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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Harvester
+
+Author: Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+Release Date: October, 1995 [eBook #349]
+[Most recently updated: March 17, 2023]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Charles Keller and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARVESTER ***
+
+
+
+
+THE HARVESTER
+
+By Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+
+Author Of A Girl Of The Limberlost, Freckles, Etc.
+
+
+
+                        THIS PORTION
+               OF THE LIFE OF A MAN OF TO-DAY
+          IS OFFERED IN THE HOPE THAT IN CLEANLINESS,
+             POETIC TEMPERMENT, AND MENTAL FORCE,
+                    A LIKENESS WILL BE SEEN
+                            TO
+                     HENRY DAVID THOREAU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+     I.     Belshazzar's Decision
+     II.    The Effect of a Dream
+     III.   Harvesting the Forest
+     IV.    A Commission for the South Wind
+     V.     When the Harvester Made Good
+     VI.    To Labour and to Wait
+     VII.   The Quest of the Dream Girl
+     VIII.  Belshazzar's Record Point
+     IX.    The Harvester Goes Courting
+     X.     The Chime of the Blue Bells
+     XI.    Demonstrated Courtship
+     XII.   ''The Way of a Man with a Maid''
+     XIII.  When the Dream Came True
+     XIV.   Snowy Wings
+     XV.    The Harvester Interprets Life
+     XVI.   Granny Moreland's Visit
+     XVII.  Love Invades Science
+     XVIII. The Better Man
+     XIX.   A Vertical Spine
+     XX.    The Man in the Background
+     XXI.   The Coming of the Bluebird
+
+
+CHARACTERS
+
+     DAVID LANGSTON, A Harvester of the Woods.
+     RUTH JAMESON, A Girl of the City.
+     GRANNY MORELAND, An Interested Neighbour.
+     DR. CAREY, Chief Surgeon of the Onabasha Hospital.
+     MRS. CAREY, Wife of the Doctor.
+     DR. HARMON, Who Concludes to Leave the City.
+     MOLLY BARNET, A Hospital Nurse with a Heart.
+     HENRY JAMESON, A Trader Without a Heart.
+     ALEXANDER HERRON, Who Made a Concession.
+     MRS. HERRON, A Gentle Woman.
+     THE KENNEDYS, Philadelphia Lawyers.
+
+
+
+
+THE HARVESTER
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. BELSHAZZAR'S DECISION
+
+“Bel, come here!” The Harvester sat in the hollow worn in the hewed log
+stoop by the feet of his father and mother and his own sturdier tread,
+and rested his head against the casing of the cabin door when he gave
+the command. The tip of the dog's nose touched the gravel between his
+paws as he crouched flat on earth, with beautiful eyes steadily watching
+the master, but he did not move a muscle.
+
+“Bel, come here!”
+
+Twinkles flashed in the eyes of the man when he repeated the order,
+while his voice grew more imperative as he stretched a lean, wiry
+hand toward the dog. The animal's eyes gleamed and his sensitive nose
+quivered, yet he lay quietly.
+
+“Belshazzar, kommen Sie hier!”
+
+The body of the dog arose on straightened legs and his muzzle dropped
+in the outstretched palm. A wind slightly perfumed with the odour of
+melting snow and unsheathing buds swept the lake beside them, and lifted
+a waving tangle of light hair on the brow of the man, while a level ray
+of the setting sun flashed across the water and illumined the graven,
+sensitive face, now alive with keen interest in the game being played.
+
+“Bel, dost remember the day?” inquired the Harvester.
+
+The eager attitude and anxious eyes of the dog betrayed that he did not,
+but was waiting with every sense alert for a familiar word that would
+tell him what was expected.
+
+“Surely you heard the killdeers crying in the night,” prompted the man.
+“I called your attention when the ecstasy of the first bluebird waked
+the dawn. All day you have seen the gold-yellow and blood-red osiers,
+the sap-wet maples and spring tracing announcements of her arrival on
+the sunny side of the levee.”
+
+The dog found no clew, but he recognized tones he loved in the suave,
+easy voice, and his tail beat his sides in vigorous approval. The man
+nodded gravely.
+
+“Ah, so! Then you realize this day to be the most important of all the
+coming year to me; this hour a solemn one that influences my whole after
+life. It is time for your annual decision on my fate for a twelve-month.
+Are you sure you are fully alive to the gravity of the situation, Bel?”
+
+The dog felt himself safe in answering a rising inflection ending in his
+name uttered in that tone, and wagged eager assent.
+
+“Well then,” said the man, “which shall it be? Do I leave home for the
+noise and grime of the city, open an office and enter the money-making
+scramble?”
+
+Every word was strange to the dog, almost breathlessly waiting for a
+familiar syllable. The man gazed steadily into the animal's eyes. After
+a long pause he continued:
+
+“Or do I remain at home to harvest the golden seal, mullein, and
+ginseng, not to mention an occasional hour with the black bass or tramps
+for partridge and cotton-tails?”
+
+The dog recognized each word of that. Before the voice ceased, his sleek
+sides were quivering, his nostrils twitching, his tail lashing, and at
+the pause he leaped up and thrust his nose against the face of the man.
+The Harvester leaned back laughing in deep, full-chested tones; then he
+patted the dog's head with one hand and renewed his grip with the other.
+
+“Good old Bel!” he cried exultantly. “Six years you have decided for me,
+and right----every time! We are of the woods, Bel, born and reared
+here as our fathers before us. What would we of the camp fire, the long
+trail, the earthy search, we harvesters of herbs the famous chemists
+require, what would we do in a city? And when the sap is rising, the
+bass splashing, and the wild geese honking in the night! We never could
+endure it, Bel.
+
+“When we delivered that hemlock at the hospital to-day, did you hear
+that young doctor talking about his 'lid'? Well up there is ours, old
+fellow! Just sky and clouds overhead for us, forest wind in our faces,
+wild perfume in our nostrils, muck on our feet, that's the life for us.
+Our blood was tainted to begin with, and we've lived here so long it
+is now a passion in our hearts. If ever you sentence us to life in the
+city, you'll finish both of us, that's what you'll do! But you won't,
+will you? You realize what God made us for and what He made for us,
+don't you, Bel?”
+
+As he lovingly patted the dog's head the man talked and the animal
+trembled with delight. Then the voice of the Harvester changed and
+dropped to tones of gravest import.
+
+“Now how about that other matter, Bel? You always decide that too. The
+time has come again. Steady now! This is far more important than the
+other. Just to be wiped out, Bel, pouf! That isn't anything and it
+concerns no one save ourselves. But to bring misery into our lives
+and live with it daily, that would be a condition to rend the soul. So
+careful, Bel! Cautious now!”
+
+The voice of the man dropped to a whisper as he asked the question.
+
+“What about the girl business?”
+
+Trembling with eagerness to do the thing that would bring more
+caressing, bewildered by unfamiliar words and tones, the dog hesitated.
+
+“Do I go on as I have ever since mother left me, rustling for grub,
+living in untrammelled freedom? Do I go on as before, Bel?”
+
+The Harvester paused and waited the answer, with anxiety in his eyes
+as he searched the beast face. He had talked to that dog, as most
+men commune with their souls, for so long and played the game in such
+intense earnest that he felt the results final with him. The animal was
+immovable now, lost again, his anxious eyes watching the face of the
+master, his eager ears waiting for words he recognized. After a long
+time the man continued slowly and hesitantly, as if fearing the outcome.
+He did not realize that there was sufficient anxiety in his voice to
+change its tones.
+
+“Or do I go courting this year? Do I rig up in uncomfortable
+store-clothes, and parade before the country and city girls and try to
+persuade the one I can get, probably----not the one I would want----to
+marry me, and come here and spoil all our good times? Do we want a
+woman around scolding if we are away from home, whining because she is
+lonesome, fretting for luxuries we cannot afford to give her? Are you
+going to let us in for a scrape like that, Bel?”
+
+The bewildered dog could bear the unusual scene no longer. Taking the
+rising inflection, that sounded more familiar, for a cue, and his name
+for a certainty, he sprang forward, his tail waving as his nose touched
+the face of the Harvester. Then he shot across the driveway and lay in
+the spice thicket, half the ribs of one side aching, as he howled from
+the lowest depths of dog misery.
+
+“You ungrateful cur!” cried the Harvester. “What has come over you? Six
+years I have trusted you, and the answer has been right, every time!
+Confound your picture! Sentence me to tackle the girl proposition! I
+see myself! Do you know what it would mean? For the first thing you'd
+be chained, while I pranced over the country like a half-broken colt,
+trying to attract some girl. I'd have to waste time I need for my work
+and spend money that draws good interest while we sleep, to tempt her
+with presents. I'd have to rebuild the cabin and there's not a chance in
+ten she would not fret the life out of me whining to go to the city to
+live, arrange for her here the best I could. Of all the fool, unreliable
+dogs that ever trod a man's tracks, you are the limit! And you never
+before failed me! You blame, degenerate pup, you!”
+
+The Harvester paused for breath and the dog subsided to a pitiful
+whimper. He was eager to return to the man who had struck him the first
+blow his pampered body ever had received; but he could not understand a
+kick and harsh words for him, so he lay quivering with anxiety and fear.
+
+“You howling, whimpering idiot!” exclaimed the Harvester. “Choose a
+day like this to spoil! Air to intoxicate a mummy! Roots swelling! Buds
+bursting! Harvest close and you'd call me off and put me at work like
+that, would you? If I ever had supposed lost all your senses, I never
+would have asked you. Six years you have decided my fate, when the first
+bluebird came, and you've been true blue every time. If I ever trust you
+again! But the mischief is done now.
+
+“Have you forgotten that your name means 'to protect?' Don't you
+remember it is because of that, it is your name? Protect! I'd have
+trusted you with my life, Bell! You gave it to me the time you pointed
+that rattler within six inches of my fingers in the blood-root bed.
+You saw the falling limb in time to warn me. You always know where the
+quicksands lie. But you are protecting me now, like sin, ain't you?
+Bring a girl here to spoil both our lives! Not if I know myself!
+Protect!”
+
+The man arose and going inside the cabin closed the door. After that the
+dog lay in abject misery so deep that two big tears squeezed from his
+eyes and rolled down his face. To be shut out was worse than the blow.
+He did not take the trouble to arise from the wet leaves covering the
+cold earth, but closing his eyes went to sleep.
+
+The man leaned against the door and ran his fingers through his hair as
+he anathematized the dog. Slowly his eyes travelled around the room. He
+saw his tumbled bed by the open window facing the lake, the small
+table with his writing material, the crude rack on the wall loaded
+with medical works, botanies, drug encyclopaedias, the books of the few
+authors who interested him, and the bare, muck-tracked floor. He went
+to the kitchen, where he built a fire in the cook stove, and to the
+smoke-house, from which he returned with a slice of ham and some eggs.
+He set some potatoes boiling and took bread, butter and milk from the
+pantry. Then he laid a small note-book on the table before him and
+studied the transactions of the day.
+
+     10 lbs. wild cherry bark      6 cents       $.60
+     5   “   wahoo root bark      25 “           1.25
+     20  “   witch hazel bark      5 “           1.00
+     5   “   blue flag root       12 “           .60
+     10  “   snake root           18 “           1.80
+     10  “   blood root           12 “           1.20
+     15  “   hoarhound            10 “           1.50
+                                                 -----
+                                                $7.95
+
+
+“Not so bad,” he muttered, bending over the figures. “I wonder if any
+of my neighbours who harvest the fields average as well at this season.
+I'll wager they don't. That's pretty fair! Some days I don't make it,
+and then when a consignment of seeds go or ginseng is wanted the cash
+comes in right properly. I could waste half of it on a girl and yet save
+money. But where is the woman who would be content with half? She'd want
+all and fret because there wasn't more. Blame that dog!”
+
+He put the book in his pocket, prepared and ate his supper, heaped a
+plate generously, placed it on the floor beneath the table, and set away
+the food that remained.
+
+“Not that you deserve it,” he said to space. “You get this in honour
+of your distinguished name and the faithfulness with which you formerly
+have lived up to its import. If you hadn't been a dog with more sense
+than some men, I wouldn't take your going back on me now so hard. One
+would think an animal of your intelligence might realize that you would
+get as much of a dose as I. Would she permit you to eat from a plate on
+the kitchen floor? Not on your life, Belshazzar! Frozen scraps around
+the door for you! Would she allow you to sleep across the foot of the
+bed? Ho, ho, ho! Would she have you tracking on her floor? It would be
+the barn, and growling you didn't do at that. If I'd serve you right,
+I'd give you a dose and allow you to see how you like it. But it's
+cutting off my nose to spite my face, as the old adage goes, for
+whatever she did to a dog, she'd probably do worse to a man. I think
+not!”
+
+He entered the front room and stood before a long shelf on which were
+arranged an array of partially completed candlesticks carved from wood.
+There were black and white walnut, red, white, and golden oak, cherry
+and curly maple, all in original designs. Some of them were oddities,
+others were failures, but most of them were unusually successful. He
+selected one of black walnut, carved until the outline of his pattern
+was barely distinguishable. He was imitating the trunk of a tree with
+the bark on, the spreading, fern-covered roots widening for the base,
+from which a vine sprang. Near the top was the crude outline of a big
+night moth climbing toward the light. He stood turning this stick with
+loving hands and holding it from him for inspection.
+
+“I am going to master you!” he exulted. “Your lines are right. The
+design balances and it's graceful. If I have any trouble it will be with
+the moth, and I think I can manage. I've got to decide whether to use
+cecropia or polyphemus before long. Really, on a walnut, and in
+the woods, it should be a luna, according to the eternal fitness of
+things----but I'm afraid of the trailers. They turn over and half curl
+and I believe I had better not tackle them for a start. I'll use the
+easiest to begin on, and if I succeed I'll duplicate the pattern and try
+a luna then. The beauties!”
+
+The Harvester selected a knife from the box and began carving the stick
+slowly and carefully. His brain was busy, for presently he glanced at
+the floor.
+
+“She'd object to that!” he said emphatically. “A man could no more sit
+and work where he pleased than he could fly. At least I know mother
+never would have it, and she was no nagger, either. What a mother she
+was! If one only could stop the lonely feeling that will creep in, and
+the aching hunger born with the body, for a mate; if a fellow only
+could stop it with a woman like mother! How she revelled in sunshine and
+beauty! How she loved earth and air! How she went straight to the marrow
+of the finest line in the best book I could bring from the library! How
+clean and true she was and how unyielding! I can hear her now, holding
+me with her last breath to my promise. If I could marry a girl like
+mother----great Caesar! You'd see me buying an automobile to make the
+run to the county clerk. Wouldn't that be great! Think of coming in from
+a long, difficult day, to find a hot supper, and a girl such as she must
+have been, waiting for me! Bel, if I thought there was a woman similar
+to her in all the world, and I had even the ghost of a chance to win
+her, I'd call you in and forgive you. But I know the girls of to-day. I
+pass them on the roads, on the streets, see them in the cafe's, stores,
+and at the library. Why even the nurses at the hospital, for all the
+gravity of their positions, are a giggling, silly lot; and they never
+know that the only time they look and act presentably to me is when they
+stop their chatter, put on their uniforms, and go to work. Some of them
+are pretty, then. There's a little blue-eyed one, but all she needs is
+feathers to make her a 'ha! ha! bird.' Drat that dog!”
+
+The Harvester took the candlestick and the box of knives, opened the
+door, and returned to the stoop. Belshazzar arose, pleading in his eyes,
+and cautiously advanced a few steps. The man bent over his work and paid
+not the slightest heed, so the discouraged dog sank to earth and fixedly
+watched the unresponsive master. The carving of the candlestick went
+on steadily. Occasionally the Harvester lifted his head and repeatedly
+sucked his lungs full of air. Sometimes for an instant he scanned the
+surface of the lake for signs of breaking fish or splash of migrant
+water bird. Again his gaze wandered up the steep hill, crowned with
+giant trees, whose swelling buds he could see and smell. Straight before
+him lay a low marsh, through which the little creek that gurgled and
+tumbled down hill curved, crossed the drive some distance below, and
+entered the lake of Lost Loons.
+
+While the trees were bare, and when the air was clear as now, he could
+see the spires of Onabasha, five miles away, intervening cultivated
+fields, stretches of wood, the long black line of the railway, and
+the swampy bottom lands gradually rising to the culmination of the
+tree-crowned summit above him. His cocks were crowing warlike challenges
+to rivals on neighbouring farms. His hens were carolling their spring
+egg-song. In the barn yard ganders were screaming stridently. Over the
+lake and the cabin, with clapping snowy wings, his white doves circled
+in a last joy-flight before seeking their cotes in the stable loft. As
+the light grew fainter, the Harvester worked slower. Often he leaned
+against the casing, and closed his eyes to rest them. Sometimes he
+whistled snatches of old songs to which his mother had cradled him, and
+again bits of opera and popular music he had heard on the streets of
+Onabasha. As he worked, the sun went down and a half moon appeared above
+the wood across the lake. Once it seemed as if it were a silver bowl set
+on the branch of a giant oak; higher, it rested a tilted crescent on the
+rim of a cloud.
+
+The dog waited until he could endure it no longer, and straightening
+from his crouching position, he took a few velvet steps forward, making
+faint, whining sounds in his throat. When the man neither turned his
+head nor gave him a glance, Belshazzar sank to earth again, satisfied
+for the moment with being a little closer. Across Loon Lake came the
+wavering voice of a night love song. The Harvester remembered that as a
+boy he had shrunk from those notes until his mother explained that they
+were made by a little brown owl asking for a mate to come and live
+in his hollow tree. Now he rather liked the sound. It was eloquent of
+earnest pleading. With the lonely bird on one side, and the reproachful
+dog eyes on the other, the man grinned rather foolishly.
+
+Between two fires, he thought. If that dog ever catches my eye he will
+come tearing as a cyclone, and I would not kick him again for a hundred
+dollars. First time I ever struck him, and didn't intend to then. So
+blame mad and disappointed my foot just shot out before I knew it. There
+he lies half dead to make up, but I'm blest if I forgive him in a hurry.
+And there is that insane little owl screeching for a mate. If I'd start
+out making sounds like that, all the girls would line up and compete for
+possession of my happy home.
+
+The Harvester laughed and at the sound Belshazzar took courage and
+advanced five steps before he sank belly to earth again. The owl
+continued its song. The Harvester imitated the cry and at once it
+responded. He called again and leaned back waiting. The notes came
+closer. The Harvester cried once more and peered across the lake,
+watching for the shadow of silent wings. The moon was high above the
+trees now, the knife dropped in the box, the long fingers closed around
+the stick, the head rested against the casing, and the man intoned
+the cry with all his skill, and then watched and waited. He had been
+straining his eyes over the carving until they were tired, and when
+he watched for the bird the moonlight tried them; for it touched the
+lightly rippling waves of the lake in a line of yellow light that
+stretched straight across the water from the opposite bank, directly to
+the gravel bed below, where lay the bathing pool. It made a path of gold
+that wavered and shimmered as the water moved gently, but it appeared
+sufficiently material to resemble a bridge spanning the lake.
+
+“Seems as if I could walk it,” muttered the Harvester.
+
+The owl cried again and the man intently watched the opposite bank. He
+could not see the bird, but in the deep wood where he thought it might
+be he began to discern a misty, moving shimmer of white. Marvelling, he
+watched closer. So slowly he could not detect motion it advanced, rising
+in height and taking shape.
+
+“Do I end this day by seeing a ghost?” he queried.
+
+He gazed intently and saw that a white figure really moved in the woods
+of the opposite bank.
+
+“Must be some boys playing fool pranks!” exclaimed the Harvester.
+
+He watched fixedly with interested face, and then amazement wiped
+out all other expression and he sat motionless, breathless, looking,
+intently looking. For the white object came straight toward the water
+and at the very edge unhesitatingly stepped upon the bridge of gold and
+lightly, easily advanced in his direction. The man waited. On came
+the figure and as it drew closer he could see that it was a very tall,
+extremely slender woman, wrapped in soft robes of white. She stepped
+along the slender line of the gold bridge with grace unequalled.
+
+From the water arose a shining mist, and behind the advancing figure
+a wall of light outlined and rimmed her in a setting of gold. As she
+neared the shore the Harvester's blood began to race in his veins and
+his lips parted in wonder. First she was like a slender birch trunk,
+then she resembled a wild lily, and soon she was close enough to prove
+that she was young and very lovely. Heavy braids of dark hair rested
+on her head as a coronet. Her forehead was low and white. Her eyes were
+wide-open wells of darkness, her rounded cheeks faintly pink, and her
+red lips smiling invitation. Her throat was long, very white, and the
+hands that caught up the fleecy robe around her were rose-coloured and
+slender. In a panic the Harvester saw that the trailing robe swept the
+undulant gold water, but was not wet; the feet that alternately showed
+as she advanced were not purple with cold, but warm with a pink glow.
+
+She was coming straight toward him, wonderful, alluring, lovely beyond
+any woman the Harvester ever had seen. Straightway the fountains of
+twenty-six years' repression overflowed in the breast of the man and all
+his being ran toward her in a wave of desire. On she came, and now her
+tender feet were on the white gravel. When he could see clearly she was
+even more beautiful than she had appeared at a distance. He opened his
+lips, but no sound came. He struggled to rise, but his legs would not
+bear his weight. Helpless, he sank against the casing. The girl walked
+to his feet, bent, placed a hand on each of his shoulders, and smiled
+into his eyes. He could scent the flower-like odour of her body and
+wrapping, even her hair. He struggled frantically to speak to her as she
+leaned closer, yet closer, and softly but firmly laid lips of pulsing
+sweetness on his in a deliberate kiss.
+
+The Harvester was on his feet now. Belshazzar shrank into the shadows.
+
+“Come back!” cried the man. “Come back! For the love of mercy, where are
+you?”
+
+He ran stumblingly toward the lake. The bridge of gold was there, the
+little owl cried lonesomely; and did he see or did he only dream he saw
+a mist of white vanishing in the opposite wood?
+
+His breath came between dry lips, and he circled the cabin searching
+eagerly, but he could find nothing, hear nothing, save the dog at his
+heels. He hurried to the stoop and stood gazing at the molten path of
+moonlight. One minute he was half frozen, the next a rosy glow enfolded
+him. Slowly he lifted a hand and touched his lips. Then he raised his
+eyes from the water and swept the sky in a penetrant gaze.
+
+“My gracious Heavenly Father,” said the Harvester reverently. “Would it
+be like that?”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE EFFECT OF A DREAM
+
+Fully convinced at last that he had been dreaming, the Harvester picked
+up his knives and candlestick and entered the cabin. He placed them on a
+shelf and turned away, but after a second's hesitation he closed the
+box and arranged the sticks neatly. Then he set the room in order and
+carefully swept the floor. As he replaced the broom he thought for an
+instant, then opened the door and whistled softly. Belshazzar came at a
+rush. The Harvester pushed the plate of food toward the hungry dog and
+he ate greedily. The man returned to the front room and closed the door.
+
+He stood a long time before his shelf of books, at last selected a
+volume of “Medicinal Plants” and settled to study. His supper finished,
+Belshazzar came scratching and whining at the door. Several times the
+man lifted his head and glanced in that direction, but he only returned
+to his book and read again. Tired and sleepy, at last, he placed the
+volume on the shelf, went to a closet for a pair of bath towels, and
+hung them across a chair. Then he undressed, opened the door, and ran
+for the lake. He plunged with a splash and swam vigorously for a few
+minutes, his white body growing pink under the sting of the chilled
+water. Over and over he scanned the golden bridge to the moon, and stood
+an instant dripping on the gravel of the landing to make sure that no
+dream woman was crossing the wavering floor! He rubbed to a glow and
+turned back the covers of his bed. The door and window stood wide.
+Before he lay down, the Harvester paused in arrested motion a second,
+then stepped to the kitchen door and lifted the latch.
+
+As the man drew the covers over him, the dog's nose began making
+an opening, and a little later he quietly walked into the room. The
+Harvester rested, facing the lake. The dog sniffed at his shoulder, but
+the man was rigid. Then the click of nails could be heard on the floor
+as Belshazzar went to the opposite side. At his accustomed place he
+paused and set one foot on the bed. There was not a sound, so he lifted
+the other. Then one at a time he drew up his hind feet and crouched
+as he had on the gravel. The man lay watching the bright bridge. The
+moonlight entered the window and flooded the room. The strong lines on
+the weather-beaten face of the Harvester were mellowed in the light, and
+he appeared young and good to see. His lithe figure stretched the length
+of the bed, his hair appeared almost white, and his face, touched by the
+glorifying light of the moon, was a study.
+
+One instant his countenance was swept with ultimate scorn; then
+gradually that would fade and the lines soften, until his lips curved in
+child-like appeal and his eyes were filled with pleading. Several
+times he lifted a hand and gently touched his lips, as if a kiss were a
+material thing and would leave tangible evidence of having been given.
+After a long time his eyes closed and he scarcely was unconscious before
+Belshazzar's cold nose touched the outstretched hand and the Harvester
+lifted and laid it on the dog's head.
+
+“Forgive me, Bel,” he muttered. “I never did that. I wouldn't have hurt
+you for anything. It happened before I had time to think.”
+
+They both fell asleep. The clear-cut lines of manly strength on the face
+of the Harvester were touched to tender beauty. He lay smiling softly.
+Far in the night he realized the frost-chill and divided the coverlet
+with the happy Belshazzar.
+
+The golden dream never came again. There was no need. It had done its
+perfect work. The Harvester awoke the next morning a different man. His
+face was youthful and alive with alert anticipation. He began his work
+with eager impetuosity, whistling and singing the while, and he found
+time to play with and talk to Belshazzar, until that glad beast almost
+wagged off his tail in delight. They breakfasted together and arranged
+the rooms with unusual care.
+
+“You see,” explained the Harvester to the dog, “we must walk neatly
+after this. Maybe there is such a thing as fate. Possibly your answer
+was right. There might be a girl in the world for me. I don't expect it,
+but there is a possibility that she may find us before we locate
+her. Anyway, we should work and be ready. All the old stock in the
+store-house goes out as soon as we can cart it. A new cabin shall rise
+as fast as we can build it. There must be a basement and furnace, too.
+Dream women don't have cold feet, but if there is a girl living like
+that, and she is coming to us or waiting for us to come to her, we must
+have a comfortable home to offer. There should be a bathroom, too. She
+couldn't dip in the lake as we do. And until we build the new house we
+must keep the old one clean, just on the chance of her happening on us.
+She might be visiting some of the neighbours or come from town with some
+one or I might see her on the street or at the library or hospital or in
+some of the stores. For the love of mercy, help me watch for her, Bel!
+The half of my kingdom if you will point her for me!”
+
+The Harvester worked as he talked. He set the rooms in order, put away
+the remains of breakfast, and started to the stable. He turned back and
+stood for a long time, scanning the face in the kitchen mirror. Once he
+went to the door, then he hesitated, and finally took out his shaving
+set and used it carefully and washed vigorously. He pulled his shirt
+together at the throat, and hunting among his clothing, found an old
+red tie that he knotted around his neck. This so changed his every-day
+appearance that he felt wonderfully dressed and whistled gaily on his
+way to the barn. There he confided in the old gray mare as he curried
+and harnessed her to the spring wagon.
+
+“Hardly know me, do you, Betsy?” he inquired. “Well, I'll explain. Our
+friend Bel, here, has doomed me to go courting this year. Wouldn't that
+durnfound you? I was mad as hornets at first, but since I've slept on
+the idea, I rather like it. Maybe we are too lonely and dull. Perhaps
+the right woman would make life a very different matter. Last night
+I saw her, Betsy, and between us, I can't tell even you. She was the
+loveliest, sweetest girl on earth, and that is all I can say. We are
+going to watch for her to-day, and every trip we make, until we find
+her, if it requires a hundred years. Then some glad time we are going to
+locate her, and when we do, well, you just keep your eye on us, Betsy,
+and you'll see how courting straight from the heart is done, even if we
+lack experience.”
+
+Intoxicated with new and delightful sensations his tongue worked faster
+than his hands.
+
+“I don't mind telling you, old faithful, that I am in love this
+morning,” he said. “In love heels over, Betsy, for the first time in all
+my life. If any man ever was a bigger fool than I am to-day, it would
+comfort me to know about it. I am acting like an idiot, Betsy. I know
+that, but I wish you could understand how I feel. Power! I am the
+head-waters of Niagara! I could pluck down the stars and set them in
+different places! I could twist the tail from the comet! I could twirl
+the globe on my palm and topple mountains and wipe lakes from the
+surface! I am a live man, Betsy. Existence is over. So don't you go at
+any tricks or I might pull off your head. Betsy, if you see the tallest
+girl you ever saw, and she wears a dark diadem, and has big black eyes
+and a face so lovely it blinds you, why you have seen Her, and you balk,
+right on the spot, and stand like the rock of Gibraltar, until you
+make me see her, too. As if I wouldn't know she was coming a mile away!
+There's more I could tell you, but that is my secret, and it's too
+precious to talk about, even to my best friends. Bel, bring Betsy to the
+store-room.”
+
+The Harvester tossed the hitching strap to the dog and walked down the
+driveway to a low structure built on the embankment beside the lake.
+One end of it was a dry-house of his own construction. Here, by an
+arrangement of hot water pipes, he evaporated many of the barks, roots,
+seeds, and leaves he grew to supply large concerns engaged in the
+manufacture of drugs. By his process crude stock was thoroughly cured,
+yet did not lose in weight and colour as when dried in the sun or
+outdoor shade.
+
+So the Harvester was enabled to send his customers big packages of
+brightly coloured raw material, and the few cents per pound he asked in
+advance of the catalogued prices were paid eagerly. He lived alone,
+and never talked of his work; so none of the harvesters of the fields
+adjoining dreamed of the extent of his reaping. The idea had been his
+own. He had been born in the cabin in which he now lived. His father and
+grandfather were old-time hunters of skins and game. They had added to
+their earnings by gathering in spring and fall the few medicinal seeds,
+leaves, and barks they knew. His mother had been of different type. She
+had loved and married the picturesque young hunter, and gone to live
+with him on the section of land taken by his father. She found life,
+real life, vastly different from her girlhood dreams, but she was one of
+those changeless, unyielding women who suffer silently, but never rue a
+bargain, no matter how badly they are cheated. Her only joy in life had
+been her son. For him she had worked and saved unceasingly, and when he
+was old enough she sent him to the city to school and kept pace with him
+in the lessons he brought home at night.
+
+Using what she knew of her husband's work as a guide, and profiting by
+pamphlets published by the government, every hour of the time outside
+school and in summer vacations she worked in the woods with the boy,
+gathering herbs and roots to pay for his education and clothing. So
+the son passed the full high-school course, and then, selecting such
+branches as interested him, continued his studies alone.
+
+From books and drug pamphlets he had learned every medicinal plant,
+shrub, and tree of his vicinity, and for years roamed far afield and
+through the woods collecting. After his father's death expenses grew
+heavier and the boy saw that he must earn more money. His mother
+frantically opposed his going to the city, so he thought out the plan
+of transplanting the stuff he gathered, to the land they owned and
+cultivating it there. This work was well developed when he was twenty,
+but that year he lost his mother.
+
+From that time he went on steadily enlarging his species, transplanting
+trees, shrubs, vines, and medicinal herbs from such locations as he
+found them to similar conditions on his land. Six years he had worked
+cultivating these beds, and hunting through the woods on the river
+banks, government land, the great Limberlost Swamp, and neglected
+corners of earth for barks and roots. He occasionally made long trips
+across the country for rapidly diminishing plants he found in the
+woodland of men who did not care to bother with a few specimens,
+and many big beds of profitable herbs, extinct for miles around, now
+flourished on the banks of Loon Lake, in the marsh, and through the
+forest rising above. To what extent and value his venture had grown, no
+one save the Harvester knew. When his neighbours twitted him with
+being too lazy to plow and sow, of “mooning” over books, and derisively
+sneered when they spoke of him as the Harvester of the Woods or the
+Medicine Man, David Langston smiled and went his way.
+
+How lonely he had been since the death of his mother he never realized
+until that morning when a new idea really had taken possession of him.
+From the store-house he heaped packages of seeds, dried leaves, barks,
+and roots into the wagon. But he kept a generous supply of each, for he
+prided himself on being able to fill all orders that reached him. Yet
+the load he took to the city was much larger than usual. As he drove
+down the hill and passed the cabin he studied the location.
+
+“The drainage is perfect,” he said to Belshazzar beside him on the seat.
+“So is the situation. We get the cool breezes from the lake in summer
+and the hillside warmth in winter. View down the valley can't be
+surpassed. We will grub out that thicket in front, move over the
+driveway, and build a couple of two-story rooms, with basement for
+cellar and furnace, and a bathroom in front of the cabin and use it with
+some fixing over for a dining-room and kitchen. Then we will deepen and
+widen Singing Water, stick a bushel of bulbs and roots and sow a peck of
+flower seeds in the marsh, plant a hedge along the drive, and straighten
+the lake shore a little. I can make a beautiful wild-flower garden and
+arrange so that with one season's work this will appear very well. We
+will express this stuff and then select and fell some trees to-night.
+Soon as the frost is out of the ground we will dig our basement and lay
+the foundations. The neighbours will help me raise the logs; after that
+I can finish the inside work. I've got some dried maple, cherry,
+and walnut logs that would work into beautiful furniture. I haven't
+forgotten the prices McLean offered me. I can use it as well as he.
+Plain way the best things are built now, I believe I could make tables
+and couches myself. I can see plans in the magazines at the library.
+I'll take a look when I get this off. I feel strong enough to do all of
+it in a few days and I am crazy to commence. But I scarcely know where
+to begin. There are about fifty things I'd like to do. But to fell and
+dry the trees and get the walls up come first, I believe. What do you
+think, old unreliable?”
+
+Belshazzar thought the world was a place of beauty that morning. He
+sniffed the icy, odorous air and with tilted head watched the birds.
+A wearied band of ducks had settled on Loon Lake to feed and rest,
+for there was nothing to disturb them. Signs were numerous everywhere
+prohibiting hunters from firing over the Harvester's land. Beside
+the lake, down the valley, crossing the railroad, and in the farther
+lowlands, the dog was a nervous quiver, as he constantly scented game
+or saw birds he wanted to point. But when they neared the city, he sat
+silently watching everything with alert eyes. As they reached the outer
+fringe of residences the Harvester spoke to him.
+
+“Now remember, Bel,” he said. “Point me the tallest girl you ever saw,
+with a big braid of dark hair, shining black eyes, and red velvet lips,
+sweeter than wild crab apple blossoms. Make a dead set! Don't allow her
+to pass us. Heaven is going to begin in Medicine Woods when we find her
+and prove to her that there lies her happy home.
+
+“When we find her,” repeated the Harvester softly and exultantly. “When
+we find her!”
+
+He said it again and again, pronouncing the words with tender
+modulations. Because he was chanting it in his soul, in his heart,
+in his brain, with his lips, he had a hasty glance for every woman
+he passed. Light hair, blue eyes, and short figures got only casual
+inspection: but any tall girl with dark hair and eyes endured rather
+close scrutiny that morning. He drove to the express office and
+delivered his packages and then to the hospital. In the hall the
+blue-eyed nurse met him and cried gaily, “Good morning, Medicine Man!”
+
+“Ugh! I scalp pale-faces!” threatened the Harvester, but the girl was
+not afraid and stood before him laughing. She might have gone her way
+quite as well. She could not have differed more from the girl of the
+newly begun quest. The man merely touched his wide-brimmed hat as he
+walked around her and entered the office of the chief surgeon.
+
+A slender, gray-eyed man with white hair turned from his desk, smiled
+warmly, pushed a chair, and reached a welcoming hand.
+
+“Ah good-morning, David,” he cried. “You bring the very breath of spring
+with you. Are you at the maples yet?”
+
+“Begin to-morrow,” was the answer. “I want to get all my old stock off
+hands. Sugar water comes next, and then the giddy sassafras and spring
+roots rush me, and after that, harvest begins full force, and all
+my land is teeming. This is going to be a big year. Everything is
+sufficiently advanced to be worth while. I have decided to enlarge the
+buildings.”
+
+“Store-room too small?”
+
+“Everything!” said the Harvester comprehensively. “I am crowded
+everywhere.”
+
+The keen gray eyes bent on him searchingly.
+
+“Ho, ho!” laughed the doctor. “'Crowded everywhere.' I had not heard of
+cramped living quarters before. When did you meet her?”
+
+“Last night,” replied the Harvester. “Her home is already in
+construction. I chose seven trees as I drove here that are going to fall
+before night.”
+
+So casual was the tone the doctor was disarmed.
+
+“I am trying your nerve remedy,” he said.
+
+Instantly the Harvester tingled with interest.
+
+“How does it work?” he inquired.
+
+“Finely! Had a case that presented just the symptoms you mentioned.
+High-school girl broken down from trying to lead her classes, lead her
+fraternity, lead her parents, lead society----the Lord only knows what
+else. Gone all to pieces! Pretty a case of nervous prostration as you
+ever saw in a person of fifty. I began on fractional doses with it, and
+at last got her where she can rest. It did precisely what you claimed it
+would, David.”
+
+“Good!” cried the Harvester. “Good! I hoped it would be effective.
+Thank you for the test. It will give me confidence when I go before the
+chemists with it. I've got a couple more compounds I wish you would try
+when you have safe cases where you can do no harm.”
+
+“You are cautious for a young man, son!”
+
+“The woods do that. You not only discover miracles and marvels in them,
+you not only trace evolution and the origin of species, but you get
+the greatest lessons taught in all the world ground into you early and
+alone----courage, caution, and patience.”
+
+“Those are the rocks on which men are stranded as a rule. You think you
+can breast them, David?”
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+“Aside from breaking a certain promise mother rooted in the blood and
+bones of me, if I am afraid of anything, I don't know it. You don't
+often see me going head-long, do you? As to patience! Ten years ago I
+began removing every tree, bush, vine, and plant of medicinal value from
+the woods around to my land; I set and sowed acres in ginseng, knowing
+I must nurse, tend, and cultivate seven years. If my neighbours had
+understood what I was attempting, what do you think they would have
+said? Cranky and lazy would have become adjectives too mild. Lunatic
+would have expressed it better. That's close the general opinion,
+anyway. Because I will not fell my trees, and the woods hide the work I
+do, it is generally conceded that I spend my time in the sun reading
+a book. I do, as often as I have an opportunity. But the point is that
+this fall, when I harvest that ginseng bed, I will clear more money than
+my stiffest detractor ever saw at one time. I'll wager my bank account
+won't compare so unfavourably with the best of them now. I did well
+this morning. Yes, I'll admit this much: I am reasonably cautious, I'm
+a pattern for patience, and my courage never has failed me yet, anyway.
+But I must rap on wood; for that boast is a sign that I probably will
+meet my Jonah soon.”
+
+“David, you are a man after my own heart,” said the doctor. “I love you
+more than any other friend I have I wouldn't see a hair of your head
+changed for the world. Now I've got to hurry to my operation. Remain as
+long as you please if there is anything that interests you; but don't
+let the giggling little nurse that always haunts the hall when you come
+make any impression. She is not up to your standard.”
+
+“Don't!” said the Harvester. “I've learned one of the big lessons of
+life since last I saw you, Doc. I have no standard. There is just one
+woman in all the world for me, and when I find her I will know her, and
+I will be happy for even a glance; as for that talk of standards, I will
+be only too glad to take her as she is.”
+
+“David! I supposed what you said about enlarged buildings was nonsense
+or applied to store-rooms.”
+
+“Go to your operation!”
+
+“David, if you send me in suspense, I may operate on the wrong man. What
+has happened?”
+
+“Nothing!” said the Harvester. “Nothing!”
+
+“David, it is not like you to evade. What happened?”
+
+“Nothing! On my word! I merely saw a vision and dreamed a dream.”
+
+“You! A rank materialist! Saw a vision and dreamed a dream! And you
+call it nothing. Worst thing that could happen! Whenever a man of
+common-sense goes to seeing things that don't exist, and dreaming
+dreams, why look out! What did you see? What did you dream?”
+
+“You woman!” laughed the Harvester. “Talk about curiosity! I'd have to
+be a poet to describe my vision, and the dream was strictly private.
+I couldn't tell it, not for any price you could mention. Go to your
+operation.”
+
+The doctor paused on the threshold.
+
+“You can't fool me,” he said. “I can diagnose you all right. You are
+poet enough, but the vision was sacred; and when a man won't tell, it's
+always and forever a woman. I know all now I ever will, because I know
+you, David. A man with a loose mouth and a low mind drags the women of
+his acquaintance through whatever mire he sinks in; but you couldn't
+tell, David, not even about a dream woman. Come again soon! You are
+my elixir of life, lad! I revel in the atmosphere you bring. Wish me
+success now, I am going to a difficult, delicate operation.”
+
+“I do!” cried the Harvester heartily. “I do! But you can't fail. You
+never have and that proves you cannot! Good-bye!”
+
+Down the street went the Harvester, passing over city pave with his
+free, swinging stride, his head high, his face flushed with vivid
+outdoor tints, going somewhere to do something worth while, the
+impression always left behind him. Men envied his robust appearance and
+women looked twice, always twice, and sometimes oftener if there was any
+opportunity; but twice at least was the rule. He left a little roll of
+bills at the bank and started toward the library. When he entered the
+reading room an attendant with an eager smile hastily came toward him.
+
+“What will you have this morning, Mr. Langston?” she asked in the voice
+of one who would render willing service.
+
+“Not the big books to-day,” laughed the Harvester. “I've only a short
+time. I'll glance through the magazines.”
+
+He selected several from a table and going to a corner settled with them
+and for two hours was deeply engrossed. He took an envelope from his
+pocket, traced lines, and read intently. He studied the placing of
+rooms, the construction of furniture, and all attractive ideas were
+noted. When at last he arose the attendant went to replace the magazines
+on the table. They had been opened widely, and as she turned the
+leaves they naturally fell apart at the plans for houses or articles of
+furniture.
+
+The Harvester slowly went down the street. Before every furniture store
+he paused and studied the designs displayed in the windows. Then he
+untied Betsy and drove to a lumber mill on the outskirts of the city and
+made arrangements to have some freshly felled logs of black walnut
+and curly maple sawed into different sizes and put through a course in
+drying.
+
+He drove back to Medicine Woods whistling, singing, and talking to
+Belshazzar beside him. He ate a hasty lunch and at three o'clock was in
+the forest, blazing and felling slender, straight-trunked oak and ash of
+the desired proportions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. HARVESTING THE FOREST
+
+
+The forest is never so wonderful as when spring wrestles with winter for
+supremacy. While the earth is yet ice bound, while snows occasionally
+fly, spring breathes her warmer breath of approach, and all nature
+responds. Sunny knolls, embankments, and cleared spaces become bare,
+while shadow spots and sheltered nooks remain white. This perfumes the
+icy air with a warmer breath of melting snow. The sap rises in the trees
+and bushes, sets buds swelling, and they distil a faint, intangible
+odour. Deep layers of dead leaves cover the frozen earth, and the sun
+shining on them raises a steamy vapour unlike anything else in nature. A
+different scent rises from earth where the sun strikes it. Lichen faces
+take on the brightest colours they ever wear, and rough, coarse mosses
+emerge in rank growth from their cover of snow and add another perfume
+to mellowing air. This combination has breathed a strange intoxication
+into the breast of mankind in all ages, and bird and animal life prove
+by their actions that it makes the same appeal to them.
+
+Crows caw supremacy from tall trees; flickers, drunk on the wine of
+nature, flash their yellow-lined wings and red crowns among trees in a
+search for suitable building places; nut-hatches run head foremost down
+rough trunks, spying out larvae and early emerging insects; titmice
+chatter; the bold, clear whistle of the cardinal sounds never so gaily;
+and song sparrows pipe from every wayside shrub and fence post. Coons
+and opossums stir in their dens, musk-rat and ground-hog inspect the
+weather, while squirrels race along branches and bound from tree to tree
+like winged folk.
+
+All of them could have outlined the holdings of the Harvester almost
+as well as any surveyor. They understood where the bang of guns and the
+snap of traps menaced life. Best of all, they knew where cracked nuts,
+handfuls of wheat, oats, and crumbs were scattered on the ground, and
+where suet bones dangled from bushes. Here, too, the last sheaf from the
+small wheat field at the foot of the hill was stoutly fixed on a high
+pole, so that the grain was free to all feathered visitors.
+
+When the Harvester hitched Betsy, loaded his spiles and sap buckets
+into the wagon, and started to the woods to gather the offering the wet
+maples were pouring down their swelling sides, almost his entire family
+came to see him. They knew who fed and passed every day among them, and
+so were unafraid.
+
+After the familiarity of a long, cold winter, when it had been easier
+to pick up scattered food than to search for it, they became so friendly
+with the man, the dog, and the gray horse that they hastily snatched
+the food offered at the barn and then followed through the woods. The
+Harvester always was particular to wear large pockets, for it was good
+company to have living creatures flocking after him, trusting to his
+bounty. Ajax, a shimmering wonder of gorgeous feathers, sunned on the
+ridge pole of the old log stable, preened, spread his train, and uttered
+the peacock cry of defiance, to exercise his voice or to express his
+emotions at all times. But at feeding hour he descended to the park and
+snatched bites from the biggest turkey cocks and ganders and reigned in
+power absolute over ducks, guineas, and chickens. Then he followed to
+the barn and tried to frighten crows and jays, and the gentle white
+doves under the eaves.
+
+The Harvester walked through deep leaves and snow covering the road that
+only a forester could have distinguished. Over his shoulder he carried
+a mattock, and in the wagon were his clippers and an ax. Behind him came
+Betsy drawing the sap buckets and big evaporating kettles. Through the
+wood ranged Belshazzar, the craziest dog in all creation. He always went
+wild at sap time. Here was none of the monotony of trapping for skins
+around the lake. This marked the first full day in the woods for
+the season. He ranged as he pleased and came for a pat or a look of
+confidence when he grew lonely, while the Harvester worked.
+
+At camp the man unhitched Betsy and tied her to the wagon and for
+several hours distributed buckets. Then he hung the kettles and gathered
+wood for the fire. At noon he returned to the cabin for lunch and
+brought back a load of empty syrup cans, and barrels in which to collect
+the sap. While the buckets filled at the dripping trees, he dug roots in
+the sassafras thicket to fill orders and supply the demand of Onabasha
+for tea. Several times he stopped to cut an especially fine tree.
+
+“You know I hate to kill you,” he apologized to the first one he felled.
+“But it certainly must be legitimate for a man to take enough of his
+trees to build a home. And no other house is possible for a creature of
+the woods but a cabin, is there? The birds use of the material they find
+here; surely I have the right to do the same. Seems as if nothing else
+would serve, at least for me. I was born and reared here, I've always
+loved you; of course, I can't use anything else for my home.”
+
+He swung the ax and the chips flew as he worked on a straight half-grown
+oak. After a time he paused an instant and rested, and as he did so he
+looked speculatively at his work.
+
+“I wonder where she is to-day,” he said. “I wonder what she is going to
+think of a log cabin in the woods. Maybe she has been reared in the
+city and is afraid of a forest. She may not like houses made of logs.
+Possibly she won't want to marry a Medicine Man. She may dislike the
+man, not to mention his occupation. She may think it coarse and common
+to work out of doors with your hands, although I'd have to argue there
+is a little brain in the combination. I must figure out all these
+things. But there is one on the lady: She should have settled these
+points before she became quite so familiar. I have that for a foundation
+anyway, so I'll go on cutting wood, and the remainder will be up to her
+when I find her. When I find her,” repeated the Harvester slowly. “But I
+am not going to locate her very soon monkeying around in these woods. I
+should be out where people are, looking for her right now.”
+
+He chopped steadily until the tree crashed over, and then, noticing a
+rapidly filling bucket, he struck the ax in the wood and began gathering
+sap. When he had made the round, he drove to the camp, filled the
+kettles, and lighted the fire. While it started he cut and scraped
+sassafras roots, and made clippings of tag alder, spice brush and white
+willow into big bundles that were ready to have the bark removed during
+the night watch, and then cured in the dry-house.
+
+He went home at evening to feed the poultry and replenish the
+ever-burning fire of the engine and to keep the cabin warm enough that
+food would not freeze. With an oilcloth and blankets he returned to camp
+and throughout the night tended the buckets and boiling sap, and worked
+or dozed by the fire between times. Toward the end of boiling, when the
+sap was becoming thick, it had to be watched with especial care so it
+would not scorch. But when the kettles were freshly filled the Harvester
+sat beside them and carefully split tender twigs of willow and slipped
+off the bark ready to be spread on the trays.
+
+“You are a good tonic,” he mused as he worked, “and you go into some of
+the medicine for rheumatism. If she ever has it we will give her some
+of you, and then she will be all right again. Strange that I should be
+preparing medicinal bark by the sugar camp fire, but I have to make this
+hay, not while the sun shines, but when the bark is loose, while the sap
+is rising. Wonder who will use this. Depends largely on where I sell it.
+Anyway, I hope it will take the pain out of some poor body. Prices so
+low now, not worth gathering unless I can kill time on it while waiting
+for something else. Never got over seven cents a pound for the best I
+ever sold, and it takes a heap of these little quills to make a pound
+when they are dry. That's all of you----about twenty-five cents' worth.
+But even that is better than doing nothing while I wait, and some one
+has to keep the doctors supplied with salicin and tannin, so, if I do,
+other folks needn't bother.”
+
+He arose and poured more sap into the kettles as it boiled away and
+replenished the fire. He nibbled a twig when he began on the spice
+brush. As he sat on the piled wood, and bent over his work he was
+an attractive figure. His face shone with health and was bright with
+anticipation. While he split the tender bark and slipped out the wood he
+spoke his thoughts slowly:
+
+“The five cents a pound I'll get for you is even less, but I love the
+fragrance and taste. You don't peel so easy as the willow, but I like
+to prepare you better, because you will make some miserable little sick
+child well or you may cool some one's fevered blood. If ever she has a
+fever, I hope she will take medicine made from my bark, because it will
+be strong and pure. I've half a notion to set some one else gathering
+the stuff and tending the plants and spend my time in the little
+laboratory compounding different combinations. I don't see what bigger
+thing a man can do than to combine pure, clean, unadulterated roots and
+barks into medicines that will cool fevers, stop chills, and purify bad
+blood. The doctors may be all right, but what are they going to do if we
+men behind the prescription cases don't supply them with unadulterated
+drugs. Answer me that, Mr. Sapsucker. Doc says I've done mighty well so
+far as I have gone. I can't think of a thing on earth I'd rather do, and
+there's money no end in it. I could get too rich for comfort in short
+order. I wouldn't be too wealthy to live just the way I do for any
+consideration. I don't know about her, though. She is lovely, and
+handsome women usually want beautiful clothing, and a quantity of things
+that cost no end of money. I may need all I can get, for her. One never
+can tell.”
+
+He arose to stir the sap and pour more from the barrels to the kettles
+before he began on the tag alder he had gathered.
+
+“If it is all the same to you, I'll just keep on chewing spice brush
+while I work,” he muttered. “You are entirely too much of an astringent
+to suit my taste and you bring a cent less a pound. But you are thicker
+and dry heavier, and you grow in any quantity around the lake and on the
+marshy places, so I'll make the size of the bundle atone for the price.
+If I peel you while I wait on the sap I'm that much ahead. I can spread
+you on drying trays in a few seconds and there you are. Howl your head
+off, Bel, I don't care what you have found. I wouldn't shoot anything
+to-day, unless the cupboard was bare and I was starvation hungry. In
+that case I think a man comes first, and I'd kill a squirrel or quail
+in season, but blest if I'd butcher a lot or do it often. Vegetables
+and bread are better anyway. You peel easier even than the willow. What
+jolly whistles father used to make!
+
+“There was about twenty cents' worth of spice, and I'll easy raise it to
+a dollar on this. I'll get a hundred gallons of syrup in the coming two
+weeks and it will bring one fifty if I boil and strain it carefully and
+can guarantee it contains no hickory bark and brown sugar. And it won't!
+Straight for me or not at all. Pure is the word at Medicine Woods; syrup
+or drugs it's the same thing. Between times I can fell every tree I'll
+need for the new cabin, and average a dollar a day besides on spice,
+alder, and willow, and twice that for sassafras for the Onabasha
+markets; not to mention the quantities I can dry this year. Aside from
+spring tea, they seem to use it for everything. I never yet have had
+enough. It goes into half the tonics, anodyne, and stimulants; also soap
+and candy. I see where I grow rich in spite of myself, and also where my
+harvest is going to spoil before I can garner it, if I don't step
+lively and double even more than I am now. Where the cabin is to come
+in----well it must come if everything else goes.
+
+“The roots can wait and I'll dig them next year and get more and larger
+pieces. I won't really lose anything, and if she should come before I
+am ready to start to find her, why then I'll have her home prepared.
+How long before you begin your house, old fire-fly?” he inquired of a
+flaming cardinal tilting on a twig.
+
+He arose to make the round of the sap buckets again, then resumed his
+work peeling bark, and so the time passed. In the following ten days he
+collected and boiled enough sap to make more syrup than he had expected.
+His earliest spring store of medicinal twigs, that were peeled to dry in
+quills, were all collected and on the trays; he had digged several wagon
+loads of sassafras and felled all the logs of stout, slender oak he
+would require for his walls. Choice timber he had been curing for
+candlestick material he hauled to the saw-mills to have cut properly,
+for the thought of trying his hand at tables and chairs had taken
+possession of him. He was sure he could make furniture that would appear
+quite as well as the mission pieces he admired on display in the store
+windows of the city. To him, chairs and tables made from trees that grew
+on land that had belonged for three generations to his ancestors, trees
+among which he had grown, played, and worked, trees that were so much
+his friends that he carefully explained the situation to them before
+using an ax or saw, trees that he had cut, cured, and fashioned into
+designs of his own, would make vastly more valuable furnishings in his
+home than anything that could be purchased in the city.
+
+As he drove back and forth he watched constantly for her. He was working
+so desperately, planning far ahead, doubling and trebling tasks, trying
+to do everything his profession demanded in season, and to prepare
+timber and make plans for the new cabin, as well as to start a pair
+of candlesticks of marvellous design for her, that night was one
+long, unbroken sleep of the thoroughly tired man, but day had become a
+delightful dream.
+
+He fed the chickens to produce eggs for her. He gathered barks and
+sluiced roots on the raft in the lake, for her. He grubbed the spice
+thicket before the door and moved it into the woods to make space for a
+lawn, for her. His eyes were wide open for every woven case and dangling
+cocoon of the big night moths that propagated around him, for her. Every
+night when he left the woods from one to a dozen cocoons, that he had
+detected with remarkable ease while the trees were bare, were stuck
+in his hat band. As he arranged them in a cool, dry place he talked to
+them.
+
+“Of course I know you are valuable and there are collectors who would
+pay well for you, but I think not. You are the prettiest thing God made
+that I ever saw, and those of you that home with me have no price on
+your wings. You are much safer here than among the crows and jays of the
+woods. I am gathering you to protect you, and to show to her. If I don't
+find her by June, you may go scot free. All I want is the best pattern
+I can get from some of you for candlestick designs. Of everything in the
+whole world a candlestick should be made of wood. It should be carved
+by hand, and of all ornamentations on earth the moth that flies to the
+night light is the most appropriate. Owls are not so bad. They are of
+the night, and they fly to light, too, but they are so old. Nobody I
+ever have known used a moth. They missed the best when they neglected
+them. I'll make her sticks over an original pattern; I'll twine
+nightshade vines, with flowers and berries around them, and put a
+trailed luna on one, and what is the next prettiest for the other? I'll
+think well before if decide. Maybe she'll come by the time I get to
+carving and tell me what she likes. That would beat my taste or guessing
+a mile.”
+
+He carefully arranged the twigs bearing cocoons in a big, wire-covered
+box to protect them from the depredations of nibbling mice and the
+bolder attacks of the saucy ground squirrels that stored nuts in his
+loft and took possession of the attic until their scampering sometimes
+awoke him in the night.
+
+Every trip he made to the city he stopped at the library to examine
+plans of buildings and furniture and to make notes. The oak he had
+hauled was being hewed into shape by a neighbour who knew how, and every
+wagon that carried a log to the city to be dressed at the mill brought
+back timber for side walls, joists, and rafters. Night after night he
+sat late poring over his plans for the new rooms, above all for her
+chamber. With poised pencil he wavered over where to put the closet and
+entrance to her bath. He figured on how wide to make her bed and where
+it should stand. He remembered her dressing table in placing windows
+and a space for a chest of drawers. In fact there was nothing the active
+mind of the Harvester did not busy itself with in those days that might
+make a woman a comfortable home. Every thought emanated from impulses
+evolved in his life in the woods, and each was executed with mighty
+tenderness.
+
+A killdeer sweeping the lake close two o'clock one morning awakened him.
+He had planned to close the sugar camp for the season that day, but when
+he heard the notes of the loved bird he wondered if that would not be a
+good time to stake out the foundations and begin digging. There was yet
+ice in the ground, but the hillside was rapidly thawing, and although
+the work would be easier later, so eager was the Harvester to have walls
+up and a roof over that he decided to commence.
+
+But when morning came and he and Belshazzar breakfasted and fed Betsy
+and the stock, he concluded to return to his first plan and close the
+camp. All the sap collected that day went into the vinegar barrel. He
+loaded the kettles, buckets, and spiles and stopped at the spice thicket
+to cut a bale of twigs as he passed. He carried one load to the wagon
+and returned for another. Down wind on swift wing came a bird and
+entered the bushes. Motionless the Harvester peered at it. A mourning
+dove had returned to him through snow, skifting over cold earth. It
+settled on a limb and began dressing its plumage. At that instant a
+wavering, “Coo coo a'gh coo,” broke in sobbing notes from the deep wood.
+Without paying the slightest heed, the dove finished a wing, ruffled
+and settled her feathers, and opened her bill in a human-like yawn. The
+Harvester smiled. The notes swelled closer in renewed pleading. The cry
+was beyond doubt a courting male and this an indifferent female.
+Her beady eyes snapped, her head turned coquettishly, a picture of
+self-possession, she hid among the dense twigs of the spice thicket.
+Around the outside circled the pleading male.
+
+With shining eyes the Harvester watched. These were of the things
+that made life in the woods most worth while. More insistent grew the
+wavering notes of the lover. More indifferent became the beloved. She
+was superb in her poise as she amused herself in hiding. A perfect burst
+of confused, sobbing notes broke on the air. Then away in the deep wood
+a softly-wavering, half-questioning “Coo-ah!” answered them. Amazement
+flashed into the eyes of the Harvester, but his face was not nearly so
+expressive as that of the bird. She lifted a bewildered head and grew
+rigid in an attitude of tense listening. There was a pause. In quicker
+measure and crowding notes the male called again. Instantly the soft
+“Coo!” wavered in answer. The surprised little hen bird of the thicket
+hopped straight up and settled on her perch again, her dark eyes
+indignant as she uttered a short “Coo!” The muscles of the Harvester's
+chest were beginning to twitch and quiver. More intense grew the notes
+of the pleading male. Softly seductive came the reply. The clapping
+of his wings could be heard as he flew in search of the charmer. “A'gh
+coo!” cried the deserted female as she tilted off the branch and tore
+through the thicket in pursuit, with wings hastened by fright at the
+ringing laugh of the Harvester.
+
+“Not so indifferent after all, Bel,” he said to the dog standing in
+stiff point beside him. “That was all 'pretend!' But she waited just a
+trifle too long. Now she will have to fight it out with a rival. Good
+thing if some of the flirtatious women could have seen that. Help them
+to learn their own minds sooner.”
+
+He laughed as he heaped the twigs on top of the wagon and started down
+the hill chuckling. Belshazzar followed, leading Betsy straight in the
+middle of the road by the hitching strap. A few yards ahead the man
+stopped suddenly with lifted hand. The dog and horse stood motionless.
+A dove flashed across the road and settled in sight on a limb. Almost
+simultaneously another perched beside it, and they locked bills in a
+long caress, utterly heedless of a plaintive “Coo” in the deep wood.
+
+“Settled!” said the Harvester. “Jupiter! I wish my troubles were that
+nearly finished! Wish I knew where she is and how to find my way to her
+lips! Wonder if she will come when I call her. What if I should
+find her, and she would have everything on earth, other lovers, and
+indifference worse than Madam Dove's for me. Talk about bitterness! Well
+I'd have the dream left anyway. And there are always two sides. There is
+just a possibility that she may be poor and overworked, sick and tired,
+and wondering why I don't come. Possibly she had a dream, too, and she
+wishes I would hurry. Dear Lord!”
+
+The Harvester began to perspire as he strode down the hill. He scarcely
+waited to hang the harness properly. He did not stop to unload the wagon
+until night, but went after an ax and a board that he split into pegs.
+Then he took a ball of twine, a measuring line, and began laying out his
+foundation, when the hard earth would scarcely hold the stakes he drove
+into it. When he found he only would waste time in digging he put away
+the neatly washed kettles, peeled the spice brush, spread it to dry, and
+prepared his dinner. After that he began hauling stone and cement for
+his basement floor and foundation walls. Occasionally he helped at
+hewing logs when the old man paused to rest. That afternoon the first
+robin of the season hailed him in passing.
+
+“Hello!” cried the Harvester. “You don't mean to tell me that you have
+beaten the larks! You really have! Well since I see it, I must believe,
+but you are early. Come around to the back door if crumbs or wheat will
+do or if you can make out on suet and meat bones! We are good and ready
+for you. Where is your mate? For any sake, don't tell me you don't know.
+One case of that kind at Medicine Woods is enough. Say you came ahead
+to see if it is too cold or to select a home and get ready for her. Say
+anything on earth except that you love her, and want her until your body
+is one quivering ache, and you don't know where she is.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. A COMMISSION FOR THE SOUTH WIND
+
+The next morning the larks trailed ecstasy all over the valley, the
+following day cuckoos were calling in the thickets, a warm wind swept
+from the south and set swollen buds bursting, while the sun shone,
+causing the Harvester to rejoice. Betsy's white coat was splashed with
+the mud of the valley road; the feet of Belshazzar left tracks over
+lumber piles; and the Harvester removed his muck-covered shoes at the
+door and wore slippers inside. The skunk cabbage appeared around the
+edge of the forest, rank mullein and thistles lay over the fields in
+big circles of green, and even plants of delicate growth were thrusting
+their heads through mellowing earth and dead leaves, to reach light and
+air.
+
+Then the Harvester took his mattock and began to dig. His level best
+fell so far short of what he felt capable of doing and desired to
+accomplish that the following day he put two more men on the job. Then
+the earth did fly, and so soon as the required space was excavated the
+walls were lined with stone and a smooth basement floor was made of
+cement. The night the new home stood, a skeleton of joists and rafters,
+gleaming whitely on the banks of Loon Lake, the Harvester went to the
+bridge crossing Singing Water and slowly came up the driveway to see how
+the work appeared. He caught his breath as he advanced. He had intended
+to stake out generous rooms, but this, compared with the cabin, seemed
+like a big hotel.
+
+“I hope I haven't made it so large it will be a burden,” he
+soliloquized. “It's huge! But while I am at it I want to build big
+enough, and I think I have.”
+
+He stood on the driveway, his arms folded, and looked at the structure
+as he occasionally voiced his thoughts.
+
+“The next thing is to lay up the side walls and get the roof over. Got
+to have plenty of help, for those logs are hewed to fourteen inches
+square and some of them are forty feet long. That's timber! Grew with
+me, too. Personally acquainted with almost every tree of it. We will bed
+them in cement, use care with the roof, and if that doesn't make a cool
+house in the summer, and a warm one in winter, I'll be disappointed.
+It sets among the trees, and on the hillside just right. We must have a
+wide porch, plenty of flowers, vines, ferns, and mosses, and when I get
+everything finished and she sees it----perhaps it will please her.”
+
+A great horned owl swept down the hill, crossed the lake, and hooted
+from the forest of the opposite bank. The Harvester thought of his dream
+and turned.
+
+“Any women walking the water to-night? Come if you like,” he bantered,
+“I don't mind in the least. In fact, I'd rather enjoy it. I'd be so
+happy if you would come now and tell me how this appears to you,
+for it's all yours. I'd have enlarged the store-room, dry-houses and
+laboratory for myself, but this cabin, never! The old one suited me as
+it was; but for you----I should have a better home.”
+
+The Harvester glanced from the shining skeleton to the bridge of gold
+and back again.
+
+“Where are you to-night?” he questioned. “What are you doing? Can't you
+give me a hint of where to search for you when this is ready? I don't
+know but I am beginning wrong. My little brothers of the wood do
+differently. They announce their intentions the first thing, flaunt
+their attractions, and display their strength. They say aloud, for all
+the listening world to hear, what is in their hearts. They chip, chirp,
+and sing, warble, whistle, thrill, scream, and hoot it. They are strong
+on self-expression, and appreciative of their appearance. They meet,
+court, mate, and THEN build their home together after a mutual plan.
+It's a good way, too! Lots surer of getting things satisfactory.”
+
+The Harvester sat on a lumber pile and gazed questioningly at the
+framework.
+
+“I wish I knew if I am going at things right,” he said. “There are two
+sides to consider. If she is in a good home, and lovingly cared for, it
+would be proper to court her and get her promise, if I could----no I'm
+blest if I'll be so modest----get her promise, as I said, and let her
+wait while I build the cabin. But if she should be poor, tired, and
+neglected, then I ought to have this ready when I find her, so I could
+pick her up and bring her to it, with no more ceremony than the birds.”
+
+The Harvester's clear skin flushed crimson.
+
+“Of course, I don't mean no wedding ceremony,” he amended. “I was
+thinking of a long time wasted in preliminaries when in my soul I know I
+am going to marry my Dream Girl before I ever have seen her in reality.
+What would be the use in spending much time in courting? She is my wife
+now, by every law of God. Let me get a glimpse of her, and I'll prove
+it. But I've got to make tracks, for if she were here, where would I put
+her? I must hurry!”
+
+He went to the work room and began polishing a table top. He had bought
+a chest of tools and was spending every spare minute on tables,
+chair seats, and legs. He had decided to make these first and carve
+candlesticks later when he had more time. Two hours he worked at the
+furniture, and then went to bed. The following morning he put eggs under
+several hens that wanted to set, trimmed his grape-vines, examined the
+precious ginseng beds, attended his stock, got breakfast for Belshazzar
+and himself, and was ready for work when the first carpenter arrived.
+Laying hewed logs went speedily, and before the Harvester believed it
+possible the big shingles he had ordered were being nailed on the roof.
+Then came the plumber and arranged for the bathroom, and the furnace
+man placed the heating pipes. The Harvester had intended the cabin to
+be mostly the work of his own hands, but when he saw how rapidly
+skilled carpenters worked, he changed his mind and had them finish the
+living-room, his room, and the upstairs, and make over the dining-room
+and kitchen.
+
+Her room he worked on alone, with a little help if he did not know how
+to join the different parts. Every thing was plain and simple, after
+plans of his own, but the Harvester laid floors and made window casings,
+seats, and doors of wood that the big factories of Grand Rapids used in
+veneering their finest furniture. When one of his carpenters pointed
+out this to him, and suggested that he sell his lumber to McLean and use
+pine flooring from the mills the Harvester laughed at him.
+
+“I don't say that I could afford to buy burl maple, walnut, and cherry
+for wood-work,” said the Harvester. “I could not, but since I have it,
+you can stake your life I won't sell it and build my home of cheap,
+rapidly decaying wood. The best I have goes into this cabin and what
+remains will do to sell. I have an idea that when this is done it is
+going to appear first rate. Anyway, it will be solid enough to last
+a thousand years, and with every day of use natural wood grows more
+beautiful. When we get some tables, couches, and chairs made from the
+same timber as the casings and the floors, I think it will be fine.
+I want money, but I don't want it bad enough to part with the BEST of
+anything I have for it. Go carefully and neatly there; it will have to
+be changed if you don't.”
+
+So the work progressed rapidly. When the carpenters had finished the
+last stroke on the big veranda they remained a day more and made flower
+boxes, and a swinging couch, and then the greedy Harvester kept the best
+man with him a week longer to help on the furniture.
+
+“Ain't you going to say a word about her, Langston?” asked this man as
+they put a mirror-like surface on a curly maple dressing table top.
+
+“Her!” ejaculated the Harvester. “What do you mean?”
+
+“I haven't seen you bathe anywhere except in the lake since I have been
+here,” said the carpenter. “Do you want me to think that a porcelain
+tub, this big closet, and chest of drawers are for you?”
+
+A wave of crimson swept over the Harvester.
+
+“No, they are not for me,” he said simply. “I don't want to be any more
+different from other men than I can help, although I know that life in
+the woods, the rigid training of my mother, and the reading of only the
+books that would aid in my work have made me individual in many of my
+thoughts and ways. I suppose most men, just now, would tell you anything
+you want to know. There is only one thing I can say: The best of my soul
+and brain, the best of my woods and store-house, the best I can buy with
+money is not good enough for her. That's all. For myself, I am getting
+ready to marry, of course. I think all normal men do and that it is a
+matter of plain common-sense that they should. Life with the right woman
+must be infinitely broader and better than alone. Are you married?”
+
+“Yes. Got a wife and four children.”
+
+“Are you sorry?”
+
+“Sorry!” the carpenter shrilled the word. “Sorry! Well that's the best
+I ever heard! Am I sorry I married Nell and got the kids? Do I look
+sorry?”
+
+“I am not expecting to be, either,” said the Harvester calmly. “I think
+I have done fairly well to stick to my work and live alone until I am
+twenty-six. I have thought the thing all over and made up my mind. As
+soon as I get this house far enough along that I feel I can proceed
+alone I am going to rush the marrying business just as fast as I can,
+and let her finish the remainder to her liking.”
+
+“Well this ought to please her.”
+
+“That's because you find your own work good,” laughed the Harvester.
+
+“Not altogether!” The carpenter polished the board and stood it on end
+to examine the surface as he talked. “Not altogether! Nothing but good
+work would suit you. I was thinking of the little creek splashing down
+the hill to the lake; and that old log hewer said that in a few more
+days things here would be a blaze of colour until fall.”
+
+“Almost all the drug plants and bushes leaf beautifully and flower
+brilliantly,” explained the Harvester. “I studied the location suitable
+to each variety before I set the beds and planned how to grow plants
+for continuity of bloom, and as much harmony of colour as possible.
+Of course a landscape gardener would tear up some of it, but seen as a
+whole it isn't so bad. Did you ever notice that in the open, with God's
+blue overhead and His green for a background, He can place purple and
+yellow, pink, magenta, red, and blue in masses or any combination you
+can mention and the brighter the colour the more you like it? You
+don't seem to see or feel that any grouping clashes; you revel in each
+wonderful growth, and luxuriate in the brilliancy of the whole. Anyway,
+this suits me.”
+
+“I guess it will please her, too,” said the carpenter. “After all the
+pains you've taken, she is a good one if it doesn't.”
+
+“I'll always have the consolation of having done my best,” replied
+the Harvester. “One can't do more! Whether she likes it or not depends
+greatly on the way she has been reared.”
+
+“You talk as if you didn't know,” commented the carpenter.
+
+“You go on with this now,” said the Harvester hastily. “I've got to
+uncover some beds and dig my year's supply of skunk cabbage, else folk
+with asthma and dropsy who depend on me will be short on relief. I ought
+to take my sweet flag, too, but I'm so hurried now I think I'll leave it
+until fall; I do when I can, because the bloom is so pretty around the
+lake and the bees simply go wild over the pollen. Sometimes I almost
+think I can detect it in their honey. Do you know I've wondered often
+if the honey my bees make has medicinal properties and should be kept
+separate in different seasons. In early spring when the plants and
+bushes that furnish the roots and barks of most of the tonics are in
+bloom, and the bees gather the pollen, that honey should partake in a
+degree of the same properties and be good medicine. In the summer
+it should aid digestion, and in the fall cure rheumatism and blood
+disorders.”
+
+“Say you try it!” urged the carpenter. “I want a lot of the fall kind.
+I'm always full of rheumatism by October. Exposure, no doubt.”
+
+“Over eating of too much rich food, you mean,” laughed the Harvester.
+“I'd like to see any man expose his body to more differing extremes of
+weather than I do, and I'm never sick. It's because I am my own cook
+and so I live mostly on fruits, vegetables, bread, milk, and eggs, a few
+fish from the lake, a little game once in a great while or a chicken,
+and no hot drinks; plenty of fresh water, air, and continuous work out
+of doors. That's the prescription! I'd be ashamed to have rheumatism at
+your age. There's food in the cupboard if you grow hungry. I am going
+past one of the neighbours on my way to see about some work I want her
+to do.”
+
+The Harvester stopped for lunch, carried food to Belshazzar, and started
+straight across country, his mattock, with a bag rolled around the
+handle, on his shoulder. His feet sank in the damp earth at the foot of
+the hill, and he laughed as he leaped across Singing Water.
+
+“You noisy chatterbox!” cried the man. “The impetus of coming down the
+curves of the hill keeps you talking all the way across this muck bed to
+the lake. With small work I can make you a thing of beauty. A few bushes
+grubbed, a little deepening where you spread too much, and some more
+mallows along the banks will do the trick. I must attend to you soon.”
+
+“Now what does the boy want?” laughed a white-haired old woman, as the
+Harvester entered the door. “Mebby you think I don't know what you're
+up to! I even can hear the hammering and the voices of the men when the
+wind is in the south. I've been wondering how soon you'd need me. Out
+with it!”
+
+“I want you to get a woman and come over and spend a day with me.
+I'll come after you and bring you back. I want you to go over mother's
+bedding and have what needs it washed. All I want you to do is to
+superintend, and tell me now what I will want from town for your work.”
+
+“I put away all your mother's bedding that you were not using, clean as
+a ribbon.”
+
+“But it has been packed in moth preventives ever since and out only four
+times a year to air, as you told me. It must smell musty and be yellow.
+I want it fresh and clean.”
+
+“So what I been hearing is true, David?”
+
+“Quite true!” said the Harvester.
+
+“Whose girl is she, and when are you going to jine hands?”
+
+The Harvester lifted his clear eyes and hesitated.
+
+“Doc Carey laid you in my arms when you was born, David. I tended you
+'fore ever your ma did. All your life you've been my boy, and I love you
+same as my own blood; it won't go no farther if you say so. I'll never
+tell a living soul. But I'm old and 'til better weather comes, house
+bound; and I get mighty lonely. I'd like to think about you and her, and
+plan for you, and love her as I always did you folks. Who is she, David?
+Do I know the family?”
+
+“No. She is a stranger to these parts,” said the unhappy Harvester.
+
+“David, is she a nice girl 'at your ma would have liked?”
+
+“She's the only girl in the world that I'd marry,” said the Harvester
+promptly, glad of a question he could answer heartily. “Yes. She is
+gentle, very tender and----and affectionate,” he went on so rapidly that
+Granny Moreland could not say a word, “and as soon as I bring her home
+you shall come to spend a day and get acquainted. I know you will love
+her! I'll come in the morning, then. I must hurry now. I am working
+double this spring and I'm off for the skunk cabbage bed to-day.”
+
+“You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say. Slavin' like a horse
+all day, and half the night I see your lights burning.”
+
+“Do I appear killed?” laughingly inquired the Harvester.
+
+“You look peart as a struttin' turkey gobbler,” said the old woman. “Go
+on with your work! Work don't hurt a-body. Eat a-plenty, sleep all you
+ort, and you CAN'T work enough to hurt you.”
+
+“So the neighbours say I'm working now? New story, isn't it? Usually I'm
+too lazy to make a living, if I remember.”
+
+“Only to those who don't sense your purceedings, David. I always knowed
+how you grubbed and slaved an' set over them fearful books o' yours.”
+
+“More interesting than the wildest fiction,” said the man. “I'm making
+some medicine for your rheumatism, Granny. It is not fully tested yet,
+but you get ready for it by cutting out all the salt you can. I haven't
+time to explain this morning, but you remember what I say, leave out the
+salt, and when Doc thinks it's safe I'll bring you something that will
+make a new woman of you.”
+
+He went swinging down the road, and Granny Moreland looked after him.
+
+“While he was talkin',” she muttered, “I felt full of information as a
+flock o' almanacs, but now since he's gone, 'pears to me I don't know a
+thing more 'an I did to start on.”
+
+“Close call,” the Harvester was thinking. “Why the nation did I admit
+anything to her? People may talk as they please, so long as I don't
+sanction it, but I have two or three times. That's a fool trick. Suppose
+I can't find her? Maybe she won't look at me if I can. Then I'd have
+started something I couldn't finish. And if anybody thinks I'll end
+this by taking any girl I can get, if I can't find Her, why they think
+wrongly. Just the girl of my golden dream or no woman at all for me.
+I've lived alone long enough to know how to do it in comfort. If I can't
+find and win her I have no intention of starting a boarding house.”
+
+The Harvester began to laugh. “'I'd rather keep bachelor's hall in Hell
+than go to board in Heaven!'” he quoted gaily. “That's my sentiment too.
+If you can't have what you want, don't have anything. But there is no
+use to become discouraged before I start. I haven't begun to hunt her
+yet. Until I do, I might as well believe that she will walk across the
+bridge and take possession just as soon as I get the last chair leg
+polished. She might! She came in the dream, and to come actually
+couldn't be any more real. I'll make a stiff hunt of it before I give
+up, if I ever do. I never yet have made a complete failure of anything.
+But just now I am hunting skunk cabbage. It's precisely the time to take
+it.”
+
+Across the lake, in the swampy woods, close where the screech owl sang
+and the girl of the golden dream walked in the moonlight the Harvester
+began operations. He unrolled the sack, went to one end of the bed and
+systematically started a swath across it, lifting every other plant
+by the roots. Flowering time was almost past, but the bees knew where
+pollen ripened, and hummed incessantly over and inside the queer
+cone-shaped growths with their hooked beaks. It almost appeared as if
+the sound made inside might be to give outsiders warning not to poach
+on occupied territory, for the Harvester noticed that no bee entered a
+pre-empted plant.
+
+With skilful hand each stroke brought up a root and he tossed it to one
+side. The plants were vastly peculiar things. First they seemed to be a
+curled leaf with no flower. In colour they shaded from yellow to almost
+black mahogany, and appeared as if they were a flower with no leaf.
+Closer examination proved there was a stout leaf with a heavy outside
+mid-rib, the tip of which curled over in a beak effect, that wrapped
+around a peculiar flower of very disagreeable odour. The handling of
+these plants by the hundred so intensified this smell the Harvester
+shook his head.
+
+“I presume you are mostly mine,” he said to the busy little workers
+around him. “If there is anything in my theory of honey having varying
+medicinal properties at different seasons, right now mine should be
+good for Granny's rheumatism and for nervous and dropsical people. I
+shouldn't think honey flavoured with skunk cabbage would be fit to eat.
+But, of course, it isn't all this. There is catkin pollen on the wind,
+hazel and sassafras are both in bloom now, and so are several of the
+earliest little flowers of the woods. You can gather enough of them
+combined to temper the disagreeable odour into a racy sweetness, and all
+the shrub blooms are good tonics, too, and some of the earthy ones. I'm
+going to try giving some of you empty cases next spring and analyzing
+the honey to learn if it isn't good medicine.”
+
+The Harvester straightened and leaned on the mattock to fill his lungs
+with fresh air and as he delightedly sniffed it he commented, “Nothing
+else has much of a chance since I've stirred up the cabbage bed. I can
+scent the catkins plainly, being so close, and as I came here I could
+detect the hazel and sassafras all right.”
+
+Above him a peculiar, raucous chattering for an instant hushed other
+wood voices. The Harvester looked up, laughing gaily.
+
+“So you've decided to announce it to your tribe at last, have you?”
+ he inquired. “You are waking the sleepers in their dens to-day? Well,
+there's nothing like waiting until you have a sure thing. The bluebirds
+broke the trail for the feathered folk the twenty-fourth of February.
+The sap oozed from the maples about the same time for the trees. The
+very first skunk cabbage was up quite a month ago to signal other plants
+to come on, and now you are rousing the furred folk. I'll write this
+down in my records----'When the earliest bluebird sings, when the sap
+wets the maples, when the skunk cabbage flowers, and the first striped
+squirrel barks, why then, it is spring!'”
+
+He bent to his task and as he worked closer the water he noticed
+sweet-flag leaves waving two inches tall beneath the surface.
+
+“Great day!” he cried. “There you are making signs, too! And right! Of
+course! Nature is always right. Just two inches high and it's harvest
+for you. I can use a rake, and dried in the evaporator you bring me
+ten cents a pound; to the folks needing a tonic you are worth a small
+fortune. No doubt you cost that by the time you reach them; but I fear
+I can't gather you just now. My head is a little preoccupied these days.
+What with the cabbage, and now you, and many of the bushes and trees
+making signs, with a new cabin to build and furnish, with a girl to find
+and win, I'm what you might call busy. I've covered my book shelf.
+I positively don't dare look Emerson or Maeterlinck in the face. One
+consolation! I've got the best of Thoreau in my head, and if I read
+Stickeen a few times more I'll be able to recite that. There's a man for
+you, not to mention the dog! Bel, where are you? Would you stick to me
+like that? I think you would. But you are a big, strong fellow. Stickeen
+was only such a mite of a dog. But what a man he followed! I feel as
+if I should put on high-heeled slippers and carry a fan and a lace
+handkerchief when I think of him. And yet, most men wouldn't consider my
+job so easy!”
+
+The Harvester rapidly pitched the evil-smelling plants into big heaps
+and as he worked he imitated the sounds around him as closely as he
+could. The song sparrow laughed at him and flew away in disgust when he
+tried its notes. The jay took time to consider, but was not fooled. The
+nut-hatch ran head first down trees, larvae hunting, and was never a
+mite deceived. But the killdeer on invisible legs, circling the lake
+shore, replied instantly; so did the lark soaring above, and the dove of
+the elm thicket close beside. The glittering black birds flashing over
+every tree top answered the “T'check, t'chee!” of the Harvester quite as
+readily as their mates.
+
+The last time he paused to rest he had studied scents. When he
+straightened again he was occupied with every voice of earth and air
+around and above him, and the notes of singing hens, exultant cocks, the
+scream of geese, the quack of ducks, the rasping crescendo of guineas
+running wild in the woods, the imperial note of Ajax sunning on the
+ridge pole and echoes from all of them on adjoining and distant farms.
+
+“'Now I see the full meaning and beauty of that word sound!'” quoted
+the Harvester. “'I thank God for sound. It always mounts and makes me
+mount!'”
+
+He breathed deeply and stood listening, a superb figure of a man, his
+lean face glowing with emotion.
+
+“If she could see and hear this, she would come,” he said softly. “She
+would come and she would love it as I do. Any one who understands,
+and knows how to translate, cares for this above all else earth has to
+offer. They who do not, fail to read as they run!”
+
+He shifted feet mired in swamp muck, and stood as if loath to bend again
+to his task. He lifted a weighted mattock and scraped the earth from
+it, sniffing it delightedly the while. A soft south wind freighted with
+aromatic odours swept his warm face. The Harvester removed his hat and
+shook his head that the breeze might thread his thick hair.
+
+“I've a commission for you, South Wind,” he said whimsically. “Go find
+my Dream Girl. Go carry her this message from me. Freight your breath
+with spicy pollen, sun warmth, and flower nectar. Fill all her senses
+with delight, and then, close to her ear, whisper it softly, 'Your lover
+is coming!' Tell her that, O South Wind! Carry Araby to her nostrils,
+Heaven to her ears, and then whisper and whisper it over and over until
+you arouse the passion of earth in her blood. Tell her what is rioting
+in my heart, and brain, and soul this morning. Repeat it until she must
+awake to its meaning, 'Your lover is coming.'”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. WHEN THE HARVESTER MADE GOOD
+
+The sassafras and skunk cabbage were harvested. The last workman was
+gone. There was not a sound at Medicine Woods save the babel of bird and
+animal notes and the never-ending accompaniment of Singing Water. The
+geese had gone over, some flocks pausing to rest and feed on Loon Lake,
+and ducks that homed there were busy among the reeds and rushes. In
+the deep woods the struggle to maintain and reproduce life was at its
+height, and the courting songs of gaily coloured birds were drowned by
+hawk screams and crow calls of defiance.
+
+Every night before he plunged into the lake and went to sleep the
+Harvester made out a list of the most pressing work that he would
+undertake on the coming day. By systematizing and planning ahead he was
+able to accomplish an unbelievable amount. The earliest rush of spring
+drug gathering was over. He could be more deliberate in collecting the
+barks he wanted. Flowers that were to be gathered at bloom time and
+leaves were not yet ready. The heavy leaf coverings he had helped
+the winds to heap on his beds of lily of the valley, bloodroot, and
+sarsaparilla were removed carefully.
+
+Inside the cabin the Harvester cleaned the glass, swept the floors with
+a soft cloth pinned over the broom, and hung pale yellow blinds at the
+windows. Every spare minute he worked on making furniture, and with each
+piece he grew in experience and ventured on more difficult undertakings.
+He had progressed so far that he now allowed himself an hour each day on
+the candlesticks for her. Every evening he opened her door and with soft
+cloths polished the furniture he had made. When her room was completed
+and the dining-room partially finished, the Harvester took time to stain
+the cabin and porch roofs the shade of the willow leaves, and on the
+logs and pillars he used oil that served to intensify the light yellow
+of the natural wood. With that much accomplished he felt better. If she
+came now, in a few hours he would be able to offer a comfortable room,
+enough conveniences to live until more could be provided, and of food
+there was always plenty.
+
+His daily programme was to feed and water his animals and poultry,
+prepare breakfast for himself and Belshazzar, and go to the woods,
+dry-house or store-room to do the work most needful in his harvesting.
+In the afternoon he laboured over furniture and put finishing touches on
+the new cabin, and after supper he carved and found time to read again,
+as before his dream.
+
+He was so happy he whistled and sang at his work much of the time at
+first, but later there came days when doubts crept in and all his will
+power was required to proceed steadily. As the cabin grew in better
+shape for occupancy each day, more pressing became the thought of how he
+was going to find and meet the girl of his dream. Sometimes it seemed to
+him that the proper way was to remain at home and go on with his work,
+trusting her to come to him. At such times he was happy and gaily
+whistled and sang:
+
+     “Stay in your chimney corner,
+          Don't roam the world about,
+       Stay in your chimney corner,
+          And your own true love will find you out.”
+
+
+But there were other days while grubbing in the forest, battling with
+roots in the muck and mire of the lake bank, staggering under a load
+for two men, scarcely taking time to eat and sleep enough to keep his
+condition perfect, when that plan seemed too hopeless and senseless to
+contemplate. Then he would think of locking the cabin, leaving the drugs
+to grow undisturbed by collecting, hiring a neighbour to care for his
+living creatures, and starting a search over the world to find her.
+There came times when the impulse to go was so strong that only the
+desire to take a day more to decide where, kept him. Every time his mind
+was made up to start the following day came the counter thought, what
+if I should go and she should come in my absence? In the dream she came.
+That alone held him, even in the face of the fact that if he left home
+some one might know of and rifle the precious ginseng bed, carefully
+tended these seven years for the culmination the coming fall would
+bring. That ginseng was worth many thousands and he had laboured over
+it, fighting worms and parasites, covering and uncovering it with the
+changing seasons, a siege of loving labour.
+
+Sometimes a few hours of misgiving tortured him, but as a rule he was
+cheerful and happy in his preparations. Without intending to do it
+he was gradually furnishing the cabin. Every few days saw a new piece
+finished in the workshop. Each trip to Onabasha ended in the purchase of
+some article he could see would harmonize with his colour plans for
+one of the rooms. He had filled the flower boxes for the veranda with
+delicate plants that were growing luxuriantly.
+
+Then he designed and began setting a wild-flower garden outside her door
+and started climbing vines over the logs and porches, but whatever he
+planted he found in the woods or took from beds he cultivated. Many of
+the medicinal vines had leaves, flowers, twining tendrils, and berries
+or fruits of wonderful beauty. Every trip to the forest he brought back
+a half dozen vines, plants, or bushes to set for her. All of them either
+bore lovely flowers, berries, quaint seed pods, or nuts, and beside the
+drive and before the cabin he used especial care to plant a hedge of
+bittersweet vines, burning bush, and trees of mountain ash, so that
+the glory of their colour would enliven the winter when days might be
+gloomy.
+
+He planted wild yam under her windows that its queer rattles might amuse
+her, and hop trees where their castanets would play gay music with every
+passing wind of fall. He started a thicket along the opposite bank of
+Singing Water where it bubbled past her window, and in it he placed in
+graduated rows every shrub and small tree bearing bright flower, berry,
+or fruit. Those remaining he used as a border for the driveway from the
+lake, so that from earliest spring her eyes would fall on a procession
+of colour beginning with catkins and papaw lilies, and running through
+alders, haws, wild crabs, dogwood, plums, and cherry intermingled with
+forest saplings and vines bearing scarlet berries in fall and winter. In
+the damp soil of the same character from which they were removed, in
+the shade and under the skilful hand of the Harvester, few of these
+knew they had been transplanted, and when May brought the catbirds and
+orioles much of this growth was flowering quite as luxuriantly as the
+same species in the woods.
+
+The Harvester was in the store-house packing boxes for shipment. His
+room was so small and orders so numerous that he could not keep large
+quantities on hand. All crude stuff that he sent straight from the
+drying-house was fresh and brightly coloured. His stock always was
+marked prime A-No. 1. There was a step behind him and the Harvester
+turned. A boy held out a telegram. The man opened it to find an order
+for some stuff to be shipped that day to a large laboratory in Toledo.
+
+His hands deftly tied packages and he hastily packed bottles and nailed
+boxes. Then he ran to harness Betsy and load. As he drove down the hill
+to the bridge he looked at his watch and shook his head.
+
+“What are you good for at a pinch, Betsy?” he asked as he flecked the
+surprised mare's flank with a switch. Belshazzar cocked his ears and
+gazed at the Harvester in astonishment.
+
+“That wasn't enough to hurt her,” explained the man. “She must speed up.
+This is important business. The amount involved is not so much, but I do
+love to make good. It's a part of my religion, Bel. And my religion has
+so precious few parts that if I fail in the observance of any of them
+it makes a big hole in my performances. Now we don't want to end a life
+full of holes, so we must get there with this stuff, not because it's
+worth the exertion in dollars and cents, but because these men patronize
+us steadily and expect us to fill orders, even by telegraph. Hustle,
+Betsy!”
+
+The whip fell again and Belshazzar entered indignant protest.
+
+“It isn't going to hurt her,” said the Harvester impatiently. “She may
+walk all the way back. She can rest while I get these boxes billed and
+loaded if she can be persuaded to get them to the express office on
+time. The trouble with Betsy is that she wants to meander along the road
+with a loaded wagon as her mother and grandmother before her wandered
+through the woods wearing a bell to attract the deer. Father used to say
+that her mother was the smartest bell mare that ever entered the forest.
+She'd not only find the deer, but she'd make friends with them and lead
+them straight as a bee-line to where he was hiding. Betsy, you must
+travel!”
+
+The Harvester drew the lines taut, and the whip fell smartly. The
+astonished Betsy snorted and pranced down the valley as fast as she
+could, but every step indicated that she felt outraged and abused. This
+was the loveliest day of the season. The sun was shining, the air was
+heavy with the perfume of flowering shrubs and trees, the orchards of
+the valley were white with bloom. Farmers were hurrying back and forth
+across fields, leaving up turned lines of black, swampy mould behind
+them, and one progressive individual rode a wheeled plow, drove three
+horses and enjoyed the shelter of a canopy.
+
+“Saints preserve us, Belshazzar!” cried the Harvester. “Do you see that?
+He is one of the men who makes a business of calling me shiftless. Now
+he thinks he is working. Working! For a full-grown man, did you ever see
+the equal? If I were going that far I'd wear a tucked shirt, panama hat,
+have a pianola attachment, and an automatic fan.”
+
+The Harvester laughed as he again touched Betsy and hurried to Onabasha.
+He scarcely saw the delights offered on either hand, and where his
+eyes customarily took in every sight, and his ears were tuned for
+the faintest note of earth or tree top, to day he saw only Betsy and
+listened for a whistle he dreaded to hear at the water tank. He climbed
+the embankment of the railway at a slower pace, but made up time going
+down hill to the city.
+
+“I am not getting a blame thing out of this,” he complained to
+Belshazzar. “There are riches to stagger any scientist wasting to-day,
+and all I've got to show is one oriole. I did hear his first note and
+see his flash, and so unless we can take time to make up for this on the
+home road we will have to christen it oriole day. It's a perfumed golden
+day, too; I can get that in passing, but how I loathe hurrying. I don't
+mind planning things and working steadily, but it's not consistent with
+the dignity of a sane man to go rushing across country with as much
+appreciation of the delights offered right now as a chicken with its
+head off would have. We will loaf going back to pay for this! And won't
+we invite our souls? We will stop and gather a big bouquet of crab
+apple blossoms to fill the green pitcher for her. Maybe some of their
+wonderful perfume will linger in her room. When the petals fall we will
+scatter them in the drawers of her dresser, and they may distil a faint
+flower odour there. We could do that to all her furniture, but perhaps
+she doesn't like perfume. She'll be compelled to after she reaches
+Medicine Woods. Betsy, you must travel faster!”
+
+The whip fell again and the Harvester stopped at the depot with a few
+minutes to spare. He threw the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and ran
+into the express office with an arm load of boxes.
+
+“Bill them!” he cried. “It's a rush order. I want it to go on the
+next express. Almost due I think. I'll help you and we can book them
+afterward.”
+
+The expressman ran for a truck and they hastily weighed and piled on
+boxes. When the last one was loaded from the wagon, a heap more lying in
+the office were added, pitched on indiscriminately as the train pulled
+under the sheds of the Union Station.
+
+“I'll push,” cried the Harvester, “and help you get them on.”
+
+Hurrying as fast as he could the expressman drew the heavy truck through
+the iron gates and started toward the train slowing to a stop, and the
+Harvester pushed. As they came down the platform they passed the dining
+and sleeping cars of the long train and were several times delayed
+by descending passengers. Just opposite the day coach the expressman
+narrowly missed running into several women leading small children and
+stopped abruptly. A toppling box threatened the head of the Harvester.
+He peered around the truck and saw they must wait a few seconds. He put
+in the time watching the people. A gray-haired old man, travelling in a
+silk hat, wavered on the top step and went his way. A fat woman loaded
+with bundles puffed as she clung trembling a second in fear she would
+miss the step she could not see. A tall, slender girl with a face coldly
+white came next, and from the broken shoe she advanced, the bewildered
+fright of big, dark eyes glancing helplessly, the Harvester saw that she
+was poor, alone, ill, and in trouble. Pityingly he turned to watch her,
+and as he gauged her height, saw her figure, and a dark coronet of hair
+came into view, a ghastly pallor swept his face.
+
+“Merciful God!” he breathed, “that's my Dream Girl!”
+
+The truck started with a jerk. The toppling box fell, struck a passing
+boy, and knocked him down. The mother screamed and the Harvester sprang
+to pick up the child and see that he was not dangerously hurt. Then he
+ran after the truck, pitched on the box, and whirling, sped beside the
+train toward the gates of exit. There was the usual crush, but he could
+see the tall figure passing up the steps to the depot. He tried to
+force his way and was called a brute by a crowded woman. He ran down the
+platform to the gates he had entered with the truck. They were automatic
+and had locked. Then he became a primal creature being cheated of a
+lawful mate and climbed the high iron fence and ran for the waiting
+room.
+
+He swept it at a glance, not forgetting the women's apartment and the
+side entrance. Then he hurried to the front exit. Up the street leading
+from the city there were few people and he could see no sign of the
+slight, white-faced girl. He crossed the sidewalk and ran down the
+gutter for a block and breathlessly waited the passing crowd on the
+corner. She was not among it. He tried one more square. Still he could
+not see her. Then he ran back to the depot. He thought surely he must
+have missed her. He again searched the woman's and general waiting room
+and then he thought of the conductor. From him it could be learned where
+she entered the car. He ran for the station, bolted the gate while the
+official called to him, and reached the track in time to see the train
+pull out within a few yards of him.
+
+“You blooming idiot!” cried the angry expressman as the Harvester ran
+against him, “where did you go? Why didn't you help me? You are white as
+a sheet! Have you lost your senses?”
+
+“Worse!” groaned the Harvester. “Worse! I've lost what I prize most on
+earth. How could I reach the conductor of that train?”
+
+“Telegraph him at the next station. You can have an answer in a half
+hour.”
+
+The Harvester ran to the office, and with shaking hand wrote this
+message:
+
+“Where did a tall girl with big black eyes and wearing a gray dress take
+your train? Important.”
+
+Then he went out and minutely searched the depot and streets. He hired
+an automobile to drive him over the business part of Onabasha for three
+quarters of an hour. Up one street and down another he went slowly where
+there were crowds, faster as he could, but never a sight of her. Then he
+returned to the depot and found his message. It read, “Transferred to me
+at Fort Wayne from Chicago.”
+
+“Chicago baggage!” he cried, and hurried to the check room. He had lost
+almost an hour. When he reached the room he found the officials busy and
+unwilling to be interrupted. Finally he learned there had been a half
+dozen trunks from Chicago. All were taken save two, and one glance at
+them told the Harvester that they did not belong to the girl in gray.
+The others had been claimed by men having checks for them. If she had
+been there, the officials had not noticed a tall girl having a white
+face and dark eyes. When he could think of no further effort to make he
+drove to the hospital.
+
+Doctor Carey was not in his office, and the Harvester sat in the
+revolving chair before the desk and gripped his head between his hands
+as he tried to think. He could not remember anything more he could
+have done, but since what he had done only ended in failure, he was
+reproaching himself wildly that he had taken his eyes from the Girl an
+instant after recognizing her. Yet it was in his blood to be decent and
+he could not have run away and left a frightened woman and a hurt child.
+Trusting to his fleet feet and strength he had taken time to replace the
+box also, and then had met the crowd and delay. Just for the instant it
+appeared to him as if he had done all a man could, and he had not found
+her. If he allowed her to return to Chicago, probably he never would. He
+leaned his head on his hands and groaned in discouragement.
+
+Doctor Carey whirled the chair so that it faced him before the Harvester
+realized that he was not alone.
+
+“What's the trouble, David?” he asked tersely.
+
+The Harvester lifted a strained face.
+
+“I came for help,” he said.
+
+“Well you will get it! All you have to do is to state what you want.”
+
+That seemed simplicity itself to the doctor. But when it came to putting
+his case into words, it was not easy for the Harvester.
+
+“Go on!” said the doctor.
+
+“You'll think me a fool.”
+
+The doctor laughed heartily.
+
+“No doubt!” he said soothingly. “No doubt, David! Probably you are; so
+why shouldn't I think so. But remember this, when we make the biggest
+fools of ourselves that is precisely the time when we need friends, and
+when they stick to us the tightest, if they are worth while. I've been
+waiting since latter February for you to tell me. We can fix it, of
+course; there's always a way. Go on!”
+
+“Well I wasn't fooling about the dream and the vision I told you of
+then, Doc. I did have a dream--and it was a dream of love. I did see a
+vision--and it was a beautiful woman.”
+
+“I hope you are not nursing that experience as something exclusive and
+peculiar to you,” said the doctor. “There is not a normal, sane man
+living who has not dreamed of love and the most exquisite woman who came
+from the clouds or anywhere and was gracious to him. That's a part of a
+man's experience in this world, and it happens to most of us, not once,
+but repeatedly. It's a case where the wish fathers the dream.”
+
+“Well it hasn't happened to me 'on repeated occasions,' but it did one
+night, and by dawn I was converted. How CAN a dream be so real, Doc?
+How could I see as clearly as I ever saw in the daytime in my most alert
+moment, hear every step and garment rustle, scent the perfume of hair,
+and feel warm breath strike my face? I don't understand it!”
+
+“Neither does any one else! All you need say is that your dream was real
+as life. Go on!”
+
+“I built a new cabin and pretty well overturned the place and I've been
+making furniture I thought a woman would like, and carrying things from
+town ever since.”
+
+“Gee! It was reality to you, lad!”
+
+“Nothing ever more so,” said the Harvester.
+
+“And of course, you have been looking for her?”
+
+“And this morning I saw her!”
+
+“David!”
+
+“Not the ghost of a chance for a mistake. Her height, her eyes, her
+hair, her walk, her face; only something terrible has happened since she
+came to me. It was the same girl, but she is ill and in trouble now.”
+
+“Where is she?”
+
+“Do you suppose I'd be here if I knew?”
+
+“David, are you dreaming in daytime?”
+
+“She got off the Chicago train this morning while I was helping Daniels
+load a big truck of express matter. Some of it was mine, and it was
+important. Just at the wrong instant a box fell and knocked down a child
+and I got in a jam----”
+
+“And as it was you, of course you stopped to pick up the child and do
+everything decent for other folks, before you thought of yourself, and
+so you lost her. You needn't tell me anything more. David, if I find
+her, and prove to you that she has been married ten years and has an
+interesting family, will you thank me?”
+
+“Can't be done!” said the Harvester calmly. “She has been married only
+since she gave herself to me in February, and she is not a mother. You
+needn't bank on that.”
+
+“You are mighty sure!”
+
+“Why not? I told you the dream was real, and now that I have seen her,
+and she is in this very town, why shouldn't I be sure?”
+
+“What have you done?”
+
+The Harvester told him.
+
+“What are you going to do next?”
+
+“Talk it over with you and decide.”
+
+The doctor laughed.
+
+“Well here are a few things that occur to me without time for thought.
+Talk to the ticket agents, and leave her description with them. Make it
+worth their while to be on the lookout, and if she goes anywhere to find
+out all they can. They could make an excuse of putting her address on
+her ticket envelope, and get it that way. See the baggagemen. Post the
+day police on Main Street. There is no chance for her to escape you. A
+full-grown woman doesn't vanish. How did she act when she got off the
+car? Did she appear familiar?”
+
+“No. She was a stranger. For an instant she looked around as if she
+expected some one, then she followed the crowd. There must have been an
+automobile waiting or she took a street car. Something whirled her out
+of sight in a few seconds.”
+
+“Well we will get her in range again. Now for the most minute
+description you can give.”
+
+The Harvester hesitated. He did not care to describe the Dream Girl to
+any one, much less the living, suffering face and poorly clad form of
+the reality.
+
+“Cut out your scruples,” laughed the doctor. “You have asked me to help
+you; how can I if I don't know what kind of a woman to look for?”
+
+“Very tall and slender,” said the Harvester. “Almost as tall as I am.”
+
+“Unusually tall you think?”
+
+“I know!”
+
+“That's a good point for identification. How about her complexion, hair,
+and eyes?”
+
+“Very large, dark eyes, and a great mass of black hair.”
+
+The doctor roared.
+
+“The eyes may help,” he said. “All women have masses of hair these days.
+I hope----”
+
+“Her hair is fast to her head,” said the Harvester indignantly. “I saw
+it at close range, and I know. It went around like a crown.”
+
+The doctor choked down a laugh. He wanted to say that every woman's hair
+was like a crown at present, but there were things no man ventured with
+David Langston; those who knew him best, least of any. So he suggested,
+“And her colouring?”
+
+“She was white and rosy, a lovely thing in the dream,” said the
+Harvester, “but something dreadful has happened. That's all wiped out
+now. She was very pale when she left the car.”
+
+“Car sick, maybe.”
+
+“Soul sick!” was the grim reply.
+
+Then Doctor Carey appeared so disturbed the Harvester noticed it.
+
+“You needn't think I'd be here prating about her if I wasn't FORCED.
+If she had been rosy and well as she was in the dream, I'd have made
+my hunt alone and found her, too. But when I saw she was sick and in
+trouble, it took all the courage out of me, and I broke for help. She
+must be found at once, and when she is you are probably the first man
+I'll want. I am going to put up a pretty stiff search myself, and if I
+find her I'll send or get her to you if I can. Put her in the best ward
+you have and anything money will do----”
+
+The face of the doctor was growing troubled.
+
+“Day coach or Pullman?” he asked.
+
+“Day.”
+
+“How was she dressed?”
+
+“Small black hat, very plain. Gray jacket and skirt, neat as a flower.”
+
+“What you'd call expensively dressed?”
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+“What I'd call carefully dressed, but----but poverty poor, if you will
+have it, Doc.”
+
+Doctor Carey's lips closed and then opened in sudden resolution.
+
+“David, I don't like it,” he said tersely.
+
+The Harvester met his eye and purposely misunderstood him.
+
+“Neither do I!” he exclaimed. “I hate it! There is something wrong with
+the whole world when a woman having a face full of purity, intellect,
+and refinement of extreme type glances around her like a hunted thing;
+when her appearance seems to indicate that she has starved her body to
+clothe it. I know what is in your mind, Doc, but if I were you I
+wouldn't put it into words, and I wouldn't even THINK it. Has it been
+your experience in this world that women not fit to know skimp their
+bodies to cover them? Does a girl of light character and little brain
+have the hardihood to advance a foot covered with a broken shoe? If I
+could tell you that she rode in a Pullman, and wore exquisite clothing,
+you would be doing something. The other side of the picture shuts you up
+like a clam, and makes you appear shocked. Let me tell you this: No
+other woman I ever saw anywhere on God's footstool had a face of more
+delicate refinement, eyes of purer intelligence. I am of the woods, and
+while they don't teach me how to shine in society, they do instil always
+and forever the fineness of nature and her ways. I have her lessons so
+well learned they help me more than anything else to discern the
+qualities of human nature. If you are my friend, and have any faith at
+all in my common sense, get up and do something!”
+
+The doctor arose promptly.
+
+“David, I'm an ass,” he said. “Unusually lop-eared, and blind in the
+bargain. But before I ask you to forgive me, I want you to remember two
+things: First, she did not visit me in my dreams; and, second, I did not
+see her in reality. I had nothing to judge from except what you
+said: you seemed reluctant to tell me, and what you did say
+was----was----disturbing to a friend of yours. I have not the slightest
+doubt if I had seen her I would agree with you. We seldom disagree,
+David. Now, will you forgive me?”
+
+The Harvester suddenly faced a window. When at last he turned, “The
+offence lies with me,” he said, “I was hasty. Are you going to help me?”
+
+“With all my heart! Go home and work until your head clears, then come
+back in the morning. She did not come from Chicago for a day. You've
+done all I know to do at present.”
+
+“Thank you,” said the Harvester.
+
+He went to Betsy and Belshazzar, and slowly drove up and down the
+streets until Betsy protested and calmly turned homeward. The Harvester
+smiled ruefully as he allowed her to proceed.
+
+“Go slow and take it easy,” he said as they reached the country. “I want
+to think.”
+
+Betsy stopped at the barn, the white doves took wing, and Ajax screamed
+shrilly before the Harvester aroused in the slightest to anything around
+him. Then he looked at Belshazzar and said emphatically: “Now, partner,
+don't ever again interfere when I am complying with the observances of
+my religion. Just look what I'd have missed if I hadn't made good with
+that order!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT
+
+“We have reached the 'beginning of the end,' Ajax!” said the Harvester,
+as the peacock ceased screaming and came to seek food from his hand.
+“We have seen the Girl. Now we must locate her and convince her that
+Medicine Woods is her happy home. I feel quite equal to the latter
+proposition, Ajax, but how the nation to find her sticks me. I can't
+make a search so open that she will know and resent it. She must have
+all the consideration ever paid the most refined woman, but she also
+has got to be found, and that speedily. When I remember that look on her
+face, as if horrors were snatching at her skirts, it takes all the grit
+out of me. I feel weak as a sapling. And she needs all my strength. I've
+simply got to brace up. I'll work a while and then perhaps I can think.”
+
+So the Harvester began the evening routine. He thought he did not want
+anything to eat, but when he opened the cupboard and smelled the food he
+learned that he was a hungry man and he cooked and ate a good supper. He
+put away everything carefully, for even the kitchen was dainty and fresh
+and he wanted to keep it so for her. When he finished he went into the
+living-room, stood before the fireplace, and studied the collection of
+half-finished candlesticks grouped upon it. He picked up several and
+examined them closely, but realized that he could not bind himself to
+the exactions of carving that evening. He took a key from his pocket and
+unlocked her door. Every day he had been going there to improve upon his
+work for her, and he loved the room, the outlook from its windows; he
+was very proud of the furniture he had made. There was no paper-thin
+covering on her chairs, bed, and dressing table. The tops, seats, and
+posts were solid wood, worth hundreds of dollars for veneer.
+
+To-night he folded his arms and stood on the sill hesitating. While
+she was a dream, he had loved to linger in her room. Now that she was
+reality, he paused. In one golden May day the place had become sacred.
+Since he had seen the Girl that room was so hers that he was hesitating
+about entering because of this fact. It was as if the tall, slender form
+stood before the chest of drawers or sat at the dressing table and he
+did not dare enter unless he were welcome. Softly he closed the door and
+went away. He wandered to the dry-house and turned the bark and roots on
+the trays, but the air stifled him and he hurried out. He tried to work
+in the packing room, but walls smothered him and again he sought the
+open.
+
+He espied a bundle of osier-bound, moss-covered ferns that he had found
+in the woods, and brought the shovel to transplant them; but the
+work worried him, and he hurried through with it. Then he looked for
+something else to do and saw an ax. He caught it up and with lusty
+strokes began swinging it. When he had chopped wood until he was very
+tired he went to bed. Sleep came to the strong, young frame and he awoke
+in the morning refreshed and hopeful.
+
+He wondered why he had bothered Doctor Carey. The Harvester felt able
+that morning to find his Dream Girl without assistance before the day
+was over. It was merely a matter of going to the city and locating a
+woman. Yesterday, it had been a question of whether she really existed.
+To-day, he knew. Yesterday, it had meant a search possibly as wide
+as earth to find her. To-day, it was narrowed to only one location so
+small, compared with Chicago, that the Harvester felt he could sift
+its population with his fingers, and pick her from others at his first
+attempt. If she were visiting there probably she would rest during the
+night, and be on the streets to-day.
+
+When he remembered her face he doubted it. He decided to spend part
+of the time on the business streets and the remainder in the residence
+portions of the city. Because it was uncertain when he would return,
+everything was fed a double portion, and Betsy was left at a livery
+stable with instructions to care for her until he came. He did not know
+where the search would lead him. For several hours he slowly walked the
+business district and then ranged farther, but not a sight of her. He
+never had known that Onabasha was so large. On its crowded streets he
+did not feel that he could sift the population through his fingers, nor
+could he open doors and search houses without an excuse.
+
+Some small boys passed him eating bananas, and the Harvester looked at
+his watch and was amazed to find that the day had advanced until two
+o'clock in the afternoon. He was tired and hungry. He went into a
+restaurant and ordered lunch; as he waited a girl serving tables smiled
+at him. Any other time the Harvester would have returned at least a
+pleasant look, and gone his way. To-day he scowled at her, and ate in
+hurried discomfort. On the streets again, he had no idea where to go and
+so he went to the hospital.
+
+“I expected you early this morning,” was the greeting of Doctor Carey.
+“Where have you been and what have you done?”
+
+“Nothing,” said the Harvester. “I was so sure she would be on the
+streets I just watched, but I didn't see her.”
+
+“We will go to the depot,” said the doctor. “The first thing is to keep
+her from leaving town.”
+
+They arranged with the ticket agents, expressmen, telegraphers, and, as
+they left, the Harvester stopped and tipped the train caller, offering
+further reward worth while if he would find the Girl.
+
+“Now we will go to the police station,” said the doctor.
+
+“I'll see the chief and have him issue a general order to his men to
+watch for her, but if I were you I'd select a half dozen in the down
+town district, and give them a little tip with a big promise!”
+
+“Good Lord! How I hate this,” groaned the Harvester.
+
+“Want to find her by yourself?” questioned his friend.
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester, “I do! And I would, if it hadn't been for
+her ghastly face. That drives me to resort to any measures. The
+probabilities are that she is lying sick somewhere, and if her comfort
+depends on the purse that dressed her, she will suffer. Doc, do you know
+how awful this is?”
+
+“I know that you've got a great imagination. If the woods make all men
+as sensitive as you are, those who have business to transact should stay
+out of them. Take a common-sense view. Look at this as I do. If she was
+strong enough to travel in a day coach from Chicago; she can't be so
+very ill to-day. Leaving life by the inch isn't that easy. She will be
+alive this time next year, whether you find her or not. The chances are
+that her stress was mental anyway, and trouble almost never overcomes
+any one.”
+
+“You, a doctor and say that!”
+
+“Oh, I mean instantaneously----in a day! Of course if it grinds away
+for years! But youth doesn't allow it to do that. It throws it off, and
+grows hopeful and happy again. She won't die; put that out of your
+mind. If I were you I would go home now and go straight on with my work,
+trusting to the machinery you have set in motion. I know most of the
+men with whom we have talked. They will locate her in a week or less.
+It's their business. It isn't yours. It's your job to be ready for her,
+and have enough ahead to support her when they find her. Try to realize
+that there are now a dozen men on hunt for her, and trust them. Go back
+to your work, and I will come full speed in the motor when the first man
+sights her. That ought to satisfy you. I've told all of them to call me
+at the hospital, and I will tell my assistant what to do in case a call
+comes while I am away. Straighten your face! Go back to Medicine Woods
+and harvest your crops, and before you know it she will be located. Then
+you can put on your Sunday clothes and show yourself, and see if you can
+make her take notice.”
+
+“Idiot!” exclaimed the Harvester, but he started home. When he arrived
+he attended to his work and then sat down to think.
+
+“Doc is right,” was his ultimate conclusion. “She can't leave the city,
+she can't move around in it, she can't go anywhere, without being seen.
+There's one more point: I must tell Carey to post all the doctors to
+report if they have such a call. That's all I can think of. I'll
+go to-night, and then I'll look over the ginseng for parasites, and
+to-morrow I'll dive into the late spring growth and work until I haven't
+time to think. I've let cranesbill get a week past me now, and it can't
+be dispensed with.”
+
+So the following morning, when the Harvester had completed his work at
+the cabin and barn and breakfasted, he took a mattock and a big hempen
+bag, and followed the path to the top of the hill. As it ran along the
+lake bank he descended on the other side to several acres of cleared
+land, where he raised corn for his stock, potatoes, and coarser garden
+truck, for which there was not space in the smaller enclosure close the
+cabin. Around the edges of these fields, and where one of them sloped
+toward the lake, he began grubbing a variety of grass having tall stems
+already over a foot in height at half growth. From each stem waved four
+or five leaves of six or eight inches length and the top showed forming
+clusters of tiny spikelets.
+
+“I am none too early for you,” he muttered to himself as he ran the
+mattock through the rich earth, lifting the long, tough, jointed root
+stalks of pale yellow, from every section of which broke sprays of fine
+rootlets. “None too early for you, and as you are worth only seven cents
+a pound, you couldn't be considered a 'get-rich-quick' expedient, so
+I'll only stop long enough with you to gather what I think my customers
+will order, and amass a fortune a little later picking mullein flowers
+at seventy-five cents a pound. What a crop I've got coming!”
+
+The Harvester glanced ahead, where in the cleared soil of the bank grew
+large plants with leaves like yellow-green felt and tall bloom stems
+rising. Close them flourished other species requiring dry sandy soil,
+that gradually changed as it approached the water until it became
+covered with rank abundance of short, wiry grass, half the blades of
+which appeared red. Numerous everywhere he could see the grayish-white
+leaves of Parnassus grass. As the season advanced it would lift
+heart-shaped velvet higher, and before fall the stretch of emerald would
+be starred with white-faced, green-striped flowers.
+
+“Not a prettier sight on earth,” commented the Harvester, “than just
+swale wire grass in September making a fine, thick background to set off
+those delicate starry flowers on their slender stems. I must remember to
+bring her to see that.”
+
+His eyes followed the growth to the water. As the grass drew closer
+moisture it changed to the rank, sweet, swamp variety, then came
+bulrushes, cat-tails, water smartweed, docks, and in the water blue flag
+lifted folded buds; at its feet arose yellow lily leaves and farther out
+spread the white. As the light struck the surface the Harvester imagined
+he could see the little green buds several inches below. Above all arose
+wild rice he had planted for the birds. The red wings swayed on the
+willows and tilted on every stem that would bear their weight, singing
+their melodious half-chanted notes, “O-ka-lee!”
+
+Beneath them the ducks gobbled, splashed, and chattered; grebe and coot
+voices could be distinguished; king rails at times flashed into sight
+and out again; marsh wrens scolded and chattered; occasionally a
+kingfisher darted around the lake shore, rolling his rattling cry and
+flashing his azure coat and gleaming white collar. On a hollow tree
+in the woods a yellow hammer proved why he was named, because he
+carpentered industriously to enlarge the entrance to the home he was
+excavating in a dead tree; and sailing over the lake and above the woods
+in grace scarcely surpassed by any, a lonesome turkey buzzard awaited
+his mate's decision as to which hollow log was most suitable for their
+home.
+
+The Harvester stuffed the grass roots in the bag until it would hold no
+more and stood erect to wipe his face, for the sun was growing warm. As
+he drew his handkerchief across his brow, the south wind struck him with
+enough intensity to attract attention. Instantly the Harvester removed
+his hat, rolled it up, and put it into his pocket. He stood an instant
+delighting in the wind and then spoke.
+
+“Allow me to express my most fervent thanks for your kindness,” he said.
+“I thought probably you would take that message, since it couldn't mean
+much to you, and it meant all the world to me. I thought you would carry
+it, but, I confess, I scarcely expected the answer so soon. The only
+thing that could make me more grateful to you would be to know exactly
+where she is: but you must understand that it's like a peep into Heaven
+to have her existence narrowed to one place. I'm bound to be able to
+say inside a few days, she lives at number----I don't know yet, on
+street----I'll find out soon, in the closest city, Onabasha. And I know
+why you brought her, South Wind. If ever a girl's cheeks need fanning
+with your breezes, and painting with sun kisses, I wouldn't mind, since
+this is strictly private, adding a few of mine; if ever any one needed
+flowers, birds, fresh air, water, and rest! Good Lord, South Wind, did
+you ever reach her before you carried that message? I think not! But
+Onabasha isn't so large. You and the sun should get your innings there.
+I do hope she is not trying to work! I can attend to that; and so there
+will be more time when she is found, I'd better hustle now.”
+
+He picked up the bag and returned to the dry-house, where he carefully
+washed the roots and spread them on the trays. Then he took the same
+bag and mattock and going through the woods in the opposite direction
+he came to a heavy growth in a cleared space of high ground. The bloom
+heads were forming and the plant was half matured. The Harvester dug a
+cylindrical, tapering root, wrinkling lengthwise, wiped it clean, broke
+and tasted it. He made a wry face. He stood examining the white wood
+with its brown-red bark and, deciding that it was in prime condition, he
+began digging the plants. It was common wayside “Bouncing Bet,” but the
+Harvester called it “soapwort.” He took every other plant in his way
+across the bed, and when he digged a heavy load he carried it home,
+stripped the leaves, and spread them on trays, while the roots he
+topped, washed, and put to dry also. Then he whistled for Belshazzar and
+went to lunch.
+
+As he passed down the road to the cabin his face was a study of
+conflicting emotions, and his eyes had a far away appearance of deep
+thought. Every tree of his stretch of forest was rustling fresh leaves
+to shelter him; dogwood, wild crab, and hawthorn offered their flowers;
+earth held up her tribute in painted trillium faces, spring beauties,
+and violets, blue, white, and yellow. Mosses, ferns, and lichen
+decorated the path; all the birds greeted him in friendship, and
+sang their purest melodies. The sky was blue, the sun bright, the air
+perfumed for him; Belshazzar, always true to his name, protected every
+footstep; Ajax, the shimmering green and gold wonder, came up the hill
+to meet him; the white doves circled above his head. Stumbling half
+blindly, the Harvester passed unheeding among them, and went into the
+cabin. When he came out he stood a long time in deep study, but at last
+he returned to the woods.
+
+“Perhaps they will have found her before night,” he said. “I'll harvest
+the cranesbill yet, because it's growing late for it, and then I'll see
+how they are coming on. Maybe they'd know her if they met her, and maybe
+they wouldn't. She may wear different clothing, and freshen up after her
+trip. She might have been car sick, as Doc suggested, and appear very
+different when she feels better.”
+
+He skirted the woods around the northeast end and stopped at a big bed
+of exquisite growth. Tall, wiry stems sprang upward almost two feet in
+height; leaves six inches across were cut in ragged lobes almost to the
+base, and here and there, enough to colour the entire bed a delicate
+rose or sometimes a violet purple, the first flowers were unfolding. The
+Harvester lifted a root and tasted it.
+
+“No doubt about you being astringent,” he muttered. “You have enough
+tannin in you to pucker a mushroom. By the way, those big, corn-cobby
+fellows should spring up with the next warm rain, and the hotels and
+restaurants always pay high prices. I must gather a few bushels.”
+
+He looked over the bed of beautiful wild alum and hesitated.
+
+“I vow I hate to touch you,” he said. “You are a picture right now, and
+in a week you will be a miracle. It seems a shame to tear up a plant for
+its roots, just at flowering time, and I can't avoid breaking down half
+I don't take, getting the ones I do. I wish you were not so pretty! You
+are one of the colours I love most. You remind me of red-bud, blazing
+star, and all those exquisite magenta shades that poets, painters, and
+the Almighty who made them love so much they hesitate about using them
+lavishly. You are so delicate and graceful and so modest. I wish she
+could see you! I got to stop this or I won't be able to lift a root. I
+never would if the ten cents a pound I'll get out of it were the only
+consideration.”
+
+The Harvester gripped the mattock and advanced to the bed. “What I must
+be thinking is that you are indispensable to the sick folks. The steady
+demand for you proves your value, and of course, humanity comes first,
+after all. If I remain in the woods alone much longer I'll get to the
+place where I'm not so sure that it does. Seems as if animals, birds,
+flowers, trees, and insects as well, have their right to life also. But
+it's for me to remember the sick folks! If I thought the Girl would get
+some of it now, I could overturn the bed with a stout heart. If any one
+ever needed a tonic, I think she does. Maybe some of this will reach
+her. If it does, I hope it will make her cheeks just the lovely pink of
+the bloom. Oh Lord! If only she hadn't appeared so sick and frightened!
+What is there in all this world of sunshine to make a girl glance around
+her like that? I wish I knew! Maybe they will have found her by night.”
+
+The Harvester began work on the bed, but he knelt and among the damp
+leaves from the spongy black earth he lifted the roots with his fingers
+and carefully straightened and pressed down the plants he did not take.
+This required more time than usual, but his heart was so sore he could
+not be rough with anything, most of all a flower. So he harvested the
+wild alum by hand, and heaped large stacks of roots around the edges of
+the bed. Often he paused as he worked and on his knees stared through
+the forest as if he hoped perhaps she would realize his longing for her,
+and come to him in the wood as she had across the water. Over and
+over he repeated, “Perhaps they will find her by night!” and that so
+intensified the meaning that once he said it aloud. His face clouded and
+grew dark.
+
+“Dealish nice business!” he said. “I am here in the woods digging flower
+roots, and a gang of men in the city are searching for the girl I love.
+If ever a job seemed peculiarly a man's own, it appears this would be.
+What business has any other man spying after my woman? Why am I not down
+there doing my own work, as I always have done it? Who's more likely to
+find her than I am? It seems as if there would be an instinct that
+would lead me straight to her, if I'd go. And you can wager I'll go fast
+enough.”
+
+The Harvester appeared as if he would start that instant, but with lips
+closely shut he finally forced himself to go on with his work. When he
+had rifled the bed, and uprooted all he cared to take during one season,
+he carried the roots to the lake shore below the curing house, and
+spread them on a platform he had built. He stepped into his boat and
+began dashing pails of water over them and using a brush. As he worked
+he washed away the woody scars of last year's growth, and the tiny buds
+appearing for the coming season.
+
+Belshazzar sat on the opposite bank and watched the operation; and Ajax
+came down and, flying to a dead stump, erected and slowly waved his
+train to attract the sober-faced man who paid no heed. He left the roots
+to drain while he prepared supper, then placed them on the trays, now
+filled to overflowing, and was glad he had finished. He could not cure
+anything else at present if he wanted to. He was as far advanced as he
+had been at the same time the previous year. Then he dressed neatly and
+locking the Girl's room, and leaving Belshazzar to protect it, he went
+to Onabasha.
+
+“Bravo!” cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered his office. “You
+are heroic to wait all day for news. How much stuff have you gathered?”
+
+“Three crops. How many missing women have you located?”
+
+The doctor laughed. There was no sign of a smile on the face of the
+Harvester.
+
+“You didn't really expect her to come to light the first day? That would
+be too easy! We can't find her in a minute.”
+
+“It will be no surprise to me if you can't find her at all. I am not
+expecting another man to do what I don't myself.”
+
+“You are not hunting her. You are harvesting the woods. The men you
+employ are to find her.”
+
+“Maybe I am, and maybe I am not,” said the Harvester slowly. “To me
+it appears to be a poor stick of a man who coolly proceeds with money
+making, and trusts to men who haven't even seen her to search for the
+girl he loves. I think a few hours of this is about all my patience will
+endure.”
+
+“What are you going to do?”
+
+“I don't know,” said the Harvester. “But you can bank on one thing
+sure----I'm going to do something! I've had my fill of this. Thank you
+for all you've done, and all you are going to do. My head is not clear
+enough yet to decide anything with any sense, but maybe I'll hit on
+something soon. I'm for the streets for a while.”
+
+“Better go home and go to bed. You seem very tired.”
+
+“I am,” said the Harvester. “The only way to endure this is to work
+myself down. I'm all right, and I'll be careful, but I rather think I'll
+find her myself.”
+
+“Better go on with your work as we planned.”
+
+“I'll think about it,” said the Harvester as he went out.
+
+Until he was too tired to walk farther he slowly paced the streets of
+the city, and then followed the home road through the valley and up the
+hill to Medicine Woods. When he came to Singing Water, Belshazzar heard
+his steps on the bridge, and came bounding to meet him. The Harvester
+stretched himself on a seat and turned his face to the sky. It was a
+deep, dark-blue bowl, closely set with stars, and a bright moon shed a
+soft May radiance on the young earth. The lake was flooded with light,
+and the big trees of the forest crowning the hill were silver coroneted.
+The unfolding leaves had hidden the new cabin from the bridge, but the
+driveway shone white, and already the upspringing bushes hedged it in.
+Insects were humming lazily in the perfumed night air, and across the
+lake a courting whip-poor-will was explaining to his sweetheart just
+how much and why he loved her. A few bats were wavering in air hunting
+insects, and occasionally an owl or a nighthawk crossed the lake.
+Killdeer were glorying in the moonlight and night flight, and cried in
+pure, clear notes as they sailed over the water. The Harvester was tired
+and filled with unrest as he stretched on the bridge, but the longer
+he lay the more the enfolding voices comforted him. All of them were
+waiting and working out their lives to the legitimate end; there was
+nothing else for him to do. He need not follow instinct or profit by
+chance. He was a man; he could plan and reason.
+
+The air grew balmy and some big, soft clouds swept across the moon. The
+Harvester felt the dampness of rising dew, and went to the cabin. He
+looked at it long in the moonlight and told himself that he could see
+how much the plants, vines, and ferns had grown since the previous
+night. Without making a light, he threw himself on the bed in the
+outdoor room, and lay looking through the screening at the lake and sky.
+He was working his brain to think of some manner in which to start a
+search for the Dream Girl that would have some probability of success to
+recommend it, but he could settle on no feasible plan. At last he fell
+asleep, and in the night soft rain wet his face. He pulled an oilcloth
+sheet over the bed, and lay breathing deeply of the damp, perfumed air
+as he again slept. In the morning brilliant sunshine awoke him and he
+arose to find the earth steaming.
+
+“If ever there was a perfect mushroom day!” he said to Belshazzar. “We
+must hurry and feed the stock and ourselves and gather some. They mean
+real money.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE QUEST OF THE DREAM GIRL
+
+The Harvester breakfasted, fed the stock, hitched Betsy to the spring
+wagon, and went into the dripping, steamy woods. If anyone had asked him
+that morning concerning his idea of Heaven, he never would have dreamed
+of describing a place of gold-paved streets, crystal pillars, jewelled
+gates, and thrones of ivory. These things were beyond the man's
+comprehension and he would not have admired or felt at home in such
+magnificence if it had been materialized for him. He would have told
+you that a floor of last year's brown leaves, studded with myriad flower
+faces, big, bark-encased pillars of a thousand years, jewels on every
+bush, shrub, and tree, and tilting thrones on which gaudy birds almost
+burst themselves to voice the joy of life, while their bright-eyed
+little mates peered questioningly at him over nest rims----he would have
+told you that Medicine Woods on a damp, sunny May morning was Heaven.
+And he would have added that only one angel, tall and slender, with the
+pink of health on her cheeks and the dew of happiness in her dark eyes,
+was necessary to enter and establish glory. Everything spoke to him that
+morning, but the Harvester was silent. It had been his habit to talk
+constantly to Belshazzar, Ajax, his work, even the winds and perfumes;
+it had been his method of dissipating solitude, but to-day he had no
+words, even for these dear friends. He only opened his soul to beauty,
+and steadily climbed the hill to the crest, and then down the other side
+to the rich, half-shaded, half-open spaces, where big, rough mushrooms
+sprang in a night similar to the one just passed.
+
+He could see them awaiting him from afar. He began work with rapid
+fingers, being careful to break off the heads, but not to pull up the
+roots. When four heaping baskets were filled he cut heavily leaved
+branches to spread over them, and started to Onabasha. As usual,
+Belshazzar rode beside him and questioned the Harvester when he politely
+suggested to Betsy that she make a little haste.
+
+“Have you forgotten that mushrooms are perishable?” he asked. “If we
+don't get these to the city all woodsy and fresh we can't sell them.
+Wonder where we can do the best? The hotels pay well. Really, the
+biggest prices could be had by----”
+
+Then the Harvester threw back his head and began to laugh, and
+he laughed, and he laughed. A crow on the fence Joined him, and a
+kingfisher, heading for Loon Lake, and then Belshazzar caught the
+infection.
+
+“Begorry! The very idea!” cried the Harvester. “'Heaven helps them
+that help themselves.' Now you just watch us manoeuvre for assistance,
+Belshazzar, old boy! Here we go!”
+
+Then the laugh began again. It continued all the way to Onabasha and
+even into the city. The Harvester drove through the most prosperous
+street until he reached the residence district. At the first home
+he stopped, gave the lines to Belshazzar, and, taking a basket of
+mushrooms, went up the walk and rang the bell.
+
+“All groceries should be delivered at the back door,” snapped a pert
+maid, before he had time to say a word.
+
+The Harvester lifted his hat.
+
+“Will you kindly tell the lady of the house that I wish to speak with
+her?”
+
+“What name, please?”
+
+“I want to show her some fine mushrooms, freshly gathered,” he answered.
+
+How she did it the Harvester never knew. The first thing he realized was
+that the door had closed before his face, and the basket had been picked
+deftly from his fingers and was on the other side. After a short time
+the maid returned.
+
+“What do you want for them, please?”
+
+The last thing on earth the Harvester wanted to do was to part with
+those mushrooms, so he took one long, speculative look down the hall and
+named a price he thought would be prohibitive.
+
+“One dollar a dozen.”
+
+“How many are there?”
+
+“I count them as I sell them. I do not know.”
+
+The door closed again. Presently it opened and the maid knelt on the
+floor before him and counted the mushrooms one by one into a dish pan
+and in a few minutes brought back seven dollars and fifty cents. The
+chagrined Harvester, feeling like a thief, put the money in his pocket,
+and turned away.
+
+“I was to tell you,” said she, “that you are to bring all you have to
+sell here, and the next time please go to the kitchen door.”
+
+“Must be fond of mushrooms,” said the disgruntled Harvester.
+
+“They are a great delicacy, and there are visitors.” The Harvester ached
+to set the girl to one side and walk through the house, but he did not
+dare; so he returned to the street, whistled to Betsy to come, and went
+to the next gate. Here he hesitated. Should he risk further snubbing at
+the front door or go back at once. If he did, he only would see a maid.
+As he stood an instant debating, the door of the house he just had
+left opened and the girl ran after him. “If you have more, we will take
+them,” she called.
+
+The Harvester gasped for breath.
+
+“They have to be used at once,” he suggested.
+
+“She knows that. She wants to treat her friends.”
+
+“Well she has got enough for a banquet,” he said. “I--I don't usually
+sell more than a dozen or two in one place.”
+
+“I don't see why you can't let her have them if you have more.”
+
+“Perhaps I have orders to fill for regular customers,” suggested the
+Harvester.
+
+“And perhaps you haven't,” said the maid. “You ought to be ashamed not
+to let people who are willing to pay your outrageous prices have them.
+It's regular highway robbery.”
+
+“Possibly that's the reason I decline to hold up one party twice,” said
+the Harvester as he entered the gate and went up the walk to the front
+door.
+
+“You should be taught your place,” called the maid after him.
+
+The Harvester again rang the bell. Another maid opened the door, and
+once more he asked to speak with the lady of the house. As the girl
+turned, a handsome old woman in cap and morning gown came down the
+stairs.
+
+“What have you there?” she asked.
+
+The Harvester lifted the leaves and exposed the musky, crimpled, big
+mushrooms.
+
+“Oh!” she cried in delight. “Indeed, yes! We are very fond of them. I
+will take the basket, and divide with my sons. You are sure you have no
+poisonous ones among them?”
+
+“Quite sure,” said the Harvester faintly.
+
+“How much do you want for the basket?”
+
+“They are a dollar a dozen; I haven't counted them.”
+
+“Dear me! Isn't that rather expensive?”
+
+“It is. Very!” said the Harvester. “So expensive that most people don't
+think of taking over a dozen. They are large and very rich, so they go a
+long way.”
+
+“I suppose you have to spend a great deal of time hunting them? It does
+seem expensive, but they are fresh, and the boys are so fond of them.
+I'm not often extravagant, I'll just take the lot. Sarah, bring a pan.”
+
+Again the Harvester stood and watched an entire basket counted over and
+carried away, and he felt the robber he had been called as he took the
+money.
+
+At the next house he had learned a lesson. He carpeted a basket with
+leaves and counted out a dozen and a half into it, leaving the remainder
+in the wagon. Three blocks on one side of the street exhausted his
+store and he was showered with orders. He had not seen any one that even
+resembled a dark-eyed girl. As he came from the last house a big, red
+motor shot past and then suddenly slowed and backed beside his wagon.
+
+“What in the name of sense are you doing?” demanded Doctor Carey.
+
+“Invading the residence district of Onabasha,” said the Harvester.
+“Madam, would you like some nice, fresh, country mushrooms? I guarantee
+that there are no poisonous ones among them, and they were gathered this
+morning. Considering their rarity and the difficult work of collecting,
+they are exceedingly low at my price. I am offering these for five
+dollars a dozen, madam, and for mercy sake don't take them or I'll have
+no excuse to go to the next house.”
+
+The doctor stared, then understood, and began to laugh. When at last he
+could speak he said, “David, I'll bet you started with three bushels and
+began at the head of this street, and they are all gone.”
+
+“Put up a good one!” said the Harvester. “You win. The first house I
+tried they ordered me to the back door, took a market basket full away
+from me by force, tried to buy the load, and I didn't see any one save a
+maid.”
+
+The doctor lay on the steering gear and faintly groaned.
+
+The Harvester regarded him sympathetically. “Isn't it a crime?” he
+questioned. “Mushrooms are no go. I can see that!----or rather they are
+entirely too much of a go. I never saw anything in such demand. I must
+seek a less popular article for my purpose. To-morrow look out for me.
+I shall begin where I left off to-day, but I will have changed my
+product.”
+
+“David, for pity sake,” peeped the doctor.
+
+“What do I care how I do it, so I locate her?” superbly inquired the
+Harvester.
+
+“But you won't find her!” gasped the doctor.
+
+“I've come as close it as you so far, anyway,” said the Harvester. “Your
+mushrooms are on the desk in your office.”
+
+He drove slowly up and down the streets until Betsy wabbled on her legs.
+Then he left her to rest and walked until he wabbled; and by that time
+it was dark, so he went home.
+
+At the first hint of dawn he was at work the following morning. With
+loaded baskets closely covered, he started to Onabasha, and began where
+he had quit the day before. This time he carried a small, crudely
+fashioned bark basket, leaf-covered, and he rang at the front door with
+confidence.
+
+Every one seemed to have a maid in that part of the city, for a freshly
+capped and aproned girl opened the door.
+
+“Are there any young women living here?” blandly inquired the Harvester.
+
+“What's that of your business?” demanded the maid.
+
+The Harvester flushed, but continued, “I am offering something
+especially intended for young women. If there are none, I will not
+trouble you.”
+
+“There are several.”
+
+“Will you please ask them if they would care for bouquets of violets,
+fresh from the woods?”
+
+“How much are they, and how large are the bunches?”
+
+“Prices differ, and they are the right size to appear well. They had
+better see for themselves.”
+
+The maid reached for the basket, but the Harvester drew back.
+
+“I keep them in my possession,” he said. “You may take a sample.”
+
+He lifted the leaves and drew forth a medium-sized bunch of long-stemmed
+blue violets with their leaves. The flowers were fresh, crisp, and
+strong odours of the woods arose from them.
+
+“Oh!” cried the maid. “Oh, how lovely!”
+
+She hurried away with them and returned carrying a purse.
+
+“I want two more bunches,” she said. “How much are they?”
+
+“Are the girls who want them dark or fair?”
+
+“What difference does that make?”
+
+“I have blue violets for blondes, yellow for brunettes, and white for
+the others.”
+
+“Well I never! One is fair, and two have brown hair and blue eyes.”
+
+“One blue and two whites,” said the Harvester calmly, as if matching
+women's hair and eyes with flowers were an inherited vocation. “They are
+twenty cents a bunch.”
+
+“Aha!” he chortled to himself as he whistled to Betsy. “At last we have
+it. There are no dark-eyed girls here. Now we are making headway.”
+
+Down the street he went, with varying fortune, but with patience and
+persistence at every house he at last managed to learn whether there was
+a dark-eyed girl. There did not seem to be many. Long before his store
+of yellow violets was gone the last blue and white had disappeared. But
+he calmly went on asking for dark-eyed girls, and explaining that all
+the blue and white were taken, because fair women were most numerous.
+
+At one house the owner, who reminded the Harvester of his mother,
+came to the door. He uncovered and in his suavest tones inquired if
+a brunette young woman lived there and if she would like a nosegay of
+yellow violets.
+
+“Well bless my soul!” cried she. “What is this world coming to? Do
+you mean to tell me that there are now able-bodied men offering at our
+doors, flowers to match our girls' complexions?”
+
+“Yes madam?” said the Harvester gravely, “and also selling them as fast
+as he can show them, at prices that make a profit very well worth while.
+I had an equal number of blue and white, but I see the dark girls are
+very much in the minority. The others were gone long ago, and I now have
+flowers to offer brunettes only.”
+
+“Well forever more! And you don't call that fiddlin' business for a big,
+healthy, young man?”
+
+The Harvester's gay laugh was infectious.
+
+“I do not,” he said. “I have to start as soon as I can see, tramp long
+distances in wet woods and gather the violets on my knees, make them
+into bunches, and bring them here in water to keep them fresh. I have
+another occupation. I only kill time on these, but I would be ashamed to
+tell you what I have gotten for them this morning.”
+
+“Humph! I'm glad to hear it!” said the woman. “Shame in some form is a
+sign of grace. I have no use for a human being without a generous supply
+of it. There is a very beautiful dark-eyed girl in the house, and I will
+take two bunches for her. How much are they?”
+
+“I have only three remaining,” said the Harvester. “Would you like to
+allow her to make her own selection?”
+
+“When I'm giving things I usually take my choice. I want that, and that
+one.”
+
+“As my stock is so nearly out, I'll make the two for twenty,” said the
+Harvester. “Won't you accept the last one from me, because you remind me
+just a little of my mother?”
+
+“I will indeed,” said she. “Thank you very much! I shall love to have
+them as dearly as any of the girls. I used to gather them when I was a
+child, but I almost never see the blue ones any more, and I don't know
+as I ever expected to see a yellow violet again as long as I live. Where
+did you get them?”
+
+“In my woods,” said the Harvester. “You see I grow several members of
+the viola pedata family, bird's foot, snake, and wood violet, and three
+of the odorata, English, marsh, and sweet, for our big drug houses. They
+use the flowers in making delicate tests for acids and alkalies.
+The entire plant, flower, seed, leaf, and root, goes into different
+remedies. The beds seed themselves and spread, so I have more than
+I need for the chemists, and I sell a few. I don't use the white and
+yellow in my business; I just grow them for their beauty. I also sell my
+surplus lilies of the valley. Would you like to order some of them for
+your house or more violets for to-morrow?”
+
+“Well bless my soul! Do you mean to tell me that lilies of the valley
+are medicine?”
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+“I grow immense beds of them in the woods on the banks of Loon Lake,”
+ he said. “They are the convallaris majallis of the drug houses and I
+scarcely know what the weak-hearted people would do without them. I use
+large quantities in trade, and this season I am selling a few because
+people so love them.”
+
+“Lilies in medicine; well dear me! Are roses good for our innards too?”
+
+Then the Harvester did laugh.
+
+“I imagine the roses you know go into perfumes mostly,” he answered.
+“They do make medicine of Canadian rock rose and rose bay, laurel, and
+willow. I grow the bushes, but they are not what you would consider
+roses.”
+
+“I wonder now,” said the woman studying the Harvester closely, “if you
+are not that queer genius I've heard of, who spends his time hunting and
+growing stuff in the woods and people call him the Medicine Man.”
+
+“I strongly suspect madam, I am that man,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Well bless me!” cried she. “I've always wanted to see you and here when
+I do, you look just like anybody else. I thought you'd have long hair,
+and be wild-eyed and ferocious. And your talk sounds like out of a book.
+Well that beats me!”
+
+“Me too!” said the Harvester, lifting his hat. “You don't want any
+lilies to-morrow, then?”
+
+“Yes I do. Medicine or no medicine, I've always liked 'em, and I'm going
+to keep on liking them. If you can bring me a good-sized bunch after the
+weak-kneed----”
+
+“Weak-hearted,” corrected the Harvester.
+
+“Well 'weak-hearted,' then; it's all the same thing. If you've got any
+left, as I was saying, you can fetch them to me for the smell.”
+
+The Harvester laughed all the way down town. There he went to Doctor
+Carey's office, examined a directory, and got the names of all the
+numbers where he had sold yellow violets. A few questions when the
+doctor came in settled all of them, but the flower scheme was better.
+Because the yellow were not so plentiful as the white and blue, next day
+he added buttercups and cowslips to his store for the dark girls. When
+he had rifled his beds for the last time, after three weeks of almost
+daily trips to town, and had paid high prices to small boys he set
+searching the adjoining woods until no more flowers could be found, he
+drove from the outskirts of the city one day toward the hospital, and as
+he stopped, down the street came Doctor Carey frantically waving to him.
+As the big car slackened, “Come on David, quick! I've seen her!” cried
+the doctor.
+
+The Harvester jumped from the wagon, threw the lines to Belshazzar, and
+landed in the panting car.
+
+“For Heaven's sake where? Are you sure?”
+
+The car went speeding down the street. A policeman beckoned and cried
+after it.
+
+“It won't do any good to get arrested, Doc,” cautioned the Harvester.
+
+“Now right along here,” panted Doctor Carey. “Watch both sides sharply.
+If I stop you jump out, and tell the blame policemen to get at their
+job. The party they are hired to find is right under their noses.”
+
+The Harvester began to perspire. “Doc, don't you think you should tell
+me? Maybe she is in some store. Maybe I could do better on foot.”
+
+“Shut up!” growled the doctor. “I am doing the best I know.”
+
+He hurried up the street for blocks and back again, and at last stopped
+before a large store and went in. When he returned he drove to the
+hospital and together they entered the office. There he turned to the
+Harvester.
+
+“It isn't so hard to understand you now, my boy,” he said. “Shades of
+Diana, but she'll be a beauty when she gets a little more flesh and
+colour. She came out of Whitlaw's and walked right to the crossing. I
+almost could have touched her, but I didn't notice. Two girls passed
+before me, and in hurrying, a tall, dark one knocked off one of your
+bunches of yellow violets. She glanced at it and laughed, but let
+it lay. Then your girl hesitated stooped and picked it up. The crazy
+policeman yelled at me to clear the crossing and it didn't hit me for a
+half block how tall and white she was and how dark her eyes were. I was
+just thinking about her picking up the flowers, and that it was queer
+for her to do it, when like a brick it hit me, THAT'S DAVID'S GIRL! I
+tried to turn around, but you know what Main Street is in the middle
+of the day. And those idiots of policemen! They ordered me on, and I
+couldn't turn for a street car coming, so I called to one of them that
+the girl we wanted was down the street, and he looked at me like an
+addle-pate and said, 'What girl? Move on or you'll get in a jam here.'
+You can use me for a football if I don't go back and smash him. Paid him
+five dollars myself less than two weeks ago to keep his eyes open. 'TO
+KEEP HIS EYES OPEN!'” panted the doctor, shaking his fist at David. “Yes
+sir! 'To keep his eyes open!' And he motioned for things to come along,
+and so I lost her too.”
+
+“I think we had better go back to the street,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Oh, I'd been back and forth along that street for nearly an hour before
+I gave up and came here to see if I could find you, and we've hunted it
+an hour more! What's the use? She's gone for this time, but by gum, I
+saw her! And she was worth seeing!”
+
+“Did she appear ill to you?”
+
+The doctor dropped on a chair and threw out his hands hopelessly.
+
+“This was awful sudden, David,” he said. “I was going along as I told
+you, and I noticed her stop and thought she had a good head to wait a
+second instead of running in before me, and there came those two girls
+right under the car from the other side. I only had a glimpse of her as
+she stooped for the flowers. I saw a big braid of hair, but I was half a
+block away before I got it all connected, and then came the crush in the
+street, and I was blocked.”
+
+The doctor broke down and wiped his face and expressed his feelings
+unrestrainedly.
+
+“Don't!” said the Harvester patiently. “It's no use to feel so badly,
+Doc. I know what you would give to have found her for me. I know you did
+all you could. I let her escape me. We will find her yet. It's glorious
+news that she's in the city. It gives me heart to hear that. Can't you
+just remember if she seemed ill?”
+
+The doctor meditated.
+
+“She wasn't the tallest girl I ever saw,” he said slowly, “but she was
+the tallest girl to be pretty. She had on a white waist and a gray skirt
+and black hat. Her eyes and hair were like you said, and she was plain,
+white faced, with a hue that might possibly be natural, and it might be
+confinement in bad light and air and poor food. She didn't seem sick,
+but she isn't well. There is something the matter with her, but it's not
+immediate or dangerous. She appeared like a flower that had got a little
+moisture and sprouted in a cellar.”
+
+“You saw her all right!” said the Harvester, “and I think your diagnosis
+is correct too. That's the way she seemed to me. I've thought she needed
+sun and air. I told the South Wind so the other day.”
+
+“Why you blame fool!” cried the doctor. “Is this thing going to your
+head? Say, I forgot! There is something else. I traced her in the store.
+She was at the embroidery counter and she bought some silk. If she ever
+comes again the clerk is going to hold her and telephone me or get her
+address if she has to steal it. Oh, we are getting there! We will have
+her pretty soon now. You ought to feel better just to know that she is
+in town and that I've seen her.”
+
+“I do!” said the Harvester. “Indeed I do!”
+
+“It can't be much longer,” said the doctor. “She's got to be located
+soon. But those policemen! I wouldn't give a nickel for the lot! I'll
+bet she's walked over them for two weeks. If I were you I'd discharge
+the bunch. They'd be peacefully asleep if she passed them. If they'd let
+me alone, I'd have had her. I could have turned around easily. I've been
+in dozens of closer places.”
+
+“Don't worry! This can't last much longer. She's of and in the city or
+she wouldn't have picked up the flowers. Doc, are you sure they were
+mine?”
+
+“Yes. Half the girls have been tricked out in yours the past two weeks.
+I can spot them as far as I can see.”
+
+“Dear Lord, that's getting close!” said the Harvester intensely. “Seems
+as if the violets would tell her.”
+
+“Now cut out flowers talking and the South Wind!” ordered the doctor.
+“This is business. The violets prove something all right, though. If she
+was in the country, she could gather plenty herself. She is working at
+sewing in some room in town, either over a store or in a house. If she
+hadn't been starved for flowers she never would have stopped for them on
+the street. I could see just a flash of hesitation, but she wanted them
+too much. David, one bouquet will go in water and be cared for a week.
+Man, it's getting close! This does seem like a link.”
+
+“Since you say it, possibly I dare agree with you,” said the Harvester.
+
+“How near are you through with that canvass of yours?”
+
+“About three fourths.”
+
+“Well I'd go on with it. After all we have got to find her ourselves.
+Those senile policemen!”
+
+“I am going on with it; you needn't worry about that. But I've got to
+change to other flowers. I've stripped the violet beds. There's quite
+a crop of berries coming, but they are not ripe yet, and a tragedy to
+pick. The pond lilies are just beginning to open by the thousand. The
+lake border is blue with sweet-flag that is lovely and the marsh pale
+gold with cowslips. The ferns are prime and the woods solid sheets of
+every colour of bloom. I believe I'll go ahead with the wild flowers.”
+
+“I would too! David, you do feel better, don't you?”
+
+“I certainly do, Doctor. Surely it won't be long now!”
+
+The Harvester was so hopeful that he whistled and sang on the return to
+Medicine Woods, and that night for the first time in many days he sat
+long over a candlestick, and took a farewell peep into her room before
+he went to bed.
+
+The next day he worked with all his might harvesting the last remnants
+of early spring herbs, in the dry-room and store-house, and on furniture
+and candlesticks.
+
+Then he went back to flower gathering and every day offered bunches of
+exquisite wood and field flowers and white and gold water lilies from
+door to door.
+
+Three weeks later the Harvester, perceptibly thin, pale, and worried
+entered the office. He sank into a chair and groaned wearily.
+
+“Isn't this the bitterest luck!” he cried. “I've finished the town. I've
+almost walked off my legs. I've sold flowers by the million, but I've
+not had a sight of her.”
+
+“It's been almost a tragedy with me,” said the doctor gloomily. “I've
+killed two dogs and grazed a baby, because I was watching the sidewalks
+instead of the street. What are you going to do now?”
+
+“I am going home and bring up the work to the July mark. I am going to
+take it easy and rest a few days so I can think more clearly. I don't
+know what I'll try next. I've punched up the depot and the policemen
+again. When I get something new thought out I'll let you know.”
+
+Then he began emptying his pockets of money and heaping it on the table,
+small coins, bills, big and little.
+
+“What on earth is that?”
+
+“That,” said the Harvester, giving the heap a shove of contempt, “that
+is the price of my pride and humiliation. That is what it cost people
+who allowed me to cheek my way into their homes and rob them, as one
+maid said, for my own purposes. Doc, where on earth does all the money
+come from? In almost every house I entered, women had it to waste, in
+many cases to throw away. I never saw so much paid for nothing in all my
+life. That whole heap is from mushrooms and flowers.”
+
+“What are you piling it there for?”
+
+“For your free ward. I don't want a penny of it. I wouldn't keep it, not
+if I was starving.”
+
+“Why David! You couldn't compel any one to buy. You offered something
+they wanted, and they paid you what you asked.”
+
+“Yes, and to keep them from buying, and to make the stuff go farther, I
+named prices to shame a shark. When I think of that mushroom deal I can
+feel my face burn. I've made the search I wanted to, and I am satisfied
+that I can't find her that way. I have kept up my work at home between
+times. I am not out anything but my time, and it isn't fair to plunder
+the city to pay that. Take that cussed money and put it where I'll never
+see or hear of it. Do anything you please, except to ask me ever to
+profit by a cent. When I wash my hands after touching it for the last
+time maybe I'll feel better.”
+
+“You are a fanatic!”
+
+“If getting rid of that is being a fanatic, I am proud of the title. You
+can't imagine what I've been through!”
+
+“Can't I though?” laughed the doctor. “In work of that kind you get into
+every variety of place; and some of it is new to you. Never mind! No one
+can contaminate you. It is the law that only a man can degrade himself.
+Knowing things will not harm you. Doing them is a different matter. What
+you know will be a protection. What you do ruins----if it is wrong. You
+are not harmed, you are only disgusted. Think it over, and in a few days
+come back and get your money. It is strictly honest. You earned every
+cent of it.”
+
+“If you ever speak of it again or force it on me I'll take it home and
+throw it into the lake.”
+
+He went after Betsy and slowly drove to Medicine Woods. Belshazzar,
+on the seat beside him, recognized a silent, disappointed master
+and whimpered as he rubbed the Harvester's shoulder to attract his
+attention.
+
+“This is tough luck, old boy,” said the Harvester. “I had such hopes and
+I worked so hard. I suffered in the flesh for every hour of it, and I
+failed. Oh but I hate the word! If I knew where she is right now, Bel,
+I'd give anything I've got. But there's no use to wail and get sorry
+for myself. That's against the law of common decency. I'll take a swim,
+sleep it off, straighten up the herbs a little, and go at it again, old
+fellow; that's a man's way. She's somewhere, and she's got to be found,
+no matter what it costs.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. BELSHAZZAR'S RECORD POINT
+
+The Harvester set the neglected cabin in order; then he carefully and
+deftly packed all his dried herbs, barks, and roots. Next came carrying
+the couch grass, wild alum, and soapwort into the store-room. Then
+followed July herbs. He first went to his beds of foxglove, because
+the tender leaves of the second year should be stripped from them at
+flowering time, and that usually began two weeks earlier; but his bed
+lay in a shaded, damp location and the tall bloom stalks were only in
+half flower, their pale lavender making an exquisite picture. It paid
+to collect those leaves, so the Harvester hastily stripped the amount he
+wanted.
+
+Yarrow was beginning to bloom and he gathered as much as he required,
+taking the whole plant. That only brought a few cents a pound, but it
+was used entire, so the weight made it worth while.
+
+Catnip tops and leaves were also ready. As it grew in the open in dry
+soil and the beds had been weeded that spring, he could gather great
+arm loads of it with a sickle, but he had to watch the swarming bees. He
+left the male fern and mullein until the last for different reasons.
+
+On the damp, cool, rocky hillside, beneath deep shade of big forest
+trees, grew the ferns, their long, graceful fronds waving softly. Tree
+toads sang on the cool rocks beneath them, chewinks nested under gnarled
+roots among them, rose-breasted grosbeaks sang in grape-vines clambering
+over the thickets, and Singing Water ran close beside. So the Harvester
+left digging these roots until nearly the last, because he so disliked
+to disturb the bed. He could not have done it if he had not been forced.
+All of the demand for his fern never could be supplied. Of his products
+none was more important to the Harvester because this formed the basis
+of one of the oldest and most reliable remedies for little children. The
+fern had to be gathered with especial care, deteriorated quickly, and no
+staple was more subject to adulteration.
+
+So he kept his bed intact, lifted the roots at the proper time,
+carefully cleaned without washing, rapidly dried in currents of hot
+air, and shipped them in bottles to the trade. He charged and received
+fifteen cents a pound, where careless and indifferent workers got ten.
+
+On the banks of Singing Water, at the head of the fern bed, the
+Harvester stood under a gray beech tree and looked down the swaying
+length of delicate green. He was lean and rapidly bronzing, for he
+seldom remembered a head covering because he loved the sweep of the wind
+in his hair.
+
+“I hate to touch you,” he said. “How I wish she could see you before I
+begin. If she did, probably she would say it was a sin, and then I never
+could muster courage to do it at all. I'd give a small farm to know
+if those violets revived for her. I was crazy to ask Doc if they were
+wilted, but I hated to. If they were from the ones I gathered that
+morning they should have been all right.”
+
+A tree toad dared him to come on; a chipmunk grew saucy as the Harvester
+bent to an unloved task. If he stripped the bed as closely as he dared
+and not injure it, he could not fill half his orders; so, deftly and
+with swift, skilful fingers and an earnest face, he worked. Belshazzar
+came down the hill on a rush, nose to earth and began hunting among the
+plants. He never could understand why his loved master was so careless
+as to go to work before he had pronounced it safe. When the fern bed was
+finished, the Harvester took time to make a trip to town, but there
+was no word waiting him; so he went to the mullein. It lay on a sunny
+hillside beyond the couch grass and joined a few small fields, the only
+cleared land of the six hundred acres of Medicine Woods. Over rocks and
+little hills and hollows spread the pale, grayish-yellow of the green
+leaves, and from five to seven feet arose the flower stems, while
+the entire earth between was covered with rosettes of young plants.
+Belshazzar went before to give warning if any big rattlers curled in the
+sun on the hillside, and after him followed the Harvester cutting leaves
+in heaps. That was warm work and he covered his head with a floppy old
+straw hat, with wet grass in the crown, and stopped occasionally to
+rest.
+
+He loved that yellow-faced hillside. Because so much of his reaping lay
+in the shade and commonly his feet sank in dead leaves and damp earth,
+the change was a rest. He cheerfully stubbed his toes on rocks, and
+endured the heat without complaint. It appeared to him as if a member of
+every species of butterfly he knew wavered down the hillside. There were
+golden-brown danais, with their black-striped wings, jetty troilus with
+an attempt at trailers, big asterias, velvety black with longer trails
+and wide bands of yellow dots. Coenia were most numerous of all and to
+the Harvester wonderfully attractive in rich, subdued colours with a
+wealth of markings and eye spots. Many small moths, with transparent
+wings and noses red as blood, flashed past him hunting pollen.
+Goldfinches, intent on thistle bloom, wavered through the air trailing
+mellow, happy notes behind them, and often a humming-bird visited the
+mullein. On the lake wild life splashed and chattered incessantly, and
+sometimes the Harvester paused and stood with arms heaped with leaves,
+to interpret some unusually appealing note of pain or anger or some very
+attractive melody. The red-wings were swarming, the killdeers busy, and
+he thought of the Dream Girl and smiled.
+
+“I wonder if she would like this,” he mused.
+
+When the mullein leaves were deep on the trays of the dry-house he began
+on the bloom and that was a task he loved. Just to lay off the beds in
+swaths and follow them, deftly picking the stamens and yellow petals
+from the blooms. These he would dry speedily in hot air, bottle, and
+send at once to big laboratories. The listed price was seventy-five
+cents a pound, but the beautiful golden bottles of the Harvester always
+brought more. The work was worth while, and he liked the location and
+gathering of this particular crop: for these reasons he always left
+it until the last, and then revelled in the gold of sunshine, bird,
+butterfly, and flower. Several days were required to harvest the mullein
+and during the time the man worked with nimble fingers, while his brain
+was intensely occupied with the question of what to do next in his
+search for the Girl.
+
+When the work was finished, he went to the deep wood to take a peep at
+acres of thrifty ginseng, and he was satisfied as he surveyed the big
+bed. Long years he had laboured diligently; soon came the reward. He had
+not realized it before, but as he studied the situation he saw that
+he either must begin this harvest at once or employ help. If he waited
+until September he could not gather one third of the crop alone.
+
+“But the roots will weigh less if I take them now,” he argued, “and I
+can work at nothing in comfort until I have located her. I will go on
+with my search and allow the ginseng to grow that much heavier. What a
+picture! It is folly to disturb this now, for I will lose the seed of
+every plant I dig, and that is worth almost as much as the root. It is
+a question whether I want to furnish the market with seed, and so raise
+competition for my bed. I think, be jabbers, that I'll wait for this
+harvest until the seed is ripe, and then bury part of a head where I dig
+a root, as the Indians did. That's the idea! The more I grow, the more
+money; and I may need considerable for her. One thing I'd like to know:
+Are these plants cultivated? All the books quote the wild at highest
+rates and all I've ever sold was wild. The start grew here naturally.
+What I added from the surrounding country was wild, but through and
+among it I've sown seed I bought, and I've tended it with every care.
+But this is deep wood and wild conditions. I think I have a perfect
+right to so label it. I'll ask Doc. And another thing I'll go through
+the woods west of Onabasha where I used to find ginseng, and see if I
+can get a little and then take the same amount of plants grown here,
+and make a test. That way I can discover any difference before I go to
+market. This is my gold mine, and that point is mighty important to me,
+so I'll go this very day. I used to find it in the woods northeast of
+town and on the land Jameson bought, west. Wonder if he lives there yet.
+He should have died of pure meanness long ago. I'll drive to the river
+and hunt along the bank.”
+
+Early the following morning the Harvester went to Onabasha and stopped
+at the hospital for news. Finding none, he went through town and several
+miles into the country on the other side, to a piece of lowland lying
+along the river bank, where he once had found and carried home to reset
+a big bed of ginseng. If he could get only a half pound of roots
+from there now, they would serve his purpose. He went down the bank,
+Belshazzar at his heels, and at last found the place. Many trees had
+been cut, but there remained enough for shade; the fields bore the
+ragged, unattractive appearance of old. The Harvester smiled grimly
+as he remembered that the man who lived there once had charged him for
+damage he might do to trees in driving across his woods, and boasted to
+his neighbours that a young fool was paying for the privilege of doing
+his grubbing. If Jameson had known what the roots he was so anxious to
+dispose of brought a pound on the market at that time, he would have
+been insane with anger. So the Harvester's eyes were dancing with fun
+and a wry grin twisted his lips as he clambered over the banks of
+the recently dredged river, and looked at its pitiful condition and
+straight, muddy flow.
+
+“Appears to match the remainder of the Jameson property,” he said. “I
+don't know who he is or where he came from, but he's no farmer. Perhaps
+he uses this land to corral the stock he buys until he can sell it
+again.”
+
+He went down the embankment and began to search for the location where
+he formerly had found the ginseng. When he came to the place he stood
+amazed, for from seed, roots, and plants he had missed, the growth had
+sprung up and spread, so that at a rapid estimate the Harvester thought
+it contained at least five pounds, allowing for what it would shrink on
+account of being gathered early. He hesitated an instant, and thought
+of coming later; but the drive was long and the loss would not amount
+to enough to pay for a second trip. About taking it, he never thought
+at all. He once had permission from the owner to dig all the shrubs,
+bushes, and weeds he desired from that stretch of woods, and had paid
+for possible damages that might occur. As he bent to the task there did
+come a fleeting thought that the patch was weedless and in unusual shape
+for wild stuff. Then, with swift strokes of his light mattock, he lifted
+the roots, crammed them into his sack, whistled to Belshazzar, and going
+back to the wagon, drove away. Reaching home he washed the ginseng,
+and spread it on a tray to dry. The first time he wanted the mattock
+he realized that he had left it lying where he had worked. It was an
+implement that he had directed a blacksmith to fashion to meet his
+requirements. No store contained anything half so useful to him. He had
+worked with it for years and it just suited him, so there was nothing to
+do but go back. Betsy was too tired to return that day, so he planned
+to dig his ginseng with something else, finish his work the following
+morning, and get the mattock in the afternoon.
+
+“It's like a knife you've carried for years, or a gun,” muttered the
+Harvester. “I actually don't know how to get along without it. What made
+me so careless I can't imagine. I never before in my life did a trick
+like that. I wonder if I hurried a little. I certainly was free to
+take it. He always wanted the stuff dug up. Of all the stupid tricks,
+Belshazzar, that was the worst. Now Betsy and a half day of wasted time
+must pay for my carelessness. Since I have to go, I'll look a little
+farther. Maybe there is more. Those woods used to be full of it.”
+
+According to this programme, the next afternoon the Harvester again
+walked down the embankment of the mourning river and through the ragged
+woods to the place where the ginseng had been. He went forward, stepping
+lightly, as men of his race had walked the forest for ages, swerving to
+avoid boughs, and looking straight ahead. Contrary to his usual custom
+of coming to heel in a strange wood, Belshazzar suddenly darted around
+the man and took the path they had followed the previous day. The animal
+was performing his office in life; he had heard or scented something
+unusual. The Harvester knew what that meant. He looked inquiringly at
+the dog, glanced around, and then at the earth. Belshazzar proceeded
+noiselessly at a rapid pace over the leaves: Suddenly the master saw the
+dog stop in a stiff point. Lifting his feet lightly and straining his
+eyes before him, the Harvester passed a spice thicket and came in line.
+
+For one second he stood as rigid as Belshazzar. The next his right arm
+shot upward full length, and began describing circles, his open
+palm heavenward, and into his face leapt a glorified expression of
+exultation. Face down in the rifled ginseng bed lay a sobbing girl. Her
+frame was long and slender, a thick coil of dark hair; bound her head. A
+second more and the Harvester bent and softly patted Belshazzar's head.
+The beast broke point and looked up. The man caught the dog's chin in a
+caressing grip, again touched his head, moved soundless lips, and waved
+toward the prostrate figure. The dog hesitated. The Harvester made the
+same motions. Belshazzar softly stepped over the leaves, passed around
+the feet of the girl, and paused beside her, nose to earth, softly
+sniffing.
+
+In one moment she came swiftly to a sitting posture.
+
+“Oh!” she cried in a spasm of fright.
+
+Belshazzar reached an investigating nose and wagged an eager tail.
+
+“Why you are a nice friendly dog!” said the trembling voice.
+
+He immediately verified the assertion by offering his nose for a kiss.
+The girl timidly laid a hand on his head.
+
+“Heaven knows I'm lonely enough to kiss a dog,” she said, “but suppose
+you belong to the man who stole my ginseng, and then ran away so fast he
+forgot his----his piece he digged with.”
+
+Belshazzar pressed closer.
+
+“I am just killed, and I don't care whose dog you are,” sobbed the girl.
+
+She threw her arms around Belshazzar's neck and laid her white face
+against his satiny shoulder. The Harvester could endure no more. He took
+a step forward, his face convulsed with pain.
+
+“Please don't!” he begged. “I took your ginseng. I'll bring it back
+to-morrow. There wasn't more than twenty-five or thirty dollars' worth.
+It doesn't amount to one tear.”
+
+The girl arose so quickly, the Harvester could not see how she did it.
+With a startled fright on her face, and the dark eyes swimming, she
+turned to him in one long look. Words rolled from the lips of the man in
+a jumble. Behind the tears there was a dull, expressionless blue in the
+girl's eyes and her face was so white that it appeared blank. He began
+talking before she could speak, in an effort to secure forgiveness
+without condemnation.
+
+“You see, I grow it for a living on land I own, and I've always gathered
+all there was in the country and no one cared. There never was enough in
+one place to pay, and no other man wanted to spend the time, and so
+I've always felt free to take it. Every one knew I did, and no one ever
+objected before. Once I paid Henry Jameson for the privilege of cleaning
+it from these woods. That was six or seven years ago, and it didn't
+occur to me that I wasn't at liberty to dig what has grown since. I'll
+bring it back at once, and pay you for the shrinkage from gathering it
+too early. There won't be much over six pounds when it's dry. Please,
+please don't feel badly. Won't you trust me to return it, and make good
+the damage I've done?”
+
+The face of the Harvester was eager and his tones appealing, as he
+leaned forward trying to make her understand.
+
+“Certainly!” said the Girl as she bent to pat the dog, while she
+dried her eyes under cover of the movement. “Certainly! It can make no
+difference!”
+
+But as the Harvester drew a deep breath of relief, she suddenly
+straightened to full height and looked straight at him.
+
+“Oh what is the use to tell a pitiful lie!” she cried. “It does make a
+difference! It makes all the difference in the world! I need that money!
+I need it unspeakably. I owe a debt I must pay. What----what did I
+understand you to say ginseng is worth?”
+
+“If you will take a few steps,” said the Harvester, “and make yourself
+comfortable on this log in the shade, I will tell you all I know about
+it.”
+
+The girl walked swiftly to the log indicated, seated herself, and
+waited. The Harvester followed to a respectful distance.
+
+“I can't tell to an ounce what wet roots would weigh,” he said as easily
+as he could command his voice to speak with the heart in him beating
+wildly, “and of course they lose greatly in drying; but I've handled
+enough that I know the weight I carried home will come to six pounds at
+the very least. Then you must figure on some loss, because I dug
+this before it really was ready. It does not reach full growth until
+September, and if it is taken too soon there is a decrease in weight. I
+will make that up to you when I return it.”
+
+The troubled eyes were gazing on his face intently, and the Harvester
+studied them as he talked.
+
+“You would think, then, there would be all of six pounds?
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester, “closer eight. When I replace the shrinkage
+there is bound to be over seven.”
+
+“And how much did I understand you to say it brought a pound?”
+
+“That all depends,” answered he. “If you cure it yourself, and dry it
+too much, you lose in weight. If you carry it in a small lot to the
+druggists of Onabasha, probably you will not get over five dollars for
+it.”
+
+“Five?”
+
+It was a startled cry.
+
+“How much did you expect?” asked the Harvester gently.
+
+“Uncle Henry said he thought he could get fifty cents a pound for all I
+could find.”
+
+“If your Uncle Henry has learned at last that ginseng is a salable
+article he should know something about the price also. Will you tell
+me what he said, and how you came to think of gathering roots for the
+market?”
+
+“There were men talking beneath the trees one Sunday afternoon about old
+times and hunting deer, and they spoke of people who made money long ago
+gathering roots and barks, and they mentioned one man who lived by it
+yet.”
+
+“Was his name Langston?”
+
+“Yes, I remember because I liked the name. I was so eager to earn
+something, and I can't leave here just now because Aunt Molly is very
+ill, so the thought came that possibly I could gather stuff worth money,
+after my work was finished. I went out and asked questions. They said
+nothing brought enough to make it pay any one, except this ginseng
+plant, and the Langston man almost had stripped the country. Then uncle
+said he used to get stuff here, and he might have got some of that. I
+asked what it was like, so they told me and I hunted until I found that,
+and it seemed a quantity to me. Of course I didn't know it had to be
+dried. Uncle took a root I dug to a store, and they told him that it
+wasn't much used any more, but they would give him fifty cents a pound
+for it. What MAKES you think you can get five dollars?”
+
+“With your permission,” said the Harvester.
+
+He seated himself on the log, drew from his pocket an old pamphlet,
+and spreading it before her, ran a pencil along the line of a list of
+schedule prices for common drug roots and herbs. Because he understood,
+his eyes were very bright, and his voice a trifle crisp. A latent anger
+springing in his breast was a good curb for his emotions. He was closely
+acquainted with all of the druggists of Onabasha, and he knew that not
+one of them had offered less than standard prices for ginseng.
+
+“The reason I think so,” he said gently, “is because growing it is the
+largest part of my occupation, and it was a staple with my father before
+me. I am David Langston, of whom you heard those men speak. Since I was
+a very small boy I have lived by collecting herbs and roots, and I get
+more for ginseng than anything else. Very early I tired of hunting other
+people's woods for herbs, so I began transplanting them to my own. I
+moved that bed out there seven years ago. What you found has grown since
+from roots I overlooked and seeds that fell at that time. Now do you
+think I am enough of an authority to trust my word on the subject?”
+
+There was not a change of expression on her white face.
+
+“You surely should know,” she said wearily, “and you could have no
+possible object in deceiving me. Please go on.”
+
+“Any country boy or girl can find ginseng, gather, wash, and dry it, and
+get five dollars a pound. I can return yours to-morrow and you can cure
+and take it to a druggist I will name you, and sell for that. But if you
+will allow me to make a suggestion, you can get more. Your roots are now
+on the trays of an evaporating house. They will dry to the proper degree
+desired by the trade, so that they will not lose an extra ounce in
+weight, and if I send them with my stuff to big wholesale houses I deal
+with, they will be graded with the finest wild ginseng. It is worth more
+than the cultivated and you will get closer eight dollars a pound for it
+than five. There is some speculation in it, and the market fluctuates:
+but, as a rule, I sell for the highest price the drug brings, and, at
+times when the season is very dry, I set my own prices. Shall I return
+yours or may I cure and sell it, and bring you the money?”
+
+“How much trouble would that make you?”
+
+“None. The work of digging and washing is already finished. All that
+remains is to weigh it and make a memorandum of the amount when I sell.
+I should very much like to do it. It would be a comfort to see the money
+go into your hands. If you are afraid to trust me, I will give you the
+names of several people you can ask concerning me the next time you go
+to the city.”
+
+She looked at him steadily.
+
+“Never mind that,” she said. “But why do you offer to do it for a
+stranger? It must be some trouble, no matter how small you represent it
+to be.”
+
+“Perhaps I am going to pay you eight and sell for ten.”
+
+“I don't think you can. Five sounds fabulous to me. I can't believe
+that. If you wanted to make money you needn't have told me you took it.
+I never would have known. That isn't your reason!”
+
+“Possibly I would like to atone for those tears I caused,” said the
+Harvester.
+
+“Don't think of that! They are of no consequence to any one. You needn't
+do anything for me on that account.”
+
+“Don't search for a reason,” said the Harvester, in his gentlest tones.
+“Forget that feature of the case. Say I'm peculiar, and allow me to do
+it because it would be a pleasure. In close two weeks I will bring you
+the money. Is it a bargain?”
+
+“Yes, if you care to make it.”
+
+“I care very much. We will call that settled.”
+
+“I wish I could tell you what it will mean to me,” said the Girl.
+
+“If you only would,” plead the Harvester.
+
+“I must not burden a stranger with my troubles.”
+
+“But if it would make the stranger so happy!”
+
+“That isn't possible. I must face life and bear what it brings me
+alone.”
+
+“Not unless you choose,” said the Harvester. “That is, if you will
+pardon me, a narrow view of life. It cuts other people out of the joy of
+service. If you can't tell me, would you trust a very lovely and gentle
+woman I could bring to you?”
+
+“No more than you. It is my affair; I must work it out myself.”
+
+“I am mighty sorry,” said the Harvester. “I believe you err in that
+decision. Think it over a day or so, and see if two heads are not better
+than one. You will realize when this ginseng matter is settled that you
+profited by trusting me. The same will hold good along other lines, if
+you only can bring yourself to think so. At any rate, try. Telling a
+trouble makes it lighter. Sympathy should help, if nothing can be done.
+And as for money, I can show you how to earn sums at least worth your
+time, if you have nothing else you want to do.”
+
+The Girl bent toward him.
+
+“Oh please do tell me!” she cried eagerly. “I've tried and tried to find
+some way ever since I have been here, but every one else I have met says
+I can't, and nothing seems to be worth anything. If you only would tell
+me something I could do!”
+
+“If you will excuse my saying so,” said the Harvester, “it appeals to
+me that ease, not work, is the thing you require. You appear extremely
+worn. Won't you let me help you find a way to a long rest first?”
+
+“Impossible!” cried the Girl. “I know I am white and appear ill, but
+truly I never have been sick in all my life. I have been having trouble
+and working too much, but I'll be better soon. Believe me, there is no
+rest for me now. I must earn the money I owe first.”
+
+“There is a way, if you care to take it,” said the Harvester. “In my
+work I have become very well acquainted with the chief surgeon of the
+city hospital. Through him I happen to know that he has a free bed in
+a beautiful room, where you could rest until you are perfectly strong
+again, and that room is empty just now. When you are well, I will tell
+you about the work.”
+
+As she arose the Harvester stood, and tall and straight she faced him.
+
+“Impossible!” she said. “It would be brutal to leave my aunt. I cannot
+pay to rest in a hospital ward, and I will not accept charity. If you
+can put me in the way of earning, even a few cents a day, at anything
+I could do outside the work necessary to earn my board here, it would
+bring me closer to happiness than anything else on earth.”
+
+“What I suggest is not impossible,” said the Harvester softly. “If you
+will go, inside an hour a sweet and gentle lady will come for you and
+take you to ease and perfect rest until you are strong again. I will see
+that your aunt is cared for scrupulously. I can't help urging you. It is
+a crime to talk of work to a woman so manifestly worn as you are.”
+
+“Then we will not speak of it,” said the Girl wearily. “It is time for
+me to go, anyway. I see you mean to be very kind, and while I don't in
+the least understand it, I do hope you feel I am grateful. If half
+you say about the ginseng comes true, I can make a payment worth while
+before I had hoped to. I have no words to tell you what that will mean
+to me.”
+
+“If this debt you speak of were paid, could you rest then?”
+
+“I could lie down and give up in peace, and I think I would.”
+
+“I think you wouldn't,” said the Harvester, “because you wouldn't be
+allowed. There are people in these days who make a business of securing
+rest for the tired and over weary, and they would come and prevent that
+if you tried it. Please let me make another suggestion. If you owe money
+to some one you feel needs it and the debt is preying on you, let's pay
+it.”
+
+He drew a small check-book from his pocket and slipped a pen from a
+band.
+
+“If you will name the amount and give me the address, you shall be free
+to go to the rest I ask for you inside an hour.”
+
+Then slowly from head to foot she looked at him.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because your face and attitude clearly indicate that you are over
+tired. Believe me, you do yourself wrong if you refuse.”
+
+“In what way would changing creditors rest me?”
+
+“I thought perhaps you were owing some one who needed the money. I am
+not a rich man, but I have no one save myself to provide for and I have
+funds lying idle that I would be glad to use for you. If you make a
+point of it, when you are rested, you can repay me.”
+
+“My creditor needs the money, but I should prefer owing him rather than
+a perfect stranger. What you suggest would help me not at all. I must go
+now.”
+
+“Very well,” said the Harvester. “If you will tell me whom to ask for
+and where you live, I will come to see you to-morrow and bring you
+some pamphlets. With these and with a little help you soon can earn
+any amount a girl is likely to owe. It will require but a little while.
+Where can I find you?”
+
+The Girl hesitated and for the first time a hint of colour flushed her
+cheek. But courage appeared to be her strong point.
+
+“Do you live in this part of the country?” she asked.
+
+“I live ten miles from here, east of Onabasha,” he answered.
+
+“Do you know Henry Jameson?”
+
+“By sight and by reputation.”
+
+“Did you ever know anything kind or humane of him?”
+
+“I never did.”
+
+“My name is Ruth Jameson. At present I am indebted to him for the only
+shelter I have. His wife is ill through overwork and worry, and I am
+paying for my bed and what I don't eat, principally, by attempting her
+work. It scarcely would be fair to Uncle Henry to say that I do it. I
+stagger around as long as I can stand, then I sit through his abuse. He
+is a pleasant man. Please don't think I am telling you this to harrow
+your sympathy further. The reason I explain is because I am driven. If I
+do not, you will misjudge me when I say that I only can see you here.
+I understood what you meant when you said Uncle Henry should have known
+the price of ginseng if he knew it was for sale. He did. He knew what
+he could get for it, and what he meant to pay me. That is one of his
+original methods with a woman. If he thought I could earn anything worth
+while, he would allow me, if I killed myself doing it; and then he would
+take the money by force if necessary. So I can meet you here only. I can
+earn just what I may in secret. He buys cattle and horses and is away
+from home much of the day, and when Aunt Molly is comfortable I can have
+a few hours.”
+
+“I understand,” said the Harvester. “But this is an added hardship.
+Why do you remain? Why subject yourself to force and work too heavy for
+you?”
+
+“Because his is the only roof on earth where I feel I can pay for all I
+get. I don't care to discuss it, I only want you to say you understand,
+if I ask you to bring the pamphlets here and tell me how I can earn
+money.”
+
+“I do,” said the Harvester earnestly, although his heart was hot in
+protest. “You may be very sure that I will not misjudge you. Shall I
+come at two o'clock to-morrow, Miss Jameson?”
+
+“If you will be so kind.”
+
+The Harvester stepped aside and she passed him and crossing the rifled
+ginseng patch went toward a low brown farmhouse lying in an unkept
+garden, beside a ragged highway. The man sat on the log she had vacated,
+held his head between his hands and tried to think, but he could not for
+big waves of joy that swept over him when he realized that at last he
+had found her, had spoken with her, and had arranged a meeting for the
+morrow.
+
+“Belshazzar,” he said softly, “I wish I could leave you to protect
+her. Every day you prove to me that I need you, but Heaven knows her
+necessity is greater. Bel, she makes my heart ache until it feels like
+jelly. There seems to be just one thing to do. Get that fool debt paid
+like lightning, and lift her out of here quicker than that. Now, we will
+go and see Doc, and call off the watch-dogs of the law. Ahead of them,
+aren't we, Belshazzar? There is a better day coming; we feel it in our
+bones, don't we, old partner?”
+
+The Harvester started through the woods on a rush, and as the exercise
+warmed his heart, he grew wonderfully glad. At last he had found her.
+Uncertainty was over. If ever a girl needed a home and care he thought
+she did. He was so jubilant that he felt like crying aloud, shouting for
+joy, but by and by the years of sober repression made their weight felt,
+so he climbed into the wagon and politely requested Betsy to make her
+best time to Onabasha. Betsy had been asked to make haste so frequently
+of late that she at first almost doubted the sanity of her master, the
+law of whose life, until recently, had been to take his time. Now he
+appeared to be in haste every day. She had become so accustomed to
+being urged to hurry that she almost had developed a gait; so at the
+Harvester's suggestion she did her level best to Onabasha and the
+hospital, where she loved to nose Belshazzar and rest near the watering
+tap under a big tree.
+
+The Harvester went down the hall and into the office on the run, and his
+face appeared like a materialized embodiment of living joy. Doctor Carey
+turned at his approach and then bounded half way across the room, his
+hands outstretched.
+
+“You've found her, David!”
+
+The Harvester grabbed the hand of his friend and stood pumping it up and
+down while he gulped at the lump in his throat, and big tears squeezed
+from his eyes, but he could only nod his proud head.
+
+“Found her!” exulted Doctor Carey. “Really found her! Well that's great!
+Sit down and tell me, boy! Is she sick, as we feared? Did you only see
+her or did you get to talk with her?”
+
+“Well sir,” said the Harvester, choking back his emotions, “you remember
+that ginseng I told you about getting on the old Jameson place last
+night. To-day, I learned I'd lost that hand-made mattock I use most, and
+I went back for it, and there she was.”
+
+“In the country?”
+
+“Yes sir!”
+
+“Well why didn't we think of it before?”
+
+“I suppose first we would have had to satisfy ourselves that she wasn't
+in town, anyway.”
+
+“Sure! That would be the logical way to go at it! And so you found her?”
+
+“Yes sir, I found her! Just Belshazzar and I! I was going along on my
+way to the place, and he ran past me and made a stiff point, and when I
+came up, there she was!”
+
+“There she was?”
+
+“Yes sir; there she was!”
+
+They shook hands again.
+
+“Then of course you spoke to her.”
+
+“Yes I spoke to her.”
+
+“Were you pleased?”
+
+“With her speech and manner?----yes. But, Doc, if ever a woman needed
+everything on earth!”
+
+“Well did you get any kind of a start made?”
+
+“I couldn't do so very much. I had to go a little slow for fear of
+frightening her, but I tried to get her to come here and she won't until
+a debt she owes is paid, and she's in no condition to work.”
+
+“Got any idea how much it is?”
+
+“No, but it can't be any large sum. I tried to offer to pay it, but she
+had no hesitation in telling me she preferred owing a man she knew to a
+stranger.”
+
+“Well if she is so particular, how did she come to tell you first thing
+that she was in debt?”
+
+The Harvester explained.
+
+“Oh I see!” said the doctor. “Well you'll have to baby her along with
+the idea that she is earning money and pay her double until you get that
+off her mind, and while you are at it, put in your best licks, my boy;
+perk right up and court her like a house afire. Women like it. All of
+them do. They glory in feeling that a man is crazy about them.”
+
+“Well I'm insane enough over her,” said the Harvester, “but I'd hate
+like the nation for her to know it. Seems as if a woman couldn't respect
+such an addle-pate as I am lately.”
+
+“Don't you worry about that,” advised the doctor. “Just you make love to
+her. Go at it in the good old-fashioned way.”
+
+“But maybe the 'good old-fashioned way' isn't my way.”
+
+“What's the difference whose way it is, if it wins?”
+
+“But Kipling says: 'Each man makes love his own way!'”
+
+“I seem to have heard you mention that name be fore,” said the doctor.
+“Do you regard him as an authority?”
+
+“I do!” said the Harvester. “Especially when he advises me after my own
+heart and reason. Miss Jameson is not a silly girl. She's a woman,
+and twenty-four at least. I don't want her to care for a trick or a
+pretence. I do want her to love me. Not that I am worth her attention,
+but because she needs some strong man fearfully, and I am ready and more
+'willing' than the original Barkis. But, like him, I have to let her
+know it in my way, and court her according to the promptings of my
+heart.”
+
+“You deceive yourself!” said the doctor flatly. “That's all bosh! Your
+tongue says it for the satisfaction of your ears, and it does sound
+well. You will court her according to your ideas of the conventions, as
+you understand them, and strictly in accordance with what you consider
+the respect due her. If you had followed the thing you call the
+'promptings of your heart,' you would have picked her up by main force
+and brought her to my best ward, instead of merely suggesting it and
+giving up when she said no. If you had followed your heart, you would
+have choked the name and amount out of her and paid that devilish debt.
+You walk away in a case like that, and then have the nerve to come here
+and prate to me about following your heart. I'll wager my last dollar
+your heart is sore because you were not allowed to help her; but on the
+proposition that you followed its promptings I wouldn't stake a penny.
+That's all tommy-rot!”
+
+“It is,” agreed the Harvester. “Utter! But what can a man do?”
+
+“I don't know what you can do! I'd have paid that debt and brought her
+to the hospital.”
+
+“I'll go and ask Mrs. Carey about your courtship. I want her help on
+this, anyway. I can pick up Miss Jameson and bring her here if any man
+can, but she is nursing a sick woman who depends solely on her for care.
+She is above average size, and she has a very decided mind of her own.
+I don't think you would use force and do what you think best for her, if
+you were in my place. You would wait until you understood the situation
+better, and knew that what you did was for the best, ultimately.”
+
+“I don't know whether I would or not. One thing is sure: I'm mighty glad
+you have found her. May I tell my wife?”
+
+“Please do! And ask her if I may depend on her if I need a woman's help.
+Now I'll call off the valiant police and go home and take a good, sound
+sleep. Haven't had many since I first saw her.”
+
+So Betsy trotted down the valley, up the embankment, crossed the
+railroad, over the levee across Singing Water, and up the hill to the
+cabin. As they passed it, the Harvester jumped from the wagon, tossed
+the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and entered. He walked straight to her
+door, unlocked it, and uncovering, went inside. Softly he passed from
+piece to piece of the furniture he had made for her, and then surveyed
+the walls and floor.
+
+“It isn't half good enough,” he said, “but it will have to answer until
+I can do better. Surely she will know I tried and care for that, anyway.
+I wonder how long it will take me to get her here. Oh, if I only could
+know she was comfortable and happy! Happy! She doesn't appear as if she
+ever had heard that word. Well this will be a good place to teach her.
+I've always enjoyed myself here. I'm going to have faith that I can win
+her and make her happy also. When I go to the stable to do my work for
+the night if I could know she was in this cabin and glad of it, and if
+I could hear her down here singing like a happy care-free girl, I'd
+scarcely be able to endure the joy of it.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE HARVESTER GOES COURTING
+
+“She is on Henry Jameson's farm, four miles west of Onabasha,” said the
+Harvester, as he opened his eyes next morning, and laid a caressing hand
+on Belshazzar's head. “At two o'clock we are going to see her, and we
+are going to prolong the visit to the ultimate limit, so we should make
+things count here before we start.”
+
+He worked in a manner that accomplished much. There seemed no end to
+his energy that morning. Despatching the usual routine, he gathered
+the herbs that were ready, spread them on the shelves of the dry-house,
+found time to do several things in the cabin, and polish a piece of
+furniture before he ate his lunch and hitched Betsy to the wagon.
+He also had recovered his voice, and talked almost incessantly as he
+worked. When it neared time to start he dressed carefully. He stood
+before his bookcase and selected several pamphlets published by the
+Department of Agriculture. He went to his beds and gathered a large
+arm load of plants. Then he was ready to make his first trip to see the
+Dream Girl, but it never occurred to him that he was going courting.
+
+He had decided fully that there would be no use to try to make love to
+a girl manifestly so ill and in trouble. The first thing, it appeared to
+him, was to dispel the depression, improve the health, and then do the
+love making. So, in the most business-like manner possible and without
+a shade of embarrassment, the Harvester took his herbs and books and
+started for the Jameson woods. At times as he drove along he espied
+something that he used growing beside the road and stopped to secure a
+specimen.
+
+He came down the river bank and reached the ginseng bed at half-past
+one. He was purposely early. He laid down his books and plants,
+and rolled the log on which she sat the day before to a more shaded
+location, where a big tree would serve for a back rest. He pulled away
+brush and windfalls, heaped dry brown leaves, and tramped them down
+for her feet. Then he laid the books on the log, the arm load of plants
+beside them, and went to the river to wash his soiled hands.
+
+Belshazzar's short bark told him the Girl was coming, and between the
+trees he saw the dog race to meet her and she bent to stroke his
+head. She wore the same dress and appeared even paler and thinner. The
+Harvester hurried up the bank, wiping his hands on his handkerchief.
+
+“Glad to see you!” he greeted her casually. “I've fixed you a seat
+with a back rest to-day. Don't be frightened at the stack of herbs. You
+needn't gather all of those. They are only suggestions. They are just
+common roadside plants that have some medicinal value and are worth
+collecting. Please try my davenport.”
+
+“Thank you!” she said as she dropped on the log and leaned her head
+against the tree. It appeared as if her eyes closed a few seconds in
+spite of her, and while they were shut the Harvester looked steadily
+and intently on a face of exquisite beauty, but so marred by pallor and
+lines of care that search was required to recognize just how handsome
+she was, and if he had not seen her in perfection in the dream the
+Harvester might have missed glorious possibilities. To bring back that
+vision would be a task worth while was his thought. With the first faint
+quiver of an eyelash the Harvester took a few steps and bent over a
+plant, and as he did so the Girl's eyes followed him.
+
+He appeared so tall and strong, so bronzed by summer sun and wind, his
+face so keen and intense, that swift fear caught her heart. Why was he
+there? Why should he take so much trouble for her? With difficulty she
+restrained herself from springing up and running away. Turning with
+the plant in his hand the Harvester saw the panic in her eyes, and
+it troubled his heart. For an instant he was bewildered, then he
+understood.
+
+“I don't want you to work when you are not able,” he said in his most
+matter-of-fact voice, “but if you still think that you are, I'll be very
+glad. I need help just now, more than I can tell you, and there seem to
+be so few people who can be trusted. Gathering stuff for drugs is really
+very serious business. You see, I've a reputation to sustain with some
+of the biggest laboratories in the country, not to mention the fact
+that I sometimes try compounding a new remedy for some common complaint
+myself. I rather take pride in the fact that my stuff goes in so fresh
+and clean that I always get anywhere from three to ten cents a pound
+above the listed prices for it. I want that money, but I want an
+unbroken record for doing a job right and being square and careful, much
+more.”
+
+He thought the appearance of fright was fading, and a tinge of interest
+taking its place. She was looking straight at him, and as he talked he
+could see her summoning her tired forces to understand and follow him,
+so he continued:
+
+“One would think that as medicines are required in cases of life and
+death, collectors would use extreme caution, but some of them are
+criminally careless. It's a common thing to gather almost any fern
+for male fern; to throw in anything that will increase weight, to wash
+imperfectly, and commit many other sins that lie with the collector;
+beyond that I don't like to think. I suppose there are men who
+deliberately adulterate pure stuff to make it go farther, but when it
+comes to drugs, I scarcely can speak of it calmly. I like to do a thing
+right. I raise most of my plants, bushes, and herbs. I gather exactly
+in season, wash carefully if water dare be used, clean them otherwise
+if not, and dry them by a hot air system in an evaporator I built
+purposely. Each package I put up is pure stuff, clean, properly dried,
+and fresh. If I caught any man in the act of adulterating any of it I'm
+afraid he would get hurt badly--and usually I am a peaceable man. I
+am explaining this to show how very careful you must be to keep things
+separate and collect the right plants if you are going to sell stuff to
+me. I am extremely particular.”
+
+The Girl was leaning toward him, watching his face, and hers was slowly
+changing. She was deeply interested, much impressed, and more at ease.
+When the Harvester saw he had talked her into confidence he crossed
+the leaves, and sitting on the log beside her, picked up the books and
+opened one.
+
+“Oh I will be careful,” said the Girl. “If you will trust me to collect
+for you, I will undertake only what I am sure I know, and I'll do
+exactly as you tell me.”
+
+“There are a dozen things that bring a price ranging from three to
+fifteen cents a pound, that are in season just now. I suppose you would
+like to begin on some common, easy things, that will bring the most
+money.”
+
+Without a breath of hesitation she answered, “I will commence on
+whatever you are short of and need most to have.”
+
+The heart of the Harvester gave a leap that almost choked him, for
+he was vividly conscious of a broken shoe she was hiding beneath her
+skirts. He wanted to say “thank you,” but he was afraid to, so he turned
+the leaves of the book.
+
+“I am working just now on mullein,” he said.
+
+“Oh I know mullein,” she cried, with almost a hint of animation in her
+voice. “The tall, yellow flower stem rising from a circle of green felt
+leaves!”
+
+“Good!” said the Harvester. “What a pretty way to describe it! Do you
+know any more plants?”
+
+“Only a few! I had a high-school course in botany, but it was all about
+flower and leaf formation, nothing at all of what anything was good for.
+I also learned a few, drawing them for leather and embroidery designs.”
+
+“Look here!” cried the Harvester. “I came with an arm load of herbs and
+expected to tell you all about foxglove, mullein, yarrow, jimson,
+purple thorn apple, blessed thistle, hemlock, hoarhound, lobelia, and
+everything in season now; but if you already have a profession, why do
+you attempt a new one? Why don't you go on drawing? I never saw anything
+so stupid as most of the designs from nature for book covers and
+decorations, leather work and pottery. They are the same old subjects
+worked over and over. If you can draw enough to make original copies,
+I can furnish you with flowers, vines, birds, and insects, new, unused,
+and of exquisite beauty, for every month in the year. I've looked into
+the matter a little, because I am rather handy with a knife, and I carve
+candlesticks from suitable pieces of wood. I always have trouble getting
+my designs copied; securing something new and unusual, never! If you can
+draw just well enough to reproduce what you see, gathering drugs is too
+slow and tiresome. What you want to do is to reproduce the subjects I
+will bring, and I'll buy what I want in my work, and sell the remainder
+at the arts and crafts stores for you. Or I can find out what they pay
+for such designs at potteries and ceramic factories. You have no time to
+spend on herbs, when you are in the woods, if you can draw.”
+
+“I am surely in the woods,” said the Girl, “and I know I can copy
+correctly. I often made designs for embroidery and leather for the shop
+mother and I worked for in Chicago.”
+
+“Won't they buy them of you now?”
+
+“Undoubtedly.”
+
+“Do they pay anything worth while?”
+
+“I don't know how their prices compare with others. One place was all I
+worked for. I think they pay what is fair.”
+
+“We will find out,” said the Harvester promptly.
+
+“I----I don't think you need waste the time,” faltered the Girl. “I had
+better gather the plants for a while at least.”
+
+“Collecting crude drug material is not easy,” said the Harvester.
+“Drawing may not be either, but at least you could sit while you work,
+and it should bring you more money. Besides, I very much want a moth
+copied for a candlestick I am carving. Won't you draw that for me? I
+have some pupae cases and the moths will be out any day now. If I'd
+bring you one, wouldn't you just make a copy?”
+
+The Girl gripped her hands together and stared straight ahead of her for
+a second, then she turned to him.
+
+“I'd like to,” she said, “but I have nothing to work with. In Chicago
+they furnished my material at the shop and I drew the design and was
+paid for the pattern. I didn't know there would be a chance for anything
+like that here. I haven't even proper pencils.”
+
+“Then the way for you to do this is to strip the first mullein plants
+you see of the petals. I will pay you seventy-five cents a pound for
+them. By the time you get a few pounds I can have material you need
+for drawing here and you can go to work on whatever flowers, vines, and
+things you can find in the woods, with no thanks to any one.”
+
+“I can't see that,” said the Girl. “It would appear to me that I would
+be under more obligations than I could repay, and to a stranger.”
+
+“I figure it this way,” said the Harvester, watching from the corner
+of his eye. “I can sell at good prices all the mullein flowers I can
+secure. You collect for me, I buy them. You can use drawing tools; I
+get them for you, and you pay me with the mullein or out of the ginseng
+money I owe you. You already have that coming, and it's just as much
+yours as it will be ten days from now. You needn't hesitate a second
+about drawing on it, because I am in a hurry for the moth pattern.
+I find time to carve only at night, you see. As for being under
+obligations to a stranger, in the first place all the debt would be on
+my side. I'd get the drugs and the pattern I want; and, in the second
+place, I positively and emphatically refuse to be a stranger. It would
+be so much better to be mutual helpers and friends of the kind worth
+having; and the sooner we begin, the sooner we can work together to
+good advantage. Get that stranger idea out of your head right now, and
+replace it with thoughts of a new friend, who is willing”--the Harvester
+detected panic in her eyes and ended casually--“to enter a partnership
+that will be of benefit to both of us. Partners can't be strangers, you
+know,” he finished.
+
+“I don't know what to think,” said the Girl.
+
+“Never bother your head with thinking,” advised the Harvester with an
+air of large wisdom. “It is unprofitable and very tiring. Any one can
+see that you are too weary now. Don't dream of such a foolish thing as
+thinking. Don't worry over motives and obligations. Say to yourself,
+'I'll enter this partnership and if it brings me anything good, I'm that
+much ahead. If it fails, I have lost nothing.' That's the way to look at
+it.”
+
+Then before she could answer he continued: “Now I want all the mullein
+bloom I can get. You'll see the yellow heads everywhere. Strip the
+petals and bring them here, and I'll come for them every day. They must
+go on the trays as fresh as possible. On your part, we will make out the
+order now.”
+
+He took a pencil and notebook from his pocket.
+
+“You want drawing pencils and brushes; how many, what make and size?”
+
+The Girl hesitated for a moment as if struggling to decide what to do;
+then she named the articles.
+
+“And paper?”
+
+He wrote that down, and asked if there was more.
+
+“I think,” he said, “that I can get this order filled in Onabasha. The
+art stores should keep these things. And shouldn't you have water-colour
+paper and some paint?”
+
+Then there was a flash across the white face.
+
+“Oh if I only could!” she cried. “All my life I have been crazy for a
+box of colour, but I never could afford it, and of course, I can't now.
+But if this splendid plan works, and I can earn what I owe, then maybe I
+can.”
+
+“Well this 'splendid plan' is going to 'work,' don't you bother about
+that,” said the Harvester. “It has begun working right now. Don't worry
+a minute. After things have gone wrong for a certain length of time,
+they always veer and go right a while as compensation. Don't think of
+anything save that you are at the turning. Since it is all settled that
+we are to be partners, would you name me the figures of the debt that
+is worrying you? Don't, if you mind. I just thought perhaps we could get
+along better if I knew. Is it----say five hundred dollars?”
+
+“Oh dear no!” cried the Girl in a panic. “I never could face that! It is
+not quite one hundred, and that seems big as a mountain to me.”
+
+“Forget it!” he cried. “The ginseng will pay more than half; that I
+know. I can bring you the cash in a little over a week.”
+
+She started to speak, hesitated, and at last turned to him.
+
+“Would you mind,” she said, “if I asked you to keep it until I can find
+a way to go to town? It's too far to walk and I don't know how to send
+it. Would I dare put it in a letter?”
+
+“Never!” said the Harvester. “You want a draft. That money will be too
+precious to run any risks. I'll bring it to you and you can write a note
+and explain to whom you want it paid, and I'll take it to the bank for
+you and get your draft. Then you can write a letter, and half your worry
+will be over safely.”
+
+“It must be done in a sure way,” said the Girl. “If I knew I had the
+money to pay that much on what I owe, and then lost it, I simply could
+not endure it. I would lie down and give up as Aunt Molly has.”
+
+“Forget that too!” said the Harvester. “Wipe out all the past that has
+pain in it. The future is going to be beautifully bright. That little
+bird on the bush there just told me so, and you are always safe when you
+trust the feathered folk. If you are going to live in the country
+any length of time, you must know them, and they will become a great
+comfort. Are you planning to be here long?”
+
+“I have no plans. After what I saw Chicago do to my mother I would
+rather finish life in the open than return to the city. It is horrible
+here, but at least I'm not hungry, and not afraid----all the time.”
+
+“Gracious Heaven!” cried the Harvester. “Do you mean to say that you are
+afraid any part of the time? Would you kindly tell me of whom, and why?”
+
+“You should know without being told that when a woman born and reared
+in a city, and all her life confined there, steps into the woods for the
+first time, she's bound to be afraid. The last few weeks constitute my
+entire experience with the country, and I'm in mortal fear that snakes
+will drop from trees and bushes or spring from the ground. Some places I
+think I'm sinking, and whenever a bush catches my skirts it seems as
+if something dreadful is reaching up for me; there is a possibility of
+horror lurking behind every tree and----”
+
+“Stop!” cried the Harvester. “I can't endure it! Do you mean to tell me
+that you are afraid here and now?”
+
+She met his eyes squarely.
+
+“Yes,” she said. “It almost makes me ill to sit on this log without
+taking a stick and poking all around it first. Every minute I think
+something is going to strike me in the back or drop on my head.”
+
+The Harvester grew very white beneath the tan, and that developed a
+nice, sickly green complexion for him.
+
+“Am I part of your tortures?” he asked tersely.
+
+“Why shouldn't you be?” she answered. “What do I know of you or your
+motives or why you are here?”
+
+“I have had no experience with the atmosphere that breeds such an
+attitude in a girl.”
+
+“That is a thing for which to thank Heaven. Undoubtedly it is gracious
+to you. My life has been different.”
+
+“Yet in mortal terror of the woods, and probably equal fear of me, you
+are here and asking for work that will keep you here.”
+
+“I would go through fire and flood for the money I owe. After that debt
+is paid----”
+
+She threw out her hands in a hopeless gesture. The Harvester drew forth
+a roll of bills and tossed them into her lap.
+
+“For the love of mercy take what you need and pay it,” he said. “Then
+get a floor under your feet, and try, I beg of you, try to force
+yourself to have confidence in me, until I do something that gives you
+the least reason for distrusting me.”
+
+She picked up the money and gave it a contemptuous whirl that landed it
+at his feet.
+
+“What greater cause of distrust could I have by any possibility than
+just that?” she asked.
+
+The Harvester arose hastily, and taking several steps, he stood with
+folded arms, his back turned. The Girl sat watching him with wide eyes,
+the dull blue plain in their dusky depths. When he did not speak, she
+grew restless. At last she slowly arose and circling him looked into his
+face. It was convulsed with a struggle in which love and patience fought
+for supremacy over honest anger. As he saw her so close, his lips drew
+apart, and his breath came deeply, but he did not speak. He merely stood
+and looked at her, and looked; and she gazed at him as if fascinated,
+but uncomprehending.
+
+“Ruth!”
+
+The call came roaring up the hill. The Girl shivered and became paler.
+
+“Is that your uncle?” asked the Harvester.
+
+She nodded.
+
+“Will you come to-morrow for your drawing materials?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Will you try to believe that there is absolutely nothing, either
+underfoot or overhead, that will harm you?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Will you try to think that I am not a menace to public safety, and that
+I would do much to help you, merely because I would be glad to be of
+service?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Will you try to cultivate the idea that there is nothing in all this
+world that would hurt you purposely?”
+
+“Ruth!” came a splitting scream in gruff man-tones, keyed in deep anger.
+
+“That SOUNDS like it!” said the Girl, and catching up her skirts she ran
+through the woods, taking a different route toward the house.
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and tried to think; but there are times
+when the numbed brain refuses to work, so he really sat and suffered.
+Belshazzar whimpered and licked his hands, and at last the man arose
+and went with the dog to the wagon. As they came through Onabasha, Betsy
+turned at the hospital corner, but the Harvester pulled her around and
+drove toward the country. Not until they crossed the railroad did he
+lift his head and then he drew a deep breath as if starved for pure air
+and spoke. “Not to-day Betsy! I can't face my friends just now. Someway
+I am making an awful fist of things. Everything I do is wrong. She no
+more trusts me than you would a rattlesnake, Belshazzar; and from all
+appearance she takes me to be almost as deadly. What must have been her
+experiences in life to ingrain fear and distrust in her soul at that
+rate? I always knew I was not handsome, but I never before regarded my
+appearance as alarming. And I 'fixed up,' too!”
+
+The Harvester grinned a queer little twist of a grin that pulled and
+distorted his strained face. “Might as well have gone with a week's
+beard, a soiled shirt, and a leer! And I've always been as decent as I
+knew! What's the reward for clean living anyway, if the girl you love
+strikes you like that?”
+
+Belshazzar reached across and kissed him. The Harvester put his arm
+around the dog. In the man's disappointment and heart hunger he leaned
+his head against the beast and said, “I've always got you to love and
+protect me, anyway, Belshazzar. Maybe the man who said a dog was a man's
+best friend was right. You always trusted me, didn't you Bel? And you
+never regretted it but once, and that wasn't my fault. I never did it!
+If I did, I'm getting good and well paid for it. I'd rather be kicked
+until all the ribs of one side are broken, Bel, than to swallow the dose
+she just handed me. I tell you it was bitter, lad! What am I going to
+do? Can't you help me, Bel?”
+
+Belshazzar quivered in anxiety to offer the comfort he could not speak.
+
+“Of course you are right! You always are, Bel!” said the Harvester. “I
+know what you are trying to tell me. Sure enough, she didn't have any
+dream. I am afraid she had the bitterest reality. She hasn't been loving
+a vision of me, working and searching for me, and I don't mean to her
+what she does to me. Of course I see that I must be patient and bide my
+time. If there is anything in 'like begetting like' she is bound to care
+for me some day, for I love her past all expression, and for all she
+feels I might as well save my breath. But she has got to awake some day,
+Bel. She can make up her mind to that. She can't see 'why.' Over and
+over! I wonder what she would think if I'd up and tell her 'why' with no
+frills. She will drive me to it some day, then probably the shock will
+finish her. I wonder if Doc was only fooling or if he really would do
+what he said. It might wake her up, anyway, but I'm dubious as to the
+result. How Uncle Henry can roar! He sounded like a fog horn. I'd love
+to try my muscle on a man like that. No wonder she is afraid of him, if
+she is of me. Afraid! Well of all things I ever did expect, Belshazzar,
+that is the limit.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE CHIME OF THE BLUE BELLS
+
+The Harvester finished his evening work and went to examine the cocoons.
+Many of the moths had emerged and flown, but the luna cases remained
+in the bottom of the box. As he stood looking at them one moved and he
+smiled.
+
+“I'd give something if you would come out and be ready to work on by
+to-morrow afternoon,” he said. “Possibly you would so interest her that
+she would forget her fear of me. I'd like mighty well to take you
+along, because she might care for you, and I do need the pattern for my
+candlestick. Believe I'll lay you in a warmer place.”
+
+The first thing the next morning the Harvester looked and found the open
+cocoon and the wet moth clinging by its feet to a twig he had placed for
+it.
+
+“Luck is with me!” he exulted. “I'll carry you to her and be mighty
+careful what I say, and maybe she will forget about the fear.”
+
+All the forenoon he cut and spread boneset, saffron, and hemlock on the
+trays to dry. At noon he put on a fresh outfit, ate a hasty lunch, and
+drove to Onabasha. He carried the moth in a box, and as he started he
+picked up a rake. He went to an art store and bought the pencils and
+paper she had ordered. He wanted to purchase everything he saw for her,
+but he was fast learning a lesson of deep caution. If he took more than
+she ordered, she would worry over paying, and if he refused to
+accept money, she would put that everlasting “why” at him again. The
+water-colour paper and paint he could not forego. He could make a desire
+to have the moth coloured explain those, he thought.
+
+Then he went to a furniture store and bought several articles, and
+forgetting his law against haste, he drove Betsy full speed to the
+river. He was rather heavily ladened as he went up the bank, and it
+was only one o'clock. There was an hour. He rolled away the log, raked
+together and removed the leaves to the ground. He tramped the earth
+level and spread a large cheap porch rug. On this he opened and placed
+a little folding table and chair. On the table he spread the pencils,
+paper, colour box and brushes, and went to the river to fill the water
+cup. Then he sat on the log he had rolled to one side and waited. After
+two hours he arose and crept as close the house as he could through the
+woods, but he could not secure a glimpse of the Girl. He went back and
+waited an hour more, and then undid his work and removed it. When he
+came to the moth his face was very grim as he lifted the twig and helped
+the beautiful creature to climb on a limb. “You'll be ready to fly in
+a few hours,” he said. “If I keep you in a box you will ruin your wings
+and be no suitable subject, and put you in a cyanide jar I will not. I
+am hurt too badly myself. I wonder if what Doc said was the right way!
+It's certainly a temptation.”
+
+Then he went home; and again Betsy veered at the hospital, and once more
+the Harvester explained to her that he did not want to see the doctor.
+That evening and the following forenoon were difficult, but the
+Harvester lived through them, and in the afternoon went back to the
+woods, spread his rug, and set up the table. Only one streak of luck
+brightened the gloom in his heart. A yellow emperor had emerged in the
+night, and now occupied the place of yesterday's luna. She never need
+know it was not the one he wanted, and it would make an excuse for the
+colour box.
+
+He was watching intently and saw her coming a long way off. He noticed
+that she looked neither right nor left, but came straight as if walking
+a bridge. As she reached the place she glanced hastily around and then
+at him. The Harvester forgave her everything as he saw the look of
+relief with which she stepped upon the carpet. Then she turned to him.
+
+“I won't have to ask 'why' this time,” she said. “I know that you did it
+because I was baby enough to tell what a coward I am. I'm sure you
+can't afford it, and I know you shouldn't have done it, but oh, what a
+comfort! If you will promise never to do any such expensive, foolish,
+kind thing again, I'll say thank you this time. I couldn't come
+yesterday, because Aunt Molly was worse and Uncle Henry was at home all
+day.”
+
+“I supposed it was something like that,” said the Harvester.
+
+She advanced and handed him the roll of bills.
+
+“I had a feeling you would be reckless,” she said. “I saw it in your
+face, so I came back as soon as I could steal away, and sure enough,
+there lay your money and the books and everything. I hid them in the
+thicket, so they will be all right. I've almost prayed it wouldn't rain.
+I didn't dare carry them to the house. Please take the money. I haven't
+time to argue about it or strength, but of course I can't possibly use
+it unless I earn it. I'm so anxious to see the pencils and paper.”
+
+The Harvester thrust the money into his pocket. The Girl went to the
+table, opened and spread the paper, and took out the pencils.
+
+“Is my subject in here?” she touched the colour box.
+
+“No, the other.”
+
+“Is it alive? May I open it?”
+
+“We will be very careful at first,” said the Harvester. “It only left
+its case in the night and may fly. When the weather is so warm the wings
+develop rapidly. Perhaps if I remove the lid----”
+
+He took off the cover, exposing a big moth, its lovely, pale yellow
+wings, flecked with heliotrope, outspread as it clung to a twig in the
+box. The Girl leaned forward.
+
+“What is it?” she asked.
+
+“One of the big night moths that emerge and fly a few hours in June.”
+
+“Is this what you want for your candlestick?”
+
+“If I can't do better. There is one other I prefer, but it may not come
+at a time that you can get it right.”
+
+“What do you mean by 'right'?”
+
+“So that you can copy it before it wants to fly.”
+
+“Why don't you chloroform and pin it until I am ready?”
+
+“I am not in the business of killing and impaling exquisite creatures
+like that.”
+
+“Do you mean that if I can't draw it when it is just right you will let
+it go?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I told you why.”
+
+“I know you said you were not in the business, but why wouldn't you take
+only one you really wanted to use?”
+
+“I would be afraid,” replied the Harvester.
+
+“Afraid? You!”
+
+“I must have a mighty good reason before I kill,” said the man. “I
+cannot give life; I have no right to take it away. I will let my
+statement stand. I am afraid.”
+
+“Of what please?”
+
+“An indefinable something that follows me and makes me suffer if I am
+wantonly cruel.”
+
+“Is there any particular pose in which you want this bird placed?”
+
+“Allow me to present you to the yellow emperor, known in the books as
+eagles imperialis,” he said. “I want him as he clings naturally and life
+size.”
+
+She took up a pencil.
+
+“If you don't mind,” said the Harvester, “would you draw on this other
+paper? I very much want the colour, also, and you can use it on this.
+I brought a box along, and I'll get you water. I had it all ready
+yesterday.”
+
+“Did you have this same moth?”
+
+“No, I had another.”
+
+“Did you have the one you wanted most?”
+
+“Yes----but it's no difference.”
+
+“And you let it go because I was not here?”
+
+“No. It went on account of exquisite beauty. If kept in confinement it
+would struggle and break its wings. You see, that one was a delicate
+green, where this is yellow, plain pale blue green, with a lavender rib
+here, and long curled trailers edged with pale yellow, and eye spots
+rimmed with red and black.”
+
+As the Harvester talked he indicated the points of difference with a
+pencil he had picked up; now he laid it down and retreated beyond the
+limits of the rug.
+
+“I see,” said the Girl. “And this is colour?”
+
+She touched the box.
+
+“A few colours, rather,” said the Harvester. “I selected enough to fill
+the box, with the help of the clerk who sold them to me. If they are not
+right, I have permission to return and exchange them for anything you
+want.”
+
+With eager fingers she opened the box, and bent over it a face filled
+with interest.
+
+“Oh how I've always wanted this! I scarcely can wait to try it. I do
+hope I can have it for my very own. Was it quite expensive?”
+
+“No. Very cheap!” said the Harvester. “The paper isn't worth mentioning.
+The little, empty tin box was only a few cents, and the paints differ
+according to colour. Some appear to be more than others. I was surprised
+that the outfit was so inexpensive.”
+
+A skeptical little smile wavered on the Girl's face as she drew her
+slender fingers across the trays of bright colour.
+
+“If one dared accept your word, you really would be a comfort,” she
+said, as she resolutely closed the box, pushed it away, and picked up a
+pencil.
+
+“If you will take the trouble to inquire at the banks, post office,
+express office, hospital or of any druggist in Onabasha, you will
+find that my word is exactly as good as my money, and taken quite as
+readily.”
+
+“I didn't say I doubted you. I have no right to do that until I feel
+you deceive me. What I said was 'dared accept,' which means I must not,
+because I have no right. But you make one wonder what you would do if
+you were coaxed and asked for things and led by insinuations.”
+
+“I can tell you that,” said the Harvester. “It would depend altogether
+on who wanted anything of me and what they asked. If you would undertake
+to coax and insinuate, you never would get it done, because I'd see what
+you needed and have it at hand before you had time.”
+
+The Girl looked at him wonderingly.
+
+“Now don't spring your recurrent 'why' on me,” said the Harvester. “I'll
+tell you 'why' some of these days. Just now answer me this question: Do
+you want me to remain here or leave until you finish? Which way would
+you be least afraid?”
+
+“I am not at all afraid on the rug and with my work,” she said. “If you
+want to hunt ginseng go by all means.”
+
+“I don't want to hunt anything,” said the Harvester. “But if you are
+more comfortable with me away, I'll be glad to go. I'll leave the dog
+with you.”
+
+He gave a short whistle and Belshazzar came bounding to him. The
+Harvester stepped to the Girl's side, and dropping on one knee, he drew
+his hand across the rug close to her skirts.
+
+“Right here, Belshazzar,” he said. “Watch! You are on guard, Bel.”
+
+“Well of all names for a dog!” exclaimed the Girl. “Why did you select
+that?”
+
+“My mother named my first dog Belshazzar, and taught me why; so each of
+the three I've owned since have been christened the same. It means 'to
+protect' and that is the office all of them perform; this one especially
+has filled it admirably. Once I failed him, but he never has gone back
+on me. You see he is not a particle afraid of me. Every step I take, he
+is at my heels.”
+
+“So was Bill Sikes' dog, if I remember.”
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+“Bel,” he said, “if you could speak you'd say that was an ugly one,
+wouldn't you?”
+
+The dog sprang up and kissed the face of the man and rubbed a loving
+head against his breast.
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester. “Now lie down and protect this woman as
+carefully as you ever watched in your life. And incidentally, Bel,
+tell her that she can't exterminate me more than once a day, and the
+performance is accomplished for the present. I refuse to be a willing
+sacrifice. 'So was Bill Sikes' dog!' What do you think of that, Bel?”
+
+The Harvester arose and turned to go.
+
+“What if this thing attempts to fly?” she asked.
+
+“Your pardon,” said the Harvester. “If the emperor moves, slide the lid
+over the box a few seconds, until he settles and clings quietly again,
+and then slowly draw it away. If you are careful not to jar the table
+heavily he will not go for hours yet.”
+
+Again he turned.
+
+“If there is no danger, why do you leave the dog?”
+
+“For company,” said the Harvester. “I thought you would prefer an animal
+you are not afraid of to a man you are. But let me tell you there is no
+necessity for either. I know a woman who goes alone and unafraid through
+every foot of woods in this part of the country. She has climbed, crept,
+and waded, and she tells me she never saw but two venomous snakes this
+side of Michigan. Nothing ever dropped on her or sprang at her. She
+feels as secure in the woods as she does at home.”
+
+“Isn't she afraid of snakes?”
+
+“She dislikes snakes, but she is not afraid or she would not risk
+encountering them daily.”
+
+“Do you ever find any?”
+
+“Harmless little ones, often. That is, Bel does. He is always nosing for
+them, because he understands that I work in the earth. I think I have
+encountered three dangerous ones in my life. I will guarantee you will
+not find one in these woods. They are too open and too much cleared.”
+
+“Then why leave the dog?”
+
+“I thought,” said the Harvester patiently, “that your uncle might have
+turned in some of his cattle, or if pigs came here the dog could chase
+them away.”
+
+She looked at him with utter panic in her face.
+
+“I am far more afraid of a cow than a snake!” she cried. “It is so much
+bigger!”
+
+“How did you ever come into these woods alone far enough to find the
+ginseng?” asked the Harvester. “Answer me that!”
+
+“I wore Uncle Henry's top boots and carried a rake, and I suffered
+tortures,” she replied.
+
+“But you hunted until you found what you wanted, and came again to keep
+watch on it?”
+
+“I was driven--simply forced. There's no use to discuss it!”
+
+“Well thank the Lord for one thing,” said the Harvester. “You didn't
+appear half so terrified at the sight of me as you did at the mere
+mention of a cow. I have risen inestimably in my own self-respect.
+Belshazzar, you may pursue the elusive chipmunk. I am going to guard
+this woman myself, and please, kind fates, send a ferocious cow this
+way, in order that I may prove my valour.”
+
+The Girl's face flushed slightly, and she could not restrain a laugh.
+That was all the Harvester hoped for and more. He went beyond the edge
+of the rug and sat on the leaves under a tree. She bent over her work
+and only bird and insect notes and occasionally Belshazzar's excited
+bark broke the silence. The Harvester stretched on the ground, his eyes
+feasting on the Girl. Intensely he watched every movement. If a squirrel
+barked she gave a nervous start, so precipitate it seemed as if it must
+hurt. If a windfall came rattling down she appeared ready to fly in
+headlong terror in any direction. At last she dropped her pencil and
+looked at him helplessly.
+
+“What is it?” he asked.
+
+“The silence and these awful crashes when one doesn't know what is
+coming,” she said.
+
+“Will it bother you if I talk? Perhaps the sound of my voice will help?”
+
+“I am accustomed to working when people talk, and it will be a comfort.
+I may be able to follow you, and that will prevent me from thinking.
+There are dreadful things in my mind when they are not driven out.
+Please talk! Tell me about the herbs you gathered this morning.”
+
+The Harvester gave the Girl one long look as she bent over her work. He
+was vividly conscious of the graceful curves of her little figure, the
+coil of dark, silky hair, softly waving around her temples and neck,
+and when her eyes turned in his direction he knew that it was only the
+white, drawn face that restrained him. He was almost forced to tell her
+how he loved and longed for her; about the home he had prepared; of
+a thousand personal interests. Instead, he took a firm grip and said
+casually, “Foxglove harvest is over. This plant has to be taken when the
+leaves are in second year growth and at bloom time. I have stripped my
+mullein beds of both leaves and flowers. I finished a week ago. Beyond
+lies a stretch of Parnassus grass that made me think of you, it was so
+white and delicate. I want you to see it. It will be lovely in a few
+weeks more.”
+
+“You never had seen me a week ago.”
+
+“Oh hadn't I?” said the Harvester. “Well maybe I dreamed about you then.
+I am a great dreamer. Once I had a dream that may interest you some
+day, after you've overcome your fear of me. Now this bed of which I was
+speaking is a picture in September. You must arrange to drive home with
+me and see it then.”
+
+“For what do you sell foxglove and mullein?”
+
+“Foxglove for heart trouble, and mullein for catarrh. I get ten cents a
+pound for foxglove leaves and five for mullein and from seventy-five to
+a dollar for flowers of the latter, depending on how well I preserve the
+colour in drying them. They must be sealed in bottles and handled with
+extreme care.”
+
+“Then if I wasn't too childish to be out picking them, I could be
+earning seventy-five cents a pound for mullein blooms?”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester, “but until you learned the trick of stripping
+them rapidly you scarcely could gather what would weigh two pounds a
+day, when dried. Not to mention the fact that you would have to stand
+and work mostly in hot sunshine, because mullein likes open roads and
+fields and sunny hills. Now you can sit securely in the shade, and in
+two hours you can make me a pattern of that moth, for which I would pay
+a designer of the arts and crafts shop five dollars, so of course you
+shall have the same.”
+
+“Oh no!” she cried in swift panic. “You were charged too much! It isn't
+worth a dollar, even!”
+
+“On the contrary the candlestick on which I shall use it will be
+invaluable when I finish it, and five is very little for the cream of my
+design. I paid just right. You can earn the same for all you can do.
+If you can embroider linen, they pay good prices for that, too and wood
+carving, metal work, or leather things. May I see how you are coming
+on?”
+
+“Please do,” she said.
+
+The Harvester sprang up and looked over the Girl's shoulder. He could
+not suppress an exclamation of delight.
+
+“Perfect!” he cried. “You can surpass their best drafting at the shop!
+Your fortune is made. Any time you want to go to Onabasha you can make
+enough to pay your board, dress you well, and save something every week.
+You must leave here as soon as you can manage it. When can you go?”
+
+“I don't know,” she said wearily. “I'd hate to tell you how full
+of aches I am. I could not work much just now, if I had the best
+opportunities in the world. I must grow stronger.”
+
+“You should not work at anything until you are well,” he said. “It is a
+crime against nature to drive yourself. Why will you not allow----”
+
+“Do you really think, with a little practice, I can draw designs that
+will sell?”
+
+The Harvester picked up the sheet. The work was delicate and exact. He
+could see no way to improve it.
+
+“You know it will sell,” he said gently, “because you already have sold
+such work.”
+
+“But not for the prices you offer.”
+
+“The prices I name are going to be for NEW, ORIGINAL DESIGNS. I've got a
+thousand in my head, that old Mother Nature shows me in the woods and on
+the water every day.”
+
+“But those are yours; I can't take them.”
+
+“You must,” said the Harvester. “I only see and recognize studies; I
+can't materialize them, and until they are drawn, no one can profit by
+them. In this partnership we revolutionize decorative art. There are
+actually birds besides fat robins and nondescript swallows. The crane
+and heron do not monopolize the water. Wild rose and golden-rod are not
+the only flowers. The other day I was gathering lobelia. The seeds
+are used in tonic preparations. It has an upright stem with flowers
+scattered along it. In itself it is not much, but close beside it always
+grows its cousin, tall bell-flower. As the name indicates, the flowers
+are bell shape and I can't begin to describe their grace, beauty, and
+delicate blue colour. They ring my strongest call to worship. My work
+keeps me in the woods so much I remain there for my religion also.
+Whenever I find these flowers I always pause for a little service of my
+own that begins by reciting these lines:
+
+     “'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingeth
+          And tolls its perfume on the passing air,
+     Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringeth
+          A call to prayer.”
+
+
+“Beautiful!” said the Girl.
+
+“It's mighty convenient,” explained the Harvester. “By my method, you
+see, you don't have to wait for your day and hour of worship. Anywhere
+the blue bell rings its call it is Sunday in the woods and in your
+heart. After I recite that, I pray my prayer.”
+
+“Go on!” said the Girl. “This is no place to stop.”
+
+“It is always one and the same prayer, and there are only two lines of
+it,” said the Harvester. “It runs this way---- Let me take your pencil
+and I will write it for you.”
+
+He bent over her shoulder, and traced these lines on a scrap of the
+wrapping paper:
+
+               “Almighty Evolver of the Universe:
+          Help me to keep my soul and body clean,
+     And at all times to do unto others as I would be done by.
+                         Amen.”
+
+
+The Girl took the slip and sat studying it; then she raised her eyes to
+his face curiously, but with a tinge of awe in them.
+
+“I can see you standing over a blue, bell-shaped flower reciting those
+exquisite lines and praying this wonderful prayer,” she said. “Yesterday
+you allowed the moth you were willing to pay five dollars for a drawing
+of, to go, because you wouldn't risk breaking its wings. Why you are
+more like a woman!”
+
+A red stream crimsoned the Harvester's face.
+
+“Well heretofore I have been considered strictly masculine,” he said.
+“To appreciate beauty or to try to be just commonly decent is not
+exclusively feminine. You must remember there are painters, poets,
+musicians, workers in art along almost any line you could mention, and
+no one calls them feminine, but there is one good thing if I am. You
+need no longer fear me. If you should see me, muck covered, grubbing in
+the earth or on a raft washing roots in the lake, you would not consider
+me like a woman.”
+
+“Would it be any discredit if I did? I think not. I merely meant that
+most men would not see or hear the blue bell at all----and as for the
+poem and prayer! If the woods make a man with such fibre in his soul, I
+must learn them if they half kill me.”
+
+“You harp on death. Try to forget the word.”
+
+“I have faced it for months, and seen it do its grinding worst very
+recently to the only thing on earth I loved or that loved me. I have no
+desire to forget! Tell me more about the plants.”
+
+“Forgive me,” said the Harvester gently. “Just now I am collecting
+catnip for the infant and nervous people, hoarhound for colds and
+dyspepsia, boneset heads and flowers for the same purpose. There is a
+heavy head of white bloom with wonderful lacy leaves, called yarrow. I
+take the entire plant for a tonic and blessed thistle leaves and flowers
+for the same purpose.”
+
+“That must be what I need,” interrupted the Girl. “Half the time I
+believe I have a little fever, but I couldn't have dyspepsia, because I
+never want anything to eat; perhaps the tonic would make me hungry.”
+
+“Promise me you will tell that to the doctor who comes to see your aunt,
+and take what he gives you.”
+
+“No doctor comes to see my aunt. She is merely playing lazy to get out
+of work. There is nothing the matter with her.”
+
+“Then why----”
+
+“My uncle says that. Really, she could not stand and walk across a room
+alone. She is simply worn out.”
+
+“I shall report the case,” said the Harvester instantly.
+
+“You better not!” said the Girl. “There must be a mistake about you
+knowing my uncle. Tell me more of the flowers.”
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and continued:
+
+“These I just have named I take at bloom time; next month come purple
+thorn apple, jimson weed, and hemlock.”
+
+“Isn't that poison?”
+
+“Half the stuff I handle is.”
+
+“Aren't you afraid?”
+
+“Terribly,” said the Harvester in laughing voice. “But I want the money,
+the sick folk need the medicine, and I drink water.”
+
+The Girl laughed also.
+
+“Look here!” said the Harvester. “Why not tell me just as closely as
+you can about your aunt, and let me fix something for her; or if you are
+afraid to trust me, let me have my friend of whom I spoke yesterday.”
+
+“Perhaps I am not so much afraid as I was,” said the Girl. “I wish I
+could! How could I explain where I got it and I wonder if she would take
+it.”
+
+“Give it to her without any explanation,” said the Harvester. “Tell her
+it will make her stronger and she must use it. Tell me exactly how she
+is, and I will fix up some harmless remedies that may help, and can do
+no harm.”
+
+“She simply has been neglected, overworked, and abused until she has
+lain down, turned her face to the wall, and given up hope. I think it is
+too late. I think the end will come soon. But I wish you would try. I'll
+gladly pay----”
+
+“Don't!” said the Harvester. “Not for things that grow in the woods and
+that I prepare. Don't think of money every minute.”
+
+“I must,” she said with forced restraint. “It is the price of life.
+Without it one suffers----horribly----as I know. What other plants do
+you gather?”
+
+“Saffron,” answered the Harvester. “A beautiful thing! You must see it.
+Tall, round stems, lacy, delicate leaves, big heads of bright yellow
+bloom, touched with colour so dark it appears black--one of the
+loveliest plants that grows. You should see my big bed of it in a week
+or two more. It makes a picture.”
+
+The words recalled him to the Girl. He turned to study her. He forgot
+his commission and chafed at conventions that prevented his doing what
+he saw was required so urgently. Fearing she would notice, he gazed away
+through the forest and tried to think, to plan.
+
+“You are not making noise enough,” she said.
+
+So absorbed was the Harvester he scarcely heard her. In an attempt to
+obey he began to whistle softly. A tiny goldfinch in a nest of thistle
+down and plant fibre in the branching of a bush ten feet above him stuck
+her head over the brim and inquired, “P'tseet?” “Pt'see!” answer the
+Harvester. That began the duet. Before the question had been asked and
+answered a half dozen times a catbird intruded its voice and hearing a
+reply came through the bushes to investigate. A wren followed and became
+very saucy. From----one could not see where, came a vireo, and almost at
+the same time a chewink had something to say.
+
+Instantly the Harvester answered. Then a blue jay came chattering to
+ascertain what all the fuss was about, and the Harvester carried on
+a conversation that called up the remainder of the feathered tribe. A
+brilliant cardinal came tearing through the thicket, his beady black
+eyes snapping, and demanded to know if any one were harming his mate,
+brooding under a wild grape leaf in a scrub elm on the river embankment.
+A brown thrush silently slipped like a snake between shrubs and trees,
+and catching the universal excitement, began to flirt his tail and utter
+a weird, whistling cry.
+
+With one eye on the bird, and the other on the Girl sitting in amazed
+silence, the Harvester began working for effect. He lay quietly, but in
+turn he answered a dozen birds so accurately they thought their mates
+were calling, and closer and closer they came. An oriole in orange and
+black heard his challenge, and flew up the river bank, answering
+at steady intervals for quite a time before it was visible, and in
+resorting to the last notes he could think of a quail whistled “Bob
+White” and a shitepoke, skulking along the river bank, stopped and
+cried, “Cowk, cowk!”
+
+At his limit of calls the Harvester changed his notes and whistled and
+cried bits of bird talk in tone with every mellow accent and inflection
+he could manage. Gradually the excitement subsided, the birds flew and
+tilted closer, turned their sleek heads, peered with bright eyes, and
+ventured on and on until the very bravest, the wren and the jay, were
+almost in touch. Then, tired of hunting, Belshazzar came racing and the
+little feathered people scattered in precipitate flight.
+
+“How do you like that kind of a noise?” inquired the Harvester.
+
+The Girl drew a deep breath.
+
+“Of course you know that was the most exquisite sight I ever saw,” she
+said. “I never shall forget it. I did not think there were that many
+different birds in the whole world. Of all the gaudy colours! And they
+came so close you could have reached out and touched them.”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester calmly. “Birds are never afraid of me. At
+Medicine Woods, when I call them like that, many, most of them, in fact,
+eat from my hand. If you ever have looked at me enough to notice bulgy
+pockets, they are full of wheat. These birds are strangers, but I'll
+wager you that in a week I can make them take food from me. Of course,
+my own birds know me, because they are around every day. It is much
+easier to tame them in winter, when the snow has fallen and food is
+scarce, but it only takes a little while to win a bird's confidence at
+any season.”
+
+“Birds don't know what there is to be afraid of,” she said.
+
+“Your pardon,” said the Harvester, “but I am familiar with them, and
+that is not correct. They have more to fear than human beings. No one is
+going to kill you merely to see if he can shoot straight enough to hit.
+Your life is not in danger because you have magnificent hair that some
+woman would like for an ornament. You will not be stricken out in a
+flash because there are a few bits of meat on your frame some one
+wants to eat. No one will set a seductive trap for you, and, if you are
+tempted to enter it, shut you from freedom and natural diet, in a cage
+so small you can't turn around without touching bars. You are in a
+secure and free position compared with the birds. I also have observed
+that they know guns, many forms of traps, and all of them decide by the
+mere manner of a man's passing through the woods whether he is a friend
+or an enemy. Birds know more than many people realize. They do not
+always correctly estimate gun range, they are foolishly venturesome
+at times when they want food, but they know many more things than most
+people give them credit for understanding. The greatest trouble with the
+birds is they are too willing to trust us and be friendly, so they are
+often deceived.”
+
+“That sounds as if you were right,” said the Girl.
+
+“I am of the woods, so I know I am,” answered the Harvester.
+
+“Will you look at this now?”
+
+He examined the drawing closely.
+
+“Where did you learn?” he inquired.
+
+“My mother. She was educated to her finger tips. She drew, painted,
+played beautifully, sang well, and she had read almost all the best
+books. Besides what I learned at high school she taught me all I know.
+Her embroidery always brought higher prices than mine, try as I might. I
+never saw any one else make such a dainty, accurate little stitch as she
+could.”
+
+“If this is not perfect, I don't know how to criticise it. I can and
+will use it in my work. But I have one luna cocoon remaining and I would
+give ten dollars for such a drawing of the moth before it flies. It may
+open to-night or not for several days. If your aunt should be worse
+and you cannot come to-morrow and the moth emerges, is there any way in
+which I could send it to you?”
+
+“What could I do with it?”
+
+“I thought perhaps you could take a piece of paper and the pencils with
+you, and secure an outline in your room. It need not be worked up with
+all the detail in this. Merely a skeleton sketch would do. Could I leave
+it at the house or send it with some one?”
+
+“No! Oh no!” she cried. “Leave it here. Put it in a box in the bushes
+where I hid the books. What are you going to do with these things?”
+
+“Hide them in the thicket and scatter leaves over them.”
+
+“What if it rains?”
+
+“I have thought of that. I brought a few yards of oilcloth to-day and
+they will be safe and dry if it pours.”
+
+“Good!” she said. “Then if the moth comes out you bring it, and if I
+am not here, put it under the cloth and I will run up some time in the
+afternoon. But if I were you, I would not spread the rug until you know
+if I can remain. I have to steal every minute I am away, and any day
+uncle takes a notion to stay at home I dare not come.”
+
+“Try to come to-morrow. I am going to bring some medicine for your
+aunt.”
+
+“Put it under the cloth if I am not here; but I will come if I can. I
+must go now; I have been away far too long.”
+
+The Harvester picked up one of the drug pamphlets, laid the drawing
+inside it, and placed it with his other books. Then he drew out his
+pocket book and laid a five-dollar bill on the table and began folding
+up the chair and putting away the things. The Girl looked at the money
+with eager eyes.
+
+“Is that honestly what you would pay at the arts and crafts place?”
+
+“It is the customary price for my patterns.”
+
+“And are you sure this is as good?”
+
+“I can bring you some I have paid that for, and let you see for yourself
+that it is better.”
+
+“I wish you would!” she cried eagerly. “I need that money, and I would
+like to have it dearly, if I really have earned it, but I can't touch it
+if I have not.”
+
+“Won't you accept my word?”
+
+“No. I will see the other drawings first, and if I think mine are as
+good, I will be glad to take the money to-morrow.”
+
+“What if you can't come?”
+
+“Put them under the oilcloth. I watch all the time and I think Uncle
+Henry has trained even the boys so they don't play in the river on
+his land. I never see a soul here; the woods, house, and everything is
+desolate until he comes home and then it is like----” she paused.
+
+“I'll say it for you,” said the Harvester promptly. “Then it is like
+hell.”
+
+“At its worst,” supplemented the Girl. Taking pencils and a sheet of
+paper she went swiftly through the woods. Before she left the shelter
+of the trees, the Harvester saw her busy her hands with the front of
+her dress, and he knew that she was concealing the drawing material. The
+colour box was left, and he said things as he put it with the chair and
+table, covered them with the rug and oilcloth, and heaped on a layer of
+leaves.
+
+Then he drove to the city and Betsy turned at the hospital corner
+with no interference. He could face his friend that day. Despite
+all discouragements he felt reassured. He was progressing. Means of
+communication had been established. If she did not come, he could leave
+a note and tell her if the moth had not emerged and how sorry he was to
+have missed seeing her.
+
+“Hello, lover!” cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered the office.
+“Are you married yet?”
+
+“No. But I'm going to be,” said the Harvester with confidence.
+
+“Have you asked her?”
+
+“No. We are getting acquainted. She is too close to trouble, too ill,
+and too worried over a sick relative for me to intrude myself; it would
+be brutal, but it's a temptation. Doc, is there any way to compel a man
+to provide medical care for his wife?”
+
+“Can he afford it?”
+
+“Amply. Anything! Worth thousands in land and nobody knows what in
+money. It's Henry Jameson.”
+
+“The meanest man I ever knew. If he has a wife it's a marvel she has
+survived this long. Won't he provide for her?”
+
+“I suppose he thinks he has when she has a bed to lie on and a roof to
+cover her. He won't supply food she can eat and medicine. He says she is
+lazy.”
+
+“What do you think?”
+
+“I quote Miss Jameson. She says her aunt is slowly dying from overwork
+and neglect.”
+
+“David, doesn't it seem pretty good, when you say 'Miss Jameson'?”
+
+“Loveliest sound on earth, except the remainder of it.”
+
+“What's that?”
+
+“Ruth!”
+
+“Jove! That is a beautiful name. Ruth Langston. It will go well, won't
+it?”
+
+“Music that the birds, insects, Singing Water, the trees, and the breeze
+can't ever equal. I'm holding on with all my might, but it's tough, Doc.
+She's in such a dreadful place and position, and she needs so much. She
+is sick. Can't you give me a prescription for each of them?”
+
+“You just bet I can,” said the doctor, “if you can engineer their taking
+them.”
+
+“I suppose you'd hold their noses and pour stuff down them.”
+
+“I would if necessary.”
+
+“Well, it is.”
+
+“All right----I'll fix something, and you see that they use it.”
+
+“I can try,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Try! Pah! You aren't half a man!”
+
+“That's a half more than being a woman, anyway.”
+
+“She called you feminine, did she?” cried the doctor, dancing and
+laughing. “She ought to see you harvesting skunk cabbage and blue flag
+or when you are angry enough.”
+
+The doctor left the room and it was a half hour before he returned.
+
+“Try that on them according to directions,” he said, handing over a
+couple of bottles.
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester, “I will!”
+
+“That sounds manly enough.”
+
+“Oh pother! It's not that I'm not a man, or a laggard in love; but I'd
+like to know what you'd do to a girl dumb with grief over the recent
+loss of her mother, who was her only relative worth counting, sick from
+God knows what exposure and privation, and now a dying relative on her
+hands. What could you do?”
+
+“I'd marry her and pick her out of it!”
+
+“I wouldn't have her, if she'd leave a sick woman for me!”
+
+“I wouldn't either. She's got to stick it out until her aunt grows
+better, and then I'll go out there and show you how to court a girl.”
+
+“I guess not! You keep the girl you did court, courted, and you'll have
+your hands full. How does that appear to you?”
+
+The Harvester opened the pamphlet he carried and held up the drawing of
+the moth.
+
+The doctor turned to the light.
+
+“Good work!” he cried. “Did she do that?”
+
+“She did. In a little over an hour.”
+
+“Fine! She should have a chance.”
+
+“She is going to. She is going to have all the opportunity that is
+coming to her.”
+
+“Good for you, David! Any time I can help!”
+
+The Harvester replaced the sketch and went to the wagon; but he left
+Belshazzar in charge, and visited the largest dry goods store in
+Onabasha, where he held a conference with the floor walker. When he came
+out he carried a heaping load of boxes of every size and shape, with a
+label on each. He drove to Medicine Woods singing and whistling.
+
+“She didn't want me to go, Belshazzar!” he chuckled to the dog. “She was
+more afraid of a cow than she was of me. I made some headway to-day, old
+boy. She doesn't seem to have a ray of an idea what I am there for, but
+she is going to trust me soon now; that is written in the books. Oh I
+hope she will be there to-morrow, and the luna will be out. Got half a
+notion to take the case and lay it in the warmest place I can find.
+But if it comes out and she isn't there, I'll be sorry. Better trust to
+luck.”
+
+The Harvester stabled Betsy, fed the stock, and visited with the birds.
+After supper he took his purchases and entered her room. He opened the
+drawers of the chest he had made, and selecting the labelled boxes he
+laid them in. But not a package did he open. Then he arose and radiated
+conceit of himself.
+
+“I'll wager she will like those,” he commented proudly, “because Kane
+promised me fairly that he would have the right things put up for a girl
+the size of the clerk I selected for him, and exactly what Ruth should
+have. That girl was slenderer and not quite so tall, but he said
+everything was made long on purpose. Now what else should I get?”
+
+He turned to the dressing table and taking a notebook from his pocket
+made this list:
+
+     Rugs for bed and bath room.
+     Mattresses, pillows and bedding,
+     Dresses for all occasions.
+     All kinds of shoes and overshoes.
+
+
+“There are gloves, too!” exclaimed the Harvester. “She has to have some,
+but how am I going to know what is right? Oh, but she needs shoes!
+High, low, slippers, everything! I wonder what that clerk wears. I don't
+believe shoes would be comfortable without being fitted, or at least the
+proper size. I wonder what kind of dresses she likes. I hope she's fond
+of white. A woman always appears loveliest in that. Maybe I'd better buy
+what I'm sure of and let her select the dresses. But I'd love to have
+this room crammed with girl-fixings when she comes. Doesn't seem as
+if she ever has had any little luxuries. I can't miss it on anything a
+woman uses. Let me think!”
+
+Slowly he wrote again:
+
+          Parasols.
+          Fans.
+          Veils.
+          Hats.
+
+
+“I never can get them! I think that will keep me busy for a few days,”
+ said the Harvester as he closed the door softly, and went to look at
+the pupae cases. Then he carved on the vine of the candlestick for her
+dressing table; with one arm around Belshazzar, re-read the story of
+John Muir's dog, went into the lake, and to bed. Just as he was becoming
+unconscious the beast lifted an inquiring head and gazed at the man.
+
+“More 'fraid of cow,” the Harvester was muttering in a sleepy chuckle.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. DEMONSTRATED COURTSHIP
+
+When the Harvester saw the Girl coming toward the woods, he spread the
+rug, opened and placed the table and chair, laid out the colour box, and
+another containing the last luna.
+
+“Did the green one come out?” she asked, touching the box lightly.
+
+“It did!” said the Harvester proudly, as if he were responsible for the
+performance. “It is an omen! It means that I am to have my long-coveted
+pattern for my best candlestick. It also clearly indicates that the
+gods of luck are with me for the day, and I get my way about everything.
+There won't be the least use in your asking 'why' or interposing
+objections. This is my clean sweep. I shall be fearfully dictatorial and
+you must submit, because the fates have pointed out that they favour
+me to-day, and if you go contrary to their decrees you will have a bad
+time.”
+
+The Girl's smile was a little wan. She sank on a chair and picked up a
+pencil.
+
+“Lay that down!” cried the Harvester. “You haven't had permission from
+the Dictator to begin drawing. You are to sit and rest a long time.”
+
+“Please may I speak?” asked the Girl.
+
+The Harvester grew foolishly happy. Was she really going to play the
+game? Of course he had hoped, but it was a hope without any foundation.
+
+“You may,” he said soberly.
+
+“I am afraid that if you don't allow me to draw the moth at once, I'll
+never get it done. I dislike to mention it on your good day, but Aunt
+Molly is very restless. I got a neighbour's little girl to watch her and
+call me if I'm wanted. It's quite certain that I must go soon, so if you
+would like the moth----”
+
+“When luck is coming your way, never hurry it! You always upset the bowl
+if you grow greedy and crowd. If it is a gamble whether I get this moth,
+I'll take the chance; but I won't change my foreordained programme for
+this afternoon. First, you are to sit still ten minutes, shut your eyes,
+and rest. I can't sing, but I can whistle, and I'm going to entertain
+you so you won't feel alone. Ready now!”
+
+The Girl leaned her elbows on the table, closed her eyes, and pressed
+her slender white hands over them.
+
+“Please don't call the birds,” she said. “I can't rest if you do. It was
+so exciting trying to see all of them and guess what they were saying.”
+
+“No,” said the Harvester gently. “This ten minutes is for relaxation,
+you know. You ease every muscle, sink limply on your chair, lean on the
+table, let go all over, and don't think. Just listen to me. I assure you
+it's going to be perfectly lovely.”
+
+Watching intently he saw the strained muscles relaxing at his suggestion
+and caught the smile over the last words as he slid into a soft whistle.
+It was an easy, slow, old-fashioned tune, carrying along gently, with
+neither heights nor depths, just monotonous, sleepy, soothing notes,
+that went on and on with a little ripple of change at times, only to
+return to the theme, until at last the Girl lifted her head.
+
+“It's away past ten minutes,” she said, “but that was a real rest.
+Truly, I am better prepared for work.”
+
+“Broke the rule, too!” said the Harvester. “It was, for me to say when
+time was up. Can't you allow me to have my way for ten minutes?”
+
+“I am so anxious to see and draw this moth,” she answered. “And first of
+all you promised to bring the drawings you have been using.”
+
+“Now where does my programme come in?” inquired the Harvester. “You are
+spoiling everything, and I refuse to have my lucky day interfered with;
+therefore we will ignore the suggestion until we arrive at the place
+where it is proper. Next thing is refreshments.”
+
+He arose and coming over cleared the table. Then he spread on it a paper
+tray cloth with a gay border, and going into the thicket brought out
+a box and a big bucket containing a jug packed in ice. The Girl's eyes
+widened. She reached down, caught up a piece, and holding it to drip a
+second started to put it in her mouth.
+
+“Drop that!” commanded the Harvester. “That's a very unhealthful
+proceeding. Wait a minute.”
+
+From one end of the box he produced a tin of wafers and from the other
+a plate. Then he dug into the ice and lifted several different varieties
+of chilled fruit. From the jug he poured a combination that he made of
+the juices of oranges, pineapples, and lemons. He set the glass, rapidly
+frosting in the heat, and the fruit before the Girl.
+
+“Now!” he said.
+
+For one instant she stared at the table. Then she looked at him and in
+the depths of her dark eyes was an appeal he never forgot.
+
+“I made that drink myself, so it's all right,” he assured her. “There's
+a pretty stiff touch of pineapple in it, and it cuts the cobwebs on a
+hot day. Please try it!”
+
+“I can't!” cried the Girl with a half-sob. “Think of Aunt Molly!”
+
+“Are you fond of her?”
+
+“No. I never saw her until a few weeks ago. Since then I've seen nothing
+save her poor, tired back. She lies in a heap facing the wall. But if
+she could have things like these, she needn't suffer. And if my mother
+could have had them she would be living to-day. Oh Man, I can't touch
+this.”
+
+“I see,” said the Harvester.
+
+He reached over, picked up the glass, and poured its contents into the
+jug. He repacked the fruit and closed the wafer box. Then he made a trip
+to the thicket and came out putting something into his pocket.
+
+“Come on!” he said. “We are going to the house.”
+
+She stared at him.
+
+“I simply don't dare.”
+
+“Then I will go alone,” said the Harvester, picking up the bucket and
+starting.
+
+The Girl followed him.
+
+“Uncle Henry may come any minute,” she urged.
+
+“Well if he comes and acts unpleasantly, he will get what he richly
+deserves.”
+
+“And he will make me pay for it afterward.”
+
+“Oh no he won't!” said the Harvester, “because I'll look out for that.
+This is my lucky day. He isn't going to come.”
+
+When he reached the back door he opened it and stepped inside. Of all
+the barren places of crude, disheartening ugliness the Harvester ever
+had seen, that was the worst.
+
+“I want a glass and a spoon,” he said.
+
+The Girl brought them.
+
+“Where is she?”
+
+“In the next room.”
+
+At the sound of their voices a small girl came to the kitchen door.
+
+“How do you do?” inquired the Harvester. “Is Mrs. Jameson asleep?”
+
+“I don't know,” answered the child. “She just lies there.”
+
+The Harvester gave her the glass. “Please fill that with water,” he
+said. Then he picked up the bucket and went into the front room. When
+the child came with the water he took a bottle from his pocket, filled
+the spoon, and handed it to her.
+
+“Hold that steadily,” he said.
+
+Then he slid his strong hands under the light frame and turned the face
+of the faded little creature toward him.
+
+“I am a Medicine Man, Mrs. Jameson,” he said casually. “I heard you were
+sick and I came to see if a little of this stuff wouldn't brace you up.
+Open your lips.”
+
+He held out the spoon and the amazed woman swallowed the contents before
+she realized what she was doing. Then the Harvester ran a hand under
+her shoulders and lifting her gently he tossed her pillow with the other
+hand.
+
+“You are a light little body, just like my mother,” he commented. “Now I
+have something else sick people sometimes enjoy.”
+
+He held the fruit juice to her lips as he slightly raised her on the
+pillow. Her trembling fingers lifted and closed around the sparkling
+glass.
+
+“Oh it's cool!” she gasped.
+
+“It is,” said the Harvester, “and sour! I think you can taste it. Try!”
+
+She drank so greedily he drew away the glass and urged caution, but the
+shaking fingers clung to him and the wavering voice begged for more.
+
+“In a minute,” said the Harvester gently. But the fevered woman would
+not wait. She drank the cooling liquid until she could take no more.
+Then she watched him fill a small pitcher and pack it in a part of the
+ice and lay some fruit around it.
+
+“Who, Ruth?” she panted.
+
+“A Medicine Man who heard about you.”
+
+“What will Henry say?”
+
+“He won't know,” explained the Girl, smoothing the hot forehead. “I'll
+put it in the cupboard, and slip it to you while he is out of the room.
+It will make you strong and well.”
+
+“I don't want to be strong and well and suffer it all over again. I want
+to rest. Give me more of the cool drink. Give me all I want, then I'll
+go to sleep.”
+
+“It's wonderful,” said the Girl. “That's more than I've heard her talk
+since I came. She is much stronger. Please let her have it.”
+
+The Harvester assented. He gave the child some of the fruit, and told
+her to sit beside the bed and hold the drink when it was asked for. She
+agreed to be very careful and watchful. Then he picked up the bucket,
+and followed by the Girl, returned to the woods.
+
+“Now we have to begin all over again,” he said, as she seated herself at
+the table. “Because of the walk in the heat, this time the programme is
+a little different.”
+
+He replaced the wafer box and opened it, filled the glass, and heaped
+the cold fruit.
+
+“Your aunt is going to have a refreshing sleep now,” he said, “and
+your mind can be free about her for an hour or two. I am very sure your
+mother would not want you deprived of anything because she missed it, so
+you are to enjoy this, if you care for it. At least try a sample.”
+
+The Girl lifted the glass to her lips with a trembling hand.
+
+“I'm like Aunt Molly,” she said; “I wish I could drink all I could
+swallow, and then lie down and go to sleep forever. I suppose this is
+what they have in Heaven.”
+
+“No, it's what they drink all over earth at present, but I have a
+conceit of my own brand. Some of it is too strong of one fruit or of the
+other, and all too sweet for health. This is compounded scientifically
+and it's just right. If you are not accustomed to cold drinks, go
+slowly.”
+
+“You can't scare me,” said the Girl; “I'm going to drink all I want.”
+
+There was a note of excitement in the Harvester's laugh.
+
+“You must have some, too!”
+
+“After a while,” he said. “I was thirsty when I made it, so I don't care
+for any more now. Try the fruit and those wafers. Of course they are not
+home made--they are the best I could do at a bakery. Take time enough to
+eat slowly. I'm going to tell you a tale while you lunch, and it's about
+a Medicine Man named David Langston. It's a very peculiar story,
+but it's quite true. This man lives in the woods east of Onabasha,
+accompanied by his dog, horse, cow, and chickens, and a forest full of
+birds, flowers, and matchless trees. He has lived there in this manner
+for six long years, and every spring he and his dog have a seance and
+agree whether he shall go on gathering medicinal herbs and trying his
+hand at making medicine or go to the city and live as other men. Always
+the dog chooses to remain in the woods.
+
+“Then every spring, on the day the first bluebird comes, the dog also
+decides whether the man shall go on alone or find a mate and bring her
+home for company. Each year the dog regularly has decided that they live
+as always. This spring, for some unforeseen reason, he changed his mind,
+and compelled the man, according to his vow in the beginning, to go
+courting. The man was so very angry at the idea of having a woman in
+his home, interfering with his work, disturbing his arrangements, and
+perhaps wanting to spend more money than he could afford, that he struck
+the dog for making that decision; struck him for the very first time in
+his life----I believe you'd like those apricots. Please try one.”
+
+“Go on with the story,” said the Girl, sipping delicately but constantly
+at the frosty glass.
+
+The Harvester arose and refilled it. Then he dropped pieces of ice over
+the fruit.
+
+“Where was I?” he inquired casually.
+
+“Where you struck Belshazzar, and it's no wonder,” answered the Girl.
+
+Without taking time to ponder that, the Harvester continued:
+
+“But that night the man had a wonderful, golden dream. A beautiful girl
+came to him, and she was so gracious and lovely that he was sufficiently
+punished for striking his dog, because he fell unalterably in love with
+her.”
+
+“Meaning you?” interrupted the Girl.
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester, “meaning me. I----if you like----fell in love
+with the girl. She came so alluringly, and I was so close to her that
+I saw her better than I ever did any other girl, and I knew her for all
+time. When she went, my heart was gone.”
+
+“And you have lived without that important organ ever since?”
+
+“Without even the ghost of it! She took it with her. Well, that dream
+was so real, that the next day I began building over my house, making
+furniture, and planting flowers for her; and every day, wherever I went,
+I watched for her.”
+
+“What nonsense!”
+
+“I can't see it.”
+
+“You won't find a girl you dreamed about in a thousand years.”
+
+“Wrong!” cried the Harvester triumphantly. “Saw her in little less than
+three months, but she vanished and it took some time and difficult work
+before I located her again; but I've got her all solid now, and she
+doesn't escape.”
+
+“Is she a 'lovely and gracious lady'?”
+
+“She is!” said the Harvester, with all his heart.
+
+“Young and beautiful, of course!”
+
+“Indeed yes!”
+
+“Please fill this glass. I told you what I was going to do.”
+
+The Harvester refilled the glass and the Girl drained it.
+
+“Now won't you set aside these things and allow me to go to work?” she
+asked. “My call may come any minute, and I'll never forgive myself if I
+waste time, and don't draw your moth pattern for you.”
+
+“It's against my principles to hurry, and besides, my story isn't
+finished.”
+
+“It is,” said the Girl. “She is young and lovely, gentle and a lady, you
+have her 'all solid,' and she can't 'escape'; that's the end, of course.
+But if I were you, I wouldn't have her until I gave her a chance to get
+away, and saw whether she would if she could.”
+
+“Oh I am not a jailer,” said the Harvester. “She shall be free if I
+cannot make her love me; but I can, and I will; I swear it.”
+
+“You are not truly in earnest?”
+
+“I am in deadly earnest.”
+
+“Honestly, you dreamed about a girl, and found the very one?”
+
+“Most certainly, I did.”
+
+“It sounds like the wildest romancing.”
+
+“It is the veriest reality.”
+
+“Well I hope you win her, and that she will be everything you desire.”
+
+“Thank you,” said the Harvester. “It's written in the book of fate
+that I succeed. The very elements are with me. The South Wind carried
+a message to her for me. I am going to marry her, but you could make it
+much easier for me if you would.”
+
+“I! What could I do?” cried the Girl.
+
+“You could cease being afraid of me. You could learn to trust me. You
+could try to like me, if you see anything likeable about me. That would
+encourage me so that I could tell you of my Dream Girl, and then you
+could show me how to win her. A woman always knows about those things
+better than a man. You could be the greatest help in all the world to
+me, if only you would.”
+
+“I couldn't possibly! I can't leave here. I have no proper clothing to
+appear before another girl. She would be shocked at my white face. That
+I could help you is the most improbable dream you have had.”
+
+“You must pardon me if I differ from you, and persist in thinking that
+you can be of invaluable assistance to me, if you will. But you can't
+influence my Dream Girl, if you fear and distrust me yourself. Promise
+me that you will help me that much, anyway.”
+
+“I'll do all I can. I only want to make you see that I am in no position
+to grant any favours, no matter how much I owe you or how I'd like to.
+Is the candlestick you are carving for her?”
+
+“It is,” said the Harvester. “I am making a pair of maple to stand on a
+dressing table I built for her. It is unusually beautiful wood, I think,
+and I hope she will be pleased with it.”
+
+“Please take these things away and let me begin. This is the only thing
+I can see that I can do for you, and the moth will want to fly before I
+have finished.”
+
+The Harvester cleared the table and placed the box, while the Girl
+spread the paper and began work eagerly.
+
+“I wonder if I knew there were such exquisite things in all the world,”
+ she said. “I scarcely think I did. I am beginning to understand why you
+couldn't kill one. You could make a chair or a table, and so you feel
+free to destroy them; but it takes ages and Almighty wisdom to evolve a
+creature like this, so you don't dare. I think no one else would if they
+really knew. Please talk while I work.”
+
+“Is there a particular subject you want discussed?”
+
+“Anything but her. If I think too strongly of her, I can't work so
+well.”
+
+“Your ginseng is almost dry,” said the Harvester. “I think I can bring
+you the money in a few days.”
+
+“So soon!” she cried.
+
+“It dries day and night in an even temperature, and faster than you
+would believe. There's going to be between seven and eight pounds of
+it, when I make up what it has shrunk. It will go under the head of the
+finest wild roots. I can get eight for it sure.”
+
+“Oh what good news!” cried the Girl. “This is my lucky day, too. And the
+little girl isn't coming, so Aunt Molly must be asleep. Everything goes
+right! If only Uncle Henry wouldn't come home!”
+
+“Let me fill your glass,” proffered the Harvester.
+
+“Just half way, and set it where I can see it,” said the Girl. She
+worked with swift strokes and there was a hint of colour in her face, as
+she looked at him. “I hope you won't think I'm greedy,” she said, “but
+truly, that's the first thing I've had that I could taste in----I can't
+remember when.”
+
+“I'll bring a barrel to-morrow,” offered the Harvester, “and a big piece
+of ice wrapped in coffee sacking.”
+
+“You mustn't think of such a thing! Ice is expensive and so are fruits.”
+
+“Ice costs me the time required to saw and pack it at my home. I almost
+live on the fruit I raise. I confess to a fondness for this drink. I
+have no other personal expenses, unless you count in books, and a very
+few clothes, such as I'm wearing; so I surely can afford all the fruit
+juice I want.”
+
+“For yourself, yes.”
+
+“Also for a couple of women or I am a mighty poor attempt at a man,”
+ said the Harvester. “This is my day, so you are not to talk, because it
+won't do any good. Things go my way.”
+
+“Please see what you think of this,” she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and bent over her.
+
+“That will do finely,” he answered. “You can stop. I don't require all
+those little details for carving, I just want a good outline. It is
+finished. See here!”
+
+He drew some folded papers from his pocket and laid them before her.
+
+“Those are what I have been working from,” he said.
+
+The Girl took them and studied each carefully.
+
+“If those are worth five dollars to you,” she said gently, “why then I
+needn't hesitate to take as much for mine. They are superior.”
+
+“I should say so,” laughed the Harvester as he took up the drawing and
+laid down the money.
+
+“If you would make it half that much I'd feel better about it,” she
+said.
+
+“How could I?” asked the Harvester. “Your fingers are well trained and
+extremely skilful. Because some one has not been paying you enough for
+your work is no reason why I should keep it up. From now on you must
+have what others get. As soon as you can arrange for work, I want to
+tell you about some designs I have studied out from different things,
+show you the plants and insects, and have you make some samples. I'll
+send them to proper places, and see what experts say about the ideas and
+drawing. Work in the woods is healthful, with proper precautions;
+it's easy compared with the exactions of being bound to sewing or
+embroidering in the confinement of a room; it's vividly interesting
+in the search for new subjects, changes of material, and differing
+harmonious combinations; it's truly artistic; and it brings the prices
+high grade stuff always does.”
+
+“Almost you give me hope,” said the Girl. “Almost, Man----almost! Since
+mother died, I haven't thought or planned beyond paying for the medicine
+she took and the shelter she lies in. Oh I didn't mean to say that----!”
+
+She buried her face in her hands. The Harvester suffered until he
+scarcely knew how to bear it.
+
+“Please finish,” he begged. “You hadn't planned beyond the debt, you
+were saying----”
+
+The Girl lifted her tired, strained face.
+
+“Give me a little more of that delicious drink,” she said. “I am
+ravenous for it. It puts new life in me. This and what you say bring a
+far away, misty vision of a clean, bright, peaceful room somewhere, and
+work one could love and live on in comfort; enough to give a desire to
+finish life to its natural end. Oh Man, you make me hope in spite of
+myself!”
+
+“'Praise God from whom all blessings flow;'” quoted the Harvester
+reverently. “Now try one of these peaches. It's juicy and cold. Get that
+room right in focus in your brain, and nurture the idea. Its walls shall
+be bright as sunshine, its floor creamy white, and it shall open into a
+little garden, where only yellow flowers grow, and the birds shall sing.
+The first ray of sun that peeps over the hills of morning shall fall
+through its windows across your bed, and you shall work only as you
+please, after you've had months of play and rest; and it's coming true
+the instant you can leave here. Dream of it, make up your mind to it,
+because it's coming. I have a little streak of second sight, and I see
+it on the way.”
+
+“You are talking wildly,” said the Girl, “else you are a good genie
+trying to conjure a room for me.”
+
+“This room I am talking of is ready whenever you want to take
+possession,” said the Harvester. “Accept it as a reality, because I tell
+you I know where it is, that it is waiting, and you can earn your way
+into it with no obligation to any one.”
+
+The Girl stretched out her right hand and slowly turned and opened and
+closed it. Then she glanced at the Harvester with a weary smile.
+
+“From somewhere I feel a glimmering of the spirit, but Oh, dear Lord,
+the flesh is weak!” she said.
+
+“That's where nourishing foods, appetizing drinks, plenty of pure, fresh
+air, and good water come in. Now we have talked enough for one day, and
+worked too much. The fruit and drink go with you. I will carry it to the
+house, and you can hide it in your room. I am going to put a bottle of
+tonic on top that the best surgeon in the state gave me for you. Try to
+eat something strengthening and then take a spoonful of this, and use
+all the fruit you want. I'll bring more to-morrow and put it here, with
+plenty of ice. Now suppose you let the moth go free,” he suggested to
+avoid objections. “You must take my word for it, that it is perfectly
+harmless, lacking either sting or bite, and hold your hand before it, so
+that it will climb on your fingers. Then stand where a ray of sunshine
+falls and in a few minutes it will go out to live its life.”
+
+The Girl hesitated a second as she studied the clean-cut, interested
+face of the man; then she held out her hand, and he urged the moth to
+climb on her fingers. She stepped where a ray of strong light fell on
+the forest floor and held the moth in it. The brightness also touched
+her transparent hand and white face and the gleaming black hair. The
+Harvester choked down a rising surge of desire for her, and took a new
+grip on himself.
+
+“Oh!” she cried breathlessly, as the clinging feet suddenly loosened and
+the luna slowly flew away among the trees. She turned on the Harvester.
+“You teach me wonders!” she cried. “You give life different meanings.
+You are not as other men.”
+
+“If that be true, it is because I am of the woods. The Almighty does not
+evolve all his wonders in animal, bird, and flower form; He keeps some
+to work out in the heart, if humanity only will go to His school, and
+allow Him to have dominion. Come now, you must go. I will come back and
+put away all the things and tomorrow I will bring your ginseng money.
+Any time you cannot come, if you want to tell me why, or if there is
+anything I can do for you, put a line under the oilcloth. I will carry
+the bucket.”
+
+“I am so afraid,” she said.
+
+“I will only go to the edge of the woods. You can see if there is any
+one at the house first. If not, you can send the child away, and then I
+will carry the bucket to the door for you, and it will furnish comfort
+for one night, at least.”
+
+They went to the cleared land and the Girl passed on alone. Soon she
+reappeared and the Harvester saw the child going down the road. He took
+up the bucket and set it inside the door.
+
+“Is there anything I can do for you?”
+
+“Nothing but go, before you make trouble.”
+
+“Will you hide that stuff and walk back as far as the woods with me?
+There is something more I want to say to you.”
+
+The Girl staggered under the heavy load, and the man turned his head and
+tried to pretend he did not see. Presently she came out to him, and they
+returned to the line of the woods. Just as they entered the shade there
+was a flash before them, and on a twig a few rods away a little gray
+bird alighted, while in precipitate pursuit came a flaming wonder of
+red, and in a burst of excited trills, broken whistles, and imploring
+gestures, perched beside her.
+
+The Harvester hastily drew the Girl behind some bushes.
+
+“Watch!” he whispered. “You are going to see a sight so lovely and so
+rare it is vouchsafed to few mortals ever to behold.”
+
+“What are they fighting about?” she whispered.
+
+“You are witnessing a cardinal bird declare his love,” breathed the
+Harvester.
+
+“Do cardinals love different birds?”
+
+“No. The female is gray, because if she is coloured the same as the
+trees and branches and her nest, she will have more chance to bring off
+her young in safety. He is blood red, because he is the bravest, gayest,
+most ardent lover of the whole woods,” explained the Harvester.
+
+The Girl leaned forward breathlessly watching and a slow surge of colour
+crept into her cheeks. The red bird twisted, whistled, rocked, tilted,
+and trilled, and the gray sat demurely watching him, as if only half
+convinced he really meant it. The gay lover began at the beginning and
+said it all over again with more impassioned gestures than before, and
+then he edged in touch and softly stroked her wing with his beak.
+She appeared startled, but did not fly. So again the fountain of
+half-whistled, half-trilled notes bubbled with the acme of pleading
+intonation and that time he leaned and softly kissed her as she reached
+her bill for the caress. Then she fled in headlong flight, while the
+streak of flame darted after her. The Girl caught her breath in a swift
+spasm of surprise and wonder. She turned to the Harvester.
+
+“What was it you wanted to say to me?” she asked hurriedly.
+
+The Harvester was not the man to miss the goods the gods provided. Truly
+this was his lucky day. Unhesitatingly he took the plunge.
+
+“Precisely what he said to her. And if you observed closely, you noticed
+that she didn't ask him 'why.'”
+
+Before she could open her lips, he was gone, his swift strides carrying
+him through the woods.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. “THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID”
+
+The next day the Harvester lifted the oilcloth, and picking up a folded
+note he read----
+
+“Aunt Molly found rest in the night. She was more comfortable than she
+had been since I have known her. Close the end she whispered to me to
+thank you if I ever saw you again. She will be buried to-morrow. Past
+that, I dare not think.”
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and studied the lines. She would not come
+that day or the next. After a long time he put the note in his pocket,
+wrote an answer telling her he had been there, and would come on the
+following day on the chance of her wanting anything he could do, and the
+next he would bring the ginseng money, so she must be sure to meet him.
+
+Then he went back to the wagon, turned Betsy, and drove around the
+Jameson land watching closely. There were several vehicles in the barn
+lot, and a couple of men sitting under the trees of the door yard. Faded
+bedding hung on the line and women moved through the rooms, but he could
+not see the Girl. Slowly he drove on until he came to the first house,
+and there he stopped and went in. He saw the child of the previous day,
+and as she came forward her mother appeared in the doorway.
+
+The Harvester explained who he was and that he was examining the woods
+in search of some almost extinct herbs he needed in his business.
+Then he told of having been at the adjoining farm the day before and
+mentioned the sick woman. He added that later she had died. He casually
+mentioned that a young woman there seemed pale and ill and wondered
+if the neighbours would see her through. He suggested that the place
+appeared as if the owner did not take much interest, and when the woman
+finished with Henry Jameson, he said how very important it seemed to him
+that some good, kind-hearted soul should go and mother the poor girl,
+and the woman thought she was the very person. Without knowing exactly
+how he did it, the Harvester left with her promise to remain with the
+Girl the coming two nights. The woman had her hands full of strange and
+delicious fruit without understanding why it had been given her, or why
+she had made those promises. She thought the Harvester a remarkably fine
+young man to take such interest in strangers and she told him he was
+welcome to anything he could find on her place that would help with his
+medicines.
+
+The Harvester just happened to be coming from the woods as the woman
+freshly dressed left the house, so he took her in the wagon and drove
+back to the Jameson place, because he was going that way. Then he
+returned to Medicine Woods and worked with all his might.
+
+First he polished floors, cleaned windows, and arranged the rooms
+as best he could inside the cabin; then he gave a finishing touch to
+everything outside. He could not have told why he did it, but he thought
+it was because there was hope that now the Girl would come to Onabasha.
+If he found opportunity to bring her to the city, he hoped that possibly
+he might drive home with her and show Medicine Woods, so everything
+must be in order. Then he worked with flying fingers in the dry-house,
+putting up her ginseng for market, and never was weight so liberal.
+
+The next morning he drove early to Onabasha and came home with a loaded
+wagon, the contents of which he scattered through the cabin where it
+seemed most suitable, but the greater part of it was for her. He glanced
+at the bare floors and walls of the other rooms, and thought of trying
+to improve them, but he was afraid of not getting the right things.
+
+“I don't know much about what is needed here,” he said, “but I am
+perfectly safe in buying anything a girl ever used.”
+
+Then he returned to the city, explained the situation to the doctor, and
+selected the room he wanted in case the Girl could be persuaded to come
+to the hospital. After that he went to see the doctor's wife, and
+made arrangements for her to be ready for a guest, because there was a
+possibility he might want to call for help. He had another jug of fruit
+juice and all the delicacies he could think of, also a big cake of ice,
+when he reached the woods. There were only a few words for him.
+
+“I will come to-morrow at two, if at all possible; if not, keep the
+money until I can.”
+
+There was nothing to do except to place his offering under the oilcloth
+and wait, but he simply was compelled to add a line to say he would be
+there, and to express the hope that she was comfortable as possible and
+thinking of the sunshine room. Then he returned to Medicine Woods to
+wait, and found that possible only by working to exhaustion. There were
+many things he could do, and one after another he finished them, until
+completely worn out; and then he slept the deep sleep of weariness.
+
+At noon the next day he bathed, shaved, and dressed in fresh, clean
+clothing. He stopped in Onabasha for more fruit, and drove to the
+Jameson woods. He was waiting and watching the usual path the Girl
+followed, when her step sounded on the other side. The Harvester arose
+and turned. Her pallor was alarming. She stepped on the rug he had
+spread, and sank almost breathless to the chair.
+
+“Why do you come a new way that fills you with fear?” asked the
+Harvester.
+
+“It seems as if Uncle Henry is watching me every minute, and I didn't
+dare come where he could see. I must not remain a second. You must take
+these things away and go at once. He is dreadful.”
+
+“So am I,” said the Harvester, “when affairs go too everlastingly wrong.
+I am not afraid of any man living. What are you planning to do?”
+
+“I want to ask you, are you sure about the prices of my drawing and the
+ginseng?”
+
+“Absolutely,” said the Harvester. “As for the ginseng it went in fresh
+and early, best wild roots, and it brought eight a pound. There were
+eight pounds when I made up weight and here is your money.”
+
+He handed her a long envelope addressed to her.
+
+“What is the amount?” she asked.
+
+“Sixty-four dollars.”
+
+“I can't believe it.”
+
+“You have it in your fingers.”
+
+“You know that I would like to thank you properly, if I had words to
+express myself.”
+
+“Never mind that,” said the Harvester. “Tell me what you are planning.
+Say that you will come to the hospital for the long, perfect rest now.”
+
+“It is absolutely impossible. Don't weary me by mentioning it. I
+cannot.”
+
+“Will you tell me what you intend doing?”
+
+“I must,” she said, “for it depends entirely on your word. I am going
+to get Uncle Henry's supper, and then go and remain the night with the
+neighbour who has been helping me. In the morning, when he leaves, she
+is coming with her wagon for my trunk, and she is going to drive with me
+to Onabasha and find me a cheap room and loan me a few things, until I
+can buy what I need. I am going to use fourteen dollars of this and my
+drawing money for what I am forced to buy, and pay fifty on my debt.
+Then I will send you my address and be ready for work.”
+
+She clutched the envelope and for the first time looked at him.
+
+“Very well,” said the Harvester. “I could take you to the wife of my
+best friend, the chief surgeon of the city hospital, and everything
+would be ease and rest until you are strong; she would love to have
+you.”
+
+The Girl dropped her hands wearily.
+
+“Don't tire me with it!” she cried. “I am almost falling despite the
+stimulus of food and drink I can touch. I never can thank you properly
+for that. I won't be able to work hard enough to show you how much I
+appreciate what you have done for me. But you don't understand. A woman,
+even a poverty-poor woman, if she be delicately born and reared, cannot
+go to another woman on a man's whim, and when she lacks even the barest
+necessities. I don't refuse to meet your friends. I shall love to, when
+I can be so dressed that I will not shame you. Until that times comes,
+if you are the gentleman you appear to be, you will wait without urging
+me further.”
+
+“I must be a man, in order to be a gentleman,” said the Harvester. “And
+it is because the man in me is in hot rebellion against more loneliness,
+pain, and suffering for you, that the conventions become chains I do not
+care how soon or how roughly I break. If only you could be induced to
+say the word, I tell you I could bring one of God's gentlest women to
+you.”
+
+“And probably she would come in a dainty gown, in her carriage or motor,
+and be disgusted, astonished, and secretly sorry for you. As for me, I
+do not require her pity. I will be glad to know the beautiful, refined,
+and gentle woman you are so certain of, but not until I am better
+dressed and more attractive in appearance than now. If you will give me
+your address, I will write you when I am ready for work.”
+
+Silently the Harvester wrote it. “Will you give me permission to take
+these things to your neighbour for you?” he asked. “They would serve
+until you can do better, and I have no earthly use for them.”
+
+She hesitated. Then she laughed shortly.
+
+“What a travesty my efforts at pride are with you!” she cried. “I begin
+by trying to preserve some proper dignity, and end by confessing abject
+poverty. I yet have the ten you paid me the other day, but twenty-four
+dollars are not much to set up housekeeping on, and I would be more glad
+than I can say for these very things.”
+
+“Thank you,” said the Harvester. “I will take them when I go. Is there
+anything else?”
+
+“I think not.”
+
+“Will you have a drink?”
+
+“Yes, if you have more with you. I believe it is really cooling my
+blood.”
+
+“Are you taking the medicine?”
+
+“Yes,” she said, “and I am stronger. Truly I am. I know I appear ghastly
+to you, but it's loss of sleep, and trying to lay away poor Aunt Molly
+decently, and----”
+
+“And fear of Uncle Henry,” added the Harvester.
+
+“Yes,” said the Girl. “That most of all! He thinks I am going to stay
+here and take her place. I can't tell him I am not, and how I am to hide
+from him when I am gone, I don't know. I am afraid of him.”
+
+“Has he any claim on you?”
+
+“Shelter for the past three months.”
+
+“Are you of age?”
+
+“I am almost twenty-four,” she said.
+
+“Then suppose you leave Uncle Henry to me,” suggested the Harvester.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Careful now! The red bird told you why!” said the man. “I will not
+urge it upon you now, but keep it steadily in the back of your head that
+there is a sunshine room all ready and waiting for you, and I am going
+to take you to it very soon. As things are, I think you might allow me
+to tell you----”
+
+She was on her feet in instant panic. “I must go,” she said. “Uncle
+Henry is dogging me to promise to remain, and I will not, and he is
+watching me. I must go----”
+
+“Can you give me your word of honour that you will go to the neighbour
+woman to-night; that you feel perfectly safe?”
+
+She hesitated. “Yes, I----I think so. Yes, if he doesn't find out and
+grow angry. Yes, I will be safe.”
+
+“How soon will you write me?”
+
+“Just as soon as I am settled and rest a little.”
+
+“Do you mean several days?”
+
+“Yes, several days.”
+
+“An eternity!” cried the Harvester with white lips. “I cannot let you
+go. Suppose you fall ill and fail to write me, and I do not know where
+you are, and there is no one to care for you.”
+
+“But can't you see that I don't know where I will be? If it will satisfy
+you, I will write you a line to-morrow night and tell you where I am,
+and you can come later.”
+
+“Is that a promise?” asked the Harvester.
+
+“It is,” said the Girl.
+
+“Then I will take these things to your neighbour and wait until
+to-morrow night. You won't fail me?”
+
+“I never in all my life saw a man so wild over designs,” said the Girl,
+as she started toward the house.
+
+“Don't forget that the design I'm craziest about is the same as the red
+bird's,” the Harvester flung after her, but she hurried on and made no
+reply.
+
+He folded the table and chair, rolled the rug, and shouldering them
+picked up the bucket and started down the river bank.
+
+“David!”
+
+Such a faint little call he never would have been sure he heard anything
+if Belshazzar had not stopped suddenly. The hair on the back of his neck
+arose and he turned with a growl in his throat. The Harvester dropped
+his load with a crash and ran in leaping bounds, but the dog was before
+him. Half way to the house, Ruth Jameson swayed in the grip of her
+uncle. One hand clutched his coat front in a spasmodic grasp, and with
+the other she covered her face.
+
+The roar the Harvester sent up stayed the big, lifted fist, and the dog
+leaped for a throat hold, and compelled the man to defend himself. The
+Harvester never knew how he covered the space until he stood between
+them, and saw the Girl draw back and snatch together the front of her
+dress.
+
+“He took it from me!” she panted. “Make him, oh make him give back my
+money!”
+
+Then for a few seconds things happened too rapidly to record. Once the
+Harvester tossed a torn envelope exposing money to the Girl, and again a
+revolver, and then both men panting and dishevelled were on their feet.
+
+“Count your money, Ruth?” said the Harvester in a voice of deadly quiet.
+
+“It is all here,” said she.
+
+“Her money?” cried Henry Jameson. “My money! She has been stealing the
+price of my cattle from my pockets. I thought I was short several times
+lately.”
+
+“You are lying,” said the Harvester deliberately. “It is her money. I
+just paid it to her. You were trying to take it from her, not the other
+way.”
+
+“Oh, she is in your pay?” leered the man.
+
+“If you say an insulting word I think very probably I will finish you,”
+ said the Harvester. “I can, with my naked hands, and all your neighbours
+will say it is a a good job. You have felt my grip! I warn you!”
+
+“How does my niece come to be taking money from you!”
+
+“You have forfeited all right to know. Ruth, you cannot remain here. You
+must come with me. I will take you to Onabasha and find you a room.”
+
+A horrible laugh broke from the man.
+
+“So that is the end of my saintly niece!” he said.
+
+“Remember!” cried the Harvester advancing a step. “Ruth, will you go to
+the rest I suggested for you?”
+
+“I cannot.”
+
+“Will you go to Doctor Carey's wife?”
+
+“Impossible!”
+
+“Will you marry me and go to the shelter of my home with me?”
+
+Wild-eyed she stared at him.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because I love you, and want life made easier for you, above anything
+else on earth.”
+
+“But your Dream Girl!”
+
+“YOU ARE THE DREAM GIRL! I thought the red bird told you for me! I
+didn't know it would be a shock. I believed I had made you understand.”
+
+By that time she was shaking with a nervous chill, and the sight
+unmanned the Harvester.
+
+“Come with me!” he urged. “We will decide what you want to do on the
+way. Only come, I beg you.”
+
+“First it was marry, now it's decide later,” broke in Henry Jameson,
+crazed with anger. “Move a step and I'll strike you down. I'd better
+than see you disgraced----”
+
+The Harvester advanced and Jameson stepped back.
+
+“Ruth,” said the Harvester, “I know how impossible this seems. It is
+giving you no chance at all. I had intended, when I found you, to court
+you tenderly as girl ever was wooed before. Come with me, and I'll do
+it yet. The new home was built for you. The sunshine room is ready and
+waiting for you. There is pure air, fresh water, nothing but rest and
+comfort. I'll nurse you back to health and strength, and you shall be
+courted until you come to me of your own accord.”
+
+“Impossible!” cried the girl.
+
+“Only if you make it so. If you will come now, we can be married in a
+few hours, and you can be safe in your own home. I realize now that
+this is unexpected and shocking to you, but if you will come with me and
+allow me to restore you to health and strength, and if, say, in a year,
+you are convinced that you do not love me, I will set you free. If
+you will come, I swear to you that you shall be my wife first, and my
+honoured guest afterward, until such time as you either tell me you love
+me or that you never can. Will you come on those terms, Ruth?”
+
+“I cannot!”
+
+“It will end fear, uncertainty, and work, until you are strong and well.
+It will give you home, rest, and love, that you will find is worth your
+consideration. I will keep my word; of that you may be sure.”
+
+“No,” she cried. “No! But take back this money! Keep it until I tell you
+to whom to pay it.”
+
+She started toward him holding out the envelope.
+
+Henry Jameson, with a dreadful oath, sprang for it, his contorted face
+a drawn snarl. The Harvester caught him in air and sent him reeling. He
+snatched the revolver from the Girl and put the money in his pocket.
+
+“Ruth, I can't leave you here,” he said. “Oh my Dream Girl! Are you
+afraid of me yet? Won't you trust me? Won't you come?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“You are right about that, my lady; you will come back to the house,
+that's what you'll do,” said Henry Jameson, starting toward her.
+
+“No!” cried the Girl retreating. “Oh Heaven help me! What am I to do?”
+
+“Ruth, you must come with me,” said the Harvester. “I don't dare leave
+you here.”
+
+She stood between them and gave Henry Jameson one long, searching look.
+Then she turned to the Harvester.
+
+“I am far less afraid of you. I will accept your offer,” she said.
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester. “I will keep my word and you shall have
+no regrets. Is there anything here you wish to take with you?”
+
+“I want a little trunk of my mother's. It contains some things of hers.”
+
+“Will you show me where it is?”
+
+She started toward the house; he followed, and Henry Jameson fell in
+line. The Harvester turned on him. “You remain where you are,” he said.
+“I will take nothing but the trunk. I know what you are thinking,
+but you will not get your gun just now. I will return this revolver
+to-morrow.”
+
+“And the first thing I do with it will be to use it on you,” said Henry
+Jameson.
+
+“I'll report that threat to the police, so that they can see you
+properly hanged if you do,” retorted the Harvester, as he followed the
+girl.
+
+“Where is his gun?” he asked as he overtook her. When he reached the
+house he told her to watch the door. He went inside, broke the lock from
+the gun in the corner, found the trunk, and swinging it to his shoulder,
+passed Henry Jameson and went back through the woods. The Harvester set
+the trunk in the wagon, helped the Girl in, and returned for the load
+he had dropped at her call. Then he took the lines and started for
+Onabasha.
+
+The Girl beside him was almost fainting. He stopped to give her a drink
+and tried to encourage her.
+
+“Brace up the best you can, Ruth,” he said. “You must go with me for a
+license; that is the law. Afterward, I'll make it just as easy for
+you as possible. I will do everything, and in a few hours you will be
+comfortable in your room. You brave girl! This must come out right!
+You have suffered more than your share. I will have peace for you the
+remainder of the way.”
+
+She lifted shaking hands and tried to arrange her hair and dress. As
+they neared the city she spoke.
+
+“What will they ask me?”
+
+“I don't know. But I am sure the law requires you to appear in person
+now. I can take you somewhere and find out first.”
+
+“That will take time. I want to reach my room. What would you think?”
+
+“If you are of age, where you were born, if you are a native of this
+country, what your father and mother died of, how old they were, and
+such questions as that. I'll help you all I can. You know those things.
+don't you?”
+
+“Yes. But I must tell you----”
+
+“I don't want to be told anything,” said the Harvester. “Save your
+strength. All I want to know is any way in which I can make this easier
+for you. Nothing else matters. I will tell you what I think; if you have
+any objections, make them. I will drive to the bank and get a draft for
+what you owe, and have that off your mind. Then we will get the license.
+After that I'll take you to the side door, slip you in the elevator and
+to the fitting room of a store where I know the manager, and you shall
+have some pretty clothing while I arrange for a minister, and I'll come
+for you with a carriage. That isn't the kind of wedding you or any other
+girl should have, but there are times when a man only can do his best.
+You will help me as much as you can, won't you?”
+
+“Anything you choose. It doesn't matter----only be quick as possible.”
+
+“There are a few details to which I must attend,” said the Harvester,
+“and the time will go faster trying on dresses than waiting alone. When
+you are properly clothed you will feel better. What did you say the
+amount you owe is?”
+
+“You may get a draft for fifty dollars. I will pay the remainder when I
+earn it.”
+
+“Ruth, won't you give me the pleasure of taking you home free from the
+worry of that debt?”
+
+“I am not going to 'worry.' I am going to work and pay it.”
+
+“Very well,” said the Harvester. “This is the bank. We will stop here.”
+
+They went in and he handed her a slip of paper.
+
+“Write the name and address on that?” he said.
+
+As the slip was returned to him, without a glance he folded it and slid
+it under a wicket. “Write a draft for fifty dollars payable to that
+party, and send to that address, from Miss Ruth Jameson,” he said.
+
+Then he turned to her.
+
+“That is over. See how easy it is! Now we will go to the court house. It
+is very close. Try not to think. Just move and speak.”
+
+“Hello, Langston!” said the clerk. “What can we do for you here?”
+
+“Show this girl every consideration,” whispered the Harvester, as he
+advanced. “I want a marriage license in your best time. I will answer
+first.”
+
+With the document in his possession, they went to the store he
+designated, where he found the Girl a chair in the fitting room, while
+he went to see the manager.
+
+“I want one of your most sensible and accommodating clerks,” said the
+Harvester, “and I would like a few words with her.”
+
+When she was presented he scrutinized her carefully and decided she
+would do.
+
+“I have many thanks and something more substantial for a woman who will
+help me to carry through a slightly unusual project with sympathy and
+ability,” he said, “and the manager has selected you. Are you willing?”
+
+“If I can,” said the clerk.
+
+“She has put up your other orders,” interposed the manager; “were they
+satisfactory?”
+
+“I don't know,” said the Harvester. “They have not yet reached the one
+for whom they were intended. What I want you to do,” he said to the
+clerk, “is to go to the fitting room and dress the girl you find there
+for her wedding. She had other plans, but death disarranged them, and
+she has only an hour in which to meet the event most girls love to
+linger over for months. She has been ill, and is worn with watching; but
+some time she may look back to her wedding day with joy, and if only
+you would help me to make the best of it for her, I would be, as I said,
+under more obligations than I can express.”
+
+“I will do anything,” said the clerk.
+
+“Very well,” said the Harvester. “She has come from the country entirely
+unprepared. She is delicate and refined. Save her all the embarrassment
+you can. Dress her beautifully in white. Keep a memorandum slip of what
+you spend for my account.”
+
+“What is the limit?” asked the clerk.
+
+“There is none,” said the Harvester. “Put the prettiest things on her
+you have in the right sizes, and if you are a woman with a heart, be
+gentle!”
+
+“Is she ready?” inquired the manager at the door an hour later.
+
+“I am,” said the Girl stepping through.
+
+The astounded Harvester stood and stared, utterly oblivious of the
+curious people.
+
+“Here, here, here!” suddenly he whistled it, in the red bird's most
+entreating tones.
+
+The Girl laughed and the colour in her face deepened.
+
+“Let us go,” she said.
+
+“But what about you?” asked the manager of the Harvester.
+
+“Thunder!” cried the man aghast. “I was so busy getting everything else
+ready, I forgot all about myself. I can't stand before a minister beside
+her, can I?”
+
+“Well I should say not,” said the manager.
+
+“Indeed yes,” said the Girl. “I never saw you in any other clothing. You
+would be a stranger of whom I'd be afraid.”
+
+“That settles it!” said the Harvester calmly. “Thank all of you more
+than words can express. I will come in the first of the week and tell
+you how we get along.”
+
+Then they went to the carriage and started for the residence of a
+minister.
+
+“Ruth, you are my Dream Girl to the tips of your eyelashes,” said the
+Harvester. “I almost wish you were not. It wouldn't keep me thinking so
+much of the remainder of that dream. You are the loveliest sight I ever
+saw.”
+
+“Do I really appear well?” asked the Girl, hungry for appreciation.
+
+“Indeed you do!” said the Harvester. “I never could have guessed that
+such a miracle could be wrought. And you don't seem so tired. Were they
+good to you?”
+
+“Wonderfully! I did not know there was kindness like that in all the
+world for a stranger. I did not feel lost or embarrassed, except the
+first few seconds when I didn't know what to do. Oh I thank you for
+this! You were right. Whatever comes in life I always shall love to
+remember that I was daintily dressed and appeared as well as I could
+when I was married. But I must tell you I am not real. They did
+everything on earth to me, three of them working at a time. I feel an
+increase in self-respect in some way. David, I do appear better?”
+
+When she said “David,” the Harvester looked out of the window and gulped
+down his delight. He leaned toward her.
+
+“Shut your eyes and imagine you see the red bird,” he said. “In my
+soul, I am saying to you again and again just what he sang. You are
+wonderfully beautiful, Ruth, and more than wonderfully sweet. Will you
+answer me a question?”
+
+“If I can.”
+
+“I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”
+
+“I said I would.”
+
+“Then we are engaged, aren't we?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Please remove the glove from your left hand. I want to put on your
+ring. This will have to be a very short engagement, but no one save
+ourselves need know.”
+
+“David, that isn't necessary.”
+
+“I have it here, and believe me, Ruth, it will help in a few minutes;
+and all your life you will be glad. It is a precious symbol that has a
+meaning. This wedding won't be hurt by putting all the sacredness into
+it we can. Please, Ruth!”
+
+“On one condition.”
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“That you will accept and wear my mother's wedding ring in exchange,”
+ she said. “It is all I have.”
+
+“Ruth, do you really wish that?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“I am more pleased than I can tell you. May I have it now?”
+
+She took off her glove and the Harvester held her hand closely a second,
+then lifted it to his lips, passionately kissed it and slipped on a
+ring, the setting a big, lustrous pearl.
+
+“I looked at some others,” he said, “but nothing got a second glance
+save this. They knew you were coming down the ages, and so they got the
+pearls ready. How beautiful it is on your hand! Put on the glove and
+wear that ring as if you had owned it for the long, happy year of
+betrothal every girl should have. You can start yours to-day, and if by
+this time next year I have not won you to my heart and arms, I'm no
+man and not worthy of you. Ruth, you will try just a little to love me,
+won't you?”
+
+“I will try with all my heart,” she said instantly.
+
+“Thank you! I am perfectly happy with that. I never expected to marry
+you before a year, anyway. All the difference will be the blessed fact
+that instead of coming to see you somewhere else, I now can have you in
+my care, and court you every minute. You might as well make up your mind
+to capitulate soon. It's on the books that you do.”
+
+“If an instant ever comes when I realize that I love you, I will come
+straight and tell you; believe me, I will.”
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester. “This is going to be quite a proper
+wedding after all. Here is the place. It will be over soon and you on
+the home way. Lord, Ruth----!”
+
+The Girl smiled at him as he opened the carriage door, helped her up the
+steps and rang the bell.
+
+“Be brave now!” he whispered. “Don't lose your lovely colour. These
+people will be as kind as they were at the store.”
+
+The minister was gentle and wasted no time. His wife and daughter, who
+appeared for witnesses, kissed Ruth, and congratulated her. She and the
+Harvester stood, took the vows, exchanged rings, and returned to the
+carriage, a man and his wife by the laws of man.
+
+“Drive to Seaton's cafe',” the Harvester said.
+
+“Oh David, let us go home!”
+
+“This is so good I hate to stop it for something you may not like so
+well. I ordered lunch and if we don't eat it I will have to pay for it
+anyway. You wouldn't want me to be extravagant, would you?”
+
+“No,” said the Girl, “and besides, since you mention it, I believe I am
+hungry.”
+
+“Good!” cried the Harvester. “I hoped so! Ruth, you wouldn't allow me
+to hold your hand just until we reach the cafe'? It might save me from
+bursting with joy.”
+
+“Yes,” she said. “But I must take off my lovely gloves first. I want to
+keep them forever.”
+
+“I'd hate the glove being removed dreadfully,” said the Harvester, his
+eyes dancing and snapping.
+
+“I'm sorry I am so thin and shaky,” said the Girl. “I will be steady and
+plump soon, won't I?”
+
+“On your life you will,” said the Harvester, taking the hand gently.
+
+Now there are a number of things a man deeply in love can think of to do
+with a woman's white hand. He can stroke it, press it tenderly, and lay
+it against his lips and his heart. The Harvester lacked experience
+in these arts, and yet by some wonderful instinct all of these things
+occurred to him. There was real colour in the Girl's cheeks by the time
+he helped her into the cafe'. They were guided to a small room, cool and
+restful, close a window, beside which grew a tree covered with talking
+leaves. A waiting attendant, who seemed perfectly adept, brought in
+steaming bouillon, fragrant tea, broiled chicken, properly cooked
+vegetables, a wonderful salad, and then delicious ices and cold fruit.
+The happy Harvester leaned back and watched the Girl daintily manage
+almost as much food as he wanted to see her eat.
+
+When they had finished, “Now we are going home,” he said. “Will you try
+to like it, Ruth?”
+
+“Indeed I will,” she promised. “As soon as I grow accustomed to the
+dreadful stillness, and learn what things will not bite me, I'll be
+better.”
+
+“I'll have to ask you to wait a minute,” he said. “One thing I forgot. I
+must hire a man to take Betsy home.”
+
+“Aren't you going to drive her yourself?”
+
+“No ma'am! We are going in a carriage or a motor,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Indeed we are not!” contradicted the Girl. “You have had this all your
+way so far. I am going home behind Betsy, with Belshazzar at my knee.”
+
+“But your dress! People will think I am crazy to put a lovely woman like
+you in a spring wagon.”
+
+“Let them!” said the Girl placidly. “Why should we bother about other
+people? I am going with Betsy and Belshazzar.”
+
+The Harvester had been thinking that he adored her, that it was
+impossible to love her more, but every minute was proving to him that he
+was capable of feeling so profound it startled him. To carry the Girl,
+his bride, through the valley and up the hill in the little spring wagon
+drawn by Betsy--that would have been his ideal way. But he had supposed
+that she would be afraid of soiling her dress, and embarrassed to ride
+in such a conveyance. Instead it was her choice. Yes, he could love her
+more. Hourly she was proving that.
+
+“Come this way a few steps,” he said. “Betsy is here.”
+
+The Girl laid her face against the nose of the faithful old animal, and
+stroked her head and neck. Then she held her skirts and the Harvester
+helped her into the wagon. She took the seat, and the dog went wild with
+joy.
+
+“Come on, Bel,” she softly commanded.
+
+The dog hesitated, and looked at the Harvester for permission.
+
+“You may come here and put your head on my knee,” said the Girl.
+
+“Belshazzar, you lucky dog, you are privileged to sit there and lay your
+head on the lady's lap,” said the Harvester, and the dog quivered with
+joy.
+
+Then the man picked up the lines, gave a backward glance to the bed
+of the wagon, high piled with large bundles, and turned Betsy toward
+Medicine Woods. Through the crowded streets and toward the country they
+drove, when a big red car passed, a man called to them, then reversed
+and slowly began backing beside the wagon. The Harvester stopped.
+
+“That is my best friend, Doctor Carey, of the hospital, Ruth,” he said
+hastily. “May I tell him, and will you shake hands with him?”
+
+“Certainly!” said the Girl.
+
+“Is it really you, David?” the doctor peered with gleaming eyes from
+under the car top.
+
+“Really!” cried the Harvester, as man greets man with a full heart when
+he is sure of sympathy. “Come, give us your best send-off, Doc! We were
+married an hour ago. We are headed for Medicine Woods. Doctor Carey,
+this is Mrs. Langston.”
+
+“Mighty glad to know you!” cried the doctor, reaching a happy hand.
+
+The Girl met it cordially, while she smiled on him.
+
+“How did this happen?” demanded the doctor. “Why didn't you let us know?
+This is hardly fair of you, David. You might have let me and the Missus
+share with you.”
+
+“That is to be explained,” said the Harvester. “It was decided on very
+suddenly, and rather sadly, on account of the death of Mrs. Jameson. I
+forced Ruth to marry me and come with me. I grow rather frightened when
+I think of it, but it was the only way I knew. She absolutely refused my
+other plans. You see before you a wild man carrying away a woman to his
+cave.”
+
+“Don't believe him, Doctor!” laughed the Girl. “If you know him, you
+will understand that to offer all he had was like him, when he saw my
+necessity. You will come to see us soon?”
+
+“I'll come right now,” said the doctor. “I'll bring my wife and arrive
+by the time you do.”
+
+“Oh no you won't!” said the Harvester. “Do you observe the bed of
+this wagon? This happened all 'unbeknownst' to us. We have to set up
+housekeeping after we reach home. We will notify you when we are ready
+for visitors. Just you subside and wait until you are sent for.”
+
+“Why David!” cried the astonished Girl.
+
+“That's the law!” said the Harvester tersely. “Good-bye, Doc; we'll be
+ready for you in a day or two.”
+
+He leaned down and held out his hand. The grip that caught it said all
+any words could convey; and then Betsy started up the hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. WHEN THE DREAM CAME TRUE
+
+At first the road lay between fertile farms dotted with shocked wheat,
+covered with undulant seas of ripening oats, and forests of growing
+corn. The larks were trailing melody above the shorn and growing fields,
+the quail were ingathering beside the fences, and from the forests on
+graceful wings slipped the nighthawks and sailed and soared, dropping
+so low that the half moons formed by white spots on their spread wings
+showed plainly.
+
+“Why is this country so different from the other side of the city?”
+ asked the Girl.
+
+“It is older,” replied the Harvester, “and it lies higher. This was
+settled and well cultivated when that was a swamp. But as a farming
+proposition, the money is in the lowland like your uncle's. The crops
+raised there are enormous compared with the yield of these fields.”
+
+“I see,” said she. “But this is much better to look at and the air is
+different. It lacks a soggy, depressing quality.”
+
+“I don't allow any air to surpass that of Medicine Woods,” said the
+Harvester, “by especial arrangement with the powers that be.”
+
+Then they dipped into a little depression and arose to cross the
+railroad and then followed a longer valley that was ragged and unkempt
+compared with the road between cultivated fields. The Harvester was busy
+trying to plan what to do first, and how to do it most effectively, and
+working his brain to think if he had everything the Girl would require
+for her comfort; so he drove silently through the deepening shadows. She
+shuddered and awoke him suddenly. He glanced at her from the corner of
+his eye.
+
+Her thoughts had gone on a journey, also, and the way had been rough,
+for her face wore a strained appearance. The hands lying bare in her lap
+were tightly gripped, so that the nails and knuckles appeared blue.
+The Harvester hastily cast around seeking for the cause of the
+transformation. A few minutes ago she had seemed at ease and
+comfortable, now she was close open panic. Nothing had been said that
+would disturb her. With brain alert he searched for the reason. Then
+it began to come to him. The unaccustomed silence and depression of the
+country might have been the beginning. Coming from the city and crowds
+of people to the gloomy valley with a man almost a stranger, going she
+knew not where, to conditions she knew not what, with the experiences of
+the day vivid before her. The black valley road was not prepossessing,
+with its border of green pools, through which grew swamp bushes and
+straggling vines. The Harvester looked carefully at the road, and ceased
+to marvel at the Girl. But he disliked to let her know he understood, so
+he gave one last glance at those gripped hands and casually held out the
+lines.
+
+“Will you take these just a second?” he asked. “Don't let them touch
+your dress. We must not lose of our load, because it's mostly things
+that will make you more comfortable.”
+
+He arose, and turning, pretended to see that everything was all right.
+Then he resumed his seat and drove on.
+
+“I am a little ashamed of this stretch through here,” he said
+apologetically. “I could have managed to have it cleared and in better
+shape long ago, but in a way it yields a snug profit, and so far I've
+preferred the money. The land is not mine, but I could grub out this
+growth entirely, instead of taking only what I need.”
+
+“Is there stuff here you use?” the Girl aroused herself to ask, and the
+Harvester saw the look of relief that crossed her face at the sound of
+his voice.
+
+“Well I should say yes,” he laughed. “Those bushes, numerous everywhere,
+with the hanging yellow-green balls, those, in bark and root, go into
+fever medicines. They are not so much used now, but sometimes I have a
+call, and when I do, I pass the beds on my----on our land, and come down
+here and get what is needed. That bush,” he indicated with the whip,
+“blooms exquisitely in the spring. It is a relative of flowering
+dogwood, and the one of its many names I like best is silky cornel.
+Isn't that pretty?”
+
+“Yes,” she said, “it is beautiful.”
+
+“I've planted some for you in a hedge along the driveway so next spring
+you can gather all you want. I think you'll like the odour. The bark
+brings more than true dogwood. If I get a call from some house that uses
+it, I save mine and come down here. Around the edge are hop trees, and
+I realize something from them, and also the false and true bitter-sweet
+that run riot here. Both of them have pretty leaves, while the berries
+of the true hang all winter and the colour is gorgeous. I've set your
+hedge closely with them. When it has grown a few months it's going to
+furnish flowers in the spring, a million different, wonderful leaves
+and berries in the summer, many fruits the birds love in the fall, and
+bright berries, queer seed pods, and nuts all winter.”
+
+“You planted it for me?”
+
+“Yes. I think it will be beautiful in a season or two; it isn't so bad
+now. I hope it will call myriads of birds to keep you company. When
+you cross this stretch of road hereafter, don't see fetid water and
+straggling bushes and vines; just say to yourself, this helps to fill
+orders!”
+
+“I am perfectly tolerant of it now,” she said. “You make everything
+different. I will come with you and help collect the roots and barks
+you want. Which bush did you say relieved the poor souls scorching with
+fever?”
+
+The Harvester drew on the lines, Betsy swerved to the edge of the road,
+and he leaned and broke a branch.
+
+“This one,” he answered. “Buttonbush, because those balls resemble round
+buttons. Aren't they peculiar? See how waxy and gracefully cut and set
+the leaves are. Go on, Betsy, get us home before night. We appear our
+best early in the morning, when the sun tops Medicine Woods and begins
+to light us up, and in the evening, just when she drops behind Onabasha
+back there, and strikes us with a few level rays. Will you take the
+lines until I open this gate?”
+
+She laid the twig in her lap on the white gloves and took the lines.
+As the gate swung wide, Betsy walked through and stopped at the usual
+place.
+
+“Now my girl,” said the Harvester, “cross yourself, lean back, and take
+your ease. This side that gate you are at home. From here on belongs to
+us.”
+
+“To you, you mean,” said the Girl.
+
+“To us, I mean,” declared the Harvester. “Don't you know that the
+'worldly goods bestowal' clause in a marriage ceremony is a partial
+reality. It doesn't give you 'all my worldly goods,' but it gives you
+one third. Which will you take, the hill, lake, marsh, or a part of all
+of them.”
+
+“Oh, is there water?”
+
+“Did I forget to mention that I was formerly sole owner and proprietor
+of the lake of Lost Loons, also a brook of Singing Water, and many cold
+springs. The lake covers about one third of our land, and my neighbours
+would allow me ditch outlet to the river, but they say I'm too lazy to
+take it.”
+
+“Lazy! Do they mean drain your lake into the river?”
+
+“They do,” said the Harvester, “and make the bed into a cornfield.”
+
+“But you wouldn't?”
+
+She turned to him with confidence.
+
+“I haven't so far, but of course, when you see it, if you would prefer
+it in a corn----Let's play a game! Turn your head in this direction,”
+ he indicated with the whip, “close your eyes, and open them when I say
+ready.”
+
+“All right!”
+
+“Now!” said the Harvester.
+
+“Oh,” cried the Girl. “Stop! Please stop!”
+
+They were at the foot of a small levee that ran to the bridge crossing
+Singing Water. On the left lay the valley through which the stream swept
+from its hurried rush down the hill, a marshy thicket of vines, shrubs,
+and bushes, the banks impassable with water growth. Everywhere flamed
+foxfire and cardinal flower, thousands of wild tiger lilies lifted
+gorgeous orange-red trumpets, beside pearl-white turtle head and moon
+daisies, while all the creek bank was a coral line with the first
+opening bloom of big pink mallows. Rank jewel flower poured gold from
+dainty cornucopias and lavender beard-tongue offered honey to a million
+bumbling bees; water smart-weed spread a glowing pink background, and
+twining amber dodder topped the marsh in lacy mist with its delicate
+white bloom. Straight before them a white-sanded road climbed to the
+bridge and up a gentle hill between the young hedge of small trees and
+bushes, where again flowers and bright colours rioted and led to the
+cabin yet invisible. On the right, the hill, crowned with gigantic
+forest trees, sloped to the lake; midway the building stood, and from
+it, among scattering trees all the way to the water's edge, were immense
+beds of vivid colour. Like a scarf of gold flung across the face of
+earth waved the misty saffron, and beside the road running down the
+hill, in a sunny, open space arose tree-like specimens of thrifty
+magenta pokeberry. Down the hill crept the masses of colour, changing
+from dry soil to water growth.
+
+High around the blue-green surface of the lake waved lacy heads of wild
+rice, lower cat-tails, bulrushes, and marsh grasses; arrowhead lilies
+lifted spines of pearly bloom, while yellow water lilies and blue water
+hyacinths intermingled; here and there grew a pink stretch of water
+smartweed and the dangling gold of jewel flower. Over the water,
+bordering the edge, starry faces of white pond lilies floated. Blue
+flags waved graceful leaves, willows grew in clumps, and vines clambered
+everywhere.
+
+Among the growth of the lake shore, duck, coot, and grebe voices
+commingled in the last chattering hastened splash of securing supper
+before bedtime; crying killdeers crossed the water, and overhead the
+nighthawks massed in circling companies. Betsy climbed the hill and at
+every step the Girl cried, “Slower! please go slower!” With wide eyes
+she stared around her.
+
+“WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS?” she demanded in awed
+tones.
+
+“Have I had opportunity to describe much of anything?” asked the
+Harvester. “Besides, I was born and reared here, and while it has been
+a garden of bloom for the past six years only, it always has been a
+picture; but one forgets to say much about a sight seen every day and
+that requires the work this does.”
+
+“That white mist down there, what is it?” she marvelled.
+
+“Pearls grown by the Almighty,” answered the Harvester. “Flowers that I
+hope you will love. They are like you. Tall and slender, graceful, pearl
+white and pearl pure----those are the arrowhead Lilies.”
+
+“And the wonderful purplish-red there on the bank? Oh, I could kneel and
+pray before colour like that!'
+
+“Pokeberry!” said the Harvester. “Roots bring five cents a pound. Good
+blood purifier.”
+
+“Man!” cried the Girl. “How can you? I'm not going to ask what another
+colour is. I'll just worship what I like in silence.”
+
+“Will you forgive me if I tell you what a woman whose judgment I respect
+says about that colour?”
+
+“Perhaps!”
+
+“She says, 'God proves that He loves it best of all the tints in His
+workshop by using it first and most sparingly.' Now are you going to
+punish me by keeping silent?”
+
+“I couldn't if I tried.” Just then they came upon the bridge crossing
+Singing Water, and there was a long view of its border, rippling bed,
+and marshy banks; while on the other hand the lake resembled a richly
+incrusted sapphire.
+
+“Is the house close?”
+
+“Just a few rods, at the turn of the drive.”
+
+“Please help me down. I want to remain here a while. I don't care what
+else there is to see. Nothing can equal this. I wish I could bring down
+a bed and sleep here. I'd like to have a table, and draw and paint. I
+understand now what you mean about the designs you mentioned. Why, there
+must be thousands! I can't go on. I never saw anything so appealing in
+all my life.”
+
+Now the Harvester's mother had designed that bridge and he had built
+it with much care. From bark-covered railings to solid oak floor and
+comfortable benches running along the sides it was intended to be a part
+of the landscape.
+
+“I'll send Belshazzar to the cabin with the wagon,” he said, “so you can
+see better.”
+
+“But you must not!” she cried. “I can't walk. I wouldn't soil these
+beautiful shoes for anything.”
+
+“Why don't you change them?” inquired the Harvester.
+
+“I am afraid I forgot everything I had,” said the Girl.
+
+“There are shoes somewhere in this load. I thought of them in getting
+other things for you, but I had no idea as to size, and so I told that
+clerk to-day when she got your measure to put in every kind you'd need.”
+
+“You are horribly extravagant,” she said. “But if you have them here,
+perhaps I could use one pair.”
+
+The Harvester mounted the wagon and hunted until he found a large box,
+and opening it on the bench he disclosed almost every variety of shoe,
+walking shoe and slipper, a girl ever owned, as well as sandals and high
+overshoes.
+
+“For pity sake!” cried the Girl. “Cover that box! You frighten me.
+You'll never get them paid for. You must take them straight back.”
+
+“Never take anything back,” said the Harvester. “'Be sure you are right,
+then go ahead,' is my motto. Now I know these are your correct size
+and that for differing occasions you will want just such shoes as other
+girls have, and here they are. Simple as life! I think these will serve
+because they are for street wear, yet they are white inside.”
+
+He produced a pair of canvas walking shoes and kneeling before her held
+out his hand.
+
+When he had finished, he loaded the box on the wagon, gave the hitching
+strap to Belshazzar, and told him to lead Betsy to the cabin and hold
+her until he came. Then he turned to the Girl.
+
+“Now,” he said, “look as long as you choose. But remember that the law
+gives you part of this and your lover, which same am I, gives you the
+remainder, so you are privileged to come here at any hour as often as
+you please. If you miss anything this evening, you have all time to come
+in which to re-examine it.”
+
+“I'd like to live right here on this bridge,” she said. “I wish it had a
+roof.”
+
+“Roof it to-morrow,” offered the Harvester. “Simple matter of a few
+pillars already cut, joists joined, and some slab shingles left from the
+cabin. Anything else your ladyship can suggest?”
+
+“That you be sensible.”
+
+“I was born that way,” explained the Harvester, “and I've cultivated the
+faculty until I've developed real genius. Talking of sense, there never
+was a proper marriage in which the man didn't give the woman a present.
+You seem likely to be more appreciative of this bridge than anything
+else I have, so right here and now would be the appropriate place to
+offer you my wedding gift. I didn't have much time, but I couldn't have
+found anything more suitable if I'd taken a year.”
+
+He held out a small, white velvet case.
+
+“Doesn't that look as if it were made for a bride?” he asked.
+
+“It does,” answered the Girl. “But I can't take it. You are not doing
+right. Marrying as we did, you never can believe that I love you; maybe
+it won't ever happen that I do. I have no right to accept gifts and
+expensive clothing from you. In the first place, if the love you ask
+never comes, there is no possible way in which I can repay you. In the
+second, these things you are offering are not suitable for life and work
+in the woods. In the third, I think you are being extravagant, and I
+couldn't forgive myself if I allowed that.”
+
+“You divide your statements like a preacher, don't you?” asked the
+Harvester ingenuously. “Now sit thee here and gaze on the placid lake
+and quiet your troubled spirit, while I demolish your 'perfectly good'
+arguments. In the first place, you are now my wife, and you have a
+right to take anything I offer, if you care for it or can use it in any
+manner. In the second, you must recognize a difference in our positions.
+What seems nothing to you means all the world to me, and you are less
+than human if you deprive me of the joy of expressing feelings I am in
+honour bound to keep in my heart, by these little material offerings. In
+the third place, I inherited over six hundred acres of land and water,
+please observe the water----it is now in evidence on your left. All my
+life I have been taught to be frugal, economical, and to work. All I've
+earned either has gone back into land, into the bank, or into books,
+very plain food, and such clothing as you now see me wearing. Just the
+value of this place as it stands, with its big trees, its drug crops
+yielding all the year round, would be difficult to estimate; and I don't
+mind telling you that on the top of that hill there is a gold mine, and
+it's mine----ours since four o'clock.”
+
+“A gold mine!”
+
+“Acres and acres of wild ginseng, seven years of age and ready to
+harvest. Do you remember what your few pounds brought?”
+
+“Why it's worth thousands!”
+
+“Exactly! For your peace of mind I might add that all I have done or got
+is paid for, except what I bought to-day, and I will write a check for
+that as soon as the bill is made out. My bank account never will feel it
+Truly, Ruth, I am not doing or going to do anything extravagant. I can't
+afford to give you diamond necklaces, yachts, and trips to Europe; but
+you can have the contents of this box and a motor boat on the lake, a
+horse and carriage, and a trip----say to New York perfectly well. Please
+take it.”
+
+“I wish you wouldn't ask me. I would be happier not to.”
+
+“Yes, but I do ask you,” persisted the Harvester. “You are not the
+only one to be considered. I have some rights also, and I'm not so
+self-effacing that I won't insist upon them. From your standpoint I
+am almost a stranger. You have spent no time considering me in near
+relations; I realize that. You feel as if you were driven here for
+a refuge, and that is true. I said to Belshazzar one day that I must
+remember that you had no dream, and had spent no time loving me, and
+I do I know how this wedding seems to you, but it's going to mean
+something different and better soon, please God. I can see your side;
+now suppose you take a look at mine. I did have a dream, it was my
+dream, and beyond the sum of any delight I ever conceived. On the
+strength of it I rebuilt my home and remodelled these premises. Then
+I saw you, and from that day I worked early and late. I lost you and I
+never stopped until I found you; and I would have courted and won you,
+but the fates intervened and here you are! So it's my delight to court
+and win you now. If you knew the difference between having a dream that
+stirred the least fibre of your being and facing the world in a demand
+for realization of it, and then finding what you coveted in the palm
+of your hand, as it were, you would know what is in my heart, and
+why expression of some kind is necessary to me just now, and why I'll
+explode if it is denied. It will lower the tension, if you will accept
+this as a matter of fact; as if you rather expected and liked it, if you
+can.”
+
+The Harvester set his finger on the spring.
+
+“Don't!” she said. “I'll never have the courage if you do. Give it to me
+in the case, and let me open it. Despite your unanswerable arguments, I
+am quite sure that is the only way in which I can take it.”
+
+The Harvester gave her the box.
+
+“My wedding gift!” she exclaimed, more to herself than to him. “Why
+should I be the buffet of all the unkind fates kept in store for a girl
+my whole life, and then suddenly be offered home, beautiful gifts, and
+wonderful loving kindness by a stranger?”
+
+The Harvester ran his fingers through his crisp hair, pulled it into
+a peak, stepped to the seat and sitting on the railing, he lifted his
+elbows, tilted his head, and began a motley outpouring of half-spoken,
+half-whistled trills and imploring cries. There was enough similarity
+that the Girl instantly recognized the red bird. Out of breath the
+Harvester dropped to the seat beside her.
+
+“And don't you keep forgetting it!” he cried. “Now open that box and
+put on the trinket; because I want to take you to the cabin when the sun
+falls level on the drive.”
+
+She opened the case, exposing a thread of gold that appeared too slender
+for the weight of an exquisite pendant, set with shimmering pearls.
+
+“If you will look down there,” the Harvester pointed over the railing to
+the arrowhead lilies touched with the fading light, “you will see that
+they are similar.”
+
+“They are!” cried the Girl. “How lovely! Which is more beautiful I do
+not know. And you won't like it if I say I must not.”
+
+She held the open case toward the Harvester.
+
+“'Possession is nine points in the law,'” he quoted. “You have taken
+it already and it is in your hands; now make the gift perfect for me by
+putting it on and saying nothing more.”
+
+“My wedding gift!” repeated the Girl. Slowly she lifted the beautiful
+ornament and held it in the light. “I'm so glad you just force me to
+take it,” she said. “Any half-normal girl would be delighted. I do
+accept it. And what's more, I am going to keep and wear it and my ring
+at suitable times all my life, in memory of what you have done to be
+kind to me on this awful day.”
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester. “That is a flash of the proper spirit.
+Allow me to put it on you.”
+
+“No!” said the Girl. “Not yet! After a while! I want to hold it in my
+hands, where I can see it!”
+
+“Now there is one other thing,” said the Harvester.
+
+“If I had known for any length of time that this day was coming and
+bringing you, as most men know when a girl is to be given into their
+care, I could have made it different. As it is, I've done the best I
+knew. All your after life I hope you will believe this: Just that if you
+missed anything to-day that would have made it easier for you or more
+pleasant, the reason was because of my ignorance of women and the
+conventions, and lack of time. I want you to know and to feel that in my
+heart those vows I took were real. This is undoubtedly all the marrying
+I will ever want to do. I am old-fashioned in my ways, and deeply imbued
+with the spirit of the woods, and that means unending evolution along
+the same lines.
+
+“To me you are my revered and beloved wife, my mate now; and I am sure
+nothing will make me feel any different. This is the day of my marriage
+to the only woman I ever have thought of wedding, and to me it is joy
+unspeakable. With other men such a day ends differently from the close
+of this with me. Because I have done and will continue to do the level
+best I know for you, this oration is the prologue to asking you for
+one gift to me from you, a wedding gift. I don't want it unless you can
+bestow it ungrudgingly, and truly want me to have it. If you can, I will
+have all from this day I hope for at the hands of fate. May I have the
+gift I ask of you, Ruth?”
+
+She lifted startled eyes to his face.
+
+“Tell me what it is?” she breathed.
+
+“It may seem much to you,” said the Harvester; “to me it appears only
+a gracious act, from a wonderful woman, if you will give me freely, one
+real kiss. I've never had one, save from a Dream Girl, Ruth, and you
+will have to make yours pretty good if it is anything like hers. You are
+woman enough to know that most men crush their brides in their arms and
+take a thousand. I'll put my hands behind me and never move a muscle,
+and I won't ask for more, if you will crown my wedding day with only one
+touch of your lips. Will you kiss me just once, Ruth?”
+
+The Girl lifted a piteous face down which big tears suddenly rolled.
+
+“Oh Man, you shame me!” she cried. “What kind of a heart have I that it
+fails to respond to such a plea? Have I been overworked and starved so
+long there is no feeling in me? I don't understand why I don't take you
+in my arms and kiss you a hundred times, but you see I don't. It doesn't
+seem as if I ever could.”
+
+“Never mind,” said the Harvester gently. “It was only a fancy of mine,
+bred from my dream and unreasonable, perhaps. I am sorry I mentioned it.
+The sun is on the stoop now; I want you to enter your home in its light.
+Come!”
+
+He half lifted her from the bench. “I am going to help you up the
+drive as I used to assist mother,” he said, fighting to keep his voice
+natural. “Clasp your hands before you and draw your elbows to your
+sides. Now let me take one in each palm, and you will scoot up this
+drive as if you were on wheels.”
+
+“But I don't want to 'scoot',” she said unsteadily. “I must go slowly
+and not miss anything.”
+
+“On the contrary, you don't want to do any such thing----you should
+leave most of it for to-morrow.”
+
+“I had forgotten there would be any to-morrow. It seems as if the day
+would end it and set me adrift again.”
+
+“You are going to awake in the gold room with the sun shining on your
+face in the morning, and it's going to keep on all your life. Now if
+you've got a smile in your anatomy, bring it to the surface, for just
+beyond this tree lies happiness for you.”
+
+His voice was clear and steady now, his confidence something contagious.
+There was a lovely smile on her face as she looked at him, and stepped
+into the line of light crossing the driveway; and then she stopped
+and cried, “Oh lovely! Lovely! Lovely!” over and over. Then maybe the
+Harvester was not glad he had planned, worked unceasingly, and builded
+as well as he knew.
+
+The cabin of large, peeled, golden oak logs, oiled to preserve them,
+nestled like a big mushroom on the side of the hill. Above and behind
+the building the trees arose in a green setting. The roof was stained
+to their shades. The wide veranda was enclosed in screening, over which
+wonderful vines climbed in places, and round it grew ferns and deep-wood
+plants. Inside hung big baskets of wild growth; there was a wide
+swinging seat, with a back rest, supported by heavy chains. There were
+chairs and a table of bent saplings and hickory withes. Two full
+stories the building arose, and the western sun warmed it almost to
+orange-yellow, while the graceful vines crept toward the roof.
+
+The Girl looked at the rapidly rising hedge on each side of her, at the
+white floor of the drive, and long and long at the cabin.
+
+“You did all this since February?” she asked.
+
+“Even to transforming the landscape,” answered the Harvester.
+
+“Oh I wish it was not coming night!” she cried. “I don't want the dark
+to come, until you have told me the name of every tree and shrub of that
+wonderful hedge, and every plant and vine of the veranda; and oh I want
+to follow up the driveway and see that beautiful little creek--listen
+to it chuckle and laugh! Is it always glad like that? See the ferns
+and things that grow on the other side of it! Why there are big beds of
+them. And lilies of the valley by the acre! What is that yellow around
+the corner?”
+
+“Never mind that now,” said the Harvester, guiding her up the steps,
+along the gravelled walk to the screen that he opened, and over a flood
+of gold light she crossed the veranda, and entered the door.
+
+“Now here it appears bare,” said the Harvester, “because I didn't know
+what should go on the walls or what rugs to get or about the windows.
+The table, chairs, and couch I made myself with some help from a
+carpenter. They are solid black walnut and will age finely.”
+
+“They are beautiful,” said the Girl, softly touching the shining table
+top with her fingers. “Please put the necklace on me now, I have to use
+my eyes and hands for other things.”
+
+She held out the box and the Harvester lifted the pendant and clasped
+the chain around her neck. She glanced at the lustrous pearls and then
+the fingers of one hand softly closed over them. She went through the
+long, wide living-room, examining the chairs and mantel, stopping to
+touch and exclaim over its array of half-finished candlesticks. At the
+door of his room she paused. “And this?” she questioned.
+
+“Mine,” said the Harvester, turning the knob. “I'll give you one peep
+to satisfy your curiosity, and show you the location of the bridge over
+which you came to me in my dream. All the remainder is yours. I reserve
+only this.”
+
+“Will the 'goblins git me' if I come here?”
+
+“Not goblins, but a man alive; so heed your warning. After you have seen
+it, keep away.”
+
+The floor was cement, three of the walls heavy screening with mosquito
+wire inside, the roof slab shingled. On the inner wall was a bookcase,
+below it a desk, at one side a gun cabinet, at the other a bath in a
+small alcove beside a closet. The room contained two chairs like those
+of the veranda, and the bed was a low oak couch covered with a thick
+mattress of hemlock twigs, topped with sweet fern, on which the sun
+shone all day. On a chair at the foot were spread some white sheets, a
+blanket, and an oilcloth. The sun beat in, the wind drifted through,
+and one lying on the couch could see down the bright hill, and sweep the
+lake to the opposite bank without lifting the head. The Harvester drew
+the Girl to the bedside.
+
+“Now straight in a line from here,” he said, “across the lake to that
+big, scraggy oak, every clear night the moon builds a bridge of molten
+gold, and once you walked it, my girl, and came straight to me, alone
+and unafraid; and you were gracious and lovely beyond anything a man
+ever dreamed of before. I'll have that to think of to-night. Now come
+see the dining-room, kitchen, and hand-made sunshine.”
+
+He led her into what had been the front room of the old cabin, now
+a large, long dining-room having on each side wide windows with deep
+seats. The fireplace backwall was against that of the living-room, but
+here the mantel was bare. All the wood-work, chairs, the dining table,
+cupboards, and carving table were golden oak. Only a few rugs and
+furnishings and a woman's touch were required to make it an unusual and
+beautiful room. The kitchen was shining with a white hard-wood floor,
+white wood-work, and pale green walls. It was a light, airy, sanitary
+place, supplied with a pump, sink, hot and cold water faucets,
+refrigerator, and every modern convenience possible to the country.
+
+Then the Harvester almost carried the Girl up the stairs and showed her
+three large sleeping rooms, empty and bare save for some packing cases.
+
+“I didn't know about these, so I didn't do anything. When you find
+time to plan, tell me what you want, and I'll make--or buy it. They
+are good-sized, cool rooms. They all have closets and pipes from the
+furnace, so they will be comfortable in winter. Now there is your place
+remaining. I'll leave you while I stable Betsy and feed the stock.”
+
+He guided her to the door opening from the living-room to the east.
+
+“This is the sunshine spot,” he said. “It is bathed in morning light,
+and sheltered by afternoon shade. Singing Water is across the drive
+there to talk to you always. It comes pelting down so fast it never
+freezes, so it makes music all winter, and the birds are so numerous
+you'll have to go to bed early for they'll wake you by dawn. I noticed
+this room was going to be full of sunshine when I built it, and I craved
+only brightness for you, so I coaxed all of it to stay that I could.
+Every stroke is the work of my hands, and all of the furniture. I hope
+you will like it. This is the room of which I've been telling you, Ruth.
+Go in and take possession, and I'll entreat God and all His ministering
+angels to send you sunshine and joy.”
+
+He opened the door, guided her inside, closed it, and went swiftly to
+his work.
+
+The Girl stood and looked around her with amazed eyes. The floor was
+pale yellow wood, polished until it shone like a table top. The casings,
+table, chairs, dressing table, chest of drawers, and bed were solid
+curly maple. The doors were big polished slabs of it, each containing
+enough material to veneer all the furniture in the room. The walls
+were of plaster, tinted yellow, and the windows with yellow shades were
+curtained in dainty white. She could hear the Harvester carrying the
+load from the wagon to the front porch, the clamour of the barn yard;
+and as she went to the north window to see the view, a shining peacock
+strutted down the walk and went to the Harvester's hand for grain, while
+scores of snow-white doves circled over his head. She stepped on deep
+rugs of yellow goat skins, and, glancing at the windows on either side,
+she opened the door.
+
+Outside it lay a porch with a railing, but no roof. On each post stood a
+box filled with yellow wood-flowers and trailing vines of pale green.
+A big tree rising through one corner of the floor supplied the cover. A
+gate opened to a walk leading to the driveway, and on either side lay
+a patch of sod, outlined by a deep hedge of bright gold. In it saffron,
+cone-flowers, black-eyed Susans, golden-rod, wild sunflowers, and jewel
+flower grew, and some of it, enough to form a yellow line, was already
+in bloom. Around the porch and down the walk were beds of yellow
+violets, pixie moss, and every tiny gold flower of the woods. The Girl
+leaned against the tree and looked around her and then staggered inside
+and dropped on the couch.
+
+“What planning! What work!” she sobbed. “What taste! Why he's a poet!
+What wonderful beauty! He's an artist with earth for his canvas, and
+growing things for colours.”
+
+She lay there staring at the walls, the beautiful wood-work and
+furniture, the dressing table with its array of toilet articles, a
+low chair before it, and the thick rug for her feet. Over and over she
+looked at everything, and then closed her eyes and lay quietly, too
+weary and overwhelmed to think. By and by came tapping at the door, and
+she sprang up and crossing to the dressing table straightened her hair
+and composed her face.
+
+“Ajax demands to see you,” cried a gay voice.
+
+The Girl stepped outside.
+
+“Don't be frightened if he screams at you,” warned the Harvester as she
+passed him. “He detests a stranger, and he always cries and sulks.”
+
+It was a question what was in the head of the bird as he saw the strange
+looking creature invading his domain, and he did scream, a wild, high,
+strident wail that delighted the Harvester inexpressibly, because it
+sent the Girl headlong into his arms.
+
+“Oh, good gracious!” she cried. “Has such a beautiful bird got a noise
+in it like that? Why I've fed them in parks and I never heard one
+explode before.”
+
+Then how the Harvester laughed.
+
+“But you see you are in the woods now, and this is not a park bird. It
+will be the test of your power to see how soon you can coax him to your
+hand.”
+
+“How do I work to win him?”
+
+“I am afraid I can't tell you that,” said the Harvester. “I had to
+invent a plan for myself. It required a long time and much petting, and
+my methods might not avail for you. It will interest you to study that
+out. But the member of the family it is positively essential that you
+win to a life and death allegiance is Belshazzar. If you can make him
+love you, he will protect you at every turn. He will go before you into
+the forest and all the crawling, creeping things will get out of his
+way. He will nose around the flowers you want to gather, and if he
+growls and the hair on the back of his neck rises, never forget that
+you must heed that warning. A few times I have not stopped for it, and I
+always have been sorry. So far as anything animate or uncertain footing
+is concerned, you are always perfectly safe if you obey him. About
+touching plants and flowers, you must confine yourself to those you
+are certain you know, until I can teach you. There are gorgeous and
+wonderfully attractive things here, but some of them are rank poison.
+You won't handle plants you don't know, until you learn, Ruth?”
+
+“I will not,” she promised instantly.
+
+She went to the seat under the porch tree and leaning against the trunk
+she studied the hill, and the rippling course of Singing Water where it
+turned and curved before the cabin, and started across the vivid little
+marsh toward the lake. Then she looked at the Harvester. He seated
+himself on the low railing and smiled at her.
+
+“You are very tired?” he asked.
+
+“No,” she said. “You are right about the air being better up here. It is
+stimulating instead of depressing.”
+
+“So far as pure air, location, and water are concerned,” said the
+Harvester, “I consider this place ideal. The lake is large enough to
+cool the air and raise sufficient moisture to dampen it, and too small
+to make it really cold and disagreeable. The slope of the hill gives
+perfect drainage. The heaviest rains do not wet the earth for more than
+three hours. North, south, and west breezes sweep the cool air from the
+water to the cabin in summer. The same suns warm us here on the winter
+hillside. My violets, spring beauties, anemones, and dutchman's breeches
+here are always two weeks ahead of those in the woods. I am not afraid
+of your not liking the location or the air. As for the cabin, if
+you don't care for that, it's very simple. I'll transform it into a
+laboratory and dry-house, and build you whatever you want, within my
+means, over there on the hill just across Singing Water and facing
+the valley toward Onabasha. That's a perfect location. The thing that
+worries me is what you are going to do for company, especially while I
+am away.”
+
+“Don't trouble yourself about anything,” she said. “Just say in your
+heart, 'she is going to be stronger than she ever has been in her life
+in this lovely place, and she has more right now than she ever had or
+hoped to have.' For one thing, I am going to study your books. I never
+have had time before. While we sewed or embroidered, mother talked by
+the hour of the great writers of the world, told me what they wrote,
+and how they expressed themselves, but I got to read very little for
+myself.”
+
+“Books are my company,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Do your friends come often?”
+
+“Almost never! Doc and his wife come most, and if you look out some day
+and see a white-haired, bent old woman, with a face as sweet as dawn,
+coming up the bank of Singing Water, that will be my mother's friend,
+Granny Moreland, who joins us on the north over there. She is frank and
+brusque, so she says what she thinks with unmistakable distinctness,
+but her heart is big and tender and her philosophy keeps her sweet and
+kindly despite the ache of rheumatism and the weight of seventy years.”
+
+“I'd love to have her come,” said the Girl. “Is that all?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Your favourite word,” laughed the Harvester. “The reason lies with me,
+or rather with my mother. Some day I will tell you the whole story,
+and the cause. I think now I can encompass it in this. The place is an
+experiment. When medicinal herbs, roots, and barks became so scarce that
+some of the most important were almost extinct, it occurred to me that
+it would be a good idea to stop travelling miles and poaching on the
+woods of other people, and turn our land into an herb garden. For four
+years before mother went, and six since, I've worked with all my might,
+and results are beginning to take shape. While I've been at it, of
+course, my neighbours had an inkling of what was going on, and I've been
+called a fool, lazy, and a fanatic, because I did not fell the trees and
+plow for corn. You readily can see I'm a little short of corn ground out
+there,” he waved toward the marsh and lake, “and up there,” he indicated
+the steep hill and wood. “But somewhere on this land I've been able to
+find muck for mallows, water for flags and willows, shade for ferns,
+lilies, and ginseng, rocky, sunny spaces for mullein, and open, fertile
+beds for Bouncing Bet----just for examples. God never evolved a place
+better suited for an herb farm; from woods to water and all that goes
+between, it is perfect.”
+
+“And indescribably lovely,” added the Girl.
+
+“Yes, I think it is,” said the Harvester. “But in the days when I didn't
+know how it was coming out, I was sensitive about it; so I kept quiet
+and worked, and allowed the other fellow to do the talking. After a
+while the ginseng bed grew a treasure worth guarding, and I didn't
+care for any one to know how much I had or where it was, as a matter
+of precaution. Ginseng and money are synonymous, and I was forced to be
+away some of the time.”
+
+“Would any one take it?”
+
+“Certainly!” said the Harvester. “If they knew it was there, and what
+it is worth. Then, as I've told you, much of the stuff here must not be
+handled except by experts, and I didn't want people coming in my absence
+and taking risks. The remainder of my reason for living so alone is
+cowardice, pure and simple.”
+
+“Cowardice? You! Oh no!”
+
+“Thank you!” said the Harvester. “But it is! Some day I'll tell you of
+a very solemn oath I've had to keep. It hasn't been easy. You wouldn't
+understand, at least not now. If the day ever comes when I think you
+will, I'll tell you. Just now I can express it by that one word. I
+didn't dare fail or I felt I would be lost as my father was before me.
+So I remained away from the city and its temptations and men of my age,
+and worked in the woods until I was tired enough to drop, read books
+that helped, tinkered with the carving, and sometimes I had an idea,
+and I went into that little building behind the dry-house, took out my
+different herbs, and tried my hand at compounding a new cure for some of
+the pains of humanity. It isn't bad work, Ruth. It keeps a fellow at
+a fairly decent level, and some good may come of it. Carey is trying
+several formulae for me, and if they work I'll carry them higher. If you
+want money, Girl, I know how to get it for you.”
+
+“Don't you want it?”
+
+“Not one cent more than I've got,” said the Harvester emphatically.
+“When any man accumulates more than he can earn with his own hands, he
+begins to enrich himself at the expense of the youth, the sweat, the
+blood, the joy of his fellow men. I can go to the city, take a look, and
+see what money does, as a rule, and it's another thing I'm afraid of.
+You will find me a dreadful coward on those two points. I don't want to
+know society and its ways. I see what it does to other men; it would be
+presumption to reckon myself stronger. So I live alone. As for money,
+I've watched the cross cuts and the quick and easy ways to accumulate
+it; but I've had something in me that held me to the slow, sure, clean
+work of my own hands, and it's yielded me enough for one, for two even,
+in a reasonable degree. So I've worked, read, compounded, and carved. If
+I couldn't wear myself down enough to sleep by any other method, I went
+into the lake, and swam across and back; and that is guaranteed to put
+any man to rest, clean and unashamed.”
+
+“Six years,” said the Girl softly, as she studied him. “I think it has
+set a mark on you. I believe I can trace it. Your forehead, brow,
+and eyes bear the lines and the appearance of all experience, all
+comprehension, but your lips are those of a very young lad. I shouldn't
+be surprised if I had that kiss ready for you, and I really believe I
+can make it worth while.”
+
+“Oh good Lord!” cried the Harvester, turning a backward somersault over
+the railing and starting in big bounds up the drive toward the stable.
+He passed around it and into the woods at a rush and a few seconds later
+from somewhere on the top of the hill his strong, deep voice swept down,
+“Glory, glory hallelujah!”
+
+He sang it through at the top of his lungs, that majestic old hymn,
+but there was no music at all, it was simply a roar. By and by he came
+soberly to the barn and paused to stroke Betsy's nose.
+
+“Stop chewing grass and listen to me,” he said. “She's here, Betsy!
+She's in our cabin. She's going to remain, you can stake your oats
+on that. She's going to be the loveliest and sweetest girl in all the
+world, and because you're a beast, I'll tell you something a man never
+could know. Down with your ear, you critter! She's going to kiss me,
+Betsy! This very night, before I lay me, her lips meet mine, and maybe
+you think that won't be glorious. I supposed it would be a year, anyway,
+but it's now! Ain't you glad you are an animal, Betsy, and can keep
+secrets for a fool man that can't?”
+
+He walked down the driveway, and before the Girl had a chance to speak,
+he said, “I wonder if I had not better carry those things into your
+room, and arrange your bed for you.”
+
+“I can,” she said.
+
+“Oh no!” exclaimed the Harvester. “You can't lift the mattress and heavy
+covers. Hold the door and tell me how.”
+
+He laid a big bundle on the floor, opened it, and took out the shoes.
+
+“Your shoe box is in the closet there.”
+
+“I didn't know what that door was, so I didn't open it.”
+
+“That is a part of my arrangements for you,” said the Harvester. “Here
+is a closet with shelves for your covers and other things. They are bare
+because I didn't know just what should be put on them. This is the shoe
+box here in the corner; I'll put these in it now.”
+
+He knelt and in a row set the shoes in the curly maple box and closed
+it.
+
+“There you are for all kinds of places and varieties of weather.
+This adjoining is your bathroom. I put in towels, soaps; brushes,
+and everything I could think of, and there is hot water ready for
+you----rain water, too.”
+
+The Girl followed and looked into a shining little bathroom, with its
+white porcelain tub and wash bowl, enamelled wood-work, dainty green
+walls, and white curtains and towels. She could see no accessory she
+knew of that was missing, and there were many things to which she never
+had been accustomed. The Harvester had gone back to the sunshine room,
+and was kneeling on the floor beside the bundle. He began opening boxes
+and handing her dresses.
+
+“There are skirt, coat, and waist hangers on the hooks,” he said. “I
+only got a few things to start on, because I didn't know what you would
+like. Instead of being so careful with that dress, why don't you take it
+off, and put on a common one? Then we will have something to eat, and go
+to the top of the hill and watch the moon bridge the lake.”
+
+While she hung the dresses and selected the one to wear, he placed the
+mattress, spread the padding and sheets, and encased the pillow. Then he
+bent and pressed the springs with his hands.
+
+“I think you will find that soft and easy enough for health,” he said.
+“All the personal belongings I had that clerk put up for you are in that
+chest of drawers there. I put the little boxes in the top and went down.
+You can empty and arrange them to-morrow. Just hunt out what you will
+need now. There should be everything a girl uses there somewhere. I told
+them to be very careful about that. If the things are not right or not
+to your taste, you can take them back as soon as you are rested, and
+they will exchange them for you. If there is anything I have missed that
+you can think of that you need to-night, tell me and I'll go and get
+it.”
+
+The Girl turned toward him.
+
+“You couldn't be making sport of me,” she said, “but Man! Can't you see
+that I don't know what to do with half you have here? I never saw such
+things closely before. I don't know what they are for. I don't know how
+to use them. My mother would have known, but I do not. You overwhelm me!
+Fifty times I've tried to tell you that a room of my very own, such
+a room as this will be when to-morrow's sun comes in, and these, and
+these, and these,” she turned from the chest of boxes to the dressing
+table, bed, closet, and bath, “all these for me, and you know absolutely
+nothing about me----I get a big lump in my throat, and the words that
+do come all seem so meaningless, I am perfectly ashamed to say them. Oh
+Man, why do you do it?”
+
+“I thought it was about time to spring another 'why' on me,” said the
+Harvester. “Thank God, I am now in a position where I can tell you
+'why'! I do it because you are the girl of my dream, my mate by every
+law of Heaven and earth. All men build as well as they know when the one
+woman of the universe lays her spell on them. I did all this for myself
+just as a kind of expression of what it would be in my heart to do if I
+could do what I'd like. Put on the easiest dress you can find and I will
+go and set out something to eat.”
+
+She stood with arms high piled with the prettiest dresses that could be
+selected hurriedly, the tears running down her white cheeks and smiled
+through them at him.
+
+“There wouldn't be any of that liquid amber would there?” she asked.
+
+“Quarts!” cried the Harvester. “I'll bring some. ... Does it really hit
+the spot, Ruth?” he questioned as he handed her the glass.
+
+She heaped the dresses on the bed and took it.
+
+“It really does. I am afraid I am using too much.”
+
+“I don't think it possibly can hurt you. To-morrow we will ask Doc. How
+soon will you be ready for lunch?”
+
+“I don't want a bite.”
+
+“You will when you see and smell it,” said the Harvester. “I am an
+expert cook. It's my chiefest accomplishment. You should taste the
+dishes I improvise. But there won't be much to-night, because I want you
+to see the moon rise over the lake.”
+
+He went away and the Girl removed her dress and spread it on the couch.
+Then she bathed her face and hands. When she saw the discoloured cloth,
+it proved that she had been painted, and made her very indignant. Yet
+she could not be altogether angry, for that flush of colour had saved
+the Harvester from being pitied by his friend. She stood a long time
+before the mirror, staring at her gaunt, colourless face; then she went
+to the dressing table and committed a crime. She found a box of cream
+and rubbed it on for a foundation. Then she opened some pink powder, and
+carefully dusted her cheeks.
+
+“I am utterly ashamed,” she said to the image in the mirror, “but he
+has done so much for me, he is so, so----I don't know a word big
+enough----that I can't bear him to see how ghastly I am, how little
+worth it. Perhaps the food, better air, and outdoor exercise will give
+me strength and colour soon. Until it does I'm afraid I'm going to help
+out all I can with this. It is wonderful how it changes one. I really
+appear like a girl instead of a bony old woman.”
+
+Then she looked over the dresses, selected a pretty white princesse,
+slipped it on, and went to the kitchen. But the Harvester would not
+have her there. He seated her at the dining table, beside the window
+overlooking the lake, lighted a pair of his home-made candles in his
+finest sticks, and placed before her bread, butter, cold meat, milk, and
+fruit, and together they ate their first meal in their home.
+
+“If I had known,” said the Harvester, “Granny Moreland is a famous cook.
+She is a Southern woman, and she can fry chicken and make some especial
+dishes to surpass any one I ever knew. She would have been so pleased to
+come over and get us an all-right supper.”
+
+“I'd much rather have this, and be by ourselves,” said the Girl.
+
+“Well, you can bank on it, I would,” agreed the Harvester. “For
+instance, if any one were here, I might feel restrained about telling
+you that you are exactly the beautiful, flushed Dream Girl I have adored
+for months, and your dress most becoming. You are a picture to blind the
+eyes of a lonely bachelor, Ruth.”
+
+“Oh why did you say that?” wailed the Girl. “Now I've got to feel like a
+sneak or tell you----and I didn't want you to know.”
+
+“Don't you ever tell me or any one else anything you don't want to,”
+ said the Harvester roundly. “It's nobody's business!”
+
+“But I must! I can't begin with deception. I was fool enough to think
+you wouldn't notice. Man, they painted me! I didn't know they were doing
+it, but when it all washed off, I looked so ghastly I almost frightened
+myself. I hunted through the boxes they put up for you and found some
+pink powder----”
+
+“But don't all the daintiest women powder these days, and consider it
+indispensable? The clerk said so, and I've noticed it mentioned in the
+papers. I bought it for you to use.”
+
+“Yes, just powder, but Man, I put on a lot of cold cream first to stick
+the powder good and thick. Oh I wish I hadn't!”
+
+“Well since you've told it, is your conscience perfectly at ease? No
+you don't! You sit where you are! You are lovely, and if you don't use
+enough powder to cover the paleness, until your colour returns, I'll
+hold you and put it on. I know you feel better when you appear so that
+every one must admire you.”
+
+“Yes, but I'm a fraud!”
+
+“You are no such thing!” cried the Harvester hotly. “There hasn't a
+woman in ten thousand got any such rope of hair. I have been seeing the
+papers on the hair question, too. No one will believe it's real. If they
+think your hair is false, when it is natural, they won't be any more
+fooled when they think your colour is real, and it isn't. Very soon it
+will be and no one need ever know the difference. You go on and fix up
+your level best. To see yourself appearing well will make you ambitious
+to become so as soon as possible.”
+
+“Harvester-man,” said the Girl, gazing at him with wet luminous eyes,
+“for the sake of other women, I could wish that all men had an oath to
+keep, and had been reared in the woods.”
+
+“Here is the place we adjourn to the moon,” cried the Harvester. “I
+don't know of anything that can cure a sudden accession of swell
+head like gazing at the heavens. One finds his place among the atoms
+naturally and instantaneously with the eyes on the night sky. Should
+you have a wrap? You should! The mists from the lake are cool. I don't
+believe there is one among my orders. I forgot that. But upstairs with
+mother's clothing there are several shawls and shoulder capes. All of
+them were washed and carefully packed. Would you use one, Ruth?”
+
+“Why not give it to me. Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better
+than to have them lying in moth balls?”
+
+The Harvester looked at her and shook his head, marvelling.
+
+“I can't tell how pleased she would be,” he said.
+
+“Where are her belongings?” asked the Girl. “I could use them to help
+furnish the house, and it wouldn't appear so strange to you.”
+
+The Harvester liked that.
+
+“All the washed things are in those boxes upstairs; also some fine skins
+I've saved on the chance of wanting them. Her dishes are in the bottom
+of the china closet there; she was mighty proud of them. The furniture
+and carpets were so old and abused I burned them. I'll go bring a wrap.”
+
+He took the candle and climbed the stairs, soon returning with a little
+white wool shawl and a big pink coverlet.
+
+“Got this for her Christmas one time,” he said. “She'd never had a white
+one and she thought it was pretty.”
+
+He folded it around the Girl's shoulders and picked up the coverlet.
+
+“You're never going to take that to the woods!” she cried.
+
+“Why not?”
+
+She took it in her hands to find a corner.
+
+“Just as I thought! It's a genuine Peter Hartman! It's one of the things
+that money can't buy, or, rather, one that takes a mint of money to own.
+They are heirlooms. They are not manufactured any more. At the art store
+where I worked they'd give you fifty dollars for that. It is not faded
+or worn a particle. It would be lovely in my room; you mustn't take a
+treasure like that out of doors.”
+
+“Ruth, are you in earnest?” demanded the Harvester. “I believe there are
+six of them upstairs.”
+
+“Plutocrat!” cried the Girl. “What colours?”
+
+“More of this pinkish red, blue, and pale green.”
+
+“Famous! May I have them to help furnish with to-morrow?”
+
+“Certainly! Anything you can find, any way on earth you want it, only
+in my room. That is taboo, as I told you. What am I going to take
+to-night?”
+
+“Isn't the rug you had in the woods in the wagon yet? Use that!”
+
+“Of course! The very thing! Bel, proceed!”
+
+“Are you going to leave the house like this?”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Suppose some one breaks in!”
+
+“Nothing worth carrying away, except what you have on. No one to get in.
+There is a big swamp back of our woods, marsh in front, we're up here
+where we can see the drive and bridge. There is nothing possible from
+any direction. Never locked the cabin in my life, except your room, and
+that was because it was sacred, not that there was any danger. Clear the
+way, Bel!”
+
+“Clear it of what?”
+
+“Katydids, hoptoads, and other carnivorous animals.”
+
+“Now you are making fun of me! Clear it of what?”
+
+“A coon that might go shuffling across, an opossum, or a snake going to
+the lake. Now are you frightened so that you will not go?”
+
+“No. The path is broad and white and surely you and Bel can take care of
+me.”
+
+“If you will trust us we can.”
+
+“Well, I am trusting you.”
+
+“You are indeed,” said the Harvester. “Now see if you think this is
+pretty.”
+
+He indicated the hill sloping toward the lake. The path wound among
+massive trees, between whose branches patches of moonlight filtered.
+Around the lake shore and climbing the hill were thickets of bushes.
+The water lay shining in the light, a gentle wind ruffled the surface
+in undulant waves, and on the opposite bank arose the line of big
+trees. Under a giant oak widely branching, on the top of the hill, the
+Harvester spread the rug and held one end of it against the tree trunk
+to protect the Girl's dress. Then he sat a little distance away and
+began to talk. He mingled some sense with a quantity of nonsense, and
+appreciated every hint of a laugh he heard. The day had been no amusing
+matter for a girl absolutely alone among strange people and scenes.
