Besides, to give sugar plums one doesn't have to unwind yards of red tape, or worry about 'pauperizing the poor.' To give red flannels and a ton of coal, one must be properly circumspect and consult records and city missionaries, of course; and that's why it's such a relief sometimes just to hand over a simple little sugar plum and see them smile." For a minute Bertram was silent, then he asked abruptly: "Billy, why did you leave the Strata ?" Billy was taken quite by surprise.

A pink flush spread to her forehead, and her tongue stumbled at first over her reply.
"Why, I--it seemed--you--why, I left to go to Hampden Falls, to be sure.
Don't you remember ?" she finished gaily.
"Oh, yes, I remember THAT," conceded Bertram with disdainful emphasis.
"But why did you go to Hampden Falls ?" "Why, it--it was the only place to go--that is, I WANTED to go there," she corrected hastily.

"Didn't Aunt Hannah tell you that I--I was homesick to get back there ?" "Oh, yes, Aunt Hannah SAID that," observed the man; "but wasn't that homesickness a little--sudden ?" Billy blushed pink again.
"Why, maybe; but--well, homesickness is always more or less sudden; isn't it ?" she parried.
Bertram laughed, but his eyes grew suddenly almost tender.
"See here, Billy, you can't bluff worth a cent," he declared.

"You are much too refreshingly frank for that.

Something was the trouble.