So very surprised, indeed, was David at this, that even his violin was mute, and had nothing, at first, to say about it.

But to Mr.Jack, as man to man, David said one day:-- "I thought men, when they married women, went courting.

In story-books they do.

And you--you hardly ever said a word to my beautiful Lady of the Roses; and you spoke once--long ago--as if you scarcely remembered her at all.

Now, what do you mean by that ?" And Mr.Jack laughed, but he grew red, too,--and then he told it all,--that it was just the story of "The Princess and the Pauper," and that he, David, had been the one, as it happened, to do part of their courting for them.
And how David had laughed then, and how he had fairly hugged himself for joy! And when next he had picked up his violin, what a beautiful, beautiful song he had found about it in the vibrant strings! It was this same song, as it chanced, that he was playing in his room that Saturday afternoon when the letter from Simeon Holly's long-lost son John came to the Holly farmhouse.
Downstairs in the kitchen, Simeon Holly stood, with the letter in his hand.
"Ellen, we've got a letter from--John," he said.