+Anything more foreign to her previous environment or expectations he
+could not imagine. So he talked to prevent her from thinking, and worked
+for a laugh as he laboured for bread.
+
+“Now we must go,” he said at last. “If there is the malaria I strongly
+suspect in your system, this night air is none too good for you. I only
+wanted you to see the lake the first night in your new home, and if it
+won't shock you, I brought you here because this is my holy of holies.
+Can you guess why I wanted you to come, Ruth?”
+
+“If I wasn't so stupid with alternate burning and chills, and so
+deadened to every proper sensibility, I suppose I could,” she answered,
+“but I'm not brilliant. I don't know, unless it is because you knew it
+would be the loveliest place I ever saw. Surely there is no other spot
+in the world quite so beautiful.”
+
+“Then would it seem strange to you,” asked the Harvester going to the
+Girl and gently putting his arms around her, “would it seem strange to
+you, that a woman who once homed here and thought it the prettiest place
+on earth, chose to remain for her eternal sleep, rather than to rest in
+a distant city of stranger dead?”
+
+He felt the Girl tremble against him.
+
+“Where is she?”
+
+“Very close,” said the Harvester. “Under this oak. She used to say that
+she had a speaking acquaintance with every tree on our land, and of them
+all she loved this big one the best. She liked to come here in winter,
+and feel the sting of the wind sweeping across the lake, and in summer
+this was her place to read and to think. So when she slept the unwaking
+sleep, Ruth, I came here and made her bed with my own hands, and then
+carried her to it, covered her, and she sleeps well. I never have
+regretted her going. Life did not bring her joy. She was very tired.
+She used to say that after her soul had fled, if I would lay her here,
+perhaps the big roots would reach down and find her, and from her frail
+frame gather slight nourishment and then her body would live again in
+talking leaves that would shelter me in summer and whisper her love in
+winter. Of all Medicine Woods this is the dearest spot to me. Can you
+love it too, Ruth?”
+
+“Oh I can!” cried the Girl; “I do now! Just to see the place and hear
+that is enough. I wish, oh to my soul I wish----”
+
+“You wish what?” whispered the Harvester gently.
+
+“I dare not! I was wild to think of it. I would be ungrateful to ask
+it.”
+
+“You would be ungracious if you didn't ask anything that would give
+me the joy of pleasing you. How long is it going to require for you
+to learn, Ruth, that to make up for some of the difficulties life has
+brought you would give me more happiness than anything else could? Tell
+me now.”
+
+“No!”
+
+He gathered her closer.
+
+“Ruth, there is no reason why you should be actively unkind to me. What
+is it you wish?”
+
+She struggled from his arms and stood alone in white moonlight, staring
+across the lake, along the shore, deep into the perfumed forest, and
+then at the mound she now could distinguish under the giant tree.
+Suddenly she went to him and with both shaking hands gripped his arm.
+
+“My mother!” she panted. “Oh she was a beautiful woman, delicately
+reared, and her heart was crushed and broken. By the inch she went to
+a dreadful end I could not avert or allay, and in poverty and grime I
+fought for a way to save her body from further horror, and it's all so
+dreadful I thought all feeling in me was dried and still, but I am not
+quite calloused yet. I suffer it over with every breath. It is never
+entirely out of my mind. Oh Man, if only you would lift her from the
+horrible place she lies, where briers run riot and cattle trample and
+the unmerciful sun beats! Oh if only you'd lift her from it, and bring
+her here! I believe it would take away some of the horror, the shame,
+and the heartache. I believe I could go to sleep without hearing the
+voice of her suffering, if I knew she was lying on this hill, under your
+beautiful tree, close the dear mother you love. Oh Man, would you----?”
+
+The Harvester crushed the Girl in his arms and shuddering sobs shook his
+big frame, and choked his voice.
+
+“Ruth, for God's sake, be quiet!” he cried. “Why I'd be glad to! I'll go
+anywhere you tell me, and bring her, and she shall rest where the lake
+murmurs, the trees shelter, the winds sing, and earth knows the sun only
+in long rays of gold light.”
+
+She stared at him with strained face.
+
+“You----you wouldn't!” she breathed.
+
+“Ruth, child,” said the Harvester, “I tell you I'd be happy. Look at
+my side of this! I'm in search of bands to bind you to me and to this
+place. Could you tell me a stronger than to have the mother you idolized
+lie here for her long sleep? Why Girl, you can't know the deep and
+abiding joy it would give me to bring her. I'd feel I had you almost
+secure. Where is she Ruth?”
+
+“In that old unkept cemetery south of Onabasha, where it costs no money
+to lay away your loved ones.”
+
+“Close here! Why I'll go to-morrow! I supposed she was in the city.”
+
+She straightened and drew away from him.
+
+“How could I? I had nothing. I could not have paid even her fare and
+brought her here in the cheapest box the decency of man would allow
+him to make if her doctor had not given me the money I owe. Now do
+you understand why I must earn and pay it myself? Save for him, it was
+charity or her delicate body to horrors. Money never can repay him.”
+
+“Ruth, the day you came to Onabasha was she with you?”
+
+“In the express car,” said the Girl.
+
+“Where did you go when you left the train shed?”
+
+“Straight to the baggage room, where Uncle Henry was waiting. Men
+brought and put her in his wagon, and he drove with me to the place and
+other men lowered her, and that was all.”
+
+“You poor Girl!” cried the Harvester. “This time to-morrow night she
+shall sleep in luxury under this oak, so help me God! Ruth, can you
+spare me? May I go at once? I can't rest, myself.”
+
+“You will?” cried the Girl. “You will?”
+
+She was laughing in the moonlight. “Oh Man, I can't ever, ever tell
+you!”
+
+“Don't try,” said the Harvester. “Call it settled. I will start early
+in the morning. I know that little cemetery. The man whose land it is
+on can point me the spot. She is probably the last one laid there. Come
+now, Ruth. Go to the room I made for you, and sleep deeply and in peace.
+Will you try to rest?”
+
+“Oh David!” she exulted. “Only think! Here where it's clean and cool;
+beside the lake, where leaves fall gently and I can come and sit close
+to her and bring flowers; and she never will be alone, for your dear
+mother is here. Oh David!”
+
+“It is better. I can't thank you enough for thinking of it. Come now,
+let me help you.”
+
+He half carried her down the hill. Then he made the cabin a glamour of
+light by putting candles in the sticks he had carved and placing them
+everywhere.
+
+“There is a lighting plant in the basement,” he said, “but I had not
+expected to use it until winter, and I have no acetylene. Candles were
+our grandmothers' lights and they are the best anyway. Go bathe your
+face, Ruth, and wash away all trace of tears. Put on the pink powder,
+and in a few weeks you will have colour to outdo the wildest rose. You
+must be as gay as you can the remainder of this night.”
+
+“I will!” cried the Girl. “I will! Oh I didn't know a thing on earth
+could make me happy! I didn't know I really could be glad. Oh if the ice
+in my heart would melt, and the wall break down, and the girlhood I've
+never known would come yet! Oh David, if it would!”
+
+“Before the Lord it shall!” vowed the Harvester. “It shall come with the
+fulness of joy right here in Medicine Woods. Think it! Believe it! Keep
+it before you! Work for it! Happiness is worth while! All of us have a
+right to it! It shall be yours and soon.”
+
+“I will try! I will!” promised the Girl. “I'll go right now and I'll put
+on the blessed pink powder so thickly you'll never know what is under
+it, and soon it won't be needed at all.”
+
+She was laughing as she left the room. The Harvester restlessly walked
+the floor a few minutes and then sat with a notebook and began entering
+stems.
+
+When the Girl returned, he brought the pillow from her bed, folded the
+coverlet, and she lay on them in the big swing. He covered her with the
+white shawl, and while Singing Water sang its loudest, katydids exulted
+over the delightful act of their ancestor, and a million gauze-winged
+creatures of night hummed against the screen, in a voice soft and low he
+told her in a steady stream, as he swayed her back and forth, what each
+sound of the night was, and how and why it was made all the way from the
+rumbling buzz of the June bug to the screech of the owl and the splash
+of the bass in the lake. All of it, as it appealed to him, was the story
+of steady evolution, the natural processes of reproduction, the joy of
+life and its battles, and the conquest of the strong in nature. At his
+hands every sound was stripped of terror. The leaping bass was exulting
+in life, the screeching owl was telling its mate it had found a fat
+mouse for the children, the nighthawk was courting, the big bull frogs
+booming around the lake were serenading the moon. There was not a thing
+to fear or a voice left with an unsympathetic note in it. She was half
+asleep when at last he helped her to her room, set a pitcher of frosty,
+clinking drink on her table, locked her door and window screens inside,
+spread Belshazzar's blanket on her porch, and set his door wide open,
+that he might hear if she called, and then said good night and went back
+to his memorandum book.
+
+“No bad beginning,” he muttered softly, “no bad beginning, but I'd
+almost give my right hand if she hadn't forgotten----”
+
+In her room the exhausted Girl slipped the pins from her hair and sank
+on the low chair before the dressing-table. She picked up the shining,
+silver backed brush and stared at the monogram, R. F. L, entwined on it.
+
+“My soul!” she exclaimed. “WAS HE SO SURE AS THAT? Was there ever any
+other man like him?”
+
+She dropped the brush and with tired hands pushed back the heavy braids.
+Then she arose and going to the chest of drawers began lifting lids to
+find a night robe. As she searched the boxes she found every dainty,
+pretty undergarment a girl ever used and at last the robes. She shook
+out a long white one, slipped into it, and walked to the bed. That stood
+as he had arranged it, white, clean, and dainty.
+
+“Everything for me!” she said softly. “Everything for me! Shall there be
+nothing for him? Oh he makes it easy, easy!”
+
+She stepped to the closet, picked down a lavender silk kimona and
+drawing it over her gown she gathered it around her and opening
+the bathroom door, she stepped into a little hall leading to the
+dining-room. As she entered the living-room the Harvester bent over his
+book. Her step was very close when he heard it and turned his head. In
+an instant she touched his shoulders. The Harvester dropped the pencil,
+and palm downward laid his hands on the table, his promise strong in
+his heart. The Girl slid a shaking palm under his chin, leaned his head
+against her breast, and dropped a sweet, tear-wet face on his. With all
+the strength of her frail arms she gripped him a second, and then gave
+the kiss, into which she tried to put all she could find no words to
+express.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. SNOWY WINGS
+
+The Harvester sat at the table in deep thoughts until the lights in the
+Girl's room were darkened and everything was quiet. Then he locked
+the screens inside and went into the night. The moon flooded all the
+hillside, until coarse print could have been read with keen eyes in its
+light. A restlessness, born of exultation he could not allay or control,
+was on him. She had not forgotten! After this, the dream would be
+effaced by reality. It was the beginning. He scarcely had dared hope for
+so much. Surely it presaged the love with which she some day would
+come to him and crown his life. He walked softly up and down the drive,
+passing her windows, unable to think of sleep. Over and over he dwelt on
+the incidents of the day, so inevitably he came to his promise.
+
+“Merciful Heaven!” he muttered. “How can such things happen? The poor,
+overworked, tired, suffering girl. It will give her some comfort. She
+will feel better. It has to be done. I believe I will do the worst part
+of it while she sleeps.”
+
+He went to the cabin, crept very close to one of her windows and
+listened intently. Surely no mortal awake could lie motionless so long.
+She must be sleeping. He patted Belshazzar, whispered, “Watch, boy,
+watch for your life!” and then crossed to the dry-house. Beside it he
+found a big roll of coffee sacks that he used in collecting roots, and
+going to the barn, he took a spade and mattock. Then he climbed the hill
+to the oak; in the white moonlight laid off his measurements and began
+work. His heart was very tender as he lifted the earth, and threw it
+into the tops of the big bags he had propped open.
+
+“I'll line it with a couple of sheets and finish the edge with pond
+lilies and ferns,” he planned, “and I'll drag this earth from sight, and
+cover it with brush until I need it.”
+
+Sometimes he paused in his work to rest a few minutes and then he stood
+and glanced around him. Several times he went down the hill and slipped
+close to a window, but he could not hear a sound. When his work was
+finished, he stood before the oak, scraping clinging earth from the
+mattock with which he had cut roots he had been compelled to remove.
+He was tired now and he thought he would go to his room and sleep until
+daybreak. As he turned the implement he remembered how through it he
+had found her, and now he was using it in her service. He smiled as he
+worked, and half listened to the steady roll of sound encompassing him.
+A cool breath swept from the lake and he wondered if it found her wet,
+hot cheek. A wild duck in the rushes below gave an alarm signal, and
+it ran in subdued voice, note by note, along the shore. The Harvester
+gripped the mattock and stood motionless. Wild things had taught him so
+many lessons he heeded their warnings instinctively. Perhaps it was a
+mink or muskrat approaching the rushes. Listening intently, he heard a
+stealthy step coming up the path behind him.
+
+The Harvester waited. He soundlessly moved around the trunk of the big
+tree. An instant more the night prowler stopped squarely at the head of
+the open grave, and jumped back with an oath. He stood tense a second,
+then advanced, scratched a match and dropped it into the depths of the
+opening. That instant the Harvester recognized Henry Jameson, and with
+a spring landed between the man's shoulders and sent him, face down,
+headlong into the grave. He snatched one of the sacks of earth, and
+tipping it, gripped the bottom and emptied the contents on the head
+and shoulders of the prostrate man. Then he dropped on him and feeling
+across his back took an ugly, big revolver from a pocket. He swung to
+the surface and waited until Henry Jameson crawled from under the weight
+of earth and began to rise; then, at each attempt, he knocked him down.
+At last he caught the exhausted man by the collar and dragged him to the
+path, where he dropped him and stood gloating.
+
+“So!” he said; “It's you! Coming to execute your threat, are you? What's
+the matter with my finishing you, loading your carcass with a few stones
+into this sack, and dropping you in the deepest part of the lake.”
+
+There was no reply.
+
+“Ain't you a little hasty?” asked the Harvester. “Isn't it rather cold
+blooded to come sneaking when you thought I'd be asleep? Don't you think
+it would be low down to kill a man on his wedding day?”
+
+Henry Jameson arose cautiously and faced the Harvester.
+
+“Who have you killed?” he panted.
+
+“No one,” answered the Harvester. “This is for the victim of a member of
+your family, but I never dreamed I'd have the joy of planting any of
+you in it first, even temporarily. Did you rest well? What I should have
+done was to fill in, tread down, and leave you at the bottom.”
+
+Jameson retreated a few steps. The Harvester laughed and advanced the
+same distance.
+
+“Now then,” he said, “explain what you are doing on my premises, a few
+hours after your threat, and armed with another revolver before I could
+return the one I took from you this afternoon. You must grow them on
+bushes at your place, they seem so numerous. Speak up! What are you
+doing here?”
+
+There was no answer.
+
+“There are three things it might be,” mused the Harvester. “You might
+think to harm me, but you're watched on that score and I don't believe
+you'd enjoy the result sure to follow. You might contemplate trying to
+steal Ruth's money again, but we'll pass that up. You might want to go
+through my woods to inform yourself as to what I have of value there.
+But, in all prob-ability, you are after me. Well, here I am. Go ahead!
+Do what you came to!”
+
+The Harvester stepped toward the lake bank and Jameson, turning to watch
+him, exposed a face ghastly through its grime.
+
+“Look here!” cried the Harvester, sickening. “We will end this right
+now. I was rather busy this afternoon, but I wasn't too hurried to take
+that little weapon of yours to the chief of police and tell him where
+and how I got it and what occurred. He was to return it to you
+to-morrow with his ultimatum. When I have added the history of to-night,
+reinforced by another gun, he will understand your intentions and know
+where you belong. You should be confined, but because your name is the
+same as the Girl's, and there is of your blood in her veins, I'll give
+you one more chance. I'll let you go this time, but I'll report you, and
+deliver this implement to be added to your collection at headquarters.
+And I tell you, and I'll tell them, that if ever I find you on my
+premises again, I'll finish you on sight. Is that clear?”
+
+Jameson nodded.
+
+“What I should do is to plump you squarely into confinement, as I could
+easily enough, but that's not my way. I am going to let you off, but you
+go knowing the law. One thing more: Don't leave with any distorted ideas
+in your head. I saw Ruth the day she stepped from the cars in Onabasha
+and I loved her. I wanted to court and marry her, as any man would the
+girl he loves, but you spoiled that with your woman killing brutality.
+So I married her in Onabasha this afternoon. You can see the records at
+the county clerk's office and interview the minister who performed the
+ceremony, if you doubt me. Ruth is in her room, comfortable as I can
+make her, asleep and unafraid, thank God! This grave is for her mother.
+The Girl wants her lifted from the horrible place you put her, and laid
+where it is sheltered and pleasant. Now, I'll see you off my land. Hurry
+yourself!”
+
+With the Harvester following, Henry Jameson went back over the path he
+had come, until he reached and mounted the horse he had ridden. As the
+Harvester watched him, Jameson turned in the saddle and spoke for the
+second time.
+
+“What will you give me in cold cash to tell you who she is, and where
+her mother's people are?”
+
+The Harvester leaped for the bridle and missed. Jameson bent over
+the horse and lashed it to a run. Half way to the oak the Harvester
+remembered the revolver, but being unaccustomed to weapons, he had
+forgotten it when he needed it most. He replaced the earth in the sack
+and dragged it away, then plunged into the lake, and afterward went
+to bed, where he slept soundly until dawn. First, he slipped into the
+living-room and wrote a note to the Girl. Then he fed Belshazzar and ate
+a hearty breakfast. He stationed the dog at her door, gave him the
+note, and went to the oak. There he arranged everything neatly and as
+he desired, and then hitching Betsy he quietly guided her down the drive
+and over the road to Onabasha. He went to an undertaking establishment,
+made all his arrangements, and then called up and talked with the
+minister who had performed the marriage ceremony the previous day.
+
+The sun shining in her face awoke Ruth and she lay revelling in the
+light. “Maybe it will colour me faster than the powder,” she thought.
+“How peculiar for him to say what he did! I always thought men detested
+it. But he is not like any one else.” She lay looking around the
+beautiful room and wondering where the Harvester was. She could not hear
+him. Then, slowly and painfully, she dragged her aching limbs from the
+bed and went to the door. The dog was gone from the porch and she could
+not see the man at the stable. She selected a frock and putting it on
+opened the door. Belshazzar arose and offered this letter:
+
+DEAR RUTH:
+
+I have gone to keep my promise. You are locked in with Bel. Please obey
+me and do not step outside the door until four o'clock. Then put on a
+pretty white dress, and with the dog, come to the bridge to meet me. I
+hope you will not suffer and fret. Put away your clothing, arrange the
+rooms to keep busy, or better yet, lie in the swing and rest. There is
+food in the ice chest, pantry, and cellar. Forgive me for leaving you
+to-day, but I thought you would feel easier to have this over. I am so
+glad to bring your mother here. I hope it will make you happy enough
+to meet us with a smile. Do not forget the pink box until the reality
+comes.
+
+With love,
+
+DAVID.
+
+
+The Girl went to the kitchen and found food. She offered to share with
+Belshazzar, but she could see from his indifference he was not hungry.
+Then she returned to the room flooded with light, and filled with
+treasures, and tried to decide how she would arrange her clothing. She
+spent hours opening boxes and putting dainty, pretty garments in the
+drawers, hanging the dresses, and placing the toilet articles. Often
+she wearily dropped to the chairs and couches, or gazed from door and
+windows at the pictures they framed. “I wonder why he doesn't want me to
+go outside,” she thought. “I wouldn't be afraid in the least, with Bel.
+I'd just love to go across to that wonderful little river of Singing
+Water and sit in the shade; but I won't open the door until four
+o'clock, just as he wrote.”
+
+When she thought of where he had gone, and why, the swift tears filled
+her eyes, but she forced them back and resolutely went to investigate
+the dining-room. Then for two hours she was a home builder, with a touch
+of that homing instinct found in the heart of every good woman. First,
+she looked where the Harvester had said the dishes were, and suddenly
+sat on the floor exulting. There was a quantity of old chipped and
+cracked white ware and some gorgeous baking powder prizes; but there
+were also big blue, green, and pink bowls, several large lustre plates,
+and a complete tea set without chip or blemish, two beautiful pitchers,
+and a number of willow pieces. She set the green bowl on the dining
+table, the blue on the living-room, and took the pink herself, while a
+beautiful yellow one she placed in the dining-room window seat.
+
+“Oh, if I only dared fill them with those lovely flowers!” She stood in
+the window and gazed longingly toward the lake. “I know what colour I'd
+like to put in each of them,” she said, “but I promised not to touch
+anything, and the ones I want most I never saw before, and I'm not to go
+out anyway. I can't see the sense in that, when I'm not at all afraid,
+but if he does this wonderful thing for me I must do what he asks. Oh
+mother, mother! Are you really coming to this beautiful place and to
+rest at last?”
+
+She sank to the window seat and lay trembling, but she bravely
+restrained the tears. After a time she remembered the upstairs and went
+to see the coverlets. She found a half dozen beautiful ones, and smiled
+as she examined the stiffly conventionalized birds facing each other in
+the border designs, and in one corner of each blanket she read, woven in
+the cloth----
+
+     Peter and John
+        Hartman
+        Wooster
+         Ohio
+         1837
+
+She took a blue and a green one, several fine skins from the fur box the
+Harvester had told her about, and went downstairs. It required all her
+strength to push the heavy tables before the fireplaces. She spread
+papers on them to stand on, and tacked a skin above each mantel. She set
+all of the candlesticks, except those she wanted to use, in the lower
+part of an empty bookcase. A pair of black walnut she placed on the
+living-room mantel, together with a big blue plate, a yellow one, and an
+old brass candlestick. She admired the effect very much. She spread the
+blue coverlet on the couch, and arranged the blue bowl and some books on
+the table. Here and there she hung a skin across a chair back, or
+spread it in a wide window seat. Having exhausted all her resources, she
+returned to the dining-room, spread a skin before the hearth and in each
+window seat, set a pink and green lustre plate on the mantel, and a pair
+of oak candlesticks, and arranged the lustre tea set on the side table.
+The pink coverlet she took for herself, and after resting a time she was
+surprised on going back to the rooms to see how homelike they appeared.
+
+At three o'clock she dressed and at almost four unlocked the screen,
+called Belshazzar to her side, and slowly went down the drive to the
+bridge. She had used the pink powder, put on a beautiful white dress,
+carefully arranged her hair, and she wore the pearl ornament. Once her
+fingers strayed to the pendant and she said softly, “I think both he and
+mother would like me to wear it.”
+
+At the foot of the hill she stopped at a bench and sat in the shade
+waiting. Belshazzar stretched beside her, and gazed at her with
+questioning, friendly dog eyes. The Girl looked from Singing Water to
+the lake, and up the hill to make sure it was real. She tried to quiet
+her quivering muscles and nerves. He had asked her to meet him with a
+smile. How could she? He could not have understood what it meant when
+he made the request. There never would be any way to make him realize;
+indeed, why should he? The smile must be ready. He had loved his mother
+deeply, and yet he had said he did not grieve to lay her to rest. Earth
+had not been kind. Then why should she sorrow for her mother? Again life
+had been not only unkind, but bitterly cruel.
+
+Belshazzar arose and watched down the drive. The Girl looked also.
+Through the gate and up the levee came a strange procession. First
+walked the Harvester alone, with bared head, and he carried an arm load
+of white lilies. A carriage containing a man and several women followed.
+Then came a white hearse with snowy plumes, and behind that another
+carriage filled with people, and Betsy followed drawing men in the
+spring wagon. The Girl arose and as she stepped to the drive she swayed
+uncertainly an instant.
+
+“Gracious Heaven!” she gasped. “He is bringing her in white, and with
+flowers and song!”
+
+Then she lifted her head, and with a smile on her lips she went to meet
+him. As she reached his side, he tenderly put an arm around her, and
+came on steadily.
+
+“Courage Girl!” he whispered. “Be as brave as she was!”
+
+Around the driveway and up the hill he half carried her, to a seat he
+had placed under the oak. Before her lay the white-lined grave, and the
+Harvester arranged his lilies around it. The teams stopped at the barn
+and men came up the hill bearing a white burden. Behind them followed
+the minister who yesterday had performed their marriage ceremony, and
+after him a choir of trained singers softly chanting:
+
+     “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,
+     For they shall cease from their labours.”
+
+
+“But David,” panted the Girl, “It was mean and poor. That is not she!”
+
+“Sush!” said the Harvester. “It is your mother. The location was high
+and dry, and it has been only a short time. We wrapped her in white
+silk, laid her on a soft cushion and pillow, and housed her securely.
+She can sleep well now, Ruth. Listen!”
+
+Covered with white lilies, slowly the casket sank into earth. At its
+head stood the minister and as it began to disappear, the white doves,
+frightened by the strange conveyances at the stable, came circling
+above. The minister looked up. He lifted a clear tenor, and softly and
+purely he sang, while at a wave of his hand the choir joined him:
+
+     “Oh, come angel band!  Oh, come, and around me stand!
+     Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home!”
+
+
+He uttered a low benediction, and singing, the people turned and went
+downhill. The Harvester gathered the Girl in his arms and carried her to
+the lake. He laid her in his boat and taking the oars sent it along the
+bank in the shade, and through cool, green places.
+
+“Now cry all you choose!” he said.
+
+The overstrained Girl covered her face and sobbed wildly. After a time
+he began to talk to her gently, and before she realized it, she was
+listening.
+
+“Death has been kinder to her than life, Ruth,” he said. “She is lying
+as you saw her last, I think. We lifted her very tenderly, wrapped
+her carefully, and brought her gently as we could. Now they shall rest
+together, those little mothers of ours, to whom men were not kind; and
+in the long sleep we must forget, as they have forgotten, and forgive,
+as no doubt they have forgiven. Don't you want to take some lilies to
+them before we go to the cabin? Right there on your left are unusually
+large ones.”
+
+The Girl sat up, dried her eyes and gathered the white flowers. When the
+last vehicle crossed the bridge, the Harvester tied the boat and helped
+her up the hill. The old oak stretched its wide arms above two little
+mounds, both moss covered and scattered with flowers. The Girl added her
+store and then went to the Harvester, and sank at his feet.
+
+“Ruth, you shall not!” cried the man. “I simply will not have that. Come
+now, I will bring you back this evening.”
+
+He helped her to the veranda and laid her in the swing. He sat beside
+her while she rested, and then they went into the cabin for supper. Soon
+he had her telling what she had found, and he was making notes of what
+was yet required to transform the cabin into a home. The Harvester left
+it to her to decide whether he should roof the bridge the next day or
+make a trip for furnishings. She said he had better buy what they
+needed and then she could make the cabin homelike while he worked on the
+bridge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE HARVESTER INTERPRETS LIFE
+
+They went through the rooms together, and the Girl suggested the
+furnishings she thought necessary, while the Harvester wrote the list.
+The following morning he was eager to have her company, but she was very
+tired and begged to be allowed to wait in the swing, so again he drove
+away and left her with Belshazzar on guard. When he had gone, she went
+through the cabin arranging the furniture the best she could, then
+dressed and went to the swinging couch. It was so wide and heavy a light
+wind rocked it gently, and from it she faced the fern and lily carpeted
+hillside, the majesty of big trees of a thousand years, and heard the
+music of Singing Water as it sparkled diamond-like where the sun rays
+struck its flow. Across the drive and down the valley to the brilliant
+bit of marsh it hurried on its way to Loon Lake.
+
+There were squirrels barking and racing in the big trees and over the
+ground. They crossed the sodded space of lawn and came to the top step
+for nuts, eating them from cunning paws. They were living life according
+to the laws of their nature. She knew that their sharp, startling bark
+was not to frighten her, but to warn straying intruders of other species
+of their kindred from a nest, because the Harvester had told her so. He
+had said their racing here and there in wild scramble was a game of tag
+and she found it most interesting to observe.
+
+Birds of brilliant colour flashed everywhere, singing in wild joy, and
+tilted on the rising hedge before her, hunting berries and seeds. Their
+bubbling, spontaneous song was an instinctive outpouring of their joy
+over mating time, nests, young, much food, and running water. Their
+social, inquiring, short cry was to locate a mate, and call her to good
+feeding. The sharp wild scream of a note was when a hawk passed over, a
+weasel lurked in the thicket, or a black snake sunned on the bushes. She
+remembered these things, and lay listening intently, trying to interpret
+every sound as the Harvester did.
+
+Birds of wide wing hung as if nailed to the sky, or wheeled and sailed
+in grandeur. They were searching the landscape below to locate a hare
+or snake in the waving grass or carrion in the fields. The wonderful
+exhibitions of wing power were their expression of exultation in life,
+just as the song sparrow threatened to rupture his throat as he swung
+on the hedge, and the red bird somewhere in the thicket whistled so
+forcefully it sounded as if the notes might hurt him.
+
+On the lake bass splashed in a game with each other. Grebes chattered,
+because they were very social. Ducks dived and gobbled for roots and
+worms of the lake shore, and congratulated each other when they were
+lucky.
+
+Killdeer cried for slaughter, in plaintive tones, as their white breasts
+gleamed silver-like across the sky. They insisted on the death of their
+ancient enemies, because the deer had trampled nests around the
+shore, roiled the water, spoiled the food hunting, and had been wholly
+unmindful of the laws of feathered folk from the beginning.
+
+Behind the barn imperial cocks crowed challenges of defiance to each
+other and all the world, because they once had worn royal turbans on
+their heads, and ruled the forests, even the elephants and lions. Happy
+hens cackled when they deposited an egg, and wandered through their park
+singing the spring egg song unceasingly.
+
+Upon the barn Ajax spread and exulted in glittering plumage, and
+screamed viciously. He was sending a wireless plea to the forests of
+Ceylon for a gray mate to come and share the ridge pole with him, and
+help him wage red war on the sickening love making of the white doves he
+hated.
+
+Everything was beautiful, some of it was amusing, all instructive, and
+intensely interesting. The Girl wanted to know about the brown, yellow,
+and black butterflies sailing from flower to flower. She watched big
+black and gold bees come from the forest for pollen and listened to
+their monotonous bumbling. Her first humming bird poised in air, and
+sipped nectar before her astonished eyes. It was marvellous, but more
+wonderful to the Girl than anything she saw or heard was the fact that
+because of the Harvester's teachings she now could trace through all of
+it the ordained processes of the evolution of life. Everything was right
+in its way, all necessary to human welfare, and so there was nothing to
+fear, but marvels to learn and pictures to appreciate. She would have
+taken Belshazzar and gone out, but the Harvester had exacted a promise
+that she would not. The fact was, he could see that she was coming
+gradually to a sane and natural view of life and living things, and he
+did not want some sound or creature to frighten her, and spoil what he
+had accomplished. So she swayed in the swing and watched, and tried to
+interpret sights and sounds as he did.
+
+Before an hour she realized that she was coming speedily into sympathy
+with the wild life around her; for, instead of shivering and shrinking
+at unaccustomed sounds, she was listening especially for them, and
+trying to arrive at a sane version. Instead of the senseless roar
+of commerce, manufacture, and life of a city, she was beginning to
+appreciate sounds that varied and carried the Song of Life in unceasing
+measure and absorbing meaning, while she was more than thankful for the
+fresh, pure air, and the blessed, God-given light. It seemed to the Girl
+that there was enough sunshine at Medicine Woods to furnish rays of gold
+for the whole world.
+
+“Bel,” she said to the dog standing beside her, “it's a shame to
+separate you from the Medicine Man and pen you here with me. It's a
+wonder you don't bite off my head and run away to find him. He's gone to
+bring more things to make life beautiful. I wanted to go with him, but
+oh Bel, there's something dreadfully wrong with me. I was afraid I'd
+fall on the streets and frighten and shame him. I'm so weak, I scarcely
+can walk straight across one of these big, cool rooms that he has built
+for me. He can make everything beautiful, Bel, a home, rooms, clothing,
+grounds, and life----above everything else he can make life beautiful.
+He's so splendid and wonderful, with his wide understanding and sane
+interpretation and God-like sympathy and patience. Why Belshazzar, he
+can do the greatest thing in all the world! He can make you forget that
+the grave annihilates your dear ones by hideous processes, and set you
+to thinking instead that they come back to you in whispering leaves and
+flower perfumes. If I didn't owe him so much that I ought to pay, if
+this wasn't so alluringly beautiful, I'd like to go to the oak and lie
+beside those dear women resting there, and give my tired body to
+furnish sap for strength and leaves for music. He can take its bitterest
+sting----from death, Bel----and that's the most wonderful thing----in
+life, Bel----”
+
+Her voice became silent, her eyes closed; the dog stretched himself
+beside her on guard, and it was so the Harvester found them when he
+drove home from the city. He heaped his load in the dining-room, stabled
+Betsy, carried the things he had brought where he thought they belonged,
+and prepared food. When she awakened she came to him.
+
+“How is it going, Girl?” asked the Harvester.
+
+“I can't tell you how lovely it has been!”
+
+“Do you really mean that your heart is warming a little to things here?”
+
+“Indeed I do! I can't tell you what a morning I've had. There have been
+such myriad things to see and hear. Oh, Harvester, can you ever teach me
+what all of it means?”
+
+“I can right now,” said the Harvester promptly. “It means two things,
+so simple any little child can understand----the love of God and the
+evolution of life. I am not precisely clear as to what I mean when I say
+God. I don't know whether it is spirit, matter, or force; it is that big
+thing that brings forth worlds, establishes their orbits, and gives us
+heat, light, food, and water. To me, that is God and His love. Just that
+we are given birth, sheltered, provisioned, and endowed for our work.
+Evolution is the natural consequence of this. It is the plan steadily
+unfolding. If I were you, I wouldn't bother my head over these
+questions, they never have been scientifically explained to the
+beginning; I doubt if they ever will be, because they start with the
+origin of matter and that is too far beyond man for him to penetrate.
+Just enjoy to the depths of your soul----that's worship. Be thankful for
+everything----that's praising God as the birds praise him. And 'do unto
+others' that's all there is of love and religion combined in one fell
+swoop.”
+
+“You should go before the world and tell every one that!”
+
+“No! It isn't my vocation,” said the Harvester. “My work is to provide
+pain-killer. I don't believe, Ruth, that there is any one on the
+footstool who is doing a better job along that line. I am boastfully
+proud of it----just of sending in the packages that kill fever, refresh
+poor blood, and strengthen weak hearts; unadulterated, honest weight,
+fresh, and scrupulously clean. My neighbours have a different name for
+it; I call it a man's work.”
+
+“Every one who understands must,” said the Girl. “I wish I could help at
+that. I feel as if it would do more to wipe out the pain I've suffered
+and seen her endure than anything else. Man, when I grow strong enough I
+want to help you. I believe that I am going to love it here.”
+
+“Don't ever suppress your feelings, Ruth!” hastily cried the Harvester.
+“It will be very bad for you. You will become wrought up, and 'het up,'
+as Granny Moreland says, and it will make you very ill. When we drive
+the fever from your blood, the ache from your bones, the poison of
+wrong conditions from your soul, and good, healthy, red corpuscles begin
+pumping through your little heart like a windmill, you can stake your
+life you're going to love it here. And the location and work are not
+all you're going to care for either, honey. Now just wait! That was not
+'nominated in the bond.' I'm allowed to talk. I never agreed not to SAY
+things. What I promised was not to DO them. So as I said, honey, sit at
+this table, and eat the food I've cooked; and by that time the furniture
+van will be here, and the men will unload, and you shall reign on a
+throne and tell me where and how.”
+
+“Oh if I were only stronger, David!”
+
+“You are!” said the Harvester. “You are much better than you were
+yesterday. You can talk, and that's all that's necessary. The rooms
+are ready for furniture. The men will carry it where you want it. A
+decorator is coming to hang the curtains. By night we will be settled;
+you can lie in the swing while I read to you a story so wonderful that
+the wildest fairy tale you ever heard never touched it.”
+
+“What will it be, David?”
+
+“Eat all the red raspberries and cream, bread and butter, and drink all
+the milk you can. There's blood, beefsteak, and bones in it. As I was
+saying, you have come here a stranger to a strange land. The first thing
+is for you to understand and love the woods. Before you can do that you
+should master the history of one tree; just the same as you must learn
+to know and love me before your childlike trust in all mankind returns
+again. Understand? Well, the fates knew you were on the way, coming
+trembling down the brink, Ruth, so they put it into the heart of a great
+man to write largely of a wonderful tree, especially for your benefit.
+After it had fallen he took it apart, split it in sections, and year
+by year spread out history for all the world to read. It made a classic
+story filled with unsurpassed wonders. It was a pine of a thousand
+years, close the age of our mother tree, Ruth, and when we have learned
+from Enos Mills how to wrest secrets from the hearts of centuries, we
+will climb the hill and measure our oak, and then I will estimate, and
+you will write, and we will make a record for our tree.”
+
+“Oh, I'd like that!”
+
+“So would I,” said the Harvester. “And a million other things I can
+think of that we can learn together. It won't require long for me to
+teach you all I know, and by that time your hand will be clasped in
+mine, and our 'hearts will beat as one,' and you will give me a kiss
+every night and morning, and a few during the day for interest, and we
+will go on in life together and learn songs, miracles, and wonders until
+the old oak calls us. Then we will ascend the hill gladly and lie down
+and offer up our bodies, and our children will lay flowers over our
+hearts, and gather the herbs and paint the pictures? Amen. I hear a van
+on the bridge. Just you go to your room and lie down until I get things
+unloaded and where they belong. Then you and the decorator can make us
+home-like, and to-morrow we will begin to live. Won't that be great,
+Ruth?”
+
+“With you, yes, I think it will.”
+
+“That will do for this time,” said the Harvester, as he opened the door
+to her room. “Lie and rest until I say ready.”
+
+As he went to meet the men, she could hear him singing lustily, “Praise
+God from whom all blessings flow.”
+
+“What a child he is!” she said. “And what a man!”
+
+For an hour heavy feet sounded through the cabin carrying furniture to
+different rooms. Then with a floor brush in one hand, and a polishing
+cloth in the other, the Harvester tapped at her door and helped the Girl
+upstairs. He had divided the space into three large, square sleeping
+chambers. In each he had set up a white iron bed, a dressing table, and
+wash stand, and placed two straight-backed and one rocking chair, all
+white. The walls were tinted lightly with green added to the plaster.
+There was a mattress and a stack of bedding on each bed, and a large rug
+and several small ones on the floors. He led her to the rocking chair in
+the middle room, where she could see through the open doors of the other
+two.
+
+“Now,” said the Harvester, “I didn't know whether the room with two
+windows toward the lake and one on the marsh, or two facing the woods
+and one front, was the guest chamber. It seemed about an even throw
+whether a visitor would prefer woods or water, so I made them both guest
+chambers, and got things alike for them. Now if we are entertaining two,
+one can't feel more highly honoured than the other. Was that a scheme?”
+
+“Fine!” said the Girl. “I don't see how it could be surpassed.”
+
+“'Be sure you are right, then go ahead,'” quoted the Harvester. “Now
+I'll make the beds and Mr. Rogers can hang the curtains. Is white
+correct for sleeping rooms? Won't that wash best and always be fresh?”
+
+“It will,” said the Girl. “White wash curtains are much the nicest.”
+
+“Make them short Mr. Rogers; keep them off the floor,” advised the
+Harvester. “And simple----don't arrange any thing elaborate that will
+tire a woman to keep in order. Whack them off the right length and pin
+them to the poles.”
+
+“How about that, Mrs. Langston?” asked the decorator.
+
+“I am quite sure that is the very best thing to do,” said the Girl; and
+the curtains were hung while the mattress was placed.
+
+“Now about this?” inquired the Harvester. “Do I put on sheets and fix
+these beds ready to use?”
+
+“I would not,” said the Girl. “I would spread the pad and the
+counterpane and lay the sheets and pillows in the closet until they are
+wanted. They can be sunned and the bed made delightfully fresh.”
+
+“Of course,” said the Harvester.
+
+When he had finished, he spread a cover on the dressing table and
+laid out white toilet articles and grouped a white wash set with green
+decorations on the stand. Then he brushed the floor, spread a big green
+rug in the middle and small ones before the bed, stand, and table, and
+coming out closed the door.
+
+“Guest chamber with lake view is now ready for company,” announced the
+Harvester. “Repeat the operation on the woods room, finished also. Why
+do some people make work of things and string them out eternally and
+fuss so much? Isn't this simple and easy, Ruth?”
+
+“Yes, if you can afford it,” said the Girl.
+
+“Forbear!” cried the Harvester. “We have the goods, the dealer has my
+check. Excuse me ten minutes, until I furnish another room.”
+
+The laughing Girl could catch glimpses of him busy over beds and
+dresser, floor and rugs; then he came where she sat.
+
+“Woods guest chamber ready,” he said. “Now we come to the interior
+apartment, that from its view might be called the marsh room. Aside
+from being two windows short, it is exactly similar to the others. It
+occurred to me that, in order to make up for the loss of those windows,
+and also because I may be compelled to ask some obliging woman to occupy
+it in case your health is precarious at any time, and in view of the
+further fact that if any such woman could be found, and would kindly and
+willingly care for us, my gratitude would be inexpressible; on account
+of all these things, I got a shade the BEST furnishings for this room.”
+
+The Girl stared at him with blank face.
+
+“You see,” said the Harvester, “this is a question of ethics. Now what
+is a guest? A thing of a day! A person who disturbs your routine and
+interferes with important concerns. Why should any one be grateful for
+company? Why should time and money be lavished on visitors? They come.
+You overwork yourself. They go. You are glad of it. You return the
+visit, because it's the only way to have back at them; but why pamper
+them unnecessarily? Now a good housekeeper, that means more than words
+can express. Comfort, kindness, sanitary living, care in illness! Here's
+to the prospective housekeeper of Medicine Woods! Rogers, hang those
+ruffled embroidered curtains. Observe that whereas mere guest beds
+are plain white, this has a touch of brass. Where guest rugs are floor
+coverings, this is a work of art. Where guest brushes are celluloid,
+these are enamelled, and the dresser cover is hand embroidered. Let me
+also call your attention to the chairs touched with gold, cushioned
+for ease, and a decorated pitcher and bowl. Watch the bounce of these
+springs and the thickness of this mattress and pad, and notice that
+where guests, however welcome, get a down cover of sateen, the lady of
+the house has silkaline. Won't she prepare us a breakfast after a night
+in this room?”
+
+“David, are you in earnest?” gasped the Girl.
+
+“Don't these things prove it?” asked the Harvester. “No woman can enter
+my home, when my necessities are so great I have to hire her to come,
+and take the WORST in the house. After my wife, she gets the best, every
+time. Whenever I need help, the woman who will come and serve me is what
+I'd call the real guest of the house. Friend? Where are your friends
+when trouble comes? It always brings a crowd on account of the
+excitement, and there is noise and racing; but if your soul is saved
+alive, it is by a steady, trained hand you pay to help you. Friends
+come and go, but a good housekeeper remains and is a business
+proposition--one that if conducted rightly for both parties and on a
+strictly common-sense basis, gives you living comfort. Now that we have
+disposed of the guests that go and the one that remains, we will proceed
+downward and arrange for ourselves.”
+
+“David, did you ever know any one who treated a housekeeper as you say
+you would?”
+
+“No. And I never knew any one who raised medicinal stuff for a living,
+but I'm making a gilt-edged success of it, and I would of a housekeeper,
+too.”
+
+“It doesn't seem----”
+
+“That's the bedrock of all the trouble on the earth,” interrupted the
+Harvester. “We are a nation and a part of a world that spends our time
+on 'seeming.' Our whole outer crust is 'seeming.' When we get beneath
+the surface and strike the BEING, then we live as we are privileged by
+the Almighty. I don't think I give a tinker how anything SEEMS. What
+concerns me is how it IS. It doesn't 'seem' possible to you to hire a
+woman to come into your home and take charge of its cleanliness and the
+food you eat--the very foundation of life--and treat her as an honoured
+guest, and give her the best comfort you have to offer. The cold room,
+the old covers, the bare floor, and the cast off furniture are for her.
+No wonder, as a rule, she gives what she gets. She dignifies her labour
+in the same ratio that you do. Wait until we need a housekeeper, and
+then gaze with awe on the one I will raise to your hand.”
+
+“I wonder----”
+
+“Don't! It's wearing! Come tell me how to make our living-room less bare
+than it appears at present.”
+
+They went downstairs together, followed by the decorator, and began work
+on the room. The Girl was placed on a couch and made comfortable and
+then the Harvester looked around.
+
+“That bundle there, Rogers, is the curtains we bought for this room. If
+you and my wife think they are not right, we will not hang them.”
+
+The decorator opened the package and took out curtains of tan-coloured
+goods with a border of blue and brown.
+
+“Those are not expensive,” said the Harvester, “but to me a window
+appears bare with only a shade, so I thought we'd try these, and when
+they become soiled we'll burn them and buy some fresh ones.”
+
+“Good idea!” laughed the Girl. “As a house decorator you surpass
+yourself as a Medicine Man.”
+
+“Fix these as you did those upstairs,” ordered the Harvester. “We don't
+want any fol-de-rols. Put the bottom even with the sill and shear them
+off at the top.”
+
+“No, I am going to arrange these,” said the decorator, “you go on with
+your part.”
+
+“All right!” agreed the Harvester. “First, I'll lay the big rug.”
+
+He cleared the floor, spread a large rug with a rich brown centre and a
+wide blue border. Smaller ones of similar design and colour were placed
+before each of the doors leading from the room.
+
+“Now for the hearth,” said the Harvester, “I got this tan goat skin.
+Doesn't that look fairly well?”
+
+It certainly did; and the Girl and the decorator hastened to say so. The
+Harvester replaced the table and chairs, and then sat on the couch at
+the Girl's feet.
+
+“I call this almost finished,” he remarked. “All we need now is a
+bouquet and something on the walls, and that is serious business.
+What goes on them usually remains for a long time, and so it should be
+selected with care. Ruth, have you a picture of your mother?”
+
+“None since she was my mother. I have some lovely girl photographs.”
+
+“Good!” cried the Harvester. “Exactly the thing! I have a picture of my
+mother when she was a pretty girl. We will select the best of yours and
+have them enlarged in those beautiful brown prints they make in these
+days, and we'll frame one for each side of the mantel. After that you
+can decorate the other walls as you see things you want. Fifteen minutes
+gone; we are ready to take up the line of march to the dining-room. Oh
+I forgot my pillows! Here are a half dozen tan, brown, and blue for this
+room. Ruth, you arrange them.”
+
+The Girl heaped four on the couch, stood one beside the hearth, and laid
+another in a big chair.
+
+“Now I don't know what you will think of this,” said the Harvester. “I
+found it in a magazine at the library. I copied this whole room. The
+plan was to have the floor, furniture, and casings of golden oak and the
+walls pale green. Then it said get yellow curtains bordered with green
+and a green rug with yellow figures, so I got them. I had green leather
+cushions made for the window seats, and these pillows go on them. Hang
+the saffron curtains, Rogers, and we will finish in good shape for
+dinner by six. By the way, Ruth, when will you select your dishes? It
+will take a big set to fill all these shelves and you shall have exactly
+what you want.”
+
+“I can use those you have very well.”
+
+“Oh no you can't!” cried the Harvester. “I may live and work in the
+woods, but I am not so benighted that I don't own and read the best
+books and magazines, and subscribe for a few papers. I patronize the
+library and see what is in the stores. My money will buy just as much as
+any man's, if I do wear khaki trousers. Kindly notice the word. Save in
+deference to your ladyship I probably would have said pants. You see how
+ELITE I can be if I try. And it not only extends to my wardrobe, to a
+'yaller' and green dining-room, but it takes in the 'chany' as well. I
+have looked up that, too. You want china, cut glass, silver cutlery, and
+linen. Ye! Ye! You needn't think I don't know anything but how to dig in
+the dirt. I have been studying this especially, and I know exactly what
+to get.”
+
+“Come here,” said the Girl, making a place for him beside her. “Now let
+me tell you what I think. We are going to live in the woods, and our
+home is a log cabin----”
+
+“With acetylene lights, a furnace, baths, and hot and cold water----”
+ interpolated the Harvester.
+
+The Girl and the decorator laughed.
+
+“Anyway,” said she, “if you are going to let me have what I would like,
+I'd prefer a set of tulip yellow dishes with the Dutch little figures
+on them. I don't know what they cost, but certainly they are not so
+expensive as cut glass and china.”
+
+“Is that earnest or is it because you think I am spending too much
+money?”
+
+“It is what I want. Everything else is different; why should we have
+dishes like city folk? I'd dearly love to have the Dutch ones, and
+a white cloth with a yellow border, glass where it is necessary, and
+silver knives, forks, and spoons.”
+
+“That would be great, all right!” endorsed the decorator. “And you have
+got a priceless old lustre tea set there, and your willow ware is as
+fine as I ever saw. If I were you, I wouldn't buy a dish with what you
+have, except the yellow set.”
+
+“Great day!” ejaculated the Harvester. “Will you tell me why my great
+grandmother's old pink and green teapot is priceless?”
+
+The Girl explained pink lustre. “That set in the shop I knew in Chicago
+would sell for from three to five hundred dollars. Truly it would! I've
+seen one little pink and green pitcher like yours bring nine dollars
+there. And you've not only got the full tea set, but water and dip
+pitchers, two bowls, and two bread plates. They are priceless, because
+the secret of making them is lost; they take on beauty with age, and
+they were your great-grandmother's.”
+
+The Harvester reached over and energetically shook hands.
+
+“Ruth, I'm so glad you've got them!” he bubbled. “Now elucidate on my
+willow ware. What is it? Where is it? Why have I willow ware and am not
+informed. Who is responsible for this? Did my ancestors buy better than
+they knew, or worse? Is willow ware a crime for which I must hide
+my head, or is it further riches thrust upon me? I thought I had
+investigated the subject of proper dishes quite thoroughly; but I am
+very certain I saw no mention of lustre or willow. I thought, in my
+ignorance, that lustre was a dress, and willow a tree. Have I been
+deceived? Why is a blue plate or pitcher willow ware?”
+
+“Bring that platter from the mantel,” ordered the Girl, “and I will show
+you.”
+
+The Harvester obeyed and followed the finger that traced the design.
+
+“That's a healthy willow tree!” he commented. “If Loon Lake couldn't go
+ahead of that it should be drained. And will you please tell me why this
+precious platter from which I have eaten much stewed chicken, fried ham,
+and in youthful days sopped the gravy----will you tell me why this relic
+of my ancestors is called a willow plate, when there are a majority of
+orange trees so extremely fruitful they have neglected to grow a leaf?
+Why is it not an orange plate? Look at that boat! And in plain sight of
+it, two pagodas, a summer house, a water-sweep, and a pair of corpulent
+swallows; you would have me believe that a couple are eloping in broad
+daylight.”
+
+“Perhaps it's night! And those birds are doves.”
+
+“Never!” cried the Harvester. “There is a total absence of shadows.
+There is no moon. Each orange tree is conveniently split in halves, so
+you can see to count the fruit accurately; the birds are in flight. Only
+a swallow or a stork can fly in decorations, either by day or by night.
+And for any sake look at that elopement! He goes ahead carrying a cane,
+she comes behind lugging the baggage, another man with a cane brings up
+the rear. They are not running away. They have been married ten years
+at least. In a proper elopement, they forget there are such things
+as jewels and they always carry each other. I've often looked up the
+statistics and it's the only authorized version. As I regard this
+treasure, I grow faint when I remember with what unnecessary force my
+father bore down when he carved the ham. I'll bet a cooky he split those
+orange trees. Now me----I'll never dare touch knife to it again. I'll
+always carve the meat on the broiler, and gently lift it to this
+platter with a fork. Or am I not to be allowed to dine from my ancestral
+treasure again?”
+
+“Not in a green and yellow room,” laughed the Girl. “I'll tell you what
+I think. If I had a tea table to match the living-room furniture, and
+it sat beside the hearth, and on it a chafing dish to cook in, and the
+willow ware to eat from, we could have little tea parties in there, when
+we aren't very hungry or to treat a visitor. It would help make that
+room 'homey,' and it's wonderful how they harmonize with the other
+things.”
+
+“How much willow ware have I got to 'bestow' on you?” inquired the
+Harvester. “Suppose you show me all of it. A guilty feeling arises in my
+breast, and I fear me I have committed high crimes!”
+
+“Oh Man! You didn't break or lose any of those dishes, did you?”
+
+“Show me!” insisted the Harvester.
+
+The Girl arose and going to the cupboard he had designed for her china
+she opened it, and set before him a teapot, cream pitcher, two plates, a
+bowl, a pitcher, the meat platter, and a sugar bowl. “If there were all
+of the cups, saucers, and plates, I know where they would bring five
+hundred dollars,” she said.
+
+“Ruth, are you getting even with me for poking fun at them, or are you
+in earnest?” asked the Harvester.
+
+“I mean every word of it.”
+
+“You really want a small, black walnut table made especially for those
+old dishes?”
+
+“Not if you are too busy. I could use it with beautiful effect and much
+pleasure, and I can't tell you how proud I'd be of them.”
+
+The Harvester's face flushed. “Excuse me,” he said rising. “I have now
+finished furnishing a house; I will go and take a peep at the engine.”
+ He went into the kitchen and hearing the rattle of dishes the Girl
+followed. She stepped in just in time to see him hastily slide something
+into his pocket. He picked up a half dozen old white plates and saucers
+and several cups and started toward the evaporator. He heard her coming.
+
+“Look here, honey,” he said turning, “you don't want to see the
+dry-house just now. I have terrific heat to do some rapid work. I won't
+be gone but a few minutes. You better boss the decorator.
+
+“I'm afraid that wasn't very diplomatic,” he muttered. “It savoured a
+little of being sent back. But if what she says is right, and she
+should know if they handle such stuff at that art store, she will feel
+considerably better not to see this.”
+
+He set his load at the door, drew an old blue saucer from his pocket and
+made a careful examination. He pulled some leaves from a bush and pushed
+a greasy cloth out of the saucer, wiped it the best he could, and held
+it to light.
+
+“That is a crime!” he commented. “Saucer from your maternal ancestors'
+tea set used for a grease dish. I am afraid I'd better sink it in the
+lake. She'd feel worse to see it than never to know. Wish I could clean
+off the grease! I could do better if it was hot. I can set it on the
+engine.”
+
+The Harvester placed the saucer on the engine, entered the dry-house,
+and closed the door. In the stifling air he began pouring seed from
+beautiful, big willow plates to the old white ones.
+
+“About the time I have ruined you,” he said to a white plate, “some one
+will pop up and discover that the art of making you is lost and you are
+priceless, and I'll have been guilty of another blunder. Now there are
+the dishes mother got with baking powder. She thought they were grand.
+I know plenty well she prized them more than these blue ones or she
+wouldn't have saved them and used these for every day. There they set,
+all so carefully taken care of, and the Girl doesn't even look at them.
+Thank Heaven, there are the four remaining plates all right, anyway! Now
+I've got seed in some of the saucers; one is there; where on earth is
+the last one? And where, oh unkind fates! are the cups?”
+
+He found more saucers and set them with the plates. As he passed the
+engine he noticed the saucer on it was bubbling grease, literally
+exuding it from the particles of clay.
+
+“Hooray!” cried the Harvester. He took it up, but it was so hot he
+dropped it. With a deft sweep he caught it in air, and shoved it on
+a tray. Then he danced and blew on his burned hand. Snatching out his
+handkerchief he rubbed off all the grease, and imagined the saucer was
+brighter.
+
+“If 'a little is good, more is better,'” quoted the Harvester.
+
+Wadding the handkerchief he returned the saucer to the engine. Then he
+slipped out, dripping perspiration, glanced toward the cabin, and ran
+into the work room. The first object he saw was a willow cup half full
+of red paint, stuck and dried as if to remain forever. He took his knife
+and tried to whittle it off, but noticing that he was scratching the cup
+he filled it with turpentine, set it under a work bench, turned a tin
+pan over it, and covered it with shavings. A few steps farther brought
+one in sight, filled with carpet tacks. He searched everywhere, but
+could find no more, so he went to the laboratory. Beside his wash bowl
+at the door stood the last willow saucer. He had used it for years as a
+soap dish. He scraped the contents on the bench and filled the dish with
+water. Four cups held medicinal seeds and were in good condition. He
+lacked one, although he could not remember of ever having broken it.
+Gathering his collection, he returned to the dry-house to see how the
+saucer was coming on. Again it was bubbling, and he polished off the
+grease and set back the dish. It certainly was growing better. He
+carried his treasures into the work room, and went to the barn to
+feed. As he was leaving the stable he uttered a joyous exclamation
+and snatched from a window sill a willow cup, gummed and smeared with
+harness oil.
+
+“The full set, by hokey!” marvelled the Harvester. “Say, Betsy, the only
+name for this is luck! Now if I only can clean them, I'll be ready to
+make her tea table, whatever that is. My I hope she will stay away until
+I get these in better shape!”
+
+He filled the last cup with turpentine, set it with the other under the
+work bench, stacked the remaining pieces, polished the saucer he was
+baking, and went to bring a dish pan and towel. He drew some water from
+the pipes of the evaporator, put in the soap, and carried it to the work
+room. There he carefully washed and wiped all the pieces, save two cups
+and one saucer. He did not know how long it would require to bake the
+grease from that, but he was sure it was improving. He thought he could
+clean the paint cup, but he imagined the harness oil one would require
+baking also.
+
+As he stood busily working over the dishes, with light step the Girl
+came to the door. She took one long look and understood. She turned
+and swiftly went back to the cabin, but her shoulders were shaking.
+Presently the Harvester came in and explained that after finishing in
+the dry-house he had gone to do the feeding. Then he suggested that
+before it grew dark they should go through the rooms and see how they
+appeared, and gather the flowers the Girl wanted. So together they
+decided everything was clean, comfortable, and harmonized.
+
+Then they went to the hillside sloping to the lake. For the dining-room,
+the Girl wanted yellow water lilies, so the Harvester brought his old
+boat and gathered enough to fill the green bowl. For the living-room,
+she used wild ragged robins in the blue bowl, and on one end of the
+mantel set a pitcher of saffron and on the other arrowhead lilies. For
+her room, she selected big, blushy mallows that grew all along Singing
+Water and around the lake.
+
+“Isn't that slightly peculiar?” questioned the Harvester.
+
+“Take a peep,” said the Girl, opening her door.
+
+She had spread the pink coverlet on her couch, and when she set the big
+pink bowl filled with mallows on the table the effect was exquisite.
+
+“I think perhaps that's a little Frenchy,” she said, “and you may have
+to be educated to it; but salmon pink and buttercup yellow are colours I
+love in combination.”
+
+She closed the door and went to find something to eat, and then to
+the swing, where she liked to rest, look, and listen. The Harvester
+suggested reading to her, but she shook her head.
+
+“Wait until winter,” she said, “when the days are longer and cold, and
+the snow buries everything, and then read. Now tell me about my hedge
+and the things you have planted in it.”
+
+The Harvester went out and collected a bunch of twigs. He handed her a
+big, evenly proportioned leaf of ovate shape, and explained: “This is
+burning bush, so called because it has pink berries that hang from long,
+graceful stems all winter, and when fully open they expose a flame-red
+seed pod. It was for this colour on gray and white days that I planted
+it. In the woods I grow it in thickets. The root bark brings twenty
+cents a pound, at the very least. It is good fever medicine.”
+
+“Is it poison?”
+
+“No. I didn't set anything acutely poisonous in your hedge. I wanted it
+to be a mass of bloom you were free to cut for the cabin all spring, an
+attraction to birds in summer, and bright with colour in winter. To draw
+the feathered tribe, I planted alder, wild cherry, and grape-vines.
+This is cherry. The bark is almost as beautiful as birch. I raise it
+for tonics and the birds love the cherries. This fern-like leaf is from
+mountain ash, and when it attains a few years' growth it will flame with
+colour all winter in big clusters of scarlet berries. That I grow in
+the woods is a picture in snow time, and the bark is one of my standard
+articles.”
+
+The Girl raised on her elbow and looked at the hedge.
+
+“I see it,” she said. “The berries are green now. I suppose they change
+colour as they ripen.”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester. “And you must not confuse them with sumac.
+The leaves are somewhat similar, but the heads differ in colour and
+shape. The sumac and buckeye you must not touch, until we learn what
+they will do to you. To some they are slightly poisonous, to others not.
+I couldn't help putting in a few buckeyes on account of the big buds
+in early spring. You will like the colour if you are fond of pink and
+yellow in combination, and the red-brown nuts in grayish-yellow, prickly
+hulls, and the leaf clusters are beautiful, but you must use care. I put
+in witch hazel for variety, and I like its appearance; it's mighty
+good medicine, too; so is spice brush, and it has leaves that colour
+brightly, and red berries. These selections were all made for a purpose.
+Now here is wafer ash; it is for music as well as medicine. I have
+invoked all good fairies to come and dwell in this hedge, and so I had
+to provide an orchestra for their dances. This tree grows a hundred tiny
+castanets in a bunch, and when they ripen and become dry the wind shakes
+fine music from them. Yes, they are medicine; that is, the bark of
+the roots is. Almost without exception everything here has medicinal
+properties. The tulip poplar will bear you the loveliest flowers of all,
+and its root bark, taken in winter, makes a good fever remedy.”
+
+“How would it do to eat some of the leaves and see if they wouldn't take
+the feverishness from me?”
+
+“It wouldn't do at all,” said the Harvester. “We are well enough fixed
+to allow Doc to come now, and he is the one to allay the fever.”
+
+“Oh no!” she cried. “No! I don't want to see a doctor. I will be all
+right very soon. You said I was better.”
+
+“You are,” said the Harvester. “Much better! We will have you strong and
+well soon. You should have come in time for a dose of sassafras. Your
+hedge is filled with that, because of its peculiar leaves and odour. I
+put in dogwood for the white display around the little green bloom,
+lots of alder for bloom and berries, haws for blossoms and fruit for the
+squirrels, wild crab apples for the exquisite bloom and perfume, button
+bush for the buttons, a few pokeberry plants for the colour, and I tried
+some mallows, but I doubt if it's wet enough for them. I set pecks of
+vine roots, that are coming nicely, and ferns along the front edge. Give
+it two years and that hedge will make a picture that will do your eyes
+good.”
+
+“Can you think of anything at all you forgot?”
+
+“Yes indeed!” said the Harvester. “The woods are full of trees I have
+not used; some because I overlooked them, some I didn't want. A hedge
+like this, in perfection, is the work of years. Some species must be cut
+back, some encouraged, but soon it will be lovely, and its colour and
+fruit attract every bird of the heavens and butterflies and insects of
+all varieties. I set several common cherry trees for the robins and some
+blackberry and raspberry vines for the orioles. The bloom is pretty and
+the birds you'll have will be a treat to see and hear, if we keep away
+cats, don't fire guns, scatter food, and move quietly among them. With
+our water attractions added, there is nothing impossible in the way of
+making friends with feathered folk.”
+
+“There is one thing I don't understand,” said the Girl. “You wouldn't
+risk breaking the wing of a moth by keeping it when you wanted a drawing
+very much; you don't seem to kill birds and animals that other people
+do. You almost worship a tree; now how can you take a knife and peel the
+bark to sell or dig up beautiful bushes by the root.”
+
+“Perhaps I've talked too much about the woods,” said the Harvester
+gently. “I've longed inexpressibly for sympathetic company here, because
+I feel rooted for life, so I am more than anxious that you should care
+for it. I may have made you feel that my greatest interest is in the
+woods, and that I am not consistent when I call on my trees and plants
+to yield of their store for my purposes. Above everything else, the
+human proposition comes first, Ruth. I do love my trees, bushes, and
+flowers, because they keep me at the fountain of life, and teach me
+lessons no book ever hints at; but above everything come my fellow men.
+All I do is for them. My heart is filled with feeling for the things
+you see around you here, but it would be joy to me to uproot the most
+beautiful plant I have if by so doing I could save you pain. Other men
+have wives they love as well, little children they have fathered, big
+bodies useful to the world, that are sometimes crippled with disease.
+There is nothing I would not give to allay the pain of humanity. It is
+not inconsistent to offer any growing thing you soon can replace, to
+cure suffering. Get that idea out of your head! You said you could
+worship at the shrine of the pokeberry bed, you feel holier before the
+arrowhead lilies, your face takes on an appearance of reverence when you
+see pink mallow blooms. Which of them would you have hesitated a second
+in uprooting if you could have offered it to subdue fever or pain in the
+body of the little mother you loved?”
+
+“Oh I see!” cried the Girl. “Like everything else you make this
+different. You worship all this beauty and grace, wrought by your
+hands, but you carry your treasure to the market place for the good of
+suffering humanity. Oh Man! I love the work you do!”
+
+“Good!” cried the Harvester. “Good! And Ruth-girl, while you are about
+it, see if you can't combine the man and his occupation a little.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. GRANNY MORELAND'S VISIT
+
+The following morning the Girl was awakened by wheels on the gravel
+outside her window, and lifted her head to see Betsy passing with a load
+of lumber. Shortly afterward the sound of hammer and saw came to her,
+and she knew that Singing Water bridge was being roofed to provide shade
+for her. She dressed and went to the kitchen to find a dainty breakfast
+waiting, so she ate what she could, and then washed the dishes and
+swept. By that time she was so tired she dropped on a dining-room window
+seat, and lay looking toward the bridge. She could catch glimpses of
+the Harvester as he worked. She watched his deft ease in handling heavy
+timbers, and the assurance with which he builded. Sometimes he stood and
+with tilted head studied his work a minute, then swiftly proceeded. He
+placed three tree trunks on each side for pillars, laid joists across,
+formed his angle, and nailed boards as a foundation for shingling.
+Occasionally he glanced toward the cabin, and finally came swinging up
+the drive. He entered the kitchen softly, but when he saw the Girl in
+the window he sat at her feet.
+
+“Oh but this is a morning, Ruth!” he said.
+
+She looked at him closely. He radiated health and good cheer. His tanned
+cheeks were flushed red with exercise, and the hair on his temples was
+damp.
+
+“You have been breaking the rules,” he said. “It is the law that I am
+to do the work until you are well and strong again. Why did you tire
+yourself?”
+
+“I am so perfectly useless! I see so many things that I would enjoy
+doing. Oh you can do everything else, make me well! Make me strong!”
+
+“How can I, when you won't do as I tell you?”
+
+“I will! Indeed I will!”
+
+“Then no more attempts to stand over dishes and clean big floors. You
+mustn't overwork yourself at anything. The instant you feel in the least
+tired you must lie down and rest.”
+
+“But Man! I'm tired every minute, with a dead, dull ache, and I don't
+feel as if I ever would be rested again in all the world.”
+
+The Harvester took one of her hands, felt its fevered palm, fluttering
+wrist pulse, and noticed that the brilliant red of her lips had extended
+to spots on her cheeks. He formed his resolution.
+
+“Can't work on that bridge any more until I drive in for some big
+nails,” he said. “Do you mind being left alone for an hour?”
+
+“Not at all, if Bel will stay with me. I'll lie in the swing.”
+
+“All right!” answered the Harvester. “I'll help you out and to get
+settled. Is there anything you want from town?”
+
+“No, not a thing!”
+
+“Oh but you are modest!” cried the Harvester. “I can sit here and name
+fifty things I want for you.”
+
+“Oh but you are extravagant!” imitated the Girl. “Please, please, Man,
+don't! Can't you see I have so much now I don't know what to do with it?
+Sometimes I almost forget the ache, just lying and looking at all the
+wonderful riches that have come to me so suddenly. I can't believe they
+won't vanish as they came. By the hour in the night I look at my lovely
+room, and I just fight my eyes to keep them from closing for fear
+they'll open in that stifling garret to the heat of day and work I have
+not strength to do. I know yet all this will prove to be a dream and a
+wilder one than yours.”
+
+The face of the Harvester was very anxious.
+
+“Please to remember my dream came true,” he said, “and much sooner than
+I had the least hope that it would. I'm wide awake or I couldn't be
+building bridges; and you are real, if I know flesh and blood when I
+touch it.”
+
+“If I were well, strong, and attractive, I could understand,” she said.
+“Then I could work in the house, at the drawings, help with the herbs,
+and I'd feel as if I had some right to be here.”
+
+“All that is coming,” said the Harvester. “Take a little more time. You
+can't expect to sin steadily against the laws of health for years,
+and recover in a day. You will be all right much sooner than you think
+possible.”
+
+“Oh I hope so!” said the Girl. “But sometimes I doubt it. How I could
+come here and put such a burden on a stranger, I can't see. I scarcely
+can remember what awful stress drove me. I had no courage. I should have
+finished in my garret as my mother did. I must have some of my father's
+coward blood in me. She never would have come. I never should!”
+
+“If it didn't make any real difference to you, and meant all the world
+to me, I don't see why you shouldn't humour me. I can't begin to tell
+you how happy I am to have you here. I could shout and sing all day.”
+
+“It requires very little to make some people happy.”
+
+“You are not much, but you are going to be more soon,” laughed the
+Harvester, as he gently picked up the Girl and carried her to the swing,
+where he covered her, kissed her hot hand, and whistled for Belshazzar.
+He pulled the table close and set a pitcher of iced fruit juice on it.
+Then he left her and she could hear the rattle of wheels as he crossed
+the bridge and drove away.
+
+“Betsy, this is mighty serious business,” said the Harvester. “The
+Girl is scorching or I don't know fever. I wonder----well, one thing
+is sure----she is bound to be better off in pure, cool air and with
+everything I can do to be kind, than in Henry Jameson's attic with
+everything he could do to be mean. Pleasant men those Jamesons! Wonder
+if the Girl's father was much like her Uncle Henry? I think not or her
+refined and lovely mother never would have married him. Come to think of
+it, that's no law, Betsy. I've seen beautiful and delicate women fall
+under some mysterious spell, and yoke their lives with rank degenerates.
+Whatever he was, they have paid the price. Maybe the wife deserved it,
+and bore it in silence because she knew she did, but it's bitter hard on
+Ruth. Girls should be taught to think at least one generation ahead when
+they marry. I wonder what Doc will say, Betsy? He will have to come and
+see for himself. I don't know how she will feel about that. I had hoped
+I could pull her through with care, food, and tonics, but I don't dare
+go any farther alone. Betsy, that's a thin, hot, little hand to hold a
+man's only chance for happiness.”
+
+“Well, bridegroom! I've been counting the days!” said Doctor Carey. “The
+Missus and I made it up this morning that we had waited as long as we
+would. We are coming to-night. David.”
+
+“It's all right, Doc,” said the Harvester. “Don't you dare think
+anything is wrong or that I am not the proudest, happiest man in this
+world, because I appear anxious. I am not trying to conceal it from you.
+You know we both agreed at first that Ruth should be in the hospital,
+Doc. Well, she should! She is what would be a lovely woman if she were
+not full of the poison of wrong food and air, overwork, and social
+conditions that have warped her. She is all I dreamed of and more, but
+I've come for you. She is too sick for me. I hoped she would begin to
+gain strength at once on changed conditions. As yet I can't see any
+difference. She needs a doctor, but I hate for her to know it. Could you
+come out this afternoon, and pretend as if it were a visit? Bring Mrs.
+Carey and watch the Girl. If you need an examination, I think she will
+obey me. If you can avoid it, fix what she should have and send it back
+to me by a messenger. I don't like to leave her when she is so ill.”
+
+“I'll come at once, David.”
+
+“Then she will know that I came for you, and that will frighten her. You
+can do more good to wait until afternoon, and pretend you are making
+a social call. I must go now. I'd have brought her in, but I have no
+proper conveyance yet. I'm promised something soon, perhaps it is ready
+now. Good-bye! Be sure to come!”
+
+The Harvester drove to a livery barn and examined a little horse, a
+shining black creature that seemed gentle and spirited. He thought
+favourably of it. A few days before he had selected a smart carriage,
+and with this outfit tied behind the wagon he returned to Medicine
+Woods. He left the horse at the bridge, stabled Betsy, and then returned
+for the new conveyance, driving it to the hitching post. At the sound of
+unexpected wheels the Girl lifted her head and stared at the turnout.
+
+“Come on!” cried the Harvester opening the screen. “We are going to the
+woods to initiate your carriage.”
+
+She went with little cries of surprised wonder.
+
+“This is how you travel to Onabasha to do your shopping, to call on Mrs.
+Carey and the friends you will make, and visit the library. When I've
+tried out Mr. Horse enough to prove him reliable as guaranteed, he is
+yours, for your purposes only, and when you grow wonderfully well and
+strong, we'll sell him and buy you a real live horse and a stanhope,
+such as city ladies have; and there must be a saddle so that you can
+ride.”
+
+“Oh I'd love that!” cried the Girl. “I always wanted to ride! Where are
+we going?”
+
+“To show you Medicine Woods,” said the Harvester. “I've been waiting
+for this. You see there are several hundred acres of trees, thickets,
+shrubs, and herb beds up there, and if the wagon road that winds between
+them were stretched straight it would be many miles in length, so we
+have a cool, shaded, perfumed driveway all our own. Let me get you a
+drink before you start and the little shawl. It's chilly there compared
+with here. Now are you comfortable and ready?”
+
+“Yes,” said the Girl. “Hurry! I've just longed to go, but I didn't like
+to ask.”
+
+“I am sorry,” said the Harvester. “Living here for years alone and never
+having had a sister, how am I going to know what a girl would like if
+you don't tell me? I knew it would be too tiresome for you to walk, and
+I was waiting to find a reliable horse and a suitable carriage.”
+
+“You won't scratch or spoil it up there?”
+
+“I'll lower the top. It is not as wide as the wagon, so nothing will
+touch it.”
+
+“This is just so lovely, and such a wonderful treat, do you observe that
+I'm not saying a word about extravagance?” asked the Girl, as she leaned
+back in the carriage and inhaled the invigorating wood air.
+
+The horse climbed the hill, and the Harvester guided him down long, dim
+roads through deep forest, while he explained what large thickets of
+bushes were, why he grew them, how he collected the roots or bark, for
+what each was used and its value. On and on they went, the way ahead
+always appearing as if it were too narrow to pass, yet proving amply
+wide when reached. Excited redbirds darted among the bushes, and the
+Harvester answered their cry. Blackbirds protested against the unusual
+intrusion of strange objects, and a brown thrush slipped from a late
+nest close the road wailing in anxiety.
+
+One after another the Harvester introduced the Girl to the best trees,
+speculated on their age, previous history, and pointed out which brought
+large prices for lumber and which had medicinal bark and roots. On and
+on they slowly drove through the woods, past the big beds of cranesbill,
+violets, and lilies. He showed her where the mushrooms were most
+numerous, and for the first time told the story of how he had sold them
+and the violets from door to door in Onabasha in his search for her, and
+the amazed Girl sat staring at him. He told of Doctor Carey having seen
+her once, and inquired as they passed the bed if the yellow violets had
+revived. He stopped to search and found a few late ones, deep among the
+leaves.
+
+“Oh if I only had known that!” cried the Girl, “I would have kept them
+forever.”
+
+“No need,” said the Harvester. “Here and now I present you with the sole
+ownership of the entire white and yellow violet beds. Next spring you
+shall fill your room. Won't that be a treat?”
+
+“One money never could buy!” cried the Girl.
+
+“Seems to be my strong point,” commented the Harvester. “The most I have
+to offer worth while is something you can't buy. There is a fine fairy
+platform. They can spare you one. I'll get it.”
+
+The Harvester broke from a tree a large fan-shaped fungus, the surface
+satin fine, the base mossy, and explained to the Girl that these were
+the ballrooms of the woods, the floors on which the little people dance
+in the moonlight at their great celebrations. Then he added a piece
+of woolly dog moss, and showed her how each separate spine was like a
+perfect little evergreen tree.
+
+“That is where the fairies get their Christmas pines,” he explained.
+
+“Do you honestly believe in fairies?”
+
+“Surely!” exclaimed the Harvester. “Who would tell me when the maples
+are dripping sap, and the mushrooms springing up, if the fairies didn't
+whisper in the night? Who paints the flower faces, colours the leaves,
+enamels the ripening fruit with bloom, and frosts the window pane to let
+me know that it is time to prepare for winter? Of course! They are my
+friends and everyday helpers. And the winds are good to me. They carry
+down news when tree bloom is out, when the pollen sifts gold from the
+bushes, and it's time to collect spring roots. The first bluebird always
+brings me a message. Sometimes he comes by the middle of February, again
+not until late March. Always on his day, Belshazzar decides my fate for
+a year. Six years we've played that game; now it is ended in blessed
+reality. In the woods and at my work I remain until I die, with a few
+outside tries at medicine making. I am putting up some compounds in
+which I really have faith. Of course they have got to await their time
+to be tested, but I believe in them. I have grown stuff so carefully,
+gathered it according to rules, washed it decently, and dried and mixed
+it with such scrupulous care. Night after night I've sat over the books
+until midnight and later, studying combinations; and day after day I've
+stood in the laboratory testing and trying, and two or three will prove
+effective, or I've a disappointment coming.”
+
+“You haven't wasted time! I'd much rather take medicines you make than
+any at the pharmacies. Several times I've thought I'd ask you if you
+wouldn't give me some of yours. The prescription Doctor Carey sent does
+no good. I've almost drunk it, and I am constantly tired, just the
+same. You make me something from these tonics and stimulants you've been
+telling me about. Surely you can help me!”
+
+“I've got one combination that's going to save life, in my expectations.
+But Ruth, it never has been tried, and I couldn't experiment on the very
+light of my eyes with it. If I should give you something and you'd grow
+worse as a result--I am a strong man, my girl, but I couldn't endure
+that. I'd never dare. But dear, I am expecting Carey and his wife out
+any time; probably they will come to-day, it's so beautiful; and when
+they do, for my sake, won't you talk with him, tell him exactly what
+made you ill, and take what he gives you? He's a great man. He was
+recently President of the National Association of Surgeons. Long ago he
+abandoned general practice, but he will prescribe for you; all his art
+is at your command. It's quite an honour, Ruth. He performs all kinds
+of miracles, and saves life every day. He had not seen you, and what he
+gave me was only by guess. He may not think it is the right thing at all
+after he meets you.”
+
+“Then I am really ill?”
+
+“No. You only have the germs of illness in your blood, and if you
+will help me that much we can eliminate them; and then it is you for
+housekeeper, with first assistant in me, the drawing tools, paint
+box, and all the woods for subjects. So, as I was going to tell you,
+Belshazzar and I have played our game for the last time. That decision
+was ultimate. Here I will work, live, and die. Here, please God,
+strong and happy, you shall live with me. Ruth, you have got to recover
+quickly. You will consult the doctor?”
+
+“Yes, and I wish he would hurry,” said the Girl. “He can't make me new
+too soon to suit me. If I had a strong body, oh Man, I just feel as if
+you could find a soul somewhere in it that would respond to all these
+wonders you have brought me among. Oh! make me well, and I'll try as
+woman never did before to bring you happiness to pay for it.”
+
+“Careful now,” warned the Harvester. “There is to be no talk of
+obligations between you and me. Your presence here and your growing
+trust in me are all I ask at the hands of fate at present. Long ago I
+learned to 'labour and to wait.' By the way----here's my most difficult
+labour and my longest wait. This is the precious gingseng bed.”
+
+“How pretty!” exclaimed the Girl.
+
+Covering acres of wood floor, among the big trees, stretched the lacy
+green carpet. On slender, upright stalks waved three large leaves, each
+made up of five stemmed, ovate little leaves, round at the base, sharply
+pointed at the tip. A cluster of from ten to twenty small green berries,
+that would turn red later, arose above. The Harvester lifted a plant
+to show the Girl that the Chinese name, Jin-chen, meaning man-like,
+originated because the divided root resembled legs. Away through the
+woods stretched the big bed, the growth waving lightly in the wind, the
+peculiar odour filling the air.
+
+“I am going to wait to gather the crop until the seeds are ripe,” said
+the Harvester, “then bury some as I dig a root. My father said that was
+the way of the Indians. It's a mighty good plan. The seeds are delicate,
+and difficult to gather and preserve properly. Instead of collecting and
+selling all of them to start rivals in the business, I shall replant my
+beds. I must find a half dozen assistants to harvest this crop in that
+way, and it will be difficult, because it will come when my neighbours
+are busy with corn.”
+
+“Maybe I can help you.”
+
+“Not with ginseng digging,” laughed the Harvester. “That is not woman's
+work. You may sit in an especially attractive place and boss the job.”
+
+“Oh dear!” cried the Girl. “Oh dear! I want to get out and walk.”
+
+Gradually they had climbed the summit of the hill, descended on the
+other side, and followed the road through the woods until they reached
+the brier patches, fruit trees; and the garden of vegetables, with big
+beds of sage, rue, wormwood, hoarhound, and boneset. From there to the
+lake sloped the sunny fields of mullein and catnip, and the earth was
+molten gold with dandelion creeping everywhere.
+
+“Too hot to-day,” cautioned the Harvester. “Too rough walking. Wait
+until fall, and I have a treat there for you. Another flower I want you
+to love because I do.”
+
+“I will,” said the Girl promptly. “I feel it in my heart.”
+
+“Well I am glad you feel something besides the ache of fever,” said the
+Harvester. Then noticing her tired face he added: “Now this little horse
+had quite a trip from town, and the wheels cut deeply into this woods
+soil and make difficult pulling, so I wonder if I had not better put
+him in the stable and let him become acquainted with Betsy. I don't know
+what she will think. She has had sole possession for years. Maybe she
+will be jealous, perhaps she will be as delighted for company as her
+master. Ruth, if you could have heard what I said to Belshazzar when he
+decided I was to go courting this year, and seen what I did to him, and
+then take a look at me now----merciful powers, I hope the dog doesn't
+remember! If he does, no wonder he forms a new allegiance so easily.
+Have you observed that lately when I whistle, he starts, and then turns
+back to see if you want him? He thinks as much of you as he does of me
+right now.”
+
+“Oh no!” cried the Girl. “That couldn't be possible. You told me I must
+make friends with him, so I have given him food, and tried to win him.”
+
+“You sit in the carriage until I put away the horse, and then I'll help
+you to the cabin, and save you being alone while I work. Would you like
+that?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+She leaned her head against the carriage top the Harvester had raised to
+screen her, and watched him stable the horse. Evidently he was very fond
+of animals for he talked as if it were a child he was undressing and
+kept giving it extra strokes and pats as he led it away. Ajax disliked
+the newcomer instantly, noticed the carriage and the woman's dress, and
+screamed his ugliest. The Girl smiled. As the Harvester appeared she
+inquired, “Is Ajax now sending a wireless to Ceylon asking for a mate?”
+
+The Harvester looked at her quizzically and saw a gleam of mischief in
+the usually dull dark eyes that delighted him.
+
+“That is the customary supposition when he finds voice,” he said. “But
+since this has become your home, you are bound to learn some of my
+secrets. One of them I try to guard is the fact that Ajax has a temper.
+No my dear, he is not always sending a wireless, I am sorry to say. I
+wish he was! As a matter of fact he is venting his displeasure at any
+difference in our conditions. He hates change. He learned that from me.
+I will enjoy seeing him come for favour a year from now, as I learned
+to come for it, even when I didn't get much, and the road lay west of
+Onabasha. Ajax, stop that! There's no use to object. You know you think
+that horse is nice company for you, and that two can feed you more than
+one. Don't be a hypocrite! Cease crying things you don't mean, and learn
+to love the people I do. Come on, old boy!”
+
+The peacock came, but with feathers closely pressed and stepping
+daintily. As the bird advanced, the Harvester retreated, until he stood
+beside the Girl, and then he slipped some grain to her hand and she
+offered it. But Ajax would not be coaxed. He was too fat and well fed.
+He haughtily turned and marched away, screaming at intervals.
+
+“Nasty temper!” commented the Harvester. “Never mind! He soon will
+become accustomed to you, and then he will love you as Belshazzar does.
+Feed the doves instead. They are friendly enough in all conscience. Do
+you notice that there is not a coloured feather among them? The squab
+that is hatched with one you may have for breakfast. Now let's go find
+something to eat, and I will finish the bridge so you can rest there
+to-night and watch the sun set on Singing Water.”
+
+So they went into the cabin and prepared food, and then the Harvester
+told the Girl to make herself so pretty that she would be a picture and
+come and talk to him while he finished the roof. She went to her room,
+found a pale lavender linen dress and put it on, dusted the pink powder
+thickly, and went where a wide bench made an inviting place in the
+shade. There she sat and watched her lightly expressed whim take shape.
+
+“Soon as this is finished,” said the Harvester, “I am going to begin on
+that tea table. I can make it in a little while, if you want it to match
+the other furniture.”
+
+“I do,” said the Girl.
+
+“Wonder if you could draw a plan showing how it should appear. I am a
+little shy on tea tables.”
+
+“I think I can.”
+
+The Harvester brought paper, pencil, and a shingle for a drawing pad.
+
+“Now remember one thing,” he said. “If you are in earnest about using
+those old blue dishes, this has got to be a big, healthy table. A little
+one will appear top heavy with them. It would be a good idea to set out
+what you want to use, arranged as you would like them, and let me take
+the top measurement that way.”
+
+“All right! I'll only indicate how its legs should be and we will
+find the size later. I could almost weep because that wonderful set is
+broken. If I had all of it I'd be so proud!”
+
+The Girl bent over the drawing. The Harvester worked with his attention
+divided between her, the bridge, and the road. At last he saw the big
+red car creeping up the valley.
+
+“Seems to be some one coming, Ruth! Guess it must be Doc. I'll go open
+the gate?”
+
+“Yes,” said the Girl. “I'm so glad. You won't forget to ask him to help
+me if he can?”
+
+The Harvester wheeled hastily. “I won't forget!” he said, as he hurried
+to the gate. The car ran slowly, and the Girl could see him swing to
+the step and stand talking as they advanced. When they reached her they
+stopped and all of them came forward. She went to meet them. She shook
+hands with Mrs. Carey and then with the doctor.
+
+“I am so glad you have come,” she said.
+
+“I hope you are not lonesome already,” laughed the doctor.
+
+“I don't think any one with brains to appreciate half of this ever could
+become lonely here,” answered the Girl. “No, it isn't that.”
+
+“A-ha!” cried the doctor, turning to his wife. “You see that the
+beautiful young lady remembers me, and has been wishing I would come. I
+always said you didn't half appreciate me. What a place you are making,
+David! I'll run the car to the shade and join you.”
+
+For a long time they talked under the trees, then they went to see the
+new home and all its furnishings.
+
+“Now this is what I call comfort,” said the doctor. “David, build us a
+house exactly similar to this over there on the hill, and let us live
+out here also. I'd love it. Would you, Clara?”
+
+“I don't know. I never lived in the country. One thing is sure: If I
+tried it, I'd prefer this to any other place I ever saw. David, won't
+you take me far enough up the hill that I can look from the top to the
+lake?”
+
+“Certainly,” said the Harvester. “Excuse us a little while, Ruth!”
+
+As soon as they were gone the Girl turned to the doctor.
+
+“Doctor Carey, David says you are great. Won't you exercise your art on
+me. I am not at all well, and oh! I'd so love to be strong and sound.”
+
+“Will you tell me,” asked the doctor, “just enough to show me what
+caused the trouble?”
+
+“Bad air and water, poor light and food at irregular times, overwork and
+deep sorrow; every wrong condition of life you could imagine, with not a
+ray of hope in the distance, until now. For the sake of the Harvester, I
+would be well again. Please, please try to cure me!”
+
+So they talked until the doctor thought he knew all he desired, and then
+they went to see the gold flower garden.
+
+“I call this simply superb,” said he, taking a seat beneath the tree
+roof of her porch. “Young woman, I don't know what I'll do to you if you
+don't speedily grow strong here. This is the prettiest place I ever saw,
+and listen to the music of that bubbling, gurgling little creek!”
+
+“Isn't he wonderful?” asked the Girl, looking up the hill, where the
+tall form of the Harvester could be seen moving around. “Just to see
+him, you would think him the essence of manly strength and force. And
+he is! So strong! Into the lake at all hours, at the dry-house, on the
+hill, grubbing roots, lifting big pillars to support a bridge roof,
+and with it all a fancy as delicate as any dreaming girl. Doctor, the
+fairies paint the flowers, colour the fruit, and frost the windows for
+him; and the winds carry pollen to tell him when his growing things are
+ready for the dry-house. I don't suppose I can tell you anything new
+about him; but isn't he a perpetual surprise? Never like any one else!
+And no matter how he startles me in the beginning, he always ends by
+convincing me, at least, that he is right.”
+
+“I never loved any other man as I do him,” said the doctor. “I ushered
+him into the world when I was a young man just beginning to practise,
+and I've known him ever since. I know few men so scrupulously clean. Try
+to get well and make him happy, Mrs. Langston. He so deserves it.”
+
+“You may be sure I will,” answered the Girl.
+
+After the visitors had gone, the Harvester told her to place the old
+blue dishes as she would like to arrange them on her table, so he could
+get a correct idea of the size, and he left to put a few finishing
+strokes on the bridge cover. She went into the dining-room and opened
+the china closet. She knew from her peep in the work-room that there
+would be more pieces than she had seen before; but she did not think
+or hope that a full half dozen tea set and plates, bowl, platter, and
+pitcher would be waiting for her.
+
+“Why Ruth, what made you tire yourself to come down? I intended to
+return in a few minutes.”
+
+“Oh Man!” cried the laughing Girl, as she clung pantingly to a bridge
+pillar for support, “I just had to come to tell you. There are fairies!
+Really truly ones! They have found the remainder of the willow dishes
+for me, and now there are so many it isn't going to be a table at all.
+It must be a little cupboard especially for them, in that space between
+the mantel and the bookcase. There should be a shining brass tea
+canister, and a wafer box like the arts people make, and I'll pour tea
+and tend the chafing dish and you can toast the bread with a long fork
+over the coals, and we will have suppers on the living-room table, and
+it will be such fun.”
+
+“Be seated!” cried the Harvester. “Ruth, that's the longest speech I
+ever heard you make, and it sounded, praise the Lord, like a girl. Did
+Doc say he would fix something for you?”
+
+“Yes, such a lot of things! I am going to shut my eyes and open my mouth
+and swallow all of them. I'm going to be born again and forget all I
+ever knew before I came here, and soon I will be tagging you everywhere,
+begging you to suggest designs for my pencil, and I'll simply force life
+to come right for you.”
+
+The Harvester smiled.
+
+“Sounds good!” he said. “But, Ruth, I'm a little dubious about force
+work. Life won't come right for me unless you learn to love me, and
+love is a stubborn, contrary bulldog element of our nature that won't
+be driven an inch. It wanders as the wind, and strikes us as it will.
+You'll arrive at what I hope for much sooner if you forget it and amuse
+yourself and be as happy as you can. Then, perhaps all unknown to you,
+a little spark of tenderness for me will light in your breast; and if it
+ever does we will buy a fanning mill and put it in operation, and we'll
+raise a flame or know why.”
+
+“And there won't be any force in that?”
+
+“What you can't compel is the start. It's all right to push any growth
+after you have something to work on.”
+
+“That reminds me,” said the Girl, “there is a question I want to ask
+you.”
+
+“Go ahead!” said the Harvester, glancing at her as he hewed a joist.
+
+She turned away her face and sat looking across the lake for a long
+time.
+
+“Is it a difficult question, Ruth?” inquired the Harvester to help her.
+
+“Yes,” said the Girl. “I don't know how to make you see.”
+
+“Take any kind of a plunge. I'm not usually dense.”
+
+“It is really quite simple after all. It's about a girl----a girl I
+knew very well in Chicago. She had a problem----and it worried her
+dreadfully, and I just wondered what you would think of it.”
+
+The Harvester shifted his position so that he could watch the side of
+the averted face.
+
+“You'll have to tell me, before I can tell you,” he suggested.
+
+“She was a girl who never had anything from life but work and worry. Of
+course, that's the only kind I'd know! One day when the work was most
+difficult, and worry cut deepest, and she really thought she was losing
+her mind, a man came by and helped her. He lifted her out, and rescued
+all that was possible for a man to save to her in honour, and went his
+way. There wasn't anything more. Probably there never would be. His
+heart was great, and he stooped and pitied her gently and passed on.
+After a time another man came by, a good and noble man, and he offered
+her love so wonderful she hadn't brains to comprehend how or why it
+was.”
+
+The Girl's voice trailed off as if she were too weary to speak further,
+while she leaned her head against a pillar and gazed with dull eyes
+across the lake.
+
+“And your question,” suggested the Harvester at last.
+
+She roused herself. “Oh, the question! Why this----if in time, and
+after she had tried and tried, love to equal his simply would not come
+would----would----she be wrong to PRETEND she cared, and do the very
+best she could, and hope for real love some day? Oh David, would she?”
+
+The Harvester's face was whiter than the Girl's. He pounded the chisel
+into the joist savagely.
+
+“Would she, David?”
+
+“Let me understand you clearly,” said the man in a dry, breathless
+voice. “Did she love this first man to whom she came under obligations?”
+
+The Girl sat gazing across the lake and the tortured Harvester stared at
+her.
+
+“I don't know,” she said at last. “I don't know whether she knew what
+love was or ever could. She never before had known a man; her heart was
+as undeveloped and starved as her body. I don't think she realized love,
+but there was a SOMETHING. Every time she would feel most grateful and
+long for the love that was offered her, that 'something' would awake and
+hurt her almost beyond endurance. Yet she knew he never would come. She
+knew he did not care for her. I don't know that she felt she wanted him,
+but she was under such obligations to him that it seemed as if she must
+wait to see if he might not possibly come, and if he did she should be
+free.”
+
+“If he came, she preferred him?”
+
+“There was a debt she had to pay----if he asked it. I don't know whether
+she preferred him. I do know she had no idea that he would come, but the
+POSSIBILITY was always before her. If he didn't come in time, would she
+be wrong in giving all she had to the man who loved her?”
+
+The Harvester's laugh was short and sharp.
+
+“She had nothing to give, Ruth! Talk about worm-wood, colocynth apples,
+and hemlock! What sort of husks would that be to offer a man who gave
+honest love? Lie to him! Pretend feeling she didn't experience. Endure
+him for the sake of what he offered her? Well I don't know how calmly
+any other man would take that proceeding, Ruth, but tell your friend for
+me, that if I offered a woman the deep, lasting, and only loving passion
+of my heart, and she gave back a lie and indifferent lips, I'd drop her
+into the deepest hole of my lake and take my punishment cheerfully.”
+
+“But if it would make him happy? He deserves every happiness, and he
+need never know!”
+
+The Harvester's laugh raised to an angry roar.
+
+“You simpleton!” he cried roughly. “Do you know so little of human
+passion in the heart that you think love can be a successful assumption?
+Good Lord, Ruth! Do you think a man is made of wood or stone, that a
+woman's lips in her first kiss wouldn't tell him the truth? Why Girl,
+you might as well try to spread your tired arms and fly across the lake
+as to attempt to pretend a love you do not feel. You never could!”
+
+“I said a girl I knew!”
+
+“'A Girl you knew,' then! Any woman! The idea is monstrous. Tell her so
+and forget it. You almost scared the life out of me for a minute, Ruth.
+I thought it was going to be you. But I remember your debt is to be paid
+with the first money you earn, and you can not have the slightest idea
+what love is, if you honestly ask if it can be simulated. No ma'am! It
+can't! Not possibly! Not ever! And when the day comes that its fires
+light your heart, you will come to me, and tell of a flood of delight
+that is tingling from the soles of your feet through every nerve and
+fibre of your body, and you will laugh with me at the time when you
+asked if it could be imitated successfully. No, ma'am! Now let me help
+you to the cabin, serve a good supper, and see you eat like a farmer.”
+
+All evening the Harvester was so gay he kept the Girl laughing and at
+last she asked him the cause.
+
+“Relief, honey! Relief!” cried the man. “You had me paralyzed for a
+minute, Ruth. I thought you were trying to tell me that there was some
+one so possessing your heart that it failed every time you tried
+to think about caring for me. If you hadn't convinced me before you
+finished that love never has touched you, I'd be the saddest man in the
+world to-night, Ruth.”
+
+The Girl stared at him with wide eyes and silently turned away.
+
+Then for a week they worked out life together in the woods. The
+Harvester was the housekeeper and the cook. He added to his store many
+delicious broths and stimulants he brought from the city. They drove
+every day through the cool woods, often rowed on the lake in the
+evenings, walked up the hill to the oak and scattered fresh flowers
+on the two mounds there, and sat beside them talking for a time. The
+Harvester kept up his work with the herbs, and the little closet for
+the blue dishes was finished. They celebrated installing them by having
+supper on the living-room table, with the teapot on one end, and the
+pitcher full of bellflowers on the other.
+
+The Girl took everything prescribed for her, bathed, slept all she
+could, and worked for health with all the force of her frail being, and
+as the days went by it seemed to the Harvester her weight grew lighter,
+her hands hotter, and she drove herself to a gayety almost delirious. He
+thought he would have preferred a dull, stupid sleep of malaria. There
+was colour in plenty on her cheeks now, and sometimes he found her
+wrapped in the white shawl at noon on the warmest days Medicine Woods
+knew in early August; and on cool nights she wore the thinnest clothing
+and begged to be taken on the lake. The Careys came out every other
+evening and the doctor watched and worked, but he did not get the
+results he desired. His medicines were not effective.
+
+“David,” he said one evening, “I don't like the looks of this. Your wife
+has fever I can't break. It is eating the little store of vitality she
+has right out of her, and some of these days she is coming down with a
+crash. She should yield to the remedies I am giving her. She acts to
+me like a woman driven wild by trouble she is concealing. Do you know
+anything that worries her?”
+
+“No,” said the Harvester, “but I'll try to find out if it will help you
+in your work.”
+
+After they were gone he left the Girl lying in the swing guarded by the
+dog, and went across the marsh on the excuse that he was going to a bed
+of thorn apple at the foot of the hill. There he sat on a log and tried
+to think. With the mists of night rising around him, ghosts arose he
+fain would have escaped. “What will you give me in cold cash to tell you
+who she is, and who her people are?” Times untold in the past two weeks
+he had smothered, swallowed, and choked it down. That question she had
+wanted to ask----was it for a girl she had known, or was it for herself?
+Days of thought had deepened the first slight impression he so bravely
+had put aside, not into certainty, but a great fear that she had meant
+herself. If she did, what was he to do? Who was the man? There was a
+debt she had to pay if he asked it? What debt could a woman pay a man
+that did not involve money? Crouched on a log he suffered and twisted
+in agonizing thought. At last he arose and returned to the cabin. He
+carried a few frosty, blue-green leaves of velvet softness and unusual
+cutting, prickly thorn apples full of seeds, and some of the smoother,
+more yellowish-green leaves of the jimson weed, to give excuse for his
+absence.
+
+“Don't touch them,” he warned as he came to her. “They are poison
+and have disagreeable odour. But we are importing them for medicinal
+purposes. On the far side of the marsh, where the ground rises, there
+is a waste place just suited to them, and so long as they will seed
+and flourish with no care at all, I might as well have the price as
+the foreign people who raise them. They don't bring enough to make them
+worth cultivating, but when they grow alone and with no care, I can make
+money on the time required to clip the leaves and dry the seeds. I must
+go wash before I come close to you.”
+
+The next day he had business in the city, and again she lay in the swing
+and talked to the dog while the Harvester was gone. She was startled as
+Belshazzar arose with a gruff bark. She looked down the driveway, but no
+one was coming. Then she followed the dog's eyes and saw a queer,
+little old woman coming up the bank of Singing Water from the north. She
+remembered what the Harvester had said, and rising she opened the screen
+and went down the path. As the Girl advanced she noticed the scrupulous
+cleanliness of the calico dress and gingham apron, and the snowy hair
+framing a bronzed face with dancing dark eyes.
+
+“Are you David's new wife?” asked Granny Moreland with laughing
+inflection.
+
+“Yes,” said the Girl. “Come in. He told me to expect you. I am so sorry
+he is away, but we can get acquainted without him. Let me help you.”
+
+“I don't know but that ought to be the other way about. You don't look
+very strong, child.”
+
+“I am not well,” said the Girl, “but it's lovely here, and the air is
+so fine I am going to be better soon. Take this chair until you rest a
+little, and then you shall see our pretty home, and all the furniture
+and my dresses.”
+
+“Yes, I want to see things. My, but David has tried himself! I heard
+he was just tearin' up Jack over here, and I could get the sound of the
+hammerin', and one day he asked me to come and see about his beddin'. He
+had that Lizy Crofter to wash for him, but if I hadn't jest stood over
+her his blankets would have been ruined. She's no more respect for
+fine goods than a pig would have for cream pie. I hate to see woollens
+abused, as if they were human. My, but things is fancy here since what
+David planted is growin'! Did you ever live in the country before?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Where do you hail from?”
+
+“Well not from the direction of hail,” laughed the Girl. “I lived in
+Chicago, but we were----were not rich, and so I didn't know the luxury
+of the city; just the lonely, difficult part.”
+
+“Do you call Chicago lonely?”
+
+“A thousand times more so than Medicine Woods. Here I know the trees
+will whisper to me, and the water laughs and sings all day, and the
+birds almost split their throats making music for me; but I can imagine
+no loneliness on earth that will begin to compare with being among the
+crowds and crowds of a large city and no one has a word or look for you.
+I miss the sea of faces and the roar of life; at first I was almost wild
+with the silence, but now I don't find it still any more; the Harvester
+is teaching me what each sound means and they seem to be countless.”
+
+“You think, then, you'll like it here?”
+
+“I do, indeed! Any one would. Even more than the beautiful location, I
+love the interesting part of the Harvester's occupation. I really think
+that gathering material to make medicines that will allay pain is the
+very greatest of all the great work a man can do.”
+
+“Good!” cried Granny Moreland, her dark eyes snapping. “I've always
+said it! I've tried to encourage David in it. And he's just capital at
+puttin' some of his stuff in shape, and combinin' it in as good medicine
+as you ever took. This spring I was all crippled up with the rheumatiz
+until I wanted to holler every time I had to move, and sometimes it got
+so aggravatin' I'm not right sure but I done it. 'Long comes David and
+says, 'I can fix you somethin',' and bless you, if the boy didn't take
+the tucks out of me, until here I am, and tickled to pieces that I can
+get here. This time last year I didn't care if I lived or not. Now seems
+as if I'm caperish as a three weeks' lamb. I don't see how a man could
+do a bigger thing than to stir up life in you like that.”
+
+“I think this place makes an especial appeal to me, because, shortly
+before I came, I had to give up my mother. She was very ill and suffered
+horribly. Every time I see David going to his little laboratory on
+the hill to work a while I slip away and ask God to help him to fix
+something that will ease the pain of humanity as I should like to have
+seen her relieved.”
+
+“Why you poor child! No wonder you are lookin' so thin and peaked!”
+
+“Oh I'll soon be over that,” said the Girl. “I am much better than when
+I came. I'll be coming over to trade pie with you before long. David
+says you are my nearest neighbour, so we must be close friends.”
+
+“Well bless your big heart! Now who ever heard of a pretty young thing
+like you wantin' to be friends with a plain old country woman?”
+
+“Why I think you are lovely!” cried the Girl. “And all of us are on the
+way to age, so we must remember that we will want kindness then more
+than at any other time. David says you knew his mother. Sometime won't
+you tell me all about her? You must very soon. The Harvester adored her,
+and Doctor Carey says she was the noblest woman he ever knew. It's a
+big contract to take her place. Maybe if you would tell me all you can
+remember I could profit by much of it.”
+
+Granny Moreland watched the Girl keenly.
+
+“She wa'ant no ordinary woman, that's sure,” she commented. “And she
+didn't make no common man out of her son, either. I've always contended
+she took the job too serious, and wore herself out at it, but she
+certainly done the work up prime. If she's above cloud leanin' over the
+ramparts lookin' down----though it gets me as to what foundation they
+use or where they get the stuff to build the ramparts----but if they
+is ramparts, and she's peekin' over them, she must take a lot of solid
+satisfaction in seeing that David is not only the man she fought and
+died to make him, but he's give her quite a margin to spread herself
+on. She 'lowed to make him a big man, but you got to know him close
+and plenty 'fore it strikes you jest what his size is. I've watched him
+pretty sharp, and tried to help what I could since Marthy went, and I'm
+frank to say I druther see David happy than to be happy myself. I've had
+my fling. The rest of the way I'm willin' to take what comes, with the
+best grace I can muster, and wear a smilin' face to betoken the joy I
+have had; but it cuts me sore to see the young sufferin'.”
+
+“Do you think David is unhappy?” asked the Girl eagerly.
+
+“I don't see how he could be!” cried the old lady. “Of course he
+ain't! 'Pears as if he's got everythin' to make him the proudest, best
+satisfied of men. I'll own I was mighty anxious to see you. I know
+the kind o' woman it would take to make David miserable, and it seems
+sometimes as if men----that is good men----are plumb, stone blind when
+it comes to pickin' a woman. They jest hitch up with everlastin' misery
+easy as dew rolling off a cabbage leaf. It's sech a blessed sight to see
+you, and hear your voice and know you're the woman anybody can see you
+be. Why I'm so happy when I set here and con-tem'-plate you, I want
+to cackle like a pullet announcin' her first egg. Ain't this porch the
+purtiest place?”
+
+“Come see everything,” invited the Girl, rising.
+
+Granny Moreland followed with alacrity.
+
+“Bare floors!” she cried. “Wouldn't that best you? I saw they was
+finished capital when I was over, but I 'lowed they'd be covered afore
+you come. Don't you like nice, flowery Brissels carpets, honey?”
+
+“No I don't,” said the Girl. “You see, when rugs are dusty they can be
+rolled, carried outside, and cleaned. The walls can be wiped, the floors
+polished and that way a house is always fresh. I can keep this shining,
+germ proof, and truly clean with half the work and none of the danger of
+heavy carpets and curtains.”
+
+“I don't doubt but them is true words,” said Granny Moreland earnestly.
+“Work must be easier and sooner done than it was in my day, or people
+jest couldn't have houses the size of this or the time to gad that women
+have now. From the looks of the streets of Onabasha, you wouldn't think
+a woman 'ud had a baby to tend, a dinner pot a-bilin', or a bakin' of
+bread sence the flood. And the country is jest as bad as the city. We're
+a apin' them to beat the monkeys at a show. I hardly got a neighbour
+that ain't got figgered Brissels carpet, a furnace, a windmill, a
+pianny, and her own horse and buggy. Several's got autermobiles, and the
+young folks are visitin' around a-ridin' the trolleys, goin' to college,
+and copyin' city ways. Amos Peters, next to us; goes bareheaded in the
+hay field, and wears gloves to pitch and plow in. I tell him he reminds
+me of these city women that only wears the lower half of a waist and no
+sleeves, and a yard of fine goods moppin' the floors. Well if that don't
+'beat the nation! Ain't them Marthy's old blue dishes?”
+
+“Let me show you!” The Girl opened the little cupboard and exhibited the
+willow ware. The eyes of the old woman began to sparkle.
+
+“Foundation or no foundation, I do hope them ramparts is a go!” she
+cried. “If Marthy Langston is squintin' over them and she sees her old
+chany put in a fine cupboard, and her little shawl round as purty a girl
+as ever stepped, and knows her boy is gittin' what he deserves, good
+Lord, she'll be like to oust the Almighty, and set on the throne
+herself! 'Bout everythin' in life was a disappointment to her, 'cept
+David. Now if she could see this! Won't I rub it into the neighbours?
+And my boys' wives!”
+
+“I don't understand,” said the bewildered Girl.
+
+“'Course you don't, honey,” explained the visitor. “It's like this: I
+don't know anybody, man or woman, in these parts, that ain't rampagin'
+for CHANGE. They ain't one of them that would live in a log cabin,
+though they's not a house in twenty miles of here that fits its
+surroundin's and looks so homelike as this. They run up big, fancy brick
+and frame things, all turns and gables and gay as frosted picnic pie,
+and work and slave to git these very carpets you say ain't healthy,
+and the chairs you say you wouldn't give house room, an' they use their
+grandmother's chany for bakin', scraps, and grease dishes, and hide it
+if they's visitors. All of them strainin' after something they can't
+afford, and that ain't healthy when they git it, because somebody else
+is doin' the same thing. Mary Peters says she is afeared of her life in
+their new steam wagon, and she says Andy gits so narvous runnin' it, he
+jest keeps on a-jerkin' and drivin' all night, and she thinks he'll
+soon go to smash himself, if the machine doesn't beat him. But they
+are keepin' it up, because Graceston's is, and so it goes all over the
+country. Now I call it a slap right in the face to have a Chicagy woman
+come to the country to live and enjoy a log cabin, bare floors, and her
+man's grandmother's dishes. If there ain't Marthy's old blue coverlid
+also carefully spread on a splinter new sofy. Landy, I can't wait to get
+to my son John's! He's got a woman that would take two coppers off the
+collection plate while she was purtendin' to put on one, if she could,
+and then spend them for a brass pin or a string of glass beads. Won't
+her eyes bung when I tell her about this? She wanted my Peter Hartman
+kiver for her ironin' board. Show me the rest!”
+
+“This is the dining-room,” said the Girl, leading the way.
+
+Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes ranging over the
+floor, walls, and furnishings. She sank on a chair and said with a
+chuckle, “Now you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what
+things are and why you fixed them, and how they are used.”
+
+The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in delighted approval.
+
+“It's the purtiest thing I ever saw,” she announced. “A minute ago, I'd
+'a' said them blue walls back there, jest like October skies in Indian
+summer, and the brown rugs, like leaves in the woods, couldn't be beat;
+but this green and yaller is purtier yet. That blue room will keep the
+best lookin' part of fall on all winter, and with a roarin' wood fire,
+it'll be capital, and no mistake; but this here is spring, jest spring
+eternal, an' that's best of all. Looks like it was about time the leaves
+was bustin' and things pushin' up. It wouldn't surprise me a mite to see
+a flock of swallers come sailin' right through these winders. And here's
+a place big enough to lay down and rest a spell right handy to the
+kitchen, where a-body gits tiredest, without runnin' a half mile to find
+a bed, and in the mornin' you can look down to the 'still waters'; and
+in the afternoon, when the sun gits around here, you can pull that blind
+and 'lift your eyes to the hills,' like David of the Bible says. My,
+didn't he say the purtiest things! I never read nothin' could touch
+him!”
+
+“Have you seen the Psalms arranged in verse as we would write it now?”
+
+“You don't mean to tell me David's been put into real poetry?”
+
+“Yes. Some Bibles have all the poetical books in our forms of verse.”
+
+“Well! Sometimes I git kind o' knocked out! As a rule I hold to old
+ways. I think they're the healthiest and the most faver'ble to the soul.
+But they's some changes come along, that's got sech hard common-sense
+to riccomend them, that I wonder the past generations didn't see sooner.
+Now take this! An hour ago I'd told you I'd read my father's Bible to
+the end of my days. But if they's a new one that's got David, Solomon,
+and Job in nateral form, I'll have one, and I'll git a joy I never
+expected out of life. I ain't got so much poetry in me, but it always
+riled me to read, '7. The law of the Lord is perfect, covertin' the
+soul. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right. 9. The fear of the Lord
+is clean.' And so it goes on, 'bout as much figgers as they is poetry.
+Always did worry me. So if they make Bibles 'cordin' to common sense,
+I'll have one to-morrow if I have to walk to Onabasha to get it. Lawsy
+me! if you ain't gathered up Marthy's old pink tea set, and give it a
+show, too! Did you do that to please David, or do you honestly think
+them is nice dishes?”
+
+“I think they are beautiful,” laughed the Girl, sinking to a chair. “I
+don't know that it did please him. He had been studying the subject,
+but something saved him from buying anything until I came. I'd have felt
+dreadfully if he had gotten what he wanted.”
+
+“What did he want, honey?” asked the old lady in an awestruck whisper.
+
+“Egg-shell china and cut glass.”
+
+“And you wouldn't let him! Woman! What do you want?”
+
+“A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures on them. They
+are so quaint and they would harmonize perfectly with this room.”
+
+The old lady laughed gleefully.
+
+“My! I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar,” she cried. “It jest does
+my soul good. More'n that, if you really like Marthy's dishes and are
+going to take care of them and use them right, I'll give you mine, too.
+I ain't never had a girl. I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment
+of her own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but the Lord may 'a'
+saved me many a disappointment by sendin' all mine boys. Not that I'm
+layin' the babies on to the Lord at all----I jest got into the habit of
+sayin' that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty
+good idy how I got them. If a girl of mine wouldn't 'a' had more sense,
+raised right with me, I'd' a' been purty bad cut up over it. Of course,
+I can't be held responsible for the girls my boys married, but t'other
+day Emmeline----that's John's wife----John is the youngest, and I sort
+o' cling to him----Emmeline she says to me, 'Mother, can't I have this
+old pink and green teapot?' My heart warmed right up to the child, and
+I says, 'What do you want it for, Emmeline?' And she says, 'To draw the
+tea in.' Cracky Dinah! That fool woman meant to set my grandmother's
+weddin' present from her pa and ma, dishes same as Marthy Washington
+used, on the stove to bile the tea in. I jest snorted! 'No, says I, 'you
+can't! 'Fore I die,' says I, 'I'll meet up with some woman that 'll love
+dishes and know how to treat them.' I think jest about as much of David
+as I do my own boys, and I don't make no bones of the fact that he's a
+heap more of a man. I'd jest as soon my dishes went to his children
+as to John's. I'll give you every piece I got, if you'll take keer of
+them.”
+
+“Would it be right?” wavered the girl.
+
+“Right! Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen would bile tea in
+them, make grease sassers of them, and use them to dish up the bakin'
+on! Wouldn't you a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's
+ma's is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was yours? I guess
+you would!”
+
+“Well if you feel that way, and really want us to have them, I know
+David will build another little cupboard on the other side of the
+fireplace to put yours in, and I can't tell you how I'd love and care
+for them.”
+
+“I'll jest do it!” said Granny Moreland. “I got about as many blue ones
+as Marthy had an' mine are purtier than hers. And my lustre is brighter,
+for I didn't use it so much. Is this the kitchen? Well if I ever saw
+sech a cool, white place to cook in before! Ain't David the beatenest
+hand to think up things? He got the start of that takin' keer of his
+ma all his life. He sort of learned what a woman uses, and how it's
+handiest. Not that other men don't know; it's jest that they are too
+mortal selfish and keerless to fix things. Well this is great! Now when
+you bile cabbage and the wash, always open your winders wide and let the
+steam out, so it won't spile your walls.”
+
+“I'll be very careful,” promised the Girl. “Now come see my bathroom,
+closet and bedroom.”
+
+“Well as I live! Ain't this fine. I'll bet a purty that if I'd 'a' had
+a room and a trough like this to soak in when I was wore to a frazzle, I
+wouldn't 'a' got all twisted up with rheumatiz like I am. It jest looks
+restful to see. I never washed in a place like this in all my days. Must
+feel grand to be wet all over at once! Now everybody ought to have sech
+a room and use it at all hours, like David does the lake. Did you ever
+see his beat to go swimmin'? He's always in splashin'! Been at it all
+his life. I used to be skeered when he was a little tyke. He soaked so
+much 'peared like he'd wash all the substance out of him, but it only
+made him strong.”
+
+“Has he ever been ill?”
+
+“Not that I know of, and I reckon I'd knowed it if he had. Well what a
+clothespress! I never saw so many dresses at once. Ain't they purty? Oh
+I wish I was young, and could have one like that yaller. And I'd like to
+have one like your lavender right now. My! You are lucky to have so many
+nice clothes. It's a good thing most girls haven't got them, or they'd
+stand primpin' all day tryin' to decide which one to put on. I don't see
+how you tell yourself.”
+
+“I wear the one that best hides how pale I am,” answered the Girl. “I
+use the colours now. When I grow plump and rosy, I'll wear the white.”
+
+Granny Moreland dropped on the couch and assured herself that it was
+Martha's pink Peter Hartman. Then she examined the sunshine room.
+
+“Well I got to go back to the start,” she said at last. “This beats the
+dinin'-room. This is the purtiest thing I ever saw. Oh I do hope they
+ain't so run to white in Heaven as some folks seem to think! Used to be
+scandalized if a-body took anythin' but a white flower to a funeral. Now
+they tell me that when Jedge Stilton's youngest girl come from New York
+to her pa's buryin' she fetched about a wash tub of blood-red roses.
+Put them all over him, too! Said he loved red roses livin' and so he
+was goin' to have them when he passed over. Now if they are lettin' up a
+little on white on earth, mebby some of the stylish ones will carry the
+fashion over yander. If Heaven is like this, I won't spend none of my
+time frettin' about the foundations. I'll jest forget there is any, even
+if we do always have to be so perticler to get them solid on earth. Talk
+of gold harps! Can't you almost hear them? And listen to the birds and
+that water! Say, you won't get lonesome here, will you?”
+
+“Indeed no!” answered the Girl. “Wouldn't you like to lie on my
+beautiful couch that the Harvester made with his own hands, and I'll
+spread Mother Langston's coverlet over you and let you look at all my
+pretty things while I slip away a few minutes to something I'd like to
+do?”
+
+“I'd love to!” said the old woman. “I never had a chance at such fine
+things. David told me he was makin' your room all himself, and that he
+was goin' to fill it chuck full of everythin' a girl ever used, and
+I see he done it right an' proper. Away last March he told me he was
+buildin' for you, an' I hankered so to have a woman here again, even
+though I never s'posed she'd be sochiable like you, that I egged him
+on jest all I could. I never would 'a' s'posed the boy could marry like
+this----all by himself.”
+
+The Girl went to the ice chest to bring some of the fruit juice, chilled
+berries, and to the pantry for bread and wafers to make a dainty little
+lunch that she placed on the veranda table; and then she and Granny
+Moreland talked, until the visitor said that she must go. The Girl went
+with her to the little bridge crossing Singing Water on the north. There
+the old lady took her hand.
+
+“Honey,” she said, “I'm goin' to tell you somethin'. I am so happy I can
+purt near fly. Last night I was comin' down the pike over there chasin'
+home a contrary old gander of mine, and I looked over on your land and
+I see David settin' on a log with his head between his hands a lookin'
+like grim death, if I ever see it. My heart plum stopped. Says I, 'she's
+a failure! She's a bustin' the boy's heart! I'll go straight over and
+tell her so.' I didn't dare bespeak him, but I was on nettles all night.
+I jest laid a-studyin' and a-studyin', and I says, 'Come mornin' I'll
+go straight and give her a curry-combin' that'll do her good.' And I
+started a-feelin' pretty grim, and here you came to meet me, and
+wiped it all out of my heart in a flash. It did look like the boy was
+grievin'; but I know now he was jest thinkin' up what to put together
+to take the ache out of some poor old carcass like mine. It never could
+have been about you. Like a half blind old fool I thought the boy was
+sufferin', and here he was only studyin'! Like as not he was thinkin'
+what to do next to show you how he loves you. What an old silly I was!
+I'll sleep like a log to-night to pay up for it. Good-bye, honey! You
+better go back and lay down a spell. You do look mortal tired.”
+
+The Girl said good-bye and staggering a few steps sank on a log and sat
+staring at the sky.
+
+“Oh he was suffering, and about me!” she gasped. A chill began to shake
+her and feverish blood to race through her veins. “He does and gives
+everything; I do and give nothing! Oh why didn't I stay at Uncle Henry's
+until it ended? It wouldn't have been so bad as this. What will I do? Oh
+what will I do? Oh mother, mother! if I'd only had the courage you did.”
+
+She arose and staggered up the hill, passed the cabin and went to the
+oak. There she sank shivering to earth, and laid her face among the
+mosses. The frightened Harvester found her at almost dusk when he came
+from the city with the Dutch dishes, and helped a man launch a gay
+little motor boat for her on the lake.
+
+“Why Ruth! Ruth-girl!” he exclaimed, kneeling beside her.
+
+She lifted a strained, distorted face.
+
+“Don't touch me! Don't come near me!” she cried. “It is not true that I
+am better. I am not! I am worse! I never will be better. And before I go
+I've got to tell you of the debt I owe; then you will hate me, and then
+I will be glad! Glad, I tell you! Glad! When you despise me? then I can
+go, and know that some day you will love a girl worthy of you. Oh I want
+you to hate me I am fit for nothing else.”
+
+She fell forward sobbing wildly and the Harvester tried in vain to quiet
+her. At last he said, “Well then tell me, Ruth. Remember I don't want to
+hear what you have to say. I will believe nothing against you, not even
+from your own lips, when you are feverish and excited as now, but if
+it will quiet you, tell me and have it over. See, I will sit here and
+listen, and when you have finished I'll pick you up and carry you to
+your room, and I am not sure but I will kiss you over and over. What is
+it you want to tell me, Ruth?”
+
+She sat up panting and pushed back the heavy coils of hair.
+
+“I've got to begin away at the beginning to make you see,” she said.
+“The first thing I can remember is a small, such a small room, and
+mother sewing and sometimes a man I called father. He was like Henry
+Jameson made over tall and smooth, and more, oh, much more heartless! He
+was gone long at a time, and always we had most to eat, and went oftener
+to the parks, and were happiest with him away. When I was big enough to
+understand, mother told me that she had met him and cared for him when
+she was an inexperienced girl. She must have been very, very young, for
+she was only a girl as I first remember her, and oh! so lovely, but
+with the saddest face I ever saw. She said she had a good home and every
+luxury, and her parents adored her; but they knew life and men, and they
+would not allow him in their home, and so she left it with him, and he
+married her and tried to force them to accept him, and they would not.
+At first she bore it. Later she found him out, and appealed to them,
+but they were away or would not forgive, and she was a proud thing, and
+would not beg more after she had said she was wrong, and would they take
+her back.
+
+“I grew up and we were girls together. We embroidered, and I drew, and
+sometimes we had little treats and good times, and my father did not
+come often, and we got along the best we could. Always it was worse
+on her, because she was not so strong as I, and her heart was secretly
+breaking for her mother, and she was afraid he would come back any
+hour. She was tortured that she could not educate me more than to put
+me through the high school. She wore herself out doing that, but she was
+wild for me to be reared and trained right. So every day she crouched
+over delicate laces and embroidery, and before and after school I
+carried it and got more, and in vacation we worked together. But living
+grew higher, and she became ill, and could not work, and I hadn't her
+skill, and the drawings didn't bring much, and I'd no tools----”
+
+“Ruth, for mercy sake let me take you in my arms. If you've got to tell
+this to find peace, let me hold you while you do it.”
+
+“Never again,” said the Girl. “You won't want to in a minute. You must
+hear this, because I can't bear it any longer, and it isn't fair to let
+you grieve and think me worth loving. Anyway, I couldn't earn what she
+did, and I was afraid, for a great city is heartless to the poor. One
+morning she fainted and couldn't get up. I can see the awful look in her
+eyes now. She knew what was coming. I didn't. I tried to be brave and
+to work. Oh it's no use to go on with that! It was just worse and worse.
+She was lovely and delicate, she was my mother, and I adored her. Oh
+Man! You won't judge harshly?”
+
+“No!” cried the Harvester, “I won't judge at all, Ruth. I see now. Get
+it over if you must tell me.”
+
+“One day she had been dreadfully ill for a long time and there was no
+food or work or money, and the last scrap was pawned, and she simply
+would not let me notify the charities or tell me who or where her people
+were. She said she had sinned against them and broken their hearts,
+and probably they were dead, and I was desperate. I walked all day from
+house to house where I had delivered work, but it was no use; no one
+wanted anything I could do, and I went back frantic, and found her
+gnawing her fingers and gibbering in delirium. She did not know me, and
+for the first time she implored me for food.
+
+“Then I locked the door and went on the street and I asked a woman. She
+laughed and said she'd report me and I'd be locked up for begging.
+Then I saw a man I passed sometimes. I thought he lived close. I went
+straight to him, and told him my mother was very ill, and asked him
+to help her. He told me to go to the proper authorities. I told him I
+didn't know who they were or where, and I had no money and she was a
+woman of refinement, and never would forgive me. I offered, if he would
+come to see her, get her some beef tea, and take care of her while she
+lived, that afterward----”
+
+The Girl's frail form shook in a storm of sobs. At last she lifted her
+eyes to the Harvester's. “There must be a God, and somewhere at the
+last extremity He must come in. The man went with me, and he was a young
+doctor who had an office a few blocks away, and he knew what to do. He
+hadn't much himself, but for several weeks he divided and she was more
+comfortable and not hungry when she went. When it was over I dressed
+her the best I could in my graduation dress, and folded her hands, and
+kissed her good-bye, and told him I was ready to fulfill my offer; and
+oh Man!----He said he had forgotten!”
+
+“God!” panted the Harvester.
+
+“We couldn't bury her there. But I remembered my father had said he had
+a brother in the country, and once he had been to see us when I was very
+little, and the doctor telegraphed him, and he answered that his wife
+was sick, and if I was able to work I could come, and he would bury her,
+and give me a home. The doctor borrowed the money and bought the coffin
+you found her in. He couldn't do better or he would, for he learned to
+love her. He paid our fares and took us to the train. Before I started
+I went on my knees to him and worshipped him as the Almighty, and I am
+sure I told him that I always would be indebted to him, and any time he
+required I would pay. The rest you know.”
+
+“Have you heard from him, Ruth?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“It WAS yourself the other day on the bridge?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Did he love you?”
+
+“Not that I know of. No! Nobody but you would love a girl who appeared
+as I did then.”
+
+The Harvester strove to keep a set face, but his lips drew back from his
+teeth.
+
+“Ruth, do you love him?”
+
+“Love!” cried the Girl. “A pale, expressionless word! Adore would come
+closer! I tell you she was delirious with hunger, and he fed her. She
+was suffering horrors and he eased the pain. She was lifeless, and
+he kept her poor tired body from the dissecting table. I would have
+fulfilled my offer, and gone straight into the lake, but he spared me,
+Man! He spared me! Worship is a good word. I think I worship him. I
+tried to tell you. Before you got that license, I wanted you to know.”
+
+“I remember,” said the Harvester. “But no man could have guessed that a
+girl with your face had agony like that in her heart, not even when he
+read deep trouble there.”
+
+“I should have told you then! I should have forced you to hear! I was
+wild with fear of Uncle Henry, and I had nowhere to go. Now you know! Go
+away, and the end will come soon.”
+
+The Harvester arose and walked a few steps toward the lake, where he
+paused stricken, but fighting for control. For him the light had gone
+out. There was nothing beyond. The one passion of his life must live on,
+satisfied with a touch from lips that loved another man. Broken sobbing
+came to him. He did not even have time to suffer. Stumblingly he turned
+and going to the Girl he picked her up, and sat on the bench holding her
+closely.
+
+“Stop it, Ruth!” he said unsteadily. “Stop this! Why should you suffer
+so? I simply will not have it. I will save you against yourself and the
+world. You shall have all happiness yet; I swear it, my girl! You are
+all right. He was a noble man, and he spared you because he loved you,
+of course. I will make you well and rosy again, and then I will go and
+find him, and arrange everything for you. I have spared you, too, and if
+he doesn't want you to remain here with me, Mrs. Carey would be glad
+to have you until I can free you. Judges are human. It will be a simple
+matter. Hush, Ruth, listen to me! You shall be free! At once, if you
+say so! You shall have him! I will go and bring him here, and I will go
+away. Ruth, darling, stop crying and hear me. You will grow better, now
+that you have told me. It is this secret that has made you feverish
+and kept you ill. Ruth, you shall have happiness yet, if I have got to
+circle the globe and scale the walls of Heaven to find it for you.”
+
+She struggled from his arms and ran toward the lake. When the Harvester
+caught her, she screamed wildly, and struck him with her thin white
+hands. He lifted and carried her to the laboratory, where he gave her a
+few drops from a bottle and soon she became quiet. Then he took her to
+the sunshine room, laid her on the bed, locked the screens and her door,
+called Belshazzar to watch, and ran to the stable. A few minutes later
+with distended nostrils and indignant heart Betsy, under the flail of an
+unsparing lash, pounded down the hill toward Onabasha.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. LOVE INVADES SCIENCE
+
+The Harvester placed the key in the door and turned to Doctor Carey and
+the nurse.
+
+“I drugged her into unconsciousness before I left, but she may have
+returned, at least partially. Miss Barnet, will you kindly see if she
+is ready for the doctor? You needn't be in the least afraid. She has no
+strength, even in delirium.”
+
+He opened the door, his head averted, and the nurse hurried into the
+room. The Girl on the bed was beginning to toss, moan, and mutter.
+Skilful hands straightened her, arranged the covers, and the doctor was
+called. In the living-room the Harvester paced in misery too deep for
+consecutive thought. As consciousness returned, the Girl grew wilder,
+and the nurse could not follow the doctor's directions and care for her.
+Then Doctor Carey called the Harvester. He went in and sitting beside
+the bed took the feverish, wildly beating hands in his strong, cool
+ones, and began stroking them and talking.
+
+“Easy, honey,” he murmured softly. “Lie quietly while I tell you. You
+mustn't tire yourself. You are wasting strength you need to fight the
+fever. I'll hold your hands tight, I'll stroke your head for you. Lie
+quietly, dear, and Doctor Carey and his head nurse are going to make you
+well in a little while. That's right! Let me do the moving; you lie and
+rest. Only rest and rest, until all the pain is gone, and the strong
+days come, and they are going to bring great joy, love, and peace, to my
+dear, dear girl. Even the moans take strength. Try just to lie quietly
+and rest. You can't hear Singing Water if you don't listen, Ruth.”
+
+“She doesn't realize that it is you or know what you say, David,” said
+Doctor Carey gently.
+
+“I understand,” said the Harvester. “But if you will observe, you will
+see that she is quiet when I stroke her head and hands, and if you
+notice closely you will grant that she gets a word occasionally. If it
+is the right one, it helps. She knows my voice and touch, and she is
+less nervous and afraid with me. Watch a minute!”
+
+The Harvester took both of the Girl's fluttering hands in one of his
+and with long, light strokes gently brushed them, and then her head, and
+face, and then her hands again, and in a low, monotonous, half sing-song
+voice he crooned, “Rest, Ruth, rest! It is night now. The moon is
+bridging Loon Lake, and the whip-poor-will is crying. Listen, dear,
+don't you hear him crying? Still, Girl, still! Just as quiet! Lie so
+quietly. The whip-poor-will is going to tell his mate he loves her,
+loves her so dearly. He is going to tell her, when you listen. That's a
+dear girl. Now he is beginning. He says, 'Come over the lake and listen
+to the song I'm singing to you, my mate, my mate, my dear, dear mate,'
+and the big night moths are flying; and the katydids are crying,
+positive and sure they are crying, a thing that's past denying. Hear
+them crying? And the ducks are cheeping, soft little murmurs while
+they're sleeping, sleeping. Resting, softly resting! Gently, Girl,
+gently! Down the hill comes Singing Water, laughing, laughing! Don't you
+hear it laughing? Listen to the big owl courting; it sees the coon out
+hunting, it hears the mink softly slipping, slipping, where the dews of
+night are dripping. And the little birds are sleeping, so still they
+are sleeping. Girls should be a-sleeping, like the birds a-sleeping,
+for to-morrow joy comes creeping, joy and life and love come creeping,
+creeping to my Girl. Gently, gently, that's a dear girl, gently! Tired
+hands rest easy, tired head lies still! That's the way to rest----”
+
+On and on the even voice kept up the story. All over and around the
+lake, the length of Singing Water, the marsh folk found voices to tell
+of their lives, where it was a story of joy, rest, and love. Up the hill
+ranged the Harvester, through the forest where the squirrels slept, the
+owl hunted, the fire-flies flickered, the fairies squeezed flower leaves
+to make colour to paint the autumn foliage, and danced on toadstool
+platforms. Just so long as his voice murmured and his touch continued,
+so long the Girl lay quietly, and the medicines could act. But no other
+touch would serve, and no other voice would answer. If the harvester
+left the room five minutes to show the nurse how to light the fire, and
+where to find things, he returned to tossing, restless delirium.
+
+“It's magic David,” said Doctor Carey. “Magic!”
+
+“It is love,” said the Harvester. “Even crazed with fever, she
+recognizes its voice and touch. You've got your work cut out, Doc. Roll
+your sleeves and collect your wits. Set your heart on winning. There is
+one thing shall not happen. Get that straight in your mind, right
+now. And you too, Miss Barnet! There is nothing like fighting for a
+certainty. You may think the Girl is desperately ill, and she is, but
+make up your minds that you are here to fight for her life, and to save
+it. Save, do you understand? If she is to go, I don't need either of
+you. I can let her do that myself. You are here on a mission of life.
+Keep it before you! Life and health for this Girl is the prize you are
+going to win. Dig into it, and I'll pay the bills, and extra besides. If
+money is any incentive, I'll give you all I've got for life and health
+for the Girl. Are you doing all you know?”
+
+“I certainly am, David.”
+
+“But when day comes you'll have to go back to the hospital and we may
+not know how to meet crises that will arise. What then? We should have a
+competent physician in the house until this fever breaks.”
+
+“I had thought of that, David. I will arrange to send one of the men
+from the hospital who will be able to watch symptoms and come for me
+when needed.”
+
+“Won't do!” said the Harvester calmly. “She has no strength for waiting.
+You are to come when you can, and remain as long as possible. The case
+is yours; your decisions go, but I will select your assistant. I know
+the man I want.”
+
+“Who is he, David?”
+
+“I'll tell you when I learn whether I can get him. Now I want you to
+give the Girl the strongest sedative you dare, take off your coat, roll
+your sleeves, and see how well you can imitate my voice, and how much
+you have profited by listening to my song. In other words, before day
+calls, I want you to take my place so successfully that you deceive her,
+and give me time to make a trip to town. There are a few things that
+must be done, and I think I can work faster in the night. Will you?”
+
+Doctor Carey bent over the bed. Gently he slipped a practised hand under
+the Harvester's and made the next stroke down the white arm. Gradually
+he took possession of the thin hands and his touch fell on the masses of
+dark hair. As the Harvester arose the doctor took the seat.
+
+“You go on!” he ordered gruffly. “I'll do better alone.”
+
+The Harvester stepped back. The doctor's touch was easy and the Girl lay
+quietly for an instant, then she moved restlessly.
+
+“You must be still now,” he said gently. “The moon is up, the lake is
+all white, and the birds are flying all around. Lie still or you'll make
+yourself worse. Stiller than that! If you don't you can't hear things
+courting. The ducks are quacking, the bull frogs are croaking, and
+everything. Lie still, still, I tell you!”
+
+“Oh good Lord, Doc!” groaned the Harvester in desperation.
+
+The Girl wrenched her hands free and her head rolled on the pillow.
+
+“Harvester! Harvester!” she cried.
+
+The doctor started to arise.
+
+“Sit still!” commanded the Harvester. “Take her hands and go to work,
+idiot! Give her more sedative, and tell her I'm coming. That's the word,
+if she realizes enough to call for me.”
+
+The doctor possessed himself of the flying hands, and gently held and
+stroked them.
+
+“The Harvester is coming,” he said. “Wait just a minute, he's on the
+way. He is coming. I think I hear him. He will be here soon, very soon
+now. That's a good girl! Lie still for David. He won't like it if you
+toss and moan. Just as still, lie still so I can listen. I can't tell
+whether he is coming until you are quiet.”
+
+Then he said to the Harvester, “You see, I've got it now. I can manage
+her, but for pity sake, hurry man! Take the car! Jim is asleep on the
+back seat----Yes, yes, Girl! I'm listening for him. I think I hear him!
+I think he's coming!”
+
+Here and there a word penetrated, and she lay more quietly, but not in
+the rest to which the Harvester had lulled her.
+
+“Hurry man!” groaned the doctor in a whispered aside, and the Harvester
+ran to the car, awakened the driver and told him he had a clear road to
+Onabasha, to speed up.
+
+“Where to?” asked the driver.
+
+“Dickson, of the First National.”
+
+In a few minutes the car stopped before the residence and the Harvester
+made an attack on the front door. Presently the man came.
+
+“Excuse me for routing you out at this time of night,” said the
+Harvester, “but it's a case of necessity. I have an automobile here.
+I want you to go to the bank with me, and get me an address from your
+draft records. I know the rules, but I want the name of my wife's
+Chicago physician. She is delirious, and I must telephone him.”
+
+The cashier stepped out and closed the door.
+
+“Nine chances out of ten it will be in the vault,” he said.
+
+“That leaves one that it won't,” answered the Harvester. “Sometimes I've
+looked in when passing in the night, and I've noticed that the books are
+not always put away. I could see some on the rack to-night. I think it
+is there.”
+
+It was there, and the Harvester ordered the driver to hurry him to the
+telephone exchange, then take the cashier home and return and wait. He
+called the Chicago Information office.
+
+“I want Dr. Frank Harmon, whose office address is 1509 Columbia Street.
+I don't know the 'phone number.”
+
+Then came a long wait, and after twenty minutes the blessed buzzing
+whisper, “Here's your party.”
+
+“Doctor Harmon?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You remember Ruth Jameson, the daughter of a recent patient of yours?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“Well my name is Langston. The Girl is in my home and care. She is very
+ill with fever, and she has much confidence in you. This is Onabasha,
+on the Grand Rapids and Indiana. You take the Pennsylvania at seven
+o'clock, telegraph ahead that you are coming so that they will make
+connection for you, change at twelve-twenty at Fort Wayne, and I will
+meet you here. You will find your ticket and a check waiting you at the
+Chicago depot. Arrange to remain a week at least. You will be paid all
+expenses and regular prices for your time. Will you come?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“All right. Make no failure. Good-bye.”
+
+Then the Harvester left an order with the telephone company to run a
+wire to Medicine Woods the first thing in the morning, and drove to the
+depot to arrange for the ticket and check. In less than an hour he was
+holding the Girl's hands and crooning over her.
+
+“Jerusalem!” said Doctor Carey, rising stiffly. “I'd rather undertake
+to cut off your head and put it back on than to tackle another job like
+that. She's quite delirious, but she has flashes, and at such times she
+knows whom she wants; the rest of the time it's a jumble and some of it
+is rather gruesome. She's seen dreadful illness, hunger, and there's a
+debt she's wild about. I told you something was back of this. You've got
+to find out and set her mind at ease.”
+
+“I know all about it,” said the Harvester patiently between crooning
+sentences to the Girl. “But the crash came before I could convince her
+that it was all right and I could fix everything for her easily. If she
+only could understand me!”
+
+“Did you find your man?”
+
+“Yes. He will be here this afternoon.”
+
+“Quick work!”
+
+“This takes quick work.”
+
+“Do you know anything about him?”
+
+“Yes. He is a young fellow, just starting out. He is a fine, straight,
+manly man. I don't know how much he knows, but it will be enough to
+recognize your ability and standing, and to do what you tell him. I have
+perfect confidence in him. I want you to come back at one, and take my
+place until I go to meet him.”
+
+“I can bring him out.”
+
+“I have to see him myself. There are a few words to be said before he
+sees the Girl.”
+
+“David, what are you up to?”
+
+“Being as honourable as I can. No man gets any too decent, but there is
+no law against doing as you would be done by, and being as straight as
+you know how. When I've talked to him, I'll know where I am and I'll
+have something to say to you.”
+
+“David, I'm afraid----”
+
+“Then what do you suppose I am?” said the Harvester. “It's no use, Doc.
+Be still and take what comes! The manner in which you meet a crisis
+proves you a whining cur or a man. I have got lots of respect for a dog,
+as a dog; but I've none for a man as a dog. If you've gathered from the
+Girl's delirium that I've made a mistake, I hope you have confidence
+enough in me to believe I'll right it, and take my punishment without
+whining. Go away, you make her worse. Easy, Girl, the world is all right
+and every one is sleeping now, so you should be at rest. With the day
+the doctor will come, the good doctor you know and like, Ruth. You
+haven't forgotten your doctor, Ruth? The kind doctor who cared for you.
+He will make you well, Ruth; well and oh, so happy! Harmon, Harmon,
+Doctor Harmon is coming to you, Girl, and then you will be so happy!”
+
+“Why you blame idiot!” cried Doctor Carey in a harsh whisper. “Have you
+lost all the sense you ever had? Stop that gibber! She wants to hear
+about the birds and Singing Water. Go on with that woods line of talk;
+she likes that away the best. This stuff is making her restless. See!”
+
+“You mean you are,” said the Harvester wearily. “Please leave us alone.
+I know the words that will bring comfort. You don't.”
+
+He began the story all over again, but now there ran through it a
+continual refrain. “Your doctor is coming, the good doctor you know. He
+will make you well and strong, and he will make life so lovely for you.”
+
+He was talking without pause or rest when Doctor Carey returned in the
+afternoon to take his place. He brought Mrs. Carey with him, and she
+tried a woman's powers of soothing another woman, and almost drove the
+Girl to fighting frenzy. So the doctor made another attempt, and the
+Harvester raced down the hill to the city. He went to the car shed as
+the train pulled in, and stood at one side while the people hurried
+through the gate. He was watching for a young man with a travelling bag
+and perhaps a physician's satchel, who would be looking for some one.
+
+“I think I'll know him,” muttered the Harvester grimly. “I think the
+masculine element in me will pop up strongly and instinctively at the
+sight of this man who will take my Dream Girl from me. Oh good God! Are
+You sure You ARE good?”
+
+In his brown khaki trousers and shirt, his head bare, his bronze face
+limned with agony he made no attempt to conceal, the Harvester, with
+feet planted firmly, and tightly folded arms, his head tipped slightly
+to one side, braced himself as he sent his keen gray eyes searching the
+crowd. Far away he selected his man. He was young, strong, criminally
+handsome, clean and alert; there was discernible anxiety on his face,
+and it touched the Harvester's soul that he was coming just as swiftly
+as he could force his way. As he passed the gates the Harvester reached
+his side.
+
+“Doctor Harmon, I think,” he said.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“This way! If you have luggage, I will send for it later.”
+
+The Harvester hurried to the car.
+
+“Take the shortest cut and cover space,” he said to the driver. The car
+kept to the speed limit until toward the suburbs.
+
+Doctor Harmon removed his hat, ran his fingers through dark waving hair
+and yielded his body to the swing of the car. Neither man attempted to
+talk. Once the Harvester leaned forward and told the driver to stop
+on the bridge, and then sat silently. As the car slowed down, they
+alighted.
+
+“Drive on and tell Doc we are here, and will be up soon,” said the
+Harvester. Then he turned to the stranger. “Doctor Harmon, there's
+little time for words. This is my place, and here I grow herbs for
+medicinal houses.”
+
+“I have heard of you, and heard your stuff recommended,” said the
+doctor.
+
+“Good!” exclaimed the Harvester. “That saves time. I stopped here to
+make a required explanation to you. The day you sent Ruth Jameson to
+Onabasha, I saw her leave the train and recognized in her my ideal
+woman. I lost her in the crowd and it took some time to locate her.
+I found her about a month ago. She was miserable. If you saw what her
+father did to her and her mother in Chicago, you should have seen what
+his brother was doing here. The end came one day in my presence, when I
+paid her for ginseng she had found to settle her debt to you. He robbed
+her by force. I took the money from him, and he threatened her. She was
+ill then from heat, overwork, wrong food----every misery you can imagine
+heaped upon the dreadful conditions in which she came. It had been my
+intention to court and marry her if I possibly could. That day she had
+nowhere to go; she was wild with fear; the fever that is scorching her
+now was in her veins then. I did an insane thing. I begged her to marry
+me at once and come here for rest and protection. I swore that if she
+would, she should not be my wife, but my honoured guest, until she
+learned to love me and released me from my vow. She tried to tell
+me something; I had no idea it was anything that would make any real
+difference, and I wouldn't listen. Last night, when the fever was
+beginning to do its worst, she told me of your entrance into her life
+and what it meant to her. Then I saw that I had made a mistake. You were
+her choice, the man she could love, not me, so I took the liberty of
+sending for you. I want you to cure her, court her, marry her, and make
+her happy. God knows she has had her share of suffering. You recognize
+her as a girl of refinement?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“You grant that in health she would be lovelier than most women, do you
+not?”
+
+“She was more beautiful than most in sickness and distress.”
+
+“Good!” cried the Harvester. “She has been here two weeks. I give you my
+word, my promise to her has been kept faithfully. As soon as I can leave
+her to attend to it, she shall have her freedom. That will be easy. Will
+you marry her?”
+
+The doctor hesitated.
+
+“What is it?” asked the Harvester.
+
+“Well to be frank,” said Doctor Harmon, “it is money! I'm only getting a
+start. I borrowed funds for my schooling and what I used for her. She is
+in every way attractive enough to be desired by any man, but how am I to
+provide a home and support her and pay these debts? I'll try it, but I
+am afraid it will be taking her back to wrong conditions again.”
+
+“If you knew that she owned a comfortable cottage in the suburbs, where
+it is cool and clean, and had, say a hundred a month of her own for the
+coming three years, could you see your way?”
+
+“That would make all the difference in the world. I thought seriously of
+writing her. I wanted to, but I concluded I'd better work as hard as I
+could for some practice first, and see if I could make a living for
+two, before I tried to start anything. I had no idea she would not be
+comfortably cared for at her uncle's.”
+
+“I see,” said the Harvester. “If I had kept out, life would have come
+right for her.”
+
+“On the contrary,” said the doctor, “it appears very probable that she
+would not be living.”
+
+“It is understood between us, then, that you will court and marry her so
+soon as she is strong enough?”
+
+“It is understood,” agreed the doctor.
+
+“Will you honour me by taking my hand?” asked the Harvester. “I scarcely
+had hoped to find so much of a man. Now come to your room and get ready
+for the stiffest piece of work you ever attempted.”
+
+The Harvester led the way to the guest chamber over looking the lake,
+and installed its first occupant. Then he hurried to the Girl. The
+doctor was holding her head and one hand, his wife the other, and the
+nurse her feet. It took the Harvester ten strenuous minutes to make his
+touch and presence known and to work quiet. All over he began crooning
+his story of rest, joy, and love. He broke off with a few words to
+introduce Doctor Harmon to the Careys and the nurse, and then calmly
+continued while the other men stood and watched him.
+
+“Seems rather cut out for it,” commented Doctor Harmon.
+
+“I never yet have seen him attempt anything that he didn't appear cut
+out for,” answered Doctor Carey.
+
+“Will she know me?” inquired the young man, approaching the bed.
+
+When the Girl's eyes fell on him she grew rigid and lay staring at him.
+Suddenly with a wild cry she struggled to rise.
+
+“You have come!” she cried. “Oh I knew you would come! I felt you would
+come! I cannot pay you now! Oh why didn't you come sooner?”
+
+The young doctor leaned over and took one of the white hands from the
+Harvester, stroking it gently.
+
+“Why you did pay, Ruth! How did you come to forget? Don't you remember
+the draft you sent me? I didn't come for money; I came to visit you, to
+nurse you, to do all I can to make you well. I am going to take care of
+you now so finely you'll be out on the lake and among the flowers soon.
+I've got some medicine that makes every one well. It's going to make you
+strong, and there's something else that's going to make you happy; and
+me, I'm going to be the proudest man alive.”
+
+He reached over and took possession of the other hand, stroking them
+softly, and the Girl lay tensely staring at him and gradually yielding
+to his touch and voice. The Harvester arose, and passing around the bed,
+he placed a chair for Doctor Harmon and motioning for Doctor Carey left
+the room. He went to the shore to his swimming pool, wearily dropped on
+the bench, and stared across the water.
+
+“Well thank God it worked, anyway!” he muttered.
+
+“What's that popinjay doing here?” thundered Doctor Carey. “Got some
+medicine that cures everybody. Going to make her well, is he? Make the
+cows, and the ducks, and the chickens, and the shitepokes well, and
+happy----no name for it! After this we are all going to be well and
+happy! You look it right now, David! What under Heaven have you done?”
+
+“Left my wife with the man she loves, and to whom I release her, my dear
+friend,” said the Harvester. “And it's so easy for me that you needn't
+give making it a little harder, any thought.”
+
+“David, forgive me!” cried Doctor Carey. “I don't understand this. I'm
+almost insane. Will you tell me what it means?”
+
+“Means that I took advantage of the Girl's illness, utter loneliness,
+and fear, and forced her into marrying me for shelter and care, when she
+loved and wanted another man, who was preparing to come to her. He is
+her Chicago doctor, and fine in every fibre, as you can see. There is
+only one thing on earth for me to do, and that is to get out of their
+way, and I'll do it as soon as she is well; but I vow I won't leave her
+poor, tired body until she is, not even for him. I thought sure I could
+teach her to love me! Oh but this is bitter, Doc!”
+
+“You are a consummate fool to bring him here!” cried Doctor Carey. “If
+she is too sick to realize the situation now, she will be different when
+she is normal again. Any sane girl that wouldn't love you, David, ain't
+fit for anything!”
+
+“Yes, I'm a whale of a lover!” said the Harvester grimly. “Nice mess
+I've made of it. But there is no real harm done. Thank God, Harmon was
+not the only white man.”
+
+“David, what do you mean?”
+
+“Is it between us, Doc?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“For all time?”
+
+“It is.”
+
+The Harvester told him. He ended, “Give the fellow his dues, Doc. He had
+her at his mercy, utterly alone and unprotected, in a big city. There
+was not a living soul to hold him to account. He added to his burdens,
+borrowed more money, and sent her here. He thought she was coming to
+the country where she would be safe and well cared for until he could
+support her. I did the remainder. Now I must undo it, that's all! But
+you have got to go in there and practise with him. You've got to show
+him every courtesy of the profession. You must go a little over the
+rules, and teach him all you can. You will have to stifle your feelings,
+and be as much of a man as it is in you to be, at your level best.”
+
+“I'm no good at stifling my feelings!”
+
+“Then you'll have to learn,” said the Harvester. “If you'd lived through
+my years of repression in the woods you'd do the fellow credit. As I see
+it, his side of this is nearly as fine as you make it. I tell you she
+was utterly stricken, alone, and beautiful. She sought his assistance.
+When the end came he thought only of her. Won't you give a young fellow
+in a place like Chicago some credit for that? Can't you get through you
+what it means?”
+
+Doctor Carey stood frowning in deep thought, but the lines of his face
+gradually changed.
+
+“I suppose I've got to stomach him,” he said.
+
+The nurse came down the gravel path.
+
+“Mr. Langston, Doctor Harmon asked me to call you,” she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and went to the sunshine room.
+
+“What does he want, Molly?” asked the doctor.
+
+“Wants to turn over his job,” chuckled the nurse. “He held it about
+seven minutes in peace, and then she began to fret and call for the
+Harvester. He just sweat blood to pacify her, but he couldn't make it.
+He tried to hold her, to make love to her, and goodness knows what, but
+she struggled and cried, 'David,' until he had to give it up and send
+me.”
+
+“Molly,” said Doctor Carey, “we've known the Harvester a long time, and
+he is our friend, isn't he?”
+
+“Of course!” said the nurse.
+
+“We know this is the first woman he ever loved, probably ever will, as
+he is made. Now we don't like this stranger butting in here; we resent
+it, Molly. We are on the side of our friend, and we want him to win.
+I'll grant that this fellow is fine, and that he has done well, but
+what's the use in tearing up arrangements already made? And so suitable!
+Now Molly, you are my best nurse, and a good reliable aid in times like
+this. I gave you instructions an hour ago. I'll add this to them. YOU
+ARE ON THE HARVESTER'S SIDE. Do you understand? In this, and the days to
+come, you'll have a thousand chances to put in a lick with a sick woman.
+Put them in as I tell you.”
+
+“Yes, Doctor Carey.”
+
+“And Molly! You are something besides my best nurse. You're a smashing
+pretty girl, and your occupation should make you especially attractive
+to a young doctor. I'm sure this fellow is all right, so while you are
+doing your best with your patient for the Harvester, why not have a
+try for yourself with the doctor? It couldn't do any harm, and it might
+straighten out matters. Anyway, you think it over.”
+
+The nurse studied his face silently for a time, and then she began to
+laugh softly.
+
+“He is up there doing his best with her,” she said.
+
+The doctor threw out his hands in a gesture of disdain, and the nurse
+laughed again; but her cheeks were pink and her eyes flashing as she
+returned to duty.
+
+“Random shot, but it might hit something, you never can tell,” commented
+the doctor.
+
+The Harvester entered the Girl's room and stood still. She was fretting
+and raising her temperature rapidly. Before he reached the door his
+heart gave one great leap at the sound of her voice calling his name. He
+knew what to do, but he hesitated.
+
+“She seems to have become accustomed to you, and at times does not
+remember me,” said Doctor Harmon. “I think you had better take her again
+until she grows quiet.”
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bed and looked the doctor in the eye.
+
+“I am afraid I left out one important feature in our little talk on the
+bridge,” he said. “I neglected to tell you that in your fight for this
+woman's life and love you have a rival. I am he. She is my wife, and
+with the last fibre of my being I adore her. If you win, and she wants
+you to take her away, I will help you; but my heart goes with her
+forever. If by any chance it should occur that I have been mistaken or
+misinterpreted her delirium or that she has been deceived and finds
+she prefers me and Medicine Woods, to you and Chicago, when she has had
+opportunity to measure us man against man, you must understand that
+I claim her. So I say to you frankly, take her if you can, but don't
+imagine that I am passive. I'll help you if I know she wants you, but I
+fight you every inch of the way. Only it has got to be square and open.
+Do you understand?”
+
+“You are certainly sufficiently clear.”
+
+“No man who is half a man sees the last chance of happiness go out of
+his life without putting up the stiffest battle he knows,” said the
+Harvester grimly. “Ruth-girl, you are raising the fever again. You must
+be quiet.”
+
+With infinite tenderness he possessed himself of her hands and began
+stroking her hair, and in a low and soothing voice the story of the
+birds, flowers, lake, and woods went on. To keep it from growing
+monotonous the Harvester branched out and put in everything he knew.
+In the days that followed he held a position none could take from him.
+While the doctors fought the fever, he worked for rest and quiet, and
+soothed the tortured body as best he could, that the medicines might
+act.
+
+But the fever was stubborn, and the remedies were slow; and long before
+the dreaded coming day the doctors and nurse were quietly saying to
+each other that when the crisis came the heart would fail. There was no
+vitality to sustain life. But they did not dare tell the Harvester.
+Day and night he sat beside the maple bed or stretched sleeping a
+few minutes on the couch while the Girl slept; and with faith never
+faltering and courage unequalled, he warned them to have their remedies
+and appliances ready.
+
+“I don't say it's going to be easy,” he said. “I just merely state that
+it must be done. And I'll also mention that, when the hour comes, the
+man who discovers that he could do something if he had digitalis, or a
+remedy he should have had ready and has forgotten, that man had better
+keep out of my sight. Make your preparations now. Talk the case over.
+Fill your hypodermics. Clean your air pumps. Get your hot-water bottles
+ready. Have system. Label your stuff large and set it conveniently. You
+see what is coming, be prepared!”
+
+One day, while the Girl lay in a half-drugged, feverish sleep, the
+Harvester went for a swim. He dressed a little sooner than was expected
+and in crossing the living-room he heard Doctor Harmon say to Doctor
+Carey on the veranda, “What are we going to do with him when the end
+comes?”
+
+The Harvester stepped to the door. “That won't be the question,” he said
+grimly. “It will be what will HE do with us?”
+
+Then, with an almost imperceptible movement, he caught Doctor Harmon at
+the waist line, and lifted and dangled him as a baby, and then stood
+him on the floor. “Didn't hardly expect that much muscle, did you?” he
+inquired lightly. “And I'm not in what you could call condition, either.
+Instead of wasting any time on fool questions like that, you two go over
+your stuff and ask each other, have we got every last appliance known
+to physics and surgery? Have we got duplicates on hand in case we break
+delicate instruments like hypodermic syringes and that sort of thing?
+Engage yourselves with questions pertaining to life; that is your
+business. Instead of planning what you'll do in failure, bolster your
+souls against it. Granny Moreland beats you two put together in grip and
+courage.”
+
+The Harvester returned to his task, and the fight went on. At last the
+hour came when the temperature fell lower and lower. The feeble pulses
+flickered and grew indiscernible; a gray pallor hovered over the Girl,
+and a cold sweat stood on her temples.
+
+“Now!” said the Harvester. “Exercise your calling! Fight like men or
+devils, but win you must.”
+
+They did work. They administered stimulants; applied heat to the chilled
+body; fans swept the room with vitalized air; hypodermics were used; and
+every last resort known to science was given a full test, and the weak
+heart throbbed slower and slower, and life ran out with each breath. The
+Harvester stood waiting with set jaws. He could detect no change for the
+better. At last he picked up a chilled hand and could discover no
+pulse, and the gray nails and the dark tips told a story of arrested
+circulation. He laid down the hand and faced the men.
+
+“This is what you'd call the crisis, Doc?” he asked gently.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Are you stemming it? Are you stemming it? Are you sure she is holding
+her own?”
+
+Doctor Carey looked at him silently.
+
+“Have you done all you can do?” asked the Harvester.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You believe her going out?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+The Harvester turned to Doctor Harmon. “Do you concur in that?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+Then to the nurse, “And you?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Then,” said the Harvester, “all of you are useless. Get out of here. I
+don't want your atmosphere. If you can believe only in death, leave us!
+She is my wife, and if this is the end she belongs to me, and I will do
+as I choose with her. All of you go!”
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bathroom door and called Granny Moreland.
+“Granny,” he said, “science has turned tail, and left me in extremity.
+Fill your hot-water bottles and come in here with your heart big with
+hope and help me save my Dream Girl. She is breathing Granny; we've got
+to make her keep it up, that's all----just keep her breathing.”
+
+He returned to the sunshine room, placed a small table beside the bed,
+and on it a glass of water, spoon, and a hypodermic syringe. When Granny
+Moreland came he said: “Now you begin on her feet and rub with long,
+sweeping, upward strokes to drive the blood to her heart.”
+
+Around the Girl he piled hot-water bottles and breathlessly hung over
+her, rubbing her hands. He wiped the perspiration from her forehead, and
+then dropped by her bed and for a second laid his face on her cold palm.
+
+“If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me,” he prayed. “And you, oh, my darling
+Dream Girl, forgive me, but I am forced to try----God helping me! Amen.”
+
+He arose, took a small bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon with
+water, and measured into it three drops of liquid as yellow as gold.
+Then he held the spoon to the blue lips, and with his fingers worked
+apart the set teeth, and poured the medicine down her throat. Then they
+rubbed and muttered snatches of prayer for fifteen minutes when the
+Harvester administered another three drops. It might have been fancy,
+but it seemed to him her jaws were not so stiff. Faster flew his hands
+and he sent Granny Moreland to refill the hot bottles. When he gave the
+Girl the third dose he injected some of the liquid over her heart and of
+the glycerine the doctors had left, in the extremities. He released more
+air and began rubbing again.
+
+The second hour started in the same way, and ended with slowly relaxing
+muscles and faint tinges of colour in the white cheeks. The feet were
+not so cold, and when the Harvester held the spoon he knew that the
+Girl made an effort to swallow, and he could see her eyelids tremble.
+Thereupon he pointed these signs to Granny, and implored her to rub and
+pray, and pray and rub, while he worked until the perspiration rolled
+down his gray face. At the end of the second hour he began decreasing
+the doses and shortening the time, and again he commenced in a
+low rumble his song of life and health, to encourage the Girl as
+consciousness returned.
+
+Occasionally Doctor Carey opened the door slightly and peeped in to see
+if he were wanted, but he received no invitation to enter. The last
+time he left with the impression that the Harvester was raving, while
+he worked over a lifeless body. He had the Girl warmly covered and bent
+over her face and hands. At her feet crouched Granny Moreland, rubbing,
+still rubbing, beneath the covers, while in a steady stream the
+Harvester was pouring out his song. If he had listened an instant longer
+he would have recognized that the tone and the words had changed. Now it
+was, “Gently, breathe gently, Girl! Slowly, steadily, easily! Deeper, a
+little deeper, Ruth! Brave Girl, never another so wonderful! That's my
+Dream Girl coming from the shadows, coming to life's sunshine, coming to
+hope, coming to love! Deeper, just a little deeper! Smoothly and evenly!
+You are making it, Girl! You are making it! By all that is holy and
+glorious! Stick to it, Ruth, hold tight to me! I'll help you, dear! You
+are coming, coming back to life and love. Don't worry yourself trying
+too hard, if only you can send every breath as deeply as the last one,
+you can make it. You brave girl! You wonderful Dream Girl! Ah, Ruth, the
+name of this is victory!”
+
+An hour before Doctor Carey had said to Doctor Harmon and the nurse,
+as he softly closed the door: “It is over and the Harvester is raving.
+We'll give him a little more time and see if he won't realize it
+himself. That will be easier for him than for us to try to tell him.”
+
+Now he opened the door, stared a second, and coming to the opposite side
+of the bed, he leaned over the Girl. Then he felt her feet. They were
+warm and slightly damp. A surprised look crept over his face. He gently
+reached for a hand that the Harvester yielded to him. It was warm,
+the blue tips becoming rosy, the wrist pulse discernible. Then he bent
+closer, touched her face, and saw the tremulous eyelids. He turned back
+the cover, and held his ear over her heart. When he straightened, “As
+God lives, she's got a chance, David!” he exulted in an awed whisper.
+
+The Harvester lifted a graven face, down which the sweat of agony
+rolled, and his lips parted in a twitching smile. “Then this is where
+love beats the doctors, Carey!” he said.
+
+“It is where love has ventured what science dares not. Love didn't do
+all of this. In the name of the Almighty, what did you give her, David?”
+
+“Life!” cried the Harvester. “Life! Come on, Ruth, come on! Out of the
+valley come to me! You are well now, Girl! It's all over! The last trace
+of fever is gone, the last of the dull ache. Can you swallow just two
+more drops of bottled sunshine, Ruth?”
+
+The flickering lids slowly opened, and the big black eyes looked
+straight into the Harvester's. He met them steadily, smiling
+encouragement.
+
+“Hang on to each breath, dear heart!” he urged. “The fever is gone. The
+pain is over! Long life and the love you crave are for you. You've only
+to keep breathing a few more hours and the battle is yours. Glorious
+Girl! Noble! You are doing finely! Ruth, do you know me?”
+
+Her lips moved.
+
+“Don't try to speak,” said the Harvester. “Don't waste breath on a word.
+Save the good oxygen to strengthen your tired body. But if you do know
+me, maybe you could smile, Ruth!”
+
+She could just smile, and that was all. Feeble, flickering, transient,
+but as it crossed the living face the Harvester lifted her hands and
+kissed them over and over, back, palm, and finger tips.
+
+“Now just one more drop, honey, and then a long rest. Will you try it
+again for me?”
+
+She assented, and the Harvester took the bottle from his pocket, poured
+the drop, and held the spoon to willing lips. The big eyes were on him
+with a question. Then they fell to the spoon. The Harvester understood.
+
+“Yes, it's mine! It's got sixty years of wonderful life in it, every one
+of them full of love and happiness for my dear Dream Girl. Can you take
+it, Ruth?”
+
+Her lips parted, the wine of life passed between. She smiled faintly,
+and her eyelids dropped shut, but presently they opened again.
+
+“David!”
+
+“My Dream Girl!”
+
+“Harvester?”
+
+“Yes!”
+
+“Medicine Man?”
+
+“Don't, Ruth! Save every breath to help your heart.”
+
+“Life?”
+
+“Life it is, Girl!” exulted the Harvester. “Long life! Love! Home! The
+man you love! Every happiness that ever came to a girl! Nothing shall be
+denied you! Nothing shall be lacking! It's all in your hands now, Ruth.
+We've all done everything we can; you must do the remainder. It's your
+work to send every breath as deeply as you can. Doc, release another
+tank of air. Are her feet warm, Granny? Let the nurse take your place
+now. And, honey, go to sleep! I'll keep watch for you. I'll measure
+each breath you draw. If they shorten or weaken, I'll wake you for more
+medicine. You can trust me! Always you can trust me, Ruth.”
+
+The Girl smiled and fell into a light, even slumber. Granny Moreland
+stumbled to the couch and rolled on it sobbing with nervous exhaustion.
+Doctor Carey called the nurse to take her place. Then he came to the
+Harvester's side and whispered, “Let me, David!”
+
+The Harvester looked up with his queer grin, but he made no motion to
+arise.
+
+“Won't you trust me, David? I'll watch as if it were my own wife.”
+
+“I wouldn't trust any man on earth, for the coming three hours,” replied
+the Harvester. “If I keep this up that long, she is safe. Go and rest
+until I call you.”
+
+He again bent over the Girl, one hand on her left wrist, the other over
+her heart, his eyes on her lips, watching the depth and strength of her
+every breath. Regularly he administered the medicine he was giving her.
+Sometimes she took it half asleep; again she gave him a smile that to
+the Harvester was the supreme thing of earth or Heaven. Toward the end
+of the long vigil, in exhaustion he slipped to the floor, and laid his
+head on the side of the bed, and for a second his hand relaxed and he
+fell asleep. The Girl awakened as his touch loosened and looking down
+she saw his huddled body. A second later the Harvester awoke with a
+guilty start to find her fingers twisted in the shock of hair on the top
+of his head.
+
+“Poor stranded Girl,” he muttered. “She's clinging to me for life, and
+you can stake all you are worth she's going to get it!”
+
+Then he gently relaxed her grip, gave her the last dose he felt
+necessary, yielded his place to Doctor Carey and staggered up the hill.
+As the sun peeped over Medicine Woods he stretched himself between the
+two mounds under the oak, and for a few minutes his body was rent with
+the awful, torn sobbing of a strong man. Belshazzar nosed the twisting
+figure and whined pitifully. A chattering little marsh wren tilted on a
+bush and scolded. A blue jay perched above and tried to decide whether
+there was cause for an alarm signal. A snake coming from the water to
+hunt birds ran close to him, and changing its course, went weaving away
+among the mosses. Gradually the pent forces spent themselves, and for
+hours the Harvester lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion, and stretched
+beside him, Belshazzar guarded with anxious dog eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETTER MAN
+
+In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester arose and went into the
+lake, ate a hearty dinner, and then took up his watch again. For two
+days and nights he kept his place, until he had the Girl out of danger,
+and where careful nursing was all that was required to insure life
+and health. As he sat beside her the last day, his physical endurance
+strained to the breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked
+long and steadily into his eyes.
+
+“There are so many things I want to know,” she said.
+
+The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers. “Ruth, have you ever been
+sorry that you trusted me?”
+
+“Never!” said the Girl instantly.
+
+“Then suppose you keep it up,” said he. “Whatever it is that you want
+to know, don't use an iota of strength to talk or to think about it now.
+Just say to yourself, he loves me well enough to do what is right, and
+I know that he will. All you have to do is to be patient until you grow
+stronger than you ever have been in your life, and then you shall have
+exactly what you want, Ruth. Sleep like a baby for a week or two. Then,
+slowly and gradually, we will build up such a constitution for you that
+you shall ride, drive, row, swim, dance, play, and have all that your
+girlhood has missed in fun and frolic, and all that your womanhood
+craves in love and companionship. Happiness has come at last, Ruth. Take
+it from me. Everything you crave is yours. The love you want, the home,
+and the life. As soon as you are strong enough, you shall know all about
+it. Your business is to drink stimulants and sleep now, dear.”
+
+“So tired of this bed!”
+
+“It won't be long until you can lie on the couch and the veranda swing
+again.”
+
+“Glory!” said the Girl. “David, I must have been full of fever for a
+long time. I can't remember everything.”
+
+“Don't try, I tell you. Life is coming out right for you; that's all you
+need know now.”
+
+“And for you, David?”
+
+“Whenever things are right for you, they are for me, Ruth.”
+
+“Don't you ever think of yourself?”
+
+“Not when I am close you.”
+
+“Ah! Then I shall have to grow strong very soon and think of you.”
+
+The Harvester's smile was pathetic. He was unspeakably tired again.
+
+“Never mind me!” he said. “Only get well.”
+
+“David, was there a little horse?”
+
+“There certainly was and is,” said the Harvester.
+
+“You had not named him yet, but in a few days I can lead him to the
+window.”
+
+“Was there something said about a boat?”
+
+“Two of them.”
+
+“Two?”
+
+“Yes. A row boat for you, and a launch that will take you all over the
+lake with only the exertion of steering on your part.”
+
+“David, I want my pendant and ring. I am so tired of lying here, I want
+to play with them.”
+
+“Where do you keep them, Ruth?”
+
+“In the willow teapot. I thought no one would look there.”
+
+The Harvester laughed and brought the little boxes. He had to open them,
+but the Girl put on the ring and asked him if he would not help her with
+the pendant. He slipped the thread around her neck and clasped it. With
+a sigh of satisfaction she took the ornament in one hand and closed her
+eyes. He thought she was falling asleep, but presently she looked at
+him.
+
+“You won't allow them to take it from me?”
+
+“Indeed no! There is no reason on earth why you should not have that
+thread around your neck if you want it.”
+
+“I am going to sleep now. I want two things. May I have them?”
+
+“You may,” said the Harvester promptly, “provided they are not to eat.”
+
+“No,” said the Girl. “I've suffered and made others trouble. I won't
+bother you by asking for anything more than is brought me. This is
+different. You are completely worn out. Your face frightens me, David,
+and white hairs that were not there a few days ago have come along your
+temples. I can see them.”
+
+“You gave me a mighty serious scare, Ruth.”
+
+“I know,” said the Girl. “Forgive me. I didn't mean to. I want you to
+leave me to Doctor Harmon and the nurse and go sleep a week. Then I
+will be ready for the swing, and to hear some more about the trees and
+birds.”
+
+“I can keep it up if you really need me, but if you don't I am sleepy.
+So, if you feel safe, I think I will go.”
+
+“Oh I am safe enough,” said the Girl. “It isn't that. I'm so lonely.
+I've made up my mind not to grieve for mother, but I miss her so now. I
+feel so friendless.”
+
+“But, honey,” said the Harvester, “you mustn't do that! Don't you see
+how all of us love you? Here is Granny shutting up her house and living
+here, just to be with you. The nurse will do anything you say. Here is
+the man you know best, and think so much of, staying in the cabin, and
+so happy to give you all his time, and anything else you will have,
+dear. And the Careys come every day, and will do their best to comfort
+you, and always I am here for you to fall back on.”
+
+“Yes, I'm falling right now,” said the Girl. “I almost wish I had the
+fever again. No one has touched me for days. I feel as if every one was
+afraid of me.”
+
+The Harvester was puzzled.
+
+“Well, Ruth, I'm doing the best I know,” he said. “What is it you want?”
+
+“Nothing!” answered the Girl with slightly dejected inflection. “Say
+good-bye to me, and go sleep your week. I'll be very good, and then you
+shall take me a drive up the hill when you awaken. Won't that be fine?”
+
+“Say good-bye to me!” She felt a “little lonely!” They all acted as if
+they were “afraid” of her. The Harvester indulged in a flashing mental
+review and arrived at a decision. He knelt beside the bed, took both
+slender, cool hands and covered them with kisses. Then he slid a hand
+under the pillow and raised the tired head.
+
+“If I am to say good-bye, I have to do it in my own way, Ruth,” he said.
+
+Thereupon he began at the tumbled mass of hair and kissed from her
+forehead to her lips, kisses warm and tender.
+
+“Now you go to sleep, and grow strong enough by the time I come back to
+tell me whom you love,” he said, and went from the room without waiting
+for any reply.
+
+With short intervals for food and dips in the lake the Harvester very
+nearly slept the week. When he finally felt himself again, he bathed,
+shaved, dressed freshly, and went to see the Girl. He had to touch her
+to be sure she was real. She was extremely weak and tremulous, but her
+face and hands were fuller, her colour was good, she was ravenously
+hungry. Doctor Harmon said she was a little tryant, and the nurse that
+she was plain cross. The first thing the Harvester noticed was that the
+dull blue look in the depth of the dark eyes was gone. They were clear,
+dusky wells, with shining lights at the bottom.
+
+“Well I never would have believed it!” he cried. “Doctor Harmon, you
+are a great physician! You have made her all over new, and in a few more
+days she will be on the veranda. This is great!”
+
+“Do I appear so much better to you, Harvester?” asked the Girl.
+
+“Has no one thought to show you,” cried the Harvester. “Here, let me!”
+
+He stepped to her dressing table, picked up a mirror, and held it before
+her so that she could see herself.
+
+“Seems to me I am dreadfully white and thin yet!”
+
+“If you had seen what I saw ten days ago, my Girl, you would think you
+appear like a pink, rosy angel now, or a wonderful dream.”
+
+“Truly, do I in the least resemble a dream, David?”
+
+“You are a dream. The loveliest one a man ever had. With three months of
+right care and exercise you'll be the beautiful woman nature intended.
+I'm so proud of you. You are being so brave! Just lie there in patience
+a few more days, and out you come again to life; and life that will
+thrill your being with joy.”
+
+“All right,” said the Girl, “I will. David are you attending to your
+herbs?”
+
+“Not for a few weeks.”
+
+“You are very much behind?”
+
+“No. Nothing important. I don't make enough to count on what is ready
+now. I can soon gather jimson leaves and seed to fill orders, the
+hemlock is about right to take the fruit, the mustard is yet in pod, and
+the saffron and wormseed can be attended later. I can catch up in two
+days.”
+
+“What about----about the big bed on the hill?”
+
+The Harvester experienced an inward thrill of delight. She was so
+impressed with the value of the ginseng she would not mention it,
+even before the man she loved----no more than that----“adored”----
+“worshipped!” He smiled at her in understanding.
+
+“I'll have to take a peep at that and report,” he said.
+
+“Are you rested now?”
+
+“Indeed yes!”
+
+“You are dreadfully thin.”
+
+“I always am. I'll pick up a little when I get back to work.”
+
+“David, I want you to go to work now.”
+
+“Can you spare me?”
+
+“Haven't we done well these last few days?”
+
+“I can't tell you how well.”
+
+“Then please go gather everything you need to fill orders except the big
+bed, and by that time maybe you could take another week off, and I could
+go to the hill top and on the lake. I'm so anxious to put my feet on the
+earth. They feel so dead.”
+
+“Are your feet well rubbed to draw down the circulation?”
+
+“They are rubbed shiny and almost skinned, David. No one ever had better
+care, of that I am sure. Go gather what you should have.”
+
+“All right,” said the Harvester.
+
+He arose and as he started to leave the room he took one last look at
+the Girl to see if he could detect anything he could suggest for
+her comfort, and read a message in her eyes. Instantly there was an
+answering flash in his.
+
+“I'll be back in a minute,” he said. “I just noticed discorea villosa
+has the finest rattle boxes formed. I've been waiting to show you. And
+the hop tree has its castanets all green and gold. In a few more weeks
+it will begin to play for you. I'll bring you some.”
+
+Soon he returned with the queer seed formations, and as he bent above
+her, with his back to Doctor Harmon, he whispered, “What is it?”
+
+Her lips barely formed the one word, “Hurry!”
+
+The Harvester straightened.
+
+“All comfortable, Ruth?” he asked casually.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You understand, of course, that there is not the slightest necessity
+for my going to work if you really want me for anything, even if it's
+nothing more than to have me within calling distance, in case you SHOULD
+want something. The whole lot I can gather now won't amount to twenty
+dollars. It's merely a matter of pride with me to have what is called
+for. I'd much rather remain, if you can use me in any way at all.”
+
+“Twenty dollars is considerable, when expenses are as heavy as now. And
+it's worth more than any money to you not to fail when orders come. I
+have learned that, and David, I don't want you to either. You must
+fill all demands as usual. I wouldn't forgive myself this winter if you
+should be forced to send orders only partly filled because I fell ill
+and hindered you. Please go and gather all you possibly will need of
+everything you take at this season, only remember!”
+
+“There is no danger of my forgetting. If you are going to send me away
+to work, you will allow me to kiss your hand before I go, fair lady?”
+
+He did it fervently.
+
+“One word with you, Harmon,” he said as he left the room.
+
+Doctor Harmon arose and followed him to the gold garden, and together
+they stood beside the molten hedge of sunflowers, coneflowers,
+elecampane, and jewel flower.
+
+“I merely want to mention that this is your inning,” said the Harvester.
+“Find out if you are essential to the Girl's happiness as soon as you
+can, and the day she tells me so, I will file her petition and take a
+trip to the city to study some little chemical quirks that bother me.
+That's all.”
+
+The Harvester went to the dry-house for bags and clipping shears, and
+the doctor returned to the sunshine room.
+
+“Ruth,” he said, “do you know that the Harvester is the squarest man I
+ever met?”
+
+“Is he?” asked the Girl.
+
+“He is! He certainly is!”
+
+“You must remember that I have little acquaintance with men,” said she.
+“You are the first one I ever knew, and the only one except him.”
+
+“Well I try to be square,” said Doctor Harmon, “but that is where
+Langston has me beaten a mile. I have to try. He doesn't. He was born
+that way.”
+
+The Girl began to laugh.
+
+“His environment is so different,” she said. “Perhaps if he were in a
+big city, he would have to try also.”
+
+“Won't do!” said the doctor. “He chose his location. So did I. He is a
+stronger physical man than I ever was or ever will be. The struggle
+that bound him to the woods and to research, that made him the master
+of forces that give back life, when a man like Carey says it is the
+end, proves him a master. The tumult in his soul must have been like a
+cyclone in his forest, when he turned his back on the world and stuck to
+the woods. Carey told me about it. Some day you must hear. It's a story
+a woman ought to know in order to arrive at proper values. You never
+will understand the man until you know that he is clean where most of
+us are blackened with ugly sins we have no right on God's footstool to
+commit and not so much reason as he. Every man should be as he is, but
+very few are. Carey says Langston's mother was a wonderful element in
+the formation of his character; but all mothers are anxious, and none of
+them can build with no foundation and no soul timber. She had material
+for a man to her hand, or she couldn't have made one.”
+
+“I see what you mean.”
+
+“So far as any inexperienced girl ever sees,” said the doctor. “Some day
+if you live to fifty you will know, but you can't comprehend it now.”
+
+“If you think I lived all my life in Chicago's poverty spots and don't
+know unbridled human nature!”
+
+“I found you and your mother unusually innocent women. You may
+understand some things. I hope you do. It will help you to decide who is
+the real man among the men who come into your life. There are some men,
+Ruth, who are fit to mate with a woman, and to perpetuate themselves and
+their mental and moral forces in children, who will be like them, and
+there are others who are not. It is these 'others' who are responsible
+for the sin of the world, the sickness and suffering. Any time you are
+sure you have a chance at a moral man, square and honest, in control of
+his brain and body, if you are a wise woman, Ruth, stick to him as the
+limpet to the rock.”
+
+“You mean stick to the Harvester?”
+
+“If you are a wise woman!”
+
+“When was a woman ever wise?”
+
+“A few have been. They are the only care-free, really happy ones of the
+world, the only wives without a big, poison, blue-bottle fly in their
+ointment.”
+
+“I detest flies!” said the Girl.
+
+“So do I,” said the doctor. “For this reason I say to you choose the
+ointment that never had one in it. Take the man who is 'master of his
+fate, captain of his soul.' Stick to the Harvester! He is infinitely the
+better man!”
+
+“Well have you seen anything to indicate that I wasn't sticking?” asked
+the Girl.
+
+“No. And for your sake I hope I never will.”
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+“You do love him, Ruth?”
+
+“As I did my mother, yes. There is not a trace in my heart of the thing
+he calls love.”
+
+“You have been stunted, warped, and the fountains of life never have
+opened. It will come with right conditions of living.”
+
+“Do you think so?”
+
+“I know so. At least there is no one else you love, Ruth?”
+
+“No one except you.”
+
+“And do you feel about me just as you do him?”
+
+“No! It is different. What I owe him is for myself. What I owe you is
+for my mother. You saw! You know! You understand what you did for her,
+and what it meant to me. The Harvester must be the finest man on earth,
+but when I try to think of either God or Heaven, your face intervenes.”
+
+“That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me,” said Doctor Harmon.
+“I can make it all perfectly clear to you. You just go on and worship me
+all you please. It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me. What you
+feel for me will hold me to a higher moral level all my life than I ever
+have known before; but never forget that you are not going to live in
+Heaven. You will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come to
+think of selecting a partner for the relations of the world, you stick
+to the finest man on earth; see?”
+
+“I do!” said the Girl. “I saw you kiss Molly a week ago. She is lovely,
+and I hope you will be perfectly happy. It won't interfere with my
+worshipping you; not the least in the world. Go ahead and be joyful!”
+
+The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion. The Girl lay and
+laughed at him.
+
+“Don't!” she cried. “It's all right! It takes a weight off my soul as
+heavy as a mountain. I do adore you, as I said. But every hour since I
+left Chicago a big, black cloud has hung over me. I didn't feel free.
+I didn't feel absolved. I felt that my obligations to you were so heavy
+that when I had settled the last of the money debt I was in honour
+bound----”
+
+“Don't, Ruth! Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then! Think
+only of a happy future!”
+
+“Let me finish,” said the Girl. “Let me get this out of my system with
+the other poison. From the day I came here, I've whispered in my heart,
+'I am not free!' But if you love another woman! If you are going to
+take her to your heart and to your lips, why that is my release. Oh Man,
+speak the words! Tell me I am free indeed!”
+
+“Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake! You'll raise a temperature, and the
+Harvester will pitch me into the lake. You are free, child, of course!
+You always have been. I understood the awful pressure that was on you
+with the very first glimpse I had of your mother. Who was she, Ruth?”
+
+“She never would tell me.”
+
+“She thought you would appeal to her people?”
+
+“She knew I would! I couldn't have helped it.”
+
+“Would you like to know?”
+
+“I never want to. It is too late. I infinitely prefer to remain in
+ignorance. Talk of something else.”
+
+“Let me read a wonderful book I found on the Harvester's shelves.”
+
+“Anything there will contain wonders, because he only buys what appeals
+to him, and it takes a great book to do that. I am going to learn. He
+will teach me, and when I come within comprehending distance of him,
+then we are going on together.”
+
+“What an attractive place this is!”
+
+“Isn't it? I only have seen enough to understand the plan. I scarcely
+can wait to set my feet on earth and go into detail. Granny Moreland
+says that when spring comes over the hill, and brings up the flowers in
+the big woods, she'd rather walk through them than to read Revelation.
+She says it gives her an idea of Heaven she can come closer realizing
+and it seems more stable. You know she worries about the foundations.
+She can't understand what supports Heaven. But up there in Medicine
+Woods the old dear gets so close her God that some day she is going to
+realize that her idea of Heaven there is quite as near right as marble
+streets and gold pillars and vastly more probable. The day I reach that
+hill top again, Heaven begins for me. Do you know the wonderful thing
+the Harvester did up there?”
+
+“Under the oak?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Carey told me. It was marvellous.”
+
+“Not such a marvel as another the doctor couldn't have known. The
+Harvester made passing out so natural, so easy, so a part of elemental
+forces, that I almost have forgotten her tortured body. When I think of
+her now, it is to wonder if next summer I can distinguish her whisper
+among the leaves. Before you go, I'll take you up there and tell you
+what he says, and show you what he means, and you will feel it also.”
+
+“What if I shouldn't go?”
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“Doctor Carey has offered me a splendid position in his hospital. There
+would be work all day, instead of waiting all day in the hope of working
+an hour. There would be a living in it for two from the word go. There
+would be better air, longer life, more to be got out of it, and if I can
+make good, Carey's work to take up as he grows old.”
+
+“Take it! Take it quickly!” cried the Girl. “Don't wait a minute! You
+might wear out your heart in Chicago for twenty years or forever, and
+not have an opportunity to do one half so much good. Take it at once!”
+
+“I was waiting to learn what you and Langston would say.”
+
+“He will say take it.”
+
+“Then I will be too happy for words. Ruth, you have not only paid the
+debt, but you have brought me the greatest joy a man ever had. And there
+is no need to wait the ages I thought I must. He can tell in a year if I
+can do the work, and I know I can now; so it's all settled, if Langston
+agrees.”
+
+“He will,” said the Girl. “Let me tell him!”
+
+“I wish you would,” said the doctor. “I don't know just how to go at
+it.”
+
+Then for two days the Harvester and Belshazzar gathered herbs and spread
+them on the drying trays. On the afternoon of the third, close three,
+the doctor came to the door.
+
+“Langston,” he said, “we have a call for you. We can't keep Ruth quiet
+much longer. She is tired. We want to change her bed completely. She
+won't allow either of us to lift her. She says we hurt her. Will you
+come and try it?”
+
+“You'll have to give me time to dip and rub off and get into clean
+clothing,” he said. “I've been keeping away, because I was working on
+time, and I smell to strangulation of stramonium and saffron.”
+
+“Can't give you ten seconds,” said the doctor. “Our temper is getting
+brittle. We are cross as the proverbial fever patient. If you don't come
+at once we will imagine you don't want to, and refuse to be moved at
+all.”
+
+“Coming!” cried the Harvester, as he plunged his hands in the wash bowl
+and soused his face. A second later he appeared on the porch.
+
+“Ruth,” he said, “I am steeped in the odours of the dry-house. Can't you
+wait until I bathe and dress?”
+
+“No, I can't,” said a fretful voice. “I can't endure this bed another
+minute.”
+
+“Then let Doctor Harmon lift you. He is so fresh and clean.”
+
+The Harvester glanced enviously at the shaven face and white trousers
+and shirt of the doctor.
+
+“I just hate fresh, clean men. I want to smell herbs. I want to put my
+feet in the dirt and my hands in the water.”
+
+The Harvester came at a rush. He brought a big easy chair from the
+living-room, straightened the cover, and bent above the Girl. He picked
+her up lightly, gently, and easing her to his body settled in the chair.
+She laid her face on his shoulder, and heaved a deep sigh of content.
+
+“Be careful with my back, Man,” she said. “I think my spine is almost
+worn through.”
+
+“Poor girl,” said the Harvester. “That bed should be softer.”
+
+“It should not!” contradicted the Girl. “It should be much harder. I'm
+tired of soft beds. I want to lie on the earth, with my head on a root;
+and I wish it would rain dirt on me. I am bathed threadbare. I want to
+be all streaky.”
+
+“I understand,” said the Harvester. “Harmon, bring me a pad and pencil
+a minute, I must write an order for some things I want. Will you call up
+town and have them sent out immediately?”
+
+On the pad he wrote: “Telephone Carey to get the highest grade
+curled-hair mattress, a new pad, and pillow, and bring them flying in
+the car. Call Granny and the girl and empty the room. Clean, air, and
+fumigate it thoroughly. Arrange the furniture differently, and help me
+into the living-room with Ruth.” He handed the pad to the doctor.
+
+“Please attend to that,” he said, and to the Girl: “Now we go on a
+journey. Doc, you and Molly take the corners of the rug we are on and
+slide us into the other room until you get this aired and freshened.”
+
+In the living-room the Girl took one long look at the surroundings
+and suddenly relaxed. She cuddled against the Harvester and lifting a
+tremulous white hand, drew it across his unshaven cheek.
+
+“Feels so good,” she said. “I'm sick and tired of immaculate men.”
+
+The Harvester laughed, tucked her feet in the cover and held her
+tenderly. The Girl lay with her cheek against the rough khaki, palpitant
+with the excitement of being moved.
+
+“Isn't it great?” she panted.
+
+He caught the hand that had touched his cheek in a tender grip, and
+laughed a deep rumble of exultation that came from the depths of his
+heart.
+
+“There's no name for it, honey,” he said. “But don't try to talk until
+you have a long rest. Changing positions after you have lain so long may
+be making unusual work for your heart. Am I hurting your back?”
+
+“No,” said the Girl. “This is the first time I have been comfortable in
+ages. Am I tiring you?”
+
+“Yes,” laughed the Harvester. “You are almost as heavy as a large sack
+of leaves, but not quite equal to a bridge pillar or a log. Be sure to
+think of that, and worry considerably. You are in danger of straining my
+muscles to the last degree, my heart included.”
+
+“Where is your heart?” whispered the Girl.
+
+“Right under your cheek,” answered the Harvester. “But for Heaven's
+sake, don't intimate that you are taking any interest in it, or it will
+go to pounding until your head will bounce. It's one member of my body
+that I can't control where you are concerned.”
+
+“I thought you didn't like me any more.”
+
+“Careful!” warned the Harvester. “You are yet too close Heaven to fib
+like that, Ruth. What have I done to indicate that I don't love you more
+than ever?”
+
+“Stayed away nearly every minute for three awful days, and wouldn't come
+without being dragged; and now you're wishing they would hurry and fix
+that bed, so you can put me down and go back to your rank old herbs
+again.”
+
+“Well of all the black prevarications! I went when you sent me, and
+came when you called. I'd willingly give up my hope of what Granny calls
+'salvation' to hold you as I am for an hour, and you know it.”
+
+“It's going to be much longer than that,” said the Girl nestling to him.
+“I asked for you because you never hurt me, and they always do. I knew
+you were so strong that my weight now wouldn't be a load for one of your
+hands, and I am not going back to that bed until I am so tired that I
+will be glad to lie down.”
+
+For a long time she was so silent the Harvester thought her going to
+sleep; and having learned that for him joy was probably transient, he
+deliberately got all he could. He closely held the hand she had not
+withdrawn, and often lifted it to his lips. Sometimes he stroked the
+heavy braid, gently ran his hands across the tired shoulders, or eased
+her into a different position. There was not a doubt in his mind of one
+thing. He was having a royal, good time, and he was thankful for the
+work he had set his assistants that kept them out of the room. They
+seemed in no hurry, and from scuffling, laughing, and a steady stream of
+talk, they were entertained at least. At last the Girl roused.
+
+“There is something I want to ask you,” she said. “I promised Doctor
+Harmon I would.”
+
+Instantly the heart of the Harvester gave a leap that jarred the head
+resting on it.
+
+“You don't like him?” questioned the Girl.
+
+“I do!” declared the Harvester. “I like him immensely. There is not a
+fine, manly good-looking feature about him that I have missed. I don't
+fail to do him justice on every point.”
+
+“I'm so glad! Then you will want him to remain.”
+
+“Here?” asked the Harvester with a light, hot breath.
+
+“In Onabasha! Doctor Carey has offered him the place of chief assistant
+at the hospital. There is a good salary and the chance of taking up
+the doctor's work as he grows older. It means plenty to do at once,
+healthful atmosphere, congenial society----everything to a young man.
+He only had a call once in a while in Chicago, often among people who
+received more than they paid, like me, and he was very lonely. I think
+it would be great for him.”
+
+“And for you, Ruth?”
+
+“It doesn't make the least difference to me; but for his sake, because I
+think so much of him, I would like to see him have the place.”
+
+“You still think so much of him, Ruth?”
+
+“More, if possible,” said the Girl. “Added to all I owed him before, he
+has come here and worked for days to save me, and it wasn't his fault
+that it took a bigger man. Nothing alters the fact that he did all he
+could, most graciously and gladly.”
+
+“What do you mean, Ruth?” stammered the Harvester.
+
+“Oh they have worn themselves out!” cried the Girl impatiently. “First,
+Granny Moreland told me every least little detail of how I went out, and
+you resurrected me. I knew what she said was true, because she worked
+with you. Then Doctor Carey told me, and Mrs. Carey, and Doctor Harmon,
+and Molly, and even Granny's little assistant has left the kitchen to
+tell me that I owe my life to you, and all of them might as well have
+saved breath. I knew all the time that if ever I came out of this, and
+had a chance to be like other women, it would be your work, and I'm glad
+it is. I'd hate to be under obligations to some people I know; but I
+feel honoured to be indebted to you.”
+
+“I'm mighty sorry they worried you. I had no idea----”
+
+“They didn't 'worry,' me! I am just telling you that I knew it all the
+time; that's all!”
+
+“Forget that!” said the Harvester. “Come back to our subject. What was
+it you wanted, dear?”
+
+“To know if you have any objections to Doctor Harmon remaining in
+Onabasha?”
+
+“Certainly not! It will be a fine thing for him.”
+
+“Will it make any difference to you in any way?”
+
+“Ruth, that's probing too deep,” said the Harvester.
+
+“I don't see why!”
+
+“I'm glad of it!”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I'd least rather show my littleness to you than to any one else on
+earth.”
+
+“Then you have some feeling about it?”
+
+“Perhaps a trifle. I'll get over it. Give me a little time to adjust
+myself. Doctor Harmon shall have the place, of course. Don't worry about
+that!”
+
+“He will be so happy!”
+
+“And you, Ruth?”
+
+“I'll be happy too!”
+
+“Then it's all right,” said the Harvester.
+
+He laid down her hand, drew the cover over it, and slightly shifted her
+position to rest her. The door opened, and Doctor Harmon announced that
+the room was ready. It was shining and fresh. The bed was now turned
+with its head to the north, so that from it one could see the big
+trees in Medicine Woods, the sweep of the hillside, the sparkle of
+mallow-bordered Singing Water, the driveway and the gold flower
+garden. Everything was so changed that the room had quite a different
+appearance. The instant he laid her on it the Girl said, “This bed is
+not mine.”
+
+“Yes it is,” said the Harvester. “You see, we were a little excited
+sometimes, and we spilled a few quarts of perfectly good medicine on
+your mattress. It was hopelessly smelly and ruined; so I am going to
+cremate it and this is your splinter new one and a fresh pad and
+pillow. Now you try them and see if they are not much harder and more
+comfortable.”
+
+“This is just perfect!” she sighed, as she sank into the bed.
+
+The Harvester bent over her to straighten the cover, when suddenly
+she reached both arms around his neck, and gripped him with all her
+strength.
+
+“Thank you!” she said.
+
+“May I hold you to-morrow?” whispered the Harvester, emboldened by this.
+
+“Please do,” said the Girl.
+
+The Harvester, with dog to heel, went to the oak to think.
+
+“Belshazzar, kommen Sie!” said the man, dropping on the seat and holding
+out his hand. The dog laid his muzzle in the firm grip.
+
+“Bel,” said the Harvester, “I am all at sea. One day I think maybe I
+have a little chance, the next----none at all. I had an hour of solid
+comfort to-day, now I'm in the sweat box again. It's a little selfish
+streak in me, Bel, that hates to see Harmon go into the hospital and
+take my place with the Careys. They are my best and only friends. He is
+young, social, handsome, and will be ever present. In three months he
+will become so popular that I might as well be off the earth. I wish I
+didn't think it, but I'm so small that I do. And then there is my
+Dream Girl, Bel. The girl you found for me, old fellow. There never was
+another like her, and she has my heart for all time. And he has hers.
+That hospital plan is the best thing in the world for her. It will keep
+her where Carey can have an eye on her, where the air is better, where
+she can have company without the city crush, where she is close the
+country, and a good living is assured. Bel, it's the nicest arrangement
+you ever saw for every one we know, except us.”
+
+The Harvester laughed shortly. “Bel,” he said, “tell me! If a man lived
+a hundred years, could he have the heartache all the way? Seems like
+I've had it almost that long now. In fact, I've had it such ages I'd
+be lonesome without it. This is some more of my very own medicine, so I
+shouldn't make a wry face over taking it. I knew what would happen when
+I sent for him, and I didn't hesitate. I must not now.
+
+“Only I got to stop one thing, Bel. I told him I would play square,
+and I have. But here it ends. After this, I must step back and be big
+brother. Lots of fun in this brother business, Bel. But maybe I am cut
+out for it. Anyway it's written! But if it is, how did she come to allow
+me such privileges as I took to-day? That wasn't professional by any
+means. It was just the stiffest love-making I knew how to do, Bel, and
+she didn't object by the quiver of an eyelash. God knows I was watching
+closely enough for any sign that I was distasteful. And I might have
+been well enough. Rough, herb-stained old clothes, unshaven, everything
+to offend a dainty girl. She said I might hold her again to-morrow. And,
+Bel, what the nation did she hug me like that for, if she's going to
+marry him? Boy, I see my way clear to an hour more. While I'm at it,
+just to surprise myself, I believe I'll take it like other men. I think
+I'll go on a little bender, and make what probably will be the last day
+a plumb good one. Something worth remembering is better than nothing
+at all, Bel! He hasn't told me that he has won. She didn't SAY she was
+going to marry him, and she did say he hurt her, and she wanted me. Bel,
+how about the grimness of it, if she should marry him and then discover
+that he hurts her, and she wants me. Lord God Almighty, if you have any
+mercy at all, never put me up against that,” prayed the Harvester, “for
+my heart is water where she is concerned.”
+
+The Harvester arose, and going to the lake, he cut an arm load of big,
+pink mallows, covered each mound with fresh flowers, whistled to the
+dog, and went to his work. Many things had accumulated, and he cleaned
+the barn, carried herbs from the dry-house to the store-room, and put
+everything into shape. Close noon the next day he went to Onabasha, and
+was gone three hours. He came back barbered in the latest style, and
+carrying a big bundle. When the hour for arranging the bed came, he was
+yet in his room, but he sent word he would be there in a second.
+
+As he crossed the living-room he pulled a chair to the veranda and
+placed a footstool before it. Then he stepped into the sunshine room. A
+quizzical expression crossed the face of Doctor Harmon as he closed the
+book he was reading aloud to the Girl and arose. Wholly unembarrassed
+the Harvester smiled.
+
+“Have I got this rigging anywhere near right?” he inquired.
+
+“David, what have you done?” gasped the amazed Girl.
+
+“I didn't feel anywhere near up to the 'mark of my high calling'
+yesterday,” quoted the Harvester. “I don't know how I appear, but I'm
+clean as shaving, soap and hot water will make me, and my clothing will
+not smell offensively. Now come out of that bed for a happy hour. Where
+is that big coverlet? You are going on the veranda to-day.”
+
+“You look just like every one else,” complained Doctor Harmon.
+
+“You look perfectly lovely,” declared the Girl.
+
+“The swale sends you this invitation to come and see star-shine at the
+foot of mullein hill,” said the Harvester, offering a bouquet. It was a
+loose bunch of long-stemmed, delicate flowers, each an inch across, and
+having five pearl-white petals lightly striped with pale green. Five
+long gold anthers arose, and at their base gold stamens and a green
+pistil. The leaves were heart-shaped and frosty, whitish-green,
+resembling felt. The Harvester bent to offer them.
+
+“Have some Grass of Parnassus, my dear,” he said.
+
+The Girl waved them away. “Go stand over there by the door and slowly
+turn around. I want to see you.”
+
+The Harvester obeyed. He was freshly and carefully shaven. His hair
+was closely cropped at the base of the head, long, heavy, and slightly
+waving on top. He wore a white silk shirt, with a rolling collar and
+tie, white trousers, belt, hose, and shoes, and his hands were manicured
+with care.
+
+“Have I made a mess of it, or do I appear anything like other men?” he
+asked, eagerly.
+
+The Girl lifted her eyes to Doctor Harmon and smiled.
+
+“Do you observe anything messy?” she inquired.
+
+“You needn't fish for compliments quite so obviously,” he answered.
+“I'll pay them without being asked. I do not. He is quite correct, and
+infinitely better looking than the average. Distinguished is a proper
+word for the gentleman in my opinion. But why, in Heaven's name, have we
+never had the pleasure of seeing you thus before?”
+
+“Look here, Doc,” said the Harvester, “do you mean that you enjoy
+looking at me merely because I am dressed this way?”
+
+“I do indeed,” said the doctor. “It is good to see you with the garb of
+work laid aside, and the stamp of cleanliness and ease upon you.”
+
+“By gum, that is rubbing it in a little too rough!” cried the Harvester.
+“I bathe oftener than you do. My clothing is always clean when I start
+out. Of course, in my work I come hourly in contact with muck, water,
+and herb juices.”
+
+“It's understood that is unavoidable,” said Doctor Harmon.
+
+“And if cleanliness is made an issue, I'd rather roll in any of it
+than put my finger tips into the daily work of a surgeon,” added the
+Harvester, and the Girl giggled.
+
+“That's enough Medicine Man!” she said. “You did not make a 'mess' of
+it, or anything else you ever attempted. As for appearing like other
+men, thank Heaven, you do not. You look just a whole world bigger and
+better and finer. Come, carry me out quickly. I am wild to go. Please
+put my lovely flowers in water, Molly, only give me a few to hold.”
+
+The Harvester arranged the pink coverlet, picked up the Girl, and
+carried her to the living-room.
+
+“We will rest here a little,” he said, “and then, if you feel equal to
+it, we will try the veranda. Are you easy now?”
+
+She nestled her face against the soft shirt and smiled at him. She
+lifted her hand, laid it on his smooth cheek and then the crisp hair.
+
+“Oh Man!” she cried. “Thank God you didn't give me up, too! I want life!
+I want LIFE!”
+
+The Harvester tightened his grip just a trifle. “Then I thank God, too,”
+ he said. “Can you tell me how you are, dear? Is there any difference?”
+
+“Yes,” she answered. “I grow tired lying so long, but there isn't the
+ghost of an ache in my bones. I can just feel pure, delicious blood
+running in my veins. My hands and feet are always warm, and my head
+cool.”
+
+The Harvester's face drew very close. “How about your heart, honey?” he
+whispered. “Anything new there?”
+
+“Yes, I am all over new inside and out. I want to shout, run, sing, and
+swim. Oh I'd give anything to have you carry me down and dip me in the
+lake right now.”
+
+“Soon, Girl! That will come soon,” prophesied the Harvester.
+
+“I scarcely can wait. And you did say a saddle, didn't you? Won't it be
+great to come galloping up the levee, when the leaves are red and the
+frost is in the air. Oh am I going fast enough?”
+
+“Much faster than I expected,” said the Harvester. “You are surprising
+all of us, me most of any. Ruth, you almost make me hope that you regard
+this as home. Honey, you are thinking a little of me these days?”
+
+The hand that had fallen from his hair lay on his shoulder. Now it slid
+around his neck, and gripped him with all its strength.
+
+“Heaps and heaps!” she said. “All I get a chance to, for being bothered
+and fussed over, and everlastingly read mushy stuff that's intended for
+some one else. Please take me to the veranda now; I want to tell you
+something.”
+
+His head swam, but the Harvester set his feet firmly, arose, and carried
+his Dream Girl back to outdoor life. When he reached the chair, she
+begged him to go a few steps farther to the bench on the lake shore.
+
+“I am afraid,” said the man.
+
+“It's so warm. There can't be any difference in the air. Just a minute.”
+
+The Harvester pushed open the screen, went to the bench, and seating
+himself, drew the cover closely around her.
+
+“Don't speak a word for a long time,” he said. “Just rest. If I tire you
+too much and spoil everything, I will be desperate.”
+
+He clasped her to him, laid his cheek against her hair, and his lips on
+her forehead. He held her hand and kissed it over and over, and again
+he watched and could find no resentment. The cool, pungent breeze swept
+from the lake, and the voices of wild life chattered at their feet.
+Sometimes the water folks splashed, while a big black and gold butterfly
+mistook the Girl's dark hair for a perching place and settled on it,
+slowly opening its wonderful wings.
+
+“Lie quietly, Girl,” whispered the Harvester. “You are wearing a living
+jewel, an ornament above price, on your hair. Maybe you can see it when
+it goes. There!”
+
+“Oh I did!” she cried. “How I love it here! Before long may I lie in the
+dining-room window a while so I can see the water. I like the hill, but
+I love the lake more.”
+
+“Now if you just would love me,” said the Harvester, “you would have all
+Medicine Woods in your heart.”
+
+“Don't hurry me so!” said the Girl. “You gave me a year; and it's only a
+few weeks, and I've not been myself, and I'm not now. I mustn't make any
+mistake, and all I know for sure is that I want you most, and I can rest
+best with you, and I miss you every minute you are gone. I think that
+should satisfy you.”
+
+“That would be enough for any reasonable man,” said the Harvester
+angrily. “Forgive me, Ruth, I have been cruel. I forgot how frail and
+weak you are. It is having Harmon here that makes me unnatural. It
+almost drives me to frenzy to know that he may take you from me.”
+
+“Then send him away!”
+
+“SEND HIM AWAY?”
+
+“Yes, send him away! I am tired to death of his poetry, and seeing him
+spoon around. Send both of them away quickly!”
+
+The Harvester gulped, blinked, and surreptitiously felt for her pulse.
+
+“Oh, I've not developed fever again,” she said. “I'm all right. But it
+must be a fearful expense to have both of them here by the week, and I'm
+so tired of them, Granny says she can take care of me just as well,
+and the girl who helps her can cook. No one but you shall lift me, if I
+don't get my nose Out until I can walk alone Both of them are perfectly
+useless, and I'd much rather you'd send them away.”
+
+“There, there! Of course!” said the Harvester soothingly. “I'll do it
+as soon as I possibly dare. You don't understand, honey. You are yet
+delicate beyond measure, internally. The fever burned so long. Every
+morsel you eat is measured and cooked in sterilized vessels, and I'd be
+scared of my life to have the girl undertake it.”
+
+“Why she is doing it straight along now! She and Granny! Molly isn't out
+of Doctor Harmon's sight long enough to cook anything. Granny says there
+is 'a lot of buncombe about what they do, and she is going to tell them
+so right to their teeth some of these days, if they badger her much
+more,' and I wish she would, and you, too.”
+
+The Harvester gathered the Girl to him in one crushing bear hug.
+
+“For the love of Heaven, Ruth, you drive me crazy! Answer me just one
+question. When you told me that you 'adored and worshipped' Doctor
+Harmon, did you mean it, or was that the delirium of fever?”
+
+“I don't know WHAT I told you! If I said I 'adored' him, it was the
+truth. I did! I do! I always will! So do I adore the Almighty, but
+that's no sign I want him to read poetry to me, and be around all the
+time when I am wild for a minute with you. I can worship Doctor Harmon
+in Chicago or Onabasha quite as well. Fire him! If you don't, I will!”
+
+“Good Lord!” cried the Harvester, helpless until the Girl had to cling
+to him to prevent rolling from his nerveless arms. “Ruth, Ruth, will you
+feel my pulse?”
+
+“No, I won't! But you are going to drop me. Take me straight back to my
+beautiful new bed, and send them away.”
+
+“A minute! Give me a minute!” gasped the Harvester. “I couldn't lift a
+baby just now. Ruth, dear, I thought you LOVED the man.”
+
+“What made you think so?”
+
+“You did!”
+
+“I didn't either! I never said I loved him. I said I was under
+obligations to him; but they are as well repaid as they ever can be. I
+said I adored him, and I tell you I do! Give him what we owe him, both
+of us, in money, and send them away. If you'd seen as much of them as I
+have, you'd be tired of them, too. Please, please, David!”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester, arising in a sudden tide of effulgent joy.
+“Yes, Girl, just as quickly as I can with decency. I----I'll send them
+on the lake, and I'll take care of you.”
+
+“You won't read poetry to me?”
+
+“I will not.”
+
+“You won't moon at me?”
+
+“No!”
+
+“Then hurry! But have them take your boat. I am going to have the first
+ride in mine.”
+
+“Indeed you are, and soon, too!” said the Harvester, marching up the
+hill as if he were leading hosts to battle.
+
+He laid the Girl on the bed and covered her, and called Granny Moreland
+to sit beside her a few minutes. He went into the gold garden and
+proposed that the doctor and the nurse go rowing until supper time, and
+they went with alacrity. When they started he returned to the Girl and,
+sitting beside her, he told Granny to take a nap. Then he began to talk
+softly all about wild music, and how it was made, and what the different
+odours sweeping down the hill were, and when the red leaves would come,
+and the nuts rattle down, and the frost fairies enamel the windows, and
+soon she was sound asleep. Granny came back, and the Harvester walked
+around the lake shore to be alone a while and think quietly, for he was
+almost too dazed and bewildered for full realization.
+
+As he softly followed the foot path he heard voices, and looking down,
+he saw the boat lying in the shade and beneath a big tree on the bank
+sat the doctor and the nurse. His arm was around her, and her head was
+on his shoulder; and she said very distinctly, “How long will it be
+until we can go without offending him?”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. A VERTICAL SPINE
+
+By middle September the last trace of illness had been removed from the
+premises, and it was rapidly disappearing from the face and form of the
+Girl. She was showing a beautiful roundness, there was lovely colour on
+her cheeks and lips, and in her dark eyes sparkled a touch of mischief.
+Rigidly she followed the rules laid down for diet and exercise, and as
+strength flowed through her body, and no trace of pain tormented her,
+she began revelling in new and delightful sensations. She loved to pull
+her boat as she willed, drive over the wood road, study the books,
+cook the new dishes, rearrange furniture, and go with the Harvester
+everywhere.
+
+But that was greatly the management of the man. He was so afraid that
+something might happen to undo all the wonders accomplished in the Girl,
+and again whiten her face with pain, that he scarcely allowed her out of
+his sight. He remained in the cabin, helping when she worked, and then
+drove with her and a big blanket to the woods, arranged her chair and
+table, found some attractive subject, and while the wind ravelled her
+hair and flushed her cheeks, her fingers drew designs. At noon they
+went to the cabin to lunch, and the Girl took a nap, while the Harvester
+spread his morning's reaping on the shelves to dry. They returned to
+the woods until five o'clock; then home again and the Girl dressed
+and prepared supper, while the Harvester spread his stores and fed the
+stock. Then he put on white clothing for the evening. The Girl rested
+while he washed the dishes, and they explored the lake in the little
+motor boat, or drove to the city for supplies, or to see their friends.
+
+“Are you even with your usual work at this time of the year?” she asked
+as they sat at breakfast.
+
+“I am,” said the Harvester. “The only things that have been crowded out
+are the candlesticks. They will have to remain on the shelf until the
+herbs and roots are all in, and the long winter evenings come. Then I'll
+use the luna pattern and finish yours first of all.”
+
+“What are you going to do to-day?”
+
+“Start on a regular fall campaign. Some of it for the sake of having it,
+and some because there is good money in it. Will you come?”
+
+“Indeed yes. May I help, or shall I take my drawing along?”
+
+“Bring your drawing. Next fall you may help, but as yet you are too
+close suffering for me to see you do anything that might be even a
+slight risk. I can't endure it.”
+
+“Baby!” she jeered.
+
+“Christen me anything you please,” laughed the Harvester. “I'm short on
+names anyway.”
+
+He went to harness Betsy, and the Girl washed the dishes, straightened
+the rooms, and collected her drawing material. Then she walked up the
+hill, wearing a shirt and short skirt of khaki, stout shoes, and a straw
+hat that shaded her face. She climbed into the wagon, laid the drawing
+box on the seat, and caught the lines as the Harvester flung them to
+her. He went swinging ahead, Belshazzar to heel, the Girl driving
+after. The white pigeons circled above, and every day Ajax allowed his
+curiosity to overcome his temper, and followed a little farther.
+
+“Whoa, Betsy!” The Girl tugged at the lines; but Betsy took the bit
+between her teeth, and plodded after the Harvester. She pulled with
+all her might, but her strength was not nearly sufficient to stop the
+stubborn animal.
+
+“Whoa, David!” cried the Girl.
+
+“What is it?” the Harvester turned.
+
+“Won't you please wait until I can take off my hat? I love to ride
+bareheaded through the woods, and Betsy won't stop until you do, no
+matter how hard I pull.”
+
+“Betsy, you're no lady!” said the Harvester. “Why don't you stop when
+you're told?”
+
+“I shan't waste any more strength on her,” said the Girl. “Hereafter I
+shall say, 'Gee, David,' 'Haw, David,' 'Whoa, David,' and then she will
+do exactly as you.”
+
+The Harvester stopped half way up the hill, and beside a large, shaded
+bed spread the rug, and set up the little table and chair for the Girl.
+
+“Want a plant to draw?” he asked. “This is very important to us. It
+has a string of names as long as a princess, but I call it goldenseal,
+because the roots are yellow. The chemists ask for hydrastis. That
+sounds formidable, but it's a cousin of buttercups. The woods of Ohio
+and Indiana produce the finest that ever grew, but it is so nearly
+extinct now that the trade can be supplied by cultivation only. I
+suspect I'm responsible for its disappearance around here. I used to get
+a dollar fifty a pound, and most of my clothes and books when a boy I
+owe to it. Now I get two for my finest grade; that accounts for the size
+of these beds.”
+
+“It's pretty!” said the Girl, studying a plant averaging a foot in
+height. On a slender, round, purplish stem arose one big, rough leaf,
+heavily veined, and having from five to nine lobes. Opposite was a
+similar leaf, but very small, and a head of scarlet berries resembling
+a big raspberry in shape. The Harvester shook the black woods soil from
+the yellow roots, and held up the plant.
+
+“You won't enjoy the odour,” he said.
+
+“Well I like the leaves. I know I can use them some way. They are so
+unusual. What wonderful colour in the roots!”
+
+“One of its names is Indian paint,” explained the Harvester. “Probably
+it furnished the squaws of these woods with colouring matter. Now let's
+see what we can get out of it. You draw the plant and I'll dig the
+roots.”
+
+For a time the Girl bent over her work and the Harvester was busy.
+Belshazzar ranged the woods chasing chipmunks. The birds came asking
+questions. When the drawing was completed, other subjects were found at
+every turn, and the Girl talked almost constantly, her face alive with
+interest. The May-apple beds lay close, and she drew from them. She
+learned the uses and prices of the plant, and also made drawings of
+cohosh, moonseed and bloodroot. That was so wonderful in its root
+colour, the Harvester filled the little cup with water and she began
+to paint. Intensely absorbed she bent above the big, notched, silvery
+leaves and the blood-red roots, testing and trying to match them
+exactly. Every few minutes the Harvester leaned over her shoulder to see
+how she was progressing and to offer suggestions. When she finished she
+picked up a trailing vine of moonseed.
+
+“You have this on the porch,” she said. “I think it is lovely. There
+is no end to the beautiful combinations of leaves, and these are such
+pretty little grape-like clusters; but if you touch them the slightest
+you soil the wonderful surface.”
+
+“And that makes the fairies very sad,” said the Harvester. “They love
+that vine best of any, because they paint its fruit with the most care.
+'Bloom' the scientists call it. You see it on cultivated plums, grapes,
+and apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed and black
+haws in the woods. You should be able to design a number of pretty
+things from the cohosh leaves and berries, too. You scarcely can get a
+start this fall, but early in the spring you can begin, and follow the
+season. If your work comes out well this winter, I'll send some of it to
+the big publishing houses, and you can make book and magazine covers and
+decorations, if you would like.”
+
+“'If I would like!' How modest! You know perfectly well that if I could
+make a design that would be accepted, and used on a book or magazine, I
+would almost fly. Oh do you suppose I could?”
+
+“I don't 'suppose' anything about it, I know,” said the Harvester. “It
+is not possible that the public can be any more tired of wild roses,
+golden-rod, and swallows than the poor art editors who accept them
+because they can't help themselves. Dangle something fresh and new under
+their noses and see them snap. The next time I go to Onabasha I'll get
+you some popular magazines, and you can compare what is being used with
+what you see here, and judge for yourself how glad they would be for a
+change. And potteries, arts and crafts shops, and wall paper factories,
+they'd be crazy for the designs I could furnish them. As for money,
+there's more in it than the herbs, if I only could draw.”
+
+“I can do that,” said the Girl. “Trail the vine and give me an idea
+how to scale it. I'll just make studies now, and this winter I'll
+conventionalize them and work them into patterns. Won't that be fun?”
+
+“That's more than fun, Ruth,” said the Harvester solemnly. “That is
+creation. That touches the provinces of the Almighty. That is taking His
+unknown wonders and making them into pleasure and benefit for thousands,
+not to mention filling your face with awe divine, and lighting your eyes
+with interest and ambition. That is life, Ruth. You are beginning to
+live right now.”
+
+“I see,” said the Girl. “I understand! I am!”
+
+“You get your subjects now. When the harvest is over I'll show you what
+I have in my head, and before Christmas the fun will begin.”
+
+“What next?”
+
+“Sketch a sarsaparilla plant and this yam vine. It grows on your veranda
+too----the rattle box, you remember. The leaves and seeding arrangements
+are wonderful. You can do any number of things with them, and all will
+be new.”
+
+He called her attention to and brought her samples of ginger leaves,
+Indian hemp, queen-of-the-meadow, cone-flower, burdock, baneberry, and
+Indian turnip, as he harvested them in turn. When they came to the large
+beds of orange pleurisy root the Girl cried out with pleasure.
+
+“We will take its prosaic features first,” said the Harvester. “It is
+good medicine and worth handling. Forget that! The Bird Woman calls it
+butterfly flower. That's better. Now try to analyze a single bloom of
+this gaudy mass, and you will see why there's poetry coming.”
+
+He knelt beside the Girl, separating the blooms and pointing out their
+marvellous colour and construction. She leaned against his shoulder, and
+watched with breathless interest. As his bare head brought its mop of
+damp wind-rumpled hair close, she ran her fingers through it, and with
+her handkerchief wiped his forehead.
+
+“Sometimes I almost wish you'd get sick,” she said irrelevantly.
+
+“In the name of common sense, why?” demanded the Harvester.
+
+“Oh it must be born in the heart of a woman to want to mother
+something,” answered the Girl. “I feel sometimes as if I would like to
+take care of you, as if you were a little fellow. David, I know why
+your mother fought to make you the man she desired. You must have been
+charming when small. I can shut my eyes and just see the boy you were,
+and I should have loved you as she did.”
+
+“How about the man I am?” inquired the Harvester promptly. “Any leanings
+toward him yet, Ruth?”
+
+“It's getting worser and worser every day and hour,” said the Girl. “I
+don't understand it at all. I wouldn't try to live without you. I don't
+want you to leave my sight. Everything you do is the way I would have
+it. Nothing you ever say shocks or offends me. I'd love to render you
+any personal service. I want to take you in my arms and hug you tight
+half a dozen times a day as a reward for the kind and lovely things you
+do for me.”
+
+A dull red flamed up the neck and over the face of the Harvester. One
+arm lifted to the chair back, the other dropped across the table so that
+the Girl was almost encircled.
+
+“For the love of mercy, Ruth, why haven't I had a hint of this before?”
+ he cried.
+
+“You said you'd hate me. You said you'd drop me into the deepest part of
+the lake if I deceived you; and if I have to tell the truth, why, that
+is all of it. I think it is nonsense about some wonderful feeling that
+is going to take possession of your heart when you love any one. I love
+you so much I'd gladly suffer to save you pain or sorrow. But there are
+no thrills; it's just steady, sober, common sense that I should love
+you, and I do. Why can't you be satisfied with what I can give, David?”
+
+“Because it's husks and ashes,” said the Harvester grimly. “You drive me
+to desperation, Ruth. I am almost wild for your love, but what you offer
+me is plain, straight affection, nothing more. There isn't a trace of
+the feeling that should exist between man and wife in it. Some men might
+be satisfied to be your husband, and be regarded as a father or brother.
+I am not. The red bird didn't want a sister, Ruth, he was asking for a
+mate. So am I. That's as plain as I know how to put it. There is some
+way to awaken you into a living, loving woman, and, please God, I'll
+find it yet, but I'm slow about it; there's no question of that. Never
+you mind! Don't worry! Some of these days I have faith to believe it
+will sweep you as a tide sweeps the shore, and then I hope God will be
+good enough to let me be where you will land in my arms.”
+
+The Girl sat looking at him between narrowed lids. Suddenly she took his
+head between her hands, drew his face to hers and deliberately kissed
+him. Then she drew away and searched his eyes.
+
+“There!” she challenged. “What is the matter with that?”
+
+The Harvester's colour slowly faded to a sickly white.
+
+“Ruth, you try me almost beyond human endurance,” he said. “'What's the
+matter with that?'” He arose, stepped back, folded his arms, and stared
+at her. “'What's the matter with that?'” he repeated. “Never was I so
+sorely tempted in all my life as I am now to lie to you, and say there
+is nothing, and take you in my arms and try to awaken you to what I
+mean by love. But suppose I do----and fail! Then comes the agony of slow
+endurance for me, and the possibility that any day you may meet the man
+who can arouse in you the feelings I cannot. That would mean my oath
+broken, and my heart as well; while soon you would dislike me beyond
+tolerance, even. I dare not risk it! The matter is, that was the loving
+caress of a ten-year-old girl to a big brother she admired. That's all!
+Not much, but a mighty big defect when it is offered a strong man as
+fuel on which to feed consuming passion.”
+
+“Consuming passion,” repeated the Girl. “David you never lie, and you
+never exaggerate. Do you honestly mean that there is something----oh,
+there is! I can see it! You are really suffering, and if I come to you,
+and try my best to comfort you, you'll only call it baby affection that
+you don't want. David, what am I going to do?”
+
+“You are going to the cabin,” said the Harvester, “and cook us a big
+supper. I am dreadfully hungry. I'll be along presently. Don't worry,
+Ruth, you are all right! That kiss was lovely. Tell me that you are not
+angry with me.”
+
+Her eyes were wet as she smiled at him.
+
+“If there is a bigger brute than a man anywhere on the footstool, I
+should like to meet it,” said the Harvester, “and see what it appears
+like. Go along, honey; I'll be there as soon as I load.”
+
+He drove to the dry-house, washed and spread his reaping on the big
+trays, fed the stock, dressed in the white clothing and entered the
+kitchen. That the Girl had been crying was obvious, but he overlooked
+it, helped with the work, and then they took a boat ride. When they
+returned he proposed that she should select her favourite likeness of
+her mother, and the next time he went to the city he would take it
+with his, and order the enlargements he had planned. To save carrying
+a lighted lamp into the closet he brought her little trunk to the
+living-room, where she opened it and hunted the pictures. There were
+several, and all of them were of a young, elegantly dressed woman of
+great beauty. The Harvester studied them long.
+
+“Who was she, Ruth?” he asked at last.
+
+“I don't know, and I have no desire to learn.”
+
+“Can you explain how the girl here represented came to marry a brother
+of Henry Jameson?”
+
+“Yes. I was past twelve when my father came the last time, and I
+remember him distinctly. If Uncle Henry were properly clothed, he is
+not a bad man in appearance, unless he is very angry. He can use proper
+language, if he chooses. My father was the best in him, refined and
+intensified. He was much taller, very good looking, and he dressed and
+spoke well. They were born and grew to manhood in the East, and came out
+here at the same time. Where Uncle Henry is a trickster and a trader
+in stock, my father went a step higher, and tricked and traded in
+men----and women! Mother told me this much once. He saw her somewhere
+and admired her. He learned who she was, went to her father's law office
+and pretended he was representing some great business in the West, until
+he was welcomed as a promising client. He hung around and when she came
+in one day her father was forced to introduce them. The remainder is the
+same world-old story----a good looking, glib-tongued man, plying every
+art known to an expert, on an innocent girl.”
+
+“Is he dead, Ruth?”
+
+“We thought so. We hoped so.”
+
+“Your mother did not feel that her people might be suffering for her as
+she was for them?”
+
+“Not after she appealed to them twice and received no reply.”
+
+“Perhaps they tried to find her. Maybe she has a father or mother who
+is longing for word from her now. Are you very sure you are right in not
+wanting to know?”
+
+“She never gave me a hint from which I could tell who or where they
+were. In so gentle a woman as my mother that only could mean she did not
+want them to know of her. Neither do I. This is the photograph I prefer;
+please use it.”
+
+“I'll put back the trunk in the morning, when I can see better,” said
+the Harvester.
+
+The Girl closed it, and soon went to bed. But there was no sleep for
+the man. He went into the night, and for hours he paced the driveway in
+racking thought. Then he sat on the step and looked at Belshazzar before
+him.
+
+“Life's growing easier every minute, Bel,” said the Harvester. “Here's
+my Dream Girl, lovely as the most golden instant of that wonderful
+dream, offering me----offering me, Bel----in my present pass, the lips
+and the love of my little sister who never was born. And I've hurt
+Ruth's feelings, and sent her to bed with a heartache, trying to make
+her see that it won't do. It won't, Bel! If I can't have genuine love, I
+don't want anything. I told her so as plainly as I could find words, and
+set her crying, and made her unhappy to end a wonderful day. But in
+some way she has got to learn that propinquity, tolerance, approval,
+affection, even----is not love. I can't take the risk, after all these
+years of waiting for the real thing. If I did, and love never came, I
+would end----well, I know how I would end----and that would spoil her
+life. I simply have got to brace up, Bel, and keep on trying. She thinks
+it is nonsense about thrills, and some wonderful feeling that takes
+possession of you. Lord, Bel! There isn't much nonsense about the thing
+that rages in my brain, heart, soul, and body. It strikes me as the
+gravest reality that ever overtook a man.
+
+“She is growing wonderfully attached to me. 'Couldn't live without me,'
+Bel, that is what she said. Maybe it would be a scheme to bring Granny
+here to stay with her, and take a few months in some city this winter
+on those chemical points that trouble me. There is an old saying about
+'absence making the heart grow fonder.' Maybe separation is the thing to
+work the trick. I've tried about everything else I know.
+
+“But I'm in too much of a hurry! What a fool a man is! A few weeks ago,
+Bel, I said to myself that if Harmon were away and had no part in her
+life I'd be the happiest man alive. Happiest man alive! Bel, take a look
+at me now! Happy! Well, why shouldn't I be happy? She is here. She is
+growing in strength and beauty every hour. She cares more for me day
+by day. From an outside viewpoint it seems as if I had almost all a man
+could ask in reason. But when was a strong man in the grip of love ever
+reasonable? I think the Almighty took a pretty grave responsibility when
+He made men as He did. If I had been He, and understood the forces I was
+handling, I would have been too big a coward to do it. There is nothing
+for me, Bel, but to move on doing my level best; and if she doesn't
+awaken soon, I will try the absent treatment. As sure as you are the
+most faithful dog a man ever owned, Bel, I'll try the absent treatment.”
+
+The Harvester arose and entered the cabin, stepping softly, for it was
+dark in the Girl's room, and he could not hear a sound there. He turned
+up the lights in the living-room. As he did so the first thing he saw
+was the little trunk. He looked at it intently, then picked up a book.
+Every page he turned he glanced again at the trunk. At last he laid
+down the book and sat staring, his brain working rapidly. He ended by
+carrying the trunk to his room. He darkened the living-room, lighted his
+own, drew the rain screens, and piece by piece carefully examined the
+contents. There were the pictures, but the name of the photographer had
+been removed. There was not a word that would help in identification. He
+emptied it to the bottom, and as he picked up the last piece his fingers
+struck in a peculiar way that did not give the impression of touching
+a solid surface. He felt over it carefully, and when he examined with
+a candle he plainly could see where the cloth lining had been cut and
+lifted.
+
+For a long time he knelt staring at it, then he deliberately inserted
+his knife blade and raised it. The cloth had been glued to a heavy sheet
+of pasteboard the exact size of the trunk bottom. Beneath it lay half a
+dozen yellow letters, and face down two tissue-wrapped photographs. The
+Harvester examined them first. They were of a man close forty, having
+a strong, aggressive face, on which pride and dominant will power were
+prominently indicated. The other was a reproduction of a dainty and
+delicate woman, with exquisitely tender and gentle features. Long the
+Harvester studied them. The names of the photographer and the city were
+missing. There was nothing except the faces. He could detect traces
+of the man in the poise of the Girl and the carriage of her head, and
+suggestions of the woman in the refined sweetness of her expression.
+Each picture represented wealth in dress and taste in pose. Finally he
+laid them together on the table, picked up one of the letters, and read
+it. Then he read all of them.
+
+Before he finished, tears were running down his cheeks, and his
+resolution was formed. These were the appeals of an adoring mother,
+crazed with fear for the safety of an only child, who unfortunately
+had fallen under the influence of a man the mother dreaded and feared,
+because of her knowledge of life and men of his character. They were one
+long, impassioned plea for the daughter not to trust a stranger, not
+to believe that vows of passion could be true when all else in life was
+false, not to trust her untried judgment of men and the world against
+the experience of her parents. But whether the tears that stained those
+sheets had fallen from the eyes of the suffering mother or the starved
+and deserted daughter, there was no way for the Harvester to know. One
+thing was clear: It was not possible for him to rest until he knew if
+that woman yet lived and bore such suffering. But every trace of address
+had been torn away, and there was nothing to indicate where or in what
+circumstances these letters had been written.
+
+A long time the Harvester sat in deep thought. Then he returned all the
+letters save one. This with the pictures he made into a packet that he
+locked in his desk. The trunk he replaced and then went to bed. Early
+the next morning he drove to Onabasha and posted the parcel. The address
+it bore was that of the largest detective agency in the country. Then
+he bought an interesting book, a box of fruit, and hurried back to the
+Girl. He found her on the veranda, Belshazzar stretched close with one
+eye shut and the other on his charge, whose cheeks were flushed with
+lovely colour as she bent over her drawing material. The Harvester went
+to her with a rush, and slipping his fingers under her chin, tilted back
+her head against him.
+
+“Got a kiss for me, honey?” he inquired.
+
+“No sir,” answered the Girl emphatically. “I gave you a perfectly lovely
+one yesterday, and you said it was not right. I am going to try just
+once more, and if you say again that it won't do, I'm going back to
+Chicago or to my dear Uncle Henry, I haven't decided which.”
+
+Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were full of tears.
+
+“Why thank you, Ruth! I think that is wonderful,” said the Harvester.
+“I'll risk the next one. In the meantime, excuse me if I give you a
+demonstration of the real thing, just to furnish you an idea of how it
+should be.”
+
+The Harvester delivered the sample, and went striding to the marsh. The
+dazed Girl sat staring at her work, trying to realize what had happened;
+for that was the first time the Harvester had kissed her on the lips,
+and it was the material expression a strong man gives the woman he loves
+when his heart is surging at high tide. The Girl sat motionless, gazing
+at her study.
+
+In the marsh she knew the Harvester was reaping queen-of-the-meadow,
+and around the high borders, elecampane and burdock. She could hear his
+voice in snatches of song or cheery whistle; notes that she divined
+were intended to keep her from worrying. Intermingled with them came the
+dog's bark of defiance as he digged for an escaping chipmunk, his note
+of pleading when he wanted a root cut with the mattock, his cry of
+discovery when he thought he had found something the Harvester would
+like, or his yelp of warning when he scented danger. The Girl looked
+down the drive to the lake and across at the hedge. Everywhere she saw
+glowing colour, with intermittent blue sky and green leaves, all of it a
+complete picture, from which nothing could be spared. She turned slowly
+and looked toward the marsh, trying to hear the words of the song above
+the ripple of Singing Water, and to see the form of the man. Slowly
+she lifted her handkerchief and pressed it against her lips, as she
+whispered in an awed voice,
+
+“My gracious Heaven, is THAT the kind of a kiss he is expecting me to
+give HIM? Why, I couldn't----not to save my life.”
+
+She placed her brushes in water, set the colour box on the paper, and
+went to the kitchen to prepare the noon lunch. As she worked the soft
+colour deepened in her cheeks, a new light glowed in her eyes, and she
+hummed over the tune that floated across the marsh. She was very busy
+when the Harvester came, but he spoke casually of his morning's work,
+ate heartily, and ordered her to take a nap while he washed roots and
+filled the trays, and then they went to the woods together for the
+afternoon.
+
+In the evening they came home to the cabin and finished the day's
+work. As the night was chilly, the Harvester heaped some bark in the
+living-room fireplace, and lay on the rug before it, while the Girl sat
+in an easy chair and watched him as he talked. He was telling her about
+some wonderful combinations he was going to compound for different
+ailments and he laughingly asked her if she wanted to be a millionaire's
+wife and live in a palace.
+
+“Of course I could if I wanted to!” she suggested.
+
+“You could!” cried the Harvester. “All that is necessary is to combine
+a few proper drugs in one great remedy and float it. That is easy! The
+people will do the remainder.”
+
+“You talk as if you believe that,” marvelled the Girl.
+
+“Want it proven?” challenged the Harvester.
+
+“No!” she cried in swift alarm. “What do we want with more than we have?
+What is there necessary to happiness that is not ours now? Maybe it is
+true that the 'love of money is the root of all evil.' Don't you ever
+get a lot just to find out. You said the night I came here that you
+didn't want more than you had and now I don't. I won't have it! It
+might bring restlessness and discontent. I've seen it make other people
+unhappy and separate them. I don't want money, I want work. You make
+your remedies and offer them to suffering humanity for just a living
+profit, and I'll keep house and draw designs. I am perfectly happy,
+free, and unspeakably content. I never dreamed that it was possible for
+me to be so glad, and so filled with the joy of life. There is only one
+thing on earth I want. If I only could----”
+
+“Could what, Ruth?”
+
+“Could get that kiss right----”
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+“Forget it, I tell you!” he commanded. “Just so long as you worry and
+fret, so long I've got to wait. If you quit thinking about it, all
+'unbeknownst' to yourself you'll awake some morning with it on your
+lips. I can see traces of it growing stronger every day. Very soon now
+it's going to materialize, and then get out of my way, for I'll be a
+whirling, irresponsible lunatic, with the wild joy of it. Oh I've got
+faith in that kiss of yours, Ruth! It's on the way. The fates have
+booked it. There isn't a reason on earth why I should be served so
+scurvy a trick as to miss it, and I never will believe that I shall----”
+
+“David,” interrupted the Girl, “go on talking and don't move a muscle,
+just reach over presently and fix the fire or something, and then turn
+naturally and look at the window beside your door.”
+
+“Shall miss it,” said the Harvester steadily. “That would be too
+unmerciful. What do you see, Ruth?”
+
+“A face. If I am not greatly mistaken, it is my Uncle Henry and he
+appears like a perfect fiend. Oh David, I am afraid!”
+
+“Be quiet and don't look,” said the Harvester.
+
+He turned and tossed a piece of bark on the fire. Then he reached for
+the poker, pushed it down and stirred the coals. He arose as he worked.
+
+“Rise slowly and quietly and go to your room. Stay there until I call
+you.”
+
+With the Girl out of the way, the Harvester pottered over the fire, and
+when the flame leaped he lifted a stick of wood, hesitated as if it were
+too small, and laying it down, started to bring a larger one. In the
+dining-room he caught a small stick from the wood box, softly stepped
+from the door, and ran around the house. But he awakened Belshazzar on
+the kitchen floor, and the dog barked and ran after him. By the time the
+Harvester reached the corner of his room the man leaped upon a horse and
+went racing down the drive. The Harvester flung the stick of wood, but
+missed the man and hit the horse. The dog sprang past the Harvester and
+vanished. There was the sound and flash of a revolver, and the rattle
+of the bridge as the horse crossed it. The dog came back unharmed. The
+Harvester ran to the telephone, called the Onabasha police, and asked
+them to send a mounted man to meet the intruder before he could reach a
+cross road; but they were too slow and missed him. However, the Girl was
+certain she had recognized her uncle, and was extremely nervous; but the
+Harvester only laughed and told her it was a trip made out of curiosity.
+Her uncle wanted to see if he could learn if she were well and happy,
+and he finally convinced her that this was the case, although he was not
+very sanguine himself.
+
+For the next three days the Harvester worked in the woods and he kept
+the Girl with him every minute. By the end of that time he really had
+persuaded himself that it was merely curiosity. So through the cooling
+fall days they worked together. They were very happy. Before her
+wondering eyes the Harvester hung queer branches, burs, nuts, berries,
+and trailing vines with curious seed pods. There were masses of
+brilliant flowers, most of them strange to the Girl, many to the great
+average of humanity. While she sat bending over them, beside her the
+Harvester delved in the black earth of the woods, or the clay and sand
+of the open hillside, or the muck of the lake shore, and lifted large
+bagfuls of roots that he later drenched on the floating raft on the
+lake, and when they had drained he dried them. Some of them he did not
+wet, but scraped and wiped clean and dry. Often after she was sleeping,
+and long before she awoke in the morning, he was at work carry-ing
+heaped trays from the evaporator to the store-room, and tying the roots,
+leaves, bark, and seeds into packages.
+
+While he gathered trillium roots the Girl made drawings of the plant
+and learned its commercial value. She drew lady's slipper and Solomon's
+seal, and learned their uses and prices; and carefully traced wild
+ginger leaves while nibbling the aromatic root. It was difficult to keep
+from protesting when the work carried them around the lake shore and
+to the pokeberry beds, for the colour of these she loved. It required
+careful explanation as to the value of the roots and seeds as blood
+purifier, and the argument that in a few more days the frost would level
+the bed, to induce her to consent to its harvesting. But when the
+case was properly presented, she put aside her drawing and stained her
+slender fingers gathering the seeds, and loved the work.
+
+The sun was golden on the lake, the birds of the upland were clustering
+over reeds and rushes, for the sake of plentiful seed and convenient
+water. Many of them sang fitfully, the notes of almost all of them were
+melodious, and the day was a long, happy dream. There was but little
+left to gather until ginseng time. For that the Harvester had engaged
+several boys to help him, for the task of digging the roots, washing and
+drying them, burying part of the seeds and preparing the remainder
+for market seemed endless for one man to attempt. After a full day the
+Harvester lay before the fire, and his head was so close the Girl's knee
+that her fingers were in reach of his hair. Every time he mended the
+fire he moved a little, until he could feel the touch of her garments
+against him. Then he began to plan for the winter; how they would store
+food for the long, cold days, how much fuel would be required, when they
+would go to the city for their winter clothing, what they would read,
+and how they would work together at the drawings.
+
+“I am almost too anxious to wait longer to get back to my carving,” he
+said. “Whoever would have thought this spring that fall would come
+and find the birds talking of going, the caterpillars spinning winter
+quarters, the animals holing up, me getting ready for the cold, and your
+candlesticks not finished. Winter is when you really need them. Then
+there is solid cheer in numbers of candles and a roaring wood fire. The
+furnace is going to be a good thing to keep the floors and the bathroom
+warm, but an open fire of dry, crackling wood is the only rational
+source of heat in a home. You must watch for the fairy dances on the
+backwall, Ruth, and learn to trace goblin faces in the coals. Sometimes
+there is a panorama of temples and trees, and you will find exquisite
+colour in the smoke. Dry maple makes a lovely lavender, soft and fine as
+a floating veil, and damp elm makes a blue, and hickory red and yellow.
+I almost can tell which wood is burning after the bark is gone, by the
+smoke and flame colour. When the little red fire fairies come out and
+dance on the backwall it is fun to figure what they are celebrating. By
+the way, Ruth, I have been a lamb for days. I hope you have observed!
+But I would sleep a little sounder to-night if you only could give me a
+hint whether that kiss is coming on at all.”
+
+He tipped back his head to see her face, and it was glorious in the red
+firelight; the big eyes never appeared so deep and dark. The tilted head
+struck her hand, and her fingers ran through his hair.
+
+“You said to forget it,” she reminded him, “and then it would come
+sooner.”
+
+“Which same translated means that it is not here yet. Well, I didn't
+expect it, so I am not disappointed; but begorry, I do wish it would
+materialize by Christmas. I think I will work for that. Wouldn't it make
+a day worth while, though? By the way, what do you want for Christmas,
+Ruth?”
+
+“A doll,” she answered.
+
+The Harvester laughed. He tipped his head again to see her face and
+suddenly grew quiet, for it was very serious.
+
+“I am quite in earnest,” she said. “I think the big dolls in the stores
+are beautiful, and I never owned only a teeny little one. All my life
+I've wanted a big doll as badly as I ever longed for anything that was
+not absolutely necessary to keep me alive. In fact, a doll is essential
+to a happy childhood. The mother instinct is so ingrained in a girl that
+if she doesn't have dolls to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a
+part of her natural rights. It's a pitiful thing to have been the little
+girl in the picture who stands outside the window and gazes with longing
+soul at the doll she is anxious to own and can't ever have. Harvester,
+I was always that little girl. I am quite in earnest. I want a big,
+beautiful doll more than anything else.”
+
+As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading the Harvester's
+hair. His head lightly touched her knee, and she shifted her position
+to afford him a comfortable resting place. With a thrill of delight that
+shook him, the man laid his head in her lap and looked into the fire,
+his face glowing as a happy boy's.
+
+“You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy, Ruth,” he
+promised. “What else do you want?”
+
+“A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid indigestible things
+that Christmas stories always tell about; and popcorn balls, and candy,
+and everything I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful
+day with you. That's all!”
+
+“Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to Heaven right now before
+anything occurs to spoil this,” said the Harvester.
+
+The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge. He whirled to his knees,
+and put his arms around the Girl.
+
+“Ruth,” he said huskily. “I'll wager a thousand dollars I know what is
+coming. Hug me tight, quick! and give me the best kiss you can----any
+old kind of a one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got to
+open that door and let in trouble.”
+
+The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the imprint of her lips
+warm on his the Harvester crossed the room, and his heart dropped from
+the heights with a thud. He stepped out, closing the door behind him,
+and crossing the veranda, passed down the walk. He recognized the car
+as belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and in it sat two men, one of whom
+spoke.
+
+“Are you David Langston?”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester.
+
+“Did you send a couple of photographs to a New York detective agency a
+few days ago with inquiries concerning some parties you wanted located?”
+
+“I did,” said the Harvester. “But I was not expecting any such immediate
+returns.”
+
+“Your questions touched on a case that long has been in the hands of the
+agency, and they telegraphed the parties. The following day the people
+had a letter, giving them the information they required, from another
+source.”
+
+“That is where Uncle Henry showed his fine Spencerian hand,” commented
+the Harvester. “It always will be a great satisfaction that I got my
+fist in first.”
+
+“Is Miss Jameson here?”
+
+“No,” said the Harvester. “My wife is at home. Her surname was Ruth
+Jameson, but we have been married since June. Did you wish to speak with
+Mrs. Langston?”
+
+“I came for that purpose. My name is Kennedy. I am the law partner and
+the closest friend of the young lady's grandfather. News of her location
+has prostrated her grandmother so that he could not leave her, and I was
+sent to bring the young woman.”
+
+“Oh!” said the Harvester. “Well you will have to interview her about
+that. One word first. She does not know that I sent those pictures and
+made that inquiry. One other word. She is just recovering from a case of
+fever, induced by wrong conditions of life before I met her. She is not
+so strong as she appears. Understand you are not to be abrupt. Go very
+gently! Her feelings and health must be guarded with extreme care.”
+
+The Harvester opened the door, and as she saw the stranger, the Girl's
+eyes widened, and she arose and stood waiting.
+
+“Ruth,” said the Harvester, “this is a man who has been making quite a
+search for you, and at last he has you located.”
+
+The Harvester went to the Girl's side, and put a reinforcing arm around
+her.
+
+“Perhaps he brings you some news that will make life most interesting
+and very lovely for you. Will you shake hands with Mr. Kennedy?”
+
+The Girl suddenly straightened to unusual height.
+
+“I will hear why he has been making 'quite a search for me,' and on
+whose authority he has me 'located,' first,” she said.
+
+A diabolical grin crossed the face of the Harvester, and he took heart.
+
+“Then please be seated, Mr. Kennedy,” he said, “and we will talk over
+the matter. As I understand, you are a representative of my wife's
+people.”
+
+The Girl stared at the Harvester.
+
+“Take your chair, Ruth, and meet this as a matter of course,” he
+advised casually. “You always have known that some day it must come.
+You couldn't look in the face of those photographs of your mother in her
+youth and not realize that somewhere hearts were aching and breaking,
+and brains were busy in a search for her.”
+
+The Girl stood rigid.
+
+“I want it distinctly understood,” she said, “that I have no use on
+earth for my mother's people. They come too late. I absolutely refuse to
+see or to hold any communication with them.”
+
+“But young lady, that is very arbitrary!” cried Mr. Kennedy. “You don't
+understand! They are a couple of old people, and they are slowly dying
+of broken hearts!”
+
+“Not so badly broken or they wouldn't die slowly,” commented the Girl
+grimly. “The heart that was really broken was my mother's. The torture
+of a starved, overworked body and hopeless brain was hers. There was
+nothing slow about her death, for she went out with only half a life
+spent, and much of that in acute agony, because of their negligence.
+David, you often have said that this is my home. I choose to take you at
+your word. Will you kindly tell this man that he is not welcome in this
+house, and I wish him to leave it at once?”
+
+The Harvester stepped back, and his face grew very white.
+
+“I can't, Ruth,” he said gently.
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Because I brought him here.”
+
+“You brought him here! You! David, are you crazy? You!”
+
+“It is through me that he came.”
+
+The Girl caught the mantel for support.
+
+“Then I stand alone again,” she said. “Harvester, I had thought you were
+on my side.”
+
+“I am at your feet,” said the man in a broken voice. “Ruth dear, will
+you let me explain?”
+
+“There is only one explanation, and with what you have done for me fresh
+in my mind, I can't put it into words.”
+
+“Ruth, hear me!”
+
+“I must! You force me! But before you speak understand this: Not now, or
+through all eternity, do I forgive the inexcusable neglect that drove my
+mother to what I witnessed and was helpless to avert.”
+
+“My dear! My dear!” said the Harvester, “I had hoped the woods had done
+a more perfect work in your heart. Your mother is lying in state now,
+Girl, safe from further suffering of any kind; and if I read aright, her
+tired face and shrivelled frame were eloquent of forgiveness. Ruth dear,
+if she so loved them that her heart was broken and she died for them,
+think what they are suffering! Have some mercy on them.”
+
+“Get this very clear, David,” said the Girl. “She died of hunger
+for food. Her heart was not so broken that she couldn't have lived a
+lifetime, and got much comfort out of it, if her body had not lacked
+sustenance. Oh I was so happy a minute ago. David, why did you do this
+thing?”
+
+The Harvester picked up the Girl, placed her in a chair, and knelt
+beside her with his arms around her.
+
+“Because of the PAIN IN THE WORLD, Ruth,” he said simply. “Your mother
+is sleeping sweetly in the long sleep that knows neither anger nor
+resentment; and so I was forced to think of a gentle-faced, little
+old mother whose heart is daily one long ache, whose eyes are dim with
+tears, and a proud, broken old man who spends his time trying to comfort
+her, when his life is as desolate as hers.”
+
+“How do you know so wonderfully much about their aches and broken
+hearts?”
+
+“Because I have seen their faces when they were happy, Ruth, and so I
+know what suffering would do to them. There were pictures of them and
+letters in the bottom of that old trunk. I searched it the other night
+and found them; and by what life has done to your mother and to you, I
+can judge what it is now bringing them. Never can you be truly happy,
+Ruth, until you have forgiven them, and done what you can to comfort the
+remainder of their lives. I did it because of the pain in the world, my
+girl.”
+
+“What about my pain?”
+
+“The only way on earth to cure it is through forgiveness. That, and that
+only, will ease it all away, and leave you happy and free for life and
+love. So long as you let this rancour eat in your heart, Ruth, you are
+not, and never can be, normal. You must forgive them, dear, hear what
+they have to say, and give them the comfort of seeing what they can
+discover of her in you. Then your heart will be at rest at last, your
+soul free, you can take your rightful place in life, and the love
+you crave will awaken in your heart. Ruth, dear you are the acme of
+gentleness and justice. Be just and gentle now! Give them their chance!
+My heart aches, and always will ache for the pain you have known, but
+nursing and brooding over it will not cure it. It is going to take a
+heroic operation to cut it out, and I chose to be the surgeon. You have
+said that I once saved your body from pain Ruth, trust me now to free
+your soul.”
+
+“What do you want?”
+
+“I want you to speak kindly to this man, who through my act has come
+here, and allow him to tell you why he came. Then I want you to do the
+kind and womanly thing your duty suggests that you should.”
+
+“David, I don t understand you!”
+
+“That is no difference,” said the Harvester. “The point is, do you TRUST
+me?”
+
+The Girl hesitated. “Of course I do,” she said at last.
+
+“Then hear what your grandfather's friend has come to say for him, and
+forget yourself in doing to others as you would have them----really,
+Ruth, that is all of religion or of life worth while. Go on, Mr.
+Kennedy.”
+
+The Harvester drew up a chair, seated himself beside the Girl, and
+taking one of her hands, he held it closely and waited.
+
+“I was sent here by my law partner and my closest friend, Mr. Alexander
+Herron, of Philadelphia,” said the stranger. “Both he and Mrs. Herron
+were bitterly opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew life
+and human nature, and there never is but one end to men such as she
+married.”
+
+“You may omit that,” said the Girl coldly. “Simply state why you are
+here.”
+
+“In response to an inquiry from your husband concerning the originals
+of some photographs he sent to a detective agency in New York. They have
+had the case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue, they
+telegraphed Mr. Herron. The prospect of news after years of fruitless
+searching so prostrated Mrs. Herron that he dared not leave her, and he
+sent me.”
+
+“Kindly tell me this,” said the Girl. “Where were my mother's father and
+mother for the four years immediately following her marriage?”
+
+“They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of meeting their friends.
+There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron developed a fever, and it was several years
+before she could be brought home. She retired from society, and has been
+confined to her room ever since. When they could return, a search was
+instituted at once for their daughter, but they never have been able to
+find a trace. They have hunted through every eastern city they thought
+might contain her.”
+
+“And overlooked a little insignificant place like Chicago, of course.”
+
+“I myself conducted a personal search there, and visited the home of
+every Jameson in the directory or who had mail at the office or of whom
+I could get a clue of any sort.”
+
+“I don't suppose two women in a little garret room would be in the
+directory, and there never was any mail.”
+
+“Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?”
+
+“She did,” said the Girl. “She admitted that she had been wrong, asked
+their forgiveness, and begged to go home. That was in the second year of
+her marriage, and she was in Cleveland. Afterward she went to Chicago,
+from there she wrote again.”
+
+“Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the mother's life,
+two years after that. It is very easy to become lost in a large city.
+Criminals do it every day and are never found, even with the best
+detectives on their trail. I am very sorry about this. My friends will
+be broken-hearted. At any time they would have been more than delighted
+to have had their daughter return. A letter on the day following the
+message from the agency brought news that she was dead, and now their
+only hope for any small happiness at the close of years of suffering
+lies with you. I was sent to plead with you to return with me at once
+and make them a visit. Of course, their home is yours. You are their
+only heir, and they would be very happy if you were free, and would
+remain permanently with them.”
+
+“How do they know I will not be like the father they so detested?”
+
+“They had sufficient cause to dislike him. They have every reason to
+love and welcome you. They are consumed with anxiety. Will you come?”
+
+“No. This is for me to decide. I do not care for them or their property.
+Always they have failed me when my distress was unspeakable. Now there
+is only one thing I ask of life, more than my husband has given me, and
+if that lay in his power I would have it. You may go back and tell them
+that I am perfectly happy. I have everything I need. They can give me
+nothing I want, not even their love. Perhaps, sometime, I will go to see
+them for a few days, if David will go with me.”
+
+“Young woman, do you realize that you are issuing a death sentence?”
+ asked the lawyer gently.
+
+“It is a just one.”
+
+“I do not believe your husband agrees with you. I know I do not. Mrs.
+Herron is a tiny old lady, with a feeble spark of vitality left; and
+with all her strength she is clinging to life, and pleading with it to
+give her word of her only child before she goes out unsatisfied. She
+knows that her daughter is gone, and now her hopes are fastened on you.
+If for only a few days, you certainly must go with me.”
+
+“I will not!”
+
+The lawyer turned to the Harvester.
+
+“She will be ready to start with you to-morrow morning, on the first
+train north,” said the Harvester. “We will meet you at the station at
+eight.”
+
+“I----I am afraid I forgot to tell my driver to wait.”
+
+“You mean your instructions were not to let the Girl out of your sight,”
+ said the Harvester. “Very well! We have comfortable rooms. I will show
+you to one. Please come this way.”
+
+The Harvester led the guest to the lake room and arranged for the night.
+Then he went to the telephone and sent a message to an address he had
+been furnished, asking for an immediate reply. It went to Philadelphia
+and contained a description of the lawyer, and asked if he had been
+sent by Mr. Herron to escort his grand-daughter to his home. When the
+Harvester returned to the living-room the Girl, white and defiant,
+waited before the fire. He knelt beside her and put his arms around her,
+but she repulsed him; so he sat on the rug and looked at her.
+
+“No wonder you felt sure you knew what that was!” she cried bitterly.
+
+“Ruth, if you will allow me to lift the bottom of that old trunk, and if
+you will read any one of the half dozen letters I read, you will forgive
+me, and begin making preparations to go.”
+
+“It's a wonder you don't hold them before me and force me to read them,”
+ she said.
+
+“Don't say anything you will be sorry for after you are gone, dear.”
+
+“I'm not going!”
+
+“Oh yes you are!”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because it is right that you should, and right is inexorable. Also,
+because I very much wish you to; you will do it for me.”
+
+“Why do you want me to go?”
+
+“I have three strong reasons: First, as I told you, it is the only thing
+that will cleanse your heart of bitterness and leave it free for the
+tenanting of a great and holy love. Next, I think they honestly made
+every effort to find your mother, and are now growing old in despair you
+can lighten, and you owe it to them and yourself to do it. Lastly, for
+my sake. I've tried everything I know, Ruth, and I can't make you love
+me, or bring you to a realizing sense of it if you do. So before I saw
+that chest I had planned to harvest my big crop, and try with all my
+heart while I did it, and if love hadn't come then, I meant to get
+some one to stay with you, and I was going away to give you a free
+perspective for a time. I meant to plead that I needed a few weeks with
+a famous chemist I know to prepare me better for my work. My real motive
+was to leave you, and let you see if absence could do anything for me in
+your heart. You've been very nearly the creature of my hands for months,
+my girl; whatever any one else may do, you're bound to miss me mightily,
+and I figured that with me away, perhaps you could solve the problem
+alone I seem to fail in helping you with. This is only a slight change
+of plans. You are going in my stead. I will harvest the ginseng and
+cure it, and then, if you are not at home, and the loneliness grows
+unbearable, I will take the chemistry course, until you decide when you
+will come, if ever.”
+
+“'If ever?'”
+
+“Yes,” said the Harvester. “I am growing accustomed to facing big
+propositions----I will not dodge this. The faces of the three of your
+people I have seen prove refinement. Their clothing indicates wealth.
+These long, lonely years mean that they will shower you with every
+outpouring of loving, hungry hearts. They will keep you if they can, my
+dear. I do not blame them. The life I propose for you is one of work,
+mostly for others, and the reward, in great part, consists of the joy in
+the soul of the creator of things that help in the world. I realize that
+you will find wealth, luxury, and lavish love. I know that I may lose
+you forever, and if it is right and best for you, I hope I will. I know
+exactly what I am risking, but I yet say, go.”
+
+“I don't see how you can, and love me as you prove you do.”
+
+“That is a little streak of the inevitableness of nature that the forest
+has ground into my soul. I'd rather cut off my right hand than take
+yours with it, in the parting that will come in the morning; but you are
+going, and I am sending you. So long as I am shaped like a human being,
+it is in me to dignify the possession of a vertical spine by acting as
+nearly like a man as I know how. I insist that you are my wife, because
+it crucifies me to think otherwise. I tell you to-night, Ruth, you are
+not and never have been. You are free as air. You married me without any
+love for me in your heart, and you pretended none. It was all my doing.
+If I find that I was wrong, I will free you without a thought of results
+to me. I am a secondary proposition. I thought then that you were alone
+and helpless, and before the Almighty, I did the best I could. But I
+know now that you are entitled to the love of relatives, wealth, and
+high social position, no doubt. If I allowed the passion in my heart
+to triumph over the reason of my brain, and worked on your feelings and
+tied you to the woods, without knowing but that you might greatly prefer
+that other life you do not know, but to which you are entitled, I would
+go out and sink myself in Loon Lake.”
+
+“David, I love you. I do not want to go. Please, please let me remain
+with you.”
+
+“Not if you could say that realizing what it means, and give me the kiss
+right now I would stake my soul to win! Not by any bribe you can think
+of or any allurement you can offer. It is right that you go to those
+suffering old people. It is right you know what you are refusing for me,
+before you renounce it. It is right you take the position to which you
+are entitled, until you understand thoroughly whether this suits you
+better. When you know that life as well as this, the people you will
+meet as intimately as me, then you can decide for all time, and I can
+look you in the face with honest, unwavering eye; and if by any chance
+your heart is in the woods, and you prefer me and the cabin to what they
+have to offer----to all eternity your place here is vacant, Ruth. My
+love is waiting for you; and if you come under those conditions, I never
+can have any regret. A clear conscience is worth restraining passion a
+few months to gain, and besides, I always have got the fact to face that
+when you say 'I love,' and when I say 'I love,' it means two entirely
+different things. When you realize that the love of man for woman, and
+woman for man, is a thing that floods the heart, brain, soul, and body
+with a wonderful and all-pervading ecstasy, and if I happen to be the
+man who makes you realize it, then come tell me, and we will show
+God and His holy angels what earth means by the Heaven inspired word,
+'radiance.'”
+
+“David, there never will be any other man like you.”
+
+“The exigencies of life must develop many a finer and better.”
+
+“You still refuse me? You yet believe I do not love you?”
+
+“Not with the love I ask, my girl. But if I did not believe it was
+germinating in your heart, and that it would come pouring over me in a
+torrent some glad day, I doubt if I could allow you to go, Ruth! I am
+like any other man in selfishness and in the passions of the body.”
+
+“Selfishness! You haven't an idea what it means,” said the Girl. “And
+what you call love----there I haven't. But I know how to appreciate you,
+and you may be positively sure that it will be only a few days until I
+will come back to you.”
+
+“But I don't want you until you can bring the love I crave. I am sending
+you to remain until that time, Ruth.”
+
+“But it may be months, Man!”
+
+“Then stay months.”
+
+“But it may be----”
+
+“It may be never! Then remain forever. That will be proof positive that
+your happiness does not lie in my hands.”
+
+“Why should I not consider you as you do me?”
+
+“Because I love you, and you do not love me.”
+
+“You are cruel to yourself and to me. You talk about the pain in the
+world. What about the pain in my heart right now? And if I know you in
+the least, one degree more would make you cry aloud for mercy. Oh David,
+are we of no consideration at all?”
+
+The muscles of the Harvester's face twisted an instant.
+
+“This is where we lop off the small branches to grow perfect fruit
+later. This is where we do evil that good may result. This is where
+we suffer to-night in order we may appreciate fully the joy of love's
+dawning. If I am causing you pain, forgive me, dear heart. I would give
+my life to prevent it, but I am powerless. It is right! We cannot avoid
+doing it, if we ever would be happy.”
+
+He picked up the Girl, and held her crushed in his arms a long time.
+Then he set her inside her door and said, “Lay out what you want to take
+and I will help you pack, so that you can get some sleep. We must be
+ready early in the morning.”
+
+When the clothing to be worn was selected, the new trunk packed, and all
+arrangements made, the Girl sat in his arms before the fire as he had
+held her when she was ill, and then he sent her to bed and went to
+the lake shore to fight it out alone. Only God and the stars and the
+faithful Belshazzar saw the agony of a strong man in his extremity.
+
+Near dawn he heard the tinkle of the bell and went to receive his
+message and order a car for morning. Then he returned to the merciful
+darkness of night, and paced the driveway until light came peeping over
+the tree tops. He prepared breakfast and an hour later put the Girl on
+the train, and stood watching it until the last rift of smoke curled
+above the spires of the city.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE MAN IN THE BACKGROUND
+
+Then the Harvester returned to Medicine Woods to fight his battle alone.
+At first the pain seemed unendurable, but work always had been his
+panacea, it was his salvation now. He went through the cabin, folding
+bedding and storing it in closets, rolling rugs sprinkled with powdered
+alum, packing cushions, and taking window seats from the light.
+
+“Our sleeping room and the kitchen will serve for us, Bel,” he said. “We
+will put all these other things away carefully, so they will be as good
+as new when the Girl comes home.”
+
+The evening of the second day he was called to the telephone.
+
+“There is a telegram for you,” said a voice. “A message from
+Philadelphia. It reads: 'Arrived safely. Thank you for making me come.
+Dear old people. Will write soon. With love, Ruth.'
+
+“Have you got it?”
+
+“No,” lied the Harvester, grinning rapturously. “Repeat it again slowly,
+and give me time after each sentence to write it. Now! Go on!”
+
+He carried the message to the back steps and sat reading it again and
+again.
+
+“I supposed I'd have to wait at least four days,” he said to Ajax as the
+bird circled before him. “This is from the Girl, old man, and she is
+not forgetting us to begin with, anyway. She is there all safe, she sees
+that they need her, they are lovable old people, she is going to write
+us all about it soon, and she loves us all she knows how to love any
+one. That should be enough to keep us sane and sensible until her letter
+comes. There is no use to borrow trouble, so we will say everything in
+the world is right with us, and be as happy as we can on that until we
+find something we cannot avoid worrying over. In the meantime, we will
+have faith to believe that we have suffered our share, and the end will
+be happy for all of us. I am mighty glad the Girl has a home, and the
+right kind of people to care for her. Now, when she comes back to me, I
+needn't feel that she was forced, whether she wanted to or not, because
+she had nowhere to go. This will let me out with a clean conscience, and
+that is the only thing on earth that allows a man to live in peace with
+himself. Now I'll go finish everything else, and then I'll begin the
+ginseng harvest.”
+
+So the Harvester hitched Betsy and with Belshazzar at his feet he drove
+through the woods to the sarsaparilla beds. He noticed the beautiful
+lobed leaves, at which the rabbits had been nibbling, and the heads of
+lustrous purple-black berries as he began digging the roots that he sold
+for stimulants.
+
+“I might have needed a dose of you now myself,” the Harvester addressed
+a heap of uprooted plants, “if the electric wires hadn't brought me a
+better. Great invention that! Never before realized it fully! I thought
+to-day would be black as night, but that message changes the complexion
+of affairs mightily. So I'll dig you for people who really are in need
+of something to brace them up.”
+
+After the sarsaparilla was on the trays, he attacked the beds of Indian
+hemp, with its long graceful pods, and took his usual supply. Then he
+worked diligently on the warm hillside over the dandelion. When these
+were finished he brought half a dozen young men from the city and
+drilled them on handling ginseng. He was warm, dirty, and tired when he
+came from the beds the evening of the fourth day. He finished his work
+at the barn, prepared and ate his supper, slipped into clean clothing,
+and walked to the country road where it crossed the lane. There he
+opened his mail box. The letter he expected with the Philadelphia
+postmark was inside. He carried it to the bridge, and sitting in her
+favourite place, with the lake breeze threading his hair, opened his
+first letter from the Girl.
+
+“My dear Friend, Lover, Husband,” it began.
+
+The Harvester turned the sheets face down across his knee, laid his hand
+on them, and stared meditatively at the lake. “'Friend,'” he commented.
+“Well, that's all right! I am her friend, as well as I know how to be.
+'Lover.' I come in there, full force. I did my level best on that score,
+though I can't boast myself a howling success; a man can't do more
+than he knows, and if I had been familiar with all the wiles of expert,
+professional love-makers, they wouldn't have availed me in the Girl's
+condition. I had a mighty peculiar case to handle in her, and not a
+particle of training. But if she says 'Lover,' I must have made some
+kind of a showing on the job. 'Husband.'” A slow flush crept up the
+brawny neck and tinged the bronzed face. “That's a good word,” said
+the Harvester, “and it must mean a wonderful thing----to some men. 'Who
+bides his time.' Well, I'm 'biding,' and if my time ever comes to be my
+Dream Girl's husband, I'll wager all I'm worth on one thing. I'll study
+the job from every point of the compass, and I'll see what showing I can
+make on being the kind of a husband that a woman clings to and loves at
+eighty.”
+
+Taking a deep breath the Harvester lifted the letter, and laying one
+hand on Belshazzar's head, he proceeded----“I might as well admit in the
+beginning that I cried most of the way here. Some of it was because I
+was nervous and dreaded the people I would meet, and more on account of
+what I felt toward them, but most of it was because I did not want to
+leave you. I have been spoiled dreadfully! You have taught me so to
+depend on you----and for once I feel that I really can claim to have
+been an apt pupil----that it was like having the heart torn out of me to
+come. I want you to know this, because it will teach you that I have
+a little bit of appreciation of how good you are to me, and to all the
+world as well. I am glad that I almost cried myself sick over leaving
+you. I wish now I just had stood up in the car, and roared like a burned
+baby.
+
+“But all the tears I shed in fear of grandfather and grandmother were
+wasted. They are a couple of dear old people, and it would have been a
+crime to allow them to suffer more than they must of necessity. It all
+seems so different when they talk; and when I see the home, luxuries,
+and friends my mother had, it appears utterly incomprehensible that she
+dared leave them for a stranger. Probably the reason she did was because
+she was grandfather's daughter. He is gentle and tender some of the
+time, but when anything irritates him, and something does every few
+minutes, he breaks loose, and such another explosion you never heard. It
+does not mean a thing, and it seems to lower his tension enough to keep
+him from bursting with palpitation of the heart or something, but it is
+a strain for others. At first it frightened me dreadfully. Grandmother
+is so tiny and frail, so white in her big bed, and when he is the very
+worst, and she only smiles at him, why I know he does not mean it at
+all. But, David, I hope you never will get an idea that this would be
+a pleasant way for you to act, because it would not, and I never would
+have the courage to offer you the love I have come to find if you
+slammed a cane and yelled, 'demnation,' at me. Grandmother says she does
+not mind at all, but I wonder if she did not acquire the habit of lying
+in bed because it is easier to endure in a prostrate position.
+
+“The house is so big I get lost, and I do not know yet which are
+servants and which friends; and there is a steady stream of seamstresses
+and milliners making things for me. Grandmother and father both think I
+will be quite passable in appearance when I am what they call 'modishly
+dressed.' I think grandmother will forget herself some day and leave her
+bed before she knows it, in her eagerness to see how something appears.
+I could not begin to tell you about all the lovely things to wear, for
+every occasion under the sun, and they say these are only temporary,
+until some can be made especially for me.
+
+“They divide the time in sections, and there is an hour to drive, I am
+to have a horse and ride later, and a time to shop, so long to visit
+grandmother, and set hours to sleep, dress, to be fitted, taken to see
+things, music lessons, and a dancing teacher. I think a longer day will
+have to be provided.
+
+“I do not care anything about dancing. I know what would make me dance
+nicely enough for anything, but I am going to try the music, and see if
+I can learn just a few little songs and some old melodies for evening,
+when the work is done, the fire burns low, and you are resting on the
+rug. There is enough room for a piano between your door and the south
+wall and that corner seems vacant anyway. You would like it, David, I
+know, if I could play and sing just enough to put you to sleep nicely.
+It is in the back of my head that I will try to do every single thing,
+just as they want me to, and that will make them happy, but never forget
+that the instant I feel in my soul that your kiss is right on my lips,
+I am coming to you by lightning express; and I told them so the first
+thing, and that I only came because you made me.
+
+“They did not raise an objection, but I am not so dull that I cannot see
+they are trying to bind me to them from the very first with chains too
+strong to break. We had just one little clash. Grandfather was mightily
+pleased over what you told Mr. Kennedy about my never having been your
+wife, and that I was really free. There seems to be a man, the son
+of his partner, whom grandfather dearly loves, and he wants me to
+be friends with his friend. One can see at once what he is planning,
+because he said he was going to introduce me as Miss Jameson. I told
+him that would be creating a false impression, because I was a married
+woman; but he only laughed at me and went straight to doing it.
+
+“Of course, I know why, but he is so terribly set I cannot stop him, so
+I shall have to tell people myself that I am a staid, old married lady.
+After all, I suppose I might as well let him go, if it pleases him. I
+shall know how to protect myself and any one else, from any mistakes
+concerning me; and in my heart I know what I know, and what I cannot
+make you believe, but I will some day.
+
+“I suspect you're harvesting the ginseng now. The roar and rush of the
+city seem strange, as if I never had heard it before, and I feel so
+crowded. I scarcely can sleep at night for the clamour of the cars,
+cabs, and throbbing life. Grandfather will not hear a word, and he just
+sputters and says 'demnation' when I try to tell him about you; but
+grandmother will listen, and I talk to her of you and Medicine Woods by
+the hour. She says she thinks you must be a wonderfully nice person. I
+haven't dared tell her yet the thing that will win her. She is so little
+and frail, and she has heart trouble so badly; but some day I shall
+tell her all about Chicago that I can, and then of Uncle Henry, and then
+about you and the oak, and that will make her love you as I do. There
+are so many things to do; they have sent for me three times. I shall
+tell them they must put you on the schedule, and give me so much time to
+write or I will upset the whole programme.
+
+“I think you will like to know that Mr. Kennedy told grandfather all you
+said to him about my illness, for almost as soon as I came he brought
+a very wonderful man to my room, and he asked many questions and I
+told him all about it, and what I had been doing. He made out a list of
+things to eat and exercises. I am being taken care of just as you did,
+so I will go on growing well and strong. The trouble is they are too
+good to me. I would just love to shuffle my feet in dead leaves, and lie
+on the grass this morning. I never got my swim in the lake. I will have
+to save that until next summer. He also told grandfather what you said
+about Uncle Henry, and I think he was pleased that you tried to find him
+as soon as you knew. He let me see the letter Uncle Henry wrote, and it
+was a vile thing----just such as he would write. It asked how much he
+would be willing to pay for information concerning his heir. I told
+grandfather all about it, and I saw the answer he wrote. I told him some
+things to say, and one of them was that the honesty of a man without
+a price prevented the necessity of anything being paid to find me. The
+other was that you located my people yourself, and at once sent me to
+them against my wishes. I was determined he should know that. So Uncle
+Henry missed his revenge on you. He evidently thought he not only would
+hurt you by breaking up your home and separating us, but also he would
+get a reward for his work. He wrote some untrue things about you, and I
+wish he hadn't, for grandfather can think of enough himself. But I will
+soon change that. Please, please take good care of all my things, my
+flowers and vines, and most of all tell Belshazzar to protect you with
+his life. And you be very good to my dear, dear lover. I will write
+again soon, Ruth.”
+
+When the Harvester had studied the letter until he could repeat
+it backward, he went to the cabin and answered it. Then he sent
+subscriptions for two of Philadelphia's big dailies, and harvested
+ginseng from dawn until black darkness. Never was such a crop grown in
+America. The beds had been made in the original home of the plant, so
+that it throve under perfectly natural conditions in the forest, but
+here and there branches had been thinned above, and nature helped by
+science below. This resulted in thick, pulpy roots of astonishing size
+and weight. As the Harvester lifted them he bent the tops and buried
+part of the seed for another crop. For weeks he worked over the bed.
+Then the last load went down the hill to the dry-house and the helpers
+were paid. Next the fall work was finished. Fuel and food were stored
+for winter, while the cold crept from the lake, swept down the hill and
+surrounded the cabin.
+
+The Harvester finished long days in the dry-house and store-room, and
+after supper he sat by the fire reading over the Girl's letters, carving
+on her candlesticks, or in the work room, bending above the boards he
+was shaving and polishing for a gift he had planned for her Christmas.
+The Careys had him in their home for Thanksgiving. He told them all
+about sending the Girl away himself, read them some of her letters, and
+they talked with perfect confidence of how soon she would come home.
+The Harvester tried to think confidently, but as the days went by the
+letters became fewer, always with the excuse that there was no time to
+write, but with loving assurance that she was thinking of him and would
+do better soon.
+
+However they came often enough that he had something new to tell his
+friends so that they did not suspect that waiting was a trial to him. A
+few days after Thanksgiving the gift that he had planned was finished.
+It was a big, burl-maple box, designed after the hope chests that he saw
+advertised in magazines. The wood was rare, cut in heavy slabs, polished
+inside and out, dove-tailed corners with ornate brass bindings, hinges
+and lock, and hand-carved feet. On the inside of the lid cut on a brass
+plate was the inscription, “Ruth Langston, Christmas of Nineteen Hundred
+and Ten. David.”
+
+Then he began packing the chest. He put in the finished candlesticks
+and a box of candleberry dips he had made of delightfully spiced wax,
+coloured pale green. He ordered the doll weeks before from the largest
+store in Onabasha, and the dealer brought on several that he might make
+a selection. He chose a large baby doll almost life size, and sent it
+to the dress-making department to be completely and exquisitely clothed.
+Long before the day he was picking kernels to glaze from nuts, drying
+corn to pop, and planning candies to be made of maple sugar. When he
+figured it was time to start the box, he worked carefully, filling
+spaces with chestnut and hazel burs, and finishing the tops of
+boxes with gaudy red and yellow leaves he had kept in their original
+brightness by packing them in sand. He put in scarlet berries of
+mountain ash and long twining sprays of yellow and red bitter-sweet
+berries, for her room. Then he carefully covered the chest with cloth,
+packed it in an outside box, and sent it to the Girl by express. As he
+came from the train shed, where he had helped with loading, he met Henry
+Jameson. Instantly the long arm of the Harvester shot out, and in a grip
+that could not be broken he caught the man by the back of the neck and
+proceeded to dangle him. As he did so he roared with laughter.
+
+“Dear Uncle Henry!” he cried. “How did you feel when you got your letter
+from Philadelphia? Wasn't it a crime that an honest man, which same
+refers to me, beat you? Didn't you gnash your teeth when you learned
+that instead of separating me from my wife I had found her people and
+sent her to them myself? Didn't it rend your soul to miss your little
+revenge and fail to get the good, fat reward you confidently expected?
+Ho! Ho! Thus are lofty souls downcast. I pity you, Henry Jameson, but
+not so much that I won't break your back if you meddle in my affairs
+again, and I am taking this opportunity to tell you so. Here you go out
+of my life, for if you appear in it once more I will finish you like a
+copperhead. Understand?”
+
+With a last shake the Harvester dropped him, and went into the express
+office, where several men had watched the proceedings.
+
+“Been dipping in your affairs, has he?” asked the expressman.
+
+“Trying it,” laughed the Harvester.
+
+“Well he is just moving to Idaho, and you probably won't be bothered
+with him any more.”
+
+“Good news!” said the Harvester. He felt much relieved as he went back
+to Betsy and drove to Medicine Woods.
+
+The Careys had invited him, but he chose to spend Christmas alone. He
+had finished breakfast when the telephone bell rang, and the expressman
+told him there was a package for him from Philadelphia. The Harvester
+mounted Betsy and rode to the city at once. The package was so very
+small he slipped it into his pocket, and went to the doctor's to say
+Merry Christmas! To Mrs. Carey he gave a pretty lavender silk dress, and
+to the doctor a new watch chain. Then he went to the hospital, where
+he left with Molly a set of china dishes from the Girl, and a fur-lined
+great coat, his gift to Doctor Harmon. He rode home and stabled Betsy,
+giving her an extra quart of oats, and going into the house he sat by
+the kitchen fire and opened the package.
+
+In a nest of cotton lay a tissue-wrapped velvet box, and inside that, in
+a leather pocket case, an ivory miniature of the Girl by an artist who
+knew how to reproduce life. It was an exquisite picture, and a face
+of wonderful beauty. He looked at it for a long time, and then called
+Belshazzar and carried it out to show Ajax. Then he put it into his
+breast pocket squarely over his heart, but he wore the case shiny the
+first day taking it out. Before noon he went to the mail box and found
+a long letter from the Girl, full of life, health, happiness, and with
+steady assurances of love for him, but there was no mention made of
+coming home.
+
+She seemed engrossed in the music lessons, riding, dancing, pretty
+clothing, splendid balls, receptions, and parties of all kinds. The
+Harvester answered it with his heart full of love for her, and then
+waited. It was a long week before the reply came, and then it was short
+on account of so many things that must be done, but she insisted that
+she was well, happy, and having a fine time. After that the letters
+became less frequent and shorter. At times there would be stretches of
+almost two weeks with not a line, and then only short notes to explain
+that she was too busy to write.
+
+Through the dreary, cold days of January and February the Harvester
+invented work in the store-room, in the workshop, at the candlesticks,
+sat long over great books, and spent hours in the little laboratory
+preparing and compounding drugs. In the evenings he carved and read.
+First of all he scanned the society columns of the papers he was taking,
+and almost every day he found the name of Miss Ruth Jameson, often
+a paragraph describing her dress and her beauty of face and charm of
+manner; and constantly the name of Mr. Herbert Kennedy appeared as her
+escort. At first the Harvester ignored this, and said to himself that
+he was glad she could have enjoyable times and congenial friends, and
+he was. But as the letters became fewer, paper paragraphs more frequent,
+and approaching spring worked its old insanity in the blood, gradually
+an ache crept into his heart again, and there were days when he could
+not work it out.
+
+Every letter she wrote he answered just as warmly as he felt that he
+dared, but when they were so long coming and his heart was overflowing,
+he picked up a pen one night and wrote what he felt. He told her all
+about the ice-bound lake, the lonely crows in the big woods, the sap
+suckers' cry, and the gay cardinals' whistle. He told her about the
+cocoons dangling on bushes or rocking on twigs that he was cutting for
+her. He warned her that spring was coming, and soon she would begin to
+miss wonders for her pencil. Then he told her about the silent cabin,
+the empty rooms, and a lonely man. He begged her not to forget the kiss
+she had gone to find for him. He poured out his heart unrestrainedly,
+and then folded the letter, sealed and addressed it to her, in care of
+the fire fairies, and pitched it into the ashes of the living-room fire
+place. But expression made him feel better.
+
+There was another longer wait for the next letter, but he had written
+her so many in the meantime that a little heap of them had accumulated
+as he passed through the living-room on his way to bed. He had supposed
+she would be gone until after Christmas when she left, but he never had
+thought of harvesting sassafras and opening the sugar camp alone. In
+those days his face appeared weary, and white hairs came again on his
+temples. Carey met him on the street and told him that he was going to
+the National Convention of Surgeons at New York in March, and wanted him
+to go along and present his new medicine for consideration.
+
+“All right,” said the Harvester instantly, “I will go.”
+
+He went and interviewed Mrs. Carey, and then visited the doctor's
+tailor, and a shoe store, and bought everything required to put him in
+condition for travelling in good style, and for the banquet he would
+be asked to attend. Then he got Mrs. Carey to coach him on spoons and
+forks, and declared he was ready. When the doctor saw that the Harvester
+really would go, he sat down and wrote the president of the association,
+telling him in brief outline of Medicine Woods and the man who had
+achieved a wonderful work there, and of the compounding of the new
+remedy.
+
+As he expected, return mail brought an invitation for the Harvester to
+address the association and describe his work and methods and present
+his medicine. The doctor went out in the car over sloppy roads with that
+letter, and located the Harvester in the sugar camp. He explained the
+situation and to his surprise found his man intensely interested. He
+asked many questions as to the length of time, and amount of detail
+required in a proper paper, and the doctor told him.
+
+“But if you want to make a clean sweep, David,” he said, “write your
+paper simply, and practise until it comes easy before you speak.”
+
+That night the Harvester left work long enough to get a notebook, and by
+the light of the camp fire, and in company with the owls and coons, he
+wrote his outline. One division described his geographical location,
+another traced his ancestry and education in wood lore. One was a
+tribute to the mother who moulded his character and ground into him
+stability for his work. The remainder described his methods in growing
+drugs, drying and packing them, and the end was a presentation for their
+examination of the remedy that had given life where a great surgeon had
+conceded death. Then he began amplification.
+
+When the sugar making was over the Harvester commenced his regular
+spring work, but his mind was so busy over his paper that he did not
+have much time to realize just how badly his heart was beginning to
+ache. Neither did he consign so many letters to the fire fairies, for
+now he was writing of the best way to dry hydrastis and preserve ginseng
+seed. The day before time to start he drove to Onabasha to try on his
+clothing and have Mrs. Carey see if he had been right in his selections.
+
+While he was gone, Granny Moreland, wearing a clean calico dress and
+carrying a juicy apple pie, came to the stretch of flooded marsh land,
+and finding the path under water, followed the road and crossing a
+field reached the levee and came to the bridge of Singing Water where it
+entered the lake. She rested a few minutes there, and then went to the
+cabin shining between bare branches. She opened the front door, entered,
+and stood staring around her.
+
+“Why things is all tore up here,” she said. “Now ain't that sensible
+of David to put everything away and save it nice and careful until his
+woman gets back. Seems as if she's good and plenty long coming; seems
+as if her folks needs her mighty bad, or she's having a better time than
+the boy is or something.”
+
+She set the pie on the table, went through the cabin and up the hill
+a little distance, calling the Harvester. When she passed the barn
+she missed Betsy and the wagon, and then she knew he was in town. She
+returned to the living-room and sat looking at the pie as she rested.
+
+“I'd best put you on the kitchen table,” she mused. “Likely he will see
+you there first and eat you while you are fresh. I'd hate mortal bad for
+him to overlook you, and let you get stale, after all the care I've took
+with your crust, and all the sugar, cinnamon, and butter that's under
+your lid. You're a mighty nice pie, and you ort to be et hot. Now why
+under the sun is all them clean letters pitched in the fireplace?”
+
+Granny knelt and selecting one, she blew off the ashes, wiped it with
+her apron and read: “To Ruth, in care of the fire fairies.”
+
+“What the Sam Hill is the idiot writin' his woman like that for?” cried
+Granny, bristling instantly. “And why is he puttin' pages and pages of
+good reading like this must have in it in care of the fire fairies? Too
+much alone, I guess! He's going wrong in his head. Nobody at themselves
+would do sech a fool trick as this. I believe I had better do something.
+Of course I had! These is writ to Ruth; she ort to have them. Wish't I
+knowed how she gets her mail, I'd send her some. Mebby three! I'd send a
+fat and a lean, and a middlin' so's that she'd have a sample of all the
+kinds they is. It's no way to write letters and pitch them in the ashes.
+It means the poor boy is honin' to say things he dassent and so he's
+writin' them out and never sendin' them at all. What's the little huzzy
+gone so long for, anyway? I'll fix her!”
+
+Granny selected three letters, blew away the ashes, and tucked the
+envelopes inside her dress.
+
+“If I only knowed how to get at her,” she muttered. She stared at the
+pie. “I guess you got to go back,” she said, “and be et by me. Like as
+not I'll stall myself, for I got one a-ready. But if David has got these
+fool things counted and misses any, and then finds that pie here, he'll
+s'picion me. Yes, I got to take you back, and hurry my stumps at that.”
+
+Granny arose with the pie, cast a lingering and covetous glance at the
+fireplace, stooped and took another letter, and then started down the
+drive. Just as she reached the bridge she looked ahead and saw the
+Harvester coming up the levee. Instantly she shot the pie over the
+railing and with a groan watched it strike the water and disappear.
+
+“Lord of love!” she gasped, sinking to the seat, “that was one of
+grandmother's willer plates that I promised Ruth. 'Tain't likely I'll
+ever see hide ner hair of it again. But they wa'ant no place to put it,
+and I dassent let him know I'd been up to the cabin. Mebby I can fetch
+a boy some day and hire him to dive for it. How long can a plate be in
+water and not get spiled anyway? Now what'll I do? My head's all in a
+whirl! I'll bet my bosom is a sticking out with his letters 'til he'll
+notice and take them from me.”
+
+She gripped her hands across her chest and sat staring at the Harvester
+as he stopped on the bridge, and seeing her attitude and distressed
+face, he sprang from the wagon.
+
+“Why Granny, are you sick?” he cried anxiously.
+
+“Yes!” gasped Granny Moreland. “Yes, David, I am! I'm a miserable woman.
+I never was in sech a shape in all my days.”
+
+“Let me help you to the cabin, and I'll see what I can do for you,”
+ offered the Harvester.
+
+“No. This is jest out of your reach,” said the old lady. “I want----I
+want to see Doctor Carey bad.”
+
+“Are you strong enough to ride in or shall I bring him?”
+
+“I can go! I can go as well as not, David, if you'll take me.”
+
+“Let me run Betsy to the barn and get the Girl's phaeton. The wagon is
+too rough for you. Are the pains in your chest dreadful?”
+
+“I don't know how to describe them,” said Granny with perfect truth.
+
+The Harvester leaped into the wagon and caught up the lines. As he
+disappeared around the curve of the driveway Granny snatched the letters
+from her dress front and thrust them deep into one of her stockings.
+
+“Now, drat you!” she cried. “Stick out all you please. Nobody will see
+you there.”
+
+In a few minutes the Harvester helped her into the carriage and drove
+rapidly toward the city.
+
+“You needn't strain your critter,” said Granny. “It's not so bad as
+that, David.”
+
+“Is your chest any better?”
+
+“A sight better,” said Granny. “Shakin' up a little 'pears to do me
+good.”
+
+“You never should have tried to walk. Suppose I hadn't been here. And
+you came the long way, too! I'll have a telephone run to your house so
+you can call me after this.”
+
+Granny sat very straight suddenly.
+
+“My! wouldn't that get away with some of my foxy neighbours,” she said.
+“Me to have a 'phone like they do, an' be conversin' at all hours of the
+day with my son's folks and everybody. I'd be tickled to pieces, David.”
+
+“Then I'll never dare do it,” said the Harvester, “because I can't keep
+house without you.”
+
+“Where's your own woman?” promptly inquired Granny.
+
+“She can't leave her people. Her grandmother is sick.”
+
+“Grandmother your foot!” cried the old woman. “I've been hearing that
+song and dance from the neighbours, but you got to fool younger people
+than me on it, David. When did any grandmother ever part a pair of
+youngsters jest married, for months at a clip? I'd like to cast my eyes
+on that grandmother. She's a new breed! I was as good a mother as 'twas
+in my skin to be, and I'd like to see a child of mine do it for me;
+and as for my grandchildren, it hustles some of them to re-cog-nize me
+passing on the big road, 'specially if it's Peter's girl with a town
+beau.”
+
+The Harvester laughed. The old lady leaned toward him with a mist in her
+eyes and a quaver in her voice, and asked softly, “Got ary friend that
+could help you, David?”
+
+The man looked straight ahead in silence.
+
+“Bamfoozle all the rest of them as much as you please, lad, but I stand
+to you in the place of your ma, and so I ast you plainly----got ary
+friend that could help?”
+
+“I can think of no way in which any one possibly could help me, dear,”
+ said the Harvester gently. “It is a matter I can't explain, but I know
+of nothing that any one could do.”
+
+“You mean you're tight-mouthed! You COULD tell me just like you would
+your ma, if she was up and comin'; but you can't quite put me in her
+place, and spit it out plain. Now mebby I can help you! Is it her fault
+or yourn?”
+
+“Mine! Mine entirely!”
+
+“Hum! What a fool question! I might a knowed it! I never saw a lovinger,
+sweeter girl in these parts. I jest worship the ground she treads on;
+and you, lad you hain't had a heart in your body sence first you saw her
+face. If I had the stren'th, I'd haul you out of this keeridge and I'd
+hammer you meller, David Langston. What in the name of sense have you
+gone and done to the purty, lovin' child?”
+
+The Harvester's face flushed, but a line around his mouth whitened.
+
+“Loosen up!” commanded Granny. “I got some rights in this case that
+mebby you don't remember. You asked me to help you get ready for her,
+and I done what you wanted. You invited me to visit her, and I jest
+loved her sweet, purty ways. You wanted me to shet up my house and come
+over for weeks to help take keer of her, and I done it gladly, for her
+pain and your sufferin' cut me as if 'twas my livin' flesh and blood;
+so you can't shet me out now. I'm in with you and her to the end. What a
+blame fool thing have you gone and done to drive away for months a girl
+that fair worshipped you?”
+
+“That's exactly the trouble, Granny,” said the Harvester. “She didn't!
+She merely respected and was grateful to me, and she loved me as a
+friend; but I never was any nearer her husband than I am yours.”
+
+“I've always knowed they was a screw loose somewhere,” commented Granny.
+“And so you've sent her off to her worldly folks in a big, wicked city
+to get weaned away from you complete?”
+
+“I sent her to let her see if absence would teach her anything. I had
+months with her here, and I lay awake at nights thinking up new plans
+to win her. I worked for her love as I never worked for bread, but I
+couldn't make it. So I let her go to see if separation would teach her
+anything.”
+
+“Mercy me! Why you crazy critter! The child did love you! She loved you
+'nough an' plenty! She loved you faithful and true! You was jest the
+light of her eyes. I don't see how a girl could think more of a man.
+What in the name of sense are you expecting months of separation to
+teach her, but to forget you, and mebby turn her to some one else?”
+
+“I hoped it would teach her what I call love, means,” explained the
+Harvester.
+
+“Why you dratted popinjay! If ever in all my born days I wanted to take
+a man and jest lit'rally mop up the airth with him, it's right here and
+now. 'Absence teach her what you call love.' Idiot! That's your job!”
+
+“But, Granny, I couldn't!”
+
+“Wouldn't, you mean, no doubt! I hain't no manner of a notion in my head
+but that child, depending on you, and grateful as she was, and tender
+and loving, and all sech as that I hain't a doubt but she come to you
+plain and told you she loved you with all her heart. What more could you
+ast?”
+
+“That she understand what love means before I can accept what she
+offers.”
+
+“You puddin' head! You blunderbuss!” cried Granny. “Understand what you
+mean by love. If you're going to bar a woman from being a wife 'til
+she knows what you mean by love, you'll stop about nine tenths of
+the weddings in the world, and t'other tenth will be women that no
+decent-minded man would jine with.”
+
+“Granny, are you sure?”
+
+“Well livin' through it, and up'ard of seventy years with other women,
+ort to teach me something. The Girl offered you all any man needs to ast
+or git. Her foundations was laid in faith and trust. Her affections was
+caught by every loving, tender, thoughtful thing you did for her; and
+everybody knows you did a-plenty, David. I never see sech a master hand
+at courtin' as you be. You had her lovin' you all any good woman knows
+how to love a man. All you needed to a-done was to take her in your
+arms, and make her your wife, and she'd 'a' waked up to what you meant
+by love.”
+
+“But suppose she never awakened?”
+
+“Aw, bosh! S'pose water won't wet! S'pose fire won't burn! S'pose the
+sun won't shine! That's the law of nature, man! If you think I hain't
+got no sense at all I jest dare you to ask Doctor Carey. 'Twouldn't take
+him long to comb the kinks out of you.”
+
+“I don't think you have left any, Granny,” said the Harvester. “I see
+what you mean, and in all probability you are right, but I can't send
+for the Girl.”
+
+“Name o' goodness why?”
+
+“Because I sent her away against her will, and now she is remaining so
+long that there is every probability she prefers the life she is living
+and the friends she has made there, to Medicine Woods and to me. The
+only thing I can do now is to await her decision.”
+
+“Oh, good Lord!” groaned Granny. “You make me sick enough to kill. Touch
+up your nag and hustle me to Doc. You can't get me there quick enough to
+suit me.”
+
+At the hospital she faced Doctor Carey. “I think likely some of my
+innards has got to be cut out and mended,” she said. “I'll jest take a
+few minutes of your time to examination me, and see what you can do.”
+
+In the private office she held the letters toward the doctor. “They
+hain't no manner of sickness ailin' me, Doc. The boy out there is in
+deep water, and I knowed how much you thought of him, and I hoped you'd
+give me a lift. I went over to his place this mornin' to take him a pie,
+and I found his settin' room fireplace heapin' with letters he'd writ to
+Ruth about things his heart was jest so bustin' full of it eased him
+to write them down, and then he hadn't the horse sense and trust in
+her jedgment to send them on to her. I picked two fats, a lean, and a
+middlin' for samples, and I thought I'd send them some way, and I struck
+for home with them an' he ketched me plumb on the bridge. I had to throw
+my pie overboard, willer plate and all, and as God is my witness, I was
+so flustered the boy had good reason to think I was sick a-plenty; and
+soon as he noticed it, I thought of you spang off, and I knowed you'd
+know her whereabouts, and I made him fetch me to you. On the way I jest
+dragged it from him that he'd sent her away his fool self, because she
+didn't sense what he meant by love, and she wa'ant beholden to him same
+degree and manner he was to her. Great day, Doc! Did you ever hear a
+piece of foolishness to come up with that? I told him to ast you! I told
+him you'd tell him that no clean, sweet-minded girl ever had known nor
+ever would know what love means to a man 'til he marries her and teaches
+her. Ain't it so, Doc?”
+
+“It certainly is.”
+
+“Then will you grind it into him, clean to the marrer, and will you send
+these letters on to Ruthie?”
+
+“Most certainly I will,” said the doctor emphatically. Granny opened the
+door and walked out.
+
+“I'm so relieved, David,” she said. “He thinks they won't be no manner
+o' need to knife me. Likely he can fix up a few pills and send them out
+by mail so's that I'll be as good as new again. Now we must get right
+out of here and not take valuable time. What do I owe you, Doc?”
+
+“Not a cent,” said Doctor Carey. “Thank you very much for coming to me.
+You'll soon be all right again.”
+
+“I was some worried. Much obliged I am sure. Come on!”
+
+“One minute,” said the doctor. “David, I am making up a list of friends
+to whom I am going to send programmes of the medical meeting, and I
+thought your wife might like to see you among the speakers, and your
+subject. What is her address?”
+
+A slow red flushed the Harvester's cheeks. He opened his lips and
+hesitated. At last he said, “I think perhaps her people prefer that she
+receive mail under her maiden name while with them. Miss Ruth Jameson,
+care of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, will reach
+her.”
+
+The doctor wrote the address, as if it were the most usual thing in the
+world, and asked the Harvester if he was ready to make the trip east.
+
+“I think we had best start to-night,” he said. “We want a day to grow
+accustomed to our clothes and new surroundings before we run up squarely
+against serious business.”
+
+“I will be ready,” promised the Harvester.
+
+He took Granny home, set his house in order, installed the man he was
+leaving in charge, touched a match to the heap in the fireplace, and
+donning the new travelling suit, he went to Doctor Carey's.
+
+Mrs. Carey added a few touches, warned him to remember about the forks
+and spoons, and not to forget to shave often, and saw them off. At the
+station Carey said to him, “You know, David, we can change at Wayne and
+go through Buffalo, or we can take the Pittsburg and go and come through
+Philadelphia.”
+
+“I am contemplating a trip to Philadelphia,” said the Harvester, “but I
+believe I will not be ready for, say a month yet. I have a theory and it
+dies hard. If it does not work out the coming month, I will go, perhaps,
+but not now. Let us see how many kinds of a fool I make of myself in New
+York before I attempt the Quakers.”
+
+Almost to the city, the doctor smiled at the Harvester.
+
+“David, where did you get your infernal assurance?” he asked.
+
+“In the woods,” answered the Harvester placidly. “In doing clean work.
+With my fingers in the muck, and life literally teeming and boiling in
+sound and action, around, above, and beneath me, a right estimate of my
+place and province in life comes naturally in daily handling stores
+on which humanity depends, I go even deeper than you surgeons and
+physicians. You are powerless unless I reinforce your work with drugs on
+which you can rely. I do clean, honest work. I know its proper place and
+value to the world. That is why I called what I have to say, 'The Man
+in the Background.' There is no reason why I should shiver and shrink
+at meeting and explaining my work to my fellows. Every man has his
+vocation, and some of you in the limelight would cut a sorry figure if
+the man in the background should fail you at the critical moment. Don't
+worry about me, Doc. I am all serene. You won't find I possess either
+nerves or fear. 'Be sure you are right, and then go ahead,' is my law.”
+
+“Well I'll be confounded!” said the doctor.
+
+In a large hall, peopled with thousands of medical men, the name of the
+Harvester was called the following day and his subject was announced. He
+arose in his place and began to talk.
+
+“Take the platform,” came in a roar from a hundred throats.
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+“You must, David,” whispered Carey.
+
+The Harvester made his way forward and was guided through a side door,
+and a second later calmly walked down the big stage to the front, and
+stood at ease looking over his audience, as if to gauge its size and the
+pitch to which he should raise his voice. His lean frame loomed every
+inch of his six feet, his broad shoulders were square, his clean shaven
+face alert and afire. He wore a spring suit of light gray of good
+quality and cut, and he was perfect as to details.
+
+“This scarcely seems compatible with my subject,” he remarked casually.
+“I certainly appear very much in the foreground just at present, but
+perhaps that is quite as well. It may be time that I assert myself. I
+doubt if there is a man among you who has not handled my products more
+or less; you may enjoy learning where and how they are prepared, and
+understanding the manner in which my work merges with yours. I think
+perhaps the first thing is to paint you as good a word picture as I can
+of my geographical location.”
+
+Then the Harvester named latitude and longitude and degrees of
+temperature. He described the lake, the marsh, the wooded hill, the
+swale, and open sunny fields. He spoke of water, soil, shade, and
+geographical conditions. “Here I was born,” he said, “on land owned
+by my father and grandfather before me, and previous to them, by the
+Indians. My male ancestors, so far as I can trace them, were men of
+the woods, hunters, trappers, herb gatherers. My mother was from the
+country, educated for a teacher. She had the most inexorable will power
+of any woman I ever have known. From my father I inherited my love for
+muck on my boots, resin in my nostrils, the long trail, the camp fire,
+forest sounds and silences in my soul. From my mother I learned to read
+good books, to study subjects that puzzled me, to tell the truth, to
+keep my soul and body clean, and to pursue with courage the thing to
+which I set my hand.
+
+“There was not money enough to educate me as she would; together we
+learned to find it in the forest. In early days we sold ferns and wild
+flowers to city people, harvested the sap of the maples in spring,
+and the nut crop of the fall. Later, as we wanted more, we trapped for
+skins, and collected herbs for the drug stores. This opened to me a
+field I was peculiarly fitted to enter. I knew woodcraft instinctively,
+I had the location of every herb, root, bark, and seed that will endure
+my climate; I had the determination to stick to my job, the right books
+to assist me, and my mother's invincible will power to uphold me where I
+wavered.
+
+“As I look into your faces, men, I am struck with the astounding thought
+that some woman bore the cold sweat and pain of labour to give life to
+each of you. I hope few of you prolonged that agony as I did. It was in
+the heart of my mother to make me physically clean, and to that end she
+sent me daily into the lake, so long as it was not ice covered, and put
+me at exercises intended to bring full strength to every sinew and fibre
+of my body. It was in her heart to make me morally clean, so she took
+me to nature and drilled me in its forces and its methods of reproducing
+life according to the law. Her work was good to a point that all men
+will recognize. From there on, for a few years, she held me, not because
+I was man enough to stand, but because she was woman enough to support
+me. Without her no doubt I would have broken the oath I took; with her
+I won the victory and reached years of manhood and self-control as she
+would have had me. The struggle wore her out at half a lifetime, but
+as a tribute to her memory I cannot face a body of men having your
+opportunities without telling you that what was possible to her and
+to me is possible to all mothers and men. If she is above and hears me
+perhaps it will recompense some of her shortened years if she knows I am
+pleading with you, as men having the greatest influence of any living,
+to tell and to teach the young that a clean life is possible to them.
+The next time any of you are called upon to address a body of men tell
+them to learn for themselves and to teach their sons, and to hold them
+at the critical hour, even by sweat and blood, to a clean life; for in
+this way only can feeble-minded homes, almshouses, and the scarlet woman
+be abolished. In this way only can men arise to full physical and mental
+force, and become the fathers of a race to whom the struggle for clean
+manhood will not be the battle it is with us.
+
+“By the distorted faces, by the misshapen bodies, by marks of
+degeneracy, recognizable to your practised eyes everywhere on the
+streets, by the agony of the mother who bore you, and later wept over
+you, I conjure you men to live up to your high and holy privilege, and
+tell all men that they can be clean, if they will. This in memory of the
+mother who shortened her days to make me a moral man. And if any among
+you is the craven to plead immorality as a safeguard to health, I ask,
+what about the health of the women you sacrifice to shield your precious
+bodies, and I offer my own as the best possible refutation of that
+cowardly lie. I never have been ill a moment in all my life, and
+strength never has failed me for work to which I set my hand.
+
+“The rapidly decreasing supply of drugs and the adulterated importations
+early taught me that the day was coming when it would be an absolute
+necessity to raise our home supplies. So, while yet in my teens, I began
+collecting from the fields and woods for miles around such medicinal
+stuff as grew in my father's fields, marsh, and woods, and planting
+more wherever I found anything growing naturally in its prime. I merely
+enlarged nature's beds and preserved their natural condition. As
+the plants spread and the harvest increased, I built a dry-house on
+scientific principles, a large store-room, and later a laboratory in
+which I have been learning to prepare some of my crude material for the
+market, combining ideas of my own in remedies, and at last producing
+one your president just has indicated that I come to submit to you as a
+final resort in certain conditions.
+
+“My operations now have spread to close six hundred acres of almost
+solid medicinal growth, including a little lake, around the shores of
+which flourish a quadruple setting of water-loving herbs.”
+
+Occasionally he shifted his position or easily walked across the
+platform and faced his audience from a different direction. His voice
+was strong, deep, and rang clearly and earnestly. His audience sat on
+the front edge of their chairs, and listened to something new, with
+mouths half agape. A few times Carey turned from the speaker to face
+the audience. He agonized in his heart that it was a closed session, and
+that his wife was not there to hear, and that the Girl was missing it.
+
+By the bent backs and flying fingers of the reporters at their table in
+front he could see that to-morrow the world would read the Harvester's
+speech; and if it were true that the little mother had shortened
+her days to produce him, she had done earth a service for which many
+generations would call her blessed. For the doctor could look ahead,
+and he knew that this man would not escape. The call for him and his
+unimpeachable truth would come from everywhere, and his utterances would
+carry as far as newspapers and magazines were circulated. The good he
+would do would be past estimation.
+
+The Harvester continued. He was describing the most delicate and
+difficult of herbs to secure. He was telling how they could be raised,
+prepared, kept, and compounded. He was discussing diseases that did not
+readily yield to treatment, pointing out what drugs were customarily
+employed and offering, if any of them had such cases, and would send
+to him, to forward samples of unadulterated stuff sufficient for a test
+comparison with what they were using. He was walking serenely and surely
+into the heart of every man before him.
+
+Just at the point where it was the psychological time to close, he
+stopped and stood a long instant facing them, and then he asked softly,
+“Did any man among you ever see the woman to whom he had given a strong
+man's first passion of love, slowly dying before him?”
+
+One breathless instant he waited and then continued, “Gentlemen, I
+recently saw this in my own case. For days it was coming, so at night I
+shut myself in my laboratory, and from the very essence of the purest
+of my self-compounded drugs I distilled a stimulant into which I put a
+touch of heart remedy, a brace for weakening nerves, a vitalization of
+sluggish blood. As I worked, I thought in that thought which embodied
+the essence of prayer, and when my day and my hour came, and a man who
+has been the president of your honourable body, and is known to all of
+you, said it was death, I took this combination that I now present to
+you, and with the help of the Almighty and a woman above the price of
+rubies, I kept breath in the girl I love, and to-day she is at full tide
+of womanhood. As a thank offering, the formula is yours. Test it as you
+will. Use it if you find it good. Gentlemen, I thank you!”
+
+Carey sank in his chair and watched the Harvester cross the stage. As
+he disappeared the tumult began, and it lasted until the president arose
+and brought him back to make another bow, and then they rioted until
+they wore themselves out. In an immaculate dress suit the Harvester sat
+that night on the right of the gray-haired president and responded to
+the toast, “The Harvester of the Woods.” Then the reporters carried him
+away to be photographed, and to show him the gay sights of New York.
+
+In the train the next day, steadily speeding west, he said to Doctor
+Carey: “I feel as the old woman of Mother Goose who said, 'Lawk-a-mercy
+on us, can this be really I?'”
+
+“You just bet it is!” cried the doctor. “And you have cut out work for
+yourself in good shape.”
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“I mean that this is a beginning. You will be called upon to speak again
+and again.”
+
+“The point is, do you honestly think I helped any?”
+
+“You did inestimable good. It only can help men to hear plain truth that
+is personal experience. As for that dope of yours, it will come closer
+raising the dead than anything I ever saw. Next case I see slipping,
+after I've done my best, I'm going to try it out for myself.”
+
+“All right! 'Phone me and I'll bring some fresh and help you.”
+
+At Buffalo the doctor left the car and bought a paper. As he had
+expected the portrait and speech of the Harvester were featured. The
+reporters had been gracious. They had done all that was just to a great
+event, and allowed themselves some latitude. He immediately mailed the
+paper to the Girl, and at Cleveland bought another for himself. When
+he showed it to the Harvester, as he glanced at it he observed, “Do I
+appear like that?” Then he went on talking with a man he had met who
+interested him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING OF THE BLUEBIRD
+
+The Harvester stopped at the mail box on his way home and among the mass
+of matter it contained was something from the Girl. It was a scrap as
+long as his least finger and three times as wide, and by the postmark
+it had lain four days in the box. On opening it, he found only her card
+with a line written across it, but the man went up the hill and into the
+cabin as if a cyclone were driving him, for he read, “Has your bluebird
+come?”
+
+He threw his travelling bag on the floor, ran to the telephone, and
+called the station. “Take this message,” he said. “Mrs. David Langston,
+care of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Found note
+after four days' absence. Bluebird long past due. The fairies have told
+it that my fate hereafter lies in your hands.
+
+“As always. David.”
+
+The Harvester turned from the instrument and bent to embrace Belshazzar,
+leaping in ecstasy beside him.
+
+“Understand that, Bel?” he asked. “I don't know but it means something.
+Maybe it doesn't----not a thing! And again, there is a chance----only
+the merest possibility----that it does. We'll risk it, Bel, and to
+begin on I have nailed it as hard as I knew how. Next, we will clean
+the house----until it shines, and then we will fill the cupboard, and if
+anything does happen we won't be caught napping. Yes, boy, we will take
+the chance! We can't be any worse disappointed than we have been before
+and survived it. Come along!”
+
+He picked up the bag and arranged its contents, carefully brushed and
+folded on his shelves and in his closet. Then he removed the travelling
+suit, donned the old brown clothes and went to the barn to see that his
+creatures had been cared for properly. Early the next morning he awoke
+and after feeding and breakfasting instead of going to harvest spice
+brush and alder he stretched a line and hung the bedding from room after
+room to air and sun. He swept, dusted, and washed windows, made beds,
+and lastly polished the floors throughout the cabin. He set everything
+in order, and as a finishing touch, filled vases, pitchers, and bowls
+with the bloom of red bud and silky willow catkins. He searched the
+south bank, but there was not a violet, even in the most exposed places.
+By night he was tired and a little of the keen edge of his ardour was
+dulled. The next day he worked scrubbing the porches, straightening
+the lawn and hedges, even sweeping the driveway to the bridge clear
+of wind-whirled leaves and straw. He scouted around the dry-house and
+laboratory, and spent several extra hours on the barn so that when
+evening came everything was in perfect order. Then he dressed, ate his
+supper and drove to the city.
+
+
+He stopped at the mail box, but there was nothing from the Girl. The
+Harvester did not know whether he was sorry or glad. A letter might have
+said the same thing. Nothing meant a delightful possibility, and between
+the two he preferred the latter. He whistled and sang as he drove to
+Onabasha, and Belshazzar looked at him with mystified eyes, for this was
+not the master he had known of late. He did not recognize the dress or
+the manner, but his dog heart was sympathetic to the man's every mood,
+and he remembered times when a drive down the levee always had been like
+this, for to-night the Harvester's tongue was loosened and he talked in
+the old way.
+
+“Just four words, Bel,” he said. “And, as I remarked before, they may
+mean the most wonderful thing on earth, and possibly nothing at all.
+But it is in the heart of man to hope, Bel, and so we are going to live
+royally for a week or two, just on hope, old boy. If anything should
+happen, we are ready, rooms shining, beds fresh, fireplaces filled and
+waiting a match, ice chest cool, and when we get back it will be stored.
+Also a secret, Bel; we are going to a florist and a fruit store. While
+we are at it, we will do the thing right; but we will stay away from
+Doc, until we are sure of something. He means well, but we don't like
+to be pitied, do we, Bel? Our friends don't manage their eyes and voices
+very well these days. Never mind! Our time will come yet. The bluebird
+will not fail us, but never before has it been so late.”
+
+On his return he filled the pantry shelves with packages, stored the
+ice chest, and set a basket of delicious fruit on the dining table. Two
+boxes remained. He opened the larger one and took from it an arm load of
+white lilies that he carried up the hill and divided between the mounds
+under the oak. Then he uncovered his head, and standing at the foot of
+them he looked among the boughs of the big tree and listened intently.
+After a time a soft, warm wind, catkin-scented, crept from the lake,
+and began a murmur among the clusters of brown leaves clinging to the
+branches.
+
+“Mother,” said the Harvester, “were you with me? Did I do it right? Did
+I tell them what you would have had me say for the boys? Are you glad
+now you held me to the narrow way? Do you want me to go before men if
+I am asked, as Doc says I will be, and tell them that the only way to
+abolish pain is for them to begin at the foundation by living clean
+lives? I don't know if I did any good, but they listened to me. Anyway,
+I did the best I knew. But that isn't strange; you ground it into me to
+do that every day, until it is almost an instinct. Mother, dear, can you
+tell me about the bluebird? Is that softest little rustle of all your
+voice? and does it say 'hope'? I think so, and I thank you for the
+word.”
+
+The man's eyes dropped to earth.
+
+“And you other mother,” he said, “have you any message for me? Up where
+you are can you sweep the world with understanding eyes and tell me why
+my bluebird does not come? Does it know that this year your child and
+not chance must settle my fate? Can you look across space and see if she
+is even thinking of me? But I know that! She had to be thinking of me
+when she wrote that line. Rather can you tell me----will she come? Do
+you think I am man enough to be trusted with her future, if she does?
+One thing I promise you: if such joy ever comes to me, I will know how
+to meet it gently, thankfully, tenderly, please God. Good night, little
+women. I hope you are sleeping well----”
+
+He turned and went down the hill, entered the cabin and took from the
+other box a mass of Parma violets. He put these in the pink bowl and
+placed it on the table beside the Girl's bed. He stood for a time, and
+then began pulling single flowers from the bowl and dropping them over
+the pillow and snowy spread.
+
+“God, how I love her!” he whispered softly.
+
+At last he went out and closed the door. He was tired and soon fell
+asleep with the night breeze stirring his hair, and the glamour of
+moonlight flooding the lake touched his face. Clearly it etched the
+strong, manly features, the fine brow and chin, and painted in unusual
+tenderness the soft lines around the mouth. The little owl wavered its
+love story, a few frogs were piping, and the Harvester lay breathing the
+perfumed spring air deeply and evenly. Near midnight Belshazzar awakened
+him by arising from the bedside and walking to the door.
+
+“What is it, Bel?” inquired the Harvester.
+
+The dog whined softly. The man turned his head toward the lake. A ray of
+red light touched the opposite embankment and came wavering across the
+surface. The Harvester sat up. Two big, flaming eyes were creeping up
+the levee.
+
+“That,” said the Harvester, “might be Doc coming for me to help him try
+out my bottled sunshine, or it might be my bluebird.”
+
+He tossed back the cover, swung his feet to the floor, setting each in a
+slipper beside the bed, and arose, dressing as he started for the door.
+As he opened the screen and stepped on the veranda a passenger car from
+the city stopped, and the Harvester went down the walk to meet it. His
+heart turned over when he saw a woman's hand on the door.
+
+“Permit me,” he said, taking the handle and bringing it back with a
+sweep. A tall form arose, bent forward, and descended to the step. The
+full flare of moonlight fell on the glowing face of the Girl.
+
+“Harvester, is it you?” she asked.
+
+“Yes,” gasped the man.
+
+Two hands came fluttering out, and he just had presence of mind to step
+in range so that they rested on his shoulders.
+
+“Has the bluebird come?”
+
+“Not yet!”
+
+“Then I am not too late?”
+
+“Never too late to come to me, Ruth.”
+
+“I am welcome?”
+
+“I have no words to tell you how welcome.”
+
+She swayed forward and the Harvester tried to reach her lips, but they
+brushed his cheek and touched his ear.
+
+“I have brought one more kiss I want to try,” she whispered.
+
+The Harvester crushed her in his arms until he frightened himself for
+fear he had hurt her, and murmured an ecstasy of indistinct love words
+to her. Presently her feet touched the ground and she drew away from
+him.
+
+“Harvester,” she whispered, “I couldn't wait any longer; indeed I could
+not: and I couldn't leave grandfather and grandmother, and I didn't
+know what in the world to do, so I just brought them along. Are they
+welcome?”
+
+“Aside from you, I would rather have them than any people on earth,”
+ said the Harvester.
+
+There were two sounds in the car; one was an approving murmur, and the
+other an undeniable snort. The Harvester felt the reassuring pressure of
+the Girl's hand.
+
+“Please, Ruth,” he said, “go turn on the light so that I can see to help
+grandmother.”
+
+A foot stamped before the front seat. “Madam Herron, if you please!”
+ cried an acrid voice.
+
+“'Madam Herron,'” said the Harvester gently, as he set a foot on the
+step, reached in and bodily picked up a little old lady and started up
+the walk with her in his arms.
+
+“Careful there, sir!” roared a voice after him.
+
+The Harvester could feel the quake of the laughing woman and he smiled
+broadly as he entered the cabin, and placed her in a large chair before
+the fire. Then he wheeled and ran back to the car, reaching it as the
+man was making an effort to descend. It could be seen that he had been
+tall, before time and sorrow had bent him, and keen eyes gleamed below
+shaggy white brows from under his hat brim. He had a white moustache,
+and his hair was snowy.
+
+“Allow me,” said the Harvester reaching a hand.
+
+“If you touch me I will cane you,” said Mr. Alexander Herron.
+
+There was nothing to do but step back. The cane, wheel, and a long coat
+skirt interfering, the old man fell headlong, and only quick hands saved
+him a severe jolt and bruises. He stood glaring in the moonlight while
+his hat was restored.
+
+“If you run your car to the curve you can back toward the south and turn
+easily,” said the Harvester to the driver. As the automobile passed them
+he offered his arm. “May I show you to the fire? These spring nights are
+chilly.”
+
+“'Chilly!' Demnition cold is what they are! I'm frozen to the bone! This
+will be the end of us both! Dragging people of our age around at this
+hour of night. Of all the accursed stubbornness!”
+
+“There are three low steps,” said the Harvester, “now a straight stretch
+of walk, now two steps; there you are on the level. Here is an easy
+chair. It would be better to leave on your coat, until I light the
+fire.”
+
+He knelt and scratched a match, and almost instantly a flame sprang from
+the heap of dry kindling, and began to wrap around the big logs.
+
+“How pretty!” exclaimed a soft voice.
+
+“Kind of a hunting lodge in the wilds, is it?” growled a rough one.
+“Marcella, you will take your death here!”
+
+“I'm sure I feel no exposure. Really, Alexander, if I had passed away
+every time you have prophesied that I would in the past twenty years
+you'd have the largest private cemetery in existence. If you would not
+be so pessimistic I could quite enjoy the trip. It's so long since I've
+ridden in the cars.”
+
+“Of all the abandoned places! And for you to be here, after your years
+in bed!”
+
+“But I'm not nearly so tired as I am at home, Alexander, truly.”
+
+“Let me help you, grandfather,” offered the Girl.
+
+She went to him and took his hat and stick.
+
+“Leave me my cane,” he cried. “Any instant that beast may attack some of
+us.”
+
+The Girl laughed merrily.
+
+“Why grandfather!” she chided, “Bel is the finest dog you ever knew,
+he is my best friend here. By the hour he has protected me, and he is
+gentle as a kitten. He's crazy over my coming home.”
+
+She knelt on the floor, put her arms around the dog's neck, and the
+delighted brute quivered with the joy of her caress and the sound of her
+loved voice.
+
+“Ruthie!” cautioned the gentle lady.
+
+“Put that cur out of doors, where animals belong,” roared the old man,
+lifting his stick.
+
+“Careful!” warned the grave voice of the Harvester.
+
+“I thought you said he was gentle as a kitten!”
+
+“Grandfather, I said that,” cried the Girl.
+
+“Well wasn't it the truth?”
+
+“You can see how he loves me. Didn't I ever tell you that Bel made the
+first friendly overture I ever received in this part of the country?
+He's watched me by the day, even while I slept.”
+
+“Then what's all this infernal fuss about?”
+
+“Try striking him if you want to find out,” explained the Harvester
+gently. “You see, Belshazzar and I are accustomed to living here alone
+and very quietly. He is excited over the Girl's return, because she is
+his friend, and he has not forgotten her. Then this is the first time in
+his life he ever heard an irritable voice from a visitor or saw a cane,
+and it angers him. He is perfectly safe to guard a baby, if he is gently
+treated, but he is a sure throat hold to a stranger who bespeaks him
+roughly or attempts to strike. He would be of no use as a guard to
+valuable property while I sleep if he were otherwise. Bel, come here!
+Lie still.”
+
+The dog sank to the floor beside the Harvester, but his sharp eyes
+followed the Girl, and the hair arose on his neck at every rasping note
+of the old man's voice.
+
+“I wouldn't give such a creature house room for a minute,” insisted the
+guest.
+
+“Wait until you see him work and become acquainted with him, and you
+will change that verdict,” prophesied the Harvester.
+
+“I never was known to change an opinion. Never, sir! Never!” cried the
+testy voice.
+
+“How unfortunate!” remarked the Harvester suavely.
+
+“Explain yourself! Explain yourself, sir!”
+
+“There never has been, there never will be, a man on this earth,” said
+the Harvester, “wholly free from mistakes. Are you warm now?” He turned
+to the little lady, cutting off a reply with his question.
+
+“Nice and warm and quite sleepy,” she said.
+
+“What may I bring you for a light lunch before you go to bed?”
+
+“Oh, could I have a bite of something?”
+
+“If only I am fortunate enough to have anything you will care for. What
+about a bowl of hot milk and a slice of toast?”
+
+“Why I think that would be just the thing!”
+
+“Excuse me,” said the Harvester rising.
+
+He went to the kitchen and they could hear him moving around.
+
+“I wish the big brute would take his beast along,” growled Mr. Alexander
+Herron.
+
+“Come, Bel,” ordered the Girl. “Let's go to the kitchen.”
+
+The dog instantly arose and followed her.
+
+“What can I do to help?” she asked as they reached the door.
+
+“Remain where you won't dazzle my eyes,” said the Harvester, “until I
+help the gentle lady and the gentle man to bed.”
+
+Presently he came with a white cloth, two spoons, and a plate of bread.
+He spread the cloth on the table, laid the spoons on it, and opening the
+little cupboard, took out a long toasting fork, and sticking it into a
+slice of bread, he held it over the coals. When it grew golden brown he
+lifted the table beside the chair, and brought a bowl of scalded milk.
+
+“Marcella, that stuff will be too smoky for you! Your stomach will rebel
+at it.”
+
+“Grandfather, there will not be a suspicion of odour,” said the Girl. “I
+have had it that way often.”
+
+“Then no wonder you came from this place looking like a picked crane, if
+that is a sample of what you were fed on!”
+
+The face of the Harvester grew redder than the heat of the fire
+necessitated, but at the ringing laugh of the Girl he set his teeth
+and went on toasting bread. Grandmother crumbled some in the milk and
+picking up the spoon tested the combination. She was very hungry, and it
+was good. She began eating with relish.
+
+“Alexander, you will be the loser if you don't have some of this,” she
+said. “It's just delicious!”
+
+“Maybe smoked spoon victuals are proper for invalid women,” he retorted,
+“but they are mighty thin diet for a hardy man.”
+
+“What about a couple of eggs and some beef extract?” suggested the cook.
+
+“Sounds more sensible by a long shot.”
+
+“Ruth, you make this toast,” said the Harvester and disappeared.
+
+Presently he placed before his guest a couple of eggs poached in milk,
+a steaming bowl of beef juice, and a plate of toast. For one instant
+the Harvester thought this was going into the fire, the next a slice was
+picked up and smelled testily. The Girl sat on her grandfather's chair
+arm, and breaking a morsel of toast dipped it into the broth and tasted
+it.
+
+“Oh but that is good!” she cried. “Why haven't I some also? Am I
+supposed to have no 'tummy'?”
+
+“Your turn next,” said the Harvester, as he again gave her the fork and
+went to the kitchen.
+
+When he returned and served the Girl he found her grandfather eating
+heartily.
+
+“Why I think this is fun,” said the gentle lady. “I haven't had such a
+fine time in ages. I love the heat of the flame on my body and things
+taste so good. I could go to sleep without any narcotic, right now.”
+
+Close her knee the Harvester knelt on the hearth with his toasting fork.
+She leaned forward and ran her fingers through his hair.
+
+“You're a braw laddie,” she said. “Now I see why Ruthie WOULD come.”
+
+The Harvester took the frail hand and kissed it. “Thank you!” he
+returned.
+
+“Mush!” exploded the grizzled man in the rear.
+
+When no one wanted more food the Harvester stacked and carried away the
+dishes, swept the hearth, and replaced the toaster.
+
+“Ruth and I often lunched this way last fall,” he said. “We liked it for
+a change.”
+
+“Alexander, have you noticed?” asked the little woman as she lifted wet
+eyes to a beautiful portrait of her daughter beside the chimney.
+
+“D'ye think I'm blind? Saw it as I entered the door. Poor taste! Very!
+Brown may match the rug and wood-work, but it's a wretched colour for a
+young girl in her gay time. Should be pink and white with a gold frame.”
+
+“That would be beautiful,” agreed the Harvester. “We must have one that
+way. This is not an expensive picture. It is only an enlargement from an
+old photograph.”
+
+“We have a number of very handsome likenesses. Which one can you spare
+Ruth, Marcella?”
+
+“The one she likes best,” said the lady promptly.
+
+“And the other is your mother, no doubt. What a girlish, beautiful
+face!”
+
+“Wonderfully fine!” growled a gruff old voice tinctured with tears, and
+the Harvester began to see light.
+
+The old man arose. “Ruthie, help your grandmother to bed,” he said. “And
+you, sir, have the goodness to walk a few steps with me.”
+
+The Harvester sprang up and brought Mr. Herron his coat and hat and held
+the door. The Girl brushed past him.
+
+“To the oak,” she whispered.
+
+They went into the night, and without a word the Harvester took his
+guest's arm and guided him up the hill. When they reached the two mounds
+the moon shining between the branches touched the lily faces with with
+holy whiteness.
+
+“She sleeps there,” said the Harvester, indicating the place.
+
+Then he turned and went down the path a little distance and waited until
+he feared the night air would chill the broken old man.
+
+“You can see better to-morrow,” he said as he touched the shaking figure
+and assisted it to arise.
+
+“Your work?” Mr. Alexander Herron touched the lilies with his walking
+stick.
+
+The Harvester assented.
+
+“Do you mind if I carry one to Marcella?”
+
+The Harvester trembled as he stooped to select the largest and whitest,
+and with sudden illumination, he fully understood. He helped the
+tottering old man to the cabin, where he sat silently before the
+fireplace softly touching the lily face with his lips.
+
+“I have put grandmother in my bed, tucked her in warmly, and she says it
+is soft and fine,” laughed the Girl, coming to them. “Now you go before
+she falls asleep, and I hope you will rest well.”
+
+She bent and kissed him.
+
+The Harvester held the door.
+
+“Can I be of any service?” he inquired.
+
+“No, I'm no helpless child.”
+
+“Then to my best wishes for sound sleep the remainder of the night, I
+will add this,” said the Harvester----“You may rest in peace concerning
+your dear girl. I sympathize with your anxiety. Good night!”
+
+Alexander Herron threw out his hands in protest.
+
+“I wouldn't mind admitting that you are a gentleman in a month or two,”
+ he said, “but it's a demnation humiliation to have it literally wrung
+from me to-night!”
+
+He banged the door in the face of the amazed Harvester, who turned
+to the Girl as she leaned against the mantel. He stood absorbing the
+glowing picture of beauty and health that she made. She had removed her
+travelling dress and shoes, and was draped in a fleecy white wool kimono
+and wearing night slippers. Her hair hung in two big braids as it had
+during her illness. She was his sick girl again in costume, but radiant
+health glowed on her lovely face. The Harvester touched a match to a few
+candles and turned out the acetylene lights. Then he stood before her.
+
+“Now, bluebird,” he said gently. “Ruth, you always know where to find
+me, if you will look at your feet. I thought I loved you all in my power
+when you went, but absence has taught its lessons. One is that I can
+grow to love you more every day I live, and the other that I probably
+trifled with the highest gift you had to offer, when I sent you away.
+I may have been right; Granny and Doc think I was wrong. You know the
+answer. You said there was another kiss for me. Ruth, is it the same or
+a different one?”
+
+“It is different. Quite, quite different!”
+
+“And when?” The Harvester stretched out longing arms. The Girl stepped
+back.
+
+“I don't know,” she said. “I had it when I started, but I lost it on the
+way.”
+
+The Harvester staggered under the disappointment.
+
+“Ruth, this has gone far enough that you wouldn't play with me, merely
+for the sake of seeing me suffer, would you?”
+
+“No!” cried the Girl. “No! I mean it! I knew just what I wanted to say
+when I started; but we had to take grandmother out of bed. She wouldn't
+allow me to leave her, and I wouldn't stay away from you any longer. She
+fainted when we put her on the car and grandfather went wild. He almost
+killed the porters, and he raved at me. He said my mother had ruined
+their lives, and now I would be their death. I got so frightened I had a
+nervous chill and I'm so afraid she will grow worse----”
+
+“You poor child!” shuddered the Harvester. “I see! I understand! What
+you need is quiet and a good rest.”
+
+He placed her in a big easy chair and sitting on the hearth rug he
+leaned against her knee and said, “Now tell me, unless you are so tired
+that you should go to bed.”
+
+“I couldn't possibly sleep until I have told you,” said the Girl.
+
+“If you're merciful, cut it short!” implored the Harvester.
+
+“I think it begins,” she said slowly, “when I went because you sent me
+and I didn't want to go. Of course, as soon as I saw grandfather and
+grandmother, heard them talk, and understood what their lives had been,
+and what might have been, why there was only one thing to do, as I could
+see it, and that was to compensate their agony the best I could. I think
+I have, David. I really think I have made them almost happy. But I told
+them all any one could tell about you in the start, and from the first
+grandmother would have been on your side; but you see how grandfather
+is, and he was absolutely determined that I should live with them, in
+their home, all their lives. He thought the best way to accomplish that
+would be to separate me from you and marry me to the son of his partner.
+
+“There are rooms packed with the lovely things they bought me, David,
+and everything was as I wrote you. Some of the people who came were
+wonderful, so gracious and beautiful, I loved almost all of them. They
+took me places where there were pictures, plays, and lovely parties, and
+I studied hard to learn some music, to dance, ride and all the things
+they wanted me to do, and to read good books, and to learn to meet
+people with graciousness to equal theirs, and all of it. Every day I
+grew stronger and met more people, and there were different places to
+go, and always, when anything was to be done, up popped Mr. Herbert
+Kennedy and said and did exactly the right thing, and he could be
+extremely nice, David.”
+
+“I haven't a doubt!” said the Harvester, laying hold of her kimono.
+
+“And he popped up so much that at last I saw he was either pretending
+or else he really was growing very fond of me, so one day when we were
+alone I told him all about you, to make him see that he must not. He
+laughed at me, and said exactly what you did, that I didn't love you
+at all, that it was gratitude, that it was the affection of a child. He
+talked for hours about how grandfather and grandmother had suffered,
+how it was my duty to live with them and give you up, even if I cared
+greatly for you; but he said what I felt was not love at all. Then he
+tried to tell me what he thought love was, and I could see very clearly
+that if it was like that, I didn't love you, but I came a whole world
+closer it than loving him, and I told him so. He laughed again and said
+I was mistaken, and that he was going to teach me what real love was,
+and then I could not be driven back to you. After that, everybody and
+everything just pushed me toward him with both hands, except one person.
+She was a young married woman and I met her at the very first. She
+was the only real friend I ever had, and at last, the latter part of
+February, when things were the very worst, I told her. I told her every
+single thing. She was on your side. She said you were twice the man
+Herbert Kennedy was, and as soon as I found I could talk to her about
+you, I began going there and staying as long as I could, just to talk
+and to play with her baby.
+
+“Her husband was a splendid young fellow, and I grew very fond of him.
+I knew she had told him, because he suddenly began talking to me in the
+kindest way, and everything he said seemed to be what I most wanted to
+hear. I got along fairly well until hints of spring began to come, and
+then I would wonder about my hedge, and my gold garden, and if the ice
+was off the lake, and about my boat and horse, and I wanted my room,
+and oh, David, most of all I wanted you! Just you! Not because you
+could give me anything to compare in richness with what they could, not
+because this home was the best I'd ever known except theirs, not for any
+reason at all only just that I wanted to see your face, hear your voice,
+and have you pick me up and take me in your arms when I was tired. That
+was when I almost quit writing. I couldn't say what I wanted to, and I
+wouldn't write trivial things, so I went on day after day just groping.”
+
+“And you killed me alive,” said the Harvester.
+
+“I was afraid of that, but I couldn't write. I just couldn't! It was ten
+days ago that I thought of the bluebird's coming this year and what it
+would mean to you, and THAT killed me, Man! It just hurt my heart
+until it ached, to know that you were out here alone; and that night I
+couldn't sleep, because I was thinking of you, and it came to me that if
+I had your lips then I could give you a much, much better kiss than the
+last, and when it was light I wrote that line.
+
+“Nearly a week later I got your answer early in the morning, and it
+almost drove me wild. I took it and went for the day with May, and I
+told her. She took me upstairs, and we talked it over, and before I left
+she made me promise that I would write you and explain how I felt, and
+ask you what you thought. She wanted you to come there and see if you
+couldn't make them at least respect you. I know I was crying, and she
+was bathing the baby. She went to bring something she had forgotten, and
+she gave him to me to hold, just his little naked body. He stood on my
+lap and mauled my face, and pulled my hair, and hugged me with his stout
+little arms and kissed me big, soft, wet kisses, and something sprang to
+life in my heart that never before had been there. I just cried all over
+him and held him fast, and I couldn't give him up when she came back. I
+saw why I'd wanted a big doll all my life, right then; and oh, dear!
+the doll you sent was beautiful, but, David, did you ever hold a little,
+living child in your arms like that?”
+
+“I never did,” said the Harvester huskily.
+
+He looked at her face and saw the tears rolling, but he could say no
+more, so he leaned his head against her knee, and finding one of her
+hands he drew it to his lips.
+
+“It is wonderful,” said the Girl softly. “It awakens something in
+your heart that makes it all soft and tender, and you feel an awful
+responsibility, too. Grandmother had them telephone at last, and May
+helped me bathe my face and fix my hat. When we went to the carriage Mr.
+Kennedy was there to take me home. We went past grandmother's florist to
+get her some violets----David, she is sleeping under yours, with just a
+few touching her lips. Oh it was lovely of you to get them; your fairies
+must have told you! She has them every day, and one of the objections
+she made to coming here was that she couldn't do without them in winter,
+and she found some on her pillow the very first thing. David, you are
+wonderful! And grandfather with his lily! I know where he found that! I
+knew instantly. Ah, there are fairies who tell you, because you deserve
+to know.”
+
+The Girl bent and slipping her arm around his neck hugged him tight
+an instant, and then she continued unsteadily: “While he was in the
+shop----Harvester, this is like your wildest dream, but it's truest
+truth----a boy came down the walk crying papers, and as I live, he
+called your name. I knew it had to be you because he said, 'First drug
+farm in America! Wonderful medicine contributed to the cause of science!
+David Langston honoured by National Medical Association!' I just stood
+in the carriage and screamed, 'Boy! Boy!' until the coachman thought I
+had lost my senses. He whistled and got me the paper. I was shaking so
+I asked him how to find anything you wanted quickly, and he pointed the
+column where events are listed; and when I found the third page there
+was your face so splendidly reproduced, and you seemed so fine and noble
+to me I forgot about the dress suit and the badge in your buttonhole,
+or to wonder when or how or why it could have happened. I just sat there
+shouting in my soul, 'David! David! Medicine Man! Harvester Man!' again
+and again.”
+
+“I don't know what I said to Mr. Kennedy or how I got to my room. I
+scanned it by the column, at last I got to paragraphs, and finally I
+read all the sentences. David, I kissed that newspaper face a hundred
+times, and if you could have had those, Man, I think you would have said
+they were right. David, there is nothing to cry over!”
+
+“I'm not!” said the Harvester, wiping the splashes from her hand. “But,
+Ruth, forget what I said about being brief. I didn't realize what was
+coming. I should have said, if you've any mercy at all, go slowly! This
+is the greatest thing that ever happened or ever will happen to me. See
+that you don't leave out one word of it.”
+
+“I told you I had to tell you first,” said the Girl.
+
+“I understand now,” said the Harvester, his head against her knee while
+he pressed her hand to his lips. “I see! Your coming couldn't be perfect
+without knowing this first. Go on, dear heart, and slowly! You owe me
+every word.”
+
+“When I had it all absorbed, I carried the paper to the library and
+said, 'Grandfather, such a wonderful thing has happened. A man has had a
+new idea, and he has done a unique work that the whole world is going
+to recognize. He has stood before men and made a speech that few, oh
+so few, could make honestly, and he has advocated right living, oh
+so nobly, and he has given a wonderful gift to science without price,
+because through it he first saved the life he loved best. Isn't that
+marvellous, grandfather?' And he said, 'Very marvellous, Ruth. Won't
+you sit down and read to me about it?' And I said, 'I can't, dear
+grandfather, because I have been away from grandmother all day, and
+she is fretting for me, and to-night is a great ball, and she has spent
+millions on my dress, I think, and there is an especial reason why I
+must go, and so I have to see her now; but I want to show you the man's
+face, and then you can read the story.'
+
+“You see, I knew if I started to read it he would stop me; but if I left
+him alone with it he would be so curious he would finish. So I turned
+your name under and held the paper and said, 'What do you think of that
+face, grandfather? Study it carefully,' and, Man, only guess what he
+said! He said, 'I think it is the face of one of nature's noblemen.' I
+just kissed him time and again and then I said, 'So it is grandfather,
+so it is; for it is the face of the man who twice saved my life, and
+lifted my mother from almost a pauper grave and laid her to rest
+in state, and the man who found you, and sent me to you when I was
+determined not to come.' And I just stood and kissed that paper before
+him and cried, again and again, 'He is one of nature's noblemen, and he
+is my husband, my dear, dear husband and to-morrow I am going home
+to him.' Then I laid the paper on his lap and ran away. I went to
+grandmother and did everything she wanted, then I dressed for the ball.
+I went to say good-bye to her and show my dress and grandfather was
+there, and he followed me out and said, 'Ruth, you didn't mean it?' I
+said, 'Did you read the paper, grandfather?' and he said 'Yes'; and I
+said, 'Then I should think you would know I mean it, and glory in my
+wonderful luck. Think of a man like that, grandfather!'
+
+“I went to the ball, and I danced and had a lovely time with every one,
+because I knew it was going to be the very last, and to-morrow I must
+start to you.
+
+“On the way home I told Mr. Kennedy what paper to get and to read it. I
+said good-bye to him, and I really think he cared, but I was too happy
+to be very sorry. When I reached my room there was a packet for me and,
+Man, like David of old, you are a wonderful poet! Oh Harvester! why
+didn't you send them to me instead of the cold, hard things you wrote?”
+
+“What do you mean, Ruth?”
+
+“Those letters! Those wonderful outpourings of love and passion and
+poetry and song and broken-heartedness. Oh Man, how could you write such
+things and throw them in the fire? Granny Moreland found them when she
+came to bring you a pie, and she carried them to Doctor Carey, and he
+sent them to me, and, David, they finished me. Everything came in a
+heap. I would have come without them, but never, never with quite the
+understanding, for as I read them the deeps opened up, and the flood
+broke, and there did a warm tide go through all my being, like you said
+it would; and now, David, I know what you mean by love. I called
+the maids and they packed my trunk and grandmother's, and I had
+grandfather's valet pack his, and go and secure berths and tickets, and
+learn about trains, and I got everything ready, even to the ambulance
+and doctor; but I waited until morning to tell them. I knew they would
+not let me come alone, so I brought them along. David, what in the world
+are we going to do with them?”
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and looked at the flushed face of the
+Girl.
+
+“With no time to mature a plan, I would say that we are going to love
+them, care for them, gradually teach them our work, and interest them in
+our plans here; and so soon as they become reconciled we will build them
+such a house as they want on the hill facing us, just across Singing
+Water, and there they may have every luxury they can provide for
+themselves, or we can offer, and the pleasure of your presence, and both
+of them can grow strong and happy. I'll have grandmother on her feet in
+ten days, and the edge off grandfather's tongue in three. That bluster
+of his is to drown tears, Ruth; I saw it to-night. And when they pass
+over we will carry them up and lay them beside her under the oak, and
+we can take the house we build for them, if you like it better, and use
+this for a store-room.”
+
+“Never!” said the Girl. “Never! My sunshine room and gold garden so long
+as I live. Never again will I leave them. If this cabin grows too small,
+we will build all over the hillside; but my room and garden and this and
+the dining-room and your den there must remain as they are now.”
+
+The Harvester arose and drew the davenport before the fireplace, and
+heaped pillows. “You are so tired you are trembling, and your voice is
+quivering,” he said. He lifted the Girl, laid her down and arranged the
+coverlet.
+
+“Go to sleep!” he ordered gently. “You have made me so wildly happy that
+I could run and shout like a madman. Try to rest, and maybe the fairies
+who aid me will put my kiss back on your lips. I am going to the hill
+top to tell mother and my God.”
+
+He knelt and gathered her in his arms a second, then called Belshazzar
+to guard, and went into the sweet spring night, to jubilate with that
+wild surge of passion that sweeps the heart of a strong man when he is
+most nearly primal. He climbed the hill at a rush, and standing beneath
+the oak on the summit, he faced the lake, and stretching his arms
+widely, he waved them, merely to satisfy the demand for action. When
+urgency for expression came upon him, he laughed a deep rumble of
+exultation.
+
+The night wind swept the lake and lifted his hair, the odour of spring
+was intoxicating in his nostrils, small creatures of earth stirred
+around him, here and there a bird, restless in the delirium of mating
+fever, lifted its head and piped a few notes on the moon-whitened air.
+The frogs sang uninterruptedly at the water's edge. The Harvester stood
+rejoicing. Beating on his brain came a rush of love words uttered in the
+Girl's dear voice. “I wanted you! Just you! He is my husband! My dear,
+dear husband! To-morrow I am going home! Now, David, I know what you
+mean by love!” The Harvester laughed again and sounds around him ceased
+for a second, then swelled in fuller volume than before. He added his
+voice. “Thank God! Oh, thank God!” he cried. “And may the Author of the
+Universe, the spirits of the little mothers who loved us, and all the
+good fairies who guide us, unite to bring unbounded joy to my Dream Girl
+and to guard her safely.”
+
+The cocks of Medicine Woods began their second salute to dawn. At this
+sound and with the mention of her name, the Harvester turned down the
+hill, and striding forcefully approached the cabin. As he passed the
+Girl's room he stepped softly, smiling as he wondered if its unexpected
+occupants were resting. He followed Singing Water, and stood looking at
+the hillside, studying the exact location most suitable for a home for
+the old people he was so delighted to welcome. That they would remain
+he never doubted. His faith in the call of the wild had been verified in
+the Girl; it would reach them also. The hill top would bind them. Their
+love for the Girl would compel them. They would be company for her and a
+new interest in life.
+
+“Couldn't be better, not possibly!” commented the delighted Harvester.
+
+He followed the path down Singing Water until he reached the bridge
+where it turned into the marsh. There he paused, looking straight ahead.
+
+“Wonder if I would frighten her?” he mused. “I believe I'll risk it.”
+
+He walked on rapidly, vaulted the fence enclosing his land, crossed the
+road, and unlatched the gate. As he did so, the door opened, and Granny
+Moreland stood on the sill, waiting with keen eyes.
+
+“Well I don't need neither specs nor noonday sun to see that you're
+steppin' like the blue ribbon colt at the County Fair, and lookin' like
+you owned Kingdom Come,” she said. “What's up, David?”
+
+“You are right, dear,” said the Harvester. “I have entered my kingdom.
+The Girl has come and crowned me with her love. She had decided to
+return, but the letters you sent made her happier about it. I wanted you
+to know.”
+
+Granny leaned against the casing, and began to sob unrestrainedly.
+
+The Harvester supported her tenderly.
+
+“Why don't do that, dear. Don't cry,” he begged. “The Girl is home for
+always, Granny, and I'm so happy I am out to-night trying to keep from
+losing my mind with joy. She will come to you to-morrow, I know.”
+
+Granny tremulously dried her eyes.
+
+“What an old sap-head I am!” she commented. “I stole your letters from
+your fireplace, pitched a willer plate into the lake----you got to fish
+that out, come day, David----fooled you into that trip to Doc Carey to
+get him to mail them to Ruth, and never turned a hair. But after I got
+home I commenced thinkin' 'twas a pretty ticklish job to stick your nose
+into other people's business, an' every hour it got worse, until I ain't
+had a fairly decent sleep since. If you hadn't come soon, boy, I'd 'a'
+been sick a-bed. Oh, David! Are you sure she's over there, and loves you
+to suit you now?”
+
+“Yes dear, I am absolutely certain,” said the Harvester. “She was so
+determined to come that she brought the invalid grandmother she couldn't
+leave and her grandfather. They arrived at midnight. We are all going to
+live together now.”
+
+“Well bless my stars! Fetched you a family! David, I do hope to all
+that's peaceful I hain't put my foot in it. The moon is the deceivingest
+thing on earth I know, but does her family 'pear to be an a-gre'-able
+family, by its light?”
+
+The Harvester's laugh boomed a half mile down the road.
+
+“Finest people on earth, next to you, dear. I'm mighty glad to have
+them. I'm going to build them a house on my best location, and we are
+all going to be happy from now on. Go to bed! This night air may chill
+you. I can't sleep. I wanted you to know first----so I came over. In
+mother's stead, will you kiss me, and wish me happiness, dear friend?”
+
+Granny Moreland laid an eager, withered hand on each shoulder, and bent
+to the radiant young face.
+
+“God bless you, lad, and grant you as great happiness as life ort to
+fetch every clean, honest man,” she prayed fervently, with closed eyes
+and her lined old face turned skyward. “And, O God, bless Ruth, and help
+her as You never helped mortal woman before to know her own mind without
+'variableness, neither shadow of turnin'.'”
+
+The Harvester was on Singing Water bridge before he gave way. There he
+laughed as never before in his life. Finally he controlled himself
+and started toward the cabin; but he was chuckling as he passed the
+driveway, and walked down the broad cement floor leading to his bathing
+pool, where the moonlight bridged the lake, and fell as a benediction
+all around him.
+
+He stood a long time, when he recognized the familiar crash of a
+breaking backlog falling together, and heard the customary leap of the
+frightened dog. He walked to his door and listened intently, but there
+was no sound; so he decided the Girl had not been awakened. In the midst
+of a whitening sheet of gold the Harvester dropped to his stoop and
+leaned his head against the broad casing. He broke a twig from a
+hawthorn bush beside him, and sat twisting it in his fingers as
+he stared down the line of the gold bridge. Never had it seemed so
+material, so like a path that might be trodden by mortal feet and lead
+them straight to Heaven. As on the hill top, night again surrounded him
+and the Harvester's soul drank deep wild draughts of a new joy. Sleep
+was out of the question. He was too intensely alive to know that he ever
+again could be weary. He sat there in the moonlight, and with unbridled
+heart gloried in the joy that had come to him.
+
+He turned his face from the bridge as he heard the click of Belshazzar's
+nails on the floor of the bathing pool. Then his heart and breath
+stopped an instant. Beside the dog walked the Girl, one hand on his head
+the other holding the flowing white robe around her and grasping one of
+the Harvester's lilies. His first thought was sheer amazement that she
+was not afraid, for it was evident now that the backlog had awakened
+her, and she had taken the dog and gone to her mother. Then she had
+followed the path leading down the hill, around the cabin, and into the
+sheet of moonlight gilding the shore. She stood there gazing over
+the lake, oblivious to all things save the entrancing allurement of
+a perfect spring night beside undulant water. Screened from her with
+bushes and trees the Harvester scarcely breathed lest he startle her.
+Then his head swam, and his still heart leaped wildly. She was coming
+toward him. On her left lay the path to the hill top. A few steps
+farther she could turn to the right and follow the driveway to the front
+of the cabin. He leaned forward watching in an agony of suspense. Her
+beautiful face was transfigured with joy, aflame with love, radiant with
+smiles, and her tall figure fleecy white, rimmed in gold. Up the shining
+path of light she steadily advanced toward his door. Then the Harvester
+understood, and from his exultant heart burst the wordless petition:
+
+“LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, HELP ME TO BE A MAN!”
+
+With outstretched arms he arose to meet her.
+
+“My Dream Girl!” he cried hoarsely. “My Dream Girl!”
+
+“Coming, Harvester!” she answered in tones of joy, as she dropped the
+white flower and lifted her hands to draw his face toward her.
+
+“Is that the kiss you wanted?” she questioned.
+
+“Yes, Ruth,” breathed the Harvester.
+
+“Then I am ready to be your wife,” she said. “May I share all the
+remainder of life's joys and sorrows with you?”
+
+The Harvester gathered her in his arms and carried her to the bench on
+the lake shore. He wrapped the white robe around her and clasped her
+tenderly as behooved a lover, yet with arms that she knew could have
+crushed her had they willed. The minutes slipped away, and still he held
+her to his heart, the reality far surpassing his dream; for he knew that
+he was awake, and he realized this as the supreme hour that comes to the
+strongman who knows his love requited.
+
+When the first banner of red light arose above Medicine Woods and
+Singing Water the cocks on the hillside announced the dawn. As the gold
+faded to gray, a burst of bubbling notes swelled from a branch almost
+over their heads where stood a bark-enclosed little house.
+
+“Ruth, do you hear that?” asked the Harvester softly.
+
+“Yes,” she answered, “and I see it. A wonderful bird, with Heaven's
+deepest blue on its back and a breast like a russet autumn leaf, came
+straight up the lake from the south, and before it touched the limb that
+song seemed to gush from its throat.”
+
+“And for that reason, the greatest nature lover who ever lived says
+that it 'deserves preeminence.' It always settles from its long voyage
+through the air in an ecstasy of melody. Do you know what it is, Ruth?”
+
+The Girl laid a hand on his cheek and turned his eyes from the bird to
+her face as she answered, “Yes, Harvester-man, I know. It is your first
+bluebird----but it is far too late, and Belshazzar has lost high office.
+I have usurped both their positions. You remain in the woods and reap
+their harvest, you enter the laboratory and make wonderful, life-giving
+medicines, you face the world and tell men of the high and holy life
+they may live if they will, and then----always and forever, you come
+back to Medicine Woods and to me, Harvester.”
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARVESTER ***
+
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diff --git a/349-0.zip b/349-0.zip
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton-Porter</title>
+
+<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify;}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton-Porter</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Harvester</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Gene Stratton-Porter</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October, 1995 [eBook #349]<br />
+[Most recently updated: March 17, 2023]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Charles Keller and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARVESTER ***</div>
+
+    <h1>
+      THE HARVESTER
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Gene Stratton-Porter
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Author Of A Girl Of The Limberlost, Freckles, Etc.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      THIS PORTION<br /> OF THE LIFE OF A MAN OF TO-DAY<br /> IS OFFERED IN THE
+      HOPE THAT IN CLEANLINESS,<br /> POETIC TEMPERMENT, AND MENTAL FORCE,<br /> A
+      LIKENESS WILL BE SEEN<br /> TO<br /><br /> HENRY DAVID THOREAU
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>THE HARVESTER</b> </a><br /> <br />
+        <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;BELSHAZZAR'S
+        DECISION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER II. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        EFFECT OF A DREAM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;HARVESTING
+        THE FOREST <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        COMMISSION FOR THE SOUTH WIND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006">
+        CHAPTER V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHEN THE HARVESTER MADE GOOD <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        QUEST OF THE DREAM GIRL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER
+        VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;BELSHAZZAR'S RECORD POINT <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER IX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE HARVESTER GOES
+        COURTING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CHIME OF THE BLUE BELLS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;DEMONSTRATED COURTSHIP <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013">
+        CHAPTER XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID&rdquo; <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHEN THE DREAM
+        CAME TRUE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;SNOWY
+        WINGS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        HARVESTER INTERPRETS LIFE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER
+        XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GRANNY MORELAND'S VISIT <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;LOVE INVADES SCIENCE
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XVIII. &nbsp;&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        BETTER MAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        VERTICAL SPINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        MAN IN THE BACKGROUND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE COMING OF THE BLUEBIRD <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHARACTERS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               DAVID LANGSTON, A Harvester of the Woods.
