Worth was digging with masculine vigor.

Kate passed close enough to hear Ann's, "Well, once upon a time--" Ann!--opening to a little child the door of that wondrous country of Once upon a Time! No mother had ever done it more sweetly, with more tender zeal, more loving understanding of the joys and necessities of Once upon a Time.

Some once upon a time notions of Kate's were quite overturned by that "once upon a time" voice of Ann's.

Then the once upon a time of the sandpile did not shut them out--they who had known another once upon a time?
Did it perhaps love to take them in, knowing that upon the sands of this once upon a time the other could keep no foothold?
"Once upon a Time--Once upon a Time"-- it kept singing itself in her ears.
For her, too, it opened a door..