“Could you—­could you, Ruth?”

“Keep on living it?  Yes, dear.  Who so well fitted as I?”

They paused on the snowy path, and looked into each other’s brave eyes.

“I wonder if any life is really hard, dear Ruth, where—­”

“Love lifts the burden?  I think not, Andy.  Love bears the weight.  We take the glory.  It is a wonderful thing.”

The red glow of the winter sunset seemed to warm the snow-covered earth, and in the still beauty the two followed Janie and Martin.

THE END