+               RUTH JAMESON, A Girl of the City.
+               GRANNY MORELAND, An Interested Neighbour.
+               DR. CAREY, Chief Surgeon of the Onabasha Hospital.
+               MRS. CAREY, Wife of the Doctor.
+               DR. HARMON, Who Concludes to Leave the City.
+               MOLLY BARNET, A Hospital Nurse with a Heart.
+               HENRY JAMESON, A Trader Without a Heart.
+               ALEXANDER HERRON, Who Made a Concession.
+               MRS. HERRON, A Gentle Woman.
+               THE KENNEDYS, Philadelphia Lawyers.
+          </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE HARVESTER
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. BELSHAZZAR'S DECISION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel, come here!&rdquo; The Harvester sat in the hollow worn in the hewed log
+      stoop by the feet of his father and mother and his own sturdier tread, and
+      rested his head against the casing of the cabin door when he gave the
+      command. The tip of the dog's nose touched the gravel between his paws as
+      he crouched flat on earth, with beautiful eyes steadily watching the
+      master, but he did not move a muscle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel, come here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Twinkles flashed in the eyes of the man when he repeated the order, while
+      his voice grew more imperative as he stretched a lean, wiry hand toward
+      the dog. The animal's eyes gleamed and his sensitive nose quivered, yet he
+      lay quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Belshazzar, kommen Sie hier!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The body of the dog arose on straightened legs and his muzzle dropped in
+      the outstretched palm. A wind slightly perfumed with the odour of melting
+      snow and unsheathing buds swept the lake beside them, and lifted a waving
+      tangle of light hair on the brow of the man, while a level ray of the
+      setting sun flashed across the water and illumined the graven, sensitive
+      face, now alive with keen interest in the game being played.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel, dost remember the day?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eager attitude and anxious eyes of the dog betrayed that he did not,
+      but was waiting with every sense alert for a familiar word that would tell
+      him what was expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely you heard the killdeers crying in the night,&rdquo; prompted the man. &ldquo;I
+      called your attention when the ecstasy of the first bluebird waked the
+      dawn. All day you have seen the gold-yellow and blood-red osiers, the
+      sap-wet maples and spring tracing announcements of her arrival on the
+      sunny side of the levee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog found no clew, but he recognized tones he loved in the suave, easy
+      voice, and his tail beat his sides in vigorous approval. The man nodded
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, so! Then you realize this day to be the most important of all the
+      coming year to me; this hour a solemn one that influences my whole after
+      life. It is time for your annual decision on my fate for a twelve-month.
+      Are you sure you are fully alive to the gravity of the situation, Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog felt himself safe in answering a rising inflection ending in his
+      name uttered in that tone, and wagged eager assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then,&rdquo; said the man, &ldquo;which shall it be? Do I leave home for the
+      noise and grime of the city, open an office and enter the money-making
+      scramble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Every word was strange to the dog, almost breathlessly waiting for a
+      familiar syllable. The man gazed steadily into the animal's eyes. After a
+      long pause he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or do I remain at home to harvest the golden seal, mullein, and ginseng,
+      not to mention an occasional hour with the black bass or tramps for
+      partridge and cotton-tails?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog recognized each word of that. Before the voice ceased, his sleek
+      sides were quivering, his nostrils twitching, his tail lashing, and at the
+      pause he leaped up and thrust his nose against the face of the man. The
+      Harvester leaned back laughing in deep, full-chested tones; then he patted
+      the dog's head with one hand and renewed his grip with the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good old Bel!&rdquo; he cried exultantly. &ldquo;Six years you have decided for me,
+      and right&mdash;&mdash;every time! We are of the woods, Bel, born and
+      reared here as our fathers before us. What would we of the camp fire, the
+      long trail, the earthy search, we harvesters of herbs the famous chemists
+      require, what would we do in a city? And when the sap is rising, the bass
+      splashing, and the wild geese honking in the night! We never could endure
+      it, Bel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we delivered that hemlock at the hospital to-day, did you hear that
+      young doctor talking about his 'lid'? Well up there is ours, old fellow!
+      Just sky and clouds overhead for us, forest wind in our faces, wild
+      perfume in our nostrils, muck on our feet, that's the life for us. Our
+      blood was tainted to begin with, and we've lived here so long it is now a
+      passion in our hearts. If ever you sentence us to life in the city, you'll
+      finish both of us, that's what you'll do! But you won't, will you? You
+      realize what God made us for and what He made for us, don't you, Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he lovingly patted the dog's head the man talked and the animal
+      trembled with delight. Then the voice of the Harvester changed and dropped
+      to tones of gravest import.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now how about that other matter, Bel? You always decide that too. The
+      time has come again. Steady now! This is far more important than the
+      other. Just to be wiped out, Bel, pouf! That isn't anything and it
+      concerns no one save ourselves. But to bring misery into our lives and
+      live with it daily, that would be a condition to rend the soul. So
+      careful, Bel! Cautious now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice of the man dropped to a whisper as he asked the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about the girl business?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trembling with eagerness to do the thing that would bring more caressing,
+      bewildered by unfamiliar words and tones, the dog hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I go on as I have ever since mother left me, rustling for grub, living
+      in untrammelled freedom? Do I go on as before, Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester paused and waited the answer, with anxiety in his eyes as he
+      searched the beast face. He had talked to that dog, as most men commune
+      with their souls, for so long and played the game in such intense earnest
+      that he felt the results final with him. The animal was immovable now,
+      lost again, his anxious eyes watching the face of the master, his eager
+      ears waiting for words he recognized. After a long time the man continued
+      slowly and hesitantly, as if fearing the outcome. He did not realize that
+      there was sufficient anxiety in his voice to change its tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or do I go courting this year? Do I rig up in uncomfortable
+      store-clothes, and parade before the country and city girls and try to
+      persuade the one I can get, probably&mdash;&mdash;not the one I would want&mdash;&mdash;to
+      marry me, and come here and spoil all our good times? Do we want a woman
+      around scolding if we are away from home, whining because she is lonesome,
+      fretting for luxuries we cannot afford to give her? Are you going to let
+      us in for a scrape like that, Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bewildered dog could bear the unusual scene no longer. Taking the
+      rising inflection, that sounded more familiar, for a cue, and his name for
+      a certainty, he sprang forward, his tail waving as his nose touched the
+      face of the Harvester. Then he shot across the driveway and lay in the
+      spice thicket, half the ribs of one side aching, as he howled from the
+      lowest depths of dog misery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ungrateful cur!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;What has come over you? Six
+      years I have trusted you, and the answer has been right, every time!
+      Confound your picture! Sentence me to tackle the girl proposition! I see
+      myself! Do you know what it would mean? For the first thing you'd be
+      chained, while I pranced over the country like a half-broken colt, trying
+      to attract some girl. I'd have to waste time I need for my work and spend
+      money that draws good interest while we sleep, to tempt her with presents.
+      I'd have to rebuild the cabin and there's not a chance in ten she would
+      not fret the life out of me whining to go to the city to live, arrange for
+      her here the best I could. Of all the fool, unreliable dogs that ever trod
+      a man's tracks, you are the limit! And you never before failed me! You
+      blame, degenerate pup, you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester paused for breath and the dog subsided to a pitiful whimper.
+      He was eager to return to the man who had struck him the first blow his
+      pampered body ever had received; but he could not understand a kick and
+      harsh words for him, so he lay quivering with anxiety and fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You howling, whimpering idiot!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester. &ldquo;Choose a day
+      like this to spoil! Air to intoxicate a mummy! Roots swelling! Buds
+      bursting! Harvest close and you'd call me off and put me at work like
+      that, would you? If I ever had supposed lost all your senses, I never
+      would have asked you. Six years you have decided my fate, when the first
+      bluebird came, and you've been true blue every time. If I ever trust you
+      again! But the mischief is done now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you forgotten that your name means 'to protect?' Don't you remember
+      it is because of that, it is your name? Protect! I'd have trusted you with
+      my life, Bell! You gave it to me the time you pointed that rattler within
+      six inches of my fingers in the blood-root bed. You saw the falling limb
+      in time to warn me. You always know where the quicksands lie. But you are
+      protecting me now, like sin, ain't you? Bring a girl here to spoil both
+      our lives! Not if I know myself! Protect!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man arose and going inside the cabin closed the door. After that the
+      dog lay in abject misery so deep that two big tears squeezed from his eyes
+      and rolled down his face. To be shut out was worse than the blow. He did
+      not take the trouble to arise from the wet leaves covering the cold earth,
+      but closing his eyes went to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man leaned against the door and ran his fingers through his hair as he
+      anathematized the dog. Slowly his eyes travelled around the room. He saw
+      his tumbled bed by the open window facing the lake, the small table with
+      his writing material, the crude rack on the wall loaded with medical
+      works, botanies, drug encyclopaedias, the books of the few authors who
+      interested him, and the bare, muck-tracked floor. He went to the kitchen,
+      where he built a fire in the cook stove, and to the smoke-house, from
+      which he returned with a slice of ham and some eggs. He set some potatoes
+      boiling and took bread, butter and milk from the pantry. Then he laid a
+      small note-book on the table before him and studied the transactions of
+      the day.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     10 lbs. wild cherry bark      6 cents       $.60
+     5   &ldquo;   wahoo root bark      25 &ldquo;           1.25
+     20  &ldquo;   witch hazel bark      5 &ldquo;           1.00
+     5   &ldquo;   blue flag root       12 &ldquo;           .60
+     10  &ldquo;   snake root           18 &ldquo;           1.80
+     10  &ldquo;   blood root           12 &ldquo;           1.20
+     15  &ldquo;   hoarhound            10 &ldquo;           1.50
+                                                 &mdash;&mdash;-
+                                                $7.95
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so bad,&rdquo; he muttered, bending over the figures. &ldquo;I wonder if any of
+      my neighbours who harvest the fields average as well at this season. I'll
+      wager they don't. That's pretty fair! Some days I don't make it, and then
+      when a consignment of seeds go or ginseng is wanted the cash comes in
+      right properly. I could waste half of it on a girl and yet save money. But
+      where is the woman who would be content with half? She'd want all and fret
+      because there wasn't more. Blame that dog!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He put the book in his pocket, prepared and ate his supper, heaped a plate
+      generously, placed it on the floor beneath the table, and set away the
+      food that remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that you deserve it,&rdquo; he said to space. &ldquo;You get this in honour of
+      your distinguished name and the faithfulness with which you formerly have
+      lived up to its import. If you hadn't been a dog with more sense than some
+      men, I wouldn't take your going back on me now so hard. One would think an
+      animal of your intelligence might realize that you would get as much of a
+      dose as I. Would she permit you to eat from a plate on the kitchen floor?
+      Not on your life, Belshazzar! Frozen scraps around the door for you! Would
+      she allow you to sleep across the foot of the bed? Ho, ho, ho! Would she
+      have you tracking on her floor? It would be the barn, and growling you
+      didn't do at that. If I'd serve you right, I'd give you a dose and allow
+      you to see how you like it. But it's cutting off my nose to spite my face,
+      as the old adage goes, for whatever she did to a dog, she'd probably do
+      worse to a man. I think not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered the front room and stood before a long shelf on which were
+      arranged an array of partially completed candlesticks carved from wood.
+      There were black and white walnut, red, white, and golden oak, cherry and
+      curly maple, all in original designs. Some of them were oddities, others
+      were failures, but most of them were unusually successful. He selected one
+      of black walnut, carved until the outline of his pattern was barely
+      distinguishable. He was imitating the trunk of a tree with the bark on,
+      the spreading, fern-covered roots widening for the base, from which a vine
+      sprang. Near the top was the crude outline of a big night moth climbing
+      toward the light. He stood turning this stick with loving hands and
+      holding it from him for inspection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to master you!&rdquo; he exulted. &ldquo;Your lines are right. The design
+      balances and it's graceful. If I have any trouble it will be with the
+      moth, and I think I can manage. I've got to decide whether to use cecropia
+      or polyphemus before long. Really, on a walnut, and in the woods, it
+      should be a luna, according to the eternal fitness of things&mdash;&mdash;but
+      I'm afraid of the trailers. They turn over and half curl and I believe I
+      had better not tackle them for a start. I'll use the easiest to begin on,
+      and if I succeed I'll duplicate the pattern and try a luna then. The
+      beauties!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester selected a knife from the box and began carving the stick
+      slowly and carefully. His brain was busy, for presently he glanced at the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She'd object to that!&rdquo; he said emphatically. &ldquo;A man could no more sit and
+      work where he pleased than he could fly. At least I know mother never
+      would have it, and she was no nagger, either. What a mother she was! If
+      one only could stop the lonely feeling that will creep in, and the aching
+      hunger born with the body, for a mate; if a fellow only could stop it with
+      a woman like mother! How she revelled in sunshine and beauty! How she
+      loved earth and air! How she went straight to the marrow of the finest
+      line in the best book I could bring from the library! How clean and true
+      she was and how unyielding! I can hear her now, holding me with her last
+      breath to my promise. If I could marry a girl like mother&mdash;&mdash;great
+      Caesar! You'd see me buying an automobile to make the run to the county
+      clerk. Wouldn't that be great! Think of coming in from a long, difficult
+      day, to find a hot supper, and a girl such as she must have been, waiting
+      for me! Bel, if I thought there was a woman similar to her in all the
+      world, and I had even the ghost of a chance to win her, I'd call you in
+      and forgive you. But I know the girls of to-day. I pass them on the roads,
+      on the streets, see them in the cafe's, stores, and at the library. Why
+      even the nurses at the hospital, for all the gravity of their positions,
+      are a giggling, silly lot; and they never know that the only time they
+      look and act presentably to me is when they stop their chatter, put on
+      their uniforms, and go to work. Some of them are pretty, then. There's a
+      little blue-eyed one, but all she needs is feathers to make her a 'ha! ha!
+      bird.' Drat that dog!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester took the candlestick and the box of knives, opened the door,
+      and returned to the stoop. Belshazzar arose, pleading in his eyes, and
+      cautiously advanced a few steps. The man bent over his work and paid not
+      the slightest heed, so the discouraged dog sank to earth and fixedly
+      watched the unresponsive master. The carving of the candlestick went on
+      steadily. Occasionally the Harvester lifted his head and repeatedly sucked
+      his lungs full of air. Sometimes for an instant he scanned the surface of
+      the lake for signs of breaking fish or splash of migrant water bird. Again
+      his gaze wandered up the steep hill, crowned with giant trees, whose
+      swelling buds he could see and smell. Straight before him lay a low marsh,
+      through which the little creek that gurgled and tumbled down hill curved,
+      crossed the drive some distance below, and entered the lake of Lost Loons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the trees were bare, and when the air was clear as now, he could see
+      the spires of Onabasha, five miles away, intervening cultivated fields,
+      stretches of wood, the long black line of the railway, and the swampy
+      bottom lands gradually rising to the culmination of the tree-crowned
+      summit above him. His cocks were crowing warlike challenges to rivals on
+      neighbouring farms. His hens were carolling their spring egg-song. In the
+      barn yard ganders were screaming stridently. Over the lake and the cabin,
+      with clapping snowy wings, his white doves circled in a last joy-flight
+      before seeking their cotes in the stable loft. As the light grew fainter,
+      the Harvester worked slower. Often he leaned against the casing, and
+      closed his eyes to rest them. Sometimes he whistled snatches of old songs
+      to which his mother had cradled him, and again bits of opera and popular
+      music he had heard on the streets of Onabasha. As he worked, the sun went
+      down and a half moon appeared above the wood across the lake. Once it
+      seemed as if it were a silver bowl set on the branch of a giant oak;
+      higher, it rested a tilted crescent on the rim of a cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog waited until he could endure it no longer, and straightening from
+      his crouching position, he took a few velvet steps forward, making faint,
+      whining sounds in his throat. When the man neither turned his head nor
+      gave him a glance, Belshazzar sank to earth again, satisfied for the
+      moment with being a little closer. Across Loon Lake came the wavering
+      voice of a night love song. The Harvester remembered that as a boy he had
+      shrunk from those notes until his mother explained that they were made by
+      a little brown owl asking for a mate to come and live in his hollow tree.
+      Now he rather liked the sound. It was eloquent of earnest pleading. With
+      the lonely bird on one side, and the reproachful dog eyes on the other,
+      the man grinned rather foolishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between two fires, he thought. If that dog ever catches my eye he will
+      come tearing as a cyclone, and I would not kick him again for a hundred
+      dollars. First time I ever struck him, and didn't intend to then. So blame
+      mad and disappointed my foot just shot out before I knew it. There he lies
+      half dead to make up, but I'm blest if I forgive him in a hurry. And there
+      is that insane little owl screeching for a mate. If I'd start out making
+      sounds like that, all the girls would line up and compete for possession
+      of my happy home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed and at the sound Belshazzar took courage and
+      advanced five steps before he sank belly to earth again. The owl continued
+      its song. The Harvester imitated the cry and at once it responded. He
+      called again and leaned back waiting. The notes came closer. The Harvester
+      cried once more and peered across the lake, watching for the shadow of
+      silent wings. The moon was high above the trees now, the knife dropped in
+      the box, the long fingers closed around the stick, the head rested against
+      the casing, and the man intoned the cry with all his skill, and then
+      watched and waited. He had been straining his eyes over the carving until
+      they were tired, and when he watched for the bird the moonlight tried
+      them; for it touched the lightly rippling waves of the lake in a line of
+      yellow light that stretched straight across the water from the opposite
+      bank, directly to the gravel bed below, where lay the bathing pool. It
+      made a path of gold that wavered and shimmered as the water moved gently,
+      but it appeared sufficiently material to resemble a bridge spanning the
+      lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems as if I could walk it,&rdquo; muttered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The owl cried again and the man intently watched the opposite bank. He
+      could not see the bird, but in the deep wood where he thought it might be
+      he began to discern a misty, moving shimmer of white. Marvelling, he
+      watched closer. So slowly he could not detect motion it advanced, rising
+      in height and taking shape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I end this day by seeing a ghost?&rdquo; he queried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed intently and saw that a white figure really moved in the woods of
+      the opposite bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must be some boys playing fool pranks!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched fixedly with interested face, and then amazement wiped out all
+      other expression and he sat motionless, breathless, looking, intently
+      looking. For the white object came straight toward the water and at the
+      very edge unhesitatingly stepped upon the bridge of gold and lightly,
+      easily advanced in his direction. The man waited. On came the figure and
+      as it drew closer he could see that it was a very tall, extremely slender
+      woman, wrapped in soft robes of white. She stepped along the slender line
+      of the gold bridge with grace unequalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the water arose a shining mist, and behind the advancing figure a
+      wall of light outlined and rimmed her in a setting of gold. As she neared
+      the shore the Harvester's blood began to race in his veins and his lips
+      parted in wonder. First she was like a slender birch trunk, then she
+      resembled a wild lily, and soon she was close enough to prove that she was
+      young and very lovely. Heavy braids of dark hair rested on her head as a
+      coronet. Her forehead was low and white. Her eyes were wide-open wells of
+      darkness, her rounded cheeks faintly pink, and her red lips smiling
+      invitation. Her throat was long, very white, and the hands that caught up
+      the fleecy robe around her were rose-coloured and slender. In a panic the
+      Harvester saw that the trailing robe swept the undulant gold water, but
+      was not wet; the feet that alternately showed as she advanced were not
+      purple with cold, but warm with a pink glow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was coming straight toward him, wonderful, alluring, lovely beyond any
+      woman the Harvester ever had seen. Straightway the fountains of twenty-six
+      years' repression overflowed in the breast of the man and all his being
+      ran toward her in a wave of desire. On she came, and now her tender feet
+      were on the white gravel. When he could see clearly she was even more
+      beautiful than she had appeared at a distance. He opened his lips, but no
+      sound came. He struggled to rise, but his legs would not bear his weight.
+      Helpless, he sank against the casing. The girl walked to his feet, bent,
+      placed a hand on each of his shoulders, and smiled into his eyes. He could
+      scent the flower-like odour of her body and wrapping, even her hair. He
+      struggled frantically to speak to her as she leaned closer, yet closer,
+      and softly but firmly laid lips of pulsing sweetness on his in a
+      deliberate kiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was on his feet now. Belshazzar shrank into the shadows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come back!&rdquo; cried the man. &ldquo;Come back! For the love of mercy, where are
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He ran stumblingly toward the lake. The bridge of gold was there, the
+      little owl cried lonesomely; and did he see or did he only dream he saw a
+      mist of white vanishing in the opposite wood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His breath came between dry lips, and he circled the cabin searching
+      eagerly, but he could find nothing, hear nothing, save the dog at his
+      heels. He hurried to the stoop and stood gazing at the molten path of
+      moonlight. One minute he was half frozen, the next a rosy glow enfolded
+      him. Slowly he lifted a hand and touched his lips. Then he raised his eyes
+      from the water and swept the sky in a penetrant gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My gracious Heavenly Father,&rdquo; said the Harvester reverently. &ldquo;Would it be
+      like that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. THE EFFECT OF A DREAM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Fully convinced at last that he had been dreaming, the Harvester picked up
+      his knives and candlestick and entered the cabin. He placed them on a
+      shelf and turned away, but after a second's hesitation he closed the box
+      and arranged the sticks neatly. Then he set the room in order and
+      carefully swept the floor. As he replaced the broom he thought for an
+      instant, then opened the door and whistled softly. Belshazzar came at a
+      rush. The Harvester pushed the plate of food toward the hungry dog and he
+      ate greedily. The man returned to the front room and closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood a long time before his shelf of books, at last selected a volume
+      of &ldquo;Medicinal Plants&rdquo; and settled to study. His supper finished,
+      Belshazzar came scratching and whining at the door. Several times the man
+      lifted his head and glanced in that direction, but he only returned to his
+      book and read again. Tired and sleepy, at last, he placed the volume on
+      the shelf, went to a closet for a pair of bath towels, and hung them
+      across a chair. Then he undressed, opened the door, and ran for the lake.
+      He plunged with a splash and swam vigorously for a few minutes, his white
+      body growing pink under the sting of the chilled water. Over and over he
+      scanned the golden bridge to the moon, and stood an instant dripping on
+      the gravel of the landing to make sure that no dream woman was crossing
+      the wavering floor! He rubbed to a glow and turned back the covers of his
+      bed. The door and window stood wide. Before he lay down, the Harvester
+      paused in arrested motion a second, then stepped to the kitchen door and
+      lifted the latch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the man drew the covers over him, the dog's nose began making an
+      opening, and a little later he quietly walked into the room. The Harvester
+      rested, facing the lake. The dog sniffed at his shoulder, but the man was
+      rigid. Then the click of nails could be heard on the floor as Belshazzar
+      went to the opposite side. At his accustomed place he paused and set one
+      foot on the bed. There was not a sound, so he lifted the other. Then one
+      at a time he drew up his hind feet and crouched as he had on the gravel.
+      The man lay watching the bright bridge. The moonlight entered the window
+      and flooded the room. The strong lines on the weather-beaten face of the
+      Harvester were mellowed in the light, and he appeared young and good to
+      see. His lithe figure stretched the length of the bed, his hair appeared
+      almost white, and his face, touched by the glorifying light of the moon,
+      was a study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One instant his countenance was swept with ultimate scorn; then gradually
+      that would fade and the lines soften, until his lips curved in child-like
+      appeal and his eyes were filled with pleading. Several times he lifted a
+      hand and gently touched his lips, as if a kiss were a material thing and
+      would leave tangible evidence of having been given. After a long time his
+      eyes closed and he scarcely was unconscious before Belshazzar's cold nose
+      touched the outstretched hand and the Harvester lifted and laid it on the
+      dog's head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, Bel,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;I never did that. I wouldn't have hurt
+      you for anything. It happened before I had time to think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They both fell asleep. The clear-cut lines of manly strength on the face
+      of the Harvester were touched to tender beauty. He lay smiling softly. Far
+      in the night he realized the frost-chill and divided the coverlet with the
+      happy Belshazzar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The golden dream never came again. There was no need. It had done its
+      perfect work. The Harvester awoke the next morning a different man. His
+      face was youthful and alive with alert anticipation. He began his work
+      with eager impetuosity, whistling and singing the while, and he found time
+      to play with and talk to Belshazzar, until that glad beast almost wagged
+      off his tail in delight. They breakfasted together and arranged the rooms
+      with unusual care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; explained the Harvester to the dog, &ldquo;we must walk neatly after
+      this. Maybe there is such a thing as fate. Possibly your answer was right.
+      There might be a girl in the world for me. I don't expect it, but there is
+      a possibility that she may find us before we locate her. Anyway, we should
+      work and be ready. All the old stock in the store-house goes out as soon
+      as we can cart it. A new cabin shall rise as fast as we can build it.
+      There must be a basement and furnace, too. Dream women don't have cold
+      feet, but if there is a girl living like that, and she is coming to us or
+      waiting for us to come to her, we must have a comfortable home to offer.
+      There should be a bathroom, too. She couldn't dip in the lake as we do.
+      And until we build the new house we must keep the old one clean, just on
+      the chance of her happening on us. She might be visiting some of the
+      neighbours or come from town with some one or I might see her on the
+      street or at the library or hospital or in some of the stores. For the
+      love of mercy, help me watch for her, Bel! The half of my kingdom if you
+      will point her for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester worked as he talked. He set the rooms in order, put away the
+      remains of breakfast, and started to the stable. He turned back and stood
+      for a long time, scanning the face in the kitchen mirror. Once he went to
+      the door, then he hesitated, and finally took out his shaving set and used
+      it carefully and washed vigorously. He pulled his shirt together at the
+      throat, and hunting among his clothing, found an old red tie that he
+      knotted around his neck. This so changed his every-day appearance that he
+      felt wonderfully dressed and whistled gaily on his way to the barn. There
+      he confided in the old gray mare as he curried and harnessed her to the
+      spring wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardly know me, do you, Betsy?&rdquo; he inquired. &ldquo;Well, I'll explain. Our
+      friend Bel, here, has doomed me to go courting this year. Wouldn't that
+      durnfound you? I was mad as hornets at first, but since I've slept on the
+      idea, I rather like it. Maybe we are too lonely and dull. Perhaps the
+      right woman would make life a very different matter. Last night I saw her,
+      Betsy, and between us, I can't tell even you. She was the loveliest,
+      sweetest girl on earth, and that is all I can say. We are going to watch
+      for her to-day, and every trip we make, until we find her, if it requires
+      a hundred years. Then some glad time we are going to locate her, and when
+      we do, well, you just keep your eye on us, Betsy, and you'll see how
+      courting straight from the heart is done, even if we lack experience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Intoxicated with new and delightful sensations his tongue worked faster
+      than his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't mind telling you, old faithful, that I am in love this morning,&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;In love heels over, Betsy, for the first time in all my life. If
+      any man ever was a bigger fool than I am to-day, it would comfort me to
+      know about it. I am acting like an idiot, Betsy. I know that, but I wish
+      you could understand how I feel. Power! I am the head-waters of Niagara! I
+      could pluck down the stars and set them in different places! I could twist
+      the tail from the comet! I could twirl the globe on my palm and topple
+      mountains and wipe lakes from the surface! I am a live man, Betsy.
+      Existence is over. So don't you go at any tricks or I might pull off your
+      head. Betsy, if you see the tallest girl you ever saw, and she wears a
+      dark diadem, and has big black eyes and a face so lovely it blinds you,
+      why you have seen Her, and you balk, right on the spot, and stand like the
+      rock of Gibraltar, until you make me see her, too. As if I wouldn't know
+      she was coming a mile away! There's more I could tell you, but that is my
+      secret, and it's too precious to talk about, even to my best friends. Bel,
+      bring Betsy to the store-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester tossed the hitching strap to the dog and walked down the
+      driveway to a low structure built on the embankment beside the lake. One
+      end of it was a dry-house of his own construction. Here, by an arrangement
+      of hot water pipes, he evaporated many of the barks, roots, seeds, and
+      leaves he grew to supply large concerns engaged in the manufacture of
+      drugs. By his process crude stock was thoroughly cured, yet did not lose
+      in weight and colour as when dried in the sun or outdoor shade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Harvester was enabled to send his customers big packages of
+      brightly coloured raw material, and the few cents per pound he asked in
+      advance of the catalogued prices were paid eagerly. He lived alone, and
+      never talked of his work; so none of the harvesters of the fields
+      adjoining dreamed of the extent of his reaping. The idea had been his own.
+      He had been born in the cabin in which he now lived. His father and
+      grandfather were old-time hunters of skins and game. They had added to
+      their earnings by gathering in spring and fall the few medicinal seeds,
+      leaves, and barks they knew. His mother had been of different type. She
+      had loved and married the picturesque young hunter, and gone to live with
+      him on the section of land taken by his father. She found life, real life,
+      vastly different from her girlhood dreams, but she was one of those
+      changeless, unyielding women who suffer silently, but never rue a bargain,
+      no matter how badly they are cheated. Her only joy in life had been her
+      son. For him she had worked and saved unceasingly, and when he was old
+      enough she sent him to the city to school and kept pace with him in the
+      lessons he brought home at night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Using what she knew of her husband's work as a guide, and profiting by
+      pamphlets published by the government, every hour of the time outside
+      school and in summer vacations she worked in the woods with the boy,
+      gathering herbs and roots to pay for his education and clothing. So the
+      son passed the full high-school course, and then, selecting such branches
+      as interested him, continued his studies alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From books and drug pamphlets he had learned every medicinal plant, shrub,
+      and tree of his vicinity, and for years roamed far afield and through the
+      woods collecting. After his father's death expenses grew heavier and the
+      boy saw that he must earn more money. His mother frantically opposed his
+      going to the city, so he thought out the plan of transplanting the stuff
+      he gathered, to the land they owned and cultivating it there. This work
+      was well developed when he was twenty, but that year he lost his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that time he went on steadily enlarging his species, transplanting
+      trees, shrubs, vines, and medicinal herbs from such locations as he found
+      them to similar conditions on his land. Six years he had worked
+      cultivating these beds, and hunting through the woods on the river banks,
+      government land, the great Limberlost Swamp, and neglected corners of
+      earth for barks and roots. He occasionally made long trips across the
+      country for rapidly diminishing plants he found in the woodland of men who
+      did not care to bother with a few specimens, and many big beds of
+      profitable herbs, extinct for miles around, now flourished on the banks of
+      Loon Lake, in the marsh, and through the forest rising above. To what
+      extent and value his venture had grown, no one save the Harvester knew.
+      When his neighbours twitted him with being too lazy to plow and sow, of
+      &ldquo;mooning&rdquo; over books, and derisively sneered when they spoke of him as the
+      Harvester of the Woods or the Medicine Man, David Langston smiled and went
+      his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How lonely he had been since the death of his mother he never realized
+      until that morning when a new idea really had taken possession of him.
+      From the store-house he heaped packages of seeds, dried leaves, barks, and
+      roots into the wagon. But he kept a generous supply of each, for he prided
+      himself on being able to fill all orders that reached him. Yet the load he
+      took to the city was much larger than usual. As he drove down the hill and
+      passed the cabin he studied the location.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drainage is perfect,&rdquo; he said to Belshazzar beside him on the seat.
+      &ldquo;So is the situation. We get the cool breezes from the lake in summer and
+      the hillside warmth in winter. View down the valley can't be surpassed. We
+      will grub out that thicket in front, move over the driveway, and build a
+      couple of two-story rooms, with basement for cellar and furnace, and a
+      bathroom in front of the cabin and use it with some fixing over for a
+      dining-room and kitchen. Then we will deepen and widen Singing Water,
+      stick a bushel of bulbs and roots and sow a peck of flower seeds in the
+      marsh, plant a hedge along the drive, and straighten the lake shore a
+      little. I can make a beautiful wild-flower garden and arrange so that with
+      one season's work this will appear very well. We will express this stuff
+      and then select and fell some trees to-night. Soon as the frost is out of
+      the ground we will dig our basement and lay the foundations. The
+      neighbours will help me raise the logs; after that I can finish the inside
+      work. I've got some dried maple, cherry, and walnut logs that would work
+      into beautiful furniture. I haven't forgotten the prices McLean offered
+      me. I can use it as well as he. Plain way the best things are built now, I
+      believe I could make tables and couches myself. I can see plans in the
+      magazines at the library. I'll take a look when I get this off. I feel
+      strong enough to do all of it in a few days and I am crazy to commence.
+      But I scarcely know where to begin. There are about fifty things I'd like
+      to do. But to fell and dry the trees and get the walls up come first, I
+      believe. What do you think, old unreliable?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar thought the world was a place of beauty that morning. He
+      sniffed the icy, odorous air and with tilted head watched the birds. A
+      wearied band of ducks had settled on Loon Lake to feed and rest, for there
+      was nothing to disturb them. Signs were numerous everywhere prohibiting
+      hunters from firing over the Harvester's land. Beside the lake, down the
+      valley, crossing the railroad, and in the farther lowlands, the dog was a
+      nervous quiver, as he constantly scented game or saw birds he wanted to
+      point. But when they neared the city, he sat silently watching everything
+      with alert eyes. As they reached the outer fringe of residences the
+      Harvester spoke to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now remember, Bel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Point me the tallest girl you ever saw,
+      with a big braid of dark hair, shining black eyes, and red velvet lips,
+      sweeter than wild crab apple blossoms. Make a dead set! Don't allow her to
+      pass us. Heaven is going to begin in Medicine Woods when we find her and
+      prove to her that there lies her happy home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we find her,&rdquo; repeated the Harvester softly and exultantly. &ldquo;When we
+      find her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He said it again and again, pronouncing the words with tender modulations.
+      Because he was chanting it in his soul, in his heart, in his brain, with
+      his lips, he had a hasty glance for every woman he passed. Light hair,
+      blue eyes, and short figures got only casual inspection: but any tall girl
+      with dark hair and eyes endured rather close scrutiny that morning. He
+      drove to the express office and delivered his packages and then to the
+      hospital. In the hall the blue-eyed nurse met him and cried gaily, &ldquo;Good
+      morning, Medicine Man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh! I scalp pale-faces!&rdquo; threatened the Harvester, but the girl was not
+      afraid and stood before him laughing. She might have gone her way quite as
+      well. She could not have differed more from the girl of the newly begun
+      quest. The man merely touched his wide-brimmed hat as he walked around her
+      and entered the office of the chief surgeon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A slender, gray-eyed man with white hair turned from his desk, smiled
+      warmly, pushed a chair, and reached a welcoming hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah good-morning, David,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You bring the very breath of spring
+      with you. Are you at the maples yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begin to-morrow,&rdquo; was the answer. &ldquo;I want to get all my old stock off
+      hands. Sugar water comes next, and then the giddy sassafras and spring
+      roots rush me, and after that, harvest begins full force, and all my land
+      is teeming. This is going to be a big year. Everything is sufficiently
+      advanced to be worth while. I have decided to enlarge the buildings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Store-room too small?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything!&rdquo; said the Harvester comprehensively. &ldquo;I am crowded
+      everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The keen gray eyes bent on him searchingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, ho!&rdquo; laughed the doctor. &ldquo;'Crowded everywhere.' I had not heard of
+      cramped living quarters before. When did you meet her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night,&rdquo; replied the Harvester. &ldquo;Her home is already in construction.
+      I chose seven trees as I drove here that are going to fall before night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So casual was the tone the doctor was disarmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am trying your nerve remedy,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly the Harvester tingled with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does it work?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Finely! Had a case that presented just the symptoms you mentioned.
+      High-school girl broken down from trying to lead her classes, lead her
+      fraternity, lead her parents, lead society&mdash;&mdash;the Lord only
+      knows what else. Gone all to pieces! Pretty a case of nervous prostration
+      as you ever saw in a person of fifty. I began on fractional doses with it,
+      and at last got her where she can rest. It did precisely what you claimed
+      it would, David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Good! I hoped it would be effective. Thank
+      you for the test. It will give me confidence when I go before the chemists
+      with it. I've got a couple more compounds I wish you would try when you
+      have safe cases where you can do no harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are cautious for a young man, son!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The woods do that. You not only discover miracles and marvels in them,
+      you not only trace evolution and the origin of species, but you get the
+      greatest lessons taught in all the world ground into you early and alone&mdash;&mdash;courage,
+      caution, and patience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those are the rocks on which men are stranded as a rule. You think you
+      can breast them, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aside from breaking a certain promise mother rooted in the blood and
+      bones of me, if I am afraid of anything, I don't know it. You don't often
+      see me going head-long, do you? As to patience! Ten years ago I began
+      removing every tree, bush, vine, and plant of medicinal value from the
+      woods around to my land; I set and sowed acres in ginseng, knowing I must
+      nurse, tend, and cultivate seven years. If my neighbours had understood
+      what I was attempting, what do you think they would have said? Cranky and
+      lazy would have become adjectives too mild. Lunatic would have expressed
+      it better. That's close the general opinion, anyway. Because I will not
+      fell my trees, and the woods hide the work I do, it is generally conceded
+      that I spend my time in the sun reading a book. I do, as often as I have
+      an opportunity. But the point is that this fall, when I harvest that
+      ginseng bed, I will clear more money than my stiffest detractor ever saw
+      at one time. I'll wager my bank account won't compare so unfavourably with
+      the best of them now. I did well this morning. Yes, I'll admit this much:
+      I am reasonably cautious, I'm a pattern for patience, and my courage never
+      has failed me yet, anyway. But I must rap on wood; for that boast is a
+      sign that I probably will meet my Jonah soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, you are a man after my own heart,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;I love you
+      more than any other friend I have I wouldn't see a hair of your head
+      changed for the world. Now I've got to hurry to my operation. Remain as
+      long as you please if there is anything that interests you; but don't let
+      the giggling little nurse that always haunts the hall when you come make
+      any impression. She is not up to your standard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I've learned one of the big lessons of life
+      since last I saw you, Doc. I have no standard. There is just one woman in
+      all the world for me, and when I find her I will know her, and I will be
+      happy for even a glance; as for that talk of standards, I will be only too
+      glad to take her as she is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David! I supposed what you said about enlarged buildings was nonsense or
+      applied to store-rooms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to your operation!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, if you send me in suspense, I may operate on the wrong man. What
+      has happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Nothing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, it is not like you to evade. What happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing! On my word! I merely saw a vision and dreamed a dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You! A rank materialist! Saw a vision and dreamed a dream! And you call
+      it nothing. Worst thing that could happen! Whenever a man of common-sense
+      goes to seeing things that don't exist, and dreaming dreams, why look out!
+      What did you see? What did you dream?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You woman!&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;Talk about curiosity! I'd have to be
+      a poet to describe my vision, and the dream was strictly private. I
+      couldn't tell it, not for any price you could mention. Go to your
+      operation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor paused on the threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't fool me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can diagnose you all right. You are poet
+      enough, but the vision was sacred; and when a man won't tell, it's always
+      and forever a woman. I know all now I ever will, because I know you,
+      David. A man with a loose mouth and a low mind drags the women of his
+      acquaintance through whatever mire he sinks in; but you couldn't tell,
+      David, not even about a dream woman. Come again soon! You are my elixir of
+      life, lad! I revel in the atmosphere you bring. Wish me success now, I am
+      going to a difficult, delicate operation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; cried the Harvester heartily. &ldquo;I do! But you can't fail. You never
+      have and that proves you cannot! Good-bye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Down the street went the Harvester, passing over city pave with his free,
+      swinging stride, his head high, his face flushed with vivid outdoor tints,
+      going somewhere to do something worth while, the impression always left
+      behind him. Men envied his robust appearance and women looked twice,
+      always twice, and sometimes oftener if there was any opportunity; but
+      twice at least was the rule. He left a little roll of bills at the bank
+      and started toward the library. When he entered the reading room an
+      attendant with an eager smile hastily came toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you have this morning, Mr. Langston?&rdquo; she asked in the voice of
+      one who would render willing service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the big books to-day,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;I've only a short
+      time. I'll glance through the magazines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He selected several from a table and going to a corner settled with them
+      and for two hours was deeply engrossed. He took an envelope from his
+      pocket, traced lines, and read intently. He studied the placing of rooms,
+      the construction of furniture, and all attractive ideas were noted. When
+      at last he arose the attendant went to replace the magazines on the table.
+      They had been opened widely, and as she turned the leaves they naturally
+      fell apart at the plans for houses or articles of furniture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester slowly went down the street. Before every furniture store he
+      paused and studied the designs displayed in the windows. Then he untied
+      Betsy and drove to a lumber mill on the outskirts of the city and made
+      arrangements to have some freshly felled logs of black walnut and curly
+      maple sawed into different sizes and put through a course in drying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drove back to Medicine Woods whistling, singing, and talking to
+      Belshazzar beside him. He ate a hasty lunch and at three o'clock was in
+      the forest, blazing and felling slender, straight-trunked oak and ash of
+      the desired proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. HARVESTING THE FOREST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The forest is never so wonderful as when spring wrestles with winter for
+      supremacy. While the earth is yet ice bound, while snows occasionally fly,
+      spring breathes her warmer breath of approach, and all nature responds.
+      Sunny knolls, embankments, and cleared spaces become bare, while shadow
+      spots and sheltered nooks remain white. This perfumes the icy air with a
+      warmer breath of melting snow. The sap rises in the trees and bushes, sets
+      buds swelling, and they distil a faint, intangible odour. Deep layers of
+      dead leaves cover the frozen earth, and the sun shining on them raises a
+      steamy vapour unlike anything else in nature. A different scent rises from
+      earth where the sun strikes it. Lichen faces take on the brightest colours
+      they ever wear, and rough, coarse mosses emerge in rank growth from their
+      cover of snow and add another perfume to mellowing air. This combination
+      has breathed a strange intoxication into the breast of mankind in all
+      ages, and bird and animal life prove by their actions that it makes the
+      same appeal to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crows caw supremacy from tall trees; flickers, drunk on the wine of
+      nature, flash their yellow-lined wings and red crowns among trees in a
+      search for suitable building places; nut-hatches run head foremost down
+      rough trunks, spying out larvae and early emerging insects; titmice
+      chatter; the bold, clear whistle of the cardinal sounds never so gaily;
+      and song sparrows pipe from every wayside shrub and fence post. Coons and
+      opossums stir in their dens, musk-rat and ground-hog inspect the weather,
+      while squirrels race along branches and bound from tree to tree like
+      winged folk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of them could have outlined the holdings of the Harvester almost as
+      well as any surveyor. They understood where the bang of guns and the snap
+      of traps menaced life. Best of all, they knew where cracked nuts, handfuls
+      of wheat, oats, and crumbs were scattered on the ground, and where suet
+      bones dangled from bushes. Here, too, the last sheaf from the small wheat
+      field at the foot of the hill was stoutly fixed on a high pole, so that
+      the grain was free to all feathered visitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Harvester hitched Betsy, loaded his spiles and sap buckets into
+      the wagon, and started to the woods to gather the offering the wet maples
+      were pouring down their swelling sides, almost his entire family came to
+      see him. They knew who fed and passed every day among them, and so were
+      unafraid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the familiarity of a long, cold winter, when it had been easier to
+      pick up scattered food than to search for it, they became so friendly with
+      the man, the dog, and the gray horse that they hastily snatched the food
+      offered at the barn and then followed through the woods. The Harvester
+      always was particular to wear large pockets, for it was good company to
+      have living creatures flocking after him, trusting to his bounty. Ajax, a
+      shimmering wonder of gorgeous feathers, sunned on the ridge pole of the
+      old log stable, preened, spread his train, and uttered the peacock cry of
+      defiance, to exercise his voice or to express his emotions at all times.
+      But at feeding hour he descended to the park and snatched bites from the
+      biggest turkey cocks and ganders and reigned in power absolute over ducks,
+      guineas, and chickens. Then he followed to the barn and tried to frighten
+      crows and jays, and the gentle white doves under the eaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester walked through deep leaves and snow covering the road that
+      only a forester could have distinguished. Over his shoulder he carried a
+      mattock, and in the wagon were his clippers and an ax. Behind him came
+      Betsy drawing the sap buckets and big evaporating kettles. Through the
+      wood ranged Belshazzar, the craziest dog in all creation. He always went
+      wild at sap time. Here was none of the monotony of trapping for skins
+      around the lake. This marked the first full day in the woods for the
+      season. He ranged as he pleased and came for a pat or a look of confidence
+      when he grew lonely, while the Harvester worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At camp the man unhitched Betsy and tied her to the wagon and for several
+      hours distributed buckets. Then he hung the kettles and gathered wood for
+      the fire. At noon he returned to the cabin for lunch and brought back a
+      load of empty syrup cans, and barrels in which to collect the sap. While
+      the buckets filled at the dripping trees, he dug roots in the sassafras
+      thicket to fill orders and supply the demand of Onabasha for tea. Several
+      times he stopped to cut an especially fine tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know I hate to kill you,&rdquo; he apologized to the first one he felled.
+      &ldquo;But it certainly must be legitimate for a man to take enough of his trees
+      to build a home. And no other house is possible for a creature of the
+      woods but a cabin, is there? The birds use of the material they find here;
+      surely I have the right to do the same. Seems as if nothing else would
+      serve, at least for me. I was born and reared here, I've always loved you;
+      of course, I can't use anything else for my home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He swung the ax and the chips flew as he worked on a straight half-grown
+      oak. After a time he paused an instant and rested, and as he did so he
+      looked speculatively at his work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder where she is to-day,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wonder what she is going to
+      think of a log cabin in the woods. Maybe she has been reared in the city
+      and is afraid of a forest. She may not like houses made of logs. Possibly
+      she won't want to marry a Medicine Man. She may dislike the man, not to
+      mention his occupation. She may think it coarse and common to work out of
+      doors with your hands, although I'd have to argue there is a little brain
+      in the combination. I must figure out all these things. But there is one
+      on the lady: She should have settled these points before she became quite
+      so familiar. I have that for a foundation anyway, so I'll go on cutting
+      wood, and the remainder will be up to her when I find her. When I find
+      her,&rdquo; repeated the Harvester slowly. &ldquo;But I am not going to locate her
+      very soon monkeying around in these woods. I should be out where people
+      are, looking for her right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He chopped steadily until the tree crashed over, and then, noticing a
+      rapidly filling bucket, he struck the ax in the wood and began gathering
+      sap. When he had made the round, he drove to the camp, filled the kettles,
+      and lighted the fire. While it started he cut and scraped sassafras roots,
+      and made clippings of tag alder, spice brush and white willow into big
+      bundles that were ready to have the bark removed during the night watch,
+      and then cured in the dry-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went home at evening to feed the poultry and replenish the ever-burning
+      fire of the engine and to keep the cabin warm enough that food would not
+      freeze. With an oilcloth and blankets he returned to camp and throughout
+      the night tended the buckets and boiling sap, and worked or dozed by the
+      fire between times. Toward the end of boiling, when the sap was becoming
+      thick, it had to be watched with especial care so it would not scorch. But
+      when the kettles were freshly filled the Harvester sat beside them and
+      carefully split tender twigs of willow and slipped off the bark ready to
+      be spread on the trays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a good tonic,&rdquo; he mused as he worked, &ldquo;and you go into some of
+      the medicine for rheumatism. If she ever has it we will give her some of
+      you, and then she will be all right again. Strange that I should be
+      preparing medicinal bark by the sugar camp fire, but I have to make this
+      hay, not while the sun shines, but when the bark is loose, while the sap
+      is rising. Wonder who will use this. Depends largely on where I sell it.
+      Anyway, I hope it will take the pain out of some poor body. Prices so low
+      now, not worth gathering unless I can kill time on it while waiting for
+      something else. Never got over seven cents a pound for the best I ever
+      sold, and it takes a heap of these little quills to make a pound when they
+      are dry. That's all of you&mdash;&mdash;about twenty-five cents' worth.
+      But even that is better than doing nothing while I wait, and some one has
+      to keep the doctors supplied with salicin and tannin, so, if I do, other
+      folks needn't bother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose and poured more sap into the kettles as it boiled away and
+      replenished the fire. He nibbled a twig when he began on the spice brush.
+      As he sat on the piled wood, and bent over his work he was an attractive
+      figure. His face shone with health and was bright with anticipation. While
+      he split the tender bark and slipped out the wood he spoke his thoughts
+      slowly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The five cents a pound I'll get for you is even less, but I love the
+      fragrance and taste. You don't peel so easy as the willow, but I like to
+      prepare you better, because you will make some miserable little sick child
+      well or you may cool some one's fevered blood. If ever she has a fever, I
+      hope she will take medicine made from my bark, because it will be strong
+      and pure. I've half a notion to set some one else gathering the stuff and
+      tending the plants and spend my time in the little laboratory compounding
+      different combinations. I don't see what bigger thing a man can do than to
+      combine pure, clean, unadulterated roots and barks into medicines that
+      will cool fevers, stop chills, and purify bad blood. The doctors may be
+      all right, but what are they going to do if we men behind the prescription
+      cases don't supply them with unadulterated drugs. Answer me that, Mr.
+      Sapsucker. Doc says I've done mighty well so far as I have gone. I can't
+      think of a thing on earth I'd rather do, and there's money no end in it. I
+      could get too rich for comfort in short order. I wouldn't be too wealthy
+      to live just the way I do for any consideration. I don't know about her,
+      though. She is lovely, and handsome women usually want beautiful clothing,
+      and a quantity of things that cost no end of money. I may need all I can
+      get, for her. One never can tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose to stir the sap and pour more from the barrels to the kettles
+      before he began on the tag alder he had gathered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is all the same to you, I'll just keep on chewing spice brush while
+      I work,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;You are entirely too much of an astringent to suit
+      my taste and you bring a cent less a pound. But you are thicker and dry
+      heavier, and you grow in any quantity around the lake and on the marshy
+      places, so I'll make the size of the bundle atone for the price. If I peel
+      you while I wait on the sap I'm that much ahead. I can spread you on
+      drying trays in a few seconds and there you are. Howl your head off, Bel,
+      I don't care what you have found. I wouldn't shoot anything to-day, unless
+      the cupboard was bare and I was starvation hungry. In that case I think a
+      man comes first, and I'd kill a squirrel or quail in season, but blest if
+      I'd butcher a lot or do it often. Vegetables and bread are better anyway.
+      You peel easier even than the willow. What jolly whistles father used to
+      make!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was about twenty cents' worth of spice, and I'll easy raise it to a
+      dollar on this. I'll get a hundred gallons of syrup in the coming two
+      weeks and it will bring one fifty if I boil and strain it carefully and
+      can guarantee it contains no hickory bark and brown sugar. And it won't!
+      Straight for me or not at all. Pure is the word at Medicine Woods; syrup
+      or drugs it's the same thing. Between times I can fell every tree I'll
+      need for the new cabin, and average a dollar a day besides on spice,
+      alder, and willow, and twice that for sassafras for the Onabasha markets;
+      not to mention the quantities I can dry this year. Aside from spring tea,
+      they seem to use it for everything. I never yet have had enough. It goes
+      into half the tonics, anodyne, and stimulants; also soap and candy. I see
+      where I grow rich in spite of myself, and also where my harvest is going
+      to spoil before I can garner it, if I don't step lively and double even
+      more than I am now. Where the cabin is to come in&mdash;&mdash;well it
+      must come if everything else goes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The roots can wait and I'll dig them next year and get more and larger
+      pieces. I won't really lose anything, and if she should come before I am
+      ready to start to find her, why then I'll have her home prepared. How long
+      before you begin your house, old fire-fly?&rdquo; he inquired of a flaming
+      cardinal tilting on a twig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose to make the round of the sap buckets again, then resumed his work
+      peeling bark, and so the time passed. In the following ten days he
+      collected and boiled enough sap to make more syrup than he had expected.
+      His earliest spring store of medicinal twigs, that were peeled to dry in
+      quills, were all collected and on the trays; he had digged several wagon
+      loads of sassafras and felled all the logs of stout, slender oak he would
+      require for his walls. Choice timber he had been curing for candlestick
+      material he hauled to the saw-mills to have cut properly, for the thought
+      of trying his hand at tables and chairs had taken possession of him. He
+      was sure he could make furniture that would appear quite as well as the
+      mission pieces he admired on display in the store windows of the city. To
+      him, chairs and tables made from trees that grew on land that had belonged
+      for three generations to his ancestors, trees among which he had grown,
+      played, and worked, trees that were so much his friends that he carefully
+      explained the situation to them before using an ax or saw, trees that he
+      had cut, cured, and fashioned into designs of his own, would make vastly
+      more valuable furnishings in his home than anything that could be
+      purchased in the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he drove back and forth he watched constantly for her. He was working
+      so desperately, planning far ahead, doubling and trebling tasks, trying to
+      do everything his profession demanded in season, and to prepare timber and
+      make plans for the new cabin, as well as to start a pair of candlesticks
+      of marvellous design for her, that night was one long, unbroken sleep of
+      the thoroughly tired man, but day had become a delightful dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fed the chickens to produce eggs for her. He gathered barks and sluiced
+      roots on the raft in the lake, for her. He grubbed the spice thicket
+      before the door and moved it into the woods to make space for a lawn, for
+      her. His eyes were wide open for every woven case and dangling cocoon of
+      the big night moths that propagated around him, for her. Every night when
+      he left the woods from one to a dozen cocoons, that he had detected with
+      remarkable ease while the trees were bare, were stuck in his hat band. As
+      he arranged them in a cool, dry place he talked to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I know you are valuable and there are collectors who would pay
+      well for you, but I think not. You are the prettiest thing God made that I
+      ever saw, and those of you that home with me have no price on your wings.
+      You are much safer here than among the crows and jays of the woods. I am
+      gathering you to protect you, and to show to her. If I don't find her by
+      June, you may go scot free. All I want is the best pattern I can get from
+      some of you for candlestick designs. Of everything in the whole world a
+      candlestick should be made of wood. It should be carved by hand, and of
+      all ornamentations on earth the moth that flies to the night light is the
+      most appropriate. Owls are not so bad. They are of the night, and they fly
+      to light, too, but they are so old. Nobody I ever have known used a moth.
+      They missed the best when they neglected them. I'll make her sticks over
+      an original pattern; I'll twine nightshade vines, with flowers and berries
+      around them, and put a trailed luna on one, and what is the next prettiest
+      for the other? I'll think well before if decide. Maybe she'll come by the
+      time I get to carving and tell me what she likes. That would beat my taste
+      or guessing a mile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He carefully arranged the twigs bearing cocoons in a big, wire-covered box
+      to protect them from the depredations of nibbling mice and the bolder
+      attacks of the saucy ground squirrels that stored nuts in his loft and
+      took possession of the attic until their scampering sometimes awoke him in
+      the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every trip he made to the city he stopped at the library to examine plans
+      of buildings and furniture and to make notes. The oak he had hauled was
+      being hewed into shape by a neighbour who knew how, and every wagon that
+      carried a log to the city to be dressed at the mill brought back timber
+      for side walls, joists, and rafters. Night after night he sat late poring
+      over his plans for the new rooms, above all for her chamber. With poised
+      pencil he wavered over where to put the closet and entrance to her bath.
+      He figured on how wide to make her bed and where it should stand. He
+      remembered her dressing table in placing windows and a space for a chest
+      of drawers. In fact there was nothing the active mind of the Harvester did
+      not busy itself with in those days that might make a woman a comfortable
+      home. Every thought emanated from impulses evolved in his life in the
+      woods, and each was executed with mighty tenderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A killdeer sweeping the lake close two o'clock one morning awakened him.
+      He had planned to close the sugar camp for the season that day, but when
+      he heard the notes of the loved bird he wondered if that would not be a
+      good time to stake out the foundations and begin digging. There was yet
+      ice in the ground, but the hillside was rapidly thawing, and although the
+      work would be easier later, so eager was the Harvester to have walls up
+      and a roof over that he decided to commence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when morning came and he and Belshazzar breakfasted and fed Betsy and
+      the stock, he concluded to return to his first plan and close the camp.
+      All the sap collected that day went into the vinegar barrel. He loaded the
+      kettles, buckets, and spiles and stopped at the spice thicket to cut a
+      bale of twigs as he passed. He carried one load to the wagon and returned
+      for another. Down wind on swift wing came a bird and entered the bushes.
+      Motionless the Harvester peered at it. A mourning dove had returned to him
+      through snow, skifting over cold earth. It settled on a limb and began
+      dressing its plumage. At that instant a wavering, &ldquo;Coo coo a'gh coo,&rdquo;
+       broke in sobbing notes from the deep wood. Without paying the slightest
+      heed, the dove finished a wing, ruffled and settled her feathers, and
+      opened her bill in a human-like yawn. The Harvester smiled. The notes
+      swelled closer in renewed pleading. The cry was beyond doubt a courting
+      male and this an indifferent female. Her beady eyes snapped, her head
+      turned coquettishly, a picture of self-possession, she hid among the dense
+      twigs of the spice thicket. Around the outside circled the pleading male.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With shining eyes the Harvester watched. These were of the things that
+      made life in the woods most worth while. More insistent grew the wavering
+      notes of the lover. More indifferent became the beloved. She was superb in
+      her poise as she amused herself in hiding. A perfect burst of confused,
+      sobbing notes broke on the air. Then away in the deep wood a
+      softly-wavering, half-questioning &ldquo;Coo-ah!&rdquo; answered them. Amazement
+      flashed into the eyes of the Harvester, but his face was not nearly so
+      expressive as that of the bird. She lifted a bewildered head and grew
+      rigid in an attitude of tense listening. There was a pause. In quicker
+      measure and crowding notes the male called again. Instantly the soft
+      &ldquo;Coo!&rdquo; wavered in answer. The surprised little hen bird of the thicket
+      hopped straight up and settled on her perch again, her dark eyes indignant
+      as she uttered a short &ldquo;Coo!&rdquo; The muscles of the Harvester's chest were
+      beginning to twitch and quiver. More intense grew the notes of the
+      pleading male. Softly seductive came the reply. The clapping of his wings
+      could be heard as he flew in search of the charmer. &ldquo;A'gh coo!&rdquo; cried the
+      deserted female as she tilted off the branch and tore through the thicket
+      in pursuit, with wings hastened by fright at the ringing laugh of the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so indifferent after all, Bel,&rdquo; he said to the dog standing in stiff
+      point beside him. &ldquo;That was all 'pretend!' But she waited just a trifle
+      too long. Now she will have to fight it out with a rival. Good thing if
+      some of the flirtatious women could have seen that. Help them to learn
+      their own minds sooner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed as he heaped the twigs on top of the wagon and started down the
+      hill chuckling. Belshazzar followed, leading Betsy straight in the middle
+      of the road by the hitching strap. A few yards ahead the man stopped
+      suddenly with lifted hand. The dog and horse stood motionless. A dove
+      flashed across the road and settled in sight on a limb. Almost
+      simultaneously another perched beside it, and they locked bills in a long
+      caress, utterly heedless of a plaintive &ldquo;Coo&rdquo; in the deep wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Settled!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Jupiter! I wish my troubles were that
+      nearly finished! Wish I knew where she is and how to find my way to her
+      lips! Wonder if she will come when I call her. What if I should find her,
+      and she would have everything on earth, other lovers, and indifference
+      worse than Madam Dove's for me. Talk about bitterness! Well I'd have the
+      dream left anyway. And there are always two sides. There is just a
+      possibility that she may be poor and overworked, sick and tired, and
+      wondering why I don't come. Possibly she had a dream, too, and she wishes
+      I would hurry. Dear Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester began to perspire as he strode down the hill. He scarcely
+      waited to hang the harness properly. He did not stop to unload the wagon
+      until night, but went after an ax and a board that he split into pegs.
+      Then he took a ball of twine, a measuring line, and began laying out his
+      foundation, when the hard earth would scarcely hold the stakes he drove
+      into it. When he found he only would waste time in digging he put away the
+      neatly washed kettles, peeled the spice brush, spread it to dry, and
+      prepared his dinner. After that he began hauling stone and cement for his
+      basement floor and foundation walls. Occasionally he helped at hewing logs
+      when the old man paused to rest. That afternoon the first robin of the
+      season hailed him in passing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;You don't mean to tell me that you have
+      beaten the larks! You really have! Well since I see it, I must believe,
+      but you are early. Come around to the back door if crumbs or wheat will do
+      or if you can make out on suet and meat bones! We are good and ready for
+      you. Where is your mate? For any sake, don't tell me you don't know. One
+      case of that kind at Medicine Woods is enough. Say you came ahead to see
+      if it is too cold or to select a home and get ready for her. Say anything
+      on earth except that you love her, and want her until your body is one
+      quivering ache, and you don't know where she is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. A COMMISSION FOR THE SOUTH WIND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next morning the larks trailed ecstasy all over the valley, the
+      following day cuckoos were calling in the thickets, a warm wind swept from
+      the south and set swollen buds bursting, while the sun shone, causing the
+      Harvester to rejoice. Betsy's white coat was splashed with the mud of the
+      valley road; the feet of Belshazzar left tracks over lumber piles; and the
+      Harvester removed his muck-covered shoes at the door and wore slippers
+      inside. The skunk cabbage appeared around the edge of the forest, rank
+      mullein and thistles lay over the fields in big circles of green, and even
+      plants of delicate growth were thrusting their heads through mellowing
+      earth and dead leaves, to reach light and air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester took his mattock and began to dig. His level best fell
+      so far short of what he felt capable of doing and desired to accomplish
+      that the following day he put two more men on the job. Then the earth did
+      fly, and so soon as the required space was excavated the walls were lined
+      with stone and a smooth basement floor was made of cement. The night the
+      new home stood, a skeleton of joists and rafters, gleaming whitely on the
+      banks of Loon Lake, the Harvester went to the bridge crossing Singing
+      Water and slowly came up the driveway to see how the work appeared. He
+      caught his breath as he advanced. He had intended to stake out generous
+      rooms, but this, compared with the cabin, seemed like a big hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope I haven't made it so large it will be a burden,&rdquo; he soliloquized.
+      &ldquo;It's huge! But while I am at it I want to build big enough, and I think I
+      have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood on the driveway, his arms folded, and looked at the structure as
+      he occasionally voiced his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next thing is to lay up the side walls and get the roof over. Got to
+      have plenty of help, for those logs are hewed to fourteen inches square
+      and some of them are forty feet long. That's timber! Grew with me, too.
+      Personally acquainted with almost every tree of it. We will bed them in
+      cement, use care with the roof, and if that doesn't make a cool house in
+      the summer, and a warm one in winter, I'll be disappointed. It sets among
+      the trees, and on the hillside just right. We must have a wide porch,
+      plenty of flowers, vines, ferns, and mosses, and when I get everything
+      finished and she sees it&mdash;&mdash;perhaps it will please her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A great horned owl swept down the hill, crossed the lake, and hooted from
+      the forest of the opposite bank. The Harvester thought of his dream and
+      turned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any women walking the water to-night? Come if you like,&rdquo; he bantered, &ldquo;I
+      don't mind in the least. In fact, I'd rather enjoy it. I'd be so happy if
+      you would come now and tell me how this appears to you, for it's all
+      yours. I'd have enlarged the store-room, dry-houses and laboratory for
+      myself, but this cabin, never! The old one suited me as it was; but for
+      you&mdash;&mdash;I should have a better home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester glanced from the shining skeleton to the bridge of gold and
+      back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you to-night?&rdquo; he questioned. &ldquo;What are you doing? Can't you
+      give me a hint of where to search for you when this is ready? I don't know
+      but I am beginning wrong. My little brothers of the wood do differently.
+      They announce their intentions the first thing, flaunt their attractions,
+      and display their strength. They say aloud, for all the listening world to
+      hear, what is in their hearts. They chip, chirp, and sing, warble,
+      whistle, thrill, scream, and hoot it. They are strong on self-expression,
+      and appreciative of their appearance. They meet, court, mate, and THEN
+      build their home together after a mutual plan. It's a good way, too! Lots
+      surer of getting things satisfactory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sat on a lumber pile and gazed questioningly at the
+      framework.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I knew if I am going at things right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are two
+      sides to consider. If she is in a good home, and lovingly cared for, it
+      would be proper to court her and get her promise, if I could&mdash;&mdash;no
+      I'm blest if I'll be so modest&mdash;&mdash;get her promise, as I said,
+      and let her wait while I build the cabin. But if she should be poor,
+      tired, and neglected, then I ought to have this ready when I find her, so
+      I could pick her up and bring her to it, with no more ceremony than the
+      birds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's clear skin flushed crimson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I don't mean no wedding ceremony,&rdquo; he amended. &ldquo;I was thinking
+      of a long time wasted in preliminaries when in my soul I know I am going
+      to marry my Dream Girl before I ever have seen her in reality. What would
+      be the use in spending much time in courting? She is my wife now, by every
+      law of God. Let me get a glimpse of her, and I'll prove it. But I've got
+      to make tracks, for if she were here, where would I put her? I must
+      hurry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the work room and began polishing a table top. He had bought a
+      chest of tools and was spending every spare minute on tables, chair seats,
+      and legs. He had decided to make these first and carve candlesticks later
+      when he had more time. Two hours he worked at the furniture, and then went
+      to bed. The following morning he put eggs under several hens that wanted
+      to set, trimmed his grape-vines, examined the precious ginseng beds,
+      attended his stock, got breakfast for Belshazzar and himself, and was
+      ready for work when the first carpenter arrived. Laying hewed logs went
+      speedily, and before the Harvester believed it possible the big shingles
+      he had ordered were being nailed on the roof. Then came the plumber and
+      arranged for the bathroom, and the furnace man placed the heating pipes.
+      The Harvester had intended the cabin to be mostly the work of his own
+      hands, but when he saw how rapidly skilled carpenters worked, he changed
+      his mind and had them finish the living-room, his room, and the upstairs,
+      and make over the dining-room and kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her room he worked on alone, with a little help if he did not know how to
+      join the different parts. Every thing was plain and simple, after plans of
+      his own, but the Harvester laid floors and made window casings, seats, and
+      doors of wood that the big factories of Grand Rapids used in veneering
+      their finest furniture. When one of his carpenters pointed out this to
+      him, and suggested that he sell his lumber to McLean and use pine flooring
+      from the mills the Harvester laughed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't say that I could afford to buy burl maple, walnut, and cherry for
+      wood-work,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I could not, but since I have it, you can
+      stake your life I won't sell it and build my home of cheap, rapidly
+      decaying wood. The best I have goes into this cabin and what remains will
+      do to sell. I have an idea that when this is done it is going to appear
+      first rate. Anyway, it will be solid enough to last a thousand years, and
+      with every day of use natural wood grows more beautiful. When we get some
+      tables, couches, and chairs made from the same timber as the casings and
+      the floors, I think it will be fine. I want money, but I don't want it bad
+      enough to part with the BEST of anything I have for it. Go carefully and
+      neatly there; it will have to be changed if you don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the work progressed rapidly. When the carpenters had finished the last
+      stroke on the big veranda they remained a day more and made flower boxes,
+      and a swinging couch, and then the greedy Harvester kept the best man with
+      him a week longer to help on the furniture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't you going to say a word about her, Langston?&rdquo; asked this man as
+      they put a mirror-like surface on a curly maple dressing table top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her!&rdquo; ejaculated the Harvester. &ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't seen you bathe anywhere except in the lake since I have been
+      here,&rdquo; said the carpenter. &ldquo;Do you want me to think that a porcelain tub,
+      this big closet, and chest of drawers are for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wave of crimson swept over the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, they are not for me,&rdquo; he said simply. &ldquo;I don't want to be any more
+      different from other men than I can help, although I know that life in the
+      woods, the rigid training of my mother, and the reading of only the books
+      that would aid in my work have made me individual in many of my thoughts
+      and ways. I suppose most men, just now, would tell you anything you want
+      to know. There is only one thing I can say: The best of my soul and brain,
+      the best of my woods and store-house, the best I can buy with money is not
+      good enough for her. That's all. For myself, I am getting ready to marry,
+      of course. I think all normal men do and that it is a matter of plain
+      common-sense that they should. Life with the right woman must be
+      infinitely broader and better than alone. Are you married?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Got a wife and four children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sorry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sorry!&rdquo; the carpenter shrilled the word. &ldquo;Sorry! Well that's the best I
+      ever heard! Am I sorry I married Nell and got the kids? Do I look sorry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not expecting to be, either,&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly. &ldquo;I think I
+      have done fairly well to stick to my work and live alone until I am
+      twenty-six. I have thought the thing all over and made up my mind. As soon
+      as I get this house far enough along that I feel I can proceed alone I am
+      going to rush the marrying business just as fast as I can, and let her
+      finish the remainder to her liking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well this ought to please her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's because you find your own work good,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether!&rdquo; The carpenter polished the board and stood it on end to
+      examine the surface as he talked. &ldquo;Not altogether! Nothing but good work
+      would suit you. I was thinking of the little creek splashing down the hill
+      to the lake; and that old log hewer said that in a few more days things
+      here would be a blaze of colour until fall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Almost all the drug plants and bushes leaf beautifully and flower
+      brilliantly,&rdquo; explained the Harvester. &ldquo;I studied the location suitable to
+      each variety before I set the beds and planned how to grow plants for
+      continuity of bloom, and as much harmony of colour as possible. Of course
+      a landscape gardener would tear up some of it, but seen as a whole it
+      isn't so bad. Did you ever notice that in the open, with God's blue
+      overhead and His green for a background, He can place purple and yellow,
+      pink, magenta, red, and blue in masses or any combination you can mention
+      and the brighter the colour the more you like it? You don't seem to see or
+      feel that any grouping clashes; you revel in each wonderful growth, and
+      luxuriate in the brilliancy of the whole. Anyway, this suits me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess it will please her, too,&rdquo; said the carpenter. &ldquo;After all the
+      pains you've taken, she is a good one if it doesn't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll always have the consolation of having done my best,&rdquo; replied the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;One can't do more! Whether she likes it or not depends greatly
+      on the way she has been reared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You talk as if you didn't know,&rdquo; commented the carpenter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go on with this now,&rdquo; said the Harvester hastily. &ldquo;I've got to
+      uncover some beds and dig my year's supply of skunk cabbage, else folk
+      with asthma and dropsy who depend on me will be short on relief. I ought
+      to take my sweet flag, too, but I'm so hurried now I think I'll leave it
+      until fall; I do when I can, because the bloom is so pretty around the
+      lake and the bees simply go wild over the pollen. Sometimes I almost think
+      I can detect it in their honey. Do you know I've wondered often if the
+      honey my bees make has medicinal properties and should be kept separate in
+      different seasons. In early spring when the plants and bushes that furnish
+      the roots and barks of most of the tonics are in bloom, and the bees
+      gather the pollen, that honey should partake in a degree of the same
+      properties and be good medicine. In the summer it should aid digestion,
+      and in the fall cure rheumatism and blood disorders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say you try it!&rdquo; urged the carpenter. &ldquo;I want a lot of the fall kind. I'm
+      always full of rheumatism by October. Exposure, no doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Over eating of too much rich food, you mean,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;I'd
+      like to see any man expose his body to more differing extremes of weather
+      than I do, and I'm never sick. It's because I am my own cook and so I live
+      mostly on fruits, vegetables, bread, milk, and eggs, a few fish from the
+      lake, a little game once in a great while or a chicken, and no hot drinks;
+      plenty of fresh water, air, and continuous work out of doors. That's the
+      prescription! I'd be ashamed to have rheumatism at your age. There's food
+      in the cupboard if you grow hungry. I am going past one of the neighbours
+      on my way to see about some work I want her to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stopped for lunch, carried food to Belshazzar, and started
+      straight across country, his mattock, with a bag rolled around the handle,
+      on his shoulder. His feet sank in the damp earth at the foot of the hill,
+      and he laughed as he leaped across Singing Water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You noisy chatterbox!&rdquo; cried the man. &ldquo;The impetus of coming down the
+      curves of the hill keeps you talking all the way across this muck bed to
+      the lake. With small work I can make you a thing of beauty. A few bushes
+      grubbed, a little deepening where you spread too much, and some more
+      mallows along the banks will do the trick. I must attend to you soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now what does the boy want?&rdquo; laughed a white-haired old woman, as the
+      Harvester entered the door. &ldquo;Mebby you think I don't know what you're up
+      to! I even can hear the hammering and the voices of the men when the wind
+      is in the south. I've been wondering how soon you'd need me. Out with it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to get a woman and come over and spend a day with me. I'll
+      come after you and bring you back. I want you to go over mother's bedding
+      and have what needs it washed. All I want you to do is to superintend, and
+      tell me now what I will want from town for your work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I put away all your mother's bedding that you were not using, clean as a
+      ribbon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it has been packed in moth preventives ever since and out only four
+      times a year to air, as you told me. It must smell musty and be yellow. I
+      want it fresh and clean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So what I been hearing is true, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite true!&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whose girl is she, and when are you going to jine hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester lifted his clear eyes and hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doc Carey laid you in my arms when you was born, David. I tended you
+      'fore ever your ma did. All your life you've been my boy, and I love you
+      same as my own blood; it won't go no farther if you say so. I'll never
+      tell a living soul. But I'm old and 'til better weather comes, house
+      bound; and I get mighty lonely. I'd like to think about you and her, and
+      plan for you, and love her as I always did you folks. Who is she, David?
+      Do I know the family?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. She is a stranger to these parts,&rdquo; said the unhappy Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, is she a nice girl 'at your ma would have liked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's the only girl in the world that I'd marry,&rdquo; said the Harvester
+      promptly, glad of a question he could answer heartily. &ldquo;Yes. She is
+      gentle, very tender and&mdash;&mdash;and affectionate,&rdquo; he went on so
+      rapidly that Granny Moreland could not say a word, &ldquo;and as soon as I bring
+      her home you shall come to spend a day and get acquainted. I know you will
+      love her! I'll come in the morning, then. I must hurry now. I am working
+      double this spring and I'm off for the skunk cabbage bed to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say. Slavin' like a horse all
+      day, and half the night I see your lights burning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I appear killed?&rdquo; laughingly inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look peart as a struttin' turkey gobbler,&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;Go on
+      with your work! Work don't hurt a-body. Eat a-plenty, sleep all you ort,
+      and you CAN'T work enough to hurt you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the neighbours say I'm working now? New story, isn't it? Usually I'm
+      too lazy to make a living, if I remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only to those who don't sense your purceedings, David. I always knowed
+      how you grubbed and slaved an' set over them fearful books o' yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More interesting than the wildest fiction,&rdquo; said the man. &ldquo;I'm making
+      some medicine for your rheumatism, Granny. It is not fully tested yet, but
+      you get ready for it by cutting out all the salt you can. I haven't time
+      to explain this morning, but you remember what I say, leave out the salt,
+      and when Doc thinks it's safe I'll bring you something that will make a
+      new woman of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went swinging down the road, and Granny Moreland looked after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While he was talkin',&rdquo; she muttered, &ldquo;I felt full of information as a
+      flock o' almanacs, but now since he's gone, 'pears to me I don't know a
+      thing more 'an I did to start on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Close call,&rdquo; the Harvester was thinking. &ldquo;Why the nation did I admit
+      anything to her? People may talk as they please, so long as I don't
+      sanction it, but I have two or three times. That's a fool trick. Suppose I
+      can't find her? Maybe she won't look at me if I can. Then I'd have started
+      something I couldn't finish. And if anybody thinks I'll end this by taking
+      any girl I can get, if I can't find Her, why they think wrongly. Just the
+      girl of my golden dream or no woman at all for me. I've lived alone long
+      enough to know how to do it in comfort. If I can't find and win her I have
+      no intention of starting a boarding house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester began to laugh. &ldquo;'I'd rather keep bachelor's hall in Hell
+      than go to board in Heaven!'&rdquo; he quoted gaily. &ldquo;That's my sentiment too.
+      If you can't have what you want, don't have anything. But there is no use
+      to become discouraged before I start. I haven't begun to hunt her yet.
+      Until I do, I might as well believe that she will walk across the bridge
+      and take possession just as soon as I get the last chair leg polished. She
+      might! She came in the dream, and to come actually couldn't be any more
+      real. I'll make a stiff hunt of it before I give up, if I ever do. I never
+      yet have made a complete failure of anything. But just now I am hunting
+      skunk cabbage. It's precisely the time to take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Across the lake, in the swampy woods, close where the screech owl sang and
+      the girl of the golden dream walked in the moonlight the Harvester began
+      operations. He unrolled the sack, went to one end of the bed and
+      systematically started a swath across it, lifting every other plant by the
+      roots. Flowering time was almost past, but the bees knew where pollen
+      ripened, and hummed incessantly over and inside the queer cone-shaped
+      growths with their hooked beaks. It almost appeared as if the sound made
+      inside might be to give outsiders warning not to poach on occupied
+      territory, for the Harvester noticed that no bee entered a pre-empted
+      plant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With skilful hand each stroke brought up a root and he tossed it to one
+      side. The plants were vastly peculiar things. First they seemed to be a
+      curled leaf with no flower. In colour they shaded from yellow to almost
+      black mahogany, and appeared as if they were a flower with no leaf. Closer
+      examination proved there was a stout leaf with a heavy outside mid-rib,
+      the tip of which curled over in a beak effect, that wrapped around a
+      peculiar flower of very disagreeable odour. The handling of these plants
+      by the hundred so intensified this smell the Harvester shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I presume you are mostly mine,&rdquo; he said to the busy little workers around
+      him. &ldquo;If there is anything in my theory of honey having varying medicinal
+      properties at different seasons, right now mine should be good for
+      Granny's rheumatism and for nervous and dropsical people. I shouldn't
+      think honey flavoured with skunk cabbage would be fit to eat. But, of
+      course, it isn't all this. There is catkin pollen on the wind, hazel and
+      sassafras are both in bloom now, and so are several of the earliest little
+      flowers of the woods. You can gather enough of them combined to temper the
+      disagreeable odour into a racy sweetness, and all the shrub blooms are
+      good tonics, too, and some of the earthy ones. I'm going to try giving
+      some of you empty cases next spring and analyzing the honey to learn if it
+      isn't good medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester straightened and leaned on the mattock to fill his lungs
+      with fresh air and as he delightedly sniffed it he commented, &ldquo;Nothing
+      else has much of a chance since I've stirred up the cabbage bed. I can
+      scent the catkins plainly, being so close, and as I came here I could
+      detect the hazel and sassafras all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Above him a peculiar, raucous chattering for an instant hushed other wood
+      voices. The Harvester looked up, laughing gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you've decided to announce it to your tribe at last, have you?&rdquo; he
+      inquired. &ldquo;You are waking the sleepers in their dens to-day? Well, there's
+      nothing like waiting until you have a sure thing. The bluebirds broke the
+      trail for the feathered folk the twenty-fourth of February. The sap oozed
+      from the maples about the same time for the trees. The very first skunk
+      cabbage was up quite a month ago to signal other plants to come on, and
+      now you are rousing the furred folk. I'll write this down in my records&mdash;&mdash;'When
+      the earliest bluebird sings, when the sap wets the maples, when the skunk
+      cabbage flowers, and the first striped squirrel barks, why then, it is
+      spring!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent to his task and as he worked closer the water he noticed
+      sweet-flag leaves waving two inches tall beneath the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great day!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;There you are making signs, too! And right! Of
+      course! Nature is always right. Just two inches high and it's harvest for
+      you. I can use a rake, and dried in the evaporator you bring me ten cents
+      a pound; to the folks needing a tonic you are worth a small fortune. No
+      doubt you cost that by the time you reach them; but I fear I can't gather
+      you just now. My head is a little preoccupied these days. What with the
+      cabbage, and now you, and many of the bushes and trees making signs, with
+      a new cabin to build and furnish, with a girl to find and win, I'm what
+      you might call busy. I've covered my book shelf. I positively don't dare
+      look Emerson or Maeterlinck in the face. One consolation! I've got the
+      best of Thoreau in my head, and if I read Stickeen a few times more I'll
+      be able to recite that. There's a man for you, not to mention the dog!
+      Bel, where are you? Would you stick to me like that? I think you would.
+      But you are a big, strong fellow. Stickeen was only such a mite of a dog.
+      But what a man he followed! I feel as if I should put on high-heeled
+      slippers and carry a fan and a lace handkerchief when I think of him. And
+      yet, most men wouldn't consider my job so easy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester rapidly pitched the evil-smelling plants into big heaps and
+      as he worked he imitated the sounds around him as closely as he could. The
+      song sparrow laughed at him and flew away in disgust when he tried its
+      notes. The jay took time to consider, but was not fooled. The nut-hatch
+      ran head first down trees, larvae hunting, and was never a mite deceived.
+      But the killdeer on invisible legs, circling the lake shore, replied
+      instantly; so did the lark soaring above, and the dove of the elm thicket
+      close beside. The glittering black birds flashing over every tree top
+      answered the &ldquo;T'check, t'chee!&rdquo; of the Harvester quite as readily as their
+      mates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last time he paused to rest he had studied scents. When he
+      straightened again he was occupied with every voice of earth and air
+      around and above him, and the notes of singing hens, exultant cocks, the
+      scream of geese, the quack of ducks, the rasping crescendo of guineas
+      running wild in the woods, the imperial note of Ajax sunning on the ridge
+      pole and echoes from all of them on adjoining and distant farms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Now I see the full meaning and beauty of that word sound!'&rdquo; quoted the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;'I thank God for sound. It always mounts and makes me mount!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He breathed deeply and stood listening, a superb figure of a man, his lean
+      face glowing with emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If she could see and hear this, she would come,&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;She
+      would come and she would love it as I do. Any one who understands, and
+      knows how to translate, cares for this above all else earth has to offer.
+      They who do not, fail to read as they run!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shifted feet mired in swamp muck, and stood as if loath to bend again
+      to his task. He lifted a weighted mattock and scraped the earth from it,
+      sniffing it delightedly the while. A soft south wind freighted with
+      aromatic odours swept his warm face. The Harvester removed his hat and
+      shook his head that the breeze might thread his thick hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've a commission for you, South Wind,&rdquo; he said whimsically. &ldquo;Go find my
+      Dream Girl. Go carry her this message from me. Freight your breath with
+      spicy pollen, sun warmth, and flower nectar. Fill all her senses with
+      delight, and then, close to her ear, whisper it softly, 'Your lover is
+      coming!' Tell her that, O South Wind! Carry Araby to her nostrils, Heaven
+      to her ears, and then whisper and whisper it over and over until you
+      arouse the passion of earth in her blood. Tell her what is rioting in my
+      heart, and brain, and soul this morning. Repeat it until she must awake to
+      its meaning, 'Your lover is coming.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. WHEN THE HARVESTER MADE GOOD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The sassafras and skunk cabbage were harvested. The last workman was gone.
+      There was not a sound at Medicine Woods save the babel of bird and animal
+      notes and the never-ending accompaniment of Singing Water. The geese had
+      gone over, some flocks pausing to rest and feed on Loon Lake, and ducks
+      that homed there were busy among the reeds and rushes. In the deep woods
+      the struggle to maintain and reproduce life was at its height, and the
+      courting songs of gaily coloured birds were drowned by hawk screams and
+      crow calls of defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every night before he plunged into the lake and went to sleep the
+      Harvester made out a list of the most pressing work that he would
+      undertake on the coming day. By systematizing and planning ahead he was
+      able to accomplish an unbelievable amount. The earliest rush of spring
+      drug gathering was over. He could be more deliberate in collecting the
+      barks he wanted. Flowers that were to be gathered at bloom time and leaves
+      were not yet ready. The heavy leaf coverings he had helped the winds to
+      heap on his beds of lily of the valley, bloodroot, and sarsaparilla were
+      removed carefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inside the cabin the Harvester cleaned the glass, swept the floors with a
+      soft cloth pinned over the broom, and hung pale yellow blinds at the
+      windows. Every spare minute he worked on making furniture, and with each
+      piece he grew in experience and ventured on more difficult undertakings.
+      He had progressed so far that he now allowed himself an hour each day on
+      the candlesticks for her. Every evening he opened her door and with soft
+      cloths polished the furniture he had made. When her room was completed and
+      the dining-room partially finished, the Harvester took time to stain the
+      cabin and porch roofs the shade of the willow leaves, and on the logs and
+      pillars he used oil that served to intensify the light yellow of the
+      natural wood. With that much accomplished he felt better. If she came now,
+      in a few hours he would be able to offer a comfortable room, enough
+      conveniences to live until more could be provided, and of food there was
+      always plenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His daily programme was to feed and water his animals and poultry, prepare
+      breakfast for himself and Belshazzar, and go to the woods, dry-house or
+      store-room to do the work most needful in his harvesting. In the afternoon
+      he laboured over furniture and put finishing touches on the new cabin, and
+      after supper he carved and found time to read again, as before his dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was so happy he whistled and sang at his work much of the time at
+      first, but later there came days when doubts crept in and all his will
+      power was required to proceed steadily. As the cabin grew in better shape
+      for occupancy each day, more pressing became the thought of how he was
+      going to find and meet the girl of his dream. Sometimes it seemed to him
+      that the proper way was to remain at home and go on with his work,
+      trusting her to come to him. At such times he was happy and gaily whistled
+      and sang:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Stay in your chimney corner,
+          Don't roam the world about,
+       Stay in your chimney corner,
+          And your own true love will find you out.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But there were other days while grubbing in the forest, battling with
+      roots in the muck and mire of the lake bank, staggering under a load for
+      two men, scarcely taking time to eat and sleep enough to keep his
+      condition perfect, when that plan seemed too hopeless and senseless to
+      contemplate. Then he would think of locking the cabin, leaving the drugs
+      to grow undisturbed by collecting, hiring a neighbour to care for his
+      living creatures, and starting a search over the world to find her. There
+      came times when the impulse to go was so strong that only the desire to
+      take a day more to decide where, kept him. Every time his mind was made up
+      to start the following day came the counter thought, what if I should go
+      and she should come in my absence? In the dream she came. That alone held
+      him, even in the face of the fact that if he left home some one might know
+      of and rifle the precious ginseng bed, carefully tended these seven years
+      for the culmination the coming fall would bring. That ginseng was worth
+      many thousands and he had laboured over it, fighting worms and parasites,
+      covering and uncovering it with the changing seasons, a siege of loving
+      labour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes a few hours of misgiving tortured him, but as a rule he was
+      cheerful and happy in his preparations. Without intending to do it he was
+      gradually furnishing the cabin. Every few days saw a new piece finished in
+      the workshop. Each trip to Onabasha ended in the purchase of some article
+      he could see would harmonize with his colour plans for one of the rooms.
+      He had filled the flower boxes for the veranda with delicate plants that
+      were growing luxuriantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he designed and began setting a wild-flower garden outside her door
+      and started climbing vines over the logs and porches, but whatever he
+      planted he found in the woods or took from beds he cultivated. Many of the
+      medicinal vines had leaves, flowers, twining tendrils, and berries or
+      fruits of wonderful beauty. Every trip to the forest he brought back a
+      half dozen vines, plants, or bushes to set for her. All of them either
+      bore lovely flowers, berries, quaint seed pods, or nuts, and beside the
+      drive and before the cabin he used especial care to plant a hedge of
+      bittersweet vines, burning bush, and trees of mountain ash, so that the
+      glory of their colour would enliven the winter when days might be gloomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He planted wild yam under her windows that its queer rattles might amuse
+      her, and hop trees where their castanets would play gay music with every
+      passing wind of fall. He started a thicket along the opposite bank of
+      Singing Water where it bubbled past her window, and in it he placed in
+      graduated rows every shrub and small tree bearing bright flower, berry, or
+      fruit. Those remaining he used as a border for the driveway from the lake,
+      so that from earliest spring her eyes would fall on a procession of colour
+      beginning with catkins and papaw lilies, and running through alders, haws,
+      wild crabs, dogwood, plums, and cherry intermingled with forest saplings
+      and vines bearing scarlet berries in fall and winter. In the damp soil of
+      the same character from which they were removed, in the shade and under
+      the skilful hand of the Harvester, few of these knew they had been
+      transplanted, and when May brought the catbirds and orioles much of this
+      growth was flowering quite as luxuriantly as the same species in the
+      woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was in the store-house packing boxes for shipment. His room
+      was so small and orders so numerous that he could not keep large
+      quantities on hand. All crude stuff that he sent straight from the
+      drying-house was fresh and brightly coloured. His stock always was marked
+      prime A-No. 1. There was a step behind him and the Harvester turned. A boy
+      held out a telegram. The man opened it to find an order for some stuff to
+      be shipped that day to a large laboratory in Toledo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His hands deftly tied packages and he hastily packed bottles and nailed
+      boxes. Then he ran to harness Betsy and load. As he drove down the hill to
+      the bridge he looked at his watch and shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you good for at a pinch, Betsy?&rdquo; he asked as he flecked the
+      surprised mare's flank with a switch. Belshazzar cocked his ears and gazed
+      at the Harvester in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That wasn't enough to hurt her,&rdquo; explained the man. &ldquo;She must speed up.
+      This is important business. The amount involved is not so much, but I do
+      love to make good. It's a part of my religion, Bel. And my religion has so
+      precious few parts that if I fail in the observance of any of them it
+      makes a big hole in my performances. Now we don't want to end a life full
+      of holes, so we must get there with this stuff, not because it's worth the
+      exertion in dollars and cents, but because these men patronize us steadily
+      and expect us to fill orders, even by telegraph. Hustle, Betsy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whip fell again and Belshazzar entered indignant protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't going to hurt her,&rdquo; said the Harvester impatiently. &ldquo;She may
+      walk all the way back. She can rest while I get these boxes billed and
+      loaded if she can be persuaded to get them to the express office on time.
+      The trouble with Betsy is that she wants to meander along the road with a
+      loaded wagon as her mother and grandmother before her wandered through the
+      woods wearing a bell to attract the deer. Father used to say that her
+      mother was the smartest bell mare that ever entered the forest. She'd not
+      only find the deer, but she'd make friends with them and lead them
+      straight as a bee-line to where he was hiding. Betsy, you must travel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drew the lines taut, and the whip fell smartly. The
+      astonished Betsy snorted and pranced down the valley as fast as she could,
+      but every step indicated that she felt outraged and abused. This was the
+      loveliest day of the season. The sun was shining, the air was heavy with
+      the perfume of flowering shrubs and trees, the orchards of the valley were
+      white with bloom. Farmers were hurrying back and forth across fields,
+      leaving up turned lines of black, swampy mould behind them, and one
+      progressive individual rode a wheeled plow, drove three horses and enjoyed
+      the shelter of a canopy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saints preserve us, Belshazzar!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Do you see that?
+      He is one of the men who makes a business of calling me shiftless. Now he
+      thinks he is working. Working! For a full-grown man, did you ever see the
+      equal? If I were going that far I'd wear a tucked shirt, panama hat, have
+      a pianola attachment, and an automatic fan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed as he again touched Betsy and hurried to Onabasha.
+      He scarcely saw the delights offered on either hand, and where his eyes
+      customarily took in every sight, and his ears were tuned for the faintest
+      note of earth or tree top, to day he saw only Betsy and listened for a
+      whistle he dreaded to hear at the water tank. He climbed the embankment of
+      the railway at a slower pace, but made up time going down hill to the
+      city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not getting a blame thing out of this,&rdquo; he complained to Belshazzar.
+      &ldquo;There are riches to stagger any scientist wasting to-day, and all I've
+      got to show is one oriole. I did hear his first note and see his flash,
+      and so unless we can take time to make up for this on the home road we
+      will have to christen it oriole day. It's a perfumed golden day, too; I
+      can get that in passing, but how I loathe hurrying. I don't mind planning
+      things and working steadily, but it's not consistent with the dignity of a
+      sane man to go rushing across country with as much appreciation of the
+      delights offered right now as a chicken with its head off would have. We
+      will loaf going back to pay for this! And won't we invite our souls? We
+      will stop and gather a big bouquet of crab apple blossoms to fill the
+      green pitcher for her. Maybe some of their wonderful perfume will linger
+      in her room. When the petals fall we will scatter them in the drawers of
+      her dresser, and they may distil a faint flower odour there. We could do
+      that to all her furniture, but perhaps she doesn't like perfume. She'll be
+      compelled to after she reaches Medicine Woods. Betsy, you must travel
+      faster!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whip fell again and the Harvester stopped at the depot with a few
+      minutes to spare. He threw the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and ran into
+      the express office with an arm load of boxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bill them!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;It's a rush order. I want it to go on the next
+      express. Almost due I think. I'll help you and we can book them
+      afterward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The expressman ran for a truck and they hastily weighed and piled on
+      boxes. When the last one was loaded from the wagon, a heap more lying in
+      the office were added, pitched on indiscriminately as the train pulled
+      under the sheds of the Union Station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll push,&rdquo; cried the Harvester, &ldquo;and help you get them on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hurrying as fast as he could the expressman drew the heavy truck through
+      the iron gates and started toward the train slowing to a stop, and the
+      Harvester pushed. As they came down the platform they passed the dining
+      and sleeping cars of the long train and were several times delayed by
+      descending passengers. Just opposite the day coach the expressman narrowly
+      missed running into several women leading small children and stopped
+      abruptly. A toppling box threatened the head of the Harvester. He peered
+      around the truck and saw they must wait a few seconds. He put in the time
+      watching the people. A gray-haired old man, travelling in a silk hat,
+      wavered on the top step and went his way. A fat woman loaded with bundles
+      puffed as she clung trembling a second in fear she would miss the step she
+      could not see. A tall, slender girl with a face coldly white came next,
+      and from the broken shoe she advanced, the bewildered fright of big, dark
+      eyes glancing helplessly, the Harvester saw that she was poor, alone, ill,
+      and in trouble. Pityingly he turned to watch her, and as he gauged her
+      height, saw her figure, and a dark coronet of hair came into view, a
+      ghastly pallor swept his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merciful God!&rdquo; he breathed, &ldquo;that's my Dream Girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The truck started with a jerk. The toppling box fell, struck a passing
+      boy, and knocked him down. The mother screamed and the Harvester sprang to
+      pick up the child and see that he was not dangerously hurt. Then he ran
+      after the truck, pitched on the box, and whirling, sped beside the train
+      toward the gates of exit. There was the usual crush, but he could see the
+      tall figure passing up the steps to the depot. He tried to force his way
+      and was called a brute by a crowded woman. He ran down the platform to the
+      gates he had entered with the truck. They were automatic and had locked.
+      Then he became a primal creature being cheated of a lawful mate and
+      climbed the high iron fence and ran for the waiting room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He swept it at a glance, not forgetting the women's apartment and the side
+      entrance. Then he hurried to the front exit. Up the street leading from
+      the city there were few people and he could see no sign of the slight,
+      white-faced girl. He crossed the sidewalk and ran down the gutter for a
+      block and breathlessly waited the passing crowd on the corner. She was not
+      among it. He tried one more square. Still he could not see her. Then he
+      ran back to the depot. He thought surely he must have missed her. He again
+      searched the woman's and general waiting room and then he thought of the
+      conductor. From him it could be learned where she entered the car. He ran
+      for the station, bolted the gate while the official called to him, and
+      reached the track in time to see the train pull out within a few yards of
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You blooming idiot!&rdquo; cried the angry expressman as the Harvester ran
+      against him, &ldquo;where did you go? Why didn't you help me? You are white as a
+      sheet! Have you lost your senses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Worse!&rdquo; groaned the Harvester. &ldquo;Worse! I've lost what I prize most on
+      earth. How could I reach the conductor of that train?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Telegraph him at the next station. You can have an answer in a half
+      hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester ran to the office, and with shaking hand wrote this message:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did a tall girl with big black eyes and wearing a gray dress take
+      your train? Important.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went out and minutely searched the depot and streets. He hired an
+      automobile to drive him over the business part of Onabasha for three
+      quarters of an hour. Up one street and down another he went slowly where
+      there were crowds, faster as he could, but never a sight of her. Then he
+      returned to the depot and found his message. It read, &ldquo;Transferred to me
+      at Fort Wayne from Chicago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chicago baggage!&rdquo; he cried, and hurried to the check room. He had lost
+      almost an hour. When he reached the room he found the officials busy and
+      unwilling to be interrupted. Finally he learned there had been a half
+      dozen trunks from Chicago. All were taken save two, and one glance at them
+      told the Harvester that they did not belong to the girl in gray. The
+      others had been claimed by men having checks for them. If she had been
+      there, the officials had not noticed a tall girl having a white face and
+      dark eyes. When he could think of no further effort to make he drove to
+      the hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey was not in his office, and the Harvester sat in the revolving
+      chair before the desk and gripped his head between his hands as he tried
+      to think. He could not remember anything more he could have done, but
+      since what he had done only ended in failure, he was reproaching himself
+      wildly that he had taken his eyes from the Girl an instant after
+      recognizing her. Yet it was in his blood to be decent and he could not
+      have run away and left a frightened woman and a hurt child. Trusting to
+      his fleet feet and strength he had taken time to replace the box also, and
+      then had met the crowd and delay. Just for the instant it appeared to him
+      as if he had done all a man could, and he had not found her. If he allowed
+      her to return to Chicago, probably he never would. He leaned his head on
+      his hands and groaned in discouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey whirled the chair so that it faced him before the Harvester
+      realized that he was not alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the trouble, David?&rdquo; he asked tersely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester lifted a strained face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came for help,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well you will get it! All you have to do is to state what you want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That seemed simplicity itself to the doctor. But when it came to putting
+      his case into words, it was not easy for the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on!&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll think me a fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor laughed heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt!&rdquo; he said soothingly. &ldquo;No doubt, David! Probably you are; so why
+      shouldn't I think so. But remember this, when we make the biggest fools of
+      ourselves that is precisely the time when we need friends, and when they
+      stick to us the tightest, if they are worth while. I've been waiting since
+      latter February for you to tell me. We can fix it, of course; there's
+      always a way. Go on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I wasn't fooling about the dream and the vision I told you of then,
+      Doc. I did have a dream&mdash;and it was a dream of love. I did see a
+      vision&mdash;and it was a beautiful woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are not nursing that experience as something exclusive and
+      peculiar to you,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;There is not a normal, sane man living
+      who has not dreamed of love and the most exquisite woman who came from the
+      clouds or anywhere and was gracious to him. That's a part of a man's
+      experience in this world, and it happens to most of us, not once, but
+      repeatedly. It's a case where the wish fathers the dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well it hasn't happened to me 'on repeated occasions,' but it did one
+      night, and by dawn I was converted. How CAN a dream be so real, Doc? How
+      could I see as clearly as I ever saw in the daytime in my most alert
+      moment, hear every step and garment rustle, scent the perfume of hair, and
+      feel warm breath strike my face? I don't understand it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither does any one else! All you need say is that your dream was real
+      as life. Go on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I built a new cabin and pretty well overturned the place and I've been
+      making furniture I thought a woman would like, and carrying things from
+      town ever since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gee! It was reality to you, lad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing ever more so,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And of course, you have been looking for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this morning I saw her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the ghost of a chance for a mistake. Her height, her eyes, her hair,
+      her walk, her face; only something terrible has happened since she came to
+      me. It was the same girl, but she is ill and in trouble now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you suppose I'd be here if I knew?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, are you dreaming in daytime?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She got off the Chicago train this morning while I was helping Daniels
+      load a big truck of express matter. Some of it was mine, and it was
+      important. Just at the wrong instant a box fell and knocked down a child
+      and I got in a jam&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And as it was you, of course you stopped to pick up the child and do
+      everything decent for other folks, before you thought of yourself, and so
+      you lost her. You needn't tell me anything more. David, if I find her, and
+      prove to you that she has been married ten years and has an interesting
+      family, will you thank me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't be done!&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly. &ldquo;She has been married only
+      since she gave herself to me in February, and she is not a mother. You
+      needn't bank on that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are mighty sure!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? I told you the dream was real, and now that I have seen her, and
+      she is in this very town, why shouldn't I be sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk it over with you and decide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well here are a few things that occur to me without time for thought.
+      Talk to the ticket agents, and leave her description with them. Make it
+      worth their while to be on the lookout, and if she goes anywhere to find
+      out all they can. They could make an excuse of putting her address on her
+      ticket envelope, and get it that way. See the baggagemen. Post the day
+      police on Main Street. There is no chance for her to escape you. A
+      full-grown woman doesn't vanish. How did she act when she got off the car?
+      Did she appear familiar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. She was a stranger. For an instant she looked around as if she
+      expected some one, then she followed the crowd. There must have been an
+      automobile waiting or she took a street car. Something whirled her out of
+      sight in a few seconds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well we will get her in range again. Now for the most minute description
+      you can give.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester hesitated. He did not care to describe the Dream Girl to any
+      one, much less the living, suffering face and poorly clad form of the
+      reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cut out your scruples,&rdquo; laughed the doctor. &ldquo;You have asked me to help
+      you; how can I if I don't know what kind of a woman to look for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very tall and slender,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Almost as tall as I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unusually tall you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a good point for identification. How about her complexion, hair,
+      and eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very large, dark eyes, and a great mass of black hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor roared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The eyes may help,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All women have masses of hair these days. I
+      hope&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her hair is fast to her head,&rdquo; said the Harvester indignantly. &ldquo;I saw it
+      at close range, and I know. It went around like a crown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor choked down a laugh. He wanted to say that every woman's hair
+      was like a crown at present, but there were things no man ventured with
+      David Langston; those who knew him best, least of any. So he suggested,
+      &ldquo;And her colouring?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was white and rosy, a lovely thing in the dream,&rdquo; said the Harvester,
+      &ldquo;but something dreadful has happened. That's all wiped out now. She was
+      very pale when she left the car.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Car sick, maybe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soul sick!&rdquo; was the grim reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Doctor Carey appeared so disturbed the Harvester noticed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't think I'd be here prating about her if I wasn't FORCED. If
+      she had been rosy and well as she was in the dream, I'd have made my hunt
+      alone and found her, too. But when I saw she was sick and in trouble, it
+      took all the courage out of me, and I broke for help. She must be found at
+      once, and when she is you are probably the first man I'll want. I am going
+      to put up a pretty stiff search myself, and if I find her I'll send or get
+      her to you if I can. Put her in the best ward you have and anything money
+      will do&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of the doctor was growing troubled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Day coach or Pullman?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How was she dressed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Small black hat, very plain. Gray jacket and skirt, neat as a flower.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you'd call expensively dressed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I'd call carefully dressed, but&mdash;&mdash;but poverty poor, if
+      you will have it, Doc.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey's lips closed and then opened in sudden resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I don't like it,&rdquo; he said tersely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester met his eye and purposely misunderstood him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither do I!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;I hate it! There is something wrong with
+      the whole world when a woman having a face full of purity, intellect, and
+      refinement of extreme type glances around her like a hunted thing; when
+      her appearance seems to indicate that she has starved her body to clothe
+      it. I know what is in your mind, Doc, but if I were you I wouldn't put it
+      into words, and I wouldn't even THINK it. Has it been your experience in
+      this world that women not fit to know skimp their bodies to cover them?
+      Does a girl of light character and little brain have the hardihood to
+      advance a foot covered with a broken shoe? If I could tell you that she
+      rode in a Pullman, and wore exquisite clothing, you would be doing
+      something. The other side of the picture shuts you up like a clam, and
+      makes you appear shocked. Let me tell you this: No other woman I ever saw
+      anywhere on God's footstool had a face of more delicate refinement, eyes
+      of purer intelligence. I am of the woods, and while they don't teach me
+      how to shine in society, they do instil always and forever the fineness of
+      nature and her ways. I have her lessons so well learned they help me more
+      than anything else to discern the qualities of human nature. If you are my
+      friend, and have any faith at all in my common sense, get up and do
+      something!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor arose promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I'm an ass,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Unusually lop-eared, and blind in the
+      bargain. But before I ask you to forgive me, I want you to remember two
+      things: First, she did not visit me in my dreams; and, second, I did not
+      see her in reality. I had nothing to judge from except what you said: you
+      seemed reluctant to tell me, and what you did say was&mdash;&mdash;was&mdash;&mdash;disturbing
+      to a friend of yours. I have not the slightest doubt if I had seen her I
+      would agree with you. We seldom disagree, David. Now, will you forgive
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester suddenly faced a window. When at last he turned, &ldquo;The
+      offence lies with me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I was hasty. Are you going to help me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With all my heart! Go home and work until your head clears, then come
+      back in the morning. She did not come from Chicago for a day. You've done
+      all I know to do at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to Betsy and Belshazzar, and slowly drove up and down the streets
+      until Betsy protested and calmly turned homeward. The Harvester smiled
+      ruefully as he allowed her to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go slow and take it easy,&rdquo; he said as they reached the country. &ldquo;I want
+      to think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Betsy stopped at the barn, the white doves took wing, and Ajax screamed
+      shrilly before the Harvester aroused in the slightest to anything around
+      him. Then he looked at Belshazzar and said emphatically: &ldquo;Now, partner,
+      don't ever again interfere when I am complying with the observances of my
+      religion. Just look what I'd have missed if I hadn't made good with that
+      order!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have reached the 'beginning of the end,' Ajax!&rdquo; said the Harvester, as
+      the peacock ceased screaming and came to seek food from his hand. &ldquo;We have
+      seen the Girl. Now we must locate her and convince her that Medicine Woods
+      is her happy home. I feel quite equal to the latter proposition, Ajax, but
+      how the nation to find her sticks me. I can't make a search so open that
+      she will know and resent it. She must have all the consideration ever paid
+      the most refined woman, but she also has got to be found, and that
+      speedily. When I remember that look on her face, as if horrors were
+      snatching at her skirts, it takes all the grit out of me. I feel weak as a
+      sapling. And she needs all my strength. I've simply got to brace up. I'll
+      work a while and then perhaps I can think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Harvester began the evening routine. He thought he did not want
+      anything to eat, but when he opened the cupboard and smelled the food he
+      learned that he was a hungry man and he cooked and ate a good supper. He
+      put away everything carefully, for even the kitchen was dainty and fresh
+      and he wanted to keep it so for her. When he finished he went into the
+      living-room, stood before the fireplace, and studied the collection of
+      half-finished candlesticks grouped upon it. He picked up several and
+      examined them closely, but realized that he could not bind himself to the
+      exactions of carving that evening. He took a key from his pocket and
+      unlocked her door. Every day he had been going there to improve upon his
+      work for her, and he loved the room, the outlook from its windows; he was
+      very proud of the furniture he had made. There was no paper-thin covering
+      on her chairs, bed, and dressing table. The tops, seats, and posts were
+      solid wood, worth hundreds of dollars for veneer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-night he folded his arms and stood on the sill hesitating. While she
+      was a dream, he had loved to linger in her room. Now that she was reality,
+      he paused. In one golden May day the place had become sacred. Since he had
+      seen the Girl that room was so hers that he was hesitating about entering
+      because of this fact. It was as if the tall, slender form stood before the
+      chest of drawers or sat at the dressing table and he did not dare enter
+      unless he were welcome. Softly he closed the door and went away. He
+      wandered to the dry-house and turned the bark and roots on the trays, but
+      the air stifled him and he hurried out. He tried to work in the packing
+      room, but walls smothered him and again he sought the open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He espied a bundle of osier-bound, moss-covered ferns that he had found in
+      the woods, and brought the shovel to transplant them; but the work worried
+      him, and he hurried through with it. Then he looked for something else to
+      do and saw an ax. He caught it up and with lusty strokes began swinging
+      it. When he had chopped wood until he was very tired he went to bed. Sleep
+      came to the strong, young frame and he awoke in the morning refreshed and
+      hopeful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wondered why he had bothered Doctor Carey. The Harvester felt able that
+      morning to find his Dream Girl without assistance before the day was over.
+      It was merely a matter of going to the city and locating a woman.
+      Yesterday, it had been a question of whether she really existed. To-day,
+      he knew. Yesterday, it had meant a search possibly as wide as earth to
+      find her. To-day, it was narrowed to only one location so small, compared
+      with Chicago, that the Harvester felt he could sift its population with
+      his fingers, and pick her from others at his first attempt. If she were
+      visiting there probably she would rest during the night, and be on the
+      streets to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he remembered her face he doubted it. He decided to spend part of the
+      time on the business streets and the remainder in the residence portions
+      of the city. Because it was uncertain when he would return, everything was
+      fed a double portion, and Betsy was left at a livery stable with
+      instructions to care for her until he came. He did not know where the
+      search would lead him. For several hours he slowly walked the business
+      district and then ranged farther, but not a sight of her. He never had
+      known that Onabasha was so large. On its crowded streets he did not feel
+      that he could sift the population through his fingers, nor could he open
+      doors and search houses without an excuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some small boys passed him eating bananas, and the Harvester looked at his
+      watch and was amazed to find that the day had advanced until two o'clock
+      in the afternoon. He was tired and hungry. He went into a restaurant and
+      ordered lunch; as he waited a girl serving tables smiled at him. Any other
+      time the Harvester would have returned at least a pleasant look, and gone
+      his way. To-day he scowled at her, and ate in hurried discomfort. On the
+      streets again, he had no idea where to go and so he went to the hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expected you early this morning,&rdquo; was the greeting of Doctor Carey.
+      &ldquo;Where have you been and what have you done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I was so sure she would be on the streets
+      I just watched, but I didn't see her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will go to the depot,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;The first thing is to keep
+      her from leaving town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They arranged with the ticket agents, expressmen, telegraphers, and, as
+      they left, the Harvester stopped and tipped the train caller, offering
+      further reward worth while if he would find the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we will go to the police station,&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll see the chief and have him issue a general order to his men to watch
+      for her, but if I were you I'd select a half dozen in the down town
+      district, and give them a little tip with a big promise!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Lord! How I hate this,&rdquo; groaned the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want to find her by yourself?&rdquo; questioned his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I do! And I would, if it hadn't been for her
+      ghastly face. That drives me to resort to any measures. The probabilities
+      are that she is lying sick somewhere, and if her comfort depends on the
+      purse that dressed her, she will suffer. Doc, do you know how awful this
+      is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that you've got a great imagination. If the woods make all men as
+      sensitive as you are, those who have business to transact should stay out
+      of them. Take a common-sense view. Look at this as I do. If she was strong
+      enough to travel in a day coach from Chicago; she can't be so very ill
+      to-day. Leaving life by the inch isn't that easy. She will be alive this
+      time next year, whether you find her or not. The chances are that her
+      stress was mental anyway, and trouble almost never overcomes any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, a doctor and say that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I mean instantaneously&mdash;&mdash;in a day! Of course if it grinds
+      away for years! But youth doesn't allow it to do that. It throws it off,
+      and grows hopeful and happy again. She won't die; put that out of your
+      mind. If I were you I would go home now and go straight on with my work,
+      trusting to the machinery you have set in motion. I know most of the men
+      with whom we have talked. They will locate her in a week or less. It's
+      their business. It isn't yours. It's your job to be ready for her, and
+      have enough ahead to support her when they find her. Try to realize that
+      there are now a dozen men on hunt for her, and trust them. Go back to your
+      work, and I will come full speed in the motor when the first man sights
+      her. That ought to satisfy you. I've told all of them to call me at the
+      hospital, and I will tell my assistant what to do in case a call comes
+      while I am away. Straighten your face! Go back to Medicine Woods and
+      harvest your crops, and before you know it she will be located. Then you
+      can put on your Sunday clothes and show yourself, and see if you can make
+      her take notice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Idiot!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester, but he started home. When he arrived he
+      attended to his work and then sat down to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doc is right,&rdquo; was his ultimate conclusion. &ldquo;She can't leave the city,
+      she can't move around in it, she can't go anywhere, without being seen.
+      There's one more point: I must tell Carey to post all the doctors to
+      report if they have such a call. That's all I can think of. I'll go
+      to-night, and then I'll look over the ginseng for parasites, and to-morrow
+      I'll dive into the late spring growth and work until I haven't time to
+      think. I've let cranesbill get a week past me now, and it can't be
+      dispensed with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the following morning, when the Harvester had completed his work at the
+      cabin and barn and breakfasted, he took a mattock and a big hempen bag,
+      and followed the path to the top of the hill. As it ran along the lake
+      bank he descended on the other side to several acres of cleared land,
+      where he raised corn for his stock, potatoes, and coarser garden truck,
+      for which there was not space in the smaller enclosure close the cabin.
+      Around the edges of these fields, and where one of them sloped toward the
+      lake, he began grubbing a variety of grass having tall stems already over
+      a foot in height at half growth. From each stem waved four or five leaves
+      of six or eight inches length and the top showed forming clusters of tiny
+      spikelets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am none too early for you,&rdquo; he muttered to himself as he ran the
+      mattock through the rich earth, lifting the long, tough, jointed root
+      stalks of pale yellow, from every section of which broke sprays of fine
+      rootlets. &ldquo;None too early for you, and as you are worth only seven cents a
+      pound, you couldn't be considered a 'get-rich-quick' expedient, so I'll
+      only stop long enough with you to gather what I think my customers will
+      order, and amass a fortune a little later picking mullein flowers at
+      seventy-five cents a pound. What a crop I've got coming!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester glanced ahead, where in the cleared soil of the bank grew
+      large plants with leaves like yellow-green felt and tall bloom stems
+      rising. Close them flourished other species requiring dry sandy soil, that
+      gradually changed as it approached the water until it became covered with
+      rank abundance of short, wiry grass, half the blades of which appeared
+      red. Numerous everywhere he could see the grayish-white leaves of
+      Parnassus grass. As the season advanced it would lift heart-shaped velvet
+      higher, and before fall the stretch of emerald would be starred with
+      white-faced, green-striped flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a prettier sight on earth,&rdquo; commented the Harvester, &ldquo;than just swale
+      wire grass in September making a fine, thick background to set off those
+      delicate starry flowers on their slender stems. I must remember to bring
+      her to see that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes followed the growth to the water. As the grass drew closer
+      moisture it changed to the rank, sweet, swamp variety, then came
+      bulrushes, cat-tails, water smartweed, docks, and in the water blue flag
+      lifted folded buds; at its feet arose yellow lily leaves and farther out
+      spread the white. As the light struck the surface the Harvester imagined
+      he could see the little green buds several inches below. Above all arose
+      wild rice he had planted for the birds. The red wings swayed on the
+      willows and tilted on every stem that would bear their weight, singing
+      their melodious half-chanted notes, &ldquo;O-ka-lee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath them the ducks gobbled, splashed, and chattered; grebe and coot
+      voices could be distinguished; king rails at times flashed into sight and
+      out again; marsh wrens scolded and chattered; occasionally a kingfisher
+      darted around the lake shore, rolling his rattling cry and flashing his
+      azure coat and gleaming white collar. On a hollow tree in the woods a
+      yellow hammer proved why he was named, because he carpentered
+      industriously to enlarge the entrance to the home he was excavating in a
+      dead tree; and sailing over the lake and above the woods in grace scarcely
+      surpassed by any, a lonesome turkey buzzard awaited his mate's decision as
+      to which hollow log was most suitable for their home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stuffed the grass roots in the bag until it would hold no
+      more and stood erect to wipe his face, for the sun was growing warm. As he
+      drew his handkerchief across his brow, the south wind struck him with
+      enough intensity to attract attention. Instantly the Harvester removed his
+      hat, rolled it up, and put it into his pocket. He stood an instant
+      delighting in the wind and then spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allow me to express my most fervent thanks for your kindness,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;I thought probably you would take that message, since it couldn't mean
+      much to you, and it meant all the world to me. I thought you would carry
+      it, but, I confess, I scarcely expected the answer so soon. The only thing
+      that could make me more grateful to you would be to know exactly where she
+      is: but you must understand that it's like a peep into Heaven to have her
+      existence narrowed to one place. I'm bound to be able to say inside a few
+      days, she lives at number&mdash;&mdash;I don't know yet, on street&mdash;&mdash;I'll
+      find out soon, in the closest city, Onabasha. And I know why you brought
+      her, South Wind. If ever a girl's cheeks need fanning with your breezes,
+      and painting with sun kisses, I wouldn't mind, since this is strictly
+      private, adding a few of mine; if ever any one needed flowers, birds,
+      fresh air, water, and rest! Good Lord, South Wind, did you ever reach her
+      before you carried that message? I think not! But Onabasha isn't so large.
+      You and the sun should get your innings there. I do hope she is not trying
+      to work! I can attend to that; and so there will be more time when she is
+      found, I'd better hustle now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up the bag and returned to the dry-house, where he carefully
+      washed the roots and spread them on the trays. Then he took the same bag
+      and mattock and going through the woods in the opposite direction he came
+      to a heavy growth in a cleared space of high ground. The bloom heads were
+      forming and the plant was half matured. The Harvester dug a cylindrical,
+      tapering root, wrinkling lengthwise, wiped it clean, broke and tasted it.
+      He made a wry face. He stood examining the white wood with its brown-red
+      bark and, deciding that it was in prime condition, he began digging the
+      plants. It was common wayside &ldquo;Bouncing Bet,&rdquo; but the Harvester called it
+      &ldquo;soapwort.&rdquo; He took every other plant in his way across the bed, and when
+      he digged a heavy load he carried it home, stripped the leaves, and spread
+      them on trays, while the roots he topped, washed, and put to dry also.
+      Then he whistled for Belshazzar and went to lunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed down the road to the cabin his face was a study of
+      conflicting emotions, and his eyes had a far away appearance of deep
+      thought. Every tree of his stretch of forest was rustling fresh leaves to
+      shelter him; dogwood, wild crab, and hawthorn offered their flowers; earth
+      held up her tribute in painted trillium faces, spring beauties, and
+      violets, blue, white, and yellow. Mosses, ferns, and lichen decorated the
+      path; all the birds greeted him in friendship, and sang their purest
+      melodies. The sky was blue, the sun bright, the air perfumed for him;
+      Belshazzar, always true to his name, protected every footstep; Ajax, the
+      shimmering green and gold wonder, came up the hill to meet him; the white
+      doves circled above his head. Stumbling half blindly, the Harvester passed
+      unheeding among them, and went into the cabin. When he came out he stood a
+      long time in deep study, but at last he returned to the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps they will have found her before night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'll harvest
+      the cranesbill yet, because it's growing late for it, and then I'll see
+      how they are coming on. Maybe they'd know her if they met her, and maybe
+      they wouldn't. She may wear different clothing, and freshen up after her
+      trip. She might have been car sick, as Doc suggested, and appear very
+      different when she feels better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He skirted the woods around the northeast end and stopped at a big bed of
+      exquisite growth. Tall, wiry stems sprang upward almost two feet in
+      height; leaves six inches across were cut in ragged lobes almost to the
+      base, and here and there, enough to colour the entire bed a delicate rose
+      or sometimes a violet purple, the first flowers were unfolding. The
+      Harvester lifted a root and tasted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt about you being astringent,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;You have enough
+      tannin in you to pucker a mushroom. By the way, those big, corn-cobby
+      fellows should spring up with the next warm rain, and the hotels and
+      restaurants always pay high prices. I must gather a few bushels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked over the bed of beautiful wild alum and hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I vow I hate to touch you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You are a picture right now, and in
+      a week you will be a miracle. It seems a shame to tear up a plant for its
+      roots, just at flowering time, and I can't avoid breaking down half I
+      don't take, getting the ones I do. I wish you were not so pretty! You are
+      one of the colours I love most. You remind me of red-bud, blazing star,
+      and all those exquisite magenta shades that poets, painters, and the
+      Almighty who made them love so much they hesitate about using them
+      lavishly. You are so delicate and graceful and so modest. I wish she could
+      see you! I got to stop this or I won't be able to lift a root. I never
+      would if the ten cents a pound I'll get out of it were the only
+      consideration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gripped the mattock and advanced to the bed. &ldquo;What I must be
+      thinking is that you are indispensable to the sick folks. The steady
+      demand for you proves your value, and of course, humanity comes first,
+      after all. If I remain in the woods alone much longer I'll get to the
+      place where I'm not so sure that it does. Seems as if animals, birds,
+      flowers, trees, and insects as well, have their right to life also. But
+      it's for me to remember the sick folks! If I thought the Girl would get
+      some of it now, I could overturn the bed with a stout heart. If any one
+      ever needed a tonic, I think she does. Maybe some of this will reach her.
+      If it does, I hope it will make her cheeks just the lovely pink of the
+      bloom. Oh Lord! If only she hadn't appeared so sick and frightened! What
+      is there in all this world of sunshine to make a girl glance around her
+      like that? I wish I knew! Maybe they will have found her by night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester began work on the bed, but he knelt and among the damp
+      leaves from the spongy black earth he lifted the roots with his fingers
+      and carefully straightened and pressed down the plants he did not take.
+      This required more time than usual, but his heart was so sore he could not
+      be rough with anything, most of all a flower. So he harvested the wild
+      alum by hand, and heaped large stacks of roots around the edges of the
+      bed. Often he paused as he worked and on his knees stared through the
+      forest as if he hoped perhaps she would realize his longing for her, and
+      come to him in the wood as she had across the water. Over and over he
+      repeated, &ldquo;Perhaps they will find her by night!&rdquo; and that so intensified
+      the meaning that once he said it aloud. His face clouded and grew dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dealish nice business!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am here in the woods digging flower
+      roots, and a gang of men in the city are searching for the girl I love. If
+      ever a job seemed peculiarly a man's own, it appears this would be. What
+      business has any other man spying after my woman? Why am I not down there
+      doing my own work, as I always have done it? Who's more likely to find her
+      than I am? It seems as if there would be an instinct that would lead me
+      straight to her, if I'd go. And you can wager I'll go fast enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester appeared as if he would start that instant, but with lips
+      closely shut he finally forced himself to go on with his work. When he had
+      rifled the bed, and uprooted all he cared to take during one season, he
+      carried the roots to the lake shore below the curing house, and spread
+      them on a platform he had built. He stepped into his boat and began
+      dashing pails of water over them and using a brush. As he worked he washed
+      away the woody scars of last year's growth, and the tiny buds appearing
+      for the coming season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar sat on the opposite bank and watched the operation; and Ajax
+      came down and, flying to a dead stump, erected and slowly waved his train
+      to attract the sober-faced man who paid no heed. He left the roots to
+      drain while he prepared supper, then placed them on the trays, now filled
+      to overflowing, and was glad he had finished. He could not cure anything
+      else at present if he wanted to. He was as far advanced as he had been at
+      the same time the previous year. Then he dressed neatly and locking the
+      Girl's room, and leaving Belshazzar to protect it, he went to Onabasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravo!&rdquo; cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered his office. &ldquo;You are
+      heroic to wait all day for news. How much stuff have you gathered?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three crops. How many missing women have you located?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor laughed. There was no sign of a smile on the face of the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn't really expect her to come to light the first day? That would
+      be too easy! We can't find her in a minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be no surprise to me if you can't find her at all. I am not
+      expecting another man to do what I don't myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not hunting her. You are harvesting the woods. The men you employ
+      are to find her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe I am, and maybe I am not,&rdquo; said the Harvester slowly. &ldquo;To me it
+      appears to be a poor stick of a man who coolly proceeds with money making,
+      and trusts to men who haven't even seen her to search for the girl he
+      loves. I think a few hours of this is about all my patience will endure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But you can bank on one thing sure&mdash;&mdash;I'm
+      going to do something! I've had my fill of this. Thank you for all you've
+      done, and all you are going to do. My head is not clear enough yet to
+      decide anything with any sense, but maybe I'll hit on something soon. I'm
+      for the streets for a while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better go home and go to bed. You seem very tired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The only way to endure this is to work myself
+      down. I'm all right, and I'll be careful, but I rather think I'll find her
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better go on with your work as we planned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll think about it,&rdquo; said the Harvester as he went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until he was too tired to walk farther he slowly paced the streets of the
+      city, and then followed the home road through the valley and up the hill
+      to Medicine Woods. When he came to Singing Water, Belshazzar heard his
+      steps on the bridge, and came bounding to meet him. The Harvester
+      stretched himself on a seat and turned his face to the sky. It was a deep,
+      dark-blue bowl, closely set with stars, and a bright moon shed a soft May
+      radiance on the young earth. The lake was flooded with light, and the big
+      trees of the forest crowning the hill were silver coroneted. The unfolding
+      leaves had hidden the new cabin from the bridge, but the driveway shone
+      white, and already the upspringing bushes hedged it in. Insects were
+      humming lazily in the perfumed night air, and across the lake a courting
+      whip-poor-will was explaining to his sweetheart just how much and why he
+      loved her. A few bats were wavering in air hunting insects, and
+      occasionally an owl or a nighthawk crossed the lake. Killdeer were
+      glorying in the moonlight and night flight, and cried in pure, clear notes
+      as they sailed over the water. The Harvester was tired and filled with
+      unrest as he stretched on the bridge, but the longer he lay the more the
+      enfolding voices comforted him. All of them were waiting and working out
+      their lives to the legitimate end; there was nothing else for him to do.
+      He need not follow instinct or profit by chance. He was a man; he could
+      plan and reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air grew balmy and some big, soft clouds swept across the moon. The
+      Harvester felt the dampness of rising dew, and went to the cabin. He
+      looked at it long in the moonlight and told himself that he could see how
+      much the plants, vines, and ferns had grown since the previous night.
+      Without making a light, he threw himself on the bed in the outdoor room,
+      and lay looking through the screening at the lake and sky. He was working
+      his brain to think of some manner in which to start a search for the Dream
+      Girl that would have some probability of success to recommend it, but he
+      could settle on no feasible plan. At last he fell asleep, and in the night
+      soft rain wet his face. He pulled an oilcloth sheet over the bed, and lay
+      breathing deeply of the damp, perfumed air as he again slept. In the
+      morning brilliant sunshine awoke him and he arose to find the earth
+      steaming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If ever there was a perfect mushroom day!&rdquo; he said to Belshazzar. &ldquo;We
+      must hurry and feed the stock and ourselves and gather some. They mean
+      real money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. THE QUEST OF THE DREAM GIRL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester breakfasted, fed the stock, hitched Betsy to the spring
+      wagon, and went into the dripping, steamy woods. If anyone had asked him
+      that morning concerning his idea of Heaven, he never would have dreamed of
+      describing a place of gold-paved streets, crystal pillars, jewelled gates,
+      and thrones of ivory. These things were beyond the man's comprehension and
+      he would not have admired or felt at home in such magnificence if it had
+      been materialized for him. He would have told you that a floor of last
+      year's brown leaves, studded with myriad flower faces, big, bark-encased
+      pillars of a thousand years, jewels on every bush, shrub, and tree, and
+      tilting thrones on which gaudy birds almost burst themselves to voice the
+      joy of life, while their bright-eyed little mates peered questioningly at
+      him over nest rims&mdash;&mdash;he would have told you that Medicine Woods
+      on a damp, sunny May morning was Heaven. And he would have added that only
+      one angel, tall and slender, with the pink of health on her cheeks and the
+      dew of happiness in her dark eyes, was necessary to enter and establish
+      glory. Everything spoke to him that morning, but the Harvester was silent.
+      It had been his habit to talk constantly to Belshazzar, Ajax, his work,
+      even the winds and perfumes; it had been his method of dissipating
+      solitude, but to-day he had no words, even for these dear friends. He only
+      opened his soul to beauty, and steadily climbed the hill to the crest, and
+      then down the other side to the rich, half-shaded, half-open spaces, where
+      big, rough mushrooms sprang in a night similar to the one just passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could see them awaiting him from afar. He began work with rapid
+      fingers, being careful to break off the heads, but not to pull up the
+      roots. When four heaping baskets were filled he cut heavily leaved
+      branches to spread over them, and started to Onabasha. As usual,
+      Belshazzar rode beside him and questioned the Harvester when he politely
+      suggested to Betsy that she make a little haste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you forgotten that mushrooms are perishable?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;If we don't
+      get these to the city all woodsy and fresh we can't sell them. Wonder
+      where we can do the best? The hotels pay well. Really, the biggest prices
+      could be had by&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester threw back his head and began to laugh, and he laughed,
+      and he laughed. A crow on the fence Joined him, and a kingfisher, heading
+      for Loon Lake, and then Belshazzar caught the infection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begorry! The very idea!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;'Heaven helps them that
+      help themselves.' Now you just watch us manoeuvre for assistance,
+      Belshazzar, old boy! Here we go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the laugh began again. It continued all the way to Onabasha and even
+      into the city. The Harvester drove through the most prosperous street
+      until he reached the residence district. At the first home he stopped,
+      gave the lines to Belshazzar, and, taking a basket of mushrooms, went up
+      the walk and rang the bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All groceries should be delivered at the back door,&rdquo; snapped a pert maid,
+      before he had time to say a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester lifted his hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you kindly tell the lady of the house that I wish to speak with
+      her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name, please?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to show her some fine mushrooms, freshly gathered,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How she did it the Harvester never knew. The first thing he realized was
+      that the door had closed before his face, and the basket had been picked
+      deftly from his fingers and was on the other side. After a short time the
+      maid returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want for them, please?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The last thing on earth the Harvester wanted to do was to part with those
+      mushrooms, so he took one long, speculative look down the hall and named a
+      price he thought would be prohibitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One dollar a dozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many are there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I count them as I sell them. I do not know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door closed again. Presently it opened and the maid knelt on the floor
+      before him and counted the mushrooms one by one into a dish pan and in a
+      few minutes brought back seven dollars and fifty cents. The chagrined
+      Harvester, feeling like a thief, put the money in his pocket, and turned
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was to tell you,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that you are to bring all you have to sell
+      here, and the next time please go to the kitchen door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must be fond of mushrooms,&rdquo; said the disgruntled Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are a great delicacy, and there are visitors.&rdquo; The Harvester ached
+      to set the girl to one side and walk through the house, but he did not
+      dare; so he returned to the street, whistled to Betsy to come, and went to
+      the next gate. Here he hesitated. Should he risk further snubbing at the
+      front door or go back at once. If he did, he only would see a maid. As he
+      stood an instant debating, the door of the house he just had left opened
+      and the girl ran after him. &ldquo;If you have more, we will take them,&rdquo; she
+      called.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gasped for breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have to be used at once,&rdquo; he suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She knows that. She wants to treat her friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well she has got enough for a banquet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&mdash;I don't usually
+      sell more than a dozen or two in one place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see why you can't let her have them if you have more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have orders to fill for regular customers,&rdquo; suggested the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And perhaps you haven't,&rdquo; said the maid. &ldquo;You ought to be ashamed not to
+      let people who are willing to pay your outrageous prices have them. It's
+      regular highway robbery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly that's the reason I decline to hold up one party twice,&rdquo; said
+      the Harvester as he entered the gate and went up the walk to the front
+      door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should be taught your place,&rdquo; called the maid after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester again rang the bell. Another maid opened the door, and once
+      more he asked to speak with the lady of the house. As the girl turned, a
+      handsome old woman in cap and morning gown came down the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you there?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester lifted the leaves and exposed the musky, crimpled, big
+      mushrooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried in delight. &ldquo;Indeed, yes! We are very fond of them. I will
+      take the basket, and divide with my sons. You are sure you have no
+      poisonous ones among them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite sure,&rdquo; said the Harvester faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much do you want for the basket?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are a dollar a dozen; I haven't counted them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me! Isn't that rather expensive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is. Very!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;So expensive that most people don't
+      think of taking over a dozen. They are large and very rich, so they go a
+      long way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you have to spend a great deal of time hunting them? It does
+      seem expensive, but they are fresh, and the boys are so fond of them. I'm
+      not often extravagant, I'll just take the lot. Sarah, bring a pan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the Harvester stood and watched an entire basket counted over and
+      carried away, and he felt the robber he had been called as he took the
+      money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the next house he had learned a lesson. He carpeted a basket with
+      leaves and counted out a dozen and a half into it, leaving the remainder
+      in the wagon. Three blocks on one side of the street exhausted his store
+      and he was showered with orders. He had not seen any one that even
+      resembled a dark-eyed girl. As he came from the last house a big, red
+      motor shot past and then suddenly slowed and backed beside his wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What in the name of sense are you doing?&rdquo; demanded Doctor Carey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Invading the residence district of Onabasha,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Madam,
+      would you like some nice, fresh, country mushrooms? I guarantee that there
+      are no poisonous ones among them, and they were gathered this morning.
+      Considering their rarity and the difficult work of collecting, they are
+      exceedingly low at my price. I am offering these for five dollars a dozen,
+      madam, and for mercy sake don't take them or I'll have no excuse to go to
+      the next house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor stared, then understood, and began to laugh. When at last he
+      could speak he said, &ldquo;David, I'll bet you started with three bushels and
+      began at the head of this street, and they are all gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put up a good one!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You win. The first house I tried
+      they ordered me to the back door, took a market basket full away from me
+      by force, tried to buy the load, and I didn't see any one save a maid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor lay on the steering gear and faintly groaned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester regarded him sympathetically. &ldquo;Isn't it a crime?&rdquo; he
+      questioned. &ldquo;Mushrooms are no go. I can see that!&mdash;&mdash;or rather
+      they are entirely too much of a go. I never saw anything in such demand. I
+      must seek a less popular article for my purpose. To-morrow look out for
+      me. I shall begin where I left off to-day, but I will have changed my
+      product.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, for pity sake,&rdquo; peeped the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do I care how I do it, so I locate her?&rdquo; superbly inquired the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you won't find her!&rdquo; gasped the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've come as close it as you so far, anyway,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Your
+      mushrooms are on the desk in your office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drove slowly up and down the streets until Betsy wabbled on her legs.
+      Then he left her to rest and walked until he wabbled; and by that time it
+      was dark, so he went home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first hint of dawn he was at work the following morning. With
+      loaded baskets closely covered, he started to Onabasha, and began where he
+      had quit the day before. This time he carried a small, crudely fashioned
+      bark basket, leaf-covered, and he rang at the front door with confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every one seemed to have a maid in that part of the city, for a freshly
+      capped and aproned girl opened the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any young women living here?&rdquo; blandly inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that of your business?&rdquo; demanded the maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester flushed, but continued, &ldquo;I am offering something especially
+      intended for young women. If there are none, I will not trouble you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are several.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you please ask them if they would care for bouquets of violets,
+      fresh from the woods?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much are they, and how large are the bunches?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prices differ, and they are the right size to appear well. They had
+      better see for themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The maid reached for the basket, but the Harvester drew back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I keep them in my possession,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You may take a sample.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lifted the leaves and drew forth a medium-sized bunch of long-stemmed
+      blue violets with their leaves. The flowers were fresh, crisp, and strong
+      odours of the woods arose from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried the maid. &ldquo;Oh, how lovely!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She hurried away with them and returned carrying a purse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want two more bunches,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;How much are they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are the girls who want them dark or fair?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difference does that make?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have blue violets for blondes, yellow for brunettes, and white for the
+      others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I never! One is fair, and two have brown hair and blue eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One blue and two whites,&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly, as if matching
+      women's hair and eyes with flowers were an inherited vocation. &ldquo;They are
+      twenty cents a bunch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha!&rdquo; he chortled to himself as he whistled to Betsy. &ldquo;At last we have
+      it. There are no dark-eyed girls here. Now we are making headway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Down the street he went, with varying fortune, but with patience and
+      persistence at every house he at last managed to learn whether there was a
+      dark-eyed girl. There did not seem to be many. Long before his store of
+      yellow violets was gone the last blue and white had disappeared. But he
+      calmly went on asking for dark-eyed girls, and explaining that all the
+      blue and white were taken, because fair women were most numerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At one house the owner, who reminded the Harvester of his mother, came to
+      the door. He uncovered and in his suavest tones inquired if a brunette
+      young woman lived there and if she would like a nosegay of yellow violets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well bless my soul!&rdquo; cried she. &ldquo;What is this world coming to? Do you
+      mean to tell me that there are now able-bodied men offering at our doors,
+      flowers to match our girls' complexions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes madam?&rdquo; said the Harvester gravely, &ldquo;and also selling them as fast as
+      he can show them, at prices that make a profit very well worth while. I
+      had an equal number of blue and white, but I see the dark girls are very
+      much in the minority. The others were gone long ago, and I now have
+      flowers to offer brunettes only.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well forever more! And you don't call that fiddlin' business for a big,
+      healthy, young man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's gay laugh was infectious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have to start as soon as I can see, tramp long
+      distances in wet woods and gather the violets on my knees, make them into
+      bunches, and bring them here in water to keep them fresh. I have another
+      occupation. I only kill time on these, but I would be ashamed to tell you
+      what I have gotten for them this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! I'm glad to hear it!&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Shame in some form is a
+      sign of grace. I have no use for a human being without a generous supply
+      of it. There is a very beautiful dark-eyed girl in the house, and I will
+      take two bunches for her. How much are they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have only three remaining,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Would you like to
+      allow her to make her own selection?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I'm giving things I usually take my choice. I want that, and that
+      one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As my stock is so nearly out, I'll make the two for twenty,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;Won't you accept the last one from me, because you remind me
+      just a little of my mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will indeed,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Thank you very much! I shall love to have them
+      as dearly as any of the girls. I used to gather them when I was a child,
+      but I almost never see the blue ones any more, and I don't know as I ever
+      expected to see a yellow violet again as long as I live. Where did you get
+      them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my woods,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You see I grow several members of the
+      viola pedata family, bird's foot, snake, and wood violet, and three of the
+      odorata, English, marsh, and sweet, for our big drug houses. They use the
+      flowers in making delicate tests for acids and alkalies. The entire plant,
+      flower, seed, leaf, and root, goes into different remedies. The beds seed
+      themselves and spread, so I have more than I need for the chemists, and I
+      sell a few. I don't use the white and yellow in my business; I just grow
+      them for their beauty. I also sell my surplus lilies of the valley. Would
+      you like to order some of them for your house or more violets for
+      to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well bless my soul! Do you mean to tell me that lilies of the valley are
+      medicine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grow immense beds of them in the woods on the banks of Loon Lake,&rdquo; he
+      said. &ldquo;They are the convallaris majallis of the drug houses and I scarcely
+      know what the weak-hearted people would do without them. I use large
+      quantities in trade, and this season I am selling a few because people so
+      love them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lilies in medicine; well dear me! Are roses good for our innards too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester did laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I imagine the roses you know go into perfumes mostly,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;They
+      do make medicine of Canadian rock rose and rose bay, laurel, and willow. I
+      grow the bushes, but they are not what you would consider roses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder now,&rdquo; said the woman studying the Harvester closely, &ldquo;if you are
+      not that queer genius I've heard of, who spends his time hunting and
+      growing stuff in the woods and people call him the Medicine Man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I strongly suspect madam, I am that man,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well bless me!&rdquo; cried she. &ldquo;I've always wanted to see you and here when I
+      do, you look just like anybody else. I thought you'd have long hair, and
+      be wild-eyed and ferocious. And your talk sounds like out of a book. Well
+      that beats me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me too!&rdquo; said the Harvester, lifting his hat. &ldquo;You don't want any lilies
+      to-morrow, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes I do. Medicine or no medicine, I've always liked 'em, and I'm going
+      to keep on liking them. If you can bring me a good-sized bunch after the
+      weak-kneed&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Weak-hearted,&rdquo; corrected the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well 'weak-hearted,' then; it's all the same thing. If you've got any
+      left, as I was saying, you can fetch them to me for the smell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed all the way down town. There he went to Doctor
+      Carey's office, examined a directory, and got the names of all the numbers
+      where he had sold yellow violets. A few questions when the doctor came in
+      settled all of them, but the flower scheme was better. Because the yellow
+      were not so plentiful as the white and blue, next day he added buttercups
+      and cowslips to his store for the dark girls. When he had rifled his beds
+      for the last time, after three weeks of almost daily trips to town, and
+      had paid high prices to small boys he set searching the adjoining woods
+      until no more flowers could be found, he drove from the outskirts of the
+      city one day toward the hospital, and as he stopped, down the street came
+      Doctor Carey frantically waving to him. As the big car slackened, &ldquo;Come on
+      David, quick! I've seen her!&rdquo; cried the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester jumped from the wagon, threw the lines to Belshazzar, and
+      landed in the panting car.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven's sake where? Are you sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The car went speeding down the street. A policeman beckoned and cried
+      after it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won't do any good to get arrested, Doc,&rdquo; cautioned the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now right along here,&rdquo; panted Doctor Carey. &ldquo;Watch both sides sharply. If
+      I stop you jump out, and tell the blame policemen to get at their job. The
+      party they are hired to find is right under their noses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester began to perspire. &ldquo;Doc, don't you think you should tell me?
+      Maybe she is in some store. Maybe I could do better on foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut up!&rdquo; growled the doctor. &ldquo;I am doing the best I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He hurried up the street for blocks and back again, and at last stopped
+      before a large store and went in. When he returned he drove to the
+      hospital and together they entered the office. There he turned to the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't so hard to understand you now, my boy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Shades of
+      Diana, but she'll be a beauty when she gets a little more flesh and
+      colour. She came out of Whitlaw's and walked right to the crossing. I
+      almost could have touched her, but I didn't notice. Two girls passed
+      before me, and in hurrying, a tall, dark one knocked off one of your
+      bunches of yellow violets. She glanced at it and laughed, but let it lay.
+      Then your girl hesitated stooped and picked it up. The crazy policeman
+      yelled at me to clear the crossing and it didn't hit me for a half block
+      how tall and white she was and how dark her eyes were. I was just thinking
+      about her picking up the flowers, and that it was queer for her to do it,
+      when like a brick it hit me, THAT'S DAVID'S GIRL! I tried to turn around,
+      but you know what Main Street is in the middle of the day. And those
+      idiots of policemen! They ordered me on, and I couldn't turn for a street
+      car coming, so I called to one of them that the girl we wanted was down
+      the street, and he looked at me like an addle-pate and said, 'What girl?
+      Move on or you'll get in a jam here.' You can use me for a football if I
+      don't go back and smash him. Paid him five dollars myself less than two
+      weeks ago to keep his eyes open. 'TO KEEP HIS EYES OPEN!'&rdquo; panted the
+      doctor, shaking his fist at David. &ldquo;Yes sir! 'To keep his eyes open!' And
+      he motioned for things to come along, and so I lost her too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we had better go back to the street,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'd been back and forth along that street for nearly an hour before I
+      gave up and came here to see if I could find you, and we've hunted it an
+      hour more! What's the use? She's gone for this time, but by gum, I saw
+      her! And she was worth seeing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did she appear ill to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor dropped on a chair and threw out his hands hopelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was awful sudden, David,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was going along as I told you,
+      and I noticed her stop and thought she had a good head to wait a second
+      instead of running in before me, and there came those two girls right
+      under the car from the other side. I only had a glimpse of her as she
+      stooped for the flowers. I saw a big braid of hair, but I was half a block
+      away before I got it all connected, and then came the crush in the street,
+      and I was blocked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor broke down and wiped his face and expressed his feelings
+      unrestrainedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't!&rdquo; said the Harvester patiently. &ldquo;It's no use to feel so badly, Doc.
+      I know what you would give to have found her for me. I know you did all
+      you could. I let her escape me. We will find her yet. It's glorious news
+      that she's in the city. It gives me heart to hear that. Can't you just
+      remember if she seemed ill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor meditated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She wasn't the tallest girl I ever saw,&rdquo; he said slowly, &ldquo;but she was the
+      tallest girl to be pretty. She had on a white waist and a gray skirt and
+      black hat. Her eyes and hair were like you said, and she was plain, white
+      faced, with a hue that might possibly be natural, and it might be
+      confinement in bad light and air and poor food. She didn't seem sick, but
+      she isn't well. There is something the matter with her, but it's not
+      immediate or dangerous. She appeared like a flower that had got a little
+      moisture and sprouted in a cellar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You saw her all right!&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and I think your diagnosis
+      is correct too. That's the way she seemed to me. I've thought she needed
+      sun and air. I told the South Wind so the other day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you blame fool!&rdquo; cried the doctor. &ldquo;Is this thing going to your head?
+      Say, I forgot! There is something else. I traced her in the store. She was
+      at the embroidery counter and she bought some silk. If she ever comes
+      again the clerk is going to hold her and telephone me or get her address
+      if she has to steal it. Oh, we are getting there! We will have her pretty
+      soon now. You ought to feel better just to know that she is in town and
+      that I've seen her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Indeed I do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It can't be much longer,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;She's got to be located soon.
+      But those policemen! I wouldn't give a nickel for the lot! I'll bet she's
+      walked over them for two weeks. If I were you I'd discharge the bunch.
+      They'd be peacefully asleep if she passed them. If they'd let me alone,
+      I'd have had her. I could have turned around easily. I've been in dozens
+      of closer places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't worry! This can't last much longer. She's of and in the city or she
+      wouldn't have picked up the flowers. Doc, are you sure they were mine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Half the girls have been tricked out in yours the past two weeks. I
+      can spot them as far as I can see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear Lord, that's getting close!&rdquo; said the Harvester intensely. &ldquo;Seems as
+      if the violets would tell her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now cut out flowers talking and the South Wind!&rdquo; ordered the doctor.
+      &ldquo;This is business. The violets prove something all right, though. If she
+      was in the country, she could gather plenty herself. She is working at
+      sewing in some room in town, either over a store or in a house. If she
+      hadn't been starved for flowers she never would have stopped for them on
+      the street. I could see just a flash of hesitation, but she wanted them
+      too much. David, one bouquet will go in water and be cared for a week.
+      Man, it's getting close! This does seem like a link.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since you say it, possibly I dare agree with you,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How near are you through with that canvass of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About three fourths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I'd go on with it. After all we have got to find her ourselves.
+      Those senile policemen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going on with it; you needn't worry about that. But I've got to
+      change to other flowers. I've stripped the violet beds. There's quite a
+      crop of berries coming, but they are not ripe yet, and a tragedy to pick.
+      The pond lilies are just beginning to open by the thousand. The lake
+      border is blue with sweet-flag that is lovely and the marsh pale gold with
+      cowslips. The ferns are prime and the woods solid sheets of every colour
+      of bloom. I believe I'll go ahead with the wild flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would too! David, you do feel better, don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly do, Doctor. Surely it won't be long now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was so hopeful that he whistled and sang on the return to
+      Medicine Woods, and that night for the first time in many days he sat long
+      over a candlestick, and took a farewell peep into her room before he went
+      to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he worked with all his might harvesting the last remnants of
+      early spring herbs, in the dry-room and store-house, and on furniture and
+      candlesticks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went back to flower gathering and every day offered bunches of
+      exquisite wood and field flowers and white and gold water lilies from door
+      to door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three weeks later the Harvester, perceptibly thin, pale, and worried
+      entered the office. He sank into a chair and groaned wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't this the bitterest luck!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I've finished the town. I've
+      almost walked off my legs. I've sold flowers by the million, but I've not
+      had a sight of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's been almost a tragedy with me,&rdquo; said the doctor gloomily. &ldquo;I've
+      killed two dogs and grazed a baby, because I was watching the sidewalks
+      instead of the street. What are you going to do now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going home and bring up the work to the July mark. I am going to
+      take it easy and rest a few days so I can think more clearly. I don't know
+      what I'll try next. I've punched up the depot and the policemen again.
+      When I get something new thought out I'll let you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he began emptying his pockets of money and heaping it on the table,
+      small coins, bills, big and little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; said the Harvester, giving the heap a shove of contempt, &ldquo;that is
+      the price of my pride and humiliation. That is what it cost people who
+      allowed me to cheek my way into their homes and rob them, as one maid
+      said, for my own purposes. Doc, where on earth does all the money come
+      from? In almost every house I entered, women had it to waste, in many
+      cases to throw away. I never saw so much paid for nothing in all my life.
+      That whole heap is from mushrooms and flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you piling it there for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For your free ward. I don't want a penny of it. I wouldn't keep it, not
+      if I was starving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why David! You couldn't compel any one to buy. You offered something they
+      wanted, and they paid you what you asked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and to keep them from buying, and to make the stuff go farther, I
+      named prices to shame a shark. When I think of that mushroom deal I can
+      feel my face burn. I've made the search I wanted to, and I am satisfied
+      that I can't find her that way. I have kept up my work at home between
+      times. I am not out anything but my time, and it isn't fair to plunder the
+      city to pay that. Take that cussed money and put it where I'll never see
+      or hear of it. Do anything you please, except to ask me ever to profit by
+      a cent. When I wash my hands after touching it for the last time maybe
+      I'll feel better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a fanatic!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If getting rid of that is being a fanatic, I am proud of the title. You
+      can't imagine what I've been through!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't I though?&rdquo; laughed the doctor. &ldquo;In work of that kind you get into
+      every variety of place; and some of it is new to you. Never mind! No one
+      can contaminate you. It is the law that only a man can degrade himself.
+      Knowing things will not harm you. Doing them is a different matter. What
+      you know will be a protection. What you do ruins&mdash;&mdash;if it is
+      wrong. You are not harmed, you are only disgusted. Think it over, and in a
+      few days come back and get your money. It is strictly honest. You earned
+      every cent of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you ever speak of it again or force it on me I'll take it home and
+      throw it into the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went after Betsy and slowly drove to Medicine Woods. Belshazzar, on the
+      seat beside him, recognized a silent, disappointed master and whimpered as
+      he rubbed the Harvester's shoulder to attract his attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is tough luck, old boy,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I had such hopes and I
+      worked so hard. I suffered in the flesh for every hour of it, and I
+      failed. Oh but I hate the word! If I knew where she is right now, Bel, I'd
+      give anything I've got. But there's no use to wail and get sorry for
+      myself. That's against the law of common decency. I'll take a swim, sleep
+      it off, straighten up the herbs a little, and go at it again, old fellow;
+      that's a man's way. She's somewhere, and she's got to be found, no matter
+      what it costs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. BELSHAZZAR'S RECORD POINT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester set the neglected cabin in order; then he carefully and
+      deftly packed all his dried herbs, barks, and roots. Next came carrying
+      the couch grass, wild alum, and soapwort into the store-room. Then
+      followed July herbs. He first went to his beds of foxglove, because the
+      tender leaves of the second year should be stripped from them at flowering
+      time, and that usually began two weeks earlier; but his bed lay in a
+      shaded, damp location and the tall bloom stalks were only in half flower,
+      their pale lavender making an exquisite picture. It paid to collect those
+      leaves, so the Harvester hastily stripped the amount he wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yarrow was beginning to bloom and he gathered as much as he required,
+      taking the whole plant. That only brought a few cents a pound, but it was
+      used entire, so the weight made it worth while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catnip tops and leaves were also ready. As it grew in the open in dry soil
+      and the beds had been weeded that spring, he could gather great arm loads
+      of it with a sickle, but he had to watch the swarming bees. He left the
+      male fern and mullein until the last for different reasons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the damp, cool, rocky hillside, beneath deep shade of big forest trees,
+      grew the ferns, their long, graceful fronds waving softly. Tree toads sang
+      on the cool rocks beneath them, chewinks nested under gnarled roots among
+      them, rose-breasted grosbeaks sang in grape-vines clambering over the
+      thickets, and Singing Water ran close beside. So the Harvester left
+      digging these roots until nearly the last, because he so disliked to
+      disturb the bed. He could not have done it if he had not been forced. All
+      of the demand for his fern never could be supplied. Of his products none
+      was more important to the Harvester because this formed the basis of one
+      of the oldest and most reliable remedies for little children. The fern had
+      to be gathered with especial care, deteriorated quickly, and no staple was
+      more subject to adulteration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he kept his bed intact, lifted the roots at the proper time, carefully
+      cleaned without washing, rapidly dried in currents of hot air, and shipped
+      them in bottles to the trade. He charged and received fifteen cents a
+      pound, where careless and indifferent workers got ten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the banks of Singing Water, at the head of the fern bed, the Harvester
+      stood under a gray beech tree and looked down the swaying length of
+      delicate green. He was lean and rapidly bronzing, for he seldom remembered
+      a head covering because he loved the sweep of the wind in his hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate to touch you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How I wish she could see you before I
+      begin. If she did, probably she would say it was a sin, and then I never
+      could muster courage to do it at all. I'd give a small farm to know if
+      those violets revived for her. I was crazy to ask Doc if they were wilted,
+      but I hated to. If they were from the ones I gathered that morning they
+      should have been all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A tree toad dared him to come on; a chipmunk grew saucy as the Harvester
+      bent to an unloved task. If he stripped the bed as closely as he dared and
+      not injure it, he could not fill half his orders; so, deftly and with
+      swift, skilful fingers and an earnest face, he worked. Belshazzar came
+      down the hill on a rush, nose to earth and began hunting among the plants.
+      He never could understand why his loved master was so careless as to go to
+      work before he had pronounced it safe. When the fern bed was finished, the
+      Harvester took time to make a trip to town, but there was no word waiting
+      him; so he went to the mullein. It lay on a sunny hillside beyond the
+      couch grass and joined a few small fields, the only cleared land of the
+      six hundred acres of Medicine Woods. Over rocks and little hills and
+      hollows spread the pale, grayish-yellow of the green leaves, and from five
+      to seven feet arose the flower stems, while the entire earth between was
+      covered with rosettes of young plants. Belshazzar went before to give
+      warning if any big rattlers curled in the sun on the hillside, and after
+      him followed the Harvester cutting leaves in heaps. That was warm work and
+      he covered his head with a floppy old straw hat, with wet grass in the
+      crown, and stopped occasionally to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He loved that yellow-faced hillside. Because so much of his reaping lay in
+      the shade and commonly his feet sank in dead leaves and damp earth, the
+      change was a rest. He cheerfully stubbed his toes on rocks, and endured
+      the heat without complaint. It appeared to him as if a member of every
+      species of butterfly he knew wavered down the hillside. There were
+      golden-brown danais, with their black-striped wings, jetty troilus with an
+      attempt at trailers, big asterias, velvety black with longer trails and
+      wide bands of yellow dots. Coenia were most numerous of all and to the
+      Harvester wonderfully attractive in rich, subdued colours with a wealth of
+      markings and eye spots. Many small moths, with transparent wings and noses
+      red as blood, flashed past him hunting pollen. Goldfinches, intent on
+      thistle bloom, wavered through the air trailing mellow, happy notes behind
+      them, and often a humming-bird visited the mullein. On the lake wild life
+      splashed and chattered incessantly, and sometimes the Harvester paused and
+      stood with arms heaped with leaves, to interpret some unusually appealing
+      note of pain or anger or some very attractive melody. The red-wings were
+      swarming, the killdeers busy, and he thought of the Dream Girl and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if she would like this,&rdquo; he mused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the mullein leaves were deep on the trays of the dry-house he began
+      on the bloom and that was a task he loved. Just to lay off the beds in
+      swaths and follow them, deftly picking the stamens and yellow petals from
+      the blooms. These he would dry speedily in hot air, bottle, and send at
+      once to big laboratories. The listed price was seventy-five cents a pound,
+      but the beautiful golden bottles of the Harvester always brought more. The
+      work was worth while, and he liked the location and gathering of this
+      particular crop: for these reasons he always left it until the last, and
+      then revelled in the gold of sunshine, bird, butterfly, and flower.
+      Several days were required to harvest the mullein and during the time the
+      man worked with nimble fingers, while his brain was intensely occupied
+      with the question of what to do next in his search for the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the work was finished, he went to the deep wood to take a peep at
+      acres of thrifty ginseng, and he was satisfied as he surveyed the big bed.
+      Long years he had laboured diligently; soon came the reward. He had not
+      realized it before, but as he studied the situation he saw that he either
+      must begin this harvest at once or employ help. If he waited until
+      September he could not gather one third of the crop alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the roots will weigh less if I take them now,&rdquo; he argued, &ldquo;and I can
+      work at nothing in comfort until I have located her. I will go on with my
+      search and allow the ginseng to grow that much heavier. What a picture! It
+      is folly to disturb this now, for I will lose the seed of every plant I
+      dig, and that is worth almost as much as the root. It is a question
+      whether I want to furnish the market with seed, and so raise competition
+      for my bed. I think, be jabbers, that I'll wait for this harvest until the
+      seed is ripe, and then bury part of a head where I dig a root, as the
+      Indians did. That's the idea! The more I grow, the more money; and I may
+      need considerable for her. One thing I'd like to know: Are these plants
+      cultivated? All the books quote the wild at highest rates and all I've
+      ever sold was wild. The start grew here naturally. What I added from the
+      surrounding country was wild, but through and among it I've sown seed I
+      bought, and I've tended it with every care. But this is deep wood and wild
+      conditions. I think I have a perfect right to so label it. I'll ask Doc.
+      And another thing I'll go through the woods west of Onabasha where I used
+      to find ginseng, and see if I can get a little and then take the same
+      amount of plants grown here, and make a test. That way I can discover any
+      difference before I go to market. This is my gold mine, and that point is
+      mighty important to me, so I'll go this very day. I used to find it in the
+      woods northeast of town and on the land Jameson bought, west. Wonder if he
+      lives there yet. He should have died of pure meanness long ago. I'll drive
+      to the river and hunt along the bank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Early the following morning the Harvester went to Onabasha and stopped at
+      the hospital for news. Finding none, he went through town and several
+      miles into the country on the other side, to a piece of lowland lying
+      along the river bank, where he once had found and carried home to reset a
+      big bed of ginseng. If he could get only a half pound of roots from there
+      now, they would serve his purpose. He went down the bank, Belshazzar at
+      his heels, and at last found the place. Many trees had been cut, but there
+      remained enough for shade; the fields bore the ragged, unattractive
+      appearance of old. The Harvester smiled grimly as he remembered that the
+      man who lived there once had charged him for damage he might do to trees
+      in driving across his woods, and boasted to his neighbours that a young
+      fool was paying for the privilege of doing his grubbing. If Jameson had
+      known what the roots he was so anxious to dispose of brought a pound on
+      the market at that time, he would have been insane with anger. So the
+      Harvester's eyes were dancing with fun and a wry grin twisted his lips as
+      he clambered over the banks of the recently dredged river, and looked at
+      its pitiful condition and straight, muddy flow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Appears to match the remainder of the Jameson property,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I
+      don't know who he is or where he came from, but he's no farmer. Perhaps he
+      uses this land to corral the stock he buys until he can sell it again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went down the embankment and began to search for the location where he
+      formerly had found the ginseng. When he came to the place he stood amazed,
+      for from seed, roots, and plants he had missed, the growth had sprung up
+      and spread, so that at a rapid estimate the Harvester thought it contained
+      at least five pounds, allowing for what it would shrink on account of
+      being gathered early. He hesitated an instant, and thought of coming
+      later; but the drive was long and the loss would not amount to enough to
+      pay for a second trip. About taking it, he never thought at all. He once
+      had permission from the owner to dig all the shrubs, bushes, and weeds he
+      desired from that stretch of woods, and had paid for possible damages that
+      might occur. As he bent to the task there did come a fleeting thought that
+      the patch was weedless and in unusual shape for wild stuff. Then, with
+      swift strokes of his light mattock, he lifted the roots, crammed them into
+      his sack, whistled to Belshazzar, and going back to the wagon, drove away.
+      Reaching home he washed the ginseng, and spread it on a tray to dry. The
+      first time he wanted the mattock he realized that he had left it lying
+      where he had worked. It was an implement that he had directed a blacksmith
+      to fashion to meet his requirements. No store contained anything half so
+      useful to him. He had worked with it for years and it just suited him, so
+      there was nothing to do but go back. Betsy was too tired to return that
+      day, so he planned to dig his ginseng with something else, finish his work
+      the following morning, and get the mattock in the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's like a knife you've carried for years, or a gun,&rdquo; muttered the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;I actually don't know how to get along without it. What made
+      me so careless I can't imagine. I never before in my life did a trick like
+      that. I wonder if I hurried a little. I certainly was free to take it. He
+      always wanted the stuff dug up. Of all the stupid tricks, Belshazzar, that
+      was the worst. Now Betsy and a half day of wasted time must pay for my
+      carelessness. Since I have to go, I'll look a little farther. Maybe there
+      is more. Those woods used to be full of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      According to this programme, the next afternoon the Harvester again walked
+      down the embankment of the mourning river and through the ragged woods to
+      the place where the ginseng had been. He went forward, stepping lightly,
+      as men of his race had walked the forest for ages, swerving to avoid
+      boughs, and looking straight ahead. Contrary to his usual custom of coming
+      to heel in a strange wood, Belshazzar suddenly darted around the man and
+      took the path they had followed the previous day. The animal was
+      performing his office in life; he had heard or scented something unusual.
+      The Harvester knew what that meant. He looked inquiringly at the dog,
+      glanced around, and then at the earth. Belshazzar proceeded noiselessly at
+      a rapid pace over the leaves: Suddenly the master saw the dog stop in a
+      stiff point. Lifting his feet lightly and straining his eyes before him,
+      the Harvester passed a spice thicket and came in line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For one second he stood as rigid as Belshazzar. The next his right arm
+      shot upward full length, and began describing circles, his open palm
+      heavenward, and into his face leapt a glorified expression of exultation.
+      Face down in the rifled ginseng bed lay a sobbing girl. Her frame was long
+      and slender, a thick coil of dark hair; bound her head. A second more and
+      the Harvester bent and softly patted Belshazzar's head. The beast broke
+      point and looked up. The man caught the dog's chin in a caressing grip,
+      again touched his head, moved soundless lips, and waved toward the
+      prostrate figure. The dog hesitated. The Harvester made the same motions.
+      Belshazzar softly stepped over the leaves, passed around the feet of the
+      girl, and paused beside her, nose to earth, softly sniffing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one moment she came swiftly to a sitting posture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried in a spasm of fright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar reached an investigating nose and wagged an eager tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you are a nice friendly dog!&rdquo; said the trembling voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He immediately verified the assertion by offering his nose for a kiss. The
+      girl timidly laid a hand on his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven knows I'm lonely enough to kiss a dog,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but suppose you
+      belong to the man who stole my ginseng, and then ran away so fast he
+      forgot his&mdash;&mdash;his piece he digged with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar pressed closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am just killed, and I don't care whose dog you are,&rdquo; sobbed the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw her arms around Belshazzar's neck and laid her white face
+      against his satiny shoulder. The Harvester could endure no more. He took a
+      step forward, his face convulsed with pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please don't!&rdquo; he begged. &ldquo;I took your ginseng. I'll bring it back
+      to-morrow. There wasn't more than twenty-five or thirty dollars' worth. It
+      doesn't amount to one tear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl arose so quickly, the Harvester could not see how she did it.
+      With a startled fright on her face, and the dark eyes swimming, she turned
+      to him in one long look. Words rolled from the lips of the man in a
+      jumble. Behind the tears there was a dull, expressionless blue in the
+      girl's eyes and her face was so white that it appeared blank. He began
+      talking before she could speak, in an effort to secure forgiveness without
+      condemnation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, I grow it for a living on land I own, and I've always gathered
+      all there was in the country and no one cared. There never was enough in
+      one place to pay, and no other man wanted to spend the time, and so I've
+      always felt free to take it. Every one knew I did, and no one ever
+      objected before. Once I paid Henry Jameson for the privilege of cleaning
+      it from these woods. That was six or seven years ago, and it didn't occur
+      to me that I wasn't at liberty to dig what has grown since. I'll bring it
+      back at once, and pay you for the shrinkage from gathering it too early.
+      There won't be much over six pounds when it's dry. Please, please don't
+      feel badly. Won't you trust me to return it, and make good the damage I've
+      done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of the Harvester was eager and his tones appealing, as he leaned
+      forward trying to make her understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly!&rdquo; said the Girl as she bent to pat the dog, while she dried her
+      eyes under cover of the movement. &ldquo;Certainly! It can make no difference!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But as the Harvester drew a deep breath of relief, she suddenly
+      straightened to full height and looked straight at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh what is the use to tell a pitiful lie!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It does make a
+      difference! It makes all the difference in the world! I need that money! I
+      need it unspeakably. I owe a debt I must pay. What&mdash;&mdash;what did I
+      understand you to say ginseng is worth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will take a few steps,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and make yourself
+      comfortable on this log in the shade, I will tell you all I know about
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl walked swiftly to the log indicated, seated herself, and waited.
+      The Harvester followed to a respectful distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell to an ounce what wet roots would weigh,&rdquo; he said as easily
+      as he could command his voice to speak with the heart in him beating
+      wildly, &ldquo;and of course they lose greatly in drying; but I've handled
+      enough that I know the weight I carried home will come to six pounds at
+      the very least. Then you must figure on some loss, because I dug this
+      before it really was ready. It does not reach full growth until September,
+      and if it is taken too soon there is a decrease in weight. I will make
+      that up to you when I return it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The troubled eyes were gazing on his face intently, and the Harvester
+      studied them as he talked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would think, then, there would be all of six pounds?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;closer eight. When I replace the shrinkage
+      there is bound to be over seven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how much did I understand you to say it brought a pound?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That all depends,&rdquo; answered he. &ldquo;If you cure it yourself, and dry it too
+      much, you lose in weight. If you carry it in a small lot to the druggists
+      of Onabasha, probably you will not get over five dollars for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Five?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a startled cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much did you expect?&rdquo; asked the Harvester gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle Henry said he thought he could get fifty cents a pound for all I
+      could find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your Uncle Henry has learned at last that ginseng is a salable article
+      he should know something about the price also. Will you tell me what he
+      said, and how you came to think of gathering roots for the market?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were men talking beneath the trees one Sunday afternoon about old
+      times and hunting deer, and they spoke of people who made money long ago
+      gathering roots and barks, and they mentioned one man who lived by it
+      yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was his name Langston?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I remember because I liked the name. I was so eager to earn
+      something, and I can't leave here just now because Aunt Molly is very ill,
+      so the thought came that possibly I could gather stuff worth money, after
+      my work was finished. I went out and asked questions. They said nothing
+      brought enough to make it pay any one, except this ginseng plant, and the
+      Langston man almost had stripped the country. Then uncle said he used to
+      get stuff here, and he might have got some of that. I asked what it was
+      like, so they told me and I hunted until I found that, and it seemed a
+      quantity to me. Of course I didn't know it had to be dried. Uncle took a
+      root I dug to a store, and they told him that it wasn't much used any
+      more, but they would give him fifty cents a pound for it. What MAKES you
+      think you can get five dollars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your permission,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seated himself on the log, drew from his pocket an old pamphlet, and
+      spreading it before her, ran a pencil along the line of a list of schedule
+      prices for common drug roots and herbs. Because he understood, his eyes
+      were very bright, and his voice a trifle crisp. A latent anger springing
+      in his breast was a good curb for his emotions. He was closely acquainted
+      with all of the druggists of Onabasha, and he knew that not one of them
+      had offered less than standard prices for ginseng.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason I think so,&rdquo; he said gently, &ldquo;is because growing it is the
+      largest part of my occupation, and it was a staple with my father before
+      me. I am David Langston, of whom you heard those men speak. Since I was a
+      very small boy I have lived by collecting herbs and roots, and I get more
+      for ginseng than anything else. Very early I tired of hunting other
+      people's woods for herbs, so I began transplanting them to my own. I moved
+      that bed out there seven years ago. What you found has grown since from
+      roots I overlooked and seeds that fell at that time. Now do you think I am
+      enough of an authority to trust my word on the subject?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a change of expression on her white face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely should know,&rdquo; she said wearily, &ldquo;and you could have no
+      possible object in deceiving me. Please go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any country boy or girl can find ginseng, gather, wash, and dry it, and
+      get five dollars a pound. I can return yours to-morrow and you can cure
+      and take it to a druggist I will name you, and sell for that. But if you
+      will allow me to make a suggestion, you can get more. Your roots are now
+      on the trays of an evaporating house. They will dry to the proper degree
+      desired by the trade, so that they will not lose an extra ounce in weight,
+      and if I send them with my stuff to big wholesale houses I deal with, they
+      will be graded with the finest wild ginseng. It is worth more than the
+      cultivated and you will get closer eight dollars a pound for it than five.
+      There is some speculation in it, and the market fluctuates: but, as a
+      rule, I sell for the highest price the drug brings, and, at times when the
+      season is very dry, I set my own prices. Shall I return yours or may I
+      cure and sell it, and bring you the money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much trouble would that make you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None. The work of digging and washing is already finished. All that
+      remains is to weigh it and make a memorandum of the amount when I sell. I
+      should very much like to do it. It would be a comfort to see the money go
+      into your hands. If you are afraid to trust me, I will give you the names
+      of several people you can ask concerning me the next time you go to the
+      city.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind that,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But why do you offer to do it for a
+      stranger? It must be some trouble, no matter how small you represent it to
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I am going to pay you eight and sell for ten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think you can. Five sounds fabulous to me. I can't believe that.
+      If you wanted to make money you needn't have told me you took it. I never
+      would have known. That isn't your reason!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly I would like to atone for those tears I caused,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't think of that! They are of no consequence to any one. You needn't
+      do anything for me on that account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't search for a reason,&rdquo; said the Harvester, in his gentlest tones.
+      &ldquo;Forget that feature of the case. Say I'm peculiar, and allow me to do it
+      because it would be a pleasure. In close two weeks I will bring you the
+      money. Is it a bargain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you care to make it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care very much. We will call that settled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could tell you what it will mean to me,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you only would,&rdquo; plead the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must not burden a stranger with my troubles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if it would make the stranger so happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That isn't possible. I must face life and bear what it brings me alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not unless you choose,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;That is, if you will pardon
+      me, a narrow view of life. It cuts other people out of the joy of service.
+      If you can't tell me, would you trust a very lovely and gentle woman I
+      could bring to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more than you. It is my affair; I must work it out myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am mighty sorry,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I believe you err in that
+      decision. Think it over a day or so, and see if two heads are not better
+      than one. You will realize when this ginseng matter is settled that you
+      profited by trusting me. The same will hold good along other lines, if you
+      only can bring yourself to think so. At any rate, try. Telling a trouble
+      makes it lighter. Sympathy should help, if nothing can be done. And as for
+      money, I can show you how to earn sums at least worth your time, if you
+      have nothing else you want to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl bent toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh please do tell me!&rdquo; she cried eagerly. &ldquo;I've tried and tried to find
+      some way ever since I have been here, but every one else I have met says I
+      can't, and nothing seems to be worth anything. If you only would tell me
+      something I could do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will excuse my saying so,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;it appeals to me
+      that ease, not work, is the thing you require. You appear extremely worn.
+      Won't you let me help you find a way to a long rest first?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;I know I am white and appear ill, but truly
+      I never have been sick in all my life. I have been having trouble and
+      working too much, but I'll be better soon. Believe me, there is no rest
+      for me now. I must earn the money I owe first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a way, if you care to take it,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;In my work
+      I have become very well acquainted with the chief surgeon of the city
+      hospital. Through him I happen to know that he has a free bed in a
+      beautiful room, where you could rest until you are perfectly strong again,
+      and that room is empty just now. When you are well, I will tell you about
+      the work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she arose the Harvester stood, and tall and straight she faced him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It would be brutal to leave my aunt. I cannot pay
+      to rest in a hospital ward, and I will not accept charity. If you can put
+      me in the way of earning, even a few cents a day, at anything I could do
+      outside the work necessary to earn my board here, it would bring me closer
+      to happiness than anything else on earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I suggest is not impossible,&rdquo; said the Harvester softly. &ldquo;If you
+      will go, inside an hour a sweet and gentle lady will come for you and take
+      you to ease and perfect rest until you are strong again. I will see that
+      your aunt is cared for scrupulously. I can't help urging you. It is a
+      crime to talk of work to a woman so manifestly worn as you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will not speak of it,&rdquo; said the Girl wearily. &ldquo;It is time for me
+      to go, anyway. I see you mean to be very kind, and while I don't in the
+      least understand it, I do hope you feel I am grateful. If half you say
+      about the ginseng comes true, I can make a payment worth while before I
+      had hoped to. I have no words to tell you what that will mean to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this debt you speak of were paid, could you rest then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could lie down and give up in peace, and I think I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you wouldn't,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;because you wouldn't be
+      allowed. There are people in these days who make a business of securing
+      rest for the tired and over weary, and they would come and prevent that if
+      you tried it. Please let me make another suggestion. If you owe money to
+      some one you feel needs it and the debt is preying on you, let's pay it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew a small check-book from his pocket and slipped a pen from a band.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will name the amount and give me the address, you shall be free to
+      go to the rest I ask for you inside an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then slowly from head to foot she looked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because your face and attitude clearly indicate that you are over tired.
+      Believe me, you do yourself wrong if you refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way would changing creditors rest me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought perhaps you were owing some one who needed the money. I am not
+      a rich man, but I have no one save myself to provide for and I have funds
+      lying idle that I would be glad to use for you. If you make a point of it,
+      when you are rested, you can repay me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My creditor needs the money, but I should prefer owing him rather than a
+      perfect stranger. What you suggest would help me not at all. I must go
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;If you will tell me whom to ask for and
+      where you live, I will come to see you to-morrow and bring you some
+      pamphlets. With these and with a little help you soon can earn any amount
+      a girl is likely to owe. It will require but a little while. Where can I
+      find you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl hesitated and for the first time a hint of colour flushed her
+      cheek. But courage appeared to be her strong point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you live in this part of the country?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I live ten miles from here, east of Onabasha,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know Henry Jameson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By sight and by reputation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever know anything kind or humane of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Ruth Jameson. At present I am indebted to him for the only
+      shelter I have. His wife is ill through overwork and worry, and I am
+      paying for my bed and what I don't eat, principally, by attempting her
+      work. It scarcely would be fair to Uncle Henry to say that I do it. I
+      stagger around as long as I can stand, then I sit through his abuse. He is
+      a pleasant man. Please don't think I am telling you this to harrow your
+      sympathy further. The reason I explain is because I am driven. If I do
+      not, you will misjudge me when I say that I only can see you here. I
+      understood what you meant when you said Uncle Henry should have known the
+      price of ginseng if he knew it was for sale. He did. He knew what he could
+      get for it, and what he meant to pay me. That is one of his original
+      methods with a woman. If he thought I could earn anything worth while, he
+      would allow me, if I killed myself doing it; and then he would take the
+      money by force if necessary. So I can meet you here only. I can earn just
+      what I may in secret. He buys cattle and horses and is away from home much
+      of the day, and when Aunt Molly is comfortable I can have a few hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But this is an added hardship. Why do
+      you remain? Why subject yourself to force and work too heavy for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because his is the only roof on earth where I feel I can pay for all I
+      get. I don't care to discuss it, I only want you to say you understand, if
+      I ask you to bring the pamphlets here and tell me how I can earn money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do,&rdquo; said the Harvester earnestly, although his heart was hot in
+      protest. &ldquo;You may be very sure that I will not misjudge you. Shall I come
+      at two o'clock to-morrow, Miss Jameson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will be so kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped aside and she passed him and crossing the rifled
+      ginseng patch went toward a low brown farmhouse lying in an unkept garden,
+      beside a ragged highway. The man sat on the log she had vacated, held his
+      head between his hands and tried to think, but he could not for big waves
+      of joy that swept over him when he realized that at last he had found her,
+      had spoken with her, and had arranged a meeting for the morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Belshazzar,&rdquo; he said softly, &ldquo;I wish I could leave you to protect her.
+      Every day you prove to me that I need you, but Heaven knows her necessity
+      is greater. Bel, she makes my heart ache until it feels like jelly. There
+      seems to be just one thing to do. Get that fool debt paid like lightning,
+      and lift her out of here quicker than that. Now, we will go and see Doc,
+      and call off the watch-dogs of the law. Ahead of them, aren't we,
+      Belshazzar? There is a better day coming; we feel it in our bones, don't
+      we, old partner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester started through the woods on a rush, and as the exercise
+      warmed his heart, he grew wonderfully glad. At last he had found her.
+      Uncertainty was over. If ever a girl needed a home and care he thought she
+      did. He was so jubilant that he felt like crying aloud, shouting for joy,
+      but by and by the years of sober repression made their weight felt, so he
+      climbed into the wagon and politely requested Betsy to make her best time
+      to Onabasha. Betsy had been asked to make haste so frequently of late that
+      she at first almost doubted the sanity of her master, the law of whose
+      life, until recently, had been to take his time. Now he appeared to be in
+      haste every day. She had become so accustomed to being urged to hurry that
+      she almost had developed a gait; so at the Harvester's suggestion she did
+      her level best to Onabasha and the hospital, where she loved to nose
+      Belshazzar and rest near the watering tap under a big tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester went down the hall and into the office on the run, and his
+      face appeared like a materialized embodiment of living joy. Doctor Carey
+      turned at his approach and then bounded half way across the room, his
+      hands outstretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've found her, David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester grabbed the hand of his friend and stood pumping it up and
+      down while he gulped at the lump in his throat, and big tears squeezed
+      from his eyes, but he could only nod his proud head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Found her!&rdquo; exulted Doctor Carey. &ldquo;Really found her! Well that's great!
+      Sit down and tell me, boy! Is she sick, as we feared? Did you only see her
+      or did you get to talk with her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well sir,&rdquo; said the Harvester, choking back his emotions, &ldquo;you remember
+      that ginseng I told you about getting on the old Jameson place last night.
+      To-day, I learned I'd lost that hand-made mattock I use most, and I went
+      back for it, and there she was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the country?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well why didn't we think of it before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose first we would have had to satisfy ourselves that she wasn't in
+      town, anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure! That would be the logical way to go at it! And so you found her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes sir, I found her! Just Belshazzar and I! I was going along on my way
+      to the place, and he ran past me and made a stiff point, and when I came
+      up, there she was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There she was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes sir; there she was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They shook hands again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then of course you spoke to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes I spoke to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were you pleased?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With her speech and manner?&mdash;&mdash;yes. But, Doc, if ever a woman
+      needed everything on earth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well did you get any kind of a start made?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't do so very much. I had to go a little slow for fear of
+      frightening her, but I tried to get her to come here and she won't until a
+      debt she owes is paid, and she's in no condition to work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got any idea how much it is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but it can't be any large sum. I tried to offer to pay it, but she
+      had no hesitation in telling me she preferred owing a man she knew to a
+      stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well if she is so particular, how did she come to tell you first thing
+      that she was in debt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I see!&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;Well you'll have to baby her along with the
+      idea that she is earning money and pay her double until you get that off
+      her mind, and while you are at it, put in your best licks, my boy; perk
+      right up and court her like a house afire. Women like it. All of them do.
+      They glory in feeling that a man is crazy about them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I'm insane enough over her,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but I'd hate like
+      the nation for her to know it. Seems as if a woman couldn't respect such
+      an addle-pate as I am lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you worry about that,&rdquo; advised the doctor. &ldquo;Just you make love to
+      her. Go at it in the good old-fashioned way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But maybe the 'good old-fashioned way' isn't my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the difference whose way it is, if it wins?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Kipling says: 'Each man makes love his own way!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seem to have heard you mention that name be fore,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;Do
+      you regard him as an authority?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Especially when he advises me after my own
+      heart and reason. Miss Jameson is not a silly girl. She's a woman, and
+      twenty-four at least. I don't want her to care for a trick or a pretence.
+      I do want her to love me. Not that I am worth her attention, but because
+      she needs some strong man fearfully, and I am ready and more 'willing'
+      than the original Barkis. But, like him, I have to let her know it in my
+      way, and court her according to the promptings of my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You deceive yourself!&rdquo; said the doctor flatly. &ldquo;That's all bosh! Your
+      tongue says it for the satisfaction of your ears, and it does sound well.
+      You will court her according to your ideas of the conventions, as you
+      understand them, and strictly in accordance with what you consider the
+      respect due her. If you had followed the thing you call the 'promptings of
+      your heart,' you would have picked her up by main force and brought her to
+      my best ward, instead of merely suggesting it and giving up when she said
+      no. If you had followed your heart, you would have choked the name and
+      amount out of her and paid that devilish debt. You walk away in a case
+      like that, and then have the nerve to come here and prate to me about
+      following your heart. I'll wager my last dollar your heart is sore because
+      you were not allowed to help her; but on the proposition that you followed
+      its promptings I wouldn't stake a penny. That's all tommy-rot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; agreed the Harvester. &ldquo;Utter! But what can a man do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what you can do! I'd have paid that debt and brought her to
+      the hospital.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go and ask Mrs. Carey about your courtship. I want her help on this,
+      anyway. I can pick up Miss Jameson and bring her here if any man can, but
+      she is nursing a sick woman who depends solely on her for care. She is
+      above average size, and she has a very decided mind of her own. I don't
+      think you would use force and do what you think best for her, if you were
+      in my place. You would wait until you understood the situation better, and
+      knew that what you did was for the best, ultimately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know whether I would or not. One thing is sure: I'm mighty glad
+      you have found her. May I tell my wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please do! And ask her if I may depend on her if I need a woman's help.
+      Now I'll call off the valiant police and go home and take a good, sound
+      sleep. Haven't had many since I first saw her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Betsy trotted down the valley, up the embankment, crossed the railroad,
+      over the levee across Singing Water, and up the hill to the cabin. As they
+      passed it, the Harvester jumped from the wagon, tossed the hitching strap
+      to Belshazzar, and entered. He walked straight to her door, unlocked it,
+      and uncovering, went inside. Softly he passed from piece to piece of the
+      furniture he had made for her, and then surveyed the walls and floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't half good enough,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it will have to answer until I
+      can do better. Surely she will know I tried and care for that, anyway. I
+      wonder how long it will take me to get her here. Oh, if I only could know
+      she was comfortable and happy! Happy! She doesn't appear as if she ever
+      had heard that word. Well this will be a good place to teach her. I've
+      always enjoyed myself here. I'm going to have faith that I can win her and
+      make her happy also. When I go to the stable to do my work for the night
+      if I could know she was in this cabin and glad of it, and if I could hear
+      her down here singing like a happy care-free girl, I'd scarcely be able to
+      endure the joy of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. THE HARVESTER GOES COURTING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is on Henry Jameson's farm, four miles west of Onabasha,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, as he opened his eyes next morning, and laid a caressing hand
+      on Belshazzar's head. &ldquo;At two o'clock we are going to see her, and we are
+      going to prolong the visit to the ultimate limit, so we should make things
+      count here before we start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He worked in a manner that accomplished much. There seemed no end to his
+      energy that morning. Despatching the usual routine, he gathered the herbs
+      that were ready, spread them on the shelves of the dry-house, found time
+      to do several things in the cabin, and polish a piece of furniture before
+      he ate his lunch and hitched Betsy to the wagon. He also had recovered his
+      voice, and talked almost incessantly as he worked. When it neared time to
+      start he dressed carefully. He stood before his bookcase and selected
+      several pamphlets published by the Department of Agriculture. He went to
+      his beds and gathered a large arm load of plants. Then he was ready to
+      make his first trip to see the Dream Girl, but it never occurred to him
+      that he was going courting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had decided fully that there would be no use to try to make love to a
+      girl manifestly so ill and in trouble. The first thing, it appeared to
+      him, was to dispel the depression, improve the health, and then do the
+      love making. So, in the most business-like manner possible and without a
+      shade of embarrassment, the Harvester took his herbs and books and started
+      for the Jameson woods. At times as he drove along he espied something that
+      he used growing beside the road and stopped to secure a specimen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came down the river bank and reached the ginseng bed at half-past one.
+      He was purposely early. He laid down his books and plants, and rolled the
+      log on which she sat the day before to a more shaded location, where a big
+      tree would serve for a back rest. He pulled away brush and windfalls,
+      heaped dry brown leaves, and tramped them down for her feet. Then he laid
+      the books on the log, the arm load of plants beside them, and went to the
+      river to wash his soiled hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar's short bark told him the Girl was coming, and between the
+      trees he saw the dog race to meet her and she bent to stroke his head. She
+      wore the same dress and appeared even paler and thinner. The Harvester
+      hurried up the bank, wiping his hands on his handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to see you!&rdquo; he greeted her casually. &ldquo;I've fixed you a seat with a
+      back rest to-day. Don't be frightened at the stack of herbs. You needn't
+      gather all of those. They are only suggestions. They are just common
+      roadside plants that have some medicinal value and are worth collecting.
+      Please try my davenport.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; she said as she dropped on the log and leaned her head
+      against the tree. It appeared as if her eyes closed a few seconds in spite
+      of her, and while they were shut the Harvester looked steadily and
+      intently on a face of exquisite beauty, but so marred by pallor and lines
+      of care that search was required to recognize just how handsome she was,
+      and if he had not seen her in perfection in the dream the Harvester might
+      have missed glorious possibilities. To bring back that vision would be a
+      task worth while was his thought. With the first faint quiver of an
+      eyelash the Harvester took a few steps and bent over a plant, and as he
+      did so the Girl's eyes followed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He appeared so tall and strong, so bronzed by summer sun and wind, his
+      face so keen and intense, that swift fear caught her heart. Why was he
+      there? Why should he take so much trouble for her? With difficulty she
+      restrained herself from springing up and running away. Turning with the
+      plant in his hand the Harvester saw the panic in her eyes, and it troubled
+      his heart. For an instant he was bewildered, then he understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want you to work when you are not able,&rdquo; he said in his most
+      matter-of-fact voice, &ldquo;but if you still think that you are, I'll be very
+      glad. I need help just now, more than I can tell you, and there seem to be
+      so few people who can be trusted. Gathering stuff for drugs is really very
+      serious business. You see, I've a reputation to sustain with some of the
+      biggest laboratories in the country, not to mention the fact that I
+      sometimes try compounding a new remedy for some common complaint myself. I
+      rather take pride in the fact that my stuff goes in so fresh and clean
+      that I always get anywhere from three to ten cents a pound above the
+      listed prices for it. I want that money, but I want an unbroken record for
+      doing a job right and being square and careful, much more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought the appearance of fright was fading, and a tinge of interest
+      taking its place. She was looking straight at him, and as he talked he
+      could see her summoning her tired forces to understand and follow him, so
+      he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One would think that as medicines are required in cases of life and
+      death, collectors would use extreme caution, but some of them are
+      criminally careless. It's a common thing to gather almost any fern for
+      male fern; to throw in anything that will increase weight, to wash
+      imperfectly, and commit many other sins that lie with the collector;
+      beyond that I don't like to think. I suppose there are men who
+      deliberately adulterate pure stuff to make it go farther, but when it
+      comes to drugs, I scarcely can speak of it calmly. I like to do a thing
+      right. I raise most of my plants, bushes, and herbs. I gather exactly in
+      season, wash carefully if water dare be used, clean them otherwise if not,
+      and dry them by a hot air system in an evaporator I built purposely. Each
+      package I put up is pure stuff, clean, properly dried, and fresh. If I
+      caught any man in the act of adulterating any of it I'm afraid he would
+      get hurt badly&mdash;and usually I am a peaceable man. I am explaining
+      this to show how very careful you must be to keep things separate and
+      collect the right plants if you are going to sell stuff to me. I am
+      extremely particular.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl was leaning toward him, watching his face, and hers was slowly
+      changing. She was deeply interested, much impressed, and more at ease.
+      When the Harvester saw he had talked her into confidence he crossed the
+      leaves, and sitting on the log beside her, picked up the books and opened
+      one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I will be careful,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;If you will trust me to collect
+      for you, I will undertake only what I am sure I know, and I'll do exactly
+      as you tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are a dozen things that bring a price ranging from three to fifteen
+      cents a pound, that are in season just now. I suppose you would like to
+      begin on some common, easy things, that will bring the most money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without a breath of hesitation she answered, &ldquo;I will commence on whatever
+      you are short of and need most to have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The heart of the Harvester gave a leap that almost choked him, for he was
+      vividly conscious of a broken shoe she was hiding beneath her skirts. He
+      wanted to say &ldquo;thank you,&rdquo; but he was afraid to, so he turned the leaves
+      of the book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am working just now on mullein,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I know mullein,&rdquo; she cried, with almost a hint of animation in her
+      voice. &ldquo;The tall, yellow flower stem rising from a circle of green felt
+      leaves!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;What a pretty way to describe it! Do you know
+      any more plants?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only a few! I had a high-school course in botany, but it was all about
+      flower and leaf formation, nothing at all of what anything was good for. I
+      also learned a few, drawing them for leather and embroidery designs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I came with an arm load of herbs and
+      expected to tell you all about foxglove, mullein, yarrow, jimson, purple
+      thorn apple, blessed thistle, hemlock, hoarhound, lobelia, and everything
+      in season now; but if you already have a profession, why do you attempt a
+      new one? Why don't you go on drawing? I never saw anything so stupid as
+      most of the designs from nature for book covers and decorations, leather
+      work and pottery. They are the same old subjects worked over and over. If
+      you can draw enough to make original copies, I can furnish you with
+      flowers, vines, birds, and insects, new, unused, and of exquisite beauty,
+      for every month in the year. I've looked into the matter a little, because
+      I am rather handy with a knife, and I carve candlesticks from suitable
+      pieces of wood. I always have trouble getting my designs copied; securing
+      something new and unusual, never! If you can draw just well enough to
+      reproduce what you see, gathering drugs is too slow and tiresome. What you
+      want to do is to reproduce the subjects I will bring, and I'll buy what I
+      want in my work, and sell the remainder at the arts and crafts stores for
+      you. Or I can find out what they pay for such designs at potteries and
+      ceramic factories. You have no time to spend on herbs, when you are in the
+      woods, if you can draw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am surely in the woods,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;and I know I can copy
+      correctly. I often made designs for embroidery and leather for the shop
+      mother and I worked for in Chicago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't they buy them of you now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Undoubtedly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they pay anything worth while?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how their prices compare with others. One place was all I
+      worked for. I think they pay what is fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will find out,&rdquo; said the Harvester promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;&mdash;I don't think you need waste the time,&rdquo; faltered the Girl.
+      &ldquo;I had better gather the plants for a while at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Collecting crude drug material is not easy,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Drawing
+      may not be either, but at least you could sit while you work, and it
+      should bring you more money. Besides, I very much want a moth copied for a
+      candlestick I am carving. Won't you draw that for me? I have some pupae
+      cases and the moths will be out any day now. If I'd bring you one,
+      wouldn't you just make a copy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl gripped her hands together and stared straight ahead of her for a
+      second, then she turned to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd like to,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but I have nothing to work with. In Chicago they
+      furnished my material at the shop and I drew the design and was paid for
+      the pattern. I didn't know there would be a chance for anything like that
+      here. I haven't even proper pencils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the way for you to do this is to strip the first mullein plants you
+      see of the petals. I will pay you seventy-five cents a pound for them. By
+      the time you get a few pounds I can have material you need for drawing
+      here and you can go to work on whatever flowers, vines, and things you can
+      find in the woods, with no thanks to any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't see that,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;It would appear to me that I would be
+      under more obligations than I could repay, and to a stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I figure it this way,&rdquo; said the Harvester, watching from the corner of
+      his eye. &ldquo;I can sell at good prices all the mullein flowers I can secure.
+      You collect for me, I buy them. You can use drawing tools; I get them for
+      you, and you pay me with the mullein or out of the ginseng money I owe
+      you. You already have that coming, and it's just as much yours as it will
+      be ten days from now. You needn't hesitate a second about drawing on it,
+      because I am in a hurry for the moth pattern. I find time to carve only at
+      night, you see. As for being under obligations to a stranger, in the first
+      place all the debt would be on my side. I'd get the drugs and the pattern
+      I want; and, in the second place, I positively and emphatically refuse to
+      be a stranger. It would be so much better to be mutual helpers and friends
+      of the kind worth having; and the sooner we begin, the sooner we can work
+      together to good advantage. Get that stranger idea out of your head right
+      now, and replace it with thoughts of a new friend, who is willing&rdquo;&mdash;the
+      Harvester detected panic in her eyes and ended casually&mdash;&ldquo;to enter a
+      partnership that will be of benefit to both of us. Partners can't be
+      strangers, you know,&rdquo; he finished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what to think,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never bother your head with thinking,&rdquo; advised the Harvester with an air
+      of large wisdom. &ldquo;It is unprofitable and very tiring. Any one can see that
+      you are too weary now. Don't dream of such a foolish thing as thinking.
+      Don't worry over motives and obligations. Say to yourself, 'I'll enter
+      this partnership and if it brings me anything good, I'm that much ahead.
+      If it fails, I have lost nothing.' That's the way to look at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then before she could answer he continued: &ldquo;Now I want all the mullein
+      bloom I can get. You'll see the yellow heads everywhere. Strip the petals
+      and bring them here, and I'll come for them every day. They must go on the
+      trays as fresh as possible. On your part, we will make out the order now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took a pencil and notebook from his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want drawing pencils and brushes; how many, what make and size?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl hesitated for a moment as if struggling to decide what to do;
+      then she named the articles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And paper?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He wrote that down, and asked if there was more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I can get this order filled in Onabasha. The art
+      stores should keep these things. And shouldn't you have water-colour paper
+      and some paint?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a flash across the white face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh if I only could!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;All my life I have been crazy for a box
+      of colour, but I never could afford it, and of course, I can't now. But if
+      this splendid plan works, and I can earn what I owe, then maybe I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well this 'splendid plan' is going to 'work,' don't you bother about
+      that,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It has begun working right now. Don't worry a
+      minute. After things have gone wrong for a certain length of time, they
+      always veer and go right a while as compensation. Don't think of anything
+      save that you are at the turning. Since it is all settled that we are to
+      be partners, would you name me the figures of the debt that is worrying
+      you? Don't, if you mind. I just thought perhaps we could get along better
+      if I knew. Is it&mdash;&mdash;say five hundred dollars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear no!&rdquo; cried the Girl in a panic. &ldquo;I never could face that! It is
+      not quite one hundred, and that seems big as a mountain to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget it!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;The ginseng will pay more than half; that I know.
+      I can bring you the cash in a little over a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She started to speak, hesitated, and at last turned to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you mind,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;if I asked you to keep it until I can find a
+      way to go to town? It's too far to walk and I don't know how to send it.
+      Would I dare put it in a letter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You want a draft. That money will be too
+      precious to run any risks. I'll bring it to you and you can write a note
+      and explain to whom you want it paid, and I'll take it to the bank for you
+      and get your draft. Then you can write a letter, and half your worry will
+      be over safely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be done in a sure way,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;If I knew I had the money
+      to pay that much on what I owe, and then lost it, I simply could not
+      endure it. I would lie down and give up as Aunt Molly has.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget that too!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Wipe out all the past that has
+      pain in it. The future is going to be beautifully bright. That little bird
+      on the bush there just told me so, and you are always safe when you trust
+      the feathered folk. If you are going to live in the country any length of
+      time, you must know them, and they will become a great comfort. Are you
+      planning to be here long?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no plans. After what I saw Chicago do to my mother I would rather
+      finish life in the open than return to the city. It is horrible here, but
+      at least I'm not hungry, and not afraid&mdash;&mdash;all the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious Heaven!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Do you mean to say that you are
+      afraid any part of the time? Would you kindly tell me of whom, and why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should know without being told that when a woman born and reared in a
+      city, and all her life confined there, steps into the woods for the first
+      time, she's bound to be afraid. The last few weeks constitute my entire
+      experience with the country, and I'm in mortal fear that snakes will drop
+      from trees and bushes or spring from the ground. Some places I think I'm
+      sinking, and whenever a bush catches my skirts it seems as if something
+      dreadful is reaching up for me; there is a possibility of horror lurking
+      behind every tree and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I can't endure it! Do you mean to tell me
+      that you are afraid here and now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She met his eyes squarely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It almost makes me ill to sit on this log without taking
+      a stick and poking all around it first. Every minute I think something is
+      going to strike me in the back or drop on my head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester grew very white beneath the tan, and that developed a nice,
+      sickly green complexion for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I part of your tortures?&rdquo; he asked tersely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn't you be?&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;What do I know of you or your
+      motives or why you are here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had no experience with the atmosphere that breeds such an attitude
+      in a girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a thing for which to thank Heaven. Undoubtedly it is gracious to
+      you. My life has been different.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet in mortal terror of the woods, and probably equal fear of me, you are
+      here and asking for work that will keep you here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would go through fire and flood for the money I owe. After that debt is
+      paid&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw out her hands in a hopeless gesture. The Harvester drew forth a
+      roll of bills and tossed them into her lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the love of mercy take what you need and pay it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then get
+      a floor under your feet, and try, I beg of you, try to force yourself to
+      have confidence in me, until I do something that gives you the least
+      reason for distrusting me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She picked up the money and gave it a contemptuous whirl that landed it at
+      his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What greater cause of distrust could I have by any possibility than just
+      that?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose hastily, and taking several steps, he stood with
+      folded arms, his back turned. The Girl sat watching him with wide eyes,
+      the dull blue plain in their dusky depths. When he did not speak, she grew
+      restless. At last she slowly arose and circling him looked into his face.
+      It was convulsed with a struggle in which love and patience fought for
+      supremacy over honest anger. As he saw her so close, his lips drew apart,
+      and his breath came deeply, but he did not speak. He merely stood and
+      looked at her, and looked; and she gazed at him as if fascinated, but
+      uncomprehending.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The call came roaring up the hill. The Girl shivered and became paler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that your uncle?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come to-morrow for your drawing materials?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you try to believe that there is absolutely nothing, either
+      underfoot or overhead, that will harm you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you try to think that I am not a menace to public safety, and that I
+      would do much to help you, merely because I would be glad to be of
+      service?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you try to cultivate the idea that there is nothing in all this
+      world that would hurt you purposely?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth!&rdquo; came a splitting scream in gruff man-tones, keyed in deep anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That SOUNDS like it!&rdquo; said the Girl, and catching up her skirts she ran
+      through the woods, taking a different route toward the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sat on the log and tried to think; but there are times when
+      the numbed brain refuses to work, so he really sat and suffered.
+      Belshazzar whimpered and licked his hands, and at last the man arose and
+      went with the dog to the wagon. As they came through Onabasha, Betsy
+      turned at the hospital corner, but the Harvester pulled her around and
+      drove toward the country. Not until they crossed the railroad did he lift
+      his head and then he drew a deep breath as if starved for pure air and
+      spoke. &ldquo;Not to-day Betsy! I can't face my friends just now. Someway I am
+      making an awful fist of things. Everything I do is wrong. She no more
+      trusts me than you would a rattlesnake, Belshazzar; and from all
+      appearance she takes me to be almost as deadly. What must have been her
+      experiences in life to ingrain fear and distrust in her soul at that rate?
+      I always knew I was not handsome, but I never before regarded my
+      appearance as alarming. And I 'fixed up,' too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester grinned a queer little twist of a grin that pulled and
+      distorted his strained face. &ldquo;Might as well have gone with a week's beard,
+      a soiled shirt, and a leer! And I've always been as decent as I knew!
+      What's the reward for clean living anyway, if the girl you love strikes
+      you like that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar reached across and kissed him. The Harvester put his arm around
+      the dog. In the man's disappointment and heart hunger he leaned his head
+      against the beast and said, &ldquo;I've always got you to love and protect me,
+      anyway, Belshazzar. Maybe the man who said a dog was a man's best friend
+      was right. You always trusted me, didn't you Bel? And you never regretted
+      it but once, and that wasn't my fault. I never did it! If I did, I'm
+      getting good and well paid for it. I'd rather be kicked until all the ribs
+      of one side are broken, Bel, than to swallow the dose she just handed me.
+      I tell you it was bitter, lad! What am I going to do? Can't you help me,
+      Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar quivered in anxiety to offer the comfort he could not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you are right! You always are, Bel!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I
+      know what you are trying to tell me. Sure enough, she didn't have any
+      dream. I am afraid she had the bitterest reality. She hasn't been loving a
+      vision of me, working and searching for me, and I don't mean to her what
+      she does to me. Of course I see that I must be patient and bide my time.
+      If there is anything in 'like begetting like' she is bound to care for me
+      some day, for I love her past all expression, and for all she feels I
+      might as well save my breath. But she has got to awake some day, Bel. She
+      can make up her mind to that. She can't see 'why.' Over and over! I wonder
+      what she would think if I'd up and tell her 'why' with no frills. She will
+      drive me to it some day, then probably the shock will finish her. I wonder
+      if Doc was only fooling or if he really would do what he said. It might
+      wake her up, anyway, but I'm dubious as to the result. How Uncle Henry can
+      roar! He sounded like a fog horn. I'd love to try my muscle on a man like
+      that. No wonder she is afraid of him, if she is of me. Afraid! Well of all
+      things I ever did expect, Belshazzar, that is the limit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. THE CHIME OF THE BLUE BELLS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester finished his evening work and went to examine the cocoons.
+      Many of the moths had emerged and flown, but the luna cases remained in
+      the bottom of the box. As he stood looking at them one moved and he
+      smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd give something if you would come out and be ready to work on by
+      to-morrow afternoon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Possibly you would so interest her that
+      she would forget her fear of me. I'd like mighty well to take you along,
+      because she might care for you, and I do need the pattern for my
+      candlestick. Believe I'll lay you in a warmer place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing the next morning the Harvester looked and found the open
+      cocoon and the wet moth clinging by its feet to a twig he had placed for
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Luck is with me!&rdquo; he exulted. &ldquo;I'll carry you to her and be mighty
+      careful what I say, and maybe she will forget about the fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the forenoon he cut and spread boneset, saffron, and hemlock on the
+      trays to dry. At noon he put on a fresh outfit, ate a hasty lunch, and
+      drove to Onabasha. He carried the moth in a box, and as he started he
+      picked up a rake. He went to an art store and bought the pencils and paper
+      she had ordered. He wanted to purchase everything he saw for her, but he
+      was fast learning a lesson of deep caution. If he took more than she
+      ordered, she would worry over paying, and if he refused to accept money,
+      she would put that everlasting &ldquo;why&rdquo; at him again. The water-colour paper
+      and paint he could not forego. He could make a desire to have the moth
+      coloured explain those, he thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went to a furniture store and bought several articles, and
+      forgetting his law against haste, he drove Betsy full speed to the river.
+      He was rather heavily ladened as he went up the bank, and it was only one
+      o'clock. There was an hour. He rolled away the log, raked together and
+      removed the leaves to the ground. He tramped the earth level and spread a
+      large cheap porch rug. On this he opened and placed a little folding table
+      and chair. On the table he spread the pencils, paper, colour box and
+      brushes, and went to the river to fill the water cup. Then he sat on the
+      log he had rolled to one side and waited. After two hours he arose and
+      crept as close the house as he could through the woods, but he could not
+      secure a glimpse of the Girl. He went back and waited an hour more, and
+      then undid his work and removed it. When he came to the moth his face was
+      very grim as he lifted the twig and helped the beautiful creature to climb
+      on a limb. &ldquo;You'll be ready to fly in a few hours,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I keep
+      you in a box you will ruin your wings and be no suitable subject, and put
+      you in a cyanide jar I will not. I am hurt too badly myself. I wonder if
+      what Doc said was the right way! It's certainly a temptation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went home; and again Betsy veered at the hospital, and once more
+      the Harvester explained to her that he did not want to see the doctor.
+      That evening and the following forenoon were difficult, but the Harvester
+      lived through them, and in the afternoon went back to the woods, spread
+      his rug, and set up the table. Only one streak of luck brightened the
+      gloom in his heart. A yellow emperor had emerged in the night, and now
+      occupied the place of yesterday's luna. She never need know it was not the
+      one he wanted, and it would make an excuse for the colour box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was watching intently and saw her coming a long way off. He noticed
+      that she looked neither right nor left, but came straight as if walking a
+      bridge. As she reached the place she glanced hastily around and then at
+      him. The Harvester forgave her everything as he saw the look of relief
+      with which she stepped upon the carpet. Then she turned to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't have to ask 'why' this time,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I know that you did it
+      because I was baby enough to tell what a coward I am. I'm sure you can't
+      afford it, and I know you shouldn't have done it, but oh, what a comfort!
+      If you will promise never to do any such expensive, foolish, kind thing
+      again, I'll say thank you this time. I couldn't come yesterday, because
+      Aunt Molly was worse and Uncle Henry was at home all day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I supposed it was something like that,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She advanced and handed him the roll of bills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had a feeling you would be reckless,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I saw it in your face,
+      so I came back as soon as I could steal away, and sure enough, there lay
+      your money and the books and everything. I hid them in the thicket, so
+      they will be all right. I've almost prayed it wouldn't rain. I didn't dare
+      carry them to the house. Please take the money. I haven't time to argue
+      about it or strength, but of course I can't possibly use it unless I earn
+      it. I'm so anxious to see the pencils and paper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester thrust the money into his pocket. The Girl went to the
+      table, opened and spread the paper, and took out the pencils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is my subject in here?&rdquo; she touched the colour box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it alive? May I open it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will be very careful at first,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It only left its
+      case in the night and may fly. When the weather is so warm the wings
+      develop rapidly. Perhaps if I remove the lid&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took off the cover, exposing a big moth, its lovely, pale yellow wings,
+      flecked with heliotrope, outspread as it clung to a twig in the box. The
+      Girl leaned forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the big night moths that emerge and fly a few hours in June.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this what you want for your candlestick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I can't do better. There is one other I prefer, but it may not come at
+      a time that you can get it right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by 'right'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that you can copy it before it wants to fly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you chloroform and pin it until I am ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not in the business of killing and impaling exquisite creatures like
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that if I can't draw it when it is just right you will let it
+      go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you said you were not in the business, but why wouldn't you take
+      only one you really wanted to use?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would be afraid,&rdquo; replied the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afraid? You!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must have a mighty good reason before I kill,&rdquo; said the man. &ldquo;I cannot
+      give life; I have no right to take it away. I will let my statement stand.
+      I am afraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what please?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An indefinable something that follows me and makes me suffer if I am
+      wantonly cruel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any particular pose in which you want this bird placed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allow me to present you to the yellow emperor, known in the books as
+      eagles imperialis,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want him as he clings naturally and life
+      size.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took up a pencil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you don't mind,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;would you draw on this other
+      paper? I very much want the colour, also, and you can use it on this. I
+      brought a box along, and I'll get you water. I had it all ready
+      yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you have this same moth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I had another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you have the one you wanted most?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;&mdash;but it's no difference.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you let it go because I was not here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. It went on account of exquisite beauty. If kept in confinement it
+      would struggle and break its wings. You see, that one was a delicate
+      green, where this is yellow, plain pale blue green, with a lavender rib
+      here, and long curled trailers edged with pale yellow, and eye spots
+      rimmed with red and black.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Harvester talked he indicated the points of difference with a
+      pencil he had picked up; now he laid it down and retreated beyond the
+      limits of the rug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;And this is colour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She touched the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few colours, rather,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I selected enough to fill
+      the box, with the help of the clerk who sold them to me. If they are not
+      right, I have permission to return and exchange them for anything you
+      want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With eager fingers she opened the box, and bent over it a face filled with
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh how I've always wanted this! I scarcely can wait to try it. I do hope
+      I can have it for my very own. Was it quite expensive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Very cheap!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The paper isn't worth mentioning.
+      The little, empty tin box was only a few cents, and the paints differ
+      according to colour. Some appear to be more than others. I was surprised
+      that the outfit was so inexpensive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A skeptical little smile wavered on the Girl's face as she drew her
+      slender fingers across the trays of bright colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If one dared accept your word, you really would be a comfort,&rdquo; she said,
+      as she resolutely closed the box, pushed it away, and picked up a pencil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will take the trouble to inquire at the banks, post office,
+      express office, hospital or of any druggist in Onabasha, you will find
+      that my word is exactly as good as my money, and taken quite as readily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't say I doubted you. I have no right to do that until I feel you
+      deceive me. What I said was 'dared accept,' which means I must not,
+      because I have no right. But you make one wonder what you would do if you
+      were coaxed and asked for things and led by insinuations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can tell you that,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It would depend altogether on
+      who wanted anything of me and what they asked. If you would undertake to
+      coax and insinuate, you never would get it done, because I'd see what you
+      needed and have it at hand before you had time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl looked at him wonderingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now don't spring your recurrent 'why' on me,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I'll
+      tell you 'why' some of these days. Just now answer me this question: Do
+      you want me to remain here or leave until you finish? Which way would you
+      be least afraid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not at all afraid on the rug and with my work,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you
+      want to hunt ginseng go by all means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to hunt anything,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But if you are more
+      comfortable with me away, I'll be glad to go. I'll leave the dog with
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave a short whistle and Belshazzar came bounding to him. The Harvester
+      stepped to the Girl's side, and dropping on one knee, he drew his hand
+      across the rug close to her skirts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right here, Belshazzar,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Watch! You are on guard, Bel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well of all names for a dog!&rdquo; exclaimed the Girl. &ldquo;Why did you select
+      that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother named my first dog Belshazzar, and taught me why; so each of
+      the three I've owned since have been christened the same. It means 'to
+      protect' and that is the office all of them perform; this one especially
+      has filled it admirably. Once I failed him, but he never has gone back on
+      me. You see he is not a particle afraid of me. Every step I take, he is at
+      my heels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So was Bill Sikes' dog, if I remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you could speak you'd say that was an ugly one,
+      wouldn't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog sprang up and kissed the face of the man and rubbed a loving head
+      against his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Now lie down and protect this woman as
+      carefully as you ever watched in your life. And incidentally, Bel, tell
+      her that she can't exterminate me more than once a day, and the
+      performance is accomplished for the present. I refuse to be a willing
+      sacrifice. 'So was Bill Sikes' dog!' What do you think of that, Bel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if this thing attempts to fly?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your pardon,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;If the emperor moves, slide the lid
+      over the box a few seconds, until he settles and clings quietly again, and
+      then slowly draw it away. If you are careful not to jar the table heavily
+      he will not go for hours yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he turned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there is no danger, why do you leave the dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For company,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I thought you would prefer an animal
+      you are not afraid of to a man you are. But let me tell you there is no
+      necessity for either. I know a woman who goes alone and unafraid through
+      every foot of woods in this part of the country. She has climbed, crept,
+      and waded, and she tells me she never saw but two venomous snakes this
+      side of Michigan. Nothing ever dropped on her or sprang at her. She feels
+      as secure in the woods as she does at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't she afraid of snakes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She dislikes snakes, but she is not afraid or she would not risk
+      encountering them daily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you ever find any?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harmless little ones, often. That is, Bel does. He is always nosing for
+      them, because he understands that I work in the earth. I think I have
+      encountered three dangerous ones in my life. I will guarantee you will not
+      find one in these woods. They are too open and too much cleared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why leave the dog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought,&rdquo; said the Harvester patiently, &ldquo;that your uncle might have
+      turned in some of his cattle, or if pigs came here the dog could chase
+      them away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him with utter panic in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am far more afraid of a cow than a snake!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It is so much
+      bigger!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you ever come into these woods alone far enough to find the
+      ginseng?&rdquo; asked the Harvester. &ldquo;Answer me that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wore Uncle Henry's top boots and carried a rake, and I suffered
+      tortures,&rdquo; she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you hunted until you found what you wanted, and came again to keep
+      watch on it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was driven&mdash;simply forced. There's no use to discuss it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well thank the Lord for one thing,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You didn't
+      appear half so terrified at the sight of me as you did at the mere mention
+      of a cow. I have risen inestimably in my own self-respect. Belshazzar, you
+      may pursue the elusive chipmunk. I am going to guard this woman myself,
+      and please, kind fates, send a ferocious cow this way, in order that I may
+      prove my valour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl's face flushed slightly, and she could not restrain a laugh. That
+      was all the Harvester hoped for and more. He went beyond the edge of the
+      rug and sat on the leaves under a tree. She bent over her work and only
+      bird and insect notes and occasionally Belshazzar's excited bark broke the
+      silence. The Harvester stretched on the ground, his eyes feasting on the
+      Girl. Intensely he watched every movement. If a squirrel barked she gave a
+      nervous start, so precipitate it seemed as if it must hurt. If a windfall
+      came rattling down she appeared ready to fly in headlong terror in any
+      direction. At last she dropped her pencil and looked at him helplessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The silence and these awful crashes when one doesn't know what is
+      coming,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it bother you if I talk? Perhaps the sound of my voice will help?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am accustomed to working when people talk, and it will be a comfort. I
+      may be able to follow you, and that will prevent me from thinking. There
+      are dreadful things in my mind when they are not driven out. Please talk!
+      Tell me about the herbs you gathered this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gave the Girl one long look as she bent over her work. He
+      was vividly conscious of the graceful curves of her little figure, the
+      coil of dark, silky hair, softly waving around her temples and neck, and
+      when her eyes turned in his direction he knew that it was only the white,
+      drawn face that restrained him. He was almost forced to tell her how he
+      loved and longed for her; about the home he had prepared; of a thousand
+      personal interests. Instead, he took a firm grip and said casually,
+      &ldquo;Foxglove harvest is over. This plant has to be taken when the leaves are
+      in second year growth and at bloom time. I have stripped my mullein beds
+      of both leaves and flowers. I finished a week ago. Beyond lies a stretch
+      of Parnassus grass that made me think of you, it was so white and
+      delicate. I want you to see it. It will be lovely in a few weeks more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never had seen me a week ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh hadn't I?&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Well maybe I dreamed about you then. I
+      am a great dreamer. Once I had a dream that may interest you some day,
+      after you've overcome your fear of me. Now this bed of which I was
+      speaking is a picture in September. You must arrange to drive home with me
+      and see it then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For what do you sell foxglove and mullein?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foxglove for heart trouble, and mullein for catarrh. I get ten cents a
+      pound for foxglove leaves and five for mullein and from seventy-five to a
+      dollar for flowers of the latter, depending on how well I preserve the
+      colour in drying them. They must be sealed in bottles and handled with
+      extreme care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if I wasn't too childish to be out picking them, I could be earning
+      seventy-five cents a pound for mullein blooms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but until you learned the trick of stripping
+      them rapidly you scarcely could gather what would weigh two pounds a day,
+      when dried. Not to mention the fact that you would have to stand and work
+      mostly in hot sunshine, because mullein likes open roads and fields and
+      sunny hills. Now you can sit securely in the shade, and in two hours you
+      can make me a pattern of that moth, for which I would pay a designer of
+      the arts and crafts shop five dollars, so of course you shall have the
+      same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no!&rdquo; she cried in swift panic. &ldquo;You were charged too much! It isn't
+      worth a dollar, even!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary the candlestick on which I shall use it will be
+      invaluable when I finish it, and five is very little for the cream of my
+      design. I paid just right. You can earn the same for all you can do. If
+      you can embroider linen, they pay good prices for that, too and wood
+      carving, metal work, or leather things. May I see how you are coming on?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please do,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sprang up and looked over the Girl's shoulder. He could not
+      suppress an exclamation of delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfect!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;You can surpass their best drafting at the shop!
+      Your fortune is made. Any time you want to go to Onabasha you can make
+      enough to pay your board, dress you well, and save something every week.
+      You must leave here as soon as you can manage it. When can you go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; she said wearily. &ldquo;I'd hate to tell you how full of aches
+      I am. I could not work much just now, if I had the best opportunities in
+      the world. I must grow stronger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should not work at anything until you are well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is a
+      crime against nature to drive yourself. Why will you not allow&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really think, with a little practice, I can draw designs that will
+      sell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester picked up the sheet. The work was delicate and exact. He
+      could see no way to improve it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know it will sell,&rdquo; he said gently, &ldquo;because you already have sold
+      such work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not for the prices you offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The prices I name are going to be for NEW, ORIGINAL DESIGNS. I've got a
+      thousand in my head, that old Mother Nature shows me in the woods and on
+      the water every day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But those are yours; I can't take them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I only see and recognize studies; I can't
+      materialize them, and until they are drawn, no one can profit by them. In
+      this partnership we revolutionize decorative art. There are actually birds
+      besides fat robins and nondescript swallows. The crane and heron do not
+      monopolize the water. Wild rose and golden-rod are not the only flowers.
+      The other day I was gathering lobelia. The seeds are used in tonic
+      preparations. It has an upright stem with flowers scattered along it. In
+      itself it is not much, but close beside it always grows its cousin, tall
+      bell-flower. As the name indicates, the flowers are bell shape and I can't
+      begin to describe their grace, beauty, and delicate blue colour. They ring
+      my strongest call to worship. My work keeps me in the woods so much I
+      remain there for my religion also. Whenever I find these flowers I always
+      pause for a little service of my own that begins by reciting these lines:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingeth
+          And tolls its perfume on the passing air,
+     Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringeth
+          A call to prayer.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautiful!&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's mighty convenient,&rdquo; explained the Harvester. &ldquo;By my method, you see,
+      you don't have to wait for your day and hour of worship. Anywhere the blue
+      bell rings its call it is Sunday in the woods and in your heart. After I
+      recite that, I pray my prayer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;This is no place to stop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is always one and the same prayer, and there are only two lines of
+      it,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It runs this way&mdash;&mdash; Let me take your
+      pencil and I will write it for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent over her shoulder, and traced these lines on a scrap of the
+      wrapping paper:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               &ldquo;Almighty Evolver of the Universe:
+          Help me to keep my soul and body clean,
+     And at all times to do unto others as I would be done by.
+                         Amen.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The Girl took the slip and sat studying it; then she raised her eyes to
+      his face curiously, but with a tinge of awe in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can see you standing over a blue, bell-shaped flower reciting those
+      exquisite lines and praying this wonderful prayer,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Yesterday
+      you allowed the moth you were willing to pay five dollars for a drawing
+      of, to go, because you wouldn't risk breaking its wings. Why you are more
+      like a woman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A red stream crimsoned the Harvester's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well heretofore I have been considered strictly masculine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To
+      appreciate beauty or to try to be just commonly decent is not exclusively
+      feminine. You must remember there are painters, poets, musicians, workers
+      in art along almost any line you could mention, and no one calls them
+      feminine, but there is one good thing if I am. You need no longer fear me.
+      If you should see me, muck covered, grubbing in the earth or on a raft
+      washing roots in the lake, you would not consider me like a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it be any discredit if I did? I think not. I merely meant that most
+      men would not see or hear the blue bell at all&mdash;&mdash;and as for the
+      poem and prayer! If the woods make a man with such fibre in his soul, I
+      must learn them if they half kill me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You harp on death. Try to forget the word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have faced it for months, and seen it do its grinding worst very
+      recently to the only thing on earth I loved or that loved me. I have no
+      desire to forget! Tell me more about the plants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said the Harvester gently. &ldquo;Just now I am collecting catnip
+      for the infant and nervous people, hoarhound for colds and dyspepsia,
+      boneset heads and flowers for the same purpose. There is a heavy head of
+      white bloom with wonderful lacy leaves, called yarrow. I take the entire
+      plant for a tonic and blessed thistle leaves and flowers for the same
+      purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be what I need,&rdquo; interrupted the Girl. &ldquo;Half the time I believe
+      I have a little fever, but I couldn't have dyspepsia, because I never want
+      anything to eat; perhaps the tonic would make me hungry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Promise me you will tell that to the doctor who comes to see your aunt,
+      and take what he gives you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doctor comes to see my aunt. She is merely playing lazy to get out of
+      work. There is nothing the matter with her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then why&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My uncle says that. Really, she could not stand and walk across a room
+      alone. She is simply worn out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall report the case,&rdquo; said the Harvester instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You better not!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;There must be a mistake about you
+      knowing my uncle. Tell me more of the flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drew a deep breath and continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These I just have named I take at bloom time; next month come purple
+      thorn apple, jimson weed, and hemlock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't that poison?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half the stuff I handle is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't you afraid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Terribly,&rdquo; said the Harvester in laughing voice. &ldquo;But I want the money,
+      the sick folk need the medicine, and I drink water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl laughed also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Why not tell me just as closely as you
+      can about your aunt, and let me fix something for her; or if you are
+      afraid to trust me, let me have my friend of whom I spoke yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I am not so much afraid as I was,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I wish I
+      could! How could I explain where I got it and I wonder if she would take
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it to her without any explanation,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Tell her it
+      will make her stronger and she must use it. Tell me exactly how she is,
+      and I will fix up some harmless remedies that may help, and can do no
+      harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She simply has been neglected, overworked, and abused until she has lain
+      down, turned her face to the wall, and given up hope. I think it is too
+      late. I think the end will come soon. But I wish you would try. I'll
+      gladly pay&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Not for things that grow in the woods and
+      that I prepare. Don't think of money every minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must,&rdquo; she said with forced restraint. &ldquo;It is the price of life.
+      Without it one suffers&mdash;&mdash;horribly&mdash;&mdash;as I know. What
+      other plants do you gather?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saffron,&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;A beautiful thing! You must see it.
+      Tall, round stems, lacy, delicate leaves, big heads of bright yellow
+      bloom, touched with colour so dark it appears black&mdash;one of the
+      loveliest plants that grows. You should see my big bed of it in a week or
+      two more. It makes a picture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words recalled him to the Girl. He turned to study her. He forgot his
+      commission and chafed at conventions that prevented his doing what he saw
+      was required so urgently. Fearing she would notice, he gazed away through
+      the forest and tried to think, to plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not making noise enough,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So absorbed was the Harvester he scarcely heard her. In an attempt to obey
+      he began to whistle softly. A tiny goldfinch in a nest of thistle down and
+      plant fibre in the branching of a bush ten feet above him stuck her head
+      over the brim and inquired, &ldquo;P'tseet?&rdquo; &ldquo;Pt'see!&rdquo; answer the Harvester.
+      That began the duet. Before the question had been asked and answered a
+      half dozen times a catbird intruded its voice and hearing a reply came
+      through the bushes to investigate. A wren followed and became very saucy.
+      From&mdash;&mdash;one could not see where, came a vireo, and almost at the
+      same time a chewink had something to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly the Harvester answered. Then a blue jay came chattering to
+      ascertain what all the fuss was about, and the Harvester carried on a
+      conversation that called up the remainder of the feathered tribe. A
+      brilliant cardinal came tearing through the thicket, his beady black eyes
+      snapping, and demanded to know if any one were harming his mate, brooding
+      under a wild grape leaf in a scrub elm on the river embankment. A brown
+      thrush silently slipped like a snake between shrubs and trees, and
+      catching the universal excitement, began to flirt his tail and utter a
+      weird, whistling cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With one eye on the bird, and the other on the Girl sitting in amazed
+      silence, the Harvester began working for effect. He lay quietly, but in
+      turn he answered a dozen birds so accurately they thought their mates were
+      calling, and closer and closer they came. An oriole in orange and black
+      heard his challenge, and flew up the river bank, answering at steady
+      intervals for quite a time before it was visible, and in resorting to the
+      last notes he could think of a quail whistled &ldquo;Bob White&rdquo; and a shitepoke,
+      skulking along the river bank, stopped and cried, &ldquo;Cowk, cowk!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At his limit of calls the Harvester changed his notes and whistled and
+      cried bits of bird talk in tone with every mellow accent and inflection he
+      could manage. Gradually the excitement subsided, the birds flew and tilted
+      closer, turned their sleek heads, peered with bright eyes, and ventured on
+      and on until the very bravest, the wren and the jay, were almost in touch.
+      Then, tired of hunting, Belshazzar came racing and the little feathered
+      people scattered in precipitate flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you like that kind of a noise?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl drew a deep breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you know that was the most exquisite sight I ever saw,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;I never shall forget it. I did not think there were that many
+      different birds in the whole world. Of all the gaudy colours! And they
+      came so close you could have reached out and touched them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly. &ldquo;Birds are never afraid of me. At
+      Medicine Woods, when I call them like that, many, most of them, in fact,
+      eat from my hand. If you ever have looked at me enough to notice bulgy
+      pockets, they are full of wheat. These birds are strangers, but I'll wager
+      you that in a week I can make them take food from me. Of course, my own
+      birds know me, because they are around every day. It is much easier to
+      tame them in winter, when the snow has fallen and food is scarce, but it
+      only takes a little while to win a bird's confidence at any season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Birds don't know what there is to be afraid of,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your pardon,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but I am familiar with them, and that
+      is not correct. They have more to fear than human beings. No one is going
+      to kill you merely to see if he can shoot straight enough to hit. Your
+      life is not in danger because you have magnificent hair that some woman
+      would like for an ornament. You will not be stricken out in a flash
+      because there are a few bits of meat on your frame some one wants to eat.
+      No one will set a seductive trap for you, and, if you are tempted to enter
+      it, shut you from freedom and natural diet, in a cage so small you can't
+      turn around without touching bars. You are in a secure and free position
+      compared with the birds. I also have observed that they know guns, many
+      forms of traps, and all of them decide by the mere manner of a man's
+      passing through the woods whether he is a friend or an enemy. Birds know
+      more than many people realize. They do not always correctly estimate gun
+      range, they are foolishly venturesome at times when they want food, but
+      they know many more things than most people give them credit for
+      understanding. The greatest trouble with the birds is they are too willing
+      to trust us and be friendly, so they are often deceived.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That sounds as if you were right,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am of the woods, so I know I am,&rdquo; answered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you look at this now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He examined the drawing closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you learn?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother. She was educated to her finger tips. She drew, painted, played
+      beautifully, sang well, and she had read almost all the best books.
+      Besides what I learned at high school she taught me all I know. Her
+      embroidery always brought higher prices than mine, try as I might. I never
+      saw any one else make such a dainty, accurate little stitch as she could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this is not perfect, I don't know how to criticise it. I can and will
+      use it in my work. But I have one luna cocoon remaining and I would give
+      ten dollars for such a drawing of the moth before it flies. It may open
+      to-night or not for several days. If your aunt should be worse and you
+      cannot come to-morrow and the moth emerges, is there any way in which I
+      could send it to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could I do with it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought perhaps you could take a piece of paper and the pencils with
+      you, and secure an outline in your room. It need not be worked up with all
+      the detail in this. Merely a skeleton sketch would do. Could I leave it at
+      the house or send it with some one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! Oh no!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Leave it here. Put it in a box in the bushes
+      where I hid the books. What are you going to do with these things?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hide them in the thicket and scatter leaves over them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if it rains?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought of that. I brought a few yards of oilcloth to-day and they
+      will be safe and dry if it pours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Then if the moth comes out you bring it, and if I am
+      not here, put it under the cloth and I will run up some time in the
+      afternoon. But if I were you, I would not spread the rug until you know if
+      I can remain. I have to steal every minute I am away, and any day uncle
+      takes a notion to stay at home I dare not come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try to come to-morrow. I am going to bring some medicine for your aunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put it under the cloth if I am not here; but I will come if I can. I must
+      go now; I have been away far too long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester picked up one of the drug pamphlets, laid the drawing inside
+      it, and placed it with his other books. Then he drew out his pocket book
+      and laid a five-dollar bill on the table and began folding up the chair
+      and putting away the things. The Girl looked at the money with eager eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that honestly what you would pay at the arts and crafts place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the customary price for my patterns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you sure this is as good?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can bring you some I have paid that for, and let you see for yourself
+      that it is better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you would!&rdquo; she cried eagerly. &ldquo;I need that money, and I would
+      like to have it dearly, if I really have earned it, but I can't touch it
+      if I have not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't you accept my word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I will see the other drawings first, and if I think mine are as good,
+      I will be glad to take the money to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if you can't come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put them under the oilcloth. I watch all the time and I think Uncle Henry
+      has trained even the boys so they don't play in the river on his land. I
+      never see a soul here; the woods, house, and everything is desolate until
+      he comes home and then it is like&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; she paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll say it for you,&rdquo; said the Harvester promptly. &ldquo;Then it is like
+      hell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At its worst,&rdquo; supplemented the Girl. Taking pencils and a sheet of paper
+      she went swiftly through the woods. Before she left the shelter of the
+      trees, the Harvester saw her busy her hands with the front of her dress,
+      and he knew that she was concealing the drawing material. The colour box
+      was left, and he said things as he put it with the chair and table,
+      covered them with the rug and oilcloth, and heaped on a layer of leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he drove to the city and Betsy turned at the hospital corner with no
+      interference. He could face his friend that day. Despite all
+      discouragements he felt reassured. He was progressing. Means of
+      communication had been established. If she did not come, he could leave a
+      note and tell her if the moth had not emerged and how sorry he was to have
+      missed seeing her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, lover!&rdquo; cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered the office.
+      &ldquo;Are you married yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. But I'm going to be,&rdquo; said the Harvester with confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you asked her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. We are getting acquainted. She is too close to trouble, too ill, and
+      too worried over a sick relative for me to intrude myself; it would be
+      brutal, but it's a temptation. Doc, is there any way to compel a man to
+      provide medical care for his wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can he afford it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amply. Anything! Worth thousands in land and nobody knows what in money.
+      It's Henry Jameson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The meanest man I ever knew. If he has a wife it's a marvel she has
+      survived this long. Won't he provide for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose he thinks he has when she has a bed to lie on and a roof to
+      cover her. He won't supply food she can eat and medicine. He says she is
+      lazy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quote Miss Jameson. She says her aunt is slowly dying from overwork and
+      neglect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, doesn't it seem pretty good, when you say 'Miss Jameson'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loveliest sound on earth, except the remainder of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jove! That is a beautiful name. Ruth Langston. It will go well, won't
+      it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Music that the birds, insects, Singing Water, the trees, and the breeze
+      can't ever equal. I'm holding on with all my might, but it's tough, Doc.
+      She's in such a dreadful place and position, and she needs so much. She is
+      sick. Can't you give me a prescription for each of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You just bet I can,&rdquo; said the doctor, &ldquo;if you can engineer their taking
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you'd hold their noses and pour stuff down them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would if necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right&mdash;&mdash;I'll fix something, and you see that they use it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can try,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try! Pah! You aren't half a man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a half more than being a woman, anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She called you feminine, did she?&rdquo; cried the doctor, dancing and
+      laughing. &ldquo;She ought to see you harvesting skunk cabbage and blue flag or
+      when you are angry enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor left the room and it was a half hour before he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try that on them according to directions,&rdquo; he said, handing over a couple
+      of bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That sounds manly enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh pother! It's not that I'm not a man, or a laggard in love; but I'd
+      like to know what you'd do to a girl dumb with grief over the recent loss
+      of her mother, who was her only relative worth counting, sick from God
+      knows what exposure and privation, and now a dying relative on her hands.
+      What could you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd marry her and pick her out of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't have her, if she'd leave a sick woman for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't either. She's got to stick it out until her aunt grows better,
+      and then I'll go out there and show you how to court a girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess not! You keep the girl you did court, courted, and you'll have
+      your hands full. How does that appear to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester opened the pamphlet he carried and held up the drawing of
+      the moth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor turned to the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good work!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Did she do that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did. In a little over an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine! She should have a chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is going to. She is going to have all the opportunity that is coming
+      to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good for you, David! Any time I can help!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester replaced the sketch and went to the wagon; but he left
+      Belshazzar in charge, and visited the largest dry goods store in Onabasha,
+      where he held a conference with the floor walker. When he came out he
+      carried a heaping load of boxes of every size and shape, with a label on
+      each. He drove to Medicine Woods singing and whistling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She didn't want me to go, Belshazzar!&rdquo; he chuckled to the dog. &ldquo;She was
+      more afraid of a cow than she was of me. I made some headway to-day, old
+      boy. She doesn't seem to have a ray of an idea what I am there for, but
+      she is going to trust me soon now; that is written in the books. Oh I hope
+      she will be there to-morrow, and the luna will be out. Got half a notion
+      to take the case and lay it in the warmest place I can find. But if it
+      comes out and she isn't there, I'll be sorry. Better trust to luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stabled Betsy, fed the stock, and visited with the birds.
+      After supper he took his purchases and entered her room. He opened the
+      drawers of the chest he had made, and selecting the labelled boxes he laid
+      them in. But not a package did he open. Then he arose and radiated conceit
+      of himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll wager she will like those,&rdquo; he commented proudly, &ldquo;because Kane
+      promised me fairly that he would have the right things put up for a girl
+      the size of the clerk I selected for him, and exactly what Ruth should
+      have. That girl was slenderer and not quite so tall, but he said
+      everything was made long on purpose. Now what else should I get?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the dressing table and taking a notebook from his pocket made
+      this list:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Rugs for bed and bath room.
+     Mattresses, pillows and bedding,
+     Dresses for all occasions.
+     All kinds of shoes and overshoes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are gloves, too!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester. &ldquo;She has to have some,
+      but how am I going to know what is right? Oh, but she needs shoes! High,
+      low, slippers, everything! I wonder what that clerk wears. I don't believe
+      shoes would be comfortable without being fitted, or at least the proper
+      size. I wonder what kind of dresses she likes. I hope she's fond of white.
+      A woman always appears loveliest in that. Maybe I'd better buy what I'm
+      sure of and let her select the dresses. But I'd love to have this room
+      crammed with girl-fixings when she comes. Doesn't seem as if she ever has
+      had any little luxuries. I can't miss it on anything a woman uses. Let me
+      think!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly he wrote again:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          Parasols.
+          Fans.
+          Veils.
+          Hats.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never can get them! I think that will keep me busy for a few days,&rdquo;
+       said the Harvester as he closed the door softly, and went to look at the
+      pupae cases. Then he carved on the vine of the candlestick for her
+      dressing table; with one arm around Belshazzar, re-read the story of John
+      Muir's dog, went into the lake, and to bed. Just as he was becoming
+      unconscious the beast lifted an inquiring head and gazed at the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More 'fraid of cow,&rdquo; the Harvester was muttering in a sleepy chuckle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. DEMONSTRATED COURTSHIP
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When the Harvester saw the Girl coming toward the woods, he spread the
+      rug, opened and placed the table and chair, laid out the colour box, and
+      another containing the last luna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the green one come out?&rdquo; she asked, touching the box lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It did!&rdquo; said the Harvester proudly, as if he were responsible for the
+      performance. &ldquo;It is an omen! It means that I am to have my long-coveted
+      pattern for my best candlestick. It also clearly indicates that the gods
+      of luck are with me for the day, and I get my way about everything. There
+      won't be the least use in your asking 'why' or interposing objections.
+      This is my clean sweep. I shall be fearfully dictatorial and you must
+      submit, because the fates have pointed out that they favour me to-day, and
+      if you go contrary to their decrees you will have a bad time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl's smile was a little wan. She sank on a chair and picked up a
+      pencil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay that down!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;You haven't had permission from the
+      Dictator to begin drawing. You are to sit and rest a long time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please may I speak?&rdquo; asked the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester grew foolishly happy. Was she really going to play the game?
+      Of course he had hoped, but it was a hope without any foundation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may,&rdquo; he said soberly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid that if you don't allow me to draw the moth at once, I'll
+      never get it done. I dislike to mention it on your good day, but Aunt
+      Molly is very restless. I got a neighbour's little girl to watch her and
+      call me if I'm wanted. It's quite certain that I must go soon, so if you
+      would like the moth&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When luck is coming your way, never hurry it! You always upset the bowl
+      if you grow greedy and crowd. If it is a gamble whether I get this moth,
+      I'll take the chance; but I won't change my foreordained programme for
+      this afternoon. First, you are to sit still ten minutes, shut your eyes,
+      and rest. I can't sing, but I can whistle, and I'm going to entertain you
+      so you won't feel alone. Ready now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl leaned her elbows on the table, closed her eyes, and pressed her
+      slender white hands over them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please don't call the birds,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I can't rest if you do. It was
+      so exciting trying to see all of them and guess what they were saying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Harvester gently. &ldquo;This ten minutes is for relaxation, you
+      know. You ease every muscle, sink limply on your chair, lean on the table,
+      let go all over, and don't think. Just listen to me. I assure you it's
+      going to be perfectly lovely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Watching intently he saw the strained muscles relaxing at his suggestion
+      and caught the smile over the last words as he slid into a soft whistle.
+      It was an easy, slow, old-fashioned tune, carrying along gently, with
+      neither heights nor depths, just monotonous, sleepy, soothing notes, that
+      went on and on with a little ripple of change at times, only to return to
+      the theme, until at last the Girl lifted her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's away past ten minutes,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but that was a real rest. Truly,
+      I am better prepared for work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Broke the rule, too!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It was, for me to say when
+      time was up. Can't you allow me to have my way for ten minutes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so anxious to see and draw this moth,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;And first of
+      all you promised to bring the drawings you have been using.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now where does my programme come in?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester. &ldquo;You are
+      spoiling everything, and I refuse to have my lucky day interfered with;
+      therefore we will ignore the suggestion until we arrive at the place where
+      it is proper. Next thing is refreshments.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose and coming over cleared the table. Then he spread on it a paper
+      tray cloth with a gay border, and going into the thicket brought out a box
+      and a big bucket containing a jug packed in ice. The Girl's eyes widened.
+      She reached down, caught up a piece, and holding it to drip a second
+      started to put it in her mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drop that!&rdquo; commanded the Harvester. &ldquo;That's a very unhealthful
+      proceeding. Wait a minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From one end of the box he produced a tin of wafers and from the other a
+      plate. Then he dug into the ice and lifted several different varieties of
+      chilled fruit. From the jug he poured a combination that he made of the
+      juices of oranges, pineapples, and lemons. He set the glass, rapidly
+      frosting in the heat, and the fruit before the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For one instant she stared at the table. Then she looked at him and in the
+      depths of her dark eyes was an appeal he never forgot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I made that drink myself, so it's all right,&rdquo; he assured her. &ldquo;There's a
+      pretty stiff touch of pineapple in it, and it cuts the cobwebs on a hot
+      day. Please try it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't!&rdquo; cried the Girl with a half-sob. &ldquo;Think of Aunt Molly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you fond of her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I never saw her until a few weeks ago. Since then I've seen nothing
+      save her poor, tired back. She lies in a heap facing the wall. But if she
+      could have things like these, she needn't suffer. And if my mother could
+      have had them she would be living to-day. Oh Man, I can't touch this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He reached over, picked up the glass, and poured its contents into the
+      jug. He repacked the fruit and closed the wafer box. Then he made a trip
+      to the thicket and came out putting something into his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are going to the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I simply don't dare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will go alone,&rdquo; said the Harvester, picking up the bucket and
+      starting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl followed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle Henry may come any minute,&rdquo; she urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well if he comes and acts unpleasantly, he will get what he richly
+      deserves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he will make me pay for it afterward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no he won't!&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;because I'll look out for that.
+      This is my lucky day. He isn't going to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he reached the back door he opened it and stepped inside. Of all the
+      barren places of crude, disheartening ugliness the Harvester ever had
+      seen, that was the worst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want a glass and a spoon,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl brought them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the next room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound of their voices a small girl came to the kitchen door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you do?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester. &ldquo;Is Mrs. Jameson asleep?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; answered the child. &ldquo;She just lies there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gave her the glass. &ldquo;Please fill that with water,&rdquo; he said.
+      Then he picked up the bucket and went into the front room. When the child
+      came with the water he took a bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon,
+      and handed it to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold that steadily,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he slid his strong hands under the light frame and turned the face of
+      the faded little creature toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a Medicine Man, Mrs. Jameson,&rdquo; he said casually. &ldquo;I heard you were
+      sick and I came to see if a little of this stuff wouldn't brace you up.
+      Open your lips.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He held out the spoon and the amazed woman swallowed the contents before
+      she realized what she was doing. Then the Harvester ran a hand under her
+      shoulders and lifting her gently he tossed her pillow with the other hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a light little body, just like my mother,&rdquo; he commented. &ldquo;Now I
+      have something else sick people sometimes enjoy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He held the fruit juice to her lips as he slightly raised her on the
+      pillow. Her trembling fingers lifted and closed around the sparkling
+      glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh it's cool!&rdquo; she gasped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and sour! I think you can taste it. Try!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She drank so greedily he drew away the glass and urged caution, but the
+      shaking fingers clung to him and the wavering voice begged for more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a minute,&rdquo; said the Harvester gently. But the fevered woman would not
+      wait. She drank the cooling liquid until she could take no more. Then she
+      watched him fill a small pitcher and pack it in a part of the ice and lay
+      some fruit around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who, Ruth?&rdquo; she panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Medicine Man who heard about you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will Henry say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He won't know,&rdquo; explained the Girl, smoothing the hot forehead. &ldquo;I'll put
+      it in the cupboard, and slip it to you while he is out of the room. It
+      will make you strong and well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to be strong and well and suffer it all over again. I want
+      to rest. Give me more of the cool drink. Give me all I want, then I'll go
+      to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's wonderful,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;That's more than I've heard her talk
+      since I came. She is much stronger. Please let her have it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester assented. He gave the child some of the fruit, and told her
+      to sit beside the bed and hold the drink when it was asked for. She agreed
+      to be very careful and watchful. Then he picked up the bucket, and
+      followed by the Girl, returned to the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we have to begin all over again,&rdquo; he said, as she seated herself at
+      the table. &ldquo;Because of the walk in the heat, this time the programme is a
+      little different.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He replaced the wafer box and opened it, filled the glass, and heaped the
+      cold fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your aunt is going to have a refreshing sleep now,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and your
+      mind can be free about her for an hour or two. I am very sure your mother
+      would not want you deprived of anything because she missed it, so you are
+      to enjoy this, if you care for it. At least try a sample.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl lifted the glass to her lips with a trembling hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm like Aunt Molly,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I wish I could drink all I could
+      swallow, and then lie down and go to sleep forever. I suppose this is what
+      they have in Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it's what they drink all over earth at present, but I have a conceit
+      of my own brand. Some of it is too strong of one fruit or of the other,
+      and all too sweet for health. This is compounded scientifically and it's
+      just right. If you are not accustomed to cold drinks, go slowly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't scare me,&rdquo; said the Girl; &ldquo;I'm going to drink all I want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a note of excitement in the Harvester's laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have some, too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After a while,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was thirsty when I made it, so I don't care
+      for any more now. Try the fruit and those wafers. Of course they are not
+      home made&mdash;they are the best I could do at a bakery. Take time enough
+      to eat slowly. I'm going to tell you a tale while you lunch, and it's
+      about a Medicine Man named David Langston. It's a very peculiar story, but
+      it's quite true. This man lives in the woods east of Onabasha, accompanied
+      by his dog, horse, cow, and chickens, and a forest full of birds, flowers,
+      and matchless trees. He has lived there in this manner for six long years,
+      and every spring he and his dog have a seance and agree whether he shall
+      go on gathering medicinal herbs and trying his hand at making medicine or
+      go to the city and live as other men. Always the dog chooses to remain in
+      the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then every spring, on the day the first bluebird comes, the dog also
+      decides whether the man shall go on alone or find a mate and bring her
+      home for company. Each year the dog regularly has decided that they live
+      as always. This spring, for some unforeseen reason, he changed his mind,
+      and compelled the man, according to his vow in the beginning, to go
+      courting. The man was so very angry at the idea of having a woman in his
+      home, interfering with his work, disturbing his arrangements, and perhaps
+      wanting to spend more money than he could afford, that he struck the dog
+      for making that decision; struck him for the very first time in his life&mdash;&mdash;I
+      believe you'd like those apricots. Please try one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on with the story,&rdquo; said the Girl, sipping delicately but constantly
+      at the frosty glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and refilled it. Then he dropped pieces of ice over
+      the fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where was I?&rdquo; he inquired casually.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you struck Belshazzar, and it's no wonder,&rdquo; answered the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without taking time to ponder that, the Harvester continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that night the man had a wonderful, golden dream. A beautiful girl
+      came to him, and she was so gracious and lovely that he was sufficiently
+      punished for striking his dog, because he fell unalterably in love with
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meaning you?&rdquo; interrupted the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;meaning me. I&mdash;&mdash;if you like&mdash;&mdash;fell
+      in love with the girl. She came so alluringly, and I was so close to her
+      that I saw her better than I ever did any other girl, and I knew her for
+      all time. When she went, my heart was gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you have lived without that important organ ever since?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without even the ghost of it! She took it with her. Well, that dream was
+      so real, that the next day I began building over my house, making
+      furniture, and planting flowers for her; and every day, wherever I went, I
+      watched for her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What nonsense!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't find a girl you dreamed about in a thousand years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrong!&rdquo; cried the Harvester triumphantly. &ldquo;Saw her in little less than
+      three months, but she vanished and it took some time and difficult work
+      before I located her again; but I've got her all solid now, and she
+      doesn't escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she a 'lovely and gracious lady'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is!&rdquo; said the Harvester, with all his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young and beautiful, of course!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed yes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please fill this glass. I told you what I was going to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester refilled the glass and the Girl drained it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now won't you set aside these things and allow me to go to work?&rdquo; she
+      asked. &ldquo;My call may come any minute, and I'll never forgive myself if I
+      waste time, and don't draw your moth pattern for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's against my principles to hurry, and besides, my story isn't
+      finished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;She is young and lovely, gentle and a lady, you
+      have her 'all solid,' and she can't 'escape'; that's the end, of course.
+      But if I were you, I wouldn't have her until I gave her a chance to get
+      away, and saw whether she would if she could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I am not a jailer,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;She shall be free if I cannot
+      make her love me; but I can, and I will; I swear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not truly in earnest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am in deadly earnest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honestly, you dreamed about a girl, and found the very one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most certainly, I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds like the wildest romancing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the veriest reality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I hope you win her, and that she will be everything you desire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It's written in the book of fate that I
+      succeed. The very elements are with me. The South Wind carried a message
+      to her for me. I am going to marry her, but you could make it much easier
+      for me if you would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I! What could I do?&rdquo; cried the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could cease being afraid of me. You could learn to trust me. You
+      could try to like me, if you see anything likeable about me. That would
+      encourage me so that I could tell you of my Dream Girl, and then you could
+      show me how to win her. A woman always knows about those things better
+      than a man. You could be the greatest help in all the world to me, if only
+      you would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't possibly! I can't leave here. I have no proper clothing to
+      appear before another girl. She would be shocked at my white face. That I
+      could help you is the most improbable dream you have had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must pardon me if I differ from you, and persist in thinking that you
+      can be of invaluable assistance to me, if you will. But you can't
+      influence my Dream Girl, if you fear and distrust me yourself. Promise me
+      that you will help me that much, anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll do all I can. I only want to make you see that I am in no position
+      to grant any favours, no matter how much I owe you or how I'd like to. Is
+      the candlestick you are carving for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I am making a pair of maple to stand on a
+      dressing table I built for her. It is unusually beautiful wood, I think,
+      and I hope she will be pleased with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please take these things away and let me begin. This is the only thing I
+      can see that I can do for you, and the moth will want to fly before I have
+      finished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester cleared the table and placed the box, while the Girl spread
+      the paper and began work eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if I knew there were such exquisite things in all the world,&rdquo;
+       she said. &ldquo;I scarcely think I did. I am beginning to understand why you
+      couldn't kill one. You could make a chair or a table, and so you feel free
+      to destroy them; but it takes ages and Almighty wisdom to evolve a
+      creature like this, so you don't dare. I think no one else would if they
+      really knew. Please talk while I work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there a particular subject you want discussed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything but her. If I think too strongly of her, I can't work so well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your ginseng is almost dry,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I think I can bring you
+      the money in a few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So soon!&rdquo; she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It dries day and night in an even temperature, and faster than you would
+      believe. There's going to be between seven and eight pounds of it, when I
+      make up what it has shrunk. It will go under the head of the finest wild
+      roots. I can get eight for it sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh what good news!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;This is my lucky day, too. And the
+      little girl isn't coming, so Aunt Molly must be asleep. Everything goes
+      right! If only Uncle Henry wouldn't come home!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me fill your glass,&rdquo; proffered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just half way, and set it where I can see it,&rdquo; said the Girl. She worked
+      with swift strokes and there was a hint of colour in her face, as she
+      looked at him. &ldquo;I hope you won't think I'm greedy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but truly,
+      that's the first thing I've had that I could taste in&mdash;&mdash;I can't
+      remember when.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll bring a barrel to-morrow,&rdquo; offered the Harvester, &ldquo;and a big piece
+      of ice wrapped in coffee sacking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mustn't think of such a thing! Ice is expensive and so are fruits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ice costs me the time required to saw and pack it at my home. I almost
+      live on the fruit I raise. I confess to a fondness for this drink. I have
+      no other personal expenses, unless you count in books, and a very few
+      clothes, such as I'm wearing; so I surely can afford all the fruit juice I
+      want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For yourself, yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Also for a couple of women or I am a mighty poor attempt at a man,&rdquo; said
+      the Harvester. &ldquo;This is my day, so you are not to talk, because it won't
+      do any good. Things go my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please see what you think of this,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and bent over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do finely,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;You can stop. I don't require all
+      those little details for carving, I just want a good outline. It is
+      finished. See here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew some folded papers from his pocket and laid them before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those are what I have been working from,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl took them and studied each carefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If those are worth five dollars to you,&rdquo; she said gently, &ldquo;why then I
+      needn't hesitate to take as much for mine. They are superior.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say so,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester as he took up the drawing and
+      laid down the money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you would make it half that much I'd feel better about it,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could I?&rdquo; asked the Harvester. &ldquo;Your fingers are well trained and
+      extremely skilful. Because some one has not been paying you enough for
+      your work is no reason why I should keep it up. From now on you must have
+      what others get. As soon as you can arrange for work, I want to tell you
+      about some designs I have studied out from different things, show you the
+      plants and insects, and have you make some samples. I'll send them to
+      proper places, and see what experts say about the ideas and drawing. Work
+      in the woods is healthful, with proper precautions; it's easy compared
+      with the exactions of being bound to sewing or embroidering in the
+      confinement of a room; it's vividly interesting in the search for new
+      subjects, changes of material, and differing harmonious combinations; it's
+      truly artistic; and it brings the prices high grade stuff always does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Almost you give me hope,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Almost, Man&mdash;&mdash;almost!
+      Since mother died, I haven't thought or planned beyond paying for the
+      medicine she took and the shelter she lies in. Oh I didn't mean to say
+      that&mdash;&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She buried her face in her hands. The Harvester suffered until he scarcely
+      knew how to bear it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please finish,&rdquo; he begged. &ldquo;You hadn't planned beyond the debt, you were
+      saying&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl lifted her tired, strained face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me a little more of that delicious drink,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I am ravenous
+      for it. It puts new life in me. This and what you say bring a far away,
+      misty vision of a clean, bright, peaceful room somewhere, and work one
+      could love and live on in comfort; enough to give a desire to finish life
+      to its natural end. Oh Man, you make me hope in spite of myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Praise God from whom all blessings flow;'&rdquo; quoted the Harvester
+      reverently. &ldquo;Now try one of these peaches. It's juicy and cold. Get that
+      room right in focus in your brain, and nurture the idea. Its walls shall
+      be bright as sunshine, its floor creamy white, and it shall open into a
+      little garden, where only yellow flowers grow, and the birds shall sing.
+      The first ray of sun that peeps over the hills of morning shall fall
+      through its windows across your bed, and you shall work only as you
+      please, after you've had months of play and rest; and it's coming true the
+      instant you can leave here. Dream of it, make up your mind to it, because
+      it's coming. I have a little streak of second sight, and I see it on the
+      way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are talking wildly,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;else you are a good genie trying
+      to conjure a room for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This room I am talking of is ready whenever you want to take possession,&rdquo;
+       said the Harvester. &ldquo;Accept it as a reality, because I tell you I know
+      where it is, that it is waiting, and you can earn your way into it with no
+      obligation to any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stretched out her right hand and slowly turned and opened and
+      closed it. Then she glanced at the Harvester with a weary smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From somewhere I feel a glimmering of the spirit, but Oh, dear Lord, the
+      flesh is weak!&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's where nourishing foods, appetizing drinks, plenty of pure, fresh
+      air, and good water come in. Now we have talked enough for one day, and
+      worked too much. The fruit and drink go with you. I will carry it to the
+      house, and you can hide it in your room. I am going to put a bottle of
+      tonic on top that the best surgeon in the state gave me for you. Try to
+      eat something strengthening and then take a spoonful of this, and use all
+      the fruit you want. I'll bring more to-morrow and put it here, with plenty
+      of ice. Now suppose you let the moth go free,&rdquo; he suggested to avoid
+      objections. &ldquo;You must take my word for it, that it is perfectly harmless,
+      lacking either sting or bite, and hold your hand before it, so that it
+      will climb on your fingers. Then stand where a ray of sunshine falls and
+      in a few minutes it will go out to live its life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl hesitated a second as she studied the clean-cut, interested face
+      of the man; then she held out her hand, and he urged the moth to climb on
+      her fingers. She stepped where a ray of strong light fell on the forest
+      floor and held the moth in it. The brightness also touched her transparent
+      hand and white face and the gleaming black hair. The Harvester choked down
+      a rising surge of desire for her, and took a new grip on himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried breathlessly, as the clinging feet suddenly loosened and
+      the luna slowly flew away among the trees. She turned on the Harvester.
+      &ldquo;You teach me wonders!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;You give life different meanings. You
+      are not as other men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that be true, it is because I am of the woods. The Almighty does not
+      evolve all his wonders in animal, bird, and flower form; He keeps some to
+      work out in the heart, if humanity only will go to His school, and allow
+      Him to have dominion. Come now, you must go. I will come back and put away
+      all the things and tomorrow I will bring your ginseng money. Any time you
+      cannot come, if you want to tell me why, or if there is anything I can do
+      for you, put a line under the oilcloth. I will carry the bucket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so afraid,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will only go to the edge of the woods. You can see if there is any one
+      at the house first. If not, you can send the child away, and then I will
+      carry the bucket to the door for you, and it will furnish comfort for one
+      night, at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to the cleared land and the Girl passed on alone. Soon she
+      reappeared and the Harvester saw the child going down the road. He took up
+      the bucket and set it inside the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there anything I can do for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing but go, before you make trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you hide that stuff and walk back as far as the woods with me? There
+      is something more I want to say to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl staggered under the heavy load, and the man turned his head and
+      tried to pretend he did not see. Presently she came out to him, and they
+      returned to the line of the woods. Just as they entered the shade there
+      was a flash before them, and on a twig a few rods away a little gray bird
+      alighted, while in precipitate pursuit came a flaming wonder of red, and
+      in a burst of excited trills, broken whistles, and imploring gestures,
+      perched beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester hastily drew the Girl behind some bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watch!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;You are going to see a sight so lovely and so rare
+      it is vouchsafed to few mortals ever to behold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they fighting about?&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are witnessing a cardinal bird declare his love,&rdquo; breathed the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do cardinals love different birds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. The female is gray, because if she is coloured the same as the trees
+      and branches and her nest, she will have more chance to bring off her
+      young in safety. He is blood red, because he is the bravest, gayest, most
+      ardent lover of the whole woods,&rdquo; explained the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl leaned forward breathlessly watching and a slow surge of colour
+      crept into her cheeks. The red bird twisted, whistled, rocked, tilted, and
+      trilled, and the gray sat demurely watching him, as if only half convinced
+      he really meant it. The gay lover began at the beginning and said it all
+      over again with more impassioned gestures than before, and then he edged
+      in touch and softly stroked her wing with his beak. She appeared startled,
+      but did not fly. So again the fountain of half-whistled, half-trilled
+      notes bubbled with the acme of pleading intonation and that time he leaned
+      and softly kissed her as she reached her bill for the caress. Then she
+      fled in headlong flight, while the streak of flame darted after her. The
+      Girl caught her breath in a swift spasm of surprise and wonder. She turned
+      to the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was it you wanted to say to me?&rdquo; she asked hurriedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was not the man to miss the goods the gods provided. Truly
+      this was his lucky day. Unhesitatingly he took the plunge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Precisely what he said to her. And if you observed closely, you noticed
+      that she didn't ask him 'why.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before she could open her lips, he was gone, his swift strides carrying
+      him through the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. &ldquo;THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next day the Harvester lifted the oilcloth, and picking up a folded
+      note he read&mdash;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aunt Molly found rest in the night. She was more comfortable than she had
+      been since I have known her. Close the end she whispered to me to thank
+      you if I ever saw you again. She will be buried to-morrow. Past that, I
+      dare not think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sat on the log and studied the lines. She would not come
+      that day or the next. After a long time he put the note in his pocket,
+      wrote an answer telling her he had been there, and would come on the
+      following day on the chance of her wanting anything he could do, and the
+      next he would bring the ginseng money, so she must be sure to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went back to the wagon, turned Betsy, and drove around the Jameson
+      land watching closely. There were several vehicles in the barn lot, and a
+      couple of men sitting under the trees of the door yard. Faded bedding hung
+      on the line and women moved through the rooms, but he could not see the
+      Girl. Slowly he drove on until he came to the first house, and there he
+      stopped and went in. He saw the child of the previous day, and as she came
+      forward her mother appeared in the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester explained who he was and that he was examining the woods in
+      search of some almost extinct herbs he needed in his business. Then he
+      told of having been at the adjoining farm the day before and mentioned the
+      sick woman. He added that later she had died. He casually mentioned that a
+      young woman there seemed pale and ill and wondered if the neighbours would
+      see her through. He suggested that the place appeared as if the owner did
+      not take much interest, and when the woman finished with Henry Jameson, he
+      said how very important it seemed to him that some good, kind-hearted soul
+      should go and mother the poor girl, and the woman thought she was the very
+      person. Without knowing exactly how he did it, the Harvester left with her
+      promise to remain with the Girl the coming two nights. The woman had her
+      hands full of strange and delicious fruit without understanding why it had
+      been given her, or why she had made those promises. She thought the
+      Harvester a remarkably fine young man to take such interest in strangers
+      and she told him he was welcome to anything he could find on her place
+      that would help with his medicines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester just happened to be coming from the woods as the woman
+      freshly dressed left the house, so he took her in the wagon and drove back
+      to the Jameson place, because he was going that way. Then he returned to
+      Medicine Woods and worked with all his might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First he polished floors, cleaned windows, and arranged the rooms as best
+      he could inside the cabin; then he gave a finishing touch to everything
+      outside. He could not have told why he did it, but he thought it was
+      because there was hope that now the Girl would come to Onabasha. If he
+      found opportunity to bring her to the city, he hoped that possibly he
+      might drive home with her and show Medicine Woods, so everything must be
+      in order. Then he worked with flying fingers in the dry-house, putting up
+      her ginseng for market, and never was weight so liberal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning he drove early to Onabasha and came home with a loaded
+      wagon, the contents of which he scattered through the cabin where it
+      seemed most suitable, but the greater part of it was for her. He glanced
+      at the bare floors and walls of the other rooms, and thought of trying to
+      improve them, but he was afraid of not getting the right things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know much about what is needed here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I am
+      perfectly safe in buying anything a girl ever used.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he returned to the city, explained the situation to the doctor, and
+      selected the room he wanted in case the Girl could be persuaded to come to
+      the hospital. After that he went to see the doctor's wife, and made
+      arrangements for her to be ready for a guest, because there was a
+      possibility he might want to call for help. He had another jug of fruit
+      juice and all the delicacies he could think of, also a big cake of ice,
+      when he reached the woods. There were only a few words for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will come to-morrow at two, if at all possible; if not, keep the money
+      until I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing to do except to place his offering under the oilcloth
+      and wait, but he simply was compelled to add a line to say he would be
+      there, and to express the hope that she was comfortable as possible and
+      thinking of the sunshine room. Then he returned to Medicine Woods to wait,
+      and found that possible only by working to exhaustion. There were many
+      things he could do, and one after another he finished them, until
+      completely worn out; and then he slept the deep sleep of weariness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon the next day he bathed, shaved, and dressed in fresh, clean
+      clothing. He stopped in Onabasha for more fruit, and drove to the Jameson
+      woods. He was waiting and watching the usual path the Girl followed, when
+      her step sounded on the other side. The Harvester arose and turned. Her
+      pallor was alarming. She stepped on the rug he had spread, and sank almost
+      breathless to the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you come a new way that fills you with fear?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems as if Uncle Henry is watching me every minute, and I didn't dare
+      come where he could see. I must not remain a second. You must take these
+      things away and go at once. He is dreadful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So am I,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;when affairs go too everlastingly wrong. I
+      am not afraid of any man living. What are you planning to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to ask you, are you sure about the prices of my drawing and the
+      ginseng?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;As for the ginseng it went in fresh and
+      early, best wild roots, and it brought eight a pound. There were eight
+      pounds when I made up weight and here is your money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He handed her a long envelope addressed to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the amount?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sixty-four dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't believe it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have it in your fingers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that I would like to thank you properly, if I had words to
+      express myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind that,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Tell me what you are planning. Say
+      that you will come to the hospital for the long, perfect rest now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is absolutely impossible. Don't weary me by mentioning it. I cannot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you tell me what you intend doing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;for it depends entirely on your word. I am going to
+      get Uncle Henry's supper, and then go and remain the night with the
+      neighbour who has been helping me. In the morning, when he leaves, she is
+      coming with her wagon for my trunk, and she is going to drive with me to
+      Onabasha and find me a cheap room and loan me a few things, until I can
+      buy what I need. I am going to use fourteen dollars of this and my drawing
+      money for what I am forced to buy, and pay fifty on my debt. Then I will
+      send you my address and be ready for work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She clutched the envelope and for the first time looked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I could take you to the wife of my best
+      friend, the chief surgeon of the city hospital, and everything would be
+      ease and rest until you are strong; she would love to have you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl dropped her hands wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tire me with it!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I am almost falling despite the
+      stimulus of food and drink I can touch. I never can thank you properly for
+      that. I won't be able to work hard enough to show you how much I
+      appreciate what you have done for me. But you don't understand. A woman,
+      even a poverty-poor woman, if she be delicately born and reared, cannot go
+      to another woman on a man's whim, and when she lacks even the barest
+      necessities. I don't refuse to meet your friends. I shall love to, when I
+      can be so dressed that I will not shame you. Until that times comes, if
+      you are the gentleman you appear to be, you will wait without urging me
+      further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be a man, in order to be a gentleman,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;And it
+      is because the man in me is in hot rebellion against more loneliness,
+      pain, and suffering for you, that the conventions become chains I do not
+      care how soon or how roughly I break. If only you could be induced to say
+      the word, I tell you I could bring one of God's gentlest women to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And probably she would come in a dainty gown, in her carriage or motor,
+      and be disgusted, astonished, and secretly sorry for you. As for me, I do
+      not require her pity. I will be glad to know the beautiful, refined, and
+      gentle woman you are so certain of, but not until I am better dressed and
+      more attractive in appearance than now. If you will give me your address,
+      I will write you when I am ready for work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently the Harvester wrote it. &ldquo;Will you give me permission to take
+      these things to your neighbour for you?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;They would serve until
+      you can do better, and I have no earthly use for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She hesitated. Then she laughed shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a travesty my efforts at pride are with you!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I begin by
+      trying to preserve some proper dignity, and end by confessing abject
+      poverty. I yet have the ten you paid me the other day, but twenty-four
+      dollars are not much to set up housekeeping on, and I would be more glad
+      than I can say for these very things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I will take them when I go. Is there
+      anything else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you have a drink?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you have more with you. I believe it is really cooling my blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you taking the medicine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I am stronger. Truly I am. I know I appear ghastly
+      to you, but it's loss of sleep, and trying to lay away poor Aunt Molly
+      decently, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And fear of Uncle Henry,&rdquo; added the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;That most of all! He thinks I am going to stay here
+      and take her place. I can't tell him I am not, and how I am to hide from
+      him when I am gone, I don't know. I am afraid of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he any claim on you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shelter for the past three months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you of age?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am almost twenty-four,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then suppose you leave Uncle Henry to me,&rdquo; suggested the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Careful now! The red bird told you why!&rdquo; said the man. &ldquo;I will not urge
+      it upon you now, but keep it steadily in the back of your head that there
+      is a sunshine room all ready and waiting for you, and I am going to take
+      you to it very soon. As things are, I think you might allow me to tell you&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was on her feet in instant panic. &ldquo;I must go,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Uncle Henry
+      is dogging me to promise to remain, and I will not, and he is watching me.
+      I must go&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you give me your word of honour that you will go to the neighbour
+      woman to-night; that you feel perfectly safe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She hesitated. &ldquo;Yes, I&mdash;&mdash;I think so. Yes, if he doesn't find
+      out and grow angry. Yes, I will be safe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How soon will you write me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as soon as I am settled and rest a little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean several days?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, several days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An eternity!&rdquo; cried the Harvester with white lips. &ldquo;I cannot let you go.
+      Suppose you fall ill and fail to write me, and I do not know where you
+      are, and there is no one to care for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But can't you see that I don't know where I will be? If it will satisfy
+      you, I will write you a line to-morrow night and tell you where I am, and
+      you can come later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a promise?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will take these things to your neighbour and wait until to-morrow
+      night. You won't fail me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never in all my life saw a man so wild over designs,&rdquo; said the Girl, as
+      she started toward the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't forget that the design I'm craziest about is the same as the red
+      bird's,&rdquo; the Harvester flung after her, but she hurried on and made no
+      reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He folded the table and chair, rolled the rug, and shouldering them picked
+      up the bucket and started down the river bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a faint little call he never would have been sure he heard anything
+      if Belshazzar had not stopped suddenly. The hair on the back of his neck
+      arose and he turned with a growl in his throat. The Harvester dropped his
+      load with a crash and ran in leaping bounds, but the dog was before him.
+      Half way to the house, Ruth Jameson swayed in the grip of her uncle. One
+      hand clutched his coat front in a spasmodic grasp, and with the other she
+      covered her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roar the Harvester sent up stayed the big, lifted fist, and the dog
+      leaped for a throat hold, and compelled the man to defend himself. The
+      Harvester never knew how he covered the space until he stood between them,
+      and saw the Girl draw back and snatch together the front of her dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He took it from me!&rdquo; she panted. &ldquo;Make him, oh make him give back my
+      money!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then for a few seconds things happened too rapidly to record. Once the
+      Harvester tossed a torn envelope exposing money to the Girl, and again a
+      revolver, and then both men panting and dishevelled were on their feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Count your money, Ruth?&rdquo; said the Harvester in a voice of deadly quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all here,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her money?&rdquo; cried Henry Jameson. &ldquo;My money! She has been stealing the
+      price of my cattle from my pockets. I thought I was short several times
+      lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are lying,&rdquo; said the Harvester deliberately. &ldquo;It is her money. I just
+      paid it to her. You were trying to take it from her, not the other way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, she is in your pay?&rdquo; leered the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you say an insulting word I think very probably I will finish you,&rdquo;
+       said the Harvester. &ldquo;I can, with my naked hands, and all your neighbours
+      will say it is a a good job. You have felt my grip! I warn you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does my niece come to be taking money from you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have forfeited all right to know. Ruth, you cannot remain here. You
+      must come with me. I will take you to Onabasha and find you a room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A horrible laugh broke from the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that is the end of my saintly niece!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remember!&rdquo; cried the Harvester advancing a step. &ldquo;Ruth, will you go to
+      the rest I suggested for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you go to Doctor Carey's wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you marry me and go to the shelter of my home with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wild-eyed she stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I love you, and want life made easier for you, above anything
+      else on earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But your Dream Girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;YOU ARE THE DREAM GIRL! I thought the red bird told you for me! I didn't
+      know it would be a shock. I believed I had made you understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By that time she was shaking with a nervous chill, and the sight unmanned
+      the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come with me!&rdquo; he urged. &ldquo;We will decide what you want to do on the way.
+      Only come, I beg you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First it was marry, now it's decide later,&rdquo; broke in Henry Jameson,
+      crazed with anger. &ldquo;Move a step and I'll strike you down. I'd better than
+      see you disgraced&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester advanced and Jameson stepped back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I know how impossible this seems. It is
+      giving you no chance at all. I had intended, when I found you, to court
+      you tenderly as girl ever was wooed before. Come with me, and I'll do it
+      yet. The new home was built for you. The sunshine room is ready and
+      waiting for you. There is pure air, fresh water, nothing but rest and
+      comfort. I'll nurse you back to health and strength, and you shall be
+      courted until you come to me of your own accord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; cried the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only if you make it so. If you will come now, we can be married in a few
+      hours, and you can be safe in your own home. I realize now that this is
+      unexpected and shocking to you, but if you will come with me and allow me
+      to restore you to health and strength, and if, say, in a year, you are
+      convinced that you do not love me, I will set you free. If you will come,
+      I swear to you that you shall be my wife first, and my honoured guest
+      afterward, until such time as you either tell me you love me or that you
+      never can. Will you come on those terms, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will end fear, uncertainty, and work, until you are strong and well.
+      It will give you home, rest, and love, that you will find is worth your
+      consideration. I will keep my word; of that you may be sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;No! But take back this money! Keep it until I tell you
+      to whom to pay it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She started toward him holding out the envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Henry Jameson, with a dreadful oath, sprang for it, his contorted face a
+      drawn snarl. The Harvester caught him in air and sent him reeling. He
+      snatched the revolver from the Girl and put the money in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, I can't leave you here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Oh my Dream Girl! Are you afraid
+      of me yet? Won't you trust me? Won't you come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right about that, my lady; you will come back to the house,
+      that's what you'll do,&rdquo; said Henry Jameson, starting toward her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried the Girl retreating. &ldquo;Oh Heaven help me! What am I to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, you must come with me,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I don't dare leave you
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood between them and gave Henry Jameson one long, searching look.
+      Then she turned to the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am far less afraid of you. I will accept your offer,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I will keep my word and you shall have
+      no regrets. Is there anything here you wish to take with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want a little trunk of my mother's. It contains some things of hers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you show me where it is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She started toward the house; he followed, and Henry Jameson fell in line.
+      The Harvester turned on him. &ldquo;You remain where you are,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will
+      take nothing but the trunk. I know what you are thinking, but you will not
+      get your gun just now. I will return this revolver to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the first thing I do with it will be to use it on you,&rdquo; said Henry
+      Jameson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll report that threat to the police, so that they can see you properly
+      hanged if you do,&rdquo; retorted the Harvester, as he followed the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is his gun?&rdquo; he asked as he overtook her. When he reached the house
+      he told her to watch the door. He went inside, broke the lock from the gun
+      in the corner, found the trunk, and swinging it to his shoulder, passed
+      Henry Jameson and went back through the woods. The Harvester set the trunk
+      in the wagon, helped the Girl in, and returned for the load he had dropped
+      at her call. Then he took the lines and started for Onabasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl beside him was almost fainting. He stopped to give her a drink
+      and tried to encourage her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brace up the best you can, Ruth,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You must go with me for a
+      license; that is the law. Afterward, I'll make it just as easy for you as
+      possible. I will do everything, and in a few hours you will be comfortable
+      in your room. You brave girl! This must come out right! You have suffered
+      more than your share. I will have peace for you the remainder of the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She lifted shaking hands and tried to arrange her hair and dress. As they
+      neared the city she spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will they ask me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know. But I am sure the law requires you to appear in person now.
+      I can take you somewhere and find out first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will take time. I want to reach my room. What would you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are of age, where you were born, if you are a native of this
+      country, what your father and mother died of, how old they were, and such
+      questions as that. I'll help you all I can. You know those things. don't
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. But I must tell you&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to be told anything,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Save your
+      strength. All I want to know is any way in which I can make this easier
+      for you. Nothing else matters. I will tell you what I think; if you have
+      any objections, make them. I will drive to the bank and get a draft for
+      what you owe, and have that off your mind. Then we will get the license.
+      After that I'll take you to the side door, slip you in the elevator and to
+      the fitting room of a store where I know the manager, and you shall have
+      some pretty clothing while I arrange for a minister, and I'll come for you
+      with a carriage. That isn't the kind of wedding you or any other girl
+      should have, but there are times when a man only can do his best. You will
+      help me as much as you can, won't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything you choose. It doesn't matter&mdash;&mdash;only be quick as
+      possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are a few details to which I must attend,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and
+      the time will go faster trying on dresses than waiting alone. When you are
+      properly clothed you will feel better. What did you say the amount you owe
+      is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may get a draft for fifty dollars. I will pay the remainder when I
+      earn it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, won't you give me the pleasure of taking you home free from the
+      worry of that debt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not going to 'worry.' I am going to work and pay it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;This is the bank. We will stop here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went in and he handed her a slip of paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Write the name and address on that?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the slip was returned to him, without a glance he folded it and slid it
+      under a wicket. &ldquo;Write a draft for fifty dollars payable to that party,
+      and send to that address, from Miss Ruth Jameson,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he turned to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is over. See how easy it is! Now we will go to the court house. It
+      is very close. Try not to think. Just move and speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hello, Langston!&rdquo; said the clerk. &ldquo;What can we do for you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show this girl every consideration,&rdquo; whispered the Harvester, as he
+      advanced. &ldquo;I want a marriage license in your best time. I will answer
+      first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With the document in his possession, they went to the store he designated,
+      where he found the Girl a chair in the fitting room, while he went to see
+      the manager.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want one of your most sensible and accommodating clerks,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, &ldquo;and I would like a few words with her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she was presented he scrutinized her carefully and decided she would
+      do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have many thanks and something more substantial for a woman who will
+      help me to carry through a slightly unusual project with sympathy and
+      ability,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the manager has selected you. Are you willing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I can,&rdquo; said the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has put up your other orders,&rdquo; interposed the manager; &ldquo;were they
+      satisfactory?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;They have not yet reached the one for
+      whom they were intended. What I want you to do,&rdquo; he said to the clerk, &ldquo;is
+      to go to the fitting room and dress the girl you find there for her
+      wedding. She had other plans, but death disarranged them, and she has only
+      an hour in which to meet the event most girls love to linger over for
+      months. She has been ill, and is worn with watching; but some time she may
+      look back to her wedding day with joy, and if only you would help me to
+      make the best of it for her, I would be, as I said, under more obligations
+      than I can express.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do anything,&rdquo; said the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;She has come from the country entirely
+      unprepared. She is delicate and refined. Save her all the embarrassment
+      you can. Dress her beautifully in white. Keep a memorandum slip of what
+      you spend for my account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the limit?&rdquo; asked the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is none,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Put the prettiest things on her you
+      have in the right sizes, and if you are a woman with a heart, be gentle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she ready?&rdquo; inquired the manager at the door an hour later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; said the Girl stepping through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The astounded Harvester stood and stared, utterly oblivious of the curious
+      people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, here, here!&rdquo; suddenly he whistled it, in the red bird's most
+      entreating tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl laughed and the colour in her face deepened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what about you?&rdquo; asked the manager of the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thunder!&rdquo; cried the man aghast. &ldquo;I was so busy getting everything else
+      ready, I forgot all about myself. I can't stand before a minister beside
+      her, can I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I should say not,&rdquo; said the manager.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I never saw you in any other clothing. You
+      would be a stranger of whom I'd be afraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That settles it!&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly. &ldquo;Thank all of you more than
+      words can express. I will come in the first of the week and tell you how
+      we get along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they went to the carriage and started for the residence of a
+      minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, you are my Dream Girl to the tips of your eyelashes,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;I almost wish you were not. It wouldn't keep me thinking so
+      much of the remainder of that dream. You are the loveliest sight I ever
+      saw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I really appear well?&rdquo; asked the Girl, hungry for appreciation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed you do!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I never could have guessed that such
+      a miracle could be wrought. And you don't seem so tired. Were they good to
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonderfully! I did not know there was kindness like that in all the world
+      for a stranger. I did not feel lost or embarrassed, except the first few
+      seconds when I didn't know what to do. Oh I thank you for this! You were
+      right. Whatever comes in life I always shall love to remember that I was
+      daintily dressed and appeared as well as I could when I was married. But I
+      must tell you I am not real. They did everything on earth to me, three of
+      them working at a time. I feel an increase in self-respect in some way.
+      David, I do appear better?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she said &ldquo;David,&rdquo; the Harvester looked out of the window and gulped
+      down his delight. He leaned toward her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut your eyes and imagine you see the red bird,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In my soul, I
+      am saying to you again and again just what he sang. You are wonderfully
+      beautiful, Ruth, and more than wonderfully sweet. Will you answer me a
+      question?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we are engaged, aren't we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please remove the glove from your left hand. I want to put on your ring.
+      This will have to be a very short engagement, but no one save ourselves
+      need know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, that isn't necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have it here, and believe me, Ruth, it will help in a few minutes; and
+      all your life you will be glad. It is a precious symbol that has a
+      meaning. This wedding won't be hurt by putting all the sacredness into it
+      we can. Please, Ruth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you will accept and wear my mother's wedding ring in exchange,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;It is all I have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, do you really wish that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am more pleased than I can tell you. May I have it now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took off her glove and the Harvester held her hand closely a second,
+      then lifted it to his lips, passionately kissed it and slipped on a ring,
+      the setting a big, lustrous pearl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I looked at some others,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but nothing got a second glance save
+      this. They knew you were coming down the ages, and so they got the pearls
+      ready. How beautiful it is on your hand! Put on the glove and wear that
+      ring as if you had owned it for the long, happy year of betrothal every
+      girl should have. You can start yours to-day, and if by this time next
+      year I have not won you to my heart and arms, I'm no man and not worthy of
+      you. Ruth, you will try just a little to love me, won't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will try with all my heart,&rdquo; she said instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you! I am perfectly happy with that. I never expected to marry you
+      before a year, anyway. All the difference will be the blessed fact that
+      instead of coming to see you somewhere else, I now can have you in my
+      care, and court you every minute. You might as well make up your mind to
+      capitulate soon. It's on the books that you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If an instant ever comes when I realize that I love you, I will come
+      straight and tell you; believe me, I will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;This is going to be quite a proper
+      wedding after all. Here is the place. It will be over soon and you on the
+      home way. Lord, Ruth&mdash;&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl smiled at him as he opened the carriage door, helped her up the
+      steps and rang the bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be brave now!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Don't lose your lovely colour. These people
+      will be as kind as they were at the store.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister was gentle and wasted no time. His wife and daughter, who
+      appeared for witnesses, kissed Ruth, and congratulated her. She and the
+      Harvester stood, took the vows, exchanged rings, and returned to the
+      carriage, a man and his wife by the laws of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drive to Seaton's cafe',&rdquo; the Harvester said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh David, let us go home!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is so good I hate to stop it for something you may not like so well.
+      I ordered lunch and if we don't eat it I will have to pay for it anyway.
+      You wouldn't want me to be extravagant, would you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;and besides, since you mention it, I believe I am
+      hungry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I hoped so! Ruth, you wouldn't allow me to
+      hold your hand just until we reach the cafe'? It might save me from
+      bursting with joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But I must take off my lovely gloves first. I want to
+      keep them forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd hate the glove being removed dreadfully,&rdquo; said the Harvester, his
+      eyes dancing and snapping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry I am so thin and shaky,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I will be steady and
+      plump soon, won't I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On your life you will,&rdquo; said the Harvester, taking the hand gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now there are a number of things a man deeply in love can think of to do
+      with a woman's white hand. He can stroke it, press it tenderly, and lay it
+      against his lips and his heart. The Harvester lacked experience in these
+      arts, and yet by some wonderful instinct all of these things occurred to
+      him. There was real colour in the Girl's cheeks by the time he helped her
+      into the cafe'. They were guided to a small room, cool and restful, close
+      a window, beside which grew a tree covered with talking leaves. A waiting
+      attendant, who seemed perfectly adept, brought in steaming bouillon,
+      fragrant tea, broiled chicken, properly cooked vegetables, a wonderful
+      salad, and then delicious ices and cold fruit. The happy Harvester leaned
+      back and watched the Girl daintily manage almost as much food as he wanted
+      to see her eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had finished, &ldquo;Now we are going home,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Will you try to
+      like it, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed I will,&rdquo; she promised. &ldquo;As soon as I grow accustomed to the
+      dreadful stillness, and learn what things will not bite me, I'll be
+      better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have to ask you to wait a minute,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;One thing I forgot. I
+      must hire a man to take Betsy home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't you going to drive her yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No ma'am! We are going in a carriage or a motor,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed we are not!&rdquo; contradicted the Girl. &ldquo;You have had this all your
+      way so far. I am going home behind Betsy, with Belshazzar at my knee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But your dress! People will think I am crazy to put a lovely woman like
+      you in a spring wagon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let them!&rdquo; said the Girl placidly. &ldquo;Why should we bother about other
+      people? I am going with Betsy and Belshazzar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester had been thinking that he adored her, that it was impossible
+      to love her more, but every minute was proving to him that he was capable
+      of feeling so profound it startled him. To carry the Girl, his bride,
+      through the valley and up the hill in the little spring wagon drawn by
+      Betsy&mdash;that would have been his ideal way. But he had supposed that
+      she would be afraid of soiling her dress, and embarrassed to ride in such
+      a conveyance. Instead it was her choice. Yes, he could love her more.
+      Hourly she was proving that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come this way a few steps,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Betsy is here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl laid her face against the nose of the faithful old animal, and
+      stroked her head and neck. Then she held her skirts and the Harvester
+      helped her into the wagon. She took the seat, and the dog went wild with
+      joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, Bel,&rdquo; she softly commanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog hesitated, and looked at the Harvester for permission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may come here and put your head on my knee,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Belshazzar, you lucky dog, you are privileged to sit there and lay your
+      head on the lady's lap,&rdquo; said the Harvester, and the dog quivered with
+      joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the man picked up the lines, gave a backward glance to the bed of the
+      wagon, high piled with large bundles, and turned Betsy toward Medicine
+      Woods. Through the crowded streets and toward the country they drove, when
+      a big red car passed, a man called to them, then reversed and slowly began
+      backing beside the wagon. The Harvester stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is my best friend, Doctor Carey, of the hospital, Ruth,&rdquo; he said
+      hastily. &ldquo;May I tell him, and will you shake hands with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly!&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it really you, David?&rdquo; the doctor peered with gleaming eyes from under
+      the car top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, as man greets man with a full heart when he
+      is sure of sympathy. &ldquo;Come, give us your best send-off, Doc! We were
+      married an hour ago. We are headed for Medicine Woods. Doctor Carey, this
+      is Mrs. Langston.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mighty glad to know you!&rdquo; cried the doctor, reaching a happy hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl met it cordially, while she smiled on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did this happen?&rdquo; demanded the doctor. &ldquo;Why didn't you let us know?
+      This is hardly fair of you, David. You might have let me and the Missus
+      share with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is to be explained,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It was decided on very
+      suddenly, and rather sadly, on account of the death of Mrs. Jameson. I
+      forced Ruth to marry me and come with me. I grow rather frightened when I
+      think of it, but it was the only way I knew. She absolutely refused my
+      other plans. You see before you a wild man carrying away a woman to his
+      cave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't believe him, Doctor!&rdquo; laughed the Girl. &ldquo;If you know him, you will
+      understand that to offer all he had was like him, when he saw my
+      necessity. You will come to see us soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll come right now,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;I'll bring my wife and arrive by
+      the time you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no you won't!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Do you observe the bed of this
+      wagon? This happened all 'unbeknownst' to us. We have to set up
+      housekeeping after we reach home. We will notify you when we are ready for
+      visitors. Just you subside and wait until you are sent for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why David!&rdquo; cried the astonished Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the law!&rdquo; said the Harvester tersely. &ldquo;Good-bye, Doc; we'll be
+      ready for you in a day or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He leaned down and held out his hand. The grip that caught it said all any
+      words could convey; and then Betsy started up the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. WHEN THE DREAM CAME TRUE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At first the road lay between fertile farms dotted with shocked wheat,
+      covered with undulant seas of ripening oats, and forests of growing corn.
+      The larks were trailing melody above the shorn and growing fields, the
+      quail were ingathering beside the fences, and from the forests on graceful
+      wings slipped the nighthawks and sailed and soared, dropping so low that
+      the half moons formed by white spots on their spread wings showed plainly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is this country so different from the other side of the city?&rdquo; asked
+      the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is older,&rdquo; replied the Harvester, &ldquo;and it lies higher. This was
+      settled and well cultivated when that was a swamp. But as a farming
+      proposition, the money is in the lowland like your uncle's. The crops
+      raised there are enormous compared with the yield of these fields.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;But this is much better to look at and the air is
+      different. It lacks a soggy, depressing quality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't allow any air to surpass that of Medicine Woods,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, &ldquo;by especial arrangement with the powers that be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they dipped into a little depression and arose to cross the railroad
+      and then followed a longer valley that was ragged and unkempt compared
+      with the road between cultivated fields. The Harvester was busy trying to
+      plan what to do first, and how to do it most effectively, and working his
+      brain to think if he had everything the Girl would require for her
+      comfort; so he drove silently through the deepening shadows. She shuddered
+      and awoke him suddenly. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her thoughts had gone on a journey, also, and the way had been rough, for
+      her face wore a strained appearance. The hands lying bare in her lap were
+      tightly gripped, so that the nails and knuckles appeared blue. The
+      Harvester hastily cast around seeking for the cause of the transformation.
+      A few minutes ago she had seemed at ease and comfortable, now she was
+      close open panic. Nothing had been said that would disturb her. With brain
+      alert he searched for the reason. Then it began to come to him. The
+      unaccustomed silence and depression of the country might have been the
+      beginning. Coming from the city and crowds of people to the gloomy valley
+      with a man almost a stranger, going she knew not where, to conditions she
+      knew not what, with the experiences of the day vivid before her. The black
+      valley road was not prepossessing, with its border of green pools, through
+      which grew swamp bushes and straggling vines. The Harvester looked
+      carefully at the road, and ceased to marvel at the Girl. But he disliked
+      to let her know he understood, so he gave one last glance at those gripped
+      hands and casually held out the lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you take these just a second?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;Don't let them touch your
+      dress. We must not lose of our load, because it's mostly things that will
+      make you more comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose, and turning, pretended to see that everything was all right.
+      Then he resumed his seat and drove on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a little ashamed of this stretch through here,&rdquo; he said
+      apologetically. &ldquo;I could have managed to have it cleared and in better
+      shape long ago, but in a way it yields a snug profit, and so far I've
+      preferred the money. The land is not mine, but I could grub out this
+      growth entirely, instead of taking only what I need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there stuff here you use?&rdquo; the Girl aroused herself to ask, and the
+      Harvester saw the look of relief that crossed her face at the sound of his
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I should say yes,&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;Those bushes, numerous everywhere,
+      with the hanging yellow-green balls, those, in bark and root, go into
+      fever medicines. They are not so much used now, but sometimes I have a
+      call, and when I do, I pass the beds on my&mdash;&mdash;on our land, and
+      come down here and get what is needed. That bush,&rdquo; he indicated with the
+      whip, &ldquo;blooms exquisitely in the spring. It is a relative of flowering
+      dogwood, and the one of its many names I like best is silky cornel. Isn't
+      that pretty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;it is beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've planted some for you in a hedge along the driveway so next spring
+      you can gather all you want. I think you'll like the odour. The bark
+      brings more than true dogwood. If I get a call from some house that uses
+      it, I save mine and come down here. Around the edge are hop trees, and I
+      realize something from them, and also the false and true bitter-sweet that
+      run riot here. Both of them have pretty leaves, while the berries of the
+      true hang all winter and the colour is gorgeous. I've set your hedge
+      closely with them. When it has grown a few months it's going to furnish
+      flowers in the spring, a million different, wonderful leaves and berries
+      in the summer, many fruits the birds love in the fall, and bright berries,
+      queer seed pods, and nuts all winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You planted it for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I think it will be beautiful in a season or two; it isn't so bad
+      now. I hope it will call myriads of birds to keep you company. When you
+      cross this stretch of road hereafter, don't see fetid water and straggling
+      bushes and vines; just say to yourself, this helps to fill orders!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am perfectly tolerant of it now,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You make everything
+      different. I will come with you and help collect the roots and barks you
+      want. Which bush did you say relieved the poor souls scorching with
+      fever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drew on the lines, Betsy swerved to the edge of the road,
+      and he leaned and broke a branch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This one,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Buttonbush, because those balls resemble round
+      buttons. Aren't they peculiar? See how waxy and gracefully cut and set the
+      leaves are. Go on, Betsy, get us home before night. We appear our best
+      early in the morning, when the sun tops Medicine Woods and begins to light
+      us up, and in the evening, just when she drops behind Onabasha back there,
+      and strikes us with a few level rays. Will you take the lines until I open
+      this gate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She laid the twig in her lap on the white gloves and took the lines. As
+      the gate swung wide, Betsy walked through and stopped at the usual place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now my girl,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;cross yourself, lean back, and take
+      your ease. This side that gate you are at home. From here on belongs to
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To you, you mean,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To us, I mean,&rdquo; declared the Harvester. &ldquo;Don't you know that the 'worldly
+      goods bestowal' clause in a marriage ceremony is a partial reality. It
+      doesn't give you 'all my worldly goods,' but it gives you one third. Which
+      will you take, the hill, lake, marsh, or a part of all of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, is there water?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I forget to mention that I was formerly sole owner and proprietor of
+      the lake of Lost Loons, also a brook of Singing Water, and many cold
+      springs. The lake covers about one third of our land, and my neighbours
+      would allow me ditch outlet to the river, but they say I'm too lazy to
+      take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lazy! Do they mean drain your lake into the river?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They do,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and make the bed into a cornfield.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you wouldn't?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned to him with confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't so far, but of course, when you see it, if you would prefer it
+      in a corn&mdash;&mdash;Let's play a game! Turn your head in this
+      direction,&rdquo; he indicated with the whip, &ldquo;close your eyes, and open them
+      when I say ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now!&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;Stop! Please stop!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were at the foot of a small levee that ran to the bridge crossing
+      Singing Water. On the left lay the valley through which the stream swept
+      from its hurried rush down the hill, a marshy thicket of vines, shrubs,
+      and bushes, the banks impassable with water growth. Everywhere flamed
+      foxfire and cardinal flower, thousands of wild tiger lilies lifted
+      gorgeous orange-red trumpets, beside pearl-white turtle head and moon
+      daisies, while all the creek bank was a coral line with the first opening
+      bloom of big pink mallows. Rank jewel flower poured gold from dainty
+      cornucopias and lavender beard-tongue offered honey to a million bumbling
+      bees; water smart-weed spread a glowing pink background, and twining amber
+      dodder topped the marsh in lacy mist with its delicate white bloom.
+      Straight before them a white-sanded road climbed to the bridge and up a
+      gentle hill between the young hedge of small trees and bushes, where again
+      flowers and bright colours rioted and led to the cabin yet invisible. On
+      the right, the hill, crowned with gigantic forest trees, sloped to the
+      lake; midway the building stood, and from it, among scattering trees all
+      the way to the water's edge, were immense beds of vivid colour. Like a
+      scarf of gold flung across the face of earth waved the misty saffron, and
+      beside the road running down the hill, in a sunny, open space arose
+      tree-like specimens of thrifty magenta pokeberry. Down the hill crept the
+      masses of colour, changing from dry soil to water growth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      High around the blue-green surface of the lake waved lacy heads of wild
+      rice, lower cat-tails, bulrushes, and marsh grasses; arrowhead lilies
+      lifted spines of pearly bloom, while yellow water lilies and blue water
+      hyacinths intermingled; here and there grew a pink stretch of water
+      smartweed and the dangling gold of jewel flower. Over the water, bordering
+      the edge, starry faces of white pond lilies floated. Blue flags waved
+      graceful leaves, willows grew in clumps, and vines clambered everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the growth of the lake shore, duck, coot, and grebe voices
+      commingled in the last chattering hastened splash of securing supper
+      before bedtime; crying killdeers crossed the water, and overhead the
+      nighthawks massed in circling companies. Betsy climbed the hill and at
+      every step the Girl cried, &ldquo;Slower! please go slower!&rdquo; With wide eyes she
+      stared around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS?&rdquo; she demanded in awed
+      tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I had opportunity to describe much of anything?&rdquo; asked the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;Besides, I was born and reared here, and while it has been a
+      garden of bloom for the past six years only, it always has been a picture;
+      but one forgets to say much about a sight seen every day and that requires
+      the work this does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That white mist down there, what is it?&rdquo; she marvelled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pearls grown by the Almighty,&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;Flowers that I
+      hope you will love. They are like you. Tall and slender, graceful, pearl
+      white and pearl pure&mdash;&mdash;those are the arrowhead Lilies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the wonderful purplish-red there on the bank? Oh, I could kneel and
+      pray before colour like that!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pokeberry!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Roots bring five cents a pound. Good
+      blood purifier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Man!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;How can you? I'm not going to ask what another
+      colour is. I'll just worship what I like in silence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you forgive me if I tell you what a woman whose judgment I respect
+      says about that colour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She says, 'God proves that He loves it best of all the tints in His
+      workshop by using it first and most sparingly.' Now are you going to
+      punish me by keeping silent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't if I tried.&rdquo; Just then they came upon the bridge crossing
+      Singing Water, and there was a long view of its border, rippling bed, and
+      marshy banks; while on the other hand the lake resembled a richly
+      incrusted sapphire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the house close?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just a few rods, at the turn of the drive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please help me down. I want to remain here a while. I don't care what
+      else there is to see. Nothing can equal this. I wish I could bring down a
+      bed and sleep here. I'd like to have a table, and draw and paint. I
+      understand now what you mean about the designs you mentioned. Why, there
+      must be thousands! I can't go on. I never saw anything so appealing in all
+      my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Harvester's mother had designed that bridge and he had built it
+      with much care. From bark-covered railings to solid oak floor and
+      comfortable benches running along the sides it was intended to be a part
+      of the landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll send Belshazzar to the cabin with the wagon,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so you can
+      see better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must not!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I can't walk. I wouldn't soil these
+      beautiful shoes for anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you change them?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I forgot everything I had,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are shoes somewhere in this load. I thought of them in getting
+      other things for you, but I had no idea as to size, and so I told that
+      clerk to-day when she got your measure to put in every kind you'd need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are horribly extravagant,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But if you have them here,
+      perhaps I could use one pair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester mounted the wagon and hunted until he found a large box, and
+      opening it on the bench he disclosed almost every variety of shoe, walking
+      shoe and slipper, a girl ever owned, as well as sandals and high
+      overshoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For pity sake!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;Cover that box! You frighten me. You'll
+      never get them paid for. You must take them straight back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never take anything back,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;'Be sure you are right,
+      then go ahead,' is my motto. Now I know these are your correct size and
+      that for differing occasions you will want just such shoes as other girls
+      have, and here they are. Simple as life! I think these will serve because
+      they are for street wear, yet they are white inside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He produced a pair of canvas walking shoes and kneeling before her held
+      out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished, he loaded the box on the wagon, gave the hitching
+      strap to Belshazzar, and told him to lead Betsy to the cabin and hold her
+      until he came. Then he turned to the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;look as long as you choose. But remember that the law
+      gives you part of this and your lover, which same am I, gives you the
+      remainder, so you are privileged to come here at any hour as often as you
+      please. If you miss anything this evening, you have all time to come in
+      which to re-examine it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd like to live right here on this bridge,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I wish it had a
+      roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Roof it to-morrow,&rdquo; offered the Harvester. &ldquo;Simple matter of a few
+      pillars already cut, joists joined, and some slab shingles left from the
+      cabin. Anything else your ladyship can suggest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you be sensible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was born that way,&rdquo; explained the Harvester, &ldquo;and I've cultivated the
+      faculty until I've developed real genius. Talking of sense, there never
+      was a proper marriage in which the man didn't give the woman a present.
+      You seem likely to be more appreciative of this bridge than anything else
+      I have, so right here and now would be the appropriate place to offer you
+      my wedding gift. I didn't have much time, but I couldn't have found
+      anything more suitable if I'd taken a year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He held out a small, white velvet case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn't that look as if it were made for a bride?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does,&rdquo; answered the Girl. &ldquo;But I can't take it. You are not doing
+      right. Marrying as we did, you never can believe that I love you; maybe it
+      won't ever happen that I do. I have no right to accept gifts and expensive
+      clothing from you. In the first place, if the love you ask never comes,
+      there is no possible way in which I can repay you. In the second, these
+      things you are offering are not suitable for life and work in the woods.
+      In the third, I think you are being extravagant, and I couldn't forgive
+      myself if I allowed that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You divide your statements like a preacher, don't you?&rdquo; asked the
+      Harvester ingenuously. &ldquo;Now sit thee here and gaze on the placid lake and
+      quiet your troubled spirit, while I demolish your 'perfectly good'
+      arguments. In the first place, you are now my wife, and you have a right
+      to take anything I offer, if you care for it or can use it in any manner.
+      In the second, you must recognize a difference in our positions. What
+      seems nothing to you means all the world to me, and you are less than
+      human if you deprive me of the joy of expressing feelings I am in honour
+      bound to keep in my heart, by these little material offerings. In the
+      third place, I inherited over six hundred acres of land and water, please
+      observe the water&mdash;&mdash;it is now in evidence on your left. All my
+      life I have been taught to be frugal, economical, and to work. All I've
+      earned either has gone back into land, into the bank, or into books, very
+      plain food, and such clothing as you now see me wearing. Just the value of
+      this place as it stands, with its big trees, its drug crops yielding all
+      the year round, would be difficult to estimate; and I don't mind telling
+      you that on the top of that hill there is a gold mine, and it's mine&mdash;&mdash;ours
+      since four o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A gold mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Acres and acres of wild ginseng, seven years of age and ready to harvest.
+      Do you remember what your few pounds brought?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why it's worth thousands!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly! For your peace of mind I might add that all I have done or got
+      is paid for, except what I bought to-day, and I will write a check for
+      that as soon as the bill is made out. My bank account never will feel it
+      Truly, Ruth, I am not doing or going to do anything extravagant. I can't
+      afford to give you diamond necklaces, yachts, and trips to Europe; but you
+      can have the contents of this box and a motor boat on the lake, a horse
+      and carriage, and a trip&mdash;&mdash;say to New York perfectly well.
+      Please take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you wouldn't ask me. I would be happier not to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I do ask you,&rdquo; persisted the Harvester. &ldquo;You are not the only
+      one to be considered. I have some rights also, and I'm not so
+      self-effacing that I won't insist upon them. From your standpoint I am
+      almost a stranger. You have spent no time considering me in near
+      relations; I realize that. You feel as if you were driven here for a
+      refuge, and that is true. I said to Belshazzar one day that I must
+      remember that you had no dream, and had spent no time loving me, and I do
+      I know how this wedding seems to you, but it's going to mean something
+      different and better soon, please God. I can see your side; now suppose
+      you take a look at mine. I did have a dream, it was my dream, and beyond
+      the sum of any delight I ever conceived. On the strength of it I rebuilt
+      my home and remodelled these premises. Then I saw you, and from that day I
+      worked early and late. I lost you and I never stopped until I found you;
+      and I would have courted and won you, but the fates intervened and here
+      you are! So it's my delight to court and win you now. If you knew the
+      difference between having a dream that stirred the least fibre of your
+      being and facing the world in a demand for realization of it, and then
+      finding what you coveted in the palm of your hand, as it were, you would
+      know what is in my heart, and why expression of some kind is necessary to
+      me just now, and why I'll explode if it is denied. It will lower the
+      tension, if you will accept this as a matter of fact; as if you rather
+      expected and liked it, if you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester set his finger on the spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'll never have the courage if you do. Give it to me
+      in the case, and let me open it. Despite your unanswerable arguments, I am
+      quite sure that is the only way in which I can take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gave her the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wedding gift!&rdquo; she exclaimed, more to herself than to him. &ldquo;Why should
+      I be the buffet of all the unkind fates kept in store for a girl my whole
+      life, and then suddenly be offered home, beautiful gifts, and wonderful
+      loving kindness by a stranger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester ran his fingers through his crisp hair, pulled it into a
+      peak, stepped to the seat and sitting on the railing, he lifted his
+      elbows, tilted his head, and began a motley outpouring of half-spoken,
+      half-whistled trills and imploring cries. There was enough similarity that
+      the Girl instantly recognized the red bird. Out of breath the Harvester
+      dropped to the seat beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And don't you keep forgetting it!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Now open that box and put
+      on the trinket; because I want to take you to the cabin when the sun falls
+      level on the drive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened the case, exposing a thread of gold that appeared too slender
+      for the weight of an exquisite pendant, set with shimmering pearls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will look down there,&rdquo; the Harvester pointed over the railing to
+      the arrowhead lilies touched with the fading light, &ldquo;you will see that
+      they are similar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;How lovely! Which is more beautiful I do not
+      know. And you won't like it if I say I must not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She held the open case toward the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Possession is nine points in the law,'&rdquo; he quoted. &ldquo;You have taken it
+      already and it is in your hands; now make the gift perfect for me by
+      putting it on and saying nothing more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wedding gift!&rdquo; repeated the Girl. Slowly she lifted the beautiful
+      ornament and held it in the light. &ldquo;I'm so glad you just force me to take
+      it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Any half-normal girl would be delighted. I do accept it.
+      And what's more, I am going to keep and wear it and my ring at suitable
+      times all my life, in memory of what you have done to be kind to me on
+      this awful day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;That is a flash of the proper spirit.
+      Allow me to put it on you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Not yet! After a while! I want to hold it in my
+      hands, where I can see it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now there is one other thing,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had known for any length of time that this day was coming and
+      bringing you, as most men know when a girl is to be given into their care,
+      I could have made it different. As it is, I've done the best I knew. All
+      your after life I hope you will believe this: Just that if you missed
+      anything to-day that would have made it easier for you or more pleasant,
+      the reason was because of my ignorance of women and the conventions, and
+      lack of time. I want you to know and to feel that in my heart those vows I
+      took were real. This is undoubtedly all the marrying I will ever want to
+      do. I am old-fashioned in my ways, and deeply imbued with the spirit of
+      the woods, and that means unending evolution along the same lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me you are my revered and beloved wife, my mate now; and I am sure
+      nothing will make me feel any different. This is the day of my marriage to
+      the only woman I ever have thought of wedding, and to me it is joy
+      unspeakable. With other men such a day ends differently from the close of
+      this with me. Because I have done and will continue to do the level best I
+      know for you, this oration is the prologue to asking you for one gift to
+      me from you, a wedding gift. I don't want it unless you can bestow it
+      ungrudgingly, and truly want me to have it. If you can, I will have all
+      from this day I hope for at the hands of fate. May I have the gift I ask
+      of you, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She lifted startled eyes to his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what it is?&rdquo; she breathed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may seem much to you,&rdquo; said the Harvester; &ldquo;to me it appears only a
+      gracious act, from a wonderful woman, if you will give me freely, one real
+      kiss. I've never had one, save from a Dream Girl, Ruth, and you will have
+      to make yours pretty good if it is anything like hers. You are woman
+      enough to know that most men crush their brides in their arms and take a
+      thousand. I'll put my hands behind me and never move a muscle, and I won't
+      ask for more, if you will crown my wedding day with only one touch of your
+      lips. Will you kiss me just once, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl lifted a piteous face down which big tears suddenly rolled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Man, you shame me!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;What kind of a heart have I that it
+      fails to respond to such a plea? Have I been overworked and starved so
+      long there is no feeling in me? I don't understand why I don't take you in
+      my arms and kiss you a hundred times, but you see I don't. It doesn't seem
+      as if I ever could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; said the Harvester gently. &ldquo;It was only a fancy of mine,
+      bred from my dream and unreasonable, perhaps. I am sorry I mentioned it.
+      The sun is on the stoop now; I want you to enter your home in its light.
+      Come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He half lifted her from the bench. &ldquo;I am going to help you up the drive as
+      I used to assist mother,&rdquo; he said, fighting to keep his voice natural.
+      &ldquo;Clasp your hands before you and draw your elbows to your sides. Now let
+      me take one in each palm, and you will scoot up this drive as if you were
+      on wheels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't want to 'scoot',&rdquo; she said unsteadily. &ldquo;I must go slowly and
+      not miss anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary, you don't want to do any such thing&mdash;&mdash;you
+      should leave most of it for to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had forgotten there would be any to-morrow. It seems as if the day
+      would end it and set me adrift again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are going to awake in the gold room with the sun shining on your face
+      in the morning, and it's going to keep on all your life. Now if you've got
+      a smile in your anatomy, bring it to the surface, for just beyond this
+      tree lies happiness for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice was clear and steady now, his confidence something contagious.
+      There was a lovely smile on her face as she looked at him, and stepped
+      into the line of light crossing the driveway; and then she stopped and
+      cried, &ldquo;Oh lovely! Lovely! Lovely!&rdquo; over and over. Then maybe the
+      Harvester was not glad he had planned, worked unceasingly, and builded as
+      well as he knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cabin of large, peeled, golden oak logs, oiled to preserve them,
+      nestled like a big mushroom on the side of the hill. Above and behind the
+      building the trees arose in a green setting. The roof was stained to their
+      shades. The wide veranda was enclosed in screening, over which wonderful
+      vines climbed in places, and round it grew ferns and deep-wood plants.
+      Inside hung big baskets of wild growth; there was a wide swinging seat,
+      with a back rest, supported by heavy chains. There were chairs and a table
+      of bent saplings and hickory withes. Two full stories the building arose,
+      and the western sun warmed it almost to orange-yellow, while the graceful
+      vines crept toward the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl looked at the rapidly rising hedge on each side of her, at the
+      white floor of the drive, and long and long at the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did all this since February?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even to transforming the landscape,&rdquo; answered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I wish it was not coming night!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I don't want the dark to
+      come, until you have told me the name of every tree and shrub of that
+      wonderful hedge, and every plant and vine of the veranda; and oh I want to
+      follow up the driveway and see that beautiful little creek&mdash;listen to
+      it chuckle and laugh! Is it always glad like that? See the ferns and
+      things that grow on the other side of it! Why there are big beds of them.
+      And lilies of the valley by the acre! What is that yellow around the
+      corner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind that now,&rdquo; said the Harvester, guiding her up the steps, along
+      the gravelled walk to the screen that he opened, and over a flood of gold
+      light she crossed the veranda, and entered the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now here it appears bare,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;because I didn't know
+      what should go on the walls or what rugs to get or about the windows. The
+      table, chairs, and couch I made myself with some help from a carpenter.
+      They are solid black walnut and will age finely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are beautiful,&rdquo; said the Girl, softly touching the shining table top
+      with her fingers. &ldquo;Please put the necklace on me now, I have to use my
+      eyes and hands for other things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She held out the box and the Harvester lifted the pendant and clasped the
+      chain around her neck. She glanced at the lustrous pearls and then the
+      fingers of one hand softly closed over them. She went through the long,
+      wide living-room, examining the chairs and mantel, stopping to touch and
+      exclaim over its array of half-finished candlesticks. At the door of his
+      room she paused. &ldquo;And this?&rdquo; she questioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine,&rdquo; said the Harvester, turning the knob. &ldquo;I'll give you one peep to
+      satisfy your curiosity, and show you the location of the bridge over which
+      you came to me in my dream. All the remainder is yours. I reserve only
+      this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will the 'goblins git me' if I come here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not goblins, but a man alive; so heed your warning. After you have seen
+      it, keep away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The floor was cement, three of the walls heavy screening with mosquito
+      wire inside, the roof slab shingled. On the inner wall was a bookcase,
+      below it a desk, at one side a gun cabinet, at the other a bath in a small
+      alcove beside a closet. The room contained two chairs like those of the
+      veranda, and the bed was a low oak couch covered with a thick mattress of
+      hemlock twigs, topped with sweet fern, on which the sun shone all day. On
+      a chair at the foot were spread some white sheets, a blanket, and an
+      oilcloth. The sun beat in, the wind drifted through, and one lying on the
+      couch could see down the bright hill, and sweep the lake to the opposite
+      bank without lifting the head. The Harvester drew the Girl to the bedside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now straight in a line from here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;across the lake to that big,
+      scraggy oak, every clear night the moon builds a bridge of molten gold,
+      and once you walked it, my girl, and came straight to me, alone and
+      unafraid; and you were gracious and lovely beyond anything a man ever
+      dreamed of before. I'll have that to think of to-night. Now come see the
+      dining-room, kitchen, and hand-made sunshine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He led her into what had been the front room of the old cabin, now a
+      large, long dining-room having on each side wide windows with deep seats.
+      The fireplace backwall was against that of the living-room, but here the
+      mantel was bare. All the wood-work, chairs, the dining table, cupboards,
+      and carving table were golden oak. Only a few rugs and furnishings and a
+      woman's touch were required to make it an unusual and beautiful room. The
+      kitchen was shining with a white hard-wood floor, white wood-work, and
+      pale green walls. It was a light, airy, sanitary place, supplied with a
+      pump, sink, hot and cold water faucets, refrigerator, and every modern
+      convenience possible to the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester almost carried the Girl up the stairs and showed her
+      three large sleeping rooms, empty and bare save for some packing cases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know about these, so I didn't do anything. When you find time to
+      plan, tell me what you want, and I'll make&mdash;or buy it. They are
+      good-sized, cool rooms. They all have closets and pipes from the furnace,
+      so they will be comfortable in winter. Now there is your place remaining.
+      I'll leave you while I stable Betsy and feed the stock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He guided her to the door opening from the living-room to the east.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the sunshine spot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is bathed in morning light, and
+      sheltered by afternoon shade. Singing Water is across the drive there to
+      talk to you always. It comes pelting down so fast it never freezes, so it
+      makes music all winter, and the birds are so numerous you'll have to go to
+      bed early for they'll wake you by dawn. I noticed this room was going to
+      be full of sunshine when I built it, and I craved only brightness for you,
+      so I coaxed all of it to stay that I could. Every stroke is the work of my
+      hands, and all of the furniture. I hope you will like it. This is the room
+      of which I've been telling you, Ruth. Go in and take possession, and I'll
+      entreat God and all His ministering angels to send you sunshine and joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened the door, guided her inside, closed it, and went swiftly to his
+      work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stood and looked around her with amazed eyes. The floor was pale
+      yellow wood, polished until it shone like a table top. The casings, table,
+      chairs, dressing table, chest of drawers, and bed were solid curly maple.
+      The doors were big polished slabs of it, each containing enough material
+      to veneer all the furniture in the room. The walls were of plaster, tinted
+      yellow, and the windows with yellow shades were curtained in dainty white.
+      She could hear the Harvester carrying the load from the wagon to the front
+      porch, the clamour of the barn yard; and as she went to the north window
+      to see the view, a shining peacock strutted down the walk and went to the
+      Harvester's hand for grain, while scores of snow-white doves circled over
+      his head. She stepped on deep rugs of yellow goat skins, and, glancing at
+      the windows on either side, she opened the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside it lay a porch with a railing, but no roof. On each post stood a
+      box filled with yellow wood-flowers and trailing vines of pale green. A
+      big tree rising through one corner of the floor supplied the cover. A gate
+      opened to a walk leading to the driveway, and on either side lay a patch
+      of sod, outlined by a deep hedge of bright gold. In it saffron,
+      cone-flowers, black-eyed Susans, golden-rod, wild sunflowers, and jewel
+      flower grew, and some of it, enough to form a yellow line, was already in
+      bloom. Around the porch and down the walk were beds of yellow violets,
+      pixie moss, and every tiny gold flower of the woods. The Girl leaned
+      against the tree and looked around her and then staggered inside and
+      dropped on the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What planning! What work!&rdquo; she sobbed. &ldquo;What taste! Why he's a poet! What
+      wonderful beauty! He's an artist with earth for his canvas, and growing
+      things for colours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She lay there staring at the walls, the beautiful wood-work and furniture,
+      the dressing table with its array of toilet articles, a low chair before
+      it, and the thick rug for her feet. Over and over she looked at
+      everything, and then closed her eyes and lay quietly, too weary and
+      overwhelmed to think. By and by came tapping at the door, and she sprang
+      up and crossing to the dressing table straightened her hair and composed
+      her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ajax demands to see you,&rdquo; cried a gay voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stepped outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be frightened if he screams at you,&rdquo; warned the Harvester as she
+      passed him. &ldquo;He detests a stranger, and he always cries and sulks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a question what was in the head of the bird as he saw the strange
+      looking creature invading his domain, and he did scream, a wild, high,
+      strident wail that delighted the Harvester inexpressibly, because it sent
+      the Girl headlong into his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, good gracious!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Has such a beautiful bird got a noise in
+      it like that? Why I've fed them in parks and I never heard one explode
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then how the Harvester laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you see you are in the woods now, and this is not a park bird. It
+      will be the test of your power to see how soon you can coax him to your
+      hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do I work to win him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I can't tell you that,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I had to invent
+      a plan for myself. It required a long time and much petting, and my
+      methods might not avail for you. It will interest you to study that out.
+      But the member of the family it is positively essential that you win to a
+      life and death allegiance is Belshazzar. If you can make him love you, he
+      will protect you at every turn. He will go before you into the forest and
+      all the crawling, creeping things will get out of his way. He will nose
+      around the flowers you want to gather, and if he growls and the hair on
+      the back of his neck rises, never forget that you must heed that warning.
+      A few times I have not stopped for it, and I always have been sorry. So
+      far as anything animate or uncertain footing is concerned, you are always
+      perfectly safe if you obey him. About touching plants and flowers, you
+      must confine yourself to those you are certain you know, until I can teach
+      you. There are gorgeous and wonderfully attractive things here, but some
+      of them are rank poison. You won't handle plants you don't know, until you
+      learn, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not,&rdquo; she promised instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went to the seat under the porch tree and leaning against the trunk
+      she studied the hill, and the rippling course of Singing Water where it
+      turned and curved before the cabin, and started across the vivid little
+      marsh toward the lake. Then she looked at the Harvester. He seated himself
+      on the low railing and smiled at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very tired?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You are right about the air being better up here. It is
+      stimulating instead of depressing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far as pure air, location, and water are concerned,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, &ldquo;I consider this place ideal. The lake is large enough to cool
+      the air and raise sufficient moisture to dampen it, and too small to make
+      it really cold and disagreeable. The slope of the hill gives perfect
+      drainage. The heaviest rains do not wet the earth for more than three
+      hours. North, south, and west breezes sweep the cool air from the water to
+      the cabin in summer. The same suns warm us here on the winter hillside. My
+      violets, spring beauties, anemones, and dutchman's breeches here are
+      always two weeks ahead of those in the woods. I am not afraid of your not
+      liking the location or the air. As for the cabin, if you don't care for
+      that, it's very simple. I'll transform it into a laboratory and dry-house,
+      and build you whatever you want, within my means, over there on the hill
+      just across Singing Water and facing the valley toward Onabasha. That's a
+      perfect location. The thing that worries me is what you are going to do
+      for company, especially while I am away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't trouble yourself about anything,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Just say in your
+      heart, 'she is going to be stronger than she ever has been in her life in
+      this lovely place, and she has more right now than she ever had or hoped
+      to have.' For one thing, I am going to study your books. I never have had
+      time before. While we sewed or embroidered, mother talked by the hour of
+      the great writers of the world, told me what they wrote, and how they
+      expressed themselves, but I got to read very little for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Books are my company,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do your friends come often?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Almost never! Doc and his wife come most, and if you look out some day
+      and see a white-haired, bent old woman, with a face as sweet as dawn,
+      coming up the bank of Singing Water, that will be my mother's friend,
+      Granny Moreland, who joins us on the north over there. She is frank and
+      brusque, so she says what she thinks with unmistakable distinctness, but
+      her heart is big and tender and her philosophy keeps her sweet and kindly
+      despite the ache of rheumatism and the weight of seventy years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd love to have her come,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your favourite word,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;The reason lies with me, or
+      rather with my mother. Some day I will tell you the whole story, and the
+      cause. I think now I can encompass it in this. The place is an experiment.
+      When medicinal herbs, roots, and barks became so scarce that some of the
+      most important were almost extinct, it occurred to me that it would be a
+      good idea to stop travelling miles and poaching on the woods of other
+      people, and turn our land into an herb garden. For four years before
+      mother went, and six since, I've worked with all my might, and results are
+      beginning to take shape. While I've been at it, of course, my neighbours
+      had an inkling of what was going on, and I've been called a fool, lazy,
+      and a fanatic, because I did not fell the trees and plow for corn. You
+      readily can see I'm a little short of corn ground out there,&rdquo; he waved
+      toward the marsh and lake, &ldquo;and up there,&rdquo; he indicated the steep hill and
+      wood. &ldquo;But somewhere on this land I've been able to find muck for mallows,
+      water for flags and willows, shade for ferns, lilies, and ginseng, rocky,
+      sunny spaces for mullein, and open, fertile beds for Bouncing Bet&mdash;&mdash;just
+      for examples. God never evolved a place better suited for an herb farm;
+      from woods to water and all that goes between, it is perfect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And indescribably lovely,&rdquo; added the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think it is,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But in the days when I didn't
+      know how it was coming out, I was sensitive about it; so I kept quiet and
+      worked, and allowed the other fellow to do the talking. After a while the
+      ginseng bed grew a treasure worth guarding, and I didn't care for any one
+      to know how much I had or where it was, as a matter of precaution. Ginseng
+      and money are synonymous, and I was forced to be away some of the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would any one take it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;If they knew it was there, and what it
+      is worth. Then, as I've told you, much of the stuff here must not be
+      handled except by experts, and I didn't want people coming in my absence
+      and taking risks. The remainder of my reason for living so alone is
+      cowardice, pure and simple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cowardice? You! Oh no!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But it is! Some day I'll tell you of a
+      very solemn oath I've had to keep. It hasn't been easy. You wouldn't
+      understand, at least not now. If the day ever comes when I think you will,
+      I'll tell you. Just now I can express it by that one word. I didn't dare
+      fail or I felt I would be lost as my father was before me. So I remained
+      away from the city and its temptations and men of my age, and worked in
+      the woods until I was tired enough to drop, read books that helped,
+      tinkered with the carving, and sometimes I had an idea, and I went into
+      that little building behind the dry-house, took out my different herbs,
+      and tried my hand at compounding a new cure for some of the pains of
+      humanity. It isn't bad work, Ruth. It keeps a fellow at a fairly decent
+      level, and some good may come of it. Carey is trying several formulae for
+      me, and if they work I'll carry them higher. If you want money, Girl, I
+      know how to get it for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you want it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not one cent more than I've got,&rdquo; said the Harvester emphatically. &ldquo;When
+      any man accumulates more than he can earn with his own hands, he begins to
+      enrich himself at the expense of the youth, the sweat, the blood, the joy
+      of his fellow men. I can go to the city, take a look, and see what money
+      does, as a rule, and it's another thing I'm afraid of. You will find me a
+      dreadful coward on those two points. I don't want to know society and its
+      ways. I see what it does to other men; it would be presumption to reckon
+      myself stronger. So I live alone. As for money, I've watched the cross
+      cuts and the quick and easy ways to accumulate it; but I've had something
+      in me that held me to the slow, sure, clean work of my own hands, and it's
+      yielded me enough for one, for two even, in a reasonable degree. So I've
+      worked, read, compounded, and carved. If I couldn't wear myself down
+      enough to sleep by any other method, I went into the lake, and swam across
+      and back; and that is guaranteed to put any man to rest, clean and
+      unashamed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six years,&rdquo; said the Girl softly, as she studied him. &ldquo;I think it has set
+      a mark on you. I believe I can trace it. Your forehead, brow, and eyes
+      bear the lines and the appearance of all experience, all comprehension,
+      but your lips are those of a very young lad. I shouldn't be surprised if I
+      had that kiss ready for you, and I really believe I can make it worth
+      while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh good Lord!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, turning a backward somersault over
+      the railing and starting in big bounds up the drive toward the stable. He
+      passed around it and into the woods at a rush and a few seconds later from
+      somewhere on the top of the hill his strong, deep voice swept down,
+      &ldquo;Glory, glory hallelujah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He sang it through at the top of his lungs, that majestic old hymn, but
+      there was no music at all, it was simply a roar. By and by he came soberly
+      to the barn and paused to stroke Betsy's nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop chewing grass and listen to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She's here, Betsy! She's
+      in our cabin. She's going to remain, you can stake your oats on that.
+      She's going to be the loveliest and sweetest girl in all the world, and
+      because you're a beast, I'll tell you something a man never could know.
+      Down with your ear, you critter! She's going to kiss me, Betsy! This very
+      night, before I lay me, her lips meet mine, and maybe you think that won't
+      be glorious. I supposed it would be a year, anyway, but it's now! Ain't
+      you glad you are an animal, Betsy, and can keep secrets for a fool man
+      that can't?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked down the driveway, and before the Girl had a chance to speak, he
+      said, &ldquo;I wonder if I had not better carry those things into your room, and
+      arrange your bed for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester. &ldquo;You can't lift the mattress and heavy
+      covers. Hold the door and tell me how.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid a big bundle on the floor, opened it, and took out the shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your shoe box is in the closet there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know what that door was, so I didn't open it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a part of my arrangements for you,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Here is
+      a closet with shelves for your covers and other things. They are bare
+      because I didn't know just what should be put on them. This is the shoe
+      box here in the corner; I'll put these in it now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knelt and in a row set the shoes in the curly maple box and closed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There you are for all kinds of places and varieties of weather. This
+      adjoining is your bathroom. I put in towels, soaps; brushes, and
+      everything I could think of, and there is hot water ready for you&mdash;&mdash;rain
+      water, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl followed and looked into a shining little bathroom, with its
+      white porcelain tub and wash bowl, enamelled wood-work, dainty green
+      walls, and white curtains and towels. She could see no accessory she knew
+      of that was missing, and there were many things to which she never had
+      been accustomed. The Harvester had gone back to the sunshine room, and was
+      kneeling on the floor beside the bundle. He began opening boxes and
+      handing her dresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are skirt, coat, and waist hangers on the hooks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I only
+      got a few things to start on, because I didn't know what you would like.
+      Instead of being so careful with that dress, why don't you take it off,
+      and put on a common one? Then we will have something to eat, and go to the
+      top of the hill and watch the moon bridge the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While she hung the dresses and selected the one to wear, he placed the
+      mattress, spread the padding and sheets, and encased the pillow. Then he
+      bent and pressed the springs with his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you will find that soft and easy enough for health,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;All the personal belongings I had that clerk put up for you are in that
+      chest of drawers there. I put the little boxes in the top and went down.
+      You can empty and arrange them to-morrow. Just hunt out what you will need
+      now. There should be everything a girl uses there somewhere. I told them
+      to be very careful about that. If the things are not right or not to your
+      taste, you can take them back as soon as you are rested, and they will
+      exchange them for you. If there is anything I have missed that you can
+      think of that you need to-night, tell me and I'll go and get it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl turned toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You couldn't be making sport of me,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but Man! Can't you see
+      that I don't know what to do with half you have here? I never saw such
+      things closely before. I don't know what they are for. I don't know how to
+      use them. My mother would have known, but I do not. You overwhelm me!
+      Fifty times I've tried to tell you that a room of my very own, such a room
+      as this will be when to-morrow's sun comes in, and these, and these, and
+      these,&rdquo; she turned from the chest of boxes to the dressing table, bed,
+      closet, and bath, &ldquo;all these for me, and you know absolutely nothing about
+      me&mdash;&mdash;I get a big lump in my throat, and the words that do come
+      all seem so meaningless, I am perfectly ashamed to say them. Oh Man, why
+      do you do it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought it was about time to spring another 'why' on me,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;Thank God, I am now in a position where I can tell you 'why'!
+      I do it because you are the girl of my dream, my mate by every law of
+      Heaven and earth. All men build as well as they know when the one woman of
+      the universe lays her spell on them. I did all this for myself just as a
+      kind of expression of what it would be in my heart to do if I could do
+      what I'd like. Put on the easiest dress you can find and I will go and set
+      out something to eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood with arms high piled with the prettiest dresses that could be
+      selected hurriedly, the tears running down her white cheeks and smiled
+      through them at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There wouldn't be any of that liquid amber would there?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quarts!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I'll bring some. ... Does it really hit
+      the spot, Ruth?&rdquo; he questioned as he handed her the glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She heaped the dresses on the bed and took it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It really does. I am afraid I am using too much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think it possibly can hurt you. To-morrow we will ask Doc. How
+      soon will you be ready for lunch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want a bite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will when you see and smell it,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I am an expert
+      cook. It's my chiefest accomplishment. You should taste the dishes I
+      improvise. But there won't be much to-night, because I want you to see the
+      moon rise over the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went away and the Girl removed her dress and spread it on the couch.
+      Then she bathed her face and hands. When she saw the discoloured cloth, it
+      proved that she had been painted, and made her very indignant. Yet she
+      could not be altogether angry, for that flush of colour had saved the
+      Harvester from being pitied by his friend. She stood a long time before
+      the mirror, staring at her gaunt, colourless face; then she went to the
+      dressing table and committed a crime. She found a box of cream and rubbed
+      it on for a foundation. Then she opened some pink powder, and carefully
+      dusted her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am utterly ashamed,&rdquo; she said to the image in the mirror, &ldquo;but he has
+      done so much for me, he is so, so&mdash;&mdash;I don't know a word big
+      enough&mdash;&mdash;that I can't bear him to see how ghastly I am, how
+      little worth it. Perhaps the food, better air, and outdoor exercise will
+      give me strength and colour soon. Until it does I'm afraid I'm going to
+      help out all I can with this. It is wonderful how it changes one. I really
+      appear like a girl instead of a bony old woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she looked over the dresses, selected a pretty white princesse,
+      slipped it on, and went to the kitchen. But the Harvester would not have
+      her there. He seated her at the dining table, beside the window
+      overlooking the lake, lighted a pair of his home-made candles in his
+      finest sticks, and placed before her bread, butter, cold meat, milk, and
+      fruit, and together they ate their first meal in their home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had known,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;Granny Moreland is a famous cook.
+      She is a Southern woman, and she can fry chicken and make some especial
+      dishes to surpass any one I ever knew. She would have been so pleased to
+      come over and get us an all-right supper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd much rather have this, and be by ourselves,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you can bank on it, I would,&rdquo; agreed the Harvester. &ldquo;For instance,
+      if any one were here, I might feel restrained about telling you that you
+      are exactly the beautiful, flushed Dream Girl I have adored for months,
+      and your dress most becoming. You are a picture to blind the eyes of a
+      lonely bachelor, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh why did you say that?&rdquo; wailed the Girl. &ldquo;Now I've got to feel like a
+      sneak or tell you&mdash;&mdash;and I didn't want you to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you ever tell me or any one else anything you don't want to,&rdquo; said
+      the Harvester roundly. &ldquo;It's nobody's business!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I must! I can't begin with deception. I was fool enough to think you
+      wouldn't notice. Man, they painted me! I didn't know they were doing it,
+      but when it all washed off, I looked so ghastly I almost frightened
+      myself. I hunted through the boxes they put up for you and found some pink
+      powder&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don't all the daintiest women powder these days, and consider it
+      indispensable? The clerk said so, and I've noticed it mentioned in the
+      papers. I bought it for you to use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, just powder, but Man, I put on a lot of cold cream first to stick
+      the powder good and thick. Oh I wish I hadn't!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well since you've told it, is your conscience perfectly at ease? No you
+      don't! You sit where you are! You are lovely, and if you don't use enough
+      powder to cover the paleness, until your colour returns, I'll hold you and
+      put it on. I know you feel better when you appear so that every one must
+      admire you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I'm a fraud!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are no such thing!&rdquo; cried the Harvester hotly. &ldquo;There hasn't a woman
+      in ten thousand got any such rope of hair. I have been seeing the papers
+      on the hair question, too. No one will believe it's real. If they think
+      your hair is false, when it is natural, they won't be any more fooled when
+      they think your colour is real, and it isn't. Very soon it will be and no
+      one need ever know the difference. You go on and fix up your level best.
+      To see yourself appearing well will make you ambitious to become so as
+      soon as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harvester-man,&rdquo; said the Girl, gazing at him with wet luminous eyes, &ldquo;for
+      the sake of other women, I could wish that all men had an oath to keep,
+      and had been reared in the woods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is the place we adjourn to the moon,&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I don't
+      know of anything that can cure a sudden accession of swell head like
+      gazing at the heavens. One finds his place among the atoms naturally and
+      instantaneously with the eyes on the night sky. Should you have a wrap?
+      You should! The mists from the lake are cool. I don't believe there is one
+      among my orders. I forgot that. But upstairs with mother's clothing there
+      are several shawls and shoulder capes. All of them were washed and
+      carefully packed. Would you use one, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not give it to me. Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better
+      than to have them lying in moth balls?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester looked at her and shook his head, marvelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell how pleased she would be,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are her belongings?&rdquo; asked the Girl. &ldquo;I could use them to help
+      furnish the house, and it wouldn't appear so strange to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester liked that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the washed things are in those boxes upstairs; also some fine skins
+      I've saved on the chance of wanting them. Her dishes are in the bottom of
+      the china closet there; she was mighty proud of them. The furniture and
+      carpets were so old and abused I burned them. I'll go bring a wrap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the candle and climbed the stairs, soon returning with a little
+      white wool shawl and a big pink coverlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got this for her Christmas one time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She'd never had a white
+      one and she thought it was pretty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He folded it around the Girl's shoulders and picked up the coverlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're never going to take that to the woods!&rdquo; she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took it in her hands to find a corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as I thought! It's a genuine Peter Hartman! It's one of the things
+      that money can't buy, or, rather, one that takes a mint of money to own.
+      They are heirlooms. They are not manufactured any more. At the art store
+      where I worked they'd give you fifty dollars for that. It is not faded or
+      worn a particle. It would be lovely in my room; you mustn't take a
+      treasure like that out of doors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, are you in earnest?&rdquo; demanded the Harvester. &ldquo;I believe there are
+      six of them upstairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plutocrat!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;What colours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More of this pinkish red, blue, and pale green.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Famous! May I have them to help furnish with to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly! Anything you can find, any way on earth you want it, only in
+      my room. That is taboo, as I told you. What am I going to take to-night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't the rug you had in the woods in the wagon yet? Use that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course! The very thing! Bel, proceed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you going to leave the house like this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose some one breaks in!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing worth carrying away, except what you have on. No one to get in.
+      There is a big swamp back of our woods, marsh in front, we're up here
+      where we can see the drive and bridge. There is nothing possible from any
+      direction. Never locked the cabin in my life, except your room, and that
+      was because it was sacred, not that there was any danger. Clear the way,
+      Bel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clear it of what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Katydids, hoptoads, and other carnivorous animals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you are making fun of me! Clear it of what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A coon that might go shuffling across, an opossum, or a snake going to
+      the lake. Now are you frightened so that you will not go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. The path is broad and white and surely you and Bel can take care of
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will trust us we can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I am trusting you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are indeed,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Now see if you think this is
+      pretty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He indicated the hill sloping toward the lake. The path wound among
+      massive trees, between whose branches patches of moonlight filtered.
+      Around the lake shore and climbing the hill were thickets of bushes. The
+      water lay shining in the light, a gentle wind ruffled the surface in
+      undulant waves, and on the opposite bank arose the line of big trees.
+      Under a giant oak widely branching, on the top of the hill, the Harvester
+      spread the rug and held one end of it against the tree trunk to protect
+      the Girl's dress. Then he sat a little distance away and began to talk. He
+      mingled some sense with a quantity of nonsense, and appreciated every hint
+      of a laugh he heard. The day had been no amusing matter for a girl
+      absolutely alone among strange people and scenes. Anything more foreign to
+      her previous environment or expectations he could not imagine. So he
+      talked to prevent her from thinking, and worked for a laugh as he laboured
+      for bread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we must go,&rdquo; he said at last. &ldquo;If there is the malaria I strongly
+      suspect in your system, this night air is none too good for you. I only
+      wanted you to see the lake the first night in your new home, and if it
+      won't shock you, I brought you here because this is my holy of holies. Can
+      you guess why I wanted you to come, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I wasn't so stupid with alternate burning and chills, and so deadened
+      to every proper sensibility, I suppose I could,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;but I'm
+      not brilliant. I don't know, unless it is because you knew it would be the
+      loveliest place I ever saw. Surely there is no other spot in the world
+      quite so beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then would it seem strange to you,&rdquo; asked the Harvester going to the Girl
+      and gently putting his arms around her, &ldquo;would it seem strange to you,
+      that a woman who once homed here and thought it the prettiest place on
+      earth, chose to remain for her eternal sleep, rather than to rest in a
+      distant city of stranger dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt the Girl tremble against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very close,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Under this oak. She used to say that
+      she had a speaking acquaintance with every tree on our land, and of them
+      all she loved this big one the best. She liked to come here in winter, and
+      feel the sting of the wind sweeping across the lake, and in summer this
+      was her place to read and to think. So when she slept the unwaking sleep,
+      Ruth, I came here and made her bed with my own hands, and then carried her
+      to it, covered her, and she sleeps well. I never have regretted her going.
+      Life did not bring her joy. She was very tired. She used to say that after
+      her soul had fled, if I would lay her here, perhaps the big roots would
+      reach down and find her, and from her frail frame gather slight
+      nourishment and then her body would live again in talking leaves that
+      would shelter me in summer and whisper her love in winter. Of all Medicine
+      Woods this is the dearest spot to me. Can you love it too, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I can!&rdquo; cried the Girl; &ldquo;I do now! Just to see the place and hear that
+      is enough. I wish, oh to my soul I wish&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish what?&rdquo; whispered the Harvester gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not! I was wild to think of it. I would be ungrateful to ask it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would be ungracious if you didn't ask anything that would give me the
+      joy of pleasing you. How long is it going to require for you to learn,
+      Ruth, that to make up for some of the difficulties life has brought you
+      would give me more happiness than anything else could? Tell me now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He gathered her closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, there is no reason why you should be actively unkind to me. What is
+      it you wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She struggled from his arms and stood alone in white moonlight, staring
+      across the lake, along the shore, deep into the perfumed forest, and then
+      at the mound she now could distinguish under the giant tree. Suddenly she
+      went to him and with both shaking hands gripped his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother!&rdquo; she panted. &ldquo;Oh she was a beautiful woman, delicately reared,
+      and her heart was crushed and broken. By the inch she went to a dreadful
+      end I could not avert or allay, and in poverty and grime I fought for a
+      way to save her body from further horror, and it's all so dreadful I
+      thought all feeling in me was dried and still, but I am not quite
+      calloused yet. I suffer it over with every breath. It is never entirely
+      out of my mind. Oh Man, if only you would lift her from the horrible place
+      she lies, where briers run riot and cattle trample and the unmerciful sun
+      beats! Oh if only you'd lift her from it, and bring her here! I believe it
+      would take away some of the horror, the shame, and the heartache. I
+      believe I could go to sleep without hearing the voice of her suffering, if
+      I knew she was lying on this hill, under your beautiful tree, close the
+      dear mother you love. Oh Man, would you&mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester crushed the Girl in his arms and shuddering sobs shook his
+      big frame, and choked his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, for God's sake, be quiet!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Why I'd be glad to! I'll go
+      anywhere you tell me, and bring her, and she shall rest where the lake
+      murmurs, the trees shelter, the winds sing, and earth knows the sun only
+      in long rays of gold light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at him with strained face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;&mdash;you wouldn't!&rdquo; she breathed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, child,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I tell you I'd be happy. Look at my
+      side of this! I'm in search of bands to bind you to me and to this place.
+      Could you tell me a stronger than to have the mother you idolized lie here
+      for her long sleep? Why Girl, you can't know the deep and abiding joy it
+      would give me to bring her. I'd feel I had you almost secure. Where is she
+      Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that old unkept cemetery south of Onabasha, where it costs no money to
+      lay away your loved ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Close here! Why I'll go to-morrow! I supposed she was in the city.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She straightened and drew away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could I? I had nothing. I could not have paid even her fare and
+      brought her here in the cheapest box the decency of man would allow him to
+      make if her doctor had not given me the money I owe. Now do you understand
+      why I must earn and pay it myself? Save for him, it was charity or her
+      delicate body to horrors. Money never can repay him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, the day you came to Onabasha was she with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the express car,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you go when you left the train shed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Straight to the baggage room, where Uncle Henry was waiting. Men brought
+      and put her in his wagon, and he drove with me to the place and other men
+      lowered her, and that was all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You poor Girl!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;This time to-morrow night she shall
+      sleep in luxury under this oak, so help me God! Ruth, can you spare me?
+      May I go at once? I can't rest, myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will?&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;You will?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was laughing in the moonlight. &ldquo;Oh Man, I can't ever, ever tell you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't try,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Call it settled. I will start early in
+      the morning. I know that little cemetery. The man whose land it is on can
+      point me the spot. She is probably the last one laid there. Come now,
+      Ruth. Go to the room I made for you, and sleep deeply and in peace. Will
+      you try to rest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh David!&rdquo; she exulted. &ldquo;Only think! Here where it's clean and cool;
+      beside the lake, where leaves fall gently and I can come and sit close to
+      her and bring flowers; and she never will be alone, for your dear mother
+      is here. Oh David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is better. I can't thank you enough for thinking of it. Come now, let
+      me help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He half carried her down the hill. Then he made the cabin a glamour of
+      light by putting candles in the sticks he had carved and placing them
+      everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a lighting plant in the basement,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I had not
+      expected to use it until winter, and I have no acetylene. Candles were our
+      grandmothers' lights and they are the best anyway. Go bathe your face,
+      Ruth, and wash away all trace of tears. Put on the pink powder, and in a
+      few weeks you will have colour to outdo the wildest rose. You must be as
+      gay as you can the remainder of this night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;I will! Oh I didn't know a thing on earth could
+      make me happy! I didn't know I really could be glad. Oh if the ice in my
+      heart would melt, and the wall break down, and the girlhood I've never
+      known would come yet! Oh David, if it would!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before the Lord it shall!&rdquo; vowed the Harvester. &ldquo;It shall come with the
+      fulness of joy right here in Medicine Woods. Think it! Believe it! Keep it
+      before you! Work for it! Happiness is worth while! All of us have a right
+      to it! It shall be yours and soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will try! I will!&rdquo; promised the Girl. &ldquo;I'll go right now and I'll put
+      on the blessed pink powder so thickly you'll never know what is under it,
+      and soon it won't be needed at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was laughing as she left the room. The Harvester restlessly walked the
+      floor a few minutes and then sat with a notebook and began entering stems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Girl returned, he brought the pillow from her bed, folded the
+      coverlet, and she lay on them in the big swing. He covered her with the
+      white shawl, and while Singing Water sang its loudest, katydids exulted
+      over the delightful act of their ancestor, and a million gauze-winged
+      creatures of night hummed against the screen, in a voice soft and low he
+      told her in a steady stream, as he swayed her back and forth, what each
+      sound of the night was, and how and why it was made all the way from the
+      rumbling buzz of the June bug to the screech of the owl and the splash of
+      the bass in the lake. All of it, as it appealed to him, was the story of
+      steady evolution, the natural processes of reproduction, the joy of life
+      and its battles, and the conquest of the strong in nature. At his hands
+      every sound was stripped of terror. The leaping bass was exulting in life,
+      the screeching owl was telling its mate it had found a fat mouse for the
+      children, the nighthawk was courting, the big bull frogs booming around
+      the lake were serenading the moon. There was not a thing to fear or a
+      voice left with an unsympathetic note in it. She was half asleep when at
+      last he helped her to her room, set a pitcher of frosty, clinking drink on
+      her table, locked her door and window screens inside, spread Belshazzar's
+      blanket on her porch, and set his door wide open, that he might hear if
+      she called, and then said good night and went back to his memorandum book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No bad beginning,&rdquo; he muttered softly, &ldquo;no bad beginning, but I'd almost
+      give my right hand if she hadn't forgotten&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In her room the exhausted Girl slipped the pins from her hair and sank on
+      the low chair before the dressing-table. She picked up the shining, silver
+      backed brush and stared at the monogram, R. F. L, entwined on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My soul!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;WAS HE SO SURE AS THAT? Was there ever any
+      other man like him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped the brush and with tired hands pushed back the heavy braids.
+      Then she arose and going to the chest of drawers began lifting lids to
+      find a night robe. As she searched the boxes she found every dainty,
+      pretty undergarment a girl ever used and at last the robes. She shook out
+      a long white one, slipped into it, and walked to the bed. That stood as he
+      had arranged it, white, clean, and dainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything for me!&rdquo; she said softly. &ldquo;Everything for me! Shall there be
+      nothing for him? Oh he makes it easy, easy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stepped to the closet, picked down a lavender silk kimona and drawing
+      it over her gown she gathered it around her and opening the bathroom door,
+      she stepped into a little hall leading to the dining-room. As she entered
+      the living-room the Harvester bent over his book. Her step was very close
+      when he heard it and turned his head. In an instant she touched his
+      shoulders. The Harvester dropped the pencil, and palm downward laid his
+      hands on the table, his promise strong in his heart. The Girl slid a
+      shaking palm under his chin, leaned his head against her breast, and
+      dropped a sweet, tear-wet face on his. With all the strength of her frail
+      arms she gripped him a second, and then gave the kiss, into which she
+      tried to put all she could find no words to express.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. SNOWY WINGS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sat at the table in deep thoughts until the lights in the
+      Girl's room were darkened and everything was quiet. Then he locked the
+      screens inside and went into the night. The moon flooded all the hillside,
+      until coarse print could have been read with keen eyes in its light. A
+      restlessness, born of exultation he could not allay or control, was on
+      him. She had not forgotten! After this, the dream would be effaced by
+      reality. It was the beginning. He scarcely had dared hope for so much.
+      Surely it presaged the love with which she some day would come to him and
+      crown his life. He walked softly up and down the drive, passing her
+      windows, unable to think of sleep. Over and over he dwelt on the incidents
+      of the day, so inevitably he came to his promise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merciful Heaven!&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;How can such things happen? The poor,
+      overworked, tired, suffering girl. It will give her some comfort. She will
+      feel better. It has to be done. I believe I will do the worst part of it
+      while she sleeps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the cabin, crept very close to one of her windows and listened
+      intently. Surely no mortal awake could lie motionless so long. She must be
+      sleeping. He patted Belshazzar, whispered, &ldquo;Watch, boy, watch for your
+      life!&rdquo; and then crossed to the dry-house. Beside it he found a big roll of
+      coffee sacks that he used in collecting roots, and going to the barn, he
+      took a spade and mattock. Then he climbed the hill to the oak; in the
+      white moonlight laid off his measurements and began work. His heart was
+      very tender as he lifted the earth, and threw it into the tops of the big
+      bags he had propped open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll line it with a couple of sheets and finish the edge with pond lilies
+      and ferns,&rdquo; he planned, &ldquo;and I'll drag this earth from sight, and cover it
+      with brush until I need it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes he paused in his work to rest a few minutes and then he stood
+      and glanced around him. Several times he went down the hill and slipped
+      close to a window, but he could not hear a sound. When his work was
+      finished, he stood before the oak, scraping clinging earth from the
+      mattock with which he had cut roots he had been compelled to remove. He
+      was tired now and he thought he would go to his room and sleep until
+      daybreak. As he turned the implement he remembered how through it he had
+      found her, and now he was using it in her service. He smiled as he worked,
+      and half listened to the steady roll of sound encompassing him. A cool
+      breath swept from the lake and he wondered if it found her wet, hot cheek.
+      A wild duck in the rushes below gave an alarm signal, and it ran in
+      subdued voice, note by note, along the shore. The Harvester gripped the
+      mattock and stood motionless. Wild things had taught him so many lessons
+      he heeded their warnings instinctively. Perhaps it was a mink or muskrat
+      approaching the rushes. Listening intently, he heard a stealthy step
+      coming up the path behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester waited. He soundlessly moved around the trunk of the big
+      tree. An instant more the night prowler stopped squarely at the head of
+      the open grave, and jumped back with an oath. He stood tense a second,
+      then advanced, scratched a match and dropped it into the depths of the
+      opening. That instant the Harvester recognized Henry Jameson, and with a
+      spring landed between the man's shoulders and sent him, face down,
+      headlong into the grave. He snatched one of the sacks of earth, and
+      tipping it, gripped the bottom and emptied the contents on the head and
+      shoulders of the prostrate man. Then he dropped on him and feeling across
+      his back took an ugly, big revolver from a pocket. He swung to the surface
+      and waited until Henry Jameson crawled from under the weight of earth and
+      began to rise; then, at each attempt, he knocked him down. At last he
+      caught the exhausted man by the collar and dragged him to the path, where
+      he dropped him and stood gloating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So!&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;It's you! Coming to execute your threat, are you? What's
+      the matter with my finishing you, loading your carcass with a few stones
+      into this sack, and dropping you in the deepest part of the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't you a little hasty?&rdquo; asked the Harvester. &ldquo;Isn't it rather cold
+      blooded to come sneaking when you thought I'd be asleep? Don't you think
+      it would be low down to kill a man on his wedding day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Henry Jameson arose cautiously and faced the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who have you killed?&rdquo; he panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one,&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;This is for the victim of a member of
+      your family, but I never dreamed I'd have the joy of planting any of you
+      in it first, even temporarily. Did you rest well? What I should have done
+      was to fill in, tread down, and leave you at the bottom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jameson retreated a few steps. The Harvester laughed and advanced the same
+      distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;explain what you are doing on my premises, a few
+      hours after your threat, and armed with another revolver before I could
+      return the one I took from you this afternoon. You must grow them on
+      bushes at your place, they seem so numerous. Speak up! What are you doing
+      here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three things it might be,&rdquo; mused the Harvester. &ldquo;You might
+      think to harm me, but you're watched on that score and I don't believe
+      you'd enjoy the result sure to follow. You might contemplate trying to
+      steal Ruth's money again, but we'll pass that up. You might want to go
+      through my woods to inform yourself as to what I have of value there. But,
+      in all prob-ability, you are after me. Well, here I am. Go ahead! Do what
+      you came to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped toward the lake bank and Jameson, turning to watch
+      him, exposed a face ghastly through its grime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, sickening. &ldquo;We will end this right now.
+      I was rather busy this afternoon, but I wasn't too hurried to take that
+      little weapon of yours to the chief of police and tell him where and how I
+      got it and what occurred. He was to return it to you to-morrow with his
+      ultimatum. When I have added the history of to-night, reinforced by
+      another gun, he will understand your intentions and know where you belong.
+      You should be confined, but because your name is the same as the Girl's,
+      and there is of your blood in her veins, I'll give you one more chance.
+      I'll let you go this time, but I'll report you, and deliver this implement
+      to be added to your collection at headquarters. And I tell you, and I'll
+      tell them, that if ever I find you on my premises again, I'll finish you
+      on sight. Is that clear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jameson nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I should do is to plump you squarely into confinement, as I could
+      easily enough, but that's not my way. I am going to let you off, but you
+      go knowing the law. One thing more: Don't leave with any distorted ideas
+      in your head. I saw Ruth the day she stepped from the cars in Onabasha and
+      I loved her. I wanted to court and marry her, as any man would the girl he
+      loves, but you spoiled that with your woman killing brutality. So I
+      married her in Onabasha this afternoon. You can see the records at the
+      county clerk's office and interview the minister who performed the
+      ceremony, if you doubt me. Ruth is in her room, comfortable as I can make
+      her, asleep and unafraid, thank God! This grave is for her mother. The
+      Girl wants her lifted from the horrible place you put her, and laid where
+      it is sheltered and pleasant. Now, I'll see you off my land. Hurry
+      yourself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Harvester following, Henry Jameson went back over the path he had
+      come, until he reached and mounted the horse he had ridden. As the
+      Harvester watched him, Jameson turned in the saddle and spoke for the
+      second time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you give me in cold cash to tell you who she is, and where her
+      mother's people are?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester leaped for the bridle and missed. Jameson bent over the
+      horse and lashed it to a run. Half way to the oak the Harvester remembered
+      the revolver, but being unaccustomed to weapons, he had forgotten it when
+      he needed it most. He replaced the earth in the sack and dragged it away,
+      then plunged into the lake, and afterward went to bed, where he slept
+      soundly until dawn. First, he slipped into the living-room and wrote a
+      note to the Girl. Then he fed Belshazzar and ate a hearty breakfast. He
+      stationed the dog at her door, gave him the note, and went to the oak.
+      There he arranged everything neatly and as he desired, and then hitching
+      Betsy he quietly guided her down the drive and over the road to Onabasha.
+      He went to an undertaking establishment, made all his arrangements, and
+      then called up and talked with the minister who had performed the marriage
+      ceremony the previous day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun shining in her face awoke Ruth and she lay revelling in the light.
