`` My dear Cecilia , '' said Mrs. Frederick , `` we shall never know . '' They never did know . VI . Old Man Shaw 's Girl `` Day after to-morrow -- day after to-morrow , '' said Old Man Shaw , rubbing his long slender hands together gleefully . `` I have to keep saying it over and over , so as to really believe it . It seems far too good to be true that I 'm to have Blossom again . And everything is ready . Yes , I think everything is ready , except a bit of cooking . And wo n't this orchard be a surprise to her ! I 'm just going to bring her out here as soon as I can , never saying a word . I 'll fetch her through the spruce lane , and when we come to the end of the path I 'll step back casual-like , and let her go out from under the trees alone , never suspecting . It 'll be worth ten times the trouble to see her big , brown eyes open wide and hear her say , ` Oh , daddy ! Why , daddy ! ' '' He rubbed his hands again and laughed softly to himself . He was a tall , bent old man , whose hair was snow white , but whose face was fresh and rosy . His eyes were a boy 's eyes , large , blue and merry , and his mouth had never got over a youthful trick of smiling at any provocation -- and , oft-times , at no provocation at all . To be sure , White Sands people would not have given you the most favourable opinion in the world of Old Man Shaw . First and foremost , they would have told you that he was `` shiftless , '' and had let his bit of a farm run out while he pottered with flowers and bugs , or rambled aimlessly about in the woods , or read books along the shore . Perhaps it was true ; but the old farm yielded him a living , and further than that Old Man Shaw had no ambition . He was as blithe as a pilgrim on a pathway climbing to the west .
He had learned the rare secret XXXXX you must take happiness when you find it -- that there is no use in marking the place and coming back to it at a more convenient season , because it will not be there then .
after along except on out than that through to while