and wonderful." The girl smiled and patted her mother's arm lovingly. "Let your heart guide you and you will be happy, that it what you told me once."

***

In the afternoon, John and Martha stole away from the chatting group and went for a walk through the flower garden and down into the orchard to the very tree where the old swing used to hand. The scent of pine trees was carried to their noses by the breeze as they stood hand in hand beneath the apple tree, from which the apple had been picked and stored away for winter. The branches were covered with red and golden autumn leaves. John could not have told afterward whether they were decked in autumn attire or whether they were laden with pink and white blossoms for he did not notice them at all. He saw only the beautiful girl there by him. The girl with the kind eyes and soft warm hands. His heart beat faster as it had always done when she came near him bedside in the hospital over in France. He was sure now that the reason Laura Mae fascinated him was that she reminded him of Martha, the only girl he had ever really loved, he would have to forget now that he had ever imagined that he loved Laura Mae other than as a sister.

"Martha, it is all like a wonderful dream to find you here like this, I wish I had known over there, who you were. You are the nurse Gene rushed out to see that night," John said.

"Let's try and forget the scenes of war and the sadness that they brought, John, and just be happy that all of us came back safely." She smiled serenely at him.

"I love, love you, Martha," he whispered.

"I love you, too, John," she sighed, then smiled up at him.

A plump, gray pigeon, sitting on a high branch of the apple tree, looked down with a half-cocked eye, as John took his sweetheart into his arms and kissed her tenderly, The bright round sun smiled down as if to say, "What an entanglement of hearts, there are ten of them caught in one snare!" A gentle breeze swept down from the mountainside, over the Porter far,, and whispered, "Hush, for God is over all."

~THE END~