+      &ldquo;Maybe it will colour me faster than the powder,&rdquo; she thought. &ldquo;How
+      peculiar for him to say what he did! I always thought men detested it. But
+      he is not like any one else.&rdquo; She lay looking around the beautiful room
+      and wondering where the Harvester was. She could not hear him. Then,
+      slowly and painfully, she dragged her aching limbs from the bed and went
+      to the door. The dog was gone from the porch and she could not see the man
+      at the stable. She selected a frock and putting it on opened the door.
+      Belshazzar arose and offered this letter:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DEAR RUTH:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have gone to keep my promise. You are locked in with Bel. Please obey me
+      and do not step outside the door until four o'clock. Then put on a pretty
+      white dress, and with the dog, come to the bridge to meet me. I hope you
+      will not suffer and fret. Put away your clothing, arrange the rooms to
+      keep busy, or better yet, lie in the swing and rest. There is food in the
+      ice chest, pantry, and cellar. Forgive me for leaving you to-day, but I
+      thought you would feel easier to have this over. I am so glad to bring
+      your mother here. I hope it will make you happy enough to meet us with a
+      smile. Do not forget the pink box until the reality comes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+With love,
+
+DAVID.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Girl went to the kitchen and found food. She offered to share with
+      Belshazzar, but she could see from his indifference he was not hungry.
+      Then she returned to the room flooded with light, and filled with
+      treasures, and tried to decide how she would arrange her clothing. She
+      spent hours opening boxes and putting dainty, pretty garments in the
+      drawers, hanging the dresses, and placing the toilet articles. Often she
+      wearily dropped to the chairs and couches, or gazed from door and windows
+      at the pictures they framed. &ldquo;I wonder why he doesn't want me to go
+      outside,&rdquo; she thought. &ldquo;I wouldn't be afraid in the least, with Bel. I'd
+      just love to go across to that wonderful little river of Singing Water and
+      sit in the shade; but I won't open the door until four o'clock, just as he
+      wrote.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she thought of where he had gone, and why, the swift tears filled her
+      eyes, but she forced them back and resolutely went to investigate the
+      dining-room. Then for two hours she was a home builder, with a touch of
+      that homing instinct found in the heart of every good woman. First, she
+      looked where the Harvester had said the dishes were, and suddenly sat on
+      the floor exulting. There was a quantity of old chipped and cracked white
+      ware and some gorgeous baking powder prizes; but there were also big blue,
+      green, and pink bowls, several large lustre plates, and a complete tea set
+      without chip or blemish, two beautiful pitchers, and a number of willow
+      pieces. She set the green bowl on the dining table, the blue on the
+      living-room, and took the pink herself, while a beautiful yellow one she
+      placed in the dining-room window seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if I only dared fill them with those lovely flowers!&rdquo; She stood in
+      the window and gazed longingly toward the lake. &ldquo;I know what colour I'd
+      like to put in each of them,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but I promised not to touch
+      anything, and the ones I want most I never saw before, and I'm not to go
+      out anyway. I can't see the sense in that, when I'm not at all afraid, but
+      if he does this wonderful thing for me I must do what he asks. Oh mother,
+      mother! Are you really coming to this beautiful place and to rest at
+      last?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She sank to the window seat and lay trembling, but she bravely restrained
+      the tears. After a time she remembered the upstairs and went to see the
+      coverlets. She found a half dozen beautiful ones, and smiled as she
+      examined the stiffly conventionalized birds facing each other in the
+      border designs, and in one corner of each blanket she read, woven in the
+      cloth&mdash;&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Peter and John
+        Hartman
+        Wooster
+         Ohio
+         1837
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      She took a blue and a green one, several fine skins from the fur box the
+      Harvester had told her about, and went downstairs. It required all her
+      strength to push the heavy tables before the fireplaces. She spread papers
+      on them to stand on, and tacked a skin above each mantel. She set all of
+      the candlesticks, except those she wanted to use, in the lower part of an
+      empty bookcase. A pair of black walnut she placed on the living-room
+      mantel, together with a big blue plate, a yellow one, and an old brass
+      candlestick. She admired the effect very much. She spread the blue
+      coverlet on the couch, and arranged the blue bowl and some books on the
+      table. Here and there she hung a skin across a chair back, or spread it in
+      a wide window seat. Having exhausted all her resources, she returned to
+      the dining-room, spread a skin before the hearth and in each window seat,
+      set a pink and green lustre plate on the mantel, and a pair of oak
+      candlesticks, and arranged the lustre tea set on the side table. The pink
+      coverlet she took for herself, and after resting a time she was surprised
+      on going back to the rooms to see how homelike they appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At three o'clock she dressed and at almost four unlocked the screen,
+      called Belshazzar to her side, and slowly went down the drive to the
+      bridge. She had used the pink powder, put on a beautiful white dress,
+      carefully arranged her hair, and she wore the pearl ornament. Once her
+      fingers strayed to the pendant and she said softly, &ldquo;I think both he and
+      mother would like me to wear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the foot of the hill she stopped at a bench and sat in the shade
+      waiting. Belshazzar stretched beside her, and gazed at her with
+      questioning, friendly dog eyes. The Girl looked from Singing Water to the
+      lake, and up the hill to make sure it was real. She tried to quiet her
+      quivering muscles and nerves. He had asked her to meet him with a smile.
+      How could she? He could not have understood what it meant when he made the
+      request. There never would be any way to make him realize; indeed, why
+      should he? The smile must be ready. He had loved his mother deeply, and
+      yet he had said he did not grieve to lay her to rest. Earth had not been
+      kind. Then why should she sorrow for her mother? Again life had been not
+      only unkind, but bitterly cruel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Belshazzar arose and watched down the drive. The Girl looked also. Through
+      the gate and up the levee came a strange procession. First walked the
+      Harvester alone, with bared head, and he carried an arm load of white
+      lilies. A carriage containing a man and several women followed. Then came
+      a white hearse with snowy plumes, and behind that another carriage filled
+      with people, and Betsy followed drawing men in the spring wagon. The Girl
+      arose and as she stepped to the drive she swayed uncertainly an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious Heaven!&rdquo; she gasped. &ldquo;He is bringing her in white, and with
+      flowers and song!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she lifted her head, and with a smile on her lips she went to meet
+      him. As she reached his side, he tenderly put an arm around her, and came
+      on steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Courage Girl!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Be as brave as she was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Around the driveway and up the hill he half carried her, to a seat he had
+      placed under the oak. Before her lay the white-lined grave, and the
+      Harvester arranged his lilies around it. The teams stopped at the barn and
+      men came up the hill bearing a white burden. Behind them followed the
+      minister who yesterday had performed their marriage ceremony, and after
+      him a choir of trained singers softly chanting:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,
+     For they shall cease from their labours.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But David,&rdquo; panted the Girl, &ldquo;It was mean and poor. That is not she!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sush!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It is your mother. The location was high and
+      dry, and it has been only a short time. We wrapped her in white silk, laid
+      her on a soft cushion and pillow, and housed her securely. She can sleep
+      well now, Ruth. Listen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Covered with white lilies, slowly the casket sank into earth. At its head
+      stood the minister and as it began to disappear, the white doves,
+      frightened by the strange conveyances at the stable, came circling above.
+      The minister looked up. He lifted a clear tenor, and softly and purely he
+      sang, while at a wave of his hand the choir joined him:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, come angel band!  Oh, come, and around me stand!
+     Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      He uttered a low benediction, and singing, the people turned and went
+      downhill. The Harvester gathered the Girl in his arms and carried her to
+      the lake. He laid her in his boat and taking the oars sent it along the
+      bank in the shade, and through cool, green places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now cry all you choose!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The overstrained Girl covered her face and sobbed wildly. After a time he
+      began to talk to her gently, and before she realized it, she was
+      listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death has been kinder to her than life, Ruth,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She is lying as
+      you saw her last, I think. We lifted her very tenderly, wrapped her
+      carefully, and brought her gently as we could. Now they shall rest
+      together, those little mothers of ours, to whom men were not kind; and in
+      the long sleep we must forget, as they have forgotten, and forgive, as no
+      doubt they have forgiven. Don't you want to take some lilies to them
+      before we go to the cabin? Right there on your left are unusually large
+      ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl sat up, dried her eyes and gathered the white flowers. When the
+      last vehicle crossed the bridge, the Harvester tied the boat and helped
+      her up the hill. The old oak stretched its wide arms above two little
+      mounds, both moss covered and scattered with flowers. The Girl added her
+      store and then went to the Harvester, and sank at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, you shall not!&rdquo; cried the man. &ldquo;I simply will not have that. Come
+      now, I will bring you back this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He helped her to the veranda and laid her in the swing. He sat beside her
+      while she rested, and then they went into the cabin for supper. Soon he
+      had her telling what she had found, and he was making notes of what was
+      yet required to transform the cabin into a home. The Harvester left it to
+      her to decide whether he should roof the bridge the next day or make a
+      trip for furnishings. She said he had better buy what they needed and then
+      she could make the cabin homelike while he worked on the bridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. THE HARVESTER INTERPRETS LIFE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They went through the rooms together, and the Girl suggested the
+      furnishings she thought necessary, while the Harvester wrote the list. The
+      following morning he was eager to have her company, but she was very tired
+      and begged to be allowed to wait in the swing, so again he drove away and
+      left her with Belshazzar on guard. When he had gone, she went through the
+      cabin arranging the furniture the best she could, then dressed and went to
+      the swinging couch. It was so wide and heavy a light wind rocked it
+      gently, and from it she faced the fern and lily carpeted hillside, the
+      majesty of big trees of a thousand years, and heard the music of Singing
+      Water as it sparkled diamond-like where the sun rays struck its flow.
+      Across the drive and down the valley to the brilliant bit of marsh it
+      hurried on its way to Loon Lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were squirrels barking and racing in the big trees and over the
+      ground. They crossed the sodded space of lawn and came to the top step for
+      nuts, eating them from cunning paws. They were living life according to
+      the laws of their nature. She knew that their sharp, startling bark was
+      not to frighten her, but to warn straying intruders of other species of
+      their kindred from a nest, because the Harvester had told her so. He had
+      said their racing here and there in wild scramble was a game of tag and
+      she found it most interesting to observe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Birds of brilliant colour flashed everywhere, singing in wild joy, and
+      tilted on the rising hedge before her, hunting berries and seeds. Their
+      bubbling, spontaneous song was an instinctive outpouring of their joy over
+      mating time, nests, young, much food, and running water. Their social,
+      inquiring, short cry was to locate a mate, and call her to good feeding.
+      The sharp wild scream of a note was when a hawk passed over, a weasel
+      lurked in the thicket, or a black snake sunned on the bushes. She
+      remembered these things, and lay listening intently, trying to interpret
+      every sound as the Harvester did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Birds of wide wing hung as if nailed to the sky, or wheeled and sailed in
+      grandeur. They were searching the landscape below to locate a hare or
+      snake in the waving grass or carrion in the fields. The wonderful
+      exhibitions of wing power were their expression of exultation in life,
+      just as the song sparrow threatened to rupture his throat as he swung on
+      the hedge, and the red bird somewhere in the thicket whistled so
+      forcefully it sounded as if the notes might hurt him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the lake bass splashed in a game with each other. Grebes chattered,
+      because they were very social. Ducks dived and gobbled for roots and worms
+      of the lake shore, and congratulated each other when they were lucky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Killdeer cried for slaughter, in plaintive tones, as their white breasts
+      gleamed silver-like across the sky. They insisted on the death of their
+      ancient enemies, because the deer had trampled nests around the shore,
+      roiled the water, spoiled the food hunting, and had been wholly unmindful
+      of the laws of feathered folk from the beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind the barn imperial cocks crowed challenges of defiance to each other
+      and all the world, because they once had worn royal turbans on their
+      heads, and ruled the forests, even the elephants and lions. Happy hens
+      cackled when they deposited an egg, and wandered through their park
+      singing the spring egg song unceasingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon the barn Ajax spread and exulted in glittering plumage, and screamed
+      viciously. He was sending a wireless plea to the forests of Ceylon for a
+      gray mate to come and share the ridge pole with him, and help him wage red
+      war on the sickening love making of the white doves he hated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything was beautiful, some of it was amusing, all instructive, and
+      intensely interesting. The Girl wanted to know about the brown, yellow,
+      and black butterflies sailing from flower to flower. She watched big black
+      and gold bees come from the forest for pollen and listened to their
+      monotonous bumbling. Her first humming bird poised in air, and sipped
+      nectar before her astonished eyes. It was marvellous, but more wonderful
+      to the Girl than anything she saw or heard was the fact that because of
+      the Harvester's teachings she now could trace through all of it the
+      ordained processes of the evolution of life. Everything was right in its
+      way, all necessary to human welfare, and so there was nothing to fear, but
+      marvels to learn and pictures to appreciate. She would have taken
+      Belshazzar and gone out, but the Harvester had exacted a promise that she
+      would not. The fact was, he could see that she was coming gradually to a
+      sane and natural view of life and living things, and he did not want some
+      sound or creature to frighten her, and spoil what he had accomplished. So
+      she swayed in the swing and watched, and tried to interpret sights and
+      sounds as he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before an hour she realized that she was coming speedily into sympathy
+      with the wild life around her; for, instead of shivering and shrinking at
+      unaccustomed sounds, she was listening especially for them, and trying to
+      arrive at a sane version. Instead of the senseless roar of commerce,
+      manufacture, and life of a city, she was beginning to appreciate sounds
+      that varied and carried the Song of Life in unceasing measure and
+      absorbing meaning, while she was more than thankful for the fresh, pure
+      air, and the blessed, God-given light. It seemed to the Girl that there
+      was enough sunshine at Medicine Woods to furnish rays of gold for the
+      whole world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel,&rdquo; she said to the dog standing beside her, &ldquo;it's a shame to separate
+      you from the Medicine Man and pen you here with me. It's a wonder you
+      don't bite off my head and run away to find him. He's gone to bring more
+      things to make life beautiful. I wanted to go with him, but oh Bel,
+      there's something dreadfully wrong with me. I was afraid I'd fall on the
+      streets and frighten and shame him. I'm so weak, I scarcely can walk
+      straight across one of these big, cool rooms that he has built for me. He
+      can make everything beautiful, Bel, a home, rooms, clothing, grounds, and
+      life&mdash;&mdash;above everything else he can make life beautiful. He's
+      so splendid and wonderful, with his wide understanding and sane
+      interpretation and God-like sympathy and patience. Why Belshazzar, he can
+      do the greatest thing in all the world! He can make you forget that the
+      grave annihilates your dear ones by hideous processes, and set you to
+      thinking instead that they come back to you in whispering leaves and
+      flower perfumes. If I didn't owe him so much that I ought to pay, if this
+      wasn't so alluringly beautiful, I'd like to go to the oak and lie beside
+      those dear women resting there, and give my tired body to furnish sap for
+      strength and leaves for music. He can take its bitterest sting&mdash;&mdash;from
+      death, Bel&mdash;&mdash;and that's the most wonderful thing&mdash;&mdash;in
+      life, Bel&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice became silent, her eyes closed; the dog stretched himself beside
+      her on guard, and it was so the Harvester found them when he drove home
+      from the city. He heaped his load in the dining-room, stabled Betsy,
+      carried the things he had brought where he thought they belonged, and
+      prepared food. When she awakened she came to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it going, Girl?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell you how lovely it has been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really mean that your heart is warming a little to things here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed I do! I can't tell you what a morning I've had. There have been
+      such myriad things to see and hear. Oh, Harvester, can you ever teach me
+      what all of it means?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can right now,&rdquo; said the Harvester promptly. &ldquo;It means two things, so
+      simple any little child can understand&mdash;&mdash;the love of God and
+      the evolution of life. I am not precisely clear as to what I mean when I
+      say God. I don't know whether it is spirit, matter, or force; it is that
+      big thing that brings forth worlds, establishes their orbits, and gives us
+      heat, light, food, and water. To me, that is God and His love. Just that
+      we are given birth, sheltered, provisioned, and endowed for our work.
+      Evolution is the natural consequence of this. It is the plan steadily
+      unfolding. If I were you, I wouldn't bother my head over these questions,
+      they never have been scientifically explained to the beginning; I doubt if
+      they ever will be, because they start with the origin of matter and that
+      is too far beyond man for him to penetrate. Just enjoy to the depths of
+      your soul&mdash;&mdash;that's worship. Be thankful for everything&mdash;&mdash;that's
+      praising God as the birds praise him. And 'do unto others' that's all
+      there is of love and religion combined in one fell swoop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should go before the world and tell every one that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! It isn't my vocation,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;My work is to provide
+      pain-killer. I don't believe, Ruth, that there is any one on the footstool
+      who is doing a better job along that line. I am boastfully proud of it&mdash;&mdash;just
+      of sending in the packages that kill fever, refresh poor blood, and
+      strengthen weak hearts; unadulterated, honest weight, fresh, and
+      scrupulously clean. My neighbours have a different name for it; I call it
+      a man's work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every one who understands must,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I wish I could help at
+      that. I feel as if it would do more to wipe out the pain I've suffered and
+      seen her endure than anything else. Man, when I grow strong enough I want
+      to help you. I believe that I am going to love it here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't ever suppress your feelings, Ruth!&rdquo; hastily cried the Harvester.
+      &ldquo;It will be very bad for you. You will become wrought up, and 'het up,' as
+      Granny Moreland says, and it will make you very ill. When we drive the
+      fever from your blood, the ache from your bones, the poison of wrong
+      conditions from your soul, and good, healthy, red corpuscles begin pumping
+      through your little heart like a windmill, you can stake your life you're
+      going to love it here. And the location and work are not all you're going
+      to care for either, honey. Now just wait! That was not 'nominated in the
+      bond.' I'm allowed to talk. I never agreed not to SAY things. What I
+      promised was not to DO them. So as I said, honey, sit at this table, and
+      eat the food I've cooked; and by that time the furniture van will be here,
+      and the men will unload, and you shall reign on a throne and tell me where
+      and how.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh if I were only stronger, David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You are much better than you were
+      yesterday. You can talk, and that's all that's necessary. The rooms are
+      ready for furniture. The men will carry it where you want it. A decorator
+      is coming to hang the curtains. By night we will be settled; you can lie
+      in the swing while I read to you a story so wonderful that the wildest
+      fairy tale you ever heard never touched it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will it be, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat all the red raspberries and cream, bread and butter, and drink all
+      the milk you can. There's blood, beefsteak, and bones in it. As I was
+      saying, you have come here a stranger to a strange land. The first thing
+      is for you to understand and love the woods. Before you can do that you
+      should master the history of one tree; just the same as you must learn to
+      know and love me before your childlike trust in all mankind returns again.
+      Understand? Well, the fates knew you were on the way, coming trembling
+      down the brink, Ruth, so they put it into the heart of a great man to
+      write largely of a wonderful tree, especially for your benefit. After it
+      had fallen he took it apart, split it in sections, and year by year spread
+      out history for all the world to read. It made a classic story filled with
+      unsurpassed wonders. It was a pine of a thousand years, close the age of
+      our mother tree, Ruth, and when we have learned from Enos Mills how to
+      wrest secrets from the hearts of centuries, we will climb the hill and
+      measure our oak, and then I will estimate, and you will write, and we will
+      make a record for our tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I'd like that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So would I,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;And a million other things I can think
+      of that we can learn together. It won't require long for me to teach you
+      all I know, and by that time your hand will be clasped in mine, and our
+      'hearts will beat as one,' and you will give me a kiss every night and
+      morning, and a few during the day for interest, and we will go on in life
+      together and learn songs, miracles, and wonders until the old oak calls
+      us. Then we will ascend the hill gladly and lie down and offer up our
+      bodies, and our children will lay flowers over our hearts, and gather the
+      herbs and paint the pictures? Amen. I hear a van on the bridge. Just you
+      go to your room and lie down until I get things unloaded and where they
+      belong. Then you and the decorator can make us home-like, and to-morrow we
+      will begin to live. Won't that be great, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With you, yes, I think it will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do for this time,&rdquo; said the Harvester, as he opened the door to
+      her room. &ldquo;Lie and rest until I say ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he went to meet the men, she could hear him singing lustily, &ldquo;Praise
+      God from whom all blessings flow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a child he is!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And what a man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For an hour heavy feet sounded through the cabin carrying furniture to
+      different rooms. Then with a floor brush in one hand, and a polishing
+      cloth in the other, the Harvester tapped at her door and helped the Girl
+      upstairs. He had divided the space into three large, square sleeping
+      chambers. In each he had set up a white iron bed, a dressing table, and
+      wash stand, and placed two straight-backed and one rocking chair, all
+      white. The walls were tinted lightly with green added to the plaster.
+      There was a mattress and a stack of bedding on each bed, and a large rug
+      and several small ones on the floors. He led her to the rocking chair in
+      the middle room, where she could see through the open doors of the other
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I didn't know whether the room with two
+      windows toward the lake and one on the marsh, or two facing the woods and
+      one front, was the guest chamber. It seemed about an even throw whether a
+      visitor would prefer woods or water, so I made them both guest chambers,
+      and got things alike for them. Now if we are entertaining two, one can't
+      feel more highly honoured than the other. Was that a scheme?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I don't see how it could be surpassed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Be sure you are right, then go ahead,'&rdquo; quoted the Harvester. &ldquo;Now I'll
+      make the beds and Mr. Rogers can hang the curtains. Is white correct for
+      sleeping rooms? Won't that wash best and always be fresh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;White wash curtains are much the nicest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make them short Mr. Rogers; keep them off the floor,&rdquo; advised the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;And simple&mdash;&mdash;don't arrange any thing elaborate that
+      will tire a woman to keep in order. Whack them off the right length and
+      pin them to the poles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How about that, Mrs. Langston?&rdquo; asked the decorator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite sure that is the very best thing to do,&rdquo; said the Girl; and
+      the curtains were hung while the mattress was placed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now about this?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester. &ldquo;Do I put on sheets and fix
+      these beds ready to use?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I would spread the pad and the counterpane
+      and lay the sheets and pillows in the closet until they are wanted. They
+      can be sunned and the bed made delightfully fresh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished, he spread a cover on the dressing table and laid out
+      white toilet articles and grouped a white wash set with green decorations
+      on the stand. Then he brushed the floor, spread a big green rug in the
+      middle and small ones before the bed, stand, and table, and coming out
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guest chamber with lake view is now ready for company,&rdquo; announced the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;Repeat the operation on the woods room, finished also. Why do
+      some people make work of things and string them out eternally and fuss so
+      much? Isn't this simple and easy, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you can afford it,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forbear!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;We have the goods, the dealer has my
+      check. Excuse me ten minutes, until I furnish another room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The laughing Girl could catch glimpses of him busy over beds and dresser,
+      floor and rugs; then he came where she sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woods guest chamber ready,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now we come to the interior
+      apartment, that from its view might be called the marsh room. Aside from
+      being two windows short, it is exactly similar to the others. It occurred
+      to me that, in order to make up for the loss of those windows, and also
+      because I may be compelled to ask some obliging woman to occupy it in case
+      your health is precarious at any time, and in view of the further fact
+      that if any such woman could be found, and would kindly and willingly care
+      for us, my gratitude would be inexpressible; on account of all these
+      things, I got a shade the BEST furnishings for this room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stared at him with blank face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;this is a question of ethics. Now what is
+      a guest? A thing of a day! A person who disturbs your routine and
+      interferes with important concerns. Why should any one be grateful for
+      company? Why should time and money be lavished on visitors? They come. You
+      overwork yourself. They go. You are glad of it. You return the visit,
+      because it's the only way to have back at them; but why pamper them
+      unnecessarily? Now a good housekeeper, that means more than words can
+      express. Comfort, kindness, sanitary living, care in illness! Here's to
+      the prospective housekeeper of Medicine Woods! Rogers, hang those ruffled
+      embroidered curtains. Observe that whereas mere guest beds are plain
+      white, this has a touch of brass. Where guest rugs are floor coverings,
+      this is a work of art. Where guest brushes are celluloid, these are
+      enamelled, and the dresser cover is hand embroidered. Let me also call
+      your attention to the chairs touched with gold, cushioned for ease, and a
+      decorated pitcher and bowl. Watch the bounce of these springs and the
+      thickness of this mattress and pad, and notice that where guests, however
+      welcome, get a down cover of sateen, the lady of the house has silkaline.
+      Won't she prepare us a breakfast after a night in this room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, are you in earnest?&rdquo; gasped the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't these things prove it?&rdquo; asked the Harvester. &ldquo;No woman can enter my
+      home, when my necessities are so great I have to hire her to come, and
+      take the WORST in the house. After my wife, she gets the best, every time.
+      Whenever I need help, the woman who will come and serve me is what I'd
+      call the real guest of the house. Friend? Where are your friends when
+      trouble comes? It always brings a crowd on account of the excitement, and
+      there is noise and racing; but if your soul is saved alive, it is by a
+      steady, trained hand you pay to help you. Friends come and go, but a good
+      housekeeper remains and is a business proposition&mdash;one that if
+      conducted rightly for both parties and on a strictly common-sense basis,
+      gives you living comfort. Now that we have disposed of the guests that go
+      and the one that remains, we will proceed downward and arrange for
+      ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, did you ever know any one who treated a housekeeper as you say you
+      would?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. And I never knew any one who raised medicinal stuff for a living, but
+      I'm making a gilt-edged success of it, and I would of a housekeeper, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't seem&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the bedrock of all the trouble on the earth,&rdquo; interrupted the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;We are a nation and a part of a world that spends our time on
+      'seeming.' Our whole outer crust is 'seeming.' When we get beneath the
+      surface and strike the BEING, then we live as we are privileged by the
+      Almighty. I don't think I give a tinker how anything SEEMS. What concerns
+      me is how it IS. It doesn't 'seem' possible to you to hire a woman to come
+      into your home and take charge of its cleanliness and the food you eat&mdash;the
+      very foundation of life&mdash;and treat her as an honoured guest, and give
+      her the best comfort you have to offer. The cold room, the old covers, the
+      bare floor, and the cast off furniture are for her. No wonder, as a rule,
+      she gives what she gets. She dignifies her labour in the same ratio that
+      you do. Wait until we need a housekeeper, and then gaze with awe on the
+      one I will raise to your hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't! It's wearing! Come tell me how to make our living-room less bare
+      than it appears at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went downstairs together, followed by the decorator, and began work
+      on the room. The Girl was placed on a couch and made comfortable and then
+      the Harvester looked around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bundle there, Rogers, is the curtains we bought for this room. If
+      you and my wife think they are not right, we will not hang them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The decorator opened the package and took out curtains of tan-coloured
+      goods with a border of blue and brown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those are not expensive,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but to me a window appears
+      bare with only a shade, so I thought we'd try these, and when they become
+      soiled we'll burn them and buy some fresh ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good idea!&rdquo; laughed the Girl. &ldquo;As a house decorator you surpass yourself
+      as a Medicine Man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fix these as you did those upstairs,&rdquo; ordered the Harvester. &ldquo;We don't
+      want any fol-de-rols. Put the bottom even with the sill and shear them off
+      at the top.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am going to arrange these,&rdquo; said the decorator, &ldquo;you go on with
+      your part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right!&rdquo; agreed the Harvester. &ldquo;First, I'll lay the big rug.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He cleared the floor, spread a large rug with a rich brown centre and a
+      wide blue border. Smaller ones of similar design and colour were placed
+      before each of the doors leading from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now for the hearth,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I got this tan goat skin.
+      Doesn't that look fairly well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It certainly did; and the Girl and the decorator hastened to say so. The
+      Harvester replaced the table and chairs, and then sat on the couch at the
+      Girl's feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call this almost finished,&rdquo; he remarked. &ldquo;All we need now is a bouquet
+      and something on the walls, and that is serious business. What goes on
+      them usually remains for a long time, and so it should be selected with
+      care. Ruth, have you a picture of your mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None since she was my mother. I have some lovely girl photographs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Exactly the thing! I have a picture of my
+      mother when she was a pretty girl. We will select the best of yours and
+      have them enlarged in those beautiful brown prints they make in these
+      days, and we'll frame one for each side of the mantel. After that you can
+      decorate the other walls as you see things you want. Fifteen minutes gone;
+      we are ready to take up the line of march to the dining-room. Oh I forgot
+      my pillows! Here are a half dozen tan, brown, and blue for this room.
+      Ruth, you arrange them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl heaped four on the couch, stood one beside the hearth, and laid
+      another in a big chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I don't know what you will think of this,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I
+      found it in a magazine at the library. I copied this whole room. The plan
+      was to have the floor, furniture, and casings of golden oak and the walls
+      pale green. Then it said get yellow curtains bordered with green and a
+      green rug with yellow figures, so I got them. I had green leather cushions
+      made for the window seats, and these pillows go on them. Hang the saffron
+      curtains, Rogers, and we will finish in good shape for dinner by six. By
+      the way, Ruth, when will you select your dishes? It will take a big set to
+      fill all these shelves and you shall have exactly what you want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can use those you have very well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no you can't!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I may live and work in the woods,
+      but I am not so benighted that I don't own and read the best books and
+      magazines, and subscribe for a few papers. I patronize the library and see
+      what is in the stores. My money will buy just as much as any man's, if I
+      do wear khaki trousers. Kindly notice the word. Save in deference to your
+      ladyship I probably would have said pants. You see how ELITE I can be if I
+      try. And it not only extends to my wardrobe, to a 'yaller' and green
+      dining-room, but it takes in the 'chany' as well. I have looked up that,
+      too. You want china, cut glass, silver cutlery, and linen. Ye! Ye! You
+      needn't think I don't know anything but how to dig in the dirt. I have
+      been studying this especially, and I know exactly what to get.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here,&rdquo; said the Girl, making a place for him beside her. &ldquo;Now let me
+      tell you what I think. We are going to live in the woods, and our home is
+      a log cabin&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With acetylene lights, a furnace, baths, and hot and cold water&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       interpolated the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl and the decorator laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anyway,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;if you are going to let me have what I would like,
+      I'd prefer a set of tulip yellow dishes with the Dutch little figures on
+      them. I don't know what they cost, but certainly they are not so expensive
+      as cut glass and china.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that earnest or is it because you think I am spending too much money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is what I want. Everything else is different; why should we have
+      dishes like city folk? I'd dearly love to have the Dutch ones, and a white
+      cloth with a yellow border, glass where it is necessary, and silver
+      knives, forks, and spoons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be great, all right!&rdquo; endorsed the decorator. &ldquo;And you have
+      got a priceless old lustre tea set there, and your willow ware is as fine
+      as I ever saw. If I were you, I wouldn't buy a dish with what you have,
+      except the yellow set.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great day!&rdquo; ejaculated the Harvester. &ldquo;Will you tell me why my great
+      grandmother's old pink and green teapot is priceless?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl explained pink lustre. &ldquo;That set in the shop I knew in Chicago
+      would sell for from three to five hundred dollars. Truly it would! I've
+      seen one little pink and green pitcher like yours bring nine dollars
+      there. And you've not only got the full tea set, but water and dip
+      pitchers, two bowls, and two bread plates. They are priceless, because the
+      secret of making them is lost; they take on beauty with age, and they were
+      your great-grandmother's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester reached over and energetically shook hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, I'm so glad you've got them!&rdquo; he bubbled. &ldquo;Now elucidate on my
+      willow ware. What is it? Where is it? Why have I willow ware and am not
+      informed. Who is responsible for this? Did my ancestors buy better than
+      they knew, or worse? Is willow ware a crime for which I must hide my head,
+      or is it further riches thrust upon me? I thought I had investigated the
+      subject of proper dishes quite thoroughly; but I am very certain I saw no
+      mention of lustre or willow. I thought, in my ignorance, that lustre was a
+      dress, and willow a tree. Have I been deceived? Why is a blue plate or
+      pitcher willow ware?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring that platter from the mantel,&rdquo; ordered the Girl, &ldquo;and I will show
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester obeyed and followed the finger that traced the design.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a healthy willow tree!&rdquo; he commented. &ldquo;If Loon Lake couldn't go
+      ahead of that it should be drained. And will you please tell me why this
+      precious platter from which I have eaten much stewed chicken, fried ham,
+      and in youthful days sopped the gravy&mdash;&mdash;will you tell me why
+      this relic of my ancestors is called a willow plate, when there are a
+      majority of orange trees so extremely fruitful they have neglected to grow
+      a leaf? Why is it not an orange plate? Look at that boat! And in plain
+      sight of it, two pagodas, a summer house, a water-sweep, and a pair of
+      corpulent swallows; you would have me believe that a couple are eloping in
+      broad daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it's night! And those birds are doves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;There is a total absence of shadows. There
+      is no moon. Each orange tree is conveniently split in halves, so you can
+      see to count the fruit accurately; the birds are in flight. Only a swallow
+      or a stork can fly in decorations, either by day or by night. And for any
+      sake look at that elopement! He goes ahead carrying a cane, she comes
+      behind lugging the baggage, another man with a cane brings up the rear.
+      They are not running away. They have been married ten years at least. In a
+      proper elopement, they forget there are such things as jewels and they
+      always carry each other. I've often looked up the statistics and it's the
+      only authorized version. As I regard this treasure, I grow faint when I
+      remember with what unnecessary force my father bore down when he carved
+      the ham. I'll bet a cooky he split those orange trees. Now me&mdash;&mdash;I'll
+      never dare touch knife to it again. I'll always carve the meat on the
+      broiler, and gently lift it to this platter with a fork. Or am I not to be
+      allowed to dine from my ancestral treasure again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in a green and yellow room,&rdquo; laughed the Girl. &ldquo;I'll tell you what I
+      think. If I had a tea table to match the living-room furniture, and it sat
+      beside the hearth, and on it a chafing dish to cook in, and the willow
+      ware to eat from, we could have little tea parties in there, when we
+      aren't very hungry or to treat a visitor. It would help make that room
+      'homey,' and it's wonderful how they harmonize with the other things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much willow ware have I got to 'bestow' on you?&rdquo; inquired the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;Suppose you show me all of it. A guilty feeling arises in my
+      breast, and I fear me I have committed high crimes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Man! You didn't break or lose any of those dishes, did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me!&rdquo; insisted the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl arose and going to the cupboard he had designed for her china she
+      opened it, and set before him a teapot, cream pitcher, two plates, a bowl,
+      a pitcher, the meat platter, and a sugar bowl. &ldquo;If there were all of the
+      cups, saucers, and plates, I know where they would bring five hundred
+      dollars,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, are you getting even with me for poking fun at them, or are you in
+      earnest?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean every word of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You really want a small, black walnut table made especially for those old
+      dishes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if you are too busy. I could use it with beautiful effect and much
+      pleasure, and I can't tell you how proud I'd be of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's face flushed. &ldquo;Excuse me,&rdquo; he said rising. &ldquo;I have now
+      finished furnishing a house; I will go and take a peep at the engine.&rdquo; He
+      went into the kitchen and hearing the rattle of dishes the Girl followed.
+      She stepped in just in time to see him hastily slide something into his
+      pocket. He picked up a half dozen old white plates and saucers and several
+      cups and started toward the evaporator. He heard her coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, honey,&rdquo; he said turning, &ldquo;you don't want to see the dry-house
+      just now. I have terrific heat to do some rapid work. I won't be gone but
+      a few minutes. You better boss the decorator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afraid that wasn't very diplomatic,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;It savoured a
+      little of being sent back. But if what she says is right, and she should
+      know if they handle such stuff at that art store, she will feel
+      considerably better not to see this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He set his load at the door, drew an old blue saucer from his pocket and
+      made a careful examination. He pulled some leaves from a bush and pushed a
+      greasy cloth out of the saucer, wiped it the best he could, and held it to
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a crime!&rdquo; he commented. &ldquo;Saucer from your maternal ancestors' tea
+      set used for a grease dish. I am afraid I'd better sink it in the lake.
+      She'd feel worse to see it than never to know. Wish I could clean off the
+      grease! I could do better if it was hot. I can set it on the engine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester placed the saucer on the engine, entered the dry-house, and
+      closed the door. In the stifling air he began pouring seed from beautiful,
+      big willow plates to the old white ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About the time I have ruined you,&rdquo; he said to a white plate, &ldquo;some one
+      will pop up and discover that the art of making you is lost and you are
+      priceless, and I'll have been guilty of another blunder. Now there are the
+      dishes mother got with baking powder. She thought they were grand. I know
+      plenty well she prized them more than these blue ones or she wouldn't have
+      saved them and used these for every day. There they set, all so carefully
+      taken care of, and the Girl doesn't even look at them. Thank Heaven, there
+      are the four remaining plates all right, anyway! Now I've got seed in some
+      of the saucers; one is there; where on earth is the last one? And where,
+      oh unkind fates! are the cups?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He found more saucers and set them with the plates. As he passed the
+      engine he noticed the saucer on it was bubbling grease, literally exuding
+      it from the particles of clay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hooray!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. He took it up, but it was so hot he dropped
+      it. With a deft sweep he caught it in air, and shoved it on a tray. Then
+      he danced and blew on his burned hand. Snatching out his handkerchief he
+      rubbed off all the grease, and imagined the saucer was brighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If 'a little is good, more is better,'&rdquo; quoted the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wadding the handkerchief he returned the saucer to the engine. Then he
+      slipped out, dripping perspiration, glanced toward the cabin, and ran into
+      the work room. The first object he saw was a willow cup half full of red
+      paint, stuck and dried as if to remain forever. He took his knife and
+      tried to whittle it off, but noticing that he was scratching the cup he
+      filled it with turpentine, set it under a work bench, turned a tin pan
+      over it, and covered it with shavings. A few steps farther brought one in
+      sight, filled with carpet tacks. He searched everywhere, but could find no
+      more, so he went to the laboratory. Beside his wash bowl at the door stood
+      the last willow saucer. He had used it for years as a soap dish. He
+      scraped the contents on the bench and filled the dish with water. Four
+      cups held medicinal seeds and were in good condition. He lacked one,
+      although he could not remember of ever having broken it. Gathering his
+      collection, he returned to the dry-house to see how the saucer was coming
+      on. Again it was bubbling, and he polished off the grease and set back the
+      dish. It certainly was growing better. He carried his treasures into the
+      work room, and went to the barn to feed. As he was leaving the stable he
+      uttered a joyous exclamation and snatched from a window sill a willow cup,
+      gummed and smeared with harness oil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The full set, by hokey!&rdquo; marvelled the Harvester. &ldquo;Say, Betsy, the only
+      name for this is luck! Now if I only can clean them, I'll be ready to make
+      her tea table, whatever that is. My I hope she will stay away until I get
+      these in better shape!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He filled the last cup with turpentine, set it with the other under the
+      work bench, stacked the remaining pieces, polished the saucer he was
+      baking, and went to bring a dish pan and towel. He drew some water from
+      the pipes of the evaporator, put in the soap, and carried it to the work
+      room. There he carefully washed and wiped all the pieces, save two cups
+      and one saucer. He did not know how long it would require to bake the
+      grease from that, but he was sure it was improving. He thought he could
+      clean the paint cup, but he imagined the harness oil one would require
+      baking also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stood busily working over the dishes, with light step the Girl came
+      to the door. She took one long look and understood. She turned and swiftly
+      went back to the cabin, but her shoulders were shaking. Presently the
+      Harvester came in and explained that after finishing in the dry-house he
+      had gone to do the feeding. Then he suggested that before it grew dark
+      they should go through the rooms and see how they appeared, and gather the
+      flowers the Girl wanted. So together they decided everything was clean,
+      comfortable, and harmonized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they went to the hillside sloping to the lake. For the dining-room,
+      the Girl wanted yellow water lilies, so the Harvester brought his old boat
+      and gathered enough to fill the green bowl. For the living-room, she used
+      wild ragged robins in the blue bowl, and on one end of the mantel set a
+      pitcher of saffron and on the other arrowhead lilies. For her room, she
+      selected big, blushy mallows that grew all along Singing Water and around
+      the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't that slightly peculiar?&rdquo; questioned the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a peep,&rdquo; said the Girl, opening her door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had spread the pink coverlet on her couch, and when she set the big
+      pink bowl filled with mallows on the table the effect was exquisite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think perhaps that's a little Frenchy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and you may have to
+      be educated to it; but salmon pink and buttercup yellow are colours I love
+      in combination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She closed the door and went to find something to eat, and then to the
+      swing, where she liked to rest, look, and listen. The Harvester suggested
+      reading to her, but she shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait until winter,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;when the days are longer and cold, and the
+      snow buries everything, and then read. Now tell me about my hedge and the
+      things you have planted in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester went out and collected a bunch of twigs. He handed her a
+      big, evenly proportioned leaf of ovate shape, and explained: &ldquo;This is
+      burning bush, so called because it has pink berries that hang from long,
+      graceful stems all winter, and when fully open they expose a flame-red
+      seed pod. It was for this colour on gray and white days that I planted it.
+      In the woods I grow it in thickets. The root bark brings twenty cents a
+      pound, at the very least. It is good fever medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it poison?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I didn't set anything acutely poisonous in your hedge. I wanted it to
+      be a mass of bloom you were free to cut for the cabin all spring, an
+      attraction to birds in summer, and bright with colour in winter. To draw
+      the feathered tribe, I planted alder, wild cherry, and grape-vines. This
+      is cherry. The bark is almost as beautiful as birch. I raise it for tonics
+      and the birds love the cherries. This fern-like leaf is from mountain ash,
+      and when it attains a few years' growth it will flame with colour all
+      winter in big clusters of scarlet berries. That I grow in the woods is a
+      picture in snow time, and the bark is one of my standard articles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl raised on her elbow and looked at the hedge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The berries are green now. I suppose they change
+      colour as they ripen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;And you must not confuse them with sumac. The
+      leaves are somewhat similar, but the heads differ in colour and shape. The
+      sumac and buckeye you must not touch, until we learn what they will do to
+      you. To some they are slightly poisonous, to others not. I couldn't help
+      putting in a few buckeyes on account of the big buds in early spring. You
+      will like the colour if you are fond of pink and yellow in combination,
+      and the red-brown nuts in grayish-yellow, prickly hulls, and the leaf
+      clusters are beautiful, but you must use care. I put in witch hazel for
+      variety, and I like its appearance; it's mighty good medicine, too; so is
+      spice brush, and it has leaves that colour brightly, and red berries.
+      These selections were all made for a purpose. Now here is wafer ash; it is
+      for music as well as medicine. I have invoked all good fairies to come and
+      dwell in this hedge, and so I had to provide an orchestra for their
+      dances. This tree grows a hundred tiny castanets in a bunch, and when they
+      ripen and become dry the wind shakes fine music from them. Yes, they are
+      medicine; that is, the bark of the roots is. Almost without exception
+      everything here has medicinal properties. The tulip poplar will bear you
+      the loveliest flowers of all, and its root bark, taken in winter, makes a
+      good fever remedy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How would it do to eat some of the leaves and see if they wouldn't take
+      the feverishness from me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wouldn't do at all,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;We are well enough fixed to
+      allow Doc to come now, and he is the one to allay the fever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;No! I don't want to see a doctor. I will be all right
+      very soon. You said I was better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Much better! We will have you strong and
+      well soon. You should have come in time for a dose of sassafras. Your
+      hedge is filled with that, because of its peculiar leaves and odour. I put
+      in dogwood for the white display around the little green bloom, lots of
+      alder for bloom and berries, haws for blossoms and fruit for the
+      squirrels, wild crab apples for the exquisite bloom and perfume, button
+      bush for the buttons, a few pokeberry plants for the colour, and I tried
+      some mallows, but I doubt if it's wet enough for them. I set pecks of vine
+      roots, that are coming nicely, and ferns along the front edge. Give it two
+      years and that hedge will make a picture that will do your eyes good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you think of anything at all you forgot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes indeed!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The woods are full of trees I have not
+      used; some because I overlooked them, some I didn't want. A hedge like
+      this, in perfection, is the work of years. Some species must be cut back,
+      some encouraged, but soon it will be lovely, and its colour and fruit
+      attract every bird of the heavens and butterflies and insects of all
+      varieties. I set several common cherry trees for the robins and some
+      blackberry and raspberry vines for the orioles. The bloom is pretty and
+      the birds you'll have will be a treat to see and hear, if we keep away
+      cats, don't fire guns, scatter food, and move quietly among them. With our
+      water attractions added, there is nothing impossible in the way of making
+      friends with feathered folk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one thing I don't understand,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;You wouldn't risk
+      breaking the wing of a moth by keeping it when you wanted a drawing very
+      much; you don't seem to kill birds and animals that other people do. You
+      almost worship a tree; now how can you take a knife and peel the bark to
+      sell or dig up beautiful bushes by the root.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I've talked too much about the woods,&rdquo; said the Harvester gently.
+      &ldquo;I've longed inexpressibly for sympathetic company here, because I feel
+      rooted for life, so I am more than anxious that you should care for it. I
+      may have made you feel that my greatest interest is in the woods, and that
+      I am not consistent when I call on my trees and plants to yield of their
+      store for my purposes. Above everything else, the human proposition comes
+      first, Ruth. I do love my trees, bushes, and flowers, because they keep me
+      at the fountain of life, and teach me lessons no book ever hints at; but
+      above everything come my fellow men. All I do is for them. My heart is
+      filled with feeling for the things you see around you here, but it would
+      be joy to me to uproot the most beautiful plant I have if by so doing I
+      could save you pain. Other men have wives they love as well, little
+      children they have fathered, big bodies useful to the world, that are
+      sometimes crippled with disease. There is nothing I would not give to
+      allay the pain of humanity. It is not inconsistent to offer any growing
+      thing you soon can replace, to cure suffering. Get that idea out of your
+      head! You said you could worship at the shrine of the pokeberry bed, you
+      feel holier before the arrowhead lilies, your face takes on an appearance
+      of reverence when you see pink mallow blooms. Which of them would you have
+      hesitated a second in uprooting if you could have offered it to subdue
+      fever or pain in the body of the little mother you loved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I see!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;Like everything else you make this different.
+      You worship all this beauty and grace, wrought by your hands, but you
+      carry your treasure to the market place for the good of suffering
+      humanity. Oh Man! I love the work you do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Good! And Ruth-girl, while you are about it,
+      see if you can't combine the man and his occupation a little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. GRANNY MORELAND'S VISIT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The following morning the Girl was awakened by wheels on the gravel
+      outside her window, and lifted her head to see Betsy passing with a load
+      of lumber. Shortly afterward the sound of hammer and saw came to her, and
+      she knew that Singing Water bridge was being roofed to provide shade for
+      her. She dressed and went to the kitchen to find a dainty breakfast
+      waiting, so she ate what she could, and then washed the dishes and swept.
+      By that time she was so tired she dropped on a dining-room window seat,
+      and lay looking toward the bridge. She could catch glimpses of the
+      Harvester as he worked. She watched his deft ease in handling heavy
+      timbers, and the assurance with which he builded. Sometimes he stood and
+      with tilted head studied his work a minute, then swiftly proceeded. He
+      placed three tree trunks on each side for pillars, laid joists across,
+      formed his angle, and nailed boards as a foundation for shingling.
+      Occasionally he glanced toward the cabin, and finally came swinging up the
+      drive. He entered the kitchen softly, but when he saw the Girl in the
+      window he sat at her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh but this is a morning, Ruth!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him closely. He radiated health and good cheer. His tanned
+      cheeks were flushed red with exercise, and the hair on his temples was
+      damp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been breaking the rules,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is the law that I am to
+      do the work until you are well and strong again. Why did you tire
+      yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so perfectly useless! I see so many things that I would enjoy doing.
+      Oh you can do everything else, make me well! Make me strong!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I, when you won't do as I tell you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will! Indeed I will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then no more attempts to stand over dishes and clean big floors. You
+      mustn't overwork yourself at anything. The instant you feel in the least
+      tired you must lie down and rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Man! I'm tired every minute, with a dead, dull ache, and I don't feel
+      as if I ever would be rested again in all the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester took one of her hands, felt its fevered palm, fluttering
+      wrist pulse, and noticed that the brilliant red of her lips had extended
+      to spots on her cheeks. He formed his resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't work on that bridge any more until I drive in for some big nails,&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;Do you mind being left alone for an hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, if Bel will stay with me. I'll lie in the swing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right!&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;I'll help you out and to get
+      settled. Is there anything you want from town?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not a thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh but you are modest!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;I can sit here and name
+      fifty things I want for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh but you are extravagant!&rdquo; imitated the Girl. &ldquo;Please, please, Man,
+      don't! Can't you see I have so much now I don't know what to do with it?
+      Sometimes I almost forget the ache, just lying and looking at all the
+      wonderful riches that have come to me so suddenly. I can't believe they
+      won't vanish as they came. By the hour in the night I look at my lovely
+      room, and I just fight my eyes to keep them from closing for fear they'll
+      open in that stifling garret to the heat of day and work I have not
+      strength to do. I know yet all this will prove to be a dream and a wilder
+      one than yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of the Harvester was very anxious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please to remember my dream came true,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and much sooner than I
+      had the least hope that it would. I'm wide awake or I couldn't be building
+      bridges; and you are real, if I know flesh and blood when I touch it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I were well, strong, and attractive, I could understand,&rdquo; she said.
+      &ldquo;Then I could work in the house, at the drawings, help with the herbs, and
+      I'd feel as if I had some right to be here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that is coming,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Take a little more time. You
+      can't expect to sin steadily against the laws of health for years, and
+      recover in a day. You will be all right much sooner than you think
+      possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I hope so!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;But sometimes I doubt it. How I could come
+      here and put such a burden on a stranger, I can't see. I scarcely can
+      remember what awful stress drove me. I had no courage. I should have
+      finished in my garret as my mother did. I must have some of my father's
+      coward blood in me. She never would have come. I never should!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it didn't make any real difference to you, and meant all the world to
+      me, I don't see why you shouldn't humour me. I can't begin to tell you how
+      happy I am to have you here. I could shout and sing all day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires very little to make some people happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not much, but you are going to be more soon,&rdquo; laughed the
+      Harvester, as he gently picked up the Girl and carried her to the swing,
+      where he covered her, kissed her hot hand, and whistled for Belshazzar. He
+      pulled the table close and set a pitcher of iced fruit juice on it. Then
+      he left her and she could hear the rattle of wheels as he crossed the
+      bridge and drove away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Betsy, this is mighty serious business,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The Girl is
+      scorching or I don't know fever. I wonder&mdash;&mdash;well, one thing is
+      sure&mdash;&mdash;she is bound to be better off in pure, cool air and with
+      everything I can do to be kind, than in Henry Jameson's attic with
+      everything he could do to be mean. Pleasant men those Jamesons! Wonder if
+      the Girl's father was much like her Uncle Henry? I think not or her
+      refined and lovely mother never would have married him. Come to think of
+      it, that's no law, Betsy. I've seen beautiful and delicate women fall
+      under some mysterious spell, and yoke their lives with rank degenerates.
+      Whatever he was, they have paid the price. Maybe the wife deserved it, and
+      bore it in silence because she knew she did, but it's bitter hard on Ruth.
+      Girls should be taught to think at least one generation ahead when they
+      marry. I wonder what Doc will say, Betsy? He will have to come and see for
+      himself. I don't know how she will feel about that. I had hoped I could
+      pull her through with care, food, and tonics, but I don't dare go any
+      farther alone. Betsy, that's a thin, hot, little hand to hold a man's only
+      chance for happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, bridegroom! I've been counting the days!&rdquo; said Doctor Carey. &ldquo;The
+      Missus and I made it up this morning that we had waited as long as we
+      would. We are coming to-night. David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all right, Doc,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Don't you dare think anything
+      is wrong or that I am not the proudest, happiest man in this world,
+      because I appear anxious. I am not trying to conceal it from you. You know
+      we both agreed at first that Ruth should be in the hospital, Doc. Well,
+      she should! She is what would be a lovely woman if she were not full of
+      the poison of wrong food and air, overwork, and social conditions that
+      have warped her. She is all I dreamed of and more, but I've come for you.
+      She is too sick for me. I hoped she would begin to gain strength at once
+      on changed conditions. As yet I can't see any difference. She needs a
+      doctor, but I hate for her to know it. Could you come out this afternoon,
+      and pretend as if it were a visit? Bring Mrs. Carey and watch the Girl. If
+      you need an examination, I think she will obey me. If you can avoid it,
+      fix what she should have and send it back to me by a messenger. I don't
+      like to leave her when she is so ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll come at once, David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she will know that I came for you, and that will frighten her. You
+      can do more good to wait until afternoon, and pretend you are making a
+      social call. I must go now. I'd have brought her in, but I have no proper
+      conveyance yet. I'm promised something soon, perhaps it is ready now.
+      Good-bye! Be sure to come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drove to a livery barn and examined a little horse, a
+      shining black creature that seemed gentle and spirited. He thought
+      favourably of it. A few days before he had selected a smart carriage, and
+      with this outfit tied behind the wagon he returned to Medicine Woods. He
+      left the horse at the bridge, stabled Betsy, and then returned for the new
+      conveyance, driving it to the hitching post. At the sound of unexpected
+      wheels the Girl lifted her head and stared at the turnout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on!&rdquo; cried the Harvester opening the screen. &ldquo;We are going to the
+      woods to initiate your carriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She went with little cries of surprised wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is how you travel to Onabasha to do your shopping, to call on Mrs.
+      Carey and the friends you will make, and visit the library. When I've
+      tried out Mr. Horse enough to prove him reliable as guaranteed, he is
+      yours, for your purposes only, and when you grow wonderfully well and
+      strong, we'll sell him and buy you a real live horse and a stanhope, such
+      as city ladies have; and there must be a saddle so that you can ride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I'd love that!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;I always wanted to ride! Where are we
+      going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To show you Medicine Woods,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I've been waiting for
+      this. You see there are several hundred acres of trees, thickets, shrubs,
+      and herb beds up there, and if the wagon road that winds between them were
+      stretched straight it would be many miles in length, so we have a cool,
+      shaded, perfumed driveway all our own. Let me get you a drink before you
+      start and the little shawl. It's chilly there compared with here. Now are
+      you comfortable and ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Hurry! I've just longed to go, but I didn't like to
+      ask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Living here for years alone and never
+      having had a sister, how am I going to know what a girl would like if you
+      don't tell me? I knew it would be too tiresome for you to walk, and I was
+      waiting to find a reliable horse and a suitable carriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't scratch or spoil it up there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll lower the top. It is not as wide as the wagon, so nothing will touch
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is just so lovely, and such a wonderful treat, do you observe that
+      I'm not saying a word about extravagance?&rdquo; asked the Girl, as she leaned
+      back in the carriage and inhaled the invigorating wood air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horse climbed the hill, and the Harvester guided him down long, dim
+      roads through deep forest, while he explained what large thickets of
+      bushes were, why he grew them, how he collected the roots or bark, for
+      what each was used and its value. On and on they went, the way ahead
+      always appearing as if it were too narrow to pass, yet proving amply wide
+      when reached. Excited redbirds darted among the bushes, and the Harvester
+      answered their cry. Blackbirds protested against the unusual intrusion of
+      strange objects, and a brown thrush slipped from a late nest close the
+      road wailing in anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One after another the Harvester introduced the Girl to the best trees,
+      speculated on their age, previous history, and pointed out which brought
+      large prices for lumber and which had medicinal bark and roots. On and on
+      they slowly drove through the woods, past the big beds of cranesbill,
+      violets, and lilies. He showed her where the mushrooms were most numerous,
+      and for the first time told the story of how he had sold them and the
+      violets from door to door in Onabasha in his search for her, and the
+      amazed Girl sat staring at him. He told of Doctor Carey having seen her
+      once, and inquired as they passed the bed if the yellow violets had
+      revived. He stopped to search and found a few late ones, deep among the
+      leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh if I only had known that!&rdquo; cried the Girl, &ldquo;I would have kept them
+      forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No need,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Here and now I present you with the sole
+      ownership of the entire white and yellow violet beds. Next spring you
+      shall fill your room. Won't that be a treat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One money never could buy!&rdquo; cried the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems to be my strong point,&rdquo; commented the Harvester. &ldquo;The most I have
+      to offer worth while is something you can't buy. There is a fine fairy
+      platform. They can spare you one. I'll get it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester broke from a tree a large fan-shaped fungus, the surface
+      satin fine, the base mossy, and explained to the Girl that these were the
+      ballrooms of the woods, the floors on which the little people dance in the
+      moonlight at their great celebrations. Then he added a piece of woolly dog
+      moss, and showed her how each separate spine was like a perfect little
+      evergreen tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is where the fairies get their Christmas pines,&rdquo; he explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you honestly believe in fairies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester. &ldquo;Who would tell me when the maples are
+      dripping sap, and the mushrooms springing up, if the fairies didn't
+      whisper in the night? Who paints the flower faces, colours the leaves,
+      enamels the ripening fruit with bloom, and frosts the window pane to let
+      me know that it is time to prepare for winter? Of course! They are my
+      friends and everyday helpers. And the winds are good to me. They carry
+      down news when tree bloom is out, when the pollen sifts gold from the
+      bushes, and it's time to collect spring roots. The first bluebird always
+      brings me a message. Sometimes he comes by the middle of February, again
+      not until late March. Always on his day, Belshazzar decides my fate for a
+      year. Six years we've played that game; now it is ended in blessed
+      reality. In the woods and at my work I remain until I die, with a few
+      outside tries at medicine making. I am putting up some compounds in which
+      I really have faith. Of course they have got to await their time to be
+      tested, but I believe in them. I have grown stuff so carefully, gathered
+      it according to rules, washed it decently, and dried and mixed it with
+      such scrupulous care. Night after night I've sat over the books until
+      midnight and later, studying combinations; and day after day I've stood in
+      the laboratory testing and trying, and two or three will prove effective,
+      or I've a disappointment coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven't wasted time! I'd much rather take medicines you make than any
+      at the pharmacies. Several times I've thought I'd ask you if you wouldn't
+      give me some of yours. The prescription Doctor Carey sent does no good.
+      I've almost drunk it, and I am constantly tired, just the same. You make
+      me something from these tonics and stimulants you've been telling me
+      about. Surely you can help me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got one combination that's going to save life, in my expectations.
+      But Ruth, it never has been tried, and I couldn't experiment on the very
+      light of my eyes with it. If I should give you something and you'd grow
+      worse as a result&mdash;I am a strong man, my girl, but I couldn't endure
+      that. I'd never dare. But dear, I am expecting Carey and his wife out any
+      time; probably they will come to-day, it's so beautiful; and when they do,
+      for my sake, won't you talk with him, tell him exactly what made you ill,
+      and take what he gives you? He's a great man. He was recently President of
+      the National Association of Surgeons. Long ago he abandoned general
+      practice, but he will prescribe for you; all his art is at your command.
+      It's quite an honour, Ruth. He performs all kinds of miracles, and saves
+      life every day. He had not seen you, and what he gave me was only by
+      guess. He may not think it is the right thing at all after he meets you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am really ill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. You only have the germs of illness in your blood, and if you will
+      help me that much we can eliminate them; and then it is you for
+      housekeeper, with first assistant in me, the drawing tools, paint box, and
+      all the woods for subjects. So, as I was going to tell you, Belshazzar and
+      I have played our game for the last time. That decision was ultimate. Here
+      I will work, live, and die. Here, please God, strong and happy, you shall
+      live with me. Ruth, you have got to recover quickly. You will consult the
+      doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and I wish he would hurry,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;He can't make me new too
+      soon to suit me. If I had a strong body, oh Man, I just feel as if you
+      could find a soul somewhere in it that would respond to all these wonders
+      you have brought me among. Oh! make me well, and I'll try as woman never
+      did before to bring you happiness to pay for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Careful now,&rdquo; warned the Harvester. &ldquo;There is to be no talk of
+      obligations between you and me. Your presence here and your growing trust
+      in me are all I ask at the hands of fate at present. Long ago I learned to
+      'labour and to wait.' By the way&mdash;&mdash;here's my most difficult
+      labour and my longest wait. This is the precious gingseng bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How pretty!&rdquo; exclaimed the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Covering acres of wood floor, among the big trees, stretched the lacy
+      green carpet. On slender, upright stalks waved three large leaves, each
+      made up of five stemmed, ovate little leaves, round at the base, sharply
+      pointed at the tip. A cluster of from ten to twenty small green berries,
+      that would turn red later, arose above. The Harvester lifted a plant to
+      show the Girl that the Chinese name, Jin-chen, meaning man-like,
+      originated because the divided root resembled legs. Away through the woods
+      stretched the big bed, the growth waving lightly in the wind, the peculiar
+      odour filling the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to wait to gather the crop until the seeds are ripe,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, &ldquo;then bury some as I dig a root. My father said that was the
+      way of the Indians. It's a mighty good plan. The seeds are delicate, and
+      difficult to gather and preserve properly. Instead of collecting and
+      selling all of them to start rivals in the business, I shall replant my
+      beds. I must find a half dozen assistants to harvest this crop in that
+      way, and it will be difficult, because it will come when my neighbours are
+      busy with corn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe I can help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not with ginseng digging,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;That is not woman's
+      work. You may sit in an especially attractive place and boss the job.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;Oh dear! I want to get out and walk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gradually they had climbed the summit of the hill, descended on the other
+      side, and followed the road through the woods until they reached the brier
+      patches, fruit trees; and the garden of vegetables, with big beds of sage,
+      rue, wormwood, hoarhound, and boneset. From there to the lake sloped the
+      sunny fields of mullein and catnip, and the earth was molten gold with
+      dandelion creeping everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too hot to-day,&rdquo; cautioned the Harvester. &ldquo;Too rough walking. Wait until
+      fall, and I have a treat there for you. Another flower I want you to love
+      because I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will,&rdquo; said the Girl promptly. &ldquo;I feel it in my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I am glad you feel something besides the ache of fever,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester. Then noticing her tired face he added: &ldquo;Now this little horse
+      had quite a trip from town, and the wheels cut deeply into this woods soil
+      and make difficult pulling, so I wonder if I had not better put him in the
+      stable and let him become acquainted with Betsy. I don't know what she
+      will think. She has had sole possession for years. Maybe she will be
+      jealous, perhaps she will be as delighted for company as her master. Ruth,
+      if you could have heard what I said to Belshazzar when he decided I was to
+      go courting this year, and seen what I did to him, and then take a look at
+      me now&mdash;&mdash;merciful powers, I hope the dog doesn't remember! If
+      he does, no wonder he forms a new allegiance so easily. Have you observed
+      that lately when I whistle, he starts, and then turns back to see if you
+      want him? He thinks as much of you as he does of me right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;That couldn't be possible. You told me I must
+      make friends with him, so I have given him food, and tried to win him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sit in the carriage until I put away the horse, and then I'll help
+      you to the cabin, and save you being alone while I work. Would you like
+      that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She leaned her head against the carriage top the Harvester had raised to
+      screen her, and watched him stable the horse. Evidently he was very fond
+      of animals for he talked as if it were a child he was undressing and kept
+      giving it extra strokes and pats as he led it away. Ajax disliked the
+      newcomer instantly, noticed the carriage and the woman's dress, and
+      screamed his ugliest. The Girl smiled. As the Harvester appeared she
+      inquired, &ldquo;Is Ajax now sending a wireless to Ceylon asking for a mate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester looked at her quizzically and saw a gleam of mischief in the
+      usually dull dark eyes that delighted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the customary supposition when he finds voice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But
+      since this has become your home, you are bound to learn some of my
+      secrets. One of them I try to guard is the fact that Ajax has a temper. No
+      my dear, he is not always sending a wireless, I am sorry to say. I wish he
+      was! As a matter of fact he is venting his displeasure at any difference
+      in our conditions. He hates change. He learned that from me. I will enjoy
+      seeing him come for favour a year from now, as I learned to come for it,
+      even when I didn't get much, and the road lay west of Onabasha. Ajax, stop
+      that! There's no use to object. You know you think that horse is nice
+      company for you, and that two can feed you more than one. Don't be a
+      hypocrite! Cease crying things you don't mean, and learn to love the
+      people I do. Come on, old boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The peacock came, but with feathers closely pressed and stepping daintily.
+      As the bird advanced, the Harvester retreated, until he stood beside the
+      Girl, and then he slipped some grain to her hand and she offered it. But
+      Ajax would not be coaxed. He was too fat and well fed. He haughtily turned
+      and marched away, screaming at intervals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nasty temper!&rdquo; commented the Harvester. &ldquo;Never mind! He soon will become
+      accustomed to you, and then he will love you as Belshazzar does. Feed the
+      doves instead. They are friendly enough in all conscience. Do you notice
+      that there is not a coloured feather among them? The squab that is hatched
+      with one you may have for breakfast. Now let's go find something to eat,
+      and I will finish the bridge so you can rest there to-night and watch the
+      sun set on Singing Water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went into the cabin and prepared food, and then the Harvester told
+      the Girl to make herself so pretty that she would be a picture and come
+      and talk to him while he finished the roof. She went to her room, found a
+      pale lavender linen dress and put it on, dusted the pink powder thickly,
+      and went where a wide bench made an inviting place in the shade. There she
+      sat and watched her lightly expressed whim take shape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soon as this is finished,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I am going to begin on
+      that tea table. I can make it in a little while, if you want it to match
+      the other furniture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonder if you could draw a plan showing how it should appear. I am a
+      little shy on tea tables.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester brought paper, pencil, and a shingle for a drawing pad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now remember one thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you are in earnest about using
+      those old blue dishes, this has got to be a big, healthy table. A little
+      one will appear top heavy with them. It would be a good idea to set out
+      what you want to use, arranged as you would like them, and let me take the
+      top measurement that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right! I'll only indicate how its legs should be and we will find the
+      size later. I could almost weep because that wonderful set is broken. If I
+      had all of it I'd be so proud!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl bent over the drawing. The Harvester worked with his attention
+      divided between her, the bridge, and the road. At last he saw the big red
+      car creeping up the valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems to be some one coming, Ruth! Guess it must be Doc. I'll go open the
+      gate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I'm so glad. You won't forget to ask him to help me
+      if he can?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester wheeled hastily. &ldquo;I won't forget!&rdquo; he said, as he hurried to
+      the gate. The car ran slowly, and the Girl could see him swing to the step
+      and stand talking as they advanced. When they reached her they stopped and
+      all of them came forward. She went to meet them. She shook hands with Mrs.
+      Carey and then with the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so glad you have come,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are not lonesome already,&rdquo; laughed the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think any one with brains to appreciate half of this ever could
+      become lonely here,&rdquo; answered the Girl. &ldquo;No, it isn't that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A-ha!&rdquo; cried the doctor, turning to his wife. &ldquo;You see that the beautiful
+      young lady remembers me, and has been wishing I would come. I always said
+      you didn't half appreciate me. What a place you are making, David! I'll
+      run the car to the shade and join you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time they talked under the trees, then they went to see the new
+      home and all its furnishings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now this is what I call comfort,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;David, build us a
+      house exactly similar to this over there on the hill, and let us live out
+      here also. I'd love it. Would you, Clara?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know. I never lived in the country. One thing is sure: If I tried
+      it, I'd prefer this to any other place I ever saw. David, won't you take
+      me far enough up the hill that I can look from the top to the lake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Excuse us a little while, Ruth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were gone the Girl turned to the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor Carey, David says you are great. Won't you exercise your art on
+      me. I am not at all well, and oh! I'd so love to be strong and sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you tell me,&rdquo; asked the doctor, &ldquo;just enough to show me what caused
+      the trouble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad air and water, poor light and food at irregular times, overwork and
+      deep sorrow; every wrong condition of life you could imagine, with not a
+      ray of hope in the distance, until now. For the sake of the Harvester, I
+      would be well again. Please, please try to cure me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they talked until the doctor thought he knew all he desired, and then
+      they went to see the gold flower garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call this simply superb,&rdquo; said he, taking a seat beneath the tree roof
+      of her porch. &ldquo;Young woman, I don't know what I'll do to you if you don't
+      speedily grow strong here. This is the prettiest place I ever saw, and
+      listen to the music of that bubbling, gurgling little creek!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't he wonderful?&rdquo; asked the Girl, looking up the hill, where the tall
+      form of the Harvester could be seen moving around. &ldquo;Just to see him, you
+      would think him the essence of manly strength and force. And he is! So
+      strong! Into the lake at all hours, at the dry-house, on the hill,
+      grubbing roots, lifting big pillars to support a bridge roof, and with it
+      all a fancy as delicate as any dreaming girl. Doctor, the fairies paint
+      the flowers, colour the fruit, and frost the windows for him; and the
+      winds carry pollen to tell him when his growing things are ready for the
+      dry-house. I don't suppose I can tell you anything new about him; but
+      isn't he a perpetual surprise? Never like any one else! And no matter how
+      he startles me in the beginning, he always ends by convincing me, at
+      least, that he is right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never loved any other man as I do him,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;I ushered him
+      into the world when I was a young man just beginning to practise, and I've
+      known him ever since. I know few men so scrupulously clean. Try to get
+      well and make him happy, Mrs. Langston. He so deserves it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be sure I will,&rdquo; answered the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the visitors had gone, the Harvester told her to place the old blue
+      dishes as she would like to arrange them on her table, so he could get a
+      correct idea of the size, and he left to put a few finishing strokes on
+      the bridge cover. She went into the dining-room and opened the china
+      closet. She knew from her peep in the work-room that there would be more
+      pieces than she had seen before; but she did not think or hope that a full
+      half dozen tea set and plates, bowl, platter, and pitcher would be waiting
+      for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why Ruth, what made you tire yourself to come down? I intended to return
+      in a few minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Man!&rdquo; cried the laughing Girl, as she clung pantingly to a bridge
+      pillar for support, &ldquo;I just had to come to tell you. There are fairies!
+      Really truly ones! They have found the remainder of the willow dishes for
+      me, and now there are so many it isn't going to be a table at all. It must
+      be a little cupboard especially for them, in that space between the mantel
+      and the bookcase. There should be a shining brass tea canister, and a
+      wafer box like the arts people make, and I'll pour tea and tend the
+      chafing dish and you can toast the bread with a long fork over the coals,
+      and we will have suppers on the living-room table, and it will be such
+      fun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be seated!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Ruth, that's the longest speech I ever
+      heard you make, and it sounded, praise the Lord, like a girl. Did Doc say
+      he would fix something for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, such a lot of things! I am going to shut my eyes and open my mouth
+      and swallow all of them. I'm going to be born again and forget all I ever
+      knew before I came here, and soon I will be tagging you everywhere,
+      begging you to suggest designs for my pencil, and I'll simply force life
+      to come right for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sounds good!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But, Ruth, I'm a little dubious about force work.
+      Life won't come right for me unless you learn to love me, and love is a
+      stubborn, contrary bulldog element of our nature that won't be driven an
+      inch. It wanders as the wind, and strikes us as it will. You'll arrive at
+      what I hope for much sooner if you forget it and amuse yourself and be as
+      happy as you can. Then, perhaps all unknown to you, a little spark of
+      tenderness for me will light in your breast; and if it ever does we will
+      buy a fanning mill and put it in operation, and we'll raise a flame or
+      know why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there won't be any force in that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you can't compel is the start. It's all right to push any growth
+      after you have something to work on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That reminds me,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;there is a question I want to ask you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go ahead!&rdquo; said the Harvester, glancing at her as he hewed a joist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned away her face and sat looking across the lake for a long time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it a difficult question, Ruth?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester to help her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I don't know how to make you see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take any kind of a plunge. I'm not usually dense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is really quite simple after all. It's about a girl&mdash;&mdash;a
+      girl I knew very well in Chicago. She had a problem&mdash;&mdash;and it
+      worried her dreadfully, and I just wondered what you would think of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester shifted his position so that he could watch the side of the
+      averted face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have to tell me, before I can tell you,&rdquo; he suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was a girl who never had anything from life but work and worry. Of
+      course, that's the only kind I'd know! One day when the work was most
+      difficult, and worry cut deepest, and she really thought she was losing
+      her mind, a man came by and helped her. He lifted her out, and rescued all
+      that was possible for a man to save to her in honour, and went his way.
+      There wasn't anything more. Probably there never would be. His heart was
+      great, and he stooped and pitied her gently and passed on. After a time
+      another man came by, a good and noble man, and he offered her love so
+      wonderful she hadn't brains to comprehend how or why it was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl's voice trailed off as if she were too weary to speak further,
+      while she leaned her head against a pillar and gazed with dull eyes across
+      the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your question,&rdquo; suggested the Harvester at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She roused herself. &ldquo;Oh, the question! Why this&mdash;&mdash;if in time,
+      and after she had tried and tried, love to equal his simply would not come
+      would&mdash;&mdash;would&mdash;&mdash;she be wrong to PRETEND she cared,
+      and do the very best she could, and hope for real love some day? Oh David,
+      would she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's face was whiter than the Girl's. He pounded the chisel
+      into the joist savagely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would she, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me understand you clearly,&rdquo; said the man in a dry, breathless voice.
+      &ldquo;Did she love this first man to whom she came under obligations?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl sat gazing across the lake and the tortured Harvester stared at
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;I don't know whether she knew what love
+      was or ever could. She never before had known a man; her heart was as
+      undeveloped and starved as her body. I don't think she realized love, but
+      there was a SOMETHING. Every time she would feel most grateful and long
+      for the love that was offered her, that 'something' would awake and hurt
+      her almost beyond endurance. Yet she knew he never would come. She knew he
+      did not care for her. I don't know that she felt she wanted him, but she
+      was under such obligations to him that it seemed as if she must wait to
+      see if he might not possibly come, and if he did she should be free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he came, she preferred him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a debt she had to pay&mdash;&mdash;if he asked it. I don't know
+      whether she preferred him. I do know she had no idea that he would come,
+      but the POSSIBILITY was always before her. If he didn't come in time,
+      would she be wrong in giving all she had to the man who loved her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's laugh was short and sharp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had nothing to give, Ruth! Talk about worm-wood, colocynth apples,
+      and hemlock! What sort of husks would that be to offer a man who gave
+      honest love? Lie to him! Pretend feeling she didn't experience. Endure him
+      for the sake of what he offered her? Well I don't know how calmly any
+      other man would take that proceeding, Ruth, but tell your friend for me,
+      that if I offered a woman the deep, lasting, and only loving passion of my
+      heart, and she gave back a lie and indifferent lips, I'd drop her into the
+      deepest hole of my lake and take my punishment cheerfully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if it would make him happy? He deserves every happiness, and he need
+      never know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's laugh raised to an angry roar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You simpleton!&rdquo; he cried roughly. &ldquo;Do you know so little of human passion
+      in the heart that you think love can be a successful assumption? Good
+      Lord, Ruth! Do you think a man is made of wood or stone, that a woman's
+      lips in her first kiss wouldn't tell him the truth? Why Girl, you might as
+      well try to spread your tired arms and fly across the lake as to attempt
+      to pretend a love you do not feel. You never could!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said a girl I knew!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'A Girl you knew,' then! Any woman! The idea is monstrous. Tell her so
+      and forget it. You almost scared the life out of me for a minute, Ruth. I
+      thought it was going to be you. But I remember your debt is to be paid
+      with the first money you earn, and you can not have the slightest idea
+      what love is, if you honestly ask if it can be simulated. No ma'am! It
+      can't! Not possibly! Not ever! And when the day comes that its fires light
+      your heart, you will come to me, and tell of a flood of delight that is
+      tingling from the soles of your feet through every nerve and fibre of your
+      body, and you will laugh with me at the time when you asked if it could be
+      imitated successfully. No, ma'am! Now let me help you to the cabin, serve
+      a good supper, and see you eat like a farmer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All evening the Harvester was so gay he kept the Girl laughing and at last
+      she asked him the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Relief, honey! Relief!&rdquo; cried the man. &ldquo;You had me paralyzed for a
+      minute, Ruth. I thought you were trying to tell me that there was some one
+      so possessing your heart that it failed every time you tried to think
+      about caring for me. If you hadn't convinced me before you finished that
+      love never has touched you, I'd be the saddest man in the world to-night,
+      Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stared at him with wide eyes and silently turned away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then for a week they worked out life together in the woods. The Harvester
+      was the housekeeper and the cook. He added to his store many delicious
+      broths and stimulants he brought from the city. They drove every day
+      through the cool woods, often rowed on the lake in the evenings, walked up
+      the hill to the oak and scattered fresh flowers on the two mounds there,
+      and sat beside them talking for a time. The Harvester kept up his work
+      with the herbs, and the little closet for the blue dishes was finished.
+      They celebrated installing them by having supper on the living-room table,
+      with the teapot on one end, and the pitcher full of bellflowers on the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl took everything prescribed for her, bathed, slept all she could,
+      and worked for health with all the force of her frail being, and as the
+      days went by it seemed to the Harvester her weight grew lighter, her hands
+      hotter, and she drove herself to a gayety almost delirious. He thought he
+      would have preferred a dull, stupid sleep of malaria. There was colour in
+      plenty on her cheeks now, and sometimes he found her wrapped in the white
+      shawl at noon on the warmest days Medicine Woods knew in early August; and
+      on cool nights she wore the thinnest clothing and begged to be taken on
+      the lake. The Careys came out every other evening and the doctor watched
+      and worked, but he did not get the results he desired. His medicines were
+      not effective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David,&rdquo; he said one evening, &ldquo;I don't like the looks of this. Your wife
+      has fever I can't break. It is eating the little store of vitality she has
+      right out of her, and some of these days she is coming down with a crash.
+      She should yield to the remedies I am giving her. She acts to me like a
+      woman driven wild by trouble she is concealing. Do you know anything that
+      worries her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but I'll try to find out if it will help you in
+      your work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After they were gone he left the Girl lying in the swing guarded by the
+      dog, and went across the marsh on the excuse that he was going to a bed of
+      thorn apple at the foot of the hill. There he sat on a log and tried to
+      think. With the mists of night rising around him, ghosts arose he fain
+      would have escaped. &ldquo;What will you give me in cold cash to tell you who
+      she is, and who her people are?&rdquo; Times untold in the past two weeks he had
+      smothered, swallowed, and choked it down. That question she had wanted to
+      ask&mdash;&mdash;was it for a girl she had known, or was it for herself?
+      Days of thought had deepened the first slight impression he so bravely had
+      put aside, not into certainty, but a great fear that she had meant
+      herself. If she did, what was he to do? Who was the man? There was a debt
+      she had to pay if he asked it? What debt could a woman pay a man that did
+      not involve money? Crouched on a log he suffered and twisted in agonizing
+      thought. At last he arose and returned to the cabin. He carried a few
+      frosty, blue-green leaves of velvet softness and unusual cutting, prickly
+      thorn apples full of seeds, and some of the smoother, more yellowish-green
+      leaves of the jimson weed, to give excuse for his absence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't touch them,&rdquo; he warned as he came to her. &ldquo;They are poison and have
+      disagreeable odour. But we are importing them for medicinal purposes. On
+      the far side of the marsh, where the ground rises, there is a waste place
+      just suited to them, and so long as they will seed and flourish with no
+      care at all, I might as well have the price as the foreign people who
+      raise them. They don't bring enough to make them worth cultivating, but
+      when they grow alone and with no care, I can make money on the time
+      required to clip the leaves and dry the seeds. I must go wash before I
+      come close to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he had business in the city, and again she lay in the swing
+      and talked to the dog while the Harvester was gone. She was startled as
+      Belshazzar arose with a gruff bark. She looked down the driveway, but no
+      one was coming. Then she followed the dog's eyes and saw a queer, little
+      old woman coming up the bank of Singing Water from the north. She
+      remembered what the Harvester had said, and rising she opened the screen
+      and went down the path. As the Girl advanced she noticed the scrupulous
+      cleanliness of the calico dress and gingham apron, and the snowy hair
+      framing a bronzed face with dancing dark eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you David's new wife?&rdquo; asked Granny Moreland with laughing
+      inflection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Come in. He told me to expect you. I am so sorry he
+      is away, but we can get acquainted without him. Let me help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know but that ought to be the other way about. You don't look
+      very strong, child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not well,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;but it's lovely here, and the air is so
+      fine I am going to be better soon. Take this chair until you rest a
+      little, and then you shall see our pretty home, and all the furniture and
+      my dresses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I want to see things. My, but David has tried himself! I heard he
+      was just tearin' up Jack over here, and I could get the sound of the
+      hammerin', and one day he asked me to come and see about his beddin'. He
+      had that Lizy Crofter to wash for him, but if I hadn't jest stood over her
+      his blankets would have been ruined. She's no more respect for fine goods
+      than a pig would have for cream pie. I hate to see woollens abused, as if
+      they were human. My, but things is fancy here since what David planted is
+      growin'! Did you ever live in the country before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you hail from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well not from the direction of hail,&rdquo; laughed the Girl. &ldquo;I lived in
+      Chicago, but we were&mdash;&mdash;were not rich, and so I didn't know the
+      luxury of the city; just the lonely, difficult part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you call Chicago lonely?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A thousand times more so than Medicine Woods. Here I know the trees will
+      whisper to me, and the water laughs and sings all day, and the birds
+      almost split their throats making music for me; but I can imagine no
+      loneliness on earth that will begin to compare with being among the crowds
+      and crowds of a large city and no one has a word or look for you. I miss
+      the sea of faces and the roar of life; at first I was almost wild with the
+      silence, but now I don't find it still any more; the Harvester is teaching
+      me what each sound means and they seem to be countless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think, then, you'll like it here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, indeed! Any one would. Even more than the beautiful location, I
+      love the interesting part of the Harvester's occupation. I really think
+      that gathering material to make medicines that will allay pain is the very
+      greatest of all the great work a man can do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried Granny Moreland, her dark eyes snapping. &ldquo;I've always said
+      it! I've tried to encourage David in it. And he's just capital at puttin'
+      some of his stuff in shape, and combinin' it in as good medicine as you
+      ever took. This spring I was all crippled up with the rheumatiz until I
+      wanted to holler every time I had to move, and sometimes it got so
+      aggravatin' I'm not right sure but I done it. 'Long comes David and says,
+      'I can fix you somethin',' and bless you, if the boy didn't take the tucks
+      out of me, until here I am, and tickled to pieces that I can get here.
+      This time last year I didn't care if I lived or not. Now seems as if I'm
+      caperish as a three weeks' lamb. I don't see how a man could do a bigger
+      thing than to stir up life in you like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think this place makes an especial appeal to me, because, shortly
+      before I came, I had to give up my mother. She was very ill and suffered
+      horribly. Every time I see David going to his little laboratory on the
+      hill to work a while I slip away and ask God to help him to fix something
+      that will ease the pain of humanity as I should like to have seen her
+      relieved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you poor child! No wonder you are lookin' so thin and peaked!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I'll soon be over that,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I am much better than when I
+      came. I'll be coming over to trade pie with you before long. David says
+      you are my nearest neighbour, so we must be close friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well bless your big heart! Now who ever heard of a pretty young thing
+      like you wantin' to be friends with a plain old country woman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why I think you are lovely!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;And all of us are on the
+      way to age, so we must remember that we will want kindness then more than
+      at any other time. David says you knew his mother. Sometime won't you tell
+      me all about her? You must very soon. The Harvester adored her, and Doctor
+      Carey says she was the noblest woman he ever knew. It's a big contract to
+      take her place. Maybe if you would tell me all you can remember I could
+      profit by much of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny Moreland watched the Girl keenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She wa'ant no ordinary woman, that's sure,&rdquo; she commented. &ldquo;And she
+      didn't make no common man out of her son, either. I've always contended
+      she took the job too serious, and wore herself out at it, but she
+      certainly done the work up prime. If she's above cloud leanin' over the
+      ramparts lookin' down&mdash;&mdash;though it gets me as to what foundation
+      they use or where they get the stuff to build the ramparts&mdash;&mdash;but
+      if they is ramparts, and she's peekin' over them, she must take a lot of
+      solid satisfaction in seeing that David is not only the man she fought and
+      died to make him, but he's give her quite a margin to spread herself on.
+      She 'lowed to make him a big man, but you got to know him close and plenty
+      'fore it strikes you jest what his size is. I've watched him pretty sharp,
+      and tried to help what I could since Marthy went, and I'm frank to say I
+      druther see David happy than to be happy myself. I've had my fling. The
+      rest of the way I'm willin' to take what comes, with the best grace I can
+      muster, and wear a smilin' face to betoken the joy I have had; but it cuts
+      me sore to see the young sufferin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think David is unhappy?&rdquo; asked the Girl eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see how he could be!&rdquo; cried the old lady. &ldquo;Of course he ain't!
+      'Pears as if he's got everythin' to make him the proudest, best satisfied
+      of men. I'll own I was mighty anxious to see you. I know the kind o' woman
+      it would take to make David miserable, and it seems sometimes as if men&mdash;&mdash;that
+      is good men&mdash;&mdash;are plumb, stone blind when it comes to pickin' a
+      woman. They jest hitch up with everlastin' misery easy as dew rolling off
+      a cabbage leaf. It's sech a blessed sight to see you, and hear your voice
+      and know you're the woman anybody can see you be. Why I'm so happy when I
+      set here and con-tem'-plate you, I want to cackle like a pullet announcin'
+      her first egg. Ain't this porch the purtiest place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come see everything,&rdquo; invited the Girl, rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny Moreland followed with alacrity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bare floors!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Wouldn't that best you? I saw they was finished
+      capital when I was over, but I 'lowed they'd be covered afore you come.
+      Don't you like nice, flowery Brissels carpets, honey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No I don't,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;You see, when rugs are dusty they can be
+      rolled, carried outside, and cleaned. The walls can be wiped, the floors
+      polished and that way a house is always fresh. I can keep this shining,
+      germ proof, and truly clean with half the work and none of the danger of
+      heavy carpets and curtains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't doubt but them is true words,&rdquo; said Granny Moreland earnestly.
+      &ldquo;Work must be easier and sooner done than it was in my day, or people jest
+      couldn't have houses the size of this or the time to gad that women have
+      now. From the looks of the streets of Onabasha, you wouldn't think a woman
+      'ud had a baby to tend, a dinner pot a-bilin', or a bakin' of bread sence
+      the flood. And the country is jest as bad as the city. We're a apin' them
+      to beat the monkeys at a show. I hardly got a neighbour that ain't got
+      figgered Brissels carpet, a furnace, a windmill, a pianny, and her own
+      horse and buggy. Several's got autermobiles, and the young folks are
+      visitin' around a-ridin' the trolleys, goin' to college, and copyin' city
+      ways. Amos Peters, next to us; goes bareheaded in the hay field, and wears
+      gloves to pitch and plow in. I tell him he reminds me of these city women
+      that only wears the lower half of a waist and no sleeves, and a yard of
+      fine goods moppin' the floors. Well if that don't 'beat the nation! Ain't
+      them Marthy's old blue dishes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me show you!&rdquo; The Girl opened the little cupboard and exhibited the
+      willow ware. The eyes of the old woman began to sparkle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foundation or no foundation, I do hope them ramparts is a go!&rdquo; she cried.
+      &ldquo;If Marthy Langston is squintin' over them and she sees her old chany put
+      in a fine cupboard, and her little shawl round as purty a girl as ever
+      stepped, and knows her boy is gittin' what he deserves, good Lord, she'll
+      be like to oust the Almighty, and set on the throne herself! 'Bout
+      everythin' in life was a disappointment to her, 'cept David. Now if she
+      could see this! Won't I rub it into the neighbours? And my boys' wives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't understand,&rdquo; said the bewildered Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Course you don't, honey,&rdquo; explained the visitor. &ldquo;It's like this: I
+      don't know anybody, man or woman, in these parts, that ain't rampagin' for
+      CHANGE. They ain't one of them that would live in a log cabin, though
+      they's not a house in twenty miles of here that fits its surroundin's and
+      looks so homelike as this. They run up big, fancy brick and frame things,
+      all turns and gables and gay as frosted picnic pie, and work and slave to
+      git these very carpets you say ain't healthy, and the chairs you say you
+      wouldn't give house room, an' they use their grandmother's chany for
+      bakin', scraps, and grease dishes, and hide it if they's visitors. All of
+      them strainin' after something they can't afford, and that ain't healthy
+      when they git it, because somebody else is doin' the same thing. Mary
+      Peters says she is afeared of her life in their new steam wagon, and she
+      says Andy gits so narvous runnin' it, he jest keeps on a-jerkin' and
+      drivin' all night, and she thinks he'll soon go to smash himself, if the
+      machine doesn't beat him. But they are keepin' it up, because Graceston's
+      is, and so it goes all over the country. Now I call it a slap right in the
+      face to have a Chicagy woman come to the country to live and enjoy a log
+      cabin, bare floors, and her man's grandmother's dishes. If there ain't
+      Marthy's old blue coverlid also carefully spread on a splinter new sofy.
+      Landy, I can't wait to get to my son John's! He's got a woman that would
+      take two coppers off the collection plate while she was purtendin' to put
+      on one, if she could, and then spend them for a brass pin or a string of
+      glass beads. Won't her eyes bung when I tell her about this? She wanted my
+      Peter Hartman kiver for her ironin' board. Show me the rest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the dining-room,&rdquo; said the Girl, leading the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes ranging over the floor,
+      walls, and furnishings. She sank on a chair and said with a chuckle, &ldquo;Now
+      you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what things are and why
+      you fixed them, and how they are used.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in delighted approval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's the purtiest thing I ever saw,&rdquo; she announced. &ldquo;A minute ago, I'd
+      'a' said them blue walls back there, jest like October skies in Indian
+      summer, and the brown rugs, like leaves in the woods, couldn't be beat;
+      but this green and yaller is purtier yet. That blue room will keep the
+      best lookin' part of fall on all winter, and with a roarin' wood fire,
+      it'll be capital, and no mistake; but this here is spring, jest spring
+      eternal, an' that's best of all. Looks like it was about time the leaves
+      was bustin' and things pushin' up. It wouldn't surprise me a mite to see a
+      flock of swallers come sailin' right through these winders. And here's a
+      place big enough to lay down and rest a spell right handy to the kitchen,
+      where a-body gits tiredest, without runnin' a half mile to find a bed, and
+      in the mornin' you can look down to the 'still waters'; and in the
+      afternoon, when the sun gits around here, you can pull that blind and
+      'lift your eyes to the hills,' like David of the Bible says. My, didn't he
+      say the purtiest things! I never read nothin' could touch him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen the Psalms arranged in verse as we would write it now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't mean to tell me David's been put into real poetry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Some Bibles have all the poetical books in our forms of verse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! Sometimes I git kind o' knocked out! As a rule I hold to old ways.
+      I think they're the healthiest and the most faver'ble to the soul. But
+      they's some changes come along, that's got sech hard common-sense to
+      riccomend them, that I wonder the past generations didn't see sooner. Now
+      take this! An hour ago I'd told you I'd read my father's Bible to the end
+      of my days. But if they's a new one that's got David, Solomon, and Job in
+      nateral form, I'll have one, and I'll git a joy I never expected out of
+      life. I ain't got so much poetry in me, but it always riled me to read,
+      '7. The law of the Lord is perfect, covertin' the soul. 8. The statutes of
+      the Lord are right. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean.' And so it goes on,
+      'bout as much figgers as they is poetry. Always did worry me. So if they
+      make Bibles 'cordin' to common sense, I'll have one to-morrow if I have to
+      walk to Onabasha to get it. Lawsy me! if you ain't gathered up Marthy's
+      old pink tea set, and give it a show, too! Did you do that to please
+      David, or do you honestly think them is nice dishes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think they are beautiful,&rdquo; laughed the Girl, sinking to a chair. &ldquo;I
+      don't know that it did please him. He had been studying the subject, but
+      something saved him from buying anything until I came. I'd have felt
+      dreadfully if he had gotten what he wanted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did he want, honey?&rdquo; asked the old lady in an awestruck whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Egg-shell china and cut glass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you wouldn't let him! Woman! What do you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures on them. They are
+      so quaint and they would harmonize perfectly with this room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old lady laughed gleefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My! I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It jest does my
+      soul good. More'n that, if you really like Marthy's dishes and are going
+      to take care of them and use them right, I'll give you mine, too. I ain't
+      never had a girl. I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment of her
+      own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but the Lord may 'a' saved me
+      many a disappointment by sendin' all mine boys. Not that I'm layin' the
+      babies on to the Lord at all&mdash;&mdash;I jest got into the habit of
+      sayin' that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty good
+      idy how I got them. If a girl of mine wouldn't 'a' had more sense, raised
+      right with me, I'd' a' been purty bad cut up over it. Of course, I can't
+      be held responsible for the girls my boys married, but t'other day
+      Emmeline&mdash;&mdash;that's John's wife&mdash;&mdash;John is the
+      youngest, and I sort o' cling to him&mdash;&mdash;Emmeline she says to me,
+      'Mother, can't I have this old pink and green teapot?' My heart warmed
+      right up to the child, and I says, 'What do you want it for, Emmeline?'
+      And she says, 'To draw the tea in.' Cracky Dinah! That fool woman meant to
+      set my grandmother's weddin' present from her pa and ma, dishes same as
+      Marthy Washington used, on the stove to bile the tea in. I jest snorted!
+      'No, says I, 'you can't! 'Fore I die,' says I, 'I'll meet up with some
+      woman that 'll love dishes and know how to treat them.' I think jest about
+      as much of David as I do my own boys, and I don't make no bones of the
+      fact that he's a heap more of a man. I'd jest as soon my dishes went to
+      his children as to John's. I'll give you every piece I got, if you'll take
+      keer of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it be right?&rdquo; wavered the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right! Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen would bile tea in them,
+      make grease sassers of them, and use them to dish up the bakin' on!
+      Wouldn't you a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's ma's
+      is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was yours? I guess you
+      would!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well if you feel that way, and really want us to have them, I know David
+      will build another little cupboard on the other side of the fireplace to
+      put yours in, and I can't tell you how I'd love and care for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll jest do it!&rdquo; said Granny Moreland. &ldquo;I got about as many blue ones as
+      Marthy had an' mine are purtier than hers. And my lustre is brighter, for
+      I didn't use it so much. Is this the kitchen? Well if I ever saw sech a
+      cool, white place to cook in before! Ain't David the beatenest hand to
+      think up things? He got the start of that takin' keer of his ma all his
+      life. He sort of learned what a woman uses, and how it's handiest. Not
+      that other men don't know; it's jest that they are too mortal selfish and
+      keerless to fix things. Well this is great! Now when you bile cabbage and
+      the wash, always open your winders wide and let the steam out, so it won't
+      spile your walls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll be very careful,&rdquo; promised the Girl. &ldquo;Now come see my bathroom,
+      closet and bedroom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well as I live! Ain't this fine. I'll bet a purty that if I'd 'a' had a
+      room and a trough like this to soak in when I was wore to a frazzle, I
+      wouldn't 'a' got all twisted up with rheumatiz like I am. It jest looks
+      restful to see. I never washed in a place like this in all my days. Must
+      feel grand to be wet all over at once! Now everybody ought to have sech a
+      room and use it at all hours, like David does the lake. Did you ever see
+      his beat to go swimmin'? He's always in splashin'! Been at it all his
+      life. I used to be skeered when he was a little tyke. He soaked so much
+      'peared like he'd wash all the substance out of him, but it only made him
+      strong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he ever been ill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I know of, and I reckon I'd knowed it if he had. Well what a
+      clothespress! I never saw so many dresses at once. Ain't they purty? Oh I
+      wish I was young, and could have one like that yaller. And I'd like to
+      have one like your lavender right now. My! You are lucky to have so many
+      nice clothes. It's a good thing most girls haven't got them, or they'd
+      stand primpin' all day tryin' to decide which one to put on. I don't see
+      how you tell yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wear the one that best hides how pale I am,&rdquo; answered the Girl. &ldquo;I use
+      the colours now. When I grow plump and rosy, I'll wear the white.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny Moreland dropped on the couch and assured herself that it was
+      Martha's pink Peter Hartman. Then she examined the sunshine room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I got to go back to the start,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;This beats the
+      dinin'-room. This is the purtiest thing I ever saw. Oh I do hope they
+      ain't so run to white in Heaven as some folks seem to think! Used to be
+      scandalized if a-body took anythin' but a white flower to a funeral. Now
+      they tell me that when Jedge Stilton's youngest girl come from New York to
+      her pa's buryin' she fetched about a wash tub of blood-red roses. Put them
+      all over him, too! Said he loved red roses livin' and so he was goin' to
+      have them when he passed over. Now if they are lettin' up a little on
+      white on earth, mebby some of the stylish ones will carry the fashion over
+      yander. If Heaven is like this, I won't spend none of my time frettin'
+      about the foundations. I'll jest forget there is any, even if we do always
+      have to be so perticler to get them solid on earth. Talk of gold harps!
+      Can't you almost hear them? And listen to the birds and that water! Say,
+      you won't get lonesome here, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed no!&rdquo; answered the Girl. &ldquo;Wouldn't you like to lie on my beautiful
+      couch that the Harvester made with his own hands, and I'll spread Mother
+      Langston's coverlet over you and let you look at all my pretty things
+      while I slip away a few minutes to something I'd like to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd love to!&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;I never had a chance at such fine
+      things. David told me he was makin' your room all himself, and that he was
+      goin' to fill it chuck full of everythin' a girl ever used, and I see he
+      done it right an' proper. Away last March he told me he was buildin' for
+      you, an' I hankered so to have a woman here again, even though I never
+      s'posed she'd be sochiable like you, that I egged him on jest all I could.
+      I never would 'a' s'posed the boy could marry like this&mdash;&mdash;all
+      by himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl went to the ice chest to bring some of the fruit juice, chilled
+      berries, and to the pantry for bread and wafers to make a dainty little
+      lunch that she placed on the veranda table; and then she and Granny
+      Moreland talked, until the visitor said that she must go. The Girl went
+      with her to the little bridge crossing Singing Water on the north. There
+      the old lady took her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honey,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I'm goin' to tell you somethin'. I am so happy I can
+      purt near fly. Last night I was comin' down the pike over there chasin'
+      home a contrary old gander of mine, and I looked over on your land and I
+      see David settin' on a log with his head between his hands a lookin' like
+      grim death, if I ever see it. My heart plum stopped. Says I, 'she's a
+      failure! She's a bustin' the boy's heart! I'll go straight over and tell
+      her so.' I didn't dare bespeak him, but I was on nettles all night. I jest
+      laid a-studyin' and a-studyin', and I says, 'Come mornin' I'll go straight
+      and give her a curry-combin' that'll do her good.' And I started a-feelin'
+      pretty grim, and here you came to meet me, and wiped it all out of my
+      heart in a flash. It did look like the boy was grievin'; but I know now he
+      was jest thinkin' up what to put together to take the ache out of some
+      poor old carcass like mine. It never could have been about you. Like a
+      half blind old fool I thought the boy was sufferin', and here he was only
+      studyin'! Like as not he was thinkin' what to do next to show you how he
+      loves you. What an old silly I was! I'll sleep like a log to-night to pay
+      up for it. Good-bye, honey! You better go back and lay down a spell. You
+      do look mortal tired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl said good-bye and staggering a few steps sank on a log and sat
+      staring at the sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh he was suffering, and about me!&rdquo; she gasped. A chill began to shake
+      her and feverish blood to race through her veins. &ldquo;He does and gives
+      everything; I do and give nothing! Oh why didn't I stay at Uncle Henry's
+      until it ended? It wouldn't have been so bad as this. What will I do? Oh
+      what will I do? Oh mother, mother! if I'd only had the courage you did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She arose and staggered up the hill, passed the cabin and went to the oak.
+      There she sank shivering to earth, and laid her face among the mosses. The
+      frightened Harvester found her at almost dusk when he came from the city
+      with the Dutch dishes, and helped a man launch a gay little motor boat for
+      her on the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why Ruth! Ruth-girl!&rdquo; he exclaimed, kneeling beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She lifted a strained, distorted face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't touch me! Don't come near me!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It is not true that I am
+      better. I am not! I am worse! I never will be better. And before I go I've
+      got to tell you of the debt I owe; then you will hate me, and then I will
+      be glad! Glad, I tell you! Glad! When you despise me? then I can go, and
+      know that some day you will love a girl worthy of you. Oh I want you to
+      hate me I am fit for nothing else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She fell forward sobbing wildly and the Harvester tried in vain to quiet
+      her. At last he said, &ldquo;Well then tell me, Ruth. Remember I don't want to
+      hear what you have to say. I will believe nothing against you, not even
+      from your own lips, when you are feverish and excited as now, but if it
+      will quiet you, tell me and have it over. See, I will sit here and listen,
+      and when you have finished I'll pick you up and carry you to your room,
+      and I am not sure but I will kiss you over and over. What is it you want
+      to tell me, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat up panting and pushed back the heavy coils of hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got to begin away at the beginning to make you see,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The
+      first thing I can remember is a small, such a small room, and mother
+      sewing and sometimes a man I called father. He was like Henry Jameson made
+      over tall and smooth, and more, oh, much more heartless! He was gone long
+      at a time, and always we had most to eat, and went oftener to the parks,
+      and were happiest with him away. When I was big enough to understand,
+      mother told me that she had met him and cared for him when she was an
+      inexperienced girl. She must have been very, very young, for she was only
+      a girl as I first remember her, and oh! so lovely, but with the saddest
+      face I ever saw. She said she had a good home and every luxury, and her
+      parents adored her; but they knew life and men, and they would not allow
+      him in their home, and so she left it with him, and he married her and
+      tried to force them to accept him, and they would not. At first she bore
+      it. Later she found him out, and appealed to them, but they were away or
+      would not forgive, and she was a proud thing, and would not beg more after
+      she had said she was wrong, and would they take her back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grew up and we were girls together. We embroidered, and I drew, and
+      sometimes we had little treats and good times, and my father did not come
+      often, and we got along the best we could. Always it was worse on her,
+      because she was not so strong as I, and her heart was secretly breaking
+      for her mother, and she was afraid he would come back any hour. She was
+      tortured that she could not educate me more than to put me through the
+      high school. She wore herself out doing that, but she was wild for me to
+      be reared and trained right. So every day she crouched over delicate laces
+      and embroidery, and before and after school I carried it and got more, and
+      in vacation we worked together. But living grew higher, and she became
+      ill, and could not work, and I hadn't her skill, and the drawings didn't
+      bring much, and I'd no tools&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, for mercy sake let me take you in my arms. If you've got to tell
+      this to find peace, let me hold you while you do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never again,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;You won't want to in a minute. You must
+      hear this, because I can't bear it any longer, and it isn't fair to let
+      you grieve and think me worth loving. Anyway, I couldn't earn what she
+      did, and I was afraid, for a great city is heartless to the poor. One
+      morning she fainted and couldn't get up. I can see the awful look in her
+      eyes now. She knew what was coming. I didn't. I tried to be brave and to
+      work. Oh it's no use to go on with that! It was just worse and worse. She
+      was lovely and delicate, she was my mother, and I adored her. Oh Man! You
+      won't judge harshly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, &ldquo;I won't judge at all, Ruth. I see now. Get it
+      over if you must tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One day she had been dreadfully ill for a long time and there was no food
+      or work or money, and the last scrap was pawned, and she simply would not
+      let me notify the charities or tell me who or where her people were. She
+      said she had sinned against them and broken their hearts, and probably
+      they were dead, and I was desperate. I walked all day from house to house
+      where I had delivered work, but it was no use; no one wanted anything I
+      could do, and I went back frantic, and found her gnawing her fingers and
+      gibbering in delirium. She did not know me, and for the first time she
+      implored me for food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I locked the door and went on the street and I asked a woman. She
+      laughed and said she'd report me and I'd be locked up for begging. Then I
+      saw a man I passed sometimes. I thought he lived close. I went straight to
+      him, and told him my mother was very ill, and asked him to help her. He
+      told me to go to the proper authorities. I told him I didn't know who they
+      were or where, and I had no money and she was a woman of refinement, and
+      never would forgive me. I offered, if he would come to see her, get her
+      some beef tea, and take care of her while she lived, that afterward&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl's frail form shook in a storm of sobs. At last she lifted her
+      eyes to the Harvester's. &ldquo;There must be a God, and somewhere at the last
+      extremity He must come in. The man went with me, and he was a young doctor
+      who had an office a few blocks away, and he knew what to do. He hadn't
+      much himself, but for several weeks he divided and she was more
+      comfortable and not hungry when she went. When it was over I dressed her
+      the best I could in my graduation dress, and folded her hands, and kissed
+      her good-bye, and told him I was ready to fulfill my offer; and oh Man!&mdash;&mdash;He
+      said he had forgotten!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God!&rdquo; panted the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We couldn't bury her there. But I remembered my father had said he had a
+      brother in the country, and once he had been to see us when I was very
+      little, and the doctor telegraphed him, and he answered that his wife was
+      sick, and if I was able to work I could come, and he would bury her, and
+      give me a home. The doctor borrowed the money and bought the coffin you
+      found her in. He couldn't do better or he would, for he learned to love
+      her. He paid our fares and took us to the train. Before I started I went
+      on my knees to him and worshipped him as the Almighty, and I am sure I
+      told him that I always would be indebted to him, and any time he required
+      I would pay. The rest you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard from him, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It WAS yourself the other day on the bridge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he love you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I know of. No! Nobody but you would love a girl who appeared as
+      I did then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester strove to keep a set face, but his lips drew back from his
+      teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, do you love him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;A pale, expressionless word! Adore would come
+      closer! I tell you she was delirious with hunger, and he fed her. She was
+      suffering horrors and he eased the pain. She was lifeless, and he kept her
+      poor tired body from the dissecting table. I would have fulfilled my
+      offer, and gone straight into the lake, but he spared me, Man! He spared
+      me! Worship is a good word. I think I worship him. I tried to tell you.
+      Before you got that license, I wanted you to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But no man could have guessed that a
+      girl with your face had agony like that in her heart, not even when he
+      read deep trouble there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have told you then! I should have forced you to hear! I was wild
+      with fear of Uncle Henry, and I had nowhere to go. Now you know! Go away,
+      and the end will come soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and walked a few steps toward the lake, where he
+      paused stricken, but fighting for control. For him the light had gone out.
+      There was nothing beyond. The one passion of his life must live on,
+      satisfied with a touch from lips that loved another man. Broken sobbing
+      came to him. He did not even have time to suffer. Stumblingly he turned
+      and going to the Girl he picked her up, and sat on the bench holding her
+      closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop it, Ruth!&rdquo; he said unsteadily. &ldquo;Stop this! Why should you suffer so?
+      I simply will not have it. I will save you against yourself and the world.
+      You shall have all happiness yet; I swear it, my girl! You are all right.
+      He was a noble man, and he spared you because he loved you, of course. I
+      will make you well and rosy again, and then I will go and find him, and
+      arrange everything for you. I have spared you, too, and if he doesn't want
+      you to remain here with me, Mrs. Carey would be glad to have you until I
+      can free you. Judges are human. It will be a simple matter. Hush, Ruth,
+      listen to me! You shall be free! At once, if you say so! You shall have
+      him! I will go and bring him here, and I will go away. Ruth, darling, stop
+      crying and hear me. You will grow better, now that you have told me. It is
+      this secret that has made you feverish and kept you ill. Ruth, you shall
+      have happiness yet, if I have got to circle the globe and scale the walls
+      of Heaven to find it for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She struggled from his arms and ran toward the lake. When the Harvester
+      caught her, she screamed wildly, and struck him with her thin white hands.
+      He lifted and carried her to the laboratory, where he gave her a few drops
+      from a bottle and soon she became quiet. Then he took her to the sunshine
+      room, laid her on the bed, locked the screens and her door, called
+      Belshazzar to watch, and ran to the stable. A few minutes later with
+      distended nostrils and indignant heart Betsy, under the flail of an
+      unsparing lash, pounded down the hill toward Onabasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. LOVE INVADES SCIENCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester placed the key in the door and turned to Doctor Carey and
+      the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I drugged her into unconsciousness before I left, but she may have
+      returned, at least partially. Miss Barnet, will you kindly see if she is
+      ready for the doctor? You needn't be in the least afraid. She has no
+      strength, even in delirium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened the door, his head averted, and the nurse hurried into the room.
+      The Girl on the bed was beginning to toss, moan, and mutter. Skilful hands
+      straightened her, arranged the covers, and the doctor was called. In the
+      living-room the Harvester paced in misery too deep for consecutive
+      thought. As consciousness returned, the Girl grew wilder, and the nurse
+      could not follow the doctor's directions and care for her. Then Doctor
+      Carey called the Harvester. He went in and sitting beside the bed took the
+      feverish, wildly beating hands in his strong, cool ones, and began
+      stroking them and talking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Easy, honey,&rdquo; he murmured softly. &ldquo;Lie quietly while I tell you. You
+      mustn't tire yourself. You are wasting strength you need to fight the
+      fever. I'll hold your hands tight, I'll stroke your head for you. Lie
+      quietly, dear, and Doctor Carey and his head nurse are going to make you
+      well in a little while. That's right! Let me do the moving; you lie and
+      rest. Only rest and rest, until all the pain is gone, and the strong days
+      come, and they are going to bring great joy, love, and peace, to my dear,
+      dear girl. Even the moans take strength. Try just to lie quietly and rest.
+      You can't hear Singing Water if you don't listen, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She doesn't realize that it is you or know what you say, David,&rdquo; said
+      Doctor Carey gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But if you will observe, you will see
+      that she is quiet when I stroke her head and hands, and if you notice
+      closely you will grant that she gets a word occasionally. If it is the
+      right one, it helps. She knows my voice and touch, and she is less nervous
+      and afraid with me. Watch a minute!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester took both of the Girl's fluttering hands in one of his and
+      with long, light strokes gently brushed them, and then her head, and face,
+      and then her hands again, and in a low, monotonous, half sing-song voice
+      he crooned, &ldquo;Rest, Ruth, rest! It is night now. The moon is bridging Loon
+      Lake, and the whip-poor-will is crying. Listen, dear, don't you hear him
+      crying? Still, Girl, still! Just as quiet! Lie so quietly. The
+      whip-poor-will is going to tell his mate he loves her, loves her so
+      dearly. He is going to tell her, when you listen. That's a dear girl. Now
+      he is beginning. He says, 'Come over the lake and listen to the song I'm
+      singing to you, my mate, my mate, my dear, dear mate,' and the big night
+      moths are flying; and the katydids are crying, positive and sure they are
+      crying, a thing that's past denying. Hear them crying? And the ducks are
+      cheeping, soft little murmurs while they're sleeping, sleeping. Resting,
+      softly resting! Gently, Girl, gently! Down the hill comes Singing Water,
+      laughing, laughing! Don't you hear it laughing? Listen to the big owl
+      courting; it sees the coon out hunting, it hears the mink softly slipping,
+      slipping, where the dews of night are dripping. And the little birds are
+      sleeping, so still they are sleeping. Girls should be a-sleeping, like the
+      birds a-sleeping, for to-morrow joy comes creeping, joy and life and love
+      come creeping, creeping to my Girl. Gently, gently, that's a dear girl,
+      gently! Tired hands rest easy, tired head lies still! That's the way to
+      rest&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On and on the even voice kept up the story. All over and around the lake,
+      the length of Singing Water, the marsh folk found voices to tell of their
+      lives, where it was a story of joy, rest, and love. Up the hill ranged the
+      Harvester, through the forest where the squirrels slept, the owl hunted,
+      the fire-flies flickered, the fairies squeezed flower leaves to make
+      colour to paint the autumn foliage, and danced on toadstool platforms.
+      Just so long as his voice murmured and his touch continued, so long the
+      Girl lay quietly, and the medicines could act. But no other touch would
+      serve, and no other voice would answer. If the harvester left the room
+      five minutes to show the nurse how to light the fire, and where to find
+      things, he returned to tossing, restless delirium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's magic David,&rdquo; said Doctor Carey. &ldquo;Magic!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is love,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Even crazed with fever, she recognizes
+      its voice and touch. You've got your work cut out, Doc. Roll your sleeves
+      and collect your wits. Set your heart on winning. There is one thing shall
+      not happen. Get that straight in your mind, right now. And you too, Miss
+      Barnet! There is nothing like fighting for a certainty. You may think the
+      Girl is desperately ill, and she is, but make up your minds that you are
+      here to fight for her life, and to save it. Save, do you understand? If
+      she is to go, I don't need either of you. I can let her do that myself.
+      You are here on a mission of life. Keep it before you! Life and health for
+      this Girl is the prize you are going to win. Dig into it, and I'll pay the
+      bills, and extra besides. If money is any incentive, I'll give you all
+      I've got for life and health for the Girl. Are you doing all you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly am, David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But when day comes you'll have to go back to the hospital and we may not
+      know how to meet crises that will arise. What then? We should have a
+      competent physician in the house until this fever breaks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had thought of that, David. I will arrange to send one of the men from
+      the hospital who will be able to watch symptoms and come for me when
+      needed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't do!&rdquo; said the Harvester calmly. &ldquo;She has no strength for waiting.
+      You are to come when you can, and remain as long as possible. The case is
+      yours; your decisions go, but I will select your assistant. I know the man
+      I want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is he, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you when I learn whether I can get him. Now I want you to give
+      the Girl the strongest sedative you dare, take off your coat, roll your
+      sleeves, and see how well you can imitate my voice, and how much you have
+      profited by listening to my song. In other words, before day calls, I want
+      you to take my place so successfully that you deceive her, and give me
+      time to make a trip to town. There are a few things that must be done, and
+      I think I can work faster in the night. Will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey bent over the bed. Gently he slipped a practised hand under
+      the Harvester's and made the next stroke down the white arm. Gradually he
+      took possession of the thin hands and his touch fell on the masses of dark
+      hair. As the Harvester arose the doctor took the seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go on!&rdquo; he ordered gruffly. &ldquo;I'll do better alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped back. The doctor's touch was easy and the Girl lay
+      quietly for an instant, then she moved restlessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must be still now,&rdquo; he said gently. &ldquo;The moon is up, the lake is all
+      white, and the birds are flying all around. Lie still or you'll make
+      yourself worse. Stiller than that! If you don't you can't hear things
+      courting. The ducks are quacking, the bull frogs are croaking, and
+      everything. Lie still, still, I tell you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh good Lord, Doc!&rdquo; groaned the Harvester in desperation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl wrenched her hands free and her head rolled on the pillow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harvester! Harvester!&rdquo; she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor started to arise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit still!&rdquo; commanded the Harvester. &ldquo;Take her hands and go to work,
+      idiot! Give her more sedative, and tell her I'm coming. That's the word,
+      if she realizes enough to call for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor possessed himself of the flying hands, and gently held and
+      stroked them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Harvester is coming,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Wait just a minute, he's on the way.
+      He is coming. I think I hear him. He will be here soon, very soon now.
+      That's a good girl! Lie still for David. He won't like it if you toss and
+      moan. Just as still, lie still so I can listen. I can't tell whether he is
+      coming until you are quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he said to the Harvester, &ldquo;You see, I've got it now. I can manage
+      her, but for pity sake, hurry man! Take the car! Jim is asleep on the back
+      seat&mdash;&mdash;Yes, yes, Girl! I'm listening for him. I think I hear
+      him! I think he's coming!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here and there a word penetrated, and she lay more quietly, but not in the
+      rest to which the Harvester had lulled her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurry man!&rdquo; groaned the doctor in a whispered aside, and the Harvester
+      ran to the car, awakened the driver and told him he had a clear road to
+      Onabasha, to speed up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where to?&rdquo; asked the driver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dickson, of the First National.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes the car stopped before the residence and the Harvester
+      made an attack on the front door. Presently the man came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me for routing you out at this time of night,&rdquo; said the Harvester,
+      &ldquo;but it's a case of necessity. I have an automobile here. I want you to go
+      to the bank with me, and get me an address from your draft records. I know
+      the rules, but I want the name of my wife's Chicago physician. She is
+      delirious, and I must telephone him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cashier stepped out and closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine chances out of ten it will be in the vault,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That leaves one that it won't,&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;Sometimes I've
+      looked in when passing in the night, and I've noticed that the books are
+      not always put away. I could see some on the rack to-night. I think it is
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was there, and the Harvester ordered the driver to hurry him to the
+      telephone exchange, then take the cashier home and return and wait. He
+      called the Chicago Information office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want Dr. Frank Harmon, whose office address is 1509 Columbia Street. I
+      don't know the 'phone number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came a long wait, and after twenty minutes the blessed buzzing
+      whisper, &ldquo;Here's your party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor Harmon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remember Ruth Jameson, the daughter of a recent patient of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well my name is Langston. The Girl is in my home and care. She is very
+      ill with fever, and she has much confidence in you. This is Onabasha, on
+      the Grand Rapids and Indiana. You take the Pennsylvania at seven o'clock,
+      telegraph ahead that you are coming so that they will make connection for
+      you, change at twelve-twenty at Fort Wayne, and I will meet you here. You
+      will find your ticket and a check waiting you at the Chicago depot.
+      Arrange to remain a week at least. You will be paid all expenses and
+      regular prices for your time. Will you come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right. Make no failure. Good-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester left an order with the telephone company to run a wire
+      to Medicine Woods the first thing in the morning, and drove to the depot
+      to arrange for the ticket and check. In less than an hour he was holding
+      the Girl's hands and crooning over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jerusalem!&rdquo; said Doctor Carey, rising stiffly. &ldquo;I'd rather undertake to
+      cut off your head and put it back on than to tackle another job like that.
+      She's quite delirious, but she has flashes, and at such times she knows
+      whom she wants; the rest of the time it's a jumble and some of it is
+      rather gruesome. She's seen dreadful illness, hunger, and there's a debt
+      she's wild about. I told you something was back of this. You've got to
+      find out and set her mind at ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know all about it,&rdquo; said the Harvester patiently between crooning
+      sentences to the Girl. &ldquo;But the crash came before I could convince her
+      that it was all right and I could fix everything for her easily. If she
+      only could understand me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you find your man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. He will be here this afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick work!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This takes quick work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know anything about him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. He is a young fellow, just starting out. He is a fine, straight,
+      manly man. I don't know how much he knows, but it will be enough to
+      recognize your ability and standing, and to do what you tell him. I have
+      perfect confidence in him. I want you to come back at one, and take my
+      place until I go to meet him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can bring him out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have to see him myself. There are a few words to be said before he sees
+      the Girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, what are you up to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being as honourable as I can. No man gets any too decent, but there is no
+      law against doing as you would be done by, and being as straight as you
+      know how. When I've talked to him, I'll know where I am and I'll have
+      something to say to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I'm afraid&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what do you suppose I am?&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It's no use, Doc. Be
+      still and take what comes! The manner in which you meet a crisis proves
+      you a whining cur or a man. I have got lots of respect for a dog, as a
+      dog; but I've none for a man as a dog. If you've gathered from the Girl's
+      delirium that I've made a mistake, I hope you have confidence enough in me
+      to believe I'll right it, and take my punishment without whining. Go away,
+      you make her worse. Easy, Girl, the world is all right and every one is
+      sleeping now, so you should be at rest. With the day the doctor will come,
+      the good doctor you know and like, Ruth. You haven't forgotten your
+      doctor, Ruth? The kind doctor who cared for you. He will make you well,
+      Ruth; well and oh, so happy! Harmon, Harmon, Doctor Harmon is coming to
+      you, Girl, and then you will be so happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you blame idiot!&rdquo; cried Doctor Carey in a harsh whisper. &ldquo;Have you
+      lost all the sense you ever had? Stop that gibber! She wants to hear about
+      the birds and Singing Water. Go on with that woods line of talk; she likes
+      that away the best. This stuff is making her restless. See!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean you are,&rdquo; said the Harvester wearily. &ldquo;Please leave us alone. I
+      know the words that will bring comfort. You don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He began the story all over again, but now there ran through it a
+      continual refrain. &ldquo;Your doctor is coming, the good doctor you know. He
+      will make you well and strong, and he will make life so lovely for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was talking without pause or rest when Doctor Carey returned in the
+      afternoon to take his place. He brought Mrs. Carey with him, and she tried
+      a woman's powers of soothing another woman, and almost drove the Girl to
+      fighting frenzy. So the doctor made another attempt, and the Harvester
+      raced down the hill to the city. He went to the car shed as the train
+      pulled in, and stood at one side while the people hurried through the
+      gate. He was watching for a young man with a travelling bag and perhaps a
+      physician's satchel, who would be looking for some one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I'll know him,&rdquo; muttered the Harvester grimly. &ldquo;I think the
+      masculine element in me will pop up strongly and instinctively at the
+      sight of this man who will take my Dream Girl from me. Oh good God! Are
+      You sure You ARE good?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In his brown khaki trousers and shirt, his head bare, his bronze face
+      limned with agony he made no attempt to conceal, the Harvester, with feet
+      planted firmly, and tightly folded arms, his head tipped slightly to one
+      side, braced himself as he sent his keen gray eyes searching the crowd.
+      Far away he selected his man. He was young, strong, criminally handsome,
+      clean and alert; there was discernible anxiety on his face, and it touched
+      the Harvester's soul that he was coming just as swiftly as he could force
+      his way. As he passed the gates the Harvester reached his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor Harmon, I think,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This way! If you have luggage, I will send for it later.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester hurried to the car.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the shortest cut and cover space,&rdquo; he said to the driver. The car
+      kept to the speed limit until toward the suburbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Harmon removed his hat, ran his fingers through dark waving hair
+      and yielded his body to the swing of the car. Neither man attempted to
+      talk. Once the Harvester leaned forward and told the driver to stop on the
+      bridge, and then sat silently. As the car slowed down, they alighted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drive on and tell Doc we are here, and will be up soon,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester. Then he turned to the stranger. &ldquo;Doctor Harmon, there's little
+      time for words. This is my place, and here I grow herbs for medicinal
+      houses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard of you, and heard your stuff recommended,&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; exclaimed the Harvester. &ldquo;That saves time. I stopped here to make
+      a required explanation to you. The day you sent Ruth Jameson to Onabasha,
+      I saw her leave the train and recognized in her my ideal woman. I lost her
+      in the crowd and it took some time to locate her. I found her about a
+      month ago. She was miserable. If you saw what her father did to her and
+      her mother in Chicago, you should have seen what his brother was doing
+      here. The end came one day in my presence, when I paid her for ginseng she
+      had found to settle her debt to you. He robbed her by force. I took the
+      money from him, and he threatened her. She was ill then from heat,
+      overwork, wrong food&mdash;&mdash;every misery you can imagine heaped upon
+      the dreadful conditions in which she came. It had been my intention to
+      court and marry her if I possibly could. That day she had nowhere to go;
+      she was wild with fear; the fever that is scorching her now was in her
+      veins then. I did an insane thing. I begged her to marry me at once and
+      come here for rest and protection. I swore that if she would, she should
+      not be my wife, but my honoured guest, until she learned to love me and
+      released me from my vow. She tried to tell me something; I had no idea it
+      was anything that would make any real difference, and I wouldn't listen.
+      Last night, when the fever was beginning to do its worst, she told me of
+      your entrance into her life and what it meant to her. Then I saw that I
+      had made a mistake. You were her choice, the man she could love, not me,
+      so I took the liberty of sending for you. I want you to cure her, court
+      her, marry her, and make her happy. God knows she has had her share of
+      suffering. You recognize her as a girl of refinement?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You grant that in health she would be lovelier than most women, do you
+      not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was more beautiful than most in sickness and distress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;She has been here two weeks. I give you my
+      word, my promise to her has been kept faithfully. As soon as I can leave
+      her to attend to it, she shall have her freedom. That will be easy. Will
+      you marry her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well to be frank,&rdquo; said Doctor Harmon, &ldquo;it is money! I'm only getting a
+      start. I borrowed funds for my schooling and what I used for her. She is
+      in every way attractive enough to be desired by any man, but how am I to
+      provide a home and support her and pay these debts? I'll try it, but I am
+      afraid it will be taking her back to wrong conditions again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you knew that she owned a comfortable cottage in the suburbs, where it
+      is cool and clean, and had, say a hundred a month of her own for the
+      coming three years, could you see your way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would make all the difference in the world. I thought seriously of
+      writing her. I wanted to, but I concluded I'd better work as hard as I
+      could for some practice first, and see if I could make a living for two,
+      before I tried to start anything. I had no idea she would not be
+      comfortably cared for at her uncle's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;If I had kept out, life would have come
+      right for her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary,&rdquo; said the doctor, &ldquo;it appears very probable that she
+      would not be living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is understood between us, then, that you will court and marry her so
+      soon as she is strong enough?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is understood,&rdquo; agreed the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you honour me by taking my hand?&rdquo; asked the Harvester. &ldquo;I scarcely
+      had hoped to find so much of a man. Now come to your room and get ready
+      for the stiffest piece of work you ever attempted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester led the way to the guest chamber over looking the lake, and
+      installed its first occupant. Then he hurried to the Girl. The doctor was
+      holding her head and one hand, his wife the other, and the nurse her feet.
+      It took the Harvester ten strenuous minutes to make his touch and presence
+      known and to work quiet. All over he began crooning his story of rest,
+      joy, and love. He broke off with a few words to introduce Doctor Harmon to
+      the Careys and the nurse, and then calmly continued while the other men
+      stood and watched him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems rather cut out for it,&rdquo; commented Doctor Harmon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never yet have seen him attempt anything that he didn't appear cut out
+      for,&rdquo; answered Doctor Carey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will she know me?&rdquo; inquired the young man, approaching the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Girl's eyes fell on him she grew rigid and lay staring at him.
+      Suddenly with a wild cry she struggled to rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have come!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Oh I knew you would come! I felt you would
+      come! I cannot pay you now! Oh why didn't you come sooner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young doctor leaned over and took one of the white hands from the
+      Harvester, stroking it gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you did pay, Ruth! How did you come to forget? Don't you remember the
+      draft you sent me? I didn't come for money; I came to visit you, to nurse
+      you, to do all I can to make you well. I am going to take care of you now
+      so finely you'll be out on the lake and among the flowers soon. I've got
+      some medicine that makes every one well. It's going to make you strong,
+      and there's something else that's going to make you happy; and me, I'm
+      going to be the proudest man alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He reached over and took possession of the other hand, stroking them
+      softly, and the Girl lay tensely staring at him and gradually yielding to
+      his touch and voice. The Harvester arose, and passing around the bed, he
+      placed a chair for Doctor Harmon and motioning for Doctor Carey left the
+      room. He went to the shore to his swimming pool, wearily dropped on the
+      bench, and stared across the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well thank God it worked, anyway!&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that popinjay doing here?&rdquo; thundered Doctor Carey. &ldquo;Got some
+      medicine that cures everybody. Going to make her well, is he? Make the
+      cows, and the ducks, and the chickens, and the shitepokes well, and happy&mdash;&mdash;no
+      name for it! After this we are all going to be well and happy! You look it
+      right now, David! What under Heaven have you done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Left my wife with the man she loves, and to whom I release her, my dear
+      friend,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;And it's so easy for me that you needn't
+      give making it a little harder, any thought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, forgive me!&rdquo; cried Doctor Carey. &ldquo;I don't understand this. I'm
+      almost insane. Will you tell me what it means?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Means that I took advantage of the Girl's illness, utter loneliness, and
+      fear, and forced her into marrying me for shelter and care, when she loved
+      and wanted another man, who was preparing to come to her. He is her
+      Chicago doctor, and fine in every fibre, as you can see. There is only one
+      thing on earth for me to do, and that is to get out of their way, and I'll
+      do it as soon as she is well; but I vow I won't leave her poor, tired body
+      until she is, not even for him. I thought sure I could teach her to love
+      me! Oh but this is bitter, Doc!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a consummate fool to bring him here!&rdquo; cried Doctor Carey. &ldquo;If she
+      is too sick to realize the situation now, she will be different when she
+      is normal again. Any sane girl that wouldn't love you, David, ain't fit
+      for anything!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I'm a whale of a lover!&rdquo; said the Harvester grimly. &ldquo;Nice mess I've
+      made of it. But there is no real harm done. Thank God, Harmon was not the
+      only white man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, what do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it between us, Doc?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For all time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester told him. He ended, &ldquo;Give the fellow his dues, Doc. He had
+      her at his mercy, utterly alone and unprotected, in a big city. There was
+      not a living soul to hold him to account. He added to his burdens,
+      borrowed more money, and sent her here. He thought she was coming to the
+      country where she would be safe and well cared for until he could support
+      her. I did the remainder. Now I must undo it, that's all! But you have got
+      to go in there and practise with him. You've got to show him every
+      courtesy of the profession. You must go a little over the rules, and teach
+      him all you can. You will have to stifle your feelings, and be as much of
+      a man as it is in you to be, at your level best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm no good at stifling my feelings!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you'll have to learn,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;If you'd lived through
+      my years of repression in the woods you'd do the fellow credit. As I see
+      it, his side of this is nearly as fine as you make it. I tell you she was
+      utterly stricken, alone, and beautiful. She sought his assistance. When
+      the end came he thought only of her. Won't you give a young fellow in a
+      place like Chicago some credit for that? Can't you get through you what it
+      means?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey stood frowning in deep thought, but the lines of his face
+      gradually changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I've got to stomach him,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse came down the gravel path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Langston, Doctor Harmon asked me to call you,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and went to the sunshine room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he want, Molly?&rdquo; asked the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wants to turn over his job,&rdquo; chuckled the nurse. &ldquo;He held it about seven
+      minutes in peace, and then she began to fret and call for the Harvester.
+      He just sweat blood to pacify her, but he couldn't make it. He tried to
+      hold her, to make love to her, and goodness knows what, but she struggled
+      and cried, 'David,' until he had to give it up and send me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Molly,&rdquo; said Doctor Carey, &ldquo;we've known the Harvester a long time, and he
+      is our friend, isn't he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course!&rdquo; said the nurse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know this is the first woman he ever loved, probably ever will, as he
+      is made. Now we don't like this stranger butting in here; we resent it,
+      Molly. We are on the side of our friend, and we want him to win. I'll
+      grant that this fellow is fine, and that he has done well, but what's the
+      use in tearing up arrangements already made? And so suitable! Now Molly,
+      you are my best nurse, and a good reliable aid in times like this. I gave
+      you instructions an hour ago. I'll add this to them. YOU ARE ON THE
+      HARVESTER'S SIDE. Do you understand? In this, and the days to come, you'll
+      have a thousand chances to put in a lick with a sick woman. Put them in as
+      I tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Doctor Carey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Molly! You are something besides my best nurse. You're a smashing
+      pretty girl, and your occupation should make you especially attractive to
+      a young doctor. I'm sure this fellow is all right, so while you are doing
+      your best with your patient for the Harvester, why not have a try for
+      yourself with the doctor? It couldn't do any harm, and it might straighten
+      out matters. Anyway, you think it over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The nurse studied his face silently for a time, and then she began to
+      laugh softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is up there doing his best with her,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor threw out his hands in a gesture of disdain, and the nurse
+      laughed again; but her cheeks were pink and her eyes flashing as she
+      returned to duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Random shot, but it might hit something, you never can tell,&rdquo; commented
+      the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester entered the Girl's room and stood still. She was fretting
+      and raising her temperature rapidly. Before he reached the door his heart
+      gave one great leap at the sound of her voice calling his name. He knew
+      what to do, but he hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She seems to have become accustomed to you, and at times does not
+      remember me,&rdquo; said Doctor Harmon. &ldquo;I think you had better take her again
+      until she grows quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped to the bed and looked the doctor in the eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I left out one important feature in our little talk on the
+      bridge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I neglected to tell you that in your fight for this
+      woman's life and love you have a rival. I am he. She is my wife, and with
+      the last fibre of my being I adore her. If you win, and she wants you to
+      take her away, I will help you; but my heart goes with her forever. If by
+      any chance it should occur that I have been mistaken or misinterpreted her
+      delirium or that she has been deceived and finds she prefers me and
+      Medicine Woods, to you and Chicago, when she has had opportunity to
+      measure us man against man, you must understand that I claim her. So I say
+      to you frankly, take her if you can, but don't imagine that I am passive.
+      I'll help you if I know she wants you, but I fight you every inch of the
+      way. Only it has got to be square and open. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are certainly sufficiently clear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man who is half a man sees the last chance of happiness go out of his
+      life without putting up the stiffest battle he knows,&rdquo; said the Harvester
+      grimly. &ldquo;Ruth-girl, you are raising the fever again. You must be quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With infinite tenderness he possessed himself of her hands and began
+      stroking her hair, and in a low and soothing voice the story of the birds,
+      flowers, lake, and woods went on. To keep it from growing monotonous the
+      Harvester branched out and put in everything he knew. In the days that
+      followed he held a position none could take from him. While the doctors
+      fought the fever, he worked for rest and quiet, and soothed the tortured
+      body as best he could, that the medicines might act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the fever was stubborn, and the remedies were slow; and long before
+      the dreaded coming day the doctors and nurse were quietly saying to each
+      other that when the crisis came the heart would fail. There was no
+      vitality to sustain life. But they did not dare tell the Harvester. Day
+      and night he sat beside the maple bed or stretched sleeping a few minutes
+      on the couch while the Girl slept; and with faith never faltering and
+      courage unequalled, he warned them to have their remedies and appliances
+      ready.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't say it's going to be easy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just merely state that it
+      must be done. And I'll also mention that, when the hour comes, the man who
+      discovers that he could do something if he had digitalis, or a remedy he
+      should have had ready and has forgotten, that man had better keep out of
+      my sight. Make your preparations now. Talk the case over. Fill your
+      hypodermics. Clean your air pumps. Get your hot-water bottles ready. Have
+      system. Label your stuff large and set it conveniently. You see what is
+      coming, be prepared!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, while the Girl lay in a half-drugged, feverish sleep, the
+      Harvester went for a swim. He dressed a little sooner than was expected
+      and in crossing the living-room he heard Doctor Harmon say to Doctor Carey
+      on the veranda, &ldquo;What are we going to do with him when the end comes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped to the door. &ldquo;That won't be the question,&rdquo; he said
+      grimly. &ldquo;It will be what will HE do with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, with an almost imperceptible movement, he caught Doctor Harmon at
+      the waist line, and lifted and dangled him as a baby, and then stood him
+      on the floor. &ldquo;Didn't hardly expect that much muscle, did you?&rdquo; he
+      inquired lightly. &ldquo;And I'm not in what you could call condition, either.
+      Instead of wasting any time on fool questions like that, you two go over
+      your stuff and ask each other, have we got every last appliance known to
+      physics and surgery? Have we got duplicates on hand in case we break
+      delicate instruments like hypodermic syringes and that sort of thing?
+      Engage yourselves with questions pertaining to life; that is your
+      business. Instead of planning what you'll do in failure, bolster your
+      souls against it. Granny Moreland beats you two put together in grip and
+      courage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester returned to his task, and the fight went on. At last the
+      hour came when the temperature fell lower and lower. The feeble pulses
+      flickered and grew indiscernible; a gray pallor hovered over the Girl, and
+      a cold sweat stood on her temples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Exercise your calling! Fight like men or
+      devils, but win you must.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did work. They administered stimulants; applied heat to the chilled
+      body; fans swept the room with vitalized air; hypodermics were used; and
+      every last resort known to science was given a full test, and the weak
+      heart throbbed slower and slower, and life ran out with each breath. The
+      Harvester stood waiting with set jaws. He could detect no change for the
+      better. At last he picked up a chilled hand and could discover no pulse,
+      and the gray nails and the dark tips told a story of arrested circulation.
+      He laid down the hand and faced the men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is what you'd call the crisis, Doc?&rdquo; he asked gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you stemming it? Are you stemming it? Are you sure she is holding her
+      own?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Carey looked at him silently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you done all you can do?&rdquo; asked the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You believe her going out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester turned to Doctor Harmon. &ldquo;Do you concur in that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then to the nurse, &ldquo;And you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;all of you are useless. Get out of here. I
+      don't want your atmosphere. If you can believe only in death, leave us!
+      She is my wife, and if this is the end she belongs to me, and I will do as
+      I choose with her. All of you go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped to the bathroom door and called Granny Moreland.
+      &ldquo;Granny,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;science has turned tail, and left me in extremity.
+      Fill your hot-water bottles and come in here with your heart big with hope
+      and help me save my Dream Girl. She is breathing Granny; we've got to make
+      her keep it up, that's all&mdash;&mdash;just keep her breathing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the sunshine room, placed a small table beside the bed, and
+      on it a glass of water, spoon, and a hypodermic syringe. When Granny
+      Moreland came he said: &ldquo;Now you begin on her feet and rub with long,
+      sweeping, upward strokes to drive the blood to her heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Around the Girl he piled hot-water bottles and breathlessly hung over her,
+      rubbing her hands. He wiped the perspiration from her forehead, and then
+      dropped by her bed and for a second laid his face on her cold palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me,&rdquo; he prayed. &ldquo;And you, oh, my darling
+      Dream Girl, forgive me, but I am forced to try&mdash;&mdash;God helping
+      me! Amen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose, took a small bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon with
+      water, and measured into it three drops of liquid as yellow as gold. Then
+      he held the spoon to the blue lips, and with his fingers worked apart the
+      set teeth, and poured the medicine down her throat. Then they rubbed and
+      muttered snatches of prayer for fifteen minutes when the Harvester
+      administered another three drops. It might have been fancy, but it seemed
+      to him her jaws were not so stiff. Faster flew his hands and he sent
+      Granny Moreland to refill the hot bottles. When he gave the Girl the third
+      dose he injected some of the liquid over her heart and of the glycerine
+      the doctors had left, in the extremities. He released more air and began
+      rubbing again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second hour started in the same way, and ended with slowly relaxing
+      muscles and faint tinges of colour in the white cheeks. The feet were not
+      so cold, and when the Harvester held the spoon he knew that the Girl made
+      an effort to swallow, and he could see her eyelids tremble. Thereupon he
+      pointed these signs to Granny, and implored her to rub and pray, and pray
+      and rub, while he worked until the perspiration rolled down his gray face.
+      At the end of the second hour he began decreasing the doses and shortening
+      the time, and again he commenced in a low rumble his song of life and
+      health, to encourage the Girl as consciousness returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally Doctor Carey opened the door slightly and peeped in to see if
+      he were wanted, but he received no invitation to enter. The last time he
+      left with the impression that the Harvester was raving, while he worked
+      over a lifeless body. He had the Girl warmly covered and bent over her
+      face and hands. At her feet crouched Granny Moreland, rubbing, still
+      rubbing, beneath the covers, while in a steady stream the Harvester was
+      pouring out his song. If he had listened an instant longer he would have
+      recognized that the tone and the words had changed. Now it was, &ldquo;Gently,
+      breathe gently, Girl! Slowly, steadily, easily! Deeper, a little deeper,
+      Ruth! Brave Girl, never another so wonderful! That's my Dream Girl coming
+      from the shadows, coming to life's sunshine, coming to hope, coming to
+      love! Deeper, just a little deeper! Smoothly and evenly! You are making
+      it, Girl! You are making it! By all that is holy and glorious! Stick to
+      it, Ruth, hold tight to me! I'll help you, dear! You are coming, coming
+      back to life and love. Don't worry yourself trying too hard, if only you
+      can send every breath as deeply as the last one, you can make it. You
+      brave girl! You wonderful Dream Girl! Ah, Ruth, the name of this is
+      victory!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour before Doctor Carey had said to Doctor Harmon and the nurse, as he
+      softly closed the door: &ldquo;It is over and the Harvester is raving. We'll
+      give him a little more time and see if he won't realize it himself. That
+      will be easier for him than for us to try to tell him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he opened the door, stared a second, and coming to the opposite side
+      of the bed, he leaned over the Girl. Then he felt her feet. They were warm
+      and slightly damp. A surprised look crept over his face. He gently reached
+      for a hand that the Harvester yielded to him. It was warm, the blue tips
+      becoming rosy, the wrist pulse discernible. Then he bent closer, touched
+      her face, and saw the tremulous eyelids. He turned back the cover, and
+      held his ear over her heart. When he straightened, &ldquo;As God lives, she's
+      got a chance, David!&rdquo; he exulted in an awed whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester lifted a graven face, down which the sweat of agony rolled,
+      and his lips parted in a twitching smile. &ldquo;Then this is where love beats
+      the doctors, Carey!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is where love has ventured what science dares not. Love didn't do all
+      of this. In the name of the Almighty, what did you give her, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Life! Come on, Ruth, come on! Out of the
+      valley come to me! You are well now, Girl! It's all over! The last trace
+      of fever is gone, the last of the dull ache. Can you swallow just two more
+      drops of bottled sunshine, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The flickering lids slowly opened, and the big black eyes looked straight
+      into the Harvester's. He met them steadily, smiling encouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang on to each breath, dear heart!&rdquo; he urged. &ldquo;The fever is gone. The
+      pain is over! Long life and the love you crave are for you. You've only to
+      keep breathing a few more hours and the battle is yours. Glorious Girl!
+      Noble! You are doing finely! Ruth, do you know me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her lips moved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't try to speak,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Don't waste breath on a word.
+      Save the good oxygen to strengthen your tired body. But if you do know me,
+      maybe you could smile, Ruth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She could just smile, and that was all. Feeble, flickering, transient, but
+      as it crossed the living face the Harvester lifted her hands and kissed
+      them over and over, back, palm, and finger tips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now just one more drop, honey, and then a long rest. Will you try it
+      again for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She assented, and the Harvester took the bottle from his pocket, poured
+      the drop, and held the spoon to willing lips. The big eyes were on him
+      with a question. Then they fell to the spoon. The Harvester understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's mine! It's got sixty years of wonderful life in it, every one
+      of them full of love and happiness for my dear Dream Girl. Can you take
+      it, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her lips parted, the wine of life passed between. She smiled faintly, and
+      her eyelids dropped shut, but presently they opened again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Dream Girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harvester?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Medicine Man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't, Ruth! Save every breath to help your heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life it is, Girl!&rdquo; exulted the Harvester. &ldquo;Long life! Love! Home! The man
+      you love! Every happiness that ever came to a girl! Nothing shall be
+      denied you! Nothing shall be lacking! It's all in your hands now, Ruth.
+      We've all done everything we can; you must do the remainder. It's your
+      work to send every breath as deeply as you can. Doc, release another tank
+      of air. Are her feet warm, Granny? Let the nurse take your place now. And,
+      honey, go to sleep! I'll keep watch for you. I'll measure each breath you
+      draw. If they shorten or weaken, I'll wake you for more medicine. You can
+      trust me! Always you can trust me, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl smiled and fell into a light, even slumber. Granny Moreland
+      stumbled to the couch and rolled on it sobbing with nervous exhaustion.
+      Doctor Carey called the nurse to take her place. Then he came to the
+      Harvester's side and whispered, &ldquo;Let me, David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester looked up with his queer grin, but he made no motion to
+      arise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't you trust me, David? I'll watch as if it were my own wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't trust any man on earth, for the coming three hours,&rdquo; replied
+      the Harvester. &ldquo;If I keep this up that long, she is safe. Go and rest
+      until I call you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He again bent over the Girl, one hand on her left wrist, the other over
+      her heart, his eyes on her lips, watching the depth and strength of her
+      every breath. Regularly he administered the medicine he was giving her.
+      Sometimes she took it half asleep; again she gave him a smile that to the
+      Harvester was the supreme thing of earth or Heaven. Toward the end of the
+      long vigil, in exhaustion he slipped to the floor, and laid his head on
+      the side of the bed, and for a second his hand relaxed and he fell asleep.
+      The Girl awakened as his touch loosened and looking down she saw his
+      huddled body. A second later the Harvester awoke with a guilty start to
+      find her fingers twisted in the shock of hair on the top of his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor stranded Girl,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;She's clinging to me for life, and you
+      can stake all you are worth she's going to get it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he gently relaxed her grip, gave her the last dose he felt necessary,
+      yielded his place to Doctor Carey and staggered up the hill. As the sun
+      peeped over Medicine Woods he stretched himself between the two mounds
+      under the oak, and for a few minutes his body was rent with the awful,
+      torn sobbing of a strong man. Belshazzar nosed the twisting figure and
+      whined pitifully. A chattering little marsh wren tilted on a bush and
+      scolded. A blue jay perched above and tried to decide whether there was
+      cause for an alarm signal. A snake coming from the water to hunt birds ran
+      close to him, and changing its course, went weaving away among the mosses.
+      Gradually the pent forces spent themselves, and for hours the Harvester
+      lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion, and stretched beside him, Belshazzar
+      guarded with anxious dog eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETTER MAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester arose and went into the lake,
+      ate a hearty dinner, and then took up his watch again. For two days and
+      nights he kept his place, until he had the Girl out of danger, and where
+      careful nursing was all that was required to insure life and health. As he
+      sat beside her the last day, his physical endurance strained to the
+      breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked long and steadily
+      into his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are so many things I want to know,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers. &ldquo;Ruth, have you ever been
+      sorry that you trusted me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; said the Girl instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then suppose you keep it up,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Whatever it is that you want to
+      know, don't use an iota of strength to talk or to think about it now. Just
+      say to yourself, he loves me well enough to do what is right, and I know
+      that he will. All you have to do is to be patient until you grow stronger
+      than you ever have been in your life, and then you shall have exactly what
+      you want, Ruth. Sleep like a baby for a week or two. Then, slowly and
+      gradually, we will build up such a constitution for you that you shall
+      ride, drive, row, swim, dance, play, and have all that your girlhood has
+      missed in fun and frolic, and all that your womanhood craves in love and
+      companionship. Happiness has come at last, Ruth. Take it from me.
+      Everything you crave is yours. The love you want, the home, and the life.
+      As soon as you are strong enough, you shall know all about it. Your
+      business is to drink stimulants and sleep now, dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So tired of this bed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won't be long until you can lie on the couch and the veranda swing
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glory!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;David, I must have been full of fever for a long
+      time. I can't remember everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't try, I tell you. Life is coming out right for you; that's all you
+      need know now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for you, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whenever things are right for you, they are for me, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you ever think of yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not when I am close you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Then I shall have to grow strong very soon and think of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's smile was pathetic. He was unspeakably tired again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind me!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Only get well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, was there a little horse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There certainly was and is,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had not named him yet, but in a few days I can lead him to the
+      window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was there something said about a boat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. A row boat for you, and a launch that will take you all over the
+      lake with only the exertion of steering on your part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I want my pendant and ring. I am so tired of lying here, I want to
+      play with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you keep them, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the willow teapot. I thought no one would look there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed and brought the little boxes. He had to open them,
+      but the Girl put on the ring and asked him if he would not help her with
+      the pendant. He slipped the thread around her neck and clasped it. With a
+      sigh of satisfaction she took the ornament in one hand and closed her
+      eyes. He thought she was falling asleep, but presently she looked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't allow them to take it from me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed no! There is no reason on earth why you should not have that
+      thread around your neck if you want it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to sleep now. I want two things. May I have them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may,&rdquo; said the Harvester promptly, &ldquo;provided they are not to eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I've suffered and made others trouble. I won't
+      bother you by asking for anything more than is brought me. This is
+      different. You are completely worn out. Your face frightens me, David, and
+      white hairs that were not there a few days ago have come along your
+      temples. I can see them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You gave me a mighty serious scare, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Forgive me. I didn't mean to. I want you to
+      leave me to Doctor Harmon and the nurse and go sleep a week. Then I will
+      be ready for the swing, and to hear some more about the trees and birds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can keep it up if you really need me, but if you don't I am sleepy. So,
+      if you feel safe, I think I will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I am safe enough,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;It isn't that. I'm so lonely. I've
+      made up my mind not to grieve for mother, but I miss her so now. I feel so
+      friendless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, honey,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;you mustn't do that! Don't you see how
+      all of us love you? Here is Granny shutting up her house and living here,
+      just to be with you. The nurse will do anything you say. Here is the man
+      you know best, and think so much of, staying in the cabin, and so happy to
+      give you all his time, and anything else you will have, dear. And the
+      Careys come every day, and will do their best to comfort you, and always I
+      am here for you to fall back on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I'm falling right now,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I almost wish I had the
+      fever again. No one has touched me for days. I feel as if every one was
+      afraid of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Ruth, I'm doing the best I know,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What is it you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing!&rdquo; answered the Girl with slightly dejected inflection. &ldquo;Say
+      good-bye to me, and go sleep your week. I'll be very good, and then you
+      shall take me a drive up the hill when you awaken. Won't that be fine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say good-bye to me!&rdquo; She felt a &ldquo;little lonely!&rdquo; They all acted as if
+      they were &ldquo;afraid&rdquo; of her. The Harvester indulged in a flashing mental
+      review and arrived at a decision. He knelt beside the bed, took both
+      slender, cool hands and covered them with kisses. Then he slid a hand
+      under the pillow and raised the tired head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am to say good-bye, I have to do it in my own way, Ruth,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he began at the tumbled mass of hair and kissed from her
+      forehead to her lips, kisses warm and tender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you go to sleep, and grow strong enough by the time I come back to
+      tell me whom you love,&rdquo; he said, and went from the room without waiting
+      for any reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With short intervals for food and dips in the lake the Harvester very
+      nearly slept the week. When he finally felt himself again, he bathed,
+      shaved, dressed freshly, and went to see the Girl. He had to touch her to
+      be sure she was real. She was extremely weak and tremulous, but her face
+      and hands were fuller, her colour was good, she was ravenously hungry.
+      Doctor Harmon said she was a little tryant, and the nurse that she was
+      plain cross. The first thing the Harvester noticed was that the dull blue
+      look in the depth of the dark eyes was gone. They were clear, dusky wells,
+      with shining lights at the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I never would have believed it!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Doctor Harmon, you are a
+      great physician! You have made her all over new, and in a few more days
+      she will be on the veranda. This is great!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I appear so much better to you, Harvester?&rdquo; asked the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has no one thought to show you,&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;Here, let me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stepped to her dressing table, picked up a mirror, and held it before
+      her so that she could see herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seems to me I am dreadfully white and thin yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had seen what I saw ten days ago, my Girl, you would think you
+      appear like a pink, rosy angel now, or a wonderful dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Truly, do I in the least resemble a dream, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a dream. The loveliest one a man ever had. With three months of
+      right care and exercise you'll be the beautiful woman nature intended. I'm
+      so proud of you. You are being so brave! Just lie there in patience a few
+      more days, and out you come again to life; and life that will thrill your
+      being with joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Girl, &ldquo;I will. David are you attending to your
+      herbs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not for a few weeks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very much behind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Nothing important. I don't make enough to count on what is ready now.
+      I can soon gather jimson leaves and seed to fill orders, the hemlock is
+      about right to take the fruit, the mustard is yet in pod, and the saffron
+      and wormseed can be attended later. I can catch up in two days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about&mdash;&mdash;about the big bed on the hill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester experienced an inward thrill of delight. She was so
+      impressed with the value of the ginseng she would not mention it, even
+      before the man she loved&mdash;&mdash;no more than that&mdash;&mdash;&ldquo;adored&rdquo;&mdash;&mdash;
+      &ldquo;worshipped!&rdquo; He smiled at her in understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have to take a peep at that and report,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you rested now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed yes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are dreadfully thin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always am. I'll pick up a little when I get back to work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I want you to go to work now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you spare me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't we done well these last few days?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell you how well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then please go gather everything you need to fill orders except the big
+      bed, and by that time maybe you could take another week off, and I could
+      go to the hill top and on the lake. I'm so anxious to put my feet on the
+      earth. They feel so dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are your feet well rubbed to draw down the circulation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are rubbed shiny and almost skinned, David. No one ever had better
+      care, of that I am sure. Go gather what you should have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arose and as he started to leave the room he took one last look at the
+      Girl to see if he could detect anything he could suggest for her comfort,
+      and read a message in her eyes. Instantly there was an answering flash in
+      his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll be back in a minute,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just noticed discorea villosa has
+      the finest rattle boxes formed. I've been waiting to show you. And the hop
+      tree has its castanets all green and gold. In a few more weeks it will
+      begin to play for you. I'll bring you some.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon he returned with the queer seed formations, and as he bent above her,
+      with his back to Doctor Harmon, he whispered, &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her lips barely formed the one word, &ldquo;Hurry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester straightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All comfortable, Ruth?&rdquo; he asked casually.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You understand, of course, that there is not the slightest necessity for
+      my going to work if you really want me for anything, even if it's nothing
+      more than to have me within calling distance, in case you SHOULD want
+      something. The whole lot I can gather now won't amount to twenty dollars.
+      It's merely a matter of pride with me to have what is called for. I'd much
+      rather remain, if you can use me in any way at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twenty dollars is considerable, when expenses are as heavy as now. And
+      it's worth more than any money to you not to fail when orders come. I have
+      learned that, and David, I don't want you to either. You must fill all
+      demands as usual. I wouldn't forgive myself this winter if you should be
+      forced to send orders only partly filled because I fell ill and hindered
+      you. Please go and gather all you possibly will need of everything you
+      take at this season, only remember!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no danger of my forgetting. If you are going to send me away to
+      work, you will allow me to kiss your hand before I go, fair lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did it fervently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One word with you, Harmon,&rdquo; he said as he left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Harmon arose and followed him to the gold garden, and together they
+      stood beside the molten hedge of sunflowers, coneflowers, elecampane, and
+      jewel flower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I merely want to mention that this is your inning,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+      &ldquo;Find out if you are essential to the Girl's happiness as soon as you can,
+      and the day she tells me so, I will file her petition and take a trip to
+      the city to study some little chemical quirks that bother me. That's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester went to the dry-house for bags and clipping shears, and the
+      doctor returned to the sunshine room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;do you know that the Harvester is the squarest man I
+      ever met?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he?&rdquo; asked the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is! He certainly is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must remember that I have little acquaintance with men,&rdquo; said she.
+      &ldquo;You are the first one I ever knew, and the only one except him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I try to be square,&rdquo; said Doctor Harmon, &ldquo;but that is where Langston
+      has me beaten a mile. I have to try. He doesn't. He was born that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl began to laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His environment is so different,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Perhaps if he were in a big
+      city, he would have to try also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't do!&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;He chose his location. So did I. He is a
+      stronger physical man than I ever was or ever will be. The struggle that
+      bound him to the woods and to research, that made him the master of forces
+      that give back life, when a man like Carey says it is the end, proves him
+      a master. The tumult in his soul must have been like a cyclone in his
+      forest, when he turned his back on the world and stuck to the woods. Carey
+      told me about it. Some day you must hear. It's a story a woman ought to
+      know in order to arrive at proper values. You never will understand the
+      man until you know that he is clean where most of us are blackened with
+      ugly sins we have no right on God's footstool to commit and not so much
+      reason as he. Every man should be as he is, but very few are. Carey says
+      Langston's mother was a wonderful element in the formation of his
+      character; but all mothers are anxious, and none of them can build with no
+      foundation and no soul timber. She had material for a man to her hand, or
+      she couldn't have made one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see what you mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far as any inexperienced girl ever sees,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;Some day
+      if you live to fifty you will know, but you can't comprehend it now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you think I lived all my life in Chicago's poverty spots and don't
+      know unbridled human nature!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I found you and your mother unusually innocent women. You may understand
+      some things. I hope you do. It will help you to decide who is the real man
+      among the men who come into your life. There are some men, Ruth, who are
+      fit to mate with a woman, and to perpetuate themselves and their mental
+      and moral forces in children, who will be like them, and there are others
+      who are not. It is these 'others' who are responsible for the sin of the
+      world, the sickness and suffering. Any time you are sure you have a chance
+      at a moral man, square and honest, in control of his brain and body, if
+      you are a wise woman, Ruth, stick to him as the limpet to the rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean stick to the Harvester?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are a wise woman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When was a woman ever wise?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few have been. They are the only care-free, really happy ones of the
+      world, the only wives without a big, poison, blue-bottle fly in their
+      ointment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I detest flies!&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;For this reason I say to you choose the
+      ointment that never had one in it. Take the man who is 'master of his
+      fate, captain of his soul.' Stick to the Harvester! He is infinitely the
+      better man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well have you seen anything to indicate that I wasn't sticking?&rdquo; asked
+      the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. And for your sake I hope I never will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do love him, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I did my mother, yes. There is not a trace in my heart of the thing he
+      calls love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been stunted, warped, and the fountains of life never have
+      opened. It will come with right conditions of living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know so. At least there is no one else you love, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one except you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you feel about me just as you do him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! It is different. What I owe him is for myself. What I owe you is for
+      my mother. You saw! You know! You understand what you did for her, and
+      what it meant to me. The Harvester must be the finest man on earth, but
+      when I try to think of either God or Heaven, your face intervenes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me,&rdquo; said Doctor Harmon. &ldquo;I
+      can make it all perfectly clear to you. You just go on and worship me all
+      you please. It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me. What you feel
+      for me will hold me to a higher moral level all my life than I ever have
+      known before; but never forget that you are not going to live in Heaven.
+      You will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come to think of
+      selecting a partner for the relations of the world, you stick to the
+      finest man on earth; see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I saw you kiss Molly a week ago. She is lovely,
+      and I hope you will be perfectly happy. It won't interfere with my
+      worshipping you; not the least in the world. Go ahead and be joyful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion. The Girl lay and
+      laughed at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It's all right! It takes a weight off my soul as
+      heavy as a mountain. I do adore you, as I said. But every hour since I
+      left Chicago a big, black cloud has hung over me. I didn't feel free. I
+      didn't feel absolved. I felt that my obligations to you were so heavy that
+      when I had settled the last of the money debt I was in honour bound&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't, Ruth! Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then! Think only
+      of a happy future!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me finish,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Let me get this out of my system with the
+      other poison. From the day I came here, I've whispered in my heart, 'I am
+      not free!' But if you love another woman! If you are going to take her to
+      your heart and to your lips, why that is my release. Oh Man, speak the
+      words! Tell me I am free indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake! You'll raise a temperature, and the
+      Harvester will pitch me into the lake. You are free, child, of course! You
+      always have been. I understood the awful pressure that was on you with the
+      very first glimpse I had of your mother. Who was she, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never would tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She thought you would appeal to her people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She knew I would! I couldn't have helped it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you like to know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never want to. It is too late. I infinitely prefer to remain in
+      ignorance. Talk of something else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me read a wonderful book I found on the Harvester's shelves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything there will contain wonders, because he only buys what appeals to
+      him, and it takes a great book to do that. I am going to learn. He will
+      teach me, and when I come within comprehending distance of him, then we
+      are going on together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What an attractive place this is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it? I only have seen enough to understand the plan. I scarcely can
+      wait to set my feet on earth and go into detail. Granny Moreland says that
+      when spring comes over the hill, and brings up the flowers in the big
+      woods, she'd rather walk through them than to read Revelation. She says it
+      gives her an idea of Heaven she can come closer realizing and it seems
+      more stable. You know she worries about the foundations. She can't
+      understand what supports Heaven. But up there in Medicine Woods the old
+      dear gets so close her God that some day she is going to realize that her
+      idea of Heaven there is quite as near right as marble streets and gold
+      pillars and vastly more probable. The day I reach that hill top again,
+      Heaven begins for me. Do you know the wonderful thing the Harvester did up
+      there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Under the oak?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carey told me. It was marvellous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not such a marvel as another the doctor couldn't have known. The
+      Harvester made passing out so natural, so easy, so a part of elemental
+      forces, that I almost have forgotten her tortured body. When I think of
+      her now, it is to wonder if next summer I can distinguish her whisper
+      among the leaves. Before you go, I'll take you up there and tell you what
+      he says, and show you what he means, and you will feel it also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if I shouldn't go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor Carey has offered me a splendid position in his hospital. There
+      would be work all day, instead of waiting all day in the hope of working
+      an hour. There would be a living in it for two from the word go. There
+      would be better air, longer life, more to be got out of it, and if I can
+      make good, Carey's work to take up as he grows old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it! Take it quickly!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;Don't wait a minute! You
+      might wear out your heart in Chicago for twenty years or forever, and not
+      have an opportunity to do one half so much good. Take it at once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was waiting to learn what you and Langston would say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will say take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will be too happy for words. Ruth, you have not only paid the
+      debt, but you have brought me the greatest joy a man ever had. And there
+      is no need to wait the ages I thought I must. He can tell in a year if I
+      can do the work, and I know I can now; so it's all settled, if Langston
+      agrees.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Let me tell him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you would,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;I don't know just how to go at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then for two days the Harvester and Belshazzar gathered herbs and spread
+      them on the drying trays. On the afternoon of the third, close three, the
+      doctor came to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Langston,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we have a call for you. We can't keep Ruth quiet
+      much longer. She is tired. We want to change her bed completely. She won't
+      allow either of us to lift her. She says we hurt her. Will you come and
+      try it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have to give me time to dip and rub off and get into clean
+      clothing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I've been keeping away, because I was working on
+      time, and I smell to strangulation of stramonium and saffron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't give you ten seconds,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;Our temper is getting
+      brittle. We are cross as the proverbial fever patient. If you don't come
+      at once we will imagine you don't want to, and refuse to be moved at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coming!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, as he plunged his hands in the wash bowl
+      and soused his face. A second later he appeared on the porch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I am steeped in the odours of the dry-house. Can't you
+      wait until I bathe and dress?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can't,&rdquo; said a fretful voice. &ldquo;I can't endure this bed another
+      minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let Doctor Harmon lift you. He is so fresh and clean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester glanced enviously at the shaven face and white trousers and
+      shirt of the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I just hate fresh, clean men. I want to smell herbs. I want to put my
+      feet in the dirt and my hands in the water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester came at a rush. He brought a big easy chair from the
+      living-room, straightened the cover, and bent above the Girl. He picked
+      her up lightly, gently, and easing her to his body settled in the chair.
+      She laid her face on his shoulder, and heaved a deep sigh of content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful with my back, Man,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think my spine is almost worn
+      through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor girl,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;That bed should be softer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It should not!&rdquo; contradicted the Girl. &ldquo;It should be much harder. I'm
+      tired of soft beds. I want to lie on the earth, with my head on a root;
+      and I wish it would rain dirt on me. I am bathed threadbare. I want to be
+      all streaky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Harmon, bring me a pad and pencil a
+      minute, I must write an order for some things I want. Will you call up
+      town and have them sent out immediately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the pad he wrote: &ldquo;Telephone Carey to get the highest grade curled-hair
+      mattress, a new pad, and pillow, and bring them flying in the car. Call
+      Granny and the girl and empty the room. Clean, air, and fumigate it
+      thoroughly. Arrange the furniture differently, and help me into the
+      living-room with Ruth.&rdquo; He handed the pad to the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please attend to that,&rdquo; he said, and to the Girl: &ldquo;Now we go on a
+      journey. Doc, you and Molly take the corners of the rug we are on and
+      slide us into the other room until you get this aired and freshened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the living-room the Girl took one long look at the surroundings and
+      suddenly relaxed. She cuddled against the Harvester and lifting a
+      tremulous white hand, drew it across his unshaven cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feels so good,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'm sick and tired of immaculate men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed, tucked her feet in the cover and held her tenderly.
+      The Girl lay with her cheek against the rough khaki, palpitant with the
+      excitement of being moved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it great?&rdquo; she panted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He caught the hand that had touched his cheek in a tender grip, and
+      laughed a deep rumble of exultation that came from the depths of his
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no name for it, honey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But don't try to talk until you
+      have a long rest. Changing positions after you have lain so long may be
+      making unusual work for your heart. Am I hurting your back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;This is the first time I have been comfortable in
+      ages. Am I tiring you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;You are almost as heavy as a large sack of
+      leaves, but not quite equal to a bridge pillar or a log. Be sure to think
+      of that, and worry considerably. You are in danger of straining my muscles
+      to the last degree, my heart included.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is your heart?&rdquo; whispered the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right under your cheek,&rdquo; answered the Harvester. &ldquo;But for Heaven's sake,
+      don't intimate that you are taking any interest in it, or it will go to
+      pounding until your head will bounce. It's one member of my body that I
+      can't control where you are concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought you didn't like me any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Careful!&rdquo; warned the Harvester. &ldquo;You are yet too close Heaven to fib like
+      that, Ruth. What have I done to indicate that I don't love you more than
+      ever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stayed away nearly every minute for three awful days, and wouldn't come
+      without being dragged; and now you're wishing they would hurry and fix
+      that bed, so you can put me down and go back to your rank old herbs
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well of all the black prevarications! I went when you sent me, and came
+      when you called. I'd willingly give up my hope of what Granny calls
+      'salvation' to hold you as I am for an hour, and you know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's going to be much longer than that,&rdquo; said the Girl nestling to him.
+      &ldquo;I asked for you because you never hurt me, and they always do. I knew you
+      were so strong that my weight now wouldn't be a load for one of your
+      hands, and I am not going back to that bed until I am so tired that I will
+      be glad to lie down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time she was so silent the Harvester thought her going to
+      sleep; and having learned that for him joy was probably transient, he
+      deliberately got all he could. He closely held the hand she had not
+      withdrawn, and often lifted it to his lips. Sometimes he stroked the heavy
+      braid, gently ran his hands across the tired shoulders, or eased her into
+      a different position. There was not a doubt in his mind of one thing. He
+      was having a royal, good time, and he was thankful for the work he had set
+      his assistants that kept them out of the room. They seemed in no hurry,
+      and from scuffling, laughing, and a steady stream of talk, they were
+      entertained at least. At last the Girl roused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something I want to ask you,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I promised Doctor
+      Harmon I would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly the heart of the Harvester gave a leap that jarred the head
+      resting on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't like him?&rdquo; questioned the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; declared the Harvester. &ldquo;I like him immensely. There is not a
+      fine, manly good-looking feature about him that I have missed. I don't
+      fail to do him justice on every point.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm so glad! Then you will want him to remain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here?&rdquo; asked the Harvester with a light, hot breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Onabasha! Doctor Carey has offered him the place of chief assistant at
+      the hospital. There is a good salary and the chance of taking up the
+      doctor's work as he grows older. It means plenty to do at once, healthful
+      atmosphere, congenial society&mdash;&mdash;everything to a young man. He
+      only had a call once in a while in Chicago, often among people who
+      received more than they paid, like me, and he was very lonely. I think it
+      would be great for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for you, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn't make the least difference to me; but for his sake, because I
+      think so much of him, I would like to see him have the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You still think so much of him, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More, if possible,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Added to all I owed him before, he
+      has come here and worked for days to save me, and it wasn't his fault that
+      it took a bigger man. Nothing alters the fact that he did all he could,
+      most graciously and gladly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, Ruth?&rdquo; stammered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh they have worn themselves out!&rdquo; cried the Girl impatiently. &ldquo;First,
+      Granny Moreland told me every least little detail of how I went out, and
+      you resurrected me. I knew what she said was true, because she worked with
+      you. Then Doctor Carey told me, and Mrs. Carey, and Doctor Harmon, and
+      Molly, and even Granny's little assistant has left the kitchen to tell me
+      that I owe my life to you, and all of them might as well have saved
+      breath. I knew all the time that if ever I came out of this, and had a
+      chance to be like other women, it would be your work, and I'm glad it is.
+      I'd hate to be under obligations to some people I know; but I feel
+      honoured to be indebted to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm mighty sorry they worried you. I had no idea&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They didn't 'worry,' me! I am just telling you that I knew it all the
+      time; that's all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget that!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Come back to our subject. What was it
+      you wanted, dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To know if you have any objections to Doctor Harmon remaining in
+      Onabasha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not! It will be a fine thing for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it make any difference to you in any way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, that's probing too deep,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see why!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd least rather show my littleness to you than to any one else on
+      earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you have some feeling about it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps a trifle. I'll get over it. Give me a little time to adjust
+      myself. Doctor Harmon shall have the place, of course. Don't worry about
+      that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will be so happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll be happy too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it's all right,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid down her hand, drew the cover over it, and slightly shifted her
+      position to rest her. The door opened, and Doctor Harmon announced that
+      the room was ready. It was shining and fresh. The bed was now turned with
+      its head to the north, so that from it one could see the big trees in
+      Medicine Woods, the sweep of the hillside, the sparkle of mallow-bordered
+      Singing Water, the driveway and the gold flower garden. Everything was so
+      changed that the room had quite a different appearance. The instant he
+      laid her on it the Girl said, &ldquo;This bed is not mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes it is,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You see, we were a little excited
+      sometimes, and we spilled a few quarts of perfectly good medicine on your
+      mattress. It was hopelessly smelly and ruined; so I am going to cremate it
+      and this is your splinter new one and a fresh pad and pillow. Now you try
+      them and see if they are not much harder and more comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is just perfect!&rdquo; she sighed, as she sank into the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester bent over her to straighten the cover, when suddenly she
+      reached both arms around his neck, and gripped him with all her strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I hold you to-morrow?&rdquo; whispered the Harvester, emboldened by this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please do,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester, with dog to heel, went to the oak to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Belshazzar, kommen Sie!&rdquo; said the man, dropping on the seat and holding
+      out his hand. The dog laid his muzzle in the firm grip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bel,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I am all at sea. One day I think maybe I have
+      a little chance, the next&mdash;&mdash;none at all. I had an hour of solid
+      comfort to-day, now I'm in the sweat box again. It's a little selfish
+      streak in me, Bel, that hates to see Harmon go into the hospital and take
+      my place with the Careys. They are my best and only friends. He is young,
+      social, handsome, and will be ever present. In three months he will become
+      so popular that I might as well be off the earth. I wish I didn't think
+      it, but I'm so small that I do. And then there is my Dream Girl, Bel. The
+      girl you found for me, old fellow. There never was another like her, and
+      she has my heart for all time. And he has hers. That hospital plan is the
+      best thing in the world for her. It will keep her where Carey can have an
+      eye on her, where the air is better, where she can have company without
+      the city crush, where she is close the country, and a good living is
+      assured. Bel, it's the nicest arrangement you ever saw for every one we
+      know, except us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed shortly. &ldquo;Bel,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;tell me! If a man lived a
+      hundred years, could he have the heartache all the way? Seems like I've
+      had it almost that long now. In fact, I've had it such ages I'd be
+      lonesome without it. This is some more of my very own medicine, so I
+      shouldn't make a wry face over taking it. I knew what would happen when I
+      sent for him, and I didn't hesitate. I must not now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only I got to stop one thing, Bel. I told him I would play square, and I
+      have. But here it ends. After this, I must step back and be big brother.
+      Lots of fun in this brother business, Bel. But maybe I am cut out for it.
+      Anyway it's written! But if it is, how did she come to allow me such
+      privileges as I took to-day? That wasn't professional by any means. It was
+      just the stiffest love-making I knew how to do, Bel, and she didn't object
+      by the quiver of an eyelash. God knows I was watching closely enough for
+      any sign that I was distasteful. And I might have been well enough. Rough,
+      herb-stained old clothes, unshaven, everything to offend a dainty girl.
+      She said I might hold her again to-morrow. And, Bel, what the nation did
+      she hug me like that for, if she's going to marry him? Boy, I see my way
+      clear to an hour more. While I'm at it, just to surprise myself, I believe
+      I'll take it like other men. I think I'll go on a little bender, and make
+      what probably will be the last day a plumb good one. Something worth
+      remembering is better than nothing at all, Bel! He hasn't told me that he
+      has won. She didn't SAY she was going to marry him, and she did say he
+      hurt her, and she wanted me. Bel, how about the grimness of it, if she
+      should marry him and then discover that he hurts her, and she wants me.
+      Lord God Almighty, if you have any mercy at all, never put me up against
+      that,&rdquo; prayed the Harvester, &ldquo;for my heart is water where she is
+      concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose, and going to the lake, he cut an arm load of big,
+      pink mallows, covered each mound with fresh flowers, whistled to the dog,
+      and went to his work. Many things had accumulated, and he cleaned the
+      barn, carried herbs from the dry-house to the store-room, and put
+      everything into shape. Close noon the next day he went to Onabasha, and
+      was gone three hours. He came back barbered in the latest style, and
+      carrying a big bundle. When the hour for arranging the bed came, he was
+      yet in his room, but he sent word he would be there in a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he crossed the living-room he pulled a chair to the veranda and placed
+      a footstool before it. Then he stepped into the sunshine room. A quizzical
+      expression crossed the face of Doctor Harmon as he closed the book he was
+      reading aloud to the Girl and arose. Wholly unembarrassed the Harvester
+      smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I got this rigging anywhere near right?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, what have you done?&rdquo; gasped the amazed Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't feel anywhere near up to the 'mark of my high calling'
+      yesterday,&rdquo; quoted the Harvester. &ldquo;I don't know how I appear, but I'm
+      clean as shaving, soap and hot water will make me, and my clothing will
+      not smell offensively. Now come out of that bed for a happy hour. Where is
+      that big coverlet? You are going on the veranda to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look just like every one else,&rdquo; complained Doctor Harmon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look perfectly lovely,&rdquo; declared the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The swale sends you this invitation to come and see star-shine at the
+      foot of mullein hill,&rdquo; said the Harvester, offering a bouquet. It was a
+      loose bunch of long-stemmed, delicate flowers, each an inch across, and
+      having five pearl-white petals lightly striped with pale green. Five long
+      gold anthers arose, and at their base gold stamens and a green pistil. The
+      leaves were heart-shaped and frosty, whitish-green, resembling felt. The
+      Harvester bent to offer them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have some Grass of Parnassus, my dear,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl waved them away. &ldquo;Go stand over there by the door and slowly turn
+      around. I want to see you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester obeyed. He was freshly and carefully shaven. His hair was
+      closely cropped at the base of the head, long, heavy, and slightly waving
+      on top. He wore a white silk shirt, with a rolling collar and tie, white
+      trousers, belt, hose, and shoes, and his hands were manicured with care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I made a mess of it, or do I appear anything like other men?&rdquo; he
+      asked, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl lifted her eyes to Doctor Harmon and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you observe anything messy?&rdquo; she inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't fish for compliments quite so obviously,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;I'll
+      pay them without being asked. I do not. He is quite correct, and
+      infinitely better looking than the average. Distinguished is a proper word
+      for the gentleman in my opinion. But why, in Heaven's name, have we never
+      had the pleasure of seeing you thus before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, Doc,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;do you mean that you enjoy looking
+      at me merely because I am dressed this way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do indeed,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;It is good to see you with the garb of
+      work laid aside, and the stamp of cleanliness and ease upon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By gum, that is rubbing it in a little too rough!&rdquo; cried the Harvester.
+      &ldquo;I bathe oftener than you do. My clothing is always clean when I start
+      out. Of course, in my work I come hourly in contact with muck, water, and
+      herb juices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's understood that is unavoidable,&rdquo; said Doctor Harmon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if cleanliness is made an issue, I'd rather roll in any of it than
+      put my finger tips into the daily work of a surgeon,&rdquo; added the Harvester,
+      and the Girl giggled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's enough Medicine Man!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You did not make a 'mess' of it,
+      or anything else you ever attempted. As for appearing like other men,
+      thank Heaven, you do not. You look just a whole world bigger and better
+      and finer. Come, carry me out quickly. I am wild to go. Please put my
+      lovely flowers in water, Molly, only give me a few to hold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arranged the pink coverlet, picked up the Girl, and carried
+      her to the living-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will rest here a little,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and then, if you feel equal to it,
+      we will try the veranda. Are you easy now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She nestled her face against the soft shirt and smiled at him. She lifted
+      her hand, laid it on his smooth cheek and then the crisp hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh Man!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Thank God you didn't give me up, too! I want life! I
+      want LIFE!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester tightened his grip just a trifle. &ldquo;Then I thank God, too,&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;Can you tell me how you are, dear? Is there any difference?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;I grow tired lying so long, but there isn't the
+      ghost of an ache in my bones. I can just feel pure, delicious blood
+      running in my veins. My hands and feet are always warm, and my head cool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's face drew very close. &ldquo;How about your heart, honey?&rdquo; he
+      whispered. &ldquo;Anything new there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am all over new inside and out. I want to shout, run, sing, and
+      swim. Oh I'd give anything to have you carry me down and dip me in the
+      lake right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soon, Girl! That will come soon,&rdquo; prophesied the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scarcely can wait. And you did say a saddle, didn't you? Won't it be
+      great to come galloping up the levee, when the leaves are red and the
+      frost is in the air. Oh am I going fast enough?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much faster than I expected,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;You are surprising all
+      of us, me most of any. Ruth, you almost make me hope that you regard this
+      as home. Honey, you are thinking a little of me these days?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hand that had fallen from his hair lay on his shoulder. Now it slid
+      around his neck, and gripped him with all its strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaps and heaps!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;All I get a chance to, for being bothered
+      and fussed over, and everlastingly read mushy stuff that's intended for
+      some one else. Please take me to the veranda now; I want to tell you
+      something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His head swam, but the Harvester set his feet firmly, arose, and carried
+      his Dream Girl back to outdoor life. When he reached the chair, she begged
+      him to go a few steps farther to the bench on the lake shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid,&rdquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's so warm. There can't be any difference in the air. Just a minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester pushed open the screen, went to the bench, and seating
+      himself, drew the cover closely around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't speak a word for a long time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just rest. If I tire you
+      too much and spoil everything, I will be desperate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He clasped her to him, laid his cheek against her hair, and his lips on
+      her forehead. He held her hand and kissed it over and over, and again he
+      watched and could find no resentment. The cool, pungent breeze swept from
+      the lake, and the voices of wild life chattered at their feet. Sometimes
+      the water folks splashed, while a big black and gold butterfly mistook the
+      Girl's dark hair for a perching place and settled on it, slowly opening
+      its wonderful wings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie quietly, Girl,&rdquo; whispered the Harvester. &ldquo;You are wearing a living
+      jewel, an ornament above price, on your hair. Maybe you can see it when it
+      goes. There!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh I did!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;How I love it here! Before long may I lie in the
+      dining-room window a while so I can see the water. I like the hill, but I
+      love the lake more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now if you just would love me,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;you would have all
+      Medicine Woods in your heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't hurry me so!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;You gave me a year; and it's only a
+      few weeks, and I've not been myself, and I'm not now. I mustn't make any
+      mistake, and all I know for sure is that I want you most, and I can rest
+      best with you, and I miss you every minute you are gone. I think that
+      should satisfy you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be enough for any reasonable man,&rdquo; said the Harvester angrily.
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, Ruth, I have been cruel. I forgot how frail and weak you are.
+      It is having Harmon here that makes me unnatural. It almost drives me to
+      frenzy to know that he may take you from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then send him away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;SEND HIM AWAY?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, send him away! I am tired to death of his poetry, and seeing him
+      spoon around. Send both of them away quickly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gulped, blinked, and surreptitiously felt for her pulse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I've not developed fever again,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'm all right. But it
+      must be a fearful expense to have both of them here by the week, and I'm
+      so tired of them, Granny says she can take care of me just as well, and
+      the girl who helps her can cook. No one but you shall lift me, if I don't
+      get my nose Out until I can walk alone Both of them are perfectly useless,
+      and I'd much rather you'd send them away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, there! Of course!&rdquo; said the Harvester soothingly. &ldquo;I'll do it as
+      soon as I possibly dare. You don't understand, honey. You are yet delicate
+      beyond measure, internally. The fever burned so long. Every morsel you eat
+      is measured and cooked in sterilized vessels, and I'd be scared of my life
+      to have the girl undertake it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why she is doing it straight along now! She and Granny! Molly isn't out
+      of Doctor Harmon's sight long enough to cook anything. Granny says there
+      is 'a lot of buncombe about what they do, and she is going to tell them so
+      right to their teeth some of these days, if they badger her much more,'
+      and I wish she would, and you, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gathered the Girl to him in one crushing bear hug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the love of Heaven, Ruth, you drive me crazy! Answer me just one
+      question. When you told me that you 'adored and worshipped' Doctor Harmon,
+      did you mean it, or was that the delirium of fever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know WHAT I told you! If I said I 'adored' him, it was the truth.
+      I did! I do! I always will! So do I adore the Almighty, but that's no sign
+      I want him to read poetry to me, and be around all the time when I am wild
+      for a minute with you. I can worship Doctor Harmon in Chicago or Onabasha
+      quite as well. Fire him! If you don't, I will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Lord!&rdquo; cried the Harvester, helpless until the Girl had to cling to
+      him to prevent rolling from his nerveless arms. &ldquo;Ruth, Ruth, will you feel
+      my pulse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I won't! But you are going to drop me. Take me straight back to my
+      beautiful new bed, and send them away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A minute! Give me a minute!&rdquo; gasped the Harvester. &ldquo;I couldn't lift a
+      baby just now. Ruth, dear, I thought you LOVED the man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What made you think so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't either! I never said I loved him. I said I was under obligations
+      to him; but they are as well repaid as they ever can be. I said I adored
+      him, and I tell you I do! Give him what we owe him, both of us, in money,
+      and send them away. If you'd seen as much of them as I have, you'd be
+      tired of them, too. Please, please, David!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, arising in a sudden tide of effulgent joy.
+      &ldquo;Yes, Girl, just as quickly as I can with decency. I&mdash;&mdash;I'll
+      send them on the lake, and I'll take care of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't read poetry to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't moon at me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then hurry! But have them take your boat. I am going to have the first
+      ride in mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed you are, and soon, too!&rdquo; said the Harvester, marching up the hill
+      as if he were leading hosts to battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid the Girl on the bed and covered her, and called Granny Moreland to
+      sit beside her a few minutes. He went into the gold garden and proposed
+      that the doctor and the nurse go rowing until supper time, and they went
+      with alacrity. When they started he returned to the Girl and, sitting
+      beside her, he told Granny to take a nap. Then he began to talk softly all
+      about wild music, and how it was made, and what the different odours
+      sweeping down the hill were, and when the red leaves would come, and the
+      nuts rattle down, and the frost fairies enamel the windows, and soon she
+      was sound asleep. Granny came back, and the Harvester walked around the
+      lake shore to be alone a while and think quietly, for he was almost too
+      dazed and bewildered for full realization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he softly followed the foot path he heard voices, and looking down, he
+      saw the boat lying in the shade and beneath a big tree on the bank sat the
+      doctor and the nurse. His arm was around her, and her head was on his
+      shoulder; and she said very distinctly, &ldquo;How long will it be until we can
+      go without offending him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. A VERTICAL SPINE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      By middle September the last trace of illness had been removed from the
+      premises, and it was rapidly disappearing from the face and form of the
+      Girl. She was showing a beautiful roundness, there was lovely colour on
+      her cheeks and lips, and in her dark eyes sparkled a touch of mischief.
+      Rigidly she followed the rules laid down for diet and exercise, and as
+      strength flowed through her body, and no trace of pain tormented her, she
+      began revelling in new and delightful sensations. She loved to pull her
+      boat as she willed, drive over the wood road, study the books, cook the
+      new dishes, rearrange furniture, and go with the Harvester everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But that was greatly the management of the man. He was so afraid that
+      something might happen to undo all the wonders accomplished in the Girl,
+      and again whiten her face with pain, that he scarcely allowed her out of
+      his sight. He remained in the cabin, helping when she worked, and then
+      drove with her and a big blanket to the woods, arranged her chair and
+      table, found some attractive subject, and while the wind ravelled her hair
+      and flushed her cheeks, her fingers drew designs. At noon they went to the
+      cabin to lunch, and the Girl took a nap, while the Harvester spread his
+      morning's reaping on the shelves to dry. They returned to the woods until
+      five o'clock; then home again and the Girl dressed and prepared supper,
+      while the Harvester spread his stores and fed the stock. Then he put on
+      white clothing for the evening. The Girl rested while he washed the
+      dishes, and they explored the lake in the little motor boat, or drove to
+      the city for supplies, or to see their friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you even with your usual work at this time of the year?&rdquo; she asked as
+      they sat at breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The only things that have been crowded out
+      are the candlesticks. They will have to remain on the shelf until the
+      herbs and roots are all in, and the long winter evenings come. Then I'll
+      use the luna pattern and finish yours first of all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Start on a regular fall campaign. Some of it for the sake of having it,
+      and some because there is good money in it. Will you come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed yes. May I help, or shall I take my drawing along?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring your drawing. Next fall you may help, but as yet you are too close
+      suffering for me to see you do anything that might be even a slight risk.
+      I can't endure it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baby!&rdquo; she jeered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Christen me anything you please,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester. &ldquo;I'm short on
+      names anyway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to harness Betsy, and the Girl washed the dishes, straightened the
+      rooms, and collected her drawing material. Then she walked up the hill,
+      wearing a shirt and short skirt of khaki, stout shoes, and a straw hat
+      that shaded her face. She climbed into the wagon, laid the drawing box on
+      the seat, and caught the lines as the Harvester flung them to her. He went
+      swinging ahead, Belshazzar to heel, the Girl driving after. The white
+      pigeons circled above, and every day Ajax allowed his curiosity to
+      overcome his temper, and followed a little farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoa, Betsy!&rdquo; The Girl tugged at the lines; but Betsy took the bit
+      between her teeth, and plodded after the Harvester. She pulled with all
+      her might, but her strength was not nearly sufficient to stop the stubborn
+      animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoa, David!&rdquo; cried the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; the Harvester turned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't you please wait until I can take off my hat? I love to ride
+      bareheaded through the woods, and Betsy won't stop until you do, no matter
+      how hard I pull.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Betsy, you're no lady!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Why don't you stop when
+      you're told?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shan't waste any more strength on her,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Hereafter I
+      shall say, 'Gee, David,' 'Haw, David,' 'Whoa, David,' and then she will do
+      exactly as you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stopped half way up the hill, and beside a large, shaded bed
+      spread the rug, and set up the little table and chair for the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want a plant to draw?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;This is very important to us. It has a
+      string of names as long as a princess, but I call it goldenseal, because
+      the roots are yellow. The chemists ask for hydrastis. That sounds
+      formidable, but it's a cousin of buttercups. The woods of Ohio and Indiana
+      produce the finest that ever grew, but it is so nearly extinct now that
+      the trade can be supplied by cultivation only. I suspect I'm responsible
+      for its disappearance around here. I used to get a dollar fifty a pound,
+      and most of my clothes and books when a boy I owe to it. Now I get two for
+      my finest grade; that accounts for the size of these beds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's pretty!&rdquo; said the Girl, studying a plant averaging a foot in height.
+      On a slender, round, purplish stem arose one big, rough leaf, heavily
+      veined, and having from five to nine lobes. Opposite was a similar leaf,
+      but very small, and a head of scarlet berries resembling a big raspberry
+      in shape. The Harvester shook the black woods soil from the yellow roots,
+      and held up the plant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't enjoy the odour,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I like the leaves. I know I can use them some way. They are so
+      unusual. What wonderful colour in the roots!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of its names is Indian paint,&rdquo; explained the Harvester. &ldquo;Probably it
+      furnished the squaws of these woods with colouring matter. Now let's see
+      what we can get out of it. You draw the plant and I'll dig the roots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a time the Girl bent over her work and the Harvester was busy.
+      Belshazzar ranged the woods chasing chipmunks. The birds came asking
+      questions. When the drawing was completed, other subjects were found at
+      every turn, and the Girl talked almost constantly, her face alive with
+      interest. The May-apple beds lay close, and she drew from them. She
+      learned the uses and prices of the plant, and also made drawings of
+      cohosh, moonseed and bloodroot. That was so wonderful in its root colour,
+      the Harvester filled the little cup with water and she began to paint.
+      Intensely absorbed she bent above the big, notched, silvery leaves and the
+      blood-red roots, testing and trying to match them exactly. Every few
+      minutes the Harvester leaned over her shoulder to see how she was
+      progressing and to offer suggestions. When she finished she picked up a
+      trailing vine of moonseed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have this on the porch,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think it is lovely. There is no
+      end to the beautiful combinations of leaves, and these are such pretty
+      little grape-like clusters; but if you touch them the slightest you soil
+      the wonderful surface.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that makes the fairies very sad,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;They love that
+      vine best of any, because they paint its fruit with the most care. 'Bloom'
+      the scientists call it. You see it on cultivated plums, grapes, and
+      apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed and black haws in
+      the woods. You should be able to design a number of pretty things from the
+      cohosh leaves and berries, too. You scarcely can get a start this fall,
+      but early in the spring you can begin, and follow the season. If your work
+      comes out well this winter, I'll send some of it to the big publishing
+      houses, and you can make book and magazine covers and decorations, if you
+      would like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'If I would like!' How modest! You know perfectly well that if I could
+      make a design that would be accepted, and used on a book or magazine, I
+      would almost fly. Oh do you suppose I could?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't 'suppose' anything about it, I know,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It is
+      not possible that the public can be any more tired of wild roses,
+      golden-rod, and swallows than the poor art editors who accept them because
+      they can't help themselves. Dangle something fresh and new under their
+      noses and see them snap. The next time I go to Onabasha I'll get you some
+      popular magazines, and you can compare what is being used with what you
+      see here, and judge for yourself how glad they would be for a change. And
+      potteries, arts and crafts shops, and wall paper factories, they'd be
+      crazy for the designs I could furnish them. As for money, there's more in
+      it than the herbs, if I only could draw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do that,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Trail the vine and give me an idea how to
+      scale it. I'll just make studies now, and this winter I'll conventionalize
+      them and work them into patterns. Won't that be fun?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's more than fun, Ruth,&rdquo; said the Harvester solemnly. &ldquo;That is
+      creation. That touches the provinces of the Almighty. That is taking His
+      unknown wonders and making them into pleasure and benefit for thousands,
+      not to mention filling your face with awe divine, and lighting your eyes
+      with interest and ambition. That is life, Ruth. You are beginning to live
+      right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I understand! I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You get your subjects now. When the harvest is over I'll show you what I
+      have in my head, and before Christmas the fun will begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sketch a sarsaparilla plant and this yam vine. It grows on your veranda
+      too&mdash;&mdash;the rattle box, you remember. The leaves and seeding
+      arrangements are wonderful. You can do any number of things with them, and
+      all will be new.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He called her attention to and brought her samples of ginger leaves,
+      Indian hemp, queen-of-the-meadow, cone-flower, burdock, baneberry, and
+      Indian turnip, as he harvested them in turn. When they came to the large
+      beds of orange pleurisy root the Girl cried out with pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will take its prosaic features first,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;It is good
+      medicine and worth handling. Forget that! The Bird Woman calls it
+      butterfly flower. That's better. Now try to analyze a single bloom of this
+      gaudy mass, and you will see why there's poetry coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knelt beside the Girl, separating the blooms and pointing out their
+      marvellous colour and construction. She leaned against his shoulder, and
+      watched with breathless interest. As his bare head brought its mop of damp
+      wind-rumpled hair close, she ran her fingers through it, and with her
+      handkerchief wiped his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometimes I almost wish you'd get sick,&rdquo; she said irrelevantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the name of common sense, why?&rdquo; demanded the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh it must be born in the heart of a woman to want to mother something,&rdquo;
+       answered the Girl. &ldquo;I feel sometimes as if I would like to take care of
+      you, as if you were a little fellow. David, I know why your mother fought
+      to make you the man she desired. You must have been charming when small. I
+      can shut my eyes and just see the boy you were, and I should have loved
+      you as she did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How about the man I am?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester promptly. &ldquo;Any leanings
+      toward him yet, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's getting worser and worser every day and hour,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I
+      don't understand it at all. I wouldn't try to live without you. I don't
+      want you to leave my sight. Everything you do is the way I would have it.
+      Nothing you ever say shocks or offends me. I'd love to render you any
+      personal service. I want to take you in my arms and hug you tight half a
+      dozen times a day as a reward for the kind and lovely things you do for
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A dull red flamed up the neck and over the face of the Harvester. One arm
+      lifted to the chair back, the other dropped across the table so that the
+      Girl was almost encircled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the love of mercy, Ruth, why haven't I had a hint of this before?&rdquo; he
+      cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said you'd hate me. You said you'd drop me into the deepest part of
+      the lake if I deceived you; and if I have to tell the truth, why, that is
+      all of it. I think it is nonsense about some wonderful feeling that is
+      going to take possession of your heart when you love any one. I love you
+      so much I'd gladly suffer to save you pain or sorrow. But there are no
+      thrills; it's just steady, sober, common sense that I should love you, and
+      I do. Why can't you be satisfied with what I can give, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it's husks and ashes,&rdquo; said the Harvester grimly. &ldquo;You drive me
+      to desperation, Ruth. I am almost wild for your love, but what you offer
+      me is plain, straight affection, nothing more. There isn't a trace of the
+      feeling that should exist between man and wife in it. Some men might be
+      satisfied to be your husband, and be regarded as a father or brother. I am
+      not. The red bird didn't want a sister, Ruth, he was asking for a mate. So
+      am I. That's as plain as I know how to put it. There is some way to awaken
+      you into a living, loving woman, and, please God, I'll find it yet, but
+      I'm slow about it; there's no question of that. Never you mind! Don't
+      worry! Some of these days I have faith to believe it will sweep you as a
+      tide sweeps the shore, and then I hope God will be good enough to let me
+      be where you will land in my arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl sat looking at him between narrowed lids. Suddenly she took his
+      head between her hands, drew his face to hers and deliberately kissed him.
+      Then she drew away and searched his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; she challenged. &ldquo;What is the matter with that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's colour slowly faded to a sickly white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, you try me almost beyond human endurance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;'What's the
+      matter with that?'&rdquo; He arose, stepped back, folded his arms, and stared at
+      her. &ldquo;'What's the matter with that?'&rdquo; he repeated. &ldquo;Never was I so sorely
+      tempted in all my life as I am now to lie to you, and say there is
+      nothing, and take you in my arms and try to awaken you to what I mean by
+      love. But suppose I do&mdash;&mdash;and fail! Then comes the agony of slow
+      endurance for me, and the possibility that any day you may meet the man
+      who can arouse in you the feelings I cannot. That would mean my oath
+      broken, and my heart as well; while soon you would dislike me beyond
+      tolerance, even. I dare not risk it! The matter is, that was the loving
+      caress of a ten-year-old girl to a big brother she admired. That's all!
+      Not much, but a mighty big defect when it is offered a strong man as fuel
+      on which to feed consuming passion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Consuming passion,&rdquo; repeated the Girl. &ldquo;David you never lie, and you
+      never exaggerate. Do you honestly mean that there is something&mdash;&mdash;oh,
+      there is! I can see it! You are really suffering, and if I come to you,
+      and try my best to comfort you, you'll only call it baby affection that
+      you don't want. David, what am I going to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are going to the cabin,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and cook us a big
+      supper. I am dreadfully hungry. I'll be along presently. Don't worry,
+      Ruth, you are all right! That kiss was lovely. Tell me that you are not
+      angry with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes were wet as she smiled at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there is a bigger brute than a man anywhere on the footstool, I should
+      like to meet it,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;and see what it appears like. Go
+      along, honey; I'll be there as soon as I load.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drove to the dry-house, washed and spread his reaping on the big trays,
+      fed the stock, dressed in the white clothing and entered the kitchen. That
+      the Girl had been crying was obvious, but he overlooked it, helped with
+      the work, and then they took a boat ride. When they returned he proposed
+      that she should select her favourite likeness of her mother, and the next
+      time he went to the city he would take it with his, and order the
+      enlargements he had planned. To save carrying a lighted lamp into the
+      closet he brought her little trunk to the living-room, where she opened it
+      and hunted the pictures. There were several, and all of them were of a
+      young, elegantly dressed woman of great beauty. The Harvester studied them
+      long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was she, Ruth?&rdquo; he asked at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, and I have no desire to learn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you explain how the girl here represented came to marry a brother of
+      Henry Jameson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I was past twelve when my father came the last time, and I remember
+      him distinctly. If Uncle Henry were properly clothed, he is not a bad man
+      in appearance, unless he is very angry. He can use proper language, if he
+      chooses. My father was the best in him, refined and intensified. He was
+      much taller, very good looking, and he dressed and spoke well. They were
+      born and grew to manhood in the East, and came out here at the same time.
+      Where Uncle Henry is a trickster and a trader in stock, my father went a
+      step higher, and tricked and traded in men&mdash;&mdash;and women! Mother
+      told me this much once. He saw her somewhere and admired her. He learned
+      who she was, went to her father's law office and pretended he was
+      representing some great business in the West, until he was welcomed as a
+      promising client. He hung around and when she came in one day her father
+      was forced to introduce them. The remainder is the same world-old story&mdash;&mdash;a
+      good looking, glib-tongued man, plying every art known to an expert, on an
+      innocent girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he dead, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We thought so. We hoped so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your mother did not feel that her people might be suffering for her as
+      she was for them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not after she appealed to them twice and received no reply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps they tried to find her. Maybe she has a father or mother who is
+      longing for word from her now. Are you very sure you are right in not
+      wanting to know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never gave me a hint from which I could tell who or where they were.
+      In so gentle a woman as my mother that only could mean she did not want
+      them to know of her. Neither do I. This is the photograph I prefer; please
+      use it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll put back the trunk in the morning, when I can see better,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl closed it, and soon went to bed. But there was no sleep for the
+      man. He went into the night, and for hours he paced the driveway in
+      racking thought. Then he sat on the step and looked at Belshazzar before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life's growing easier every minute, Bel,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Here's my
+      Dream Girl, lovely as the most golden instant of that wonderful dream,
+      offering me&mdash;&mdash;offering me, Bel&mdash;&mdash;in my present pass,
+      the lips and the love of my little sister who never was born. And I've
+      hurt Ruth's feelings, and sent her to bed with a heartache, trying to make
+      her see that it won't do. It won't, Bel! If I can't have genuine love, I
+      don't want anything. I told her so as plainly as I could find words, and
+      set her crying, and made her unhappy to end a wonderful day. But in some
+      way she has got to learn that propinquity, tolerance, approval, affection,
+      even&mdash;&mdash;is not love. I can't take the risk, after all these
+      years of waiting for the real thing. If I did, and love never came, I
+      would end&mdash;&mdash;well, I know how I would end&mdash;&mdash;and that
+      would spoil her life. I simply have got to brace up, Bel, and keep on
+      trying. She thinks it is nonsense about thrills, and some wonderful
+      feeling that takes possession of you. Lord, Bel! There isn't much nonsense
+      about the thing that rages in my brain, heart, soul, and body. It strikes
+      me as the gravest reality that ever overtook a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is growing wonderfully attached to me. 'Couldn't live without me,'
+      Bel, that is what she said. Maybe it would be a scheme to bring Granny
+      here to stay with her, and take a few months in some city this winter on
+      those chemical points that trouble me. There is an old saying about
+      'absence making the heart grow fonder.' Maybe separation is the thing to
+      work the trick. I've tried about everything else I know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I'm in too much of a hurry! What a fool a man is! A few weeks ago,
+      Bel, I said to myself that if Harmon were away and had no part in her life
+      I'd be the happiest man alive. Happiest man alive! Bel, take a look at me
+      now! Happy! Well, why shouldn't I be happy? She is here. She is growing in
+      strength and beauty every hour. She cares more for me day by day. From an
+      outside viewpoint it seems as if I had almost all a man could ask in
+      reason. But when was a strong man in the grip of love ever reasonable? I
+      think the Almighty took a pretty grave responsibility when He made men as
+      He did. If I had been He, and understood the forces I was handling, I
+      would have been too big a coward to do it. There is nothing for me, Bel,
+      but to move on doing my level best; and if she doesn't awaken soon, I will
+      try the absent treatment. As sure as you are the most faithful dog a man
+      ever owned, Bel, I'll try the absent treatment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and entered the cabin, stepping softly, for it was
+      dark in the Girl's room, and he could not hear a sound there. He turned up
+      the lights in the living-room. As he did so the first thing he saw was the
+      little trunk. He looked at it intently, then picked up a book. Every page
+      he turned he glanced again at the trunk. At last he laid down the book and
+      sat staring, his brain working rapidly. He ended by carrying the trunk to
+      his room. He darkened the living-room, lighted his own, drew the rain
+      screens, and piece by piece carefully examined the contents. There were
+      the pictures, but the name of the photographer had been removed. There was
+      not a word that would help in identification. He emptied it to the bottom,
+      and as he picked up the last piece his fingers struck in a peculiar way
+      that did not give the impression of touching a solid surface. He felt over
+      it carefully, and when he examined with a candle he plainly could see
+      where the cloth lining had been cut and lifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time he knelt staring at it, then he deliberately inserted his
+      knife blade and raised it. The cloth had been glued to a heavy sheet of
+      pasteboard the exact size of the trunk bottom. Beneath it lay half a dozen
+      yellow letters, and face down two tissue-wrapped photographs. The
+      Harvester examined them first. They were of a man close forty, having a
+      strong, aggressive face, on which pride and dominant will power were
+      prominently indicated. The other was a reproduction of a dainty and
+      delicate woman, with exquisitely tender and gentle features. Long the
+      Harvester studied them. The names of the photographer and the city were
+      missing. There was nothing except the faces. He could detect traces of the
+      man in the poise of the Girl and the carriage of her head, and suggestions
+      of the woman in the refined sweetness of her expression. Each picture
+      represented wealth in dress and taste in pose. Finally he laid them
+      together on the table, picked up one of the letters, and read it. Then he
+      read all of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he finished, tears were running down his cheeks, and his resolution
+      was formed. These were the appeals of an adoring mother, crazed with fear
+      for the safety of an only child, who unfortunately had fallen under the
+      influence of a man the mother dreaded and feared, because of her knowledge
+      of life and men of his character. They were one long, impassioned plea for
+      the daughter not to trust a stranger, not to believe that vows of passion
+      could be true when all else in life was false, not to trust her untried
+      judgment of men and the world against the experience of her parents. But
+      whether the tears that stained those sheets had fallen from the eyes of
+      the suffering mother or the starved and deserted daughter, there was no
+      way for the Harvester to know. One thing was clear: It was not possible
+      for him to rest until he knew if that woman yet lived and bore such
+      suffering. But every trace of address had been torn away, and there was
+      nothing to indicate where or in what circumstances these letters had been
+      written.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long time the Harvester sat in deep thought. Then he returned all the
+      letters save one. This with the pictures he made into a packet that he
+      locked in his desk. The trunk he replaced and then went to bed. Early the
+      next morning he drove to Onabasha and posted the parcel. The address it
+      bore was that of the largest detective agency in the country. Then he
+      bought an interesting book, a box of fruit, and hurried back to the Girl.
+      He found her on the veranda, Belshazzar stretched close with one eye shut
+      and the other on his charge, whose cheeks were flushed with lovely colour
+      as she bent over her drawing material. The Harvester went to her with a
+      rush, and slipping his fingers under her chin, tilted back her head
+      against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got a kiss for me, honey?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No sir,&rdquo; answered the Girl emphatically. &ldquo;I gave you a perfectly lovely
+      one yesterday, and you said it was not right. I am going to try just once
+      more, and if you say again that it won't do, I'm going back to Chicago or
+      to my dear Uncle Henry, I haven't decided which.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were full of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why thank you, Ruth! I think that is wonderful,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+      &ldquo;I'll risk the next one. In the meantime, excuse me if I give you a
+      demonstration of the real thing, just to furnish you an idea of how it
+      should be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester delivered the sample, and went striding to the marsh. The
+      dazed Girl sat staring at her work, trying to realize what had happened;
+      for that was the first time the Harvester had kissed her on the lips, and
+      it was the material expression a strong man gives the woman he loves when
+      his heart is surging at high tide. The Girl sat motionless, gazing at her
+      study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the marsh she knew the Harvester was reaping queen-of-the-meadow, and
+      around the high borders, elecampane and burdock. She could hear his voice
+      in snatches of song or cheery whistle; notes that she divined were
+      intended to keep her from worrying. Intermingled with them came the dog's
+      bark of defiance as he digged for an escaping chipmunk, his note of
+      pleading when he wanted a root cut with the mattock, his cry of discovery
+      when he thought he had found something the Harvester would like, or his
+      yelp of warning when he scented danger. The Girl looked down the drive to
+      the lake and across at the hedge. Everywhere she saw glowing colour, with
+      intermittent blue sky and green leaves, all of it a complete picture, from
+      which nothing could be spared. She turned slowly and looked toward the
+      marsh, trying to hear the words of the song above the ripple of Singing
+      Water, and to see the form of the man. Slowly she lifted her handkerchief
+      and pressed it against her lips, as she whispered in an awed voice,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My gracious Heaven, is THAT the kind of a kiss he is expecting me to give
+      HIM? Why, I couldn't&mdash;&mdash;not to save my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She placed her brushes in water, set the colour box on the paper, and went
+      to the kitchen to prepare the noon lunch. As she worked the soft colour
+      deepened in her cheeks, a new light glowed in her eyes, and she hummed
+      over the tune that floated across the marsh. She was very busy when the
+      Harvester came, but he spoke casually of his morning's work, ate heartily,
+      and ordered her to take a nap while he washed roots and filled the trays,
+      and then they went to the woods together for the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening they came home to the cabin and finished the day's work. As
+      the night was chilly, the Harvester heaped some bark in the living-room
+      fireplace, and lay on the rug before it, while the Girl sat in an easy
+      chair and watched him as he talked. He was telling her about some
+      wonderful combinations he was going to compound for different ailments and
+      he laughingly asked her if she wanted to be a millionaire's wife and live
+      in a palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I could if I wanted to!&rdquo; she suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could!&rdquo; cried the Harvester. &ldquo;All that is necessary is to combine a
+      few proper drugs in one great remedy and float it. That is easy! The
+      people will do the remainder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You talk as if you believe that,&rdquo; marvelled the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want it proven?&rdquo; challenged the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; she cried in swift alarm. &ldquo;What do we want with more than we have?
+      What is there necessary to happiness that is not ours now? Maybe it is
+      true that the 'love of money is the root of all evil.' Don't you ever get
+      a lot just to find out. You said the night I came here that you didn't
+      want more than you had and now I don't. I won't have it! It might bring
+      restlessness and discontent. I've seen it make other people unhappy and
+      separate them. I don't want money, I want work. You make your remedies and
+      offer them to suffering humanity for just a living profit, and I'll keep
+      house and draw designs. I am perfectly happy, free, and unspeakably
+      content. I never dreamed that it was possible for me to be so glad, and so
+      filled with the joy of life. There is only one thing on earth I want. If I
+      only could&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could what, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could get that kiss right&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget it, I tell you!&rdquo; he commanded. &ldquo;Just so long as you worry and
+      fret, so long I've got to wait. If you quit thinking about it, all
+      'unbeknownst' to yourself you'll awake some morning with it on your lips.
+      I can see traces of it growing stronger every day. Very soon now it's
+      going to materialize, and then get out of my way, for I'll be a whirling,
+      irresponsible lunatic, with the wild joy of it. Oh I've got faith in that
+      kiss of yours, Ruth! It's on the way. The fates have booked it. There
+      isn't a reason on earth why I should be served so scurvy a trick as to
+      miss it, and I never will believe that I shall&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David,&rdquo; interrupted the Girl, &ldquo;go on talking and don't move a muscle,
+      just reach over presently and fix the fire or something, and then turn
+      naturally and look at the window beside your door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall miss it,&rdquo; said the Harvester steadily. &ldquo;That would be too
+      unmerciful. What do you see, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A face. If I am not greatly mistaken, it is my Uncle Henry and he appears
+      like a perfect fiend. Oh David, I am afraid!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet and don't look,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned and tossed a piece of bark on the fire. Then he reached for the
+      poker, pushed it down and stirred the coals. He arose as he worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rise slowly and quietly and go to your room. Stay there until I call
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Girl out of the way, the Harvester pottered over the fire, and
+      when the flame leaped he lifted a stick of wood, hesitated as if it were
+      too small, and laying it down, started to bring a larger one. In the
+      dining-room he caught a small stick from the wood box, softly stepped from
+      the door, and ran around the house. But he awakened Belshazzar on the
+      kitchen floor, and the dog barked and ran after him. By the time the
+      Harvester reached the corner of his room the man leaped upon a horse and
+      went racing down the drive. The Harvester flung the stick of wood, but
+      missed the man and hit the horse. The dog sprang past the Harvester and
+      vanished. There was the sound and flash of a revolver, and the rattle of
+      the bridge as the horse crossed it. The dog came back unharmed. The
+      Harvester ran to the telephone, called the Onabasha police, and asked them
+      to send a mounted man to meet the intruder before he could reach a cross
+      road; but they were too slow and missed him. However, the Girl was certain
+      she had recognized her uncle, and was extremely nervous; but the Harvester
+      only laughed and told her it was a trip made out of curiosity. Her uncle
+      wanted to see if he could learn if she were well and happy, and he finally
+      convinced her that this was the case, although he was not very sanguine
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next three days the Harvester worked in the woods and he kept the
+      Girl with him every minute. By the end of that time he really had
+      persuaded himself that it was merely curiosity. So through the cooling
+      fall days they worked together. They were very happy. Before her wondering
+      eyes the Harvester hung queer branches, burs, nuts, berries, and trailing
+      vines with curious seed pods. There were masses of brilliant flowers, most
+      of them strange to the Girl, many to the great average of humanity. While
+      she sat bending over them, beside her the Harvester delved in the black
+      earth of the woods, or the clay and sand of the open hillside, or the muck
+      of the lake shore, and lifted large bagfuls of roots that he later
+      drenched on the floating raft on the lake, and when they had drained he
+      dried them. Some of them he did not wet, but scraped and wiped clean and
+      dry. Often after she was sleeping, and long before she awoke in the
+      morning, he was at work carry-ing heaped trays from the evaporator to the
+      store-room, and tying the roots, leaves, bark, and seeds into packages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he gathered trillium roots the Girl made drawings of the plant and
+      learned its commercial value. She drew lady's slipper and Solomon's seal,
+      and learned their uses and prices; and carefully traced wild ginger leaves
+      while nibbling the aromatic root. It was difficult to keep from protesting
+      when the work carried them around the lake shore and to the pokeberry
+      beds, for the colour of these she loved. It required careful explanation
+      as to the value of the roots and seeds as blood purifier, and the argument
+      that in a few more days the frost would level the bed, to induce her to
+      consent to its harvesting. But when the case was properly presented, she
+      put aside her drawing and stained her slender fingers gathering the seeds,
+      and loved the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was golden on the lake, the birds of the upland were clustering
+      over reeds and rushes, for the sake of plentiful seed and convenient
+      water. Many of them sang fitfully, the notes of almost all of them were
+      melodious, and the day was a long, happy dream. There was but little left
+      to gather until ginseng time. For that the Harvester had engaged several
+      boys to help him, for the task of digging the roots, washing and drying
+      them, burying part of the seeds and preparing the remainder for market
+      seemed endless for one man to attempt. After a full day the Harvester lay
+      before the fire, and his head was so close the Girl's knee that her
+      fingers were in reach of his hair. Every time he mended the fire he moved
+      a little, until he could feel the touch of her garments against him. Then
+      he began to plan for the winter; how they would store food for the long,
+      cold days, how much fuel would be required, when they would go to the city
+      for their winter clothing, what they would read, and how they would work
+      together at the drawings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am almost too anxious to wait longer to get back to my carving,&rdquo; he
+      said. &ldquo;Whoever would have thought this spring that fall would come and
+      find the birds talking of going, the caterpillars spinning winter
+      quarters, the animals holing up, me getting ready for the cold, and your
+      candlesticks not finished. Winter is when you really need them. Then there
+      is solid cheer in numbers of candles and a roaring wood fire. The furnace
+      is going to be a good thing to keep the floors and the bathroom warm, but
+      an open fire of dry, crackling wood is the only rational source of heat in
+      a home. You must watch for the fairy dances on the backwall, Ruth, and
+      learn to trace goblin faces in the coals. Sometimes there is a panorama of
+      temples and trees, and you will find exquisite colour in the smoke. Dry
+      maple makes a lovely lavender, soft and fine as a floating veil, and damp
+      elm makes a blue, and hickory red and yellow. I almost can tell which wood
+      is burning after the bark is gone, by the smoke and flame colour. When the
+      little red fire fairies come out and dance on the backwall it is fun to
+      figure what they are celebrating. By the way, Ruth, I have been a lamb for
+      days. I hope you have observed! But I would sleep a little sounder
+      to-night if you only could give me a hint whether that kiss is coming on
+      at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He tipped back his head to see her face, and it was glorious in the red
+      firelight; the big eyes never appeared so deep and dark. The tilted head
+      struck her hand, and her fingers ran through his hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said to forget it,&rdquo; she reminded him, &ldquo;and then it would come
+      sooner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which same translated means that it is not here yet. Well, I didn't
+      expect it, so I am not disappointed; but begorry, I do wish it would
+      materialize by Christmas. I think I will work for that. Wouldn't it make a
+      day worth while, though? By the way, what do you want for Christmas,
+      Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A doll,&rdquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed. He tipped his head again to see her face and
+      suddenly grew quiet, for it was very serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite in earnest,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think the big dolls in the stores
+      are beautiful, and I never owned only a teeny little one. All my life I've
+      wanted a big doll as badly as I ever longed for anything that was not
+      absolutely necessary to keep me alive. In fact, a doll is essential to a
+      happy childhood. The mother instinct is so ingrained in a girl that if she
+      doesn't have dolls to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a part of
+      her natural rights. It's a pitiful thing to have been the little girl in
+      the picture who stands outside the window and gazes with longing soul at
+      the doll she is anxious to own and can't ever have. Harvester, I was
+      always that little girl. I am quite in earnest. I want a big, beautiful
+      doll more than anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading the Harvester's hair.
+      His head lightly touched her knee, and she shifted her position to afford
+      him a comfortable resting place. With a thrill of delight that shook him,
+      the man laid his head in her lap and looked into the fire, his face
+      glowing as a happy boy's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy, Ruth,&rdquo; he promised.
+      &ldquo;What else do you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid indigestible things
+      that Christmas stories always tell about; and popcorn balls, and candy,
+      and everything I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful day
+      with you. That's all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to Heaven right now before
+      anything occurs to spoil this,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge. He whirled to his knees,
+      and put his arms around the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth,&rdquo; he said huskily. &ldquo;I'll wager a thousand dollars I know what is
+      coming. Hug me tight, quick! and give me the best kiss you can&mdash;&mdash;any
+      old kind of a one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got to open
+      that door and let in trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the imprint of her lips
+      warm on his the Harvester crossed the room, and his heart dropped from the
+      heights with a thud. He stepped out, closing the door behind him, and
+      crossing the veranda, passed down the walk. He recognized the car as
+      belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and in it sat two men, one of whom
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you David Langston?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you send a couple of photographs to a New York detective agency a few
+      days ago with inquiries concerning some parties you wanted located?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;But I was not expecting any such immediate
+      returns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your questions touched on a case that long has been in the hands of the
+      agency, and they telegraphed the parties. The following day the people had
+      a letter, giving them the information they required, from another source.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is where Uncle Henry showed his fine Spencerian hand,&rdquo; commented the
+      Harvester. &ldquo;It always will be a great satisfaction that I got my fist in
+      first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Miss Jameson here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;My wife is at home. Her surname was Ruth
+      Jameson, but we have been married since June. Did you wish to speak with
+      Mrs. Langston?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came for that purpose. My name is Kennedy. I am the law partner and the
+      closest friend of the young lady's grandfather. News of her location has
+      prostrated her grandmother so that he could not leave her, and I was sent
+      to bring the young woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;Well you will have to interview her about that.
+      One word first. She does not know that I sent those pictures and made that
+      inquiry. One other word. She is just recovering from a case of fever,
+      induced by wrong conditions of life before I met her. She is not so strong
+      as she appears. Understand you are not to be abrupt. Go very gently! Her
+      feelings and health must be guarded with extreme care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester opened the door, and as she saw the stranger, the Girl's
+      eyes widened, and she arose and stood waiting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;this is a man who has been making quite a
+      search for you, and at last he has you located.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester went to the Girl's side, and put a reinforcing arm around
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he brings you some news that will make life most interesting and
+      very lovely for you. Will you shake hands with Mr. Kennedy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl suddenly straightened to unusual height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will hear why he has been making 'quite a search for me,' and on whose
+      authority he has me 'located,' first,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A diabolical grin crossed the face of the Harvester, and he took heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then please be seated, Mr. Kennedy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and we will talk over the
+      matter. As I understand, you are a representative of my wife's people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stared at the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take your chair, Ruth, and meet this as a matter of course,&rdquo; he advised
+      casually. &ldquo;You always have known that some day it must come. You couldn't
+      look in the face of those photographs of your mother in her youth and not
+      realize that somewhere hearts were aching and breaking, and brains were
+      busy in a search for her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl stood rigid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want it distinctly understood,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;that I have no use on earth
+      for my mother's people. They come too late. I absolutely refuse to see or
+      to hold any communication with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But young lady, that is very arbitrary!&rdquo; cried Mr. Kennedy. &ldquo;You don't
+      understand! They are a couple of old people, and they are slowly dying of
+      broken hearts!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so badly broken or they wouldn't die slowly,&rdquo; commented the Girl
+      grimly. &ldquo;The heart that was really broken was my mother's. The torture of
+      a starved, overworked body and hopeless brain was hers. There was nothing
+      slow about her death, for she went out with only half a life spent, and
+      much of that in acute agony, because of their negligence. David, you often
+      have said that this is my home. I choose to take you at your word. Will
+      you kindly tell this man that he is not welcome in this house, and I wish
+      him to leave it at once?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stepped back, and his face grew very white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't, Ruth,&rdquo; he said gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I brought him here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You brought him here! You! David, are you crazy? You!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is through me that he came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl caught the mantel for support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I stand alone again,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Harvester, I had thought you were
+      on my side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am at your feet,&rdquo; said the man in a broken voice. &ldquo;Ruth dear, will you
+      let me explain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is only one explanation, and with what you have done for me fresh
+      in my mind, I can't put it into words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, hear me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must! You force me! But before you speak understand this: Not now, or
+      through all eternity, do I forgive the inexcusable neglect that drove my
+      mother to what I witnessed and was helpless to avert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear! My dear!&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;I had hoped the woods had done a
+      more perfect work in your heart. Your mother is lying in state now, Girl,
+      safe from further suffering of any kind; and if I read aright, her tired
+      face and shrivelled frame were eloquent of forgiveness. Ruth dear, if she
+      so loved them that her heart was broken and she died for them, think what
+      they are suffering! Have some mercy on them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get this very clear, David,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;She died of hunger for food.
+      Her heart was not so broken that she couldn't have lived a lifetime, and
+      got much comfort out of it, if her body had not lacked sustenance. Oh I
+      was so happy a minute ago. David, why did you do this thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester picked up the Girl, placed her in a chair, and knelt beside
+      her with his arms around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because of the PAIN IN THE WORLD, Ruth,&rdquo; he said simply. &ldquo;Your mother is
+      sleeping sweetly in the long sleep that knows neither anger nor
+      resentment; and so I was forced to think of a gentle-faced, little old
+      mother whose heart is daily one long ache, whose eyes are dim with tears,
+      and a proud, broken old man who spends his time trying to comfort her,
+      when his life is as desolate as hers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know so wonderfully much about their aches and broken hearts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have seen their faces when they were happy, Ruth, and so I know
+      what suffering would do to them. There were pictures of them and letters
+      in the bottom of that old trunk. I searched it the other night and found
+      them; and by what life has done to your mother and to you, I can judge
+      what it is now bringing them. Never can you be truly happy, Ruth, until
+      you have forgiven them, and done what you can to comfort the remainder of
+      their lives. I did it because of the pain in the world, my girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about my pain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only way on earth to cure it is through forgiveness. That, and that
+      only, will ease it all away, and leave you happy and free for life and
+      love. So long as you let this rancour eat in your heart, Ruth, you are
+      not, and never can be, normal. You must forgive them, dear, hear what they
+      have to say, and give them the comfort of seeing what they can discover of
+      her in you. Then your heart will be at rest at last, your soul free, you
+      can take your rightful place in life, and the love you crave will awaken
+      in your heart. Ruth, dear you are the acme of gentleness and justice. Be
+      just and gentle now! Give them their chance! My heart aches, and always
+      will ache for the pain you have known, but nursing and brooding over it
+      will not cure it. It is going to take a heroic operation to cut it out,
+      and I chose to be the surgeon. You have said that I once saved your body
+      from pain Ruth, trust me now to free your soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to speak kindly to this man, who through my act has come here,
+      and allow him to tell you why he came. Then I want you to do the kind and
+      womanly thing your duty suggests that you should.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I don t understand you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is no difference,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;The point is, do you TRUST
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl hesitated. &ldquo;Of course I do,&rdquo; she said at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then hear what your grandfather's friend has come to say for him, and
+      forget yourself in doing to others as you would have them&mdash;&mdash;really,
+      Ruth, that is all of religion or of life worth while. Go on, Mr. Kennedy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drew up a chair, seated himself beside the Girl, and taking
+      one of her hands, he held it closely and waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sent here by my law partner and my closest friend, Mr. Alexander
+      Herron, of Philadelphia,&rdquo; said the stranger. &ldquo;Both he and Mrs. Herron were
+      bitterly opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew life and
+      human nature, and there never is but one end to men such as she married.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may omit that,&rdquo; said the Girl coldly. &ldquo;Simply state why you are
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In response to an inquiry from your husband concerning the originals of
+      some photographs he sent to a detective agency in New York. They have had
+      the case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue, they
+      telegraphed Mr. Herron. The prospect of news after years of fruitless
+      searching so prostrated Mrs. Herron that he dared not leave her, and he
+      sent me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kindly tell me this,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Where were my mother's father and
+      mother for the four years immediately following her marriage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of meeting their friends.
+      There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron developed a fever, and it was several years
+      before she could be brought home. She retired from society, and has been
+      confined to her room ever since. When they could return, a search was
+      instituted at once for their daughter, but they never have been able to
+      find a trace. They have hunted through every eastern city they thought
+      might contain her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And overlooked a little insignificant place like Chicago, of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself conducted a personal search there, and visited the home of every
+      Jameson in the directory or who had mail at the office or of whom I could
+      get a clue of any sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't suppose two women in a little garret room would be in the
+      directory, and there never was any mail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;She admitted that she had been wrong, asked
+      their forgiveness, and begged to go home. That was in the second year of
+      her marriage, and she was in Cleveland. Afterward she went to Chicago,
+      from there she wrote again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the mother's life, two
+      years after that. It is very easy to become lost in a large city.
+      Criminals do it every day and are never found, even with the best
+      detectives on their trail. I am very sorry about this. My friends will be
+      broken-hearted. At any time they would have been more than delighted to
+      have had their daughter return. A letter on the day following the message
+      from the agency brought news that she was dead, and now their only hope
+      for any small happiness at the close of years of suffering lies with you.
+      I was sent to plead with you to return with me at once and make them a
+      visit. Of course, their home is yours. You are their only heir, and they
+      would be very happy if you were free, and would remain permanently with
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do they know I will not be like the father they so detested?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They had sufficient cause to dislike him. They have every reason to love
+      and welcome you. They are consumed with anxiety. Will you come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. This is for me to decide. I do not care for them or their property.
+      Always they have failed me when my distress was unspeakable. Now there is
+      only one thing I ask of life, more than my husband has given me, and if
+      that lay in his power I would have it. You may go back and tell them that
+      I am perfectly happy. I have everything I need. They can give me nothing I
+      want, not even their love. Perhaps, sometime, I will go to see them for a
+      few days, if David will go with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young woman, do you realize that you are issuing a death sentence?&rdquo; asked
+      the lawyer gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a just one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not believe your husband agrees with you. I know I do not. Mrs.
+      Herron is a tiny old lady, with a feeble spark of vitality left; and with
+      all her strength she is clinging to life, and pleading with it to give her
+      word of her only child before she goes out unsatisfied. She knows that her
+      daughter is gone, and now her hopes are fastened on you. If for only a few
+      days, you certainly must go with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer turned to the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be ready to start with you to-morrow morning, on the first train
+      north,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;We will meet you at the station at eight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;&mdash;I am afraid I forgot to tell my driver to wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean your instructions were not to let the Girl out of your sight,&rdquo;
+       said the Harvester. &ldquo;Very well! We have comfortable rooms. I will show you
+      to one. Please come this way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester led the guest to the lake room and arranged for the night.
+      Then he went to the telephone and sent a message to an address he had been
+      furnished, asking for an immediate reply. It went to Philadelphia and
+      contained a description of the lawyer, and asked if he had been sent by
+      Mr. Herron to escort his grand-daughter to his home. When the Harvester
+      returned to the living-room the Girl, white and defiant, waited before the
+      fire. He knelt beside her and put his arms around her, but she repulsed
+      him; so he sat on the rug and looked at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No wonder you felt sure you knew what that was!&rdquo; she cried bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, if you will allow me to lift the bottom of that old trunk, and if
+      you will read any one of the half dozen letters I read, you will forgive
+      me, and begin making preparations to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a wonder you don't hold them before me and force me to read them,&rdquo;
+       she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't say anything you will be sorry for after you are gone, dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not going!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes you are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it is right that you should, and right is inexorable. Also,
+      because I very much wish you to; you will do it for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you want me to go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have three strong reasons: First, as I told you, it is the only thing
+      that will cleanse your heart of bitterness and leave it free for the
+      tenanting of a great and holy love. Next, I think they honestly made every
+      effort to find your mother, and are now growing old in despair you can
+      lighten, and you owe it to them and yourself to do it. Lastly, for my
+      sake. I've tried everything I know, Ruth, and I can't make you love me, or
+      bring you to a realizing sense of it if you do. So before I saw that chest
+      I had planned to harvest my big crop, and try with all my heart while I
+      did it, and if love hadn't come then, I meant to get some one to stay with
+      you, and I was going away to give you a free perspective for a time. I
+      meant to plead that I needed a few weeks with a famous chemist I know to
+      prepare me better for my work. My real motive was to leave you, and let
+      you see if absence could do anything for me in your heart. You've been
+      very nearly the creature of my hands for months, my girl; whatever any one
+      else may do, you're bound to miss me mightily, and I figured that with me
+      away, perhaps you could solve the problem alone I seem to fail in helping
+      you with. This is only a slight change of plans. You are going in my
+      stead. I will harvest the ginseng and cure it, and then, if you are not at
+      home, and the loneliness grows unbearable, I will take the chemistry
+      course, until you decide when you will come, if ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'If ever?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I am growing accustomed to facing big
+      propositions&mdash;&mdash;I will not dodge this. The faces of the three of
+      your people I have seen prove refinement. Their clothing indicates wealth.
+      These long, lonely years mean that they will shower you with every
+      outpouring of loving, hungry hearts. They will keep you if they can, my
+      dear. I do not blame them. The life I propose for you is one of work,
+      mostly for others, and the reward, in great part, consists of the joy in
+      the soul of the creator of things that help in the world. I realize that
+      you will find wealth, luxury, and lavish love. I know that I may lose you
+      forever, and if it is right and best for you, I hope I will. I know
+      exactly what I am risking, but I yet say, go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see how you can, and love me as you prove you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a little streak of the inevitableness of nature that the forest
+      has ground into my soul. I'd rather cut off my right hand than take yours
+      with it, in the parting that will come in the morning; but you are going,
+      and I am sending you. So long as I am shaped like a human being, it is in
+      me to dignify the possession of a vertical spine by acting as nearly like
+      a man as I know how. I insist that you are my wife, because it crucifies
+      me to think otherwise. I tell you to-night, Ruth, you are not and never
+      have been. You are free as air. You married me without any love for me in
+      your heart, and you pretended none. It was all my doing. If I find that I
+      was wrong, I will free you without a thought of results to me. I am a
+      secondary proposition. I thought then that you were alone and helpless,
+      and before the Almighty, I did the best I could. But I know now that you
+      are entitled to the love of relatives, wealth, and high social position,
+      no doubt. If I allowed the passion in my heart to triumph over the reason
+      of my brain, and worked on your feelings and tied you to the woods,
+      without knowing but that you might greatly prefer that other life you do
+      not know, but to which you are entitled, I would go out and sink myself in
+      Loon Lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, I love you. I do not want to go. Please, please let me remain with
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if you could say that realizing what it means, and give me the kiss
+      right now I would stake my soul to win! Not by any bribe you can think of
+      or any allurement you can offer. It is right that you go to those
+      suffering old people. It is right you know what you are refusing for me,
+      before you renounce it. It is right you take the position to which you are
+      entitled, until you understand thoroughly whether this suits you better.
+      When you know that life as well as this, the people you will meet as
+      intimately as me, then you can decide for all time, and I can look you in
+      the face with honest, unwavering eye; and if by any chance your heart is
+      in the woods, and you prefer me and the cabin to what they have to offer&mdash;&mdash;to
+      all eternity your place here is vacant, Ruth. My love is waiting for you;
+      and if you come under those conditions, I never can have any regret. A
+      clear conscience is worth restraining passion a few months to gain, and
+      besides, I always have got the fact to face that when you say 'I love,'
+      and when I say 'I love,' it means two entirely different things. When you
+      realize that the love of man for woman, and woman for man, is a thing that
+      floods the heart, brain, soul, and body with a wonderful and all-pervading
+      ecstasy, and if I happen to be the man who makes you realize it, then come
+      tell me, and we will show God and His holy angels what earth means by the
+      Heaven inspired word, 'radiance.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, there never will be any other man like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The exigencies of life must develop many a finer and better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You still refuse me? You yet believe I do not love you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not with the love I ask, my girl. But if I did not believe it was
+      germinating in your heart, and that it would come pouring over me in a
+      torrent some glad day, I doubt if I could allow you to go, Ruth! I am like
+      any other man in selfishness and in the passions of the body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selfishness! You haven't an idea what it means,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;And what
+      you call love&mdash;&mdash;there I haven't. But I know how to appreciate
+      you, and you may be positively sure that it will be only a few days until
+      I will come back to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't want you until you can bring the love I crave. I am sending
+      you to remain until that time, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it may be months, Man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then stay months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it may be&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be never! Then remain forever. That will be proof positive that
+      your happiness does not lie in my hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I not consider you as you do me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I love you, and you do not love me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are cruel to yourself and to me. You talk about the pain in the
+      world. What about the pain in my heart right now? And if I know you in the
+      least, one degree more would make you cry aloud for mercy. Oh David, are
+      we of no consideration at all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The muscles of the Harvester's face twisted an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is where we lop off the small branches to grow perfect fruit later.
+      This is where we do evil that good may result. This is where we suffer
+      to-night in order we may appreciate fully the joy of love's dawning. If I
+      am causing you pain, forgive me, dear heart. I would give my life to
+      prevent it, but I am powerless. It is right! We cannot avoid doing it, if
+      we ever would be happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up the Girl, and held her crushed in his arms a long time. Then
+      he set her inside her door and said, &ldquo;Lay out what you want to take and I
+      will help you pack, so that you can get some sleep. We must be ready early
+      in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the clothing to be worn was selected, the new trunk packed, and all
+      arrangements made, the Girl sat in his arms before the fire as he had held
+      her when she was ill, and then he sent her to bed and went to the lake
+      shore to fight it out alone. Only God and the stars and the faithful
+      Belshazzar saw the agony of a strong man in his extremity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near dawn he heard the tinkle of the bell and went to receive his message
+      and order a car for morning. Then he returned to the merciful darkness of
+      night, and paced the driveway until light came peeping over the tree tops.
+      He prepared breakfast and an hour later put the Girl on the train, and
+      stood watching it until the last rift of smoke curled above the spires of
+      the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. THE MAN IN THE BACKGROUND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester returned to Medicine Woods to fight his battle alone.
+      At first the pain seemed unendurable, but work always had been his
+      panacea, it was his salvation now. He went through the cabin, folding
+      bedding and storing it in closets, rolling rugs sprinkled with powdered
+      alum, packing cushions, and taking window seats from the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our sleeping room and the kitchen will serve for us, Bel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We
+      will put all these other things away carefully, so they will be as good as
+      new when the Girl comes home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening of the second day he was called to the telephone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a telegram for you,&rdquo; said a voice. &ldquo;A message from Philadelphia.
+      It reads: 'Arrived safely. Thank you for making me come. Dear old people.
+      Will write soon. With love, Ruth.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you got it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; lied the Harvester, grinning rapturously. &ldquo;Repeat it again slowly,
+      and give me time after each sentence to write it. Now! Go on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He carried the message to the back steps and sat reading it again and
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I supposed I'd have to wait at least four days,&rdquo; he said to Ajax as the
+      bird circled before him. &ldquo;This is from the Girl, old man, and she is not
+      forgetting us to begin with, anyway. She is there all safe, she sees that
+      they need her, they are lovable old people, she is going to write us all
+      about it soon, and she loves us all she knows how to love any one. That
+      should be enough to keep us sane and sensible until her letter comes.
+      There is no use to borrow trouble, so we will say everything in the world
+      is right with us, and be as happy as we can on that until we find
+      something we cannot avoid worrying over. In the meantime, we will have
+      faith to believe that we have suffered our share, and the end will be
+      happy for all of us. I am mighty glad the Girl has a home, and the right
+      kind of people to care for her. Now, when she comes back to me, I needn't
+      feel that she was forced, whether she wanted to or not, because she had
+      nowhere to go. This will let me out with a clean conscience, and that is
+      the only thing on earth that allows a man to live in peace with himself.
+      Now I'll go finish everything else, and then I'll begin the ginseng
+      harvest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Harvester hitched Betsy and with Belshazzar at his feet he drove
+      through the woods to the sarsaparilla beds. He noticed the beautiful lobed
+      leaves, at which the rabbits had been nibbling, and the heads of lustrous
+      purple-black berries as he began digging the roots that he sold for
+      stimulants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might have needed a dose of you now myself,&rdquo; the Harvester addressed a
+      heap of uprooted plants, &ldquo;if the electric wires hadn't brought me a
+      better. Great invention that! Never before realized it fully! I thought
+      to-day would be black as night, but that message changes the complexion of
+      affairs mightily. So I'll dig you for people who really are in need of
+      something to brace them up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After the sarsaparilla was on the trays, he attacked the beds of Indian
+      hemp, with its long graceful pods, and took his usual supply. Then he
+      worked diligently on the warm hillside over the dandelion. When these were
+      finished he brought half a dozen young men from the city and drilled them
+      on handling ginseng. He was warm, dirty, and tired when he came from the
+      beds the evening of the fourth day. He finished his work at the barn,
+      prepared and ate his supper, slipped into clean clothing, and walked to
+      the country road where it crossed the lane. There he opened his mail box.
+      The letter he expected with the Philadelphia postmark was inside. He
+      carried it to the bridge, and sitting in her favourite place, with the
+      lake breeze threading his hair, opened his first letter from the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Friend, Lover, Husband,&rdquo; it began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester turned the sheets face down across his knee, laid his hand
+      on them, and stared meditatively at the lake. &ldquo;'Friend,'&rdquo; he commented.
+      &ldquo;Well, that's all right! I am her friend, as well as I know how to be.
+      'Lover.' I come in there, full force. I did my level best on that score,
+      though I can't boast myself a howling success; a man can't do more than he
+      knows, and if I had been familiar with all the wiles of expert,
+      professional love-makers, they wouldn't have availed me in the Girl's
+      condition. I had a mighty peculiar case to handle in her, and not a
+      particle of training. But if she says 'Lover,' I must have made some kind
+      of a showing on the job. 'Husband.'&rdquo; A slow flush crept up the brawny neck
+      and tinged the bronzed face. &ldquo;That's a good word,&rdquo; said the Harvester,
+      &ldquo;and it must mean a wonderful thing&mdash;&mdash;to some men. 'Who bides
+      his time.' Well, I'm 'biding,' and if my time ever comes to be my Dream
+      Girl's husband, I'll wager all I'm worth on one thing. I'll study the job
+      from every point of the compass, and I'll see what showing I can make on
+      being the kind of a husband that a woman clings to and loves at eighty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking a deep breath the Harvester lifted the letter, and laying one hand
+      on Belshazzar's head, he proceeded&mdash;&mdash;&ldquo;I might as well admit in
+      the beginning that I cried most of the way here. Some of it was because I
+      was nervous and dreaded the people I would meet, and more on account of
+      what I felt toward them, but most of it was because I did not want to
+      leave you. I have been spoiled dreadfully! You have taught me so to depend
+      on you&mdash;&mdash;and for once I feel that I really can claim to have
+      been an apt pupil&mdash;&mdash;that it was like having the heart torn out
+      of me to come. I want you to know this, because it will teach you that I
+      have a little bit of appreciation of how good you are to me, and to all
+      the world as well. I am glad that I almost cried myself sick over leaving
+      you. I wish now I just had stood up in the car, and roared like a burned
+      baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But all the tears I shed in fear of grandfather and grandmother were
+      wasted. They are a couple of dear old people, and it would have been a
+      crime to allow them to suffer more than they must of necessity. It all
+      seems so different when they talk; and when I see the home, luxuries, and
+      friends my mother had, it appears utterly incomprehensible that she dared
+      leave them for a stranger. Probably the reason she did was because she was
+      grandfather's daughter. He is gentle and tender some of the time, but when
+      anything irritates him, and something does every few minutes, he breaks
+      loose, and such another explosion you never heard. It does not mean a
+      thing, and it seems to lower his tension enough to keep him from bursting
+      with palpitation of the heart or something, but it is a strain for others.
+      At first it frightened me dreadfully. Grandmother is so tiny and frail, so
+      white in her big bed, and when he is the very worst, and she only smiles
+      at him, why I know he does not mean it at all. But, David, I hope you
+      never will get an idea that this would be a pleasant way for you to act,
+      because it would not, and I never would have the courage to offer you the
+      love I have come to find if you slammed a cane and yelled, 'demnation,' at
+      me. Grandmother says she does not mind at all, but I wonder if she did not
+      acquire the habit of lying in bed because it is easier to endure in a
+      prostrate position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house is so big I get lost, and I do not know yet which are servants
+      and which friends; and there is a steady stream of seamstresses and
+      milliners making things for me. Grandmother and father both think I will
+      be quite passable in appearance when I am what they call 'modishly
+      dressed.' I think grandmother will forget herself some day and leave her
+      bed before she knows it, in her eagerness to see how something appears. I
+      could not begin to tell you about all the lovely things to wear, for every
+      occasion under the sun, and they say these are only temporary, until some
+      can be made especially for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They divide the time in sections, and there is an hour to drive, I am to
+      have a horse and ride later, and a time to shop, so long to visit
+      grandmother, and set hours to sleep, dress, to be fitted, taken to see
+      things, music lessons, and a dancing teacher. I think a longer day will
+      have to be provided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not care anything about dancing. I know what would make me dance
+      nicely enough for anything, but I am going to try the music, and see if I
+      can learn just a few little songs and some old melodies for evening, when
+      the work is done, the fire burns low, and you are resting on the rug.
+      There is enough room for a piano between your door and the south wall and
+      that corner seems vacant anyway. You would like it, David, I know, if I
+      could play and sing just enough to put you to sleep nicely. It is in the
+      back of my head that I will try to do every single thing, just as they
+      want me to, and that will make them happy, but never forget that the
+      instant I feel in my soul that your kiss is right on my lips, I am coming
+      to you by lightning express; and I told them so the first thing, and that
+      I only came because you made me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did not raise an objection, but I am not so dull that I cannot see
+      they are trying to bind me to them from the very first with chains too
+      strong to break. We had just one little clash. Grandfather was mightily
+      pleased over what you told Mr. Kennedy about my never having been your
+      wife, and that I was really free. There seems to be a man, the son of his
+      partner, whom grandfather dearly loves, and he wants me to be friends with
+      his friend. One can see at once what he is planning, because he said he
+      was going to introduce me as Miss Jameson. I told him that would be
+      creating a false impression, because I was a married woman; but he only
+      laughed at me and went straight to doing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I know why, but he is so terribly set I cannot stop him, so I
+      shall have to tell people myself that I am a staid, old married lady.
+      After all, I suppose I might as well let him go, if it pleases him. I
+      shall know how to protect myself and any one else, from any mistakes
+      concerning me; and in my heart I know what I know, and what I cannot make
+      you believe, but I will some day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suspect you're harvesting the ginseng now. The roar and rush of the
+      city seem strange, as if I never had heard it before, and I feel so
+      crowded. I scarcely can sleep at night for the clamour of the cars, cabs,
+      and throbbing life. Grandfather will not hear a word, and he just sputters
+      and says 'demnation' when I try to tell him about you; but grandmother
+      will listen, and I talk to her of you and Medicine Woods by the hour. She
+      says she thinks you must be a wonderfully nice person. I haven't dared
+      tell her yet the thing that will win her. She is so little and frail, and
+      she has heart trouble so badly; but some day I shall tell her all about
+      Chicago that I can, and then of Uncle Henry, and then about you and the
+      oak, and that will make her love you as I do. There are so many things to
+      do; they have sent for me three times. I shall tell them they must put you
+      on the schedule, and give me so much time to write or I will upset the
+      whole programme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you will like to know that Mr. Kennedy told grandfather all you
+      said to him about my illness, for almost as soon as I came he brought a
+      very wonderful man to my room, and he asked many questions and I told him
+      all about it, and what I had been doing. He made out a list of things to
+      eat and exercises. I am being taken care of just as you did, so I will go
+      on growing well and strong. The trouble is they are too good to me. I
+      would just love to shuffle my feet in dead leaves, and lie on the grass
+      this morning. I never got my swim in the lake. I will have to save that
+      until next summer. He also told grandfather what you said about Uncle
+      Henry, and I think he was pleased that you tried to find him as soon as
+      you knew. He let me see the letter Uncle Henry wrote, and it was a vile
+      thing&mdash;&mdash;just such as he would write. It asked how much he would
+      be willing to pay for information concerning his heir. I told grandfather
+      all about it, and I saw the answer he wrote. I told him some things to
+      say, and one of them was that the honesty of a man without a price
+      prevented the necessity of anything being paid to find me. The other was
+      that you located my people yourself, and at once sent me to them against
+      my wishes. I was determined he should know that. So Uncle Henry missed his
+      revenge on you. He evidently thought he not only would hurt you by
+      breaking up your home and separating us, but also he would get a reward
+      for his work. He wrote some untrue things about you, and I wish he hadn't,
+      for grandfather can think of enough himself. But I will soon change that.
+      Please, please take good care of all my things, my flowers and vines, and
+      most of all tell Belshazzar to protect you with his life. And you be very
+      good to my dear, dear lover. I will write again soon, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Harvester had studied the letter until he could repeat it
+      backward, he went to the cabin and answered it. Then he sent subscriptions
+      for two of Philadelphia's big dailies, and harvested ginseng from dawn
+      until black darkness. Never was such a crop grown in America. The beds had
+      been made in the original home of the plant, so that it throve under
+      perfectly natural conditions in the forest, but here and there branches
+      had been thinned above, and nature helped by science below. This resulted
+      in thick, pulpy roots of astonishing size and weight. As the Harvester
+      lifted them he bent the tops and buried part of the seed for another crop.
+      For weeks he worked over the bed. Then the last load went down the hill to
+      the dry-house and the helpers were paid. Next the fall work was finished.
+      Fuel and food were stored for winter, while the cold crept from the lake,
+      swept down the hill and surrounded the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester finished long days in the dry-house and store-room, and
+      after supper he sat by the fire reading over the Girl's letters, carving
+      on her candlesticks, or in the work room, bending above the boards he was
+      shaving and polishing for a gift he had planned for her Christmas. The
+      Careys had him in their home for Thanksgiving. He told them all about
+      sending the Girl away himself, read them some of her letters, and they
+      talked with perfect confidence of how soon she would come home. The
+      Harvester tried to think confidently, but as the days went by the letters
+      became fewer, always with the excuse that there was no time to write, but
+      with loving assurance that she was thinking of him and would do better
+      soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However they came often enough that he had something new to tell his
+      friends so that they did not suspect that waiting was a trial to him. A
+      few days after Thanksgiving the gift that he had planned was finished. It
+      was a big, burl-maple box, designed after the hope chests that he saw
+      advertised in magazines. The wood was rare, cut in heavy slabs, polished
+      inside and out, dove-tailed corners with ornate brass bindings, hinges and
+      lock, and hand-carved feet. On the inside of the lid cut on a brass plate
+      was the inscription, &ldquo;Ruth Langston, Christmas of Nineteen Hundred and
+      Ten. David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he began packing the chest. He put in the finished candlesticks and a
+      box of candleberry dips he had made of delightfully spiced wax, coloured
+      pale green. He ordered the doll weeks before from the largest store in
+      Onabasha, and the dealer brought on several that he might make a
+      selection. He chose a large baby doll almost life size, and sent it to the
+      dress-making department to be completely and exquisitely clothed. Long
+      before the day he was picking kernels to glaze from nuts, drying corn to
+      pop, and planning candies to be made of maple sugar. When he figured it
+      was time to start the box, he worked carefully, filling spaces with
+      chestnut and hazel burs, and finishing the tops of boxes with gaudy red
+      and yellow leaves he had kept in their original brightness by packing them
+      in sand. He put in scarlet berries of mountain ash and long twining sprays
+      of yellow and red bitter-sweet berries, for her room. Then he carefully
+      covered the chest with cloth, packed it in an outside box, and sent it to
+      the Girl by express. As he came from the train shed, where he had helped
+      with loading, he met Henry Jameson. Instantly the long arm of the
+      Harvester shot out, and in a grip that could not be broken he caught the
+      man by the back of the neck and proceeded to dangle him. As he did so he
+      roared with laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear Uncle Henry!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;How did you feel when you got your letter
+      from Philadelphia? Wasn't it a crime that an honest man, which same refers
+      to me, beat you? Didn't you gnash your teeth when you learned that instead
+      of separating me from my wife I had found her people and sent her to them
+      myself? Didn't it rend your soul to miss your little revenge and fail to
+      get the good, fat reward you confidently expected? Ho! Ho! Thus are lofty
+      souls downcast. I pity you, Henry Jameson, but not so much that I won't
+      break your back if you meddle in my affairs again, and I am taking this
+      opportunity to tell you so. Here you go out of my life, for if you appear
+      in it once more I will finish you like a copperhead. Understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a last shake the Harvester dropped him, and went into the express
+      office, where several men had watched the proceedings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been dipping in your affairs, has he?&rdquo; asked the expressman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trying it,&rdquo; laughed the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well he is just moving to Idaho, and you probably won't be bothered with
+      him any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good news!&rdquo; said the Harvester. He felt much relieved as he went back to
+      Betsy and drove to Medicine Woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Careys had invited him, but he chose to spend Christmas alone. He had
+      finished breakfast when the telephone bell rang, and the expressman told
+      him there was a package for him from Philadelphia. The Harvester mounted
+      Betsy and rode to the city at once. The package was so very small he
+      slipped it into his pocket, and went to the doctor's to say Merry
+      Christmas! To Mrs. Carey he gave a pretty lavender silk dress, and to the
+      doctor a new watch chain. Then he went to the hospital, where he left with
+      Molly a set of china dishes from the Girl, and a fur-lined great coat, his
+      gift to Doctor Harmon. He rode home and stabled Betsy, giving her an extra
+      quart of oats, and going into the house he sat by the kitchen fire and
+      opened the package.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a nest of cotton lay a tissue-wrapped velvet box, and inside that, in a
+      leather pocket case, an ivory miniature of the Girl by an artist who knew
+      how to reproduce life. It was an exquisite picture, and a face of
+      wonderful beauty. He looked at it for a long time, and then called
+      Belshazzar and carried it out to show Ajax. Then he put it into his breast
+      pocket squarely over his heart, but he wore the case shiny the first day
+      taking it out. Before noon he went to the mail box and found a long letter
+      from the Girl, full of life, health, happiness, and with steady assurances
+      of love for him, but there was no mention made of coming home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She seemed engrossed in the music lessons, riding, dancing, pretty
+      clothing, splendid balls, receptions, and parties of all kinds. The
+      Harvester answered it with his heart full of love for her, and then
+      waited. It was a long week before the reply came, and then it was short on
+      account of so many things that must be done, but she insisted that she was
+      well, happy, and having a fine time. After that the letters became less
+      frequent and shorter. At times there would be stretches of almost two
+      weeks with not a line, and then only short notes to explain that she was
+      too busy to write.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the dreary, cold days of January and February the Harvester
+      invented work in the store-room, in the workshop, at the candlesticks, sat
+      long over great books, and spent hours in the little laboratory preparing
+      and compounding drugs. In the evenings he carved and read. First of all he
+      scanned the society columns of the papers he was taking, and almost every
+      day he found the name of Miss Ruth Jameson, often a paragraph describing
+      her dress and her beauty of face and charm of manner; and constantly the
+      name of Mr. Herbert Kennedy appeared as her escort. At first the Harvester
+      ignored this, and said to himself that he was glad she could have
+      enjoyable times and congenial friends, and he was. But as the letters
+      became fewer, paper paragraphs more frequent, and approaching spring
+      worked its old insanity in the blood, gradually an ache crept into his
+      heart again, and there were days when he could not work it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every letter she wrote he answered just as warmly as he felt that he
+      dared, but when they were so long coming and his heart was overflowing, he
+      picked up a pen one night and wrote what he felt. He told her all about
+      the ice-bound lake, the lonely crows in the big woods, the sap suckers'
+      cry, and the gay cardinals' whistle. He told her about the cocoons
+      dangling on bushes or rocking on twigs that he was cutting for her. He
+      warned her that spring was coming, and soon she would begin to miss
+      wonders for her pencil. Then he told her about the silent cabin, the empty
+      rooms, and a lonely man. He begged her not to forget the kiss she had gone
+      to find for him. He poured out his heart unrestrainedly, and then folded
+      the letter, sealed and addressed it to her, in care of the fire fairies,
+      and pitched it into the ashes of the living-room fire place. But
+      expression made him feel better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another longer wait for the next letter, but he had written her
+      so many in the meantime that a little heap of them had accumulated as he
+      passed through the living-room on his way to bed. He had supposed she
+      would be gone until after Christmas when she left, but he never had
+      thought of harvesting sassafras and opening the sugar camp alone. In those
+      days his face appeared weary, and white hairs came again on his temples.
+      Carey met him on the street and told him that he was going to the National
+      Convention of Surgeons at New York in March, and wanted him to go along
+      and present his new medicine for consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Harvester instantly, &ldquo;I will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went and interviewed Mrs. Carey, and then visited the doctor's tailor,
+      and a shoe store, and bought everything required to put him in condition
+      for travelling in good style, and for the banquet he would be asked to
+      attend. Then he got Mrs. Carey to coach him on spoons and forks, and
+      declared he was ready. When the doctor saw that the Harvester really would
+      go, he sat down and wrote the president of the association, telling him in
+      brief outline of Medicine Woods and the man who had achieved a wonderful
+      work there, and of the compounding of the new remedy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he expected, return mail brought an invitation for the Harvester to
+      address the association and describe his work and methods and present his
+      medicine. The doctor went out in the car over sloppy roads with that
+      letter, and located the Harvester in the sugar camp. He explained the
+      situation and to his surprise found his man intensely interested. He asked
+      many questions as to the length of time, and amount of detail required in
+      a proper paper, and the doctor told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if you want to make a clean sweep, David,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;write your paper
+      simply, and practise until it comes easy before you speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That night the Harvester left work long enough to get a notebook, and by
+      the light of the camp fire, and in company with the owls and coons, he
+      wrote his outline. One division described his geographical location,
+      another traced his ancestry and education in wood lore. One was a tribute
+      to the mother who moulded his character and ground into him stability for
+      his work. The remainder described his methods in growing drugs, drying and
+      packing them, and the end was a presentation for their examination of the
+      remedy that had given life where a great surgeon had conceded death. Then
+      he began amplification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sugar making was over the Harvester commenced his regular spring
+      work, but his mind was so busy over his paper that he did not have much
+      time to realize just how badly his heart was beginning to ache. Neither
+      did he consign so many letters to the fire fairies, for now he was writing
+      of the best way to dry hydrastis and preserve ginseng seed. The day before
+      time to start he drove to Onabasha to try on his clothing and have Mrs.
+      Carey see if he had been right in his selections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was gone, Granny Moreland, wearing a clean calico dress and
+      carrying a juicy apple pie, came to the stretch of flooded marsh land, and
+      finding the path under water, followed the road and crossing a field
+      reached the levee and came to the bridge of Singing Water where it entered
+      the lake. She rested a few minutes there, and then went to the cabin
+      shining between bare branches. She opened the front door, entered, and
+      stood staring around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why things is all tore up here,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Now ain't that sensible of
+      David to put everything away and save it nice and careful until his woman
+      gets back. Seems as if she's good and plenty long coming; seems as if her
+      folks needs her mighty bad, or she's having a better time than the boy is
+      or something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She set the pie on the table, went through the cabin and up the hill a
+      little distance, calling the Harvester. When she passed the barn she
+      missed Betsy and the wagon, and then she knew he was in town. She returned
+      to the living-room and sat looking at the pie as she rested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd best put you on the kitchen table,&rdquo; she mused. &ldquo;Likely he will see
+      you there first and eat you while you are fresh. I'd hate mortal bad for
+      him to overlook you, and let you get stale, after all the care I've took
+      with your crust, and all the sugar, cinnamon, and butter that's under your
+      lid. You're a mighty nice pie, and you ort to be et hot. Now why under the
+      sun is all them clean letters pitched in the fireplace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny knelt and selecting one, she blew off the ashes, wiped it with her
+      apron and read: &ldquo;To Ruth, in care of the fire fairies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the Sam Hill is the idiot writin' his woman like that for?&rdquo; cried
+      Granny, bristling instantly. &ldquo;And why is he puttin' pages and pages of
+      good reading like this must have in it in care of the fire fairies? Too
+      much alone, I guess! He's going wrong in his head. Nobody at themselves
+      would do sech a fool trick as this. I believe I had better do something.
+      Of course I had! These is writ to Ruth; she ort to have them. Wish't I
+      knowed how she gets her mail, I'd send her some. Mebby three! I'd send a
+      fat and a lean, and a middlin' so's that she'd have a sample of all the
+      kinds they is. It's no way to write letters and pitch them in the ashes.
+      It means the poor boy is honin' to say things he dassent and so he's
+      writin' them out and never sendin' them at all. What's the little huzzy
+      gone so long for, anyway? I'll fix her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny selected three letters, blew away the ashes, and tucked the
+      envelopes inside her dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I only knowed how to get at her,&rdquo; she muttered. She stared at the pie.
+      &ldquo;I guess you got to go back,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and be et by me. Like as not I'll
+      stall myself, for I got one a-ready. But if David has got these fool
+      things counted and misses any, and then finds that pie here, he'll
+      s'picion me. Yes, I got to take you back, and hurry my stumps at that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny arose with the pie, cast a lingering and covetous glance at the
+      fireplace, stooped and took another letter, and then started down the
+      drive. Just as she reached the bridge she looked ahead and saw the
+      Harvester coming up the levee. Instantly she shot the pie over the railing
+      and with a groan watched it strike the water and disappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord of love!&rdquo; she gasped, sinking to the seat, &ldquo;that was one of
+      grandmother's willer plates that I promised Ruth. 'Tain't likely I'll ever
+      see hide ner hair of it again. But they wa'ant no place to put it, and I
+      dassent let him know I'd been up to the cabin. Mebby I can fetch a boy
+      some day and hire him to dive for it. How long can a plate be in water and
+      not get spiled anyway? Now what'll I do? My head's all in a whirl! I'll
+      bet my bosom is a sticking out with his letters 'til he'll notice and take
+      them from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gripped her hands across her chest and sat staring at the Harvester as
+      he stopped on the bridge, and seeing her attitude and distressed face, he
+      sprang from the wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why Granny, are you sick?&rdquo; he cried anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; gasped Granny Moreland. &ldquo;Yes, David, I am! I'm a miserable woman. I
+      never was in sech a shape in all my days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me help you to the cabin, and I'll see what I can do for you,&rdquo;
+       offered the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. This is jest out of your reach,&rdquo; said the old lady. &ldquo;I want&mdash;&mdash;I
+      want to see Doctor Carey bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you strong enough to ride in or shall I bring him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can go! I can go as well as not, David, if you'll take me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me run Betsy to the barn and get the Girl's phaeton. The wagon is too
+      rough for you. Are the pains in your chest dreadful?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how to describe them,&rdquo; said Granny with perfect truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester leaped into the wagon and caught up the lines. As he
+      disappeared around the curve of the driveway Granny snatched the letters
+      from her dress front and thrust them deep into one of her stockings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, drat you!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Stick out all you please. Nobody will see you
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes the Harvester helped her into the carriage and drove
+      rapidly toward the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't strain your critter,&rdquo; said Granny. &ldquo;It's not so bad as that,
+      David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is your chest any better?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sight better,&rdquo; said Granny. &ldquo;Shakin' up a little 'pears to do me good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never should have tried to walk. Suppose I hadn't been here. And you
+      came the long way, too! I'll have a telephone run to your house so you can
+      call me after this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny sat very straight suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My! wouldn't that get away with some of my foxy neighbours,&rdquo; she said.
+      &ldquo;Me to have a 'phone like they do, an' be conversin' at all hours of the
+      day with my son's folks and everybody. I'd be tickled to pieces, David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'll never dare do it,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;because I can't keep
+      house without you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's your own woman?&rdquo; promptly inquired Granny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She can't leave her people. Her grandmother is sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grandmother your foot!&rdquo; cried the old woman. &ldquo;I've been hearing that song
+      and dance from the neighbours, but you got to fool younger people than me
+      on it, David. When did any grandmother ever part a pair of youngsters jest
+      married, for months at a clip? I'd like to cast my eyes on that
+      grandmother. She's a new breed! I was as good a mother as 'twas in my skin
+      to be, and I'd like to see a child of mine do it for me; and as for my
+      grandchildren, it hustles some of them to re-cog-nize me passing on the
+      big road, 'specially if it's Peter's girl with a town beau.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester laughed. The old lady leaned toward him with a mist in her
+      eyes and a quaver in her voice, and asked softly, &ldquo;Got ary friend that
+      could help you, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man looked straight ahead in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bamfoozle all the rest of them as much as you please, lad, but I stand to
+      you in the place of your ma, and so I ast you plainly&mdash;&mdash;got ary
+      friend that could help?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can think of no way in which any one possibly could help me, dear,&rdquo;
+       said the Harvester gently. &ldquo;It is a matter I can't explain, but I know of
+      nothing that any one could do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean you're tight-mouthed! You COULD tell me just like you would your
+      ma, if she was up and comin'; but you can't quite put me in her place, and
+      spit it out plain. Now mebby I can help you! Is it her fault or yourn?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine! Mine entirely!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hum! What a fool question! I might a knowed it! I never saw a lovinger,
+      sweeter girl in these parts. I jest worship the ground she treads on; and
+      you, lad you hain't had a heart in your body sence first you saw her face.
+      If I had the stren'th, I'd haul you out of this keeridge and I'd hammer
+      you meller, David Langston. What in the name of sense have you gone and
+      done to the purty, lovin' child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's face flushed, but a line around his mouth whitened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loosen up!&rdquo; commanded Granny. &ldquo;I got some rights in this case that mebby
+      you don't remember. You asked me to help you get ready for her, and I done
+      what you wanted. You invited me to visit her, and I jest loved her sweet,
+      purty ways. You wanted me to shet up my house and come over for weeks to
+      help take keer of her, and I done it gladly, for her pain and your
+      sufferin' cut me as if 'twas my livin' flesh and blood; so you can't shet
+      me out now. I'm in with you and her to the end. What a blame fool thing
+      have you gone and done to drive away for months a girl that fair
+      worshipped you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's exactly the trouble, Granny,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;She didn't! She
+      merely respected and was grateful to me, and she loved me as a friend; but
+      I never was any nearer her husband than I am yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've always knowed they was a screw loose somewhere,&rdquo; commented Granny.
+      &ldquo;And so you've sent her off to her worldly folks in a big, wicked city to
+      get weaned away from you complete?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sent her to let her see if absence would teach her anything. I had
+      months with her here, and I lay awake at nights thinking up new plans to
+      win her. I worked for her love as I never worked for bread, but I couldn't
+      make it. So I let her go to see if separation would teach her anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy me! Why you crazy critter! The child did love you! She loved you
+      'nough an' plenty! She loved you faithful and true! You was jest the light
+      of her eyes. I don't see how a girl could think more of a man. What in the
+      name of sense are you expecting months of separation to teach her, but to
+      forget you, and mebby turn her to some one else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hoped it would teach her what I call love, means,&rdquo; explained the
+      Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you dratted popinjay! If ever in all my born days I wanted to take a
+      man and jest lit'rally mop up the airth with him, it's right here and now.
+      'Absence teach her what you call love.' Idiot! That's your job!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Granny, I couldn't!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn't, you mean, no doubt! I hain't no manner of a notion in my head
+      but that child, depending on you, and grateful as she was, and tender and
+      loving, and all sech as that I hain't a doubt but she come to you plain
+      and told you she loved you with all her heart. What more could you ast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That she understand what love means before I can accept what she offers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You puddin' head! You blunderbuss!&rdquo; cried Granny. &ldquo;Understand what you
+      mean by love. If you're going to bar a woman from being a wife 'til she
+      knows what you mean by love, you'll stop about nine tenths of the weddings
+      in the world, and t'other tenth will be women that no decent-minded man
+      would jine with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Granny, are you sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well livin' through it, and up'ard of seventy years with other women, ort
+      to teach me something. The Girl offered you all any man needs to ast or
+      git. Her foundations was laid in faith and trust. Her affections was
+      caught by every loving, tender, thoughtful thing you did for her; and
+      everybody knows you did a-plenty, David. I never see sech a master hand at
+      courtin' as you be. You had her lovin' you all any good woman knows how to
+      love a man. All you needed to a-done was to take her in your arms, and
+      make her your wife, and she'd 'a' waked up to what you meant by love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But suppose she never awakened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aw, bosh! S'pose water won't wet! S'pose fire won't burn! S'pose the sun
+      won't shine! That's the law of nature, man! If you think I hain't got no
+      sense at all I jest dare you to ask Doctor Carey. 'Twouldn't take him long
+      to comb the kinks out of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think you have left any, Granny,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I see what
+      you mean, and in all probability you are right, but I can't send for the
+      Girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name o' goodness why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I sent her away against her will, and now she is remaining so
+      long that there is every probability she prefers the life she is living
+      and the friends she has made there, to Medicine Woods and to me. The only
+      thing I can do now is to await her decision.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, good Lord!&rdquo; groaned Granny. &ldquo;You make me sick enough to kill. Touch
+      up your nag and hustle me to Doc. You can't get me there quick enough to
+      suit me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the hospital she faced Doctor Carey. &ldquo;I think likely some of my innards
+      has got to be cut out and mended,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'll jest take a few minutes
+      of your time to examination me, and see what you can do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the private office she held the letters toward the doctor. &ldquo;They hain't
+      no manner of sickness ailin' me, Doc. The boy out there is in deep water,
+      and I knowed how much you thought of him, and I hoped you'd give me a
+      lift. I went over to his place this mornin' to take him a pie, and I found
+      his settin' room fireplace heapin' with letters he'd writ to Ruth about
+      things his heart was jest so bustin' full of it eased him to write them
+      down, and then he hadn't the horse sense and trust in her jedgment to send
+      them on to her. I picked two fats, a lean, and a middlin' for samples, and
+      I thought I'd send them some way, and I struck for home with them an' he
+      ketched me plumb on the bridge. I had to throw my pie overboard, willer
+      plate and all, and as God is my witness, I was so flustered the boy had
+      good reason to think I was sick a-plenty; and soon as he noticed it, I
+      thought of you spang off, and I knowed you'd know her whereabouts, and I
+      made him fetch me to you. On the way I jest dragged it from him that he'd
+      sent her away his fool self, because she didn't sense what he meant by
+      love, and she wa'ant beholden to him same degree and manner he was to her.
+      Great day, Doc! Did you ever hear a piece of foolishness to come up with
+      that? I told him to ast you! I told him you'd tell him that no clean,
+      sweet-minded girl ever had known nor ever would know what love means to a
+      man 'til he marries her and teaches her. Ain't it so, Doc?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It certainly is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then will you grind it into him, clean to the marrer, and will you send
+      these letters on to Ruthie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most certainly I will,&rdquo; said the doctor emphatically. Granny opened the
+      door and walked out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm so relieved, David,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He thinks they won't be no manner o'
+      need to knife me. Likely he can fix up a few pills and send them out by
+      mail so's that I'll be as good as new again. Now we must get right out of
+      here and not take valuable time. What do I owe you, Doc?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a cent,&rdquo; said Doctor Carey. &ldquo;Thank you very much for coming to me.
+      You'll soon be all right again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was some worried. Much obliged I am sure. Come on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One minute,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;David, I am making up a list of friends to
+      whom I am going to send programmes of the medical meeting, and I thought
+      your wife might like to see you among the speakers, and your subject. What
+      is her address?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A slow red flushed the Harvester's cheeks. He opened his lips and
+      hesitated. At last he said, &ldquo;I think perhaps her people prefer that she
+      receive mail under her maiden name while with them. Miss Ruth Jameson,
+      care of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, will reach
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor wrote the address, as if it were the most usual thing in the
+      world, and asked the Harvester if he was ready to make the trip east.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we had best start to-night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We want a day to grow
+      accustomed to our clothes and new surroundings before we run up squarely
+      against serious business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be ready,&rdquo; promised the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took Granny home, set his house in order, installed the man he was
+      leaving in charge, touched a match to the heap in the fireplace, and
+      donning the new travelling suit, he went to Doctor Carey's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Carey added a few touches, warned him to remember about the forks and
+      spoons, and not to forget to shave often, and saw them off. At the station
+      Carey said to him, &ldquo;You know, David, we can change at Wayne and go through
+      Buffalo, or we can take the Pittsburg and go and come through
+      Philadelphia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am contemplating a trip to Philadelphia,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;but I
+      believe I will not be ready for, say a month yet. I have a theory and it
+      dies hard. If it does not work out the coming month, I will go, perhaps,
+      but not now. Let us see how many kinds of a fool I make of myself in New
+      York before I attempt the Quakers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost to the city, the doctor smiled at the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;David, where did you get your infernal assurance?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the woods,&rdquo; answered the Harvester placidly. &ldquo;In doing clean work.
+      With my fingers in the muck, and life literally teeming and boiling in
+      sound and action, around, above, and beneath me, a right estimate of my
+      place and province in life comes naturally in daily handling stores on
+      which humanity depends, I go even deeper than you surgeons and physicians.
+      You are powerless unless I reinforce your work with drugs on which you can
+      rely. I do clean, honest work. I know its proper place and value to the
+      world. That is why I called what I have to say, 'The Man in the
+      Background.' There is no reason why I should shiver and shrink at meeting
+      and explaining my work to my fellows. Every man has his vocation, and some
+      of you in the limelight would cut a sorry figure if the man in the
+      background should fail you at the critical moment. Don't worry about me,
+      Doc. I am all serene. You won't find I possess either nerves or fear. 'Be
+      sure you are right, and then go ahead,' is my law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I'll be confounded!&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a large hall, peopled with thousands of medical men, the name of the
+      Harvester was called the following day and his subject was announced. He
+      arose in his place and began to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the platform,&rdquo; came in a roar from a hundred throats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must, David,&rdquo; whispered Carey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester made his way forward and was guided through a side door, and
+      a second later calmly walked down the big stage to the front, and stood at
+      ease looking over his audience, as if to gauge its size and the pitch to
+      which he should raise his voice. His lean frame loomed every inch of his
+      six feet, his broad shoulders were square, his clean shaven face alert and
+      afire. He wore a spring suit of light gray of good quality and cut, and he
+      was perfect as to details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This scarcely seems compatible with my subject,&rdquo; he remarked casually. &ldquo;I
+      certainly appear very much in the foreground just at present, but perhaps
+      that is quite as well. It may be time that I assert myself. I doubt if
+      there is a man among you who has not handled my products more or less; you
+      may enjoy learning where and how they are prepared, and understanding the
+      manner in which my work merges with yours. I think perhaps the first thing
+      is to paint you as good a word picture as I can of my geographical
+      location.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Harvester named latitude and longitude and degrees of
+      temperature. He described the lake, the marsh, the wooded hill, the swale,
+      and open sunny fields. He spoke of water, soil, shade, and geographical
+      conditions. &ldquo;Here I was born,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;on land owned by my father and
+      grandfather before me, and previous to them, by the Indians. My male
+      ancestors, so far as I can trace them, were men of the woods, hunters,
+      trappers, herb gatherers. My mother was from the country, educated for a
+      teacher. She had the most inexorable will power of any woman I ever have
+      known. From my father I inherited my love for muck on my boots, resin in
+      my nostrils, the long trail, the camp fire, forest sounds and silences in
+      my soul. From my mother I learned to read good books, to study subjects
+      that puzzled me, to tell the truth, to keep my soul and body clean, and to
+      pursue with courage the thing to which I set my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was not money enough to educate me as she would; together we
+      learned to find it in the forest. In early days we sold ferns and wild
+      flowers to city people, harvested the sap of the maples in spring, and the
+      nut crop of the fall. Later, as we wanted more, we trapped for skins, and
+      collected herbs for the drug stores. This opened to me a field I was
+      peculiarly fitted to enter. I knew woodcraft instinctively, I had the
+      location of every herb, root, bark, and seed that will endure my climate;
+      I had the determination to stick to my job, the right books to assist me,
+      and my mother's invincible will power to uphold me where I wavered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I look into your faces, men, I am struck with the astounding thought
+      that some woman bore the cold sweat and pain of labour to give life to
+      each of you. I hope few of you prolonged that agony as I did. It was in
+      the heart of my mother to make me physically clean, and to that end she
+      sent me daily into the lake, so long as it was not ice covered, and put me
+      at exercises intended to bring full strength to every sinew and fibre of
+      my body. It was in her heart to make me morally clean, so she took me to
+      nature and drilled me in its forces and its methods of reproducing life
+      according to the law. Her work was good to a point that all men will
+      recognize. From there on, for a few years, she held me, not because I was
+      man enough to stand, but because she was woman enough to support me.
+      Without her no doubt I would have broken the oath I took; with her I won
+      the victory and reached years of manhood and self-control as she would
+      have had me. The struggle wore her out at half a lifetime, but as a
+      tribute to her memory I cannot face a body of men having your
+      opportunities without telling you that what was possible to her and to me
+      is possible to all mothers and men. If she is above and hears me perhaps
+      it will recompense some of her shortened years if she knows I am pleading
+      with you, as men having the greatest influence of any living, to tell and
+      to teach the young that a clean life is possible to them. The next time
+      any of you are called upon to address a body of men tell them to learn for
+      themselves and to teach their sons, and to hold them at the critical hour,
+      even by sweat and blood, to a clean life; for in this way only can
+      feeble-minded homes, almshouses, and the scarlet woman be abolished. In
+      this way only can men arise to full physical and mental force, and become
+      the fathers of a race to whom the struggle for clean manhood will not be
+      the battle it is with us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the distorted faces, by the misshapen bodies, by marks of degeneracy,
+      recognizable to your practised eyes everywhere on the streets, by the
+      agony of the mother who bore you, and later wept over you, I conjure you
+      men to live up to your high and holy privilege, and tell all men that they
+      can be clean, if they will. This in memory of the mother who shortened her
+      days to make me a moral man. And if any among you is the craven to plead
+      immorality as a safeguard to health, I ask, what about the health of the
+      women you sacrifice to shield your precious bodies, and I offer my own as
+      the best possible refutation of that cowardly lie. I never have been ill a
+      moment in all my life, and strength never has failed me for work to which
+      I set my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rapidly decreasing supply of drugs and the adulterated importations
+      early taught me that the day was coming when it would be an absolute
+      necessity to raise our home supplies. So, while yet in my teens, I began
+      collecting from the fields and woods for miles around such medicinal stuff
+      as grew in my father's fields, marsh, and woods, and planting more
+      wherever I found anything growing naturally in its prime. I merely
+      enlarged nature's beds and preserved their natural condition. As the
+      plants spread and the harvest increased, I built a dry-house on scientific
+      principles, a large store-room, and later a laboratory in which I have
+      been learning to prepare some of my crude material for the market,
+      combining ideas of my own in remedies, and at last producing one your
+      president just has indicated that I come to submit to you as a final
+      resort in certain conditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My operations now have spread to close six hundred acres of almost solid
+      medicinal growth, including a little lake, around the shores of which
+      flourish a quadruple setting of water-loving herbs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally he shifted his position or easily walked across the platform
+      and faced his audience from a different direction. His voice was strong,
+      deep, and rang clearly and earnestly. His audience sat on the front edge
+      of their chairs, and listened to something new, with mouths half agape. A
+      few times Carey turned from the speaker to face the audience. He agonized
+      in his heart that it was a closed session, and that his wife was not there
+      to hear, and that the Girl was missing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the bent backs and flying fingers of the reporters at their table in
+      front he could see that to-morrow the world would read the Harvester's
+      speech; and if it were true that the little mother had shortened her days
+      to produce him, she had done earth a service for which many generations
+      would call her blessed. For the doctor could look ahead, and he knew that
+      this man would not escape. The call for him and his unimpeachable truth
+      would come from everywhere, and his utterances would carry as far as
+      newspapers and magazines were circulated. The good he would do would be
+      past estimation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester continued. He was describing the most delicate and difficult
+      of herbs to secure. He was telling how they could be raised, prepared,
+      kept, and compounded. He was discussing diseases that did not readily
+      yield to treatment, pointing out what drugs were customarily employed and
+      offering, if any of them had such cases, and would send to him, to forward
+      samples of unadulterated stuff sufficient for a test comparison with what
+      they were using. He was walking serenely and surely into the heart of
+      every man before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at the point where it was the psychological time to close, he stopped
+      and stood a long instant facing them, and then he asked softly, &ldquo;Did any
+      man among you ever see the woman to whom he had given a strong man's first
+      passion of love, slowly dying before him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One breathless instant he waited and then continued, &ldquo;Gentlemen, I
+      recently saw this in my own case. For days it was coming, so at night I
+      shut myself in my laboratory, and from the very essence of the purest of
+      my self-compounded drugs I distilled a stimulant into which I put a touch
+      of heart remedy, a brace for weakening nerves, a vitalization of sluggish
+      blood. As I worked, I thought in that thought which embodied the essence
+      of prayer, and when my day and my hour came, and a man who has been the
+      president of your honourable body, and is known to all of you, said it was
+      death, I took this combination that I now present to you, and with the
+      help of the Almighty and a woman above the price of rubies, I kept breath
+      in the girl I love, and to-day she is at full tide of womanhood. As a
+      thank offering, the formula is yours. Test it as you will. Use it if you
+      find it good. Gentlemen, I thank you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Carey sank in his chair and watched the Harvester cross the stage. As he
+      disappeared the tumult began, and it lasted until the president arose and
+      brought him back to make another bow, and then they rioted until they wore
+      themselves out. In an immaculate dress suit the Harvester sat that night
+      on the right of the gray-haired president and responded to the toast, &ldquo;The
+      Harvester of the Woods.&rdquo; Then the reporters carried him away to be
+      photographed, and to show him the gay sights of New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the train the next day, steadily speeding west, he said to Doctor
+      Carey: &ldquo;I feel as the old woman of Mother Goose who said, 'Lawk-a-mercy on
+      us, can this be really I?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You just bet it is!&rdquo; cried the doctor. &ldquo;And you have cut out work for
+      yourself in good shape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean that this is a beginning. You will be called upon to speak again
+      and again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The point is, do you honestly think I helped any?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did inestimable good. It only can help men to hear plain truth that
+      is personal experience. As for that dope of yours, it will come closer
+      raising the dead than anything I ever saw. Next case I see slipping, after
+      I've done my best, I'm going to try it out for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right! 'Phone me and I'll bring some fresh and help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At Buffalo the doctor left the car and bought a paper. As he had expected
+      the portrait and speech of the Harvester were featured. The reporters had
+      been gracious. They had done all that was just to a great event, and
+      allowed themselves some latitude. He immediately mailed the paper to the
+      Girl, and at Cleveland bought another for himself. When he showed it to
+      the Harvester, as he glanced at it he observed, &ldquo;Do I appear like that?&rdquo;
+       Then he went on talking with a man he had met who interested him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING OF THE BLUEBIRD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester stopped at the mail box on his way home and among the mass
+      of matter it contained was something from the Girl. It was a scrap as long
+      as his least finger and three times as wide, and by the postmark it had
+      lain four days in the box. On opening it, he found only her card with a
+      line written across it, but the man went up the hill and into the cabin as
+      if a cyclone were driving him, for he read, &ldquo;Has your bluebird come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw his travelling bag on the floor, ran to the telephone, and called
+      the station. &ldquo;Take this message,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Mrs. David Langston, care of
+      Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Found note after
+      four days' absence. Bluebird long past due. The fairies have told it that
+      my fate hereafter lies in your hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As always. David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester turned from the instrument and bent to embrace Belshazzar,
+      leaping in ecstasy beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Understand that, Bel?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I don't know but it means something.
+      Maybe it doesn't&mdash;&mdash;not a thing! And again, there is a chance&mdash;&mdash;only
+      the merest possibility&mdash;&mdash;that it does. We'll risk it, Bel, and
+      to begin on I have nailed it as hard as I knew how. Next, we will clean
+      the house&mdash;&mdash;until it shines, and then we will fill the
+      cupboard, and if anything does happen we won't be caught napping. Yes,
+      boy, we will take the chance! We can't be any worse disappointed than we
+      have been before and survived it. Come along!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up the bag and arranged its contents, carefully brushed and
+      folded on his shelves and in his closet. Then he removed the travelling
+      suit, donned the old brown clothes and went to the barn to see that his
+      creatures had been cared for properly. Early the next morning he awoke and
+      after feeding and breakfasting instead of going to harvest spice brush and
+      alder he stretched a line and hung the bedding from room after room to air
+      and sun. He swept, dusted, and washed windows, made beds, and lastly
+      polished the floors throughout the cabin. He set everything in order, and
+      as a finishing touch, filled vases, pitchers, and bowls with the bloom of
+      red bud and silky willow catkins. He searched the south bank, but there
+      was not a violet, even in the most exposed places. By night he was tired
+      and a little of the keen edge of his ardour was dulled. The next day he
+      worked scrubbing the porches, straightening the lawn and hedges, even
+      sweeping the driveway to the bridge clear of wind-whirled leaves and
+      straw. He scouted around the dry-house and laboratory, and spent several
+      extra hours on the barn so that when evening came everything was in
+      perfect order. Then he dressed, ate his supper and drove to the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped at the mail box, but there was nothing from the Girl. The
+      Harvester did not know whether he was sorry or glad. A letter might have
+      said the same thing. Nothing meant a delightful possibility, and between
+      the two he preferred the latter. He whistled and sang as he drove to
+      Onabasha, and Belshazzar looked at him with mystified eyes, for this was
+      not the master he had known of late. He did not recognize the dress or the
+      manner, but his dog heart was sympathetic to the man's every mood, and he
+      remembered times when a drive down the levee always had been like this,
+      for to-night the Harvester's tongue was loosened and he talked in the old
+      way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just four words, Bel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And, as I remarked before, they may mean
+      the most wonderful thing on earth, and possibly nothing at all. But it is
+      in the heart of man to hope, Bel, and so we are going to live royally for
+      a week or two, just on hope, old boy. If anything should happen, we are
+      ready, rooms shining, beds fresh, fireplaces filled and waiting a match,
+      ice chest cool, and when we get back it will be stored. Also a secret,
+      Bel; we are going to a florist and a fruit store. While we are at it, we
+      will do the thing right; but we will stay away from Doc, until we are sure
+      of something. He means well, but we don't like to be pitied, do we, Bel?
+      Our friends don't manage their eyes and voices very well these days. Never
+      mind! Our time will come yet. The bluebird will not fail us, but never
+      before has it been so late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On his return he filled the pantry shelves with packages, stored the ice
+      chest, and set a basket of delicious fruit on the dining table. Two boxes
+      remained. He opened the larger one and took from it an arm load of white
+      lilies that he carried up the hill and divided between the mounds under
+      the oak. Then he uncovered his head, and standing at the foot of them he
+      looked among the boughs of the big tree and listened intently. After a
+      time a soft, warm wind, catkin-scented, crept from the lake, and began a
+      murmur among the clusters of brown leaves clinging to the branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;were you with me? Did I do it right? Did I
+      tell them what you would have had me say for the boys? Are you glad now
+      you held me to the narrow way? Do you want me to go before men if I am
+      asked, as Doc says I will be, and tell them that the only way to abolish
+      pain is for them to begin at the foundation by living clean lives? I don't
+      know if I did any good, but they listened to me. Anyway, I did the best I
+      knew. But that isn't strange; you ground it into me to do that every day,
+      until it is almost an instinct. Mother, dear, can you tell me about the
+      bluebird? Is that softest little rustle of all your voice? and does it say
+      'hope'? I think so, and I thank you for the word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man's eyes dropped to earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you other mother,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;have you any message for me? Up where
+      you are can you sweep the world with understanding eyes and tell me why my
+      bluebird does not come? Does it know that this year your child and not
+      chance must settle my fate? Can you look across space and see if she is
+      even thinking of me? But I know that! She had to be thinking of me when
+      she wrote that line. Rather can you tell me&mdash;&mdash;will she come? Do
+      you think I am man enough to be trusted with her future, if she does? One
+      thing I promise you: if such joy ever comes to me, I will know how to meet
+      it gently, thankfully, tenderly, please God. Good night, little women. I
+      hope you are sleeping well&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned and went down the hill, entered the cabin and took from the
+      other box a mass of Parma violets. He put these in the pink bowl and
+      placed it on the table beside the Girl's bed. He stood for a time, and
+      then began pulling single flowers from the bowl and dropping them over the
+      pillow and snowy spread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God, how I love her!&rdquo; he whispered softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he went out and closed the door. He was tired and soon fell asleep
+      with the night breeze stirring his hair, and the glamour of moonlight
+      flooding the lake touched his face. Clearly it etched the strong, manly
+      features, the fine brow and chin, and painted in unusual tenderness the
+      soft lines around the mouth. The little owl wavered its love story, a few
+      frogs were piping, and the Harvester lay breathing the perfumed spring air
+      deeply and evenly. Near midnight Belshazzar awakened him by arising from
+      the bedside and walking to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Bel?&rdquo; inquired the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog whined softly. The man turned his head toward the lake. A ray of
+      red light touched the opposite embankment and came wavering across the
+      surface. The Harvester sat up. Two big, flaming eyes were creeping up the
+      levee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;might be Doc coming for me to help him try
+      out my bottled sunshine, or it might be my bluebird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He tossed back the cover, swung his feet to the floor, setting each in a
+      slipper beside the bed, and arose, dressing as he started for the door. As
+      he opened the screen and stepped on the veranda a passenger car from the
+      city stopped, and the Harvester went down the walk to meet it. His heart
+      turned over when he saw a woman's hand on the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Permit me,&rdquo; he said, taking the handle and bringing it back with a sweep.
+      A tall form arose, bent forward, and descended to the step. The full flare
+      of moonlight fell on the glowing face of the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harvester, is it you?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; gasped the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hands came fluttering out, and he just had presence of mind to step in
+      range so that they rested on his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the bluebird come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am not too late?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never too late to come to me, Ruth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am welcome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no words to tell you how welcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She swayed forward and the Harvester tried to reach her lips, but they
+      brushed his cheek and touched his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought one more kiss I want to try,&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester crushed her in his arms until he frightened himself for fear
+      he had hurt her, and murmured an ecstasy of indistinct love words to her.
+      Presently her feet touched the ground and she drew away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harvester,&rdquo; she whispered, &ldquo;I couldn't wait any longer; indeed I could
+      not: and I couldn't leave grandfather and grandmother, and I didn't know
+      what in the world to do, so I just brought them along. Are they welcome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aside from you, I would rather have them than any people on earth,&rdquo; said
+      the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two sounds in the car; one was an approving murmur, and the
+      other an undeniable snort. The Harvester felt the reassuring pressure of
+      the Girl's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please, Ruth,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;go turn on the light so that I can see to help
+      grandmother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A foot stamped before the front seat. &ldquo;Madam Herron, if you please!&rdquo; cried
+      an acrid voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Madam Herron,'&rdquo; said the Harvester gently, as he set a foot on the step,
+      reached in and bodily picked up a little old lady and started up the walk
+      with her in his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Careful there, sir!&rdquo; roared a voice after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester could feel the quake of the laughing woman and he smiled
+      broadly as he entered the cabin, and placed her in a large chair before
+      the fire. Then he wheeled and ran back to the car, reaching it as the man
+      was making an effort to descend. It could be seen that he had been tall,
+      before time and sorrow had bent him, and keen eyes gleamed below shaggy
+      white brows from under his hat brim. He had a white moustache, and his
+      hair was snowy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allow me,&rdquo; said the Harvester reaching a hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you touch me I will cane you,&rdquo; said Mr. Alexander Herron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing to do but step back. The cane, wheel, and a long coat
+      skirt interfering, the old man fell headlong, and only quick hands saved
+      him a severe jolt and bruises. He stood glaring in the moonlight while his
+      hat was restored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you run your car to the curve you can back toward the south and turn
+      easily,&rdquo; said the Harvester to the driver. As the automobile passed them
+      he offered his arm. &ldquo;May I show you to the fire? These spring nights are
+      chilly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Chilly!' Demnition cold is what they are! I'm frozen to the bone! This
+      will be the end of us both! Dragging people of our age around at this hour
+      of night. Of all the accursed stubbornness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three low steps,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;now a straight stretch
+      of walk, now two steps; there you are on the level. Here is an easy chair.
+      It would be better to leave on your coat, until I light the fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knelt and scratched a match, and almost instantly a flame sprang from
+      the heap of dry kindling, and began to wrap around the big logs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How pretty!&rdquo; exclaimed a soft voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kind of a hunting lodge in the wilds, is it?&rdquo; growled a rough one.
+      &ldquo;Marcella, you will take your death here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure I feel no exposure. Really, Alexander, if I had passed away
+      every time you have prophesied that I would in the past twenty years you'd
+      have the largest private cemetery in existence. If you would not be so
+      pessimistic I could quite enjoy the trip. It's so long since I've ridden
+      in the cars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of all the abandoned places! And for you to be here, after your years in
+      bed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I'm not nearly so tired as I am at home, Alexander, truly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me help you, grandfather,&rdquo; offered the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went to him and took his hat and stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me my cane,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Any instant that beast may attack some of
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl laughed merrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why grandfather!&rdquo; she chided, &ldquo;Bel is the finest dog you ever knew, he is
+      my best friend here. By the hour he has protected me, and he is gentle as
+      a kitten. He's crazy over my coming home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She knelt on the floor, put her arms around the dog's neck, and the
+      delighted brute quivered with the joy of her caress and the sound of her
+      loved voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruthie!&rdquo; cautioned the gentle lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put that cur out of doors, where animals belong,&rdquo; roared the old man,
+      lifting his stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Careful!&rdquo; warned the grave voice of the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought you said he was gentle as a kitten!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grandfather, I said that,&rdquo; cried the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well wasn't it the truth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can see how he loves me. Didn't I ever tell you that Bel made the
+      first friendly overture I ever received in this part of the country? He's
+      watched me by the day, even while I slept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what's all this infernal fuss about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try striking him if you want to find out,&rdquo; explained the Harvester
+      gently. &ldquo;You see, Belshazzar and I are accustomed to living here alone and
+      very quietly. He is excited over the Girl's return, because she is his
+      friend, and he has not forgotten her. Then this is the first time in his
+      life he ever heard an irritable voice from a visitor or saw a cane, and it
+      angers him. He is perfectly safe to guard a baby, if he is gently treated,
+      but he is a sure throat hold to a stranger who bespeaks him roughly or
+      attempts to strike. He would be of no use as a guard to valuable property
+      while I sleep if he were otherwise. Bel, come here! Lie still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog sank to the floor beside the Harvester, but his sharp eyes
+      followed the Girl, and the hair arose on his neck at every rasping note of
+      the old man's voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't give such a creature house room for a minute,&rdquo; insisted the
+      guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait until you see him work and become acquainted with him, and you will
+      change that verdict,&rdquo; prophesied the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never was known to change an opinion. Never, sir! Never!&rdquo; cried the
+      testy voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How unfortunate!&rdquo; remarked the Harvester suavely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Explain yourself! Explain yourself, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There never has been, there never will be, a man on this earth,&rdquo; said the
+      Harvester, &ldquo;wholly free from mistakes. Are you warm now?&rdquo; He turned to the
+      little lady, cutting off a reply with his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nice and warm and quite sleepy,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may I bring you for a light lunch before you go to bed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, could I have a bite of something?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If only I am fortunate enough to have anything you will care for. What
+      about a bowl of hot milk and a slice of toast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why I think that would be just the thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me,&rdquo; said the Harvester rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the kitchen and they could hear him moving around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish the big brute would take his beast along,&rdquo; growled Mr. Alexander
+      Herron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Bel,&rdquo; ordered the Girl. &ldquo;Let's go to the kitchen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog instantly arose and followed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can I do to help?&rdquo; she asked as they reached the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remain where you won't dazzle my eyes,&rdquo; said the Harvester, &ldquo;until I help
+      the gentle lady and the gentle man to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he came with a white cloth, two spoons, and a plate of bread. He
+      spread the cloth on the table, laid the spoons on it, and opening the
+      little cupboard, took out a long toasting fork, and sticking it into a
+      slice of bread, he held it over the coals. When it grew golden brown he
+      lifted the table beside the chair, and brought a bowl of scalded milk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marcella, that stuff will be too smoky for you! Your stomach will rebel
+      at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grandfather, there will not be a suspicion of odour,&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;I
+      have had it that way often.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then no wonder you came from this place looking like a picked crane, if
+      that is a sample of what you were fed on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of the Harvester grew redder than the heat of the fire
+      necessitated, but at the ringing laugh of the Girl he set his teeth and
+      went on toasting bread. Grandmother crumbled some in the milk and picking
+      up the spoon tested the combination. She was very hungry, and it was good.
+      She began eating with relish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alexander, you will be the loser if you don't have some of this,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;It's just delicious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe smoked spoon victuals are proper for invalid women,&rdquo; he retorted,
+      &ldquo;but they are mighty thin diet for a hardy man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about a couple of eggs and some beef extract?&rdquo; suggested the cook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sounds more sensible by a long shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, you make this toast,&rdquo; said the Harvester and disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he placed before his guest a couple of eggs poached in milk, a
+      steaming bowl of beef juice, and a plate of toast. For one instant the
+      Harvester thought this was going into the fire, the next a slice was
+      picked up and smelled testily. The Girl sat on her grandfather's chair
+      arm, and breaking a morsel of toast dipped it into the broth and tasted
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh but that is good!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Why haven't I some also? Am I supposed
+      to have no 'tummy'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your turn next,&rdquo; said the Harvester, as he again gave her the fork and
+      went to the kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he returned and served the Girl he found her grandfather eating
+      heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why I think this is fun,&rdquo; said the gentle lady. &ldquo;I haven't had such a
+      fine time in ages. I love the heat of the flame on my body and things
+      taste so good. I could go to sleep without any narcotic, right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Close her knee the Harvester knelt on the hearth with his toasting fork.
+      She leaned forward and ran her fingers through his hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a braw laddie,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Now I see why Ruthie WOULD come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester took the frail hand and kissed it. &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mush!&rdquo; exploded the grizzled man in the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When no one wanted more food the Harvester stacked and carried away the
+      dishes, swept the hearth, and replaced the toaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth and I often lunched this way last fall,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We liked it for a
+      change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alexander, have you noticed?&rdquo; asked the little woman as she lifted wet
+      eyes to a beautiful portrait of her daughter beside the chimney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye think I'm blind? Saw it as I entered the door. Poor taste! Very!
+      Brown may match the rug and wood-work, but it's a wretched colour for a
+      young girl in her gay time. Should be pink and white with a gold frame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be beautiful,&rdquo; agreed the Harvester. &ldquo;We must have one that
+      way. This is not an expensive picture. It is only an enlargement from an
+      old photograph.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a number of very handsome likenesses. Which one can you spare
+      Ruth, Marcella?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The one she likes best,&rdquo; said the lady promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the other is your mother, no doubt. What a girlish, beautiful face!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonderfully fine!&rdquo; growled a gruff old voice tinctured with tears, and
+      the Harvester began to see light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man arose. &ldquo;Ruthie, help your grandmother to bed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And
+      you, sir, have the goodness to walk a few steps with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester sprang up and brought Mr. Herron his coat and hat and held
+      the door. The Girl brushed past him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the oak,&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the night, and without a word the Harvester took his
+      guest's arm and guided him up the hill. When they reached the two mounds
+      the moon shining between the branches touched the lily faces with with
+      holy whiteness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She sleeps there,&rdquo; said the Harvester, indicating the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he turned and went down the path a little distance and waited until
+      he feared the night air would chill the broken old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can see better to-morrow,&rdquo; he said as he touched the shaking figure
+      and assisted it to arise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your work?&rdquo; Mr. Alexander Herron touched the lilies with his walking
+      stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester assented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mind if I carry one to Marcella?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester trembled as he stooped to select the largest and whitest,
+      and with sudden illumination, he fully understood. He helped the tottering
+      old man to the cabin, where he sat silently before the fireplace softly
+      touching the lily face with his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have put grandmother in my bed, tucked her in warmly, and she says it
+      is soft and fine,&rdquo; laughed the Girl, coming to them. &ldquo;Now you go before
+      she falls asleep, and I hope you will rest well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She bent and kissed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester held the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I be of any service?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I'm no helpless child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then to my best wishes for sound sleep the remainder of the night, I will
+      add this,&rdquo; said the Harvester&mdash;&mdash;&ldquo;You may rest in peace
+      concerning your dear girl. I sympathize with your anxiety. Good night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alexander Herron threw out his hands in protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't mind admitting that you are a gentleman in a month or two,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;but it's a demnation humiliation to have it literally wrung from me
+      to-night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He banged the door in the face of the amazed Harvester, who turned to the
+      Girl as she leaned against the mantel. He stood absorbing the glowing
+      picture of beauty and health that she made. She had removed her travelling
+      dress and shoes, and was draped in a fleecy white wool kimono and wearing
+      night slippers. Her hair hung in two big braids as it had during her
+      illness. She was his sick girl again in costume, but radiant health glowed
+      on her lovely face. The Harvester touched a match to a few candles and
+      turned out the acetylene lights. Then he stood before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, bluebird,&rdquo; he said gently. &ldquo;Ruth, you always know where to find me,
+      if you will look at your feet. I thought I loved you all in my power when
+      you went, but absence has taught its lessons. One is that I can grow to
+      love you more every day I live, and the other that I probably trifled with
+      the highest gift you had to offer, when I sent you away. I may have been
+      right; Granny and Doc think I was wrong. You know the answer. You said
+      there was another kiss for me. Ruth, is it the same or a different one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is different. Quite, quite different!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when?&rdquo; The Harvester stretched out longing arms. The Girl stepped
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I had it when I started, but I lost it on the
+      way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester staggered under the disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, this has gone far enough that you wouldn't play with me, merely for
+      the sake of seeing me suffer, would you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried the Girl. &ldquo;No! I mean it! I knew just what I wanted to say
+      when I started; but we had to take grandmother out of bed. She wouldn't
+      allow me to leave her, and I wouldn't stay away from you any longer. She
+      fainted when we put her on the car and grandfather went wild. He almost
+      killed the porters, and he raved at me. He said my mother had ruined their
+      lives, and now I would be their death. I got so frightened I had a nervous
+      chill and I'm so afraid she will grow worse&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You poor child!&rdquo; shuddered the Harvester. &ldquo;I see! I understand! What you
+      need is quiet and a good rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He placed her in a big easy chair and sitting on the hearth rug he leaned
+      against her knee and said, &ldquo;Now tell me, unless you are so tired that you
+      should go to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't possibly sleep until I have told you,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you're merciful, cut it short!&rdquo; implored the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it begins,&rdquo; she said slowly, &ldquo;when I went because you sent me and
+      I didn't want to go. Of course, as soon as I saw grandfather and
+      grandmother, heard them talk, and understood what their lives had been,
+      and what might have been, why there was only one thing to do, as I could
+      see it, and that was to compensate their agony the best I could. I think I
+      have, David. I really think I have made them almost happy. But I told them
+      all any one could tell about you in the start, and from the first
+      grandmother would have been on your side; but you see how grandfather is,
+      and he was absolutely determined that I should live with them, in their
+      home, all their lives. He thought the best way to accomplish that would be
+      to separate me from you and marry me to the son of his partner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are rooms packed with the lovely things they bought me, David, and
+      everything was as I wrote you. Some of the people who came were wonderful,
+      so gracious and beautiful, I loved almost all of them. They took me places
+      where there were pictures, plays, and lovely parties, and I studied hard
+      to learn some music, to dance, ride and all the things they wanted me to
+      do, and to read good books, and to learn to meet people with graciousness
+      to equal theirs, and all of it. Every day I grew stronger and met more
+      people, and there were different places to go, and always, when anything
+      was to be done, up popped Mr. Herbert Kennedy and said and did exactly the
+      right thing, and he could be extremely nice, David.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't a doubt!&rdquo; said the Harvester, laying hold of her kimono.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he popped up so much that at last I saw he was either pretending or
+      else he really was growing very fond of me, so one day when we were alone
+      I told him all about you, to make him see that he must not. He laughed at
+      me, and said exactly what you did, that I didn't love you at all, that it
+      was gratitude, that it was the affection of a child. He talked for hours
+      about how grandfather and grandmother had suffered, how it was my duty to
+      live with them and give you up, even if I cared greatly for you; but he
+      said what I felt was not love at all. Then he tried to tell me what he
+      thought love was, and I could see very clearly that if it was like that, I
+      didn't love you, but I came a whole world closer it than loving him, and I
+      told him so. He laughed again and said I was mistaken, and that he was
+      going to teach me what real love was, and then I could not be driven back
+      to you. After that, everybody and everything just pushed me toward him
+      with both hands, except one person. She was a young married woman and I
+      met her at the very first. She was the only real friend I ever had, and at
+      last, the latter part of February, when things were the very worst, I told
+      her. I told her every single thing. She was on your side. She said you
+      were twice the man Herbert Kennedy was, and as soon as I found I could
+      talk to her about you, I began going there and staying as long as I could,
+      just to talk and to play with her baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her husband was a splendid young fellow, and I grew very fond of him. I
+      knew she had told him, because he suddenly began talking to me in the
+      kindest way, and everything he said seemed to be what I most wanted to
+      hear. I got along fairly well until hints of spring began to come, and
+      then I would wonder about my hedge, and my gold garden, and if the ice was
+      off the lake, and about my boat and horse, and I wanted my room, and oh,
+      David, most of all I wanted you! Just you! Not because you could give me
+      anything to compare in richness with what they could, not because this
+      home was the best I'd ever known except theirs, not for any reason at all
+      only just that I wanted to see your face, hear your voice, and have you
+      pick me up and take me in your arms when I was tired. That was when I
+      almost quit writing. I couldn't say what I wanted to, and I wouldn't write
+      trivial things, so I went on day after day just groping.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you killed me alive,&rdquo; said the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was afraid of that, but I couldn't write. I just couldn't! It was ten
+      days ago that I thought of the bluebird's coming this year and what it
+      would mean to you, and THAT killed me, Man! It just hurt my heart until it
+      ached, to know that you were out here alone; and that night I couldn't
+      sleep, because I was thinking of you, and it came to me that if I had your
+      lips then I could give you a much, much better kiss than the last, and
+      when it was light I wrote that line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nearly a week later I got your answer early in the morning, and it almost
+      drove me wild. I took it and went for the day with May, and I told her.
+      She took me upstairs, and we talked it over, and before I left she made me
+      promise that I would write you and explain how I felt, and ask you what
+      you thought. She wanted you to come there and see if you couldn't make
+      them at least respect you. I know I was crying, and she was bathing the
+      baby. She went to bring something she had forgotten, and she gave him to
+      me to hold, just his little naked body. He stood on my lap and mauled my
+      face, and pulled my hair, and hugged me with his stout little arms and
+      kissed me big, soft, wet kisses, and something sprang to life in my heart
+      that never before had been there. I just cried all over him and held him
+      fast, and I couldn't give him up when she came back. I saw why I'd wanted
+      a big doll all my life, right then; and oh, dear! the doll you sent was
+      beautiful, but, David, did you ever hold a little, living child in your
+      arms like that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never did,&rdquo; said the Harvester huskily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her face and saw the tears rolling, but he could say no more,
+      so he leaned his head against her knee, and finding one of her hands he
+      drew it to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is wonderful,&rdquo; said the Girl softly. &ldquo;It awakens something in your
+      heart that makes it all soft and tender, and you feel an awful
+      responsibility, too. Grandmother had them telephone at last, and May
+      helped me bathe my face and fix my hat. When we went to the carriage Mr.
+      Kennedy was there to take me home. We went past grandmother's florist to
+      get her some violets&mdash;&mdash;David, she is sleeping under yours, with
+      just a few touching her lips. Oh it was lovely of you to get them; your
+      fairies must have told you! She has them every day, and one of the
+      objections she made to coming here was that she couldn't do without them
+      in winter, and she found some on her pillow the very first thing. David,
+      you are wonderful! And grandfather with his lily! I know where he found
+      that! I knew instantly. Ah, there are fairies who tell you, because you
+      deserve to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl bent and slipping her arm around his neck hugged him tight an
+      instant, and then she continued unsteadily: &ldquo;While he was in the shop&mdash;&mdash;Harvester,
+      this is like your wildest dream, but it's truest truth&mdash;&mdash;a boy
+      came down the walk crying papers, and as I live, he called your name. I
+      knew it had to be you because he said, 'First drug farm in America!
+      Wonderful medicine contributed to the cause of science! David Langston
+      honoured by National Medical Association!' I just stood in the carriage
+      and screamed, 'Boy! Boy!' until the coachman thought I had lost my senses.
+      He whistled and got me the paper. I was shaking so I asked him how to find
+      anything you wanted quickly, and he pointed the column where events are
+      listed; and when I found the third page there was your face so splendidly
+      reproduced, and you seemed so fine and noble to me I forgot about the
+      dress suit and the badge in your buttonhole, or to wonder when or how or
+      why it could have happened. I just sat there shouting in my soul, 'David!
+      David! Medicine Man! Harvester Man!' again and again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what I said to Mr. Kennedy or how I got to my room. I
+      scanned it by the column, at last I got to paragraphs, and finally I read
+      all the sentences. David, I kissed that newspaper face a hundred times,
+      and if you could have had those, Man, I think you would have said they
+      were right. David, there is nothing to cry over!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not!&rdquo; said the Harvester, wiping the splashes from her hand. &ldquo;But,
+      Ruth, forget what I said about being brief. I didn't realize what was
+      coming. I should have said, if you've any mercy at all, go slowly! This is
+      the greatest thing that ever happened or ever will happen to me. See that
+      you don't leave out one word of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you I had to tell you first,&rdquo; said the Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand now,&rdquo; said the Harvester, his head against her knee while he
+      pressed her hand to his lips. &ldquo;I see! Your coming couldn't be perfect
+      without knowing this first. Go on, dear heart, and slowly! You owe me
+      every word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I had it all absorbed, I carried the paper to the library and said,
+      'Grandfather, such a wonderful thing has happened. A man has had a new
+      idea, and he has done a unique work that the whole world is going to
+      recognize. He has stood before men and made a speech that few, oh so few,
+      could make honestly, and he has advocated right living, oh so nobly, and
+      he has given a wonderful gift to science without price, because through it
+      he first saved the life he loved best. Isn't that marvellous,
+      grandfather?' And he said, 'Very marvellous, Ruth. Won't you sit down and
+      read to me about it?' And I said, 'I can't, dear grandfather, because I
+      have been away from grandmother all day, and she is fretting for me, and
+      to-night is a great ball, and she has spent millions on my dress, I think,
+      and there is an especial reason why I must go, and so I have to see her
+      now; but I want to show you the man's face, and then you can read the
+      story.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, I knew if I started to read it he would stop me; but if I left
+      him alone with it he would be so curious he would finish. So I turned your
+      name under and held the paper and said, 'What do you think of that face,
+      grandfather? Study it carefully,' and, Man, only guess what he said! He
+      said, 'I think it is the face of one of nature's noblemen.' I just kissed
+      him time and again and then I said, 'So it is grandfather, so it is; for
+      it is the face of the man who twice saved my life, and lifted my mother
+      from almost a pauper grave and laid her to rest in state, and the man who
+      found you, and sent me to you when I was determined not to come.' And I
+      just stood and kissed that paper before him and cried, again and again,
+      'He is one of nature's noblemen, and he is my husband, my dear, dear
+      husband and to-morrow I am going home to him.' Then I laid the paper on
+      his lap and ran away. I went to grandmother and did everything she wanted,
+      then I dressed for the ball. I went to say good-bye to her and show my
+      dress and grandfather was there, and he followed me out and said, 'Ruth,
+      you didn't mean it?' I said, 'Did you read the paper, grandfather?' and he
+      said 'Yes'; and I said, 'Then I should think you would know I mean it, and
+      glory in my wonderful luck. Think of a man like that, grandfather!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went to the ball, and I danced and had a lovely time with every one,
+      because I knew it was going to be the very last, and to-morrow I must
+      start to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the way home I told Mr. Kennedy what paper to get and to read it. I
+      said good-bye to him, and I really think he cared, but I was too happy to
+      be very sorry. When I reached my room there was a packet for me and, Man,
+      like David of old, you are a wonderful poet! Oh Harvester! why didn't you
+      send them to me instead of the cold, hard things you wrote?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those letters! Those wonderful outpourings of love and passion and poetry
+      and song and broken-heartedness. Oh Man, how could you write such things
+      and throw them in the fire? Granny Moreland found them when she came to
+      bring you a pie, and she carried them to Doctor Carey, and he sent them to
+      me, and, David, they finished me. Everything came in a heap. I would have
+      come without them, but never, never with quite the understanding, for as I
+      read them the deeps opened up, and the flood broke, and there did a warm
+      tide go through all my being, like you said it would; and now, David, I
+      know what you mean by love. I called the maids and they packed my trunk
+      and grandmother's, and I had grandfather's valet pack his, and go and
+      secure berths and tickets, and learn about trains, and I got everything
+      ready, even to the ambulance and doctor; but I waited until morning to
+      tell them. I knew they would not let me come alone, so I brought them
+      along. David, what in the world are we going to do with them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester drew a deep breath and looked at the flushed face of the
+      Girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With no time to mature a plan, I would say that we are going to love
+      them, care for them, gradually teach them our work, and interest them in
+      our plans here; and so soon as they become reconciled we will build them
+      such a house as they want on the hill facing us, just across Singing
+      Water, and there they may have every luxury they can provide for
+      themselves, or we can offer, and the pleasure of your presence, and both
+      of them can grow strong and happy. I'll have grandmother on her feet in
+      ten days, and the edge off grandfather's tongue in three. That bluster of
+      his is to drown tears, Ruth; I saw it to-night. And when they pass over we
+      will carry them up and lay them beside her under the oak, and we can take
+      the house we build for them, if you like it better, and use this for a
+      store-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; said the Girl. &ldquo;Never! My sunshine room and gold garden so long
+      as I live. Never again will I leave them. If this cabin grows too small,
+      we will build all over the hillside; but my room and garden and this and
+      the dining-room and your den there must remain as they are now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester arose and drew the davenport before the fireplace, and
+      heaped pillows. &ldquo;You are so tired you are trembling, and your voice is
+      quivering,&rdquo; he said. He lifted the Girl, laid her down and arranged the
+      coverlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to sleep!&rdquo; he ordered gently. &ldquo;You have made me so wildly happy that I
+      could run and shout like a madman. Try to rest, and maybe the fairies who
+      aid me will put my kiss back on your lips. I am going to the hill top to
+      tell mother and my God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knelt and gathered her in his arms a second, then called Belshazzar to
+      guard, and went into the sweet spring night, to jubilate with that wild
+      surge of passion that sweeps the heart of a strong man when he is most
+      nearly primal. He climbed the hill at a rush, and standing beneath the oak
+      on the summit, he faced the lake, and stretching his arms widely, he waved
+      them, merely to satisfy the demand for action. When urgency for expression
+      came upon him, he laughed a deep rumble of exultation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night wind swept the lake and lifted his hair, the odour of spring was
+      intoxicating in his nostrils, small creatures of earth stirred around him,
+      here and there a bird, restless in the delirium of mating fever, lifted
+      its head and piped a few notes on the moon-whitened air. The frogs sang
+      uninterruptedly at the water's edge. The Harvester stood rejoicing.
+      Beating on his brain came a rush of love words uttered in the Girl's dear
+      voice. &ldquo;I wanted you! Just you! He is my husband! My dear, dear husband!
+      To-morrow I am going home! Now, David, I know what you mean by love!&rdquo; The
+      Harvester laughed again and sounds around him ceased for a second, then
+      swelled in fuller volume than before. He added his voice. &ldquo;Thank God! Oh,
+      thank God!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;And may the Author of the Universe, the spirits of
+      the little mothers who loved us, and all the good fairies who guide us,
+      unite to bring unbounded joy to my Dream Girl and to guard her safely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cocks of Medicine Woods began their second salute to dawn. At this
+      sound and with the mention of her name, the Harvester turned down the
+      hill, and striding forcefully approached the cabin. As he passed the
+      Girl's room he stepped softly, smiling as he wondered if its unexpected
+      occupants were resting. He followed Singing Water, and stood looking at
+      the hillside, studying the exact location most suitable for a home for the
+      old people he was so delighted to welcome. That they would remain he never
+      doubted. His faith in the call of the wild had been verified in the Girl;
+      it would reach them also. The hill top would bind them. Their love for the
+      Girl would compel them. They would be company for her and a new interest
+      in life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't be better, not possibly!&rdquo; commented the delighted Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the path down Singing Water until he reached the bridge where
+      it turned into the marsh. There he paused, looking straight ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonder if I would frighten her?&rdquo; he mused. &ldquo;I believe I'll risk it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked on rapidly, vaulted the fence enclosing his land, crossed the
+      road, and unlatched the gate. As he did so, the door opened, and Granny
+      Moreland stood on the sill, waiting with keen eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well I don't need neither specs nor noonday sun to see that you're
+      steppin' like the blue ribbon colt at the County Fair, and lookin' like
+      you owned Kingdom Come,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;What's up, David?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right, dear,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;I have entered my kingdom. The
+      Girl has come and crowned me with her love. She had decided to return, but
+      the letters you sent made her happier about it. I wanted you to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny leaned against the casing, and began to sob unrestrainedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester supported her tenderly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't do that, dear. Don't cry,&rdquo; he begged. &ldquo;The Girl is home for
+      always, Granny, and I'm so happy I am out to-night trying to keep from
+      losing my mind with joy. She will come to you to-morrow, I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny tremulously dried her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What an old sap-head I am!&rdquo; she commented. &ldquo;I stole your letters from
+      your fireplace, pitched a willer plate into the lake&mdash;&mdash;you got
+      to fish that out, come day, David&mdash;&mdash;fooled you into that trip
+      to Doc Carey to get him to mail them to Ruth, and never turned a hair. But
+      after I got home I commenced thinkin' 'twas a pretty ticklish job to stick
+      your nose into other people's business, an' every hour it got worse, until
+      I ain't had a fairly decent sleep since. If you hadn't come soon, boy, I'd
+      'a' been sick a-bed. Oh, David! Are you sure she's over there, and loves
+      you to suit you now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes dear, I am absolutely certain,&rdquo; said the Harvester. &ldquo;She was so
+      determined to come that she brought the invalid grandmother she couldn't
+      leave and her grandfather. They arrived at midnight. We are all going to
+      live together now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well bless my stars! Fetched you a family! David, I do hope to all that's
+      peaceful I hain't put my foot in it. The moon is the deceivingest thing on
+      earth I know, but does her family 'pear to be an a-gre'-able family, by
+      its light?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester's laugh boomed a half mile down the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Finest people on earth, next to you, dear. I'm mighty glad to have them.
+      I'm going to build them a house on my best location, and we are all going
+      to be happy from now on. Go to bed! This night air may chill you. I can't
+      sleep. I wanted you to know first&mdash;&mdash;so I came over. In mother's
+      stead, will you kiss me, and wish me happiness, dear friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Granny Moreland laid an eager, withered hand on each shoulder, and bent to
+      the radiant young face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God bless you, lad, and grant you as great happiness as life ort to fetch
+      every clean, honest man,&rdquo; she prayed fervently, with closed eyes and her
+      lined old face turned skyward. &ldquo;And, O God, bless Ruth, and help her as
+      You never helped mortal woman before to know her own mind without
+      'variableness, neither shadow of turnin'.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester was on Singing Water bridge before he gave way. There he
+      laughed as never before in his life. Finally he controlled himself and
+      started toward the cabin; but he was chuckling as he passed the driveway,
+      and walked down the broad cement floor leading to his bathing pool, where
+      the moonlight bridged the lake, and fell as a benediction all around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood a long time, when he recognized the familiar crash of a breaking
+      backlog falling together, and heard the customary leap of the frightened
+      dog. He walked to his door and listened intently, but there was no sound;
+      so he decided the Girl had not been awakened. In the midst of a whitening
+      sheet of gold the Harvester dropped to his stoop and leaned his head
+      against the broad casing. He broke a twig from a hawthorn bush beside him,
+      and sat twisting it in his fingers as he stared down the line of the gold
+      bridge. Never had it seemed so material, so like a path that might be
+      trodden by mortal feet and lead them straight to Heaven. As on the hill
+      top, night again surrounded him and the Harvester's soul drank deep wild
+      draughts of a new joy. Sleep was out of the question. He was too intensely
+      alive to know that he ever again could be weary. He sat there in the
+      moonlight, and with unbridled heart gloried in the joy that had come to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his face from the bridge as he heard the click of Belshazzar's
+      nails on the floor of the bathing pool. Then his heart and breath stopped
+      an instant. Beside the dog walked the Girl, one hand on his head the other
+      holding the flowing white robe around her and grasping one of the
+      Harvester's lilies. His first thought was sheer amazement that she was not
+      afraid, for it was evident now that the backlog had awakened her, and she
+      had taken the dog and gone to her mother. Then she had followed the path
+      leading down the hill, around the cabin, and into the sheet of moonlight
+      gilding the shore. She stood there gazing over the lake, oblivious to all
+      things save the entrancing allurement of a perfect spring night beside
+      undulant water. Screened from her with bushes and trees the Harvester
+      scarcely breathed lest he startle her. Then his head swam, and his still
+      heart leaped wildly. She was coming toward him. On her left lay the path
+      to the hill top. A few steps farther she could turn to the right and
+      follow the driveway to the front of the cabin. He leaned forward watching
+      in an agony of suspense. Her beautiful face was transfigured with joy,
+      aflame with love, radiant with smiles, and her tall figure fleecy white,
+      rimmed in gold. Up the shining path of light she steadily advanced toward
+      his door. Then the Harvester understood, and from his exultant heart burst
+      the wordless petition:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, HELP ME TO BE A MAN!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With outstretched arms he arose to meet her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Dream Girl!&rdquo; he cried hoarsely. &ldquo;My Dream Girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coming, Harvester!&rdquo; she answered in tones of joy, as she dropped the
+      white flower and lifted her hands to draw his face toward her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the kiss you wanted?&rdquo; she questioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Ruth,&rdquo; breathed the Harvester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am ready to be your wife,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;May I share all the
+      remainder of life's joys and sorrows with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Harvester gathered her in his arms and carried her to the bench on the
+      lake shore. He wrapped the white robe around her and clasped her tenderly
+      as behooved a lover, yet with arms that she knew could have crushed her
+      had they willed. The minutes slipped away, and still he held her to his
+      heart, the reality far surpassing his dream; for he knew that he was
+      awake, and he realized this as the supreme hour that comes to the
+      strongman who knows his love requited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the first banner of red light arose above Medicine Woods and Singing
+      Water the cocks on the hillside announced the dawn. As the gold faded to
+      gray, a burst of bubbling notes swelled from a branch almost over their
+      heads where stood a bark-enclosed little house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruth, do you hear that?&rdquo; asked the Harvester softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;and I see it. A wonderful bird, with Heaven's
+      deepest blue on its back and a breast like a russet autumn leaf, came
+      straight up the lake from the south, and before it touched the limb that
+      song seemed to gush from its throat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for that reason, the greatest nature lover who ever lived says that
+      it 'deserves preeminence.' It always settles from its long voyage through
+      the air in an ecstasy of melody. Do you know what it is, Ruth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Girl laid a hand on his cheek and turned his eyes from the bird to her
+      face as she answered, &ldquo;Yes, Harvester-man, I know. It is your first
+      bluebird&mdash;&mdash;but it is far too late, and Belshazzar has lost high
+      office. I have usurped both their positions. You remain in the woods and
+      reap their harvest, you enter the laboratory and make wonderful,
+      life-giving medicines, you face the world and tell men of the high and
+      holy life they may live if they will, and then&mdash;&mdash;always and
+      forever, you come back to Medicine Woods and to me, Harvester.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARVESTER ***</div>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #349 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/349)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Harvester
+
+Author: Gene Stratton Porter
+
+Posting Date: July 12, 2008 [EBook #349]
+Release Date: October, 1995
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARVESTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Keller
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HARVESTER
+
+By Gene Stratton-Porter
+
+
+Author Of A Girl Of The Limberlost, Freckles, Etc.
+
+
+
+                        THIS PORTION
+               OF THE LIFE OF A MAN OF TO-DAY
+          IS OFFERED IN THE HOPE THAT IN CLEANLINESS,
+             POETIC TEMPERMENT, AND MENTAL FORCE,
+                    A LIKENESS WILL BE SEEN
+                            TO
+                     HENRY DAVID THOREAU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+     I.     Belshazzar's Decision
+     II.    The Effect of a Dream
+     III.   Harvesting the Forest
+     IV.    A Commission for the South Wind
+     V.     When the Harvester Made Good
+     VI.    To Labour and to Wait
+     VII.   The Quest of the Dream Girl
+     VIII.  Belshazzar's Record Point
+     IX.    The Harvester Goes Courting
+     X.     The Chime of the Blue Bells
+     XI.    Demonstrated Courtship
+     XII.   ''The Way of a Man with a Maid''
+     XIII.  When the Dream Came True
+     XIV.   Snowy Wings
+     XV.    The Harvester Interprets Life
+     XVI.   Granny Moreland's Visit
+     XVII.  Love Invades Science
+     XVIII. The Better Man
+     XIX.   A Vertical Spine
+     XX.    The Man in the Background
+     XXI.   The Coming of the Bluebird
+
+
+CHARACTERS
+
+     DAVID LANGSTON, A Harvester of the Woods.
+     RUTH JAMESON, A Girl of the City.
+     GRANNY MORELAND, An Interested Neighbour.
+     DR. CAREY, Chief Surgeon of the Onabasha Hospital.
+     MRS. CAREY, Wife of the Doctor.
+     DR. HARMON, Who Concludes to Leave the City.
+     MOLLY BARNET, A Hospital Nurse with a Heart.
+     HENRY JAMESON, A Trader Without a Heart.
+     ALEXANDER HERRON, Who Made a Concession.
+     MRS. HERRON, A Gentle Woman.
+     THE KENNEDYS, Philadelphia Lawyers.
+
+
+
+
+THE HARVESTER
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. BELSHAZZAR'S DECISION
+
+"Bel, come here!" The Harvester sat in the hollow worn in the hewed log
+stoop by the feet of his father and mother and his own sturdier tread,
+and rested his head against the casing of the cabin door when he gave
+the command. The tip of the dog's nose touched the gravel between his
+paws as he crouched flat on earth, with beautiful eyes steadily watching
+the master, but he did not move a muscle.
+
+"Bel, come here!"
+
+Twinkles flashed in the eyes of the man when he repeated the order,
+while his voice grew more imperative as he stretched a lean, wiry
+hand toward the dog. The animal's eyes gleamed and his sensitive nose
+quivered, yet he lay quietly.
+
+"Belshazzar, kommen Sie hier!"
+
+The body of the dog arose on straightened legs and his muzzle dropped
+in the outstretched palm. A wind slightly perfumed with the odour of
+melting snow and unsheathing buds swept the lake beside them, and lifted
+a waving tangle of light hair on the brow of the man, while a level ray
+of the setting sun flashed across the water and illumined the graven,
+sensitive face, now alive with keen interest in the game being played.
+
+"Bel, dost remember the day?" inquired the Harvester.
+
+The eager attitude and anxious eyes of the dog betrayed that he did not,
+but was waiting with every sense alert for a familiar word that would
+tell him what was expected.
+
+"Surely you heard the killdeers crying in the night," prompted the man.
+"I called your attention when the ecstasy of the first bluebird waked
+the dawn. All day you have seen the gold-yellow and blood-red osiers,
+the sap-wet maples and spring tracing announcements of her arrival on
+the sunny side of the levee."
+
+The dog found no clew, but he recognized tones he loved in the suave,
+easy voice, and his tail beat his sides in vigorous approval. The man
+nodded gravely.
+
+"Ah, so! Then you realize this day to be the most important of all the
+coming year to me; this hour a solemn one that influences my whole after
+life. It is time for your annual decision on my fate for a twelve-month.
+Are you sure you are fully alive to the gravity of the situation, Bel?"
+
+The dog felt himself safe in answering a rising inflection ending in his
+name uttered in that tone, and wagged eager assent.
+
+"Well then," said the man, "which shall it be? Do I leave home for the
+noise and grime of the city, open an office and enter the money-making
+scramble?"
+
+Every word was strange to the dog, almost breathlessly waiting for a
+familiar syllable. The man gazed steadily into the animal's eyes. After
+a long pause he continued:
+
+"Or do I remain at home to harvest the golden seal, mullein, and
+ginseng, not to mention an occasional hour with the black bass or tramps
+for partridge and cotton-tails?"
+
+The dog recognized each word of that. Before the voice ceased, his sleek
+sides were quivering, his nostrils twitching, his tail lashing, and at
+the pause he leaped up and thrust his nose against the face of the man.
+The Harvester leaned back laughing in deep, full-chested tones; then he
+patted the dog's head with one hand and renewed his grip with the other.
+
+"Good old Bel!" he cried exultantly. "Six years you have decided for me,
+and right----every time! We are of the woods, Bel, born and reared
+here as our fathers before us. What would we of the camp fire, the long
+trail, the earthy search, we harvesters of herbs the famous chemists
+require, what would we do in a city? And when the sap is rising, the
+bass splashing, and the wild geese honking in the night! We never could
+endure it, Bel.
+
+"When we delivered that hemlock at the hospital to-day, did you hear
+that young doctor talking about his 'lid'? Well up there is ours, old
+fellow! Just sky and clouds overhead for us, forest wind in our faces,
+wild perfume in our nostrils, muck on our feet, that's the life for us.
+Our blood was tainted to begin with, and we've lived here so long it
+is now a passion in our hearts. If ever you sentence us to life in the
+city, you'll finish both of us, that's what you'll do! But you won't,
+will you? You realize what God made us for and what He made for us,
+don't you, Bel?"
+
+As he lovingly patted the dog's head the man talked and the animal
+trembled with delight. Then the voice of the Harvester changed and
+dropped to tones of gravest import.
+
+"Now how about that other matter, Bel? You always decide that too. The
+time has come again. Steady now! This is far more important than the
+other. Just to be wiped out, Bel, pouf! That isn't anything and it
+concerns no one save ourselves. But to bring misery into our lives
+and live with it daily, that would be a condition to rend the soul. So
+careful, Bel! Cautious now!"
+
+The voice of the man dropped to a whisper as he asked the question.
+
+"What about the girl business?"
+
+Trembling with eagerness to do the thing that would bring more
+caressing, bewildered by unfamiliar words and tones, the dog hesitated.
+
+"Do I go on as I have ever since mother left me, rustling for grub,
+living in untrammelled freedom? Do I go on as before, Bel?"
+
+The Harvester paused and waited the answer, with anxiety in his eyes
+as he searched the beast face. He had talked to that dog, as most
+men commune with their souls, for so long and played the game in such
+intense earnest that he felt the results final with him. The animal was
+immovable now, lost again, his anxious eyes watching the face of the
+master, his eager ears waiting for words he recognized. After a long
+time the man continued slowly and hesitantly, as if fearing the outcome.
+He did not realize that there was sufficient anxiety in his voice to
+change its tones.
+
+"Or do I go courting this year? Do I rig up in uncomfortable
+store-clothes, and parade before the country and city girls and try to
+persuade the one I can get, probably----not the one I would want----to
+marry me, and come here and spoil all our good times? Do we want a
+woman around scolding if we are away from home, whining because she is
+lonesome, fretting for luxuries we cannot afford to give her? Are you
+going to let us in for a scrape like that, Bel?"
+
+The bewildered dog could bear the unusual scene no longer. Taking the
+rising inflection, that sounded more familiar, for a cue, and his name
+for a certainty, he sprang forward, his tail waving as his nose touched
+the face of the Harvester. Then he shot across the driveway and lay in
+the spice thicket, half the ribs of one side aching, as he howled from
+the lowest depths of dog misery.
+
+"You ungrateful cur!" cried the Harvester. "What has come over you? Six
+years I have trusted you, and the answer has been right, every time!
+Confound your picture! Sentence me to tackle the girl proposition! I
+see myself! Do you know what it would mean? For the first thing you'd
+be chained, while I pranced over the country like a half-broken colt,
+trying to attract some girl. I'd have to waste time I need for my work
+and spend money that draws good interest while we sleep, to tempt her
+with presents. I'd have to rebuild the cabin and there's not a chance in
+ten she would not fret the life out of me whining to go to the city to
+live, arrange for her here the best I could. Of all the fool, unreliable
+dogs that ever trod a man's tracks, you are the limit! And you never
+before failed me! You blame, degenerate pup, you!"
+
+The Harvester paused for breath and the dog subsided to a pitiful
+whimper. He was eager to return to the man who had struck him the first
+blow his pampered body ever had received; but he could not understand a
+kick and harsh words for him, so he lay quivering with anxiety and fear.
+
+"You howling, whimpering idiot!" exclaimed the Harvester. "Choose a
+day like this to spoil! Air to intoxicate a mummy! Roots swelling! Buds
+bursting! Harvest close and you'd call me off and put me at work like
+that, would you? If I ever had supposed lost all your senses, I never
+would have asked you. Six years you have decided my fate, when the first
+bluebird came, and you've been true blue every time. If I ever trust you
+again! But the mischief is done now.
+
+"Have you forgotten that your name means 'to protect?' Don't you
+remember it is because of that, it is your name? Protect! I'd have
+trusted you with my life, Bell! You gave it to me the time you pointed
+that rattler within six inches of my fingers in the blood-root bed.
+You saw the falling limb in time to warn me. You always know where the
+quicksands lie. But you are protecting me now, like sin, ain't you?
+Bring a girl here to spoil both our lives! Not if I know myself!
+Protect!"
+
+The man arose and going inside the cabin closed the door. After that the
+dog lay in abject misery so deep that two big tears squeezed from his
+eyes and rolled down his face. To be shut out was worse than the blow.
+He did not take the trouble to arise from the wet leaves covering the
+cold earth, but closing his eyes went to sleep.
+
+The man leaned against the door and ran his fingers through his hair as
+he anathematized the dog. Slowly his eyes travelled around the room. He
+saw his tumbled bed by the open window facing the lake, the small
+table with his writing material, the crude rack on the wall loaded
+with medical works, botanies, drug encyclopaedias, the books of the few
+authors who interested him, and the bare, muck-tracked floor. He went
+to the kitchen, where he built a fire in the cook stove, and to the
+smoke-house, from which he returned with a slice of ham and some eggs.
+He set some potatoes boiling and took bread, butter and milk from the
+pantry. Then he laid a small note-book on the table before him and
+studied the transactions of the day.
+
+     10 lbs. wild cherry bark      6 cents       $.60
+     5   "   wahoo root bark      25 "           1.25
+     20  "   witch hazel bark      5 "           1.00
+     5   "   blue flag root       12 "           .60
+     10  "   snake root           18 "           1.80
+     10  "   blood root           12 "           1.20
+     15  "   hoarhound            10 "           1.50
+                                                 -----
+                                                $7.95
+
+
+"Not so bad," he muttered, bending over the figures. "I wonder if any
+of my neighbours who harvest the fields average as well at this season.
+I'll wager they don't. That's pretty fair! Some days I don't make it,
+and then when a consignment of seeds go or ginseng is wanted the cash
+comes in right properly. I could waste half of it on a girl and yet save
+money. But where is the woman who would be content with half? She'd want
+all and fret because there wasn't more. Blame that dog!"
+
+He put the book in his pocket, prepared and ate his supper, heaped a
+plate generously, placed it on the floor beneath the table, and set away
+the food that remained.
+
+"Not that you deserve it," he said to space. "You get this in honour
+of your distinguished name and the faithfulness with which you formerly
+have lived up to its import. If you hadn't been a dog with more sense
+than some men, I wouldn't take your going back on me now so hard. One
+would think an animal of your intelligence might realize that you would
+get as much of a dose as I. Would she permit you to eat from a plate on
+the kitchen floor? Not on your life, Belshazzar! Frozen scraps around
+the door for you! Would she allow you to sleep across the foot of the
+bed? Ho, ho, ho! Would she have you tracking on her floor? It would be
+the barn, and growling you didn't do at that. If I'd serve you right,
+I'd give you a dose and allow you to see how you like it. But it's
+cutting off my nose to spite my face, as the old adage goes, for
+whatever she did to a dog, she'd probably do worse to a man. I think
+not!"
+
+He entered the front room and stood before a long shelf on which were
+arranged an array of partially completed candlesticks carved from wood.
+There were black and white walnut, red, white, and golden oak, cherry
+and curly maple, all in original designs. Some of them were oddities,
+others were failures, but most of them were unusually successful. He
+selected one of black walnut, carved until the outline of his pattern
+was barely distinguishable. He was imitating the trunk of a tree with
+the bark on, the spreading, fern-covered roots widening for the base,
+from which a vine sprang. Near the top was the crude outline of a big
+night moth climbing toward the light. He stood turning this stick with
+loving hands and holding it from him for inspection.
+
+"I am going to master you!" he exulted. "Your lines are right. The
+design balances and it's graceful. If I have any trouble it will be with
+the moth, and I think I can manage. I've got to decide whether to use
+cecropia or polyphemus before long. Really, on a walnut, and in
+the woods, it should be a luna, according to the eternal fitness of
+things----but I'm afraid of the trailers. They turn over and half curl
+and I believe I had better not tackle them for a start. I'll use the
+easiest to begin on, and if I succeed I'll duplicate the pattern and try
+a luna then. The beauties!"
+
+The Harvester selected a knife from the box and began carving the stick
+slowly and carefully. His brain was busy, for presently he glanced at
+the floor.
+
+"She'd object to that!" he said emphatically. "A man could no more sit
+and work where he pleased than he could fly. At least I know mother
+never would have it, and she was no nagger, either. What a mother she
+was! If one only could stop the lonely feeling that will creep in, and
+the aching hunger born with the body, for a mate; if a fellow only
+could stop it with a woman like mother! How she revelled in sunshine and
+beauty! How she loved earth and air! How she went straight to the marrow
+of the finest line in the best book I could bring from the library! How
+clean and true she was and how unyielding! I can hear her now, holding
+me with her last breath to my promise. If I could marry a girl like
+mother----great Caesar! You'd see me buying an automobile to make the
+run to the county clerk. Wouldn't that be great! Think of coming in from
+a long, difficult day, to find a hot supper, and a girl such as she must
+have been, waiting for me! Bel, if I thought there was a woman similar
+to her in all the world, and I had even the ghost of a chance to win
+her, I'd call you in and forgive you. But I know the girls of to-day. I
+pass them on the roads, on the streets, see them in the cafe's, stores,
+and at the library. Why even the nurses at the hospital, for all the
+gravity of their positions, are a giggling, silly lot; and they never
+know that the only time they look and act presentably to me is when they
+stop their chatter, put on their uniforms, and go to work. Some of them
+are pretty, then. There's a little blue-eyed one, but all she needs is
+feathers to make her a 'ha! ha! bird.' Drat that dog!"
+
+The Harvester took the candlestick and the box of knives, opened the
+door, and returned to the stoop. Belshazzar arose, pleading in his eyes,
+and cautiously advanced a few steps. The man bent over his work and paid
+not the slightest heed, so the discouraged dog sank to earth and fixedly
+watched the unresponsive master. The carving of the candlestick went
+on steadily. Occasionally the Harvester lifted his head and repeatedly
+sucked his lungs full of air. Sometimes for an instant he scanned the
+surface of the lake for signs of breaking fish or splash of migrant
+water bird. Again his gaze wandered up the steep hill, crowned with
+giant trees, whose swelling buds he could see and smell. Straight before
+him lay a low marsh, through which the little creek that gurgled and
+tumbled down hill curved, crossed the drive some distance below, and
+entered the lake of Lost Loons.
+
+While the trees were bare, and when the air was clear as now, he could
+see the spires of Onabasha, five miles away, intervening cultivated
+fields, stretches of wood, the long black line of the railway, and
+the swampy bottom lands gradually rising to the culmination of the
+tree-crowned summit above him. His cocks were crowing warlike challenges
+to rivals on neighbouring farms. His hens were carolling their spring
+egg-song. In the barn yard ganders were screaming stridently. Over the
+lake and the cabin, with clapping snowy wings, his white doves circled
+in a last joy-flight before seeking their cotes in the stable loft. As
+the light grew fainter, the Harvester worked slower. Often he leaned
+against the casing, and closed his eyes to rest them. Sometimes he
+whistled snatches of old songs to which his mother had cradled him, and
+again bits of opera and popular music he had heard on the streets of
+Onabasha. As he worked, the sun went down and a half moon appeared above
+the wood across the lake. Once it seemed as if it were a silver bowl set
+on the branch of a giant oak; higher, it rested a tilted crescent on the
+rim of a cloud.
+
+The dog waited until he could endure it no longer, and straightening
+from his crouching position, he took a few velvet steps forward, making
+faint, whining sounds in his throat. When the man neither turned his
+head nor gave him a glance, Belshazzar sank to earth again, satisfied
+for the moment with being a little closer. Across Loon Lake came the
+wavering voice of a night love song. The Harvester remembered that as a
+boy he had shrunk from those notes until his mother explained that they
+were made by a little brown owl asking for a mate to come and live
+in his hollow tree. Now he rather liked the sound. It was eloquent of
+earnest pleading. With the lonely bird on one side, and the reproachful
+dog eyes on the other, the man grinned rather foolishly.
+
+Between two fires, he thought. If that dog ever catches my eye he will
+come tearing as a cyclone, and I would not kick him again for a hundred
+dollars. First time I ever struck him, and didn't intend to then. So
+blame mad and disappointed my foot just shot out before I knew it. There
+he lies half dead to make up, but I'm blest if I forgive him in a hurry.
+And there is that insane little owl screeching for a mate. If I'd start
+out making sounds like that, all the girls would line up and compete for
+possession of my happy home.
+
+The Harvester laughed and at the sound Belshazzar took courage and
+advanced five steps before he sank belly to earth again. The owl
+continued its song. The Harvester imitated the cry and at once it
+responded. He called again and leaned back waiting. The notes came
+closer. The Harvester cried once more and peered across the lake,
+watching for the shadow of silent wings. The moon was high above the
+trees now, the knife dropped in the box, the long fingers closed around
+the stick, the head rested against the casing, and the man intoned
+the cry with all his skill, and then watched and waited. He had been
+straining his eyes over the carving until they were tired, and when
+he watched for the bird the moonlight tried them; for it touched the
+lightly rippling waves of the lake in a line of yellow light that
+stretched straight across the water from the opposite bank, directly to
+the gravel bed below, where lay the bathing pool. It made a path of gold
+that wavered and shimmered as the water moved gently, but it appeared
+sufficiently material to resemble a bridge spanning the lake.
+
+"Seems as if I could walk it," muttered the Harvester.
+
+The owl cried again and the man intently watched the opposite bank. He
+could not see the bird, but in the deep wood where he thought it might
+be he began to discern a misty, moving shimmer of white. Marvelling, he
+watched closer. So slowly he could not detect motion it advanced, rising
+in height and taking shape.
+
+"Do I end this day by seeing a ghost?" he queried.
+
+He gazed intently and saw that a white figure really moved in the woods
+of the opposite bank.
+
+"Must be some boys playing fool pranks!" exclaimed the Harvester.
+
+He watched fixedly with interested face, and then amazement wiped
+out all other expression and he sat motionless, breathless, looking,
+intently looking. For the white object came straight toward the water
+and at the very edge unhesitatingly stepped upon the bridge of gold and
+lightly, easily advanced in his direction. The man waited. On came
+the figure and as it drew closer he could see that it was a very tall,
+extremely slender woman, wrapped in soft robes of white. She stepped
+along the slender line of the gold bridge with grace unequalled.
+
+From the water arose a shining mist, and behind the advancing figure
+a wall of light outlined and rimmed her in a setting of gold. As she
+neared the shore the Harvester's blood began to race in his veins and
+his lips parted in wonder. First she was like a slender birch trunk,
+then she resembled a wild lily, and soon she was close enough to prove
+that she was young and very lovely. Heavy braids of dark hair rested
+on her head as a coronet. Her forehead was low and white. Her eyes were
+wide-open wells of darkness, her rounded cheeks faintly pink, and her
+red lips smiling invitation. Her throat was long, very white, and the
+hands that caught up the fleecy robe around her were rose-coloured and
+slender. In a panic the Harvester saw that the trailing robe swept the
+undulant gold water, but was not wet; the feet that alternately showed
+as she advanced were not purple with cold, but warm with a pink glow.
+
+She was coming straight toward him, wonderful, alluring, lovely beyond
+any woman the Harvester ever had seen. Straightway the fountains of
+twenty-six years' repression overflowed in the breast of the man and all
+his being ran toward her in a wave of desire. On she came, and now her
+tender feet were on the white gravel. When he could see clearly she was
+even more beautiful than she had appeared at a distance. He opened his
+lips, but no sound came. He struggled to rise, but his legs would not
+bear his weight. Helpless, he sank against the casing. The girl walked
+to his feet, bent, placed a hand on each of his shoulders, and smiled
+into his eyes. He could scent the flower-like odour of her body and
+wrapping, even her hair. He struggled frantically to speak to her as she
+leaned closer, yet closer, and softly but firmly laid lips of pulsing
+sweetness on his in a deliberate kiss.
+
+The Harvester was on his feet now. Belshazzar shrank into the shadows.
+
+"Come back!" cried the man. "Come back! For the love of mercy, where are
+you?"
+
+He ran stumblingly toward the lake. The bridge of gold was there, the
+little owl cried lonesomely; and did he see or did he only dream he saw
+a mist of white vanishing in the opposite wood?
+
+His breath came between dry lips, and he circled the cabin searching
+eagerly, but he could find nothing, hear nothing, save the dog at his
+heels. He hurried to the stoop and stood gazing at the molten path of
+moonlight. One minute he was half frozen, the next a rosy glow enfolded
+him. Slowly he lifted a hand and touched his lips. Then he raised his
+eyes from the water and swept the sky in a penetrant gaze.
+
+"My gracious Heavenly Father," said the Harvester reverently. "Would it
+be like that?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE EFFECT OF A DREAM
+
+Fully convinced at last that he had been dreaming, the Harvester picked
+up his knives and candlestick and entered the cabin. He placed them on a
+shelf and turned away, but after a second's hesitation he closed the
+box and arranged the sticks neatly. Then he set the room in order and
+carefully swept the floor. As he replaced the broom he thought for an
+instant, then opened the door and whistled softly. Belshazzar came at a
+rush. The Harvester pushed the plate of food toward the hungry dog and
+he ate greedily. The man returned to the front room and closed the door.
+
+He stood a long time before his shelf of books, at last selected a
+volume of "Medicinal Plants" and settled to study. His supper finished,
+Belshazzar came scratching and whining at the door. Several times the
+man lifted his head and glanced in that direction, but he only returned
+to his book and read again. Tired and sleepy, at last, he placed the
+volume on the shelf, went to a closet for a pair of bath towels, and
+hung them across a chair. Then he undressed, opened the door, and ran
+for the lake. He plunged with a splash and swam vigorously for a few
+minutes, his white body growing pink under the sting of the chilled
+water. Over and over he scanned the golden bridge to the moon, and stood
+an instant dripping on the gravel of the landing to make sure that no
+dream woman was crossing the wavering floor! He rubbed to a glow and
+turned back the covers of his bed. The door and window stood wide.
+Before he lay down, the Harvester paused in arrested motion a second,
+then stepped to the kitchen door and lifted the latch.
+
+As the man drew the covers over him, the dog's nose began making
+an opening, and a little later he quietly walked into the room. The
+Harvester rested, facing the lake. The dog sniffed at his shoulder, but
+the man was rigid. Then the click of nails could be heard on the floor
+as Belshazzar went to the opposite side. At his accustomed place he
+paused and set one foot on the bed. There was not a sound, so he lifted
+the other. Then one at a time he drew up his hind feet and crouched
+as he had on the gravel. The man lay watching the bright bridge. The
+moonlight entered the window and flooded the room. The strong lines on
+the weather-beaten face of the Harvester were mellowed in the light, and
+he appeared young and good to see. His lithe figure stretched the length
+of the bed, his hair appeared almost white, and his face, touched by the
+glorifying light of the moon, was a study.
+
+One instant his countenance was swept with ultimate scorn; then
+gradually that would fade and the lines soften, until his lips curved in
+child-like appeal and his eyes were filled with pleading. Several
+times he lifted a hand and gently touched his lips, as if a kiss were a
+material thing and would leave tangible evidence of having been given.
+After a long time his eyes closed and he scarcely was unconscious before
+Belshazzar's cold nose touched the outstretched hand and the Harvester
+lifted and laid it on the dog's head.
+
+"Forgive me, Bel," he muttered. "I never did that. I wouldn't have hurt
+you for anything. It happened before I had time to think."
+
+They both fell asleep. The clear-cut lines of manly strength on the face
+of the Harvester were touched to tender beauty. He lay smiling softly.
+Far in the night he realized the frost-chill and divided the coverlet
+with the happy Belshazzar.
+
+The golden dream never came again. There was no need. It had done its
+perfect work. The Harvester awoke the next morning a different man. His
+face was youthful and alive with alert anticipation. He began his work
+with eager impetuosity, whistling and singing the while, and he found
+time to play with and talk to Belshazzar, until that glad beast almost
+wagged off his tail in delight. They breakfasted together and arranged
+the rooms with unusual care.
+
+"You see," explained the Harvester to the dog, "we must walk neatly
+after this. Maybe there is such a thing as fate. Possibly your answer
+was right. There might be a girl in the world for me. I don't expect it,
+but there is a possibility that she may find us before we locate
+her. Anyway, we should work and be ready. All the old stock in the
+store-house goes out as soon as we can cart it. A new cabin shall rise
+as fast as we can build it. There must be a basement and furnace, too.
+Dream women don't have cold feet, but if there is a girl living like
+that, and she is coming to us or waiting for us to come to her, we must
+have a comfortable home to offer. There should be a bathroom, too. She
+couldn't dip in the lake as we do. And until we build the new house we
+must keep the old one clean, just on the chance of her happening on us.
+She might be visiting some of the neighbours or come from town with some
+one or I might see her on the street or at the library or hospital or in
+some of the stores. For the love of mercy, help me watch for her, Bel!
+The half of my kingdom if you will point her for me!"
+
+The Harvester worked as he talked. He set the rooms in order, put away
+the remains of breakfast, and started to the stable. He turned back and
+stood for a long time, scanning the face in the kitchen mirror. Once he
+went to the door, then he hesitated, and finally took out his shaving
+set and used it carefully and washed vigorously. He pulled his shirt
+together at the throat, and hunting among his clothing, found an old
+red tie that he knotted around his neck. This so changed his every-day
+appearance that he felt wonderfully dressed and whistled gaily on his
+way to the barn. There he confided in the old gray mare as he curried
+and harnessed her to the spring wagon.
+
+"Hardly know me, do you, Betsy?" he inquired. "Well, I'll explain. Our
+friend Bel, here, has doomed me to go courting this year. Wouldn't that
+durnfound you? I was mad as hornets at first, but since I've slept on
+the idea, I rather like it. Maybe we are too lonely and dull. Perhaps
+the right woman would make life a very different matter. Last night
+I saw her, Betsy, and between us, I can't tell even you. She was the
+loveliest, sweetest girl on earth, and that is all I can say. We are
+going to watch for her to-day, and every trip we make, until we find
+her, if it requires a hundred years. Then some glad time we are going to
+locate her, and when we do, well, you just keep your eye on us, Betsy,
+and you'll see how courting straight from the heart is done, even if we
+lack experience."
+
+Intoxicated with new and delightful sensations his tongue worked faster
+than his hands.
+
+"I don't mind telling you, old faithful, that I am in love this
+morning," he said. "In love heels over, Betsy, for the first time in all
+my life. If any man ever was a bigger fool than I am to-day, it would
+comfort me to know about it. I am acting like an idiot, Betsy. I know
+that, but I wish you could understand how I feel. Power! I am the
+head-waters of Niagara! I could pluck down the stars and set them in
+different places! I could twist the tail from the comet! I could twirl
+the globe on my palm and topple mountains and wipe lakes from the
+surface! I am a live man, Betsy. Existence is over. So don't you go at
+any tricks or I might pull off your head. Betsy, if you see the tallest
+girl you ever saw, and she wears a dark diadem, and has big black eyes
+and a face so lovely it blinds you, why you have seen Her, and you balk,
+right on the spot, and stand like the rock of Gibraltar, until you
+make me see her, too. As if I wouldn't know she was coming a mile away!
+There's more I could tell you, but that is my secret, and it's too
+precious to talk about, even to my best friends. Bel, bring Betsy to the
+store-room."
+
+The Harvester tossed the hitching strap to the dog and walked down the
+driveway to a low structure built on the embankment beside the lake.
+One end of it was a dry-house of his own construction. Here, by an
+arrangement of hot water pipes, he evaporated many of the barks, roots,
+seeds, and leaves he grew to supply large concerns engaged in the
+manufacture of drugs. By his process crude stock was thoroughly cured,
+yet did not lose in weight and colour as when dried in the sun or
+outdoor shade.
+
+So the Harvester was enabled to send his customers big packages of
+brightly coloured raw material, and the few cents per pound he asked in
+advance of the catalogued prices were paid eagerly. He lived alone,
+and never talked of his work; so none of the harvesters of the fields
+adjoining dreamed of the extent of his reaping. The idea had been his
+own. He had been born in the cabin in which he now lived. His father and
+grandfather were old-time hunters of skins and game. They had added to
+their earnings by gathering in spring and fall the few medicinal seeds,
+leaves, and barks they knew. His mother had been of different type. She
+had loved and married the picturesque young hunter, and gone to live
+with him on the section of land taken by his father. She found life,
+real life, vastly different from her girlhood dreams, but she was one of
+those changeless, unyielding women who suffer silently, but never rue a
+bargain, no matter how badly they are cheated. Her only joy in life had
+been her son. For him she had worked and saved unceasingly, and when he
+was old enough she sent him to the city to school and kept pace with him
+in the lessons he brought home at night.
+
+Using what she knew of her husband's work as a guide, and profiting by
+pamphlets published by the government, every hour of the time outside
+school and in summer vacations she worked in the woods with the boy,
+gathering herbs and roots to pay for his education and clothing. So
+the son passed the full high-school course, and then, selecting such
+branches as interested him, continued his studies alone.
