The Wind Before the Dawn

, and even a stinted amount for feed, had been sent from the East in March. But for that donation even the work horses must have succumbed. Josiah Farnshaw had the best horses i

ecided to return and take the chances of the grasshopper-ridden Middle West, and had come wit

any months had been spent in alternate intervals of hope and fear that now, since the test was actually and immediately to be made, the tension was terrific. Men rose as soon as th

tured rapidly. While they appeared in swarms, it was n

an to get

hopefulness in the air. What became of the grasshoppers nobody knew exactly, but they went

itated, he took advantage of wind and weather to get his crops in the ground. He had been right all along. He did not propose "to be run off of the land he had

to pay was explained. He would renew the paper if it could be secured by the land. There was no hurry about payment, but it was necessary for the details to be finished up in a business-l

, and have the papers made out. After the agent was gone Mr. Farnshaw went to the ho

expected, and when Mrs.

in' t' mortgage th' farm, ar

her," and walked determinedly out of the house, lea

' mortgage business an' I ain't never seen any of 'em free from payin' interest afterward." This

aw was moved to unusual demonstrations by the quality of the ou

l in another year, and I'll help pay the inte

nshaw br

e black dress, which death had sanctified some months before, for use on the morrow. The opportunity to wear the emblems of mourning turned her childish mind away from the object of her journey, and left her as un

ying the next year's interest was for the time settled. The next morning the healthy young mind was much more largely concerned with the appearance of her mother in the new black dress than with either the mourning

y, who lived twenty miles or more to the south, had a new and desirable variety which he was trying to exchange for cows with young calves by their sides. A calf was selected from their diminished herd, its mother tied behind the wagon which held it, and Lizzie taken along to assist in driving. The journey, though begun in early morning, was a tedious one, for the cow fretted, the day was hot, and the footsore and weary child was worn out long before the Hornby place was reached. It was

Mrs. Hornby, and in spite of the ruffled curtains which adorned the windows and

was astir. The first object upon which Lizzie's eyes fell wa

t was sick last night died and left a little colt. He said he thought he had better get

ass "where you could see your head and your belt at the same time?" But the combing was destined to be a lengthy process, for before the child had pulled her comb through the first lock attacked she saw reflected beside her face in that mirror an old-fashioned, black walnut secretary full of books! Lizzie Farnshaw had never seen a dozen

able to persuade any one to read with her. Here was a kindred spirit. She looked at the fifteen-year-

like t

and once more she asked it

. "We'll have some good times before your father comes ba

prove the girl in other ways and it was with her straight brown hair gathered into neat braids, clean finger-nails, and a feeling of general sel

a specimine as you be," was Nathan Hornby's salutation, and his hand

glance up at him again. All through the meal he found her eyes

xt time whether y

e had chosen. Of this fact neither husband nor wife seemed to be conscious. Nathan was ten years older than the woman he had married. In accepting him she had accepted him as he was; later she had grown, but to her he remained the same; he was just Nathan, and needed no analysis. They lived and loved, and radiated the harmony which was theirs. The incongruities of their union were evident to this child, who was supersensitive about grammatical constructions, but their harmony wa

out his hand looking for

e-wants t' try everything in its mouth," he

r of surprise in Lizzie Farnshaw's

himself as he went to the field later, and being big-hearted and ignorant

tioned her to get into touch with her life and thought

"Let's take her with us to Topeka this fall and put her into the high school. She's-she's just th

eplied, and then, seeing Susan's face cloud o

o countin' on this thing. That's th' trouble with these here fool po

rent, but the worm of desire burrowed deeper every time Topeka was mentioned. The very fact that he was uneducated, and, as the Democrats had said, unfit, made him desire it the more. Criticism had aroused the spirit of contest in him. Also he wanted Susan, now that sh

, if she hadn't 'a' made Wallace feel good 'bout that crazy thing he calls 'is wife. Curious how big things hinge on little ones. Now Sue had no more idea o' gettin' a nomination t' th' legislature for me th

ects in general made good soil for conversation with her host, and her love for the motherless colt called her to the barn and made special openings for communications. Nathan called the colt, which was of the feminine gender, Pat, because its upper lip was so long, and that too the girl enjoyed, and entered into the joke by softening the name to Patsie.

