forty men behind him, he had fought for hours to save the buildings at the mine two years before.  Something of interest was always happening.  There was the day when the serpent appeared in Eden.  Appropriately enough, it was Eve who discovered it, curled up in the sun right by the gate.  Her appeals for assistance brought Wade in a hurry, and the serpent, after an exciting chase through the hedges and flower beds, was finally dispatched.  It proved to be an adder of blameless character, but neither Eve nor Miss Mullett had any regrets.  Eve declared that a snake was a snake, no matter what any one—­meaning Wade—­said, and Wade was forced to acknowledge the fact.  Armed with a shovel, they marched to the back garden, Wade holding the snake by its unquiet tail, and interred it there, so that Alexander the Great, the tortoise-shell cat, wouldn’t eat it and be poisoned.  Subsequently the affair had to be discussed in all its aspects by Eve and Wade in the shade of the cedars.

And then there was the anxious week when Zephania had a bad sore throat that looked for awhile like diphtheria, and Wade prepared his own breakfasts and lunches and dined alternately at The Cedars and with Doctor Crimmins.  And, of course, there was the stirring occasion of Zephania’s return to duty, Zephania being patently proud of the disturbance she had created, and full of quaint comments on life, death, and immortality, those subjects seemingly having engaged her mind largely during her illness.  For several days her voice was noticeably lacking in quality and volume, and “There is a Happy Land,” which was her favorite hymn during that period, was rendered so subduedly that Wade was worried, and had to have the Doctor’s assurance that Zephania was not going into a decline.

These are only a few of the exciting things that transpired during Wade’s first month in Eden Village.  There were many others, but as I tell them they seem much less important than they really were, and I shall mention only one more.  That was something other than a mere event; it savored of the stupendous; it might almost be called a phenomenon.  Its fame spread abroad until folks discussed it over the tea-table or in front of the village stores in places as far distant as Stepping and Tottingham and Bursley.  In Eden Village it caused such a commotion as had not disturbed the tranquillity since the weather-vane on the church steeple was regilded.  As you are by this time, kind reader, in a fever of excitement and curiosity, I’ll relieve your suspense.

Wade had his cottage painted, inside and out!

Not content with that, he had a new roof put on, built a porch on the south side of the house, cut a door from the sitting-room, and had the fence mended and the gate rehung!  It was the consensus of Eden Village opinion that you can’t beat a Westerner for extravagance and sheer audacity.