O Pioneers!

would not know the country under which he has been asleep. The shaggy coat of the prairie, which they lifted to make him a bed, has vanished forever. From the Norwegian graveyard one lo

ther across the green and brown and yellow fields. The light steel windmills tremble throughout their frames and tug at their moorin

s of a single field often lie a mile in length, and the brown earth, with such a strong, clean smell, and such a power of growth and fertility in it, yields itself eagerly to the plow; rolls away from the shear, not even dimming the brightness of the metal,

g back. Like the plains of Lombardy, it seems to rise a little to meet the sun. The air and the earth are curiously mated and intermingled, as if the

blade, he slipped the whetstone into his hip pocket and began to swing his scythe, still whistling, but softly, out of respect to the quiet folk about him. Unconscious respect, probably, for he seemed intent upon his own thoughts, and, like the Gladiator's, they were far away. He was a splendid figure of a boy, tal

old wild country, the struggle in which his sister was destined to succeed while so many men broke their hearts and died, he can scarcely remember. That is all among the dim things of childhood and has been forgotten in the brighter pattern life weaves today, in the bright facts of being captai

voice called, "Almost through, Emil?" He dropped his scythe and went toward the fence, wiping his face and neck with his handkerchief. In the cart sat a young woman who wore driving gauntlets and a wide shade hat, trimmed with red poppies. Her face, too,

own and back. Alexandra lets you sleep late. Oh, I know! Lou's wife was telling me about the w

o mow our lot, but I've done half a dozen others, you see. Just wait till I finish off the

replied the young

up his scythe again. "What did you ever burn John Huss for, anyway?

hotly. "Don't they ever teach you in your history classes that

denying you're a spunky little bunch, you

t sunning herself and watching the long grass fall. She sat with the ease that belongs to persons of an essentially happy nature, who can find a comfortable spot almost anywhere; who are supple, and quick in adapting themselves to circumst

's bare arms. "How brown you've got since you came home. I wish I had an athl

r wait until after it rains." Emil squinted off

going to stand up with him? Well, then it will be a handsome wedding party." She made a droll face at Emil, who flushed. "Frank," Marie continued, flicking her horse, "is cranky at me because I loaned his saddle to Jan Smirka, and I'm terribly afraid he won't take me to the dance in the evening. Maybe the supper will tempt him. All Angelique's folks are baking

ow do you know t

Marcel's party, and I could tell how they took

ortly, studying the glitt

ty and fruitfulness of the outlying fields. There was something individual about the great farm, a most unusual trimness and care for detail. On either side of the road, for a mile before you reached the foot of the hill, stood tall osage orange hedges, their glossy green marking off the yell

ost bare. The pleasantest rooms in the house are the kitchen - where Alexandra's three young Swedish girls chatter and cook and pickle and preserve all summer long - and the sitting-room

windbreaks and sheds, in the symmetrical pasture ponds, planted with scrub willows to give shade to the cattle in fly-time. There is even a white row of beehives in the orc