“ THESE THREE.” 83

outside the paddock. But then she had come out
with her “ distance” spectacles on.

““What’s that in the shed yonder, looking so
bright and pretty, my dear?” asked she.

“In the shed, Mary? There can be nothing !”
was his decisive reply.

“There must be something, John, or I shouldn’t
see it,” persisted she.

“We will go and look then, my love,” said -
gently.

For whether he had been a patient man all his
life one cannot say, but he had grown into it now.

So the old couple toddled through the gate to
the shed, and he stepped aside and peeped in.

“Tt’s only a bit of fresh moss covering up a
broken flower-pot, love,” remarked he. “ It’s
young, and it’s bright, and it shines.”

“T see,” said the wife ; and they stood still and
looked together.

“ What a contrast to the old rubbish round it !”
murmured the old man. “Life in death, as it
were. Let us go home, dear!”

So they went.

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