+
+From books and drug pamphlets he had learned every medicinal plant,
+shrub, and tree of his vicinity, and for years roamed far afield and
+through the woods collecting. After his father's death expenses grew
+heavier and the boy saw that he must earn more money. His mother
+frantically opposed his going to the city, so he thought out the plan
+of transplanting the stuff he gathered, to the land they owned and
+cultivating it there. This work was well developed when he was twenty,
+but that year he lost his mother.
+
+From that time he went on steadily enlarging his species, transplanting
+trees, shrubs, vines, and medicinal herbs from such locations as he
+found them to similar conditions on his land. Six years he had worked
+cultivating these beds, and hunting through the woods on the river
+banks, government land, the great Limberlost Swamp, and neglected
+corners of earth for barks and roots. He occasionally made long trips
+across the country for rapidly diminishing plants he found in the
+woodland of men who did not care to bother with a few specimens,
+and many big beds of profitable herbs, extinct for miles around, now
+flourished on the banks of Loon Lake, in the marsh, and through the
+forest rising above. To what extent and value his venture had grown, no
+one save the Harvester knew. When his neighbours twitted him with
+being too lazy to plow and sow, of "mooning" over books, and derisively
+sneered when they spoke of him as the Harvester of the Woods or the
+Medicine Man, David Langston smiled and went his way.
+
+How lonely he had been since the death of his mother he never realized
+until that morning when a new idea really had taken possession of him.
+From the store-house he heaped packages of seeds, dried leaves, barks,
+and roots into the wagon. But he kept a generous supply of each, for he
+prided himself on being able to fill all orders that reached him. Yet
+the load he took to the city was much larger than usual. As he drove
+down the hill and passed the cabin he studied the location.
+
+"The drainage is perfect," he said to Belshazzar beside him on the seat.
+"So is the situation. We get the cool breezes from the lake in summer
+and the hillside warmth in winter. View down the valley can't be
+surpassed. We will grub out that thicket in front, move over the
+driveway, and build a couple of two-story rooms, with basement for
+cellar and furnace, and a bathroom in front of the cabin and use it with
+some fixing over for a dining-room and kitchen. Then we will deepen and
+widen Singing Water, stick a bushel of bulbs and roots and sow a peck of
+flower seeds in the marsh, plant a hedge along the drive, and straighten
+the lake shore a little. I can make a beautiful wild-flower garden and
+arrange so that with one season's work this will appear very well. We
+will express this stuff and then select and fell some trees to-night.
+Soon as the frost is out of the ground we will dig our basement and lay
+the foundations. The neighbours will help me raise the logs; after that
+I can finish the inside work. I've got some dried maple, cherry,
+and walnut logs that would work into beautiful furniture. I haven't
+forgotten the prices McLean offered me. I can use it as well as he.
+Plain way the best things are built now, I believe I could make tables
+and couches myself. I can see plans in the magazines at the library.
+I'll take a look when I get this off. I feel strong enough to do all of
+it in a few days and I am crazy to commence. But I scarcely know where
+to begin. There are about fifty things I'd like to do. But to fell and
+dry the trees and get the walls up come first, I believe. What do you
+think, old unreliable?"
+
+Belshazzar thought the world was a place of beauty that morning. He
+sniffed the icy, odorous air and with tilted head watched the birds.
+A wearied band of ducks had settled on Loon Lake to feed and rest,
+for there was nothing to disturb them. Signs were numerous everywhere
+prohibiting hunters from firing over the Harvester's land. Beside
+the lake, down the valley, crossing the railroad, and in the farther
+lowlands, the dog was a nervous quiver, as he constantly scented game
+or saw birds he wanted to point. But when they neared the city, he sat
+silently watching everything with alert eyes. As they reached the outer
+fringe of residences the Harvester spoke to him.
+
+"Now remember, Bel," he said. "Point me the tallest girl you ever saw,
+with a big braid of dark hair, shining black eyes, and red velvet lips,
+sweeter than wild crab apple blossoms. Make a dead set! Don't allow her
+to pass us. Heaven is going to begin in Medicine Woods when we find her
+and prove to her that there lies her happy home.
+
+"When we find her," repeated the Harvester softly and exultantly. "When
+we find her!"
+
+He said it again and again, pronouncing the words with tender
+modulations. Because he was chanting it in his soul, in his heart,
+in his brain, with his lips, he had a hasty glance for every woman
+he passed. Light hair, blue eyes, and short figures got only casual
+inspection: but any tall girl with dark hair and eyes endured rather
+close scrutiny that morning. He drove to the express office and
+delivered his packages and then to the hospital. In the hall the
+blue-eyed nurse met him and cried gaily, "Good morning, Medicine Man!"
+
+"Ugh! I scalp pale-faces!" threatened the Harvester, but the girl was
+not afraid and stood before him laughing. She might have gone her way
+quite as well. She could not have differed more from the girl of the
+newly begun quest. The man merely touched his wide-brimmed hat as he
+walked around her and entered the office of the chief surgeon.
+
+A slender, gray-eyed man with white hair turned from his desk, smiled
+warmly, pushed a chair, and reached a welcoming hand.
+
+"Ah good-morning, David," he cried. "You bring the very breath of spring
+with you. Are you at the maples yet?"
+
+"Begin to-morrow," was the answer. "I want to get all my old stock off
+hands. Sugar water comes next, and then the giddy sassafras and spring
+roots rush me, and after that, harvest begins full force, and all
+my land is teeming. This is going to be a big year. Everything is
+sufficiently advanced to be worth while. I have decided to enlarge the
+buildings."
+
+"Store-room too small?"
+
+"Everything!" said the Harvester comprehensively. "I am crowded
+everywhere."
+
+The keen gray eyes bent on him searchingly.
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed the doctor. "'Crowded everywhere.' I had not heard of
+cramped living quarters before. When did you meet her?"
+
+"Last night," replied the Harvester. "Her home is already in
+construction. I chose seven trees as I drove here that are going to fall
+before night."
+
+So casual was the tone the doctor was disarmed.
+
+"I am trying your nerve remedy," he said.
+
+Instantly the Harvester tingled with interest.
+
+"How does it work?" he inquired.
+
+"Finely! Had a case that presented just the symptoms you mentioned.
+High-school girl broken down from trying to lead her classes, lead her
+fraternity, lead her parents, lead society----the Lord only knows what
+else. Gone all to pieces! Pretty a case of nervous prostration as you
+ever saw in a person of fifty. I began on fractional doses with it, and
+at last got her where she can rest. It did precisely what you claimed it
+would, David."
+
+"Good!" cried the Harvester. "Good! I hoped it would be effective.
+Thank you for the test. It will give me confidence when I go before the
+chemists with it. I've got a couple more compounds I wish you would try
+when you have safe cases where you can do no harm."
+
+"You are cautious for a young man, son!"
+
+"The woods do that. You not only discover miracles and marvels in them,
+you not only trace evolution and the origin of species, but you get
+the greatest lessons taught in all the world ground into you early and
+alone----courage, caution, and patience."
+
+"Those are the rocks on which men are stranded as a rule. You think you
+can breast them, David?"
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+"Aside from breaking a certain promise mother rooted in the blood and
+bones of me, if I am afraid of anything, I don't know it. You don't
+often see me going head-long, do you? As to patience! Ten years ago I
+began removing every tree, bush, vine, and plant of medicinal value from
+the woods around to my land; I set and sowed acres in ginseng, knowing
+I must nurse, tend, and cultivate seven years. If my neighbours had
+understood what I was attempting, what do you think they would have
+said? Cranky and lazy would have become adjectives too mild. Lunatic
+would have expressed it better. That's close the general opinion,
+anyway. Because I will not fell my trees, and the woods hide the work I
+do, it is generally conceded that I spend my time in the sun reading
+a book. I do, as often as I have an opportunity. But the point is that
+this fall, when I harvest that ginseng bed, I will clear more money than
+my stiffest detractor ever saw at one time. I'll wager my bank account
+won't compare so unfavourably with the best of them now. I did well
+this morning. Yes, I'll admit this much: I am reasonably cautious, I'm
+a pattern for patience, and my courage never has failed me yet, anyway.
+But I must rap on wood; for that boast is a sign that I probably will
+meet my Jonah soon."
+
+"David, you are a man after my own heart," said the doctor. "I love you
+more than any other friend I have I wouldn't see a hair of your head
+changed for the world. Now I've got to hurry to my operation. Remain as
+long as you please if there is anything that interests you; but don't
+let the giggling little nurse that always haunts the hall when you come
+make any impression. She is not up to your standard."
+
+"Don't!" said the Harvester. "I've learned one of the big lessons of
+life since last I saw you, Doc. I have no standard. There is just one
+woman in all the world for me, and when I find her I will know her, and
+I will be happy for even a glance; as for that talk of standards, I will
+be only too glad to take her as she is."
+
+"David! I supposed what you said about enlarged buildings was nonsense
+or applied to store-rooms."
+
+"Go to your operation!"
+
+"David, if you send me in suspense, I may operate on the wrong man. What
+has happened?"
+
+"Nothing!" said the Harvester. "Nothing!"
+
+"David, it is not like you to evade. What happened?"
+
+"Nothing! On my word! I merely saw a vision and dreamed a dream."
+
+"You! A rank materialist! Saw a vision and dreamed a dream! And you
+call it nothing. Worst thing that could happen! Whenever a man of
+common-sense goes to seeing things that don't exist, and dreaming
+dreams, why look out! What did you see? What did you dream?"
+
+"You woman!" laughed the Harvester. "Talk about curiosity! I'd have to
+be a poet to describe my vision, and the dream was strictly private.
+I couldn't tell it, not for any price you could mention. Go to your
+operation."
+
+The doctor paused on the threshold.
+
+"You can't fool me," he said. "I can diagnose you all right. You are
+poet enough, but the vision was sacred; and when a man won't tell, it's
+always and forever a woman. I know all now I ever will, because I know
+you, David. A man with a loose mouth and a low mind drags the women of
+his acquaintance through whatever mire he sinks in; but you couldn't
+tell, David, not even about a dream woman. Come again soon! You are
+my elixir of life, lad! I revel in the atmosphere you bring. Wish me
+success now, I am going to a difficult, delicate operation."
+
+"I do!" cried the Harvester heartily. "I do! But you can't fail. You
+never have and that proves you cannot! Good-bye!"
+
+Down the street went the Harvester, passing over city pave with his
+free, swinging stride, his head high, his face flushed with vivid
+outdoor tints, going somewhere to do something worth while, the
+impression always left behind him. Men envied his robust appearance and
+women looked twice, always twice, and sometimes oftener if there was any
+opportunity; but twice at least was the rule. He left a little roll of
+bills at the bank and started toward the library. When he entered the
+reading room an attendant with an eager smile hastily came toward him.
+
+"What will you have this morning, Mr. Langston?" she asked in the voice
+of one who would render willing service.
+
+"Not the big books to-day," laughed the Harvester. "I've only a short
+time. I'll glance through the magazines."
+
+He selected several from a table and going to a corner settled with them
+and for two hours was deeply engrossed. He took an envelope from his
+pocket, traced lines, and read intently. He studied the placing of
+rooms, the construction of furniture, and all attractive ideas were
+noted. When at last he arose the attendant went to replace the magazines
+on the table. They had been opened widely, and as she turned the
+leaves they naturally fell apart at the plans for houses or articles of
+furniture.
+
+The Harvester slowly went down the street. Before every furniture store
+he paused and studied the designs displayed in the windows. Then he
+untied Betsy and drove to a lumber mill on the outskirts of the city and
+made arrangements to have some freshly felled logs of black walnut
+and curly maple sawed into different sizes and put through a course in
+drying.
+
+He drove back to Medicine Woods whistling, singing, and talking to
+Belshazzar beside him. He ate a hasty lunch and at three o'clock was in
+the forest, blazing and felling slender, straight-trunked oak and ash of
+the desired proportions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. HARVESTING THE FOREST
+
+
+The forest is never so wonderful as when spring wrestles with winter for
+supremacy. While the earth is yet ice bound, while snows occasionally
+fly, spring breathes her warmer breath of approach, and all nature
+responds. Sunny knolls, embankments, and cleared spaces become bare,
+while shadow spots and sheltered nooks remain white. This perfumes the
+icy air with a warmer breath of melting snow. The sap rises in the trees
+and bushes, sets buds swelling, and they distil a faint, intangible
+odour. Deep layers of dead leaves cover the frozen earth, and the sun
+shining on them raises a steamy vapour unlike anything else in nature. A
+different scent rises from earth where the sun strikes it. Lichen faces
+take on the brightest colours they ever wear, and rough, coarse mosses
+emerge in rank growth from their cover of snow and add another perfume
+to mellowing air. This combination has breathed a strange intoxication
+into the breast of mankind in all ages, and bird and animal life prove
+by their actions that it makes the same appeal to them.
+
+Crows caw supremacy from tall trees; flickers, drunk on the wine of
+nature, flash their yellow-lined wings and red crowns among trees in a
+search for suitable building places; nut-hatches run head foremost down
+rough trunks, spying out larvae and early emerging insects; titmice
+chatter; the bold, clear whistle of the cardinal sounds never so gaily;
+and song sparrows pipe from every wayside shrub and fence post. Coons
+and opossums stir in their dens, musk-rat and ground-hog inspect the
+weather, while squirrels race along branches and bound from tree to tree
+like winged folk.
+
+All of them could have outlined the holdings of the Harvester almost
+as well as any surveyor. They understood where the bang of guns and the
+snap of traps menaced life. Best of all, they knew where cracked nuts,
+handfuls of wheat, oats, and crumbs were scattered on the ground, and
+where suet bones dangled from bushes. Here, too, the last sheaf from the
+small wheat field at the foot of the hill was stoutly fixed on a high
+pole, so that the grain was free to all feathered visitors.
+
+When the Harvester hitched Betsy, loaded his spiles and sap buckets
+into the wagon, and started to the woods to gather the offering the wet
+maples were pouring down their swelling sides, almost his entire family
+came to see him. They knew who fed and passed every day among them, and
+so were unafraid.
+
+After the familiarity of a long, cold winter, when it had been easier
+to pick up scattered food than to search for it, they became so friendly
+with the man, the dog, and the gray horse that they hastily snatched
+the food offered at the barn and then followed through the woods. The
+Harvester always was particular to wear large pockets, for it was good
+company to have living creatures flocking after him, trusting to his
+bounty. Ajax, a shimmering wonder of gorgeous feathers, sunned on the
+ridge pole of the old log stable, preened, spread his train, and uttered
+the peacock cry of defiance, to exercise his voice or to express his
+emotions at all times. But at feeding hour he descended to the park and
+snatched bites from the biggest turkey cocks and ganders and reigned in
+power absolute over ducks, guineas, and chickens. Then he followed to
+the barn and tried to frighten crows and jays, and the gentle white
+doves under the eaves.
+
+The Harvester walked through deep leaves and snow covering the road that
+only a forester could have distinguished. Over his shoulder he carried
+a mattock, and in the wagon were his clippers and an ax. Behind him came
+Betsy drawing the sap buckets and big evaporating kettles. Through the
+wood ranged Belshazzar, the craziest dog in all creation. He always went
+wild at sap time. Here was none of the monotony of trapping for skins
+around the lake. This marked the first full day in the woods for
+the season. He ranged as he pleased and came for a pat or a look of
+confidence when he grew lonely, while the Harvester worked.
+
+At camp the man unhitched Betsy and tied her to the wagon and for
+several hours distributed buckets. Then he hung the kettles and gathered
+wood for the fire. At noon he returned to the cabin for lunch and
+brought back a load of empty syrup cans, and barrels in which to collect
+the sap. While the buckets filled at the dripping trees, he dug roots in
+the sassafras thicket to fill orders and supply the demand of Onabasha
+for tea. Several times he stopped to cut an especially fine tree.
+
+"You know I hate to kill you," he apologized to the first one he felled.
+"But it certainly must be legitimate for a man to take enough of his
+trees to build a home. And no other house is possible for a creature of
+the woods but a cabin, is there? The birds use of the material they find
+here; surely I have the right to do the same. Seems as if nothing else
+would serve, at least for me. I was born and reared here, I've always
+loved you; of course, I can't use anything else for my home."
+
+He swung the ax and the chips flew as he worked on a straight half-grown
+oak. After a time he paused an instant and rested, and as he did so he
+looked speculatively at his work.
+
+"I wonder where she is to-day," he said. "I wonder what she is going to
+think of a log cabin in the woods. Maybe she has been reared in the
+city and is afraid of a forest. She may not like houses made of logs.
+Possibly she won't want to marry a Medicine Man. She may dislike the
+man, not to mention his occupation. She may think it coarse and common
+to work out of doors with your hands, although I'd have to argue there
+is a little brain in the combination. I must figure out all these
+things. But there is one on the lady: She should have settled these
+points before she became quite so familiar. I have that for a foundation
+anyway, so I'll go on cutting wood, and the remainder will be up to her
+when I find her. When I find her," repeated the Harvester slowly. "But I
+am not going to locate her very soon monkeying around in these woods. I
+should be out where people are, looking for her right now."
+
+He chopped steadily until the tree crashed over, and then, noticing a
+rapidly filling bucket, he struck the ax in the wood and began gathering
+sap. When he had made the round, he drove to the camp, filled the
+kettles, and lighted the fire. While it started he cut and scraped
+sassafras roots, and made clippings of tag alder, spice brush and white
+willow into big bundles that were ready to have the bark removed during
+the night watch, and then cured in the dry-house.
+
+He went home at evening to feed the poultry and replenish the
+ever-burning fire of the engine and to keep the cabin warm enough that
+food would not freeze. With an oilcloth and blankets he returned to camp
+and throughout the night tended the buckets and boiling sap, and worked
+or dozed by the fire between times. Toward the end of boiling, when the
+sap was becoming thick, it had to be watched with especial care so it
+would not scorch. But when the kettles were freshly filled the Harvester
+sat beside them and carefully split tender twigs of willow and slipped
+off the bark ready to be spread on the trays.
+
+"You are a good tonic," he mused as he worked, "and you go into some of
+the medicine for rheumatism. If she ever has it we will give her some
+of you, and then she will be all right again. Strange that I should be
+preparing medicinal bark by the sugar camp fire, but I have to make this
+hay, not while the sun shines, but when the bark is loose, while the sap
+is rising. Wonder who will use this. Depends largely on where I sell it.
+Anyway, I hope it will take the pain out of some poor body. Prices so
+low now, not worth gathering unless I can kill time on it while waiting
+for something else. Never got over seven cents a pound for the best I
+ever sold, and it takes a heap of these little quills to make a pound
+when they are dry. That's all of you----about twenty-five cents' worth.
+But even that is better than doing nothing while I wait, and some one
+has to keep the doctors supplied with salicin and tannin, so, if I do,
+other folks needn't bother."
+
+He arose and poured more sap into the kettles as it boiled away and
+replenished the fire. He nibbled a twig when he began on the spice
+brush. As he sat on the piled wood, and bent over his work he was
+an attractive figure. His face shone with health and was bright with
+anticipation. While he split the tender bark and slipped out the wood he
+spoke his thoughts slowly:
+
+"The five cents a pound I'll get for you is even less, but I love the
+fragrance and taste. You don't peel so easy as the willow, but I like
+to prepare you better, because you will make some miserable little sick
+child well or you may cool some one's fevered blood. If ever she has a
+fever, I hope she will take medicine made from my bark, because it will
+be strong and pure. I've half a notion to set some one else gathering
+the stuff and tending the plants and spend my time in the little
+laboratory compounding different combinations. I don't see what bigger
+thing a man can do than to combine pure, clean, unadulterated roots and
+barks into medicines that will cool fevers, stop chills, and purify bad
+blood. The doctors may be all right, but what are they going to do if we
+men behind the prescription cases don't supply them with unadulterated
+drugs. Answer me that, Mr. Sapsucker. Doc says I've done mighty well so
+far as I have gone. I can't think of a thing on earth I'd rather do, and
+there's money no end in it. I could get too rich for comfort in short
+order. I wouldn't be too wealthy to live just the way I do for any
+consideration. I don't know about her, though. She is lovely, and
+handsome women usually want beautiful clothing, and a quantity of things
+that cost no end of money. I may need all I can get, for her. One never
+can tell."
+
+He arose to stir the sap and pour more from the barrels to the kettles
+before he began on the tag alder he had gathered.
+
+"If it is all the same to you, I'll just keep on chewing spice brush
+while I work," he muttered. "You are entirely too much of an astringent
+to suit my taste and you bring a cent less a pound. But you are thicker
+and dry heavier, and you grow in any quantity around the lake and on the
+marshy places, so I'll make the size of the bundle atone for the price.
+If I peel you while I wait on the sap I'm that much ahead. I can spread
+you on drying trays in a few seconds and there you are. Howl your head
+off, Bel, I don't care what you have found. I wouldn't shoot anything
+to-day, unless the cupboard was bare and I was starvation hungry. In
+that case I think a man comes first, and I'd kill a squirrel or quail
+in season, but blest if I'd butcher a lot or do it often. Vegetables
+and bread are better anyway. You peel easier even than the willow. What
+jolly whistles father used to make!
+
+"There was about twenty cents' worth of spice, and I'll easy raise it to
+a dollar on this. I'll get a hundred gallons of syrup in the coming two
+weeks and it will bring one fifty if I boil and strain it carefully and
+can guarantee it contains no hickory bark and brown sugar. And it won't!
+Straight for me or not at all. Pure is the word at Medicine Woods; syrup
+or drugs it's the same thing. Between times I can fell every tree I'll
+need for the new cabin, and average a dollar a day besides on spice,
+alder, and willow, and twice that for sassafras for the Onabasha
+markets; not to mention the quantities I can dry this year. Aside from
+spring tea, they seem to use it for everything. I never yet have had
+enough. It goes into half the tonics, anodyne, and stimulants; also soap
+and candy. I see where I grow rich in spite of myself, and also where my
+harvest is going to spoil before I can garner it, if I don't step
+lively and double even more than I am now. Where the cabin is to come
+in----well it must come if everything else goes.
+
+"The roots can wait and I'll dig them next year and get more and larger
+pieces. I won't really lose anything, and if she should come before I
+am ready to start to find her, why then I'll have her home prepared.
+How long before you begin your house, old fire-fly?" he inquired of a
+flaming cardinal tilting on a twig.
+
+He arose to make the round of the sap buckets again, then resumed his
+work peeling bark, and so the time passed. In the following ten days he
+collected and boiled enough sap to make more syrup than he had expected.
+His earliest spring store of medicinal twigs, that were peeled to dry in
+quills, were all collected and on the trays; he had digged several wagon
+loads of sassafras and felled all the logs of stout, slender oak he
+would require for his walls. Choice timber he had been curing for
+candlestick material he hauled to the saw-mills to have cut properly,
+for the thought of trying his hand at tables and chairs had taken
+possession of him. He was sure he could make furniture that would appear
+quite as well as the mission pieces he admired on display in the store
+windows of the city. To him, chairs and tables made from trees that grew
+on land that had belonged for three generations to his ancestors, trees
+among which he had grown, played, and worked, trees that were so much
+his friends that he carefully explained the situation to them before
+using an ax or saw, trees that he had cut, cured, and fashioned into
+designs of his own, would make vastly more valuable furnishings in his
+home than anything that could be purchased in the city.
+
+As he drove back and forth he watched constantly for her. He was working
+so desperately, planning far ahead, doubling and trebling tasks, trying
+to do everything his profession demanded in season, and to prepare
+timber and make plans for the new cabin, as well as to start a pair
+of candlesticks of marvellous design for her, that night was one
+long, unbroken sleep of the thoroughly tired man, but day had become a
+delightful dream.
+
+He fed the chickens to produce eggs for her. He gathered barks and
+sluiced roots on the raft in the lake, for her. He grubbed the spice
+thicket before the door and moved it into the woods to make space for a
+lawn, for her. His eyes were wide open for every woven case and dangling
+cocoon of the big night moths that propagated around him, for her. Every
+night when he left the woods from one to a dozen cocoons, that he had
+detected with remarkable ease while the trees were bare, were stuck
+in his hat band. As he arranged them in a cool, dry place he talked to
+them.
+
+"Of course I know you are valuable and there are collectors who would
+pay well for you, but I think not. You are the prettiest thing God made
+that I ever saw, and those of you that home with me have no price on
+your wings. You are much safer here than among the crows and jays of the
+woods. I am gathering you to protect you, and to show to her. If I don't
+find her by June, you may go scot free. All I want is the best pattern
+I can get from some of you for candlestick designs. Of everything in the
+whole world a candlestick should be made of wood. It should be carved
+by hand, and of all ornamentations on earth the moth that flies to the
+night light is the most appropriate. Owls are not so bad. They are of
+the night, and they fly to light, too, but they are so old. Nobody I
+ever have known used a moth. They missed the best when they neglected
+them. I'll make her sticks over an original pattern; I'll twine
+nightshade vines, with flowers and berries around them, and put a
+trailed luna on one, and what is the next prettiest for the other? I'll
+think well before if decide. Maybe she'll come by the time I get to
+carving and tell me what she likes. That would beat my taste or guessing
+a mile."
+
+He carefully arranged the twigs bearing cocoons in a big, wire-covered
+box to protect them from the depredations of nibbling mice and the
+bolder attacks of the saucy ground squirrels that stored nuts in his
+loft and took possession of the attic until their scampering sometimes
+awoke him in the night.
+
+Every trip he made to the city he stopped at the library to examine
+plans of buildings and furniture and to make notes. The oak he had
+hauled was being hewed into shape by a neighbour who knew how, and every
+wagon that carried a log to the city to be dressed at the mill brought
+back timber for side walls, joists, and rafters. Night after night he
+sat late poring over his plans for the new rooms, above all for her
+chamber. With poised pencil he wavered over where to put the closet and
+entrance to her bath. He figured on how wide to make her bed and where
+it should stand. He remembered her dressing table in placing windows
+and a space for a chest of drawers. In fact there was nothing the active
+mind of the Harvester did not busy itself with in those days that might
+make a woman a comfortable home. Every thought emanated from impulses
+evolved in his life in the woods, and each was executed with mighty
+tenderness.
+
+A killdeer sweeping the lake close two o'clock one morning awakened him.
+He had planned to close the sugar camp for the season that day, but when
+he heard the notes of the loved bird he wondered if that would not be a
+good time to stake out the foundations and begin digging. There was yet
+ice in the ground, but the hillside was rapidly thawing, and although
+the work would be easier later, so eager was the Harvester to have walls
+up and a roof over that he decided to commence.
+
+But when morning came and he and Belshazzar breakfasted and fed Betsy
+and the stock, he concluded to return to his first plan and close the
+camp. All the sap collected that day went into the vinegar barrel. He
+loaded the kettles, buckets, and spiles and stopped at the spice thicket
+to cut a bale of twigs as he passed. He carried one load to the wagon
+and returned for another. Down wind on swift wing came a bird and
+entered the bushes. Motionless the Harvester peered at it. A mourning
+dove had returned to him through snow, skifting over cold earth. It
+settled on a limb and began dressing its plumage. At that instant a
+wavering, "Coo coo a'gh coo," broke in sobbing notes from the deep wood.
+Without paying the slightest heed, the dove finished a wing, ruffled
+and settled her feathers, and opened her bill in a human-like yawn. The
+Harvester smiled. The notes swelled closer in renewed pleading. The cry
+was beyond doubt a courting male and this an indifferent female.
+Her beady eyes snapped, her head turned coquettishly, a picture of
+self-possession, she hid among the dense twigs of the spice thicket.
+Around the outside circled the pleading male.
+
+With shining eyes the Harvester watched. These were of the things
+that made life in the woods most worth while. More insistent grew the
+wavering notes of the lover. More indifferent became the beloved. She
+was superb in her poise as she amused herself in hiding. A perfect burst
+of confused, sobbing notes broke on the air. Then away in the deep wood
+a softly-wavering, half-questioning "Coo-ah!" answered them. Amazement
+flashed into the eyes of the Harvester, but his face was not nearly so
+expressive as that of the bird. She lifted a bewildered head and grew
+rigid in an attitude of tense listening. There was a pause. In quicker
+measure and crowding notes the male called again. Instantly the soft
+"Coo!" wavered in answer. The surprised little hen bird of the thicket
+hopped straight up and settled on her perch again, her dark eyes
+indignant as she uttered a short "Coo!" The muscles of the Harvester's
+chest were beginning to twitch and quiver. More intense grew the notes
+of the pleading male. Softly seductive came the reply. The clapping
+of his wings could be heard as he flew in search of the charmer. "A'gh
+coo!" cried the deserted female as she tilted off the branch and tore
+through the thicket in pursuit, with wings hastened by fright at the
+ringing laugh of the Harvester.
+
+"Not so indifferent after all, Bel," he said to the dog standing in
+stiff point beside him. "That was all 'pretend!' But she waited just a
+trifle too long. Now she will have to fight it out with a rival. Good
+thing if some of the flirtatious women could have seen that. Help them
+to learn their own minds sooner."
+
+He laughed as he heaped the twigs on top of the wagon and started down
+the hill chuckling. Belshazzar followed, leading Betsy straight in the
+middle of the road by the hitching strap. A few yards ahead the man
+stopped suddenly with lifted hand. The dog and horse stood motionless.
+A dove flashed across the road and settled in sight on a limb. Almost
+simultaneously another perched beside it, and they locked bills in a
+long caress, utterly heedless of a plaintive "Coo" in the deep wood.
+
+"Settled!" said the Harvester. "Jupiter! I wish my troubles were that
+nearly finished! Wish I knew where she is and how to find my way to her
+lips! Wonder if she will come when I call her. What if I should
+find her, and she would have everything on earth, other lovers, and
+indifference worse than Madam Dove's for me. Talk about bitterness! Well
+I'd have the dream left anyway. And there are always two sides. There is
+just a possibility that she may be poor and overworked, sick and tired,
+and wondering why I don't come. Possibly she had a dream, too, and she
+wishes I would hurry. Dear Lord!"
+
+The Harvester began to perspire as he strode down the hill. He scarcely
+waited to hang the harness properly. He did not stop to unload the wagon
+until night, but went after an ax and a board that he split into pegs.
+Then he took a ball of twine, a measuring line, and began laying out his
+foundation, when the hard earth would scarcely hold the stakes he drove
+into it. When he found he only would waste time in digging he put away
+the neatly washed kettles, peeled the spice brush, spread it to dry, and
+prepared his dinner. After that he began hauling stone and cement for
+his basement floor and foundation walls. Occasionally he helped at
+hewing logs when the old man paused to rest. That afternoon the first
+robin of the season hailed him in passing.
+
+"Hello!" cried the Harvester. "You don't mean to tell me that you have
+beaten the larks! You really have! Well since I see it, I must believe,
+but you are early. Come around to the back door if crumbs or wheat will
+do or if you can make out on suet and meat bones! We are good and ready
+for you. Where is your mate? For any sake, don't tell me you don't know.
+One case of that kind at Medicine Woods is enough. Say you came ahead
+to see if it is too cold or to select a home and get ready for her. Say
+anything on earth except that you love her, and want her until your body
+is one quivering ache, and you don't know where she is."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. A COMMISSION FOR THE SOUTH WIND
+
+The next morning the larks trailed ecstasy all over the valley, the
+following day cuckoos were calling in the thickets, a warm wind swept
+from the south and set swollen buds bursting, while the sun shone,
+causing the Harvester to rejoice. Betsy's white coat was splashed with
+the mud of the valley road; the feet of Belshazzar left tracks over
+lumber piles; and the Harvester removed his muck-covered shoes at the
+door and wore slippers inside. The skunk cabbage appeared around the
+edge of the forest, rank mullein and thistles lay over the fields in
+big circles of green, and even plants of delicate growth were thrusting
+their heads through mellowing earth and dead leaves, to reach light and
+air.
+
+Then the Harvester took his mattock and began to dig. His level best
+fell so far short of what he felt capable of doing and desired to
+accomplish that the following day he put two more men on the job. Then
+the earth did fly, and so soon as the required space was excavated the
+walls were lined with stone and a smooth basement floor was made of
+cement. The night the new home stood, a skeleton of joists and rafters,
+gleaming whitely on the banks of Loon Lake, the Harvester went to the
+bridge crossing Singing Water and slowly came up the driveway to see how
+the work appeared. He caught his breath as he advanced. He had intended
+to stake out generous rooms, but this, compared with the cabin, seemed
+like a big hotel.
+
+"I hope I haven't made it so large it will be a burden," he
+soliloquized. "It's huge! But while I am at it I want to build big
+enough, and I think I have."
+
+He stood on the driveway, his arms folded, and looked at the structure
+as he occasionally voiced his thoughts.
+
+"The next thing is to lay up the side walls and get the roof over. Got
+to have plenty of help, for those logs are hewed to fourteen inches
+square and some of them are forty feet long. That's timber! Grew with
+me, too. Personally acquainted with almost every tree of it. We will bed
+them in cement, use care with the roof, and if that doesn't make a cool
+house in the summer, and a warm one in winter, I'll be disappointed.
+It sets among the trees, and on the hillside just right. We must have a
+wide porch, plenty of flowers, vines, ferns, and mosses, and when I get
+everything finished and she sees it----perhaps it will please her."
+
+A great horned owl swept down the hill, crossed the lake, and hooted
+from the forest of the opposite bank. The Harvester thought of his dream
+and turned.
+
+"Any women walking the water to-night? Come if you like," he bantered,
+"I don't mind in the least. In fact, I'd rather enjoy it. I'd be so
+happy if you would come now and tell me how this appears to you,
+for it's all yours. I'd have enlarged the store-room, dry-houses and
+laboratory for myself, but this cabin, never! The old one suited me as
+it was; but for you----I should have a better home."
+
+The Harvester glanced from the shining skeleton to the bridge of gold
+and back again.
+
+"Where are you to-night?" he questioned. "What are you doing? Can't you
+give me a hint of where to search for you when this is ready? I don't
+know but I am beginning wrong. My little brothers of the wood do
+differently. They announce their intentions the first thing, flaunt
+their attractions, and display their strength. They say aloud, for all
+the listening world to hear, what is in their hearts. They chip, chirp,
+and sing, warble, whistle, thrill, scream, and hoot it. They are strong
+on self-expression, and appreciative of their appearance. They meet,
+court, mate, and THEN build their home together after a mutual plan.
+It's a good way, too! Lots surer of getting things satisfactory."
+
+The Harvester sat on a lumber pile and gazed questioningly at the
+framework.
+
+"I wish I knew if I am going at things right," he said. "There are two
+sides to consider. If she is in a good home, and lovingly cared for, it
+would be proper to court her and get her promise, if I could----no I'm
+blest if I'll be so modest----get her promise, as I said, and let her
+wait while I build the cabin. But if she should be poor, tired, and
+neglected, then I ought to have this ready when I find her, so I could
+pick her up and bring her to it, with no more ceremony than the birds."
+
+The Harvester's clear skin flushed crimson.
+
+"Of course, I don't mean no wedding ceremony," he amended. "I was
+thinking of a long time wasted in preliminaries when in my soul I know I
+am going to marry my Dream Girl before I ever have seen her in reality.
+What would be the use in spending much time in courting? She is my wife
+now, by every law of God. Let me get a glimpse of her, and I'll prove
+it. But I've got to make tracks, for if she were here, where would I put
+her? I must hurry!"
+
+He went to the work room and began polishing a table top. He had bought
+a chest of tools and was spending every spare minute on tables,
+chair seats, and legs. He had decided to make these first and carve
+candlesticks later when he had more time. Two hours he worked at the
+furniture, and then went to bed. The following morning he put eggs under
+several hens that wanted to set, trimmed his grape-vines, examined the
+precious ginseng beds, attended his stock, got breakfast for Belshazzar
+and himself, and was ready for work when the first carpenter arrived.
+Laying hewed logs went speedily, and before the Harvester believed it
+possible the big shingles he had ordered were being nailed on the roof.
+Then came the plumber and arranged for the bathroom, and the furnace
+man placed the heating pipes. The Harvester had intended the cabin to
+be mostly the work of his own hands, but when he saw how rapidly
+skilled carpenters worked, he changed his mind and had them finish the
+living-room, his room, and the upstairs, and make over the dining-room
+and kitchen.
+
+Her room he worked on alone, with a little help if he did not know how
+to join the different parts. Every thing was plain and simple, after
+plans of his own, but the Harvester laid floors and made window casings,
+seats, and doors of wood that the big factories of Grand Rapids used in
+veneering their finest furniture. When one of his carpenters pointed
+out this to him, and suggested that he sell his lumber to McLean and use
+pine flooring from the mills the Harvester laughed at him.
+
+"I don't say that I could afford to buy burl maple, walnut, and cherry
+for wood-work," said the Harvester. "I could not, but since I have it,
+you can stake your life I won't sell it and build my home of cheap,
+rapidly decaying wood. The best I have goes into this cabin and what
+remains will do to sell. I have an idea that when this is done it is
+going to appear first rate. Anyway, it will be solid enough to last
+a thousand years, and with every day of use natural wood grows more
+beautiful. When we get some tables, couches, and chairs made from the
+same timber as the casings and the floors, I think it will be fine.
+I want money, but I don't want it bad enough to part with the BEST of
+anything I have for it. Go carefully and neatly there; it will have to
+be changed if you don't."
+
+So the work progressed rapidly. When the carpenters had finished the
+last stroke on the big veranda they remained a day more and made flower
+boxes, and a swinging couch, and then the greedy Harvester kept the best
+man with him a week longer to help on the furniture.
+
+"Ain't you going to say a word about her, Langston?" asked this man as
+they put a mirror-like surface on a curly maple dressing table top.
+
+"Her!" ejaculated the Harvester. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I haven't seen you bathe anywhere except in the lake since I have been
+here," said the carpenter. "Do you want me to think that a porcelain
+tub, this big closet, and chest of drawers are for you?"
+
+A wave of crimson swept over the Harvester.
+
+"No, they are not for me," he said simply. "I don't want to be any more
+different from other men than I can help, although I know that life in
+the woods, the rigid training of my mother, and the reading of only the
+books that would aid in my work have made me individual in many of my
+thoughts and ways. I suppose most men, just now, would tell you anything
+you want to know. There is only one thing I can say: The best of my soul
+and brain, the best of my woods and store-house, the best I can buy with
+money is not good enough for her. That's all. For myself, I am getting
+ready to marry, of course. I think all normal men do and that it is a
+matter of plain common-sense that they should. Life with the right woman
+must be infinitely broader and better than alone. Are you married?"
+
+"Yes. Got a wife and four children."
+
+"Are you sorry?"
+
+"Sorry!" the carpenter shrilled the word. "Sorry! Well that's the best
+I ever heard! Am I sorry I married Nell and got the kids? Do I look
+sorry?"
+
+"I am not expecting to be, either," said the Harvester calmly. "I think
+I have done fairly well to stick to my work and live alone until I am
+twenty-six. I have thought the thing all over and made up my mind. As
+soon as I get this house far enough along that I feel I can proceed
+alone I am going to rush the marrying business just as fast as I can,
+and let her finish the remainder to her liking."
+
+"Well this ought to please her."
+
+"That's because you find your own work good," laughed the Harvester.
+
+"Not altogether!" The carpenter polished the board and stood it on end
+to examine the surface as he talked. "Not altogether! Nothing but good
+work would suit you. I was thinking of the little creek splashing down
+the hill to the lake; and that old log hewer said that in a few more
+days things here would be a blaze of colour until fall."
+
+"Almost all the drug plants and bushes leaf beautifully and flower
+brilliantly," explained the Harvester. "I studied the location suitable
+to each variety before I set the beds and planned how to grow plants
+for continuity of bloom, and as much harmony of colour as possible.
+Of course a landscape gardener would tear up some of it, but seen as a
+whole it isn't so bad. Did you ever notice that in the open, with God's
+blue overhead and His green for a background, He can place purple and
+yellow, pink, magenta, red, and blue in masses or any combination you
+can mention and the brighter the colour the more you like it? You
+don't seem to see or feel that any grouping clashes; you revel in each
+wonderful growth, and luxuriate in the brilliancy of the whole. Anyway,
+this suits me."
+
+"I guess it will please her, too," said the carpenter. "After all the
+pains you've taken, she is a good one if it doesn't."
+
+"I'll always have the consolation of having done my best," replied
+the Harvester. "One can't do more! Whether she likes it or not depends
+greatly on the way she has been reared."
+
+"You talk as if you didn't know," commented the carpenter.
+
+"You go on with this now," said the Harvester hastily. "I've got to
+uncover some beds and dig my year's supply of skunk cabbage, else folk
+with asthma and dropsy who depend on me will be short on relief. I ought
+to take my sweet flag, too, but I'm so hurried now I think I'll leave it
+until fall; I do when I can, because the bloom is so pretty around the
+lake and the bees simply go wild over the pollen. Sometimes I almost
+think I can detect it in their honey. Do you know I've wondered often
+if the honey my bees make has medicinal properties and should be kept
+separate in different seasons. In early spring when the plants and
+bushes that furnish the roots and barks of most of the tonics are in
+bloom, and the bees gather the pollen, that honey should partake in a
+degree of the same properties and be good medicine. In the summer
+it should aid digestion, and in the fall cure rheumatism and blood
+disorders."
+
+"Say you try it!" urged the carpenter. "I want a lot of the fall kind.
+I'm always full of rheumatism by October. Exposure, no doubt."
+
+"Over eating of too much rich food, you mean," laughed the Harvester.
+"I'd like to see any man expose his body to more differing extremes of
+weather than I do, and I'm never sick. It's because I am my own cook
+and so I live mostly on fruits, vegetables, bread, milk, and eggs, a few
+fish from the lake, a little game once in a great while or a chicken,
+and no hot drinks; plenty of fresh water, air, and continuous work out
+of doors. That's the prescription! I'd be ashamed to have rheumatism at
+your age. There's food in the cupboard if you grow hungry. I am going
+past one of the neighbours on my way to see about some work I want her
+to do."
+
+The Harvester stopped for lunch, carried food to Belshazzar, and started
+straight across country, his mattock, with a bag rolled around the
+handle, on his shoulder. His feet sank in the damp earth at the foot of
+the hill, and he laughed as he leaped across Singing Water.
+
+"You noisy chatterbox!" cried the man. "The impetus of coming down the
+curves of the hill keeps you talking all the way across this muck bed to
+the lake. With small work I can make you a thing of beauty. A few bushes
+grubbed, a little deepening where you spread too much, and some more
+mallows along the banks will do the trick. I must attend to you soon."
+
+"Now what does the boy want?" laughed a white-haired old woman, as the
+Harvester entered the door. "Mebby you think I don't know what you're
+up to! I even can hear the hammering and the voices of the men when the
+wind is in the south. I've been wondering how soon you'd need me. Out
+with it!"
+
+"I want you to get a woman and come over and spend a day with me.
+I'll come after you and bring you back. I want you to go over mother's
+bedding and have what needs it washed. All I want you to do is to
+superintend, and tell me now what I will want from town for your work."
+
+"I put away all your mother's bedding that you were not using, clean as
+a ribbon."
+
+"But it has been packed in moth preventives ever since and out only four
+times a year to air, as you told me. It must smell musty and be yellow.
+I want it fresh and clean."
+
+"So what I been hearing is true, David?"
+
+"Quite true!" said the Harvester.
+
+"Whose girl is she, and when are you going to jine hands?"
+
+The Harvester lifted his clear eyes and hesitated.
+
+"Doc Carey laid you in my arms when you was born, David. I tended you
+'fore ever your ma did. All your life you've been my boy, and I love you
+same as my own blood; it won't go no farther if you say so. I'll never
+tell a living soul. But I'm old and 'til better weather comes, house
+bound; and I get mighty lonely. I'd like to think about you and her, and
+plan for you, and love her as I always did you folks. Who is she, David?
+Do I know the family?"
+
+"No. She is a stranger to these parts," said the unhappy Harvester.
+
+"David, is she a nice girl 'at your ma would have liked?"
+
+"She's the only girl in the world that I'd marry," said the Harvester
+promptly, glad of a question he could answer heartily. "Yes. She is
+gentle, very tender and----and affectionate," he went on so rapidly that
+Granny Moreland could not say a word, "and as soon as I bring her home
+you shall come to spend a day and get acquainted. I know you will love
+her! I'll come in the morning, then. I must hurry now. I am working
+double this spring and I'm off for the skunk cabbage bed to-day."
+
+"You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say. Slavin' like a horse
+all day, and half the night I see your lights burning."
+
+"Do I appear killed?" laughingly inquired the Harvester.
+
+"You look peart as a struttin' turkey gobbler," said the old woman. "Go
+on with your work! Work don't hurt a-body. Eat a-plenty, sleep all you
+ort, and you CAN'T work enough to hurt you."
+
+"So the neighbours say I'm working now? New story, isn't it? Usually I'm
+too lazy to make a living, if I remember."
+
+"Only to those who don't sense your purceedings, David. I always knowed
+how you grubbed and slaved an' set over them fearful books o' yours."
+
+"More interesting than the wildest fiction," said the man. "I'm making
+some medicine for your rheumatism, Granny. It is not fully tested yet,
+but you get ready for it by cutting out all the salt you can. I haven't
+time to explain this morning, but you remember what I say, leave out the
+salt, and when Doc thinks it's safe I'll bring you something that will
+make a new woman of you."
+
+He went swinging down the road, and Granny Moreland looked after him.
+
+"While he was talkin'," she muttered, "I felt full of information as a
+flock o' almanacs, but now since he's gone, 'pears to me I don't know a
+thing more 'an I did to start on."
+
+"Close call," the Harvester was thinking. "Why the nation did I admit
+anything to her? People may talk as they please, so long as I don't
+sanction it, but I have two or three times. That's a fool trick. Suppose
+I can't find her? Maybe she won't look at me if I can. Then I'd have
+started something I couldn't finish. And if anybody thinks I'll end
+this by taking any girl I can get, if I can't find Her, why they think
+wrongly. Just the girl of my golden dream or no woman at all for me.
+I've lived alone long enough to know how to do it in comfort. If I can't
+find and win her I have no intention of starting a boarding house."
+
+The Harvester began to laugh. "'I'd rather keep bachelor's hall in Hell
+than go to board in Heaven!'" he quoted gaily. "That's my sentiment too.
+If you can't have what you want, don't have anything. But there is no
+use to become discouraged before I start. I haven't begun to hunt her
+yet. Until I do, I might as well believe that she will walk across the
+bridge and take possession just as soon as I get the last chair leg
+polished. She might! She came in the dream, and to come actually
+couldn't be any more real. I'll make a stiff hunt of it before I give
+up, if I ever do. I never yet have made a complete failure of anything.
+But just now I am hunting skunk cabbage. It's precisely the time to take
+it."
+
+Across the lake, in the swampy woods, close where the screech owl sang
+and the girl of the golden dream walked in the moonlight the Harvester
+began operations. He unrolled the sack, went to one end of the bed and
+systematically started a swath across it, lifting every other plant
+by the roots. Flowering time was almost past, but the bees knew where
+pollen ripened, and hummed incessantly over and inside the queer
+cone-shaped growths with their hooked beaks. It almost appeared as if
+the sound made inside might be to give outsiders warning not to poach
+on occupied territory, for the Harvester noticed that no bee entered a
+pre-empted plant.
+
+With skilful hand each stroke brought up a root and he tossed it to one
+side. The plants were vastly peculiar things. First they seemed to be a
+curled leaf with no flower. In colour they shaded from yellow to almost
+black mahogany, and appeared as if they were a flower with no leaf.
+Closer examination proved there was a stout leaf with a heavy outside
+mid-rib, the tip of which curled over in a beak effect, that wrapped
+around a peculiar flower of very disagreeable odour. The handling of
+these plants by the hundred so intensified this smell the Harvester
+shook his head.
+
+"I presume you are mostly mine," he said to the busy little workers
+around him. "If there is anything in my theory of honey having varying
+medicinal properties at different seasons, right now mine should be
+good for Granny's rheumatism and for nervous and dropsical people. I
+shouldn't think honey flavoured with skunk cabbage would be fit to eat.
+But, of course, it isn't all this. There is catkin pollen on the wind,
+hazel and sassafras are both in bloom now, and so are several of the
+earliest little flowers of the woods. You can gather enough of them
+combined to temper the disagreeable odour into a racy sweetness, and all
+the shrub blooms are good tonics, too, and some of the earthy ones. I'm
+going to try giving some of you empty cases next spring and analyzing
+the honey to learn if it isn't good medicine."
+
+The Harvester straightened and leaned on the mattock to fill his lungs
+with fresh air and as he delightedly sniffed it he commented, "Nothing
+else has much of a chance since I've stirred up the cabbage bed. I can
+scent the catkins plainly, being so close, and as I came here I could
+detect the hazel and sassafras all right."
+
+Above him a peculiar, raucous chattering for an instant hushed other
+wood voices. The Harvester looked up, laughing gaily.
+
+"So you've decided to announce it to your tribe at last, have you?"
+he inquired. "You are waking the sleepers in their dens to-day? Well,
+there's nothing like waiting until you have a sure thing. The bluebirds
+broke the trail for the feathered folk the twenty-fourth of February.
+The sap oozed from the maples about the same time for the trees. The
+very first skunk cabbage was up quite a month ago to signal other plants
+to come on, and now you are rousing the furred folk. I'll write this
+down in my records----'When the earliest bluebird sings, when the sap
+wets the maples, when the skunk cabbage flowers, and the first striped
+squirrel barks, why then, it is spring!'"
+
+He bent to his task and as he worked closer the water he noticed
+sweet-flag leaves waving two inches tall beneath the surface.
+
+"Great day!" he cried. "There you are making signs, too! And right! Of
+course! Nature is always right. Just two inches high and it's harvest
+for you. I can use a rake, and dried in the evaporator you bring me
+ten cents a pound; to the folks needing a tonic you are worth a small
+fortune. No doubt you cost that by the time you reach them; but I fear
+I can't gather you just now. My head is a little preoccupied these days.
+What with the cabbage, and now you, and many of the bushes and trees
+making signs, with a new cabin to build and furnish, with a girl to find
+and win, I'm what you might call busy. I've covered my book shelf.
+I positively don't dare look Emerson or Maeterlinck in the face. One
+consolation! I've got the best of Thoreau in my head, and if I read
+Stickeen a few times more I'll be able to recite that. There's a man for
+you, not to mention the dog! Bel, where are you? Would you stick to me
+like that? I think you would. But you are a big, strong fellow. Stickeen
+was only such a mite of a dog. But what a man he followed! I feel as
+if I should put on high-heeled slippers and carry a fan and a lace
+handkerchief when I think of him. And yet, most men wouldn't consider my
+job so easy!"
+
+The Harvester rapidly pitched the evil-smelling plants into big heaps
+and as he worked he imitated the sounds around him as closely as he
+could. The song sparrow laughed at him and flew away in disgust when he
+tried its notes. The jay took time to consider, but was not fooled. The
+nut-hatch ran head first down trees, larvae hunting, and was never a
+mite deceived. But the killdeer on invisible legs, circling the lake
+shore, replied instantly; so did the lark soaring above, and the dove of
+the elm thicket close beside. The glittering black birds flashing over
+every tree top answered the "T'check, t'chee!" of the Harvester quite as
+readily as their mates.
+
+The last time he paused to rest he had studied scents. When he
+straightened again he was occupied with every voice of earth and air
+around and above him, and the notes of singing hens, exultant cocks, the
+scream of geese, the quack of ducks, the rasping crescendo of guineas
+running wild in the woods, the imperial note of Ajax sunning on the
+ridge pole and echoes from all of them on adjoining and distant farms.
+
+"'Now I see the full meaning and beauty of that word sound!'" quoted
+the Harvester. "'I thank God for sound. It always mounts and makes me
+mount!'"
+
+He breathed deeply and stood listening, a superb figure of a man, his
+lean face glowing with emotion.
+
+"If she could see and hear this, she would come," he said softly. "She
+would come and she would love it as I do. Any one who understands,
+and knows how to translate, cares for this above all else earth has to
+offer. They who do not, fail to read as they run!"
+
+He shifted feet mired in swamp muck, and stood as if loath to bend again
+to his task. He lifted a weighted mattock and scraped the earth from
+it, sniffing it delightedly the while. A soft south wind freighted with
+aromatic odours swept his warm face. The Harvester removed his hat and
+shook his head that the breeze might thread his thick hair.
+
+"I've a commission for you, South Wind," he said whimsically. "Go find
+my Dream Girl. Go carry her this message from me. Freight your breath
+with spicy pollen, sun warmth, and flower nectar. Fill all her senses
+with delight, and then, close to her ear, whisper it softly, 'Your lover
+is coming!' Tell her that, O South Wind! Carry Araby to her nostrils,
+Heaven to her ears, and then whisper and whisper it over and over until
+you arouse the passion of earth in her blood. Tell her what is rioting
+in my heart, and brain, and soul this morning. Repeat it until she must
+awake to its meaning, 'Your lover is coming.'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. WHEN THE HARVESTER MADE GOOD
+
+The sassafras and skunk cabbage were harvested. The last workman was
+gone. There was not a sound at Medicine Woods save the babel of bird and
+animal notes and the never-ending accompaniment of Singing Water. The
+geese had gone over, some flocks pausing to rest and feed on Loon Lake,
+and ducks that homed there were busy among the reeds and rushes. In
+the deep woods the struggle to maintain and reproduce life was at its
+height, and the courting songs of gaily coloured birds were drowned by
+hawk screams and crow calls of defiance.
+
+Every night before he plunged into the lake and went to sleep the
+Harvester made out a list of the most pressing work that he would
+undertake on the coming day. By systematizing and planning ahead he was
+able to accomplish an unbelievable amount. The earliest rush of spring
+drug gathering was over. He could be more deliberate in collecting the
+barks he wanted. Flowers that were to be gathered at bloom time and
+leaves were not yet ready. The heavy leaf coverings he had helped
+the winds to heap on his beds of lily of the valley, bloodroot, and
+sarsaparilla were removed carefully.
+
+Inside the cabin the Harvester cleaned the glass, swept the floors with
+a soft cloth pinned over the broom, and hung pale yellow blinds at the
+windows. Every spare minute he worked on making furniture, and with each
+piece he grew in experience and ventured on more difficult undertakings.
+He had progressed so far that he now allowed himself an hour each day on
+the candlesticks for her. Every evening he opened her door and with soft
+cloths polished the furniture he had made. When her room was completed
+and the dining-room partially finished, the Harvester took time to stain
+the cabin and porch roofs the shade of the willow leaves, and on the
+logs and pillars he used oil that served to intensify the light yellow
+of the natural wood. With that much accomplished he felt better. If she
+came now, in a few hours he would be able to offer a comfortable room,
+enough conveniences to live until more could be provided, and of food
+there was always plenty.
+
+His daily programme was to feed and water his animals and poultry,
+prepare breakfast for himself and Belshazzar, and go to the woods,
+dry-house or store-room to do the work most needful in his harvesting.
+In the afternoon he laboured over furniture and put finishing touches on
+the new cabin, and after supper he carved and found time to read again,
+as before his dream.
+
+He was so happy he whistled and sang at his work much of the time at
+first, but later there came days when doubts crept in and all his will
+power was required to proceed steadily. As the cabin grew in better
+shape for occupancy each day, more pressing became the thought of how he
+was going to find and meet the girl of his dream. Sometimes it seemed to
+him that the proper way was to remain at home and go on with his work,
+trusting her to come to him. At such times he was happy and gaily
+whistled and sang:
+
+     "Stay in your chimney corner,
+          Don't roam the world about,
+       Stay in your chimney corner,
+          And your own true love will find you out."
+
+
+But there were other days while grubbing in the forest, battling with
+roots in the muck and mire of the lake bank, staggering under a load
+for two men, scarcely taking time to eat and sleep enough to keep his
+condition perfect, when that plan seemed too hopeless and senseless to
+contemplate. Then he would think of locking the cabin, leaving the drugs
+to grow undisturbed by collecting, hiring a neighbour to care for his
+living creatures, and starting a search over the world to find her.
+There came times when the impulse to go was so strong that only the
+desire to take a day more to decide where, kept him. Every time his mind
+was made up to start the following day came the counter thought, what
+if I should go and she should come in my absence? In the dream she came.
+That alone held him, even in the face of the fact that if he left home
+some one might know of and rifle the precious ginseng bed, carefully
+tended these seven years for the culmination the coming fall would
+bring. That ginseng was worth many thousands and he had laboured over
+it, fighting worms and parasites, covering and uncovering it with the
+changing seasons, a siege of loving labour.
+
+Sometimes a few hours of misgiving tortured him, but as a rule he was
+cheerful and happy in his preparations. Without intending to do it
+he was gradually furnishing the cabin. Every few days saw a new piece
+finished in the workshop. Each trip to Onabasha ended in the purchase of
+some article he could see would harmonize with his colour plans for
+one of the rooms. He had filled the flower boxes for the veranda with
+delicate plants that were growing luxuriantly.
+
+Then he designed and began setting a wild-flower garden outside her door
+and started climbing vines over the logs and porches, but whatever he
+planted he found in the woods or took from beds he cultivated. Many of
+the medicinal vines had leaves, flowers, twining tendrils, and berries
+or fruits of wonderful beauty. Every trip to the forest he brought back
+a half dozen vines, plants, or bushes to set for her. All of them either
+bore lovely flowers, berries, quaint seed pods, or nuts, and beside the
+drive and before the cabin he used especial care to plant a hedge of
+bittersweet vines, burning bush, and trees of mountain ash, so that
+the glory of their colour would enliven the winter when days might be
+gloomy.
+
+He planted wild yam under her windows that its queer rattles might amuse
+her, and hop trees where their castanets would play gay music with every
+passing wind of fall. He started a thicket along the opposite bank of
+Singing Water where it bubbled past her window, and in it he placed in
+graduated rows every shrub and small tree bearing bright flower, berry,
+or fruit. Those remaining he used as a border for the driveway from the
+lake, so that from earliest spring her eyes would fall on a procession
+of colour beginning with catkins and papaw lilies, and running through
+alders, haws, wild crabs, dogwood, plums, and cherry intermingled with
+forest saplings and vines bearing scarlet berries in fall and winter. In
+the damp soil of the same character from which they were removed, in
+the shade and under the skilful hand of the Harvester, few of these
+knew they had been transplanted, and when May brought the catbirds and
+orioles much of this growth was flowering quite as luxuriantly as the
+same species in the woods.
+
+The Harvester was in the store-house packing boxes for shipment. His
+room was so small and orders so numerous that he could not keep large
+quantities on hand. All crude stuff that he sent straight from the
+drying-house was fresh and brightly coloured. His stock always was
+marked prime A-No. 1. There was a step behind him and the Harvester
+turned. A boy held out a telegram. The man opened it to find an order
+for some stuff to be shipped that day to a large laboratory in Toledo.
+
+His hands deftly tied packages and he hastily packed bottles and nailed
+boxes. Then he ran to harness Betsy and load. As he drove down the hill
+to the bridge he looked at his watch and shook his head.
+
+"What are you good for at a pinch, Betsy?" he asked as he flecked the
+surprised mare's flank with a switch. Belshazzar cocked his ears and
+gazed at the Harvester in astonishment.
+
+"That wasn't enough to hurt her," explained the man. "She must speed up.
+This is important business. The amount involved is not so much, but I do
+love to make good. It's a part of my religion, Bel. And my religion has
+so precious few parts that if I fail in the observance of any of them
+it makes a big hole in my performances. Now we don't want to end a life
+full of holes, so we must get there with this stuff, not because it's
+worth the exertion in dollars and cents, but because these men patronize
+us steadily and expect us to fill orders, even by telegraph. Hustle,
+Betsy!"
+
+The whip fell again and Belshazzar entered indignant protest.
+
+"It isn't going to hurt her," said the Harvester impatiently. "She may
+walk all the way back. She can rest while I get these boxes billed and
+loaded if she can be persuaded to get them to the express office on
+time. The trouble with Betsy is that she wants to meander along the road
+with a loaded wagon as her mother and grandmother before her wandered
+through the woods wearing a bell to attract the deer. Father used to say
+that her mother was the smartest bell mare that ever entered the forest.
+She'd not only find the deer, but she'd make friends with them and lead
+them straight as a bee-line to where he was hiding. Betsy, you must
+travel!"
+
+The Harvester drew the lines taut, and the whip fell smartly. The
+astonished Betsy snorted and pranced down the valley as fast as she
+could, but every step indicated that she felt outraged and abused. This
+was the loveliest day of the season. The sun was shining, the air was
+heavy with the perfume of flowering shrubs and trees, the orchards of
+the valley were white with bloom. Farmers were hurrying back and forth
+across fields, leaving up turned lines of black, swampy mould behind
+them, and one progressive individual rode a wheeled plow, drove three
+horses and enjoyed the shelter of a canopy.
+
+"Saints preserve us, Belshazzar!" cried the Harvester. "Do you see that?
+He is one of the men who makes a business of calling me shiftless. Now
+he thinks he is working. Working! For a full-grown man, did you ever see
+the equal? If I were going that far I'd wear a tucked shirt, panama hat,
+have a pianola attachment, and an automatic fan."
+
+The Harvester laughed as he again touched Betsy and hurried to Onabasha.
+He scarcely saw the delights offered on either hand, and where his
+eyes customarily took in every sight, and his ears were tuned for
+the faintest note of earth or tree top, to day he saw only Betsy and
+listened for a whistle he dreaded to hear at the water tank. He climbed
+the embankment of the railway at a slower pace, but made up time going
+down hill to the city.
+
+"I am not getting a blame thing out of this," he complained to
+Belshazzar. "There are riches to stagger any scientist wasting to-day,
+and all I've got to show is one oriole. I did hear his first note and
+see his flash, and so unless we can take time to make up for this on the
+home road we will have to christen it oriole day. It's a perfumed golden
+day, too; I can get that in passing, but how I loathe hurrying. I don't
+mind planning things and working steadily, but it's not consistent with
+the dignity of a sane man to go rushing across country with as much
+appreciation of the delights offered right now as a chicken with its
+head off would have. We will loaf going back to pay for this! And won't
+we invite our souls? We will stop and gather a big bouquet of crab
+apple blossoms to fill the green pitcher for her. Maybe some of their
+wonderful perfume will linger in her room. When the petals fall we will
+scatter them in the drawers of her dresser, and they may distil a faint
+flower odour there. We could do that to all her furniture, but perhaps
+she doesn't like perfume. She'll be compelled to after she reaches
+Medicine Woods. Betsy, you must travel faster!"
+
+The whip fell again and the Harvester stopped at the depot with a few
+minutes to spare. He threw the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and ran
+into the express office with an arm load of boxes.
+
+"Bill them!" he cried. "It's a rush order. I want it to go on the
+next express. Almost due I think. I'll help you and we can book them
+afterward."
+
+The expressman ran for a truck and they hastily weighed and piled on
+boxes. When the last one was loaded from the wagon, a heap more lying in
+the office were added, pitched on indiscriminately as the train pulled
+under the sheds of the Union Station.
+
+"I'll push," cried the Harvester, "and help you get them on."
+
+Hurrying as fast as he could the expressman drew the heavy truck through
+the iron gates and started toward the train slowing to a stop, and the
+Harvester pushed. As they came down the platform they passed the dining
+and sleeping cars of the long train and were several times delayed
+by descending passengers. Just opposite the day coach the expressman
+narrowly missed running into several women leading small children and
+stopped abruptly. A toppling box threatened the head of the Harvester.
+He peered around the truck and saw they must wait a few seconds. He put
+in the time watching the people. A gray-haired old man, travelling in a
+silk hat, wavered on the top step and went his way. A fat woman loaded
+with bundles puffed as she clung trembling a second in fear she would
+miss the step she could not see. A tall, slender girl with a face coldly
+white came next, and from the broken shoe she advanced, the bewildered
+fright of big, dark eyes glancing helplessly, the Harvester saw that she
+was poor, alone, ill, and in trouble. Pityingly he turned to watch her,
+and as he gauged her height, saw her figure, and a dark coronet of hair
+came into view, a ghastly pallor swept his face.
+
+"Merciful God!" he breathed, "that's my Dream Girl!"
+
+The truck started with a jerk. The toppling box fell, struck a passing
+boy, and knocked him down. The mother screamed and the Harvester sprang
+to pick up the child and see that he was not dangerously hurt. Then he
+ran after the truck, pitched on the box, and whirling, sped beside the
+train toward the gates of exit. There was the usual crush, but he could
+see the tall figure passing up the steps to the depot. He tried to
+force his way and was called a brute by a crowded woman. He ran down the
+platform to the gates he had entered with the truck. They were automatic
+and had locked. Then he became a primal creature being cheated of a
+lawful mate and climbed the high iron fence and ran for the waiting
+room.
+
+He swept it at a glance, not forgetting the women's apartment and the
+side entrance. Then he hurried to the front exit. Up the street leading
+from the city there were few people and he could see no sign of the
+slight, white-faced girl. He crossed the sidewalk and ran down the
+gutter for a block and breathlessly waited the passing crowd on the
+corner. She was not among it. He tried one more square. Still he could
+not see her. Then he ran back to the depot. He thought surely he must
+have missed her. He again searched the woman's and general waiting room
+and then he thought of the conductor. From him it could be learned where
+she entered the car. He ran for the station, bolted the gate while the
+official called to him, and reached the track in time to see the train
+pull out within a few yards of him.
+
+"You blooming idiot!" cried the angry expressman as the Harvester ran
+against him, "where did you go? Why didn't you help me? You are white as
+a sheet! Have you lost your senses?"
+
+"Worse!" groaned the Harvester. "Worse! I've lost what I prize most on
+earth. How could I reach the conductor of that train?"
+
+"Telegraph him at the next station. You can have an answer in a half
+hour."
+
+The Harvester ran to the office, and with shaking hand wrote this
+message:
+
+"Where did a tall girl with big black eyes and wearing a gray dress take
+your train? Important."
+
+Then he went out and minutely searched the depot and streets. He hired
+an automobile to drive him over the business part of Onabasha for three
+quarters of an hour. Up one street and down another he went slowly where
+there were crowds, faster as he could, but never a sight of her. Then he
+returned to the depot and found his message. It read, "Transferred to me
+at Fort Wayne from Chicago."
+
+"Chicago baggage!" he cried, and hurried to the check room. He had lost
+almost an hour. When he reached the room he found the officials busy and
+unwilling to be interrupted. Finally he learned there had been a half
+dozen trunks from Chicago. All were taken save two, and one glance at
+them told the Harvester that they did not belong to the girl in gray.
+The others had been claimed by men having checks for them. If she had
+been there, the officials had not noticed a tall girl having a white
+face and dark eyes. When he could think of no further effort to make he
+drove to the hospital.
+
+Doctor Carey was not in his office, and the Harvester sat in the
+revolving chair before the desk and gripped his head between his hands
+as he tried to think. He could not remember anything more he could
+have done, but since what he had done only ended in failure, he was
+reproaching himself wildly that he had taken his eyes from the Girl an
+instant after recognizing her. Yet it was in his blood to be decent and
+he could not have run away and left a frightened woman and a hurt child.
+Trusting to his fleet feet and strength he had taken time to replace the
+box also, and then had met the crowd and delay. Just for the instant it
+appeared to him as if he had done all a man could, and he had not found
+her. If he allowed her to return to Chicago, probably he never would. He
+leaned his head on his hands and groaned in discouragement.
+
+Doctor Carey whirled the chair so that it faced him before the Harvester
+realized that he was not alone.
+
+"What's the trouble, David?" he asked tersely.
+
+The Harvester lifted a strained face.
+
+"I came for help," he said.
+
+"Well you will get it! All you have to do is to state what you want."
+
+That seemed simplicity itself to the doctor. But when it came to putting
+his case into words, it was not easy for the Harvester.
+
+"Go on!" said the doctor.
+
+"You'll think me a fool."
+
+The doctor laughed heartily.
+
+"No doubt!" he said soothingly. "No doubt, David! Probably you are; so
+why shouldn't I think so. But remember this, when we make the biggest
+fools of ourselves that is precisely the time when we need friends, and
+when they stick to us the tightest, if they are worth while. I've been
+waiting since latter February for you to tell me. We can fix it, of
+course; there's always a way. Go on!"
+
+"Well I wasn't fooling about the dream and the vision I told you of
+then, Doc. I did have a dream--and it was a dream of love. I did see a
+vision--and it was a beautiful woman."
+
+"I hope you are not nursing that experience as something exclusive and
+peculiar to you," said the doctor. "There is not a normal, sane man
+living who has not dreamed of love and the most exquisite woman who came
+from the clouds or anywhere and was gracious to him. That's a part of a
+man's experience in this world, and it happens to most of us, not once,
+but repeatedly. It's a case where the wish fathers the dream."
+
+"Well it hasn't happened to me 'on repeated occasions,' but it did one
+night, and by dawn I was converted. How CAN a dream be so real, Doc?
+How could I see as clearly as I ever saw in the daytime in my most alert
+moment, hear every step and garment rustle, scent the perfume of hair,
+and feel warm breath strike my face? I don't understand it!"
+
+"Neither does any one else! All you need say is that your dream was real
+as life. Go on!"
+
+"I built a new cabin and pretty well overturned the place and I've been
+making furniture I thought a woman would like, and carrying things from
+town ever since."
+
+"Gee! It was reality to you, lad!"
+
+"Nothing ever more so," said the Harvester.
+
+"And of course, you have been looking for her?"
+
+"And this morning I saw her!"
+
+"David!"
+
+"Not the ghost of a chance for a mistake. Her height, her eyes, her
+hair, her walk, her face; only something terrible has happened since she
+came to me. It was the same girl, but she is ill and in trouble now."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"Do you suppose I'd be here if I knew?"
+
+"David, are you dreaming in daytime?"
+
+"She got off the Chicago train this morning while I was helping Daniels
+load a big truck of express matter. Some of it was mine, and it was
+important. Just at the wrong instant a box fell and knocked down a child
+and I got in a jam----"
+
+"And as it was you, of course you stopped to pick up the child and do
+everything decent for other folks, before you thought of yourself, and
+so you lost her. You needn't tell me anything more. David, if I find
+her, and prove to you that she has been married ten years and has an
+interesting family, will you thank me?"
+
+"Can't be done!" said the Harvester calmly. "She has been married only
+since she gave herself to me in February, and she is not a mother. You
+needn't bank on that."
+
+"You are mighty sure!"
+
+"Why not? I told you the dream was real, and now that I have seen her,
+and she is in this very town, why shouldn't I be sure?"
+
+"What have you done?"
+
+The Harvester told him.
+
+"What are you going to do next?"
+
+"Talk it over with you and decide."
+
+The doctor laughed.
+
+"Well here are a few things that occur to me without time for thought.
+Talk to the ticket agents, and leave her description with them. Make it
+worth their while to be on the lookout, and if she goes anywhere to find
+out all they can. They could make an excuse of putting her address on
+her ticket envelope, and get it that way. See the baggagemen. Post the
+day police on Main Street. There is no chance for her to escape you. A
+full-grown woman doesn't vanish. How did she act when she got off the
+car? Did she appear familiar?"
+
+"No. She was a stranger. For an instant she looked around as if she
+expected some one, then she followed the crowd. There must have been an
+automobile waiting or she took a street car. Something whirled her out
+of sight in a few seconds."
+
+"Well we will get her in range again. Now for the most minute
+description you can give."
+
+The Harvester hesitated. He did not care to describe the Dream Girl to
+any one, much less the living, suffering face and poorly clad form of
+the reality.
+
+"Cut out your scruples," laughed the doctor. "You have asked me to help
+you; how can I if I don't know what kind of a woman to look for?"
+
+"Very tall and slender," said the Harvester. "Almost as tall as I am."
+
+"Unusually tall you think?"
+
+"I know!"
+
+"That's a good point for identification. How about her complexion, hair,
+and eyes?"
+
+"Very large, dark eyes, and a great mass of black hair."
+
+The doctor roared.
+
+"The eyes may help," he said. "All women have masses of hair these days.
+I hope----"
+
+"Her hair is fast to her head," said the Harvester indignantly. "I saw
+it at close range, and I know. It went around like a crown."
+
+The doctor choked down a laugh. He wanted to say that every woman's hair
+was like a crown at present, but there were things no man ventured with
+David Langston; those who knew him best, least of any. So he suggested,
+"And her colouring?"
+
+"She was white and rosy, a lovely thing in the dream," said the
+Harvester, "but something dreadful has happened. That's all wiped out
+now. She was very pale when she left the car."
+
+"Car sick, maybe."
+
+"Soul sick!" was the grim reply.
+
+Then Doctor Carey appeared so disturbed the Harvester noticed it.
+
+"You needn't think I'd be here prating about her if I wasn't FORCED.
+If she had been rosy and well as she was in the dream, I'd have made
+my hunt alone and found her, too. But when I saw she was sick and in
+trouble, it took all the courage out of me, and I broke for help. She
+must be found at once, and when she is you are probably the first man
+I'll want. I am going to put up a pretty stiff search myself, and if I
+find her I'll send or get her to you if I can. Put her in the best ward
+you have and anything money will do----"
+
+The face of the doctor was growing troubled.
+
+"Day coach or Pullman?" he asked.
+
+"Day."
+
+"How was she dressed?"
+
+"Small black hat, very plain. Gray jacket and skirt, neat as a flower."
+
+"What you'd call expensively dressed?"
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+"What I'd call carefully dressed, but----but poverty poor, if you will
+have it, Doc."
+
+Doctor Carey's lips closed and then opened in sudden resolution.
+
+"David, I don't like it," he said tersely.
+
+The Harvester met his eye and purposely misunderstood him.
+
+"Neither do I!" he exclaimed. "I hate it! There is something wrong with
+the whole world when a woman having a face full of purity, intellect,
+and refinement of extreme type glances around her like a hunted thing;
+when her appearance seems to indicate that she has starved her body to
+clothe it. I know what is in your mind, Doc, but if I were you I
+wouldn't put it into words, and I wouldn't even THINK it. Has it been
+your experience in this world that women not fit to know skimp their
+bodies to cover them? Does a girl of light character and little brain
+have the hardihood to advance a foot covered with a broken shoe? If I
+could tell you that she rode in a Pullman, and wore exquisite clothing,
+you would be doing something. The other side of the picture shuts you up
+like a clam, and makes you appear shocked. Let me tell you this: No
+other woman I ever saw anywhere on God's footstool had a face of more
+delicate refinement, eyes of purer intelligence. I am of the woods, and
+while they don't teach me how to shine in society, they do instil always
+and forever the fineness of nature and her ways. I have her lessons so
+well learned they help me more than anything else to discern the
+qualities of human nature. If you are my friend, and have any faith at
+all in my common sense, get up and do something!"
+
+The doctor arose promptly.
+
+"David, I'm an ass," he said. "Unusually lop-eared, and blind in the
+bargain. But before I ask you to forgive me, I want you to remember two
+things: First, she did not visit me in my dreams; and, second, I did not
+see her in reality. I had nothing to judge from except what you
+said: you seemed reluctant to tell me, and what you did say
+was----was----disturbing to a friend of yours. I have not the slightest
+doubt if I had seen her I would agree with you. We seldom disagree,
+David. Now, will you forgive me?"
+
+The Harvester suddenly faced a window. When at last he turned, "The
+offence lies with me," he said, "I was hasty. Are you going to help me?"
+
+"With all my heart! Go home and work until your head clears, then come
+back in the morning. She did not come from Chicago for a day. You've
+done all I know to do at present."
+
+"Thank you," said the Harvester.
+
+He went to Betsy and Belshazzar, and slowly drove up and down the
+streets until Betsy protested and calmly turned homeward. The Harvester
+smiled ruefully as he allowed her to proceed.
+
+"Go slow and take it easy," he said as they reached the country. "I want
+to think."
+
+Betsy stopped at the barn, the white doves took wing, and Ajax screamed
+shrilly before the Harvester aroused in the slightest to anything around
+him. Then he looked at Belshazzar and said emphatically: "Now, partner,
+don't ever again interfere when I am complying with the observances of
+my religion. Just look what I'd have missed if I hadn't made good with
+that order!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT
+
+"We have reached the 'beginning of the end,' Ajax!" said the Harvester,
+as the peacock ceased screaming and came to seek food from his hand.
+"We have seen the Girl. Now we must locate her and convince her that
+Medicine Woods is her happy home. I feel quite equal to the latter
+proposition, Ajax, but how the nation to find her sticks me. I can't
+make a search so open that she will know and resent it. She must have
+all the consideration ever paid the most refined woman, but she also
+has got to be found, and that speedily. When I remember that look on her
+face, as if horrors were snatching at her skirts, it takes all the grit
+out of me. I feel weak as a sapling. And she needs all my strength. I've
+simply got to brace up. I'll work a while and then perhaps I can think."
+
+So the Harvester began the evening routine. He thought he did not want
+anything to eat, but when he opened the cupboard and smelled the food he
+learned that he was a hungry man and he cooked and ate a good supper. He
+put away everything carefully, for even the kitchen was dainty and fresh
+and he wanted to keep it so for her. When he finished he went into the
+living-room, stood before the fireplace, and studied the collection of
+half-finished candlesticks grouped upon it. He picked up several and
+examined them closely, but realized that he could not bind himself to
+the exactions of carving that evening. He took a key from his pocket and
+unlocked her door. Every day he had been going there to improve upon his
+work for her, and he loved the room, the outlook from its windows; he
+was very proud of the furniture he had made. There was no paper-thin
+covering on her chairs, bed, and dressing table. The tops, seats, and
+posts were solid wood, worth hundreds of dollars for veneer.
+
+To-night he folded his arms and stood on the sill hesitating. While
+she was a dream, he had loved to linger in her room. Now that she was
+reality, he paused. In one golden May day the place had become sacred.
+Since he had seen the Girl that room was so hers that he was hesitating
+about entering because of this fact. It was as if the tall, slender form
+stood before the chest of drawers or sat at the dressing table and he
+did not dare enter unless he were welcome. Softly he closed the door and
+went away. He wandered to the dry-house and turned the bark and roots on
+the trays, but the air stifled him and he hurried out. He tried to work
+in the packing room, but walls smothered him and again he sought the
+open.
+
+He espied a bundle of osier-bound, moss-covered ferns that he had found
+in the woods, and brought the shovel to transplant them; but the
+work worried him, and he hurried through with it. Then he looked for
+something else to do and saw an ax. He caught it up and with lusty
+strokes began swinging it. When he had chopped wood until he was very
+tired he went to bed. Sleep came to the strong, young frame and he awoke
+in the morning refreshed and hopeful.
+
+He wondered why he had bothered Doctor Carey. The Harvester felt able
+that morning to find his Dream Girl without assistance before the day
+was over. It was merely a matter of going to the city and locating a
+woman. Yesterday, it had been a question of whether she really existed.
+To-day, he knew. Yesterday, it had meant a search possibly as wide
+as earth to find her. To-day, it was narrowed to only one location so
+small, compared with Chicago, that the Harvester felt he could sift
+its population with his fingers, and pick her from others at his first
+attempt. If she were visiting there probably she would rest during the
+night, and be on the streets to-day.
+
+When he remembered her face he doubted it. He decided to spend part
+of the time on the business streets and the remainder in the residence
+portions of the city. Because it was uncertain when he would return,
+everything was fed a double portion, and Betsy was left at a livery
+stable with instructions to care for her until he came. He did not know
+where the search would lead him. For several hours he slowly walked the
+business district and then ranged farther, but not a sight of her. He
+never had known that Onabasha was so large. On its crowded streets he
+did not feel that he could sift the population through his fingers, nor
+could he open doors and search houses without an excuse.
+
+Some small boys passed him eating bananas, and the Harvester looked at
+his watch and was amazed to find that the day had advanced until two
+o'clock in the afternoon. He was tired and hungry. He went into a
+restaurant and ordered lunch; as he waited a girl serving tables smiled
+at him. Any other time the Harvester would have returned at least a
+pleasant look, and gone his way. To-day he scowled at her, and ate in
+hurried discomfort. On the streets again, he had no idea where to go and
+so he went to the hospital.
+
+"I expected you early this morning," was the greeting of Doctor Carey.
+"Where have you been and what have you done?"
+
+"Nothing," said the Harvester. "I was so sure she would be on the
+streets I just watched, but I didn't see her."
+
+"We will go to the depot," said the doctor. "The first thing is to keep
+her from leaving town."
+
+They arranged with the ticket agents, expressmen, telegraphers, and, as
+they left, the Harvester stopped and tipped the train caller, offering
+further reward worth while if he would find the Girl.
+
+"Now we will go to the police station," said the doctor.
+
+"I'll see the chief and have him issue a general order to his men to
+watch for her, but if I were you I'd select a half dozen in the down
+town district, and give them a little tip with a big promise!"
+
+"Good Lord! How I hate this," groaned the Harvester.
+
+"Want to find her by yourself?" questioned his friend.
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester, "I do! And I would, if it hadn't been for
+her ghastly face. That drives me to resort to any measures. The
+probabilities are that she is lying sick somewhere, and if her comfort
+depends on the purse that dressed her, she will suffer. Doc, do you know
+how awful this is?"
+
+"I know that you've got a great imagination. If the woods make all men
+as sensitive as you are, those who have business to transact should stay
+out of them. Take a common-sense view. Look at this as I do. If she was
+strong enough to travel in a day coach from Chicago; she can't be so
+very ill to-day. Leaving life by the inch isn't that easy. She will be
+alive this time next year, whether you find her or not. The chances are
+that her stress was mental anyway, and trouble almost never overcomes
+any one."
+
+"You, a doctor and say that!"
+
+"Oh, I mean instantaneously----in a day! Of course if it grinds away
+for years! But youth doesn't allow it to do that. It throws it off, and
+grows hopeful and happy again. She won't die; put that out of your
+mind. If I were you I would go home now and go straight on with my work,
+trusting to the machinery you have set in motion. I know most of the
+men with whom we have talked. They will locate her in a week or less.
+It's their business. It isn't yours. It's your job to be ready for her,
+and have enough ahead to support her when they find her. Try to realize
+that there are now a dozen men on hunt for her, and trust them. Go back
+to your work, and I will come full speed in the motor when the first man
+sights her. That ought to satisfy you. I've told all of them to call me
+at the hospital, and I will tell my assistant what to do in case a call
+comes while I am away. Straighten your face! Go back to Medicine Woods
+and harvest your crops, and before you know it she will be located. Then
+you can put on your Sunday clothes and show yourself, and see if you can
+make her take notice."
+
+"Idiot!" exclaimed the Harvester, but he started home. When he arrived
+he attended to his work and then sat down to think.
+
+"Doc is right," was his ultimate conclusion. "She can't leave the city,
+she can't move around in it, she can't go anywhere, without being seen.
+There's one more point: I must tell Carey to post all the doctors to
+report if they have such a call. That's all I can think of. I'll
+go to-night, and then I'll look over the ginseng for parasites, and
+to-morrow I'll dive into the late spring growth and work until I haven't
+time to think. I've let cranesbill get a week past me now, and it can't
+be dispensed with."
+
+So the following morning, when the Harvester had completed his work at
+the cabin and barn and breakfasted, he took a mattock and a big hempen
+bag, and followed the path to the top of the hill. As it ran along the
+lake bank he descended on the other side to several acres of cleared
+land, where he raised corn for his stock, potatoes, and coarser garden
+truck, for which there was not space in the smaller enclosure close the
+cabin. Around the edges of these fields, and where one of them sloped
+toward the lake, he began grubbing a variety of grass having tall stems
+already over a foot in height at half growth. From each stem waved four
+or five leaves of six or eight inches length and the top showed forming
+clusters of tiny spikelets.
+
+"I am none too early for you," he muttered to himself as he ran the
+mattock through the rich earth, lifting the long, tough, jointed root
+stalks of pale yellow, from every section of which broke sprays of fine
+rootlets. "None too early for you, and as you are worth only seven cents
+a pound, you couldn't be considered a 'get-rich-quick' expedient, so
+I'll only stop long enough with you to gather what I think my customers
+will order, and amass a fortune a little later picking mullein flowers
+at seventy-five cents a pound. What a crop I've got coming!"
+
+The Harvester glanced ahead, where in the cleared soil of the bank grew
+large plants with leaves like yellow-green felt and tall bloom stems
+rising. Close them flourished other species requiring dry sandy soil,
+that gradually changed as it approached the water until it became
+covered with rank abundance of short, wiry grass, half the blades of
+which appeared red. Numerous everywhere he could see the grayish-white
+leaves of Parnassus grass. As the season advanced it would lift
+heart-shaped velvet higher, and before fall the stretch of emerald would
+be starred with white-faced, green-striped flowers.
+
+"Not a prettier sight on earth," commented the Harvester, "than just
+swale wire grass in September making a fine, thick background to set off
+those delicate starry flowers on their slender stems. I must remember to
+bring her to see that."
+
+His eyes followed the growth to the water. As the grass drew closer
+moisture it changed to the rank, sweet, swamp variety, then came
+bulrushes, cat-tails, water smartweed, docks, and in the water blue flag
+lifted folded buds; at its feet arose yellow lily leaves and farther out
+spread the white. As the light struck the surface the Harvester imagined
+he could see the little green buds several inches below. Above all arose
+wild rice he had planted for the birds. The red wings swayed on the
+willows and tilted on every stem that would bear their weight, singing
+their melodious half-chanted notes, "O-ka-lee!"
+
+Beneath them the ducks gobbled, splashed, and chattered; grebe and coot
+voices could be distinguished; king rails at times flashed into sight
+and out again; marsh wrens scolded and chattered; occasionally a
+kingfisher darted around the lake shore, rolling his rattling cry and
+flashing his azure coat and gleaming white collar. On a hollow tree
+in the woods a yellow hammer proved why he was named, because he
+carpentered industriously to enlarge the entrance to the home he was
+excavating in a dead tree; and sailing over the lake and above the woods
+in grace scarcely surpassed by any, a lonesome turkey buzzard awaited
+his mate's decision as to which hollow log was most suitable for their
+home.
+
+The Harvester stuffed the grass roots in the bag until it would hold no
+more and stood erect to wipe his face, for the sun was growing warm. As
+he drew his handkerchief across his brow, the south wind struck him with
+enough intensity to attract attention. Instantly the Harvester removed
+his hat, rolled it up, and put it into his pocket. He stood an instant
+delighting in the wind and then spoke.
+
+"Allow me to express my most fervent thanks for your kindness," he said.
+"I thought probably you would take that message, since it couldn't mean
+much to you, and it meant all the world to me. I thought you would carry
+it, but, I confess, I scarcely expected the answer so soon. The only
+thing that could make me more grateful to you would be to know exactly
+where she is: but you must understand that it's like a peep into Heaven
+to have her existence narrowed to one place. I'm bound to be able to
+say inside a few days, she lives at number----I don't know yet, on
+street----I'll find out soon, in the closest city, Onabasha. And I know
+why you brought her, South Wind. If ever a girl's cheeks need fanning
+with your breezes, and painting with sun kisses, I wouldn't mind, since
+this is strictly private, adding a few of mine; if ever any one needed
+flowers, birds, fresh air, water, and rest! Good Lord, South Wind, did
+you ever reach her before you carried that message? I think not! But
+Onabasha isn't so large. You and the sun should get your innings there.
+I do hope she is not trying to work! I can attend to that; and so there
+will be more time when she is found, I'd better hustle now."
+
+He picked up the bag and returned to the dry-house, where he carefully
+washed the roots and spread them on the trays. Then he took the same
+bag and mattock and going through the woods in the opposite direction
+he came to a heavy growth in a cleared space of high ground. The bloom
+heads were forming and the plant was half matured. The Harvester dug a
+cylindrical, tapering root, wrinkling lengthwise, wiped it clean, broke
+and tasted it. He made a wry face. He stood examining the white wood
+with its brown-red bark and, deciding that it was in prime condition, he
+began digging the plants. It was common wayside "Bouncing Bet," but the
+Harvester called it "soapwort." He took every other plant in his way
+across the bed, and when he digged a heavy load he carried it home,
+stripped the leaves, and spread them on trays, while the roots he
+topped, washed, and put to dry also. Then he whistled for Belshazzar and
+went to lunch.
+
+As he passed down the road to the cabin his face was a study of
+conflicting emotions, and his eyes had a far away appearance of deep
+thought. Every tree of his stretch of forest was rustling fresh leaves
+to shelter him; dogwood, wild crab, and hawthorn offered their flowers;
+earth held up her tribute in painted trillium faces, spring beauties,
+and violets, blue, white, and yellow. Mosses, ferns, and lichen
+decorated the path; all the birds greeted him in friendship, and
+sang their purest melodies. The sky was blue, the sun bright, the air
+perfumed for him; Belshazzar, always true to his name, protected every
+footstep; Ajax, the shimmering green and gold wonder, came up the hill
+to meet him; the white doves circled above his head. Stumbling half
+blindly, the Harvester passed unheeding among them, and went into the
+cabin. When he came out he stood a long time in deep study, but at last
+he returned to the woods.
+
+"Perhaps they will have found her before night," he said. "I'll harvest
+the cranesbill yet, because it's growing late for it, and then I'll see
+how they are coming on. Maybe they'd know her if they met her, and maybe
+they wouldn't. She may wear different clothing, and freshen up after her
+trip. She might have been car sick, as Doc suggested, and appear very
+different when she feels better."
+
+He skirted the woods around the northeast end and stopped at a big bed
+of exquisite growth. Tall, wiry stems sprang upward almost two feet in
+height; leaves six inches across were cut in ragged lobes almost to the
+base, and here and there, enough to colour the entire bed a delicate
+rose or sometimes a violet purple, the first flowers were unfolding. The
+Harvester lifted a root and tasted it.
+
+"No doubt about you being astringent," he muttered. "You have enough
+tannin in you to pucker a mushroom. By the way, those big, corn-cobby
+fellows should spring up with the next warm rain, and the hotels and
+restaurants always pay high prices. I must gather a few bushels."
+
+He looked over the bed of beautiful wild alum and hesitated.
+
+"I vow I hate to touch you," he said. "You are a picture right now, and
+in a week you will be a miracle. It seems a shame to tear up a plant for
+its roots, just at flowering time, and I can't avoid breaking down half
+I don't take, getting the ones I do. I wish you were not so pretty! You
+are one of the colours I love most. You remind me of red-bud, blazing
+star, and all those exquisite magenta shades that poets, painters, and
+the Almighty who made them love so much they hesitate about using them
+lavishly. You are so delicate and graceful and so modest. I wish she
+could see you! I got to stop this or I won't be able to lift a root. I
+never would if the ten cents a pound I'll get out of it were the only
+consideration."
+
+The Harvester gripped the mattock and advanced to the bed. "What I must
+be thinking is that you are indispensable to the sick folks. The steady
+demand for you proves your value, and of course, humanity comes first,
+after all. If I remain in the woods alone much longer I'll get to the
+place where I'm not so sure that it does. Seems as if animals, birds,
+flowers, trees, and insects as well, have their right to life also. But
+it's for me to remember the sick folks! If I thought the Girl would get
+some of it now, I could overturn the bed with a stout heart. If any one
+ever needed a tonic, I think she does. Maybe some of this will reach
+her. If it does, I hope it will make her cheeks just the lovely pink of
+the bloom. Oh Lord! If only she hadn't appeared so sick and frightened!
+What is there in all this world of sunshine to make a girl glance around
+her like that? I wish I knew! Maybe they will have found her by night."
+
+The Harvester began work on the bed, but he knelt and among the damp
+leaves from the spongy black earth he lifted the roots with his fingers
+and carefully straightened and pressed down the plants he did not take.
+This required more time than usual, but his heart was so sore he could
+not be rough with anything, most of all a flower. So he harvested the
+wild alum by hand, and heaped large stacks of roots around the edges of
+the bed. Often he paused as he worked and on his knees stared through
+the forest as if he hoped perhaps she would realize his longing for her,
+and come to him in the wood as she had across the water. Over and
+over he repeated, "Perhaps they will find her by night!" and that so
+intensified the meaning that once he said it aloud. His face clouded and
+grew dark.
+
+"Dealish nice business!" he said. "I am here in the woods digging flower
+roots, and a gang of men in the city are searching for the girl I love.
+If ever a job seemed peculiarly a man's own, it appears this would be.
+What business has any other man spying after my woman? Why am I not down
+there doing my own work, as I always have done it? Who's more likely to
+find her than I am? It seems as if there would be an instinct that
+would lead me straight to her, if I'd go. And you can wager I'll go fast
+enough."
+
+The Harvester appeared as if he would start that instant, but with lips
+closely shut he finally forced himself to go on with his work. When he
+had rifled the bed, and uprooted all he cared to take during one season,
+he carried the roots to the lake shore below the curing house, and
+spread them on a platform he had built. He stepped into his boat and
+began dashing pails of water over them and using a brush. As he worked
+he washed away the woody scars of last year's growth, and the tiny buds
+appearing for the coming season.
+
+Belshazzar sat on the opposite bank and watched the operation; and Ajax
+came down and, flying to a dead stump, erected and slowly waved his
+train to attract the sober-faced man who paid no heed. He left the roots
+to drain while he prepared supper, then placed them on the trays, now
+filled to overflowing, and was glad he had finished. He could not cure
+anything else at present if he wanted to. He was as far advanced as he
+had been at the same time the previous year. Then he dressed neatly and
+locking the Girl's room, and leaving Belshazzar to protect it, he went
+to Onabasha.
+
+"Bravo!" cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered his office. "You
+are heroic to wait all day for news. How much stuff have you gathered?"
+
+"Three crops. How many missing women have you located?"
+
+The doctor laughed. There was no sign of a smile on the face of the
+Harvester.
+
+"You didn't really expect her to come to light the first day? That would
+be too easy! We can't find her in a minute."
+
+"It will be no surprise to me if you can't find her at all. I am not
+expecting another man to do what I don't myself."
+
+"You are not hunting her. You are harvesting the woods. The men you
+employ are to find her."
+
+"Maybe I am, and maybe I am not," said the Harvester slowly. "To me
+it appears to be a poor stick of a man who coolly proceeds with money
+making, and trusts to men who haven't even seen her to search for the
+girl he loves. I think a few hours of this is about all my patience will
+endure."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know," said the Harvester. "But you can bank on one thing
+sure----I'm going to do something! I've had my fill of this. Thank you
+for all you've done, and all you are going to do. My head is not clear
+enough yet to decide anything with any sense, but maybe I'll hit on
+something soon. I'm for the streets for a while."
+
+"Better go home and go to bed. You seem very tired."
+
+"I am," said the Harvester. "The only way to endure this is to work
+myself down. I'm all right, and I'll be careful, but I rather think I'll
+find her myself."
+
+"Better go on with your work as we planned."
+
+"I'll think about it," said the Harvester as he went out.
+
+Until he was too tired to walk farther he slowly paced the streets of
+the city, and then followed the home road through the valley and up the
+hill to Medicine Woods. When he came to Singing Water, Belshazzar heard
+his steps on the bridge, and came bounding to meet him. The Harvester
+stretched himself on a seat and turned his face to the sky. It was a
+deep, dark-blue bowl, closely set with stars, and a bright moon shed a
+soft May radiance on the young earth. The lake was flooded with light,
+and the big trees of the forest crowning the hill were silver coroneted.
+The unfolding leaves had hidden the new cabin from the bridge, but the
+driveway shone white, and already the upspringing bushes hedged it in.
+Insects were humming lazily in the perfumed night air, and across the
+lake a courting whip-poor-will was explaining to his sweetheart just
+how much and why he loved her. A few bats were wavering in air hunting
+insects, and occasionally an owl or a nighthawk crossed the lake.
+Killdeer were glorying in the moonlight and night flight, and cried in
+pure, clear notes as they sailed over the water. The Harvester was tired
+and filled with unrest as he stretched on the bridge, but the longer
+he lay the more the enfolding voices comforted him. All of them were
+waiting and working out their lives to the legitimate end; there was
+nothing else for him to do. He need not follow instinct or profit by
+chance. He was a man; he could plan and reason.
+
+The air grew balmy and some big, soft clouds swept across the moon. The
+Harvester felt the dampness of rising dew, and went to the cabin. He
+looked at it long in the moonlight and told himself that he could see
+how much the plants, vines, and ferns had grown since the previous
+night. Without making a light, he threw himself on the bed in the
+outdoor room, and lay looking through the screening at the lake and sky.
+He was working his brain to think of some manner in which to start a
+search for the Dream Girl that would have some probability of success to
+recommend it, but he could settle on no feasible plan. At last he fell
+asleep, and in the night soft rain wet his face. He pulled an oilcloth
+sheet over the bed, and lay breathing deeply of the damp, perfumed air
+as he again slept. In the morning brilliant sunshine awoke him and he
+arose to find the earth steaming.
+
+"If ever there was a perfect mushroom day!" he said to Belshazzar. "We
+must hurry and feed the stock and ourselves and gather some. They mean
+real money."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE QUEST OF THE DREAM GIRL
+
+The Harvester breakfasted, fed the stock, hitched Betsy to the spring
+wagon, and went into the dripping, steamy woods. If anyone had asked him
+that morning concerning his idea of Heaven, he never would have dreamed
+of describing a place of gold-paved streets, crystal pillars, jewelled
+gates, and thrones of ivory. These things were beyond the man's
+comprehension and he would not have admired or felt at home in such
+magnificence if it had been materialized for him. He would have told
+you that a floor of last year's brown leaves, studded with myriad flower
+faces, big, bark-encased pillars of a thousand years, jewels on every
+bush, shrub, and tree, and tilting thrones on which gaudy birds almost
+burst themselves to voice the joy of life, while their bright-eyed
+little mates peered questioningly at him over nest rims----he would have
+told you that Medicine Woods on a damp, sunny May morning was Heaven.
+And he would have added that only one angel, tall and slender, with the
+pink of health on her cheeks and the dew of happiness in her dark eyes,
+was necessary to enter and establish glory. Everything spoke to him that
+morning, but the Harvester was silent. It had been his habit to talk
+constantly to Belshazzar, Ajax, his work, even the winds and perfumes;
+it had been his method of dissipating solitude, but to-day he had no
+words, even for these dear friends. He only opened his soul to beauty,
+and steadily climbed the hill to the crest, and then down the other side
+to the rich, half-shaded, half-open spaces, where big, rough mushrooms
+sprang in a night similar to the one just passed.
+
+He could see them awaiting him from afar. He began work with rapid
+fingers, being careful to break off the heads, but not to pull up the
+roots. When four heaping baskets were filled he cut heavily leaved
+branches to spread over them, and started to Onabasha. As usual,
+Belshazzar rode beside him and questioned the Harvester when he politely
+suggested to Betsy that she make a little haste.
+
+"Have you forgotten that mushrooms are perishable?" he asked. "If we
+don't get these to the city all woodsy and fresh we can't sell them.
+Wonder where we can do the best? The hotels pay well. Really, the
+biggest prices could be had by----"
+
+Then the Harvester threw back his head and began to laugh, and
+he laughed, and he laughed. A crow on the fence Joined him, and a
+kingfisher, heading for Loon Lake, and then Belshazzar caught the
+infection.
+
+"Begorry! The very idea!" cried the Harvester. "'Heaven helps them
+that help themselves.' Now you just watch us manoeuvre for assistance,
+Belshazzar, old boy! Here we go!"
+
+Then the laugh began again. It continued all the way to Onabasha and
+even into the city. The Harvester drove through the most prosperous
+street until he reached the residence district. At the first home
+he stopped, gave the lines to Belshazzar, and, taking a basket of
+mushrooms, went up the walk and rang the bell.
+
+"All groceries should be delivered at the back door," snapped a pert
+maid, before he had time to say a word.
+
+The Harvester lifted his hat.
+
+"Will you kindly tell the lady of the house that I wish to speak with
+her?"
+
+"What name, please?"
+
+"I want to show her some fine mushrooms, freshly gathered," he answered.
+
+How she did it the Harvester never knew. The first thing he realized was
+that the door had closed before his face, and the basket had been picked
+deftly from his fingers and was on the other side. After a short time
+the maid returned.
+
+"What do you want for them, please?"
+
+The last thing on earth the Harvester wanted to do was to part with
+those mushrooms, so he took one long, speculative look down the hall and
+named a price he thought would be prohibitive.
+
+"One dollar a dozen."
+
+"How many are there?"
+
+"I count them as I sell them. I do not know."
+
+The door closed again. Presently it opened and the maid knelt on the
+floor before him and counted the mushrooms one by one into a dish pan
+and in a few minutes brought back seven dollars and fifty cents. The
+chagrined Harvester, feeling like a thief, put the money in his pocket,
+and turned away.
+
+"I was to tell you," said she, "that you are to bring all you have to
+sell here, and the next time please go to the kitchen door."
+
+"Must be fond of mushrooms," said the disgruntled Harvester.
+
+"They are a great delicacy, and there are visitors." The Harvester ached
+to set the girl to one side and walk through the house, but he did not
+dare; so he returned to the street, whistled to Betsy to come, and went
+to the next gate. Here he hesitated. Should he risk further snubbing at
+the front door or go back at once. If he did, he only would see a maid.
+As he stood an instant debating, the door of the house he just had
+left opened and the girl ran after him. "If you have more, we will take
+them," she called.
+
+The Harvester gasped for breath.
+
+"They have to be used at once," he suggested.
+
+"She knows that. She wants to treat her friends."
+
+"Well she has got enough for a banquet," he said. "I--I don't usually
+sell more than a dozen or two in one place."
+
+"I don't see why you can't let her have them if you have more."
+
+"Perhaps I have orders to fill for regular customers," suggested the
+Harvester.
+
+"And perhaps you haven't," said the maid. "You ought to be ashamed not
+to let people who are willing to pay your outrageous prices have them.
+It's regular highway robbery."
+
+"Possibly that's the reason I decline to hold up one party twice," said
+the Harvester as he entered the gate and went up the walk to the front
+door.
+
+"You should be taught your place," called the maid after him.
+
+The Harvester again rang the bell. Another maid opened the door, and
+once more he asked to speak with the lady of the house. As the girl
+turned, a handsome old woman in cap and morning gown came down the
+stairs.
+
+"What have you there?" she asked.
+
+The Harvester lifted the leaves and exposed the musky, crimpled, big
+mushrooms.
+
+"Oh!" she cried in delight. "Indeed, yes! We are very fond of them. I
+will take the basket, and divide with my sons. You are sure you have no
+poisonous ones among them?"
+
+"Quite sure," said the Harvester faintly.
+
+"How much do you want for the basket?"
+
+"They are a dollar a dozen; I haven't counted them."
+
+"Dear me! Isn't that rather expensive?"
+
+"It is. Very!" said the Harvester. "So expensive that most people don't
+think of taking over a dozen. They are large and very rich, so they go a
+long way."
+
+"I suppose you have to spend a great deal of time hunting them? It does
+seem expensive, but they are fresh, and the boys are so fond of them.
+I'm not often extravagant, I'll just take the lot. Sarah, bring a pan."
+
+Again the Harvester stood and watched an entire basket counted over and
+carried away, and he felt the robber he had been called as he took the
+money.
+
+At the next house he had learned a lesson. He carpeted a basket with
+leaves and counted out a dozen and a half into it, leaving the remainder
+in the wagon. Three blocks on one side of the street exhausted his
+store and he was showered with orders. He had not seen any one that even
+resembled a dark-eyed girl. As he came from the last house a big, red
+motor shot past and then suddenly slowed and backed beside his wagon.
+
+"What in the name of sense are you doing?" demanded Doctor Carey.
+
+"Invading the residence district of Onabasha," said the Harvester.
+"Madam, would you like some nice, fresh, country mushrooms? I guarantee
+that there are no poisonous ones among them, and they were gathered this
+morning. Considering their rarity and the difficult work of collecting,
+they are exceedingly low at my price. I am offering these for five
+dollars a dozen, madam, and for mercy sake don't take them or I'll have
+no excuse to go to the next house."
+
+The doctor stared, then understood, and began to laugh. When at last he
+could speak he said, "David, I'll bet you started with three bushels and
+began at the head of this street, and they are all gone."
+
+"Put up a good one!" said the Harvester. "You win. The first house I
+tried they ordered me to the back door, took a market basket full away
+from me by force, tried to buy the load, and I didn't see any one save a
+maid."
+
+The doctor lay on the steering gear and faintly groaned.
+
+The Harvester regarded him sympathetically. "Isn't it a crime?" he
+questioned. "Mushrooms are no go. I can see that!----or rather they are
+entirely too much of a go. I never saw anything in such demand. I must
+seek a less popular article for my purpose. To-morrow look out for me.
+I shall begin where I left off to-day, but I will have changed my
+product."
+
+"David, for pity sake," peeped the doctor.
+
+"What do I care how I do it, so I locate her?" superbly inquired the
+Harvester.
+
+"But you won't find her!" gasped the doctor.
+
+"I've come as close it as you so far, anyway," said the Harvester. "Your
+mushrooms are on the desk in your office."
+
+He drove slowly up and down the streets until Betsy wabbled on her legs.
+Then he left her to rest and walked until he wabbled; and by that time
+it was dark, so he went home.
+
+At the first hint of dawn he was at work the following morning. With
+loaded baskets closely covered, he started to Onabasha, and began where
+he had quit the day before. This time he carried a small, crudely
+fashioned bark basket, leaf-covered, and he rang at the front door with
+confidence.
+
+Every one seemed to have a maid in that part of the city, for a freshly
+capped and aproned girl opened the door.
+
+"Are there any young women living here?" blandly inquired the Harvester.
+
+"What's that of your business?" demanded the maid.
+
+The Harvester flushed, but continued, "I am offering something
+especially intended for young women. If there are none, I will not
+trouble you."
+
+"There are several."
+
+"Will you please ask them if they would care for bouquets of violets,
+fresh from the woods?"
+
+"How much are they, and how large are the bunches?"
+
+"Prices differ, and they are the right size to appear well. They had
+better see for themselves."
+
+The maid reached for the basket, but the Harvester drew back.
+
+"I keep them in my possession," he said. "You may take a sample."
+
+He lifted the leaves and drew forth a medium-sized bunch of long-stemmed
+blue violets with their leaves. The flowers were fresh, crisp, and
+strong odours of the woods arose from them.
+
+"Oh!" cried the maid. "Oh, how lovely!"
+
+She hurried away with them and returned carrying a purse.
+
+"I want two more bunches," she said. "How much are they?"
+
+"Are the girls who want them dark or fair?"
+
+"What difference does that make?"
+
+"I have blue violets for blondes, yellow for brunettes, and white for
+the others."
+
+"Well I never! One is fair, and two have brown hair and blue eyes."
+
+"One blue and two whites," said the Harvester calmly, as if matching
+women's hair and eyes with flowers were an inherited vocation. "They are
+twenty cents a bunch."
+
+"Aha!" he chortled to himself as he whistled to Betsy. "At last we have
+it. There are no dark-eyed girls here. Now we are making headway."
+
+Down the street he went, with varying fortune, but with patience and
+persistence at every house he at last managed to learn whether there was
+a dark-eyed girl. There did not seem to be many. Long before his store
+of yellow violets was gone the last blue and white had disappeared. But
+he calmly went on asking for dark-eyed girls, and explaining that all
+the blue and white were taken, because fair women were most numerous.
+
+At one house the owner, who reminded the Harvester of his mother,
+came to the door. He uncovered and in his suavest tones inquired if
+a brunette young woman lived there and if she would like a nosegay of
+yellow violets.
+
+"Well bless my soul!" cried she. "What is this world coming to? Do
+you mean to tell me that there are now able-bodied men offering at our
+doors, flowers to match our girls' complexions?"
+
+"Yes madam?" said the Harvester gravely, "and also selling them as fast
+as he can show them, at prices that make a profit very well worth while.
+I had an equal number of blue and white, but I see the dark girls are
+very much in the minority. The others were gone long ago, and I now have
+flowers to offer brunettes only."
+
+"Well forever more! And you don't call that fiddlin' business for a big,
+healthy, young man?"
+
+The Harvester's gay laugh was infectious.
+
+"I do not," he said. "I have to start as soon as I can see, tramp long
+distances in wet woods and gather the violets on my knees, make them
+into bunches, and bring them here in water to keep them fresh. I have
+another occupation. I only kill time on these, but I would be ashamed to
+tell you what I have gotten for them this morning."
+
+"Humph! I'm glad to hear it!" said the woman. "Shame in some form is a
+sign of grace. I have no use for a human being without a generous supply
+of it. There is a very beautiful dark-eyed girl in the house, and I will
+take two bunches for her. How much are they?"
+
+"I have only three remaining," said the Harvester. "Would you like to
+allow her to make her own selection?"
+
+"When I'm giving things I usually take my choice. I want that, and that
+one."
+
+"As my stock is so nearly out, I'll make the two for twenty," said the
+Harvester. "Won't you accept the last one from me, because you remind me
+just a little of my mother?"
+
+"I will indeed," said she. "Thank you very much! I shall love to have
+them as dearly as any of the girls. I used to gather them when I was a
+child, but I almost never see the blue ones any more, and I don't know
+as I ever expected to see a yellow violet again as long as I live. Where
+did you get them?"
+
+"In my woods," said the Harvester. "You see I grow several members of
+the viola pedata family, bird's foot, snake, and wood violet, and three
+of the odorata, English, marsh, and sweet, for our big drug houses. They
+use the flowers in making delicate tests for acids and alkalies.
+The entire plant, flower, seed, leaf, and root, goes into different
+remedies. The beds seed themselves and spread, so I have more than
+I need for the chemists, and I sell a few. I don't use the white and
+yellow in my business; I just grow them for their beauty. I also sell my
+surplus lilies of the valley. Would you like to order some of them for
+your house or more violets for to-morrow?"
+
+"Well bless my soul! Do you mean to tell me that lilies of the valley
+are medicine?"
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+"I grow immense beds of them in the woods on the banks of Loon Lake,"
+he said. "They are the convallaris majallis of the drug houses and I
+scarcely know what the weak-hearted people would do without them. I use
+large quantities in trade, and this season I am selling a few because
+people so love them."
+
+"Lilies in medicine; well dear me! Are roses good for our innards too?"
+
+Then the Harvester did laugh.
+
+"I imagine the roses you know go into perfumes mostly," he answered.
+"They do make medicine of Canadian rock rose and rose bay, laurel, and
+willow. I grow the bushes, but they are not what you would consider
+roses."
+
+"I wonder now," said the woman studying the Harvester closely, "if you
+are not that queer genius I've heard of, who spends his time hunting and
+growing stuff in the woods and people call him the Medicine Man."
+
+"I strongly suspect madam, I am that man," said the Harvester.
+
+"Well bless me!" cried she. "I've always wanted to see you and here when
+I do, you look just like anybody else. I thought you'd have long hair,
+and be wild-eyed and ferocious. And your talk sounds like out of a book.
+Well that beats me!"
+
+"Me too!" said the Harvester, lifting his hat. "You don't want any
+lilies to-morrow, then?"
+
+"Yes I do. Medicine or no medicine, I've always liked 'em, and I'm going
+to keep on liking them. If you can bring me a good-sized bunch after the
+weak-kneed----"
+
+"Weak-hearted," corrected the Harvester.
+
+"Well 'weak-hearted,' then; it's all the same thing. If you've got any
+left, as I was saying, you can fetch them to me for the smell."
+
+The Harvester laughed all the way down town. There he went to Doctor
+Carey's office, examined a directory, and got the names of all the
+numbers where he had sold yellow violets. A few questions when the
+doctor came in settled all of them, but the flower scheme was better.
+Because the yellow were not so plentiful as the white and blue, next day
+he added buttercups and cowslips to his store for the dark girls. When
+he had rifled his beds for the last time, after three weeks of almost
+daily trips to town, and had paid high prices to small boys he set
+searching the adjoining woods until no more flowers could be found, he
+drove from the outskirts of the city one day toward the hospital, and as
+he stopped, down the street came Doctor Carey frantically waving to him.
+As the big car slackened, "Come on David, quick! I've seen her!" cried
+the doctor.
+
+The Harvester jumped from the wagon, threw the lines to Belshazzar, and
+landed in the panting car.
+
+"For Heaven's sake where? Are you sure?"
+
+The car went speeding down the street. A policeman beckoned and cried
+after it.
+
+"It won't do any good to get arrested, Doc," cautioned the Harvester.
+
+"Now right along here," panted Doctor Carey. "Watch both sides sharply.
+If I stop you jump out, and tell the blame policemen to get at their
+job. The party they are hired to find is right under their noses."
+
+The Harvester began to perspire. "Doc, don't you think you should tell
+me? Maybe she is in some store. Maybe I could do better on foot."
+
+"Shut up!" growled the doctor. "I am doing the best I know."
+
+He hurried up the street for blocks and back again, and at last stopped
+before a large store and went in. When he returned he drove to the
+hospital and together they entered the office. There he turned to the
+Harvester.
+
+"It isn't so hard to understand you now, my boy," he said. "Shades of
+Diana, but she'll be a beauty when she gets a little more flesh and
+colour. She came out of Whitlaw's and walked right to the crossing. I
+almost could have touched her, but I didn't notice. Two girls passed
+before me, and in hurrying, a tall, dark one knocked off one of your
+bunches of yellow violets. She glanced at it and laughed, but let
+it lay. Then your girl hesitated stooped and picked it up. The crazy
+policeman yelled at me to clear the crossing and it didn't hit me for a
+half block how tall and white she was and how dark her eyes were. I was
+just thinking about her picking up the flowers, and that it was queer
+for her to do it, when like a brick it hit me, THAT'S DAVID'S GIRL! I
+tried to turn around, but you know what Main Street is in the middle
+of the day. And those idiots of policemen! They ordered me on, and I
+couldn't turn for a street car coming, so I called to one of them that
+the girl we wanted was down the street, and he looked at me like an
+addle-pate and said, 'What girl? Move on or you'll get in a jam here.'
+You can use me for a football if I don't go back and smash him. Paid him
+five dollars myself less than two weeks ago to keep his eyes open. 'TO
+KEEP HIS EYES OPEN!'" panted the doctor, shaking his fist at David. "Yes
+sir! 'To keep his eyes open!' And he motioned for things to come along,
+and so I lost her too."
+
+"I think we had better go back to the street," said the Harvester.
+
+"Oh, I'd been back and forth along that street for nearly an hour before
+I gave up and came here to see if I could find you, and we've hunted it
+an hour more! What's the use? She's gone for this time, but by gum, I
+saw her! And she was worth seeing!"
+
+"Did she appear ill to you?"
+
+The doctor dropped on a chair and threw out his hands hopelessly.
+
+"This was awful sudden, David," he said. "I was going along as I told
+you, and I noticed her stop and thought she had a good head to wait a
+second instead of running in before me, and there came those two girls
+right under the car from the other side. I only had a glimpse of her as
+she stooped for the flowers. I saw a big braid of hair, but I was half a
+block away before I got it all connected, and then came the crush in the
+street, and I was blocked."
+
+The doctor broke down and wiped his face and expressed his feelings
+unrestrainedly.
+
+"Don't!" said the Harvester patiently. "It's no use to feel so badly,
+Doc. I know what you would give to have found her for me. I know you did
+all you could. I let her escape me. We will find her yet. It's glorious
+news that she's in the city. It gives me heart to hear that. Can't you
+just remember if she seemed ill?"
+
+The doctor meditated.
+
+"She wasn't the tallest girl I ever saw," he said slowly, "but she was
+the tallest girl to be pretty. She had on a white waist and a gray skirt
+and black hat. Her eyes and hair were like you said, and she was plain,
+white faced, with a hue that might possibly be natural, and it might be
+confinement in bad light and air and poor food. She didn't seem sick,
+but she isn't well. There is something the matter with her, but it's not
+immediate or dangerous. She appeared like a flower that had got a little
+moisture and sprouted in a cellar."
+
+"You saw her all right!" said the Harvester, "and I think your diagnosis
+is correct too. That's the way she seemed to me. I've thought she needed
+sun and air. I told the South Wind so the other day."
+
+"Why you blame fool!" cried the doctor. "Is this thing going to your
+head? Say, I forgot! There is something else. I traced her in the store.
+She was at the embroidery counter and she bought some silk. If she ever
+comes again the clerk is going to hold her and telephone me or get her
+address if she has to steal it. Oh, we are getting there! We will have
+her pretty soon now. You ought to feel better just to know that she is
+in town and that I've seen her."
+
+"I do!" said the Harvester. "Indeed I do!"
+
+"It can't be much longer," said the doctor. "She's got to be located
+soon. But those policemen! I wouldn't give a nickel for the lot! I'll
+bet she's walked over them for two weeks. If I were you I'd discharge
+the bunch. They'd be peacefully asleep if she passed them. If they'd let
+me alone, I'd have had her. I could have turned around easily. I've been
+in dozens of closer places."
+
+"Don't worry! This can't last much longer. She's of and in the city or
+she wouldn't have picked up the flowers. Doc, are you sure they were
+mine?"
+
+"Yes. Half the girls have been tricked out in yours the past two weeks.
+I can spot them as far as I can see."
+
+"Dear Lord, that's getting close!" said the Harvester intensely. "Seems
+as if the violets would tell her."
+
+"Now cut out flowers talking and the South Wind!" ordered the doctor.
+"This is business. The violets prove something all right, though. If she
+was in the country, she could gather plenty herself. She is working at
+sewing in some room in town, either over a store or in a house. If she
+hadn't been starved for flowers she never would have stopped for them on
+the street. I could see just a flash of hesitation, but she wanted them
+too much. David, one bouquet will go in water and be cared for a week.
+Man, it's getting close! This does seem like a link."
+
+"Since you say it, possibly I dare agree with you," said the Harvester.
+
+"How near are you through with that canvass of yours?"
+
+"About three fourths."
+
+"Well I'd go on with it. After all we have got to find her ourselves.
+Those senile policemen!"
+
+"I am going on with it; you needn't worry about that. But I've got to
+change to other flowers. I've stripped the violet beds. There's quite
+a crop of berries coming, but they are not ripe yet, and a tragedy to
+pick. The pond lilies are just beginning to open by the thousand. The
+lake border is blue with sweet-flag that is lovely and the marsh pale
+gold with cowslips. The ferns are prime and the woods solid sheets of
+every colour of bloom. I believe I'll go ahead with the wild flowers."
+
+"I would too! David, you do feel better, don't you?"
+
+"I certainly do, Doctor. Surely it won't be long now!"
+
+The Harvester was so hopeful that he whistled and sang on the return to
+Medicine Woods, and that night for the first time in many days he sat
+long over a candlestick, and took a farewell peep into her room before
+he went to bed.
+
+The next day he worked with all his might harvesting the last remnants
+of early spring herbs, in the dry-room and store-house, and on furniture
+and candlesticks.
+
+Then he went back to flower gathering and every day offered bunches of
+exquisite wood and field flowers and white and gold water lilies from
+door to door.
+
+Three weeks later the Harvester, perceptibly thin, pale, and worried
+entered the office. He sank into a chair and groaned wearily.
+
+"Isn't this the bitterest luck!" he cried. "I've finished the town. I've
+almost walked off my legs. I've sold flowers by the million, but I've
+not had a sight of her."
+
+"It's been almost a tragedy with me," said the doctor gloomily. "I've
+killed two dogs and grazed a baby, because I was watching the sidewalks
+instead of the street. What are you going to do now?"
+
+"I am going home and bring up the work to the July mark. I am going to
+take it easy and rest a few days so I can think more clearly. I don't
+know what I'll try next. I've punched up the depot and the policemen
+again. When I get something new thought out I'll let you know."
+
+Then he began emptying his pockets of money and heaping it on the table,
+small coins, bills, big and little.
+
+"What on earth is that?"
+
+"That," said the Harvester, giving the heap a shove of contempt, "that
+is the price of my pride and humiliation. That is what it cost people
+who allowed me to cheek my way into their homes and rob them, as one
+maid said, for my own purposes. Doc, where on earth does all the money
+come from? In almost every house I entered, women had it to waste, in
+many cases to throw away. I never saw so much paid for nothing in all my
+life. That whole heap is from mushrooms and flowers."
+
+"What are you piling it there for?"
+
+"For your free ward. I don't want a penny of it. I wouldn't keep it, not
+if I was starving."
+
+"Why David! You couldn't compel any one to buy. You offered something
+they wanted, and they paid you what you asked."
+
+"Yes, and to keep them from buying, and to make the stuff go farther, I
+named prices to shame a shark. When I think of that mushroom deal I can
+feel my face burn. I've made the search I wanted to, and I am satisfied
+that I can't find her that way. I have kept up my work at home between
+times. I am not out anything but my time, and it isn't fair to plunder
+the city to pay that. Take that cussed money and put it where I'll never
+see or hear of it. Do anything you please, except to ask me ever to
+profit by a cent. When I wash my hands after touching it for the last
+time maybe I'll feel better."
+
+"You are a fanatic!"
+
+"If getting rid of that is being a fanatic, I am proud of the title. You
+can't imagine what I've been through!"
+
+"Can't I though?" laughed the doctor. "In work of that kind you get into
+every variety of place; and some of it is new to you. Never mind! No one
+can contaminate you. It is the law that only a man can degrade himself.
+Knowing things will not harm you. Doing them is a different matter. What
+you know will be a protection. What you do ruins----if it is wrong. You
+are not harmed, you are only disgusted. Think it over, and in a few days
+come back and get your money. It is strictly honest. You earned every
+cent of it."
+
+"If you ever speak of it again or force it on me I'll take it home and
+throw it into the lake."
+
+He went after Betsy and slowly drove to Medicine Woods. Belshazzar,
+on the seat beside him, recognized a silent, disappointed master
+and whimpered as he rubbed the Harvester's shoulder to attract his
+attention.
+
+"This is tough luck, old boy," said the Harvester. "I had such hopes and
+I worked so hard. I suffered in the flesh for every hour of it, and I
+failed. Oh but I hate the word! If I knew where she is right now, Bel,
+I'd give anything I've got. But there's no use to wail and get sorry
+for myself. That's against the law of common decency. I'll take a swim,
+sleep it off, straighten up the herbs a little, and go at it again, old
+fellow; that's a man's way. She's somewhere, and she's got to be found,
+no matter what it costs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. BELSHAZZAR'S RECORD POINT
+
+The Harvester set the neglected cabin in order; then he carefully and
+deftly packed all his dried herbs, barks, and roots. Next came carrying
+the couch grass, wild alum, and soapwort into the store-room. Then
+followed July herbs. He first went to his beds of foxglove, because
+the tender leaves of the second year should be stripped from them at
+flowering time, and that usually began two weeks earlier; but his bed
+lay in a shaded, damp location and the tall bloom stalks were only in
+half flower, their pale lavender making an exquisite picture. It paid
+to collect those leaves, so the Harvester hastily stripped the amount he
+wanted.
+
+Yarrow was beginning to bloom and he gathered as much as he required,
+taking the whole plant. That only brought a few cents a pound, but it
+was used entire, so the weight made it worth while.
+
+Catnip tops and leaves were also ready. As it grew in the open in dry
+soil and the beds had been weeded that spring, he could gather great
+arm loads of it with a sickle, but he had to watch the swarming bees. He
+left the male fern and mullein until the last for different reasons.
+
+On the damp, cool, rocky hillside, beneath deep shade of big forest
+trees, grew the ferns, their long, graceful fronds waving softly. Tree
+toads sang on the cool rocks beneath them, chewinks nested under gnarled
+roots among them, rose-breasted grosbeaks sang in grape-vines clambering
+over the thickets, and Singing Water ran close beside. So the Harvester
+left digging these roots until nearly the last, because he so disliked
+to disturb the bed. He could not have done it if he had not been forced.
+All of the demand for his fern never could be supplied. Of his products
+none was more important to the Harvester because this formed the basis
+of one of the oldest and most reliable remedies for little children. The
+fern had to be gathered with especial care, deteriorated quickly, and no
+staple was more subject to adulteration.
+
+So he kept his bed intact, lifted the roots at the proper time,
+carefully cleaned without washing, rapidly dried in currents of hot
+air, and shipped them in bottles to the trade. He charged and received
+fifteen cents a pound, where careless and indifferent workers got ten.
+
+On the banks of Singing Water, at the head of the fern bed, the
+Harvester stood under a gray beech tree and looked down the swaying
+length of delicate green. He was lean and rapidly bronzing, for he
+seldom remembered a head covering because he loved the sweep of the wind
+in his hair.
+
+"I hate to touch you," he said. "How I wish she could see you before I
+begin. If she did, probably she would say it was a sin, and then I never
+could muster courage to do it at all. I'd give a small farm to know
+if those violets revived for her. I was crazy to ask Doc if they were
+wilted, but I hated to. If they were from the ones I gathered that
+morning they should have been all right."
+
+A tree toad dared him to come on; a chipmunk grew saucy as the Harvester
+bent to an unloved task. If he stripped the bed as closely as he dared
+and not injure it, he could not fill half his orders; so, deftly and
+with swift, skilful fingers and an earnest face, he worked. Belshazzar
+came down the hill on a rush, nose to earth and began hunting among the
+plants. He never could understand why his loved master was so careless
+as to go to work before he had pronounced it safe. When the fern bed was
+finished, the Harvester took time to make a trip to town, but there
+was no word waiting him; so he went to the mullein. It lay on a sunny
+hillside beyond the couch grass and joined a few small fields, the only
+cleared land of the six hundred acres of Medicine Woods. Over rocks and
+little hills and hollows spread the pale, grayish-yellow of the green
+leaves, and from five to seven feet arose the flower stems, while
+the entire earth between was covered with rosettes of young plants.
+Belshazzar went before to give warning if any big rattlers curled in the
+sun on the hillside, and after him followed the Harvester cutting leaves
+in heaps. That was warm work and he covered his head with a floppy old
+straw hat, with wet grass in the crown, and stopped occasionally to
+rest.
+
+He loved that yellow-faced hillside. Because so much of his reaping lay
+in the shade and commonly his feet sank in dead leaves and damp earth,
+the change was a rest. He cheerfully stubbed his toes on rocks, and
+endured the heat without complaint. It appeared to him as if a member of
+every species of butterfly he knew wavered down the hillside. There were
+golden-brown danais, with their black-striped wings, jetty troilus with
+an attempt at trailers, big asterias, velvety black with longer trails
+and wide bands of yellow dots. Coenia were most numerous of all and to
+the Harvester wonderfully attractive in rich, subdued colours with a
+wealth of markings and eye spots. Many small moths, with transparent
+wings and noses red as blood, flashed past him hunting pollen.
+Goldfinches, intent on thistle bloom, wavered through the air trailing
+mellow, happy notes behind them, and often a humming-bird visited the
+mullein. On the lake wild life splashed and chattered incessantly, and
+sometimes the Harvester paused and stood with arms heaped with leaves,
+to interpret some unusually appealing note of pain or anger or some very
+attractive melody. The red-wings were swarming, the killdeers busy, and
+he thought of the Dream Girl and smiled.
+
+"I wonder if she would like this," he mused.
+
+When the mullein leaves were deep on the trays of the dry-house he began
+on the bloom and that was a task he loved. Just to lay off the beds in
+swaths and follow them, deftly picking the stamens and yellow petals
+from the blooms. These he would dry speedily in hot air, bottle, and
+send at once to big laboratories. The listed price was seventy-five
+cents a pound, but the beautiful golden bottles of the Harvester always
+brought more. The work was worth while, and he liked the location and
+gathering of this particular crop: for these reasons he always left
+it until the last, and then revelled in the gold of sunshine, bird,
+butterfly, and flower. Several days were required to harvest the mullein
+and during the time the man worked with nimble fingers, while his brain
+was intensely occupied with the question of what to do next in his
+search for the Girl.
+
+When the work was finished, he went to the deep wood to take a peep at
+acres of thrifty ginseng, and he was satisfied as he surveyed the big
+bed. Long years he had laboured diligently; soon came the reward. He had
+not realized it before, but as he studied the situation he saw that
+he either must begin this harvest at once or employ help. If he waited
+until September he could not gather one third of the crop alone.
+
+"But the roots will weigh less if I take them now," he argued, "and I
+can work at nothing in comfort until I have located her. I will go on
+with my search and allow the ginseng to grow that much heavier. What a
+picture! It is folly to disturb this now, for I will lose the seed of
+every plant I dig, and that is worth almost as much as the root. It is
+a question whether I want to furnish the market with seed, and so raise
+competition for my bed. I think, be jabbers, that I'll wait for this
+harvest until the seed is ripe, and then bury part of a head where I dig
+a root, as the Indians did. That's the idea! The more I grow, the more
+money; and I may need considerable for her. One thing I'd like to know:
+Are these plants cultivated? All the books quote the wild at highest
+rates and all I've ever sold was wild. The start grew here naturally.
+What I added from the surrounding country was wild, but through and
+among it I've sown seed I bought, and I've tended it with every care.
+But this is deep wood and wild conditions. I think I have a perfect
+right to so label it. I'll ask Doc. And another thing I'll go through
+the woods west of Onabasha where I used to find ginseng, and see if I
+can get a little and then take the same amount of plants grown here,
+and make a test. That way I can discover any difference before I go to
+market. This is my gold mine, and that point is mighty important to me,
+so I'll go this very day. I used to find it in the woods northeast of
+town and on the land Jameson bought, west. Wonder if he lives there yet.
+He should have died of pure meanness long ago. I'll drive to the river
+and hunt along the bank."
+
+Early the following morning the Harvester went to Onabasha and stopped
+at the hospital for news. Finding none, he went through town and several
+miles into the country on the other side, to a piece of lowland lying
+along the river bank, where he once had found and carried home to reset
+a big bed of ginseng. If he could get only a half pound of roots
+from there now, they would serve his purpose. He went down the bank,
+Belshazzar at his heels, and at last found the place. Many trees had
+been cut, but there remained enough for shade; the fields bore the
+ragged, unattractive appearance of old. The Harvester smiled grimly
+as he remembered that the man who lived there once had charged him for
+damage he might do to trees in driving across his woods, and boasted to
+his neighbours that a young fool was paying for the privilege of doing
+his grubbing. If Jameson had known what the roots he was so anxious to
+dispose of brought a pound on the market at that time, he would have
+been insane with anger. So the Harvester's eyes were dancing with fun
+and a wry grin twisted his lips as he clambered over the banks of
+the recently dredged river, and looked at its pitiful condition and
+straight, muddy flow.
+
+"Appears to match the remainder of the Jameson property," he said. "I
+don't know who he is or where he came from, but he's no farmer. Perhaps
+he uses this land to corral the stock he buys until he can sell it
+again."
+
+He went down the embankment and began to search for the location where
+he formerly had found the ginseng. When he came to the place he stood
+amazed, for from seed, roots, and plants he had missed, the growth had
+sprung up and spread, so that at a rapid estimate the Harvester thought
+it contained at least five pounds, allowing for what it would shrink on
+account of being gathered early. He hesitated an instant, and thought
+of coming later; but the drive was long and the loss would not amount
+to enough to pay for a second trip. About taking it, he never thought
+at all. He once had permission from the owner to dig all the shrubs,
+bushes, and weeds he desired from that stretch of woods, and had paid
+for possible damages that might occur. As he bent to the task there did
+come a fleeting thought that the patch was weedless and in unusual shape
+for wild stuff. Then, with swift strokes of his light mattock, he lifted
+the roots, crammed them into his sack, whistled to Belshazzar, and going
+back to the wagon, drove away. Reaching home he washed the ginseng,
+and spread it on a tray to dry. The first time he wanted the mattock
+he realized that he had left it lying where he had worked. It was an
+implement that he had directed a blacksmith to fashion to meet his
+requirements. No store contained anything half so useful to him. He had
+worked with it for years and it just suited him, so there was nothing to
+do but go back. Betsy was too tired to return that day, so he planned
+to dig his ginseng with something else, finish his work the following
+morning, and get the mattock in the afternoon.
+
+"It's like a knife you've carried for years, or a gun," muttered the
+Harvester. "I actually don't know how to get along without it. What made
+me so careless I can't imagine. I never before in my life did a trick
+like that. I wonder if I hurried a little. I certainly was free to
+take it. He always wanted the stuff dug up. Of all the stupid tricks,
+Belshazzar, that was the worst. Now Betsy and a half day of wasted time
+must pay for my carelessness. Since I have to go, I'll look a little
+farther. Maybe there is more. Those woods used to be full of it."
+
+According to this programme, the next afternoon the Harvester again
+walked down the embankment of the mourning river and through the ragged
+woods to the place where the ginseng had been. He went forward, stepping
+lightly, as men of his race had walked the forest for ages, swerving to
+avoid boughs, and looking straight ahead. Contrary to his usual custom
+of coming to heel in a strange wood, Belshazzar suddenly darted around
+the man and took the path they had followed the previous day. The animal
+was performing his office in life; he had heard or scented something
+unusual. The Harvester knew what that meant. He looked inquiringly at
+the dog, glanced around, and then at the earth. Belshazzar proceeded
+noiselessly at a rapid pace over the leaves: Suddenly the master saw the
+dog stop in a stiff point. Lifting his feet lightly and straining his
+eyes before him, the Harvester passed a spice thicket and came in line.
+
+For one second he stood as rigid as Belshazzar. The next his right arm
+shot upward full length, and began describing circles, his open
+palm heavenward, and into his face leapt a glorified expression of
+exultation. Face down in the rifled ginseng bed lay a sobbing girl. Her
+frame was long and slender, a thick coil of dark hair; bound her head. A
+second more and the Harvester bent and softly patted Belshazzar's head.
+The beast broke point and looked up. The man caught the dog's chin in a
+caressing grip, again touched his head, moved soundless lips, and waved
+toward the prostrate figure. The dog hesitated. The Harvester made the
+same motions. Belshazzar softly stepped over the leaves, passed around
+the feet of the girl, and paused beside her, nose to earth, softly
+sniffing.
+
+In one moment she came swiftly to a sitting posture.
+
+"Oh!" she cried in a spasm of fright.
+
+Belshazzar reached an investigating nose and wagged an eager tail.
+
+"Why you are a nice friendly dog!" said the trembling voice.
+
+He immediately verified the assertion by offering his nose for a kiss.
+The girl timidly laid a hand on his head.
+
+"Heaven knows I'm lonely enough to kiss a dog," she said, "but suppose
+you belong to the man who stole my ginseng, and then ran away so fast he
+forgot his----his piece he digged with."
+
+Belshazzar pressed closer.
+
+"I am just killed, and I don't care whose dog you are," sobbed the girl.
+
+She threw her arms around Belshazzar's neck and laid her white face
+against his satiny shoulder. The Harvester could endure no more. He took
+a step forward, his face convulsed with pain.
+
+"Please don't!" he begged. "I took your ginseng. I'll bring it back
+to-morrow. There wasn't more than twenty-five or thirty dollars' worth.
+It doesn't amount to one tear."
+
+The girl arose so quickly, the Harvester could not see how she did it.
+With a startled fright on her face, and the dark eyes swimming, she
+turned to him in one long look. Words rolled from the lips of the man in
+a jumble. Behind the tears there was a dull, expressionless blue in the
+girl's eyes and her face was so white that it appeared blank. He began
+talking before she could speak, in an effort to secure forgiveness
+without condemnation.
+
+"You see, I grow it for a living on land I own, and I've always gathered
+all there was in the country and no one cared. There never was enough in
+one place to pay, and no other man wanted to spend the time, and so
+I've always felt free to take it. Every one knew I did, and no one ever
+objected before. Once I paid Henry Jameson for the privilege of cleaning
+it from these woods. That was six or seven years ago, and it didn't
+occur to me that I wasn't at liberty to dig what has grown since. I'll
+bring it back at once, and pay you for the shrinkage from gathering it
+too early. There won't be much over six pounds when it's dry. Please,
+please don't feel badly. Won't you trust me to return it, and make good
+the damage I've done?"
+
+The face of the Harvester was eager and his tones appealing, as he
+leaned forward trying to make her understand.
+
+"Certainly!" said the Girl as she bent to pat the dog, while she
+dried her eyes under cover of the movement. "Certainly! It can make no
+difference!"
+
+But as the Harvester drew a deep breath of relief, she suddenly
+straightened to full height and looked straight at him.
+
+"Oh what is the use to tell a pitiful lie!" she cried. "It does make a
+difference! It makes all the difference in the world! I need that money!
+I need it unspeakably. I owe a debt I must pay. What----what did I
+understand you to say ginseng is worth?"
+
+"If you will take a few steps," said the Harvester, "and make yourself
+comfortable on this log in the shade, I will tell you all I know about
+it."
+
+The girl walked swiftly to the log indicated, seated herself, and
+waited. The Harvester followed to a respectful distance.
+
+"I can't tell to an ounce what wet roots would weigh," he said as easily
+as he could command his voice to speak with the heart in him beating
+wildly, "and of course they lose greatly in drying; but I've handled
+enough that I know the weight I carried home will come to six pounds at
+the very least. Then you must figure on some loss, because I dug
+this before it really was ready. It does not reach full growth until
+September, and if it is taken too soon there is a decrease in weight. I
+will make that up to you when I return it."
+
+The troubled eyes were gazing on his face intently, and the Harvester
+studied them as he talked.
+
+"You would think, then, there would be all of six pounds?
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester, "closer eight. When I replace the shrinkage
+there is bound to be over seven."
+
+"And how much did I understand you to say it brought a pound?"
+
+"That all depends," answered he. "If you cure it yourself, and dry it
+too much, you lose in weight. If you carry it in a small lot to the
+druggists of Onabasha, probably you will not get over five dollars for
+it."
+
+"Five?"
+
+It was a startled cry.
+
+"How much did you expect?" asked the Harvester gently.
+
+"Uncle Henry said he thought he could get fifty cents a pound for all I
+could find."
+
+"If your Uncle Henry has learned at last that ginseng is a salable
+article he should know something about the price also. Will you tell
+me what he said, and how you came to think of gathering roots for the
+market?"
+
+"There were men talking beneath the trees one Sunday afternoon about old
+times and hunting deer, and they spoke of people who made money long ago
+gathering roots and barks, and they mentioned one man who lived by it
+yet."
+
+"Was his name Langston?"
+
+"Yes, I remember because I liked the name. I was so eager to earn
+something, and I can't leave here just now because Aunt Molly is very
+ill, so the thought came that possibly I could gather stuff worth money,
+after my work was finished. I went out and asked questions. They said
+nothing brought enough to make it pay any one, except this ginseng
+plant, and the Langston man almost had stripped the country. Then uncle
+said he used to get stuff here, and he might have got some of that. I
+asked what it was like, so they told me and I hunted until I found that,
+and it seemed a quantity to me. Of course I didn't know it had to be
+dried. Uncle took a root I dug to a store, and they told him that it
+wasn't much used any more, but they would give him fifty cents a pound
+for it. What MAKES you think you can get five dollars?"
+
+"With your permission," said the Harvester.
+
+He seated himself on the log, drew from his pocket an old pamphlet,
+and spreading it before her, ran a pencil along the line of a list of
+schedule prices for common drug roots and herbs. Because he understood,
+his eyes were very bright, and his voice a trifle crisp. A latent anger
+springing in his breast was a good curb for his emotions. He was closely
+acquainted with all of the druggists of Onabasha, and he knew that not
+one of them had offered less than standard prices for ginseng.
+
+"The reason I think so," he said gently, "is because growing it is the
+largest part of my occupation, and it was a staple with my father before
+me. I am David Langston, of whom you heard those men speak. Since I was
+a very small boy I have lived by collecting herbs and roots, and I get
+more for ginseng than anything else. Very early I tired of hunting other
+people's woods for herbs, so I began transplanting them to my own. I
+moved that bed out there seven years ago. What you found has grown since
+from roots I overlooked and seeds that fell at that time. Now do you
+think I am enough of an authority to trust my word on the subject?"
+
+There was not a change of expression on her white face.
+
+"You surely should know," she said wearily, "and you could have no
+possible object in deceiving me. Please go on."
+
+"Any country boy or girl can find ginseng, gather, wash, and dry it, and
+get five dollars a pound. I can return yours to-morrow and you can cure
+and take it to a druggist I will name you, and sell for that. But if you
+will allow me to make a suggestion, you can get more. Your roots are now
+on the trays of an evaporating house. They will dry to the proper degree
+desired by the trade, so that they will not lose an extra ounce in
+weight, and if I send them with my stuff to big wholesale houses I deal
+with, they will be graded with the finest wild ginseng. It is worth more
+than the cultivated and you will get closer eight dollars a pound for it
+than five. There is some speculation in it, and the market fluctuates:
+but, as a rule, I sell for the highest price the drug brings, and, at
+times when the season is very dry, I set my own prices. Shall I return
+yours or may I cure and sell it, and bring you the money?"
+
+"How much trouble would that make you?"
+
+"None. The work of digging and washing is already finished. All that
+remains is to weigh it and make a memorandum of the amount when I sell.
+I should very much like to do it. It would be a comfort to see the money
+go into your hands. If you are afraid to trust me, I will give you the
+names of several people you can ask concerning me the next time you go
+to the city."
+
+She looked at him steadily.
+
+"Never mind that," she said. "But why do you offer to do it for a
+stranger? It must be some trouble, no matter how small you represent it
+to be."
+
+"Perhaps I am going to pay you eight and sell for ten."
+
+"I don't think you can. Five sounds fabulous to me. I can't believe
+that. If you wanted to make money you needn't have told me you took it.
+I never would have known. That isn't your reason!"
+
+"Possibly I would like to atone for those tears I caused," said the
+Harvester.
+
+"Don't think of that! They are of no consequence to any one. You needn't
+do anything for me on that account."
+
+"Don't search for a reason," said the Harvester, in his gentlest tones.
+"Forget that feature of the case. Say I'm peculiar, and allow me to do
+it because it would be a pleasure. In close two weeks I will bring you
+the money. Is it a bargain?"
+
+"Yes, if you care to make it."
+
+"I care very much. We will call that settled."
+
+"I wish I could tell you what it will mean to me," said the Girl.
+
+"If you only would," plead the Harvester.
+
+"I must not burden a stranger with my troubles."
+
+"But if it would make the stranger so happy!"
+
+"That isn't possible. I must face life and bear what it brings me
+alone."
+
+"Not unless you choose," said the Harvester. "That is, if you will
+pardon me, a narrow view of life. It cuts other people out of the joy of
+service. If you can't tell me, would you trust a very lovely and gentle
+woman I could bring to you?"
+
+"No more than you. It is my affair; I must work it out myself."
+
+"I am mighty sorry," said the Harvester. "I believe you err in that
+decision. Think it over a day or so, and see if two heads are not better
+than one. You will realize when this ginseng matter is settled that you
+profited by trusting me. The same will hold good along other lines, if
+you only can bring yourself to think so. At any rate, try. Telling a
+trouble makes it lighter. Sympathy should help, if nothing can be done.
+And as for money, I can show you how to earn sums at least worth your
+time, if you have nothing else you want to do."
+
+The Girl bent toward him.
+
+"Oh please do tell me!" she cried eagerly. "I've tried and tried to find
+some way ever since I have been here, but every one else I have met says
+I can't, and nothing seems to be worth anything. If you only would tell
+me something I could do!"
+
+"If you will excuse my saying so," said the Harvester, "it appeals to
+me that ease, not work, is the thing you require. You appear extremely
+worn. Won't you let me help you find a way to a long rest first?"
+
+"Impossible!" cried the Girl. "I know I am white and appear ill, but
+truly I never have been sick in all my life. I have been having trouble
+and working too much, but I'll be better soon. Believe me, there is no
+rest for me now. I must earn the money I owe first."
+
+"There is a way, if you care to take it," said the Harvester. "In my
+work I have become very well acquainted with the chief surgeon of the
+city hospital. Through him I happen to know that he has a free bed in
+a beautiful room, where you could rest until you are perfectly strong
+again, and that room is empty just now. When you are well, I will tell
+you about the work."
+
+As she arose the Harvester stood, and tall and straight she faced him.
+
+"Impossible!" she said. "It would be brutal to leave my aunt. I cannot
+pay to rest in a hospital ward, and I will not accept charity. If you
+can put me in the way of earning, even a few cents a day, at anything
+I could do outside the work necessary to earn my board here, it would
+bring me closer to happiness than anything else on earth."
+
+"What I suggest is not impossible," said the Harvester softly. "If you
+will go, inside an hour a sweet and gentle lady will come for you and
+take you to ease and perfect rest until you are strong again. I will see
+that your aunt is cared for scrupulously. I can't help urging you. It is
+a crime to talk of work to a woman so manifestly worn as you are."
+
+"Then we will not speak of it," said the Girl wearily. "It is time for
+me to go, anyway. I see you mean to be very kind, and while I don't in
+the least understand it, I do hope you feel I am grateful. If half
+you say about the ginseng comes true, I can make a payment worth while
+before I had hoped to. I have no words to tell you what that will mean
+to me."
+
+"If this debt you speak of were paid, could you rest then?"
+
+"I could lie down and give up in peace, and I think I would."
+
+"I think you wouldn't," said the Harvester, "because you wouldn't be
+allowed. There are people in these days who make a business of securing
+rest for the tired and over weary, and they would come and prevent that
+if you tried it. Please let me make another suggestion. If you owe money
+to some one you feel needs it and the debt is preying on you, let's pay
+it."
+
+He drew a small check-book from his pocket and slipped a pen from a
+band.
+
+"If you will name the amount and give me the address, you shall be free
+to go to the rest I ask for you inside an hour."
+
+Then slowly from head to foot she looked at him.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because your face and attitude clearly indicate that you are over
+tired. Believe me, you do yourself wrong if you refuse."
+
+"In what way would changing creditors rest me?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you were owing some one who needed the money. I am
+not a rich man, but I have no one save myself to provide for and I have
+funds lying idle that I would be glad to use for you. If you make a
+point of it, when you are rested, you can repay me."
+
+"My creditor needs the money, but I should prefer owing him rather than
+a perfect stranger. What you suggest would help me not at all. I must go
+now."
+
+"Very well," said the Harvester. "If you will tell me whom to ask for
+and where you live, I will come to see you to-morrow and bring you
+some pamphlets. With these and with a little help you soon can earn
+any amount a girl is likely to owe. It will require but a little while.
+Where can I find you?"
+
+The Girl hesitated and for the first time a hint of colour flushed her
+cheek. But courage appeared to be her strong point.
+
+"Do you live in this part of the country?" she asked.
+
+"I live ten miles from here, east of Onabasha," he answered.
+
+"Do you know Henry Jameson?"
+
+"By sight and by reputation."
+
+"Did you ever know anything kind or humane of him?"
+
+"I never did."
+
+"My name is Ruth Jameson. At present I am indebted to him for the only
+shelter I have. His wife is ill through overwork and worry, and I am
+paying for my bed and what I don't eat, principally, by attempting her
+work. It scarcely would be fair to Uncle Henry to say that I do it. I
+stagger around as long as I can stand, then I sit through his abuse. He
+is a pleasant man. Please don't think I am telling you this to harrow
+your sympathy further. The reason I explain is because I am driven. If I
+do not, you will misjudge me when I say that I only can see you here.
+I understood what you meant when you said Uncle Henry should have known
+the price of ginseng if he knew it was for sale. He did. He knew what
+he could get for it, and what he meant to pay me. That is one of his
+original methods with a woman. If he thought I could earn anything worth
+while, he would allow me, if I killed myself doing it; and then he would
+take the money by force if necessary. So I can meet you here only. I can
+earn just what I may in secret. He buys cattle and horses and is away
+from home much of the day, and when Aunt Molly is comfortable I can have
+a few hours."
+
+"I understand," said the Harvester. "But this is an added hardship.
+Why do you remain? Why subject yourself to force and work too heavy for
+you?"
+
+"Because his is the only roof on earth where I feel I can pay for all I
+get. I don't care to discuss it, I only want you to say you understand,
+if I ask you to bring the pamphlets here and tell me how I can earn
+money."
+
+"I do," said the Harvester earnestly, although his heart was hot in
+protest. "You may be very sure that I will not misjudge you. Shall I
+come at two o'clock to-morrow, Miss Jameson?"
+
+"If you will be so kind."
+
+The Harvester stepped aside and she passed him and crossing the rifled
+ginseng patch went toward a low brown farmhouse lying in an unkept
+garden, beside a ragged highway. The man sat on the log she had vacated,
+held his head between his hands and tried to think, but he could not for
+big waves of joy that swept over him when he realized that at last he
+had found her, had spoken with her, and had arranged a meeting for the
+morrow.
+
+"Belshazzar," he said softly, "I wish I could leave you to protect
+her. Every day you prove to me that I need you, but Heaven knows her
+necessity is greater. Bel, she makes my heart ache until it feels like
+jelly. There seems to be just one thing to do. Get that fool debt paid
+like lightning, and lift her out of here quicker than that. Now, we will
+go and see Doc, and call off the watch-dogs of the law. Ahead of them,
+aren't we, Belshazzar? There is a better day coming; we feel it in our
+bones, don't we, old partner?"
+
+The Harvester started through the woods on a rush, and as the exercise
+warmed his heart, he grew wonderfully glad. At last he had found her.
+Uncertainty was over. If ever a girl needed a home and care he thought
+she did. He was so jubilant that he felt like crying aloud, shouting for
+joy, but by and by the years of sober repression made their weight felt,
+so he climbed into the wagon and politely requested Betsy to make her
+best time to Onabasha. Betsy had been asked to make haste so frequently
+of late that she at first almost doubted the sanity of her master, the
+law of whose life, until recently, had been to take his time. Now he
+appeared to be in haste every day. She had become so accustomed to
+being urged to hurry that she almost had developed a gait; so at the
+Harvester's suggestion she did her level best to Onabasha and the
+hospital, where she loved to nose Belshazzar and rest near the watering
+tap under a big tree.
+
+The Harvester went down the hall and into the office on the run, and his
+face appeared like a materialized embodiment of living joy. Doctor Carey
+turned at his approach and then bounded half way across the room, his
+hands outstretched.
+
+"You've found her, David!"
+
+The Harvester grabbed the hand of his friend and stood pumping it up and
+down while he gulped at the lump in his throat, and big tears squeezed
+from his eyes, but he could only nod his proud head.
+
+"Found her!" exulted Doctor Carey. "Really found her! Well that's great!
+Sit down and tell me, boy! Is she sick, as we feared? Did you only see
+her or did you get to talk with her?"
+
+"Well sir," said the Harvester, choking back his emotions, "you remember
+that ginseng I told you about getting on the old Jameson place last
+night. To-day, I learned I'd lost that hand-made mattock I use most, and
+I went back for it, and there she was."
+
+"In the country?"
+
+"Yes sir!"
+
+"Well why didn't we think of it before?"
+
+"I suppose first we would have had to satisfy ourselves that she wasn't
+in town, anyway."
+
+"Sure! That would be the logical way to go at it! And so you found her?"
+
+"Yes sir, I found her! Just Belshazzar and I! I was going along on my
+way to the place, and he ran past me and made a stiff point, and when I
+came up, there she was!"
+
+"There she was?"
+
+"Yes sir; there she was!"
+
+They shook hands again.
+
+"Then of course you spoke to her."
+
+"Yes I spoke to her."
+
+"Were you pleased?"
+
+"With her speech and manner?----yes. But, Doc, if ever a woman needed
+everything on earth!"
+
+"Well did you get any kind of a start made?"
+
+"I couldn't do so very much. I had to go a little slow for fear of
+frightening her, but I tried to get her to come here and she won't until
+a debt she owes is paid, and she's in no condition to work."
+
+"Got any idea how much it is?"
+
+"No, but it can't be any large sum. I tried to offer to pay it, but she
+had no hesitation in telling me she preferred owing a man she knew to a
+stranger."
+
+"Well if she is so particular, how did she come to tell you first thing
+that she was in debt?"
+
+The Harvester explained.
+
+"Oh I see!" said the doctor. "Well you'll have to baby her along with
+the idea that she is earning money and pay her double until you get that
+off her mind, and while you are at it, put in your best licks, my boy;
+perk right up and court her like a house afire. Women like it. All of
+them do. They glory in feeling that a man is crazy about them."
+
+"Well I'm insane enough over her," said the Harvester, "but I'd hate
+like the nation for her to know it. Seems as if a woman couldn't respect
+such an addle-pate as I am lately."
+
+"Don't you worry about that," advised the doctor. "Just you make love to
+her. Go at it in the good old-fashioned way."
+
+"But maybe the 'good old-fashioned way' isn't my way."
+
+"What's the difference whose way it is, if it wins?"
+
+"But Kipling says: 'Each man makes love his own way!'"
+
+"I seem to have heard you mention that name be fore," said the doctor.
+"Do you regard him as an authority?"
+
+"I do!" said the Harvester. "Especially when he advises me after my own
+heart and reason. Miss Jameson is not a silly girl. She's a woman,
+and twenty-four at least. I don't want her to care for a trick or a
+pretence. I do want her to love me. Not that I am worth her attention,
+but because she needs some strong man fearfully, and I am ready and more
+'willing' than the original Barkis. But, like him, I have to let her
+know it in my way, and court her according to the promptings of my
+heart."
+
+"You deceive yourself!" said the doctor flatly. "That's all bosh! Your
+tongue says it for the satisfaction of your ears, and it does sound
+well. You will court her according to your ideas of the conventions, as
+you understand them, and strictly in accordance with what you consider
+the respect due her. If you had followed the thing you call the
+'promptings of your heart,' you would have picked her up by main force
+and brought her to my best ward, instead of merely suggesting it and
+giving up when she said no. If you had followed your heart, you would
+have choked the name and amount out of her and paid that devilish debt.
+You walk away in a case like that, and then have the nerve to come here
+and prate to me about following your heart. I'll wager my last dollar
+your heart is sore because you were not allowed to help her; but on the
+proposition that you followed its promptings I wouldn't stake a penny.
+That's all tommy-rot!"
+
+"It is," agreed the Harvester. "Utter! But what can a man do?"
+
+"I don't know what you can do! I'd have paid that debt and brought her
+to the hospital."
+
+"I'll go and ask Mrs. Carey about your courtship. I want her help on
+this, anyway. I can pick up Miss Jameson and bring her here if any man
+can, but she is nursing a sick woman who depends solely on her for care.
+She is above average size, and she has a very decided mind of her own.
+I don't think you would use force and do what you think best for her, if
+you were in my place. You would wait until you understood the situation
+better, and knew that what you did was for the best, ultimately."
+
+"I don't know whether I would or not. One thing is sure: I'm mighty glad
+you have found her. May I tell my wife?"
+
+"Please do! And ask her if I may depend on her if I need a woman's help.
+Now I'll call off the valiant police and go home and take a good, sound
+sleep. Haven't had many since I first saw her."
+
+So Betsy trotted down the valley, up the embankment, crossed the
+railroad, over the levee across Singing Water, and up the hill to the
+cabin. As they passed it, the Harvester jumped from the wagon, tossed
+the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and entered. He walked straight to her
+door, unlocked it, and uncovering, went inside. Softly he passed from
+piece to piece of the furniture he had made for her, and then surveyed
+the walls and floor.
+
+"It isn't half good enough," he said, "but it will have to answer until
+I can do better. Surely she will know I tried and care for that, anyway.
+I wonder how long it will take me to get her here. Oh, if I only could
+know she was comfortable and happy! Happy! She doesn't appear as if she
+ever had heard that word. Well this will be a good place to teach her.
+I've always enjoyed myself here. I'm going to have faith that I can win
+her and make her happy also. When I go to the stable to do my work for
+the night if I could know she was in this cabin and glad of it, and if
+I could hear her down here singing like a happy care-free girl, I'd
+scarcely be able to endure the joy of it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE HARVESTER GOES COURTING
+
+"She is on Henry Jameson's farm, four miles west of Onabasha," said the
+Harvester, as he opened his eyes next morning, and laid a caressing hand
+on Belshazzar's head. "At two o'clock we are going to see her, and we
+are going to prolong the visit to the ultimate limit, so we should make
+things count here before we start."
+
+He worked in a manner that accomplished much. There seemed no end to
+his energy that morning. Despatching the usual routine, he gathered
+the herbs that were ready, spread them on the shelves of the dry-house,
+found time to do several things in the cabin, and polish a piece of
+furniture before he ate his lunch and hitched Betsy to the wagon.
+He also had recovered his voice, and talked almost incessantly as he
+worked. When it neared time to start he dressed carefully. He stood
+before his bookcase and selected several pamphlets published by the
+Department of Agriculture. He went to his beds and gathered a large
+arm load of plants. Then he was ready to make his first trip to see the
+Dream Girl, but it never occurred to him that he was going courting.
+
+He had decided fully that there would be no use to try to make love to
+a girl manifestly so ill and in trouble. The first thing, it appeared to
+him, was to dispel the depression, improve the health, and then do the
+love making. So, in the most business-like manner possible and without
+a shade of embarrassment, the Harvester took his herbs and books and
+started for the Jameson woods. At times as he drove along he espied
+something that he used growing beside the road and stopped to secure a
+specimen.
+
+He came down the river bank and reached the ginseng bed at half-past
+one. He was purposely early. He laid down his books and plants,
+and rolled the log on which she sat the day before to a more shaded
+location, where a big tree would serve for a back rest. He pulled away
+brush and windfalls, heaped dry brown leaves, and tramped them down
+for her feet. Then he laid the books on the log, the arm load of plants
+beside them, and went to the river to wash his soiled hands.
+
+Belshazzar's short bark told him the Girl was coming, and between the
+trees he saw the dog race to meet her and she bent to stroke his
+head. She wore the same dress and appeared even paler and thinner. The
+Harvester hurried up the bank, wiping his hands on his handkerchief.
+
+"Glad to see you!" he greeted her casually. "I've fixed you a seat
+with a back rest to-day. Don't be frightened at the stack of herbs. You
+needn't gather all of those. They are only suggestions. They are just
+common roadside plants that have some medicinal value and are worth
+collecting. Please try my davenport."
+
+"Thank you!" she said as she dropped on the log and leaned her head
+against the tree. It appeared as if her eyes closed a few seconds in
+spite of her, and while they were shut the Harvester looked steadily
+and intently on a face of exquisite beauty, but so marred by pallor and
+lines of care that search was required to recognize just how handsome
+she was, and if he had not seen her in perfection in the dream the
+Harvester might have missed glorious possibilities. To bring back that
+vision would be a task worth while was his thought. With the first faint
+quiver of an eyelash the Harvester took a few steps and bent over a
+plant, and as he did so the Girl's eyes followed him.
+
+He appeared so tall and strong, so bronzed by summer sun and wind, his
+face so keen and intense, that swift fear caught her heart. Why was he
+there? Why should he take so much trouble for her? With difficulty she
+restrained herself from springing up and running away. Turning with
+the plant in his hand the Harvester saw the panic in her eyes, and
+it troubled his heart. For an instant he was bewildered, then he
+understood.
+
+"I don't want you to work when you are not able," he said in his most
+matter-of-fact voice, "but if you still think that you are, I'll be very
+glad. I need help just now, more than I can tell you, and there seem to
+be so few people who can be trusted. Gathering stuff for drugs is really
+very serious business. You see, I've a reputation to sustain with some
+of the biggest laboratories in the country, not to mention the fact
+that I sometimes try compounding a new remedy for some common complaint
+myself. I rather take pride in the fact that my stuff goes in so fresh
+and clean that I always get anywhere from three to ten cents a pound
+above the listed prices for it. I want that money, but I want an
+unbroken record for doing a job right and being square and careful, much
+more."
+
+He thought the appearance of fright was fading, and a tinge of interest
+taking its place. She was looking straight at him, and as he talked he
+could see her summoning her tired forces to understand and follow him,
+so he continued:
+
+"One would think that as medicines are required in cases of life and
+death, collectors would use extreme caution, but some of them are
+criminally careless. It's a common thing to gather almost any fern
+for male fern; to throw in anything that will increase weight, to wash
+imperfectly, and commit many other sins that lie with the collector;
+beyond that I don't like to think. I suppose there are men who
+deliberately adulterate pure stuff to make it go farther, but when it
+comes to drugs, I scarcely can speak of it calmly. I like to do a thing
+right. I raise most of my plants, bushes, and herbs. I gather exactly
+in season, wash carefully if water dare be used, clean them otherwise
+if not, and dry them by a hot air system in an evaporator I built
+purposely. Each package I put up is pure stuff, clean, properly dried,
+and fresh. If I caught any man in the act of adulterating any of it I'm
+afraid he would get hurt badly--and usually I am a peaceable man. I
+am explaining this to show how very careful you must be to keep things
+separate and collect the right plants if you are going to sell stuff to
+me. I am extremely particular."
+
+The Girl was leaning toward him, watching his face, and hers was slowly
+changing. She was deeply interested, much impressed, and more at ease.
+When the Harvester saw he had talked her into confidence he crossed
+the leaves, and sitting on the log beside her, picked up the books and
+opened one.
+
+"Oh I will be careful," said the Girl. "If you will trust me to collect
+for you, I will undertake only what I am sure I know, and I'll do
+exactly as you tell me."
+
+"There are a dozen things that bring a price ranging from three to
+fifteen cents a pound, that are in season just now. I suppose you would
+like to begin on some common, easy things, that will bring the most
+money."
+
+Without a breath of hesitation she answered, "I will commence on
+whatever you are short of and need most to have."
+
+The heart of the Harvester gave a leap that almost choked him, for
+he was vividly conscious of a broken shoe she was hiding beneath her
+skirts. He wanted to say "thank you," but he was afraid to, so he turned
+the leaves of the book.
+
+"I am working just now on mullein," he said.
+
+"Oh I know mullein," she cried, with almost a hint of animation in her
+voice. "The tall, yellow flower stem rising from a circle of green felt
+leaves!"
+
+"Good!" said the Harvester. "What a pretty way to describe it! Do you
+know any more plants?"
+
+"Only a few! I had a high-school course in botany, but it was all about
+flower and leaf formation, nothing at all of what anything was good for.
+I also learned a few, drawing them for leather and embroidery designs."
+
+"Look here!" cried the Harvester. "I came with an arm load of herbs and
+expected to tell you all about foxglove, mullein, yarrow, jimson,
+purple thorn apple, blessed thistle, hemlock, hoarhound, lobelia, and
+everything in season now; but if you already have a profession, why do
+you attempt a new one? Why don't you go on drawing? I never saw anything
+so stupid as most of the designs from nature for book covers and
+decorations, leather work and pottery. They are the same old subjects
+worked over and over. If you can draw enough to make original copies,
+I can furnish you with flowers, vines, birds, and insects, new, unused,
+and of exquisite beauty, for every month in the year. I've looked into
+the matter a little, because I am rather handy with a knife, and I carve
+candlesticks from suitable pieces of wood. I always have trouble getting
+my designs copied; securing something new and unusual, never! If you can
+draw just well enough to reproduce what you see, gathering drugs is too
+slow and tiresome. What you want to do is to reproduce the subjects I
+will bring, and I'll buy what I want in my work, and sell the remainder
+at the arts and crafts stores for you. Or I can find out what they pay
+for such designs at potteries and ceramic factories. You have no time to
+spend on herbs, when you are in the woods, if you can draw."
+
+"I am surely in the woods," said the Girl, "and I know I can copy
+correctly. I often made designs for embroidery and leather for the shop
+mother and I worked for in Chicago."
+
+"Won't they buy them of you now?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Do they pay anything worth while?"
+
+"I don't know how their prices compare with others. One place was all I
+worked for. I think they pay what is fair."
+
+"We will find out," said the Harvester promptly.
+
+"I----I don't think you need waste the time," faltered the Girl. "I had
+better gather the plants for a while at least."
+
+"Collecting crude drug material is not easy," said the Harvester.
+"Drawing may not be either, but at least you could sit while you work,
+and it should bring you more money. Besides, I very much want a moth
+copied for a candlestick I am carving. Won't you draw that for me? I
+have some pupae cases and the moths will be out any day now. If I'd
+bring you one, wouldn't you just make a copy?"
+
+The Girl gripped her hands together and stared straight ahead of her for
+a second, then she turned to him.
+
+"I'd like to," she said, "but I have nothing to work with. In Chicago
+they furnished my material at the shop and I drew the design and was
+paid for the pattern. I didn't know there would be a chance for anything
+like that here. I haven't even proper pencils."
+
+"Then the way for you to do this is to strip the first mullein plants
+you see of the petals. I will pay you seventy-five cents a pound for
+them. By the time you get a few pounds I can have material you need
+for drawing here and you can go to work on whatever flowers, vines, and
+things you can find in the woods, with no thanks to any one."
+
+"I can't see that," said the Girl. "It would appear to me that I would
+be under more obligations than I could repay, and to a stranger."
+
+"I figure it this way," said the Harvester, watching from the corner
+of his eye. "I can sell at good prices all the mullein flowers I can
+secure. You collect for me, I buy them. You can use drawing tools; I
+get them for you, and you pay me with the mullein or out of the ginseng
+money I owe you. You already have that coming, and it's just as much
+yours as it will be ten days from now. You needn't hesitate a second
+about drawing on it, because I am in a hurry for the moth pattern.
+I find time to carve only at night, you see. As for being under
+obligations to a stranger, in the first place all the debt would be on
+my side. I'd get the drugs and the pattern I want; and, in the second
+place, I positively and emphatically refuse to be a stranger. It would
+be so much better to be mutual helpers and friends of the kind worth
+having; and the sooner we begin, the sooner we can work together to
+good advantage. Get that stranger idea out of your head right now, and
+replace it with thoughts of a new friend, who is willing"--the Harvester
+detected panic in her eyes and ended casually--"to enter a partnership
+that will be of benefit to both of us. Partners can't be strangers, you
+know," he finished.
+
+"I don't know what to think," said the Girl.
+
+"Never bother your head with thinking," advised the Harvester with an
+air of large wisdom. "It is unprofitable and very tiring. Any one can
+see that you are too weary now. Don't dream of such a foolish thing as
+thinking. Don't worry over motives and obligations. Say to yourself,
+'I'll enter this partnership and if it brings me anything good, I'm that
+much ahead. If it fails, I have lost nothing.' That's the way to look at
+it."
+
+Then before she could answer he continued: "Now I want all the mullein
+bloom I can get. You'll see the yellow heads everywhere. Strip the
+petals and bring them here, and I'll come for them every day. They must
+go on the trays as fresh as possible. On your part, we will make out the
+order now."
+
+He took a pencil and notebook from his pocket.
+
+"You want drawing pencils and brushes; how many, what make and size?"
+
+The Girl hesitated for a moment as if struggling to decide what to do;
+then she named the articles.
+
+"And paper?"
+
+He wrote that down, and asked if there was more.
+
+"I think," he said, "that I can get this order filled in Onabasha. The
+art stores should keep these things. And shouldn't you have water-colour
+paper and some paint?"
+
+Then there was a flash across the white face.
+
+"Oh if I only could!" she cried. "All my life I have been crazy for a
+box of colour, but I never could afford it, and of course, I can't now.
+But if this splendid plan works, and I can earn what I owe, then maybe I
+can."
+
+"Well this 'splendid plan' is going to 'work,' don't you bother about
+that," said the Harvester. "It has begun working right now. Don't worry
+a minute. After things have gone wrong for a certain length of time,
+they always veer and go right a while as compensation. Don't think of
+anything save that you are at the turning. Since it is all settled that
+we are to be partners, would you name me the figures of the debt that
+is worrying you? Don't, if you mind. I just thought perhaps we could get
+along better if I knew. Is it----say five hundred dollars?"
+
+"Oh dear no!" cried the Girl in a panic. "I never could face that! It is
+not quite one hundred, and that seems big as a mountain to me."
+
+"Forget it!" he cried. "The ginseng will pay more than half; that I
+know. I can bring you the cash in a little over a week."
+
+She started to speak, hesitated, and at last turned to him.
+
+"Would you mind," she said, "if I asked you to keep it until I can find
+a way to go to town? It's too far to walk and I don't know how to send
+it. Would I dare put it in a letter?"
+
+"Never!" said the Harvester. "You want a draft. That money will be too
+precious to run any risks. I'll bring it to you and you can write a note
+and explain to whom you want it paid, and I'll take it to the bank for
+you and get your draft. Then you can write a letter, and half your worry
+will be over safely."
+
+"It must be done in a sure way," said the Girl. "If I knew I had the
+money to pay that much on what I owe, and then lost it, I simply could
+not endure it. I would lie down and give up as Aunt Molly has."
+
+"Forget that too!" said the Harvester. "Wipe out all the past that has
+pain in it. The future is going to be beautifully bright. That little
+bird on the bush there just told me so, and you are always safe when you
+trust the feathered folk. If you are going to live in the country
+any length of time, you must know them, and they will become a great
+comfort. Are you planning to be here long?"
+
+"I have no plans. After what I saw Chicago do to my mother I would
+rather finish life in the open than return to the city. It is horrible
+here, but at least I'm not hungry, and not afraid----all the time."
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" cried the Harvester. "Do you mean to say that you are
+afraid any part of the time? Would you kindly tell me of whom, and why?"
+
+"You should know without being told that when a woman born and reared
+in a city, and all her life confined there, steps into the woods for the
+first time, she's bound to be afraid. The last few weeks constitute my
+entire experience with the country, and I'm in mortal fear that snakes
+will drop from trees and bushes or spring from the ground. Some places I
+think I'm sinking, and whenever a bush catches my skirts it seems as
+if something dreadful is reaching up for me; there is a possibility of
+horror lurking behind every tree and----"
+
+"Stop!" cried the Harvester. "I can't endure it! Do you mean to tell me
+that you are afraid here and now?"
+
+She met his eyes squarely.
+
+"Yes," she said. "It almost makes me ill to sit on this log without
+taking a stick and poking all around it first. Every minute I think
+something is going to strike me in the back or drop on my head."
+
+The Harvester grew very white beneath the tan, and that developed a
+nice, sickly green complexion for him.
+
+"Am I part of your tortures?" he asked tersely.
+
+"Why shouldn't you be?" she answered. "What do I know of you or your
+motives or why you are here?"
+
+"I have had no experience with the atmosphere that breeds such an
+attitude in a girl."
+
+"That is a thing for which to thank Heaven. Undoubtedly it is gracious
+to you. My life has been different."
+
+"Yet in mortal terror of the woods, and probably equal fear of me, you
+are here and asking for work that will keep you here."
+
+"I would go through fire and flood for the money I owe. After that debt
+is paid----"
+
+She threw out her hands in a hopeless gesture. The Harvester drew forth
+a roll of bills and tossed them into her lap.
+
+"For the love of mercy take what you need and pay it," he said. "Then
+get a floor under your feet, and try, I beg of you, try to force
+yourself to have confidence in me, until I do something that gives you
+the least reason for distrusting me."
+
+She picked up the money and gave it a contemptuous whirl that landed it
+at his feet.
+
+"What greater cause of distrust could I have by any possibility than
+just that?" she asked.
+
+The Harvester arose hastily, and taking several steps, he stood with
+folded arms, his back turned. The Girl sat watching him with wide eyes,
+the dull blue plain in their dusky depths. When he did not speak, she
+grew restless. At last she slowly arose and circling him looked into his
+face. It was convulsed with a struggle in which love and patience fought
+for supremacy over honest anger. As he saw her so close, his lips drew
+apart, and his breath came deeply, but he did not speak. He merely stood
+and looked at her, and looked; and she gazed at him as if fascinated,
+but uncomprehending.
+
+"Ruth!"
+
+The call came roaring up the hill. The Girl shivered and became paler.
+
+"Is that your uncle?" asked the Harvester.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Will you come to-morrow for your drawing materials?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you try to believe that there is absolutely nothing, either
+underfoot or overhead, that will harm you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you try to think that I am not a menace to public safety, and that
+I would do much to help you, merely because I would be glad to be of
+service?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you try to cultivate the idea that there is nothing in all this
+world that would hurt you purposely?"
+
+"Ruth!" came a splitting scream in gruff man-tones, keyed in deep anger.
+
+"That SOUNDS like it!" said the Girl, and catching up her skirts she ran
+through the woods, taking a different route toward the house.
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and tried to think; but there are times
+when the numbed brain refuses to work, so he really sat and suffered.
+Belshazzar whimpered and licked his hands, and at last the man arose
+and went with the dog to the wagon. As they came through Onabasha, Betsy
+turned at the hospital corner, but the Harvester pulled her around and
+drove toward the country. Not until they crossed the railroad did he
+lift his head and then he drew a deep breath as if starved for pure air
+and spoke. "Not to-day Betsy! I can't face my friends just now. Someway
+I am making an awful fist of things. Everything I do is wrong. She no
+more trusts me than you would a rattlesnake, Belshazzar; and from all
+appearance she takes me to be almost as deadly. What must have been her
+experiences in life to ingrain fear and distrust in her soul at that
+rate? I always knew I was not handsome, but I never before regarded my
+appearance as alarming. And I 'fixed up,' too!"
+
+The Harvester grinned a queer little twist of a grin that pulled and
+distorted his strained face. "Might as well have gone with a week's
+beard, a soiled shirt, and a leer! And I've always been as decent as I
+knew! What's the reward for clean living anyway, if the girl you love
+strikes you like that?"
+
+Belshazzar reached across and kissed him. The Harvester put his arm
+around the dog. In the man's disappointment and heart hunger he leaned
+his head against the beast and said, "I've always got you to love and
+protect me, anyway, Belshazzar. Maybe the man who said a dog was a man's
+best friend was right. You always trusted me, didn't you Bel? And you
+never regretted it but once, and that wasn't my fault. I never did it!
+If I did, I'm getting good and well paid for it. I'd rather be kicked
+until all the ribs of one side are broken, Bel, than to swallow the dose
+she just handed me. I tell you it was bitter, lad! What am I going to
+do? Can't you help me, Bel?"
+
+Belshazzar quivered in anxiety to offer the comfort he could not speak.
+
+"Of course you are right! You always are, Bel!" said the Harvester. "I
+know what you are trying to tell me. Sure enough, she didn't have any
+dream. I am afraid she had the bitterest reality. She hasn't been loving
+a vision of me, working and searching for me, and I don't mean to her
+what she does to me. Of course I see that I must be patient and bide my
+time. If there is anything in 'like begetting like' she is bound to care
+for me some day, for I love her past all expression, and for all she
+feels I might as well save my breath. But she has got to awake some day,
+Bel. She can make up her mind to that. She can't see 'why.' Over and
+over! I wonder what she would think if I'd up and tell her 'why' with no
+frills. She will drive me to it some day, then probably the shock will
+finish her. I wonder if Doc was only fooling or if he really would do
+what he said. It might wake her up, anyway, but I'm dubious as to the
+result. How Uncle Henry can roar! He sounded like a fog horn. I'd love
+to try my muscle on a man like that. No wonder she is afraid of him, if
+she is of me. Afraid! Well of all things I ever did expect, Belshazzar,
+that is the limit."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE CHIME OF THE BLUE BELLS
+
+The Harvester finished his evening work and went to examine the cocoons.
+Many of the moths had emerged and flown, but the luna cases remained
+in the bottom of the box. As he stood looking at them one moved and he
+smiled.
+
+"I'd give something if you would come out and be ready to work on by
+to-morrow afternoon," he said. "Possibly you would so interest her that
+she would forget her fear of me. I'd like mighty well to take you
+along, because she might care for you, and I do need the pattern for my
+candlestick. Believe I'll lay you in a warmer place."
+
+The first thing the next morning the Harvester looked and found the open
+cocoon and the wet moth clinging by its feet to a twig he had placed for
+it.
+
+"Luck is with me!" he exulted. "I'll carry you to her and be mighty
+careful what I say, and maybe she will forget about the fear."
+
+All the forenoon he cut and spread boneset, saffron, and hemlock on the
+trays to dry. At noon he put on a fresh outfit, ate a hasty lunch, and
+drove to Onabasha. He carried the moth in a box, and as he started he
+picked up a rake. He went to an art store and bought the pencils and
+paper she had ordered. He wanted to purchase everything he saw for her,
+but he was fast learning a lesson of deep caution. If he took more than
+she ordered, she would worry over paying, and if he refused to
+accept money, she would put that everlasting "why" at him again. The
+water-colour paper and paint he could not forego. He could make a desire
+to have the moth coloured explain those, he thought.
+
+Then he went to a furniture store and bought several articles, and
+forgetting his law against haste, he drove Betsy full speed to the
+river. He was rather heavily ladened as he went up the bank, and it
+was only one o'clock. There was an hour. He rolled away the log, raked
+together and removed the leaves to the ground. He tramped the earth
+level and spread a large cheap porch rug. On this he opened and placed
+a little folding table and chair. On the table he spread the pencils,
+paper, colour box and brushes, and went to the river to fill the water
+cup. Then he sat on the log he had rolled to one side and waited. After
+two hours he arose and crept as close the house as he could through the
+woods, but he could not secure a glimpse of the Girl. He went back and
+waited an hour more, and then undid his work and removed it. When he
+came to the moth his face was very grim as he lifted the twig and helped
+the beautiful creature to climb on a limb. "You'll be ready to fly in
+a few hours," he said. "If I keep you in a box you will ruin your wings
+and be no suitable subject, and put you in a cyanide jar I will not. I
+am hurt too badly myself. I wonder if what Doc said was the right way!
+It's certainly a temptation."
+
+Then he went home; and again Betsy veered at the hospital, and once more
+the Harvester explained to her that he did not want to see the doctor.
+That evening and the following forenoon were difficult, but the
+Harvester lived through them, and in the afternoon went back to the
+woods, spread his rug, and set up the table. Only one streak of luck
+brightened the gloom in his heart. A yellow emperor had emerged in the
+night, and now occupied the place of yesterday's luna. She never need
+know it was not the one he wanted, and it would make an excuse for the
+colour box.
+
+He was watching intently and saw her coming a long way off. He noticed
+that she looked neither right nor left, but came straight as if walking
+a bridge. As she reached the place she glanced hastily around and then
+at him. The Harvester forgave her everything as he saw the look of
+relief with which she stepped upon the carpet. Then she turned to him.
+
+"I won't have to ask 'why' this time," she said. "I know that you did it
+because I was baby enough to tell what a coward I am. I'm sure you
+can't afford it, and I know you shouldn't have done it, but oh, what a
+comfort! If you will promise never to do any such expensive, foolish,
+kind thing again, I'll say thank you this time. I couldn't come
+yesterday, because Aunt Molly was worse and Uncle Henry was at home all
+day."
+
+"I supposed it was something like that," said the Harvester.
+
+She advanced and handed him the roll of bills.
+
+"I had a feeling you would be reckless," she said. "I saw it in your
+face, so I came back as soon as I could steal away, and sure enough,
+there lay your money and the books and everything. I hid them in the
+thicket, so they will be all right. I've almost prayed it wouldn't rain.
+I didn't dare carry them to the house. Please take the money. I haven't
+time to argue about it or strength, but of course I can't possibly use
+it unless I earn it. I'm so anxious to see the pencils and paper."
+
+The Harvester thrust the money into his pocket. The Girl went to the
+table, opened and spread the paper, and took out the pencils.
+
+"Is my subject in here?" she touched the colour box.
+
+"No, the other."
+
+"Is it alive? May I open it?"
+
+"We will be very careful at first," said the Harvester. "It only left
+its case in the night and may fly. When the weather is so warm the wings
+develop rapidly. Perhaps if I remove the lid----"
+
+He took off the cover, exposing a big moth, its lovely, pale yellow
+wings, flecked with heliotrope, outspread as it clung to a twig in the
+box. The Girl leaned forward.
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"One of the big night moths that emerge and fly a few hours in June."
+
+"Is this what you want for your candlestick?"
+
+"If I can't do better. There is one other I prefer, but it may not come
+at a time that you can get it right."
+
+"What do you mean by 'right'?"
+
+"So that you can copy it before it wants to fly."
+
+"Why don't you chloroform and pin it until I am ready?"
+
+"I am not in the business of killing and impaling exquisite creatures
+like that."
+
+"Do you mean that if I can't draw it when it is just right you will let
+it go?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I told you why."
+
+"I know you said you were not in the business, but why wouldn't you take
+only one you really wanted to use?"
+
+"I would be afraid," replied the Harvester.
+
+"Afraid? You!"
+
+"I must have a mighty good reason before I kill," said the man. "I
+cannot give life; I have no right to take it away. I will let my
+statement stand. I am afraid."
+
+"Of what please?"
+
+"An indefinable something that follows me and makes me suffer if I am
+wantonly cruel."
+
+"Is there any particular pose in which you want this bird placed?"
+
+"Allow me to present you to the yellow emperor, known in the books as
+eagles imperialis," he said. "I want him as he clings naturally and life
+size."
+
+She took up a pencil.
+
+"If you don't mind," said the Harvester, "would you draw on this other
+paper? I very much want the colour, also, and you can use it on this.
+I brought a box along, and I'll get you water. I had it all ready
+yesterday."
+
+"Did you have this same moth?"
+
+"No, I had another."
+
+"Did you have the one you wanted most?"
+
+"Yes----but it's no difference."
+
+"And you let it go because I was not here?"
+
+"No. It went on account of exquisite beauty. If kept in confinement it
+would struggle and break its wings. You see, that one was a delicate
+green, where this is yellow, plain pale blue green, with a lavender rib
+here, and long curled trailers edged with pale yellow, and eye spots
+rimmed with red and black."
+
+As the Harvester talked he indicated the points of difference with a
+pencil he had picked up; now he laid it down and retreated beyond the
+limits of the rug.
+
+"I see," said the Girl. "And this is colour?"
+
+She touched the box.
+
+"A few colours, rather," said the Harvester. "I selected enough to fill
+the box, with the help of the clerk who sold them to me. If they are not
+right, I have permission to return and exchange them for anything you
+want."
+
+With eager fingers she opened the box, and bent over it a face filled
+with interest.
+
+"Oh how I've always wanted this! I scarcely can wait to try it. I do
+hope I can have it for my very own. Was it quite expensive?"
+
+"No. Very cheap!" said the Harvester. "The paper isn't worth mentioning.
+The little, empty tin box was only a few cents, and the paints differ
+according to colour. Some appear to be more than others. I was surprised
+that the outfit was so inexpensive."
+
+A skeptical little smile wavered on the Girl's face as she drew her
+slender fingers across the trays of bright colour.
+
+"If one dared accept your word, you really would be a comfort," she
+said, as she resolutely closed the box, pushed it away, and picked up a
+pencil.
+
+"If you will take the trouble to inquire at the banks, post office,
+express office, hospital or of any druggist in Onabasha, you will
+find that my word is exactly as good as my money, and taken quite as
+readily."
+
+"I didn't say I doubted you. I have no right to do that until I feel
+you deceive me. What I said was 'dared accept,' which means I must not,
+because I have no right. But you make one wonder what you would do if
+you were coaxed and asked for things and led by insinuations."
+
+"I can tell you that," said the Harvester. "It would depend altogether
+on who wanted anything of me and what they asked. If you would undertake
+to coax and insinuate, you never would get it done, because I'd see what
+you needed and have it at hand before you had time."
+
+The Girl looked at him wonderingly.
+
+"Now don't spring your recurrent 'why' on me," said the Harvester. "I'll
+tell you 'why' some of these days. Just now answer me this question: Do
+you want me to remain here or leave until you finish? Which way would
+you be least afraid?"
+
+"I am not at all afraid on the rug and with my work," she said. "If you
+want to hunt ginseng go by all means."
+
+"I don't want to hunt anything," said the Harvester. "But if you are
+more comfortable with me away, I'll be glad to go. I'll leave the dog
+with you."
+
+He gave a short whistle and Belshazzar came bounding to him. The
+Harvester stepped to the Girl's side, and dropping on one knee, he drew
+his hand across the rug close to her skirts.
+
+"Right here, Belshazzar," he said. "Watch! You are on guard, Bel."
+
+"Well of all names for a dog!" exclaimed the Girl. "Why did you select
+that?"
+
+"My mother named my first dog Belshazzar, and taught me why; so each of
+the three I've owned since have been christened the same. It means 'to
+protect' and that is the office all of them perform; this one especially
+has filled it admirably. Once I failed him, but he never has gone back
+on me. You see he is not a particle afraid of me. Every step I take, he
+is at my heels."
+
+"So was Bill Sikes' dog, if I remember."
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+"Bel," he said, "if you could speak you'd say that was an ugly one,
+wouldn't you?"
+
+The dog sprang up and kissed the face of the man and rubbed a loving
+head against his breast.
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester. "Now lie down and protect this woman as
+carefully as you ever watched in your life. And incidentally, Bel,
+tell her that she can't exterminate me more than once a day, and the
+performance is accomplished for the present. I refuse to be a willing
+sacrifice. 'So was Bill Sikes' dog!' What do you think of that, Bel?"
+
+The Harvester arose and turned to go.
+
+"What if this thing attempts to fly?" she asked.
+
+"Your pardon," said the Harvester. "If the emperor moves, slide the lid
+over the box a few seconds, until he settles and clings quietly again,
+and then slowly draw it away. If you are careful not to jar the table
+heavily he will not go for hours yet."
+
+Again he turned.
+
+"If there is no danger, why do you leave the dog?"
+
+"For company," said the Harvester. "I thought you would prefer an animal
+you are not afraid of to a man you are. But let me tell you there is no
+necessity for either. I know a woman who goes alone and unafraid through
+every foot of woods in this part of the country. She has climbed, crept,
+and waded, and she tells me she never saw but two venomous snakes this
+side of Michigan. Nothing ever dropped on her or sprang at her. She
+feels as secure in the woods as she does at home."
+
+"Isn't she afraid of snakes?"
+
+"She dislikes snakes, but she is not afraid or she would not risk
+encountering them daily."
+
+"Do you ever find any?"
+
+"Harmless little ones, often. That is, Bel does. He is always nosing for
+them, because he understands that I work in the earth. I think I have
+encountered three dangerous ones in my life. I will guarantee you will
+not find one in these woods. They are too open and too much cleared."
+
+"Then why leave the dog?"
+
+"I thought," said the Harvester patiently, "that your uncle might have
+turned in some of his cattle, or if pigs came here the dog could chase
+them away."
+
+She looked at him with utter panic in her face.
+
+"I am far more afraid of a cow than a snake!" she cried. "It is so much
+bigger!"
+
+"How did you ever come into these woods alone far enough to find the
+ginseng?" asked the Harvester. "Answer me that!"
+
+"I wore Uncle Henry's top boots and carried a rake, and I suffered
+tortures," she replied.
+
+"But you hunted until you found what you wanted, and came again to keep
+watch on it?"
+
+"I was driven--simply forced. There's no use to discuss it!"
+
+"Well thank the Lord for one thing," said the Harvester. "You didn't
+appear half so terrified at the sight of me as you did at the mere
+mention of a cow. I have risen inestimably in my own self-respect.
+Belshazzar, you may pursue the elusive chipmunk. I am going to guard
+this woman myself, and please, kind fates, send a ferocious cow this
+way, in order that I may prove my valour."
+
+The Girl's face flushed slightly, and she could not restrain a laugh.
+That was all the Harvester hoped for and more. He went beyond the edge
+of the rug and sat on the leaves under a tree. She bent over her work
+and only bird and insect notes and occasionally Belshazzar's excited
+bark broke the silence. The Harvester stretched on the ground, his eyes
+feasting on the Girl. Intensely he watched every movement. If a squirrel
+barked she gave a nervous start, so precipitate it seemed as if it must
+hurt. If a windfall came rattling down she appeared ready to fly in
+headlong terror in any direction. At last she dropped her pencil and
+looked at him helplessly.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"The silence and these awful crashes when one doesn't know what is
+coming," she said.
+
+"Will it bother you if I talk? Perhaps the sound of my voice will help?"
+
+"I am accustomed to working when people talk, and it will be a comfort.
+I may be able to follow you, and that will prevent me from thinking.
+There are dreadful things in my mind when they are not driven out.
+Please talk! Tell me about the herbs you gathered this morning."
+
+The Harvester gave the Girl one long look as she bent over her work. He
+was vividly conscious of the graceful curves of her little figure, the
+coil of dark, silky hair, softly waving around her temples and neck,
+and when her eyes turned in his direction he knew that it was only the
+white, drawn face that restrained him. He was almost forced to tell her
+how he loved and longed for her; about the home he had prepared; of
+a thousand personal interests. Instead, he took a firm grip and said
+casually, "Foxglove harvest is over. This plant has to be taken when the
+leaves are in second year growth and at bloom time. I have stripped my
+mullein beds of both leaves and flowers. I finished a week ago. Beyond
+lies a stretch of Parnassus grass that made me think of you, it was so
+white and delicate. I want you to see it. It will be lovely in a few
+weeks more."
+
+"You never had seen me a week ago."
+
+"Oh hadn't I?" said the Harvester. "Well maybe I dreamed about you then.
+I am a great dreamer. Once I had a dream that may interest you some
+day, after you've overcome your fear of me. Now this bed of which I was
+speaking is a picture in September. You must arrange to drive home with
+me and see it then."
+
+"For what do you sell foxglove and mullein?"
+
+"Foxglove for heart trouble, and mullein for catarrh. I get ten cents a
+pound for foxglove leaves and five for mullein and from seventy-five to
+a dollar for flowers of the latter, depending on how well I preserve the
+colour in drying them. They must be sealed in bottles and handled with
+extreme care."
+
+"Then if I wasn't too childish to be out picking them, I could be
+earning seventy-five cents a pound for mullein blooms?"
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester, "but until you learned the trick of stripping
+them rapidly you scarcely could gather what would weigh two pounds a
+day, when dried. Not to mention the fact that you would have to stand
+and work mostly in hot sunshine, because mullein likes open roads and
+fields and sunny hills. Now you can sit securely in the shade, and in
+two hours you can make me a pattern of that moth, for which I would pay
+a designer of the arts and crafts shop five dollars, so of course you
+shall have the same."
+
+"Oh no!" she cried in swift panic. "You were charged too much! It isn't
+worth a dollar, even!"
+
+"On the contrary the candlestick on which I shall use it will be
+invaluable when I finish it, and five is very little for the cream of my
+design. I paid just right. You can earn the same for all you can do.
+If you can embroider linen, they pay good prices for that, too and wood
+carving, metal work, or leather things. May I see how you are coming
+on?"
+
+"Please do," she said.
+
+The Harvester sprang up and looked over the Girl's shoulder. He could
+not suppress an exclamation of delight.
+
+"Perfect!" he cried. "You can surpass their best drafting at the shop!
+Your fortune is made. Any time you want to go to Onabasha you can make
+enough to pay your board, dress you well, and save something every week.
+You must leave here as soon as you can manage it. When can you go?"
+
+"I don't know," she said wearily. "I'd hate to tell you how full
+of aches I am. I could not work much just now, if I had the best
+opportunities in the world. I must grow stronger."
+
+"You should not work at anything until you are well," he said. "It is a
+crime against nature to drive yourself. Why will you not allow----"
+
+"Do you really think, with a little practice, I can draw designs that
+will sell?"
+
+The Harvester picked up the sheet. The work was delicate and exact. He
+could see no way to improve it.
+
+"You know it will sell," he said gently, "because you already have sold
+such work."
+
+"But not for the prices you offer."
+
+"The prices I name are going to be for NEW, ORIGINAL DESIGNS. I've got a
+thousand in my head, that old Mother Nature shows me in the woods and on
+the water every day."
+
+"But those are yours; I can't take them."
+
+"You must," said the Harvester. "I only see and recognize studies; I
+can't materialize them, and until they are drawn, no one can profit by
+them. In this partnership we revolutionize decorative art. There are
+actually birds besides fat robins and nondescript swallows. The crane
+and heron do not monopolize the water. Wild rose and golden-rod are not
+the only flowers. The other day I was gathering lobelia. The seeds
+are used in tonic preparations. It has an upright stem with flowers
+scattered along it. In itself it is not much, but close beside it always
+grows its cousin, tall bell-flower. As the name indicates, the flowers
+are bell shape and I can't begin to describe their grace, beauty, and
+delicate blue colour. They ring my strongest call to worship. My work
+keeps me in the woods so much I remain there for my religion also.
+Whenever I find these flowers I always pause for a little service of my
+own that begins by reciting these lines:
+
+     "'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingeth
+          And tolls its perfume on the passing air,
+     Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringeth
+          A call to prayer."
+
+
+"Beautiful!" said the Girl.
+
+"It's mighty convenient," explained the Harvester. "By my method, you
+see, you don't have to wait for your day and hour of worship. Anywhere
+the blue bell rings its call it is Sunday in the woods and in your
+heart. After I recite that, I pray my prayer."
+
+"Go on!" said the Girl. "This is no place to stop."
+
+"It is always one and the same prayer, and there are only two lines of
+it," said the Harvester. "It runs this way---- Let me take your pencil
+and I will write it for you."
+
+He bent over her shoulder, and traced these lines on a scrap of the
+wrapping paper:
+
+               "Almighty Evolver of the Universe:
+          Help me to keep my soul and body clean,
+     And at all times to do unto others as I would be done by.
+                         Amen."
+
+
+The Girl took the slip and sat studying it; then she raised her eyes to
+his face curiously, but with a tinge of awe in them.
+
+"I can see you standing over a blue, bell-shaped flower reciting those
+exquisite lines and praying this wonderful prayer," she said. "Yesterday
+you allowed the moth you were willing to pay five dollars for a drawing
+of, to go, because you wouldn't risk breaking its wings. Why you are
+more like a woman!"
+
+A red stream crimsoned the Harvester's face.
+
+"Well heretofore I have been considered strictly masculine," he said.
+"To appreciate beauty or to try to be just commonly decent is not
+exclusively feminine. You must remember there are painters, poets,
+musicians, workers in art along almost any line you could mention, and
+no one calls them feminine, but there is one good thing if I am. You
+need no longer fear me. If you should see me, muck covered, grubbing in
+the earth or on a raft washing roots in the lake, you would not consider
+me like a woman."
+
+"Would it be any discredit if I did? I think not. I merely meant that
+most men would not see or hear the blue bell at all----and as for the
+poem and prayer! If the woods make a man with such fibre in his soul, I
+must learn them if they half kill me."
+
+"You harp on death. Try to forget the word."
+
+"I have faced it for months, and seen it do its grinding worst very
+recently to the only thing on earth I loved or that loved me. I have no
+desire to forget! Tell me more about the plants."
+
+"Forgive me," said the Harvester gently. "Just now I am collecting
+catnip for the infant and nervous people, hoarhound for colds and
+dyspepsia, boneset heads and flowers for the same purpose. There is a
+heavy head of white bloom with wonderful lacy leaves, called yarrow. I
+take the entire plant for a tonic and blessed thistle leaves and flowers
+for the same purpose."
+
+"That must be what I need," interrupted the Girl. "Half the time I
+believe I have a little fever, but I couldn't have dyspepsia, because I
+never want anything to eat; perhaps the tonic would make me hungry."
+
+"Promise me you will tell that to the doctor who comes to see your aunt,
+and take what he gives you."
+
+"No doctor comes to see my aunt. She is merely playing lazy to get out
+of work. There is nothing the matter with her."
+
+"Then why----"
+
+"My uncle says that. Really, she could not stand and walk across a room
+alone. She is simply worn out."
+
+"I shall report the case," said the Harvester instantly.
+
+"You better not!" said the Girl. "There must be a mistake about you
+knowing my uncle. Tell me more of the flowers."
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and continued:
+
+"These I just have named I take at bloom time; next month come purple
+thorn apple, jimson weed, and hemlock."
+
+"Isn't that poison?"
+
+"Half the stuff I handle is."
+
+"Aren't you afraid?"
+
+"Terribly," said the Harvester in laughing voice. "But I want the money,
+the sick folk need the medicine, and I drink water."
+
+The Girl laughed also.
+
+"Look here!" said the Harvester. "Why not tell me just as closely as
+you can about your aunt, and let me fix something for her; or if you are
+afraid to trust me, let me have my friend of whom I spoke yesterday."
+
+"Perhaps I am not so much afraid as I was," said the Girl. "I wish I
+could! How could I explain where I got it and I wonder if she would take
+it."
+
+"Give it to her without any explanation," said the Harvester. "Tell her
+it will make her stronger and she must use it. Tell me exactly how she
+is, and I will fix up some harmless remedies that may help, and can do
+no harm."
+
+"She simply has been neglected, overworked, and abused until she has
+lain down, turned her face to the wall, and given up hope. I think it is
+too late. I think the end will come soon. But I wish you would try. I'll
+gladly pay----"
+
+"Don't!" said the Harvester. "Not for things that grow in the woods and
+that I prepare. Don't think of money every minute."
+
+"I must," she said with forced restraint. "It is the price of life.
+Without it one suffers----horribly----as I know. What other plants do
+you gather?"
+
+"Saffron," answered the Harvester. "A beautiful thing! You must see it.
+Tall, round stems, lacy, delicate leaves, big heads of bright yellow
+bloom, touched with colour so dark it appears black--one of the
+loveliest plants that grows. You should see my big bed of it in a week
+or two more. It makes a picture."
+
+The words recalled him to the Girl. He turned to study her. He forgot
+his commission and chafed at conventions that prevented his doing what
+he saw was required so urgently. Fearing she would notice, he gazed away
+through the forest and tried to think, to plan.
+
+"You are not making noise enough," she said.
+
+So absorbed was the Harvester he scarcely heard her. In an attempt to
+obey he began to whistle softly. A tiny goldfinch in a nest of thistle
+down and plant fibre in the branching of a bush ten feet above him stuck
+her head over the brim and inquired, "P'tseet?" "Pt'see!" answer the
+Harvester. That began the duet. Before the question had been asked and
+answered a half dozen times a catbird intruded its voice and hearing a
+reply came through the bushes to investigate. A wren followed and became
+very saucy. From----one could not see where, came a vireo, and almost at
+the same time a chewink had something to say.
+
+Instantly the Harvester answered. Then a blue jay came chattering to
+ascertain what all the fuss was about, and the Harvester carried on
+a conversation that called up the remainder of the feathered tribe. A
+brilliant cardinal came tearing through the thicket, his beady black
+eyes snapping, and demanded to know if any one were harming his mate,
+brooding under a wild grape leaf in a scrub elm on the river embankment.
+A brown thrush silently slipped like a snake between shrubs and trees,
+and catching the universal excitement, began to flirt his tail and utter
+a weird, whistling cry.
+
+With one eye on the bird, and the other on the Girl sitting in amazed
+silence, the Harvester began working for effect. He lay quietly, but in
+turn he answered a dozen birds so accurately they thought their mates
+were calling, and closer and closer they came. An oriole in orange and
+black heard his challenge, and flew up the river bank, answering
+at steady intervals for quite a time before it was visible, and in
+resorting to the last notes he could think of a quail whistled "Bob
+White" and a shitepoke, skulking along the river bank, stopped and
+cried, "Cowk, cowk!"
+
+At his limit of calls the Harvester changed his notes and whistled and
+cried bits of bird talk in tone with every mellow accent and inflection
+he could manage. Gradually the excitement subsided, the birds flew and
+tilted closer, turned their sleek heads, peered with bright eyes, and
+ventured on and on until the very bravest, the wren and the jay, were
+almost in touch. Then, tired of hunting, Belshazzar came racing and the
+little feathered people scattered in precipitate flight.
+
+"How do you like that kind of a noise?" inquired the Harvester.
+
+The Girl drew a deep breath.
+
+"Of course you know that was the most exquisite sight I ever saw," she
+said. "I never shall forget it. I did not think there were that many
+different birds in the whole world. Of all the gaudy colours! And they
+came so close you could have reached out and touched them."
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester calmly. "Birds are never afraid of me. At
+Medicine Woods, when I call them like that, many, most of them, in fact,
+eat from my hand. If you ever have looked at me enough to notice bulgy
+pockets, they are full of wheat. These birds are strangers, but I'll
+wager you that in a week I can make them take food from me. Of course,
+my own birds know me, because they are around every day. It is much
+easier to tame them in winter, when the snow has fallen and food is
+scarce, but it only takes a little while to win a bird's confidence at
+any season."
+
+"Birds don't know what there is to be afraid of," she said.
+
+"Your pardon," said the Harvester, "but I am familiar with them, and
+that is not correct. They have more to fear than human beings. No one is
+going to kill you merely to see if he can shoot straight enough to hit.
+Your life is not in danger because you have magnificent hair that some
+woman would like for an ornament. You will not be stricken out in a
+flash because there are a few bits of meat on your frame some one
+wants to eat. No one will set a seductive trap for you, and, if you are
+tempted to enter it, shut you from freedom and natural diet, in a cage
+so small you can't turn around without touching bars. You are in a
+secure and free position compared with the birds. I also have observed
+that they know guns, many forms of traps, and all of them decide by the
+mere manner of a man's passing through the woods whether he is a friend
+or an enemy. Birds know more than many people realize. They do not
+always correctly estimate gun range, they are foolishly venturesome
+at times when they want food, but they know many more things than most
+people give them credit for understanding. The greatest trouble with the
+birds is they are too willing to trust us and be friendly, so they are
+often deceived."
+
+"That sounds as if you were right," said the Girl.
+
+"I am of the woods, so I know I am," answered the Harvester.
+
+"Will you look at this now?"
+
+He examined the drawing closely.
+
+"Where did you learn?" he inquired.
+
+"My mother. She was educated to her finger tips. She drew, painted,
+played beautifully, sang well, and she had read almost all the best
+books. Besides what I learned at high school she taught me all I know.
+Her embroidery always brought higher prices than mine, try as I might. I
+never saw any one else make such a dainty, accurate little stitch as she
+could."
+
+"If this is not perfect, I don't know how to criticise it. I can and
+will use it in my work. But I have one luna cocoon remaining and I would
+give ten dollars for such a drawing of the moth before it flies. It may
+open to-night or not for several days. If your aunt should be worse
+and you cannot come to-morrow and the moth emerges, is there any way in
+which I could send it to you?"
+
+"What could I do with it?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you could take a piece of paper and the pencils with
+you, and secure an outline in your room. It need not be worked up with
+all the detail in this. Merely a skeleton sketch would do. Could I leave
+it at the house or send it with some one?"
+
+"No! Oh no!" she cried. "Leave it here. Put it in a box in the bushes
+where I hid the books. What are you going to do with these things?"
+
+"Hide them in the thicket and scatter leaves over them."
+
+"What if it rains?"
+
+"I have thought of that. I brought a few yards of oilcloth to-day and
+they will be safe and dry if it pours."
+
+"Good!" she said. "Then if the moth comes out you bring it, and if I
+am not here, put it under the cloth and I will run up some time in the
+afternoon. But if I were you, I would not spread the rug until you know
+if I can remain. I have to steal every minute I am away, and any day
+uncle takes a notion to stay at home I dare not come."
+
+"Try to come to-morrow. I am going to bring some medicine for your
+aunt."
+
+"Put it under the cloth if I am not here; but I will come if I can. I
+must go now; I have been away far too long."
+
+The Harvester picked up one of the drug pamphlets, laid the drawing
+inside it, and placed it with his other books. Then he drew out his
+pocket book and laid a five-dollar bill on the table and began folding
+up the chair and putting away the things. The Girl looked at the money
+with eager eyes.
+
+"Is that honestly what you would pay at the arts and crafts place?"
+
+"It is the customary price for my patterns."
+
+"And are you sure this is as good?"
+
+"I can bring you some I have paid that for, and let you see for yourself
+that it is better."
+
+"I wish you would!" she cried eagerly. "I need that money, and I would
+like to have it dearly, if I really have earned it, but I can't touch it
+if I have not."
+
+"Won't you accept my word?"
+
+"No. I will see the other drawings first, and if I think mine are as
+good, I will be glad to take the money to-morrow."
+
+"What if you can't come?"
+
+"Put them under the oilcloth. I watch all the time and I think Uncle
+Henry has trained even the boys so they don't play in the river on
+his land. I never see a soul here; the woods, house, and everything is
+desolate until he comes home and then it is like----" she paused.
+
+"I'll say it for you," said the Harvester promptly. "Then it is like
+hell."
+
+"At its worst," supplemented the Girl. Taking pencils and a sheet of
+paper she went swiftly through the woods. Before she left the shelter
+of the trees, the Harvester saw her busy her hands with the front of
+her dress, and he knew that she was concealing the drawing material. The
+colour box was left, and he said things as he put it with the chair and
+table, covered them with the rug and oilcloth, and heaped on a layer of
+leaves.
+
+Then he drove to the city and Betsy turned at the hospital corner
+with no interference. He could face his friend that day. Despite
+all discouragements he felt reassured. He was progressing. Means of
+communication had been established. If she did not come, he could leave
+a note and tell her if the moth had not emerged and how sorry he was to
+have missed seeing her.
+
+"Hello, lover!" cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester entered the office.
+"Are you married yet?"
+
+"No. But I'm going to be," said the Harvester with confidence.
+
+"Have you asked her?"
+
+"No. We are getting acquainted. She is too close to trouble, too ill,
+and too worried over a sick relative for me to intrude myself; it would
+be brutal, but it's a temptation. Doc, is there any way to compel a man
+to provide medical care for his wife?"
+
+"Can he afford it?"
+
+"Amply. Anything! Worth thousands in land and nobody knows what in
+money. It's Henry Jameson."
+
+"The meanest man I ever knew. If he has a wife it's a marvel she has
+survived this long. Won't he provide for her?"
+
+"I suppose he thinks he has when she has a bed to lie on and a roof to
+cover her. He won't supply food she can eat and medicine. He says she is
+lazy."
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"I quote Miss Jameson. She says her aunt is slowly dying from overwork
+and neglect."
+
+"David, doesn't it seem pretty good, when you say 'Miss Jameson'?"
+
+"Loveliest sound on earth, except the remainder of it."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Ruth!"
+
+"Jove! That is a beautiful name. Ruth Langston. It will go well, won't
+it?"
+
+"Music that the birds, insects, Singing Water, the trees, and the breeze
+can't ever equal. I'm holding on with all my might, but it's tough, Doc.
+She's in such a dreadful place and position, and she needs so much. She
+is sick. Can't you give me a prescription for each of them?"
+
+"You just bet I can," said the doctor, "if you can engineer their taking
+them."
+
+"I suppose you'd hold their noses and pour stuff down them."
+
+"I would if necessary."
+
+"Well, it is."
+
+"All right----I'll fix something, and you see that they use it."
+
+"I can try," said the Harvester.
+
+"Try! Pah! You aren't half a man!"
+
+"That's a half more than being a woman, anyway."
+
+"She called you feminine, did she?" cried the doctor, dancing and
+laughing. "She ought to see you harvesting skunk cabbage and blue flag
+or when you are angry enough."
+
+The doctor left the room and it was a half hour before he returned.
+
+"Try that on them according to directions," he said, handing over a
+couple of bottles.
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester, "I will!"
+
+"That sounds manly enough."
+
+"Oh pother! It's not that I'm not a man, or a laggard in love; but I'd
+like to know what you'd do to a girl dumb with grief over the recent
+loss of her mother, who was her only relative worth counting, sick from
+God knows what exposure and privation, and now a dying relative on her
+hands. What could you do?"
+
+"I'd marry her and pick her out of it!"
+
+"I wouldn't have her, if she'd leave a sick woman for me!"
+
+"I wouldn't either. She's got to stick it out until her aunt grows
+better, and then I'll go out there and show you how to court a girl."
+
+"I guess not! You keep the girl you did court, courted, and you'll have
+your hands full. How does that appear to you?"
+
+The Harvester opened the pamphlet he carried and held up the drawing of
+the moth.
+
+The doctor turned to the light.
+
+"Good work!" he cried. "Did she do that?"
+
+"She did. In a little over an hour."
+
+"Fine! She should have a chance."
+
+"She is going to. She is going to have all the opportunity that is
+coming to her."
+
+"Good for you, David! Any time I can help!"
+
+The Harvester replaced the sketch and went to the wagon; but he left
+Belshazzar in charge, and visited the largest dry goods store in
+Onabasha, where he held a conference with the floor walker. When he came
+out he carried a heaping load of boxes of every size and shape, with a
+label on each. He drove to Medicine Woods singing and whistling.
+
+"She didn't want me to go, Belshazzar!" he chuckled to the dog. "She was
+more afraid of a cow than she was of me. I made some headway to-day, old
+boy. She doesn't seem to have a ray of an idea what I am there for, but
+she is going to trust me soon now; that is written in the books. Oh I
+hope she will be there to-morrow, and the luna will be out. Got half a
+notion to take the case and lay it in the warmest place I can find.
+But if it comes out and she isn't there, I'll be sorry. Better trust to
+luck."
+
+The Harvester stabled Betsy, fed the stock, and visited with the birds.
+After supper he took his purchases and entered her room. He opened the
+drawers of the chest he had made, and selecting the labelled boxes he
+laid them in. But not a package did he open. Then he arose and radiated
+conceit of himself.
+
+"I'll wager she will like those," he commented proudly, "because Kane
+promised me fairly that he would have the right things put up for a girl
+the size of the clerk I selected for him, and exactly what Ruth should
+have. That girl was slenderer and not quite so tall, but he said
+everything was made long on purpose. Now what else should I get?"
+
+He turned to the dressing table and taking a notebook from his pocket
+made this list:
+
+     Rugs for bed and bath room.
+     Mattresses, pillows and bedding,
+     Dresses for all occasions.
+     All kinds of shoes and overshoes.
+
+
+"There are gloves, too!" exclaimed the Harvester. "She has to have some,
+but how am I going to know what is right? Oh, but she needs shoes!
+High, low, slippers, everything! I wonder what that clerk wears. I don't
+believe shoes would be comfortable without being fitted, or at least the
+proper size. I wonder what kind of dresses she likes. I hope she's fond
+of white. A woman always appears loveliest in that. Maybe I'd better buy
+what I'm sure of and let her select the dresses. But I'd love to have
+this room crammed with girl-fixings when she comes. Doesn't seem as
+if she ever has had any little luxuries. I can't miss it on anything a
+woman uses. Let me think!"
+
+Slowly he wrote again:
+
+          Parasols.
+          Fans.
+          Veils.
+          Hats.
+
+
+"I never can get them! I think that will keep me busy for a few days,"
+said the Harvester as he closed the door softly, and went to look at
+the pupae cases. Then he carved on the vine of the candlestick for her
+dressing table; with one arm around Belshazzar, re-read the story of
+John Muir's dog, went into the lake, and to bed. Just as he was becoming
+unconscious the beast lifted an inquiring head and gazed at the man.
+
+"More 'fraid of cow," the Harvester was muttering in a sleepy chuckle.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. DEMONSTRATED COURTSHIP
+
+When the Harvester saw the Girl coming toward the woods, he spread the
+rug, opened and placed the table and chair, laid out the colour box, and
+another containing the last luna.
+
+"Did the green one come out?" she asked, touching the box lightly.
+
+"It did!" said the Harvester proudly, as if he were responsible for the
+performance. "It is an omen! It means that I am to have my long-coveted
+pattern for my best candlestick. It also clearly indicates that the
+gods of luck are with me for the day, and I get my way about everything.
+There won't be the least use in your asking 'why' or interposing
+objections. This is my clean sweep. I shall be fearfully dictatorial and
+you must submit, because the fates have pointed out that they favour
+me to-day, and if you go contrary to their decrees you will have a bad
+time."
+
+The Girl's smile was a little wan. She sank on a chair and picked up a
+pencil.
+
+"Lay that down!" cried the Harvester. "You haven't had permission from
+the Dictator to begin drawing. You are to sit and rest a long time."
+
+"Please may I speak?" asked the Girl.
+
+The Harvester grew foolishly happy. Was she really going to play the
+game? Of course he had hoped, but it was a hope without any foundation.
+
+"You may," he said soberly.
+
+"I am afraid that if you don't allow me to draw the moth at once, I'll
+never get it done. I dislike to mention it on your good day, but Aunt
+Molly is very restless. I got a neighbour's little girl to watch her and
+call me if I'm wanted. It's quite certain that I must go soon, so if you
+would like the moth----"
+
+"When luck is coming your way, never hurry it! You always upset the bowl
+if you grow greedy and crowd. If it is a gamble whether I get this moth,
+I'll take the chance; but I won't change my foreordained programme for
+this afternoon. First, you are to sit still ten minutes, shut your eyes,
+and rest. I can't sing, but I can whistle, and I'm going to entertain
+you so you won't feel alone. Ready now!"
+
+The Girl leaned her elbows on the table, closed her eyes, and pressed
+her slender white hands over them.
+
+"Please don't call the birds," she said. "I can't rest if you do. It was
+so exciting trying to see all of them and guess what they were saying."
+
+"No," said the Harvester gently. "This ten minutes is for relaxation,
+you know. You ease every muscle, sink limply on your chair, lean on the
+table, let go all over, and don't think. Just listen to me. I assure you
+it's going to be perfectly lovely."
+
+Watching intently he saw the strained muscles relaxing at his suggestion
+and caught the smile over the last words as he slid into a soft whistle.
+It was an easy, slow, old-fashioned tune, carrying along gently, with
+neither heights nor depths, just monotonous, sleepy, soothing notes,
+that went on and on with a little ripple of change at times, only to
+return to the theme, until at last the Girl lifted her head.
+
+"It's away past ten minutes," she said, "but that was a real rest.
+Truly, I am better prepared for work."
+
+"Broke the rule, too!" said the Harvester. "It was, for me to say when
+time was up. Can't you allow me to have my way for ten minutes?"
+
+"I am so anxious to see and draw this moth," she answered. "And first of
+all you promised to bring the drawings you have been using."
+
+"Now where does my programme come in?" inquired the Harvester. "You are
+spoiling everything, and I refuse to have my lucky day interfered with;
+therefore we will ignore the suggestion until we arrive at the place
+where it is proper. Next thing is refreshments."
+
+He arose and coming over cleared the table. Then he spread on it a paper
+tray cloth with a gay border, and going into the thicket brought out
+a box and a big bucket containing a jug packed in ice. The Girl's eyes
+widened. She reached down, caught up a piece, and holding it to drip a
+second started to put it in her mouth.
+
+"Drop that!" commanded the Harvester. "That's a very unhealthful
+proceeding. Wait a minute."
+
+From one end of the box he produced a tin of wafers and from the other
+a plate. Then he dug into the ice and lifted several different varieties
+of chilled fruit. From the jug he poured a combination that he made of
+the juices of oranges, pineapples, and lemons. He set the glass, rapidly
+frosting in the heat, and the fruit before the Girl.
+
+"Now!" he said.
+
+For one instant she stared at the table. Then she looked at him and in
+the depths of her dark eyes was an appeal he never forgot.
+
+"I made that drink myself, so it's all right," he assured her. "There's
+a pretty stiff touch of pineapple in it, and it cuts the cobwebs on a
+hot day. Please try it!"
+
+"I can't!" cried the Girl with a half-sob. "Think of Aunt Molly!"
+
+"Are you fond of her?"
+
+"No. I never saw her until a few weeks ago. Since then I've seen nothing
+save her poor, tired back. She lies in a heap facing the wall. But if
+she could have things like these, she needn't suffer. And if my mother
+could have had them she would be living to-day. Oh Man, I can't touch
+this."
+
+"I see," said the Harvester.
+
+He reached over, picked up the glass, and poured its contents into the
+jug. He repacked the fruit and closed the wafer box. Then he made a trip
+to the thicket and came out putting something into his pocket.
+
+"Come on!" he said. "We are going to the house."
+
+She stared at him.
+
+"I simply don't dare."
+
+"Then I will go alone," said the Harvester, picking up the bucket and
+starting.
+
+The Girl followed him.
+
+"Uncle Henry may come any minute," she urged.
+
+"Well if he comes and acts unpleasantly, he will get what he richly
+deserves."
+
+"And he will make me pay for it afterward."
+
+"Oh no he won't!" said the Harvester, "because I'll look out for that.
+This is my lucky day. He isn't going to come."
+
+When he reached the back door he opened it and stepped inside. Of all
+the barren places of crude, disheartening ugliness the Harvester ever
+had seen, that was the worst.
+
+"I want a glass and a spoon," he said.
+
+The Girl brought them.
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In the next room."
+
+At the sound of their voices a small girl came to the kitchen door.
+
+"How do you do?" inquired the Harvester. "Is Mrs. Jameson asleep?"
+
+"I don't know," answered the child. "She just lies there."
+
+The Harvester gave her the glass. "Please fill that with water," he
+said. Then he picked up the bucket and went into the front room. When
+the child came with the water he took a bottle from his pocket, filled
+the spoon, and handed it to her.
+
+"Hold that steadily," he said.
+
+Then he slid his strong hands under the light frame and turned the face
+of the faded little creature toward him.
+
+"I am a Medicine Man, Mrs. Jameson," he said casually. "I heard you were
+sick and I came to see if a little of this stuff wouldn't brace you up.
+Open your lips."
+
+He held out the spoon and the amazed woman swallowed the contents before
+she realized what she was doing. Then the Harvester ran a hand under
+her shoulders and lifting her gently he tossed her pillow with the other
+hand.
+
+"You are a light little body, just like my mother," he commented. "Now I
+have something else sick people sometimes enjoy."
+
+He held the fruit juice to her lips as he slightly raised her on the
+pillow. Her trembling fingers lifted and closed around the sparkling
+glass.
+
+"Oh it's cool!" she gasped.
+
+"It is," said the Harvester, "and sour! I think you can taste it. Try!"
+
+She drank so greedily he drew away the glass and urged caution, but the
+shaking fingers clung to him and the wavering voice begged for more.
+
+"In a minute," said the Harvester gently. But the fevered woman would
+not wait. She drank the cooling liquid until she could take no more.
+Then she watched him fill a small pitcher and pack it in a part of the
+ice and lay some fruit around it.
+
+"Who, Ruth?" she panted.
+
+"A Medicine Man who heard about you."
+
+"What will Henry say?"
+
+"He won't know," explained the Girl, smoothing the hot forehead. "I'll
+put it in the cupboard, and slip it to you while he is out of the room.
+It will make you strong and well."
+
+"I don't want to be strong and well and suffer it all over again. I want
+to rest. Give me more of the cool drink. Give me all I want, then I'll
+go to sleep."
+
+"It's wonderful," said the Girl. "That's more than I've heard her talk
+since I came. She is much stronger. Please let her have it."
+
+The Harvester assented. He gave the child some of the fruit, and told
+her to sit beside the bed and hold the drink when it was asked for. She
+agreed to be very careful and watchful. Then he picked up the bucket,
+and followed by the Girl, returned to the woods.
+
+"Now we have to begin all over again," he said, as she seated herself at
+the table. "Because of the walk in the heat, this time the programme is
+a little different."
+
+He replaced the wafer box and opened it, filled the glass, and heaped
+the cold fruit.
+
+"Your aunt is going to have a refreshing sleep now," he said, "and
+your mind can be free about her for an hour or two. I am very sure your
+mother would not want you deprived of anything because she missed it, so
+you are to enjoy this, if you care for it. At least try a sample."
+
+The Girl lifted the glass to her lips with a trembling hand.
+
+"I'm like Aunt Molly," she said; "I wish I could drink all I could
+swallow, and then lie down and go to sleep forever. I suppose this is
+what they have in Heaven."
+
+"No, it's what they drink all over earth at present, but I have a
+conceit of my own brand. Some of it is too strong of one fruit or of the
+other, and all too sweet for health. This is compounded scientifically
+and it's just right. If you are not accustomed to cold drinks, go
+slowly."
+
+"You can't scare me," said the Girl; "I'm going to drink all I want."
+
+There was a note of excitement in the Harvester's laugh.
+
+"You must have some, too!"
+
+"After a while," he said. "I was thirsty when I made it, so I don't care
+for any more now. Try the fruit and those wafers. Of course they are not
+home made--they are the best I could do at a bakery. Take time enough to
+eat slowly. I'm going to tell you a tale while you lunch, and it's about
+a Medicine Man named David Langston. It's a very peculiar story,
+but it's quite true. This man lives in the woods east of Onabasha,
+accompanied by his dog, horse, cow, and chickens, and a forest full of
+birds, flowers, and matchless trees. He has lived there in this manner
+for six long years, and every spring he and his dog have a seance and
+agree whether he shall go on gathering medicinal herbs and trying his
+hand at making medicine or go to the city and live as other men. Always
+the dog chooses to remain in the woods.
+
+"Then every spring, on the day the first bluebird comes, the dog also
+decides whether the man shall go on alone or find a mate and bring her
+home for company. Each year the dog regularly has decided that they live
+as always. This spring, for some unforeseen reason, he changed his mind,
+and compelled the man, according to his vow in the beginning, to go
+courting. The man was so very angry at the idea of having a woman in
+his home, interfering with his work, disturbing his arrangements, and
+perhaps wanting to spend more money than he could afford, that he struck
+the dog for making that decision; struck him for the very first time in
+his life----I believe you'd like those apricots. Please try one."
+
+"Go on with the story," said the Girl, sipping delicately but constantly
+at the frosty glass.
+
+The Harvester arose and refilled it. Then he dropped pieces of ice over
+the fruit.
+
+"Where was I?" he inquired casually.
+
+"Where you struck Belshazzar, and it's no wonder," answered the Girl.
+
+Without taking time to ponder that, the Harvester continued:
+
+"But that night the man had a wonderful, golden dream. A beautiful girl
+came to him, and she was so gracious and lovely that he was sufficiently
+punished for striking his dog, because he fell unalterably in love with
+her."
+
+"Meaning you?" interrupted the Girl.
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester, "meaning me. I----if you like----fell in love
+with the girl. She came so alluringly, and I was so close to her that
+I saw her better than I ever did any other girl, and I knew her for all
+time. When she went, my heart was gone."
+
+"And you have lived without that important organ ever since?"
+
+"Without even the ghost of it! She took it with her. Well, that dream
+was so real, that the next day I began building over my house, making
+furniture, and planting flowers for her; and every day, wherever I went,
+I watched for her."
+
+"What nonsense!"
+
+"I can't see it."
+
+"You won't find a girl you dreamed about in a thousand years."
+
+"Wrong!" cried the Harvester triumphantly. "Saw her in little less than
+three months, but she vanished and it took some time and difficult work
+before I located her again; but I've got her all solid now, and she
+doesn't escape."
+
+"Is she a 'lovely and gracious lady'?"
+
+"She is!" said the Harvester, with all his heart.
+
+"Young and beautiful, of course!"
+
+"Indeed yes!"
+
+"Please fill this glass. I told you what I was going to do."
+
+The Harvester refilled the glass and the Girl drained it.
+
+"Now won't you set aside these things and allow me to go to work?" she
+asked. "My call may come any minute, and I'll never forgive myself if I
+waste time, and don't draw your moth pattern for you."
+
+"It's against my principles to hurry, and besides, my story isn't
+finished."
+
+"It is," said the Girl. "She is young and lovely, gentle and a lady, you
+have her 'all solid,' and she can't 'escape'; that's the end, of course.
+But if I were you, I wouldn't have her until I gave her a chance to get
+away, and saw whether she would if she could."
+
+"Oh I am not a jailer," said the Harvester. "She shall be free if I
+cannot make her love me; but I can, and I will; I swear it."
+
+"You are not truly in earnest?"
+
+"I am in deadly earnest."
+
+"Honestly, you dreamed about a girl, and found the very one?"
+
+"Most certainly, I did."
+
+"It sounds like the wildest romancing."
+
+"It is the veriest reality."
+
+"Well I hope you win her, and that she will be everything you desire."
+
+"Thank you," said the Harvester. "It's written in the book of fate
+that I succeed. The very elements are with me. The South Wind carried
+a message to her for me. I am going to marry her, but you could make it
+much easier for me if you would."
+
+"I! What could I do?" cried the Girl.
+
+"You could cease being afraid of me. You could learn to trust me. You
+could try to like me, if you see anything likeable about me. That would
+encourage me so that I could tell you of my Dream Girl, and then you
+could show me how to win her. A woman always knows about those things
+better than a man. You could be the greatest help in all the world to
+me, if only you would."
+
+"I couldn't possibly! I can't leave here. I have no proper clothing to
+appear before another girl. She would be shocked at my white face. That
+I could help you is the most improbable dream you have had."
+
+"You must pardon me if I differ from you, and persist in thinking that
+you can be of invaluable assistance to me, if you will. But you can't
+influence my Dream Girl, if you fear and distrust me yourself. Promise
+me that you will help me that much, anyway."
+
+"I'll do all I can. I only want to make you see that I am in no position
+to grant any favours, no matter how much I owe you or how I'd like to.
+Is the candlestick you are carving for her?"
+
+"It is," said the Harvester. "I am making a pair of maple to stand on a
+dressing table I built for her. It is unusually beautiful wood, I think,
+and I hope she will be pleased with it."
+
+"Please take these things away and let me begin. This is the only thing
+I can see that I can do for you, and the moth will want to fly before I
+have finished."
+
+The Harvester cleared the table and placed the box, while the Girl
+spread the paper and began work eagerly.
+
+"I wonder if I knew there were such exquisite things in all the world,"
+she said. "I scarcely think I did. I am beginning to understand why you
+couldn't kill one. You could make a chair or a table, and so you feel
+free to destroy them; but it takes ages and Almighty wisdom to evolve a
+creature like this, so you don't dare. I think no one else would if they
+really knew. Please talk while I work."
+
+"Is there a particular subject you want discussed?"
+
+"Anything but her. If I think too strongly of her, I can't work so
+well."
+
+"Your ginseng is almost dry," said the Harvester. "I think I can bring
+you the money in a few days."
+
+"So soon!" she cried.
+
+"It dries day and night in an even temperature, and faster than you
+would believe. There's going to be between seven and eight pounds of
+it, when I make up what it has shrunk. It will go under the head of the
+finest wild roots. I can get eight for it sure."
+
+"Oh what good news!" cried the Girl. "This is my lucky day, too. And the
+little girl isn't coming, so Aunt Molly must be asleep. Everything goes
+right! If only Uncle Henry wouldn't come home!"
+
+"Let me fill your glass," proffered the Harvester.
+
+"Just half way, and set it where I can see it," said the Girl. She
+worked with swift strokes and there was a hint of colour in her face, as
+she looked at him. "I hope you won't think I'm greedy," she said, "but
+truly, that's the first thing I've had that I could taste in----I can't
+remember when."
+
+"I'll bring a barrel to-morrow," offered the Harvester, "and a big piece
+of ice wrapped in coffee sacking."
+
+"You mustn't think of such a thing! Ice is expensive and so are fruits."
+
+"Ice costs me the time required to saw and pack it at my home. I almost
+live on the fruit I raise. I confess to a fondness for this drink. I
+have no other personal expenses, unless you count in books, and a very
+few clothes, such as I'm wearing; so I surely can afford all the fruit
+juice I want."
+
+"For yourself, yes."
+
+"Also for a couple of women or I am a mighty poor attempt at a man,"
+said the Harvester. "This is my day, so you are not to talk, because it
+won't do any good. Things go my way."
+
+"Please see what you think of this," she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and bent over her.
+
+"That will do finely," he answered. "You can stop. I don't require all
+those little details for carving, I just want a good outline. It is
+finished. See here!"
+
+He drew some folded papers from his pocket and laid them before her.
+
+"Those are what I have been working from," he said.
+
+The Girl took them and studied each carefully.
+
+"If those are worth five dollars to you," she said gently, "why then I
+needn't hesitate to take as much for mine. They are superior."
+
+"I should say so," laughed the Harvester as he took up the drawing and
+laid down the money.
+
+"If you would make it half that much I'd feel better about it," she
+said.
+
+"How could I?" asked the Harvester. "Your fingers are well trained and
+extremely skilful. Because some one has not been paying you enough for
+your work is no reason why I should keep it up. From now on you must
+have what others get. As soon as you can arrange for work, I want to
+tell you about some designs I have studied out from different things,
+show you the plants and insects, and have you make some samples. I'll
+send them to proper places, and see what experts say about the ideas and
+drawing. Work in the woods is healthful, with proper precautions;
+it's easy compared with the exactions of being bound to sewing or
+embroidering in the confinement of a room; it's vividly interesting
+in the search for new subjects, changes of material, and differing
+harmonious combinations; it's truly artistic; and it brings the prices
+high grade stuff always does."
+
+"Almost you give me hope," said the Girl. "Almost, Man----almost! Since
+mother died, I haven't thought or planned beyond paying for the medicine
+she took and the shelter she lies in. Oh I didn't mean to say that----!"
+
+She buried her face in her hands. The Harvester suffered until he
+scarcely knew how to bear it.
+
+"Please finish," he begged. "You hadn't planned beyond the debt, you
+were saying----"
+
+The Girl lifted her tired, strained face.
+
+"Give me a little more of that delicious drink," she said. "I am
+ravenous for it. It puts new life in me. This and what you say bring a
+far away, misty vision of a clean, bright, peaceful room somewhere, and
+work one could love and live on in comfort; enough to give a desire to
+finish life to its natural end. Oh Man, you make me hope in spite of
+myself!"
+
+"'Praise God from whom all blessings flow;'" quoted the Harvester
+reverently. "Now try one of these peaches. It's juicy and cold. Get that
+room right in focus in your brain, and nurture the idea. Its walls shall
+be bright as sunshine, its floor creamy white, and it shall open into a
+little garden, where only yellow flowers grow, and the birds shall sing.
+The first ray of sun that peeps over the hills of morning shall fall
+through its windows across your bed, and you shall work only as you
+please, after you've had months of play and rest; and it's coming true
+the instant you can leave here. Dream of it, make up your mind to it,
+because it's coming. I have a little streak of second sight, and I see
+it on the way."
+
+"You are talking wildly," said the Girl, "else you are a good genie
+trying to conjure a room for me."
+
+"This room I am talking of is ready whenever you want to take
+possession," said the Harvester. "Accept it as a reality, because I tell
+you I know where it is, that it is waiting, and you can earn your way
+into it with no obligation to any one."
+
+The Girl stretched out her right hand and slowly turned and opened and
+closed it. Then she glanced at the Harvester with a weary smile.
+
+"From somewhere I feel a glimmering of the spirit, but Oh, dear Lord,
+the flesh is weak!" she said.
+
+"That's where nourishing foods, appetizing drinks, plenty of pure, fresh
+air, and good water come in. Now we have talked enough for one day, and
+worked too much. The fruit and drink go with you. I will carry it to the
+house, and you can hide it in your room. I am going to put a bottle of
+tonic on top that the best surgeon in the state gave me for you. Try to
+eat something strengthening and then take a spoonful of this, and use
+all the fruit you want. I'll bring more to-morrow and put it here, with
+plenty of ice. Now suppose you let the moth go free," he suggested to
+avoid objections. "You must take my word for it, that it is perfectly
+harmless, lacking either sting or bite, and hold your hand before it, so
+that it will climb on your fingers. Then stand where a ray of sunshine
+falls and in a few minutes it will go out to live its life."
+
+The Girl hesitated a second as she studied the clean-cut, interested
+face of the man; then she held out her hand, and he urged the moth to
+climb on her fingers. She stepped where a ray of strong light fell on
+the forest floor and held the moth in it. The brightness also touched
+her transparent hand and white face and the gleaming black hair. The
+Harvester choked down a rising surge of desire for her, and took a new
+grip on himself.
+
+"Oh!" she cried breathlessly, as the clinging feet suddenly loosened and
+the luna slowly flew away among the trees. She turned on the Harvester.
+"You teach me wonders!" she cried. "You give life different meanings.
+You are not as other men."
+
+"If that be true, it is because I am of the woods. The Almighty does not
+evolve all his wonders in animal, bird, and flower form; He keeps some
+to work out in the heart, if humanity only will go to His school, and
+allow Him to have dominion. Come now, you must go. I will come back and
+put away all the things and tomorrow I will bring your ginseng money.
+Any time you cannot come, if you want to tell me why, or if there is
+anything I can do for you, put a line under the oilcloth. I will carry
+the bucket."
+
+"I am so afraid," she said.
+
+"I will only go to the edge of the woods. You can see if there is any
+one at the house first. If not, you can send the child away, and then I
+will carry the bucket to the door for you, and it will furnish comfort
+for one night, at least."
+
+They went to the cleared land and the Girl passed on alone. Soon she
+reappeared and the Harvester saw the child going down the road. He took
+up the bucket and set it inside the door.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you?"
+
+"Nothing but go, before you make trouble."
+
+"Will you hide that stuff and walk back as far as the woods with me?
+There is something more I want to say to you."
+
+The Girl staggered under the heavy load, and the man turned his head and
+tried to pretend he did not see. Presently she came out to him, and they
+returned to the line of the woods. Just as they entered the shade there
+was a flash before them, and on a twig a few rods away a little gray
+bird alighted, while in precipitate pursuit came a flaming wonder of
+red, and in a burst of excited trills, broken whistles, and imploring
+gestures, perched beside her.
+
+The Harvester hastily drew the Girl behind some bushes.
+
+"Watch!" he whispered. "You are going to see a sight so lovely and so
+rare it is vouchsafed to few mortals ever to behold."
+
+"What are they fighting about?" she whispered.
+
+"You are witnessing a cardinal bird declare his love," breathed the
+Harvester.
+
+"Do cardinals love different birds?"
+
+"No. The female is gray, because if she is coloured the same as the
+trees and branches and her nest, she will have more chance to bring off
+her young in safety. He is blood red, because he is the bravest, gayest,
+most ardent lover of the whole woods," explained the Harvester.
+
+The Girl leaned forward breathlessly watching and a slow surge of colour
+crept into her cheeks. The red bird twisted, whistled, rocked, tilted,
+and trilled, and the gray sat demurely watching him, as if only half
+convinced he really meant it. The gay lover began at the beginning and
+said it all over again with more impassioned gestures than before, and
+then he edged in touch and softly stroked her wing with his beak.
+She appeared startled, but did not fly. So again the fountain of
+half-whistled, half-trilled notes bubbled with the acme of pleading
+intonation and that time he leaned and softly kissed her as she reached
+her bill for the caress. Then she fled in headlong flight, while the
+streak of flame darted after her. The Girl caught her breath in a swift
+spasm of surprise and wonder. She turned to the Harvester.
+
+"What was it you wanted to say to me?" she asked hurriedly.
+
+The Harvester was not the man to miss the goods the gods provided. Truly
+this was his lucky day. Unhesitatingly he took the plunge.
+
+"Precisely what he said to her. And if you observed closely, you noticed
+that she didn't ask him 'why.'"
+
+Before she could open her lips, he was gone, his swift strides carrying
+him through the woods.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. "THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID"
+
+The next day the Harvester lifted the oilcloth, and picking up a folded
+note he read----
+
+"Aunt Molly found rest in the night. She was more comfortable than she
+had been since I have known her. Close the end she whispered to me to
+thank you if I ever saw you again. She will be buried to-morrow. Past
+that, I dare not think."
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and studied the lines. She would not come
+that day or the next. After a long time he put the note in his pocket,
+wrote an answer telling her he had been there, and would come on the
+following day on the chance of her wanting anything he could do, and the
+next he would bring the ginseng money, so she must be sure to meet him.
+
+Then he went back to the wagon, turned Betsy, and drove around the
+Jameson land watching closely. There were several vehicles in the barn
+lot, and a couple of men sitting under the trees of the door yard. Faded
+bedding hung on the line and women moved through the rooms, but he could
+not see the Girl. Slowly he drove on until he came to the first house,
+and there he stopped and went in. He saw the child of the previous day,
+and as she came forward her mother appeared in the doorway.
+
+The Harvester explained who he was and that he was examining the woods
+in search of some almost extinct herbs he needed in his business.
+Then he told of having been at the adjoining farm the day before and
+mentioned the sick woman. He added that later she had died. He casually
+mentioned that a young woman there seemed pale and ill and wondered
+if the neighbours would see her through. He suggested that the place
+appeared as if the owner did not take much interest, and when the woman
+finished with Henry Jameson, he said how very important it seemed to him
+that some good, kind-hearted soul should go and mother the poor girl,
+and the woman thought she was the very person. Without knowing exactly
+how he did it, the Harvester left with her promise to remain with the
+Girl the coming two nights. The woman had her hands full of strange and
+delicious fruit without understanding why it had been given her, or why
+she had made those promises. She thought the Harvester a remarkably fine
+young man to take such interest in strangers and she told him he was
+welcome to anything he could find on her place that would help with his
+medicines.
+
+The Harvester just happened to be coming from the woods as the woman
+freshly dressed left the house, so he took her in the wagon and drove
+back to the Jameson place, because he was going that way. Then he
+returned to Medicine Woods and worked with all his might.
+
+First he polished floors, cleaned windows, and arranged the rooms
+as best he could inside the cabin; then he gave a finishing touch to
+everything outside. He could not have told why he did it, but he thought
+it was because there was hope that now the Girl would come to Onabasha.
+If he found opportunity to bring her to the city, he hoped that possibly
+he might drive home with her and show Medicine Woods, so everything
+must be in order. Then he worked with flying fingers in the dry-house,
+putting up her ginseng for market, and never was weight so liberal.
+
+The next morning he drove early to Onabasha and came home with a loaded
+wagon, the contents of which he scattered through the cabin where it
+seemed most suitable, but the greater part of it was for her. He glanced
+at the bare floors and walls of the other rooms, and thought of trying
+to improve them, but he was afraid of not getting the right things.
+
+"I don't know much about what is needed here," he said, "but I am
+perfectly safe in buying anything a girl ever used."
+
+Then he returned to the city, explained the situation to the doctor, and
+selected the room he wanted in case the Girl could be persuaded to come
+to the hospital. After that he went to see the doctor's wife, and
+made arrangements for her to be ready for a guest, because there was a
+possibility he might want to call for help. He had another jug of fruit
+juice and all the delicacies he could think of, also a big cake of ice,
+when he reached the woods. There were only a few words for him.
+
+"I will come to-morrow at two, if at all possible; if not, keep the
+money until I can."
+
+There was nothing to do except to place his offering under the oilcloth
+and wait, but he simply was compelled to add a line to say he would be
+there, and to express the hope that she was comfortable as possible and
+thinking of the sunshine room. Then he returned to Medicine Woods to
+wait, and found that possible only by working to exhaustion. There were
+many things he could do, and one after another he finished them, until
+completely worn out; and then he slept the deep sleep of weariness.
+
+At noon the next day he bathed, shaved, and dressed in fresh, clean
+clothing. He stopped in Onabasha for more fruit, and drove to the
+Jameson woods. He was waiting and watching the usual path the Girl
+followed, when her step sounded on the other side. The Harvester arose
+and turned. Her pallor was alarming. She stepped on the rug he had
+spread, and sank almost breathless to the chair.
+
+"Why do you come a new way that fills you with fear?" asked the
+Harvester.
+
+"It seems as if Uncle Henry is watching me every minute, and I didn't
+dare come where he could see. I must not remain a second. You must take
+these things away and go at once. He is dreadful."
+
+"So am I," said the Harvester, "when affairs go too everlastingly wrong.
+I am not afraid of any man living. What are you planning to do?"
+
+"I want to ask you, are you sure about the prices of my drawing and the
+ginseng?"
+
+"Absolutely," said the Harvester. "As for the ginseng it went in fresh
+and early, best wild roots, and it brought eight a pound. There were
+eight pounds when I made up weight and here is your money."
+
+He handed her a long envelope addressed to her.
+
+"What is the amount?" she asked.
+
+"Sixty-four dollars."
+
+"I can't believe it."
+
+"You have it in your fingers."
+
+"You know that I would like to thank you properly, if I had words to
+express myself."
+
+"Never mind that," said the Harvester. "Tell me what you are planning.
+Say that you will come to the hospital for the long, perfect rest now."
+
+"It is absolutely impossible. Don't weary me by mentioning it. I
+cannot."
+
+"Will you tell me what you intend doing?"
+
+"I must," she said, "for it depends entirely on your word. I am going
+to get Uncle Henry's supper, and then go and remain the night with the
+neighbour who has been helping me. In the morning, when he leaves, she
+is coming with her wagon for my trunk, and she is going to drive with me
+to Onabasha and find me a cheap room and loan me a few things, until I
+can buy what I need. I am going to use fourteen dollars of this and my
+drawing money for what I am forced to buy, and pay fifty on my debt.
+Then I will send you my address and be ready for work."
+
+She clutched the envelope and for the first time looked at him.
+
+"Very well," said the Harvester. "I could take you to the wife of my
+best friend, the chief surgeon of the city hospital, and everything
+would be ease and rest until you are strong; she would love to have
+you."
+
+The Girl dropped her hands wearily.
+
+"Don't tire me with it!" she cried. "I am almost falling despite the
+stimulus of food and drink I can touch. I never can thank you properly
+for that. I won't be able to work hard enough to show you how much I
+appreciate what you have done for me. But you don't understand. A woman,
+even a poverty-poor woman, if she be delicately born and reared, cannot
+go to another woman on a man's whim, and when she lacks even the barest
+necessities. I don't refuse to meet your friends. I shall love to, when
+I can be so dressed that I will not shame you. Until that times comes,
+if you are the gentleman you appear to be, you will wait without urging
+me further."
+
+"I must be a man, in order to be a gentleman," said the Harvester. "And
+it is because the man in me is in hot rebellion against more loneliness,
+pain, and suffering for you, that the conventions become chains I do not
+care how soon or how roughly I break. If only you could be induced to
+say the word, I tell you I could bring one of God's gentlest women to
+you."
+
+"And probably she would come in a dainty gown, in her carriage or motor,
+and be disgusted, astonished, and secretly sorry for you. As for me, I
+do not require her pity. I will be glad to know the beautiful, refined,
+and gentle woman you are so certain of, but not until I am better
+dressed and more attractive in appearance than now. If you will give me
+your address, I will write you when I am ready for work."
+
+Silently the Harvester wrote it. "Will you give me permission to take
+these things to your neighbour for you?" he asked. "They would serve
+until you can do better, and I have no earthly use for them."
+
+She hesitated. Then she laughed shortly.
+
+"What a travesty my efforts at pride are with you!" she cried. "I begin
+by trying to preserve some proper dignity, and end by confessing abject
+poverty. I yet have the ten you paid me the other day, but twenty-four
+dollars are not much to set up housekeeping on, and I would be more glad
+than I can say for these very things."
+
+"Thank you," said the Harvester. "I will take them when I go. Is there
+anything else?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Will you have a drink?"
+
+"Yes, if you have more with you. I believe it is really cooling my
+blood."
+
+"Are you taking the medicine?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "and I am stronger. Truly I am. I know I appear ghastly
+to you, but it's loss of sleep, and trying to lay away poor Aunt Molly
+decently, and----"
+
+"And fear of Uncle Henry," added the Harvester.
+
+"Yes," said the Girl. "That most of all! He thinks I am going to stay
+here and take her place. I can't tell him I am not, and how I am to hide
+from him when I am gone, I don't know. I am afraid of him."
+
+"Has he any claim on you?"
+
+"Shelter for the past three months."
+
+"Are you of age?"
+
+"I am almost twenty-four," she said.
+
+"Then suppose you leave Uncle Henry to me," suggested the Harvester.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Careful now! The red bird told you why!" said the man. "I will not
+urge it upon you now, but keep it steadily in the back of your head that
+there is a sunshine room all ready and waiting for you, and I am going
+to take you to it very soon. As things are, I think you might allow me
+to tell you----"
+
+She was on her feet in instant panic. "I must go," she said. "Uncle
+Henry is dogging me to promise to remain, and I will not, and he is
+watching me. I must go----"
+
+"Can you give me your word of honour that you will go to the neighbour
+woman to-night; that you feel perfectly safe?"
+
+She hesitated. "Yes, I----I think so. Yes, if he doesn't find out and
+grow angry. Yes, I will be safe."
+
+"How soon will you write me?"
+
+"Just as soon as I am settled and rest a little."
+
+"Do you mean several days?"
+
+"Yes, several days."
+
+"An eternity!" cried the Harvester with white lips. "I cannot let you
+go. Suppose you fall ill and fail to write me, and I do not know where
+you are, and there is no one to care for you."
+
+"But can't you see that I don't know where I will be? If it will satisfy
+you, I will write you a line to-morrow night and tell you where I am,
+and you can come later."
+
+"Is that a promise?" asked the Harvester.
+
+"It is," said the Girl.
+
+"Then I will take these things to your neighbour and wait until
+to-morrow night. You won't fail me?"
+
+"I never in all my life saw a man so wild over designs," said the Girl,
+as she started toward the house.
+
+"Don't forget that the design I'm craziest about is the same as the red
+bird's," the Harvester flung after her, but she hurried on and made no
+reply.
+
+He folded the table and chair, rolled the rug, and shouldering them
+picked up the bucket and started down the river bank.
+
+"David!"
+
+Such a faint little call he never would have been sure he heard anything
+if Belshazzar had not stopped suddenly. The hair on the back of his neck
+arose and he turned with a growl in his throat. The Harvester dropped
+his load with a crash and ran in leaping bounds, but the dog was before
+him. Half way to the house, Ruth Jameson swayed in the grip of her
+uncle. One hand clutched his coat front in a spasmodic grasp, and with
+the other she covered her face.
+
+The roar the Harvester sent up stayed the big, lifted fist, and the dog
+leaped for a throat hold, and compelled the man to defend himself. The
+Harvester never knew how he covered the space until he stood between
+them, and saw the Girl draw back and snatch together the front of her
+dress.
+
+"He took it from me!" she panted. "Make him, oh make him give back my
+money!"
+
+Then for a few seconds things happened too rapidly to record. Once the
+Harvester tossed a torn envelope exposing money to the Girl, and again a
+revolver, and then both men panting and dishevelled were on their feet.
+
+"Count your money, Ruth?" said the Harvester in a voice of deadly quiet.
+
+"It is all here," said she.
+
+"Her money?" cried Henry Jameson. "My money! She has been stealing the
+price of my cattle from my pockets. I thought I was short several times
+lately."
+
+"You are lying," said the Harvester deliberately. "It is her money. I
+just paid it to her. You were trying to take it from her, not the other
+way."
+
+"Oh, she is in your pay?" leered the man.
+
+"If you say an insulting word I think very probably I will finish you,"
+said the Harvester. "I can, with my naked hands, and all your neighbours
+will say it is a a good job. You have felt my grip! I warn you!"
+
+"How does my niece come to be taking money from you!"
+
+"You have forfeited all right to know. Ruth, you cannot remain here. You
+must come with me. I will take you to Onabasha and find you a room."
+
+A horrible laugh broke from the man.
+
+"So that is the end of my saintly niece!" he said.
+
+"Remember!" cried the Harvester advancing a step. "Ruth, will you go to
+the rest I suggested for you?"
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"Will you go to Doctor Carey's wife?"
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Will you marry me and go to the shelter of my home with me?"
+
+Wild-eyed she stared at him.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I love you, and want life made easier for you, above anything
+else on earth."
+
+"But your Dream Girl!"
+
+"YOU ARE THE DREAM GIRL! I thought the red bird told you for me! I
+didn't know it would be a shock. I believed I had made you understand."
+
+By that time she was shaking with a nervous chill, and the sight
+unmanned the Harvester.
+
+"Come with me!" he urged. "We will decide what you want to do on the
+way. Only come, I beg you."
+
+"First it was marry, now it's decide later," broke in Henry Jameson,
+crazed with anger. "Move a step and I'll strike you down. I'd better
+than see you disgraced----"
+
+The Harvester advanced and Jameson stepped back.
+
+"Ruth," said the Harvester, "I know how impossible this seems. It is
+giving you no chance at all. I had intended, when I found you, to court
+you tenderly as girl ever was wooed before. Come with me, and I'll do
+it yet. The new home was built for you. The sunshine room is ready and
+waiting for you. There is pure air, fresh water, nothing but rest and
+comfort. I'll nurse you back to health and strength, and you shall be
+courted until you come to me of your own accord."
+
+"Impossible!" cried the girl.
+
+"Only if you make it so. If you will come now, we can be married in a
+few hours, and you can be safe in your own home. I realize now that
+this is unexpected and shocking to you, but if you will come with me and
+allow me to restore you to health and strength, and if, say, in a year,
+you are convinced that you do not love me, I will set you free. If
+you will come, I swear to you that you shall be my wife first, and my
+honoured guest afterward, until such time as you either tell me you love
+me or that you never can. Will you come on those terms, Ruth?"
+
+"I cannot!"
+
+"It will end fear, uncertainty, and work, until you are strong and well.
+It will give you home, rest, and love, that you will find is worth your
+consideration. I will keep my word; of that you may be sure."
+
+"No," she cried. "No! But take back this money! Keep it until I tell you
+to whom to pay it."
+
+She started toward him holding out the envelope.
+
+Henry Jameson, with a dreadful oath, sprang for it, his contorted face
+a drawn snarl. The Harvester caught him in air and sent him reeling. He
+snatched the revolver from the Girl and put the money in his pocket.
+
+"Ruth, I can't leave you here," he said. "Oh my Dream Girl! Are you
+afraid of me yet? Won't you trust me? Won't you come?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are right about that, my lady; you will come back to the house,
+that's what you'll do," said Henry Jameson, starting toward her.
+
+"No!" cried the Girl retreating. "Oh Heaven help me! What am I to do?"
+
+"Ruth, you must come with me," said the Harvester. "I don't dare leave
+you here."
+
+She stood between them and gave Henry Jameson one long, searching look.
+Then she turned to the Harvester.
+
+"I am far less afraid of you. I will accept your offer," she said.
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester. "I will keep my word and you shall have
+no regrets. Is there anything here you wish to take with you?"
+
+"I want a little trunk of my mother's. It contains some things of hers."
+
+"Will you show me where it is?"
+
+She started toward the house; he followed, and Henry Jameson fell in
+line. The Harvester turned on him. "You remain where you are," he said.
+"I will take nothing but the trunk. I know what you are thinking,
+but you will not get your gun just now. I will return this revolver
+to-morrow."
+
+"And the first thing I do with it will be to use it on you," said Henry
+Jameson.
+
+"I'll report that threat to the police, so that they can see you
+properly hanged if you do," retorted the Harvester, as he followed the
+girl.
+
+"Where is his gun?" he asked as he overtook her. When he reached the
+house he told her to watch the door. He went inside, broke the lock from
+the gun in the corner, found the trunk, and swinging it to his shoulder,
+passed Henry Jameson and went back through the woods. The Harvester set
+the trunk in the wagon, helped the Girl in, and returned for the load
+he had dropped at her call. Then he took the lines and started for
+Onabasha.
+
+The Girl beside him was almost fainting. He stopped to give her a drink
+and tried to encourage her.
+
+"Brace up the best you can, Ruth," he said. "You must go with me for a
+license; that is the law. Afterward, I'll make it just as easy for
+you as possible. I will do everything, and in a few hours you will be
+comfortable in your room. You brave girl! This must come out right!
+You have suffered more than your share. I will have peace for you the
+remainder of the way."
+
+She lifted shaking hands and tried to arrange her hair and dress. As
+they neared the city she spoke.
+
+"What will they ask me?"
+
+"I don't know. But I am sure the law requires you to appear in person
+now. I can take you somewhere and find out first."
+
+"That will take time. I want to reach my room. What would you think?"
+
+"If you are of age, where you were born, if you are a native of this
+country, what your father and mother died of, how old they were, and
+such questions as that. I'll help you all I can. You know those things.
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes. But I must tell you----"
+
+"I don't want to be told anything," said the Harvester. "Save your
+strength. All I want to know is any way in which I can make this easier
+for you. Nothing else matters. I will tell you what I think; if you have
+any objections, make them. I will drive to the bank and get a draft for
+what you owe, and have that off your mind. Then we will get the license.
+After that I'll take you to the side door, slip you in the elevator and
+to the fitting room of a store where I know the manager, and you shall
+have some pretty clothing while I arrange for a minister, and I'll come
+for you with a carriage. That isn't the kind of wedding you or any other
+girl should have, but there are times when a man only can do his best.
+You will help me as much as you can, won't you?"
+
+"Anything you choose. It doesn't matter----only be quick as possible."
+
+"There are a few details to which I must attend," said the Harvester,
+"and the time will go faster trying on dresses than waiting alone. When
+you are properly clothed you will feel better. What did you say the
+amount you owe is?"
+
+"You may get a draft for fifty dollars. I will pay the remainder when I
+earn it."
+
+"Ruth, won't you give me the pleasure of taking you home free from the
+worry of that debt?"
+
+"I am not going to 'worry.' I am going to work and pay it."
+
+"Very well," said the Harvester. "This is the bank. We will stop here."
+
+They went in and he handed her a slip of paper.
+
+"Write the name and address on that?" he said.
+
+As the slip was returned to him, without a glance he folded it and slid
+it under a wicket. "Write a draft for fifty dollars payable to that
+party, and send to that address, from Miss Ruth Jameson," he said.
+
+Then he turned to her.
+
+"That is over. See how easy it is! Now we will go to the court house. It
+is very close. Try not to think. Just move and speak."
+
+"Hello, Langston!" said the clerk. "What can we do for you here?"
+
+"Show this girl every consideration," whispered the Harvester, as he
+advanced. "I want a marriage license in your best time. I will answer
+first."
+
+With the document in his possession, they went to the store he
+designated, where he found the Girl a chair in the fitting room, while
+he went to see the manager.
+
+"I want one of your most sensible and accommodating clerks," said the
+Harvester, "and I would like a few words with her."
+
+When she was presented he scrutinized her carefully and decided she
+would do.
+
+"I have many thanks and something more substantial for a woman who will
+help me to carry through a slightly unusual project with sympathy and
+ability," he said, "and the manager has selected you. Are you willing?"
+
+"If I can," said the clerk.
+
+"She has put up your other orders," interposed the manager; "were they
+satisfactory?"
+
+"I don't know," said the Harvester. "They have not yet reached the one
+for whom they were intended. What I want you to do," he said to the
+clerk, "is to go to the fitting room and dress the girl you find there
+for her wedding. She had other plans, but death disarranged them, and
+she has only an hour in which to meet the event most girls love to
+linger over for months. She has been ill, and is worn with watching; but
+some time she may look back to her wedding day with joy, and if only
+you would help me to make the best of it for her, I would be, as I said,
+under more obligations than I can express."
+
+"I will do anything," said the clerk.
+
+"Very well," said the Harvester. "She has come from the country entirely
+unprepared. She is delicate and refined. Save her all the embarrassment
+you can. Dress her beautifully in white. Keep a memorandum slip of what
+you spend for my account."
+
+"What is the limit?" asked the clerk.
+
+"There is none," said the Harvester. "Put the prettiest things on her
+you have in the right sizes, and if you are a woman with a heart, be
+gentle!"
+
+"Is she ready?" inquired the manager at the door an hour later.
+
+"I am," said the Girl stepping through.
+
+The astounded Harvester stood and stared, utterly oblivious of the
+curious people.
+
+"Here, here, here!" suddenly he whistled it, in the red bird's most
+entreating tones.
+
+The Girl laughed and the colour in her face deepened.
+
+"Let us go," she said.
+
+"But what about you?" asked the manager of the Harvester.
+
+"Thunder!" cried the man aghast. "I was so busy getting everything else
+ready, I forgot all about myself. I can't stand before a minister beside
+her, can I?"
+
+"Well I should say not," said the manager.
+
+"Indeed yes," said the Girl. "I never saw you in any other clothing. You
+would be a stranger of whom I'd be afraid."
+
+"That settles it!" said the Harvester calmly. "Thank all of you more
+than words can express. I will come in the first of the week and tell
+you how we get along."
+
+Then they went to the carriage and started for the residence of a
+minister.
+
+"Ruth, you are my Dream Girl to the tips of your eyelashes," said the
+Harvester. "I almost wish you were not. It wouldn't keep me thinking so
+much of the remainder of that dream. You are the loveliest sight I ever
+saw."
+
+"Do I really appear well?" asked the Girl, hungry for appreciation.
+
+"Indeed you do!" said the Harvester. "I never could have guessed that
+such a miracle could be wrought. And you don't seem so tired. Were they
+good to you?"
+
+"Wonderfully! I did not know there was kindness like that in all the
+world for a stranger. I did not feel lost or embarrassed, except the
+first few seconds when I didn't know what to do. Oh I thank you for
+this! You were right. Whatever comes in life I always shall love to
+remember that I was daintily dressed and appeared as well as I could
+when I was married. But I must tell you I am not real. They did
+everything on earth to me, three of them working at a time. I feel an
+increase in self-respect in some way. David, I do appear better?"
+
+When she said "David," the Harvester looked out of the window and gulped
+down his delight. He leaned toward her.
+
+"Shut your eyes and imagine you see the red bird," he said. "In my
+soul, I am saying to you again and again just what he sang. You are
+wonderfully beautiful, Ruth, and more than wonderfully sweet. Will you
+answer me a question?"
+
+"If I can."
+
+"I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?"
+
+"I said I would."
+
+"Then we are engaged, aren't we?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Please remove the glove from your left hand. I want to put on your
+ring. This will have to be a very short engagement, but no one save
+ourselves need know."
+
+"David, that isn't necessary."
+
+"I have it here, and believe me, Ruth, it will help in a few minutes;
+and all your life you will be glad. It is a precious symbol that has a
+meaning. This wedding won't be hurt by putting all the sacredness into
+it we can. Please, Ruth!"
+
+"On one condition."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That you will accept and wear my mother's wedding ring in exchange,"
+she said. "It is all I have."
+
+"Ruth, do you really wish that?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"I am more pleased than I can tell you. May I have it now?"
+
+She took off her glove and the Harvester held her hand closely a second,
+then lifted it to his lips, passionately kissed it and slipped on a
+ring, the setting a big, lustrous pearl.
+
+"I looked at some others," he said, "but nothing got a second glance
+save this. They knew you were coming down the ages, and so they got the
+pearls ready. How beautiful it is on your hand! Put on the glove and
+wear that ring as if you had owned it for the long, happy year of
+betrothal every girl should have. You can start yours to-day, and if by
+this time next year I have not won you to my heart and arms, I'm no
+man and not worthy of you. Ruth, you will try just a little to love me,
+won't you?"
+
+"I will try with all my heart," she said instantly.
+
+"Thank you! I am perfectly happy with that. I never expected to marry
+you before a year, anyway. All the difference will be the blessed fact
+that instead of coming to see you somewhere else, I now can have you in
+my care, and court you every minute. You might as well make up your mind
+to capitulate soon. It's on the books that you do."
+
+"If an instant ever comes when I realize that I love you, I will come
+straight and tell you; believe me, I will."
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester. "This is going to be quite a proper
+wedding after all. Here is the place. It will be over soon and you on
+the home way. Lord, Ruth----!"
+
+The Girl smiled at him as he opened the carriage door, helped her up the
+steps and rang the bell.
+
+"Be brave now!" he whispered. "Don't lose your lovely colour. These
+people will be as kind as they were at the store."
+
+The minister was gentle and wasted no time. His wife and daughter, who
+appeared for witnesses, kissed Ruth, and congratulated her. She and the
+Harvester stood, took the vows, exchanged rings, and returned to the
+carriage, a man and his wife by the laws of man.
+
+"Drive to Seaton's cafe'," the Harvester said.
+
+"Oh David, let us go home!"
+
+"This is so good I hate to stop it for something you may not like so
+well. I ordered lunch and if we don't eat it I will have to pay for it
+anyway. You wouldn't want me to be extravagant, would you?"
+
+"No," said the Girl, "and besides, since you mention it, I believe I am
+hungry."
+
+"Good!" cried the Harvester. "I hoped so! Ruth, you wouldn't allow me
+to hold your hand just until we reach the cafe'? It might save me from
+bursting with joy."
+
+"Yes," she said. "But I must take off my lovely gloves first. I want to
+keep them forever."
+
+"I'd hate the glove being removed dreadfully," said the Harvester, his
+eyes dancing and snapping.
+
+"I'm sorry I am so thin and shaky," said the Girl. "I will be steady and
+plump soon, won't I?"
+
+"On your life you will," said the Harvester, taking the hand gently.
+
+Now there are a number of things a man deeply in love can think of to do
+with a woman's white hand. He can stroke it, press it tenderly, and lay
+it against his lips and his heart. The Harvester lacked experience
+in these arts, and yet by some wonderful instinct all of these things
+occurred to him. There was real colour in the Girl's cheeks by the time
+he helped her into the cafe'. They were guided to a small room, cool and
+restful, close a window, beside which grew a tree covered with talking
+leaves. A waiting attendant, who seemed perfectly adept, brought in
+steaming bouillon, fragrant tea, broiled chicken, properly cooked
+vegetables, a wonderful salad, and then delicious ices and cold fruit.
+The happy Harvester leaned back and watched the Girl daintily manage
+almost as much food as he wanted to see her eat.
+
+When they had finished, "Now we are going home," he said. "Will you try
+to like it, Ruth?"
+
+"Indeed I will," she promised. "As soon as I grow accustomed to the
+dreadful stillness, and learn what things will not bite me, I'll be
+better."
+
+"I'll have to ask you to wait a minute," he said. "One thing I forgot. I
+must hire a man to take Betsy home."
+
+"Aren't you going to drive her yourself?"
+
+"No ma'am! We are going in a carriage or a motor," said the Harvester.
+
+"Indeed we are not!" contradicted the Girl. "You have had this all your
+way so far. I am going home behind Betsy, with Belshazzar at my knee."
+
+"But your dress! People will think I am crazy to put a lovely woman like
+you in a spring wagon."
+
+"Let them!" said the Girl placidly. "Why should we bother about other
+people? I am going with Betsy and Belshazzar."
+
+The Harvester had been thinking that he adored her, that it was
+impossible to love her more, but every minute was proving to him that he
+was capable of feeling so profound it startled him. To carry the Girl,
+his bride, through the valley and up the hill in the little spring wagon
+drawn by Betsy--that would have been his ideal way. But he had supposed
+that she would be afraid of soiling her dress, and embarrassed to ride
+in such a conveyance. Instead it was her choice. Yes, he could love her
+more. Hourly she was proving that.
+
+"Come this way a few steps," he said. "Betsy is here."
+
+The Girl laid her face against the nose of the faithful old animal, and
+stroked her head and neck. Then she held her skirts and the Harvester
+helped her into the wagon. She took the seat, and the dog went wild with
+joy.
+
+"Come on, Bel," she softly commanded.
+
+The dog hesitated, and looked at the Harvester for permission.
+
+"You may come here and put your head on my knee," said the Girl.
+
+"Belshazzar, you lucky dog, you are privileged to sit there and lay your
+head on the lady's lap," said the Harvester, and the dog quivered with
+joy.
+
+Then the man picked up the lines, gave a backward glance to the bed
+of the wagon, high piled with large bundles, and turned Betsy toward
+Medicine Woods. Through the crowded streets and toward the country they
+drove, when a big red car passed, a man called to them, then reversed
+and slowly began backing beside the wagon. The Harvester stopped.
+
+"That is my best friend, Doctor Carey, of the hospital, Ruth," he said
+hastily. "May I tell him, and will you shake hands with him?"
+
+"Certainly!" said the Girl.
+
+"Is it really you, David?" the doctor peered with gleaming eyes from
+under the car top.
+
+"Really!" cried the Harvester, as man greets man with a full heart when
+he is sure of sympathy. "Come, give us your best send-off, Doc! We were
+married an hour ago. We are headed for Medicine Woods. Doctor Carey,
+this is Mrs. Langston."
+
+"Mighty glad to know you!" cried the doctor, reaching a happy hand.
+
+The Girl met it cordially, while she smiled on him.
+
+"How did this happen?" demanded the doctor. "Why didn't you let us know?
+This is hardly fair of you, David. You might have let me and the Missus
+share with you."
+
+"That is to be explained," said the Harvester. "It was decided on very
+suddenly, and rather sadly, on account of the death of Mrs. Jameson. I
+forced Ruth to marry me and come with me. I grow rather frightened when
+I think of it, but it was the only way I knew. She absolutely refused my
+other plans. You see before you a wild man carrying away a woman to his
+cave."
+
+"Don't believe him, Doctor!" laughed the Girl. "If you know him, you
+will understand that to offer all he had was like him, when he saw my
+necessity. You will come to see us soon?"
+
+"I'll come right now," said the doctor. "I'll bring my wife and arrive
+by the time you do."
+
+"Oh no you won't!" said the Harvester. "Do you observe the bed of
+this wagon? This happened all 'unbeknownst' to us. We have to set up
+housekeeping after we reach home. We will notify you when we are ready
+for visitors. Just you subside and wait until you are sent for."
+
+"Why David!" cried the astonished Girl.
+
+"That's the law!" said the Harvester tersely. "Good-bye, Doc; we'll be
+ready for you in a day or two."
+
+He leaned down and held out his hand. The grip that caught it said all
+any words could convey; and then Betsy started up the hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. WHEN THE DREAM CAME TRUE
+
+At first the road lay between fertile farms dotted with shocked wheat,
+covered with undulant seas of ripening oats, and forests of growing
+corn. The larks were trailing melody above the shorn and growing fields,
+the quail were ingathering beside the fences, and from the forests on
+graceful wings slipped the nighthawks and sailed and soared, dropping
+so low that the half moons formed by white spots on their spread wings
+showed plainly.
+
+"Why is this country so different from the other side of the city?"
+asked the Girl.
+
+"It is older," replied the Harvester, "and it lies higher. This was
+settled and well cultivated when that was a swamp. But as a farming
+proposition, the money is in the lowland like your uncle's. The crops
+raised there are enormous compared with the yield of these fields."
+
+"I see," said she. "But this is much better to look at and the air is
+different. It lacks a soggy, depressing quality."
+
+"I don't allow any air to surpass that of Medicine Woods," said the
+Harvester, "by especial arrangement with the powers that be."
+
+Then they dipped into a little depression and arose to cross the
+railroad and then followed a longer valley that was ragged and unkempt
+compared with the road between cultivated fields. The Harvester was busy
+trying to plan what to do first, and how to do it most effectively, and
+working his brain to think if he had everything the Girl would require
+for her comfort; so he drove silently through the deepening shadows. She
+shuddered and awoke him suddenly. He glanced at her from the corner of
+his eye.
+
+Her thoughts had gone on a journey, also, and the way had been rough,
+for her face wore a strained appearance. The hands lying bare in her lap
+were tightly gripped, so that the nails and knuckles appeared blue.
+The Harvester hastily cast around seeking for the cause of the
+transformation. A few minutes ago she had seemed at ease and
+comfortable, now she was close open panic. Nothing had been said that
+would disturb her. With brain alert he searched for the reason. Then
+it began to come to him. The unaccustomed silence and depression of the
+country might have been the beginning. Coming from the city and crowds
+of people to the gloomy valley with a man almost a stranger, going she
+knew not where, to conditions she knew not what, with the experiences of
+the day vivid before her. The black valley road was not prepossessing,
+with its border of green pools, through which grew swamp bushes and
+straggling vines. The Harvester looked carefully at the road, and ceased
+to marvel at the Girl. But he disliked to let her know he understood, so
+he gave one last glance at those gripped hands and casually held out the
+lines.
+
+"Will you take these just a second?" he asked. "Don't let them touch
+your dress. We must not lose of our load, because it's mostly things
+that will make you more comfortable."
+
+He arose, and turning, pretended to see that everything was all right.
+Then he resumed his seat and drove on.
+
+"I am a little ashamed of this stretch through here," he said
+apologetically. "I could have managed to have it cleared and in better
+shape long ago, but in a way it yields a snug profit, and so far I've
+preferred the money. The land is not mine, but I could grub out this
+growth entirely, instead of taking only what I need."
+
+"Is there stuff here you use?" the Girl aroused herself to ask, and the
+Harvester saw the look of relief that crossed her face at the sound of
+his voice.
+
+"Well I should say yes," he laughed. "Those bushes, numerous everywhere,
+with the hanging yellow-green balls, those, in bark and root, go into
+fever medicines. They are not so much used now, but sometimes I have a
+call, and when I do, I pass the beds on my----on our land, and come down
+here and get what is needed. That bush," he indicated with the whip,
+"blooms exquisitely in the spring. It is a relative of flowering
+dogwood, and the one of its many names I like best is silky cornel.
+Isn't that pretty?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "it is beautiful."
+
+"I've planted some for you in a hedge along the driveway so next spring
+you can gather all you want. I think you'll like the odour. The bark
+brings more than true dogwood. If I get a call from some house that uses
+it, I save mine and come down here. Around the edge are hop trees, and
+I realize something from them, and also the false and true bitter-sweet
+that run riot here. Both of them have pretty leaves, while the berries
+of the true hang all winter and the colour is gorgeous. I've set your
+hedge closely with them. When it has grown a few months it's going to
+furnish flowers in the spring, a million different, wonderful leaves
+and berries in the summer, many fruits the birds love in the fall, and
+bright berries, queer seed pods, and nuts all winter."
+
+"You planted it for me?"
+
+"Yes. I think it will be beautiful in a season or two; it isn't so bad
+now. I hope it will call myriads of birds to keep you company. When
+you cross this stretch of road hereafter, don't see fetid water and
+straggling bushes and vines; just say to yourself, this helps to fill
+orders!"
+
+"I am perfectly tolerant of it now," she said. "You make everything
+different. I will come with you and help collect the roots and barks
+you want. Which bush did you say relieved the poor souls scorching with
+fever?"
+
+The Harvester drew on the lines, Betsy swerved to the edge of the road,
+and he leaned and broke a branch.
+
+"This one," he answered. "Buttonbush, because those balls resemble round
+buttons. Aren't they peculiar? See how waxy and gracefully cut and set
+the leaves are. Go on, Betsy, get us home before night. We appear our
+best early in the morning, when the sun tops Medicine Woods and begins
+to light us up, and in the evening, just when she drops behind Onabasha
+back there, and strikes us with a few level rays. Will you take the
+lines until I open this gate?"
+
+She laid the twig in her lap on the white gloves and took the lines.
+As the gate swung wide, Betsy walked through and stopped at the usual
+place.
+
+"Now my girl," said the Harvester, "cross yourself, lean back, and take
+your ease. This side that gate you are at home. From here on belongs to
+us."
+
+"To you, you mean," said the Girl.
+
+"To us, I mean," declared the Harvester. "Don't you know that the
+'worldly goods bestowal' clause in a marriage ceremony is a partial
+reality. It doesn't give you 'all my worldly goods,' but it gives you
+one third. Which will you take, the hill, lake, marsh, or a part of all
+of them."
+
+"Oh, is there water?"
+
+"Did I forget to mention that I was formerly sole owner and proprietor
+of the lake of Lost Loons, also a brook of Singing Water, and many cold
+springs. The lake covers about one third of our land, and my neighbours
+would allow me ditch outlet to the river, but they say I'm too lazy to
+take it."
+
+"Lazy! Do they mean drain your lake into the river?"
+
+"They do," said the Harvester, "and make the bed into a cornfield."
+
+"But you wouldn't?"
+
+She turned to him with confidence.
+
+"I haven't so far, but of course, when you see it, if you would prefer
+it in a corn----Let's play a game! Turn your head in this direction,"
+he indicated with the whip, "close your eyes, and open them when I say
+ready."
+
+"All right!"
+
+"Now!" said the Harvester.
+
+"Oh," cried the Girl. "Stop! Please stop!"
+
+They were at the foot of a small levee that ran to the bridge crossing
+Singing Water. On the left lay the valley through which the stream swept
+from its hurried rush down the hill, a marshy thicket of vines, shrubs,
+and bushes, the banks impassable with water growth. Everywhere flamed
+foxfire and cardinal flower, thousands of wild tiger lilies lifted
+gorgeous orange-red trumpets, beside pearl-white turtle head and moon
+daisies, while all the creek bank was a coral line with the first
+opening bloom of big pink mallows. Rank jewel flower poured gold from
+dainty cornucopias and lavender beard-tongue offered honey to a million
+bumbling bees; water smart-weed spread a glowing pink background, and
+twining amber dodder topped the marsh in lacy mist with its delicate
+white bloom. Straight before them a white-sanded road climbed to the
+bridge and up a gentle hill between the young hedge of small trees and
+bushes, where again flowers and bright colours rioted and led to the
+cabin yet invisible. On the right, the hill, crowned with gigantic
+forest trees, sloped to the lake; midway the building stood, and from
+it, among scattering trees all the way to the water's edge, were immense
+beds of vivid colour. Like a scarf of gold flung across the face of
+earth waved the misty saffron, and beside the road running down the
+hill, in a sunny, open space arose tree-like specimens of thrifty
+magenta pokeberry. Down the hill crept the masses of colour, changing
+from dry soil to water growth.
+
+High around the blue-green surface of the lake waved lacy heads of wild
+rice, lower cat-tails, bulrushes, and marsh grasses; arrowhead lilies
+lifted spines of pearly bloom, while yellow water lilies and blue water
+hyacinths intermingled; here and there grew a pink stretch of water
+smartweed and the dangling gold of jewel flower. Over the water,
+bordering the edge, starry faces of white pond lilies floated. Blue
+flags waved graceful leaves, willows grew in clumps, and vines clambered
+everywhere.
+
+Among the growth of the lake shore, duck, coot, and grebe voices
+commingled in the last chattering hastened splash of securing supper
+before bedtime; crying killdeers crossed the water, and overhead the
+nighthawks massed in circling companies. Betsy climbed the hill and at
+every step the Girl cried, "Slower! please go slower!" With wide eyes
+she stared around her.
+
+"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS?" she demanded in awed
+tones.
+
+"Have I had opportunity to describe much of anything?" asked the
+Harvester. "Besides, I was born and reared here, and while it has been
+a garden of bloom for the past six years only, it always has been a
+picture; but one forgets to say much about a sight seen every day and
+that requires the work this does."
+
+"That white mist down there, what is it?" she marvelled.
+
+"Pearls grown by the Almighty," answered the Harvester. "Flowers that I
+hope you will love. They are like you. Tall and slender, graceful, pearl
+white and pearl pure----those are the arrowhead Lilies."
+
+"And the wonderful purplish-red there on the bank? Oh, I could kneel and
+pray before colour like that!'
+
+"Pokeberry!" said the Harvester. "Roots bring five cents a pound. Good
+blood purifier."
+
+"Man!" cried the Girl. "How can you? I'm not going to ask what another
+colour is. I'll just worship what I like in silence."
+
+"Will you forgive me if I tell you what a woman whose judgment I respect
+says about that colour?"
+
+"Perhaps!"
+
+"She says, 'God proves that He loves it best of all the tints in His
+workshop by using it first and most sparingly.' Now are you going to
+punish me by keeping silent?"
+
+"I couldn't if I tried." Just then they came upon the bridge crossing
+Singing Water, and there was a long view of its border, rippling bed,
+and marshy banks; while on the other hand the lake resembled a richly
+incrusted sapphire.
+
+"Is the house close?"
+
+"Just a few rods, at the turn of the drive."
+
+"Please help me down. I want to remain here a while. I don't care what
+else there is to see. Nothing can equal this. I wish I could bring down
+a bed and sleep here. I'd like to have a table, and draw and paint. I
+understand now what you mean about the designs you mentioned. Why, there
+must be thousands! I can't go on. I never saw anything so appealing in
+all my life."
+
+Now the Harvester's mother had designed that bridge and he had built
+it with much care. From bark-covered railings to solid oak floor and
+comfortable benches running along the sides it was intended to be a part
+of the landscape.
+
+"I'll send Belshazzar to the cabin with the wagon," he said, "so you can
+see better."
+
+"But you must not!" she cried. "I can't walk. I wouldn't soil these
+beautiful shoes for anything."
+
+"Why don't you change them?" inquired the Harvester.
+
+"I am afraid I forgot everything I had," said the Girl.
+
+"There are shoes somewhere in this load. I thought of them in getting
+other things for you, but I had no idea as to size, and so I told that
+clerk to-day when she got your measure to put in every kind you'd need."
+
+"You are horribly extravagant," she said. "But if you have them here,
+perhaps I could use one pair."
+
+The Harvester mounted the wagon and hunted until he found a large box,
+and opening it on the bench he disclosed almost every variety of shoe,
+walking shoe and slipper, a girl ever owned, as well as sandals and high
+overshoes.
+
+"For pity sake!" cried the Girl. "Cover that box! You frighten me.
+You'll never get them paid for. You must take them straight back."
+
+"Never take anything back," said the Harvester. "'Be sure you are right,
+then go ahead,' is my motto. Now I know these are your correct size
+and that for differing occasions you will want just such shoes as other
+girls have, and here they are. Simple as life! I think these will serve
+because they are for street wear, yet they are white inside."
+
+He produced a pair of canvas walking shoes and kneeling before her held
+out his hand.
+
+When he had finished, he loaded the box on the wagon, gave the hitching
+strap to Belshazzar, and told him to lead Betsy to the cabin and hold
+her until he came. Then he turned to the Girl.
+
+"Now," he said, "look as long as you choose. But remember that the law
+gives you part of this and your lover, which same am I, gives you the
+remainder, so you are privileged to come here at any hour as often as
+you please. If you miss anything this evening, you have all time to come
+in which to re-examine it."
+
+"I'd like to live right here on this bridge," she said. "I wish it had a
+roof."
+
+"Roof it to-morrow," offered the Harvester. "Simple matter of a few
+pillars already cut, joists joined, and some slab shingles left from the
+cabin. Anything else your ladyship can suggest?"
+
+"That you be sensible."
+
+"I was born that way," explained the Harvester, "and I've cultivated the
+faculty until I've developed real genius. Talking of sense, there never
+was a proper marriage in which the man didn't give the woman a present.
+You seem likely to be more appreciative of this bridge than anything
+else I have, so right here and now would be the appropriate place to
+offer you my wedding gift. I didn't have much time, but I couldn't have
+found anything more suitable if I'd taken a year."
+
+He held out a small, white velvet case.
+
+"Doesn't that look as if it were made for a bride?" he asked.
+
+"It does," answered the Girl. "But I can't take it. You are not doing
+right. Marrying as we did, you never can believe that I love you; maybe
+it won't ever happen that I do. I have no right to accept gifts and
+expensive clothing from you. In the first place, if the love you ask
+never comes, there is no possible way in which I can repay you. In the
+second, these things you are offering are not suitable for life and work
+in the woods. In the third, I think you are being extravagant, and I
+couldn't forgive myself if I allowed that."
+
+"You divide your statements like a preacher, don't you?" asked the
+Harvester ingenuously. "Now sit thee here and gaze on the placid lake
+and quiet your troubled spirit, while I demolish your 'perfectly good'
+arguments. In the first place, you are now my wife, and you have a
+right to take anything I offer, if you care for it or can use it in any
+manner. In the second, you must recognize a difference in our positions.
+What seems nothing to you means all the world to me, and you are less
+than human if you deprive me of the joy of expressing feelings I am in
+honour bound to keep in my heart, by these little material offerings. In
+the third place, I inherited over six hundred acres of land and water,
+please observe the water----it is now in evidence on your left. All my
+life I have been taught to be frugal, economical, and to work. All I've
+earned either has gone back into land, into the bank, or into books,
+very plain food, and such clothing as you now see me wearing. Just the
+value of this place as it stands, with its big trees, its drug crops
+yielding all the year round, would be difficult to estimate; and I don't
+mind telling you that on the top of that hill there is a gold mine, and
+it's mine----ours since four o'clock."
+
+"A gold mine!"
+
+"Acres and acres of wild ginseng, seven years of age and ready to
+harvest. Do you remember what your few pounds brought?"
+
+"Why it's worth thousands!"
+
+"Exactly! For your peace of mind I might add that all I have done or got
+is paid for, except what I bought to-day, and I will write a check for
+that as soon as the bill is made out. My bank account never will feel it
+Truly, Ruth, I am not doing or going to do anything extravagant. I can't
+afford to give you diamond necklaces, yachts, and trips to Europe; but
+you can have the contents of this box and a motor boat on the lake, a
+horse and carriage, and a trip----say to New York perfectly well. Please
+take it."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't ask me. I would be happier not to."
+
+"Yes, but I do ask you," persisted the Harvester. "You are not the
+only one to be considered. I have some rights also, and I'm not so
+self-effacing that I won't insist upon them. From your standpoint I
+am almost a stranger. You have spent no time considering me in near
+relations; I realize that. You feel as if you were driven here for
+a refuge, and that is true. I said to Belshazzar one day that I must
+remember that you had no dream, and had spent no time loving me, and
+I do I know how this wedding seems to you, but it's going to mean
+something different and better soon, please God. I can see your side;
+now suppose you take a look at mine. I did have a dream, it was my
+dream, and beyond the sum of any delight I ever conceived. On the
+strength of it I rebuilt my home and remodelled these premises. Then
+I saw you, and from that day I worked early and late. I lost you and I
+never stopped until I found you; and I would have courted and won you,
+but the fates intervened and here you are! So it's my delight to court
+and win you now. If you knew the difference between having a dream that
+stirred the least fibre of your being and facing the world in a demand
+for realization of it, and then finding what you coveted in the palm
+of your hand, as it were, you would know what is in my heart, and
+why expression of some kind is necessary to me just now, and why I'll
+explode if it is denied. It will lower the tension, if you will accept
+this as a matter of fact; as if you rather expected and liked it, if you
+can."
+
+The Harvester set his finger on the spring.
+
+"Don't!" she said. "I'll never have the courage if you do. Give it to me
+in the case, and let me open it. Despite your unanswerable arguments, I
+am quite sure that is the only way in which I can take it."
+
+The Harvester gave her the box.
+
+"My wedding gift!" she exclaimed, more to herself than to him. "Why
+should I be the buffet of all the unkind fates kept in store for a girl
+my whole life, and then suddenly be offered home, beautiful gifts, and
+wonderful loving kindness by a stranger?"
+
+The Harvester ran his fingers through his crisp hair, pulled it into
+a peak, stepped to the seat and sitting on the railing, he lifted his
+elbows, tilted his head, and began a motley outpouring of half-spoken,
+half-whistled trills and imploring cries. There was enough similarity
+that the Girl instantly recognized the red bird. Out of breath the
+Harvester dropped to the seat beside her.
+
+"And don't you keep forgetting it!" he cried. "Now open that box and
+put on the trinket; because I want to take you to the cabin when the sun
+falls level on the drive."
+
+She opened the case, exposing a thread of gold that appeared too slender
+for the weight of an exquisite pendant, set with shimmering pearls.
+
+"If you will look down there," the Harvester pointed over the railing to
+the arrowhead lilies touched with the fading light, "you will see that
+they are similar."
+
+"They are!" cried the Girl. "How lovely! Which is more beautiful I do
+not know. And you won't like it if I say I must not."
+
+She held the open case toward the Harvester.
+
+"'Possession is nine points in the law,'" he quoted. "You have taken
+it already and it is in your hands; now make the gift perfect for me by
+putting it on and saying nothing more."
+
+"My wedding gift!" repeated the Girl. Slowly she lifted the beautiful
+ornament and held it in the light. "I'm so glad you just force me to
+take it," she said. "Any half-normal girl would be delighted. I do
+accept it. And what's more, I am going to keep and wear it and my ring
+at suitable times all my life, in memory of what you have done to be
+kind to me on this awful day."
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester. "That is a flash of the proper spirit.
+Allow me to put it on you."
+
+"No!" said the Girl. "Not yet! After a while! I want to hold it in my
+hands, where I can see it!"
+
+"Now there is one other thing," said the Harvester.
+
+"If I had known for any length of time that this day was coming and
+bringing you, as most men know when a girl is to be given into their
+care, I could have made it different. As it is, I've done the best I
+knew. All your after life I hope you will believe this: Just that if you
+missed anything to-day that would have made it easier for you or more
+pleasant, the reason was because of my ignorance of women and the
+conventions, and lack of time. I want you to know and to feel that in my
+heart those vows I took were real. This is undoubtedly all the marrying
+I will ever want to do. I am old-fashioned in my ways, and deeply imbued
+with the spirit of the woods, and that means unending evolution along
+the same lines.
+
+"To me you are my revered and beloved wife, my mate now; and I am sure
+nothing will make me feel any different. This is the day of my marriage
+to the only woman I ever have thought of wedding, and to me it is joy
+unspeakable. With other men such a day ends differently from the close
+of this with me. Because I have done and will continue to do the level
+best I know for you, this oration is the prologue to asking you for
+one gift to me from you, a wedding gift. I don't want it unless you can
+bestow it ungrudgingly, and truly want me to have it. If you can, I will
+have all from this day I hope for at the hands of fate. May I have the
+gift I ask of you, Ruth?"
+
+She lifted startled eyes to his face.
+
+"Tell me what it is?" she breathed.
+
+"It may seem much to you," said the Harvester; "to me it appears only
+a gracious act, from a wonderful woman, if you will give me freely, one
+real kiss. I've never had one, save from a Dream Girl, Ruth, and you
+will have to make yours pretty good if it is anything like hers. You are
+woman enough to know that most men crush their brides in their arms and
+take a thousand. I'll put my hands behind me and never move a muscle,
+and I won't ask for more, if you will crown my wedding day with only one
+touch of your lips. Will you kiss me just once, Ruth?"
+
+The Girl lifted a piteous face down which big tears suddenly rolled.
+
+"Oh Man, you shame me!" she cried. "What kind of a heart have I that it
+fails to respond to such a plea? Have I been overworked and starved so
+long there is no feeling in me? I don't understand why I don't take you
+in my arms and kiss you a hundred times, but you see I don't. It doesn't
+seem as if I ever could."
+
+"Never mind," said the Harvester gently. "It was only a fancy of mine,
+bred from my dream and unreasonable, perhaps. I am sorry I mentioned it.
+The sun is on the stoop now; I want you to enter your home in its light.
+Come!"
+
+He half lifted her from the bench. "I am going to help you up the
+drive as I used to assist mother," he said, fighting to keep his voice
+natural. "Clasp your hands before you and draw your elbows to your
+sides. Now let me take one in each palm, and you will scoot up this
+drive as if you were on wheels."
+
+"But I don't want to 'scoot'," she said unsteadily. "I must go slowly
+and not miss anything."
+
+"On the contrary, you don't want to do any such thing----you should
+leave most of it for to-morrow."
+
+"I had forgotten there would be any to-morrow. It seems as if the day
+would end it and set me adrift again."
+
+"You are going to awake in the gold room with the sun shining on your
+face in the morning, and it's going to keep on all your life. Now if
+you've got a smile in your anatomy, bring it to the surface, for just
+beyond this tree lies happiness for you."
+
+His voice was clear and steady now, his confidence something contagious.
+There was a lovely smile on her face as she looked at him, and stepped
+into the line of light crossing the driveway; and then she stopped
+and cried, "Oh lovely! Lovely! Lovely!" over and over. Then maybe the
+Harvester was not glad he had planned, worked unceasingly, and builded
+as well as he knew.
+
+The cabin of large, peeled, golden oak logs, oiled to preserve them,
+nestled like a big mushroom on the side of the hill. Above and behind
+the building the trees arose in a green setting. The roof was stained
+to their shades. The wide veranda was enclosed in screening, over which
+wonderful vines climbed in places, and round it grew ferns and deep-wood
+plants. Inside hung big baskets of wild growth; there was a wide
+swinging seat, with a back rest, supported by heavy chains. There were
+chairs and a table of bent saplings and hickory withes. Two full
+stories the building arose, and the western sun warmed it almost to
+orange-yellow, while the graceful vines crept toward the roof.
+
+The Girl looked at the rapidly rising hedge on each side of her, at the
+white floor of the drive, and long and long at the cabin.
+
+"You did all this since February?" she asked.
+
+"Even to transforming the landscape," answered the Harvester.
+
+"Oh I wish it was not coming night!" she cried. "I don't want the dark
+to come, until you have told me the name of every tree and shrub of that
+wonderful hedge, and every plant and vine of the veranda; and oh I want
+to follow up the driveway and see that beautiful little creek--listen
+to it chuckle and laugh! Is it always glad like that? See the ferns
+and things that grow on the other side of it! Why there are big beds of
+them. And lilies of the valley by the acre! What is that yellow around
+the corner?"
+
+"Never mind that now," said the Harvester, guiding her up the steps,
+along the gravelled walk to the screen that he opened, and over a flood
+of gold light she crossed the veranda, and entered the door.
+
+"Now here it appears bare," said the Harvester, "because I didn't know
+what should go on the walls or what rugs to get or about the windows.
+The table, chairs, and couch I made myself with some help from a
+carpenter. They are solid black walnut and will age finely."
+
+"They are beautiful," said the Girl, softly touching the shining table
+top with her fingers. "Please put the necklace on me now, I have to use
+my eyes and hands for other things."
+
+She held out the box and the Harvester lifted the pendant and clasped
+the chain around her neck. She glanced at the lustrous pearls and then
+the fingers of one hand softly closed over them. She went through the
+long, wide living-room, examining the chairs and mantel, stopping to
+touch and exclaim over its array of half-finished candlesticks. At the
+door of his room she paused. "And this?" she questioned.
+
+"Mine," said the Harvester, turning the knob. "I'll give you one peep
+to satisfy your curiosity, and show you the location of the bridge over
+which you came to me in my dream. All the remainder is yours. I reserve
+only this."
+
+"Will the 'goblins git me' if I come here?"
+
+"Not goblins, but a man alive; so heed your warning. After you have seen
+it, keep away."
+
+The floor was cement, three of the walls heavy screening with mosquito
+wire inside, the roof slab shingled. On the inner wall was a bookcase,
+below it a desk, at one side a gun cabinet, at the other a bath in a
+small alcove beside a closet. The room contained two chairs like those
+of the veranda, and the bed was a low oak couch covered with a thick
+mattress of hemlock twigs, topped with sweet fern, on which the sun
+shone all day. On a chair at the foot were spread some white sheets, a
+blanket, and an oilcloth. The sun beat in, the wind drifted through,
+and one lying on the couch could see down the bright hill, and sweep the
+lake to the opposite bank without lifting the head. The Harvester drew
+the Girl to the bedside.
+
+"Now straight in a line from here," he said, "across the lake to that
+big, scraggy oak, every clear night the moon builds a bridge of molten
+gold, and once you walked it, my girl, and came straight to me, alone
+and unafraid; and you were gracious and lovely beyond anything a man
+ever dreamed of before. I'll have that to think of to-night. Now come
+see the dining-room, kitchen, and hand-made sunshine."
+
+He led her into what had been the front room of the old cabin, now
+a large, long dining-room having on each side wide windows with deep
+seats. The fireplace backwall was against that of the living-room, but
+here the mantel was bare. All the wood-work, chairs, the dining table,
+cupboards, and carving table were golden oak. Only a few rugs and
+furnishings and a woman's touch were required to make it an unusual and
+beautiful room. The kitchen was shining with a white hard-wood floor,
+white wood-work, and pale green walls. It was a light, airy, sanitary
+place, supplied with a pump, sink, hot and cold water faucets,
+refrigerator, and every modern convenience possible to the country.
+
+Then the Harvester almost carried the Girl up the stairs and showed her
+three large sleeping rooms, empty and bare save for some packing cases.
+
+"I didn't know about these, so I didn't do anything. When you find
+time to plan, tell me what you want, and I'll make--or buy it. They
+are good-sized, cool rooms. They all have closets and pipes from the
+furnace, so they will be comfortable in winter. Now there is your place
+remaining. I'll leave you while I stable Betsy and feed the stock."
+
+He guided her to the door opening from the living-room to the east.
+
+"This is the sunshine spot," he said. "It is bathed in morning light,
+and sheltered by afternoon shade. Singing Water is across the drive
+there to talk to you always. It comes pelting down so fast it never
+freezes, so it makes music all winter, and the birds are so numerous
+you'll have to go to bed early for they'll wake you by dawn. I noticed
+this room was going to be full of sunshine when I built it, and I craved
+only brightness for you, so I coaxed all of it to stay that I could.
+Every stroke is the work of my hands, and all of the furniture. I hope
+you will like it. This is the room of which I've been telling you, Ruth.
+Go in and take possession, and I'll entreat God and all His ministering
+angels to send you sunshine and joy."
+
+He opened the door, guided her inside, closed it, and went swiftly to
+his work.
+
+The Girl stood and looked around her with amazed eyes. The floor was
+pale yellow wood, polished until it shone like a table top. The casings,
+table, chairs, dressing table, chest of drawers, and bed were solid
+curly maple. The doors were big polished slabs of it, each containing
+enough material to veneer all the furniture in the room. The walls
+were of plaster, tinted yellow, and the windows with yellow shades were
+curtained in dainty white. She could hear the Harvester carrying the
+load from the wagon to the front porch, the clamour of the barn yard;
+and as she went to the north window to see the view, a shining peacock
+strutted down the walk and went to the Harvester's hand for grain, while
+scores of snow-white doves circled over his head. She stepped on deep
+rugs of yellow goat skins, and, glancing at the windows on either side,
+she opened the door.
+
+Outside it lay a porch with a railing, but no roof. On each post stood a
+box filled with yellow wood-flowers and trailing vines of pale green.
+A big tree rising through one corner of the floor supplied the cover. A
+gate opened to a walk leading to the driveway, and on either side lay
+a patch of sod, outlined by a deep hedge of bright gold. In it saffron,
+cone-flowers, black-eyed Susans, golden-rod, wild sunflowers, and jewel
+flower grew, and some of it, enough to form a yellow line, was already
+in bloom. Around the porch and down the walk were beds of yellow
+violets, pixie moss, and every tiny gold flower of the woods. The Girl
+leaned against the tree and looked around her and then staggered inside
+and dropped on the couch.
+
+"What planning! What work!" she sobbed. "What taste! Why he's a poet!
+What wonderful beauty! He's an artist with earth for his canvas, and
+growing things for colours."
+
+She lay there staring at the walls, the beautiful wood-work and
+furniture, the dressing table with its array of toilet articles, a
+low chair before it, and the thick rug for her feet. Over and over she
+looked at everything, and then closed her eyes and lay quietly, too
+weary and overwhelmed to think. By and by came tapping at the door, and
+she sprang up and crossing to the dressing table straightened her hair
+and composed her face.
+
+"Ajax demands to see you," cried a gay voice.
+
+The Girl stepped outside.
+
+"Don't be frightened if he screams at you," warned the Harvester as she
+passed him. "He detests a stranger, and he always cries and sulks."
+
+It was a question what was in the head of the bird as he saw the strange
+looking creature invading his domain, and he did scream, a wild, high,
+strident wail that delighted the Harvester inexpressibly, because it
+sent the Girl headlong into his arms.
+
+"Oh, good gracious!" she cried. "Has such a beautiful bird got a noise
+in it like that? Why I've fed them in parks and I never heard one
+explode before."
+
+Then how the Harvester laughed.
+
+"But you see you are in the woods now, and this is not a park bird. It
+will be the test of your power to see how soon you can coax him to your
+hand."
+
+"How do I work to win him?"
+
+"I am afraid I can't tell you that," said the Harvester. "I had to
+invent a plan for myself. It required a long time and much petting, and
+my methods might not avail for you. It will interest you to study that
+out. But the member of the family it is positively essential that you
+win to a life and death allegiance is Belshazzar. If you can make him
+love you, he will protect you at every turn. He will go before you into
+the forest and all the crawling, creeping things will get out of his
+way. He will nose around the flowers you want to gather, and if he
+growls and the hair on the back of his neck rises, never forget that
+you must heed that warning. A few times I have not stopped for it, and I
+always have been sorry. So far as anything animate or uncertain footing
+is concerned, you are always perfectly safe if you obey him. About
+touching plants and flowers, you must confine yourself to those you
+are certain you know, until I can teach you. There are gorgeous and
+wonderfully attractive things here, but some of them are rank poison.
+You won't handle plants you don't know, until you learn, Ruth?"
+
+"I will not," she promised instantly.
+
+She went to the seat under the porch tree and leaning against the trunk
+she studied the hill, and the rippling course of Singing Water where it
+turned and curved before the cabin, and started across the vivid little
+marsh toward the lake. Then she looked at the Harvester. He seated
+himself on the low railing and smiled at her.
+
+"You are very tired?" he asked.
+
+"No," she said. "You are right about the air being better up here. It is
+stimulating instead of depressing."
+
+"So far as pure air, location, and water are concerned," said the
+Harvester, "I consider this place ideal. The lake is large enough to
+cool the air and raise sufficient moisture to dampen it, and too small
+to make it really cold and disagreeable. The slope of the hill gives
+perfect drainage. The heaviest rains do not wet the earth for more than
+three hours. North, south, and west breezes sweep the cool air from the
+water to the cabin in summer. The same suns warm us here on the winter
+hillside. My violets, spring beauties, anemones, and dutchman's breeches
+here are always two weeks ahead of those in the woods. I am not afraid
+of your not liking the location or the air. As for the cabin, if
+you don't care for that, it's very simple. I'll transform it into a
+laboratory and dry-house, and build you whatever you want, within my
+means, over there on the hill just across Singing Water and facing
+the valley toward Onabasha. That's a perfect location. The thing that
+worries me is what you are going to do for company, especially while I
+am away."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about anything," she said. "Just say in your
+heart, 'she is going to be stronger than she ever has been in her life
+in this lovely place, and she has more right now than she ever had or
+hoped to have.' For one thing, I am going to study your books. I never
+have had time before. While we sewed or embroidered, mother talked by
+the hour of the great writers of the world, told me what they wrote,
+and how they expressed themselves, but I got to read very little for
+myself."
+
+"Books are my company," said the Harvester.
+
+"Do your friends come often?"
+
+"Almost never! Doc and his wife come most, and if you look out some day
+and see a white-haired, bent old woman, with a face as sweet as dawn,
+coming up the bank of Singing Water, that will be my mother's friend,
+Granny Moreland, who joins us on the north over there. She is frank and
+brusque, so she says what she thinks with unmistakable distinctness,
+but her heart is big and tender and her philosophy keeps her sweet and
+kindly despite the ache of rheumatism and the weight of seventy years."
+
+"I'd love to have her come," said the Girl. "Is that all?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Your favourite word," laughed the Harvester. "The reason lies with me,
+or rather with my mother. Some day I will tell you the whole story,
+and the cause. I think now I can encompass it in this. The place is an
+experiment. When medicinal herbs, roots, and barks became so scarce that
+some of the most important were almost extinct, it occurred to me that
+it would be a good idea to stop travelling miles and poaching on the
+woods of other people, and turn our land into an herb garden. For four
+years before mother went, and six since, I've worked with all my might,
+and results are beginning to take shape. While I've been at it, of
+course, my neighbours had an inkling of what was going on, and I've been
+called a fool, lazy, and a fanatic, because I did not fell the trees and
+plow for corn. You readily can see I'm a little short of corn ground out
+there," he waved toward the marsh and lake, "and up there," he indicated
+the steep hill and wood. "But somewhere on this land I've been able to
+find muck for mallows, water for flags and willows, shade for ferns,
+lilies, and ginseng, rocky, sunny spaces for mullein, and open, fertile
+beds for Bouncing Bet----just for examples. God never evolved a place
+better suited for an herb farm; from woods to water and all that goes
+between, it is perfect."
+
+"And indescribably lovely," added the Girl.
+
+"Yes, I think it is," said the Harvester. "But in the days when I didn't
+know how it was coming out, I was sensitive about it; so I kept quiet
+and worked, and allowed the other fellow to do the talking. After a
+while the ginseng bed grew a treasure worth guarding, and I didn't
+care for any one to know how much I had or where it was, as a matter
+of precaution. Ginseng and money are synonymous, and I was forced to be
+away some of the time."
+
+"Would any one take it?"
+
+"Certainly!" said the Harvester. "If they knew it was there, and what
+it is worth. Then, as I've told you, much of the stuff here must not be
+handled except by experts, and I didn't want people coming in my absence
+and taking risks. The remainder of my reason for living so alone is
+cowardice, pure and simple."
+
+"Cowardice? You! Oh no!"
+
+"Thank you!" said the Harvester. "But it is! Some day I'll tell you of
+a very solemn oath I've had to keep. It hasn't been easy. You wouldn't
+understand, at least not now. If the day ever comes when I think you
+will, I'll tell you. Just now I can express it by that one word. I
+didn't dare fail or I felt I would be lost as my father was before me.
+So I remained away from the city and its temptations and men of my age,
+and worked in the woods until I was tired enough to drop, read books
+that helped, tinkered with the carving, and sometimes I had an idea,
+and I went into that little building behind the dry-house, took out my
+different herbs, and tried my hand at compounding a new cure for some of
+the pains of humanity. It isn't bad work, Ruth. It keeps a fellow at
+a fairly decent level, and some good may come of it. Carey is trying
+several formulae for me, and if they work I'll carry them higher. If you
+want money, Girl, I know how to get it for you."
+
+"Don't you want it?"
+
+"Not one cent more than I've got," said the Harvester emphatically.
+"When any man accumulates more than he can earn with his own hands, he
+begins to enrich himself at the expense of the youth, the sweat, the
+blood, the joy of his fellow men. I can go to the city, take a look, and
+see what money does, as a rule, and it's another thing I'm afraid of.
+You will find me a dreadful coward on those two points. I don't want to
+know society and its ways. I see what it does to other men; it would be
+presumption to reckon myself stronger. So I live alone. As for money,
+I've watched the cross cuts and the quick and easy ways to accumulate
+it; but I've had something in me that held me to the slow, sure, clean
+work of my own hands, and it's yielded me enough for one, for two even,
+in a reasonable degree. So I've worked, read, compounded, and carved. If
+I couldn't wear myself down enough to sleep by any other method, I went
+into the lake, and swam across and back; and that is guaranteed to put
+any man to rest, clean and unashamed."
+
+"Six years," said the Girl softly, as she studied him. "I think it has
+set a mark on you. I believe I can trace it. Your forehead, brow,
+and eyes bear the lines and the appearance of all experience, all
+comprehension, but your lips are those of a very young lad. I shouldn't
+be surprised if I had that kiss ready for you, and I really believe I
+can make it worth while."
+
+"Oh good Lord!" cried the Harvester, turning a backward somersault over
+the railing and starting in big bounds up the drive toward the stable.
+He passed around it and into the woods at a rush and a few seconds later
+from somewhere on the top of the hill his strong, deep voice swept down,
+"Glory, glory hallelujah!"
+
+He sang it through at the top of his lungs, that majestic old hymn,
+but there was no music at all, it was simply a roar. By and by he came
+soberly to the barn and paused to stroke Betsy's nose.
+
+"Stop chewing grass and listen to me," he said. "She's here, Betsy!
+She's in our cabin. She's going to remain, you can stake your oats
+on that. She's going to be the loveliest and sweetest girl in all the
+world, and because you're a beast, I'll tell you something a man never
+could know. Down with your ear, you critter! She's going to kiss me,
+Betsy! This very night, before I lay me, her lips meet mine, and maybe
+you think that won't be glorious. I supposed it would be a year, anyway,
+but it's now! Ain't you glad you are an animal, Betsy, and can keep
+secrets for a fool man that can't?"
+
+He walked down the driveway, and before the Girl had a chance to speak,
+he said, "I wonder if I had not better carry those things into your
+room, and arrange your bed for you."
+
+"I can," she said.
+
+"Oh no!" exclaimed the Harvester. "You can't lift the mattress and heavy
+covers. Hold the door and tell me how."
+
+He laid a big bundle on the floor, opened it, and took out the shoes.
+
+"Your shoe box is in the closet there."
+
+"I didn't know what that door was, so I didn't open it."
+
+"That is a part of my arrangements for you," said the Harvester. "Here
+is a closet with shelves for your covers and other things. They are bare
+because I didn't know just what should be put on them. This is the shoe
+box here in the corner; I'll put these in it now."
+
+He knelt and in a row set the shoes in the curly maple box and closed
+it.
+
+"There you are for all kinds of places and varieties of weather.
+This adjoining is your bathroom. I put in towels, soaps; brushes,
+and everything I could think of, and there is hot water ready for
+you----rain water, too."
+
+The Girl followed and looked into a shining little bathroom, with its
+white porcelain tub and wash bowl, enamelled wood-work, dainty green
+walls, and white curtains and towels. She could see no accessory she
+knew of that was missing, and there were many things to which she never
+had been accustomed. The Harvester had gone back to the sunshine room,
+and was kneeling on the floor beside the bundle. He began opening boxes
+and handing her dresses.
+
+"There are skirt, coat, and waist hangers on the hooks," he said. "I
+only got a few things to start on, because I didn't know what you would
+like. Instead of being so careful with that dress, why don't you take it
+off, and put on a common one? Then we will have something to eat, and go
+to the top of the hill and watch the moon bridge the lake."
+
+While she hung the dresses and selected the one to wear, he placed the
+mattress, spread the padding and sheets, and encased the pillow. Then he
+bent and pressed the springs with his hands.
+
+"I think you will find that soft and easy enough for health," he said.
+"All the personal belongings I had that clerk put up for you are in that
+chest of drawers there. I put the little boxes in the top and went down.
+You can empty and arrange them to-morrow. Just hunt out what you will
+need now. There should be everything a girl uses there somewhere. I told
+them to be very careful about that. If the things are not right or not
+to your taste, you can take them back as soon as you are rested, and
+they will exchange them for you. If there is anything I have missed that
+you can think of that you need to-night, tell me and I'll go and get
+it."
+
+The Girl turned toward him.
+
+"You couldn't be making sport of me," she said, "but Man! Can't you see
+that I don't know what to do with half you have here? I never saw such
+things closely before. I don't know what they are for. I don't know how
+to use them. My mother would have known, but I do not. You overwhelm me!
+Fifty times I've tried to tell you that a room of my very own, such
+a room as this will be when to-morrow's sun comes in, and these, and
+these, and these," she turned from the chest of boxes to the dressing
+table, bed, closet, and bath, "all these for me, and you know absolutely
+nothing about me----I get a big lump in my throat, and the words that
+do come all seem so meaningless, I am perfectly ashamed to say them. Oh
+Man, why do you do it?"
+
+"I thought it was about time to spring another 'why' on me," said the
+Harvester. "Thank God, I am now in a position where I can tell you
+'why'! I do it because you are the girl of my dream, my mate by every
+law of Heaven and earth. All men build as well as they know when the one
+woman of the universe lays her spell on them. I did all this for myself
+just as a kind of expression of what it would be in my heart to do if I
+could do what I'd like. Put on the easiest dress you can find and I will
+go and set out something to eat."
+
+She stood with arms high piled with the prettiest dresses that could be
+selected hurriedly, the tears running down her white cheeks and smiled
+through them at him.
+
+"There wouldn't be any of that liquid amber would there?" she asked.
+
+"Quarts!" cried the Harvester. "I'll bring some. ... Does it really hit
+the spot, Ruth?" he questioned as he handed her the glass.
+
+She heaped the dresses on the bed and took it.
+
+"It really does. I am afraid I am using too much."
+
+"I don't think it possibly can hurt you. To-morrow we will ask Doc. How
+soon will you be ready for lunch?"
+
+"I don't want a bite."
+
+"You will when you see and smell it," said the Harvester. "I am an
+expert cook. It's my chiefest accomplishment. You should taste the
+dishes I improvise. But there won't be much to-night, because I want you
+to see the moon rise over the lake."
+
+He went away and the Girl removed her dress and spread it on the couch.
+Then she bathed her face and hands. When she saw the discoloured cloth,
+it proved that she had been painted, and made her very indignant. Yet
+she could not be altogether angry, for that flush of colour had saved
+the Harvester from being pitied by his friend. She stood a long time
+before the mirror, staring at her gaunt, colourless face; then she went
+to the dressing table and committed a crime. She found a box of cream
+and rubbed it on for a foundation. Then she opened some pink powder, and
+carefully dusted her cheeks.
+
+"I am utterly ashamed," she said to the image in the mirror, "but he
+has done so much for me, he is so, so----I don't know a word big
+enough----that I can't bear him to see how ghastly I am, how little
+worth it. Perhaps the food, better air, and outdoor exercise will give
+me strength and colour soon. Until it does I'm afraid I'm going to help
+out all I can with this. It is wonderful how it changes one. I really
+appear like a girl instead of a bony old woman."
+
+Then she looked over the dresses, selected a pretty white princesse,
+slipped it on, and went to the kitchen. But the Harvester would not
+have her there. He seated her at the dining table, beside the window
+overlooking the lake, lighted a pair of his home-made candles in his
+finest sticks, and placed before her bread, butter, cold meat, milk, and
+fruit, and together they ate their first meal in their home.
+
+"If I had known," said the Harvester, "Granny Moreland is a famous cook.
+She is a Southern woman, and she can fry chicken and make some especial
+dishes to surpass any one I ever knew. She would have been so pleased to
+come over and get us an all-right supper."
+
+"I'd much rather have this, and be by ourselves," said the Girl.
+
+"Well, you can bank on it, I would," agreed the Harvester. "For
+instance, if any one were here, I might feel restrained about telling
+you that you are exactly the beautiful, flushed Dream Girl I have adored
+for months, and your dress most becoming. You are a picture to blind the
+eyes of a lonely bachelor, Ruth."
+
+"Oh why did you say that?" wailed the Girl. "Now I've got to feel like a
+sneak or tell you----and I didn't want you to know."
+
+"Don't you ever tell me or any one else anything you don't want to,"
+said the Harvester roundly. "It's nobody's business!"
+
+"But I must! I can't begin with deception. I was fool enough to think
+you wouldn't notice. Man, they painted me! I didn't know they were doing
+it, but when it all washed off, I looked so ghastly I almost frightened
+myself. I hunted through the boxes they put up for you and found some
+pink powder----"
+
+"But don't all the daintiest women powder these days, and consider it
+indispensable? The clerk said so, and I've noticed it mentioned in the
+papers. I bought it for you to use."
+
+"Yes, just powder, but Man, I put on a lot of cold cream first to stick
+the powder good and thick. Oh I wish I hadn't!"
+
+"Well since you've told it, is your conscience perfectly at ease? No
+you don't! You sit where you are! You are lovely, and if you don't use
+enough powder to cover the paleness, until your colour returns, I'll
+hold you and put it on. I know you feel better when you appear so that
+every one must admire you."
+
+"Yes, but I'm a fraud!"
+
+"You are no such thing!" cried the Harvester hotly. "There hasn't a
+woman in ten thousand got any such rope of hair. I have been seeing the
+papers on the hair question, too. No one will believe it's real. If they
+think your hair is false, when it is natural, they won't be any more
+fooled when they think your colour is real, and it isn't. Very soon it
+will be and no one need ever know the difference. You go on and fix up
+your level best. To see yourself appearing well will make you ambitious
+to become so as soon as possible."
+
+"Harvester-man," said the Girl, gazing at him with wet luminous eyes,
+"for the sake of other women, I could wish that all men had an oath to
+keep, and had been reared in the woods."
+
+"Here is the place we adjourn to the moon," cried the Harvester. "I
+don't know of anything that can cure a sudden accession of swell
+head like gazing at the heavens. One finds his place among the atoms
+naturally and instantaneously with the eyes on the night sky. Should
+you have a wrap? You should! The mists from the lake are cool. I don't
+believe there is one among my orders. I forgot that. But upstairs with
+mother's clothing there are several shawls and shoulder capes. All of
+them were washed and carefully packed. Would you use one, Ruth?"
+
+"Why not give it to me. Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better
+than to have them lying in moth balls?"
+
+The Harvester looked at her and shook his head, marvelling.
+
+"I can't tell how pleased she would be," he said.
+
+"Where are her belongings?" asked the Girl. "I could use them to help
+furnish the house, and it wouldn't appear so strange to you."
+
+The Harvester liked that.
+
+"All the washed things are in those boxes upstairs; also some fine skins
+I've saved on the chance of wanting them. Her dishes are in the bottom
+of the china closet there; she was mighty proud of them. The furniture
+and carpets were so old and abused I burned them. I'll go bring a wrap."
+
+He took the candle and climbed the stairs, soon returning with a little
+white wool shawl and a big pink coverlet.
+
+"Got this for her Christmas one time," he said. "She'd never had a white
+one and she thought it was pretty."
+
+He folded it around the Girl's shoulders and picked up the coverlet.
+
+"You're never going to take that to the woods!" she cried.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+She took it in her hands to find a corner.
+
+"Just as I thought! It's a genuine Peter Hartman! It's one of the things
+that money can't buy, or, rather, one that takes a mint of money to own.
+They are heirlooms. They are not manufactured any more. At the art store
+where I worked they'd give you fifty dollars for that. It is not faded
+or worn a particle. It would be lovely in my room; you mustn't take a
+treasure like that out of doors."
+
+"Ruth, are you in earnest?" demanded the Harvester. "I believe there are
+six of them upstairs."
+
+"Plutocrat!" cried the Girl. "What colours?"
+
+"More of this pinkish red, blue, and pale green."
+
+"Famous! May I have them to help furnish with to-morrow?"
+
+"Certainly! Anything you can find, any way on earth you want it, only
+in my room. That is taboo, as I told you. What am I going to take
+to-night?"
+
+"Isn't the rug you had in the woods in the wagon yet? Use that!"
+
+"Of course! The very thing! Bel, proceed!"
+
+"Are you going to leave the house like this?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Suppose some one breaks in!"
+
+"Nothing worth carrying away, except what you have on. No one to get in.
+There is a big swamp back of our woods, marsh in front, we're up here
+where we can see the drive and bridge. There is nothing possible from
+any direction. Never locked the cabin in my life, except your room, and
+that was because it was sacred, not that there was any danger. Clear the
+way, Bel!"
+
+"Clear it of what?"
+
+"Katydids, hoptoads, and other carnivorous animals."
+
+"Now you are making fun of me! Clear it of what?"
+
+"A coon that might go shuffling across, an opossum, or a snake going to
+the lake. Now are you frightened so that you will not go?"
+
+"No. The path is broad and white and surely you and Bel can take care of
+me."
+
+"If you will trust us we can."
+
+"Well, I am trusting you."
+
+"You are indeed," said the Harvester. "Now see if you think this is
+pretty."
+
+He indicated the hill sloping toward the lake. The path wound among
+massive trees, between whose branches patches of moonlight filtered.
+Around the lake shore and climbing the hill were thickets of bushes.
+The water lay shining in the light, a gentle wind ruffled the surface
+in undulant waves, and on the opposite bank arose the line of big
+trees. Under a giant oak widely branching, on the top of the hill, the
+Harvester spread the rug and held one end of it against the tree trunk
+to protect the Girl's dress. Then he sat a little distance away and
+began to talk. He mingled some sense with a quantity of nonsense, and
+appreciated every hint of a laugh he heard. The day had been no amusing
+matter for a girl absolutely alone among strange people and scenes.
+Anything more foreign to her previous environment or expectations he
+could not imagine. So he talked to prevent her from thinking, and worked
+for a laugh as he laboured for bread.
+
+"Now we must go," he said at last. "If there is the malaria I strongly
+suspect in your system, this night air is none too good for you. I only
+wanted you to see the lake the first night in your new home, and if it
+won't shock you, I brought you here because this is my holy of holies.
+Can you guess why I wanted you to come, Ruth?"
+
+"If I wasn't so stupid with alternate burning and chills, and so
+deadened to every proper sensibility, I suppose I could," she answered,
+"but I'm not brilliant. I don't know, unless it is because you knew it
+would be the loveliest place I ever saw. Surely there is no other spot
+in the world quite so beautiful."
+
+"Then would it seem strange to you," asked the Harvester going to the
+Girl and gently putting his arms around her, "would it seem strange to
+you, that a woman who once homed here and thought it the prettiest place
+on earth, chose to remain for her eternal sleep, rather than to rest in
+a distant city of stranger dead?"
+
+He felt the Girl tremble against him.
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"Very close," said the Harvester. "Under this oak. She used to say that
+she had a speaking acquaintance with every tree on our land, and of them
+all she loved this big one the best. She liked to come here in winter,
+and feel the sting of the wind sweeping across the lake, and in summer
+this was her place to read and to think. So when she slept the unwaking
+sleep, Ruth, I came here and made her bed with my own hands, and then
+carried her to it, covered her, and she sleeps well. I never have
+regretted her going. Life did not bring her joy. She was very tired.
+She used to say that after her soul had fled, if I would lay her here,
+perhaps the big roots would reach down and find her, and from her frail
+frame gather slight nourishment and then her body would live again in
+talking leaves that would shelter me in summer and whisper her love in
+winter. Of all Medicine Woods this is the dearest spot to me. Can you
+love it too, Ruth?"
+
+"Oh I can!" cried the Girl; "I do now! Just to see the place and hear
+that is enough. I wish, oh to my soul I wish----"
+
+"You wish what?" whispered the Harvester gently.
+
+"I dare not! I was wild to think of it. I would be ungrateful to ask
+it."
+
+"You would be ungracious if you didn't ask anything that would give
+me the joy of pleasing you. How long is it going to require for you
+to learn, Ruth, that to make up for some of the difficulties life has
+brought you would give me more happiness than anything else could? Tell
+me now."
+
+"No!"
+
+He gathered her closer.
+
+"Ruth, there is no reason why you should be actively unkind to me. What
+is it you wish?"
+
+She struggled from his arms and stood alone in white moonlight, staring
+across the lake, along the shore, deep into the perfumed forest, and
+then at the mound she now could distinguish under the giant tree.
+Suddenly she went to him and with both shaking hands gripped his arm.
+
+"My mother!" she panted. "Oh she was a beautiful woman, delicately
+reared, and her heart was crushed and broken. By the inch she went to
+a dreadful end I could not avert or allay, and in poverty and grime I
+fought for a way to save her body from further horror, and it's all so
+dreadful I thought all feeling in me was dried and still, but I am not
+quite calloused yet. I suffer it over with every breath. It is never
+entirely out of my mind. Oh Man, if only you would lift her from the
+horrible place she lies, where briers run riot and cattle trample and
+the unmerciful sun beats! Oh if only you'd lift her from it, and bring
+her here! I believe it would take away some of the horror, the shame,
+and the heartache. I believe I could go to sleep without hearing the
+voice of her suffering, if I knew she was lying on this hill, under your
+beautiful tree, close the dear mother you love. Oh Man, would you----?"
+
+The Harvester crushed the Girl in his arms and shuddering sobs shook his
+big frame, and choked his voice.
+
+"Ruth, for God's sake, be quiet!" he cried. "Why I'd be glad to! I'll go
+anywhere you tell me, and bring her, and she shall rest where the lake
+murmurs, the trees shelter, the winds sing, and earth knows the sun only
+in long rays of gold light."
+
+She stared at him with strained face.
+
+"You----you wouldn't!" she breathed.
+
+"Ruth, child," said the Harvester, "I tell you I'd be happy. Look at
+my side of this! I'm in search of bands to bind you to me and to this
+place. Could you tell me a stronger than to have the mother you idolized
+lie here for her long sleep? Why Girl, you can't know the deep and
+abiding joy it would give me to bring her. I'd feel I had you almost
+secure. Where is she Ruth?"
+
+"In that old unkept cemetery south of Onabasha, where it costs no money
+to lay away your loved ones."
+
+"Close here! Why I'll go to-morrow! I supposed she was in the city."
+
+She straightened and drew away from him.
+
+"How could I? I had nothing. I could not have paid even her fare and
+brought her here in the cheapest box the decency of man would allow
+him to make if her doctor had not given me the money I owe. Now do
+you understand why I must earn and pay it myself? Save for him, it was
+charity or her delicate body to horrors. Money never can repay him."
+
+"Ruth, the day you came to Onabasha was she with you?"
+
+"In the express car," said the Girl.
+
+"Where did you go when you left the train shed?"
+
+"Straight to the baggage room, where Uncle Henry was waiting. Men
+brought and put her in his wagon, and he drove with me to the place and
+other men lowered her, and that was all."
+
+"You poor Girl!" cried the Harvester. "This time to-morrow night she
+shall sleep in luxury under this oak, so help me God! Ruth, can you
+spare me? May I go at once? I can't rest, myself."
+
+"You will?" cried the Girl. "You will?"
+
+She was laughing in the moonlight. "Oh Man, I can't ever, ever tell
+you!"
+
+"Don't try," said the Harvester. "Call it settled. I will start early
+in the morning. I know that little cemetery. The man whose land it is
+on can point me the spot. She is probably the last one laid there. Come
+now, Ruth. Go to the room I made for you, and sleep deeply and in peace.
+Will you try to rest?"
+
+"Oh David!" she exulted. "Only think! Here where it's clean and cool;
+beside the lake, where leaves fall gently and I can come and sit close
+to her and bring flowers; and she never will be alone, for your dear
+mother is here. Oh David!"
+
+"It is better. I can't thank you enough for thinking of it. Come now,
+let me help you."
+
+He half carried her down the hill. Then he made the cabin a glamour of
+light by putting candles in the sticks he had carved and placing them
+everywhere.
+
+"There is a lighting plant in the basement," he said, "but I had not
+expected to use it until winter, and I have no acetylene. Candles were
+our grandmothers' lights and they are the best anyway. Go bathe your
+face, Ruth, and wash away all trace of tears. Put on the pink powder,
+and in a few weeks you will have colour to outdo the wildest rose. You
+must be as gay as you can the remainder of this night."
+
+"I will!" cried the Girl. "I will! Oh I didn't know a thing on earth
+could make me happy! I didn't know I really could be glad. Oh if the ice
+in my heart would melt, and the wall break down, and the girlhood I've
+never known would come yet! Oh David, if it would!"
+
+"Before the Lord it shall!" vowed the Harvester. "It shall come with the
+fulness of joy right here in Medicine Woods. Think it! Believe it! Keep
+it before you! Work for it! Happiness is worth while! All of us have a
+right to it! It shall be yours and soon."
+
+"I will try! I will!" promised the Girl. "I'll go right now and I'll put
+on the blessed pink powder so thickly you'll never know what is under
+it, and soon it won't be needed at all."
+
+She was laughing as she left the room. The Harvester restlessly walked
+the floor a few minutes and then sat with a notebook and began entering
+stems.
+
+When the Girl returned, he brought the pillow from her bed, folded the
+coverlet, and she lay on them in the big swing. He covered her with the
+white shawl, and while Singing Water sang its loudest, katydids exulted
+over the delightful act of their ancestor, and a million gauze-winged
+creatures of night hummed against the screen, in a voice soft and low he
+told her in a steady stream, as he swayed her back and forth, what each
+sound of the night was, and how and why it was made all the way from the
+rumbling buzz of the June bug to the screech of the owl and the splash
+of the bass in the lake. All of it, as it appealed to him, was the story
+of steady evolution, the natural processes of reproduction, the joy of
+life and its battles, and the conquest of the strong in nature. At his
+hands every sound was stripped of terror. The leaping bass was exulting
+in life, the screeching owl was telling its mate it had found a fat
+mouse for the children, the nighthawk was courting, the big bull frogs
+booming around the lake were serenading the moon. There was not a thing
+to fear or a voice left with an unsympathetic note in it. She was half
+asleep when at last he helped her to her room, set a pitcher of frosty,
+clinking drink on her table, locked her door and window screens inside,
+spread Belshazzar's blanket on her porch, and set his door wide open,
+that he might hear if she called, and then said good night and went back
+to his memorandum book.
+
+"No bad beginning," he muttered softly, "no bad beginning, but I'd
+almost give my right hand if she hadn't forgotten----"
+
+In her room the exhausted Girl slipped the pins from her hair and sank
+on the low chair before the dressing-table. She picked up the shining,
+silver backed brush and stared at the monogram, R. F. L, entwined on it.
+
+"My soul!" she exclaimed. "WAS HE SO SURE AS THAT? Was there ever any
+other man like him?"
+
+She dropped the brush and with tired hands pushed back the heavy braids.
+Then she arose and going to the chest of drawers began lifting lids to
+find a night robe. As she searched the boxes she found every dainty,
+pretty undergarment a girl ever used and at last the robes. She shook
+out a long white one, slipped into it, and walked to the bed. That stood
+as he had arranged it, white, clean, and dainty.
+
+"Everything for me!" she said softly. "Everything for me! Shall there be
+nothing for him? Oh he makes it easy, easy!"
+
+She stepped to the closet, picked down a lavender silk kimona and
+drawing it over her gown she gathered it around her and opening
+the bathroom door, she stepped into a little hall leading to the
+dining-room. As she entered the living-room the Harvester bent over his
+book. Her step was very close when he heard it and turned his head. In
+an instant she touched his shoulders. The Harvester dropped the pencil,
+and palm downward laid his hands on the table, his promise strong in
+his heart. The Girl slid a shaking palm under his chin, leaned his head
+against her breast, and dropped a sweet, tear-wet face on his. With all
+the strength of her frail arms she gripped him a second, and then gave
+the kiss, into which she tried to put all she could find no words to
+express.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. SNOWY WINGS
+
+The Harvester sat at the table in deep thoughts until the lights in the
+Girl's room were darkened and everything was quiet. Then he locked
+the screens inside and went into the night. The moon flooded all the
+hillside, until coarse print could have been read with keen eyes in its
+light. A restlessness, born of exultation he could not allay or control,
+was on him. She had not forgotten! After this, the dream would be
+effaced by reality. It was the beginning. He scarcely had dared hope for
+so much. Surely it presaged the love with which she some day would
+come to him and crown his life. He walked softly up and down the drive,
+passing her windows, unable to think of sleep. Over and over he dwelt on
+the incidents of the day, so inevitably he came to his promise.
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" he muttered. "How can such things happen? The poor,
+overworked, tired, suffering girl. It will give her some comfort. She
+will feel better. It has to be done. I believe I will do the worst part
+of it while she sleeps."
+
+He went to the cabin, crept very close to one of her windows and
+listened intently. Surely no mortal awake could lie motionless so long.
+She must be sleeping. He patted Belshazzar, whispered, "Watch, boy,
+watch for your life!" and then crossed to the dry-house. Beside it he
+found a big roll of coffee sacks that he used in collecting roots, and
+going to the barn, he took a spade and mattock. Then he climbed the hill
+to the oak; in the white moonlight laid off his measurements and began
+work. His heart was very tender as he lifted the earth, and threw it
+into the tops of the big bags he had propped open.
+
+"I'll line it with a couple of sheets and finish the edge with pond
+lilies and ferns," he planned, "and I'll drag this earth from sight, and
+cover it with brush until I need it."
+
+Sometimes he paused in his work to rest a few minutes and then he stood
+and glanced around him. Several times he went down the hill and slipped
+close to a window, but he could not hear a sound. When his work was
+finished, he stood before the oak, scraping clinging earth from the
+mattock with which he had cut roots he had been compelled to remove.
+He was tired now and he thought he would go to his room and sleep until
+daybreak. As he turned the implement he remembered how through it he
+had found her, and now he was using it in her service. He smiled as he
+worked, and half listened to the steady roll of sound encompassing him.
+A cool breath swept from the lake and he wondered if it found her wet,
+hot cheek. A wild duck in the rushes below gave an alarm signal, and
+it ran in subdued voice, note by note, along the shore. The Harvester
+gripped the mattock and stood motionless. Wild things had taught him so
+many lessons he heeded their warnings instinctively. Perhaps it was a
+mink or muskrat approaching the rushes. Listening intently, he heard a
+stealthy step coming up the path behind him.
+
+The Harvester waited. He soundlessly moved around the trunk of the big
+tree. An instant more the night prowler stopped squarely at the head of
+the open grave, and jumped back with an oath. He stood tense a second,
+then advanced, scratched a match and dropped it into the depths of the
+opening. That instant the Harvester recognized Henry Jameson, and with
+a spring landed between the man's shoulders and sent him, face down,
+headlong into the grave. He snatched one of the sacks of earth, and
+tipping it, gripped the bottom and emptied the contents on the head
+and shoulders of the prostrate man. Then he dropped on him and feeling
+across his back took an ugly, big revolver from a pocket. He swung to
+the surface and waited until Henry Jameson crawled from under the weight
+of earth and began to rise; then, at each attempt, he knocked him down.
+At last he caught the exhausted man by the collar and dragged him to the
+path, where he dropped him and stood gloating.
+
+"So!" he said; "It's you! Coming to execute your threat, are you? What's
+the matter with my finishing you, loading your carcass with a few stones
+into this sack, and dropping you in the deepest part of the lake."
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Ain't you a little hasty?" asked the Harvester. "Isn't it rather cold
+blooded to come sneaking when you thought I'd be asleep? Don't you think
+it would be low down to kill a man on his wedding day?"
+
+Henry Jameson arose cautiously and faced the Harvester.
+
+"Who have you killed?" he panted.
+
+"No one," answered the Harvester. "This is for the victim of a member of
+your family, but I never dreamed I'd have the joy of planting any of
+you in it first, even temporarily. Did you rest well? What I should have
+done was to fill in, tread down, and leave you at the bottom."
+
+Jameson retreated a few steps. The Harvester laughed and advanced the
+same distance.
+
+"Now then," he said, "explain what you are doing on my premises, a few
+hours after your threat, and armed with another revolver before I could
+return the one I took from you this afternoon. You must grow them on
+bushes at your place, they seem so numerous. Speak up! What are you
+doing here?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"There are three things it might be," mused the Harvester. "You might
+think to harm me, but you're watched on that score and I don't believe
+you'd enjoy the result sure to follow. You might contemplate trying to
+steal Ruth's money again, but we'll pass that up. You might want to go
+through my woods to inform yourself as to what I have of value there.
+But, in all prob-ability, you are after me. Well, here I am. Go ahead!
+Do what you came to!"
+
+The Harvester stepped toward the lake bank and Jameson, turning to watch
+him, exposed a face ghastly through its grime.
+
+"Look here!" cried the Harvester, sickening. "We will end this right
+now. I was rather busy this afternoon, but I wasn't too hurried to take
+that little weapon of yours to the chief of police and tell him where
+and how I got it and what occurred. He was to return it to you
+to-morrow with his ultimatum. When I have added the history of to-night,
+reinforced by another gun, he will understand your intentions and know
+where you belong. You should be confined, but because your name is the
+same as the Girl's, and there is of your blood in her veins, I'll give
+you one more chance. I'll let you go this time, but I'll report you, and
+deliver this implement to be added to your collection at headquarters.
+And I tell you, and I'll tell them, that if ever I find you on my
+premises again, I'll finish you on sight. Is that clear?"
+
+Jameson nodded.
+
+"What I should do is to plump you squarely into confinement, as I could
+easily enough, but that's not my way. I am going to let you off, but you
+go knowing the law. One thing more: Don't leave with any distorted ideas
+in your head. I saw Ruth the day she stepped from the cars in Onabasha
+and I loved her. I wanted to court and marry her, as any man would the
+girl he loves, but you spoiled that with your woman killing brutality.
+So I married her in Onabasha this afternoon. You can see the records at
+the county clerk's office and interview the minister who performed the
+ceremony, if you doubt me. Ruth is in her room, comfortable as I can
+make her, asleep and unafraid, thank God! This grave is for her mother.
+The Girl wants her lifted from the horrible place you put her, and laid
+where it is sheltered and pleasant. Now, I'll see you off my land. Hurry
+yourself!"
+
+With the Harvester following, Henry Jameson went back over the path he
+had come, until he reached and mounted the horse he had ridden. As the
+Harvester watched him, Jameson turned in the saddle and spoke for the
+second time.
+
+"What will you give me in cold cash to tell you who she is, and where
+her mother's people are?"
+
+The Harvester leaped for the bridle and missed. Jameson bent over
+the horse and lashed it to a run. Half way to the oak the Harvester
+remembered the revolver, but being unaccustomed to weapons, he had
+forgotten it when he needed it most. He replaced the earth in the sack
+and dragged it away, then plunged into the lake, and afterward went
+to bed, where he slept soundly until dawn. First, he slipped into the
+living-room and wrote a note to the Girl. Then he fed Belshazzar and ate
+a hearty breakfast. He stationed the dog at her door, gave him the
+note, and went to the oak. There he arranged everything neatly and as
+he desired, and then hitching Betsy he quietly guided her down the drive
+and over the road to Onabasha. He went to an undertaking establishment,
+made all his arrangements, and then called up and talked with the
+minister who had performed the marriage ceremony the previous day.
+
+The sun shining in her face awoke Ruth and she lay revelling in the
+light. "Maybe it will colour me faster than the powder," she thought.
+"How peculiar for him to say what he did! I always thought men detested
+it. But he is not like any one else." She lay looking around the
+beautiful room and wondering where the Harvester was. She could not hear
+him. Then, slowly and painfully, she dragged her aching limbs from the
+bed and went to the door. The dog was gone from the porch and she could
+not see the man at the stable. She selected a frock and putting it on
+opened the door. Belshazzar arose and offered this letter:
+
+DEAR RUTH:
+
+I have gone to keep my promise. You are locked in with Bel. Please obey
+me and do not step outside the door until four o'clock. Then put on a
+pretty white dress, and with the dog, come to the bridge to meet me. I
+hope you will not suffer and fret. Put away your clothing, arrange the
+rooms to keep busy, or better yet, lie in the swing and rest. There is
+food in the ice chest, pantry, and cellar. Forgive me for leaving you
+to-day, but I thought you would feel easier to have this over. I am so
+glad to bring your mother here. I hope it will make you happy enough
+to meet us with a smile. Do not forget the pink box until the reality
+comes.
+
+With love,
+
+DAVID.
+
+
+The Girl went to the kitchen and found food. She offered to share with
+Belshazzar, but she could see from his indifference he was not hungry.
+Then she returned to the room flooded with light, and filled with
+treasures, and tried to decide how she would arrange her clothing. She
+spent hours opening boxes and putting dainty, pretty garments in the
+drawers, hanging the dresses, and placing the toilet articles. Often
+she wearily dropped to the chairs and couches, or gazed from door and
+windows at the pictures they framed. "I wonder why he doesn't want me to
+go outside," she thought. "I wouldn't be afraid in the least, with Bel.
+I'd just love to go across to that wonderful little river of Singing
+Water and sit in the shade; but I won't open the door until four
+o'clock, just as he wrote."
+
+When she thought of where he had gone, and why, the swift tears filled
+her eyes, but she forced them back and resolutely went to investigate
+the dining-room. Then for two hours she was a home builder, with a touch
+of that homing instinct found in the heart of every good woman. First,
+she looked where the Harvester had said the dishes were, and suddenly
+sat on the floor exulting. There was a quantity of old chipped and
+cracked white ware and some gorgeous baking powder prizes; but there
+were also big blue, green, and pink bowls, several large lustre plates,
+and a complete tea set without chip or blemish, two beautiful pitchers,
+and a number of willow pieces. She set the green bowl on the dining
+table, the blue on the living-room, and took the pink herself, while a
+beautiful yellow one she placed in the dining-room window seat.
+
+"Oh, if I only dared fill them with those lovely flowers!" She stood in
+the window and gazed longingly toward the lake. "I know what colour I'd
+like to put in each of them," she said, "but I promised not to touch
+anything, and the ones I want most I never saw before, and I'm not to go
+out anyway. I can't see the sense in that, when I'm not at all afraid,
+but if he does this wonderful thing for me I must do what he asks. Oh
+mother, mother! Are you really coming to this beautiful place and to
+rest at last?"
+
+She sank to the window seat and lay trembling, but she bravely
+restrained the tears. After a time she remembered the upstairs and went
+to see the coverlets. She found a half dozen beautiful ones, and smiled
+as she examined the stiffly conventionalized birds facing each other in
+the border designs, and in one corner of each blanket she read, woven in
+the cloth----
+
+     Peter and John
+        Hartman
+        Wooster
+         Ohio
+         1837
+
+She took a blue and a green one, several fine skins from the fur box the
+Harvester had told her about, and went downstairs. It required all her
+strength to push the heavy tables before the fireplaces. She spread
+papers on them to stand on, and tacked a skin above each mantel. She set
+all of the candlesticks, except those she wanted to use, in the lower
+part of an empty bookcase. A pair of black walnut she placed on the
+living-room mantel, together with a big blue plate, a yellow one, and an
+old brass candlestick. She admired the effect very much. She spread the
+blue coverlet on the couch, and arranged the blue bowl and some books on
+the table. Here and there she hung a skin across a chair back, or
+spread it in a wide window seat. Having exhausted all her resources, she
+returned to the dining-room, spread a skin before the hearth and in each
+window seat, set a pink and green lustre plate on the mantel, and a pair
+of oak candlesticks, and arranged the lustre tea set on the side table.
+The pink coverlet she took for herself, and after resting a time she was
+surprised on going back to the rooms to see how homelike they appeared.
+
+At three o'clock she dressed and at almost four unlocked the screen,
+called Belshazzar to her side, and slowly went down the drive to the
+bridge. She had used the pink powder, put on a beautiful white dress,
+carefully arranged her hair, and she wore the pearl ornament. Once her
+fingers strayed to the pendant and she said softly, "I think both he and
+mother would like me to wear it."
+
+At the foot of the hill she stopped at a bench and sat in the shade
+waiting. Belshazzar stretched beside her, and gazed at her with
+questioning, friendly dog eyes. The Girl looked from Singing Water to
+the lake, and up the hill to make sure it was real. She tried to quiet
+her quivering muscles and nerves. He had asked her to meet him with a
+smile. How could she? He could not have understood what it meant when
+he made the request. There never would be any way to make him realize;
+indeed, why should he? The smile must be ready. He had loved his mother
+deeply, and yet he had said he did not grieve to lay her to rest. Earth
+had not been kind. Then why should she sorrow for her mother? Again life
+had been not only unkind, but bitterly cruel.
+
+Belshazzar arose and watched down the drive. The Girl looked also.
+Through the gate and up the levee came a strange procession. First
+walked the Harvester alone, with bared head, and he carried an arm load
+of white lilies. A carriage containing a man and several women followed.
+Then came a white hearse with snowy plumes, and behind that another
+carriage filled with people, and Betsy followed drawing men in the
+spring wagon. The Girl arose and as she stepped to the drive she swayed
+uncertainly an instant.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" she gasped. "He is bringing her in white, and with
+flowers and song!"
+
+Then she lifted her head, and with a smile on her lips she went to meet
+him. As she reached his side, he tenderly put an arm around her, and
+came on steadily.
+
+"Courage Girl!" he whispered. "Be as brave as she was!"
+
+Around the driveway and up the hill he half carried her, to a seat he
+had placed under the oak. Before her lay the white-lined grave, and the
+Harvester arranged his lilies around it. The teams stopped at the barn
+and men came up the hill bearing a white burden. Behind them followed
+the minister who yesterday had performed their marriage ceremony, and
+after him a choir of trained singers softly chanting:
+
+     "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,
+     For they shall cease from their labours."
+
+
+"But David," panted the Girl, "It was mean and poor. That is not she!"
+
+"Sush!" said the Harvester. "It is your mother. The location was high
+and dry, and it has been only a short time. We wrapped her in white
+silk, laid her on a soft cushion and pillow, and housed her securely.
+She can sleep well now, Ruth. Listen!"
+
+Covered with white lilies, slowly the casket sank into earth. At its
+head stood the minister and as it began to disappear, the white doves,
+frightened by the strange conveyances at the stable, came circling
+above. The minister looked up. He lifted a clear tenor, and softly and
+purely he sang, while at a wave of his hand the choir joined him:
+
+     "Oh, come angel band!  Oh, come, and around me stand!
+     Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home!"
+
+
+He uttered a low benediction, and singing, the people turned and went
+downhill. The Harvester gathered the Girl in his arms and carried her to
+the lake. He laid her in his boat and taking the oars sent it along the
+bank in the shade, and through cool, green places.
+
+"Now cry all you choose!" he said.
+
+The overstrained Girl covered her face and sobbed wildly. After a time
+he began to talk to her gently, and before she realized it, she was
+listening.
+
+"Death has been kinder to her than life, Ruth," he said. "She is lying
+as you saw her last, I think. We lifted her very tenderly, wrapped
+her carefully, and brought her gently as we could. Now they shall rest
+together, those little mothers of ours, to whom men were not kind; and
+in the long sleep we must forget, as they have forgotten, and forgive,
+as no doubt they have forgiven. Don't you want to take some lilies to
+them before we go to the cabin? Right there on your left are unusually
+large ones."
+
+The Girl sat up, dried her eyes and gathered the white flowers. When the
+last vehicle crossed the bridge, the Harvester tied the boat and helped
+her up the hill. The old oak stretched its wide arms above two little
+mounds, both moss covered and scattered with flowers. The Girl added her
+store and then went to the Harvester, and sank at his feet.
+
+"Ruth, you shall not!" cried the man. "I simply will not have that. Come
+now, I will bring you back this evening."
+
+He helped her to the veranda and laid her in the swing. He sat beside
+her while she rested, and then they went into the cabin for supper. Soon
+he had her telling what she had found, and he was making notes of what
+was yet required to transform the cabin into a home. The Harvester left
+it to her to decide whether he should roof the bridge the next day or
+make a trip for furnishings. She said he had better buy what they
+needed and then she could make the cabin homelike while he worked on the
+bridge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE HARVESTER INTERPRETS LIFE
+
+They went through the rooms together, and the Girl suggested the
+furnishings she thought necessary, while the Harvester wrote the list.
+The following morning he was eager to have her company, but she was very
+tired and begged to be allowed to wait in the swing, so again he drove
+away and left her with Belshazzar on guard. When he had gone, she went
+through the cabin arranging the furniture the best she could, then
+dressed and went to the swinging couch. It was so wide and heavy a light
+wind rocked it gently, and from it she faced the fern and lily carpeted
+hillside, the majesty of big trees of a thousand years, and heard the
+music of Singing Water as it sparkled diamond-like where the sun rays
+struck its flow. Across the drive and down the valley to the brilliant
+bit of marsh it hurried on its way to Loon Lake.
+
+There were squirrels barking and racing in the big trees and over the
+ground. They crossed the sodded space of lawn and came to the top step
+for nuts, eating them from cunning paws. They were living life according
+to the laws of their nature. She knew that their sharp, startling bark
+was not to frighten her, but to warn straying intruders of other species
+of their kindred from a nest, because the Harvester had told her so. He
+had said their racing here and there in wild scramble was a game of tag
+and she found it most interesting to observe.
+
+Birds of brilliant colour flashed everywhere, singing in wild joy, and
+tilted on the rising hedge before her, hunting berries and seeds. Their
+bubbling, spontaneous song was an instinctive outpouring of their joy
+over mating time, nests, young, much food, and running water. Their
+social, inquiring, short cry was to locate a mate, and call her to good
+feeding. The sharp wild scream of a note was when a hawk passed over, a
+weasel lurked in the thicket, or a black snake sunned on the bushes. She
+remembered these things, and lay listening intently, trying to interpret
+every sound as the Harvester did.
+
+Birds of wide wing hung as if nailed to the sky, or wheeled and sailed
+in grandeur. They were searching the landscape below to locate a hare
+or snake in the waving grass or carrion in the fields. The wonderful
+exhibitions of wing power were their expression of exultation in life,
+just as the song sparrow threatened to rupture his throat as he swung
+on the hedge, and the red bird somewhere in the thicket whistled so
+forcefully it sounded as if the notes might hurt him.
+
+On the lake bass splashed in a game with each other. Grebes chattered,
+because they were very social. Ducks dived and gobbled for roots and
+worms of the lake shore, and congratulated each other when they were
+lucky.
+
+Killdeer cried for slaughter, in plaintive tones, as their white breasts
+gleamed silver-like across the sky. They insisted on the death of their
+ancient enemies, because the deer had trampled nests around the
+shore, roiled the water, spoiled the food hunting, and had been wholly
+unmindful of the laws of feathered folk from the beginning.
+
+Behind the barn imperial cocks crowed challenges of defiance to each
+other and all the world, because they once had worn royal turbans on
+their heads, and ruled the forests, even the elephants and lions. Happy
+hens cackled when they deposited an egg, and wandered through their park
+singing the spring egg song unceasingly.
+
+Upon the barn Ajax spread and exulted in glittering plumage, and
+screamed viciously. He was sending a wireless plea to the forests of
+Ceylon for a gray mate to come and share the ridge pole with him, and
+help him wage red war on the sickening love making of the white doves he
+hated.
+
+Everything was beautiful, some of it was amusing, all instructive, and
+intensely interesting. The Girl wanted to know about the brown, yellow,
+and black butterflies sailing from flower to flower. She watched big
+black and gold bees come from the forest for pollen and listened to
+their monotonous bumbling. Her first humming bird poised in air, and
+sipped nectar before her astonished eyes. It was marvellous, but more
+wonderful to the Girl than anything she saw or heard was the fact that
+because of the Harvester's teachings she now could trace through all of
+it the ordained processes of the evolution of life. Everything was right
+in its way, all necessary to human welfare, and so there was nothing to
+fear, but marvels to learn and pictures to appreciate. She would have
+taken Belshazzar and gone out, but the Harvester had exacted a promise
+that she would not. The fact was, he could see that she was coming
+gradually to a sane and natural view of life and living things, and he
+did not want some sound or creature to frighten her, and spoil what he
+had accomplished. So she swayed in the swing and watched, and tried to
+interpret sights and sounds as he did.
+
+Before an hour she realized that she was coming speedily into sympathy
+with the wild life around her; for, instead of shivering and shrinking
+at unaccustomed sounds, she was listening especially for them, and
+trying to arrive at a sane version. Instead of the senseless roar
+of commerce, manufacture, and life of a city, she was beginning to
+appreciate sounds that varied and carried the Song of Life in unceasing
+measure and absorbing meaning, while she was more than thankful for the
+fresh, pure air, and the blessed, God-given light. It seemed to the Girl
+that there was enough sunshine at Medicine Woods to furnish rays of gold
+for the whole world.
+
+"Bel," she said to the dog standing beside her, "it's a shame to
+separate you from the Medicine Man and pen you here with me. It's a
+wonder you don't bite off my head and run away to find him. He's gone to
+bring more things to make life beautiful. I wanted to go with him, but
+oh Bel, there's something dreadfully wrong with me. I was afraid I'd
+fall on the streets and frighten and shame him. I'm so weak, I scarcely
+can walk straight across one of these big, cool rooms that he has built
+for me. He can make everything beautiful, Bel, a home, rooms, clothing,
+grounds, and life----above everything else he can make life beautiful.
+He's so splendid and wonderful, with his wide understanding and sane
+interpretation and God-like sympathy and patience. Why Belshazzar, he
+can do the greatest thing in all the world! He can make you forget that
+the grave annihilates your dear ones by hideous processes, and set you
+to thinking instead that they come back to you in whispering leaves and
+flower perfumes. If I didn't owe him so much that I ought to pay, if
+this wasn't so alluringly beautiful, I'd like to go to the oak and lie
+beside those dear women resting there, and give my tired body to
+furnish sap for strength and leaves for music. He can take its bitterest
+sting----from death, Bel----and that's the most wonderful thing----in
+life, Bel----"
+
+Her voice became silent, her eyes closed; the dog stretched himself
+beside her on guard, and it was so the Harvester found them when he
+drove home from the city. He heaped his load in the dining-room, stabled
+Betsy, carried the things he had brought where he thought they belonged,
+and prepared food. When she awakened she came to him.
+
+"How is it going, Girl?" asked the Harvester.
+
+"I can't tell you how lovely it has been!"
+
+"Do you really mean that your heart is warming a little to things here?"
+
+"Indeed I do! I can't tell you what a morning I've had. There have been
+such myriad things to see and hear. Oh, Harvester, can you ever teach me
+what all of it means?"
+
+"I can right now," said the Harvester promptly. "It means two things,
+so simple any little child can understand----the love of God and the
+evolution of life. I am not precisely clear as to what I mean when I say
+God. I don't know whether it is spirit, matter, or force; it is that big
+thing that brings forth worlds, establishes their orbits, and gives us
+heat, light, food, and water. To me, that is God and His love. Just that
+we are given birth, sheltered, provisioned, and endowed for our work.
+Evolution is the natural consequence of this. It is the plan steadily
+unfolding. If I were you, I wouldn't bother my head over these
+questions, they never have been scientifically explained to the
+beginning; I doubt if they ever will be, because they start with the
+origin of matter and that is too far beyond man for him to penetrate.
+Just enjoy to the depths of your soul----that's worship. Be thankful for
+everything----that's praising God as the birds praise him. And 'do unto
+others' that's all there is of love and religion combined in one fell
+swoop."
+
+"You should go before the world and tell every one that!"
