The Wind Before the Dawn

th, but the presence of the girl in the house was so overwhelmingly surprising that Susan was swept by its very suddenness into shedding tears of actual joy. Elizabeth was put to the disconce

usy, but was obliged to let this dear friend see that it was rather a serious matter in her cal

ears had brought her. She listened to Elizabeth's plans for going to Topeka, and rejoiced that the intellectual stimulus was still strong in her. Elizabeth was obliged to explain away her parent's attitude regarding further education, and left much for the older woman to fill in by her intuitions and experien

e by John Hunter's proximity. Possession is said to be nine points in the law, and John Hunter was on the ground. The girl had been shut away from those of her kind until her hun

he had a house built; and by an accidental remark she had also learned that there were lots in some eastern town upon which enough money could be raised to stock the farm with calves and that it was the young man's intention to fa

r one with a r?le, and being young and with her own philosophy of life in a very much muddled condition, she liked him the

by far worse than a divorce, she still felt confident, but she saw that her mother was totally unable to comprehend the difference between a clean separate life and the nagging poison dealt out as daily bread to the husband with whom she lived; but she saw that because of that very inability to understand the differe

ed, but in her heart there was a sick suspicion that all she cou

e she arrived. Albert, who was herding the cattle on the short grass a half mile

ou didn't come. He's mad as a hornet, an' You'll

ng plow and harrow, was an important matter on the farm. Plainly it had been arranged to make Elizabeth feel a hi

soon as she was wit

see to it that it's harnessed for th' drag as quick as

anger knew no bounds, and the sound of his exasperated voice could hav

could be reached, thankful that the cows were as far as th

pa, Sis; and get t' t

s Patsie, but she's so lame I kn

rk, she can't. H

n's. I was passing a young man by the name of Hunter and

show us country jakes how t' farm; but th' best thing you c

they were talking and it was Elizabeth's fate to encount

re you la

o come all the way from the Chamberlain district. The Haddon school board didn't meet this week an

ood excuse. I bet you didn

peaking and now made her escape to the inside of the house as

id, and it be

it that you get that riding skirt off an' com

e next day, but on second thought closed her mouth down firmly. She knew she would do well if she escaped with no harder

rous with her assistance that it was impossible to bring on a quarrel with her, and the sour demeanour of her father was so carefully handled that Friday arrived without an open break having occurred. A new dress had been one of the longed-for accomplishments of the week's work, but certain of Aunt Susan'

iah Farnshaw had been mending harness, because a shower had made the ground too wet to plow, and the presence of neighbours made it possible to get the trunk packed without unpleasantness. When John Hunter

the company of a young man. The yearning in her pettish face as she stood unevenly on the discarded harness, looking

itefully, facing about and

ok which preceded the remark and it was excused. S

oak his head;

lizabeth said hurried

woman's desires and dream a woman's dreams. She watched the pair drive away together in

th' best of everyth

eth's mind in the joy of that ride, and left it a perfect experience. It began to rain before they were halfway to their destination, and they sat shoulder to shoulder under the umbrella, with one of the quilts drawn around both. There was a sack of butterscotch, and they talked of Scott, and Dickens, and the other books Elizabeth Farnshaw had absorbed from A

finish?" she a

mething. I didn't care to finish. I'd had my fun out of it. I wish I hadn't gone at all. If I'd gone into the office with my fa

have made it by yourself," Elizabeth said, under

oulders and pulled the quilt tighter a

her's own property, and I thought I'd get out of Canton. It ai

r way through college; lots of

go to college that way." After a few moments' musing he added s

your chance," Eliza

zed that the ride was nearly over. "When may I come to see you again?" he

. He wanted to come; she was to see much of him this summer

arpeted room, making it comfortable, and cooing over the return o

invoiced the changes of four years which in her preoccupied state of mind during her former visit she had neglected to think upon. There were many little

t others arrange the business details of contracts and credentials, but his joy at meeting her had obscured the habitual sadness of his present manner. She had noticed that he was thinner, but to-night she saw the waste and aging which had consumed him. The belt line which had bulged comfortably under the vest of five years ago was flat and flabby, the thick brown hair which had shown scarcely a thread of white was now grizzled and thin, the ruddy cheeks had fallen i

es also, for she hovered over him solic

was with the girl daily. Elizabeth never expressed the smallest desire for anything human hand could obtain for her that John Hunter did not instantly assure her that she should receive it. If she stayed to sweep out the schoolhouse, John would almost certainly appea

ay. Her lightest wish was the instant consideration of the man she admired above all others, and that man, in refinement of appearance and knowledge of the world, was as f

services, his time, and himself. By his request he ceased to ask when he could come again, but encouraged, even commanded, her to tell him when an

ked on an

Glad we're to have 'em for neighbours. She's about th' liveliest meadow lark on these prairies, an' if

sts and plans while he plumed himself and pursued his desired mate. She saw the rapturous, dreamy look of love and mating time in Elizabeth's eyes, and she knew that the inevitable had happened, but she was not content. Premon

stone for simple foundations, and who had crops of his own to tend between times. The work had progressed slowly, but at last the wall had been finished and the carpenters had come to do their share. It gave excuse

one evening the first week in June. Na

her; how could he

"She wants him, an' he wants her, an' you s

garding his comprehension of the subject, and with a gentle

w-only it s

He's got a good farm, an' he needs a wife to help him run it. From what he says, his mother's too

w he's going to need a wife to help run it-just as he needs a horse. If he'd only be fair about it, but he's misleading her. She thinks he'll always do things the way he's doing them now, and he won't; there'll be an end to that kind of thing some day-and-and when the

san, that marryin' was a thing to be

s Susan Hornby struggled to bring herself back to the

her face strangely like the flush of guilt, "if he's only half as good to her as you

turn Nathan's thoughts to other things she slipped one hand through his arm, and picki

I've done a washing to-day and you don't sleep well of late. I haven't one thing in all this world to complain of, and this would be the

aded knife, torturing the flesh as it went. His failure to place her where her own natural characteristics and attainments deserved had eaten into his mind like acid. In proportion as he loved her a

to get a hold on the pile into which he had thrust it, "but here she is pity

to keep down any unmanly weakness it indicated he fell upon the hay s