God's Green Country

ave said: 'I love you.' .... I have wondered what might have been if some one-some understanding person had recognized his gift, or

but for the present leaving him awkward, painfully conscious of his size, ashamed of his ignorance, galling under the tyranny and hopelessness of his environment, but keeping his reflections largely to himself. His saving force was his inherited ambition. It never let him rest, but since all the experience of his life had been gleaned, like the steadily decreasing crops, from the unproductive acres of the Swamp Farm, his ambition lacked direction. On rare occasions he confided secret plans to his mother, but the plans were never practical and there was

played upon by any wind that blows. Out in the great open spaces of the green country, of course, we woul

one man's work, and for the rest he could pick up a force in town. The men were an unsteady crowd. They didn't care to work many days at a time, and invariably left when they were most needed. Then one day a man called looking for a job. He was a Hercules for strength, quick and sure at his work as a professional lumberman.

never passed the woodpile without bringing in an armful. He refused to leave his washing to be done. He stayed out of t

ften under the questioning of her kind eyes he would redden painfully and look away, and knowing that

t he had meant it for the best, that he would come back, sometime. The thought of what she would have to endure in the while between almost made him give it up, but he reasoned that this was just what he had done times before. It was just "drivelling weakness," as Lou had said. He looked around miserably, wishing he could do something to make her understand; that in some way he could soften the hurt of the discovery in the morning. Standing, shivering in the freezing kitch

ng at the sheds attracted no attention, and as he slid into the end seat of the passenger coach he was glad to find that there was no one there whom he knew. The only person in the car who seemed awake was a young man who looked steadily out of the windo

e county that year, and whether all this extension work of the Department of Agriculture was worth while. He was on his way now to begin a short course with the young men farther up the county, in the intervals of which he might be required to test the milk from a few dairy herds, secure a few hired men for the neighborhood, or talk about

ague idea of what the "district representative" was doing there. He listened to the explanation of the short course wit

e first time, to begin his independent career in a lumber-camp somewhere. He also saw that unde

't care whether it does or not. We're having a course next month not so far from your place; come to that and see if you can't find something w

tion. "Sorry," Billy replied, risi

a momentary idea of leaving it under the s

es," the Representative suggested, with a f

. "As it is, I've promised to go north. Anyway I think per

n enough," he said, "but if you want to play fair, why don't you go back and

o keep alive. Now this young man said he could show him how to make money out of the place. He said that boys with a worse beginning had gone ahead right at home and made good, even realized their ambitions for themselves and made the right kind of homes for their families. Family considerations weren't troubling Bi

ame around the bend he had about made his decision. He picked up his grain b

rsion to being "talked into" anything. The Representative hadn't shown any effort at trying to persuade him. He had told him just what he thought without reserve and quite forcibly enough, it seemed; then he had left him to make his own decision, and it gave Billy no little pride in himself to know that he was planning his own course. He felt,

ew spirit that had just awakened in him, laughed also because he had measured carefully the distance to the last c

gain relapsed into speculation as t

r-latch under his hand carried a distinct sense of being back in the right place. Mary, with a way women have of watching the road while they work, had seen him coming. It wasn't in her nature to cry out, or to take him in her arms. She just stood immovable, her breath coming fast, but in the glad welcome

t had your

ised in curbing his emotions, could not go to her. He

e's J

gathered her up and patted her back and smoothed her hair so awkwardly that it tangled about his fingers. He said he shouldn't have

ild to mould as he liked. Billy's experience had not given him much of the quality called business sense, so he didn't ask much-a percentage of whatever profits he could show from the place above an estim

g to hope for. In the house the ham sizzling in the pan, the smell of turnips cooking for dinner and a spicy apple pie

d his ill chosen reading afterwards, had not given him much that a young man would need. A class of twenty young farmers leaving their work to meet every day in a room above the local store was different; it had some purpose. The inf

rovincial fair, but who might as well have hoped to enter a sacred temple as a show ring, could examine to their hearts' content the most aristocratic specimens of Aberdeen-Angus lineage in the country. Ad

up to him. It was amazing the dexterity with which he could tuck the babe away, perfectly contented, in the hollow of his arm, and use both hands in expounding the points of various Panmures and Black Megs, with the history of their ancestors from the oldest farms in Scotland. He made no effort to keep his business affairs out of his home, this man; the two wer

watching the restful air of content about the woman, and listening to the man's enthusiastic forecast of the future of the breed in Canada. The stockman noticed his

you keep

lly answered, with

rely. "Come to me when you start for yourself and I'll give

frosts had turned the trees and pastures to a glorious gold and crimson background. They would be his, and when he had some of them graded up to a show standard, he himself would groom their curly hides till they shone; he could almost feel the shaking muscles of their broad,

ss optimism what it would cost to start a herd, and how long it would take them to pay for a house with a fireplace and red curtains. At intervals he would get up and walk around the table to work off his enthusiasm. T