+
+"No! It isn't my vocation," said the Harvester. "My work is to provide
+pain-killer. I don't believe, Ruth, that there is any one on the
+footstool who is doing a better job along that line. I am boastfully
+proud of it----just of sending in the packages that kill fever, refresh
+poor blood, and strengthen weak hearts; unadulterated, honest weight,
+fresh, and scrupulously clean. My neighbours have a different name for
+it; I call it a man's work."
+
+"Every one who understands must," said the Girl. "I wish I could help at
+that. I feel as if it would do more to wipe out the pain I've suffered
+and seen her endure than anything else. Man, when I grow strong enough I
+want to help you. I believe that I am going to love it here."
+
+"Don't ever suppress your feelings, Ruth!" hastily cried the Harvester.
+"It will be very bad for you. You will become wrought up, and 'het up,'
+as Granny Moreland says, and it will make you very ill. When we drive
+the fever from your blood, the ache from your bones, the poison of
+wrong conditions from your soul, and good, healthy, red corpuscles begin
+pumping through your little heart like a windmill, you can stake your
+life you're going to love it here. And the location and work are not
+all you're going to care for either, honey. Now just wait! That was not
+'nominated in the bond.' I'm allowed to talk. I never agreed not to SAY
+things. What I promised was not to DO them. So as I said, honey, sit at
+this table, and eat the food I've cooked; and by that time the furniture
+van will be here, and the men will unload, and you shall reign on a
+throne and tell me where and how."
+
+"Oh if I were only stronger, David!"
+
+"You are!" said the Harvester. "You are much better than you were
+yesterday. You can talk, and that's all that's necessary. The rooms
+are ready for furniture. The men will carry it where you want it. A
+decorator is coming to hang the curtains. By night we will be settled;
+you can lie in the swing while I read to you a story so wonderful that
+the wildest fairy tale you ever heard never touched it."
+
+"What will it be, David?"
+
+"Eat all the red raspberries and cream, bread and butter, and drink all
+the milk you can. There's blood, beefsteak, and bones in it. As I was
+saying, you have come here a stranger to a strange land. The first thing
+is for you to understand and love the woods. Before you can do that you
+should master the history of one tree; just the same as you must learn
+to know and love me before your childlike trust in all mankind returns
+again. Understand? Well, the fates knew you were on the way, coming
+trembling down the brink, Ruth, so they put it into the heart of a great
+man to write largely of a wonderful tree, especially for your benefit.
+After it had fallen he took it apart, split it in sections, and year
+by year spread out history for all the world to read. It made a classic
+story filled with unsurpassed wonders. It was a pine of a thousand
+years, close the age of our mother tree, Ruth, and when we have learned
+from Enos Mills how to wrest secrets from the hearts of centuries, we
+will climb the hill and measure our oak, and then I will estimate, and
+you will write, and we will make a record for our tree."
+
+"Oh, I'd like that!"
+
+"So would I," said the Harvester. "And a million other things I can
+think of that we can learn together. It won't require long for me to
+teach you all I know, and by that time your hand will be clasped in
+mine, and our 'hearts will beat as one,' and you will give me a kiss
+every night and morning, and a few during the day for interest, and we
+will go on in life together and learn songs, miracles, and wonders until
+the old oak calls us. Then we will ascend the hill gladly and lie down
+and offer up our bodies, and our children will lay flowers over our
+hearts, and gather the herbs and paint the pictures? Amen. I hear a van
+on the bridge. Just you go to your room and lie down until I get things
+unloaded and where they belong. Then you and the decorator can make us
+home-like, and to-morrow we will begin to live. Won't that be great,
+Ruth?"
+
+"With you, yes, I think it will."
+
+"That will do for this time," said the Harvester, as he opened the door
+to her room. "Lie and rest until I say ready."
+
+As he went to meet the men, she could hear him singing lustily, "Praise
+God from whom all blessings flow."
+
+"What a child he is!" she said. "And what a man!"
+
+For an hour heavy feet sounded through the cabin carrying furniture to
+different rooms. Then with a floor brush in one hand, and a polishing
+cloth in the other, the Harvester tapped at her door and helped the Girl
+upstairs. He had divided the space into three large, square sleeping
+chambers. In each he had set up a white iron bed, a dressing table, and
+wash stand, and placed two straight-backed and one rocking chair, all
+white. The walls were tinted lightly with green added to the plaster.
+There was a mattress and a stack of bedding on each bed, and a large rug
+and several small ones on the floors. He led her to the rocking chair in
+the middle room, where she could see through the open doors of the other
+two.
+
+"Now," said the Harvester, "I didn't know whether the room with two
+windows toward the lake and one on the marsh, or two facing the woods
+and one front, was the guest chamber. It seemed about an even throw
+whether a visitor would prefer woods or water, so I made them both guest
+chambers, and got things alike for them. Now if we are entertaining two,
+one can't feel more highly honoured than the other. Was that a scheme?"
+
+"Fine!" said the Girl. "I don't see how it could be surpassed."
+
+"'Be sure you are right, then go ahead,'" quoted the Harvester. "Now
+I'll make the beds and Mr. Rogers can hang the curtains. Is white
+correct for sleeping rooms? Won't that wash best and always be fresh?"
+
+"It will," said the Girl. "White wash curtains are much the nicest."
+
+"Make them short Mr. Rogers; keep them off the floor," advised the
+Harvester. "And simple----don't arrange any thing elaborate that will
+tire a woman to keep in order. Whack them off the right length and pin
+them to the poles."
+
+"How about that, Mrs. Langston?" asked the decorator.
+
+"I am quite sure that is the very best thing to do," said the Girl; and
+the curtains were hung while the mattress was placed.
+
+"Now about this?" inquired the Harvester. "Do I put on sheets and fix
+these beds ready to use?"
+
+"I would not," said the Girl. "I would spread the pad and the
+counterpane and lay the sheets and pillows in the closet until they are
+wanted. They can be sunned and the bed made delightfully fresh."
+
+"Of course," said the Harvester.
+
+When he had finished, he spread a cover on the dressing table and
+laid out white toilet articles and grouped a white wash set with green
+decorations on the stand. Then he brushed the floor, spread a big green
+rug in the middle and small ones before the bed, stand, and table, and
+coming out closed the door.
+
+"Guest chamber with lake view is now ready for company," announced the
+Harvester. "Repeat the operation on the woods room, finished also. Why
+do some people make work of things and string them out eternally and
+fuss so much? Isn't this simple and easy, Ruth?"
+
+"Yes, if you can afford it," said the Girl.
+
+"Forbear!" cried the Harvester. "We have the goods, the dealer has my
+check. Excuse me ten minutes, until I furnish another room."
+
+The laughing Girl could catch glimpses of him busy over beds and
+dresser, floor and rugs; then he came where she sat.
+
+"Woods guest chamber ready," he said. "Now we come to the interior
+apartment, that from its view might be called the marsh room. Aside
+from being two windows short, it is exactly similar to the others. It
+occurred to me that, in order to make up for the loss of those windows,
+and also because I may be compelled to ask some obliging woman to occupy
+it in case your health is precarious at any time, and in view of the
+further fact that if any such woman could be found, and would kindly and
+willingly care for us, my gratitude would be inexpressible; on account
+of all these things, I got a shade the BEST furnishings for this room."
+
+The Girl stared at him with blank face.
+
+"You see," said the Harvester, "this is a question of ethics. Now what
+is a guest? A thing of a day! A person who disturbs your routine and
+interferes with important concerns. Why should any one be grateful for
+company? Why should time and money be lavished on visitors? They come.
+You overwork yourself. They go. You are glad of it. You return the
+visit, because it's the only way to have back at them; but why pamper
+them unnecessarily? Now a good housekeeper, that means more than words
+can express. Comfort, kindness, sanitary living, care in illness! Here's
+to the prospective housekeeper of Medicine Woods! Rogers, hang those
+ruffled embroidered curtains. Observe that whereas mere guest beds
+are plain white, this has a touch of brass. Where guest rugs are floor
+coverings, this is a work of art. Where guest brushes are celluloid,
+these are enamelled, and the dresser cover is hand embroidered. Let me
+also call your attention to the chairs touched with gold, cushioned
+for ease, and a decorated pitcher and bowl. Watch the bounce of these
+springs and the thickness of this mattress and pad, and notice that
+where guests, however welcome, get a down cover of sateen, the lady of
+the house has silkaline. Won't she prepare us a breakfast after a night
+in this room?"
+
+"David, are you in earnest?" gasped the Girl.
+
+"Don't these things prove it?" asked the Harvester. "No woman can enter
+my home, when my necessities are so great I have to hire her to come,
+and take the WORST in the house. After my wife, she gets the best, every
+time. Whenever I need help, the woman who will come and serve me is what
+I'd call the real guest of the house. Friend? Where are your friends
+when trouble comes? It always brings a crowd on account of the
+excitement, and there is noise and racing; but if your soul is saved
+alive, it is by a steady, trained hand you pay to help you. Friends
+come and go, but a good housekeeper remains and is a business
+proposition--one that if conducted rightly for both parties and on a
+strictly common-sense basis, gives you living comfort. Now that we have
+disposed of the guests that go and the one that remains, we will proceed
+downward and arrange for ourselves."
+
+"David, did you ever know any one who treated a housekeeper as you say
+you would?"
+
+"No. And I never knew any one who raised medicinal stuff for a living,
+but I'm making a gilt-edged success of it, and I would of a housekeeper,
+too."
+
+"It doesn't seem----"
+
+"That's the bedrock of all the trouble on the earth," interrupted the
+Harvester. "We are a nation and a part of a world that spends our time
+on 'seeming.' Our whole outer crust is 'seeming.' When we get beneath
+the surface and strike the BEING, then we live as we are privileged by
+the Almighty. I don't think I give a tinker how anything SEEMS. What
+concerns me is how it IS. It doesn't 'seem' possible to you to hire a
+woman to come into your home and take charge of its cleanliness and the
+food you eat--the very foundation of life--and treat her as an honoured
+guest, and give her the best comfort you have to offer. The cold room,
+the old covers, the bare floor, and the cast off furniture are for her.
+No wonder, as a rule, she gives what she gets. She dignifies her labour
+in the same ratio that you do. Wait until we need a housekeeper, and
+then gaze with awe on the one I will raise to your hand."
+
+"I wonder----"
+
+"Don't! It's wearing! Come tell me how to make our living-room less bare
+than it appears at present."
+
+They went downstairs together, followed by the decorator, and began work
+on the room. The Girl was placed on a couch and made comfortable and
+then the Harvester looked around.
+
+"That bundle there, Rogers, is the curtains we bought for this room. If
+you and my wife think they are not right, we will not hang them."
+
+The decorator opened the package and took out curtains of tan-coloured
+goods with a border of blue and brown.
+
+"Those are not expensive," said the Harvester, "but to me a window
+appears bare with only a shade, so I thought we'd try these, and when
+they become soiled we'll burn them and buy some fresh ones."
+
+"Good idea!" laughed the Girl. "As a house decorator you surpass
+yourself as a Medicine Man."
+
+"Fix these as you did those upstairs," ordered the Harvester. "We don't
+want any fol-de-rols. Put the bottom even with the sill and shear them
+off at the top."
+
+"No, I am going to arrange these," said the decorator, "you go on with
+your part."
+
+"All right!" agreed the Harvester. "First, I'll lay the big rug."
+
+He cleared the floor, spread a large rug with a rich brown centre and a
+wide blue border. Smaller ones of similar design and colour were placed
+before each of the doors leading from the room.
+
+"Now for the hearth," said the Harvester, "I got this tan goat skin.
+Doesn't that look fairly well?"
+
+It certainly did; and the Girl and the decorator hastened to say so. The
+Harvester replaced the table and chairs, and then sat on the couch at
+the Girl's feet.
+
+"I call this almost finished," he remarked. "All we need now is a
+bouquet and something on the walls, and that is serious business.
+What goes on them usually remains for a long time, and so it should be
+selected with care. Ruth, have you a picture of your mother?"
+
+"None since she was my mother. I have some lovely girl photographs."
+
+"Good!" cried the Harvester. "Exactly the thing! I have a picture of my
+mother when she was a pretty girl. We will select the best of yours and
+have them enlarged in those beautiful brown prints they make in these
+days, and we'll frame one for each side of the mantel. After that you
+can decorate the other walls as you see things you want. Fifteen minutes
+gone; we are ready to take up the line of march to the dining-room. Oh
+I forgot my pillows! Here are a half dozen tan, brown, and blue for this
+room. Ruth, you arrange them."
+
+The Girl heaped four on the couch, stood one beside the hearth, and laid
+another in a big chair.
+
+"Now I don't know what you will think of this," said the Harvester. "I
+found it in a magazine at the library. I copied this whole room. The
+plan was to have the floor, furniture, and casings of golden oak and the
+walls pale green. Then it said get yellow curtains bordered with green
+and a green rug with yellow figures, so I got them. I had green leather
+cushions made for the window seats, and these pillows go on them. Hang
+the saffron curtains, Rogers, and we will finish in good shape for
+dinner by six. By the way, Ruth, when will you select your dishes? It
+will take a big set to fill all these shelves and you shall have exactly
+what you want."
+
+"I can use those you have very well."
+
+"Oh no you can't!" cried the Harvester. "I may live and work in the
+woods, but I am not so benighted that I don't own and read the best
+books and magazines, and subscribe for a few papers. I patronize the
+library and see what is in the stores. My money will buy just as much as
+any man's, if I do wear khaki trousers. Kindly notice the word. Save in
+deference to your ladyship I probably would have said pants. You see how
+ELITE I can be if I try. And it not only extends to my wardrobe, to a
+'yaller' and green dining-room, but it takes in the 'chany' as well. I
+have looked up that, too. You want china, cut glass, silver cutlery, and
+linen. Ye! Ye! You needn't think I don't know anything but how to dig in
+the dirt. I have been studying this especially, and I know exactly what
+to get."
+
+"Come here," said the Girl, making a place for him beside her. "Now let
+me tell you what I think. We are going to live in the woods, and our
+home is a log cabin----"
+
+"With acetylene lights, a furnace, baths, and hot and cold water----"
+interpolated the Harvester.
+
+The Girl and the decorator laughed.
+
+"Anyway," said she, "if you are going to let me have what I would like,
+I'd prefer a set of tulip yellow dishes with the Dutch little figures
+on them. I don't know what they cost, but certainly they are not so
+expensive as cut glass and china."
+
+"Is that earnest or is it because you think I am spending too much
+money?"
+
+"It is what I want. Everything else is different; why should we have
+dishes like city folk? I'd dearly love to have the Dutch ones, and
+a white cloth with a yellow border, glass where it is necessary, and
+silver knives, forks, and spoons."
+
+"That would be great, all right!" endorsed the decorator. "And you have
+got a priceless old lustre tea set there, and your willow ware is as
+fine as I ever saw. If I were you, I wouldn't buy a dish with what you
+have, except the yellow set."
+
+"Great day!" ejaculated the Harvester. "Will you tell me why my great
+grandmother's old pink and green teapot is priceless?"
+
+The Girl explained pink lustre. "That set in the shop I knew in Chicago
+would sell for from three to five hundred dollars. Truly it would! I've
+seen one little pink and green pitcher like yours bring nine dollars
+there. And you've not only got the full tea set, but water and dip
+pitchers, two bowls, and two bread plates. They are priceless, because
+the secret of making them is lost; they take on beauty with age, and
+they were your great-grandmother's."
+
+The Harvester reached over and energetically shook hands.
+
+"Ruth, I'm so glad you've got them!" he bubbled. "Now elucidate on my
+willow ware. What is it? Where is it? Why have I willow ware and am not
+informed. Who is responsible for this? Did my ancestors buy better than
+they knew, or worse? Is willow ware a crime for which I must hide
+my head, or is it further riches thrust upon me? I thought I had
+investigated the subject of proper dishes quite thoroughly; but I am
+very certain I saw no mention of lustre or willow. I thought, in my
+ignorance, that lustre was a dress, and willow a tree. Have I been
+deceived? Why is a blue plate or pitcher willow ware?"
+
+"Bring that platter from the mantel," ordered the Girl, "and I will show
+you."
+
+The Harvester obeyed and followed the finger that traced the design.
+
+"That's a healthy willow tree!" he commented. "If Loon Lake couldn't go
+ahead of that it should be drained. And will you please tell me why this
+precious platter from which I have eaten much stewed chicken, fried ham,
+and in youthful days sopped the gravy----will you tell me why this relic
+of my ancestors is called a willow plate, when there are a majority of
+orange trees so extremely fruitful they have neglected to grow a leaf?
+Why is it not an orange plate? Look at that boat! And in plain sight of
+it, two pagodas, a summer house, a water-sweep, and a pair of corpulent
+swallows; you would have me believe that a couple are eloping in broad
+daylight."
+
+"Perhaps it's night! And those birds are doves."
+
+"Never!" cried the Harvester. "There is a total absence of shadows.
+There is no moon. Each orange tree is conveniently split in halves, so
+you can see to count the fruit accurately; the birds are in flight. Only
+a swallow or a stork can fly in decorations, either by day or by night.
+And for any sake look at that elopement! He goes ahead carrying a cane,
+she comes behind lugging the baggage, another man with a cane brings up
+the rear. They are not running away. They have been married ten years
+at least. In a proper elopement, they forget there are such things
+as jewels and they always carry each other. I've often looked up the
+statistics and it's the only authorized version. As I regard this
+treasure, I grow faint when I remember with what unnecessary force my
+father bore down when he carved the ham. I'll bet a cooky he split those
+orange trees. Now me----I'll never dare touch knife to it again. I'll
+always carve the meat on the broiler, and gently lift it to this
+platter with a fork. Or am I not to be allowed to dine from my ancestral
+treasure again?"
+
+"Not in a green and yellow room," laughed the Girl. "I'll tell you what
+I think. If I had a tea table to match the living-room furniture, and
+it sat beside the hearth, and on it a chafing dish to cook in, and the
+willow ware to eat from, we could have little tea parties in there, when
+we aren't very hungry or to treat a visitor. It would help make that
+room 'homey,' and it's wonderful how they harmonize with the other
+things."
+
+"How much willow ware have I got to 'bestow' on you?" inquired the
+Harvester. "Suppose you show me all of it. A guilty feeling arises in my
+breast, and I fear me I have committed high crimes!"
+
+"Oh Man! You didn't break or lose any of those dishes, did you?"
+
+"Show me!" insisted the Harvester.
+
+The Girl arose and going to the cupboard he had designed for her china
+she opened it, and set before him a teapot, cream pitcher, two plates, a
+bowl, a pitcher, the meat platter, and a sugar bowl. "If there were all
+of the cups, saucers, and plates, I know where they would bring five
+hundred dollars," she said.
+
+"Ruth, are you getting even with me for poking fun at them, or are you
+in earnest?" asked the Harvester.
+
+"I mean every word of it."
+
+"You really want a small, black walnut table made especially for those
+old dishes?"
+
+"Not if you are too busy. I could use it with beautiful effect and much
+pleasure, and I can't tell you how proud I'd be of them."
+
+The Harvester's face flushed. "Excuse me," he said rising. "I have now
+finished furnishing a house; I will go and take a peep at the engine."
+He went into the kitchen and hearing the rattle of dishes the Girl
+followed. She stepped in just in time to see him hastily slide something
+into his pocket. He picked up a half dozen old white plates and saucers
+and several cups and started toward the evaporator. He heard her coming.
+
+"Look here, honey," he said turning, "you don't want to see the
+dry-house just now. I have terrific heat to do some rapid work. I won't
+be gone but a few minutes. You better boss the decorator.
+
+"I'm afraid that wasn't very diplomatic," he muttered. "It savoured a
+little of being sent back. But if what she says is right, and she
+should know if they handle such stuff at that art store, she will feel
+considerably better not to see this."
+
+He set his load at the door, drew an old blue saucer from his pocket and
+made a careful examination. He pulled some leaves from a bush and pushed
+a greasy cloth out of the saucer, wiped it the best he could, and held
+it to light.
+
+"That is a crime!" he commented. "Saucer from your maternal ancestors'
+tea set used for a grease dish. I am afraid I'd better sink it in the
+lake. She'd feel worse to see it than never to know. Wish I could clean
+off the grease! I could do better if it was hot. I can set it on the
+engine."
+
+The Harvester placed the saucer on the engine, entered the dry-house,
+and closed the door. In the stifling air he began pouring seed from
+beautiful, big willow plates to the old white ones.
+
+"About the time I have ruined you," he said to a white plate, "some one
+will pop up and discover that the art of making you is lost and you are
+priceless, and I'll have been guilty of another blunder. Now there are
+the dishes mother got with baking powder. She thought they were grand.
+I know plenty well she prized them more than these blue ones or she
+wouldn't have saved them and used these for every day. There they set,
+all so carefully taken care of, and the Girl doesn't even look at them.
+Thank Heaven, there are the four remaining plates all right, anyway! Now
+I've got seed in some of the saucers; one is there; where on earth is
+the last one? And where, oh unkind fates! are the cups?"
+
+He found more saucers and set them with the plates. As he passed the
+engine he noticed the saucer on it was bubbling grease, literally
+exuding it from the particles of clay.
+
+"Hooray!" cried the Harvester. He took it up, but it was so hot he
+dropped it. With a deft sweep he caught it in air, and shoved it on
+a tray. Then he danced and blew on his burned hand. Snatching out his
+handkerchief he rubbed off all the grease, and imagined the saucer was
+brighter.
+
+"If 'a little is good, more is better,'" quoted the Harvester.
+
+Wadding the handkerchief he returned the saucer to the engine. Then he
+slipped out, dripping perspiration, glanced toward the cabin, and ran
+into the work room. The first object he saw was a willow cup half full
+of red paint, stuck and dried as if to remain forever. He took his knife
+and tried to whittle it off, but noticing that he was scratching the cup
+he filled it with turpentine, set it under a work bench, turned a tin
+pan over it, and covered it with shavings. A few steps farther brought
+one in sight, filled with carpet tacks. He searched everywhere, but
+could find no more, so he went to the laboratory. Beside his wash bowl
+at the door stood the last willow saucer. He had used it for years as a
+soap dish. He scraped the contents on the bench and filled the dish with
+water. Four cups held medicinal seeds and were in good condition. He
+lacked one, although he could not remember of ever having broken it.
+Gathering his collection, he returned to the dry-house to see how the
+saucer was coming on. Again it was bubbling, and he polished off the
+grease and set back the dish. It certainly was growing better. He
+carried his treasures into the work room, and went to the barn to
+feed. As he was leaving the stable he uttered a joyous exclamation
+and snatched from a window sill a willow cup, gummed and smeared with
+harness oil.
+
+"The full set, by hokey!" marvelled the Harvester. "Say, Betsy, the only
+name for this is luck! Now if I only can clean them, I'll be ready to
+make her tea table, whatever that is. My I hope she will stay away until
+I get these in better shape!"
+
+He filled the last cup with turpentine, set it with the other under the
+work bench, stacked the remaining pieces, polished the saucer he was
+baking, and went to bring a dish pan and towel. He drew some water from
+the pipes of the evaporator, put in the soap, and carried it to the work
+room. There he carefully washed and wiped all the pieces, save two cups
+and one saucer. He did not know how long it would require to bake the
+grease from that, but he was sure it was improving. He thought he could
+clean the paint cup, but he imagined the harness oil one would require
+baking also.
+
+As he stood busily working over the dishes, with light step the Girl
+came to the door. She took one long look and understood. She turned
+and swiftly went back to the cabin, but her shoulders were shaking.
+Presently the Harvester came in and explained that after finishing in
+the dry-house he had gone to do the feeding. Then he suggested that
+before it grew dark they should go through the rooms and see how they
+appeared, and gather the flowers the Girl wanted. So together they
+decided everything was clean, comfortable, and harmonized.
+
+Then they went to the hillside sloping to the lake. For the dining-room,
+the Girl wanted yellow water lilies, so the Harvester brought his old
+boat and gathered enough to fill the green bowl. For the living-room,
+she used wild ragged robins in the blue bowl, and on one end of the
+mantel set a pitcher of saffron and on the other arrowhead lilies. For
+her room, she selected big, blushy mallows that grew all along Singing
+Water and around the lake.
+
+"Isn't that slightly peculiar?" questioned the Harvester.
+
+"Take a peep," said the Girl, opening her door.
+
+She had spread the pink coverlet on her couch, and when she set the big
+pink bowl filled with mallows on the table the effect was exquisite.
+
+"I think perhaps that's a little Frenchy," she said, "and you may have
+to be educated to it; but salmon pink and buttercup yellow are colours I
+love in combination."
+
+She closed the door and went to find something to eat, and then to
+the swing, where she liked to rest, look, and listen. The Harvester
+suggested reading to her, but she shook her head.
+
+"Wait until winter," she said, "when the days are longer and cold, and
+the snow buries everything, and then read. Now tell me about my hedge
+and the things you have planted in it."
+
+The Harvester went out and collected a bunch of twigs. He handed her a
+big, evenly proportioned leaf of ovate shape, and explained: "This is
+burning bush, so called because it has pink berries that hang from long,
+graceful stems all winter, and when fully open they expose a flame-red
+seed pod. It was for this colour on gray and white days that I planted
+it. In the woods I grow it in thickets. The root bark brings twenty
+cents a pound, at the very least. It is good fever medicine."
+
+"Is it poison?"
+
+"No. I didn't set anything acutely poisonous in your hedge. I wanted it
+to be a mass of bloom you were free to cut for the cabin all spring, an
+attraction to birds in summer, and bright with colour in winter. To draw
+the feathered tribe, I planted alder, wild cherry, and grape-vines.
+This is cherry. The bark is almost as beautiful as birch. I raise it
+for tonics and the birds love the cherries. This fern-like leaf is from
+mountain ash, and when it attains a few years' growth it will flame with
+colour all winter in big clusters of scarlet berries. That I grow in
+the woods is a picture in snow time, and the bark is one of my standard
+articles."
+
+The Girl raised on her elbow and looked at the hedge.
+
+"I see it," she said. "The berries are green now. I suppose they change
+colour as they ripen."
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester. "And you must not confuse them with sumac.
+The leaves are somewhat similar, but the heads differ in colour and
+shape. The sumac and buckeye you must not touch, until we learn what
+they will do to you. To some they are slightly poisonous, to others not.
+I couldn't help putting in a few buckeyes on account of the big buds
+in early spring. You will like the colour if you are fond of pink and
+yellow in combination, and the red-brown nuts in grayish-yellow, prickly
+hulls, and the leaf clusters are beautiful, but you must use care. I put
+in witch hazel for variety, and I like its appearance; it's mighty
+good medicine, too; so is spice brush, and it has leaves that colour
+brightly, and red berries. These selections were all made for a purpose.
+Now here is wafer ash; it is for music as well as medicine. I have
+invoked all good fairies to come and dwell in this hedge, and so I had
+to provide an orchestra for their dances. This tree grows a hundred tiny
+castanets in a bunch, and when they ripen and become dry the wind shakes
+fine music from them. Yes, they are medicine; that is, the bark of
+the roots is. Almost without exception everything here has medicinal
+properties. The tulip poplar will bear you the loveliest flowers of all,
+and its root bark, taken in winter, makes a good fever remedy."
+
+"How would it do to eat some of the leaves and see if they wouldn't take
+the feverishness from me?"
+
+"It wouldn't do at all," said the Harvester. "We are well enough fixed
+to allow Doc to come now, and he is the one to allay the fever."
+
+"Oh no!" she cried. "No! I don't want to see a doctor. I will be all
+right very soon. You said I was better."
+
+"You are," said the Harvester. "Much better! We will have you strong and
+well soon. You should have come in time for a dose of sassafras. Your
+hedge is filled with that, because of its peculiar leaves and odour. I
+put in dogwood for the white display around the little green bloom,
+lots of alder for bloom and berries, haws for blossoms and fruit for the
+squirrels, wild crab apples for the exquisite bloom and perfume, button
+bush for the buttons, a few pokeberry plants for the colour, and I tried
+some mallows, but I doubt if it's wet enough for them. I set pecks of
+vine roots, that are coming nicely, and ferns along the front edge. Give
+it two years and that hedge will make a picture that will do your eyes
+good."
+
+"Can you think of anything at all you forgot?"
+
+"Yes indeed!" said the Harvester. "The woods are full of trees I have
+not used; some because I overlooked them, some I didn't want. A hedge
+like this, in perfection, is the work of years. Some species must be cut
+back, some encouraged, but soon it will be lovely, and its colour and
+fruit attract every bird of the heavens and butterflies and insects of
+all varieties. I set several common cherry trees for the robins and some
+blackberry and raspberry vines for the orioles. The bloom is pretty and
+the birds you'll have will be a treat to see and hear, if we keep away
+cats, don't fire guns, scatter food, and move quietly among them. With
+our water attractions added, there is nothing impossible in the way of
+making friends with feathered folk."
+
+"There is one thing I don't understand," said the Girl. "You wouldn't
+risk breaking the wing of a moth by keeping it when you wanted a drawing
+very much; you don't seem to kill birds and animals that other people
+do. You almost worship a tree; now how can you take a knife and peel the
+bark to sell or dig up beautiful bushes by the root."
+
+"Perhaps I've talked too much about the woods," said the Harvester
+gently. "I've longed inexpressibly for sympathetic company here, because
+I feel rooted for life, so I am more than anxious that you should care
+for it. I may have made you feel that my greatest interest is in the
+woods, and that I am not consistent when I call on my trees and plants
+to yield of their store for my purposes. Above everything else, the
+human proposition comes first, Ruth. I do love my trees, bushes, and
+flowers, because they keep me at the fountain of life, and teach me
+lessons no book ever hints at; but above everything come my fellow men.
+All I do is for them. My heart is filled with feeling for the things
+you see around you here, but it would be joy to me to uproot the most
+beautiful plant I have if by so doing I could save you pain. Other men
+have wives they love as well, little children they have fathered, big
+bodies useful to the world, that are sometimes crippled with disease.
+There is nothing I would not give to allay the pain of humanity. It is
+not inconsistent to offer any growing thing you soon can replace, to
+cure suffering. Get that idea out of your head! You said you could
+worship at the shrine of the pokeberry bed, you feel holier before the
+arrowhead lilies, your face takes on an appearance of reverence when you
+see pink mallow blooms. Which of them would you have hesitated a second
+in uprooting if you could have offered it to subdue fever or pain in the
+body of the little mother you loved?"
+
+"Oh I see!" cried the Girl. "Like everything else you make this
+different. You worship all this beauty and grace, wrought by your
+hands, but you carry your treasure to the market place for the good of
+suffering humanity. Oh Man! I love the work you do!"
+
+"Good!" cried the Harvester. "Good! And Ruth-girl, while you are about
+it, see if you can't combine the man and his occupation a little."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. GRANNY MORELAND'S VISIT
+
+The following morning the Girl was awakened by wheels on the gravel
+outside her window, and lifted her head to see Betsy passing with a load
+of lumber. Shortly afterward the sound of hammer and saw came to her,
+and she knew that Singing Water bridge was being roofed to provide shade
+for her. She dressed and went to the kitchen to find a dainty breakfast
+waiting, so she ate what she could, and then washed the dishes and
+swept. By that time she was so tired she dropped on a dining-room window
+seat, and lay looking toward the bridge. She could catch glimpses of
+the Harvester as he worked. She watched his deft ease in handling heavy
+timbers, and the assurance with which he builded. Sometimes he stood and
+with tilted head studied his work a minute, then swiftly proceeded. He
+placed three tree trunks on each side for pillars, laid joists across,
+formed his angle, and nailed boards as a foundation for shingling.
+Occasionally he glanced toward the cabin, and finally came swinging up
+the drive. He entered the kitchen softly, but when he saw the Girl in
+the window he sat at her feet.
+
+"Oh but this is a morning, Ruth!" he said.
+
+She looked at him closely. He radiated health and good cheer. His tanned
+cheeks were flushed red with exercise, and the hair on his temples was
+damp.
+
+"You have been breaking the rules," he said. "It is the law that I am
+to do the work until you are well and strong again. Why did you tire
+yourself?"
+
+"I am so perfectly useless! I see so many things that I would enjoy
+doing. Oh you can do everything else, make me well! Make me strong!"
+
+"How can I, when you won't do as I tell you?"
+
+"I will! Indeed I will!"
+
+"Then no more attempts to stand over dishes and clean big floors. You
+mustn't overwork yourself at anything. The instant you feel in the least
+tired you must lie down and rest."
+
+"But Man! I'm tired every minute, with a dead, dull ache, and I don't
+feel as if I ever would be rested again in all the world."
+
+The Harvester took one of her hands, felt its fevered palm, fluttering
+wrist pulse, and noticed that the brilliant red of her lips had extended
+to spots on her cheeks. He formed his resolution.
+
+"Can't work on that bridge any more until I drive in for some big
+nails," he said. "Do you mind being left alone for an hour?"
+
+"Not at all, if Bel will stay with me. I'll lie in the swing."
+
+"All right!" answered the Harvester. "I'll help you out and to get
+settled. Is there anything you want from town?"
+
+"No, not a thing!"
+
+"Oh but you are modest!" cried the Harvester. "I can sit here and name
+fifty things I want for you."
+
+"Oh but you are extravagant!" imitated the Girl. "Please, please, Man,
+don't! Can't you see I have so much now I don't know what to do with it?
+Sometimes I almost forget the ache, just lying and looking at all the
+wonderful riches that have come to me so suddenly. I can't believe they
+won't vanish as they came. By the hour in the night I look at my lovely
+room, and I just fight my eyes to keep them from closing for fear
+they'll open in that stifling garret to the heat of day and work I have
+not strength to do. I know yet all this will prove to be a dream and a
+wilder one than yours."
+
+The face of the Harvester was very anxious.
+
+"Please to remember my dream came true," he said, "and much sooner than
+I had the least hope that it would. I'm wide awake or I couldn't be
+building bridges; and you are real, if I know flesh and blood when I
+touch it."
+
+"If I were well, strong, and attractive, I could understand," she said.
+"Then I could work in the house, at the drawings, help with the herbs,
+and I'd feel as if I had some right to be here."
+
+"All that is coming," said the Harvester. "Take a little more time. You
+can't expect to sin steadily against the laws of health for years,
+and recover in a day. You will be all right much sooner than you think
+possible."
+
+"Oh I hope so!" said the Girl. "But sometimes I doubt it. How I could
+come here and put such a burden on a stranger, I can't see. I scarcely
+can remember what awful stress drove me. I had no courage. I should have
+finished in my garret as my mother did. I must have some of my father's
+coward blood in me. She never would have come. I never should!"
+
+"If it didn't make any real difference to you, and meant all the world
+to me, I don't see why you shouldn't humour me. I can't begin to tell
+you how happy I am to have you here. I could shout and sing all day."
+
+"It requires very little to make some people happy."
+
+"You are not much, but you are going to be more soon," laughed the
+Harvester, as he gently picked up the Girl and carried her to the swing,
+where he covered her, kissed her hot hand, and whistled for Belshazzar.
+He pulled the table close and set a pitcher of iced fruit juice on it.
+Then he left her and she could hear the rattle of wheels as he crossed
+the bridge and drove away.
+
+"Betsy, this is mighty serious business," said the Harvester. "The
+Girl is scorching or I don't know fever. I wonder----well, one thing
+is sure----she is bound to be better off in pure, cool air and with
+everything I can do to be kind, than in Henry Jameson's attic with
+everything he could do to be mean. Pleasant men those Jamesons! Wonder
+if the Girl's father was much like her Uncle Henry? I think not or her
+refined and lovely mother never would have married him. Come to think of
+it, that's no law, Betsy. I've seen beautiful and delicate women fall
+under some mysterious spell, and yoke their lives with rank degenerates.
+Whatever he was, they have paid the price. Maybe the wife deserved it,
+and bore it in silence because she knew she did, but it's bitter hard on
+Ruth. Girls should be taught to think at least one generation ahead when
+they marry. I wonder what Doc will say, Betsy? He will have to come and
+see for himself. I don't know how she will feel about that. I had hoped
+I could pull her through with care, food, and tonics, but I don't dare
+go any farther alone. Betsy, that's a thin, hot, little hand to hold a
+man's only chance for happiness."
+
+"Well, bridegroom! I've been counting the days!" said Doctor Carey. "The
+Missus and I made it up this morning that we had waited as long as we
+would. We are coming to-night. David."
+
+"It's all right, Doc," said the Harvester. "Don't you dare think
+anything is wrong or that I am not the proudest, happiest man in this
+world, because I appear anxious. I am not trying to conceal it from you.
+You know we both agreed at first that Ruth should be in the hospital,
+Doc. Well, she should! She is what would be a lovely woman if she were
+not full of the poison of wrong food and air, overwork, and social
+conditions that have warped her. She is all I dreamed of and more, but
+I've come for you. She is too sick for me. I hoped she would begin to
+gain strength at once on changed conditions. As yet I can't see any
+difference. She needs a doctor, but I hate for her to know it. Could you
+come out this afternoon, and pretend as if it were a visit? Bring Mrs.
+Carey and watch the Girl. If you need an examination, I think she will
+obey me. If you can avoid it, fix what she should have and send it back
+to me by a messenger. I don't like to leave her when she is so ill."
+
+"I'll come at once, David."
+
+"Then she will know that I came for you, and that will frighten her. You
+can do more good to wait until afternoon, and pretend you are making
+a social call. I must go now. I'd have brought her in, but I have no
+proper conveyance yet. I'm promised something soon, perhaps it is ready
+now. Good-bye! Be sure to come!"
+
+The Harvester drove to a livery barn and examined a little horse, a
+shining black creature that seemed gentle and spirited. He thought
+favourably of it. A few days before he had selected a smart carriage,
+and with this outfit tied behind the wagon he returned to Medicine
+Woods. He left the horse at the bridge, stabled Betsy, and then returned
+for the new conveyance, driving it to the hitching post. At the sound of
+unexpected wheels the Girl lifted her head and stared at the turnout.
+
+"Come on!" cried the Harvester opening the screen. "We are going to the
+woods to initiate your carriage."
+
+She went with little cries of surprised wonder.
+
+"This is how you travel to Onabasha to do your shopping, to call on Mrs.
+Carey and the friends you will make, and visit the library. When I've
+tried out Mr. Horse enough to prove him reliable as guaranteed, he is
+yours, for your purposes only, and when you grow wonderfully well and
+strong, we'll sell him and buy you a real live horse and a stanhope,
+such as city ladies have; and there must be a saddle so that you can
+ride."
+
+"Oh I'd love that!" cried the Girl. "I always wanted to ride! Where are
+we going?"
+
+"To show you Medicine Woods," said the Harvester. "I've been waiting
+for this. You see there are several hundred acres of trees, thickets,
+shrubs, and herb beds up there, and if the wagon road that winds between
+them were stretched straight it would be many miles in length, so we
+have a cool, shaded, perfumed driveway all our own. Let me get you a
+drink before you start and the little shawl. It's chilly there compared
+with here. Now are you comfortable and ready?"
+
+"Yes," said the Girl. "Hurry! I've just longed to go, but I didn't like
+to ask."
+
+"I am sorry," said the Harvester. "Living here for years alone and never
+having had a sister, how am I going to know what a girl would like if
+you don't tell me? I knew it would be too tiresome for you to walk, and
+I was waiting to find a reliable horse and a suitable carriage."
+
+"You won't scratch or spoil it up there?"
+
+"I'll lower the top. It is not as wide as the wagon, so nothing will
+touch it."
+
+"This is just so lovely, and such a wonderful treat, do you observe that
+I'm not saying a word about extravagance?" asked the Girl, as she leaned
+back in the carriage and inhaled the invigorating wood air.
+
+The horse climbed the hill, and the Harvester guided him down long, dim
+roads through deep forest, while he explained what large thickets of
+bushes were, why he grew them, how he collected the roots or bark, for
+what each was used and its value. On and on they went, the way ahead
+always appearing as if it were too narrow to pass, yet proving amply
+wide when reached. Excited redbirds darted among the bushes, and the
+Harvester answered their cry. Blackbirds protested against the unusual
+intrusion of strange objects, and a brown thrush slipped from a late
+nest close the road wailing in anxiety.
+
+One after another the Harvester introduced the Girl to the best trees,
+speculated on their age, previous history, and pointed out which brought
+large prices for lumber and which had medicinal bark and roots. On and
+on they slowly drove through the woods, past the big beds of cranesbill,
+violets, and lilies. He showed her where the mushrooms were most
+numerous, and for the first time told the story of how he had sold them
+and the violets from door to door in Onabasha in his search for her, and
+the amazed Girl sat staring at him. He told of Doctor Carey having seen
+her once, and inquired as they passed the bed if the yellow violets had
+revived. He stopped to search and found a few late ones, deep among the
+leaves.
+
+"Oh if I only had known that!" cried the Girl, "I would have kept them
+forever."
+
+"No need," said the Harvester. "Here and now I present you with the sole
+ownership of the entire white and yellow violet beds. Next spring you
+shall fill your room. Won't that be a treat?"
+
+"One money never could buy!" cried the Girl.
+
+"Seems to be my strong point," commented the Harvester. "The most I have
+to offer worth while is something you can't buy. There is a fine fairy
+platform. They can spare you one. I'll get it."
+
+The Harvester broke from a tree a large fan-shaped fungus, the surface
+satin fine, the base mossy, and explained to the Girl that these were
+the ballrooms of the woods, the floors on which the little people dance
+in the moonlight at their great celebrations. Then he added a piece
+of woolly dog moss, and showed her how each separate spine was like a
+perfect little evergreen tree.
+
+"That is where the fairies get their Christmas pines," he explained.
+
+"Do you honestly believe in fairies?"
+
+"Surely!" exclaimed the Harvester. "Who would tell me when the maples
+are dripping sap, and the mushrooms springing up, if the fairies didn't
+whisper in the night? Who paints the flower faces, colours the leaves,
+enamels the ripening fruit with bloom, and frosts the window pane to let
+me know that it is time to prepare for winter? Of course! They are my
+friends and everyday helpers. And the winds are good to me. They carry
+down news when tree bloom is out, when the pollen sifts gold from the
+bushes, and it's time to collect spring roots. The first bluebird always
+brings me a message. Sometimes he comes by the middle of February, again
+not until late March. Always on his day, Belshazzar decides my fate for
+a year. Six years we've played that game; now it is ended in blessed
+reality. In the woods and at my work I remain until I die, with a few
+outside tries at medicine making. I am putting up some compounds in
+which I really have faith. Of course they have got to await their time
+to be tested, but I believe in them. I have grown stuff so carefully,
+gathered it according to rules, washed it decently, and dried and mixed
+it with such scrupulous care. Night after night I've sat over the books
+until midnight and later, studying combinations; and day after day I've
+stood in the laboratory testing and trying, and two or three will prove
+effective, or I've a disappointment coming."
+
+"You haven't wasted time! I'd much rather take medicines you make than
+any at the pharmacies. Several times I've thought I'd ask you if you
+wouldn't give me some of yours. The prescription Doctor Carey sent does
+no good. I've almost drunk it, and I am constantly tired, just the
+same. You make me something from these tonics and stimulants you've been
+telling me about. Surely you can help me!"
+
+"I've got one combination that's going to save life, in my expectations.
+But Ruth, it never has been tried, and I couldn't experiment on the very
+light of my eyes with it. If I should give you something and you'd grow
+worse as a result--I am a strong man, my girl, but I couldn't endure
+that. I'd never dare. But dear, I am expecting Carey and his wife out
+any time; probably they will come to-day, it's so beautiful; and when
+they do, for my sake, won't you talk with him, tell him exactly what
+made you ill, and take what he gives you? He's a great man. He was
+recently President of the National Association of Surgeons. Long ago he
+abandoned general practice, but he will prescribe for you; all his art
+is at your command. It's quite an honour, Ruth. He performs all kinds
+of miracles, and saves life every day. He had not seen you, and what he
+gave me was only by guess. He may not think it is the right thing at all
+after he meets you."
+
+"Then I am really ill?"
+
+"No. You only have the germs of illness in your blood, and if you
+will help me that much we can eliminate them; and then it is you for
+housekeeper, with first assistant in me, the drawing tools, paint
+box, and all the woods for subjects. So, as I was going to tell you,
+Belshazzar and I have played our game for the last time. That decision
+was ultimate. Here I will work, live, and die. Here, please God,
+strong and happy, you shall live with me. Ruth, you have got to recover
+quickly. You will consult the doctor?"
+
+"Yes, and I wish he would hurry," said the Girl. "He can't make me new
+too soon to suit me. If I had a strong body, oh Man, I just feel as if
+you could find a soul somewhere in it that would respond to all these
+wonders you have brought me among. Oh! make me well, and I'll try as
+woman never did before to bring you happiness to pay for it."
+
+"Careful now," warned the Harvester. "There is to be no talk of
+obligations between you and me. Your presence here and your growing
+trust in me are all I ask at the hands of fate at present. Long ago I
+learned to 'labour and to wait.' By the way----here's my most difficult
+labour and my longest wait. This is the precious gingseng bed."
+
+"How pretty!" exclaimed the Girl.
+
+Covering acres of wood floor, among the big trees, stretched the lacy
+green carpet. On slender, upright stalks waved three large leaves, each
+made up of five stemmed, ovate little leaves, round at the base, sharply
+pointed at the tip. A cluster of from ten to twenty small green berries,
+that would turn red later, arose above. The Harvester lifted a plant
+to show the Girl that the Chinese name, Jin-chen, meaning man-like,
+originated because the divided root resembled legs. Away through the
+woods stretched the big bed, the growth waving lightly in the wind, the
+peculiar odour filling the air.
+
+"I am going to wait to gather the crop until the seeds are ripe," said
+the Harvester, "then bury some as I dig a root. My father said that was
+the way of the Indians. It's a mighty good plan. The seeds are delicate,
+and difficult to gather and preserve properly. Instead of collecting and
+selling all of them to start rivals in the business, I shall replant my
+beds. I must find a half dozen assistants to harvest this crop in that
+way, and it will be difficult, because it will come when my neighbours
+are busy with corn."
+
+"Maybe I can help you."
+
+"Not with ginseng digging," laughed the Harvester. "That is not woman's
+work. You may sit in an especially attractive place and boss the job."
+
+"Oh dear!" cried the Girl. "Oh dear! I want to get out and walk."
+
+Gradually they had climbed the summit of the hill, descended on the
+other side, and followed the road through the woods until they reached
+the brier patches, fruit trees; and the garden of vegetables, with big
+beds of sage, rue, wormwood, hoarhound, and boneset. From there to the
+lake sloped the sunny fields of mullein and catnip, and the earth was
+molten gold with dandelion creeping everywhere.
+
+"Too hot to-day," cautioned the Harvester. "Too rough walking. Wait
+until fall, and I have a treat there for you. Another flower I want you
+to love because I do."
+
+"I will," said the Girl promptly. "I feel it in my heart."
+
+"Well I am glad you feel something besides the ache of fever," said the
+Harvester. Then noticing her tired face he added: "Now this little horse
+had quite a trip from town, and the wheels cut deeply into this woods
+soil and make difficult pulling, so I wonder if I had not better put
+him in the stable and let him become acquainted with Betsy. I don't know
+what she will think. She has had sole possession for years. Maybe she
+will be jealous, perhaps she will be as delighted for company as her
+master. Ruth, if you could have heard what I said to Belshazzar when he
+decided I was to go courting this year, and seen what I did to him, and
+then take a look at me now----merciful powers, I hope the dog doesn't
+remember! If he does, no wonder he forms a new allegiance so easily.
+Have you observed that lately when I whistle, he starts, and then turns
+back to see if you want him? He thinks as much of you as he does of me
+right now."
+
+"Oh no!" cried the Girl. "That couldn't be possible. You told me I must
+make friends with him, so I have given him food, and tried to win him."
+
+"You sit in the carriage until I put away the horse, and then I'll help
+you to the cabin, and save you being alone while I work. Would you like
+that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She leaned her head against the carriage top the Harvester had raised to
+screen her, and watched him stable the horse. Evidently he was very fond
+of animals for he talked as if it were a child he was undressing and
+kept giving it extra strokes and pats as he led it away. Ajax disliked
+the newcomer instantly, noticed the carriage and the woman's dress, and
+screamed his ugliest. The Girl smiled. As the Harvester appeared she
+inquired, "Is Ajax now sending a wireless to Ceylon asking for a mate?"
+
+The Harvester looked at her quizzically and saw a gleam of mischief in
+the usually dull dark eyes that delighted him.
+
+"That is the customary supposition when he finds voice," he said. "But
+since this has become your home, you are bound to learn some of my
+secrets. One of them I try to guard is the fact that Ajax has a temper.
+No my dear, he is not always sending a wireless, I am sorry to say. I
+wish he was! As a matter of fact he is venting his displeasure at any
+difference in our conditions. He hates change. He learned that from me.
+I will enjoy seeing him come for favour a year from now, as I learned
+to come for it, even when I didn't get much, and the road lay west of
+Onabasha. Ajax, stop that! There's no use to object. You know you think
+that horse is nice company for you, and that two can feed you more than
+one. Don't be a hypocrite! Cease crying things you don't mean, and learn
+to love the people I do. Come on, old boy!"
+
+The peacock came, but with feathers closely pressed and stepping
+daintily. As the bird advanced, the Harvester retreated, until he stood
+beside the Girl, and then he slipped some grain to her hand and she
+offered it. But Ajax would not be coaxed. He was too fat and well fed.
+He haughtily turned and marched away, screaming at intervals.
+
+"Nasty temper!" commented the Harvester. "Never mind! He soon will
+become accustomed to you, and then he will love you as Belshazzar does.
+Feed the doves instead. They are friendly enough in all conscience. Do
+you notice that there is not a coloured feather among them? The squab
+that is hatched with one you may have for breakfast. Now let's go find
+something to eat, and I will finish the bridge so you can rest there
+to-night and watch the sun set on Singing Water."
+
+So they went into the cabin and prepared food, and then the Harvester
+told the Girl to make herself so pretty that she would be a picture and
+come and talk to him while he finished the roof. She went to her room,
+found a pale lavender linen dress and put it on, dusted the pink powder
+thickly, and went where a wide bench made an inviting place in the
+shade. There she sat and watched her lightly expressed whim take shape.
+
+"Soon as this is finished," said the Harvester, "I am going to begin on
+that tea table. I can make it in a little while, if you want it to match
+the other furniture."
+
+"I do," said the Girl.
+
+"Wonder if you could draw a plan showing how it should appear. I am a
+little shy on tea tables."
+
+"I think I can."
+
+The Harvester brought paper, pencil, and a shingle for a drawing pad.
+
+"Now remember one thing," he said. "If you are in earnest about using
+those old blue dishes, this has got to be a big, healthy table. A little
+one will appear top heavy with them. It would be a good idea to set out
+what you want to use, arranged as you would like them, and let me take
+the top measurement that way."
+
+"All right! I'll only indicate how its legs should be and we will
+find the size later. I could almost weep because that wonderful set is
+broken. If I had all of it I'd be so proud!"
+
+The Girl bent over the drawing. The Harvester worked with his attention
+divided between her, the bridge, and the road. At last he saw the big
+red car creeping up the valley.
+
+"Seems to be some one coming, Ruth! Guess it must be Doc. I'll go open
+the gate?"
+
+"Yes," said the Girl. "I'm so glad. You won't forget to ask him to help
+me if he can?"
+
+The Harvester wheeled hastily. "I won't forget!" he said, as he hurried
+to the gate. The car ran slowly, and the Girl could see him swing to
+the step and stand talking as they advanced. When they reached her they
+stopped and all of them came forward. She went to meet them. She shook
+hands with Mrs. Carey and then with the doctor.
+
+"I am so glad you have come," she said.
+
+"I hope you are not lonesome already," laughed the doctor.
+
+"I don't think any one with brains to appreciate half of this ever could
+become lonely here," answered the Girl. "No, it isn't that."
+
+"A-ha!" cried the doctor, turning to his wife. "You see that the
+beautiful young lady remembers me, and has been wishing I would come. I
+always said you didn't half appreciate me. What a place you are making,
+David! I'll run the car to the shade and join you."
+
+For a long time they talked under the trees, then they went to see the
+new home and all its furnishings.
+
+"Now this is what I call comfort," said the doctor. "David, build us a
+house exactly similar to this over there on the hill, and let us live
+out here also. I'd love it. Would you, Clara?"
+
+"I don't know. I never lived in the country. One thing is sure: If I
+tried it, I'd prefer this to any other place I ever saw. David, won't
+you take me far enough up the hill that I can look from the top to the
+lake?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Harvester. "Excuse us a little while, Ruth!"
+
+As soon as they were gone the Girl turned to the doctor.
+
+"Doctor Carey, David says you are great. Won't you exercise your art on
+me. I am not at all well, and oh! I'd so love to be strong and sound."
+
+"Will you tell me," asked the doctor, "just enough to show me what
+caused the trouble?"
+
+"Bad air and water, poor light and food at irregular times, overwork and
+deep sorrow; every wrong condition of life you could imagine, with not a
+ray of hope in the distance, until now. For the sake of the Harvester, I
+would be well again. Please, please try to cure me!"
+
+So they talked until the doctor thought he knew all he desired, and then
+they went to see the gold flower garden.
+
+"I call this simply superb," said he, taking a seat beneath the tree
+roof of her porch. "Young woman, I don't know what I'll do to you if you
+don't speedily grow strong here. This is the prettiest place I ever saw,
+and listen to the music of that bubbling, gurgling little creek!"
+
+"Isn't he wonderful?" asked the Girl, looking up the hill, where the
+tall form of the Harvester could be seen moving around. "Just to see
+him, you would think him the essence of manly strength and force. And
+he is! So strong! Into the lake at all hours, at the dry-house, on the
+hill, grubbing roots, lifting big pillars to support a bridge roof,
+and with it all a fancy as delicate as any dreaming girl. Doctor, the
+fairies paint the flowers, colour the fruit, and frost the windows for
+him; and the winds carry pollen to tell him when his growing things are
+ready for the dry-house. I don't suppose I can tell you anything new
+about him; but isn't he a perpetual surprise? Never like any one else!
+And no matter how he startles me in the beginning, he always ends by
+convincing me, at least, that he is right."
+
+"I never loved any other man as I do him," said the doctor. "I ushered
+him into the world when I was a young man just beginning to practise,
+and I've known him ever since. I know few men so scrupulously clean. Try
+to get well and make him happy, Mrs. Langston. He so deserves it."
+
+"You may be sure I will," answered the Girl.
+
+After the visitors had gone, the Harvester told her to place the old
+blue dishes as she would like to arrange them on her table, so he could
+get a correct idea of the size, and he left to put a few finishing
+strokes on the bridge cover. She went into the dining-room and opened
+the china closet. She knew from her peep in the work-room that there
+would be more pieces than she had seen before; but she did not think
+or hope that a full half dozen tea set and plates, bowl, platter, and
+pitcher would be waiting for her.
+
+"Why Ruth, what made you tire yourself to come down? I intended to
+return in a few minutes."
+
+"Oh Man!" cried the laughing Girl, as she clung pantingly to a bridge
+pillar for support, "I just had to come to tell you. There are fairies!
+Really truly ones! They have found the remainder of the willow dishes
+for me, and now there are so many it isn't going to be a table at all.
+It must be a little cupboard especially for them, in that space between
+the mantel and the bookcase. There should be a shining brass tea
+canister, and a wafer box like the arts people make, and I'll pour tea
+and tend the chafing dish and you can toast the bread with a long fork
+over the coals, and we will have suppers on the living-room table, and
+it will be such fun."
+
+"Be seated!" cried the Harvester. "Ruth, that's the longest speech I
+ever heard you make, and it sounded, praise the Lord, like a girl. Did
+Doc say he would fix something for you?"
+
+"Yes, such a lot of things! I am going to shut my eyes and open my mouth
+and swallow all of them. I'm going to be born again and forget all I
+ever knew before I came here, and soon I will be tagging you everywhere,
+begging you to suggest designs for my pencil, and I'll simply force life
+to come right for you."
+
+The Harvester smiled.
+
+"Sounds good!" he said. "But, Ruth, I'm a little dubious about force
+work. Life won't come right for me unless you learn to love me, and
+love is a stubborn, contrary bulldog element of our nature that won't
+be driven an inch. It wanders as the wind, and strikes us as it will.
+You'll arrive at what I hope for much sooner if you forget it and amuse
+yourself and be as happy as you can. Then, perhaps all unknown to you,
+a little spark of tenderness for me will light in your breast; and if it
+ever does we will buy a fanning mill and put it in operation, and we'll
+raise a flame or know why."
+
+"And there won't be any force in that?"
+
+"What you can't compel is the start. It's all right to push any growth
+after you have something to work on."
+
+"That reminds me," said the Girl, "there is a question I want to ask
+you."
+
+"Go ahead!" said the Harvester, glancing at her as he hewed a joist.
+
+She turned away her face and sat looking across the lake for a long
+time.
+
+"Is it a difficult question, Ruth?" inquired the Harvester to help her.
+
+"Yes," said the Girl. "I don't know how to make you see."
+
+"Take any kind of a plunge. I'm not usually dense."
+
+"It is really quite simple after all. It's about a girl----a girl I
+knew very well in Chicago. She had a problem----and it worried her
+dreadfully, and I just wondered what you would think of it."
+
+The Harvester shifted his position so that he could watch the side of
+the averted face.
+
+"You'll have to tell me, before I can tell you," he suggested.
+
+"She was a girl who never had anything from life but work and worry. Of
+course, that's the only kind I'd know! One day when the work was most
+difficult, and worry cut deepest, and she really thought she was losing
+her mind, a man came by and helped her. He lifted her out, and rescued
+all that was possible for a man to save to her in honour, and went his
+way. There wasn't anything more. Probably there never would be. His
+heart was great, and he stooped and pitied her gently and passed on.
+After a time another man came by, a good and noble man, and he offered
+her love so wonderful she hadn't brains to comprehend how or why it
+was."
+
+The Girl's voice trailed off as if she were too weary to speak further,
+while she leaned her head against a pillar and gazed with dull eyes
+across the lake.
+
+"And your question," suggested the Harvester at last.
+
+She roused herself. "Oh, the question! Why this----if in time, and
+after she had tried and tried, love to equal his simply would not come
+would----would----she be wrong to PRETEND she cared, and do the very
+best she could, and hope for real love some day? Oh David, would she?"
+
+The Harvester's face was whiter than the Girl's. He pounded the chisel
+into the joist savagely.
+
+"Would she, David?"
+
+"Let me understand you clearly," said the man in a dry, breathless
+voice. "Did she love this first man to whom she came under obligations?"
+
+The Girl sat gazing across the lake and the tortured Harvester stared at
+her.
+
+"I don't know," she said at last. "I don't know whether she knew what
+love was or ever could. She never before had known a man; her heart was
+as undeveloped and starved as her body. I don't think she realized love,
+but there was a SOMETHING. Every time she would feel most grateful and
+long for the love that was offered her, that 'something' would awake and
+hurt her almost beyond endurance. Yet she knew he never would come. She
+knew he did not care for her. I don't know that she felt she wanted him,
+but she was under such obligations to him that it seemed as if she must
+wait to see if he might not possibly come, and if he did she should be
+free."
+
+"If he came, she preferred him?"
+
+"There was a debt she had to pay----if he asked it. I don't know whether
+she preferred him. I do know she had no idea that he would come, but the
+POSSIBILITY was always before her. If he didn't come in time, would she
+be wrong in giving all she had to the man who loved her?"
+
+The Harvester's laugh was short and sharp.
+
+"She had nothing to give, Ruth! Talk about worm-wood, colocynth apples,
+and hemlock! What sort of husks would that be to offer a man who gave
+honest love? Lie to him! Pretend feeling she didn't experience. Endure
+him for the sake of what he offered her? Well I don't know how calmly
+any other man would take that proceeding, Ruth, but tell your friend for
+me, that if I offered a woman the deep, lasting, and only loving passion
+of my heart, and she gave back a lie and indifferent lips, I'd drop her
+into the deepest hole of my lake and take my punishment cheerfully."
+
+"But if it would make him happy? He deserves every happiness, and he
+need never know!"
+
+The Harvester's laugh raised to an angry roar.
+
+"You simpleton!" he cried roughly. "Do you know so little of human
+passion in the heart that you think love can be a successful assumption?
+Good Lord, Ruth! Do you think a man is made of wood or stone, that a
+woman's lips in her first kiss wouldn't tell him the truth? Why Girl,
+you might as well try to spread your tired arms and fly across the lake
+as to attempt to pretend a love you do not feel. You never could!"
+
+"I said a girl I knew!"
+
+"'A Girl you knew,' then! Any woman! The idea is monstrous. Tell her so
+and forget it. You almost scared the life out of me for a minute, Ruth.
+I thought it was going to be you. But I remember your debt is to be paid
+with the first money you earn, and you can not have the slightest idea
+what love is, if you honestly ask if it can be simulated. No ma'am! It
+can't! Not possibly! Not ever! And when the day comes that its fires
+light your heart, you will come to me, and tell of a flood of delight
+that is tingling from the soles of your feet through every nerve and
+fibre of your body, and you will laugh with me at the time when you
+asked if it could be imitated successfully. No, ma'am! Now let me help
+you to the cabin, serve a good supper, and see you eat like a farmer."
+
+All evening the Harvester was so gay he kept the Girl laughing and at
+last she asked him the cause.
+
+"Relief, honey! Relief!" cried the man. "You had me paralyzed for a
+minute, Ruth. I thought you were trying to tell me that there was some
+one so possessing your heart that it failed every time you tried
+to think about caring for me. If you hadn't convinced me before you
+finished that love never has touched you, I'd be the saddest man in the
+world to-night, Ruth."
+
+The Girl stared at him with wide eyes and silently turned away.
+
+Then for a week they worked out life together in the woods. The
+Harvester was the housekeeper and the cook. He added to his store many
+delicious broths and stimulants he brought from the city. They drove
+every day through the cool woods, often rowed on the lake in the
+evenings, walked up the hill to the oak and scattered fresh flowers
+on the two mounds there, and sat beside them talking for a time. The
+Harvester kept up his work with the herbs, and the little closet for
+the blue dishes was finished. They celebrated installing them by having
+supper on the living-room table, with the teapot on one end, and the
+pitcher full of bellflowers on the other.
+
+The Girl took everything prescribed for her, bathed, slept all she
+could, and worked for health with all the force of her frail being, and
+as the days went by it seemed to the Harvester her weight grew lighter,
+her hands hotter, and she drove herself to a gayety almost delirious. He
+thought he would have preferred a dull, stupid sleep of malaria. There
+was colour in plenty on her cheeks now, and sometimes he found her
+wrapped in the white shawl at noon on the warmest days Medicine Woods
+knew in early August; and on cool nights she wore the thinnest clothing
+and begged to be taken on the lake. The Careys came out every other
+evening and the doctor watched and worked, but he did not get the
+results he desired. His medicines were not effective.
+
+"David," he said one evening, "I don't like the looks of this. Your wife
+has fever I can't break. It is eating the little store of vitality she
+has right out of her, and some of these days she is coming down with a
+crash. She should yield to the remedies I am giving her. She acts to
+me like a woman driven wild by trouble she is concealing. Do you know
+anything that worries her?"
+
+"No," said the Harvester, "but I'll try to find out if it will help you
+in your work."
+
+After they were gone he left the Girl lying in the swing guarded by the
+dog, and went across the marsh on the excuse that he was going to a bed
+of thorn apple at the foot of the hill. There he sat on a log and tried
+to think. With the mists of night rising around him, ghosts arose he
+fain would have escaped. "What will you give me in cold cash to tell you
+who she is, and who her people are?" Times untold in the past two weeks
+he had smothered, swallowed, and choked it down. That question she had
+wanted to ask----was it for a girl she had known, or was it for herself?
+Days of thought had deepened the first slight impression he so bravely
+had put aside, not into certainty, but a great fear that she had meant
+herself. If she did, what was he to do? Who was the man? There was a
+debt she had to pay if he asked it? What debt could a woman pay a man
+that did not involve money? Crouched on a log he suffered and twisted
+in agonizing thought. At last he arose and returned to the cabin. He
+carried a few frosty, blue-green leaves of velvet softness and unusual
+cutting, prickly thorn apples full of seeds, and some of the smoother,
+more yellowish-green leaves of the jimson weed, to give excuse for his
+absence.
+
+"Don't touch them," he warned as he came to her. "They are poison
+and have disagreeable odour. But we are importing them for medicinal
+purposes. On the far side of the marsh, where the ground rises, there
+is a waste place just suited to them, and so long as they will seed
+and flourish with no care at all, I might as well have the price as
+the foreign people who raise them. They don't bring enough to make them
+worth cultivating, but when they grow alone and with no care, I can make
+money on the time required to clip the leaves and dry the seeds. I must
+go wash before I come close to you."
+
+The next day he had business in the city, and again she lay in the swing
+and talked to the dog while the Harvester was gone. She was startled as
+Belshazzar arose with a gruff bark. She looked down the driveway, but no
+one was coming. Then she followed the dog's eyes and saw a queer,
+little old woman coming up the bank of Singing Water from the north. She
+remembered what the Harvester had said, and rising she opened the screen
+and went down the path. As the Girl advanced she noticed the scrupulous
+cleanliness of the calico dress and gingham apron, and the snowy hair
+framing a bronzed face with dancing dark eyes.
+
+"Are you David's new wife?" asked Granny Moreland with laughing
+inflection.
+
+"Yes," said the Girl. "Come in. He told me to expect you. I am so sorry
+he is away, but we can get acquainted without him. Let me help you."
+
+"I don't know but that ought to be the other way about. You don't look
+very strong, child."
+
+"I am not well," said the Girl, "but it's lovely here, and the air is
+so fine I am going to be better soon. Take this chair until you rest a
+little, and then you shall see our pretty home, and all the furniture
+and my dresses."
+
+"Yes, I want to see things. My, but David has tried himself! I heard
+he was just tearin' up Jack over here, and I could get the sound of the
+hammerin', and one day he asked me to come and see about his beddin'. He
+had that Lizy Crofter to wash for him, but if I hadn't jest stood over
+her his blankets would have been ruined. She's no more respect for
+fine goods than a pig would have for cream pie. I hate to see woollens
+abused, as if they were human. My, but things is fancy here since what
+David planted is growin'! Did you ever live in the country before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Where do you hail from?"
+
+"Well not from the direction of hail," laughed the Girl. "I lived in
+Chicago, but we were----were not rich, and so I didn't know the luxury
+of the city; just the lonely, difficult part."
+
+"Do you call Chicago lonely?"
+
+"A thousand times more so than Medicine Woods. Here I know the trees
+will whisper to me, and the water laughs and sings all day, and the
+birds almost split their throats making music for me; but I can imagine
+no loneliness on earth that will begin to compare with being among the
+crowds and crowds of a large city and no one has a word or look for you.
+I miss the sea of faces and the roar of life; at first I was almost wild
+with the silence, but now I don't find it still any more; the Harvester
+is teaching me what each sound means and they seem to be countless."
+
+"You think, then, you'll like it here?"
+
+"I do, indeed! Any one would. Even more than the beautiful location, I
+love the interesting part of the Harvester's occupation. I really think
+that gathering material to make medicines that will allay pain is the
+very greatest of all the great work a man can do."
+
+"Good!" cried Granny Moreland, her dark eyes snapping. "I've always
+said it! I've tried to encourage David in it. And he's just capital at
+puttin' some of his stuff in shape, and combinin' it in as good medicine
+as you ever took. This spring I was all crippled up with the rheumatiz
+until I wanted to holler every time I had to move, and sometimes it got
+so aggravatin' I'm not right sure but I done it. 'Long comes David and
+says, 'I can fix you somethin',' and bless you, if the boy didn't take
+the tucks out of me, until here I am, and tickled to pieces that I can
+get here. This time last year I didn't care if I lived or not. Now seems
+as if I'm caperish as a three weeks' lamb. I don't see how a man could
+do a bigger thing than to stir up life in you like that."
+
+"I think this place makes an especial appeal to me, because, shortly
+before I came, I had to give up my mother. She was very ill and suffered
+horribly. Every time I see David going to his little laboratory on
+the hill to work a while I slip away and ask God to help him to fix
+something that will ease the pain of humanity as I should like to have
+seen her relieved."
+
+"Why you poor child! No wonder you are lookin' so thin and peaked!"
+
+"Oh I'll soon be over that," said the Girl. "I am much better than when
+I came. I'll be coming over to trade pie with you before long. David
+says you are my nearest neighbour, so we must be close friends."
+
+"Well bless your big heart! Now who ever heard of a pretty young thing
+like you wantin' to be friends with a plain old country woman?"
+
+"Why I think you are lovely!" cried the Girl. "And all of us are on the
+way to age, so we must remember that we will want kindness then more
+than at any other time. David says you knew his mother. Sometime won't
+you tell me all about her? You must very soon. The Harvester adored her,
+and Doctor Carey says she was the noblest woman he ever knew. It's a
+big contract to take her place. Maybe if you would tell me all you can
+remember I could profit by much of it."
+
+Granny Moreland watched the Girl keenly.
+
+"She wa'ant no ordinary woman, that's sure," she commented. "And she
+didn't make no common man out of her son, either. I've always contended
+she took the job too serious, and wore herself out at it, but she
+certainly done the work up prime. If she's above cloud leanin' over the
+ramparts lookin' down----though it gets me as to what foundation they
+use or where they get the stuff to build the ramparts----but if they
+is ramparts, and she's peekin' over them, she must take a lot of solid
+satisfaction in seeing that David is not only the man she fought and
+died to make him, but he's give her quite a margin to spread herself
+on. She 'lowed to make him a big man, but you got to know him close
+and plenty 'fore it strikes you jest what his size is. I've watched him
+pretty sharp, and tried to help what I could since Marthy went, and I'm
+frank to say I druther see David happy than to be happy myself. I've had
+my fling. The rest of the way I'm willin' to take what comes, with the
+best grace I can muster, and wear a smilin' face to betoken the joy I
+have had; but it cuts me sore to see the young sufferin'."
+
+"Do you think David is unhappy?" asked the Girl eagerly.
+
+"I don't see how he could be!" cried the old lady. "Of course he
+ain't! 'Pears as if he's got everythin' to make him the proudest, best
+satisfied of men. I'll own I was mighty anxious to see you. I know
+the kind o' woman it would take to make David miserable, and it seems
+sometimes as if men----that is good men----are plumb, stone blind when
+it comes to pickin' a woman. They jest hitch up with everlastin' misery
+easy as dew rolling off a cabbage leaf. It's sech a blessed sight to see
+you, and hear your voice and know you're the woman anybody can see you
+be. Why I'm so happy when I set here and con-tem'-plate you, I want
+to cackle like a pullet announcin' her first egg. Ain't this porch the
+purtiest place?"
+
+"Come see everything," invited the Girl, rising.
+
+Granny Moreland followed with alacrity.
+
+"Bare floors!" she cried. "Wouldn't that best you? I saw they was
+finished capital when I was over, but I 'lowed they'd be covered afore
+you come. Don't you like nice, flowery Brissels carpets, honey?"
+
+"No I don't," said the Girl. "You see, when rugs are dusty they can be
+rolled, carried outside, and cleaned. The walls can be wiped, the floors
+polished and that way a house is always fresh. I can keep this shining,
+germ proof, and truly clean with half the work and none of the danger of
+heavy carpets and curtains."
+
+"I don't doubt but them is true words," said Granny Moreland earnestly.
+"Work must be easier and sooner done than it was in my day, or people
+jest couldn't have houses the size of this or the time to gad that women
+have now. From the looks of the streets of Onabasha, you wouldn't think
+a woman 'ud had a baby to tend, a dinner pot a-bilin', or a bakin' of
+bread sence the flood. And the country is jest as bad as the city. We're
+a apin' them to beat the monkeys at a show. I hardly got a neighbour
+that ain't got figgered Brissels carpet, a furnace, a windmill, a
+pianny, and her own horse and buggy. Several's got autermobiles, and the
+young folks are visitin' around a-ridin' the trolleys, goin' to college,
+and copyin' city ways. Amos Peters, next to us; goes bareheaded in the
+hay field, and wears gloves to pitch and plow in. I tell him he reminds
+me of these city women that only wears the lower half of a waist and no
+sleeves, and a yard of fine goods moppin' the floors. Well if that don't
+'beat the nation! Ain't them Marthy's old blue dishes?"
+
+"Let me show you!" The Girl opened the little cupboard and exhibited the
+willow ware. The eyes of the old woman began to sparkle.
+
+"Foundation or no foundation, I do hope them ramparts is a go!" she
+cried. "If Marthy Langston is squintin' over them and she sees her old
+chany put in a fine cupboard, and her little shawl round as purty a girl
+as ever stepped, and knows her boy is gittin' what he deserves, good
+Lord, she'll be like to oust the Almighty, and set on the throne
+herself! 'Bout everythin' in life was a disappointment to her, 'cept
+David. Now if she could see this! Won't I rub it into the neighbours?
+And my boys' wives!"
+
+"I don't understand," said the bewildered Girl.
+
+"'Course you don't, honey," explained the visitor. "It's like this: I
+don't know anybody, man or woman, in these parts, that ain't rampagin'
+for CHANGE. They ain't one of them that would live in a log cabin,
+though they's not a house in twenty miles of here that fits its
+surroundin's and looks so homelike as this. They run up big, fancy brick
+and frame things, all turns and gables and gay as frosted picnic pie,
+and work and slave to git these very carpets you say ain't healthy,
+and the chairs you say you wouldn't give house room, an' they use their
+grandmother's chany for bakin', scraps, and grease dishes, and hide it
+if they's visitors. All of them strainin' after something they can't
+afford, and that ain't healthy when they git it, because somebody else
+is doin' the same thing. Mary Peters says she is afeared of her life in
+their new steam wagon, and she says Andy gits so narvous runnin' it, he
+jest keeps on a-jerkin' and drivin' all night, and she thinks he'll
+soon go to smash himself, if the machine doesn't beat him. But they
+are keepin' it up, because Graceston's is, and so it goes all over the
+country. Now I call it a slap right in the face to have a Chicagy woman
+come to the country to live and enjoy a log cabin, bare floors, and her
+man's grandmother's dishes. If there ain't Marthy's old blue coverlid
+also carefully spread on a splinter new sofy. Landy, I can't wait to get
+to my son John's! He's got a woman that would take two coppers off the
+collection plate while she was purtendin' to put on one, if she could,
+and then spend them for a brass pin or a string of glass beads. Won't
+her eyes bung when I tell her about this? She wanted my Peter Hartman
+kiver for her ironin' board. Show me the rest!"
+
+"This is the dining-room," said the Girl, leading the way.
+
+Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes ranging over the
+floor, walls, and furnishings. She sank on a chair and said with a
+chuckle, "Now you go on and tell me all about it, honey. Jest what
+things are and why you fixed them, and how they are used."
+
+The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in delighted approval.
+
+"It's the purtiest thing I ever saw," she announced. "A minute ago, I'd
+'a' said them blue walls back there, jest like October skies in Indian
+summer, and the brown rugs, like leaves in the woods, couldn't be beat;
+but this green and yaller is purtier yet. That blue room will keep the
+best lookin' part of fall on all winter, and with a roarin' wood fire,
+it'll be capital, and no mistake; but this here is spring, jest spring
+eternal, an' that's best of all. Looks like it was about time the leaves
+was bustin' and things pushin' up. It wouldn't surprise me a mite to see
+a flock of swallers come sailin' right through these winders. And here's
+a place big enough to lay down and rest a spell right handy to the
+kitchen, where a-body gits tiredest, without runnin' a half mile to find
+a bed, and in the mornin' you can look down to the 'still waters'; and
+in the afternoon, when the sun gits around here, you can pull that blind
+and 'lift your eyes to the hills,' like David of the Bible says. My,
+didn't he say the purtiest things! I never read nothin' could touch
+him!"
+
+"Have you seen the Psalms arranged in verse as we would write it now?"
+
+"You don't mean to tell me David's been put into real poetry?"
+
+"Yes. Some Bibles have all the poetical books in our forms of verse."
+
+"Well! Sometimes I git kind o' knocked out! As a rule I hold to old
+ways. I think they're the healthiest and the most faver'ble to the soul.
+But they's some changes come along, that's got sech hard common-sense
+to riccomend them, that I wonder the past generations didn't see sooner.
+Now take this! An hour ago I'd told you I'd read my father's Bible to
+the end of my days. But if they's a new one that's got David, Solomon,
+and Job in nateral form, I'll have one, and I'll git a joy I never
+expected out of life. I ain't got so much poetry in me, but it always
+riled me to read, '7. The law of the Lord is perfect, covertin' the
+soul. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right. 9. The fear of the Lord
+is clean.' And so it goes on, 'bout as much figgers as they is poetry.
+Always did worry me. So if they make Bibles 'cordin' to common sense,
+I'll have one to-morrow if I have to walk to Onabasha to get it. Lawsy
+me! if you ain't gathered up Marthy's old pink tea set, and give it a
+show, too! Did you do that to please David, or do you honestly think
+them is nice dishes?"
+
+"I think they are beautiful," laughed the Girl, sinking to a chair. "I
+don't know that it did please him. He had been studying the subject,
+but something saved him from buying anything until I came. I'd have felt
+dreadfully if he had gotten what he wanted."
+
+"What did he want, honey?" asked the old lady in an awestruck whisper.
+
+"Egg-shell china and cut glass."
+
+"And you wouldn't let him! Woman! What do you want?"
+
+"A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures on them. They
+are so quaint and they would harmonize perfectly with this room."
+
+The old lady laughed gleefully.
+
+"My! I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar," she cried. "It jest does
+my soul good. More'n that, if you really like Marthy's dishes and are
+going to take care of them and use them right, I'll give you mine, too.
+I ain't never had a girl. I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment
+of her own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but the Lord may 'a'
+saved me many a disappointment by sendin' all mine boys. Not that I'm
+layin' the babies on to the Lord at all----I jest got into the habit of
+sayin' that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty
+good idy how I got them. If a girl of mine wouldn't 'a' had more sense,
+raised right with me, I'd' a' been purty bad cut up over it. Of course,
+I can't be held responsible for the girls my boys married, but t'other
+day Emmeline----that's John's wife----John is the youngest, and I sort
+o' cling to him----Emmeline she says to me, 'Mother, can't I have this
+old pink and green teapot?' My heart warmed right up to the child, and
+I says, 'What do you want it for, Emmeline?' And she says, 'To draw the
+tea in.' Cracky Dinah! That fool woman meant to set my grandmother's
+weddin' present from her pa and ma, dishes same as Marthy Washington
+used, on the stove to bile the tea in. I jest snorted! 'No, says I, 'you
+can't! 'Fore I die,' says I, 'I'll meet up with some woman that 'll love
+dishes and know how to treat them.' I think jest about as much of David
+as I do my own boys, and I don't make no bones of the fact that he's a
+heap more of a man. I'd jest as soon my dishes went to his children
+as to John's. I'll give you every piece I got, if you'll take keer of
+them."
+
+"Would it be right?" wavered the girl.
+
+"Right! Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen would bile tea in
+them, make grease sassers of them, and use them to dish up the bakin'
+on! Wouldn't you a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's
+ma's is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was yours? I guess
+you would!"
+
+"Well if you feel that way, and really want us to have them, I know
+David will build another little cupboard on the other side of the
+fireplace to put yours in, and I can't tell you how I'd love and care
+for them."
+
+"I'll jest do it!" said Granny Moreland. "I got about as many blue ones
+as Marthy had an' mine are purtier than hers. And my lustre is brighter,
+for I didn't use it so much. Is this the kitchen? Well if I ever saw
+sech a cool, white place to cook in before! Ain't David the beatenest
+hand to think up things? He got the start of that takin' keer of his
+ma all his life. He sort of learned what a woman uses, and how it's
+handiest. Not that other men don't know; it's jest that they are too
+mortal selfish and keerless to fix things. Well this is great! Now when
+you bile cabbage and the wash, always open your winders wide and let the
+steam out, so it won't spile your walls."
+
+"I'll be very careful," promised the Girl. "Now come see my bathroom,
+closet and bedroom."
+
+"Well as I live! Ain't this fine. I'll bet a purty that if I'd 'a' had
+a room and a trough like this to soak in when I was wore to a frazzle, I
+wouldn't 'a' got all twisted up with rheumatiz like I am. It jest looks
+restful to see. I never washed in a place like this in all my days. Must
+feel grand to be wet all over at once! Now everybody ought to have sech
+a room and use it at all hours, like David does the lake. Did you ever
+see his beat to go swimmin'? He's always in splashin'! Been at it all
+his life. I used to be skeered when he was a little tyke. He soaked so
+much 'peared like he'd wash all the substance out of him, but it only
+made him strong."
+
+"Has he ever been ill?"
+
+"Not that I know of, and I reckon I'd knowed it if he had. Well what a
+clothespress! I never saw so many dresses at once. Ain't they purty? Oh
+I wish I was young, and could have one like that yaller. And I'd like to
+have one like your lavender right now. My! You are lucky to have so many
+nice clothes. It's a good thing most girls haven't got them, or they'd
+stand primpin' all day tryin' to decide which one to put on. I don't see
+how you tell yourself."
+
+"I wear the one that best hides how pale I am," answered the Girl. "I
+use the colours now. When I grow plump and rosy, I'll wear the white."
+
+Granny Moreland dropped on the couch and assured herself that it was
+Martha's pink Peter Hartman. Then she examined the sunshine room.
+
+"Well I got to go back to the start," she said at last. "This beats the
+dinin'-room. This is the purtiest thing I ever saw. Oh I do hope they
+ain't so run to white in Heaven as some folks seem to think! Used to be
+scandalized if a-body took anythin' but a white flower to a funeral. Now
+they tell me that when Jedge Stilton's youngest girl come from New York
+to her pa's buryin' she fetched about a wash tub of blood-red roses.
+Put them all over him, too! Said he loved red roses livin' and so he
+was goin' to have them when he passed over. Now if they are lettin' up a
+little on white on earth, mebby some of the stylish ones will carry the
+fashion over yander. If Heaven is like this, I won't spend none of my
+time frettin' about the foundations. I'll jest forget there is any, even
+if we do always have to be so perticler to get them solid on earth. Talk
+of gold harps! Can't you almost hear them? And listen to the birds and
+that water! Say, you won't get lonesome here, will you?"
+
+"Indeed no!" answered the Girl. "Wouldn't you like to lie on my
+beautiful couch that the Harvester made with his own hands, and I'll
+spread Mother Langston's coverlet over you and let you look at all my
+pretty things while I slip away a few minutes to something I'd like to
+do?"
+
+"I'd love to!" said the old woman. "I never had a chance at such fine
+things. David told me he was makin' your room all himself, and that he
+was goin' to fill it chuck full of everythin' a girl ever used, and
+I see he done it right an' proper. Away last March he told me he was
+buildin' for you, an' I hankered so to have a woman here again, even
+though I never s'posed she'd be sochiable like you, that I egged him
+on jest all I could. I never would 'a' s'posed the boy could marry like
+this----all by himself."
+
+The Girl went to the ice chest to bring some of the fruit juice, chilled
+berries, and to the pantry for bread and wafers to make a dainty little
+lunch that she placed on the veranda table; and then she and Granny
+Moreland talked, until the visitor said that she must go. The Girl went
+with her to the little bridge crossing Singing Water on the north. There
+the old lady took her hand.
+
+"Honey," she said, "I'm goin' to tell you somethin'. I am so happy I can
+purt near fly. Last night I was comin' down the pike over there chasin'
+home a contrary old gander of mine, and I looked over on your land and
+I see David settin' on a log with his head between his hands a lookin'
+like grim death, if I ever see it. My heart plum stopped. Says I, 'she's
+a failure! She's a bustin' the boy's heart! I'll go straight over and
+tell her so.' I didn't dare bespeak him, but I was on nettles all night.
+I jest laid a-studyin' and a-studyin', and I says, 'Come mornin' I'll
+go straight and give her a curry-combin' that'll do her good.' And I
+started a-feelin' pretty grim, and here you came to meet me, and
+wiped it all out of my heart in a flash. It did look like the boy was
+grievin'; but I know now he was jest thinkin' up what to put together
+to take the ache out of some poor old carcass like mine. It never could
+have been about you. Like a half blind old fool I thought the boy was
+sufferin', and here he was only studyin'! Like as not he was thinkin'
+what to do next to show you how he loves you. What an old silly I was!
+I'll sleep like a log to-night to pay up for it. Good-bye, honey! You
+better go back and lay down a spell. You do look mortal tired."
+
+The Girl said good-bye and staggering a few steps sank on a log and sat
+staring at the sky.
+
+"Oh he was suffering, and about me!" she gasped. A chill began to shake
+her and feverish blood to race through her veins. "He does and gives
+everything; I do and give nothing! Oh why didn't I stay at Uncle Henry's
+until it ended? It wouldn't have been so bad as this. What will I do? Oh
+what will I do? Oh mother, mother! if I'd only had the courage you did."
+
+She arose and staggered up the hill, passed the cabin and went to the
+oak. There she sank shivering to earth, and laid her face among the
+mosses. The frightened Harvester found her at almost dusk when he came
+from the city with the Dutch dishes, and helped a man launch a gay
+little motor boat for her on the lake.
+
+"Why Ruth! Ruth-girl!" he exclaimed, kneeling beside her.
+
+She lifted a strained, distorted face.
+
+"Don't touch me! Don't come near me!" she cried. "It is not true that I
+am better. I am not! I am worse! I never will be better. And before I go
+I've got to tell you of the debt I owe; then you will hate me, and then
+I will be glad! Glad, I tell you! Glad! When you despise me? then I can
+go, and know that some day you will love a girl worthy of you. Oh I want
+you to hate me I am fit for nothing else."
+
+She fell forward sobbing wildly and the Harvester tried in vain to quiet
+her. At last he said, "Well then tell me, Ruth. Remember I don't want to
+hear what you have to say. I will believe nothing against you, not even
+from your own lips, when you are feverish and excited as now, but if
+it will quiet you, tell me and have it over. See, I will sit here and
+listen, and when you have finished I'll pick you up and carry you to
+your room, and I am not sure but I will kiss you over and over. What is
+it you want to tell me, Ruth?"
+
+She sat up panting and pushed back the heavy coils of hair.
+
+"I've got to begin away at the beginning to make you see," she said.
+"The first thing I can remember is a small, such a small room, and
+mother sewing and sometimes a man I called father. He was like Henry
+Jameson made over tall and smooth, and more, oh, much more heartless! He
+was gone long at a time, and always we had most to eat, and went oftener
+to the parks, and were happiest with him away. When I was big enough to
+understand, mother told me that she had met him and cared for him when
+she was an inexperienced girl. She must have been very, very young, for
+she was only a girl as I first remember her, and oh! so lovely, but
+with the saddest face I ever saw. She said she had a good home and every
+luxury, and her parents adored her; but they knew life and men, and they
+would not allow him in their home, and so she left it with him, and he
+married her and tried to force them to accept him, and they would not.
+At first she bore it. Later she found him out, and appealed to them,
+but they were away or would not forgive, and she was a proud thing, and
+would not beg more after she had said she was wrong, and would they take
+her back.
+
+"I grew up and we were girls together. We embroidered, and I drew, and
+sometimes we had little treats and good times, and my father did not
+come often, and we got along the best we could. Always it was worse
+on her, because she was not so strong as I, and her heart was secretly
+breaking for her mother, and she was afraid he would come back any
+hour. She was tortured that she could not educate me more than to put
+me through the high school. She wore herself out doing that, but she was
+wild for me to be reared and trained right. So every day she crouched
+over delicate laces and embroidery, and before and after school I
+carried it and got more, and in vacation we worked together. But living
+grew higher, and she became ill, and could not work, and I hadn't her
+skill, and the drawings didn't bring much, and I'd no tools----"
+
+"Ruth, for mercy sake let me take you in my arms. If you've got to tell
+this to find peace, let me hold you while you do it."
+
+"Never again," said the Girl. "You won't want to in a minute. You must
+hear this, because I can't bear it any longer, and it isn't fair to let
+you grieve and think me worth loving. Anyway, I couldn't earn what she
+did, and I was afraid, for a great city is heartless to the poor. One
+morning she fainted and couldn't get up. I can see the awful look in her
+eyes now. She knew what was coming. I didn't. I tried to be brave and
+to work. Oh it's no use to go on with that! It was just worse and worse.
+She was lovely and delicate, she was my mother, and I adored her. Oh
+Man! You won't judge harshly?"
+
+"No!" cried the Harvester, "I won't judge at all, Ruth. I see now. Get
+it over if you must tell me."
+
+"One day she had been dreadfully ill for a long time and there was no
+food or work or money, and the last scrap was pawned, and she simply
+would not let me notify the charities or tell me who or where her people
+were. She said she had sinned against them and broken their hearts,
+and probably they were dead, and I was desperate. I walked all day from
+house to house where I had delivered work, but it was no use; no one
+wanted anything I could do, and I went back frantic, and found her
+gnawing her fingers and gibbering in delirium. She did not know me, and
+for the first time she implored me for food.
+
+"Then I locked the door and went on the street and I asked a woman. She
+laughed and said she'd report me and I'd be locked up for begging.
+Then I saw a man I passed sometimes. I thought he lived close. I went
+straight to him, and told him my mother was very ill, and asked him
+to help her. He told me to go to the proper authorities. I told him I
+didn't know who they were or where, and I had no money and she was a
+woman of refinement, and never would forgive me. I offered, if he would
+come to see her, get her some beef tea, and take care of her while she
+lived, that afterward----"
+
+The Girl's frail form shook in a storm of sobs. At last she lifted her
+eyes to the Harvester's. "There must be a God, and somewhere at the
+last extremity He must come in. The man went with me, and he was a young
+doctor who had an office a few blocks away, and he knew what to do. He
+hadn't much himself, but for several weeks he divided and she was more
+comfortable and not hungry when she went. When it was over I dressed
+her the best I could in my graduation dress, and folded her hands, and
+kissed her good-bye, and told him I was ready to fulfill my offer; and
+oh Man!----He said he had forgotten!"
+
+"God!" panted the Harvester.
+
+"We couldn't bury her there. But I remembered my father had said he had
+a brother in the country, and once he had been to see us when I was very
+little, and the doctor telegraphed him, and he answered that his wife
+was sick, and if I was able to work I could come, and he would bury her,
+and give me a home. The doctor borrowed the money and bought the coffin
+you found her in. He couldn't do better or he would, for he learned to
+love her. He paid our fares and took us to the train. Before I started
+I went on my knees to him and worshipped him as the Almighty, and I am
+sure I told him that I always would be indebted to him, and any time he
+required I would pay. The rest you know."
+
+"Have you heard from him, Ruth?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It WAS yourself the other day on the bridge?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did he love you?"
+
+"Not that I know of. No! Nobody but you would love a girl who appeared
+as I did then."
+
+The Harvester strove to keep a set face, but his lips drew back from his
+teeth.
+
+"Ruth, do you love him?"
+
+"Love!" cried the Girl. "A pale, expressionless word! Adore would come
+closer! I tell you she was delirious with hunger, and he fed her. She
+was suffering horrors and he eased the pain. She was lifeless, and
+he kept her poor tired body from the dissecting table. I would have
+fulfilled my offer, and gone straight into the lake, but he spared me,
+Man! He spared me! Worship is a good word. I think I worship him. I
+tried to tell you. Before you got that license, I wanted you to know."
+
+"I remember," said the Harvester. "But no man could have guessed that a
+girl with your face had agony like that in her heart, not even when he
+read deep trouble there."
+
+"I should have told you then! I should have forced you to hear! I was
+wild with fear of Uncle Henry, and I had nowhere to go. Now you know! Go
+away, and the end will come soon."
+
+The Harvester arose and walked a few steps toward the lake, where he
+paused stricken, but fighting for control. For him the light had gone
+out. There was nothing beyond. The one passion of his life must live on,
+satisfied with a touch from lips that loved another man. Broken sobbing
+came to him. He did not even have time to suffer. Stumblingly he turned
+and going to the Girl he picked her up, and sat on the bench holding her
+closely.
+
+"Stop it, Ruth!" he said unsteadily. "Stop this! Why should you suffer
+so? I simply will not have it. I will save you against yourself and the
+world. You shall have all happiness yet; I swear it, my girl! You are
+all right. He was a noble man, and he spared you because he loved you,
+of course. I will make you well and rosy again, and then I will go and
+find him, and arrange everything for you. I have spared you, too, and if
+he doesn't want you to remain here with me, Mrs. Carey would be glad
+to have you until I can free you. Judges are human. It will be a simple
+matter. Hush, Ruth, listen to me! You shall be free! At once, if you
+say so! You shall have him! I will go and bring him here, and I will go
+away. Ruth, darling, stop crying and hear me. You will grow better, now
+that you have told me. It is this secret that has made you feverish
+and kept you ill. Ruth, you shall have happiness yet, if I have got to
+circle the globe and scale the walls of Heaven to find it for you."
+
+She struggled from his arms and ran toward the lake. When the Harvester
+caught her, she screamed wildly, and struck him with her thin white
+hands. He lifted and carried her to the laboratory, where he gave her a
+few drops from a bottle and soon she became quiet. Then he took her to
+the sunshine room, laid her on the bed, locked the screens and her door,
+called Belshazzar to watch, and ran to the stable. A few minutes later
+with distended nostrils and indignant heart Betsy, under the flail of an
+unsparing lash, pounded down the hill toward Onabasha.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. LOVE INVADES SCIENCE
+
+The Harvester placed the key in the door and turned to Doctor Carey and
+the nurse.
+
+"I drugged her into unconsciousness before I left, but she may have
+returned, at least partially. Miss Barnet, will you kindly see if she
+is ready for the doctor? You needn't be in the least afraid. She has no
+strength, even in delirium."
+
+He opened the door, his head averted, and the nurse hurried into the
+room. The Girl on the bed was beginning to toss, moan, and mutter.
+Skilful hands straightened her, arranged the covers, and the doctor was
+called. In the living-room the Harvester paced in misery too deep for
+consecutive thought. As consciousness returned, the Girl grew wilder,
+and the nurse could not follow the doctor's directions and care for her.
+Then Doctor Carey called the Harvester. He went in and sitting beside
+the bed took the feverish, wildly beating hands in his strong, cool
+ones, and began stroking them and talking.
+
+"Easy, honey," he murmured softly. "Lie quietly while I tell you. You
+mustn't tire yourself. You are wasting strength you need to fight the
+fever. I'll hold your hands tight, I'll stroke your head for you. Lie
+quietly, dear, and Doctor Carey and his head nurse are going to make you
+well in a little while. That's right! Let me do the moving; you lie and
+rest. Only rest and rest, until all the pain is gone, and the strong
+days come, and they are going to bring great joy, love, and peace, to my
+dear, dear girl. Even the moans take strength. Try just to lie quietly
+and rest. You can't hear Singing Water if you don't listen, Ruth."
+
+"She doesn't realize that it is you or know what you say, David," said
+Doctor Carey gently.
+
+"I understand," said the Harvester. "But if you will observe, you will
+see that she is quiet when I stroke her head and hands, and if you
+notice closely you will grant that she gets a word occasionally. If it
+is the right one, it helps. She knows my voice and touch, and she is
+less nervous and afraid with me. Watch a minute!"
+
+The Harvester took both of the Girl's fluttering hands in one of his
+and with long, light strokes gently brushed them, and then her head, and
+face, and then her hands again, and in a low, monotonous, half sing-song
+voice he crooned, "Rest, Ruth, rest! It is night now. The moon is
+bridging Loon Lake, and the whip-poor-will is crying. Listen, dear,
+don't you hear him crying? Still, Girl, still! Just as quiet! Lie so
+quietly. The whip-poor-will is going to tell his mate he loves her,
+loves her so dearly. He is going to tell her, when you listen. That's a
+dear girl. Now he is beginning. He says, 'Come over the lake and listen
+to the song I'm singing to you, my mate, my mate, my dear, dear mate,'
+and the big night moths are flying; and the katydids are crying,
+positive and sure they are crying, a thing that's past denying. Hear
+them crying? And the ducks are cheeping, soft little murmurs while
+they're sleeping, sleeping. Resting, softly resting! Gently, Girl,
+gently! Down the hill comes Singing Water, laughing, laughing! Don't you
+hear it laughing? Listen to the big owl courting; it sees the coon out
+hunting, it hears the mink softly slipping, slipping, where the dews of
+night are dripping. And the little birds are sleeping, so still they
+are sleeping. Girls should be a-sleeping, like the birds a-sleeping,
+for to-morrow joy comes creeping, joy and life and love come creeping,
+creeping to my Girl. Gently, gently, that's a dear girl, gently! Tired
+hands rest easy, tired head lies still! That's the way to rest----"
+
+On and on the even voice kept up the story. All over and around the
+lake, the length of Singing Water, the marsh folk found voices to tell
+of their lives, where it was a story of joy, rest, and love. Up the hill
+ranged the Harvester, through the forest where the squirrels slept, the
+owl hunted, the fire-flies flickered, the fairies squeezed flower leaves
+to make colour to paint the autumn foliage, and danced on toadstool
+platforms. Just so long as his voice murmured and his touch continued,
+so long the Girl lay quietly, and the medicines could act. But no other
+touch would serve, and no other voice would answer. If the harvester
+left the room five minutes to show the nurse how to light the fire, and
+where to find things, he returned to tossing, restless delirium.
+
+"It's magic David," said Doctor Carey. "Magic!"
+
+"It is love," said the Harvester. "Even crazed with fever, she
+recognizes its voice and touch. You've got your work cut out, Doc. Roll
+your sleeves and collect your wits. Set your heart on winning. There is
+one thing shall not happen. Get that straight in your mind, right
+now. And you too, Miss Barnet! There is nothing like fighting for a
+certainty. You may think the Girl is desperately ill, and she is, but
+make up your minds that you are here to fight for her life, and to save
+it. Save, do you understand? If she is to go, I don't need either of
+you. I can let her do that myself. You are here on a mission of life.
+Keep it before you! Life and health for this Girl is the prize you are
+going to win. Dig into it, and I'll pay the bills, and extra besides. If
+money is any incentive, I'll give you all I've got for life and health
+for the Girl. Are you doing all you know?"
+
+"I certainly am, David."
+
+"But when day comes you'll have to go back to the hospital and we may
+not know how to meet crises that will arise. What then? We should have a
+competent physician in the house until this fever breaks."
+
+"I had thought of that, David. I will arrange to send one of the men
+from the hospital who will be able to watch symptoms and come for me
+when needed."
+
+"Won't do!" said the Harvester calmly. "She has no strength for waiting.
+You are to come when you can, and remain as long as possible. The case
+is yours; your decisions go, but I will select your assistant. I know
+the man I want."
+
+"Who is he, David?"
+
+"I'll tell you when I learn whether I can get him. Now I want you to
+give the Girl the strongest sedative you dare, take off your coat, roll
+your sleeves, and see how well you can imitate my voice, and how much
+you have profited by listening to my song. In other words, before day
+calls, I want you to take my place so successfully that you deceive her,
+and give me time to make a trip to town. There are a few things that
+must be done, and I think I can work faster in the night. Will you?"
+
+Doctor Carey bent over the bed. Gently he slipped a practised hand under
+the Harvester's and made the next stroke down the white arm. Gradually
+he took possession of the thin hands and his touch fell on the masses of
+dark hair. As the Harvester arose the doctor took the seat.
+
+"You go on!" he ordered gruffly. "I'll do better alone."
+
+The Harvester stepped back. The doctor's touch was easy and the Girl lay
+quietly for an instant, then she moved restlessly.
+
+"You must be still now," he said gently. "The moon is up, the lake is
+all white, and the birds are flying all around. Lie still or you'll make
+yourself worse. Stiller than that! If you don't you can't hear things
+courting. The ducks are quacking, the bull frogs are croaking, and
+everything. Lie still, still, I tell you!"
+
+"Oh good Lord, Doc!" groaned the Harvester in desperation.
+
+The Girl wrenched her hands free and her head rolled on the pillow.
+
+"Harvester! Harvester!" she cried.
+
+The doctor started to arise.
+
+"Sit still!" commanded the Harvester. "Take her hands and go to work,
+idiot! Give her more sedative, and tell her I'm coming. That's the word,
+if she realizes enough to call for me."
+
+The doctor possessed himself of the flying hands, and gently held and
+stroked them.
+
+"The Harvester is coming," he said. "Wait just a minute, he's on the
+way. He is coming. I think I hear him. He will be here soon, very soon
+now. That's a good girl! Lie still for David. He won't like it if you
+toss and moan. Just as still, lie still so I can listen. I can't tell
+whether he is coming until you are quiet."
+
+Then he said to the Harvester, "You see, I've got it now. I can manage
+her, but for pity sake, hurry man! Take the car! Jim is asleep on the
+back seat----Yes, yes, Girl! I'm listening for him. I think I hear him!
+I think he's coming!"
+
+Here and there a word penetrated, and she lay more quietly, but not in
+the rest to which the Harvester had lulled her.
+
+"Hurry man!" groaned the doctor in a whispered aside, and the Harvester
+ran to the car, awakened the driver and told him he had a clear road to
+Onabasha, to speed up.
+
+"Where to?" asked the driver.
+
+"Dickson, of the First National."
+
+In a few minutes the car stopped before the residence and the Harvester
+made an attack on the front door. Presently the man came.
+
+"Excuse me for routing you out at this time of night," said the
+Harvester, "but it's a case of necessity. I have an automobile here.
+I want you to go to the bank with me, and get me an address from your
+draft records. I know the rules, but I want the name of my wife's
+Chicago physician. She is delirious, and I must telephone him."
+
+The cashier stepped out and closed the door.
+
+"Nine chances out of ten it will be in the vault," he said.
+
+"That leaves one that it won't," answered the Harvester. "Sometimes I've
+looked in when passing in the night, and I've noticed that the books are
+not always put away. I could see some on the rack to-night. I think it
+is there."
+
+It was there, and the Harvester ordered the driver to hurry him to the
+telephone exchange, then take the cashier home and return and wait. He
+called the Chicago Information office.
+
+"I want Dr. Frank Harmon, whose office address is 1509 Columbia Street.
+I don't know the 'phone number."
+
+Then came a long wait, and after twenty minutes the blessed buzzing
+whisper, "Here's your party."
+
+"Doctor Harmon?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You remember Ruth Jameson, the daughter of a recent patient of yours?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Well my name is Langston. The Girl is in my home and care. She is very
+ill with fever, and she has much confidence in you. This is Onabasha,
+on the Grand Rapids and Indiana. You take the Pennsylvania at seven
+o'clock, telegraph ahead that you are coming so that they will make
+connection for you, change at twelve-twenty at Fort Wayne, and I will
+meet you here. You will find your ticket and a check waiting you at the
+Chicago depot. Arrange to remain a week at least. You will be paid all
+expenses and regular prices for your time. Will you come?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All right. Make no failure. Good-bye."
+
+Then the Harvester left an order with the telephone company to run a
+wire to Medicine Woods the first thing in the morning, and drove to the
+depot to arrange for the ticket and check. In less than an hour he was
+holding the Girl's hands and crooning over her.
+
+"Jerusalem!" said Doctor Carey, rising stiffly. "I'd rather undertake
+to cut off your head and put it back on than to tackle another job like
+that. She's quite delirious, but she has flashes, and at such times she
+knows whom she wants; the rest of the time it's a jumble and some of it
+is rather gruesome. She's seen dreadful illness, hunger, and there's a
+debt she's wild about. I told you something was back of this. You've got
+to find out and set her mind at ease."
+
+"I know all about it," said the Harvester patiently between crooning
+sentences to the Girl. "But the crash came before I could convince her
+that it was all right and I could fix everything for her easily. If she
+only could understand me!"
+
+"Did you find your man?"
+
+"Yes. He will be here this afternoon."
+
+"Quick work!"
+
+"This takes quick work."
+
+"Do you know anything about him?"
+
+"Yes. He is a young fellow, just starting out. He is a fine, straight,
+manly man. I don't know how much he knows, but it will be enough to
+recognize your ability and standing, and to do what you tell him. I have
+perfect confidence in him. I want you to come back at one, and take my
+place until I go to meet him."
+
+"I can bring him out."
+
+"I have to see him myself. There are a few words to be said before he
+sees the Girl."
+
+"David, what are you up to?"
+
+"Being as honourable as I can. No man gets any too decent, but there is
+no law against doing as you would be done by, and being as straight as
+you know how. When I've talked to him, I'll know where I am and I'll
+have something to say to you."
+
+"David, I'm afraid----"
+
+"Then what do you suppose I am?" said the Harvester. "It's no use, Doc.
+Be still and take what comes! The manner in which you meet a crisis
+proves you a whining cur or a man. I have got lots of respect for a dog,
+as a dog; but I've none for a man as a dog. If you've gathered from the
+Girl's delirium that I've made a mistake, I hope you have confidence
+enough in me to believe I'll right it, and take my punishment without
+whining. Go away, you make her worse. Easy, Girl, the world is all right
+and every one is sleeping now, so you should be at rest. With the day
+the doctor will come, the good doctor you know and like, Ruth. You
+haven't forgotten your doctor, Ruth? The kind doctor who cared for you.
+He will make you well, Ruth; well and oh, so happy! Harmon, Harmon,
+Doctor Harmon is coming to you, Girl, and then you will be so happy!"
+
+"Why you blame idiot!" cried Doctor Carey in a harsh whisper. "Have you
+lost all the sense you ever had? Stop that gibber! She wants to hear
+about the birds and Singing Water. Go on with that woods line of talk;
+she likes that away the best. This stuff is making her restless. See!"
+
+"You mean you are," said the Harvester wearily. "Please leave us alone.
+I know the words that will bring comfort. You don't."
+
+He began the story all over again, but now there ran through it a
+continual refrain. "Your doctor is coming, the good doctor you know. He
+will make you well and strong, and he will make life so lovely for you."
+
+He was talking without pause or rest when Doctor Carey returned in the
+afternoon to take his place. He brought Mrs. Carey with him, and she
+tried a woman's powers of soothing another woman, and almost drove the
+Girl to fighting frenzy. So the doctor made another attempt, and the
+Harvester raced down the hill to the city. He went to the car shed as
+the train pulled in, and stood at one side while the people hurried
+through the gate. He was watching for a young man with a travelling bag
+and perhaps a physician's satchel, who would be looking for some one.
+
+"I think I'll know him," muttered the Harvester grimly. "I think the
+masculine element in me will pop up strongly and instinctively at the
+sight of this man who will take my Dream Girl from me. Oh good God! Are
+You sure You ARE good?"
+
+In his brown khaki trousers and shirt, his head bare, his bronze face
+limned with agony he made no attempt to conceal, the Harvester, with
+feet planted firmly, and tightly folded arms, his head tipped slightly
+to one side, braced himself as he sent his keen gray eyes searching the
+crowd. Far away he selected his man. He was young, strong, criminally
+handsome, clean and alert; there was discernible anxiety on his face,
+and it touched the Harvester's soul that he was coming just as swiftly
+as he could force his way. As he passed the gates the Harvester reached
+his side.
+
+"Doctor Harmon, I think," he said.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"This way! If you have luggage, I will send for it later."
+
+The Harvester hurried to the car.
+
+"Take the shortest cut and cover space," he said to the driver. The car
+kept to the speed limit until toward the suburbs.
+
+Doctor Harmon removed his hat, ran his fingers through dark waving hair
+and yielded his body to the swing of the car. Neither man attempted to
+talk. Once the Harvester leaned forward and told the driver to stop
+on the bridge, and then sat silently. As the car slowed down, they
+alighted.
+
+"Drive on and tell Doc we are here, and will be up soon," said the
+Harvester. Then he turned to the stranger. "Doctor Harmon, there's
+little time for words. This is my place, and here I grow herbs for
+medicinal houses."
+
+"I have heard of you, and heard your stuff recommended," said the
+doctor.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed the Harvester. "That saves time. I stopped here to
+make a required explanation to you. The day you sent Ruth Jameson to
+Onabasha, I saw her leave the train and recognized in her my ideal
+woman. I lost her in the crowd and it took some time to locate her.
+I found her about a month ago. She was miserable. If you saw what her
+father did to her and her mother in Chicago, you should have seen what
+his brother was doing here. The end came one day in my presence, when I
+paid her for ginseng she had found to settle her debt to you. He robbed
+her by force. I took the money from him, and he threatened her. She was
+ill then from heat, overwork, wrong food----every misery you can imagine
+heaped upon the dreadful conditions in which she came. It had been my
+intention to court and marry her if I possibly could. That day she had
+nowhere to go; she was wild with fear; the fever that is scorching her
+now was in her veins then. I did an insane thing. I begged her to marry
+me at once and come here for rest and protection. I swore that if she
+would, she should not be my wife, but my honoured guest, until she
+learned to love me and released me from my vow. She tried to tell
+me something; I had no idea it was anything that would make any real
+difference, and I wouldn't listen. Last night, when the fever was
+beginning to do its worst, she told me of your entrance into her life
+and what it meant to her. Then I saw that I had made a mistake. You were
+her choice, the man she could love, not me, so I took the liberty of
+sending for you. I want you to cure her, court her, marry her, and make
+her happy. God knows she has had her share of suffering. You recognize
+her as a girl of refinement?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"You grant that in health she would be lovelier than most women, do you
+not?"
+
+"She was more beautiful than most in sickness and distress."
+
+"Good!" cried the Harvester. "She has been here two weeks. I give you my
+word, my promise to her has been kept faithfully. As soon as I can leave
+her to attend to it, she shall have her freedom. That will be easy. Will
+you marry her?"
+
+The doctor hesitated.
+
+"What is it?" asked the Harvester.
+
+"Well to be frank," said Doctor Harmon, "it is money! I'm only getting a
+start. I borrowed funds for my schooling and what I used for her. She is
+in every way attractive enough to be desired by any man, but how am I to
+provide a home and support her and pay these debts? I'll try it, but I
+am afraid it will be taking her back to wrong conditions again."
+
+"If you knew that she owned a comfortable cottage in the suburbs, where
+it is cool and clean, and had, say a hundred a month of her own for the
+coming three years, could you see your way?"
+
+"That would make all the difference in the world. I thought seriously of
+writing her. I wanted to, but I concluded I'd better work as hard as I
+could for some practice first, and see if I could make a living for
+two, before I tried to start anything. I had no idea she would not be
+comfortably cared for at her uncle's."
+
+"I see," said the Harvester. "If I had kept out, life would have come
+right for her."
+
+"On the contrary," said the doctor, "it appears very probable that she
+would not be living."
+
+"It is understood between us, then, that you will court and marry her so
+soon as she is strong enough?"
+
+"It is understood," agreed the doctor.
+
+"Will you honour me by taking my hand?" asked the Harvester. "I scarcely
+had hoped to find so much of a man. Now come to your room and get ready
+for the stiffest piece of work you ever attempted."
+
+The Harvester led the way to the guest chamber over looking the lake,
+and installed its first occupant. Then he hurried to the Girl. The
+doctor was holding her head and one hand, his wife the other, and the
+nurse her feet. It took the Harvester ten strenuous minutes to make his
+touch and presence known and to work quiet. All over he began crooning
+his story of rest, joy, and love. He broke off with a few words to
+introduce Doctor Harmon to the Careys and the nurse, and then calmly
+continued while the other men stood and watched him.
+
+"Seems rather cut out for it," commented Doctor Harmon.
+
+"I never yet have seen him attempt anything that he didn't appear cut
+out for," answered Doctor Carey.
+
+"Will she know me?" inquired the young man, approaching the bed.
+
+When the Girl's eyes fell on him she grew rigid and lay staring at him.
+Suddenly with a wild cry she struggled to rise.
+
+"You have come!" she cried. "Oh I knew you would come! I felt you would
+come! I cannot pay you now! Oh why didn't you come sooner?"
+
+The young doctor leaned over and took one of the white hands from the
+Harvester, stroking it gently.
+
+"Why you did pay, Ruth! How did you come to forget? Don't you remember
+the draft you sent me? I didn't come for money; I came to visit you, to
+nurse you, to do all I can to make you well. I am going to take care of
+you now so finely you'll be out on the lake and among the flowers soon.
+I've got some medicine that makes every one well. It's going to make you
+strong, and there's something else that's going to make you happy; and
+me, I'm going to be the proudest man alive."
+
+He reached over and took possession of the other hand, stroking them
+softly, and the Girl lay tensely staring at him and gradually yielding
+to his touch and voice. The Harvester arose, and passing around the bed,
+he placed a chair for Doctor Harmon and motioning for Doctor Carey left
+the room. He went to the shore to his swimming pool, wearily dropped on
+the bench, and stared across the water.
+
+"Well thank God it worked, anyway!" he muttered.
+
+"What's that popinjay doing here?" thundered Doctor Carey. "Got some
+medicine that cures everybody. Going to make her well, is he? Make the
+cows, and the ducks, and the chickens, and the shitepokes well, and
+happy----no name for it! After this we are all going to be well and
+happy! You look it right now, David! What under Heaven have you done?"
+
+"Left my wife with the man she loves, and to whom I release her, my dear
+friend," said the Harvester. "And it's so easy for me that you needn't
+give making it a little harder, any thought."
+
+"David, forgive me!" cried Doctor Carey. "I don't understand this. I'm
+almost insane. Will you tell me what it means?"
+
+"Means that I took advantage of the Girl's illness, utter loneliness,
+and fear, and forced her into marrying me for shelter and care, when she
+loved and wanted another man, who was preparing to come to her. He is
+her Chicago doctor, and fine in every fibre, as you can see. There is
+only one thing on earth for me to do, and that is to get out of their
+way, and I'll do it as soon as she is well; but I vow I won't leave her
+poor, tired body until she is, not even for him. I thought sure I could
+teach her to love me! Oh but this is bitter, Doc!"
+
+"You are a consummate fool to bring him here!" cried Doctor Carey. "If
+she is too sick to realize the situation now, she will be different when
+she is normal again. Any sane girl that wouldn't love you, David, ain't
+fit for anything!"
+
+"Yes, I'm a whale of a lover!" said the Harvester grimly. "Nice mess
+I've made of it. But there is no real harm done. Thank God, Harmon was
+not the only white man."
+
+"David, what do you mean?"
+
+"Is it between us, Doc?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"For all time?"
+
+"It is."
+
+The Harvester told him. He ended, "Give the fellow his dues, Doc. He had
+her at his mercy, utterly alone and unprotected, in a big city. There
+was not a living soul to hold him to account. He added to his burdens,
+borrowed more money, and sent her here. He thought she was coming to
+the country where she would be safe and well cared for until he could
+support her. I did the remainder. Now I must undo it, that's all! But
+you have got to go in there and practise with him. You've got to show
+him every courtesy of the profession. You must go a little over the
+rules, and teach him all you can. You will have to stifle your feelings,
+and be as much of a man as it is in you to be, at your level best."
+
+"I'm no good at stifling my feelings!"
+
+"Then you'll have to learn," said the Harvester. "If you'd lived through
+my years of repression in the woods you'd do the fellow credit. As I see
+it, his side of this is nearly as fine as you make it. I tell you she
+was utterly stricken, alone, and beautiful. She sought his assistance.
+When the end came he thought only of her. Won't you give a young fellow
+in a place like Chicago some credit for that? Can't you get through you
+what it means?"
+
+Doctor Carey stood frowning in deep thought, but the lines of his face
+gradually changed.
+
+"I suppose I've got to stomach him," he said.
+
+The nurse came down the gravel path.
+
+"Mr. Langston, Doctor Harmon asked me to call you," she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and went to the sunshine room.
+
+"What does he want, Molly?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Wants to turn over his job," chuckled the nurse. "He held it about
+seven minutes in peace, and then she began to fret and call for the
+Harvester. He just sweat blood to pacify her, but he couldn't make it.
+He tried to hold her, to make love to her, and goodness knows what, but
+she struggled and cried, 'David,' until he had to give it up and send
+me."
+
+"Molly," said Doctor Carey, "we've known the Harvester a long time, and
+he is our friend, isn't he?"
+
+"Of course!" said the nurse.
+
+"We know this is the first woman he ever loved, probably ever will, as
+he is made. Now we don't like this stranger butting in here; we resent
+it, Molly. We are on the side of our friend, and we want him to win.
+I'll grant that this fellow is fine, and that he has done well, but
+what's the use in tearing up arrangements already made? And so suitable!
+Now Molly, you are my best nurse, and a good reliable aid in times like
+this. I gave you instructions an hour ago. I'll add this to them. YOU
+ARE ON THE HARVESTER'S SIDE. Do you understand? In this, and the days to
+come, you'll have a thousand chances to put in a lick with a sick woman.
+Put them in as I tell you."
+
+"Yes, Doctor Carey."
+
+"And Molly! You are something besides my best nurse. You're a smashing
+pretty girl, and your occupation should make you especially attractive
+to a young doctor. I'm sure this fellow is all right, so while you are
+doing your best with your patient for the Harvester, why not have a
+try for yourself with the doctor? It couldn't do any harm, and it might
+straighten out matters. Anyway, you think it over."
+
+The nurse studied his face silently for a time, and then she began to
+laugh softly.
+
+"He is up there doing his best with her," she said.
+
+The doctor threw out his hands in a gesture of disdain, and the nurse
+laughed again; but her cheeks were pink and her eyes flashing as she
+returned to duty.
+
+"Random shot, but it might hit something, you never can tell," commented
+the doctor.
+
+The Harvester entered the Girl's room and stood still. She was fretting
+and raising her temperature rapidly. Before he reached the door his
+heart gave one great leap at the sound of her voice calling his name. He
+knew what to do, but he hesitated.
+
+"She seems to have become accustomed to you, and at times does not
+remember me," said Doctor Harmon. "I think you had better take her again
+until she grows quiet."
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bed and looked the doctor in the eye.
+
+"I am afraid I left out one important feature in our little talk on the
+bridge," he said. "I neglected to tell you that in your fight for this
+woman's life and love you have a rival. I am he. She is my wife, and
+with the last fibre of my being I adore her. If you win, and she wants
+you to take her away, I will help you; but my heart goes with her
+forever. If by any chance it should occur that I have been mistaken or
+misinterpreted her delirium or that she has been deceived and finds
+she prefers me and Medicine Woods, to you and Chicago, when she has had
+opportunity to measure us man against man, you must understand that
+I claim her. So I say to you frankly, take her if you can, but don't
+imagine that I am passive. I'll help you if I know she wants you, but I
+fight you every inch of the way. Only it has got to be square and open.
+Do you understand?"
+
+"You are certainly sufficiently clear."
+
+"No man who is half a man sees the last chance of happiness go out of
+his life without putting up the stiffest battle he knows," said the
+Harvester grimly. "Ruth-girl, you are raising the fever again. You must
+be quiet."
+
+With infinite tenderness he possessed himself of her hands and began
+stroking her hair, and in a low and soothing voice the story of the
+birds, flowers, lake, and woods went on. To keep it from growing
+monotonous the Harvester branched out and put in everything he knew.
+In the days that followed he held a position none could take from him.
+While the doctors fought the fever, he worked for rest and quiet, and
+soothed the tortured body as best he could, that the medicines might
+act.
+
+But the fever was stubborn, and the remedies were slow; and long before
+the dreaded coming day the doctors and nurse were quietly saying to
+each other that when the crisis came the heart would fail. There was no
+vitality to sustain life. But they did not dare tell the Harvester.
+Day and night he sat beside the maple bed or stretched sleeping a
+few minutes on the couch while the Girl slept; and with faith never
+faltering and courage unequalled, he warned them to have their remedies
+and appliances ready.
+
+"I don't say it's going to be easy," he said. "I just merely state that
+it must be done. And I'll also mention that, when the hour comes, the
+man who discovers that he could do something if he had digitalis, or a
+remedy he should have had ready and has forgotten, that man had better
+keep out of my sight. Make your preparations now. Talk the case over.
+Fill your hypodermics. Clean your air pumps. Get your hot-water bottles
+ready. Have system. Label your stuff large and set it conveniently. You
+see what is coming, be prepared!"
+
+One day, while the Girl lay in a half-drugged, feverish sleep, the
+Harvester went for a swim. He dressed a little sooner than was expected
+and in crossing the living-room he heard Doctor Harmon say to Doctor
+Carey on the veranda, "What are we going to do with him when the end
+comes?"
+
+The Harvester stepped to the door. "That won't be the question," he said
+grimly. "It will be what will HE do with us?"
+
+Then, with an almost imperceptible movement, he caught Doctor Harmon at
+the waist line, and lifted and dangled him as a baby, and then stood
+him on the floor. "Didn't hardly expect that much muscle, did you?" he
+inquired lightly. "And I'm not in what you could call condition, either.
+Instead of wasting any time on fool questions like that, you two go over
+your stuff and ask each other, have we got every last appliance known
+to physics and surgery? Have we got duplicates on hand in case we break
+delicate instruments like hypodermic syringes and that sort of thing?
+Engage yourselves with questions pertaining to life; that is your
+business. Instead of planning what you'll do in failure, bolster your
+souls against it. Granny Moreland beats you two put together in grip and
+courage."
+
+The Harvester returned to his task, and the fight went on. At last the
+hour came when the temperature fell lower and lower. The feeble pulses
+flickered and grew indiscernible; a gray pallor hovered over the Girl,
+and a cold sweat stood on her temples.
+
+"Now!" said the Harvester. "Exercise your calling! Fight like men or
+devils, but win you must."
+
+They did work. They administered stimulants; applied heat to the chilled
+body; fans swept the room with vitalized air; hypodermics were used; and
+every last resort known to science was given a full test, and the weak
+heart throbbed slower and slower, and life ran out with each breath. The
+Harvester stood waiting with set jaws. He could detect no change for the
+better. At last he picked up a chilled hand and could discover no
+pulse, and the gray nails and the dark tips told a story of arrested
+circulation. He laid down the hand and faced the men.
+
+"This is what you'd call the crisis, Doc?" he asked gently.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you stemming it? Are you stemming it? Are you sure she is holding
+her own?"
+
+Doctor Carey looked at him silently.
+
+"Have you done all you can do?" asked the Harvester.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You believe her going out?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The Harvester turned to Doctor Harmon. "Do you concur in that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then to the nurse, "And you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then," said the Harvester, "all of you are useless. Get out of here. I
+don't want your atmosphere. If you can believe only in death, leave us!
+She is my wife, and if this is the end she belongs to me, and I will do
+as I choose with her. All of you go!"
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bathroom door and called Granny Moreland.
+"Granny," he said, "science has turned tail, and left me in extremity.
+Fill your hot-water bottles and come in here with your heart big with
+hope and help me save my Dream Girl. She is breathing Granny; we've got
+to make her keep it up, that's all----just keep her breathing."
+
+He returned to the sunshine room, placed a small table beside the bed,
+and on it a glass of water, spoon, and a hypodermic syringe. When Granny
+Moreland came he said: "Now you begin on her feet and rub with long,
+sweeping, upward strokes to drive the blood to her heart."
+
+Around the Girl he piled hot-water bottles and breathlessly hung over
+her, rubbing her hands. He wiped the perspiration from her forehead, and
+then dropped by her bed and for a second laid his face on her cold palm.
+
+"If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me," he prayed. "And you, oh, my darling
+Dream Girl, forgive me, but I am forced to try----God helping me! Amen."
+
+He arose, took a small bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon with
+water, and measured into it three drops of liquid as yellow as gold.
+Then he held the spoon to the blue lips, and with his fingers worked
+apart the set teeth, and poured the medicine down her throat. Then they
+rubbed and muttered snatches of prayer for fifteen minutes when the
+Harvester administered another three drops. It might have been fancy,
+but it seemed to him her jaws were not so stiff. Faster flew his hands
+and he sent Granny Moreland to refill the hot bottles. When he gave the
+Girl the third dose he injected some of the liquid over her heart and of
+the glycerine the doctors had left, in the extremities. He released more
+air and began rubbing again.
+
+The second hour started in the same way, and ended with slowly relaxing
+muscles and faint tinges of colour in the white cheeks. The feet were
+not so cold, and when the Harvester held the spoon he knew that the
+Girl made an effort to swallow, and he could see her eyelids tremble.
+Thereupon he pointed these signs to Granny, and implored her to rub and
+pray, and pray and rub, while he worked until the perspiration rolled
+down his gray face. At the end of the second hour he began decreasing
+the doses and shortening the time, and again he commenced in a
+low rumble his song of life and health, to encourage the Girl as
+consciousness returned.
+
+Occasionally Doctor Carey opened the door slightly and peeped in to see
+if he were wanted, but he received no invitation to enter. The last
+time he left with the impression that the Harvester was raving, while
+he worked over a lifeless body. He had the Girl warmly covered and bent
+over her face and hands. At her feet crouched Granny Moreland, rubbing,
+still rubbing, beneath the covers, while in a steady stream the
+Harvester was pouring out his song. If he had listened an instant longer
+he would have recognized that the tone and the words had changed. Now it
+was, "Gently, breathe gently, Girl! Slowly, steadily, easily! Deeper, a
+little deeper, Ruth! Brave Girl, never another so wonderful! That's my
+Dream Girl coming from the shadows, coming to life's sunshine, coming to
+hope, coming to love! Deeper, just a little deeper! Smoothly and evenly!
+You are making it, Girl! You are making it! By all that is holy and
+glorious! Stick to it, Ruth, hold tight to me! I'll help you, dear! You
+are coming, coming back to life and love. Don't worry yourself trying
+too hard, if only you can send every breath as deeply as the last one,
+you can make it. You brave girl! You wonderful Dream Girl! Ah, Ruth, the
+name of this is victory!"
+
+An hour before Doctor Carey had said to Doctor Harmon and the nurse,
+as he softly closed the door: "It is over and the Harvester is raving.
+We'll give him a little more time and see if he won't realize it
+himself. That will be easier for him than for us to try to tell him."
+
+Now he opened the door, stared a second, and coming to the opposite side
+of the bed, he leaned over the Girl. Then he felt her feet. They were
+warm and slightly damp. A surprised look crept over his face. He gently
+reached for a hand that the Harvester yielded to him. It was warm,
+the blue tips becoming rosy, the wrist pulse discernible. Then he bent
+closer, touched her face, and saw the tremulous eyelids. He turned back
+the cover, and held his ear over her heart. When he straightened, "As
+God lives, she's got a chance, David!" he exulted in an awed whisper.
+
+The Harvester lifted a graven face, down which the sweat of agony
+rolled, and his lips parted in a twitching smile. "Then this is where
+love beats the doctors, Carey!" he said.
+
+"It is where love has ventured what science dares not. Love didn't do
+all of this. In the name of the Almighty, what did you give her, David?"
+
+"Life!" cried the Harvester. "Life! Come on, Ruth, come on! Out of the
+valley come to me! You are well now, Girl! It's all over! The last trace
+of fever is gone, the last of the dull ache. Can you swallow just two
+more drops of bottled sunshine, Ruth?"
+
+The flickering lids slowly opened, and the big black eyes looked
+straight into the Harvester's. He met them steadily, smiling
+encouragement.
+
+"Hang on to each breath, dear heart!" he urged. "The fever is gone. The
+pain is over! Long life and the love you crave are for you. You've only
+to keep breathing a few more hours and the battle is yours. Glorious
+Girl! Noble! You are doing finely! Ruth, do you know me?"
+
+Her lips moved.
+
+"Don't try to speak," said the Harvester. "Don't waste breath on a word.
+Save the good oxygen to strengthen your tired body. But if you do know
+me, maybe you could smile, Ruth!"
+
+She could just smile, and that was all. Feeble, flickering, transient,
+but as it crossed the living face the Harvester lifted her hands and
+kissed them over and over, back, palm, and finger tips.
+
+"Now just one more drop, honey, and then a long rest. Will you try it
+again for me?"
+
+She assented, and the Harvester took the bottle from his pocket, poured
+the drop, and held the spoon to willing lips. The big eyes were on him
+with a question. Then they fell to the spoon. The Harvester understood.
+
+"Yes, it's mine! It's got sixty years of wonderful life in it, every one
+of them full of love and happiness for my dear Dream Girl. Can you take
+it, Ruth?"
+
+Her lips parted, the wine of life passed between. She smiled faintly,
+and her eyelids dropped shut, but presently they opened again.
+
+"David!"
+
+"My Dream Girl!"
+
+"Harvester?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Medicine Man?"
+
+"Don't, Ruth! Save every breath to help your heart."
+
+"Life?"
+
+"Life it is, Girl!" exulted the Harvester. "Long life! Love! Home! The
+man you love! Every happiness that ever came to a girl! Nothing shall be
+denied you! Nothing shall be lacking! It's all in your hands now, Ruth.
+We've all done everything we can; you must do the remainder. It's your
+work to send every breath as deeply as you can. Doc, release another
+tank of air. Are her feet warm, Granny? Let the nurse take your place
+now. And, honey, go to sleep! I'll keep watch for you. I'll measure
+each breath you draw. If they shorten or weaken, I'll wake you for more
+medicine. You can trust me! Always you can trust me, Ruth."
+
+The Girl smiled and fell into a light, even slumber. Granny Moreland
+stumbled to the couch and rolled on it sobbing with nervous exhaustion.
+Doctor Carey called the nurse to take her place. Then he came to the
+Harvester's side and whispered, "Let me, David!"
+
+The Harvester looked up with his queer grin, but he made no motion to
+arise.
+
+"Won't you trust me, David? I'll watch as if it were my own wife."
+
+"I wouldn't trust any man on earth, for the coming three hours," replied
+the Harvester. "If I keep this up that long, she is safe. Go and rest
+until I call you."
+
+He again bent over the Girl, one hand on her left wrist, the other over
+her heart, his eyes on her lips, watching the depth and strength of her
+every breath. Regularly he administered the medicine he was giving her.
+Sometimes she took it half asleep; again she gave him a smile that to
+the Harvester was the supreme thing of earth or Heaven. Toward the end
+of the long vigil, in exhaustion he slipped to the floor, and laid his
+head on the side of the bed, and for a second his hand relaxed and he
+fell asleep. The Girl awakened as his touch loosened and looking down
+she saw his huddled body. A second later the Harvester awoke with a
+guilty start to find her fingers twisted in the shock of hair on the top
+of his head.
+
+"Poor stranded Girl," he muttered. "She's clinging to me for life, and
+you can stake all you are worth she's going to get it!"
+
+Then he gently relaxed her grip, gave her the last dose he felt
+necessary, yielded his place to Doctor Carey and staggered up the hill.
+As the sun peeped over Medicine Woods he stretched himself between the
+two mounds under the oak, and for a few minutes his body was rent with
+the awful, torn sobbing of a strong man. Belshazzar nosed the twisting
+figure and whined pitifully. A chattering little marsh wren tilted on a
+bush and scolded. A blue jay perched above and tried to decide whether
+there was cause for an alarm signal. A snake coming from the water to
+hunt birds ran close to him, and changing its course, went weaving away
+among the mosses. Gradually the pent forces spent themselves, and for
+hours the Harvester lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion, and stretched
+beside him, Belshazzar guarded with anxious dog eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETTER MAN
+
+In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester arose and went into the
+lake, ate a hearty dinner, and then took up his watch again. For two
+days and nights he kept his place, until he had the Girl out of danger,
+and where careful nursing was all that was required to insure life
+and health. As he sat beside her the last day, his physical endurance
+strained to the breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked
+long and steadily into his eyes.
+
+"There are so many things I want to know," she said.
+
+The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers. "Ruth, have you ever been
+sorry that you trusted me?"
+
+"Never!" said the Girl instantly.
+
+"Then suppose you keep it up," said he. "Whatever it is that you want
+to know, don't use an iota of strength to talk or to think about it now.
+Just say to yourself, he loves me well enough to do what is right, and
+I know that he will. All you have to do is to be patient until you grow
+stronger than you ever have been in your life, and then you shall have
+exactly what you want, Ruth. Sleep like a baby for a week or two. Then,
+slowly and gradually, we will build up such a constitution for you that
+you shall ride, drive, row, swim, dance, play, and have all that your
+girlhood has missed in fun and frolic, and all that your womanhood
+craves in love and companionship. Happiness has come at last, Ruth. Take
+it from me. Everything you crave is yours. The love you want, the home,
+and the life. As soon as you are strong enough, you shall know all about
+it. Your business is to drink stimulants and sleep now, dear."
+
+"So tired of this bed!"
+
+"It won't be long until you can lie on the couch and the veranda swing
+again."
+
+"Glory!" said the Girl. "David, I must have been full of fever for a
+long time. I can't remember everything."
+
+"Don't try, I tell you. Life is coming out right for you; that's all you
+need know now."
+
+"And for you, David?"
+
+"Whenever things are right for you, they are for me, Ruth."
+
+"Don't you ever think of yourself?"
+
+"Not when I am close you."
+
+"Ah! Then I shall have to grow strong very soon and think of you."
+
+The Harvester's smile was pathetic. He was unspeakably tired again.
+
+"Never mind me!" he said. "Only get well."
+
+"David, was there a little horse?"
+
+"There certainly was and is," said the Harvester.
+
+"You had not named him yet, but in a few days I can lead him to the
+window."
+
+"Was there something said about a boat?"
+
+"Two of them."
+
+"Two?"
+
+"Yes. A row boat for you, and a launch that will take you all over the
+lake with only the exertion of steering on your part."
+
+"David, I want my pendant and ring. I am so tired of lying here, I want
+to play with them."
+
+"Where do you keep them, Ruth?"
+
+"In the willow teapot. I thought no one would look there."
+
+The Harvester laughed and brought the little boxes. He had to open them,
+but the Girl put on the ring and asked him if he would not help her with
+the pendant. He slipped the thread around her neck and clasped it. With
+a sigh of satisfaction she took the ornament in one hand and closed her
+eyes. He thought she was falling asleep, but presently she looked at
+him.
+
+"You won't allow them to take it from me?"
+
+"Indeed no! There is no reason on earth why you should not have that
+thread around your neck if you want it."
+
+"I am going to sleep now. I want two things. May I have them?"
+
+"You may," said the Harvester promptly, "provided they are not to eat."
+
+"No," said the Girl. "I've suffered and made others trouble. I won't
+bother you by asking for anything more than is brought me. This is
+different. You are completely worn out. Your face frightens me, David,
+and white hairs that were not there a few days ago have come along your
+temples. I can see them."
+
+"You gave me a mighty serious scare, Ruth."
+
+"I know," said the Girl. "Forgive me. I didn't mean to. I want you to
+leave me to Doctor Harmon and the nurse and go sleep a week. Then I
+will be ready for the swing, and to hear some more about the trees and
+birds."
+
+"I can keep it up if you really need me, but if you don't I am sleepy.
+So, if you feel safe, I think I will go."
+
+"Oh I am safe enough," said the Girl. "It isn't that. I'm so lonely.
+I've made up my mind not to grieve for mother, but I miss her so now. I
+feel so friendless."
+
+"But, honey," said the Harvester, "you mustn't do that! Don't you see
+how all of us love you? Here is Granny shutting up her house and living
+here, just to be with you. The nurse will do anything you say. Here is
+the man you know best, and think so much of, staying in the cabin, and
+so happy to give you all his time, and anything else you will have,
+dear. And the Careys come every day, and will do their best to comfort
+you, and always I am here for you to fall back on."
+
+"Yes, I'm falling right now," said the Girl. "I almost wish I had the
+fever again. No one has touched me for days. I feel as if every one was
+afraid of me."
+
+The Harvester was puzzled.
+
+"Well, Ruth, I'm doing the best I know," he said. "What is it you want?"
+
+"Nothing!" answered the Girl with slightly dejected inflection. "Say
+good-bye to me, and go sleep your week. I'll be very good, and then you
+shall take me a drive up the hill when you awaken. Won't that be fine?"
+
+"Say good-bye to me!" She felt a "little lonely!" They all acted as if
+they were "afraid" of her. The Harvester indulged in a flashing mental
+review and arrived at a decision. He knelt beside the bed, took both
+slender, cool hands and covered them with kisses. Then he slid a hand
+under the pillow and raised the tired head.
+
+"If I am to say good-bye, I have to do it in my own way, Ruth," he said.
+
+Thereupon he began at the tumbled mass of hair and kissed from her
+forehead to her lips, kisses warm and tender.
+
+"Now you go to sleep, and grow strong enough by the time I come back to
+tell me whom you love," he said, and went from the room without waiting
+for any reply.
+
+With short intervals for food and dips in the lake the Harvester very
+nearly slept the week. When he finally felt himself again, he bathed,
+shaved, dressed freshly, and went to see the Girl. He had to touch her
+to be sure she was real. She was extremely weak and tremulous, but her
+face and hands were fuller, her colour was good, she was ravenously
+hungry. Doctor Harmon said she was a little tryant, and the nurse that
+she was plain cross. The first thing the Harvester noticed was that the
+dull blue look in the depth of the dark eyes was gone. They were clear,
+dusky wells, with shining lights at the bottom.
+
+"Well I never would have believed it!" he cried. "Doctor Harmon, you
+are a great physician! You have made her all over new, and in a few more
+days she will be on the veranda. This is great!"
+
+"Do I appear so much better to you, Harvester?" asked the Girl.
+
+"Has no one thought to show you," cried the Harvester. "Here, let me!"
+
+He stepped to her dressing table, picked up a mirror, and held it before
+her so that she could see herself.
+
+"Seems to me I am dreadfully white and thin yet!"
+
+"If you had seen what I saw ten days ago, my Girl, you would think you
+appear like a pink, rosy angel now, or a wonderful dream."
+
+"Truly, do I in the least resemble a dream, David?"
+
+"You are a dream. The loveliest one a man ever had. With three months of
+right care and exercise you'll be the beautiful woman nature intended.
+I'm so proud of you. You are being so brave! Just lie there in patience
+a few more days, and out you come again to life; and life that will
+thrill your being with joy."
+
+"All right," said the Girl, "I will. David are you attending to your
+herbs?"
+
+"Not for a few weeks."
+
+"You are very much behind?"
+
+"No. Nothing important. I don't make enough to count on what is ready
+now. I can soon gather jimson leaves and seed to fill orders, the
+hemlock is about right to take the fruit, the mustard is yet in pod, and
+the saffron and wormseed can be attended later. I can catch up in two
+days."
+
+"What about----about the big bed on the hill?"
+
+The Harvester experienced an inward thrill of delight. She was so
+impressed with the value of the ginseng she would not mention it,
+even before the man she loved----no more than that----"adored"----
+"worshipped!" He smiled at her in understanding.
+
+"I'll have to take a peep at that and report," he said.
+
+"Are you rested now?"
+
+"Indeed yes!"
+
+"You are dreadfully thin."
+
+"I always am. I'll pick up a little when I get back to work."
+
+"David, I want you to go to work now."
+
+"Can you spare me?"
+
+"Haven't we done well these last few days?"
+
+"I can't tell you how well."
+
+"Then please go gather everything you need to fill orders except the big
+bed, and by that time maybe you could take another week off, and I could
+go to the hill top and on the lake. I'm so anxious to put my feet on the
+earth. They feel so dead."
+
+"Are your feet well rubbed to draw down the circulation?"
+
+"They are rubbed shiny and almost skinned, David. No one ever had better
+care, of that I am sure. Go gather what you should have."
+
+"All right," said the Harvester.
+
+He arose and as he started to leave the room he took one last look at
+the Girl to see if he could detect anything he could suggest for
+her comfort, and read a message in her eyes. Instantly there was an
+answering flash in his.
+
+"I'll be back in a minute," he said. "I just noticed discorea villosa
+has the finest rattle boxes formed. I've been waiting to show you. And
+the hop tree has its castanets all green and gold. In a few more weeks
+it will begin to play for you. I'll bring you some."
+
+Soon he returned with the queer seed formations, and as he bent above
+her, with his back to Doctor Harmon, he whispered, "What is it?"
+
+Her lips barely formed the one word, "Hurry!"
+
+The Harvester straightened.
+
+"All comfortable, Ruth?" he asked casually.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You understand, of course, that there is not the slightest necessity
+for my going to work if you really want me for anything, even if it's
+nothing more than to have me within calling distance, in case you SHOULD
+want something. The whole lot I can gather now won't amount to twenty
+dollars. It's merely a matter of pride with me to have what is called
+for. I'd much rather remain, if you can use me in any way at all."
+
+"Twenty dollars is considerable, when expenses are as heavy as now. And
+it's worth more than any money to you not to fail when orders come. I
+have learned that, and David, I don't want you to either. You must
+fill all demands as usual. I wouldn't forgive myself this winter if you
+should be forced to send orders only partly filled because I fell ill
+and hindered you. Please go and gather all you possibly will need of
+everything you take at this season, only remember!"
+
+"There is no danger of my forgetting. If you are going to send me away
+to work, you will allow me to kiss your hand before I go, fair lady?"
+
+He did it fervently.
+
+"One word with you, Harmon," he said as he left the room.
+
+Doctor Harmon arose and followed him to the gold garden, and together
+they stood beside the molten hedge of sunflowers, coneflowers,
+elecampane, and jewel flower.
+
+"I merely want to mention that this is your inning," said the Harvester.
+"Find out if you are essential to the Girl's happiness as soon as you
+can, and the day she tells me so, I will file her petition and take a
+trip to the city to study some little chemical quirks that bother me.
+That's all."
+
+The Harvester went to the dry-house for bags and clipping shears, and
+the doctor returned to the sunshine room.
+
+"Ruth," he said, "do you know that the Harvester is the squarest man I
+ever met?"
+
+"Is he?" asked the Girl.
+
+"He is! He certainly is!"
+
+"You must remember that I have little acquaintance with men," said she.
+"You are the first one I ever knew, and the only one except him."
+
+"Well I try to be square," said Doctor Harmon, "but that is where
+Langston has me beaten a mile. I have to try. He doesn't. He was born
+that way."
+
+The Girl began to laugh.
+
+"His environment is so different," she said. "Perhaps if he were in a
+big city, he would have to try also."
+
+"Won't do!" said the doctor. "He chose his location. So did I. He is a
+stronger physical man than I ever was or ever will be. The struggle
+that bound him to the woods and to research, that made him the master
+of forces that give back life, when a man like Carey says it is the
+end, proves him a master. The tumult in his soul must have been like a
+cyclone in his forest, when he turned his back on the world and stuck to
+the woods. Carey told me about it. Some day you must hear. It's a story
+a woman ought to know in order to arrive at proper values. You never
+will understand the man until you know that he is clean where most of
+us are blackened with ugly sins we have no right on God's footstool to
+commit and not so much reason as he. Every man should be as he is, but
+very few are. Carey says Langston's mother was a wonderful element in
+the formation of his character; but all mothers are anxious, and none of
+them can build with no foundation and no soul timber. She had material
+for a man to her hand, or she couldn't have made one."
+
+"I see what you mean."
+
+"So far as any inexperienced girl ever sees," said the doctor. "Some day
+if you live to fifty you will know, but you can't comprehend it now."
+
+"If you think I lived all my life in Chicago's poverty spots and don't
+know unbridled human nature!"
+
+"I found you and your mother unusually innocent women. You may
+understand some things. I hope you do. It will help you to decide who is
+the real man among the men who come into your life. There are some men,
+Ruth, who are fit to mate with a woman, and to perpetuate themselves and
+their mental and moral forces in children, who will be like them, and
+there are others who are not. It is these 'others' who are responsible
+for the sin of the world, the sickness and suffering. Any time you are
+sure you have a chance at a moral man, square and honest, in control of
+his brain and body, if you are a wise woman, Ruth, stick to him as the
+limpet to the rock."
+
+"You mean stick to the Harvester?"
+
+"If you are a wise woman!"
+
+"When was a woman ever wise?"
+
+"A few have been. They are the only care-free, really happy ones of the
+world, the only wives without a big, poison, blue-bottle fly in their
+ointment."
+
+"I detest flies!" said the Girl.
+
+"So do I," said the doctor. "For this reason I say to you choose the
+ointment that never had one in it. Take the man who is 'master of his
+fate, captain of his soul.' Stick to the Harvester! He is infinitely the
+better man!"
+
+"Well have you seen anything to indicate that I wasn't sticking?" asked
+the Girl.
+
+"No. And for your sake I hope I never will."
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"You do love him, Ruth?"
+
+"As I did my mother, yes. There is not a trace in my heart of the thing
+he calls love."
+
+"You have been stunted, warped, and the fountains of life never have
+opened. It will come with right conditions of living."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I know so. At least there is no one else you love, Ruth?"
+
+"No one except you."
+
+"And do you feel about me just as you do him?"
+
+"No! It is different. What I owe him is for myself. What I owe you is
+for my mother. You saw! You know! You understand what you did for her,
+and what it meant to me. The Harvester must be the finest man on earth,
+but when I try to think of either God or Heaven, your face intervenes."
+
+"That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me," said Doctor Harmon.
+"I can make it all perfectly clear to you. You just go on and worship me
+all you please. It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me. What you
+feel for me will hold me to a higher moral level all my life than I ever
+have known before; but never forget that you are not going to live in
+Heaven. You will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come to
+think of selecting a partner for the relations of the world, you stick
+to the finest man on earth; see?"
+
+"I do!" said the Girl. "I saw you kiss Molly a week ago. She is lovely,
+and I hope you will be perfectly happy. It won't interfere with my
+worshipping you; not the least in the world. Go ahead and be joyful!"
+
+The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion. The Girl lay and
+laughed at him.
+
+"Don't!" she cried. "It's all right! It takes a weight off my soul as
+heavy as a mountain. I do adore you, as I said. But every hour since I
+left Chicago a big, black cloud has hung over me. I didn't feel free.
+I didn't feel absolved. I felt that my obligations to you were so heavy
+that when I had settled the last of the money debt I was in honour
+bound----"
+
+"Don't, Ruth! Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then! Think
+only of a happy future!"
+
+"Let me finish," said the Girl. "Let me get this out of my system with
+the other poison. From the day I came here, I've whispered in my heart,
+'I am not free!' But if you love another woman! If you are going to
+take her to your heart and to your lips, why that is my release. Oh Man,
+speak the words! Tell me I am free indeed!"
+
+"Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake! You'll raise a temperature, and the
+Harvester will pitch me into the lake. You are free, child, of course!
+You always have been. I understood the awful pressure that was on you
+with the very first glimpse I had of your mother. Who was she, Ruth?"
+
+"She never would tell me."
+
+"She thought you would appeal to her people?"
+
+"She knew I would! I couldn't have helped it."
+
+"Would you like to know?"
+
+"I never want to. It is too late. I infinitely prefer to remain in
+ignorance. Talk of something else."
+
+"Let me read a wonderful book I found on the Harvester's shelves."
+
+"Anything there will contain wonders, because he only buys what appeals
+to him, and it takes a great book to do that. I am going to learn. He
+will teach me, and when I come within comprehending distance of him,
+then we are going on together."
+
+"What an attractive place this is!"
+
+"Isn't it? I only have seen enough to understand the plan. I scarcely
+can wait to set my feet on earth and go into detail. Granny Moreland
+says that when spring comes over the hill, and brings up the flowers in
+the big woods, she'd rather walk through them than to read Revelation.
+She says it gives her an idea of Heaven she can come closer realizing
+and it seems more stable. You know she worries about the foundations.
+She can't understand what supports Heaven. But up there in Medicine
+Woods the old dear gets so close her God that some day she is going to
+realize that her idea of Heaven there is quite as near right as marble
+streets and gold pillars and vastly more probable. The day I reach that
+hill top again, Heaven begins for me. Do you know the wonderful thing
+the Harvester did up there?"
+
+"Under the oak?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Carey told me. It was marvellous."
+
+"Not such a marvel as another the doctor couldn't have known. The
+Harvester made passing out so natural, so easy, so a part of elemental
+forces, that I almost have forgotten her tortured body. When I think of
+her now, it is to wonder if next summer I can distinguish her whisper
+among the leaves. Before you go, I'll take you up there and tell you
+what he says, and show you what he means, and you will feel it also."
+
+"What if I shouldn't go?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Doctor Carey has offered me a splendid position in his hospital. There
+would be work all day, instead of waiting all day in the hope of working
+an hour. There would be a living in it for two from the word go. There
+would be better air, longer life, more to be got out of it, and if I can
+make good, Carey's work to take up as he grows old."
+
+"Take it! Take it quickly!" cried the Girl. "Don't wait a minute! You
+might wear out your heart in Chicago for twenty years or forever, and
+not have an opportunity to do one half so much good. Take it at once!"
+
+"I was waiting to learn what you and Langston would say."
+
+"He will say take it."
+
+"Then I will be too happy for words. Ruth, you have not only paid the
+debt, but you have brought me the greatest joy a man ever had. And there
+is no need to wait the ages I thought I must. He can tell in a year if I
+can do the work, and I know I can now; so it's all settled, if Langston
+agrees."
+
+"He will," said the Girl. "Let me tell him!"
+
+"I wish you would," said the doctor. "I don't know just how to go at
+it."
+
+Then for two days the Harvester and Belshazzar gathered herbs and spread
+them on the drying trays. On the afternoon of the third, close three,
+the doctor came to the door.
+
+"Langston," he said, "we have a call for you. We can't keep Ruth quiet
+much longer. She is tired. We want to change her bed completely. She
+won't allow either of us to lift her. She says we hurt her. Will you
+come and try it?"
+
+"You'll have to give me time to dip and rub off and get into clean
+clothing," he said. "I've been keeping away, because I was working on
+time, and I smell to strangulation of stramonium and saffron."
+
+"Can't give you ten seconds," said the doctor. "Our temper is getting
+brittle. We are cross as the proverbial fever patient. If you don't come
+at once we will imagine you don't want to, and refuse to be moved at
+all."
+
+"Coming!" cried the Harvester, as he plunged his hands in the wash bowl
+and soused his face. A second later he appeared on the porch.
+
+"Ruth," he said, "I am steeped in the odours of the dry-house. Can't you
+wait until I bathe and dress?"
+
+"No, I can't," said a fretful voice. "I can't endure this bed another
+minute."
+
+"Then let Doctor Harmon lift you. He is so fresh and clean."
+
+The Harvester glanced enviously at the shaven face and white trousers
+and shirt of the doctor.
+
+"I just hate fresh, clean men. I want to smell herbs. I want to put my
+feet in the dirt and my hands in the water."
+
+The Harvester came at a rush. He brought a big easy chair from the
+living-room, straightened the cover, and bent above the Girl. He picked
+her up lightly, gently, and easing her to his body settled in the chair.
+She laid her face on his shoulder, and heaved a deep sigh of content.
+
+"Be careful with my back, Man," she said. "I think my spine is almost
+worn through."
+
+"Poor girl," said the Harvester. "That bed should be softer."
+
+"It should not!" contradicted the Girl. "It should be much harder. I'm
+tired of soft beds. I want to lie on the earth, with my head on a root;
+and I wish it would rain dirt on me. I am bathed threadbare. I want to
+be all streaky."
+
+"I understand," said the Harvester. "Harmon, bring me a pad and pencil
+a minute, I must write an order for some things I want. Will you call up
+town and have them sent out immediately?"
+
+On the pad he wrote: "Telephone Carey to get the highest grade
+curled-hair mattress, a new pad, and pillow, and bring them flying in
+the car. Call Granny and the girl and empty the room. Clean, air, and
+fumigate it thoroughly. Arrange the furniture differently, and help me
+into the living-room with Ruth." He handed the pad to the doctor.
+
+"Please attend to that," he said, and to the Girl: "Now we go on a
+journey. Doc, you and Molly take the corners of the rug we are on and
+slide us into the other room until you get this aired and freshened."
+
+In the living-room the Girl took one long look at the surroundings
+and suddenly relaxed. She cuddled against the Harvester and lifting a
+tremulous white hand, drew it across his unshaven cheek.
+
+"Feels so good," she said. "I'm sick and tired of immaculate men."
+
+The Harvester laughed, tucked her feet in the cover and held her
+tenderly. The Girl lay with her cheek against the rough khaki, palpitant
+with the excitement of being moved.
+
+"Isn't it great?" she panted.
+
+He caught the hand that had touched his cheek in a tender grip, and
+laughed a deep rumble of exultation that came from the depths of his
+heart.
+
+"There's no name for it, honey," he said. "But don't try to talk until
+you have a long rest. Changing positions after you have lain so long may
+be making unusual work for your heart. Am I hurting your back?"
+
+"No," said the Girl. "This is the first time I have been comfortable in
+ages. Am I tiring you?"
+
+"Yes," laughed the Harvester. "You are almost as heavy as a large sack
+of leaves, but not quite equal to a bridge pillar or a log. Be sure to
+think of that, and worry considerably. You are in danger of straining my
+muscles to the last degree, my heart included."
+
+"Where is your heart?" whispered the Girl.
+
+"Right under your cheek," answered the Harvester. "But for Heaven's
+sake, don't intimate that you are taking any interest in it, or it will
+go to pounding until your head will bounce. It's one member of my body
+that I can't control where you are concerned."
+
+"I thought you didn't like me any more."
+
+"Careful!" warned the Harvester. "You are yet too close Heaven to fib
+like that, Ruth. What have I done to indicate that I don't love you more
+than ever?"
+
+"Stayed away nearly every minute for three awful days, and wouldn't come
+without being dragged; and now you're wishing they would hurry and fix
+that bed, so you can put me down and go back to your rank old herbs
+again."
+
+"Well of all the black prevarications! I went when you sent me, and
+came when you called. I'd willingly give up my hope of what Granny calls
+'salvation' to hold you as I am for an hour, and you know it."
+
+"It's going to be much longer than that," said the Girl nestling to him.
+"I asked for you because you never hurt me, and they always do. I knew
+you were so strong that my weight now wouldn't be a load for one of your
+hands, and I am not going back to that bed until I am so tired that I
+will be glad to lie down."
+
+For a long time she was so silent the Harvester thought her going to
+sleep; and having learned that for him joy was probably transient, he
+deliberately got all he could. He closely held the hand she had not
+withdrawn, and often lifted it to his lips. Sometimes he stroked the
+heavy braid, gently ran his hands across the tired shoulders, or eased
+her into a different position. There was not a doubt in his mind of one
+thing. He was having a royal, good time, and he was thankful for the
+work he had set his assistants that kept them out of the room. They
+seemed in no hurry, and from scuffling, laughing, and a steady stream of
+talk, they were entertained at least. At last the Girl roused.
+
+"There is something I want to ask you," she said. "I promised Doctor
+Harmon I would."
+
+Instantly the heart of the Harvester gave a leap that jarred the head
+resting on it.
+
+"You don't like him?" questioned the Girl.
+
+"I do!" declared the Harvester. "I like him immensely. There is not a
+fine, manly good-looking feature about him that I have missed. I don't
+fail to do him justice on every point."
+
+"I'm so glad! Then you will want him to remain."
+
+"Here?" asked the Harvester with a light, hot breath.
+
+"In Onabasha! Doctor Carey has offered him the place of chief assistant
+at the hospital. There is a good salary and the chance of taking up
+the doctor's work as he grows older. It means plenty to do at once,
+healthful atmosphere, congenial society----everything to a young man.
+He only had a call once in a while in Chicago, often among people who
+received more than they paid, like me, and he was very lonely. I think
+it would be great for him."
+
+"And for you, Ruth?"
+
+"It doesn't make the least difference to me; but for his sake, because I
+think so much of him, I would like to see him have the place."
+
+"You still think so much of him, Ruth?"
+
+"More, if possible," said the Girl. "Added to all I owed him before, he
+has come here and worked for days to save me, and it wasn't his fault
+that it took a bigger man. Nothing alters the fact that he did all he
+could, most graciously and gladly."
+
+"What do you mean, Ruth?" stammered the Harvester.
+
+"Oh they have worn themselves out!" cried the Girl impatiently. "First,
+Granny Moreland told me every least little detail of how I went out, and
+you resurrected me. I knew what she said was true, because she worked
+with you. Then Doctor Carey told me, and Mrs. Carey, and Doctor Harmon,
+and Molly, and even Granny's little assistant has left the kitchen to
+tell me that I owe my life to you, and all of them might as well have
+saved breath. I knew all the time that if ever I came out of this, and
+had a chance to be like other women, it would be your work, and I'm glad
+it is. I'd hate to be under obligations to some people I know; but I
+feel honoured to be indebted to you."
+
+"I'm mighty sorry they worried you. I had no idea----"
+
+"They didn't 'worry,' me! I am just telling you that I knew it all the
+time; that's all!"
+
+"Forget that!" said the Harvester. "Come back to our subject. What was
+it you wanted, dear?"
+
+"To know if you have any objections to Doctor Harmon remaining in
+Onabasha?"
+
+"Certainly not! It will be a fine thing for him."
+
+"Will it make any difference to you in any way?"
+
+"Ruth, that's probing too deep," said the Harvester.
+
+"I don't see why!"
+
+"I'm glad of it!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I'd least rather show my littleness to you than to any one else on
+earth."
+
+"Then you have some feeling about it?"
+
+"Perhaps a trifle. I'll get over it. Give me a little time to adjust
+myself. Doctor Harmon shall have the place, of course. Don't worry about
+that!"
+
+"He will be so happy!"
+
+"And you, Ruth?"
+
+"I'll be happy too!"
+
+"Then it's all right," said the Harvester.
+
+He laid down her hand, drew the cover over it, and slightly shifted her
+position to rest her. The door opened, and Doctor Harmon announced that
+the room was ready. It was shining and fresh. The bed was now turned
+with its head to the north, so that from it one could see the big
+trees in Medicine Woods, the sweep of the hillside, the sparkle of
+mallow-bordered Singing Water, the driveway and the gold flower
+garden. Everything was so changed that the room had quite a different
+appearance. The instant he laid her on it the Girl said, "This bed is
+not mine."
+
+"Yes it is," said the Harvester. "You see, we were a little excited
+sometimes, and we spilled a few quarts of perfectly good medicine on
+your mattress. It was hopelessly smelly and ruined; so I am going to
+cremate it and this is your splinter new one and a fresh pad and
+pillow. Now you try them and see if they are not much harder and more
+comfortable."
+
+"This is just perfect!" she sighed, as she sank into the bed.
+
+The Harvester bent over her to straighten the cover, when suddenly
+she reached both arms around his neck, and gripped him with all her
+strength.
+
+"Thank you!" she said.
+
+"May I hold you to-morrow?" whispered the Harvester, emboldened by this.
+
+"Please do," said the Girl.
+
+The Harvester, with dog to heel, went to the oak to think.
+
+"Belshazzar, kommen Sie!" said the man, dropping on the seat and holding
+out his hand. The dog laid his muzzle in the firm grip.
+
+"Bel," said the Harvester, "I am all at sea. One day I think maybe I
+have a little chance, the next----none at all. I had an hour of solid
+comfort to-day, now I'm in the sweat box again. It's a little selfish
+streak in me, Bel, that hates to see Harmon go into the hospital and
+take my place with the Careys. They are my best and only friends. He is
+young, social, handsome, and will be ever present. In three months he
+will become so popular that I might as well be off the earth. I wish I
+didn't think it, but I'm so small that I do. And then there is my
+Dream Girl, Bel. The girl you found for me, old fellow. There never was
+another like her, and she has my heart for all time. And he has hers.
+That hospital plan is the best thing in the world for her. It will keep
+her where Carey can have an eye on her, where the air is better, where
+she can have company without the city crush, where she is close the
+country, and a good living is assured. Bel, it's the nicest arrangement
+you ever saw for every one we know, except us."
+
+The Harvester laughed shortly. "Bel," he said, "tell me! If a man lived
+a hundred years, could he have the heartache all the way? Seems like
+I've had it almost that long now. In fact, I've had it such ages I'd
+be lonesome without it. This is some more of my very own medicine, so I
+shouldn't make a wry face over taking it. I knew what would happen when
+I sent for him, and I didn't hesitate. I must not now.
+
+"Only I got to stop one thing, Bel. I told him I would play square,
+and I have. But here it ends. After this, I must step back and be big
+brother. Lots of fun in this brother business, Bel. But maybe I am cut
+out for it. Anyway it's written! But if it is, how did she come to allow
+me such privileges as I took to-day? That wasn't professional by any
+means. It was just the stiffest love-making I knew how to do, Bel, and
+she didn't object by the quiver of an eyelash. God knows I was watching
+closely enough for any sign that I was distasteful. And I might have
+been well enough. Rough, herb-stained old clothes, unshaven, everything
+to offend a dainty girl. She said I might hold her again to-morrow. And,
+Bel, what the nation did she hug me like that for, if she's going to
+marry him? Boy, I see my way clear to an hour more. While I'm at it,
+just to surprise myself, I believe I'll take it like other men. I think
+I'll go on a little bender, and make what probably will be the last day
+a plumb good one. Something worth remembering is better than nothing
+at all, Bel! He hasn't told me that he has won. She didn't SAY she was
+going to marry him, and she did say he hurt her, and she wanted me. Bel,
+how about the grimness of it, if she should marry him and then discover
+that he hurts her, and she wants me. Lord God Almighty, if you have any
+mercy at all, never put me up against that," prayed the Harvester, "for
+my heart is water where she is concerned."
+
+The Harvester arose, and going to the lake, he cut an arm load of big,
+pink mallows, covered each mound with fresh flowers, whistled to the
+dog, and went to his work. Many things had accumulated, and he cleaned
+the barn, carried herbs from the dry-house to the store-room, and put
+everything into shape. Close noon the next day he went to Onabasha, and
+was gone three hours. He came back barbered in the latest style, and
+carrying a big bundle. When the hour for arranging the bed came, he was
+yet in his room, but he sent word he would be there in a second.
+
+As he crossed the living-room he pulled a chair to the veranda and
+placed a footstool before it. Then he stepped into the sunshine room. A
+quizzical expression crossed the face of Doctor Harmon as he closed the
+book he was reading aloud to the Girl and arose. Wholly unembarrassed
+the Harvester smiled.
+
+"Have I got this rigging anywhere near right?" he inquired.
+
+"David, what have you done?" gasped the amazed Girl.
+
+"I didn't feel anywhere near up to the 'mark of my high calling'
+yesterday," quoted the Harvester. "I don't know how I appear, but I'm
+clean as shaving, soap and hot water will make me, and my clothing will
+not smell offensively. Now come out of that bed for a happy hour. Where
+is that big coverlet? You are going on the veranda to-day."
+
+"You look just like every one else," complained Doctor Harmon.
+
+"You look perfectly lovely," declared the Girl.
+
+"The swale sends you this invitation to come and see star-shine at the
+foot of mullein hill," said the Harvester, offering a bouquet. It was a
+loose bunch of long-stemmed, delicate flowers, each an inch across, and
+having five pearl-white petals lightly striped with pale green. Five
+long gold anthers arose, and at their base gold stamens and a green
+pistil. The leaves were heart-shaped and frosty, whitish-green,
+resembling felt. The Harvester bent to offer them.
+
+"Have some Grass of Parnassus, my dear," he said.
+
+The Girl waved them away. "Go stand over there by the door and slowly
+turn around. I want to see you."
+
+The Harvester obeyed. He was freshly and carefully shaven. His hair
+was closely cropped at the base of the head, long, heavy, and slightly
+waving on top. He wore a white silk shirt, with a rolling collar and
+tie, white trousers, belt, hose, and shoes, and his hands were manicured
+with care.
+
+"Have I made a mess of it, or do I appear anything like other men?" he
+asked, eagerly.
+
+The Girl lifted her eyes to Doctor Harmon and smiled.
+
+"Do you observe anything messy?" she inquired.
+
+"You needn't fish for compliments quite so obviously," he answered.
+"I'll pay them without being asked. I do not. He is quite correct, and
+infinitely better looking than the average. Distinguished is a proper
+word for the gentleman in my opinion. But why, in Heaven's name, have we
+never had the pleasure of seeing you thus before?"
+
+"Look here, Doc," said the Harvester, "do you mean that you enjoy
+looking at me merely because I am dressed this way?"
+
+"I do indeed," said the doctor. "It is good to see you with the garb of
+work laid aside, and the stamp of cleanliness and ease upon you."
+
+"By gum, that is rubbing it in a little too rough!" cried the Harvester.
+"I bathe oftener than you do. My clothing is always clean when I start
+out. Of course, in my work I come hourly in contact with muck, water,
+and herb juices."
+
+"It's understood that is unavoidable," said Doctor Harmon.
+
+"And if cleanliness is made an issue, I'd rather roll in any of it
+than put my finger tips into the daily work of a surgeon," added the
+Harvester, and the Girl giggled.
+
+"That's enough Medicine Man!" she said. "You did not make a 'mess' of
+it, or anything else you ever attempted. As for appearing like other
+men, thank Heaven, you do not. You look just a whole world bigger and
+better and finer. Come, carry me out quickly. I am wild to go. Please
+put my lovely flowers in water, Molly, only give me a few to hold."
+
+The Harvester arranged the pink coverlet, picked up the Girl, and
+carried her to the living-room.
+
+"We will rest here a little," he said, "and then, if you feel equal to
+it, we will try the veranda. Are you easy now?"
+
+She nestled her face against the soft shirt and smiled at him. She
+lifted her hand, laid it on his smooth cheek and then the crisp hair.
+
+"Oh Man!" she cried. "Thank God you didn't give me up, too! I want life!
+I want LIFE!"
+
+The Harvester tightened his grip just a trifle. "Then I thank God, too,"
+he said. "Can you tell me how you are, dear? Is there any difference?"
+
+"Yes," she answered. "I grow tired lying so long, but there isn't the
+ghost of an ache in my bones. I can just feel pure, delicious blood
+running in my veins. My hands and feet are always warm, and my head
+cool."
+
+The Harvester's face drew very close. "How about your heart, honey?" he
+whispered. "Anything new there?"
+
+"Yes, I am all over new inside and out. I want to shout, run, sing, and
+swim. Oh I'd give anything to have you carry me down and dip me in the
+lake right now."
+
+"Soon, Girl! That will come soon," prophesied the Harvester.
+
+"I scarcely can wait. And you did say a saddle, didn't you? Won't it be
+great to come galloping up the levee, when the leaves are red and the
+frost is in the air. Oh am I going fast enough?"
+
+"Much faster than I expected," said the Harvester. "You are surprising
+all of us, me most of any. Ruth, you almost make me hope that you regard
+this as home. Honey, you are thinking a little of me these days?"
+
+The hand that had fallen from his hair lay on his shoulder. Now it slid
+around his neck, and gripped him with all its strength.
+
+"Heaps and heaps!" she said. "All I get a chance to, for being bothered
+and fussed over, and everlastingly read mushy stuff that's intended for
+some one else. Please take me to the veranda now; I want to tell you
+something."
+
+His head swam, but the Harvester set his feet firmly, arose, and carried
+his Dream Girl back to outdoor life. When he reached the chair, she
+begged him to go a few steps farther to the bench on the lake shore.
+
+"I am afraid," said the man.
+
+"It's so warm. There can't be any difference in the air. Just a minute."
+
+The Harvester pushed open the screen, went to the bench, and seating
+himself, drew the cover closely around her.
+
+"Don't speak a word for a long time," he said. "Just rest. If I tire you
+too much and spoil everything, I will be desperate."
+
+He clasped her to him, laid his cheek against her hair, and his lips on
+her forehead. He held her hand and kissed it over and over, and again
+he watched and could find no resentment. The cool, pungent breeze swept
+from the lake, and the voices of wild life chattered at their feet.
+Sometimes the water folks splashed, while a big black and gold butterfly
+mistook the Girl's dark hair for a perching place and settled on it,
+slowly opening its wonderful wings.
+
+"Lie quietly, Girl," whispered the Harvester. "You are wearing a living
+jewel, an ornament above price, on your hair. Maybe you can see it when
+it goes. There!"
+
+"Oh I did!" she cried. "How I love it here! Before long may I lie in the
+dining-room window a while so I can see the water. I like the hill, but
+I love the lake more."
+
+"Now if you just would love me," said the Harvester, "you would have all
+Medicine Woods in your heart."
+
+"Don't hurry me so!" said the Girl. "You gave me a year; and it's only a
+few weeks, and I've not been myself, and I'm not now. I mustn't make any
+mistake, and all I know for sure is that I want you most, and I can rest
+best with you, and I miss you every minute you are gone. I think that
+should satisfy you."
+
+"That would be enough for any reasonable man," said the Harvester
+angrily. "Forgive me, Ruth, I have been cruel. I forgot how frail and
+weak you are. It is having Harmon here that makes me unnatural. It
+almost drives me to frenzy to know that he may take you from me."
+
+"Then send him away!"
+
+"SEND HIM AWAY?"
+
+"Yes, send him away! I am tired to death of his poetry, and seeing him
+spoon around. Send both of them away quickly!"
+
+The Harvester gulped, blinked, and surreptitiously felt for her pulse.
+
+"Oh, I've not developed fever again," she said. "I'm all right. But it
+must be a fearful expense to have both of them here by the week, and I'm
+so tired of them, Granny says she can take care of me just as well,
+and the girl who helps her can cook. No one but you shall lift me, if I
+don't get my nose Out until I can walk alone Both of them are perfectly
+useless, and I'd much rather you'd send them away."
+
+"There, there! Of course!" said the Harvester soothingly. "I'll do it
+as soon as I possibly dare. You don't understand, honey. You are yet
+delicate beyond measure, internally. The fever burned so long. Every
+morsel you eat is measured and cooked in sterilized vessels, and I'd be
+scared of my life to have the girl undertake it."
+
+"Why she is doing it straight along now! She and Granny! Molly isn't out
+of Doctor Harmon's sight long enough to cook anything. Granny says there
+is 'a lot of buncombe about what they do, and she is going to tell them
+so right to their teeth some of these days, if they badger her much
+more,' and I wish she would, and you, too."
+
+The Harvester gathered the Girl to him in one crushing bear hug.
+
+"For the love of Heaven, Ruth, you drive me crazy! Answer me just one
+question. When you told me that you 'adored and worshipped' Doctor
+Harmon, did you mean it, or was that the delirium of fever?"
+
+"I don't know WHAT I told you! If I said I 'adored' him, it was the
+truth. I did! I do! I always will! So do I adore the Almighty, but
+that's no sign I want him to read poetry to me, and be around all the
+time when I am wild for a minute with you. I can worship Doctor Harmon
+in Chicago or Onabasha quite as well. Fire him! If you don't, I will!"
+
+"Good Lord!" cried the Harvester, helpless until the Girl had to cling
+to him to prevent rolling from his nerveless arms. "Ruth, Ruth, will you
+feel my pulse?"
+
+"No, I won't! But you are going to drop me. Take me straight back to my
+beautiful new bed, and send them away."
+
+"A minute! Give me a minute!" gasped the Harvester. "I couldn't lift a
+baby just now. Ruth, dear, I thought you LOVED the man."
+
+"What made you think so?"
+
+"You did!"
+
+"I didn't either! I never said I loved him. I said I was under
+obligations to him; but they are as well repaid as they ever can be. I
+said I adored him, and I tell you I do! Give him what we owe him, both
+of us, in money, and send them away. If you'd seen as much of them as I
+have, you'd be tired of them, too. Please, please, David!"
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester, arising in a sudden tide of effulgent joy.
+"Yes, Girl, just as quickly as I can with decency. I----I'll send them
+on the lake, and I'll take care of you."
+
+"You won't read poetry to me?"
+
+"I will not."
+
+"You won't moon at me?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Then hurry! But have them take your boat. I am going to have the first
+ride in mine."
+
+"Indeed you are, and soon, too!" said the Harvester, marching up the
+hill as if he were leading hosts to battle.
+
+He laid the Girl on the bed and covered her, and called Granny Moreland
+to sit beside her a few minutes. He went into the gold garden and
+proposed that the doctor and the nurse go rowing until supper time, and
+they went with alacrity. When they started he returned to the Girl and,
+sitting beside her, he told Granny to take a nap. Then he began to talk
+softly all about wild music, and how it was made, and what the different
+odours sweeping down the hill were, and when the red leaves would come,
+and the nuts rattle down, and the frost fairies enamel the windows, and
+soon she was sound asleep. Granny came back, and the Harvester walked
+around the lake shore to be alone a while and think quietly, for he was
+almost too dazed and bewildered for full realization.
+
+As he softly followed the foot path he heard voices, and looking down,
+he saw the boat lying in the shade and beneath a big tree on the bank
+sat the doctor and the nurse. His arm was around her, and her head was
+on his shoulder; and she said very distinctly, "How long will it be
+until we can go without offending him?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. A VERTICAL SPINE
+
+By middle September the last trace of illness had been removed from the
+premises, and it was rapidly disappearing from the face and form of the
+Girl. She was showing a beautiful roundness, there was lovely colour on
+her cheeks and lips, and in her dark eyes sparkled a touch of mischief.
+Rigidly she followed the rules laid down for diet and exercise, and as
+strength flowed through her body, and no trace of pain tormented her,
+she began revelling in new and delightful sensations. She loved to pull
+her boat as she willed, drive over the wood road, study the books,
+cook the new dishes, rearrange furniture, and go with the Harvester
+everywhere.
+
+But that was greatly the management of the man. He was so afraid that
+something might happen to undo all the wonders accomplished in the Girl,
+and again whiten her face with pain, that he scarcely allowed her out of
+his sight. He remained in the cabin, helping when she worked, and then
+drove with her and a big blanket to the woods, arranged her chair and
+table, found some attractive subject, and while the wind ravelled her
+hair and flushed her cheeks, her fingers drew designs. At noon they
+went to the cabin to lunch, and the Girl took a nap, while the Harvester
+spread his morning's reaping on the shelves to dry. They returned to
+the woods until five o'clock; then home again and the Girl dressed
+and prepared supper, while the Harvester spread his stores and fed the
+stock. Then he put on white clothing for the evening. The Girl rested
+while he washed the dishes, and they explored the lake in the little
+motor boat, or drove to the city for supplies, or to see their friends.
+
+"Are you even with your usual work at this time of the year?" she asked
+as they sat at breakfast.
+
+"I am," said the Harvester. "The only things that have been crowded out
+are the candlesticks. They will have to remain on the shelf until the
+herbs and roots are all in, and the long winter evenings come. Then I'll
+use the luna pattern and finish yours first of all."
+
+"What are you going to do to-day?"
+
+"Start on a regular fall campaign. Some of it for the sake of having it,
+and some because there is good money in it. Will you come?"
+
+"Indeed yes. May I help, or shall I take my drawing along?"
+
+"Bring your drawing. Next fall you may help, but as yet you are too
+close suffering for me to see you do anything that might be even a
+slight risk. I can't endure it."
+
+"Baby!" she jeered.
+
+"Christen me anything you please," laughed the Harvester. "I'm short on
+names anyway."
+
+He went to harness Betsy, and the Girl washed the dishes, straightened
+the rooms, and collected her drawing material. Then she walked up the
+hill, wearing a shirt and short skirt of khaki, stout shoes, and a straw
+hat that shaded her face. She climbed into the wagon, laid the drawing
+box on the seat, and caught the lines as the Harvester flung them to
+her. He went swinging ahead, Belshazzar to heel, the Girl driving
+after. The white pigeons circled above, and every day Ajax allowed his
+curiosity to overcome his temper, and followed a little farther.
+
+"Whoa, Betsy!" The Girl tugged at the lines; but Betsy took the bit
+between her teeth, and plodded after the Harvester. She pulled with
+all her might, but her strength was not nearly sufficient to stop the
+stubborn animal.
+
+"Whoa, David!" cried the Girl.
+
+"What is it?" the Harvester turned.
+
+"Won't you please wait until I can take off my hat? I love to ride
+bareheaded through the woods, and Betsy won't stop until you do, no
+matter how hard I pull."
+
+"Betsy, you're no lady!" said the Harvester. "Why don't you stop when
+you're told?"
+
+"I shan't waste any more strength on her," said the Girl. "Hereafter I
+shall say, 'Gee, David,' 'Haw, David,' 'Whoa, David,' and then she will
+do exactly as you."
+
+The Harvester stopped half way up the hill, and beside a large, shaded
+bed spread the rug, and set up the little table and chair for the Girl.
+
+"Want a plant to draw?" he asked. "This is very important to us. It
+has a string of names as long as a princess, but I call it goldenseal,
+because the roots are yellow. The chemists ask for hydrastis. That
+sounds formidable, but it's a cousin of buttercups. The woods of Ohio
+and Indiana produce the finest that ever grew, but it is so nearly
+extinct now that the trade can be supplied by cultivation only. I
+suspect I'm responsible for its disappearance around here. I used to get
+a dollar fifty a pound, and most of my clothes and books when a boy I
+owe to it. Now I get two for my finest grade; that accounts for the size
+of these beds."
+
+"It's pretty!" said the Girl, studying a plant averaging a foot in
+height. On a slender, round, purplish stem arose one big, rough leaf,
+heavily veined, and having from five to nine lobes. Opposite was a
+similar leaf, but very small, and a head of scarlet berries resembling
+a big raspberry in shape. The Harvester shook the black woods soil from
+the yellow roots, and held up the plant.
+
+"You won't enjoy the odour," he said.
+
+"Well I like the leaves. I know I can use them some way. They are so
+unusual. What wonderful colour in the roots!"
+
+"One of its names is Indian paint," explained the Harvester. "Probably
+it furnished the squaws of these woods with colouring matter. Now let's
+see what we can get out of it. You draw the plant and I'll dig the
+roots."
+
+For a time the Girl bent over her work and the Harvester was busy.
+Belshazzar ranged the woods chasing chipmunks. The birds came asking
+questions. When the drawing was completed, other subjects were found at
+every turn, and the Girl talked almost constantly, her face alive with
+interest. The May-apple beds lay close, and she drew from them. She
+learned the uses and prices of the plant, and also made drawings of
+cohosh, moonseed and bloodroot. That was so wonderful in its root
+colour, the Harvester filled the little cup with water and she began
+to paint. Intensely absorbed she bent above the big, notched, silvery
+leaves and the blood-red roots, testing and trying to match them
+exactly. Every few minutes the Harvester leaned over her shoulder to see
+how she was progressing and to offer suggestions. When she finished she
+picked up a trailing vine of moonseed.
+
+"You have this on the porch," she said. "I think it is lovely. There
+is no end to the beautiful combinations of leaves, and these are such
+pretty little grape-like clusters; but if you touch them the slightest
+you soil the wonderful surface."
+
+"And that makes the fairies very sad," said the Harvester. "They love
+that vine best of any, because they paint its fruit with the most care.
+'Bloom' the scientists call it. You see it on cultivated plums, grapes,
+and apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed and black
+haws in the woods. You should be able to design a number of pretty
+things from the cohosh leaves and berries, too. You scarcely can get a
+start this fall, but early in the spring you can begin, and follow the
+season. If your work comes out well this winter, I'll send some of it to
+the big publishing houses, and you can make book and magazine covers and
+decorations, if you would like."
+
+"'If I would like!' How modest! You know perfectly well that if I could
+make a design that would be accepted, and used on a book or magazine, I
+would almost fly. Oh do you suppose I could?"
+
+"I don't 'suppose' anything about it, I know," said the Harvester. "It
+is not possible that the public can be any more tired of wild roses,
+golden-rod, and swallows than the poor art editors who accept them
+because they can't help themselves. Dangle something fresh and new under
+their noses and see them snap. The next time I go to Onabasha I'll get
+you some popular magazines, and you can compare what is being used with
+what you see here, and judge for yourself how glad they would be for a
+change. And potteries, arts and crafts shops, and wall paper factories,
+they'd be crazy for the designs I could furnish them. As for money,
+there's more in it than the herbs, if I only could draw."
+
+"I can do that," said the Girl. "Trail the vine and give me an idea
+how to scale it. I'll just make studies now, and this winter I'll
+conventionalize them and work them into patterns. Won't that be fun?"
+
+"That's more than fun, Ruth," said the Harvester solemnly. "That is
+creation. That touches the provinces of the Almighty. That is taking His
+unknown wonders and making them into pleasure and benefit for thousands,
+not to mention filling your face with awe divine, and lighting your eyes
+with interest and ambition. That is life, Ruth. You are beginning to
+live right now."
+
+"I see," said the Girl. "I understand! I am!"
+
+"You get your subjects now. When the harvest is over I'll show you what
+I have in my head, and before Christmas the fun will begin."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"Sketch a sarsaparilla plant and this yam vine. It grows on your veranda
+too----the rattle box, you remember. The leaves and seeding arrangements
+are wonderful. You can do any number of things with them, and all will
+be new."
+
+He called her attention to and brought her samples of ginger leaves,
+Indian hemp, queen-of-the-meadow, cone-flower, burdock, baneberry, and
+Indian turnip, as he harvested them in turn. When they came to the large
+beds of orange pleurisy root the Girl cried out with pleasure.
+
+"We will take its prosaic features first," said the Harvester. "It is
+good medicine and worth handling. Forget that! The Bird Woman calls it
+butterfly flower. That's better. Now try to analyze a single bloom of
+this gaudy mass, and you will see why there's poetry coming."
+
+He knelt beside the Girl, separating the blooms and pointing out their
+marvellous colour and construction. She leaned against his shoulder, and
+watched with breathless interest. As his bare head brought its mop of
+damp wind-rumpled hair close, she ran her fingers through it, and with
+her handkerchief wiped his forehead.
+
+"Sometimes I almost wish you'd get sick," she said irrelevantly.
+
+"In the name of common sense, why?" demanded the Harvester.
+
+"Oh it must be born in the heart of a woman to want to mother
+something," answered the Girl. "I feel sometimes as if I would like to
+take care of you, as if you were a little fellow. David, I know why
+your mother fought to make you the man she desired. You must have been
+charming when small. I can shut my eyes and just see the boy you were,
+and I should have loved you as she did."
+
+"How about the man I am?" inquired the Harvester promptly. "Any leanings
+toward him yet, Ruth?"
+
+"It's getting worser and worser every day and hour," said the Girl. "I
+don't understand it at all. I wouldn't try to live without you. I don't
+want you to leave my sight. Everything you do is the way I would have
+it. Nothing you ever say shocks or offends me. I'd love to render you
+any personal service. I want to take you in my arms and hug you tight
+half a dozen times a day as a reward for the kind and lovely things you
+do for me."
+
+A dull red flamed up the neck and over the face of the Harvester. One
+arm lifted to the chair back, the other dropped across the table so that
+the Girl was almost encircled.
+
+"For the love of mercy, Ruth, why haven't I had a hint of this before?"
+he cried.
+
+"You said you'd hate me. You said you'd drop me into the deepest part of
+the lake if I deceived you; and if I have to tell the truth, why, that
+is all of it. I think it is nonsense about some wonderful feeling that
+is going to take possession of your heart when you love any one. I love
+you so much I'd gladly suffer to save you pain or sorrow. But there are
+no thrills; it's just steady, sober, common sense that I should love
+you, and I do. Why can't you be satisfied with what I can give, David?"
+
+"Because it's husks and ashes," said the Harvester grimly. "You drive me
+to desperation, Ruth. I am almost wild for your love, but what you offer
+me is plain, straight affection, nothing more. There isn't a trace of
+the feeling that should exist between man and wife in it. Some men might
+be satisfied to be your husband, and be regarded as a father or brother.
+I am not. The red bird didn't want a sister, Ruth, he was asking for a
+mate. So am I. That's as plain as I know how to put it. There is some
+way to awaken you into a living, loving woman, and, please God, I'll
+find it yet, but I'm slow about it; there's no question of that. Never
+you mind! Don't worry! Some of these days I have faith to believe it
+will sweep you as a tide sweeps the shore, and then I hope God will be
+good enough to let me be where you will land in my arms."
+
+The Girl sat looking at him between narrowed lids. Suddenly she took his
+head between her hands, drew his face to hers and deliberately kissed
+him. Then she drew away and searched his eyes.
+
+"There!" she challenged. "What is the matter with that?"
+
+The Harvester's colour slowly faded to a sickly white.
+
+"Ruth, you try me almost beyond human endurance," he said. "'What's the
+matter with that?'" He arose, stepped back, folded his arms, and stared
+at her. "'What's the matter with that?'" he repeated. "Never was I so
+sorely tempted in all my life as I am now to lie to you, and say there
+is nothing, and take you in my arms and try to awaken you to what I
+mean by love. But suppose I do----and fail! Then comes the agony of slow
+endurance for me, and the possibility that any day you may meet the man
+who can arouse in you the feelings I cannot. That would mean my oath
+broken, and my heart as well; while soon you would dislike me beyond
+tolerance, even. I dare not risk it! The matter is, that was the loving
+caress of a ten-year-old girl to a big brother she admired. That's all!
+Not much, but a mighty big defect when it is offered a strong man as
+fuel on which to feed consuming passion."
+
+"Consuming passion," repeated the Girl. "David you never lie, and you
+never exaggerate. Do you honestly mean that there is something----oh,
+there is! I can see it! You are really suffering, and if I come to you,
+and try my best to comfort you, you'll only call it baby affection that
+you don't want. David, what am I going to do?"
+
+"You are going to the cabin," said the Harvester, "and cook us a big
+supper. I am dreadfully hungry. I'll be along presently. Don't worry,
+Ruth, you are all right! That kiss was lovely. Tell me that you are not
+angry with me."
+
+Her eyes were wet as she smiled at him.
+
+"If there is a bigger brute than a man anywhere on the footstool, I
+should like to meet it," said the Harvester, "and see what it appears
+like. Go along, honey; I'll be there as soon as I load."
+
+He drove to the dry-house, washed and spread his reaping on the big
+trays, fed the stock, dressed in the white clothing and entered the
+kitchen. That the Girl had been crying was obvious, but he overlooked
+it, helped with the work, and then they took a boat ride. When they
+returned he proposed that she should select her favourite likeness of
+her mother, and the next time he went to the city he would take it
+with his, and order the enlargements he had planned. To save carrying
+a lighted lamp into the closet he brought her little trunk to the
+living-room, where she opened it and hunted the pictures. There were
+several, and all of them were of a young, elegantly dressed woman of
+great beauty. The Harvester studied them long.
+
+"Who was she, Ruth?" he asked at last.
+
+"I don't know, and I have no desire to learn."
+
+"Can you explain how the girl here represented came to marry a brother
+of Henry Jameson?"
+
+"Yes. I was past twelve when my father came the last time, and I
+remember him distinctly. If Uncle Henry were properly clothed, he is
+not a bad man in appearance, unless he is very angry. He can use proper
+language, if he chooses. My father was the best in him, refined and
+intensified. He was much taller, very good looking, and he dressed and
+spoke well. They were born and grew to manhood in the East, and came out
+here at the same time. Where Uncle Henry is a trickster and a trader
+in stock, my father went a step higher, and tricked and traded in
+men----and women! Mother told me this much once. He saw her somewhere
+and admired her. He learned who she was, went to her father's law office
+and pretended he was representing some great business in the West, until
+he was welcomed as a promising client. He hung around and when she came
+in one day her father was forced to introduce them. The remainder is the
+same world-old story----a good looking, glib-tongued man, plying every
+art known to an expert, on an innocent girl."
+
+"Is he dead, Ruth?"
+
+"We thought so. We hoped so."
+
+"Your mother did not feel that her people might be suffering for her as
+she was for them?"
+
+"Not after she appealed to them twice and received no reply."
+
+"Perhaps they tried to find her. Maybe she has a father or mother who
+is longing for word from her now. Are you very sure you are right in not
+wanting to know?"
+
+"She never gave me a hint from which I could tell who or where they
+were. In so gentle a woman as my mother that only could mean she did not
+want them to know of her. Neither do I. This is the photograph I prefer;
+please use it."
+
+"I'll put back the trunk in the morning, when I can see better," said
+the Harvester.
+
+The Girl closed it, and soon went to bed. But there was no sleep for
+the man. He went into the night, and for hours he paced the driveway in
+racking thought. Then he sat on the step and looked at Belshazzar before
+him.
+
+"Life's growing easier every minute, Bel," said the Harvester. "Here's
+my Dream Girl, lovely as the most golden instant of that wonderful
+dream, offering me----offering me, Bel----in my present pass, the lips
+and the love of my little sister who never was born. And I've hurt
+Ruth's feelings, and sent her to bed with a heartache, trying to make
+her see that it won't do. It won't, Bel! If I can't have genuine love, I
+don't want anything. I told her so as plainly as I could find words, and
+set her crying, and made her unhappy to end a wonderful day. But in
+some way she has got to learn that propinquity, tolerance, approval,
+affection, even----is not love. I can't take the risk, after all these
+years of waiting for the real thing. If I did, and love never came, I
+would end----well, I know how I would end----and that would spoil her
+life. I simply have got to brace up, Bel, and keep on trying. She thinks
+it is nonsense about thrills, and some wonderful feeling that takes
+possession of you. Lord, Bel! There isn't much nonsense about the thing
+that rages in my brain, heart, soul, and body. It strikes me as the
+gravest reality that ever overtook a man.
+
+"She is growing wonderfully attached to me. 'Couldn't live without me,'
+Bel, that is what she said. Maybe it would be a scheme to bring Granny
+here to stay with her, and take a few months in some city this winter
+on those chemical points that trouble me. There is an old saying about
+'absence making the heart grow fonder.' Maybe separation is the thing to
+work the trick. I've tried about everything else I know.
+
+"But I'm in too much of a hurry! What a fool a man is! A few weeks ago,
+Bel, I said to myself that if Harmon were away and had no part in her
+life I'd be the happiest man alive. Happiest man alive! Bel, take a look
+at me now! Happy! Well, why shouldn't I be happy? She is here. She is
+growing in strength and beauty every hour. She cares more for me day
+by day. From an outside viewpoint it seems as if I had almost all a man
+could ask in reason. But when was a strong man in the grip of love ever
+reasonable? I think the Almighty took a pretty grave responsibility when
+He made men as He did. If I had been He, and understood the forces I was
+handling, I would have been too big a coward to do it. There is nothing
+for me, Bel, but to move on doing my level best; and if she doesn't
+awaken soon, I will try the absent treatment. As sure as you are the
+most faithful dog a man ever owned, Bel, I'll try the absent treatment."
+
+The Harvester arose and entered the cabin, stepping softly, for it was
+dark in the Girl's room, and he could not hear a sound there. He turned
+up the lights in the living-room. As he did so the first thing he saw
+was the little trunk. He looked at it intently, then picked up a book.
+Every page he turned he glanced again at the trunk. At last he laid
+down the book and sat staring, his brain working rapidly. He ended by
+carrying the trunk to his room. He darkened the living-room, lighted his
+own, drew the rain screens, and piece by piece carefully examined the
+contents. There were the pictures, but the name of the photographer had
+been removed. There was not a word that would help in identification. He
+emptied it to the bottom, and as he picked up the last piece his fingers
+struck in a peculiar way that did not give the impression of touching
+a solid surface. He felt over it carefully, and when he examined with
+a candle he plainly could see where the cloth lining had been cut and
+lifted.
+
+For a long time he knelt staring at it, then he deliberately inserted
+his knife blade and raised it. The cloth had been glued to a heavy sheet
+of pasteboard the exact size of the trunk bottom. Beneath it lay half a
+dozen yellow letters, and face down two tissue-wrapped photographs. The
+Harvester examined them first. They were of a man close forty, having
+a strong, aggressive face, on which pride and dominant will power were
+prominently indicated. The other was a reproduction of a dainty and
+delicate woman, with exquisitely tender and gentle features. Long the
+Harvester studied them. The names of the photographer and the city were
+missing. There was nothing except the faces. He could detect traces
+of the man in the poise of the Girl and the carriage of her head, and
+suggestions of the woman in the refined sweetness of her expression.
+Each picture represented wealth in dress and taste in pose. Finally he
+laid them together on the table, picked up one of the letters, and read
+it. Then he read all of them.
+
+Before he finished, tears were running down his cheeks, and his
+resolution was formed. These were the appeals of an adoring mother,
+crazed with fear for the safety of an only child, who unfortunately
+had fallen under the influence of a man the mother dreaded and feared,
+because of her knowledge of life and men of his character. They were one
+long, impassioned plea for the daughter not to trust a stranger, not
+to believe that vows of passion could be true when all else in life was
+false, not to trust her untried judgment of men and the world against
+the experience of her parents. But whether the tears that stained those
+sheets had fallen from the eyes of the suffering mother or the starved
+and deserted daughter, there was no way for the Harvester to know. One
+thing was clear: It was not possible for him to rest until he knew if
+that woman yet lived and bore such suffering. But every trace of address
+had been torn away, and there was nothing to indicate where or in what
+circumstances these letters had been written.
+
+A long time the Harvester sat in deep thought. Then he returned all the
+letters save one. This with the pictures he made into a packet that he
+locked in his desk. The trunk he replaced and then went to bed. Early
+the next morning he drove to Onabasha and posted the parcel. The address
+it bore was that of the largest detective agency in the country. Then
+he bought an interesting book, a box of fruit, and hurried back to the
+Girl. He found her on the veranda, Belshazzar stretched close with one
+eye shut and the other on his charge, whose cheeks were flushed with
+lovely colour as she bent over her drawing material. The Harvester went
+to her with a rush, and slipping his fingers under her chin, tilted back
+her head against him.
+
+"Got a kiss for me, honey?" he inquired.
+
+"No sir," answered the Girl emphatically. "I gave you a perfectly lovely
+one yesterday, and you said it was not right. I am going to try just
+once more, and if you say again that it won't do, I'm going back to
+Chicago or to my dear Uncle Henry, I haven't decided which."
+
+Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were full of tears.
+
+"Why thank you, Ruth! I think that is wonderful," said the Harvester.
+"I'll risk the next one. In the meantime, excuse me if I give you a
+demonstration of the real thing, just to furnish you an idea of how it
+should be."
+
+The Harvester delivered the sample, and went striding to the marsh. The
+dazed Girl sat staring at her work, trying to realize what had happened;
+for that was the first time the Harvester had kissed her on the lips,
+and it was the material expression a strong man gives the woman he loves
+when his heart is surging at high tide. The Girl sat motionless, gazing
+at her study.
+
+In the marsh she knew the Harvester was reaping queen-of-the-meadow,
+and around the high borders, elecampane and burdock. She could hear his
+voice in snatches of song or cheery whistle; notes that she divined
+were intended to keep her from worrying. Intermingled with them came the
+dog's bark of defiance as he digged for an escaping chipmunk, his note
+of pleading when he wanted a root cut with the mattock, his cry of
+discovery when he thought he had found something the Harvester would
+like, or his yelp of warning when he scented danger. The Girl looked
+down the drive to the lake and across at the hedge. Everywhere she saw
+glowing colour, with intermittent blue sky and green leaves, all of it a
+complete picture, from which nothing could be spared. She turned slowly
+and looked toward the marsh, trying to hear the words of the song above
+the ripple of Singing Water, and to see the form of the man. Slowly
+she lifted her handkerchief and pressed it against her lips, as she
+whispered in an awed voice,
+
+"My gracious Heaven, is THAT the kind of a kiss he is expecting me to
+give HIM? Why, I couldn't----not to save my life."
+
+She placed her brushes in water, set the colour box on the paper, and
+went to the kitchen to prepare the noon lunch. As she worked the soft
+colour deepened in her cheeks, a new light glowed in her eyes, and she
+hummed over the tune that floated across the marsh. She was very busy
+when the Harvester came, but he spoke casually of his morning's work,
+ate heartily, and ordered her to take a nap while he washed roots and
+filled the trays, and then they went to the woods together for the
+afternoon.
+
+In the evening they came home to the cabin and finished the day's
+work. As the night was chilly, the Harvester heaped some bark in the
+living-room fireplace, and lay on the rug before it, while the Girl sat
+in an easy chair and watched him as he talked. He was telling her about
+some wonderful combinations he was going to compound for different
+ailments and he laughingly asked her if she wanted to be a millionaire's
+wife and live in a palace.
+
+"Of course I could if I wanted to!" she suggested.
+
+"You could!" cried the Harvester. "All that is necessary is to combine
+a few proper drugs in one great remedy and float it. That is easy! The
+people will do the remainder."
+
+"You talk as if you believe that," marvelled the Girl.
+
+"Want it proven?" challenged the Harvester.
+
+"No!" she cried in swift alarm. "What do we want with more than we have?
+What is there necessary to happiness that is not ours now? Maybe it is
+true that the 'love of money is the root of all evil.' Don't you ever
+get a lot just to find out. You said the night I came here that you
+didn't want more than you had and now I don't. I won't have it! It
+might bring restlessness and discontent. I've seen it make other people
+unhappy and separate them. I don't want money, I want work. You make
+your remedies and offer them to suffering humanity for just a living
+profit, and I'll keep house and draw designs. I am perfectly happy,
+free, and unspeakably content. I never dreamed that it was possible for
+me to be so glad, and so filled with the joy of life. There is only one
+thing on earth I want. If I only could----"
+
+"Could what, Ruth?"
+
+"Could get that kiss right----"
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+"Forget it, I tell you!" he commanded. "Just so long as you worry and
+fret, so long I've got to wait. If you quit thinking about it, all
+'unbeknownst' to yourself you'll awake some morning with it on your
+lips. I can see traces of it growing stronger every day. Very soon now
+it's going to materialize, and then get out of my way, for I'll be a
+whirling, irresponsible lunatic, with the wild joy of it. Oh I've got
+faith in that kiss of yours, Ruth! It's on the way. The fates have
+booked it. There isn't a reason on earth why I should be served so
+scurvy a trick as to miss it, and I never will believe that I shall----"
+
+"David," interrupted the Girl, "go on talking and don't move a muscle,
+just reach over presently and fix the fire or something, and then turn
+naturally and look at the window beside your door."
+
+"Shall miss it," said the Harvester steadily. "That would be too
+unmerciful. What do you see, Ruth?"
+
+"A face. If I am not greatly mistaken, it is my Uncle Henry and he
+appears like a perfect fiend. Oh David, I am afraid!"
+
+"Be quiet and don't look," said the Harvester.
+
+He turned and tossed a piece of bark on the fire. Then he reached for
+the poker, pushed it down and stirred the coals. He arose as he worked.
+
+"Rise slowly and quietly and go to your room. Stay there until I call
+you."
+
+With the Girl out of the way, the Harvester pottered over the fire, and
+when the flame leaped he lifted a stick of wood, hesitated as if it were
+too small, and laying it down, started to bring a larger one. In the
+dining-room he caught a small stick from the wood box, softly stepped
+from the door, and ran around the house. But he awakened Belshazzar on
+the kitchen floor, and the dog barked and ran after him. By the time the
+Harvester reached the corner of his room the man leaped upon a horse and
+went racing down the drive. The Harvester flung the stick of wood, but
+missed the man and hit the horse. The dog sprang past the Harvester and
+vanished. There was the sound and flash of a revolver, and the rattle
+of the bridge as the horse crossed it. The dog came back unharmed. The
+Harvester ran to the telephone, called the Onabasha police, and asked
+them to send a mounted man to meet the intruder before he could reach a
+cross road; but they were too slow and missed him. However, the Girl was
+certain she had recognized her uncle, and was extremely nervous; but the
+Harvester only laughed and told her it was a trip made out of curiosity.
+Her uncle wanted to see if he could learn if she were well and happy,
+and he finally convinced her that this was the case, although he was not
+very sanguine himself.
+
+For the next three days the Harvester worked in the woods and he kept
+the Girl with him every minute. By the end of that time he really had
+persuaded himself that it was merely curiosity. So through the cooling
+fall days they worked together. They were very happy. Before her
+wondering eyes the Harvester hung queer branches, burs, nuts, berries,
+and trailing vines with curious seed pods. There were masses of
+brilliant flowers, most of them strange to the Girl, many to the great
+average of humanity. While she sat bending over them, beside her the
+Harvester delved in the black earth of the woods, or the clay and sand
+of the open hillside, or the muck of the lake shore, and lifted large
+bagfuls of roots that he later drenched on the floating raft on the
+lake, and when they had drained he dried them. Some of them he did not
+wet, but scraped and wiped clean and dry. Often after she was sleeping,
+and long before she awoke in the morning, he was at work carry-ing
+heaped trays from the evaporator to the store-room, and tying the roots,
+leaves, bark, and seeds into packages.
+
+While he gathered trillium roots the Girl made drawings of the plant
+and learned its commercial value. She drew lady's slipper and Solomon's
+seal, and learned their uses and prices; and carefully traced wild
+ginger leaves while nibbling the aromatic root. It was difficult to keep
+from protesting when the work carried them around the lake shore and
+to the pokeberry beds, for the colour of these she loved. It required
+careful explanation as to the value of the roots and seeds as blood
+purifier, and the argument that in a few more days the frost would level
+the bed, to induce her to consent to its harvesting. But when the
+case was properly presented, she put aside her drawing and stained her
+slender fingers gathering the seeds, and loved the work.
+
+The sun was golden on the lake, the birds of the upland were clustering
+over reeds and rushes, for the sake of plentiful seed and convenient
+water. Many of them sang fitfully, the notes of almost all of them were
+melodious, and the day was a long, happy dream. There was but little
+left to gather until ginseng time. For that the Harvester had engaged
+several boys to help him, for the task of digging the roots, washing and
+drying them, burying part of the seeds and preparing the remainder
+for market seemed endless for one man to attempt. After a full day the
+Harvester lay before the fire, and his head was so close the Girl's knee
+that her fingers were in reach of his hair. Every time he mended the
+fire he moved a little, until he could feel the touch of her garments
+against him. Then he began to plan for the winter; how they would store
+food for the long, cold days, how much fuel would be required, when they
+would go to the city for their winter clothing, what they would read,
+and how they would work together at the drawings.
+
+"I am almost too anxious to wait longer to get back to my carving," he
+said. "Whoever would have thought this spring that fall would come
+and find the birds talking of going, the caterpillars spinning winter
+quarters, the animals holing up, me getting ready for the cold, and your
+candlesticks not finished. Winter is when you really need them. Then
+there is solid cheer in numbers of candles and a roaring wood fire. The
+furnace is going to be a good thing to keep the floors and the bathroom
+warm, but an open fire of dry, crackling wood is the only rational
+source of heat in a home. You must watch for the fairy dances on the
+backwall, Ruth, and learn to trace goblin faces in the coals. Sometimes
+there is a panorama of temples and trees, and you will find exquisite
+colour in the smoke. Dry maple makes a lovely lavender, soft and fine as
+a floating veil, and damp elm makes a blue, and hickory red and yellow.
+I almost can tell which wood is burning after the bark is gone, by the
+smoke and flame colour. When the little red fire fairies come out and
+dance on the backwall it is fun to figure what they are celebrating. By
+the way, Ruth, I have been a lamb for days. I hope you have observed!
+But I would sleep a little sounder to-night if you only could give me a
+hint whether that kiss is coming on at all."
+
+He tipped back his head to see her face, and it was glorious in the red
+firelight; the big eyes never appeared so deep and dark. The tilted head
+struck her hand, and her fingers ran through his hair.
+
+"You said to forget it," she reminded him, "and then it would come
+sooner."
+
+"Which same translated means that it is not here yet. Well, I didn't
+expect it, so I am not disappointed; but begorry, I do wish it would
+materialize by Christmas. I think I will work for that. Wouldn't it make
+a day worth while, though? By the way, what do you want for Christmas,
+Ruth?"
+
+"A doll," she answered.
+
+The Harvester laughed. He tipped his head again to see her face and
+suddenly grew quiet, for it was very serious.
+
+"I am quite in earnest," she said. "I think the big dolls in the stores
+are beautiful, and I never owned only a teeny little one. All my life
+I've wanted a big doll as badly as I ever longed for anything that was
+not absolutely necessary to keep me alive. In fact, a doll is essential
+to a happy childhood. The mother instinct is so ingrained in a girl that
+if she doesn't have dolls to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a
+part of her natural rights. It's a pitiful thing to have been the little
+girl in the picture who stands outside the window and gazes with longing
+soul at the doll she is anxious to own and can't ever have. Harvester,
+I was always that little girl. I am quite in earnest. I want a big,
+beautiful doll more than anything else."
+
+As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading the Harvester's
+hair. His head lightly touched her knee, and she shifted her position
+to afford him a comfortable resting place. With a thrill of delight that
+shook him, the man laid his head in her lap and looked into the fire,
+his face glowing as a happy boy's.
+
+"You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy, Ruth," he
+promised. "What else do you want?"
+
+"A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid indigestible things
+that Christmas stories always tell about; and popcorn balls, and candy,
+and everything I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful
+day with you. That's all!"
+
+"Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to Heaven right now before
+anything occurs to spoil this," said the Harvester.
+
+The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge. He whirled to his knees,
+and put his arms around the Girl.
+
+"Ruth," he said huskily. "I'll wager a thousand dollars I know what is
+coming. Hug me tight, quick! and give me the best kiss you can----any
+old kind of a one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got to
+open that door and let in trouble."
+
+The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the imprint of her lips
+warm on his the Harvester crossed the room, and his heart dropped from
+the heights with a thud. He stepped out, closing the door behind him,
+and crossing the veranda, passed down the walk. He recognized the car
+as belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and in it sat two men, one of whom
+spoke.
+
+"Are you David Langston?"
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester.
+
+"Did you send a couple of photographs to a New York detective agency a
+few days ago with inquiries concerning some parties you wanted located?"
+
+"I did," said the Harvester. "But I was not expecting any such immediate
+returns."
+
+"Your questions touched on a case that long has been in the hands of the
+agency, and they telegraphed the parties. The following day the people
+had a letter, giving them the information they required, from another
+source."
+
+"That is where Uncle Henry showed his fine Spencerian hand," commented
+the Harvester. "It always will be a great satisfaction that I got my
+fist in first."
+
+"Is Miss Jameson here?"
+
+"No," said the Harvester. "My wife is at home. Her surname was Ruth
+Jameson, but we have been married since June. Did you wish to speak with
+Mrs. Langston?"
+
+"I came for that purpose. My name is Kennedy. I am the law partner and
+the closest friend of the young lady's grandfather. News of her location
+has prostrated her grandmother so that he could not leave her, and I was
+sent to bring the young woman."
+
+"Oh!" said the Harvester. "Well you will have to interview her about
+that. One word first. She does not know that I sent those pictures and
+made that inquiry. One other word. She is just recovering from a case of
+fever, induced by wrong conditions of life before I met her. She is not
+so strong as she appears. Understand you are not to be abrupt. Go very
+gently! Her feelings and health must be guarded with extreme care."
+
+The Harvester opened the door, and as she saw the stranger, the Girl's
+eyes widened, and she arose and stood waiting.
+
+"Ruth," said the Harvester, "this is a man who has been making quite a
+search for you, and at last he has you located."
+
+The Harvester went to the Girl's side, and put a reinforcing arm around
+her.
+
+"Perhaps he brings you some news that will make life most interesting
+and very lovely for you. Will you shake hands with Mr. Kennedy?"
+
+The Girl suddenly straightened to unusual height.
+
+"I will hear why he has been making 'quite a search for me,' and on
+whose authority he has me 'located,' first," she said.
+
+A diabolical grin crossed the face of the Harvester, and he took heart.
+
+"Then please be seated, Mr. Kennedy," he said, "and we will talk over
+the matter. As I understand, you are a representative of my wife's
+people."
+
+The Girl stared at the Harvester.
+
+"Take your chair, Ruth, and meet this as a matter of course," he
+advised casually. "You always have known that some day it must come.
+You couldn't look in the face of those photographs of your mother in her
+youth and not realize that somewhere hearts were aching and breaking,
+and brains were busy in a search for her."
+
+The Girl stood rigid.
+
+"I want it distinctly understood," she said, "that I have no use on
+earth for my mother's people. They come too late. I absolutely refuse to
+see or to hold any communication with them."
+
+"But young lady, that is very arbitrary!" cried Mr. Kennedy. "You don't
+understand! They are a couple of old people, and they are slowly dying
+of broken hearts!"
+
+"Not so badly broken or they wouldn't die slowly," commented the Girl
+grimly. "The heart that was really broken was my mother's. The torture
+of a starved, overworked body and hopeless brain was hers. There was
+nothing slow about her death, for she went out with only half a life
+spent, and much of that in acute agony, because of their negligence.
+David, you often have said that this is my home. I choose to take you at
+your word. Will you kindly tell this man that he is not welcome in this
+house, and I wish him to leave it at once?"
+
+The Harvester stepped back, and his face grew very white.
+
+"I can't, Ruth," he said gently.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I brought him here."
+
+"You brought him here! You! David, are you crazy? You!"
+
+"It is through me that he came."
+
+The Girl caught the mantel for support.
+
+"Then I stand alone again," she said. "Harvester, I had thought you were
+on my side."
+
+"I am at your feet," said the man in a broken voice. "Ruth dear, will
+you let me explain?"
+
+"There is only one explanation, and with what you have done for me fresh
+in my mind, I can't put it into words."
+
+"Ruth, hear me!"
+
+"I must! You force me! But before you speak understand this: Not now, or
+through all eternity, do I forgive the inexcusable neglect that drove my
+mother to what I witnessed and was helpless to avert."
+
+"My dear! My dear!" said the Harvester, "I had hoped the woods had done
+a more perfect work in your heart. Your mother is lying in state now,
+Girl, safe from further suffering of any kind; and if I read aright, her
+tired face and shrivelled frame were eloquent of forgiveness. Ruth dear,
+if she so loved them that her heart was broken and she died for them,
+think what they are suffering! Have some mercy on them."
+
+"Get this very clear, David," said the Girl. "She died of hunger
+for food. Her heart was not so broken that she couldn't have lived a
+lifetime, and got much comfort out of it, if her body had not lacked
+sustenance. Oh I was so happy a minute ago. David, why did you do this
+thing?"
+
+The Harvester picked up the Girl, placed her in a chair, and knelt
+beside her with his arms around her.
+
+"Because of the PAIN IN THE WORLD, Ruth," he said simply. "Your mother
+is sleeping sweetly in the long sleep that knows neither anger nor
+resentment; and so I was forced to think of a gentle-faced, little
+old mother whose heart is daily one long ache, whose eyes are dim with
+tears, and a proud, broken old man who spends his time trying to comfort
+her, when his life is as desolate as hers."
+
+"How do you know so wonderfully much about their aches and broken
+hearts?"
+
+"Because I have seen their faces when they were happy, Ruth, and so I
+know what suffering would do to them. There were pictures of them and
+letters in the bottom of that old trunk. I searched it the other night
+and found them; and by what life has done to your mother and to you, I
+can judge what it is now bringing them. Never can you be truly happy,
+Ruth, until you have forgiven them, and done what you can to comfort the
+remainder of their lives. I did it because of the pain in the world, my
+girl."
+
+"What about my pain?"
+
+"The only way on earth to cure it is through forgiveness. That, and that
+only, will ease it all away, and leave you happy and free for life and
+love. So long as you let this rancour eat in your heart, Ruth, you are
+not, and never can be, normal. You must forgive them, dear, hear what
+they have to say, and give them the comfort of seeing what they can
+discover of her in you. Then your heart will be at rest at last, your
+soul free, you can take your rightful place in life, and the love
+you crave will awaken in your heart. Ruth, dear you are the acme of
+gentleness and justice. Be just and gentle now! Give them their chance!
+My heart aches, and always will ache for the pain you have known, but
+nursing and brooding over it will not cure it. It is going to take a
+heroic operation to cut it out, and I chose to be the surgeon. You have
+said that I once saved your body from pain Ruth, trust me now to free
+your soul."
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want you to speak kindly to this man, who through my act has come
+here, and allow him to tell you why he came. Then I want you to do the
+kind and womanly thing your duty suggests that you should."
+
+"David, I don t understand you!"
+
+"That is no difference," said the Harvester. "The point is, do you TRUST
+me?"
+
+The Girl hesitated. "Of course I do," she said at last.
+
+"Then hear what your grandfather's friend has come to say for him, and
+forget yourself in doing to others as you would have them----really,
+Ruth, that is all of religion or of life worth while. Go on, Mr.
+Kennedy."
+
+The Harvester drew up a chair, seated himself beside the Girl, and
+taking one of her hands, he held it closely and waited.
+
+"I was sent here by my law partner and my closest friend, Mr. Alexander
+Herron, of Philadelphia," said the stranger. "Both he and Mrs. Herron
+were bitterly opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew life
+and human nature, and there never is but one end to men such as she
+married."
+
+"You may omit that," said the Girl coldly. "Simply state why you are
+here."
+
+"In response to an inquiry from your husband concerning the originals
+of some photographs he sent to a detective agency in New York. They have
+had the case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue, they
+telegraphed Mr. Herron. The prospect of news after years of fruitless
+searching so prostrated Mrs. Herron that he dared not leave her, and he
+sent me."
+
+"Kindly tell me this," said the Girl. "Where were my mother's father and
+mother for the four years immediately following her marriage?"
+
+"They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of meeting their friends.
+There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron developed a fever, and it was several years
+before she could be brought home. She retired from society, and has been
+confined to her room ever since. When they could return, a search was
+instituted at once for their daughter, but they never have been able to
+find a trace. They have hunted through every eastern city they thought
+might contain her."
+
+"And overlooked a little insignificant place like Chicago, of course."
+
+"I myself conducted a personal search there, and visited the home of
+every Jameson in the directory or who had mail at the office or of whom
+I could get a clue of any sort."
+
+"I don't suppose two women in a little garret room would be in the
+directory, and there never was any mail."
+
+"Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?"
+
+"She did," said the Girl. "She admitted that she had been wrong, asked
+their forgiveness, and begged to go home. That was in the second year of
+her marriage, and she was in Cleveland. Afterward she went to Chicago,
+from there she wrote again."
+
+"Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the mother's life,
+two years after that. It is very easy to become lost in a large city.
+Criminals do it every day and are never found, even with the best
+detectives on their trail. I am very sorry about this. My friends will
+be broken-hearted. At any time they would have been more than delighted
+to have had their daughter return. A letter on the day following the
+message from the agency brought news that she was dead, and now their
+only hope for any small happiness at the close of years of suffering
+lies with you. I was sent to plead with you to return with me at once
+and make them a visit. Of course, their home is yours. You are their
+only heir, and they would be very happy if you were free, and would
+remain permanently with them."
+
+"How do they know I will not be like the father they so detested?"
+
+"They had sufficient cause to dislike him. They have every reason to
+love and welcome you. They are consumed with anxiety. Will you come?"
+
+"No. This is for me to decide. I do not care for them or their property.
+Always they have failed me when my distress was unspeakable. Now there
+is only one thing I ask of life, more than my husband has given me, and
+if that lay in his power I would have it. You may go back and tell them
+that I am perfectly happy. I have everything I need. They can give me
+nothing I want, not even their love. Perhaps, sometime, I will go to see
+them for a few days, if David will go with me."
+
+"Young woman, do you realize that you are issuing a death sentence?"
+asked the lawyer gently.
+
+"It is a just one."
+
+"I do not believe your husband agrees with you. I know I do not. Mrs.
+Herron is a tiny old lady, with a feeble spark of vitality left; and
+with all her strength she is clinging to life, and pleading with it to
+give her word of her only child before she goes out unsatisfied. She
+knows that her daughter is gone, and now her hopes are fastened on you.
+If for only a few days, you certainly must go with me."
+
+"I will not!"
+
+The lawyer turned to the Harvester.
+
+"She will be ready to start with you to-morrow morning, on the first
+train north," said the Harvester. "We will meet you at the station at
+eight."
+
+"I----I am afraid I forgot to tell my driver to wait."
+
+"You mean your instructions were not to let the Girl out of your sight,"
+said the Harvester. "Very well! We have comfortable rooms. I will show
+you to one. Please come this way."
+
+The Harvester led the guest to the lake room and arranged for the night.
+Then he went to the telephone and sent a message to an address he had
+been furnished, asking for an immediate reply. It went to Philadelphia
+and contained a description of the lawyer, and asked if he had been
+sent by Mr. Herron to escort his grand-daughter to his home. When the
+Harvester returned to the living-room the Girl, white and defiant,
+waited before the fire. He knelt beside her and put his arms around her,
+but she repulsed him; so he sat on the rug and looked at her.
+
+"No wonder you felt sure you knew what that was!" she cried bitterly.
+
+"Ruth, if you will allow me to lift the bottom of that old trunk, and if
+you will read any one of the half dozen letters I read, you will forgive
+me, and begin making preparations to go."
+
+"It's a wonder you don't hold them before me and force me to read them,"
+she said.
+
+"Don't say anything you will be sorry for after you are gone, dear."
+
+"I'm not going!"
+
+"Oh yes you are!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it is right that you should, and right is inexorable. Also,
+because I very much wish you to; you will do it for me."
+
+"Why do you want me to go?"
+
+"I have three strong reasons: First, as I told you, it is the only thing
+that will cleanse your heart of bitterness and leave it free for the
+tenanting of a great and holy love. Next, I think they honestly made
+every effort to find your mother, and are now growing old in despair you
+can lighten, and you owe it to them and yourself to do it. Lastly, for
+my sake. I've tried everything I know, Ruth, and I can't make you love
+me, or bring you to a realizing sense of it if you do. So before I saw
+that chest I had planned to harvest my big crop, and try with all my
+heart while I did it, and if love hadn't come then, I meant to get
+some one to stay with you, and I was going away to give you a free
+perspective for a time. I meant to plead that I needed a few weeks with
+a famous chemist I know to prepare me better for my work. My real motive
+was to leave you, and let you see if absence could do anything for me in
+your heart. You've been very nearly the creature of my hands for months,
+my girl; whatever any one else may do, you're bound to miss me mightily,
+and I figured that with me away, perhaps you could solve the problem
+alone I seem to fail in helping you with. This is only a slight change
+of plans. You are going in my stead. I will harvest the ginseng and
+cure it, and then, if you are not at home, and the loneliness grows
+unbearable, I will take the chemistry course, until you decide when you
+will come, if ever."
+
+"'If ever?'"
+
+"Yes," said the Harvester. "I am growing accustomed to facing big
+propositions----I will not dodge this. The faces of the three of your
+people I have seen prove refinement. Their clothing indicates wealth.
+These long, lonely years mean that they will shower you with every
+outpouring of loving, hungry hearts. They will keep you if they can, my
+dear. I do not blame them. The life I propose for you is one of work,
+mostly for others, and the reward, in great part, consists of the joy in
+the soul of the creator of things that help in the world. I realize that
+you will find wealth, luxury, and lavish love. I know that I may lose
+you forever, and if it is right and best for you, I hope I will. I know
+exactly what I am risking, but I yet say, go."
+
+"I don't see how you can, and love me as you prove you do."
+
+"That is a little streak of the inevitableness of nature that the forest
+has ground into my soul. I'd rather cut off my right hand than take
+yours with it, in the parting that will come in the morning; but you are
+going, and I am sending you. So long as I am shaped like a human being,
+it is in me to dignify the possession of a vertical spine by acting as
+nearly like a man as I know how. I insist that you are my wife, because
+it crucifies me to think otherwise. I tell you to-night, Ruth, you are
+not and never have been. You are free as air. You married me without any
+love for me in your heart, and you pretended none. It was all my doing.
+If I find that I was wrong, I will free you without a thought of results
+to me. I am a secondary proposition. I thought then that you were alone
+and helpless, and before the Almighty, I did the best I could. But I
+know now that you are entitled to the love of relatives, wealth, and
+high social position, no doubt. If I allowed the passion in my heart
+to triumph over the reason of my brain, and worked on your feelings and
+tied you to the woods, without knowing but that you might greatly prefer
+that other life you do not know, but to which you are entitled, I would
+go out and sink myself in Loon Lake."
+
+"David, I love you. I do not want to go. Please, please let me remain
+with you."
+
+"Not if you could say that realizing what it means, and give me the kiss
+right now I would stake my soul to win! Not by any bribe you can think
+of or any allurement you can offer. It is right that you go to those
+suffering old people. It is right you know what you are refusing for me,
+before you renounce it. It is right you take the position to which you
+are entitled, until you understand thoroughly whether this suits you
+better. When you know that life as well as this, the people you will
+meet as intimately as me, then you can decide for all time, and I can
+look you in the face with honest, unwavering eye; and if by any chance
+your heart is in the woods, and you prefer me and the cabin to what they
+have to offer----to all eternity your place here is vacant, Ruth. My
+love is waiting for you; and if you come under those conditions, I never
+can have any regret. A clear conscience is worth restraining passion a
+few months to gain, and besides, I always have got the fact to face that
+when you say 'I love,' and when I say 'I love,' it means two entirely
+different things. When you realize that the love of man for woman, and
+woman for man, is a thing that floods the heart, brain, soul, and body
+with a wonderful and all-pervading ecstasy, and if I happen to be the
+man who makes you realize it, then come tell me, and we will show
+God and His holy angels what earth means by the Heaven inspired word,
+'radiance.'"
+
+"David, there never will be any other man like you."
+
+"The exigencies of life must develop many a finer and better."
+
+"You still refuse me? You yet believe I do not love you?"
+
+"Not with the love I ask, my girl. But if I did not believe it was
+germinating in your heart, and that it would come pouring over me in a
+torrent some glad day, I doubt if I could allow you to go, Ruth! I am
+like any other man in selfishness and in the passions of the body."
+
+"Selfishness! You haven't an idea what it means," said the Girl. "And
+what you call love----there I haven't. But I know how to appreciate you,
+and you may be positively sure that it will be only a few days until I
+will come back to you."
+
+"But I don't want you until you can bring the love I crave. I am sending
+you to remain until that time, Ruth."
+
+"But it may be months, Man!"
+
+"Then stay months."
+
+"But it may be----"
+
+"It may be never! Then remain forever. That will be proof positive that
+your happiness does not lie in my hands."
+
+"Why should I not consider you as you do me?"
+
+"Because I love you, and you do not love me."
+
+"You are cruel to yourself and to me. You talk about the pain in the
+world. What about the pain in my heart right now? And if I know you in
+the least, one degree more would make you cry aloud for mercy. Oh David,
+are we of no consideration at all?"
+
+The muscles of the Harvester's face twisted an instant.
+
+"This is where we lop off the small branches to grow perfect fruit
+later. This is where we do evil that good may result. This is where
+we suffer to-night in order we may appreciate fully the joy of love's
+dawning. If I am causing you pain, forgive me, dear heart. I would give
+my life to prevent it, but I am powerless. It is right! We cannot avoid
+doing it, if we ever would be happy."
+
+He picked up the Girl, and held her crushed in his arms a long time.
+Then he set her inside her door and said, "Lay out what you want to take
+and I will help you pack, so that you can get some sleep. We must be
+ready early in the morning."
+
+When the clothing to be worn was selected, the new trunk packed, and all
+arrangements made, the Girl sat in his arms before the fire as he had
+held her when she was ill, and then he sent her to bed and went to
+the lake shore to fight it out alone. Only God and the stars and the
+faithful Belshazzar saw the agony of a strong man in his extremity.
+
+Near dawn he heard the tinkle of the bell and went to receive his
+message and order a car for morning. Then he returned to the merciful
+darkness of night, and paced the driveway until light came peeping over
+the tree tops. He prepared breakfast and an hour later put the Girl on
+the train, and stood watching it until the last rift of smoke curled
+above the spires of the city.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE MAN IN THE BACKGROUND
+
+Then the Harvester returned to Medicine Woods to fight his battle alone.
+At first the pain seemed unendurable, but work always had been his
+panacea, it was his salvation now. He went through the cabin, folding
+bedding and storing it in closets, rolling rugs sprinkled with powdered
+alum, packing cushions, and taking window seats from the light.
+
+"Our sleeping room and the kitchen will serve for us, Bel," he said. "We
+will put all these other things away carefully, so they will be as good
+as new when the Girl comes home."
+
+The evening of the second day he was called to the telephone.
+
+"There is a telegram for you," said a voice. "A message from
+Philadelphia. It reads: 'Arrived safely. Thank you for making me come.
+Dear old people. Will write soon. With love, Ruth.'
+
+"Have you got it?"
+
+"No," lied the Harvester, grinning rapturously. "Repeat it again slowly,
+and give me time after each sentence to write it. Now! Go on!"
+
+He carried the message to the back steps and sat reading it again and
+again.
+
+"I supposed I'd have to wait at least four days," he said to Ajax as the
+bird circled before him. "This is from the Girl, old man, and she is
+not forgetting us to begin with, anyway. She is there all safe, she sees
+that they need her, they are lovable old people, she is going to write
+us all about it soon, and she loves us all she knows how to love any
+one. That should be enough to keep us sane and sensible until her letter
+comes. There is no use to borrow trouble, so we will say everything in
+the world is right with us, and be as happy as we can on that until we
+find something we cannot avoid worrying over. In the meantime, we will
+have faith to believe that we have suffered our share, and the end will
+be happy for all of us. I am mighty glad the Girl has a home, and the
+right kind of people to care for her. Now, when she comes back to me, I
+needn't feel that she was forced, whether she wanted to or not, because
+she had nowhere to go. This will let me out with a clean conscience, and
+that is the only thing on earth that allows a man to live in peace with
+himself. Now I'll go finish everything else, and then I'll begin the
+ginseng harvest."
+
+So the Harvester hitched Betsy and with Belshazzar at his feet he drove
+through the woods to the sarsaparilla beds. He noticed the beautiful
+lobed leaves, at which the rabbits had been nibbling, and the heads of
+lustrous purple-black berries as he began digging the roots that he sold
+for stimulants.
+
+"I might have needed a dose of you now myself," the Harvester addressed
+a heap of uprooted plants, "if the electric wires hadn't brought me a
+better. Great invention that! Never before realized it fully! I thought
+to-day would be black as night, but that message changes the complexion
+of affairs mightily. So I'll dig you for people who really are in need
+of something to brace them up."
+
+After the sarsaparilla was on the trays, he attacked the beds of Indian
+hemp, with its long graceful pods, and took his usual supply. Then he
+worked diligently on the warm hillside over the dandelion. When these
+were finished he brought half a dozen young men from the city and
+drilled them on handling ginseng. He was warm, dirty, and tired when he
+came from the beds the evening of the fourth day. He finished his work
+at the barn, prepared and ate his supper, slipped into clean clothing,
+and walked to the country road where it crossed the lane. There he
+opened his mail box. The letter he expected with the Philadelphia
+postmark was inside. He carried it to the bridge, and sitting in her
+favourite place, with the lake breeze threading his hair, opened his
+first letter from the Girl.
+
+"My dear Friend, Lover, Husband," it began.
+
+The Harvester turned the sheets face down across his knee, laid his hand
+on them, and stared meditatively at the lake. "'Friend,'" he commented.
+"Well, that's all right! I am her friend, as well as I know how to be.
+'Lover.' I come in there, full force. I did my level best on that score,
+though I can't boast myself a howling success; a man can't do more
+than he knows, and if I had been familiar with all the wiles of expert,
+professional love-makers, they wouldn't have availed me in the Girl's
+condition. I had a mighty peculiar case to handle in her, and not a
+particle of training. But if she says 'Lover,' I must have made some
+kind of a showing on the job. 'Husband.'" A slow flush crept up the
+brawny neck and tinged the bronzed face. "That's a good word," said
+the Harvester, "and it must mean a wonderful thing----to some men. 'Who
+bides his time.' Well, I'm 'biding,' and if my time ever comes to be my
+Dream Girl's husband, I'll wager all I'm worth on one thing. I'll study
+the job from every point of the compass, and I'll see what showing I can
+make on being the kind of a husband that a woman clings to and loves at
+eighty."
+
+Taking a deep breath the Harvester lifted the letter, and laying one
+hand on Belshazzar's head, he proceeded----"I might as well admit in the
+beginning that I cried most of the way here. Some of it was because I
+was nervous and dreaded the people I would meet, and more on account of
+what I felt toward them, but most of it was because I did not want to
+leave you. I have been spoiled dreadfully! You have taught me so to
+depend on you----and for once I feel that I really can claim to have
+been an apt pupil----that it was like having the heart torn out of me to
+come. I want you to know this, because it will teach you that I have
+a little bit of appreciation of how good you are to me, and to all the
+world as well. I am glad that I almost cried myself sick over leaving
+you. I wish now I just had stood up in the car, and roared like a burned
+baby.
+
+"But all the tears I shed in fear of grandfather and grandmother were
+wasted. They are a couple of dear old people, and it would have been a
+crime to allow them to suffer more than they must of necessity. It all
+seems so different when they talk; and when I see the home, luxuries,
+and friends my mother had, it appears utterly incomprehensible that she
+dared leave them for a stranger. Probably the reason she did was because
+she was grandfather's daughter. He is gentle and tender some of the
+time, but when anything irritates him, and something does every few
+minutes, he breaks loose, and such another explosion you never heard. It
+does not mean a thing, and it seems to lower his tension enough to keep
+him from bursting with palpitation of the heart or something, but it is
+a strain for others. At first it frightened me dreadfully. Grandmother
+is so tiny and frail, so white in her big bed, and when he is the very
+worst, and she only smiles at him, why I know he does not mean it at
+all. But, David, I hope you never will get an idea that this would be
+a pleasant way for you to act, because it would not, and I never would
+have the courage to offer you the love I have come to find if you
+slammed a cane and yelled, 'demnation,' at me. Grandmother says she does
+not mind at all, but I wonder if she did not acquire the habit of lying
+in bed because it is easier to endure in a prostrate position.
+
+"The house is so big I get lost, and I do not know yet which are
+servants and which friends; and there is a steady stream of seamstresses
+and milliners making things for me. Grandmother and father both think I
+will be quite passable in appearance when I am what they call 'modishly
+dressed.' I think grandmother will forget herself some day and leave her
+bed before she knows it, in her eagerness to see how something appears.
+I could not begin to tell you about all the lovely things to wear, for
+every occasion under the sun, and they say these are only temporary,
+until some can be made especially for me.
+
+"They divide the time in sections, and there is an hour to drive, I am
+to have a horse and ride later, and a time to shop, so long to visit
+grandmother, and set hours to sleep, dress, to be fitted, taken to see
+things, music lessons, and a dancing teacher. I think a longer day will
+have to be provided.
+
+"I do not care anything about dancing. I know what would make me dance
+nicely enough for anything, but I am going to try the music, and see if
+I can learn just a few little songs and some old melodies for evening,
+when the work is done, the fire burns low, and you are resting on the
+rug. There is enough room for a piano between your door and the south
+wall and that corner seems vacant anyway. You would like it, David, I
+know, if I could play and sing just enough to put you to sleep nicely.
+It is in the back of my head that I will try to do every single thing,
+just as they want me to, and that will make them happy, but never forget
+that the instant I feel in my soul that your kiss is right on my lips,
+I am coming to you by lightning express; and I told them so the first
+thing, and that I only came because you made me.
+
+"They did not raise an objection, but I am not so dull that I cannot see
+they are trying to bind me to them from the very first with chains too
+strong to break. We had just one little clash. Grandfather was mightily
+pleased over what you told Mr. Kennedy about my never having been your
+wife, and that I was really free. There seems to be a man, the son
+of his partner, whom grandfather dearly loves, and he wants me to
+be friends with his friend. One can see at once what he is planning,
+because he said he was going to introduce me as Miss Jameson. I told
+him that would be creating a false impression, because I was a married
+woman; but he only laughed at me and went straight to doing it.
+
+"Of course, I know why, but he is so terribly set I cannot stop him, so
+I shall have to tell people myself that I am a staid, old married lady.
+After all, I suppose I might as well let him go, if it pleases him. I
+shall know how to protect myself and any one else, from any mistakes
+concerning me; and in my heart I know what I know, and what I cannot
+make you believe, but I will some day.
+
+"I suspect you're harvesting the ginseng now. The roar and rush of the
+city seem strange, as if I never had heard it before, and I feel so
+crowded. I scarcely can sleep at night for the clamour of the cars,
+cabs, and throbbing life. Grandfather will not hear a word, and he just
+sputters and says 'demnation' when I try to tell him about you; but
+grandmother will listen, and I talk to her of you and Medicine Woods by
+the hour. She says she thinks you must be a wonderfully nice person. I
+haven't dared tell her yet the thing that will win her. She is so little
+and frail, and she has heart trouble so badly; but some day I shall
+tell her all about Chicago that I can, and then of Uncle Henry, and then
+about you and the oak, and that will make her love you as I do. There
+are so many things to do; they have sent for me three times. I shall
+tell them they must put you on the schedule, and give me so much time to
+write or I will upset the whole programme.
+
+"I think you will like to know that Mr. Kennedy told grandfather all you
+said to him about my illness, for almost as soon as I came he brought
+a very wonderful man to my room, and he asked many questions and I
+told him all about it, and what I had been doing. He made out a list of
+things to eat and exercises. I am being taken care of just as you did,
+so I will go on growing well and strong. The trouble is they are too
+good to me. I would just love to shuffle my feet in dead leaves, and lie
+on the grass this morning. I never got my swim in the lake. I will have
+to save that until next summer. He also told grandfather what you said
+about Uncle Henry, and I think he was pleased that you tried to find him
+as soon as you knew. He let me see the letter Uncle Henry wrote, and it
+was a vile thing----just such as he would write. It asked how much he
+would be willing to pay for information concerning his heir. I told
+grandfather all about it, and I saw the answer he wrote. I told him some
+things to say, and one of them was that the honesty of a man without
+a price prevented the necessity of anything being paid to find me. The
+other was that you located my people yourself, and at once sent me to
+them against my wishes. I was determined he should know that. So Uncle
+Henry missed his revenge on you. He evidently thought he not only would
+hurt you by breaking up your home and separating us, but also he would
+get a reward for his work. He wrote some untrue things about you, and I
+wish he hadn't, for grandfather can think of enough himself. But I will
+soon change that. Please, please take good care of all my things, my
+flowers and vines, and most of all tell Belshazzar to protect you with
+his life. And you be very good to my dear, dear lover. I will write
+again soon, Ruth."
+
+When the Harvester had studied the letter until he could repeat
+it backward, he went to the cabin and answered it. Then he sent
+subscriptions for two of Philadelphia's big dailies, and harvested
+ginseng from dawn until black darkness. Never was such a crop grown in
+America. The beds had been made in the original home of the plant, so
+that it throve under perfectly natural conditions in the forest, but
+here and there branches had been thinned above, and nature helped by
+science below. This resulted in thick, pulpy roots of astonishing size
+and weight. As the Harvester lifted them he bent the tops and buried
+part of the seed for another crop. For weeks he worked over the bed.
+Then the last load went down the hill to the dry-house and the helpers
+were paid. Next the fall work was finished. Fuel and food were stored
+for winter, while the cold crept from the lake, swept down the hill and
+surrounded the cabin.
+
+The Harvester finished long days in the dry-house and store-room, and
+after supper he sat by the fire reading over the Girl's letters, carving
+on her candlesticks, or in the work room, bending above the boards he
+was shaving and polishing for a gift he had planned for her Christmas.
+The Careys had him in their home for Thanksgiving. He told them all
+about sending the Girl away himself, read them some of her letters, and
+they talked with perfect confidence of how soon she would come home.
+The Harvester tried to think confidently, but as the days went by the
+letters became fewer, always with the excuse that there was no time to
+write, but with loving assurance that she was thinking of him and would
+do better soon.
+
+However they came often enough that he had something new to tell his
+friends so that they did not suspect that waiting was a trial to him. A
+few days after Thanksgiving the gift that he had planned was finished.
+It was a big, burl-maple box, designed after the hope chests that he saw
+advertised in magazines. The wood was rare, cut in heavy slabs, polished
+inside and out, dove-tailed corners with ornate brass bindings, hinges
+and lock, and hand-carved feet. On the inside of the lid cut on a brass
+plate was the inscription, "Ruth Langston, Christmas of Nineteen Hundred
+and Ten. David."
+
+Then he began packing the chest. He put in the finished candlesticks
+and a box of candleberry dips he had made of delightfully spiced wax,
+coloured pale green. He ordered the doll weeks before from the largest
+store in Onabasha, and the dealer brought on several that he might make
+a selection. He chose a large baby doll almost life size, and sent it
+to the dress-making department to be completely and exquisitely clothed.
+Long before the day he was picking kernels to glaze from nuts, drying
+corn to pop, and planning candies to be made of maple sugar. When he
+figured it was time to start the box, he worked carefully, filling
+spaces with chestnut and hazel burs, and finishing the tops of
+boxes with gaudy red and yellow leaves he had kept in their original
+brightness by packing them in sand. He put in scarlet berries of
+mountain ash and long twining sprays of yellow and red bitter-sweet
+berries, for her room. Then he carefully covered the chest with cloth,
+packed it in an outside box, and sent it to the Girl by express. As he
+came from the train shed, where he had helped with loading, he met Henry
+Jameson. Instantly the long arm of the Harvester shot out, and in a grip
+that could not be broken he caught the man by the back of the neck and
+proceeded to dangle him. As he did so he roared with laughter.
+
+"Dear Uncle Henry!" he cried. "How did you feel when you got your letter
+from Philadelphia? Wasn't it a crime that an honest man, which same
+refers to me, beat you? Didn't you gnash your teeth when you learned
+that instead of separating me from my wife I had found her people and
+sent her to them myself? Didn't it rend your soul to miss your little
+revenge and fail to get the good, fat reward you confidently expected?
+Ho! Ho! Thus are lofty souls downcast. I pity you, Henry Jameson, but
+not so much that I won't break your back if you meddle in my affairs
+again, and I am taking this opportunity to tell you so. Here you go out
+of my life, for if you appear in it once more I will finish you like a
+copperhead. Understand?"
+
+With a last shake the Harvester dropped him, and went into the express
+office, where several men had watched the proceedings.
+
+"Been dipping in your affairs, has he?" asked the expressman.
+
+"Trying it," laughed the Harvester.
+
+"Well he is just moving to Idaho, and you probably won't be bothered
+with him any more."
+
+"Good news!" said the Harvester. He felt much relieved as he went back
+to Betsy and drove to Medicine Woods.
+
+The Careys had invited him, but he chose to spend Christmas alone. He
+had finished breakfast when the telephone bell rang, and the expressman
+told him there was a package for him from Philadelphia. The Harvester
+mounted Betsy and rode to the city at once. The package was so very
+small he slipped it into his pocket, and went to the doctor's to say
+Merry Christmas! To Mrs. Carey he gave a pretty lavender silk dress, and
+to the doctor a new watch chain. Then he went to the hospital, where
+he left with Molly a set of china dishes from the Girl, and a fur-lined
+great coat, his gift to Doctor Harmon. He rode home and stabled Betsy,
+giving her an extra quart of oats, and going into the house he sat by
+the kitchen fire and opened the package.
+
+In a nest of cotton lay a tissue-wrapped velvet box, and inside that, in
+a leather pocket case, an ivory miniature of the Girl by an artist who
+knew how to reproduce life. It was an exquisite picture, and a face
+of wonderful beauty. He looked at it for a long time, and then called
+Belshazzar and carried it out to show Ajax. Then he put it into his
+breast pocket squarely over his heart, but he wore the case shiny the
+first day taking it out. Before noon he went to the mail box and found
+a long letter from the Girl, full of life, health, happiness, and with
+steady assurances of love for him, but there was no mention made of
+coming home.
+
+She seemed engrossed in the music lessons, riding, dancing, pretty
+clothing, splendid balls, receptions, and parties of all kinds. The
+Harvester answered it with his heart full of love for her, and then
+waited. It was a long week before the reply came, and then it was short
+on account of so many things that must be done, but she insisted that
+she was well, happy, and having a fine time. After that the letters
+became less frequent and shorter. At times there would be stretches of
+almost two weeks with not a line, and then only short notes to explain
+that she was too busy to write.
+
+Through the dreary, cold days of January and February the Harvester
+invented work in the store-room, in the workshop, at the candlesticks,
+sat long over great books, and spent hours in the little laboratory
+preparing and compounding drugs. In the evenings he carved and read.
+First of all he scanned the society columns of the papers he was taking,
+and almost every day he found the name of Miss Ruth Jameson, often
+a paragraph describing her dress and her beauty of face and charm of
+manner; and constantly the name of Mr. Herbert Kennedy appeared as her
+escort. At first the Harvester ignored this, and said to himself that
+he was glad she could have enjoyable times and congenial friends, and
+he was. But as the letters became fewer, paper paragraphs more frequent,
+and approaching spring worked its old insanity in the blood, gradually
+an ache crept into his heart again, and there were days when he could
+not work it out.
+
+Every letter she wrote he answered just as warmly as he felt that he
+dared, but when they were so long coming and his heart was overflowing,
+he picked up a pen one night and wrote what he felt. He told her all
+about the ice-bound lake, the lonely crows in the big woods, the sap
+suckers' cry, and the gay cardinals' whistle. He told her about the
+cocoons dangling on bushes or rocking on twigs that he was cutting for
+her. He warned her that spring was coming, and soon she would begin to
+miss wonders for her pencil. Then he told her about the silent cabin,
+the empty rooms, and a lonely man. He begged her not to forget the kiss
+she had gone to find for him. He poured out his heart unrestrainedly,
+and then folded the letter, sealed and addressed it to her, in care of
+the fire fairies, and pitched it into the ashes of the living-room fire
+place. But expression made him feel better.
+
+There was another longer wait for the next letter, but he had written
+her so many in the meantime that a little heap of them had accumulated
+as he passed through the living-room on his way to bed. He had supposed
+she would be gone until after Christmas when she left, but he never had
+thought of harvesting sassafras and opening the sugar camp alone. In
+those days his face appeared weary, and white hairs came again on his
+temples. Carey met him on the street and told him that he was going to
+the National Convention of Surgeons at New York in March, and wanted him
+to go along and present his new medicine for consideration.
+
+"All right," said the Harvester instantly, "I will go."
+
+He went and interviewed Mrs. Carey, and then visited the doctor's
+tailor, and a shoe store, and bought everything required to put him in
+condition for travelling in good style, and for the banquet he would
+be asked to attend. Then he got Mrs. Carey to coach him on spoons and
+forks, and declared he was ready. When the doctor saw that the Harvester
+really would go, he sat down and wrote the president of the association,
+telling him in brief outline of Medicine Woods and the man who had
+achieved a wonderful work there, and of the compounding of the new
+remedy.
+
+As he expected, return mail brought an invitation for the Harvester to
+address the association and describe his work and methods and present
+his medicine. The doctor went out in the car over sloppy roads with that
+letter, and located the Harvester in the sugar camp. He explained the
+situation and to his surprise found his man intensely interested. He
+asked many questions as to the length of time, and amount of detail
+required in a proper paper, and the doctor told him.
+
+"But if you want to make a clean sweep, David," he said, "write your
+paper simply, and practise until it comes easy before you speak."
+
+That night the Harvester left work long enough to get a notebook, and by
+the light of the camp fire, and in company with the owls and coons, he
+wrote his outline. One division described his geographical location,
+another traced his ancestry and education in wood lore. One was a
+tribute to the mother who moulded his character and ground into him
+stability for his work. The remainder described his methods in growing
+drugs, drying and packing them, and the end was a presentation for their
+examination of the remedy that had given life where a great surgeon had
+conceded death. Then he began amplification.
+
+When the sugar making was over the Harvester commenced his regular
+spring work, but his mind was so busy over his paper that he did not
+have much time to realize just how badly his heart was beginning to
+ache. Neither did he consign so many letters to the fire fairies, for
+now he was writing of the best way to dry hydrastis and preserve ginseng
+seed. The day before time to start he drove to Onabasha to try on his
+clothing and have Mrs. Carey see if he had been right in his selections.
+
+While he was gone, Granny Moreland, wearing a clean calico dress and
+carrying a juicy apple pie, came to the stretch of flooded marsh land,
+and finding the path under water, followed the road and crossing a
+field reached the levee and came to the bridge of Singing Water where it
+entered the lake. She rested a few minutes there, and then went to the
+cabin shining between bare branches. She opened the front door, entered,
+and stood staring around her.
+
+"Why things is all tore up here," she said. "Now ain't that sensible
+of David to put everything away and save it nice and careful until his
+woman gets back. Seems as if she's good and plenty long coming; seems
+as if her folks needs her mighty bad, or she's having a better time than
+the boy is or something."
+
+She set the pie on the table, went through the cabin and up the hill
+a little distance, calling the Harvester. When she passed the barn
+she missed Betsy and the wagon, and then she knew he was in town. She
+returned to the living-room and sat looking at the pie as she rested.
+
+"I'd best put you on the kitchen table," she mused. "Likely he will see
+you there first and eat you while you are fresh. I'd hate mortal bad for
+him to overlook you, and let you get stale, after all the care I've took
+with your crust, and all the sugar, cinnamon, and butter that's under
+your lid. You're a mighty nice pie, and you ort to be et hot. Now why
+under the sun is all them clean letters pitched in the fireplace?"
+
+Granny knelt and selecting one, she blew off the ashes, wiped it with
+her apron and read: "To Ruth, in care of the fire fairies."
+
+"What the Sam Hill is the idiot writin' his woman like that for?" cried
+Granny, bristling instantly. "And why is he puttin' pages and pages of
+good reading like this must have in it in care of the fire fairies? Too
+much alone, I guess! He's going wrong in his head. Nobody at themselves
+would do sech a fool trick as this. I believe I had better do something.
+Of course I had! These is writ to Ruth; she ort to have them. Wish't I
+knowed how she gets her mail, I'd send her some. Mebby three! I'd send a
+fat and a lean, and a middlin' so's that she'd have a sample of all the
+kinds they is. It's no way to write letters and pitch them in the ashes.
+It means the poor boy is honin' to say things he dassent and so he's
+writin' them out and never sendin' them at all. What's the little huzzy
+gone so long for, anyway? I'll fix her!"
+
+Granny selected three letters, blew away the ashes, and tucked the
+envelopes inside her dress.
+
+"If I only knowed how to get at her," she muttered. She stared at the
+pie. "I guess you got to go back," she said, "and be et by me. Like as
+not I'll stall myself, for I got one a-ready. But if David has got these
+fool things counted and misses any, and then finds that pie here, he'll
+s'picion me. Yes, I got to take you back, and hurry my stumps at that."
+
+Granny arose with the pie, cast a lingering and covetous glance at the
+fireplace, stooped and took another letter, and then started down the
+drive. Just as she reached the bridge she looked ahead and saw the
+Harvester coming up the levee. Instantly she shot the pie over the
+railing and with a groan watched it strike the water and disappear.
+
+"Lord of love!" she gasped, sinking to the seat, "that was one of
+grandmother's willer plates that I promised Ruth. 'Tain't likely I'll
+ever see hide ner hair of it again. But they wa'ant no place to put it,
+and I dassent let him know I'd been up to the cabin. Mebby I can fetch
+a boy some day and hire him to dive for it. How long can a plate be in
+water and not get spiled anyway? Now what'll I do? My head's all in a
+whirl! I'll bet my bosom is a sticking out with his letters 'til he'll
+notice and take them from me."
+
+She gripped her hands across her chest and sat staring at the Harvester
+as he stopped on the bridge, and seeing her attitude and distressed
+face, he sprang from the wagon.
+
+"Why Granny, are you sick?" he cried anxiously.
+
+"Yes!" gasped Granny Moreland. "Yes, David, I am! I'm a miserable woman.
+I never was in sech a shape in all my days."
+
+"Let me help you to the cabin, and I'll see what I can do for you,"
+offered the Harvester.
+
+"No. This is jest out of your reach," said the old lady. "I want----I
+want to see Doctor Carey bad."
+
+"Are you strong enough to ride in or shall I bring him?"
+
+"I can go! I can go as well as not, David, if you'll take me."
+
+"Let me run Betsy to the barn and get the Girl's phaeton. The wagon is
+too rough for you. Are the pains in your chest dreadful?"
+
+"I don't know how to describe them," said Granny with perfect truth.
+
+The Harvester leaped into the wagon and caught up the lines. As he
+disappeared around the curve of the driveway Granny snatched the letters
+from her dress front and thrust them deep into one of her stockings.
+
+"Now, drat you!" she cried. "Stick out all you please. Nobody will see
+you there."
+
+In a few minutes the Harvester helped her into the carriage and drove
+rapidly toward the city.
+
+"You needn't strain your critter," said Granny. "It's not so bad as
+that, David."
+
+"Is your chest any better?"
+
+"A sight better," said Granny. "Shakin' up a little 'pears to do me
+good."
+
+"You never should have tried to walk. Suppose I hadn't been here. And
+you came the long way, too! I'll have a telephone run to your house so
+you can call me after this."
+
+Granny sat very straight suddenly.
+
+"My! wouldn't that get away with some of my foxy neighbours," she said.
+"Me to have a 'phone like they do, an' be conversin' at all hours of the
+day with my son's folks and everybody. I'd be tickled to pieces, David."
+
+"Then I'll never dare do it," said the Harvester, "because I can't keep
+house without you."
+
+"Where's your own woman?" promptly inquired Granny.
+
+"She can't leave her people. Her grandmother is sick."
+
+"Grandmother your foot!" cried the old woman. "I've been hearing that
+song and dance from the neighbours, but you got to fool younger people
+than me on it, David. When did any grandmother ever part a pair of
+youngsters jest married, for months at a clip? I'd like to cast my eyes
+on that grandmother. She's a new breed! I was as good a mother as 'twas
+in my skin to be, and I'd like to see a child of mine do it for me;
+and as for my grandchildren, it hustles some of them to re-cog-nize me
+passing on the big road, 'specially if it's Peter's girl with a town
+beau."
+
+The Harvester laughed. The old lady leaned toward him with a mist in her
+eyes and a quaver in her voice, and asked softly, "Got ary friend that
+could help you, David?"
+
+The man looked straight ahead in silence.
+
+"Bamfoozle all the rest of them as much as you please, lad, but I stand
+to you in the place of your ma, and so I ast you plainly----got ary
+friend that could help?"
+
+"I can think of no way in which any one possibly could help me, dear,"
+said the Harvester gently. "It is a matter I can't explain, but I know
+of nothing that any one could do."
+
+"You mean you're tight-mouthed! You COULD tell me just like you would
+your ma, if she was up and comin'; but you can't quite put me in her
+place, and spit it out plain. Now mebby I can help you! Is it her fault
+or yourn?"
+
+"Mine! Mine entirely!"
+
+"Hum! What a fool question! I might a knowed it! I never saw a lovinger,
+sweeter girl in these parts. I jest worship the ground she treads on;
+and you, lad you hain't had a heart in your body sence first you saw her
+face. If I had the stren'th, I'd haul you out of this keeridge and I'd
+hammer you meller, David Langston. What in the name of sense have you
+gone and done to the purty, lovin' child?"
+
+The Harvester's face flushed, but a line around his mouth whitened.
+
+"Loosen up!" commanded Granny. "I got some rights in this case that
+mebby you don't remember. You asked me to help you get ready for her,
+and I done what you wanted. You invited me to visit her, and I jest
+loved her sweet, purty ways. You wanted me to shet up my house and come
+over for weeks to help take keer of her, and I done it gladly, for her
+pain and your sufferin' cut me as if 'twas my livin' flesh and blood;
+so you can't shet me out now. I'm in with you and her to the end. What a
+blame fool thing have you gone and done to drive away for months a girl
+that fair worshipped you?"
+
+"That's exactly the trouble, Granny," said the Harvester. "She didn't!
+She merely respected and was grateful to me, and she loved me as a
+friend; but I never was any nearer her husband than I am yours."
+
+"I've always knowed they was a screw loose somewhere," commented Granny.
+"And so you've sent her off to her worldly folks in a big, wicked city
+to get weaned away from you complete?"
+
+"I sent her to let her see if absence would teach her anything. I had
+months with her here, and I lay awake at nights thinking up new plans
+to win her. I worked for her love as I never worked for bread, but I
+couldn't make it. So I let her go to see if separation would teach her
+anything."
+
+"Mercy me! Why you crazy critter! The child did love you! She loved you
+'nough an' plenty! She loved you faithful and true! You was jest the
+light of her eyes. I don't see how a girl could think more of a man.
+What in the name of sense are you expecting months of separation to
+teach her, but to forget you, and mebby turn her to some one else?"
+
+"I hoped it would teach her what I call love, means," explained the
+Harvester.
+
+"Why you dratted popinjay! If ever in all my born days I wanted to take
+a man and jest lit'rally mop up the airth with him, it's right here and
+now. 'Absence teach her what you call love.' Idiot! That's your job!"
+
+"But, Granny, I couldn't!"
+
+"Wouldn't, you mean, no doubt! I hain't no manner of a notion in my head
+but that child, depending on you, and grateful as she was, and tender
+and loving, and all sech as that I hain't a doubt but she come to you
+plain and told you she loved you with all her heart. What more could you
+ast?"
+
+"That she understand what love means before I can accept what she
+offers."
+
+"You puddin' head! You blunderbuss!" cried Granny. "Understand what you
+mean by love. If you're going to bar a woman from being a wife 'til
+she knows what you mean by love, you'll stop about nine tenths of
+the weddings in the world, and t'other tenth will be women that no
+decent-minded man would jine with."
+
+"Granny, are you sure?"
+
+"Well livin' through it, and up'ard of seventy years with other women,
+ort to teach me something. The Girl offered you all any man needs to ast
+or git. Her foundations was laid in faith and trust. Her affections was
+caught by every loving, tender, thoughtful thing you did for her; and
+everybody knows you did a-plenty, David. I never see sech a master hand
+at courtin' as you be. You had her lovin' you all any good woman knows
+how to love a man. All you needed to a-done was to take her in your
+arms, and make her your wife, and she'd 'a' waked up to what you meant
+by love."
+
+"But suppose she never awakened?"
+
+"Aw, bosh! S'pose water won't wet! S'pose fire won't burn! S'pose the
+sun won't shine! That's the law of nature, man! If you think I hain't
+got no sense at all I jest dare you to ask Doctor Carey. 'Twouldn't take
+him long to comb the kinks out of you."
+
+"I don't think you have left any, Granny," said the Harvester. "I see
+what you mean, and in all probability you are right, but I can't send
+for the Girl."
+
+"Name o' goodness why?"
+
+"Because I sent her away against her will, and now she is remaining so
+long that there is every probability she prefers the life she is living
+and the friends she has made there, to Medicine Woods and to me. The
+only thing I can do now is to await her decision."
+
+"Oh, good Lord!" groaned Granny. "You make me sick enough to kill. Touch
+up your nag and hustle me to Doc. You can't get me there quick enough to
+suit me."
+
+At the hospital she faced Doctor Carey. "I think likely some of my
+innards has got to be cut out and mended," she said. "I'll jest take a
+few minutes of your time to examination me, and see what you can do."
+
+In the private office she held the letters toward the doctor. "They
+hain't no manner of sickness ailin' me, Doc. The boy out there is in
+deep water, and I knowed how much you thought of him, and I hoped you'd
+give me a lift. I went over to his place this mornin' to take him a pie,
+and I found his settin' room fireplace heapin' with letters he'd writ to
+Ruth about things his heart was jest so bustin' full of it eased him
+to write them down, and then he hadn't the horse sense and trust in
+her jedgment to send them on to her. I picked two fats, a lean, and a
+middlin' for samples, and I thought I'd send them some way, and I struck
+for home with them an' he ketched me plumb on the bridge. I had to throw
+my pie overboard, willer plate and all, and as God is my witness, I was
+so flustered the boy had good reason to think I was sick a-plenty; and
+soon as he noticed it, I thought of you spang off, and I knowed you'd
+know her whereabouts, and I made him fetch me to you. On the way I jest
+dragged it from him that he'd sent her away his fool self, because she
+didn't sense what he meant by love, and she wa'ant beholden to him same
+degree and manner he was to her. Great day, Doc! Did you ever hear a
+piece of foolishness to come up with that? I told him to ast you! I told
+him you'd tell him that no clean, sweet-minded girl ever had known nor
+ever would know what love means to a man 'til he marries her and teaches
+her. Ain't it so, Doc?"
+
+"It certainly is."
+
+"Then will you grind it into him, clean to the marrer, and will you send
+these letters on to Ruthie?"
+
+"Most certainly I will," said the doctor emphatically. Granny opened the
+door and walked out.
+
+"I'm so relieved, David," she said. "He thinks they won't be no manner
+o' need to knife me. Likely he can fix up a few pills and send them out
+by mail so's that I'll be as good as new again. Now we must get right
+out of here and not take valuable time. What do I owe you, Doc?"
+
+"Not a cent," said Doctor Carey. "Thank you very much for coming to me.
+You'll soon be all right again."
+
+"I was some worried. Much obliged I am sure. Come on!"
+
+"One minute," said the doctor. "David, I am making up a list of friends
+to whom I am going to send programmes of the medical meeting, and I
+thought your wife might like to see you among the speakers, and your
+subject. What is her address?"
+
+A slow red flushed the Harvester's cheeks. He opened his lips and
+hesitated. At last he said, "I think perhaps her people prefer that she
+receive mail under her maiden name while with them. Miss Ruth Jameson,
+care of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, will reach
+her."
+
+The doctor wrote the address, as if it were the most usual thing in the
+world, and asked the Harvester if he was ready to make the trip east.
+
+"I think we had best start to-night," he said. "We want a day to grow
+accustomed to our clothes and new surroundings before we run up squarely
+against serious business."
+
+"I will be ready," promised the Harvester.
+
+He took Granny home, set his house in order, installed the man he was
+leaving in charge, touched a match to the heap in the fireplace, and
+donning the new travelling suit, he went to Doctor Carey's.
+
+Mrs. Carey added a few touches, warned him to remember about the forks
+and spoons, and not to forget to shave often, and saw them off. At the
+station Carey said to him, "You know, David, we can change at Wayne and
+go through Buffalo, or we can take the Pittsburg and go and come through
+Philadelphia."
+
+"I am contemplating a trip to Philadelphia," said the Harvester, "but I
+believe I will not be ready for, say a month yet. I have a theory and it
+dies hard. If it does not work out the coming month, I will go, perhaps,
+but not now. Let us see how many kinds of a fool I make of myself in New
+York before I attempt the Quakers."
+
+Almost to the city, the doctor smiled at the Harvester.
+
+"David, where did you get your infernal assurance?" he asked.
+
+"In the woods," answered the Harvester placidly. "In doing clean work.
+With my fingers in the muck, and life literally teeming and boiling in
+sound and action, around, above, and beneath me, a right estimate of my
+place and province in life comes naturally in daily handling stores
+on which humanity depends, I go even deeper than you surgeons and
+physicians. You are powerless unless I reinforce your work with drugs on
+which you can rely. I do clean, honest work. I know its proper place and
+value to the world. That is why I called what I have to say, 'The Man
+in the Background.' There is no reason why I should shiver and shrink
+at meeting and explaining my work to my fellows. Every man has his
+vocation, and some of you in the limelight would cut a sorry figure if
+the man in the background should fail you at the critical moment. Don't
+worry about me, Doc. I am all serene. You won't find I possess either
+nerves or fear. 'Be sure you are right, and then go ahead,' is my law."
+
+"Well I'll be confounded!" said the doctor.
+
+In a large hall, peopled with thousands of medical men, the name of the
+Harvester was called the following day and his subject was announced. He
+arose in his place and began to talk.
+
+"Take the platform," came in a roar from a hundred throats.
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+"You must, David," whispered Carey.
+
+The Harvester made his way forward and was guided through a side door,
+and a second later calmly walked down the big stage to the front, and
+stood at ease looking over his audience, as if to gauge its size and the
+pitch to which he should raise his voice. His lean frame loomed every
+inch of his six feet, his broad shoulders were square, his clean shaven
+face alert and afire. He wore a spring suit of light gray of good
+quality and cut, and he was perfect as to details.
+
+"This scarcely seems compatible with my subject," he remarked casually.
+"I certainly appear very much in the foreground just at present, but
+perhaps that is quite as well. It may be time that I assert myself. I
+doubt if there is a man among you who has not handled my products more
+or less; you may enjoy learning where and how they are prepared, and
+understanding the manner in which my work merges with yours. I think
+perhaps the first thing is to paint you as good a word picture as I can
+of my geographical location."
+
+Then the Harvester named latitude and longitude and degrees of
+temperature. He described the lake, the marsh, the wooded hill, the
+swale, and open sunny fields. He spoke of water, soil, shade, and
+geographical conditions. "Here I was born," he said, "on land owned
+by my father and grandfather before me, and previous to them, by the
+Indians. My male ancestors, so far as I can trace them, were men of
+the woods, hunters, trappers, herb gatherers. My mother was from the
+country, educated for a teacher. She had the most inexorable will power
+of any woman I ever have known. From my father I inherited my love for
+muck on my boots, resin in my nostrils, the long trail, the camp fire,
+forest sounds and silences in my soul. From my mother I learned to read
+good books, to study subjects that puzzled me, to tell the truth, to
+keep my soul and body clean, and to pursue with courage the thing to
+which I set my hand.
+
+"There was not money enough to educate me as she would; together we
+learned to find it in the forest. In early days we sold ferns and wild
+flowers to city people, harvested the sap of the maples in spring,
+and the nut crop of the fall. Later, as we wanted more, we trapped for
+skins, and collected herbs for the drug stores. This opened to me a
+field I was peculiarly fitted to enter. I knew woodcraft instinctively,
+I had the location of every herb, root, bark, and seed that will endure
+my climate; I had the determination to stick to my job, the right books
+to assist me, and my mother's invincible will power to uphold me where I
+wavered.
+
+"As I look into your faces, men, I am struck with the astounding thought
+that some woman bore the cold sweat and pain of labour to give life to
+each of you. I hope few of you prolonged that agony as I did. It was in
+the heart of my mother to make me physically clean, and to that end she
+sent me daily into the lake, so long as it was not ice covered, and put
+me at exercises intended to bring full strength to every sinew and fibre
+of my body. It was in her heart to make me morally clean, so she took
+me to nature and drilled me in its forces and its methods of reproducing
+life according to the law. Her work was good to a point that all men
+will recognize. From there on, for a few years, she held me, not because
+I was man enough to stand, but because she was woman enough to support
+me. Without her no doubt I would have broken the oath I took; with her
+I won the victory and reached years of manhood and self-control as she
+would have had me. The struggle wore her out at half a lifetime, but
+as a tribute to her memory I cannot face a body of men having your
+opportunities without telling you that what was possible to her and
+to me is possible to all mothers and men. If she is above and hears me
+perhaps it will recompense some of her shortened years if she knows I am
+pleading with you, as men having the greatest influence of any living,
+to tell and to teach the young that a clean life is possible to them.
+The next time any of you are called upon to address a body of men tell
+them to learn for themselves and to teach their sons, and to hold them
+at the critical hour, even by sweat and blood, to a clean life; for in
+this way only can feeble-minded homes, almshouses, and the scarlet woman
+be abolished. In this way only can men arise to full physical and mental
+force, and become the fathers of a race to whom the struggle for clean
+manhood will not be the battle it is with us.
+
+"By the distorted faces, by the misshapen bodies, by marks of
+degeneracy, recognizable to your practised eyes everywhere on the
+streets, by the agony of the mother who bore you, and later wept over
+you, I conjure you men to live up to your high and holy privilege, and
+tell all men that they can be clean, if they will. This in memory of the
+mother who shortened her days to make me a moral man. And if any among
+you is the craven to plead immorality as a safeguard to health, I ask,
+what about the health of the women you sacrifice to shield your precious
+bodies, and I offer my own as the best possible refutation of that
+cowardly lie. I never have been ill a moment in all my life, and
+strength never has failed me for work to which I set my hand.
+
+"The rapidly decreasing supply of drugs and the adulterated importations
+early taught me that the day was coming when it would be an absolute
+necessity to raise our home supplies. So, while yet in my teens, I began
+collecting from the fields and woods for miles around such medicinal
+stuff as grew in my father's fields, marsh, and woods, and planting
+more wherever I found anything growing naturally in its prime. I merely
+enlarged nature's beds and preserved their natural condition. As
+the plants spread and the harvest increased, I built a dry-house on
+scientific principles, a large store-room, and later a laboratory in
+which I have been learning to prepare some of my crude material for the
+market, combining ideas of my own in remedies, and at last producing
+one your president just has indicated that I come to submit to you as a
+final resort in certain conditions.
+
+"My operations now have spread to close six hundred acres of almost
+solid medicinal growth, including a little lake, around the shores of
+which flourish a quadruple setting of water-loving herbs."
+
+Occasionally he shifted his position or easily walked across the
+platform and faced his audience from a different direction. His voice
+was strong, deep, and rang clearly and earnestly. His audience sat on
+the front edge of their chairs, and listened to something new, with
+mouths half agape. A few times Carey turned from the speaker to face
+the audience. He agonized in his heart that it was a closed session, and
+that his wife was not there to hear, and that the Girl was missing it.
+
+By the bent backs and flying fingers of the reporters at their table in
+front he could see that to-morrow the world would read the Harvester's
+speech; and if it were true that the little mother had shortened
+her days to produce him, she had done earth a service for which many
+generations would call her blessed. For the doctor could look ahead,
+and he knew that this man would not escape. The call for him and his
+unimpeachable truth would come from everywhere, and his utterances would
+carry as far as newspapers and magazines were circulated. The good he
+would do would be past estimation.
+
+The Harvester continued. He was describing the most delicate and
+difficult of herbs to secure. He was telling how they could be raised,
+prepared, kept, and compounded. He was discussing diseases that did not
+readily yield to treatment, pointing out what drugs were customarily
+employed and offering, if any of them had such cases, and would send
+to him, to forward samples of unadulterated stuff sufficient for a test
+comparison with what they were using. He was walking serenely and surely
+into the heart of every man before him.
+
+Just at the point where it was the psychological time to close, he
+stopped and stood a long instant facing them, and then he asked softly,
+"Did any man among you ever see the woman to whom he had given a strong
+man's first passion of love, slowly dying before him?"
+
+One breathless instant he waited and then continued, "Gentlemen, I
+recently saw this in my own case. For days it was coming, so at night I
+shut myself in my laboratory, and from the very essence of the purest
+of my self-compounded drugs I distilled a stimulant into which I put a
+touch of heart remedy, a brace for weakening nerves, a vitalization of
+sluggish blood. As I worked, I thought in that thought which embodied
+the essence of prayer, and when my day and my hour came, and a man who
+has been the president of your honourable body, and is known to all of
+you, said it was death, I took this combination that I now present to
+you, and with the help of the Almighty and a woman above the price of
+rubies, I kept breath in the girl I love, and to-day she is at full tide
+of womanhood. As a thank offering, the formula is yours. Test it as you
+will. Use it if you find it good. Gentlemen, I thank you!"
+
+Carey sank in his chair and watched the Harvester cross the stage. As
+he disappeared the tumult began, and it lasted until the president arose
+and brought him back to make another bow, and then they rioted until
+they wore themselves out. In an immaculate dress suit the Harvester sat
+that night on the right of the gray-haired president and responded to
+the toast, "The Harvester of the Woods." Then the reporters carried him
+away to be photographed, and to show him the gay sights of New York.
+
+In the train the next day, steadily speeding west, he said to Doctor
+Carey: "I feel as the old woman of Mother Goose who said, 'Lawk-a-mercy
+on us, can this be really I?'"
+
+"You just bet it is!" cried the doctor. "And you have cut out work for
+yourself in good shape."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that this is a beginning. You will be called upon to speak again
+and again."
+
+"The point is, do you honestly think I helped any?"
+
+"You did inestimable good. It only can help men to hear plain truth that
+is personal experience. As for that dope of yours, it will come closer
+raising the dead than anything I ever saw. Next case I see slipping,
+after I've done my best, I'm going to try it out for myself."
+
+"All right! 'Phone me and I'll bring some fresh and help you."
+
+At Buffalo the doctor left the car and bought a paper. As he had
+expected the portrait and speech of the Harvester were featured. The
+reporters had been gracious. They had done all that was just to a great
+event, and allowed themselves some latitude. He immediately mailed the
+paper to the Girl, and at Cleveland bought another for himself. When
+he showed it to the Harvester, as he glanced at it he observed, "Do I
+appear like that?" Then he went on talking with a man he had met who
+interested him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING OF THE BLUEBIRD
+
+The Harvester stopped at the mail box on his way home and among the mass
+of matter it contained was something from the Girl. It was a scrap as
+long as his least finger and three times as wide, and by the postmark
+it had lain four days in the box. On opening it, he found only her card
+with a line written across it, but the man went up the hill and into the
+cabin as if a cyclone were driving him, for he read, "Has your bluebird
+come?"
+
+He threw his travelling bag on the floor, ran to the telephone, and
+called the station. "Take this message," he said. "Mrs. David Langston,
+care of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Found note
+after four days' absence. Bluebird long past due. The fairies have told
+it that my fate hereafter lies in your hands.
+
+"As always. David."
+
+The Harvester turned from the instrument and bent to embrace Belshazzar,
+leaping in ecstasy beside him.
+
+"Understand that, Bel?" he asked. "I don't know but it means something.
+Maybe it doesn't----not a thing! And again, there is a chance----only
+the merest possibility----that it does. We'll risk it, Bel, and to
+begin on I have nailed it as hard as I knew how. Next, we will clean
+the house----until it shines, and then we will fill the cupboard, and if
+anything does happen we won't be caught napping. Yes, boy, we will take
+the chance! We can't be any worse disappointed than we have been before
+and survived it. Come along!"
+
+He picked up the bag and arranged its contents, carefully brushed and
+folded on his shelves and in his closet. Then he removed the travelling
+suit, donned the old brown clothes and went to the barn to see that his
+creatures had been cared for properly. Early the next morning he awoke
+and after feeding and breakfasting instead of going to harvest spice
+brush and alder he stretched a line and hung the bedding from room after
+room to air and sun. He swept, dusted, and washed windows, made beds,
+and lastly polished the floors throughout the cabin. He set everything
+in order, and as a finishing touch, filled vases, pitchers, and bowls
+with the bloom of red bud and silky willow catkins. He searched the
+south bank, but there was not a violet, even in the most exposed places.
+By night he was tired and a little of the keen edge of his ardour was
+dulled. The next day he worked scrubbing the porches, straightening
+the lawn and hedges, even sweeping the driveway to the bridge clear
+of wind-whirled leaves and straw. He scouted around the dry-house and
+laboratory, and spent several extra hours on the barn so that when
+evening came everything was in perfect order. Then he dressed, ate his
+supper and drove to the city.
+
+
+He stopped at the mail box, but there was nothing from the Girl. The
+Harvester did not know whether he was sorry or glad. A letter might have
+said the same thing. Nothing meant a delightful possibility, and between
+the two he preferred the latter. He whistled and sang as he drove to
+Onabasha, and Belshazzar looked at him with mystified eyes, for this was
+not the master he had known of late. He did not recognize the dress or
+the manner, but his dog heart was sympathetic to the man's every mood,
+and he remembered times when a drive down the levee always had been like
+this, for to-night the Harvester's tongue was loosened and he talked in
+the old way.
+
+"Just four words, Bel," he said. "And, as I remarked before, they may
+mean the most wonderful thing on earth, and possibly nothing at all.
+But it is in the heart of man to hope, Bel, and so we are going to live
+royally for a week or two, just on hope, old boy. If anything should
+happen, we are ready, rooms shining, beds fresh, fireplaces filled and
+waiting a match, ice chest cool, and when we get back it will be stored.
+Also a secret, Bel; we are going to a florist and a fruit store. While
+we are at it, we will do the thing right; but we will stay away from
+Doc, until we are sure of something. He means well, but we don't like
+to be pitied, do we, Bel? Our friends don't manage their eyes and voices
+very well these days. Never mind! Our time will come yet. The bluebird
+will not fail us, but never before has it been so late."
+
+On his return he filled the pantry shelves with packages, stored the
+ice chest, and set a basket of delicious fruit on the dining table. Two
+boxes remained. He opened the larger one and took from it an arm load of
+white lilies that he carried up the hill and divided between the mounds
+under the oak. Then he uncovered his head, and standing at the foot of
+them he looked among the boughs of the big tree and listened intently.
+After a time a soft, warm wind, catkin-scented, crept from the lake,
+and began a murmur among the clusters of brown leaves clinging to the
+branches.
+
+"Mother," said the Harvester, "were you with me? Did I do it right? Did
+I tell them what you would have had me say for the boys? Are you glad
+now you held me to the narrow way? Do you want me to go before men if
+I am asked, as Doc says I will be, and tell them that the only way to
+abolish pain is for them to begin at the foundation by living clean
+lives? I don't know if I did any good, but they listened to me. Anyway,
+I did the best I knew. But that isn't strange; you ground it into me to
+do that every day, until it is almost an instinct. Mother, dear, can you
+tell me about the bluebird? Is that softest little rustle of all your
+voice? and does it say 'hope'? I think so, and I thank you for the
+word."
+
+The man's eyes dropped to earth.
+
+"And you other mother," he said, "have you any message for me? Up where
+you are can you sweep the world with understanding eyes and tell me why
+my bluebird does not come? Does it know that this year your child and
+not chance must settle my fate? Can you look across space and see if she
+is even thinking of me? But I know that! She had to be thinking of me
+when she wrote that line. Rather can you tell me----will she come? Do
+you think I am man enough to be trusted with her future, if she does?
+One thing I promise you: if such joy ever comes to me, I will know how
+to meet it gently, thankfully, tenderly, please God. Good night, little
+women. I hope you are sleeping well----"
+
+He turned and went down the hill, entered the cabin and took from the
+other box a mass of Parma violets. He put these in the pink bowl and
+placed it on the table beside the Girl's bed. He stood for a time, and
+then began pulling single flowers from the bowl and dropping them over
+the pillow and snowy spread.
+
+"God, how I love her!" he whispered softly.
+
+At last he went out and closed the door. He was tired and soon fell
+asleep with the night breeze stirring his hair, and the glamour of
+moonlight flooding the lake touched his face. Clearly it etched the
+strong, manly features, the fine brow and chin, and painted in unusual
+tenderness the soft lines around the mouth. The little owl wavered its
+love story, a few frogs were piping, and the Harvester lay breathing the
+perfumed spring air deeply and evenly. Near midnight Belshazzar awakened
+him by arising from the bedside and walking to the door.
+
+"What is it, Bel?" inquired the Harvester.
+
+The dog whined softly. The man turned his head toward the lake. A ray of
+red light touched the opposite embankment and came wavering across the
+surface. The Harvester sat up. Two big, flaming eyes were creeping up
+the levee.
+
+"That," said the Harvester, "might be Doc coming for me to help him try
+out my bottled sunshine, or it might be my bluebird."
+
+He tossed back the cover, swung his feet to the floor, setting each in a
+slipper beside the bed, and arose, dressing as he started for the door.
+As he opened the screen and stepped on the veranda a passenger car from
+the city stopped, and the Harvester went down the walk to meet it. His
+heart turned over when he saw a woman's hand on the door.
+
+"Permit me," he said, taking the handle and bringing it back with a
+sweep. A tall form arose, bent forward, and descended to the step. The
+full flare of moonlight fell on the glowing face of the Girl.
+
+"Harvester, is it you?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," gasped the man.
+
+Two hands came fluttering out, and he just had presence of mind to step
+in range so that they rested on his shoulders.
+
+"Has the bluebird come?"
+
+"Not yet!"
+
+"Then I am not too late?"
+
+"Never too late to come to me, Ruth."
+
+"I am welcome?"
+
+"I have no words to tell you how welcome."
+
+She swayed forward and the Harvester tried to reach her lips, but they
+brushed his cheek and touched his ear.
+
+"I have brought one more kiss I want to try," she whispered.
+
+The Harvester crushed her in his arms until he frightened himself for
+fear he had hurt her, and murmured an ecstasy of indistinct love words
+to her. Presently her feet touched the ground and she drew away from
+him.
+
+"Harvester," she whispered, "I couldn't wait any longer; indeed I could
+not: and I couldn't leave grandfather and grandmother, and I didn't
+know what in the world to do, so I just brought them along. Are they
+welcome?"
+
+"Aside from you, I would rather have them than any people on earth,"
+said the Harvester.
+
+There were two sounds in the car; one was an approving murmur, and the
+other an undeniable snort. The Harvester felt the reassuring pressure of
+the Girl's hand.
+
+"Please, Ruth," he said, "go turn on the light so that I can see to help
+grandmother."
+
+A foot stamped before the front seat. "Madam Herron, if you please!"
+cried an acrid voice.
+
+"'Madam Herron,'" said the Harvester gently, as he set a foot on the
+step, reached in and bodily picked up a little old lady and started up
+the walk with her in his arms.
+
+"Careful there, sir!" roared a voice after him.
+
+The Harvester could feel the quake of the laughing woman and he smiled
+broadly as he entered the cabin, and placed her in a large chair before
+the fire. Then he wheeled and ran back to the car, reaching it as the
+man was making an effort to descend. It could be seen that he had been
+tall, before time and sorrow had bent him, and keen eyes gleamed below
+shaggy white brows from under his hat brim. He had a white moustache,
+and his hair was snowy.
+
+"Allow me," said the Harvester reaching a hand.
+
+"If you touch me I will cane you," said Mr. Alexander Herron.
+
+There was nothing to do but step back. The cane, wheel, and a long coat
+skirt interfering, the old man fell headlong, and only quick hands saved
+him a severe jolt and bruises. He stood glaring in the moonlight while
+his hat was restored.
+
+"If you run your car to the curve you can back toward the south and turn
+easily," said the Harvester to the driver. As the automobile passed them
+he offered his arm. "May I show you to the fire? These spring nights are
+chilly."
+
+"'Chilly!' Demnition cold is what they are! I'm frozen to the bone! This
+will be the end of us both! Dragging people of our age around at this
+hour of night. Of all the accursed stubbornness!"
+
+"There are three low steps," said the Harvester, "now a straight stretch
+of walk, now two steps; there you are on the level. Here is an easy
+chair. It would be better to leave on your coat, until I light the
+fire."
+
+He knelt and scratched a match, and almost instantly a flame sprang from
+the heap of dry kindling, and began to wrap around the big logs.
+
+"How pretty!" exclaimed a soft voice.
+
+"Kind of a hunting lodge in the wilds, is it?" growled a rough one.
+"Marcella, you will take your death here!"
+
+"I'm sure I feel no exposure. Really, Alexander, if I had passed away
+every time you have prophesied that I would in the past twenty years
+you'd have the largest private cemetery in existence. If you would not
+be so pessimistic I could quite enjoy the trip. It's so long since I've
+ridden in the cars."
+
+"Of all the abandoned places! And for you to be here, after your years
+in bed!"
+
+"But I'm not nearly so tired as I am at home, Alexander, truly."
+
+"Let me help you, grandfather," offered the Girl.
+
+She went to him and took his hat and stick.
+
+"Leave me my cane," he cried. "Any instant that beast may attack some of
+us."
+
+The Girl laughed merrily.
+
+"Why grandfather!" she chided, "Bel is the finest dog you ever knew,
+he is my best friend here. By the hour he has protected me, and he is
+gentle as a kitten. He's crazy over my coming home."
+
+She knelt on the floor, put her arms around the dog's neck, and the
+delighted brute quivered with the joy of her caress and the sound of her
+loved voice.
+
+"Ruthie!" cautioned the gentle lady.
+
+"Put that cur out of doors, where animals belong," roared the old man,
+lifting his stick.
+
+"Careful!" warned the grave voice of the Harvester.
+
+"I thought you said he was gentle as a kitten!"
+
+"Grandfather, I said that," cried the Girl.
+
+"Well wasn't it the truth?"
+
+"You can see how he loves me. Didn't I ever tell you that Bel made the
+first friendly overture I ever received in this part of the country?
+He's watched me by the day, even while I slept."
+
+"Then what's all this infernal fuss about?"
+
+"Try striking him if you want to find out," explained the Harvester
+gently. "You see, Belshazzar and I are accustomed to living here alone
+and very quietly. He is excited over the Girl's return, because she is
+his friend, and he has not forgotten her. Then this is the first time in
+his life he ever heard an irritable voice from a visitor or saw a cane,
+and it angers him. He is perfectly safe to guard a baby, if he is gently
+treated, but he is a sure throat hold to a stranger who bespeaks him
+roughly or attempts to strike. He would be of no use as a guard to
+valuable property while I sleep if he were otherwise. Bel, come here!
+Lie still."
+
+The dog sank to the floor beside the Harvester, but his sharp eyes
+followed the Girl, and the hair arose on his neck at every rasping note
+of the old man's voice.
+
+"I wouldn't give such a creature house room for a minute," insisted the
+guest.
+
+"Wait until you see him work and become acquainted with him, and you
+will change that verdict," prophesied the Harvester.
+
+"I never was known to change an opinion. Never, sir! Never!" cried the
+testy voice.
+
+"How unfortunate!" remarked the Harvester suavely.
+
+"Explain yourself! Explain yourself, sir!"
+
+"There never has been, there never will be, a man on this earth," said
+the Harvester, "wholly free from mistakes. Are you warm now?" He turned
+to the little lady, cutting off a reply with his question.
+
+"Nice and warm and quite sleepy," she said.
+
+"What may I bring you for a light lunch before you go to bed?"
+
+"Oh, could I have a bite of something?"
+
+"If only I am fortunate enough to have anything you will care for. What
+about a bowl of hot milk and a slice of toast?"
+
+"Why I think that would be just the thing!"
+
+"Excuse me," said the Harvester rising.
+
+He went to the kitchen and they could hear him moving around.
+
+"I wish the big brute would take his beast along," growled Mr. Alexander
+Herron.
+
+"Come, Bel," ordered the Girl. "Let's go to the kitchen."
+
+The dog instantly arose and followed her.
+
+"What can I do to help?" she asked as they reached the door.
+
+"Remain where you won't dazzle my eyes," said the Harvester, "until I
+help the gentle lady and the gentle man to bed."
+
+Presently he came with a white cloth, two spoons, and a plate of bread.
+He spread the cloth on the table, laid the spoons on it, and opening the
+little cupboard, took out a long toasting fork, and sticking it into a
+slice of bread, he held it over the coals. When it grew golden brown he
+lifted the table beside the chair, and brought a bowl of scalded milk.
+
+"Marcella, that stuff will be too smoky for you! Your stomach will rebel
+at it."
+
+"Grandfather, there will not be a suspicion of odour," said the Girl. "I
+have had it that way often."
+
+"Then no wonder you came from this place looking like a picked crane, if
+that is a sample of what you were fed on!"
+
+The face of the Harvester grew redder than the heat of the fire
+necessitated, but at the ringing laugh of the Girl he set his teeth
+and went on toasting bread. Grandmother crumbled some in the milk and
+picking up the spoon tested the combination. She was very hungry, and it
+was good. She began eating with relish.
+
+"Alexander, you will be the loser if you don't have some of this," she
+said. "It's just delicious!"
+
+"Maybe smoked spoon victuals are proper for invalid women," he retorted,
+"but they are mighty thin diet for a hardy man."
+
+"What about a couple of eggs and some beef extract?" suggested the cook.
+
+"Sounds more sensible by a long shot."
+
+"Ruth, you make this toast," said the Harvester and disappeared.
+
+Presently he placed before his guest a couple of eggs poached in milk,
+a steaming bowl of beef juice, and a plate of toast. For one instant
+the Harvester thought this was going into the fire, the next a slice was
+picked up and smelled testily. The Girl sat on her grandfather's chair
+arm, and breaking a morsel of toast dipped it into the broth and tasted
+it.
+
+"Oh but that is good!" she cried. "Why haven't I some also? Am I
+supposed to have no 'tummy'?"
+
+"Your turn next," said the Harvester, as he again gave her the fork and
+went to the kitchen.
+
+When he returned and served the Girl he found her grandfather eating
+heartily.
+
+"Why I think this is fun," said the gentle lady. "I haven't had such a
+fine time in ages. I love the heat of the flame on my body and things
+taste so good. I could go to sleep without any narcotic, right now."
+
+Close her knee the Harvester knelt on the hearth with his toasting fork.
+She leaned forward and ran her fingers through his hair.
+
+"You're a braw laddie," she said. "Now I see why Ruthie WOULD come."
+
+The Harvester took the frail hand and kissed it. "Thank you!" he
+returned.
+
+"Mush!" exploded the grizzled man in the rear.
+
+When no one wanted more food the Harvester stacked and carried away the
+dishes, swept the hearth, and replaced the toaster.
+
+"Ruth and I often lunched this way last fall," he said. "We liked it for
+a change."
+
+"Alexander, have you noticed?" asked the little woman as she lifted wet
+eyes to a beautiful portrait of her daughter beside the chimney.
+
+"D'ye think I'm blind? Saw it as I entered the door. Poor taste! Very!
+Brown may match the rug and wood-work, but it's a wretched colour for a
+young girl in her gay time. Should be pink and white with a gold frame."
+
+"That would be beautiful," agreed the Harvester. "We must have one that
+way. This is not an expensive picture. It is only an enlargement from an
+old photograph."
+
+"We have a number of very handsome likenesses. Which one can you spare
+Ruth, Marcella?"
+
+"The one she likes best," said the lady promptly.
+
+"And the other is your mother, no doubt. What a girlish, beautiful
+face!"
+
+"Wonderfully fine!" growled a gruff old voice tinctured with tears, and
+the Harvester began to see light.
+
+The old man arose. "Ruthie, help your grandmother to bed," he said. "And
+you, sir, have the goodness to walk a few steps with me."
+
+The Harvester sprang up and brought Mr. Herron his coat and hat and held
+the door. The Girl brushed past him.
+
+"To the oak," she whispered.
+
+They went into the night, and without a word the Harvester took his
+guest's arm and guided him up the hill. When they reached the two mounds
+the moon shining between the branches touched the lily faces with with
+holy whiteness.
+
+"She sleeps there," said the Harvester, indicating the place.
+
+Then he turned and went down the path a little distance and waited until
+he feared the night air would chill the broken old man.
+
+"You can see better to-morrow," he said as he touched the shaking figure
+and assisted it to arise.
+
+"Your work?" Mr. Alexander Herron touched the lilies with his walking
+stick.
+
+The Harvester assented.
+
+"Do you mind if I carry one to Marcella?"
+
+The Harvester trembled as he stooped to select the largest and whitest,
+and with sudden illumination, he fully understood. He helped the
+tottering old man to the cabin, where he sat silently before the
+fireplace softly touching the lily face with his lips.
+
+"I have put grandmother in my bed, tucked her in warmly, and she says it
+is soft and fine," laughed the Girl, coming to them. "Now you go before
+she falls asleep, and I hope you will rest well."
+
+She bent and kissed him.
+
+The Harvester held the door.
+
+"Can I be of any service?" he inquired.
+
+"No, I'm no helpless child."
+
+"Then to my best wishes for sound sleep the remainder of the night, I
+will add this," said the Harvester----"You may rest in peace concerning
+your dear girl. I sympathize with your anxiety. Good night!"
+
+Alexander Herron threw out his hands in protest.
+
+"I wouldn't mind admitting that you are a gentleman in a month or two,"
+he said, "but it's a demnation humiliation to have it literally wrung
+from me to-night!"
+
+He banged the door in the face of the amazed Harvester, who turned
+to the Girl as she leaned against the mantel. He stood absorbing the
+glowing picture of beauty and health that she made. She had removed her
+travelling dress and shoes, and was draped in a fleecy white wool kimono
+and wearing night slippers. Her hair hung in two big braids as it had
+during her illness. She was his sick girl again in costume, but radiant
+health glowed on her lovely face. The Harvester touched a match to a few
+candles and turned out the acetylene lights. Then he stood before her.
+
+"Now, bluebird," he said gently. "Ruth, you always know where to find
+me, if you will look at your feet. I thought I loved you all in my power
+when you went, but absence has taught its lessons. One is that I can
+grow to love you more every day I live, and the other that I probably
+trifled with the highest gift you had to offer, when I sent you away.
+I may have been right; Granny and Doc think I was wrong. You know the
+answer. You said there was another kiss for me. Ruth, is it the same or
+a different one?"
+
+"It is different. Quite, quite different!"
+
+"And when?" The Harvester stretched out longing arms. The Girl stepped
+back.
+
+"I don't know," she said. "I had it when I started, but I lost it on the
+way."
+
+The Harvester staggered under the disappointment.
+
+"Ruth, this has gone far enough that you wouldn't play with me, merely
+for the sake of seeing me suffer, would you?"
+
+"No!" cried the Girl. "No! I mean it! I knew just what I wanted to say
+when I started; but we had to take grandmother out of bed. She wouldn't
+allow me to leave her, and I wouldn't stay away from you any longer. She
+fainted when we put her on the car and grandfather went wild. He almost
+killed the porters, and he raved at me. He said my mother had ruined
+their lives, and now I would be their death. I got so frightened I had a
+nervous chill and I'm so afraid she will grow worse----"
+
+"You poor child!" shuddered the Harvester. "I see! I understand! What
+you need is quiet and a good rest."
+
+He placed her in a big easy chair and sitting on the hearth rug he
+leaned against her knee and said, "Now tell me, unless you are so tired
+that you should go to bed."
+
+"I couldn't possibly sleep until I have told you," said the Girl.
+
+"If you're merciful, cut it short!" implored the Harvester.
+
+"I think it begins," she said slowly, "when I went because you sent me
+and I didn't want to go. Of course, as soon as I saw grandfather and
+grandmother, heard them talk, and understood what their lives had been,
+and what might have been, why there was only one thing to do, as I could
+see it, and that was to compensate their agony the best I could. I think
+I have, David. I really think I have made them almost happy. But I told
+them all any one could tell about you in the start, and from the first
+grandmother would have been on your side; but you see how grandfather
+is, and he was absolutely determined that I should live with them, in
+their home, all their lives. He thought the best way to accomplish that
+would be to separate me from you and marry me to the son of his partner.
+
+"There are rooms packed with the lovely things they bought me, David,
+and everything was as I wrote you. Some of the people who came were
+wonderful, so gracious and beautiful, I loved almost all of them. They
+took me places where there were pictures, plays, and lovely parties, and
+I studied hard to learn some music, to dance, ride and all the things
+they wanted me to do, and to read good books, and to learn to meet
+people with graciousness to equal theirs, and all of it. Every day I
+grew stronger and met more people, and there were different places to
+go, and always, when anything was to be done, up popped Mr. Herbert
+Kennedy and said and did exactly the right thing, and he could be
+extremely nice, David."
+
+"I haven't a doubt!" said the Harvester, laying hold of her kimono.
+
+"And he popped up so much that at last I saw he was either pretending
+or else he really was growing very fond of me, so one day when we were
+alone I told him all about you, to make him see that he must not. He
+laughed at me, and said exactly what you did, that I didn't love you
+at all, that it was gratitude, that it was the affection of a child. He
+talked for hours about how grandfather and grandmother had suffered,
+how it was my duty to live with them and give you up, even if I cared
+greatly for you; but he said what I felt was not love at all. Then he
+tried to tell me what he thought love was, and I could see very clearly
+that if it was like that, I didn't love you, but I came a whole world
+closer it than loving him, and I told him so. He laughed again and said
+I was mistaken, and that he was going to teach me what real love was,
+and then I could not be driven back to you. After that, everybody and
+everything just pushed me toward him with both hands, except one person.
+She was a young married woman and I met her at the very first. She
+was the only real friend I ever had, and at last, the latter part of
+February, when things were the very worst, I told her. I told her every
+single thing. She was on your side. She said you were twice the man
+Herbert Kennedy was, and as soon as I found I could talk to her about
+you, I began going there and staying as long as I could, just to talk
+and to play with her baby.
+
+"Her husband was a splendid young fellow, and I grew very fond of him.
+I knew she had told him, because he suddenly began talking to me in the
+kindest way, and everything he said seemed to be what I most wanted to
+hear. I got along fairly well until hints of spring began to come, and
+then I would wonder about my hedge, and my gold garden, and if the ice
+was off the lake, and about my boat and horse, and I wanted my room,
+and oh, David, most of all I wanted you! Just you! Not because you
+could give me anything to compare in richness with what they could, not
+because this home was the best I'd ever known except theirs, not for any
+reason at all only just that I wanted to see your face, hear your voice,
+and have you pick me up and take me in your arms when I was tired. That
+was when I almost quit writing. I couldn't say what I wanted to, and I
+wouldn't write trivial things, so I went on day after day just groping."
+
+"And you killed me alive," said the Harvester.
+
+"I was afraid of that, but I couldn't write. I just couldn't! It was ten
+days ago that I thought of the bluebird's coming this year and what it
+would mean to you, and THAT killed me, Man! It just hurt my heart
+until it ached, to know that you were out here alone; and that night I
+couldn't sleep, because I was thinking of you, and it came to me that if
+I had your lips then I could give you a much, much better kiss than the
+last, and when it was light I wrote that line.
+
+"Nearly a week later I got your answer early in the morning, and it
+almost drove me wild. I took it and went for the day with May, and I
+told her. She took me upstairs, and we talked it over, and before I left
+she made me promise that I would write you and explain how I felt, and
+ask you what you thought. She wanted you to come there and see if you
+couldn't make them at least respect you. I know I was crying, and she
+was bathing the baby. She went to bring something she had forgotten, and
+she gave him to me to hold, just his little naked body. He stood on my
+lap and mauled my face, and pulled my hair, and hugged me with his stout
+little arms and kissed me big, soft, wet kisses, and something sprang to
+life in my heart that never before had been there. I just cried all over
+him and held him fast, and I couldn't give him up when she came back. I
+saw why I'd wanted a big doll all my life, right then; and oh, dear!
+the doll you sent was beautiful, but, David, did you ever hold a little,
+living child in your arms like that?"
+
+"I never did," said the Harvester huskily.
+
+He looked at her face and saw the tears rolling, but he could say no
+more, so he leaned his head against her knee, and finding one of her
+hands he drew it to his lips.
+
+"It is wonderful," said the Girl softly. "It awakens something in
+your heart that makes it all soft and tender, and you feel an awful
+responsibility, too. Grandmother had them telephone at last, and May
+helped me bathe my face and fix my hat. When we went to the carriage Mr.
+Kennedy was there to take me home. We went past grandmother's florist to
+get her some violets----David, she is sleeping under yours, with just a
+few touching her lips. Oh it was lovely of you to get them; your fairies
+must have told you! She has them every day, and one of the objections
+she made to coming here was that she couldn't do without them in winter,
+and she found some on her pillow the very first thing. David, you are
+wonderful! And grandfather with his lily! I know where he found that! I
+knew instantly. Ah, there are fairies who tell you, because you deserve
+to know."
+
+The Girl bent and slipping her arm around his neck hugged him tight
+an instant, and then she continued unsteadily: "While he was in the
+shop----Harvester, this is like your wildest dream, but it's truest
+truth----a boy came down the walk crying papers, and as I live, he
+called your name. I knew it had to be you because he said, 'First drug
+farm in America! Wonderful medicine contributed to the cause of science!
+David Langston honoured by National Medical Association!' I just stood
+in the carriage and screamed, 'Boy! Boy!' until the coachman thought I
+had lost my senses. He whistled and got me the paper. I was shaking so
+I asked him how to find anything you wanted quickly, and he pointed the
+column where events are listed; and when I found the third page there
+was your face so splendidly reproduced, and you seemed so fine and noble
+to me I forgot about the dress suit and the badge in your buttonhole,
+or to wonder when or how or why it could have happened. I just sat there
+shouting in my soul, 'David! David! Medicine Man! Harvester Man!' again
+and again."
+
+"I don't know what I said to Mr. Kennedy or how I got to my room. I
+scanned it by the column, at last I got to paragraphs, and finally I
+read all the sentences. David, I kissed that newspaper face a hundred
+times, and if you could have had those, Man, I think you would have said
+they were right. David, there is nothing to cry over!"
+
+"I'm not!" said the Harvester, wiping the splashes from her hand. "But,
+Ruth, forget what I said about being brief. I didn't realize what was
+coming. I should have said, if you've any mercy at all, go slowly! This
+is the greatest thing that ever happened or ever will happen to me. See
+that you don't leave out one word of it."
+
+"I told you I had to tell you first," said the Girl.
+
+"I understand now," said the Harvester, his head against her knee while
+he pressed her hand to his lips. "I see! Your coming couldn't be perfect
+without knowing this first. Go on, dear heart, and slowly! You owe me
+every word."
+
+"When I had it all absorbed, I carried the paper to the library and
+said, 'Grandfather, such a wonderful thing has happened. A man has had a
+new idea, and he has done a unique work that the whole world is going
+to recognize. He has stood before men and made a speech that few, oh
+so few, could make honestly, and he has advocated right living, oh
+so nobly, and he has given a wonderful gift to science without price,
+because through it he first saved the life he loved best. Isn't that
+marvellous, grandfather?' And he said, 'Very marvellous, Ruth. Won't
+you sit down and read to me about it?' And I said, 'I can't, dear
+grandfather, because I have been away from grandmother all day, and
+she is fretting for me, and to-night is a great ball, and she has spent
+millions on my dress, I think, and there is an especial reason why I
+must go, and so I have to see her now; but I want to show you the man's
+face, and then you can read the story.'
+
+"You see, I knew if I started to read it he would stop me; but if I left
+him alone with it he would be so curious he would finish. So I turned
+your name under and held the paper and said, 'What do you think of that
+face, grandfather? Study it carefully,' and, Man, only guess what he
+said! He said, 'I think it is the face of one of nature's noblemen.' I
+just kissed him time and again and then I said, 'So it is grandfather,
+so it is; for it is the face of the man who twice saved my life, and
+lifted my mother from almost a pauper grave and laid her to rest
+in state, and the man who found you, and sent me to you when I was
+determined not to come.' And I just stood and kissed that paper before
+him and cried, again and again, 'He is one of nature's noblemen, and he
+is my husband, my dear, dear husband and to-morrow I am going home
+to him.' Then I laid the paper on his lap and ran away. I went to
+grandmother and did everything she wanted, then I dressed for the ball.
+I went to say good-bye to her and show my dress and grandfather was
+there, and he followed me out and said, 'Ruth, you didn't mean it?' I
+said, 'Did you read the paper, grandfather?' and he said 'Yes'; and I
+said, 'Then I should think you would know I mean it, and glory in my
+wonderful luck. Think of a man like that, grandfather!'
+
+"I went to the ball, and I danced and had a lovely time with every one,
+because I knew it was going to be the very last, and to-morrow I must
+start to you.
+
+"On the way home I told Mr. Kennedy what paper to get and to read it. I
+said good-bye to him, and I really think he cared, but I was too happy
+to be very sorry. When I reached my room there was a packet for me and,
+Man, like David of old, you are a wonderful poet! Oh Harvester! why
+didn't you send them to me instead of the cold, hard things you wrote?"
+
+"What do you mean, Ruth?"
+
+"Those letters! Those wonderful outpourings of love and passion and
+poetry and song and broken-heartedness. Oh Man, how could you write such
+things and throw them in the fire? Granny Moreland found them when she
+came to bring you a pie, and she carried them to Doctor Carey, and he
+sent them to me, and, David, they finished me. Everything came in a
+heap. I would have come without them, but never, never with quite the
+understanding, for as I read them the deeps opened up, and the flood
+broke, and there did a warm tide go through all my being, like you said
+it would; and now, David, I know what you mean by love. I called
+the maids and they packed my trunk and grandmother's, and I had
+grandfather's valet pack his, and go and secure berths and tickets, and
+learn about trains, and I got everything ready, even to the ambulance
+and doctor; but I waited until morning to tell them. I knew they would
+not let me come alone, so I brought them along. David, what in the world
+are we going to do with them?"
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and looked at the flushed face of the
+Girl.
+
+"With no time to mature a plan, I would say that we are going to love
+them, care for them, gradually teach them our work, and interest them in
+our plans here; and so soon as they become reconciled we will build them
+such a house as they want on the hill facing us, just across Singing
+Water, and there they may have every luxury they can provide for
+themselves, or we can offer, and the pleasure of your presence, and both
+of them can grow strong and happy. I'll have grandmother on her feet in
+ten days, and the edge off grandfather's tongue in three. That bluster
+of his is to drown tears, Ruth; I saw it to-night. And when they pass
+over we will carry them up and lay them beside her under the oak, and
+we can take the house we build for them, if you like it better, and use
+this for a store-room."
+
+"Never!" said the Girl. "Never! My sunshine room and gold garden so long
+as I live. Never again will I leave them. If this cabin grows too small,
+we will build all over the hillside; but my room and garden and this and
+the dining-room and your den there must remain as they are now."
+
+The Harvester arose and drew the davenport before the fireplace, and
+heaped pillows. "You are so tired you are trembling, and your voice is
+quivering," he said. He lifted the Girl, laid her down and arranged the
+coverlet.
+
+"Go to sleep!" he ordered gently. "You have made me so wildly happy that
+I could run and shout like a madman. Try to rest, and maybe the fairies
+who aid me will put my kiss back on your lips. I am going to the hill
+top to tell mother and my God."
+
+He knelt and gathered her in his arms a second, then called Belshazzar
+to guard, and went into the sweet spring night, to jubilate with that
+wild surge of passion that sweeps the heart of a strong man when he is
+most nearly primal. He climbed the hill at a rush, and standing beneath
+the oak on the summit, he faced the lake, and stretching his arms
+widely, he waved them, merely to satisfy the demand for action. When
+urgency for expression came upon him, he laughed a deep rumble of
+exultation.
+
+The night wind swept the lake and lifted his hair, the odour of spring
+was intoxicating in his nostrils, small creatures of earth stirred
+around him, here and there a bird, restless in the delirium of mating
+fever, lifted its head and piped a few notes on the moon-whitened air.
+The frogs sang uninterruptedly at the water's edge. The Harvester stood
+rejoicing. Beating on his brain came a rush of love words uttered in the
+Girl's dear voice. "I wanted you! Just you! He is my husband! My dear,
+dear husband! To-morrow I am going home! Now, David, I know what you
+mean by love!" The Harvester laughed again and sounds around him ceased
+for a second, then swelled in fuller volume than before. He added his
+voice. "Thank God! Oh, thank God!" he cried. "And may the Author of the
+Universe, the spirits of the little mothers who loved us, and all the
+good fairies who guide us, unite to bring unbounded joy to my Dream Girl
+and to guard her safely."
+
+The cocks of Medicine Woods began their second salute to dawn. At this
+sound and with the mention of her name, the Harvester turned down the
+hill, and striding forcefully approached the cabin. As he passed the
+Girl's room he stepped softly, smiling as he wondered if its unexpected
+occupants were resting. He followed Singing Water, and stood looking at
+the hillside, studying the exact location most suitable for a home for
+the old people he was so delighted to welcome. That they would remain
+he never doubted. His faith in the call of the wild had been verified in
+the Girl; it would reach them also. The hill top would bind them. Their
+love for the Girl would compel them. They would be company for her and a
+new interest in life.
+
+"Couldn't be better, not possibly!" commented the delighted Harvester.
+
+He followed the path down Singing Water until he reached the bridge
+where it turned into the marsh. There he paused, looking straight ahead.
+
+"Wonder if I would frighten her?" he mused. "I believe I'll risk it."
+
+He walked on rapidly, vaulted the fence enclosing his land, crossed the
+road, and unlatched the gate. As he did so, the door opened, and Granny
+Moreland stood on the sill, waiting with keen eyes.
+
+"Well I don't need neither specs nor noonday sun to see that you're
+steppin' like the blue ribbon colt at the County Fair, and lookin' like
+you owned Kingdom Come," she said. "What's up, David?"
+
+"You are right, dear," said the Harvester. "I have entered my kingdom.
+The Girl has come and crowned me with her love. She had decided to
+return, but the letters you sent made her happier about it. I wanted you
+to know."
+
+Granny leaned against the casing, and began to sob unrestrainedly.
+
+The Harvester supported her tenderly.
+
+"Why don't do that, dear. Don't cry," he begged. "The Girl is home for
+always, Granny, and I'm so happy I am out to-night trying to keep from
+losing my mind with joy. She will come to you to-morrow, I know."
+
+Granny tremulously dried her eyes.
+
+"What an old sap-head I am!" she commented. "I stole your letters from
+your fireplace, pitched a willer plate into the lake----you got to fish
+that out, come day, David----fooled you into that trip to Doc Carey to
+get him to mail them to Ruth, and never turned a hair. But after I got
+home I commenced thinkin' 'twas a pretty ticklish job to stick your nose
+into other people's business, an' every hour it got worse, until I ain't
+had a fairly decent sleep since. If you hadn't come soon, boy, I'd 'a'
+been sick a-bed. Oh, David! Are you sure she's over there, and loves you
+to suit you now?"
+
+"Yes dear, I am absolutely certain," said the Harvester. "She was so
+determined to come that she brought the invalid grandmother she couldn't
+leave and her grandfather. They arrived at midnight. We are all going to
+live together now."
+
+"Well bless my stars! Fetched you a family! David, I do hope to all
+that's peaceful I hain't put my foot in it. The moon is the deceivingest
+thing on earth I know, but does her family 'pear to be an a-gre'-able
+family, by its light?"
+
+The Harvester's laugh boomed a half mile down the road.
+
+"Finest people on earth, next to you, dear. I'm mighty glad to have
+them. I'm going to build them a house on my best location, and we are
+all going to be happy from now on. Go to bed! This night air may chill
+you. I can't sleep. I wanted you to know first----so I came over. In
+mother's stead, will you kiss me, and wish me happiness, dear friend?"
+
+Granny Moreland laid an eager, withered hand on each shoulder, and bent
+to the radiant young face.
+
+"God bless you, lad, and grant you as great happiness as life ort to
+fetch every clean, honest man," she prayed fervently, with closed eyes
+and her lined old face turned skyward. "And, O God, bless Ruth, and help
+her as You never helped mortal woman before to know her own mind without
+'variableness, neither shadow of turnin'.'"
+
+The Harvester was on Singing Water bridge before he gave way. There he
+laughed as never before in his life. Finally he controlled himself
+and started toward the cabin; but he was chuckling as he passed the
+driveway, and walked down the broad cement floor leading to his bathing
+pool, where the moonlight bridged the lake, and fell as a benediction
+all around him.
+
+He stood a long time, when he recognized the familiar crash of a
+breaking backlog falling together, and heard the customary leap of the
+frightened dog. He walked to his door and listened intently, but there
+was no sound; so he decided the Girl had not been awakened. In the midst
+of a whitening sheet of gold the Harvester dropped to his stoop and
+leaned his head against the broad casing. He broke a twig from a
+hawthorn bush beside him, and sat twisting it in his fingers as
+he stared down the line of the gold bridge. Never had it seemed so
+material, so like a path that might be trodden by mortal feet and lead
+them straight to Heaven. As on the hill top, night again surrounded him
+and the Harvester's soul drank deep wild draughts of a new joy. Sleep
+was out of the question. He was too intensely alive to know that he ever
+again could be weary. He sat there in the moonlight, and with unbridled
+heart gloried in the joy that had come to him.
+
+He turned his face from the bridge as he heard the click of Belshazzar's
+nails on the floor of the bathing pool. Then his heart and breath
+stopped an instant. Beside the dog walked the Girl, one hand on his head
+the other holding the flowing white robe around her and grasping one of
+the Harvester's lilies. His first thought was sheer amazement that she
+was not afraid, for it was evident now that the backlog had awakened
+her, and she had taken the dog and gone to her mother. Then she had
+followed the path leading down the hill, around the cabin, and into the
+sheet of moonlight gilding the shore. She stood there gazing over
+the lake, oblivious to all things save the entrancing allurement of
+a perfect spring night beside undulant water. Screened from her with
+bushes and trees the Harvester scarcely breathed lest he startle her.
+Then his head swam, and his still heart leaped wildly. She was coming
+toward him. On her left lay the path to the hill top. A few steps
+farther she could turn to the right and follow the driveway to the front
+of the cabin. He leaned forward watching in an agony of suspense. Her
+beautiful face was transfigured with joy, aflame with love, radiant with
+smiles, and her tall figure fleecy white, rimmed in gold. Up the shining
+path of light she steadily advanced toward his door. Then the Harvester
+understood, and from his exultant heart burst the wordless petition:
+
+"LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, HELP ME TO BE A MAN!"
+
+With outstretched arms he arose to meet her.
+
+"My Dream Girl!" he cried hoarsely. "My Dream Girl!"
+
+"Coming, Harvester!" she answered in tones of joy, as she dropped the
+white flower and lifted her hands to draw his face toward her.
+
+"Is that the kiss you wanted?" she questioned.
+
+"Yes, Ruth," breathed the Harvester.
+
+"Then I am ready to be your wife," she said. "May I share all the
+remainder of life's joys and sorrows with you?"
+
+The Harvester gathered her in his arms and carried her to the bench on
+the lake shore. He wrapped the white robe around her and clasped her
+tenderly as behooved a lover, yet with arms that she knew could have
+crushed her had they willed. The minutes slipped away, and still he held
+her to his heart, the reality far surpassing his dream; for he knew that
+he was awake, and he realized this as the supreme hour that comes to the
+strongman who knows his love requited.
+
+When the first banner of red light arose above Medicine Woods and
+Singing Water the cocks on the hillside announced the dawn. As the gold
+faded to gray, a burst of bubbling notes swelled from a branch almost
+over their heads where stood a bark-enclosed little house.
+
+"Ruth, do you hear that?" asked the Harvester softly.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "and I see it. A wonderful bird, with Heaven's
+deepest blue on its back and a breast like a russet autumn leaf, came
+straight up the lake from the south, and before it touched the limb that
+song seemed to gush from its throat."
+
+"And for that reason, the greatest nature lover who ever lived says
+that it 'deserves preeminence.' It always settles from its long voyage
+through the air in an ecstasy of melody. Do you know what it is, Ruth?"
+
+The Girl laid a hand on his cheek and turned his eyes from the bird to
+her face as she answered, "Yes, Harvester-man, I know. It is your first
+bluebird----but it is far too late, and Belshazzar has lost high office.
+I have usurped both their positions. You remain in the woods and reap
+their harvest, you enter the laboratory and make wonderful, life-giving
+medicines, you face the world and tell men of the high and holy life
+they may live if they will, and then----always and forever, you come
+back to Medicine Woods and to me, Harvester."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter
+
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter
+
+Number Four in our Gene Stratton Porter Series
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+The Harvester
+
+by Gene Stratton Porter
+
+October, 1995  [Etext #349]
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+
+THE
+HARVESTER
+
+BY
+GENE STRATTON-PORTER
+
+AUTHOR OF
+A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST,
+FRECKLES, ETC.
+
+
+
+              THIS PORTION 
+     OF THE LIFE OF A MAN OF TO-DAY
+IS OFFERED IN THE HOPE THAT IN CLEANLINESS, 
+   POETIC TEMPERMENT, AND MENTAL FORCE, 
+          A LIKENESS WILL BE SEEN
+                  TO
+           HENRY DAVID THOREAU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER                                           
+I.     Belshazzar's Decision 
+II.    The Effect of a Dream 
+III.   Harvesting the Forest 
+IV.    A Commission for the South Wind 
+V.     When the Harvester Made Good 
+VI.    To Labour and to Wait  
+VII.   The Quest of the Dream Girl 
+VIII.  Belshazzar's Record Point  
+IX.    The Harvester Goes Courting  
+X.     The Chime of the Blue Bells 
+XI.    Demonstrated Courtship 
+XII.   ``The Way of a Man with a Maid'' 
+XIII.  When the Dream Came True 
+XIV.   Snowy Wings  
+XV.    The Harvester Interprets Life  
+XVI.   Granny Moreland's Visit 
+XVII.  Love Invades Science 
+XVIII. The Better Man 
+XIX.   A Vertical Spine 
+XX.    The Man in the Background 
+XXI.   The Coming of the Bluebird 
+
+
+CHARACTERS
+
+DAVID LANGSTON, A Harvester of the Woods.
+RUTH JAMESON, A Girl of the City.
+GRANNY MORELAND, An Interested Neighbour.
+DR. CAREY, Chief Surgeon of the Onabasha Hospital.
+MRS. CAREY, Wife of the Doctor.
+DR. HARMON, Who Concludes to Leave the City.
+MOLLY BARNET, A Hospital Nurse with a Heart.
+HENRY JAMESON, A Trader Without a Heart.
+ALEXANDER HERRON, Who Made a Concession.
+MRS. HERRON, A Gentle Woman.
+THE KENNEDYS, Philadelphia Lawyers.
+
+
+
+The Harvester
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BELSHAZZAR'S DECISION
+
+``Bel, come here!''
+The Harvester sat in the hollow worn in the
+hewed log stoop by the feet of his father and
+mother and his own sturdier tread, and rested his head
+against the casing of the cabin door when he gave the
+command.  The tip of the dog's nose touched the gravel
+between his paws as he crouched flat on earth, with
+beautiful eyes steadily watching the master, but he did
+not move a muscle.
+
+``Bel, come here!''
+
+Twinkles flashed in the eyes of the man when he
+repeated the order, while his voice grew more imperative as
+he stretched a lean, wiry hand toward the dog.  The
+animal's eyes gleamed and his sensitive nose quivered, yet
+he lay quietly.
+
+``Belshazzar, kommen Sie hier!''
+
+The body of the dog arose on straightened legs and his
+muzzle dropped in the outstretched palm.  A wind
+slightly perfumed with the odour of melting snow and
+unsheathing buds swept the lake beside them, and lifted
+a waving tangle of light hair on the brow of the man, while
+a level ray of the setting sun flashed across the water and
+illumined the graven, sensitive face, now alive with keen
+interest in the game being played.
+
+``Bel, dost remember the day?'' inquired the Harvester.
+
+The eager attitude and anxious eyes of the dog betrayed
+that he did not, but was waiting with every sense alert
+for a familiar word that would tell him what was
+expected.
+
+``Surely you heard the killdeers crying in the night,''
+prompted the man.  ``I called your attention when the
+ecstasy of the first bluebird waked the dawn.  All day
+you have seen the gold-yellow and blood-red osiers, the
+sap-wet maples and spring tracing announcements of her
+arrival on the sunny side of the levee.''
+
+The dog found no clew, but he recognized tones he
+loved in the suave, easy voice, and his tail beat his sides
+in vigorous approval.  The man nodded gravely.
+
+``Ah, so!  Then you realize this day to be the most
+important of all the coming year to me; this hour a solemn
+one that influences my whole after life.  It is time for
+your annual decision on my fate for a twelve-month.
+Are you sure you are fully alive to the gravity of the
+situation, Bel?''
+
+The dog felt himself safe in answering a rising inflection
+ending in his name uttered in that tone, and wagged
+eager assent.
+
+``Well then,'' said the man, ``which shall it be?  Do I
+leave home for the noise and grime of the city, open an
+office and enter the money-making scramble?''
+
+Every word was strange to the dog, almost breathlessly
+waiting for a familiar syllable.  The man gazed
+steadily into the animal's eyes.  After a long pause he
+continued:
+
+``Or do I remain at home to harvest the golden seal,
+mullein, and ginseng, not to mention an occasional hour
+with the black bass or tramps for partridge and cotton-
+tails?''
+
+The dog recognized each word of that.  Before the
+voice ceased, his sleek sides were quivering, his nostrils
+twitching, his tail lashing, and at the pause he leaped up
+and thrust his nose against the face of the man.  The
+Harvester leaned back laughing in deep, full-chested
+tones; then he patted the dog's head with one hand and
+renewed his grip with the other.
+
+``Good old Bel!'' he cried exultantly.  ``Six years you
+have decided for me, and right----every time!  We are of
+the woods, Bel, born and reared here as our fathers before
+us.  What would we of the camp fire, the long trail, the
+earthy search, we harvesters of herbs the famous chemists
+require, what would we do in a city?  And when the sap
+is rising, the bass splashing, and the wild geese honking
+in the night!  We never could endure it, Bel.
+
+``When we delivered that hemlock at the hospital
+to-day, did you hear that young doctor talking about his
+`lid'?  Well up there is ours, old fellow!  Just sky and clouds
+overhead for us, forest wind in our faces, wild perfume in
+our nostrils, muck on our feet, that's the life for us.  Our
+blood was tainted to begin with, and we've lived here so
+long it is now a passion in our hearts.  If ever you sentence
+us to life in the city, you'll finish both of us, that's
+what you'll do!  But you won't, will you?  You realize
+what God made us for and what He made for us, don't
+you, Bel?''
+
+As he lovingly patted the dog's head the man talked and
+the animal trembled with delight.  Then the voice of the
+Harvester changed and dropped to tones of gravest
+import.
+
+``Now how about that other matter, Bel?  You always
+decide that too.  The time has come again.  Steady now! 
+This is far more important than the other.  Just to be
+wiped out, Bel, pouf!  That isn't anything and it concerns
+no one save ourselves.  But to bring misery into
+our lives and live with it daily, that would be a
+condition to rend the soul.  So careful, Bel!  Cautious
+now!''
+
+The voice of the man dropped to a whisper as he asked
+the question.
+
+``What about the girl business?''
+
+Trembling with eagerness to do the thing that would
+bring more caressing, bewildered by unfamiliar words
+and tones, the dog hesitated.
+
+``Do I go on as I have ever since mother left me,
+rustling for grub, living in untrammelled freedom?  Do
+I go on as before, Bel?''
+
+The Harvester paused and waited the answer, with
+anxiety in his eyes as he searched the beast face.  He
+had talked to that dog, as most men commune with their
+souls, for so long and played the game in such intense
+earnest that he felt the results final with him.  The
+animal was immovable now, lost again, his anxious eyes
+watching the face of the master, his eager ears waiting
+for words he recognized.  After a long time the man
+continued slowly and hesitantly, as if fearing the outcome. 
+He did not realize that there was sufficient anxiety in his
+voice to change its tones.
+
+``Or do I go courting this year?  Do I rig up in
+uncomfortable store-clothes, and parade before the country and
+city girls and try to persuade the one I can get,
+probably----not the one I would want----to marry me, and
+come here and spoil all our good times?  Do we want
+a woman around scolding if we are away from home,
+whining because she is lonesome, fretting for luxuries
+we cannot afford to give her?  Are you going to let us in
+for a scrape like that, Bel?''
+
+The bewildered dog could bear the unusual scene no
+longer.  Taking the rising inflection, that sounded more
+familiar, for a cue, and his name for a certainty, he
+sprang forward, his tail waving as his nose touched the
+face of the Harvester.  Then he shot across the driveway
+and lay in the spice thicket, half the ribs of one
+side aching, as he howled from the lowest depths of
+dog misery.
+
+``You ungrateful cur!'' cried the Harvester.  ``What
+has come over you?  Six years I have trusted you, and
+the answer has been right, every time!  Confound your
+picture!  Sentence me to tackle the girl proposition!  I
+see myself!  Do you know what it would mean?  For
+the first thing you'd be chained, while I pranced over the
+country like a half-broken colt, trying to attract some
+girl.  I'd have to waste time I need for my work and
+spend money that draws good interest while we sleep, to
+tempt her with presents.  I'd have to rebuild the cabin
+and there's not a chance in ten she would not fret the life
+out of me whining to go to the city to live, arrange for her
+here the best I could.  Of all the fool, unreliable dogs that
+ever trod a man's tracks, you are the limit!  And you
+never before failed me!  You blame, degenerate pup,
+you!''
+
+The Harvester paused for breath and the dog subsided
+to a pitiful whimper.  He was eager to return to the
+man who had struck him the first blow his pampered
+body ever had received; but he could not understand a
+kick and harsh words for him, so he lay quivering with
+anxiety and fear.
+
+``You howling, whimpering idiot!'' exclaimed the
+Harvester.  ``Choose a day like this to spoil!  Air to
+intoxicate a mummy!  Roots swelling!  Buds bursting!  Harvest
+close and you'd call me off and put me at work
+like that, would you?  If I ever had supposed
+lost all your senses, I never would have asked you. 
+Six years you have decided my fate, when the first
+bluebird came, and you've been true blue every time. 
+If I ever trust you again!   But the mischief is done
+now.
+
+``Have you forgotten that your name means `to protect?' 
+Don't you remember it is because of that, it is
+your name?  Protect!  I'd have trusted you with my
+life, Bell!  You gave it to me the time you pointed that
+rattler within six inches of my fingers in the blood-root
+bed.  You saw the falling limb in time to warn me.  You
+always know where the quicksands lie.  But you are
+protecting me now, like sin, ain't you?  Bring a girl
+here to spoil both our lives!  Not if I know myself! 
+Protect!''
+
+The man arose and going inside the cabin closed the
+door.  After that the dog lay in abject misery so deep
+that two big tears squeezed from his eyes and rolled down
+his face.  To be shut out was worse than the blow.  He
+did not take the trouble to arise from the wet leaves
+covering the cold earth, but closing his eyes went to sleep.
+
+The man leaned against the door and ran his fingers
+through his hair as he anathematized the dog.  Slowly his
+eyes travelled around the room.  He saw his tumbled bed
+by the open window facing the lake, the small table with
+his writing material, the crude rack on the wall loaded
+with medical works, botanies, drug encyclopaedias, the
+books of the few authors who interested him, and the bare,
+muck-tracked floor.  He went to the kitchen, where he
+built a fire in the cook stove, and to the smoke-house, from
+which he returned with a slice of ham and some eggs.  He
+set some potatoes boiling and took bread, butter and milk
+from the pantry.  Then he laid a small note-book on the
+table before him and studied the transactions of the
+day.
+
+10 lbs.  wild cherry bark      6 cents       $ .60
+5   ``   wahoo root bark      25 ``           1.25
+20  ``   witch hazel bark      5 ``           1.00
+5   ``   blue flag root       12 ``            .60
+10  ``   snake root           18 ``           1.80
+10  ``   blood root           12 ``           1.20
+15  ``   hoarhound            10 ``           1.50
+                                             -----
+                                             $7.95
+
+
+``Not so bad,'' he muttered, bending over the figures. 
+``I wonder if any of my neighbours who harvest the
+fields average as well at this season.  I'll wager they don't. 
+That's pretty fair!  Some days I don't make it, and then
+when a consignment of seeds go or ginseng is wanted the
+cash comes in right properly.  I could waste half of it on
+a girl and yet save money.  But where is the woman who
+would be content with half?  She'd want all and fret
+because there wasn't more.  Blame that dog!''
+
+He put the book in his pocket, prepared and ate his
+supper, heaped a plate generously, placed it on the floor
+beneath the table, and set away the food that remained.
+
+``Not that you deserve it,'' he said to space.  ``You get
+this in honour of your distinguished name and the faithfulness
+with which you formerly have lived up to its import. 
+If you hadn't been a dog with more sense than some
+men, I wouldn't take your going back on me now so
+hard.  One would think an animal of your intelligence
+might realize that you would get as much of a dose as I. 
+Would she permit you to eat from a plate on the kitchen
+floor?  Not on your life, Belshazzar!  Frozen scraps
+around the door for you!  Would she allow you to sleep
+across the foot of the bed?  Ho, ho, ho!  Would she have
+you tracking on her floor?  It would be the barn, and
+growling you didn't do at that.  If I'd serve you right, I'd
+give you a dose and allow you to see how you like it.  But
+it's cutting off my nose to spite my face, as the old adage
+goes, for whatever she did to a dog, she'd probably do
+worse to a man.  I think not!''
+
+He entered the front room and stood before a long shelf
+on which were arranged an array of partially completed
+candlesticks carved from wood.  There were black and
+white walnut, red, white, and golden oak, cherry and
+curly maple, all in original designs.  Some of them were
+oddities, others were failures, but most of them were
+unusually successful.  He selected one of black walnut,
+carved until the outline of his pattern was barely
+distinguishable.  He was imitating the trunk of a tree with
+the bark on, the spreading, fern-covered roots widening
+for the base, from which a vine sprang.  Near the top was
+the crude outline of a big night moth climbing toward
+the light.  He stood turning this stick with loving hands
+and holding it from him for inspection.
+
+``I am going to master you!'' he exulted.  ``Your
+lines are right.  The design balances and it's graceful.  If
+I have any trouble it will be with the moth, and I think
+I can manage.  I've got to decide whether to use cecropia
+or polyphemus before long.  Really, on a walnut, and in
+the woods, it should be a luna, according to the eternal
+fitness of things----but I'm afraid of the trailers.  They
+turn over and half curl and I believe I had better not
+tackle them for a start.  I'll use the easiest to begin on,
+and if I succeed I'll duplicate the pattern and try a luna
+then.  The beauties!''
+
+The Harvester selected a knife from the box and began
+carving the stick slowly and carefully.  His brain was
+busy, for presently he glanced at the floor.
+
+``She'd object to that!'' he said emphatically.  ``A
+man could no more sit and work where he pleased than
+he could fly.  At least I know mother never would have
+it, and she was no nagger, either.  What a mother she
+was!  If one only could stop the lonely feeling that will
+creep in, and the aching hunger born with the body, for
+a mate; if a fellow only could stop it with a woman like
+mother!  How she revelled in sunshine and beauty! 
+How she loved earth and air!  How she went straight to
+the marrow of the finest line in the best book I could
+bring from the library!  How clean and true she was and
+how unyielding!  I can hear her now, holding me with
+her last breath to my promise.  If I could marry a girl
+like mother----great Caesar!  You'd see me buying an
+automobile to make the run to the county clerk.  Wouldn't
+that be great!  Think of coming in from a long, difficult
+day, to find a hot supper, and a girl such as she must have
+been, waiting for me!  Bel, if I thought there was a woman
+similar to her in all the world, and I had even the ghost of
+a chance to win her, I'd call you in and forgive you.  But
+I know the girls of to-day.  I pass them on the roads, on
+the streets, see them in the cafe's, stores, and at the library. 
+Why even the nurses at the hospital, for all the gravity
+of their positions, are a giggling, silly lot; and they never
+know that the only time they look and act presentably to
+me is when they stop their chatter, put on their uniforms,
+and go to work.  Some of them are pretty, then. 
+There's a little blue-eyed one, but all she needs is feathers
+to make her a `ha! ha! bird.'  Drat that dog!''
+
+The Harvester took the candlestick and the box of
+knives, opened the door, and returned to the stoop.  Belshazzar
+arose, pleading in his eyes, and cautiously advanced
+a few steps.  The man bent over his work and
+paid not the slightest heed, so the discouraged dog sank to
+earth and fixedly watched the unresponsive master.  The
+carving of the candlestick went on steadily.  Occasionally
+the Harvester lifted his head and repeatedly sucked his
+lungs full of air.  Sometimes for an instant he scanned
+the surface of the lake for signs of breaking fish or splash
+of migrant water bird.  Again his gaze wandered up the
+steep hill, crowned with giant trees, whose swelling buds
+he could see and smell.  Straight before him lay a low
+marsh, through which the little creek that gurgled and
+tumbled down hill curved, crossed the drive some distance
+below, and entered the lake of Lost Loons.
+
+While the trees were bare, and when the air was clear as
+now, he could see the spires of Onabasha, five miles away,
+intervening cultivated fields, stretches of wood, the long
+black line of the railway, and the swampy bottom lands
+gradually rising to the culmination of the tree-crowned
+summit above him.  His cocks were crowing warlike
+challenges to rivals on neighbouring farms.  His hens
+were carolling their spring egg-song.  In the barn yard
+ganders were screaming stridently.  Over the lake and the
+cabin, with clapping snowy wings, his white doves circled
+in a last joy-flight before seeking their cotes in the
+stable loft.  As the light grew fainter, the Harvester
+worked slower.  Often he leaned against the casing, and
+closed his eyes to rest them.  Sometimes he whistled
+snatches of old songs to which his mother had cradled
+him, and again bits of opera and popular music he had
+heard on the streets of Onabasha.  As he worked, the
+sun went down and a half moon appeared above the wood
+across the lake.  Once it seemed as if it were a silver bowl
+set on the branch of a giant oak; higher, it rested a tilted
+crescent on the rim of a cloud.
+
+The dog waited until he could endure it no longer, and
+straightening from his crouching position, he took a few
+velvet steps forward, making faint, whining sounds in his
+throat.  When the man neither turned his head nor gave
+him a glance, Belshazzar sank to earth again, satisfied
+for the moment with being a little closer.  Across Loon
+Lake came the wavering voice of a night love song. 
+The Harvester remembered that as a boy he had shrunk
+from those notes until his mother explained that they
+were made by a little brown owl asking for a mate to
+come and live in his hollow tree.  Now he rather liked
+the sound.  It was eloquent of earnest pleading.  With
+the lonely bird on one side, and the reproachful dog eyes
+on the other, the man grinned rather foolishly.
+
+Between two fires, he thought.  If that dog ever
+catches my eye he will come tearing as a cyclone, and I
+would not kick him again for a hundred dollars.  First
+time I ever struck him, and didn't intend to then.  So
+blame mad and disappointed my foot just shot out before
+I knew it.  There he lies half dead to make up, but I'm
+blest if I forgive him in a hurry.  And there is that
+insane little owl screeching for a mate.  If I'd start out
+making sounds like that, all the girls would line up and
+compete for possession of my happy home.
+
+The Harvester laughed and at the sound Belshazzar
+took courage and advanced five steps before he sank belly
+to earth again.  The owl continued its song.  The Harvester
+imitated the cry and at once it responded.  He
+called again and leaned back waiting.  The notes came
+closer.  The Harvester cried once more and peered across
+the lake, watching for the shadow of silent wings.  The
+moon was high above the trees now, the knife dropped in
+the box, the long fingers closed around the stick, the head
+rested against the casing, and the man intoned the cry
+with all his skill, and then watched and waited.  He had
+been straining his eyes over the carving until they were
+tired, and when he watched for the bird the moonlight
+tried them; for it touched the lightly rippling waves of
+the lake in a line of yellow light that stretched straight
+across the water from the opposite bank, directly to the
+gravel bed below, where lay the bathing pool.  It made
+a path of gold that wavered and shimmered as the water
+moved gently, but it appeared sufficiently material to
+resemble a bridge spanning the lake.
+
+``Seems as if I could walk it,'' muttered the Harvester.
+
+The owl cried again and the man intently watched the
+opposite bank.  He could not see the bird, but in the
+deep wood where he thought it might be he began to
+discern a misty, moving shimmer of white.  Marvelling,
+he watched closer.  So slowly he could not detect motion
+it advanced, rising in height and taking shape.
+
+``Do I end this day by seeing a ghost?'' he queried.
+
+He gazed intently and saw that a white figure really
+moved in the woods of the opposite bank.
+
+``Must be some boys playing fool pranks!'' exclaimed
+the Harvester.
+
+He watched fixedly with interested face, and then
+amazement wiped out all other expression and he sat
+motionless, breathless, looking, intently looking.  For
+the white object came straight toward the water and at
+the very edge unhesitatingly stepped upon the bridge of
+gold and lightly, easily advanced in his direction.  The man
+waited.  On came the figure and as it drew closer he could
+see that it was a very tall, extremely slender woman,
+wrapped in soft robes of white.  She stepped along
+the slender line of the gold bridge with grace unequalled.
+
+From the water arose a shining mist, and behind the
+advancing figure a wall of light outlined and rimmed her
+in a setting of gold.  As she neared the shore the 
+Harvester's blood began to race in his veins and his lips parted
+in wonder.  First she was like a slender birch trunk, then
+she resembled a wild lily, and soon she was close enough
+to prove that she was young and very lovely.  Heavy
+braids of dark hair rested on her head as a coronet.  Her
+forehead was low and white.  Her eyes were wide-open
+wells of darkness, her rounded cheeks faintly pink, and
+her red lips smiling invitation.  Her throat was long,
+very white, and the hands that caught up the fleecy robe
+around her were rose-coloured and slender.  In a panic
+the Harvester saw that the trailing robe swept the undulant
+gold water, but was not wet; the feet that alternately
+showed as she advanced were not purple with cold, but
+warm with a pink glow.
+
+She was coming straight toward him, wonderful,
+alluring, lovely beyond any woman the Harvester ever
+had seen.  Straightway the fountains of twenty-six years'
+repression overflowed in the breast of the man and all
+his being ran toward her in a wave of desire.  On she
+came, and now her tender feet were on the white gravel. 
+When he could see clearly she was even more beautiful
+than she had appeared at a distance.  He opened his lips,
+but no sound came.  He struggled to rise, but his legs
+would not bear his weight.  Helpless, he sank against
+the casing.  The girl walked to his feet, bent, placed a
+hand on each of his shoulders, and smiled into his eyes. 
+He could scent the flower-like odour of her body and
+wrapping, even her hair.  He struggled frantically to
+speak to her as she leaned closer, yet closer, and softly
+but firmly laid lips of pulsing sweetness on his in a
+deliberate kiss.
+
+The Harvester was on his feet now.  Belshazzar shrank
+into the shadows.
+
+``Come back!'' cried the man.  ``Come back!  For
+the love of mercy, where are you?''
+
+He ran stumblingly toward the lake.  The bridge of
+gold was there, the little owl cried lonesomely; and did
+he see or did he only dream he saw a mist of white vanishing
+in the opposite wood?
+
+His breath came between dry lips, and he circled the
+cabin searching eagerly, but he could find nothing, hear
+nothing, save the dog at his heels.  He hurried to the
+stoop and stood gazing at the molten path of moonlight. 
+One minute he was half frozen, the next a rosy glow
+enfolded him.  Slowly he lifted a hand and touched his
+lips.  Then he raised his eyes from the water and swept
+the sky in a penetrant gaze.
+
+``My gracious Heavenly Father,'' said the Harvester
+reverently.  ``Would it be like that?''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EFFECT OF A DREAM
+
+Fully convinced at last that he had been dreaming,
+the Harvester picked up his knives and
+candlestick and entered the cabin.  He placed
+them on a shelf and turned away, but after a second's
+hesitation he closed the box and arranged the sticks
+neatly.  Then he set the room in order and carefully
+swept the floor.  As he replaced the broom he thought
+for an instant, then opened the door and whistled softly. 
+Belshazzar came at a rush.  The Harvester pushed the
+plate of food toward the hungry dog and he ate greedily. 
+The man returned to the front room and closed the door.
+
+He stood a long time before his shelf of books, at last
+selected a volume of ``Medicinal Plants'' and settled
+to study.  His supper finished, Belshazzar came scratching
+and whining at the door.  Several times the man
+lifted his head and glanced in that direction, but he only
+returned to his book and read again.  Tired and sleepy,
+at last, he placed the volume on the shelf, went to a
+closet for a pair of bath towels, and hung them across a
+chair.  Then he undressed, opened the door, and ran
+for the lake.  He plunged with a splash and swam vigorously 
+for a few minutes, his white body growing pink
+under the sting of the chilled water.  Over and over he
+scanned the golden bridge to the moon, and stood an
+instant dripping on the gravel of the landing to make sure
+that no dream woman was crossing the wavering floor! 
+He rubbed to a glow and turned back the covers of his
+bed.  The door and window stood wide.  Before he lay
+down, the Harvester paused in arrested motion a second,
+then stepped to the kitchen door and lifted the latch.
+
+As the man drew the covers over him, the dog's nose
+began making an opening, and a little later he quietly
+walked into the room.  The Harvester rested, facing
+the lake.  The dog sniffed at his shoulder, but the man
+was rigid.  Then the click of nails could be heard on the
+floor as Belshazzar went to the opposite side.  At his
+accustomed place he paused and set one foot on the bed. 
+There was not a sound, so he lifted the other.  Then
+one at a time he drew up his hind feet and crouched as
+he had on the gravel.  The man lay watching the bright
+bridge.  The moonlight entered the window and flooded
+the room.  The strong lines on the weather-beaten face
+of the Harvester were mellowed in the light, and he
+appeared young and good to see.  His lithe figure stretched
+the length of the bed, his hair appeared almost white,
+and his face, touched by the glorifying light of the moon,
+was a study.
+
+One instant his countenance was swept with ultimate
+scorn; then gradually that would fade and the lines soften,
+until his lips curved in child-like appeal and his eyes
+were filled with pleading.  Several times he lifted a
+hand and gently touched his lips, as if a kiss were a material
+thing and would leave tangible evidence of having
+been given.  After a long time his eyes closed and he
+scarcely was unconscious before Belshazzar's cold nose
+touched the outstretched hand and the Harvester lifted
+and laid it on the dog's head.
+
+``Forgive me, Bel,'' he muttered.  ``I never did that. 
+I wouldn't have hurt you for anything.  It happened
+before I had time to think.''
+
+They both fell asleep.  The clear-cut lines of manly
+strength on the face of the Harvester were touched to
+tender beauty.  He lay smiling softly.  Far in the night
+he realized the frost-chill and divided the coverlet with
+the happy Belshazzar.
+
+The golden dream never came again.  There was no
+need.  It had done its perfect work.  The Harvester
+awoke the next morning a different man.  His face was
+youthful and alive with alert anticipation.  He began
+his work with eager impetuosity, whistling and singing
+the while, and he found time to play with and talk to
+Belshazzar, until that glad beast almost wagged off his
+tail in delight.  They breakfasted together and arranged
+the rooms with unusual care.
+
+``You see,'' explained the Harvester to the dog, ``we
+must walk neatly after this.  Maybe there is such a
+thing as fate.  Possibly your answer was right.  There
+might be a girl in the world for me.  I don't expect it,
+but there is a possibility that she may find us before we
+locate her.  Anyway, we should work and be ready. 
+All the old stock in the store-house goes out as soon as
+we can cart it.  A new cabin shall rise as fast as we
+can build it.  There must be a basement and furnace,
+too.  Dream women don't have cold feet, but if there is
+a girl living like that, and she is coming to us or waiting
+for us to come to her, we must have a comfortable home
+to offer.  There should be a bathroom, too.  She couldn't
+dip in the lake as we do.  And until we build the new
+house we must keep the old one clean, just on the chance
+of her happening on us.  She might be visiting some
+of the neighbours or come from town with some one
+or I might see her on the street or at the library or
+hospital or in some of the stores.  For the love of mercy,
+help me watch for her, Bel!  The half of my kingdom
+if you will point her for me!''
+
+The Harvester worked as he talked.  He set the rooms
+in order, put away the remains of breakfast, and started
+to the stable.  He turned back and stood for a long time,
+scanning the face in the kitchen mirror.  Once he went
+to the door, then he hesitated, and finally took out his
+shaving set and used it carefully and washed vigorously. 
+He pulled his shirt together at the throat, and hunting
+among his clothing, found an old red tie that he knotted
+around his neck.  This so changed his every-day appearance
+that he felt wonderfully dressed and whistled gaily
+on his way to the barn.  There he confided in the old
+gray mare as he curried and harnessed her to the spring
+wagon.
+
+``Hardly know me, do you, Betsy?'' he inquired. 
+``Well, I'll explain.  Our friend Bel, here, has doomed me
+to go courting this year.  Wouldn't that durnfound you? 
+I was mad as hornets at first, but since I've slept on the
+idea, I rather like it.  Maybe we are too lonely and dull. 
+Perhaps the right woman would make life a very different
+matter.  Last night I saw her, Betsy, and between
+us, I can't tell even you.  She was the loveliest, sweetest
+girl on earth, and that is all I can say.  We are going to
+watch for her to-day, and every trip we make, until
+we find her, if it requires a hundred years.  Then some
+glad time we are going to locate her, and when we do, well,
+you just keep your eye on us, Betsy, and you'll see how
+courting straight from the heart is done, even if we lack
+experience.''
+
+Intoxicated with new and delightful sensations his
+tongue worked faster than his hands.
+
+``I don't mind telling you, old faithful, that I am in
+love this morning,'' he said.  ``In love heels over, Betsy,
+for the first time in all my life.  If any man ever was a
+bigger fool than I am to-day, it would comfort me to
+know about it.  I am acting like an idiot, Betsy.  I know
+that, but I wish you could understand how I feel.  Power! 
+I am the head-waters of Niagara!  I could pluck down
+the stars and set them in different places!  I could twist
+the tail from the comet!  I could twirl the globe on my
+palm and topple mountains and wipe lakes from
+the surface!  I am a live man, Betsy.  Existence is over. 
+So don't you go at any tricks or I might pull off your
+head.  Betsy, if you see the tallest girl you ever saw,
+and she wears a dark diadem, and has big black eyes and
+a face so lovely it blinds you, why you have seen Her, and
+you balk, right on the spot, and stand like the rock of
+Gibraltar, until you make me see her, too.  As if I wouldn't
+know she was coming a mile away!  There's more I
+could tell you, but that is my secret, and it's too precious
+to talk about, even to my best friends.  Bel, bring Betsy
+to the store-room.''
+
+The Harvester tossed the hitching strap to the dog and
+walked down the driveway to a low structure built on
+the embankment beside the lake.  One end of it was a
+dry-house of his own construction.  Here, by an arrangement
+of hot water pipes, he evaporated many of the barks,
+roots, seeds, and leaves he grew to supply large concerns
+engaged in the manufacture of drugs.  By his process
+crude stock was thoroughly cured, yet did not lose in
+weight and colour as when dried in the sun or outdoor
+shade.
+
+So the Harvester was enabled to send his customers
+big packages of brightly coloured raw material, and the
+few cents per pound he asked in advance of the catalogued
+prices were paid eagerly.  He lived alone, and never
+talked of his work; so none of the harvesters of the fields
+adjoining dreamed of the extent of his reaping.  The
+idea had been his own.  He had been born in the cabin
+in which he now lived.  His father and grandfather
+were old-time hunters of skins and game.  They had
+added to their earnings by gathering in spring and fall
+the few medicinal seeds, leaves, and barks they knew. 
+His mother had been of different type.  She had
+loved and married the picturesque young hunter, and
+gone to live with him on the section of land taken
+by his father.  She found life, real life, vastly different
+from her girlhood dreams, but she was one of those
+changeless, unyielding women who suffer silently, but
+never rue a bargain, no matter how badly they are
+cheated.  Her only joy in life had been her son.  For
+him she had worked and saved unceasingly, and when
+he was old enough she sent him to the city to school
+and kept pace with him in the lessons he brought home
+at night.
+
+Using what she knew of her husband's work as a guide,
+and profiting by pamphlets published by the government,
+every hour of the time outside school and in
+summer vacations she worked in the woods with the boy,
+gathering herbs and roots to pay for his education and
+clothing.  So the son passed the full high-school course,
+and then, selecting such branches as interested him,
+continued his studies alone.
+
+From books and drug pamphlets he had learned every
+medicinal plant, shrub, and tree of his vicinity, and for
+years roamed far afield and through the woods collecting. 
+After his father's death expenses grew heavier and the
+boy saw that he must earn more money.  His mother
+frantically opposed his going to the city, so he thought out
+the plan of transplanting the stuff he gathered, to the
+land they owned and cultivating it there.  This work
+was well developed when he was twenty, but that year
+he lost his mother.
+
+From that time he went on steadily enlarging his
+species, transplanting trees, shrubs, vines, and medicinal
+herbs from such locations as he found them to similar
+conditions on his land.  Six years he had worked
+cultivating these beds, and hunting through the woods on
+the river banks, government land, the great Limberlost
+Swamp, and neglected corners of earth for barks and
+roots.  He occasionally made long trips across the
+country for rapidly diminishing plants he found in the
+woodland of men who did not care to bother with a few
+specimens, and many big beds of profitable herbs,
+extinct for miles around, now flourished on the banks of
+Loon Lake, in the marsh, and through the forest rising
+above.  To what extent and value his venture had grown,
+no one save the Harvester knew.  When his neighbours
+twitted him with being too lazy to plow and sow, of
+``mooning'' over books, and derisively sneered when they
+spoke of him as the Harvester of the Woods or the
+Medicine Man, David Langston smiled and went his way.
+
+How lonely he had been since the death of his mother
+he never realized until that morning when a new idea
+really had taken possession of him.  From the store-
+house he heaped packages of seeds, dried leaves, barks,
+and roots into the wagon.  But he kept a generous supply
+of each, for he prided himself on being able to fill all
+orders that reached him.  Yet the load he took to
+the city was much larger than usual.  As he drove
+down the hill and passed the cabin he studied the
+location.
+
+``The drainage is perfect,'' he said to Belshazzar beside
+him on the seat.  ``So is the situation.  We get the cool
+breezes from the lake in summer and the hillside warmth
+in winter.  View down the valley can't be surpassed.  We
+will grub out that thicket in front, move over the driveway,
+and build a couple of two-story rooms, with basement
+for cellar and furnace, and a bathroom in front of
+the cabin and use it with some fixing over for a dining-
+room and kitchen.  Then we will deepen and widen
+Singing Water, stick a bushel of bulbs and roots and
+sow a peck of flower seeds in the marsh, plant a hedge
+along the drive, and straighten the lake shore a little.  I
+can make a beautiful wild-flower garden and arrange
+so that with one season's work this will appear very
+well.  We will express this stuff and then select and fell
+some trees to-night.  Soon as the frost is out of the
+ground we will dig our basement and lay the foundations. 
+The neighbours will help me raise the logs; after that I
+can finish the inside work.  I've got some dried maple,
+cherry, and walnut logs that would work into beautiful
+furniture.  I haven't forgotten the prices McLean offered
+me.  I can use it as well as he.  Plain way the best
+things are built now, I believe I could make tables
+and couches myself.  I can see plans in the magazines
+at the library.  I'll take a look when I get this off.  I
+feel strong enough to do all of it in a few days and I am
+crazy to commence.  But I scarcely know where to begin. 
+There are about fifty things I'd like to do.  But to fell
+and dry the trees and get the walls up come first, I believe. 
+What do you think, old unreliable?''
+
+Belshazzar thought the world was a place of beauty
+that morning.  He sniffed the icy, odorous air and with
+tilted head watched the birds.  A wearied band of ducks
+had settled on Loon Lake to feed and rest, for there was
+nothing to disturb them.  Signs were numerous everywhere
+prohibiting hunters from firing over the Harvester's
+land.  Beside the lake, down the valley, crossing
+the railroad, and in the farther lowlands, the dog was a
+nervous quiver, as he constantly scented game or saw
+birds he wanted to point.  But when they neared the
+city, he sat silently watching everything with alert
+eyes.  As they reached the outer fringe of residences
+the Harvester spoke to him.
+
+``Now remember, Bel,'' he said.  ``Point me the
+tallest girl you ever saw, with a big braid of dark hair,
+shining black eyes, and red velvet lips, sweeter than wild
+crab apple blossoms.  Make a dead set!  Don't allow
+her to pass us.  Heaven is going to begin in Medicine
+Woods when we find her and prove to her that there
+lies her happy home.
+
+``When we find her,'' repeated the Harvester softly
+and exultantly.  ``When we find her!''
+
+He said it again and again, pronouncing the words with
+tender modulations.  Because he was chanting it in
+his soul, in his heart, in his brain, with his lips, he had a
+hasty glance for every woman he passed.  Light hair,
+blue eyes, and short figures got only casual inspection:
+but any tall girl with dark hair and eyes endured rather
+close scrutiny that morning.  He drove to the express
+office and delivered his packages and then to the hospital. 
+In the hall the blue-eyed nurse met him and cried gaily,
+``Good morning, Medicine Man!''
+
+``Ugh!  I scalp pale-faces!'' threatened the Harvester,
+but the girl was not afraid and stood before him laughing. 
+She might have gone her way quite as well.  She could
+not have differed more from the girl of the newly begun
+quest.  The man merely touched his wide-brimmed hat
+as he walked around her and entered the office of the
+chief surgeon.
+
+A slender, gray-eyed man with white hair turned from
+his desk, smiled warmly, pushed a chair, and reached a
+welcoming hand.
+
+``Ah good-morning, David,'' he cried.  ``You bring
+the very breath of spring with you.  Are you at the
+maples yet?''
+
+``Begin to-morrow,'' was the answer.  ``I want to get
+all my old stock off hands.  Sugar water comes next,
+and then the giddy sassafras and spring roots rush me,
+and after that, harvest begins full force, and all my land
+is teeming.  This is going to be a big year.  Everything
+is sufficiently advanced to be worth while.  I have
+decided to enlarge the buildings.''
+
+``Store-room too small?''
+
+``Everything!'' said the Harvester comprehensively. 
+``I am crowded everywhere.''
+
+The keen gray eyes bent on him searchingly.
+
+``Ho, ho!'' laughed the doctor.  `` `Crowded everywhere.' 
