God's Green Country

a butterf

a caterpil

min Fr

watched them grow from such humble, unpromising beginnings, come through so much commonplace, grinding routi

get him credit on a bunch of shaggy, bony calves to turn into the waste places in the spring, and had been the first person to laugh with him over the cheque in the fall. He had initiated him in the art of mixing cement, with the result that the stables, the cellar and the porch around the house were made dry and solid. He had surveyed for drain

wanted the fields, the steady quieting toil of seed time and harvest, the care of the cattle, the directing of life and growth with all their mysteries and miracles, and their unfailing obediences to natu

partly through the insight of a few semi-professionals, it was discovered that he had some unusual athletic possibilities, and Billy loosened up from his grind sufficiently to learn the hard, clean strain of rugby and hockey, and to warm up daily in the gymnasium. It opened up a new world for him. In his whole

e, chasing a hockey puck down the ice, skated very close to him, lost the puck around his skates somehow, and as he returned it, she turned in his direction for a moment the most naive, childish gaze from a pair of wonderful blue eyes. At night, to the

ed, linen-bosomed young men. Absently Billy was having a programme thrust upon him. Dazedly the admonition was being borne in on him that he would be expected to

eople at ease, the rare individuals of the twentieth century youth who needed this ministration-and to shuffle them. She handled Billy's case by reassuring him from the franke

half way across the distance between them. Billy brought the hand back painfully. He had known better, of course, but it seemed such a humanly natural thing to do. Come to think of it, he had shaken hands with the committee girl too, but she must have met him half w

er, with his rare six feet of athlete, his good looks, and his whole unique f

ly and she was not acc

t the rink this afternoon?

so much more than he had expected from this queenly little personage, with the whole of her narrow little circumscribed world at her feet. He found something very sweet and womanly in the deepening color, in the maidenly lifting and lowering of her eyes-very wonderful eyes they seemed, large and long-lashed, with

imself, but he was very human in his fondness for the poetry of motion, and there was very little poetry of anything else in his life. From the time he entered the ball-room, it was his habit t

is selfishness, she gave it to him very sweetly. She even managed, though he would never have thought of suggesting it, to give him the second half of an extra, because it does give a certain prestige to a girl's s

the transparent drape about her white shoulders, and the American Beauties trembling against her with every breath, to her frail, little high-heeled shoes, and he thought happily that she would always need a man to take care of her, to work for her, and to give her these things. Then he came back to earth heavily. He thought of the b

sses, gay shaded lights and gliding figures trailing their white shadows after them along the polished

but she was too much occupied to be much interested. The diversion was a senior student who was considered exceedingl

o that always came when she had no point in particular. She didn't o

oodily among the term's wreckage in his room. About ten o'clock a crowd of girls passed the window and a crimson scarf flying

by themselves. They could steer a toboggan down a hill, or balance a tea-cup with the dexterity of long practice. Why they had chosen agriculture as a profession was a mystery, but from the standpoint of tearooms, flowers and theatres, they were very select young men. As she passed them with her new attend

l after the last hockey match with a sister college. She didn't interrupt him rudely, of

last skate of the year. A lot of the people I k

"I should have thought, but

tuition than she suspected. It was not at all what she desired, that this boy from the country, whom

tive of trifles," she remarked stiffly

f she only knew how different, he surmised, she would despise him even mor

irl might have had a bad fall. As it was, there was a blue mark on her shoulder that she kept hidden for some d

ore, Billy found himself skating down the ice with her. He found himself talking to her without restraint and quite on a level. Then she introduced him to a crowd of the finest girls he had ever known. Altogether, he was having a ve

erribly

rgiven into her misty eyes and pouting mouth. Billy looked and wondered. He couldn't see that she had done much to require forgiveness

to make up for it?" Considering his inexperie

e told him in broken, embarrassed little phrases, that she was impulsive, that she guessed she was spoiled, but she was always sorry after she

tly that he didn't see h

y was. He didn't know that the sudden change in her attitude was due to the fact that he had established his favor with the b

t Dad was getting her a little runabout for Christmas, sort of a bribe to keep her from wanting to go back to the city next year. Oh, yes, they had a farm-just a hobby, of course. Oh, no, they didn't live on it. They h

oing far too fast at home-it really was hard to get an evening in, because there were some very nice people in the town, for the size of it, and she was so fond of company and excitement. She could just live on it. She told him, with the naivete of a child, of her many

he afternoon, Billy took off her skates something after the

d I've talked all about myself. The next time you must tell m

t it would be to tell this beautiful, irresponsible, "delicately

ime and there were a thousand more glorious times ahead of her-not with Billy-oh, dear no. She confided to a circle of her dearest girl friends that he was "all right in an agricultural setting," he was "awfully handsome in his lumberin

ossessed of one thought. He must make his plans work out; he must be ready to turn things into money fast; he must be successful in some way or oth

ck almost before he reached the platform, and would not le

everything?

ne-only

ything

e just doesn't seem

t like a stranger as they neared the old place. How little and lonely the house looked in the thickening dusk with the lamplight making red squares of the windows-the frost already c

ittle as she hurried to meet him, very pathetic too, with her face lifted shyly, not knowing just what to expect, aching to express her love, but fearful of doing the wrong thing. They gro

to his head, the walls very confining as he paced about, but he noticed that the floor was scrubbed white, that the curtains had been laundered until they fairly bristl

somethi

Do you remember that plaid? It's some of the first kilts you had. The brighter pieces

then, as if challenging some arg

he said. "I should t

l simplicity, might be watching him too. It was not until after Jean had gone to bed that they came nearer to an understanding. For a

any good tim

, and he wondered, half pleased, how she knew. He fe

toward t

ice his embarrassment.

and open the door. It's as good as

ething about her whole airy, pleasure-loving, exotic presence that didn't seem to fit in here. He liked to shut his eyes and picture her as she looked standing under the cluster of rose-shaded lights in the college ballroom, but when he opened them on the neat, square little kitchen, with the wood-box be

we?" he began. "You must be tired waiting for it, but

lines draw across her face, bu

o have your house and your fireplace and everything just like you want it; but you mustn't go putting your mother in your plans; it isn't natural. I'd like to see it all, and I'd be so pleas

forgotten in her lap, Billy saw the change he had been looking for. He came over an

"Jean said you were no

ack as she had done hundreds of tim

thing,"

see the

es

did he

ever since to forget

about a specialist. The

mind going to

feel bad at all. You see I have everythin

ty of making his decision

g away again till you're better. There's the money for the next term; we'll use

hink of that. I want to see you get through. If

eep that for J

her to learn some way of making her livi

a determination born of his own limited and bitter observati

his attention anyway. When she did agree to his plan it was because she found that in some things he was absolutely immovable. He could be steered easily enough to a certain point; af