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Chapter 1

-"Father walks slow to what he used to do, " said Winnie with a sigh, as she and Pat shelled peas on the kitchen steps in the sultry August afternoon, with Bold-and-Bad sitting between them. An occasional breeze set the leaves of the young aspen by the door shaking wildly. Pat loved that aspen. It had grown up unregarded in a few summers. Judy always threatening to cut it down. and then over night it had turned from a shrub into a tree. And then dad had declared it must come down but Pat had interceded successfully.

-"In a year or two it will shade the steps so nicely. Think of the moonlight falling through it on summer nights, dad."