+I had not heard of cramped living quarters
+before.  When did you meet her?''
+
+``Last night,'' replied the Harvester.  ``Her home is
+already in construction.  I chose seven trees as I drove
+here that are going to fall before night.''
+
+So casual was the tone the doctor was disarmed.
+
+``I am trying your nerve remedy,'' he said.
+
+Instantly the Harvester tingled with interest.
+
+``How does it work?'' he inquired.
+
+``Finely!  Had a case that presented just the symptoms
+you mentioned.  High-school girl broken down
+from trying to lead her classes, lead her fraternity, lead
+her parents, lead society----the Lord only knows what
+else.  Gone all to pieces!  Pretty a case of nervous
+prostration as you ever saw in a person of fifty.  I began
+on fractional doses with it, and at last got her where she
+can rest.  It did precisely what you claimed it would,
+David.''
+
+``Good!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Good!  I hoped it
+would be effective.  Thank you for the test.  It will
+give me confidence when I go before the chemists with it. 
+I've got a couple more compounds I wish you would
+try when you have safe cases where you can do no harm.''
+
+``You are cautious for a young man, son!''
+
+``The woods do that.  You not only discover miracles
+and marvels in them, you not only trace evolution and the
+origin of species, but you get the greatest lessons taught
+in all the world ground into you early and alone----
+courage, caution, and patience.''
+
+``Those are the rocks on which men are stranded as a
+rule.  You think you can breast them, David?''
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+``Aside from breaking a certain promise mother rooted
+in the blood and bones of me, if I am afraid of anything,
+I don't know it.  You don't often see me going head-
+long, do you?  As to patience!  Ten years ago I began
+removing every tree, bush, vine, and plant of medicinal
+value from the woods around to my land; I set and sowed
+acres in ginseng, knowing I must nurse, tend, and cultivate
+seven years.  If my neighbours had understood
+what I was attempting, what do you think they would
+have said?  Cranky and lazy would have become adjectives
+too mild.  Lunatic would have expressed it better. 
+That's close the general opinion, anyway.  Because I
+will not fell my trees, and the woods hide the work I do,
+it is generally conceded that I spend my time in the sun
+reading a book.  I do, as often as I have an opportunity. 
+But the point is that this fall, when I harvest that ginseng
+bed, I will clear more money than my stiffest detractor
+ever saw at one time.  I'll wager my bank account won't
+compare so unfavourably with the best of them now. 
+I did well this morning.  Yes, I'll admit this much: 
+I am reasonably cautious, I'm a pattern for patience,
+and my courage never has failed me yet, anyway.  But
+I must rap on wood; for that boast is a sign that I probably
+will meet my Jonah soon.''
+
+``David, you are a man after my own heart,'' said the
+doctor.  ``I love you more than any other friend I have
+I wouldn't see a hair of your head changed for the world. 
+Now I've got to hurry to my operation.  Remain as
+long as you please if there is anything that interests you;
+but don't let the giggling little nurse that always haunts
+the hall when you come make any impression.  She is
+not up to your standard.''
+
+``Don't!'' said the Harvester.  ``I've learned one of
+the big lessons of life since last I saw you, Doc.  I have
+no standard.  There is just one woman in all the world
+for me, and when I find her I will know her, and I will
+be happy for even a glance; as for that talk of standards,
+I will be only too glad to take her as she is.''
+
+``David!  I supposed what you said about enlarged
+buildings was nonsense or applied to store-rooms.''
+
+``Go to your operation!''
+
+``David, if you send me in suspense, I may operate
+on the wrong man.  What has happened?''
+
+``Nothing!'' said the Harvester.  ``Nothing!''
+
+``David, it is not like you to evade.  What happened?''
+
+``Nothing!  On my word!  I merely saw a vision and
+dreamed a dream.''
+
+``You!  A rank materialist!  Saw a vision and
+dreamed a dream!  And you call it nothing.  Worst
+thing that could happen!  Whenever a man of common-
+sense goes to seeing things that don't exist, and dreaming
+dreams, why look out!  What did you see?  What did
+you dream?''
+
+``You woman!'' laughed the Harvester.  ``Talk about
+curiosity!  I'd have to be a poet to describe my vision,
+and the dream was strictly private.  I couldn't tell it,
+not for any price you could mention.  Go to your operation.''
+
+The doctor paused on the threshold.
+
+``You can't fool me,'' he said.  ``I can diagnose you
+all right.  You are poet enough, but the vision was
+sacred; and when a man won't tell, it's always and forever
+a woman.  I know all now I ever will, because I know
+you, David.  A man with a loose mouth and a low mind
+drags the women of his acquaintance through whatever
+mire he sinks in; but you couldn't tell, David, not even
+about a dream woman.  Come again soon!  You are
+my elixir of life, lad!  I revel in the atmosphere you bring. 
+Wish me success now, I am going to a difficult, delicate
+operation.''
+
+``I do!'' cried the Harvester heartily.  ``I do!  But
+you can't fail.  You never have and that proves you
+cannot!  Good-bye!''
+
+Down the street went the Harvester, passing over city
+pave with his free, swinging stride, his head high, his
+face flushed with vivid outdoor tints, going somewhere
+to do something worth while, the impression always left
+behind him.  Men envied his robust appearance and
+women looked twice, always twice, and sometimes
+oftener if there was any opportunity; but twice at least
+was the rule.  He left a little roll of bills at the bank and
+started toward the library.  When he entered the reading
+room an attendant with an eager smile hastily came toward him.
+
+``What will you have this morning, Mr. Langston?'' she
+asked in the voice of one who would render willing service.
+
+``Not the big books to-day,'' laughed the Harvester. 
+``I've only a short time.  I'll glance through the magazines.''
+
+He selected several from a table and going to a corner
+settled with them and for two hours was deeply engrossed. 
+He took an envelope from his pocket, traced lines, and
+read intently.  He studied the placing of rooms, the
+construction of furniture, and all attractive ideas were
+noted.  When at last he arose the attendant went to
+replace the magazines on the table.  They had been
+opened widely, and as she turned the leaves they
+naturally fell apart at the plans for houses or articles
+of furniture.
+
+The Harvester slowly went down the street.  Before
+every furniture store he paused and studied the designs
+displayed in the windows.  Then he untied Betsy and
+drove to a lumber mill on the outskirts of the city and
+made arrangements to have some freshly felled logs of
+black walnut and curly maple sawed into different sizes
+and put through a course in drying.
+
+He drove back to Medicine Woods whistling, singing,
+and talking to Belshazzar beside him.  He ate a hasty
+lunch and at three o'clock was in the forest, blazing and
+felling slender, straight-trunked oak and ash of the
+desired proportions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HARVESTING THE FOREST
+
+
+The forest is never so wonderful as when spring
+wrestles with winter for supremacy.  While
+the earth is yet ice bound, while snows occasionally
+fly, spring breathes her warmer breath of
+approach, and all nature responds.  Sunny knolls,
+embankments, and cleared spaces become bare, while shadow
+spots and sheltered nooks remain white.  This perfumes
+the icy air with a warmer breath of melting snow.  The
+sap rises in the trees and bushes, sets buds swelling, and
+they distil a faint, intangible odour.  Deep layers of
+dead leaves cover the frozen earth, and the sun shining
+on them raises a steamy vapour unlike anything else in
+nature.  A different scent rises from earth where the
+sun strikes it.  Lichen faces take on the brightest colours
+they ever wear, and rough, coarse mosses emerge in rank
+growth from their cover of snow and add another perfume
+to mellowing air.  This combination has breathed a
+strange intoxication into the breast of mankind in all
+ages, and bird and animal life prove by their actions that
+it makes the same appeal to them.
+
+Crows caw supremacy from tall trees; flickers, drunk
+on the wine of nature, flash their yellow-lined wings
+and red crowns among trees in a search for suitable
+building places; nut-hatches run head foremost down
+rough trunks, spying out larvae and early emerging insects;
+titmice chatter; the bold, clear whistle of the cardinal
+sounds never so gaily; and song sparrows pipe from every
+wayside shrub and fence post.  Coons and opossums
+stir in their dens, musk-rat and ground-hog inspect the
+weather, while squirrels race along branches and bound
+from tree to tree like winged folk.
+
+All of them could have outlined the holdings of the
+Harvester almost as well as any surveyor.  They understood
+where the bang of guns and the snap of traps
+menaced life.  Best of all, they knew where cracked
+nuts, handfuls of wheat, oats, and crumbs were scattered
+on the ground, and where suet bones dangled from bushes. 
+Here, too, the last sheaf from the small wheat field at the
+foot of the hill was stoutly fixed on a high pole, so that
+the grain was free to all feathered visitors.
+
+When the Harvester hitched Betsy, loaded his spiles
+and sap buckets into the wagon, and started to the
+woods to gather the offering the wet maples were pouring
+down their swelling sides, almost his entire family came
+to see him.  They knew who fed and passed every day
+among them, and so were unafraid.
+
+After the familiarity of a long, cold winter, when it had
+been easier to pick up scattered food than to search for
+it, they became so friendly with the man, the dog, and
+the gray horse that they hastily snatched the food offered
+at the barn and then followed through the woods.  The
+Harvester always was particular to wear large pockets,
+for it was good company to have living creatures flocking
+after him, trusting to his bounty.  Ajax, a shimmering
+wonder of gorgeous feathers, sunned on the ridge pole
+of the old log stable, preened, spread his train, and uttered
+the peacock cry of defiance, to exercise his voice or to
+express his emotions at all times.  But at feeding hour
+he descended to the park and snatched bites from the
+biggest turkey cocks and ganders and reigned in power
+absolute over ducks, guineas, and chickens.  Then he
+followed to the barn and tried to frighten crows and
+jays, and the gentle white doves under the eaves.
+
+The Harvester walked through deep leaves and snow
+covering the road that only a forester could have
+distinguished.  Over his shoulder he carried a mattock,
+and in the wagon were his clippers and an ax.  Behind
+him came Betsy drawing the sap buckets and big evaporating
+kettles.  Through the wood ranged Belshazzar,
+the craziest dog in all creation.  He always went wild
+at sap time.  Here was none of the monotony of trapping
+for skins around the lake.  This marked the first full
+day in the woods for the season.  He ranged as he pleased
+and came for a pat or a look of confidence when he grew
+lonely, while the Harvester worked.
+
+At camp the man unhitched Betsy and tied her to the
+wagon and for several hours distributed buckets.  Then
+he hung the kettles and gathered wood for the fire.  At
+noon he returned to the cabin for lunch and brought back
+a load of empty syrup cans, and barrels in which to
+collect the sap.  While the buckets filled at the dripping
+trees, he dug roots in the sassafras thicket to fill orders
+and supply the demand of Onabasha for tea.  Several
+times he stopped to cut an especially fine tree.
+
+``You know I hate to kill you,'' he apologized to the
+first one he felled.  ``But it certainly must be legitimate
+for a man to take enough of his trees to build a
+home.  And no other house is possible for a creature of
+the woods but a cabin, is there?  The birds use of the
+material they find here; surely I have the right to do the
+same.  Seems as if nothing else would serve, at least for
+me.  I was born and reared here, I've always loved
+you; of course, I can't use anything else for my home.''
+
+He swung the ax and the chips flew as he worked on
+a straight half-grown oak.  After a time he paused an
+instant and rested, and as he did so he looked speculatively
+at his work.
+
+``I wonder where she is to-day,'' he said.  ``I wonder
+what she is going to think of a log cabin in the woods. 
+Maybe she has been reared in the city and is afraid of a
+forest.  She may not like houses made of logs.  Possibly
+she won't want to marry a Medicine Man.  She may
+dislike the man, not to mention his occupation.  She may
+think it coarse and common to work out of doors with
+your hands, although I'd have to argue there is a little
+brain in the combination.  I must figure out all these
+things.  But there is one on the lady:  She should have
+settled these points before she became quite so familiar. 
+I have that for a foundation anyway, so I'll go on cutting
+wood, and the remainder will be up to her when I find
+her.  When I find her,'' repeated the Harvester slowly. 
+``But I am not going to locate her very soon monkeying
+around in these woods.  I should be out where people
+are, looking for her right now.''
+
+He chopped steadily until the tree crashed over, and
+then, noticing a rapidly filling bucket, he struck the ax
+in the wood and began gathering sap.  When he had
+made the round, he drove to the camp, filled the kettles,
+and lighted the fire.  While it started he cut and scraped
+sassafras roots, and made clippings of tag alder, spice
+brush and white willow into big bundles that were ready
+to have the bark removed during the night watch, and
+then cured in the dry-house.
+
+He went home at evening to feed the poultry and
+replenish the ever-burning fire of the engine and to
+keep the cabin warm enough that food would not freeze. 
+With an oilcloth and blankets he returned to camp and
+throughout the night tended the buckets and boiling
+sap, and worked or dozed by the fire between times. 
+Toward the end of boiling, when the sap was becoming
+thick, it had to be watched with especial care so it would
+not scorch.  But when the kettles were freshly filled
+the Harvester sat beside them and carefully split tender
+twigs of willow and slipped off the bark ready to be
+spread on the trays.
+
+``You are a good tonic,'' he mused as he worked,
+``and you go into some of the medicine for rheumatism. 
+If she ever has it we will give her some of you, and
+then she will be all right again.  Strange that I should
+be preparing medicinal bark by the sugar camp fire,
+but I have to make this hay, not while the sun shines,
+but when the bark is loose, while the sap is rising.  Wonder
+who will use this.  Depends largely on where I sell it. 
+Anyway, I hope it will take the pain out of some poor
+body.  Prices so low now, not worth gathering unless
+I can kill time on it while waiting for something else. 
+Never got over seven cents a pound for the best I ever
+sold, and it takes a heap of these little quills to make a
+pound when they are dry.  That's all of you----about
+twenty-five cents' worth.  But even that is better than
+doing nothing while I wait, and some one has to keep the
+doctors supplied with salicin and tannin, so, if I do,
+other folks needn't bother.''
+
+He arose and poured more sap into the kettles as it
+boiled away and replenished the fire.  He nibbled a twig
+when he began on the spice brush.  As he sat on the
+piled wood, and bent over his work he was an attractive
+figure.  His face shone with health and was bright with
+anticipation.  While he split the tender bark and slipped
+out the wood he spoke his thoughts slowly:
+
+``The five cents a pound I'll get for you is even less,
+but I love the fragrance and taste.  You don't peel so
+easy as the willow, but I like to prepare you better,
+because you will make some miserable little sick child well
+or you may cool some one's fevered blood.  If ever she
+has a fever, I hope she will take medicine made from my
+bark, because it will be strong and pure.  I've half a
+notion to set some one else gathering the stuff and tending
+the plants and spend my time in the little laboratory
+compounding different combinations.  I don't see what
+bigger thing a man can do than to combine pure, clean,
+unadulterated roots and barks into medicines that will
+cool fevers, stop chills, and purify bad blood.  The
+doctors may be all right, but what are they going to do
+if we men behind the prescription cases don't supply them
+with unadulterated drugs.  Answer me that, Mr. Sapsucker. 
+Doc says I've done mighty well so far as I
+have gone.  I can't think of a thing on earth I'd rather
+do, and there's money no end in it.  I could get too rich
+for comfort in short order.  I wouldn't be too wealthy
+to live just the way I do for any consideration.  I don't
+know about her, though.  She is lovely, and handsome
+women usually want beautiful clothing, and a quantity
+of things that cost no end of money.  I may need all I
+can get, for her.  One never can tell.''
+
+He arose to stir the sap and pour more from the barrels
+to the kettles before he began on the tag alder he had
+gathered.
+
+``If it is all the same to you, I'll just keep on chewing
+spice brush while I work,'' he muttered.  ``You are
+entirely too much of an astringent to suit my taste and
+you bring a cent less a pound.  But you are thicker and
+dry heavier, and you grow in any quantity around the
+lake and on the marshy places, so I'll make the size of
+the bundle atone for the price.  If I peel you while I wait
+on the sap I'm that much ahead.  I can spread you on
+drying trays in a few seconds and there you are.  Howl
+your head off, Bel, I don't care what you have found.  I
+wouldn't shoot anything to-day, unless the cupboard was
+bare and I was starvation hungry.  In that case I think
+a man comes first, and I'd kill a squirrel or quail in season,
+but blest if I'd butcher a lot or do it often.  Vegetables
+and bread are better anyway.  You peel easier even than
+the willow.  What jolly whistles father used to make! 
+
+``There was about twenty cents' worth of spice, and
+I'll easy raise it to a dollar on this.  I'll get a hundred
+gallons of syrup in the coming two weeks and it will
+bring one fifty if I boil and strain it carefully and can
+guarantee it contains no hickory bark and brown sugar. 
+And it won't!  Straight for me or not at all.  Pure is
+the word at Medicine Woods; syrup or drugs it's the same
+thing.  Between times I can fell every tree I'll need for
+the new cabin, and average a dollar a day besides on spice,
+alder, and willow, and twice that for sassafras for the
+Onabasha markets; not to mention the quantities I
+can dry this year.  Aside from spring tea, they seem
+to use it for everything.  I never yet have had enough. 
+It goes into half the tonics, anodyne, and stimulants;
+also soap and candy.  I see where I grow rich in spite of
+myself, and also where my harvest is going to spoil
+before I can garner it, if I don't step lively and double
+even more than I am now.  Where the cabin is to come
+in----well it must come if everything else goes.
+
+``The roots can wait and I'll dig them next year and
+get more and larger pieces.  I won't really lose anything,
+and if she should come before I am ready to start to find
+her, why then I'll have her home prepared.  How long
+before you begin your house, old fire-fly?'' he inquired
+of a flaming cardinal tilting on a twig.
+
+He arose to make the round of the sap buckets again,
+then resumed his work peeling bark, and so the time
+passed.  In the following ten days he collected and
+boiled enough sap to make more syrup than he had
+expected.  His earliest spring store of medicinal twigs,
+that were peeled to dry in quills, were all collected and
+on the trays; he had digged several wagon loads of sassafras
+and felled all the logs of stout, slender oak he would
+require for his walls.  Choice timber he had been curing
+for candlestick material he hauled to the saw-mills to
+have cut properly, for the thought of trying his hand
+at tables and chairs had taken possession of him.  He
+was sure he could make furniture that would appear
+quite as well as the mission pieces he admired on display
+in the store windows of the city.  To him, chairs and
+tables made from trees that grew on land that had
+belonged for three generations to his ancestors, trees among
+which he had grown, played, and worked, trees that
+were so much his friends that he carefully explained
+the situation to them before using an ax or saw, trees
+that he had cut, cured, and fashioned into designs of his
+own, would make vastly more valuable furnishings in his
+home than anything that could be purchased in the city.
+
+As he drove back and forth he watched constantly
+for her.  He was working so desperately, planning far
+ahead, doubling and trebling tasks, trying to do everything
+his profession demanded in season, and to prepare
+timber and make plans for the new cabin, as well as to
+start a pair of candlesticks of marvellous design for her,
+that night was one long, unbroken sleep of the thoroughly
+tired man, but day had become a delightful dream.
+
+He fed the chickens to produce eggs for her.  He
+gathered barks and sluiced roots on the raft in the lake,
+for her.  He grubbed the spice thicket before the door
+and moved it into the woods to make space for a lawn,
+for her.  His eyes were wide open for every woven case
+and dangling cocoon of the big night moths that propagated
+around him, for her.  Every night when he left
+the woods from one to a dozen cocoons, that he had
+detected with remarkable ease while the trees were bare,
+were stuck in his hat band.  As he arranged them in a
+cool, dry place he talked to them.
+
+``Of course I know you are valuable and there are
+collectors who would pay well for you, but I think not. 
+You are the prettiest thing God made that I ever saw,
+and those of you that home with me have no price on
+your wings.  You are much safer here than among the
+crows and jays of the woods.  I am gathering you to
+protect you, and to show to her.  If I don't find her by
+June, you may go scot free.  All I want is the best pattern
+I can get from some of you for candlestick designs. 
+Of everything in the whole world a candlestick should
+be made of wood.  It should be carved by hand, and
+of all ornamentations on earth the moth that flies to
+the night light is the most appropriate.  Owls are not
+so bad.  They are of the night, and they fly to light,
+too, but they are so old.  Nobody I ever have known
+used a moth.  They missed the best when they neglected
+them.  I'll make her sticks over an original pattern;
+I'll twine nightshade vines, with flowers and berries
+around them, and put a trailed luna on one, and what
+is the next prettiest for the other?  I'll think well before
+if decide.  Maybe she'll come by the time I get to carving
+and tell me what she likes.  That would beat my taste
+or guessing a mile.''
+
+He carefully arranged the twigs bearing cocoons in a
+big, wire-covered box to protect them from the depredations
+of nibbling mice and the bolder attacks of the
+saucy ground squirrels that stored nuts in his loft and
+took possession of the attic until their scampering
+sometimes awoke him in the night.
+
+Every trip he made to the city he stopped at the
+library to examine plans of buildings and furniture and
+to make notes.  The oak he had hauled was being hewed
+into shape by a neighbour who knew how, and every
+wagon that carried a log to the city to be dressed at
+the mill brought back timber for side walls, joists, and
+rafters.  Night after night he sat late poring over his
+plans for the new rooms, above all for her chamber. 
+With poised pencil he wavered over where to put the
+closet and entrance to her bath.  He figured on how wide
+to make her bed and where it should stand.  He remembered
+her dressing table in placing windows and a space
+for a chest of drawers.  In fact there was nothing the
+active mind of the Harvester did not busy itself with
+in those days that might make a woman a comfortable
+home.  Every thought emanated from impulses evolved
+in his life in the woods, and each was executed with
+mighty tenderness.
+
+A killdeer sweeping the lake close two o'clock one
+morning awakened him.  He had planned to close the
+sugar camp for the season that day, but when he heard
+the notes of the loved bird he wondered if that would
+not be a good time to stake out the foundations and
+begin digging.  There was yet ice in the ground, but the
+hillside was rapidly thawing, and although the work
+would be easier later, so eager was the Harvester to have
+walls up and a roof over that he decided to commence.
+
+But when morning came and he and Belshazzar
+breakfasted and fed Betsy and the stock, he concluded to
+return to his first plan and close the camp.  All the sap
+collected that day went into the vinegar barrel.  He
+loaded the kettles, buckets, and spiles and stopped at
+the spice thicket to cut a bale of twigs as he passed.  He
+carried one load to the wagon and returned for another. 
+Down wind on swift wing came a bird and entered the
+bushes.  Motionless the Harvester peered at it.  A
+mourning dove had returned to him through snow,
+skifting over cold earth.  It settled on a limb and began
+dressing its plumage.  At that instant a wavering, ``Coo
+coo a'gh coo,'' broke in sobbing notes from the deep
+wood.  Without paying the slightest heed, the dove
+finished a wing, ruffled and settled her feathers, and
+opened her bill in a human-like yawn.  The Harvester
+smiled.  The notes swelled closer in renewed pleading. 
+The cry was beyond doubt a courting male and this
+an indifferent female.  Her beady eyes snapped, her
+head turned coquettishly, a picture of self-possession,
+she hid among the dense twigs of the spice thicket. 
+Around the outside circled the pleading male.
+
+With shining eyes the Harvester watched.  These
+were of the things that made life in the woods most worth
+while.  More insistent grew the wavering notes of the
+lover.  More indifferent became the beloved.  She was
+superb in her poise as she amused herself in hiding.  A
+perfect burst of confused, sobbing notes broke on the
+air.  Then away in the deep wood a softly-wavering,
+half-questioning ``Coo-ah!'' answered them.  Amazement
+flashed into the eyes of the Harvester, but his face
+was not nearly so expressive as that of the bird.  She
+lifted a bewildered head and grew rigid in an attitude of
+tense listening.  There was a pause.  In quicker measure
+and crowding notes the male called again.  Instantly
+the soft ``Coo!'' wavered in answer.  The surprised
+little hen bird of the thicket hopped straight up and
+settled on her perch again, her dark eyes indignant as
+she uttered a short ``Coo!''  The muscles of the
+Harvester's chest were beginning to twitch and quiver. 
+More intense grew the notes of the pleading male.  Softly
+seductive came the reply.  The clapping of his wings
+could be heard as he flew in search of the charmer.  ``A'gh
+coo!'' cried the deserted female as she tilted off the branch
+and tore through the thicket in pursuit, with wings hastened
+by fright at the ringing laugh of the Harvester.
+
+``Not so indifferent after all, Bel,'' he said to the dog
+standing in stiff point beside him.  ``That was all `pretend!' 
+But she waited just a trifle too long.  Now she
+will have to fight it out with a rival.  Good thing if
+some of the flirtatious women could have seen that. 
+Help them to learn their own minds sooner.''
+
+He laughed as he heaped the twigs on top of the wagon
+and started down the hill chuckling.  Belshazzar followed,
+leading Betsy straight in the middle of the road by the
+hitching strap.  A few yards ahead the man stopped
+suddenly with lifted hand.  The dog and horse stood
+motionless.  A dove flashed across the road and settled
+in sight on a limb.  Almost simultaneously another
+perched beside it, and they locked bills in a long caress,
+utterly heedless of a plaintive ``Coo'' in the deep wood.
+
+``Settled!'' said the Harvester.  ``Jupiter!  I wish my
+troubles were that nearly finished!  Wish I knew where
+she is and how to find my way to her lips!  Wonder if
+she will come when I call her.  What if I should find her,
+and she would have everything on earth, other lovers,
+and indifference worse than Madam Dove's for me. 
+Talk about bitterness!  Well I'd have the dream left
+anyway.  And there are always two sides.  There is
+just a possibility that she may be poor and overworked,
+sick and tired, and wondering why I don't come.  Possibly
+she had a dream, too, and she wishes I would hurry. 
+Dear Lord!''
+
+The Harvester began to perspire as he strode down
+the hill.  He scarcely waited to hang the harness properly. 
+He did not stop to unload the wagon until night,
+but went after an ax and a board that he split into pegs. 
+Then he took a ball of twine, a measuring line, and
+began laying out his foundation, when the hard earth
+would scarcely hold the stakes he drove into it.  When
+he found he only would waste time in digging he put
+away the neatly washed kettles, peeled the spice brush,
+spread it to dry, and prepared his dinner.  After that
+he began hauling stone and cement for his basement
+floor and foundation walls.  Occasionally he helped at
+hewing logs when the old man paused to rest.  That afternoon
+the first robin of the season hailed him in passing.
+
+``Hello!'' cried the Harvester.  ``You don't mean
+to tell me that you have beaten the larks!  You really
+have!  Well since I see it, I must believe, but you are
+early.  Come around to the back door if crumbs or wheat
+will do or if you can make out on suet and meat bones! 
+We are good and ready for you.  Where is your mate? 
+For any sake, don't tell me you don't know.  One case
+of that kind at Medicine Woods is enough.  Say you
+came ahead to see if it is too cold or to select a home and
+get ready for her.  Say anything on earth except that
+you love her, and want her until your body is one quivering
+ache, and you don't know where she is.''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A COMMISSION FOR THE SOUTH WIND
+
+The next morning the larks trailed ecstasy all
+over the valley, the following day cuckoos were
+calling in the thickets, a warm wind swept
+from the south and set swollen buds bursting, while
+the sun shone, causing the Harvester to rejoice.  Betsy's
+white coat was splashed with the mud of the valley road;
+the feet of Belshazzar left tracks over lumber piles;
+and the Harvester removed his muck-covered shoes at
+the door and wore slippers inside.  The skunk cabbage
+appeared around the edge of the forest, rank mullein and
+thistles lay over the fields in big circles of green, and
+even plants of delicate growth were thrusting their
+heads through mellowing earth and dead leaves, to reach
+light and air.
+
+Then the Harvester took his mattock and began to
+dig.  His level best fell so far short of what he felt capable
+of doing and desired to accomplish that the following day
+he put two more men on the job.  Then the earth did
+fly, and so soon as the required space was excavated the
+walls were lined with stone and a smooth basement
+floor was made of cement.  The night the new home stood,
+a skeleton of joists and rafters, gleaming whitely on the
+banks of Loon Lake, the Harvester went to the bridge
+crossing Singing Water and slowly came up the driveway
+to see how the work appeared.  He caught his breath
+as he advanced.  He had intended to stake out generous
+rooms, but this, compared with the cabin, seemed like
+a big hotel.
+
+``I hope I haven't made it so large it will be a burden,''
+he soliloquized.  ``It's huge!  But while I am at it I
+want to build big enough, and I think I have.''
+
+He stood on the driveway, his arms folded, and looked
+at the structure as he occasionally voiced his thoughts.
+
+``The next thing is to lay up the side walls and get
+the roof over.  Got to have plenty of help, for those
+logs are hewed to fourteen inches square and some of
+them are forty feet long.  That's timber!  Grew with
+me, too.  Personally acquainted with almost every
+tree of it.  We will bed them in cement, use care with
+the roof, and if that doesn't make a cool house in the
+summer, and a warm one in winter, I'll be disappointed. 
+It sets among the trees, and on the hillside just right. 
+We must have a wide porch, plenty of flowers, vines,
+ferns, and mosses, and when I get everything finished
+and she sees it----perhaps it will please her.''
+
+A great horned owl swept down the hill, crossed
+the lake, and hooted from the forest of the opposite
+bank.  The Harvester thought of his dream and turned.
+
+``Any women walking the water to-night?  Come if
+you like,'' he bantered, ``I don't mind in the least.  In 
+fact, I'd rather enjoy it.  I'd be so happy if you would
+come now and tell me how this appears to you, for it's
+all yours.  I'd have enlarged the store-room, dry-houses
+and laboratory for myself, but this cabin, never!  The
+old one suited me as it was; but for you----I should have
+a better home.''
+
+The Harvester glanced from the shining skeleton to
+the bridge of gold and back again.
+
+``Where are you to-night?'' he questioned.  ``What
+are you doing?  Can't you give me a hint of where to
+search for you when this is ready?  I don't know but I
+am beginning wrong.  My little brothers of the wood
+do differently.  They announce their intentions the
+first thing, flaunt their attractions, and display their
+strength.  They say aloud, for all the listening world to
+hear, what is in their hearts.  They chip, chirp, and sing,
+warble, whistle, thrill, scream, and hoot it.  They are
+strong on self-expression, and appreciative of their
+appearance.  They meet, court, mate, and THEN build their
+home together after a mutual plan.  It's a good way,
+too!  Lots surer of getting things satisfactory.''
+
+The Harvester sat on a lumber pile and gazed questioningly
+at the framework.
+
+``I wish I knew if I am going at things right,'' he said. 
+``There are two sides to consider.  If she is in a good
+home, and lovingly cared for, it would be proper to court
+her and get her promise, if I could----no I'm blest if I'll
+be so modest----get her promise, as I said, and let her
+wait while I build the cabin.  But if she should be poor,
+tired, and neglected, then I ought to have this ready when
+I find her, so I could pick her up and bring her to it,
+with no more ceremony than the birds.''
+
+The Harvester's clear skin flushed crimson.
+
+``Of course, I don't mean no wedding ceremony,''
+he amended.  ``I was thinking of a long time wasted in
+preliminaries when in my soul I know I am going to marry
+my Dream Girl before I ever have seen her in reality. 
+What would be the use in spending much time in courting? 
+She is my wife now, by every law of God.  Let
+me get a glimpse of her, and I'll prove it.  But I've got
+to make tracks, for if she were here, where would I put
+her?  I must hurry!''
+
+He went to the work room and began polishing a table
+top.  He had bought a chest of tools and was spending
+every spare minute on tables, chair seats, and legs.
+He had decided to make these first and carve candlesticks
+later when he had more time.  Two hours he
+worked at the furniture, and then went to bed.  The
+following morning he put eggs under several hens that
+wanted to set, trimmed his grape-vines, examined the
+precious ginseng beds, attended his stock, got breakfast
+for Belshazzar and himself, and was ready for work when
+the first carpenter arrived.  Laying hewed logs went
+speedily, and before the Harvester believed it possible
+the big shingles he had ordered were being nailed on the
+roof.  Then came the plumber and arranged for the
+bathroom, and the furnace man placed the heating pipes. 
+The Harvester had intended the cabin to be mostly the
+work of his own hands, but when he saw how rapidly
+skilled carpenters worked, he changed his mind and
+had them finish the living-room, his room, and the
+upstairs, and make over the dining-room and kitchen.
+
+Her room he worked on alone, with a little help if
+he did not know how to join the different parts.  Every
+thing was plain and simple, after plans of his own, but
+the Harvester laid floors and made window casings,
+seats, and doors of wood that the big factories of Grand
+Rapids used in veneering their finest furniture.  When
+one of his carpenters pointed out this to him, and
+suggested that he sell his lumber to McLean and use
+pine flooring from the mills the Harvester laughed
+at him.
+
+``I don't say that I could afford to buy burl maple,
+walnut, and cherry for wood-work,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I could not, but since I have it, you can stake your life
+I won't sell it and build my home of cheap, rapidly
+decaying wood.  The best I have goes into this cabin
+and what remains will do to sell.  I have an idea that when
+this is done it is going to appear first rate.  Anyway, it
+will be solid enough to last a thousand years, and with
+every day of use natural wood grows more beautiful. 
+When we get some tables, couches, and chairs made
+from the same timber as the casings and the floors, I
+think it will be fine.  I want money, but I don't want it
+bad enough to part with the BEST of anything I have for
+it.  Go carefully and neatly there; it will have to be
+changed if you don't.''
+
+So the work progressed rapidly.  When the carpenters
+had finished the last stroke on the big veranda
+they remained a day more and made flower boxes, and a
+swinging couch, and then the greedy Harvester kept
+the best man with him a week longer to help on the
+furniture.
+
+``Ain't you going to say a word about her, Langston?''
+asked this man as they put a mirror-like surface on a
+curly maple dressing table top.
+
+``Her!'' ejaculated the Harvester.  ``What do you
+mean?''
+
+``I haven't seen you bathe anywhere except in the
+lake since I have been here,'' said the carpenter.  ``Do
+you want me to think that a porcelain tub, this big
+closet, and chest of drawers are for you?''
+
+A wave of crimson swept over the Harvester.
+
+``No, they are not for me,'' he said simply.  ``I don't
+want to be any more different from other men than I
+can help, although I know that life in the woods, the
+rigid training of my mother, and the reading of only
+the books that would aid in my work have made me
+individual in many of my thoughts and ways.  I suppose
+most men, just now, would tell you anything you want
+to know.  There is only one thing I can say:  The
+best of my soul and brain, the best of my woods and
+store-house, the best I can buy with money is not good
+enough for her.  That's all.  For myself, I am getting
+ready to marry, of course.  I think all normal men do
+and that it is a matter of plain common-sense that they
+should.  Life with the right woman must be infinitely
+broader and better than alone.  Are you married?''
+
+``Yes.  Got a wife and four children.''
+
+``Are you sorry?''
+
+``Sorry!'' the carpenter shrilled the word.  ``Sorry! 
+Well that's the best I ever heard!  Am I sorry I married
+Nell and got the kids?  Do I look sorry?''
+
+``I am not expecting to be, either,'' said the Harvester
+calmly.  ``I think I have done fairly well to stick to my
+work and live alone until I am twenty-six.  I have
+thought the thing all over and made up my mind.  As
+soon as I get this house far enough along that I feel I can
+proceed alone I am going to rush the marrying business
+just as fast as I can, and let her finish the remainder to
+her liking.''
+
+``Well this ought to please her.''
+
+``That's because you find your own work good,''
+laughed the Harvester.
+
+``Not altogether!''  The carpenter polished the board
+and stood it on end to examine the surface as he talked. 
+``Not altogether!  Nothing but good work would suit
+you.  I was thinking of the little creek splashing down
+the hill to the lake; and that old log hewer said that in
+a few more days things here would be a blaze of colour
+until fall.''
+
+``Almost all the drug plants and bushes leaf beautifully
+and flower brilliantly,'' explained the Harvester. 
+``I studied the location suitable to each variety before I
+set the beds and planned how to grow plants for continuity 
+of bloom, and as much harmony of colour as possible. 
+Of course a landscape gardener would tear up some of
+it, but seen as a whole it isn't so bad.  Did you ever
+notice that in the open, with God's blue overhead and
+His green for a background, He can place purple and
+yellow, pink, magenta, red, and blue in masses or any
+combination you can mention and the brighter the colour
+the more you like it?  You don't seem to see or feel that
+any grouping clashes; you revel in each wonderful
+growth, and luxuriate in the brilliancy of the whole. 
+Anyway, this suits me.''
+
+``I guess it will please her, too,'' said the carpenter. 
+``After all the pains you've taken, she is a good one if
+it doesn't.''
+
+``I'll always have the consolation of having done my
+best,'' replied the Harvester.  ``One can't do more! 
+Whether she likes it or not depends greatly on the way
+she has been reared.''
+
+``You talk as if you didn't know,'' commented the
+carpenter.
+
+``You go on with this now,'' said the Harvester hastily. 
+``I've got to uncover some beds and dig my year's supply
+of skunk cabbage, else folk with asthma and dropsy who
+depend on me will be short on relief.  I ought to take
+my sweet flag, too, but I'm so hurried now I think I'll
+leave it until fall; I do when I can, because the bloom
+is so pretty around the lake and the bees simply go wild
+over the pollen.  Sometimes I almost think I can detect
+it in their honey.  Do you know I've wondered often
+if the honey my bees make has medicinal properties
+and should be kept separate in different seasons.  In
+early spring when the plants and bushes that furnish
+the roots and barks of most of the tonics are in bloom,
+and the bees gather the pollen, that honey should partake
+in a degree of the same properties and be good medicine. 
+In the summer it should aid digestion, and in the fall
+cure rheumatism and blood disorders.''
+
+``Say you try it!'' urged the carpenter.  ``I want a
+lot of the fall kind.  I'm always full of rheumatism by
+October.  Exposure, no doubt.''
+
+``Over eating of too much rich food, you mean,''
+laughed the Harvester.  ``I'd like to see any man expose
+his body to more differing extremes of weather than I do,
+and I'm never sick.  It's because I am my own cook
+and so I live mostly on fruits, vegetables, bread, milk,
+and eggs, a few fish from the lake, a little game once in
+a great while or a chicken, and no hot drinks; plenty of
+fresh water, air, and continuous work out of doors.  That's
+the prescription!  I'd be ashamed to have rheumatism
+at your age.  There's food in the cupboard if you grow
+hungry.  I am going past one of the neighbours on my
+way to see about some work I want her to do.''
+
+The Harvester stopped for lunch, carried food to
+Belshazzar, and started straight across country, his
+mattock, with a bag rolled around the handle, on his
+shoulder.  His feet sank in the damp earth at the foot
+of the hill, and he laughed as he leaped across Singing
+Water.
+
+``You noisy chatterbox!'' cried the man.  ``The
+impetus of coming down the curves of the hill keeps you
+talking all the way across this muck bed to the lake. 
+With small work I can make you a thing of beauty. 
+A few bushes grubbed, a little deepening where you
+spread too much, and some more mallows along the
+banks will do the trick.  I must attend to you soon.''
+
+``Now what does the boy want?'' laughed a white-
+haired old woman, as the Harvester entered the door. 
+``Mebby you think I don't know what you're up to! 
+I even can hear the hammering and the voices of the men
+when the wind is in the south.  I've been wondering
+how soon you'd need me.  Out with it!''
+
+``I want you to get a woman and come over and spend
+a day with me.  I'll come after you and bring you back. 
+I want you to go over mother's bedding and have what
+needs it washed.  All I want you to do is to superintend,
+and tell me now what I will want from town for your
+work.''
+
+``I put away all your mother's bedding that you were
+not using, clean as a ribbon.''
+
+``But it has been packed in moth preventives ever
+since and out only four times a year to air, as you told
+me.  It must smell musty and be yellow.  I want
+it fresh and clean.''
+
+``So what I been hearing is true, David?''
+
+``Quite true!'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Whose girl is she, and when are you going to jine
+hands?''
+
+The Harvester lifted his clear eyes and hesitated.
+
+``Doc Carey laid you in my arms when you was born,
+David.  I tended you 'fore ever your ma did.  All
+your life you've been my boy, and I love you same as my
+own blood; it won't go no farther if you say so.  I'll
+never tell a living soul.  But I'm old and 'til better
+weather comes, house bound; and I get mighty lonely. 
+I'd like to think about you and her, and plan for you,
+and love her as I always did you folks.  Who is she,
+David?  Do I know the family?''
+
+``No.  She is a stranger to these parts,'' said the
+unhappy Harvester.
+
+``David, is she a nice girl 'at your ma would have
+liked?''
+
+``She's the only girl in the world that I'd marry,'' said
+the Harvester promptly, glad of a question he could
+answer heartily.  ``Yes.  She is gentle, very tender
+and----and affectionate,'' he went on so rapidly that
+Granny Moreland could not say a word, ``and as soon
+as I bring her home you shall come to spend a day and
+get acquainted.  I know you will love her!  I'll come
+in the morning, then.  I must hurry now.  I am working
+double this spring and I'm off for the skunk cabbage
+bed to-day.''
+
+``You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say. 
+Slavin' like a horse all day, and half the night I see your
+lights burning.''
+
+``Do I appear killed?'' laughingly inquired the Harvester.
+
+``You look peart as a struttin' turkey gobbler,'' said
+the old woman.  ``Go on with your work!  Work don't
+hurt a-body.  Eat a-plenty, sleep all you ort, and you
+CAN'T work enough to hurt you.''
+
+``So the neighbours say I'm working now?  New
+story, isn't it?  Usually I'm too lazy to make a living,
+if I remember.''
+
+``Only to those who don't sense your purceedings,
+David.  I always knowed how you grubbed and slaved
+an' set over them fearful books o' yours.''
+
+``More interesting than the wildest fiction,'' said the
+man.  ``I'm making some medicine for your rheumatism,
+Granny.  It is not fully tested yet, but you get ready
+for it by cutting out all the salt you can.  I haven't
+time to explain this morning, but you remember what I
+say, leave out the salt, and when Doc thinks it's safe
+I'll bring you something that will make a new woman
+of you.''
+
+He went swinging down the road, and Granny Moreland
+looked after him.
+
+``While he was talkin','' she muttered, ``I felt full of
+information as a flock o' almanacs, but now since he's
+gone, 'pears to me I don't know a thing more 'an I did
+to start on.''
+
+``Close call,'' the Harvester was thinking.  ``Why
+the nation did I admit anything to her?  People may
+talk as they please, so long as I don't sanction it, but I
+have two or three times.  That's a fool trick.  Suppose
+I can't find her?  Maybe she won't look at me if I can. 
+Then I'd have started something I couldn't finish. 
+And if anybody thinks I'll end this by taking any girl I
+can get, if I can't find Her, why they think wrongly. 
+Just the girl of my golden dream or no woman at all
+for me.  I've lived alone long enough to know how to do
+it in comfort.  If I can't find and win her I have no
+intention of starting a boarding house.''
+
+The Harvester began to laugh.  `` `I'd rather keep
+bachelor's hall in Hell than go to board in Heaven!' ''
+he quoted gaily.  ``That's my sentiment too.  If you
+can't have what you want, don't have anything.  But
+there is no use to become discouraged before I start. 
+I haven't begun to hunt her yet.  Until I do, I might as
+well believe that she will walk across the bridge and take
+possession just as soon as I get the last chair leg polished. 
+She might!  She came in the dream, and to come actually
+couldn't be any more real.  I'll make a stiff hunt of
+it before I give up, if I ever do.  I never yet have made a
+complete failure of anything.  But just now I am hunting
+skunk cabbage.  It's precisely the time to take it.''
+
+Across the lake, in the swampy woods, close where the
+screech owl sang and the girl of the golden dream walked
+in the moonlight the Harvester began operations.  He
+unrolled the sack, went to one end of the bed and
+systematically started a swath across it, lifting every other
+plant by the roots.  Flowering time was almost past,
+but the bees knew where pollen ripened, and hummed
+incessantly over and inside the queer cone-shaped growths
+with their hooked beaks.  It almost appeared as if the
+sound made inside might be to give outsiders warning
+not to poach on occupied territory, for the Harvester
+noticed that no bee entered a pre-empted plant.
+
+With skilful hand each stroke brought up a root and
+he tossed it to one side.  The plants were vastly peculiar
+things.  First they seemed to be a curled leaf with no
+flower.  In colour they shaded from yellow to almost
+black mahogany, and appeared as if they were a flower
+with no leaf.  Closer examination proved there was a
+stout leaf with a heavy outside mid-rib, the tip of which
+curled over in a beak effect, that wrapped around a
+peculiar flower of very disagreeable odour.  The handling
+of these plants by the hundred so intensified this
+smell the Harvester shook his head.
+
+``I presume you are mostly mine,'' he said to the busy
+little workers around him.  ``If there is anything in my
+theory of honey having varying medicinal properties
+at different seasons, right now mine should be good for
+Granny's rheumatism and for nervous and dropsical
+people.  I shouldn't think honey flavoured with skunk
+cabbage would be fit to eat.  But, of course, it isn't all
+this.  There is catkin pollen on the wind, hazel and sassafras
+are both in bloom now, and so are several of the
+earliest little flowers of the woods.  You can gather
+enough of them combined to temper the disagreeable
+odour into a racy sweetness, and all the shrub blooms are
+good tonics, too, and some of the earthy ones.  I'm
+going to try giving some of you empty cases next spring
+and analyzing the honey to learn if it isn't good medicine.''
+
+The Harvester straightened and leaned on the mattock
+to fill his lungs with fresh air and as he delightedly sniffed
+it he commented, ``Nothing else has much of a chance
+since I've stirred up the cabbage bed.  I can scent the
+catkins plainly, being so close, and as I came here I
+could detect the hazel and sassafras all right.''
+
+Above him a peculiar, raucous chattering for an instant
+hushed other wood voices.  The Harvester looked
+up, laughing gaily.
+
+``So you've decided to announce it to your tribe at
+last, have you?'' he inquired.  ``You are waking the
+sleepers in their dens to-day?  Well, there's nothing like
+waiting until you have a sure thing.  The bluebirds
+broke the trail for the feathered folk the twenty-fourth
+of February.  The sap oozed from the maples about
+the same time for the trees.  The very first skunk cabbage
+was up quite a month ago to signal other plants to
+come on, and now you are rousing the furred folk.  I'll
+write this down in my records----`When the earliest bluebird
+sings, when the sap wets the maples, when the
+skunk cabbage flowers, and the first striped squirrel
+barks, why then, it is spring!' ''
+
+He bent to his task and as he worked closer the water
+he noticed sweet-flag leaves waving two inches tall beneath
+the surface.
+
+``Great day!'' he cried.  ``There you are making signs,
+too!  And right!  Of course!  Nature is always right. 
+Just two inches high and it's harvest for you.  I can
+use a rake, and dried in the evaporator you bring me ten
+cents a pound; to the folks needing a tonic you are worth
+a small fortune.  No doubt you cost that by the time
+you reach them; but I fear I can't gather you just now. 
+My head is a little preoccupied these days.  What
+with the cabbage, and now you, and many of the bushes
+and trees making signs, with a new cabin to build and
+furnish, with a girl to find and win, I'm what you might
+call busy.  I've covered my book shelf.  I positively
+don't dare look Emerson or Maeterlinck in the face. 
+One consolation!  I've got the best of Thoreau in my
+head, and if I read Stickeen a few times more I'll be able
+to recite that.  There's a man for you, not to mention
+the dog!  Bel, where are you?  Would you stick to me
+like that?  I think you would.  But you are a big,
+strong fellow.  Stickeen was only such a mite of a dog. 
+But what a man he followed!  I feel as if I should put
+on high-heeled slippers and carry a fan and a lace
+handkerchief when I think of him.  And yet, most men
+wouldn't consider my job so easy!''
+
+The Harvester rapidly pitched the evil-smelling plants
+into big heaps and as he worked he imitated the sounds
+around him as closely as he could.  The song sparrow
+laughed at him and flew away in disgust when he tried
+its notes.  The jay took time to consider, but was not
+fooled.  The nut-hatch ran head first down trees, larvae
+hunting, and was never a mite deceived.  But the killdeer
+on invisible legs, circling the lake shore, replied
+instantly; so did the lark soaring above, and the dove
+of the elm thicket close beside.  The glittering black
+birds flashing over every tree top answered the ``T'check,
+t'chee!'' of the Harvester quite as readily as their mates. 
+
+The last time he paused to rest he had studied scents. 
+When he straightened again he was occupied with every
+voice of earth and air around and above him, and the
+notes of singing hens, exultant cocks, the scream of
+geese, the quack of ducks, the rasping crescendo of
+guineas running wild in the woods, the imperial note of
+Ajax sunning on the ridge pole and echoes from all of
+them on adjoining and distant farms.
+
+`` `Now I see the full meaning and beauty of that
+word sound!' '' quoted the Harvester.  `` `I thank God
+for sound.  It always mounts and makes me mount!' ''
+
+He breathed deeply and stood listening, a superb
+figure of a man, his lean face glowing with emotion.
+
+``If she could see and hear this, she would come,''
+he said softly.  ``She would come and she would love
+it as I do.  Any one who understands, and knows how to
+translate, cares for this above all else earth has to offer. 
+They who do not, fail to read as they run!''
+
+He shifted feet mired in swamp muck, and stood as
+if loath to bend again to his task.  He lifted a weighted
+mattock and scraped the earth from it, sniffing it delightedly
+the while.  A soft south wind freighted with aromatic
+odours swept his warm face.  The Harvester
+removed his hat and shook his head that the breeze
+might thread his thick hair.
+
+``I've a commission for you, South Wind,'' he said
+whimsically.  ``Go find my Dream Girl.  Go carry
+her this message from me.  Freight your breath with
+spicy pollen, sun warmth, and flower nectar.  Fill all
+her senses with delight, and then, close to her ear,
+whisper it softly, `Your lover is coming!'  Tell her that, O
+South Wind!  Carry Araby to her nostrils, Heaven to
+her ears, and then whisper and whisper it over and over
+until you arouse the passion of earth in her blood.  Tell
+her what is rioting in my heart, and brain, and soul this
+morning.  Repeat it until she must awake to its meaning,
+`Your lover is coming.' ''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+WHEN THE HARVESTER MADE GOOD
+
+The sassafras and skunk cabbage were harvested. 
+The last workman was gone.  There was not a
+sound at Medicine Woods save the babel of bird
+and animal notes and the never-ending accompaniment
+of Singing Water.  The geese had gone over, some flocks
+pausing to rest and feed on Loon Lake, and ducks that
+homed there were busy among the reeds and rushes.  In
+the deep woods the struggle to maintain and reproduce
+life was at its height, and the courting songs of gaily
+coloured birds were drowned by hawk screams and crow
+calls of defiance.
+
+Every night before he plunged into the lake and went
+to sleep the Harvester made out a list of the most pressing
+work that he would undertake on the coming day.  By
+systematizing and planning ahead he was able to accomplish
+an unbelievable amount.  The earliest rush of
+spring drug gathering was over.  He could be more
+deliberate in collecting the barks he wanted.  Flowers
+that were to be gathered at bloom time and leaves were
+not yet ready.  The heavy leaf coverings he had helped
+the winds to heap on his beds of lily of the valley, 
+bloodroot, and sarsaparilla were removed carefully.
+
+Inside the cabin the Harvester cleaned the glass, swept
+the floors with a soft cloth pinned over the broom, and
+hung pale yellow blinds at the windows.  Every spare minute
+he worked on making furniture, and with each piece
+he grew in experience and ventured on more difficult
+undertakings.  He had progressed so far that he now
+allowed himself an hour each day on the candlesticks
+for her.  Every evening he opened her door and with soft
+cloths polished the furniture he had made.  When her
+room was completed and the dining-room partially finished,
+the Harvester took time to stain the cabin and
+porch roofs the shade of the willow leaves, and on the logs
+and pillars he used oil that served to intensify the light
+yellow of the natural wood.  With that much accomplished
+he felt better.  If she came now, in a few hours
+he would be able to offer a comfortable room, enough
+conveniences to live until more could be provided, and
+of food there was always plenty.
+
+His daily programme was to feed and water his animals
+and poultry, prepare breakfast for himself and Belshazzar,
+and go to the woods, dry-house or store-room
+to do the work most needful in his harvesting.  In the
+afternoon he laboured over furniture and put finishing
+touches on the new cabin, and after supper he carved and
+found time to read again, as before his dream.
+
+He was so happy he whistled and sang at his work much
+of the time at first, but later there came days when doubts
+crept in and all his will power was required to proceed
+steadily.  As the cabin grew in better shape for occupancy
+each day, more pressing became the thought of how he
+was going to find and meet the girl of his dream. Sometimes
+it seemed to him that the proper way was to remain
+at home and go on with his work, trusting her to come to
+him.  At such times he was happy and gaily whistled
+and sang:
+
+     ``Stay in your chimney corner,
+          Don't roam the world about,
+       Stay in your chimney corner,
+          And your own true love will find you out.''
+
+
+But there were other days while grubbing in the forest,
+battling with roots in the muck and mire of the lake
+bank, staggering under a load for two men, scarcely taking
+time to eat and sleep enough to keep his condition
+perfect, when that plan seemed too hopeless and senseless
+to contemplate.  Then he would think of locking
+the cabin, leaving the drugs to grow undisturbed by
+collecting, hiring a neighbour to care for his living
+creatures, and starting a search over the world to find her. 
+There came times when the impulse to go was so strong
+that only the desire to take a day more to decide where,
+kept him.  Every time his mind was made up to start
+the following day came the counter thought, what if I
+should go and she should come in my absence?  In the
+dream she came.  That alone held him, even in the face
+of the fact that if he left home some one might know of
+and rifle the precious ginseng bed, carefully tended these
+seven years for the culmination the coming fall would
+bring.  That ginseng was worth many thousands and he
+had laboured over it, fighting worms and parasites, covering
+and uncovering it with the changing seasons, a
+siege of loving labour.
+
+Sometimes a few hours of misgiving tortured him, but
+as a rule he was cheerful and happy in his preparations. 
+Without intending to do it he was gradually furnishing
+the cabin.  Every few days saw a new piece finished in
+the workshop.  Each trip to Onabasha ended in the
+purchase of some article he could see would harmonize
+with his colour plans for one of the rooms.  He had filled
+the flower boxes for the veranda with delicate plants
+that were growing luxuriantly.
+
+Then he designed and began setting a wild-flower
+garden outside her door and started climbing vines over
+the logs and porches, but whatever he planted he found
+in the woods or took from beds he cultivated.  Many of
+the medicinal vines had leaves, flowers, twining tendrils,
+and berries or fruits of wonderful beauty.  Every trip
+to the forest he brought back a half dozen vines, plants,
+or bushes to set for her.  All of them either bore lovely
+flowers, berries, quaint seed pods, or nuts, and beside
+the drive and before the cabin he used especial care
+to plant a hedge of bittersweet vines, burning bush,
+and trees of mountain ash, so that the glory of their colour
+would enliven the winter when days might be gloomy.
+
+He planted wild yam under her windows that its queer
+rattles might amuse her, and hop trees where their castanets
+would play gay music with every passing wind of
+fall.  He started a thicket along the opposite bank of
+Singing Water where it bubbled past her window, and in
+it he placed in graduated rows every shrub and small tree
+bearing bright flower, berry, or fruit.  Those remaining
+he used as a border for the driveway from the lake, so that
+from earliest spring her eyes would fall on a procession of
+colour beginning with catkins and papaw lilies, and running
+through alders, haws, wild crabs, dogwood, plums,
+and cherry intermingled with forest saplings and vines
+bearing scarlet berries in fall and winter.  In the damp soil
+of the same character from which they were removed, in
+the shade and under the skilful hand of the Harvester, few
+of these knew they had been transplanted, and when May
+brought the catbirds and orioles much of this growth was
+flowering quite as luxuriantly as the same species in the
+woods.
+
+The Harvester was in the store-house packing boxes
+for shipment.  His room was so small and orders so
+numerous that he could not keep large quantities on hand. 
+All crude stuff that he sent straight from the drying-house
+was fresh and brightly coloured.  His stock always was
+marked prime A-No. 1.  There was a step behind him and
+the Harvester turned.  A boy held out a telegram.  The
+man opened it to find an order for some stuff to be shipped
+that day to a large laboratory in Toledo.
+
+His hands deftly tied packages and he hastily packed
+bottles and nailed boxes.  Then he ran to harness Betsy
+
+and load.  As he drove down the hill to the bridge he
+looked at his watch and shook his head.
+
+``What are you good for at a pinch, Betsy?'' he asked
+as he flecked the surprised mare's flank with a switch. 
+Belshazzar cocked his ears and gazed at the Harvester
+in astonishment.
+
+``That wasn't enough to hurt her,'' explained the man. 
+``She must speed up.  This is important business.  The
+amount involved is not so much, but I do love to make
+good.  It's a part of my religion, Bel.  And my religion
+has so precious few parts that if I fail in the observance
+of any of them it makes a big hole in my performances. 
+Now we don't want to end a life full of holes, so we must
+get there with this stuff, not because it's worth the exertion
+in dollars and cents, but because these men patronize
+us steadily and expect us to fill orders, even by telegraph. 
+Hustle, Betsy!''
+
+The whip fell again and Belshazzar entered indignant
+protest.
+
+``It isn't going to hurt her,'' said the Harvester
+impatiently.  ``She may walk all the way back.  She can rest
+while I get these boxes billed and loaded if she can be
+persuaded to get them to the express office on time.  The
+trouble with Betsy is that she wants to meander along the
+road with a loaded wagon as her mother and grandmother
+before her wandered through the woods wearing a bell to
+attract the deer.  Father used to say that her mother
+was the smartest bell mare that ever entered the forest. 
+She'd not only find the deer, but she'd make friends with
+them and lead them straight as a bee-line to where he was
+hiding.  Betsy, you must travel!''
+
+The Harvester drew the lines taut, and the whip fell
+smartly.  The astonished Betsy snorted and pranced down
+the valley as fast as she could, but every step indicated
+that she felt outraged and abused.  This was the loveliest
+day of the season.  The sun was shining, the air was
+heavy with the perfume of flowering shrubs and trees, the
+orchards of the valley were white with bloom.  Farmers
+were hurrying back and forth across fields, leaving up
+turned lines of black, swampy mould behind them, and
+one progressive individual rode a wheeled plow, drove
+three horses and enjoyed the shelter of a canopy.
+
+``Saints preserve us, Belshazzar!'' cried the Harvester. 
+``Do you see that?  He is one of the men who makes a
+business of calling me shiftless.  Now he thinks he is
+working.  Working!  For a full-grown man, did you ever
+see the equal?  If I were going that far I'd wear a tucked
+shirt, panama hat, have a pianola attachment, and an
+automatic fan.''
+
+The Harvester laughed as he again touched Betsy and
+hurried to Onabasha.  He scarcely saw the delights
+offered on either hand, and where his eyes customarily
+took in every sight, and his ears were tuned for the faintest
+note of earth or tree top, to day he saw only Betsy and
+listened for a whistle he dreaded to hear at the water tank. 
+He climbed the embankment of the railway at a slower
+pace, but made up time going down hill to the city.
+
+``I am not getting a blame thing out of this,'' he
+complained to Belshazzar.  ``There are riches to stagger
+any scientist wasting to-day, and all I've got to show is one
+oriole.  I did hear his first note and see his flash, and so
+unless we can take time to make up for this on the home
+road we will have to christen it oriole day.  It's a perfumed
+golden day, too; I can get that in passing, but how
+I loathe hurrying.  I don't mind planning things and
+working steadily, but it's not consistent with the dignity
+of a sane man to go rushing across country with as much
+appreciation of the delights offered right now as a chicken
+with its head off would have.  We will loaf going back to
+pay for this!  And won't we invite our souls?  We will
+stop and gather a big bouquet of crab apple blossoms to
+fill the green pitcher for her.  Maybe some of their
+wonderful perfume will linger in her room.  When the
+petals fall we will scatter them in the drawers of her
+dresser, and they may distil a faint flower odour there.  We
+could do that to all her furniture, but perhaps she doesn't
+like perfume.  She'll be compelled to after she reaches
+Medicine Woods.  Betsy, you must travel faster!''
+
+The whip fell again and the Harvester stopped at the
+depot with a few minutes to spare.  He threw the hitching
+strap to Belshazzar, and ran into the express office with
+an arm load of boxes.
+
+``Bill them!'' he cried.  ``It's a rush order.  I want it
+to go on the next express.  Almost due I think.  I'll help
+you and we can book them afterward.''
+
+The expressman ran for a truck and they hastily
+weighed and piled on boxes.  When the last one was
+loaded from the wagon, a heap more lying in the office
+were added, pitched on indiscriminately as the train pulled
+under the sheds of the Union Station.
+
+``I'll push,'' cried the Harvester, ``and help you get
+them on.''
+
+Hurrying as fast as he could the expressman drew the
+heavy truck through the iron gates and started toward
+the train slowing to a stop, and the Harvester pushed. 
+As they came down the platform they passed the dining
+and sleeping cars of the long train and were several times
+delayed by descending passengers.  Just opposite the
+day coach the expressman narrowly missed running into
+several women leading small children and stopped
+abruptly.  A toppling box threatened the head of the
+Harvester.  He peered around the truck and saw they
+must wait a few seconds.  He put in the time watching
+the people.  A gray-haired old man, travelling in a silk
+hat, wavered on the top step and went his way.  A fat
+woman loaded with bundles puffed as she clung trembling
+a second in fear she would miss the step she could not see. 
+A tall, slender girl with a face coldly white came next, and
+from the broken shoe she advanced, the bewildered fright
+of big, dark eyes glancing helplessly, the Harvester saw
+that she was poor, alone, ill, and in trouble.  Pityingly
+he turned to watch her, and as he gauged her height,
+saw her figure, and a dark coronet of hair came into view,
+a ghastly pallor swept his face.
+
+``Merciful God!'' he breathed, ``that's my Dream
+Girl!''
+
+The truck started with a jerk.  The toppling box fell,
+struck a passing boy, and knocked him down.  The
+mother screamed and the Harvester sprang to pick up the
+child and see that he was not dangerously hurt.  Then
+he ran after the truck, pitched on the box, and whirling,
+sped beside the train toward the gates of exit.  There was
+the usual crush, but he could see the tall figure passing up
+the steps to the depot.  He tried to force his way and was
+called a brute by a crowded woman.  He ran down the
+platform to the gates he had entered with the truck. 
+They were automatic and had locked.  Then he became a
+primal creature being cheated of a lawful mate and
+climbed the high iron fence and ran for the waiting room.
+
+He swept it at a glance, not forgetting the women's
+apartment and the side entrance.  Then he hurried to the
+front exit.  Up the street leading from the city there were
+few people and he could see no sign of the slight, white-
+faced girl.  He crossed the sidewalk and ran down the
+gutter for a block and breathlessly waited the passing
+crowd on the corner.  She was not among it.  He tried
+one more square.  Still he could not see her.  Then he
+ran back to the depot.  He thought surely he must have
+missed her.  He again searched the woman's and general
+waiting room and then he thought of the conductor. 
+From him it could be learned where she entered the car. 
+He ran for the station, bolted the gate while the official
+called to him, and reached the track in time to see the
+train pull out within a few yards of him.
+
+``You blooming idiot!'' cried the angry expressman as
+the Harvester ran against him, ``where did you go? 
+Why didn't you help me?  You are white as a sheet! 
+Have you lost your senses?''
+
+``Worse!'' groaned the Harvester.  ``Worse!  I've lost
+what I prize most on earth.  How could I reach the
+conductor of that train?''
+
+``Telegraph him at the next station.  You can have an
+answer in a half hour.''
+
+The Harvester ran to the office, and with shaking hand
+wrote this message:
+
+``Where did a tall girl with big black eyes and wearing a
+gray dress take your train?  Important.''
+
+Then he went out and minutely searched the depot and
+streets.  He hired an automobile to drive him over the
+business part of Onabasha for three quarters of an hour. 
+Up one street and down another he went slowly where
+there were crowds, faster as he could, but never a sight
+of her.  Then he returned to the depot and found his
+message.  It read, ``Transferred to me at Fort Wayne
+from Chicago.''
+
+``Chicago baggage!'' he cried, and hurried to the
+check room.  He had lost almost an hour.  When he
+reached the room he found the officials busy and unwilling
+to be interrupted.  Finally he learned there had been a
+half dozen trunks from Chicago.  All were taken save
+two, and one glance at them told the Harvester that they
+did not belong to the girl in gray.  The others had been
+claimed by men having checks for them.  If she had been
+there, the officials had not noticed a tall girl having a white
+face and dark eyes.  When he could think of no further
+effort to make he drove to the hospital.
+
+Doctor Carey was not in his office, and the Harvester
+sat in the revolving chair before the desk and gripped his
+head between his hands as he tried to think.  He could
+not remember anything more he could have done, but
+since what he had done only ended in failure, he was
+reproaching himself wildly that he had taken his eyes
+from the Girl an instant after recognizing her.  Yet it
+was in his blood to be decent and he could not have run
+away and left a frightened woman and a hurt child. 
+Trusting to his fleet feet and strength he had taken time
+to replace the box also, and then had met the crowd and
+delay.  Just for the instant it appeared to him as if he
+had done all a man could, and he had not found her.  If
+he allowed her to return to Chicago, probably he never
+would.  He leaned his head on his hands and groaned in
+discouragement.
+
+Doctor Carey whirled the chair so that it faced him
+before the Harvester realized that he was not alone.
+
+``What's the trouble, David?'' he asked tersely.
+
+The Harvester lifted a strained face.
+
+``I came for help,'' he said.
+
+``Well you will get it!  All you have to do is to state
+what you want.''
+
+That seemed simplicity itself to the doctor.  But when
+it came to putting his case into words, it was not easy for
+the Harvester.
+
+``Go on!'' said the doctor.
+
+``You'll think me a fool.''
+
+The doctor laughed heartily.
+
+``No doubt!'' he said soothingly.  ``No doubt, David! 
+Probably you are; so why shouldn't I think so.  But
+remember this, when we make the biggest fools of ourselves
+that is precisely the time when we need friends,
+and when they stick to us the tightest, if they are worth
+while.  I've been waiting since latter February for you
+to tell me.  We can fix it, of course; there's always a way. 
+Go on!''
+
+``Well I wasn't fooling about the dream and the vision
+I told you of then, Doc.  I did have a dream--and it
+was a dream of love.  I did see a vision--and it was a
+beautiful woman.''
+
+``I hope you are not nursing that experience as
+something exclusive and peculiar to you,'' said the doctor. 
+``There is not a normal, sane man living who has not
+dreamed of love and the most exquisite woman who came
+from the clouds or anywhere and was gracious to him. 
+That's a part of a man's experience in this world, and it
+happens to most of us, not once, but repeatedly.  It's a
+case where the wish fathers the dream.''
+
+``Well it hasn't happened to me `on repeated
+occasions,' but it did one night, and by dawn I was converted. 
+How CAN a dream be so real, Doc?  How could I see as
+clearly as I ever saw in the daytime in my most alert
+moment, hear every step and garment rustle, scent the
+perfume of hair, and feel warm breath strike my face?  I
+don't understand it!''
+
+``Neither does any one else!  All you need say is that
+your dream was real as life.  Go on!''
+
+``I built a new cabin and pretty well overturned the
+place and I've been making furniture I thought a woman
+would like, and carrying things from town ever since.''
+
+``Gee!  It was reality to you, lad!''
+
+``Nothing ever more so,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``And of course, you have been looking for her?''
+
+``And this morning I saw her!''
+
+``David!''
+
+``Not the ghost of a chance for a mistake.  Her height,
+her eyes, her hair, her walk, her face; only something
+terrible has happened since she came to me.  It was the
+same girl, but she is ill and in trouble now.''
+
+``Where is she?''
+
+``Do you suppose I'd be here if I knew?''
+
+``David, are you dreaming in daytime?''
+
+``She got off the Chicago train this morning while I was
+helping Daniels load a big truck of express matter. 
+Some of it was mine, and it was important.  Just at the
+wrong instant a box fell and knocked down a child and
+I got in a jam----''
+
+``And as it was you, of course you stopped to pick up
+the child and do everything decent for other folks, before
+you thought of yourself, and so you lost her.  You needn't
+tell me anything more.  David, if I find her, and prove
+to you that she has been married ten years and has an
+interesting family, will you thank me?''
+
+``Can't be done!'' said the Harvester calmly.  ``She
+has been married only since she gave herself to me in
+February, and she is not a mother.  You needn't bank
+on that.''
+
+``You are mighty sure!''
+
+``Why not?  I told you the dream was real, and now
+that I have seen her, and she is in this very town, why
+shouldn't I be sure?''
+
+``What have you done?''
+
+The Harvester told him.
+
+``What are you going to do next?''
+
+``Talk it over with you and decide.''
+
+The doctor laughed.
+
+``Well here are a few things that occur to me without
+time for thought.  Talk to the ticket agents, and leave
+her description with them.  Make it worth their while to
+be on the lookout, and if she goes anywhere to find out
+all they can.  They could make an excuse of putting her
+address on her ticket envelope, and get it that way. 
+See the baggagemen.  Post the day police on Main
+Street.  There is no chance for her to escape you.  A
+full-grown woman doesn't vanish.  How did she act when
+she got off the car?  Did she appear familiar?''
+
+``No.  She was a stranger.  For an instant she looked
+around as if she expected some one, then she followed the
+crowd.  There must have been an automobile waiting
+or she took a street car.  Something whirled her out of
+sight in a few seconds.''
+
+``Well we will get her in range again.  Now for the
+most minute description you can give.''
+
+The Harvester hesitated.  He did not care to describe
+the Dream Girl to any one, much less the living, suffering
+face and poorly clad form of the reality.
+
+``Cut out your scruples,'' laughed the doctor.  ``You
+have asked me to help you; how can I if I don't know what
+kind of a woman to look for?''
+
+``Very tall and slender,'' said the Harvester.  ``Almost
+as tall as I am.''
+
+``Unusually tall you think?''
+
+``I know!''
+
+``That's a good point for identification.  How about
+her complexion, hair, and eyes?''
+
+``Very large, dark eyes, and a great mass of black hair.''
+
+The doctor roared.
+
+``The eyes may help,'' he said.  ``All women have
+masses of hair these days.  I hope----''
+
+``Her hair is fast to her head,'' said the Harvester
+indignantly.  ``I saw it at close range, and I know.  It
+went around like a crown.''
+
+The doctor choked down a laugh.  He wanted to say
+that every woman's hair was like a crown at present, but
+there were things no man ventured with David Langston;
+those who knew him best, least of any.  So he suggested,
+``And her colouring?''
+
+``She was white and rosy, a lovely thing in the dream,''
+said the Harvester, ``but something dreadful has
+happened.  That's all wiped out now.  She was very pale
+when she left the car.''
+
+``Car sick, maybe.''
+
+``Soul sick!'' was the grim reply.
+
+Then Doctor Carey appeared so disturbed the Harvester
+noticed it.
+
+``You needn't think I'd be here prating about her if I
+wasn't FORCED.  If she had been rosy and well as she was
+in the dream, I'd have made my hunt alone and found
+her, too.  But when I saw she was sick and in trouble, it
+took all the courage out of me, and I broke for help.  She
+must be found at once, and when she is you are probably
+the first man I'll want.  I am going to put up a pretty
+stiff search myself, and if I find her I'll send or get her to
+you if I can.  Put her in the best ward you have and
+anything money will do----''
+
+The face of the doctor was growing troubled.
+
+``Day coach or Pullman?'' he asked.
+
+``Day.''
+
+``How was she dressed?''
+
+``Small black hat, very plain.  Gray jacket and skirt,
+neat as a flower.''
+
+``What you'd call expensively dressed?''
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+``What I'd call carefully dressed, but----but poverty
+poor, if you will have it, Doc.''
+
+Doctor Carey's lips closed and then opened in sudden
+resolution.
+
+``David, I don't like it,'' he said tersely.
+
+The Harvester met his eye and purposely misunderstood him.
+
+``Neither do I!'' he exclaimed.  ``I hate it!  There is
+
+something wrong with the whole world when a woman
+having a face full of purity, intellect, and refinement of
+extreme type glances around her like a hunted thing;
+when her appearance seems to indicate that she has
+starved her body to clothe it.  I know what is in your
+mind, Doc, but if I were you I wouldn't put it into words,
+and I wouldn't even THINK it.  Has it been your experience
+in this world that women not fit to know skimp their
+bodies to cover them?  Does a girl of light character and
+little brain have the hardihood to advance a foot covered
+with a broken shoe?  If I could tell you that she rode in a
+Pullman, and wore exquisite clothing, you would be doing
+something.  The other side of the picture shuts you up
+like a clam, and makes you appear shocked.  Let me tell
+you this:  No other woman I ever saw anywhere on God's
+footstool had a face of more delicate refinement, eyes of
+purer intelligence.  I am of the woods, and while they
+don't teach me how to shine in society, they do instil
+always and forever the fineness of nature and her ways. 
+I have her lessons so well learned they help me more than
+anything else to discern the qualities of human nature. 
+If you are my friend, and have any faith at all in my
+common sense, get up and do something!''
+
+The doctor arose promptly.
+
+``David, I'm an ass,'' he said.  ``Unusually lop-eared,
+and blind in the bargain.  But before I ask you to forgive
+me, I want you to remember two things:  First, she
+did not visit me in my dreams; and, second, I did not see
+her in reality.  I had nothing to judge from except what
+you said: you seemed reluctant to tell me, and what you
+did say was----was----disturbing to a friend of yours. 
+I have not the slightest doubt if I had seen her I would
+agree with you.  We seldom disagree, David.  Now, will
+you forgive me?''
+
+The Harvester suddenly faced a window.  When at
+last he turned, ``The offence lies with me,'' he said.  ``l
+was hasty.  Are you going to help me?''
+
+``With all my heart!  Go home and work until your
+head clears, then come back in the morning.  She did not
+come from Chicago for a day.  You've done all I know
+to do at present.''
+
+``Thank you,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He went to Betsy and Belshazzar, and slowly drove up
+and down the streets until Betsy protested and calmly
+turned homeward.  The Harvester smiled ruefully as he
+allowed her to proceed.
+
+``Go slow and take it easy,'' he said as they reached the
+country.  ``I want to think.''
+
+Betsy stopped at the barn, the white doves took wing,
+and Ajax screamed shrilly before the Harvester aroused
+in the slightest to anything around him.  Then he looked
+at Belshazzar and said emphatically:  ``Now, partner,
+don't ever again interfere when I am complying with
+the observances of my religion.  Just look what I'd have
+missed if I hadn't made good with that order!''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT
+
+We have reached the `beginning of the end,'
+Ajax!'' said the Harvester, as the peacock
+ceased screaming and came to seek food from
+his hand.  ``We have seen the Girl.  Now we must
+locate her and convince her that Medicine Woods is her
+happy home.  I feel quite equal to the latter proposition,
+Ajax, but how the nation to find her sticks me. 
+I can't make a search so open that she will know and
+resent it.  She must have all the consideration ever
+paid the most refined woman, but she also has got to
+be found, and that speedily.  When I remember that
+look on her face, as if horrors were snatching at her
+skirts, it takes all the grit out of me.  I feel weak as a
+sapling.  And she needs all my strength.  I've simply
+got to brace up.  I'll work a while and then perhaps
+I can think.''
+
+So the Harvester began the evening routine.  He
+thought he did not want anything to eat, but when he
+opened the cupboard and smelled the food he learned
+that he was a hungry man and he cooked and ate a
+good supper.  He put away everything carefully, for
+even the kitchen was dainty and fresh and he wanted to
+keep it so for her.  When he finished he went into the
+living-room, stood before the fireplace, and studied the
+collection of half-finished candlesticks grouped upon it. 
+He picked up several and examined them closely, but
+realized that he could not bind himself to the exactions
+of carving that evening.  He took a key from his pocket
+and unlocked her door.  Every day he had been going
+there to improve upon his work for her, and he loved the
+room, the outlook from its windows; he was very proud
+of the furniture he had made.  There was no paper-
+thin covering on her chairs, bed, and dressing table. 
+The tops, seats, and posts were solid wood, worth hundreds
+of dollars for veneer.
+
+To-night he folded his arms and stood on the sill
+hesitating.  While she was a dream, he had loved to
+linger in her room.  Now that she was reality, he paused. 
+In one golden May day the place had become sacred. 
+Since he had seen the Girl that room was so hers that
+he was hesitating about entering because of this fact. 
+It was as if the tall, slender form stood before the chest
+of drawers or sat at the dressing table and he did not
+dare enter unless he were welcome.  Softly he closed
+the door and went away.  He wandered to the dry-
+house and turned the bark and roots on the trays, but
+the air stifled him and he hurried out.  He tried to work
+in the packing room, but walls smothered him and again
+he sought the open.
+
+He espied a bundle of osier-bound, moss-covered ferns
+that he had found in the woods, and brought the shovel
+to transplant them; but the work worried him, and he
+hurried through with it.  Then he looked for something
+else to do and saw an ax.  He caught it up and with
+lusty strokes began swinging it.  When he had chopped
+wood until he was very tired he went to bed.  Sleep
+came to the strong, young frame and he awoke in the
+morning refreshed and hopeful.
+
+He wondered why he had bothered Doctor Carey. 
+The Harvester felt able that morning to find his Dream
+Girl without assistance before the day was over.  It
+was merely a matter of going to the city and locating
+a woman.  Yesterday, it had been a question of whether
+she really existed.  To-day, he knew.  Yesterday, it
+had meant a search possibly as wide as earth to find her. 
+To-day, it was narrowed to only one location so small,
+compared with Chicago, that the Harvester felt he could
+sift its population with his fingers, and pick her from
+others at his first attempt.  If she were visiting there
+probably she would rest during the night, and be on the
+streets to-day.
+
+When he remembered her face he doubted it.  He
+decided to spend part of the time on the business streets
+and the remainder in the residence portions of the city. 
+Because it was uncertain when he would return, everything
+was fed a double portion, and Betsy was left
+at a livery stable with instructions to care for her until
+he came.  He did not know where the search would
+lead him.  For several hours he slowly walked the
+business district and then ranged farther, but not a
+sight of her.  He never had known that Onabasha was
+so large.  On its crowded streets he did not feel that he
+could sift the population through his fingers, nor could
+he open doors and search houses without an excuse.
+
+Some small boys passed him eating bananas, and the
+Harvester looked at his watch and was amazed to find
+that the day had advanced until two o'clock in the
+afternoon.  He was tired and hungry.  He went into
+a restaurant and ordered lunch; as he waited a girl
+serving tables smiled at him.  Any other time the
+Harvester would have returned at least a pleasant
+look, and gone his way.  To-day he scowled at her, and
+ate in hurried discomfort.  On the streets again, he had
+no idea where to go and so he went to the hospital.
+
+``I expected you early this morning,'' was the greeting
+of Doctor Carey.  ``Where have you been and what
+have you done?''
+
+``Nothing,'' said the Harvester.  ``I was so sure she
+would be on the streets I just watched, but I didn't
+see her.''
+
+``We will go to the depot,'' said the doctor.  ``The
+first thing is to keep her from leaving town.''
+
+They arranged with the ticket agents, expressmen,
+telegraphers, and, as they left, the Harvester stopped
+and tipped the train caller, offering further reward worth
+while if he would find the Girl.
+
+``Now we will go to the police station,'' said the doctor.
+
+``I'll see the chief and have him issue a general order to
+his men to watch for her, but if I were you I'd select
+a half dozen in the down town district, and give them a
+little tip with a big promise!''
+
+``Good Lord!  How I hate this,'' groaned the Harvester.
+
+``Want to find her by yourself?'' questioned his friend.
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester, ``I do!  And I would, if
+it hadn't been for her ghastly face.  That drives me to
+resort to any measures.  The probabilities are that she
+is lying sick somewhere, and if her comfort depends on
+the purse that dressed her, she will suffer.  Doc, do you
+know how awful this is?''
+
+``I know that you've got a great imagination.  If the
+woods make all men as sensitive as you are, those who
+have business to transact should stay out of them. 
+Take a common-sense view.  Look at this as I do.  If
+she was strong enough to travel in a day coach from
+Chicago; she can't be so very ill to-day.  Leaving life
+by the inch isn't that easy.  She will be alive this time
+next year, whether you find her or not.  The chances
+are that her stress was mental anyway, and trouble
+almost never overcomes any one.''
+
+``You, a doctor and say that!''
+
+``Oh, I mean instantaneously----in a day!  Of course
+if it grinds away for years!  But youth doesn't allow it
+to do that.  It throws it off, and grows hopeful and happy
+again.  She won't die; put that out of your mind.  If
+I were you I would go home now and go straight on with
+my work, trusting to.  the machinery you have set in
+motion.  I know most of the men with whom we have
+talked.  They will locate her in a week or less.  It's
+their business.  It isn't yours.  It's your job to be ready
+for her, and have enough ahead to support her when
+they find her.  Try to realize that there are now a dozen
+men on hunt for her, and trust them.  Go back to your
+work, and I will come full speed in the motor when the
+first man sights her.  That ought to satisfy you.  I've
+told all of them to call me at the hospital, and I will tell
+my assistant what to do in case a call comes while I
+am away.  Straighten your face!  Go back to Medicine
+Woods and harvest your crops, and before you know it
+she will be located.  Then you can put on your Sunday
+clothes and show yourself, and see if you can make her
+take notice.''
+
+``Idiot!'' exclaimed the Harvester, but he started home. 
+When he arrived he attended to his work and then sat
+down to think.
+
+``Doc is right,'' was his ultimate conclusion.  ``She
+can't leave the city, she can't move around in it, she
+can't go anywhere, without being seen.  There's one
+more point:  I must tell Carey to post all the doctors
+to report if they have such a call.  That's all I can
+think of.  I'll go to-night, and then I'll look over the
+ginseng for parasites, and to-morrow I'll dive into the
+late spring growth and work until I haven't time to think. 
+I've let cranesbill get a week past me now, and it can't
+be dispensed with.''
+
+So the following morning, when the Harvester had
+completed his work at the cabin and barn and breakfasted,
+he took a mattock and a big hempen bag, and followed
+the path to the top of the hill.  As it ran along the lake
+bank he descended on the other side to several acres of
+cleared land, where he raised corn for his stock, potatoes,
+and coarser garden truck, for which there was not
+space in the smaller enclosure close the cabin.  Around
+the edges of these fields, and where one of them sloped
+toward the lake, he began grubbing a variety of grass
+having tall stems already over a foot in height at half
+growth.  From each stem waved four or five leaves of
+six or eight inches length and the top showed forming
+clusters of tiny spikelets.
+
+``I am none too early for you,'' he muttered to himself
+as he ran the mattock through the rich earth, lifting
+the long, tough, jointed root stalks of pale yellow, from
+every section of which broke sprays of fine rootlets. 
+``None too early for you, and as you are worth only
+seven cents a pound, you couldn't be considered a `get-
+rich-quick' expedient, so I'll only stop long enough with
+you to gather what I think my customers will order,
+and amass a fortune a little later picking mullein flowers
+at seventy-five cents a pound.  What a crop I've got
+coming!''
+
+The Harvester glanced ahead, where in the cleared soil
+of the bank grew large plants with leaves like yellow-green
+felt and tall bloom stems rising.  Close them flourished
+other species requiring dry sandy soil, that gradually
+changed as it approached the water until it became
+covered with rank abundance of short, wiry grass, half
+the blades of which appeared red.  Numerous everywhere
+he could see the grayish-white leaves of Parnassus
+grass.  As the season advanced it would lift heart-
+shaped velvet higher, and before fall the stretch of emerald
+would be starred with white-faced, green-striped flowers.
+
+``Not a prettier sight on earth,'' commented the
+Harvester, ``than just swale wire grass in September
+making a fine, thick background to set off those delicate
+starry flowers on their slender stems.  I must remember
+to bring her to see that.''
+
+His eyes followed the growth to the water.  As the
+grass drew closer moisture it changed to the rank, sweet,
+swamp variety, then came bulrushes, cat-tails, water
+smartweed, docks, and in the water blue flag lifted
+folded buds; at its feet arose yellow lily leaves and farther
+out spread the white.  As the light struck the surface
+the Harvester imagined he could see the little green
+buds several inches below.  Above all arose wild rice
+he had planted for the birds.  The red wings swayed on
+the willows and tilted on every stem that would bear
+their weight, singing their melodious half-chanted notes,
+``O-ka-lee!''
+
+Beneath them the ducks gobbled, splashed, and chattered;
+grebe and coot voices could be distinguished;
+king rails at times flashed into sight and out again;
+marsh wrens scolded and chattered; occasionally a kingfisher
+darted around the lake shore, rolling his rattling
+cry and flashing his azure coat and gleaming white
+collar.  On a hollow tree in the woods a yellow
+hammer proved why he was named, because he carpentered
+industriously to enlarge the entrance to the home he
+was excavating in a dead tree; and sailing over the
+lake and above the woods in grace scarcely surpassed
+by any, a lonesome turkey buzzard awaited his mate's
+decision as to which hollow log was most suitable for
+their home.
+
+The Harvester stuffed the grass roots in the bag until
+it would hold no more and stood erect to wipe his face,
+for the sun was growing warm.  As he drew his handkerchief
+across his brow, the south wind struck him with
+enough intensity to attract attention.  Instantly the
+Harvester removed his hat, rolled it up, and put it into
+his pocket.  He stood an instant delighting in the wind
+and then spoke.
+
+``Allow me to express my most fervent thanks for
+your kindness,'' he said.  ``I thought probably you
+would take that message, since it couldn't mean much
+to you, and it meant all the world to me.  I thought
+you would carry it, but, I confess, I scarcely expected
+the answer so soon.  The only thing that could make me
+more grateful to you would be to know exactly where
+she is: but you must understand that it's like a peep
+into Heaven to have her existence narrowed to one
+place.  I'm bound to be able to say inside a few days,
+she lives at number----I don't know yet, on street----
+I'll find out soon, in the closest city, Onabasha.  And
+I know why you brought her, South Wind.  If ever a
+girl's cheeks need fanning with your breezes, and painting
+with sun kisses, I wouldn't mind, since this is strictly
+private, adding a few of mine; if ever any one needed
+flowers, birds, fresh air, water, and rest!  Good Lord,
+South Wind, did you ever reach her before you carried
+that message?  I think not!  But Onabasha isn't so
+large.  You and the sun should get your innings there. 
+I do hope she is not trying to work!  I can attend to
+that; and so there will be more time when she is found,
+I'd better hustle now.''
+
+He picked up the bag and returned to the dry-house,
+where he carefully washed the roots and spread them
+on the trays.  Then he took the same bag and mattock
+and going through the woods in the opposite direction
+he came to a heavy growth in a cleared space of high
+ground.  The bloom heads were forming and the plant
+was half matured.  The Harvester dug a cylindrical,
+tapering root, wrinkling lengthwise, wiped it clean,
+broke and tasted it.  He made a wry face.  He stood
+examining the white wood with its brown-red bark and,
+deciding that it was in prime condition, be began digging
+the plants.  It was common wayside ``Bouncing Bet,''
+but the Harvester called it ``soapwort.''  He took every
+other plant in his way across the bed, and when he
+digged a heavy load he carried it home, stripped the
+leaves, and spread them on trays, while the roots he
+topped, washed, and put to dry also.  Then he whistled
+for Belshazzar and went to lunch.
+
+As he passed down the road to the cabin his face was
+a study of conflicting emotions, and his eyes had a far
+away appearance of deep thought.  Every tree of his
+stretch of forest was rustling fresh leaves to shelter him;
+dogwood, wild crab, and hawthorn offered their flowers;
+earth held up her tribute in painted trillium faces, spring
+beauties, and violets, blue, white, and yellow.  Mosses,
+ferns, and lichen decorated the path; all the birds
+greeted him in friendship, and sang their purest melodies. 
+The sky was blue, the sun bright, the air perfumed
+for him; Belshazzar, always true to his name, protected
+every footstep; Ajax, the shimmering green and gold
+wonder, came up the hill to meet him; the white doves
+circled above his head.  Stumbling half blindly, the
+Harvester passed unheeding among them, and went
+into the cabin.  When he came out he stood a long
+time in deep study, but at last he returned to the
+woods.
+
+``Perhaps they will have found her before night,'' he
+said.  ``I'll harvest the cranesbill yet, because it's growing
+late for it, and then I'll see how they are coming on. 
+Maybe they'd know her if they met her, and maybe
+they wouldn't.  She may wear different clothing, and
+freshen up after her trip.  She might have been car sick,
+as Doc suggested, and appear very different when she
+feels better.''
+
+He skirted the woods around the northeast end and
+stopped at a big bed of exquisite growth.  Tall, wiry
+stems sprang upward almost two feet in height; leaves
+six inches across were cut in ragged lobes almost to the
+base, and here and there, enough to colour the entire
+bed a delicate rose or sometimes a violet purple, the
+first flowers were unfolding.  The Harvester lifted a
+root and tasted it.
+
+``No doubt about you being astringent,'' he muttered. 
+``You have enough tannin in you to pucker a mushroom. 
+By the way, those big, corn-cobby fellows should spring
+up with the next warm rain, and the hotels and restaurants
+always pay high prices.  I must gather a few
+bushels.''
+
+He looked over the bed of beautiful wild alum and
+hesitated.
+
+``I vow I hate to touch you,'' he said.  ``You are a
+picture right now, and in a week you will be a miracle. 
+It seems a shame to tear up a plant for its roots, just at
+flowering time, and I can't avoid breaking down half I
+don't take, getting the ones I do.  I wish you were not
+so pretty!  You are one of the colours I love most. 
+You remind me of red-bud, blazing star, and all those
+exquisite magenta shades that poets, painters, and the
+Almighty who made them love so much they hesitate
+about using them lavishly.  You are so delicate and
+graceful and so modest.  I wish she could see you! 
+I got to stop this or I won't be able to lift a root.  I
+never would if the ten cents a pound I'll get out of it
+were the only consideration.''
+
+The Harvester gripped the mattock and advanced
+to the bed.  ``What I must be thinking is that you are
+indispensable to the sick folks.  The steady demand for
+you proves your value, and of course, humanity comes
+first, after all.  If I remain in the woods alone much
+longer I'll get to the place where I'm not so sure that
+it does.  Seems as if animals, birds, flowers, trees, and
+insects as well, have their right to life also.  But it's
+for me to remember the sick folks!  If I thought the
+Girl would get some of it now, I could overturn the bed
+with a stout heart.  If any one ever needed a tonic, I
+think she does.  Maybe some of this will reach her.  If
+it does, I hope it will make her cheeks just the lovely
+pink of the bloom.  Oh Lord!  If only she hadn't
+appeared so sick and frightened!  What is there in all
+this world of sunshine to make a girl glance around her
+like that?  I wish I knew!  Maybe they will have
+found her by night.''
+
+The Harvester began work on the bed, but he knelt
+and among the damp leaves from the spongy black
+earth he lifted the roots with his fingers and carefully
+straightened and pressed down the plants he did not
+take.  This required more time than usual, but his
+heart was so sore he could not be rough with anything,
+most of all a flower.  So he harvested the wild alum
+by hand, and heaped large stacks of roots around the
+edges of the bed.  Often he paused as he worked and
+on his knees stared through the forest as if he hoped
+perhaps she would realize his longing for her, and come
+to him in the wood as she had across the water. 
+Over and over he repeated, ``Perhaps they will find
+her by night!'' and that so intensified the meaning
+that once he said it aloud.  His face clouded and grew
+dark.
+
+``Dealish nice business!'' he said.  ``I am here in the
+woods digging flower roots, and a gang of men in the
+city are searching for the girl I love.  If ever a job seemed
+peculiarly a man's own, it appears this would be.  What
+business has any other man spying after my woman? 
+Why am I not down there doing my own work, as I
+always have done it?  Who's more likely to find her
+than I am?  It seems as if there would be an instinct
+that would lead me straight to her, if I'd go.  And you
+can wager I'll go fast enough.''
+
+The Harvester appeared as if he would start that
+instant, but with lips closely shut he finally forced
+himself to go on with his work.  When he had rifled the bed,
+and uprooted all he cared to take during one season,
+he carried the roots to the lake shore below the curing
+house, and spread them on a platform he had built. 
+He stepped into his boat and began dashing pails of water
+over them and using a brush.  As he worked he washed
+away the woody scars of last year's growth, and the tiny
+buds appearing for the coming season.
+
+Belshazzar sat on the opposite bank and watched
+the operation; and Ajax came down and, flying to a
+dead stump, erected and slowly waved his train to attract
+the sober-faced man who paid no heed.  He left the
+roots to drain while he prepared supper, then placed
+them on the trays, now filled to overflowing, and was
+glad he had finished.  He could not cure anything else
+at present if he wanted to.  He was as far advanced as
+he had been at the same time the previous year.  Then
+he dressed neatly and locking the Girl's room, and leaving
+Belshazzar to protect it, he went to Onabasha.
+
+``Bravo!'' cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester
+entered his office.  ``You are heroic to wait all day for
+news.  How much stuff have you gathered?''
+
+``Three crops.  How many missing women have you
+located?''
+
+The doctor laughed.  There was no sign of a smile
+on the face of the Harvester.
+
+``You didn't really expect her to come to light the
+first day?  That would be too easy!  We can't find her
+in a minute.''
+
+``It will be no surprise to me if you can't find her at
+all.  I am not expecting another man to do what I don't
+myself.''
+
+``You are not hunting her.  You are harvesting the
+woods.  The men you employ are to find her.''
+
+``Maybe I am, and maybe I am not,'' said the Harvester
+slowly.  ``To me it appears to be a poor stick of a man
+who coolly proceeds with money making, and trusts to
+men who haven't even seen her to search for the girl
+he loves.  I think a few hours of this is about all my
+patience will endure.''
+
+``What are you going to do?''
+
+``I don't know,'' said the Harvester.  ``But you can
+bank on one thing sure----I'm going to do something! 
+I've had my fill of this.  Thank you for all you've done,
+and all you are going to do.  My head is not clear enough
+yet to decide anything with any sense, but maybe I'll
+hit on something soon.  I'm for the streets for a while.''
+
+``Better go home and go to bed.  You seem very
+tired.''
+
+``I am,'' said the Harvester.  ``The only way to
+endure this is to work myself down.  I'm all right, and
+I'll be careful, but I rather think I'll find her myself.''
+
+``Better go on with your work as we planned.''
+
+``I'll think about it,'' said the Harvester as he went
+out.
+
+Until he was too tired to walk farther he slowly paced
+the streets of the city, and then followed the home road
+through the valley and up the hill to Medicine Woods. 
+When he came to Singing Water, Belshazzar heard his
+steps on the bridge, and came bounding to meet him.  The
+Harvester stretched himself on a seat and turned his
+face to the sky.  It was a deep, dark-blue bowl, closely
+set with stars, and a bright moon shed a soft May radiance
+on the young earth.  The lake was flooded with light,
+and the big trees of the forest crowning the hill were
+silver coroneted.  The unfolding leaves had hidden the
+new cabin from the bridge, but the driveway shone white,
+and already the upspringing bushes hedged it in.  Insects
+were humming lazily in the perfumed night air,
+and across the lake a courting whip-poor-will was
+explaining to his sweetheart just how much and why he
+loved her.  A few bats were wavering in air hunting
+insects, and occasionally an owl or a nighthawk crossed
+the lake.  Killdeer were glorying in the moonlight and
+night flight, and cried in pure, clear notes as they sailed
+over the water.  The Harvester was tired and filled
+with unrest as he stretched on the bridge, but the longer
+he lay the more the enfolding voices comforted him. 
+All of them were waiting and working out their lives
+to the legitimate end; there was nothing else for him to
+do.  He need not follow instinct or profit by chance. 
+He was a man; he could plan and reason.
+
+The air grew balmy and some big, soft clouds swept
+across the moon.  The Harvester felt the dampness
+of rising dew, and went to the cabin.  He looked at
+it long in the moonlight and told himself that he could
+see how much the plants, vines, and ferns had grown
+since the previous night.  Without making a light, he
+threw himself on the bed in the outdoor room, and lay
+looking through the screening at the lake and sky.  He
+was working his brain to think of some manner in which
+to start a search for the Dream Girl that would have
+some probability of success to recommend it, but he
+could settle on no feasible plan.  At last he fell asleep,
+and in the night soft rain wet his face.  He pulled an
+oilcloth sheet over the bed, and lay breathing deeply of
+the damp, perfumed air as he again slept.  In the morning
+brilliant sunshine awoke him and he arose to find the
+earth steaming.
+
+``If ever there was a perfect mushroom day!'' he said
+to Belshazzar.  ``We must hurry and feed the stock and
+ourselves and gather some.  They mean real money.''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE QUEST OF THE DREAM GIRL
+
+The Harvester breakfasted, fed the stock, hitched
+Betsy to the spring wagon, and went into the
+dripping, steamy woods.  If anyone had asked
+him that morning concerning his idea of Heaven, he
+never would have dreamed of describing a place of gold-
+paved streets, crystal pillars, jewelled gates, and thrones
+of ivory.  These things were beyond the man's comprehension
+and he would not have admired or felt at home
+in such magnificence if it had been materialized for him. 
+He would have told you that a floor of last year's brown
+leaves, studded with myriad flower faces, big, bark-
+encased pillars of a thousand years, jewels on every
+bush, shrub, and tree, and tilting thrones on which
+gaudy birds almost burst themselves to voice the joy
+of life, while their bright-eyed little mates peered
+questioningly at him over nest rims----he would have told you
+that Medicine Woods on a damp, sunny May morning
+was Heaven.  And he would have added that only
+one angel, tall and slender, with the pink of health
+on her cheeks and the dew of happiness in her dark
+eyes, was necessary to enter and establish glory.
+Everything spoke to him that morning, but the Harvester
+was silent.  It had been his habit to talk constantly
+to Belshazzar, Ajax, his work, even the winds and perfumes;
+it had been his method of dissipating solitude,
+but to-day he had no words, even for these dear friends. 
+He only opened his soul to beauty, and steadily climbed
+the hill to the crest, and then down the other side to the
+rich, half-shaded, half-open spaces, where big, rough
+mushrooms sprang in a night similar to the one just
+passed.
+
+He could see them awaiting him from afar.  He began
+work with rapid fingers, being careful to break off the
+heads, but not to pull up the roots.  When four heaping
+baskets were filled he cut heavily leaved branches to
+spread over them, and started to Onabasha.  As usual,
+Belshazzar rode beside him and questioned the Harvester
+when he politely suggested to Betsy that she
+make a little haste.
+
+``Have you forgotten that mushrooms are perishable?''
+he asked.  ``If we don't get these to the city all woodsy
+and fresh we can't sell them.  Wonder where we can
+do the best?  The hotels pay well.  Really, the biggest
+prices could be had by----''
+
+Then the Harvester threw back his head and began
+to laugh, and he laughed, and he laughed.  A crow on
+the fence Joined him, and a kingfisher, heading for Loon
+Lake, and then Belshazzar caught the infection.
+
+``Begorry!  The very idea!'' cried the Harvester. 
+`` `Heaven helps them that help themselves.'  Now you
+just watch us manoeuvre for assistance, Belshazzar, old
+boy!  Here we go!''
+
+Then the laugh began again.  It continued all the
+way to Onabasha and even into the city.  The Harvester
+drove through the most prosperous street until he reached
+the residence district.  At the first home he stopped,
+gave the lines to Belshazzar, and, taking a basket of
+mushrooms, went up the walk and rang the bell.
+
+``All groceries should be delivered at the back door,''
+snapped a pert maid, before he had time to say a word.
+
+The Harvester lifted his hat.
+
+``Will you kindly tell the lady of the house that I
+wish to speak with her?''
+
+``What name, please?''
+
+``I want to show her some fine mushrooms, freshly
+gathered,'' he answered.
+
+How she did it the Harvester never knew.  The
+first thing he realized was that the door had closed
+before his face, and the basket had been picked deftly
+from his fingers and was on the other side.  After a
+short time the maid returned.
+
+``What do you want for them, please?''
+
+The last thing on earth the Harvester wanted to do
+was to part with those mushrooms, so he took one long,
+speculative look down the hall and named a price he
+thought would be prohibitive.
+
+``One dollar a dozen.''
+
+``How many are there?''
+
+``I count them as I sell them.  I do not know.''
+
+The door closed again.  Presently it opened and the
+maid knelt on the floor before him and counted the
+mushrooms one by one into a dish pan and in a few minutes
+brought back seven dollars and fifty cents.  The
+chagrined Harvester, feeling like a thief, put the money
+in his pocket, and turned away.
+
+``I was to tell you,'' said she, ``that you are to bring
+all you have to sell here, and the next time please go
+to the kitchen door.''
+
+``Must be fond of mushrooms,'' said the disgruntled
+Harvester.
+
+``They are a great delicacy, and there are visitors.'' 
+The Harvester ached to set the girl to one side and
+walk through the house, but he did not dare; so he
+returned to the street, whistled to Betsy to come, and went
+to the next gate.  Here he hesitated.  Should he risk
+further snubbing at the front door or go back at once. 
+If he did, he only would see a maid.  As he stood an
+instant debating, the door of the house he just had
+left opened and the girl ran after him.  ``If you have
+more, we will take them,'' she called.
+
+The Harvester gasped for breath.
+
+``They have to be used at once,'' he suggested.
+
+``She knows that.  She wants to treat her friends.''
+
+``Well she has got enough for a banquet,'' he said. 
+``I--I don't usually sell more than a dozen or two in
+one place.''
+
+``I don't see why you can't let her have them if you
+have more.''
+
+``Perhaps I have orders to fill for regular customers,''
+suggested the Harvester.
+
+``And perhaps you haven't,'' said the maid.  ``You
+ought to be ashamed not to let people who are willing
+to pay your outrageous prices have them.  It's regular
+highway robbery.''
+
+``Possibly that's the reason I decline to hold up one
+party twice,'' said the Harvester as he entered the gate
+and went up the walk to the front door.
+
+``You should be taught your place,'' called the maid
+after him.
+
+The Harvester again rang the bell.  Another maid
+opened the door, and once more he asked to speak with
+the lady of the house.  As the girl turned, a handsome
+old woman in cap and morning gown came down the
+stairs.
+
+``What have you there?'' she asked.
+
+The Harvester lifted the leaves and exposed the
+musky, crimpled, big mushrooms.
+
+``Oh!'' she cried in delight.  ``Indeed, yes!  We are
+very fond of them.  I will take the basket, and divide
+with my sons.  You are sure you have no poisonous
+ones among them?''
+
+``Quite sure,'' said the Harvester faintly.
+
+``How much do you want for the basket?''
+
+``They are a dollar a dozen; I haven't counted them.''
+
+``Dear me!  Isn't that rather expensive?''
+
+``It is.  Very!'' said the Harvester.  ``So expensive
+that most people don't think of taking over a dozen. 
+They are large and very rich, so they go a long
+way.''
+
+``I suppose you have to spend a great deal of time
+hunting them?  It does seem expensive, but they are
+fresh, and the boys are so fond of them.  I'm not often
+extravagant, I'll just take the lot.  Sarah, bring a pan.''
+
+Again the Harvester stood and watched an entire
+basket counted over and carried away, and he felt the
+robber he had been called as he took the money.
+
+At the next house he had learned a lesson.  He carpeted
+a basket with leaves and counted out a dozen and a
+half into it, leaving the remainder in the wagon.  Three
+blocks on one side of the street exhausted his store and
+he was showered with orders.  He had not seen any
+one that even resembled a dark-eyed girl.  As he came
+from the last house a big, red motor shot past and then
+suddenly slowed and backed beside his wagon.
+
+``What in the name of sense are you doing?'' demanded
+Doctor Carey.
+
+``Invading the residence district of Onabasha,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``Madam, would you like some nice,
+fresh, country mushrooms?  I guarantee that there are
+no poisonous ones among them, and they were gathered
+this morning.  Considering their rarity and the difficult
+work of collecting, they are exceedingly low at my price. 
+I am offering these for five dollars a dozen, madam,
+and for mercy sake don't take them or I'll have no excuse
+to go to the next house.''
+
+The doctor stared, then understood, and began to
+laugh.  When at last he could speak he said, ``David,
+I'll bet you started with three bushels and began at the
+head of this street, and they are all gone.''
+
+``Put up a good one!'' said the Harvester.  ``You
+win.  The first house I tried they ordered me to the
+back door, took a market basket full away from me
+by force, tried to buy the load, and I didn't see any
+one save a maid.''
+
+The doctor lay on the steering gear and faintly groaned.
+
+The Harvester regarded him sympathetically.  ``Isn't
+it a crime?'' he questioned.  ``Mushrooms are no go.
+I can see that!----or rather they are entirely too much
+of a go.  I never saw anything in such demand.  I
+must seek a less popular article for my purpose.  To-
+morrow look out for me.  I shall begin where I left off
+to-day, but I will have changed my product.''
+
+``David, for pity sake,'' peeped the doctor.
+
+``What do I care how I do it, so I locate her?''
+superbly inquired the Harvester.
+
+``But you won't find her!'' gasped the doctor.
+
+``I've come as close it as you so far, anyway,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``Your mushrooms are on the desk in
+your office.''
+
+He drove slowly up and down the streets until Betsy
+wabbled on her legs.  Then he left her to rest and walked
+until he wabbled; and by that time it was dark, so he
+went home.
+
+At the first hint of dawn he was at work the following
+morning.  With loaded baskets closely covered, he
+
+started to Onabasha, and began where he had quit the
+day before.  This time he carried a small, crudely
+fashioned bark basket, leaf-covered, and he rang at the
+front door with confidence.
+
+Every one seemed to have a maid in that part of the
+city, for a freshly capped and aproned girl opened the
+door.
+
+``Are there any young women living here?'' blandly
+inquired the Harvester.
+
+``What's that of your business?'' demanded the
+maid.
+
+The Harvester flushed, but continued, ``I am offering
+something especially intended for young women.  If
+there are none, I will not trouble you.''
+
+``There are several.''
+
+``Will you please ask them if they would care for
+bouquets of violets, fresh from the woods?''
+
+``How much are they, and how large are the bunches?''
+
+``Prices differ, and they are the right size to appear
+well.  They had better see for themselves.''
+
+The maid reached for the basket, but the Harvester
+drew back.
+
+``I keep them in my possession,'' he said.  ``You may
+take a sample.''
+
+He lifted the leaves and drew forth a medium-sized
+bunch of long-stemmed blue violets with their leaves. 
+The flowers were fresh, crisp, and strong odours of the
+woods arose from them.
+
+``Oh!'' cried the maid.  ``Oh, how lovely!''
+
+She hurried away with them and returned carrying
+a purse.
+
+``I want two more bunches,'' she said.  ``How much
+are they?''
+
+``Are the girls who want them dark or fair?''
+
+``What difference does that make?''
+
+``I have blue violets for blondes, yellow for brunettes,
+and white for the others.''
+
+``Well I never!  One is fair, and two have brown hair
+and blue eyes.''
+
+``One blue and two whites,'' said the Harvester calmly,
+as if matching women's hair and eyes with flowers were
+an inherited vocation.  ``They are twenty cents a
+bunch.''
+
+``Aha!'' he chortled to himself as he whistled to Betsy. 
+``At last we have it.  There are no dark-eyed girls here. 
+Now we are making headway.''
+
+Down the street he went, with varying fortune, but
+with patience and persistence at every house he at last
+managed to learn whether there was a dark-eyed girl. 
+There did not seem to be many.  Long before his store
+of yellow violets was gone the last blue and white had
+disappeared.  But he calmly went on asking for dark-
+eyed girls, and explaining that all the blue and white
+were taken, because fair women were most numerous.
+
+At one house the owner, who reminded the Harvester
+of his mother, came to the door.  He uncovered and in
+his suavest tones inquired if a brunette young woman lived
+there and if she would like a nosegay of yellow violets.
+
+``Well bless my soul!'' cried she.  ``What is this
+world coming to?  Do you mean to tell me that there
+are now able-bodied men offering at our doors, flowers
+to match our girls' complexions?''
+
+``Yes madam?'' said the Harvester gravely, ``and
+also selling them as fast as he can show them, at prices
+that make a profit very well worth while.  I had an
+equal number of blue and white, but I see the dark
+girls are very much in the minority.  The others were
+gone long ago, and I now have flowers to offer brunettes
+only.''
+
+``Well forever more!  And you don't call that fiddlin'
+business for a big, healthy, young man?''
+
+The Harvester's gay laugh was infectious.
+
+``I do not,'' he said.  ``I have to start as soon as I
+can see, tramp long distances in wet woods and gather
+the violets on my knees, make them into bunches, and
+bring them here in water to keep them fresh.  I have
+another occupation.  I only kill time on these, but I would
+be ashamed to tell you what I have gotten for them this
+morning.''
+
+``Humph!  I'm glad to hear it!'' said the woman. 
+``Shame in some form is a sign of grace.  I have no use
+for a human being without a generous supply of it. 
+There is a very beautiful dark-eyed girl in the house,
+and I will take two bunches for her.  How much are
+they?''
+
+``I have only three remaining,'' said the Harvester. 
+``Would you like to allow her to make her own selection?''
+
+``When I'm giving things I usually take my choice.  I
+want that, and that one.''
+
+``As my stock is so nearly out, I'll make the two for
+twenty,'' said the Harvester.  ``Won't you accept the
+last one from me, because you remind me just a little
+of my mother?''
+
+``I will indeed,'' said she.  ``Thank you very much! 
+I shall love to have them as dearly as any of the girls. 
+I used to gather them when I was a child, but I almost
+never see the blue ones any more, and I don't know as
+I ever expected to see a yellow violet again as long as I
+live.  Where did you get them?''
+
+``In my woods,'' said the Harvester.  ``You see I
+grow several members of the viola pedata family, bird's
+foot, snake, and wood violet, and three of the odorata,
+English, marsh, and sweet, for our big drug houses. 
+They use the flowers in making delicate tests for acids
+and alkalies.  The entire plant, flower, seed, leaf, and
+root, goes into different remedies.  The beds seed
+themselves and spread, so I have more than I need for the
+chemists, and I sell a few.  I don't use the white and
+yellow in my business; I just grow them for their beauty. 
+I also sell my surplus lilies of the valley.  Would you
+like to order some of them for your house or more
+violets for to-morrow?''
+
+``Well bless my soul!  Do you mean to tell me that
+lilies of the valley are medicine?''
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+``I grow immense beds of them in the woods on the
+banks of Loon Lake,'' he said.  ``They are the convallaris
+majallis of the drug houses and I scarcely know what
+the weak-hearted people would do without them.  I
+use large quantities in trade, and this season I am selling
+a few because people so love them.''
+
+``Lilies in medicine; well dear me!  Are roses good
+for our innards too?''
+
+Then the Harvester did laugh.
+
+``I imagine the roses you know go into perfumes
+mostly,'' he answered.  ``They do make medicine of
+Canadian rock rose and rose bay, laurel, and willow. 
+I grow the bushes, but they are not what you would
+consider roses.''
+
+``I wonder now,'' said the woman studying the
+Harvester closely, ``if you are not that queer genius I've
+heard of, who spends his time hunting and growing
+stuff in the woods and people call him the Medicine
+Man.''
+
+``I strongly suspect madam, I am that man,'' said
+the Harvester.
+
+``Well bless me!'' cried she.  ``I've always wanted to
+see you and here when I do, you look just like anybody
+else.  I thought you'd have long hair, and be wild-
+eyed and ferocious.  And your talk sounds like out of
+a book.  Well that beats me!''
+
+``Me too!'' said the Harvester, lifting his hat.  ``You
+don't want any lilies to-morrow, then?''
+
+``Yes I do.  Medicine or no medicine, I've always
+liked 'em, and I'm going to keep on liking them.  If
+you can bring me a good-sized bunch after the weak-
+kneed----''
+
+``Weak-hearted,'' corrected the Harvester.
+
+``Well `weak-hearted,' then; it's all the same thing. 
+If you've got any left, as I was saying, you can fetch
+them to me for the smell.''
+
+The Harvester laughed all the way down town.  There
+he went to Doctor Carey's office, examined a directory,
+and got the names of all the numbers where be had sold
+yellow violets.  A few questions when the doctor came
+in settled all of them, but the flower scheme was
+better.  Because the yellow were not so plentiful as the
+white and blue, next day he added buttercups and cowslips
+to his store for the dark girls.  When he had rifled
+his beds for the last time, after three weeks of almost
+daily trips to town, and had paid high prices to small
+boys he set searching the adjoining woods until no more
+flowers could be found, he drove from the outskirts of
+the city one day toward the hospital, and as he stopped,
+down the street came Doctor Carey frantically waving
+to him.  As the big car slackened, ``Come on David,
+quick!  I've seen her!'' cried the doctor.
+
+The Harvester jumped from the wagon, threw the
+lines to Belshazzar, and landed in the panting car.
+
+``For Heaven's sake where?  Are you sure?''
+
+The car went speeding down the street.  A policeman
+beckoned and cried after it.
+
+``It won't do any good to get arrested, Doc,'' cautioned
+the Harvester.
+
+``Now right along here,'' panted Doctor Carey.  ``Watch
+both sides sharply.  If I stop you jump out, and tell the
+blame policemen to get at their job.  The party they
+are hired to find is right under their noses.''
+
+The Harvester began to perspire.  ``Doc, don't you
+think you should tell me?  Maybe she is in some store. 
+Maybe I could do better on foot.''
+
+``Shut up!'' growled the doctor.  ``I am doing the
+best I know.''
+
+He hurried up the street for blocks and back again,
+and at last stopped before a large store and went in. 
+When he returned he drove to the hospital and together
+they entered the office.  There he turned to the
+Harvester.
+
+``It isn't so hard to understand you now, my boy,''
+he said.  ``Shades of Diana, but she'll be a beauty when
+she gets a little more flesh and colour.  She came out
+of Whitlaw's and walked right to the crossing.  I almost
+could have touched her, but I didn't notice.  Two girls
+passed before me, and in hurrying, a tall, dark one knocked
+off one of your bunches of yellow violets.  She glanced
+at it and laughed, but let it lay.  Then your girl hesitated
+stooped and picked it up.  The crazy policeman yelled
+at me to clear the crossing and it didn't hit me for a
+half block how tall and white she was and how dark
+her eyes were.  I was just thinking about her picking
+up the flowers, and that it was queer for her to do it,
+when like a brick it hit me, THAT'S DAVID'S GIRL!  I tried
+to turn around, but you know what Main Street is in
+the middle of the day.  And those idiots of policemen! 
+They ordered me on, and I couldn't turn for a street car
+coming, so I called to one of them that the girl we wanted
+was down the street, and he looked at me like an addle-
+pate and said, `What girl?  Move on or you'll get
+in a jam here.'  You can use me for a football if I
+don't go back and smash him.  Paid him five dollars
+myself less than two weeks ago to keep his eyes open. 
+`TO KEEP HIS EYES OPEN!' '' panted the doctor, shaking
+his fist at David.  ``Yes sir!  `To keep his eyes open!' 
+And he motioned for things to come along, and so I
+lost her too.''
+
+``I think we had better go back to the street,'' said
+the Harvester.
+
+``Oh, I'd been back and forth along that street for
+nearly an hour before I gave up and came here to see
+if I could find you, and we've hunted it an hour more! 
+What's the use?  She's gone for this time, but by gum,
+I saw her!  And she was worth seeing!''
+
+``Did she appear ill to you?''
+
+The doctor dropped on a chair and threw out his hands
+hopelessly.
+
+``This was awful sudden, David,'' he said.  ``I was
+going along as I told you, and I noticed her stop and
+thought she had a good head to wait a second instead
+of running in before me, and there came those two girls
+right under the car from the other side.  I only had
+a glimpse of her as she stooped for the flowers.  I saw
+a big braid of hair, but I was half a block away before
+I got it all connected, and then came the crush in the
+street, and I was blocked.''
+
+The doctor broke down and wiped his face and
+expressed his feelings unrestrainedly.
+
+``Don't!'' said the Harvester patiently.  ``It's no use
+to feel so badly, Doc.  I know what you would give to
+have found her for me.  I know you did all you could. 
+I let her escape me.  We will find her yet.  It's glorious
+news that she's in the city.  It gives me heart to hear
+that.  Can't you just remember if she seemed ill?''
+
+The doctor meditated.
+
+``She wasn't the tallest girl I ever saw,'' he said slowly,
+``but she was the tallest girl to be pretty.  She had on a
+white waist and a gray skirt and black hat.  Her eyes
+and hair were like you said, and she was plain, white
+faced, with a hue that might possibly be natural, and
+it might be confinement in bad light and air and poor
+food.  She didn't seem sick, but she isn't well.  There
+is something the matter with her, but it's not immediate
+or dangerous.  She appeared like a flower that had got
+a little moisture and sprouted in a cellar.''
+
+``You saw her all right!'' said the Harvester, ``and
+I think your diagnosis is correct too.  That's the way
+she seemed to me.  I've thought she needed sun and air. 
+I told the South Wind so the other day.''
+
+``Why you blame fool!'' cried the doctor.  ``Is this
+thing going to your head?  Say, I forgot!  There is
+something else.  I traced her in the store.  She was at
+the embroidery counter and she bought some silk.  If
+she ever comes again the clerk is going to hold her and
+telephone me or get her address if she has to steal it.  Oh,
+we are getting there!  We will have her pretty soon now. 
+You ought to feel better just to know that she is in town
+and that I've seen her.''
+
+``I do!'' said the Harvester.  ``Indeed I do!''
+
+``It can't be much longer,'' said the doctor.  ``She's
+got to be located soon.  But those policemen!  I wouldn't
+give a nickel for the lot!  I'll bet she's walked over
+them for two weeks.  If I were you I'd discharge the
+bunch.  They'd be peacefully asleep if she passed them. 
+If they'd let me alone, I'd have had her.  I could have
+turned around easily.  I've been in dozens of closer
+places.''
+
+``Don't worry!  This can't last much longer.  She's
+of and in the city or she wouldn't have picked up the
+flowers.  Doc, are you sure they were mine?''
+
+``Yes.  Half the girls have been tricked out in yours
+the past two weeks.  I can spot them as far as I can
+see.''
+
+``Dear Lord, that's getting close!'' said the Harvester
+intensely.  ``Seems as if the violets would tell her.''
+
+``Now cut out flowers talking and the South Wind!''
+ordered the doctor.  ``This is business.  The violets
+prove something all right, though.  If she was in the
+country, she could gather plenty herself.  She is working
+at sewing in some room in town, either over a store
+or in a house.  If she hadn't been starved for flowers
+she never would have stopped for them on the street. 
+I could see just a flash of hesitation, but she wanted them
+too much.  David, one bouquet will go in water and be
+cared for a week.  Man, it's getting close!  This does
+seem like a link.''
+
+``Since you say it, possibly I dare agree with you,''
+said the Harvester.
+
+``How near are you through with that canvass of
+yours?''
+
+``About three fourths.''
+
+``Well I'd go on with it.  After all we have got to
+find her ourselves.  Those senile policemen!''
+
+``I am going on with it; you needn't worry about
+that.  But I've got to change to other flowers.  I've
+stripped the violet beds.  There's quite a crop of berries
+coming, but they are not ripe yet, and a tragedy to
+pick.  The pond lilies are just beginning to open by
+the thousand.  The lake border is blue with sweet-flag
+that is lovely and the marsh pale gold with cowslips. 
+The ferns are prime and the woods solid sheets of every
+colour of bloom.  I believe I'll go ahead with the wild
+flowers.''
+
+`` I would too!  David, you do feel better, don't you?''
+
+``I certainly do, Doctor.  Surely it won't be long
+now!''
+
+The Harvester was so hopeful that he whistled and
+sang on the return to Medicine Woods, and that night
+for the first time in many days he sat long over a candlestick,
+and took a farewell peep into her room before he
+went to bed.
+
+The next day he worked with all his might harvesting
+the last remnants of early spring herbs, in the dry-room
+and store-house, and on furniture and candlesticks.
+
+Then he went back to flower gathering and every day
+offered bunches of exquisite wood and field flowers and
+white and gold water lilies from door to door.
+
+Three weeks later the Harvester, perceptibly thin,
+pale, and worried entered the office.  He sank into a
+chair and groaned wearily.
+
+``Isn't this the bitterest luck!'' he cried.  ``I've
+finished the town.  I've almost walked off my legs.  I've
+sold flowers by the million, but I've not had a sight of
+her.''
+
+``It's been almost a tragedy with me,'' said the doctor
+gloomily.  ``I've killed two dogs and grazed a baby,
+because I was watching the sidewalks instead of the
+street.  What are you going to do now?''
+
+``I am going home and bring up the work to the July
+mark.  I am going to take it easy and rest a few days
+so I can think more clearly.  I don't know what I'll
+try next.  I've punched up the depot and the policemen
+again.  When I get something new thought out I'll let
+you know.''
+
+Then he began emptying his pockets of money and
+heaping it on the table, small coins, bills, big and little.
+
+``What on earth is that?''
+
+``That,'' said the Harvester, giving the heap a shove
+of contempt, ``that is the price of my pride and humiliation. 
+That is what it cost people who allowed me to
+cheek my way into their homes and rob them, as one
+maid said, for my own purposes.  Doc, where on earth
+does all the money come from?  In almost every house
+I entered, women had it to waste, in many cases to throw
+away.  I never saw so much paid for nothing in all my
+life.  That whole heap is from mushrooms and flowers.''
+
+``What are you piling it there for?''
+
+``For your free ward.  I don't want a penny of it.  I
+wouldn't keep it, not if I was starving.''
+
+``Why David!  You couldn't compel any one to buy. 
+You offered something they wanted, and they paid you
+what you asked.''
+
+``Yes, and to keep them from buying, and to make
+the stuff go farther, I named prices to shame a shark. 
+When I think of that mushroom deal I can feel my
+face burn.  I've made the search I wanted to, and I
+am satisfied that I can't find her that way.  I have
+kept up my work at home between times.  I am not
+out anything but my time, and it isn't fair to plunder
+the city to pay that.  Take that cussed money and put
+it where I'll never see or hear of it.  Do anything you
+please, except to ask me ever to profit by a cent.  When
+I wash my hands after touching it for the last time
+maybe I'll feel better.''
+
+``You are a fanatic!''
+
+``If getting rid of that is being a fanatic, I am proud of
+the title.  You can't imagine what I've been through!''
+
+``Can't I though?'' laughed the doctor.  ``In work
+of that kind you get into every variety of place; and
+some of it is new to you.  Never mind!  No one can
+contaminate you.  It is the law that only a man can
+degrade himself.  Knowing things will not harm you. 
+Doing them is a different matter.  What you know
+will be a protection.  What you do ruins----if it is
+wrong.  You are not harmed, you are only disgusted. 
+Think it over, and in a few days come back and get
+your money.  It is strictly honest.  You earned every
+cent of it.''
+
+``If you ever speak of it again or force it on me I'll
+take it home and throw it into the lake.''
+
+He went after Betsy and slowly drove to Medicine
+Woods.  Belshazzar, on the seat beside him, recognized
+a silent, disappointed master and whimpered as he rubbed
+the Harvester's shoulder to attract his attention.
+
+``This is tough luck, old boy,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I had such hopes and I worked so hard.  I suffered
+in the flesh for every hour of it, and I failed.  Oh but
+I hate the word!  If I knew where she is right now, Bel,
+I'd give anything I've got.  But there's no use to wail
+and get sorry for myself.  That's against the law of
+common decency.  I'll take a swim, sleep it off, straighten
+up the herbs a little, and go at it again, old fellow; that's
+a man's way.  She's somewhere, and she's got to be
+found, no matter what it costs.''
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BELSHAZZAR'S RECORD POINT
+
+The Harvester set the neglected cabin in order;
+then he carefully and deftly packed all his dried
+herbs, barks, and roots.  Next came carrying
+the couch grass, wild alum, and soapwort into the store-
+room.  Then followed July herbs.  He first went to his
+beds of foxglove, because the tender leaves of the second
+year should be stripped from them at flowering time, and
+that usually began two weeks earlier; but his bed lay in
+a shaded, damp location and the tall bloom stalks were
+only in half flower, their pale lavender making an exquisite
+picture.  It paid to collect those leaves, so the Harvester
+hastily stripped the amount he wanted.
+
+Yarrow was beginning to bloom and he gathered as
+much as he required, taking the whole plant.  That only
+brought a few cents a pound, but it was used entire, so
+the weight made it worth while.
+
+Catnip tops and leaves were also ready.  As it grew
+in the open in dry soil and the beds had been weeded that
+spring, he could gather great arm loads of it with a sickle,
+but he had to watch the swarming bees.  He left the
+male fern and mullein until the last for different reasons.
+
+On the damp, cool, rocky hillside, beneath deep shade
+of big forest trees, grew the ferns, their long, graceful
+fronds waving softly.  Tree toads sang on the cool rocks
+beneath them, chewinks nested under gnarled roots
+among them, rose-breasted grosbeaks sang in grape-vines
+clambering over the thickets, and Singing Water ran
+close beside.  So the Harvester left digging these roots
+until nearly the last, because he so disliked to disturb
+the bed.  He could not have done it if he had not been
+forced.  All of the demand for his fern never could be
+supplied.  Of his products none was more important to
+the Harvester because this formed the basis of one of the
+oldest and most reliable remedies for little children.  The
+fern had to be gathered with especial care, deteriorated
+quickly, and no staple was more subject to adulteration.
+
+So he kept his bed intact, lifted the roots at the proper
+time, carefully cleaned without washing, rapidly dried
+in currents of hot air, and shipped them in bottles to
+the trade.  He charged and received fifteen cents a pound,
+where careless and indifferent workers got ten.
+
+On the banks of Singing Water, at the head of the fern
+bed, the Harvester stood under a gray beech tree and
+looked down the swaying length of delicate green.  He
+was lean and rapidly bronzing, for he seldom remembered
+a head covering because he loved the sweep of the wind
+in his hair.
+
+``I hate to touch you,'' he said.  ``How I wish she
+could see you before I begin.  If she did, probably she
+would say it was a sin, and then I never could muster
+courage to do it at all.  I'd give a small farm to know
+if those violets revived for her.  I was crazy to ask
+Doc if they were wilted, but I hated to.  If they were
+from the ones I gathered that morning they should have
+been all right.''
+
+A tree toad dared him to come on; a chipmunk grew
+saucy as the Harvester bent to an unloved task.  If he
+stripped the bed as closely as he dared and not injure
+it, he could not fill half his orders; so, deftly and with
+swift, skilful fingers and an earnest face, he worked. 
+Belshazzar came down the hill on a rush, nose to earth and
+began hunting among the plants.  He never could
+understand why his loved master was so careless as to go
+to work before he had pronounced it safe.  When the
+fern bed was finished, the Harvester took time to make
+a trip to town, but there was no word waiting him; so
+he went to the mullein.  It lay on a sunny hillside beyond
+the couch grass and joined a few small fields, the only
+cleared land of the six hundred acres of Medicine Woods. 
+Over rocks and little hills and hollows spread the pale,
+grayish-yellow of the green leaves, and from five to seven
+feet arose the flower stems, while the entire earth between
+was covered with rosettes of young plants.  Belshazzar
+went before to give warning if any big rattlers curled
+in the sun on the hillside, and after him followed the
+Harvester cutting leaves in heaps.  That was warm
+work and he covered his head with a floppy old straw hat,
+with wet grass in the crown, and stopped occasionally
+to rest.
+
+He loved that yellow-faced hillside.  Because so much
+of his reaping lay in the shade and commonly his feet
+sank in dead leaves and damp earth, the change was
+a rest.  He cheerfully stubbed his toes on rocks, and
+endured the heat without complaint.  It appeared to
+him as if a member of every species of butterfly he knew
+wavered down the hillside.  There were golden-brown
+danais, with their black-striped wings, jetty troilus with
+an attempt at trailers, big asterias, velvety black with
+longer trails and wide bands of yellow dots.  Coenia
+were most numerous of all and to the Harvester wonderfully
+attractive in rich, subdued colours with a wealth of
+markings and eye spots.  Many small moths, with transparent
+wings and noses red as blood, flashed past him
+hunting pollen.  Goldfinches, intent on thistle bloom,
+wavered through the air trailing mellow, happy notes
+behind them, and often a humming-bird visited the
+mullein.  On the lake wild life splashed and chattered
+incessantly, and sometimes the Harvester paused and stood
+with arms heaped with leaves, to interpret some unusually
+appealing note of pain or anger or some very attractive
+melody.  The red-wings were swarming, the killdeers
+busy, and he thought of the Dream Girl and smiled.
+
+``I wonder if she would like this,'' he mused.
+
+When the mullein leaves were deep on the trays of the
+dry-house he began on the bloom and that was a task
+he loved.  Just to lay off the beds in swaths and follow
+them, deftly picking the stamens and yellow petals from
+the blooms.  These he would dry speedily in hot air,
+bottle, and send at once to big laboratories.  The listed
+price was seventy-five cents a pound, but the beautiful
+golden bottles of the Harvester always brought more. 
+The work was worth while, and he liked the location and
+gathering of this particular crop: for these reasons he
+always left it until the last, and then revelled in the gold
+of sunshine, bird, butterfly, and flower.  Several days
+were required to harvest the mullein and during the
+time the man worked with nimble fingers, while his brain
+was intensely occupied with the question of what to do
+next in his search for the Girl.
+
+When the work was finished, he went to the deep wood
+to take a peep at acres of thrifty ginseng, and he was
+satisfied as he surveyed the big bed.  Long years he
+had laboured diligently; soon came the reward.  He
+had not realized it before, but as he studied the situation
+he saw that he either must begin this harvest at once or
+employ help.  If he waited until September he could not
+gather one third of the crop alone.
+
+``But the roots will weigh less if I take them now,'' he
+argued, ``and I can work at nothing in comfort until
+I have located her.  I will go on with my search and
+allow the ginseng to grow that much heavier.  What
+a picture!  It is folly to disturb this now, for I will lose
+the seed of every plant I dig, and that is worth almost as
+much as the root.  It is a question whether I want to
+furnish the market with seed, and so raise competition
+for my bed.  I think, be jabbers, that I'll wait for this
+harvest until the seed is ripe, and then bury part of a
+head where I dig a root, as the Indians did.  That's
+the idea!  The more I grow, the more money; and I
+may need considerable for her.  One thing I'd like to
+know:  Are these plants cultivated?  All the books quote
+the wild at highest rates and all I've ever sold was wild. 
+The start grew here naturally.  What I added from the
+surrounding country was wild, but through and among
+it I've sown seed I bought, and I've tended it with every
+care.  But this is deep wood and wild conditions.  I
+think I have a perfect right to so label it.  I'll ask Doc. 
+And another thing I'll go through the woods west
+of Onabasha where I used to find ginseng, and see if I
+can get a little and then take the same amount of plants
+grown here, and make a test.  That way I can discover
+any difference before I go to market.  This is my gold
+mine, and that point is mighty important to me, so I'll
+go this very day.  I used to find it in the woods northeast
+of town and on the land Jameson bought, west.  Wonder
+if he lives there yet.  He should have died of pure meanness
+long ago.  I'll drive to the river and hunt along
+the bank.''
+
+Early the following morning the Harvester went to
+Onabasha and stopped at the hospital for news.  Finding
+none, he went through town and several miles into the
+country on the other side, to a piece of lowland lying
+along the river bank, where he once had found and
+carried home to reset a big bed of ginseng.  If he could
+get only a half pound of roots from there now, they would
+serve his purpose.  He went down the bank, Belshazzar
+at his heels, and at last found the place.  Many trees
+had been cut, but there remained enough for shade;
+the fields bore the ragged, unattractive appearance of
+old.  The Harvester smiled grimly as he remembered
+that the man who lived there once had charged him for
+damage he might do to trees in driving across his woods,
+and boasted to his neighbours that a young fool was paying
+for the privilege of doing his grubbing.  If Jameson
+had known what the roots he was so anxious to dispose
+of brought a pound on the market at that time, he would
+have been insane with anger.  So the Harvester's eyes
+were dancing with fun and a wry grin twisted his lips as
+he clambered over the banks of the recently dredged
+river, and looked at its pitiful condition and straight,
+muddy flow.
+
+``Appears to match the remainder of the Jameson
+property,'' he said.  ``I don't know who he is or where he
+came from, but he's no farmer.  Perhaps he uses this
+land to corral the stock he buys until he can sell it again.''
+
+He went down the embankment and began to search
+for the location where he formerly had found the ginseng. 
+When he came to the place he stood amazed, for from
+seed, roots, and plants he had missed, the growth had
+sprung up and spread, so that at a rapid estimate the
+Harvester thought it contained at least five pounds,
+allowing for what it would shrink on account of being
+gathered early.  He hesitated an instant, and thought
+of coming later; but the drive was long and the loss
+would not amount to enough to pay for a second trip. 
+About taking it, he never thought at all.  He once had
+permission from the owner to dig all the shrubs, bushes,
+and weeds he desired from that stretch of woods, and had
+paid for possible damages that might occur.  As he bent
+to the task there did come a fleeting thought that the
+patch was weedless and in unusual shape for wild stuff. 
+Then, with swift strokes of his light mattock, he lifted
+the roots, crammed them into his sack, whistled to
+Belshazzar, and going back to the wagon, drove away. 
+Reaching home he washed the ginseng, and spread it on
+a tray to dry.  The first time he wanted the mattock
+he realized that he had left it lying where he had worked. 
+It was an implement that he had directed a blacksmith
+to fashion to meet his requirements.  No store contained
+anything half so useful to him.  He had worked with it
+for years and it just suited him, so there was nothing to
+do but go back.  Betsy was too tired to return that
+day, so he planned to dig his ginseng with something
+else, finish his work the following morning, and get the
+mattock in the afternoon.
+
+``It's like a knife you've carried for years, or a gun,''
+muttered the Harvester.  ``I actually don't know how
+to get along without it.  What made me so careless I
+can't imagine.  I never before in my life did a trick like
+that.  I wonder if I hurried a little.  I certainly was
+free to take it.  He always wanted the stuff dug up.  Of
+all the stupid tricks, Belshazzar, that was the worst. 
+Now Betsy and a half day of wasted time must pay for
+my carelessness.  Since I have to go, I'll look a little
+farther.  Maybe there is more.  Those woods used to
+be full of it.''
+
+According to this programme, the next afternoon the
+Harvester again walked down the embankment of the
+mourning river and through the ragged woods to the
+place where the ginseng had been.  He went forward,
+stepping lightly, as men of his race had walked the forest
+for ages, swerving to avoid boughs, and looking straight
+ahead.  Contrary to his usual custom of coming to heel
+in a strange wood, Belshazzar suddenly darted around the
+man and took the path they had followed the previous
+day.  The animal was performing his office in life; he
+had heard or scented something unusual.  The Harvester
+knew what that meant.  He looked inquiringly at the
+dog, glanced around, and then at the earth.  Belshazzar
+proceeded noiselessly at a rapid pace over the leaves: 
+Suddenly the master saw the dog stop in a stiff point. 
+Lifting his feet lightly and straining his eyes before
+him, the Harvester passed a spice thicket and came in
+line.
+
+For one second he stood as rigid as Belshazzar.  The
+next his right arm shot upward full length, and began
+describing circles, his open palm heavenward, and into
+his face leapt a glorified expression of exultation.  Face
+down in the rifled ginseng bed lay a sobbing girl.  Her
+frame was long and slender, a thick coil of dark hair;
+bound her head.  A second more and the Harvester bent
+and softly patted Belshazzar's head.  The beast broke
+point and looked up.  The man caught the dog's chin
+in a caressing grip, again touched his head, moved soundless
+lips, and waved toward the prostrate figure.  The
+dog hesitated.  The Harvester made the same motions. 
+Belshazzar softly stepped over the leaves, passed around
+the feet of the girl, and paused beside her, nose to earth,
+softly sniffing.
+
+In one moment she came swiftly to a sitting posture.
+
+``Oh!'' she cried in a spasm of fright.
+
+Belshazzar reached an investigating nose and wagged
+an eager tail.
+
+``Why you are a nice friendly dog!'' said the trembling
+voice.
+
+He immediately verified the assertion by offering his
+nose for a kiss.  The girl timidly laid a hand on his head.
+
+``Heaven knows I'm lonely enough to kiss a dog,''
+she said, ``but suppose you belong to the man who stole
+my ginseng, and then ran away so fast he forgot his----
+his piece he digged with.''
+
+Belshazzar pressed closer.
+
+``I am just killed, and I don't care whose dog you are,''
+sobbed the girl.
+
+She threw her arms around Belshazzar's neck and laid
+her white face against his satiny shoulder.  The Harvester
+could endure no more.  He took a step forward, his face
+convulsed with pain.
+
+``Please don't!'' he begged.  ``I took your ginseng. 
+I'll bring it back to-morrow.  There wasn't more than
+twenty-five or thirty dollars' worth.  It doesn't amount
+to one tear.''
+
+The girl arose so quickly, the Harvester could not see
+how she did it.  With a startled fright on her face, and the
+dark eyes swimming, she turned to him in one long look. 
+Words rolled from the lips of the man in a jumble.  Behind
+the tears there was a dull, expressionless blue in the
+girl's eyes and her face was so white that it appeared
+blank.  He began talking before she could speak, in an
+effort to secure forgiveness without condemnation.
+
+``You see, I grow it for a living on land I own, and I've
+always gathered all there was in the country and no one
+cared.  There never was enough in one place to pay, and
+no other man wanted to spend the time, and so I've always
+felt free to take it.  Every one knew I did, and no
+one ever objected before.  Once I paid Henry Jameson
+for the privilege of cleaning it from these woods.  That
+was six or seven years ago, and it didn't occur to me that
+I wasn't at liberty to dig what has grown since.  I'll
+bring it back at once, and pay you for the shrinkage from
+gathering it too early.  There won't be much over six
+pounds when it's dry.  Please, please don't feel badly. 
+Won't you trust me to return it, and make good the
+damage I've done?''
+
+The face of the Harvester was eager and his tones
+appealing, as he leaned forward trying to make her
+understand.
+
+``Certainly!'' said the Girl as she bent to pat the dog,
+while she dried her eyes under cover of the movement.
+``Certainly!  It can make no difference!''
+
+But as the Harvester drew a deep breath of relief, she
+suddenly straightened to full height and looked straight
+at him.
+
+``Oh what is the use to tell a pitiful lie!'' she cried. 
+``It does make a difference!  It makes all the difference
+in the world!  I need that money!  I need it unspeakably. 
+I owe a debt I must pay.  What----what did I
+understand you to say ginseng is worth?''
+
+``If you will take a few steps,'' said the Harvester, ``and
+make yourself comfortable on this log in the shade, I will
+tell you all I know about it.''
+
+The girl walked swiftly to the log indicated, seated
+herself, and waited.  The Harvester followed to a
+respectful distance.
+
+``I can't tell to an ounce what wet roots would weigh,''
+he said as easily as he could command his voice to speak
+with the heart in him beating wildly, ``and of course
+they lose greatly in drying; but I've handled enough that
+I know the weight I carried home will come to six pounds
+at the very least.  Then you must figure on some loss,
+because I dug this before it really was ready.  It does
+not reach full growth until September, and if it is taken
+too soon there is a decrease in weight.  I will make that
+up to you when I return it.''
+
+The troubled eyes were gazing on his face intently,
+and the Harvester studied them as he talked.
+
+``You would think, then, there would be all of six
+pounds?
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester, ``closer eight.  When I
+replace the shrinkage there is bound to be over seven.''
+
+``And how much did I understand you to say it brought
+a pound?''
+
+``That all depends,'' answered he.  ``If you cure it
+yourself, and dry it too much, you lose in weight.  If
+you carry it in a small lot to the druggists of Onabasha,
+probably you will not get over five dollars for it.''
+
+``Five?''
+
+It was a startled cry.
+
+``How much did you expect?'' asked the Harvester
+gently.
+
+``Uncle Henry said he thought he could get fifty cents
+a pound for all I could find.''
+
+``If your Uncle Henry has learned at last that ginseng
+is a salable article he should know something about the
+price also.  Will you tell me what he said, and how you
+came to think of gathering roots for the market?''
+
+``There were men talking beneath the trees one Sunday
+afternoon about old times and hunting deer, and
+they spoke of people who made money long ago gathering
+roots and barks, and they mentioned one man who lived
+by it yet.''
+
+``Was his name Langston?''
+
+``Yes, I remember because I liked the name.  I was
+so eager to earn something, and I can't leave here just
+now because Aunt Molly is very ill, so the thought came
+that possibly I could gather stuff worth money, after
+my work was finished.  I went out and asked questions. 
+They said nothing brought enough to make it pay any
+one, except this ginseng plant, and the Langston man
+almost had stripped the country.  Then uncle said he
+used to get stuff here, and he might have got some of
+that.  I asked what it was like, so they told me and I
+hunted until I found that, and it seemed a quantity to
+me.  Of course I didn't know it had to be dried.  Uncle
+took a root I dug to a store, and they told him that it
+wasn't much used any more, but they would give him
+fifty cents a pound for it.  What MAKES you think you
+can get five dollars?''
+
+``With your permission,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He seated himself on the log, drew from his pocket
+an old pamphlet, and spreading it before her, ran a pencil
+along the line of a list of schedule prices for common
+drug roots and herbs.  Because he understood, his eyes
+were very bright, and his voice a trifle crisp.  A latent
+anger springing in his breast was a good curb for his
+emotions.  He was closely acquainted with all of the
+druggists of Onabasha, and he knew that not one of them
+had offered less than standard prices for ginseng.
+
+``The reason I think so,'' he said gently, ``is because
+growing it is the largest part of my occupation, and it was
+a staple with my father before me.  I am David Langston,
+of whom you heard those men speak.  Since I was a
+very small boy I have lived by collecting herbs and roots,
+and I get more for ginseng than anything else.  Very
+early I tired of hunting other people's woods for herbs,
+so I began transplanting them to my own.  I moved
+that bed out there seven years ago.  What you found has
+grown since from roots I overlooked and seeds that fell
+at that time.  Now do you think I am enough of an
+authority to trust my word on the subject?''
+
+There was not a change of expression on her white
+face.
+
+``You surely should know,'' she said wearily, ``and
+you could have no possible object in deceiving me.  Please
+go on.''
+
+``Any country boy or girl can find ginseng, gather,
+wash, and dry it, and get five dollars a pound.  I can
+return yours to-morrow and you can cure and take it
+to a druggist I will name you, and sell for that.  But if
+you will allow me to make a suggestion, you can get
+more.  Your roots are now on the trays of an evaporating
+house.  They will dry to the proper degree desired by
+the trade, so that they will not lose an extra ounce in
+weight, and if I send them with my stuff to big wholesale
+houses I deal with, they will be graded with the
+finest wild ginseng.  It is worth more than the cultivated
+and you will get closer eight dollars a pound for
+it than five.  There is some speculation in it, and the
+market fluctuates: but, as a rule, I sell for the highest
+price the drug brings, and, at times when the season is
+very dry, I set my own prices.  Shall I return yours or
+may I cure and sell it, and bring you the money?''
+
+``How much trouble would that make you?''
+
+``None.  The work of digging and washing is already
+finished.  All that remains is to weigh it and make a
+memorandum of the amount when I sell.  I should very
+much like to do it.  It would be a comfort to see the
+money go into your hands.  If you are afraid to trust
+me, I will give you the names of several people you can
+ask concerning me the next time you go to the city.''
+
+She looked at him steadily.
+
+``Never mind that,'' she said.  ``But why do you offer
+to do it for a stranger?  It must be some trouble, no
+matter how small you represent it to be.''
+
+``Perhaps I am going to pay you eight and sell for
+ten.''
+
+``I don't think you can.  Five sounds fabulous to me. 
+I can't believe that.  If you wanted to make money you
+needn't have told me you took it.  I never would have
+known.  That isn't your reason!''
+
+``Possibly I would like to atone for those tears I
+caused,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Don't think of that!  They are of no consequence
+to any one.  You needn't do anything for me on that
+account.''
+
+``Don't search for a reason,'' said the Harvester, in
+his gentlest tones.  ``Forget that feature of the case. 
+Say I'm peculiar, and allow me to do it because it would
+be a pleasure.  In close two weeks I will bring you the
+money.  Is it a bargain?''
+
+``Yes, if you care to make it.''
+
+``I care very much.  We will call that settled.''
+
+``I wish I could tell you what it will mean to me,'' said
+the Girl.
+
+``If you only would,'' plead the Harvester.
+
+`` I must not burden a stranger with my troubles.''
+
+``But if it would make the stranger so happy!''
+
+``That isn't possible.  I must face life and bear what
+it brings me alone.''
+
+``Not unless you choose,'' said the Harvester.  ``That
+is, if you will pardon me, a narrow view of life.  It cuts
+other people out of the joy of service.  If you can't tell
+me, would you trust a very lovely and gentle woman I
+could bring to you?''
+
+``No more than you.  It is my affair; I must work it
+out myself.''
+
+``I am mighty sorry,'' said the Harvester.  ``I believe
+you err in that decision.  Think it over a day or so, and
+see if two heads are not better than one.  You will
+realize when this ginseng matter is settled that you profited
+by trusting me.  The same will hold good along
+other lines, if you only can bring yourself to think so. 
+At any rate, try.  Telling a trouble makes it lighter. 
+Sympathy should help, if nothing can be done.  And
+as for money, I can show you how to earn sums at least
+worth your time, if you have nothing else you want
+to do.''
+
+The Girl bent toward him.
+
+``Oh please do tell me!'' she cried eagerly.  ``I've tried
+and tried to find some way ever since I have been here,
+but every one else I have met says I can't, and nothing
+seems to be worth anything.  If you only would tell me
+something I could do!''
+
+``If you will excuse my saying so,'' said the Harvester,
+``it appeals to me that ease, not work, is the
+thing you require.  You appear extremely worn.  Won't
+you let me help you find a way to a long rest first?''
+
+``Impossible!'' cried the Girl.  ``I know I am white
+and appear ill, but truly I never have been sick in all
+my life.  I have been having trouble and working too
+much, but I'll be better soon.  Believe me, there is no
+rest for me now.  I must earn the money I owe first.''
+
+``There is a way, if you care to take it,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``In my work I have become very well
+acquainted with the chief surgeon of the city hospital. 
+Through him I happen to know that he has a free bed in
+a beautiful room, where you could rest until you are
+perfectly strong again, and that room is empty just now. 
+When you are well, I will tell you about the work.''
+
+As she arose the Harvester stood, and tall and straight
+she faced him.
+
+``Impossible!'' she said.  ``It would be brutal to leave my
+aunt.  I cannot pay to rest in a hospital ward, and I will
+not accept charity.  If you can put me in the way of earning,
+even a few cents a day, at anything I could do outside
+the work necessary to earn my board here, it would bring
+me closer to happiness than anything else on earth.''
+
+``What I suggest is not impossible,'' said the Harvester
+softly.  ``If you will go, inside an hour a sweet and gentle
+lady will come for you and take you to ease and perfect
+rest until you are strong again.  I will see that your aunt
+is cared for scrupulously.  I can't help urging you.  It
+is a crime to talk of work to a woman so manifestly worn
+as you are.''
+
+``Then we will not speak of it,'' said the Girl wearily. 
+``It is time for me to go, anyway.  I see you mean to
+be very kind, and while I don't in the least understand
+it, I do hope you feel I am grateful.  If half you say about
+the ginseng comes true, I can make a payment worth
+while before I had hoped to.  I have no words to tell you
+what that will mean to me.''
+
+``If this debt you speak of were paid, could you rest
+then?''
+
+``I could lie down and give up in peace, and I think
+I would.''
+
+``I think you wouldn't,'' said the Harvester, ``because
+you wouldn't be allowed.  There are people in these days
+who make a business of securing rest for the tired and
+over weary, and they would come and prevent that if
+you tried it.  Please let me make another suggestion. 
+If you owe money to some one you feel needs it and the
+debt is preying on you, let's pay it.''
+
+He drew a small check-book from his pocket and slipped
+a pen from a band.
+
+``If you will name the amount and give me the address,
+you shall be free to go to the rest I ask for you inside
+an hour.''
+
+Then slowly from head to foot she looked at him.
+
+``Why?''
+
+``Because your face and attitude clearly indicate that
+you are over tired.  Believe me, you do yourself wrong
+if you refuse.''
+
+``In what way would changing creditors rest me?''
+
+``I thought perhaps you were owing some one who
+needed the money.  I am not a rich man, but I have no
+one save myself to provide for and I have funds lying
+idle that I would be glad to use for you.  If you make a
+point of it, when you are rested, you can repay me.''
+
+``My creditor needs the money, but I should prefer
+owing him rather than a perfect stranger.  What you
+suggest would help me not at all.  I must go now.''
+
+``Very well,'' said the Harvester.  ``If you will tell me
+whom to ask for and where you live, I will come to see
+you to-morrow and bring you some pamphlets.  With
+these and with a little help you soon can earn any amount
+a girl is likely to owe.  It will require but a little while. 
+Where can I find you?''
+
+The Girl hesitated and for the first time a hint of colour
+flushed her cheek.  But courage appeared to be her
+strong point.
+
+``Do you live in this part of the country?'' she asked.
+
+``I live ten miles from here, east of Onabasha,'' he
+answered.
+
+``Do you know Henry Jameson?''
+
+``By sight and by reputation.''
+
+``Did you ever know anything kind or humane of him?''
+
+``I never did.''
+
+``My name is Ruth Jameson.  At present I am
+indebted to him for the only shelter I have.  His wife
+is ill through overwork and worry, and I am paying for
+my bed and what I don't eat, principally, by attempting
+her work.  It scarcely would be fair to Uncle Henry to 
+say that I do it.  I stagger around as long as I can stand,
+then I sit through his abuse.  He is a pleasant man. 
+Please don't think I am telling you this to harrow your
+sympathy further.  The reason I explain is because I
+am driven.  If I do not, you will misjudge me when I
+say that I only can see you here.  I understood what
+you meant when you said Uncle Henry should have
+known the price of ginseng if he knew it was for sale. 
+He did.  He knew what he could get for it, and what
+he meant to pay me.  That is one of his original methods
+with a woman.  If he thought I could earn anything
+worth while, he would allow me, if I killed myself doing
+it; and then he would take the money by force if necessary. 
+So I can meet you here only.  I can earn just
+what I may in secret.  He buys cattle and horses and
+is away from home much of the day, and when Aunt
+Molly is comfortable I can have a few hours.''
+
+``I understand,'' said the Harvester.  ``But this is an
+added hardship.  Why do you remain?  Why subject
+yourself to force and work too heavy for you?''
+
+``Because his is the only roof on earth where I feel I
+can pay for all I get.  I don't care to discuss it, I only
+want you to say you understand, if I ask you to bring the
+pamphlets here and tell me how I can earn money.''
+
+``I do,'' said the Harvester earnestly, although his
+heart was hot in protest.  ``You may be very sure that
+I will not misjudge you.  Shall I come at two o'clock
+to-morrow, Miss Jameson?''
+
+``If you will be so kind.''
+
+The Harvester stepped aside and she passed him and
+crossing the rifled ginseng patch went toward a low
+brown farmhouse lying in an unkept garden, beside a
+ragged highway.  The man sat on the log she had vacated,
+held his head between his hands and tried to think,
+but he could not for big waves of joy that swept over
+him when he realized that at last he had found her, had
+spoken with her, and had arranged a meeting for the
+morrow.
+
+``Belshazzar,'' he said softly, ``I wish I could leave you
+to protect her.  Every day you prove to me that I need
+you, but Heaven knows her necessity is greater.  Bel,
+she makes my heart ache until it feels like jelly.  There
+seems to be just one thing to do.  Get that fool debt
+paid like lightning, and lift her out of here quicker than
+that.  Now, we will go and see Doc, and call off the
+watch-dogs of the law.  Ahead of them, aren't we,
+Belshazzar?  There is a better day coming; we feel it in our
+bones, don't we, old partner?''
+
+The Harvester started through the woods on a rush,
+and as the exercise warmed his heart, he grew wonderfully
+glad.  At last he had found her.  Uncertainty was
+over.  If ever a girl needed a home and care he thought
+she did.  He was so jubilant that he felt like crying
+aloud, shouting for joy, but by and by the years of sober
+repression made their weight felt, so he climbed into
+the wagon and politely requested Betsy to make her
+best time to Onabasha.  Betsy had been asked to make
+haste so frequently of late that she at first almost doubted
+the sanity of her master, the law of whose life, until
+recently, had been to take his time.  Now he appeared
+to be in haste every day.  She had become so accustomed
+to being urged to hurry that she almost had developed
+a gait; so at the Harvester's suggestion she did her level
+best to Onabasha and the hospital, where she loved to
+nose Belshazzar and rest near the watering tap under
+a big tree.
+
+The Harvester went down the hall and into the office
+on the run, and his face appeared like a materialized
+embodiment of living joy.  Doctor Carey turned at his
+approach and then bounded half way across the room,
+his hands outstretched.
+
+``You've found her, David!''
+
+The Harvester grabbed the hand of his friend and
+stood pumping it up and down while he gulped at the
+lump in his throat, and big tears squeezed from his eyes,
+but he could only nod his proud head.
+
+``Found her!'' exulted Doctor Carey.  ``Really found
+her!  Well that's great!  Sit down and tell me, boy! 
+Is she sick, as we feared?  Did you only see her or did
+you get to talk with her?''
+
+``Well sir,'' said the Harvester, choking back his
+emotions, ``you remember that ginseng I told you about
+getting on the old Jameson place last night.  To-day,
+I learned I'd lost that hand-made mattock I use most,
+and I went back for it, and there she was.''
+
+``In the country?''
+
+``Yes sir!''
+
+``Well why didn't we think of it before?''
+
+``I suppose first we would have had to satisfy
+ourselves that she wasn't in town, anyway.''
+
+``Sure!  That would be the logical way to go at it! 
+And so you found her?''
+
+``Yes sir, I found her!  Just Belshazzar and I!  I was
+going along on my way to the place, and he ran past
+me and made a stiff point, and when I came up, there she
+was!'' 
+
+``There she was?''
+
+``Yes sir; there she was!''
+
+They shook hands again.
+
+``Then of course you spoke to her.''
+
+``Yes I spoke to her.''
+
+`` Were you pleased?''
+
+``With her speech and manner?----yes.  But, Doc, if
+ever a woman needed everything on earth!''
+
+``Well did you get any kind of a start made?''
+
+``I couldn't do so very much.  I had to go a little slow
+for fear of frightening her, but I tried to get her to come
+here and she won't until a debt she owes is paid, and she's
+in no condition to work.''
+
+``Got any idea how much it is?''
+
+``No, but it can't be any large sum.  I tried to offer
+to pay it, but she had no hesitation in telling me she
+preferred owing a man she knew to a stranger.''
+
+``Well if she is so particular, how did she come to tell
+you first thing that she was in debt?''
+
+The Harvester explained.
+
+``Oh I see!'' said the doctor.  ``Well you'll have to
+baby her along with the idea that she is earning money
+and pay her double until you get that off her mind, and
+while you are at it, put in your best licks, my boy; perk
+right up and court her like a house afire.  Women like it. 
+All of them do.  They glory in feeling that a man is
+crazy about them.''
+
+``Well I'm insane enough over her,'' said the Harvester,
+``but I'd hate like the nation for her to know it. 
+Seems as if a woman couldn't respect such an addle-pate
+as I am lately.''
+
+``Don't you worry about that,'' advised the doctor. 
+``Just you make love to her.  Go at it in the good old-
+fashioned way.''
+
+``But maybe the `good old-fashioned way' isn't my
+way.''
+
+``What's the difference whose way it is, if it wins?''
+
+``But Kipling says:  `Each man makes love his own
+way!' ''
+
+``I seem to have heard you mention that name be
+fore,'' said the doctor.  ``Do you regard him as an
+authority?''
+
+``I do!'' said the Harvester.  ``Especially when he
+advises me after my own heart and reason.  Miss Jameson
+is not a silly girl.  She's a woman, and twenty-four
+at least.  I don't want her to care for a trick or a
+pretence.  I do want her to love me.  Not that I am worth
+her attention, but because she needs some strong man
+fearfully, and I am ready and more `willing' than the
+original Barkis.  But, like him, I have to let her know
+it in my way, and court her according to the promptings
+of my heart.''
+
+``You deceive yourself!'' said the doctor flatly.  ``That's
+all bosh!  Your tongue says it for the satisfaction of
+your ears, and it does sound well.  You will court her
+according to your ideas of the conventions, as you understand
+them, and strictly in accordance with what you
+consider the respect due her.  If you had followed the
+thing you call the `promptings of your heart,' you would
+have picked her up by main force and brought her to
+my best ward, instead of merely suggesting it and giving
+up when she said no.  If you had followed your heart,
+you would have choked the name and amount out of her
+and paid that devilish debt.  You walk away in a case
+like that, and then have the nerve to come here and
+prate to me about following your heart.  I'll wager my
+last dollar your heart is sore because you were not allowed
+to help her; but on the proposition that you followed
+its promptings I wouldn't stake a penny.  That's all
+tommy-rot!''
+
+``It is,'' agreed the Harvester.  ``Utter!  But what can
+a man do?''
+
+``I don't know what you can do!  I'd have paid that
+debt and brought her to the hospital.''
+
+``I'll go and ask Mrs. Carey about your courtship.  I
+want her help on this, anyway.  I can pick up Miss
+Jameson and bring her here if any man can, but she is
+nursing a sick woman who depends solely on her for care.
+She is above average size, and she has a very decided
+mind of her own.  I don't think you would use force
+and do what you think best for her, if you were in my
+place.  You would wait until you understood the situation
+better, and knew that what you did was for the
+best, ultimately.''
+
+``I don't know whether I would or not.  One thing is
+sure:  I'm mighty glad you have found her.  May I
+tell my wife?''
+
+``Please do!  And ask her if I may depend on her if
+I need a woman's help.  Now I'll call off the valiant
+police and go home and take a good, sound sleep.  Haven't
+had many since I first saw her.''
+
+So Betsy trotted down the valley, up the embankment,
+crossed the railroad, over the levee across Singing Water,
+and up the hill to the cabin.  As they passed it, the
+Harvester jumped from the wagon, tossed the hitching
+strap to Belshazzar, and entered.  He walked straight
+to her door, unlocked it, and uncovering, went inside. 
+Softly he passed from piece to piece of the furniture he
+had made for her, and then surveyed the walls and floor.
+
+``It isn't half good enough,'' he said, ``but it will have
+to answer until I can do better.  Surely she will know
+I tried and care for that, anyway.  I wonder how long
+it will take me to get her here.  Oh, if I only could know
+she was comfortable and happy!  Happy!  She doesn't
+appear as if she ever had heard that word.  Well this
+will be a good place to teach her.  I've always enjoyed
+myself here.  I'm going to have faith that I can win
+her and make her happy also.  When I go to the stable
+to do my work for the night if I could know she was in
+this cabin and glad of it, and if I could hear her down
+here singing like a happy care-free girl, I'd scarcely be
+able to endure the joy of it.''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE HARVESTER GOES COURTING
+
+``She is on Henry Jameson's farm, four miles west of
+Onabasha,'' said the Harvester, as he opened his
+eyes next morning, and laid a caressing hand on
+Belshazzar's head.  ``At two o'clock we are going to see
+her, and we are going to prolong the visit to the ultimate
+limit, so we should make things count here before we
+start.''
+
+He worked in a manner that accomplished much.  There
+seemed no end to his energy that morning.  Despatching
+the usual routine, he gathered the herbs that were ready,
+spread them on the shelves of the dry-house, found
+time to do several things in the cabin, and polish a piece
+of furniture before he ate his lunch and hitched Betsy
+to the wagon.  He also had recovered his voice, and
+talked almost incessantly as he worked.  When it neared
+time to start he dressed carefully.  He stood before
+his bookcase and selected several pamphlets published
+by the Department of Agriculture.  He went to his
+beds and gathered a large arm load of plants.  Then he
+was ready to make his first trip to see the Dream Girl,
+but it never occurred to him that he was going courting.
+
+He had decided fully that there would be no use to try
+to make love to a girl manifestly so ill and in trouble. 
+The first thing, it appeared to him, was to dispel the
+depression, improve the health, and then do the love
+making.  So, in the most business-like manner possible
+and without a shade of embarrassment, the Harvester
+took his herbs and books and started for the Jameson
+woods.  At times as he drove along he espied something
+that he used growing beside the road and stopped to
+secure a specimen.
+
+He came down the river bank and reached the ginseng
+bed at half-past one.  He was purposely early.  He laid
+down his books and plants, and rolled the log on which she
+sat the day before to a more shaded location, where a big
+tree would serve for a back rest.  He pulled away brush
+and windfalls, heaped dry brown leaves, and tramped
+them down for her feet.  Then he laid the books on the
+log, the arm load of plants beside them, and went to the
+river to wash his soiled hands.
+
+Belshazzar's short bark told him the Girl was coming,
+and between the trees he saw the dog race to meet her
+and she bent to stroke his head.  She wore the same
+dress and appeared even paler and thinner.  The Harvester
+hurried up the bank, wiping his hands on his
+handkerchief.
+
+``Glad to see you!'' he greeted her casually.  ``I've
+fixed you a seat with a back rest to-day.  Don't be
+frightened at the stack of herbs.  You needn't gather
+all of those.  They are only suggestions.  They are just
+common roadside plants that have some medicinal value
+and are worth collecting.  Please try my davenport.''
+
+``Thank you!'' she said as she dropped on the log and
+leaned her head against the tree.  It appeared as if her
+eyes closed a few seconds in spite of her, and while they
+were shut the Harvester looked steadily and intently on
+a face of exquisite beauty, but so marred by pallor and
+lines of care that search was required to recognize just
+how handsome she was, and if he had not seen her in
+perfection in the dream the Harvester might have missed
+glorious possibilities.  To bring back that vision would
+be a task worth while was his thought.  With the first
+faint quiver of an eyelash the Harvester took a few
+steps and bent over a plant, and as he did so the Girl's
+eyes followed him.
+
+He appeared so tall and strong, so bronzed by summer
+sun and wind, his face so keen and intense, that swift
+fear caught her heart.  Why was he there?  Why should
+he take so much trouble for her?  With difficulty she
+restrained herself from springing up and running away. 
+Turning with the plant in his hand the Harvester saw the
+panic in her eyes, and it troubled his heart.  For an
+instant he was bewildered, then he understood.
+
+``I don't want you to work when you are not able,'' he
+said in his most matter-of-fact voice, ``but if you still
+think that you are, I'll be very glad.  I need help just
+now, more than I can tell you, and there seem to be so
+few people who can be trusted.  Gathering stuff for drugs
+is really very serious business.  You see, I've a reputation
+to sustain with some of the biggest laboratories in the
+country, not to mention the fact that I sometimes try
+compounding a new remedy for some common complaint
+myself.  I rather take pride in the fact that my stuff goes
+in so fresh and clean that I always get anywhere from
+three to ten cents a pound above the listed prices for it.  I
+want that money, but I want an unbroken record for doing
+a job right and being square and careful, much more.''
+
+He thought the appearance of fright was fading, and a
+tinge of interest taking its place.  She was looking
+straight at him, and as he talked he could see her summoning
+her tired forces to understand and follow him, so
+he continued:
+
+``One would think that as medicines are required in
+cases of life and death, collectors would use extreme caution,
+but some of them are criminally careless.  It's a
+common thing to gather almost any fern for male fern; to
+throw in anything that will increase weight, to wash
+imperfectly, and commit many other sins that lie with the
+collector; beyond that I don't like to think.  I suppose
+there are men who deliberately adulterate pure stuff to
+make it go farther, but when it comes to drugs, I scarcely
+can speak of it calmly.  I like to do a thing right.  I
+raise most of my plants, bushes, and herbs.  I gather
+exactly in season, wash carefully if water dare be used,
+clean them otherwise if not, and dry them by a hot air
+system in an evaporator I built purposely.  Each package
+I put up is pure stuff, clean, properly dried, and fresh.  If
+I caught any man in the act of adulterating any of it I'm 
+afraid he would get hurt badly--and usually I am a
+peaceable man.  I am explaining this to show how
+very careful you must be to keep things separate and
+collect the right plants if you are going to sell stuff to
+me.  I am extremely particular.''
+
+The Girl was leaning toward him, watching his face,
+and hers was slowly changing.  She was deeply interested,
+much impressed, and more at ease.  When the Harvester
+saw he had talked her into confidence he crossed
+the leaves, and sitting on the log beside her, picked up
+the books and opened one.
+
+``Oh I will be careful,'' said the Girl.  ``If you will
+trust me to collect for you, I will undertake only what
+I am sure I know, and I'll do exactly as you tell me.''
+
+``There are a dozen things that bring a price ranging
+from three to fifteen cents a pound, that are in season
+just now.  I suppose you would like to begin on
+some common, easy things, that will bring the most
+money.''
+
+Without a breath of hesitation she answered, ``I will
+commence on whatever you are short of and need most
+to have.''
+
+The heart of the Harvester gave a leap that almost
+choked him, for he was vividly conscious of a broken
+shoe she was hiding beneath her skirts.  He wanted to
+say ``thank you,'' but he was afraid to, so he turned the
+leaves of the book.
+
+``I am working just now on mullein,'' he said.
+
+``Oh I know mullein,'' she cried, with almost a
+hint of animation in her voice.  ``The tall, yellow
+flower stem rising from a circle of green felt leaves!''
+
+``Good!'' said the Harvester.  ``What a pretty way
+to describe it!  Do you know any more plants?''
+
+``Only a few!  I had a high-school course in botany,
+but it was all about flower and leaf formation, nothing
+at all of what anything was good for.  I also learned
+a few, drawing them for leather and embroidery designs.''
+
+``Look here!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I came with an
+arm load of herbs and expected to tell you all about
+foxglove, mullein, yarrow, jimson, purple thorn apple,
+blessed thistle, hemlock, hoarhound, lobelia, and everything
+in season now; but if you already have a profession,
+why do you attempt a new one?  Why don't you go
+on drawing?  I never saw anything so stupid as most
+of the designs from nature for book covers and
+decorations, leather work and pottery.  They are the same
+old subjects worked over and over.  If you can draw
+enough to make original copies, I can furnish you with
+flowers, vines, birds, and insects, new, unused, and
+of exquisite beauty, for every month in the year.  I've
+looked into the matter a little, because I am rather handy
+with a knife, and I carve candlesticks from suitable
+pieces of wood.  I always have trouble getting my
+designs copied; securing something new and unusual,
+never!  If you can draw just well enough to reproduce
+what you see, gathering drugs is too slow and tiresome. 
+What you want to do is to reproduce the subjects I
+will bring, and I'll buy what I want in my work, and
+sell the remainder at the arts and crafts stores for you. 
+Or I can find out what they pay for such designs at
+potteries and ceramic factories.  You have no time to
+spend on herbs, when you are in the woods, if you can
+draw.''
+
+``I am surely in the woods,'' said the Girl, ``and I
+know I can copy correctly.  I often made designs for
+embroidery and leather for the shop mother and I worked
+for in Chicago.''
+
+``Won't they buy them of you now?''
+
+``Undoubtedly.''
+
+``Do they pay anything worth while?''
+
+``I don't know how their prices compare with others. 
+One place was all I worked for.  I think they pay what
+is fair.''
+
+``We will find out,'' said the Harvester promptly.
+
+``I----I don't think you need waste the time,'' faltered
+the Girl.  ``I had better gather the plants for a
+while at least.''
+
+``Collecting crude drug material is not easy,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``Drawing may not be either, but at
+least you could sit while you work, and it should bring
+you more money.  Besides, I very much want a moth
+copied for a candlestick I am carving.  Won't you
+draw that for me?  I have some pupae cases and the
+moths will be out any day now.  If I'd bring you one,
+wouldn't you just make a copy?''
+
+The Girl gripped her hands together and stared
+straight ahead of her for a second, then she turned to
+him.
+
+``I'd like to,'' she said, ``but I have nothing to work
+with.  In Chicago they furnished my material at the
+shop and I drew the design and was paid for the pattern. 
+I didn't know there would be a chance for anything like
+that here.  I haven't even proper pencils.''
+
+``Then the way for you to do this is to strip the first
+mullein plants you see of the petals.  I will pay you
+seventy-five cents a pound for them.  By the time you
+get a few pounds I can have material you need for drawing
+here and you can go to work on whatever flowers,
+vines, and things you can find in the woods, with no
+thanks to any one.''
+
+``I can't see that,'' said the Girl.  ``It would appear
+to me that I would be under more obligations than I
+could repay, and to a stranger.''
+
+``I figure it this way,'' said the Harvester, watching
+from the corner of his eye.  ``I can sell at good prices
+all the mullein flowers I can secure.  You collect for
+me, I buy them.  You can use drawing tools; I get
+them for you, and you pay me with the mullein or out
+of the ginseng money I owe you.  You already have
+that coming, and it's just as much yours as it will be ten
+days from now.  You needn't hesitate a second about
+drawing on it, because I am in a hurry for the moth
+pattern.  I find time to carve only at night, you see. 
+As for being under obligations to a stranger, in the first
+place all the debt would be on my side.  I'd get the drugs
+and the pattern I want; and, in the second place, I
+positively and emphatically refuse to be a stranger. 
+It would be so much better to be mutual helpers and
+friends of the kind worth having; and the sooner we
+begin, the sooner we can work together to good advantage. 
+Get that stranger idea out of your head right now,
+and replace it with thoughts of a new friend, who is
+willing''--the Harvester detected panic in her eyes and
+ended casually--``to enter a partnership that will be of
+benefit to both of us.  Partners can't be strangers, you
+know,'' he finished.
+
+``I don't know what to think,'' said the Girl.
+
+``Never bother your head with thinking,'' advised
+the Harvester with an air of large wisdom.  ``It is
+unprofitable and very tiring.  Any one can see that you are
+too weary now.  Don't dream of such a foolish thing as
+thinking.  Don't worry over motives and obligations. 
+Say to yourself, `I'll enter this partnership and if it brings
+me anything good, I'm that much ahead.  If it fails, I
+have lost nothing.'  That's the way to look at it.''
+
+Then before she could answer he continued:  ``Now
+I want all the mullein bloom I can get.  You'll see the
+yellow heads everywhere.  Strip the petals and bring
+them here, and I'll come for them every day.  They
+must go on the trays as fresh as possible.  On your part,
+we will make out the order now.''
+
+He took a pencil and notebook from his pocket.
+
+``You want drawing pencils and brushes; how many,
+what make and size?''
+
+The Girl hesitated for a moment as if struggling to
+decide what to do; then she named the articles.
+
+``And paper?''
+
+He wrote that down, and asked if there was more.
+
+``I think,'' he said, ``that I can get this order filled
+in Onabasha.  The art stores should keep these things. 
+And shouldn't you have water-colour paper and some
+paint?''
+
+Then there was a flash across the white face.
+
+``Oh if I only could!'' she cried.  ``All my life I have
+been crazy for a box of colour, but I never could afford
+it, and of course, I can't now.  But if this splendid
+plan works, and I can earn what I owe, then maybe
+I can.''
+
+``Well this `splendid plan' is going to `work,' don't
+you bother about that,'' said the Harvester.  ``It has
+begun working right now.  Don't worry a minute. 
+After things have gone wrong for a certain length of
+time, they always veer and go right a while as
+compensation.  Don't think of anything save that you are
+at the turning.  Since it is all settled that we are to be
+partners, would you name me the figures of the debt
+that is worrying you?  Don't, if you mind.  I just
+thought perhaps we could get along better if I knew. 
+Is it----say five hundred dollars?''
+
+``Oh dear no!'' cried the Girl in a panic.  ``I never
+could face that!  It is not quite one hundred, and that
+seems big as a mountain to me.''
+
+``Forget it!'' he cried.  ``The ginseng will pay more
+than half; that I know.  I can bring you the cash in a
+little over a week.''
+
+She started to speak, hesitated, and at last turned to him.
+
+``Would you mind,'' she said, ``if I asked you to keep
+it until I can find a way to go to town?  It's too far to
+walk and I don't know how to send it.  Would I dare
+put it in a letter?''
+
+``Never!'' said the Harvester.  ``You want a draft. 
+That money will be too precious to run any risks.  I'll
+bring it to you and you can write a note and explain
+to whom you want it paid, and I'll take it to the bank
+for you and get your draft.  Then you can write a
+letter, and half your worry will be over safely.''
+
+``It must be done in a sure way,'' said the Girl.  ``If
+I knew I had the money to pay that much on what I
+owe, and then lost it, I simply could not endure it.  I
+would lie down and give up as Aunt Molly has.''
+
+``Forget that too!'' said the Harvester.  ``Wipe
+out all the past that has pain in it.  The future is going
+to be beautifully bright.  That little bird on the bush
+there just told me so, and you are always safe when you
+trust the feathered folk.  If you are going to live in the
+country any length of time, you must know them, and
+they will become a great comfort.  Are you planning
+to be here long?''
+
+``I have no plans.  After what I saw Chicago do to my
+mother I would rather finish life in the open than return
+to the city.  It is horrible here, but at least I'm not
+hungry, and not afraid----all the time.''
+
+``Gracious Heaven!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Do you
+mean to say that you are afraid any part of the time? 
+Would you kindly tell me of whom, and why?''
+
+``You should know without being told that when a
+woman born and reared in a city, and all her life confined
+there, steps into the woods for the first time, she's bound
+to be afraid.  The last few weeks constitute my entire
+experience with the country, and I'm in mortal fear
+that snakes will drop from trees and bushes or spring
+from the ground.  Some places I think I'm sinking,
+and whenever a bush catches my skirts it seems as if
+something dreadful is reaching up for me; there is a
+possibility of horror lurking behind every tree and----''
+
+``Stop!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I can't endure it!  Do
+you mean to tell me that you are afraid here and now?''
+
+She met his eyes squarely.
+
+``Yes,'' she said.  ``It almost makes me ill to sit on
+this log without taking a stick and poking all around
+it first.  Every minute I think something is going to
+strike me in the back or drop on my head.''
+
+The Harvester grew very white beneath the tan,
+and that developed a nice, sickly green complexion for
+him.
+
+``Am I part of your tortures?'' he asked tersely.
+
+``Why shouldn't you be?'' she answered.  ``What do
+I know of you or your motives or why you are here?''
+
+``I have had no experience with the atmosphere that
+breeds such an attitude in a girl.''
+
+``That is a thing for which to thank Heaven.  Undoubtedly 
+it is gracious to you.  My life has been different.''
+
+``Yet in mortal terror of the woods, and probably
+equal fear of me, you are here and asking for work that
+will keep you here.''
+
+``I would go through fire and flood for the money I
+owe.  After that debt is paid----''
+
+She threw out her hands in a hopeless gesture.  The
+Harvester drew forth a roll of bills and tossed them
+into her lap.
+
+``For the love of mercy take what you need and pay
+it,'' he said.  ``Then get a floor under your feet, and try,
+I beg of you, try to force yourself to have confidence
+in me, until I do something that gives you the least
+reason for distrusting me.''
+
+She picked up the money and gave it a contemptuous
+whirl that landed it at his feet.
+
+``What greater cause of distrust could I have by any
+possibility than just that?'' she asked.
+
+The Harvester arose hastily, and taking several steps,
+he stood with folded arms, his back turned.  The Girl
+sat watching him with wide eyes, the dull blue plain
+in their dusky depths.  When he did not speak, she
+grew restless.  At last she slowly arose and circling
+him looked into his face.  It was convulsed with a
+struggle in which love and patience fought for supremacy
+over honest anger.  As he saw her so close, his
+lips drew apart, and his breath came deeply, but he did
+not speak.  He merely stood and looked at her, and
+looked; and she gazed at him as if fascinated, but
+uncomprehending.
+
+``Ruth!''
+
+The call came roaring up the hill.  The Girl shivered
+and became paler.
+
+``Is that your uncle?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+She nodded.
+
+``Will you come to-morrow for your drawing materials?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Will you try to believe that there is absolutely
+nothing, either underfoot or overhead, that will harm
+you?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Will you try to think that I am not a menace to
+public safety, and that I would do much to help you,
+merely because I would be glad to be of service?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Will you try to cultivate the idea that there is nothing
+in all this world that would hurt you purposely?''
+
+``Ruth!'' came a splitting scream in gruff man-tones,
+keyed in deep anger.
+
+``That SOUNDS like it!'' said the Girl, and catching up
+her skirts she ran through the woods, taking a different
+route toward the house.
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and tried to think; but
+there are times when the numbed brain refuses to work,
+so he really sat and suffered.  Belshazzar whimpered
+and licked his hands, and at last the man arose and
+went with the dog to the wagon.  As they came through
+Onabasha, Betsy turned at the hospital corner, but the
+Harvester pulled her around and drove toward the
+country.  Not until they crossed the railroad did he
+lift his head and then he drew a deep breath as if starved
+for pure air and spoke.  ``Not to-day Betsy!  I can't
+face my friends just now.  Someway I am making an
+awful fist of things.  Everything I do is wrong.  She
+no more trusts me than you would a rattlesnake,
+Belshazzar; and from all appearance she takes me to be
+almost as deadly.  What must have been her experiences
+in life to ingrain fear and distrust in her soul at that
+rate?  I always knew I was not handsome, but I never
+before regarded my appearance as alarming.  And I
+`fixed up,' too!''
+
+The Harvester grinned a queer little twist of a grin
+that pulled and distorted his strained face.  ``Might
+as well have gone with a week's beard, a soiled shirt,
+and a leer!  And I've always been as decent as I knew! 
+What's the reward for clean living anyway, if the girl
+you love strikes you like that?''
+
+Belshazzar reached across and kissed him.  The
+Harvester put his arm around the dog.  In the man's
+disappointment and heart hunger he leaned his head
+against the beast and said, ``I've always got you to love
+and protect me, anyway, Belshazzar.  Maybe the man
+who said a dog was a man's best friend was right.  You
+always trusted me, didn't you Bel?  And you never
+regretted it but once, and that wasn't my fault.  I
+never did it!  If I did, I'm getting good and well paid
+for it.  I'd rather be kicked until all the ribs of one side
+are broken, Bel, than to swallow the dose she just handed
+me.  I tell you it was bitter, lad!  What am I going to
+do?  Can't you help me, Bel?''
+
+Belshazzar quivered in anxiety to offer the comfort
+he could not speak.
+
+``Of course you are right!  You always are, Bel!''
+said the Harvester.  ``I know what you are trying to
+tell me.  Sure enough, she didn't have any dream. 
+I am afraid she had the bitterest reality.  She hasn't
+been loving a vision of me, working and searching for
+me, and I don't mean to her what she does to me.  Of
+course I see that I must be patient and bide my time. 
+If there is anything in `like begetting like' she is bound
+to care for me some day, for I love her past all expression,
+and for all she feels I might as well save my breath. 
+But she has got to awake some day, Bel.  She can make
+up her mind to that.  She can't see `why.'  Over and
+over!  I wonder what she would think if I'd up and tell
+her `why' with no frills.  She will drive me to it some
+day, then probably the shock will finish her.  I wonder
+if Doc was only fooling or if he really would do what
+he said.  It might wake her up, anyway, but I'm dubious
+as to the result.  How Uncle Henry can roar!  He
+sounded like a fog horn.  I'd love to try my muscle
+on a man like that.  No wonder she is afraid of him,
+if she is of me.  Afraid!  Well of all things I ever did
+expect, Belshazzar, that is the limit.''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE CHIME OF THE BLUE BELLS
+
+The Harvester finished his evening work and went
+to examine the cocoons.  Many of the moths
+had emerged and flown, but the luna cases remained
+in the bottom of the box.  As he stood looking
+at them one moved and he smiled.
+
+``I'd give something if you would come out and be
+ready to work on by to-morrow afternoon,'' he said. 
+``Possibly you would so interest her that she would
+forget her fear of me.  I'd like mighty well to take
+you along, because she might care for you, and I do need
+the pattern for my candlestick.  Believe I'll lay you in
+a warmer place.''
+
+The first thing the next morning the Harvester looked
+and found the open cocoon and the wet moth clinging
+by its feet to a twig he had placed for it.
+
+``Luck is with me!'' he exulted.  ``I'll carry you to
+her and be mighty careful what I say, and maybe she will
+forget about the fear.''
+
+All the forenoon he cut and spread boneset, saffron,
+and hemlock on the trays to dry.  At noon he put on a
+fresh outfit, ate a hasty lunch, and drove to Onabasha.
+He carried the moth in a box, and as he started he picked
+up a rake.  He went to an art store and bought the
+pencils and paper she had ordered.  He wanted to purchase
+everything he saw for her, but he was fast learning
+a lesson of deep caution.  If he took more than she
+ordered, she would worry over paying, and if he refused
+to accept money, she would put that everlasting ``why''
+at him again.  The water-colour paper and paint he could
+not forego.  He could make a desire to have the moth
+coloured explain those, he thought.
+
+Then he went to a furniture store and bought several
+articles, and forgetting his law against haste, he drove
+Betsy full speed to the river.  He was rather heavily
+ladened as he went up the bank, and it was only one
+o'clock.  There was an hour.  He rolled away the log,
+raked together and removed the leaves to the ground. 
+He tramped the earth level and spread a large cheap porch
+rug.  On this he opened and placed a little folding table
+and chair.  On the table he spread the pencils, paper,
+colour box and brushes, and went to the river to fill
+the water cup.  Then he sat on the log he had rolled
+to one side and waited.  After two hours he arose and
+crept as close the house as he could through the woods,
+but he could not secure a glimpse of the Girl.  He
+went back and waited an hour more, and then undid
+his work and removed it.  When he came to the moth
+his face was very grim as he lifted the twig and helped
+the beautiful creature to climb on a limb.  ``You'll
+be ready to fly in a few hours,'' he said.  ``If I keep you
+in a box you will ruin your wings and be no suitable
+subject, and put you in a cyanide jar I will not.  I am
+hurt too badly myself.  I wonder if what Doc said was
+the right way!  It's certainly a temptation.''
+
+Then he went home; and again Betsy veered at the
+hospital, and once more the Harvester explained to her
+that he did not want to see the doctor.  That evening
+and the following forenoon were difficult, but the Harvester
+lived through them, and in the afternoon went back
+to the woods, spread his rug, and set up the table.  Only
+one streak of luck brightened the gloom in his heart. 
+A yellow emperor had emerged in the night, and now
+occupied the place of yesterday's luna.  She never need
+know it was not the one he wanted, and it would make
+an excuse for the colour box.
+
+He was watching intently and saw her coming a long
+way off.  He noticed that she looked neither right nor
+left, but came straight as if walking a bridge.  As she
+reached the place she glanced hastily around and then
+at him.  The Harvester forgave her everything as he
+saw the look of relief with which she stepped upon the
+carpet.  Then she turned to him.
+
+``I won't have to ask `why' this time,'' she said.  ``I
+know that you did it because I was baby enough to tell
+what a coward I am.  I'm sure you can't afford it, and
+I know you shouldn't have done it, but oh, what a
+comfort!  If you will promise never to do any such
+expensive, foolish, kind thing again, I'll say thank you
+this time.  I couldn't come yesterday, because Aunt Molly 
+was worse and Uncle Henry was at home all day.''
+
+``I supposed it was something like that,'' said the
+Harvester.
+
+She advanced and handed him the roll of bills.
+
+``I had a feeling you would be reckless,'' she said.  ``I
+saw it in your face, so I came back as soon as I could
+steal away, and sure enough, there lay your money and
+the books and everything.  I hid them in the thicket,
+so they will be all right.  I've almost prayed it wouldn't
+rain.  I didn't dare carry them to the house.  Please
+take the money.  I haven't time to argue about it or
+strength, but of course I can't possibly use it unless
+I earn it.  I'm so anxious to see the pencils and
+paper.''
+
+The Harvester thrust the money into his pocket.  The
+Girl went to the table, opened and spread the paper,
+and took out the pencils.
+
+``Is my subject in here?'' she touched the colour box.
+
+``No, the other.''
+
+``Is it alive?  May I open it?''
+
+``We will be very careful at first,'' said the Harvester. 
+``It only left its case in the night and may fly.  When
+the weather is so warm the wings develop rapidly.  Perhaps
+if I remove the lid----''
+
+He took off the cover, exposing a big moth, its lovely,
+pale yellow wings, flecked with heliotrope, outspread as
+it clung to a twig in the box.  The Girl leaned forward.
+
+``What is it?'' she asked.
+
+``One of the big night moths that emerge and fly a
+few hours in June.''
+
+``Is this what you want for your candlestick?''
+
+``If I can't do better.  There is one other I prefer,
+but it may not come at a time that you can get it right.''
+
+``What do you mean by `right'?''
+
+``So that you can copy it before it wants to fly.''
+
+``Why don't you chloroform and pin it until I am
+ready?''
+
+``I am not in the business of killing and impaling
+exquisite creatures like that.''
+
+``Do you mean that if I can't draw it when it is just
+right you will let it go?''
+
+``I do.''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``I told you why.''
+
+``I know you said you were not in the business, but why
+wouldn't you take only one you really wanted to use?''
+
+``I would be afraid,'' replied the Harvester.
+
+``Afraid?  You!''
+
+``I must have a mighty good reason before I kill,''
+said the man.  ``I cannot give life; I have no right to
+take it away.  I will let my statement stand.  I am
+afraid.''
+
+``Of what please?''
+
+``An indefinable something that follows me and makes
+me suffer if I am wantonly cruel.''
+
+``Is there any particular pose in which you want this
+bird placed?''
+
+``Allow me to present you to the yellow emperor,
+known in the books as eacles imperialis,'' he said.  ``I
+want him as he clings naturally and life size.''
+
+She took up a pencil.
+
+``If you don't mind,'' said the Harvester, ``would you
+draw on this other paper?  I very much want the colour,
+also, and you can use it on this.  I brought a box along,
+and I'll get you water.  I had it all ready yesterday.''
+
+``Did you have this same moth?''
+
+``No, I had another.''
+
+``Did you have the one you wanted most?''
+
+``Yes----but it's no difference.''
+
+``And you let it go because I was not here?''
+
+``No.  It went on account of exquisite beauty.  If
+kept in confinement it would struggle and break its
+wings.  You see, that one was a delicate green, where
+this is yellow, plain pale blue green, with a lavender
+rib here, and long curled trailers edged with pale yellow,
+and eye spots rimmed with red and black.''
+
+As the Harvester talked he indicated the points of
+difference with a pencil he had picked up; now he laid it
+down and retreated beyond the limits of the rug.
+
+``I see,'' said the Girl.  ``And this is colour?''
+
+She touched the box.
+
+``A few colours, rather,'' said the Harvester.  ``I
+selected enough to fill the box, with the help of the clerk
+who sold them to me.  If they are not right, I have
+permission to return and exchange them for anything you
+want.''
+
+With eager fingers she opened the box, and bent over
+it a face filled with interest.
+
+``Oh how I've always wanted this!  I scarcely can
+wait to try it.  I do hope I can have it for my very own. 
+Was it quite expensive?''
+
+``No.  Very cheap!'' said the Harvester.  ``The paper
+isn't worth mentioning.  The little, empty tin box was
+only a few cents, and the paints differ according to
+colour.  Some appear to be more than others.  I was
+surprised that the outfit was so inexpensive.''
+
+A skeptical little smile wavered on the Girl's face as
+she drew her slender fingers across the trays of bright
+colour.
+
+``If one dared accept your word, you really would be
+a comfort,'' she said, as she resolutely closed the box,
+pushed it away, and picked up a pencil.
+
+``If you will take the trouble to inquire at the banks,
+post office, express office, hospital or of any druggist
+in Onabasha, you will find that my word is exactly as
+good as my money, and taken quite as readily.''
+
+``I didn't say I doubted you.  I have no right to
+do that until I feel you deceive me.  What I said was
+`dared accept,' which means I must not, because I have
+no right.  But you make one wonder what you would
+do if you were coaxed and asked for things and led by
+insinuations.''
+
+``I can tell you that,'' said the Harvester.  ``It would
+depend altogether on who wanted anything of me and
+what they asked.  If you would undertake to coax and
+insinuate, you never would get it done, because I'd see
+what you needed and have it at hand before you had
+time.''
+
+The Girl looked at him wonderingly.
+
+``Now don't spring your recurrent `why' on me,''
+said the Harvester.  ``I'll tell you `why' some of these
+days.  Just now answer me this question:  Do you want
+me to remain here or leave until you finish?  Which
+way would you be least afraid?''
+
+``I am not at all afraid on the rug and with my work,''
+she said.  ``If you want to hunt ginseng go by all
+means.''
+
+``I don't want to hunt anything,'' said the Harvester. 
+``But if you are more comfortable with me away, I'll
+be glad to go.  I'll leave the dog with you.''
+
+He gave a short whistle and Belshazzar came bounding
+to him.  The Harvester stepped to the Girl's side,
+and dropping on one knee, he drew his hand across the
+rug close to her skirts.
+
+``Right here, Belshazzar,'' he said.  ``Watch!  You
+are on guard, Bel.''
+
+``Well of all names for a dog!'' exclaimed the Girl. 
+``Why did you select that?''
+
+``My mother named my first dog Belshazzar, and
+taught me why; so each of the three I've owned since have
+been christened the same.  It means `to protect' and
+that is the office all of them perform; this one especially
+has filled it admirably.  Once I failed him, but
+he never has gone back on me.  You see he is not a
+particle afraid of me.  Every step I take, he is at my
+heels.''
+
+``So was Bill Sikes' dog, if I remember.''
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+``Bel,'' he said, ``if you could speak you'd say that was
+an ugly one, wouldn't you?''
+
+The dog sprang up and kissed the face of the man
+and rubbed a loving head against his breast.
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester.  ``Now lie down
+and protect this woman as carefully as you ever watched
+in your life.  And incidentally, Bel, tell her that she
+can't exterminate me more than once a day, and the
+performance is accomplished for the present.  I refuse
+to be a willing sacrifice.  `So was Bill Sikes' dog!'  What
+do you think of that, Bel?''
+
+The Harvester arose and turned to go.
+
+``What if this thing attempts to fly?'' she asked.
+
+``Your pardon,'' said the Harvester.  ``If the emperor
+moves, slide the lid over the box a few seconds, until he
+settles and clings quietly again, and then slowly draw it
+away.  If you are careful not to jar the table heavily
+he will not go for hours yet.''
+
+Again he turned.
+
+``If there is no danger, why do you leave the dog?''
+
+``For company,'' said the Harvester.  ``I thought
+you would prefer an animal you are not afraid of to a
+man you are.  But let me tell you there is no necessity
+for either.  I know a woman who goes alone and unafraid
+through every foot of woods in this part of the
+country.  She has climbed, crept, and waded, and she
+tells me she never saw but two venomous snakes this
+side of Michigan.  Nothing ever dropped on her or
+sprang at her.  She feels as secure in the woods as she
+does at home.''
+
+``Isn't she afraid of snakes?''
+
+``She dislikes snakes, but she is not afraid or she would
+not risk encountering them daily.''
+
+``Do you ever find any?''
+
+``Harmless little ones, often.  That is, Bel does.  He
+is always nosing for them, because he understands that
+I work in the earth.  I think I have encountered three
+dangerous ones in my life.  I will guarantee you will
+not find one in these woods.  They are too open and
+too much cleared.''
+
+``Then why leave the dog?''
+
+``I thought,'' said the Harvester patiently, ``that your
+uncle might have turned in some of his cattle, or if pigs
+came here the dog could chase them away.''
+
+She looked at him with utter panic in her face.
+
+``I am far more afraid of a cow than a snake!'' she
+cried.  ``It is so much bigger!''
+
+``How did you ever come into these woods alone far
+enough to find the ginseng?'' asked the Harvester. 
+``Answer me that!''
+
+``I wore Uncle Henry's top boots and carried a rake,
+and I suffered tortures,'' she replied.
+
+``But you hunted until you found what you wanted,
+and came again to keep watch on it?''
+
+``I was driven--simply forced.  There's no use to
+discuss it!''
+
+``Well thank the Lord for one thing,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``You didn't appear half so terrified at the sight
+of me as you did at the mere mention of a cow.  I have
+risen inestimably in my own self-respect.  Belshazzar,
+you may pursue the elusive chipmunk.  I am going to
+guard this woman myself, and please, kind fates, send
+a ferocious cow this way, in order that I may prove my
+valour.''
+
+The Girl's face flushed slightly, and she could not
+restrain a laugh.  That was all the Harvester hoped for
+and more.  He went beyond the edge of the rug and
+sat on the leaves under a tree.  She bent over her work
+and only bird and insect notes and occasionally Belshazzar's
+excited bark broke the silence.  The Harvester
+stretched on the ground, his eyes feasting on the Girl. 
+Intensely he watched every movement.  If a squirrel
+barked she gave a nervous start, so precipitate it seemed
+as if it must hurt.  If a windfall came rattling down
+she appeared ready to fly in headlong terror in any
+direction.  At last she dropped her pencil and looked
+at him helplessly.
+
+``What is it?'' he asked.
+
+``The silence and these awful crashes when one doesn't
+know what is coming,'' she said.
+
+``Will it bother you if I talk?  Perhaps the sound
+of my voice will help?''
+
+``I am accustomed to working when people talk, and it
+will be a comfort.  I may be able to follow you, and that
+will prevent me from thinking.  There are dreadful things
+in my mind when they are not driven out.  Please talk! 
+Tell me about the herbs you gathered this morning.''
+
+The Harvester gave the Girl one long look as she bent
+over her work.  He was vividly conscious of the graceful
+curves of her little figure, the coil of dark, silky hair,
+softly waving around her temples and neck, and when her
+eyes turned in his direction he knew that it was only the
+white, drawn face that restrained him.  He was almost
+forced to tell her how he loved and longed for her; about
+the home he had prepared; of a thousand personal
+interests.  Instead, he took a firm grip and said casually,
+``Foxglove harvest is over.  This plant has to be taken
+when the leaves are in second year growth and at bloom
+time.  I have stripped my mullein beds of both leaves
+and flowers.  I finished a week ago.  Beyond lies a
+stretch of Parnassus grass that made me think of you,
+it was so white and delicate.  I want you to see it.  It
+will be lovely in a few weeks more.''
+
+``You never had seen me a week ago.''
+
+``Oh hadn't I?'' said the Harvester.  ``Well maybe
+I dreamed about you then.  I am a great dreamer. 
+Once I had a dream that may interest you some day,
+after you've overcome your fear of me.  Now this bed
+of which I was speaking is a picture in September.  You
+must arrange to drive home with me and see it then.''
+
+``For what do you sell foxglove and mullein?''
+
+``Foxglove for heart trouble, and mullein for catarrh. 
+I get ten cents a pound for foxglove leaves and five for
+mullein and from seventy-five to a dollar for flowers
+of the latter, depending on how well I preserve the colour
+in drying them.  They must be sealed in bottles and
+handled with extreme care.''
+
+``Then if I wasn't too childish to be out picking them,
+I could be earning seventy-five cents a pound for mullein
+blooms?''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester, ``but until you learned the
+trick of stripping them rapidly you scarcely could gather
+what would weigh two pounds a day, when dried.  Not
+to mention the fact that you would have to stand and
+work mostly in hot sunshine, because mullein likes open
+roads and fields and sunny hills.  Now you can sit securely
+in the shade, and in two hours you can make me a
+pattern of that moth, for which I would pay a designer
+of the arts and crafts shop five dollars, so of course you
+shall have the same.''
+
+``Oh no!'' she cried in swift panic.  ``You were charged
+too much!  It isn't worth a dollar, even!''
+
+``On the contrary the candlestick on which I shall
+use it will be invaluable when I finish it, and five is
+very little for the cream of my design.  I paid just
+right.  You can earn the same for all you can do.  If
+you can embroider linen, they pay good prices for that,
+too and wood carving, metal work, or leather things. 
+May I see how you are coming on?''
+
+``Please do,'' she said.
+
+The Harvester sprang up and looked over the Girl's
+shoulder.  He could not suppress an exclamation of
+delight.
+
+``Perfect!'' he cried.  ``You can surpass their best
+drafting at the shop!  Your fortune is made.  Any time
+you want to go to Onabasha you can make enough to
+pay your board, dress you well, and save something every
+week.  You must leave here as soon as you can manage
+it.  When can you go?''
+
+``I don't know,'' she said wearily.  ``I'd hate to tell
+you how full of aches I am.  I could not work much just
+now, if I had the best opportunities in the world.  I
+must grow stronger.''
+
+``You should not work at anything until you are well,''
+he said.  ``It is a crime against nature to drive yourself. 
+Why will you not allow----''
+
+``Do you really think, with a little practice, I can
+draw designs that will sell?''
+
+The Harvester picked up the sheet.  The work was
+delicate and exact.  He could see no way to improve it.
+
+``You know it will sell,'' he said gently, ``because you
+already have sold such work.''
+
+``But not for the prices you offer.''
+
+``The prices I name are going to be for NEW, ORIGINAL
+DESIGNS.  I've got a thousand in my head, that old
+Mother Nature shows me in the woods and on the water
+every day.''
+
+``But those are yours; I can't take them.''
+
+``You must,'' said the Harvester.  ``I only see and
+recognize studies; I can't materialize them, and until
+they are drawn, no one can profit by them.  In this
+partnership we revolutionize decorative art.  There
+are actually birds besides fat robins and nondescript
+swallows.  The crane and heron do not monopolize the water. 
+Wild rose and golden-rod are not the only flowers.  The
+other day I was gathering lobelia.  The seeds are used
+in tonic preparations.  It has an upright stem with
+flowers scattered along it.  In itself it is not much, but
+close beside it always grows its cousin, tall bell-flower. 
+As the name indicates, the flowers are bell shape and
+I can't begin to describe their grace, beauty, and delicate
+blue colour.  They ring my strongest call to worship. 
+My work keeps me in the woods so much I remain
+there for my religion also.  Whenever I find these
+flowers I always pause for a little service of my own
+that begins by reciting these lines:
+
+     `` 'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingeth
+          And tolls its perfume on the passing air,
+     Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringeth
+          A call to prayer.''
+
+
+``Beautiful!'' said the Girl.
+
+``It's mighty convenient,'' explained the Harvester. 
+``By my method, you see, you don't have to wait for
+your day and hour of worship.  Anywhere the blue bell
+rings its call it is Sunday in the woods and in your heart. 
+After I recite that, I pray my prayer.''
+
+``Go on!'' said the Girl.  ``This is no place to stop.''
+
+``It is always one and the same prayer, and there are
+only two lines of it,'' said the Harvester.  ``It runs this
+way----  Let me take your pencil and I will write it
+for you.''
+
+He bent over her shoulder, and traced these lines on
+a scrap of the wrapping paper:
+
+               ``Almighty Evolver of the Universe:
+          Help me to keep my soul and body clean,
+     And at all times to do unto others as I would be done by.
+                         Amen.''
+
+
+The Girl took the slip and sat studying it; then she
+raised her eyes to his face curiously, but with a tinge of
+awe in them.
+
+``I can see you standing over a blue, bell-shaped
+flower reciting those exquisite lines and praying this
+wonderful prayer,'' she said.  ``Yesterday you allowed
+the moth you were willing to pay five dollars for a drawing
+of, to go, because you wouldn't risk breaking its wings. 
+Why you are more like a woman!''
+
+A red stream crimsoned the Harvester's face.
+
+``Well heretofore I have been considered strictly
+masculine,'' he said.  ``To appreciate beauty or to try to
+be just commonly decent is not exclusively feminine. 
+You must remember there are painters, poets, musicians,
+workers in art along almost any line you could
+mention, and no one calls them feminine, but there is
+one good thing if I am.  You need no longer fear me. 
+If you should see me, muck covered, grubbing in the
+earth or on a raft washing roots in the lake, you would
+not consider me like a woman.''
+
+``Would it be any discredit if I did?  I think not. 
+I merely meant that most men would not see or hear
+the blue bell at all----and as for the poem and prayer! 
+If the woods make a man with such fibre in his soul,
+I must learn them if they half kill me.''
+
+``You harp on death.  Try to forget the word.''
+
+``I have faced it for months, and seen it do its grinding
+worst very recently to the only thing on earth I loved or
+that loved me.  I have no desire to forget!  Tell me
+more about the plants.''
+
+``Forgive me,'' said the Harvester gently.  ``Just
+now I am collecting catnip for the infant and nervous
+people, hoarhound for colds and dyspepsia, boneset heads
+and flowers for the same purpose.  There is a heavy head
+of white bloom with wonderful lacy leaves, called yarrow. 
+I take the entire plant for a tonic and blessed thistle
+leaves and flowers for the same purpose.''
+
+``That must be what I need,'' interrupted the Girl. 
+``Half the time I believe I have a little fever, but I
+couldn't have dyspepsia, because I never want anything
+to eat; perhaps the tonic would make me hungry.''
+
+``Promise me you will tell that to the doctor who
+comes to see your aunt, and take what he gives you.''
+
+``No doctor comes to see my aunt.  She is merely
+playing lazy to get out of work.  There is nothing the
+matter with her.''
+
+``Then why----''
+
+``My uncle says that.  Really, she could not stand and
+walk across a room alone.  She is simply worn out.''
+
+``I shall report the case,'' said the Harvester instantly.
+
+``You better not!'' said the Girl.  ``There must be a
+mistake about you knowing my uncle.  Tell me more
+of the flowers.''
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and continued:
+
+``These I just have named I take at bloom time;
+next month come purple thorn apple, jimson weed, and
+hemlock.''
+
+``Isn't that poison?''
+
+``Half the stuff I handle is.''
+
+``Aren't you afraid?''
+
+``Terribly,'' said the Harvester in laughing voice. 
+``But I want the money, the sick folk need the medicine,
+and I drink water.''
+
+The Girl laughed also.
+
+``Look here!'' said the Harvester.  ``Why not tell
+me just as closely as you can about your aunt, and
+let me fix something for her; or if you are afraid to
+trust me, let me have my friend of whom I spoke yesterday.''
+
+``Perhaps I am not so much afraid as I was,'' said
+the Girl.  ``I wish I could!  How could I explain where
+I got it and I wonder if she would take it.''
+
+``Give it to her without any explanation,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``Tell her it will make her stronger and she
+must use it.  Tell me exactly how she is, and I will fix
+up some harmless remedies that may help, and can do
+no harm.''
+
+``She simply has been neglected, overworked, and
+abused until she has lain down, turned her face to the
+wall, and given up hope.  I think it is too late.  I
+think the end will come soon.  But I wish you would
+try.  I'll gladly pay----''
+
+``Don't!'' said the Harvester.  ``Not for things that
+grow in the woods and that I prepare.  Don't think of
+money every minute.''
+
+``I must,'' she said with forced restraint.  ``It is the
+price of life.  Without it one suffers----horribly----
+as I know.  What other plants do you gather?''
+
+``Saffron,'' answered the Harvester.  ``A beautiful
+thing!  You must see it.  Tall, round stems, lacy, delicate
+leaves, big heads of bright yellow bloom, touched
+with colour so dark it appears black--one of the loveliest
+plants that grows.  You should see my big bed of it in
+a week or two more.  It makes a picture.''
+
+The words recalled him to the Girl.  He turned to
+study her.  He forgot his commission and chafed at
+conventions that prevented his doing what he saw was
+required so urgently.  Fearing she would notice, he
+gazed away through the forest and tried to think, to
+plan.
+
+``You are not making noise enough,'' she said.
+
+So absorbed was the Harvester he scarcely heard her. 
+In an attempt to obey he began to whistle softly.  A
+tiny goldfinch in a nest of thistle down and plant fibre
+in the branching of a bush ten feet above him stuck her
+head over the brim and inquired, ``P'tseet?''  ``Pt'see!''
+answer the Harvester.  That began the duet.  Before
+the question had been asked and answered a half dozen
+times a catbird intruded its voice and hearing a reply
+came through the bushes to investigate.  A wren followed
+and became very saucy.  From----one could not see
+where, came a vireo, and almost at the same time a
+chewink had something to say.
+
+Instantly the Harvester answered.  Then a blue jay
+came chattering to ascertain what all the fuss was about,
+and the Harvester carried on a conversation that called
+up the remainder of the feathered tribe.  A brilliant
+cardinal came tearing through the thicket, his beady
+black eyes snapping, and demanded to know if
+any one were harming his mate, brooding under a
+wild grape leaf in a scrub elm on the river embankment. 
+A brown thrush silently slipped like a snake between
+shrubs and trees, and catching the universal excitement,
+began to flirt his tail and utter a weird, whistling
+cry.
+
+With one eye on the bird, and the other on the Girl
+sitting in amazed silence, the Harvester began working
+for effect.  He lay quietly, but in turn he answered a
+dozen birds so accurately they thought their mates were
+calling, and closer and closer they came.  An oriole in
+orange and black heard his challenge, and flew up the
+river bank, answering at steady intervals for quite a
+time before it was visible, and in resorting to the last
+notes he could think of a quail whistled ``Bob White''
+and a shitepoke, skulking along the river bank, stopped
+and cried, ``Cowk, cowk!''
+
+At his limit of calls the Harvester changed his notes
+and whistled and cried bits of bird talk in tone with
+every mellow accent and inflection he could manage. 
+Gradually the excitement subsided, the birds flew and
+tilted closer, turned their sleek heads, peered with bright
+eyes, and ventured on and on until the very bravest,
+the wren and the jay, were almost in touch.  Then,
+tired of hunting, Belshazzar came racing and the little
+feathered people scattered in precipitate flight.
+
+``How do you like that kind of a noise?'' inquired the
+Harvester.
+
+The Girl drew a deep breath.
+
+``Of course you know that was the most exquisite
+sight I ever saw,'' she said.  ``I never shall forget it. 
+I did not think there were that many different birds in
+the whole world.  Of all the gaudy colours!  And they
+came so close you could have reached out and touched
+them.''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester calmly.  ``Birds are never
+afraid of me.  At Medicine Woods, when I call them
+like that, many, most of them, in fact, eat from my
+hand.  If you ever have looked at me enough to notice
+bulgy pockets, they are full of wheat.  These birds
+are strangers, but I'll wager you that in a week I can
+make them take food from me.  Of course, my own
+birds know me, because they are around every day. 
+It is much easier to tame them in winter, when the
+snow has fallen and food is scarce, but it only takes
+a little while to win a bird's confidence at any
+season.''
+
+``Birds don't know what there is to be afraid of,''
+she said.
+
+``Your pardon,'' said the Harvester, ``but I am familiar
+with them, and that is not correct.  They have more
+to fear than human beings.  No one is going to kill you
+merely to see if he can shoot straight enough to hit. 
+Your life is not in danger because you have magnificent
+hair that some woman would like for an ornament. 
+You will not be stricken out in a flash because there are
+a few bits of meat on your frame some one wants to eat. 
+No one will set a seductive trap for you, and, if you are
+tempted to enter it, shut you from freedom and natural
+diet, in a cage so small you can't turn around without
+touching bars.  You are in a secure and free position
+compared with the birds.  I also have observed that
+they know guns, many forms of traps, and all of them
+decide by the mere manner of a man's passing
+through the woods whether he is a friend or an
+enemy.  Birds know more than many people realize. 
+They do not always correctly estimate gun range, they
+are foolishly venturesome at times when they want
+food, but they know many more things than most
+people give them credit for understanding.  The greatest
+trouble with the birds is they are too willing
+to trust us and be friendly, so they are often
+deceived.''
+
+``That sounds as if you were right,'' said the Girl.
+
+``I am of the woods, so I know I am,'' answered the
+Harvester.
+
+``Will you look at this now?''
+
+He examined the drawing closely.
+
+``Where did you learn?'' he inquired.
+
+``My mother.  She was educated to her finger tips. 
+She drew, painted, played beautifully, sang well, and she
+had read almost all the best books.  Besides what I learned
+at high school she taught me all I know.  Her embroidery
+always brought higher prices than mine, try as I
+might.  I never saw any one else make such a dainty,
+accurate little stitch as she could.''
+
+``If this is not perfect, I don't know how to criticise
+it.  I can and will use it in my work.  But I have one
+luna cocoon remaining and I would give ten dollars for
+such a drawing of the moth before it flies.  It may open
+to-night or not for several days.  If your aunt should
+be worse and you cannot come to-morrow and the moth
+emerges, is there any way in which I could send it to
+you?''
+
+``What could I do with it?''
+
+``I thought perhaps you could take a piece of paper
+and the pencils with you, and secure an outline
+in your room.  It need not be worked up with
+all the detail in this.  Merely a skeleton sketch would
+do.  Could I leave it at the house or send it with
+some one?''
+
+``No!  Oh no!'' she cried.  ``Leave it here.  Put it
+in a box in the bushes where I hid the books. 
+What are you going to do with these things?''
+
+``Hide them in the thicket and scatter leaves over
+them.''
+
+``What if it rains?''
+
+``I have thought of that.  I brought a few yards of
+oilcloth to-day and they will be safe and dry if it pours.''
+
+``Good!'' she said.  ``Then if the moth comes out
+you bring it, and if I am not here, put it under the cloth
+and I will run up some time in the afternoon.  But
+if I were you, I would not spread the rug until you
+know if I can remain.  I have to steal every minute I
+am away, and any day uncle takes a notion to stay at
+home I dare not come.''
+
+``Try to come to-morrow.  I am going to bring some
+medicine for your aunt.''
+
+``Put it under the cloth if I am not here; but I will
+come if I can.  I must go now; I have been away far
+too long.''
+
+The Harvester picked up one of the drug pamphlets,
+laid the drawing inside it, and placed it with his other
+books.  Then he drew out his pocket book and laid a
+five-dollar bill on the table and began folding up the
+chair and putting away the things.  The Girl looked at
+the money with eager eyes.
+
+``Is that honestly what you would pay at the arts
+and crafts place?''
+
+``It is the customary price for my patterns.''
+
+``And are you sure this is as good?''
+
+``I can bring you some I have paid that for, and let
+you see for yourself that it is better.''
+
+``I wish you would!'' she cried eagerly.  ``I need that
+money, and I would like to have it dearly, if I really have
+earned it, but I can't touch it if I have not.''
+
+``Won't you accept my word?''
+
+``No.  I will see the other drawings first, and if I
+think mine are as good, I will be glad to take the money
+to-morrow.''
+
+``What if you can't come?''
+
+``Put them under the oilcloth.  I watch all the time
+and I think Uncle Henry has trained even the boys so
+they don't play in the river on his land.  I never see a
+soul here; the woods, house, and everything is desolate
+until he comes home and then it is like----'' she paused.
+
+``I'll say it for you,'' said the Harvester promptly. 
+``Then it is like hell.''
+
+``At its worst,'' supplemented the Girl.  Taking pencils
+and a sheet of paper she went swiftly through the woods. 
+Before she left the shelter of the trees, the Harvester
+saw her busy her hands with the front of her dress, and
+he knew that she was concealing the drawing material. 
+The colour box was left, and he said things as he put
+it with the chair and table, covered them with the rug
+and oilcloth, and heaped on a layer of leaves.
+
+Then he drove to the city and Betsy turned at the
+hospital corner with no interference.  He could face his
+friend that day.  Despite all discouragements he felt
+reassured.  He was progressing.  Means of communication
+had been established.  If she did not come,
+he could leave a note and tell her if the moth had not
+emerged and how sorry he was to have missed seeing
+her.
+
+``Hello, lover!'' cried Doctor Carey as the Harvester
+entered the office.  ``Are you married yet?''
+
+``No.  But I'm going to be,'' said the Harvester with
+confidence.
+
+``Have you asked her?''
+
+``No.  We are getting acquainted.  She is too close to
+trouble, too ill, and too worried over a sick relative for
+me to intrude myself; it would be brutal, but it's a
+temptation.  Doc, is there any way to compel a man to provide
+medical care for his wife?''
+
+``Can he afford it?''
+
+``Amply.  Anything!  Worth thousands in land and
+nobody knows what in money.  It's Henry Jameson.''
+
+``The meanest man I ever knew.  If he has a wife it's
+a marvel she has survived this long.  Won't he provide
+for her?''
+
+``I suppose he thinks he has when she has a bed to lie
+on and a roof to cover her.  He won't supply food she
+can eat and medicine.  He says she is lazy.''
+
+``What do you think?''
+
+``I quote Miss Jameson.  She says her aunt is slowly
+dying from overwork and neglect.''
+
+``David, doesn't it seem pretty good, when you say
+`Miss Jameson'?''
+
+``Loveliest sound on earth, except the remainder of it.''
+
+``What's that?''
+
+``Ruth!''
+
+``Jove! That is a beautiful name.  Ruth Langston. 
+It will go well, won't it?''
+
+``Music that the birds, insects, Singing Water, the
+trees, and the breeze can't ever equal.  I'm holding on
+with all my might, but it's tough, Doc.  She's in such a
+dreadful place and position, and she needs so much. 
+She is sick.  Can't you give me a prescription for each
+of them?''
+
+``You just bet I can,'' said the doctor, ``if you can
+engineer their taking them.''
+
+``I suppose you'd hold their noses and pour stuff down
+them.''
+
+``I would if necessary.''
+
+``Well, it is.''
+
+``All right----I'll fix something, and you see that
+they use it.''
+
+``I can try,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Try!  Pah!  You aren't half a man!''
+
+``That's a half more than being a woman, anyway.''
+
+``She called you feminine, did she?'' cried the doctor,
+dancing and laughing.  ``She ought to see you harvesting
+skunk cabbage and blue flag or when you are angry
+enough.''
+
+The doctor left the room and it was a half hour before
+he returned.
+
+``Try that on them according to directions,'' he said,
+handing over a couple of bottles.
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester, ``I will!''
+
+``That sounds manly enough.''
+
+``Oh pother!  It's not that I'm not a man, or a laggard
+in love; but I'd like to know what you'd do to a girl
+dumb with grief over the recent loss of her mother, who
+was her only relative worth counting, sick from God
+knows what exposure and privation, and now a dying
+relative on her hands.  What could you do?''
+
+``I'd marry her and pick her out of it!''
+
+``I wouldn't have her, if she'd leave a sick woman for
+me!''
+
+``I wouldn't either.  She's got to stick it out until
+her aunt grows better, and then I'll go out there and
+show you how to court a girl.''
+
+``I guess not!  You keep the girl you did court, courted,
+and you'll have your hands full.  How does that appear
+to you?''
+
+The Harvester opened the pamphlet he carried and
+held up the drawing of the moth.
+
+The doctor turned to the light.
+
+``Good work!'' he cried.  ``Did she do that?''
+
+``She did.  In a little over an hour.''
+
+``Fine!  She should have a chance.''
+
+``She is going to.  She is going to have all the
+opportunity that is coming to her.''
+
+``Good for you, David!  Any time I can help!''
+
+The Harvester replaced the sketch and went to the
+wagon; but he left Belshazzar in charge, and visited the
+largest dry goods store in Onabasha, where he held a
+conference with the floor walker.  When he came out he
+carried a heaping load of boxes of every size and shape,
+with a label on each.  He drove to Medicine Woods
+singing and whistling.
+
+``She didn't want me to go, Belshazzar!'' he chuckled
+to the dog.  ``She was more afraid of a cow than she
+was of me.  I made some headway to-day, old boy. 
+She doesn't seem to have a ray of an idea what I am
+there for, but she is going to trust me soon now; that is
+written in the books.  Oh I hope she will be there to-
+morrow, and the luna will be out.  Got half a notion to
+take the case and lay it in the warmest place I can find. 
+But if it comes out and she isn't there, I'll be sorry. 
+Better trust to luck.''
+
+The Harvester stabled Betsy, fed the stock, and visited
+with the birds.  After supper he took his purchases
+and entered her room.  He opened the drawers of the
+chest he had made, and selecting the labelled boxes he
+laid them in.  But not a package did he open.  Then
+he arose and radiated conceit of himself.
+
+``I'll wager she will like those,'' he commented proudly,
+``because Kane promised me fairly that he would have the
+right things put up for a girl the size of the clerk I selected
+for him, and exactly what Ruth should have.  That girl
+was slenderer and not quite so tall, but he said everything
+was made long on purpose.  Now what else should I get?''
+
+He turned to the dressing table and taking a notebook
+from his pocket made this list:
+     Rugs for bed and bath room.
+     Mattresses, pillows and bedding,
+     Dresses for all occasions.
+     All kinds of shoes and overshoes.
+
+
+``There are gloves, too!'' exclaimed the Harvester. 
+``She has to have some, but how am I going to know what
+is right?  Oh, but she needs shoes!  High, low, slippers,
+everything!  I wonder what that clerk wears.  I don't
+believe shoes would be comfortable without being fitted,
+or at least the proper size.  I wonder what kind of dresses
+she likes.  I hope she's fond of white.  A woman always
+appears loveliest in that.  Maybe I'd better buy what
+I'm sure of and let her select the dresses.  But I'd love
+to have this room crammed with girl-fixings when she
+comes.  Doesn't seem as if she ever has had any little
+luxuries.  I can't miss it on anything a woman uses. 
+Let me think!''
+
+Slowly he wrote again:
+          Parasols.
+          Fans.
+          Veils.
+          Hats.
+
+
+``I never can get them!  I think that will keep me busy
+for a few days,'' said the Harvester as he closed the door
+softly, and went to look at the pupae cases.  Then he
+carved on the vine of the candlestick for her dressing
+table; with one arm around Belshazzar, re-read the story
+of John Muir's dog, went into the lake, and to bed. 
+Just as he was becoming unconscious the beast lifted an
+inquiring head and gazed at the man.
+
+``More 'fraid of cow,'' the Harvester was muttering
+in a sleepy chuckle.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+DEMONSTRATED COURTSHIP
+
+When the Harvester saw the Girl coming toward
+the woods, he spread the rug, opened and
+placed the table and chair, laid out the colour
+box, and another containing the last luna.
+
+``Did the green one come out?'' she asked, touching
+the box lightly.
+
+``It did!'' said the Harvester proudly, as if he were
+responsible for the performance.  ``It is an omen!  It
+means that I am to have my long-coveted pattern for
+my best candlestick.  It also clearly indicates that
+the gods of luck are with me for the day, and I
+get my way about everything.  There won't be the
+least use in your asking `why' or interposing objections. 
+This is my clean sweep.  I shall be fearfully
+dictatorial and you must submit, because the fates
+have pointed out that they favour me to-day, and
+if you go contrary to their decrees you will have a
+bad time.''
+
+The Girl's smile was a little wan.  She sank on a chair
+and picked up a pencil.
+
+``Lay that down!'' cried the Harvester.  ``You haven't
+had permission from the Dictator to begin drawing.  You
+are to sit and rest a long time.''
+
+``Please may I speak?'' asked the Girl.
+
+The Harvester grew foolishly happy.  Was she really
+going to play the game?  Of course he had hoped, but
+it was a hope without any foundation.
+
+``You may,'' he said soberly.
+
+``I am afraid that if you don't allow me to draw the
+moth at once, I'll never get it done.  I dislike to mention
+it on your good day, but Aunt Molly is very restless.  I
+got a neighbour's little girl to watch her and call me if
+I'm wanted.  It's quite certain that I must go soon, so if
+you would like the moth----''
+
+``When luck is coming your way, never hurry it!  You
+always upset the bowl if you grow greedy and crowd. 
+If it is a gamble whether I get this moth, I'll take the
+chance; but I won't change my foreordained programme
+for this afternoon.  First, you are to sit still ten minutes,
+shut your eyes, and rest.  I can't sing, but I can whistle,
+and I'm going to entertain you so you won't feel alone. 
+Ready now!''
+
+The Girl leaned her elbows on the table, closed her
+eyes, and pressed her slender white hands over them.
+
+``Please don't call the birds,'' she said.  ``I can't rest
+if you do.  It was so exciting trying to see all of them
+and guess what they were saying.''
+
+``No,'' said the Harvester gently.  ``This ten minutes
+is for relaxation, you know.  You ease every muscle,
+sink limply on your chair, lean on the table, let go all
+over, and don't think.  Just listen to me.  I assure you
+it's going to be perfectly lovely.''
+
+Watching intently he saw the strained muscles
+relaxing at his suggestion and caught the smile over the
+last words as he slid into a soft whistle.  It was an
+easy, slow, old-fashioned tune, carrying along gently,
+with neither heights nor depths, just monotonous, sleepy,
+soothing notes, that went on and on with a little ripple
+of change at times, only to return to the theme, until at
+last the Girl lifted her head.
+
+``It's away past ten minutes,'' she said, ``but that was
+a real rest.  Truly, I am better prepared for work.''
+
+``Broke the rule, too!'' said the Harvester.  ``It was,
+for me to say when time was up.  Can't you allow me
+to have my way for ten minutes?''
+
+``I am so anxious to see and draw this moth,'' she
+answered.  ``And first of all you promised to bring the
+drawings you have been using.''
+
+``Now where does my programme come in?'' inquired
+the Harvester.  ``You are spoiling everything, and I
+refuse to have my lucky day interfered with; therefore
+we will ignore the suggestion until we arrive at the place
+where it is proper.  Next thing is refreshments.''
+
+He arose and coming over cleared the table.  Then
+he spread on it a paper tray cloth with a gay border,
+and going into the thicket brought out a box and a big
+bucket containing a jug packed in ice.  The Girl's eyes
+widened.  She reached down, caught up a piece, and
+holding it to drip a second started to put it in her mouth.
+
+``Drop that!'' commanded the Harvester.  ``That's
+a very unhealthful proceeding.  Wait a minute.''
+
+From one end of the box he produced a tin of wafers
+and from the other a plate.  Then he dug into the ice
+and lifted several different varieties of chilled fruit.  From
+the jug he poured a combination that he made of the
+juices of oranges, pineapples, and lemons.  He set the
+glass, rapidly frosting in the heat, and the fruit before
+the Girl.
+
+``Now!'' he said.
+
+For one instant she stared at the table.  Then she
+looked at him and in the depths of her dark eyes was an
+appeal he never forgot.
+
+``I made that drink myself, so it's all right,'' he
+assured her.  ``There's a pretty stiff touch of pineapple
+in it, and it cuts the cobwebs on a hot day.  Please
+try it!''
+
+``I can't!'' cried the Girl with a half-sob.  ``Think of
+Aunt Molly!''
+
+``Are you fond of her?''
+
+``No.  I never saw her until a few weeks ago.  Since
+then I've seen nothing save her poor, tired back.  She lies
+in a heap facing the wall.  But if she could have things
+like these, she needn't suffer.  And if my mother could
+have had them she would be living to-day.  Oh Man,
+I can't touch this.''
+
+``I see,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He reached over, picked up the glass, and poured its
+contents into the jug.  He repacked the fruit and closed
+the wafer box.  Then he made a trip to the thicket and
+came out putting something into his pocket.
+
+``Come on!'' he said.  ``We are going to the house.''
+
+She stared at him.
+
+``I simply don't dare.''
+
+``Then I will go alone,'' said the Harvester, picking
+up the bucket and starting.
+
+The Girl followed him.
+
+``Uncle Henry may come any minute,'' she urged.
+
+``Well if he comes and acts unpleasantly, he will get
+what he richly deserves.''
+
+``And he will make me pay for it afterward.''
+
+``Oh no he won't!'' said the Harvester, ``because I'll
+look out for that.  This is my lucky day.  He isn't going
+to come.''
+
+When he reached the back door he opened it and
+stepped inside.  Of all the barren places of crude,
+disheartening ugliness the Harvester ever had seen, that was
+the worst.
+
+``I want a glass and a spoon,'' he said.
+
+The Girl brought them.
+
+``Where is she?''
+
+``In the next room.''
+
+At the sound of their voices a small girl came to the
+kitchen door.
+
+``How do you do?'' inquired the Harvester.  ``Is Mrs.
+Jameson asleep?''
+
+``I don't know,'' answered the child.  ``She just lies
+there.''
+
+The Harvester gave her the glass.  ``Please fill that
+with water,'' he said.  Then he picked up the bucket and
+went into the front room.  When the child came with
+the water he took a bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon,
+and handed it to her.
+
+``Hold that steadily,'' he said.
+
+Then he slid his strong hands under the light frame and
+turned the face of the faded little creature toward him.
+
+``I am a Medicine Man, Mrs. Jameson,'' he said casually. 
+``I heard you were sick and I came to see if a
+little of this stuff wouldn't brace you up.  Open your
+lips.''
+
+He held out the spoon and the amazed woman swallowed
+the contents before she realized what she was
+doing.  Then the Harvester ran a hand under her shoulders
+and lifting her gently he tossed her pillow with
+the other hand.
+
+``You are a light little body, just like my mother,''
+he commented.  ``Now I have something else sick people
+sometimes enjoy.''
+
+He held the fruit juice to her lips as he slightly raised
+her on the pillow.  Her trembling fingers lifted and
+closed around the sparkling glass.
+
+``Oh it's cool!'' she gasped.
+
+``It is,'' said the Harvester, ``and sour!  I think you
+can taste it.  Try!''
+
+She drank so greedily he drew away the glass and
+urged caution, but the shaking fingers clung to him and
+the wavering voice begged for more.
+
+``In a minute,'' said the Harvester gently.  But the
+fevered woman would not wait.  She drank the cooling
+liquid until she could take no more.  Then she watched
+him fill a small pitcher and pack it in a part of the ice
+and lay some fruit around it.
+
+``Who, Ruth?'' she panted.
+
+``A Medicine Man who heard about you.''
+
+``What will Henry say?''
+
+``He won't know,'' explained the Girl, smoothing the
+hot forehead.  ``I'll put it in the cupboard, and slip it
+to you while he is out of the room.  It will make you
+strong and well.''
+
+``I don't want to be strong and well and suffer it all
+over again.  I want to rest.  Give me more of the cool
+drink.  Give me all I want, then I'll go to sleep.''
+
+``It's wonderful,'' said the Girl.  ``That's more than
+I've heard her talk since I came.  She is much stronger. 
+Please let her have it.''
+
+The Harvester assented.  He gave the child some of
+the fruit, and told her to sit beside the bed and hold the
+drink when it was asked for.  She agreed to be very
+careful and watchful.  Then he picked up the bucket,
+and followed by the Girl, returned to the woods.
+
+``Now we have to begin all over again,'' he said, as
+she seated herself at the table.  ``Because of the walk in
+the heat, this time the programme is a little different.''
+
+He replaced the wafer box and opened it, filled the
+glass, and heaped the cold fruit.
+
+``Your aunt is going to have a refreshing sleep now,''
+he said, ``and your mind can be free about her for an hour
+or two.  I am very sure your mother would not want you
+deprived of anything because she missed it, so you are
+to enjoy this, if you care for it.  At least try a sample.''
+
+The Girl lifted the glass to her lips with a trembling
+hand.
+
+``I'm like Aunt Molly,'' she said; ``I wish I could drink
+all I could swallow, and then lie down and go to sleep
+forever.  I suppose this is what they have in Heaven.''
+
+``No, it's what they drink all over earth at present,
+but I have a conceit of my own brand.  Some of it is
+too strong of one fruit or of the other, and all too sweet
+for health.  This is compounded scientifically and it's
+just right.  If you are not accustomed to cold drinks,
+go slowly.''
+
+``You can't scare me,'' said the Girl; ``I'm going to
+drink all I want.''
+
+There was a note of excitement in the Harvester's
+laugh.
+
+``You must have some, too!''
+
+``After a while,'' he said.  ``I was thirsty when I made
+it, so I don't care for any more now.  Try the fruit and
+those wafers.  Of course they are not home made--
+they are the best I could do at a bakery.  Take time
+enough to eat slowly.  I'm going to tell you a tale while
+you lunch, and it's about a Medicine Man named David
+Langston.  It's a very peculiar story, but it's quite
+true.  This man lives in the woods east of Onabasha,
+accompanied by his dog, horse, cow, and chickens, and
+a forest full of birds, flowers, and matchless trees.  He
+has lived there in this manner for six long years, and
+every spring he and his dog have a seance and agree
+whether he shall go on gathering medicinal herbs and
+trying his hand at making medicine or go to the city
+and live as other men.  Always the dog chooses to remain
+in the woods.
+
+``Then every spring, on the day the first bluebird comes,
+the dog also decides whether the man shall go on alone
+or find a mate and bring her home for company.  Each
+year the dog regularly has decided that they live as
+always.  This spring, for some unforeseen reason, he
+changed his mind, and compelled the man, according to
+his vow in the beginning, to go courting.  The man was
+so very angry at the idea of having a woman in his home,
+interfering with his work, disturbing his arrangements,
+and perhaps wanting to spend more money than he could
+afford, that he struck the dog for making that decision;
+struck him for the very first time in his life----I believe
+you'd like those apricots.  Please try one.''
+
+``Go on with the story,'' said the Girl, sipping
+delicately but constantly at the frosty glass.
+
+The Harvester arose and refilled it.  Then he dropped
+pieces of ice over the fruit.
+
+``Where was I?'' he inquired casually.
+
+``Where you struck Belshazzar, and it's no wonder,''
+answered the Girl.
+
+Without taking time to ponder that, the Harvester
+continued:
+
+``But that night the man had a wonderful, golden
+dream.  A beautiful girl came to him, and she was so
+gracious and lovely that he was sufficiently punished
+for striking his dog, because he fell unalterably in love
+with her.''
+
+``Meaning you?'' interrupted the Girl.
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester, ``meaning me.  I----if
+you like----fell in love with the girl.  She came so
+alluringly, and I was so close to her that I saw her better
+than I ever did any other girl, and I knew her for all time. 
+When she went, my heart was gone.''
+
+``And you have lived without that important organ
+ever since?''
+
+``Without even the ghost of it!  She took it with her. 
+Well, that dream was so real, that the next day I began
+building over my house, making furniture, and planting
+flowers for her; and every day, wherever I went, I watched
+for her.''
+
+``What nonsense!''
+
+``I can't see it.''
+
+``You won't find a girl you dreamed about in a
+thousand years.''
+
+``Wrong!'' cried the Harvester triumphantly.  ``Saw
+her in little less than three months, but she vanished and
+it took some time and difficult work before I located
+her again; but I've got her all solid now, and she doesn't
+escape.''
+
+``Is she a `lovely and gracious lady'?''
+
+``She is!'' said the Harvester, with all his heart.
+
+``Young and beautiful, of course!''
+
+``Indeed yes!''
+
+``Please fill this glass.  I told you what I was going
+to do.''
+
+The Harvester refilled the glass and the Girl drained it.
+
+``Now won't you set aside these things and allow me
+to go to work?'' she asked.  ``My call may come any
+minute, and I'll never forgive myself if I waste time, and
+don't draw your moth pattern for you.''
+
+``It's against my principles to hurry, and besides, my
+story isn't finished.''
+
+``It is,'' said the Girl.  ``She is young and lovely, gentle
+and a lady, you have her `all solid,' and she can't `escape';
+that's the end, of course.  But if I were you, I wouldn't
+have her until I gave her a chance to get away, and saw
+whether she would if she could.''
+
+``Oh I am not a jailer,'' said the Harvester.  ``She shall
+be free if I cannot make her love me; but I can, and I
+will; I swear it.''
+
+``You are not truly in earnest?''
+
+``I am in deadly earnest.''
+
+``Honestly, you dreamed about a girl, and found the
+very one?''
+
+``Most certainly, I did.''
+
+``It sounds like the wildest romancing.''
+
+``It is the veriest reality.''
+
+``Well I hope you win her, and that she will be
+everything you desire.''
+
+``Thank you,'' said the Harvester.  ``It's written in
+the book of fate that I succeed.  The very elements are
+with me.  The South Wind carried a message to her for
+me.  I am going to marry her, but you could make it
+much easier for me if you would.''
+
+``I!  What could I do?'' cried the Girl.
+
+``You could cease being afraid of me.  You could
+learn to trust me.  You could try to like me, if you see
+anything likeable about me.  That would encourage me
+so that I could tell you of my Dream Girl, and then you
+could show me how to win her.  A woman always knows
+about those things better than a man.  You could be the
+greatest help in all the world to me, if only you would.''
+
+``I couldn't possibly!  I can't leave here.  I have no
+proper clothing to appear before another girl.  She would
+be shocked at my white face.  That I could help you is
+the most improbable dream you have had.''
+
+``You must pardon me if I differ from you, and persist
+in thinking that you can be of invaluable assistance to
+me, if you will.  But you can't influence my Dream
+Girl, if you fear and distrust me yourself.  Promise me
+that you will help me that much, anyway.''
+
+``I'll do all I can.  I only want to make you see that
+I am in no position to grant any favours, no matter how
+much I owe you or how I'd like to.  Is the candlestick
+you are carving for her?''
+
+``It is,'' said the Harvester.  ``I am making a pair of
+maple to stand on a dressing table I built for her.  It is
+unusually beautiful wood, I think, and I hope she will
+be pleased with it.''
+
+``Please take these things away and let me begin.  This
+is the only thing I can see that I can do for you, and the
+moth will want to fly before I have finished.''
+
+The Harvester cleared the table and placed the box,
+while the Girl spread the paper and began work eagerly.
+
+``I wonder if I knew there were such exquisite things
+in all the world,'' she said.  ``I scarcely think I did.  I am
+beginning to understand why you couldn't kill one.  You
+could make a chair or a table, and so you feel free to destroy
+them; but it takes ages and Almighty wisdom to evolve
+a creature like this, so you don't dare.  I think no one else
+would if they really knew.  Please talk while I work.''
+
+``Is there a particular subject you want discussed?''
+
+``Anything but her.  If I think too strongly of her, I
+can't work so well.''
+
+``Your ginseng is almost dry,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I think I can bring you the money in a few days.''
+
+``So soon!'' she cried.
+
+``It dries day and night in an even temperature, and
+faster than you would believe.  There's going to be
+between seven and eight pounds of it, when I make up
+what it has shrunk.  It will go under the head of the
+finest wild roots.  I can get eight for it sure.''
+
+``Oh what good news!'' cried the Girl.  ``This is my
+lucky day, too.  And the little girl isn't coming, so Aunt
+Molly must be asleep.  Everything goes right!  If only
+Uncle Henry wouldn't come home!''
+
+``Let me fill your glass,'' proffered the Harvester.
+
+``Just half way, and set it where I can see it,'' said the
+Girl.  She worked with swift strokes and there was a
+hint of colour in her face, as she looked at him.  ``I
+hope you won't think I'm greedy,'' she said, ``but truly,
+that's the first thing I've had that I could taste in----I
+can't remember when.''
+
+``I'll bring a barrel to-morrow,'' offered the Harvester,
+``and a big piece of ice wrapped in coffee sacking.''
+
+``You mustn't think of such a thing!  Ice is expensive
+and so are fruits.''
+
+``Ice costs me the time required to saw and pack it at
+my home.  I almost live on the fruit I raise.  I confess
+to a fondness for this drink.  I have no other personal
+expenses, unless you count in books, and a very few
+clothes, such as I'm wearing; so I surely can afford all
+the fruit juice I want.''
+
+``For yourself, yes.''
+
+``Also for a couple of women or I am a mighty poor
+attempt at a man,'' said the Harvester.  ``This is my
+day, so you are not to talk, because it won't do any good. 
+Things go my way.''
+
+``Please see what you think of this,'' she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and bent over her.
+
+``That will do finely,'' he answered.  ``You can stop. 
+I don't require all those little details for carving, I just
+want a good outline.  It is finished.  See here!''
+
+He drew some folded papers from his pocket and laid
+them before her.
+
+``Those are what I have been working from,'' he said.
+
+The Girl took them and studied each carefully.
+
+``If those are worth five dollars to you,'' she said gently,
+``why then I needn't hesitate to take as much for mine. 
+They are superior.''
+
+``I should say so,'' laughed the Harvester as he took
+up the drawing and laid down the money.
+
+``If you would make it half that much I'd feel better
+about it,'' she said.
+
+``How could I?'' asked the Harvester.  ``Your fingers
+are well trained and extremely skilful.  Because some
+one has not been paying you enough for your work is
+no reason why I should keep it up.  From now on you
+must have what others get.  As soon as you can arrange
+for work, I want to tell you about some designs I have
+studied out from different things, show you the plants
+and insects, and have you make some samples.  I'll
+send them to proper places, and see what experts say
+about the ideas and drawing.  Work in the woods is
+healthful, with proper precautions; it's easy compared
+with the exactions of being bound to sewing or embroidering
+in the confinement of a room; it's vividly interesting
+in the search for new subjects, changes of material, and
+differing harmonious combinations; it's truly artistic; and
+it brings the prices high grade stuff always does.''
+
+``Almost you give me hope,'' said the Girl.  ``Almost,
+Man----almost!  Since mother died, I haven't thought
+or planned beyond paying for the medicine she took and
+the shelter she lies in.  Oh I didn't mean to say that----!''
+
+She buried her face in her hands.  The Harvester
+suffered until he scarcely knew how to bear it.
+
+``Please finish,'' he begged.  ``You hadn't planned
+beyond the debt, you were saying----''
+
+The Girl lifted her tired, strained face.
+
+``Give me a little more of that delicious drink,'' she
+said.  ``I am ravenous for it.  It puts new life in me. 
+This and what you say bring a far away, misty vision
+of a clean, bright, peaceful room somewhere, and work
+one could love and live on in comfort; enough to give a
+desire to finish life to its natural end.  Oh Man, you
+make me hope in spite of myself!''
+
+`` `Praise God from whom all blessings flow;' '' quoted
+the Harvester reverently.  ``Now try one of these peaches. 
+It's juicy and cold.  Get that room right in focus in your
+brain, and nurture the idea.  Its walls shall be bright
+as sunshine, its floor creamy white, and it shall open
+into a little garden, where only yellow flowers grow, and
+the birds shall sing.  The first ray of sun that peeps
+over the hills of morning shall fall through its windows
+across your bed, and you shall work only as you please,
+after you've had months of play and rest; and it's coming
+true the instant you can leave here.  Dream of
+it, make up your mind to it, because it's coming.  I
+have a little streak of second sight, and I see it on the
+way.''
+
+``You are talking wildly,'' said the Girl, ``else you are
+a good genie trying to conjure a room for me.''
+
+``This room I am talking of is ready whenever you want
+to take possession,'' said the Harvester.  ``Accept it as
+a reality, because I tell you I know where it is, that it
+is waiting, and you can earn your way into it with no
+obligation to any one.''
+
+The Girl stretched out her right hand and slowly turned
+and opened and closed it.  Then she glanced at the Harvester
+with a weary smile.
+
+``From somewhere I feel a glimmering of the spirit,
+but Oh, dear Lord, the flesh is weak!'' she said.
+
+``That's where nourishing foods, appetizing drinks,
+plenty of pure, fresh air, and good water come in.  Now
+we have talked enough for one day, and worked too
+much.  The fruit and drink go with you.  I will carry
+it to the house, and you can hide it in your room.  I am
+going to put a bottle of tonic on top that the best surgeon
+in the state gave me for you.  Try to eat something
+strengthening and then take a spoonful of this, and use
+all the fruit you want.  I'll bring more to-morrow and
+put it here, with plenty of ice.  Now suppose you let
+the moth go free,'' he suggested to avoid objections. 
+``You must take my word for it, that it is perfectly harmless,
+lacking either sting or bite, and hold your hand before
+it, so that it will climb on your fingers.  Then stand
+where a ray of sunshine falls and in a few minutes it will
+go out to live its life.''
+
+The Girl hesitated a second as she studied the clean-cut,
+interested face of the man; then she held out her hand,
+and he urged the moth to climb on her fingers.  She
+stepped where a ray of strong light fell on the forest floor
+and held the moth in it.  The brightness also touched
+her transparent hand and white face and the gleaming
+black hair.  The Harvester choked down a rising surge
+of desire for her, and took a new grip on himself.
+
+``Oh!'' she cried breathlessly, as the clinging feet
+suddenly loosened and the luna slowly flew away among the
+trees.  She turned on the Harvester.  ``You teach me
+wonders!'' she cried.  ``You give life different meanings. 
+You are not as other men.''
+
+``If that be true, it is because I am of the woods.  The
+Almighty does not evolve all his wonders in animal,
+bird, and flower form; He keeps some to work out in
+the heart, if humanity only will go to His school, and allow
+Him to have dominion.  Come now, you must go.  I
+will come back and put away all the things and tomorrow 
+I will bring your ginseng money.  Any time you
+cannot come, if you want to tell me why, or if there is
+anything I can do for you, put a line under the oilcloth. 
+I will carry the bucket.''
+
+``I am so afraid,'' she said.
+
+``I will only go to the edge of the woods.  You can
+see if there is any one at the house first.  If not, you can
+send the child away, and then I will carry the bucket to
+the door for you, and it will furnish comfort for one night,
+at least.''
+
+They went to the cleared land and the Girl passed on
+alone.  Soon she reappeared and the Harvester saw the
+child going down the road.  He took up the bucket and
+set it inside the door.
+
+``Is there anything I can do for you?''
+
+``Nothing but go, before you make trouble.''
+
+``Will you hide that stuff and walk back as far as the
+woods with me?  There is something more I want to
+say to you.''
+
+The Girl staggered under the heavy load, and the man
+turned his head and tried to pretend he did not see. 
+Presently she came out to him, and they returned to
+the line of the woods.  Just as they entered the shade
+there was a flash before them, and on a twig a few rods
+away a little gray bird alighted, while in precipitate
+pursuit came a flaming wonder of red, and in a burst
+of excited trills, broken whistles, and imploring gestures,
+perched beside her.
+
+The Harvester hastily drew the Girl behind some
+bushes.
+
+``Watch!'' he whispered.  ``You are going to see a
+sight so lovely and so rare it is vouchsafed to few mortals
+ever to behold.''
+
+``What are they fighting about?'' she whispered.
+
+``You are witnessing a cardinal bird declare his love,''
+breathed the Harvester.
+
+``Do cardinals love different birds?''
+
+``No.  The female is gray, because if she is coloured
+the same as the trees and branches and her nest, she
+will have more chance to bring off her young in safety. 
+He is blood red, because he is the bravest, gayest, most
+ardent lover of the whole woods,'' explained the Harvester.
+
+The Girl leaned forward breathlessly watching and a
+slow surge of colour crept into her cheeks.  The red bird
+twisted, whistled, rocked, tilted, and trilled, and the gray
+sat demurely watching him, as if only half convinced
+he really meant it.  The gay lover began at the beginning
+and said it all over again with more impassioned gestures
+than before, and then he edged in touch and softly
+stroked her wing with his beak.  She appeared startled,
+but did not fly.  So again the fountain of half-whistled,
+half-trilled notes bubbled with the acme of pleading
+intonation and that time he leaned and softly kissed her
+as she reached her bill for the caress.  Then she fled in
+headlong flight, while the streak of flame darted after her. 
+The Girl caught her breath in a swift spasm of surprise
+and wonder.  She turned to the Harvester.
+
+``What was it you wanted to say to me?'' she asked
+hurriedly.
+
+The Harvester was not the man to miss the goods the
+gods provided.  Truly this was his lucky day.  Unhesitatingly
+he took the plunge.
+
+``Precisely what he said to her.  And if you observed
+closely, you noticed that she didn't ask him `why.' ''
+
+Before she could open her lips, he was gone, his swift
+strides carrying him through the woods.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+``THE WAY OF A MAN WITH A MAID''
+
+The next day the Harvester lifted the oilcloth,
+and picking up a folded note he read----
+
+``Aunt Molly found rest in the night.  She was
+more comfortable than she had been since I have known
+her.  Close the end she whispered to me to thank you
+if I ever saw you again.  She will be buried to-morrow. 
+Past that, I dare not think.''
+
+The Harvester sat on the log and studied the lines. 
+She would not come that day or the next.  After a long
+time he put the note in his pocket, wrote an answer
+telling her he had been there, and would come on the
+following day on the chance of her wanting anything
+he could do, and the next he would bring the ginseng
+money, so she must be sure to meet him.
+
+Then he went back to the wagon, turned Betsy, and
+drove around the Jameson land watching closely.  There
+were several vehicles in the barn lot, and a couple of
+men sitting under the trees of the door yard.  Faded
+bedding hung on the line and women moved through
+the rooms, but he could not see the Girl.  Slowly he
+drove on until he came to the first house, and there he
+stopped and went in.  He saw the child of the previous
+day, and as she came forward her mother appeared in
+the doorway.
+
+The Harvester explained who he was and that he was
+examining the woods in search of some almost extinct
+herbs he needed in his business.  Then he told of having
+been at the adjoining farm the day before and mentioned
+the sick woman.  He added that later she had died. 
+He casually mentioned that a young woman there seemed
+pale and ill and wondered if the neighbours would see
+her through.  He suggested that the place appeared as
+if the owner did not take much interest, and when the
+woman finished with Henry Jameson, he said how very
+important it seemed to him that some good, kind-hearted
+soul should go and mother the poor girl, and the woman
+thought she was the very person.  Without knowing
+exactly how he did it, the Harvester left with her promise
+to remain with the Girl the coming two nights.  The
+woman had her hands full of strange and delicious fruit
+without understanding why it had been given her, or
+why she had made those promises.  She thought the
+Harvester a remarkably fine young man to take such
+interest in strangers and she told him he was welcome
+to anything he could find on her place that would help
+with his medicines.
+
+The Harvester just happened to be coming from the
+woods as the woman freshly dressed left the house, so
+he took her in the wagon and drove back to the Jameson
+place, because he was going that way.  Then he returned
+to Medicine Woods and worked with all his might.
+
+First he polished floors, cleaned windows, and arranged
+the rooms as best he could inside the cabin; then he
+gave a finishing touch to everything outside.  He could
+not have told why he did it, but he thought it was
+because there was hope that now the Girl would come
+to Onabasha.  If he found opportunity to bring her
+to the city, he hoped that possibly he might drive home
+with her and show Medicine Woods, so everything must
+be in order.  Then he worked with flying fingers in the
+dry-house, putting up her ginseng for market, and never
+was weight so liberal.
+
+The next morning he drove early to Onabasha and
+came home with a loaded wagon, the contents of which
+he scattered through the cabin where it seemed most
+suitable, but the greater part of it was for her.  He
+glanced at the bare floors and walls of the other rooms,
+and thought of trying to improve them, but he was
+afraid of not getting the right things.
+
+``I don't know much about what is needed here,''
+he said, ``but I am perfectly safe in buying anything a
+girl ever used.''
+
+Then he returned to the city, explained the situation
+to the doctor, and selected the room he wanted in case
+the Girl could be persuaded to come to the hospital. 
+After that he went to see the doctor's wife, and made
+arrangements for her to be ready for a guest, because
+there was a possibility he might want to call for help. 
+He had another jug of fruit juice and all the delicacies
+he could think of, also a big cake of ice, when he
+reached the woods.  There were only a few words for
+him.
+
+``I will come to-morrow at two, if at all possible; if
+not, keep the money until I can.''
+
+There was nothing to do except to place his offering
+under the oilcloth and wait, but he simply was compelled
+to add a line to say he would be there, and to express
+the hope that she was comfortable as possible and thinking
+of the sunshine room.  Then he returned to Medicine
+Woods to wait, and found that possible only by
+working to exhaustion.  There were many things he
+could do, and one after another he finished them, until
+completely worn out; and then he slept the deep sleep
+of weariness.
+
+At noon the next day he bathed, shaved, and dressed
+in fresh, clean clothing.  He stopped in Onabasha for
+more fruit, and drove to the Jameson woods.  He was
+waiting and watching the usual path the Girl followed,
+when her step sounded on the other side.  The Harvester
+arose and turned.  Her pallor was alarming.  She stepped
+on the rug he had spread, and sank almost breathless
+to the chair.
+
+``Why do you come a new way that fills you with fear?''
+asked the Harvester.
+
+``It seems as if Uncle Henry is watching me every
+minute, and I didn't dare come where he could see.  I
+must not remain a second.  You must take these things
+away and go at once.  He is dreadful.''
+
+``So am I,'' said the Harvester, ``when affairs go too
+everlastingly wrong.  I am not afraid of any man living. 
+What are you planning to do?''
+
+``I want to ask you, are you sure about the prices of
+my drawing and the ginseng?''
+
+``Absolutely,'' said the Harvester.  ``As for the ginseng
+it went in fresh and early, best wild roots, and it
+brought eight a pound.  There were eight pounds when
+I made up weight and here is your money.''
+
+He handed her a long envelope addressed to her.
+
+``What is the amount?'' she asked.
+
+``Sixty-four dollars.''
+
+``I can't believe it.''
+
+``You have it in your fingers.''
+
+``You know that I would like to thank you properly,
+if I had words to express myself.''
+
+``Never mind that,'' said the Harvester.  ``Tell me
+what you are planning.  Say that you will come to the
+hospital for the long, perfect rest now.''
+
+``It is absolutely impossible.  Don't weary me by
+mentioning it.  I cannot.''
+
+``Will you tell me what you intend doing?''
+
+`I must,'' she said, ``for it depends entirely on your
+word.  I am going to get Uncle Henry's supper, and then
+go and remain the night with the neighbour who has
+been helping me.  In the morning, when he leaves, she
+is coming with her wagon for my trunk, and she is going
+to drive with me to Onabasha and find me a cheap room
+and loan me a few things, until I can buy what I need. 
+I am going to use fourteen dollars of this and my drawing
+money for what I am forced to buy, and pay fifty on
+my debt.  Then I will send you my address and be
+ready for work.''
+
+She clutched the envelope and for the first time looked
+at him.
+
+``Very well,'' said the Harvester.  ``I could take you
+to the wife of my best friend, the chief surgeon of
+the city hospital, and everything would be ease
+and rest until you are strong; she would love to have
+you.''
+
+The Girl dropped her hands wearily.
+
+``Don't tire me with it!'' she cried.  ``I am almost
+falling despite the stimulus of food and drink I can
+touch.  I never can thank you properly for that.  I
+won't be able to work hard enough to show you how
+much I appreciate what you have done for me.  But
+you don't understand.  A woman, even a poverty-poor
+woman, if she be delicately born and reared, cannot go
+to another woman on a man's whim, and when she
+lacks even the barest necessities.  I don't refuse to meet
+your friends.  I shall love to, when I can be so dressed
+that I will not shame you.  Until that times comes, if
+you are the gentleman you appear to be, you will wait
+without urging me further.''
+
+``I must be a man, in order to be a gentleman,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``And it is because the man in me is
+in hot rebellion against more loneliness, pain, and suffering
+for you, that the conventions become chains I do
+not care how soon or how roughly I break.  If only you 
+could be induced to say the word, I tell you I could bring
+one of God's gentlest women to you.''
+
+``And probably she would come in a dainty gown,
+in her carriage or motor, and be disgusted, astonished,
+and secretly sorry for you.  As for me, I do not require
+her pity.  I will be glad to know the beautiful, refined,
+and gentle woman you are so certain of, but not until
+I am better dressed and more attractive in appearance
+than now.  If you will give me your address, I will write
+you when I am ready for work.''
+
+Silently the Harvester wrote it.  ``Will you give me
+permission to take these things to your neighbour for
+you?'' he asked.  ``They would serve until you can do
+better, and I have no earthly use for them.''
+
+She hesitated.  Then she laughed shortly.
+
+``What a travesty my efforts at pride are with you!''
+she cried.  ``I begin by trying to preserve some proper
+dignity, and end by confessing abject poverty.  I yet
+have the ten you paid me the other day, but twenty-four
+dollars are not much to set up housekeeping on, and
+I would be more glad than I can say for these very
+things.''
+
+``Thank you,'' said the Harvester.  ``I will take them
+when I go.  Is there anything else?''
+
+``I think not.''
+
+``Will you have a drink?''
+
+``Yes, if you have more with you.  I believe it is really
+cooling my blood.''
+
+``Are you taking the medicine?''
+
+``Yes,'' she said, ``and I am stronger.  Truly I am. 
+I know I appear ghastly to you, but it's loss of sleep,
+and trying to lay away poor Aunt Molly decently,
+and----''
+
+``And fear of Uncle Henry,'' added the Harvester.
+
+``Yes,'' said the Girl.  ``That most of all!  He thinks
+I am going to stay here and take her place.  I can't
+tell him I am not, and how I am to hide from him when
+I am gone, I don't know.  I am afraid of him.''
+
+``Has he any claim on you?''
+
+``Shelter for the past three months.''
+
+``Are you of age?''
+
+``I am almost twenty-four,'' she said.
+
+``Then suppose you leave Uncle Henry to me,''
+suggested the Harvester.
+
+``Why?''
+
+``Careful now!  The red bird told you why!'' said
+the man.  ``I will not urge it upon you now, but keep
+it steadily in the back of your head that there is a
+sunshine room all ready and waiting for you, and I am going
+to take you to it very soon.  As things are, I think you
+might allow me to tell you----''
+
+She was on her feet in instant panic.  ``I must go,''
+she said.  ``Uncle Henry is dogging me to promise to
+remain, and I will not, and he is watching me.  I must
+go----''
+
+``Can you give me your word of honour that you will
+go to the neighbour woman to-night; that you feel
+perfectly safe?''
+
+She hesitated.  ``Yes, I----I think so.  Yes, if he
+doesn't find out and grow angry.  Yes, I will be safe.''
+
+``How soon will you write me?''
+
+``Just as soon as I am settled and rest a little.''
+
+``Do you mean several days?''
+
+``Yes, several days.''
+
+``An eternity!'' cried the Harvester with white lips. 
+``I cannot let you go.  Suppose you fall ill and fail to
+write me, and I do not know where you are, and there
+is no one to care for you.''
+
+``But can't you see that I don't know where I will
+be?  If it will satisfy you, I will write you a line to-
+morrow night and tell you where I am, and you can come
+later.''
+
+``Is that a promise?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+``It is,'' said the Girl.
+
+``Then I will take these things to your neighbour and
+wait until to-morrow night.  You won't fail me?''
+
+``I never in all my life saw a man so wild over designs,''
+said the Girl, as she started toward the house.
+
+``Don't forget that the design I'm craziest about is
+the same as the red bird's,'' the Harvester flung after
+her, but she hurried on and made no reply.
+
+He folded the table and chair, rolled the rug, and
+shouldering them picked up the bucket and started down
+the river bank.
+
+``David!''
+
+Such a faint little call he never would have been sure
+he heard anything if Belshazzar had not stopped suddenly.  
+The hair on the back of his neck arose and he
+turned with a growl in his throat.  The Harvester dropped
+his load with a crash and ran in leaping bounds, but the
+dog was before him.  Half way to the house, Ruth Jameson
+swayed in the grip of her uncle.  One hand clutched
+his coat front in a spasmodic grasp, and with the other
+she covered her face.
+
+The roar the Harvester sent up stayed the big, lifted
+fist, and the dog leaped for a throat hold, and compelled
+the man to defend himself.  The Harvester never knew
+how he covered the space until he stood between them,
+and saw the Girl draw back and snatch together the
+front of her dress.
+
+``He took it from me!'' she panted.  ``Make him, oh
+make him give back my money!''
+
+Then for a few seconds things happened too rapidly to
+record.  Once the Harvester tossed a torn envelope
+exposing money to the Girl, and again a revolver, and
+then both men panting and dishevelled were on their
+feet.
+
+``Count your money, Ruth?'' said the Harvester in a
+voice of deadly quiet.
+
+``It is all here,'' said she.
+
+``Her money?'' cried Henry Jameson.  ``My money! 
+She has been stealing the price of my cattle from my
+pockets.  I thought I was short several times lately.''
+
+``You are lying,'' said the Harvester deliberately. 
+``It is her money.  I just paid it to her.  You were trying
+to take it from her, not the other way.''
+
+``Oh, she is in your pay?'' leered the man.
+
+``If you say an insulting word I think very probably
+I will finish you,'' said the Harvester.  ``I can, with my
+naked hands, and all your neighbours will say it is a
+a good job.  You have felt my grip!  I warn you!''
+
+``How does my niece come to be taking money from you!''
+
+``You have forfeited all right to know.  Ruth, you
+cannot remain here.  You must come with me.  I will
+take you to Onabasha and find you a room.''
+
+A horrible laugh broke from the man.
+
+``So that is the end of my saintly niece!'' he said.
+
+``Remember!'' cried the Harvester advancing a step. 
+``Ruth, will you go to the rest I suggested for you?''
+
+``I cannot.''
+
+``Will you go to Doctor Carey's wife?''
+
+``Impossible!''
+
+``Will you marry me and go to the shelter of my home
+with me?''
+
+Wild-eyed she stared at him.
+
+``Why?''
+
+``Because I love you, and want life made easier for
+you, above anything else on earth.''
+
+``But your Dream Girl!''
+
+``YOU ARE THE DREAM GIRL!  I thought the red bird told
+you for me!  I didn't know it would be a shock.  I
+believed I had made you understand.''
+
+By that time she was shaking with a nervous chill,
+and the sight unmanned the Harvester.
+
+``Come with me!'' he urged.  ``We will decide what
+you want to do on the way.  Only come, I beg you.''
+
+``First it was marry, now it's decide later,'' broke in
+Henry Jameson, crazed with anger.  ``Move a step
+and I'll strike you down.  I'd better than see you
+disgraced----''
+
+The Harvester advanced and Jameson stepped back.
+
+``Ruth,'' said the Harvester, ``I know how impossible
+this seems.  It is giving you no chance at all.  I had
+intended, when I found you, to court you tenderly as
+girl ever was wooed before.  Come with me, and I'll
+do it yet.  The new home was built for you.  The
+sunshine room is ready and waiting for you.  There is
+pure air, fresh water, nothing but rest and comfort. 
+I'll nurse you back to health and strength, and you shall
+be courted until you come to me of your own accord.''
+
+``Impossible!'' cried the girl.
+
+``Only if you make it so.  If you will come now, we
+can be married in a few hours, and you can be safe in
+your own home.  I realize now that this is unexpected and
+shocking to you, but if you will come with me and allow
+me to restore you to health and strength, and if, say, in
+a year, you are convinced that you do not love me, I
+will set you free.  If you will come, I swear to you that you
+shall be my wife first, and my honoured guest afterward,
+until such time as you either tell me you love me or that
+you never can.  Will you come on those terms, Ruth?''
+
+``I cannot!''
+
+``It will end fear, uncertainty, and work, until you
+are strong and well.  It will give you home, rest, and
+love, that you will find is worth your consideration.  I
+will keep my word; of that you may be sure.''
+
+``No,'' she cried.  ``No!  But take back this money! 
+Keep it until I tell you to whom to pay it.''
+
+She started toward him holding out the envelope.
+
+Henry Jameson, with a dreadful oath, sprang for it,
+his contorted face a drawn snarl.  The Harvester caught
+him in air and sent him reeling.  He snatched the revolver
+from the Girl and put the money in his pocket.
+
+``Ruth, I can't leave you here,'' he said.  ``Oh my
+Dream Girl!  Are you afraid of me yet?  Won't you
+trust me?  Won't you come?''
+
+``No.''
+
+``You are right about that, my lady; you will come
+back to the house, that's what you'll do,'' said Henry
+Jameson, starting toward her.
+
+``No!'' cried the Girl retreating.  ``Oh Heaven help
+me!  What am I to do?''
+
+``Ruth, you must come with me,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I don't dare leave you here.''
+
+She stood between them and gave Henry Jameson
+one long, searching look.  Then she turned to the Harvester.
+
+``I am far less afraid of you.  I will accept your offer,''
+she said.
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester.  ``I will keep my
+word and you shall have no regrets.  Is there anything
+here you wish to take with you?''
+
+``I want a little trunk of my mother's.  It contains
+some things of hers.''
+
+``Will you show me where it is?''
+
+She started toward the house; he followed, and Henry
+Jameson fell in line.  The Harvester turned on him. 
+``You remain where you are,'' he said.  ``I will take
+nothing but the trunk.  I know what you are thinking,
+but you will not get your gun just now.  I will return
+this revolver to-morrow.''
+
+``And the first thing I do with it will be to use it on
+you,'' said Henry Jameson.
+
+``I'll report that threat to the police, so that they
+can see you properly hanged if you do,'' retorted the
+Harvester, as he followed the girl.
+
+``Where is his gun?'' he asked as he overtook her. 
+When he reached the house he told her to watch the
+door.  He went inside, broke the lock from the gun in
+the corner, found the trunk, and swinging it to his
+shoulder, passed Henry Jameson and went back through
+the woods.  The Harvester set the trunk in the wagon,
+helped the Girl in, and returned for the load he had
+dropped at her call.  Then he took the lines and started
+for Onabasha.
+
+The Girl beside him was almost fainting.  He stopped
+to give her a drink and tried to encourage her.
+
+``Brace up the best you can, Ruth,'' he said.  ``You
+must go with me for a license; that is the law.  Afterward,
+I'll make it just as easy for you as possible.  I
+will do everything, and in a few hours you will be
+comfortable in your room.  You brave girl!  This must
+come out right!  You have suffered more than your
+share.  I will have peace for you the remainder of the
+way.''
+
+She lifted shaking hands and tried to arrange her
+hair and dress.  As they neared the city she spoke.
+
+``What will they ask me?''
+
+``I don't know.  But I am sure the law requires you
+to appear in person now.  I can take you somewhere
+and find out first.''
+
+``That will take time.  I want to reach my room. 
+What would you think?''
+
+``If you are of age, where you were born, if you are
+a native of this country, what your father and mother
+died of, how old they were, and such questions as that. 
+I'll help you all I can.  You know those things.  don't
+you?''
+
+``Yes.  But I must tell you----''
+
+``I don't want to be told anything,'' said the Harvester. 
+``Save your strength.  All I want to know is any way
+in which I can make this easier for you.  Nothing else
+matters.  I will tell you what I think; if you have any
+objections, make them.  I will drive to the bank and get
+a draft for what you owe, and have that off your mind. 
+Then we will get the license.  After that I'll take you
+to the side door, slip you in the elevator and to the
+fitting room of a store where I know the manager, and
+you shall have some pretty clothing while I arrange for
+a minister, and I'll come for you with a carriage.  That
+isn't the kind of wedding you or any other girl should
+have, but there are times when a man only can do his
+best.  You will help me as much as you can, won't
+you?''
+
+``Anything you choose.  It doesn't matter----only
+be quick as possible.''
+
+``There are a few details to which I must attend,''
+said the Harvester, ``and the time will go faster trying
+on dresses than waiting alone.  When you are properly
+clothed you will feel better.  What did you say the
+amount you owe is?''
+
+``You may get a draft for fifty dollars.  I will pay the
+remainder when I earn it.''
+
+``Ruth, won't you give me the pleasure of taking you
+home free from the worry of that debt?''
+
+``I am not going to `worry.'  I am going to work and
+pay it.''
+
+``Very well,'' said the Harvester.  ``This is the bank. 
+We will stop here.''
+
+They went in and he handed her a slip of paper.
+
+``Write the name and address on that?'' he said.
+
+As the slip was returned to him, without a glance he
+folded it and slid it under a wicket.  ``Write a draft
+for fifty dollars payable to that party, and send to that
+address, from Miss Ruth Jameson,'' he said.
+
+Then he turned to her.
+
+``That is over.  See how easy it is!  Now we will go
+to the court house.  It is very close.  Try not to think. 
+Just move and speak.''
+
+``Hello, Langston!'' said the clerk.  ``What can we do
+for you here?''
+
+``Show this girl every consideration,'' whispered the
+Harvester, as he advanced.  ``I want a marriage license in
+your best time.  I will answer first.''
+
+With the document in his possession, they went to
+the store he designated, where he found the Girl a chair
+in the fitting room, while he went to see the manager.
+
+``I want one of your most sensible and accommodating
+clerks,'' said the Harvester, ``and I would like a few words
+with her.''
+
+When she was presented he scrutinized her carefully
+and decided she would do.
+
+``I have many thanks and something more substantial
+for a woman who will help me to carry through a slightly
+unusual project with sympathy and ability,'' he said,
+``and the manager has selected you.  Are you willing?''
+
+``If I can,'' said the clerk.
+
+``She has put up your other orders,'' interposed the
+manager; ``were they satisfactory?''
+
+``I don't know,'' said the Harvester.  ``They have not
+yet reached the one for whom they were intended.  What
+I want you to do,'' he said to the clerk, ``is to go to the
+fitting room and dress the girl you find there for her
+wedding.  She had other plans, but death disarranged
+them, and she has only an hour in which to meet the
+event most girls love to linger over for months.  She
+has been ill, and is worn with watching; but some time
+she may look back to her wedding day with joy, and if
+only you would help me to make the best of it for her,
+I would be, as I said, under more obligations than I can
+express.''
+
+`` I will do anything,'' said the clerk.
+
+``Very well,'' said the Harvester.  ``She has come from
+the country entirely unprepared.  She is delicate and
+refined.  Save her all the embarrassment you can.  Dress
+her beautifully in white.  Keep a memorandum slip of
+what you spend for my account.''
+
+``What is the limit?'' asked the clerk.
+
+``There is none,'' said the Harvester.  ``Put the prettiest
+things on her you have in the right sizes, and if you are
+a woman with a heart, be gentle!''
+
+``Is she ready?'' inquired the manager at the door an
+hour later.
+
+``I am,'' said the Girl stepping through.
+
+The astounded Harvester stood and stared, utterly
+oblivious of the curious people.
+
+``Here, here, here!'' suddenly he whistled it, in the
+red bird's most entreating tones.
+
+The Girl laughed and the colour in her face deepened.
+
+``Let us go,'' she said.
+
+``But what about you?'' asked the manager of the
+Harvester.
+
+``Thunder!'' cried the man aghast.  ``I was so busy
+getting everything else ready, I forgot all about myself. 
+I can't stand before a minister beside her, can I?''
+
+``Well I should say not,'' said the manager.
+
+``Indeed yes,'' said the Girl.  ``I never saw you in
+any other clothing.  You would be a stranger of whom
+I'd be afraid.''
+
+``That settles it!'' said the Harvester calmly.  ``Thank
+all of you more than words can express.  I will come in
+the first of the week and tell you how we get along.''
+
+Then they went to the carriage and started for the
+residence of a minister.
+
+``Ruth, you are my Dream Girl to the tips of your
+eyelashes,'' said the Harvester.  ``I almost wish you
+were not.  It wouldn't keep me thinking so much of the
+remainder of that dream.  You are the loveliest sight
+I ever saw.''
+
+``Do I really appear well?'' asked the Girl, hungry
+for appreciation.
+
+``Indeed you do!'' said the Harvester.  ``I never could
+have guessed that such a miracle could be wrought.  And
+you don't seem so tired.  Were they good to you?''
+
+``Wonderfully!  I did not know there was kindness
+like that in all the world for a stranger.  I did not feel
+lost or embarrassed, except the first few seconds when
+I didn't know what to do.  Oh I thank you for this! 
+You were right.  Whatever comes in life I always shall
+love to remember that I was daintily dressed and
+appeared as well as I could when I was married.  But
+I must tell you I am not real.  They did everything
+on earth to me, three of them working at a time.  I feel
+an increase in self-respect in some way.  David, I do
+appear better?''
+
+When she said ``David,'' the Harvester looked out of
+the window and gulped down his delight.  He leaned
+toward her.
+
+``Shut your eyes and imagine you see the red bird,''
+he said.  ``In my soul, I am saying to you again and
+again just what he sang.  You are wonderfully beautiful,
+Ruth, and more than wonderfully sweet.  Will you
+answer me a question?''
+
+``If I can.''
+
+``I love you with all my heart.  Will you marry me?''
+
+``I said I would.''
+
+``Then we are engaged, aren't we?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Please remove the glove from your left hand.  I want
+to put on your ring.  This will have to be a very short
+engagement, but no one save ourselves need know.''
+
+``David, that isn't necessary.''
+
+``I have it here, and believe me, Ruth, it will help in a
+few minutes; and all your life you will be glad.  It is a
+precious symbol that has a meaning.  This wedding won't
+be hurt by putting all the sacredness into it we can. 
+Please, Ruth!''
+
+``On one condition.''
+
+``What is it?''
+
+``That you will accept and wear my mother's wedding
+ring in exchange,'' she said.  ``It is all I have.''
+
+``Ruth, do you really wish that?''
+
+``I do.''
+
+``I am more pleased than I can tell you.  May I have
+it now?''
+
+She took off her glove and the Harvester held her
+hand closely a second, then lifted it to his lips, passionately
+kissed it and slipped on a ring, the setting a big,
+lustrous pearl.
+
+``I looked at some others,'' he said, ``but nothing
+got a second glance save this.  They knew you were
+coming down the ages, and so they got the pearls ready. 
+How beautiful it is on your hand!  Put on the glove
+and wear that ring as if you had owned it for the long,
+happy year of betrothal every girl should have.  You
+can start yours to-day, and if by this time next year I
+have not won you to my heart and arms, I'm no man
+and not worthy of you.  Ruth, you will try just a little
+to love me, won't you?''
+
+``I will try with all my heart,'' she said instantly.
+
+``Thank you!  I am perfectly happy with that.  I
+never expected to marry you before a year, anyway. 
+All the difference will be the blessed fact that instead
+of coming to see you somewhere else, I now can have
+you in my care, and court you every minute.  You
+might as well make up your mind to capitulate soon. 
+It's on the books that you do.''
+
+``If an instant ever comes when I realize that I love
+you, I will come straight and tell you; believe me, I
+will.''
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester.  ``This is going
+to be quite a proper wedding after all.  Here is the
+place.  It will be over soon and you on the home way. 
+Lord, Ruth----!''
+
+The Girl smiled at him as he opened the carriage door,
+helped her up the steps and rang the bell.
+
+``Be brave now!'' he whispered.  ``Don't lose your
+lovely colour.  These people will be as kind as they were
+at the store.''
+
+The minister was gentle and wasted no time.  His
+wife and daughter, who appeared for witnesses, kissed
+Ruth, and congratulated her.  She and the Harvester
+stood, took the vows, exchanged rings, and returned to
+the carriage, a man and his wife by the laws of
+man.
+
+``Drive to Seaton's cafe','' the Harvester said.
+
+``Oh David, let us go home!''
+
+``This is so good I hate to stop it for something you
+may not like so well.  I ordered lunch and if we don't
+eat it I will have to pay for it anyway.  You wouldn't
+want me to be extravagant, would you?''
+
+``No,'' said the Girl, ``and besides, since you mention
+it, I believe I am hungry.''
+
+``Good!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I hoped so!  Ruth,
+you wouldn't allow me to hold your hand just until we
+reach the cafe'?  It might save me from bursting with
+joy.''
+
+``Yes,'' she said.  ``But I must take off my lovely
+gloves first.  I want to keep them forever.''
+
+``I'd hate the glove being removed dreadfully,'' said
+the Harvester, his eyes dancing and snapping.
+
+``I'm sorry I am so thin and shaky,'' said the Girl. 
+``I will be steady and plump soon, won't I?''
+
+``On your life you will,'' said the Harvester, taking
+the hand gently.
+
+Now there are a number of things a man deeply in
+love can think of to do with a woman's white hand. 
+He can stroke it, press it tenderly, and lay it against his
+lips and his heart.  The Harvester lacked experience
+in these arts, and yet by some wonderful instinct all
+of these things occurred to him.  There was real colour
+in the Girl's cheeks by the time he helped her into the
+cafe'.  They were guided to a small room, cool and restful,
+close a window, beside which grew a tree covered with
+talking leaves.  A waiting attendant, who seemed perfectly
+adept, brought in steaming bouillon, fragrant tea,
+broiled chicken, properly cooked vegetables, a wonderful
+salad, and then delicious ices and cold fruit.  The happy
+Harvester leaned back and watched the Girl daintily
+manage almost as much food as he wanted to see her
+eat.
+
+When they had finished, ``Now we are going home,''
+he said.  ``Will you try to like it, Ruth?''
+
+``Indeed I will,'' she promised.  ``As soon as I grow
+accustomed to the dreadful stillness, and learn what
+things will not bite me, I'll be better.''
+
+``I'll have to ask you to wait a minute,'' he said. 
+``One thing I forgot.  I must hire a man to take Betsy
+home.''
+
+``Aren't you going to drive her yourself?''
+
+``No ma'am!  We are going in a carriage or a motor,''
+said the Harvester.
+
+``Indeed we are not!'' contradicted the Girl.  ``You
+have had this all your way so far.  I am going home
+behind Betsy, with Belshazzar at my knee.''
+
+``But your dress!  People will think I am crazy to
+put a lovely woman like you in a spring wagon.''
+
+``Let them!'' said the Girl placidly.  ``Why should
+we bother about other people?  I am going with Betsy
+and Belshazzar.''
+
+The Harvester had been thinking that he adored her,
+that it was impossible to love her more, but every
+minute was proving to him that he was capable of feeling
+so profound it startled him.  To carry the Girl, his
+bride, through the valley and up the hill in the little
+spring wagon drawn by Betsy--that would have been
+his ideal way.  But he had supposed that she would be
+afraid of soiling her dress, and embarrassed to ride in
+such a conveyance.  Instead it was her choice.  Yes,
+he could love her more.  Hourly she was proving that.
+
+``Come this way a few steps,'' he said.  ``Betsy is
+here.''
+
+The Girl laid her face against the nose of the faithful
+old animal, and stroked her head and neck.  Then she
+held her skirts and the Harvester helped her into the
+wagon.  She took the seat, and the dog went wild with
+joy.
+
+``Come on, Bel,'' she softly commanded.
+
+The dog hesitated, and looked at the Harvester for
+permission.
+
+``You may come here and put your head on my knee,''
+said the Girl.
+
+``Belshazzar, you lucky dog, you are privileged to sit
+there and lay your head on the lady's lap,'' said the
+Harvester, and the dog quivered with joy.
+
+Then the man picked up the lines, gave a backward
+glance to the bed of the wagon, high piled with large
+bundles, and turned Betsy toward Medicine Woods. 
+Through the crowded streets and toward the country
+they drove, when a big red car passed, a man called
+to them, then reversed and slowly began backing beside
+the wagon.  The Harvester stopped.
+
+``That is my best friend, Doctor Carey, of the hospital,
+Ruth,'' he said hastily.  ``May I tell him, and will you
+shake hands with him?''
+
+``Certainly!'' said the Girl.
+
+``Is it really you, David?'' the doctor peered with
+gleaming eyes from under the car top.
+
+``Really!'' cried the Harvester, as man greets man with
+a full heart when he is sure of sympathy.  ``Come, give
+us your best send-off, Doc!  We were married an hour
+ago.  We are headed for Medicine Woods.  Doctor
+Carey, this is Mrs. Langston.''
+
+``Mighty glad to know you!'' cried the doctor, reaching
+a happy hand.
+
+The Girl met it cordially, while she smiled on
+him.
+
+``How did this happen?'' demanded the doctor.  ``Why
+didn't you let us know?  This is hardly fair of you,
+David.  You might have let me and the Missus share
+with you.''
+
+``That is to be explained,'' said the Harvester.  ``It
+was decided on very suddenly, and rather sadly, on
+account of the death of Mrs. Jameson.  I forced Ruth
+to marry me and come with me.  I grow rather frightened
+when I think of it, but it was the only way I knew.  She
+absolutely refused my other plans.  You see before you
+a wild man carrying away a woman to his cave.''
+
+``Don't believe him, Doctor!'' laughed the Girl.  ``If
+you know him, you will understand that to offer all he
+had was like him, when he saw my necessity.  You will
+come to see us soon?''
+
+``I'll come right now,'' said the doctor.  ``I'll bring
+my wife and arrive by the time you do.''
+
+``Oh no you won't!'' said the Harvester.  ``Do you
+observe the bed of this wagon?  This happened all
+`unbeknownst' to us.  We have to set up housekeeping
+after we reach home.  We will notify you when we are
+ready for visitors.  Just you subside and wait until you
+are sent for.''
+
+``Why David!'' cried the astonished Girl.
+
+``That's the law!'' said the Harvester tersely.  ``Good-
+bye, Doc; we'll be ready for you in a day or two.''
+
+He leaned down and held out his hand.  The grip
+that caught it said all any words could convey; and
+then Betsy started up the hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHEN THE DREAM CAME TRUE
+
+At first the road lay between fertile farms
+dotted with shocked wheat, covered with
+undulant seas of ripening oats, and forests
+of growing corn.  The larks were trailing melody above
+the shorn and growing fields, the quail were ingathering
+beside the fences, and from the forests on graceful wings
+slipped the nighthawks and sailed and soared, dropping
+so low that the half moons formed by white spots on
+their spread wings showed plainly.
+
+``Why is this country so different from the other side
+of the city?'' asked the Girl.
+
+``It is older,'' replied the Harvester, ``and it lies higher. 
+This was settled and well cultivated when that was a
+swamp.  But as a farming proposition, the money is
+in the lowland like your uncle's.  The crops raised there
+are enormous compared with the yield of these fields.''
+
+``I see,'' said she.  ``But this is much better to look
+at and the air is different.  It lacks a soggy, depressing
+quality.''
+
+``I don't allow any air to surpass that of Medicine
+Woods,'' said the Harvester, ``by especial arrangement
+with the powers that be.''
+
+Then they dipped into a little depression and arose to
+cross the railroad and then followed a longer valley
+that was ragged and unkempt compared with the road
+between cultivated fields.  The Harvester was busy
+trying to plan what to do first, and how to do it most
+effectively, and working his brain to think if he had
+everything the Girl would require for her comfort; so
+he drove silently through the deepening shadows.  She
+shuddered and awoke him suddenly.  He glanced at
+her from the corner of his eye.
+
+Her thoughts had gone on a journey, also, and the
+way had been rough, for her face wore a strained
+appearance.  The hands lying bare in her lap were tightly
+gripped, so that the nails and knuckles appeared blue. 
+The Harvester hastily cast around seeking for the cause
+of the transformation.  A few minutes ago she had
+seemed at ease and comfortable, now she was close open
+panic.  Nothing had been said that would disturb her. 
+With brain alert he searched for the reason.  Then it
+began to come to him.  The unaccustomed silence and
+depression of the country might have been the beginning. 
+Coming from the city and crowds of people to the gloomy
+valley with a man almost a stranger, going she knew not
+where, to conditions she knew not what, with the
+experiences of the day vivid before her.  The black valley
+road was not prepossessing, with its border of green
+pools, through which grew swamp bushes and straggling
+vines.  The Harvester looked carefully at the road,
+and ceased to marvel at the Girl.  But he disliked to let
+her know he understood, so he gave one last glance at
+those gripped hands and casually held out the lines.
+
+``Will you take these just a second?'' he asked. 
+``Don't let them touch your dress.  We must not lose
+of our load, because it's mostly things that will make
+you more comfortable.''
+
+He arose, and turning, pretended to see that everything
+was all right.  Then he resumed his seat and
+drove on.
+
+``I am a little ashamed of this stretch through here,''
+he said apologetically.  ``I could have managed to have
+it cleared and in better shape long ago, but in a way
+it yields a snug profit, and so far I've preferred the
+money.  The land is not mine, but I could grub out
+this growth entirely, instead of taking only what I need.''
+
+``Is there stuff here you use?'' the Girl aroused
+herself to ask, and the Harvester saw the look of relief
+that crossed her face at the sound of his voice.
+
+``Well I should say yes,'' he laughed.  ``Those bushes,
+numerous everywhere, with the hanging yellow-green
+balls, those, in bark and root, go into fever medicines. 
+They are not so much used now, but sometimes I have
+a call, and when I do, I pass the beds on my----on our
+land, and come down here and get what is needed. 
+That bush,'' he indicated with the whip, ``blooms
+exquisitely in the spring.  It is a relative of flowering
+dogwood, and the one of its many names I like best is
+silky cornel.  Isn't that pretty?''
+
+``Yes,'' she said, ``it is beautiful.''
+
+``I've planted some for you in a hedge along the driveway
+so next spring you can gather all you want.  I
+think you'll like the odour.  The bark brings more than
+true dogwood.  If I get a call from some house that uses
+it, I save mine and come down here.  Around the edge
+are hop trees, and I realize something from them, and
+also the false and true bitter-sweet that run riot here. 
+Both of them have pretty leaves, while the berries of the
+true hang all winter and the colour is gorgeous.  I've
+set your hedge closely with them.  When it has grown
+a few months it's going to furnish flowers in the spring, a
+million different, wonderful leaves and berries in the
+summer, many fruits the birds love in the fall, and bright
+berries, queer seed pods, and nuts all winter.''
+
+``You planted it for me?''
+
+``Yes.  I think it will be beautiful in a season or two;
+it isn't so bad now.  I hope it will call myriads of birds
+to keep you company.  When you cross this stretch of
+road hereafter, don't see fetid water and straggling bushes
+and vines; just say to yourself, this helps to fill orders!''
+
+``I am perfectly tolerant of it now,'' she said.  ``You
+make everything different.  I will come with you and
+help collect the roots and barks you want.  Which
+bush did you say relieved the poor souls scorching with
+fever?''
+
+The Harvester drew on the lines, Betsy swerved to
+the edge of the road, and he leaned and broke a branch.
+
+``This one,'' he answered.  ``Buttonbush, because
+those balls resemble round buttons.  Aren't they
+peculiar?  See how waxy and gracefully cut and set
+the leaves are.  Go on, Betsy, get us home before night. 
+We appear our best early in the morning, when the sun
+tops Medicine Woods and begins to light us up, and in
+the evening, just when she drops behind Onabasha back
+there, and strikes us with a few level rays.  Will you
+take the lines until I open this gate?''
+
+She laid the twig in her lap on the white gloves and
+took the lines.  As the gate swung wide, Betsy walked
+through and stopped at the usual place.
+
+``Now my girl,'' said the Harvester, ``cross yourself,
+lean back, and take your ease.  This side that gate
+you are at home.  From here on belongs to us.''
+
+``To you, you mean,'' said the Girl.
+
+``To us, I mean,'' declared the Harvester.  ``Don't
+you know that the `worldly goods bestowal' clause in a
+marriage ceremony is a partial reality.  It doesn't give
+you `all my worldly goods,' but it gives you one third. 
+Which will you take, the hill, lake, marsh, or a part of
+all of them.''
+
+``Oh, is there water?''
+
+``Did I forget to mention that I was formerly sole
+owner and proprietor of the lake of Lost Loons, also a
+brook of Singing Water, and many cold springs.  The
+lake covers about one third of our land, and my neighbours
+would allow me ditch outlet to the river, but they
+say I'm too lazy to take it.''
+
+``Lazy!  Do they mean drain your lake into the
+river?''
+
+``They do,'' said the Harvester, ``and make the bed
+into a cornfield.''
+
+``But you wouldn't?''
+
+She turned to him with confidence.
+
+``I haven't so far, but of course, when you see it,
+if you would prefer it in a corn----Let's play a game! 
+Turn your head in this direction,'' he indicated with
+the whip, ``close your eyes, and open them when I say
+ready.''
+
+``All right!''
+
+``Now!'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Oh,'' cried the Girl.  ``Stop!  Please stop!''
+
+They were at the foot of a small levee that ran to the
+bridge crossing Singing Water.  On the left lay the valley
+through which the stream swept from its hurried rush
+down the hill, a marshy thicket of vines, shrubs, and
+bushes, the banks impassable with water growth.  Everywhere
+flamed foxfire and cardinal flower, thousands of
+wild tiger lilies lifted gorgeous orange-red trumpets,
+beside pearl-white turtle head and moon daisies, while
+all the creek bank was a coral line with the first opening
+bloom of big pink mallows.  Rank jewel flower poured
+gold from dainty cornucopias and lavender beard-tongue
+offered honey to a million bumbling bees; water smart-
+weed spread a glowing pink background, and twining
+amber dodder topped the marsh in lacy mist with its
+delicate white bloom.  Straight before them a white-
+sanded road climbed to the bridge and up a gentle hill
+between the young hedge of small trees and bushes,
+where again flowers and bright colours rioted and led
+to the cabin yet invisible.  On the right, the hill, crowned
+with gigantic forest trees, sloped to the lake; midway
+the building stood, and from it, among scattering trees
+all the way to the water's edge, were immense beds of
+vivid colour.  Like a scarf of gold flung across the face
+of earth waved the misty saffron, and beside the road
+running down the hill, in a sunny, open space arose
+tree-like specimens of thrifty magenta pokeberry.  Down
+the hill crept the masses of colour, changing from dry
+soil to water growth.
+
+High around the blue-green surface of the lake waved
+lacy heads of wild rice, lower cat-tails, bulrushes, and
+marsh grasses; arrowhead lilies lifted spines of pearly
+bloom, while yellow water lilies and blue water hyacinths
+intermingled; here and there grew a pink stretch of water
+smartweed and the dangling gold of jewel flower.  Over
+the water, bordering the edge, starry faces of white pond
+lilies floated.  Blue flags waved graceful leaves, willows
+grew in clumps, and vines clambered everywhere.
+
+Among the growth of the lake shore, duck, coot,
+and grebe voices commingled in the last chattering
+hastened splash of securing supper before bedtime; crying
+killdeers crossed the water, and overhead the nighthawks
+massed in circling companies.  Betsy climbed the
+hill and at every step the Girl cried, ``Slower! please go
+slower!''  With wide eyes she stared around her.
+
+``WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS?'' she
+demanded in awed tones.
+
+``Have I had opportunity to describe much of
+anything?''  asked the Harvester.  ``Besides, I was born
+and reared here, and while it has been a garden of bloom
+for the past six years only, it always has been a picture;
+but one forgets to say much about a sight seen every
+day and that requires the work this does.''
+
+``That white mist down there, what is it?'' she
+marvelled.
+
+``Pearls grown by the Almighty,'' answered the
+Harvester.  ``Flowers that I hope you will love.  They
+are like you.  Tall and slender, graceful, pearl white and
+pearl pure----those are the arrowhead Lilies.''
+
+``And the wonderful purplish-red there on the bank? 
+Oh, I could kneel and pray before colour like that!'
+
+``Pokeberry!'' said the Harvester.  ``Roots bring five
+cents a pound.  Good blood purifier.''
+
+``Man!'' cried the Girl.  ``How can you?  I'm not
+going to ask what another colour is.  I'll just worship
+what I like in silence.''
+
+``Will you forgive me if I tell you what a woman
+whose judgment I respect says about that colour?''
+
+``Perhaps!''
+
+``She says, `God proves that He loves it best of all the
+tints in His workshop by using it first and most sparingly.' 
+Now are you going to punish me by keeping silent?''
+
+``I couldn't if I tried.''
+Just then they came upon the bridge crossing
+Singing Water, and there was a long view of its
+border, rippling bed, and marshy banks; while on
+the other hand the lake resembled a richly incrusted
+sapphire.
+
+``Is the house close?''
+
+``Just a few rods, at the turn of the drive.''
+
+``Please help me down.  I want to remain here a while. 
+I don't care what else there is to see.  Nothing can
+equal this.  I wish I could bring down a bed and sleep
+here.  I'd like to have a table, and draw and paint. 
+I understand now what you mean about the designs
+you mentioned.  Why, there must be thousands!  I
+can't go on.  I never saw anything so appealing in all
+my life.''
+
+Now the Harvester's mother had designed that bridge
+and he had built it with much care.  From bark-covered
+railings to solid oak floor and comfortable benches
+running along the sides it was intended to be a part of
+the landscape.
+
+``I'll send Belshazzar to the cabin with the wagon,''
+he said, ``so you can see better.''
+
+``But you must not!'' she cried.  ``I can't walk.  I
+wouldn't soil these beautiful shoes for anything.''
+
+``Why don't you change them?'' inquired the Harvester.
+
+``I am afraid I forgot everything I had,'' said the Girl.
+
+``There are shoes somewhere in this load.  I thought
+of them in getting other things for you, but I had no
+idea as to size, and so I told that clerk to-day when she
+got your measure to put in every kind you'd need.''
+
+``You are horribly extravagant,'' she said.  ``But if
+you have them here, perhaps I could use one pair.''
+
+The Harvester mounted the wagon and hunted until
+he found a large box, and opening it on the bench he
+disclosed almost every variety of shoe, walking shoe
+and slipper, a girl ever owned, as well as sandals and high
+overshoes.
+
+``For pity sake!'' cried the Girl.  ``Cover that box! 
+You frighten me.  You'll never get them paid for. 
+You must take them straight back.''
+
+``Never take anything back,'' said the Harvester. 
+`` `Be sure you are right, then go ahead,' is my motto. 
+Now I know these are your correct size and that for
+differing occasions you will want just such shoes as other
+girls have, and here they are.  Simple as life!  I think
+these will serve because they are for street wear, yet
+they are white inside.''
+
+He produced a pair of canvas walking shoes and kneeling
+before her held out his hand.
+
+When he had finished, he loaded the box on the wagon,
+gave the hitching strap to Belshazzar, and told him to
+lead Betsy to the cabin and hold her until he came. 
+Then he turned to the Girl.
+
+``Now,'' he said, ``look as long as you choose.  But
+remember that the law gives you part of this and your
+lover, which same am I, gives you the remainder, so
+you are privileged to come here at any hour as often as
+you please.  If you miss anything this evening, you
+have all time to come in which to re-examine it.''
+
+``I'd like to live right here on this bridge,'' she said. 
+``I wish it had a roof.''
+
+``Roof it to-morrow,'' offered the Harvester.  ``Simple
+matter of a few pillars already cut, joists joined, and
+some slab shingles left from the cabin.  Anything else
+your ladyship can suggest?''
+
+``That you be sensible.''
+
+``I was born that way,'' explained the Harvester,
+``and I've cultivated the faculty until I've developed
+real genius.  Talking of sense, there never was a proper
+marriage in which the man didn't give the woman a
+present.  You seem likely to be more appreciative of
+this bridge than anything else I have, so right here and
+now would be the appropriate place to offer you my
+wedding gift.  I didn't have much time, but I couldn't
+have found anything more suitable if I'd taken a year.''
+
+He held out a small, white velvet case.
+
+``Doesn't that look as if it were made for a bride?''
+he asked.
+
+``It does,'' answered the Girl.  ``But I can't take it. 
+You are not doing right.  Marrying as we did, you never
+can believe that I love you; maybe it won't ever happen
+that I do.  I have no right to accept gifts and expensive
+clothing from you.  In the first place, if the love you
+ask never comes, there is no possible way in which I can
+repay you.  In the second, these things you are offering
+are not suitable for life and work in the woods.  In the
+third, I think you are being extravagant, and I couldn't
+forgive myself if I allowed that.''
+
+``You divide your statements like a preacher, don't
+you?'' asked the Harvester ingenuously.  ``Now sit
+thee here and gaze on the placid lake and quiet your
+troubled spirit, while I demolish your `perfectly good'
+arguments.  In the first place, you are now my wife,
+and you have a right to take anything I offer, if you
+care for it or can use it in any manner.  In the second,
+you must recognize a difference in our positions.  What
+seems nothing to you means all the world to me, and you
+are less than human if you deprive me of the joy of
+expressing feelings I am in honour bound to keep in my
+heart, by these little material offerings.  In the third
+place, I inherited over six hundred acres of land and
+water, please observe the water----it is now in evidence
+on your left.  All my life I have been taught to be
+frugal, economical, and to work.  All I've earned either
+has gone back into land, into the bank, or into books,
+very plain food, and such clothing as you now see me
+wearing.  Just the value of this place as it stands, with
+its big trees, its drug crops yielding all the year round,
+would be difficult to estimate; and I don't mind telling
+you that on the top of that hill there is a gold mine,
+and it's mine----ours since four o'clock.''
+
+``A gold mine!''
+
+``Acres and acres of wild ginseng, seven years of age
+and ready to harvest.  Do you remember what your few
+pounds brought?''
+
+``Why it's worth thousands!''
+
+``Exactly!  For your peace of mind I might add that
+all I have done or got is paid for, except what I bought
+to-day, and I will write a check for that as soon as the
+bill is made out.  My bank account never will feel it
+Truly, Ruth, I am not doing or going to do anything
+extravagant.  I can't afford to give you diamond necklaces,
+yachts, and trips to Europe; but you can have
+the contents of this box and a motor boat on the lake,
+a horse and carriage, and a trip----say to New York
+perfectly well.  Please take it.''
+
+``I wish you wouldn't ask me.  I would be happier
+not to.''
+
+``Yes, but I do ask you,'' persisted the Harvester. 
+``You are not the only one to be considered.  I have
+some rights also, and I'm not so self-effacing that I
+won't insist upon them.  From your standpoint I am
+almost a stranger.  You have spent no time considering
+me in near relations; I realize that.  You feel as if you
+were driven here for a refuge, and that is true.  I said
+to Belshazzar one day that I must remember that you
+had no dream, and had spent no time loving me, and I
+do I know how this wedding seems to you, but it's
+going to mean something different and better soon,
+please God.  I can see your side; now suppose you
+take a look at mine.  I did have a dream, it was my
+dream, and beyond the sum of any delight I ever
+conceived.  On the strength of it I rebuilt my home and
+remodelled these premises.  Then I saw you, and from
+that day I worked early and late.  I lost you and I
+never stopped until I found you; and I would have
+courted and won you, but the fates intervened and here
+you are!  So it's my delight to court and win you now. 
+If you knew the difference between having a dream that
+stirred the least fibre of your being and facing the world in
+a demand for realization of it, and then finding what you
+coveted in the palm of your hand, as it were, you would
+know what is in my heart, and why expression of some
+kind is necessary to me just now, and why I'll explode
+if it is denied.  It will lower the tension, if you will
+accept this as a matter of fact; as if you rather expected
+and liked it, if you can.''
+
+The Harvester set his finger on the spring.
+
+``Don't!'' she said.  ``I'll never have the courage if
+you do.  Give it to me in the case, and let me open it. 
+Despite your unanswerable arguments, I am quite sure
+that is the only way in which I can take it.''
+
+The Harvester gave her the box.
+
+``My wedding gift!'' she exclaimed, more to herself
+than to him.  ``Why should I be the buffet of all the
+unkind fates kept in store for a girl my whole life, and
+then suddenly be offered home, beautiful gifts, and wonderful
+loving kindness by a stranger?''
+
+The Harvester ran his fingers through his crisp hair,
+pulled it into a peak, stepped to the seat and sitting on
+the railing, he lifted his elbows, tilted his head, and
+began a motley outpouring of half-spoken, half-whistled
+trills and imploring cries.  There was enough similarity
+that the Girl instantly recognized the red bird.  Out
+of breath the Harvester dropped to the seat beside her.
+
+``And don't you keep forgetting it!'' he cried.  ``Now
+open that box and put on the trinket; because I want
+to take you to the cabin when the sun falls level on the
+drive.''
+
+She opened the case, exposing a thread of gold that
+appeared too slender for the weight of an exquisite
+pendant, set with shimmering pearls.
+
+``If you will look down there,'' the Harvester pointed
+over the railing to the arrowhead lilies touched with
+the fading light, ``you will see that they are similar.''
+
+``They are!'' cried the Girl.  ``How lovely!  Which is
+more beautiful I do not know.  And you won't like it
+if I say I must not.''
+
+She held the open case toward the Harvester.
+
+`` `Possession is nine points in the law,' '' he quoted. 
+``You have taken it already and it is in your hands;
+now make the gift perfect for me by putting it on and
+saying nothing more.''
+
+``My wedding gift!'' repeated the Girl.  Slowly she
+lifted the beautiful ornament and held it in the light. 
+``I'm so glad you just force me to take it,'' she said. 
+``Any half-normal girl would be delighted.  I do accept
+it.  And what's more, I am going to keep and wear it
+and my ring at suitable times all my life, in memory
+of what you have done to be kind to me on this awful
+day.''
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester.  ``That is a flash
+of the proper spirit.  Allow me to put it on you.''
+
+``No!'' said the Girl.  ``Not yet!  After a while!  I
+want to hold it in my hands, where I can see it!''
+
+``Now there is one other thing,'' said the Harvester. 
+
+``If I had known for any length of time that this day was
+coming and bringing you, as most men know when a
+girl is to be given into their care, I could have made it
+different.  As it is, I've done the best I knew.  All
+your after life I hope you will believe this:  Just that if
+you missed anything to-day that would have made it
+easier for you or more pleasant, the reason was because
+of my ignorance of women and the conventions, and lack
+of time.  I want you to know and to feel that in my
+heart those vows I took were real.  This is undoubtedly
+all the marrying I will ever want to do.  I am old-fashioned
+in my ways, and deeply imbued with the spirit
+of the woods, and that means unending evolution along
+the same lines.
+
+``To me you are my revered and beloved wife, my
+mate now; and I am sure nothing will make me feel
+any different.  This is the day of my marriage to the
+only woman I ever have thought of wedding, and to
+me it is joy unspeakable.  With other men such a day
+ends differently from the close of this with me.  Because
+I have done and will continue to do the level best I know
+for you, this oration is the prologue to asking you for
+one gift to me from you, a wedding gift.  I don't want
+it unless you can bestow it ungrudgingly, and truly want
+me to have it.  If you can, I will have all from this day
+I hope for at the hands of fate.  May I have the gift
+I ask of you, Ruth?''
+
+She lifted startled eyes to his face.
+
+``Tell me what it is?'' she breathed.
+
+``It may seem much to you,'' said the Harvester;
+``to me it appears only a gracious act, from a wonderful
+woman, if you will give me freely, one real kiss.  I've
+never had one, save from a Dream Girl, Ruth, and you
+will have to make yours pretty good if it is anything
+like hers.  You are woman enough to know that most
+men crush their brides in their arms and take a thousand. 
+I'll put my hands behind me and never move a muscle,
+and I won't ask for more, if you will crown my wedding
+day with only one touch of your lips.  Will you kiss
+me just once, Ruth?''
+
+The Girl lifted a piteous face down which big tears
+suddenly rolled.
+
+``Oh Man, you shame me!'' she cried.  ``What
+kind of a heart have I that it fails to respond to such
+a plea?  Have I been overworked and starved so long
+there is no feeling in me?  I don't understand why
+I don't take you in my arms and kiss you a hundred
+times, but you see I don't.  It doesn't seem as if I ever
+could.''
+
+``Never mind,'' said the Harvester gently.  ``It was
+only a fancy of mine, bred from my dream and unreasonable,
+perhaps.  I am sorry I mentioned it.  The sun is
+on the stoop now; I want you to enter your home in
+its light.  Come!''
+
+He half lifted her from the bench.  ``I am going to
+help you up the drive as I used to assist mother,'' he
+said, fighting to keep his voice natural.  ``Clasp your
+hands before you and draw your elbows to your sides. 
+Now let me take one in each palm, and you will scoot
+up this drive as if you were on wheels.''
+
+``But I don't want to `scoot','' she said unsteadily. 
+``I must go slowly and not miss anything.''
+
+``On the contrary, you don't want to do any such
+thing----you should leave most of it for to-morrow.''
+
+``I had forgotten there would be any to-morrow.  It
+seems as if the day would end it and set me adrift
+again.''
+
+``You are going to awake in the gold room with the
+sun shining on your face in the morning, and it's going
+to keep on all your life.  Now if you've got a smile in
+your anatomy, bring it to the surface, for just beyond
+this tree lies happiness for you.''
+
+His voice was clear and steady now, his confidence
+something contagious.  There was a lovely smile on her
+face as she looked at him, and stepped into the line of
+light crossing the driveway; and then she stopped and
+cried, ``Oh lovely!  Lovely!  Lovely!'' over and over. 
+Then maybe the Harvester was not glad he had planned,
+worked unceasingly, and builded as well as he knew.
+
+The cabin of large, peeled, golden oak logs, oiled to
+preserve them, nestled like a big mushroom on the side
+of the hill.  Above and behind the building the trees
+arose in a green setting.  The roof was stained to their
+shades.  The wide veranda was enclosed in screening,
+over which wonderful vines climbed in places, and round
+it grew ferns and deep-wood plants.  Inside hung big
+baskets of wild growth; there was a wide swinging seat,
+with a back rest, supported by heavy chains.  There
+were chairs and a table of bent saplings and hickory
+withes.  Two full stories the building arose, and the
+western sun warmed it almost to orange-yellow, while
+the graceful vines crept toward the roof.
+
+The Girl looked at the rapidly rising hedge on each
+side of her, at the white floor of the drive, and long and
+long at the cabin.
+
+``You did all this since February?'' she asked.
+
+``Even to transforming the landscape,'' answered the
+Harvester.
+
+``Oh I wish it was not coming night!'' she cried.  ``I
+don't want the dark to come, until you have told me the
+name of every tree and shrub of that wonderful hedge,
+and every plant and vine of the veranda; and oh I
+want to follow up the driveway and see that beautiful
+little creek--listen to it chuckle and laugh!  Is it
+always glad like that?  See the ferns and things that
+grow on the other side of it!  Why there are big beds of
+them.  And lilies of the valley by the acre!  What is
+that yellow around the corner?''
+
+``Never mind that now,'' said the Harvester, guiding
+her up the steps, along the gravelled walk to the screen
+that he opened, and over a flood of gold light she crossed
+the veranda, and entered the door.
+
+``Now here it appears bare,'' said the Harvester,
+``because I didn't know what should go on the walls
+or what rugs to get or about the windows.  The table,
+chairs, and couch I made myself with some help from a
+carpenter.  They are solid black walnut and will age
+finely.''
+
+``They are beautiful,'' said the Girl, softly touching
+the shining table top with her fingers.  ``Please put
+the necklace on me now, I have to use my eyes and hands
+for other things.''
+
+She held out the box and the Harvester lifted the
+pendant and clasped the chain around her neck.  She
+glanced at the lustrous pearls and then the fingers of
+one hand softly closed over them.  She went through
+the long, wide living-room, examining the chairs and
+mantel, stopping to touch and exclaim over its array
+of half-finished candlesticks.  At the door of his room
+she paused.  ``And this?'' she questioned.
+
+``Mine,'' said the Harvester, turning the knob.  ``I'll
+give you one peep to satisfy your curiosity, and show
+you the location of the bridge over which you came to
+me in my dream.  All the remainder is yours.  I reserve
+only this.''
+
+``Will the `goblins git me' if I come here?''
+
+``Not goblins, but a man alive; so heed your warning. 
+After you have seen it, keep away.''
+
+The floor was cement, three of the walls heavy screening
+with mosquito wire inside, the roof slab shingled. 
+On the inner wall was a bookcase, below it a desk, at
+one side a gun cabinet, at the other a bath in a small
+alcove beside a closet.  The room contained two chairs
+like those of the veranda, and the bed was a low oak
+couch covered with a thick mattress of hemlock twigs,
+topped with sweet fern, on which the sun shone all day. 
+On a chair at the foot were spread some white sheets,
+a blanket, and an oilcloth.  The sun beat in, the wind
+drifted through, and one lying on the couch could see
+down the bright hill, and sweep the lake to the opposite
+bank without lifting the head.  The Harvester drew the
+Girl to the bedside.
+
+``Now straight in a line from here,'' he said, ``across
+the lake to that big, scraggy oak, every clear night the
+moon builds a bridge of molten gold, and once you walked
+it, my girl, and came straight to me, alone and unafraid;
+and you were gracious and lovely beyond anything a
+man ever dreamed of before.  I'll have that to think of
+to-night.  Now come see the dining-room, kitchen, and
+hand-made sunshine.''
+
+He led her into what had been the front room of the
+old cabin, now a large, long dining-room having on each
+side wide windows with deep seats.  The fireplace
+backwall was against that of the living-room, but here
+the mantel was bare.  All the wood-work, chairs, the
+dining table, cupboards, and carving table were golden
+oak.  Only a few rugs and furnishings and a woman's
+touch were required to make it an unusual and beautiful
+room.  The kitchen was shining with a white hard-wood
+floor, white wood-work, and pale green walls.  It was a
+light, airy, sanitary place, supplied with a pump, sink,
+hot and cold water faucets, refrigerator, and every
+modern convenience possible to the country.
+
+Then the Harvester almost carried the Girl up the
+stairs and showed her three large sleeping rooms, empty
+and bare save for some packing cases.
+
+``I didn't know about these, so I didn't do anything.
+When you find time to plan, tell me what you want, and
+I'll make--or buy it.  They are good-sized, cool rooms. 
+They all have closets and pipes from the furnace, so they
+will be comfortable in winter.  Now there is your place
+remaining.  I'll leave you while I stable Betsy and feed
+the stock.''
+
+He guided her to the door opening from the living-
+room to the east.
+
+``This is the sunshine spot,'' he said.  ``It is bathed
+in morning light, and sheltered by afternoon shade. 
+Singing Water is across the drive there to talk to you
+always.  It comes pelting down so fast it never freezes,
+so it makes music all winter, and the birds are so numerous
+you'll have to go to bed early for they'll wake you by
+dawn.  I noticed this room was going to be full of sunshine
+when I built it, and I craved only brightness for
+you, so I coaxed all of it to stay that I could.  Every
+stroke is the work of my hands, and all of the furniture. 
+I hope you will like it.  This is the room of which I've
+been telling you, Ruth.  Go in and take possession,
+and I'll entreat God and all His ministering angels to
+send you sunshine and joy.''
+
+He opened the door, guided her inside, closed it, and
+went swiftly to his work.
+
+The Girl stood and looked around her with amazed
+eyes.  The floor was pale yellow wood, polished until
+it shone like a table top.  The casings, table, chairs,
+dressing table, chest of drawers, and bed were solid
+curly maple.  The doors were big polished slabs of it,
+each containing enough material to veneer all the furniture
+in the room.  The walls were of plaster, tinted
+yellow, and the windows with yellow shades were
+curtained in dainty white.  She could hear the Harvester
+carrying the load from the wagon to the front porch, the
+clamour of the barn yard; and as she went to the north
+window to see the view, a shining peacock strutted down
+the walk and went to the Harvester's hand for grain,
+while scores of snow-white doves circled over his head. 
+She stepped on deep rugs of yellow goat skins, and,
+glancing at the windows on either side, she opened the
+door.
+
+Outside it lay a porch with a railing, but no roof.
+On each post stood a box filled with yellow wood-flowers
+and trailing vines of pale green.  A big tree rising through
+one corner of the floor supplied the cover.  A gate
+opened to a walk leading to the driveway, and on either
+side lay a patch of sod, outlined by a deep hedge of
+bright gold.  In it saffron, cone-flowers, black-eyed
+Susans, golden-rod, wild sunflowers, and jewel flower
+grew, and some of it, enough to form a yellow line, was
+already in bloom.  Around the porch and down the
+walk were beds of yellow violets, pixie moss, and every
+tiny gold flower of the woods.  The Girl leaned against
+the tree and looked around her and then staggered
+inside and dropped on the couch.
+
+``What planning!  What work!'' she sobbed.  ``What
+taste!  Why he's a poet!  What wonderful beauty! 
+He's an artist with earth for his canvas, and growing
+things for colours.''
+
+She lay there staring at the walls, the beautiful wood-
+work and furniture, the dressing table with its array of
+toilet articles, a low chair before it, and the thick rug
+for her feet.  Over and over she looked at everything,
+and then closed her eyes and lay quietly, too weary and
+overwhelmed to think.  By and by came tapping at
+the door, and she sprang up and crossing to the
+dressing table straightened her hair and composed
+her face.
+
+``Ajax demands to see you,'' cried a gay voice.
+
+The Girl stepped outside.
+
+``Don't be frightened if he screams at you,'' warned
+the Harvester as she passed him.  ``He detests a stranger,
+and he always cries and sulks.''
+
+It was a question what was in the head of the bird as
+he saw the strange looking creature invading his domain,
+and he did scream, a wild, high, strident wail that
+delighted the Harvester inexpressibly, because it sent the
+Girl headlong into his arms.
+
+``Oh, good gracious!'' she cried.  ``Has such a
+beautiful bird got a noise in it like that?  Why
+I've fed them in parks and I never heard one explode
+before.''
+
+Then how the Harvester laughed.
+
+``But you see you are in the woods now, and this is
+not a park bird.  It will be the test of your power to see
+how soon you can coax him to your hand.''
+
+``How do I work to win him?''
+
+``I am afraid I can't tell you that,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I had to invent a plan for myself.  It required a long
+time and much petting, and my methods might not
+avail for you.  It will interest you to study that out. 
+But the member of the family it is positively essential
+that you win to a life and death allegiance is Belshazzar. 
+If you can make him love you, he will protect you at
+every turn.  He will go before you into the forest and
+all the crawling, creeping things will get out of his way. 
+He will nose around the flowers you want to gather, and
+if he growls and the hair on the back of his neck rises,
+never forget that you must heed that warning.  A few
+times I have not stopped for it, and I always have been
+sorry.  So far as anything animate or uncertain footing
+is concerned, you are always perfectly safe if you obey
+him.  About touching plants and flowers, you must
+confine yourself to those you are certain you know,
+until I can teach you.  There are gorgeous and wonderfully
+attractive things here, but some of them are rank
+poison.  You won't handle plants you don't know,
+until you learn, Ruth?''
+
+``I will not,'' she promised instantly.
+
+She went to the seat under the porch tree and leaning
+against the trunk she studied the hill, and the rippling
+course of Singing Water where it turned and curved
+before the cabin, and started across the vivid little
+marsh toward the lake.  Then she looked at the Harvester. 
+He seated himself on the low railing and smiled at
+her.
+
+``You are very tired?'' he asked.
+
+``No,'' she said.  ``You are right about the air being
+better up here.  It is stimulating instead of depressing.''
+
+``So far as pure air, location, and water are concerned,''
+said the Harvester, ``I consider this place ideal.  The
+lake is large enough to cool the air and raise sufficient
+moisture to dampen it, and too small to make it really
+cold and disagreeable.  The slope of the hill gives perfect
+drainage.  The heaviest rains do not wet the earth for
+more than three hours.  North, south, and west breezes
+sweep the cool air from the water to the cabin in summer. 
+The same suns warm us here on the winter hillside. 
+My violets, spring beauties, anemones, and dutchman's
+breeches here are always two weeks ahead of those in
+the woods.  I am not afraid of your not liking the location
+or the air.  As for the cabin, if you don't care for
+that, it's very simple.  I'll transform it into a laboratory
+and dry-house, and build you whatever you want,
+within my means, over there on the hill just across
+Singing Water and facing the valley toward Onabasha. 
+That's a perfect location.  The thing that worries me
+is what you are going to do for company, especially while
+I am away.''
+
+``Don't trouble yourself about anything,'' she said. 
+``Just say in your heart, `she is going to be stronger than
+she ever has been in her life in this lovely place, and she
+has more right now than she ever had or hoped to have.' 
+For one thing, I am going to study your books.  I never
+have had time before.  While we sewed or embroidered,
+mother talked by the hour of the great writers of the
+world, told me what they wrote, and how they expressed
+themselves, but I got to read very little for myself.''
+
+``Books are my company,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Do your friends come often?''
+
+``Almost never!  Doc and his wife come most, and
+if you look out some day and see a white-haired, bent
+old woman, with a face as sweet as dawn, coming up the
+bank of Singing Water, that will be my mother's friend,
+Granny Moreland, who joins us on the north over there. 
+She is frank and brusque, so she says what she thinks
+with unmistakable distinctness, but her heart is big and
+tender and her philosophy keeps her sweet and kindly
+despite the ache of rheumatism and the weight of seventy years.''
+
+``I'd love to have her come,'' said the Girl.  ``Is that
+all?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``Your favourite word,'' laughed the Harvester.  ``The
+reason lies with me, or rather with my mother.  Some
+day I will tell you the whole story, and the cause.  I
+think now I can encompass it in this.  The place is an
+experiment.  When medicinal herbs, roots, and barks
+became so scarce that some of the most important were
+almost extinct, it occurred to me that it would be a
+good idea to stop travelling miles and poaching on the
+woods of other people, and turn our land into an herb
+garden.  For four years before mother went, and six
+since, I've worked with all my might, and results are
+beginning to take shape.  While I've been at it, of course,
+my neighbours had an inkling of what was going on,
+and I've been called a fool, lazy, and a fanatic, because
+I did not fell the trees and plow for corn.  You readily
+can see I'm a little short of corn ground out there,''
+he waved toward the marsh and lake, ``and up there,''
+he indicated the steep hill and wood.  ``But somewhere
+on this land I've been able to find muck for mallows,
+water for flags and willows, shade for ferns, lilies, and
+ginseng, rocky, sunny spaces for mullein, and open, fertile
+beds for Bouncing Bet----just for examples.  God never
+evolved a place better suited for an herb farm; from
+woods to water and all that goes between, it is perfect.''
+
+``And indescribably lovely,'' added the Girl.
+
+``Yes, I think it is,'' said the Harvester.  ``But in
+the days when I didn't know how it was coming out,
+I was sensitive about it; so I kept quiet and worked,
+and allowed the other fellow to do the talking.  After
+a while the ginseng bed grew a treasure worth guarding,
+and I didn't care for any one to know how much I had
+or where it was, as a matter of precaution.  Ginseng
+and money are synonymous, and I was forced to be away
+some of the time.''
+
+``Would any one take it?''
+
+``Certainly!'' said the Harvester.  ``If they knew it
+was there, and what it is worth.  Then, as I've told you,
+much of the stuff here must not be handled except
+by experts, and I didn't want people coming in my
+absence and taking risks.  The remainder of my reason
+for living so alone is cowardice, pure and simple.''
+
+``Cowardice?  You!  Oh no!''
+
+``Thank you!'' said the Harvester.  ``But it is! 
+Some day I'll tell you of a very solemn oath I've had to
+keep.  It hasn't been easy.  You wouldn't understand,
+at least not now.  If the day ever comes when I think
+you will, I'll tell you.  Just now I can express it by
+that one word.  I didn't dare fail or I felt I would be
+lost as my father was before me.  So I remained away
+from the city and its temptations and men of my age,
+and worked in the woods until I was tired enough to
+drop, read books that helped, tinkered with the carving,
+and sometimes I had an idea, and I went into that little
+building behind the dry-house, took out my different
+herbs, and tried my hand at compounding a new cure
+for some of the pains of humanity.  It isn't bad work,
+Ruth.  It keeps a fellow at a fairly decent level, and some
+good may come of it.  Carey is trying several formulae
+for me, and if they work I'll carry them higher.  If
+you want money, Girl, I know how to get it for you.''
+
+``Don't you want it?''
+
+``Not one cent more than I've got,'' said the Harvester
+emphatically.  ``When any man accumulates more than
+he can earn with his own hands, he begins to enrich
+himself at the expense of the youth, the sweat, the
+blood, the joy of his fellow men.  I can go to the city,
+take a look, and see what money does, as a rule, and
+it's another thing I'm afraid of.  You will find me a
+dreadful coward on those two points.  I don't want
+to know society and its ways.  I see what it does to
+other men; it would be presumption to reckon myself
+stronger.  So I live alone.  As for money, I've watched
+the cross cuts and the quick and easy ways to accumulate
+it; but I've had something in me that held me to
+the slow, sure, clean work of my own hands, and it's
+yielded me enough for one, for two even, in a reasonable
+degree.  So I've worked, read, compounded, and carved. 
+If I couldn't wear myself down enough to sleep by any
+other method, I went into the lake, and swam across and
+back; and that is guaranteed to put any man to rest,
+clean and unashamed.''
+
+``Six years,'' said the Girl softly, as she studied him. 
+``I think it has set a mark on you.  I believe I can trace
+it.  Your forehead, brow, and eyes bear the lines and
+the appearance of all experience, all comprehension,
+but your lips are those of a very young lad.  I shouldn't
+be surprised if I had that kiss ready for you, and I really
+believe I can make it worth while.''
+
+``Oh good Lord!'' cried the Harvester, turning a
+backward somersault over the railing and starting in
+big bounds up the drive toward the stable.  He passed
+around it and into the woods at a rush and a few seconds
+later from somewhere on the top of the hill his strong,
+deep voice swept down, ``Glory, glory hallelujah!''
+
+He sang it through at the top of his lungs, that
+majestic old hymn, but there was no music at all, it was
+simply a roar.  By and by he came soberly to the barn
+and paused to stroke Betsy's nose.
+
+``Stop chewing grass and listen to me,'' he said.  ``She's
+here, Betsy!  She's in our cabin.  She's going to remain,
+you can stake your oats on that.  She's going to be the
+loveliest and sweetest girl in all the world, and because
+you're a beast, I'll tell you something a man never could
+know.  Down with your ear, you critter!  She's going
+to kiss me, Betsy!  This very night, before I lay me,
+her lips meet mine, and maybe you think that won't
+be glorious.  I supposed it would be a year, anyway,
+but it's now!  Ain't you glad you are an animal, Betsy,
+and can keep secrets for a fool man that can't?''
+
+He walked down the driveway, and before the Girl
+had a chance to speak, he said, ``I wonder if I had not
+better carry those things into your room, and arrange
+your bed for you.''
+
+``I can,'' she said.
+
+``Oh no!'' exclaimed the Harvester.  ``You can't lift
+the mattress and heavy covers.  Hold the door and tell
+me how.''
+
+He laid a big bundle on the floor, opened it, and took
+out the shoes.
+
+``Your shoe box is in the closet there.''
+
+``I didn't know what that door was, so I didn't
+open it.''
+
+``That is a part of my arrangements for you,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``Here is a closet with shelves for your
+covers and other things.  They are bare because I
+didn't know just what should be put on them.  This
+is the shoe box here in the corner; I'll put these in it
+now.''
+
+He knelt and in a row set the shoes in the curly maple
+box and closed it.
+
+``There you are for all kinds of places and varieties of
+weather.  This adjoining is your bathroom.  I put
+in towels, soaps; brushes, and everything I could think
+of, and there is hot water ready for you----rain water,
+too.''
+
+The Girl followed and looked into a shining little
+bathroom, with its white porcelain tub and wash bowl,
+enamelled wood-work, dainty green walls, and white
+curtains and towels.  She could see no accessory she
+knew of that was missing, and there were many things
+to which she never had been accustomed.  The Harvester
+had gone back to the sunshine room, and was kneeling
+on the floor beside the bundle.  He began opening
+boxes and handing her dresses.
+
+``There are skirt, coat, and waist hangers on the
+hooks,'' he said.  ``I only got a few things to start on,
+because I didn't know what you would like.  Instead
+of being so careful with that dress, why don't you take
+it off, and put on a common one?  Then we will have
+something to eat, and go to the top of the hill and watch
+the moon bridge the lake.''
+
+While she hung the dresses and selected the one to
+wear, he placed the mattress, spread the padding and
+sheets, and encased the pillow.  Then he bent and pressed
+the springs with his hands.
+
+``I think you will find that soft and easy enough for
+health,'' he said.  ``All the personal belongings I had
+that clerk put up for you are in that chest of drawers
+there.  I put the little boxes in the top and went down. 
+You can empty and arrange them to-morrow.  Just
+hunt out what you will need now.  There should be
+everything a girl uses there somewhere.  I told them to
+be very careful about that.  If the things are not right
+or not to your taste, you can take them back as soon as
+you are rested, and they will exchange them for you. 
+If there is anything I have missed that you can think
+of that you need to-night, tell me and I'll go and get it.''
+
+The Girl turned toward him.
+
+``You couldn't be making sport of me,'' she said,
+``but Man!  Can't you see that I don't know what to
+do with half you have here?  I never saw such things
+closely before.  I don't know what they are for.  I
+don't know how to use them.  My mother would have
+known, but I do not.  You overwhelm me!  Fifty
+times I've tried to tell you that a room of my very own,
+such a room as this will be when to-morrow's sun comes
+in, and these, and these, and these,'' she turned from
+the chest of boxes to the dressing table, bed, closet, and
+bath, ``all these for me, and you know absolutely
+nothing about me----I get a big lump in my throat,
+and the words that do come all seem so meaningless,
+I am perfectly ashamed to say them.  Oh Man, why do
+you do it?''
+
+``I thought it was about time to spring another `why'
+on me,'' said the Harvester.  ``Thank God, I am now
+in a position where I can tell you `why'!  I do it because
+you are the girl of my dream, my mate by every law of
+Heaven and earth.  All men build as well as they know
+when the one woman of the universe lays her spell on
+them.  I did all this for myself just as a kind of
+expression of what it would be in my heart to do if I
+could do what I'd like.  Put on the easiest dress you can
+find and I will go and set out something to eat.''
+
+She stood with arms high piled with the prettiest
+dresses that could be selected hurriedly, the tears running
+down her white cheeks and smiled through them at him.
+
+``There wouldn't be any of that liquid amber would
+there?'' she asked.
+
+``Quarts!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I'll bring some.
+ . . . Does it really hit the spot, Ruth?'' he
+questioned as he handed her the glass.
+
+She heaped the dresses on the bed and took it.
+
+``It really does.  I am afraid I am using too much.''
+
+``I don't think it possibly can hurt you.  To-morrow
+we will ask Doc.  How soon will you be ready for
+lunch?''
+
+``I don't want a bite.''
+
+``You will when you see and smell it,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``I am an expert cook.  It's my chiefest
+accomplishment.  You should taste the dishes I improvise. 
+But there won't be much to-night, because I want you
+to see the moon rise over the lake.''
+
+He went away and the Girl removed her dress and
+spread it on the couch.  Then she bathed her face and
+hands.  When she saw the discoloured cloth, it proved
+that she had been painted, and made her very indignant. 
+Yet she could not be altogether angry, for that flush
+of colour had saved the Harvester from being pitied by
+his friend.  She stood a long time before the mirror,
+staring at her gaunt, colourless face; then she went
+to the dressing table and committed a crime.  She
+found a box of cream and rubbed it on for a foundation. 
+Then she opened some pink powder, and carefully dusted
+her cheeks.
+
+``I am utterly ashamed,'' she said to the image in the
+mirror, ``but he has done so much for me, he is so, so----
+I don't know a word big enough----that I can't bear him
+to see how ghastly I am, how little worth it.  Perhaps
+the food, better air, and outdoor exercise will give me
+strength and colour soon.  Until it does I'm afraid I'm
+going to help out all I can with this.  It is wonderful
+how it changes one.  I really appear like a girl instead
+of a bony old woman.''
+
+Then she looked over the dresses, selected a pretty
+white princesse, slipped it on, and went to the kitchen. 
+But the Harvester would not have her there.  He seated
+her at the dining table, beside the window overlooking
+the lake, lighted a pair of his home-made candles in his
+finest sticks, and placed before her bread, butter, cold
+meat, milk, and fruit, and together they ate their first
+meal in their home.
+
+``If I had known,'' said the Harvester, ``Granny
+Moreland is a famous cook.  She is a Southern woman,
+and she can fry chicken and make some especial dishes
+to surpass any one I ever knew.  She would have been
+so pleased to come over and get us an all-right supper.''
+
+``I'd much rather have this, and be by ourselves,'' said
+the Girl.
+
+``Well, you can bank on it, I would,'' agreed the
+Harvester.  ``For instance, if any one were here, I
+might feel restrained about telling you that you are
+exactly the beautiful, flushed Dream Girl I have adored
+for months, and your dress most becoming.  You are
+a picture to blind the eyes of a lonely bachelor, Ruth.''
+
+``Oh why did you say that?'' wailed the Girl.  ``Now
+I've got to feel like a sneak or tell you----and I didn't
+want you to know.''
+
+``Don't you ever tell me or any one else anything you
+don't want to,'' said the Harvester roundly.  ``It's
+nobody's business!''
+
+``But I must!  I can't begin with deception.  I was
+fool enough to think you wouldn't notice.  Man, they
+painted me!  I didn't know they were doing it, but when
+it all washed off, I looked so ghastly I almost frightened
+myself.  I hunted through the boxes they put up for
+you and found some pink powder----''
+
+``But don't all the daintiest women powder these
+days, and consider it indispensable?  The clerk said so,
+and I've noticed it mentioned in the papers.  I bought
+it for you to use.''
+
+``Yes, just powder, but Man, I put on a lot of cold
+cream first to stick the powder good and thick.  Oh
+I wish I hadn't!''
+
+``Well since you've told it, is your conscience
+perfectly at ease?  No you don't!  You sit where you are! 
+You are lovely, and if you don't use enough powder to
+cover the paleness, until your colour returns, I'll hold
+you and put it on.  I know you feel better when you
+appear so that every one must admire you.''
+
+``Yes, but I'm a fraud!''
+
+``You are no such thing!'' cried the Harvester hotly. 
+``There hasn't a woman in ten thousand got any such
+rope of hair.  I have been seeing the papers on the hair
+question, too.  No one will believe it's real.  If they
+think your hair is false, when it is natural, they won't
+be any more fooled when they think your colour is real,
+and it isn't.  Very soon it will be and no one need ever
+know the difference.  You go on and fix up your level
+best.  To see yourself appearing well will make you
+ambitious to become so as soon as possible.''
+
+``Harvester-man,'' said the Girl, gazing at him with
+wet luminous eyes, ``for the sake of other women, I
+could wish that all men had an oath to keep, and had
+been reared in the woods.''
+
+``Here is the place we adjourn to the moon,'' cried
+the Harvester.  ``I don't know of anything that can cure
+a sudden accession of swell head like gazing at the heavens. 
+One finds his place among the atoms naturally and
+instantaneously with the eyes on the night sky.  Should
+you have a wrap?  You should!  The mists from the
+lake are cool.  I don't believe there is one among my
+orders.  I forgot that.  But upstairs with mother's
+clothing there are several shawls and shoulder capes. 
+All of them were washed and carefully packed.  Would
+you use one, Ruth?''
+
+``Why not give it to me.  Wouldn't she like me to
+wear her things better than to have them lying in moth
+balls?''
+
+The Harvester looked at her and shook his head,
+marvelling.
+
+``I can't tell how pleased she would be,'' he said.
+
+``Where are her belongings?'' asked the Girl.  ``I
+could use them to help furnish the house, and it wouldn't
+appear so strange to you.''
+
+The Harvester liked that.
+
+``All the washed things are in those boxes upstairs;
+also some fine skins I've saved on the chance of wanting
+them.  Her dishes are in the bottom of the china closet
+there; she was mighty proud of them.  The furniture
+and carpets were so old and abused I burned them.  I'll
+go bring a wrap.''
+
+He took the candle and climbed the stairs, soon
+returning with a little white wool shawl and a big pink
+coverlet.
+
+``Got this for her Christmas one time,'' he said.  ``She'd
+never had a white one and she thought it was pretty.''
+
+He folded it around the Girl's shoulders and picked
+up the coverlet.
+
+``You're never going to take that to the woods!'' she
+cried.
+
+``Why not?''
+
+She took it in her hands to find a corner.
+
+``Just as I thought!  It's a genuine Peter Hartman! 
+It's one of the things that money can't buy, or, rather,
+one that takes a mint of money to own.  They are
+heirlooms.  They are not manufactured any more. 
+At the art store where I worked they'd give you fifty
+dollars for that.  It is not faded or worn a particle. 
+It would be lovely in my room; you mustn't take a
+treasure like that out of doors.''
+
+``Ruth, are you in earnest?'' demanded the Harvester. 
+``I believe there are six of them upstairs.''
+
+``Plutocrat!'' cried the Girl.  ``What colours?''
+
+``More of this pinkish red, blue, and pale green.''
+
+``Famous!  May I have them to help furnish with
+to-morrow?''
+
+``Certainly!  Anything you can find, any way on earth
+you want it, only in my room.  That is taboo, as I told
+you.  What am I going to take to-night?''
+
+``Isn't the rug you had in the woods in the wagon yet? 
+Use that!''
+
+``Of course!  The very thing!  Bel, proceed!''
+
+``Are you going to leave the house like this?''
+
+``Why not?''
+
+``Suppose some one breaks in!''
+
+``Nothing worth carrying away, except what you have
+on.  No one to get in.  There is a big swamp back of
+our woods, marsh in front, we're up here where we can
+see the drive and bridge.  There is nothing possible
+from any direction.  Never locked the cabin in my life,
+except your room, and that was because it was sacred,
+not that there was any danger.  Clear the way, Bel!''
+
+``Clear it of what?''
+
+``Katydids, hoptoads, and other carnivorous animals.''
+
+``Now you are making fun of me!  Clear it of what?''
+
+``A coon that might go shuffling across, an opossum,
+or a snake going to the lake.  Now are you frightened
+so that you will not go?''
+
+``No.  The path is broad and white and surely you
+and Bel can take care of me.''
+
+``If you will trust us we can.''
+
+``Well, I am trusting you.''
+
+``You are indeed,'' said the Harvester.  ``Now see
+if you think this is pretty.''
+
+He indicated the hill sloping toward the lake.  The
+path wound among massive trees, between whose branches
+patches of moonlight filtered.  Around the lake shore
+and climbing the hill were thickets of bushes.  The
+water lay shining in the light, a gentle wind ruffled the
+surface in undulant waves, and on the opposite bank
+arose the line of big trees.  Under a giant oak widely
+branching, on the top of the hill, the Harvester spread
+the rug and held one end of it against the tree trunk to
+protect the Girl's dress.  Then he sat a little distance
+away and began to talk.  He mingled some sense with
+a quantity of nonsense, and appreciated every hint of a
+laugh he heard.  The day had been no amusing matter
+for a girl absolutely alone among strange people and
+scenes.  Anything more foreign to her previous environment
+or expectations he could not imagine.  So he
+talked to prevent her from thinking, and worked for a
+laugh as he laboured for bread.
+
+``Now we must go,'' he said at last.  ``If there is the
+malaria I strongly suspect in your system, this night air
+is none too good for you.  I only wanted you to see the
+lake the first night in your new home, and if it won't
+shock you, I brought you here because this is my holy
+of holies.  Can you guess why I wanted you to come,
+Ruth?''
+
+``If I wasn't so stupid with alternate burning and
+chills, and so deadened to every proper sensibility, I
+suppose I could,'' she answered, ``but I'm not brilliant. 
+I don't know, unless it is because you knew it would be
+the loveliest place I ever saw.  Surely there is no other
+spot in the world quite so beautiful.''
+
+``Then would it seem strange to you,'' asked the
+Harvester going to the Girl and gently putting his arms
+around her, ``would it seem strange to you, that a woman
+who once homed here and thought it the prettiest place
+on earth, chose to remain for her eternal sleep, rather
+than to rest in a distant city of stranger dead?''
+
+He felt the Girl tremble against him.
+
+``Where is she?''
+
+``Very close,'' said the Harvester.  ``Under this oak. 
+She used to say that she had a speaking acquaintance
+with every tree on our land, and of them all she loved
+this big one the best.  She liked to come here in winter,
+and feel the sting of the wind sweeping across the lake,
+and in summer this was her place to read and to think. 
+So when she slept the unwaking sleep, Ruth, I came
+here and made her bed with my own hands, and then
+carried her to it, covered her, and she sleeps well.  I
+never have regretted her going.  Life did not bring her
+joy.  She was very tired.  She used to say that after
+her soul had fled, if I would lay her here, perhaps the
+big roots would reach down and find her, and from
+her frail frame gather slight nourishment and then
+her body would live again in talking leaves that would
+shelter me in summer and whisper her love in winter. 
+Of all Medicine Woods this is the dearest spot to me. 
+Can you love it too, Ruth?''
+
+``Oh I can!'' cried the Girl; ``I do now!  Just to see
+the place and hear that is enough.  I wish, oh to my
+soul I wish----''
+
+``You wish what?'' whispered the Harvester
+gently.
+
+``I dare not!  I was wild to think of it.  I would be
+ungrateful to ask it.''
+
+``You would be ungracious if you didn't ask anything
+that would give me the joy of pleasing you.  How long
+is it going to require for you to learn, Ruth, that to make
+up for some of the difficulties life has brought you would
+give me more happiness than anything else could? 
+Tell me now.''
+
+``No!''
+
+He gathered her closer.
+
+``Ruth, there is no reason why you should be actively
+unkind to me.  What is it you wish?''
+
+She struggled from his arms and stood alone in white
+moonlight, staring across the lake, along the shore, deep
+into the perfumed forest, and then at the mound she now
+could distinguish under the giant tree.  Suddenly she
+went to him and with both shaking hands gripped his
+arm.
+
+``My mother!'' she panted.  ``Oh she was a beautiful
+woman, delicately reared, and her heart was crushed and
+broken.  By the inch she went to a dreadful end I could
+not avert or allay, and in poverty and grime I fought
+for a way to save her body from further horror, and it's
+all so dreadful I thought all feeling in me was dried
+and still, but I am not quite calloused yet.  I suffer
+it over with every breath.  It is never entirely out of
+my mind.  Oh Man, if only you would lift her from the
+horrible place she lies, where briers run riot and cattle
+trample and the unmerciful sun beats!  Oh if only you'd
+lift her from it, and bring her here!  I believe it would
+take away some of the horror, the shame, and the heartache. 
+I believe I could go to sleep without hearing the
+voice of her suffering, if I knew she was lying on this hill,
+under your beautiful tree, close the dear mother you
+love.  Oh Man, would you----?''
+
+The Harvester crushed the Girl in his arms and
+shuddering sobs shook his big frame, and choked his voice.
+
+``Ruth, for God's sake, be quiet!'' he cried.  ``Why I'd
+be glad to!  I'll go anywhere you tell me, and bring her,
+and she shall rest where the lake murmurs, the trees
+shelter, the winds sing, and earth knows the sun only
+in long rays of gold light.''
+
+She stared at him with strained face.
+
+``You----you wouldn't!'' she breathed.
+
+``Ruth, child,'' said the Harvester, ``I tell you I'd be
+happy.  Look at my side of this!  I'm in search of bands
+to bind you to me and to this place.  Could you tell
+me a stronger than to have the mother you idolized
+lie here for her long sleep?  Why Girl, you can't know
+the deep and abiding joy it would give me to bring
+her.  I'd feel I had you almost secure.  Where is she
+Ruth?''
+
+``In that old unkept cemetery south of Onabasha,
+where it costs no money to lay away your loved ones.''
+
+``Close here!  Why I'll go to-morrow!  I supposed
+she was in the city.''
+
+She straightened and drew away from him.
+
+``How could I?  I had nothing.  I could not have
+paid even her fare and brought her here in the cheapest
+box the decency of man would allow him to make if
+her doctor had not given me the money I owe.  Now
+do you understand why I must earn and pay it myself? 
+Save for him, it was charity or her delicate body to
+horrors.  Money never can repay him.''
+
+``Ruth, the day you came to Onabasha was she with
+you?''
+
+``In the express car,'' said the Girl.
+
+``Where did you go when you left the train shed?''
+
+``Straight to the baggage room, where Uncle Henry
+was waiting.  Men brought and put her in his wagon,
+and he drove with me to the place and other men lowered
+her, and that was all.''
+
+``You poor Girl!'' cried the Harvester.  ``This time
+to-morrow night she shall sleep in luxury under this oak,
+so help me God!  Ruth, can you spare me? May I
+go at once?  I can't rest, myself.''
+
+``You will?'' cried the Girl.  ``You will?''
+
+She was laughing in the moonlight.  ``Oh Man, I
+can't ever, ever tell you!''
+
+``Don't try,'' said the Harvester.  ``Call it settled. 
+I will start early in the morning.  I know that little
+cemetery.  The man whose land it is on can point me
+the spot.  She is probably the last one laid there.  Come
+now, Ruth.  Go to the room I made for you, and sleep
+deeply and in peace.  Will you try to rest?''
+
+``Oh David!'' she exulted.  ``Only think!  Here where
+it's clean and cool; beside the lake, where leaves fall gently
+and I can come and sit close to her and bring flowers; and
+she never will be alone, for your dear mother is here.  Oh
+David!''
+
+``It is better.  I can't thank you enough for thinking
+of it.  Come now, let me help you.''
+
+He half carried her down the hill.  Then he made the
+cabin a glamour of light by putting candles in the sticks
+he had carved and placing them everywhere.
+
+``There is a lighting plant in the basement,'' he said,
+``but I had not expected to use it until winter, and I
+have no acetylene.  Candles were our grandmothers'
+lights and they are the best anyway.  Go bathe your
+face, Ruth, and wash away all trace of tears.  Put on
+the pink powder, and in a few weeks you will have
+colour to outdo the wildest rose.  You must be as gay
+as you can the remainder of this night.''
+
+``I will!'' cried the Girl.  ``I will!  Oh I didn't know
+a thing on earth could make me happy!  I didn't know
+I really could be glad.  Oh if the ice in my heart would
+melt, and the wall break down, and the girlhood I've
+never known would come yet!  Oh David, if it would!''
+
+``Before the Lord it shall!'' vowed the Harvester. 
+``It shall come with the fulness of joy right here in
+Medicine Woods.  Think it!  Believe it!  Keep it before
+you!  Work for it!  Happiness is worth while! 
+All of us have a right to it!  It shall be yours and soon.''
+
+``I will try!  I will!'' promised the Girl.  ``I'll go
+right now and I'll put on the blessed pink powder so
+thickly you'll never know what is under it, and soon it
+won't be needed at all.''
+
+She was laughing as she left the room.  The Harvester
+restlessly walked the floor a few minutes and then sat
+with a notebook and began entering stems.
+
+When the Girl returned, he brought the pillow from her
+bed, folded the coverlet, and she lay on them in the big
+swing.  He covered her with the white shawl, and while
+Singing Water sang its loudest, katydids exulted over
+the delightful act of their ancestor, and a million gauze-
+winged creatures of night hummed against the screen,
+in a voice soft and low he told her in a steady stream,
+as he swayed her back and forth, what each sound of the
+night was, and how and why it was made all the way
+from the rumbling buzz of the June bug to the screech
+of the owl and the splash of the bass in the lake.  All
+of it, as it appealed to him, was the story of steady
+evolution, the natural processes of reproduction, the joy of
+life and its battles, and the conquest of the strong in
+nature.  At his hands every sound was stripped of terror. 
+The leaping bass was exulting in life, the screeching owl
+was telling its mate it had found a fat mouse for the
+children, the nighthawk was courting, the big bull
+frogs booming around the lake were serenading the moon. 
+There was not a thing to fear or a voice left with an
+unsympathetic note in it.  She was half asleep when at last
+he helped her to her room, set a pitcher of frosty, clinking
+drink on her table, locked her door and window screens
+inside, spread Belshazzar's blanket on her porch, and set
+his door wide open, that he might hear if she called, and then
+said good night and went back to his memorandum book.
+
+``No bad beginning,'' he muttered softly, ``no bad
+beginning, but I'd almost give my right hand if she hadn't
+forgotten----''
+
+In her room the exhausted Girl slipped the pins from
+her hair and sank on the low chair before the dressing-
+table.  She picked up the shining, silver backed brush
+and stared at the monogram, R. F. L, entwined on it.
+
+``My soul!'' she exclaimed.  ``WAS HE SO SURE AS THAT? 
+Was there ever any other man like him?''
+
+She dropped the brush and with tired hands pushed
+back the heavy braids.  Then she arose and going to
+the chest of drawers began lifting lids to find a night
+robe.  As she searched the boxes she found every dainty,
+pretty undergarment a girl ever used and at last the
+robes.  She shook out a long white one, slipped into it,
+and walked to the bed.  That stood as he had arranged
+it, white, clean, and dainty.
+
+``Everything for me!'' she said softly.  ``Everything
+for me!  Shall there be nothing for him?  Oh he makes
+it easy, easy!''
+
+She stepped to the closet, picked down a lavender
+silk kimona and drawing it over her gown she gathered it
+around her and opening the bathroom door, she stepped
+into a little hall leading to the dining-room.  As she
+entered the living-room the Harvester bent over his book. 
+Her step was very close when he heard it and turned his
+head.  In an instant she touched his shoulders.  The
+Harvester dropped the pencil, and palm downward laid
+his hands on the table, his promise strong in his heart. 
+The Girl slid a shaking palm under his chin, leaned
+his head against her breast, and dropped a sweet, tear-wet
+face on his.  With all the strength of her frail arms she
+gripped him a second, and then gave the kiss, into which
+she tried to put all she could find no words to express.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SNOWY WINGS
+
+The Harvester sat at the table in deep thoughts
+until the lights in the Girl's room were darkened
+and everything was quiet.  Then he locked
+the screens inside and went into the night.  The moon
+flooded all the hillside, until coarse print could have been
+read with keen eyes in its light.  A restlessness, born of
+exultation he could not allay or control, was on him.  She
+had not forgotten!  After this, the dream would be
+effaced by reality.  It was the beginning.  He scarcely
+had dared hope for so much.  Surely it presaged the love
+with which she some day would come to him and crown
+his life.  He walked softly up and down the drive, passing
+her windows, unable to think of sleep.  Over and over
+he dwelt on the incidents of the day, so inevitably he
+came to his promise.
+
+``Merciful Heaven!'' he muttered.  ``How can such
+things happen?  The poor, overworked, tired, suffering
+girl.  It will give her some comfort.  She will feel better. 
+It has to be done.  I believe I will do the worst part of it
+while she sleeps.''
+
+He went to the cabin, crept very close to one of her
+windows and listened intently.  Surely no mortal awake
+could lie motionless so long.  She must be sleeping.  He
+patted Belshazzar, whispered, ``Watch, boy, watch for
+your life!'' and then crossed to the dry-house.  Beside
+it he found a big roll of coffee sacks that he used in
+collecting roots, and going to the barn, he took a spade and
+mattock.  Then he climbed the hill to the oak; in the
+white moonlight laid off his measurements and began
+work.  His heart was very tender as he lifted the earth,
+and threw it into the tops of the big bags he had propped
+open.
+
+``I'll line it with a couple of sheets and finish the edge
+with pond lilies and ferns,'' he planned, ``and I'll drag
+this earth from sight, and cover it with brush until I
+need it.''
+
+Sometimes he paused in his work to rest a few minutes
+and then he stood and glanced around him.  Several
+times he went down the hill and slipped close to a window,
+but he could not hear a sound.  When his work was
+finished, he stood before the oak, scraping clinging earth
+from the mattock with which he had cut roots he had
+been compelled to remove.  He was tired now and he
+thought he would go to his room and sleep until daybreak. 
+As he turned the implement he remembered how through
+it he had found her, and now he was using it in her
+service.  He smiled as he worked, and half listened to
+the steady roll of sound encompassing him.  A cool
+breath swept from the lake and he wondered if it found
+her wet, hot cheek.  A wild duck in the rushes below
+gave an alarm signal, and it ran in subdued voice, note
+by note, along the shore.  The Harvester gripped the
+mattock and stood motionless.  Wild things had taught
+him so many lessons he heeded their warnings instinctively. 
+Perhaps it was a mink or muskrat approaching
+the rushes.  Listening intently, he heard a stealthy step
+coming up the path behind him.
+
+The Harvester waited.  He soundlessly moved around
+the trunk of the big tree.  An instant more the night
+prowler stopped squarely at the head of the open grave,
+and jumped back with an oath.  He stood tense a second,
+then advanced, scratched a match and dropped it into
+the depths of the opening.  That instant the Harvester
+recognized Henry Jameson, and with a spring landed between
+the man's shoulders and sent him, face down, headlong
+into the grave.  He snatched one of the sacks of
+earth, and tipping it, gripped the bottom and emptied
+the contents on the head and shoulders of the prostrate
+man.  Then he dropped on him and feeling across his
+back took an ugly, big revolver from a pocket.  He swung
+to the surface and waited until Henry Jameson crawled
+from under the weight of earth and began to rise; then,
+at each attempt, he knocked him down.  At last he
+caught the exhausted man by the collar and dragged
+him to the path, where he dropped him and stood gloating.
+
+``So!'' he said; ``It's you!  Coming to execute your
+threat, are you?  What's the matter with my finishing
+you, loading your carcass with a few stones into this sack,
+and dropping you in the deepest part of the lake.''
+
+There was no reply.
+
+``Ain't you a little hasty?'' asked the Harvester. 
+``Isn't it rather cold blooded to come sneaking when you
+thought I'd be asleep?  Don't you think it would be
+low down to kill a man on his wedding day?''
+
+Henry Jameson arose cautiously and faced the Harvester.
+
+``Who have you killed?'' he panted.
+
+``No one,'' answered the Harvester.  ``This is for the
+victim of a member of your family, but I never dreamed
+I'd have the joy of planting any of you in it first, even
+temporarily.  Did you rest well?  What I should have
+done was to fill in, tread down, and leave you at the
+bottom.''
+
+Jameson retreated a few steps.  The Harvester laughed
+and advanced the same distance.
+
+``Now then,'' he said, ``explain what you are doing
+on my premises, a few hours after your threat, and
+armed with another revolver before I could return the
+one I took from you this afternoon.  You must grow
+them on bushes at your place, they seem so numerous. 
+Speak up!  What are you doing here?''
+
+There was no answer.
+
+``There are three things it might be,'' mused the
+Harvester.  ``You might think to harm me, but you're
+watched on that score and I don't believe you'd enjoy
+the result sure to follow.  You might contemplate trying
+to steal Ruth's money again, but we'll pass that up. 
+You might want to go through my woods to inform yourself
+as to what I have of value there.  But, in all prob-
+ability, you are after me.  Well, here I am.  Go ahead! 
+Do what you came to!''
+
+The Harvester stepped toward the lake bank and
+Jameson, turning to watch him, exposed a face ghastly
+through its grime.
+
+``Look here!'' cried the Harvester, sickening.  ``We
+will end this right now.  I was rather busy this afternoon,
+but I wasn't too hurried to take that little weapon
+of yours to the chief of police and tell him where and how
+I got it and what occurred.  He was to return it to you
+to-morrow with his ultimatum.  When I have added
+the history of to-night, reinforced by another gun, he
+will understand your intentions and know where you
+belong.  You should be confined, but because your name
+is the same as the Girl's, and there is of your blood in her
+veins, I'll give you one more chance.  I'll let you go this
+time, but I'll report you, and deliver this implement to
+be added to your collection at headquarters.  And I
+tell you, and I'll tell them, that if ever I find you on my
+premises again, I'll finish you on sight.  Is that clear?''
+
+Jameson nodded.
+
+``What I should do is to plump you squarely into
+confinement, as I could easily enough, but that's not my
+way.  I am going to let you off, but you go knowing the
+law.  One thing more:  Don't leave with any distorted
+ideas in your head.  I saw Ruth the day she stepped
+from the cars in Onabasha and I loved her.  I wanted
+to court and marry her, as any man would the girl he
+loves, but you spoiled that with your woman killing
+brutality.  So I married her in Onabasha this afternoon. 
+You can see the records at the county clerk's office and
+interview the minister who performed the ceremony,
+if you doubt me.  Ruth is in her room, comfortable as
+I can make her, asleep and unafraid, thank God!  This
+grave is for her mother.  The Girl wants her lifted from
+the horrible place you put her, and laid where it is
+sheltered and pleasant.  Now, I'll see you off my land. 
+Hurry yourself!''
+
+With the Harvester following, Henry Jameson went
+back over the path he had come, until he reached and
+mounted the horse he had ridden.  As the Harvester
+watched him, Jameson turned in the saddle and spoke
+for the second time.
+
+``What will you give me in cold cash to tell you who
+she is, and where her mother's people are?''
+
+The Harvester leaped for the bridle and missed. 
+Jameson bent over the horse and lashed it to a run. 
+Half way to the oak the Harvester remembered the
+revolver, but being unaccustomed to weapons, he had
+forgotten it when he needed it most.  He replaced the
+earth in the sack and dragged it away, then plunged
+into the lake, and afterward went to bed, where he slept
+soundly until dawn.  First, he slipped into the living-
+room and wrote a note to the Girl.  Then he fed Belshazzar
+and ate a hearty breakfast.  He stationed the
+dog at her door, gave him the note, and went to the oak. 
+There he arranged everything neatly and as he desired,
+and then hitching Betsy he quietly guided her down the
+drive and over the road to Onabasha.  He went to an
+undertaking establishment, made all his arrangements,
+and then called up and talked with the minister who
+had performed the marriage ceremony the previous day.
+
+The sun shining in her face awoke Ruth and she lay
+revelling in the light.  ``Maybe it will colour me faster
+than the powder,'' she thought.  ``How peculiar for him
+to say what he did!  I always thought men detested it. 
