You Never Know Your Luck, Complete

round appeared bare and ill-treated, like a sheep first shorn; but yet nothing could take away from it the look of plenty, even as the fat sides of the shorn sheep invite the satisfied eye of the

h the coat of ripe corn in the ear, it still showed the fibre of its b

ng itself, to charge the world in turn with force and energy. Morning gave pure elation, as though all created being must strive; noon was the pulse of existence at the top of its activity; evening was glamorous; and all the lower sky was spread with those colours which Titian stole from th

nconsciously, and got something from it; though there were many others who got nothing out of it at all, save the health and comfort brought by a precious climate whose solicitous friend is the sun. These heeded it little, even though a good number of them came from the damp islands lying between the north Atlantic

more of it than any one; stray people here and there who take no part in this veracious tale had it in greater or less degree; fat Jesse Bulrush was so sensitive to it that he, as he hi

Once when she was quite a little girl she had said to her mother, "I'm going to ile away," and her mother, puzzled, asked her what she meant. Her reply was, "It's in the hymn." Her

which was to ile, and she had visions of something between fl

him and he comprehended her. He had almost at once become to her an admired mystery, which, however, at first she did not dare wish to solve. She had been content to be a kind of handmaiden to a generous and adored master. She kne

sh and Nurse Egan, and even her mother, read them to Crozier after his operation, to help him pass away the time. The only time she ever cared to listen-at school, though quick and clever, she had never cared for the printed page-was when, by chance, poetry or verses were read or

d clean linen-he always washed his own white trousers and waistcoats, and he had a taste in ties, which he made for himself out of silk bought by the yard. He was, in fact, a clean, wholesome man, with a flair for material things, as he had shown in the land proposal on which Shiel Crozier's fortunes hung, but with no gift for carrying them out, h

ed man. Jesse had been away so much in different parts of the country before then that their individual merits never had had a real chance to make permanent impression

the greater because his lovely nurse-he did think she was lovely, as Rubens thought his painted ladies beautiful, though their cordial, ostentatious proportions are not what Raphael regarded as the divine lines-because

ear-visaged woman a mistress of his heart, who had all the virtues and graces and who did not talk. That, to him

house, where a half-dozen trees made a pleasant resting-place at a fine look-out point. He found her in her

I've written," he said, and he

he had seen him writing it. She had even seen some of the lines scrawled and re-scrawled on bits of paper, showing careful if not swift and skillful manufacture

erses I've written," he sai

ent interest, and he did not see the frivolous gleam i

e added cheerfully. "They are very popular. Not genius, quite, but there it is, the gift; and it h

said gaily. "Mount your horse and get ga

gh a pleasing voice, from fat lips, flanked by a

s of the sk

light, your

k depths beh

ad hope and

r quiet br

charm to crow

n one soft

nly shadows

stioningly. "But 'dark depths'-that isn't the right thing to say of my eyes! And Titian cloud of hair-is my hair Titian? I t

t and eyes of fire, that I haven't got a Grecian brow? Do you dare to say those verses don't fit me-except for the Titian hair and heavenly shadows? And that I've got no right to think they're meant for me? Is it so, that a man that's lived in my mother's house

and she really seemed a young fury let loose. For a moment he was deceive

hen you read those verses to me, do you think any man who was a gentleman wouldn't in the circumstances say, 'These verses ar

thought of you always as a baby in long skirts"-she spasmodically drew her skirts down over her pretty, shapely ankles, while she kept he

hat couldn't help himself, struck by a horse-thief's bullet in the dark; him that's

e this! "Carryings on! I've acted like a man all through-never anything else in your house, and it's a shame that I've got t

u from playing a double game with two girls so placed they couldn't help themselves-just doing kind acts f

om her eyes as she added: "That you're a man after my own heart. But you can't have it, even if you are afte

wicked little rip-you Ellen Terry at twenty-two, to think you cou

r hand to her heart "all the pangs of unrequited love-oh, go away, go back to the house and read that

h for anybody, and if I wasn't so young and daren't leave mother till I get my wisdom-teeth cut, and till

rejoined Jesse Bulrush, with a face still half ashamed yet beaming. "But, tell me, you

ou read them to me, and she'll only hear your voice, and she'll think them clever and you a wonderful man, even if you are fifty and weigh a thousand pounds. It doesn't matter to a woman what a man's saying o

a girl you are!"

er to me," she

both your mot

"and I know that in any case you'll never be any relative o

d away, "I'll let you hear some of my verses one day

beat mine," h

n, she drew from her breast a slip of paper, unfolded it, and laid it on her knee. "It is better," she said. "It's not good poetry, of course, but it's truer, an

wly read the

hile yet the exhilaration of their decision was inflaming them, have done what they said they would never,

es of all, unless they live in wild places beyond the social pale. Within the past few weeks she had had visions of such a world beyond this active and ordered civilisation, where the will and the conscience of a man or

for them to be kept apart! This man did not love her, and so there was no tragedy for both. Still all was not over yet-yes, al

ess in her walk suggesting excitement, yet from the look in her face it was pl

d you I

Bul

she said, with a little

arried. It's enough to make you die laughing to

d be you. He said he would

of Tyndall Tynan. "A stepfather to an unmarried girl, both eyeing

t of the way?" asked Kitty, with a look which

ed till you are married, anywa

any one sp

might. Instead, I've done my best to prove that two women could live and succeed without a man to earn for them;

t has an aristocratic character which commands general respect. In Askatoon people gave Mrs. Tynan a better place soci

d on us," she added

Kitty. "It's funny, isn't it, how he made pe

hat, if he paid Hades a visit," said Mrs. Tyn

nge, far-away, brooding look in Mrs. Tynan's ey

with him," sai

a kind of way, till I knew he was married. But it didn't mean an

d Kitty, smothering an agi

n love himself, it would be with some girl like you. He's young enough for that, and it's

choice between you a

any choosing, he'd not have hesitated a minute. He'd have taken y

after he'd told us his sto

then?" asked her mother,

rstand it, but it's as though he'd been a

; "but you had such sense, and he never showed any feeling for you; and young girls get over things. Besides, you always showed you

t-but there's a difference with him in a way.

uerulously. "You've got to stop it at once. It's no good. It's b

ou have to think about one person, you should stop thinking about another;

ry, Kitty? You don't mean

He keeps

ing and rac

it pays, and he has got a

rjected Mrs. Tynan. "You shan't. He's vi

self away-on a married m

r, breaking down. "You can't mean

. "I know how I've got to do it. I have to make my own medicine-and

enough?

r had. Mr. Crozier did it with horses only, the other does it

ed her mother

it's a vice. I'm John's vice, and I'm thinking of trying to cure him of it-an

ing towards the house. "I think you don't mean to ma

nt him to give it up,"

e was alone with