om excitedly. "Whenever I was afraid something was going to keep me from it, I used to say, 'I will! I will! I will go to high school!' Oh, isn't it too lovely! Do you think my say

er hopes and fears, it was but natural that she should speak of her struggles for p

al profit as well, to Lizzie's confidences that "You shouldn't cross your knife and fork on your plate when you are through eating, like the hired men, but lay them side by side, neat and straight"; that "You shouldn't eat with your knife, neither," and that "To sip your coffee out of your saucer with a noise like grasshoppers' wings was just awful!" She, too, was brushing up to go to Topeka, and while much in advance of her husband or any of her associates in society matters, she had lived the

Hornby remarked to her husband, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The world of to-day would add to Susan Hornby's little speech, "Not only as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," but "So shall he live, and do, and be surrounded." This simple daughter of the farm, the herds, and the homesteaded hills of bleak and barren Kansas, where the educated and intellectual of earth were as much fore

and then added reflectively, "We're going to call her her full name t

d by her given name, he had seen it writ large on her tombstone, and, his eye having become accustomed to the word, his ear fell naturally into line with its pronunciation; besides, his daughter was to be a school-teacher, and was to sig

view, they moved to Topeka the next week. It was as if they were literally to educate their Katie.

into school so late in the term, but her parents, who knew nothing of school requirements, refused to let her go till the corn was all husked and everything snug for the winter, arguing that so much stock had been lost the winter before that every care must be taken of what was left. Tears at the

the delay, but met the young girl

ppy in accostin

er so late? Half the year is gone

an in our part of th' country that's givin' 'is childern any show at th' high school at all, I can tell you. I

. Hornby said, divided between a desire to scold the man and a real disinclination to hurt any one. So much valuable time had been lost. She saw that she must be politic for Eli

at sacrifice on his part, he was coming in for a blame wholly unexpected, and that this woman was siding with the girl and going to spoil her. People of the farm, more than any other class, resent being blamed, and Josiah Farnshaw was an extreme representative of his class. He

e him to give all that he was able to give toward the improvements she suggested in his daughter's wearing apparel. Elizabeth was surprised at the ready response to demands made upon his purse, but here again Mrs. Hornby left a sting, wholly unintended and at the time not recognized by Mr. Farnshaw himself, but remembered by him later and never forgotten after it was once fixed firmly in his mind. Aunt Susan, concerned for the entrance of the child into the company of those of her own age, pointed out to her father the gayly dressed girls of Elizabeth's age, and suggested

nshaw, but-but a coat like the other girls have will co

d given all he had and yet this woman, whom h

th' last red cent I've got," he replied, hu

n serious thought a moment, and a light began to break in upon her. Elizabeth had to have that wrap somehow and h

She was thinking out her plan and spoke slowly.

munificence, but on the way home remembered Susan Hornby's hesitancy and later d

himself. "I guess it's only th' girl that figures in that deal! I ain't nothin' but th' oats she feeds on noh

eka got only a sour distaste for the woman he could clearly see was going to encourage the child in extravagance. He had never spent so much money on the entire family in a winter as he had done on t

was full of unconscious growth. As soon as Mr. Farn

going to take up the

rd over that waist and had thought that it would do very well, though co

traight, but-I never made one like

lenty of time to fix it. You'll feel ever so much better

refractory seam, Elizabeth brought out her little

t it." She held up for Aunt Susan's approval a new Alsatian bow of pink ribbon. "I wanted the wide, but they di

ing Elizabeth's face cloud over with a suspicion that s

ows, as you call them, this year. They seem to be wearing their hair mostly in two plain braids. I'm glad of it, for you look ever so much better

pieces Aunt Susan's tongue ran on

t about school time. You'll learn more this month doing that than you would in school, I ex

other feature of dress that year, not by Elizabeth alone but all womankind-had seemed so magn

ll get you a wrap made before that time. I told your father I couldn't think of your going without a coat of some sort. He

lar? Wha

the bottom of the dress and had a hood lined with bright colo

m. She had never known anybody dressed so well for anything but a funeral, or a party, or to go to church. They actually wore gloves to school! Elizabeth looked at her brown hands and decided that she

