"He's out again after his long spell of sickness, and the way it looks to me he'd better stayed in bed." "You mean he still looks too bad to be out ?" "Oh, I expect he's gettin' his HEALTH back," Lohr said, frowning.
"Then what's the matter with him?
You mean he's lost his mind ?" "My goodness, but women do jump at conclusions!" he exclaimed.
"Well," said Mrs.Lohr, "what other conclusion did you leave me to jump at ?" Her husband explained with a little heat: "People can have a sickness that AFFECTS their mind, can't they?
Their mind can get some affected without bein' LOST, can't it ?" "Then you mean the poor man's mind does seem affected ?" "Why, no; I'd scarcely go as far as that," Lohr said, inconsistently, and declined to be more definite.
Adams devoted the latter part of that evening to the composition of his letter--a disquieting task not completed when, at eleven o'clock, he heard his daughter coming up the stairs.

She was singing to herself in a low, sweet voice, and Adams paused to listen incredulously, with his pen lifted and his mouth open, as if he heard the strangest sound in the world.

Then he set down the pen upon a blotter, went to his door, and opened it, looking out at her as she came.
"Well, dearie, you seem to be feeling pretty good," he said.

"What you been doing ?" "Just sitting out on the front steps, papa." "All alone, I suppose." "No.

Mr.Russell called." "Oh, he did ?" Adams pretended to be surprised.