+But he is not like any one else.  ``She lay looking around
+the beautiful room and wondering where the Harvester
+was.  She could not hear him.  Then, slowly and painfully,
+she dragged her aching limbs from the bed and
+went to the door.  The dog was gone from the porch
+and she could not see the man at the stable.  She
+selected a frock and putting it on opened the door. 
+Belshazzar arose and offered this letter:
+
+DEAR RUTH:
+
+I have gone to keep my promise.  You are locked in
+with Bel.  Please obey me and do not step outside the
+door until four o'clock.  Then put on a pretty white
+dress, and with the dog, come to the bridge to meet me. 
+I hope you will not suffer and fret.  Put away your
+clothing, arrange the rooms to keep busy, or better
+yet, lie in the swing and rest.  There is food in the ice
+chest, pantry, and cellar.  Forgive me for leaving you
+to-day, but I thought you would feel easier to have this
+over.  I am so glad to bring your mother here.  I hope
+it will make you happy enough to meet us with a smile. 
+Do not forget the pink box until the reality comes.
+                         With love,
+                                   DAVID.
+
+
+The Girl went to the kitchen and found food.  She
+offered to share with Belshazzar, but she could see from
+his indifference he was not hungry.  Then she returned
+to the room flooded with light, and filled with treasures,
+and tried to decide how she would arrange her clothing. 
+She spent hours opening boxes and putting dainty, pretty
+garments in the drawers, hanging the dresses, and placing
+the toilet articles.  Often she wearily dropped to the
+chairs and couches, or gazed from door and windows at
+the pictures they framed.  ``I wonder why he doesn't
+want me to go outside,'' she thought.  ``I wouldn't
+be afraid in the least, with Bel.  I'd just love to go across
+to that wonderful little river of Singing Water and sit
+in the shade; but I won't open the door until four o'clock,
+just as he wrote.''
+
+When she thought of where he had gone, and why, the
+swift tears filled her eyes, but she forced them back and
+resolutely went to investigate the dining-room.  Then
+for two hours she was a home builder, with a touch of
+that homing instinct found in the heart of every good
+woman.  First, she looked where the Harvester had said
+the dishes were, and suddenly sat on the floor exulting. 
+There was a quantity of old chipped and cracked white
+ware and some gorgeous baking powder prizes; but there
+were also big blue, green, and pink bowls, several large
+lustre plates, and a complete tea set without chip or
+blemish, two beautiful pitchers, and a number of willow
+pieces.  She set the green bowl on the dining table,
+the blue on the living-room, and took the pink herself,
+while a beautiful yellow one she placed in the dining-
+room window seat.
+
+``Oh, if I only dared fill them with those lovely flowers!'' 
+She stood in the window and gazed longingly toward the
+lake.  ``I know what colour I'd like to put in each of
+them,'' she said, ``but I promised not to touch anything,
+and the ones I want most I never saw before, and I'm
+not to go out anyway.  I can't see the sense in that,
+when I'm not at all afraid, but if he does this wonderful
+thing for me I must do what he asks.  Oh mother,
+mother!  Are you really coming to this beautiful place
+and to rest at last?''
+
+She sank to the window seat and lay trembling, but
+she bravely restrained the tears.  After a time she
+remembered the upstairs and went to see the coverlets. 
+She found a half dozen beautiful ones, and smiled as
+she examined the stiffly conventionalized birds facing
+each other in the border designs, and in one corner of
+each blanket she read, woven in the cloth----
+     Peter and John
+        Hartman
+        Wooster
+         Ohio
+         1837
+
+She took a blue and a green one, several fine skins
+from the fur box the Harvester had told her about, and
+went downstairs.  It required all her strength to push
+the heavy tables before the fireplaces.  She spread papers
+on them to stand on, and tacked a skin above each
+mantel.  She set all of the candlesticks, except those 
+she wanted to use, in the lower part of an empty bookcase. 
+A pair of black walnut she placed on the living-
+room mantel, together with a big blue plate, a yellow
+one, and an old brass candlestick.  She admired the
+effect very much.  She spread the blue coverlet on
+the couch, and arranged the blue bowl and some books
+on the table.  Here and there she hung a skin across a
+chair back, or spread it in a wide window seat.  Having
+exhausted all her resources, she returned to the dining-
+room, spread a skin before the hearth and in each window
+seat, set a pink and green lustre plate on the mantel,
+and a pair of oak candlesticks, and arranged the lustre
+tea set on the side table.  The pink coverlet she took
+for herself, and after resting a time she was surprised
+on going back to the rooms to see how homelike they
+appeared.
+
+At three o'clock she dressed and at almost four unlocked
+the screen, called Belshazzar to her side, and slowly
+went down the drive to the bridge.  She had used the
+pink powder, put on a beautiful white dress, carefully
+arranged her hair, and she wore the pearl ornament. 
+Once her fingers strayed to the pendant and she said
+softly, ``I think both he and mother would like me to
+wear it.''
+
+At the foot of the hill she stopped at a bench and sat
+in the shade waiting.  Belshazzar stretched beside her,
+and gazed at her with questioning, friendly dog eyes. 
+The Girl looked from Singing Water to the lake, and
+up the hill to make sure it was real.  She tried to quiet
+her quivering muscles and nerves.  He had asked her
+to meet him with a smile.  How could she?  He could
+not have understood what it meant when he made the
+request.  There never would be any way to make him
+realize; indeed, why should he?  The smile must be
+ready.  He had loved his mother deeply, and yet he
+had said he did not grieve to lay her to rest.  Earth
+had not been kind.  Then why should she sorrow for
+her mother?  Again life had been not only unkind, but
+bitterly cruel.
+
+Belshazzar arose and watched down the drive.  The
+Girl looked also.  Through the gate and up the levee
+came a strange procession.  First walked the Harvester
+alone, with bared head, and he carried an arm load of
+white lilies.  A carriage containing a man and several
+women followed.  Then came a white hearse with snowy
+plumes, and behind that another carriage filled with
+people, and Betsy followed drawing men in the spring
+wagon.  The Girl arose and as she stepped to the drive
+she swayed uncertainly an instant.
+
+``Gracious Heaven!'' she gasped.  ``He is bringing
+her in white, and with flowers and song!''
+
+Then she lifted her head, and with a smile on her lips
+she went to meet him.  As she reached his side, he
+tenderly put an arm around her, and came on steadily.
+
+``Courage Girl!'' he whispered.  ``Be as brave as she
+was!''
+
+Around the driveway and up the hill he half carried
+her, to a seat he had placed under the oak.  Before her
+lay the white-lined grave, and the Harvester arranged
+his lilies around it.  The teams stopped at the barn and
+men came up the hill bearing a white burden.  Behind
+them followed the minister who yesterday had performed
+their marriage ceremony, and after him a choir
+of trained singers softly chanting:
+
+     ``Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,
+     For they shall cease from their labours.''
+
+
+``But David,'' panted the Girl, ``It was mean and
+poor.  That is not she!''
+
+``Sush!'' said the Harvester.  ``It is your mother. 
+The location was high and dry, and it has been only a
+short time.  We wrapped her in white silk, laid her
+on a soft cushion and pillow, and housed her securely. 
+She can sleep well now, Ruth.  Listen!''
+
+Covered with white lilies, slowly the casket sank into
+earth.  At its head stood the minister and as it began
+to disappear, the white doves, frightened by the strange
+conveyances at the stable, came circling above.  The
+minister looked up.  He lifted a clear tenor, and softly
+and purely he sang, while at a wave of his hand the choir
+joined him:
+
+     ``Oh, come angel band!  Oh, come, and around me stand!
+     Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home!''
+
+
+He uttered a low benediction, and singing, the people
+turned and went downhill.  The Harvester gathered
+the Girl in his arms and carried her to the lake.  He
+laid her in his boat and taking the oars sent it along the
+bank in the shade, and through cool, green places.
+
+``Now cry all you choose!'' he said.
+
+The overstrained Girl covered her face and sobbed
+wildly.  After a time he began to talk to her gently,
+and before she realized it, she was listening.
+
+``Death has been kinder to her than life, Ruth,'' he
+said.  ``She is lying as you saw her last, I think.  We
+lifted her very tenderly, wrapped her carefully, and
+brought her gently as we could.  Now they shall rest
+together, those little mothers of ours, to whom men
+were not kind; and in the long sleep we must forget, as
+they have forgotten, and forgive, as no doubt they have
+forgiven.  Don't you want to take some lilies to them
+before we go to the cabin?  Right there on your left
+are unusually large ones.''
+
+The Girl sat up, dried her eyes and gathered the white
+flowers.  When the last vehicle crossed the bridge, the
+Harvester tied the boat and helped her up the hill.  The
+old oak stretched its wide arms above two little mounds,
+both moss covered and scattered with flowers.  The
+Girl added her store and then went to the Harvester, and
+sank at his feet.
+
+``Ruth, you shall not!'' cried the man.  ``I simply
+will not have that.  Come now, I will bring you back
+this evening.''
+
+He helped her to the veranda and laid her in the swing. 
+He sat beside her while she rested, and then they went
+into the cabin for supper.  Soon he had her telling
+what she had found, and he was making notes of what
+was yet required to transform the cabin into a home. 
+The Harvester left it to her to decide whether he should
+roof the bridge the next day or make a trip for furnishings. 
+She said he had better buy what they needed
+and then she could make the cabin homelike while he
+worked on the bridge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE HARVESTER INTERPRETS LIFE
+
+They went through the rooms together, and
+the Girl suggested the furnishings she thought
+necessary, while the Harvester wrote the list.  The
+following morning he was eager to have her company,
+but she was very tired and begged to be allowed to
+wait in the swing, so again he drove away and left her
+with Belshazzar on guard.  When he had gone, she went
+through the cabin arranging the furniture the best she
+could, then dressed and went to the swinging couch.  It
+was so wide and heavy a light wind rocked it gently,
+and from it she faced the fern and lily carpeted hillside,
+the majesty of big trees of a thousand years, and heard
+the music of Singing Water as it sparkled diamond-like
+where the sun rays struck its flow.  Across the drive and
+down the valley to the brilliant bit of marsh it hurried
+on its way to Loon Lake.
+
+There were squirrels barking and racing in the big trees
+and over the ground.  They crossed the sodded space
+of lawn and came to the top step for nuts, eating them
+from cunning paws.  They were living life according
+to the laws of their nature.  She knew that their sharp,
+startling bark was not to frighten her, but to warn straying
+intruders of other species of their kindred from a nest,
+because the Harvester had told her so.  He had said
+their racing here and there in wild scramble was a game
+of tag and she found it most interesting to observe.
+
+Birds of brilliant colour flashed everywhere, singing
+in wild joy, and tilted on the rising hedge before her,
+hunting berries and seeds.  Their bubbling, spontaneous
+song was an instinctive outpouring of their joy over
+mating time, nests, young, much food, and running water. 
+Their social, inquiring, short cry was to locate a mate,
+and call her to good feeding.  The sharp wild scream of a
+note was when a hawk passed over, a weasel lurked in
+the thicket, or a black snake sunned on the bushes.  She
+remembered these things, and lay listening intently,
+trying to interpret every sound as the Harvester did.
+
+Birds of wide wing hung as if nailed to the sky, or
+wheeled and sailed in grandeur.  They were searching
+the landscape below to locate a hare or snake in the waving
+grass or carrion in the fields.  The wonderful exhibitions
+of wing power were their expression of exultation
+in life, just as the song sparrow threatened to rupture
+his throat as he swung on the hedge, and the red bird
+somewhere in the thicket whistled so forcefully it sounded
+as if the notes might hurt him.
+
+On the lake bass splashed in a game with each other. 
+Grebes chattered, because they were very social.  Ducks
+dived and gobbled for roots and worms of the lake shore,
+and congratulated each other when they were lucky.
+
+Killdeer cried for slaughter, in plaintive tones, as their
+white breasts gleamed silver-like across the sky.  They
+insisted on the death of their ancient enemies, because
+the deer had trampled nests around the shore, roiled the
+water, spoiled the food hunting, and had been wholly
+unmindful of the laws of feathered folk from the beginning.
+
+Behind the barn imperial cocks crowed challenges
+of defiance to each other and all the world, because
+they once had worn royal turbans on their heads, and
+ruled the forests, even the elephants and lions.  Happy
+hens cackled when they deposited an egg, and wandered
+through their park singing the spring egg song
+unceasingly.
+
+Upon the barn Ajax spread and exulted in glittering
+plumage, and screamed viciously.  He was sending a
+wireless plea to the forests of Ceylon for a gray mate to
+come and share the ridge pole with him, and help him
+wage red war on the sickening love making of the white
+doves he hated.
+
+Everything was beautiful, some of it was amusing,
+all instructive, and intensely interesting.  The Girl
+wanted to know about the brown, yellow, and black
+butterflies sailing from flower to flower.  She watched
+big black and gold bees come from the forest for pollen
+and listened to their monotonous bumbling.  Her first
+humming bird poised in air, and sipped nectar before
+her astonished eyes.  It was marvellous, but more
+wonderful to the Girl than anything she saw or heard was
+the fact that because of the Harvester's teachings she
+now could trace through all of it the ordained processes
+of the evolution of life.  Everything was right in its way,
+all necessary to human welfare, and so there was nothing
+to fear, but marvels to learn and pictures to appreciate. 
+She would have taken Belshazzar and gone out, but
+the Harvester had exacted a promise that she would not. 
+The fact was, he could see that she was coming gradually
+to a sane and natural view of life and living things, and
+he did not want some sound or creature to frighten her,
+and spoil what he had accomplished.  So she swayed
+in the swing and watched, and tried to interpret sights
+and sounds as he did.
+
+Before an hour she realized that she was coming
+speedily into sympathy with the wild life around her; for,
+instead of shivering and shrinking at unaccustomed
+sounds, she was listening especially for them, and trying
+to arrive at a sane version.  Instead of the senseless
+roar of commerce, manufacture, and life of a city,
+she was beginning to appreciate sounds that varied and
+carried the Song of Life in unceasing measure and
+absorbing meaning, while she was more than thankful
+for the fresh, pure air, and the blessed, God-given light. 
+It seemed to the Girl that there was enough sunshine at
+Medicine Woods to furnish rays of gold for the whole
+world.
+
+``Bel,'' she said to the dog standing beside her, ``it's a
+shame to separate you from the Medicine Man and pen
+you here with me.  It's a wonder you don't bite off my
+head and run away to find him.  He's gone to bring more
+things to make life beautiful.  I wanted to go with him,
+but oh Bel, there's something dreadfully wrong with
+me.  I was afraid I'd fall on the streets and frighten and
+shame him.  I'm so weak, I scarcely can walk straight
+across one of these big, cool rooms that he has built for
+me.  He can make everything beautiful, Bel, a home,
+rooms, clothing, grounds, and life----above everything
+else he can make life beautiful.  He's so splendid and
+wonderful, with his wide understanding and sane
+interpretation and God-like sympathy and patience.  Why
+Belshazzar, he can do the greatest thing in all the world! 
+He can make you forget that the grave annihilates your
+dear ones by hideous processes, and set you to thinking
+instead that they come back to you in whispering leaves
+and flower perfumes.  If I didn't owe him so much that
+I ought to pay, if this wasn't so alluringly beautiful, I'd
+like to go to the oak and lie beside those dear women
+resting there, and give my tired body to furnish sap for
+strength and leaves for music.  He can take its bitterest
+sting----from death, Bel----and that's the most
+wonderful thing----in life, Bel----''
+
+Her voice became silent, her eyes closed; the dog
+stretched himself beside her on guard, and it was so the
+Harvester found them when he drove home from the
+city.  He heaped his load in the dining-room, stabled
+Betsy, carried the things he had brought where he thought
+they belonged, and prepared food.  When she awakened
+she came to him.
+
+``How is it going, Girl?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+``I can't tell you how lovely it has been!''
+
+``Do you really mean that your heart is warming a
+little to things here?''
+
+``Indeed I do!  I can't tell you what a morning I've had. 
+There have been such myriad things to see and hear.  Oh,
+Harvester, can you ever teach me what all of it means?''
+
+``I can right now,'' said the Harvester promptly. 
+``It means two things, so simple any little child can
+understand----the love of God and the evolution of life. 
+I am not precisely clear as to what I mean when I say
+God.  I don't know whether it is spirit, matter, or force;
+it is that big thing that brings forth worlds, establishes
+their orbits, and gives us heat, light, food, and water.  To
+me, that is God and His love.  Just that we are given
+birth, sheltered, provisioned, and endowed for our work. 
+Evolution is the natural consequence of this.  It is the
+plan steadily unfolding.  If I were you, I wouldn't
+bother my head over these questions, they never have
+been scientifically explained to the beginning; I doubt if
+they ever will be, because they start with the origin of
+matter and that is too far beyond man for him to
+penetrate.  Just enjoy to the depths of your soul----that's
+worship.  Be thankful for everything----that's praising
+God as the birds praise him.  And `do unto others'
+that's all there is of love and religion combined in
+one fell swoop.''
+
+``You should go before the world and tell every one
+that!''
+
+``No! It isn't my vocation,'' said the Harvester.
+``My work is to provide pain-killer.  I don't believe,
+Ruth, that there is any one on the footstool who is doing
+a better job along that line.  I am boastfully proud of
+it----just of sending in the packages that kill fever,
+refresh poor blood, and strengthen weak hearts;
+unadulterated, honest weight, fresh, and scrupulously clean. 
+My neighbours have a different name for it; I call it a
+man's work.''
+
+``Every one who understands must,'' said the Girl. 
+``I wish I could help at that.  I feel as if it would do
+more to wipe out the pain I've suffered and seen her
+endure than anything else.  Man, when I grow strong
+enough I want to help you.  I believe that I am going
+to love it here.''
+
+``Don't ever suppress your feelings, Ruth!'' hastily
+cried the Harvester.  ``It will be very bad for you.  You
+will become wrought up, and `het up,' as Granny Moreland
+says, and it will make you very ill.  When we drive
+the fever from your blood, the ache from your bones, the
+poison of wrong conditions from your soul, and good,
+healthy, red corpuscles begin pumping through your
+little heart like a windmill, you can stake your life you're
+going to love it here.  And the location and work are
+not all you're going to care for either, honey.  Now
+just wait!  That was not `nominated in the bond.'  I'm
+allowed to talk.  I never agreed not to SAY things.  What
+I promised was not to DO them.  So as I said, honey,
+sit at this table, and eat the food I've cooked; and by
+that time the furniture van will be here, and the men will
+unload, and you shall reign on a throne and tell me where
+and how.''
+
+``Oh if I were only stronger, David!''
+
+``You are!'' said the Harvester.  ``You are much
+better than you were yesterday.  You can talk, and that's
+all that's necessary.  The rooms are ready for furniture. 
+The men will carry it where you want it.  A decorator
+is coming to hang the curtains.  By night we will be
+settled; you can lie in the swing while I read to you a
+story so wonderful that the wildest fairy tale you ever
+heard never touched it.''
+
+``What will it be, David?''
+
+``Eat all the red raspberries and cream, bread and
+butter, and drink all the milk you can.  There's blood,
+beefsteak, and bones in it.  As I was saying, you have
+come here a stranger to a strange land.  The first thing
+is for you to understand and love the woods.  Before
+you can do that you should master the history of one
+tree; just the same as you must learn to know and love
+me before your childlike trust in all mankind returns
+again.  Understand?  Well, the fates knew you were on
+the way, coming trembling down the brink, Ruth, so
+they put it into the heart of a great man to write largely
+of a wonderful tree, especially for your benefit.  After
+it had fallen he took it apart, split it in sections, and year
+by year spread out history for all the world to read.  It
+made a classic story filled with unsurpassed wonders. 
+It was a pine of a thousand years, close the age of our
+mother tree, Ruth, and when we have learned from Enos
+Mills how to wrest secrets from the hearts of centuries,
+we will climb the hill and measure our oak, and then I
+will estimate, and you will write, and we will make a
+record for our tree.''
+
+``Oh, I'd like that!''
+
+``So would I,'' said the Harvester.  ``And a million
+other things I can think of that we can learn together. 
+It won't require long for me to teach you all I know, and
+by that time your hand will be clasped in mine, and
+our `hearts will beat as one,' and you will give me a kiss
+every night and morning, and a few during the day for
+interest, and we will go on in life together and learn songs,
+miracles, and wonders until the old oak calls us.  Then
+we will ascend the hill gladly and lie down and offer
+up our bodies, and our children will lay flowers over our
+hearts, and gather the herbs and paint the pictures?  Amen. 
+I hear a van on the bridge.  Just you go to your room
+and lie down until I get things unloaded and where they
+belong.  Then you and the decorator can make us home-
+like, and to-morrow we will begin to live.  Won't that
+be great, Ruth?''
+
+``With you, yes, I think it will.''
+
+``That will do for this time,'' said the Harvester, as
+he opened the door to her room.  ``Lie and rest until
+I say ready.''
+
+As he went to meet the men, she could hear him singing
+lustily, ``Praise God from whom all blessings flow.''
+
+``What a child he is!'' she said.  ``And what a man!''
+
+For an hour heavy feet sounded through the cabin 
+carrying furniture to different rooms.  Then with a floor
+brush in one hand, and a polishing cloth in the other,
+the Harvester tapped at her door and helped the Girl
+upstairs.  He had divided the space into three large, square
+sleeping chambers.  In each he had set up a white iron
+bed, a dressing table, and wash stand, and placed two
+straight-backed and one rocking chair, all white.  The
+walls were tinted lightly with green added to the plaster. 
+There was a mattress and a stack of bedding on each bed,
+and a large rug and several small ones on the floors.  He
+led her to the rocking chair in the middle room, where
+she could see through the open doors of the other two.
+
+``Now,'' said the Harvester, ``I didn't know whether
+the room with two windows toward the lake and one on
+the marsh, or two facing the woods and one front, was
+the guest chamber.  It seemed about an even throw
+whether a visitor would prefer woods or water, so I made
+them both guest chambers, and got things alike for them. 
+Now if we are entertaining two, one can't feel more highly
+honoured than the other.  Was that a scheme?''
+
+``Fine!'' said the Girl.  ``I don't see how it could be
+surpassed.''
+
+`` `Be sure you are right, then go ahead,' '' quoted the
+Harvester.  ``Now I'll make the beds and Mr. Rogers
+can hang the curtains.  Is white correct for sleeping
+rooms?  Won't that wash best and always be fresh?''
+
+``It will,'' said the Girl.  ``White wash curtains are
+much the nicest.''
+
+``Make them short Mr. Rogers; keep them off the
+floor,'' advised the Harvester.  ``And simple----don't
+arrange any thing elaborate that will tire a woman to
+keep in order.  Whack them off the right length and pin
+them to the poles.''
+
+``How about that, Mrs. Langston?'' asked the decorator.
+
+``I am quite sure that is the very best thing to do,''
+said the Girl; and the curtains were hung while the mattress
+was placed.
+
+``Now about this?'' inquired the Harvester.  ``Do I
+put on sheets and fix these beds ready to use?''
+
+``I would not,'' said the Girl.  ``I would spread the
+pad and the counterpane and lay the sheets and pillows
+in the closet until they are wanted.  They can be sunned
+and the bed made delightfully fresh.''
+
+``Of course,'' said the Harvester.
+
+When he had finished, he spread a cover on the dressing
+table and laid out white toilet articles and grouped a
+white wash set with green decorations on the stand. 
+Then he brushed the floor, spread a big green rug in the
+middle and small ones before the bed, stand, and table,
+and coming out closed the door.
+
+``Guest chamber with lake view is now ready for
+company,'' announced the Harvester.  ``Repeat the
+operation on the woods room, finished also.  Why do
+some people make work of things and string them out
+eternally and fuss so much?  Isn't this simple and easy,
+Ruth?''
+
+``Yes, if you can afford it,'' said the Girl.
+
+``Forbear!'' cried the Harvester.  ``We have the goods,
+the dealer has my check.  Excuse me ten minutes, until
+I furnish another room.''
+
+The laughing Girl could catch glimpses of him busy
+over beds and dresser, floor and rugs; then he came where
+she sat.
+
+``Woods guest chamber ready,'' he said.  ``Now we
+come to the interior apartment, that from its view might
+be called the marsh room.  Aside from being two windows
+short, it is exactly similar to the others.  It occurred
+to me that, in order to make up for the loss of those
+windows, and also because I may be compelled to ask
+some obliging woman to occupy it in case your health
+is precarious at any time, and in view of the further fact
+that if any such woman could be found, and would kindly
+and willingly care for us, my gratitude would be
+inexpressible; on account of all these things, I got a shade
+the BEST furnishings for this room.''
+
+The Girl stared at him with blank face.
+
+``You see,'' said the Harvester, ``this is a question of
+ethics.  Now what is a guest?  A thing of a day!  A
+person who disturbs your routine and interferes with
+important concerns.  Why should any one be grateful
+for company?  Why should time and money be lavished
+on visitors?  They come.  You overwork yourself. 
+They go.  You are glad of it.  You return the visit,
+because it's the only way to have back at them; but why
+pamper them unnecessarily?  Now a good housekeeper,
+that means more than words can express.  Comfort, 
+kindness, sanitary living, care in illness!  Here's to the
+prospective housekeeper of Medicine Woods!  Rogers,
+hang those ruffled embroidered curtains.  Observe that
+whereas mere guest beds are plain white, this has a
+touch of brass.  Where guest rugs are floor coverings,
+this is a work of art.  Where guest brushes are celluloid,
+these are enamelled, and the dresser cover is hand
+embroidered.  Let me also call your attention to the chairs
+touched with gold, cushioned for ease, and a decorated
+pitcher and bowl.  Watch the bounce of these springs
+and the thickness of this mattress and pad, and notice
+that where guests, however welcome, get a down
+cover of sateen, the lady of the house has silkaline. 
+Won't she prepare us a breakfast after a night in this
+room?''
+
+``David, are you in earnest?'' gasped the Girl.
+
+``Don't these things prove it?'' asked the Harvester. 
+``No woman can enter my home, when my necessities
+are so great I have to hire her to come, and take the
+WORST in the house.  After my wife, she gets the best,
+every time.  Whenever I need help, the woman who will
+come and serve me is what I'd call the real guest of the
+house.  Friend?  Where are your friends when trouble
+comes?  It always brings a crowd on account of the
+excitement, and there is noise and racing; but if your soul
+is saved alive, it is by a steady, trained hand you pay to
+help you.  Friends come and go, but a good housekeeper
+remains and is a business proposition--one that
+if conducted rightly for both parties and on a strictly
+common-sense basis, gives you living comfort.  Now that
+we have disposed of the guests that go and the one that
+remains, we will proceed downward and arrange for
+ourselves.''
+
+``David, did you ever know any one who treated a
+housekeeper as you say you would?''
+
+``No.  And I never knew any one who raised medicinal
+stuff for a living, but I'm making a gilt-edged success of
+it, and I would of a housekeeper, too.''
+
+``It doesn't seem----''
+
+``That's the bedrock of all the trouble on the earth,''
+interrupted the Harvester.  ``We are a nation and a
+part of a world that spends our time on `seeming.'  Our
+whole outer crust is `seeming.'  When we get beneath
+the surface and strike the BEING, then we live as we are
+privileged by the Almighty.  I don't think I give
+a tinker how anything SEEMS.  What concerns me is
+how it IS.  It doesn't `seem' possible to you to hire a
+woman to come into your home and take charge of its
+cleanliness and the food you eat--the very foundation
+of life--and treat her as an honoured guest,
+and give her the best comfort you have to offer.  The
+cold room, the old covers, the bare floor, and the cast
+off furniture are for her.  No wonder, as a rule, she
+gives what she gets.  She dignifies her labour in the
+same ratio that you do.  Wait until we need a housekeeper,
+and then gaze with awe on the one I will raise
+to your hand.''
+
+``I wonder----''
+
+``Don't!  It's wearing!  Come tell me how to make our
+living-room less bare than it appears at present.''
+
+They went downstairs together, followed by the
+decorator, and began work on the room.  The Girl
+was placed on a couch and made comfortable and then
+the Harvester looked around.
+
+``That bundle there, Rogers, is the curtains we bought
+for this room.  If you and my wife think they are not
+right, we will not hang them.''
+
+The decorator opened the package and took out
+curtains of tan-coloured goods with a border of blue and
+brown.
+
+``Those are not expensive,'' said the Harvester, ``but
+to me a window appears bare with only a shade, so I
+thought we'd try these, and when they become soiled
+we'll burn them and buy some fresh ones.''
+
+``Good idea!'' laughed the Girl.  ``As a house
+decorator you surpass yourself as a Medicine Man.''
+
+``Fix these as you did those upstairs,'' ordered the
+Harvester.  ``We don't want any fol-de-rols.  Put the
+bottom even with the sill and shear them off at the top.''
+
+``No, I am going to arrange these,'' said the decorator,
+``you go on with your part.''
+
+``All right!'' agreed the Harvester.  ``First, I'll lay
+the big rug.''
+
+He cleared the floor, spread a large rug with a rich
+brown centre and a wide blue border.  Smaller ones of
+similar design and colour were placed before each of the
+doors leading from the room.
+
+``Now for the hearth,'' said the Harvester, ``I got this
+tan goat skin.  Doesn't that look fairly well?''
+
+It certainly did; and the Girl and the decorator
+hastened to say so.  The Harvester replaced the table and
+chairs, and then sat on the couch at the Girl's feet.
+
+``I call this almost finished,'' he remarked.  ``All we
+need now is a bouquet and something on the walls, and
+that is serious business.  What goes on them usually
+remains for a long time, and so it should be selected with
+care.  Ruth, have you a picture of your mother?''
+
+``None since she was my mother.  I have some lovely
+girl photographs.''
+
+``Good!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Exactly the thing! 
+I have a picture of my mother when she was a pretty
+girl.  We will select the best of yours and have them
+enlarged in those beautiful brown prints they make in
+these days, and we'll frame one for each side of the
+mantel.  After that you can decorate the other walls
+as you see things you want.  Fifteen minutes gone; we
+are ready to take up the line of march to the dining-room. 
+Oh I forgot my pillows!  Here are a half dozen tan,
+brown, and blue for this room.  Ruth, you arrange
+them.''
+
+The Girl heaped four on the couch, stood one beside
+the hearth, and laid another in a big chair.
+
+``Now I don't know what you will think of this,''
+said the Harvester.  ``I found it in a magazine at the
+library.  I copied this whole room.  The plan was to
+have the floor, furniture, and casings of golden oak and
+the walls pale green.  Then it said get yellow curtains
+bordered with green and a green rug with yellow figures,
+so I got them.  I had green leather cushions made for
+the window seats, and these pillows go on them.  Hang
+the saffron curtains, Rogers, and we will finish in good
+shape for dinner by six.  By the way, Ruth, when will
+you select your dishes?  It will take a big set to fill
+all these shelves and you shall have exactly what you
+want.''
+
+``I can use those you have very well.''
+
+``Oh no you can't!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I may live
+and work in the woods, but I am not so benighted that
+I don't own and read the best books and magazines, and
+subscribe for a few papers.  I patronize the library and
+see what is in the stores.  My money will buy just as
+much as any man's, if I do wear khaki trousers.  Kindly
+notice the word.  Save in deference to your ladyship I
+probably would have said pants.  You see how ELITE
+I can be if I try.  And it not only extends to my wardrobe,
+to a `yaller' and green dining-room, but it takes in
+the `chany' as well.  I have looked up that, too.  You
+want china, cut glass, silver cutlery, and linen.  Ye! 
+Ye!  You needn't think I don't know anything but how
+to dig in the dirt.  I have been studying this especially,
+and I know exactly what to get.''
+
+``Come here,'' said the Girl, making a place for him
+beside her.  ``Now let me tell you what I think.  We
+are going to live in the woods, and our home is a log
+cabin----''
+
+``With acetylene lights, a furnace, baths, and hot and
+cold water----'' interpolated the Harvester.
+
+The Girl and the decorator laughed.
+
+``Anyway,'' said she, ``if you are going to let me have
+what I would like, I'd prefer a set of tulip yellow dishes
+with the Dutch little figures on them.  I don't know
+what they cost, but certainly they are not so expensive
+as cut glass and china.''
+
+``Is that earnest or is it because you think I am
+spending too much money?''
+
+``It is what I want.  Everything else is different; why
+should we have dishes like city folk?  I'd dearly love
+to have the Dutch ones, and a white cloth with a yellow
+border, glass where it is necessary, and silver knives,
+forks, and spoons.''
+
+``That would be great, all right!'' endorsed the decorator. 
+``And you have got a priceless old lustre tea set
+there, and your willow ware is as fine as I ever saw.  If
+I were you, I wouldn't buy a dish with what you have,
+except the yellow set.''
+
+``Great day!'' ejaculated the Harvester.  ``Will you
+tell me why my great grandmother's old pink and green
+teapot is priceless?''
+
+The Girl explained pink lustre.  ``That set in the
+shop I knew in Chicago would sell for from three to five
+hundred dollars.  Truly it would!  I've seen one little
+pink and green pitcher like yours bring nine dollars there. 
+And you've not only got the full tea set, but water and
+dip pitchers, two bowls, and two bread plates.  They
+are priceless, because the secret of making them is lost;
+they take on beauty with age, and they were your great-
+grandmother's.''
+
+The Harvester reached over and energetically shook
+hands.
+
+``Ruth, I'm so glad you've got them!'' he bubbled. 
+``Now elucidate on my willow ware.  What is it?  Where
+is it?  Why have I willow ware and am not informed. 
+Who is responsible for this?  Did my ancestors buy
+better than they knew, or worse?  Is willow ware a
+crime for which I must hide my head, or is it further
+riches thrust upon me?  I thought I had investigated
+the subject of proper dishes quite thoroughly; but I am
+very certain I saw no mention of lustre or willow.  I
+thought, in my ignorance, that lustre was a dress, and
+willow a tree.  Have I been deceived?  Why is a blue
+plate or pitcher willow ware?''
+
+``Bring that platter from the mantel,'' ordered the
+Girl, ``and I will show you.''
+
+The Harvester obeyed and followed the finger that
+traced the design.
+
+``That's a healthy willow tree!'' he commented.  ``If
+Loon Lake couldn't go ahead of that it should be drained. 
+And will you please tell me why this precious platter
+from which I have eaten much stewed chicken, fried
+ham, and in youthful days sopped the gravy----will
+you tell me why this relic of my ancestors is called a
+willow plate, when there are a majority of orange trees
+so extremely fruitful they have neglected to grow a leaf? 
+Why is it not an orange plate?  Look at that boat! 
+And in plain sight of it, two pagodas, a summer house,
+a water-sweep, and a pair of corpulent swallows; you
+would have me believe that a couple are eloping in broad
+daylight.''
+
+``Perhaps it's night!  And those birds are doves.''
+
+``Never!'' cried the Harvester.  ``There is a total
+absence of shadows.  There is no moon.  Each orange
+tree is conveniently split in halves, so you can see to
+count the fruit accurately; the birds are in flight.  Only
+a swallow or a stork can fly in decorations, either by day
+or by night.  And for any sake look at that elopment! 
+He goes ahead carrying a cane, she comes behind lugging
+the baggage, another man with a cane brings up the
+rear.  They are not running away.  They have been
+married ten years at least.  In a proper elopement, they
+forget there are such things as jewels and they always
+carry each other.  I've often looked up the statistics
+and it's the only authorized version.  As I regard this
+treasure, I grow faint when I remember with what
+unnecessary force my father bore down when he carved
+the ham.  I'll bet a cooky he split those orange trees. 
+Now me----I'll never dare touch knife to it again.  I'll
+always carve the meat on the broiler, and gently lift it
+to this platter with a fork.  Or am I not to be allowed
+to dine from my ancestral treasure again?''
+
+``Not in a green and yellow room,'' laughed the Girl. 
+``I'll tell you what I think.  If I had a tea table to match
+the living-room furniture, and it sat beside the hearth,
+and on it a chafing dish to cook in, and the willow ware
+to eat from, we could have little tea parties in there,
+when we aren't very hungry or to treat a visitor.  It
+would help make that room `homey,' and it's wonderful
+how they harmonize with the other things.''
+
+``How much willow ware have I got to `bestow' on
+you?'' inquired the Harvester.  ``Suppose you show me
+all of it.  A guilty feeling arises in my breast, and I fear
+me I have committed high crimes!''
+
+``Oh Man!  You didn't break or lose any of those
+dishes, did you?''
+
+``Show me!'' insisted the Harvester.
+
+The Girl arose and going to the cupboard he had
+designed for her china she opened it, and set before him
+a teapot, cream pitcher, two plates, a bowl, a pitcher,
+the meat platter, and a sugar bowl.  ``If there were all
+of the cups, saucers, and plates, I know where they would
+bring five hundred dollars,'' she said.
+
+``Ruth, are you getting even with me for poking fun
+at them, or are you in earnest?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+``I mean every word of it.''
+
+``You really want a small, black walnut table made
+especially for those old dishes?''
+
+``Not if you are too busy.  I could use it with beautiful
+effect and much pleasure, and I can't tell you how proud
+I'd be of them.''
+
+The Harvester's face flushed.  ``Excuse me,'' he said
+rising.  ``I have now finished furnishing a house; I will
+go and take a peep at the engine.''  He went into the
+kitchen and hearing the rattle of dishes the Girl followed. 
+She stepped in just in time to see him hastily slide something
+into his pocket.  He picked up a half dozen old
+white plates and saucers and several cups and started
+toward the evaporator.  He heard her coming.
+
+``Look here, honey,'' he said turning, ``you don't want
+to see the dry-house just now.  I have terrific heat to
+do some rapid work.  I won't be gone but a few minutes. 
+You better boss the decorator.
+
+``I'm afraid that wasn't very diplomatic,'' he muttered. 
+``It savoured a little of being sent back.  But if what
+she says is right, and she should know if they handle
+such stuff at that art store, she will feel considerably
+better not to see this.''
+
+He set his load at the door, drew an old blue saucer
+from his pocket and made a careful examination.  He
+pulled some leaves from a bush and pushed a greasy
+cloth out of the saucer, wiped it the best he could, and
+held it to light.
+
+``That is a crime!'' he commented.  ``Saucer from your
+maternal ancestors' tea set used for a grease dish.  I am
+afraid I'd better sink it in the lake.  She'd feel worse
+to see it than never to know.  Wish I could clean off
+the grease!  I could do better if it was hot.  I can set it
+on the engine.''
+
+The Harvester placed the saucer on the engine, entered
+the dry-house, and closed the door.  In the stifling air
+he began pouring seed from beautiful, big willow plates
+to the old white ones.
+
+``About the time I have ruined you,'' he said to a white
+plate, ``some one will pop up and discover that the art
+of making you is lost and you are priceless, and I'll have
+been guilty of another blunder.  Now there are the
+dishes mother got with baking powder.  She thought
+they were grand.  I know plenty well she prized them
+more than these blue ones or she wouldn't have saved
+them and used these for every day.  There they set,
+all so carefully taken care of, and the Girl doesn't even
+look at them.  Thank Heaven, there are the four remaining
+plates all right, anyway!  Now I've got seed in some
+of the saucers; one is there; where on earth is the last one? 
+And where, oh unkind fates! are the cups?''
+
+He found more saucers and set them with the plates. 
+As he passed the engine he noticed the saucer on it was
+bubbling grease, literally exuding it from the particles
+of clay.
+
+``Hooray!'' cried the Harvester.  He took it up, but
+it was so hot he dropped it.  With a deft sweep he caught
+it in air, and shoved it on a tray.  Then he danced and
+blew on his burned hand.  Snatching out his handkerchief
+he rubbed off all the grease, and imagined the saucer
+was brighter.
+
+``If `a little is good, more is better,' '' quoted the
+Harvester.
+
+Wadding the handkerchief he returned the saucer to
+the engine.  Then he slipped out, dripping perspiration,
+glanced toward the cabin, and ran into the work room. 
+The first object he saw was a willow cup half full of red
+paint, stuck and dried as if to remain forever.  He took
+his knife and tried to whittle it off, but noticing that he
+was scratching the cup he filled it with turpentine, set
+it under a work bench, turned a tin pan over it, and
+covered it with shavings.  A few steps farther brought one
+in sight, filled with carpet tacks.  He searched everywhere,
+but could find no more, so he went to the laboratory. 
+Beside his wash bowl at the door stood the last
+willow saucer.  He had used it for years as a soap dish. 
+He scraped the contents on the bench and filled the dish
+with water.  Four cups held medicinal seeds and were in
+good condition.  He lacked one, although he could not
+remember of ever having broken it.  Gathering his
+collection, he returned to the dry-house to see how the
+saucer was coming on.  Again it was bubbling, and he
+polished off the grease and set back the dish.  It certainly
+was growing better.  He carried his treasures into the
+work room, and went to the barn to feed.  As he was
+leaving the stable he uttered a joyous exclamation and
+snatched from a window sill a willow cup, gummed and
+smeared with harness oil.
+
+``The full set, by hokey!'' marvelled the Harvester. 
+``Say, Betsy, the only name for this is luck!  Now if
+I only can clean them, I'll be ready to make her tea table,
+whatever that is.  My I hope she will stay away until
+I get these in better shape!''
+
+He filled the last cup with turpentine, set it with the
+other under the work bench, stacked the remaining pieces,
+polished the saucer he was baking, and went to bring a
+dish pan and towel.  He drew some water from the pipes
+of the evaporator, put in the soap, and carried it to the
+work room.  There he carefully washed and wiped all
+the pieces, save two cups and one saucer.  He did not
+know how long it would require to bake the grease from
+that, but he was sure it was improving.  He thought he
+could clean the paint cup, but he imagined the harness
+oil one would require baking also.
+
+As he stood busily working over the dishes, with light
+step the Girl came to the door.  She took one long look
+and understood.  She turned and swiftly went back to
+the cabin, but her shoulders were shaking.  Presently
+the Harvester came in and explained that after finishing
+in the dry-house he had gone to do the feeding.  Then he
+suggested that before it grew dark they should go through
+the rooms and see how they appeared, and gather the
+flowers the Girl wanted.  So together they decided everything
+was clean, comfortable, and harmonized.
+
+Then they went to the hillside sloping to the lake.  For
+the dining-room, the Girl wanted yellow water lilies, so
+the Harvester brought his old boat and gathered enough
+to fill the green bowl.  For the living-room, she used wild
+ragged robins in the blue bowl, and on one end of the
+mantel set a pitcher of saffron and on the other arrowhead
+lilies.  For her room, she selected big, blushy
+mallows that grew all along Singing Water and around
+the lake.
+
+``Isn't that slightly peculiar?'' questioned the Harvester.
+
+``Take a peep,'' said the Girl, opening her door.
+
+She had spread the pink coverlet on her couch, and
+when she set the big pink bowl filled with mallows on the
+table the effect was exquisite.
+
+``I think perhaps that's a little Frenchy,'' she said,
+``and you may have to be educated to it; but salmon
+pink and buttercup yellow are colours I love in combination.''
+
+She closed the door and went to find something to
+eat, and then to the swing, where she liked to rest, look,
+and listen.  The Harvester suggested reading to her, but
+she shook her head.
+
+``Wait until winter,'' she said, ``when the days are
+longer and cold, and the snow buries everything, and
+then read.  Now tell me about my hedge and the things
+you have planted in it.''
+
+The Harvester went out and collected a bunch of twigs. 
+He handed her a big, evenly proportioned leaf of ovate
+shape, and explained:  ``This is burning bush, so called
+because it has pink berries that hang from long, graceful
+stems all winter, and when fully open they expose a
+flame-red seed pod.  It was for this colour on gray and
+white days that I planted it.  In the woods I grow it in
+thickets.  The root bark brings twenty cents a pound,
+at the very least.  It is good fever medicine.''
+
+``Is it poison?''
+
+``No.  I didn't set anything acutely poisonous in
+your hedge.  I wanted it to be a mass of bloom you were
+free to cut for the cabin all spring, an attraction to birds
+in summer, and bright with colour in winter.  To draw
+the feathered tribe, I planted alder, wild cherry, and
+grape-vines.  This is cherry.  The bark is almost as
+beautiful as birch.  I raise it for tonics and the birds
+love the cherries.  This fern-like leaf is from mountain
+ash, and when it attains a few years' growth it will flame
+with colour all winter in big clusters of scarlet berries. 
+That I grow in the woods is a picture in snow time, and
+the bark is one of my standard articles.''
+
+The Girl raised on her elbow and looked at the hedge.
+
+``I see it,'' she said.  ``The berries are green now.  I
+suppose they change colour as they ripen.''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester.  ``And you must not
+confuse them with sumac.  The leaves are somewhat similar,
+but the heads differ in colour and shape.  The sumac and
+buckeye you must not touch, until we learn what they
+will do to you.  To some they are slightly poisonous, to
+others not.  I couldn't help putting in a few buckeyes
+on account of the big buds in early spring.  You will
+like the colour if you are fond of pink and yellow in
+combination, and the red-brown nuts in grayish-yellow,
+prickly hulls, and the leaf clusters are beautiful, but you
+must use care.  I put in witch hazel for variety, and I
+like its appearance; it's mighty good medicine, too; so
+is spice brush, and it has leaves that colour brightly, and
+red berries.  These selections were all made for a purpose. 
+Now here is wafer ash; it is for music as well as medicine. 
+I have invoked all good fairies to come and dwell in this
+hedge, and so I had to provide an orchestra for their
+dances.  This tree grows a hundred tiny castanets in a
+bunch, and when they ripen and become dry the wind
+shakes fine music from them.  Yes, they are medicine;
+that is, the bark of the roots is.  Almost without
+exception everything here has medicinal properties.  The
+tulip poplar will bear you the loveliest flowers of all,
+and its root bark, taken in winter, makes a good fever
+remedy.''
+
+``How would it do to eat some of the leaves and see
+if they wouldn't take the feverishness from me?''
+
+``It wouldn't do at all,'' said the Harvester.  ``We
+are well enough fixed to allow Doc to come now, and he
+is the one to allay the fever.''
+
+``Oh no!'' she cried.  ``No!  I don't want to see a
+doctor.  I will be all right very soon.  You said I was
+better.''
+
+``You are,'' said the Harvester.  ``Much better!  We
+will have you strong and well soon.  You should have
+come in time for a dose of sassafras.  Your hedge is
+filled with that, because of its peculiar leaves and odour. 
+I put in dogwood for the white display around the little
+green bloom, lots of alder for bloom and berries, haws
+for blossoms and fruit for the squirrels, wild crab apples
+for the exquisite bloom and perfume, button bush for the
+buttons, a few pokeberry plants for the colour, and I
+tried some mallows, but I doubt if it's wet enough for
+them.  I set pecks of vine roots, that are coming nicely,
+and ferns along the front edge.  Give it two years and
+that hedge will make a picture that will do your eyes
+good.''
+
+``Can you think of anything at all you forgot?''
+
+``Yes indeed!'' said the Harvester.  ``The woods are
+full of trees I have not used; some because I overlooked
+them, some I didn't want.  A hedge like this, in
+perfection, is the work of years.  Some species must be cut
+back, some encouraged, but soon it will be lovely, and
+its colour and fruit attract every bird of the heavens
+and butterflies and insects of all varieties.  I set several
+common cherry trees for the robins and some blackberry
+and raspberry vines for the orioles.  The bloom is pretty
+and the birds you'll have will be a treat to see and hear,
+if we keep away cats, don't fire guns, scatter food, and
+move quietly among them.  With our water attractions
+added, there is nothing impossible in the way of making
+friends with feathered folk.''
+
+``There is one thing I don't understand,'' said the Girl. 
+``You wouldn't risk breaking the wing of a moth by keeping
+it when you wanted a drawing very much; you don't
+seem to kill birds and animals that other people do.  You
+almost worship a tree; now how can you take a knife
+and peel the bark to sell or dig up beautiful bushes by
+the root.''
+
+``Perhaps I've talked too much about the woods,''
+said the Harvester gently.  ``I've longed inexpressibly
+for sympathetic company here, because I feel rooted for
+life, so I am more than anxious that you should care for
+it.  I may have made you feel that my greatest interest
+is in the woods, and that I am not consistent when I
+call on my trees and plants to yield of their store for my
+purposes.  Above everything else, the human proposition
+comes first, Ruth.  I do love my trees, bushes,
+and flowers, because they keep me at the fountain of life,
+and teach me lessons no book ever hints at; but above
+everything come my fellow men.  All I do is for them. 
+My heart is filled with feeling for the things you see
+around you here, but it would be joy to me to uproot
+the most beautiful plant I have if by so doing I could
+save you pain.  Other men have wives they love as well,
+little children they have fathered, big bodies useful to
+the world, that are sometimes crippled with disease. 
+There is nothing I would not give to allay the pain of
+humanity.  It is not inconsistent to offer any growing
+thing you soon can replace, to cure suffering.  Get that
+idea out of your head!  You said you could worship at
+the shrine of the pokeberry bed, you feel holier before
+the arrowhead lilies, your face takes on an appearance of
+reverence when you see pink mallow blooms.  Which
+of them would you have hesitated a second in uprooting
+if you could have offered it to subdue fever or pain in the
+body of the little mother you loved?''
+
+``Oh I see!'' cried the Girl.  ``Like everything else
+you make this different.  You worship all this beauty
+and grace, wrought by your hands, but you carry your
+treasure to the market place for the good of suffering
+humanity.  Oh Man!  I love the work you do!''
+
+``Good!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Good!  And Ruth-
+girl, while you are about it, see if you can't combine the
+man and his occupation a little.''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GRANNY MORELAND'S VISIT
+
+The following morning the Girl was awakened by
+wheels on the gravel outside her window, and
+lifted her head to see Betsy passing with a load
+of lumber.  Shortly afterward the sound of hammer
+and saw came to her, and she knew that Singing Water
+bridge was being roofed to provide shade for her.  She
+dressed and went to the kitchen to find a dainty breakfast
+waiting, so she ate what she could, and then washed the
+dishes and swept.  By that time she was so tired she
+dropped on a dining-room window seat, and lay looking
+toward the bridge.  She could catch glimpses of the
+Harvester as he worked.  She watched his deft ease in
+handling heavy timbers, and the assurance with which
+he builded.  Sometimes he stood and with tilted head
+studied his work a minute, then swiftly proceeded.  He
+placed three tree trunks on each side for pillars, laid
+joists across, formed his angle, and nailed boards as a
+foundation for shingling.  Occasionally he glanced toward
+the cabin, and finally came swinging up the drive.  He
+entered the kitchen softly, but when he saw the Girl
+in the window he sat at her feet.
+
+``Oh but this is a morning, Ruth!'' he said.
+
+She looked at him closely.  He radiated health and
+good cheer.  His tanned cheeks were flushed red with
+exercise, and the hair on his temples was damp.
+
+``You have been breaking the rules,'' he said.  ``It
+is the law that I am to do the work until you are well
+and strong again.  Why did you tire yourself?''
+
+``I am so perfectly useless!  I see so many things that
+I would enjoy doing.  Oh you can do everything else,
+make me well!  Make me strong!''
+
+``How can I, when you won't do as I tell you?''
+
+``I will!  Indeed I will!''
+
+``Then no more attempts to stand over dishes and
+clean big floors.  You mustn't overwork yourself at
+anything.  The instant you feel in the least tired you must
+lie down and rest.''
+
+``But Man!  I'm tired every minute, with a dead, dull
+ache, and I don't feel as if I ever would be rested again
+in all the world.''
+
+The Harvester took one of her hands, felt its fevered
+palm, fluttering wrist pulse, and noticed that the brilliant
+red of her lips had extended to spots on her cheeks.  He
+formed his resolution.
+
+``Can't work on that bridge any more until I drive
+in for some big nails,'' he said.  ``Do you mind being
+left alone for an hour?''
+
+``Not at all, if Bel will stay with me.  I'll lie in the
+swing.''
+
+``All right!'' answered the Harvester.  ``I'll help you
+out and to get settled.  Is there anything you want
+from town?''
+
+``No, not a thing!''
+
+``Oh but you are modest!'' cried the Harvester.  ``I
+can sit here and name fifty things I want for you.''
+
+``Oh but you are extravagant!'' imitated the Girl. 
+``Please, please, Man, don't!  Can't you see I have so
+much now I don't know what to do with it?  Sometimes
+I almost forget the ache, just lying and looking at all the
+wonderful riches that have come to me so suddenly. 
+I can't believe they won't vanish as they came.  By
+the hour in the night I look at my lovely room, and I
+just fight my eyes to keep them from closing for fear
+they'll open in that stifling garret to the heat of day and
+work I have not strength to do.  I know yet all this will
+prove to be a dream and a wilder one than yours.''
+
+The face of the Harvester was very anxious.
+
+``Please to remember my dream came true,'' he said,
+``and much sooner than I had the least hope that it would. 
+I'm wide awake or I couldn't be building bridges; and
+you are real, if I know flesh and blood when I touch
+it.''
+
+``If I were well, strong, and attractive, I could
+understand,'' she said.  ``Then I could work in the house, at
+the drawings, help with the herbs, and I'd feel as if I
+had some right to be here.''
+
+``All that is coming,'' said the Harvester.  ``Take
+a little more time.  You can't expect to sin steadily
+against the laws of health for years, and recover in a
+day.  You will be all right much sooner than you think
+possible.''
+
+``Oh I hope so!'' said the Girl.  ``But sometimes I
+doubt it.  How I could come here and put such a burden
+on a stranger, I can't see.  I scarcely can remember what
+awful stress drove me.  I had no courage.  I should
+have finished in my garret as my mother did.  I must
+have some of my father's coward blood in me.  She
+never would have come.  I never should!''
+
+``If it didn't make any real difference to you, and meant
+all the world to me, I don't see why you shouldn't humour
+me.  I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to have
+you here.  I could shout and sing all day.''
+
+``It requires very little to make some people happy.''
+
+``You are not much, but you are going to be more
+soon,'' laughed the Harvester, as he gently picked up
+the Girl and carried her to the swing, where he covered
+her, kissed her hot hand, and whistled for Belshazzar. 
+He pulled the table close and set a pitcher of iced fruit
+juice on it.  Then he left her and she could hear the rattle
+of wheels as he crossed the bridge and drove away.
+
+``Betsy, this is mighty serious business,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``The Girl is scorching or I don't know fever. 
+I wonder----well, one thing is sure----she is bound to
+be better off in pure, cool air and with everything I can
+do to be kind, than in Henry Jameson's attic with
+everything he could do to be mean.  Pleasant men those
+Jamesons!  Wonder if the Girl's father was much like
+her Uncle Henry?  I think not or her refined and lovely
+
+mother never would have married him.  Come to think
+of it, that's no law, Betsy.  I've seen beautiful and
+delicate women fall under some mysterious spell, and
+yoke their lives with rank degenerates.  Whatever he
+was, they have paid the price.  Maybe the wife deserved
+it, and bore it in silence because she knew she did, but
+it's bitter hard on Ruth.  Girls should be taught to think
+at least one generation ahead when they marry.  I
+wonder what Doc will say, Betsy?  He will have to come
+and see for himself.  I don't know how she will feel about
+that.  I had hoped I could pull her through with care,
+food, and tonics, but I don't dare go any farther alone. 
+Betsy, that's a thin, hot, little hand to hold a man's
+only chance for happiness.''
+
+``Well, bridegroom!  I've been counting the days!''
+said Doctor Carey.  ``The Missus and I made it up this
+morning that we had waited as long as we would.  We
+are coming to-night.  David''
+
+``It's all right, Doc,'' said the Harvester.  ``Don't
+you dare think anything is wrong or that I am not the
+proudest, happiest man in this world, because I appear
+anxious.  I am not trying to conceal it from you.  You
+know we both agreed at first that Ruth should be in the
+hospital, Doc.  Well, she should!  She is what would
+be a lovely woman if she were not full of the poison of
+wrong food and air, overwork, and social conditions that
+have warped her.  She is all I dreamed of and more,
+but I've come for you.  She is too sick for me.  I hoped
+she would begin to gain strength at once on changed
+conditions.  As yet I can't see any difference.  She needs
+a doctor, but I hate for her to know it.  Could you come
+out this afternoon, and pretend as if it were a visit?
+Bring Mrs. Carey and watch the Girl.  If you need an
+examination, I think she will obey me.  If you can avoid
+it, fix what she should have and send it back to me
+by a messenger.  I don't like to leave her when she is
+so ill.''
+
+``I'll come at once, David.''
+
+``Then she will know that I came for you, and that
+will frighten her.  You can do more good to wait until
+afternoon, and pretend you are making a social call. 
+I must go now.  I'd have brought her in, but I have no
+proper conveyance yet.  I'm promised something soon,
+perhaps it is ready now.  Good-bye!  Be sure to come!''
+
+The Harvester drove to a livery barn and examined a
+little horse, a shining black creature that seemed gentle
+and spirited.  He thought favourably of it.  A few days
+before he had selected a smart carriage, and with this
+outfit tied behind the wagon he returned to Medicine
+Woods.  He left the horse at the bridge, stabled Betsy,
+and then returned for the new conveyance, driving it
+to the hitching post.  At the sound of unexpected wheels
+the Girl lifted her head and stared at the turnout.
+
+``Come on!'' cried the Harvester opening the screen. 
+``We are going to the woods to initiate your carriage.''
+
+She went with little cries of surprised wonder.
+
+``This is how you travel to Onabasha to do your shopping,
+to call on Mrs. Carey and the friends you will
+make, and visit the library.  When I've tried out Mr.
+Horse enough to prove him reliable as guaranteed, he
+is yours, for your purposes only, and when you grow
+wonderfully well and strong, we'll sell him and buy you a
+real live horse and a stanhope, such as city ladies have;
+and there must be a saddle so that you can ride.''
+
+``Oh I'd love that!'' cried the Girl.  ``I always wanted
+to ride!  Where are we going?''
+
+``To show you Medicine Woods,'' said the Harvester. 
+``I've been waiting for this.  You see there are several
+hundred acres of trees, thickets, shrubs, and herb beds
+up there, and if the wagon road that winds between
+them were stretched straight it would be many miles in
+length, so we have a cool, shaded, perfumed driveway
+all our own.  Let me get you a drink before you start
+and the little shawl.  It's chilly there compared with
+here.  Now are you comfortable and ready?''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Girl.  ``Hurry!  I've just longed
+to go, but I didn't like to ask.''
+
+``I am sorry,'' said the Harvester.  ``Living here for
+years alone and never having had a sister, how am I
+going to know what a girl would like if you don't tell
+me?  I knew it would be too tiresome for you to walk,
+and I was waiting to find a reliable horse and a suitable
+carriage.''
+
+``You won't scratch or spoil it up there?''
+
+``I'll lower the top.  It is not as wide as the wagon,
+so nothing will touch it.''
+
+``This is just so lovely, and such a wonderful treat, do
+you observe that I'm not saying a word about extravagance?''
+asked the Girl, as she leaned back in the carriage
+and inhaled the invigorating wood air.
+
+The horse climbed the hill, and the Harvester guided
+him down long, dim roads through deep forest, while
+he explained what large thickets of bushes were, why he
+grew them, how he collected the roots or bark, for what
+each was used and its value.  On and on they went,
+the way ahead always appearing as if it were too narrow
+to pass, yet proving amply wide when reached.  Excited
+redbirds darted among the bushes, and the Harvester
+answered their cry.  Blackbirds protested against
+the unusual intrusion of strange objects, and a brown
+thrush slipped from a late nest close the road wailing in
+anxiety.
+
+One after another the Harvester introduced the Girl
+to the best trees, speculated on their age, previous history,
+and pointed out which brought large prices for
+lumber and which had medicinal bark and roots.  On
+and on they slowly drove through the woods, past the
+big beds of cranesbill, violets, and lilies.  He showed her
+where the mushrooms were most numerous, and for the
+first time told the story of how he had sold them and the
+violets from door to door in Onabasha in his search for
+her, and the amazed Girl sat staring at him.  He told
+of Doctor Carey having seen her once, and inquired
+as they passed the bed if the yellow violets had revived. 
+He stopped to search and found a few late ones, deep
+among the leaves.
+
+``Oh if I only had known that!'' cried the Girl, ``I would
+have kept them forever.''
+
+``No need,'' said the Harvester.  ``Here and now I
+present you with the sole ownership of the entire white
+and yellow violet beds.  Next spring you shall fill your
+room.  Won't that be a treat?''
+
+``One money never could buy!'' cried the Girl.
+
+``Seems to be my strong point,'' commented the
+Harvester.  ``The most I have to offer worth while is
+something you can't buy.  There is a fine fairy platform. 
+They can spare you one.  I'll get it.''
+
+The Harvester broke from a tree a large fan-shaped
+fungus, the surface satin fine, the base mossy, and
+explained to the Girl that these were the ballrooms of the
+woods, the floors on which the little people dance in
+the moonlight at their great celebrations.  Then he
+added a piece of woolly dog moss, and showed her how
+each separate spine was like a perfect little evergreen
+tree.
+
+``That is where the fairies get their Christmas pines,''
+he explained.
+
+``Do you honestly believe in fairies?''
+
+``Surely!'' exclaimed the Harvester.  ``Who would
+tell me when the maples are dripping sap, and the mushrooms
+springing up, if the fairies didn't whisper in the
+night?  Who paints the flower faces, colours the leaves,
+enamels the ripening fruit with bloom, and frosts the
+window pane to let me know that it is time to prepare
+for winter?  Of course!  They are my friends and
+everyday helpers.  And the winds are good to me. 
+They carry down news when tree bloom is out, when
+the pollen sifts gold from the bushes, and it's time to
+collect spring roots.  The first bluebird always brings
+me a message.  Sometimes he comes by the middle of
+February, again not until late March.  Always on his
+day, Belshazzar decides my fate for a year.  Six years
+we've played that game; now it is ended in blessed reality. 
+In the woods and at my work I remain until I die, with
+a few outside tries at medicine making.  I am putting
+up some compounds in which I really have faith.  Of
+course they have got to await their time to be tested, but
+I believe in them.  I have grown stuff so carefully,
+gathered it according to rules, washed it decently, and
+dried and mixed it with such scrupulous care.  Night
+after night I've sat over the books until midnight and
+later, studying combinations; and day after day I've
+stood in the laboratory testing and trying, and two or three
+will prove effective, or I've a disappointment coming.''
+
+``You haven't wasted time!  I'd much rather take
+medicines you make than any at the pharmacies.  Several
+times I've thought I'd ask you if you wouldn't give me
+some of yours.  The prescription Doctor Carey sent
+does no good.  I've almost drunk it, and I am constantly
+tired, just the same.  You make me something from
+these tonics and stimulants you've been telling me about. 
+Surely you can help me!''
+
+``I've got one combination that's going to save life,
+in my expectations.  But Ruth, it never has been tried,
+and I couldn't experiment on the very light of my eyes
+with it.  If I should give you something and you'd
+grow worse as a result--I am a strong man, my girl,
+but I couldn't endure that.  I'd never dare.  But
+dear, I am expecting Carey and his wife out any time;
+probably they will come to-day, it's so beautiful; and
+when they do, for my sake, won't you talk with him, tell
+him exactly what made you ill, and take what he gives
+you? He's a great man.  He was recently President
+of the National Association of Surgeons.  Long ago he
+abandoned general practice, but he will prescribe for you;
+all his art is at your command.  It's quite an honour,
+Ruth.  He performs all kinds of miracles, and saves
+life every day.  He had not seen you, and what he gave
+me was only by guess.  He may not think it is the right
+thing at all after he meets you.''
+
+``Then I am really ill?''
+
+``No.  You only have the germs of illness in your blood,
+and if you will help me that much we can eliminate
+them; and then it is you for housekeeper, with first assistant
+in me, the drawing tools, paint box, and all the woods
+for subjects.  So, as I was going to tell you, Belshazzar
+and I have played our game for the last time.  That
+decision was ultimate.  Here I will work, live, and die. 
+Here, please God, strong and happy, you shall live with
+me.  Ruth, you have got to recover quickly.  You will
+consult the doctor?''
+
+``Yes, and I wish he would hurry,'' said the Girl. 
+``He can't make me new too soon to suit me.  If I had
+a strong body, oh Man, I just feel as if you could find a
+soul somewhere in it that would respond to all these
+wonders you have brought me among.  Oh! make me well,
+and I'll try as woman never did before to bring you
+happiness to pay for it.''
+
+``Careful now,'' warned the Harvester.  ``There is
+to be no talk of obligations between you and me. 
+Your presence here and your growing trust in me are all
+I ask at the hands of fate at present.  Long ago I learned
+to `labour and to wait.'  By the way----here's my
+most difficult labour and my longest wait.  This is the
+precious gingseng bed.''
+
+``How pretty!'' exclaimed the Girl.
+
+Covering acres of wood floor, among the big trees,
+stretched the lacy green carpet.  On slender, upright
+stalks waved three large leaves, each made up of five
+stemmed, ovate little leaves, round at the base, sharply
+pointed at the tip.  A cluster of from ten to twenty small
+green berries, that would turn red later, arose above. 
+The Harvester lifted a plant to show the Girl that the
+Chinese name, Jin-chen, meaning man-like, originated
+because the divided root resembled legs.  Away through
+the woods stretched the big bed, the growth waving
+lightly in the wind, the peculiar odour filling the air.
+
+``I am going to wait to gather the crop until the seeds
+are ripe,'' said the Harvester, ``then bury some as I
+dig a root.  My father said that was the way of the
+Indians.  It's a mighty good plan.  The seeds are
+delicate, and difficult to gather and preserve properly. 
+Instead of collecting and selling all of them to start rivals
+in the business, I shall replant my beds.  I must find
+a half dozen assistants to harvest this crop in that way,
+and it will be difficult, because it will come when my
+neighbours are busy with corn.''
+
+``Maybe I can help you.''
+
+``Not with ginseng digging,'' laughed the Harvester. 
+``That is not woman's work.  You may sit in an especially
+attractive place and boss the job.''
+
+``Oh dear!'' cried the Girl.  ``Oh dear!  I want to
+get out and walk.''
+
+Gradually they had climbed the summit of the hill,
+descended on the other side, and followed the road through
+the woods until they reached the brier patches, fruit
+trees; and the garden of vegetables, with big beds of sage,
+rue, wormwood, hoarhound, and boneset.  From there
+to the lake sloped the sunny fields of mullein and catnip,
+and the earth was molten gold with dandelion creeping
+everywhere.
+
+``Too hot to-day,'' cautioned the Harvester.  ``Too
+rough walking.  Wait until fall, and I have a treat
+there for you.  Another flower I want you to love because
+I do.''
+
+``I will,'' said the Girl promptly.  ``I feel it in my
+heart.''
+
+``Well I am glad you feel something besides the ache
+of fever,'' said the Harvester.  Then noticing her tired
+face he added:  ``Now this little horse had quite a trip
+from town, and the wheels cut deeply into this woods
+soil and make difficult pulling, so I wonder if I had not
+better put him in the stable and let him become
+acquainted with Betsy.  I don't know what she will think. 
+She has had sole possession for years.  Maybe she will be
+jealous, perhaps she will be as delighted for company
+as her master.  Ruth, if you could have heard what
+I said to Belshazzar when he decided I was to go courting
+this year, and seen what I did to him, and then take
+a look at me now----merciful powers, I hope the
+dog doesn't remember!  If he does, no wonder he forms a
+new allegiance so easily.  Have you observed that lately
+when I whistle, he starts, and then turns back to see if
+you want him?  He thinks as much of you as he does of
+me right now.''
+
+``Oh no!'' cried the Girl.  ``That couldn't be possible. 
+You told me I must make friends with him, so I have
+given him food, and tried to win him.''
+
+``You sit in the carriage until I put away the horse,
+and then I'll help you to the cabin, and save you being
+alone while I work.  Would you like that?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+She leaned her head against the carriage top the
+Harvester had raised to screen her, and watched him
+stable the horse.  Evidently he was very fond of animals
+for he talked as if it were a child he was undressing and
+kept giving it extra strokes and pats as he led it away. 
+Ajax disliked the newcomer instantly, noticed the carriage
+and the woman's dress, and screamed his ugliest. 
+The Girl smiled.  As the Harvester appeared she inquired, 
+``Is Ajax now sending a wireless to Ceylon asking
+for a mate?''
+
+The Harvester looked at her quizzically and saw a
+gleam of mischief in the usually dull dark eyes that
+delighted him.
+
+``That is the customary supposition when he finds
+voice,'' he said.  ``But since this has become your home,
+you are bound to learn some of my secrets.  One of them
+I try to guard is the fact that Ajax has a temper.  No
+my dear, he is not always sending a wireless, I am sorry
+to say.  I wish he was!  As a matter of fact he is venting
+his displeasure at any difference in our conditions.  He
+hates change.  He learned that from me.  I will enjoy
+seeing him come for favour a year from now, as I learned
+to come for it, even when I didn't get much, and the road
+lay west of Onabasha.  Ajax, stop that!  There's no
+use to object.  You know you think that horse is nice
+company for you, and that two can feed you more than
+one.  Don't be a hypocrite!  Cease crying things you
+don't mean, and learn to love the people I do.  Come
+on, old boy!''
+
+The peacock came, but with feathers closely pressed
+and stepping daintily.  As the bird advanced, the Harvester
+retreated, until he stood beside the Girl, and then
+he slipped some grain to her hand and she offered it. 
+But Ajax would not be coaxed.  He was too fat and well
+fed.  He haughtily turned and marched away, screaming
+at intervals.
+
+``Nasty temper!'' commented the Harvester.  ``Never
+mind!  He soon will become accustomed to you, and then
+he will love you as Belshazzar does.  Feed the doves
+instead.  They are friendly enough in all conscience. 
+Do you notice that there is not a coloured feather among
+them?  The squab that is hatched with one you may
+have for breakfast.  Now let's go find something to eat,
+and I will finish the bridge so you can rest there to-night
+and watch the sun set on Singing Water.''
+
+So they went into the cabin and prepared food, and
+then the Harvester told the Girl to make herself so pretty
+that she would be a picture and come and talk to him
+while he finished the roof.  She went to her room, found
+a pale lavender linen dress and put it on, dusted the
+pink powder thickly, and went where a wide bench made
+an inviting place in the shade.  There she sat and
+watched her lightly expressed whim take shape.
+
+``Soon as this is finished,'' said the Harvester, ``I am
+going to begin on that tea table.  I can make it in a
+little while, if you want it to match the other furniture.''
+
+``I do,'' said the Girl.
+
+``Wonder if you could draw a plan showing how it
+should appear.  I am a little shy on tea tables.''
+
+``I think I can.''
+
+The Harvester brought paper, pencil, and a shingle
+for a drawing pad.
+
+``Now remember one thing,'' he said.  ``If you are
+in earnest about using those old blue dishes, this has
+got to be a big, healthy table.  A little one will appear
+top heavy with them.  It would be a good idea to set
+out what you want to use, arranged as you would like
+them, and let me take the top measurement that way.''
+
+``All right!  I'll only indicate how its legs should be
+and we will find the size later.  I could almost weep
+because that wonderful set is broken.  If I had all of
+it I'd be so proud!''
+
+The Girl bent over the drawing.  The Harvester
+worked with his attention divided between her, the bridge,
+and the road.  At last he saw the big red car creeping up
+the valley.
+
+``Seems to be some one coming, Ruth!  Guess it must
+be Doc.  I'll go open the gate?''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Girl.  ``I'm so glad.  You won't
+forget to ask him to help me if he can?''
+
+The Harvester wheeled hastily.  ``I won't forget!''
+he said, as he hurried to the gate.  The car ran slowly,
+and the Girl could see him swing to the step and stand
+talking as they advanced.  When they reached her they
+stopped and all of them came forward.  She went to
+meet them.  She shook hands with Mrs. Carey and
+then with the doctor.
+
+``I am so glad you have come,'' she said.
+
+``I hope you are not lonesome already,'' laughed the
+doctor.
+
+``I don't think any one with brains to appreciate half
+of this ever could become lonely here,'' answered the
+Girl.  ``No, it isn't that.''
+
+``A-ha!'' cried the doctor, turning to his wife.  ``You
+see that the beautiful young lady remembers me, and has
+been wishing I would come.  I always said you didn't
+half appreciate me.  What a place you are making,
+David!  I'll run the car to the shade and join you.''
+
+For a long time they talked under the trees, then they
+went to see the new home and all its furnishings.
+
+``Now this is what I call comfort,'' said the doctor. 
+``David, build us a house exactly similar to this over
+there on the hill, and let us live out here also.  I'd love
+it.  Would you, Clara?''
+
+``I don't know.  I never lived in the country.  One
+thing is sure:  If I tried it, I'd prefer this to any other
+place I ever saw.  David, won't you take me far enough
+up the hill that I can look from the top to the lake?''
+
+``Certainly,'' said the Harvester.  ``Excuse us a little
+while, Ruth!''
+
+As soon as they were gone the Girl turned to the
+doctor.
+
+``Doctor Carey, David says you are great.  Won't
+you exercise your art on me.  I am not at all well, and
+oh!  I'd so love to be strong and sound.''
+
+``Will you tell me,'' asked the doctor, ``just enough to
+show me what caused the trouble?''
+
+``Bad air and water, poor light and food at irregular
+times, overwork and deep sorrow; every wrong condition
+of life you could imagine, with not a ray of hope in the
+distance, until now.  For the sake of the Harvester, I
+would be well again.  Please, please try to cure me!''
+
+So they talked until the doctor thought he knew all he
+desired, and then they went to see the gold flower garden.
+
+``I call this simply superb,'' said he, taking a seat
+beneath the tree roof of her porch.  ``Young woman, I
+don't know what I'll do to you if you don't speedily grow
+strong here.  This is the prettiest place I ever saw,
+and listen to the music of that bubbling, gurgling little
+creek!''
+
+``Isn't he wonderful?'' asked the Girl, looking up the
+hill, where the tall form of the Harvester could be seen
+moving around.  ``Just to see him, you would think
+him the essence of manly strength and force.  And he is! 
+So strong!  Into the lake at all hours, at the dry-house,
+on the hill, grubbing roots, lifting big pillars to support a
+bridge roof, and with it all a fancy as delicate as any
+dreaming girl.  Doctor, the fairies paint the flowers,
+colour the fruit, and frost the windows for him; and the
+winds carry pollen to tell him when his growing things
+are ready for the dry-house.  I don't suppose I can tell
+you anything new about him; but isn't he a perpetual
+surprise?  Never like any one else!  And no matter how
+he startles me in the beginning, he always ends by
+convincing me, at least, that he is right.''
+
+``I never loved any other man as I do him,'' said the
+doctor.  ``I ushered him into the world when I was a
+young man just beginning to practise, and I've known
+him ever since.  I know few men so scrupulously clean. 
+Try to get well and make him happy, Mrs. Langston. 
+He so deserves it.''
+
+``You may be sure I will,'' answered the Girl.
+
+After the visitors had gone, the Harvester told her to
+place the old blue dishes as she would like to arrange
+them on her table, so he could get a correct idea of the
+size, and he left to put a few finishing strokes on the
+bridge cover.  She went into the dining-room and opened
+the china closet.  She knew from her peep in the work-
+room that there would be more pieces than she had seen
+before; but she did not think or hope that a full half dozen
+tea set and plates, bowl, platter, and pitcher would be
+waiting for her.
+
+``Why Ruth, what made you tire yourself to come
+down?  I intended to return in a few minutes.''
+
+``Oh Man!'' cried the laughing Girl, as she clung
+pantingly to a bridge pillar for support, ``I just had to
+come to tell you.  There are fairies!  Really truly ones! 
+They have found the remainder of the willow dishes for
+me, and now there are so many it isn't going to be a table
+at all.  It must be a little cupboard especially for them,
+in that space between the mantel and the bookcase. 
+There should be a shining brass tea canister, and a wafer
+box like the arts people make, and I'll pour tea and tend
+the chafing dish and you can toast the bread with a long
+fork over the coals, and we will have suppers on the
+living-room table, and it will be such fun.''
+
+``Be seated!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Ruth, that's the
+longest speech I ever heard you make, and it sounded,
+praise the Lord, like a girl.  Did Doc say he would fix
+something for you?''
+
+``Yes, such a lot of things!  I am going to shut my eyes
+and open my mouth and swallow all of them.  I'm going
+to be born again and forget all I ever knew before I came
+here, and soon I will be tagging you everywhere, begging
+you to suggest designs for my pencil, and I'll simply
+force life to come right for you.''
+
+The Harvester smiled.
+
+``Sounds good!'' he said.  ``But, Ruth, I'm a little
+dubious about force work.  Life won't come right for
+me unless you learn to love me, and love is a stubborn,
+contrary bulldog element of our nature that won't be
+driven an inch.  It wanders as the wind, and strikes
+us as it will.  You'll arrive at what I hope for much
+sooner if you forget it and amuse yourself and be as
+happy as you can.  Then, perhaps all unknown to you,
+a little spark of tenderness for me will light in your breast;
+and if it ever does we will buy a fanning mill and put it
+in operation, and we'll raise a flame or know why.''
+
+``And there won't be any force in that?''
+
+``What you can't compel is the start.  It's all right to
+push any growth after you have something to work on.''
+
+``That reminds me,'' said the Girl, ``there is a question
+I want to ask you.''
+
+``Go ahead!'' said the Harvester, glancing at her as he
+hewed a joist.
+
+She turned away her face and sat looking across the
+lake for a long time.
+
+``Is it a difficult question, Ruth?'' inquired the Harvester
+to help her.
+
+``Yes,'' said the Girl.  ``I don't know how to make
+you see.''
+
+``Take any kind of a plunge.  I'm not usually dense.'' 
+
+``It is really quite simple after all.  It's about a
+girl----a girl I knew very well in Chicago.  She had a
+problem----and it worried her dreadfully, and I just
+wondered what you would think of it.''
+
+The Harvester shifted his position so that he could
+watch the side of the averted face.
+
+``You'll have to tell me, before I can tell you,'' he
+suggested.
+
+``She was a girl who never had anything from life but
+work and worry.  Of course, that's the only kind I'd
+know!  One day when the work was most difficult, and
+worry cut deepest, and she really thought she was losing
+her mind, a man came by and helped her.  He lifted her
+out, and rescued all that was possible for a man to save
+to her in honour, and went his way.  There wasn't anything
+more.  Probably there never would be.  His heart
+was great, and he stooped and pitied her gently and
+passed on.  After a time another man came by, a good
+and noble man, and he offered her love so wonderful she
+hadn't brains to comprehend how or why it was.''
+
+The Girl's voice trailed off as if she were too weary to
+speak further, while she leaned her head against a pillar
+and gazed with dull eyes across the lake.
+
+``And your question,'' suggested the Harvester at
+last.
+
+She roused herself.  ``Oh, the question!  Why this----
+if in time, and after she had tried and tried, love to equal
+his simply would not come would----would----she be
+wrong to PRETEND she cared, and do the very best she could,
+and hope for real love some day?  Oh David, would
+she?''
+
+The Harvester's face was whiter than the Girl's.  He
+pounded the chisel into the joist savagely.
+
+``Would she, David?''
+
+``Let me understand you clearly,'' said the man in a
+dry, breathless voice.  ``Did she love this first man to
+whom she came under obligations?''
+
+The Girl sat gazing across the lake and the tortured
+Harvester stared at her.
+
+``I don't know,'' she said at last.  ``I don't know
+whether she knew what love was or ever could.  She
+never before had known a man; her heart was as undeveloped
+and starved as her body.  I don't think she realized
+love, but there was a SOMETHING.  Every time she
+would feel most grateful and long for the love that was
+offered her, that `something' would awake and hurt her
+almost beyond endurance.  Yet she knew he never would
+come.  She knew he did not care for her.  I don't know
+that she felt she wanted him, but she was under such
+obligations to him that it seemed as if she must wait to
+see if he might not possibly come, and if he did she
+should be free.''
+
+``If he came, she preferred him?''
+
+``There was a debt she had to pay----if he asked it. 
+I don't know whether she preferred him.  I do know she
+had no idea that he would come, but the POSSIBILITY was
+always before her.  If he didn't come in time, would she
+be wrong in giving all she had to the man who loved
+her?''
+
+The Harvester's laugh was short and sharp.
+
+``She had nothing to give, Ruth!  Talk about worm-
+wood, colocynth apples, and hemlock!  What sort of
+husks would that be to offer a man who gave honest
+love?  Lie to him!  Pretend feeling she didn't experience. 
+Endure him for the sake of what he offered her?  Well
+I don't know how calmly any other man would take that
+proceeding, Ruth, but tell your friend for me, that if I
+offered a woman the deep, lasting, and only loving passion
+of my heart, and she gave back a lie and indifferent lips,
+I'd drop her into the deepest hole of my lake and take
+my punishment cheerfully.''
+
+``But if it would make him happy?  He deserves
+every happiness, and he need never know!''
+
+The Harvester's laugh raised to an angry roar.
+
+``You simpleton!'' he cried roughly.  ``Do you know
+so little of human passion in the heart that you think
+love can be a successful assumption?  Good Lord, Ruth! 
+Do you think a man is made of wood or stone, that a
+woman's lips in her first kiss wouldn't tell him the truth? 
+Why Girl, you might as well try to spread your tired arms
+and fly across the lake as to attempt to pretend a love
+you do not feel.  You never could!''
+
+``I said a girl I knew!''
+
+`` `A Girl you knew,' then!  Any woman!  The idea
+is monstrous.  Tell her so and forget it.  You almost
+scared the life out of me for a minute, Ruth.  I thought
+it was going to be you.  But I remember your debt is
+to be paid with the first money you earn, and you can
+not have the slightest idea what love is, if you honestly
+ask if it can be simulated.  No ma'am!  It can't!  Not
+possibly!  Not ever!  And when the day comes that
+its fires light your heart, you will come to me, and tell
+of a flood of delight that is tingling from the soles of your
+feet through every nerve and fibre of your body, and you
+will laugh with me at the time when you asked if it could
+be imitated successfully.  No, ma'am!  Now let me help
+you to the cabin, serve a good supper, and see you eat
+like a farmer.''
+
+All evening the Harvester was so gay he kept the
+Girl laughing and at last she asked him the cause.
+
+``Relief, honey!  Relief!'' cried the man.  ``You had
+me paralyzed for a minute, Ruth.  I thought you were
+trying to tell me that there was some one so possessing
+your heart that it failed every time you tried to think
+about caring for me.  If you hadn't convinced me before
+you finished that love never has touched you, I'd be
+the saddest man in the world to-night, Ruth.''
+
+The Girl stared at him with wide eyes and silently
+turned away.
+
+Then for a week they worked out life together in the
+woods.  The Harvester was the housekeeper and the
+cook.  He added to his store many delicious broths and
+stimulants he brought from the city.  They drove every
+day through the cool woods, often rowed on the lake in
+the evenings, walked up the hill to the oak and scattered
+fresh flowers on the two mounds there, and sat beside
+them talking for a time.  The Harvester kept up his work
+with the herbs, and the little closet for the blue dishes
+was finished.  They celebrated installing them by having
+supper on the living-room table, with the teapot on one
+end, and the pitcher full of bellflowers on the other.
+
+The Girl took everything prescribed for her, bathed,
+slept all she could, and worked for health with all the
+force of her frail being, and as the days went by it seemed
+to the Harvester her weight grew lighter, her hands hotter,
+and she drove herself to a gayety almost delirious.  He
+thought he would have preferred a dull, stupid sleep of
+malaria.  There was colour in plenty on her cheeks now,
+and sometimes he found her wrapped in the white shawl
+at noon on the warmest days Medicine Woods knew in
+early August; and on cool nights she wore the thinnest
+clothing and begged to be taken on the lake.  The
+Careys came out every other evening and the doctor
+watched and worked, but he did not get the results he
+desired.  His medicines were not effective.
+
+``David,'' he said one evening, ``I don't like the looks
+of this.  Your wife has fever I can't break.  It is eating
+the little store of vitality she has right out of her, and
+some of these days she is coming down with a crash. 
+She should yield to the remedies I am giving her.  She
+acts to me like a woman driven wild by trouble she is
+concealing.  Do you know anything that worries her?''
+
+``No,'' said the Harvester, ``but I'll try to find out if
+it will help you in your work.''
+
+After they were gone he left the Girl lying in the
+swing guarded by the dog, and went across the marsh
+on the excuse that he was going to a bed of thorn apple
+at the foot of the hill.  There he sat on a log and tried
+to think.  With the mists of night rising around him,
+ghosts arose he fain would have escaped.  ``What will
+you give me in cold cash to tell you who she is, and who
+her people are?''  Times untold in the past two weeks
+he had smothered, swallowed, and choked it down. 
+That question she had wanted to ask----was it for a
+girl she had known, or was it for herself?  Days of
+thought had deepened the first slight impression he so
+bravely had put aside, not into certainty, but a great
+fear that she had meant herself.  If she did, what was
+he to do?  Who was the man?  There was a debt she had
+to pay if he asked it?  What debt could a woman pay
+a man that did not involve money?  Crouched on a log
+he suffered and twisted in agonizing thought.  At last
+he arose and returned to the cabin.  He carried a few
+frosty, blue-green leaves of velvet softness and unusual
+cutting, prickly thorn apples full of seeds, and some of
+the smoother, more yellowish-green leaves of the jimson
+weed, to give excuse for his absence.
+
+``Don't touch them,'' he warned as he came to her. 
+``They are poison and have disagreeable odour.  But
+we are importing them for medicinal purposes.  On the
+far side of the marsh, where the ground rises, there is a
+waste place just suited to them, and so long as they will
+seed and flourish with no care at all, I might as well have
+the price as the foreign people who raise them.  They
+don't bring enough to make them worth cultivating, but
+when they grow alone and with no care, I can make
+money on the time required to clip the leaves and dry the
+seeds.  I must go wash before I come close to you.''
+
+The next day he had business in the city, and again
+she lay in the swing and talked to the dog while the
+Harvester was gone.  She was startled as Belshazzar arose
+with a gruff bark.  She looked down the driveway,
+but no one was coming.  Then she followed the dog's
+eyes and saw a queer, little old woman coming up the
+bank of Singing Water from the north.  She remembered
+what the Harvester had said, and rising she opened
+the screen and went down the path.  As the Girl
+advanced she noticed the scrupulous cleanliness of
+the calico dress and gingham apron, and the snowy hair
+framing a bronzed face with dancing dark eyes.
+
+``Are you David's new wife?'' asked Granny Moreland
+with laughing inflection.
+
+``Yes,'' said the Girl.  ``Come in.  He told me to
+expect you.  I am so sorry he is away, but we can get
+acquainted without him.  Let me help you.''
+
+``I don't know but that ought to be the other way
+about.  You don't look very strong, child.''
+
+``I am not well,'' said the Girl, ``but it's lovely here,
+and the air is so fine I am going to be better soon.  Take
+this chair until you rest a little, and then you shall see
+our pretty home, and all the furniture and my dresses.''
+
+``Yes, I want to see things.  My, but David has tried
+himself!  I heard he was just tearin' up Jack over here,
+and I could get the sound of the hammerin', and one
+day he asked me to come and see about his beddin'. 
+He had that Lizy Crofter to wash for him, but if I hadn't
+jest stood over her his blankets would have been ruined. 
+She's no more respect for fine goods than a pig would
+have for cream pie.  I hate to see woollens abused, as
+if they were human.  My, but things is fancy here
+since what David planted is growin'!  Did you ever
+live in the country before?''
+
+``No.''
+
+``Where do you hail from?''
+
+``Well not from the direction of hail,'' laughed the
+Girl.  ``I lived in Chicago, but we were----were not
+rich, and so I didn't know the luxury of the city; just the
+lonely, difficult part.''
+
+``Do you call Chicago lonely?''
+
+``A thousand times more so than Medicine Woods. 
+Here I know the trees will whisper to me, and the water
+laughs and sings all day, and the birds almost split their
+throats making music for me; but I can imagine no loneliness
+on earth that will begin to compare with being among
+the crowds and crowds of a large city and no one has a
+word or look for you.  I miss the sea of faces and the roar
+of life; at first I was almost wild with the silence, but now
+I don't find it still any more; the Harvester is teaching
+me what each sound means and they seem to be countless.''
+
+``You think, then, you'll like it here?''
+
+``I do, indeed!  Any one would.  Even more than
+the beautiful location, I love the interesting part of the
+Harvester's occupation.  I really think that gathering
+material to make medicines that will allay pain is the
+very greatest of all the great work a man can do.''
+
+``Good!'' cried Granny Moreland, her dark eyes
+snapping.  ``I've always said it!  I've tried to encourage
+David in it.  And he's just capital at puttin' some of his
+stuff in shape, and combinin' it in as good medicine as
+you ever took.  This spring I was all crippled up with
+the rheumatiz until I wanted to holler every time I had
+to move, and sometimes it got so aggravatin' I'm not
+right sure but I done it.  'Long comes David and says,
+`I can fix you somethin',' and bless you, if the boy didn't
+take the tucks out of me, until here I am, and tickled
+to pieces that I can get here.  This time last year I didn't
+care if I lived or not.  Now seems as if I'm caperish
+as a three weeks' lamb.  I don't see how a man could
+do a bigger thing than to stir up life in you like that.''
+
+``I think this place makes an especial appeal to me,
+because, shortly before I came, I had to give up my
+mother.  She was very ill and suffered horribly.  Every
+time I see David going to his little laboratory on the hill
+to work a while I slip away and ask God to help him to
+fix something that will ease the pain of humanity as
+I should like to have seen her relieved.''
+
+``Why you poor child!  No wonder you are lookin'
+so thin and peaked!''
+
+``Oh I'll soon be over that,'' said the Girl.  ``I am
+much better than when I came.  I'll be coming over to
+trade pie with you before long.  David says you are my
+nearest neighbour, so we must be close friends.''
+
+``Well bless your big heart!  Now who ever heard
+of a pretty young thing like you wantin' to be friends with
+a plain old country woman?''
+
+``Why I think you are lovely!'' cried the Girl.  ``And
+all of us are on the way to age, so we must remember
+that we will want kindness then more than at any other
+time.  David says you knew his mother.  Sometime won't
+you tell me all about her?  You must very soon.  The
+Harvester adored her, and Doctor Carey says she was the
+noblest woman he ever knew.  It's a big contract to
+take her place.  Maybe if you would tell me all you can
+remember I could profit by much of it.''
+
+Granny Moreland watched the Girl keenly.
+
+``She wa'ant no ordinary woman, that's sure,'' she
+commented.  ``And she didn't make no common man
+out of her son, either.  I've always contended she took
+the job too serious, and wore herself out at it, but she
+certainly done the work up prime.  If she's above cloud
+leanin' over the ramparts lookin' down----though it gets me
+as to what foundation they use or where they get the
+stuff to build the ramparts----but if they is ramparts,
+and she's peekin' over them, she must take a lot of solid
+satisfaction in seeing that David is not only the man she
+fought and died to make him, but he's give her quite a
+margin to spread herself on.  She 'lowed to make him a
+big man, but you got to know him close and plenty 'fore it
+strikes you jest what his size is.  I've watched him pretty
+sharp, and tried to help what I could since Marthy went,
+and I'm frank to say I druther see David happy than
+to be happy myself.  I've had my fling.  The rest of
+the way I'm willin' to take what comes, with the best
+grace I can muster, and wear a smilin' face to betoken
+the joy I have had; but it cuts me sore to see the young
+sufferin'.''
+
+``Do you think David is unhappy?'' asked the Girl
+eagerly.
+
+``I don't see how he could be!'' cried the old lady. 
+``Of course he ain't!  'Pears as if he's got everythin' to
+make him the proudest, best satisfied of men.  I'll own I
+was mighty anxious to see you.  I know the kind o'
+woman it would take to make David miserable, and it
+seems sometimes as if men----that is good men----are
+plumb, stone blind when it comes to pickin' a woman. 
+They jest hitch up with everlastin' misery easy as dew
+rolling off a cabbage leaf.  It's sech a blessed sight to
+see you, and hear your voice and know you're the woman
+anybody can see you be.  Why I'm so happy when I
+set here and con-tem'-plate you, I want to cackle like a
+pullet announcin' her first egg.  Ain't this porch the
+purtiest place?''
+
+``Come see everything,'' invited the Girl, rising.
+
+Granny Moreland followed with alacrity.
+
+``Bare floors!'' she cried.  ``Wouldn't that best you? 
+I saw they was finished capital when I was over, but
+I 'lowed they'd be covered afore you come.  Don't you
+like nice, flowery Brissels carpets, honey?''
+
+``No I don't,'' said the Girl.  ``You see, when rugs
+are dusty they can be rolled, carried outside, and cleaned. 
+The walls can be wiped, the floors polished and that
+way a house is always fresh.  I can keep this shining,
+germ proof, and truly clean with half the work and none
+of the danger of heavy carpets and curtains.''
+
+``I don't doubt but them is true words,'' said Granny
+Moreland earnestly.  ``Work must be easier and sooner
+done than it was in my day, or people jest couldn't have
+houses the size of this or the time to gad that women
+have now.  From the looks of tile streets of Onabasha,
+you wouldn't think a woman 'ud had a baby to tend, a
+dinner pot a-bilin', or a bakin' of bread sence the flood. 
+And the country is jest as bad as the city.  We're a
+apin' them to beat the monkeys at a show.  I hardly
+got a neighbour that ain't got figgered Brissels carpet,
+a furnace, a windmill, a pianny, and her own horse and
+buggy.  Several's got autermobiles, and the young folks
+are visitin' around a-ridin' the trolleys, goin' to college,
+and copyin' city ways.  Amos Peters, next to us; goes
+bareheaded in the hay field, and wears gloves to pitch
+and plow in.  I tell him he reminds me of these city
+women that only wears the lower half of a waist and no
+sleeves, and a yard of fine goods moppin' the floors. 
+Well if that don't 'beat the nation!  Ain't them Marthy's
+old blue dishes?''
+
+``Let me show you!''  The Girl opened the little
+cupboard and exhibited the willow ware.  The eyes of the
+old woman began to sparkle.
+
+``Foundation or no foundation, I do hope them
+ramparts is a go!'' she cried.  ``If Marthy Langston is
+squintin' over them and she sees her old chany put in a
+fine cupboard, and her little shawl round as purty a girl
+as ever stepped, and knows her boy is gittin' what he
+deserves, good Lord, she'll be like to oust the Almighty,
+and set on the throne herself!  'Bout everythin' in life
+was a disappointment to her, 'cept David.  Now if
+she could see this!  Won't I rub it into the neighbours? 
+And my boys' wives!''
+
+``I don't understand,'' said the bewildered Girl.
+
+`` 'Course you don't, honey,'' explained the visitor. 
+``It's like this:  I don't know anybody, man or woman,
+in these parts, that ain't rampagin' for CHANGE.  They
+ain't one of them that would live in a log cabin, though
+they's not a house in twenty miles of here that fits its
+surroundin's and looks so homelike as this.  They run
+up big, fancy brick and frame things, all turns and
+gables and gay as frosted picnic pie, and work and slave
+to git these very carpets you say ain't healthy, and the
+chairs you say you wouldn't give house room, an' they
+use their grandmother's chany for bakin', scraps, and
+grease dishes, and hide it if they's visitors.  All of them
+strainin' after something they can't afford, and that
+ain't healthy when they git it, because somebody else
+is doin' the same thing.  Mary Peters says she is afeared
+of her life in their new steam wagon, and she says Andy
+gits so narvous runnin' it, he jest keeps on a-jerkin' and
+drivin' all night, and she thinks he'll soon go to smash
+himself, if the machine doesn't beat him.  But they are
+keepin' it up, because Graceston's is, and so it goes all
+over the country.  Now I call it a slap right in the face
+to have a Chicagy woman come to the country to live
+and enjoy a log cabin, bare floors, and her man's grandmother's
+dishes.  If there ain't Marthy's old blue coverlid 
+also carefully spread on a splinter new sofy.  Landy,
+I can't wait to get to my son John's!  He's got a woman
+that would take two coppers off the collection plate while
+she was purtendin' to put on one, if she could, and then
+spend them for a brass pin or a string of glass beads. 
+Won't her eyes bung when I tell her about this?  She
+wanted my Peter Hartman kiver for her ironin' board. 
+Show me the rest!''
+
+``This is the dining-room,'' said the Girl, leading the
+way.
+
+Granny Moreland stepped in and sent her keen eyes
+ranging over the floor, walls, and furnishings.  She sank
+on a chair and said with a chuckle, ``Now you go on and
+tell me all about it, honey.  Jest what things are and why
+you fixed them, and how they are used.''
+
+The Girl did her best, and the old woman nodded in
+delighted approval.
+
+``It's the purtiest thing I ever saw,'' she announced. 
+``A minute ago, I'd 'a' said them blue walls back there,
+jest like October skies in Indian summer, and the brown
+rugs, like leaves in the woods, couldn't be beat; but this
+green and yaller is purtier yet.  That blue room will
+keep the best lookin' part of fall on all winter, and with
+a roarin' wood fire, it'll be capital, and no mistake; but
+this here is spring, jest spring eternal, an' that's best of
+all.  Looks like it was about time the leaves was bustin'
+and things pushin' up.  It wouldn't surprise me a mite
+to see a flock of swallers come sailin' right through these
+winders.  And here's a place big enough to lay down
+and rest a spell right handy to the kitchen, where a-body
+gits tiredest, without runnin' a half mile to find a bed,
+and in the mornin' you can look down to the `still waters';
+and in the afternoon, when the sun gits around here, you
+can pull that blind and `lift your eyes to the hills,' like
+David of the Bible says.  My, didn't he say the purtiest
+things!  I never read nothin' could touch him!''
+
+``Have you seen the Psalms arranged in verse as we
+would write it now?''
+
+``You don't mean to tell me David's been put into
+real poetry?''
+
+``Yes.  Some Bibles have all the poetical books in
+our forms of verse.''
+
+``Well!  Sometimes I git kind o' knocked out!  As
+a rule I hold to old ways.  I think they're the healthiest
+and the most faver'ble to the soul.  But they's some
+changes come along, that's got sech hard common-sense
+to riccomend them, that I wonder the past generations
+didn't see sooner.  Now take this!  An hour ago I'd
+told you I'd read my father's Bible to the end of my
+days.  But if they's a new one that's got David, Solomon,
+and Job in nateral form, I'll have one, and I'll git a joy
+I never expected out of life.  I ain't got so much poetry
+in me, but it always riled me to read, `7. The law of
+the Lord is perfect, covertin' the soul.  8. The statutes
+of the Lord are right.  9. The fear of the Lord is clean.' 
+And so it goes on, 'bout as much figgers as they is poetry. 
+Always did worry me.  So if they make Bibles 'cordin'
+to common sense, I'll have one to-morrow if I have to
+walk to Onabasha to get it.  Lawsy me! if you ain't
+gathered up Marthy's old pink tea set, and give it a
+show, too!  Did you do that to please David, or do you
+honestly think them is nice dishes?''
+
+``I think they are beautiful,'' laughed the Girl, sinking
+to a chair.  ``I don't know that it did please him.  He
+had been studying the subject, but something saved him
+from buying anything until I came.  I'd have felt dreadfully
+if he had gotten what he wanted.''
+
+``What did he want, honey?'' asked the old lady in an
+awestruck whisper.
+
+``Egg-shell china and cut glass.''
+
+``And you wouldn't let him!  Woman!  What do you
+want?''
+
+``A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures
+on them.  They are so quaint and they would harmonize
+perfectly with this room.''
+
+The old lady laughed gleefully.
+
+``My!  I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar,'' she cried. 
+``It jest does my soul good.  More'n that, if you really
+like Marthy's dishes and are going to take care of them
+and use them right, I'll give you mine, too.  I ain't never
+had a girl.  I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment
+of her own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but
+the Lord may 'a' saved me many a disappointment by
+sendin' all mine boys.  Not that I'm layin' the babies on
+to the Lord at all----I jest got into the habit of sayin'
+that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty
+good idy how I got them.  If a girl of mine wouldn't
+'a' had more sense, raised right with me, I'd' a' been purty
+bad cut up over it.  Of course, I can't be held responsible
+for the girls my boys married, but t'other day Emmeline
+----that's John's wife----John is the youngest, and I
+sort o' cling to him----Emmeline she says to me,
+`Mother, can't I have this old pink and green teapot?'  My
+heart warmed right up to the child, and I says, `What do
+you want it for, Emmeline?'  And she says, `To draw the
+tea in.'  Cracky Dinah!  That fool woman meant to set
+my grandmother's weddin' present from her pa and ma,
+dishes same as Marthy Washington used, on the stove
+to bile the tea in.  I jest snorted!  `No, says I, `you
+can't!  'Fore I die,' says I, `I'll meet up with some
+woman that 'll love dishes and know how to treat them.' 
+I think jest about as much of David as I do my own boys,
+and I don't make no bones of the fact that he's a heap
+more of a man.  I'd jest as soon my dishes went to his
+children as to John's.  I'll give you every piece I got,
+if you'll take keer of them.''
+
+``Would it be right?'' wavered the girl.
+
+``Right!  Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen
+would bile tea in them, make grease sassers of them, and
+use them to dish up the bakin' on!  Wouldn't you
+a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's
+ma's is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was
+yours?  I guess you would!''
+
+``Well if you feel that way, and really want us to
+have them, I know David will build another little cupboard
+on the other side of the fireplace to put yours in,
+and I can't tell you how I'd love and care for them.''
+
+``I'll jest do it!'' said Granny Moreland.  ``I got
+about as many blue ones as Marthy had an' mine are
+purtier than hers.  And my lustre is brighter, for I
+didn't use it so much.  Is this the kitchen?  Well if
+I ever saw sech a cool, white place to cook in before! 
+Ain't David the beatenest hand to think up things? 
+He got the start of that takin' keer of his ma all his
+life.  He sort of learned what a woman uses, and how
+it's handiest.  Not that other men don't know; it's
+jest that they are too mortal selfish and keerless to fix
+things.  Well this is great!  Now when you bile cabbage
+and the wash, always open your winders wide and let
+tho steam out, so it won't spile your walls.''
+
+``I'll be very careful,'' promised the Girl.  ``Now come
+see my bathroom, closet and bedroom.''
+
+``Well as I live!  Ain't this fine.  I'll bet a purty
+that if I'd 'a' had a room and a trough like this to soak in
+when I was wore to a frazzle, I wouldn't 'a' got all twisted
+up with rheumatiz like I am.  It jest looks restful to
+see.  I never washed in a place like this in all my days. 
+Must feel grand to be wet all over at once!  Now everybody
+ought to have sech a room and use it at all hours,
+like David does the lake.  Did you ever see his beat to
+go swimmin'?  He's always in splashin'!  Been at it
+all his life.  I used to be skeered when he was a little
+tyke.  He soaked so much 'peared like he'd wash all the
+substance out of him, but it only made him strong.''
+
+``Has he ever been ill?''
+
+``Not that I know of, and I reckon I'd knowed it if
+he had.  Well what a clothespress!  I never saw so
+many dresses at once.  Ain't they purty?  Oh I wish
+I was young, and could have one like that yaller.  And
+I'd like to have one like your lavender right now.  My! 
+You are lucky to have so many nice clothes.  It's a
+good thing most girls haven't got them, or they'd stand
+primpin' all day tryin' to decide which one to put on. 
+I don't see how you tell yourself.''
+
+``I wear the one that best hides how pale I am,''
+answered the Girl.  ``I use the colours now.  When I
+grow plump and rosy, I'll wear the white.''
+
+Granny Moreland dropped on the couch and assured
+herself that it was Martha's pink Peter Hartman.  Then
+she examined the sunshine room.
+
+``Well I got to go back to the start,'' she said at last. 
+``This beats the dinin'-room.  This is the purtiest thing
+I ever saw.  Oh I do hope they ain't so run to white
+in Heaven as some folks seem to think!  Used to be
+scandalized if a-body took anythin' but a white flower
+to a funeral.  Now they tell me that when Jedge Stilton's
+youngest girl come from New York to her pa's
+buryin' she fetched about a wash tub of blood-red roses. 
+Put them all over him, too!  Said he loved red roses
+livin' and so he was goin' to have them when he passed
+over.  Now if they are lettin' up a little on white on
+earth, mebby some of the stylish ones will carry the
+fashion over yander.  If Heaven is like this, I won't spend
+none of my time frettin' about the foundations.  I'll
+jest forget there is any, even if we do always have to be
+so perticler to get them solid on earth.  Talk of gold
+harps!  Can't you almost hear them?  And listen to
+the birds and that water!  Say, you won't get lonesome
+here, will you?''
+
+``Indeed no!'' answered the Girl.  ``Wouldn't you
+like to lie on my beautiful couch that the Harvester made
+with his own hands, and I'll spread Mother Langston's
+coverlet over you and let you look at all my pretty things
+while I slip away a few minutes to something I'd like
+to do?''
+
+``I'd love to!'' said the old woman.  ``I never had a
+chance at such fine things.  David told me he was makin'
+your room all himself, and that he was goin' to fill it
+chuck full of everythin' a girl ever used, and I see he
+done it right an' proper.  Away last March he told me he
+was buildin' for you, an' I hankered so to have a woman
+here again, even though I never s'posed she'd be sochiable
+like you, that I egged him on jest all I could.  I
+never would 'a' s'posed the boy could marry like this----
+all by himself.''
+
+The Girl went to the ice chest to bring some of the
+fruit juice, chilled berries, and to the pantry for bread and
+wafers to make a dainty little lunch that she placed on
+the veranda table; and then she and Granny Moreland
+talked, until the visitor said that she must go.  The
+Girl went with her to the little bridge crossing Singing
+Water on the north.  There the old lady took her
+hand.
+
+``Honey,'' she said, ``I'm goin' to tell you somethin'. 
+I am so happy I can purt near fly.  Last night I was
+comin' down the pike over there chasin' home a contrary
+old gander of mine, and I looked over on your land and
+I see David settin' on a log with his head between his
+hands a lookin' like grim death, if I ever see it.  My
+heart plum stopped.  Says I, `she's a failure!  She's a
+bustin' the boy's heart!  I'll go straight over and tell
+her so.'  I didn't dare bespeak him, but I was on nettles
+all night.  I jest laid a-studyin' and a-studyin', and I
+says, `Come mornin' I'll go straight and give her a curry-
+combin' that'll do her good.'  And I started a-feelin'
+pretty grim, and here you came to meet me, and wiped
+it all out of my heart in a flash.  It did look like the boy
+was grievin'; but I know now he was jest thinkin' up what
+to put together to take the ache out of some poor old
+carcass like mine.  It never could have been about you. 
+Like a half blind old fool I thought the boy was sufferin',
+and here he was only studyin'!  Like as not he was thinkin'
+what to do next to show you how he loves you.  What
+an old silly I was!  I'll sleep like a log to-night to pay
+up for it.  Good-bye, honey!  You better go back and
+lay down a spell.  You do look mortal tired.''
+
+The Girl said good-bye and staggering a few steps
+sank on a log and sat staring at the sky.
+
+``Oh he was suffering, and about me!'' she gasped. 
+A chill began to shake her and feverish blood to race
+through her veins.  ``He does and gives everything; I
+do and give nothing!  Oh why didn't I stay at Uncle
+Henry's until it ended?  It wouldn't have been so bad
+as this.  What will I do?  Oh what will I do?  Oh
+mother, mother! if I'd only had the courage you did.''
+
+She arose and staggered up the hill, passed the cabin
+and went to the oak.  There she sank shivering to earth,
+and laid her face among the mosses.  The frightened
+Harvester found her at almost dusk when he came from
+the city with the Dutch dishes, and helped a man launch
+a gay little motor boat for her on the lake.
+
+``Why Ruth!  Ruth-girl!'' he exclaimed, kneeling
+beside her.
+
+She lifted a strained, distorted face.
+
+``Don't touch me!  Don't come near me!'' she cried. 
+``It is not true that I am better.  I am not!  I am worse! 
+I never will be better.  And before I go I've got to tell
+you of the debt I owe; then you will hate me, and then I
+will be glad!  Glad, I tell you!  Glad!  When you despise
+me? then I can go, and know that some day you will
+love a girl worthy of you.  Oh I want you to hate me
+I am fit for nothing else.''
+
+She fell forward sobbing wildly and the Harvester
+tried in vain to quiet her.  At last he said, ``Well then
+tell me, Ruth.  Remember I don't want to hear what
+you have to say.  I will believe nothing against you, not
+even from your own lips, when you are feverish and
+excited as now, but if it will quiet you, tell me and have
+it over.  See, I will sit here and listen, and when you
+have finished I'll pick you up and carry you to your room,
+and I am not sure but I will kiss you over and over. 
+What is it you want to tell me, Ruth?''
+
+She sat up panting and pushed back the heavy coils
+of hair.
+
+``I've got to begin away at the beginning to make you
+see,'' she said.  ``The first thing I can remember is a small,
+such a small room, and mother sewing and sometimes
+a man I called father.  He was like Henry Jameson made
+over tall and smooth, and more, oh, much more heartless! 
+He was gone long at a time, and always we had most to
+eat, and went oftener to the parks, and were happiest
+with him away.  When I was big enough to understand,
+mother told me that she had met him and cared for him
+when she was an inexperienced girl.  She must have
+been very, very young, for she was only a girl as I first
+remember her, and oh! so lovely, but with the saddest
+face I ever saw.  She said she had a good home and
+every luxury, and her parents adored her; but they knew
+life and men, and they would not allow him in their home,
+and so she left it with him, and he married her and
+tried to force them to accept him, and they would not. 
+At first she bore it.  Later she found him out, and
+appealed to them, but they were away or would not forgive,
+and she was a proud thing, and would not beg more after
+she had said she was wrong, and would they take her
+back.
+
+``I grew up and we were girls together.  We embroidered,
+and I drew, and sometimes we had little treats
+and good times, and my father did not come often, and
+we got along the best we could.  Always it was worse on
+her, because she was not so strong as I, and her heart
+was secretly breaking for her mother, and she was afraid
+he would come back any hour.  She was tortured that
+she could not educate me more than to put me through
+the high school.  She wore herself out doing that, but
+she was wild for me to be reared and trained right.  So
+every day she crouched over delicate laces and embroidery,
+and before and after school I carried it and got
+more, and in vacation we worked together.  But living
+grew higher, and she became ill, and could not work,
+and I hadn't her skill, and the drawings didn't bring much,
+and I'd no tools----''
+
+``Ruth, for mercy sake let me take you in my arms. 
+If you've got to tell this to find peace, let me hold you
+while you do it.''
+
+``Never again,'' said the Girl.  ``You won't want to
+in a minute.  You must hear this, because I can't bear
+it any longer, and it isn't fair to let you grieve and think
+me worth loving.  Anyway, I couldn't earn what she did,
+and I was afraid, for a great city is heartless to the poor. 
+One morning she fainted and couldn't get up.  I can see
+the awful look in her eyes now.  She knew what was
+coming.  I didn't.  I tried to be brave and to work. 
+Oh it's no use to go on with that!  It was just worse and
+worse.  She was lovely and delicate, she was my mother,
+and I adored her.  Oh Man!  You won't judge harshly?''
+
+``No!'' cried the Harvester, ``I won't judge at all,
+Ruth.  I see now.  Get it over if you must tell me.''
+
+``One day she had been dreadfully ill for a long time
+and there was no food or work or money, and the last
+scrap was pawned, and she simply would not let me
+notify the charities or tell me who or where her people
+were.  She said she had sinned against them and broken
+their hearts, and probably they were dead, and I was
+desperate.  I walked all day from house to house where I
+had delivered work, but it was no use; no one wanted anything
+I could do, and I went back frantic, and found her
+gnawing her fingers and gibbering in delirium.  She did not
+know me, and for the first time she implored me for food.
+
+``Then I locked the door and went on the street and I
+asked a woman.  She laughed and said she'd report me
+and I'd be locked up for begging.  Then I saw a man
+I passed sometimes.  I thought he lived close.  I went
+straight to him, and told him my mother was very ill, and
+asked him to help her.  He told me to go to the proper
+authorities.  I told him I didn't know who they were
+or where, and I had no money and she was a woman of
+refinement, and never would forgive me.  I offered, if he
+would come to see her, get her some beef tea, and take
+care of her while she lived, that afterward----''
+
+The Girl's frail form shook in a storm of sobs.  At
+last she lifted her eyes to the Harvester's.  ``There must
+be a God, and somewhere at the last extremity He must
+come in.  The man went with me, and he was a young
+doctor who had an office a few blocks away, and he knew
+what to do.  He hadn't much himself, but for several
+weeks he divided and she was more comfortable and not
+hungry when she went.  When it was over I dressed
+her the best I could in my graduation dress, and folded
+her hands, and kissed her good-bye, and told him I was
+ready to fulfill my offer; and oh Man!----He said
+he had forgotten!''
+
+``God!'' panted the Harvester.
+
+``We couldn't bury her there.  But I remembered
+my father had said he had a brother in the country,
+and once he had been to see us when I was very little,
+and the doctor telegraphed him, and he answered
+that his wife was sick, and if I was able to work I could
+come, and he would bury her, and give me a home. 
+The doctor borrowed the money and bought the
+coffin you found her in.  He couldn't do better or he
+would, for he learned to love her.  He paid our
+fares and took us to the train.  Before I started I
+went on my knees to him and worshipped him as the
+Almighty, and I am sure I told him that I always would
+be indebted to him, and any time he required I would
+pay.  The rest you know.''
+
+``Have you heard from him, Ruth?''
+
+``No.''
+
+``It WAS yourself the other day on the bridge?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Did he love you?''
+
+``Not that I know of.  No!  Nobody but you would
+love a girl who appeared as I did then.''
+
+The Harvester strove to keep a set face, but his lips
+drew back from his teeth.
+
+``Ruth, do you love him?''
+
+``Love!'' cried the Girl.  ``A pale, expressionless word! 
+Adore would come closer!  I tell you she was delirious
+with hunger, and he fed her.  She was suffering horrors
+and he eased the pain.  She was lifeless, and he kept
+her poor tired body from the dissecting table.  I would
+have fulfilled my offer, and gone straight into the lake,
+but he spared me, Man!  He spared me!  Worship
+is a good word.  I think I worship him.  I tried to tell
+you.  Before you got that license, I wanted you to
+know.''
+
+``I remember,'' said the Harvester.  ``But no man
+could have guessed that a girl with your face had agony
+like that in her heart, not even when he read deep trouble
+there.''
+
+``I should have told you then!  I should have forced
+you to hear!  I was wild with fear of Uncle Henry,
+and I had nowhere to go.  Now you know!  Go away,
+and the end will come soon.''
+
+The Harvester arose and walked a few steps toward
+the lake, where he paused stricken, but fighting for
+control.  For him the light had gone out.  There was
+nothing beyond.  The one passion of his life must live
+on, satisfied with a touch from lips that loved another
+man.  Broken sobbing came to him.  He did not even
+have time to suffer.  Stumblingly he turned and going
+to the Girl he picked her up, and sat on the bench holding
+her closely.
+
+``Stop it, Ruth!'' he said unsteadily.  ``Stop this! 
+Why should you suffer so?  I simply will not have it. 
+I will save you against yourself and the world.  You
+shall have all happiness yet; I swear it, my girl!  You
+are all right.  He was a noble man, and he spared
+you because he loved you, of course.  I will make you
+well and rosy again, and then I will go and find
+him, and arrange everything for you.  I have spared
+you, too, and if he doesn't want you to remain
+here with me, Mrs. Carey would be glad to have you
+until I can free you.  Judges are human.  It will be
+a simple matter.  Hush, Ruth, listen to me!  You shall
+be free!  At once, if you say so!  You shall have him! 
+I will go and bring him here, and I will go away. 
+Ruth, darling, stop crying and hear me.  You will grow
+better, now that you have told me.  It is this secret
+that has made you feverish and kept you ill.  Ruth,
+you shall have happiness yet, if I have got to circle
+the globe and scale the walls of Heaven to find it for
+you.''
+
+She struggled from his arms and ran toward the lake. 
+When the Harvester caught her, she screamed wildly,
+and struck him with her thin white hands.  He lifted and
+carried her to the laboratory, where he gave her a few
+drops from a bottle and soon she became quiet.  Then
+he took her to the sunshine room, laid her on the bed,
+locked the screens and her door, called Belshazzar to
+watch, and ran to the stable.  A few minutes later with
+distended nostrils and indignant heart Betsy, under the
+flail of an unsparing lash, pounded down the hill toward
+Onabasha.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+LOVE INVADES SCIENCE
+
+The Harvester placed the key in the door and
+turned to Doctor Carey and the nurse.
+
+``I drugged her into unconsciousness before I
+left, but she may have returned, at least partially.  Miss
+Barnet, will you kindly see if she is ready for the doctor? 
+You needn't be in the least afraid.  She has no strength,
+even in delirium.''
+
+He opened the door, his head averted, and the nurse
+hurried into the room.  The Girl on the bed was beginning
+to toss, moan, and mutter.  Skilful hands straightened
+her, arranged the covers, and the doctor was called. 
+In the living-room the Harvester paced in misery too
+deep for consecutive thought.  As consciousness returned,
+the Girl grew wilder, and the nurse could not follow the
+doctor's directions and care for her.  Then Doctor
+Carey called the Harvester.  He went in and sitting
+beside the bed took the feverish, wildly beating hands
+in his strong, cool ones, and began stroking them and
+talking.
+
+``Easy, honey,'' he murmured softly.  ``Lie quietly
+while I tell you.  You mustn't tire yourself.  You are
+wasting strength you need to fight the fever.  I'll hold
+your hands tight, I'll stroke your head for you.  Lie
+quietly, dear, and Doctor Carey and his head nurse
+are going to make you well in a little while.  That's
+right!  Let me do the moving; you lie and rest.  Only
+rest and rest, until all the pain is gone, and the strong
+days come, and they are going to bring great joy, love,
+and peace, to my dear, dear girl.  Even the moans take
+strength.  Try just to lie quietly and rest.  You can't
+hear Singing Water if you don't listen, Ruth.''
+
+``She doesn't realize that it is you or know what you
+say, David,'' said Doctor Carey gently.
+
+``I understand,'' said the Harvester.  ``But if you
+will observe, you will see that she is quiet when I stroke
+her head and hands, and if you notice closely you will
+grant that she gets a word occasionally.  If it is the
+right one, it helps.  She knows my voice and touch, and
+she is less nervous and afraid with me.  Watch a
+minute!''
+
+The Harvester took both of the Girl's fluttering hands
+in one of his and with long, light strokes gently brushed
+them, and then her head, and face, and then her hands
+again, and in a low, monotonous, half sing-song voice he
+crooned, ``Rest, Ruth, rest!  It is night now.  The
+moon is bridging Loon Lake, and the whip-poor-will
+is crying.  Listen, dear, don't you hear him crying? 
+Still, Girl, still!  Just as quiet!  Lie so quietly.  The
+whip-poor-will is going to tell his mate he loves her,
+loves her so dearly.  He is going to tell her, when you
+listen.  That's a dear girl.  Now he is beginning.  He
+says, `Come over the lake and listen to the song I'm
+singing to you, my mate, my mate, my dear, dear mate,'
+and the big night moths are flying; and the katydids are
+crying, positive and sure they are crying, a thing that's
+past denying.  Hear them crying?  And the ducks are
+cheeping, soft little murmurs while they're sleeping,
+sleeping.  Resting, softly resting!  Gently, Girl, gently! 
+Down the hill comes Singing Water, laughing, laughing! 
+Don't you hear it laughing?  Listen to the big owl courting;
+it sees the coon out hunting, it hears the mink softly
+slipping, slipping, where the dews of night are dripping. 
+And the little birds are sleeping, so still they are sleeping. 
+Girls should be a-sleeping, like the birds a-sleeping, for
+to-morrow joy comes creeping, joy and life and love come
+creeping, creeping to my Girl.  Gently, gently, that's
+a dear girl, gently!  Tired hands rest easy, tired head
+lies still!  That's the way to rest----''
+
+On and on the even voice kept up the story.  All over
+and around the lake, the length of Singing Water, the
+marsh folk found voices to tell of their lives, where it
+was a story of joy, rest, and love.  Up the hill ranged the
+Harvester, through the forest where the squirrels slept,
+the owl hunted, the fire-flies flickered, the fairies squeezed
+flower leaves to make colour to paint the autumn foliage,
+and danced on toadstool platforms.  Just so long as
+his voice murmured and his touch continued, so long the
+Girl lay quietly, and the medicines could act.  But no
+other touch would serve, and no other voice would answer. 
+If the harvester left the room five minutes to show the
+nurse how to light the fire, and where to find things, he
+returned to tossing, restless delirium.
+
+``It's magic David,'' said Doctor Carey.  ``Magic!''
+
+``It is love,'' said the Harvester.  ``Even crazed with
+fever, she recognizes its voice and touch.  You've got
+your work cut out, Doc.  Roll your sleeves and collect
+your wits.  Set your heart on winning.  There is one
+thing shall not happen.  Get that straight in your mind,
+right now.  And you too, Miss Barnet!  There is nothing
+like fighting for a certainty.  You may think the
+Girl is desperately ill, and she is, but make up your minds
+that you are here to fight for her life, and to save it. 
+Save, do you understand?  If she is to go, I don't need
+either of you.  I can let her do that myself.  You are
+here on a mission of life.  Keep it before you!  Life
+and health for this Girl is the prize you are going to win. 
+Dig into it, and I'll pay the bills, and extra besides.  If
+money is any incentive, I'll give you all I've got for life
+and health for the Girl.  Are you doing all you know?''
+
+``I certainly am, David.''
+
+``But when day comes you'll have to go back to the
+hospital and we may not know how to meet crises that
+will arise.  What then?  We should have a competent
+physician in the house until this fever breaks.''
+
+``I had thought of that, David.  I will arrange to send
+one of the men from the hospital who will be able to
+watch symptoms and come for me when needed.''
+
+``Won't do!'' said the Harvester calmly.  ``She has
+no strength for waiting.  You are to come when you can,
+and remain as long as possible.  The case is yours; your
+decisions go, but I will select your assistant.  I know the
+man I want.''
+
+``Who is he, David?''
+
+``I'll tell you when I learn whether I can get him. 
+Now I want you to give the Girl the strongest sedative
+you dare, take off your coat, roll your sleeves, and see
+how well you can imitate my voice, and how much you
+have profited by listening to my song.  In other words,
+before day calls, I want you to take my place so successfully
+that you deceive her, and give me time to make a
+trip to town.  There are a few things that must be done,
+and I think I can work faster in the night.  Will
+you?''
+
+Doctor Carey bent over the bed.  Gently he slipped
+a practised hand under the Harvester's and made the
+next stroke down the white arm.  Gradually he took
+possession of the thin hands and his touch fell on the
+masses of dark hair.  As the Harvester arose the doctor
+took the seat.
+
+``You go on!'' he ordered gruffly.  ``I'll do better
+alone.''
+
+The Harvester stepped back.  The doctor's touch was
+easy and the Girl lay quietly for an instant, then she
+moved restlessly.
+
+``You must be still now,'' he said gently.  ``The moon
+is up, the lake is all white, and the birds are flying all
+around.  Lie still or you'll make yourself worse.  Stiller
+than that!  If you don't you can't hear things courting. 
+The ducks are quacking, the bull frogs are croaking, and
+everything.  Lie still, still, I tell you!''
+
+``Oh good Lord, Doc!'' groaned the Harvester in desperation.
+
+The Girl wrenched her hands free and her head rolled
+on the pillow.
+
+``Harvester!  Harvester!'' she cried.
+
+The doctor started to arise.
+
+``Sit still!'' commanded the Harvester.  ``Take her
+hands and go to work, idiot!  Give her more sedative,
+and tell her I'm coming.  That's the word, if she realizes
+enough to call for me.''
+
+The doctor possessed himself of the flying hands, and
+gently held and stroked them.
+
+``The Harvester is coming,'' he said.  ``Wait just a
+minute, he's on the way.  He is coming.  I think I hear
+him.  He will be here soon, very soon now.  That's
+a good girl!  Lie still for David.  He won't like it if you
+toss and moan.  Just as still, lie still so I can listen.  I
+can't tell whether he is coming until you are quiet.''
+
+Then he said to the Harvester, ``You see, I've got it
+now.  I can manage her, but for pity sake, hurry man! 
+Take the car!  Jim is asleep on the back seat----Yes, yes,
+Girl!  I'm listening for him.  I think I hear him!  I
+think he's coming!''
+
+Here and there a word penetrated, and she lay more
+quietly, but not in the rest to which the Harvester had
+lulled her.
+
+``Hurry man!'' groaned the doctor in a whispered
+aside, and the Harvester ran to the car, awakened the
+driver and told him he had a clear road to Onabasha, to
+speed up.
+
+``Where to?'' asked the driver.
+
+``Dickson, of the First National.''
+
+In a few minutes the car stopped before the residence
+and the Harvester made an attack on the front door. 
+Presently the man came.
+
+``Excuse me for routing you out at this time of night,''
+said the Harvester, ``but it's a case of necessity.  I have
+an automobile here.  I want you to go to the bank with
+me, and get me an address from your draft records. 
+I know the rules, but I want the name of my wife's
+Chicago physician.  She is delirious, and I must telephone
+him.''
+
+The cashier stepped out and closed the door.
+
+``Nine chances out of ten it will be in the vault,''
+he said.
+
+``That leaves one that it won't,'' answered the
+Harvester.  ``Sometimes I've looked in when passing in the
+night, and I've noticed that the books are not always
+put away.  I could see some on the rack to-night.  I
+think it is there.''
+
+It was there, and the Harvester ordered the driver to
+hurry him to the telephone exchange, then take the
+cashier home and return and wait.  He called the Chicago
+Information office.
+
+``I want Dr. Frank Harmon, whose office address is 1509
+Columbia Street.  I don't know the 'phone number.''
+
+Then came a long wait, and after twenty minutes the
+blessed buzzing whisper, ``Here's your party.''
+
+``Doctor Harmon?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``You remember Ruth Jameson, the daughter of a
+recent patient of yours?''
+
+``I do.''
+
+``Well my name is Langston.  The Girl is in my home
+and care.  She is very ill with fever, and she has much
+confidence in you.  This is Onabasha, on the Grand
+Rapids and Indiana.  You take the Pennsylvania at
+seven o'clock, telegraph ahead that you are coming so
+that they will make connection for you, change at twelve-
+twenty at Fort Wayne, and I will meet you here.  You
+will find your ticket and a check waiting you at the
+Chicago depot.  Arrange to remain a week at least. 
+You will be paid all expenses and regular prices for your
+time.  Will you come?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``All right.  Make no failure.  Good-bye.''
+
+Then the Harvester left an order with the telephone
+company to run a wire to Medicine Woods the first thing
+in the morning, and drove to the depot to arrange for
+the ticket and check.  In less than an hour he was holding
+the Girl's hands and crooning over her.
+
+``Jerusalem!'' said Doctor Carey, rising stiffly.  ``I'd
+rather undertake to cut off your head and put it back
+on than to tackle another job like that.  She's quite
+delirious, but she has flashes, and at such times she knows
+whom she wants; the rest of the time it's a jumble and
+some of it is rather gruesome.  She's seen dreadful
+illness, hunger, and there's a debt she's wild about.  I
+told you something was back of this.  You've got to find
+out and set her mind at ease.''
+
+``I know all about it,'' said the Harvester patiently
+between crooning sentences to the Girl.  ``But the crash
+came before I could convince her that it was all right and
+I could fix everything for her easily.  If she only could
+understand me!''
+
+``Did you find your man?''
+
+``Yes.  He will be here this afternoon.''
+
+``Quick work!''
+
+``This takes quick work.''
+
+``Do you know anything about him?''
+
+``Yes.  He is a young fellow, just starting out.  He is
+a fine, straight, manly man.  I don't know how much
+he knows, but it will be enough to recognize your
+ability and standing, and to do what you tell him. 
+I have perfect confidence in him.  I want you to come
+back at one, and take my place until I go to meet
+him.''
+
+`I can bring him out.''
+
+``I have to see him myself.  There are a few words
+to be said before he sees the Girl.''
+
+``David, what are you up to?''
+
+``Being as honourable as I can.  No man gets any too
+decent, but there is no law against doing as you would
+be done by, and being as straight as you know how. 
+When I've talked to him, I'll know where I am and I'll
+have something to say to you.''
+
+``David, I'm afraid----''
+
+``Then what do you suppose I am?'' said the Harvester. 
+``It's no use, Doc.  Be still and take what comes! 
+The manner in which you meet a crisis proves you a
+whining cur or a man.  I have got lots of respect for a
+dog, as a dog; but I've none for a man as a dog.  If you've
+gathered from the Girl's delirium that I've made a mistake,
+I hope you have confidence enough in me to believe
+I'll right it, and take my punishment without
+whining.  Go away, you make her worse.  Easy, Girl, the
+world is all right and every one is sleeping now, so you
+should be at rest.  With the day the doctor will come,
+the good doctor you know and like, Ruth.  You haven't
+forgotten your doctor, Ruth?  The kind doctor who cared
+for you.  He will make you well, Ruth; well and oh,
+so happy!  Harmon, Harmon, Doctor Harmon is coming
+to you, Girl, and then you will be so happy!''
+
+``Why you blame idiot!'' cried Doctor Carey in a
+harsh whisper.  ``Have you lost all the sense you ever
+had?  Stop that gibber!  She wants to hear about the
+birds and Singing Water.  Go on with that woods line of
+talk; she likes that away the best.  This stuff is making
+her restless.  See!''
+
+``You mean you are,'' said the Harvester wearily. 
+``Please leave us alone.  I know the words that will
+bring comfort.  You don't.''
+
+He began the story all over again, but now there ran
+through it a continual refrain.  ``Your doctor is coming,
+the good doctor you know.  He will make you
+well and strong, and he will make life so lovely for
+you.''
+
+He was talking without pause or rest when Doctor
+Carey returned in the afternoon to take his place.  He
+brought Mrs. Carey with him, and she tried a woman's
+powers of soothing another woman, and almost drove the
+Girl to fighting frenzy.  So the doctor made another
+attempt, and the Harvester raced down the hill to the
+city.  He went to the car shed as the train pulled in, and
+stood at one side while the people hurried through the
+gate.  He was watching for a young man with a travelling
+bag and perhaps a physician's satchel, who would be
+looking for some one.
+
+``I think I'll know him,'' muttered the Harvester
+grimly.  ``I think the masculine element in me will
+pop up strongly and instinctively at the sight of this man
+who will take my Dream Girl from me.  Oh good God! 
+Are You sure You ARE good?''
+
+In his brown khaki trousers and shirt, his head bare,
+his bronze face limned with agony he made no attempt to
+conceal, the Harvester, with feet planted firmly, and
+tightly folded arms, his head tipped slightly to one side,
+braced himself as he sent his keen gray eyes searching the
+crowd.  Far away he selected his man.  He was young,
+strong, criminally handsome, clean and alert; there was
+discernible anxiety on his face, and it touched the
+Harvester's soul that he was coming just as swiftly as he
+could force his way.  As he passed the gates the Harvester
+reached his side.
+
+``Doctor Harmon, I think,'' he said.
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``This way!  If you have luggage, I will send for it
+later.''
+
+The Harvester hurried to the car.
+
+``Take the shortest cut and cover space,'' he said to
+the driver.  The car kept to the speed limit until toward
+the suburbs.
+
+Doctor Harmon removed his hat, ran his fingers
+through dark waving hair and yielded his body to the
+swing of the car.  Neither man attempted to talk. 
+Once the Harvester leaned forward and told the driver
+to stop on the bridge, and then sat silently.  As the
+car slowed down, they alighted.
+
+``Drive on and tell Doc we are here, and will be up
+soon,'' said the Harvester.  Then he turned to the
+stranger.  ``Doctor Harmon, there's little time for words. 
+This is my place, and here I grow herbs for medicinal
+houses.''
+
+``I have heard of you, and heard your stuff
+recommended,'' said the doctor.
+
+``Good!'' exclaimed the Harvester.  ``That saves
+time.  I stopped here to make a required explanation
+to you.  The day you sent Ruth Jameson to Onabasha,
+I saw her leave the train and recognized in her my ideal
+woman.  I lost her in the crowd and it took some time
+to locate her.  I found her about a month ago.  She
+was miserable.  If you saw what her father did to her
+and her mother in Chicago, you should have seen what
+his brother was doing here.  The end came one day in
+my presence, when I paid her for ginseng she had found
+to settle her debt to you.  He robbed her by force. 
+I took the money from him, and he threatened her.  She
+was ill then from heat, overwork, wrong food----every
+misery you can imagine heaped upon the dreadful conditions
+in which she came.  It had been my intention
+to court and marry her if I possibly could.  That day
+she had nowhere to go; she was wild with fear; the fever
+that is scorching her now was in her veins then.  I did
+an insane thing.  I begged her to marry me at once and
+come here for rest and protection.  I swore that if she
+would, she should not be my wife, but my honoured
+guest, until she learned to love me and released me from
+my vow.  She tried to tell me something; I had no idea
+it was anything that would make any real difference, and
+I wouldn't listen.  Last night, when the fever was
+beginning to do its worst, she told me of your entrance into
+her life and what it meant to her.  Then I saw that I
+had made a mistake.  You were her choice, the man
+she could love, not me, so I took the liberty of sending
+for you.  I want you to cure her, court her, marry her,
+and make her happy.  God knows she has had her share
+of suffering.  You recognize her as a girl of refinement?''
+
+``I do.''
+
+``You grant that in health she would be lovelier than
+most women, do you not?''
+
+``She was more beautiful than most in sickness and
+distress.''
+
+``Good!'' cried the Harvester.  ``She has been here
+two weeks.  I give you my word, my promise to her has
+been kept faithfully.  As soon as I can leave her to
+attend to it, she shall have her freedom.  That will be
+easy.  Will you marry her?''
+
+The doctor hesitated.
+
+``What is it?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+``Well to be frank,'' said Doctor Harmon, ``it is
+money!  I'm only getting a start.  I borrowed funds
+for my schooling and what I used for her.  She is
+in every way attractive enough to be desired by
+any man, but how am I to provide a home and
+support her and pay these debts?  I'll try it, but I
+am afraid it will be taking her back to wrong conditions
+again.''
+
+``If you knew that she owned a comfortable cottage
+in the suburbs, where it is cool and clean, and had,
+say a hundred a month of her own for the coming three
+years, could you see your way?''
+
+``That would make all the difference in the world.  I
+thought seriously of writing her.  I wanted to, but I
+concluded I'd better work as hard as I could for some
+practice first, and see if I could make a living for two,
+before I tried to start anything.  I had no idea she would
+not be comfortably cared for at her uncle's.''
+
+``I see,'' said the Harvester.  ``If I had kept out, life
+would have come right for her.''
+
+``On the contrary,'' said the doctor, ``it appears very
+probable that she would not be living.''
+
+``It is understood between us, then, that you will
+court and marry her so soon as she is strong enough?''
+
+``It is understood,'' agreed the doctor.
+
+``Will you honour me by taking my hand?'' asked the
+Harvester.  ``I scarcely had hoped to find so much of a
+man.  Now come to your room and get ready for the
+stiffest piece of work you ever attempted.''
+
+The Harvester led the way to the guest chamber over
+looking the lake, and installed its first occupant.  Then he
+hurried to the Girl.  The doctor was holding her head
+and one hand, his wife the other, and the nurse her feet. 
+It took the Harvester ten strenuous minutes to make
+his touch and presence known and to work quiet.  All
+over he began crooning his story of rest, joy, and love. 
+He broke off with a few words to introduce Doctor
+Harmon to the Careys and the nurse, and then calmly
+continued while the other men stood and watched him.
+
+``Seems rather cut out for it,'' commented Doctor
+Harmon.
+
+``I never yet have seen him attempt anything that he
+didn't appear cut out for,'' answered Doctor Carey.
+
+``Will she know me?'' inquired the young man,
+approaching the bed.
+
+When the Girl's eyes fell on him she grew rigid and lay
+staring at him.  Suddenly with a wild cry she struggled
+to rise.
+
+``You have come!'' she cried.  ``Oh I knew you would
+come!  I felt you would come!  I cannot pay you now! 
+Oh why didn't you come sooner?''
+
+The young doctor leaned over and took one of the
+white hands from the Harvester, stroking it gently.
+
+``Why you did pay, Ruth!  How did you come to
+forget?  Don't you remember the draft you sent me? 
+I didn't come for money; I came to visit you, to nurse
+you, to do all I can to make you well.  I am going to
+take care of you now so finely you'll be out on the lake
+and among the flowers soon.  I've got some medicine
+that makes every one well.  It's going to make you strong,
+and there's something else that's going to make you
+happy; and me, I'm going to be the proudest man alive.''
+
+He reached over and took possession of the other hand,
+stroking them softly, and the Girl lay tensely staring
+at him and gradually yielding to his touch and voice. 
+The Harvester arose, and passing around the bed, he
+placed a chair for Doctor Harmon and motioning for
+Doctor Carey left the room.  He went to the shore to
+his swimming pool, wearily dropped on the bench, and
+stared across the water.
+
+``Well thank God it worked, anyway!'' he muttered.
+
+``What's that popinjay doing here?'' thundered
+Doctor Carey.  ``Got some medicine that cures everybody. 
+Going to make her well, is he?  Make the cows,
+and the ducks, and the chickens, and the shitepokes well,
+and happy----no name for it!  After this we are all
+going to be well and happy!  You look it right now,
+David!  What under Heaven have you done?''
+
+``Left my wife with the man she loves, and to whom I
+release her, my dear friend,'' said the Harvester.  ``And
+it's so easy for me that you needn't give making it a
+little harder, any thought.''
+
+``David, forgive me!'' cried Doctor Carey.  ``I don't
+understand this.  I'm almost insane.  Will you tell
+me what it means?''
+
+``Means that I took advantage of the Girl's illness, utter
+loneliness, and fear, and forced her into marrying me for
+shelter and care, when she loved and wanted another
+man, who was preparing to come to her.  He is her Chicago
+doctor, and fine in every fibre, as you can see.  There
+is only one thing on earth for me to do, and that is to
+get out of their way, and I'll do it as soon as she is well;
+but I vow I won't leave her poor, tired body until she
+is, not even for him.  I thought sure I could teach her to
+love me!  Oh but this is bitter, Doc!''
+
+``You are a consummate fool to bring him here!''
+cried Doctor Carey.  ``If she is too sick to realize the
+situation now, she will be different when she is normal
+again.  Any sane girl that wouldn't love you, David,
+ain't fit for anything!''
+
+``Yes, I'm a whale of a lover!'' said the Harvester
+grimly.  ``Nice mess I've made of it.  But there is no real
+harm done.  Thank God, Harmon was not the only
+white man.''
+
+``David, what do you mean?''
+
+``Is it between us, Doc?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``For all time?''
+
+``It is.''
+
+The Harvester told him.  He ended, ``Give the fellow
+his dues, Doc.  He had her at his mercy, utterly alone
+and unprotected, in a big city.  There was not a living
+soul to hold him to account.  He added to his burdens,
+borrowed more money, and sent her here.  He thought
+she was coming to the country where she would be safe
+and well cared for until he could support her.  I did the
+remainder.  Now I must undo it, that's all!  But
+you have got to go in there and practise with him. 
+You've got to show him every courtesy of the profession. 
+You must go a little over the rules, and teach him all
+you can.  You will have to stifle your feelings, and be
+as much of a man as it is in you to be, at your level
+best.''
+
+``I'm no good at stifling my feelings!''
+
+``Then you'll have to learn,'' said the Harvester. 
+``If you'd lived through my years of repression in the
+woods you'd do the fellow credit.  As I see it, his side
+of this is nearly as fine as you make it.  I tell you she was
+utterly stricken, alone, and beautiful.  She sought his
+assistance.  When the end came he thought only of her. 
+Won't you give a young fellow in a place like Chicago
+some credit for that?  Can't you get through you what
+it means?''
+
+Doctor Carey stood frowning in deep thought, but the
+lines of his face gradually changed.
+
+``I suppose I've got to stomach him,'' he said.
+
+The nurse came down the gravel path.
+
+``Mr. Langston, Doctor Harmon asked me to call
+you,'' she said.
+
+The Harvester arose and went to the sunshine room.
+
+``What does he want, Molly?'' asked the doctor.
+
+``Wants to turn over his job,'' chuckled the nurse.  ``He
+held it about seven minutes in peace, and then she began
+to fret and call for the Harvester.  He just sweat blood
+to pacify her, but he couldn't make it.  He tried to
+hold her, to make love to her, and goodness knows what,
+but she struggled and cried, `David,' until he had to give
+it up and send me.''
+
+``Molly,'' said Doctor Carey, ``we've known the
+Harvester a long time, and he is our friend, isn't he?''
+
+``Of course!'' said the nurse.
+
+``We know this is the first woman he ever loved,
+probably ever will, as he is made.  Now we don't like
+this stranger butting in here; we resent it, Molly.  We
+are on the side of our friend, and we want him to win. 
+I'll grant that this fellow is fine, and that he has done
+well, but what's the use in tearing up arrangements
+already made?  And so suitable!  Now Molly, you are
+my best nurse, and a good reliable aid in times like this. 
+I gave you instructions an hour ago.  I'll add this to
+them.  YOU ARE ON THE HARVESTER'S SIDE.  Do you understand? 
+In this, and the days to come, you'll have a
+thousand chances to put in a lick with a sick woman. 
+Put them in as I tell you.''
+
+``Yes, Doctor Carey.''
+
+``And Molly!  You are something besides my best
+nurse.  You're a smashing pretty girl, and your occupation
+should make you especially attractive to a young
+doctor.  I'm sure this fellow is all right, so while you are
+doing your best with your patient for the Harvester, why
+not have a try for yourself with the doctor?  It couldn't
+do any harm, and it might straighten out matters.  Anyway,
+you think it over.''
+
+The nurse studied his face silently for a time, and then
+she began to laugh softly.
+
+``He is up there doing his best with her,'' she said.
+
+The doctor threw out his hands in a gesture of disdain,
+and the nurse laughed again; but her cheeks were pink
+and her eyes flashing as she returned to duty.
+
+``Random shot, but it might hit something, you
+never can tell,'' commented the doctor.
+
+The Harvester entered the Girl's room and stood still. 
+She was fretting and raising her temperature rapidly. 
+Before he reached the door his heart gave one great leap
+at the sound of her voice calling his name.  He knew what
+to do, but he hesitated.
+
+``She seems to have become accustomed to you, and at
+times does not remember me,'' said Doctor Harmon.  ``I
+think you had better take her again until she grows quiet.''
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bed and looked the
+doctor in the eye.
+
+``I am afraid I left out one important feature in our
+little talk on the bridge,'' he said.  ``I neglected to tell
+you that in your fight for this woman's life and love you
+have a rival.  I am he.  She is my wife, and with the
+last fibre of my being I adore her.  If you win, and she
+wants you to take her away, I will help you; but my heart
+goes with her forever.  If by any chance it should occur
+that I have been mistaken or misinterpreted her delirium
+or that she has been deceived and finds she prefers me and
+Medicine Woods, to you and Chicago, when she has had
+opportunity to measure us man against man, you must
+understand that I claim her.  So I say to you frankly,
+take her if you can, but don't imagine that I am passive. 
+I'll help you if I know she wants you, but I fight you
+every inch of the way.  Only it has got to be square and
+open.  Do you understand?''
+
+``You are certainly sufficiently clear.''
+
+``No man who is half a man sees the last chance of
+happiness go out of his life without putting up the stiffest
+battle he knows,'' said the Harvester grimly.  ``Ruth-
+girl, you are raising the fever again.  You must be quiet.''
+
+With infinite tenderness he possessed himself of her
+hands and began stroking her hair, and in a low and soothing
+voice the story of the birds, flowers, lake, and woods
+went on.  To keep it from growing monotonous the
+Harvester branched out and put in everything he knew. 
+In the days that followed he held a position none could
+take from him.  While the doctors fought the fever,
+he worked for rest and quiet, and soothed the tortured
+body as best he could, that the medicines might act.
+
+But the fever was stubborn, and the remedies were
+slow; and long before the dreaded coming day the doctors
+and nurse were quietly saying to each other that when
+the crisis came the heart would fail.  There was no
+vitality to sustain life.  But they did not dare tell the
+Harvester.  Day and night he sat beside the maple
+bed or stretched sleeping a few minutes on the couch
+while the Girl slept; and with faith never faltering and
+courage unequalled, he warned them to have their remedies
+and appliances ready.
+
+``I don't say it's going to be easy,'' he said.  ``I just
+merely state that it must be done.  And I'll also mention
+that, when the hour comes, the man who discovers that
+he could do something if he had digitalis, or a remedy he
+should have had ready and has forgotten, that man had
+better keep out of my sight.  Make your preparations
+now.  Talk the case over.  Fill your hypodermics.  Clean
+your air pumps.  Get your hot-water bottles ready. 
+Have system.  Label your stuff large and set it conveniently. 
+You see what is coming, be prepared!''
+
+One day, while the Girl lay in a half-drugged, feverish
+sleep, the Harvester went for a swim.  He dressed a little
+sooner than was expected and in crossing the living-room
+he heard Doctor Harmon say to Doctor Carey on the
+veranda, ``What are we going to do with him when the
+end comes?''
+
+The Harvester stepped to the door.  ``That won't
+be the question,'' he said grimly.  ``It will be what will
+HE do with us?''
+
+Then, with an almost imperceptible movement, he
+caught Doctor Harmon at the waist line, and lifted and
+dangled him as a baby, and then stood him on the floor. 
+``Didn't hardly expect that much muscle, did you?''
+he inquired lightly.  ``And I'm not in what you could call
+condition, either.  Instead of wasting any time on fool
+questions like that, you two go over your stuff and ask
+each other, have we got every last appliance known to
+physics and surgery?  Have we got duplicates on hand
+in case we break delicate instruments like hypodermic
+syringes and that sort of thing?  Engage yourselves with
+questions pertaining to life; that is your business. 
+Instead of planning what you'll do in failure, bolster your
+souls against it.  Granny Moreland beats you two put
+together in grip and courage.''
+
+The Harvester returned to his task, and the fight went
+on.  At last the hour came when the temperature fell
+lower and lower.  The feeble pulses flickered and grew
+indiscernible; a gray pallor hovered over the Girl, and a
+cold sweat stood on her temples.
+
+``Now!'' said the Harvester.  ``Exercise your calling! 
+Fight like men or devils, but win you must.''
+
+They did work.  They administered stimulants; applied
+heat to the chilled body; fans swept the room with
+vitalized air; hypodermics were used; and every last resort
+known to science was given a full test, and the weak
+heart throbbed slower and slower, and life ran out with
+each breath.  The Harvester stood waiting with set
+jaws.  He could detect no change for the better.  At
+last he picked up a chilled hand and could discover no
+pulse, and the gray nails and the dark tips told a story
+of arrested circulation.  He laid down the hand and
+faced the men.
+
+``This is what you'd call the crisis, Doc?'' he asked
+gently.
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Are you stemming it?  Are you stemming it?  Are
+you sure she is holding her own?''
+
+Doctor Carey looked at him silently.
+
+``Have you done all you can do?'' asked the Harvester.
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``You believe her going out?''
+
+``Yes''
+
+The Harvester turned to Doctor Harmon.  ``Do you
+concur in that?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+Then to the nurse, ``And you?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Then,'' said the Harvester, ``all of you are useless. 
+Get out of here.  I don't want your atmosphere.  If you
+can believe only in death, leave us!  She is my wife, and
+if this is the end she belongs to me, and I will do as I
+choose with her.  All of you go!''
+
+The Harvester stepped to the bathroom door and
+called Granny Moreland.  ``Granny,'' he said, ``science
+has turned tail, and left me in extremity.  Fill your hot-
+water bottles and come in here with your heart big with
+hope and help me save my Dream Girl.  She is breathing
+Granny; we've got to make her keep it up, that's
+all----just keep her breathing.''
+
+He returned to the sunshine room, placed a small
+table beside the bed, and on it a glass of water, spoon, and
+a hypodermic syringe.  When Granny Moreland came
+he said:  ``Now you begin on her feet and rub with long,
+sweeping, upward strokes to drive the blood to her heart.''
+
+Around the Girl he piled hot-water bottles and
+breathlessly hung over her, rubbing her hands.  He wiped
+the perspiration from her forehead, and then dropped
+by her bed and for a second laid his face on her cold
+palm.
+
+``If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me,'' he prayed. 
+``And you, oh, my darling Dream Girl, forgive me, but
+I am forced to try----God helping me!  Amen.''
+
+He arose, took a small bottle from his pocket, filled
+the spoon with water, and measured into it three drops
+of liquid as yellow as gold.  Then he held the spoon to
+the blue lips, and with his fingers worked apart the set
+teeth, and poured the medicine down her throat.  Then
+they rubbed and muttered snatches of prayer for fifteen
+minutes when the Harvester administered another three
+drops.  It might have been fancy, but it seemed to him
+her jaws were not so stiff.  Faster flew his hands and he
+sent Granny Moreland to refill the hot bottles.  When
+he gave the Girl the third dose he injected some of
+the liquid over her heart and of the glycerine the doctors
+had left, in the extremities.  He released more air and
+began rubbing again.
+
+The second hour started in the same way, and ended
+with slowly relaxing muscles and faint tinges of colour
+in the white cheeks.  The feet were not so cold, and when
+the Harvester held the spoon he knew that the Girl
+made an effort to swallow, and he could see her eyelids
+tremble.  Thereupon he pointed these signs to Granny,
+and implored her to rub and pray, and pray and rub,
+while he worked until the perspiration rolled down his
+gray face.  At the end of the second hour he began
+decreasing the doses and shortening the time, and again he
+commenced in a low rumble his song of life and health,
+to encourage the Girl as consciousness returned.
+
+Occasionally Doctor Carey opened the door slightly
+and peeped in to see if he were wanted, but he received
+no invitation to enter.  The last time he left with the
+impression that the Harvester was raving, while he
+worked over a lifeless body.  He had the Girl warmly
+covered and bent over her face and hands.  At her feet
+crouched Granny Moreland, rubbing, still rubbing, beneath
+the covers, while in a steady stream the Harvester
+was pouring out his song.  If he had listened
+an instant longer he would have recognized that the tone
+and the words had changed.  Now it was, ``Gently,
+breathe gently, Girl!  Slowly, steadily, easily!  Deeper,
+a little deeper, Ruth!  Brave Girl, never another so
+wonderful!  That's my Dream Girl coming from the
+shadows, coming to life's sunshine, coming to hope,
+coming to love!  Deeper, just a little deeper!  Smoothly and
+evenly!  You are making it, Girl!  You are making it! 
+By all that is holy and glorious!  Stick to it, Ruth, hold
+tight to me!  I'll help you, dear!  You are coming,
+coming back to life and love.  Don't worry yourself
+trying too hard, if only you can send every breath as
+deeply as the last one, you can make it.  You brave girl! 
+You wonderful Dream Girl!  Ah, Ruth, the name of this
+is victory!''
+
+An hour before Doctor Carey had said to Doctor
+Harmon and the nurse, as he softly closed the door:  ``It
+is over and the Harvester is raving.  We'll give him a
+little more time and see if he won't realize it himself. 
+That will be easier for him than for us to try to tell
+him.''
+
+Now he opened the door, stared a second, and coming
+to the opposite side of the bed, he leaned over the Girl. 
+Then he felt her feet.  They were warm and slightly
+damp.  A surprised look crept over his face.  He gently
+reached for a hand that the Harvester yielded to him. 
+It was warm, the blue tips becoming rosy, the wrist
+pulse discernible.  Then he bent closer, touched her face,
+and saw the tremulous eyelids.  He turned back the
+cover, and held his ear over her heart.  When he straightened,
+``As God lives, she's got a chance, David!'' he
+exulted in an awed whisper.
+
+The Harvester lifted a graven face, down which the
+sweat of agony rolled, and his lips parted in a twitching
+smile.  ``Then this is where love beats the doctors,
+Carey!'' he said.
+
+``It is where love has ventured what science dares not. 
+Love didn't do all of this.  In the name of the Almighty,
+what did you give her, David?''
+
+``Life!'' cried the Harvester.  ``Life!  Come on, Ruth,
+come on!  Out of the valley come to me!  You
+are well now, Girl!  It's all over!  The last trace
+of fever is gone, the last of the dull ache.  Can
+you swallow just two more drops of bottled sunshine, Ruth?''
+
+The flickering lids slowly opened, and the big black
+eyes looked straight into the Harvester's.  He met them
+steadily, smiling encouragement.
+
+``Hang on to each breath, dear heart!'' he urged. 
+``The fever is gone.  The pain is over!  Long life and
+the love you crave are for you.  You've only to keep
+breathing a few more hours and the battle is yours. 
+Glorious Girl!  Noble!  You are doing finely!  Ruth,
+do you know me?''
+
+Her lips moved.
+
+``Don't try to speak,'' said the Harvester.  ``Don't
+waste breath on a word.  Save the good oxygen to
+strengthen your tired body.  But if you do know me,
+maybe you could smile, Ruth!''
+
+She could just smile, and that was all.  Feeble,
+flickering, transient, but as it crossed the living face the
+Harvester lifted her hands and kissed them over and
+over, back, palm, and finger tips.
+
+``Now just one more drop, honey, and then a long rest. 
+Will you try it again for me?''
+
+She assented, and the Harvester took the bottle from
+his pocket, poured the drop, and held the spoon to willing
+lips.  The big eyes were on him with a question. 
+Then they fell to the spoon.  The Harvester understood.
+
+``Yes, it's mine!  It's got sixty years of wonderful
+life in it, every one of them full of love and happiness
+for my dear Dream Girl.  Can you take it, Ruth?''
+
+Her lips parted, the wine of life passed between.  She
+smiled faintly, and her eyelids dropped shut, but presently
+they opened again.
+
+``David!''
+
+``My Dream Girl!''
+
+``Harvester?''
+
+``Yes!''
+
+``Medicine Man?''
+
+``Don't, Ruth!  Save every breath to help your heart.''
+
+``Life?''
+
+``Life it is, Girl!'' exulted the Harvester.  ``Long
+life!  Love!  Home!  The man you love!  Every happiness
+that ever came to a girl!  Nothing shall be denied
+you!  Nothing shall be lacking!  It's all in your hands
+now, Ruth.  We've all done everything we can; you must
+do the remainder.  It's your work to send every breath
+as deeply as you can.  Doc, release another tank of air. 
+Are her feet warm, Granny?  Let the nurse take your
+place now.  And, honey, go to sleep!  I'll keep watch
+for you.  I'll measure each breath you draw.  If they
+shorten or weaken, I'll wake you for more medicine.  You
+can trust me!  Always you can trust me, Ruth.''
+
+The Girl smiled and fell into a light, even slumber. 
+Granny Moreland stumbled to the couch and rolled on
+it sobbing with nervous exhaustion.  Doctor Carey
+called the nurse to take her place.  Then he came to the
+Harvester's side and whispered, ``Let me, David!''
+
+The Harvester looked up with his queer grin, but he
+made no motion to arise.
+
+``Won't you trust me, David?  I'll watch as if it
+were my own wife.''
+
+``I wouldn't trust any man on earth, for the coming
+three hours,'' replied the Harvester.  ``If I keep this
+up that long, she is safe.  Go and rest until I call you.''
+
+He again bent over the Girl, one hand on her left
+wrist, the other over her heart, his eyes on her lips,
+watching the depth and strength of her every breath. 
+Regularly he administered the medicine he was giving
+her.  Sometimes she took it half asleep; again she gave
+him a smile that to the Harvester was the supreme thing
+of earth or Heaven.  Toward the end of the long vigil,
+in exhaustion he slipped to the floor, and laid his head on
+the side of the bed, and for a second his hand relaxed and
+he fell asleep.  The Girl awakened as his touch loosened
+and looking down she saw his huddled body.  A second
+later the Harvester awoke with a guilty start to find her
+fingers twisted in the shock of hair on the top of his head.
+
+``Poor stranded Girl,'' he muttered.  ``She's clinging
+to me for life, and you can stake all you are worth she's
+going to get it!''
+
+Then he gently relaxed her grip, gave her the last dose
+he felt necessary, yielded his place to Doctor Carey and
+staggered up the hill.  As the sun peeped over Medicine
+Woods he stretched himself between the two mounds
+under the oak, and for a few minutes his body was rent
+with the awful, torn sobbing of a strong man.  Belshazzar
+nosed the twisting figure and whined pitifully.  A
+chattering little marsh wren tilted on a bush and scolded. 
+A blue jay perched above and tried to decide whether
+there was cause for an alarm signal.  A snake coming from
+the water to hunt birds ran close to him, and changing
+its course, went weaving away among the mosses. 
+Gradually the pent forces spent themselves, and for hours
+the Harvester lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion, and
+stretched beside him, Belshazzar guarded with anxious
+dog eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE BETTER MAN
+
+In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester
+arose and went into the lake, ate a hearty
+dinner, and then took up his watch again.  For
+two days and nights he kept his place, until he had the
+Girl out of danger, and where careful nursing was all that
+was required to insure life and health.  As he sat beside
+her the last day, his physical endurance strained to the
+breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked
+long and steadily into his eyes.
+
+``There are so many things I want to know,'' she said.
+
+The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers.  ``Ruth,
+have you ever been sorry that you trusted me?''
+
+``Never!'' said the Girl instantly.
+
+``Then suppose you keep it up,'' said he.  ``Whatever
+it is that you want to know, don't use an iota of
+strength to talk or to think about it now.  Just say to
+yourself, he loves me well enough to do what is right, and
+I know that he will.  All you have to do is to be patient
+until you grow stronger than you ever have been in your
+life, and then you shall have exactly what you want,
+Ruth.  Sleep like a baby for a week or two.  Then,
+slowly and gradually, we will build up such a constitution
+for you that you shall ride, drive, row, swim, dance,
+play, and have all that your girlhood has missed in fun
+and frolic, and all that your womanhood craves in love
+and companionship.  Happiness has come at last, Ruth. 
+Take it from me.  Everything you crave is yours.  The
+love you want, the home, and the life.  As soon
+as you are strong enough, you shall know all about
+it.  Your business is to drink stimulants and sleep
+now, dear.''
+
+``So tired of this bed!''
+
+``It won't be long until you can lie on the couch and
+the veranda swing again.''
+
+``Glory!'' said the Girl.  ``David, I must have been
+full of fever for a long time.  I can't remember everything.''
+
+``Don't try, I tell you.  Life is coming out right for
+you; that's all you need know now.''
+
+``And for you, David?''
+
+``Whenever things are right for you, they are for me,
+Ruth.''
+
+``Don't you ever think of yourself?''
+
+``Not when I am close you.''
+
+``Ah!  Then I shall have to grow strong very soon and
+think of you.''
+
+The Harvester's smile was pathetic.  He was
+unspeakably tired again.
+
+``Never mind me!'' he said.  ``Only get well.''
+
+``David, was there a little horse?''
+
+``There certainly was and is,'' said the Harvester. 
+ 
+``You had not named him yet, but in a few days I can
+lead him to the window.''
+
+``Was there something said about a boat?''
+
+``Two of them.''
+
+``Two?''
+
+``Yes.  A row boat for you, and a launch that will
+take you all over the lake with only the exertion of steering
+on your part.''
+
+``David, I want my pendant and ring.  I am so tired
+of lying here, I want to play with them.''
+
+``Where do you keep them, Ruth?''
+
+``In the willow teapot.  I thought no one would look
+there.''
+
+The Harvester laughed and brought the little boxes. 
+He had to open them, but the Girl put on the ring and
+asked him if he would not help her with the pendant.  He
+slipped the thread around her neck and clasped it.  With
+a sigh of satisfaction she took the ornament in one hand
+and closed her eyes.  He thought she was falling asleep,
+but presently she looked at him.
+
+``You won't allow them to take it from me?''
+
+``Indeed no!  There is no reason on earth why you
+should not have that thread around your neck if you want
+it.''
+
+``I am going to sleep now.  I want two things.  May
+I have them?''
+
+``You may,'' said the Harvester promptly, ``provided
+they are not to eat.''
+
+``No,'' said the Girl.  ``I've suffered and made others
+trouble.  I won't bother you by asking for anything more
+than is brought me.  This is different.  You are completely
+worn out.  Your face frightens me, David, and
+white hairs that were not there a few days ago have come
+along your temples.  I can see them.''
+
+``You gave me a mighty serious scare, Ruth.''
+
+``I know,'' said the Girl.  ``Forgive me.  I didn't
+mean to.  I want you to leave me to Doctor Harmon
+and the nurse and go sleep a week.  Then I will be ready
+for the swing, and to hear some more about the trees and
+birds.''
+
+``I can keep it up if you really need me, but if you don't
+I am sleepy.  So, if you feel safe, I think I will go.''
+
+``Oh I am safe enough,'' said the Girl.  ``It isn't that. 
+I'm so lonely.  I've made up my mind not to grieve for
+mother, but I miss her so now.  I feel so friendless.''
+
+``But, honey,'' said the Harvester, ``you mustn't do
+that!  Don't you see how all of us love you?  Here is
+Granny shutting up her house and living here, just to
+be with you.  The nurse will do anything you say.  Here
+is the man you know best, and think so much of, staying
+in the cabin, and so happy to give you all his time, and
+anything else you will have, dear.  And the Careys
+come every day, and will do their best to comfort you,
+and always I am here for you to fall back on.''
+
+``Yes, I'm falling right now,'' said the Girl.  ``I
+almost wish I had the fever again.  No one has touched
+me for days.  I feel as if every one was afraid of me.''
+
+The Harvester was puzzled.
+
+``Well, Ruth, I'm doing the best I know,'' he said. 
+``What is it you want?''
+
+``Nothing!'' answered the Girl with slightly dejected
+inflection.  ``Say good-bye to me, and go sleep your week. 
+I'll be very good, and then you shall take me a drive up
+the hill when you awaken.  Won't that be fine?''
+
+``Say good-bye to me!''  She felt a ``little lonely!'' 
+They all acted as if they were ``afraid'' of her.  The
+Harvester indulged in a flashing mental review and
+arrived at a decision.  He knelt beside the bed, took both
+slender, cool hands and covered them with kisses.  Then
+he slid a hand under the pillow and raised the tired head.
+
+``If I am to say good-bye, I have to do it in my own
+way, Ruth,'' he said.
+
+Thereupon he began at the tumbled mass of hair and
+kissed from her forehead to her lips, kisses warm and
+tender.
+
+``Now you go to sleep, and grow strong enough by the
+time I come back to tell me whom you love,'' he said,
+and went from the room without waiting for any reply.
+
+With short intervals for food and dips in the lake the
+Harvester very nearly slept the week.  When he finally
+felt himself again, he bathed, shaved, dressed freshly,
+and went to see the Girl.  He had to touch her to be
+sure she was real.  She was extremely weak and tremulous,
+but her face and hands were fuller, her colour
+was good, she was ravenously hungry.  Doctor Harmon
+said she was a little tryant, and the nurse that she was
+plain cross.  The first thing the Harvester noticed was
+that the dull blue look in the depth of the dark eyes was
+gone.  They were clear, dusky wells, with shining
+lights at the bottom.
+
+``Well I never would have believed it!'' he cried. 
+``Doctor Harmon, you are a great physician!  You have
+made her all over new, and in a few more days she will
+be on the veranda.  This is great!''
+
+``Do I appear so much better to you, Harvester?''
+asked the Girl.
+
+``Has no one thought to show you,'' cried the
+Harvester.  ``Here, let me!'
+
+He stepped to her dressing table, picked up a mirror,
+and held it before her so that she could see herself.
+
+``Seems to me I am dreadfully white and thin yet!''
+
+``If you had seen what I saw ten days ago, my Girl,
+you would think you appear like a pink, rosy angel now,
+or a wonderful dream.''
+
+``Truly, do I in the least resemble a dream, David?''
+
+``You are a dream.  The loveliest one a man ever had. 
+With three months of right care and exercise you'll
+be the beautiful woman nature intended.  I'm so proud
+of you.  You are being so brave!  Just lie there in
+patience a few more days, and out you come again to life;
+and life that will thrill your being with joy.''
+
+``All right,'' said the Girl, ``I will.  David are you
+attending to your herbs?''
+
+``Not for a few weeks.''
+
+``You are very much behind?''
+
+``No.  Nothing important.  I don't make enough
+to count on what is ready now.  I can soon gather
+jimson leaves and seed to fill orders, the hemlock is
+about right to take the fruit, the mustard is yet in pod,
+and the saffron and wormseed can be attended later. 
+I can catch up in two days.''
+
+``What about----about the big bed on the hill?''
+
+The Harvester experienced an inward thrill of delight. 
+She was so impressed with the value of the ginseng she
+would not mention it, even before the man she loved----
+no more than that----``adored''----``worshipped!'' 
+He smiled at her in understanding.
+
+``I'll have to take a peep at that and report,'' he said.
+
+``Are you rested now?''
+
+``Indeed yes!''
+
+``You are dreadfully thin.''
+
+``I always am.  I'll pick up a little when I get back to
+work.''
+
+``David, I want you to go to work now.''
+
+``Can you spare me?''
+
+``Haven't we done well these last few days?''
+
+``I can't tell you how well.''
+
+``Then please go gather everything you need to fill
+orders except the big bed, and by that time maybe you
+could take another week off, and I could go to the hill
+top and on the lake.  I'm so anxious to put my feet on
+the earth.  They feel so dead.''
+
+``Are your feet well rubbed to draw down the circulation?''
+
+``They are rubbed shiny and almost skinned, David. 
+No one ever had better care, of that I am sure.  Go
+gather what you should have.''
+
+``All right,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He arose and as he started to leave the room he took
+one last look at the Girl to see if he could detect anything
+he could suggest for her comfort, and read a message
+in her eyes.  Instantly there was an answering flash
+in his.
+
+``I'll be back in a minute,'' he said.  ``I just noticed
+discorea villosa has the finest rattle boxes formed.  I've
+been waiting to show you.  And the hop tree has its
+castanets all green and gold.  In a few more weeks it
+will begin to play for you.  I'll bring you some.''
+
+Soon he returned with the queer seed formations, and
+as he bent above her, with his back to Doctor Harmon, he
+whispered, ``What is it?''
+
+Her lips barely formed the one word, ``Hurry!''
+
+The Harvester straightened.
+
+``All comfortable, Ruth?'' he asked casually.
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``You understand, of course, that there is not the
+slightest necessity for my going to work if you really
+want me for anything, even if it's nothing more than to
+have me within calling distance, in case you SHOULD
+want something.  The whole lot I can gather now won't
+amount to twenty dollars.  It's merely a matter of
+pride with me to have what is called for.  I'd much rather
+remain, if you can use me in any way at all.''
+
+``Twenty dollars is considerable, when expenses are
+as heavy as now.  And it's worth more than any money
+to you not to fail when orders come.  I have learned that,
+and David, I don't want you to either.  You must fill
+all demands as usual.  I wouldn't forgive myself this
+winter if you should be forced to send orders only partly
+filled because I fell ill and hindered you.  Please go and
+gather all you possibly will need of everything you take
+at this season, only remember!''
+
+``There is no danger of my forgetting.  If you are
+going to send me away to work, you will allow me to kiss
+your hand before I go, fair lady?''
+
+He did it fervently.
+
+``One word with you, Harmon,'' he said as he left the
+room.
+
+Doctor Harmon arose and followed him to the gold
+garden, and together they stood beside the molten hedge
+of sunflowers, coneflowers, elecampane, and jewel flower.
+
+``I merely want to mention that this is your inning,''
+said the Harvester.  ``Find out if you are essential to the
+Girl's happiness as soon as you can, and the day she tells
+me so, I will file her petition and take a trip to the city
+to study some little chemical quirks that bother me. 
+That's all.''
+
+The Harvester went to the dry-house for bags and
+clipping shears, and the doctor returned to the sunshine room.
+
+``Ruth,'' he said, ``do you know that the Harvester
+is the squarest man I ever met?''
+
+``Is he?'' asked the Girl.
+
+``He is!  He certainly is!''
+
+``You must remember that I have little acquaintance
+with men,'' said she.  ``You are the first one I ever knew,
+and the only one except him.''
+
+``Well I try to be square,'' said Doctor Harmon,
+``but that is where Langston has me beaten a mile.  I
+have to try.  He doesn't.  He was born that way.''
+
+The Girl began to laugh.
+
+``His environment is so different,'' she said.  ``Perhaps
+if he were in a big city, he would have to try
+also.''
+
+``Won't do!'' said the doctor.  ``He chose his location. 
+So did I.  He is a stronger physical man than I ever was
+or ever will be.  The struggle that bound him to the
+woods and to research, that made him the master of
+forces that give back life, when a man like Carey says
+it is the end, proves him a master.  The tumult in his
+soul must have been like a cyclone in his forest, when he
+turned his back on the world and stuck to the woods. 
+Carey told me about it.  Some day you must hear.  It's
+a story a woman ought to know in order to arrive at
+proper values.  You never will understand the man until
+you know that he is clean where most of us are blackened
+with ugly sins we have no right on God's footstool
+to commit and not so much reason as he.  Every man
+should be as he is, but very few are.  Carey says Langston's
+mother was a wonderful element in the formation
+of his character; but all mothers are anxious, and none
+of them can build with no foundation and no soul timber. 
+She had material for a man to her hand, or she couldn't
+have made one.''
+
+``I see what you mean.''
+
+``So far as any inexperienced girl ever sees,'' said the
+doctor.  ``Some day if you live to fifty you will know,
+but you can't comprehend it now.''
+
+``If you think I lived all my life in Chicago's poverty
+spots and don't know unbridled human nature!''
+
+``I found you and your mother unusually innocent
+women.  You may understand some things.  I hope
+you do.  It will help you to decide who is the real man
+among the men who come into your life.  There are
+some men, Ruth, who are fit to mate with a woman,
+and to perpetuate themselves and their mental and
+moral forces in children, who will be like them, and there
+are others who are not.  It is these `others' who are
+responsible for the sin of the world, the sickness and
+suffering.  Any time you are sure you have a chance at a
+moral man, square and honest, in control of his brain and
+body, if you are a wise woman, Ruth, stick to him as the
+limpet to the rock.''
+
+``You mean stick to the Harvester?''
+
+``If you are a wise woman!''
+
+``When was a woman ever wise?''
+
+``A few have been.  They are the only care-free,
+really happy ones of the world, the only wives without
+a big, poison, blue-bottle fly in their ointment.''
+
+``I detest flies!'' said the Girl.
+
+``So do I,'' said the doctor.  ``For this reason I say
+to you choose the ointment that never had one in it. 
+Take the man who is `master of his fate, captain of his
+soul.'  Stick to the Harvester!  He is infinitely the
+better man!''
+
+``Well have you seen anything to indicate that I
+wasn't sticking?'' asked the Girl.
+
+``No.  And for your sake I hope I never will.''
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+``You do love him, Ruth?''
+
+``As I did my mother, yes.  There is not a trace in
+my heart of the thing he calls love.''
+
+``You have been stunted, warped, and the fountains
+of life never have opened.  It will come with right
+conditions of living.''
+
+``Do you think so?''
+
+``I know so.  At least there is no one else you love,
+Ruth?''
+
+``No one except you.''
+
+``And do you feel about me just as you do him?''
+
+``No!  It is different.  What I owe him is for myself. 
+What I owe you is for my mother.  You saw!  You
+know!  You understand what you did for her, and what
+it meant to me.  The Harvester must be the finest man
+on earth, but when I try to think of either God or Heaven,
+your face intervenes.''
+
+``That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me,''
+said Doctor Harmon.  ``I can make it all perfectly clear
+to you.  You just go on and worship me all you please. 
+It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me. 
+What you feel for me will hold me to a higher moral
+level all my life than I ever have known before; but never
+forget that you are not going to live in Heaven.  You
+will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come
+to think of selecting a partner for the relations of the
+world, you stick to the finest man on earth; see?''
+
+``I do!'' said the Girl.  ``I saw you kiss Molly a
+week ago.  She is lovely, and I hope you will be
+perfectly happy.  It won't interfere with my worshipping
+you; not the least in the world.  Go ahead and be
+joyful!''
+
+The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion. 
+The Girl lay and laughed at him.
+
+``Don't!'' she cried.  ``It's all right!  It takes a weight
+off my soul as heavy as a mountain.  I do adore you, as
+I said.  But every hour since I left Chicago a big, black
+cloud has hung over me.  I didn't feel free.  I didn't
+feel absolved.  I felt that my obligations to you were so
+heavy that when I had settled the last of the money debt
+I was in honour bound----''
+
+``Don't, Ruth!  Forget those dreadful times, as I told
+you then!  Think only of a happy future!''
+
+``Let me finish,'' said the Girl.  ``Let me get this out
+of my system with the other poison.  From the day I
+came here, I've whispered in my heart, `I am not free!' 
+But if you love another woman!  If you are going to take
+her to your heart and to your lips, why that is my
+release.  Oh Man, speak the words!  Tell me I am free
+indeed!''
+
+``Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake!  You'll raise a
+temperature, and the Harvester will pitch me into the lake. 
+You are free, child, of course!  You always have been. 
+I understood the awful pressure that was on you with
+the very first glimpse I had of your mother.  Who was
+she, Ruth?''
+
+``She never would tell me.''
+
+``She thought you would appeal to her people?''
+
+``She knew I would!  I couldn't have helped it.''
+
+``Would you like to know?''
+
+``I never want to.  It is too late.  I infinitely prefer
+to remain in ignorance.  Talk of something else.''
+
+``Let me read a wonderful book I found on the
+Harvester's shelves.''
+
+``Anything there will contain wonders, because he only
+buys what appeals to him, and it takes a great book to
+do that.  I am going to learn.  He will teach me, and
+when I come within comprehending distance of him, then
+we are going on together.''
+
+``What an attractive place this is!''
+
+``Isn't it?  I only have seen enough to understand the
+plan.  I scarcely can wait to set my feet on earth and go
+into detail.  Granny Moreland says that when spring
+comes over the hill, and brings up the flowers in the big
+woods, she'd rather walk through them than to read
+Revelation.  She says it gives her an idea of Heaven
+she can come closer realizing and it seems more stable. 
+You know she worries about the foundations.  She can't
+understand what supports Heaven.  But up there in
+Medicine Woods the old dear gets so close her God
+that some day she is going to realize that her idea
+of Heaven there is quite as near right as marble
+streets and gold pillars and vastly more probable.  The
+day I reach that hill top again, Heaven begins for me. 
+Do you know the wonderful thing the Harvester did up
+there?''
+
+``Under the oak?''
+
+``Yes.''
+
+``Carey told me.  It was marvellous.''
+
+``Not such a marvel as another the doctor couldn't have
+known.  The Harvester made passing out so natural,
+so easy, so a part of elemental forces, that I almost have
+forgotten her tortured body.  When I think of her now,
+it is to wonder if next summer I can distinguish her
+whisper among the leaves.  Before you go, I'll take you
+up there and tell you what he says, and show you what
+he means, and you will feel it also.''
+
+``What if I shouldn't go?''
+
+``What do you mean?''
+
+``Doctor Carey has offered me a splendid position in
+his hospital.  There would be work all day, instead of
+waiting all day in the hope of working an hour.  There
+would be a living in it for two from the word go.  There
+would be better air, longer life, more to be got out of it,
+and if I can make good, Carey's work to take up as he
+grows old.''
+
+``Take it!  Take it quickly!'' cried the Girl.  ``Don't
+wait a minute!  You might wear out your heart in
+Chicago for twenty years or forever, and not have an
+opportunity to do one half so much good.  Take it at
+once!''
+
+``I was waiting to learn what you and Langston would
+say.''
+
+``He will say take it.''
+
+``Then I will be too happy for words.  Ruth, you have
+not only paid the debt, but you have brought me the
+greatest joy a man ever had.  And there is no need to
+wait the ages I thought I must.  He can tell in a year if
+I can do the work, and I know I can now; so it's all
+settled, if Langston agrees.''
+
+``He will,'' said the Girl.  ``Let me tell him!''
+
+``I wish you would,'' said the doctor.  ``I don't know
+just how to go at it.''
+
+Then for two days the Harvester and Belshazzar
+gathered herbs and spread them on the drying trays. 
+On the afternoon of the third, close three, the doctor
+came to the door.
+
+``Langston,'' he said, ``we have a call for you.  We
+can't keep Ruth quiet much longer.  She is tired.  We
+want to change her bed completely.  She won't allow
+either of us to lift her.  She says we hurt her.  Will
+you come and try it?''
+
+``You'll have to give me time to dip and rub off and
+get into clean clothing,'' he said.  ``I've been keeping
+away, because I was working on time, and I smell to
+strangulation of stramonium and saffron.''
+
+``Can't give you ten seconds,'' said the doctor.  ``Our
+temper is getting brittle.  We are cross as the proverbial
+fever patient.  If you don't come at once we will imagine
+you don't want to, and refuse to be moved at all.''
+
+``Coming!'' cried the Harvester, as he plunged his
+hands in the wash bowl and soused his face.  A second
+later he appeared on the porch.
+
+``Ruth,'' he said, ``I am steeped in the odours of
+the dry-house.  Can't you wait until I bathe and
+dress?''
+
+``No, I can't,'' said a fretful voice.  ``I can't endure
+this bed another minute.''
+
+``Then let Doctor Harmon lift you.  He is so fresh and
+clean.''
+
+The Harvester glanced enviously at the shaven face
+and white trousers and shirt of the doctor.
+
+``I just hate fresh, clean men.  I want to smell herbs. 
+I want to put my feet in the dirt and my hands in the
+water.''
+
+The Harvester came at a rush.  He brought a big easy
+chair from the living-room, straightened the cover, and
+bent above the Girl.  He picked her up lightly, gently,
+and easing her to his body settled in the chair.  She laid her
+face on his shoulder, and heaved a deep sigh of content.
+
+``Be careful with my back, Man,'' she said.  ``I think
+my spine is almost worn through.''
+
+``Poor girl,'' said the Harvester.  ``That bed should
+be softer.''
+
+``It should not!''contradicted the Girl.  ``It should be
+much harder.  I'm tired of soft beds.  I want to lie
+on the earth, with my head on a root; and I wish it would
+rain dirt on me.  I am bathed threadbare.  I want to
+be all streaky.''
+
+``I understand,'' said the Harvester.  ``Harmon, bring
+me a pad and pencil a minute, I must write an order
+for some things I want.  Will you call up town and
+have them sent out immediately?''
+
+On the pad he wrote:  ``Telephone Carey to get the
+highest grade curled-hair mattress, a new pad, and pillow,
+and bring them flying in the car.  Call Granny
+and the girl and empty the room.  Clean, air, and fumigate
+it thoroughly.  Arrange the furniture differently,
+and help me into the living-room with Ruth.''  He
+handed the pad to the doctor.
+
+``Please attend to that,'' he said, and to the Girl: 
+``Now we go on a journey.  Doc, you and Molly take
+the corners of the rug we are on and slide us into the other
+room until you get this aired and freshened.''
+
+In the living-room the Girl took one long look at the
+surroundings and suddenly relaxed.  She cuddled against
+the Harvester and lifting a tremulous white hand, drew
+it across his unshaven cheek.
+
+``Feels so good,'' she said.  ``I'm sick and tired of
+immaculate men.''
+
+The Harvester laughed, tucked her feet in the cover and
+held her tenderly.  The Girl lay with her cheek against
+the rough khaki, palpitant with the excitement of being
+moved.
+
+``Isn't it great?'' she panted.
+
+He caught the hand that had touched his cheek in a
+tender grip, and laughed a deep rumble of exultation
+that came from the depths of his heart.
+
+``There's no name for it, honey,'' he said.  ``But
+don't try to talk until you have a long rest.  Changing
+positions after you have lain so long may be making
+unusual work for your heart.  Am I hurting your back?''
+
+``No,'' said the Girl.  ``This is the first time I have been
+comfortable in ages.  Am I tiring you?''
+
+``Yes,'' laughed the Harvester.  ``You are almost as
+heavy as a large sack of leaves, but not quite equal to a
+bridge pillar or a log.  Be sure to think of that, and worry
+considerably.  You are in danger of straining my muscles
+to the last degree, my heart included.''
+
+``Where is your heart?'' whispered the Girl.
+
+``Right under your cheek,'' answered the Harvester. 
+``But for Heaven's sake, don't intimate that you are
+taking any interest in it, or it will go to pounding until
+your head will bounce.  It's one member of my body that
+I can't control where you are concerned.''
+
+``I thought you didn't like me any more.''
+
+``Careful!'' warned the Harvester.  ``You are yet
+too close Heaven to fib like that, Ruth.  What have I
+done to indicate that I don't love you more than ever?''
+
+``Stayed away nearly every minute for three awful
+days, and wouldn't come without being dragged; and
+now you're wishing they would hurry and fix that bed,
+so you can put me down and go back to your rank old
+herbs again.''
+
+``Well of all the black prevarications!  I went when
+you sent me, and came when you called.  I'd willingly
+give up my hope of what Granny calls `salvation' to
+hold you as I am for an hour, and you know it.''
+
+``It's going to be much longer than that,'' said the
+Girl nestling to him.  ``I asked for you because you
+never hurt me, and they always do.  I knew you were
+so strong that my weight now wouldn't be a load for one
+of your hands, and I am not going back to that bed
+until I am so tired that I will be glad to lie down.''
+
+For a long time she was so silent the Harvester thought
+her going to sleep; and having learned that for him joy
+was probably transient, he deliberately got all he could. 
+He closely held the hand she had not withdrawn, and
+often lifted it to his lips.  Sometimes he stroked the
+heavy braid, gently ran his hands across the tired shoulders,
+or eased her into a different position.  There was
+not a doubt in his mind of one thing.  He was having a
+royal, good time, and he was thankful for the work he
+had set his assistants that kept them out of the room. 
+They seemed in no hurry, and from scuffling, laughing,
+and a steady stream of talk, they were entertained at
+least.  At last the Girl roused.
+
+``There is something I want to ask you,'' she said. 
+``I promised Doctor Harmon I would.''
+
+Instantly the heart of the Harvester gave a leap
+that jarred the head resting on it.
+
+``You don't like him?'' questioned the Girl.
+
+``I do!'' declared the Harvester.  ``I like him immensely.  
+There is not a fine, manly good-looking feature
+about him that I have missed.  I don't fail to do
+him justice on every point.''
+
+``I'm so glad!  Then you will want him to remain.''
+
+``Here?'' asked the Harvester with a light, hot breath.
+
+``In Onabasha!  Doctor Carey has offered him the
+place of chief assistant at the hospital.  There is a good
+salary and the chance of taking up the doctor's work as
+he grows older.  It means plenty to do at once, healthful
+atmosphere, congenial society----everything to a young
+man.  He only had a call once in a while in Chicago,
+often among people who received more than they paid,
+like me, and he was very lonely.  I think it would be
+great for him.''
+
+``And for you, Ruth?''
+
+``It doesn't make the least difference to me; but for
+his sake, because I think so much of him, I would like
+to see him have the place.''
+
+``You still think so much of him, Ruth?''
+
+``More, if possible,'' said the Girl.  ``Added to all I
+owed him before, he has come here and worked for days
+to save me, and it wasn't his fault that it took a bigger
+man.  Nothing alters the fact that he did all he could,
+most graciously and gladly.''
+
+``What do you mean, Ruth?'' stammered the Harvester.
+
+``Oh they have worn themselves out!'' cried the Girl
+impatiently.  ``First, Granny Moreland told me every
+least little detail of how I went out, and you resurrected
+me.  I knew what she said was true, because she worked
+with you.  Then Doctor Carey told me, and Mrs. Carey,
+and Doctor Harmon, and Molly, and even Granny's
+little assistant has left the kitchen to tell me that I
+owe my life to you, and all of them might as well have
+saved breath.  I knew all the time that if ever I came
+out of this, and had a chance to be like other women,
+it would be your work, and I'm glad it is.  I'd hate
+to be under obligations to some people I know; but I
+feel honoured to be indebted to you.''
+
+``I'm mighty sorry they worried you.  I had no idea----''
+
+``They didn't `worry,' me!  I am just telling you that
+I knew it all the time; that's all!''
+
+``Forget that!'' said the Harvester.  ``Come back to
+our subject.  What was it you wanted, dear?''
+
+``To know if you have any objections to Doctor Harmon
+remaining in Onabasha?''
+
+``Certainly not!  It will be a fine thing for him.''
+
+``Will it make any difference to you in any way?''
+
+``Ruth, that's probing too deep,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``I don't see why!''
+
+``I'm glad of it!''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``I'd least rather show my littleness to you than to
+any one else on earth.''
+
+``Then you have some feeling about it?''
+
+``Perhaps a trifle.  I'll get over it.  Give me a little
+time to adjust myself.  Doctor Harmon shall have the
+place, of course.  Don't worry about that!''
+
+``He will be so happy!''
+
+``And you, Ruth?''
+
+``I'll be happy too!''
+
+``Then it's all right,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He laid down her hand, drew the cover over it, and
+slightly shifted her position to rest her.  The door
+opened, and Doctor Harmon announced that the room
+was ready.  It was shining and fresh.  The bed was
+now turned with its head to the north, so that from it one
+could see the big trees in Medicine Woods, the sweep
+of the hillside, the sparkle of mallow-bordered Singing
+Water, the driveway and the gold flower garden.  Everything
+was so changed that the room had quite a different
+appearance.  The instant he laid her on it the Girl said,
+``This bed is not mine.''
+
+``Yes it is,'' said the Harvester.  ``You see, we were
+a little excited sometimes, and we spilled a few quarts of
+perfectly good medicine on your mattress.  It was hopelessly
+smelly and ruined; so I am going to cremate it
+and this is your splinter new one and a fresh pad and
+pillow.  Now you try them and see if they are not much
+harder and more comfortable.''
+
+``This is just perfect!'' she sighed, as she sank into the bed.
+
+The Harvester bent over her to straighten the cover,
+when suddenly she reached both arms around his neck,
+and gripped him with all her strength.
+
+``Thank you!'' she said.
+
+``May I hold you to-morrow?'' whispered the Harvester,
+emboldened by this.
+
+``Please do,'' said the Girl.
+
+The Harvester, with dog to heel, went to the oak to
+think.
+
+``Belshazzar, kommen Sie!'' said the man, dropping
+on the seat and holding out his hand.  The dog laid his
+muzzle in the firm grip.
+
+``Bel,'' said the Harvester, ``I am all at sea.  One day
+I think maybe I have a little chance, the next----none at
+all.  I had an hour of solid comfort to-day, now I'm in the
+sweat box again.  It's a little selfish streak in me, Bel,
+that hates to see Harmon go into the hospital and take
+my place with the Careys.  They are my best and only
+friends.  He is young, social, handsome, and will be
+ever present.  In three months he will become so popular
+that I might as well be off the earth.  I wish I didn't
+think it, but I'm so small that I do.  And then there is
+my Dream Girl, Bel.  The girl you found for me, old
+fellow.  There never was another like her, and she has
+my heart for all time.  And he has hers.  That hospital
+plan is the best thing in the world for her.  It will keep
+her where Carey can have an eye on her, where the air
+is better, where she can have company without the city
+crush, where she is close the country, and a good living
+is assured.  Bel, it's the nicest arrangement you ever
+saw for every one we know, except us.''
+
+The Harvester laughed shortly.  ``Bel,'' he said, ``tell
+me!  If a man lived a hundred years, could he have the
+heartache all the way?  Seems like I've had it almost
+that long now.  In fact, I've had it such ages I'd be
+lonesome without it.  This is some more of my very
+own medicine, so I shouldn't make a wry face over
+taking it.  I knew what would happen when I sent for
+him, and I didn't hesitate.  I must not now.
+
+``Only I got to stop one thing, Bel.  I told him I
+would play square, and I have.  But here it ends. 
+After this, I must step back and be big brother.  Lots
+of fun in this brother business, Bel.  But maybe I am
+cut out for it.  Anyway it's written!  But if it is, how
+did she come to allow me such privileges as I took to-
+day?  That wasn't professional by any means.  It
+was just the stiffest love-making I knew how to do, Bel,
+and she didn't object by the quiver of an eyelash.  God
+knows I was watching closely enough for any sign that I
+was distasteful.  And I might have been well enough. 
+Rough, herb-stained old clothes, unshaven, everything
+to offend a dainty girl.  She said I might hold her again
+to-morrow.  And, Bel, what the nation did she hug me
+like that for, if she's going to marry him?  Boy, I see
+my way clear to an hour more.  While I'm at it, just to
+surprise myself, I believe I'll take it like other men.  I
+think I'll go on a little bender, and make what probably
+will be the last day a plumb good one.  Something
+worth remembering is better than nothing at all, Bel! 
+He hasn't told me that he has won.  She didn't SAY
+she was going to marry him, and she did say he hurt
+her, and she wanted me.  Bel, how about the grimness
+of it, if she should marry him and then discover that
+he hurts her, and she wants me.  Lord God Almighty,
+if you have any mercy at all, never put me up against
+that,'' prayed the Harvester, ``for my heart is water
+where she is concerned.''
+
+The Harvester arose, and going to the lake, he cut an
+arm load of big, pink mallows, covered each mound with
+fresh flowers, whistled to the dog, and went to his work. 
+Many things had accumulated, and he cleaned the barn,
+carried herbs from the dry-house to the store-room,
+and put everything into shape.  Close noon the next
+day he went to Onabasha, and was gone three hours. 
+He came back barbered in the latest style, and carrying
+a big bundle.  When the hour for arranging the bed
+came, he was yet in his room, but he sent word he
+would be there in a second.
+
+As he crossed the living-room he pulled a chair to the
+veranda and placed a footstool before it.  Then he
+stepped into the sunshine room.  A quizzical expression
+crossed the face of Doctor Harmon as he closed the book
+he was reading aloud to the Girl and arose.  Wholly
+unembarrassed the Harvester smiled.
+
+``Have I got this rigging anywhere near right?'' he
+inquired.
+
+``David, what have you done?'' gasped the amazed
+Girl.
+
+``I didn't feel anywhere near up to the `mark of my
+high calling' yesterday,'' quoted the Harvester.  ``I
+don't know how I appear, but I'm clean as shaving,
+soap and hot water will make me, and my clothing will
+not smell offensively.  Now come out of that bed for a
+happy hour.  Where is that big coverlet?  You are going
+on the veranda to-day.''
+
+``You look just like every one else,'' complained
+Doctor Harmon.
+
+``You look perfectly lovely,'' declared the Girl.
+
+``The swale sends you this invitation to come and see
+star-shine at the foot of mullein hill,'' said the Harvester,
+offering a bouquet.  It was a loose bunch of long-
+stemmed, delicate flowers, each an inch across, and
+having five pearl-white petals lightly striped with pale
+green.  Five long gold anthers arose, and at their base
+gold stamens and a green pistil.  The leaves were heart-
+shaped and frosty, whitish-green, resembling felt.  The
+Harvester bent to offer them.
+
+``Have some Grass of Parnassus, my dear,'' he said.
+
+The Girl waved them away.  ``Go stand over there by
+the door and slowly turn around.  I want to see you.''
+
+The Harvester obeyed.  He was freshly and carefully
+shaven.  His hair was closely cropped at the base of
+the head, long, heavy, and slightly waving on top.  He
+wore a white silk shirt, with a rolling collar and tie, white
+trousers, belt, hose, and shoes, and his hands were
+manicured with care.
+
+``Have I made a mess of it, or do I appear anything
+like other men?'' he asked, eagerly.
+
+The Girl lifted her eyes to Doctor Harmon and smiled.
+
+``Do you observe anything messy?'' she inquired.
+
+``You needn't fish for compliments quite so obviously,''
+he answered.  ``I'll pay them without being asked. 
+I do not.  He is quite correct, and infinitely better
+looking than the average.  Distinguished is a proper
+word for the gentleman in my opinion.  But why, in
+Heaven's name, have we never had the pleasure of seeing
+you thus before?''
+
+``Look here, Doc,'' said the Harvester, ``do you mean
+that you enjoy looking at me merely because I am dressed
+this way?''
+
+``I do indeed,'' said the doctor.  ``It is good to see
+you with the garb of work laid aside, and the stamp of
+cleanliness and ease upon you.''
+
+``By gum, that is rubbing it in a little too rough!''
+cried the Harvester.  ``I bathe oftener than you do.  My
+clothing is always clean when I start out.  Of course,
+in my work I come hourly in contact with muck, water,
+and herb juices.''
+
+``It's understood that is unavoidable,'' said Doctor
+Harmon.
+
+``And if cleanliness is made an issue, I'd rather roll
+in any of it than put my finger tips into the daily work
+of a surgeon,'' added the Harvester, and the Girl
+giggled.
+
+``That's enough Medicine Man!'' she said.  ``You
+did not make a `mess' of it, or anything else you ever
+attempted.  As for appearing like other men, thank
+Heaven, you do not.  You look just a whole world
+bigger and better and finer.  Come, carry me out
+quickly.  I am wild to go.  Please put my lovely flowers
+in water, Molly, only give me a few to hold.''
+
+The Harvester arranged the pink coverlet, picked up
+the Girl, and carried her to the living-room.
+
+``We will rest here a little,'' he said, ``and then, if you
+feel equal to it, we will try the veranda.  Are you easy
+now?''
+
+She nestled her face against the soft shirt and smiled
+at him.  She lifted her hand, laid it on his smooth cheek
+and then the crisp hair.
+
+``Oh Man!'' she cried.  ``Thank God you didn't give
+me up, too!  I want life!  I want LIFE!''
+
+The Harvester tightened his grip just a trifle.  ``Then
+I thank God, too,'' he said.  ``Can you tell me how you
+are, dear?  Is there any difference?''
+
+``Yes,'' she answered.  ``I grow tired lying so long,
+but there isn't the ghost of an ache in my bones.  I can
+just feel pure, delicious blood running in my veins.  My
+hands and feet are always warm, and my head cool.''
+
+The Harvester's face drew very close.  ``How about
+your heart, honey?'' he whispered.  ``Anything new there?''
+
+``Yes, I am all over new inside and out.  I want to
+shout, run, sing, and swim.  Oh I'd give anything to
+have you carry me down and dip me in the lake right
+now.''
+
+``Soon, Girl!  That will come soon,'' prophesied the
+Harvester.
+
+``I scarcely can wait.  And you did say a saddle,
+didn't you?  Won't it be great to come galloping up the
+levee, when the leaves are red and the frost is in the air. 
+Oh am I going fast enough?''
+
+``Much faster than I expected,'' said the Harvester. 
+``You are surprising all of us, me most of any.  Ruth,
+you almost make me hope that you regard this as home. 
+Honey, you are thinking a little of me these days?''
+
+The hand that had fallen from his hair lay on his
+shoulder.  Now it slid around his neck, and gripped him with
+all its strength.
+
+``Heaps and heaps!'' she said.  ``All I get a chance to,
+for being bothered and fussed over, and everlastingly
+read mushy stuff that's intended for some one else. 
+Please take me to the veranda now; I want to tell you
+something.''
+
+His head swam, but the Harvester set his feet firmly,
+arose, and carried his Dream Girl back to outdoor life. 
+When he reached the chair, she begged him to go a few
+steps farther to the bench on the lake shore.
+
+``I am afraid,'' said the man.
+
+``It's so warm.  There can't be any difference in the
+air.  Just a minute.''
+
+The Harvester pushed open the screen, went to the
+bench, and seating himself, drew the cover closely around
+her.
+
+``Don't speak a word for a long time,'' he said.  ``Just
+rest.  If I tire you too much and spoil everything, I
+will be desperate.''
+
+He clasped her to him, laid his cheek against her hair,
+and his lips on her forehead.  He held her hand and
+kissed it over and over, and again he watched and could
+find no resentment.  The cool, pungent breeze swept
+from the lake, and the voices of wild life chattered at
+their feet.  Sometimes the water folks splashed, while a
+big black and gold butterfly mistook the Girl's dark hair
+for a perching place and settled on it, slowly opening
+its wonderful wings.
+
+``Lie quietly, Girl,'' whispered the Harvester.  ``You
+are wearing a living jewel, an ornament above price, on
+your hair.  Maybe you can see it when it goes.  There!''
+
+``Oh I did!'' she cried.  ``How I love it here!  Before
+long may I lie in the dining-room window a while so I
+can see the water.  I like the hill, but I love the lake
+more.''
+
+``Now if you just would love me,'' said the
+Harvester, ``you would have all Medicine Woods in your
+heart.''
+
+``Don't hurry me so!'' said the Girl.  ``You gave me a
+year; and it's only a few weeks, and I've not been myself,
+and I'm not now.  I mustn't make any mistake, and all
+I know for sure is that I want you most, and I can rest
+best with you, and I miss you every minute you are
+gone.  I think that should satisfy you.''
+
+``That would be enough for any reasonable man,''
+said the Harvester angrily.  ``Forgive me, Ruth, I have
+been cruel.  I forgot how frail and weak you are.  It is
+having Harmon here that makes me unnatural.  It almost
+drives me to frenzy to know that he may take you
+from me.''
+
+``Then send him away!''
+
+``SEND HIM AWAY?''
+
+``Yes, send him away!  I am tired to death of his
+poetry, and seeing him spoon around.  Send both of
+them away quickly!''
+
+The Harvester gulped, blinked, and surreptitiously felt
+for her pulse.
+
+``Oh, I've not developed fever again,'' she said.  ``I'm
+all right.  But it must be a fearful expense to have both
+of them here by the week, and I'm so tired of them,
+Granny says she can take care of me just as well, and the
+girl who helps her can cook.  No one but you shall lift
+me, if I don't get my nose Out until I can walk alone
+Both of them are perfectly useless, and I'd much rather
+you'd send them away.''
+
+``There, there!  Of course!'' said the Harvester
+soothingly.  ``I'll do it as soon as I possibly dare.  You
+don't understand, honey.  You are yet delicate beyond
+measure, internally.  The fever burned so long.  Every
+morsel you eat is measured and cooked in sterilized vessels,
+and I'd be scared of my life to have the girl undertake it.''
+
+``Why she is doing it straight along now!  She and
+Granny!  Molly isn't out of Doctor Harmon's sight long
+enough to cook anything.  Granny says there is `a lot of
+buncombe about what they do, and she is going to tell
+them so right to their teeth some of these days, if they
+badger her much more,' and I wish she would, and you,
+too.''
+
+The Harvester gathered the Girl to him in one
+crushing bear hug.
+
+``For the love of Heaven, Ruth, you drive me crazy! 
+Answer me just one question.  When you told me that
+you `adored and worshipped' Doctor Harmon, did you
+mean it, or was that the delirium of fever?''
+
+``I don't know WHAT I told you!  If I said I `adored'
+him, it was the truth.  I did!  I do!  I always will! 
+So do I adore the Almighty, but that's no sign I want
+him to read poetry to me, and be around all the time
+when I am wild for a minute with you.  I can worship
+Doctor Harmon in Chicago or Onabasha quite as well. 
+Fire him!  If you don't, I will!''
+
+``Good Lord!'' cried the Harvester, helpless until
+the Girl had to cling to him to prevent rolling from his
+nerveless arms.  ``Ruth, Ruth, will you feel my pulse?''
+
+``No, I won't!  But you are going to drop me.  Take
+me straight back to my beautiful new bed, and send them
+away.''
+
+``A minute!  Give me a minute!'' gasped the
+Harvester.  ``I couldn't lift a baby just now.  Ruth, dear, I
+thought you LOVED the man.''
+
+``What made you think so?''
+
+``You did!''
+
+``I didn't either!  I never said I loved him.  I said
+I was under obligations to him; but they are as well
+repaid as they ever can be.  I said I adored him, and I
+tell you I do!  Give him what we owe him, both of us,
+in money, and send them away.  If you'd seen as much
+of them as I have, you'd be tired of them, too.  Please,
+please, David!''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester, arising in a sudden tide
+of effulgent joy.  ``Yes, Girl, just as quickly as I can
+with decency.  I----I'll send them on the lake, and I'll
+take care of you.''
+
+``You won't read poetry to me?''
+
+``I will not.''
+
+``You won't moon at me?''
+
+``No!''
+
+``Then hurry!  But have them take your boat.  I am
+going to have the first ride in mine.''
+
+``Indeed you are, and soon, too!'' said the Harvester,
+marching up the hill as if he were leading hosts to
+battle.
+
+He laid the Girl on the bed and covered her, and called
+Granny Moreland to sit beside her a few minutes.  He
+went into the gold garden and proposed that the doctor
+and the nurse go rowing until supper time, and they
+went with alacrity.  When they started he returned to
+the Girl and, sitting beside her, he told Granny to take
+a nap.  Then he began to talk softly all about wild music,
+and how it was made, and what the different odours
+sweeping down the hill were, and when the red leaves
+would come, and the nuts rattle down, and the frost
+fairies enamel the windows, and soon she was sound asleep. 
+Granny came back, and the Harvester walked around
+the lake shore to be alone a while and think quietly,
+for he was almost too dazed and bewildered for full
+realization.
+
+As he softly followed the foot path he heard voices,
+and looking down, he saw the boat lying in the shade and
+beneath a big tree on the bank sat the doctor and the
+nurse.  His arm was around her, and her head was on
+his shoulder; and she said very distinctly, ``How long
+will it be until we can go without offending him?''
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A VERTICAL SPINE
+
+By middle September the last trace of illness
+had been removed from the premises, and it
+was rapidly disappearing from the face and form
+of the Girl.  She was showing a beautiful roundness,
+there was lovely colour on her cheeks and lips, and in
+her dark eyes sparkled a touch of mischief.  Rigidly
+she followed the rules laid down for diet and exercise,
+and as strength flowed through her body, and no trace
+of pain tormented her, she began revelling in new and
+delightful sensations.  She loved to pull her boat as
+she willed, drive over the wood road, study the books,
+cook the new dishes, rearrange furniture, and go with
+the Harvester everywhere.
+
+But that was greatly the management of the man. 
+He was so afraid that something might happen to undo
+all the wonders accomplished in the Girl, and again
+whiten her face with pain, that he scarcely allowed her
+out of his sight.  He remained in the cabin, helping
+when she worked, and then drove with her and a big
+blanket to the woods, arranged her chair and table,
+found some attractive subject, and while the wind
+ravelled her hair and flushed her cheeks, her fingers
+drew designs.  At noon they went to the cabin to lunch,
+and the Girl took a nap, while the Harvester spread
+his morning's reaping on the shelves to dry.  They
+returned to the woods until five o'clock; then home again
+and the Girl dressed and prepared supper, while the
+Harvester spread his stores and fed the stock.  Then
+he put on white clothing for the evening.  The Girl
+rested while he washed the dishes, and they explored
+the lake in the little motor boat, or drove to the city
+for supplies, or to see their friends.
+
+``Are you even with your usual work at this time of
+the year?'' she asked as they sat at breakfast.
+
+``I am,'' said the Harvester.  ``The only things that
+have been crowded out are the candlesticks.  They
+will have to remain on the shelf until the herbs and roots
+are all in, and the long winter evenings come.  Then
+I'll use the luna pattern and finish yours first of all.''
+
+``What are you going to do to-day?''
+
+``Start on a regular fall campaign.  Some of it for the
+sake of having it, and some because there is good money
+in it.  Will you come?''
+
+``Indeed yes.  May I help, or shall I take my drawing
+along?''
+
+``Bring your drawing.  Next fall you may help, but as
+yet you are too close suffering for me to see you do anything
+that might be even a slight risk.  I can't endure it.''
+
+``Baby!'' she jeered.
+
+``Christen me anything you please,'' laughed the
+Harvester.  ``I'm short on names anyway.''
+
+He went to harness Betsy, and the Girl washed the
+dishes, straightened the rooms, and collected her drawing
+material.  Then she walked up the hill, wearing a shirt
+and short skirt of khaki, stout shoes, and a straw hat
+that shaded her face.  She climbed into the wagon,
+laid the drawing box on the seat, and caught the lines
+as the Harvester flung them to her.  He went swinging
+ahead, Belshazzar to heel, the Girl driving after.  The
+white pigeons circled above, and every day Ajax allowed
+his curiosity to overcome his temper, and followed a
+little farther.
+
+``Whoa, Betsy!'' The Girl tugged at the lines; but
+Betsy took the bit between her teeth, and plodded after
+the Harvester.  She pulled with all her might, but her
+strength was not nearly sufficient to stop the stubborn
+animal.
+
+``Whoa, David!'' cried the Girl.
+
+``What is it?'' the Harvester turned.
+
+``Won't you please wait until I can take off my hat? 
+I love to ride bareheaded through the woods, and Betsy
+won't stop until you do, no matter how hard I pull.''
+
+``Betsy, you're no lady!'' said the Harvester.  ``Why
+don't you stop when you're told?''
+
+``I shan't waste any more strength on her,'' said the
+Girl.  ``Hereafter I shall say, `Gee, David,' `Haw, David,'
+`Whoa, David,' and then she will do exactly as you.''
+
+The Harvester stopped half way up the hill, and
+beside a large, shaded bed spread the rug, and set up the
+little table and chair for the Girl.
+
+``Want a plant to draw?'' he asked.  ``This is very
+important to us.  It has a string of names as long as a
+princess, but I call it goldenseal, because the roots are
+yellow.  The chemists ask for hydrastis.  That sounds
+formidable, but it's a cousin of buttercups.  The woods
+of Ohio and Indiana produce the finest that ever grew,
+but it is so nearly extinct now that the trade can be
+supplied by cultivation only.  I suspect I'm responsible
+for its disappearance around here.  I used to get a dollar
+fifty a pound, and most of my clothes and books when
+a boy I owe to it.  Now I get two for my finest grade;
+that accounts for the size of these beds.''
+
+``It's pretty!'' said the Girl, studying a plant
+averaging a foot in height.  On a slender, round, purplish
+stem arose one big, rough leaf, heavily veined, and having
+from five to nine lobes.  Opposite was a similar leaf,
+but very small, and a head of scarlet berries resembling a
+big raspberry in shape.  The Harvester shook the
+black woods soil from the yellow roots, and held up the
+plant.
+
+``You won't enjoy the odour,'' he said.
+
+``Well I like the leaves.  I know I can use them some
+way.  They are so unusual.  What wonderful colour in
+the roots!''
+
+``One of its names is Indian paint,'' explained the
+Harvester.  ``Probably it furnished the squaws of these
+woods with colouring matter.  Now let's see what we
+can get out of it.  You draw the plant and I'll dig the
+roots.''
+
+For a time the Girl bent over her work and the
+Harvester was busy.  Belshazzar ranged the woods chasing
+chipmunks.  The birds came asking questions.  When
+the drawing was completed, other subjects were found
+at every turn, and the Girl talked almost constantly,
+her face alive with interest.  The May-apple beds lay
+close, and she drew from them.  She learned the uses
+and prices of the plant, and also made drawings of
+cohosh, moonseed and bloodroot.  That was so wonderful
+in its root colour, the Harvester filled the little cup
+with water and she began to paint.  Intensely absorbed
+she bent above the big, notched, silvery leaves and
+the blood-red roots, testing and trying to match them
+exactly.  Every few minutes the Harvester leaned over
+her shoulder to see how she was progressing and to
+offer suggestions.  When she finished she picked up a
+trailing vine of moonseed.
+
+``You have this on the porch,'' she said.  ``I think it
+is lovely.  There is no end to the beautiful combinations
+of leaves, and these are such pretty little grape-like
+clusters; but if you touch them the slightest you soil
+the wonderful surface.''
+
+``And that makes the fairies very sad,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``They love that vine best of any, because
+they paint its fruit with the most care.  `Bloom' the
+scientists call it.  You see it on cultivated plums, grapes,
+and apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed
+and black haws in the woods.  You should be able
+to design a number of pretty things from the cohosh
+leaves and berries, too.  You scarcely can get a start
+this fall, but early in the spring you can begin, and follow
+the season.  If your work comes out well this winter,
+I'll send some of it to the big publishing houses, and
+you can make book and magazine covers and decorations,
+if you would like.''
+
+`` `If I would like!'  How modest!  You know perfectly
+well that if I could make a design that would be
+accepted, and used on a book or magazine, I would almost
+fly.  Oh do you suppose I could?''
+
+``I don't `suppose' anything about it, I know,'' said
+the Harvester.  ``It is not possible that the public can
+be any more tired of wild roses, golden-rod, and swallows
+than the poor art editors who accept them because
+they can't help themselves.  Dangle something fresh
+and new under their noses and see them snap.  The next
+time I go to Onabasha I'll get you some popular magazines,
+and you can compare what is being used with
+what you see here, and judge for yourself how glad they
+would be for a change.  And potteries, arts and crafts
+shops, and wall paper factories, they'd be crazy for the
+designs I could furnish them.  As for money, there's
+more in it than the herbs, if I only could draw.''
+
+``I can do that,'' said the Girl.  ``Trail the vine and
+give me an idea how to scale it.  I'll just make studies
+now, and this winter I'll conventionalize them and work
+them into patterns.  Won't that be fun?''
+
+``That's more than fun, Ruth,'' said the Harvester
+solemnly.  ``That is creation.  That touches the
+provinces of the Almighty.  That is taking His unknown
+wonders and making them into pleasure and benefit
+for thousands, not to mention filling your face with awe
+divine, and lighting your eyes with interest and ambition. 
+That is life, Ruth.  You are beginning to live right now.''
+
+``I see,'' said the Girl.  ``I understand! I am!''
+
+``You get your subjects now.  When the harvest is
+over I'll show you what I have in my head, and before
+Christmas the fun will begin.''
+
+``What next?''
+
+``Sketch a sarsaparilla plant and this yam vine.  It
+grows on your veranda too----the rattle box, you
+remember.  The leaves and seeding arrangements are
+wonderful.  You can do any number of things with them,
+and all will be new.''
+
+He called her attention to and brought her samples
+of ginger leaves, Indian hemp, queen-of-the-meadow,
+cone-flower, burdock, baneberry, and Indian turnip,
+as he harvested them in turn.  When they came to the
+large beds of orange pleurisy root the Girl cried out with
+pleasure.
+
+``We will take its prosaic features first,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``It is good medicine and worth handling. 
+Forget that!  The Bird Woman calls it butterfly flower. 
+That's better.  Now try to analyze a single bloom of
+this gaudy mass, and you will see why there's poetry
+coming.''
+
+He knelt beside the Girl, separating the blooms and
+pointing out their marvellous colour and construction. 
+She leaned against his shoulder, and watched with breathless
+interest.  As his bare head brought its mop of damp
+wind-rumpled hair close, she ran her fingers through it,
+and with her handkerchief wiped his forehead.
+
+``Sometimes I almost wish you'd get sick,'' she said
+irrelevantly.
+
+``In the name of common sense, why?'' demanded the
+Harvester.
+
+``Oh it must be born in the heart of a woman to want
+to mother something,'' answered the Girl.  ``I feel
+sometimes as if I would like to take care of you, as if
+you were a little fellow.  David, I know why your mother
+fought to make you the man she desired.  You must
+have been charming when small.  I can shut my eyes
+and just see the boy you were, and I should have loved
+you as she did.''
+
+``How about the man I am?'' inquired the Harvester
+promptly.  ``Any leanings toward him yet, Ruth?''
+
+``It's getting worser and worser every day and hour,''
+said the Girl.  ``I don't understand it at all.  I wouldn't
+try to live without you.  I don't want you to leave my
+sight.  Everything you do is the way I would have it. 
+Nothing you ever say shocks or offends me.  I'd love
+to render you any personal service.  I want to take you
+in my arms and hug you tight half a dozen times a
+day as a reward for the kind and lovely things you do
+for me.''
+
+A dull red flamed up the neck and over the face of the
+Harvester.  One arm lifted to the chair back, the other
+dropped across the table so that the Girl was almost
+encircled.
+
+``For the love of mercy, Ruth, why haven't I had a
+hint of this before?'' he cried.
+
+``You said you'd hate me.  You said you'd drop me
+into the deepest part of the lake if I deceived you; and
+if I have to tell the truth, why, that is all of it.  I think
+it is nonsense about some wonderful feeling that is going
+to take possession of your heart when you love any one. 
+I love you so much I'd gladly suffer to save you pain or
+sorrow.  But there are no thrills; it's just steady, sober,
+common sense that I should love you, and I do.  Why
+can't you be satisfied with what I can give, David?''
+
+``Because it's husks and ashes,'' said the Harvester
+grimly.  ``You drive me to desperation, Ruth.  I am
+almost wild for your love, but what you offer me is plain,
+straight affection, nothing more.  There isn't a trace of
+the feeling that should exist between man and wife in it. 
+Some men might be satisfied to be your husband, and
+be regarded as a father or brother.  I am not.  The red
+bird didn't want a sister, Ruth, he was asking for a mate. 
+So am I.  That's as plain as I know how to put it. 
+There is some way to awaken you into a living, loving
+woman, and, please God, I'll find it yet, but I'm slow
+about it; there's no question of that.  Never you mind! 
+Don't worry!  Some of these days I have faith to believe
+it will sweep you as a tide sweeps the shore, and then I
+hope God will be good enough to let me be where you
+will land in my arms.''
+
+The Girl sat looking at him between narrowed lids. 
+Suddenly she took his head between her hands, drew his
+face to hers and deliberately kissed him.  Then she drew
+away and searched his eyes.
+
+``There!'' she challenged.  ``What is the matter with
+that?''
+
+The Harvester's colour slowly faded to a sickly white.
+
+``Ruth, you try me almost beyond human endurance,''
+he said.  `` `What's the matter with that?' ''  He arose,
+stepped back, folded his arms, and stared at her.  `` `What's
+the matter with that?' '' he repeated.  ``Never was I so
+sorely tempted in all my life as I am now to lie to you,
+and say there is nothing, and take you in my arms and
+try to awaken you to what I mean by love.  But suppose
+I do----and fail!  Then comes the agony of slow endurance
+for me, and the possibility that any day you may
+meet the man who can arouse in you the feelings I
+cannot.  That would mean my oath broken, and my heart
+as well; while soon you would dislike me beyond tolerance,
+even.  I dare not risk it!  The matter is, that was the
+loving caress of a ten-year-old girl to a big brother she
+admired.  That's all!  Not much, but a mighty big
+defect when it is offered a strong man as fuel on which
+to feed consuming passion.''
+
+``Consuming passion,'' repeated the Girl.  ``David
+you never lie, and you never exaggerate.  Do you
+honestly mean that there is something----oh, there is! 
+I can see it!  You are really suffering, and if I come to
+you, and try my best to comfort you, you'll only call it
+baby affection that you don't want.  David, what am
+I going to do?''
+
+``You are going to the cabin,'' said the Harvester, ``and
+cook us a big supper.  I am dreadfully hungry.  I'll be along
+presently.  Don't worry, Ruth, you are all right!  That
+kiss was lovely.  Tell me that you are not angry with me.''
+
+Her eyes were wet as she smiled at him.
+
+``If there is a bigger brute than a man anywhere on the
+footstool, I should like to meet it,'' said the Harvester,
+``and see what it appears like.  Go along, honey; I'll
+be there as soon as I load.''
+
+He drove to the dry-house, washed and spread his
+reaping on the big trays, fed the stock, dressed in the
+white clothing and entered the kitchen.  That the Girl
+had been crying was obvious, but he overlooked it,
+helped with the work, and then they took a boat ride. 
+When they returned he proposed that she should select
+her favourite likeness of her mother, and the next time
+he went to the city he would take it with his, and order
+the enlargements he had planned.  To save carrying a
+lighted lamp into the closet he brought her little trunk
+to the living-room, where she opened it and hunted the
+pictures.  There were several, and all of them were of a
+young, elegantly dressed woman of great beauty.  The
+Harvester studied them long.
+
+``Who was she, Ruth?'' he asked at last.
+
+``I don't know, and I have no desire to learn.''
+
+``Can you explain how the girl here represented came
+to marry a brother of Henry Jameson?''
+
+``Yes.  I was past twelve when my father came the
+last time, and I remember him distinctly.  If Uncle
+Henry were properly clothed, he is not a bad man in
+appearance, unless he is very angry.  He can use proper
+language, if he chooses.  My father was the best in him,
+refined and intensified.  He was much taller, very good
+looking, and he dressed and spoke well.  They were
+born and grew to manhood in the East, and came out
+here at the same time.  Where Uncle Henry is a trickster
+and a trader in stock, my father went a step higher, and
+tricked and traded in men----and women!  Mother
+told me this much once.  He saw her somewhere and
+admired her.  He learned who she was, went to her
+father's law office and pretended he was representing
+some great business in the West, until he was welcomed
+as a promising client.  He hung around and when she
+came in one day her father was forced to introduce them.
+The remainder is the same world-old story----a good
+looking, glib-tongued man, plying every art known to
+an expert, on an innocent girl.''
+
+``Is he dead, Ruth?''
+
+``We thought so.  We hoped so.''
+
+``Your mother did not feel that her people might be
+suffering for her as she was for them?''
+
+``Not after she appealed to them twice and received
+no reply.''
+
+``Perhaps they tried to find her.  Maybe she has a
+father or mother who is longing for word from her now. 
+Are you very sure you are right in not wanting to know?''
+
+``She never gave me a hint from which I could tell
+who or where they were.  In so gentle a woman as my
+mother that only could mean she did not want them to
+know of her.  Neither do I.  This is the photograph
+I prefer; please use it.''
+
+``I'll put back the trunk in the morning, when I can
+see better,'' said the Harvester.
+
+The Girl closed it, and soon went to bed.  But there
+was no sleep for the man.  He went into the night, and
+for hours he paced the driveway in racking thought. 
+Then he sat on the step and looked at Belshazzar before
+him.
+
+``Life's growing easier every minute, Bel,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``Here's my Dream Girl, lovely as the most
+golden instant of that wonderful dream, offering me----
+offering me, Bel----in my present pass, the lips and the
+love of my little sister who never was born.  And I've
+hurt Ruth's feelings, and sent her to bed with a heartache,
+trying to make her see that it won't do.  It won't,
+Bel!  If I can't have genuine love, I don't want anything. 
+I told her so as plainly as I could find words, and set her
+crying, and made her unhappy to end a wonderful day. 
+But in some way she has got to learn that propinquity,
+tolerance, approval, affection, even----is not love.  I
+can't take the risk, after all these years of waiting for
+the real thing.  If I did, and love never came, I would end
+----well, I know how I would end----and that would
+spoil her life.  I simply have got to brace up, Bel, and
+keep on trying.  She thinks it is nonsense about thrills,
+and some wonderful feeling that takes possession of
+you.  Lord, Bel!  There isn't much nonsense about the
+thing that rages in my brain, heart, soul, and body.  It
+strikes me as the gravest reality that ever overtook a
+man.
+
+``She is growing wonderfully attached to me.  `Couldn't
+live without me,' Bel, that is what she said.  Maybe
+it would be a scheme to bring Granny here to stay with
+her, and take a few months in some city this winter on
+those chemical points that trouble me.  There is an old
+saying about `absence making the heart grow fonder.' 
+Maybe separation is the thing to work the trick.  I've
+tried about everything else I know.
+
+``But I'm in too much of a hurry!  What a fool a
+man is!  A few weeks ago, Bel, I said to myself that if
+Harmon were away and had no part in her life I'd be
+the happiest man alive.  Happiest man alive!  Bel,
+take a look at me now!  Happy!  Well, why shouldn't
+I be happy?  She is here.  She is growing in strength and
+beauty every hour.  She cares more for me day by day. 
+From an outside viewpoint it seems as if I had almost
+all a man could ask in reason.  But when was a strong
+man in the grip of love ever reasonable?  I think the
+Almighty took a pretty grave responsibility when He
+made men as He did.  If I had been He, and understood
+the forces I was handling, I would have been too
+big a coward to do it.  There is nothing for me, Bel, but
+to move on doing my level best; and if she doesn't
+awaken soon, I will try the absent treatment.  As sure
+as you are the most faithful dog a man ever owned, Bel,
+I'll try the absent treatment.''
+
+The Harvester arose and entered the cabin, stepping
+softly, for it was dark in the Girl's room, and he could
+not hear a sound there.  He turned up the lights in the
+living-room.  As he did so the first thing he saw was the
+little trunk.  He looked at it intently, then picked up a
+book.  Every page he turned he glanced again at the
+trunk.  At last he laid down the book and sat staring,
+his brain working rapidly.  He ended by carrying the
+trunk to his room.  He darkened the living-room,
+lighted his own, drew the rain screens, and piece by piece
+carefully examined the contents.  There were the
+pictures, but the name of the photographer had been
+removed.  There was not a word that would help in
+identification.  He emptied it to the bottom, and as
+he picked up the last piece his fingers struck in a
+peculiar way that did not give the impression of touching
+a solid surface.  He felt over it carefully, and when he
+examined with a candle he plainly could see where the
+cloth lining had been cut and lifted.
+
+For a long time he knelt staring at it, then he
+deliberately inserted his knife blade and raised it.  The
+cloth had been glued to a heavy sheet of pasteboard the
+exact size of the trunk bottom.  Beneath it lay half a
+dozen yellow letters, and face down two tissue-wrapped
+photographs.  The Harvester examined them first.  They
+were of a man close forty, having a strong, aggressive
+face, on which pride and dominant will power were
+prominently indicated.  The other was a reproduction
+of a dainty and delicate woman, with exquisitely tender
+and gentle features.  Long the Harvester studied them. 
+The names of the photographer and the city were missing. 
+There was nothing except the faces.  He could detect
+traces of the man in the poise of the Girl and the carriage
+of her head, and suggestions of the woman in the refined
+sweetness of her expression.  Each picture represented
+wealth in dress and taste in pose.  Finally he laid them
+together on the table, picked up one of the letters, and
+read it.  Then he read all of them.
+
+Before he finished, tears were running down his cheeks,
+and his resolution was formed.  These were the appeals
+of an adoring mother, crazed with fear for the safety of
+an only child, who unfortunately had fallen under the
+influence of a man the mother dreaded and feared, because
+of her knowledge of life and men of his character.  They
+were one long, impassioned plea for the daughter not
+to trust a stranger, not to believe that vows of passion
+could be true when all else in life was false, not to trust
+her untried judgment of men and the world against the
+experience of her parents.  But whether the tears that
+stained those sheets had fallen from the eyes of the
+suffering mother or the starved and deserted daughter,
+there was no way for the Harvester to know.  One
+thing was clear:  It was not possible for him to rest
+until he knew if that woman yet lived and bore such
+suffering.  But every trace of address had been
+torn away, and there was nothing to indicate where
+or in what circumstances these letters had been written.
+
+A long time the Harvester sat in deep thought.  Then
+he returned all the letters save one.  This with the
+pictures he made into a packet that he locked in his
+desk.  The trunk he replaced and then went to bed. 
+Early the next morning he drove to Onabasha and posted
+the parcel.  The address it bore was that of the largest
+detective agency in the country.  Then he bought an
+interesting book, a box of fruit, and hurried back to the
+Girl.  He found her on the veranda, Belshazzar stretched
+close with one eye shut and the other on his charge,
+whose cheeks were flushed with lovely colour as she bent
+over her drawing material.  The Harvester went to
+her with a rush, and slipping his fingers under her chin,
+tilted back her head against him.
+
+``Got a kiss for me, honey?'' he inquired.
+
+``No sir,'' answered the Girl emphatically.  ``I gave
+you a perfectly lovely one yesterday, and you said it
+was not right.  I am going to try just once more, and
+if you say again that it won't do, I'm going back to
+Chicago or to my dear Uncle Henry, I haven't decided
+which.''
+
+Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were full of tears.
+
+``Why thank you, Ruth!  I think that is wonderful,''
+said the Harvester.  ``I'll risk the next one.  In the
+meantime, excuse me if I give you a demonstration
+of the real thing, just to furnish you an idea of how it
+should be.''
+
+The Harvester delivered the sample, and went striding
+to the marsh.  The dazed Girl sat staring at her work,
+trying to realize what had happened; for that was the
+first time the Harvester had kissed her on the lips, and
+it was the material expression a strong man gives the
+woman he loves when his heart is surging at high tide. 
+The Girl sat motionless, gazing at her study.
+
+In the marsh she knew the Harvester was reaping
+queen-of-the-meadow, and around the high borders,
+elecampane and burdock.  She could hear his voice
+in snatches of song or cheery whistle; notes that she
+divined were intended to keep her from worrying.  Intermingled
+with them came the dog's bark of defiance as
+he digged for an escaping chipmunk, his note of pleading
+when he wanted a root cut with the mattock, his cry of
+discovery when he thought he had found something the
+Harvester would like, or his yelp of warning when he
+scented danger.  The Girl looked down the drive to
+the lake and across at the hedge.  Everywhere she saw
+glowing colour, with intermittent blue sky and green
+leaves, all of it a complete picture, from which nothing
+could be spared.  She turned slowly and looked toward
+the marsh, trying to hear the words of the song above
+the ripple of Singing Water, and to see the form of the
+man.  Slowly she lifted her handkerchief and pressed
+it against her lips, as she whispered in an awed voice,
+
+``My gracious Heaven, is THAT the kind of a kiss he is
+expecting me to give HIM?  Why, I couldn't----not to
+save my life.''
+
+She placed her brushes in water, set the colour box
+on the paper, and went to the kitchen to prepare the
+noon lunch.  As she worked the soft colour deepened
+in her cheeks, a new light glowed in her eyes, and she
+hummed over the tune that floated across the marsh. 
+She was very busy when the Harvester came, but he
+spoke casually of his morning's work, ate heartily, and
+ordered her to take a nap while he washed roots and
+filled the trays, and then they went to the woods
+together for the afternoon.
+
+In the evening they came home to the cabin and finished
+the day's work.  As the night was chilly, the Harvester
+heaped some bark in the living-room fireplace, and lay
+on the rug before it, while the Girl sat in an easy chair
+and watched him as he talked.  He was telling her
+about some wonderful combinations he was going to
+compound for different ailments and he laughingly
+asked her if she wanted to be a millionaire's wife and
+live in a palace.
+
+``Of course I could if I wanted to!'' she suggested.
+
+``You could!'' cried the Harvester.  ``All that is
+necessary is to combine a few proper drugs in one great
+remedy and float it.  That is easy!  The people will do the
+remainder.''
+
+``You talk as if you believe that,'' marvelled the Girl.
+
+``Want it proven?'' challenged the Harvester.
+
+``No!'' she cried in swift alarm.  ``What do we want
+with more than we have?  What is there necessary
+to happiness that is not ours now?  Maybe it is true
+that the `love of money is the root of all evil.'  Don't
+you ever get a lot just to find out.  You said the night
+I came here that you didn't want more than you had
+and now I don't.  I won't have it!  It might bring
+restlessness and discontent.  I've seen it make other
+people unhappy and separate them.  I don't want money,
+I want work.  You make your remedies and offer them
+to suffering humanity for just a living profit, and I'll
+keep house and draw designs.  I am perfectly happy,
+free, and unspeakably content.  I never dreamed that
+it was possible for me to be so glad, and so filled with
+the joy of life.  There is only one thing on earth I want. 
+If I only could----''
+
+``Could what, Ruth?''
+
+``Could get that kiss right----''
+
+The Harvester laughed.
+
+``Forget it, I tell you!'' he commanded.  ``Just so
+long as you worry and fret, so long I've got to wait.  If
+you quit thinking about it, all `unbeknownst' to yourself
+you'll awake some morning with it on your lips.  I
+can see traces of it growing stronger every day.  Very
+soon now it's going to materialize, and then get out of
+my way, for I'll be a whirling, irresponsible lunatic,
+with the wild joy of it.  Oh I've got faith in that kiss
+of yours, Ruth!  It's on the way.  The fates have
+booked it.  There isn't a reason on earth why I should
+be served so scurvy a trick as to miss it, and I never will
+believe that I shall----''
+
+``David,'' interrupted the Girl, ``go on talking and
+don't move a muscle, just reach over presently and fix
+the fire or something, and then turn naturally and look
+at the window beside your door.''
+
+``Shall miss it,'' said the Harvester steadily. 
+``That would be too unmerciful.  What do you see,
+Ruth?''
+
+``A face.  If I am not greatly mistaken, it is my
+Uncle Henry and he appears like a perfect fiend.  Oh
+David, I am afraid!''
+
+``Be quiet and don't look,'' said the Harvester.
+
+He turned and tossed a piece of bark on the fire. 
+Then he reached for the poker, pushed it down and
+stirred the coals.  He arose as he worked.
+
+``Rise slowly and quietly and go to your room.  Stay
+there until I call you.''
+
+With the Girl out of the way, the Harvester pottered
+over the fire, and when the flame leaped he lifted a stick
+of wood, hesitated as if it were too small, and laying it
+down, started to bring a larger one.  In the dining-
+room he caught a small stick from the wood box, softly
+stepped from the door, and ran around the house.  But
+he awakened Belshazzar on the kitchen floor, and the
+dog barked and ran after him.  By the time the Harvester
+reached the corner of his room the man leaped upon
+a horse and went racing down the drive.  The Harvester
+flung the stick of wood, but missed the man and hit
+the horse.  The dog sprang past the Harvester and
+vanished.  There was the sound and flash of a revolver,
+and the rattle of the bridge as the horse crossed it.  The
+dog came back unharmed.  The Harvester ran to the
+telephone, called the Onabasha police, and asked them
+to send a mounted man to meet the intruder before he
+could reach a cross road; but they were too slow and
+missed him.  However, the Girl was certain she had
+recognized her uncle, and was extremely nervous; but
+the Harvester only laughed and told her it was a trip
+made out of curiosity.  Her uncle wanted to see if
+he could learn if she were well and happy, and he finally
+convinced her that this was the case, although he was
+not very sanguine himself.
+
+For the next three days the Harvester worked in the
+woods and he kept the Girl with him every minute. 
+By the end of that time he really had persuaded himself
+that it was merely curiosity.  So through the cooling
+fall days they worked together.  They were very happy. 
+Before her wondering eyes the Harvester hung queer
+branches, burs, nuts, berries, and trailing vines with
+curious seed pods.  There were masses of brilliant
+flowers, most of them strange to the Girl, many to the
+great average of humanity.  While she sat bending over
+them, beside her the Harvester delved in the black earth
+of the woods, or the clay and sand of the open hillside,
+or the muck of the lake shore, and lifted large bagfuls
+of roots that he later drenched on the floating raft on
+the lake, and when they had drained he dried them. 
+Some of them he did not wet, but scraped and wiped
+clean and dry.  Often after she was sleeping, and long
+before she awoke in the morning, he was at work carry-
+ing heaped trays from the evaporator to the store-
+room, and tying the roots, leaves, bark, and seeds into
+packages.
+
+While he gathered trillium roots the Girl made
+drawings of the plant and learned its commercial value. 
+She drew lady's slipper and Solomon's seal, and learned
+their uses and prices; and carefully traced wild ginger
+leaves while nibbling the aromatic root.  It was difficult
+to keep from protesting when the work carried them
+around the lake shore and to the pokeberry beds, for the
+colour of these she loved.  It required careful explanation
+as to the value of the roots and seeds as blood purifier,
+and the argument that in a few more days the frost
+would level the bed, to induce her to consent to its
+harvesting.  But when the case was properly presented,
+she put aside her drawing and stained her slender fingers
+gathering the seeds, and loved the work.
+
+The sun was golden on the lake, the birds of the upland
+were clustering over reeds and rushes, for the sake of
+plentiful seed and convenient water.  Many of them
+sang fitfully, the notes of almost all of them were
+melodious, and the day was a long, happy dream.  There
+was but little left to gather until ginseng time.  For
+that the Harvester had engaged several boys to help
+him, for the task of digging the roots, washing and drying
+them, burying part of the seeds and preparing the
+remainder for market seemed endless for one man to
+attempt.  After a full day the Harvester lay before the
+fire, and his head was so close the Girl's knee that her
+fingers were in reach of his hair.  Every time he mended
+the fire he moved a little, until he could feel the touch
+of her garments against him.  Then he began to plan
+for the winter; how they would store food for the long,
+cold days, how much fuel would be required, when
+they would go to the city for their winter clothing,
+what they would read, and how they would work together
+at the drawings.
+
+``I am almost too anxious to wait longer to get back
+to my carving,'' he said.  ``Whoever would have thought
+this spring that fall would come and find the birds talking
+of going, the caterpillars spinning winter quarters, the
+animals holing up, me getting ready for the cold, and
+your candlesticks not finished.  Winter is when you
+really need them.  Then there is solid cheer in numbers
+of candles and a roaring wood fire.  The furnace is going
+to be a good thing to keep the floors and the bathroom
+warm, but an open fire of dry, crackling wood is the
+only rational source of heat in a home.  You must
+watch for the fairy dances on the backwall, Ruth, and
+learn to trace goblin faces in the coals.  Sometimes there
+is a panorama of temples and trees, and you will find
+exquisite colour in the smoke.  Dry maple makes a
+lovely lavender, soft and fine as a floating veil, and damp
+elm makes a blue, and hickory red and yellow.  I almost
+can tell which wood is burning after the bark is gone, by
+the smoke and flame colour.  When the little red fire
+fairies come out and dance on the backwall it is fun
+to figure what they are celebrating.  By the way, Ruth,
+I have been a lamb for days.  I hope you have observed! 
+But I would sleep a little sounder to-night if you only
+could give me a hint whether that kiss is coming on
+at all.''
+
+He tipped back his head to see her face, and it was
+glorious in the red firelight; the big eyes never appeared
+so deep and dark.  The tilted head struck her hand,
+and her fingers ran through his hair.
+
+``You said to forget it,'' she reminded him, ``and then
+it would come sooner.''
+
+``Which same translated means that it is not here yet. 
+Well, I didn't expect it, so I am not disappointed; but
+begorry, I do wish it would materialize by Christmas. 
+I think I will work for that.  Wouldn't it make a day
+worth while, though?  By the way, what do you want
+for Christmas, Ruth?''
+
+``A doll,'' she answered.
+
+The Harvester laughed.  He tipped his head again
+to see her face and suddenly grew quiet, for it was very
+serious.
+
+``I am quite in earnest,'' she said.  ``I think the big
+dolls in the stores are beautiful, and I never owned only
+a teeny little one.  All my life I've wanted a big doll as
+badly as I ever longed for anything that was not absolutely
+necessary to keep me alive.  In fact, a doll is
+essential to a happy childhood.  The mother instinct
+is so ingrained in a girl that if she doesn't have dolls
+to love, even as a baby, she is deprived of a part of her
+natural rights.  It's a pitiful thing to have been the
+little girl in the picture who stands outside the window
+and gazes with longing soul at the doll she is anxious
+to own and can't ever have.  Harvester, I was always
+that little girl.  I am quite in earnest.  I want a big,
+beautiful doll more than anything else.''
+
+As she talked the Girl's fingers were idly threading
+the Harvester's hair.  His head lightly touched her
+knee, and she shifted her position to afford him a
+comfortable resting place.  With a thrill of delight that
+shook him, the man laid his head in her lap and looked
+into the fire, his face glowing as a happy boy's.
+
+``You shall have the loveliest doll that money can buy,
+Ruth,'' he promised.  ``What else do you want?''
+
+``A roasted goose, plum pudding, and all those horrid
+indigestible things that Christmas stories always tell
+about; and popcorn balls, and candy, and everything
+I've always wanted and never had, and a long beautiful
+day with you.  That's all!''
+
+``Ruth, I'm so happy I almost wish I could go to
+Heaven right now before anything occurs to spoil this,''
+said the Harvester.
+
+The wheels of a car rattled across the bridge.  He
+whirled to his knees, and put his arms around the
+Girl.
+
+``Ruth,'' he said huskily.  ``I'll wager a thousand
+dollars I know what is coming.  Hug me tight, quick!
+and give me the best kiss you can----any old kind of a
+one, so you touch my lips with yours before I've got
+to open that door and let in trouble.''
+
+The Girl threw her arms around his neck and with the
+imprint of her lips warm on his the Harvester crossed
+the room, and his heart dropped from the heights with a
+thud.  He stepped out, closing the door behind him, and
+crossing the veranda, passed down the walk.  He recognized
+the car as belonging to a garage in Onabasha, and
+in it sat two men, one of whom spoke.
+
+``Are you David Langston?''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``Did you send a couple of photographs to a New
+York detective agency a few days ago with inquiries
+concerning some parties you wanted located?''
+
+``I did,'' said the Harvester.  ``But I was not expecting
+any such immediate returns.''
+
+``Your questions touched on a case that long has been
+in the hands of the agency, and they telegraphed the
+parties.  The following day the people had a letter,
+giving them the information they required, from another
+source.''
+
+``That is where Uncle Henry showed his fine Spencerian
+hand,'' commented the Harvester.  ``It always
+will be a great satisfaction that I got my fist in first.''
+
+``Is Miss Jameson here?''
+
+``No,'' said the Harvester.  ``My wife is at home.  Her
+surname was Ruth Jameson, but we have been married
+since June.  Did you wish to speak with Mrs. Langston?''
+
+``I came for that purpose.  My name is Kennedy. 
+I am the law partner and the closest friend of the young
+lady's grandfather.  News of her location has prostrated
+her grandmother so that he could not leave her, and I
+was sent to bring the young woman.''
+
+``Oh!'' said the Harvester.  ``Well you will have to
+interview her about that.  One word first.  She does
+not know that I sent those pictures and made that
+inquiry.  One other word.  She is just recovering from
+a case of fever, induced by wrong conditions of life
+before I met her.  She is not so strong as she appears. 
+Understand you are not to be abrupt.  Go very gently! 
+Her feelings and health must be guarded with extreme
+care.''
+
+The Harvester opened the door, and as she saw the
+stranger, the Girl's eyes widened, and she arose and
+stood waiting.
+
+``Ruth,'' said the Harvester, ``this is a man who has
+been making quite a search for you, and at last he has
+you located.''
+
+The Harvester went to the Girl's side, and put a
+reinforcing arm around her.
+
+``Perhaps he brings you some news that will make
+life most interesting and very lovely for you.  Will
+you shake hands with Mr. Kennedy?''
+
+The Girl suddenly straightened to unusual height.
+
+``I will hear why he has been making `quite a search
+for me,' and on whose authority he has me `located,'
+first,'' she said.
+
+A diabolical grin crossed the face of the Harvester,
+and he took heart.
+
+``Then please be seated, Mr. Kennedy,'' he said,
+``and we will talk over the matter.  As I understand,
+you are a representative of my wife's people.''
+
+The Girl stared at the Harvester.
+
+``Take your chair, Ruth, and meet this as a matter
+of course,'' he advised casually.  ``You always have
+known that some day it must come.  You couldn't
+look in the face of those photographs of your mother
+in her youth and not realize that somewhere hearts
+were aching and breaking, and brains were busy in a
+search for her.''
+
+The Girl stood rigid.
+
+``I want it distinctly understood,'' she said, ``that I
+have no use on earth for my mother's people.  They
+come too late.  I absolutely refuse to see or to hold any
+communication with them.''
+
+``But young lady, that is very arbitrary!'' cried Mr.
+Kennedy.  ``You don't understand!  They are a couple
+of old people, and they are slowly dying of broken hearts!''
+
+``Not so badly broken or they wouldn't die slowly,''
+commented the Girl grimly.  ``The heart that was really
+broken was my mother's.  The torture of a starved,
+overworked body and hopeless brain was hers.  There
+was nothing slow about her death, for she went out with
+only half a life spent, and much of that in acute agony,
+because of their negligence.  David, you often have
+said that this is my home.  I choose to take you at
+your word.  Will you kindly tell this man that he is
+not welcome in this house, and I wish him to leave it
+at once?''
+
+The Harvester stepped back, and his face grew very
+white.
+
+``I can't, Ruth,'' he said gently.
+
+``Why not?''
+
+``Because I brought him here.''
+
+``You brought him here!  You!  David, are you
+crazy?  You!''
+
+``It is through me that he came.''
+
+The Girl caught the mantel for support.
+
+``Then I stand alone again,'' she said.  ``Harvester,
+I had thought you were on my side.''
+
+``I am at your feet,'' said the man in a broken voice. 
+``Ruth dear, will you let me explain?''
+
+``There is only one explanation, and with what you
+have done for me fresh in my mind, I can't put it into
+words.''
+
+``Ruth, hear me!''
+
+``I must!  You force me!  But before you speak
+understand this:  Not now, or through all eternity, do
+I forgive the inexcusable neglect that drove my mother
+to what I witnessed and was helpless to avert.''
+
+``My dear!  My dear!'' said the Harvester, ``I had
+hoped the woods had done a more perfect work in your
+heart.  Your mother is lying in state now, Girl, safe
+from further suffering of any kind; and if I read aright,
+her tired face and shrivelled frame were eloquent of
+forgiveness.  Ruth dear, if she so loved them that her
+heart was broken and she died for them, think what
+they are suffering!  Have some mercy on them.''
+
+``Get this very clear, David,'' said the Girl.  ``She
+died of hunger for food.  Her heart was not so broken
+that she couldn't have lived a lifetime, and got much
+comfort out of it, if her body had not lacked sustenance. 
+Oh I was so happy a minute ago.  David, why did you
+do this thing?''
+
+The Harvester picked up the Girl, placed her in a
+chair, and knelt beside her with his arms around her.
+
+``Because of the PAIN IN THE WORLD, Ruth,'' he said
+simply.  ``Your mother is sleeping sweetly in the long
+sleep that knows neither anger nor resentment; and so
+I was forced to think of a gentle-faced, little old mother
+whose heart is daily one long ache, whose eyes are dim
+with tears, and a proud, broken old man who spends his
+time trying to comfort her, when his life is as desolate
+as hers.''
+
+``How do you know so wonderfully much about their
+aches and broken hearts?''
+
+``Because I have seen their faces when they were happy,
+Ruth, and so I know what suffering would do to them. 
+There were pictures of them and letters in the bottom
+of that old trunk.  I searched it the other night and
+found them; and by what life has done to your mother
+and to you, I can judge what it is now bringing them. 
+Never can you be truly happy, Ruth, until you have
+forgiven them, and done what you can to comfort the
+remainder of their lives.  I did it because of the pain
+in the world, my girl.''
+
+``What about my pain?''
+
+``The only way on earth to cure it is through
+forgiveness.  That, and that only, will ease it all away, and
+leave you happy and free for life and love.  So long as
+you let this rancour eat in your heart, Ruth, you are not,
+and never can be, normal.  You must forgive them,
+dear, hear what they have to say, and give them the
+comfort of seeing what they can discover of her in you. 
+Then your heart will be at rest at last, your soul free,
+you can take your rightful place in life, and the love
+you crave will awaken in your heart.  Ruth, dear you
+are the acme of gentleness and justice.  Be just and
+gentle now!  Give them their chance!  My heart aches,
+and always will ache for the pain you have known, but
+nursing and brooding over it will not cure it.  It is
+going to take a heroic operation to cut it out, and I
+chose to be the surgeon.  You have said that I once
+saved your body from pain Ruth, trust me now to
+free your soul.''
+
+``What do you want?''
+
+``I want you to speak kindly to this man, who through
+my act has come here, and allow him to tell you why
+he came.  Then I want you to do the kind and womanly
+thing your duty suggests that you should.''
+
+``David, I don t understand you!''
+
+``That is no difference,'' said the Harvester.  ``The
+point is, do you TRUST me?''
+
+The Girl hesitated. ``Of course I do,'' she said at
+last.
+
+``Then hear what your grandfather's friend has come
+to say for him, and forget yourself in doing to others
+as you would have them----really, Ruth, that is
+all of religion or of life worth while.  Go on, Mr. Kennedy.''
+
+The Harvester drew up a chair, seated himself beside
+the Girl, and taking one of her hands, he held it closely
+and waited.
+
+``I was sent here by my law partner and my closest
+friend, Mr. Alexander Herron, of Philadelphia,'' said
+the stranger.  ``Both he and Mrs. Herron were bitterly
+opposed to your mother's marriage, because they knew
+life and human nature, and there never is but one end
+to men such as she married.''
+
+``You may omit that,'' said the Girl coldly.  ``Simply
+state why you are here.''
+
+``In response to an inquiry from your husband
+concerning the originals of some photographs he sent to a
+detective agency in New York.  They have had the
+case for years, and recognizing the pictures as a clue,
+they telegraphed Mr. Herron.  The prospect of news
+after years of fruitless searching so prostrated Mrs.
+Herron that he dared not leave her, and he sent me.''
+
+``Kindly tell me this,'' said the Girl.  ``Where were
+my mother's father and mother for the four years
+immediately following her marriage?''
+
+``They went to Europe to avoid the humiliation of
+meeting their friends.  There, in Italy, Mrs. Herron
+developed a fever, and it was several years before she
+could be brought home.  She retired from society, and
+has been confined to her room ever since.  When they
+could return, a search was instituted at once for their
+daughter, but they never have been able to find a trace. 
+They have hunted through every eastern city they
+thought might contain her.''
+
+``And overlooked a little insignificant place like
+Chicago, of course.''
+
+``I myself conducted a personal search there, and
+visited the home of every Jameson in the directory or
+who had mail at the office or of whom I could get a clue
+of any sort.''
+
+``I don't suppose two women in a little garret room
+would be in the directory, and there never was any mail.''
+
+``Did your mother ever appeal to her parents?''
+
+``She did,'' said the Girl.  ``She admitted that she
+had been wrong, asked their forgiveness, and begged to
+go home.  That was in the second year of her marriage,
+and she was in Cleveland.  Afterward she went to
+Chicago, from there she wrote again.''
+
+``Her father and mother were in Italy fighting for the
+mother's life, two years after that.  It is very easy to
+become lost in a large city.  Criminals do it every day
+and are never found, even with the best detectives on
+their trail.  I am very sorry about this.  My friends
+will be broken-hearted.  At any time they would have
+been more than delighted to have had their daughter
+return.  A letter on the day following the message from
+the agency brought news that she was dead, and now
+their only hope for any small happiness at the close of
+years of suffering lies with you.  I was sent to plead
+with you to return with me at once and make them a
+visit.  Of course, their home is yours.  You are their
+only heir, and they would be very happy if you were
+free, and would remain permanently with them.''
+
+``How do they know I will not be like the father they
+so detested?''
+
+``They had sufficient cause to dislike him.  They have
+every reason to love and welcome you.  They are consumed
+with anxiety.  Will you come?''
+
+``No.  This is for me to decide.  I do not care for
+them or their property.  Always they have failed me
+when my distress was unspeakable.  Now there is only
+one thing I ask of life, more than my husband has given
+me, and if that lay in his power I would have it.  You
+may go back and tell them that I am perfectly happy. 
+I have everything I need.  They can give me nothing
+I want, not even their love.  Perhaps, sometime, I will
+go to see them for a few days, if David will go with
+me.''
+
+``Young woman, do you realize that you are issuing
+a death sentence?'' asked the lawyer gently.
+
+``It is a just one.''
+
+``I do not believe your husband agrees with you. 
+I know I do not.  Mrs. Herron is a tiny old lady, with
+a feeble spark of vitality left; and with all her strength
+she is clinging to life, and pleading with it to give her
+word of her only child before she goes out unsatisfied. 
+She knows that her daughter is gone, and now her hopes
+are fastened on you.  If for only a few days, you certainly
+must go with me.''
+
+``I will not!''
+
+The lawyer turned to the Harvester.
+
+``She will be ready to start with you to-morrow morning,
+on the first train north,'' said the Harvester.  ``We
+will meet you at the station at eight.''
+
+``I----I am afraid I forgot to tell my driver to wait.''
+
+``You mean your instructions were not to let the Girl
+out of your sight,'' said the Harvester.  ``Very well! 
+We have comfortable rooms.  I will show you to one. 
+Please come this way.''
+
+The Harvester led the guest to the lake room and
+arranged for the night.  Then he went to the telephone
+and sent a message to an address he had been furnished,
+asking for an immediate reply.  It went to Philadelphia
+and contained a description of the lawyer, and asked if
+he had been sent by Mr. Herron to escort his grand-
+daughter to his home.  When the Harvester returned
+to the living-room the Girl, white and defiant, waited
+before the fire.  He knelt beside her and put his arms
+around her, but she repulsed him; so he sat on the rug
+and looked at her.
+
+``No wonder you felt sure you knew what that was!''
+she cried bitterly.
+
+``Ruth, if you will allow me to lift the bottom of that
+old trunk, and if you will read any one of the half dozen
+letters I read, you will forgive me, and begin making
+preparations to go.''
+
+``It's a wonder you don't hold them before me and
+force me to read them,'' she said.
+
+``Don't say anything you will be sorry for after you
+are gone, dear.''
+
+``I'm not going!''
+
+``Oh yes you are!''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``Because it is right that you should, and right is
+inexorable.  Also, because I very much wish you to;
+you will do it for me.''
+
+``Why do you want me to go?''
+
+``I have three strong reasons:  First, as I told you,
+it is the only thing that will cleanse your heart of
+bitterness and leave it free for the tenanting of a great and
+holy love.  Next, I think they honestly made every
+effort to find your mother, and are now growing old in
+despair you can lighten, and you owe it to them and
+yourself to do it.  Lastly, for my sake.  I've tried
+everything I know, Ruth, and I can't make you love me, or
+bring you to a realizing sense of it if you do.  So before
+I saw that chest I had planned to harvest my big crop,
+and try with all my heart while I did it, and if love
+hadn't come then, I meant to get some one to stay with
+you, and I was going away to give you a free perspective
+for a time.  I meant to plead that I needed a few weeks
+with a famous chemist I know to prepare me better for
+my work.  My real motive was to leave you, and let
+you see if absence could do anything for me in your
+heart.  You've been very nearly the creature of my
+hands for months, my girl; whatever any one else may
+do, you're bound to miss me mightily, and I figured
+that with me away, perhaps you could solve the problem
+alone I seem to fail in helping you with.  This is only
+a slight change of plans.  You are going in my stead. 
+I will harvest the ginseng and cure it, and then, if you
+are not at home, and the loneliness grows unbearable,
+I will take the chemistry course, until you decide when
+you will come, if ever.''
+
+`` `If ever?' ''
+
+``Yes,'' said the Harvester.  ``I am growing
+accustomed to facing big propositions----I will not dodge
+this.  The faces of the three of your people I have seen
+prove refinement.  Their clothing indicates wealth.  These
+long, lonely years mean that they will shower you with
+every outpouring of loving, hungry hearts.  They will
+keep you if they can, my dear.  I do not blame them. 
+The life I propose for you is one of work, mostly for
+others, and the reward, in great part, consists of the joy
+in the soul of the creator of things that help in the world. 
+I realize that you will find wealth, luxury, and lavish
+love.  I know that I may lose you forever, and if it is
+right and best for you, I hope I will.  I know exactly
+what I am risking, but I yet say, go.''
+
+``I don't see how you can, and love me as you prove
+you do.''
+
+``That is a little streak of the inevitableness of nature
+that the forest has ground into my soul.  I'd rather
+cut off my right hand than take yours with it, in the
+parting that will come in the morning; but you are
+going, and I am sending you.  So long as I am shaped
+like a human being, it is in me to dignify the possession
+of a vertical spine by acting as nearly like a man as I
+know how.  I insist that you are my wife, because it
+crucifies me to think otherwise.  I tell you to-night,
+Ruth, you are not and never have been.  You are free
+as air.  You married me without any love for me in
+your heart, and you pretended none.  It was all my
+doing.  If I find that I was wrong, I will free you without
+a thought of results to me.  I am a secondary proposition. 
+I thought then that you were alone and helpless, and
+before the Almighty, I did the best I could.  But I
+know now that you are entitled to the love of relatives,
+wealth, and high social position, no doubt.  If I allowed
+the passion in my heart to triumph over the reason of
+my brain, and worked on your feelings and tied you to
+the woods, without knowing but that you might greatly
+prefer that other life you do not know, but to which
+you are entitled, I would go out and sink myself in
+Loon Lake.''
+
+``David, I love you.  I do not want to go.  Please,
+please let me remain with you.''
+
+``Not if you could say that realizing what it means,
+and give me the kiss right now I would stake my soul
+to win!  Not by any bribe you can think of or any
+allurement you can offer.  It is right that you go to
+those suffering old people.  It is right you know what
+you are refusing for me, before you renounce it.  It is
+right you take the position to which you are entitled,
+until you understand thoroughly whether this suits you
+better.  When you know that life as well as this, the
+people you will meet as intimately as me, then you can
+decide for all time, and I can look you in the face with
+honest, unwavering eye; and if by any chance your
+heart is in the woods, and you prefer me and the cabin
+to what they have to offer----to all eternity your place
+here is vacant, Ruth.  My love is waiting for you;
+and if you come under those conditions, I never can have
+any regret.  A clear conscience is worth restraining
+passion a few months to gain, and besides, I always have got
+the fact to face that when you say `I love,' and when
+I say `I love,' it means two entirely different things. 
+When you realize that the love of man for woman, and
+woman for man, is a thing that floods the heart, brain,
+soul, and body with a wonderful and all-pervading
+ecstasy, and if I happen to be the man who makes you
+realize it, then come tell me, and we will show God and
+His holy angels what earth means by the Heaven inspired
+word, `radiance.' ''
+
+``David, there never will be any other man like you.''
+
+``The exigencies of life must develop many a finer and
+better.''
+
+``You still refuse me?  You yet believe I do not love
+you?''
+
+``Not with the love I ask, my girl.  But if I did not
+believe it was germinating in your heart, and that it would
+come pouring over me in a torrent some glad day, I
+doubt if I could allow you to go, Ruth!  I am like any
+other man in selfishness and in the passions of the body.''
+
+``Selfishness!  You haven't an idea what it means,''
+said the Girl.  ``And what you call love----there I
+haven't.  But I know how to appreciate you, and you
+may be positively sure that it will be only a few days
+until I will come back to you.''
+
+``But I don't want you until you can bring the love
+I crave.  I am sending you to remain until that time,
+Ruth.''
+
+``But it may be months, Man!''
+
+``Then stay months.''
+
+``But it may be----''
+
+``It may be never!  Then remain forever.  That will
+be proof positive that your happiness does not lie in
+my hands.''
+
+``Why should I not consider you as you do me?''
+
+``Because I love you, and you do not love me.''
+
+``You are cruel to yourself and to me.  You talk about
+the pain in the world.  What about the pain in my heart
+right now?  And if I know you in the least, one degree
+more would make you cry aloud for mercy.  Oh David,
+are we of no consideration at all?''
+
+The muscles of the Harvester's face twisted an instant.
+
+``This is where we lop off the small branches to grow
+perfect fruit later.  This is where we do evil that good
+may result.  This is where we suffer to-night in order
+we may appreciate fully the joy of love's dawning.  If I
+am causing you pain, forgive me, dear heart.  I would
+give my life to prevent it, but I am powerless.  It is
+right!  We cannot avoid doing it, if we ever would
+be happy.''
+
+He picked up the Girl, and held her crushed in his
+arms a long time.  Then he set her inside her door and
+said, ``Lay out what you want to take and I will help
+you pack, so that you can get some sleep.  We must
+be ready early in the morning.''
+
+When the clothing to be worn was selected, the new
+trunk packed, and all arrangements made, the Girl sat in
+his arms before the fire as he had held her when she was
+ill, and then he sent her to bed and went to the lake shore
+to fight it out alone.  Only God and the stars and the
+faithful Belshazzar saw the agony of a strong man in
+his extremity.
+
+Near dawn he heard the tinkle of the bell and went
+to receive his message and order a car for morning. 
+Then he returned to the merciful darkness of night, and
+paced the driveway until light came peeping over the
+tree tops.  He prepared breakfast and an hour later
+put the Girl on the train, and stood watching it until
+the last rift of smoke curled above the spires of the city.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE MAN IN THE BACKGROUND
+
+Then the Harvester returned to Medicine Woods
+to fight his battle alone.  At first the pain
+seemed unendurable, but work always had
+been his panacea, it was his salvation now.  He went
+through the cabin, folding bedding and storing it in
+closets, rolling rugs sprinkled with powdered alum,
+packing cushions, and taking window seats from the
+light.
+
+``Our sleeping room and the kitchen will serve for us,
+Bel,'' he said.  ``We will put all these other things away
+carefully, so they will be as good as new when the Girl
+comes home.''
+
+The evening of the second day he was called to the
+telephone.
+
+``There is a telegram for you,'' said a voice.  ``A
+message from Philadelphia.  It reads:  `Arrived safely. 
+Thank you for making me come.  Dear old people.  Will
+write soon.  With love, Ruth.'
+
+``Have you got it?''
+
+``No,'' lied the Harvester, grinning rapturously.  ``Repeat
+it again slowly, and give me time after each sentence
+to write it.  Now!  Go on!''
+
+He carried the message to the back steps and sat
+reading it again and again.
+
+``I supposed I'd have to wait at least four days,'' he
+said to Ajax as the bird circled before him.  ``This is
+from the Girl, old man, and she is not forgetting us to
+begin with, anyway.  She is there all safe, she sees that
+they need her, they are lovable old people, she is going to
+write us all about it soon, and she loves us all she knows
+how to love any one.  That should be enough to keep us
+sane and sensible until her letter comes.  There is no use
+to borrow trouble, so we will say everything in the world
+is right with us, and be as happy as we can on that until
+we find something we cannot avoid worrying over.  In
+the meantime, we will have faith to believe that we
+have suffered our share, and the end will be happy for
+all of us.  I am mighty glad the Girl has a home, and
+the right kind of people to care for her.  Now, when she
+comes back to me, I needn't feel that she was forced,
+whether she wanted to or not, because she had nowhere
+to go.  This will let me out with a clean conscience,
+and that is the only thing on earth that allows a man to
+live in peace with himself.  Now I'll go finish everything
+else, and then I'll begin the ginseng harvest.''
+
+So the Harvester hitched Betsy and with Belshazzar
+at his feet he drove through the woods to the sarsaparilla
+beds.  He noticed the beautiful lobed leaves,
+at which the rabbits had been nibbling, and the heads
+of lustrous purple-black berries as he began digging the
+roots that he sold for stimulants.
+
+``I might have needed a dose of you now myself,''
+the Harvester addressed a heap of uprooted plants,
+``if the electric wires hadn't brought me a better.  Great
+invention that!  Never before realized it fully!  I
+thought to-day would be black as night, but that message
+changes the complexion of affairs mightily.  So
+I'll dig you for people who really are in need of something
+to brace them up.''
+
+After the sarsaparilla was on the trays, he attacked
+the beds of Indian hemp, with its long graceful pods,
+and took his usual supply.  Then he worked diligently
+on the warm hillside over the dandelion.  When these
+were finished he brought half a dozen young men from
+the city and drilled them on handling ginseng.  He was
+warm, dirty, and tired when he came from the beds the
+evening of the fourth day.  He finished his work at the
+barn, prepared and ate his supper, slipped into clean
+clothing, and walked to the country road where it crossed
+the lane.  There he opened his mail box.  The letter he
+expected with the Philadelphia postmark was inside.  He
+carried it to the bridge, and sitting in her favourite place,
+with the lake breeze threading his hair, opened his
+first letter from the Girl.
+
+``My dear Friend, Lover, Husband,'' it began.
+
+The Harvester turned the sheets face down across his
+knee, laid his hand on them, and stared meditatively at
+the lake.  `` `Friend,' '' he commented.  ``Well, that's
+all right!  I am her friend, as well as I know how to be. 
+`Lover.'  I come in there, full force.  I did my level
+best on that score, though I can't boast myself a howling
+success; a man can't do more than he knows, and if I
+had been familiar with all the wiles of expert, professional
+love-makers, they wouldn't have availed me in the Girl's
+condition.  I had a mighty peculiar case to handle in
+her, and not a particle of training.  But if she says
+`Lover,' I must have made some kind of a showing on the
+job.  `Husband.' ''  A slow flush crept up the brawny
+neck and tinged the bronzed face.  ``That's a good
+word,'' said the Harvester, ``and it must mean a wonderful
+thing----to some men.  `Who bides his time.'  Well,
+I'm `biding,' and if my time ever comes to be my Dream
+Girl's husband, I'll wager all I'm worth on one thing.  I'll
+study the job from every point of the compass, and
+I'll see what showing I can make on being the kind
+of a husband that a woman clings to and loves at
+eighty.''
+
+Taking a deep breath the Harvester lifted the letter,
+and laying one hand on Belshazzar's head, he proceeded
+----``I might as well admit in the beginning that I cried
+most of the way here.  Some of it was because I was
+nervous and dreaded the people I would meet, and more
+on account of what I felt toward them, but most of it
+was because I did not want to leave you.  I have been
+spoiled dreadfully!  You have taught me so to depend
+on you----and for once I feel that I really can claim
+to have been an apt pupil----that it was like having
+the heart torn out of me to come.  I want you to know
+this, because it will teach you that I have a little bit
+of appreciation of how good you are to me, and to all the
+world as well.  I am glad that I almost cried myself
+sick over leaving you.  I wish now I just had stood up
+in the car, and roared like a burned baby.
+
+``But all the tears I shed in fear of grandfather and
+grandmother were wasted.  They are a couple of dear
+old people, and it would have been a crime to allow
+them to suffer more than they must of necessity.  It all
+seems so different when they talk; and when I see the
+home, luxuries, and friends my mother had, it appears
+utterly incomprehensible that she dared leave them
+for a stranger.  Probably the reason she did was
+because she was grandfather's daughter.  He is gentle
+and tender some of the time, but when anything irritates
+him, and something does every few minutes, he breaks
+loose, and such another explosion you never heard. 
+It does not mean a thing, and it seems to lower his
+tension enough to keep him from bursting with palpitation
+of the heart or something, but it is a strain for
+others.  At first it frightened me dreadfully.  Grandmother
+is so tiny and frail, so white in her big bed, and
+when he is the very worst, and she only smiles at him,
+why I know he does not mean it at all.  But, David,
+I hope you never will get an idea that this would be
+a pleasant way for you to act, because it would not,
+and I never would have the courage to offer you the
+love I have come to find if you slammed a cane and
+yelled, `demnation,' at me.  Grandmother says she
+does not mind at all, but I wonder if she did not acquire
+the habit of lying in bed because it is easier to endure in
+a prostrate position.
+
+``The house is so big I get lost, and I do not know yet
+which are servants and which friends; and there is a
+steady stream of seamstresses and milliners making things
+for me.  Grandmother and father both think I will be
+quite passable in appearance when I am what they call
+`modishly dressed.'  I think grandmother will forget
+herself some day and leave her bed before she knows
+it, in her eagerness to see how something appears.  I
+could not begin to tell you about all the lovely things to
+wear, for every occasion under the sun, and they say
+these are only temporary, until some can be made
+especially for me.
+
+``They divide the time in sections, and there is an hour
+to drive, I am to have a horse and ride later, and a time
+to shop, so long to visit grandmother, and set hours to
+sleep, dress, to be fitted, taken to see things, music lessons,
+and a dancing teacher.  I think a longer day will have
+to be provided.
+
+``I do not care anything about dancing.  I know
+what would make me dance nicely enough for anything,
+but I am going to try the music, and see if I can learn
+just a few little songs and some old melodies for evening,
+when the work is done, the fire burns low, and you
+are resting on the rug.  There is enough room for a
+piano between your door and the south wall and that
+corner seems vacant anyway.  You would like it, David,
+I know, if I could play and sing just enough to put you
+to sleep nicely.  It is in the back of my head that I will
+try to do every single thing, just as they want me to,
+and that will make them happy, but never forget that
+the instant I feel in my soul that your kiss is right on
+my lips, I am coming to you by lightning express; and I
+told them so the first thing, and that I only came because
+you made me.
+
+``They did not raise an objection, but I am not so dull
+that I cannot see they are trying to bind me to them from
+the very first with chains too strong to break.  We had
+just one little clash.  Grandfather was mightily pleased
+over what you told Mr. Kennedy about my never having
+been your wife, and that I was really free.  There
+seems to be a man, the son of his partner, whom grandfather
+dearly loves, and he wants me to be friends with
+his friend.  One can see at once what he is planning,
+because he said he was going to introduce me as Miss
+Jameson.  I told him that would be creating a false
+impression, because I was a married woman; but he only laughed
+at me and went straight to doing it.
+
+``Of course, I know why, but he is so terribly set I
+cannot stop him, so I shall have to tell people myself
+that I am a staid, old married lady.  After all, I suppose
+I might as well let him go, if it pleases him.  I shall
+know how to protect myself and any one else, from any
+mistakes concerning me; and in my heart I know what
+I know, and what I cannot make you believe, but I
+will some day.
+
+``I suspect you're harvesting the ginseng now.  The
+roar and rush of the city seem strange, as if I never had
+heard it before, and I feel so crowded.  I scarcely can
+sleep at night for the clamour of the cars, cabs, and
+throbbing life.  Grandfather will not hear a word,
+and he just sputters and says `demnation' when I try to
+tell him about you; but grandmother will listen, and I
+talk to her of you and Medicine Woods by the hour. 
+She says she thinks you must be a wonderfully nice person. 
+I haven't dared tell her yet the thing that will win
+her.  She is so little and frail, and she has heart trouble
+so badly; but some day I shall tell her all about Chicago
+that I can, and then of Uncle Henry, and then about you
+and the oak, and that will make her love you as I do. 
+There are so many things to do; they have sent for me
+three times.  I shall tell them they must put you on the
+schedule, and give me so much time to write or I will
+upset the whole programme.
+
+``I think you will like to know that Mr. Kennedy told
+grandfather all you said to him about my illness, for
+almost as soon as I came he brought a very wonderful
+man to my room, and he asked many questions and
+I told him all about it, and what I had been doing.  He
+made out a list of things to eat and exercises.  I am
+being taken care of just as you did, so I will go on growing
+well and strong.  The trouble is they are too good to
+me.  I would just love to shuffle my feet in dead leaves,
+and lie on the grass this morning.  I never got my swim
+in the lake.  I will have to save that until next summer. 
+He also told grandfather what you said about Uncle 
+Henry, and I think he was pleased that you tried to
+find him as soon as you knew.  He let me see the letter
+Uncle Henry wrote, and it was a vile thing----just
+such as he would write.  It asked how much he would be
+willing to pay for information concerning his heir.  I told
+grandfather all about it, and I saw the answer he wrote. 
+I told him some things to say, and one of them was that
+the honesty of a man without a price prevented the necessity
+of anything being paid to find me.  The other was
+that you located my people yourself, and at once sent me
+to them against my wishes.  I was determined he should
+know that.  So Uncle Henry missed his revenge on you. 
+He evidently thought he not only would hurt you by
+breaking up your home and separating us, but also he
+would get a reward for his work.  He wrote some untrue
+things about you, and I wish he hadn't, for grandfather
+can think of enough himself.  But I will soon
+change that.  Please, please take good care of all my
+things, my flowers and vines, and most of all tell
+Belshazzar to protect you with his life.  And you be very
+good to my dear, dear lover.  I will write again soon,
+Ruth.''
+
+When the Harvester had studied the letter until he
+could repeat it backward, he went to the cabin and answered
+it.  Then he sent subscriptions for two of Philadelphia's
+big dailies, and harvested ginseng from dawn
+until black darkness.  Never was such a crop grown in
+America.  The beds had been made in the original home
+of the plant, so that it throve under perfectly natural
+conditions in the forest, but here and there branches had
+been thinned above, and nature helped by science below. 
+This resulted in thick, pulpy roots of astonishing size
+and weight.  As the Harvester lifted them he bent the
+tops and buried part of the seed for another crop.  For
+weeks he worked over the bed.  Then the last load went
+down the hill to the dry-house and the helpers were paid. 
+Next the fall work was finished.  Fuel and food were
+stored for winter, while the cold crept from the lake,
+swept down the hill and surrounded the cabin.
+
+The Harvester finished long days in the dry-house and
+store-room, and after supper he sat by the fire reading
+over the Girl's letters, carving on her candlesticks, or
+in the work room, bending above the boards he was
+shaving and polishing for a gift he had planned for her
+Christmas.  The Careys had him in their home for
+Thanksgiving.  He told them all about sending the Girl
+away himself, read them some of her letters, and they
+talked with perfect confidence of how soon she would
+come home.  The Harvester tried to think confidently,
+but as the days went by the letters became fewer, always
+with the excuse that there was no time to write, but
+with loving assurance that she was thinking of him and
+would do better soon.
+
+However they came often enough that he had something
+new to tell his friends so that they did not suspect
+that waiting was a trial to him.  A few days after Thanksgiving
+the gift that he had planned was finished.  It was
+a big, burl-maple box, designed after the hope chests
+that he saw advertised in magazines.  The wood was
+rare, cut in heavy slabs, polished inside and out, dove-
+tailed corners with ornate brass bindings, hinges and lock,
+and hand-carved feet.  On the inside of the lid cut on a
+brass plate was the inscription, ``Ruth Langston, Christmas
+of Nineteen Hundred and Ten.  David.''
+
+Then he began packing the chest.  He put in the
+finished candlesticks and a box of candleberry dips he
+had made of delightfully spiced wax, coloured pale
+green.  He ordered the doll weeks before from the largest
+store in Onabasha, and the dealer brought on several
+that he might make a selection.  He chose a large baby
+doll almost life size, and sent it to the dress-making
+department to be completely and exquisitely clothed.  Long
+before the day he was picking kernels to glaze from nuts,
+drying corn to pop, and planning candies to be made of
+maple sugar.  When he figured it was time to start the,
+box, he worked carefully, filling spaces with chestnut
+and hazel burs, and finishing the tops of boxes with
+gaudy red and yellow leaves he had kept in their original
+brightness by packing them in sand.  He put in scarlet
+berries of mountain ash and long twining sprays of yellow
+and red bitter-sweet berries, for her room.  Then he carefully
+covered the chest with cloth, packed it in an outside
+box, and sent it to the Girl by express.  As he came
+from the train shed, where he had helped with loading,
+he met Henry Jameson.  Instantly the long arm of the
+Harvester shot out, and in a grip that could not be
+broken he caught the man by the back of the neck and
+proceeded to dangle him.  As he did so he roared with
+laughter.
+
+``Dear Uncle Henry!'' he cried.  ``How did you feel
+when you got your letter from Philadelphia?  Wasn't it a
+crime that an honest man, which same refers to me, beat
+you?  Didn't you gnash your teeth when you learned
+that instead of separating me from my wife I had found
+her people and sent her to them myself?  Didn't it rend
+your soul to miss your little revenge and fail to get
+the good, fat reward you confidently expected?  Ho! 
+Ho!  Thus are lofty souls downcast.  I pity you, Henry
+Jameson, but not so much that I won't break your
+back if you meddle in my affairs again, and I am taking
+this opportunity to tell you so.  Here you go out of my
+life, for if you appear in it once more I will finish you like
+a copperhead.  Understand?''
+
+With a last shake the Harvester dropped him, and went
+into the express office, where several men had watched
+the proceedings.
+
+``Been dipping in your affairs, has he?'' asked the
+expressman.
+
+``Trying it,'' laughed the Harvester.
+
+``Well he is just moving to Idaho, and you probably
+won't be bothered with him any more.''
+
+``Good news!'' said the Harvester.  He felt much
+relieved as he went back to Betsy and drove to Medicine
+Woods.
+
+The Careys had invited him, but he chose to spend
+Christmas alone.  He had finished breakfast when the
+telephone bell rang, and the expressman told him there
+was a package for him from Philadelphia.  The Harvester
+mounted Betsy and rode to the city at once. 
+The package was so very small he slipped it into his
+pocket, and went to the doctor's to say Merry Christmas! 
+To Mrs. Carey he gave a pretty lavender silk
+dress, and to the doctor a new watch chain.  Then
+he went to the hospital, where he left with Molly a set
+of china dishes from the Girl, and a fur-lined great coat,
+his gift to Doctor Harmon.  He rode home and stabled
+Betsy, giving her an extra quart of oats, and going into
+the house he sat by the kitchen fire and opened the
+package.
+
+In a nest of cotton lay a tissue-wrapped velvet box, and
+inside that, in a leather pocket case, an ivory miniature of
+the Girl by an artist who knew how to reproduce life.  It
+was an exquisite picture, and a face of wonderful beauty. 
+He looked at it for a long time, and then called Belshazzar
+and carried it out to show Ajax.  Then he put it
+into his breast pocket squarely over his heart, but he
+wore the case shiny the first day taking it out.  Before
+noon he went to the mail box and found a long letter from
+the Girl, full of life, health, happiness, and with steady
+assurances of love for him, but there was no mention made
+of coming home.
+
+She seemed engrossed in the music lessons, riding,
+dancing, pretty clothing, splendid balls, receptions, and
+parties of all kinds.  The Harvester answered it with
+his heart full of love for her, and then waited.  It was
+a long week before the reply came, and then it was short
+on account of so many things that must be done, but she
+insisted that she was well, happy, and having a fine time. 
+After that the letters became less frequent and shorter. 
+At times there would be stretches of almost two weeks
+with not a line, and then only short notes to explain that
+she was too busy to write.
+
+Through the dreary, cold days of January and
+February the Harvester invented work in the store-room, in
+the workshop, at the candlesticks, sat long over great
+books, and spent hours in the little laboratory preparing
+and compounding drugs.  In the evenings he carved and
+read.  First of all he scanned the society columns of
+the papers he was taking, and almost every day he found
+the name of Miss Ruth Jameson, often a paragraph describing
+her dress and her beauty of face and charm of
+manner; and constantly the name of Mr. Herbert Kennedy
+appeared as her escort.  At first the Harvester
+ignored this, and said to himself that he was glad she could
+have enjoyable times and congenial friends, and he was. 
+But as the letters became fewer, paper paragraphs more
+frequent, and approaching spring worked its old insanity
+in the blood, gradually an ache crept into his heart again,
+and there were days when he could not work it out.
+
+Every letter she wrote he answered just as warmly as he
+felt that he dared, but when they were so long coming
+and his heart was overflowing, he picked up a pen one
+night and wrote what he felt.  He told her all about the
+ice-bound lake, the lonely crows in the big woods, the
+sap suckers' cry, and the gay cardinals' whistle.  He told
+her about the cocoons dangling on bushes or rocking on
+twigs that he was cutting for her.  He warned her that
+spring was coming, and soon she would begin to miss
+wonders for her pencil.  Then he told her about the
+silent cabin, the empty rooms, and a lonely man.  He
+begged her not to forget the kiss she had gone to find
+for him.  He poured out his heart unrestrainedly, and
+then folded the letter, sealed and addressed it to her, in
+care of the fire fairies, and pitched it into the ashes of
+the living-room fire place.  But expression made him
+feel better.
+
+There was another longer wait for the next letter, but
+he had written her so many in the meantime that a
+little heap of them had accumulated as he passed through
+the living-room on his way to bed.  He had supposed she
+would be gone until after Christmas when she left, but
+he never had thought of harvesting sassafras and opening
+the sugar camp alone.  In those days his face appeared
+weary, and white hairs came again on his temples.  Carey
+met him on the street and told him that he was going
+to the National Convention of Surgeons at New York
+in March, and wanted him to go along and present his
+new medicine for consideration.
+
+``All right,'' said the Harvester instantly, ``I will
+go.''
+
+He went and interviewed Mrs. Carey, and then visited
+the doctor's tailor, and a shoe store, and bought everything
+required to put him in condition for travelling in
+good style, and for the banquet he would be asked to
+attend.  Then he got Mrs. Carey to coach him on spoons
+and forks, and declared he was ready.  When the doctor
+saw that the Harvester really would go, he sat down and
+wrote the president of the association, telling him in
+brief outline of Medicine Woods and the man who had
+achieved a wonderful work there, and of the compounding
+of the new remedy.
+
+As he expected, return mail brought an invitation for
+the Harvester to address the association and describe his
+work and methods and present his medicine.  The
+doctor went out in the car over sloppy roads with that
+letter, and located the Harvester in the sugar camp. 
+He explained the situation and to his surprise found his
+man intensely interested.  He asked many questions
+as to the length of time, and amount of detail required
+in a proper paper, and the doctor told him.
+
+``But if you want to make a clean sweep, David,'' he
+said, ``write your paper simply, and practise until it
+comes easy before you speak.''
+
+That night the Harvester left work long enough to
+get a notebook, and by the light of the camp fire, and in
+company with the owls and coons, he wrote his outline. 
+One division described his geographical location, another
+traced his ancestry and education in wood lore.  One
+was a tribute to the mother who moulded his character
+and ground into him stability for his work.  The remainder
+described his methods in growing drugs, drying
+and packing them, and the end was a presentation for
+their examination of the remedy that had given life
+where a great surgeon had conceded death.  Then he
+began amplification.
+
+When the sugar making was over the Harvester
+commenced his regular spring work, but his mind was so
+busy over his paper that he did not have much time to
+realize just how badly his heart was beginning to ache. 
+Neither did he consign so many letters to the fire fairies,
+for now he was writing of the best way to dry hydrastis
+and preserve ginseng seed.  The day before time to start
+he drove to Onabasha to try on his clothing and have Mrs.
+Carey see if he had been right in his selections.
+
+While he was gone, Granny Moreland, wearing a clean
+calico dress and carrying a juicy apple pie, came to the
+stretch of flooded marsh land, and finding the path under
+water, followed the road and crossing a field reached
+the levee and came to the bridge of Singing Water where
+it entered the lake.  She rested a few minutes there,
+and then went to the cabin shining between bare branches. 
+She opened the front door, entered, and stood staring
+around her.
+
+``Why things is all tore up here,'' she said.  ``Now
+ain't that sensible of David to put everything away and
+save it nice and careful until his woman gets back.  Seems
+as if she's good and plenty long coming; seems as if her
+folks needs her mighty bad, or she's having a better time
+than the boy is or something.''
+
+She set the pie on the table, went through the cabin
+and up the hill a little distance, calling the Harvester. 
+When she passed the barn she missed Betsy and the
+wagon, and then she knew he was in town.  She returned
+to the living-room and sat looking at the pie as she
+rested.
+
+``I'd best put you on the kitchen table,'' she mused. 
+``Likely he will see you there first and eat you while you
+are fresh.  I'd hate mortal bad for him to overlook you,
+and let you get stale, after all the care I've took with
+your crust, and all the sugar, cinnamon, and butter that's
+under your lid.  You're a mighty nice pie, and you ort
+to be et hot.  Now why under the sun is all them clean
+letters pitched in the fireplace?''
+
+Granny knelt and selecting one, she blew off the ashes,
+wiped it with her apron and read:  ``To Ruth, in care of
+the fire fairies.''
+
+``What the Sam Hill is the idiot writin' his woman like
+that for?'' cried Granny, bristling instantly.  ``And
+why is he puttin' pages and pages of good reading like
+this must have in it in care of the fire fairies?  Too
+much alone, I guess!  He's going wrong in his head. 
+Nobody at themselves would do sech a fool trick as this. 
+I believe I had better do something.  Of course I had! 
+These is writ to Ruth; she ort to have them.  Wish't
+I knowed how she gets her mail, I'd send her some. 
+Mebby three!  I'd send a fat and a lean, and a middlin'
+so's that she'd have a sample of all the kinds they is. 
+It's no way to write letters and pitch them in the ashes. 
+It means the poor boy is honin' to say things he dassent
+and so he's writin' them out and never sendin' them
+at all.  What's the little huzzy gone so long for,
+anyway?  I'll fix her!''
+
+Granny selected three letters, blew away the ashes,
+and tucked the envelopes inside her dress.
+
+``If I only knowed how to get at her,'' she muttered. 
+She stared at the pie.  ``I guess you got to go back,''
+she said, ``and be et by me.  Like as not I'll stall myself,
+for I got one a-ready.  But if David has got these fool
+things counted and misses any, and then finds that pie
+here, he'll s'picion me.  Yes, I got to take you back, and
+hurry my stumps at that.''
+
+Granny arose with the pie, cast a lingering and
+covetous glance at the fireplace, stooped and took another
+letter, and then started down the drive.  Just as she
+reached the bridge she looked ahead and saw the Harvester
+coming up the levee.  Instantly she shot the pie
+over the railing and with a groan watched it strike the
+water and disappear.
+
+``Lord of love!'' she gasped, sinking to the seat, ``that
+was one of grandmother's willer plates that I promised
+Ruth.  'Tain't likely I'll ever see hide ner hair of it again. 
+But they wa'ant no place to put it, and I dassent let
+him know I'd been up to the cabin.  Mebby I can fetch
+a boy some day and hire him to dive for it.  How
+long can a plate be in water and not get spiled anyway? 
+Now what'll I do?  My head's all in a whirl!  I'll
+bet my bosom is a sticking out with his letters 'til he'll
+notice and take them from me.''
+
+She gripped her hands across her chest and sat staring
+at the Harvester as he stopped on the bridge, and seeing
+her attitude and distressed face, he sprang from the wagon.
+
+``Why Granny, are you sick?'' he cried anxiously.
+
+``Yes!'' gasped Granny Moreland.  ``Yes, David, I
+am!  I'm a miserable woman.  I never was in sech a
+shape in all my days.''
+
+``Let me help you to the cabin, and I'll see what I
+can do for you,'' offered the Harvester.
+
+``No.  This is jest out of your reach,'' said the old
+lady.  ``I want----I want to see Doctor Carey bad.''
+
+``Are you strong enough to ride in or shall I bring him?''
+
+``I can go!  I can go as well as not, David, if you'll
+take me.''
+
+``Let me run Betsy to the barn and get the Girl's
+phaeton.  The wagon is too rough for you.  Are the
+pains in your chest dreadful?''
+
+``I don't know how to describe them,'' said Granny
+with perfect truth.
+
+The Harvester leaped into the wagon and caught up
+the lines.  As he disappeared around the curve of the
+driveway Granny snatched the letters from her dress
+front and thrust them deep into one of her stockings.
+
+``Now, drat you!'' she cried.  ``Stick out all you please. 
+Nobody will see you there.''
+
+In a few minutes the Harvester helped her into the
+carriage and drove rapidly toward the city.
+
+``You needn't strain your critter,'' said Granny.  ``It's
+not so bad as that, David.''
+
+``Is your chest any better?''
+
+``A sight better,'' said Granny.  ``Shakin' up a little
+'pears to do me good.''
+
+``You never should have tried to walk.  Suppose I
+hadn't been here.  And you came the long way, too! 
+I'll have a telephone run to your house so you can call
+me after this.''
+
+Granny sat very straight suddenly.
+
+``My! wouldn't that get away with some of my foxy
+neighbours,'' she said.  ``Me to have a 'phone like they
+do, an' be conversin' at all hours of the day with my
+son's folks and everybody.  I'd be tickled to pieces,
+David.''
+
+``Then I'll never dare do it,'' said the Harvester,
+``because I can't keep house without you.''
+
+``Where's your own woman?'' promptly inquired
+Granny.
+
+``She can't leave her people.  Her grandmother is
+sick.''
+
+``Grandmother your foot!'' cried the old woman. 
+``I've been hearing that song and dance from the neighbours,
+but you got to fool younger people than me on
+it, David.  When did any grandmother ever part a
+pair of youngsters jest married, for months at a clip? 
+I'd like to cast my eyes on that grandmother.  She's
+a new breed!  I was as good a mother as 'twas in my skin
+to be, and I'd like to see a child of mine do it for me; and
+as for my grandchildren, it hustles some of them to
+re-cog-nize me passing on the big road, 'specially if
+it's Peter's girl with a town beau.''
+
+The Harvester laughed.  The old lady leaned toward
+him with a mist in her eyes and a quaver in her voice,
+and asked softly, ``Got ary friend that could help you,
+David?''
+
+The man looked straight ahead in silence.
+
+``Bamfoozle all the rest of them as much as you please,
+lad, but I stand to you in the place of your ma, and so
+I ast you plainly----got ary friend that could help?''
+
+``I can think of no way in which any one possibly
+could help me, dear,'' said the Harvester gently.  ``It
+is a matter I can't explain, but I know of nothing that
+any one could do.''
+
+``You mean you're tight-mouthed!  You COULD tell
+me just like you would your ma, if she was up and comin';
+but you can't quite put me in her place, and spit it out
+plain.  Now mebby I can help you!  Is it her fault or
+yourn?''
+
+``Mine!  Mine entirely!''
+
+``Hum!  What a fool question!  I might a knowed it! 
+I never saw a lovinger, sweeter girl in these parts.  I
+jest worship the ground she treads on; and you, lad
+you hain't had a heart in your body sence first you saw
+her face.  If I had the stren'th, I'd haul you out of this
+keeridge and I'd hammer you meller, David Langston. 
+What in the name of sense have you gone and done to
+the purty, lovin' child?''
+
+The Harvester's face flushed, but a line around his
+mouth whitened.
+
+``Loosen up!'' commanded Granny.  ``I got some rights
+in this case that mebby you don't remember.  You asked
+me to help you get ready for her, and I done what you
+wanted.  You invited me to visit her, and I jest loved
+her sweet, purty ways.  You wanted me to shet up my
+house and come over for weeks to help take keer of her,
+and I done it gladly, for her pain and your sufferin' cut
+me as if 'twas my livin' flesh and blood; so you can't
+shet me out now.  I'm in with you and her to the end. 
+What a blame fool thing have you gone and done to drive
+away for months a girl that fair worshipped you?''
+
+``That's exactly the trouble, Granny,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``She didn't!  She merely respected and was
+grateful to me, and she loved me as a friend; but I never
+was any nearer her husband than I am yours.''
+
+``I've always knowed they was a screw loose
+somewhere,'' commented Granny.  ``And so you've sent
+her off to her worldly folks in a big, wicked city to get
+weaned away from you complete?''
+
+``I sent her to let her see if absence would teach her
+anything.  I had months with her here, and I lay awake
+at nights thinking up new plans to win her.  I worked
+for her love as I never worked for bread, but I couldn't
+make it.  So I let her go to see if separation would teach
+her anything.''
+
+``Mercy me!  Why you crazy critter!  The child did
+love you!  She loved you 'nough an' plenty!  She loved
+you faithful and true!  You was jest the light of her eyes. 
+I don't see how a girl could think more of a man.  What
+in the name of sense are you expecting months of separation 
+to teach her, but to forget you, and mebby turn
+her to some one else?''
+
+``I hoped it would teach her what I call love, means,''
+explained the Harvester.
+
+``Why you dratted popinjay!  If ever in all my born
+days I wanted to take a man and jest lit'rally mop up
+the airth with him, it's right here and now.  `Absence
+teach her what you call love.'  Idiot!  That's your job!''
+
+``But, Granny, I couldn't!''
+
+``Wouldn't, you mean, no doubt!  I hain't no manner
+of a notion in my head but that child, depending on you,
+and grateful as she was, and tender and loving, and all
+sech as that I hain't a doubt but she come to you
+plain and told you she loved you with all her heart. 
+What more could you ast?''
+
+``That she understand what love means before I can
+accept what she offers.''
+
+``You puddin' head!  You blunderbuss!'' cried Granny. 
+``Understand what you mean by love.  If you're going
+to bar a woman from being a wife 'til she knows what
+you mean by love, you'll stop about nine tenths of the
+weddings in the world, and t'other tenth will be women
+that no decent-minded man would jine with.''
+
+``Granny, are you sure?''
+
+``Well livin' through it, and up'ard of seventy years
+with other women, ort to teach me something.  The
+Girl offered you all any man needs to ast or git.  Her
+foundations was laid in faith and trust.  Her affections
+was caught by every loving, tender, thoughtful thing
+you did for her; and everybody knows you did a-plenty,
+David.  I never see sech a master hand at courtin' as
+you be.  You had her lovin' you all any good woman
+knows how to love a man.  All you needed to a-done was
+to take her in your arms, and make her your wife, and
+she'd 'a' waked up to what you meant by love.''
+
+``But suppose she never awakened?''
+
+``Aw, bosh!  S'pose water won't wet!  S'pose fire
+won't burn!  S'pose the sun won't shine!  That's the
+law of nature, man!  If you think I hain't got no sense
+at all I jest dare you to ask Doctor Carey.  'Twouldn't
+take him long to comb the kinks out of you.''
+
+``I don't think you have left any, Granny,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``I see what you mean, and in all probability
+you are right, but I can't send for the Girl.''
+
+``Name o' goodness why?''
+
+``Because I sent her away against her will, and now she
+is remaining so long that there is every probability she
+prefers the life she is living and the friends she has made
+there, to Medicine Woods and to me.  The only thing
+I can do now is to await her decision.''
+
+``Oh, good Lord!'' groaned Granny.  ``You make me
+sick enough to kill.  Touch up your nag and hustle me to
+Doc.  You can't get me there quick enough to suit me.''
+
+At the hospital she faced Doctor Carey.  ``I think
+likely some of my innards has got to be cut out and
+mended,'' she said.  ``I'll jest take a few minutes of your
+time to examination me, and see what you can do.''
+
+In the private office she held the letters toward the
+doctor.  ``They hain't no manner of sickness ailin' me,
+Doc.  The boy out there is in deep water, and I knowed
+how much you thought of him, and I hoped you'd give
+me a lift.  I went over to his place this mornin' to take
+him a pie, and I found his settin' room fireplace heapin'
+with letters he'd writ to Ruth about things his heart was
+jest so bustin' full of it eased him to write them down,
+and then he hadn't the horse sense and trust in her
+jedgment to send them on to her.  I picked two fats,
+a lean, and a middlin' for samples, and I thought I'd
+send them some way, and I struck for home with them
+an' he ketched me plumb on the bridge.  I had to throw
+my pie overboard, willer plate and all, and as God is my
+witness, I was so flustered the boy had good reason to
+think I was sick a-plenty; and soon as he noticed it,
+I thought of you spang off, and I knowed you'd know her
+whereabouts, and I made him fetch me to you.  On the
+way I jest dragged it from him that he'd sent her away
+his fool self, because she didn't sense what he meant by
+love, and she wa'ant beholden to him same degree and
+manner he was to her.  Great day, Doc!  Did you ever
+hear a piece of foolishness to come up with that?  I
+told him to ast you!  I told him you'd tell him that no
+clean, sweet-minded girl ever had known nor ever would
+know what love means to a man 'til he marries her and
+teaches her.  Ain't it so, Doc?''
+
+``It certainly is.''
+
+``Then will you grind it into him, clean to the marrer,
+and will you send these letters on to Ruthie?''
+
+``Most certainly I will,'' said the doctor emphatically. 
+Granny opened the door and walked out
+
+``I'm so relieved, David,'' she said.  ``He thinks they
+won't be no manner o' need to knife me.  Likely he can
+fix up a few pills and send them out by mail so's that I'll
+be as good as new again.  Now we must get right out
+of here and not take valuable time.  What do I owe
+you, Doc?''
+
+``Not a cent,'' said Doctor Carey.  ``Thank you very
+much for coming to me.  You'll soon be all right
+again.''
+
+``I was some worried.  Much obliged I am sure.  Come
+on!''
+
+``One minute,'' said the doctor.  ``David, I am making
+up a list of friends to whom I am going to send
+programmes of the medical meeting, and I thought your
+wife might like to see you among the speakers, and
+your subject.  What is her address?''
+
+A slow red flushed the Harvester's cheeks.  He opened
+his lips and hesitated.  At last he said, ``I think perhaps
+her people prefer that she receive mail under her
+maiden name while with them.  Miss Ruth Jameson, care
+of Alexander Herron, 5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia,
+will reach her.''
+
+The doctor wrote the address, as if it were the most
+usual thing in the world, and asked the Harvester if
+he was ready to make the trip east.
+
+``I think we had best start to-night,'' he said.  ``We
+want a day to grow accustomed to our clothes and new
+surroundings before we run up squarely against serious
+business.''
+
+``I will be ready,'' promised the Harvester.
+
+He took Granny home, set his house in order, installed
+the man he was leaving in charge, touched a match to
+the heap in the fireplace, and donning the new travelling
+suit, he went to Doctor Carey's.
+
+Mrs. Carey added a few touches, warned him to remember
+about the forks and spoons, and not to forget
+to shave often, and saw them off.  At the station Carey
+said to him, ``You know, David, we can change at Wayne
+and go through Buffalo, or we can take the Pittsburg
+and go and come through Philadelphia.''
+
+``I am contemplating a trip to Philadelphia,'' said the
+Harvester, ``but I believe I will not be ready for, say a
+month yet.  I have a theory and it dies hard.  If it
+does not work out the coming month, I will go, perhaps,
+but not now.  Let us see how many kinds of a fool I
+make of myself in New York before I attempt the
+Quakers.''
+
+Almost to the city, the doctor smiled at the Harvester.
+
+``David, where did you get your infernal assurance?''
+he asked.
+
+``In the woods,'' answered the Harvester placidly. 
+``In doing clean work.  With my fingers in the muck,
+and life literally teeming and boiling in sound and action,
+around, above, and beneath me, a right estimate of my
+place and province in life comes naturally in daily
+handling stores on which humanity depends, I go even
+deeper than you surgeons and physicians.  You are
+powerless unless I reinforce your work with drugs on
+which you can rely.  I do clean, honest work.  I know
+its proper place and value to the world.  That is why I
+called what I have to say, `The Man in the Background.' 
+There is no reason why I should shiver and shrink at
+meeting and explaining my work to my fellows.  Every
+man has his vocation, and some of you in the limelight
+would cut a sorry figure if the man in the background
+should fail you at the critical moment.  Don't worry
+about me, Doc.  I am all serene.  You won't find I
+possess either nerves or fear.  `Be sure you are right, and
+then go ahead,' is my law.''
+
+``Well I'll be confounded!'' said the doctor.
+
+In a large hall, peopled with thousands of medical men,
+the name of the Harvester was called the following day
+and his subject was announced.  He arose in his place
+and began to talk.
+
+``Take the platform,'' came in a roar from a hundred
+throats.
+
+The Harvester hesitated.
+
+``You must, David,'' whispered Carey.
+
+The Harvester made his way forward and was guided
+through a side door, and a second later calmly walked
+down the big stage to the front, and stood at ease looking
+over his audience, as if to gauge its size and the pitch
+to which he should raise his voice.  His lean frame loomed
+every inch of his six feet, his broad shoulders were square,
+his clean shaven face alert and afire.  He wore a spring
+suit of light gray of good quality and cut, and he was
+perfect as to details.
+
+``This scarcely seems compatible with my subject,'' he
+remarked casually.  ``I certainly appear very much in
+the foreground just at present, but perhaps that is quite
+as well.  It may be time that I assert myself.  I doubt if
+there is a man among you who has not handled my products
+more or less; you may enjoy learning where and how
+they are prepared, and understanding the manner in
+which my work merges with yours.  I think perhaps
+the first thing is to paint you as good a word picture as
+I can of my geographical location.''
+
+Then the Harvester named latitude and longitude
+and degrees of temperature.  He described the lake,
+the marsh, the wooded hill, the swale, and open sunny
+fields.  He spoke of water, soil, shade, and geographical
+conditions.  ``Here I was born,'' he said, ``on land owned
+by my father and grandfather before me, and previous
+to them, by the Indians.  My male ancestors, so far as I
+can trace them, were men of the woods, hunters, trappers,
+herb gatherers.  My mother was from the country, educated
+for a teacher.  She had the most inexorable will
+power of any woman I ever have known.  From my father
+I inherited my love for muck on my boots, resin in my
+nostrils, the long trail, the camp fire, forest sounds and
+silences in my soul.  From my mother I learned to
+read good books, to study subjects that puzzled me,
+to tell the truth, to keep my soul and body clean, and
+to pursue with courage the thing to which I set my
+hand.
+
+``There was not money enough to educate me as she
+would; together we learned to find it in the forest.  In
+early days we sold ferns and wild flowers to city people,
+harvested the sap of the maples in spring, and the nut
+crop of the fall.  Later, as we wanted more, we trapped
+for skins, and collected herbs for the drug stores.  This
+opened to me a field I was peculiarly fitted to enter.  I
+knew woodcraft instinctively, I had the location of every
+herb, root, bark, and seed that will endure my climate;
+I had the determination to stick to my job, the right
+books to assist me, and my mother's invincible will
+power to uphold me where I wavered.
+
+``As I look into your faces, men, I am struck with the
+astounding thought that some woman bore the cold
+sweat and pain of labour to give life to each of you. 
+I hope few of you prolonged that agony as I did.  It
+was in the heart of my mother to make me physically
+clean, and to that end she sent me daily into the lake,
+so long as it was not ice covered, and put me at exercises
+intended to bring full strength to every sinew and
+fibre of my body.  It was in her heart to make me morally
+clean, so she took me to nature and drilled me in its
+forces and its methods of reproducing life according
+to the law.  Her work was good to a point that all
+men will recognize.  From there on, for a few years,
+she held me, not because I was man enough to stand, but
+because she was woman enough to support me.  Without 
+her no doubt I would have broken the oath I took; with
+her I won the victory and reached years of manhood
+and self-control as she would have had me.  The struggle
+wore her out at half a lifetime, but as a tribute to her
+memory I cannot face a body of men having your
+opportunities without telling you that what was possible
+to her and to me is possible to all mothers and men. 
+If she is above and hears me perhaps it will recompense
+some of her shortened years if she knows I am pleading
+with you, as men having the greatest influence of any
+living, to tell and to teach the young that a clean life
+is possible to them.  The next time any of you are
+called upon to address a body of men tell them to learn
+for themselves and to teach their sons, and to hold them
+at the critical hour, even by sweat and blood, to a clean
+life; for in this way only can feeble-minded homes,
+almshouses, and the scarlet woman be abolished.  In this
+way only can men arise to full physical and mental force,
+and become the fathers of a race to whom the struggle
+for clean manhood will not be the battle it is with us.
+
+``By the distorted faces, by the misshapen bodies,
+by marks of degeneracy, recognizable to your practised
+eyes everywhere on the streets, by the agony of the
+mother who bore you, and later wept over you, I conjure
+you men to live up to your high and holy privilege, and
+tell all men that they can be clean, if they will.  This
+in memory of the mother who shortened her days to make
+me a moral man.  And if any among you is the craven
+to plead immorality as a safeguard to health, I ask,
+what about the health of the women you sacrifice to
+shield your precious bodies, and I offer my own as the
+best possible refutation of that cowardly lie.  I never
+have been ill a moment in all my life, and strength never
+has failed me for work to which I set my hand.
+
+``The rapidly decreasing supply of drugs and the
+adulterated importations early taught me that the
+day was coming when it would be an absolute necessity
+to raise our home supplies.  So, while yet in my teens,
+I began collecting from the fields and woods for miles
+around such medicinal stuff as grew in my father's
+fields, marsh, and woods, and planting more wherever I
+found anything growing naturally in its prime.  I merely
+enlarged nature's beds and preserved their natural
+condition.  As the plants spread and the harvest increased,
+I built a dry-house on scientific principles, a large store-
+room, and later a laboratory in which I have been learning
+to prepare some of my crude material for the market,
+combining ideas of my own in remedies, and at last
+producing one your president just has indicated that I come
+to submit to you as a final resort in certain conditions.
+
+``My operations now have spread to close six hundred
+acres of almost solid medicinal growth, including a
+little lake, around the shores of which flourish a quadruple
+setting of water-loving herbs.''
+
+Occasionally he shifted his position or easily walked
+across the platform and faced his audience from a different
+direction.  His voice was strong, deep, and rang clearly
+and earnestly.  His audience sat on the front edge of
+their chairs, and listened to something new, with mouths
+half agape.  A few times Carey turned from the speaker
+to face the audience.  He agonized in his heart that it
+was a closed session, and that his wife was not there to
+hear, and that the Girl was missing it.
+
+By the bent backs and flying fingers of the reporters
+at their table in front he could see that to-morrow the
+world would read the Harvester's speech; and if it were
+true that the little mother had shortened her days to
+produce him, she had done earth a service for which many
+generations would call her blessed.  For the doctor could
+look ahead, and he knew that this man would not escape. 
+The call for him and his unimpeachable truth would come
+from everywhere, and his utterances would carry as far
+as newspapers and magazines were circulated.  The
+good he would do would be past estimation.
+
+The Harvester continued.  He was describing the most
+delicate and difficult of herbs to secure.  He was telling
+how they could be raised, prepared, kept, and compounded. 
+He was discussing diseases that did not readily
+yield to treatment, pointing out what drugs were
+customarily employed and offering, if any of them had such
+cases, and would send to him, to forward samples of
+unadulterated stuff sufficient for a test comparison with
+what they were using.  He was walking serenely and
+surely into the heart of every man before him.
+
+Just at the point where it was the psychological time
+to close, he stopped and stood a long instant facing them,
+and then he asked softly, ``Did any man among you ever
+see the woman to whom he had given a strong man's
+first passion of love, slowly dying before him?''
+
+One breathless instant he waited and then continued,
+``Gentlemen, I recently saw this in my own case.  For
+days it was coming, so at night I shut myself in my
+laboratory, and from the very essence of the purest of
+my self-compounded drugs I distilled a stimulant into
+which I put a touch of heart remedy, a brace for weakening
+nerves, a vitalization of sluggish blood.  As I worked,
+I thought in that thought which embodied the essence
+of prayer, and when my day and my hour came, and a
+man who has been the president of your honourable
+body, and is known to all of you, said it was death, I
+took this combination that I now present to you, and
+with the help of the Almighty and a woman above the
+price of rubies, I kept breath in the girl I love, and to-day
+she is at full tide of womanhood.  As a thank offering,
+the formula is yours.  Test it as you will.  Use it if you
+find it good.  Gentlemen, I thank you!''
+
+Carey sank in his chair and watched the Harvester
+cross the stage.  As he disappeared the tumult began,
+and it lasted until the president arose and brought him
+back to make another bow, and then they rioted until
+they wore themselves out.  In an immaculate dress
+suit the Harvester sat that night on the right of the gray-
+haired president and responded to the toast, ``The
+Harvester of the Woods.''  Then the reporters carried
+him away to be photographed, and to show him the gay
+sights of New York.
+
+In the train the next day, steadily speeding west, he
+said to Doctor Carey:  ``I feel as the old woman of Mother
+Goose who said, `Lawk-a-mercy on us, can this be really
+I?' ''
+
+``You just bet it is!'' cried the doctor.  ``And you
+have cut out work for yourself in good shape.''
+
+``What do you mean?''
+
+``I mean that this is a beginning.  You will be called
+upon to speak again and again.''
+
+``The point is, do you honestly think I helped any?''
+
+``You did inestimable good.  It only can help men to
+hear plain truth that is personal experience.  As for that
+dope of yours, it will come closer raising the dead than
+anything I ever saw.  Next case I see slipping, after
+I've done my best, I'm going to try it out for myself.''
+
+``All right!  'Phone me and I'll bring some fresh and
+help you.''
+
+At Buffalo the doctor left the car and bought a paper. 
+As he had expected the portrait and speech of the Harvester
+were featured.  The reporters had been gracious. 
+They had done all that was just to a great event,
+and allowed themselves some latitude.  He immediately
+mailed the paper to the Girl, and at Cleveland bought
+another for himself.  When he showed it to the Harvester,
+as he glanced at it he observed, ``Do I appear
+like that?''  Then he went on talking with a man he
+had met who interested him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE COMING OF THE BLUEBIRD
+
+The Harvester stopped at the mail box on his way
+home and among the mass of matter it contained
+was something from the Girl.  It was a scrap
+as long as his least finger and three times as wide, and
+by the postmark it had lain four days in the box.  On
+opening it, he found only her card with a line written
+across it, but the man went up the hill and into the
+cabin as if a cyclone were driving him, for he read, ``Has
+your bluebird come?''
+
+He threw his travelling bag on the floor, ran to the
+telephone, and called the station.  ``Take this message,'' he
+said.  ``Mrs. David Langston, care of Alexander Herron,
+5770 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.  Found note after
+four days' absence.  Bluebird long past due.  The fairies
+have told it that my fate hereafter lies in your hands.
+
+As always.  David.''
+
+The Harvester turned from the instrument and bent
+to embrace Belshazzar, leaping in ecstasy beside him.
+
+``Understand that, Bel?'' he asked.  ``I don't know but
+it means something.  Maybe it doesn't----not a thing! 
+And again, there is a chance----only the merest
+possibility----that it does.  We'll risk it, Bel, and to begin
+on I have nailed it as hard as I knew how.  Next, we will
+clean the house----until it shines, and then we will fill
+the cupboard, and if anything does happen we won't be
+caught napping.  Yes, boy, we will take the chance! 
+We can't be any worse disappointed than we have been
+before and survived it.  Come along!''
+
+He picked up the bag and arranged its contents,
+carefully brushed and folded on his shelves and in his
+closet.  Then he removed the travelling suit, donned
+the old brown clothes and went to the barn to see that
+his creatures had been cared for properly.  Early the
+next morning he awoke and after feeding and breakfasting
+instead of going to harvest spice brush and alder he
+stretched a line and hung the bedding from room after
+room to air and sun.  He swept, dusted, and washed
+windows, made beds, and lastly polished the floors
+throughout the cabin.  He set everything in order,
+and as a finishing touch, filled vases, pitchers, and bowls
+with the bloom of red bud and silky willow catkins. 
+He searched the south bank, but there was not a violet,
+even in the most exposed places.  By night he was tired
+and a little of the keen edge of his ardour was dulled. 
+The next day he worked scrubbing the porches, straightening
+the lawn and hedges, even sweeping the driveway
+to the bridge clear of wind-whirled leaves and straw. 
+He scouted around the dry-house and laboratory, and
+spent several extra hours on the barn so that when
+evening came everything was in perfect order.  Then he
+dressed, ate his supper and drove to the city.
+
+
+He stopped at the mail box, but there was nothing
+from the Girl.  The Harvester did not know whether
+he was sorry or glad.  A letter might have said the
+same thing.  Nothing meant a delightful possibility, and
+between the two he preferred the latter.  He whistled
+and sang as he drove to Onabasha, and Belshazzar looked
+at him with mystified eyes, for this was not the master
+he had known of late.  He did not recognize the dress
+or the manner, but his dog heart was sympathetic to
+the man's every mood, and he remembered times when a
+drive down the levee always had been like this, for to-
+night the Harvester's tongue was loosened and he talked
+in the old way.
+
+``Just four words, Bel'' he said.  ``And, as I
+remarked before, they may mean the most wonderful thing
+on earth, and possibly nothing at all.  But it is in the
+heart of man to hope, Bel, and so we are going to live
+royally for a week or two, just on hope, old boy.  If
+anything should happen, we are ready, rooms shining,
+beds fresh, fireplaces filled and waiting a match, ice
+chest cool, and when we get back it will be stored.  Also
+a secret, Bel; we are going to a florist and a fruit store. 
+While we are at it, we will do the thing right; but we will
+stay away from Doc, until we are sure of something. 
+He means well, but we don't like to be pitied, do we,
+Bel?  Our friends don't manage their eyes and voices
+very well these days.  Never mind!  Our time will come
+yet.  The bluebird will not fail us, but never before has
+it been so late.''
+
+On his return he filled the pantry shelves with packages,
+stored the ice chest, and set a basket of delicious fruit on
+the dining table.  Two boxes remained.  He opened the
+larger one and took from it an arm load of white lilies
+that he carried up the hill and divided between the mounds
+under the oak.  Then he uncovered his head, and standing
+at the foot of them he looked among the boughs of
+the big tree and listened intently.  After a time a soft,
+warm wind, catkin-scented, crept from the lake, and
+began a murmur among the clusters of brown leaves
+clinging to the branches.
+
+``Mother,'' said the Harvester, ``were you with me? 
+Did I do it right?  Did I tell them what you would have
+had me say for the boys?  Are you glad now you held
+me to the narrow way?  Do you want me to go before
+men if I am asked, as Doc says I will be, and tell them
+that the only way to abolish pain is for them to begin
+at the foundation by living clean lives?  I don't know
+if I did any good, but they listened to me.  Anyway,
+I did the best I knew.  But that isn't strange; you ground
+it into me to do that every day, until it is almost an
+instinct.  Mother, dear, can you tell me about the bluebird? 
+Is that softest little rustle of all your voice?
+and does it say `hope'?  I think so, and I thank you for
+the word.''
+
+The man's eyes dropped to earth.
+
+``And you other mother,'' he said, ``have you any
+message for me?  Up where you are can you sweep the
+world with understanding eyes and tell me why my
+bluebird does not come?  Does it know that this year
+your child and not chance must settle my fate?  Can
+you look across space and see if she is even thinking of
+me?  But I know that!  She had to be thinking of me
+when she wrote that line.  Rather can you tell me----
+will she come?  Do you think I am man enough to be
+trusted with her future, if she does?  One thing I promise
+you: if such joy ever comes to me, I will know how to meet
+it gently, thankfully, tenderly, please God.  Good night,
+little women.  I hope you are sleeping well----''
+
+He turned and went down the hill, entered the cabin
+and took from the other box a mass of Parma violets. 
+He put these in the pink bowl and placed it on the table
+beside the Girl's bed.  He stood for a time, and then
+began pulling single flowers from the bowl and dropping
+them over the pillow and snowy spread.
+
+``God, how I love her!'' he whispered softly.
+
+At last he went out and closed the door.  He was
+tired and soon fell asleep with the night breeze stirring
+his hair, and the glamour of moonlight flooding the lake
+touched his face.  Clearly it etched the strong, manly
+features, the fine brow and chin, and painted in unusual
+tenderness the soft lines around the mouth.  The little
+owl wavered its love story, a few frogs were piping, and
+the Harvester lay breathing the perfumed spring air
+deeply and evenly.  Near midnight Belshazzar awakened
+him by arising from the bedside and walking to the door.
+
+``What is it, Bel?'' inquired the Harvester.
+
+The dog whined softly.  The man turned his head
+toward the lake.  A ray of red light touched the opposite
+embankment and came wavering across the surface. 
+The Harvester sat up.  Two big, flaming eyes were
+creeping up the levee.
+
+``That,'' said the Harvester, ``might be Doc coming
+for me to help him try out my bottled sunshine, or it
+might be my bluebird.''
+
+He tossed back the cover, swung his feet to the floor,
+setting each in a slipper beside the bed, and arose, dressing
+as he started for the door.  As he opened the screen and
+stepped on the veranda a passenger car from the city
+stopped, and the Harvester went down the walk to
+meet it.  His heart turned over when he saw a woman's
+hand on the door.
+
+``Permit me,'' he said, taking the handle and bringing
+it back with a sweep.  A tall form arose, bent forward,
+and descended to the step.  The full flare of moonlight
+fell on the glowing face of the Girl.
+
+``Harvester, is it you?'' she asked.
+
+``Yes,'' gasped the man.
+
+Two hands came fluttering out, and he just had presence
+of mind to step in range so that they rested on his
+shoulders.
+
+``Has the bluebird come?''
+
+``Not yet!''
+
+``Then I am not too late?''
+
+``Never too late to come to me, Ruth.''
+
+``I am welcome?''
+
+``I have no words to tell you how welcome.''
+
+She swayed forward and the Harvester tried to reach
+her lips, but they brushed his cheek and touched his ear.
+
+``I have brought one more kiss I want to try,'' she
+whispered.
+
+The Harvester crushed her in his arms until he frightened
+himself for fear he had hurt her, and murmured
+an ecstasy of indistinct love words to her.  Presently her
+feet touched the ground and she drew away from him.
+
+``Harvester,'' she whispered, ``I couldn't wait any
+longer; indeed I could not: and I couldn't leave grandfather
+and grandmother, and I didn't know what in the
+world to do, so I just brought them along.  Are they
+welcome?''
+
+``Aside from you, I would rather have them than
+any people on earth,'' said the Harvester.
+
+There were two sounds in the car; one was an
+approving murmur, and the other an undeniable snort. 
+The Harvester felt the reassuring pressure of the Girl's
+hand.
+
+``Please, Ruth,'' he said, ``go turn on the light so that
+I can see to help grandmother.''
+
+A foot stamped before the front seat.  ``Madam
+Herron, if you please!'' cried an acrid voice.
+
+`` `Madam Herron,' '' said the Harvester gently, as he
+set a foot on the step, reached in and bodily picked up a
+little old lady and started up the walk with her in his arms.
+
+``Careful there, sir!'' roared a voice after him.
+
+The Harvester could feel the quake of the laughing
+woman and he smiled broadly as he entered the cabin,
+and placed her in a large chair before the fire.  Then
+he wheeled and ran back to the car, reaching it as the man
+was making an effort to descend.  It could be seen
+that he had been tall, before time and sorrow had bent
+him, and keen eyes gleamed below shaggy white brows
+from under his hat brim.  He had a white moustache, and
+his hair was snowy.
+
+``Allow me,'' said the Harvester reaching a hand.
+
+``If you touch me I will cane you,'' said Mr. Alexander
+Herron.
+
+There was nothing to do but step back.  The cane,
+wheel, and a long coat skirt interfering, the old man fell
+headlong, and only quick hands saved him a severe jolt
+and bruises.  He stood glaring in the moonlight while
+his hat was restored.
+
+``If you run your car to the curve you can back toward
+the south and turn easily,'' said the Harvester to the
+driver.  As the automobile passed them he offered his
+arm.  ``May I show you to the fire?  These spring nights
+are chilly.''
+
+`` `Chilly!'  Demnition cold is what they are!  I'm
+frozen to the bone!  This will be the end of us both! 
+Dragging people of our age around at this hour of night. 
+Of all the accursed stubbornness!''
+
+``There are three low steps,'' said the Harvester, ``now
+a straight stretch of walk, now two steps; there you are
+on the level.  Here is an easy chair.  It would be better
+to leave on your coat, until I light the fire.''
+
+He knelt and scratched a match, and almost instantly
+a flame sprang from the heap of dry kindling, and began
+to wrap around the big logs.
+
+``How pretty!'' exclaimed a soft voice.
+
+``Kind of a hunting lodge in the wilds, is it?'' growled
+a rough one.  ``Marcella, you will take your death
+here!''
+
+``I'm sure I feel no exposure.  Really, Alexander,
+if I had passed away every time you have prophesied
+that I would in the past twenty years you'd have the
+largest private cemetery in existence.  If you would not
+be so pessimistic I could quite enjoy the trip.  It's so
+long since I've ridden in the cars.''
+
+``Of all the abandoned places!  And for you to be
+here, after your years in bed!''
+
+``But I'm not nearly so tired as I am at home,
+Alexander, truly.''
+
+``Let me help you, grandfather,'' offered the Girl.
+
+She went to him and took his hat and stick.
+
+``Leave me my cane,'' he cried.  ``Any instant that
+beast may attack some of us.''
+
+The Girl laughed merrily.
+
+``Why grandfather!'' she chided, ``Bel is the finest
+dog you ever knew, he is my best friend here.  By the
+hour he has protected me, and he is gentle as a kitten. 
+He's crazy over my coming home.''
+
+She knelt on the floor, put her arms around the dog's
+neck, and the delighted brute quivered with the joy of
+her caress and the sound of her loved voice.
+
+``Ruthie!'' cautioned the gentle lady. 
+
+``Put that cur out of doors, where animals belong,''
+roared the old man, lifting his stick.
+
+``Careful!'' warned the grave voice of the Harvester.
+
+``I thought you said he was gentle as a kitten!''
+
+``Grandfather, I said that,'' cried the Girl.
+
+``Well wasn't it the truth?''
+
+``You can see how he loves me.  Didn't I ever tell
+you that Bel made the first friendly overture I ever
+received in this part of the country?  He's watched me
+by the day, even while I slept.''
+
+``Then what's all this infernal fuss about?''
+
+``Try striking him if you want to find out,'' explained
+the Harvester gently.  ``You see, Belshazzar and I are
+accustomed to living here alone and very quietly.  He
+is excited over the Girl's return, because she is his friend,
+and he has not forgotten her.  Then this is the first time
+in his life he ever heard an irritable voice from a visitor
+or saw a cane, and it angers him.  He is perfectly safe
+to guard a baby, if he is gently treated, but he is a sure
+throat hold to a stranger who bespeaks him roughly or
+attempts to strike.  He would be of no use as a guard
+to valuable property while I sleep if he were otherwise. 
+Bel, come here!  Lie still.''
+
+The dog sank to the floor beside the Harvester, but his
+sharp eyes followed the Girl, and the hair arose on his
+neck at every rasping note of the old man's voice.
+
+``I wouldn't give such a creature house room for a
+minute,'' insisted the guest.
+
+``Wait until you see him work and become acquainted
+with him, and you will change that verdict,'' prophesied
+the Harvester.
+
+``I never was known to change an opinion.  Never,
+sir!  Never!'' cried the testy voice.
+
+``How unfortunate!'' remarked the Harvester suavely.
+
+``Explain yourself!  Explain yourself, sir!''
+
+``There never has been, there never will be, a man
+on this earth,'' said the Harvester, ``wholly free from
+mistakes.  Are you warm now?''  He turned to the
+little lady, cutting off a reply with his question.
+
+``Nice and warm and quite sleepy,'' she said.
+
+``What may I bring you for a light lunch before you
+go to bed?''
+
+``Oh, could I have a bite of something?''
+
+``If only I am fortunate enough to have anything you
+will care for.  What about a bowl of hot milk and a
+slice of toast?''
+
+``Why I think that would be just the thing!''
+
+``Excuse me,'' said the Harvester rising.
+
+He went to the kitchen and they could hear him
+moving around.
+
+``I wish the big brute would take his beast along,''
+growled Mr. Alexander Herron.
+
+``Come, Bel,'' ordered the Girl.  ``Let's go to the
+kitchen.''
+
+The dog instantly arose and followed her.
+
+``What can I do to help?'' she asked as they reached
+the door.
+
+``Remain where you won't dazzle my eyes,'' said the
+Harvester, ``until I help the gentle lady and the gentle
+man to bed.''
+
+Presently he came with a white cloth, two spoons, and
+a plate of bread.  He spread the cloth on the table, laid
+the spoons on it, and opening the little cupboard, took
+out a long toasting fork, and sticking it into a slice of
+bread, he held it over the coals.  When it grew golden
+brown he lifted the table beside the chair, and brought
+a bowl of scalded milk.
+
+``Marcella, that stuff will be too smoky for you! 
+Your stomach will rebel at it.''
+
+``Grandfather, there will not be a suspicion of odour,''
+said the Girl.  ``I have had it that way often.''
+
+``Then no wonder you came from this place looking
+like a picked crane, if that is a sample of what you were
+fed on!''
+
+The face of the Harvester grew redder than the heat
+of the fire necessitated, but at the ringing laugh of the
+Girl he set his teeth and went on toasting bread.  Grandmother
+crumbled some in the milk and picking up the
+spoon tested the combination.  She was very hungry,
+and it was good.  She began eating with relish.
+
+``Alexander, you will be the loser if you don't have
+some of this,'' she said.  ``It's just delicious!''
+
+``Maybe smoked spoon victuals are proper for invalid
+women,'' he retorted, ``but they are mighty thin diet
+for a hardy man.''
+
+``What about a couple of eggs and some beef extract?''
+suggested the cook.
+
+``Sounds more sensible by a long shot.''
+
+``Ruth, you make this toast,'' said the Harvester and
+disappeared.
+
+Presently he placed before his guest a couple of eggs
+poached in milk, a steaming bowl of beef juice, and a
+plate of toast.  For one instant the Harvester thought
+this was going into the fire, the next a slice was picked
+up and smelled testily.  The Girl sat on her grandfather's
+chair arm, and breaking a morsel of toast dipped it into
+the broth and tasted it.
+
+``Oh but that is good!'' she cried.  ``Why haven't
+I some also?  Am I supposed to have no `tummy'?''
+
+``Your turn next,'' said the Harvester, as he again gave
+her the fork and went to the kitchen.
+
+When he returned and served the Girl he found her
+grandfather eating heartily.
+
+``Why I think this is fun,'' said the gentle lady.  ``I
+haven't had such a fine time in ages.  I love the heat of
+the flame on my body and things taste so good.  I could
+go to sleep without any narcotic, right now.''
+
+Close her knee the Harvester knelt on the hearth with
+his toasting fork.  She leaned forward and ran her fingers
+through his hair.
+
+``You're a braw laddie,'' she said.  ``Now I see why
+Ruthie WOULD come.''
+
+The Harvester took the frail hand and kissed it. 
+``Thank you!'' he returned.
+
+``Mush!'' exploded the grizzled man in the rear.
+
+When no one wanted more food the Harvester stacked
+and carried away the dishes, swept the hearth, and
+replaced the toaster.
+
+``Ruth and I often lunched this way last fall,'' he said. 
+``We liked it for a change.''
+
+``Alexander, have you noticed?'' asked the little
+woman as she lifted wet eyes to a beautiful portrait of
+her daughter beside the chimney.
+
+``D'ye think I'm blind?  Saw it as I entered the door. 
+Poor taste!  Very!  Brown may match the rug and
+wood-work, but it's a wretched colour for a young girl
+in her gay time.  Should be pink and white with a gold
+frame.''
+
+``That would be beautiful,'' agreed the Harvester. 
+``We must have one that way.  This is not an expensive
+picture.  It is only an enlargement from an old
+photograph.''
+
+``We have a number of very handsome likenesses. 
+Which one can you spare Ruth, Marcella?''
+
+``The one she likes best,'' said the lady promptly.
+
+``And the other is your mother, no doubt.  What a
+girlish, beautiful face!''
+
+``Wonderfully fine!'' growled a gruff old voice
+tinctured with tears, and the Harvester began to see light.
+
+The old man arose.  ``Ruthie, help your grandmother
+to bed,'' he said.  ``And you, sir, have the goodness to
+walk a few steps with me.''
+
+The Harvester sprang up and brought Mr. Herron his
+coat and hat and held the door.  The Girl brushed past
+him.
+
+``To the oak,'' she whispered.
+
+They went into the night, and without a word the
+Harvester took his guest's arm and guided him up the
+hill.  When they reached the two mounds the moon
+shining between the branches touched the lily faces with
+with holy whiteness.
+
+``She sleeps there,'' said the Harvester, indicating the
+place.
+
+Then he turned and went down the path a little
+distance and waited until he feared the night air would
+chill the broken old man.
+
+``You can see better to-morrow,'' he said as he touched
+the shaking figure and assisted it to arise.
+
+``Your work?'' Mr. Alexander Herron touched the
+lilies with his walking stick.
+
+The Harvester assented.
+
+``Do you mind if I carry one to Marcella?''
+
+The Harvester trembled as he stooped to select the
+largest and whitest, and with sudden illumination, he
+fully understood.  He helped the tottering old man to
+the cabin, where he sat silently before the fireplace
+softly touching the lily face with his lips.
+
+``I have put grandmother in my bed, tucked her in
+warmly, and she says it is soft and fine,'' laughed the
+Girl, coming to them.  ``Now you go before she falls
+asleep, and I hope you will rest well.''
+
+She bent and kissed him.
+
+The Harvester held the door.
+
+``Can I be of any service?'' he inquired.
+
+``No, I'm no helpless child.''
+
+``Then to my best wishes for sound sleep the remainder
+of the night, I will add this,'' said the Harvester----
+``You may rest in peace concerning your dear girl.  I
+sympathize with your anxiety.  Good night!''
+
+Alexander Herron threw out his hands in protest.
+
+``I wouldn't mind admitting that you are a gentleman
+in a month or two,'' he said, ``but it's a demnation
+humiliation to have it literally wrung from me
+to-night!''
+
+He banged the door in the face of the amazed
+Harvester, who turned to the Girl as she leaned against the
+mantel.  He stood absorbing the glowing picture of
+beauty and health that she made.  She had removed her
+travelling dress and shoes, and was draped in a fleecy
+white wool kimono and wearing night slippers.  Her hair
+hung in two big braids as it had during her illness.  She
+was his sick girl again in costume, but radiant health
+glowed on her lovely face.  The Harvester touched a
+match to a few candles and turned out the acetylene
+lights.  Then he stood before her.
+
+``Now, bluebird,'' he said gently.  ``Ruth, you always
+know where to find me, if you will look at your feet. 
+I thought I loved you all in my power when you went,
+but absence has taught its lessons.  One is that I can
+grow to love you more every day I live, and the other
+that I probably trifled with the highest gift you had to
+offer, when I sent you away.  I may have been right;
+Granny and Doc think I was wrong.  You know the 
+answer.  You said there was another kiss for me.  Ruth,
+is it the same or a different one?''
+
+``It is different.  Quite, quite different!''
+
+``And when?''  The Harvester stretched out longing
+arms.  The Girl stepped back.
+
+``I don't know,'' she said.  ``I had it when I started,
+but I lost it on the way.''
+
+The Harvester staggered under the disappointment.
+
+``Ruth, this has gone far enough that you wouldn't
+play with me, merely for the sake of seeing me suffer,
+would you?''
+
+``No!'' cried the Girl.  ``No!  I mean it!  I knew
+just what I wanted to say when I started; but we had to
+take grandmother out of bed.  She wouldn't allow me to
+leave her, and I wouldn't stay away from you any
+longer.  She fainted when we put her on the car and
+grandfather went wild.  He almost killed the porters,
+and he raved at me.  He said my mother had ruined
+their lives, and now I would be their death.  I got so
+frightened I had a nervous chill and I'm so afraid she will
+grow worse----''
+
+``You poor child!'' shuddered the Harvester.  ``I
+see!  I understand!  What you need is quiet and a
+good rest.''
+
+He placed her in a big easy chair and sitting on the
+hearth rug he leaned against her knee and said, ``Now
+tell me, unless you are so tired that you should go to bed.''
+
+``I couldn't possibly sleep until I have told you,''
+said the Girl.
+
+``If you're merciful, cut it short!'' implored the
+Harvester.
+
+``I think it begins,'' she said slowly, ``when I went
+because you sent me and I didn't want to go.  Of course,
+as soon as I saw grandfather and grandmother, heard
+them talk, and understood what their lives had been, and
+what might have been, why there was only one thing to
+do, as I could see it, and that was to compensate their
+agony the best I could.  I think I have, David.  I really
+think I have made them almost happy.  But I told them
+all any one could tell about you in the start, and from the
+first grandmother would have been on your side; but you
+see how grandfather is, and he was absolutely determined
+that I should live with them, in their home, all
+their lives.  He thought the best way to accomplish
+that would be to separate me from you and marry me
+to the son of his partner.
+
+``There are rooms packed with the lovely things they
+bought me, David, and everything was as I wrote you. 
+Some of the people who came were wonderful, so gracious
+and beautiful, I loved almost all of them.  They took
+me places where there were pictures, plays, and lovely
+parties, and I studied hard to learn some music, to dance,
+ride and all the things they wanted me to do, and to read
+good books, and to learn to meet people with graciousness
+to equal theirs, and all of it.  Every day I grew stronger
+and met more people, and there were different places
+to go, and always, when anything was to be done, up
+popped Mr. Herbert Kennedy and said and did exactly 
+the right thing, and he could be extremely nice,
+David.''
+
+``I haven't a doubt!'' said the Harvester, laying hold
+of her kimono.
+
+``And he popped up so much that at last I saw he was
+either pretending or else he really was growing very fond
+of me, so one day when we were alone I told him all
+about you, to make him see that he must not.  He
+laughed at me, and said exactly what you did, that I
+didn't love you at all, that it was gratitude, that it was
+the affection of a child.  He talked for hours about how
+grandfather and grandmother had suffered, how it was my
+duty to live with them and give you up, even if I cared
+greatly for you; but he said what I felt was not love at all. 
+Then he tried to tell me what he thought love was, and I
+could see very clearly that if it was like that, I didn't
+love you, but I came a whole world closer it than loving
+him, and I told him so.  He laughed again and
+said I was mistaken, and that he was going to teach
+me what real love was, and then I could not be driven
+back to you.  After that, everybody and everything
+just pushed me toward him with both hands, except
+one person.  She was a young married woman and
+I met her at the very first.  She was the only real friend
+I ever had, and at last, the latter part of February, when
+things were the very worst, I told her.  I told her every
+single thing.  She was on your side.  She said you were
+twice the man Herbert Kennedy was, and as soon as I
+found I could talk to her about you, I began going there 
+and staying as long as I could, just to talk and to play
+with her baby.
+
+``Her husband was a splendid young fellow, and I
+grew very fond of him.  I knew she had told him, because
+he suddenly began talking to me in the kindest way, and
+everything he said seemed to be what I most wanted to
+hear.  I got along fairly well until hints of spring began
+to come, and then I would wonder about my hedge, and
+my gold garden, and if the ice was off the lake, and
+about my boat and horse, and I wanted my room, and
+oh, David, most of all I wanted you!  Just you!  Not
+because you could give me anything to compare in
+richness with what they could, not because this home was
+the best I'd ever known except theirs, not for any reason
+at all only just that I wanted to see your face, hear your
+voice, and have you pick me up and take me in your arms
+when I was tired.  That was when I almost quit writing. 
+I couldn't say what I wanted to, and I wouldn't write
+trivial things, so I went on day after day just groping.''
+
+``And you killed me alive,'' said the Harvester.
+
+``I was afraid of that, but I couldn't write.  I just
+couldn't!  It was ten days ago that I thought of the
+bluebird's coming this year and what it would mean to
+you, and THAT killed me, Man!  It just hurt my heart
+until it ached, to know that you were out here alone;
+and that night I couldn't sleep, because I was thinking
+of you, and it came to me that if I had your lips then I
+could give you a much, much better kiss than the last,
+and when it was light I wrote that line.
+
+``Nearly a week later I got your answer early in the
+morning, and it almost drove me wild.  I took it and went
+for the day with May, and I told her.  She took me
+upstairs, and we talked it over, and before I left she made
+me promise that I would write you and explain how I
+felt, and ask you what you thought.  She wanted you
+to come there and see if you couldn't make them at least
+respect you.  I know I was crying, and she was bathing
+the baby.  She went to bring something she had forgotten,
+and she gave him to me to hold, just his little
+naked body.  He stood on my lap and mauled my face,
+and pulled my hair, and hugged me with his stout little
+arms and kissed me big, soft, wet kisses, and something
+sprang to life in my heart that never before had been
+there.  I just cried all over him and held him fast, and
+I couldn't give him up when she came back.  I saw why
+I'd wanted a big doll all my life, right then; and oh,
+dear! the doll you sent was beautiful, but, David, did
+you ever hold a little, living child in your arms like that?''
+
+``I never did,'' said the Harvester huskily.
+
+He looked at her face and saw the tears rolling, but
+he could say no more, so he leaned his head against her
+knee, and finding one of her hands he drew it to his lips.
+
+``It is wonderful,'' said the Girl softly.  ``It awakens
+something in your heart that makes it all soft and tender,
+and you feel an awful responsibility, too.  Grandmother
+had them telephone at last, and May helped me bathe
+my face and fix my hat.  When we went to the carriage
+Mr. Kennedy was there to take me home.  We went
+past grandmother's florist to get her some violets----
+David, she is sleeping under yours, with just a few
+touching her lips.  Oh it was lovely of you to get them; your
+fairies must have told you!  She has them every day,
+and one of the objections she made to coming here was
+that she couldn't do without them in winter, and she
+found some on her pillow the very first thing.  David,
+you are wonderful!  And grandfather with his lily! 
+I know where he found that!  I knew instantly.  Ah,
+there are fairies who tell you, because you deserve to
+know.''
+
+The Girl bent and slipping her arm around his neck
+hugged him tight an instant, and then she continued
+unsteadily:  ``While he was in the shop----Harvester,
+this is like your wildest dream, but it's truest truth----a
+boy came down the walk crying papers, and as I live,
+he called your name.  I knew it had to be you because
+he said, ``First drug farm in America!  Wonderful
+medicine contributed to the cause of science!  David
+Langston honoured by National Medical Association!'' 
+I just stood in the carriage and screamed, `Boy!  Boy!'
+until the coachman thought I had lost my senses.  He
+whistled and got me the paper.  I was shaking so I
+asked him how to find anything you wanted quickly,
+and he pointed the column where events are listed;
+and when I found the third page there was your face so
+splendidly reproduced, and you seemed so fine and noble
+to me I forgot about the dress suit and the badge in
+your buttonhole, or to wonder when or how or why it
+could have happened.  I just sat there shouting in my
+soul, `David!  David!  Medicine Man!  Harvester Man!'
+again and again.
+
+``I don't know what I said to Mr. Kennedy or how I
+got to my room.  I scanned it by the column, at last
+I got to paragraphs, and finally I read all the sentences. 
+David, I kissed that newspaper face a hundred times,
+and if you could have had those, Man, I think you
+would have said they were right.  David, there is
+nothing to cry over!''
+
+``I'm not!'' said the Harvester, wiping the splashes
+from her hand.  ``But, Ruth, forget what I said about
+being brief.  I didn't realize what was coming.  I should
+have said, if you've any mercy at all, go slowly!  This is
+the greatest thing that ever happened or ever will happen
+to me.  See that you don't leave out one word of it.''
+
+``I told you I had to tell you first,'' said the Girl.
+
+``I understand now,'' said the Harvester, his head
+against her knee while he pressed her hand to his lips. 
+``I see!  Your coming couldn't be perfect without knowing
+this first.  Go on, dear heart, and slowly!  You
+owe me every word.''
+
+``When I had it all absorbed, I carried the paper to
+the library and said, `Grandfather, such a wonderful
+thing has happened.  A man has had a new idea, and he
+has done a unique work that the whole world is going to
+recognize.  He has stood before men and made a speech
+that few, oh so few, could make honestly, and he has
+advocated right living, oh so nobly, and he has given
+a wonderful gift to science without price, because through
+it he first saved the life he loved best.  Isn't that
+marvellous, grandfather?'  And he said, `Very marvellous,
+Ruth.  Won't you sit down and read to me about it?' 
+And I said, `I can't, dear grandfather, because I have
+been away from grandmother all day, and she is fretting
+for me, and to-night is a great ball, and she has spent
+millions on my dress, I think, and there is an especial
+reason why I must go, and so I have to see her now; but
+I want to show you the man's face, and then you can
+read the story.'
+
+``You see, I knew if I started to read it he would stop
+me; but if I left him alone with it he would be so curious
+he would finish.  So I turned your name under and
+held the paper and said, `What do you think of that
+face, grandfather?  Study it carefully,' and, Man, only
+guess what he said!  He said, `I think it is the face of
+one of nature's noblemen.'  I just kissed him time and
+again and then I said, `So it is grandfather, so it is; for it
+is the face of the man who twice saved my life, and lifted
+my mother from almost a pauper grave and laid her to
+rest in state, and the man who found you, and sent
+me to you when I was determined not to come.'  And I
+just stood and kissed that paper before him and cried,
+again and again, `He is one of nature's noblemen, and he
+is my husband, my dear, dear husband and to-morrow I
+am going home to him.'  Then I laid the paper on his
+lap and ran away.  I went to grandmother and did everything
+she wanted, then I dressed for the ball.  I went
+to say good-bye to her and show my dress and grandfather
+was there, and he followed me out and said, `Ruth,
+you didn't mean it?' I said, `Did you read the paper,
+grandfather?' and he said 'Yes'; and I said, `Then I
+should think you would know I mean it, and glory
+in my wonderful luck.  Think of a man like that,
+grandfather!'
+
+``I went to the ball, and I danced and had a lovely
+time with every one, because I knew it was going to be
+the very last, and to-morrow I must start to you.
+
+``On the way home I told Mr. Kennedy what paper
+to get and to read it.  I said good-bye to him, and I
+really think he cared, but I was too happy to be very
+sorry.  When I reached my room there was a packet for
+me and, Man, like David of old, you are a wonderful
+poet!  Oh Harvester! why didn't you send them to me
+instead of the cold, hard things you wrote?''
+
+``What do you mean, Ruth?''
+
+``Those letters!  Those wonderful outpourings of love
+and passion and poetry and song and broken-heartedness. 
+Oh Man, how could you write such things and throw
+them in the fire?  Granny Moreland found them when
+she came to bring you a pie, and she carried them to
+Doctor Carey, and he sent them to me, and, David,
+they finished me.  Everything came in a heap.  I would
+have come without them, but never, never with quite
+the understanding, for as I read them the deeps opened
+up, and the flood broke, and there did a warm tide go
+through all my being, like you said it would; and now, 
+David, I know what you mean by love.  I called the
+maids and they packed my trunk and grandmother's,
+and I had grandfather's valet pack his, and go and secure
+berths and tickets, and learn about trains, and I got
+everything ready, even to the ambulance and doctor;
+but I waited until morning to tell them.  I knew they
+would not let me come alone, so I brought them along. 
+David, what in the world are we going to do with them?''
+
+The Harvester drew a deep breath and looked at the
+flushed face of the Girl.
+
+``With no time to mature a plan, I would say that we
+are going to love them, care for them, gradually teach
+them our work, and interest them in our plans here;
+and so soon as they become reconciled we will build them
+such a house as they want on the hill facing us, just across
+Singing Water, and there they may have every luxury
+they can provide for themselves, or we can offer, and the
+pleasure of your presence, and both of them can grow
+strong and happy.  I'll have grandmother on her feet in
+ten days, and the edge off grandfather's tongue in three. 
+That bluster of his is to drown tears, Ruth; I saw it to-
+night.  And when they pass over we will carry them up
+and lay them beside her under the oak, and we can take
+the house we build for them, if you like it better, and use
+this for a store-room.''
+
+``Never!'' said the Girl.  ``Never!  My sunshine
+room and gold garden so long as I live.  Never again
+will I leave them.  If this cabin grows too small, we will
+build all over the hillside; but my room and garden and
+this and the dining-room and your den there must remain
+as they are now.''
+
+The Harvester arose and drew the davenport before
+the fireplace, and heaped pillows.  ``You are so tired you
+are trembling, and your voice is quivering,'' he said.  He
+lifted the Girl, laid her down and arranged the coverlet.
+
+``Go to sleep!'' he ordered gently.  ``You have made
+me so wildly happy that I could run and shout like a
+madman.  Try to rest, and maybe the fairies who aid
+me will put my kiss back on your lips.  I am going to
+the hill top to tell mother and my God.''
+
+He knelt and gathered her in his arms a second, then
+called Belshazzar to guard, and went into the sweet
+spring night, to jubilate with that wild surge of passion
+that sweeps the heart of a strong man when he is most
+nearly primal.  He climbed the hill at a rush, and standing
+beneath the oak on the summit, he faced the lake,
+and stretching his arms widely, he waved them, merely
+to satisfy the demand for action.  When urgency for
+expression came upon him, he laughed a deep rumble
+of exultation.
+
+The night wind swept the lake and lifted his hair,
+the odour of spring was intoxicating in his nostrils,
+small creatures of earth stirred around him, here and there
+a bird, restless in the delirium of mating fever, lifted
+its head and piped a few notes on the moon-whitened
+air.  The frogs sang uninterruptedly at the water's
+edge.  The Harvester stood rejoicing.  Beating on his
+brain came a rush of love words uttered in the Girl's
+dear voice.  ``I wanted you!  Just you!  He is my husband! 
+My dear, dear husband!  To-morrow I am going
+home!  Now, David, I know what you mean by love!'' 
+The Harvester laughed again and sounds around him
+ceased for a second, then swelled in fuller volume than
+before.  He added his voice.  ``Thank God!  Oh, thank
+God!'' he cried.  ``And may the Author of the Universe,
+the spirits of the little mothers who loved us, and all the
+good fairies who guide us, unite to bring unbounded joy
+to my Dream Girl and to guard her safely.''
+
+The cocks of Medicine Woods began their second
+salute to dawn.  At this sound and with the mention of
+her name, the Harvester turned down the hill, and striding
+forcefully approached the cabin.  As he passed the
+Girl's room he stepped softly, smiling as he wondered if
+its unexpected occupants were resting.  He followed
+Singing Water, and stood looking at the hillside, studying
+the exact location most suitable for a home for the old
+people he was so delighted to welcome.  That they would
+remain he never doubted.  His faith in the call of the
+wild had been verified in the Girl; it would reach them
+also.  The hill top would bind them.  Their love for the
+Girl would compel them.  They would be company for
+her and a new interest in life.
+
+``Couldn't be better, not possibly!'' commented the
+delighted Harvester.
+
+He followed the path down Singing Water until he
+reached the bridge where it turned into the marsh. 
+There he paused, looking straight ahead.
+
+``Wonder if I would frighten her?'' he mused.  ``I
+believe I'll risk it.''
+
+He walked on rapidly, vaulted the fence enclosing
+his land, crossed the road, and unlatched the gate.  As
+he did so, the door opened, and Granny Moreland stood
+on the sill, waiting with keen eyes.
+
+``Well I don't need neither specs nor noonday sun
+to see that you're steppin' like the blue ribbon colt at
+the County Fair, and lookin' like you owned Kingdom
+Come,'' she said.  ``What's up, David?''
+
+``You are right, dear,'' said the Harvester.  ``I have
+entered my kingdom.  The Girl has come and crowned
+me with her love.  She had decided to return, but the
+letters you sent made her happier about it.  I wanted
+you to know.''
+
+Granny leaned against the casing, and began to sob
+unrestrainedly.
+
+The Harvester supported her tenderly.
+
+``Why don't do that, dear.  Don't cry,'' he begged. 
+``The Girl is home for always, Granny, and I'm so happy
+I am out to-night trying to keep from losing my mind
+with joy.  She will come to you to-morrow, I know.''
+
+Granny tremulously dried her eyes.
+
+``What an old sap-head I am!'' she commented.  ``I
+stole your letters from your fireplace, pitched a willer
+plate into the lake----you got to fish that out, come day,
+David----fooled you into that trip to Doc Carey to get
+him to mail them to Ruth, and never turned a hair. 
+But after I got home I commenced thinkin' 'twas a pretty
+ticklish job to stick your nose into other people's business,
+an' every hour it got worse, until I ain't had a fairly
+decent sleep since.  If you hadn't come soon, boy, I'd
+'a' been sick a-bed.  Oh, David!  Are you sure she's over
+there, and loves you to suit you now?''
+
+``Yes dear, I am absolutely certain,'' said the
+Harvester.  ``She was so determined to come that she
+brought the invalid grandmother she couldn't leave and
+her grandfather.  They arrived at midnight.  We are all
+going to live together now.''
+
+``Well bless my stars!  Fetched you a family!  David,
+I do hope to all that's peaceful I hain't put my foot in it. 
+The moon is the deceivingest thing on earth I know,
+but does her family 'pear to be an a-gre'-able family,
+by its light?''
+
+The Harvester's laugh boomed a half mile down the
+road.
+
+``Finest people on earth, next to you, dear.  I'm
+mighty glad to have them.  I'm going to build them a
+house on my best location, and we are all going to be
+happy from now on.  Go to bed!  This night air may
+chill you.  I can't sleep.  I wanted you to know first----
+so I came over.  In mother's stead, will you kiss me, and
+wish me happiness, dear friend?''
+
+Granny Moreland laid an eager, withered hand on
+each shoulder, and bent to the radiant young face.
+
+``God bless you, lad, and grant you as great happiness
+as life ort to fetch every clean, honest man,'' she prayed
+fervently, with closed eyes and her lined old face turned
+skyward.  ``And, O God, bless Ruth, and help her as
+You never helped mortal woman before to know her own
+mind without `variableness, neither shadow of turnin'.' ''
+
+The Harvester was on Singing Water bridge before he
+gave way.  There he laughed as never before in his life. 
+Finally he controlled himself and started toward the
+cabin; but he was chuckling as he passed the driveway,
+and walked down the broad cement floor leading to his
+bathing pool, where the moonlight bridged the lake,
+and fell as a benediction all around him.
+
+He stood a long time, when he recognized the familiar
+crash of a breaking backlog falling together, and heard
+the customary leap of the frightened dog.  He walked
+to his door and listened intently, but there was no sound;
+so he decided the Girl had not been awakened.  In the
+midst of a whitening sheet of gold the Harvester dropped
+to his stoop and leaned his head against the broad casing. 
+He broke a twig from a hawthorn bush beside him, and
+sat twisting it in his fingers as he stared down the line
+of the gold bridge.  Never had it seemed so material,
+so like a path that might be trodden by mortal feet and
+lead them straight to Heaven.  As on the hill top, night
+again surrounded him and the Harvester's soul drank
+deep wild draughts of a new joy.  Sleep was out of
+the question.  He was too intensely alive to know that
+he ever again could be weary.  He sat there in the moonlight,
+and with unbridled heart gloried in the joy that
+had come to him.
+
+He turned his face from the bridge as he heard the 
+click of Belshazzar's nails on the floor of the bathing
+pool.  Then his heart and breath stopped an instant. 
+Beside the dog walked the Girl, one hand on his head
+the other holding the flowing white robe around her and
+grasping one of the Harvester's lilies.  His first thought
+was sheer amazement that she was not afraid, for it was
+evident now that the backlog had awakened her, and
+she had taken the dog and gone to her mother.  Then
+she had followed the path leading down the hill, around
+the cabin, and into the sheet of moonlight gilding the
+shore.  She stood there gazing over the lake, oblivious
+to all things save the entrancing allurement of a perfect
+spring night beside undulant water.  Screened from her
+with bushes and trees the Harvester scarcely breathed
+lest he startle her.  Then his head swam, and his still
+heart leaped wildly.  She was coming toward him.  On
+her left lay the path to the hill top.  A few steps farther
+she could turn to the right and follow the driveway to
+the front of the cabin.  He leaned forward watching in
+an agony of suspense.  Her beautiful face was transfigured
+with joy, aflame with love, radiant with smiles,
+and her tall figure fleecy white, rimmed in gold.  Up
+the shining path of light she steadily advanced toward
+his door.  Then the Harvester understood, and from
+his exultant heart burst the wordless petition:
+
+``LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, HELP ME TO BE A MAN!''
+
+With outstretched arms he arose to meet her.
+
+``My Dream Girl!'' he cried hoarsely.  ``My Dream
+Girl!''
+
+``Coming, Harvester!'' she answered in tones of joy,
+as she dropped the white flower and lifted her hands to
+draw his face toward her.
+
+``Is that the kiss you wanted?'' she questioned.
+
+``Yes, Ruth,'' breathed the Harvester.
+
+``Then I am ready to be your wife,'' she said.  ``May
+I share all the remainder of life's joys and sorrows with
+you?''
+
+The Harvester gathered her in his arms and carried
+her to the bench on the lake shore.  He wrapped the white
+robe around her and clasped her tenderly as behooved a
+lover, yet with arms that she knew could have crushed
+her had they willed.  The minutes slipped away, and still
+he held her to his heart, the reality far surpassing his
+dream; for he knew that he was awake, and he realized
+this as the supreme hour that comes to the strongman
+who knows his love requited.
+
+When the first banner of red light arose above Medicine
+Woods and Singing Water the cocks on the hillside
+announced the dawn.  As the gold faded to gray,
+a burst of bubbling notes swelled from a branch almost
+over their heads where stood a bark-enclosed little house.
+
+``Ruth, do you hear that?'' asked the Harvester softly.
+
+``Yes,'' she answered, ``and I see it.  A wonderful
+bird, with Heaven's deepest blue on its back and a breast
+like a russet autumn leaf, came straight up the lake from
+the south, and before it touched the limb that song
+seemed to gush from its throat.''
+
+``And for that reason, the greatest nature lover who
+ever lived says that it `deserves preeminence.'  It always
+settles from its long voyage through the air in an ecstasy
+of melody.  Do you know what it is, Ruth?''
+
+The Girl laid a hand on his cheek and turned his eyes
+from the bird to her face as she answered, ``Yes, Harvester-
+man, I know.  It is your first bluebird----but it
+is far too late, and Belshazzar has lost high office. 
+I have usurped both their positions.  You remain in the
+woods and reap their harvest, you enter the laboratory
+and make wonderful, life-giving medicines, you face the
+world and tell men of the high and holy life they may
+live if they will, and then----always and forever, you
+come back to Medicine Woods and to me, Harvester.''
+
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+of
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter
+
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