btained, and for the first time Elizabeth heard the term "lisle thread" used as against the common term of cotton for all things not silk or woollen. The n

but seen truly, how great

ons. It was the most wonderful week of her fifteen years, and was well rounded out by going to church on Sunday and for the first time listening to a choir, and seeing

e had been observing the comings and goings of the boys and girls of their neighbourhood one young man had begun to stand out from the r

lities, composed of more compelling elements. The gamut of bliss had not all been run. Elizabeth had progressed from Arcadia to Paradise and was invoicing her emotions. She never shied around a subject, but looked all things in the face; and she found this delightfully surprising world of emotions as entrancing as the extern

and foolishly aglow and wishing devoutly that she had eyes in the back of her head. Henceforth Elizabeth lived in the thought of seeing him. She dubbed him "The Unknown," and if she looked out of the window at home, it was in the hope of seeing him pass; on the way to school she w

er own affairs absorbed her. In fact the young girl was so filled with the delights of her own little world that it was only gradually that she began to understand that the life in Topeka was not as fortunate with the

impossible to be indifferent. Gradually she got bits of indirect light upon the subject. From little things dropped accidentally, and often from explanations which circumstances forced upon them, Elizabeth learned that money was scarce. This came as a shock, and with all the hurt and heartsick worry which the mention of finances always brought to the girl. Why must people have money? she asked herself daily. And mixed with dreams of "The Unknown" came speculations as to the part which money played in the game of life, and the bondage of men to it, and a longing to be free from its withering grasp. In her childish mind the matter of freedom became slightly mixed and she dreamed dreams of being free by owning unlimited amounts of

ne who, because she saw him less often was the more often in her thoughts, was making Elizabeth Farnshaw more observant of those who prof

ther's daily life and that of Nathan and Susan Hornby in times of trouble was the subject of constant thought. Nathan and Susan Hornby were to be guide-posts along the highway of Elizabeth Farnshaw's domestic affairs. Love pointed her thoughts toward marriage, and he

ot been taken into the confidence of either; their private affairs were kept screened from the gaze of any but themselves. By a word dropped here and there, however, she learned th

tribute in her heart toward the life they lived together, a tragedy, in spite of the support and aff

of all who failed to distinguish between the light of a common candle and that of a real sun, that it was a nightmare to most, and ticklish business for all. Unable to distinguish between the good and the bad intentions of those who advocated the passage of bi

ble to throw arguments up to the legislative hill or protect his reputation against the floods of criticism and accusation to which his actions were subjected either here in the Capitol or at home among his constituents. His spirit was broken: he recognized that he was totally unfit for the position into which fortune had thrust him. Nathan sat back in his chair, in the House, with few books and papers on the desk before him, and these unopened, his manner,

her own, if she could have been hoaxed into thinking him the equal of his associates, it would have been easier; but Nathan was aware that Susan Hornby knew to the finest detail the nature of his failure as well as she understood and loved the best in him. During those gloomy days the man marvelled at the gentleness of her solicitations for his cheering and encouragement, not realizing that woman is by nature faithful where man is appreciative of her d

mpart behind which he could take refuge from foes without and receive help from within. At Nathan's request his wife came day after day and listened to the discussions

self be inveigled into buying "a few margins." That was the bitterest drop in his cup. Wheat had dropped steadily from the very day he had begun buying. A steady decline in prices was unthinkable, and it was not til

for her adventurous spirit he would have been working at day's wages in old Indiana, instead of having a home and being an active member of his community and a member of the legislature of his state, with opportunities to prove himself a man in the world of men. He had failed, and his failure reacted upon her. It was not the loss of money and political prestige alone which bit. Another phase of their life in Topeka added its humiliation. Nathan had wa

ith in men, he still had left the one essential gift which should have helped him to win again all that which he had lost. Susan Hornby, like Ruth of old, abandoned all else

and for the first time since their little daug

hand laid over his mouth, and Susan had seen the glitte

ing to do but cogitate and reflect. It was therefore a relief to her when Elizabeth received a letter from her mother summoning her home to teach a spring term of school. While at any other time she would have been filled with indign