A Prairie Courtship

en cases and one side of the vehicle and the space beneath the sheeted roof was filled with a faint aromatic odor, which she afterward learned was the smell of t

for it was the first night she had ever spent in the open, and

ast and dim and shadowy, with a silver half-moon hanging low above its eastern rim. To one who had lived in the cities, as she had done, the silence was at first so deep as to be almost overwhelming, but by degrees she became conscious that it was broken by tiny sounds. There was a very faint, elfin tinkle

erself on that point. Then a wild, drawn-out howl drifted up to her across the faintly gleaming prairie and she started and held her breath, until she remembered that Thorne had said there was no reason why she should be alarmed if she heard a coyote. He was, she felt, a

, and a towel hung close by. A few minutes later she took down the towel and glanced at it dubiously. It was by no means overclean and she wondered with misgivings what the man did with it. It seemed within the bounds of possibility that he dried the plates on

rance indeed suggested that he had been in the neighboring creek. She was astonished to notice that he had brushed himself carefully and had sewed up the rent in the knee of hi

and catch the team," he said. "It's a glorious morning; bu

on; "everything is s

tly conscious that her dress was badly creased and crumpl

s what struck me a

ch of the horses she heard him singing softly to himself. She recognized the aria,

straint in this stranger's company. Indeed, she was conscious of a pleasant sense of camaraderie, which seemed the best n

own by proceeding by easy stages, and Alison tactfully led him on to talk about himself as they drove away. Though there were one or two points on

out of you with clubs in England, unless you're rich-really rich-when you can, of course, do anything. On the other hand, the man who is merely stodgil

f uniformity and subordination is nec

nd makes so much dust that it's not always able to see where it's going. Perhaps it's th

act with the vedet

ur toll on the booty and when that's too difficult we live on the country. After all, mine's an

be a luxur

looked

ure you didn't m

ble, because this idea

ways the same unceasing toil with them-they have no diversions. We go round and carry the news from place to place, tell them the latest stories, and now and then sing to the

ng else?" Alison inquire

ting out their defects. Then he inquired why we had the assurance to demand so much for our implement when he could buy a very much better one several dollars cheaper. I asked him if he was sure of that, and when he said he was I suggested that it would be consid

s was not mere rodomontade, but that the man

xperiences of the s

rd projected out of a

ject

e gri

o one; but I took part of the office fittings along with

did you

himself with the folks who come out from the old country. On the day in question the trouble arose from a repetition of the usual formula that if it wasn't for the ocean they'd have the whole scum of Europe coming over. I, however, shook hands wi

amused and she vent

ituations in England

ce darkened

pened, I h

a lengthy stop at noon Thorne asked her if she would mind walking for a while, as Volador was becoming very lame. He added that he would make for a

d to be hollow inside and used as a store of some kind. A middle-aged man with a good-humored look met them at the door, and his wife greeted Alison in a kindly fashion when Thorne explained the cause of their visit. Indeed, Alison was pleased w

when they sat out on the stoop together, Thorne got his banjo and sang twice at Mrs. Farqu

nowledge that had given him power of expression, which held her tense and still. This man knew and had indulged in and probably suffered for the longing for something that was s

rim to a streak of smoky red. Under it the prairie rolled back like a great silent sea. There was something that set the blood stirring in the dew-chilled air, and the faint smell of the wood smoke and the calling of the wild fowl on a distant sloo intensified the sense of the new an

ust then, and soon afterward she retired. This house was larger and much better furnished than the one she had last slept in, though she supposed that it

dor. He had, he explained, sent his hired man off with a team on the previous day for a plow which was being repaired by a smith who lived at a distance, and he had so

nter's, though you don't know yet whether

s not sure that the delicacy was altogether Thorne's, for she had no doubt that h

"I really can't tel

decide to stay, we should

al outward calm there was a vein of impulsiven

at any kind of housework," she said. "I can't wa

rquhar

I had, perhaps, better mention that while I would be glad to pay you at the usual rate and you would be required to help, you would live with us as one of the family. I want a companion.

hat it would be more pleasant here than she supposed it must generally be in England. She felt inclined to

while you would be sorry yo

is, would yo

suppose you know what it is to be offered a resting-place when y

rquhar

u must come straight back here. It would, perhaps,

ou want any

ry sometimes says that when a man is found to be insufferable in the old country they give him a walletful of letters of introduction, crediting him wi

Farquhar's team she drove away with Thorne soon after din

ng about me to Mrs.

"I must confess that I have. Is there

informed him. "But

I'd be a little astonished if you did; and if you were a r

t means that Mrs. Hun

ghed good-

rson to count either way. Mrs. Hunte

of them in w

pretty well. We have, however, quite a few women of excellent education and manners who don't seem to mind making their children's dres

e ofte

and then she goes off to Wi

er husband? Can h

plied dryly, "invar

re on that subject, and they talked about other matter