The Harvester

outh 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 valle

ay over the fields in big circles of green, and even plants of delicate growth were t

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

den," he soliloquized. "It's huge! But while I am a

olded, and looked at the structure a

e, 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 disappointe

lake, and hooted from the forest of the opposite b

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-

he shining skeleton to the b

ce 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, a

mber pile and gazed quest

ourt 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 shoul

s clear skin f

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

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

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. Whe

s 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, couc

big veranda they remained a day more and made flower boxes, and a swinging couch, and th

ston?" asked this man as they put a mirror-lik

the Harvester. "

e been here," said the carpenter. "Do you want me to think that a

son swept over

ndividual 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

wife and fou

you s

! Well that's the best I ever heard! Am I sorry

ntil 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 fee

ought to

nd your own work good,

altogether! Nothing but good work would suit you. I was thinking of the little creek splashing down the hill to

r 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 b

he carpenter. "After all the pains you've

replied the Harvester. "One can't do more! Whether she like

didn't know," comm

n 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 sprin

nt a lot of the fall kind. I'm always full o

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 d

ountry, his mattock, with a bag rolled around the handle, on his shoulder. His feet sank i

y across this muck bed to the lake. With small work I can make you a thing of beauty. A few bushes grubbed, a little d

. "Mebby you think I don't know what you're up to! I even can hear the hammering and the voices o

ring you back. I want you to go over mother's bedding and have what needs it washed. All I

's bedding that you were no

d out only four times a year to air, as you told me. It m

en hearing is

!" said the

and when are you g

fted his clear e

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

to these parts," said

ce girl 'at your ma

--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 acqu

rs say. Slavin' like a horse all day, and

d?" laughingly inq

oman. "Go on with your work! Work don't hurt a-body. Eat a-ple

? New story, isn't it? Usually I'm too

, David. I always knowed how you grubbed and sl

ly 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 re

he road, and Granny Mor

mation as a flock o' almanacs, but now since he's gone, 'pe

e 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

aged 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

ystematically 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

ed 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 cu

. 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 eno

sniffed it he commented, "Nothing else has much of a chance since I've stirred up the cabbage bed. I can sce

for an instant hushed other wood voices

il 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

r the water he noticed sweet-flag leaves w

occupied 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 a

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 insta

d and above him, and the notes of singing hens, exultant cocks, the scream of geese, the quack of ducks, the rasping crescendo of guineas

ord sound!'" quoted the Harvester. "'I thank God

ening, a superb figure of a man,

she would love it as I do. Any one who understands, and knows how to translate, cares

and scraped the earth from it, sniffing it delightedly the while. A soft south wind freighted with aromatic odour

enses 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