Otherwise Phyllis

gon. Camera safe on top and your suit-ca

Why not linger another week?

back as it crackled and flamed. There came suddenly a low whining in the trees and a gust of wind caught the sparks from the blazing twigs an

or some time," replied Phil. "W

itigated vagabonds, you and I, Phil. If I didn't know that you like this sort of

Oh, one's three au

one with you; and while I was waiting for you to buy shoes at Fisher's your Aunt Fanny strolled by and gave me another overhauling. It's a question whether they don't bring legal process to take you away fro

liments. I've always th

oped, picked up a pebble and flung it with the unconscious grace of a boy far down the creek. Her Aunt Fanny's solicitude for her complexion

loaf along and still reach town by eleven. Only a little while ago we had to get you to bed by

is mind and the range of his memories well enough to supply the conclusion of such sentences as the one that had resolved itself into a d

ulder-filled channel, knowing that soon it would be free of the dark defile and moving with dignity between shores of corn toward the Wabash. The cliffs that enclosed Turkey Run represented some wild whim of the giant ice plow as it had redivided and marked this quarter of the world. The two tents in

! We're going so

ad grown to womanhood, it had seemed impious to allow her imagination to play. She watched him now with the pity that was woven into her love for him: his tall figure and the slightly stooped shoulders; the round felt hat that crowned his thick, close-cut hair, the dejection that seemed expressed in so many trifles at such moments,-as in his manner of dropping his hands loosely into the pockets of his corduroy coat, and

, she felt that he should be left to himself; that his spirit traversed realms beyond boundaries she might not cross; and that in a lit

mparisons. She was as quick as a swallow; and yet a conscientious ornithologist would have likened her in her moments of contemplation to the thrush for demureness. And a robin hopping across a meadow, alert in all his mysterious senses, was not more alive than Phil in action. Her middle-aged aunts said she was impudent, but this did not mean impudent speech; it was Phil's silences that annoyed her aunts and sometimes embarrassed or dismayed other people. Her

htful row when she wore it as a street garb. She gave this up, partly to mollify the aunts, but rather more to save her father from the annoyance of their complaints. She clung, however, to her sweater,-on which a large "M" advertised her alma mater most indecorously,-and in spite of the aunts'

, a reproach, a disgrace, but no fault, we may be sure, of the anxious aunts. Manifestly Phil had no immediate intention of growing up. The idea of being a young lady did not interest her. In June of this particular year she had been graduated from the Montgomery High School, in a white dress and (noteworthy achievement of the combined aunts!)

of the tan from her cheek; her vigorous young fists were always brown;

. To admit the dogs of Main Street to a high-school commencement, an affair of pomp and ceremony held in Hastings's Theater, was not less than shocking. It had seemed so to the principal, but he knew Phil; and knowing Phil he laughed when the English teacher protested that it would compromise her professional dignity to allow a student to discuss the vagrant

y's Bank, and the proper authorities a few years later called the name of the place Montgomery, which it remains to this day. This explains why the superintendent of schools overlooked the temerity of Amzi's great-granddaughter in el

of the creek among the boulders. It was a strain of music not of nature's making and Phil's healthy young curiosity was instantly aroused by it. Her

osened stone fell behind her. Finally, catching the protruding roots of a great sycamore whose shadow had guided her, she gained the top. The moon, invisible in the vale, now greeted her as i

Amzi Montgomery I to observe. A dividing fence ran from the sycamore, straight toward the moon. It was a "stake-and-rider" fence, and the notches on the Holton side of it were filled with wild raspberry, elderberry, and weeds; but on the Montgomery side these interstices were free of such tangle. The fact that lights and music advertised the Holton farm to the eye and ear seemed to Phil a matter worthy of her attention. The corn was in the shock on t

ring old structure, and her tramp across the cornfield was rewarded by a comprehensive view of the scene within. The music ceased and she heard voices-gay, happy voices-greeting some late-comers whose automobile had just "chug-chugged" into the barnyard. She saw, beyond the brilliantly lighted interior, the motors and carriages that had conveyed the company to the

that the moon's full glory lay upon the fields, her shadow danced mockingly with her. Fauns and nymphs tripped thus to wild music in the enchanted long ago when the world was young. Hers was the lightest, the most fantastic of irresponsible shadows. It was not the mere reflection of her body, but a prefigurement of her buoyant spirit, that had escaped from her control and tauntingl

oe and flung the stalk far from her toward the barn as though it were a javelin. Then as she took a step toward the fence she was aware that some one had been watching her. It was, indeed, a

ped Phil b

Lo

beyond the fence straightened and removed his hat. He had been

" she demanded indignantly, he

at, for i

me. It was

your dancing;

O

on. The young gentleman seemed unable at this crucial instant to think of a fit

n to. I came over here to sit o

don't you go

being among the dancers, he contented himself with watching them from a convenient fence corner. He carried a crumpled coat on his

er are giving the pa

l, this being a form of explanation frequently proffered by loc

; one of mine went lame. I've just brought them home, and I'm wondering how long I've got to wait before the ru

cians had begun to play a popular barn dance, and the two spectators watched the dancers catch step to it. Then Phil, having by this ti

Charlie

Charlie's m

ister's nam

out. If you weren't so tall I'd

you now, but you must have been away a long time.

ince I was a kid. They have moved ou

as a tinge of irony in his tone that Phil did not miss. "What's left here-house, barn, and land-belongs t

O

ted mild surprise, polite i

n the barn, tolerant of the impertinence of man-made light and a gayety that was w

t expressed curiosity as to the disposition of the Holton territory and Mr. Fr

Phil; though she did not

's arm pointed toward the north and the venerable f

s little availed Phil, as we shall see. Still it was conceivable and pardonable that Fred Holton sh

r's waiting for me down there in Tu

ood fun, camp

t's tough-the goin

f. I expect to have

had been sold," rem

that. They were dividing up f

he line of her occupations. "I've been across your pasture a number of times on my way to Uncle Amzi's for milk

who was born in the Berkshires, said all Hoosiers drawled. As a matter of fact, Phil, who was indubitably a Hoosier, did not, save in a whimsical fashion of her own, to give a humorous turn to the

her to return for the homeward journey; and she knew that she was guilty of a grievous offense in talking to a Holton in any circumstance

ey're right. I know all about it, s

ng with him in his possession of these unprofitable acres. Phil had no intention of being sorry for him. She rat

living in I

now, nearly two years ago. I was in

rned farming in Me

! Mining; no

nd filed his teleg

the dance for

t's

ed their signal corps. He must have become alarmed by her long absence or he would not have resorted to it, and she recalled with shame that

intervals in long raucous blasts, roused Phil to her best speed. She ran boy fashion

eek, and in a moment the one-horse wagon bearing Phil and her father passed slowly. He heard their voices distinctly; Kirkwood was chaffing Phil for her prolonged absence. Their good comradeship was evident i

g cows,-the wagon lingered for a moment-an act of mercy to the horse-and the figures of father and daughter were mi