The Desert of Wheat

emed a rosy gold, and all that open slope called to her thrillingly of the beauty of the world and the happiness of y

ity, she looked up serenely and said, "Father, o

k and his eyes opened wide in surpri

I have, you know,"

s than surprised. "Daughter, don't

u, lass," added Anderson,

, too," be

at Lenore, with the wise, pen

've got a new beau up

e sister than with the incomprehensible fact of a playful

t your manners,"

awful child," added Ro

thleen, hotly. "Lenore, if it is

ldren!" ordered the

really nothing to blush for; still, she could scarcely tell her father that upon awakening this morning she had found her mind made up-that only by going to the Bend country could she determ

dow as they went over the wheat. All her life she had known and loved the fields of waving gold. But they had never been to her what they had become overnight. Perhaps this was because it had been said that the issue of the great war, the salvation of the world, and its happiness, its hope, depended upon the millions of broad acres of golden grain. Bread was th

s the bridge, coming abruptly upon Nash,

said, with a smil

ing and asked if her fath

ng telegrams

he matter with the '

s cut ye

.W.W.

her says. I

e done to those men,"

breeding, but his manner when alone with Lenore-he had driven her to town several times-was not the same as when her

re, I've sympathy for tho

miliar use of her first name. "It doesn't co

e? I'm driving around for th

and hurried on out of earshot.

ice and the jingle of spurs behind her told Lenore of

g, Jake! Whe

I wouldn't be Adams for no

uld I," lau

You sure look powerful fine, Miss Len

an aeroplane would

' thet's enough for me.… An', changin' the subject, Miss Lenore,

the cowboy. She would have trusted Jake as she w

re I know you'd never look at the likes of him. But I want to tell you-he ain't no good. I've been watc

he cowboy floundered. "I appreciate you

u see, I know men better 'n your dad, a

ther keepi

ot about thet I.W.W., an' he ain't a

n "Many Waters" as well as he. Sometimes there were difficulties that Lenore had no little part in smoothing over. The barns a

bosses are bad

ked cowboys cuff and kick the

n' to war," said Jake, reflect

on't come in the

ld do you t

about fourt

but I'll gamble I can pack a gun an' shoot as

e you won't go. We absolutely coul

ckon I'll hang around till you're

let mantled Le

arvests then, Jake, and

n't know-

ay so that she co

was something different about her, that seemed certain. And if her eyes were as bright as the day, with its deep blue and

much. Do I want a h

ated, so that not a weed nor a blade of grass showed. The fragrance of fruit in the air, however, did not come from this orchard, fo

t she wanted to roll, and she had to run. Two great wagons with four horses each were being loaded. Lenore knew all th

ed to wipe his red face with a huge bandana.

s a grand morni

nk it was hot," he said, as she tripped on.

and redolent of blossom and ripeness. Hard tramping it soon got to be. She grew hot and breathless, and her legs ached from the force expended in making progress through the tangled hay. At last she was almost across the field, far from t

feel-when I see him-a

the hay, to hide from that tremendous bright-blue eye, the sky. Suddenly she lay very quiet, feeling the strange glow and throb and race of her blood, sensing the mystery of her body, tr

ch darkness of that behind her. At the end of this field ran a swift little brook, clear and musical, open to the sky in places, and in others h

pon a stone to dry them in the sun. It had a burn that felt good. No matter how hot the sun

fa-fields, the hill crowned by the beautiful white-and-red house, the acres of g

bore a drier odor, not so sweet. She could see the workmen, first those among the alfalfa, and then the men, and women, too, bending over on

of oats invited her steps, and across this stretch she saw a long yellow slope of barley, where the men were cutting. B

ield she discovered a number of strange men lounging in the scant shade of a line of low trees that separated the fields. Here she saw Ada

her with you

r me," replied Lenore

angers looki

ueried Lenore,

not a robust man, and he seemed to carry a burden o

enore, bluntly. "Father has

're needing here in the Valley,"

ought?" asked Lenore, pointing to the huge machin

dy," returned Adams. "With machines like

o the driver, Bill Jones, another old hand, long employed by her father. Bill hauled back on the many

on this 's a regul

platform where another man sat on a bag of barley. Lenore did not

, pointing with grimy hand to the

ive, Bill?

