A Prairie Courtship

ing some days later. During the meal he announced his intention of staying all night, but he did not explain what had brought him there until he sat with his host and hostess on the veranda while du

e had another purpose in her mind, for since Alison

luff?" she asked at length. "I hear you ha

emed to be a good demand for gramophones; for another, I wanted a tal

nt to borrow a te

borrow money-or, at least, I want to raise it in such a way t

d toward

arantee me to the extent o

could. Whether it would be judicious is quite anoth

as he had done to Farquhar and Hun

word that you had gone off on the trail again," he said. "A quiet life wouldn't suit you. You tried it once with Bi

patience than I have to stand them. Try to imagine it-three months of improving conversation and undeviating regularity. Breakfast to the mi

We once had him here for a day or two. But

sband

shop undertakes it systematica

at is, when the temperature's high

d that he insisted on putting his furniture outside so that he could brush the pla

rs. Hunte

e whole outfit of plates and cups and pots and pans. When he got half-way through, Bishop, who was hor

ughed and addr

that occasion? Still, I suppose one co

e I'm afraid you must apply at the settlement; but it seems to me that

nds up and down the prairie

opportunity for contributing according to his ability. I'll borrow a team from one and a plow from another;

o stay with it

Thorne assured him with a sudden intentn

uietly for a minute or

ntee you for a thousand doll

ay to get something out of his wagon. When h

u are going to throw every

e of it," returne

me you couldn't face the expense when I said that

that you spent a good deal

ct me to live h

a gesture

d once upon a time; I'm sorry you h

ed him with a

months you have been getting bitter; but that's beside the question. Why

m an opportunity for becoming a useful citizen. In the next place, the line must be drawn somewhere, and the crop

oo far. After a while he strolled away toward the stables in search of Thorne, and a few minutes later they sat down together on the summit of

the case of the average man-but I'm not wholly sure it would be that in

Thorne acknowledged. "But isn't there s

s pipe to where the ri

esses that would probably kill me now, and my clothes went to bits before the summer was half-way through, but I was bubbling over with aspirations and a whole-hearted optimism then. I had scarcely a dollar, but I had what seemed better-an u

the finest tea that goes to Russia wouldn't taste as good as what you drink flavored with wood smoke out of a blackened can. Then there's the empty pr

pect instead of them

at you should be

r weary fashion and glan

within sixty miles, and some status in the country, whatever it may be worth-m

you? Your wife

gon I follow the plow. Men like you and I have nothing to do with wire-pullers' tricks,

at him with a

hy you want to prevent

u make a success of it you can't own a house

tha

you'll add a wife to them, and then, unless she's a woman of unusual courage,

get somethin

gh to believe that-but it's an elusive quantity.

and emptie

d I have to start aga

ked at them with a frown. Most of them were bills, which she had once half thought of showing to her husband, though she had not done so, chiefly because the bankbook which she had recently sent up to be balanced revealed the fact that there was then just eighty dollars standing to her credit. As Florence

r liberally, and to save her the necessity of applying to him he paid so many dollars into her bank twice a year and within that limit left her to control the domestic expenses as she pleased. This, indeed, was what chiefly troubled h

to take pleasure in less costly diversions and, to some extent at least, avoid extravagance. On the other hand, however, there were, as she had already realized, one or two reasons why it seemed just as well that Elcot should stay at home. He now looked very much like a farmer, though he had not been reared as one, and she fancied that his rather grim reserve, which was broken now and then by attacks of sardonic candor, was scarcely likely to be appreciated in the wor

ultivation, which he handed her after each harvest. They were sowing again now, and she had heard that it was possible to sell a crop, or at least to raise money on it in some way, beforehand. She determined to question Nevis, who carried on a general business at the railroad settlement, about the matter when he next drove over, which he had said he would probably do durin

lked up on the veranda, where Florence was still sitting with the bills before her. Turning around when he ha

work with the boys as

ably will not be bac

g the chair to which she pointed. "Anyway, it isn't a

was, as she had decided on other occasions, a well-favored man, dark-haired and dark-eyed, and, as usual, he was artistically dressed. The hat he had laid on a neighboring chair was a genuine Panama, such as Mexican half

Toronto when I last saw you. After all, if your husband can spare you, it

convinced already and she did not in

eplied dryly,

ne. The rest of us can badly spare the one bright

lly rather daring, and she seldom resented a sp

nformed him. "That"-she pointed to t

? Perm

and flicked them over. Then he turned and

I'm inclined to think

s than Elcot would have done in a month before he married her, and, tho

to see my husband

o back the experiment on reasonable terms, but I understand that Elcot's dubious about permitting it; and Thorne

ept that she would have liked to spend double her husb

encourage them-out of philanth

ghed good

for business pure and simple, though that doesn't prevent my taking an interest in my friends' difficulti

undred," corrected F

s one that could not well be put directly, and

o doubt, his share of worries?" he suggested.

e had ascertained whether she had any intention of mentioning the deficit to her husband. She also re

ith a laugh. "In any case, I'm independent; I do

d, looking at her as

uch a course might be a little rough on som

't done

ance I'll tell you what I'll do. The thing's in my line of

zed that general opinion would have regarded this as tantamount to placing herself in the man's pow

d at length; "but it

uestions, that she should give him an order for the delivery of so many bushels of wheat after harvest, which she did. That the docu

cent. out of you, which is enough to content me," he e

o be content with the mere interest on the money was a quest

over her hand in a manner that was not common on the prairie,