ed, dryly. "You sure can drive, miss.

t I do? I'

hat could throw anythi

you drove the horses.… Go ahead

ams of chaff enveloped Lenore. The high stalks of barley, in wide sheets, fell before the cutter upon an apron, to be carried by feeders into the body of the machine. The straw, denud

ng his share. Bill's aim was unerring. He never hit the wrong horse, which would have been the case had he used a whip. The grain came out in so tiny a stream that Lenore wo

of a ten-hour day for workmen cutting eighteen acres of barley. How would they ever cut the two thousand acres of wheat? No wonder many men were needed. Lenore sympathized with the operators of that harvester-thresher, but she did n

ntelligence, it seemed to Lenore, rolled on with its whirring roar

had walked along with the mac

here till your fath

dams. Why

hese strange men! Some of them hard customers! You'll excu

Lenore. Thanking the foreman for his thoughtfulness, she walke

le gold. The wind, out of the west, waved and swept the

d leaned to her face. When looked at closely, how truly gold their color! Yet it was not such a gold as that of the rich blaze of ripe wheat. She was admitting to her consciousness a jealousy of anything comparable to wheat. And suddenly she confess

out here, wild, restless, unable to reason… just because I'd decided to see him again-

began sensitively to distrust herself. She who had always been so sure of motives, so contented with things as they were, had been struck by an absur

awoke to the clip-clop of hoofs

throwing his bridle, he s

de back hom

r wandering out there, and she made a mo

, ain't it? An' I see the barley's

he feared he meant to quiz her about her sudden change of front regardi

to make up to you. Any sense in wha

ther fresh, as Rose calls it," replied Lenor

eyes at Rose. She tol

m," said Leno

you, Lenore. I've been hopin'

o you want?"

lood an' mebbe foreign sympathies. We're at the start of big an' bad times in the good old U.S. No one can tell how bad. Well, you know my position in the Golden Valley. I'm

deringly and her look s

u remember, one of those men at Dorn's house-they are usin' gold. They must have barrels of it. If I could find out where that g

?" queried Lenor

e crop yield in the Northwest; to draw the militia here; in short, to harass

terrible!" d

whisper of a plot to put me out

don't mean it!" crie

vils with their own weapons. Now, lass, you know you'll get these wheatlands of mine some day. It's in my will. That's because you, like your d

st out Lenore, with a

e talkin'!" excl

ash-if you'll let me," decl

do you me

ishy-washy moonstruck girl, smitten with him. Al

breath and his big hand snappe

ncourage Nash-flirt with him a

r her face with her hands. She trembled slightly, then grew col

d-by to Jim, my son, I-I felt I'd never look upon his face again!… I gave him up. I could have held him back-got exemption for him. But, no, by God! I gave him up-to make safety and happiness and prosperity for-say, your children, an' Rose's, an' Kathleen's.… I'm workin' now for the future. So must every loyal man an' every loyal woman!

elf drawn by an irresistible power. The west wind rustled through the waving wheat. She heard the w

he's an agent, a spy, a plotter for a gang that's marked me. I can't prove it yet, but I feel it. Maybe nothin' worth while-worth the trouble-will ever be found out from him. But I don't figure that way. I say play their own game an' take a chance.… If you encouraged Nash you'd probably find out all about him. The worst of it is could you be slick enough? Could a girl as fine an' square an' high-spirited as you ever double-cross a ma

hispered

in his pockets, and he gazed across the wheat-fields. "That wheat'll be ripe in a week. It sure looks fine.… Lenore, you r

her, and he hesitated, bending o

unsteadily. "An' she helped me win out durin'

how her feeling, to make her task se

erent note in his voice. "An' I want you to know that it ain